at the Restoration, and were respected by Charles II because it had been shown that kings could be
made to suffer at the hands of their subjects.
James II, unlike his brother, was totally destitute of subtlety and finesse. By his bigoted
Catholicism he united against himself the Anglicans and Nonconformists, in spite of his attempts
to conciliate the latter by granting them toleration in defiance of Parliament. Foreign policy also
played a part. The Stuarts, in order to avoid the taxation required in war-time, which would have
made them dependent upon Parliament, pursued a policy of subservience, first to Spain and then
to France. The growing power of France roused the invariable English hostility to the leading
Continental State, and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes made Protestant feeling bitterly
opposed to Louis XIV. In the end, almost everybody in England wished to be rid of James. But
almost everybody was equally determined to avoid a return to the days of the Civil War and
Cromwell's dictatorship. Since there was no constitutional way of getting rid of James, there must
be a revolution, but it must be quickly ended, so as to give no opportunity for disruptive forces.
The rights of Parliament must be secured once for all. The king must go, but monarchy must be
preserved; it should be, however, not a monarchy of Divine Right, but one dependent upon
legislative sanction, and so upon Parliament. By a combination of aristocracy and big business, all
this was achieved in a moment, without the necessity of firing a shot. Compromise and
moderation had succeeded, after every form of intransigeance had been tried and had failed.
The new king, being Dutch, brought with him the commercial and theological wisdom for which
his country was noted. The Bank of England was created; the national debt was made into a secure
investment, no longer liable to repudiation at the caprice of the monarch. The Act of Toleration,
while leaving Catholics and Nonconformists subject to various disabilities, put an end to actual
persecution. Foreign policy became resolutely anti-French, and remained so, with brief
intermissions, until the defeat of Napoleon.