compelled to go off to the continent. The day following, another event happened which augured ill. Lord Grey marched with five hundred men to drive the militia out of Bridport. A volley of musketry brought down two of the assailants, upon which the courageous Grey fled with the cavalry back to Lyme, leaving Major Wade to bring off the infantry as best he could.

(2) ADVANCE OF MONMOUTH TO KEYNSHAM, June 15. From Lyme, Monmouth marched his forces by way of Axminster and Chard to Taunton, which place was reached June 20, and being strong in non-conformists, the Duke's reception was of the most flattering kind. Besides a richly embroidered stand of colors, some score of maidens presented him with a Bible, and received from the Duke an assurance that it was his chief object to defend its truths. Monmouth's ambition was now stirred, and by consent of his council, he proclaimed himself, King James the Second; at the same time, he declared his opponents traitors, ordered the taxes to be levied for his service, and offered a reward for the seizure of James, Duke of York. The insurgents moved on to Bridgewater on the 22nd, where he re-organised his forces, consisting only of the lower classes, for his assumption of the kingly title had not brought in a single nobleman; and it is probable that many of his secret adherents were weaned from a cause which bid fair to unsettle all existing relations, and disappoint the hopes of those who desired a change. An advance was made to Glastonbury, thence to Wells, and on as far as Keynsham, in the hope of securing Bristol; but his onward progress was stopped by the gathering of the royal forces. At first he had only to cope with the militia under the Earl of Albemarle, but other bodies were now circling him in, under the command of Beaufort, Pembroke, Lumley, and Abingdon. Even the undergraduates of Oxford had taken arms at the summons of Fell, the bishop. Churchill had been sent forward with the Blues, and Faversham followed with the troops that could be spared from London; the metropolis was left under the care of three Scotch regiments, which William of Orange had hastened over from Holland.

(3) MONMOUTH LOSES THE BATTLE OF SEDGEMOOR, July 6. Before retracing his steps, Monmouth's herald summoned Bath, but its gates were closed against him. Faversham's approach made a movement necessary; on the 26th, Philip's Norton was reached, and on the morning following, a detachment of the royal forces was upon them, commanded by the Duke of Grafton, Monmouth's half-brother. On the 28th, the retreat reached Frome, where intelligence met them of the failure of Argyle's expedition: so hopeless was the Duke now of success, that he had serious thoughts of flight. Wells was the next halt; here they stript

the lead off the roof of the castle to make bullets, and then pressed on to Bridgewater, which they reached July 2. The royal forces now closed in, and on the 5th pitched their camp on the plain of Sedgemoor, about three miles from Bridgewater. Monmouth attempted to surprise his enemy by a night attack, which failed by reason of a broad ditch which could not be crossed. The royal army, aroused by the attempt, delivered a volley which drove Grey off the ground. Monmouth then advanced his infantry, but they were taken in front and flank by Faversham's troops. The peasants and miners fought bravely with their scythes and forks, long after Monmouth had fled from the field. Of the royal army about three hundred fell; of the rebels, a thousand lay dead on Sedgemoor, and many hundreds became prisoners. Faversham hunted down those who had fled, and hanged twenty without any trial. Colonel Kirk, with his "Lambs" (so called because his regiment, having been on service at Tangiers, carried a lamb on their standard, emblematical of their being Christians), followed, and men were quartered at Taunton till the executioner stood up to his ankles in blood. Kirk is said to have executed nearly à hundred persons, many of whom were gibbetted in the immediate neighbourhood.

(4) MONMOUTH IS CAPTURED AND EXECUTED, July 15. Monmouth, in company with Grey and Buyse, a foreign officer, when they left the field, hastened at a gallop to the Mendip Hills, where resolving to give up the project of crossing to Wales, they turned off towards the New Forest. Reaching Cranborne Chase, a district full of soldiers on the alert, they turned their horses loose. Grey was taken on the morning of the 7th, and a cordon of troops drawn round the immediate district. On the morning of the 8th, Buyse was discovered, and after a while Monmouth himself, lying in a ditch. The captive was conveyed to Ringwood, from which place he wrote off a craven letter to the king, affirming that he had been seduced by others, but that now he had the deepest remorse for his ingratitude and rebellion, and begged admittance to the royal presence, to name a secret which would secure the throne from danger. Monmouth reached London on the 13th, and was led bound into the presence of James, whom he piteously implored to save him, extenuating his offence by laying the blame on others. The secret is supposed to have been of little importance, for James was obdurate, and told him that he had rendered himself incapable of pardon. In the Tower, the Duke had a cold interview with his wife, the heiress of Buccleugh, and then passed the night with bishops Turner and Kenn, who were joined the next morning by Drs. Hooper and Tennison. The united efforts of these divines failed to convince

him, that the doctrine of resistance was wrong, or that his intercourse with Henrietta Wentworth was adulterous. On the morning of the 15th, the execution took place on Tower Hill, after some unseemly altercation on the scaffold, and unskilful work on the part of the headsman, who made five strokes before he completed the decapitation. Lord Grey and others of the principal rebels received a pardon, to be employed as witnesses against their former associates.

