nd a way for continuing them longer in the
service; a favour which his majesty would take very kindly. The commons,
instead of complying with his inclination, presented an address, in
which they professed unspeakable grief that he should propose anything
to which they could not consent with due regard to the constitution
which he had come over to restore, and so often hazarded his royal
person to preserve. They reminded him of the declaration, in which
he had promised that all the foreign forces should be sent out of the
kingdom. They observed, that nothing conduced more to the happiness and
welfare of the nation than an entire confidence between the king and
people, which could no way be so firmly established as by intrusting
his sacred person with his own subjects, who had so eminently signalized
themselves during the late long and expensive war. They received a
soothing answer to this address, but remained firm to their purpose,
in which the king was fain to acquiesce; and the Dutch guards were
transported to Holland. At a time when they declared themselves so well
pleased with their deliverer, such an opposition in an affair of
very little consequence savoured more of clownish obstinacy than of
patriotism. In the midst of all their professions of regard, they
entertained a national prejudice against himself and all the foreigners
in his service. Even in the house of commons, his person was treated
with great disrespect in virulent insinuations. They suggested that
he neither loved nor trusted the English nation; that he treated the
natives with the most disagreeable reserve, and chose his confidants
from the number of strangers that surrounded him; that after every
session of parliament, he retired from the kingdom to enjoy an indolent
and inglorious privacy with a few favourites. These suggestions were
certainly true. He was extremely disgusted with the English, whom he
considered as malicious, ignorant, and ungrateful, and he took no pains
to disguise his sentiments.

THE COMMONS ADDRESS THE KING.

The commons having effected a dissolution of the army, voted fifteen
thousand seamen, and a proportionable fleet, for the security of the
kingdom; they granted one million four hundred and eighty-four thousand
and fifteen pounds for the services of the year, to be raised by a tax
of three shillings in the pound upon lands, personal estates, pensions,
and offices. A great number of priests and Roman catholics, who