Hume on the events of 1688
Stirrings of unease
The English, prepossessed against their sovereign, firmly believed, that he had concerted a project with Lewis [Louis XIV] for their entire subjection. Portsmouth, it was said, was to be put into the hands of that ambitious monarch: England was to be filled with French and Irish troops: and every man who refused to embrace the Romish superstition, was by these bigoted princes devoted to certain destruction.[Footnote:]
That there really was no new alliance formed betwixt France and England, appears both, from Sunderland’s Apology, and from D’Avaux’s Negotiations, lately published: see vol. iv. p. 18. Eng translation, 27th of September, 1687; 16th of March, 6th of May, 10th of August, 2d, 23d, and 24th of September, 5th and 7th of October, 11th of November, 1688.
These suggestions were every where spread abroad, and tended to augment the discontents of which both the fleet and …