that he had been very strangely misrepresented -that he had no secret or dangerous agreement whatever with France. The commons thanked him for his care of the Protestant religion, but spoke ominously of Popish plots and desperate designs, and called for a day of fasting and prayer. Then, guided by Shaftesbury, they hurled their thunders at a part of the late Cabal ministry. Clifford was out of their reach, for he died soon after resigning the treasurer's staff; but Arlington, Buckingham, and Lauderdale were deCharles I. had produced a hurtful effect on the national character; and this effect was most discernible in the classes and in the places which had been most strongly excited by the recent revolution. The deterioration was greater in London than in the country, and was greatest of all in the courtly and official circles. Almost all that remained of what had been good and noble in the Cavaliers and Roundheads of 1642, was now to be found in the middling orders. The principles and feelings which prompted the Grand Remonstrance were still strong among the sturdy yeomen and the decent God-fearing merchants. The spirit of Derby and Capel still glowed in many sequestered manorhouses; but among those political leaders who, at the time of the Restoration, were still young or in the vigour of manhood, there was neither a Southampton nor a Vane, neither a Falkland nor a Hampden. The pure, fervent, and constant loyalty which, in the preceding reign, had remained unshaken on fields of disastrous battle, in foreign garrets and cellars, and at the bar of the High Court of Justice, was scarcely to be found among the rising courtiers. As little, or still less, could the new chiefs of parties lay claim to the great qualities of the statesmen who had stood at the head of the Long Parliament. Hampden, Pym, Vane, Cromwell, are discriminated from the ablest politicians of the succeeding generation, by all the strong lineaments which distinguish the men who produce revolutions from the men whom revolutions produce. The leader in a great change-the man who stirs up a reposing community, and overthrows a deep nounced as dangerous ministers and counsellors that ought to be removed for ever from the king's presence. But, in part through the favour of the new French mistress, the Duchess of Portsmouth, in part through Charles's aversion to impeachments, and his congeniality with the debauched Buckingham, he was brought to take them all three under his protection, and to enable them to retain their places. In the meantime the war with Holland was becoming more odious than ever to the nation, which saw the immense sums it cost, and the slight probability there was of bringing it to an honourable issue by force of arms. In three naval engagements De Ruyter had repulsed or baffled the combined fleets of England and France; the King of Spain, the emperor, the Elector of Brandenburg, and some other German princes, had taken up arms against Louis; and, with their assistance, the Prince of Orange had driven the French out of the United Provinces. In this state of affairs abroad, and of the public mind at home, Charles durst not reject proposals that were tendered by the Dutch for a peace, of which the treaty of Breda was the basis; and, after some shuffling, a separate peace between England and Holland was proclaimed in London, to the great joy of the people, on the 28th of February. In the month of June, Charles, who was still receiving money from France, offered his mediation anew; but the French arms were again victorious upon the Rhine; the Prince of Orange would make no disgraceful concessions, and the negotiations of Sir William Temple, at the Hague, came to nothing. The war continued to rage: the great Turenne defeated the badly-amalgamated armies of the empire, and Condé gained a somewhat questionable victory over the Prince of Orange at Seneffe, near Mons. Notwithstanding the rooted system-may be a very depraved man, but he can scarcely be destitute of some moral qualities-which extort, even from enemies, a reluctant admiration-fixedness of purpose, intensity of will, enthusiasm, which is not the less fierce or persevering because it is sometimes disguised under the semblance of composure, and which bears down before it the force of circumstances and the opposition of reluctant minds. These qualities, variously combined with all sorts of virtues and vices, may be found, we think, in most of the authors of great civil and religious movements-in Casar, in Mahomet, in Hildebrand, in Dominic, in Luther, in Robespierre; and these qualities were found, in no scanty measure, among the chiefs of the party which opposed Charles I. The character of the men whose minds are formed in the midst of the confusion which follows a great revolution, is generally very different. Heat, the natural philosophers tell us, produces rarefaction of the air, and rarefaction of the air produces cold. So zeal makes revolutions, and revolutions make men zealous for nothing. The politicians of whom we speak, whatever may be their natural capacity or courage, are almost always characterized by a peculiar levity-a peculiar inconstancy-an easy apathetic way of looking at the most solemn questions-a willingness to leave the direction of their course to fortune and popular opinion-a notion that one public cause is nearly as good as another-and a firm conviction that it is much better to be the hireling of the worst cause than to be a martyr to the best."