The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1, Thomas Babington Macaulay [ebook pc reader txt] 📗

Speaker Onslow's note; Clarendon to

Rochester, May 8, 1686.


463 Burnet, i. 634.


464 Calamy's Memoirs; Commons' Journals, December 26,1690;

Sunderland to Jeffreys, September 14, 1685; Privy Council Book,

February 26, 1685-6.


465 Lansdowne MS. 1152; Harl. MS. 6845; London Gazette, July 20,

1685.


466 Many writers have asserted, without the slightest

foundation, that a pardon was granted to Ferguson by James. Some

have been so absurd as to cite this imaginary pardon, which, if

it were real would prove only that Ferguson was a court spy, in

proof of the magnanimity and benignity of the prince who beheaded

Alice Lisle and burned Elizabeth Gaunt. Ferguson was not only not

specially pardoned, but was excluded by name from the general

pardon published in the following spring. (London Gazette, March

15, 1685-6.) If, as the public suspected and as seems probable,

indulgence was shown to him; it was indulgence of which James

was, not without reason, ashamed, and which was, as far as

possible, kept secret. The reports which were current in London

at the time are mentioned in the Observator, Aug. 1,1685.


Sir John Reresby, who ought to have been well informed,

positively affirms that Ferguson was taken three days after the

battle of Sedgemoor. But Sir John was certainly wrong as to the

date, and may therefore have been wrong as to the whole story.

From the London Gazette, and from Goodenough's confession

(Lansdowne MS. 1152), it is clear that, a fortnight after the

battle, Ferguson had not been caught, and was supposed to be

still lurking in England.


467 Granger's Biographical History.


468 Burnet, i. 648; James to the Prince of Orange, Sept. 10, and

24, 1685; Lord Lonadale's Memoirs; London Gazette, Oct. 1, 1685.


469 Trial of Cornish in the Collection of State Trials, Sir J.

Hawles's Remarks on Mr. Cornish's Trial; Burnet, i. 651; Bloody

Assizes; Stat. 1 Gul. and Mar.


470 Trials of Fernley and Elizabeth Gaunt, in the Collection of

State Trials Burnet, i. 649; Bloody Assizes; Sir J. Bramston's

Memoirs; Luttrell's Diary, Oct. 23, 1685.


471 Bateman's Trial in the Collection of State Trials; Sir John

Hawles's Remarks. It is worth while to compare Thomas Lee's

evidence on this occasion with his confession previously

published by authority.


472 Van Citters, Oct. 13-23, 1685.


473 Neal's History of the Puritans, Calamy's Account of the

ejected Ministers and the Nonconformists' Memorial contain

abundant proofs of the severity of this persecution. Howe's

farewell letter to his flock will be found in the interesting

life of that great man, by Mr. Rogers. Howe complains that he

could not venture to show himself in the streets of London, and

that his health had suffered from want of air and exercise. But

the most vivid picture of the distress of the Nonconformists is

furnished by their deadly enemy, Lestrange, in the Observators of

September and October, 1685.


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