arrangement than changes of doctrines; and the judicious preface by which it is introduced was composed. This is the last revision which our excellent Liturgy has undergone.

Having been thus revised, the Prayer Book was approved by convocation, and confirmed by the king under the great seal. It was next adopted by the parliament in the Act of Uniformity, called the Bartholomew Act. The principal provisions of this Act were as follows:-All who were not duly ordained were excluded from performing acts of ministry in the Church; assent and consent to all things contained in the Book of Common Prayer was required from all who would hold ecclesiastical preferment; and the right to rebel against the king, or the lawfulness of taking the covenant, were to be disowned. Whosoever refused to comply with the terms of this Act by St. Bartholomew's day, was declared to be ipso facto deprived of his living. About 2000 Presbyterian or Independent ministers refused, and were deprived accordingly; but very many had conformed already, among whom was Reynolds, who was raised to the see of Norwich.

The

The bishops who had survived the rebellion had resumed their sees, or had been advanced to others immediately on the king's return. Juxon, bishop of London, whom we have seen with Charles-I. on the scaffold, though in extreme old age, was made Archbishop of Canterbury; Sanderson was consecrated bishop of Lincoln; and other men of high character were placed in other sees. clergy, who had suffered for conscience sake, returned to their livings; and the property of the Church, which had been confiscated by the rebels, was given back to it. These arrangements were effected within two years of the restoration, and for a short time every thing seemed to be going on prosperously. It was, however, soon discovered that the character of Charles was some alloy to the blessings which the country enjoyed in the revival of their ancient government in Church and State. Though affable and witty, the king was unprincipled and selfish. A Romanist at heart, he had not the courage to follow the example which his brother James (Duke of York) soon gave him, of avowing his religion. During his exile, he had contracted the most dissolute habits; and on his return, he copied the disregard

for the decencies of life for which the court of Louis XIV. then king of France, was infamous. He married an infanta of Portugal, but did not the less connect himself with other women; on whom, as well as on his illegitimate children, he bestowed the highest titles. He had no issue by his

queen.

Charles was always secretly aiming to bring in popery, and to make himself an absolute king: not that, like his father, he thought unlimited power his rightful heritage, but that he wished to be under no restraint in the indulgence of his pleasures; nor was the Duke of York exempt from the same licentious tastes, while he was far more zealous than the king in promoting the interest of the Church of Rome. This prince married a daughter of the Earl of Clarendon; by whom he became the father of the Princesses Mary and Anne. He afterwards married a sister of the Duke of Modena. Being made lord high admiral, he seems to have induced his brother to declare war very needlessly with the United States of Holland. Many naval battles were fought without very decided advantage to either side; though on one occasion the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter sailed up the Thames, burned the ships of war which lay at Chatham, and threatened London itself. (A.D. 1667.)

The country was at this time visited with two great calamities in succeeding years. The first (A.D. 1665) was a plague, which spread through many parts of the kingdom, and carried off in London alone upwards of one hundred thousand people. The inhabitants were summoned by a bell to bring out their dead; which were thrown, without any religious rite, into a pit prepared in the nearest churchyard. The other calamity (A.D. 1666) was the most extensive fire with which London was ever visited. It broke out in Pudding-lane, near the only bridge which London then possessed, and raged with fury for five days, consuming more than thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches, and the cathedral of St. Paul's. But London rose from its ashes in greater beauty than before, and the streets were rebuilt with more attention to health and regularity. The column, called The Monument, was raised to commemorate this awful fire; in checking which the king exerted himself with energy and humanity.

At this time Louis XIV. was pushing his conquests in Flanders, and aiming at an universal rule in Europe. The Dutch were alarmed at his progress, and sued for peace. A treaty, called "The Triple Alliance," was formed by the agency of Sir William Temple between England, Sweden, and Holland, against the French king; and well would it have been for Charles's honour, had he been true to the engagements which he thus contracted. Anxious, however, to dispense with parliaments, and to raise by other means the money required for his pleasures, he stooped (through a great part of his reign) to become the pensioner of Louis; who thus bought from a king of England the promise that he would declare himself a member of the Roman Church, and make war with the United States of Holland.

