PART I. "he pleased, provided he paffed not through Holland." Book IV. Rochefter went directly to Spaw, without paying his 1686 compliments to the Prince in paffing; a mark of difand 1687. refpect, which, at an after-period, was remembered against him. Sunderland's am Upon the difmiffion of Rochefter, Sunderland took adbition dif- vantage of the foibles of Petre. He flattered his vanity; appointed. he opened vaft profpects to his ambition; he prevailed upon James to bring him into the privy-council, and to afk a cardinal's cap for him from the Pope; and he made an offer to Petre to refign the fecretary's feals in his favour, if, by their joint intereft, the treasurer's ftaff could be secured for Sunderland. Petre hefitated, perhaps overawed by the greatnefs of the object. But Sunderland begged the Queen to ask the treasurer's ftaff for himself. She de-. clined. He then afked it from the King: But James, who knew that Sunderland was not expert in figures, refufed his confent: A refufal of which Sunderland made no complaint, and which, therefore, probably funk the deeper into his mind. Yet a point, more important in its confequences, was gained by Sunderland: Under the pretence, that a cabal of feven was too numerous either for expedition or fecrecy, he prevailed on James to limit it to three, the King, Petre, and himself; and to give an order to the ambafladors abroad, that all intelligence of confequence fhould be communicated to the members of this cabal only: A refolution, which gave Sunderland the command of all the foreign correfpondence; because the minifters thought it prefumptuous to write often to the King, and both mean and dangerous to correfpond on the public affairs of England with a Jefuit. Attempts upon the poffeffions of the church. After the removal of Lord Rochester, the attempts of James, in favour of his religion, were much more open, rapid, and extenfive than they had been before. Hitherto no attempt had been made to bring Roman Catholics into the 1686 the poffeffions of the church: But, a few days after Ro- PART I. chefter was difmiffed, the deanery of Chrift's church at Boox IV.. Oxford, a very confiderable preferment in the church of England, was given, with a difpenfation, to Maffy a and 1687. late convert: And an attempt † was made to impofe a Roman Catholic, by means of a fimilar difpenfation, upon the Charter-house. Soon after, a mandate was iffued to the university of Cambridge, to give a degree of master, of arts to Albine Francis, a Benedictine monk: The university refused to grant the favour, though they had, a few months before, conferred it upon a Mahometan, who was fecretary to the ambaffador of Morocco. Their vice-chancellor was therefore deprived of his office, and fufpended, during pleasure, from that of mafter of his college. Other attempts were made upon other eftablishments of the church of England, fome of which were fuccessful, and others difappointed even by those who were the moft attached to the King: For even Sawyer, the attorney-general, refufed to draw a warrant for a benefice to a prieft, and the old and loyal Duke of Ormond, among others, to comply with a mandate, to receive a Roman Catholic in the Charter-houfe. Lord Castlemaine was fent ambaffador extraordinary to the Pope, though any intercourse with that pontiff was, by the laws of England, high treafon; and a pompous account of his public entry, and reception at Rome §, was published by authority. James gave a folemn audience, with a magnificent parade, at the caftle of Windfor, to a nuncio from the Pope; although the Duke of Somerset, who was the Lord in waiting, refused to attend his duty, and refigned his place. This ceremony appeared to be an infult upon the nation, because the nuncio had been long Rerefby, 233. Appendix to Clarendon, vol. 2. p. 278. + Carte's Life of Ormond. State Trials, vol. 3. 708, Gazette, Feb. 7, 1686. * L 2 known 1686 PART 1. known in a fecular habit, and as a man of pleasure about Boox IV. court. Four popish Bishops were publicly confecrated in the chapel royal: They were fent to their diocefes, under and 1687. the titles of Vicars Apoftolical; and their pastoral letters, licensed and printed by the King's printer, were dispersed through the kingdom: The popish regular clergy were feen in all the rooms of the court in the habits of their order: Spectacles against which Ronquillo the Spanish ambaffador having warned James, that Prince asked him, "If it was not the cuftom in Spain for the Kings "to confult with their confeffors ?" "Yes," anfwered the ambaffador, "and for that reafon our affairs fuc"ceed fo ill." Inferior members of the popish clergy' even threatened to feize public buildings for the uses of their religion. A complaint of this kind having been carried to Lord Hallifax by the French proteftant church