-T. B. Macaulay (Sir William Temple). popularity of the recent peace with Holland, the court, and above all the Duke of York, dreaded the meeting of parliament; but Charles wanted money, and it was not until he had received 500,000 crowns from France-a sum granted at the earnest prayer of his brother-that he consented to put off the session five months longer.' In the meantime, the profligate A.D. 1675. Buckingham, having quarrelled with the French mistress, had gone to join Shaftesbury in the ranks of opposition; and a regular system of attack had been organized under the management of those two pseudo-patriots. The session opened on the 13th of April. The commons then demanded that the English auxiliaries under the Duke of Monmouth should be recalled from the Continent; for, notwithstanding his peace with the Dutch, Charles had left these troops to assist the French. The king returned an evasive answer. The house resolved itself into a committee, and the debate became so high that many members were near drawing their swords on one another. But to this great heat, which is said to have been increased by Dutch money, there suddenly succeeded a cool quiet, which is attributed to a timely distribution of money made by Danby.2 Monmouth and the troops remained where they were; and the patriots turned the artillery of their tongues against the Duke of Lauderdale. The king again sheltered this pernicious minister, who was equally abhorred by Scots and English. The House of Lords was the scene of a much more dangerous tempest. Danby had resolved to take the no-popery cry into his own mouth; he had conferred with the bishops, and had made sure of them and their party by promising measures of increased severity, which should be applied alike to the Papists and to all classes of Protestant Nonconformists; and the bill which he now brought into the House of Lords was supported by the bench of prelates-Bishops Morley and Ward speaking vigorously in its favour. It was entitled "A Bill to Prevent the Danger which may Arise from Persons Disaffected to the Government;" and it proposed to extend to all officers of state, privy counsellors, members of parliament, &c., the passive obedience oath already required to be taken by all magistrates in corporations. When Clarendon had attempted to do the same thing, Danby (then Sir Thomas Os- Affairs had not improved in Scotland. Archborne) and Lord Lindsey were two of the three bishop Sharp still tyrannized over the consciences persons that defeated him by their votes in the of men, and Lauderdale and his duchess sold the commons; but now this very Lindsey brought honours and employments of the state. But at in the bill into the lords, and Danby seconded length the persecutions of the primate seemed him. The king himself attended every day, to to threaten so much danger, that the indolent encourage, by his presence, the champions of ab- Charles roused himself for a moment, and comsolutism. These unworthy Englishmen represen-manded Sharp to hold his hand. In the year ted the measure as a moderate security to the 1668, a young Covenanter, named James Mitchell, 1 Dalrymple. church and crown; and insisted that, after admitting the principle of the test in corporations, the militia, &c., they could not reject its application to members of parliament, and that none could refuse it unless they entertained anti-monarchical sentiments. The opposition, which included all the Catholic peers, and Shaftesbury and Buckingham, and some few lords who were neither Catholics nor friends to those two unprincipled drivers,3 insisted, that while the test was limited, there remained the high court of parliament to define and control it; but that, by this bill, it was intended to silence and bind the parliament itself, and undo the whole birthright of Englishmen. As to imposing the oath on peers, they urged that every peer was born to the right of sitting in that house. And here the minister gave way; and, at the instigation of the Duke of | York, adopted, as a standing order, that "no oath should ever be imposed, by bill or otherwise, the refusal of which should deprive any peer of his place or vote in parliament, or of liberty of debate therein." The debates lasted seventeen long days. At last the bill was passed by the lords, with the oath somewhat amended. When the test, in this form, was sent down to the House of Commons, parties seemed so nearly balanced there as to make the opposition fear it might pass; but Shaftesbury adroitly got up a quarrel with the lords about privilege, arising out of a question that, in itself, had nothing to do with the test. The king detected the adroit hand of his former minister, and denounced the check upon the bill as a malicious contrivance of some that were enenies to himself and to the church; but he failed in his endeavours to make up the quarrel between the two houses; and thereupon (on the 9th of June) he prorogued parliament. When they met again, in the month of October, the commons did not seem very ready to gratify the king's earnest longings for more money. They, however, voted £300,000 for building ships of war, perceiving with alarm that even the infant navy of the French king was exceeding our own. An attempt was made to check bribery and corruption, and even to put an end to this parliament, which had already lasted nearly fifteen years, but it failed; and, on the 22d of November, the king prorogued it for fifteen months! * Ibid. 3 But most of