CHARACTER OF THE REVOLUTION 267 
pl 
“having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of this 
kingdom by breaking the original contract between King 
and people, and by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked 
persons having violated the fundamental laws, and having 
withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, has abdicated the 
Government, and that the throne is thereby vacant.” They 
then proceeded to deal with the question of the succession. 
Three alternatives were open to them :— 
(1) To place the Princess Mary on the Throne. William 
would not agree to this arrangement, He said, that he had 
not come to England to be his wife’s servant and minister, 
(2) To declare William and Mary as merely regents 
for the absent King. To this course William also objected, 
saying, that he would rather return to Holland than become 
a mere '‘ Jocum-tenens " for his father-in-law. 
(3) To offer the crown to William and Mary as joint 
3overeigns with equal rights, the executive part of the 
government being, with Mary'’s consent, vested in William, 
After much debating this plan was adopted, The Con- 
vention then passed the Declaration of Right, which William 
and Mary solemnly swore to observe, and they were declared 
King and Queen, 
Thus the great crisis known as the“ Glorious Revolution ” 
was brought to a successful issue almost without bloodshed 
as far as England was concerned. 
General character of the Revolution. 
(z) It completely overthrew the Stuart theories of the 
Divine Right of Kings and Passive Obedience, and set 
up a King and a Queen, who owed their position entirely to 
the choice of Parliament, 
(2) The bitter contests between the King and Parlia- 
ment, which characterized the Stuart Period, wereat an end, 
The struggle was now to be between two great political 
parties, the Whigs and the Tories, one of which had, or 
thought it had, the King for its head, 
(3) Hitherto, the “ will of the King” had been the power, 
which guided the policy of the nation, now it was to be the 
“will of the Parliament.” In other words, “ The Reign of 
Parliament” had begun. 
(4) The Power of the Parliament also was so greatly 
increased, that if the members did not approve of a minister, 
they compelled the King to dismiss him,