Chancellor. He now became the leader of the "Country Party," as those opposed to the Court were called. 10. The Popish Plot.-In 1678, the nation, already suspicious of the real plot of Charles and Louis against its religion and liberty, was driven wild by the alleged discovery of a "Popish Plot" for the assassination of the King and the massacre of all Protestants. Titus Oates, a man of infamous character, was the chief witness to it; and by him and by others who made a profit of perjury the lives of many innocent Roman Catholics were sworn away. Under the influence of the popular feeling, an Act was passed which shut out Roman Catholics (the Duke of York excepted) from either House of Parliament and from the royal presence. From the House of Commons indeed they had long been excluded by the oath of supremacy exacted from the members; but it was not until the passing of the Act of 1678 that the Roman Catholic peers ceased to take their seats. Both Lords and Commons were now required, not only to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, but also to subscribe a declaration against transubstantiation and the worship of the Church of Rome. II. Habeas Corpus Act.-The Parliament, which had been in existence ever since 1661, was at last dissolved in 1679; and to its shortlived successor, which met and was dissolved within the year, belongs the honour of having passed the famous Habeas Corpus Act. The Great Charter had established the immunity of every freeman from arbitrary imprisonment; but in practice various ways were found of violating this right. The object of this new Act was effectually to provide that no man should be long detained in prison on a criminal charge without either the legality of his imprisonment being proved in open court, or his being brought to trial. The name comes from that of the writ of Habeas Corpus, to which recourse could always be had on behalf of persons illegally imprisoned. The writ was addressed to the person by whom any one was detained, commanding him to produce his prisoner in court and show the cause of the imprisonment. The judges often found pretexts for refusing to award the writ, and the gaolers for delaying to obey it. In times of public danger, the operation of this statute is sometimes suspended by Acts giving the government power for a limited period to imprison suspected persons without bringing them to trial. 12. Whig and Tory.-About this time the party names of Whig and Tory came into use. Whig was a nickname given to the insurgent Covenanters of Scotland, and from them it was transferred to those of the Country Party who were bent on shutting out the Duke of York from the throne on account of his religion. Those who were against this scheme were called Torics, a name originally given to the Roman Catholic outlaws who haunted the bogs of Ireland. The King had no legitimate children; but the eldest of his illegitimate sons, James, Duke of Monmouth, was put forward by Shaftesbury and other Whigs as a claimant. Monmouth, "the Protestant Duke," was the darling of the common people, who believed him to be of lawful birth, and who were fascinated by his grace and winning manners. In three Parliaments the Whigs pursued their scheme of an "Exclusion Bill" against the Duke of York. The last of these met in 1681 at the loyal and Tory city of Oxford, for Charles feared that the House of Commons, if assembled in its wonted place, might, in imitation of the Long Parliament, declare itself permanent, and call on the Londoners to support it. As it was, the Whig members came escorted by mounted tenants and serving-men, as well armed as the royal Guards. The Commons still insisting on the Exclusion Bill, the King dissolved the Parliament after seven days; and irritated by these persistent attempts to exclude his brother from the succession, for the remaining four years of his reign he ruled without a Parliament. Money sufficient for carrying on the government was obtained from Louis of France. As the borough corporations, which then returned a majority of the representatives of the Commons, were the strongholds of the Whigs, steps were taken to destroy their independence. On slight pretext, the Court of King's Bench pronounced that the City of London had forfeited its charter, and new regulations were made which placed it entirely under the power of the Crown—no mayor, sheriff, or recorder was to be admitted without the King's approval. Similar measures were taken with other Whig towns, many of which thought it best to surrender their liberties quietly-charters went down, it was said, "like the walls of Jericho." Many of the Whigs began to plan insurrections, or at least to take counsel how to overthrow the Tories; while a few of the most desperate formed the "Rye-House Plot" for waylaying and assassinating the King and his brother. The Rye-House was a farm belonging to one of the conspirators, situated on the road by which the King would return from Newmarket. These projects being betrayed, several persons suffered death; amongst them, the upright and patriotic William, Lord Russell, and Algernon Sydney, a man of known Republican opinions, who had fought for the Parliament at Marston Moor. Both Russell and Sydney are deemed to have been wrongfully convicted. Russell, though saying that "he thought he had met with hard measure,” accepted his fate with calmness. "The bitterness of death is past," he said, after he had bidden a last farewell to his dearly loved wife. Sydney would not address the people from the scaffold, saying that "he had made his peace with Heaven, and had nothing to say to men." He left however a paper which, while it set forth the injustice of his condemnation, expressed his thankfulness that he was to die "for that old cause in which I was from my youth engaged." Monmouth, who had been concerned in the Whig plots, went abroad; and his rival the Duke of York after a while resumed his office of Lord High Admiral and his seat at the Council, the King dispensing, in his favour, with the provisions of the Test Act. While wavering as to his future policy, Charles was seized with a fit, and after lingering a few days, died on the 6th February, 1685. On his deathbed, after the Bishops had vainly pressed him to take the Sacrament, his brother secretly brought to him a monk, from whose hands he received the last rites of the Church of Rome. The people mourned him with genuine sorrow, for with all his faults he had never lost his personal popularity; while his brother's accession to power was dreaded. CHAPTER XXXVI. JAMES II. James II. (1)—the Western Rebellion; beheading of Monmouth; the Bloody Assizes (2)—misgovernment of James; Declaration of Indulgence (3)—trial of the Seven Bishops (4)—birth of the Pretender (5)—invitation to the Prince of Orange (6)—landing of the Prince; flight of the Queen and King (7)—return and second flight of James; the Declaration of Right; the Crown accepted by the Prince and Princess of Orange (8)—the Huguenots (9)-literature (10)-science (11)-architecture (12). 1. James II., 1685-1688.—James, Duke of York, came to the throne under the disadvantage of holding a faith abhorred by the majority of his subjects; but as he was thought to be a man of his word, people relied on the assurance which he gave to the Privy Council that he would support the Church of England and respect the laws. Yet he soon tried the Protestant loyalty by going in royal state to mass in Whitehall -a step which raised the hopes of the Roman Catholics as much as it troubled their opponents. Unwilling to be wholly dependent upon Parliament, James, though not without reluctance, accepted money from Louis of France. It was nevertheless necessary to summon a Parliament; but every art was employed to influence and control the elections, and with such success that James said there were only some forty members that were not such as he wished for. 2. The Western Rebellion.-Four months after the accession of James, the Duke of Monmouth, instigated and accompanied by a knot of Whigs who, having been implicated in the Plot of 1683, had found shelter in the Low Countries, landed with about eighty followers at Lyme in Dorsetshire, and called the people to arms. At Taunton, a thriving clothiertown of Puritan opinions, he caused himself to be proclaimed King, June 20, 1685. The Western peasantry and townsfolk flocked to his standard; but the gentry held aloof, and, contrary to his hopes, none of the Whig nobles joined him. On the 6th July, he was defeated in an attempt to surprise the royal army on Sedgemoor. His cavalry, untrained men on half-broken horses, gave way under fire, but his infantry, composed of peasants and artisans, many armed only with scythes, made a gallant stand. The Mendip miners in particular fought desperately, though deserted by Monmouth, who, seeing that the day was lost, fled away. Two days later, worn out with hunger and fatigue, he was captured whilst hiding in a ditch. Shortly after his landing, he had been attainted of treason by Act of Parliament; and it was in vain that he fell at the King's feet and begged for life. He was beheaded on the 15th July, and his followers were treated with fearful severity. Several were summarily T R |