1679

that Archbishop Sharpe's coach was on the road returning from Ceres towards St. Andrews. In their savage enthusiasm they immediately considered that God had delivered their great enemy into their hands, and they set off at full speed in pursuit of their victim, who was then driving along Magus Muir, a desolate heath three miles to the west of St. Andrews. Their approach was soon announced to the prelate, who, turning to his daughter Isabel, his only companion, said, "Lord have mercy upon me, my dear child, for I am gone." The coachman in vain lashed his horses to their utmost speed; the ruffians soon overtook them, discharged their pistols into the carriage, wounded the postillion, and cut the traces. They then dragged the unhappy prelate from his carriage, and inhumanly butchered him, while his daughter struggled vainly with the murderers to save her aged father (May 3rd, 1679).

defeated at

47. Second rising of the Covenanters. Battles of Drumclog and Bothwell Brig. The perpetrators of this outrage fled into the west, and, assembling the more violent of their partisans, manifested their contempt of the civil government by extinguishing the bonfires which were lighted on the 29th of May, in the burgh of Rutherglen, in honour of the King's restoration. They also burnt the acts of parliament for restoring prelacy and suppressing conventicles; and, on the 1st of June, being Sunday, held a field conventicle at Loudon Hill. Graham, of Claverhouse, marched out from Glasgow with three troops of dragoons, for the Claverhouse purpose of dispersing them, but they utterly discomfited Drumclog. him at Drumclog, and pursued him to Glasgow, their ranks receiving constant accessions, not only of the Cameronians, who would admit of no compromise of the Solemn League and Covenant, but of moderate Presbyterians, who were indignant at the tyranny under which the country groaned. But their camp was divided into rival sects, each despising the other as much as they hated their common oppressor. At Glasgow they were repulsed in their first attack by Claverhouse, who, however, was compelled to withdraw towards Edinburgh. The council in London were now thoroughly alarmed, and the Duke of Monmouth was sent to Scotland to take the command of the troops. The Duke of He left London in all haste, and, having collected a force Scotland. of about 5,000 men in the north of England, encamped on Bothwell Muir, within two miles of the enemy, on the 22nd of June. The moderate Presbyterians made some attempts to negotiate, declaring their willingness to submit all their grievances and controversies to a free parliament and a free assembly of the

Monmouth in

of Bothwell

Brig.

CHAP. XII.

church. The duke expressed his readiness to intercede with the King for them, but required that they should in the meantime lay down their arms. But the violent party under the Duke of The battle Hamilton, would listen to no other terms than that Monmouth and his associates should "lay down the weapons which they had taken up against the Lord and his people." The insurgents were well posted behind the Clyde, which could only be crossed by a high, steep, narrow bridge, having a portal or gateway in the centre, and called Bothwell Brig. Rathillet, Balfour, and others defended this important pass, but being feebly supported, their men gave way when Monmouth's troops charged them at the point of the bayonet, and the main body, panic-stricken at the general advance of the enemy and the execution of the artillery, dispersed like a flock of sheep. Monmouth gave strict orders to afford quarter to all who asked it; but Claverhouse burned to revenge his defeat at Claverhouse. Drumclog, and his dragoons and Highlanders made a terrible slaughter. Above 400 fell in the pursuit, and 270 were sent as slaves to the plantations. Monmouth's mild government restored tranquillity for a short time, and his gentleness did more than all that tyranny and violence had effected since the Restoration.

Cruelties of

Monmouth

the

48. Dissolution of the Council of Thirty. The excitement in England which still continued, and which was sustained by the fears of the Duke of York succeeding to the throne and re-establishing popery and absolute power, was now suddenly increased by an unexpected illness which threatened abruptly to carry off the King (August). Urged by Shaftesbury and the popular York and leaders, Monmouth instantly left Scotland; and York rivals for also left Brussels secretly, and came to London by the succession. King's command. The court was in commotion; for these two personages were now publicly talked of as rivals for the succession. To preserve some tranquillity they were both sent away-Monmouth to Flanders, and James to Scotland as lord high commissioner (September and October, 1679); but the advice which James had given to the King was immediately acted upon. The elections for the new parliament had everywhere gone unfavourably for the court; the cry for the Exclusion Bill had been louder than ever, and with it had been mingled another cry, that the Duke of Monmouth, generally reputed the eldest natural son of the King, by his mistress, Lucy Walters, had been born in wedlock, and was the lawful heir to the crown. Charles,

1680

parliament before it

therefore, determined to defer the meeting of parliament The new as long as possible, and to renew his former relations with prorogued Louis XIV. He accordingly prorogued parliament for a meets. year, without consulting the council, and he removed Shaftesbury from his office of president. Thus Temple's plan of government was avowedly abandoned; the privy council again became what it had been, and Temple and Essex resigned. Halifax and Sunderland remained in the King's service, and were speedily joined by two other statesmen, Lawrence Hyde, second son of the Earl of Clarendon, and Sidney Godolphin (January, 1680).

