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angry with himself for submitting to such thraldom, and impatient to break loose from it; and this disposition was studiously encouraged by the agents of many foreign powers.

Feelings

of the Con

tinental

govern. ments

towards

nated she became a power of the first rank again: but while the dispute remained undecided, she was condemned to inaction and to vassalage. She had been great under the Plantagenets and His accession had excited hopes Tudors: she was again great under the and fears in every Continental princes who reigned after the Revolucourt: and the commencement tion: but, under the Kings of the of his administration was House of Stuart, she was a blank in watched by strangers with in- the map of Europe. She had lost one England. terest scarcely less deep than class of energies, and had not yet acthat which was felt by his own subjects. quired another. That species of force One government alone wished that the which, in the fourteenth century, had troubles which had, during three genera-enabled her to humble France and tions, distracted England, might be eter-Spain, had ceased to exist. That spenal. All other governments, whether cies of force, which, in the eighteenth republican or monarchical, whether century, humbled France and Spain Protestant or Roman Catholic, wished once more, had not yet been called to see those troubles happily terminated. into action. The government was no The nature of the long contests longer a limited monarchy after the between the Stuarts and their Parlia- fashion of the middle ages. It had ments was indeed very imperfectly ap- not yet become a limited monarchy prehended by foreign statesmen: but after the modern fashion. With the no statesman could fail to perceive the vices of two different systems it had effect which that contest had produced the strength of neither. The elements on the balance of power in Europe. In of our polity, instead of combining in ordinary circumstances, the sympathies harmony, counteracted and neutralised of the courts of Vienna and Madrid each other. All was transition, conflict, would doubtless have been with a and disorder. The chief business of prince struggling against subjects, and the sovereign was to infringe the priespecially with a Roman Catholic vileges of the legislature. The chief prince struggling against heretical sub- business of the legislature was to enjects: but all such sympathies were croach on the prerogatives of the sovenow overpowered by a stronger feeling. reign. The King readily accepted The fear and hatred inspired by the foreign aid, which relieved him from greatness, the injustice, and the arro- the misery of being dependent on a gance of the French King were at the mutinous Parliament. The Parliament height. His neighbours might well refused to the King the means of supdoubt whether it were more dangerous porting the national honour abroad, to be at war or at peace with him. from an apprehension, too well founded, For in peace he continued to plunder that those means might be employed in and to outrage them; and they had order to establish despotism at home. tried the chances of war against him in The effect of these jealousies was that vain. In this perplexity they looked our country, with all her vast resources, with intense anxiety towards England. was of as little weight in Christendom as Would she act on the principles of the the duchy of Savoy or the duchy of LorTriple Alliance or on the principles of raine, and certainly of far less weight the treaty of Dover? On that issue than the small province of Holland. depended the fate of all her neighbours. With her help Lewis might yet be withstood but no help could be expected from her till she was at unity with herself. Before the strife between the throne and the Parliament began, she had been a power of the first rank: on the day on which that strife termi

France was deeply interested in prolonging this state of things.*

All

pondence in proof of this proposition: but I *I might transcribe half Barillon's correswill quote only one passage, in which the policy of the French government towards England is exhibited concisely and with perfect clear

ness.

"On peut tenir pour un maxime indubitable

Policy of

of Rome.

other powers were deeply interested in | authority, accused the Pope of enbringing it to a close. The general croaching on the secular rights of the wish of Europe was that James would French Crown, and was in turn accused govern in conformity with law and by the Pope of encroaching on the with public opinion. From the Escu- spiritual power of the keys. The rial itself came letters, expressing an King, haughty as he was, encountered earnest hope that the new King of a spirit even more determined than his England would be on good terms with own. Innocent was, in all private rehis Parliament and his peo-lations, the meekest and gentlest of the court ple. From the Vatican itself men: but, when he spoke officially came cautions against im- from the chair of Saint Peter, he spoke moderate zeal for the Roman Catho- in the tones of Gregory the Seventh lic faith. Benedict Odescalchi, who and of Sixtus the Fifth. The dispute filled the papal chair under the name became serious. Agents of the King of Innocent the Eleventh, felt, in his were excommunicated. Adherents of character of temporal sovereign, all the Pope were banished. The King those apprehensions with which other made the champions of his authority princes watched the progress of the Bishops. French power. He had also grounds of uneasiness which were peculiar to himself. It was a happy circumstance for the Protestant religion that, at the moment when the last Roman Catholic King of England mounted the throne, the Roman Catholic Church was torn by dissension, and threatened with a new schism. A quarrel similar to that which had raged in the eleventh century between the Emperors and the Supreme Pontiffs had arisen between Lewis and Innocent. Lewis, zealous even to bigotry for the doctrines of the Church of Rome, but tenacious of his regal

