like to see a larger army than was absolutely necessary. They insisted not merely that the army should be diminished, but that the Dutch Guards which William had brought over with him should be sent back to their native country. William was bitterly displeased, but he gave way, and allowed the Commons to do as they pleased.

6. The Spanish Succession and the Partition Treaty. William was thinking more of the Continent of Europe than of England. The king of Spain, Charles II., was an invalid and almost an idiot, and was not likely to live long. Lewis had married his eldest sister, and claimed the Crown of Spain for his descendants. Other princes had claims in other ways William did not care much what their claims were, but he did not want a son or grandson of a king of France who was so powerful already to rule over the Spanish dominions, which reached over a great part of Italy and the Southern Netherlands, as well as over enormous tracts of country in America. Lewis was not anxious at first to go to war again, and a treaty was made, known as the First Partition Treaty, which gave most of the Spanish lands to a young Bavarian prince whom nobody was afraid of. Unfortunately the youth died, and the arrangement had to be made all over again. This time it was settled by the Second Partition Treaty that some parts of the Spanish dominions should go to Lewis's grandson Philip, and other parts, including Spain itself, to the Archduke Charles, a younger son of the Emperor who, under other titles, ruled in Austria and the neighbouring countries. At last, in 1700, the poor

king of Spain died, leaving a will directing that the whole of his dominions should go to Philip. Lewis accepted the great inheritance for his grandson, and refused to carry out the Partition Treaty.

7. Rise of a War-feeling in England.-In England very few people wanted to have James back. In 1701 the Act of Settlement was passed, which directed that if William died without children the Crown should go to Anne, the sister of his wife Mary and the daughter of James. After that it was to go to the Electress Sophia, the next heir who was a Protestant. She was the daughter of Elizabeth, the Electress Palatine, and through her the granddaughter of James I. At this time the Tories had a majority in the House of Commons, and the Tories were more anxious than the Whigs to keep out of war. They therefore refused to assist William in compelling Lewis to carry out the Partition Treaty. Lewis did a great deal to provoke England, and even sent French soldiers to occupy fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, just as if he were the master of his grandson's dominions. But Englishmen seemed determined to keep the peace whatever Lewis might do. At last news arrived which entirely changed their temper. James II. died in France. Lewis at once sent to his son, the boy who had been supposed by so many in England not to be in reality the child of his father and mother, and acknowledged him as James III. of England. At once all England was filled with anger at the insolence of a king of France who imagined that he could give even the name of an English king to a boy whose title had been rejected by the English

Parliament and nation. William found no difficulty now in providing for war. He summoned a new Parliament, which voted money and soldiers. At the time when William was expecting to lead an army on the Continent, his end was near. His horse stumbled over a mole-hill in the park of Hampton Court. William broke his collar-bone, and after lingering a few days he died. He had done great things for England, and he had done more than any one else could have done to stop the civil wars and executions of the reigns before him. He ruled according to law, and he was able to guide his Parliaments, because he was always able to keep his temper, and never insisted on having his own way, even when the nation was determined to do things which he thought to be wrong.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

QUEEN ANNE.

(1702-1714.)

1. The Occasional Conformity Bill.-Anne was popular from the beginning of her reign. She was dull and uninteresting to those who saw her every day, but the mass of people who scarcely ever saw her, or did not see her at all, did not care about that. They were pleased that she was an Englishwoman and not a foreigner as William had been. Besides this, it was well known that Anne did not like the Dissenters, and most people in England did

not like the Dissenters either. They had become accustomed by this time to see them using their own chapels, but they did not like to see them holding offices. The Test Act had excluded them from office, as well as the Catholics, because it required that every one who was appointed to office should receive the communion in a church. Lately some of the Dissenters had got into offices in spite of this rule, because they did not mind coming to church and receiving the communion there once, though they afterwards went back to their own chapels. This was

called Occasional Conformity. The Whigs, who were always friendly to the Dissenters, did not object to this, but the Tories did not like it, and they proposed a Bill against Occasional Conformity, to punish any Dissenter who went to chapel after obtaining office. The House of Commons, where the greater number were Tories, adopted this plan. But it could not become law unless the House of Lords adopted it too, and as the Whigs were stronger than the Tories. in the House of Lords, the proposal was for some years always rejected there.

2. Blenheim and Ramilies.-The chief command over the army on the Continent, which was to make war against Lewis, was given to the Duke of Marlborough. His wife the Duchess was a great favourite of Anne, and he was himself the greatest general who was born in England before the Duke of Wellington. He had to command not only English soldiers, but Dutch and German soldiers as well, and the kings and princes who sent the Gerinan troops were full of their own

ideas, and were seldom ready to do what Marlborough wanted them to do. He had to be civil to everybody, and to coax them all to do what was for their own good. During the first two years of the war he had enough to do to defend the Dutch Netherlands. In 1704 he did more than that. The king of France had Bavaria on his side, and a French army was in Bavaria. Marlborough suddenly marched up the Rhine and across the wooded hills of the Black Forest. He found the French army at Blenheim on the Danube, and utterly defeated it. It was the first time that a French army had been defeated during the whole reign of Lewis XIV. The result of the battle was that the French were turned out of Germany. Parliament gave to the Duke a large estate near Woodstock, where he built a splendid mansion, which is known to this day as Blenheim House. Afterwards Marlborough won another great battle at Ramilies, after which the French were turned out of nearly the whole of the Netherlands.

3. The War in Spain. There had also been fighting going on in Spain. In the year in which the Battle of Blenheim was fought, Admiral Sir George Rooke found himself at Gibraltar, with a large fleet and nearly 5,000 soldiers. There were only about 150 Spanish soldiers inside the fortress, and on a saint's day they all went to church. Whilst they were at prayers the English sailors landed, and took the place without difficulty. It has never been lost again, as the rock which rises above the town has a cliff towards the land side which no enemy can climb, and on the only occasion on which