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

people should

have been inclined to apprehend a return of the times of her whom

they called Bloody Mary.


Thus the nation was in such a temper that the smallest spark

might raise a flame. At this conjuncture fire was set in two

places at once to the vast mass of combustible matter; and in a

moment the whole was in a blaze.


The French court, which knew Danby to be its mortal enemy,

artfully contrived to ruin him by making him pass for its friend.

Lewis, by the instrumentality of Ralph Montague, a faithless and

shameless man who had resided in France as minister from England,

laid before the House of Commons proofs that the Treasurer had

been concerned in an application made by the Court of Whitehall

to the Court of Versailles for a sum of money. This discovery

produced its natural effect. The Treasurer was, in truth, exposed

to the vengeance of Parliament, not on account of his

delinquencies, but on account of his merits; not because he had

been an accomplice in a criminal transaction, but because he had

been a most unwilling and unserviceable accomplice. But of the

circumstances, which have, in the judgment of posterity, greatly

extenuated his fault, his contemporaries were ignorant. In their

view he was the broker who had sold England to France. It seemed

clear that his greatness was at an end, and doubtful whether his

head could be saved.


Yet was the ferment excited by this discovery slight, when

compared with the commotion which arose when it was noised abroad

that a great Popish plot had been detected. One Titus Oates, a

clergyman of the Church of England, had, by his disorderly life

and heterodox doctrine, drawn on himself the censure of his

spiritual superiors, had been compelled to quit his benefice, and

had ever since led an infamous and vagrant life. He had once

professed himself a Roman Catholic, and had passed some time on

the Continent in English colleges of the order of Jesus. In those

seminaries he had heard much wild talk about the best means of

bringing England back to the true Church. From hints thus

furnished he constructed a hideous romance, resembling rather the

dream of a sick man than any transaction which ever took place in

the real world. The Pope, he said, had entrusted the government

of England to the Jesuits. The Jesuits had, by commissions under

the seal of their society, appointed Roman Catholic clergymen,

noblemen, and gentlemen, to all the highest offices in Church and

State. The Papists had burned down London once. They had tried to

burn it down again. They were at that moment planning a scheme

for setting fire to all the shipping in the Thames. They were to

rise at a signal and massacre all their Protestant neighbours. A

French army was at the same time to land in Ireland. All the

leading statesmen and divines of England were to be murdered.

Three or four schemes had been formed for assassinating the King.

He was to be stabbed. He was to be poisoned in his medicine He

was to be shot with silver bullets. The public mind was so sore

and excitable that these lies readily found credit with the

vulgar; and two events which speedily took place led even some

reflecting men to suspect that the tale, though evidently

distorted and exaggerated, might have some foundation.


Edward Coleman, a very busy, and not very honest, Roman Catholic

intriguer, had been among the persons accused. Search was made

for his papers. It was found that he had just destroyed the

greater part of them. But a few which had escaped contained some

passages such as, to minds strongly prepossessed, might seem to

confirm the evidence of Oates. Those passages indeed, when

candidly construed, appear to express little more than the hopes

which the posture of affairs, the predilections of Charles, the

still stronger predilections of James, and the relations existing

between the French and English courts, might naturally excite in

the mind of a Roman Catholic strongly attached to the interests

of his Church. But the country was not then inclined to construe

the letters of Papists candidly; and it was urged, with some show

of reason, that, if papers which had been passed over as

unimportant were filled with matter so suspicious, some great

mystery of iniquity must have been contained in those documents

which had been carefully committed to the flames.


A few days later it was known that Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, an

eminent justice of the peace who had taken the depositions of

Oates against Coleman, had disappeared. Search was made; and

Godfrey's corpse was found in a field near London. It was clear

that he had died by violence. It was equally clear that he had

not been set upon by robbers. His fate is to this day a secret.

