Had the new king employed the arbitrary mode of levying supplies of the earlier monarchs; had he made forced loans and never repaid them; had he seized upon public money, and wrung the purses of public men, the country might as well have been governed by a James as a William, and would in all probability have recalled the exile of the unfortunate House of Stuart. The evils of William’s reign were in the facts that his power was not sufficiently established to borrow on equitable terms; that the bribery, abuses, and corruption of men in high places increased with their position; and, above all, that, instead of paying his debts by terminable annuities, he made them interminable. Lord Bolingbroke declares, that he could have raised funds without mortgaging the resources of the nation in perpetuity, and that it was a political movement to strengthen the power of the crown, and to secure the adherence of that large portion of the people by whom the money had been lent. The war was necessary, and the contraction of the debt equally so; for, although William engaged in the contest with something like personal pride, it was essentially a national war. A free people had driven away the Stuarts; a despotic king would have forced them back. If ever, therefore, a contest directly interested both subject and sovereign, it was that which created the national encumbrance; and England was fortunate in the man she had chosen to champion her rights. The contest, which dated from 1688 and ended in 1697, which cost us 20 millions in loans and 16 millions in taxes, was only closed because both nations were fatigued. It produced no great results, no grand achievements, no lasting peace. It did but prove that the strength which had departed from England during the two previous reigns had slumbered, but was not withered. The earlier history was, as many of England’s great wars have been, comparatively unsuccessful. The parties into which the nation was divided prevented the unanimity necessary to great deeds. They agreed only in robbing the people. Public principle was with them a public jest. Incapacity and corruption pervaded all branches. By corruption a Parliamentary majority was procured, and through incapacity the commerce of the country was decaying. Talent was only employed in devising its own benefit; patriotism was perverted; national virtue was forgotten; and the allies found that on sea and land the enemy had the advantage. The navy was daring, but divided; the admirals were accused of disaffection. While the foe was intercepting our merchandise in the Channel, the vessels of England were building in the docks. On the sea, our own peculiar boast, we were dishonored; our flag was insulted; and English admirals retreated before French fleets. Ships of war were burnt; merchant-vessels were sunk; and a million of merchandise was destroyed.