CHAP. XII except a title and revenue, a popish king would enjoy no one attribute of royalty, and a greater revolution would have been effected than by an alteration of the succession.* The bill was rejected by the Lords, by a majority of 63. of Lord Bitterly mortified by this defeat, the Whigs found some consolation in reviving the impeachment of the popish lords in the Execution Tower. The aged Viscount Stafford was selected as the Stafford. first victim; and, on the lying evidence of Oates, Dugdale, and Tuberville, was found guilty of high treason, and executed (December 29th, 1680). The circumstances of his trial and execution ought to have given a useful warning to the Whig leaders. A large and respectable minority of the House of Lords pronounced the prisoner not guilty; and the multitude loudly expressed their belief that Stafford was a murdered man. When he, with his last breath, protested his innocence, their cry was, "God bless you, my lord! We believe you, my lord!” Ă judicious observer might easily have predicted that the blood then shed would shortly have blood.† This was the last execution on account of the Popish Plot; it contributed nothing to the power of the country party, but rather, by exciting commiseration, tended to increase the disbelief in the whole plot which began now to prevail. Violence of The violence of the Commons manifested itself also in other forms. They arrested the most conspicuous of the Abhorrers ; they impeached Chief Justice Scroggs, for dismissing the Commons. the grand jury when the Duke of York was presented as a popish recusant, for interfering with the publication of certain newspapers, and for declaring that "he would have regard to persons and their principles, in imposing of fines;" they resolved not to grant a supply till the Duke of York was excluded; and they committed several persons, one a clergyman, for a violent sermon against the memory of Queen Elizabeth; and another, a citizen of Bristol, for declaring that there was no Popish, but a Presbyterian plot. For several months, there appeared a very imminent danger of civil war. James had openly expressed his desire to refer his rights to the decision of arms, and imminent. Leveson Gower, a Commoner, had proposed that the members should repair to their respective counties, and maintain their cause by the sword. The votes were marked with the most extravagant factiousness. The Commons addressed the King to remove Halifax, and others, from his councils and presence, for ever; A civil war * Hallam, II., 134; Fox's Hist, of the Reign of James II. 1681 they resolved that no member should accept any office under the crown; that any man who lent money to the King should be adjudged to hinder the sitting of parliament, and be punished accordingly; that those who advised a prorogation were traitors to their country, and pensioners of France; that the great fire was caused by the papists; and that the enforcement of the laws against the Protestant Dissenters was an encouragement to popery. They were going on with more resolutions, in the same spirit, when the King prorogued, and then dissolved, the parliament (January 18th, 1681).* 52. The Oxford parliament. The proclamation which dissolved the parliament also summoned another to meet at Oxford, which was selected by the court, because it was feared that the new House of Commons would declare itself permanent, as in 1641, and call upon the magistrates and citizens of London for aid. On the day of meeting (March 21), the Whigs came, attended, not only by their armed tenants and servants, but by warlike numerous bands of their partisans; and the four city appearance members were followed by thousands of the citizens, all parliament. armed, and wearing on their heads ribbons, with the menacing device, no slavery! no popery! The King was also attended by a numerous guard, and the slightest provocation might have produced a civil war. Charles opened the session in a bolder speech than usual, for he had, only a week before, concluded a secret treaty with Louis XIV., in which he had engaged to break faith with his allies, and join France, on the payment of an ample pension. He spoke of an expedient with regard to the succession of his brother, proposing that James should be banished for life, but should succeed to the crown, and govern only by a regent, first by the Princess of Orange, and next by the Lady Anne. The Commons insisted upon the Exclusion Bill; the contest, however, was turned aside by a dispute between the two houses, concerning the refusal of the Lords to receive the impeachment of one Fitzharris, an impudent spy and libeller, who had written Impeacha violent libel against the King and the Duke, and put it Fitzharris. in the pocket of one of the Whig leaders, to implicate him in a treasonable design. Fitzharris sought to save himself from the severity of the Commons by pretending that he had some important court secrets to reveal, on which the King sent him to the Tower, and ordered the attorney-general to prosecute him at law. To save him from the certain punishment which thus * Hallam, II., 143; Lingard, XII., 268-269. ment of CHAP. XII. awaited him, the Commons impeached Fitzharris, and when the Lords objected to this proceeding, they resolved that it was their undoubted right to impeach any peer, or commoner, of high treason, and that the refusal of the Lords was a violation of the constitution of parliament.* The dispute, at last, became so bitter, that Charles, afraid of danger ensuing, dissolved the parliament (March 28th, 1681). III. ROYALIST REACTION, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF favour of ABSOLUTE POWER. 