Acquittal

audience. Even some of the judges, though of the their seats were held during pleasure, declared Bishops. themselves in favour of the prisoners. The jury, however, from what cause is unknown, took several hours to deliberate, and kept, during so long a time, the people in the most anxious expectation. But when the wished-for verdict, not guilty, was at last pronounced (June 17), the intelligence was echoed through the hall, was conveyed to the crowds without, was carried into the city, and was propagated with infinite joy throughout the kingdom.

Ever since Monmouth's rebellion, the king had, every summer, encamped his army on Hounslow-Heath, that he might both improve their discipline, and by so unusual a spectacle overawe the mutinous people. A popish chapel was openly erected in the midst of the camp, and great pains were taken, though in vain, to bring over the soldiers to that communion. The few converts whom the priests had made, were treated with such contempt and ignominy, as deterred every one from following the example. Even the Irish officers whom the king introduced into the army, served rather, from the aversion borne them, to weaken his interest among them. It happened, that the very day on which the trial of the bishops was finished, James had reviewed the troops, and had retired into the tent of lord Feversham, the general, when he was surprised to hear a great uproar in the camp, attended with the most extravagant symptoms of tumultuary joy. He suddenly inquired the cause, and was told by Feversham, "It was nothing but the rejoicing of the soldiers for the acquittal of the bishops."- -"Do you call that nothing? (replied he) but so much the worse for them."

The king was still determined to rush forward in the same course, in which he was already, by his precipitate career, so fatally advanced.---Though he knew that every order of men, except a handful of Catholics, were enraged at his past measures, and still more terrified

with the future prospect-though he saw that the same discontents had reached the army, his sole resource during the general disaffection, yet he was incapable of changing his measures, or even of remitting his violence in the prosecution of them. He struck out two of the judges, Powel and Holloway, who had appeared to favour the bishops; he issued orders to prosecute all those clergymen who had not read his declaration-that is, the whole church of England, two hundred excepted, he sent a mandate to the new fellows, whom he had obtruded on Magdalen-college, to elect for president, in the room of Parker, lately deceased, one Gifford, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and titular bishop of Madura : and he is even said to have nominated the same person to the see of Oxford. So great an infatuation is perhaps an object of compassion rather than of anger and is really surprising in a man who, in other respects, was not wholly deficient in sense and accomplishments.

Birth of

of Wales.

A few days before the acquittal of the bishops, the prince an event happened, which, in the king's sentiments, much overbalanced all the mortifications received on that occasion. The queen was delivered of a son (June 10), who was baptized by the name of James. This blessing was impatiently longed for, not only by the king and queen, but by all the zealous Catholics both abroad and at home. They saw that the king was past middle age; and that on his death the succession must devolve to the prince and princess of Orange, two zealous Protestants, who would soon replace every thing on ancient foundations. Vows, therefore, were offered at every shrine for a male successor: pilgrimages were undertaken, particularly one to Loretto, by the dutchess of Modena; and success was chiefly attributed to that pious journey. But in proportion as this event was agreeable to the Catholics, it increased the disgust of the Protestants, by depriving them of that pleasing, though somewhat distant pros

pect, in which at present they flattered themselves. Calumny even went so far as to ascribe to the king the design of imposing on the world a supposititious child, who might be educated in his principles, and after his death support the Catholic religion in his dominions. The nation almost universally believed him capable, from bigotry, of committing any crime; as they had seen, that, from like motives, he was guilty of every imprudence: and the affections of nature, they thought, would be easily sacrificed to the superior motive of propagating a Catholic and orthodox faith. The present occasion was not the first when that calumny had been invented. In the year 1682, the queen, then dutchess of York, had been pregnant; and rumours were spread that an imposture would at that time be obtruded upon the nation: but, happily, the infant proved a female, and thereby spared the party all the trouble of supporting their improbable fiction."

CHAP. LXXI.

Conduct of the prince of Orange-He forms a league against France-Refuses to concur with the king-Resolves to oppose the king-Is applied to by the English-Coalition of partiesPrince's preparations-Offers of France to the king-RejectedSupposed league with France-General discontents-The king retracts his measures-Prince's declaration-The prince lands in England-General commotion-Desertion of the army-and of prince George-and of the princess Anne--King's consternation -and flight-General confusion-King seized at FevershamSecond escape-King's character--Convention summoned-Settlement of Scotland-English convention meets-Views of the parties-Free conference between the houses-Commons prevail-Settlement of the crown-Manners and sciences.

WHILE every motive, civil and religious, concurred to alienate from the king every rank and denomination of

a This story is taken notice of in a weekly paper, the Observator, published at that very time, 23d of August, 1682.-Party zeal is capable of swallowing the most incredible story; but it is surely singular, that the same calumny, when once baffled, should yet be renewed with such success.

men, it might be expected that his throne would, without delay, fall to pieces by its own weight: but such is the influence of established government-so averse are men from beginning hazardous enterprises, that, had not an attack been made from abroad, affairs might long have remained in their present delicate situation, and James might at last have prevailed in his rash and illconcerted projects.

Conduct of

The prince of Orange, ever since his marthe prince riage with the lady Mary, had maintained of Orange. a very prudent conduct; agreeably to that sound understanding with which he was so eminently endowed. He made it a maxim to concern himself little in English affairs, and never by any measure to disgust any of the factions, or give umbrage to the prince who filled the throne. His natural inclination, as well as his interest, led him to employ himself with assiduous industry in the transactions on the continent, and to oppose the grandeur of the French monarch, against whom he had long, both from personal and political considerations, conceived a violent animosity. By this conduct, he gratified the prejudices of the whole English nation: but as he crossed the inclinations of Charles, who sought peace by compliance with France, he had much declined in the favour and affections of that monarch.

James, on his accession, found it so much his interest to live on good terms with the heir-apparent, that he shewed the prince some demonstrations of friendship; and the prince, on his part, was not wanting in every instance of duty and regard towards the king. On Monmouth's invasion, he immediately dispatched over six regiments of British troops, which were in the Dutch service; and he offered to take the command of the king's forces against the rebels.-How little soever he might approve of James's administration, he always kept a total silence on the subject, and gave no countenance

to those discontents which were propagated with such industry throughout the nation.

It was from the application of James himself that the prince first openly took any part in English affairs. Notwithstanding the lofty ideas which the king had entertained of his prerogative, he found that the edicts emitted from it still wanted much of the authority of laws, and that the continuance of them might in the issue become dangerous, both to himself and to the Catholics, whom he desired to favour. An act of parliament alone could ensure the indulgence or toleration which he had laboured to establish; and he hoped that, if the prince would declare in favour of that scheme, the members, who had hitherto resisted all his own applications, would at last be prevailed with to adopt it. The consent, therefore, of the prince to the repeal of the penal statutes and of the test was strongly solicited by the king; and in order to engage him to agree to that measure, hopes were given' that England would second him in all those enterprises which his active and extensive genius had with such success planned on the continent. He was at this time the centre of all the negotiations of Christendom.

He forms

against

The emperor and the king of Spain, as the a league prince well knew, were enraged by repeated France; injuries which they had suffered from the ambition of Lewis, and still more by the frequent insults which his pride had made them undergo. He was apprised of the influence of these monarchs over the Catholic princes of the empire: he had himself acquired great authority with the Protestant: and he formed a project of uniting Europe in one general league against the encroachments of France, which seemed so nearly to threaten the independence of all its neighbours.

No characters are more incompatible than those of a conqueror and a persecutor; and Lewis soon found,

bBurnet, vol. 1. p. 711. D'Avaux, 15th of April, 1688.