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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A History of the Early Part of the Reign of
+James the Second, by Charles James Fox, Edited by Henry Morley
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James the Second
+
+
+Author: Charles James Fox
+
+Editor: Henry Morley
+
+Release Date: October 4, 2007  [eBook #4245]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE EARLY PART OF THE
+REIGN OF JAMES THE SECOND***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1888 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY.
+
+
+
+
+
+A HISTORY
+OF THE
+_EARLY PART OF THE REIGN_
+OF
+JAMES THE SECOND
+
+
+BY
+CHARLES JAMES FOX.
+
+CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
+_LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.
+1888.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Fox's "History of the Reign of James II.," which begins with his view of
+the reign of Charles II. and breaks off at the execution of Monmouth, was
+the beginning of a History of England from the Revolution, upon which he
+worked in the last years of his life, for which he collected materials in
+Paris after the Peace of Amiens, in 1802--he died in September, 1806--and
+which was first published in 1808.
+
+The grandfather of Charles James Fox was Stephen, son of William Fox, of
+Farley, in Wiltshire.  Stephen Fox was a young royalist under Charles I.
+He was twenty-two at the time of the king's execution, went into exile
+during the Commonwealth, came back at the Restoration, was appointed
+paymaster of the first two regiments of guards that were raised, and
+afterwards Paymaster of all the Forces.  In that office he made much
+money, but rebuilt the church at Farley, and earned lasting honour as the
+actual founder of Chelsea Hospital, which was opened in 1682 for wounded
+and superannuated soldiers.  The ground and buildings had been appointed
+by James I., in 1609, as Chelsea College, for the training of disputants
+against the Roman Catholics.  Sir Stephen Fox himself contributed
+thirteen thousand pounds to the carrying out of this design.  Fox's
+History dealt, therefore, with times in which his grandfather had played
+a part.
+
+In 1703, when his age was seventy-six, Stephen Fox took a second wife, by
+whom he had two sons, who became founders of two families; Stephen, the
+elder, became first Earl of Ilchester; Henry, the younger, who married
+Georgina, daughter of the Duke of Richmond, and was himself created, in
+1763, Baron Holland of Farley.  Of the children of that marriage Charles
+James Fox was the third son, born on the 24th of January, 1749.  The
+second son had died in infancy.
+
+Henry Fox inherited Tory opinions.  He was regarded by George II. as a
+good man of business, and was made Secretary of War in 1754, when Charles
+James, whose cleverness made him a favoured child, was five years old.  In
+the next year Henry Fox was Secretary of State for the Southern
+Department.  The outbreak of the Seven Years' War bred discontent and
+change of Ministry.  The elder Fox had then to give place to the elder
+Pitt.  But Henry Fox was compensated by the office of Paymaster of the
+Forces, from which he knew even better than his father had known how to
+extract profit.  He rapidly acquired the wealth which he joined to his
+title as Lord Holland of Farley, and for which he was attacked
+vigorously, until two hundred thousand pounds--some part of the money
+that stayed by him--had been refunded.
+
+Henry Fox, Lord Holland, found his boy, Charles James, brilliant and
+lively, made him a companion, and indulged him to the utmost.  Once he
+expressed a strong desire to break a watch that his father was winding
+up: his father gave it him to dash upon the floor.  Once his father had
+promised that when an old garden wall at Holland House was blown down
+with gunpowder before replacing it with iron railings, he should see the
+explosion.  The workmen blew it down in the boy's absence: his father had
+the wall rebuilt in its old form that it might be blown down again in his
+presence, and his promise kept.  He was sent first to Westminster School,
+and then to Eton.  At home he was his father's companion, joined in the
+talk of men at his father's dinner-parties, travelled at fourteen with
+his father to the Continent, and is said to have been allowed five
+guineas a night for gambling-money.  He grew up reckless of the worth of
+money, and for many years the excitement of gambling was to him as one of
+the necessaries of life.  His immense energy at school and college made
+him work as hard as the most diligent man who did nothing else, and
+devote himself to gambling, horse-racing, and convivial pleasures as
+vigorously as if he were the weak man capable of nothing else.  The Eton
+boys all prophesied his future fame.  At Oxford, where he entered
+Hertford College, he was one of the best men of his time, and one of the
+wildest.  A clergyman, strong in Greek, was arguing with young Fox
+against the genuineness of a verse of the Iliad because its measure was
+unusual.  Fox at once quoted from memory some twenty parallels.
+
+From college he went on the usual tour of Europe, spending lavishly,
+incurring heavy debts, and sending home large bills for his father to
+pay.  One bill alone, paid by his father to a creditor at Naples, was for
+sixteen thousand pounds.  He came back in raiment of the highest fashion,
+and was put into Parliament in 1768, not yet twenty years old, as member
+for Midhurst.  He began his political life with the family opinions,
+defended the Ministry against John Wilkes, and was provided promptly with
+a place as Paymaster of the Pensions to the Widows of Land Officers, and
+then, when he had reached the age of twenty-one, there was a seat found
+for him at the Board of Admiralty.
+
+At once Fox made his mark in the House as a brilliant debater with an
+intellectual power and an industry that made him master of the subjects
+he discussed.  Still also he was scattering money, and incurring debt,
+training race-horses, and staking heavily at gambling tables.  When a
+noble friend, who was not a gambler, offered to bet fifty pounds upon a
+throw, Fox declined, saying, "I never play for pence."
+
+After a few years of impatient submission to Lord North, Fox broke from
+him, and it was not long before he had broken from Lord North's opinions
+and taken the side of the people in all leading questions.  He became the
+friend of Burke; and joined in the attack upon the policy of Coercion
+that destroyed the union between England and her American colonies.  In
+1774, at the age of twenty-five, Fox lost by death his father, his
+mother, and his elder brother, who had succeeded to the title, and who
+had left a little son to be his heir.  In February of that year Lord
+North had finally broken with Fox by causing a letter to be handed to him
+in the House of Commons while he was sitting by his side on the Treasury
+Bench.
+
+   "His Majesty has thought proper to order a new commission of the
+   Treasury to be made out, in which I do not perceive your name.  NORTH."
+
+By the end of the year he was member for Malmesbury, and one of the
+chiefs in opposition.  When Lord North opened the session of 1775 with a
+speech arguing the need of coercion, Fox compared what ought to have been
+done with what was done, and said that Lord Chatham, the King of Prussia,
+nay, even Alexander the Great, never gained more in one campaign than
+Lord North had lost.  He had lost a whole continent.  When Lord North's
+ministry fell in 1782, Fox became a Secretary of State, resigning on the
+death of Rockingham.  In coalition with Lord North, Fox brought in an
+India Bill, which was rejected by the Lords, and caused a resignation of
+the Ministry.  Pitt then came into office, and there was rivalry between
+a Pitt and a Fox of the second generation, with some reversal in each son
+of the political bias of his father.
+
+In opposing the policy that caused the American Revolution Fox and Burke
+were of one mind.  He opposed the slave trade.  After the outbreak of the
+French Revolution he differed from Burke, and resolutely opposed Pitt's
+policy of interference by armed force.
+
+William Pitt died on the 23rd January, 1806.  Charles James Fox became
+again a Secretary of State, and had set on foot negotiations for a peace
+with France before his own death, eight months later, at the age of fifty-
+seven.
+
+During the last ten or twelve years of his life Fox had withdrawn from
+the dissipations of his earlier years.  His interest in horse-racing
+flagged after the death, in 1793, of his friend Lord Foley, a kindly,
+honourable man, upon whose judgment in such matters Fox had greatly
+relied.  Lord Foley began his sporting life with a clear estate of 1,800
+pounds a year, and 100,000 pounds in ready money.  He ended his sporting
+and his earthly life with an estate heavily encumbered and an empty
+pocket.
+
+H. M.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
+
+
+Introductory observations--First period, from Henry VII. to the year
+1588--Second period, from 1588 to 1640--Meeting of Parliament--Redress of
+grievances--Strafford's attainder--The commencement of the Civil
+War--Treaty from the Isle of Wight--The king's execution--Cromwell's
+power; his character--Indifference of the nation respecting forms of
+government--The Restoration--Ministry of Clarendon sod
+Southampton--Cabal--Dutch War--De Witt--The Prince of Orange--The Popish
+plot--The Habeas Corpus Act--The Exclusion Bill--Dissolution of Charles
+the Second's last Parliament--His power; his tyranny in Scotland; in
+England--Exorbitant fines--Executions--Forfeitures of charters--Despotism
+established--Despondency of good men--Charles's death; his
+character--Reflections upon the probable consequences of his reign and
+death.
+
+In reading the history of every country there are certain periods at
+which the mind naturally pauses to meditate upon, and consider them, with
+reference, not only to their immediate effects, but to their more remote
+consequences.  After the wars of Marius and Sylla, and the incorporation,
+as it were, of all Italy with the city of Rome, we cannot but stop to
+consider the consequences likely to result from these important events;
+and in this instance we find them to be just such as might have been
+expected.
+
+The reign of our Henry VII. affords a field of more doubtful speculation.
+Every one who takes a retrospective view of the wars of York and
+Lancaster, and attends to the regulations effected by the policy of that
+prince, must see they would necessarily lead to great and important
+changes in the government; but what the tendency of such changes would
+be, and much more, in what manner they would be produced, might be a
+question of great difficulty.  It is now the generally received opinion,
+and I think a probable opinion, that to the provisions of that reign we
+are to refer the origin, both of the unlimited power of the Tudors and of
+the liberties wrested by our ancestors from the Stuarts; that tyranny was
+their immediate, and liberty their remote, consequence; but he must have
+great confidence in his own sagacity who can satisfy himself that,
+unaided by the knowledge of subsequent events, he could, from a
+consideration of the causes, have foreseen the succession of effects so
+different.
+
+Another period that affords ample scope for speculation of this kind is
+that which is comprised between the years 1588 and 1640, a period of
+almost uninterrupted tranquillity and peace.  The general improvement in
+all arts of civil life, and, above all, the astonishing progress of
+literature, are the most striking among the general features of that
+period, and are in themselves causes sufficient to produce effects of the
+utmost importance.  A country whose language was enriched by the works of
+Hooker, Raleigh, and Bacon, could not but experience a sensible change in
+its manners and in its style of thinking; and even to speak the same
+language in which Spenser and Shakespeare had written seemed a sufficient
+plea to rescue the commons of England from the appellation of brutes,
+with which Henry VIII. had addressed them.  Among the more particular
+effects of this general improvement the most material and worthy to be
+considered appear to me to have been the frequency of debate in the House
+of Commons, and the additional value that came to be set on a seat in
+that assembly.
+
+From these circumstances a sagacious observer may be led to expect the
+most important revolutions; and from the latter he may be enabled to
+foresee that the House of Commons will be the principal instrument in
+bringing them to pass.  But in what manner will that house conduct
+itself?  Will it content itself with its regular share of legislative
+power, and with the influence which it cannot fail to possess whenever it
+exerts itself upon the other branches of the legislative, and on the
+executive power; or will it boldly (perhaps rashly) pretend to a power
+commensurate with the natural rights of the representative of the people?
+If it should, will it not be obliged to support its claims by military
+force?  And how long will such a force be under its control?  How long
+before it follows the usual course of all armies, and ranges itself under
+a single master?  If such a master should arise, will he establish an
+hereditary or an elective government?  If the first, what will be gained
+but a change of dynasty?  If the second, will not the military force, as
+it chose the first king or protector (the name is of no importance),
+choose in effect all his successors?  Or will he fail, and shall we have
+a restoration, usually the most dangerous and worst of all revolutions?
+To some of these questions the answers may, from the experience of past
+ages, be easy, but to many of them far otherwise.  And he will read
+history with most profit who the most canvasses questions of this nature,
+especially if he can divest his mind for the time of the recollection of
+the event as it in fact succeeded.
+
+The next period, as it is that which immediately precedes the
+commencement of this history, requires a more detailed examination; nor
+is there any more fertile of matter, whether for reflection or
+speculation.  Between the year 1640 and the death of Charles II. we have
+the opportunity of contemplating the state in almost every variety of
+circumstance.  Religious dispute, political contest in all its forms and
+degrees, from the honest exertions of party and the corrupt intrigues of
+faction to violence and civil war; despotism, first, in the person of a
+usurper, and afterwards in that of an hereditary king; the most memorable
+and salutary improvements in the laws, the most abandoned administration
+of them; in fine, whatever can happen to a nation, whether of glorious of
+calamitous, makes a part of this astonishing and instructive picture.
+
+The commencement of this period is marked by exertions of the people,
+through their representatives in the House of Commons, not only
+justifiable in their principle, but directed to the properest objects,
+and in a manner the most judicious.  Many of their leaders were greatly
+versed in ancient as well as modern learning, and were even
+enthusiastically attached to the great names of antiquity; but they never
+conceived the wild project of assimilating the government of England to
+that of Athens, of Sparta, or of Rome.  They were content with applying
+to the English constitution, and to the English laws, the spirit of
+liberty which had animated and rendered illustrious the ancient
+republics.  Their first object was to obtain redress of past grievances,
+with a proper regard to the individuals who had suffered; the next, to
+prevent the recurrence of such grievances by the abolition of tyrannical
+tribunals acting upon arbitrary maxims in criminal proceedings, and most
+improperly denominated courts of justice.  They then proceeded to
+establish that fundamental principle of all free government, the
+preserving of the purse to the people and their representatives.  And
+though there may be more difference of opinion upon their proposed
+regulations in regard to the militia, yet surely, when a contest was to
+be foreseen, they could not, consistently with prudence, leave the power
+of the sword altogether in the hands of an adverse party.
+
+The prosecution of Lord Strafford, or rather, the manner in which it was
+carried on, is less justifiable.  He was, doubtless, a great delinquent,
+and well deserved the severest punishment; but nothing short of a clearly
+proved case of self-defence can justify, or even excuse, a departure from
+the sacred rules of criminal justice.  For it can rarely indeed happen
+that the mischief to be apprehended from suffering any criminal, however
+guilty, to escape, can be equal to that resulting from the violation of
+those rules to which the innocent owe the security of all that is dear to
+them.  If such cases have existed they must have been in instances where
+trial has been wholly out of the question, as in that of Caesar and other
+tyrants; but when a man is once in a situation to be tried, and his
+person in the power of his accusers and his judges, he can no longer be
+formidable in that degree which alone can justify (if anything can) the
+violation of the substantial rules of criminal proceedings.
+
+At the breaking out of the Civil War, so intemperately denominated a
+rebellion by Lord Clarendon and other Tory writers, the material question
+appears to me to be, whether or not sufficient attempts were made by the
+Parliament and their leaders to avoid bringing affairs to such a
+decision?  That, according to the general principles of morality, they
+had justice on their side cannot fairly be doubted; but did they
+sufficiently attend to that great dictum of Tully in questions of civil
+dissension, wherein he declares his preference of even an unfair peace to
+the most just war?  Did they sufficiently weigh the dangers that might
+ensue even from victory; dangers, in such cases, little less formidable
+to the cause of liberty than those which might follow a defeat?  Did they
+consider that it is not peculiar to the followers of Pompey, and the
+civil wars of Rome, that the event to be looked for is, as the same Tully
+describes it, in case of defeat--proscription; in that of
+victory--servitude?  Is the failure of the negotiation when the king was
+in the Isle of Wight to be imputed to the suspicions justly entertained
+of his sincerity, or to the ambition of the parliamentary leaders?  If
+the insincerity of the king was the real cause, ought not the mischief to
+be apprehended from his insincerity rather to have been guarded against
+by treaty than alleged as a pretence for breaking off the negotiation?
+Sad, indeed, will be the condition of the world if we are never to make
+peace with an adverse party whose sincerity we have reason to suspect.
+Even just grounds for such suspicions will but too often occur, and when
+such fail, the proneness of man to impute evil qualities, as well as evil
+designs, to his enemies, will suggest false ones.  In the present case
+the suspicion of insincerity was, it is true, so just, as to amount to a
+moral certainty.  The example of the petition of right was a satisfactory
+proof that the king made no point of adhering to concessions which he
+considered as extorted from him; and a philosophical historian, writing
+above a century after the time, can deem the pretended hard usage Charles
+met with as a sufficient excuse for his breaking his faith in the first
+instance, much more must that prince himself, with all his prejudices and
+notions of his divine right, have thought it justifiable to retract
+concessions, which to him, no doubt, appeared far more unreasonable than
+the petition of right, and which, with much more colour, he might
+consider as extorted.  These considerations were probably the cause why
+the Parliament so long delayed their determination of accepting the
+king's offer as a basis for treaty; but, unfortunately, they had delayed
+so long that when at last they adopted it they found themselves without
+power to carry it into execution.  The army having now ceased to be the
+servants, had become the masters of the Parliament, and, being entirely
+influenced by Cromwell, gave a commencement to what may, properly
+speaking, be called a new reign.  The subsequent measures, therefore, the
+execution of the king, as well as others, are not to be considered as
+acts of the Parliament, but of Cromwell; and great and respectable as are
+the names of some who sat in the high court, they must be regarded, in
+this instance, rather as ministers of that usurper than as acting from
+themselves.
+
+The execution of the king, though a far less violent measure than that of
+Lord Strafford, is an event of so singular a nature that we cannot wonder
+that it should have excited more sensation than any other in the annals
+of England.  This exemplary act of substantial justice, as it has been
+called by some, of enormous wickedness by others, must be considered in
+two points of view.  First, was it not in itself just and necessary?
+Secondly, was the example of it likely to be salutary or pernicious?  In
+regard to the first of these questions, Mr. Hume, not perhaps
+intentionally, makes the best justification of it by saying that while
+Charles lived the projected republic could never be secure.  But to
+justify taking away the life of an individual upon the principle of self-
+defence, the danger must be not problematical and remote, but evident and
+immediate.  The danger in this instance was not of such a nature, and the
+imprisonment or even banishment of Charles might have given to the
+republic such a degree of security as any government ought to be content
+with.  It must be confessed, however, on the other aide, that if the
+republican government had suffered the king to escape, it would have been
+an act of justice and generosity wholly unexampled; and to have granted
+him even his life would have been one among the more rare efforts of
+virtue.  The short interval between the deposal and death of princes is
+become proverbial, and though there may be some few examples on the other
+side as far as life is concerned, I doubt whether a single instance can
+be found where liberty has been granted to a deposed monarch.  Among the
+modes of destroying persons in such a situation, there can be little
+doubt but that that adopted by Cromwell and his adherents is the least
+dishonourable.  Edward II., Richard II., Henry VI., Edward V., had none
+of them long survived their deposal, but this was the first instance, in
+our history at least, where, of such an act, it could be truly said that
+it was not done in a corner.
+
+As to the second question, whether the advantage to be derived from the
+example was such as to justify an act of such violence, it appears to me
+to be a complete solution of it to observe that, with respect to England
+(and I know not upon what ground we are to set examples for other
+nations; or, in other words, to take the criminal justice of the world
+into our hands) it was wholly needless, and therefore unjustifiable, to
+set one for kings at a time when it was intended the office of king
+should be abolished, and consequently that no person should be in the
+situation to make it the rule of his conduct.  Besides, the miseries
+attendant upon a deposed monarch seem to be sufficient to deter any
+prince, who thinks of consequences, from running the risk of being placed
+in such a situation; or, if death be the only evil that can deter him,
+the fate of former tyrants deposed by their subjects would by no means
+encourage him to hope he could avoid even that catastrophe.  As far as we
+can judge from the event, the example was certainly not very effectual,
+since both the sons of Charles, though having their father's fate before
+their eyes, yet feared not to violate the liberties of the people even
+more than he had attempted to do.
+
+If we consider this question of example in a more extended view, and look
+to the general effect produced upon the minds of men, it cannot be
+doubted but the opportunity thus given to Charles to display his firmness
+and piety has created more respect for his memory than it could otherwise
+have obtained.  Respect and pity for the sufferer on the one hand, and
+hatred to his enemies on the other, soon produce favour and aversion to
+their respective causes; and thus, even though it should be admitted
+(which is doubtful) that some advantage may have been gained to the cause
+of liberty by the terror of the example operating upon the minds of
+princes, such advantage is far outweighed by the zeal which admiration
+for virtue, and pity for sufferings, the best passions of the human
+heart, have excited in favour of the royal cause.  It has been thought
+dangerous to the morals of mankind, even in fiction and romance, to make
+us sympathise with characters whose general conduct is blameable; but how
+much greater must the effect be when in real history our feelings are
+interested in favour of a monarch with whom, to say the least, his
+subjects were obliged to contend in arms for their liberty?  After all,
+however, notwithstanding what the more reasonable part of mankind may
+think upon this question, it is much to be doubted whether this singular
+proceeding has not as much as any other circumstance, served to raise the
+character of the English nation in the opinion of Europe in general.  He
+who has read, and still more, he who has heard in conversation
+discussions upon this subject by foreigners, must have perceived that,
+even in the minds of those who condemn the act, the impression made by it
+has been far more that of respect and admiration than that of disgust and
+horror.  The truth is that the guilt of the action--that is to say, the
+taking away of the life of the king, is what most men in the place of
+Cromwell and his associates would have incurred; what there is of
+splendour and of magnanimity in it, I mean the publicity and solemnity of
+the act, is what few would be capable of displaying.  It is a degrading
+fact to human nature, that even the sending away of the Duke of
+Gloucester was an instance of generosity almost unexampled in the history
+of transactions of this nature.
+
+From the execution of the king to the death of Cromwell, the government
+was, with some variation of forms, in substance monarchical and absolute,
+as a government established by a military force will almost invariably
+be, especially when the exertions of such a force are continued for any
+length of time.  If to this general rule our own age, and a people whom
+their origin and near relation to us would almost warrant us to call our
+own nation, have afforded a splendid and perhaps a solitary exception, we
+must reflect not only that a character of virtues so happily tempered by
+one another, and so wholly unalloyed with any vices, as that of
+Washington, is hardly to be found in the pages of history, but that even
+Washington himself might not have been able to act his most glorious of
+all parts without the existence of circumstances uncommonly favourable,
+and almost peculiar to the country which was to be the theatre of it.
+Virtue like his depends not indeed upon time or place; but although in no
+country or time would he have degraded himself into a Pisistratus, or a
+Caesar, or a Cromwell, he might have shared the fate of a Cato, or a De
+Witt; or, like Ludlow and Sidney, have mourned in exile the lost
+liberties of his country.
+
+With the life of the protector almost immediately ended the government
+which he had established.  The great talents of this extraordinary person
+had supported during his life a system condemned equally by reason and by
+prejudice: by reason, as wanting freedom; by prejudice, as a usurpation;
+and it must be confessed to be no mean testimony to his genius, that
+notwithstanding the radical defects of such a system, the splendour of
+his character and exploits render the era of the protectorship one of the
+most brilliant in English history.  It is true his conduct in foreign
+concerns is set off to advantage by a comparison of it with that of those
+who preceded and who followed him.  If he made a mistake in espousing the
+French interest instead of the Spanish, we should recollect that in
+examining this question we must divest our minds entirely of all the
+considerations which the subsequent relative state of those two empires
+suggest to us before we can become impartial judges in it; and at any
+rate we must allow his reign, in regard to European concerns, to have
+been most glorious when contrasted with the pusillanimity of James I.,
+with the levity of Charles I., and the mercenary meanness of the two last
+princes of the house of Stuart.  Upon the whole, the character of
+Cromwell must ever stand high in the list of those who raised themselves
+to supreme power by the force of their genius; and among such, even in
+respect of moral virtue, it would be found to be one of the least
+exceptionable if it had not been tainted with that most odious and
+degrading of all human vices, hypocrisy.
+
+The short interval between Cromwell's death and the restoration exhibits
+the picture of a nation either so wearied with changes as not to feel, or
+so subdued by military power as not to dare to show, any care or even
+preference with regard to the form of their government.  All was in the
+army; and that army, by such a concurrence of fortuitous circumstances as
+history teaches us not to be surprised at, had fallen into the hands of a
+man than whom a baser could not be found in its lowest ranks.  Personal
+courage appears to have been Monk's only virtue; reserve and
+dissimulation made up the whole stock of his wisdom.  But to this man did
+the nation look up, ready to receive from his orders the form of
+government he should choose to prescribe.  There is reason to believe
+that, from the general bias of the Presbyterians, as well as of the
+Cavaliers, monarchy was the prevalent wish; but it is observable that
+although the Parliament was, contrary to the principle upon which it was
+pretended to be called, composed of many avowed royalists, yet none dared
+to hint at the restoration of the king till they had Monk's permission,
+or rather command to receive and consider his letters.  It is impossible,
+in reviewing the whole of this transaction, not to remark that a general
+who had gained his rank, reputation, and station in the service of a
+republic, and of what he, as well as others, called, however falsely, the
+cause of liberty, made no scruple to lay the nation prostrate at the feet
+of a monarch, without a single provision in favour of that cause; and if
+the promise of indemnity may seem to argue that there was some attention,
+at least, paid to the safety of his associates in arms, his subsequent
+conduct gives reason to suppose that even this provision was owing to any
+other cause rather than to a generous feeling of his breast.  For he
+afterwards not only acquiesced in the insults so meanly put upon the
+illustrious corpse of Blake, under whose auspices and command he had
+performed the most creditable services of his life, but in the trial of
+Argyle produced letters of friendship and confidence to take away the
+life of a nobleman, the zeal and cordiality of whose co-operation with
+him, proved by such documents, was the chief ground of his execution;
+thus gratuitously surpassing in infamy those miserable wretches who, to
+save their own lives, are sometimes persuaded to impeach and swear away
+the lives of their accomplices.
+
+The reign of Charles II. forms one of the most singular as well as of the
+most important periods of history.  It is the era of good laws and bad
+government.  The abolition of the court of wards, the repeal of the writ
+De Heretico Comburendo, the Triennial Parliament Bill, the establishment
+of the rights of the House of Commons in regard to impeachment, the
+expiration of the Licence Act, and, above all, the glorious statute of
+Habeas Corpus, have therefore induced a modern writer of great eminence
+to fix the year 1679 as the period at which our constitution had arrived
+at its greatest theoretical perfection; but he owns, in a short note upon
+the passage alluded to, that the times immediately following were times
+of great practical oppression.  What a field for meditation does this
+short observation from such a man furnish!  What reflections does it not
+suggest to a thinking mind upon the inefficacy of human laws and the
+imperfection of human constitutions!  We are called from the
+contemplation of the progress of our constitution, and our attention
+fixed with the most minute accuracy to a particular point, when it is
+said to have risen to its utmost perfection.  Here we are, then, at the
+best moment of the best constitution that ever human wisdom framed.  What
+follows?  A tide of oppression and misery, not arising from external or
+accidental causes, such as war, pestilence, or famine, nor even from any
+such alteration of the laws as might be supposed to impair this boasted
+perfection, but from a corrupt and wicked administration, which all the
+so much admired checks of the constitution were not able to prevent.  How
+vain, then, how idle, how presumptuous is the opinion that laws can do
+everything! and how weak and pernicious the maxim founded upon it, that
+measures, not men, are to be attended to.
+
+The first years of this reign, under the administration of Southampton
+and Clarendon, form by far the least exceptionable part of it; and even
+in this period the executions of Argyle and Vane and the whole conduct of
+the Government with respect to church matters, both in England and in
+Scotland, were gross instances of tyranny.  With respect to the execution
+of those who were accused of having been more immediately concerned in
+the king's death, that of Scrope, who had come in upon the proclamation,
+and of the military officers who had attended the trial, was a violation
+of every principle of law and justice.  But the fate of the others,
+though highly dishonourable to Monk, whose whole power had arisen from
+his zeal in their service, and the favour and confidence with which they
+had rewarded him, and not, perhaps, very creditable to the nation, of
+which many had applauded, more had supported, and almost all had
+acquiesced in the act, is not certainly to be imputed as a crime to the
+king, or to those of his advisers who were of the Cavalier party.  The
+passion of revenge, though properly condemned both by philosophy and
+religion, yet when it is excited by injurious treatment of persons justly
+dear to us, is among the most excusable of human frailties; and if
+Charles, in his general conduct, had shown stronger feelings of gratitude
+for services performed to his father, his character, in the eyes of many,
+would be rather raised than lowered by this example of severity against
+the regicides.  Clarendon is said to have been privy to the king's
+receiving money from Louis XIV.; but what proofs exist of this charge
+(for a heavy charge it is) I know not.  Southampton was one of the very
+few of the Royalist party who preserved any just regard for the liberties
+of the people; and the disgust which a person possessed of such
+sentiments must unavoidably feel is said to have determined him to quit
+the king's service, and to retire altogether from public affairs.  Whether
+he would have acted upon this determination, his death, which happened in
+the year 1667, prevents us now from ascertaining.
+
+After the fall of Clarendon, which soon followed, the king entered into
+that career of misgovernment which, that he was able to pursue it to its
+end, is a disgrace to the history of our country.  If anything can add to
+our disgust at the meanness with which he solicited a dependence upon
+Louis XIV., it is, the hypocritical pretence upon which he was
+continually pressing that monarch.  After having passed a law, making it
+penal to affirm (what was true) that he was a papist, he pretended (which
+was certainly not true) to be a zealous and bigoted papist; and the
+uneasiness of his conscience at so long delaying a public avowal of his
+conversion, was more than once urged by him as an argument to increase
+the pension, and to accelerate the assistance, he was to receive from
+France.  In a later period of his reign, when his interest, as he
+thought, lay the other way, that he might at once continue to earn his
+wages, and yet put off a public conversion, he stated some scruples,
+contracted, no doubt, by his affection to the Protestant churches, in
+relation to the popish mode of giving the sacrament, and pretended a wish
+that the pope might be induced by Louis to consider of some alterations
+in that respect, to enable him to reconcile himself to the Roman church
+with a clear and pure conscience.
+
+The ministry known by the name of the Cabal seems to have consisted of
+characters so unprincipled, as justly to deserve the severity with which
+they have been treated by all writers who have mentioned them; but if it
+is probable that they were ready to betray their king, as well as their
+country, it is certain that the king betrayed them, keeping from them the
+real state of his connexion with France, and from some of them, at least,
+the secret of what he was pleased to call his religion.  Whether this
+concealment on his part arose from his habitual treachery, and from the
+incapacity which men of that character feel of being open and honest,
+even when they know it is their interest to be so, or from an
+apprehension that they might demand for themselves some share of the
+French money, which he was unwilling to give them, cannot now be
+determined.  But to the want of genuine and reciprocal confidence between
+him and those ministers is to be attributed, in a great measure, the
+escape which the nation at that time experienced--an escape, however,
+which proved to be only a reprieve from that servitude to which they were
+afterwards reduced in the latter years of the reign.
+
+The first Dutch war had been undertaken against all maxims of policy as
+well as of justice; but the superior infamy of the second, aggravated by
+the disappointment of all the hopes entertained by good men from the
+triple alliance, and by the treacherous attempt at piracy with which it
+was commenced, seems to have effaced the impression of it, not only from
+the minds of men living at the time, but from most of the writers who
+have treated of this reign.  The principle, however, of both was the
+same, and arbitrary power at home was the object of both.  The second
+Dutch war rendered the king's system and views so apparent to all who
+were not determined to shut their eyes against conviction, that it is
+difficult to conceive how persons who had any real care or regard either
+for the liberty or honour of the country, could trust him afterwards.  And
+yet even Sir William Temple, who appears to have been one of the most
+honest, as well as of the most enlightened, statesmen of his time, could
+not believe his treachery to be quite so deep as it was in fact, and
+seems occasionally to have hoped that he was in earnest in his professed
+intentions of following the wise and just system that was recommended to
+him.  Great instances of credulity and blindness in wise men are often
+liable to the suspicion of being pretended, for the purpose of justifying
+the continuing in situations of power and employment longer than strict
+honour would allow.  But to Temple's sincerity his subsequent conduct
+gives abundant testimony.  When he had reason to think that his services
+could no longer be useful to his country he withdrew wholly from public
+business, and resolutely adhered to the preference of philosophical
+retirement, which, in his circumstances, was just, in spite of every
+temptation which occurred to bring him back to the more active scene.  The
+remainder of his life he seems to have employed in the most noble
+contemplations and the most elegant amusements; every enjoyment
+heightened, no doubt, by reflecting on the honourable part he had acted
+in public affairs, and without any regret on his own account (whatever he
+might feel for his country) at having been driven from them.
+
+Besides the important consequences produced by this second Dutch war in
+England, it gave birth to two great events in Holland; the one as
+favourable as the other was disastrous to the cause of general liberty.
+The catastrophe of De Witt, the wisest, best, and most truly patriotic
+minister that ever appeared upon the public stage, as it was an act of
+the most crying injustice and ingratitude, so, likewise, is it the most
+completely discouraging example that history affords to the lovers of
+liberty.  If Aristides was banished, he was also recalled; if Dion was
+repaid for his services to the Syracusans by ingratitude, that
+ingratitude was more than once repented of; if Sidney and Russell died
+upon the scaffold, they had not the cruel mortification of falling by the
+hands of the people; ample justice was done to their memory, and the very
+sound of their names is still animating to every Englishman attached to
+their glorious cause.  But with De Witt fell also his cause and his
+party; and although a name so respected by all who revere virtue and
+wisdom, when employed in their noblest sphere, the political service of
+the public, must undoubtedly be doubly dear to his countrymen, yet I do
+not know that, even to this day, any public honours have been paid by
+them to his memory.
+
+On the other hand, the circumstances attending the first appearance of
+the Prince of Orange in public affairs, were, in every respect, most
+fortunate for himself, for England, for Europe.  Of an age to receive the
+strongest impressions, and of a character to render such impressions
+durable, he entered the world in a moment when the calamitous situation
+of the United Provinces could not but excite in every Dutchman the
+strongest detestation of the insolent ambition of Louis XIV., and the
+greatest contempt of an English government, which could so far mistake or
+betray the interests of the country as to lend itself to his projects.
+Accordingly, the circumstances attending his outset seem to have given a
+lasting bias to his character; and through the whole course of his life
+the prevailing sentiments of his mind seem to have been those which he
+imbibed at this early period.  These sentiments were most peculiarly
+adapted to the positions in which this great man was destined to be
+placed.  The light in which he viewed Louis rendered him the fittest
+champion of the independence of Europe; and in England, French influence
+and arbitrary power were in those times so intimately connected, that he
+who had not only seen with disapprobation, but had so sensibly felt the
+baneful effects of Charles's connection with France, seemed educated, as
+it were, to be the defender of English liberty.  This prince's struggles
+in defence of his country, his success in rescuing it from a situation to
+all appearance so desperate, and the consequent failure and mortification
+of Louis XIV., form a scene in history upon which the mind dwells with
+unceasing delight.  One never can read Louis's famous declaration against
+the Hollanders, knowing the event which is to follow, without feeling the
+heart dilate with exultation, and a kind of triumphant contempt, which,
+though not quite consonant to the principles of pure philosophy, never
+fails to give the mind inexpressible satisfaction.  Did the relation of
+such events form the sole, or even any considerable part of the
+historian's task, pleasant indeed would be his labours; but, though far
+less agreeable, it is not a less useful or necessary part of his
+business, to relate the triumphs of successful wickedness, and the
+oppression of truth, justice, and liberty.
+
+The interval from the separate peace between England and the United
+Provinces, to the peace of Nymwegen, was chiefly employed by Charles in
+attempts to obtain money from France and other foreign powers, in which
+he was sometimes more, sometimes less successful; and in various false
+professions, promises, and other devices to deceive his parliament and
+his people, in which he uniformly failed.  Though neither the nature and
+extent of his connection with France, nor his design of introducing
+popery into England, were known at that time as they now are, yet there
+were not wanting many indications of the king's disposition, and of the
+general tendency of his designs.  Reasonable persons apprehended that the
+supplies asked were intended to be used, not for the specious purpose of
+maintaining the balance of Europe, but for that of subduing the
+parliament and people who should give them; and the great antipathy of
+the bulk of the nation to popery caused many to be both more
+clear-sighted in discovering, and more resolute in resisting the designs
+of the court, than they would probably have shown themselves, if civil
+liberty alone had been concerned.
+
+When the minds of men were in the disposition which such a state of
+things was naturally calculated to produce, it is not to be wondered at
+that a ready, and, perhaps, a too facile belief should have been accorded
+to the rumour of a popish plot.  But with the largest possible allowance
+for the just apprehensions which were entertained, and the consequent
+irritation of the country, it is wholly inconceivable how such a plot as
+that brought forward by Tongue and Oates could obtain any general belief.
