Parlia at Oxford, The eventful day arrived. The meeting at Oxford resembled ment held rather that of a Polish Diet and dis- than that of an English Parsolved. liament. The Whig members were escorted by great numbers of their armed and mounted tenants and serving men, who exchanged looks of defiance with the royal Guards. The slightest provocation might, under such circumstances, have produced a civil war; but neither side dared to strike the first blow. The King again offered to consent to anything but the Exclusion Bill. The Commons were determined to accept nothing but the Exclusion Bill. In a few days the Parliament was again dissolved. pears to have forgotten his old tactics. | laws which excluded Roman Catholics Instead of making dispositions which, from the House of Lords, from the in the worst event, would have secured Privy Council, and from all civil and his retreat, he took up a position in military offices. He had passed the which it was necessary that he should Habeas Corpus Act. If securities yet either conquer or perish. Perhaps his stronger had not been provided against head, strong as it was, had been turned the dangers to which the constitution by popularity, by success, and by the and the Church might be exposed excitement of conflict. Perhaps he under a Roman Catholic sovereign, the had spurred his party till he could no fault lay, not with Charles who had longer curb it, and was really hurried invited the Parliament to propose such on headlong by those whom he seemed securities, but with those Whigs who to guide. had refused to hear of any substitute for the Exclusion Bill. One thing only had the King denied to his people. He had refused to take away his brother's birthright. And was there. not good reason to believe that this refusal was prompted by laudable feelings? What selfish motive could faction itself impute to the royal mind? The Exclusion Bill did not curtail the reigning King's prerogatives, or diminish his income. Indeed, by passing it, he might easily have obtained an ample addition to his own revenue. And what was it to him who ruled after him? Nay, if he had personal predilections, they were known to be rather in favour of the Duke of Monmouth than of the Duke of York. The most natural explanation of the King's conduct seemed to be that, careless as was his temper and loose as were his morals, he had, on this occasion, acted from a sense of duty and honour. And, if so, would the nation compel him to do what he thought criminal and disgraceful? To apply, even by strictly constitutional means, a violent pressure to his conscience, seemed to zealous Royalists ungenerous and undutiful. But strictly constitutional means were not the only means which the Whigs were disposed to employ. Signs were already discernible which portended the approach of great troubles. Men, who, in the time of the civil war and of the Commonwealth, had acquired an odious notoriety, had emerged from the obscurity in which, after the Restoration, they had hidden themselves from the general hatred, showed their confident and busy faces everywhere, and appeared to anticipate a second reign of the Saints. Another Naseby, another Tory The King had triumphed. The re action, which had begun some reaction months before the meeting of the Houses at Oxford, now went rapidly on. The nation, indeed, was still hostile to Popery: but, when men reviewed the whole history of the plot, they felt that their Protestant zeal had hurried them into folly and crime, and could scarcely believe that they had been induced by nursery tales to clamour for the blood of fellow subjects and fellow Christians. The most loyal, indeed, could not deny that the administration of Charles had often been highly blamable. But men who had not the full information which we possess touching his dealings with France, and who were disgusted by the violence of the Whigs, enumerated the large concessions which, during the last few years, he had made to his Parliaments, and the still larger concessions which he had declared himself willing to make. He had consented to the Whigs. High Court of Justice, another usurper | class with those who had recently on the throne, the Lords again ejected sworn away the lives of Papists, were from their hall by violence, the Uni- ready to swear away the lives of versities again purged, the Church again robbed and persecuted, the Puritans again dominant, to such results did the desperate policy of the opposition seem to tend. Whigs. same The first victim was College, a noisy and violent demagogue of mean Persecu birth and education. He was tion of the by trade a joiner, and was celebrated as the inventor of the Protestant flail.* He had been at Oxford when the Parliament sate there, and was accused of having planned a rising and an attack on the King's guards. Evidence was given against him by Dugdale and Turberville, the infamous men who had, a few months earlier, borne false witness against Stafford. In the sight of a jury of country squires no Exclusionist was likely to find favour. College was convicted. The crowd which filled the court house of Oxford received the verdict with a roar of exultation, as barbarous as that which he and his friends had been in the habit of raising when innocent Papists were doomed to the gallows. His execution was the beginning of a new judicial massacre, not less atrocious than that in which he had himself borne a share. Strongly moved by these apprehensions, the majority of the upper and middle classes hastened to rally round the throne. The situation of the King bore, at this time, a great resemblance to that in which his father stood just after the Remonstrance had been voted. But the reaction of 1641 had not been suffered to run its course. Charles the First, at the very moment when his people, long estranged, were returning to him with hearts disposed to reconciliation, had, by a perfidious violation of the fundamental laws of the realm, forfeited their confidence for ever. Had Charles the Second taken a similar course, had he arrested the Whig leaders in an irregular manner, had he impeached them of high treason before a tribunal which had no legal jurisdiction over them, it is highly probable that they would speedily have regained the ascendency which they had lost. Fortunately for himself he was induced, at this crisis, to adopt a policy singularly judicious. He determined to conform to the law, but at the same time