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dem populos fovendo simultates, reliquae Christianæ Europæ tanto securius insultarent."

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16

26

Que sea unido con su reyno, y en todo buena intelligencia con el parlamento."-Despatch from the King of Spain to Don Pedro Ronquillo, March 18. 1685. This despatch is in the archives of Simancas, which contain a great mass of papers relating to English affairs. Copies of the most interesting of those papers are in the possession of M. Guizot, and were by him lent to me. It is with peculiar pleasure that, at this time, I acknowledge this mark of the friendship of so great a man. (1848.)

The Pope refused them institution. They took possession of the episcopal palaces and revenues: but they were incompetent to perform the episcopal functions. Before the struggle terminated, there were in France thirty prelates who could not confirm or ordain.*

Had any prince then living, except Lewis, been engaged in such a dispute with the Vatican, he would have had all Protestant governments on his side. But the fear and resentment which the ambition and insolence of the French King had inspired were such that whoever had the courage manfully to oppose him was sure of public sympathy. Even Lutherans and Calvinists, who had always detested the Pope, could not refrain from wishing him success against a tyrant who aimed at universal monarchy. It was thus that, in the present century, many who regarded Pius the Seventh as Antichrist were well pleased to see Antichrist confront the gigantic power of Napoleon.

The resentment which Innocent felt towards France disposed him to take a mild and liberal view of the affairs of

England. The return of the English people to the fold of which he was the shepherd would undoubtedly have rejoiced his soul. But he was too wise a man to believe that a nation, so bold

*Few English readers will be desirous to go deep into the history of this quarrel. Summaries will be found in Cardinal Bausset's Life of Bossuet, and in Voltaire's Age of Lewis XIV.

in the

and stubborn, could be brought back | heated his mind as to make him a rash to the Church of Rome by the violent adviser. Every letter, therefore, which and unconstitutional exercise of royal went from the Vatican to Whitehall, authority. It was not difficult to fore- recommended patience, moderation, and see that, if James attempted to promote respect for the prejudices of the Engthe interests of his religion by illegal lish people.* and unpopular means, the attempt would fail; the hatred with which the heretical islanders regarded the true faith would become fiercer and stronger than ever; and an indissoluble association would be created in their minds between Protestantism and civil freedom, between Popery and arbitrary power. In the meantime the King would be an object of aversion and suspicion to his people. England would still be, as she had been under James the First, under Charles the First, and under Charles the Second, a power of the third rank; and France would domineer unchecked beyond the Alps and the Rhine. On the other hand, it was probable that James, by acting with prudence and moderation, by strictly observing the laws, and by exerting himself to win the confidence of his Parliament, might be able to obtain, for the professors of his religion, a large measure of relief. Penal statutes would go first. Statutes imposing civil incapacities would soon follow. In the meantime, the English King and the English nation united might head the European coalition, and might oppose an insuperable barrier to the cupidity of Lewis.

