again put to sea, and with so much activity, that the short delay proved rather of service than otherwise; for the English fleet, which had also been driven into harbour by the storm, could not be got ready to meet the invaders. Steering for the west of England, the Prince of Orange landed in Torbay, on the 5th November, 1688, being the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, an era which seemed propitious to an enterprise commenced in opposition to the revival of Popery in England.

Immediately on his landing, the prince published a manifesto, setting forth, in plain and strong terms, the various encroachments made by the reigning monarch upon the British constitution, and upon the rights as well of the Church as of private persons and corporate bodies. He came, he said, with an armed force, to protect his person from the king's evil counsellors, but declared that his only purpose was to have a full and free parliament assembled, in order to procure a general settlement of religion, liberty, and property.

Notwithstanding that so many persons of rank and influence had privately encouraged the Prince of Orange to this undertaking, there appeared at first very little alacrity to support him in carrying it through. The inhabitants of the western counties where the prince landed, were overawed by recollection of the fearful punishment inflicted upon those who had joined Monmouth, and the prince had advanced to Exeter ere he was joined by any adherent of consequence. But from the time that one or two gentleman of consideration joined him, a general commotion took place all over England, and the nobility and gentry assumed arms on every side for redress of the grievance set forth in the prince's manifesto.

In the midst of this universal defection, King James gave orders to assemble his army, assigned Salisbury for his

head-quarters, and announced his purpose of fighting the invaders. But he was doomed to experience to what extent he had alienated the affections of his subjects by his bigoted and tyrannical conduct. Several noblemen and officers of rank publicly deserted, and carried off to the prince's army numbers of their soldiers. Amongst these was Lord Churchill, afterwards the celebrated Duke of Marlborough. He was a particular favourite of the unhappy king, who had bestowed a peerage upon him, with high rank in the army; and his desertion to the prince on this occasion showed that the universal aversion to King James's measures had alienated the affections of those who would otherwise have been most devotedly attached to him.

A still more striking defection seems to have destroyed the remains of the unhappy monarch's resolution. His second daughter, the Princess Anne, who was married to a younger son of the King of Denmark, called Prince George, escaped by night from London, under the protection of the bishop of that city, who raised a body of horse for her safeguard, and rode armed at their head. She fled to Nottingham, where she was received by the Earl of Dorset, and declared for a free Protestant Parliament. Her husband, and other personages of the first distinction, joined the Prince of Orange.

The sudden and unexpected dissolution of his power, when every morning brought intelligence of some new defection or insurrection, totally destroyed the firmness of James, who, notwithstanding his folly and misconduct, becomes, in this period of unmitigated calamity, an object of our pity. At the tidings of his daughter's flight, he exclaimed, with the agony of paternal feeling, 'God help me, my own children desert me!' In the extremity and desolation of his distress, the unfortunate monarch seems to have lost all those

qualities which had gained him in earlier life the character of courage and sagacity; and the heedless rashness with which he had scorned the distant danger, was only equalled by the prostrating degree of intimidation which now overwhelmed him.

He disbanded his army, to the great increase of the general confusion; and, finally, terrified by the recollection of his father's fate, he resolved to withdraw himself from his kingdom. It is probable that he could not have taken any resolution which would have been so grateful to the Prince of Orange. If James had remained in Britain, the extremity of his misfortunes would probably have awakened the popular compassion; and the tenets of the High Churchmen and Tories, although they had given way to their apprehensions for the safety of religion and liberty, might, when these were considered as safe, have raised many partisans to the distressed monarch. Besides, while King James remained in his dominions, it would have been an obnoxious and odious attempt, on the part of the Prince of Orange, to have plucked the crown forcibly from the head of his father-inlaw, in order to place it upon his own. On the other hand, if the flight of the king into foreign countries should leave the throne unoccupied, nothing could be so natural as to place there the next Protestant heir of the crown, by whose providential interference the liberties and constitution of the country had been rescued from such imminent danger.

Fortune seemed at first adverse to an escape, which was desired by King James, owing to his fears, and by the Prince of Orange, in consequence of his hopes. As the king, attended by one gentleman, endeavoured to get on board of a vessel prepared for his escape, they were seized by some rude fishermen, who were looking out to catch such priests and Catholics as were flying from the kingdom. At the hands of these

men the unfortunate monarch received some rough treatment, until the gentry of the country interposed for the protection of his person, but still refused to permit him to depart the kingdom. He was allowed, however, to return to London, where the rabble, with their usual mutability, and moved with compassion for the helpless state to which they beheld the king reduced, received. him with acclamations of favour.

The Prince of Orange, not a little disappointed by this incident, seems to have determined to conduct himself towards his father-in-law with such a strain ot coldness and severity as should alarm James for his personal safety, and determine him to resume his purpose of flight. With such a view, the prince refused to receive the nobleman whom the king had sent to him to desire a conference, and ordered the messenger to be placed under arrest. In reply to the message, he issued a command, transmitted at midnight, that the king should leave his palace the next morning. The dejected sovereign yielded to the mandate, and, at his own request, Rochester was assigned for his abode. That happened which must have been foreseen, from his choosing a place near the river as his temporary habitation. James privately embarked on board of a frigate, and was safely landed at Ambleteuse, in France. He was received by Louis XIV. with the utmost generosity and hospitality, and lived for many years at St. Germains, under his protection. and at his expense."