II. THE GREAT WHIG AGITATION.

demon

As

49. Rise of the Whigs and the Tories. The country party now set on foot all the powerful machinery they had at command for exciting the national feelings. All the prejudices of the people were still stimulated into an unchristian hatred of Roman Catholics. The processions of Queen Elizabeth's anniversary (November 17th) were repeated; the pope was burnt in Protestant effigy at Temple Bar; and the bonfires of the 5th of strations. November were lighted up with unusual displays. On the 28th of November, Monmouth, the Protestant Duke, as the people called him, suddenly returned, and was welcomed in the city by the ringing of bells and the lighting of bonfires. Charles deprived him of all his offices, and ordered him to quit the kingdom. But he obstinately remained, saying his presence was necessary to preserve the King's life from the daggers of the papists. another expedient for keeping up this political excitement, petitions for the meeting of parliament were got up all over the kingdom, by grand juries, common councils, corporations, and other public bodies. Charles published a proclamation declaring it illegal to subscribe petitions contrary to law; but as Petitions he did not declare what laws were broken by the petitions, meeting of the proclamation was simply absurd. Many, however, began to compare the present agitation to that which had marked the year 1641, and the fears of a second revolution awakening their apathy, declarations were got up in which they declared their abhorrence of the petitions. Thus the kingdom was broken up into two grand parties. Those who opposed the petitions were called Abhorrers; and because the majority of them were Cant names anti-exclusionists, they were also called Yorkists. Then of the two Tantivy became a bye-word against them; and, as the cal parties. duke and the Irish were for the most part in agreement, they were called Bogtrotters, and then Tories, the name of the Popish

for the

parliament.

great politi

CHAP. XII.

outlaws in the north of Ireland. The petitioners were first called True Blues, as they were not satisfied with the plain Protestant blue of the church; then Birmingham Protestants, in allusion to the false groats counterfeited at that place; and afterwards Whigs, because they were willing to tolerate Nonconformists, the Whigamore Covenanters, and all Protestant sects. In such an age, when cant words became common, two new words, "remarkable memorials of a season of tumult and imposture,” were added to the language, viz., Mob and Sham.*

"little

50. The Meal-tub and Yorkshire Plots. In the midst of all this political convulsion, the Duke of York returned to London, and assumed that ascendancy in the court, which he retained till the end of the reign. Against him all the Whig hostility was now concentrated. The tale of Monmouth's legitimacy was revived. It was said that the witnesses to the King's marriage Story of the with Monmouth's mother, Lucy Walters, were still alive; black box." that the contract itself, enclosed in a little black box, had been entrusted by the late Bishop of Durham to the custody of his son-in-law Sir Gilbert Gerard, and that several persons were ready to depose that they had both seen and read the document. But every one of the persons named in these reports disclaimed all knowledge of the box, the contract, or the marriage, when brought before the council; and the King solemnly renewed the declaration he had made to York before the Duke's late exile, that he was never married to any other than the Queen. To parry this blow, Shaftesbury, accompanied by Lords Russell and Cavendish, and several peers and commoners, went before the grand jury at Westminster, and presented the Duke of sented as a York as a Popish recusant. But the chief justice defeated this bold measure, by discharging the jury while Shaftesbury was consulting some of the judges (June 16th, 1680). The Whigs now had recourse to the renewal of the Popish Dangerfield Plot, and a new brood of false witnesses, among whom a villain named Dangerfield was the most conspicuous, infested the courts. This fellow pretended that he had found in a tub of meal a series of letters, written by Presbyterians, concerning a project to assassinate the King and exclude the reigning family. The court affected to regard them as authentic; but judges and juries were not so ready to believe and condemn as they were during the late panic. When parliament met, Shaftesbury caused Dangerfield to be examined by it, and the informer declared that he had been * Macaulay, I., 265-267; Knight's Pop. Hist., IV., 350-351.

York pre

Popish

recusant.

and the

meal tub

plot.

1680

paid by the court to fabricate the letters, and that he could confirm the revelations of Oates and Bedloe by further evidence. At the same time one Bolron accused his old master, Sir Thomas Gascoign, and other Yorkshire gentlemen, of a design to assassinate the King and restore popery, and one man named Thwinge was executed at York on the evidence of this new informer.

While these rumours were being got up by the Whigs, Louis XIV. was in active correspondence with both the court and opposition, bribing and flattering the leaders of both. The Whigs thought that they could gain over the King to assent to the Exclusion Bill, and for that purpose they induced the Duchess of Portsmouth to undertake the task, promising the King an ample grant of money and the right of naming his successor. But the intrigue failed.

Exclusion

51. Defeat of the Exclusion Bill. Execution of Lord Stafford. At length the session opened (October 21st, 1680), and, on the 26th, Lord Russell moved that the suppression of popery, and the prevention of a popish successor, should be taken into consideration. After many days' debate in the House of Commons, a bill was passed, on the 15th of November, "for securing The second of the Protestant religion, by disabling James, Duke of York, Bill. to inherit the imperial crown of England and Ireland, and the dominions and territories thereunto belonging." The debate of the Lords was long, earnest, and unusually furious. Shaftesbury and Essex were joined by Sunderland, but the genius of Halifax bore down all opposition. He exposed the hypocritical ambition of Monmouth with all the powers of wit and sarcasm; he rebutted the arguments of Shaftesbury with an eloquence which surpassed the most partial expectations of his friends; he developed Speech of the arts and intrigues of the Exclusionists in a manner which was keenly felt and deeply resented; and the speeches he made were remembered many years afterwards, as masterpieces of reasoning, wit, and eloquence. It was his proposition that limitations should be placed upon the sovereign power in the event of the duke succeeding to the throne; but they were such encroachments on the constitutional authority of the crown, that, * These limitations were:-1. That the Duke of York should be disabled from holding office in England, or any of its dependencies; that, at the King's death, the parliament then sitting, or if none were then in being, the last parliament, should sit for six months; that neither James, nor any Catholic successor, should possess the right of veto; that the right of treating with foreign states, and of appointing to all offices, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, should be reserved to the parliament while it was sitting, or to a council, at other times; that the Duke of York should be liable to the penalties of treason if he came to England during the King's life, and to the forfeiture of all his property if he resided within 500 miles of the British shores.

Halifax.