to make vigorous and unsparing dence was collected which, it was use of the law against his adversaries. thought, would support a charge of He was not bound to convoke a Par-treason. But the facts which it was liament till three years should have necessary to prove were alleged to have elapsed. He was not much distressed been committed in London. The for money. The produce of the taxes Sheriffs of London, chosen by the which had been settled on him for life citizens, were zealous Whigs. They exceeded the estimate. He was at named a Whig grand jury, which peace with all the world. He could threw out the bill. This defeat, far retrench his expenses by giving up the from discouraging those who advised costly and useless settlement of Tan- the King, suggested to them a new and gier; and he might hope for pecuniary daring scheme. Since the Charter of aid from France. He had, therefore, charter of the capital was in the City ample time and means for a systematic their way, that charter must attack on the opposition under the be annulled. It was pretended, thereforms of the constitution. The Judges fore, that the City had by some were removable at his pleasure: the juries were nominated by the Sheriffs; and, in almost all the counties of England, the Sheriffs were nominated by himself. Witnesses, of the same The government, emboldened by this first victory, now aimed a blow at an enemy of a very different class. It was resolved that Shaftesbury should be brought to trial for his life. Evi confiscated. *This is mentioned in the curious work entitled "Ragguaglio della solenne Comparsa fatta in Roma gli otto di Gennaio, 1687, dall' illustrissimo et eccellentissimo signor Conte di Castlemaine." irregularities forfeited its municipal | lately been thought by the Whigs good privileges; and proceedings were insti- enough for an accused Papist. If the tuted against the corporation in the privileges of the City of London were Court of King's Bench. At the same attacked, they were attacked, not by time those laws which had, soon after military violence or by any disputable the Restoration, been enacted against exercise of prerogative, but according Nonconformists, and which had re- to the regular practice of Westminster mained dormant during the ascendency Hall. No tax was imposed by royal of the Whigs, were enforced all over authority. No law was suspended. the kingdom with extreme rigour. The Habeas Corpus Act was respected. Yet the spirit of the Whigs was not Even the Test Act was enforced. The Whig con- subdued. Though in evil opposition therefore could not bring spiracies. plight, they were still a nu- home to the King that species of mismerous and powerful party; and, as government which alone could justify they mustered strong in the large insurrection. And, even had his mistowns, and especially in the capital, government been more flagrant than it they made a noise and a show more was, insurrection would still have been than proportioned to their real force. criminal, because it was almost certain Animated by the recollection of past to be unsuccessful. The situation of triumphs, and by the sense of present the Whigs in 1682 differed widely oppression, they overrated both their from that of the Roundheads forty strength and their wrongs. It was not years before. Those who took up arms in their power to make out that clear against Charles the First acted under and overwhelming case which can the authority of a Parliament which alone justify so violent a remedy as had been legally assembled, and which resistance to an established government. could not, without its own consent, be Whatever they might suspect, they legally dissolved. The opponents of could not prove that their sovereign Charles the Second were private men. had entered into a treaty with France Almost all the military and naval against the religion and liberties of resources of the kingdom had been at England. What was apparent was the disposal of those who resisted not sufficient to warrant an appeal to Charles the First. All the military the sword. If the Lords had thrown and naval resources of the kingdom out the Exclusion Bill, they had thrown were at the disposal of Charles the it out in the exercise of a right coeval Second. The House of Commons had with the constitution. If the King been supported by at least half the had dissolved the Oxford Parliament, nation against Charles the First. But he had done so by virtue of a prero- those who were disposed to levy war gative which had never been questioned. against Charles the Second were cerIf he had, since the dissolution, done tainly a minority. It could hardly be some harsh things, still those things doubted, therefore, that, if they atwere in strict conformity with the tempted a rising, they would fail. Still letter of the law, and with the recent less could it be doubted that their practice of the malecontents themselves. failure would aggravate every evil of If he had prosecuted his opponents, he which they complained. The true had prosecuted them according to the policy of the Whigs was to submit proper forms, and before the proper with patience to adversity which was tribunals. The evidence now produced the natural consequence and the just for the crown was at least as worthy of punishment of their errors, to wait credit as the evidence on which the patiently for that turn of public feeling noblest blood of England had lately which must inevitably come, to observe been shed by the opposition. The the law, and to avail themselves of the treatment which an accused Whig had protection, imperfect indeed, but by no now to expect from judges, advocates, means nugatory, which the law afforded sheriffs, juries, and spectators, was no to innocence. Unhappily they took a worse than the treatment which had very different course. Unscrupulous Severity The of the go vernment. He King was now at liberty to exact and hotheaded chiefs of the party | dignation excited by the Rye House formed and discussed schemes of resist-Plot was extended for a time to ance, and were heard, if not with the whole Whig body. approbation, yet with the show of acquiescence, by much better men than themselves. It was proposed that there should be simultaneous insurrections in London, in Cheshire, at Bristol, and at Newcastle. Communications were opened with the discontented Presbyterians of Scotland, who were suffering under a tyranny such as England, in the worst times, had