The king having thus abdicated the throne, the next consideration was the appointing a successor. Some declared for a regent; others that the Princess of Orange should be invested with regal power. After a long debate a new sovereign was preferred to a regent, by a majority of two voices, and it was agreed that the Prince and Princess of Orange should reign jointly as King and Queen of England.

of the northern country as the failure

the founder of the Bank of England.

"The two great continents of North and South America are joined together by an isthmus, or narrow tract of land, called Darien. This neck of land is not above a day's journey in breadth, and as it is washed by the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern side, and the great Pacific Ocean on the west, the isthmus seemed designed by nature as a common centre for the commerce of the world. Paterson ascertained, or at least alleged that he had ascertained, that the isthmus had never been the property of Spain, but was still possessed by the original natives, a tribe of fierce and warlike Indians, who made war on the Spaniards. According to the law of nations, therefore, any state had a right of forming a settlement in Darien, providing the consent of the Indians was first obtained; nor could their doing so be justly made subject of challenge even by Spain, so extravagantly jealous of all interference with her South American provinces. This plan of settlement, with so many advantages to recommend it, was proposed by Paterson to the merchants of Hamburgh, to the Dutch, and even to the Elector of Brandenburgh; but it was coldly received by all these states.

The scheme was at length offered to the merchants of London, the only

Saltoun. This gentleman, one of the most accomplished men, and best patriots, whom Scotland has produced in any age, had, nevertheless, some notions of her interests which were more fanciful than real, and, in his anxiety to render his country service, did not sufficiently consider the adequacy of the means by which her welfare was to be obtained. He was dazzled by the vision of opulence and grandeur which Paterson unfolded, and thought of nothing less than securing, for the benefit of Scotland alone, a scheme which promised to the state which should adopt it, the keys, as it were, of the New World. The projector was easily persuaded to give his own country the benefit of his scheme of colonisation, and went to Scotland along with Fletcher. Here the plan found general acceptation, and particularly with the Scottish administration, who were greatly embarrassed at the time by the warm prosecution of the affair of Glencoe, and who easily persuaded King William that some freedom and facilities of trade granted to the Scots, would divert the public attention from the investigation of a matter not very creditable to his majesty's reputation any more than to their own. Stair, in particular, a party deeply interested, gave the Darien scheme the full support of his eloquence and interest, in the hope to regain a part of his lost popularity.

The Scottish ministers obtained permission, accordingly, to grant such privileges of trade to their country as might not be prejudicial to that of England. In June, 1695, these influential persons obtained a statute from Parliament, and afterwards a charter from the Crown, for creating a corporate body, or stock company, by name of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and to the Indies, with power to plant colonies and build forts in places not possessed by other European nations, the consent always of the inhabitants of the places where they settled being obtained.

The hopes entertained of the profits to arise from this speculation were in the last degree sanguine; not even the Solemn League and Covenant was signed with more eager enthusiasm. Almost every one who had, or could command, any sum of ready money, embarked it in the Indian and African Company; many subscribed their all; maidens threw in their portions, and widows whatever sums they could raise upon their dower, to be repaid an hundredfold by the golden shower which was to descend upon the subscribers. Some sold estates to vest the money in the Company's funds, and so eager was the spirit of speculation, that, when eight hundred thousand pounds formed the whole circulating capital of Scotland, half of that sum was vested in the Darien stock.

That everything might be ready for their extensive operations, the Darien Company proceeded to build a large tenement near Bristo-port, Edinburgh, to serve as an office for transacting their business, with a large range of buildings behind it, designed as warehouses, to be filled with goods which never, alas! came.

The English traders became very much alarmed, and did everything they could to ruin the scheme. But though they succeeded in spoiling the plan, they were not able to prevent its execution.

Twelve hundred men, three hundred of whom were youths of the best Scottish families, embarked on board of five frigates, purchased at Hamburgh for the service of the expedition; for the king refused the company even the trifling accommodation of a ship of war, which lay idle at Burntisland. They reached their destination in safety, and disembarked at a place called Acta, where, by cutting through a peninsula, they obtained a safe and insulated situation for a town, called New Edinburgh, and a fort named Saint Andrew. With the same fond remembrance of their native land, the colony itself was called Caledonia. They were favourably received by the native princes, from whom they purchased the land they required. The harbour, which was excellent, was proclaimed a free port; and in the outset the happiest result were expected from the settlement.

The arrival of the colonists took place in winter, when the air was cool and temperate; but with the summer returned the heat, and with heat came the diseases of a tropical climate. Those who had reported so favourably of the climate of Darien, had probably been persons who had only visited the coast during the healthy season, or mariners, who, being chiefly on shipboard, find many situations healthy which prove pestilential to Europeans residing on shore. The health of the settlers, accustomed to a cold and mountainous country, gave way fast under the constant exhalations of the sultry climate, and even a more pressing danger than disease itself arose from the scarcity of food. The provisions which the colonists had brought from Scotland were expended, and the country afforded them only such supplies as could be procured by the precarious success of fishing and the chase.

This must have been foreseen; but it was never doubted that ample supplies would be procured from the English