in the Savoy," Let the priests," faid he t, "turn you 66 out; for you will the fooner do your own business "and the nation's." The treasury having been put into commiffion, Lord Bellafis was placed at the head of it, Tyrconnel was fent Lord Lieutenant to Ireland. Lord Arundel received the privy-feal, another of Clarendon's offices. Many complained, that the King's brothers-inlaw, the pillars of the church of England, were stripped of their honours to make way for Roman Catholics; but all were fenfible, that the putting the command of Ireland into the hands of a man fo violent and rafh as Tyrconnel, would throw that kingdom into confufion, and make the King odious through all his dominions . Directions were given to the Lords Lieutenant to affemble their deputies and the juftices of peace, and to ask them, if they would chufe fuch members of parliament as would * Rerefby, 251. + Life of K. W. v. p. 355. confent 1686 confent to the abolition of the tefts. Thofe who refufed PART I. were difplaced, and papifts put into their places. This only Boox IV. was wanting to complete the unpopularity of James. Accounts of all these changes were published in the gazette, and 1687. a paper under the direction of Sunderland, and many of them in terms full of affectation, and which could not fail to provoke the people. While thefe general alterations ftruck the eyes of the public, a change which James made in the oath of a privy-counsellor difcovered to those who were nearer his perfon, the minutenefs of his attention to the interests of popery. The oath of a privy-counsellor contained these words: "I fhall, to my utmoft, defend all jurisdictions, "pre-eminencies, and authorities, granted to his Majesty, "and annexed to his crown by act of parliament, or "otherwise, against all foreign princes, perfons, prelates, ❝ftates, or potentates." This part of the oath was, by fpecial order of the King, expunged from the council-book *. 1687. of indul Most of those things paffed in the courfe of the year 1686: The rest in the year 1687. But the last of these Declaration years was fignalized chiefly by a measure which could not gence. fail, either by dividing the proteftant intereft, to give James a better chance of fuccefs in his views, or by uniting it against him, to increase his difficulties: Sufpending at once, by his own authority, the whole fyftem of laws provided by fo many parliaments again ft nonconformity, he published a declaration of indulgence in fa- April 4, vour of all his fubjects; by which he not only gave them a full toleration in matters of religion, but difpenfed with their taking the tefts; and thus laid open all offices to catholics, and fectaries, and churchmen alike. This act of abfolute power was the more provoking, because the Pooks of privy-council, 1, 13, July 1688. The words were replaced at the revolution. Vid. books 16 Feb. 1688. fame Book IV. 1687. Feb. 12. 3686-7. PART I. fame gazette which published it, contained a prorogation of parliament to a diftant period. The experiment of the declaration was firft tried in Scotland, upon account of the abfurdity and unpopularity of the teft in that country, which had brought ruin upon the Earl of Argyle. But the words in which the Scottish declaration was expreffed, like thofe of all the other ftate-papers drawn by Stuart, were contrived to offend thofe whom they pretended to oblige: For the declaration bore, that the King had issued it by "his fovereign authority, prerogative royal, and abfolute power, which all his fubjects were to obey "without referve." This declaration was received in Scotland with a fullen difregard: The churchmen and royalists were difpleafed to fee thofe whom they called fanatics freed from the penal laws; and the prefbyterian party remonstrated to each other: "The declaration was "fpecious and liberal, indeed, to appearance, but hol"low and defigning at the bottom: For, under pretence "of fhowing indulgence to nonconformists, it was "only meant to procure it for Roman Catholics. They "had already felt the feverity of the Duke of York's "adminiftration against their religion. What had fo fud denly reconciled him to their interefts? Had what was "called the former rebellion of their friends, or their own "late oppofition in parliament, gained favour in his eyes? "Such actions were not calculated to gain the friendship "of Kings. Favours offered voluntarily by enemies were always fufpicious; but they were doubly fo, when "preffed upon thofe who were not afking them." The privy-council was almoft the only public body which paid compliments to James's fpirit of toleration. But these compliments difcovered to the wife, that only the King's fervants yielded to the King's fentiments. In England, the diffenters were fo weak as to be caught in * Gazette, March 3, 1686-7. * the |