Some think that he perished by his own hand; some, that he was

slain by a private enemy. The most improbable supposition is that

he was murdered by the party hostile to the court, in order to

give colour to the story of the plot. The most probable

supposition seems, on the whole, to be that some hotheaded Roman

Catholic, driven to frenzy by the lies of Oates and by the

insults of the multitude, and not nicely distinguishing between

the perjured accuser and the innocent magistrate, had taken a

revenge of which the history of persecuted sects furnishes but

too many examples. If this were so, the assassin must have

afterwards bitterly execrated his own wickedness and folly. The

capital and the whole nation went mad with hatred and fear. The

penal laws, which had begun to lose something of their edge, were

sharpened anew. Everywhere justices were busied in searching

houses and seizing papers. All the gaols were filled with

Papists. London had the aspect of a city in a state of siege. The

trainbands were under arms all night. Preparations were made for

barricading the great thoroughfares. Patrols marched up and down

the streets. Cannon were planted round Whitehall. No citizen

thought himself safe unless he carried under his coat a small

flail loaded with lead to brain the Popish assassins. The corpse

of the murdered magistrate was exhibited during several days to

the gaze of great multitudes, and was then committed to the grave

with strange and terrible ceremonies, which indicated rather fear

and the thirst of vengeance shall sorrow or religious hope. The

Houses insisted that a guard should be placed in the vaults over

which they sate, in order to secure them against a second

Gunpowder Plot. All their proceedings were of a piece with this

demand. Ever since the reign of Elizabeth the oath of supremacy

had been exacted from members of the House of Commons. Some Roman

Catholics, however, had contrived so to interpret this oath that

they could take it without scruple. A more stringent test was now

added: every member of Parliament was required to make the

Declaration against Transubstantiation; and thus the Roman

Catholic Lords were for the first time excluded from their seats.

Strong resolutions were adopted against the Queen. The Commons

threw one of the Secretaries of State into prison for having

countersigned commissions directed to gentlemen who were not good

Protestants. They impeached the Lord Treasurer of high treason.

Nay, they so far forgot the doctrine which, while the memory of

the civil war was still recent, they had loudly professed, that

they even attempted to wrest the command of the militia out of

the King's hands. To such a temper had eighteen years of

misgovernment brought the most loyal Parliament that had ever met

in England.


Yet it may seem strange that, even in that extremity, the King

should have ventured to appeal to the people; for the people were

more excited than their representatives. The Lower House,

discontented as it was, contained a larger number of Cavaliers

than were likely to find seats again. But it was thought that a

dissolution would put a stop to the prosecution of the Lord

Treasurer, a prosecution which might probably bring to light all

the guilty mysteries of the French alliance, and might thus cause

extreme personal annoyance and embarrassment to Charles.

Accordingly, in January, 1679, the Parliament, which had been in

existence ever since the beginning of the year 1661, was

dissolved; and writs were issued for a general election.


During some weeks the contention over the whole country was

fierce and obstinate beyond example. Unprecedented sums were

expended. New tactics were employed. It was remarked by the

pamphleteers of that time as something extraordinary that horses

were hired at a great charge for the conveyance of electors. The

practice of splitting freeholds for the purpose of multiplying

votes dates from this memorable struggle. Dissenting preachers,

who had long hidden themselves in quiet nooks from persecution,

now emerged from their retreats, and rode from village to

village, for the purpose of rekindling the zeal of the scattered

people of God. The tide ran strong against the government. Most

of the new members came up to Westminster in a mood little

differing from that of their predecessors who had sent Strafford

and Laud to the Tower.


Meanwhile the courts of justice, which ought to be, in the midst

of political commotions, sure places of refuge for the innocent

of every party, were disgraced by wilder passions and fouler

corruptions than were to be found even on the hustings. The tale

of Oates, though it had sufficed to convulse the whole realm,

would not, unless confirmed by other evidence, suffice to destroy

the humblest of those whom he had accused. For, by the old law of

England, two witnesses are necessary to establish a charge of

treason. But the success of the first impostor produced its

natural consequences. In a few weeks he had been raised from

penury and obscurity to opulence, to power which made him the

dread of princes and nobles, and to notoriety such as has for low

and bad minds all the attractions of glory. He was not long

without coadjutors and rivals. A wretch named Carstairs, who had

earned a livelihood in Scotland by going disguised to

conventicles and then informing against the preachers, led the

way. Bedloe, a noted swindler, followed; and soon from all the

brothels, gambling houses, and spunging houses of London, false

witnesses poured forth to swear away the lives of Roman

Catholics. One came with a story about an army of thirty thousand

men who were to muster in the disguise of pilgrims at Corunna,

and to sail thence to Wales. Another had been promised

canonisation and five hundred pounds to murder the King. A third

had stepped into an eating house in Covent Garden, and had there

heard a great Roman Catholic banker vow, in the hearing of all