A.D. 1687.] IMPOLITIC CONDUCT OF JAMES. minister of the first of all crowned heads." Somerset, moved to a firmness of demeanour and language unusual even in him, declared that he dared not break the law. James replied, "I will make you fear me as well as the law. Do you not know that I am above the law?" "Your majesty," replied Somerset, with commingled dignity and affected humility, "may be above the law, but I am not; and I am only safe while I obey the law." The king, not 541 cared to confess, had narrowly escaped with his life in the trials of the popish plot. This man the elector of Cologne had appointed his resident at the English court-probably at the suggestion of James, and in defiance of public opinion; and James now insisted that he should receive a public introduction to court, in the habit of his order, and attended by six other monks in a like costume. Thus James took a pleasure in violating the laws and insulting The Earl of Shrewsbury and other nobles dispatching their proposals to the Prince of Orange. used to being thwarted, much less to language of so plain a sort, turned from him in a rage, and the next day issued a decree depriving him of his posts in the household and of his command in the guards. public opinion at every turn, to show that he was independent of both; and he now prepared to commence in earnest the destruction of the church. Before advancing to this dangerous experiment, however, he deemed it necessary to tighten the discipline of the army, which had shown no little disgust of his proceedings, and left it doubtful whether it would stand by him in the momentous crisis. Many of James's soldiers had deserted, and it was found that they were under no oath or obligation which rendered who were or had been members of that college, or of New such desertion liable to serious punishment. But James College. The president died in March, 1687, and the 13th determined to punish them, even condignly, in order to of April was fixed for the election of the new one. A Dr. strike a sufficient terror into the whole army. He consulted Smith, a learned orientalist, and an enthusiastically loyal the judges as to whether he did not possess this power; they man, applied for the royal consent, but was informed that said that he did not. Instead of accepting this answer, the king was determined to give it only to one of his own James dismissed Herbert, the chief justice of the King's religion; and, to the astonishment and disgust of the college, Bench, Sir John Holt, another judge of the same bench and one Anthony Farmer was named as the royal nominee. The recorder of London, and put in their places Sir Robert choice seemed made to insult the university in the highest Wright, a creature of Jeffreys', a man of ruined and base degree possible, for not only was Farmer a popish convert, character, Richard Allibone, and Sir Bartholomew Shower but a man of the most drunken, debauched, and infamous as recorder. With these infamous instruments he went to character who could have been picked from the vilest haunts work; and, instead of trying the offenders by court-martial, of unnameable wickedness. The astounded fellows humbly he brought them before these men in the King's Bench and but earnestly remonstrated, but in vain. On the appointed in the Old Bailey, and hanged them in sight of their regi- day, spite of the king's positive injunctions, and the presence ments. By these outrages on every law and principle of of his agent, the choice fell on a distinguished and highly constitutional safety James thought he had terrified the army virtuous member of the college, John Hough. into obedience; and he now attacked the very existence of the universities, in order to give the education of the country into the hands of popery. James commenced his encroachments on the universities by ordering one Alban Francis, a Benedictine monk, to be admitted a master of arts in that of Cambridge. That many persons not strictly admissable by the rules of the university had received honorary degrees, including foreigners of different forms of faith, and even a Turk, was indisputable; but the object of these favours was so clear that no mischief could arise from the practice. But now the universities were but too well aware that James aimed at a thorough usurpation of these schools by the catholics, to lightly pass the matter by. The heads of colleges sent hastily to Albemarle, their chancellor, begging him to explain to the king that the person named could not be admitted according to the statutes; at the same time they conceded so far as to offer to admit Francis on his taking the oaths of supremacy and obedience. He refused. James menaced the authorities, but in vain, and he summoned them before the High Commission Court. John Pechell, the vice-chancellor of the university, attended by eight fellows, including the illustrious Isaac Newton-afterwards Sir Isaac-appeared, and were received by Jeffreys with all his devilish bluster. Pechell was soon terrified at this most brutal monster, whose employment alone would have sufficiently stamped the character of James; and, when any of the other fellows attempted to speak, Jeffreys roared out, "You are not vicechancellor; when you are, you may talk; till then, hold your tongue." Finding, however, that, though he could embarrass, he could not bend the vice-chancellor, Jeffreys, by order of James, declared Pechell dismissed from the office of vice-chancellor, and all his emoluments suspended. This was a gross violation of the rights of the university, and Jeffreys added to the outrage a piece of his usually blasphemous advice to the fellows-" Go your way and sin no more, lest a worse thing befall you." The decease of the president of Magdalene College, Oxford, enabled James to follow up his