never known. While the leaders of the opposition thus revolved plans of open rebellion, but were still restrained by fears or scruples from taking any decisive step, a design of a very different kind was meditated by some of their accomplices. To fierce spirits, unrestrained by principle, or maddened by fanaticism, it seemed that to waylay and murder the King and his brother was the shortest and surest way of vindicating the Protestant religion and the liberties of England. A place and a time were named; and the details of the butchery were frequently discussed, if not definitely arranged. This scheme was known but to few, and was concealed with especial care from the upright and humane Russell, and from Monmouth, who, though not a man of delicate conscience, would have recoiled with horror from the guilt of parricide. Thus there were two plots, one within the other. The object of the great Whig plot was to raise the nation in arms against the government. The lesser plot, commonly called the Rye House Plot, in which only a few desperate men were concerned, had for its object the assassination of the King and of the heir presumptive. Actions were brought against persons who had defamed the Duke of York; and damages tantamount to a sentence of perpetual imprisonment were demanded by the plaintiff, and without difficulty obtained. The Court of King's Bench pronounced that the Both plots were soon discovered. franchises of the City of London were Detection Cowardly traitors hastened to forfeited to the crown. Flushed seizure of of the save themselves, by divulging with this great victory, the go- charters. spiracies. all, and more than all, that had vernment proceeded to attack the conpassed in the deliberations of the party. stitutions of other corporations which That only a small minority of those were governed by Whig officers, and who meditated resistance had admitted which had been in the habit of returninto their minds the thought of assassi-ing Whig members to Parliament. Bonation is fully established: but, as the rough after borough was compelled to two conspiracies ran into each other, it surrender its privileges; and new charwas not difficult for the government to ters were granted which gave the asconfound them together. The just in-cendency everywhere to the Tories. Whig con of the These proceedings, however repre- elapsed after the dissolution of the Parhensible, had yet the semblance of le- liament which sate at Oxford, no writs gality. They were also accompanied were issued for an election. This inby an act intended to quiet the uneasi- fraction of the constitution was the more ness with which many loyal men looked reprehensible, because the King had forward to the accession of a Popish little reason to fear a meeting with Sovereign. The Lady Anne, younger new House of Commons. The counties daughter of the Duke of York by his were generally on his side; and many first wife, was married to George, a boroughs in which the Whigs had lately prince of the orthodox House of Den-held sway had been so remodelled that mark. The Tory gentry and clergy they were certain to return none but might now flatter themselves that the courtiers. Church of England had been effectually In a short time the law was again secured without any violation of the violated in order to gratify the Influence order of succession. The King and the Duke of York. That prince Duke of heir presumptive were nearly of the was, partly on account of his York. same age. Both were approaching the religion, and partly on account of the decline of life. The King's health was sternness and harshness of his nature, good. It was therefore probable that so unpopular that it had been thought James, if he ever came to the throne, necessary to keep him out of sight while would have but a short reign. Beyond the Exclusion Bill was before Parliahis reign there was the gratifying pros-ment, lest his appearance should give pect of a long series of Protestant sove- an advantage to the party which was reigns. struggling to deprive him of his birthThe liberty of unlicensed printing right. He had therefore been sent to was of little or no use to the vanquished govern Scotland, where the savage old party; for the temper of judges and tyrant Lauderdale was sinking into the juries was such that no writer whom grave. Even Lauderdale was now outthe government prosecuted for a libel done. The administration of James was had any chance of escaping. The dread marked by odious laws, by barbarous of punishment therefore did all that a punishments, and by judgments to the censorship could have done. Mean- iniquity of which even that age furwhile, the pulpits resounded with ha-nished no parallel. The Scottish Privy rangues against the sin of rebellion. Council had power to put state prisoners The treatises in which Filmer main- to the question. But the sight was so tained that hereditary despotism was dreadful that, as soon as the boots apthe form of government ordained by peared, even the most servile and hardGod, and that limited monarchy was a hearted courtiers hastened out of the pernicious absurdity, had recently ap-chamber. The board was sometimes peared, and had been favourably re- quite deserted: and it was at length ceived by a large section of the Tory found necessary to make an order that party. The University of Oxford, on the members should keep their seats the very day on which Russell was put on such occasions. The Duke of York, to death, adopted by a solemn public it was remarked, seemed to take pleaact these strange doctrines, and ordered sure in the spectacle which some of the the political works of Buchanan, Milton, worst men then living were unable to and Baxter to be publicly burned in the contemplate without pity and horror. court of the Schools. He not only came to Council when the Thus emboldened, the King at length torture was to be inflicted, but watched ventured to overstep the bounds which the agonies of the sufferers with that he had during some years observed, and sort of interest and complacency with to violate the plain letter of the law. which men observe a curious experiThe law was that not more than three ment in science. Thus he employed years should pass between the dissolving himself at Edinburgh, till the event of of one Parliament and the convoking of the conflict between the court and the another. But, when three years had Whigs was no longer doubtful. He VOL. I. K |