of striking the imagination of the multitude. It is surely the height of absurdity to shut out the populace from a show of which the main object is to make an impression on the populace. James would have shown a more judicious munificence and a more judicious parsimony, if he had traversed London from east to west with the accustomed pomp, and had ordered the robes of his wife to be somewhat less thickly set with pearls and diamonds. His example was, however, long followed by his successors; and sums, which, well employed, would have afforded exquisite gratification to a large part of the nation, were squandered on an exhibition to which only three or four thousand privileged persons were admitted. At length the old practice was partially revived. On the day of the coronation of Queen Victoria there was a procession in which many deficiencies might be noted, but which was seen with interest and delight by half a million of her subjects, and which undoubtedly gave far greater pleasure, and called forth far greater enthusiasm, than the more costly display which was witnessed by a select circle within the Abbey. James had ordered Sancroft to abridge the ritual. The reason publicly assigned was that the day was too short for all that was to be done. But whoever examines the changes which were made will see that the real object was to remove some things highly offensive to the religious feelings of a zealous Roman Catholic. The Communion Service was not read. The ceremony of presenting the sovereign with a richly bound copy of the English Bible, and of exhorting him to prize above all earthly treasures a volume which he had been taught to regard as adulterated with false doctrine, was omitted. What remained, however, after all this curtailment, might well have raised scruples in the mind of a man who sincerely believed the Church of England to be a heretical society, within the pale of which salvation was not to be found. The King made an oblation on the altar. He appeared to jcin in the petitions of the Litany which was chaunted by the Bishops. He received from those false prophets the VOL. I. unction typical of a divine influence, and knelt with the semblance of devotion while they called down upon him that Holy Spirit of which they were, in his estimation, the malignant and obdurate foes. Such are the inconsistencies of human nature that this man, who, from a fanatical zeal for his religion, threw away three kingdoms, yet chose to commit what was little short of an act of apostasy, rather than forego the childish pleasure of being invested with the gewgaws symbolical of kingly power.* Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely, preached. He was one of those writers who still affected the obsolete style of Archbishop Williams and Bishop Andrews. The sermon was made up of quaint conceits, such as seventy years earlier might have been admired, but such as moved the scorn of a generation accustomed to the purer eloquence of Sprat, of South, and of Tillotson. King Solomon was King James. Adonijah was Monmouth. Joab was a Rye House conspirator; Shimei, a Whig libeller; Abiathar, an honest but misguided old Cavalier. One phrase in the Book of Chronicles was construed to mean that the King was above the Parliament; and another was cited to prove that he alone ought to command the militia. Towards the close of the discourse the orator very timidly alluded to the new and embarrassing position in which the Church stood with reference to the sovereign, and reminded his hearers that the Emperor Constantius Chlorus, though not himself a Christian, had held in honour those Christians who remained true to their religion, and had treated with scorn those who sought to earn his favour by apostasy. The service in the Abbey was followed by a stately banquet in the Hall, the banquet by brilliant fireworks, and the fireworks by much bad poetry.† This may be fixed upon as the mo- | where was the spirit of loyalty stronger ment at which the enthusiasm than in the two Universities. Oxford Enthu declared that she would never swerve from those religious principles which bound her to obey the King without any restrictions or limitations. Cambridge condemned, in severe terms, the violence and treachery of those turbulent men who had maliciously endeavoured to turn the stream of succession out of the ancient channel.* siasm of of the Tory party reached the the Tories. zenith. Ever since the acces sion of the new King, addresses had been pouring in which expressed profound veneration for his person Addresses. and office, and bitter detestation of the vanquished Whigs. The magistrates of Middlesex thanked God for having confounded the designs of those regicides and exclusionists who, Such addresses as these filled, during not content with having murdered one a considerable time, every The elec blessed monarch, were bent on destroy- number of the London Gazette. tions. ing the foundations of monarchy. The But it was not only by addressing city of Gloucester execrated the blood-that the Tories showed their zeal. The thirsty villains who had tried to deprive writs for the new Parliament had gone His Majesty