A.D. 1683-1685. DEATH OF THE KING. 521 6th, in the 55th year of his age and the 25th of his reign. He was so happy in a good constitution of body, and had ever been so remarkably careful of his health, that his death struck as great a surprise into his subjects as if he had been in the flower of his youth. During the king's illness he received the sacrament from a Roman Catholic priest, accompanied with the other rites of the Romish Church. Charles II. was in society the most amiable and engaging of men. This, indeed, is the most shining part of his character; and he seems to have been sensible of it, for he was fond of dropping the formality of state, and of relapsing every moment into the companion. His relations with the other sex were in the highest degree immoral,* and hence his court became a school of vice and profligacy. Yet he was a friendly brother, an indulgent father, and a good-natured master. As a sovereign, his character was dangerous to his people and dishonorable to himself. Negligent of the interests of the nation, careless of its glory, averse to its religion, jealous of its liberty, lavish of its treasure, sparing only of its blood, he exposed it by his measures, which, however, were often the result of mere indolence, to the danger of a furious civil war, and even to the ruin and ignominy of a foreign conquest. It has been remarked of Charles that he never said a foolish thing, nor ever did a wise one; which he explained by observing that his discourse was his own, his actions were the ministry's. Some of his illegitimate children were the ancestors of several of the noblest families in the present peerage. His favorite son, the Duke of Monmouth, by Lucy Walters, was beheaded in the following reign, and left no issue. By the Duchess of Cleveland (Barbara Villiers) he had three sons, the Duke of Southampton, the Duke of Grafton (ancestor of the present duke), and the Duke of Northumberland. The Duke of Richmond (the ancestor of the present duke) was his son by the Duchess of Portsmouth (Louise de Querouaille); and the Duke of St. Alban's (also the ancestor of the present duke) was his son by the actress Eleanor Gwynn. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 31 CAR. II., c. 2 (A.D. 1679). This celebrated statute did not introduce any new principle, but only confirmed and rendered more available a remedy which had long existed. "The writ of habeas corpus, requiring a return of the body imprisoned and the cause of his detention, and hence anciently called corpus cum causa, was in familiar use between subject and subject in the reign of Henry VI. Its use by a subject against the crown has not been traced during the time of the Plantagenet dynasty; the earliest precedents known being of the date of Henry VII." (See Amos, "The English Constitution in the reign of Charles II.," p. 171, and the authorities there quoted.) The privilege of habeas corpus was twice solemnly confirmed in the reign of Charles I., first by the Petition of Right (1628), and secondly by the statute abolishing the Star Chamber and other arbitrary courts (1640), which contained a clause that any person imprisoned by orders of the abolished courts, or by command or warrant of the king or any of his council, should be entitled to a writ of habeas corpus from the courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, without delay upon any pretense whatsoever. But as Charles II. and his ministers still found means to evade these enactments, the celebrated statute was passed in 1679, known as the Habeas Corpus Act. Its principal author was Lord Shaftesbury, and it was for many years called "Lord Shaftesbury's Act." It enacts: to the distance, not exceeding in any case twenty days. 4. That officers and keepers neglecting to make due returns, or not delivering to the prisoner or his agent within six hours after demand a copy of the warrant of commitment, or shifting the custody of the prisoner from one to another without sufficient reason or authority (specified in the act), shall for the first offense forfeit £100, and for the second offense £200 to the party grieved, and be disabled to hold his office. 5. That no person once delivered by habeas corpus shall be recommitted for the same offense, on penalty of £500. 6. That every person committed for treason or felony shall, if he requires it, the first week of the next term, or the first day of the next session of oyer and terminer, be indicted in that term or session, or else admitted to bail, unless the king's witnesses can not be produced at that time; and if acquitted, or not indicted and tried in the second term or session, he shall be discharged from his impris onment for such imputed offense; but that no person, after the assizes shall be open for the county in which he is detained, shall be removed by habeas corpus till after the assizes are ended, but shall be left to the justice of the judges of assize. 