VI. of London. ve when, as on the present occasion, he speaks out, and CHAP. us fair warning of what we are to suffer."* Doctor ry Compton, Bishop of London, spoke strongly for the The Bishop on. Though not gifted with eminent abilities, nor deeply ed in the learning of his profession, he was always heard he House with respect; for he was one of the few clergywho could, in that age, boast of noble blood. His own lty, and the loyalty of his family, had been signally proved. father, the second Earl of Northampton, had fought ely for King Charles the First, and, surrounded by the iamentary soldiers, had fallen, sword in hand, refusing to e or take quarter. The Bishop himself, before he was ained, had borne arms in the Guards; and, though he erally did his best to preserve the gravity and sobriety tting a prelate, some flashes of his military spirit would, he last, occasionally break forth. He had been entrusted in the religious education of the two Princesses, and had uitted himself of that important duty in a manner which 1 satisfied all good Protestants, and had secured to him siderable influence over the minds of his pupils, especially the Lady Anne.† He now declared that he was empowered speak the sense of his brethren, and that, in their opinion 1 in his own, the whole civil and ecclesiastical constitution the realm was in danger. One of the most remarkable speeches of that day was made Viscount a young man, whose eccentric career was destined to amaze rope. This was Charles Mordaunt, Viscount Mordaunt, dely renowned, many years later, as Earl of Peterborough. ready he had given abundant proofs of his courage, of his pacity, and of that strange unsoundness of mind which ade his courage and capacity almost useless to his country. ready he had distinguished himself as a wit and a scholar, a soldier and a sailor. He had even set his heart on rivalag Bourdaloue and Bossuet. Though an avowed freethinker, > had sate up all night at sea to compose sermons, and had ith great difficulty been prevented from edifying the crew a man of war with his pious oratory. He now addressed e House of Peers, for the first time, with characteristic oquence, sprightliness, and audacity. He blamed the Com Bramston's Memoirs. Burnet is correct both as to the time when the mark was made and as to the person ho made it. In Halifax's Letter to a issenter will be found a remarkable allusion to this discussion. Mordaunt. CHAP. VI. mons for not having taken a bolder line. "They have been afraid," he said, "to speak out. They have talked of ap prehensions and jealousies. What have apprehension and jealousy to do here? Apprehension and jealousy are the feelings with which we regard future and uncertain evils. The evil which we are considering is neither future nor uncertain. A standing army exists. It is officered by Papists. We have no foreign enemy. There is no rebellion in the land. For what, then, is this force maintained, except for the purpose of subverting our laws, and establishing that arbitrary power which is so justly abhorred by English men ? "* Jeffreys spoke against the motion in the coarse and savage style of which he was a master; but he soon found that it was not quite so easy to browbeat the proud and powerful barons of England in their own hall as to intimidate advocates whose bread depended on his favour or prisoners whose necks were at his mercy. A man whose life has been passed in attacking and domineering, whatever may be his talents and courage, generally makes a poor figure when he is vigorously assailed for, being unaccustomed to stand on the defensive, he becomes confused; and the knowledge that all those whom he has insulted are enjoying his confusion confuses him still more. Jeffreys was now, for the first time since he had become a great man, encountered on equal terms by adversaries who did not fear him. To the general delight, he passed at once from the extreme of insolence to the extreme of meanness, and could not refrain from weeping with rage and vexation.† Nothing indeed was wanting to his humiliation; for the House was crowded by about a hundred peers, a larger number than had voted even on the great day of the Exclusion Bill. The King, too, was present. * Barillon has given the best account of this debate. I will extract his report of Mordaunt's speech. "Milord Mordaunt, quoique jeune, parla avec éloquence et force. Il dit que la question n'étoit pas réduite, comme la Chambre des Communes le prétendoit, à guérir des jalousies et défiances, qui avoient lieu dans les choses incertaines; mais que ce qui se passoit ne l'étoit pas, qu'il y avoit une armée sur pied qui subsistoit, et qui étoit remplie d'officiers Catholiques, qui ne pouvoit être conservée que pour le renversement des loix, et que la subsistance de l'armée, quand il n'y a His aucune guerre ni au dedans ni an dehors, étoit l'établissement du gouvernement arbitraire, pour lequel les Anglois out une aversion si bien fondée." He was very easily moved to tears. "He could not," says the author of the Panegyric, "refrain from weeping on bold affronts." And again: "They talk of his hectoring and proud carriage; what could be more humble than for a man in his great post to cry and sob?" In the Answer to the Panegyric it is said that "his having no command of his tears spoiled him for a hypocrite." brother had been in the habit of attending the sittings of the Lords for amusement, and used often to say that a debate was as entertaining as a comedy. James came, not to be diverted, but in the hope that his presence might impose some restraint on the discussion. He was disappointed. The sense of the House was so strongly manifested that, after a closing speech, of great keenness, from Halifax, the courtiers did not venture to divide. An early day was fixed for taking the royal speech into consideration; and it was ordered that every peer who was in or near the capital should be in his place.