+Nor can any stretch of candour make us admit it to be probable, that all
+who pretended a belief of it did seriously entertain it.  On the other
+hand, it seems an absurdity, equal almost in degree to the belief of the
+plot itself, to suppose that it was a story fabricated by the Earl of
+Shaftesbury and the other leaders of the Whig party; and it would be
+highly unjust, as well as uncharitable, not to admit that the generality
+of those who were engaged in the prosecution of it were probably sincere
+in their belief of it, since it is unquestionable that at the time very
+many persons, whose political prejudices were of a quite different
+complexion, were under the same delusion.  The unanimous votes of the two
+houses of parliament, and the names, as well as the number of those who
+pronounced Lord Strafford to be guilty, seem to put this beyond a doubt.
+Dryden, writing soon after the time, says, in his "Absalom and
+Achitophel," that the plot was
+
+   "Bad in itself, but represented wore:"
+
+that
+
+   "Some truth there was, but dash'd and brew'd with lies:"
+
+and that
+
+   "Succeeding times did equal folly call,
+   Believing nothing, or believing all."
+
+and Dryden will not, by those who are conversant in the history and works
+of that immortal writer, be suspected either of party prejudice in favour
+of Shaftesbury and the Whigs, or of any view to prejudice the country
+against the Duke of York's succession to the crown.  The king repeatedly
+declared his belief of it.  These declarations, if sincere, would have
+some weight; but if insincere, as may be reasonably suspected, they
+afford a still stronger testimony to prove that such belief was not
+exclusively a party opinion, since it cannot be supposed that even the
+crooked politics of Charles could have led him to countenance fictions of
+his enemies, which were not adopted by his own party.  Wherefore, if this
+question were to be decided upon the ground of authority, the reality of
+the plot would be admitted; and it must be confessed, that, with regard
+to facts remote, in respect either of time or place, wise men generally
+diffide in their own judgment, and defer to that of those who have had a
+nearer view of them.  But there are cases where reason speaks so plainly
+as to make all argument drawn from authority of no avail, and this is
+surely one of them.  Not to mention correspondence by post on the subject
+of regicide, detailed commissions from the pope, silver bullets, &c. &c.,
+and other circumstances equally ridiculous, we need only advert to the
+part attributed to the Spanish government in this conspiracy, and to the
+alleged intention of murdering the king, to satisfy ourselves that it was
+a forgery.
+
+Rapin, who argues the whole of this affair with a degree of weakness as
+well as disingenuity very unusual to him, seems at last to offer us a
+kind of compromise, and to be satisfied if we will admit that there was a
+design or project to introduce popery and an arbitrary power, at the head
+of which were the king and his brother.  Of this I am as much convinced
+as he can be; but how does this justify the prosecution and execution of
+those who suffered, since few if any of them, were in a situation to be
+trusted by the royal conspirators with their designs?  When he says,
+therefore, that that is precisely what was understood by the conspiracy,
+he by no means justifies those who were the principal prosecutors of the
+plot.  The design to murder the king he calls the appendage of the plot:
+a strange expression this, to describe the projected murder of a king;
+though not more strange than the notion itself when applied to a plot,
+the object of which was to render that very king absolute, and to
+introduce the religion which he most favoured.  But it is to be observed,
+that though in considering the bill of exclusion, the militia bill, and
+other legislative proceedings, the plot, as he defines it--that is to
+say, the design of introducing popery and arbitrary power--was the
+important point to be looked to; yet in courts of justice, and for juries
+and judges, that which he calls the appendage was, generally speaking,
+the sole consideration.
+
+Although, therefore, upon a review of this truly shocking transaction, we
+may be fairly justified in adopting the milder alternative, and in
+imputing to the greater part of those concerned in it rather an
+extraordinary degree of blind credulity than the deliberate wickedness of
+planning and assisting in the perpetration of legal murders, yet the
+proceedings on the popish plot must always be considered as an indelible
+disgrace upon the English nation, in which king, parliament, judges,
+juries, witnesses, prosecutors, have all their respective, though
+certainly not equal, shares.  Witnesses, of such a character as not to
+deserve credit in the most trifling cause, upon the most immaterial
+facts, gave evidence so incredible, or, to speak more properly, so
+impossible to be true, that it ought not to have been believed if it had
+come from the mouth of Cato; and upon such evidence, from such witnesses,
+were innocent men condemned to death and executed.  Prosecutors, whether
+attorneys and solicitors-general, or managers of impeachment, acted with
+the fury which in such circumstances might be expected; juries partook
+naturally enough of the national ferment; and judges, whose duty it was
+to guard them against such impressions, were scandalously active in
+confirming them in their prejudices and inflaming their passions.  The
+king, who is supposed to have disbelieved the whole of the plot, never
+once exercised his glorious prerogative of mercy.  It is said he dared
+not.  His throne, perhaps his life, was at stake; and history does not
+furnish us with the example of any monarch with whom the lives of
+innocent or even meritorious subjects ever appeared to be of much weight,
+when put in balance against such considerations.
+
+The measures of the prevailing party in the House of Commons, in these
+times, appear (with the exception of their dreadful proceedings in the
+business of the pretended plot, and of their violence towards those who
+petitioned and addressed against parliament) to have been, in general,
+highly laudable and meritorious; and yet I am afraid it may be justly
+suspected that it was precisely to that part of their conduct which
+related to the plot, and which is most reprehensible, that they were
+indebted for their power to make the noble, and, in some instances,
+successful struggles for liberty, which do so much honour to their
+memory.  The danger to be apprehended from military force being always,
+in the view of wise men, the most urgent, they first voted the disbanding
+of the army, and the two houses passed a bill for that purpose, to which
+the king found himself obliged to consent.  But to the bill which
+followed, for establishing the regular assembling of the militia, and for
+providing for their being in arms six weeks in the year, he opposed his
+royal negative; thus making his stand upon the same point on which his
+father had done; a circumstance which, if events had taken a turn against
+him, would not have failed of being much noticed by historians.  Civil
+securities for freedom came to be afterwards considered; and it is to be
+remarked, that to these times of heat and passion, and to one of those
+parliaments which so disgraced themselves and the nation by the
+countenance given to Oates and Bedloe, and by the persecution of so many
+innocent victims, we are indebted for the Habeas Corpus act, the most
+important barrier against tyranny, and best framed protection for the
+liberty of individuals, that has ever existed in any ancient or modern
+commonwealth.
+
+But the inefficacy of mere laws in favour of the subjects, in the case of
+the administration of them falling into the hands of persons hostile to
+the spirit in which they had been provided, had been so fatally evinced
+by the general history of England, ever since the grant of the Great
+Charter, and more especially by the transactions of the preceding reign,
+that the parliament justly deemed their work incomplete unless the Duke
+of York were excluded from the succession to the crown.  A bill,
+therefore, for the purpose of excluding that prince was prepared, and
+passed the House of Commons; but being vigorously resisted by the court,
+by the church, and by the Tories, was lost in the House of Lords.  The
+restrictions offered by the king to be put upon a popish successor are
+supposed to have been among the most powerful of those means to which he
+was indebted for his success.
+
+The dispute was no longer, whether or not the dangers resulting from
+James's succession were real, and such as ought to be guarded against by
+parliamentary provisions, but whether the exclusion or restrictions
+furnished the most safe and eligible mode of compassing the object which
+both sides pretended to have in view.  The argument upon this state of
+the question is clearly, forcibly, and, I think, convincingly, stated by
+Rapin, who exposes very ably the extreme folly of trusting to measures,
+without consideration of the men who are to execute them.  Even in Hume's
+statement of the question, whatever may have been his intention, the
+arguments in favour of the exclusion appear to me greatly to
+preponderate.  Indeed, it is not easy to conceive upon what principles
+even the Tories could justify their support of the restrictions.  Many
+among them, no doubt, saw the provisions in the same light in which the
+Whigs represented them, as an expedient, admirably, indeed, adapted to
+the real object of upholding the present king's power, by the defeat of
+the exclusion, but never likely to take effect for their pretended
+purpose of controlling that of his successor, and supported them for that
+very reason.  But such a principle of conduct was too fraudulent to be
+avowed; nor ought it, perhaps, in candour to be imputed to the majority
+of the party.  To those who acted with good faith, and meant that the
+restrictions should really take place and be effectual, surely it ought
+to have occurred (and to those who most prized the prerogatives of the
+crown it ought most forcibly to have occurred), that in consenting to
+curtail the powers of the crown, rather than to alter the succession,
+they were adopting the greater in order to avoid the lesser evil.  The
+question of what are to be the powers of the crown, is surely of superior
+importance to that of who shall wear it?  Those, at least, who consider
+the royal prerogative as vested in the king, not for his sake but for
+that of his subjects, must consider the one of these questions as much
+above the other in dignity as the rights of the public are more valuable
+than those of an individual.  In this view the prerogatives of the crown
+are, in substance and effect, the rights of the people; and these rights
+of the people were not to be sacrificed to the purpose of preserving the
+succession to the most favoured prince much less to one who, on account
+of his religious persuasion, was justly feared and suspected.  In truth,
+the question between the exclusion and restrictions seems peculiarly
+calculated to ascertain the different views in which the different
+parties in this country have seen, and perhaps ever will see, the
+prerogatives of the crown.  The Whigs, who consider them as a trust for
+the people--a doctrine which the Tories themselves, when pushed in
+argument, will sometimes admit--naturally think it their duty rather to
+change the manager of the trust than to impair the subject of it; while
+others, who consider them as the right or property of the king, will as
+naturally act as they would do in the case of any other property, and
+consent to the loss or annihilation of any part of it, for the purpose of
+preserving the remainder to him whom they style the rightful owner.  If
+the people be the sovereign and the king the delegate, it is better to
+change the bailiff than to injure the farm; but if the king be the
+proprietor, it is better the farm should be impaired--nay, part of it
+destroyed--than that the whole should pass over to an usurper.  The royal
+prerogative ought, according to the Whigs (not in the case of a popish
+successor only, but in all cases), to be reduced to such powers as are in
+their exercise beneficial to the people; and of the benefit of these they
+will not rashly suffer the people to be deprived, whether the executive
+power be in the hands of an hereditary or of an elected king, of a
+regent, or of any other denomination of magistrate; while, on the other
+hand, they who consider prerogative with reference only to royalty, will,
+with equal readiness, consent either to the extension or the suspension
+of its exercise, as the occasional interests of the prince may seem to
+require.  The senseless plea of a divine and indefeasible right in James,
+which even the legislature was incompetent to set aside, though as
+inconsistent with the declarations of parliament in the statute book, and
+with the whole practice of the English constitution, as it is repugnant
+to nature and common sense, was yet warmly insisted upon by the high
+church party.  Such an argument, as might naturally be expected, operated
+rather to provoke the Whigs to perseverance than to dissuade them from
+their measure: it was, in their eyes, an additional merit belonging to
+the exclusion bill that it strengthened, by one instance more, the
+authority of former statutes in reprobating a doctrine which seems to
+imply that man can have a property in his fellow-creatures.  By far the
+best argument in favour of the restrictions, is the practical one that
+they could be obtained, and that the exclusion could not; but the value
+of this argument is chiefly proved by the event.  The exclusionists had a
+fair prospect of success, and their plan being clearly the best, they
+were justified in pursuing it.
+
+The spirit of resistance which the king showed in the instance of the
+militia and the exclusion bills, seems to have been systematically
+confined to those cases where he supposed his power to be more
+immediately concerned.  In the prosecution of the aged and innocent Lord
+Stafford, he was so far from interfering in behalf of that nobleman, that
+many of those most in his confidence, and, as it is affirmed, the Duchess
+of Portsmouth herself, openly favoured the prosecution.  Even after the
+dissolution of him last parliament, when he had so far subdued his
+enemies as to be no longer under any apprehensions from them, he did not
+think it worth while to save the life of Plunket, the popish Archbishop
+of Armagh, of whose innocence no doubt could be entertained.  But this is
+not to be wondered at, since, in all transactions relative to the popish
+plot, minds of a very different cast from Charles's became, as by some
+fatality, divested of all their wonted sentiments of justice and
+humanity.  Who can read without horror, the account of that savage murmur
+of applause, which broke out upon one of the villains at the bar,
+swearing positively to Stafford's having proposed the murder of the king?
+And how is this horror deepened, when we reflect, that in that odious cry
+were probably mingled the voices of men to whose memory every lover of
+the English constitution is bound to pay the tribute of gratitude and
+respect!  Even after condemnation, Lord Russell himself, whose character
+is wholly (this instance excepted) free from the stain of rancour or
+cruelty, stickled for the severer mode of executing the sentence, in a
+manner which his fear of the king's establishing a precedent of pardoning
+in cases of impeachment (for this, no doubt, was his motive) cannot
+satisfactorily excuse.
+
+In an early period of the king's difficulties, Sir William Temple, whose
+life and character is a refutation of the vulgar notion that philosophy
+and practical good sense in business are incompatible attainments,
+recommended to him the plan of governing by a council, which was to
+consist in great part of the most popular noblemen and gentlemen in the
+kingdom.  Such persons being the natural, as well as the safest,
+mediators between princes and discontented subjects, this seems to have
+been the best possible expedient.  Hume says it was found too feeble a
+remedy; but he does not take notice that it was never in fact tried,
+inasmuch as not only the king's confidence was withheld from the most
+considerable members of the council, but even the most important
+determinations were taken without consulting the council itself.  Nor can
+there be a doubt but the king's views, in adopting Temple's advice, were
+totally different from those of the adviser, whose only error in this
+transaction seems to have consisted in recommending a plan, wherein
+confidence and fair dealing were of necessity to be principal
+ingredients, to a prince whom he well knew to be incapable of either.
+Accordingly, having appointed the council in April, with a promise of
+being governed in important matters by their advice, he in July dissolved
+one parliament without their concurrence, and in October forbade them
+even to give their opinions upon the propriety of a resolution which he
+had taken of proroguing another.  From that time he probably considered
+the council to be, as it was, virtually dissolved; and it was not long
+before means presented themselves to him, better adapted, in his
+estimation, even to his immediate objects, and certainly more suitable to
+his general designs.  The union between the court and the church party,
+which had been so closely cemented by their successful resistance to the
+Exclusion Bill, and its authors, had at length acquired such a degree of
+strength and consistency, that the king ventured first to appoint Oxford,
+instead of London, for the meeting of parliament; and then, having
+secured to himself a good pension from France, to dissolve the parliament
+there met, with a full resolution never to call another; to which
+resolution, indeed, Louis had bound him, as one of the conditions on
+which he was to receive a stipend.  No measure was ever attended with
+more complete success.  The most flattering addresses poured in from all
+parts of the kingdom; divine right, and indiscriminate obedience, were
+everywhere the favourite doctrines; and men seemed to vie with each other
+who should have the honour of the greatest share in the glorious work of
+slavery, by securing to the king, for the present, and after him to the
+duke, absolute and uncontrollable power.  They who, either because
+Charles had been called a forgiving prince by his flatterers (upon what
+ground I could never discover), or from some supposed connection between
+indolence and good nature, had deceived themselves into a hope that his
+tyranny would be of the milder sort, found themselves much disappointed
+in their expectations.
+
+The whole history of the remaining part of his reign exhibits an
+uninterrupted series of attacks upon the liberty, property, and lives of
+his subjects.  The character of the government appeared first, and with
+the most marked and prominent features, in Scotland.  The condemnation of
+Argyle and Weir, the one for having subjoined an explanation when he took
+the test oath, the other for having kept company with a rebel, whom it
+was not proved he knew to be such, and who had never been proclaimed,
+resemble more the acts of Tiberius and Domitian, than those of even the
+most arbitrary modern governments.  It is true, the sentences were not
+executed; Weir was reprieved; and whether or not Argyle, if he had not
+deemed it more prudent to escape by flight, would have experienced the
+same clemency, cannot now be ascertained.  The terror of these examples
+would have been, in the judgment of most men, abundantly sufficient to
+teach the people of Scotland their duty, and to satisfy them that their
+lives, as well as everything else they had been used to call their own,
+were now completely in the power of their masters.  But the government
+did not stop here, and having outlawed thousands, upon the same pretence
+upon which Weir had been condemned, inflicted capital punishment upon
+such criminals of both sexes as refused to answer, or answered otherwise
+than was prescribed to them to the most ensnaring questions.
+
+In England, the city of London seemed to hold out for a certain time,
+like a strong fortress in a conquered country; and, by means of this
+citadel, Shaftesbury and others were saved from the vengeance of the
+court.  But this resistance, however honourable to the corporation who
+made it, could not be of long duration.  The weapons of law and justice
+were found feeble, when opposed to the power of a monarch who was at the
+head of a numerous and bigoted party of the nation, and who, which was
+most material of all, had enabled himself to govern without a parliament.
+Civil resistance in this country, even to the most illegal attacks of
+royal tyranny, has never, I believe, been successful, unless when
+supported by parliament, or at least by a great party in one or other of
+the two houses.  The court having wrested from the livery of London,
+partly by corruption, and partly by violence, the free election of their
+mayor and sheriffs, did not wait the accomplishment of their plan for the
+destruction of the whole corporation, which, from their first success,
+they justly deemed certain, but immediately proceeded to put in execution
+their system of oppression.  Pilkington, Colt, and Oates, were fined a
+hundred thousand pounds each for having spoken disrespectfully of the
+Duke of York; Barnardiston, ten thousand, for having in a private letter
+expressed sentiments deemed improper; and Sidney, Russell, and Armstrong,
+found that the just and mild principles which characterise the criminal
+law of England could no longer protect their lives, when the sacrifice
+was called for by the policy or vengeance of the king.  To give an
+account of all the oppression of this period would be to enumerate every
+arrest, every trial, every sentence, that took place in questions between
+the crown and the subjects.
+
+Of the Rye House plot it may be said, much more truly than of the popish,
+that there was in it some truth, mixed with much falsehood; and though
+many of the circumstances in Kealing's account are nearly as absurd and
+ridiculous as those in Oates's, it seems probable that there was among
+some of those accused a notion of assassinating the king; but whether
+this notion was over ripened into what may be called a design, and, much
+more, whether it were ever evinced by such an overt act as the law
+requires for conviction, is very doubtful.  In regard to the conspirators
+of higher ranks, from whom all suspicion of participation in the intended
+assassination has been long since done away, there is unquestionably
+reason to believe that they had often met and consulted, as well for the
+purpose of ascertaining the means they actually possessed as for that of
+devising others for delivering their country from the dreadful servitude
+into which it had fallen; and thus far their conduct appears clearly to
+have been laudable.  If they went further, and did anything which could
+be fairly construed into an actual conspiracy to levy war against the
+king, they acted, considering the disposition of the nation at that
+period, very indiscreetly.  But whether their proceedings had ever gone
+this length, is far from certain.  Monmouth's communications with the
+king, when we reflect upon all the circumstances of those communications,
+deserve not the smallest attention; nor indeed, if they did, does the
+letter which he afterwards withdrew prove anything upon this point.  And
+it is an outrage to common-sense to call Lord Grey's narrative written,
+as he himself states in his letter to James II., while the question of
+his pardon was pending, an authentic account.  That which is most certain
+in this affair is, that they had committed no overt act, indicating the
+imagining of the king's death, even according to the most strained
+construction of the statute of Edward III.; much less was any such act
+legally proved against them.  And the conspiring to levy war was not
+treason, except by a recent statute of Charles II., the prosecutions upon
+which were expressly limited to a certain time, which in these cases had
+elapsed so that it is impossible not to assent to the opinion of those
+who have ever stigmatised the condemnation and execution of Russell as a
+most flagrant violation of law and justice.
+
+The proceedings in Sidney's case were still more detestable.  The
+production of papers, containing speculative opinions upon government and
+liberty, written long before, and perhaps never even intended to be
+published, together with the use made of those papers, in considering
+them as a substitute for the second witness to the overt act, exhibited
+such a compound of wickedness and nonsense as is hardly to be paralleled
+in the history of juridical tyranny.  But the validity of pretences was
+little attended to at that time, in the case of a person whom the court
+had devoted to destruction, and upon evidence such as has been stated was
+this great and excellent man condemned to die.  Pardon was not to be
+expected.  Mr. Hume says, that such an interference on the part of the
+king, though it might have been an act of heroic generosity, could not be
+regarded as an indispensable duty.  He might have said with more
+propriety, that it was idle to expect that the government, after having
+incurred so much guilt in order to obtain the sentence, should, by
+remitting it, relinquish the object just when it was within its grasp.
+The same historian considers the jury as highly blamable, and so do I;
+but what was their guilt in comparison of that of the court who tried,
+and of the government who prosecuted, in this infamous cause?  Yet the
+jury, being the only party that can with any colour be stated as acting
+independently of the government, is the only one mentioned by him as
+blamable.  The prosecutor is wholly omitted in his censure, and so is the
+court; this last, not from any tenderness for the judge (who, to do this
+author justice, is no favourite with him), but lest the odious connection
+between that branch of the judicature and the government should strike
+the reader too forcibly; for Jeffreys, in this instance, ought to be
+regarded as the mere tool and instrument (a fit one, no doubt), of the
+prince who had appointed him for the purpose of this and similar
+services.  Lastly, the king is gravely introduced on the question of
+pardon, as if he had had no prior concern in the cause, and were now to
+decide upon the propriety of extending mercy to a criminal condemned by a
+court of judicature; nor are we once reminded what that judicature was,
+by whom appointed, by whom influenced, by whom called upon, to receive
+that detestable evidence, the very recollection of which, even at this
+distance of time, fires every honest heart with indignation.  As well
+might we palliate the murders of Tiberius, who seldom put to death his
+victims without a previous decree of his senate.  The moral of all this
+seems to be, that whenever a prince can, by intimidation, corruption,
+illegal evidence, or other such means, obtain a verdict against a subject
+whom he dislikes, he may cause him to be executed without any breach of
+indispensable duty; nay, that it is an act of heroic generosity if he
+spares him.  I never reflect on Mr. Hume's statement of this matter but
+with the deepest regret.  Widely as I differ from him upon many other
+occasions, this appears to me to be the most reprehensible passage of his
+whole work.  A spirit of adulation towards deceased princes, though in a
+good measure free from the imputation of interested meanness, which is
+justly attached to flattery when applied to living monarchs, yet, as it
+is less intelligible with respect to its motives than the other, so is it
+in its consequences still more pernicious to the general interests of
+mankind.  Fear of censure from contemporaries will seldom have much
+effect upon men in situations of unlimited authority: they will too often
+flatter themselves that the same power which enables them to commit the
+crime will secure them from reproach.  The dread of posthumous infamy,
+therefore, being the only restraint, their consciences excepted, upon the
+passions of such persons, it is lamentable that this last defence (feeble
+enough at best) should in any degree be impaired; and impaired it must
+be, if not totally destroyed, when tyrants can hope to find in a man like
+Hume, no less eminent for the integrity and benevolence of his heart than
+for the depth and soundness of his understanding, an apologist for even
+their foulest murders.
+
+Thus fell Russell and Sidney, two names that will, it is hoped, be for
+ever dear to every English heart.  When their memory shall cease to be an
+object of respect and veneration, it requires no spirit of prophecy to
+foretell that English liberty will be fast approaching to its final
+consummation.  Their department was such as might be expected from men
+who knew themselves to be suffering, not for their crimes, but for their
+virtues.  In courage they were equal, but the fortitude of Russell, who
+was connected with the world by private and domestic ties, which Sidney
+had not, was put to the severer trial; and the story of the last days of
+this excellent man's life fills the mind with such a mixture of
+tenderness and admiration, that I know not any scene in history that more
+powerfully excites our sympathy, or goes more directly to the heart.
+
+The very day on which Russell was executed, the University of Oxford
+passed their famous decree, condemning formally, as impious and heretical
+propositions, every principle upon which the constitution of this or any
+other free country can maintain itself.  Nor was this learned body
+satisfied with stigmatising such principles as contrary to the Holy
+Scriptures, to the decrees of councils, to the writings of the fathers,
+to the faith and profession of the primitive church, as destructive of
+the kingly government, the safety of his majesty's person, the public
+peace, the laws of nature, and bounds of human society; but after
+enumerating the several obnoxious propositions, among which was one
+declaring all civil authority derived from the people; another, asserting
+a mutual contract, tacit or express, between the king and his subjects; a
+third, maintaining the lawfulness of changing the succession to the
+crown; with many others of a like nature, they solemnly decreed all and
+every of those propositions to be not only false and seditious, but
+impious, and that the books which contained them were fitted to lead to
+rebellion, murder of princes, and atheism itself.  Such are the
+absurdities which men are not ashamed to utter in order to cast odious
+imputations upon their adversaries; and such the manner in which
+churchmen will abuse, when it suits their policy, the holy name of that
+religion whose first precept is to love one another, for the purpose of
+teaching us to hate our neighbours with more than ordinary rancour.  If
+_Much Ado about Nothing_ had been published in those days, the
+town-clerk's declaration, that receiving a thousand ducats for accusing
+the Lady Hero wrongfully, was flat burglary, might be supposed to be a
+satire upon this decree; yet Shakespeare, well as he knew human nature,
+not only as to its general course, but in all its eccentric deviations,
+could never dream that, in the persons of Dogberry, Verges, and their
+followers, he was representing the vice-chancellors and doctors of our
+learned university.
+
+Among the oppressions of this period, most of which were attended with
+consequences so much more important to the several objects of
+persecution, it may seem scarcely worth while to notice the expulsion of
+John Locke from Christ Church College, Oxford.  But besides the interest
+which every incident in the life of a person so deservedly eminent
+naturally excites, there appears to have been something in the
+transaction itself characteristic of the spirit of the times, as well as
+of the general nature of absolute power.  Mr. Locke was known to have
+been intimately connected with Lord Shaftesbury, and had very prudently
+judged it advisable for him to prolong for some time his residence upon
+the Continent, to which he had resorted originally on account of his
+health.  A suspicion, as it has been since proved unfounded, that he was
+the author of a pamphlet which gave offence to the government, induced
+the king to insist upon his removal from his studentship at Christ
+Church.  Sunderland writes, by the king's command, to Dr. Fell, bishop of
+Oxford and dean of Christ Church.  The reverend prelate answers that he
+has long had an eye upon Mr. Locke's behaviour; but though frequent
+attempts had been made (attempts of which the bishop expresses no
+disapprobation), to draw him into imprudent conversation, by attacking,
+in his company, the reputation, and insulting the memory of his late
+patron and friend, and thus to make his gratitude and all the best
+feelings of his heart instrumental to his ruin, these attempts all proved
+unsuccessful.  Hence the bishop infers, not the innocence of Mr. Locke,
+but that he was a great master of concealment both as to words and looks;
+for looks, it is to be supposed, would have furnished a pretext for his
+expulsion, more decent than any which had yet been discovered.  An
+expedient is then suggested to drive Mr. Locke to a dilemma, by summoning
+him to attend the college on the first of January ensuing.  If he do not
+appear, he shall be expelled for contumacy; if he come, matter of charge
+may be found against him for what he shall have said at London or
+elsewhere, where he will have been less upon his guard than at Oxford.
+Some have ascribed Fell's hesitation, if it can be so called, in
+executing the king's order, to his unwillingness to injure Locke, who was
+his friend; others, with more reason, to the doubt of the legality of the
+order.  However this may have been, neither his scruple nor his
+reluctance was regarded by a court who knew its own power.  A peremptory
+order was accordingly sent, and immediate obedience ensued.  Thus, while
+without the shadow of a crime, Mr. Locke lost a situation attended with
+some emolument and great convenience, was the university deprived of, or
+rather thus, from the base principles of servility, did she cast away the
+man, the having produced whom is now her chiefest glory; and thus, to
+those who are not determined to be blind, did the true nature of absolute
+power discover itself, against which the middling station is not more
+secure than the most exalted.  Tyranny, when glutted with the blood of
+the great, and the plunder of the rich, will condescend to bent humbler
+game, and make a peaceable and innocent fellow of a college the object of
+its persecution.  In this instance one would almost imagine there was
+some instinctive sagacity in the government of that time, which pointed
+out to them, even before he had made himself known to the world, the man
+who was destined to be the most successful adversary of superstition and
+tyranny.
+
+The king, during the remainder of his reign, seems, with the exception of
+Armstrong's execution, which must be added to the catalogue of his
+murders, to have directed his attacks more against the civil rights,
+properties, and liberties, than against the lives of his subjects.
+Convictions against evidence, sentences against law, enormous fines,
+cruel imprisonments, were the principal engines employed for the purpose
+of breaking the spirit of individuals, and fitting their necks for the
+yoke.  But it was not thought fit to trust wholly to the effect which
+such examples would produce upon the public.  That the subjugation of the
+people might be complete, and despotism be established upon the most
+solid foundation, measures of a more general nature and effect were
+adopted; and first, the charter of London, and then those of almost all
+the other corporations in England, were either forfeited or forced to a
+surrender.  By this act of violence two important points were thought to
+be gained; one, that in every regular assemblage of the people in any
+part of the kingdom the crown would have a commanding influence; the
+other, that in case the king should find himself compelled to break his
+engagement to France, and to call a parliament, a great majority of
+members would be returned by electors of his nomination, and subject to
+his control.  In the affair of the charter of London, it was seen, as in
+the case of ship-money, how idle it is to look to the integrity of judges
+for a barrier against royal encroachments, when the courts of justice are
+not under the constant and vigilant control of parliament.  And it is not
+to be wondered at, that, after such a warning, and with no hope of seeing
+a parliament assemble, even they who still retained their attachment to
+the true constitution of their country, should rather give way to the
+torrent than make a fruitless and dangerous resistance.
+
+Charles being thus completely master, was determined that the relative
+situation of him and his subjects should be clearly understood, for which
+purpose he ordered a declaration to be framed, wherein, after having
+stated that he considered the degree of confidence they had reposed in
+him as an honour particular to his reign, which not one of his
+predecessors had ever dared even to hope for, he assured them he would
+use it with all possible moderation, and convince even the most violent
+republicans, that as the crown was the origin of the rights and liberties
+of the people, so was it their most certain and secure support.  This
+gracious declaration was ready for the press at the time of the king's
+death, and if he had lived to issue it, there can be little doubt how it
+would have been received at a time when
+
+      "nunquam libertas gratior extat
+   Quam sub rege pio,"
+
+was the theme of every song, and, by the help of some perversion of
+Scripture, the text of every sermon.  But whatever might be the language
+of flatterers, and how loud soever the cry of a triumphant, but deluded
+party, there were not wanting men of nobler sentiments and of more
+rational views.  Minds once thoroughly imbued with the love of what
+Sidney, in his last moments, so emphatically called the good old cause,
+will not easily relinquish their principles: nor was the manner in which
+absolute power was exercised, such as to reconcile to it, in practice,
+those who had always been averse to it in speculation.  The hatred of
+tyranny must, in such persons, have been exasperated by the experience of
+its effects, and their attachment to liberty proportionably confirmed.  To
+them the state of their country must have been intolerable: to reflect
+upon the efforts of their fathers, once their pride and glory, and whom
+they themselves had followed with no unequal steps, and to see the result
+of all in the scenes that now presented themselves, must have filled
+their minds with sensations of the deepest regret, and feelings bordering
+at least on despondency.  To us, who have the opportunity of combining in
+our view of this period, not only the preceding but subsequent
+transactions, the consideration of it may suggest reflections far
+different and speculations more consolatory.  Indeed, I know not that
+history can furnish a more forcible lesson against despondency, than by
+recording that within a short time from those dismal days in which men of
+the greatest constancy despaired, and had reason to do so, within five
+years from the death of Sidney arose the brightest era of freedom known
+to the annals of our country.
+
+It is said that the king, when at the summit of his power, was far from
+happy; and a notion has been generally entertained that not long before
+his death he had resolved upon the recall of Monmouth, and a
+correspondent change of system.  That some such change was apprehended
+seems extremely probable, from the earnest desire which the court of
+France, as well as the Duke of York's party in England, entertained, in
+the last years of Charles's life, to remove the Marquis of Halifax, who
+was supposed to have friendly dispositions to Monmouth.  Among the
+various objections to that nobleman's political principles, we find the
+charge most relied upon, for the purpose of injuring him in the mind of
+the king, was founded on the opinion he had delivered in council, in
+favour of modelling the charters of the British colonies in North America
+upon the principles of the rights and privileges of Englishmen.  There
+was no room to doubt (he was accused of saying) that the same laws under
+which we live in England, should be established in a country composed of
+Englishmen.  He even dilated upon this, and omitted none of the reasons
+by which it can be proved that an absolute government is neither so happy
+nor so safe as that which is tempered by laws, and which limits the
+authority of the prince.  He exaggerated, it was said, the mischiefs of a
+sovereign power, and declared plainly that he could not make up his mind
+to live under a king who should have it in his power to take, when he
+pleased, the money he might have in his pocket.  All the other ministers
+had combated, as might be expected, sentiments so extraordinary; and
+without entering into the general question of the comparative value of
+different forms of government, maintained that his majesty could and
+ought to govern countries so distant in the manner that should appear to
+him most suitable for preserving or augmenting the strength and riches of
+the mother country.  It had been, therefore, resolved that the government
+and council of the provinces under the new charter should not be obliged
+to call assemblies of the colonists for the purpose of imposing taxes, or
+making other important regulations, but should do what they thought fit,
+without rendering any account of their actions except to his Britannic
+Majesty.  The affair having been so decided with a concurrence only short
+of unanimity, was no longer considered as a matter of importance, nor
+would it be worth recording, if the Duke of York and the French court had
+not fastened upon it, as affording the best evidence of the danger to be
+apprehended from having a man of Halifax's principles in any situation of
+trust or power.  There is something curious in discovering that even at
+this early period a question relative to North American liberty, and even
+to North American taxation, was considered as the test of principles
+friendly or adverse to arbitrary power at home.  But the truth is, that
+among the several controversies which have arisen there is no other
+wherein the natural rights of man on the one hand, and the authority of
+artificial institution on the other, as applied respectively by the Whigs
+and Tories to the English constitution, are so fairly put in issue, nor
+by which the line of separation between the two parties is so strongly
+and distinctly marked.
+
+There is some reason for believing that the court of Versailles had
+either wholly discontinued, or, at least, had become very remiss in, the
+payments of Charles's pension; and it is not unlikely that this
+consideration induced him either really to think of calling a parliament,
+or at least to threaten Louis with such a measure, in order to make that
+prince more punctual in performing his part of their secret treaty.  But
+whether or not any secret change was really intended, or if it were to
+what extent, and to what objects directed, are points which cannot now be
+ascertained, no public steps having ever been taken in this affair, and
+his majesty's intentions, if in truth he had any such, becoming abortive
+by the sudden illness which seized him on the 1st of February, 1685, and
+which, in a few days afterwards, put an end to his reign and life.  His
+death was by many supposed to have been the effect of poison; but
+although there is reason to believe that this suspicion was harboured by
+persons very near to him, and, among others, as I have heard, by the
+Duchess of Portsmouth, it appears, upon the whole, to rest upon very
+slender foundations.
+
+With respect to the character of this prince, upon the delineation of
+which so much pains have been employed, by the various writers who treat
+of the history of his time, it must be confessed that the facts which
+have been noticed in the foregoing pages furnish but too many
+illustrations of the more unfavourable parts of it.  From these we may
+collect that his ambition was directed solely against his subjects, while
+he was completely indifferent concerning the figure which he or they
+might make in the general affairs of Europe; and that his desire of power
+was more unmixed with love of glory than that of any other man whom
+history has recorded; that he was unprincipled, ungrateful, mean, and
+treacherous, to which may be added, vindictive and remorseless.  For
+Burnet, in refusing to him the praise of clemency and forgiveness, seems
+to be perfectly justifiable, nor is it conceivable upon what pretence his
+partisans have taken this ground of panegyric.  I doubt whether a single
+instance can be produced of his having spared the life of any one whom
+motives either of policy, or of revenge, prompted him to destroy.  To
+allege that of Monmouth as it would be an affront to human nature, so
+would it likewise imply the most severe of all satires against the
+monarch himself, and we may add, too, an undeserved one; for, in order to
+consider it as an act of meritorious forbearance on his part, that he did
+not follow the example of Constantine and Philip II., by imbruing his
+hands in the blood of his son, we must first suppose him to have been
+wholly void of every natural affection, which does not appear to have
+been the case.  His declaration that he would have pardoned Essex, being
+made when that nobleman was dead, and not followed by any act evincing
+its sincerity, can surely obtain no credit from men of sense.  If he had
+really had the intention, he ought not to have made such a declaration,
+unless he accompanied it with some mark of kindness to the relations, or
+with some act of mercy to the friends of the deceased.  Considering it as
+a mere piece of hypocrisy, we cannot help looking upon it as one of the
+most odious passages of his life.  This ill-timed boast of his intended
+mercy, and the brutal taunt with which he accompanied his mitigation (if
+so it may be called) of Russell's sentence, show his insensibility and
+hardness to have been such, that in questions where right feelings were
+concerned, his good sense, and even the good taste for which he has been
+so much extolled, seemed wholly to desert him.