plans without loss of time. Magdalene was one of the very richest of the English foundations, and consisted of a president, forty fellows, and thirty scholars, called Demies. It was the law of the foundation that the president could only be elected from those The irate king summoned the fellows before the beastly Jeffreys and the High Commission, as he had summoned the heads of the university of Cambridge. There Jeffreys exhibited his constant display of insufferable Billingsgate; and when Dr. Fairfax, one of the fellows, had the boldness to call in question the legality of the High Commission, he lost all patience. "Who is this man? What commission has he to be impudent here? Seize him; put him into a dark room. What does he do without a keeper? He is under my care as a lunatic. I wonder nobody has applied to me for the custody of him." But, after all, the character of Farmer was shown to be so vilely reprobate, that he was dropped, and the college ordered to receive Dr. Parker, bishop of Oxford. Parker was not an openly acknowledged papist, but was understood to be really one; but he was neither a fellow of Magdalene nor New College, and the fellows were firm enough to stand by their own election of Dr. Hough. James determined to go in person to Oxford and overawe these obstinate men; and he was the more bent upon it, having in the meantime suffered a similar defeat in endeavouring to force a catholic into the hospital connected with the Charterhouse school. The trustees refused, and were called before Jeffreys. There he began browbeating the master, Thomas Burnet, but was unexpectedly opposed by the venerable duke of Ormond. At this the bully swagger of this most hideous and contemptible judge that ever sat on a bench at once gave way, for he had no real courage. He stole from the court, and the scheme failed for the day. But the High Commission having sentenced Hough to be deposed from the presidentship of Magdalene, and Fairfax from his fellowship, again met, and summoned the trustees of the Charterhouse. Here again they were awed by a letter addressed to the king, signed by the trustees, including the names of Ormond, Halifax, Danby, and Nottingham, the chiefs of all the great parties who secured to James his crown, and still by their forbearance kept it on his head, so that they were compelled to pause before proceeding further. On the 16th of August James set out on a progress, with every display of royal state which could impress on the minds of his subjects an idea of his kingly security. He proceeded to Portsmouth, Southampton, Bath; thence by Gloucester and Worcester to Ludlow, Shrewsbury, and Chester; whence A.D. 1687.] PROSPECT OF AN HEIR TO THE TIIRONE. 543 proposed to make over Ireland to Louis of France in case Mary of Orange could not be prevented succeeding to England; and Louis expressed his assent to the proposal. Tyrconnel was to make all necessary preparations for this traitorous transfer. But at this moment a new light broke on James, which quashed these unnatural and unnational projects: the queen was declared pregnant. le again turned south, and reached Oxford on the 3rd of been proposed to set aside the claims of the princess of September. Everywhere he had been attended by the high Orange, and make Anne heir-apparent on condition that she sheriff's of the counties with splendid retinues; and the clergy | embraced popery. Anne utterly refused. It was then in the towns had flocked around him in great numbers, though he continued on his progress to neglect their preaching for mass. If outward circumstances could be relied on, it might have been supposed that the king had never been more popular; and, with all the prestige of this tour, he summoned the refractory fellows of Magdalene before him, and rated them soundly on their disobedience. They knelt and offered him a petition, but he haughtily refused to look at it, bidding them go that instant and elect the bishop of Oxford, or expect his high displeasure. But the fellows could not be thus brought to submission, and James quitted the town in high dudgeon. At this crisis comes in one more of the persevering calumnies of Macaulay on William Penn, which are the more remarkable from an historian whose grandfather was dismissed from the Society of Friends, and who was himself ejected from the representation of Edinburgh chiefly by the agency of members of that society. In noting this first instance of his animosity, we once for all are contented to state that, without following his continual attacks on the Society of Friends, we have examined them, and find them groundless. In this case Macaulay states that James engaged Penn to write a letter to the fellows, and afterwards to make them a visit, to persuade them to admit Parker. Macaulay declares that Penn never denied the writing of this letter-an assertion quite contrary to the fact; the copy of the proceedings still preserved at Magdalene bearing on this very letter this endorsement-"Mr. Penn disowned this." So far from Penn being engaged by the king, too, to persuade the fellows, they declare that they solicited his good offices; and a deputation of them even went from Oxford to Windsor to have an interview with him on the subject; and Dr. Hough himself, in a letter still preserved in the British Museum, says, "I thank God he did not so much as offer at any proposal by way of accommodation." These words themselves throw down the whole fabric of Macaulay's calumnious charges on this head; and with this, though often occurring, we may dismiss them. On the 20th of October James sent down a special commission, consisting of Cartwright, bishop of Chester, Wright, chief justice of the King's Bench, and Jenner, a baron of the exchequer, attended by three troops of cavalry with drawn swords, to