name soon drew to his standard above two thousand horse and foot. He stiled James a popish usurper; and advancing to Taunton, was proclaimed king, which ceremony likewise took place in Bridgewater, Wells, and Frome.

But though Monmouth had given many proofs of personal courage, he seemed now to labour under an infatuation. He entrusted the command of his horse to lord Grey, a notorious coward, and on hearing of the defeat of Argyle, he lost all the energies of his mind, and sunk into despondence, without attempting any thing to keep up the expectations of the people. His negligence invited the earl of Feversham, the royal general, to attack him at Sedgemoor, where, after a sharp combat of three hours, the rebels gave way. About one thousand five hundred fell in the battle and pursuit; and Monmouth himself, flying from the field, till his horse sunk under him, changed clothes with a peasant, in order to conceal himself. At last he was found lying in the bottom of a ditch and covered with fern. His body depressed with fa tigue and hunger; and his mind, by the memory of past misfortunes, and the anticipation of future ills, he burst into tears when seized by his enemies, and seemed still to indulge the fond hope and the desire of life. He wrote in the most submissive terms to James, conjuring him to spare the issue of a brother; and the king, availing himself of those symptoms of contrition and despondency in the unhappy prisoner, admitted him into his presence, in hopes of extorting a discovery of his accomplices. But Monmouth would not purchase life, however loved, at the price of so much infamy. Finding

Finding all efforts vain, he prepared himself for death with a courage worthy of his rank and former character, and was attended to the scaffold by the silent tears of the people, with whom he had ever been a favourite. Even the executioner found himself incapable of performing his bloody office with effect; and the victim was miserably mangled by that very hesitation, which the feelings of humanity had inspired.

Had this victory been managed with prudence and moderation, it might have tended to confirm the royal power; but the savage colonel Kirke, and the infamous judge Jefferies, by their barbarity, hastened the ruin of their master. To enter into the details of the cruelties they inflicted on the wretched adherents of Monmouth, would be to harrow up every feeling of the soul.

In Scotland, the fate of Argyle had been decided before that of Monmouth. The parlia ment of that country had acknowledged the king's authority to be absolute; and with such a servile train, the patriotic virtues of Argyle could stand no chance of obtaining pardon.

Elated by this tide of short-lived prosperity, James began to undervalue the authority of an English parliament, and to dispense with some of its positive acts. In favour of many catholic officers, he suspended the operations of the test; but this daring infringement of the laws did not pass without notice. The commons voted an address against it, to which the king made a haughty reply.

Next day, the commons proceeded to the consideration of a supply, and went so far in their submissions, as to establish funds for paying the sums voted. The king, therefore, had, in

effect,

nuncio to England, who was solemnly received at Windsor, in opposition to an express act of parliament, which made it treason to hold any correspondence with the pope.

After all, James shewed extreme anxiety to gain the sanction of parliament to his proceedings; but finding that impossible, he forbore to assemble it, and proceeded to strengthen the catholic party by every possible expedient. The church and the universities had hitherto been shut against the followers of the romish communion; and though the university of Oxford had lately made a solemn profession of passive obedience, when he attempted to appoint one Farmer, a convert to popery, president of Magdalen college, one of the richest foundations in Europe, the society, in opposition to the king's mandate, elected doctor Hough, a man whose virtue and firmness rendered him not only proper for the office, but for the times. The commission nominated to enforce the king's recommendation of Farmer were ashamed to proceed, when his character came to be investigated; and Parker, lately created bishop of Oxford, a man of a prostitute character also, and who was ready to sacrifice the dignity of his rank to his interest, was next proposed to the fellows of Magdalen as their head. Arguments were useless against arbitrary principles, reinforced by power; the legal president, Hough, and all the fellows except two, who complied, were expelled the college, and Parker was appointed president.

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The next measure of the court rendered the breach between the ecclesiastics

1658. incurable; the king had published a second declaration of indulgence, and ordered it

to

to be read in churches immediately after divine service. The clergy in general determined to oppose this violence done to their consciences; and Lloyd, bishop of St. Asaph, Kenn, of Bath and Wells, Turner, of Ely, Lake, of Chichester, White, of Peterborough, and Trelawney, of Exeter, in concert with the primate, drew up a petition to the king against reading the declaration. For this these venerable men were com mitted to the Tower, and the crown lawyers were ordered to prosecute them for the seditious libel, which it was pretended they had composed and uttered.

In spite of every machination, however, the bishops were acquitted, to the unbounded joy of the people, who rejoiced as if each had escaped from the heaviest ill, and the army encamped on Hownslow-heath soon catching the contagion, James, who was then upon the spot, was surprised to hear a general uproar in the camp: suddenly inquiring the cause, he was told by Feversham, his general," it was nothing but the rejoicing of the soldiers for the acquittal of the bishops." "Do you call that nothing?" replied he," but so much the worse for them." Nothing, however, could check the mad career of James. He issued orders to prosecute all those who had not read his declaration, and to the honour of the established clergy be it recorded, only two hundred complied with his edict.

About this time the queen was delivered of a son, to the great joy of the king and his catholic subjects; but so violent was the animosity against the court, that calumny ascribed to James the design of imposing on the world a supposititious child. He was baptized by the name of James,

VOL. II.

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James, and afterwards acquired the title of "the pretender."

While matters were in this state, the prince of Orange, married to the princess Mary of England, eldest daughter of the king, though he had hitherto kept silence, yet saw the danger to his own country of the catholic religion gaining the ascendancy in England, and therefore judged the crisis was come in which he ought to declare himself against repealing the penal sta tutes, unless with the concurrence of parliament, which he was sensible could not be obtain ed.

This declaration gave courage to the protestants, in proportion as it disgusted the king and the catholics. James, indeed, resented it so strongly, that he was preparing to make war on the United States, while many persons of consequence and talents flying from England, offered their services to William, and requested his ac tive interference.

The prince, after duly weighing matters, and finding the whigs, the tories, the churchmen, and the non-conformists, forgetting their animosities, all leagued against their deluded sovereign, thought it proper to yield to the very respectable and numerous applications he had received; and having secretly augmented the Dutch navy, levied troops, and raised considerable sums of money, he waited for a favourable opportunity of embarking for England.

Louis, who had either penetrated or suspected his designs, gave repeated warnings to James, but all in vain. He was more intent on propagating popery, and subverting the laws of the kingdom, than on defending it from invasion.

At