these peers were Dissenters. who had fought in the battle on the Pentlands, | troops should be ready to march into any part of and who had witnessed the horrid executions the king's dominions for any cause in which his which followed it, fired a pistol into the prelate's majesty's authority, power, or greatness might be carriage. A cry was raised of murder, but some concerned, upon orders transmitted to them from one said it was only a bishop; and so universally the council-board. By these two votes Scotland was Sharp hated that nobody offered to seize the was thrown prostrate, and her sons were marked assassin. He had, however, missed his aim; for out for the service of making the English as much though the Bishop of Orkney, who was in the same slaves as themselves. But a little later, the parcarriage, was wounded in the wrist, Sharp was liament that made these dangerous concessions not touched. Proclamations were issued offering took fire at monopolies, and taxes upon brandy great rewards, but not one would inform against and tobacco; and they became so unruly that Mitchell. In the month of October, 1669, Lauder- | Lauderdale hastened to a dissolution. After this dale held a parliament, in which the project of a check, it was considered prudent to have recourse union between the two kingdoms was again agi- to measures of gentleness and conciliation. In tated, to be again cast aside as impracticable. But 1673, Lauderdale followed up some minor indulLauderdale carried measures which he had at gences to the Covenanters by the publication of least as much at heart. The parliament, by one an act of grace, pardoning all offences against the slavish vote, transferred the whole government conventicle act. But this lenity was correctly of the church from themselves, and vested it in attributed to weakness; it gained no hearts; and the king alone, who was declared to have an in- in the increasing and multiplying conventicles, herent right to it, and to an absolute and uncon- the preachers taught their hearers to hate Epistrolled supremacy; and by another act they set- copacy more than ever, and to abhor the court tled that the considerable Scottish army which and government which had forced bishops upon had been raised should be kept up, and that these them at such an expense of blood and suffering. CHAPTER III-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1676-1681. CHARLES II. State of the continental war-Charles II. again a pensioner of France-Contentions in parliament-Bribery among its different parties-The Prince of Orange marries the Duke of York's daughter-Preparations for a war with France-Alarm at the prospect of a standing army--Jealousy of the commons about the king's sincerity-His venality with the warring powers on the Continent-Negotiations for peace between France and Holland—The Prince of Orange defeats the French at Mons-The peace concluded-Report of a conspiracy against the life of Charles-Its particulars detailed to him-Titus Oates summoned to warrant its truth-His account of a plot for the establishment of Popery in England-Previous history of Titus Oates-Inconsistency of his statements-Mysterious murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey-The confirmation it imparts to the charge of the Popish plot-Arrests of the Papists accused by Oates-Bills passed in parliament against Papists-William Bedloe takes up the trade of informer-Additions to the plot given by Oates and Bedloe-The queen accused as an accomplice of the Popish conspirators-Execution of Stayley, Coleman, and others-Prance, a new informer-His declarations about Godfrey's murder-More executions on the testimony of the informersIntrigues to supplant Lord Danby-Parliament dissolved-Its unstable and corrupt character-Purchase of its best members by Louis XIV.-Meeting of a new parliament-Its resolutions against the Duke of York and the Papists-Debates on a Protestant succession-The habeas corpus bill passed-Affairs in Scotland-Persecution of the Covenanters-Archbishop Sharp assassinated-Defeat of the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge-More executions in England through the Popish plot-Charles disappointed of French money-Dangerfield, a new informer-He changes his revelation from a Presbyterian to a Popish conspiracy-Rivalry between the Dukes of York and Monmouth-Trial of Lord Stafford on the accusations of Oates and others-He is executed-The commons demand the Duke of York's exclusion from the royal succession-The parliament hastily dissolved -The new parliament held at Oxford, and also dissolved-Execution of Stephen College, the "Protestant joiner"-Arrival of the Prince of Orange in England. HE war which Louis had kindled, by his violent attack on the Dutch commonwealth, was now become general in the Low Countries, in Spain, in Sicily, on the Upper and Lower Rhine, in Denmark, in Sweden, in the German provinces, and it was carried on at one and the same time in the Mediterranean, the ocean, and the Baltic. France supported this war with seeming honour and advantage on nearly every side, but at a ruinous expense. She fought almost single-handed, for, of her three allies, Bavaria, Hanover, and Sweden, only the last made a diversion in her favour. De Ruyter, who was that it would vest the sovereign power in the bench; and, after two readings, they allowed the bill to sleep. The lords originated a bill for the more effectual conviction and prosecution of Popish recusants, but doing away with