53. Court prosecutions. The dissolution of parliament, after it had sat only seven days, obliged the King to issue a declaration, in which he laid all the blame of so extraordinary a measure upon the violent and insulting votes of the Commons. The opposition answered by a very elaborate "Vindication," drawn up by Sidney, Somers, and Jones. But it produced little effect, for the terrors Reaction in of a popish conspiracy, the existence of which was assumed the court. by the document, had passed away, and men were more afraid of a civil war, a result to which the desperate policy of the opposition was certainly tending. Moved by this apprehension, the majority of the upper and middle classes rallied round the throne. Addresses of attachment and confidence, as unmeasured in their servility as in the days of James I., were presented to the King from all quarters of the kingdom, and in that which the university of Cambridge presented, all the principles of divine right and passive obedience were plainly declared.t The courts of justice soon became busy. Fitzharris was tried, convicted of a treasonable libel, and executed. Plunket, the titular Archbishop of Armagh, was convicted of an Irish Popish Plot, and sacrificed by the court, which believed him to be innocent, that the popular suspicions of the King's popish tendencies might be removed. Dugdale and Tuberville swore away the lives of numerous Protestants, as they had before sworn away those of Papists. They accused one College, called "The Protestant Joiner," of having meditated an attack upon the King's guards at Oxford. He had foolishly swaggered about Oxford, with a sword and pistol, but this was all. The grand jury, composed of Whigs, ignored the indictment, on which the court transferred the trial to Oxford, where he was condemned and executed. In the second trial, Oates came forward and contradicted Execution *Hallam maintains that Blackstone is wrong, in saying a commoner cannot be impeached (Const. Hist., II., 143-145). Lord Campbell is of Blackstone's opinion. Chancellors, II., 357. + Carrel, 156; Lingard, XII., 282, Note. 1681 Dugdale's evidence, and in return the court took his pension away, and turned him out of Whitehall. 54. Trial of Shaftesbury. Emboldened by these victories, the court now resolved that Shaftesbury, the arch-agitator himself, should be brought to trial for his life. The Irish witnesses who had been brought over to give evidence against Plunket, swore that the earl had suborned them to give false testimony against the Queen, the Duke of York, and others. On their evidence, he was committed to the Tower (July, 1681), and in the meantime his house was closely searched for papers. Only a written project was found, of an association against the Duke of York, but it was not in the Earl's handwriting. On this evidence alone, an indictment against him was presented to the grand jury The grand at the Old Bailey (November 24th). The sheriffs of ignores London, chosen by the citizens, were zealous Whigs, and this they named a Whig grand jury, which ignored the bill. Shaftesbury. The hall shook with applause at this result; bonfires were lighted in the streets; and a medal which gave Dryden the subject of a poem, was struck to celebrate the triumph. Shaftesbury quitted the Tower. manner. against This defeat, far from discouraging those who advised the King, suggested to them a new and daring scheme. Since the charter of the capital was in their way, that charter must be annulled; and since the refusal of the grand jury to find a true bill against Shaftesbury was owing to the selection of jurymen by Whig sheriffs, obedient sheriffs must be obtained who would summon pliant jurymen. This scheme was carried out in a very remarkable In former times it had been usual for the lord mayor, at the Bridgehouse feast, which was sometime before the 24th of June, to drink and send the large gilt cup to a citizen whom he named as sheriff of London and Middlesex for the year ensuing. The livery selected the other sheriff of their own free choice; but for the last forty years, both sheriff's had been elected by the Common Hall. Now, however, at the recommendation of the King, Sir John Moore, the lord mayor, sent the cup to The court a brother of the chief justice, Dudley North. When obtains the Midsummer-day came, and the new sheriffs had to be of a city sheriff. approved of by the liverymen, there was a tremendous uproar in Guildhall, and the lord mayor's cup-sheriff was unanimously refused. The lord mayor adjourned the Common Hall; it was contended that the adjournment was illegal, and on a subsequent day counsel were brought to argue the point amidst the noise of contending factions. The contest went on for several months; appointment CHAP. XII. the city was in a continued fever; the lord mayor opened a poll at which North and another court candidate were elected; the sheriffs opened a poll at which two popular candidates were elected. The chief justice and his tool, Serjeant Jeffreys, bullied and intrigued; and in the end, Dudley North and a fit coadjutor were sworn into office (September 28th, 1682). At the election of lord mayor the court candidate had the majority, and thus the King had both the mayor and sheriffs at his devotion. It was Shaftesbury clear that if another indictment had been presented Holland. against Shaftesbury, he would have had small chance of saving his head. He therefore fled to Holland, accompanied by his constant friend, the famous John Locke (December, 1682).* escapes to Tortures inflicted on the 55. The Duke of York in Scotland. In the meantime, the Duke of York was manifesting in Scotland the spirit in which he purposed to govern the two countries when the power should fall into his hands. A small body of Presbyterians, calling themselves Hillmen, or Cameronians, having risen in arms, he sent the troops against them, who surprised and defeated Cameronians. them at Airmoss, in Ayrshire (July 22nd, 1680). The prisoners were taken to Edinburgh, and after being tortured, were put to death. Rathillet, one of the murderers of Sharpe, was among the prisoners, and he was treated with diabolical cruelty. His hands were chopped off and his heart was torn out before he was quite dead. The duke was present at all these horrors, and he witnessed them with an unmoved countenance, as though they were curious experiments. Women even were brought to the scaffold, and refusing to cry "God bless the King," which would have saved them, met death gladly. Others were condemned to hard labour for life; while the majority of the men were enrolled and sent abroad for the service of Spain.† The news of the dissolution of the Oxford parliament reached James in the midst of these scenes. He was overjoyed; he warmly congratulated his brother, and advised him to call no more parliaments in England. But he asked and obtained his Submissive authority to call one in Scotland, saying he should be character of able to manage it thoroughly, and by it, get rid legally parliament. of all that the factious parliaments of England had done. It will be remembered that the parliament of Scotland was not composed, like that of England, of two chambers, but of one only, in which the bishops sat with the Lords and the Commons. Here the dangerous tumult of general discussions was unknown. the * Lingard, XII., 293-313. + Lingard, XII., 297-298: Scott, II., 46-48; Macaulay, II., 73-78. |