7. That any such prisoner may move for and obtain his habeas corpus as well out of the Chancery or Exchequer as out of the King's Bench or Common Pleas; and the lord chancellor or judges denying the same on sight of the warrant or oath that the same is refused, forfeits severally to the party grieved the sum of £500. 8. That this writ of habeas corpus shall run into the counties palatine, cinque ports, and other privileged places, and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey. 9. That no inhabitant of England (except persons contracting or convicts praying to be transported, or having committed some capital offense in the place to which they are sent) shall be sent prisoner to Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or any places beyond the seas within or without the king's dominions, or pain that the party committing, his advisers, 1. That on complaint and request in writing by or on behalf of any person committed and charged with any crime (unless committed for treason or felony expressed in the warrant; or as accessory or on suspicion of being accessory before the fact to any petit treason or felony; or upon suspicion of such petit treason or felony plainly expressed in the warrant; or unless he is convicted or charged in execution by legal process), the lord chancellor, or any of the judges in vacation, upon viewing a copy of the warrant or affidavit that a copy is denied, shall (un-aiders, and assistants, shall forfeit to the less the party has neglected for two terms to apply to any court for his enlargement) award a habeas corpus for such prisoner, returnable immediately before himself or any other of the judges; and upon the return made shall discharge the party, if bailable, upon giving security to appear and answer to the accusation in the proper court of judicature, 2. That such writs shall be indorsed as granted in pursuance of this act, and signed by the person awarding them. 3. That the writ shall be returned and the prisoner brought up within a limited time according party aggrieved a sum not less than £500, to be recovered with treble costs; shall be disabled to bear any office of trust or profit; shall incur the penalties of præmunire; and shall be incapable of the king's pardon." The Habeas Corpus Act was confined to criminal cases, but by the 56 Geo. III. c. 100, it was extended not only to cases of illegal restraint by subject on subject, but also to those in which the crown has an interest, as in instances of impressment or smuggling. See Kerr's Blackstone, iii., 137; Amos, ibid., p. 201. IACOBYS. II. ET. MARIA. D. G. Busts of king and queen to right. CHAPTER XXVI. JAMES II. A.D. 1685-1688. 1. Accession of James. His arbitrary Proceedings. Conviction and Punishment of Titus Oates. § 2. Monmouth's Invasion, Defeat, and Execution. § 3. Cruelties of Kirke and Jeffreys. Invasion and Execution of Argyle. § 4. A Parliament. Popish Measures. § 5. Court of High Commission revived. Sentence against the Bishop of London. Penal Laws suspended. Embassy to Rome. § 6. The King's violent Proceedings with Corporations. Affair of Magdalen College. Imprisonment and Trial of the seven Bishops. § 7. Birth of the Prince of Wales. Conduct of the Prince of Orange. § 8. Coalition of Parties in his Favor. The King retracts his Measures. § 9. The Prinee of Orange lands at Torbay. The King deserted by the Army and by his Family. § 10. The King's Flight. His Character. § 11. Convention summoned. Debates. Settlement of the Crown. § 12. Review of the Stuart Dynasty. Principles of Government. § 13. Foreign Affairs. § 14. Internal State of England. § 15. Revenue. Army and Navy. § 16. Colonics and Commerce. § 17. Manners, Literature, Art, etc. § 1. THE first act of James's reign was to assemble the privy council, where, after some praises bestowed on the memory of his predecessor, he made professions of his resolution to maintain the established government, both in Church and State. The first exercise of his authority, however, showed that either he was not sincere in his professions of attachment to the laws, or that he had entertained so lofty an idea of his own legal power, that even his utmost sincerity would tend very little to secure the liberties of the people. Without waiting for a Parliament, he issued a proclamation, ordering the customs and excise to be paid as before; and this exertion of power he would not deign to qualify by the least act or even appearance of condescension. He likewise went openly, and with all the ensigns of his dignity, to mass, an illegal meeting; and by this imprudence he displayed at once his arbitrary disposition and the bigotry of his principles-those two great characteristics of his reign and bane of his administration. Nevertheless, all the chief offices of the crown continued still in the hands of Protestants. Rochester was made treasurer; his brother Clarendon chamberlain; Godolphin chamberlain to the queen; Sunderland secretary of state; Halifax president