+
+On the other hand, it would be want of candour to maintain that Charles
+was entirely destitute of good qualities; nor was the propriety of
+Burnet's comparison between him and Tiberius ever felt, I imagine, by any
+one but its author.  He was gay and affable, and, if incapable of the
+sentiments belonging to pride of a laudable sort, he was at least free
+from haughtiness and insolence.  The praise of politeness, which the
+stoics are not perhaps wrong in classing among the moral virtues,
+provided they admit it to be one of the lowest order, has never been
+denied him, and he had in an eminent degree that facility of temper
+which, though considered by some moralists as nearly allied to vice, yet,
+inasmuch as it contributes greatly to the happiness of those around us,
+is in itself not only an engaging but an estimable quality.  His support
+of the queen during the heats raised by the popish plot ought to be taken
+rather as a proof that he was not a monster than to be ascribed to him as
+a merit; but his steadiness to his brother, though it may and ought, in a
+great measure, to be accounted for upon selfish principles, had at least
+a strong resemblance to virtue.
+
+The best part of this prince's character seems to have been his kindness
+towards his mistresses, and his affection for his children, and others
+nearly connected to him by the ties of blood.  His recommendation of the
+Duchess of Portsmouth and Mrs. Gwyn, upon his death-bed, to his successor
+is much to his honour; and they who censure it seem, in their zeal to
+show themselves strict moralists, to have suffered their notions of vice
+and virtue to have fallen into strange confusion.  Charles's connection
+with those ladies might be vicious, but at a moment when that connection
+was upon the point of being finally and irrevocably dissolved, to concern
+himself about their future welfare and to recommend them to his brother
+with earnest tenderness was virtue.  It is not for the interest of
+morality that the good and evil actions, even of bad men, should be
+confounded.  His affection for the Duke of Gloucester and for the Duchess
+of Orleans seems to have been sincere and cordial.  To attribute, as some
+have done, his grief for the loss of the first to political
+considerations, founded upon an intended balance of power between his two
+brothers, would be an absurd refinement, whatever were his general
+disposition; but when we reflect upon that carelessness which, especially
+in his youth, was a conspicuous feature of his character, the absurdity
+becomes still more striking.  And though Burnet more covertly, and Ludlow
+more openly, insinuate that his fondness for his sister was of a criminal
+nature, I never could find that there was any ground whatever for such a
+suspicion; nor does the little that remains of their epistolary
+correspondence give it the smallest countenance.  Upon the whole, Charles
+II. was a bad man and a bad king; let us not palliate his crimes, but
+neither let us adopt false or doubtful imputations for the purpose of
+making him a monster.
+
+Whoever reviews the interesting period which we have been discussing,
+upon the principle recommended in the outset of this chapter, will find
+that, from the consideration of the past, to prognosticate the future
+would at the moment of Charles's demise be no easy task.  Between two
+persons, one of whom should expect that the country would remain sunk in
+slavery, the other, that the cause of freedom would revive and triumph,
+it would be difficult to decide whose reasons were better supported,
+whose speculations the more probable.  I should guess that he who
+desponded had looked more at the state of the public, while he who was
+sanguine had fixed his eyes more attentively upon the person who was
+about to mount the throne.  Upon reviewing the two great parties of the
+nation, one observation occurs very forcibly, and that is, that the great
+strength of the Whigs consisted in their being able to brand their
+adversaries as favourers of popery; that of the Tories (as far as their
+strength depended upon opinion, and not merely upon the power of the
+crown), in their finding colour to represent the Whigs as republicans.
+From this observation we may draw a further inference, that, in
+proportion to the rashness of the crown in avowing and pressing forward
+the cause of popery, and to the moderation and steadiness of the Whigs in
+adhering to the form of monarchy, would be the chance of the people of
+England for changing an ignominious despotism for glory, liberty, and
+happiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Accession of James II.--His declaration in council; acceptable to the
+nation--Arbitrary designs of his reign--Former ministers continued--Money
+transactions with France--Revenue levied without authority of
+Parliament--Persecution of Dissenters--Character of Jeffreys--The King's
+affectation of independence--Advances to the Prince of Orange--The
+primary object of this reign--Transactions in Scotland--Severe
+persecutions there--Scottish Parliament--Cruelties of government--English
+Parliament; its proceedings--Revenue--Votes concerning religion--Bill for
+preservation of the King's person--Solicitude for the Church of
+England--Reversal of Stafford's attainder rejected--Parliament
+adjourned--Character of the Tories--Situation of the Whigs.
+
+Charles II. expired on the 6th of February, 1684-85, and on the same day
+his successor was proclaimed king in London, with the usual formalities,
+by the title of James the Second.  The great influence which this prince
+was supposed to have possessed in the government during the latter years
+of his brother's reign, and the expectation which was entertained in
+consequence, that his measures, when monarch, would be of the same
+character and complexion with those which he was known to have highly
+approved, and of which he was thought by many to have been the principal
+author, when a subject left little room for that spirit of speculation
+which generally attends a demise of the crown.  And thus an event, which
+when apprehended a few years before had, according to a strong expression
+of Sir William Temple, been looked upon as the end of the world, was now
+deemed to be of small comparative importance.
+
+Its tendency, indeed, was rather to ensure perseverance than to effect
+any change in the system which had been of late years pursued.  As there
+are, however, some steps indispensably necessary on the accession of a
+new prince to the throne, to these the public attention was directed, and
+though the character of James had been long so generally understood as to
+leave little doubt respecting the political maxims and principles by
+which his reign would be governed, there was probably much curiosity, as
+upon such occasions there always is, with regard to the conduct he would
+pursue in matters of less importance, and to the general language and
+behaviour which he would adopt in his new situation.  His first step was,
+of course, to assemble the privy council, to whom he spoke as follows:--
+
+"Before I enter upon any other business, I think fit to say something to
+you.  Since it hath pleated Almighty God to place me in this station, and
+I am now to succeed so good and gracious a king, as well as so very kind
+a brother, I think it fit to declare to you that I will endeavour to
+follow his example, and most especially in that of his great clemency and
+tenderness to his people.  I have been reported to be a man for arbitrary
+power; but that is not the only story that has been made of me; and I
+shall make it my endeavour to preserve this government, both in Church
+and State, as it is now by law established.  I know the principles of the
+Church of England are for monarchy, and the members of it have shown
+themselves good and loyal subjects; therefore I shall always take care to
+defend and support it.  I know, too, that the laws of England are
+sufficient to make the king as great a monarch as I can wish; and as I
+shall never depart from the just rights and prerogatives of the crown, so
+I shall never invade any man's property.  I have often heretofore
+ventured my life in defence of this nation and I shall go as far as any
+man in preserving it in all its just rights and liberties."
+
+With this declaration the council were so highly satisfied, that they
+supplicated his majesty to make it public, which was accordingly done;
+and it is reported to have been received with unbounded applause by the
+greater part of the nation.  Some, perhaps, there were, who did not think
+the boast of having ventured his life very manly, and who, considering
+the transactions of the last years of Charles's reign, were not much
+encouraged by the promise of imitating that monarch in clemency and
+tenderness to his subjects.  To these it might appear, that whatever
+there was of consolatory in the king's disclaimer of arbitrary power and
+professed attachment to the laws, was totally done away, as well by the
+consideration of what his majesty's notions of power and law were, as by
+his declaration that he would follow the example of a predecessor, whose
+government had not only been marked with the violation, in particular
+cases, of all the most sacred laws of the realm, but had latterly, by the
+disuse of parliaments, in defiance of the statute of the sixteenth year
+of his reign, stood upon a foundation radically and fundamentally
+illegal.  To others it might occur that even the promise to the Church of
+England, though express with respect to the condition of it, which was no
+other than perfect acquiescence in what the king deemed to be the true
+principles of monarchy, was rather vague with regard to the nature or
+degree of support to which the royal speaker might conceive himself
+engaged.  The words, although in any interpretation of them they conveyed
+more than he possibly ever intended to perform, did by no means express
+the sense which at that time, by his friends, and afterwards by his
+enemies, was endeavoured to be fixed on them.  There was, indeed, a
+promise to support the establishment of the Church, and consequently the
+laws upon which that establishment immediately rested; but by no means an
+engagement to maintain all the collateral provisions which some of its
+more zealous members might judge necessary for its security.
+
+But whatever doubts or difficulties might be felt, few or none were
+expressed.  The Whigs, as a vanquished party, were either silent or not
+listened to, and the Tories were in a temper of mind which does not
+easily admit suspicion.  They were not more delighted with the victory
+they had obtained over their adversaries, than with the additional
+stability which, as they vainly imagined, the accession of the new
+monarch was likely to give to their system.  The truth is that, his
+religion excepted (and that objection they were sanguine enough to
+consider as done away by a few gracious words in favour of the Church),
+James was every way better suited to their purpose than his brother.  They
+had entertained continual apprehensions, not perhaps wholly unfounded, of
+the late king's returning kindness to Monmouth, the consequences of which
+could not easily be calculated; whereas, every occurrence that had
+happened, as well as every circumstance in James's situation, seemed to
+make him utterly irreconcilable with the Whigs.  Besides, after the
+reproach, as well as alarm, which the notoriety of Charles's treacherous
+character must so often have caused them, the very circumstance of having
+at their head a prince, of whom they could with any colour hold out to
+their adherents that his word was to be depended upon, was in itself a
+matter of triumph and exultation.  Accordingly, the watchword of the
+party was everywhere--"We have the word of a king, and a word never yet
+broken;" and to such a length was the spirit of adulation, or perhaps the
+delusion, carried, that this royal declaration was said to be a better
+security for the liberty and religion of the nation than any which the
+law could devise.
+
+The king, though much pleased, no doubt, with the popularity which seemed
+to attend the commencement of his reign, as a powerful medium for
+establishing the system of absolute power, did not suffer himself, by any
+show of affection from his people, to be diverted from his design of
+rendering his government independent of them.  To this design we must
+look as the mainspring of all his actions at this period; for with regard
+to the Roman Catholic religion, it is by no means certain that he yet
+thought of obtaining for it anything more than a complete toleration.
+With this view, therefore, he could not take a more judicious resolution
+than that which he had declared in his speech to the privy council, and
+to which he seems, at this time, to have steadfastly adhered, of making
+the government of his predecessor the model for his own.  He therefore
+continued in their offices, notwithstanding the personal objections he
+might have to some of them, those servants of the late king, during whose
+administration that prince had been so successful in subduing his
+subjects, and eradicating almost from the minds of Englishmen every
+sentiment of liberty.
+
+Even the Marquis of Halifax, who was supposed to have remonstrated
+against many of the late measures, and to have been busy in recommending
+a change of system to Charles, was continued in high employment by James,
+who told him that, of all his past conduct, he should remember only his
+behaviour upon the exclusion bill, to which that nobleman had made a
+zealous and distinguished opposition; a handsome expression, which has
+been the more noticed, as well because it is almost the single instance
+of this prince's showing any disposition to forget injuries, as on
+account of a delicacy and propriety in the wording of it, by no means
+familiar to him.
+
+Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, whom he appointed lord treasurer, was
+in all respects calculated to be a fit instrument for the purposes then
+in view.  Besides being upon the worst terms with Halifax, in whom alone,
+of all his ministers, James was likely to find any bias in favour of
+popular principles, he was, both from prejudice of education, and from
+interest, inasmuch as he had aspired to be the head of the Tories, a
+great favourer of those servile principles of the Church of England which
+had been lately so highly extolled from the throne.  His near relation to
+the Duchess of York might also be some recommendation, but his privity to
+the late pecuniary transactions between the courts of Versailles and
+London, and the cordiality with which he concurred in them, were by far
+more powerful titles to his new master's confidence.  For it must be
+observed of this minister, as well as of many others of his party, that
+his _high_ notions, as they are frequently styled, of power, regarded
+only the relation between the king and his subjects, and not that in
+which he might stand with respect to foreign princes; so that, provided
+he could, by a dependence, however servile, upon Louis XIV., be placed
+above the control of his parliament and people at home, he considered the
+honour of the crown unsullied.
+
+Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who was continued as secretary of
+state, had been at one period a supporter of the exclusion bill, and had
+been suspected of having offered the Duchess of Portsmouth to obtain the
+succession to the crown for her son, the Duke of Richmond.  Nay more,
+King James, in his "Memoirs," charges him with having intended, just at
+the time of Charles's death, to send him into a second banishment; but
+with regard to this last point, it appears evident to me, that many
+things in those "Memoirs," relative to this earl, were written after
+James's abdication, and in the greatest bitterness of spirit, when he was
+probably in a frame of mind to believe anything against a person by whom
+he conceived himself to have been basely deserted.  The reappointment,
+therefore, of this nobleman to so important an office, is to be accounted
+for partly upon the general principle above-mentioned, of making the new
+reign a mere continuation of the former, and partly upon Sunderland's
+extraordinary talents for ingratiating himself with persons in power, and
+persuading them that he was the fittest instrument for their purposes; a
+talent in which he seems to have surpassed all the intriguing statesmen
+of his time, or perhaps of any other.
+
+An intimate connection with the court of Versailles being the principal
+engine by which the favourite project of absolute monarchy was to be
+effected, James, for the purpose of fixing and cementing that connection,
+sent for M. de Barillon, the French ambassador, the very day after his
+accession, and entered into the most confidential discourse with him.  He
+explained to him his motives for intending to call a parliament, as well
+as his resolution to levy by authority the revenue which his predecessor
+had enjoyed in virtue of a grant of parliament which determined with his
+life.  He made general professions of attachment to Louis, declared that
+in all affairs of importance it was his intention to consult that
+monarch, and apologised, upon the ground of the urgency of the case, for
+acting in the instance mentioned without his advice.  Money was not
+directly mentioned, owing, perhaps, to some sense of shame upon that
+subject, which his brother had never experienced; but lest there should
+be a doubt whether that object were implied in the desire of support and
+protection, Rochester was directed to explain the matter more fully, and
+to give a more distinct interpretation of these general terms.
+Accordingly, that minister waited the next morning upon Barillon, and
+after having repeated and enlarged upon the reasons for calling a
+parliament, stated, as an additional argument in defence of the measure,
+that without it his master would become too chargeable to the French
+king; adding, however, that the assistance which might be expected from a
+parliament, did not exempt him altogether from the necessity of resorting
+to that prince for pecuniary aids; for that without such, he would be at
+the mercy of his subjects, and that upon this beginning would depend the
+whole fortune of the reign.  If Rochester actually expressed himself as
+Barillon relates, the use intended to be made of parliament cannot but
+cause the most lively indignation, while it furnishes a complete answer
+to the historians who accuse the parliaments of those days of
+unseasonable parsimony in their grants to the Stuart kings; for the
+grants of the people of England were not destined, it seems, to enable
+their kings to oppose the power of France, or even to be independent of
+her, but to render the influence which Louis was resolved to preserve in
+this country less chargeable to him, by furnishing their quota to the
+support of his royal dependant.
+
+The French ambassador sent immediately a detailed account of these
+conversations to his court, where, probably, they were not received with
+the less satisfaction on account of the request contained in them having
+been anticipated.  Within a very few days from that in which the latter
+of them had passed, he was empowered to accompany the delivery of a
+letter from his master, with the agreeable news of having received from
+him bills of exchange to the amount of five hundred thousand livres, to
+be used in whatever manner might be convenient to the king of England's
+service.  The account which Barillon gives, of the manner in which this
+sum was received, is altogether ridiculous: the king's eyes were full of
+tears, and three of his ministers, Rochester, Sunderland, and Godolphin,
+came severally to the French ambassador, to express the sense their
+master had of the obligation, in terms the most lavish.  Indeed,
+demonstrations of gratitude from the king directly, as well as through
+his ministers, for this supply were such, as if they had been used by
+some unfortunate individual, who, with his whole family, had been saved,
+by the timely succour of some kind and powerful protector, from a gaol
+and all its horrors, would be deemed rather too strong than too weak.
+Barillon himself seems surprised when he relates them; but imputes them
+to what was probably their real cause, to the apprehensions that had been
+entertained (very unreasonable ones!) that the king of France might no
+longer choose to interfere in the affairs of England, and consequently
+that his support could not be relied on for the grand object of
+assimilating this government to his own.
+
+If such apprehensions did exist, it is probable that they were chiefly
+owing to the very careless manner, to say the least, in which Louis had
+of late fulfilled his pecuniary engagements to Charles, so as to amount,
+in the opinion of the English ministers, to an actual breach of promise.
+But the circumstances were in some respects altered.  The French king had
+been convinced that Charles would never call a parliament; nay, further
+perhaps, that if he did, he would not be trusted by one; and considering
+him therefore entirely in his power, acted from that principle in
+insolent minds which makes them fond of ill-treating and insulting those
+whom they have degraded to a dependence on them.  But James would
+probably be obliged at the commencement of a new reign to call a
+parliament, and if well used by such a body, and abandoned by France,
+might give up his project of arbitrary power, and consent to govern
+according to the law and constitution.  In such an event, Louis easily
+foresaw, that, instead of a useful dependent, he might find upon the
+throne of England a formidable enemy.  Indeed, this prince and his
+ministers seem all along, with a sagacity that does them credit, to have
+foreseen, and to have justly estimated, the dangers to which they would
+be liable, if a cordial union should ever take place between a king of
+England and his parliament, and the British councils be directed by men
+enlightened and warmed by the genuine principles of liberty.  It was
+therefore an object of great moment to bind the new king, as early as
+possible, to the system of dependency upon France; and matter of less
+triumph to the court of Versailles to have retained him by so moderate a
+fee, than to that of London to receive a sum which, though small, was
+thought valuable, no as an earnest of better wages and future protection.
+
+It had for some time been Louis's favourite object to annex to his
+dominion what remained of the Spanish Netherlands, as well on account of
+their own intrinsic value, as to enable him to destroy the United
+Provinces and the Prince of Orange; and this object Charles had bound
+himself, by treaty with Spain, to oppose.  In the joy, therefore,
+occasioned by this noble manner of proceeding (for such it was called by
+all the parties concerned), the first step was to agree, without
+hesitation, that Charles's treaty with Spain determined with his life, a
+decision which, if the disregard that had been shown to it did not render
+the question concerning it nugatory, it would be difficult to support
+upon any principles of national law or justice.  The manner in which the
+late king had conducted himself upon the subject of this treaty, that is
+to say, the violation of it, without formally renouncing it, was gravely
+commended, and stated to be no more than what might justly be expected
+from him; but the present king was declared to be still more free, and in
+no way bound by a treaty, from the execution of which his brother had
+judged himself to be sufficiently dispensed.  This appears to be a nice
+distinction, and what that degree of obligation was, from which James was
+exempt, but which had lain upon Charles, who neither thought himself
+bound, nor was expected by others to execute the treaty, it is difficult
+to conceive.
+
+This preliminary being adjusted, the meaning of which, through all this
+contemptible shuffling, was, that James, by giving up all concern for the
+Spanish Netherlands, should be at liberty to acquiesce in, or to second,
+whatever might be the ambitious projects of the court of Versailles, it
+was determined that Lord Churchill should be sent to Paris to obtain
+further pecuniary aids.  But such was the impression made by the
+frankness and generosity of Louis, that there was no question of
+discussing or capitulating, but everything was remitted to that prince,
+and to the information his ministers might give him, respecting the
+exigency of affairs in England.  He who had so handsomely been
+beforehand, in granting the assistance of five hundred thousand livres,
+was only to be thanked for past, not importuned for future, munificence.
+Thus ended, for the present, this disgusting scene of iniquity and
+nonsense, in which all the actors seemed to vie with each other in
+prostituting the sacred names of friendship, generosity, and gratitude,
+in one of the meanest and most criminal transactions which history
+records.
+
+The principal parties in the business, besides the king himself, to whose
+capacity, at least, if not to his situation it was more suitable, and
+Lord Churchill, who acted as an inferior agent, were Sunderland,
+Rochester, and Godolphin, all men of high rank and considerable
+abilities, but whose understandings, as well as their principles, seem to
+have been corrupted by the pernicious schemes in which they were engaged.
+With respect to the last-mentioned nobleman in particular, it is
+impossible, without pain, to see him engaged in such transactions.  With
+what self-humiliation must he not have reflected upon them in subsequent
+periods of his life!  How little could Barillon guess that he was
+negotiating with one who was destined to be at the head of an
+administration which, in a few years, would send the same Lord Churchill
+not to Paris, to implore Louis for succours towards enslaving England, or
+to thank him for pensions to her monarch, but to combine all Europe
+against him in the cause of liberty, to rout his armies, to take his
+towns, to humble his pride, and to shake to the foundation that fabric of
+power which it had been the business of a long life to raise, at the
+expense of every sentiment of tenderness to his subjects, and of justice
+and good faith to foreign nations.  It is with difficulty the reader can
+persuade himself that the Godolphin and Churchill here mentioned are the
+same persons who were afterwards one in the cabinet, one in the field,
+the great conductors of the war of the succession.  How little do they
+appear in one instance! how great in the other!  And the investigation of
+the cause to which this excessive difference is principally owing, will
+produce a most useful lesson.  Is the difference to be attributed to any
+superiority of genius in the prince whom they served in the latter period
+of their lives?  Queen Anne's capacity appears to have been inferior even
+to her father's.  Did they enjoy in a greater degree her favour and
+confidence?  The very reverse is the fact.  But in one case they were the
+tools of a king plotting against his people; in the other, the ministers
+of a free government acting upon enlarged principles, and with energies
+which no state that is not in some degree republican can supply.  How
+forcibly must the contemplation of these men, in such opposite
+situations, teach persons engaged in political life that a free and
+popular government is desirable, not only for the public good, but for
+their own greatness and consideration, for every object of generous
+ambition!
+
+The king having, as has been related, first privately communicated his
+intentions to the French ambassador, issued proclamations for the meeting
+of parliament, and for levying, upon his sole authority, the customs and
+other duties which had constituted part of the late king's revenue, but
+to which, the acts granting them having expired with the prince, James
+was not legally entitled.  He was advised by Lord Guildford, whom he had
+continued in the office of keeper of the great seal, and who upon such a
+subject, therefore, was a person likely to have the greatest weight, to
+satisfy himself with directing the money to be kept in the exchequer for
+the disposal of parliament, which was shortly to meet; and by others, to
+take bonds from the merchants for the duties, to be paid when parliament
+should legalise them.  But these expedients were not suited to the king's
+views, who, as well on account of his engagement with France, as from his
+own disposition, was determined to take no step that might indicate an
+intention of governing by parliaments, or a consciousness of his being
+dependent upon them for his revenue, he adopted, therefore, the advice of
+Jeffreys, advice not resulting so much, probably, either from ignorance
+or violence of disposition, as from his knowledge that it would be most
+agreeable to his master, and directed the duties to be paid as in the
+former reign.  It was pretended, that an interruption in levying some of
+the duties might be hurtful to trade; but as every difficulty of that
+kind was obviated by the expedients proposed, this arbitrary and violent
+measure can with no colour be ascribed to a regard to public convenience,
+nor to any other motive than to a desire of reviving Charles I.'s claims
+to the power of taxation, and of furnishing a most intelligible comment
+upon his speech to the council on the day of his accession.  It became
+evident what the king's notions were, with respect to that regal
+prerogative from which he professed himself determined never to depart,
+and to that property which he would never invade.  What were the
+remaining rights and liberties of the nation, which he was to preserve,
+might be more difficult to discover; but that the laws of England, in the
+royal interpretation of them, were sufficient to make the king as great a
+monarch as he, or, indeed, any prince could desire, was a point that
+could not be disputed.  This violation of law was in itself most
+flagrant; it was applied to a point well understood, and thought to have
+been so completely settled by repeated and most explicit declarations of
+the legislature, that it must have been doubtful whether even the most
+corrupt judges, if the question had been tried, would have had the
+audacity to decide it against the subject.  But no resistance was made;
+nor did the example of Hampden, which a half century before had been so
+successful, and rendered that patriot's name so illustrious, tempt any
+one to emulate his fame, so completely had the crafty and sanguinary
+measures of the late reign attained the object to which they were
+directed, and rendered all men either afraid or unwilling to exert
+themselves in the cause of liberty.
+
+On the other hand, addresses the most servile were daily sent to the
+throne.  That of the University of Oxford stated that the religion which
+they professed bound them to unconditional obedience to their sovereign
+without restrictions or limitations; and the Society of Barristers and
+Students of the Middle Temple thanked his majesty for the attention he
+had shown to the trade of the kingdom, concerning which, and its balance
+(and upon this last article they laid particular stress), they seemed to
+think themselves peculiarly called upon to deliver their opinion.  But
+whatever might be their knowledge in matters of trade, it was at least
+equal to that which these addressers showed in the laws and constitution
+of their country, since they boldly affirmed the king's right to levy the
+duties, and declared that it had never been disputed but by persons
+engaged, in what they were pleased to call rebellion against his royal
+father.  The address concluded with a sort of prayer that all his
+majesty's subjects might be as good lawyers as themselves, and disposed
+to acknowledge the royal prerogative in all its extent.
+
+If these addresses are remarkable for their servility, that of the
+gentlemen and freeholders of the county of Suffolk was no less so for the
+spirit of party violence that was displayed in it.  They would take care,
+they said, to choose representatives who should no more endure those who
+had been for the Exclusion Bill, than the last parliament had the
+abhorrers of the association; and thus not only endeavoured to keep up
+his majesty's resentment against a part of their fellow-subjects, but
+engaged themselves to imitate, for the purpose of retaliation, that part
+of the conduct of their adversaries which they considered as most illegal
+and oppressive.
+
+It is a remarkable circumstance, that among all the adulatory addresses
+of this time, there is not to be found, in any one of them, any
+declaration of disbelief in the popish plot, or any charge upon the late
+parliament for having prosecuted it, though it could not but be well
+known that such topics would, of all others, be most agreeable to the
+court.  Hence we may collect that the delusion on this subject was by no
+means at an end, and that they who, out of a desire to render history
+conformable to the principles of poetical justice, attribute the
+unpopularity and downfall of the Whigs to the indignation excited by
+their furious and sanguinary prosecution of the plot, are egregiously
+mistaken.  If this had been in any degree the prevailing sentiment, it is
+utterly unaccountable that, so far from its appearing in any of the
+addresses of these times, this most just ground of reproach upon the Whig
+party, and the parliament in which they had had the superiority, was the
+only one omitted in them.  The fact appears to have been the very reverse
+of what such historians suppose, and that the activity of the late
+parliamentary leaders, in prosecuting the popish plot, was the principal
+circumstance which reconciled the nation, for a time, to their other
+proceedings; that their conduct in that business (now so justly
+condemned) was the grand engine of their power, and that when that
+failed, they were soon overpowered by the united forces of bigotry and
+corruption.  They were hated by a great part of the nation, not for their
+crimes, but for their virtues.  To be above corruption is always odious
+to the corrupt, and to entertain more enlarged and juster notions of
+philosophy and government, is often a cause of alarm to the narrow-minded
+and superstitious.  In those days particularly it was obvious to refer to
+the confusion, greatly exaggerated of the times of the commonwealth; and
+it was an excellent watchword of alarm, to accuse every lover of law and
+liberty of designs to revive the tragical scene which had closed the life
+of the first Charles.  In this spirit, therefore, the Exclusion Bill, and
+the alleged conspiracies of Sidney and Russell, were, as might naturally
+be expected, the chief charges urged against the Whigs; but their conduct
+on the subject of the popish plot was so far from being the cause of the
+hatred born to them, that it was not even used as a topic of accusation
+against them.
+
+In order to keep up that spirit in the nation, which was thought to be
+manifested in the addresses, his majesty ordered the declaration, to
+which allusion was made in the last chapter, to be published, interwoven
+with a history of the Rye House Plot, which is said to have been drawn by
+Dr. Spratt, Bishop of Rochester.  The principal drift of this publication
+was, to load the memory of Sidney and Russell, and to blacken the
+character of the Duke of Monmouth, by wickedly confounding the
+consultations holden by them with the plot for assassinating the late
+king, and in this object it seems in a great measure to have succeeded.
+He also caused to be published an attestation of his brother's having
+died a Roman Catholic, together with two papers, drawn up by him, in
+favour of that persuasion.  This is generally considered to have been a
+very ill-advised instance of zeal; but probably James thought, that at a
+time when people seemed to be so in love with his power, he might safely
+venture to indulge himself in a display of his attachment to his
+religion; and perhaps, too, it might be thought good policy to show that
+a prince, who had been so highly complimented as Charles had been, for
+the restoration and protection of the Church, had, in truth, been a
+Catholic, and thus to inculcate an opinion that the Church of England
+might not only be safe, but highly favoured, under the reign of a popish
+prince.
+
+Partly from similar motives, and partly to gratify the natural
+vindictiveness of his temper, he persevered in a most cruel persecution
+of the Protestant dissenters, upon the most frivolous pretences.  The
+courts of justice, as in Charles's days, were instruments equally ready,
+either for seconding the policy or for gratifying the bad passions of the
+monarch; and Jeffreys, whom the late king had appointed chief justice of
+England a little before Sidney's trial, was a man entirely agreeable to
+the temper, and suitable to the purposes, of the present government.  He
+was thought not to be very learned in his profession; but what might be
+wanting in knowledge he made up in positiveness; and, indeed, whatever
+might be the difficulties in questions between one subject and another,
+the fashionable doctrine, which prevailed at that time, of supporting the
+king's prerogative in its full extent, and without restriction or
+limitation, rendered, to such as espoused it, all that branch of law
+which is called constitutional extremely easy and simple.  He was as
+submissive and mean to those above him as he was haughty and insolent to
+those who were in any degree in his power; and if in his own conduct he
+did not exhibit a very nice regard for morality, or even for decency, he
+never failed to animadvert upon, and to punish, the most slight deviation
+in others with the utmost severity, especially if they were persons whom
+he suspected to be no favourites of the court.
+
+Before this magistrate was brought for trial, by a jury sufficiently
+prepossessed in favour of Tory politics, the Rev. Richard Baxter, a
+dissenting minister, a pious and learned man, of exemplary character,
+always remarkable for his attachment to monarchy, and for leaning to
+moderate measures in the differences between the Church and those of his
+persuasion.  The pretence for this prosecution was a supposed reference
+of some passages in one of his works to the bishops of the Church of
+England; a reference which was certainly not intended by him, and which
+could not have been made out to any jury that had been less prejudiced,
+or under any other direction than that of Jeffreys.  The real motive was,
+the desire of punishing an eminent dissenting teacher, whose reputation
+was high among his sect, and who was supposed to favour the political
+opinions of the Whigs.  He was found guilty, and Jeffreys, in passing
+sentence upon him, loaded him with the coarsest reproaches and bitterest
+taunts.  He called him sometimes, by way of derision, a saint, sometimes,
+in plainer terms, an old rogue; and classed this respectable divine, to
+whom the only crime imputed was the having spoken disrespectfully of the
+bishops of a communion to which he did not belong, with the infamous
+Oates, who had been lately convicted of perjury.  He finished with
+declaring, that it was a matter of public notoriety that there was a
+formed design to ruin the king and the nation, in which this old man was
+the principal incendiary.  Nor is it improbable that this declaration,
+absurd as it was, might gain belief at a time when the credulity of the
+triumphant party was at its height.
+
+Of this credulity it seems to be no inconsiderable testimony, that some
+affected nicety which James had shown with regard to the ceremonies to be
+used towards the French ambassador, was highly magnified, and represented
+to be an indication of the different tone that was to be taken by the
+present king, in regard to foreign powers, and particularly to the court
+of Versailles.  The king was represented as a prince eminently jealous of
+the national honour, and determined to preserve the balance of power in
+Europe, by opposing the ambitious projects of France at the very time
+when he was supplicating Louis to be his pensioner, and expressing the
+most extravagant gratitude for having been accepted as such.  From the
+information which we now have, it appears that his applications to Louis
+for money were incessant, and that the difficulties were all on the side
+of the French court.  Of the historians who wrote prior to the inspection
+of the papers in the foreign office in France, Burnet is the only one who
+seems to have known that James's pretensions of independency with respect
+to the French king were (as he terms them) only a show; but there can now
+be no reason to doubt the truth of the anecdote which he relates, that
+Louis soon after told the Duke of Villeroy, that if James showed any
+apparent uneasiness concerning the balance of power (and there is some
+reason to suppose he did) in his conversations with the Spanish and other
+foreign ambassadors, his intention was, probably, to alarm the court of
+Versailles, and thereby to extort pecuniary assistance to a greater
+extent; while, on the other hand, Louis, secure in the knowledge that his
+views of absolute power must continue him in dependence upon France,
+seems to have refused further supplies, and even in some measure to have
+withdrawn those which had been stipulated, as a mark of his displeasure
+with his dependant, for assuming a higher tone than he thought becoming.
+
+Whether with a view of giving some countenance to those who were praising
+him upon the above mentioned topic, or from what other motive it is now
+not easy to conjecture, James seems to have wished to be upon apparent
+good terms, at least, with the Prince of Orange; and after some
+correspondence with that prince concerning the protection afforded by him
+and the states-general to Monmouth, and other obnoxious persons, it
+appears that he declared himself, in consequence of certain explanations
+and concessions, perfectly satisfied.  It is to be remarked, however,
+that he thought it necessary to give the French ambassador an account of
+this transaction, and in a manner to apologise to him for entering into
+any sort of terms with a son-in-law, who was supposed to be hostile in
+disposition to the French king.  He assured Barillon that a change of
+system on the part of the Prince of Orange in regard to Louis, should be
+a condition of his reconciliation: he afterwards informed him that the
+Prince of Orange had answered him satisfactorily in all other respects,
+but had not taken notice of his wish that he should connect himself with
+France; but never told him that he had, notwithstanding the prince's
+silence on that material point, expressed himself completely satisfied
+with him.  That a proposition to the Prince of Orange, to connect himself
+in politics with Louis would, if made, have been rejected, in the manner
+in which the king's account to Barillon implies that it was, there can be
+no doubt; but whether James ever had the assurance to make it is more
+questionable; for as he evidently acted disingenuously with the
+ambassador, in concealing from him the complete satisfaction he had
+expressed of the Prince of Orange's present conduct, it is not
+unreasonable to suppose that he deceived him still further, and pretended
+to have made an application, which he had never hazarded.
+
+However, the ascertaining of this fact is by no means necessary for the
+illustration, either of the general history or of James's particular
+character, since it appears that the proposition, if made, was rejected;
+and James is, in any case, equally convicted of insincerity, the only
+point in question being, whether he deceived the French ambassador, in
+regard to the fact of his having made the proposition, or to the
+sentiments he expressed upon its being refused.  Nothing serves more to
+show the dependence in which he considered himself to be upon Louis than
+these contemptible shifts to which he condescended, for the purposes of
+explaining and apologising for such parts of his conduct as might be
+supposed to be less agreeable to that monarch than the rest.  An English
+parliament acting upon constitutional principles, and the Prince of
+Orange, were the two enemies whom Louis most dreaded; and, accordingly,
+whenever James found it necessary to make approaches to either of them,
+an apology was immediately to be offered to the French ambassador, to
+which truth sometimes and honour was always sacrificed.
+
+Mr. Hume says the king found himself, by degrees, under the necessity of
+falling into an union with the French monarch, who could alone assist him
+in promoting the Catholic religion in England.  But when that historian
+wrote, those documents had not been made public, from which the account
+of the communications with Barillon has been taken, and by which it
+appears that a connection with France was, as well in point of time as in
+importance, the first object of his reign, and that the immediate
+specific motive to that connection was the same as that of his brother;
+the desire of rendering himself independent of parliament, and absolute,
+not that of establishing popery in England, which was considered as a
+more remote contingency.  That this was the case is evident from all the
+circumstances of the transaction, and especially from the zeal with which
+he was served in it by ministers who were never suspected of any leaning
+towards popery, and not one of whom (Sunderland excepted) could be
+brought to the measures that were afterwards taken in favour of that
+religion.  It is the more material to attend to this distinction, because
+the Tory historians, especially such of them as are not Jacobites, have
+taken much pains to induce us to attribute the violences and illegalities
+of this reign to James's religion, which was peculiar to him, rather than
+to that desire of absolute power which so many other princes have had,
+have, and always will have, in common with him.  The policy of such
+misrepresentation is obvious.  If this reign is to be considered as a
+period insulated, as it were, and unconnected with the general course of
+history, and if the events of it are to be attributed exclusively to the
+particular character and particular attachments of the monarch, the sole
+inference will be that we must not have a Catholic for our king; whereas,
+if we consider it, which history well warrants us to do, as a part of
+that system which had been pursued by all the Stuart kings, as well prior
+as subsequent to the restoration, the lesson which it affords is very
+different, as well as far more instructive.  We are taught, generally,
+the dangers Englishmen will always be liable to, if, from favour to a
+prince upon the throne, or from a confidence, however grounded, that his
+views are agreeable to our own notions of the constitution, we in any
+considerable degree abate of that vigilant and unremitting jealousy of
+the power of the crown, which can alone secure to us the effect of those
+wise laws that have been provided for the benefit of the subject: and
+still more particularly, that it is in vain to think of making a
+compromise with power, and by yielding to it in other points, preserving
+some favourite object, such, for instance, as the Church in James's case,
+from its grasp.
