It is no part of my task to describe minutely the method by which the new settlement was effected: an outline is sufficient. A meeting had been summoned by His Highness for the 26th of December, 1688, to consist, first, of all such persons as had been Knights or Burgesses in any of the Parliaments of Charles II.; and next, of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, with fifty of the Common Council chosen by the whole body. This mode of proceeding appears remarkably conservative, and so far was in harmony with all the great changes wrought in the political government of this country. [Sidenote: CHARACTER OF THE REVOLUTION.] When those who formed this meeting mooted the question, “What authority they had to assemble,” they agreed, “that the request of His Highness the Prince was a sufficient warrant,” and proceeded to entrust him with the administration of public affairs until a Convention should be held, which he was to call by writs addressed to the Lords temporal and spiritual, being Protestants, and to the counties, universities, cities, and boroughs of England.[93] A Convention being elected, the members met on the 22nd of January, 1689. It was composed of Protestants alone. These Protestants being chiefly Whigs, and those Whigs numbering an immense majority of Episcopalians, perhaps not more than twenty Nonconformists were returned--a fact which ought to be carefully borne in mind. The day on which the Commons assembled, the Lords also appeared, to the number of about ninety, of whom sixteen were spiritual Peers. No prayers were read; the first thing done, after a short letter from the Prince had been laid on the table, was the appointment of a day of solemn thanksgiving. Eleven Bishops were selected to draw up a form for the purpose, and it does not appear that any of them scrupled to undertake this service.[94] The 30th of January fell on a Sunday; and in such a case it had been arranged that the office for Charles’ martyrdom should be used on that day, and the observances of the fast transferred to the next. On the 30th, however, Evelyn notices that “in all the public offices and pulpit prayers, the collects and litany for the King and Queen were curtailed and mutilated.” On the 31st the thanksgiving set aside the fast. Burnet preached before the Commons, saying, “You feel a great deal, and promise a great deal more; and your are now in the right way to it, when you come with the solemnities of thanksgiving to offer up your acknowledgments to that Fountain of Life to whom you owe this new lease of your own.”[95] [Sidenote: 1689.] The Bishop of St. Asaph, whose political sympathies have been indicated, was appointed to preach before the Lords at Westminster Abbey on the 31st, but according to Clarendon, Mr. Gee took his place.[96]