[The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part F. by David Hume]@TWC D-Link book
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part F.

CHAPTER LXX
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CHAPTER LXX.
[Illustration: 1-846-james2.jpg JAMES II.] JAMES II.
{1685.} THE first act of James's reign was to assemble the privy council; where, after some praises bestowed on the memory of his predecessor, he made professions of his resolution to maintain the established government, both in church and state.

Though he had been reported, he said, to have imbibed arbitrary principles, he knew that the laws of England were sufficient to make him as great a monarch as he could wish; and he was determined never to depart from them.

And as he had heretofore ventured his life in defence of the nation, he would still go as far as any man in maintaining all its just rights and liberties.
This discourse was received with great applause, not only by the council, but by the nation.

The king universally passed for a man of great sincerity and great honor; and as the current of favor ran at that time for the court, men believed that his intentions were conformable to his expressions.

"We have now," it was said, "the word of a king, and a word never yet broken." Addresses came from all quarters, full of duty, nay, of the most servile adulation.


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