Churchill sent Ambassador to France; His History Struggle in the Mind of James; Fluctuations of his Policy Public Celebration of the Roman Catholic Rites in the Palace Peculiar Favour shown to Roman Catholics and Quakers Scotch Refugees; Earl of Argyle Sir Patrick Hume Sir John Cochrane; Fletcher of Saltonn Unreasonable Conduct of the Scotch Refugees. Arrangement for an Attempt on England and Scotland Preparations made by Government for the Defence of Scotland Departure of Argyle from Holland He lands in Scotland; His Disputes with his Followers His Design on Bristol . Execution of Rumbold Death of Ayloffe Monmouth from leaving Holland His Arrival at Lyme - Devastation of Argyleshire; Ineffectual Attempts to prevent His Declaration; His Popularity in the West of England of the Rebellion carried to London; Loyalty of the Par- Jeffreys made Lord Chancellor ; Trial and Execution of Cornish Trials and Executions of Fernley and Elizabeth Gaunt Trial and Execution of Bateman; Persecution of the Protestant Second Defeat of the Government; The King reprimands the Parties in the Court; Feeling of the Protestant Tories Publication of Papers found in the Strong Box of Charles II. He is bent on the Repeal of the Act of Settlement He returns to England; The King displeased with Clarendon HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. CHAP. I. tion. I PURPOSE to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living. I shall recount the Introducerrors which, in a few months, alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart. I shall trace the course of that revolution which terminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and their parliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and the title of the reigning dynasty. I shall relate how the new settlement was, during many troubled years, successfully defended against foreign and domestic enemies; how, under that settlement, the authority of law and the security of property were found to be compatible with a liberty of discussion and of individual action never before known; how, from the auspicious union of order and freedom, sprang a prosperity of which the annals of human affairs had furnished no example; how our country, from a state of ignominious vassalage, rapidly rose to the place of umpire among European powers; how her opulence and her martial glory grew together; how, by wise and resolute good faith, was gradually established a public credit fruitful of marvels which to the statesmen of any former age would have seemed incredible; how a gigantic commerce gave birth to a maritime power, compared with which every other maritime power, ancient or modern, sinks into insignificance; how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at length united to England, not merely by legal bonds, but by indissoluble ties of interest and affection; how, in America, the British colonies |