+
+Previous to meeting his English parliament, James directed a parliament
+which had been summoned in the preceding reign, to assemble at Edinburgh,
+and appointed the Duke of Queensbury his commissioner.  This appointment
+is, in itself, a strong indication that the king's views, with regard to
+Scotland at least, were similar to those which I have ascribed to him in
+England; and that they did not at that time extend to the introduction of
+popery, but were altogether directed to the establishment of absolute
+power as the _end_, and to the support of an episcopal church, upon the
+model of the Church of England, as the _means_.  For Queensbury had
+explained himself to his majesty in the fullest manner upon the subject
+of religion; and while he professed himself to be ready (as, indeed, his
+conduct in the late reign had sufficiently proved) to go any length in
+supporting royal power and in persecuting the Presbyterians, had made it
+a condition of his services, that he might understand from his majesty
+that there was no intention of changing the established religion; for if
+such was the object, he could not make any one step with him in that
+matter.  James received this declaration most kindly, assured him he had
+no such intention, and that he would have a parliament, to which he,
+Queensbury, should go as commissioner, and giving all possible assurances
+in the matter of religion, get the revenue to be settled, and such other
+laws to be passed as might be necessary for the public safety.  With
+these promises the duke was not only satisfied at the time, but declared,
+at a subsequent period, that they had been made in so frank and hearty a
+manner, as made him conclude that it was impossible the king should be
+acting a part.  And this nobleman was considered, and is handed down to
+us by contemporary writers, as a man of a penetrating genius, nor has it
+ever been the national character of the country to which he belonged to
+be more liable to be imposed upon than the rest of mankind.
+
+The Scottish parliament met on the 23rd of April, and was opened by the
+commissioner, with the following letter from the king:--
+
+   "My Lords and Gentlemen,--The many experiences we have had of the
+   loyalty and exemplary forwardness of that our ancient kingdom, by
+   their representatives in parliament assembled, in the reign of our
+   deceased and most entirely beloved brother of ever blessed memory,
+   made us desirous to call you at this time, in the beginning of our
+   reign, to give you an opportunity, not only of showing your duty to us
+   in the same manner, but likewise of being exemplary to others in your
+   demonstrations of affection to our person and compliance with our
+   desires, as you have most eminently been in times past, to a degree
+   never to be forgotten by us, nor (we hope) to be contradicted by your
+   future practices.  That which we are at this time to propose unto you
+   is what is as necessary for your safety as our service, and what has a
+   tendency more to secure your own privileges and properties than the
+   aggrandising our power and authority (though in it consists the
+   greatest security of your rights and interests, these never having
+   been in danger, except when the royal power was brought too low to
+   protect them), which now we are resolved to maintain, in its greatest
+   lustre, to the end we may be the more enabled to defend and protect
+   your religion as established by law, and your rights and properties
+   (which was our design in calling this parliament) against fanatical
+   contrivances, murderers, and assassins, who having no fear of God,
+   more than honour for us, have brought you into such difficulties as
+   only the blessing of God upon the steady resolutions and actings of
+   our said dearest royal brother, and those employed by him (in
+   prosecution of the good and wholesome laws, by you heretofore
+   offered), could have saved you from the most horrid confusions and
+   inevitable ruin.  Nothing has been left unattempted by those wild and
+   inhuman traitors for endeavouring to overturn your peace; and
+   therefore we have good reason to hope that nothing will be wanting in
+   you to secure yourselves and us from their outrages and violence in
+   time coming, and to take care that such conspirators meet with their
+   just deservings, so as others may thereby be deterred from courses so
+   little agreeable to religion, or their duty and allegiance to us.
+   These things we considered to be of so great importance to our royal,
+   as well as the universal, interest of that our kingdom, that we were
+   fully resolved, in person, to have proposed the needful remedies to
+   you.  But things having so fallen out as render this impossible for
+   us, we have now thought fit to send our right trusty and right
+   entirely beloved cousin and councillor, William, Duke of Queensbury,
+   to be our commissioner amongst you, of whose abilities and
+   qualifications we have reason to be fully satisfied, and of whose
+   faithfulness to us, and zeal for our interest, we have had signal
+   proofs in the times of our greatest difficulties.  Him we have fully
+   intrusted in all things relating to our service and your own
+   prosperity and happiness, and therefore you are to give him entire
+   trust and credit, as you now see we have done, from whose prudence and
+   your most dutiful affection to us, we have full confidence of your
+   entire compliance and assistance in all those matters, wherein he is
+   instructed as aforesaid.  We do, therefore, not only recommend unto
+   you that such things be done as are necessary in this juncture for
+   your own peace, and the support of our royal interest, of which we had
+   so much experience when amongst you, that we cannot doubt of your full
+   and ample expressing the same on this occasion, by which the great
+   concern we have in you, our ancient and kindly people, may still
+   increase, and you may transmit your loyal actions (as examples of
+   duty) to your posterity.  In full confidence whereof we do assure you
+   of your royal favour and protection in all your concerns, and so we
+   bid you heartily farewell."
+
+This letter deserves the more attention because, as the proceedings of
+the Scotch parliament, according to a remarkable expression in the letter
+itself, were intended to be an example to others, there is the greatest
+reason to suppose the matter of it must have been maturely weighed and
+considered.  His majesty first compliments the Scotch parliament upon
+their peculiar loyalty and dutiful behaviour in past times, meaning, no
+doubt, to contrast their conduct with that of those English parliaments
+who had passed the Exclusion Bill, the Disbanding Act, the Habeas Corpus
+Act, and other measures hostile to his favourite principles of
+government.  He states the granting of an independent revenue, and the
+supporting the prerogative in its greatest lustre, if not the
+aggrandising of it, to be necessary for the preservation of their
+religion, established by law (that is, the Protestant episcopacy), as
+well as for the security of their properties against fanatical assassins
+and murderers; thus emphatically announcing a complete union of interests
+between the crown and the Church.  He then bestows a complete and
+unqualified approbation of the persecuting measures of the last reign, in
+which he had borne so great a share; and to those measures, and to the
+steadiness with which they had been persevered in, he ascribes the escape
+of both Church and State from the fanatics, and expresses his regret that
+he could not be present, to propose in person the other remedies of a
+similar nature, which he recommended as needful in the present
+conjuncture.
+
+Now it is proper in this place to inquire into the nature of the measures
+thus extolled, as well for the purpose of elucidating the characters of
+the king and his Scottish minsters, as for that of rendering more
+intelligible the subsequent proceedings of the parliament, and the other
+events which soon after took place in that kingdom.  Some general notions
+may be formed of that course of proceedings which, according to his
+majesty's opinion, had been so laudably and resolutely pursued during the
+late reign, from the circumstances alluded to in the preceding chapter,
+when it is understood that the sentences of Argyle and Laurie of
+Blackwood were not detached instances of oppression, but rather a sample
+of the general system of administration.  The covenant, which had been so
+solemnly taken by the whole kingdom, and, among the rest, by the king
+himself, had been declared to be unlawful, and a refusal to abjure it had
+been made subject to the severest penalties.  Episcopacy, which was
+detested by a great majority of the nation, had been established, and all
+public exercise of religion, in the forms to which the people were most
+attached, had been prohibited.  The attendance upon field conventicles
+had been made highly penal, and the preaching at them capital, by which
+means, according to the computation of a late writer, no less remarkable
+for the accuracy of his facts than for the force and justness of his
+reasonings, at least seventeen thousand persons in one district were
+involved in criminality, and became the objects of persecution.  After
+this letters had been issued by government, forbidding the intercommuning
+with persons who had neglected or refused to appear before the Privy
+Council, when cited for the above crimes, a proceeding by which not only
+all succour or assistance to such persons, but, according to the strict
+sense of the word made use of, all intercourse with them, was rendered
+criminal, and subjected him who disobeyed the prohibition to the same
+penalties, whether capital or others, which were affixed to the alleged
+crimes of the party with whom he had intercommuned.
+
+These measures not proving effectual for the purpose for which they were
+intended, or, as some say, the object of Charles II.'s government being
+to provoke an insurrection, a demand was made upon the landholders in the
+district supposed to be most disaffected of bonds, whereby they were to
+become responsible for their wives, families, tenants, and servants, and
+likewise for the wives, families, and servants of their tenants, and,
+finally, for all persons living upon their estates, that they should not
+withdraw from the Church, frequent or preach at conventicles, nor give
+any succour, or have any intercourse with persons with whom it was
+forbidden to intercommune; and the penalties attached to the breach of
+this engagement, the keeping of which was obviously out of the power of
+him who was required to make it, were to be the same as those, whether
+capital or other, to which the several persons for whom he engaged might
+be liable.  The landholders, not being willing to subscribe to their own
+destruction, refused to execute the bonds, and this was thought
+sufficient grounds for considering the district to which they belonged as
+in a state of rebellion.  English and Irish armies were ordered to the
+frontiers; a train of artillery and the militia were sent into the
+district itself; and six thousand Highlanders, who were let loose upon
+its inhabitants, to exercise every species of pillage and plunder were
+connived at, or rather encouraged, in excesses of a still more atrocious
+nature.
+
+The bonds being still refused, the government had recourse to an
+expedient of a most extraordinary nature, and issued what the Scotch
+called a writ of Lawburrows against the whole district.  This writ of
+Lawburrows is somewhat analogous to what we call "swearing the peace"
+against any one, and had hitherto been supposed, as the other is with us,
+to be applicable to the disputes of private individuals, and to the
+apprehensions which, in consequence of such disputes, they may mutually
+entertain of each other.  A government swearing the peace against its
+subjects was a new spectacle; but if a private subject, under fear of
+another, hath a right to such a security, how much more the government
+itself? was thought an unanswerable argument.  Such are the sophistries
+which tyrants deem satisfactory.  Thus are they willing even to descend
+from their loftiness into the situation of subjects or private men, when
+it is for the purpose of acquiring additional powers of persecution; and
+thus truly formidable and terrific are they, when they pretend alarm and
+fear.  By these writs the persons against whom they were directed were
+bound, as in case of the former bonds, to conditions which were not in
+their power to fulfil, such as the preventing of conventicles and the
+like, under such penalties as the Privy Council might inflict, and a
+disobedience to them was followed by outlawry and confiscation.
+
+The conduct of the Duke of Lauderdale, who was the chief actor in these
+scenes of violence and iniquity, was completely approved and justified at
+court; but in consequence probably of the state of politics in England at
+a time when the Whigs were strongest in the House of Commons, some of
+these grievances were in part redressed, and the Highlanders, and writs
+of Lawburrows were recalled.  But the country was still treated like a
+conquered country.  The Highlanders were replaced by an army of five
+thousand regulars, and garrisons were placed in private houses.  The
+persecution of conventicles continued, and ample indemnity was granted
+for every species of violence that might be exercised by those employed
+to suppress them.  In this state of things the assassination and murder
+of Sharp, Archbishop of St. Andrews, by a troop of fanatics, who had been
+driven to madness by the oppression of Carmichael, one of that prelate's
+instruments, while it gave an additional spur to the vindictive temper of
+the government, was considered by it as a justification for every mode
+and degree of cruelty and persecution.  The outrage committed by a few
+individuals was imputed to the whole fanatic sect, as the government
+termed them, or, in other words, to a description of people which
+composed a great majority of the population in the Lowlands of Scotland;
+and those who attended field or armed conventicles were ordered to be
+indiscriminately massacred.
+
+By such means an insurrection was at last produced, which, from the
+weakness, or, as some suppose, from the wicked policy of an
+administration eager for confiscations, and desirous of such a state of
+the country as might, in some measure, justify their course of
+government, made such a progress that the insurgents became masters of
+Glasgow and the country adjacent.  To quell these insurgents, who,
+undisciplined as they were, had defeated Graham, afterwards Viscount
+Dundee, the Duke of Monmouth was sent with an army from England; but,
+lest the generous mildness of his nature should prevail, he had sealed
+orders which he was not to open till in sight of the rebels, enjoining
+him not to treat with them, but to fall upon them without any previous
+negotiation.  In pursuance of these orders the insurgents were attacked
+at Bothwell Bridge, where, though they were entirely routed and
+dispersed, yet because those who surrendered at discretion were not put
+to death, and the army, by the strict enforcing of discipline, were
+prevented from plunder and other outrages, it was represented by James,
+and in some degree even by the king, that Monmouth had acted as if he had
+meant rather to put himself at the head of the fanatics than to repel
+them, and were inclined rather to court their friendship than to punish
+their rebellion.  All complaints against Lauderdale were dismissed, his
+power confirmed, and an act of indemnity, which had been procured at
+Monmouth's intercession, was so clogged with exceptions as to be of
+little use to any but to the agents of tyranny.  Several persons, who
+were neither directly nor indirectly concerned in the murder of the
+archbishop, were executed as an expiation for that offence; but many more
+were obliged to compound for their lives by submitting to the most
+rapacious extortion, which at this particular period seems to have been
+the engine of oppression most in fashion, and which was extended not only
+to those who had been in any way concerned in the insurrection, but to
+those who had neglected to attend the standard of the king, when
+displayed against what was styled, in the usual insulting language of
+tyrants, a most unnatural rebellion.
+
+The quiet produced by such means was, as might be expected, of no long
+duration.  Enthusiasm was increased by persecution, and the fanatic
+preachers found no difficulty in persuading their flocks to throw off all
+allegiance to a government which afforded them no protection.  The king
+was declared to be an apostate from the government, a tyrant, and an
+usurper; and Cargill, one of the most enthusiastic among the preachers,
+pronounced a formal sentence of excommunication against him, his brother
+the Duke of York, and others, their ministers and abettors.  This outrage
+upon majesty together with an insurrection contemptible in point of
+numbers and strength, in which Cameron, another field-preacher, had been
+killed, furnished a pretence which was by no means neglected for new
+cruelties and executions; but neither death nor torture were sufficient
+to subdue the minds of Cargill and his intrepid followers.  They all
+gloried in their sufferings; nor could the meanest of them be brought to
+purchase their lives by a retractation of their principles, or even by
+any expression that might be construed into an approbation of their
+persecutors.  The effect of this heroic constancy upon the minds of their
+oppressors was to persuade them not to lessen the numbers of executions,
+but to render them more private, whereby they exposed the true character
+of their government, which was not severity, but violence; not justice,
+but vengeance: for example being the only legitimate end of punishment,
+where that is likely to encourage rather than to deter (as the government
+in these instances seems to have apprehended), and consequently to prove
+more pernicious than salutary, every punishment inflicted by the
+magistrate is cruelty, every execution murder.  The rage of punishment
+did not stop even here, but questions were put to persons, and in many
+instances to persons under torture, who had not been proved to have been
+in any of the insurrections, whether they considered the archbishop's
+assassination as murder, the rising at Bothwell Bridge rebellion, and
+Charles a lawful king.  The refusal to answer these questions, or the
+answering of them in an unsatisfactory manner, was deemed a proof of
+guilt, and immediate execution ensued.
+
+These last proceedings had taken place while James himself had the
+government in his hands, and under his immediate directions.  Not long
+after, and when the exclusionists in England were supposed to be entirely
+defeated, was passed (James being the king's commissioner), the famous
+bill of succession, declaring that no difference of religion, nor any
+statute or law grounded upon such, or any other pretence, could defeat
+the hereditary right of the heir to the crown, and that to propose any
+limitation upon the future administration of such heir was high treason.
+But the Protestant religion was to be secured; for those who were most
+obsequious to the court, and the most willing and forward instruments of
+its tyranny, were, nevertheless, zealous Protestants.  A test was
+therefore framed for this purpose, which was imposed upon all persons
+exercising any civil or military functions whatever, the royal family
+alone excepted; but to the declaration of adherence to the Protestant
+religion was added a recognition of the king's supremacy in
+ecclesiastical matters, and a complete renunciation in civil concerns of
+every right belonging to a free subject.  An adherence to the Protestant
+religion, according to the confession of it referred to in the test,
+seemed to some inconsistent with the acknowledgment of the king's
+supremacy and that clause of the oath which related to civil matters,
+inasmuch as it declared against endeavouring at any alteration in the
+Church or State, seemed incompatible with the duties of a counsellor or a
+member of parliament.  Upon these grounds the Earl of Argyle, in taking
+the oath, thought fit to declare as follows:--
+
+"I have considered the test, and I am very desirous to give obedience as
+far as I can.  I am confident the parliament never intended to impose
+contradictory oaths; therefore I think no man can explain it but for
+himself.  Accordingly I take it, as far as it is consistent with itself
+and the Protestant religion.  And I do declare that I mean not to bind up
+myself in my station, and in a lawful way, to wish and endeavour any
+alteration I think to the advantage of the Church or State, not repugnant
+to the Protestant religion and my loyalty.  And this I understand as a
+part of the oath."  And for this declaration, though unnoticed at the
+time, he was in a few days afterwards committed, and shortly after
+sentenced to die.  Nor was the test applied only to those for whom it had
+been originally instituted, but by being offered to those numerous
+classes of people who were within the reach of the late severe criminal
+laws, as an alternative for death or confiscation, it might fairly be
+said to be imposed upon the greater part of the country.
+
+Not long after these transactions James took his final leave of the
+government, and in his parting speech recommended, in the strongest
+terms, the support of the Church.  This gracious expression, the
+sincerity of which seemed to be evinced by his conduct to the
+conventiclers and the severity with which he had enforced the test,
+obtained him a testimonial from the bishops of his affection to their
+Protestant Church, a testimonial to which, upon the principle that they
+are the best friends to the Church who are most willing to persecute such
+as dissent from it, he was, notwithstanding his own nonconformity, most
+amply entitled.
+
+Queensbury's administration ensued, in which the maxims that had guided
+his predecessors were so far from being relinquished, that they were
+pursued, if possible, with greater steadiness and activity.  Lawrie of
+Blackwood was condemned for having holden intercourse with a rebel, whose
+name was not to be found in any of the lists of the intercommuned or
+proscribed; and a proclamation was issued, threatening all who were in
+like circumstances with a similar fate.  The intercourse with rebels
+having been in great parts of the kingdom promiscuous and universal, more
+than twenty thousand persons were objects of this menace.  Fines and
+extortions of all kinds were employed to enrich the public treasury, to
+which, therefore, the multiplication of crimes became a fruitful source
+of revenue; and lest it should not be sufficiently so, husbands were made
+answerable (and that too with a retrospect) for the absence of their
+wives from church; a circumstance which the Presbyterian women's aversion
+to the episcopal form of worship had rendered very general.
+
+This system of government, and especially the rigour with which those
+concerned in the late insurrections, the excommunication of the king, or
+the other outrages complained of, were pursued and hunted sometimes by
+bloodhounds, sometimes by soldiers almost equally savage, and afterwards
+shot like wild beasts, drove some of those sectaries who were styled
+Cameronians, and other proscribed persons, to measures of absolute
+desperation.  They made a declaration, which they caused to be affixed to
+different churches, importing, that they would use the law of
+retaliation, and "we will," said they, "punish as enemies to God, and to
+the covenant, such persons as shall make it their work to imbrue their
+hands in our blood; and chiefly, if they shall continue obstinately and
+with habitual malice to proceed against us," with more to the like
+effect.  Upon such an occasion the interference of government became
+necessary.  The government did indeed interfere, and by a vote of council
+ordered, that whoever owned, or refused to disown, the declaration on
+oath, should be put to death in the presence of two witnesses, though
+unarmed when taken.  The execution of this massacre in the welvet
+counties which were principally concerned, was committed to the military,
+and exceeded, if possible, the order itself.  The disowning the
+declaration was required to be in a particular form prescribed.  Women,
+obstinate in their fanaticism, lest female blood should be a stain upon
+the swords of soldiers engaged in this honourable employment, were
+drowned.  The habitations, as well of those who had fled to save
+themselves, as of those who suffered, were burnt and destroyed.  Such
+members of the families of the delinquents as were above twelve years old
+were imprisoned for the purpose of being afterwards transported.  The
+brutality of the soldiers was such as might be expected from an army let
+loose from all restraint, and employed to execute the royal justice, as
+it was called, upon wretches.  Graham who has been mentioned before, and
+who, under the title of Lord Dundee, a title which was probably conferred
+upon him by James for these or similar services, was afterwards esteemed
+such a hero among the Jacobite party, particularly distinguished himself.
+Of six unarmed fugitives whom he seized, he caused four to be shot in his
+presence, nor did the remaining two experience any other mercy from him
+than a delay of their doom; and at another time, having intercepted the
+flight of one of these victims, he had him shown to his family, and then
+murdered in the arms of his wife.  The example of persons of such high
+rank, and who must be presumed to have had an education in some degree
+correspondent to their station, could not fail of operating upon men of a
+lower order in society.  The carnage became every day more general and
+more indiscriminate, and the murder of peasants in their houses, or while
+employed at their usual work in the fields, by the soldiers, was not only
+not reproved or punished, but deemed a meritorious service by their
+superiors.  The demise of King Charles, which happened about this time,
+caused no suspension or relaxation in these proceedings, which seemed to
+have been the crowning measure, as it were, or finishing stroke of that
+system, for the steady perseverance in which James so much admired the
+resolution of his brother.
+
+It has been judged necessary to detail these transactions in a manner
+which may, to some readers, appear an impertinent digression from the
+narrative in which this history is at present engaged, in order to set in
+a clearer light some points of the greatest importance.  In the first
+place, from the summary review of the affairs of Scotland, and from the
+complacency with which James looks back to his own share of them, joined
+to the general approbation he expressed of the conduct of government in
+that kingdom, we may form a pretty just notion, as well of his maxims of
+policy, as of his temper and disposition in matters where his bigotry to
+the Roman Catholic religion had no share.  For it is to be observed and
+carefully kept in mind, that the Church, of which he not only recommends
+the support, but which be showed himself ready to maintain by the most
+violent means, is the Episcopalian Church of the Protestants; that the
+test which he enforced at the point of the bayonet was a Protestant test,
+so much so indeed, that he himself could not take it; and that the more
+marked character of the conventicles, the objects of his persecution, was
+not so much that of heretics excommunicated by the Pope, as of dissenters
+from the Church of England, and irreconcilable enemies to the Protestant
+liturgy and the Protestant episcopacy.  But he judged the Church of
+England to be a most fit instrument for rendering the monarchy absolute.
+On the other hand, the Presbyterians were thought naturally hostile to
+the principles of passive obedience, and to one or other, or with more
+probability to both of these considerations, joined to the natural
+violence of his temper, is to be referred the whole of his conduct in
+this part of his life, which in this view is rational enough; but on the
+supposition of his having conceived thus early the intention of
+introducing popery upon the ruins of the Church of England, is wholly
+unaccountable, and no less absurd, than if a general were to put himself
+to great cost and pains to furnish with ammunition and to strengthen with
+fortifications a place of which he was actually meditating the attack.
+
+The next important observation that occurs, and to which even they who
+are most determined to believe that this prince had always popery in
+view, and held every other consideration as subordinate to that primary
+object, must nevertheless subscribe, is that the most confidential
+advisors, as well as the most furious supporters of the measures we have
+related, were not Roman Catholics.  Lauderdale and Queensbury were both
+Protestants.  There is no reason, therefore, to impute any of James's
+violence afterwards to the suggestions of his Catholic advisers, since he
+who had been engaged in the series of measures above related with
+Protestant counsellors and coadjutors, had surely nothing to learn from
+papists (whether priests, jesuits, or others) in the science of tyranny.
+Lastly, from this account we are enabled to form some notion of the state
+of Scotland at a time when the parliament of that kingdom was called to
+set an example for this, and we find it to have been a state of more
+absolute slavery than at that time subsisted in any part of Christendom.
+
+The affairs of Scotland being in the state which we have described, it is
+no wonder that the king's letter was received with acclamations of
+applause, and that the parliament opened, not only with approbation of
+the government, but even with an enthusiastic zeal to signalise their
+loyalty, as well by a perfect acquiescence to the king's demands, as by
+the most fulsome expressions of adulation.  "What prince in Europe, or in
+the whole world," said the chancellor Perth, "was ever like the late
+king, except his present majesty, who had undergone every trial of
+prosperity and adversity, and whose unwearied clemency was not among the
+least conspicuous of his virtues?  To advance his honour and greatness
+was the duty of all his subjects, and ought to be the endeavour of their
+lives without reserve."  The parliament voted an address, scarcely less
+adulatory than the chancellor's speech.
+
+   "May it please your sacred majesty--Your majesty's gracious and kind
+   remembrance of the services done by this, your ancient kingdom, to the
+   late king your brother, of ever glorious memory, shall rather raise in
+   us ardent desires to exceed whatever we have done formerly, than make
+   us consider them as deserving the esteem your majesty is pleased to
+   express of them in your letter to us dated the twenty-eighth of March.
+   The death of that our excellent monarch is lamented by us to all the
+   degrees of grief that are consistent with our great joy for the
+   succession of your sacred majesty, who has not only continued, but
+   secured the happiness which his wisdom, his justice, and clemency
+   procured to us: and having the honour to be the first parliament which
+   meets by your royal authority, of which we are very sensible, your
+   majesty may be confident that we will offer such laws as may best
+   secure your majesty's sacred person, the royal family and government,
+   and be so exemplary loyal, as to raise your honour and greatness to
+   the utmost of our power, which we shall ever esteem both our duty and
+   interest.  Nor shall we leave anything undone for extirpating all
+   fanaticism, but especially those fanatical murderers and assassins,
+   and for detecting and punishing the late conspirators, whose
+   pernicious and execrable designs did so much tend to subvert your
+   majesty's government, and ruin us and all your majesty's faithful
+   subjects.  We can assure your majesty, that the subjects of this your
+   majesty's ancient kingdom are so desirous to exceed all their
+   predecessors in extraordinary marks of affection and obedience to your
+   majesty, that (God be praised) the only way to be popular with us is
+   to be eminently loyal.  Your majesty's care of us, when you took us to
+   be your special charge, your wisdom in extinguishing the seeds of
+   rebellion and faction amongst us, your justice, which was so great as
+   to be for ever exemplary, but above all, your majesty's free and
+   cheerful securing to us our religion, when your were the late king's,
+   your royal brother's commissioner, now again renewed, when you are our
+   sovereign, are what your subjects here can never forget, and therefore
+   your majesty may expect that we will think your commands sacred as
+   your person, and that your inclination will prevent our debates; nor
+   did ever any who represented our monarchs as their commissioners
+   (except your royal self) meet with greater respect, or more exact
+   observance from a parliament, than the Duke of Queensbury (whom your
+   majesty has so wisely chosen to represent you in this, and of whose
+   eminent loyalty and great abilities in all his former employments this
+   nation hath seen so many proofs) shall find from
+
+   "May it please your sacred majesty, your majesty's most humble, most
+   faithful, and most obedient subjects and servants,
+
+   "PERTH, Cancell."
+
+Nor was this spirit of loyalty (as it was then called) of abject slavery,
+and unmanly subservience to the will of a despot, as it has been justly
+denominated by the more impartial judgment of posterity, confined to
+words only.  Acts were passed to ratify all the late judgments, however
+illegal or iniquitous, to indemnify the privy council, judges, and all
+officers of the crown, civil or military, for all the violences they had
+committed; to authorise the privy council to impose the test upon all
+ranks of people under such penalties as that board might think fit to
+impose; to extend the punishment of death which had formerly attached
+upon the preachers at field conventicles only, to all their auditors, and
+likewise to the preachers at house conventicles; to subject to the
+penalties of treason all persons who should give or take the covenant, or
+write in defence thereof, or in any other way own it to be obligatory;
+and lastly, in a strain of tyranny, for which there was, it is believed,
+no precedent, and which certainly has never been surpassed, to enact that
+all such persons as being cited in cases of high treason, field or house
+conventicles, or church irregularities, should refuse to give testimony,
+should be liable to the punishment due by law to the criminals against
+whom they refused to be witnesses.  It is true that an act was also
+passed for confirming all former statutes in favour of the Protestant
+religion as then established, in their whole strength and tenour, as if
+they were particularly set down and expressed in the said act; but when
+we recollect the notions which Queensbury at that time entertained of the
+king's views, this proceeding forms no exception to the general system of
+servility which characterised both ministers and parliament.  All matters
+in relation to revenue were of course settled in the manner most
+agreeable to his majesty's wishes and the recommendation of his
+commissioner.
+
+While the legislature was doing its part, the executive government was
+not behindhand in pursuing the system which had been so much commended.  A
+refusal to abjure the declaration in the terms prescribed, was everywhere
+considered as sufficient cause for immediate execution.  In one part of
+the country information having been received that a corpse had been
+clandestinely buried, an inquiry took place; it was dug up, and found to
+be that of a person proscribed.  Those who had interred him were
+suspected, not of having murdered, but of having harboured him.  For this
+crime their house was destroyed, and the women and children of the family
+being driven out to wander as vagabonds, a young man belonging to it was
+executed by the order of Johnston of Westerraw.  Against this murder even
+Graham himself is said to have remonstrated, but was content with
+protesting that the blood was not upon his head; and not being able to
+persuade a Highland officer to execute the order of Johnston, ordered his
+own men to shoot the unhappy victim.  In another county three females,
+one of sixty-three years of age, one of eighteen, and one of twelve, were
+charged with rebellion; and refusing to abjure the declaration, were
+sentenced to be drowned.  The last was let off upon condition of her
+father's giving a bond for a hundred pounds.  The elderly woman, who is
+represented as a person of eminent piety, bore her fate with the greatest
+constancy, nor does it appear that her death excited any strong
+sensations in the minds of her savage executioners.  The girl of eighteen
+was more pitied, and after many entreaties, and having been once under
+water, was prevailed upon to utter some words which might be fairly
+construed into blessing the king, a mode of obtaining pardon not
+unfrequent in cases where the persecutors were inclined to relent.  Upon
+this it was thought she was safe, but the merciless barbarian who
+superintended this dreadful business was not satisfied; and upon her
+refusing the abjuration, she was again plunged into the water, where she
+expired.  It is to be remarked that being at Bothwell Bridge and Air's
+Moss were among the crimes stated in the indictment of all the three,
+though, when the last of these affairs happened, one of the girls was
+only thirteen, and the other not eight years of age.  At the time of the
+Bothwell Bridge business, they were still younger.  To recite all the
+instances of cruelty which occurred would be endless; but it may be
+necessary to remark that no historical facts are better ascertained than
+the accounts of them which are to be found in Woodrow.  In every instance
+where there has been an opportunity of comparing these accounts with
+records, and other authentic monuments, they appear to be quite correct.
+
+The Scottish parliament having thus set, as they had been required to do,
+an eminent example of what was then thought duty to the crown, the king
+met his English parliament on the 19th of May, 1685, and opened it with
+the following speech:--
+
+   "My lords and gentlemen,--After it pleased Almighty God to take to his
+   mercy the late king, my dearest brother, and to bring me to the
+   peaceable possession of the throne of my ancestors, I immediately
+   resolved to call a parliament, as the best means to settle everything
+   upon these foundations as may make my reign both easy and happy to
+   you; towards which I am disposed to contribute all that is fit for me
+   to do.
+
+   "What I said to my privy council at my first coming there I am
+   desirous to renew to you, wherein I fully declare my opinion
+   concerning the principles of the Church of England, whose members have
+   showed themselves so eminently loyal in the worst of times in defence
+   of my father and support of my brother (of blessed memory), that I
+   will always take care to defend and support it.  I will make it my
+   endeavour to preserve this government, both in Church and State, as it
+   is by law established: and as I will never depart from the just rights
+   and prerogatives of the crown, so I will never invade any man's
+   property; and you may be sure that having heretofore ventured my life
+   in the defence of this nation, I will still go as far as any man in
+   preserving it in all its just rights and liberties.
+
+   "And having given this assurance concerning the care I will have of
+   your religion and property, which I have chose to do in the same words
+   which I used at my first coming to the crown, the better to evidence
+   to you that I spoke them not by chance, and consequently that you may
+   firmly rely upon a promise so solemnly made, I cannot doubt that I
+   shall fail of suitable returns from you, with all imaginable duty and
+   kindness on your part, and particularly to what relates to the
+   settling of my revenue, and continuing it during my life, as it was in
+   the lifetime of my brother.  I might use many arguments to enforce
+   this demand for the benefit of trade, the support of the navy, the
+   necessity of the crown, and the well-being of the government itself,
+   which I must not suffer to be precarious; but I am confident your own
+   consideration of what is just and reasonable will suggest to you
+   whatsoever might be enlarged upon this occasion.
+
+   "There is one popular argument which I foresee may be used against
+   what I ask of you, from the inclination men have for frequent
+   parliaments, which some may think would be the best security, by
+   feeding me from time to time by such proportions as they shall think
+   convenient.  And this argument, it being the first time I speak to you
+   from the throne, I will answer, once for all, that this would be a
+   very improper method to take with me; and that the best way to engage
+   me to meet you often is always to use me well.
+
+   "I expect, therefore, that you will comply with me in what I have
+   desired, and that you will do it speedily, that this may be a short
+   session, and that we may meet again to all our satisfactions.
+
+   "My lords and gentlemen,--I must acquaint you that I have had news
+   this morning from Scotland that Argyle is landed in the West
+   Highlands, with the men he brought with him from Holland: that there
+   are two declarations published, one in the name of all those in arms,
+   the other in his own.  It would be too long for me to repeat the
+   substance of them; it is sufficient to tell you I am charged with
+   usurpation and tyranny.  The shorter of them I have directed to be
+   forthwith communicated to you.
+
+   "I will take the best care I can that this declaration of their own
+   faction and rebellion may meet with the reward it deserves; and I will
+   not doubt but you will be the more zealous to support the government,
+   and give me my revenue, as I have desired it, without delay."
+
+The repetition of the words made use of in his first speech to the privy
+council shows that, in the opinion of the court, at least, they had been
+well chosen, and had answered their purpose; and even the haughty
+language which was added, and was little less than a menace to parliament
+if it should not comply with his wishes, was not, as it appears,
+unpleasing to the party which at that time prevailed, since the revenue
+enjoyed by his predecessor was unanimously, and almost immediately, voted
+to him for life.  It was not remarked, in public at least, that the
+king's threat of governing without parliament was an unequivocal
+manifestation of his contempt of the law of the country, so distinctly
+established, though so ineffectually secured, by the statute of the
+sixteenth of Charles II., for holding triennial parliaments.  It is said
+Lord-keeper Guildford had prepared a different speech for his majesty,
+but that this was preferred, as being the king's own words; and, indeed,
+that part of it in which he says that he must answer once for all that
+the Commons giving such proportions as they might think convenient would
+be a very improper way with him, bears, as well as some others, the most
+evident marks of its royal origin.  It is to be observed, however, that
+in arguing for his demand, as he styles it, of revenue, he says, not that
+the parliament ought not, but that he must not, suffer the well-being of
+the government depending upon such revenue to be precarious; whence it is
+evident that he intended to have it understood that if the parliament did
+not grant, he purposed to levy a revenue without their consent.  It is
+impossible that any degree of party spirit should so have blinded men as
+to prevent them from perceiving in this speech a determination on the
+part of the king to conduct his government upon the principles of
+absolute monarchy, and to those who were not so possessed with the love
+of royalty, which creates a kind of passionate affection for whoever
+happens to be the wearer of the crown, the vindictive manner in which he
+speaks of Argyle's invasion might afford sufficient evidence of the
+temper in which his power would be administered.  In that part of his
+speech he first betrays his personal feelings towards the unfortunate
+nobleman, whom, in his brother's reign, he had so cruelly and
+treacherously oppressed, by dwelling upon his being charged by Argyle
+with tyranny and usurpation, and then declares that he will take the best
+care, not according to the usual phrases to protect the loyal and well
+disposed, and to restore tranquillity, but that the declaration of the
+factious and rebellions may meet with the reward it deserves, thus
+marking out revenge and punishment as the consequences of victory, upon
+which he was most intent.