of the council. On the 23d of April James and his queen were crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey. The communion and a few minor ceremonies were omitted. The Parliament assembled in May. The new House of Commons consisted almost entirely of zealous Tories and Churchmen, and were, of consequence, strongly biased by their affections in favor of the measures of the crown. In his opening speech the king plainly intimated that he had resources in his prerogative for supporting the government independent of their supplies, and that, so long as they complied with his demands, he would have recourse to them; but that any ill usage on their part would set him free from those measures of government, which he seemed to regard more as voluntary than as necessary. Yet the Commons, besides giving thanks for the king's speech, voted unanimously that they would settle on his present majesty, during life, all the revenue enjoyed by the late king at the time of his demise. A little before the meeting of Parliament Oates was convicted of perjury on two indictments, was fined 1000 marks on each indictment, and sentenced to be whipped on two different days from Aldgate to Newgate, and from Newgate to Tyburn, to be imprisoned during life, and to be pilloried five times every year. Though the whipping was so cruel that it was evidently the intention of the court to put him to death by that punishment, he was enabled, by the care of his friends, to recover; and he lived to King William's reign. § 2. Monmouth, when ordered to depart the kingdom during the late reign, had retired to Holland, where he was well received by the Prince of Orange; but, after the accession of James, the prince thought it necessary to dismiss Monmouth and all his followers. He retired to Brussels; but was pushed on by his followers, and especially the Earl of Argyle, contrary to his judgment as well as inclination, to make a rash and premature attack upon England. He sailed from Holland with three ships, and landed at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, with scarcely 100 followers; yet A.D. 1685. INVASION AND DEFEAT OF MONMOUTH. 525 so popular was his name that in four days he had assembled above 2000 horse and foot. They were, indeed, almost all of them the lowest of the people; and the declaration which he published was chiefly calculated to suit the prejudices of the vulgar, or the most bigoted of the Whig party. He called the king Duke of York, and denominated him a traitor, a tyrant, an assassin, and a popish usurper. He imputed to him the fire in London, the murder of Godfrey and of Essex, nay, the poisoning of the late king; and he invited all the people to join in opposition to his tyranny. Monmouth advanced without opposition to Taunton, where twenty young maids of some rank presented him with a pair of colors of their handiwork, together with a copy of the Bible. Monmouth was here persuaded to take upon him the title of king, and assert the legitimacy of his birth. His numbers had now increased to 6000; and he was obliged every day, for want of arms, to dismiss a great many who crowded to his standard. He entered Bridgewater, Wells, Frome, and was proclaimed in all these places; but, forgetting that such desperate enterprises can only be rendered successful by the most adventurous courage, he allowed the expectations of the people to languish, without attempting any considerable undertaking. The king's forces, under the command of Feversham and Churchill, now advanced against him; and Monmouth, observing that no considerable men joined him, finding that an insurrection which was projected in the city had not taken place, and hearing that Argyle, his confederate, was already defeated and taken, sunk into such despondency that he had once resolved to withdraw himself, and leave his unhappy followers to their fate; but he was encouraged by the negligent disposition made by Feversham, to attack the king's army at Sedgmoor, near Bridgewater, and would at last have obtained a victory had not his own misconduct and the cowardice of Lord Grey, who commanded his cavalry, prevented it. After a combat of three hours the rebels gave way, and were followed with great slaughter (July 6); and thus was concluded, in a few weeks, this enterprise, rashly undertaken and feebly conducted. Monmouth fled from the field of battle above 20 miles, till his horse sank under him. He then changed clothes with a peasant in order to conceal himself. The peasant was discovered by the pursuers, who now redoubled the diligence of their search. At last the unhappy Monmouth was found lying in the bottom of a ditch, covered with fern; his body depressed with fatigue and hunger, his mind, by the memory of past misfortunes and by the prospect of future disasters. He burst into tears when seized by his enemies, and he seemed still to indulge the fond hope and desire of life. He wrote James the most submissive letters, |