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    laws are our ancient title to our lives , liberties and estates , without which this world were a wilderness . But what retribution can we make to your Highness ? Our thoughts are full charged with gratitude . Your Highness has a lasting monument in the hearts , in the prayers , in the praise of

    all good men amOngst us . And late posterity will celebrate your ever-glorious name , till time shall be no more I" Once more , when the body of lawyers addressed the King , his Majesty asked the aged and the truly venerable Serjeanf Maynard , who read the Address , if he were not the oldest

    of his brethren . " Yes , " replied the veteran , I have lived longer than all my brethren , and had not your Majesty come amongst us , I should have outlived law itself ! " A finer compliment could not be paid to the Revolution .

    But to come down to the present day , it must be mentioned that the Centenary Anniversary of the Revolution was kept Nov . 4 , 1788 , by a religious service , held at the Old

    Jewry , introduced by Dr . Abraham Rees , who devoutly prayed , when Dr . Andrew Kippis preached an admirable sermon , and a numerous company dined together at the London Tavern . The Committee and Stewards had on

    blue coats , the Dutch uniform , with buttons exhibiting the head of William , and the room was embellished with the identical Dutch colours vvhich William bore at Torbay . It wa $ the honour and felicity of the writer to be present on that occasion , The character of William has been

    traduced by the Jacobite Smollett , but Mr . William Belsham , in his Memoir of Great Britain , has thus done ample justice to his memory : " William the Third , King of Great Britain and Stadtholder of Holland , was a monarch on whose great actions

    and illustrious character history delights to dwell . In his person he was not above the middle size , pale , thin and valetudinary . He had a Roman nose , bright eagle eyes , a large front , and a countenance composed to graand

    vity authority . AH his senses were cri tical and exquisite . His words came from him with caution and deliberation , and his manners , excepting * to his intimate friends , reserved * He spoke Dutch , French , English and

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    German * equally well , and he Understood Latin , Spanish and Italian * His memory was exact and tenacious , and he was a profound observer of naea and things . He perfectly understood and possessed a most extensive influence over the political concerns and

    interests of Europe . Though far aoove vanity or flattery , he was pertinacious in his opinions , and from a clear perception or persuasion of their rectitude was too impatient of censure or controul . He attained not to the

    praise of habitual generosity from his frequently and apparently capricious deviations into the extremes of profusion and parsimony . His love of secresy was perhaps too nearly allied to dissimulation and suspicion , and his fidelity in friendship to partiality

    and prejudice . Though resentful and irritable by nature , he harboured no malice , and disdained the meanness of revenge . He believed firmly in the truth of religion , and entertained a high sense of its importance . But his tolerant spirit and his indifference

    to the forms of church government made him very obnoxious to the great body of the clergy . He appear * ed born for the purpose of opposing tyranny , persecution and oppression ,

    and for the space of thirty years it is not too much to affirm , that he sustained the most glorious character of any prince whose name is recorded in history . In his days and by his means , the first firm and solid foun- > dations were laid of all that is most

    valuable to civil society . Every vindication of the natural and unalienable rights of mankind was , till he ascended the throne of Great Britain , penal and criminal . To him we owe the assertion and final establishment of our constitutional privileges . To him the intellectual world is indebted

    for the full freedom of discussion and the unrestrained avowal of these sen-r timents on the subjects of the highest magnitude and importance * To sum up all his character—he was distinguished for virtues rarely found a- * mongst princes—moderation *

    integrity , simplicity , beneficence , magnanimity . Time , which has caat a veil over his imperfections , has added lustre to his many great and admirable qualities * His political views were in the * highest degree laudable and upright . He had true ideas of the na ~

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    28 William and Mary , as connected with the Revolution of 1683 .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1826, page 28, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2544/page/28/