found credit among us, even
when lives on which great interest depended have been terminated
by unforeseen attacks of disease, is to be attributed partly to the
progress of medical and chemical science, but partly also, it may be
hoped, to the progress which the nation has made in good sense, justice,
and humanity. [222]

When all was over, James retired from the bedside to his closet, where,
during a quarter of an hour, he remained alone. Meanwhile the Privy
Councillors who were in the palace assembled. The new King came
forth, and took his place at the head of the board. He commenced his
administration, according to usage, by a speech to the Council. He
expressed his regret for the loss which he had just sustained, and he
promised to imitate the singular lenity which had distinguished the late
reign. He was aware, he said, that he had been accused of a fondness for
arbitrary power. But that was not the only falsehood which had been told
of him. He was resolved to maintain the established government both in
Church and State. The Church of England he knew to be eminently loyal.
It should therefore always be his care to support and defend her. The
laws of England, he also knew, were sufficient to make him as great a
King as he could wish to be. He would not relinquish his own rights; but
he would respect the rights of others. He had formerly risked his life
in defense of his country; and he would still go as far as any man in
support of her just liberties.

This speech was not, like modern speeches on similar occasions,
carefully prepared by the advisers of the sovereign. It was the
extemporaneous expression of the new King's feelings at a moment of
great excitement. The members of the Council broke forth into clamours
of delight and gratitude. The Lord President, Rochester, in the name
of his brethren, expressed a hope that His Majesty's most welcome
declaration would be made public. The Solicitor General, Heneage Finch,
offered to act as clerk. He was a zealous churchman, and, as such, was
naturally desirous that there should be some permanent record of the
gracious promises which had just been uttered. "Those promises," he
said, "have made so deep an impression on me that I can repeat them word
for word." He soon produced his report. James read it, approved of it,
and ordered it to be published. At a later period he said that he had
taken this step without due consideration, that his unpremeditated
expressions touc