of his just inheritance. forth, and the country was agitated by The burgesses of Wigan assured their the tumult of a general election. No Sovereign that they would defend him election had ever taken place under against all plotting Achitophels and circumstances so favourable to the rebellious Absaloms. The grand jury Court. Hundreds of thousands whom of Suffolk expressed a hope that the the Popish plot had scared into WhigParliament would proscribe all the ex-gism had been scared back by the Rye clusionists. Many corporations pledged House plot into Toryism. In the themselves never to return to the House counties the government could depend of Commons any person who had voted on an overwhelming majority of the for taking away the birthright of James. gentlemen of three hundred a year and Even the capital was profoundly obse- upwards, and on the clergy almost to quious. The lawyers and the traders a man. Those boroughs which had vied with each other in servility. Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery sent up fervent professions of attachment and submission. All the great commercial societies, the East India Company, the African Company, the Turkey Company, the Muscovy Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the Maryland Merchants, the Jamaica Merchants, the Merchant Adventurers, declared that they most cheerfully complied with the royal edict which required them still to pay custom. Bristol, the second city of the island, echoed the voice of London. But no 20 Herald, fol. 1687; Evelyn's Diary, May 21. 1685; Despatch of the Dutch Ambassadors, April 10. 1685; Burnet, i. 628.; Eachard, iii. jesties King James the Second and Queen Mary at their Coronation in Westminster Abbey, April 23. 1685, by Francis, Lord Bishop of Ely, and Lord Almoner. I have seen an Italian account of the Coronation, which was published at Modena, and which is chiefly remarkable for the skill with which the writer sinks the fact that the prayers and psalms were in English, and that the Bishops were heretics. 734.; A Sermon preached before their Ma once been the citadels of Whiggism had recently been deprived of their charters by legal sentence, or had prevented the sentence by voluntary surrender. They had now been reconstituted in such a manner that they were certain to return members devoted to the crown. Where the townsmen could not be trusted, the freedom had been bestowed on the neighbouring squires. In some of the small western corporations, the constituent bodies were in great part composed of Captains and Lieutenants of the Guards. The returning officers were almost everywhere in the interest of the court. In every shire the Lord Lieutenant and his deputies formed a powerful, active, and vigilant committee, for the purpose of cajoling and intimidating the freeholders. The people were solemnly warned from thousands of pulpits not to vote for any Whig candidate, as they should answer it to Him who had * See the London Gazette during the months of February, March, and April, 1685. The ordained the powers that be, and who | candidate, Thomas Wharton, eldest had pronounced rebellion a sin not son of Philip Lord Wharton, was a less deadly than witchcraft. All these man distinguished alike by dexterity advantages the predominant party not and by audacity, and destined to play only used to the utmost, but abused in a conspicuous, though not always a so shameless a manner that grave and respectable, part, in the politics of reflecting men, who had been true to several reigns. He had been one of the monarchy in peril, and who bore those members of the House of Comno love to republicans and schismatics, mons who had carried up the Exclustood aghast, and augured from such sion Bill to the bar of the Lords. The beginnings the approach of evil times.* court was therefore bent on throwing Yet the Whigs, though suffering the him out by fair or foul means. just punishment of their errors, though Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys himself defeated, disheartened, and disorgan- came down into Buckinghamshire, for ised, did not yield without an effort. the purpose of assisting a gentleman They were still numerous among the named Hacket, who stood on the high traders and artisans of the towns, and Tory interest. A stratagem was devised among the yeomanry and peasantry of which, it was thought, could not fail the open country. In some districts, of success. It was given out that the in Dorsetshire for example, and in polling would take place at Ailesbury; Somersetshire, they were the great and Wharton, whose skill in all the majority of the population. In the arts of electioneering was unrivalled, remodelled boroughs they could do made his arrangements on that supponothing: but, in every county where sition. At a moment's warning the they had a chance, they struggled des- Sheriff adjourned the poll to Newport perately. In Bedfordshire, which had Pagnell. Wharton and his friends lately been represented by the virtuous hurried thither, and found that Hacket, and unfortunate Russell, they were who was in the secret, had already victorious on the show of hands, but secured every inn and lodging. The were beaten at the poll. In Essex Whig freeholders were compelled to they polled thirteen hundred votes to tie their horses to the hedges, and to eighteen hundred. At the election sleep under the open sky in the meadows for Northamptonshire the common which surround the little town. It was people were so violent in their hostility with the greatest difficulty that refreshto the court candidate that a body of ments could be procured at such short troops was drawn out in the market- notice for so large a number of men place of the county town, and was and beasts, though Wharton, who was ordered to load with ball.