In the mind of James there was a great conflict. We should do struggle him injustice if we supposed mind of that a state of vassalage was James. agreeable to his temper. He loved authority and business. He had a high sense of his own personal dignity. Nay, he was not altogether destitute of a sentiment which bore some affinity to patriotism. It galled his soul to think that the kingdom which he ruled was of far less account in the world than many states which possessed smaller natural advantages; and he listened eagerly to foreign ministers when they urged him to assert the dignity of his rank, to place himself at the head of a great confederacy, to become the protector of injured nations, and to tame the pride of that power which held the Continent in awe. Such exhortations made his heart swell with emotions unknown to his careless and effeminate brother. But those emotions were soon subdued by a stronger feeling. A vigorous foreign policy necessarily implied a conciliatory domestic policy. It was impossible at once to confront the might of France and to trample on the liberties of England. The executive government could undertake nothing Innocent was confirmed in his judg- great without the support of the Comment by the principal Englishmen who mons, and could obtain their support resided at his court. Of these the only by acting in conformity with their most illustrious was Philip Howard, opinion. Thus James found that the sprung from the noblest houses of two things which he most de- FluctusBritain, grandson, on one side, of an sired could not be enjoyed tions of Earl of Arundel, on the other, of a together. His second wish was Duke of Lennox. Philip had long to be feared and respected abroad. But been a member of the sacred college: his first wish was to be absolute he was commonly designated as the master at home. Between the incomCardinal of England; and he was the patible objects on which his heart was chief counsellor of the Holy See in set, he, for a time, went irresolutely matters relating to his country. He to and fro. The conflict in his own had been driven into exile by the out-breast gave to his public acts a strange cry of Protestant bigots; and a mem- appearance of indecision and insincerity, ber of his family, the unfortunate Those who, without the clue, attempted Stafford, had fallen a victim to their rage. But neither the Cardinal's own wrongs, nor those of his house, had so

his policy.

Dodd's Church History, part. viii. book 1. *Burnet, i. 661., and Letter from Rome; art. 1.

to explore the maze of his politics were unable to understand how the same man could be, in the same week, so haughty and so mean. Even Lewis was perplexed by the vagaries of an ally who passed, in a few hours, from homage to defiance, and from defiance to homage. Yet, now that the whole conduct of James is before us, this inconsistency seems to admit of a simple explanation.

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at first merely diverted. ·My good ally talks big," he said; "but he is as fond of my pistoles as ever his brother was." Soon, however, the altered demeanour of James, and the hopes with which that demeanour inspired both the branches of the House of Austria, began to call for more serious notice. A remarkable letter is still extant, in which the French King intimated a strong suspicion that he had been duped, and that the very money which he had sent to Westminster would be

By this time England had recovered from the sadness and anxiety caused by the death of the good natured Charles.

The Tories were loud in professions of attachment to their new master. The hatred of the Whigs was kept down by fear. That great mass which is not steadily Whig or Tory, but which inclines alternately to Whiggism and to Toryism, was still on the Tory side. The reaction which had followed the dissolution of the Oxford parliament had not yet spent its force.

of the

Catholic

At the moment of his accession he was in doubt whether the kingdom would peaceably submit to his autho-employed against him.* rity. The Exclusionists, lately so powerful, might rise in arms against him. He might be in great need of French money and French troops. He was therefore, during some days, content to be a sycophant and a mendicant. He humbly apologised for daring to call his Parliament together without the consent of the French government. He begged hard for a French subsidy. He wept with joy over the French bills of exchange. He sent to Versailles a special embassy charged with assurances of his gratitude, attachment, and submission. But scarcely had the The King early put the loyalty of embassy departed when his feelings his Protestant friends to the Public ceunderwent a change. He had been proof. While he was a subject, lebration everywhere proclaimed without one he had been in the habit of Roman riot, without one seditious outcry. hearing mass with closed doors rites in the From all corners of the island he in a small oratory which had Palace. received intelligence that his subjects been fitted up for his wife. He now were tranquil and obedient. His spirit ordered the doors to be thrown open, in rose. The degrading relation in which order that all who came to pay their he stood to a foreign power seemed duty to him might see the ceremony. intolerable. He became proud, punc- When the host was elevated there was tilious, boastful, quarrelsome. He held a strange confusion in the antechamber. such high language about the dignity The Roman Catholics fell on their of his crown and the balance of power knees: the Protestants hurried out of that his whole court fully expected a the room. Soon a new pulpit was complete revolution in the foreign erected in the palace; and, during politics of the realm. He commanded Lent, a series of sermons was preached Churchill to send home a minute report there by Popish divines, to the great of the ceremonial of Versailles, in discomposure of zealous churchmen.† order that the honours with which the A more serious innovation followed, English embassy was received there Passion week came; and the King might be repaid, and not more than determined to hear mass with the same repaid, to the representative of France pomp with which his predecessors had at Whitehall. The news of this change was received with delight at Madrid, Vienna, and the Hague.* Lewis was • Consultations of the Spanish Council of State on April and April 18. 1685, in the Archives of Simancas.