Oxford, to expel Hough and instal Parker. Parker was installed, but the fellows would not acknowledge him. James, therefore, ejected them altogether. In a few weeks Parker died, and then he proceeded to put the whole college into the hands of papists, appointing Gifford, one of the four vicars-apostolic, president: for now, in the regular progress of his system, James had admitted four vicars-apostolic here, instead of one, which had been the case before. It may be imagined what resentment this arbitrary proceeding occasioned, not only in the universities themselves, but amongst the clergy in every quarter of the kingdom, who now saw that nothing would deter the king from uprooting the deepest foundations of the church. Still more daring and atrocious schemes were agitated by James and his popish cabal. Soon after his accession it had The news of this prospect was received by the public with equal incredulity and suspicion. The queen had had several children, who had died in their infancy; and there was nothing improbable in the expectation of another child, although five years had elapsed since her last confinement. But what excited the ridicule and the suspicion was the obvious interest of the king to have an heir who might be educated in popery, and the foolish prophecies and assertions of the Jesuit cabal about the court. The Jesuits had unfortunately only too notoriously in their writing sanctioned any fraud for gaining their ends, and it was now immediately believed that they had a scheme for foisting a false heir on the country. The queen's mother, the duchess of Modena, before her death, had sent rich offerings to our lady of Loretto, imploring a male heir for James; and this pious monarch himself, on his late progress, had visited St. Winifred's Well, and put up similar earnest petitions to that saint. The Jesuits and other catholics about court propagated the most extraordinary prophecies of a fine, healthy son who was to arrive, and not only of a son, but of twin sons, the second of whom was to be pope of Rome. The consequence was that the whole story was treated with the utmost ridicule by every class throughout the country. The princess of Orange, so far from betraying any alarm on the subject, joined in and encouraged the ridicule; and her sister Anne, the princess of Denmark, wrote letters so plain and even gross, that they cannot now be read without wonder. Anne contended that, if the queen was really pregnant, she would be glad to convince her by an actual personal examination, but that, on the contrary, she avoided letting her see her undress; and she declared that she would never believe the story unless she saw the child born. The prospect of an heir, however, true or false, drove James on further and more desperate projects. Should a son be born, and live, which none of the queen's children had done hitherto, the popish heir would be exposed to the danger of a long minority. James might be called away before the son had been firmly rooted in the catholic faith, and the protestant bishops and nobles would surround him with protestant instructors, and most likely ruin all James's plaus of perpetuating popery. To obviate this, he determine 1 to have an act of parliament, settling the form of the chill's guardianship and education, and vesting all the necessary powers in catholic hands. Any prudent man would at least have waited to see the birth and probable life of the chill before rushing on so desperate a scheme; for, to have an act, he must call a parliament; and to call a parliament under the present feeling of the nation was to bring together one of the most determinedly-protestant assemblies of men that had ever been seen, But James was of that molc-cyai, bigot character which goes headlong on the most perilous issues. He determined to pack a parliament by means which none but a madman would have attempted. Whether from county or borough, he could expect nothing but a most obstinate and universal demonstration in favour of the church and constitution. His brother Charles, for his own purposes, had deprived the towns of their charters, because they were whig, and often nonconformist, and had given them others, which put them into the hands of the tories and churchmen; and these were the very men who now would resist James's plans to the death. The country were equally church and tory, but all this did not daunt James. He determined to remodel the corporations, and to change every magistrate in the counties that were not ready to carry out his views. He appointed a board of regulators at Whitehall, to examine into the state of the corporations, and introduce new rules and new men as they thought fit. These regulators were seven in number, and all catholics and Jesuits, except the king's incarnate devil, Jeffreys. These men appointed deputations of chosen tools to visit the different corporations, and report to them; and James issued a proclamation, announcing his intention to revise the commissions of the peace, and of the lieutenancy of counties. In fact, James proceeded like a man who was satisfied that he could do just as he pleased with the constitution of a country which, through all ages, had shown itself more jealous of its constitution than any other in the world. He sent for the lords-lieutenants, and delivered to them a paper of instructions, with which they were each to proceed to their several counties. They were to summon all the magistrates, and tell them what his majesty expected from them on the ensuing election of parliament, and to send him up their individual answers, along with the list of all the catholic and dissenting gentlemen who might take the place of those who should dare to object to the king's plans, on the bench or in the militia. The proposal was so audacious, that the