4. Jeffreys' Campaign, or the Bloody Assize, 1685. Colonel Kirk did not altogether satisfy his master, who, when he informed the colonel through Lord Sunderland, that he was "very well satisfied with his proceedings", censured him for setting some of the rebels at liberty. Punishment was hereafter to follow the due course of law, a commission therefore issued (Aug. 24) appointing Jeffreys and four other judges for the trial of the offenders. To protect them from danger, they were to proceed under a strong military escort, commanded by Jeffreys, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-general. The judges opened their commission at Winchester, before which court an aged widow, Alice Lisle, was charged with harbouring two fugitives from Sedgemoor. She was found guilty, and sentenced to be burned alive on the afternoon of the same day. To the clergy of Winchester cathedral belongs the merit of having obtained a respite for three days; ultimately the sentence was commuted for beheading. The commission passed through the principal towns of the tainted district, proceeding according to the forms of law, yet with indecent haste, and not always without some perversion of justice. The result may be thus summed up :-upwards of three hundred suffered death, in most cases a few hours after their trial; nearly a thousand were sold as slaves for the Plantations; numbers were whipped and imprisoned; and others ruined by heavy fines. To strike terror into the district, the dripping heads and limbs of the dead were affixed in the streets and highways, over the town halls and church doors.

The following cruel sentences illustrate the barbarous punishments inflicted on those who were not executed. Alad, for seditious words, was to undergo seven years' imprisonment, and be flogged through every market town in Dorset, once a year. The sentence in this case was not inflicted in consequence of the lad's falling ill, but a woman sentenced to whipping through all the same towns, endured her punishment, till the gaolers could no longer endure to torture her. Jeffreys, during this circuit, greatly added to his wealth by the sale of protections. A question has been raised in connexion with the "bloody assize"-Was it with the sanction of the king that these severities were inflicted? There can be no

doubt that it was so. James talked of it with his courtiers, wrote of it to the Hague, and when Jeffreys returned, he gave him the great seal, notifying in the London Gazette, that this honor was the reward of many eminent and faithful services, which he had rendered the crown. Jeffreys declared on his death bed, that "what he did, he did by express orders, and that he was not half bloody enough for the prince who sent him thither".

The executions in the West were followed by others in London. Cornish, one of the former sheriffs of London, suffered on a gibbet in front of his own house, for a doubtful connexion with the Rye-house Plot. A barber named Fernley was hung, and an aged woman burnt alive at Tyburn, both for being parties in harbouring rebels. At the close of the year, several persons of rank were prosecuted for their supposed connexion with the Rye-house affair, or their secret support of Monmouth's rebellion. Of these, Lord Brandon, and Hampden, grandson of the Hampden of shipmoney notoriety, were convicted of treason, but redeemed their lives by payment of heavy sums to Jeffreys and other courtiers. Lord Delamere was acquitted, and Grey, Earl of Stamford, released only after a long imprisonment.

SECTION III. JAMES THROWS OFF HIS MASK, 1685. 1. What alterations James proposed to make in the government. The ease with which the late rebellion had been put down, encouraged the king to attempt such changes in the laws, as might hereafter forward the scheme which he had formed of re-establishing Romanism. To answer his designs, he proposed as the first change, the repeal or modification of the Habeas Corpus Act, on account of its abridging the right which the crown formerly had of retaining suspected persons in custody. In connexion with the Rye-house Plot and Monmouth's invasion, many had by this statute, so James maintained, obtained their discharge before legal evidence of their guilt could be collected. To leave this act as it stood was therefore to leave the government without the means of protecting itself. As an effective coercive instrument, the king proposed as a second change, the formation of a standing army. When Monmouth landed, the defence of the kingdom depended on the militia, such a force was little fitted to cope with regular troops, and as had been seen in the late insurrection, not always to be trusted. The royal forces had already been raised from six to nearly twenty thousand, and it was the king's determination to keep them embodied, and demand of the parliament the means for their support. The third change proposed was the repeal of the Test Act. In the army raised, many commissions had been granted to Roman Catholic

officers. This was contrary to law, as the Test Act excluded all dissenters from civil and military office. But James had confidence in them as co-religionists, and the law must therefore be repealed. Halifax, Halifax, as president of the council, objected to a standing army, showing that its introduction had in foreign nations led to despotism, and further, that the Test and Habeas Corpus Acts were the main defence of religion and liberty. For holding these opinions, Halifax was deprived of his office.

2. The parliament opposes the king's wishes and is dismissed, 1685. In the second session of parliament (Nov. 9-Nov. 20), James, in his speech from the throne, called on the Houses to provide funds for supporting an augmented army, and added that he proposed to retain the services of those officers, who bore commissions contrary to law. The Commons resolved

to grant a supply, but to accompany it with a bill for the improvement of the militia; and with respect to the Catholic officers, they promised to relieve them from the penalties which they had incurred, but prayed the king to discharge them from the public service. But James had made up his mind to retain these officers, even if he sacrificed the promised grant. He therefore sent for the Commons, and strongly expressed his displeasure. At their next meeting, John Coke, the tory member for Derby, said, "I hope that we are all Englishmen, and not to be frightened from our duty by a few high words". For this insult to the crown, Coke was committed to the Tower, so anxious was the House to avoid all unnecessary offence.

In the Lords, the Marquis of Winchester called the attention of the House to the illegal employment of Catholic officers, and was supported by Anglesea, Halifax, Nottingham, and Compton, bishop of London. James was vexed and suddenly prorogued the parliament, with the secret resolution to effect his purpose by the exercise of the dispensing power. The members who had voted against the court, were dismissed from the public service, and the bishop of London struck out of the list of privy councillors. Sunderland became now president of the council, and obtained from Louis a pension of £4500.

3. The fears of the nation aroused. The latter part of the preceding reign was distinguished by the popish plots which, though weak inventions, nevertheless thoroughly aroused the protestant feeling of the nation. But this could not have been, but for the whispering of some secret scheme being afloat to reestablish popery in these realms. This feeling had cooled, but was not dead, and though on the accession of James, the nation was remarkably good-tempered, it was mainly due to the reliance placed on the good faith of the king. As soon however as James