From Blackwood's Magazine.
TITUS OATES.

life of Queen Elizabeth had on more than one occasion been attempted, nor was the Gunpowder Plot an event which was likely soon to pass away from their memories.

Such murderous attacks were viewed

kidnapped by political enthusiasts, who are confessedly less under a sense of Authorities: (1) The Dulwich College Collection of compulsion than those fanatics who be Contemporary Pamphlets; (2) Burnet's History of his Own Time; (3) Cobbett's Complete Collection lieve that they are acting under religious of State Trials; (4) The Memoirs of Sir John inspiration. But, unfortunately, in the Reresby; (5) The Somers Collection of Tracts.] time of Titus Oates attempts on the lives IT is to be regretted that so few memo- of English sovereigns by Roman Catholic rials of Titus Oates are to be found at the agents were fresh in the minds of men, two Stuart exhibitions now on view at the and deeds had been done in the sacred New Gallery and the British Museum; name of religion both in England and for whatever may be the estimate in which | Ireland which made the ears of the nation he is commonly held, it cannot be denied to tingle. Men had not forgotten that the that he played prominent parts in the reigns of the two last kings of that house. During the first, as the "saviour of the nation "and discoverer-in-chief of the Popish Plot, and during the second, as a vile wretch fit only to be condemned to be with the abhorrence which is universally whipped to death between Newgate and felt by Englishmen at the idea of assassiand Tyburn, he attracted the blessings nation. The trade of secret murder had and curses of mankind in a greater degree never flourished in England. It had althan has probably ever fallen to the lot of ways been regarded as an evil of foreign any one man. The sunshine in which he growth, and as more especially belonging basked under Charles II. was relatively as to that country where Popery has its headbright as the storm and tempest were quarters. It was easy, therefore, to assoblack which overtook him when James II. ciate the two products of Italy, and to came to the throne. The liberal pension look upon Papists as assassins, or the and handsome apartments which had been apologists for assassination. But it may given him by the Merry Monarch as a be doubted whether such outrages as reward for his services to the State, were those spoken of would alone have been exchanged for the jail, the pillory, and the sufficient to account for the dread and cart's tail; and though, on the accession hatred of Popery which had overspread of William and Mary, he was restored to the land. Isolated acts of violence comliberty and granted a new but smaller pen-mitted on members of a small privileged sion, he never recovered from the odium class, however much they may be reproof the crimes which had been brought|bated, do not stir deeply the minds of the home to him during the preceding reign. Historians commonly represent Titus Oates as the vilest of mankind, and exhaust their vocabularies in seeking to find terms sufficiently vituperative with which | to describe him. To a great extent this is the result of a generous feeling which makes it appear to them impossible that men should be found who could be capable of planning the fiendish design which Titus attributed to the authors of the Popish Plot. In England at the present day it may safely be affirmed that such a scheme would never enter into the hearts of men to conceive; but in less favored lands we have within the last few years seen a sovereign assassinated, the lives of others attempted, and a reigning prince

people at large. But to every Englishman of the time of Titus Oates the Roman Catholics had given abundant evidence to prove that the lives and properties of Protestants were no longer safe when committed to their hands. The cruelties which had disgraced the reign of Mary, and the horrors of the Popish rebellion in Ireland of 1641, had brought home to the minds of Englishmen with realistic force the danger of allowing any encroachment on the part of the aggressive enemy. The anxiety of the situation was accentuated by the fact that the Duke of York, who was the next heir to the throne, had proclaimed himself a Roman Catholic; and it had become not only possible but prob. able, therefore, that a line of Popish mon

feverish condition that Titus Oates announced his discovery of a “popish plot" for the murder of the king, the subversion of the Protestant faith, and the overthrow of the government.

