E-text prepared by Paul Murray, Lisa Reigel, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes links to images of the original pages. See 25261-h.htm or 25261-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/2/6/25261/25261-h/25261-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/2/6/25261/25261-h.zip) The index for the entire 8 volume set of _History of the English People_ was located at the end of Volume VIII. For ease in accessibility, it has been removed and produced as a separate volume (https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/25533). HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE by JOHN RICHARD GREEN, M.A. Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford VOLUME VII THE REVOLUTION, 1683-1760. MODERN ENGLAND, 1760-1767 London MacMillan and Co., Ltd. New York: MacMillan & Co. 1896 First Edition 1879; Reprinted 1882, 1886, 1891. Eversley Edition, 1896. CONTENTS BOOK VIII THE REVOLUTION. 1683-1760 CHAPTER III PAGE THE FALL OF THE STUARTS. 1683-1714. 1 CHAPTER IV THE HOUSE OF HANOVER. 1714-1760. 147 BOOK IX MODERN ENGLAND. 1760-1815 CHAPTER I ENGLAND AND ITS EMPIRE. 1760-1767. 273 CHAPTER III THE FALL OF THE STUARTS 1683-1714 [Sidenote: The King's Triumph.] In 1683 the Constitutional opposition which had held Charles so long in check lay crushed at his feet. A weaker man might easily have been led to play the mere tyrant by the mad outburst of loyalty which greeted his triumph. On the very day when the crowd around Russell's scaffold were dipping their handkerchiefs in his blood as in the blood of a martyr the University of Oxford solemnly declared that the doctrine of passive obedience even to the worst of rulers was a part of religion. But Charles saw that immense obstacles still lay in the road of a mere tyranny. Ormond and the great Tory party which had rallied to his succour against the Exclusionists were still steady for parliamentary and legal government. The Church was as powerful as ever, and the mention of a renewal of the Indulgence to Nonconformists had to be withdrawn before the opposition of the bishops. He was careful therefore during the few years which remained to him to avoid the appearance of any open violation of public law. He suspended no statute. He imposed no tax by Royal authority. Galling to the Crown as the freedom of the press and the Habeas Corpus Act were soon found to be, Charles made no attempt to curtail the one or to infringe the other. But while cautious to avoid rousing popular resistance, he moved coolly and resolutely forward on the path of despotism. It was in vain that Halifax pressed for energetic resistance to the aggressions of France, for the recall of Monmouth, or