are very different. In my opinion, he ought to be content with favouring the Catholics on every occasion, in order to augment their number, and he should leave to his successors the care of gradually subjecting England altogether to the authority of the pope."a Bossuet, the most learned, vigorous, and eloquent of controversialists, in the great work on the variations of the Protestant churches, which he published at this critical time, ventured to foretell, that the pious efforts of James would speedily be rewarded by the reconciliation of the British islands with the universal church, and their filial submission to the apostolic see. b

C

If Gourville considered James an injudicious imitator of Louis XIV., it is easy to imagine what was thought on the subject in England, at a time when one of the mildest, not to say most courtly, writers, in the quietness and familiarity of his private diary, speaks of "the persecution raging in France," and so far forgets his own temper, and the style suitable to such writings, as to call Louis "the French tyrant." Lord Halifax, Lord Nottingham, and Lord Danby, the three most important opponents of the King's measures, disagreeing as they did very considerably in opinion and character, evidently agreed in their apprehension of the extent of his designs. They advert to them as too familiar to themselves and their correspondent to require proof, or even development; they speak of them as being far more extensive than the purposes avowed, and they apply terms to them which might be reasonable in the present times, when many are willing to grant and to be contented with religious liberty, but which are entirely foreign to the conceptions of an age when toleration (a term then synonymous with connivance) was the ultimate object of no great party in religion, but was sometimes sought by dissenters as a step towards establishment, and sometimes yielded by the followers of an established church under the pressure of a stern necessity. Some even of

Mémoires de Gourville, ii. 254. Paris, 1724.

Histoires des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, lib. 7.
Evelyn, Diary, 3d of Sept. 1687. 23d of Feb. 1688.

Lord Halifax to the Prince of Orange, 7th Dec. 1686. The same to the same, 18th Jan. 1687. Though there appears the utmost vigour to pursue the object which has been so long laid, there seemeth to be no less firmness in the nation and aversion to change."" Every day will give more light to what is intended; though it is already no more a mystery." Same to the same, 31st May, 1687.

Lord Nottingham to the Prince of Orange, 2d Sept. 1687:- "For though the end at which they aim is very plain and visible, the methods of arriving at that end have been variable and uncertain." Lord Danby, 27th March, 1688. Dalrymple, App. book v.

" a

b

those who, having been gained over by the King, were most interested in maintaining his sincerity, were compelled at length to yield to the general conviction. Colonel Titus, a veteran politician, who had been persuaded to concur in the repeal of the penal laws (a measure agreeable to his general principles), declared" that he would have no more to do with him: that his object was only the repeal of the penal laws; that their design is to bring in their religion right or wrong, and to model the army in order to effect their purpose; and, if that is not sufficient, to obtain assistance from France." The converts to the religious or political party of the King were few and discreditable. Lord Lorn, whose predecessors and successors were the firmest supporters of the religion and liberty of his country, is said to have been reduced by the confiscation of his patrimony to the sad necessity of professing a religion which he must have regarded with feelings more hostile than those of mere unbelief. Lord Salisbury, whose father had been engaged with Russell and Sydney in the consultation called the Ryehouse Plot, and whose grandfather sat in the House of Commons after the abolition of monarchy and peerage, embraced the Catholic religion, and adhered to it during his life. The offices of attorney and solicitor-general, which acquire a fatal importance in this country under governments hostile to liberty, were newly filled. Sawyer, who had been engaged in the worst prosecutions of the preceding ten years, began to tremble for his wealth, and retired from a post of dishonourable danger. He was succeeded by Sir Thomas Powis, a lawyer of no known opinions or connexions in politics, who acted on the unprincipled maxim, that, having had too little concern for his country to show any preference to public men or measures, he might as lawfully accept office under any government, as undertake the defence of any client. Sir W. Williams, the confidential adviser of Lord Russell, on whom a fine of ten thousand pounds had been inflicted, for a publication authorised by him as Speaker of the House of Commons, though solemnly pledged both to men and measures in the face of the public, now accepted the office of solicitor-general, without the sorry excuse of any of those maxims of professional ethics by which a powerful body countenance each other in their disregard of public duty. A project was in agitation for depriving the Bishop of London by a Johnstone, 6 (16) February, 1688.

a

Narc. Lutt. 1st April, 1688, "arrested for 30007., declares himself a Catholic."

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355

sentence of the ecclesiastical commissioners for perseverance in his contumacy; but Cartwright, of Chester, his intended successor, having, in one of his drunken moments, declared the Chancellor and Lord Sunderland to be scoundrels who would betray the King, and having first denied it by his sacred order, but being at last reduced to beg pardon for it in tears, the plan of raising him to the see of London was abandoned. Crew, Bishop of Durham, was expected to become a Catholic, and Parker of Oxford, the only prelate whose talents and learning, seconded by a disregard of danger and disgrace, qualified him for breaking the spirit of the clergy of the capital, though he had supported the Catholic party during his life, refused to conform to their religion on his deathbed, leaving it doubtful, by his habitual alienation from religion and honour, to the lingering remains or the faint revival of which of these principles the unwonted delicacy of his dying moments may be most probably ascribed.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Remarkable Quiet.-Its peculiar Causes.-Coalition of Nottingham and Halifax.— Fluctuating Counsels of the Court.—“ Parliamentum Pacificum.”—Bill for Liberty of Conscience.-Conduct of Sunderland.-Jesuits.

