his design to his ministers in England, even the sober firmness of Somers, the undaunted resolution of Shrewsbury, and the adventurous spirit of Montagu and Orford were staggered.  They were not yet mounted to the elevation of the king.  The cabinet, then the regency, met on the subject at Tunbridge Wells, the 28th of August, 1698; and there, Lord Somers holding the pen, after expressing doubts on the state of the Continent, which they ultimately refer to the king, as best informed, they give him a most discouraging portrait of the spirit of this nation.  “So far as relates to England,” say these ministers, “it would be want of duty not to give your Majesty this clear account:  that there is a deadness and want of spirit in the nation universally, so as not at all to be disposed to the thought of entering into a new war; and that they seem to be tired out with taxes to a degree beyond what was discerned, till it appeared upon the occasion of the late elections.  This is the truth of the fact, upon which your Majesty will determine what resolutions are proper to be taken.”

His Majesty did determine,—­and did take and pursue his resolution.  In all the tottering imbecility of a new government, and with Parliament totally unmanageable, he persevered.  He persevered to expel the fears of his people by his fortitude, to steady their fickleness by his constancy, to expand their narrow prudence by his enlarged wisdom, to sink their factious temper in his public spirit.  In spite of his people, he resolved to make them great and glorious,—­to make England, inclined to shrink into her narrow self, the arbitress of Europe, the tutelary angel of the human race.  In spite of the ministers, who staggered under the weight that his mind imposed upon theirs, unsupported as they felt themselves by the popular spirit, he infused into them his own soul, he renewed in them their ancient heart, he rallied them in the same cause.

It required some time to accomplish this work.  The people were first gained, and, through them, their distracted representatives.  Under the influence of King William, Holland had rejected the allurements of every seduction, and had resisted the terrors of every menace.  With Hannibal at her gates, she had nobly and magnanimously refused all separate treaty, or anything which might for a moment appear to divide her affection or her interest or even to distinguish her in identity from England.  Having settled the great point of the consolidation (which he hoped would be eternal) of the countries made for a common interest and common sentiment, the king, in his message to both Houses, calls their attention to the affairs of the States General.  The House of Lords was perfectly sound, and entirely impressed with the wisdom and dignity of the king’s proceedings.  In answer to the message, which you will observe was narrowed to a single point, (the danger of the States General,) after the usual professions of zeal for his service, the Lords opened themselves at large.  They go far beyond the demands of the message.  They express themselves as follows.