Charles had some little time before formed a ministry which was called the "Cabal," because the first letters of the names of its members were ingeniously arranged into that word. These were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, Lauderdale. Buckingham was the son of the late king's favourite. Ashley was afterwards made Earl of Shaftesbury. A more profligate ministry was never at the head of affairs: but their corruption was exceeded by the venality of Charles himself; of which a second war with Holland was the fruit. In this war, the young Prince of Orange greatly distinguished himself against the armies of Charles's ally, the King of France. A marriage was, however, arranged between this prince and the Princess Mary, the daughter of the Duke of York; whose second daughter (the Princess Anne) was afterwards married to Prince George of Denmark.

Peace was at length concluded with the United States of Holland on favourable terms to England, but only that Charles might return to his dishonourable engagements with Louis, who himself made peace with Holland by the treaty of Nimeguen (1678).

The country, which had hailed the king's return had long learnt to distrust his principles, and was alarmed at the prospect of a popish successor in the person of his brother.

At the meeting of the parliament in 1673, this temper displayed itself in a manner not to be mistaken. Charles had issued the year before a proclamation, generally called 'the declaration of indulgence." It professed to suspend

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the penal laws which had been enacted against all nonconformists or recusants soever; Protestant dissenters were permitted the public exercise of their form of religion; and Romanists the exercise of theirs in their private houses. But the parliament saw that the king's design, though in appearance liberal, was to protect his brother. Remon

strances were made; and the king was obliged to withdraw the declaration. A law was forthwith passed, which imposed a test upon all who should enjoy any public office. They were to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, to receive the Holy Eucharist at the hands of a minister of the Church of England, and to abjure the doctrine of transubstantiation.

In 1679 the Long Parliament, as it was called, because it had sat by prorogations ever since the Restoration, was dissolved. A new one was summoned forthwith. It met under great excitement. The fear of popery was strong in the minds both of the people and of their representatives. Of this the immediate causes were as follows.

It had been alleged that just before the dissolution of the late parliament, a popish plot, on a very extended scale, had been discovered. The informer was one Dr. Titus Oates, who had been in turns an anabaptist preacher, a clergyman of the Church of England, and a papist. Through all his changes he had borne a most corrupt character, and was, consequently, unworthy of credit. But, such was the temper of the time, his testimony, though to the highest degree suspicious, brought many innocent persons to the scaffold. New perplexity was created by information of another plot, called the Mealtub Plot, from the reported discovery of some treasonable papers in a barrel of flour. Under the panic occasioned by these real or pretended conspiracies, a bill of exclusion3 was brought forward by Lord Shaftesbury (who had turned against the Court) and Lord Russell. It was carried in the House of Commons, but rejected in the House of Lords by a considerable majority, much to the chagrin of its promoters, especially of Lord Russell. That nobleman

2 This parliament passed a Bill to render the operation of the Habeas Corpus Act more easy and effectual.

3 Its object was to exclude the Duke of York, as being a papist, from the succession to the throne.

himself was soon afterwards implicated in a conspiracy which was formed by some of the republican faction, who began to despair of the liberties of England. This party contained persons of various ranks and opinions; and some of the more desperate had planned to shoot the king, from a building called the Rye-house, near Newmarket; and the plot is therefore known as the Rye-house Plot. It does not appear that Lord Russell was privy to this part of the scheme; and the evidence against him was very questionable. His wife, a lady of distinguished excellence, acted as his secretary on the trial; the result of which was that he was beheaded in Lincoln's-Inn Fields. He was a man of sincerity and virtuous private life, and met his end with Christian resignation and cheerfulness. Algernon Sidney, a decided republican, who was implicated in the same conspiracy, was executed on Tower-hill, a few months after the death of Lord Russell (1683).

Soon after the king's return, episcopacy1 had been restored in Scotland; and throughout the greater part of this reign it was upheld by a persecution of the Presbyterians which was carried on with the most revolting cruelty. An insurrection took place, but was crushed with great severity by Graham of Claverhouse, who became Lord Dundee. It was at length put down by the Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of the king; who would have dealt more gently with the insurgents, had he not been controlled by the influence of Graham and the Duke of Lauderdale. On the other hand, Archbishop Sharpe was murdered in cold blood by a party of the class of fanatics called Cameronians; and the whole history of these troubles exhibits a picture of the worst parts of human nature; relieved only by the faith and courage with which many of the persecuted Presbyterians submitted to torture and death.

The king had probably injured his constitution by early excesses, and had a fit of apoplexy in the 55th year of his age. He died Feb. 6, 1685, and was succeeded by his brother James.

In this reign the clergy first ceased to tax themselves in their own convocation; an arrangement was made between Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Chan

4 See p. 110, note.