§ The history utterly regardless of money when his of the contest for Buckinghamshire is ambition and party spirit were roused, still more remarkable. The Whig disbursed fifteen hundred pounds in one day, an immense outlay for those times. Injustice seems, however, to written on this subject. I will cite only one have animated the courage of the witness, a churchman and a Tory. "Elec-stouthearted yeomen of Bucks, the tions," says Evelyn, "were thought to be very sons of the constituents of John Hampindecently carried on in most places. God give a better issue of it than some expect!" den. Not only was Wharton at the (May 10. 1685.) Again he says, "The truth head of the poll; but he was able to is there were many of the new members whose elections and returns were universally con- spare his second votes to a man of demned." (May 22.) moderate opinions, and to throw out + This fact I learned from a newsletter in the Chief Justice's candidate.* the library of the Royal Institution. Van In Cheshire the contest lasted six Citters mentions the strength of the Whig days. The Whigs polled about seventeen hundred votes, the Tories about two thousand. The common people * Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Marquess of Wharton, 1715. It would be easy to fill a volume with what Whig historians and pamphleteers have party in Bedfordshire. ✰ Bramston's Memoirs. Reflections on a Remonstrance and Protestation of all the good Protestants of this Kingdom,1689; Dialogue between two Friends, 1689. The general result of the elections exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the court. James found with delight that it would be unnecessary for him to expend a farthing in buying votes. He said that, with the exception of about forty members, the House of Commons was just such as he should himself have named.† And this House of Commons it was in his power, as the law then stood, to keep to the end of his reign. were vehement on the Whig side, | cording to the popular fable, contained raised the cry of "Down with the the contract between Charles the SeBishops," insulted the clergy in the cond and Lucy Walters, were publicly streets of Chester, knocked down one committed to the flames, with loud acgentleman of the Tory party, broke clamations.* the windows and beat the constables. The militia was called out to quell the riot, and was kept assembled, in order to protect the festivities of the conquerors. When the poll closed, a salute of five great guns from the castle, proclaimed the triumph of the Church and the Crown to the surrounding country. The bells rang. The newly elected members went in state to the City Cross, accompanied by a band of music, and by a long train of knights and squires. The procession, as it marched, sang "Joy to Great Cæsar," a loyal ode, which had lately been written by Durfey, and which, though, like all Durfey's writings, utterly contemptible, was, at that time, almost as popular as Lillibullero became a few years later.* Round the Cross the trainbands were drawn up in order: a bonfire was lighted: the Exclusion Bill was burned: and the health of King James was drunk with loud acclamations. The following day was Sunday. In the morning the militia lined the streets leading to the Cathedral. The two knights of the shire were escorted with great pomp to their choir by the magistracy of the city, heard the Dean preach a sermon, probably on the duty of passive obedience, and were afterwards feasted by the Mayor.t In Northumberland the triumph of Sir John Fenwick, a courtier whose name afterwards obtained a melancholy celebrity, was attended by circumstances which excited interest in London, and which were thought not unworthy of being mentioned in the despatches of foreign ministers. Newcastle was lighted up with great piles of coal. The steeples sent forth a joyous peal. A copy of the Exclusion Bill, and a black box, resembling that which, ac * See the Guardian, No. 67.; an exquisite specimen of Addison's peculiar manner. It would be difficult to find in the works of any other writer such an instance of benevolence delicately flavoured with contempt. †The Observator, April 4. 1685. Secure of parliamentary support, he might now indulge in the luxury of revenge. His nature was not placable; and, while still a subject, he had suffered some injuries and indignities which might move even a placable nature to fierce and lasting resentment. One set of men in particular had, with a baseness and cruelty beyond all example and all description, attacked his honour and his life, the witnesses of the plot. He may well be excused for hating them; since, even at this day, the mention of their names excites the disgust and horror of all sects and parties. Some of these wretches were already beyond the reach of human justice. Bedloe had died in his wickedness, without one sign of remorse or shame.