Though we know very little of its details, and though it evidently left him plenty of time for other occupations, we need be in no doubt as to the business that caused Locke suddenly, in February, 1686-7, to leave Amsterdam and such friends in it as Limborch and Le Clerc, Guenellon and Veen, with all the congenial intercourse, philosophical, literary, theological, and scientific, that they offered him.

English politics had begun to take a turn, in keeping with a more complete change of policy at the Hague, by which Locke's movements were greatly affected. He had gone to Holland to avoid association with and personal inconvenience from the disgraceful and apparently hopeless state of affairs into which Charles the Second and his advisers had brought England. Harsh usage and unjust suspicion had followed him there, and they had been harsher and more unjust during the first year or more of James's reign than during the last year or more of Charles's. He had been falsely charged with participation in Monmouth's rebellion; and as long as William of Orange, honestly or for the sake of appearances, gave some support to the efforts of the English government to get hold of all the obnoxious refugees in Holland, he had either to hide away altogether or to lead a very retired life. Perhaps good to the world came from this in the opportunities that it forced upon him for paying more steady attention to literary work and philosophical speculations. But, excellent student and theorist as he was, he refused to recognize, either in his own case or in that of others, any benefit to be derived from theories or studies that had not for their sole method and object the improvement of society and of the individuals composing it; and, whatever else he was, he was always, in the truest sense

of the term, a patriot. He saw no patriotism in useless rebellion or in frivolous schemes for effecting a change that gave no promise of reformation; but, as soon as there was a prospect of good work being done, he loyally devoted himself to it and laboured zealously to help in making it as good as it could be.

Such a prospect arose when all that was left of English statesmanship-only broken and soiled fragments for the most part, it is true-combined to bring about the overthrow of James the Second's corrupt and corrupting government, and the planting of William of Orange on the English throne, and when William of Orange, after long questioning whether the prize within his reach was worth grasping, consented to throw in his lot with the English. Thereupon Locke established himself, not at the Hague, where the revolution was being plotted for most eagerly, but at Rotterdam, which was within a short day's journey of the Hague, near enough for participation in all important business, and distant enough to be free from contact with the small selfishnesses and idle projects that only clogged the good enterprise that was in progress.

Writing to Limborch a few weeks after his change of residence, he excused himself for not sooner answering his friend's letters. "Business of another kind," he said, "prevented me; and, though that immediate business is completed by the departure for England of the person with whom I was engaged, and I have now leisure enough for writing letters, I cannot get back into my old ways. Who that person was we do not know, nor can we make clear other allusions, of later date, to the friends who came over to visit him in Holland, or, being in Holland,

1 Familiar Letters,' p. 350; Locke to Limb orch, [27 Feb.-] 8 March, 1686-7.

occupied his time with business too extensive and important to allow him leisure even for his favourite pastime of letter-writing.

His chief political friend in Holland, however, can easily be identified. When his acquaintance with Lord Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough and Monmouth, began, is not recorded; but they were fast friends at this time. Mordaunt, born about 1658, had seen much active service, and had attained considerable distinction as a seaman before November, 1685, when he startled his friends by making a first and last speech in James the Second's house of lords in eloquent condemnation of the Romanising policy of the government, and its violation of the test act. Very soon after that he crossed over to Holland, ostensibly to seek employment in the Dutch navy, but really to offer his services to William of Orange as leader of an expedition against James the Second. His first rash project was not listened to, but he remained at the Hague, and became the chief, or almost the chief, adviser of William on political affairs; Henry Sidney, afterwards Earl of Romney, finding his most congenial occupation in doing the dirty work of negociation with the various parties and adventurers that, prompted by various motives, found common ground in their desire to place a new king on the English throne; and Gilbert Burnet, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, being most at home in settling the domestic difficulties between Prince William and his wife. Locke had had some acquaintance, but no friendship, with Burnet in former times, and of Henry Sidney he must also have known something; but with Mordaunt he had most sympathy; and besides the frequent communications that passed between them in 1687 and 1688, there cannot be much doubt that

through Mordaunt's influence he was often brought into personal relations with the prince, and had much to say respecting the arrangements for the projected revolution. His subsequent position in regard to William and his leading counsellors cannot otherwise be understood.

For Locke-known to him only by report as the great friend of Shaftesbury, who had been the great supporter of Monmouth, and therefore an opponent of his own claims to the English succession, claims that he did not care to see denied, though he was for a long time not eager to enforce them-it is tolerably clear that William of Orange had not felt or shown much sympathy during his stay in Holland hitherto. Locke had certainly been in no hurry to court it. Other Englishmen, honest patriots or selfish adventurers, had crowded together at the Hague, anxious to win the favour of the prince who had so good a prospect of becoming king of England, while Locke took no pains to clear himself from a false accusation that was bringing upon him much personal inconvenience. But he was ready to take part in public work when his services were wanted and could be made useful to the world, and the time had now come for this. Whether William, understanding at last his real worth, sought him out, or whether accident or the intentional effort of mutual friends first brought them together, cannot be decided. We know, indeed, very little of their intercourse while they were in Holland, or of Locke's detailed share in the active measures that at this time were being adopted for placing the prince on the throne of James the Second; but it is quite clear that while the revolution was being planned a hearty friendship grew up between Locke and William, and perhaps a yet heartier friendship between Locke and

William's amiable wife, the Princess Mary. It is quite clear also that, during the last two years of Locke's residence in Holland, he was intimately associated with some old friends of his, and with some new ones, in the efforts that were now being made in statesmanlike ways to bring about the revolution.' Though there is not

much to be said about it, there can be no doubt that political work devolved more and more upon him, and at last chiefly occupied his attention, while he was in Holland. But we have much fuller information concerning his private life among his friends.

During the two years which Locke spent chiefly at Rotterdam, he resided with a quaker, named Benjamin Furly, whose house was in the Scheepmakers-haven. Furly, who was born in 1636, had been one of George Fox's early converts, and had helped him to write at any rate one of his treatises, 'A Battel-door for Teachers and

1 All through the time of his residence in Holland Locke maintained an active correspondence, though only a few fragments of it are extant, with his friends in England, perhaps especially with James Tyrrell, whose gossiping letters must have been very welcome to him as sources of authentic information in those days, when newspapers told but little news, and very little indeed that was authentic. Some specimens of these letters are given by Lord King, pp. 169-172. Locke's most important political correspondence has not come down to us, and it was probably destroyed by himself, and by his friends at his request. To more than one of his letters to Limborch and others, in which he made some cautious allusion to public affairs, he appended a request that the persons to whom they were addressed would destroy them as soon as they had read them. If the request was not always complied with, the letters bearing it, which have reached us, were doubtless preserved only by accident, or because the recipients found in them nothing that there could be any possible danger in placing on record. We are bound to assume that, whenever the request was at all reasonable, they did comply with it.