William III, still under the excitement of the first rumours, anxieties, and precautionary measures, came down to the Houses on the 24th of February to request their co-operation for the common safety. His frank address, heightened by the cheerfulness of his countenance, was accompanied by murmurs of applause, and was at once replied to by a sympathetic resolution. For if there was anything in the world that could bring Lords and Commons to the consciousness that their interests were the same with the King's, it surely was an attempt on his life, which all felt to be priceless, and at the moment indispensable for the country. Both Houses not only assured him that they were determined to defend him and his government against all foes at home and abroad, and specially against James II, but they also pledged themselves, almost in the very words once before used in an address to Queen Elizabeth, that were the King to perish by a violent death, they would avenge him on his foes and their adherents.

Far as this declaration goes, it was clearly a kind of necessity; and this one can understand, when an association for the purpose was proposed, such as that one which marked the landing of the Prince of Orange in England. For no doubt was to be left in the minds of the Jacobite party that, even supposing an attempt on William's life to succeed, their own ruin would be the immediate consequence.