archs might be established on the throne. | It was while the nation was in this Sunday after Sunday the people were exhorted from countless pulpits to resist the advance of a religion which was said to sanction cruelty when Protestants were the victims, and to approve of murder when its interests were at stake. The Oates had led a professedly checkered statute-book bore testimony to the depth existence. He was the son of a ribbonof the feeling of the nation. The Test Act weaver, who had been originally an Anawas passed, which prohibited Roman Cath-baptist teacher, and who had conformed olics from holding any civil or military and become a clergyman of the Church of office, and numerous laws were enacted England. Titus likewise, who was born which forbade the public exercise of their at Hastings in 1620, took holy orders, and religion and the sale of Romish emblems. acquired a benefice in Kent. But his But the prospect of the immediate future temper and disposition were not such as which filled the minds of the people with to befit him for the life of a country clersuch dire forebodings produced among the gyman. He was proud and overbearing, Roman Catholics an elation which they and at the same time ignorant and ill-temfound it difficult to repress. They con- pered. His tongue was so little under fidently looked forward to a time when his command that he allowed himself to their position and that of the Protestants speak slightingly in public of some of the would be reversed, and the more intem- most sacred mysteries of his faith, and on perate among them were unable to refrain one occasion he was prosecuted for perfrom openly announcing the prospective jury. After these experiences he became measures by which the Protestant clergy a naval chaplain. But here also either an would be compelled to give up their ill-fortune or a just retribution overtook churches and parsonages to the priests, him, for a charge being made against him and the owners of monastic lands would of infamous conduct, he was dismissed be called upon to restore their properties from the fleet. His next office was that to the Church from which they had been of chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk — a taken. The spirits of the Catholics were strange post for a Protestant clergyman to still further raised by the indolent and hold, and one which could only have been easy-going disposition of the king. The offered to him with the intention of perpursuit of pleasure in which Charles was verting him to Roman Catholicism. At engaged indisposed him towards the in- all events, this result followed almost imfliction of pains and penalties on any sec-mediately. To Hutchinson, a Jesuit in tion of his subjects for the sake of a religious belief. It is commonly the case that those who indulge in the pleasant vices are tolerant of the religious foibles of their fellow-men, and in Charles the tolerance produced by indifference was still further fostered by a secret leaning towards the persecuted faith. The Roman Catholics had therefore good grounds for expecting a speedy relief from the disabilities under which they labored. Not only in England, but among the Dominicans in Rome and the Jesuits in France and Spain, hopes were openly expressed that a good time was coming for the English followers of their faith, and that before long mass would again be celebrated in Westminster Abbey.

the household of the duke, belongs the honor of having perverted Titus. But the proselyte was as little popular in his new communion as he had been in the old, and to discipline him into submission he was sent to the Jesuit college at St. Omer. Thence he was despatched on missions through France and Spain, where, as he affirmed, he gathered the particulars of the plot which on his return to England in 1678 he determined to divulge.

But the matter was one which required careful handling. An undue publicity might have subjected Titus either to have been whisked away by his co-religionists or to have been incarcerated by their influence as an impostor. It was necessary, therefore, that the revelation

all his brother magistrates had sought safety by flight from the fever-stricken city, he had the courage to remain at his post. For this signal instance of public spirit he had been knighted, and was universally esteemed for his courage and ability. He was a zealous Protestant, but was at the same time so entirely free from bigotry that he lived on excellent terms with his Roman Catholic neighbors.

should be made privately, in the first in- |eries. He therefore determined to place stance, to the highest personages in the his account of the plot on record before State. A certain Dr. Tonge, a simple presenting himself at the Council-chamand credulous chemist, who though truth- ber. The most eminent justice of the ful and sincere was prone to wild schemes peace in London was Sir Edmondbury and notions, happened to be an acquaint- Godfrey. At the time of the plague, when ance of Oates and a friend of one Kirby, who was employed in the king's laboratory. To him, therefore, Titus confided a portion of the plot, with the request that he would induce Kirby to mention the matter to the king. This Kirby did, and Tonge was summoned by the king to an audience. Of this opportunity Tonge made good use, and gave the king so many particulars tending to prove the existence of a plot against his life, that the king, though disposed to be incredulous, felt bound to take some notice of the communication, and handed him over to Lord Danby for examination. Danby, however, was even less inclined to believe in the plot than Charles, and treated the whole affair with indifference. Shortly afterwards, anonymous letters of a mysterious import referring to plots and discoveries reached Bedingfield, the Duke of York's confessor, who carried them to his master, who in his turn laid them before the king. But still so little faith was placed in the reports, that six weeks were allowed to pass without any notice being taken of them.

Titus felt, therefore, that some further step was necessary to convince the Gallios of the court of the truth of his revelation. Again Tonge was made his instrument, and this time he was sent to Dr. Burnet, whose influence at court was well known. To him Tonge stated, among other things, that Conyers, a Benedictine monk, had undertaken to stab the king. Amazed at the communication, Burnet took counsel with Dr. Lloyd, the rector of St. Martin'sin-the-Fields, a man of profound erudition, and of whom Bishop Wilkins used to say "he had the most learning in ready cash of any he ever knew." Lloyd hastened to the office of the secretary of state with the news, and Oates was summoned to appear before the Privy Council the next day.

But Oates's experience of the ministers was such as to make him fear that they might again turn a deaf ear to his discov

Godfrey's name was therefore the one' of all others which was best calculated to give an air of respectability to a deposition, and it was before this magistrate that Oates presented himself on the eve of his examination before the Council. Substantially, he asserted that there were two plots: one emanating from Rome, which had for its object the subversion of the Protestant religion, and in furtherance of which a whole hierarchy of officials had been nominated by the pope; and the other, having its headquarters in France, which aimed at the murder of Charles, the overthrow of the government, and the transfer of Ireland to the French king.

