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than they. The disabilities under which he lay had prevented his mind from expanding to the standard, moderate as that standard was, which the minds of Protestant country gentlemen then ordinarily attained. Excluded, when a boy, from Eton and Westminster, when a youth, from Oxford and Cambridge, when a man, from Parliament and from the bench of justice, he generally vegetated as quietly as the elms of the avenue which led to his ancestral grange. His cornfields, his dairy, and his cider press, his greyhounds, his fishing rod, and his gun, his ale and his tobacco, occupied almost all his thoughts. With his neighbours, in spite of his religion, he was generally on good terms. They knew him to be unambitious and inoffensive. He was almost always of a good old family. He was always a Cavalier. His peculiar notions were not obtruded, and caused no annoyance. He did not, like a Puritan, torment himself and others with scruples about everything that was pleasant. On the contrary, he was as keen a sportsman, and as jolly a boon companion, as any man who had taken the oath of supremacy and the declaration against transubstantiation. He met his brother squires at the cover, was in with them at the death, and, when the sport was over, took them home with him to a venison pasty and to October four years in bottle. The oppressions which he had undergone had not been such as to impel him to any desperate resolution. Even when his Church was barbarously persecuted, his life and property were in little danger. The most impudent false witnesses could hardly venture to shock the common sense of mankind by accusing him of being a conspirator. The Papists whom Oates selected for attack were peers, prelates, Jesuits, Benedictines, a busy political agent, a lawyer in high practice. The Roman Catholic country gentleman, protected by his obscurity, by his peaceable demeanour, and by the good will of those among whom he lived, carted his hay or filled his bag with game unmolested, while Coleman and Langhorne, Whitbread and Pickering, Archbishop Plunkett and Lord Stafford, died by the halter or the axe. An attempt was indeed made by a knot of villains to bring home a charge of treason to Sir Thomas Gascoigne, an aged Roman Catholic baronet of Yorkshire: but twelve gentlemen of the West Riding, who knew his way of life, could not be convinced that their honest old acquaintance had hired cutthroats to murder the King, and, in spite of charges which did very

CHAP.

VIII.

CHAP.
VIII.

Feeling of

the Dis

senters.

little honour to the bench, found a verdict of Not Guilty. Sometimes, indeed, the head of an old and respectable provincial family might reflect with bitterness that he was excluded, on account of his religion, from places of honour and authority which men of humbler descent and less ample estate were thought competent to fill: but he was little disposed to risk land and life in a struggle against overwhelming odds; and his honest English spirit would have shrunk with horror from means such as were contemplated by the Petres and Tyrconnels. Indeed he would have been as ready as any of his Protestant neighbours to gird on his sword, and to put pistols in his holsters, for the defence of his native land against an invasion of French or Irish Papists. Such was the general character of the men to whom James now looked as to his most trustworthy instruments for the conduct of county elections. He soon found that they were not inclined to throw away the esteem of their neighbours, and to endanger their heads and their estates, by rendering him an infamous and criminal service. Several of them refused to be Sheriffs. Of those who accepted the shrievalty many declared that they would discharge their duty as fairly as if they were members of the Established Church, and would return no candidate who had not a real majority.*

If the King could place little confidence even in his Roman Catholic Sheriffs, still less could he rely on the Puritans. Since the publication of the Declaration several months had elapsed, months crowded with important events, months of unintermitted controversy. Discussion had opened the eyes

*About twenty years before this time a Jesuit had noticed the retiring character of the Roman Catholic country gentlemen of England. "La nobiltà Inglese, senon è legata in servigio di Corte, ò in opera di maestrato, vive, e gode il più dell' anno alla campagna, ne' suoi palagi e poderi, dove son liberi e padroni; e ciò tanto più sollecitamente i Cattolici quanto più utilmente, si come meno osservati cola."-L'Inghilterra descritta dal P. Daniello Bartoli. Roma, 1667.

Many of the Popish Sheriffs," Johnstone wrote, "have estates, and declare that whoever expects false returns from them will be disappointed. The Popish gentry that live at their houses in the country are much different from those that live here in town. Several of them

have refused to be Sheriffs or Deputy Lieutenants." Dec. 8. 1687.

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Ronquillo says the same. "Algunos Catolicos que fueron nombrados por sherifes se han excusado," Jan 1688. He some months later assured his court that the Catholic country gentlemen would willingly consent to a compromise of which the terms should be that the penal laws should be abolished and the test retained. Estoy informado," he says, "" que los Catolicos de las provincias no lo reprueban, pues no pretendiendo oficios, y siendo solo algunos de la Corte los provechosos, les parece que mejoran su estado, quedando seguros ellos y sus descendientes en la religion, en la quietud, y en la seguridad de sus haciendas."

July 23.
Aug. 2.

1688.

of many Dissenters: but the acts of the government, and es>pecially the severity with which Magdalene College had been treated, had done more than even the pen of Halifax to alarm and to unite all classes of Protestants. Most of those sectaries who had been induced to express gratitude for the Indulgence were now ashamed of their error, and were desirous of making atonement by casting in their lot with the great body of their countrymen.

CHAP.

VIII.

tions.

