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well make him hesitate. During some months discontent had been steadily and rapidly increasing. The celebration of the Roman Catholic worship had long been prohibited by act of Parliament. During several generations, no Roman Catholic clergyman had dared to exhibit himself in any public place with the badges of his office. Against the regular clergy, and against the restless and subtle Jesuits by name, had been enacted a succession of rigorous statutes. Every Jesuit who set foot in this country was liable to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. A reward was offered for his detection. He was not allowed to take advantage of the general rule, that men are not bound to accuse themselves. Whoever was suspected of being a Jesuit might be interrogated, and, if he refused to answer, might be sent to prison for life. These laws, though they had not, except when there was supposed to be some peculiar danger, been strictly executed, and though they had never prevented Jesuits from resorting to England, had made disguise necessary. But all disguise was now thrown off. Injudicious members of the king's Church, encouraged by him, took a pride in defying statutes which were still of undoubted validity, and feelings which had a stronger hold of the national mind than at any former period. Roman Catholic chapels rose all over the country. Cowls, girdles of ropes, and strings of beads constantly appeared in the streets, and astonished a population, the oldest of whom had never seen a conventual garb except on the stage. A convent rose at Clerkenwell on the site of the ancient cloister of Saint John, The Franciscans occupied a mansion in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The Carmelites were quartered in the city. A society of Benedictine monks was lodged in Saint James's Palace. In the Savoy, a spacious house, including a church and a school, was built for the Jesuits.† The skill and care with which those fathers had, during several generations, conducted the education of youth, had drawn forth reluct

* 27 Eliz., c. 2; 2 Jac. I., c. 4; 3 Jac. I., c. 5.

+ Clarke's Life of James the Second, ii., 79, 80, Orig. Mem.

Bacon had pro

ant praises from the wisest Protestants. nounced the mode of instruction followed in the Jesuit colleges to be the best yet known in the world, and had warmly expressed his regret that so admirable a system of intellectual and moral discipline should be subservient to the interests of a corrupt religion. It was not improbable that the new academy in the Savoy might, under royal patronage, prove a formidable rival to the great foundations of Eton, Westminster, and Winchester. Indeed, soon after the school was opened, the classes consisted of four hundred boys, about one half of whom were Protestants. The Protestant pupils were not required to attend mass; but there could be no doubt that the influence of able preceptors, devoted to the Roman Catholic Church, and versed in all the arts which win the confidence and affection of youth, would make many converts.

These tidings produced great excitement among the populace, which is always more moved by what impresses the senses than by what is addressed to the reason. Thousands of rude and ignorant men, to whom the dispensing power and the ecclesiastical commission were words without a meaning, saw with dismay and indignation a Jesuit college rising on the banks of the Thames, friars in hoods and gowns walking in the Strand, and crowds of devotees pressing in at the doors of temples where homage was paid to graven images. Riots broke out in several parts of the country. At Coventry and Worcester the Roman Catholic worship was violently interrupted.† At Bristol, the rabble, countenanced, it is said, by the magistrates, performed a profane and indecent pageant, in which the Virgin Mary was represented by a buffoon, and in which a mock host was carried in procession. The garrison was called out to disperse the mob. The mob, then and ever since one of the fiercest in the kingdom, resisted. Blows were exchanged, and serious hurts inflicted.‡ The agi

* De Augmentis, i., 1; vi., 4.
Citters, May, 1686. Adda, May 18.

+ Citters, May 4, 1686.

tation was great in the capital, and greater in the city, properly so called, than at Westminster; for the people of Westminster had been accustomed to see among them the private chapels of Roman Catholic embassadors; but the city had not, within living memory, been polluted by any idolatrous exhibition. Now, however, the resident of the Elector Palatine, encouraged by the king, fitted up a chapel in Lime Street. The heads of the corporation, though men selected for office on account of their known Toryism, protested against this illegal proceeding. The lord mayor was ordered to appear before the Privy Council. "Take heed what you do," said the king. "Obey me; and do not trouble yourself either about gentlemen of the long robe or gentlemen of the short robe." The chancellor took up the word, and reprimanded the unfortunate magistrate with the genuine eloquence of the Old Bailey bar. The chapel was opened. All the neighborhood was soon in commotion. Great crowds assembled in Cheapside to attack the new mass house. The priests were insulted. A crucifix was taken out of the building and set up on the parish pump. The lord mayor came to quell the tumult, but was received with cries of "No wooden gods." The train-bands were ordered to disperse the crowd; but they shared in the popular feeling, and murmurs were heard from the ranks, "We can not in conscience fight for popery."*

