fhall ftill continue doing my part in preffing it. Lord Delamer was tried yesterday, and quitted by his peers, he had good luck, as well as juft judges, that the only pofitive witness which came in against him, was proven to have fworn falfely, for though the rest of the evidence against him was only hear-fays, yet all the world was fatisfied he did design to have rifen with Lord Macklesfield and Lord Brandon. As for Saxfton, which was the perjured witnefs against Lord Delamer, I have ordered he fhall be firft profecuted for perjury, that he may keep company with Oates, and then after he has ftood in the pillory, to be tried for being with the Duke of Monmouth in arms." King James to the Prince of Orange.-Complains of the Prince for giving refuge to the rebels in Holland. "I Whitehall, March 7, 1686. WOULD not let this bearer return into Holland without writing to you by him, and muft need tell you that it does really seem strange to me that so many of the rebels fhould be connived at Amfterdam, and other towns in Holland, and other of the provinces, and permitted to live fo publicly as they do I have charged the bearer to speak to you more at large upon this affair, which is of great concern to me; for fo long as those rebellious people are permitted to stay there, they will still have the opportunities of corresponding with the difaffected here and ftirring them up to fedition, whereas if they were driven out of the feven provinces, they could not be fo dangerous. Pray confider of this, and how important it is to me, to have those people destroyed." King James to the Prince of Orange.-Pleafed that the rebels are to be expelled from Holland.-Is to make an encampment at Hounslow. r Whitehall, May 7, 1686. "I FOUND both yours of the 7th and 10th here, by the laft of which I find the States of Holland had agreed to comply with the treaties in banishing out of their provinces thofe of my rebellious fubjects, which have sheltered themselves fo long there; and by what you fay make no doubt but that the States General will do the like, and I am fure you will do your part, to have it effectually put in execution, it being a thing of the last confequence for the peace and quiet of my kingdoms to have those turbulent men driven out of the feven provinces, for when once removed from thence, they can do no mischief, though the republican spirit increases every day amongst us here; but should they be but connived there, they would ftill be contriving new defigns to difturb me, for that reftlefs and rebellious party will never be quiet. I am now preparing to go to Windfor next week, for most of the fummer, and on the 20th of this month I am to have twelve battalions of foot encamped on Hounslow-Heath; as for the horse and dragoons I do not intend to have them there till the middle of next month." King James to the Prince of Orange.-To the fame purpose. Windfor, May 18, 1686. INCE I wrote to you by the laft poft I have had 66 SINCE three, the one by the poft of the 21st, by which I find the States General had refolved to banish my rebellious fubjects out of the feven provinces, and I make no doubt of your doing your part to have it put in execution, fince you know of how great concern it is to me to have thofe feditious people fent away from thence. I In the De pot. pot. have another letter from you from Captain Steuart of an older date, and one from you alfo by M. General Mackay, with whom I have spoken fully with, upon all the feveral heads you charged him to speak with me of, and do affure you that I eafily believe all he has faid to me from you, and you need not fear that it is in any body's power to do you ill offices with me." Barillon, in his dispatch of the 26th of July 1685, fays that he faw the Duke of Monmouth pass through the apartments of the palace to his interview with the King; that his arms were tied behind with a filken cord, but his hands free; that none but the two fecretaries of ftate were present at the interview; and in his letter of the 30th of July, that the Duke gave no information against the Prince of Orange. Barillon fays, that the Duke in the Tower defired to fee his Dutchess, that fhe refufed unless Lord Clarendon fhould be prefent, and that when she went, the converfation was "aigre de part et d'autre," "bitter both on the one fide and the other." In the Memoirs to which the prefent papers are an ap→ pendix, there is an anecdote related upon tradition of King James's having paid a visit to the Dutchefs of Monmouth on the morning of her husband's execution, and In the De- left with her a grant of his forfeiture. Barillon's difpatch of the 17th of June 1686, confirms one part of the ftory. It contains these words, "Touts les biens de M. le Duc de Monmouth en Ecoffe et en Angleterre lui (i. e. the Dutchefs) ont eté rendu." "All the Duke of Monmouth's eftate in Scotland and England has been reftored to his Dutchess." воок III. PROSPEROUS Condition and Schemes of fames.- E Book III. 1685. Profperous ftate of James. VERY thing now feemed to promife a reign of PART I fecurity to James. They who had beheld the firft glorious and regular efforts of liberty against Charles the Firft, were long ago dead. The furvivors among the old had only seen the private ambition and anarchy which immediately fucceeded. Shaftsbury, Ruffel, Effex, Sidney, were no more; new characters had not arisen to affume their places; and the spirit of parliamentary oppofition in England feemed to have been buried in their graves. The attempt of Monmouth, at the fame time that it freed James from a rival, ftrengthened, like other unsuccessful rebellions, that power which it was meant to overturn. The Prince of Orange was thought to be fully occupied with the internal divifions of Holland, and the oppofition which Louis the XIVth raised against him in his own country. Scotland was more quiet than it had been for a thousand years before. One part of Ireland was fubmiffive to the laws, and the reft of it attached to * D'Avaux, vol. 4. VOL. II. * H the 1685. PART I. the interefts of James by the ties of common religion. Boox III. He was at peace with all his neighbours, and respected by them. At home, one party favoured him, another courted him, both dreaded him; and he poffeffed, what no King of England, from the time of the two first Norman Princes, had done, a great revenue independent of parliament, and a ftrong army depending on himself only. He Drunk, in a manner, with profperity, the King indulged the most extravagant fchemes of ambition against his fubjects. Even amidst the dangers of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion, he had expreffed his fatisfaction at it to Barillon, "becaufe," he faid, "it would give him an op"portunity of making himself master of his country." And he now formed a defign of abolishing the militia for ever, fubftituting a ftanding army in its ftead, and of getting the Habeas Corpus law abolished, that he might be completely mafter of the perfons of his subjects. He flattered himself likewife with the vain idea, that by keeping a fleet always ready manned, he might convert even the feamen into inftruments of his power. boafted in public, that he was in love with bold and decifive ftrokes of authority, and received well the com pliments of those who flattered him on that head. Infolence and meannefs go continually together: While James was thus preparing to trample upon his generous fubjects, he was fawning upon the natural enemy of their country. "I was brought up," faid he to Barillon, "in France: I have eat of your mafter's bread, and << my heart is French." Lord Rochester and Lord Godolphin, who in the beginning of his reign flattered him. with ideas of independence upon parliament, now perceiving that they had gone too far, ftrove in vain to repair the mifchief they had done *. • Vid. Appendix. The |