+
+It is impossible that in a House of Commons, however composed, there
+should not have been many members who disapproved the principles of
+government announced in the speech, and who were justly alarmed at the
+temper in which it was conceived.  But these, overpowered by numbers, and
+perhaps afraid of the imputation of being concerned in plots and
+insurrections (an imputation which, if they had shown any spirit of
+liberty, would most infallibly have been thrown on them), declined
+expressing their sentiments; and in the short session which followed
+there was an almost uninterrupted unanimity in granting every demand, and
+acquiescing in every wish of the government.  The revenue was granted
+without any notice being taken of the illegal manner in which the king
+had levied it upon his own authority.  Argyle was stigmatised as a
+traitor; nor was any desire expressed to examine his declarations, one of
+which seemed to be purposely withheld from parliament.  Upon the
+communication of the Duke of Monmouth's landing in the west that nobleman
+was immediately attainted by bill.  The king's assurance was recognised
+as a sufficient security for the national religion; and the liberty of
+the press was destroyed by the revival of the statute of the 13th and
+14th of Charles II.  This last circumstance, important as it is, does not
+seem to have excited much attention at the time, which, considering the
+general principles then in fashion, is not surprising.  That it should
+have been scarcely noticed by any historian is more wonderful.  It is
+true, however, that the terror inspired by the late prosecutions for
+libels, and the violent conduct of the courts upon such occasions,
+rendered a formal destruction of the liberty of the press a matter of
+less importance.  So little does the magistracy, when it is inclined to
+act tyrannically, stand in need of tyrannical laws to effect its purpose.
+The bare silence and acquiescence of the legislature is in such a case
+fully sufficient to annihilate, practically speaking, every right and
+liberty of the subject.
+
+As the grant of revenue was unanimous, so there does not appear to have
+been anything which can justly be styled a debate upon it, though Hume
+employs several pages in giving the arguments which, he affirms, were
+actually made use of, and, as he gives us to understand, in the House of
+Commons, for and against the question; arguments which, on both sides,
+seem to imply a considerable love of freedom and jealousy of royal power,
+and are not wholly unmixed even with some sentiments disrespectful to the
+king.  Now I cannot find, either from tradition, or from contemporary
+writers, any ground to think that either the reasons which Hume has
+adduced, or indeed any other, were urged in opposition to the grant.  The
+only speech made upon the occasion seems to have been that of Mr.
+(afterwards Sir Edward) Seymour, who, though of the Tory party, a
+strenuous opposer of the Exclusion Bill, and in general supposed to have
+been an approver, if not an adviser, of the tyrannical measures of the
+late reign, has the merit of having stood forward singly, to remind the
+House of what they owed to themselves and their constituents.  He did
+not, however, directly oppose the grant, but stated, that the elections
+had been carried on under so much court influence, and in other respects
+so illegally, that it was the duty of the House first to ascertain who
+were the legal members, before they proceeded to other business of
+importance.  After having pressed this point, he observed that if ever it
+were necessary to adopt such an order of proceeding, it was more
+peculiarly so now, when the laws and religion of the nation were in
+evident peril; that the aversion of the English people to popery, and
+their attachment to the laws were such, as to secure these blessings from
+destruction by any other instrumentality than that of parliament itself,
+which, however, might be easily accomplished, if there were once a
+parliament entirely dependent upon the persons who might harbour such
+designs; that it was already rumoured that the Test and Habeas Corpus
+Acts, the two bulwarks of our religion and liberties, were to be
+repealed; that what he stated was so notorious as to need no proof.
+Having descanted with force and ability upon these and other topics of a
+similar tendency, he urged his conclusion, that the question of royal
+revenue ought not to be the first business of the parliament.  Whether,
+as Burnet thinks, because he was too proud to make any previous
+communication of his intentions, or that the strain of his argument was
+judged to be too bold for the times, this speech, whatever secret
+approbation it might excite, did not receive from any quarter either
+applause or support.  Under these circumstances it was not thought
+necessary to answer him, and the grant was voted unanimously, without
+further discussion.
+
+As Barillon, in the relation of parliamentary proceedings, transmitted by
+him to his court, in which he appears at this time to have been very
+exact, gives the same description of Seymour's speech and its effects
+with Burnet, there can be little doubt but their account is correct.  It
+will be found as well in this, as in many other instances, that an
+unfortunate inattention on the part of the reverend historian to forms
+has made his veracity unjustly called in question.  He speaks of
+Seymour's speech as if it had been a motion in the technical sense of the
+word, for inquiring into the elections, which had no effect.  Now no
+traces remaining of such a motion, and, on the other hand, the elections
+having been at a subsequent period inquired into, Ralph almost pronounces
+the whole account to be erroneous; whereas the only mistake consists in
+giving the name of motion to a suggestion, upon the question of a grant.
+It is whimsical enough, that it should be from the account of the French
+ambassador that we are enabled to reconcile to the records and to the
+forms of the English House of Commons, a relation made by a distinguished
+member of the English House of Lords.  Sir John Reresby does indeed say,
+that among the gentlemen of the House of Commons whom he accidentally
+met, they in general seemed willing to settle a handsome revenue upon the
+king, and to give him money; but whether their grant should be permanent,
+or only temporary, and to be renewed from time to time by parliament,
+that the nation might be often consulted, was the question.  But besides
+the looseness of the expression, which may only mean that the point was
+questionable, it is to be observed, that he does not relate any of the
+arguments which were brought forward even in the private conversations to
+which he refers; and when he afterwards gives an account of what passed
+in the House of Commons (where he was present), he does not hint at any
+debate having taken place, but rather implies the contrary.
+
+This misrepresentation of Mr. Hume's is of no small importance, inasmuch
+as, by intimating that such a question could be debated at all, and much
+more, that it was debated with the enlightened views and bold topics of
+argument with which his genius has supplied him, he gives us a very false
+notion of the character of the parliament and of the times which he is
+describing.  It is not improbable, that if the arguments had been used,
+which this historian supposes, the utterer of them would have been
+expelled, or sent to the Tower; and it is certain that he would not have
+been heard with any degree of attention or even patience.
+
+The unanimous vote for trusting the safety of religion to the king's
+declaration passed not without observation, the rights of the Church of
+England being the only point upon which, at this time, the parliament
+were in any degree jealous of the royal power.  The committee of religion
+had voted unanimously, "That it is the opinion of the committee, that
+this House will stand by his majesty with their lives and fortunes,
+according to their bounden duty and allegiance, in defence of the
+reformed Church of England, as it is now by law established; and that an
+humble address be presented to his majesty, to desire him to issue forth
+his royal proclamation, to cause the penal laws to be put in execution
+against all dissenters from the Church of England whatsoever."  But upon
+the report of the House, the question of agreeing with the committee was
+evaded by a previous question, and the House, with equal unanimity,
+resolved: "That this House doth acquiesce, and entirely rely, and rest
+wholly satisfied, on his majesty's gracious word, and repeated
+declaration to support and defend the religion of the Church of England,
+as it is now by law established, which is dearer to us than our lives."
+Mr. Echard, and Bishop Kennet, two writers of different principles, but
+both churchmen, assign, as the motive of this vote, the unwillingness of
+the party then prevalent in parliament to adopt severe measures against
+the Protestant dissenters; but in this notion they are by no means
+supported by the account, imperfect as it is, which Sir John Reresby
+gives of the debate, for he makes no mention of tenderness towards
+dissenters, but states as the chief argument against agreeing with the
+committee, that it might excite a jealousy of the king; and Barillon
+expressly says, that the first vote gave great offence to the king, still
+more to the queen, and that orders were, in consequence, issued to the
+court members of the House of Commons to devise some means to get rid of
+it.  Indeed, the general circumstances of the times are decisive against
+the hypothesis of the two reverend historians; nor is it, as far as I
+know, adopted by any other historians.  The probability seems to be, that
+the motion in the committee had been originally suggested by some Whig
+member, who could not, with prudence, speak his real sentiments openly,
+and who thought to embarrass the government, by touching upon a matter
+where the union between the church party and the king would be put to the
+severest test.  The zeal of the Tories for persecution made them at first
+give into the snare; but when, upon reflection, it occurred that the
+involving of the Catholics in one common danger with the Protestant
+dissenters must be displeasing to the king, they drew back without delay,
+and passed the most comprehensive vote of confidence which James could
+desire.
+
+Further to manifest their servility to the king, as well as their
+hostility to every principle that could by implication be supposed to be
+connected with Monmouth or his cause, the House of Commons passed a bill
+for the preservation of his majesty's person, in which, after enacting
+that a written or verbal declaration of a treasonable intention should be
+tantamount to a treasonable act, they inserted two remarkable clauses, by
+one of which to assert the legitimacy of Monmouth's birth, by the other,
+to propose in parliament any alteration in the succession of the crown,
+were made likewise high treason.  We learn from Burnet, that the first
+part of this bill was strenuously and warmly debated, and that it was
+chiefly opposed by Serjeant Maynard, whose arguments made some impression
+even at that time; but whether the serjeant was supported in his
+opposition, as the word _chiefly_ would lead us to imagine, or if
+supported, by whom, that historian does not mention; and, unfortunately,
+neither of Maynard's speech itself, nor indeed of any opposition whatever
+to the bill, is there any other trace to be found.  The crying injustice
+of the clause which subjected a man to the pains of treason merely for
+delivering his opinion upon a controverted fact, though he should do no
+act in consequence of such opinion, was not, as far as we are informed,
+objected to or at all noticed, unless indeed the speech above alluded to,
+in which the speaker is said to have descanted upon the general danger of
+making words treasonable, be supposed to have been applied to this clause
+as well as to the former part of the bill.  That the other clause should
+have passed without opposition or even observation, must appear still
+more extraordinary, when we advert, not only to the nature of the clause
+itself, but to the circumstances of there being actually in the House no
+inconsiderable number of members who had in the former reign repeatedly
+voted for the Exclusion Bill.
+
+It is worthy of notice, however, that while every principle of criminal
+jurisprudence, and every regard to the fundamental rights of the
+deliberative assemblies, which make part of the legislature of the
+nation, were thus shamelessly sacrificed to the eagerness which, at this
+disgraceful period, so generally prevailed of manifesting loyalty, or
+rather abject servility to the sovereign, there still remained no small
+degree of tenderness for the interests and safety of the Church of
+England, and a sentiment approaching to jealousy upon any matter which
+might endanger, even by the most remote consequences, or put any
+restriction upon her ministers.  With this view, as one part of the bill
+did not relate to treasons only, but imposed new penalties upon such as
+should, by writing, printing, preaching, or other speaking, attempt to
+bring the king or his government into hatred or contempt, there was a
+special proviso added, "that the asserting and maintaining, by any
+writing, printing, preaching, or any other speaking, the doctrine,
+discipline, divine worship, or government of the Church of England as it
+is now by law established, against popery or any other different or
+dissenting opinions, is not intended, and shall not be interpreted or
+construed to be any offence within the words or meaning of this Act."  It
+cannot escape the reader, that only such attacks upon popery as were made
+in favour of the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, and no
+other, were protected by this proviso, and consequently that, if there
+were any real occasion for such a guard, all Protestant dissenters who
+should write or speak against the Roman superstition were wholly
+unprotected by it, and remained exposed to the danger, whatever it might
+be, from which the Church was so anxious to exempt her supporters.
+
+This bill passed the House of Commons, and was sent up to the House of
+Lords on the 30th of June.  It was read a first time on that day, but the
+adjournment of both houses taking place on the 2nd of July, it could not
+make any further progress at that time; and when the parliament met
+afterwards in autumn, there was no longer that passionate affection for
+the monarch, nor consequently that ardent zeal for servitude which were
+necessary to make a law with such clauses and provisoes palatable or even
+endurable.
+
+It is not to be considered as an exception to the general complaisance of
+parliament, that the Speaker, when he presented the Revenue Bill, made
+use of some strong expressions, declaring the attachment of the Commons
+to the national religion.  Such sentiments could not be supposed to be
+displeasing to James, after the assurances he had given of his regard for
+the Church of England.  Upon this occasion his majesty made the following
+speech:--
+
+   "My lords and gentlemen,--I thank you very heartily for the bill you
+   have presented me this day; and I assure you, the readiness and
+   cheerfulness that has attended the despatch of it is as acceptable to
+   me as the bill itself.
+
+   "After so happy a beginning, you may believe I would not call upon you
+   unnecessarily for an extraordinary supply; but when I tell you that
+   the stores of the navy and ordnance are extremely exhausted, that the
+   anticipations upon several branches of the revenue are great and
+   burthensome; that the debts of the king, my brother, to his servants
+   and family, are such as deserve compassion; that the rebellion in
+   Scotland, without putting more weight upon it than it really deserves,
+   must oblige me to a considerable expense extraordinary: I am sure,
+   such considerations will move you to give me an aid to provide for
+   those things, wherein the security, the ease, and the happiness of my
+   government are so much concerned.  But above all, I must recommend you
+   to the care of the navy, the strength and glory of this nation; that
+   you will put it into such a condition as may make us considered and
+   respected abroad.  I cannot express my concern upon this occasion more
+   suitable to my own thoughts of it than by assuring you I have a true
+   English heart, as jealous of the honour of the nation as you can be;
+   and I please myself with the hopes that by God's blessing and your
+   assistance, I may carry the reputation of it yet higher in the world
+   than ever it has been in the time of any of my ancestors; and as I
+   will not call upon you for supplies but when they are of public use
+   and advantage, so I promise you, that what you give me upon such
+   occasions shall be managed with good husbandry; and I will take care
+   it shall be employed to the uses for which I ask them."
+
+Rapin, Hume, and Ralph observe upon this speech, that neither the
+generosity of the Commons' grant, nor the confidence they expressed upon
+religious matters, could extort a kind word in favour of their religion.
+But this observation, whether meant as a reproach to him for his want of
+gracious feeling to a generous parliament, or as an oblique compliment to
+his sincerity, has no force in it.  His majesty's speech was spoken
+immediately upon, passing the bills which the Speaker presented, and he
+could not therefore take notice of the Speaker's words unless he had
+spoken extempore; for the custom is not, nor I believe ever was, for the
+Speaker to give beforehand copies of addresses of this nature.  James
+would not certainly have scrupled to repeat the assurances which he had
+so lately made in favour of the Protestant religion, as he did not
+scruple to talk of his true English heart, honour of the nation, &c., at
+a time when he was engaged with France; but the speech was prepared for
+an answer to a money bill, not for a question of the Protestant religion
+and church, and the false professions in it are adapted to what was
+supposed to be the only subject of it.
+
+The only matter in which the king's views were in any degree thwarted was
+the reversal of Lord Stafford's attainder, which, having passed the House
+of Lords, not without opposition, was lost in the House of Commons; a
+strong proof that the popish plot was still the subject upon which the
+opposers of the court had most credit with the public.  Mr. Hume,
+notwithstanding his just indignation at the condemnation of Stafford, and
+his general inclination to approve of royal politics, most unaccountably
+justifies the Commons in their rejection of this bill, upon the principle
+of its being impolitic at that time to grant so full a justification of
+the Catholics, and to throw so foul an imputation upon the Protestants.
+Surely if there be one moral duty that is binding upon men in all times,
+places, and circumstances, and from which no supposed views of policy can
+excuse them, it is that of granting a full justification to the innocent;
+and such Mr. Hume considers the Catholics, and especially Lord Stafford,
+to have been.  The only rational way of accounting for this solitary
+instance of non-compliance on the part of the Commons is either to
+suppose that they still believed in the reality of the popish plot, and
+Stafford's guilt, or that the Church party, which was uppermost, had such
+an antipathy to popery, as indeed to every sect whose tenets differed
+from theirs, that they deemed everything lawful against its professors.
+
+On the 2nd of July parliament was adjourned for the purpose of enabling
+the principal gentlemen to be present in their respective counties at a
+time when their services and influence might be so necessary to
+government.  It is said that the House of Commons consisted of members so
+devoted to James, that he declared there were not forty in it whom he
+would not himself have named.  But although this may have been true, and
+though from the new modelling of the corporations, and the interference
+of the court in elections, this parliament, as far as regards the manner
+of its being chosen, was by no means a fair representative of the legal
+electors of England, yet there is reason to think that it afforded a
+tolerably correct sample of the disposition of the nation, and especially
+of the Church party, which was then uppermost.
+
+The general character of the party at this time appears to have been a
+high notion of the king's constitutional power, to which was superadded a
+kind of religious abhorrence of all resistance to the monarch, not only
+in cases where such resistance was directed against the lawful
+prerogative, but even in opposition to encroachments which the monarch
+might make beyond the extended limits which they assigned to his
+prerogative.  But these tenets, and still more the principle of conduct
+naturally resulting from them, were confined to the civil, as
+contra-distinguished from the ecclesiastical polity of the country.  In
+Church matters they neither acknowledged any very high authority in the
+crown, nor were they willing to submit to any royal encroachment on that
+side; and a steady attachment to the Church of England, with a
+proportionable aversion to all dissenters from it, whether Catholic or
+Protestant, was almost universally prevalent among them.  A due
+consideration of these distinct features in the character of a party so
+powerful in Charles's and in James's time, and even when it was lowest
+(that is, during the reigns of the two first princes of the House of
+Brunswick), by no means inconsiderable, is exceedingly necessary to the
+right understanding of English history.  It affords a clue to many
+passages otherwise unintelligible.  For want of a proper attention to
+this circumstance, some historians have considered the conduct of the
+Tories in promoting the revolution as an instance of great inconsistency.
+Some have supposed, contrary to the clearest evidence, that their notions
+of passive obedience, even in civil matters, were limited, and that their
+support of the government of Charles and James was founded upon a belief
+that those princes would never abuse their prerogative for the purpose of
+introducing arbitrary sway.  But this hypothesis is contrary to the
+evidence both of their declarations and their conduct.  Obedience without
+reserve, an abhorrence of all resistance, as contrary to the tenets of
+their religion, are the principles which they professed in their
+addresses, their sermons, and their decrees at Oxford; and surely nothing
+short of such principles could make men esteem the latter years of
+Charles II., and the opening of the reign of his successor, an era of
+national happiness and exemplary government.  Yet this is the
+representation of that period, which is usually made by historians and
+other writers of the Church party.  "Never were fairer promises on one
+side, nor greater generosity on the other," says Mr. Echard.  "The king
+had as yet, in no instance, invaded the rights of his subjects," says the
+author of the Caveat against the Whigs.  Thus, as long as James contented
+himself with absolute power in civil matters, and did not make use of his
+authority against the Church, everything went smooth and easy; nor is it
+necessary, in order to account for the satisfaction of the parliament and
+people, to have recourse to any implied compromise by which the nation
+was willing to yield its civil liberties as the price of retaining its
+religious constitution.  The truth seems to be, that the king, in
+asserting his unlimited power, rather fell in with the humour of the
+prevailing party than offered any violence to it.  Absolute power in
+civil matters, under the specious names of monarchy and prerogative,
+formed a most essential part of the Tory creed; but the order in which
+Church and king are placed in the favourite device of the party is not
+accidental, and is well calculated to show the genuine principles of such
+among them as are not corrupted by influence.  Accordingly, as the sequel
+of this reign will abundantly show, when they found themselves compelled
+to make an option, they preferred, without any degree of inconsistency,
+their first idol to their second, and when they could not preserve both
+Church and king, declared for the former.
+
+It gives certainly no very flattering picture of the country to describe
+it as being in some sense fairly represented by this servile parliament,
+and not only acquiescing in, but delighted with the early measures of
+James's reign; the contempt of law exhibited in the arbitrary mode of
+raising his revenue; his insulting menace to the parliament, that if they
+did not use him well, he would govern without them; his furious
+persecution of the Protestant dissenters, and the spirit of despotism
+which appeared in all his speeches and actions.  But it is to be
+remembered that these measures were in nowise contrary to the principles
+or prejudices of the Church party, but rather highly agreeable to them;
+and that the Whigs, who alone were possessed of any just notions of
+liberty, were so outnumbered and discomforted by persecution, that such
+of them as did not think fit to engage in the rash schemes of Monmouth or
+Argyle, held it to be their interest to interfere as little as possible
+in public affairs, and by no means to obtrude upon unwilling hearers
+opinions and sentiments which, ever since the dissolution of the Oxford
+parliament, in 1681, had been generally discountenanced, and of which the
+peaceable, or rather triumphant, accession of James to the throne was
+supposed to seal the condemnation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Attempts of Argyle and Monmouth--Account of their followers--Argyle's
+expedition discovered--His descent in Argyleshire--Dissensions among his
+followers--Loss of his shipping--His army dispersed, and himself taken
+prisoner--His behaviour in prison--His execution--The fate of his
+followers--Rumbold's last declaration examined--Monmouth's invasion of
+England--His first success and reception--His delays, disappointment, and
+despondency--Battle of Sedgmoor--He is discovered and taken--His letter
+to the king--His interview with James--His preparations for
+death--Circumstances attending his execution--His character.
+
+It is now necessary to give some account of those attempts in Scotland by
+the Earl of Argyle, and in England by the Duke of Monmouth, of which the
+king had informed his parliament in the manner recited in the preceding
+chapter.  The Earl of Argyle was son to the Marquis of Argyle, of whose
+unjust execution, and the treacherous circumstances accompanying it,
+notice has already been taken.  He had in his youth been strongly
+attached to the royal cause, and had refused to lay down his arms till he
+had the exiled king's positive orders for that purpose.  But the merit of
+his early services could neither save the life of his father, nor even
+procure for himself a complete restitution of his family honours and
+estates; and not long after the restoration, upon an accusation of
+leasing-making, an accusation founded, in this instance, upon a private
+letter to a fellow-subject, in which he spoke with some freedom of his
+majesty's Scottish ministry, he was condemned to death.  The sentence was
+suspended and finally remitted, but not till after an imprisonment of
+twelve months and upwards.  In this affair he was much assisted by the
+friendship of the Duke of Lauderdale, with whom he ever afterwards lived
+upon terms of friendship, though his principles would not permit him to
+give active assistance to that nobleman in his government of Scotland.
+Accordingly, we do not, during that period, find Argyle's name among
+those who held any of those great employments of State to which, by his
+rank and consequence, he was naturally entitled.  When James, then Duke
+of York, was appointed to the Scottish government, it seems to have been
+the earl's intention to cultivate his royal highness's favour, and he was
+a strenuous supporter of the bill which condemned all attempts at
+exclusions or other alterations in the succession of the crown.  But
+having highly offended that prince by insisting, on the occasion of the
+test, that the royal family, when in office, should not be exempted from
+taking that oath which they imposed upon subjects in like situations, his
+royal highness ordered a prosecution against him, for the explanation
+with which he had taken the test oath at the council-board, and the earl
+was, as we have seen, again condemned to death.  From the time of his
+escape from prison he resided wholly in foreign countries, and was looked
+to as a principal ally by such of the English patriots as had at any time
+entertained thoughts, whether more or less ripened, of delivering their
+country.
+
+James, Duke of Monmouth, was the eldest of the late king's natural
+children.  In the early parts of his life he held the first place in his
+father's affections; and even in the height of Charles's displeasure at
+his political conduct, attentive observers thought they could discern
+that the traces of paternal tenderness were by no means effaced.
+Appearing at court in the bloom of youth, with a beautiful figure and
+engaging manners, known to be the darling of the monarch, it is no wonder
+that he was early assailed by the arts of flattery; and it is rather a
+proof that he had not the strongest of all minds, than of any
+extraordinary weakness of character, that he was not proof against them.
+He had appeared with some distinction in the Flemish campaigns, and his
+conduct had been noticed with the approbation of the commanders as well
+as Dutch as French, under whom he had respectively served.  His courage
+was allowed by all, his person admired, his generosity loved, his
+sincerity confided in.  If his talents were not of the first rate, they
+were by no means contemptible; and he possessed, in an eminent degree,
+qualities which, in popular government, are far more effective than the
+most splendid talents; qualities by which he inspired those who followed
+him, not only with confidence and esteem, but with affection, enthusiasm,
+and even fondness.  Thus endowed, it is not surprising that his youthful
+mind was fired with ambition, or that he should consider the putting
+himself at the head of a party (a situation for which he seems to have
+been peculiarly qualified by so many advantages) as the means by which he
+was most likely to attain his object.
+
+Many circumstances contributed to outweigh the scruples which must have
+harassed a man of his excellent nature, when he considered the
+obligations of filial duty and gratitude, and when he reflected that the
+particular relation in which he stood to the king rendered a conduct,
+which in any other subject would have been meritorious, doubtful, if not
+extremely culpable in him.  Among these, not the least was the declared
+enmity which subsisted between him and his uncle, the Duke of York.  The
+Earl of Mulgrave, afterwards Duke of Buckinghamshire, boasted in his
+"Memoirs," that this enmity was originally owing to his contrivances; and
+while he is relating a conduct, upon which the only doubt can be, whether
+the object or the means were the most infamous, seems to applaud himself
+as if he had achieved some notable exploit.  While, on the one hand, a
+prospect of his uncle's succession to the crown was intolerable to him,
+as involving in it a certain destruction of even the most reasonable and
+limited views of ambition which he might entertain, he was easily led to
+believe, on the other hand, that no harm, but the reverse, was intended
+towards his royal father, whose reign and life might become precarious if
+he obstinately persevered in supporting his brother; whereas, on the
+contrary, if he could be persuaded, or even forced, to yield to the
+wishes of his subjects, he might long reign a powerful, happy, and
+popular prince.
+
+It is also reasonable to believe, that with those personal and private
+motives others might co-operate of a public nature and of a more noble
+character.  The Protestant religion, to which he seems to have been
+sincerely attached, would be persecuted, or perhaps exterminated, if the
+king should be successful in his support of the Duke of York and his
+faction.  At least, such was the opinion generally prevalent, while, with
+respect to the civil liberties of the country, no doubt could be
+entertained, that if the court party prevailed in the struggle then
+depending they would be completely extinguished.  Something may be
+attributed to his admiration of the talents of some, to his personal
+friendship for others among the leaders of the Whigs, more to the
+aptitude of a generous nature to adopt, and, if I may so say, to become
+enamoured of those principles of justice, benevolence, and equality,
+which form the true creed of the party which he espoused.  I am not
+inclined to believe that it was his connection with Shaftesbury that
+inspired him with ambitious views, but rather to reverse cause and
+effect, and to suppose that his ambitious views produced his connection
+with that nobleman; and whoever reads with attention Lord Grey's account
+of one of the party meetings at which he was present, will perceive that
+there was not between them that perfect cordiality which has been
+generally supposed; but that Russell, Grey, and Hampden, were upon a far
+more confidential footing with him.  It is far easier to determine
+generally, that he had high schemes of ambition, than to discover what
+was his precise object; and those who boldly impute to him the intention
+of succeeding to the crown, seem to pass by several weighty arguments,
+which make strongly against their hypothesis; such as his connection with
+the Duchess of Portsmouth, who, if the succession were to go to the
+king's illegitimate children, must naturally have been for her own son;
+his unqualified support of the Exclusion Bill, which, without indeed
+mentioning her, most unequivocally settled the crown, in case of a
+demise, upon the Princess of Orange; and, above all, the circumstance of
+his having, when driven from England, twice chosen Holland for his
+asylum.  By his cousins he was received, not so much with the civility
+and decorum of princes, as with the kind familiarity of near relations, a
+reception to which he seemed to make every return of reciprocal
+cordiality.  It is not rashly to be believed, that he, who has never been
+accused of hardened wickedness, could have been upon such terms with, and
+so have behaved to, persons whom he purposed to disappoint in their
+dearest and best grounded hopes, and to defraud of their inheritance.
+
+Whatever his views might be, it is evident that they were of a nature
+wholly adverse, not only to those of the Duke of York, but to the schemes
+of power entertained by the king, with which the support of his brother
+was intimately connected.  Monmouth was therefore, at the suggestion of
+James, ordered by his father to leave the country, and deprived of all
+his offices, civil and military.  The pretence for this exile was a sort
+of principle of impartiality, which obliged the king, at the same time
+that he ordered his brother to retire to Flanders, to deal equal measure
+to his son.  Upon the Duke of York's return (which was soon after),
+Monmouth thought he might without blame return also; and persevering in
+his former measures and old connections, became deeply involved in the
+cabals to which Essex, Russell, and Sidney fell martyrs.  After the death
+of his friends, he surrendered himself; and upon a promise that nothing
+said by him should be used to the prejudice of any of his surviving
+friends, wrote a penitentiary letter to his father, consenting, at the
+same time, to ask pardon of his uncle.  A great parade was made of this
+by the court, as if it was designed by all means to goad the feelings of
+Monmouth: his majesty was declared to have pardoned him at the request of
+the Duke of York, and his consent was required to the publication of what
+was called his confession.  This he resolutely refused at all hazards,
+and was again obliged to seek refuge abroad, where he had remained to the
+period of which we are now treating.
+
+A little time before Charles's death he had indulged hopes of being
+recalled; and that his intelligence to that effect was not quite
+unfounded, or if false, was at least mixed with truth, is clear from the
+following circumstance:--From the notes found when he was taken, in his
+memorandum book, it appears that part of the plan concerted between the
+king and Monmouth's friend (probably Halifax), was that the Duke of York
+should go to Scotland, between which, and his being sent abroad again,
+Monmouth and his friends saw no material difference.  Now in Barillon's
+letters to his court, dated the 7th of December, 1684, it appears that
+the Duke of York had told that ambassador of his intended voyage to
+Scotland though he represented it in a very different point of view, and
+said that it would not be attended with any diminution of his favour or
+credit.  This was the light in which Charles, to whom the expressions,
+"to blind my brother, not to make the Duke of York fly out," and the
+like, were familiar, would certainly have shown the affair to his
+brother, and therefore of all the circumstances adduced, this appears to
+me to be the strongest in favour of the supposition, that there was in
+the king's mind a real intention of making an important, if not a
+complete, change in his councils and measures.
+
+Besides these two leaders, there were on the continent at that time
+several other gentlemen of great consideration.  Sir Patrick Hume, of
+Polworth, had early distinguished himself in the cause of liberty.  When
+the privy council of Scotland passed an order, compelling the counties to
+pay the expense of the garrisons arbitrarily placed in them, he refused
+to pay his quota, and by a mode of appeal to the court of session, which
+the Scotch lawyers call a bill of suspension, endeavoured to procure
+redress.  The council ordered him to be imprisoned, for no other crime,
+as it should seem, than that of having thus attempted to procure, by a
+legal process, a legal decision upon a point of law.  After having
+remained in close confinement in Stirling Castle for near four years, he
+was set at liberty through the favour and interest of Monmouth.  Having
+afterwards engaged in schemes connected with those imputed to Sidney and
+Russell, orders were issued for seizing him at his house in Berwickshire;
+but having had timely notice of his danger from his relation, Hume of
+Ninewells, a gentleman attached to the royal cause, but whom party spirit
+had not rendered insensible to the ties of kindred and private
+friendship, he found means to conceal himself for a time, and shortly
+after to escape beyond sea.  His concealment is said to have been in the
+family burial-place, where the means of sustaining life were brought to
+him by his daughter, a girl of fifteen years of age, whose duty and
+affection furnished her with courage to brave the terrors, as well
+superstitious as real, to which she was necessarily exposed in an
+intercourse of this nature.
+
+Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, a young man of great spirit, had signalised
+himself in opposition to Lauderdale's administration of Scotland, and had
+afterwards connected himself with Argyle and Russell, and what was called
+the council of six.  He had, of course, thought it prudent to leave Great
+Britain, and could not be supposed unwilling to join in any enterprise
+which might bid fair to restore him to his country, and his countrymen to
+their lost liberties, though, upon the present occasion, which he seems
+to have judged to be unfit for the purpose, he endeavoured to dissuade
+both Argyle and Monmouth from their attempts.  He was a man of much
+thought and reading, of an honourable mind, and a fiery spirit, and from
+his enthusiastic admiration of the ancients, supposed to be warmly
+attached, not only to republican principles, but to the form of a
+commonwealth.  Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree had fled his country on
+account of the transactions of 1683.  His property and connections were
+considerable, and he was supposed to possess extensive influence in
+Ayrshire and the adjacent counties.
+
+Such were the persons of chief note among the Scottish emigrants.  Among
+the English, by far the most remarkable was Ford, Lord Grey of Wark.  A
+scandalous love intrigue with his wife's sister had fixed a very deep
+stain upon his private character; nor were the circumstances attending
+this affair, which had all been brought to light in a court of justice,
+by any means calculated to extenuate his guilt.  His ancient family,
+however, the extensive influence arising from his large possessions, his
+talents, which appear to have been very considerable, and above all, his
+hitherto unshaken fidelity in political attachments, and the general
+steadiness of his conduct in public life, might in some degree
+countervail the odium which he had incurred on account of his private
+vices.  Of Matthews, Wade, and Ayloff, whose names are mentioned as
+having both joined the preliminary councils, and done actual service in
+the invasions, little is known by which curiosity could be either
+gratified or excited.
+
+Richard Rumbold, on every account, merits more particular notice.  He had
+formerly served in the republican armies; and adhering to the principles
+of liberty which he had imbibed in his youth, though nowise bigoted to
+the particular form of a commonwealth had been deeply engaged in the
+politics of those who thought they saw an opportunity of rescuing their
+country from the tyrannical government of the late king.  He was one of
+the persons denounced in Keeling's narrative, and was accused of having
+conspired to assassinate the royal brothers in their road to Newmarket,
+an accusation belied by the whole tenor of his life and conduct, and
+which, if it had been true, would have proved him, who was never thought
+a weak or foolish man, to be as destitute of common sense as of honour
+and probity.  It was pretended that the seizure of the princes was to
+take place at a farm called Rye House, which he occupied in Essex, for
+the purposes of his trade as maltster; and from this circumstance was
+derived the name of the Rye House Plot.  Conscious of having done some
+acts which the law, if even fairly interpreted and equitably
+administered, might deem criminal, and certain that many which he had not
+done would be both sworn and believed against him, he made his escape,
+and passed the remainder of Charles's reign in exile and obscurity; nor
+is his name, as far as I can learn, ever mentioned from the time of the
+Rye House Plot to that of which we are now treating.
+
+It is not to be understood that there were no other names upon the list
+of those who fled from the tyranny of the British government, or thought
+themselves unsafe in their native country, on account of its violence,
+besides those of the persons above mentioned, and of such as joined in
+their bold and hazardous enterprise.  Another class of emigrants, not
+less sensible probably to the wrongs of their country, but less sanguine
+in their hopes of immediate redress, is ennobled by the names of Burnet
+the historian and Mr. Locke.  It is difficult to accede to the opinion
+which the first of these seems to entertain, that though particular
+injustices had been committed, the misgovernment had not been of such a
+nature as to justify resistance by arms.  But the prudential reasons
+against resistance at that time were exceedingly strong; and there is no
+point in human concerns wherein the dictates of virtue and worldly
+prudence are so identified as in this great question of resistance by
+force to established government.  Success, it has been invidiously
+remarked, constitutes in most instances the sole difference between the
+traitor and the deliverer of his country.  A rational probability of
+success, it may be truly said, distinguishes the well-considered
+enterprise of the patriot, from the rash schemes of the disturber of the
+public peace.  To command success is not in the power of man; but to
+deserve success, by choosing a proper time, as well as a proper object,
+by the prudence of his means, no less than by the purity of his views, by
+a cause not only intrinsically just, but likely to insure general
+support, is the indispensable duty of him who engages in an insurrection
+against an existing government.  Upon this subject the opinion of Ludlow,
+who, though often misled, appears to have been an honest and enlightened
+man, is striking and forcibly expressed.  "We ought," says he, "to be
+very careful and circumspect in that particular, and at least be assured
+of very probable grounds to believe the power under which we engage to be
+sufficiently able to protect us in our undertaking; otherwise I should
+account myself not only guilty of my own blood, but also, in some
+measure, of the ruin and destruction of all those that I should induce to
+engage with me, though no cause were never so just."  Reasons of this
+nature, mixed more or less with considerations of personal caution, and
+in some, perhaps, with dislike and distrust of the leaders, induced many,
+who could not but abhor the British government, to wait for better
+opportunities, and to prefer either submission at home, or exile, to an
+undertaking which, if not hopeless, must have been deemed by all
+hazardous in the extreme.
+
+In the situation in which these two noblemen, Argyle and Monmouth, were
+placed, it is not to be wondered at if they were naturally willing to
+enter into any plan by which they might restore themselves to their
+country; nor can it be doubted but they honestly conceived their success
+to be intimately connected with the welfare, and especially with the
+liberty of the several kingdoms to which they respectively belonged.