‡ Dugdale had followed, driven mad, men said, by the Furies of an evil conscience, and with loud shrieks imploring those who stood round his bed to take away Lord Stafford.§ Carstairs, too, was gone. His end had been all horror and despair; and, with his last breath, he had told his attendants to throw him into a ditch like a dog, for that he was not fit to sleep in a Christian burial ground. But Oates and * Despatch of the Dutch Ambassadors, April 20. 1685. † Burnet, i. 626. A faithful account of the Sickness, Death, and Burial of Captain Bedlow, 1680; Narrative of Lord Chief Justice North. § Smith's Intrigues of the Popish Plot, 1685. Burnet, i. 439. ings against Oates. Dangerfield were still within the reach | lives and estates of the magnates of the of the stern prince whom they had realm had been at his mercy. Times wronged. James, a short time before had now changed; and many who had his accession, had instituted a civil formerly regarded him as the deliverer Proceed suit against Oates for defama- of his country, shuddered at the sight tory words; and a jury had of those hideous features on which vilgiven damages to the enormous lany seemed to be written by the hand amount of a hundred thousand pounds.* of God.* The defendant had been taken in execu- It was proved, beyond all possibility tion, and was lying in prison as a debtor, of doubt, that this man had, by false without hope of release. Two bills of testimony, deliberately murdered seveindictment against him for perjury had ral guiltless persons. He called in vain been found by the grand jury of Middle- on the most eminent members of the sex, a few weeks before the death of Parliaments which had rewarded and Charles. Soon after the close of the extolled him to give evidence in his elections the trial came on. favour. Some of those whom he had summoned absented themselves. None of them said anything tending to his vindication. Among the upper and middle classes Oates had few friends left. The most respectable Whigs were now convinced One of them, the Earl of that, even if his narrative had some Huntingdon, bitterly reproached him foundation in fact, he had erected on with having deceived the Houses and that foundation a vast superstructure drawn on them the guilt of shedding of romance. A considerable number of innocent blood. The Judges browbeat low fanatics, however, still regarded and reviled the prisoner with an inhim as a public benefactor. These temperance which, even in the most people well knew that, if he were con- atrocious cases, ill becomes the judicial victed, his sentence would be one of character. He betrayed, however, no extreme severity, and were therefore sign of fear or of shame, and faced indefatigable in their endeavours to the storm of invective which burst manage an escape. Though he was as upon him from bar, bench, and witness yet in confinement only for debt, he box, with the insolence of despair. was put into irons by the authorities of He was convicted on both indictments. the King's Bench prison; and even so His offence, though, in a moral light, he was with difficulty kept in safe cus- murder of the most aggravated kind, tody. The mastiff that guarded his was, in the eye of the law, merely a door was poisoned; and, on the very misdemeanour. The tribunal, hownight preceding the trial, a ladder of ever, was desirous to make his punishropes was introduced into the cell. ment more severe than that of felons On the day in which Titus was or traitors, and not merely to put him brought to the bar, Westminster Hall to death, but to put him to death by was crowded with spectators, among frightful torments. He was sentenced whom were many Roman Catholics, to be stripped of his clerical habit, to eager to see the misery and humiliation be pilloried in Palace Yard, to be led of their persecutor. A few years ear-round Westminster Hall with an inlier his short neck, his legs uneven, the scription declaring his infamy over his vulgar said, as those of a badger, his forehead low as that of a baboon, his purple cheeks, and his monstrous length of chin, had been familiar to all who frequented the courts of law. He had then been the idol of the nation. Wherever he had appeared men had uncovered their heads to him. The See the proceedings in the Collection of State Trials. Evelyn's Diary, May 7. 1685. head, to be pilloried again in front of the Royal Exchange, to be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate, and, after an interval of two days, to be whipped from Newgate to Tyburn. If, against all probability, he should happen to *There remain many pictures of Oates. The most striking descriptions of his person are in North's Examen, 225., in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, and in a broadside entitled, A Hue and Cry after T. O. |