Discontent the public Roman Catholic rites and Vest:nents. The temper of the nation was indeed | The skill and care with which those such as might well make him fathers had, during several generations, excited by hesitate. During some months conducted the education of youth, had display of discontent had been steadily drawn forth reluctant praises from the and rapidly increasing. The wisest Protestants. Bacon had procelebration of the Roman nounced the mode of instruction Catholic worship had long followed in the Jesuit colleges to be the best yet known in the world, and had warmly expressed his regret that so admirable a system of intellectual and moral discipline should be employed on the side of error.* It was not improbable that the new academy in the Savoy might, under royal patronage, prove a formidable rival to the great foundations of Eton, Westminster, and Winchester. Indeed, soon after the school was opened, the classes consisted of four hundred boys, about one half of whom were Protestants. The Protestant pupils were not required to attend mass: but there could be no doubt that the influence of able preceptors, devoted to the Roman Catholic Church, and versed in all the arts which win the confidence and affection of youth, would make many converts. been prohibited by Act of Parliament. *27 Eliz. c. 2.; 2 Jac. 1. c. 34.; Jac. 1. c. 5. + Life of James the Second, ii. 79, 80. Orig. Mem. Riots. These things produced great excitement among the populace, which is always more moved by what impresses the senses than by what is addressed to the reason. Thousands of rude and ignorant men, to whom the dispensing power and the Ecclesiastical Commission were words without a meaning, saw with dismay and indignation a Jesuit college rising on the banks of the Thames, friars in hoods and gowns walking in the Strand, and crowds of devotees pressing in at the doors of temples where homage was paid to graven images. Riots broke out in several parts of the country. At Coventry and Worcester the Roman Catholic worship was violently interrupted. At Bristol the rabble, countenanced, it was said, by the magistrates, exhibited a profane and indecent pageant, in which the Virgin Mary was represented by a buffoon, and in which a inock host was carried in procession. Soldiers were called out to disperse the mob. The mob, then and ever since one of the fiercest in the kingdom, *De Augmentis, i. vi. 4. + Van Citters, May 14 14. 1686. city. resisted. Blows were exchanged, and | Church which he found established in serious hurts inflicted.* The agitation his dominions. He had strictly kept was great in the capital, and greater in his word, and had not suffered himself the City, properly so called, than at West- to be provoked to any violence by the minster. For the people of Westminster indiscretion of preachers who, in their had been accustomed to see among them antipathy to his faith, occasionally forthe private chapels of Roman Catholic got the respect which they owed to his Ambassadors: but the City had not, person.* He learned, with concern, within living memory, been polluted that great offence had been given to by any idolatrous exhibition. Now, the people of London by the injudicions however, the resident of the Elector act of his representative, and, much to Palatine, encouraged by the King, his honour, declared that he would fitted up a chapel in Lime Street. The forego the privilege to which, as a heads of the corporation, though men sovereign prince, he was entitled, rather selected for office on account of their than endanger the peace of a great known Toryism, protested against this proceeding, which, as they said, the ablest gentleman of the long robe regarded as illegal. The Lord Mayor was ordered to appear before the Privy Council. "Take heed what you do," said the King. "Obey me; and do not trouble yourself either about gentlemen of the long robe or gentlemen of the short robe.' The Chancellor took up the word, and reprimanded the unfortunate magistrate with the genuine eloquence of the Old Bailey bar. The chapel was opened. All the neighbour- the Guards. hood was soon in commotion. Great The effect of these disturbances crowds assembled in Cheapside to attack on trade was serious. the new mass house. The priests were insulted. A crucifix was taken out of the building and set up on the parish pump. The Lord Mayor came to quell the tumult, but was received with cries of "No wooden gods." The trainbands were ordered to disperse the crowd: but the trainbands shared in the popular feeling; and murmurs were heard from the ranks; "We cannot in conscience fight for Popery." † The Elector Palatine was, like James, a sincere and zealous Catholic, and was, like James, the ruler of a Protestant people; but the two princes resembled each other little in temper and understanding. The Elector had promised to respect the rights of the Van Citters, May 18. 1686; Adda, May 19 29 19 Ellis Correspondence, April 27. 1686; April 23. "I, too," he wrote to James, "have Protestant subjects; and I know with how much caution and delicacy it is necessary that a Catholic prince so situated should act." James, instead of expressing gratitude for this humane and considerate conduct, turned the letter into ridicule before the foreign ministers. It was determined that the Elector should have a chapel in the city whether he would or not, and that, if the trainbands refused to do their duty, their place should be supplied by The Dutch minister informed the States General that the business of the Exchange was at a stand. The Commissioners of the Customs reported to the King that, during the month which followed the opening of the Lime Street Chapel, the receipt in the port of the Thames had fallen off by some thousands of pounds. Several Aldermen, who, though zealous royalists appointed under the new charter, were deeply interested in the commercial prosperity of their city, and loved neither Popery nor martial law, tendered their resignations. But the King was resolved not to yield. He formed a A camp camp on Hounslow Heath, and formed at collected there, within a circumference of about two miles and a half, fourteen battalions of foot and thirty two squadrons of horse, amount Hounslow. His name was Samuel Johnson. He was a priest of the Church of Samuel England, and had been chap- Johnson. lain to Lord Russell. Johnson was one of those persons who are mortally hated by their opponents, and less loved than respected by their allies. ing to thirteen thousand fighting men. | He was a man already under the frown Twenty six pieces of artillery, and many of power. His character was remarkwains laden with arms and ammunition, able, and his history not uninstructive. were dragged from the Tower through the City to Hounslow.