+Monmouth, whether because he had begun at this time, as he himself said,
+to wean his mind from ambition, or from the observations he had made upon
+the apparently rapid turn which had taken place in the minds of the
+English people, seems to have been very averse to rash counsels, and to
+have thought that all attempts against James ought at least to be
+deferred till some more favourable opportunity should present itself.  So
+far from esteeming his chance of success the better, on account of there
+being in James's parliament many members who had voted for the Exclusion
+Bill, he considered that circumstance as unfavourable.  These men, of
+whom, however, he seems to have over-rated the number, would, in his
+opinion, be more eager than others to recover the ground they had lost,
+by an extraordinary show of zeal and attachment to the crown.  But if
+Monmouth was inclined to dilatory counsels, far different were the views
+and designs of other exiles, who had been obliged to leave their country
+on account of their having engaged, if not with him personally, at least
+in the same cause with him, and who were naturally enough his advisers.
+Among these were Lord Grey of Wark, and Ferguson; though the latter
+afterwards denied his having had much intercourse with the duke, and the
+former, in his "Narrative," insinuates that he rather dissuaded than
+pressed the invasion.
+
+But if Monmouth was inclined to delay, Argyle seems, on the other hand,
+to have been impatient in the extreme to bring matters to a crisis, and
+was of course anxious that the attempt upon England should be made in co-
+operation with his upon Scotland.  Ralph, an historian of great acuteness
+as well as diligence, but who falls sometimes into the common error of
+judging too much from the event, seems to think this impatience wholly
+unaccountable; but Argyle may have had many motives which are now unknown
+to us.  He may not improbably have foreseen that the friendly terms upon
+which James and the Prince of Orange affected at least to be, one with
+the other, might make his stay in the United Provinces impracticable, and
+that, if obliged to seek another asylum, not only he might have been
+deprived, in some measure, of the resources which he derived from his
+connections at Amsterdam, but that the very circumstance of his having
+been publicly discountenanced by the Prince of Orange and the
+states-general, might discredit his enterprise.  His eagerness for action
+may possibly have proceeded from the most laudable motives, his
+sensibility to the horrors which his countrymen were daily and hourly
+suffering, and his ardour to relieve them.  The dreadful state of
+Scotland, while it affords so honourable an explanation of his
+impatience, seems to account also, in a great measure, for his acting
+against the common notions of prudence, in making his attack without any
+previous concert with those whom he expected to join him there.  That
+this was his view of the matter is plain, as we are informed by Burnet
+that he depended not only on an army of his own clan and vassals, but
+that he took it for granted that the western and southern counties would
+all at once come about him, when he had gathered a good force together in
+his own country; and surely such an expectation, when we reflect upon the
+situation of those counties, was by no means unreasonable.
+
+Argyle's counsel, backed by Lord Grey and the rest of Monmouth's
+advisers, and opposed by none except Fletcher of Saltoun, to whom some
+add Captain Matthews, prevailed, and it was agreed to invade immediately,
+and at one time, the two kingdoms.  Monmouth had raised some money from
+his jewels, and Argyle had a loan of ten thousand pounds from a rich
+widow in Amsterdam.  With these resources, such as they were, ships and
+arms were provided, and Argyle sailed from Vly on the 2nd of May with
+three small vessels, accompanied by Sir Patrick Hume, Sir John Cochrane,
+a few more Scotch gentlemen, and by two Englishmen, Ayloff, a nephew by
+marriage to Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and Rumbold, the maltster, who had
+been accused of being principally concerned in that conspiracy which,
+from his farm in Essex, where it was pretended Charles II. was to have
+been intercepted in his way from Newmarket, and assassinated, had been
+called the Rye House Plot.  Sir Patrick Hume is said to have advised the
+shortest passage, in order to come more unexpectedly upon the enemy; but
+Argyle, who is represented as remarkably tenacious of his own opinions,
+persisted in his plan of sailing round the north of Scotland, as well for
+the purpose of landing at once among his own vassals, as for that of
+being nearer to the western counties, which had been most severely
+oppressed, and from which, of course, he expected most assistance.  Each
+of these plans had, no doubt, its peculiar advantages; but, as far as we
+can judge at this distance of time, those belonging to the earl's scheme
+seemed to preponderate; for the force he carried with him was certainly
+not sufficient to enable him, by striking any decisive stroke, to avail
+himself even of the most unprepared state in which he could hope to find
+the king's government.  As he must, therefore, depend entirely upon
+reinforcements from the country, it seemed reasonable to make for that
+part where succour was most likely to be obtained, even at the hazard of
+incurring the disadvantage which must evidently result from the enemy's
+having early notice of his attack, and, consequently, proportionable time
+for defence.
+
+Unfortunately this hazard was converted into a certainty by his sending
+some men on shore in the Orkneys.  Two of these, Spence and Blackadder,
+were seized at Kirkwall by the bishop of the diocese, and sent up
+prisoners to Edinburgh, by which means the government was not only
+satisfied of the reality of the intended invasion, of which, however,
+they had before had some intimation, but could guess with a reasonable
+certainty the part of the coast where the descent was to take place, for
+Argyle could not possibly have sailed so far to the north with any other
+view than that of making his landing either on his own estate, or in some
+of the western counties.  Among the numberless charges of imprudence
+against the unfortunate Argyle, charges too often inconsiderately urged
+against him who fails in any enterprise of moment, that which is founded
+upon the circumstance just mentioned appears to me to be the most
+weighty, though it is that which is the least mentioned, and by no
+author, as far as I recollect, much enforced.  If the landing in the
+north was merely for the purpose of gaining intelligence respecting the
+disposition of the country, or for the more frivolous object of making
+some few prisoners, it was indeed imprudent in the highest degree.  That
+prisoners, such as were likely to be taken on this occasion, should have
+been a consideration with any man of common sense is impossible.  The
+desire of gaining intelligence concerning the disposition of the people
+was indeed a natural curiosity, but it would be a strong instance of that
+impatience which has been often alleged though in no other case proved to
+have been part of the earl's character, if, for the sake of gratifying
+such a desire, he gave the enemy any important advantage.  Of the
+intelligence which he sought thus eagerly, it was evident that he could
+not in that place and at that time make any immediate use; whereas, of
+that which he afforded his enemies, they could and did avail themselves
+against him.  The most favourable account of this proceeding, and which
+seems to deserve most credit, is, that having missed the proper passage
+through the Orkney Islands, he thought proper to send on shore for
+pilots, and that Spence very imprudently took the opportunity of going to
+confer with a relation at Kirkwall; but it is to be remarked that it was
+not necessary for the purpose of getting pilots, to employ men of note,
+such as Blackadder and Spence, the latter of whom was the earl's
+secretary; and that it was an unpardonable neglect not to give the
+strictest injunctions to those who were employed against going a step
+further into the country than was absolutely necessary.
+
+Argyle, with his wonted generosity of spirit, was at first determined to
+lay siege to Kirkwall, in order to recover his friends; but, partly by
+the dissuasions of his followers, and still more by the objections made
+by the masters of the ships to a delay which might make them lose the
+favourable winds for their intended voyage, he was induced to prosecute
+his course.  In the meantime the government made the use that it was
+obvious they would make of the information they had obtained, and when
+the earl arrived at his destination, he learned that considerable forces
+were got together to repel any attack that he might meditate.  Being
+prevented by contrary winds from reaching the Isle of Islay, where he had
+purposed to make his first landing, he sailed back to Dunstafnage in
+Lorn, and there sent ashore his son, Mr. Charles Campbell, to engage his
+tenants and other friends and dependants of his family to rise in his
+behalf; but even there he found less encouragement and assistance than he
+had expected, and the laird of Lochniel, who gave him the best
+assurances, treacherously betrayed him, sent his letter to the
+government, and joined the royal forces under the Marquis of Athol.  He
+then proceeded southwards, and landed at Campbelltown in Kintyre, where
+his first step was to publish his declaration, which appears to have
+produced little or no effect.
+
+This bad beginning served, as is usual in such adventures, rather to
+widen than to reconcile the differences which had early begun to manifest
+themselves between the leader and his followers.  Hume and Cochrane,
+partly construing, perhaps too sanguinely, the intelligence which was
+received from Ayrshire, Galloway, and the other Lowland districts in that
+quarter, partly from an expectation that where the oppression had been
+most grievous, the revolt would be proportionably the more general, were
+against any stay, or, as they termed it, loss of time in the Highlands,
+but were for proceeding at once, weak as they were in point of numbers,
+to a country where every man endowed with the common feelings of human
+nature must be their well-wisher, every man of spirit their coadjutor.
+Argyle, on the contrary, who probably considered the discouraging
+accounts from the Lowlands as positive and distinct, while those which
+were deemed more favourable appeared to him to be at least uncertain and
+provisional, thought the most prudent plan was to strengthen himself in
+his own country before he attempted the invasion of provinces where the
+enemy was so well prepared to receive him.  He had hopes of gaining time,
+not only to increase his own army, but to avail himself of the Duke of
+Monmouth's intended invasion of England, an event which must obviously
+have great influence upon his affairs, and which, if he could but
+maintain himself in a situation to profit by it, might be productive of
+advantages of an importance and extent of which no man could presume to
+calculate the limits.  Of these two contrary opinions it may be difficult
+at this time of day to appreciate the value, seeing that so much depends
+upon the degree of credit due to the different accounts from the Lowland
+counties, of which our imperfect information does not enable us to form
+any accurate judgment.  But even though we should not decide absolutely
+in favour of the cogency of these reasonings which influenced the chief,
+it must surely be admitted that there was, at least, sufficient
+probability in them to account for his not immediately giving way to
+those of his followers, and to rescue his memory from the reproach of any
+uncommon obstinacy, or of carrying things, as Burnet phrases it, with an
+air of authority that was not easy to men who were setting up for
+liberty.  On the other hand, it may be more difficult to exculpate the
+gentlemen engaged with Argyle for not acquiescing more cheerfully, and
+not entering more cordially into the views of a man whom they had chosen
+for their leader and general; of whose honour they had no doubt, and
+whose opinion even those who dissented from him must confess to be formed
+upon no light or trivial grounds.
+
+The differences upon the general scheme of attack led, of course, to
+others upon points of detail.  Upon every projected expedition there
+appeared a contrariety of sentiment, which on some occasions produced the
+most violent disputes.  The earl was often thwarted in his plans, and in
+one instance actually over-ruled by the vote of a council of war.  Nor
+were these divisions, which might of themselves be deemed sufficient to
+mar an enterprise of this nature, the only adverse circumstances which
+Argyle had to encounter.  By the forward state of preparation on the part
+of the government, its friends were emboldened; its enemies, whose spirit
+had been already broken by a long series of sufferings, were completely
+intimidated, and men of fickle and time-serving dispositions were fixed
+in its interests.  Add to all this, that where spirit was not wanting, it
+was accompanied with a degree and species of perversity wholly
+inexplicable, and which can hardly gain belief from any one whose
+experience has not made him acquainted with the extreme difficulty of
+persuading men who pride themselves upon an extravagant love of liberty,
+rather to compromise upon some points with those who have in the main the
+same views with themselves, than to give power (a power which will
+infallibly be used for their own destruction) to an adversary of
+principles diametrically opposite; in other words, rather to concede
+something to a friend, than everything to an enemy.  Hence, those even
+whose situation was the most desperate, who were either wandering about
+the fields, or seeking refuge in rocks and caverns, from the authorised
+assassins who were on every side pursuing them, did not all join in
+Argyle's cause with that frankness and cordiality which was to be
+expected.  The various schisms which had existed among different classes
+of Presbyterians were still fresh in their memory.  Not even the
+persecution to which they had been in common, and almost indiscriminately
+subjected, had reunited them.  According to a most expressive phrase of
+an eminent minister of their church, who sincerely lamented their
+disunion, the furnace had not yet healed the rents and breaches among
+them.  Some doubted whether, short of establishing all the doctrines
+preached by Cargill and Cameron, there was anything worth contending for;
+while others, still further gone in enthusiasm, set no value upon
+liberty, or even life itself, if they were to be preserved by the means
+of a nobleman who had, as well by his serviced to Charles the Second as
+by other instances, been guilty in the former parts of his conduct of
+what they termed unlawful compliances.
+
+Perplexed, no doubt, but not dismayed, by these difficulties, the earl
+proceeded to Tarbet, which he had fixed as the place of rendezvous, and
+there issued a second declaration (that which has been mentioned as
+having been laid before the House of Commons), with as little effect as
+the first.  He was joined by Sir Duncan Campbell, who alone, of all his
+kinsmen, seems to have afforded him any material assistance, and who
+brought with him nearly a thousand men; but even with this important
+reinforcement, his whole army does not appear to have exceeded two
+thousand.  It was here that he was over-ruled by a council of war, when
+he proposed marching to Inverary; and after much debate, so far was he
+from being so self-willed as he is represented, that he consented to go
+over with his army to that part of Argyleshire called Cowal, and that Sir
+John Cochrane should make an attempt upon the Lowlands; and he sent with
+him Major Fullarton, one of the offices in whom he most trusted, and who
+appears to have best deserved his confidence.  This expedition could not
+land in Ayrshire, where it had at first been intended, owing to the
+appearance of two king's frigates, which had been sent into those seas;
+and when it did land near Greenock, no other advantage was derived from
+it than the procuring from the town a very small supply of provisions.
+
+When Cochrane, with his detachment, returned to Cowal, all hopes of
+success in the Lowlands seemed, for the present at least, to be at an
+end, and Argyle's original plan was now necessarily adopted, though under
+circumstances greatly disadvantageous.  Among these, the most important
+was the approach of the frigates, which obliged the earl to place his
+ships under the protection of the castle of Ellengreg, which he fortified
+and garrisoned as well as his contracted means would permit.  Yet even in
+this situation, deprived of the co-operation of his little fleet, as well
+as of that part of his force which he left to defend it, being well
+seconded by the spirit and activity of Rumbold, who had seized the castle
+of Ardkinglass, near the head of Loch Fin, he was not without hopes of
+success in his main enterprise against Inverary, when he was called back
+to Ellengreg, by intelligence of fresh discontents having broken out
+there, upon the nearer approach of the frigates.  Some of the most
+dissatisfied had even threatened to leave both castle and ships to their
+fate; nor did the appearance of the earl himself by any means bring with
+it that degree of authority which was requisite in such a juncture.  His
+first motion was to disregard the superior force of the men of war, and
+to engage them with his small fleet; but he soon discovered that he was
+far indeed from being furnished with the materials necessary to put in
+execution so bold, or, as it may possibly be thought, so romantic a
+resolution.  His associates remonstrated, and a mutiny in his ships was
+predicted as a certain consequence of the attempt.  Leaving, therefore,
+once more, Ellengreg with a garrison under the command of the laird of
+Lochness, and strict orders to destroy both ships and fortification,
+rather than suffer them to fall into the hands of the enemy, he marched
+towards Gareloch.  But whether from the inadequacy of the provisions with
+which he was to supply it, or from cowardice, misconduct, or treachery,
+it does not appear, the castle was soon evacuated without any proper
+measures being taken to execute the earl's orders, and the military
+stores in it to a considerable amount, as well as the ships which had no
+other defence, were abandoned to the king's forces.
+
+This was a severe blow; and all hopes of acting according to the earl's
+plan of establishing himself strongly in Argyleshire were now
+extinguished.  He therefore consented to pass the Leven, a little above
+Dumbarton, and to march eastwards.  In this march he was overtaken, at a
+place called Killerne, by Lord Dumbarton, at the head of a large body of
+the king's troops; but he posted himself with so much skill and judgment,
+that Dumbarton thought it prudent to wait, at least, till the ensuing
+morning, before he made his attack.  Here, again Argyle was for risking
+an engagement, and in his nearly desperate situation, it was probably his
+best chance, but his advice (for his repeated misfortunes had scarcely
+left him the shadow of command) was rejected.  On the other hand, a
+proposal was made to him, the most absurd, as it should seem, that was
+ever suggested in similar circumstances, to pass the enemy in the night,
+and thus exposing his rear, to subject himself to the danger of being
+surrounded, for the sake of advancing he knew not whither, or for what
+purpose.  To this he could not consent; and it was at last agreed to
+deceive the enemies by lighting fires, and to decamp in the night towards
+Glasgow.  The first part of this plan was executed with success, and the
+army went off unperceived by the enemy; but in their night march they
+were misled by the ignorance or the treachery of their guides and fell
+into difficulties which would have caused some disorder among the most
+regular and best-disciplined troops.  In this case such disorder was
+fatal, and produced, as among men circumstanced as Argyle's were, it
+necessarily must, an almost general dispersion.  Wandering among bogs and
+morasses, disheartened by fatigue, terrified by rumours of an approaching
+enemy, the darkness of the night aggravating at once every real distress,
+and adding terror to every vain alarm; in this situation, when even the
+bravest and the best (for according to one account Rumbold himself was
+missing for a time) were not able to find their leaders, nor the corps to
+which they respectively belonged; it is no wonder that many took this
+opportunity to abandon a cause now become desperate, and to effect
+individually that escape which, as a body, they had no longer any hopes
+to accomplish.
+
+When the small remains of this ill-fated army got together, in the
+morning, at Kilpatrick, a place far distant from their destination, its
+number was reduced to less than five hundred.  Argyle had lost all
+authority; nor, indeed, had he retained any, does it appear that he could
+now have used it to any salutary purpose.  The same bias which had
+influenced the two parties in the time of better hopes, and with regard
+to their early operations, still prevailed now that they were driven to
+their last extremity.  Sir Patrick Hume and Sir John Cochrane would not
+stay even to reason the matter with him whom, at the onset of their
+expedition, they had engaged to obey, but crossed the Clyde, with such as
+would follow them to the number of about two hundred, into Renfrewshire.
+
+Argyle, thus deserted, and almost alone, still looked to his own country
+as the sole remaining hope, and sent off Sir Duncan Campbell, with the
+two Duncansons, father and son--persons, all three, by whom he seemed to
+have been served with the most exemplary zeal and fidelity--to attempt
+new levies there.  Having done this, and settled such means of
+correspondence as the state of affairs would permit, he repaired to the
+house of an old servant, upon whose attachment he had relied for an
+asylum, but was peremptorily denied entrance.  Concealment in this part
+of the country seemed now impracticable, and he was forced at last to
+pass the Clyde, accompanied by the brave and faithful Fullarton.  Upon
+coming to a ford of the Inchanon they were stopped by some militia-men.
+Fullarton used in vain all the best means which his presence of mind
+suggested to him to save his general.  He attempted one while by gentle,
+and then by harsher language, to detain the commander of the party till
+the earl, who was habited as a common countryman, and whom he passed for
+his guide, should have made his escape.  At last, when he saw them
+determined to go after his pretended guide, he offered to surrender
+himself without a blow, upon condition of their desisting from their
+pursuit.  This agreement was accepted, but not adhered to, and two
+horsemen were detached to seize Argyle.  The earl, who was also on
+horseback, grappled with them till one of them and himself came to the
+ground.  He then presented his pocket pistols, on which the two retired,
+but soon after five more came up, who fired without effect, and he
+thought himself like to get rid of them, but they knocked him down with
+their swords and seized him.  When they knew whom they had taken they
+seemed much troubled, but dared not let him go.  Fullarton, perceiving
+that the stipulation on which he had surrendered himself was violated,
+and determined to defend himself to the last, or at least to wreak,
+before he fell, his just vengeance upon his perfidious opponents, grasped
+at the sword of one of them, but in vain; he was overpowered, and made
+prisoner.
+
+Argyle was immediately carried to Renfrew, thence to Glasgow, and on the
+20th of June was led in triumph into Edinburgh.  The order of the council
+was particular: that he should be led bareheaded in the midst of Graham's
+guards, with their matches cocked, his hands tied behind his back, and
+preceded by the common hangman, in which situation, that he might be more
+exposed to the insults and taunts of the vulgar, it was directed that he
+should be carried to the castle by a circuitous route.  To the equanimity
+with which he bore these indignities, as indeed to the manly spirit
+exhibited by him throughout, in these last scenes of his life, ample
+testimony is borne by all the historians who have treated of them, even
+those who are the least partial to him.  He had frequent opportunities of
+conversing, and some of writing, during his imprisonment, and it is from
+such parts of these conversations and writings as have been preserved to
+us, that we can best form to ourselves a just notion of his deportment
+during that trying period; at the same time a true representation of the
+temper of his mind in such circumstances will serve, in no small degree,
+to illustrate his general character and disposition.
+
+We have already seen how he expresses himself with regard to the men who,
+by taking him, became the immediate cause of his calamity.  He seems to
+feel a sort of gratitude to them for the sorrow he saw, or fancied he saw
+in them, when they knew who he was, and immediately suggests an excuse
+for them, by saying that they did not dare to follow the impulse of their
+hearts.  Speaking of the supineness of his countrymen, and of the little
+assistance he had received from them, he declares with his accustomed
+piety his resignation to the will of God, which was that Scotland should
+not be delivered at this time, nor especially by his hand; and then
+exclaims, with the regret of a patriot, but with no bitterness of
+disappointment, "But alas! who is there to be delivered!  There may,"
+says he, "be hidden ones, but there appears no great party in the country
+who desire to be relieved."  Justice, in some degree, but still more that
+warm affection for his own kindred and vassals, which seems to have
+formed a marked feature in this nobleman's character, then induces him to
+make an exception in favour of his poor friends in Argyleshire, in
+treating for whom, though in what particular way does not appear, he was
+employing, and with some hope of success, the few remaining hours of his
+life.  In recounting the failure of his expedition it is impossible for
+him not to touch upon what he deemed the misconduct of his friends; and
+this is the subject upon which of all others, his temper must have been
+most irritable.  A certain description of friends (the words describing
+them are omitted) were all of them without exception, his greatest
+enemies, both to betray and destroy him; and . . . and . . . (the names
+again omitted) were the greatest cause of his rout, and his being taken,
+though not designedly, he acknowledges, but by ignorance, cowardice, and
+faction.  This sentence had scarce escaped him when, notwithstanding the
+qualifying words with which his candour had acquitted the last-mentioned
+persons of intentional treachery, it appeared too harsh to his gentle
+nature, and declaring himself displeased with the hard epithets he had
+used, he desires they may be put out of any account that is to be given
+of these transactions.  The manner in which this request is worded shows
+that the paper he was writing was intended for a letter, and as it is
+supposed, to a Mrs. Smith, who seems to have assisted him with money; but
+whether or not this lady was the rich widow of Amsterdam, before alluded
+to, I have not been able to learn.
+
+When he is told that he is to be put to the torture, he neither breaks
+out into any high-sounding bravado, any premature vaunts of the
+resolution with which he will endure it, nor, on the other hand, into
+passionate exclamations on the cruelty of his enemies, or unmanly
+lamentations of his fate.  After stating that orders were arrived that he
+must be tortured, unless he answers all questions upon oath, he simply
+adds that he hopes God will support him; and then leaves off writing, not
+from any want of spirits to proceed, but to enjoy the consolation which
+was yet left him, in the society of his wife, the countess being just
+then admitted.
+
+Of his interview with Queensbury, who examined him in private, little is
+known, except that he denied his design having been concerted with any
+persons in Scotland; that he gave no information with respect to his
+associates in England; and that he boldly and frankly averred his hopes
+to have been founded on the cruelty of the administration, and such a
+disposition in the people to revolt as he conceived to be the natural
+consequence of oppression.  He owned, at the same time, that he had
+trusted too much to this principle.  The precise date of this
+conversation, whether it took place before the threat of the torture,
+whilst that threat was impending, or when there was no longer any
+intention of putting it into execution, I have not been able to
+ascertain; but the probability seems to be that it was during the first
+or second of these periods.
+
+Notwithstanding the ill success that had attended his enterprise, he
+never expresses, or even hints, the smallest degree of contrition for
+having undertaken it: on the contrary, when Mr. Charteris, an eminent
+divine, is permitted to wait on him, his first caution to that minister
+is, not to try to convince him of the unlawfulness of his attempt,
+concerning which his opinion was settled, and his mind made up.  Of some
+parts of his past conduct he does indeed confess that he repents, but
+these are the compliances of which he had been guilty in support of the
+king, or his predecessors.  Possibly in this he may allude to his having
+in his youth borne arms against the covenant, but with more likelihood to
+his concurrence, in the late reign, with some of the measures of
+Lauderdale's administration, for whom it is certain that he entertained a
+great regard, and to whom he conceived himself to be principally indebted
+for his escape from his first sentence.  Friendship and gratitude might
+have carried him to lengths which patriotism and justice must condemn.
+
+Religious concerns, in which he seems to have been very serious and
+sincere, engaged much of his thoughts; but his religion was of that
+genuine kind which, by representing the performance of our duties to our
+neighbour as the most acceptable service to God, strengthens all the
+charities of social life.  While he anticipates, with a hope approaching
+to certainty, a happy futurity, he does not forget those who have been
+justly dear to him in this world.  He writes, on the day of his
+execution, to his wife, and to some other relations, for whom he seems to
+have entertained a sort of parental tenderness, short, but the most
+affectionate letters, wherein he gives them the greatest satisfaction
+then in his power, by assuring them of his composure and tranquillity of
+mind, and refers them for further consolation to those sources from which
+he derived his own.  In his letter to Mrs. Smith, written on the same
+day, he says, "While anything was a burden to me, your concern was; which
+is a cross greater than I can express" (alluding probably to the
+pecuniary loss she had incurred); "but I have, I thank God, overcome
+all."  Her name, he adds, could not be concealed, and that he knows not
+what may have been discovered from any paper which may have been taken;
+otherwise he has named none to their disadvantage.  He states that those
+in whose hands he is, had at first used him hardly, but that God had
+melted their hearts, and that he was now treated with civility.  As an
+instance of this, he mentions the liberty he had obtained of sending this
+letter to her; a liberty which he takes as a kindness on their part, and
+which he had sought that she might not think he had forgotten her.
+
+Never, perhaps, did a few sentences present so striking a picture of a
+mind truly virtuous and honourable.  Heroic courage is the least part of
+his praise, and vanishes as it were from our sight, when we contemplate
+the sensibility with which he acknowledges the kindness, such as it is,
+of the very men who are leading him to the scaffold; the generous
+satisfaction which he feels on reflecting that no confession of his has
+endangered his associates; and above all, his anxiety, in such moments,
+to perform all the duties of friendship and gratitude, not only with the
+most scrupulous exactness, but with the most considerate attention to the
+feelings as well as to the interests of the person who was the object of
+them.  Indeed, it seems throughout to have been the peculiar felicity of
+this man's mind, that everything was present to it that ought to be so;
+nothing that ought not.  Of his country he could not be unmindful; and it
+was one among other consequences of his happy temper, that on this
+subject he did not entertain those gloomy ideas which the then state of
+Scotland was but too well fitted to inspire.  In a conversation with an
+intimate friend, he says that, though he does not take upon him to be a
+prophet, he doubts not but that deliverance will come, and suddenly, of
+which his failings had rendered him unworthy to be the instrument.  In
+some verses which he composed on the night preceding his execution, and
+which he intended for his epitaph, he thus expresses this hope still more
+distinctly
+
+   "On my attempt though Providence did frown,
+   His oppressed people God at length shall own;
+   Another hand, by more successful speed,
+   Shall raise the remnant, bruise the serpent's head."
+
+With respect to the epitaph itself, of which these lines form a part, it
+is probable that he composed it chiefly with a view to amuse and relieve
+his mind, fatigued with exertion, and partly, perhaps, in imitation of
+the famous Marquis of Montrose, who, in similar circumstances, had
+written some verses which have been much celebrated.  The poetical merit
+of the pieces appears to be nearly equal, and is not in either instance
+considerable, and they are only in so far valuable as they may serve to
+convey to us some image of the minds by which they were produced.  He who
+reads them with this view will, perhaps, be of opinion that the spirit
+manifested in the two compositions is rather equal in degree than like in
+character; that the courage of Montrose was more turbulent, that of
+Argyle more calm and sedate.  If, on the one hand, it is to be regretted
+that we have not more memorials left of passages so interesting, and that
+even of those which we do possess, a great part is obscured by time, it
+must be confessed, on the other, that we have quite enough to enable us
+to pronounce that for constancy and equanimity under the severest trials,
+few men have equalled, none ever surpassed, the Earl of Argyle.  The most
+powerful of all tempters, hope, was not held out to him, so that he had
+not, it is true, in addition to his other hard tasks, that of resisting
+her seductive influence; but the passions of a different class had the
+fullest scope for their attacks.  These, however, could make no
+impression on his well-disciplined mind.  Anger could not exasperate,
+fear could not appal him; and if disappointment and indignation at the
+misbehaviour of his followers, and the supineness of the country, did
+occasionally, as surely they must, cause uneasy sensations, they had not
+the power to extort from him one unbecoming or even querulous expression.
+Let him be weighed never so scrupulously, and in the nicest scales, he
+will not be found, in a single instance, wanting in the charity of a
+Christian, the firmness and benevolence of a patriot, the integrity and
+fidelity of a man of honour.
+
+The Scotch parliament had, on the 11th of June, sent an address to the
+king wherein, after praising his majesty, as usual, for his extraordinary
+prudence, courage, and conduct, and loading Argyle, whom they styled an
+hereditary traitor, with every reproach they can devise--among others,
+that of ingratitude for the favours which he had received, as well from
+his majesty as from his predecessor--they implore his majesty that the
+earl may find no favour and that the earl's family, the heritors,
+ringleaders, and preachers who joined him, should be for ever declared
+incapable of mercy, or bearing any honour or estate in the kingdom, and
+all subjects discharged under the highest pains to intercede for them in
+any manner of way.  Never was address more graciously received, or more
+readily complied with; and, accordingly, the following letter, with the
+royal signature, and countersigned by Lord Melford, Secretary of State
+for Scotland, was despatched to the council at Edinburgh, and by them
+entered and registered on the 29th of June.
+
+   "Whereas, the late Earl of Argyle is, by the providence of God, fallen
+   into our power, it is our will and pleasure that you take all ways to
+   know from him those things which concern our government most, as his
+   assisters with men, arms, and money, his associates and
+   correspondents, his designs, etc.  But this must be done so as no time
+   may be lost in bringing him to condign punishment, by causing him to
+   be demeaned as a traitor, within the space of three days after this
+   shall come to your hands, an account of which, with what he shall
+   confess, you shall send immediately to us or our secretaries, for
+   doing which this shall be your warrant."
+
+When it is recollected that torture had been in common use in Scotland,
+and that the persons to whom the letter was addressed had often caused it
+to be inflicted, the words, "it is our will and pleasure that you take
+all ways," seem to convey a positive command for applying of it in this
+instance; yet it is certain that Argyle was not tortured.  What was the
+cause of this seeming disregard of the royal injunctions does not appear.
+One would hope, for the honour of human nature, that James, struck with
+some compunction for the injuries he had already heaped upon the head of
+this unfortunate nobleman, sent some private orders contradictory to this
+public letter; but there is no trace to be discovered of such a
+circumstance.  The managers themselves might feel a sympathy for a man of
+their own rank, which had no influence in the cases where only persons of
+an inferior station were to be the sufferers; and in those words of the
+king's letter which enjoin a speedy punishment as the primary object to
+which all others must give way, they might find a pretext for overlooking
+the most odious part of the order, and of indulging their humanity, such
+as it was, by appointing the earliest day possible for the execution.  In
+order that the triumph of injustice might be complete, it was determined
+that, without any new trial, the earl should suffer upon the iniquitous
+sentence of 1682.  Accordingly, the very next day ensuing was appointed,
+and on the 13th of June he was brought from the castle, first to the
+Laigh Council-house, and thence to the place of execution.
+
+Before he left the castle, he had his dinner at the usual hour, at which
+he discoursed, not only calmly, but even cheerfully, with Mr. Charteris
+and others.  After dinner he retired, as was his custom, to his
+bed-chamber, where it is recorded that he slept quietly for about a
+quarter of an hour.  While he was in his bed, one of the members of the
+council came and intimated to the attendants a desire to speak with him:
+upon being told that the earl was asleep, and had left orders not to be
+disturbed, the manager disbelieved the account, which he considered as a
+device to avoid further questionings.  To satisfy him, the door of the
+bed-chamber was half opened, and he then beheld, enjoying a sweet and
+tranquil slumber, the man who, by the doom of him and his fellows, was to
+die within the space of two short hours!  Struck with this sight, he
+hurried out of the room, quitted the castle with the utmost
+precipitation, and hid himself in the lodgings of an acquaintance who
+lived near, where he flung himself upon the first bed that presented
+itself, and had every appearance of a man suffering the most excruciating
+torture.  His friend, who had been apprised by the servant of the state
+he was in, and who naturally concluded that he was ill, offered him some
+wine.  He refused, saying, "No, no, that will not help me: I have been in
+at Argyle, and saw him sleeping as pleasantly as ever man did, within an
+hour of eternity.  But as for me--."  The name of the person to whom this
+anecdote relates is not mentioned, and the truth of it may therefore be
+fairly considered as liable to that degree of doubt with which men of
+judgment receive every species of traditional history.  Woodrow, however,
+whose veracity is above suspicion, says he had it from the most
+unquestionable authority.  It is not in itself unlikely; and who is there
+that would not wish it true?  What a satisfactory spectacle to a
+philosophical mind, to see the oppressor, in the zenith of his power,
+envying his victim!  What an acknowledgment of the superiority of virtue!
+What an affecting and forcible testimony to the value of that peace of
+mind which innocence alone can confer!  We know not who this man was; but
+when we reflect that the guilt which agonised him was probably incurred
+for the sake of some vain title, or, at least, of some increase of
+wealth, which he did not want, and possibly knew not how to enjoy, our
+disgust is turned into something like compassion for that very foolish
+class of men whom the world calls wise in their generation.
+
+Soon after his short repose Argyle was brought, according to order, to
+the Laigh Council-house, from which place is dated the letter to his
+wife, and thence to the place of execution.  On the scaffold he had some
+discourse, as well with Mr. Annand, a minister appointed by government to
+attend him, as with Mr. Charteris.  He desired both of them to pray for
+him, and prayed himself with much fervency and devotion.  The speech
+which he made to the people was such as might be expected from the
+passages already related.  The same mixture of firmness and mildness is
+conspicuous in every part of it.  "We ought not," says he, "to despise
+our afflictions, nor to faint under them.  We must not suffer ourselves
+to be exasperated against the instruments of our troubles, nor by
+fraudulent, nor pusillanimous compliances, bring guilt upon ourselves;
+faint hearts are ordinarily false hearts, choosing sin rather than
+suffering."  He offers his prayers to God for the three kingdoms of
+England, Scotland, and Ireland, and that an end may be put to their
+present trials.  Having then asked pardon for his own failings, both of
+God and man, he would have concluded; but being reminded that he had said
+nothing of the royal family, he adds that he refers, in this matter, to
+what he had said at his trial concerning the test; that he prayed there
+never might be wanting one of the royal family to support the Protestant
+religion; and if any of them had swerved from the true faith, he prayed
+God to turn their hearts, but, at any rate, to save His people from their
+machinations.  When he had ended, he turned to the south side of the
+scaffold, and said, "Gentlemen, I pray you do not misconstruct my
+behaviour this day; I freely forgive all men their wrongs and injuries
+done against me, as I desire to be forgiven of God."  Mr. Annand repeated
+these words louder to the people.  The earl then went to the north side
+of the scaffold, and used the same or the like expressions.  Mr. Annand
+repeated them again, and said, "This nobleman dies a Protestant."  The
+earl stepped forward again, and said, "I die not only a Protestant, but
+with a heart-hatred of popery, prelacy, and all superstition whatsoever."
+It would perhaps have been better if these last expressions had never
+been uttered, as there appears certainly something of violence in them
+unsuitable to the general tenor of his language; but it must be
+remembered, first, that the opinion that the pope is _Antichrist_ was at
+that time general among almost all the zealous Protestants in these
+kingdoms; secondly, that Annand being employed by government, and
+probably an Episcopalian, the earl might apprehend that the declaration
+of such a minister might not convey the precise idea which he, Argyle,
+affixed to the word Protestant.
+
+He then embraced his friends, gave some tokens of remembrance to his son-
+in-law, Lord Maitland, for his daughter and grandchildren, stripped
+himself of part of his apparel, of which he likewise made presents, and
+laid his head upon the block.  Having uttered a short prayer, he gave the
+signal to the executioner, which was instantly obeyed, and his head
+severed from his body.  Such were the last hours, and such the final
+close, of this great man's life.  May the like happy serenity in such
+dreadful circumstances, and a death equally glorious, be the lot of all
+whom tyranny, of whatever denomination or description, shall in any age,
+or in any country, call to expiate their virtues on the scaffold!