On all these points Oates dilated at length on Michaelmas eve before the Council. From six o'clock until ten he poured forth a torrent of accusation against Lords Arundel, Powis, Stafford, Bellasis, Petre, and other peers, as well as against Coleman, the Duchess of York's secretary; Langhorn, a celebrated lawyer; Ireland, Whitehead, and a host of other Jesuits. But the central point of the French plot he declared to be the murder of the king. Conyers and Anderton, two Benedictine monks, and four Irishmen were, he asserted, told off to stab the king at Windsor. In case these emissaries should not be able to effect their purpose, two men, Grove and Pickering, were deputed to shoot him as he walked in St. James's Park; and in the event of circumstances preventing the execution of their design, Sir George Wakeman, the physician to the queen, was to mix poisons in his cup.

Poniards and eighty guineas had been interests. He was an active, busy, able, given to the first batch of would-be assas- and arrogant man, always assuming a sins, with the approval of Coleman, who prominence to which his merits failed to had personally given a guinea to the mes- entitle him, and always grasping after senger who carried the reward to the hire- money to which he had no possible right. lings. Pistols and silver bullets had been The letters which were found in his house provided for Grove and Pickering, the revealed the fact that he had carried on an first of whom was to receive £1,500; and active correspondence with P. Ferrier, the the second, being a religious man, was, at French king's confessor, and with P. de la his own request, to be awarded thirty thou- Chaise, who succeeded to that office on sand masses, which, at a shilling a mass, the death of P. Ferrier. In one and all of came to the same amount. Wakeman was these letters he dwelt on the favorable offered £10,000 for his share in the un- opportunity which then offered for supdertaking; but as he objected to that sum planting the Protestant religion by that of as being too small a figure for so great a the Church of Rome. He enlarged much service, the amount had been increased to on the zeal of the Duke of York in this £15,000. cause, and constantly urged his correOn the rising of the Council, Oates was spondents to supply him with money for examined personally by the king, who, the advancement of the interests of his though disinclined to put full credence in religion and of the French king. To such his evidence, was staggered by the circum-good effect did he plead for supplies of stantiality of his narrative, and by the multitude of details which he brought forward. On one point the king was able to refute him. Oates had stated that when at Madrid he had been introduced to Don John, who had promised to further the plot.

"What sort of man is Don John?" asked the king.

“A tall, lean man,” replied Titus. "On the contrary," said the king, who knew Don John well, "he is a short, fat man."

"I was only told," replied the redoubtable Titus, "that the gentleman I saw was Don John, and I suppose, therefore, there was some mistake."

This tittle of inaccuracy was not held to be sufficient to invalidate Oates's testimony, and that night warrants were issued against several Jesuits, Coleman among others. So soon as it became known that mischief was intended against them, the Jesuits prepared to escape. Coleman destroyed his papers and went into concealment. But a day later he surrendered himself, and was put under arrest. On his house being carefully searched, a deal box containing letters was found in a receptacle behind the chimney, and some packets of letters were discovered in a drawer under the table. All these letters related to the years '74, '75, and '76, and had probably been overlooked in the general destruction of his correspondence.

Coleman was a clergyman's son, and at an early age had become a pervert to the Church of Rome. Whether his perversion was the result of conviction may well be doubted. At least, on all other occasions he acted with a sole regard to his private

French pistoles, that, as he afterwards confessed, he was personally the richer by £2,500, owing to the liberality of the French king. But this sum was but one item in the numerous bribes which he received, and which enabled him to live in luxury.

The tone of the discovered letters was regarded as bearing a treasonable construction, and the following passage was particularly relied upon to prove his reckless designs against the Church of England as by law established: "We are," he wrote, "about a great work, - no less than the conversion of three kingdoms, and the total and utter subversion and subduing of that pestilent heresy (Protestantism) which hath reigned so long in this northern part of the world; and for the doing of which there never was such great hopes since our Queen Mary's days until this time." This probably referred only to the known Catholic tendencies of the king, and the expected succession of James. But his prosecutors thought otherwise, and argued that if this was the tone of letters which through carelessness he had omitted to destroy, what must have been the character of those letters which had been committed to the flames?

Numerous other arrests followed, and the news spread like wildfire through the country that the State was in danger, and that there was a design for the re-estab lishment of the Roman Catholic faith as the State religion. In every county the Protestants were up in arms, and in London the excitement was so great that it was dangerous for any professing Catholics to appear in public. While public feeling was thus deeply aroused, an event