* The Londoners saw this great force assembled in their neighbourhood with a terror which familiarity soon diminished. A visit to Hounslow became their favourite amusement on holidays. The camp presented the appearance of a vast His morals were pure, his religious fair. Mingled with the musketeers and dragoons, a multitude of fine gentlemen and ladies from Soho Square, sharpers and painted women from Whitefriars, invalids in sedans, monks in hoods and gowns, lacqueys in rich liveries, pedlars, orange girls, mischieVous apprentices, and gaping clowns, was constantly passing and repassing through the long lanes of tents. From some pavilions were heard the noises of drunken revelry, from others the curses of gamblers. In truth the place was merely a gay suburb of the capital. The King, as was amply proved two years later, had greatly miscalculated. He had forgotten that vicinity operates in more ways than one. He had hoped that his army would overawe London: but the result of his policy was that the feelings and opinions of London took complete possession of his army.t feelings ardent, his learning and abilities not contemptible, his judgment weak, his temper acrimonious, turbulent, and unconquerably stubborn. His profession made him peculiarly odious to the zealous supporters of monarchy; for a republican in holy orders was a strange and almost an unnatural being. During the late reign Johnson had published a book entitled Julian the Apostate. The object of this work was to show that the Christians of the fourth century did not hold the doctrine of nonresistance. It was easy to produce passages from Chrysostom and Jerome written in a spirit very different from that of the Anglican divines who preached against the Exclusion Bill. Johnson, however, went further. He attempted to revive the odious imputation which had, for very obvious reasons, been thrown by Libanius on the Christian soldiers of Julian, and insinuated that the dart which slew the imperial renegade came, not from the Scarcely indeed had the encampment been formed when there were rumours of quarrels between the Pro-enemy, but from some Rumbold or testant and Popish soldiers. A little tract, entitled A humble and hearty Address to all English Protestants in the Army, had been actively circulated through the ranks. The writer vehemently exhorted the troops to use their arms in defence, not of the mass book, but of the Bible, of the Great Charter, and of the Petition of Right. Ferguson in the Roman ranks. A hot controversy followed. Whig and Tory disputants wrangled fiercely about an obscure passage, in which Gregory of Nazianzus praises a pious Bishop who was going to bastinado somebody. The Whigs maintained that the holy man was going to bastinado the Emperor; the Tories that, at the worst, he was only going to bastinado a captain of the guard. Johnson wrote a reply to his assailants, in which he drew an elaborate parallel between Julian and James, then Duke of York. Julian had, during many years, pretended to abhor idolatry, while in heart an idolater. Julian had, to serve a turn, occasionally affected respect for the rights of conscience. Julian had punished cities which were zealous for the true religion, | were struck off and brought to Speke's by taking away their municipal privi- room, whence they were distributed leges. Julian had, by his flatterers, over the whole country, and especially been called the Just. James was pro- among the soldiers. A milder governvoked beyond endurance. Johnson ment than that which then ruled Enwas prosecuted for a libel, convicted, gland would have been moved to high and condemned to a fine which he had resentment by such a provocation. no means of paying. He was therefore Strict search was made. A subordinate kept in gaol; and it seemed likely agent who had been employed to circuthat his confinement would end only late the address saved himself by with his life.* giving up Johnson; and Johnson was not the man to save himself by giving up Speke. An information Proceedwas filed, and a conviction ob- ingin tained without difficulty. Ju- Johnson. lian Johnson, as he was popularly called, was sentenced to stand thrice in Hugh 66 against Over the room which he occupied in the King's Bench prison lodged another offender whose character well deserves to be studied. This was Hugh Speke, a young man of good family, but of a singularly base and depraved nature. His love of mischief the pillory, and to be whipped from and of dark and crooked ways amounted almost to madness. To cause confusion without being found out was his business and his pastime; and he had a rare skill in using honest enthusiasts as the instruments of his coldblooded malice. He had attempted, by means of one of his puppets, to fasten on Charles and James the crime of murdering Essex in the Tower. On this occasion the agency of Speke had been traced; and, though he succeeded in throwing the greater part of the blame on his dupe, he had not escaped with impunity. He was now a prisoner; but his fortune enabled him to live with comfort; and he was under so little restraint that he was able to keep up regular communication with one of his confederates who