+
+Of the followers of Argyle, in the disastrous expedition above recounted,
+the fortunes were various.  Among those who either surrendered or were
+taken, some suffered the same fate with their commander, others were
+pardoned; while, on the other hand, of those who escaped to foreign
+parts, many after a short exile returned triumphantly to their country at
+the period of the revolution, and under a system congenial to their
+principles, some even attained the highest honours of the State.  It is
+to be recollected that when, after the disastrous night-march from
+Killerne, a separation took place at Kilpatrick between Argyle and his
+confederates, Sir John Cochrane, Sir Patrick Hume, and others, crossed
+the Clyde into Renfrewshire, with about, it is supposed, two hundred men.
+Upon their landing they met with some opposition from a troop of militia
+horse, which was, however, feeble and ineffectual; but fresh parties of
+militia as well as regular troops drawing together, a sort of scuffle
+ensued, near a place called Muirdyke; an offer of quarter was made by the
+king's troops, but (probably on account of the conditions annexed to it)
+was refused; and Cochrane and the rest, now reduced to the number of
+seventy took shelter in a fold-dyke, where they were able to resist and
+repel, though not without loss on each side, the attack of the enemy.
+Their situation was nevertheless still desperate, and in the night they
+determined to make their escape.  The king's troops having retired, this
+was effected without difficulty; and this remnant of an army being
+dispersed by common consent, every man sought his own safety in the best
+manner he could.  Sir John Cochrane took refuge in the house of an uncle,
+by whom, or by whose wife, it is said, he was betrayed.  He was, however,
+pardoned; and from this circumstance, coupled with the constant and
+seemingly peevish opposition which he gave to almost all Argyle's plans,
+a suspicion has arisen that he had been treacherous throughout.  But the
+account given of his pardon by Burnet, who says his father, Lord
+Dundonald, who was an opulent nobleman, purchased it with a considerable
+sum of money, is more credible, as well as more candid; and it must be
+remembered that in Sir John's disputes with his general, he was almost
+always acting in conjunction with Sir Patrick Hume, who is proved, by the
+subsequent events, and indeed by the whole tenor of his life and conduct,
+to have been uniformly sincere and zealous in the cause of his country.
+Cochrane was sent to England, where he had an interview with the king,
+and gave such answers to the questions put to him as were deemed
+satisfactory by his majesty; and the information thus obtained whatever
+might be the real and secret causes, furnished a plausible pretence at
+least for the exercise of royal mercy.  Sir Patrick Hume, after having
+concealed himself some time in the house, and under the protection of
+Lady Eleanor Dunbar, sister to the Earl of Eglington, found means to
+escape to Holland, whence he returned in better times, and was created
+first Lord Hume of Polwarth, and afterwards Earl of Marchmont.  Fullarton,
+and Campbell of Auchinbreak, appear to have escaped, but by what means is
+not known.  Two sons of Argyle, John and Charles, and Archibald Campbell,
+his nephew, were sentenced to death and forfeiture, but the capital part
+of the sentence was remitted.  Thomas Archer, a clergyman, who had been
+wounded at Muirdyke, was executed, notwithstanding many applications in
+his favour, among which was one from Lord Drumlanrig, Queensbury's eldest
+son.  Woodrow, who was himself a Presbyterian minister, and though a most
+valuable and correct historian, was not without a tincture of the
+prejudices belonging to his order, attributes the unrelenting spirit of
+the government in this instance to their malice against the clergy of his
+sect.  Some of the holy ministry, he observes, as Guthrie at the
+restoration, Kidd and Mackail after the insurrections at Pentland and
+Bothwell Bridge, and now Archer, were upon every occasion to be
+sacrificed to the fury of the persecutors.  But to him who is well
+acquainted with the history of this period, the habitual cruelty of the
+government will fully account for any particular act of severity; and it
+is only in cases of lenity, such as that of Cochrane, for instance, that
+he will look for some hidden or special motive.
+
+Ayloff, having in vain attempted to kill himself, was, like Cochrane,
+sent to London to be examined.  His relationship to the king's first wife
+might perhaps be one inducement to this measure, or it might be thought
+more expedient that he should be executed for the Rye House Plot, the
+credit of which it was a favourite object of the court to uphold, than
+for his recent acts of rebellion in Scotland.  Upon his examination he
+refused to give any information, and suffered death upon a sentence of
+outlawry, which had passed in the former reign.  It is recorded that
+James interrogated him personally, and finding him sullen, and unwilling
+to speak, said: "Mr. Ayloff, you know it is in my power to pardon you,
+therefore say that which may deserve it:" to which Ayloff replied:
+"Though it is in your power, it is not in your nature to pardon."  This,
+however, is one of those anecdotes which are believed rather on account
+of the air of nature that belongs to them, than upon any very good
+traditional authority, and which ought, therefore when any very material
+inference with respect either to fact or character, is to be drawn from
+them, to be received with great caution.
+
+Rumbold, covered with wounds, and defending himself with uncommon
+exertions of strength and courage, was at last taken.  However desirable
+it might have been thought to execute in England a man so deeply
+implicated in the Rye House Plot, the state of Rumbold's health made such
+a project impracticable.  Had it been attempted he would probably, by a
+natural death, have disappointed the views of a government who were eager
+to see brought to the block a man whom they thought, or pretended to
+think, guilty of having projected the assassination of the late and
+present king.  Weakened as he was in body, his mind was firm, his
+constancy unshaken; and notwithstanding some endeavours that were made by
+drums and other instruments, to drown his voice when he was addressing
+the people from the scaffold, enough has been preserved of what he then
+uttered to satisfy us that his personal courage, the praise of which has
+not been denied him, was not of the vulgar or constitutional kind, but
+was accompanied with a proportionable vigour of mind.  Upon hearing his
+sentence, whether in imitation of Montrose, or from that congeniality of
+character which causes men in similar circumstances to conceive similar
+sentiments, he expressed the same wish which that gallant nobleman had
+done; he wished he had a limb for every town in Christendom.  With
+respect to the intended assassination imputed to him, he protested his
+innocence, and desired to be believed upon the faith of a dying man;
+adding, in terms as natural as they are forcibly descriptive of a
+conscious dignity of character, that he was too well known for any to
+have had the imprudence to make such a proposition to him.  He concluded
+with plain, and apparently sincere, declarations of his undiminished
+attachment to the principles of liberty, civil and religious; denied that
+he was an enemy to monarchy, affirming, on the contrary, that he
+considered it, when properly limited, as the most eligible form of
+government; but that he never could believe that any man was born marked
+by God above another, "for none comes into the world with a saddle on his
+back, neither any booted and spurred to ride him."
+
+Except by Ralph, who, with a warmth that does honour to his feelings,
+expatiates at some length upon the subject, the circumstances attending
+the death of this extraordinary man have been little noticed.  Rapin,
+Echard, Kennet, Hume, make no mention of them whatever; and yet,
+exclusively of the interest always excited by any great display of spirit
+and magnanimity, his solemn denial of the project of assassination
+imputed to him in the affair of the Rye House Plot is in itself a fact of
+great importance, and one which might have been expected to attract, in
+no small degree, the attention of the historian.  That Hume, who has
+taken some pains in canvassing the degree of credit due to the different
+parts of the Rye House Plot, should pass it over in silence, is the more
+extraordinary because, in the case of the popish plot, he lays, and
+justly lays, the greatest stress upon the dying declarations of the
+sufferers.  Burnet adverts as well to the peculiar language used by
+Rumbold as to his denial of the assassination; but having before given us
+to understand that he believed that no such crime had been projected, it
+is the less to be wondered at that he does not much dwell upon this
+further evidence in favour of his former opinion.  Sir John Dalrymple,
+upon the authority of a paper which he does not produce, but from which
+he quotes enough to show that if produced it would not answer his
+purpose, takes Rumbold's guilt for a decided fact, and then states his
+dying protestations of his innocence, as an instance of aggravated
+wickedness.  It is to be remarked, too, that although Sir John is pleased
+roundly to assert that Rumbold denied the share he had had in the Rye
+House Plot, yet the particular words which he cites neither contain nor
+express, nor imply any such denial.  He has not even selected those by
+which the design of assassination was denied (the only denial that was
+uttered), but refers to a general declaration made by Rumbold, that he
+had done injustice to no man--a declaration which was by no means
+inconsistent with his having been a party to a plot, which he, no doubt,
+considered as justifiable, and even meritorious.  This is not all: the
+paper referred to is addressed to Walcot, by whom Rumbold states himself
+to have been led on; and Walcot, with his last breath, denied his own
+participation in any design to murder either Charles or James.  Thus,
+therefore, whether the declaration of the sufferer be interpreted in a
+general or in a particular sense, there is no contradiction whatever
+between it and the paper adduced; but thus it is that the character of a
+brave and, as far as appears, a virtuous man, is most unjustly and
+cruelly traduced.  An incredible confusion of head, and an uncommon want
+of reasoning powers, which distinguish the author to whom I refer, are, I
+should charitably hope, the true sources of his misrepresentation; while
+others may probably impute it to his desire of blackening, upon any
+pretence, a person whose name is more or less connected with those of
+Sidney and Russell.  It ought not, perhaps, to pass without observation,
+that this attack upon Rumbold is introduced only in an oblique manner:
+the rigour of government destroyed, says the historian, the morals it
+intended to correct, and made the unhappy sufferer add to his former
+crimes the atrocity of declaring a falsehood in his last moments.  Now,
+what particular instances of rigour are here alluded to, it is difficult
+to guess: for surely the execution of a man whom he sets down as guilty
+of a design to murder the two royal brothers, could not, even in the
+judgment of persons much less accustomed than Sir John to palliate the
+crimes of princes, be looked upon as an act of blameable severity; but it
+was thought, perhaps, that for the purpose of conveying a calumny upon
+the persons concerned, or accused of being concerned, in the Rye House
+Plot, an affected censure upon the government would be the fittest
+vehicle.
+
+The fact itself, that Rumbold did, in his last hours, solemnly deny the
+having been concerned in any project for assassinating the king or duke,
+has not, I believe, been questioned.  It is not invalidated by the
+silence of some historians: it is confirmed by the misrepresentation of
+others.  The first question that naturally presents itself must be, was
+this declaration true?  The asseverations of dying men have always had,
+and will always have, great influence upon the minds of those who do not
+push their ill opinion of mankind to the most outrageous and
+unwarrantable length; but though the weight of such asseverations be in
+all cases great, it will not be in all equal.  It is material therefore
+to consider, first, what are the circumstances which may tend in
+particular cases to diminish their credit; and next, how far such
+circumstances appear to have existed in the case before us.  The case
+where this species of evidence would be the least convincing, would be
+where hope of pardon is entertained; for then the man is not a dying man
+in the sense of the proposition, for he has not that certainty that his
+falsehood will not avail him, which is the principal foundation of the
+credit due to his assertions.  For the same reason, though in a less
+degree, he who hopes for favour to his children, or to other surviving
+connections, is to be listened to with some caution; for the existence of
+one virtue does not necessarily prove that of another, and he who loves
+his children and friends may yet be profligate and unprincipled; or,
+deceiving himself, may think that while his ends are laudable, he ought
+not to hesitate concerning the means.  Besides these more obvious
+temptations to prevarication, there is another which, though it may lie
+somewhat deeper, yet experience teaches us to be rooted in human nature:
+I mean that sort of obstinacy, or false shame, which makes men so
+unwilling to retract what they have once advanced, whether in matter of
+opinion or of fact.  The general character of the man is also in this, as
+in all other human testimony, a circumstance of the greatest moment.
+Where none of the above-mentioned objections occur, and where therefore
+the weight of evidence in question is confessedly considerable, yet is it
+still liable to be balanced or outweighed by evidence in the opposite
+scale.
+
+Let Rumbold's declaration, then, be examined upon these principles, and
+we shall find that it has every character of truth, without a single
+circumstance to discredit it.  He was so far from entertaining any hope
+of pardon, that he did not seem even to wish it; and indeed if he had had
+any such chimerical object in view, he must have known that to have
+supplied the government with a proof of the Rye House assassination plot,
+would be a more likely road at least, than a steady denial, to obtain it.
+He left none behind him for whom to entreat favour, or whose welfare or
+honour was at all affected by any confession or declaration he might
+make.  If, in a prospective view, he was without temptation, so neither,
+if he looked back, was he fettered by any former declaration; so that he
+could not be influenced by that erroneous notion of consistency to which
+it may be feared that truth, even in the most awful moments, has in some
+cases been sacrificed.  His timely escape in 1683 had saved him from the
+necessity of making any protestation upon the subject of his innocence at
+that time; and the words of the letter to Walcot are so far from
+containing such a protestation, that they are quoted (very absurdly, it
+is true) by Sir John Dalrymple as an avowal of guilt.  If his testimony
+is free from these particular objections, much less is it impeached by
+his general character, which was that of a bold and daring man, who was
+very unlikely to feel shame in avowing what he had not been ashamed to
+commit, and who seems to have taken a delight in speaking bold truths, or
+at least what appeared to him to be such, without regarding the manner in
+which his hearers were likely to receive them.  With respect to the last
+consideration, that of the opposite evidence, it all depends upon the
+veracity of men who, according to their own account, betrayed their
+comrades, and were actuated by the hope either of pardon or reward.
+
+It appears to be of the more consequence to clear up this matter, because
+if we should be of opinion, as I think we all must be, that the story of
+the intended assassination of the king, in his way from Newmarket, is as
+fabulous as that of the silver bullets by which he was to have been shot
+at Windsor, a most singular train of reflections will force itself upon
+our minds, as well in regard to the character of the times, as to the
+means by which the two causes gained successively the advantage over each
+other.  The Royalists had found it impossible to discredit the fiction,
+gross as it was, of the popish plot; nor could they prevent it from being
+a powerful engine in the hands of the Whigs, who, during the alarm raised
+by it, gained an irresistible superiority in the House of Commons, in the
+City of London, and in most parts of the kingdom.  But they who could not
+quiet a false alarm raised by their adversaries, found little or no
+difficulty in raising one equally false in their own favour, by the
+supposed detection of the intended assassination.  With regard to the
+advantages derived to the respective parties from those detestable
+fictions, if it be urged, on one hand, that the panic spread by the Whigs
+was more universal and more violent in its effects, it must be allowed,
+on the other, that the advantages gained by the Tories were, on account
+of their alliance with the crown, more durable and decisive.  There is a
+superior solidity ever belonging to the power of the crown, as compared
+with that of any body of men or party, or even with either of the other
+branches of the legislature.  A party has influence, but, properly
+speaking, no power.  The Houses of Parliament have abundance of power,
+but, as bodies, little or no influence.  The crown has both power and
+influence, which, when exerted with wisdom and steadiness, will always be
+found too strong for any opposition whatever, till the zeal and fidelity
+of party attachments shall be found to increase in proportion to the
+increased influence of the executive power.
+
+While these matters were transacting in Scotland, Monmouth, conformably
+to his promise to Argyle, set sail from Holland, and landed at Lyme in
+Dorsetshire, on the 11th of June.  He was attended by Lord Grey of Wark,
+Fletcher of Saltoun, Colonel Matthews, Ferguson, and a few other
+gentlemen.  His reception was, among the lower ranks, cordial, and for
+some days at least, if not weeks, there seemed to have been more
+foundation for the sanguine hopes of Lord Grey and others, his followers,
+than the duke had supposed.  The first step taken by the invader was to
+issue a proclamation, which he caused to be read in the market-place.  In
+this instrument he touched upon what were, no doubt, thought to be the
+most popular topics, and loaded James and his Catholic friends with every
+imputation which had at any time been thrown against them.  This
+declaration appears to have been well received, and the numbers that came
+in to him were very considerable; but his means of arming them were
+limited, nor had he much confidence, for the purpose of any important
+military operation, in men unused to discipline, and wholly unacquainted
+with the art of war.  Without examining the question whether or not
+Monmouth, from his professional prejudices, carried, as some have alleged
+he did, his diffidence of unpractised soldiers and new levies too far, it
+seems clear that, in his situation, the best, or rather the only chance
+of success, was to be looked for in counsels of the boldest kind.  If he
+could not immediately strike some important stroke, it was not likely
+that he ever should; nor indeed was he in a condition to wait.  He could
+not flatter himself, as Argyle had done, that he had a strong country,
+full of relations and dependants, where he might secure himself till the
+co-operation of his confederate or some other favourable circumstance
+might put it in his power to act more efficaciously.  Of any brilliant
+success in Scotland he could not, at this time, entertain any hope, nor,
+if he had, could he rationally expect that any events in that quarter
+would make the sort of impression here which, on the other hand, his
+success would produce in Scotland.  With money he was wholly unprovided;
+nor does it appear, whatever may have been the inclination of some
+considerable men, such as Lords Macclesfield, Brandon, Delamere, and
+others, that any persons of that description were engaged to join in his
+enterprise.  His reception had been above his hopes, and his recruits
+more numerous than could be expected, or than he was able to furnish with
+arms; while, on the other hand, the forces in arms against him consisted
+chiefly in a militia, formidable neither from numbers nor discipline, and
+moreover suspected of disaffection.  The present moment, therefore,
+seemed to offer the most favourable opportunity for enterprise of any
+that was likely to occur; but the unfortunate Monmouth judged otherwise,
+and, as if he were to defend rather than to attack, directed his chief
+policy to the avoiding of a general action.
+
+It being, however, absolutely necessary to dislodge some troops which the
+Earl of Feversham had thrown into Bridport, a detachment of three hundred
+men was made for that purpose, which had the most complete success,
+notwithstanding the cowardice of Lord Grey, who commanded them.  This
+nobleman, who had been so instrumental in persuading his friend to the
+invasion, upon the first appearance of danger is said to have left the
+troops whom he commanded, and to have sought his own personal safety in
+flight.  The troops carried Bridport, to the shame of the commander who
+had deserted them, and returned to Lyme.
+
+It is related by Ferguson that Monmouth said to Matthews, "What shall I
+do with Lord Grey?"  To which the other answered, "That he was the only
+general in Europe who would ask such a question;" intending, no doubt, to
+reproach the duke with the excess to which he pushed his characteristic
+virtues of mildness and forbearance.  That these virtues formed a part of
+his character is most true, and the personal friendship in which he had
+lived with Grey would incline him still more to the exercise of them upon
+this occasion; but it is to be remembered also that the delinquent was,
+in respect of rank, property, and perhaps too of talent, by far the most
+considerable man he had with him; and, therefore, that prudential motives
+might concur to deter a general from proceeding to violent measures with
+such a person, especially in a civil war, where the discipline of an
+armed party cannot be conducted upon the same system as that of a regular
+army serving in a foreign war.  Monmouth's disappointment in Lord Grey
+was aggravated by the loss of Fletcher of Saltoun, who, in a sort of
+scuffle that ensued upon his being reproached for having seized a horse
+belonging to a man of the country, had the misfortune to kill the owner.
+Monmouth, however unwilling, thought himself obliged to dismiss him; and
+thus, while a fatal concurrence of circumstances forced him to part with
+the man he esteemed, and to retain him whom he despised, he found himself
+at once disappointed of the support of the two persons upon whom he had
+most relied.
+
+On the 15th of June, his army being now increased to near three thousand
+men, the duke marched from Lyme.  He does not appear to have taken this
+step with a view to any enterprise of importance, but rather to avoid the
+danger which he apprehended from the motions of the Devonshire and
+Somerset militias, whose object it seemed to be to shut him up in Lyme.
+In his first day's march he had opportunities of engaging, or rather of
+pursuing, each of those bodies, who severally retreated from his forces;
+but conceiving it to be his business, as he said, not to fight, but to
+march on, he went through Axminster, and encamped in a strong piece of
+ground between that town and Chard in Somersetshire, to which place he
+proceeded on the ensuing day.  According to Wade's narrative, which
+appears to afford by far the most authentic account of these
+transactions, here it was that the first proposition was made for
+proclaiming Monmouth king.  Ferguson made the proposal, and was supported
+by Lord Grey, but it was easily run down, as Wade expresses it, by those
+who were against it, and whom, therefore, we must suppose to have formed
+a very considerable majority of the persons deemed of sufficient
+importance to be consulted on such an occasion.  These circumstances are
+material, because if that credit be given to them which they appear to
+deserve, Ferguson's want of veracity becomes so notorious, that it is
+hardly worth while to attend to any part of his narrative.  Where it only
+corroborates accounts given by others, it is of little use; and where it
+differs from them, it deserves no credit.  I have, therefore, wholly
+disregarded it.
+
+From Chard, Monmouth and his party proceeded to Taunton, a town where, as
+well from the tenor of former occurrences as from the zeal and number of
+the Protestant dissenters, who formed a great portion of its inhabitants,
+he had every reason to expect the most favourable reception.  His
+expectations were not disappointed.
+
+The inhabitants of the upper, as well as the lower classes, vied with
+each other in testifying their affection for his person, and their zeal
+for his cause.  While the latter rent the air with applauses and
+acclamations, the former opened their houses to him and to his followers,
+and furnished his army with necessaries and supplies of every kind.  His
+way was strewed with flowers; the windows were thronged with spectators,
+all anxious to participate in what the warm feelings of the moment made
+them deem a triumph.  Husbands pointed out to their wives, mothers to
+their children, the brave and lovely hero who was destined to be the
+deliverer of his country.  The beautiful lines which Dryden makes
+Achitophel, in his highest strain of flattery, apply to this unfortunate
+nobleman, were in this instance literally verified:
+
+   "Thee, saviour, thee, the nation's vows confess,
+   And, never satisfied with seeing, bless.
+   Swift unbespoken pomps thy steps proclaim,
+   And stammering babes are taught to lisp thy name."
+
+In the midst of these joyous scenes twenty-six young maids, of the best
+families in the town, presented him in the name of their townsmen with
+colours wrought by them for the purpose, and with a Bible; upon receiving
+which he said that he had taken the field with a design to defend the
+truth contained in that Book, and to seal it with his blood if there was
+occasion.
+
+In such circumstances it is no wonder that his army increased; and,
+indeed, exclusive of individual recruits, he was here strengthened by the
+arrival of Colonel Bassett with a considerable corps.  But in the midst
+of these prosperous circumstances, some of them of such apparent
+importance to the success of his enterprise, all of them highly
+flattering to his feelings, he did not fail to observe that one
+favourable symptom (and that too of the most decisive nature) was still
+wanting.  None of the considerable families, not a single nobleman, and
+scarcely any gentleman of rank and consequence in the counties through
+which he had passed, had declared in his favour.  Popular applause is
+undoubtedly sweet; and not only so, it often furnishes most powerful
+means to the genius that knows how to make use of them.  But Monmouth
+well knew that without the countenance and assistance of a proportion, at
+least, of the higher ranks in the country, there was, for an undertaking
+like his, little prospect of success.  He could not but have remarked
+that the habits and prejudices of the English people are, in a great
+degree, aristocratical; nor had he before him, nor indeed have we since
+his time, had one single example of an insurrection that was successful,
+unaided by the ancient families and great landed proprietors.  He must
+have felt this the more, because in former parts of his political life he
+had been accustomed to act with such coadjutors; and it is highly
+probable that if Lord Russell had been alive, and could have appeared at
+the head of one hundred only of his western tenantry, such a
+reinforcement would have inspired him with more real confidence than the
+thousands who individually flocked to his standard.
+
+But though Russell was no more, there were not wanting, either in the
+provinces through which the duke passed, or in other parts of the
+kingdom, many noble and wealthy families who were attached to the
+principles of the Whigs.  To account for their neutrality, and, if
+possible, to persuade them to a different conduct, was naturally among
+his principal concerns.  Their present coldness might be imputed to the
+indistinctness of his declarations with respect to what was intended to
+be the future government.  Men zealous for monarchy might not choose to
+embark without some certain pledge that their favourite form should be
+preserved.  They would also expect to be satisfied with respect to the
+person whom their arms, if successful, were to place upon the throne.  To
+promise, therefore, the continuance of a monarchical establishment, and
+to designate the future monarch, seemed to be necessary for the purpose
+of acquiring aristocratical support.  Whatever might be the intrinsic
+weight of this argument, it easily made its way with Monmouth in his
+present situation.  The aspiring temper of mind which is the natural
+consequence of popular favour and success, produced in him a disposition
+to listen to any suggestion which tended to his elevation and
+aggrandisement; and when he could persuade himself, upon reasons specious
+at least, that the measures which would most gratify his aspiring desires
+would be, at the same time, a stroke of the soundest policy, it is not to
+be wondered at that it was immediately and impatiently adopted.  Urged,
+therefore, by these mixed motives, he declared himself king, and issued
+divers proclamations in the royal style; assigning to those whose
+approbation he doubted the reasons above adverted to, and proscribing and
+threatening with the punishment due to rebellion such as should resist
+his mandates, and adhere to the usurping Duke of York.
+
+If this measure was in reality taken with views of policy, those views
+were miserably disappointed; for it does not appear that one proselyte
+was gained.  The threats in the proclamation were received with derision
+by the king's army, and no other sentiments were excited by the
+assumption of the royal title than those of contempt and indignation.  The
+commonwealthsmen were dissatisfied, of course, with the principle of the
+measure: the favourers of hereditary right held it in abhorrence, and
+considered it as a kind of sacrilegious profanation; nor even among those
+who considered monarchy in a more rational light, and as a magistracy
+instituted for the good of the people, could it be at all agreeable that
+such a magistrate should be elected by the army that had thronged to his
+standard, or by the particular partiality of a provincial town.
+Monmouth's strength, therefore, was by no means increased by his new
+title, and seemed to be still limited to two descriptions of persons;
+first, those who, from thoughtlessness or desperation, were willing to
+join in any attempt at innovation; secondly, such as, directing their
+views to a single point, considered the destruction of James's tyranny as
+the object which, at all hazards, and without regard to consequences,
+they were bound to pursue.  On the other hand, his reputation both for
+moderation and good faith was considerably impaired, inasmuch as his
+present conduct was in direct contradiction to that part of his
+declaration wherein he had promised to leave the future adjustment of
+government, and especially the consideration of his own claims, to a free
+and independent parliament.
+
+The notion of improving his new levies by discipline seems to have taken
+such possession of Monmouth's mind that he overlooked the probable, or
+rather the certain, consequences of a delay, by which the enemy would be
+enabled to bring into the field forces far better disciplined and
+appointed than any which, even with the most strenuous and successful
+exertions, he could hope to oppose to them.  Upon this principle, and
+especially as he had not yet fixed upon any definite object of
+enterprise, he did not think a stay of a few days at Taunton would be
+materially, if at all, prejudicial to his affairs; and it was not till
+the 21st of June that he proceeded to Bridgewater, where he was received
+in the most cordial manner.  In his march, the following day, from that
+town to Glastonbury, he was alarmed by a party of the Earl of Oxford's
+horse; but all apprehensions of any material interruptions were removed
+by an account of the militia having left Wells, and retreated to Bath and
+Bristol.  From Glastonbury he went to Shipton-Mallet, where the project
+of an attack upon Bristol was communicated by the duke to his officers.
+After some discussion, it was agreed that the attack should be made on
+the Gloucestershire side of the city, and with that view to pass the Avon
+at Keynsham Bridge, a few miles from Bath.  In their march from Shipton-
+Mallet, the troops were again harassed in their rear by a party of horse
+and dragoons, but lodged quietly at night at a village called Pensford.  A
+detachment was sent early the next morning to possess itself of Keynsham,
+and to repair the bridge, which might probably be broken down to prevent
+a passage.  Upon their approach, a troop of the Gloucestershire horse-
+militia immediately abandoned the town in great precipitation, leaving
+behind them two horses and one man.  By break of day, the bridge, which
+had not been much injured, was repaired, and before noon, Monmouth,
+having passed it with his whole army, was in full march to Bristol, which
+he determined to attack the ensuing night.  But the weather proving rainy
+and bad, it was deemed expedient to return to Keynsham, a measure from
+which he expected to reap a double advantage; to procure dry and
+commodious quarters for the soldiery, and to lull the enemy, by a
+movement, which bore the semblance of a retreat, into a false and
+delusive security.  The event, however, did not answer his expectation,
+for the troops had scarcely taken up their quarters, when they were
+disturbed by two parties of horse, who entered the town at two several
+places.  An engagement ensued, in which Monmouth lost fourteen men, and a
+captain of horse, though in the end the Royalists were obliged to retire,
+leaving three prisoners.  From these the duke had information that the
+king's army was near at hand, and, as they said, about four thousand
+strong.
+
+This new state of affairs seemed to demand new councils.  The projected
+enterprise upon Bristol was laid aside, and the question was, whether to
+make by forced marches for Gloucester, in order to pass the Severn at
+that city, and so to gain the counties of Salop and Chester, where he
+expected to be met by many friends, or to march directly into Wiltshire,
+where, according to some intelligence received ["from one Adlam"] the day
+before, there was a considerable body of horse (under whose command does
+not appear) ready, by their junction, to afford him a most important and
+seasonable support.  To the first of these plans a decisive objection was
+stated.  The distance by Gloucester was so great, that, considering the
+slow marches to which he would be limited, by the daily attacks with
+which the different small bodies of the enemy's cavalry would not fail to
+harass his rear, he was in great danger of being overtaken by the king's
+forces, and might thus be driven to risk all in an engagement upon terms
+the most disadvantageous.  On the contrary, if joined in Wiltshire by the
+expected aids, he might confidently offer battle to the royal army; and,
+provided he could bring them to an action before they were strengthened
+by new reinforcements, there was no unreasonable prospect of success.  The
+latter plan was therefore adopted, and no sooner adopted than put in
+execution.  The army was in motion without delay, and being before Bath
+on the morning of the 26th of June, summoned the place, rather (as it
+should seem) in sport than in earnest, as there was no hope of its
+surrender.  After this bravado they marched on southward to Philip's
+Norton, where they rested; the horse in the town, and the foot in the
+field.
+
+While Monmouth was making these marches, there were not wanting, in many
+parts of the adjacent country, strong symptoms of the attachment of the
+lower orders of people to his cause, and more especially in those
+manufacturing towns where the Protestant dissenters were numerous.  In
+Froome there had been a considerable rising, headed by the constable, who
+posted up the duke's declaration in the market-place.  Many of the
+inhabitants of the neighbouring towns of Westbury and Warminster came in
+throngs to the town to join the insurgents; some armed with fire-arms,
+but more with such rustic weapons as opportunity could supply.  Such a
+force, if it had joined the main army, or could have been otherwise
+directed by any leader of judgment and authority, might have proved very
+serviceable; but in its present state it was a mere rabble, and upon the
+first appearance of the Earl of Pembroke, who entered the town with a
+hundred and sixty horse and forty musketeers, fell, as might be expected,
+into total confusion.  The rout was complete; all the arms of the
+insurgents were seized; and the constable, after having been compelled to
+abjure his principles, and confess the enormity of his offence, was
+committed to prison.
+
+This transaction took place the 25th, the day before Monmouth's arrival
+at Philip's Norton, and may have, in a considerable degree, contributed
+to the disappointment, of which we learn from Wade, that he at this time
+began bitterly to complain.  He was now upon the confines of Wiltshire,
+and near enough for the bodies of horse, upon whose favourable intentions
+so much reliance had been placed, to have effected a junction, if they
+had been so disposed; but whether that Adlam's intelligence had been
+originally bad, or that Pembroke's proceedings at Froome had intimidated
+them, no symptom of such an intention could be discovered.  A desertion
+took place in his army, which the exaggerated accounts in the Gazette
+made to amount to near two thousand men.  These dispiriting
+circumstances, added to the complete disappointment of the hopes
+entertained from the assumption of the royal title, produced in him a
+state of mind but little short of despondency.  He complained that all
+people had deserted him, and is said to have been so dejected, as hardly
+to have the spirit requisite for giving the necessary orders.
+
+From this state of torpor, however, he appears to have been effectually
+roused by a brisk attack that was made upon him on the 27th, in the
+morning, by the Royalists, under the command of his half-brother, the
+Duke of Grafton.  That spirited young nobleman (whose intrepid courage,
+conspicuous upon every occasion, led him in this, and many other
+instances, to risk a life, which he finally lost in a better cause),
+heading an advanced detachment of Lord Feversham's army, who had marched
+from Bath, with a view to fall on the enemy's rear, marched boldly up a
+narrow lane leading to the town, and attacked a barricade, which Monmouth
+had caused to be made across the way, at the entrance of the town.
+Monmouth was no sooner apprised of this brisk attack, than he ordered a
+party to go out of the town by a by-way, who coming on the rear of the
+Grenadiers while others of his men were engaged with their front, had
+nearly surrounded them, and taken their commander prisoner, but Grafton
+forced his way through the enemy.  An engagement ensued between the
+insurgents and the remainder of Feversham's detachment, who had lined the
+hedges which flanked them.  The former were victorious, and after driving
+the enemy from hedge to hedge, forced them at last into the open field,
+where they joined the rest of the king's forces, newly come up.  The
+killed and wounded in these encounters amounted to about forty on
+Feversham's side, twenty on Monmouth's; but among the latter there were
+several officers, and some of note, while the loss of the former, with
+the exception of two volunteers, Seymour and May, consisted entirely of
+common soldiers.
+
+The Royalists now drew up on an eminence, about five hundred paces from
+the hedges, while Monmouth, having placed, of his four field-pieces, two
+at the mouth of the lane, and two upon a rising ground near it on the
+right, formed his army along the hedge.  From these stations a firing of
+artillery was begun on each side, and continued near six hours, but with
+little or no effect.  Monmouth, according to Wade, losing but one, and
+the Royalists, according to the Gazette, not one man, by the whole
+cannonade.  In these circumstances, notwithstanding the recent and
+convincing experience he now had of the ability of his raw troops to
+face, in certain situations at least, the more regular forces of his
+enemy, Monmouth was advised by some to retreat; but upon a more general
+consultation, this advice was over-ruled, and it was determined to cut
+passages through the hedges and to offer battle.  But before this could
+be effected the royal army, not willing again to engage among the
+enclosures, annoyed in the open field by the rain which continued to fall
+very heavily, and disappointed, no doubt, at the little effect of their
+artillery, began their retreat.  The little confidence which Monmouth had
+in his horse--perhaps the ill opinion he now entertained of their
+leader--forbade him to think of pursuit, and having stayed till a late
+hour in the field, and leaving large fires burning, he set out on his
+march in the night, and on the 28th, in the morning, reached Froome,
+where he put his troops in quarter and rested two days.
+
+It was here he first heard certain news of Argyle's discomfiture.  It was
+in vain to seek for any circumstance in his affairs that might mitigate
+the effect of the severe blow inflicted by this intelligence, and he
+relapsed into the same low spirits as at Philip's Norton.  No diversion,
+at least no successful diversion, had been made in his favour: there was
+no appearance of the horse, which had been the principal motive to allure
+him into that part of the country; and what was worst of all, no
+desertion from the king's army.  It was manifest, said the duke's more
+timid advisers, that the affair must terminate ill, and the only measure
+now to be taken was, that the general with his officers should leave the
+army to shift for itself, and make severally for the most convenient sea-
+ports, whence they might possibly get a safe passage to the Continent.  To
+account for Monmouth's entertaining, even for a moment, a thought so
+unworthy of him, and so inconsistent with the character for spirit he had
+ever maintained--a character unimpeached even by his enemies--we must
+recollect the unwillingness with which he undertook this fatal
+expedition; that his engagement to Argyle, who was now past help, was
+perhaps his principal motive for embarking at the time; that it was with
+great reluctance he had torn himself from the arms of Lady Harriet
+Wentworth, with whom he had so firmly persuaded himself that he could be
+happy in the most obscure retirement, that he believed himself weaned
+from ambition, which had hitherto been the only passion of his mind.  It
+is true, that when he had once yielded to the solicitations of his
+friends so far as to undertake a business of such magnitude, it was his
+duty (but a duty that required a stronger mind than his to execute) to
+discard from his thoughts all the arguments that had rendered his
+compliance reluctant.  But it is one of the great distinctions between an
+ordinary mind and a superior one, to be able to carry on without
+relenting a plan we have not originally approved, and especially when it
+appears to have turned out ill.  This proposal of disbanding was a step
+so pusillanimous and dishonourable that it could not be approved by any
+council, however composed.  It was condemned by all except Colonel
+Venner, and was particularly inveighed against by Lord Grey, who was
+perhaps desirous of retrieving, by bold words at least, the reputation he
+had lost at Bridport.  It is possible, too, that he might be really
+unconscious of his deficiency in point of personal courage till the
+moment of danger arrived, and even forgetful of it when it was passed.
