fered total neglect. His lenity, as well as his ingratitude, proceeded from the insensibility of his temper. In the midst of gaiety and immorality, he entirely neglected the duties of his station; and the country, following the example of the Court, strict severity of manners was all at once changed into the most shameful irregularity and profligacy.

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

IN 1662, the marriage between the king and Catharina, Infanta of Portugal, was solemnized. In 1663, the act of uniformity was carried into effect, by means of which the Church of England was freed from a great number of ministers, who refused to submit to her ritual as contained in the Book of Common Prayer. In 1664, war was declared against the Dutch, and on the 3rd of June a great victory was obtained over them at sea. In July there was another furious engagement, when the English gained a complete victory, destroying above twenty Dutch men-of-war, and driving the rest into their harbours; though England suffered the humiliation of the Dutch fleet sailing up the Thames, and retiring in safety after burning three of our men-ofwar in the river. This disgrace, happening in an unnecessary war, excited violent indignation among the people; and the peace which followed was not concluded on terms calculated to appease the general discontent.

THE PLAGUE. During these transactions, a dreadful pestilence broke out in London, which destroyed above one hundred and thirty thousand of the inhabitants. This was called "the Great Plague;" many others of less violence having visited England in preceding reigns.

It commenced in Long Acre, towards the close of 1664, and continued to rage over all parts of the metropolis with unabated malignancy till the end of the following year. In August and September, 1665, it was at its height; fifty thousand persons perished in seven weeks.

THE FIRE OF LONDON.-On the 2nd of September, 1666, a terrible fire broke out in London, commencing in the neighbourhood of Eastcheap; which continued to rage for three days, and laid a considerable portion of the City in ashes. It destroyed six hundred streets, including eighty-nine churches, many hospitals and public edifices, and thirteen thousand two hundred and two dwelling-houses. The ruins, comprehending four hundred and thirty-six acres of ground, extended from near the Tower, along the river, to the Temple church; and north-east along the city walls to Holborn Bridge. Very few lives were lost, but thousands were reduced to beggary by the loss of all that belonged to them. The Monument in Fish-street Hill, was erected to mark the locality in which it began.

THE RYE-HOUSE PLOT.-About the year 1683, a combination was formed by a number of distinguished persons to raise an insurrection against the king; but they appear to have differed widely in their objects. The Duke of Monmouth, a natural son of the king, aspired to succeed his father to the throne. Lord William Russell, of the House of Bedford, proposed the exclusion of the Duke of York as being a Papist, and demanded a redress of grievances; while Algernon Sydney, it was believed, wished to restore the republic. At the same time, a plot was entered into by a set of inferior persons to assassinate the king; it was called the Rye-house Plot, from the place where they assembled. It was dis

covered, and Lord Russell and Algernon Sydney were accused of being concerned in it; and were condemned and executed, though there was not the slightest legal proof of their guilt. In January, 1685, King Charles was seized with an apoplectic fit; and though he was recovered by bleeding, he lingered only a few days, and died on the 6th of February, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, after a reign of near twenty-five years. He was buried in the Chapel of Henry the Seventh, Westminster Abbey.

In 1660 the Royal Society was established. In 1675 the present St. Paul's Cathedral was commenced building by Sir Christopher Wren.

XXVII.

CHARACTER OF JAMES THE SECOND.

JAMES THE SECOND was a prince in whom some good qualities were rendered ineffectual by mistaken notions of the prerogative, excessive bigotry to the Romish faith, and an inflexible severity of temper. He was brave, steady, diligent, upright, and sincere, except when warped by religious considerations; yet, even where religion was not concerned, he appears to have been proud and vindictive, and though he had proved himself an obedient and dutiful subject, he became one of the most intolerable sovereigns that ever reigned over a free people.

James wrote memoirs of his own life and campaigns

up to the Restoration; and memoirs of the English affairs, chiefly naval, from the year 1660 to 1673.

On his accession, he made a speech to the privy council, promising to preserve the government both of the Church and State, as by law established, yet two days after he went publicly to mass.

HISTORICAL EVENTS.

THE BATTLE OF SEDGEMOOR.-The discontent caused by the conduct of James in openly encouraging Popery, after his solemn promise to the contrary, induced the Duke of Monmouth to make another attempt on the crown. Having landed at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, with only one hundred followers, he was in a few days at the head of six thousand men. He published a declaration, stating that his sole motive for taking arms, was to preserve the Protestant religion, and to deliver the nation from the usurpation and tyranny of James, Duke of York. He was encountered by the king's troops at a place called Sedgemoor, near Bridgewater, on the 5th of July, 1685, and after a desperate engagement totally defeated. Monmouth escaped from the field, and wandered for some days about the country in a destitute state, and at last was discovered concealed in a ditch, and almost exhausted with fatigue and hunger. He was carried to London, and immediately condemned and executed on Tower-hill. His followers were punished with dreadful severity. A number were barbarously put to death by military execution, under General Kirke, on the field of battle; and about three hundred and fifty were executed by form of law by order of the notorious Judge Jeffreys, who was sent

down to try the prisoners, for which service he was made Lord Chancellor.

SEVEN BISHOPS SENT TO THE TOWER.

James now

openly attempted to establish Popery and arbitrary power. Finding the parliament an obstacle to his designs, he dismissed it, and never called another. The Popish priests appeared publicly in their habits in the streets; a nuncio arrived from Rome, and James filled the official situations in the universities, with Roman Catholics. Seven of the bishops having remonstrated against these infamous and unlawful proceedings, he had them sent to the Tower and prosecuted for sedition. His power, however, was not sufficient to prevent their being acquitted. The acclamations caused by this event, reached the ears of the king, who asked what was the meaning of the noise. Some one answered it was nothing but the soldiers shouting for the delivery of the bishops. "Call you that nothing?" the king exclaimed in a rage; "but so much the worse for them." Immediately afterwards he dismissed two of the judges whom he understood to have been favourable to the bishops.

DEPOSITION AND FLIGHT. In these circumstances, the people became greatly alarmed; and immediately applied to William Henry of Nassau, Prince of Orange, who had married Mary, King James's eldest daughter, and was himself the son of that king's eldest sister. This prince landed at Torbay, on the 5th of November, 1688, and was joyfully received by the whole nation.

James made no resistance; he only attempted to escape from the kingdom, and left his palace in disguise. He was discovered at Faversham, and, after being grossly insulted, brought back to London. He was