ENGLAND perhaps never exhibited an external appearance of more undisturbed and profound tranquillity than in the momentous seven months which elapsed from the end of autumn to the beginning of summer. Not a speck in the heavens seemed to the

a

Johnstone, 8th Dec. 1687. It may be proper to observe, that Johnstone's connexions afforded him considerable means of information. Mrs. Dawson, an attendant of the Queen, was an intimate friend of his sister, Mrs. Baillie, of Jerviswood. Another of his sisters was the wife of General Drummond, who was deeply engaged in the persecution of the Scotch Presbyterians, and the Earl of Melfort's son had married his niece. His letters were to or for Burnet, his cousin, and to be read by the Prince of Orange, to both of whom he had the strongest inducements to give accurate information. He had frequent and confidential intercourse with Halifax, Tillotson, and Stillingfleet.

b Johnstone, 27th Feb. 1688. Narc. Luttrell, 11th Feb. 1688.

Evelyn, 23d March, 1688.

common eye to ferobode a storm. None of the riots now occurred which were the forerunners of the civil war under Charles I. There were none of those numerous assemblies of the people which affright by their force, when they do not disturb by their violence, and are sometimes as terrific in disciplined inaction, as in tumultuous outrage. Even the ordinary marks of national disapprobation, which prepare and announce a legal resistance to power, were wanting. There is no trace of public meetings in counties or great towns where such demonstrations of public opinion could have been made. The current of flattering addresses continued to flow towards the throne, uninterrupted by a single warning remonstrance of a more independent spirit, or even of a mere decent servility. It does not appear that in pulpits, where alone the people could be freely addressed, political topics were discussed, though it must be acknowledged that the controversial sermons against the opinions of the Church of Rome, which then abounded, proved in effect the most formidable obstacle to the progress of her ambition.

Various considerations will serve to lessen our wonder at ths singular state of silence and inactivity. Though it would be idle to speak gravely of the calm which precedes the storm, and thus to substitute a trite illustration for a reason, it is nevertheless true, that there are natural causes which commonly produce an interval, sometimes, indeed, very short, of more than ordinary quiet between the complete operation of the measures which alienate a people, and the final resolution which precedes a great change. Amidst the hopes and fears which succeed each other in such a state every man has much to conceal of what it requires some time to acquire boldness to disclose. Distrust and suspicion, the parents of silence, which easily yield to sympathy in ordinary and legal opposition, are called into full activity by the first secret consciousness of a disposition to more daring designs. It is natural for men in such circumstances to employ time in watching their opponents, as well as in ascertaining the integrity and courage of their friends, When human nature is stirred by such mighty agents, the understanding, indeed, rarely deliberates; but the conflict and alternation of strong emotions, which assume the appearance and receive the name of deliberation, produce naturally a disposition to a fearful pause before irrevocable action. The boldest must occasionally contemplate their own danger with

apprehension; the most sanguine must often doubt their success; those who are alive to honour must be visited by the sad reflection, that if they be unfortunate they may be insulted by the multitude for whom they sacrifice themselves; and good men will be frequently appalled by the inevitable calamities to which they expose their country for the uncertain chance of deliverance. When the fluctuation of mind has terminated in bold resolution, a farther period of reserve must be employed in preparing the means of co-operation and maturing the plans of action. But there were some circumstances peculiar to the events now under consideration, which strengthened and determined the operation of general causes. In 1640, the gentry and the clergy were devoted to the court, while the higher nobility and the great towns adhered to the parliament. The people distrusted their divided superiors, and the tumultuous display of their force (the natural result of their angry suspicions) served to manifest their own' inclinations, while it called forth their friends and intimidated their enemies among the higher orders. In 1688, the state of the country was reversed. The clergy and gentry were for the first time discontented with the crown. The majority of the nobility, and the growing strength of the commercial classes, reinforced by these unusual auxiliaries, and by all who either hated popery or loved liberty, were fully as much disaffected to the King as the great body of the people. The nation trusted their natural leaders, who, perhaps, gave, more than they received, the impulse on this occasion. No popular chiefs were necessary, and none arose to supply the place of their authority with the people, who reposed in quiet and confidence till the signal for action was made. This important circumstance produced another effect. The whole guidance of the opposition fell gradually into fewer and fewer hands; it became every day easier to carry it on more calmly; pópular commotion could only have disturbed councils where the people did not suspect their chiefs of lukewarmness, and the chiefs were assured of the prompt and zealous support of the people. It was as important to restrain the impetuosity of the multitude, as it might be necessary in other circumstances to indulge it. Hence arose the facility of caution and secrecy at one time, of energy and speed at another, of concert and co-operation throughout, which are indispensable in enterprises so perilous.