greater proportion of the lords-lieutenants peremptorily refused to undertake any such commission; these included the noblest names in the peerage, and they were at once dismissed. The sweeping measure of turning out the duke of Somerset, the viscounts Newport and Falconberg, the earls of Derby, Dorset, Shrewsbury, Oxford, Pembroke, Rutland, Bridgewater, Thanet, Abingdon, Northampton, Scarsdale, Gainsborough, and many others, showed how far James was gone in his madness. As the king could not get any noblemen to take the places of the dismissed, he filled them up as he could, and even made his butcher, Jeffreys, lord-lieutenant of two counties. But all was in vain; he soon received answers from every quarter that the whole nation, town and country, absolutely refused to obey the king's injunctions. Even those who had gone most zealously to work were obliged to return with most disconsolate reports, and to assure the king that, if he turned out every magistrate and militia officer, the next would still vote against popery. Catholics and nonconformists, though glad of indulgence, would not consent to attempt measures which could only end in defeat and confusion. The nonconformists would not move a finger to endanger protestantism. It was the same in the corporations. Some of these James could deprive of their charters, for the new ones frequently con tained a power of revocation; but when he had done this he found himself no forwarder, for the new ministers upon the points that he had at heart were as sturdy as the old. Other towns from which he demanded the surrender of their charters, refused. Wherever James could eject the church members of corporations he did, from London to the remotest borough, and put in presbyterians, independents, and baptists. It was perfectly useless; they were as protestant as the church. Even where he obtained a few truckling officials, they found it impossible to make the people vote as they wished; and in the counties the catholic or dissenting sheriffs were equally indisposed to press the government views, or unable to obtain them if they did. He changed the borough magistrates in some cases two or three times, but in vain. Some of the people in the towns did not content themselves with mere passive resistance; they loudly declared their indignation, and the tyrant marched soldiers in upon them; but only to hear them exclaim that James was imitating his dear brother of France, and dragonading the protestants. Whilst these things were going on all over the country, James was putting on the same insane pressure in every public department of government. The heads of departments were called on to pledge themselves to support the wishes of the king, and to demand from their subordinates the same obedience. The refractory were dismissed, even to the highest law officers of the crown; and James demanded from the judges a declaration that even the Petition of Right could not bar the exercise of his prerogative; but the bench consulted in secret, and the result was never known. He even contemplated granting no licenses to inns, beer-houses, or coffee-houses, without an engagement to support the king, spite of church or magistrate; but another of his measures now brought things to a crisis. James determined to make his intentions known for fully restoring popery by a new declaration of indulgence, in which he reminded his subjects of his determined character, and of the numbers of public servants that he had already dismissed for opposing his will. This declaration he published on the 27th of April, 1688, and he ordered the clergy to read it from all pulpits in London on the 20th and 27th of May, and in the country on the 3rd and 10th of June. This was calling on the bishops and clergy to practice their doctrine of non-resistance to some purpose; it was tantamount to demanding from them to co-operate in the overthrow of their own church. They were, as may be supposed, in an awful dilemma; and now was the time for the dissenters— whom they had so sharply persecuted and so soundly lectured on the duty of entire submission—to enjoy their embarrassment. But the dissenters were too generous, and had too much in common at stake. They met, and sent deputations to the clergy, and exhorted them to stand manfully for the faith, declaring that they would stand firmly by them. A meeting of the metropolitan clergy was called, at which were present Tillotson, Sherlock, Stillingfleet-great names—ard others high in the church. They determined not to read the declaration on the 20th, and sent round a copy of the resolution through the city, where eighty-five incumbents immediately signed it. The bishops meantime met at Lambeth, and discussed the same question. Cartwright, of Chester, one of the king's A.D. 1688.] THE SEVEN BISHOPS IMPRISONED. most servile tools, and a member of the High Commission, took care to be there, to inform the king of what passed; but during his stay nothing but a disposition to compliance appeared to prevail, and he hurried away to Whitehall with the news. No sooner, however, was he gone, than letters were secretly dispatched, summoning the bishops of the province of Canterbury; and another meeting took place on the 18th, or two days prior to the Sunday fixed for the further reading of the declaration. The bishops concluded not to read it, and six of them waited on the king with the written resolution. James was confounded, having assured himself they meant to comply. He used the most menacing language, and declared that they had set up the standard of rebellion; and ordered them from his presence to go at once and see that he was obeyed. To prevent the publication of the resolution, he detained it; but that very evening it was printed and hawked through the streets, where it was received