managed a secret Newgate to Tyburn. The Judge, Sir Francis Withins, told the criminal to be thankful for the great lenity of the Attorney General, who might have treated the case as one of high treason. "I owe him no thanks," answered Johnson, dauntlessly. Am I, whose only crime is that I have defended the Church and the laws, to be grateful for being scourged like a dog, while Popish scribblers are suffered daily to insult the Church and to violate the laws with impunity?" The energy with which he spoke was such that both the Judges and crown lawyers thought it necessary to vindicate themselves, and to protest that they knew of no Popish publications such as those to which the prisoner alluded. He instantly drew from his pocket some Roman Catholic books and trinkets Johnson was the very man for Speke's which were then freely exposed for sale purposes, zealous and intrepid, a scho- under the royal patronage, read aloud lar and a practised controversialist, yet the titles of the books, and threw a as simple as a child. A close intimacy rosary across the table to the King's sprang up between the two fellow counsel. "And now," he cried with a prisoners. Johnson wrote a succession loud voice, "I lay this information of bitter and vehement treatises which before God, before this court, and Speke conveyed to the printer. When before the English people. We shall the camp was formed at Hounslow, soon see whether Mr. Attorney will do Speke urged Johnson to compose an his duty." address which might excite the troops to mutiny. The paper was instantly drawn up. Many thousands of copies press. It was resolved that, before the punishment was inflicted, Johnson should be degraded from the priesthood. The prelates who had been charged by the Ecclesiastical Commission with the care of the diocese of London cited him before them in the chapter house clergy of Saint Paul's Cathedral. The man- | England Johnson found no sympathy. ner in which he went through the He had attempted to justify Zeal of the ceremony made a deep impression on rebellion: he had even hinted Anglican many minds. When he was stripped approbation of regicide; and against of his sacred robe he exclaimed, “You they still, in spite of much Popery. are taking away my gown because I provocation, clung to the doctrine have tried to keep your gowns on your of nonresistance. But they saw with backs." The only part of the formali- alarm and concern the progress of ties which seemed to distress him was what they considered as a noxious the plucking of the Bible out of his superstition, and, while they abjured hand. He made a faint struggle to re- all thought of defending their religion tain the sacred book, kissed it, and by the sword, betook themselves manburst into tears. "You cannot," he fully to weapons of a different kind. said, "deprive me of the hopes which To preach against the errors of Popery I owe to it." Some attempts were was now regarded by them as a point made to obtain a remission of the of duty and a point of honour. The flogging. A Roman Catholic priest London clergy, who were then in offered to intercede in consideration of abilities and influence decidedly at the a bribe of two hundred pounds. The head of their profession, set an example money was raised; and the priest did which was bravely followed by their his best, but in vain. "Mr. Johnson," ruder brethren all over the country. said the King, "has the spirit of a Had only a few bold men taken this martyr; and it is fit that he should be freedom, they would probably have William the Third said, a few been at once cited before the Ecclesiyears later, of one of the most acri- astical Commission; but it was hardly monious and intrepid Jacobites, "He possible to punish an offence which has set his heart on being a martyr; was committed every Sunday by thouand I have set mine on disappointing sands of divines, from Berwick to him." These two speeches would Penzance. The presses of the capital, alone suffice to explain the widely different fates of the two princes. one." The day appointed for the flogging came. A whip of nine lashes was used. Three hundred and seventeen stripes were inflicted; but the sufferer never winced. He afterwards said that the pain was cruel, but that, as he was dragged at the tail of the cart, he remembered how patiently the cross had been borne up Mount Calvary, and was so much supported by the thought, that, but for the fear of incurring the suspicion of vainglory, he would have sung a psalm with as firm and cheerful a voice as if he had been worshipping God in the congregation. It is impossible not to wish that so much heroism had been less alloyed by intemperance and intolerance.* Among the clergy of the Church of *Life of Johnson, prefixed to his works; Secret History of the Happy Revolution, by Hugh Speke; State Trials; Van Citters Nov. 25. Dec. 3. 1686. Van Citters gives the best ac count of the trial. I have seen a broadside which confirms his narrative. VOL. I. of Oxford, and of Cambridge, never rested. The Act which subjected literature to a censorship did not seriously impede the exertions of Protestant controversialists; for that Act contained a proviso in favour of the two Universities, and authorised the publication of theological works licensed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was therefore out of the power of the government to silence the defenders of the established religion. They were a numerous, an intrepid, and a well appointed band of combatants. Among them were eloquent declaimers, expert dialecticians, scholars deeply read in the writings of the fathers and in all parts of ecclesiastical history. Some of them, at a later period, turned against one another the formidable arms which they had wielded against the common enemy, and by their fierce contentions and insolent triumphs brought reproach on the Church which they had saved. But at present they formed an united phalanx. In the van appeared a rank of steady and BB |