* CHAP. tion. VI. On the following morning the King came down, in his Prorogarobes, to the House of Lords. The Usher of the Black Rod summoned the Commons to the bar; and the Chancellor announced that the Parliament was prorogued to the tenth of February. The members who had voted against the Court were dismissed from the public service. Charles Fox quitted the Pay Office: the Bishop of London ceased to be Dean of the Chapel Royal; and his name was struck out of the list of Privy Councillors. The effect of the prorogation was to put an end to a legal proceeding of the highest importance. Thomas Grey, Earl of Stamford, sprung from one of the most illustrious houses of England, had been recently arrested and committed close prisoner to the Tower on a charge of high treason. He was accused of having been concerned in the Rye House plot. A true bill had been found against him by the grand jury of the City of London, and had been removed into the House of Lords, the only court before which a temporal peer can, during a session of Parliament, be arraigned for any offence higher than a misdemeanour. The first of December had been fixed for the trial; and orders had been given that Westminster Hall should be fitted up with seats and hangings. In consequence of the prorogation, the hearing of the cause was postponed for an indefinite period; and Stamford soon regained his liberty.‡ Three other Whigs of great eminence were in confinement CHAP. VI. Trials of ard and of when the session closed, Charles Gerard, Lord Gerard of Brandon, eldest son of the Earl of Macclesfield, John Hampden, grandson of the renowned leader of the Long Parliament, and Henry Booth, Lord Delamere. Gerard and Hampden were accused of having taken part in the Rye House plot, Delamere of having abetted the Western insurrection. It was not the intention of the government to put either Lord Ger Gerard or Hampden to death. Grey had stipulated for their Hampden. lives before he consented to become a witness against them.* But there was a still stronger reason for sparing them. They were heirs to large property: but their fathers were still living. The Court could therefore get little in the way of forfeiture, and might get much in the way of ransom. Gerard was tried, and, from the very scanty accounts which have come down to us, seems to have defended himself with great spirit and force. He boasted of the exertions and sacrifices made by his family in the cause of Charles the First, and proved Rumsey, the witness who had murdered Russell by telling one story and Cornish by telling another, to be utterly undeserving of credit. The jury, with some hesitation, found a verdict of Guilty. After long imprisonment, Gerard was suffered to redeem himself.† Hampden had inherited the political opinions and a large share of the abilities of his grandfather, but had degenerated from the uprightness and the courage by which his grandfather had been distinguished. It appears that the prisoner was, with cruel cunning, long kept in an agony of suspense, in order that his family might be induced to pay largely for mercy. His spirit sank under the terrors of death. When brought to the bar of the Old Bailey, he not only pleaded guilty, but disgraced the illustrious name which he bore by abject submissions and entreaties. He protested that he had not been privy to the design of assassination; but he owned that he had meditated rebellion, professed deep repentance for his offence, implored the intercession of the Judges, and vowed that, if the royal clemency were extended to him his whole life should be passed in evincing his gratitude for such goodness. The Whigs were furious at his pusillanimity, and loudly declared him to be far more deserving of blame than Grey, who, even in turning King's evidence, had preserved a certain decorum. Hampden's life was spared; but his family paid several thousand Burnet, i. 616. † Bramston's Memoirs; Luttrell's Diary. unds to the Chancellor. Some courtiers of less note suceded in extorting smaller sums. The unhappy man had irit enough to feel keenly the degradation to which he had Doped. He survived the day of his ignominy several years. e lived to see his party triumphant, to be once more an imrtant member of it, and to make his persecutors tremble in eir turn. But his prosperity was embittered by one insuportable recollection. He never regained his cheerfulness, id at length died by his own hand.* CHAP. Delamere That Delamere, if he had needed the royal mercy, would Trial of ave found it, is not very probable. It is certain that every Ivantage which the letter of the law gave to the government as used against him without scruple or shame. He was in different situation from that in which Stamford stood. The dictment against Stamford had been removed into the House f Lords during the session of Parliament, and therefore could ot be prosecuted till the Parliament should reassemble. All he peers would then have voices, and would be judges as well f law as of fact. But the bill against Delamere was not found ill after the prorogation.† He was therefore within the urisdiction of the Court to which belongs, during a recess of Parliament, the cognisance of treasons and felonies committed y temporal peers; and this Court was then so constituted hat no prisoner charged with a political offence could expect in impartial trial. The King named a Lord High Steward. The Lord High Steward named, at his discretion, certain peers o sit on their accused brother. The number to be summoned vas indefinite. No challenge was allowed. A simple majority, rovided that it consisted of twelve, was sufficient to convict. The High Steward was sole judge of the law; and the Lords Triers formed merely a jury to pronounce on the question of act. Jeffreys was appointed High Steward. He selected thirty Triers; and the selection was characteristic of the man and of the times. All the thirty were in politics vehemently pposed to the prisoner. Fifteen of them were colonels of regiments, and might be removed from their lucrative commands at the pleasure of the King. Among the remaining fifteen were the Lord Treasurer, the principal Secretary of State, the Steward of the Household, the Comptroller of the Household, the Captain of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners, * Seo the trial in the Collection of State Trials; Bramston's Memoirs; Bur net, i. 647.; Lords' Journ. Dec. 20, 1689. + Lords' Journals, Nov. 9, 10. 16. 1685. |