with acclamations by the people. Any but a mad bigot, seeing the feelings of the public, would have instantly revoked the declaration; but James was not that man. Sunday arrived, and, out of all the hundred churches, the declaration was only read in four, and with the effect of instantly clearing them, amid murmurs of indignation. Still it was not too late to recall the order in council; and even James himself, with all his folly and infatuation, was now staggered. It was strongly recommended in the council to abandon the declaration; but James listened to his evil genius, the brutal Jeffreys, and determined to bring the seven signing bishops to trial before the court of King's Bench, on a charge of seditious libel. The fatal counsel was adopted, and they were summoned to appear before the privy council on the 8th of June. 545 but, as James still pressed for an answer, Sancroft observed that, though he were not bound to accuse himself, yet, if the king commanded it, he would answer, taking it for granted that his majesty would not take advantage to bring his admission there in evidence against him. James said he would not command him; but Jeffreys told them to withdraw for awhile, and when they were called back, James commanded the primate, and he acknowledged the writing. They were then again sent out, and, on coming back, were told by Jeffreys that they would be proceeded against, not before the High Commission, but, "with all fairness," before the King's Bench. They were then called upon to enter into recognizances, but they refused, on the plea that they were peers of parliament, and that no peer of parliament could be required to enter into recognizances in case of libel. This greatly disconcerted James, for it compelled him to send them to prison, and he justly feared the effect of it on the public. But there was no alternative; a warrant was signed for their commitment to the Tower, and they were sent thither in a barge. The scene which immediately took place showed that James had at length a glimmering of the danger which he had raised. The whole river was crowded with wherries full of people, who crowded round the bishops to entreat their blessings, many rushing breast-high into the water to come near enough. James, in terror, ordered the garrison and guards of the Tower to be doubled; but the same spirit animated the soldiers, who knelt at the approach of the prelates, and also solicited their blessing. Presently the soldiers were found carousing to the health of their prisoners; and when Sir Edward Hales, who had been made lieutenant In the interval the bishops and clergy in all parts of Eng-of the Tower for his going over to popery, desired the officers land, with few exceptions, showed the same resolute spirit. The bishops of Gloucester, Norwich, Salisbury, Winchester, Exeter, and London, signed copies of the same petition. The bishop of Carlisle regretted that, not belonging to the province of Canterbury, he could not do the same. The bishop of Worcester refused to distribute the declaration amongst his clergy; and the same spirit showed itself amongst the parochial clergy, who almost to a man refused to read it. On the evening of the day appointed, the seven prelates, namely, Sancroft, the archbishop of Canterbury, Lloyd of St. Asaph, Ken of Bath and Wells, Turner of Ely, Lake of Chichester, White of Peterborough, and Trelawney of Bristol, attended the privy council. Jeffreys took up the petition, and, showing it to Sancroft, asked him if that was not the paper which he had written, and the six bishops present had signed. Sancroft and his colleagues had been well instructed by the ablest lawyers in England of the course they should pursue, and the dangers to be avoided. The primate, therefore, instead of acknowledging the paper, turned to the king and said "Sir, I am called hither as a criminal, which I never was before; and, since I have that unhappiness, I trust your majesty will not be offended if I decline answering questions which may tend to criminate "This is mere chicanery," said James. "I hope you will not disown your own handwriting." Lloyd of St. Asaph said that it was agreed by all divines that no man in their situation was obliged to answer any such question; me." to put a stop to it, they returned and told him that it was impossible, for the soldiers would drink nobody's health but the bishops'. Every day the gates of the Tower were besieged by the equipages of the chief nobility. The very nonconformists came in bodies to condole with their old persecutors; and Tower Hill was one constant throng of people manifesting their sympathy. Such were the miracles of resistance and all but revolt which the folly and insane bigotry of James had created out of the most obsequious aristocracy and hierarchy, which had done anything so long as he let alone the national church. Great praise has been heaped on the seven bishops for their conduct on this occasion. It has been represented by the tory writers as if they, indeed, created and effected this mighty revolution. The revolution was the work of the Stuarts themselves, brought to a crisis by this most obstinate and tyrannic creature of the whole breed. It was not the effect of the bishops, or any respect personally for them; it was that James had made them and the existence of their church one and the same thing. The act of the bishops was but the natural instinct of self-preservation—an act in which they were fully supported by the aristocracy. That same aristocracy which had consented to assist in treading down the liberties of Scotland, Ireland, and the people of England, had now refused to go any further, because there was but one step betwixt them and the gulf of popery and a popish despotism, in which no man's person or property would be |