IAM AND MARY, 1688--1701.}

KING WILLIAM BECOMES UNPOPULAR.

King William found it an easier task to unite the councils of Europe
against the common enemy than to conciliate and preserve the affections
of his own subjects, among whom he began visibly to decline in point of
popularity. Many were dissatisfied with his measures; and a great number
even of those who exerted themselves for his elevation had conceived a
disgust from his personal deportment, which was very unsuitable to the
manners and disposition of the English people. Instead of mingling
with his nobility in social amusements and familiar conversation, he
maintained a disagreeable reserve which had all the air of sullen pride;
he seldom or never spoke to his courtiers or attendants, he spent his
time chiefly in the closet retired from all communication; or among
his troops in a camp he had formed at Hounslow; or in the exercise of
hunting, to which he was immoderately addicted. This had been prescribed
to him by physicians as necessary to improve his constitution, which was
naturally weak, and by practice had become so habitual that he could not
lay it aside. His ill health co-operating with his natural aversion
to society, produced a peevishness which could not fail of being
displeasing to those who were near his person: this was increased by the
disputes in his cabinet, and the opposition of those who were professed
enemies to his government, as well as by the alienation of his former
friends. As he could not breathe without difficulty in the air of
London, he resided chiefly at Hampton-court, and expended considerable
sums in beautifying and enlarging that palace; he likewise purchased the
house at Kensington of the earl of Nottingham; and such profusion in the
beginning of an expensive war gave umbrage to the nation in general.
Whether he was advised by his counsellors, or his own sagacity pointed
out the expediency of conforming with the English humour, he now seemed
to change his disposition, and in some measure adopt the manners of his
predecessors. In imitation of Charles II. he resorted to the races at
Newmarket; he accepted an invitation to visit Cambridge, where he
behaved himself with remarkable affability to the members of the
university; he afterwards dined with the lord-mayor of London, accepted
the freedom of the city, and condescended so far as to become
sovereign-master of the company of grocers.

A GOOD NUMBER OF THE CLERGY R