+Monmouth was easily persuaded to give up a plan so uncongenial to his
+nature, resolved, though with little hope of success, to remain with his
+army to take the chance of events, and at the worst to stand or fall with
+men whose attachment to him had laid him under indelible obligations.
+
+This resolution being taken, the first plan was to proceed to Warminster,
+but on the morning of his departure hearing, on the one hand, that the
+king's troops were likely to cross his march, and on the other, being
+informed by a quaker, before known to the duke, that there was a great
+club army, amounting to ten thousand men, ready to join his standard in
+the marshes to the westward, he altered his intention, and returned to
+Shipton-Mallet, where he rested that night, his army being in good
+quarters.  From Shipton-Mallet he proceeded, on the 1st of July, to
+Wells, upon information that there were in that city some carriages
+belonging to the king's army, and ill-guarded.  These he found and took,
+and stayed that night in the town.  The following day he marched towards
+Bridgewater in search of the great succour he had been taught to expect;
+but found, of the promised ten thousand men, only a hundred and sixty.
+The army lay that night in the field, and once again entered Bridgewater
+on the 3rd of July.  That the duke's men were not yet completely
+dispirited or out of heart appears from the circumstance of great numbers
+of them going from Bridgewater to see their friends at Taunton, and other
+places in the neighbourhood, and almost all returning the next day
+according to their promise.  On the 5th an account was received of the
+king's army being considerably advanced, and Monmouth's first thought was
+to retreat from it immediately, and marching by Axbridge and Keynsham to
+Gloucester, to pursue the plan formerly rejected, of penetrating into the
+counties of Chester and Salop.
+
+His preparations for this march were all made, when, on the afternoon of
+the 5th, he learnt, more accurately than he had before done, the true
+situation of the royal army, and from the information now received, he
+thought it expedient to consult his principal officers, whether it might
+not be advisable to attempt to surprise the enemy by a night attack upon
+their quarters.  The prevailing opinion was, that if the infantry were
+not entrenched the plan was worth the trial; otherwise not.  Scouts were
+despatched to ascertain this point, and their report being that there was
+no entrenchment, an attack was resolved on.  In pursuance of this
+resolution, at about eleven at night, the whole army was in march, Lord
+Grey commanding the horse, and Colonel Wade the vanguard of the foot.  The
+duke's orders were, that the horse should first advance, and pushing into
+the enemy's camp, endeavour to prevent their infantry from coming
+together; that the cannon should follow the horse, and the foot the
+cannon, and draw all up in one line, and so finish what the cavalry
+should have begun, before the king's horse and artillery could be got in
+order.  But it was now discovered that though there were no
+entrenchments, there was a ditch which served as a drain to the great
+moor adjacent, of which no mention had been made by the scouts.  To this
+ditch the horse under Lord Grey advanced, and no farther; and whether
+immediately, as according to some accounts, or after having been
+considerably harassed by the enemy in their attempts to find a place to
+pass, according to others, quitted the field.  The cavalry being gone,
+and the principle upon which the attack had been undertaken being that of
+a surprise, the duke judged it necessary that the infantry should advance
+as speedily as possible.  Wade, therefore, when he came within forty
+paces of the ditch, was obliged to halt to put his battalion into that
+order, which the extreme rapidity of the march had for the time
+disconcerted.  His plan was to pass the ditch, reserving his fire; but
+while he was arranging his men for that purpose, another battalion, newly
+come up, began to fire, though at a considerable distance; a bad example,
+which it was impossible to prevent the vanguard from following, and it
+was now no longer in the power of their commander to persuade them to
+advance.  The king's forces, as well horse and artillery as foot, had now
+full time to assemble.  The duke had no longer cavalry in the field, and
+though his artillery, which consisted only of three or four iron guns,
+was well served under the directions of a Dutch gunner, it was by no
+means equal to that of the royal army, which, as soon as it was light,
+began to do great execution.  In these circumstances the unfortunate
+Monmouth, fearful of being encompassed and made prisoner by the king's
+cavalry, who were approaching upon his flank, and urged, as it is
+reported, to flight by the same person who had stimulated him to his
+fatal enterprise, quitted the field accompanied by Lord Grey and some
+others.  The left wing, under the command of Colonel Holmes and Matthews,
+next gave way; and Wade's men, after having continued for an hour and a
+half a distant and ineffectual fire, seeing their left discomfited, began
+a retreat, which soon afterwards became a complete rout.
+
+Thus ended the decisive battle of Sedgmoor; an attack which seems to have
+been judiciously conceived, and in many parts spiritedly executed.  The
+general was deficient neither in courage nor conduct; and the troops,
+while they displayed the native bravery of Englishmen, were under as good
+discipline as could be expected from bodies newly raised.  Two
+circumstances seem to have principally contributed to the loss of the
+day; first, the unforeseen difficulty occasioned by the ditch, of which
+the assailants had had no intelligence; and secondly, the cowardice of
+the commander of the horse.  The discovery of the ditch was the more
+alarming, because it threw a general doubt upon the information of the
+spies, and the night being dark they could not ascertain that this was
+the only impediment of the kind which they were to expect.  The
+dispersion of the horse was still more fatal, inasmuch as it deranged the
+whole order of the plan, by which it had been concerted that their
+operations were to facilitate the attack to be made by the foot.  If Lord
+Grey had possessed a spirit more suitable to his birth and name, to the
+illustrious friendship with which he had been honoured, and to the
+command with which he was entrusted, he would doubtless have persevered
+till he found a passage into the enemy's camp, which could have been
+effected at a ford not far distant: the loss of time occasioned by the
+ditch might not have been very material, and the most important
+consequences might have ensued; but it would surely be rashness to
+assert, as Hume does, that the army would after all have gained the
+victory had not the misconduct of Monmouth and the cowardice of Grey
+prevented it.  This rash judgment is the more to be admired, as the
+historian has not pointed out the instance of misconduct to which he
+refers.  The number of Monmouth's men killed is computed by some at two
+thousand, by others at three hundred--a disparity, however, which may be
+easily reconciled, by supposing that the one account takes in those who
+were killed in battle, while the other comprehends the wretched fugitives
+who were massacred in ditches, corn-fields, and other hiding-places, the
+following day.
+
+In general, I have thought it right to follow Wade's narrative, which
+appears to me by far the most authentic, if not the only authentic
+account of this important transaction.  It is imperfect, but its
+imperfection arises from the narrator's omitting all those circumstances
+of which he was not an eye-witness, and the greater credit is on that
+very account due to him for those which he relates.  With respect to
+Monmouth's quitting the field, it is not mentioned by him, nor is it
+possible to ascertain the precise point of time at which it happened.
+That he fled while his troops were still fighting, and therefore too soon
+for his glory, can scarcely be doubted; and the account given by
+Ferguson, whose veracity, however, is always to be suspected, that Lord
+Grey urged him to the measure, as well by persuasion as by example, seems
+not improbable.  This misbehaviour of the last-mentioned nobleman is more
+certain; but as, according to Ferguson, who has been followed by others,
+he actually conversed with Monmouth in the field, and as all accounts
+make him the companion of his flight, it is not to be understood that
+when he first gave way with his cavalry, he ran away in the literal sense
+of the words, or if he did, he must have returned.  The exact truth, with
+regard to this and many other interesting particulars, is difficult to be
+discovered; owing, not more to the darkness of the night in which they
+were transacted, than to the personal partialities and enmities by which
+they have been disfigured, in the relations of the different contemporary
+writers.
+
+Monmouth with his suite first directed his course towards the Bristol
+Channel, and as is related by Oldmixon, was once inclined, at the
+suggestion of Dr. Oliver, a faithful and honest adviser, to embark for
+the coast of Wales, with a view of concealing himself some time in that
+principality.  Lord Grey, who appears to have been, in all instances, his
+evil genius, dissuaded him from this plan, and the small party having
+separated, took each several ways.  Monmouth, Grey, and a gentleman of
+Brandenburg, went southward, with a view to gain the New Forest in
+Hampshire, where, by means of Grey's connections in that district, and
+thorough knowledge of the country, it was hoped they might be in safety,
+till a vessel could be procured to transport them to the Continent.  They
+left their horses, and disguised themselves as peasants; but the pursuit,
+stimulated as well by party zeal as by the great pecuniary rewards
+offered for the capture of Monmouth and Grey, was too vigilant to be
+eluded.  Grey was taken on the 7th in the evening; and the German, who
+shared the same fate early on the next morning, confessed that he had
+parted from Monmouth but a few hours since.  The neighbouring country was
+immediately and thoroughly searched, and James had ere night the
+satisfaction of learning that his nephew was in his power.  The
+unfortunate duke was discovered in a ditch, half concealed by fern and
+nettles.  His stock of provision, which consisted of some peas gathered
+in the fields through which he had fled, was nearly exhausted, and there
+is reason to think that he had little, if any other sustenance, since he
+left Bridgewater on the evening of the 5th.  To repose he had been
+equally a stranger; how his mind must have been harassed, it is needless
+to discuss.  Yet that in such circumstances he appeared dispirited and
+crestfallen, is, by the unrelenting malignity of party writers, imputed
+to him as cowardice and meanness of spirit.  That the failure of his
+enterprise, together with the bitter reflection that he had suffered
+himself to be engaged in it against his own better judgment, joined to
+the other calamitous circumstances of his situation, had reduced him to a
+state of despondency, is evident; and in this frame of mind, he wrote, on
+the very day of his capture, the following letter to the king:
+
+   "Sir,--Your majesty may think it the misfortune I now lie under makes
+   me make this application to you; but I do assure your majesty, it is
+   the remorse I now have in me of the wrong I have done you in several
+   things, and now in taking up arms against you.  For my taking up arms,
+   it was never in my thought since the king died: the Prince and
+   Princess of Orange will be witness for me of the assurance I gave
+   them, that I would never stir against you.  But my misfortune was such
+   as to meet with some horrid people, that made me believe things of
+   your majesty, and gave me so many false arguments, that I was fully
+   led away to believe that it was a shame and a sin before God not to do
+   it.  But, sir, I will not trouble your majesty at present with many
+   things I could say for myself, that I am sure would move your
+   compassion; the chief end of this letter being only to beg of you,
+   that I may have that happiness as to speak to your majesty; for I have
+   that to say to you, sir, that I hope may give you a long and happy
+   reign.
+
+   "I am sure, sir, when you hear me, you will be convinced of the zeal I
+   have of your preservation, and how heartily I repent of what I have
+   done.  I can say no more to your majesty now, being this letter must
+   be seen by those that keep me.  Therefore, sir, I shall make an end in
+   begging of your majesty to believe so well of me, that I would rather
+   die a thousand deaths than excuse anything I have done, if I did not
+   really think myself the most in the wrong that ever a man was, and had
+   not from the bottom of my heart an abhorrence for those that put me
+   upon it, and for the action itself.  I hope, sir, God Almighty will
+   strike your heart with mercy and compassion for me, as he has done
+   mine with the abhorrence of what I have done: wherefore, sir, I hope I
+   may live to show you how zealous I shall ever be for your service; and
+   could I but say one word in this letter, you would be convinced of it;
+   but it is of that consequence, that I dare not do it.  Therefore, sir,
+   I do beg of you once more to let me speak to you; for then you will be
+   convinced how much I shall ever be, your majesty's most humble and
+   dutiful
+
+   "MONMOUTH."
+
+The only certain conclusion to be drawn from this letter, which Mr.
+Echard, in a manner perhaps not so seemly for a Churchman, terms
+submissive, is, that Monmouth still wished anxiously for life, and was
+willing to save it, even at the cruel price of begging and receiving it
+as a boon from his enemy.  Ralph conjectures with great probability that
+this unhappy man's feelings were all governed by his excessive affection
+for his mistress and that a vain hope of enjoying, with Lady Harriet
+Wentworth, that retirement which he had so unwillingly abandoned, induced
+him to adopt a conduct, which he might otherwise have considered as
+indecent.  At any rate it must be admitted that to cling to life is a
+strong instinct in human nature, and Monmouth might reasonably enough
+satisfy himself, that when his death could not by any possibility benefit
+either the public or his friends, to follow such instinct, even in a
+manner that might tarnish the splendour of heroism, was no impeachment of
+the moral virtue of a man.
+
+With respect to the mysterious part of the letter, where he speaks of one
+word which would be of such infinite importance, it is difficult, if not
+rather utterly impossible, to explain it by any rational conjecture.  Mr.
+Macpherson's favourite hypothesis, that the Prince of Orange had been a
+party to the late attempt, and that Monmouth's intention, when he wrote
+the letter, was to disclose this important fact to the king, is totally
+destroyed by those expressions, in which the unfortunate prisoner tells
+his majesty he had assured the Prince and Princess of Orange that he
+would never stir against him.  Did he assure the Prince of Orange that he
+would never do that which he was engaged to the Prince of Orange to do?
+Can it be said that this was a false fact, and that no such assurances
+were in truth given?  To what purpose was the falsehood?  In order to
+conceal from motives, whether honourable or otherwise, his connection
+with the prince?  What! a fiction in one paragraph of the letter in order
+to conceal a fact, which in the next he declares his intention of
+revealing?  The thing is impossible.
+
+The intriguing character of the Secretary of State, the Earl of
+Sunderland, whose duplicity in many instances cannot be doubted, and the
+mystery in which almost everything relating to him is involved, might
+lead us to suspect that the expressions point at some discovery in which
+that nobleman was concerned, and that Monmouth had it in his power to be
+of important service to James, by revealing to him the treachery of his
+minister.  Such a conjecture might be strengthened by an anecdote that
+has had some currency, and to the truth of which, in part, King James's
+"Memoirs," if the extracts from them can be relied on, bear testimony.  It
+is said that the Duke of Monmouth told Mr. Ralph Sheldon, one of the
+king's chamber, who came to meet him on his way to London, that he had
+had reason to expect Sunderland's co-operation, and authorised Sheldon to
+mention this to the king: that while Sheldon was relating this to his
+majesty, Sunderland entered; Sheldon hesitated, but was ordered to go on.
+"Sunderland seemed, at first, struck" (as well he might, whether innocent
+or guilty), "but after a short time said, with a laugh, 'If that be all
+he (Monmouth) can discover to save his life, it will do him little
+good.'"  It is to be remarked, that in Sheldon's conversation, as alluded
+to by King James, the Prince of Orange's name is not even mentioned,
+either as connected with Monmouth or with Sunderland.  But, on the other
+hand, the difficulties that stand in the way of our interpreting
+Monmouth's letter as alluding to Sunderland, or of supposing that the
+writer of it had any well-founded accusation against that minister, are
+insurmountable.  If he had such an accusation to make, why did he not
+make it?  The king says expressly, both in a letter to the Prince of
+Orange, and in the extract, from his "Memoirs," above cited, that
+Monmouth made no discovery of consequence, and the explanation suggested,
+that his silence was owing to Sunderland the secretary's having assured
+him of his pardon, seems wholly inadmissible.  Such assurances could have
+their influence no longer than while the hope of pardon remained.  Why,
+then, did he continue silent, when he found James inexorable?  If he was
+willing to accuse the earl before he had received these assurances, it is
+inconceivable that he should have any scruple about doing it when they
+turned out to have been delusive, and when his mind must have been
+exasperated by the reflection that Sunderland's perfidious promises and
+self-interested suggestions had deterred him from the only probable means
+of saving his life.
+
+A third, and perhaps the most plausible, interpretation of the words in
+question is, that they point to a discovery of Monmouth's friends in
+England, when, in the dejected state of his mind at the time of writing,
+unmanned as he was by misfortune, he might sincerely promise what the
+return of better thoughts forbade him to perform.  This account, however,
+though free from the great absurdities belonging to the two others, is by
+no means satisfactory.  The phrase, "one word," seems to relate rather to
+some single person, or some single fact, and can hardly apply to any list
+of associates that might be intended to be sacrificed.  On the other
+hand, the single denunciation of Lord Delamere, of Lord Brandon, or even
+of the Earl of Devonshire, or of any other private individual, could not
+be considered as of that extreme consequence which Monmouth attaches to
+his promised disclosure.  I have mentioned Lord Devonshire, who was
+certainly not implicated in the enterprise, and who was not even
+suspected, because it appears, from Grey's narrative, that one of
+Monmouth's agents had once given hopes of his support; and therefore
+there is a bare possibility that Monmouth may have reckoned upon his
+assistance.  Perhaps, after all, the letter has been canvassed with too
+much nicety, and the words of it weighed more scrupulously than, proper
+allowance being made for the situation and state of mind of the writer,
+they ought to have been.  They may have been thrown out at hazard, merely
+as means to obtain an interview, of which the unhappy prisoner thought he
+might, in some way or other, make his advantage.  If any more precise
+meaning existed in his mind, we must be content to pass it over as one of
+those obscure points of history, upon which neither the sagacity of
+historians, nor the many documents since made public, nor the great
+discoverer, Time, has yet thrown any distinct light.
+
+Monmouth and Grey were now to be conveyed to London, for which purpose
+they set out on the 11th, and arrived in the vicinity of the metropolis
+on the 13th of July.  In the meanwhile, the queen dowager, who seems to
+have behaved with a uniformity of kindness towards her husband's son that
+does her great honour, urgently pressed the king to admit his nephew to
+an audience.  Importuned, therefore, by entreaties, and instigated by the
+curiosity which Monmouth's mysterious expressions, and Sheldon's story,
+had excited, he consented, though with a fixed determination to show no
+mercy.  James was not of the number of those, in whom the want of an
+extensive understanding is compensated by a delicacy of sentiment, or by
+those right feelings, which are often found to be better guides for the
+conduct than the most accurate reasoning.  His nature did not revolt, his
+blood did not run cold, at the thoughts of beholding the son of a brother
+whom he had loved embracing his knees, petitioning, and petitioning in
+vain, for life; of interchanging words and looks with a nephew, on whom
+he was inexorably determined, within forty-eight short hours, to inflict
+an ignominious death.
+
+In Macpherson's extract from King James's "Memoirs," it is confessed that
+the king ought not to have seen, if he was not disposed to pardon the
+culprit; but whether the observation is made by the exiled prince
+himself, or by him who gives the extract, is in this, as in many other
+passages of those "Memoirs," difficult to determine.  Surely if the king
+had made this reflection before Monmouth's execution, it must have
+occurred to that monarch, that if he had inadvertently done that which he
+ought not to have done, without an intention to pardon, the only remedy
+was to correct that part of his conduct which was still in his power, and
+since he could not recall the interview, to grant the pardon.
+
+Pursuant to this hard-hearted arrangement, Monmouth and Grey, on the very
+day of their arrival, were brought to Whitehall, where they had severally
+interviews with his majesty.  James, in a letter to the Prince of Orange,
+dated the following day, gives a short account of both these interviews.
+Monmouth, he says, betrayed a weakness which did not become one who had
+claimed the title of king; but made no discovery of consequence.
+
+Grey was more ingenuous (it is not certain in what sense his majesty uses
+the term, since he does not refer to any discovery made by that lord),
+and never once begged his life.  Short as this account is, it seems the
+only authentic one of those interviews.  Bishop Kennet, who has been
+followed by most of the modern historians, relates, that "This unhappy
+captive, by the intercession of the queen dowager, was brought to the
+king's presence, and fell presently at his feet, and confessed he
+deserved to die; but conjured him, with tears in his eyes, not to use him
+with the severity of justice, and to grant him a life, which he would be
+ever ready to sacrifice for his service.  He mentioned to him the example
+of several great princes, who had yielded to the impressions of clemency
+on the like occasions, and who had never afterwards repented of those
+acts of generosity and mercy; concluding, in a most pathetical manner,
+'Remember, sir, I am your brother's son, and if you take my life, it is
+your own blood that you will shed.'  The king asked him several
+questions, and made him sign a declaration that his father told him he
+was never married to his mother: and then said, he was sorry indeed for
+his misfortunes; but his crime was of too great a consequence to be left
+unpunished, and he must of necessity suffer for it.  The queen is said to
+have insulted him in a very arrogant and unmerciful manner.  So that when
+the duke saw there was nothing designed by this interview but to satisfy
+the queen's revenge, he rose up from his majesty's feet with a new air of
+bravery, and was carried back to the Tower."
+
+The topics used by Monmouth are such as he might naturally have employed,
+and the demeanour attributed to him, upon finding the king inexorable, is
+consistent enough with general probability, and his particular character;
+but that the king took care to extract from him a confession of Charles's
+declaration with respect to his illegitimacy, before he announced his
+final refusal of mercy, and that the queen was present for the purpose of
+reviling and insulting him, are circumstances too atrocious to merit
+belief, without some more certain evidence.  It must be remarked also,
+that Burnet, whose general prejudices would not lead him to doubt any
+imputations against the queen, does not mention her majesty's being
+present.  Monmouth's offer of changing religion is mentioned by him, but
+no authority quoted; and no hint of the kind appears either in James's
+Letters, or in the extract from his "Memoirs."
+
+From Whitehall Monmouth was at night carried to the Tower, where, no
+longer uncertain as to his fate, he seems to have collected his mind, and
+to have resumed his wonted fortitude.  The bill of attainder that had
+lately passed having superseded the necessity of a legal trial, his
+execution was fixed for the next day but one after his commitment.  This
+interval appeared too short even for the worldly business which he wished
+to transact, and he wrote again to the king on the 14th, desiring some
+short respite, which was peremptorily refused.  The difficulty of
+obtaining any certainty concerning facts, even in instances where there
+has not been any apparent motive for disguising them, is nowhere more
+striking than in the few remaining hours of this unfortunate man's life.
+According to King James's statement in his "Memoirs," he refused to see
+his wife, while other accounts assert positively that she refused to see
+him, unless in presence of witnesses.  Burnet, who was not likely to be
+mistaken in a fact of this kind, says they did meet, and parted very
+coldly, a circumstance which, if true, gives us no very favourable idea
+of the lady's character.  There is also mention of a third letter written
+by him to the king, which being entrusted to a perfidious officer of the
+name of Scott, never reached its destination; but for this there is no
+foundation.  What seems most certain is, that in the Tower, and not in
+the closet, he signed a paper, renouncing his pretensions to the crown,
+the same which he afterwards delivered on the scaffold; and that he was
+inclined to make this declaration, not by any vain hope of life, but by
+his affection for his children, whose situation he rightly judged would
+be safer and better under the reigning monarch and his successors, when
+it should be evident that they could no longer be competitors for the
+throne.
+
+Monmouth was very sincere in his religious professions, and it is
+probable that a great portion of this sad day was passed in devotion and
+religious discourse with the two prelates who had been sent by his
+majesty to assist him in his spiritual concerns.  Turner, bishop of Ely,
+had been with him early in the morning, and Kenn, bishop of Bath and
+Wells, was sent, upon the refusal of a respite, to prepare him for the
+stroke, which it was now irrevocably fixed he should suffer the ensuing
+day.  They stayed with him all night, and in the morning of the 15th were
+joined by Dr. Hooper, afterwards, in the reign of Anne, made bishop of
+Bath and Wells, and by Dr. Tennison, who succeeded Tillotson in the see
+of Canterbury.  This last divine is stated by Burnet to have been most
+acceptable to the duke, and, though he joined the others in some harsh
+expostulations, to have done what the right reverend historian conceives
+to have been his duty, in a softer and less peremptory manner.  Certain
+it is, that none of these holy men seem to have erred on the side of
+compassion or complaisance to their illustrious penitent.  Besides
+endeavouring to convince him of the guilt of his connection with his
+beloved lady Harriet, of which he could never be brought to a due sense,
+they seem to have repeatedly teased him with controversy, and to have
+been far more solicitous to make him profess what they deemed the true
+creed of the Church of England, than to soften or console his sorrows, or
+to help him to that composure of mind so necessary for his situation.  He
+declared himself to be a member of their Church, but, they denied that he
+could be so, unless he thoroughly believed the doctrine of passive
+obedience and non-resistance.  He repented generally of his sins, and
+especially of his late enterprise, but they insisted that he must repent
+of it in the way they prescribed to him, that he must own it to have been
+a wicked resistance to his lawful king, and a detestable act of
+rebellion.  Some historians have imputed this seemingly cruel conduct to
+the king's particular instructions, who might be desirous of extracting,
+or rather extorting, from the lips of his dying nephew such a confession
+as would be matter of triumph to the royal cause.  But the character of
+the two prelates principally concerned, both for general uprightness and
+sincerity as Church of England men, makes it more candid to suppose that
+they did not act from motives of servile compliance, but rather from an
+intemperate party zeal for the honour of their Church, which they judged
+would be signally promoted if such a man as Monmouth, after having
+throughout his life acted in defiance of their favourite doctrine, could
+be brought in his last moments to acknowledge it as a divine truth.  It
+must never be forgotten, if we would understand the history of this
+period, that the truly orthodox members of our Church regarded monarchy
+not as a human, but as a divine institution, and passive obedience and
+non-resistance, not as political maxims, but as articles of religion.
+
+At ten o'clock on the 15th Monmouth proceeded in a carriage of the
+lieutenant of the Tower to Tower Hill, the place destined for his
+execution.  The two bishops were in the carriage with him, and one of
+them took that opportunity of informing him that their controversial
+altercations were not yet at an end, and that upon the scaffold he would
+again be pressed for more explicit and satisfactory declarations of
+repentance.  When arrived at the bar which had been put up for the
+purpose of keeping out the multitude, Monmouth descended from the
+carriage, and mounted the scaffold, with a firm step, attended by his
+spiritual assistants.  The sheriffs and executioners were already there.
+The concourse of spectators was innumerable; and if we are to credit
+traditional accounts, never was the general compassion more affectingly
+expressed.  The tears, sighs, and groans, which the first sight of this
+heartrending spectacle produced, were soon succeeded by a universal and
+awful silence; a respectful attention and affectionate anxiety to hear
+every syllable that should pass the lips of the sufferer.  The duke began
+by saying he should speak little; he came to die, and he should die a
+Protestant of the Church of England.  Here he was interrupted by the
+assistants, and told, that if he was of the Church of England, he must
+acknowledge the doctrine of non-resistance to be true.  In vain did he
+reply that if he acknowledged the doctrine of the Church in general it
+included all: they insisted he should own that doctrine, particularly
+with respect to his case, and urged much more concerning their favourite
+point, upon which, however, they obtained nothing but a repetition in
+substance of former answers.  He was then proceeding to speak of Lady
+Harriet Wentworth, of his high esteem for her, and of his confirmed
+opinion that their connection was innocent in the sight of God, when
+Goslin, the sheriff, asked him, with all the unfeeling bluntness of a
+vulgar mind, whether he was ever married to her.  The duke refusing to
+answer, the same magistrate, in the like strain, though changing his
+subject, said he hoped to have heard of his repentance for the treason
+and bloodshed which had been committed; to which the prisoner replied,
+with great mildness, that he died very penitent.  Here the Churchmen
+again interposed, and renewing their demand of particular penitence and
+public acknowledgment upon public affairs, Monmouth referred them to the
+following paper, which he had signed that morning:
+
+   "I declare that the title of king was forced upon me, and that it was
+   very much contrary to my opinion when I was proclaimed.  For the
+   satisfaction of the world, I do declare that the late king told me he
+   was never married to my mother.  Having declared this, I hope the king
+   who is now will not let my children suffer on this account.  And to
+   this I put my hand this fifteenth day of July, 1685.
+
+   "MONMOUTH."
+
+There was nothing, they said, in that paper about resistance; nor, though
+Monmouth, quite worn-out with their importunities, said to one of them,
+in the most affecting manner, "I am to die--pray my lord--I refer to my
+paper," would those men think it consistent with their duty to desist.
+There were only a few words they desired on one point.  The substance of
+these applications on the one hand, and answers on the other, was
+repeated over and over again, in a manner that could not be believed, if
+the facts were not attested by the signatures of the persons principally
+concerned.  If the duke, in declaring his sorrow for what had passed,
+used the word invasion, "Give it the true name," said they, "and call it
+rebellion."  "What name you please," replied the mild-tempered Monmouth.
+He was sure he was going to everlasting happiness, and considered the
+serenity of his mind in his present circumstances as a certain earnest of
+the favour of his Creator.  His repentance, he said, must be true, for he
+had no fear of dying; he should die like a lamb.  "Much may come from
+natural courage," was the unfeeling and stupid reply of one of the
+assistants.  Monmouth, with that modesty inseparable from true bravery,
+denied that he was in general less fearful than other men, maintaining
+that his present courage was owing to his consciousness that God had
+forgiven him his past transgressions, of all which generally he repented
+with all his soul.
+
+At last the reverend assistants consented to join with him in prayer, but
+no sooner were they risen from their kneeling posture than they returned
+to their charge.  Not satisfied with what had passed, they exhorted him
+to a true and thorough repentance.  Would he not pray for the king, and
+send a dutiful message to his majesty to recommend the duchess and his
+children?  "As you please," was the reply; "I pray for him and for all
+men."  He now spoke to the executioner, desiring that he might have no
+cap over his eyes, and began undressing.  One would have thought that in
+this last sad ceremony, the poor prisoner might have been unmolested, and
+that the divines would have been satisfied that prayer was the only part
+of their function for which their duty now called upon them.  They judged
+differently, and one of them had the fortitude to request the duke, even
+in this stage of the business, that he would address himself to the
+soldiers then present, to tell them he stood a sad example of rebellion,
+and entreat the people to be loyal and obedient to the king.  "I have
+said I will make no speeches," repeated Monmouth, in a tone more
+peremptory than he had before been provoked to; "I will make no speeches.
+I come to die."  "My lord, ten words will be enough," said the
+persevering divine; to which the duke made no answer, but turning to the
+executioner, expressed a hope that he would do his work better now than
+in the case of Lord Russell.  He then felt the axe, which he apprehended
+was not sharp enough, but being assured that it was of proper sharpness
+and weight, he laid down his head.  In the meantime many fervent
+ejaculations were used by the reverend assistants, who, it must be
+observed, even in these moments of horror, showed themselves not
+unmindful of the points upon which they had been disputing, praying God
+to accept his imperfect and general repentance.
+
+The executioner now struck the blow, but so feebly or unskilfully, that
+Monmouth, being but slightly wounded, lifted up his head, and looked him
+in the face as if to upbraid him, but said nothing.  The two following
+strokes were as ineffectual as the first, and the headsman, in a fit of
+horror, declared he could not finish his work.  The sheriffs threatened
+him; he was forced again to make a further trial, and in two more strokes
+separated the head from the body.
+
+Thus fell, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, James, Duke of Monmouth,
+a man against whom all that has been said by the most inveterate enemies
+both to him and his party amounts to little more than this, that he had
+not a mind equal to the situations in which his ambition, at different
+times, engaged him to place himself.  But to judge him with candour, we
+must make great allowances, not only for the temptations into which he
+was led by the splendid prosperity of the earlier parts of his life, but
+also for the adverse prejudices with which he was regarded by almost all
+the contemporary writers, from whom his actions and character are
+described.  The Tories, of course, are unfavourable to him; and even
+among the Whigs, there seems, in many, a strong inclination to disparage
+him; some to excuse themselves for not having joined him, others to make
+a display of their exclusive attachment to their more successful leader,
+King William.  Burnet says of Monmouth, that he was gentle, brave, and
+sincere: to these praises, from the united testimony of all who knew him,
+we may add that of generosity; and surely those qualities go a great way
+in making up the catalogue of all that is amiable and estimable in human
+nature.  One of the most conspicuous features in his character seems to
+have been a remarkable, and, as some think, a culpable degree of
+flexibility.  That such a disposition is preferable to its opposite
+extreme, will be admitted by all who think that modesty, even in excess,
+is more nearly allied to wisdom than conceit and self-sufficiency.  He
+who has attentively considered the political, or, indeed, the general
+concerns of life, may possibly go still further, and rank a willingness
+to be convinced, or in some cases even without conviction, to concede our
+own opinion to that of other men, among the principal ingredients in the
+composition of practical wisdom.  Monmouth had suffered this flexibility,
+so laudable in many cases, to degenerate into a habit which made him
+often follow the advice, or yield to the entreaties, of persons whose
+characters by no means entitled them to such deference.  The sagacity of
+Shaftesbury, the honour of Russell, the genius of Sydney, might, in the
+opinion of a modest man, be safe and eligible guides.  The partiality of
+friendship, and the conviction of his firm attachment, might be some
+excuse for his listening so much to Grey; but he never could, at any
+period of his life, have mistaken Ferguson for an honest man.  There is
+reason to believe that the advice of the two last-mentioned persons had
+great weight in persuading him to the unjustifiable step of declaring
+himself king.  But far the most guilty act of this unfortunate man's life
+was his lending his name to the declaration which was published at Lyme,
+and in this instance Ferguson, who penned the paper, was both the adviser
+and the instrument.  To accuse the king of having burnt London, murdered
+Essex in the Tower, and, finally, poisoned his brother, unsupported by
+evidence to substantiate such dreadful charges, was calumny of the most
+atrocious kind; but the guilt is still heightened, when we observe, that
+from no conversation of Monmouth, nor, indeed, from any other
+circumstance whatever, do we collect that he himself believed the horrid
+accusations to be true.  With regard to Essex's death in particular, the
+only one of the three charges which was believed by any man of common
+sense, the late king was as much implicated in the suspicion as James.
+That the latter should have dared to be concerned in such an act, without
+the privacy of his brother, was too absurd an imputation to be attempted,
+even in the days of the popish plot.  On the other hand, it was certainly
+not the intention of the son to brand his father as an assassin.  It is
+too plain that, in the instance of this declaration, Monmouth, with a
+facility highly criminal, consented to set his name to whatever Ferguson
+recommended as advantageous to the cause.  Among the many dreadful
+circumstances attending civil wars, perhaps there are few more revolting
+to a good mind than the wicked calumnies with which, in the heat of
+contention, men, otherwise men of honour, have in all ages and countries
+permitted themselves to load their adversaries.  It is remarkable that
+there is no trace of the divines who attended this unfortunate man having
+exhorted him to a particular repentance of his manifesto, or having
+called for a retraction or disavowal of the accusations contained in it.
+They were so intent upon points more immediately connected with orthodoxy
+of faith, that they omitted pressing their penitent to the only
+declaration by which he could make any satisfactory atonement to those
+whom he had injured.
+
+
+
+
+FRAGMENTS.
+
+
+_The following detached paragraphs were probably intended for the fourth
+chapter_.  _They are here printed in the incomplete and unfinished state
+in which they were found_.
+
+While the Whigs considered all religious opinions with a view to
+politics, the Tories, on the other hand, referred all political maxims to
+religion.  Thus the former, even in their hatred to popery, did not so
+much regard the superstition, or imputed idolatry of that unpopular sect,
+as its tendency to establish arbitrary power in the State, while the
+latter revered absolute monarchy as a divine institution, and cherished
+the doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance as articles of
+religious faith.
+
+* * * * *
+
+To mark the importance of the late events, his majesty caused two medals
+to be struck; one of himself, with the usual inscription, and the motto,
+_Aras et sceptra tuemur_; the other of Monmouth, without any inscription.
+On the reverse of the former were represented the two headless trunks of
+his lately vanquished enemies, with other circumstances in the same taste
+and spirit, the motto, _Ambitio malesuada ruit_; on that of the latter
+appeared a young man falling in the attempt to climb a rock with three
+crowns on it, under which was the insulting motto, _Superi risere_.
+
+* * * * *
+
+With the lives of Monmouth and Argyle ended, or at least seemed to end,
+all prospect of resistance to James's absolute power; and that class of
+patriots who feel the pride of submission, and the dignity of obedience,
+might be completely satisfied that the crown was in its full lustre.
+
+James was sufficiently conscious of the increased strength of his
+situation, and it is probable that the security he now felt in his power
+inspired him with the design of taking more decided steps in favour of
+the popish religion and its professors than his connection with the
+Church of England party had before allowed him to entertain.  That he
+from this time attached less importance to the support and affection of
+the Tories is evident from Lord Rochester's observations, communicated
+afterwards to Burnet.  This nobleman's abilities and experience in
+business, his hereditary merit, as son of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and
+his uniform opposition to the Exclusion Bill, had raised him high in the
+esteem of the Church party.  This circumstance, perhaps, as much, or more
+than the king's personal kindness to a brother-in-law, had contributed to
+his advancement to the first office in the State.  As long, therefore, as
+James stood in need of the support of the party, as long as he meant to
+make them the instruments of his power, and the channels of his favour,
+Rochester was, in every respect, the fittest person in whom to confide;
+and accordingly, as that nobleman related to Burnet, his majesty honoured
+him with daily confidential communications upon all his most secret
+schemes and projects.  But upon the defeat of the rebellion, an immediate
+change took place, and from the day of Monmouth's execution, the king
+confined his conversations with the treasurer to the mere business of his
+office.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE EARLY PART OF THE
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