General State of Affairs at Home. - Abroad. - Characters of the Ministry. - Sun- derland. Rochester. - Halifax. - Godolphin. - Jeffrey. - Feversham. — His Conduct after the Victory of Sedgmoor. — Kirke. — Judicial Proceedings in the West.-Trials of Mrs. Lisle.-Behaviour of the King.-Trial of Mrs. Gaunt and others. Case of Hampden. - Prideaux. - Lord Brandon. - Delamere Dismissal of Halifax. Meeting of Parliament. - Debates on the Address. — Pro- rogation of Parliament. - Habeas Corpus Act. State of the Catholic Party.— Character of the Queen. Of Catherine Sedley. - Attempt to support the di:- pensing Power by a Judgment of a Court of Law. - Godden v. Hales. Con- sideration of the Arguments. - Attack on the Church. Establishment of the Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes. Advancement of Catholics to State of the Army. Attempts of the King to convert the Army. - The Princess Anne. - Dryden. Lord Middleton and others. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Attempt to convert Rochester.- Conduct of the Queen. — Religious Administration of Queensberry.-Conversion of Perth.-Measures contemplated by the King. Debates in Parliament on the King's Letter. Proposed Bill of Toleration. Unsatisfactory to James.—Adjournment of Parliament. Exercise Character of Tyrconnel. - Review of the State of Ireland. - Arrival of Tyrconnel. His Appointment as Lord Deputy. - Advancement of Catholics to Offices. -Tyr- connel aims at the Sovereign Power in Ireland.-Intrigues with France Rupture with the Protestant Tories. - Increased Decision of the King's Designs. Encroachments on the Church Establishment. - Charter House. - Oxford Uni- versity College. Christ Church. - Exeter College, Cambridge. -Magdalen Col- lege, Oxon.- Declaration of Liberty of Conscience. - Similar Attempts of Charles. D'Adda publicly received as the Nuncio. - Dissolution of Parliament. - Final Breach. Preparations for a new Parliament. New Charters. Removal of Lord Lieu- tenants. — Patronage of the Crown. — Moderate Views of Sunderland. — House of Lords. - Royal Progress. Pregnancy of the Queen.-London has the Ap- Remarkable Quiet. Its peculiar Causes. Coalition of Nottingham and Halifax. — Fluctuating Counsels of the Court." Parliamentum Pacificum."- Bill for Li- Declaration of Indulgence renewed. Order that it should be read in Churches.- Deliberations of the Clergy. Petition of the Bishops to the King. - Their Exa- mination before the Privy Council, Committal, Trial, and Acquittal. — Reflections. - Conversion of Sunderland.— Birth of the Prince of Wales. - State of Affairs 239 Doctrine of Obedience. - Right of Resistance. Comparison of Foreign and Civil War. Right of calling Auxiliaries. — Relations of the People of England and of Extraction of the House of Orange. - Review of the Struggles in the Netherlands. — Character, Situation, and Projects of William III.— Intrigues of Charles II. Fate of the War. - Results of the Treaty of Nimeguen. Louis XIV. - Austria. — The Netherlands. — England. - Popish Plot. - Bill of Exclusion. Connection of English Affairs with William's Policy PROCEEDINGS IN THE WEST.-TRIALS OF MRS. LISLE. - BEHAVIOUR OF THE KING. -JEFFREYS. FEVER 1685. state of af James II. THOUGH a struggle with calamity strengthens and elevates the CHAP. I. mind, the necessity of passive submission to long adversity is rather likely to weaken and subdue it: great misfortunes disturb General the understanding perhaps as much as great success; and ex- fairs at the traordinary vicissitudes often produce the opposite vices of rash- accession of ness and fearfulness, by inspiring a disposition to trust too much to fortune, and to yield to it too soon. Few men experienced more sudden changes of fortune than James II.; but it was unfortunate for his character that he never owed his prosperity, and not always his adversity, to himself. The affairs of his family seemed to be at the lowest ebb a few months before their triumphant restoration. Four years before the death of his brother, it appeared probable that he would be excluded from the succession to the crown; and his friends seemed to have no other means of averting that doom, than by proposing such limitations B 1685. CHAP. I. of the royal prerogative as would have reduced the government to a merely nominal monarchy. But the dissolutions by which Charles had safely and successfully punished the independence of his last parliament, the destruction of some of his most formidable opponents, and the general discouragement of their adherents, paved the way for his peaceable, and even popular, succession; the defeat of the revolts of Monmouth and Argyle appeared to have fixed his throne on immoveable foundations; and he was then placed in circumstances more favourable than those of any of his predecessors to the extension of his power, or, if such had been his purpose, to the undisturbed exercise of his constitutional authority. The friends of liberty, dispirited by events which all, in a greater or less degree, brought discredit upon their cause, were confounded with unsuccessful conspirators and defeated rebels: they seemed to be at the mercy of a prince, who, with reason, considered them as the irreconcileable enemies of his designs. The zealous partisans of monarchy believed themselves on the eve of reaping the fruits of a contest of fifty years' duration, under a monarch of mature experience, of tried personal courage, who possessed a knowledge of men, and a capacity as well as an inclination for business; whose constancy, intrepidity, and sternness were likely to establish their political principles; and from whose prudence, as well as gratitude and good faith, they were willing to hope that he would not disturb the security of their religion. The turbulence of the preceding times had more than usually disposed men of pacific temper to support an established government. The multitude, pleased with a new reign, generally disposed to admire vigour and to look with complacency on success, showed many symptoms of that propensity which is natural to them, or rather to mankind, to carry their applauses to the side of fortune, and to imbibe the warmest passions of a victorious party. The strength of the Tories in a parliament assembled in such a temper of the nation, was aided by a numerous reinforcement of members of low condition and subservient character, whom the forfeiture of the charters of towns enabled the court to pour into |