the awful punishment of death. The commons threw this out in a rage, and drew up and passed a merciless bill of their own to prevent the growth of Popery, and keep up hanging. The lords refused to give it a single reading. Both houses, however, agreed in the abolition of the detestable despatched by the Prince of Orange to assist the | The commons, however, were indignant at its Spaniards in Sicily, died of a wound he received encroachments. They asserted, with some reason, off Messina. On the other hand, Louis's great general, Turenne, was killed near the village of Saltzbach, on the Rhine; and after his death, the Imperialist general, Montecuculi, defeated the French in several encounters, crossed the Rhine, and recovered Alsace. Directed by the genius of Vauban, who revolutionized the science of fortification, and the art of defending and attacking places of military strength, the French continued to be rather successful in their sieges. The Prince of Orange was compelled to raise the siege of Maestricht, and, in attempting to re-writ de hæretico comburendo. lieve St. Omer, he was defeated with great loss. Still alarmed at the growing navy of the French, Under the very impartial auspices of the English the commons voted £600,000 for building new court, an interminable treaty had been trans-ships; but they took care to provide securities for ferred from Cologne to Nimeguen, where a sort the proper employment of this money. Fresh sucof congress was opened in the summer of the pre- cesses and conquests on the part of Louis created ceding year. But the hollow talk of diplomatists fresh alarms. They saw that the French were did not interrupt the roar of cannon. The war securing themselves in the Spanish Netherlands; went on; and, during its vicissitudes, Charles | that the Prince of Orange was being again driven again sold himself to Louis, who engaged to pay behind his dikes; and by means of some, who are him an annual pension of £100,000, and to send said to have "touched the monies of Spain," the over French troops if required. Charles wrote commons voted an address, praying the king to this secret treaty with his own hand, and signed take such steps as might be necessary to check it with his private seal, while his brother James, the rapacity of the French monarch, and preserve Danby, and Lauderdale all knew of the transac- the Netherlands. If Charles could have gained tion. Chiffinch, the valet and back-stairs man, by it, he would have broken his secret bargain received the monies from the French minister, with Louis; but the commons had bound him and Charles signed the receipts.' more and more to the French interests by tying up the £600,000, and betraying, on other occasions, a great shyness of trusting him with money. After some parliamentary manœuvres, when the whole nation began to cry for war with France, the commons pledged themselves to supply the necessary funds. Thereupon the king demanded an immediate grant of £600,000 at the least. To forward this grant, the emperor's ambassador, and the ambassador of the King of Spain, distributed £22,000 among the patriots in the House of Commons; while, to prevent it, the envoy of the King of France spent probably a larger sum in the same manner. In the end, the commons refused the £600,000; upon which Charles refused to declare war without it, adjourned parliament from the 28th of May to the 16th of July, and applied to the King of France for an increase of his pension. Louis offered 2,000,000 livres, making about £150,000, Charles demanded A.D. 1677. On the 5th of February, parliament met in the midst of great popular excitement; for men had begun to believe that the king had made up his mind to do without parliaments. In the lords, as well as in the commons, the opposition began the session by questioning the legality of the long prorogation. The Duke of Buckingham maintained that, by the very length of the prorogation, this parliament had ceased to exist, and Shaftesbury and Wharton supported him. But Danby was too strong for them; and not only were they out-voted, but they were, in an arbitrary manner, committed to the Tower. In the House of Commons there were too many members that gained by keeping their seats, and too much French money had just been shared among them, to allow that house to pronounce its own dissolution; and the country party were left in a minority of 142 to 193. The lords now brought in a bill for the security of the church in case of the succession of a Catholic prince; for Charles, though well provided with illegitimate sons and daughters, had no children by the queen, and his brother James, the declared Papist, remained heir to the crown. By this bill, an immense power was to be given to the bishops.3 2 Dalrymple. The lords' bill, which Danby is said to have concerted with Dalrymple; Mature. the bishops themselves, provided, among other things, that on the demise of the king the bishops should tender a declaration against transubstantiation to the successor, and certify into Chancery whether he had subscribed the declaration or not. If he had not subscribed, then they were empowered to appoint to all bishoprics, and to present to all benefices in the gift of the crown, and they were to take charge of the education of the children of the king. Dalrymple shows that Spanish money, Dutch money, and even German money, as well as French money, was distributed in this pensioned parliament. £200,000; and, after a good deal of