*Lewis to Barillon,

i. 623.

May 22.
June 1.

1685; Burnet,

Feb. 19.
+ Life of James the Second, ii. 5.; Barillon,
Mar. 1. 1685; Evelyn's Diary, March 5. 1683.

thought of a Popish king, and who had shed without pity the innocent blood of a Popish peer, now elbowed each other to get near a Popish altar, the accomplished Trimmer might, with some justice, indulge his solitary pride in that unpopular nickname.*

been surrounded when they repaired to the temples of the established religion. He announced his intention to the three members of the interior cabinet, and requested them to attend him. Sunderland, to whom all religions wore the same, readily consented. Godolphin, as Chamberlain of the Queen, had Within a week after this ceremony already been in the habit of giving her James made a far greater sa- His corohis hand when she repaired to her crifice of his own religious nation. oratory, and felt no scruple about prejudices than he had yet called on bowing himself officially in the house any of his Protestant subjects to make. of Rimmon. But Rochester was greatly He was crowned on the twenty-third disturbed. His influence in the country of April, the feast of the patron saint arose chiefly from the opinion enter- of the realm. The Abbey and the tained by the clergy and by the Tory Hall were splendidly decorated. The gentry, that he was a zealous and presence of the Queen and of the uncompromising friend of the Church. peeresses gave to the solemnity a His orthodoxy had been considered as charm which had been wanting to the fully atoning for faults which would magnificent inauguration of the late otherwise have made him the most King. Yet those who remembered unpopular man in the kingdom, for that inauguration pronounced that boundless arrogance, for extreme vio- there was a great falling off. The lence of temper, and for manners almost brutal.* He feared that by complying with the royal wishes, he should greatly lower himself in the estimation of his party. After some altercation he obtained permission to pass the holidays out of town. All the other great civil dignitaries were ordered to be at their posts on Easter Sunday. The rites of the Church of Rome were once more, after an interval of a hundred and twenty-seven years, performed at Westminster with regal splendour: The Guards were drawn out. The Knights of the Garter wore their collars. The Duke of Somerset, second in rank among the temporal nobles of the realm, carried the sword of state. A long train of great lords accompanied the King to his seat. But it was remarked that Ormond and Halifax remained in the antechamber. A few years before they had gallantly defended the cause of James against some of those who now pressed past them. Ormond had borne no share in the slaughter of Roman Catholics. Halifax had courageously pronounced Stafford not guilty. As the timeservers who had pretended to shudder at the

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ancient usage was that, before a coronation, the sovereign, with all his heralds, judges, councillors, lords, and great dignitaries, should ride in state from the Tower to Westminster. Of these cavalcades the last and the most glorious was that which passed through the capital while the feelings excited by the Restoration were still in full vigour. Arches of triumph overhung the road. All Cornhill, Cheapside, Saint Paul's Church Yard, Fleet Street, and the Strand, were lined with scaffolding. The whole city had thus been admitted to gaze on royalty in the most splendid and solemn form that royalty could wear. James ordered an estimate to be made of the cost of such a procession, and found that it would amount to about half as much as he proposed to expend in covering his wife with trinkets. He accordingly determined to be profuse where he ought to have been frugal, and niggardly where he might pardonably have been profuse. More than a hundred thousand pounds were laid out in dressing the Queen, and the procession from the Tower was omitted. The folly of this course is obvious. If pageantry be of any use in politics, it is of use as a means

* Barillon, April 0.1685.

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