The Elector Palatine was, like James, a sincere and zealous Catholic, and was, like James, the ruler of a Protestant people; but the two princes resembled each other little in temper and understanding. The elector had promised to respect the rights of the Church which he found established in his dominions. He had strictly kept his word, and had not suffered himself to be provoked to any violence by the indiscretion of preachers who, in their

* Ellis Correspondence, April 27, 1686; Barillon, April 18; Citters, April 38; Privy Council Book, March 26; Luttrell's Diary; Adda,

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antipathy to his faith, occasionally forgot the respect which they owed to his person.* He learned, with concern, that great offense had been given to the people of London by the injudicious act of his representative, and, much to his honor, declared that he would forego the privilege to which, as a sovereign prince, he was entitled, rather than endanger the peace of a great city. "I too," he wrote to James, "have Protestant subjects, and I know with how much caution and delicacy it is necessary that a Catholic prince so situated should act." James, instead of expressing gratitude for this humane and considerate conduct, turned the letter into ridicule before the foreign ministers. It was determined that the elector should have a chapel in the city whether he would or not, and that, if the train-bands refused to do their duty, their place should be supplied by the Guards.†

The effect of these disturbances on trade was serious. The Dutch minister informed the States-General that the business of the Exchange was at a stand. The commissioners of the customs reported to the king that, during the month which followed the opening of Lime Street Chapel, the receipt in the port of the Thames had fallen off by some thousands of pounds. Several aldermen, who, though zealous Royalists appointed under the new charter, were deeply interested in the commercial prosperity of their city, and loved neither popery nor martial law, tendered their resignations. But the king was resolved not to yield. He formed a camp on Hounslow Heath, and collected there, within a circumference of about two miles and a half, fourteen battalions of foot and thirtytwo squadrons of horse, amounting to thirteen thousand fighting men. Twenty-six pieces of artillery, and many wains laden with arms and ammunition, were dragged from the Tower through the city to Hounslow.§ The

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§ Ellis Correspondence, June 26, 1686; Citters, July2; Luttrell's Diary, June 19.

Londoners saw this great force assembled in their neighborhood with a terror which familiarity soon diminished. A visit to Hounslow became their favorite amusement on holidays. The camp presented the appearance of a vast fair. Mingled with the musketeers and dragoons, a multitude of fine gentlemen and ladies from Soho Square, sharpers and painted women from Whitefriars, invalids in sedans, monks in hoods and gowns, lackeys in rich liveries, peddlers, orange girls, mischievous apprentices, and gaping clowns, were constantly passing and repassing through the long lanes of tents. From some pavilions were heard the noises of drunken revelry, from others the curses of gamblers. In truth, the place was merely a gay suburb of the capital. The king, as was amply proved two years later, had greatly miscalculated. He had forgotten that vicinity operates in more ways than one. He had hoped that his army would overawe London; but the result of his policy was, that the feelings and opinions of London took complete possession of his army.*

Scarcely, indeed, had the encampment been formed, when there were rumors of quarrels between the Protestant and popish soldiers.† A little tract, entitled A humble and hearty Address to all English Protestants in the Army, had been actively circulated through the ranks. The writer vehemently exhorted the troops to use their arms in defense, not of the mass book, but of the Bible, of the Great Charter, and of the Petition of Right. He was a man already under the frown of power. His character was remarkable, and his history not uninstructive.

His name was Samuel Johnson. He was a priest of the Church of England, and had been chaplain to Lord See the cotemporary poems, entitled Hounslow Heath and Cæsar's Ghost; Evelyn's Diary, June 2, 1686. A ballad in the Pepysian Collection contains the following lines:

"I liked the place beyond expressing,

I ne'er saw a camp so fine,

Not a maid in a plain dressing,

But might taste a glass of wine."

Luttrell's Diary, June 18, 1686.

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