CHAPTER IV
1688-1783
Tue Revolution of 1688 drove out the Stuatts and,
by the settlement under which William and Mary
came to the throne of England, Parliament gained
immensely in power. Henceforward the holders of
royal grants and the directors of chartered companies
were not merely dependent upon royal favour; they
had to reckon also with the House of Commons,
which meant not less but, if possible, more corruption.!
Further, as the excesses of the reign of Charles II
had been due to reaction against Puritanism, so before
the end of the seventeenth century reaction set in
against these excesses.
In his diary, under date November 24, 1699, John
Evelyn wrote, ¢ Such horrible robberies and murders
were committed as had not been known in this nation.
Atheism, profaneness, blasphemy, amongst all sorts,
portended some judgment if not amended, on which
a society was set on foot, who obliged themselves
to endeavour the reforming of it in London and
1 Reference should be made to Macaulay’s pages on Parliamentary
corruption as a system which he dated from 16go, and from the
ascendancy of Danby, then Marquis of Caermarthen. Chap. xv of
the History, in the 1855 edition, vol. iii, pp. 541-7.