The opinion which the Prince and Princess of Orange held respecting the Indulgence was well known to all who were conversant with public affairs.

But, as no official announcement of that opinion had appeared, many persons who had not access to good private sources of information were deceived or perplexed by the confidence with which the partisans of the Court asserted that their Highnesses approved of the King's late acts.

To contradict those assertions publicly would have been a simple and obvious course, if the sole object of William had been to strengthen his interest in England.

But he considered England chiefly as an instrument necessary to the execution of his great European design.

Towards that design he hoped to obtain the cooperation of both branches of the House of Austria, of the Italian princes, and even of the Sovereign Pontiff.
There was reason to fear that any declaration which was satisfactory to British Protestants would excite alarm and disgust at Madrid, Vienna, Turin, and Rome.