In the numerous pamphlets that wore hatched by the ferment, it was broadly insinuated that the English people might pay too much for the privilege of having a Dutch King, who had done nothing for them that they could not have done for themselves, and who was perpetually sacrificing the interests of his adopted country to the necessities of his beloved Holland.

What had England gained by the Peace of Ryswick?
Was England to be dragged into another exhausting war, merely to secure a strong frontier for the Dutch?
The appeal found ready listeners among a people in whose minds the recollections of the last war were still fresh, and who still felt the burdens it had left behind.

William did not venture to take any steps to form an alliance against France, till a new incident emerged to shake the country from its mood of surly calculation.

When James II.

died and Louis recognised the Pretender as King of England, all thoughts of isolation from a Continental confederacy were thrown to the winds.