chaffering, with France, and of the necessity of putting obtained the latter sum-in return for which he | kept off the meeting of parliament for nearly a whole year. This was done, not by prorogation, but by adjournment, in order to keep the four lords in the Tower. Ill brooking so long a confinement, the Duke of Buckingham, Salisbury, and Wharton made their humble submission, and were released; but Shaftesbury would not submit. He appealed to the law, and was heard in the King's Bench; but the judges refused to admit him to bail. And then, having made a noise by his long holding out, Shaftesbury submitted, and was liberated some six or seven months after Buckingham and the rest.' During the long recess, Charles not only permitted his nephew, the Prince of Orange, to come over to England, but hastily made up a marriage between the prince and his niece, Mary, the elder daughter of the Duke of York by Anne Hyde. James afterwards made a merit to himself of this Protestant marriage, and expressed his hopes that now none would suspect him of any intolerance, or of any design to change the religion of the country. So essential was the neutrality of England to Louis, that he was obliged to conceal his resentment lest his unsteady pensioner should go further; and he condescended to listen patiently to terms of peace, which Charles proposed in the interest of his nephew. But, at the same time, Louis poured fresh troops into Flanders, and invested Guislain. The excitement produced in England seemed dangerous; and Charles and his brother, who seldom agreed except in leaning to the French king, now went together into a treaty with the Prince of Orange and the States-General, and the English troops under the command of young Monmouth were recalled from the service of France. Then Louis stopped Charles's pension, and employed his money in bribing the leaders of the opposition in the House of Commons, who undertook so to limit the grants of public money as to make a war impracticable, or little dangerous to the French king. These intrigues, however, would have failed, or could never have existed, but for the instinctive hatred of the English people to a standing army; and the suspicions spread far and wide, that Charles and his brother intended to employ any army that might be raised, not in curbing the ambition of the French, but in destroying the liberties of the English people, and altering their religion by force. The English parliament met A.D. 1678. sooner than had been appointed; and the king, announcing a treaty offensive and defensive with Holland, spoke roundly of a war 1 Parl. Hist: Dalrymple: Burnet: Andrew Marcel; Temple. This marriage had been proposed some time before, when the Prince of Orange was rather averse to it than otherwise. ninety sail of ships in commission, and raising an army of 40,000 men. The opposition, who were afraid to make a too open resistance to a grant of money for this ostensibly Protestant war, attempted to embarrass the court with conditions and restrictions; but these manœuvres failed, and a supply was voted, in general terms, for the maintenance of a fleet of ninety sail, and an army of 30,000 men. The victorious career of the French set home-jealousies to sleep for a time. Regiments were raised with alacrity; and, to prove the sincerity of the court's intentions, two or three of them were sent instantly to protect Ostend against Louis. But still Charles refused to declare war; and a few must have known that he continued a secret correspondence with Louis all the while. The Prince of Orange had no confidence in his uncle the king, or in his uncle and father-in-law the duke; and the StatesGeneral, tired of their costly alliance with Spain and the emperor, were disposed to make a separate treaty without any very scrupulous regard for either of their allies. Still, however, Charles and his brother urged on the levies; and still the jealousies of the uses for which this army was really intended increased, and very naturally. Lord Russell, the purest of the patriots, though his patriotism was, perhaps, dimmed by religious intolerance, inveighed in the House of Commons against the dangers of Popery and of a standing army; Sir Gilbert Gerard said pretty plainly that this army would never be employed in any other work than in putting down the liberties of the country; and an address was voted, calling upon the king to declare himself. The French agents, who had paid money to some of the men who drove on these measures in the house, were astonished and irritated; but they were given to understand by the patriots, that if Charles could render them (the opposition) unpopular, as averse to the pretended Protestant war, he would be enabled to crush them, and command, by the help of his army, a slavish parliament to do whatever he chose; and though Rouvigny and Barillon knew that their master Louis hated parliaments in the abstract, they were perfectly well aware that he relied very little upon Charles. They therefore pretended to be satisfied, and continued their intrigues both with the king and the patriots. The lords rejected the address of the commons, which was carried up to them by Lord Russell. The French ministers, at the congress of Nimeguen, had already offered a peace upon condition of being allowed to retain two of the five towns they had taken in Flanders-Tournai and Valenciennes; and now the emperor, the court of Spain, and the Prince of Orange, inti3 Dalrymple; Ralph. |