In consequence of this change in the feeling of the Noncon- Regulation formists, the government found almost as great difficulty in of corporathe towns as in the counties. When the regulators began their work, they had taken it for granted that every Dissenter who had availed himself of the Indulgence would be favourable to the King's policy. They were therefore confident that they should be able to fill all the municipal offiees in the kingdom with staunch friends. In the new charters a power had been reserved to the crown of dismissing magistrates at pleasure. This power was now exercised without limit. It was by no means equally clear that James had the power of appointing magistrates: but, whether it belonged to him or not, he determined to assume it. Everywhere, from the Tweed to the Land's End, Tory functionaries were ejected; and the vacant places were filled with Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists. In the new charter of the City of London the crown had reserved the power of displacing the Masters, Wardens, and Assistants of all the companies. Accordingly more than eight hundred citizens of the first consideration, all of them members of that party which had opposed the Exclusion Bill, were turned out of office by a single edict. In a short time appeared a supplement to this long list.* But scarcely had the new officebearers been sworn in when it was discovered that they were as unmanageable as their predecessors. At Newcastle on Tyne the regulators appointed a Roman Catholic Mayor and Puritan Aldermen. No doubt was entertained that the municipal body, thus remodelled, would vote an address promising to support the King's measures. The address, however, was negatived. The Mayor went up to London in a fury, and told the King that the Dissenters were all knaves and rebels, and that in the whole corporation the government could not reckon on more than four votes.† At Reading

* Privy Council Book, Sept. 25. 1687; Feb. 21. 1687.

+ Records of the Corporation, quoted

in Brand's History of Newcastle; John-
stone, Feb. 21. 1687.

CHAP. twenty-four Tory Aldermen were dismissed.

VIII.

Twenty-four new Aldermen were appointed. Twenty-three of these immediately declared against the Indulgence, and were dismissed in their turn.* In the course of a few days the borough of Yarmouth was governed by three different sets of magistrates, all equally hostile to the Court.† These are mere examples of what was passing all over the kingdom, The Dutch Ambassador informed the States that in many towns the public functionaries had, within one month, been changed twice, and even thrice, and yet changed in vain. From the records of the Privy Council it appears that the number of regulations, as they were called, exceeded two hundred.§ The regulators indeed found that, in not a few places, the change had been for the worse. The discontented Tories, even while murmuring against the King's policy, had constantly expressed respect for his person and his office, and had disclaimed all thought of resistance. Very different was the language of some of the new members of corporations. It was said that old soldiers of the Commonwealth, who, to their own astonishment and that of the public, had been made Aldermen, gave the agents of the Court very distinctly to understand that blood should flow before Popery and arbitrary power were established in England.

The regulators found that little or nothing had been gained by what had as yet been done. There was one way, and one way only, in which they could hope to effect their object. The charters of the boroughs must be resumed; and other charters must be granted confining the elective franchise to very small constituent bodies appointed by the sovereign.¶

But how was this plan to be carried into effect? In a few of the new charters, indeed, a right of revocation had been reserved to the crown: but the rest James could get into his hands only by voluntary surrender on the part of corporations, or by judgment of a court of law. Few corporations were now disposed to surrender their charters voluntarily; and such judgments as would suit the purposes of the government were hardly to be expected even from such a slave as Wright. The writs of Quo Warranto which had been brought a few years before for the purpose of crushing the Whig party had been

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Yet those writs had at

CHAP.

VIII.

condemned by every impartial man.
least the semblance of justice; for they were brought against
ancient municipal bodies, and there were few ancient munici
pal bodies in which some abuse, sufficient to afford a pretext
for a penal proceeding, had not grown up in the course of ages.
But the corporations now to be attacked were still in the inno-
cence of infancy. The oldest among them had not completed
its fifth year. It was impossible that many of them should
have committed offences meriting disfranchisement. The
Judges themselves were uneasy. They represented that what
they were required to do was in direct opposition to the plain-
est principles of law and justice: but all remonstrance was vain.
The boroughs were commanded to surrender their charters.
Few complied; and the course which the King took with those
few did not encourage others to trust him. In several towns
the right of voting was taken away from the commonalty, and
given to a very small number of persons, who were required to
bind themselves by oath to support the candidates recom-
mended by the government. At Tewkesbury, for example, the
franchise was confined to thirteen persons. Yet even this num-
ber was too large. Hatred and fear had spread so widely
through the community that it was scarcely possible to bring
together in any town, by any process of packing, thirteen men
on whom the Court could absolutely depend. It was rumoured
that the majority of the new constituent body of Tewkesbury
was animated by the same sentiment which was general
throughout the nation, and would, when the decisive day should
arrive, send true Protestants to Parliament. The regulators
in great wrath threatened to reduce the number of electors to
three. Meanwhile the great majority of the boroughs firmly
refused to give up their privileges. Barnstaple, Winchester,
and Buckingham, distinguished themselves by the boldness of
their opposition. At Oxford the motion that the city should
resign its franchises to the King was negatived by eighty
votes to two. The Temple and Westminster Hall were in a
ferment with the sudden rush of business from all corners of
the kingdom. Every lawyer in high practice was overwhelmed
with the briefs from corporations. Ordinary litigants com-
plained that their business was neglected. It was evident that
a considerable time must elapse before judgment could be given
in so great a number of important cases. Tyranny could ill

Johnstone, Feb, 21. 1688.
Van Citters, March 8. 1688.

Van Citters, May 1688.

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