the part of the condemned did not fail of shaking the credit of the plot. At length, on the trial of Sir George Wakeman, physician to the Queen, the King ventured to exert his influence in favour of the prisoner. It was the more incumbent on him to do so, as the accusation was directed against the Queen as well as her physician. Oates swore that he had seen a letter from Sir George, mentioning the intention of poisoning the King. But the accused, besides many circumstances which rendered the story improbable, proved that Oates, on his examination before the Council, had only mentioned a letter from a third person whom he had seen at St. Omers; and being asked if he knew any thing more against Sir George Wakeman, he had held up his hands, protesting he did not; and that he had then owned that he did not know the prisoner's hand-writing, though he now asserted the contrary. These contradictions were exposed in the charge of Chief Justice Scroggs, who having been at first shamefully violent in prosecuting the plot, was now as willing to please the court by bringing it into discredit. The prisoner and three others who were tried with him were acquitted. This trial seems to be the point of departure of the two great parties on the subject of the Popish Plot. Hitherto, the whole nation had given up

their senses and their reason to this favourite delusion. But henceforward, the court and church party seem to have used every means to bring odium upon the witnesses; thus exchanging their fears of Popery for alarms of fanaticism. The country party, on the other hand, represented the trial of Wakeman as partial and unfair; and they endeavoured to magnify the danger of the plot, by representing the court as favouring the escape of the conspirators.

If Shaftesbury's violence during the Sept. 2. sitting of parliament had the effect of alarming the King, his imprudent menace at the time of the prorogation served to bring back the Duke. For the King being taken dangerously ill at Windsor, the three Lords who formed the secret cabinet, thought their lives in danger should the King die, and Monmouth obtain possession of the crown. * They, therefore, advised Charles to send for his brother, who arrived from Brussels, to the great astonishment both of the court and the country. When he came to Windsor, he found his brother recovering, and he was requested to return with as much earnestness as he had been desired to come. He found means, however, by acting on the fears of Essex and Halifax, to change his banishment to

• Temple.

Brussels, for retirement to Scotland, and what was still more important, to have Shaftesbury dismissed from his office of President of the Council, and Monmouth deprived of his command of the army. And to complete the triumph of James, this dangerous rival was sent to the place of exile from which he had himself returned.

The elections, as might have been expected, went generally in favour of the country party. The King, grown still more suspicious of his parliament, and more averse to the troubles of contention, had recourse to his old expedient, the alliance of France. He endeavoured to obtain nine millions of livres from Lewis, to be paid in the course of three years, on the condition that parliament should not be assembled during that time. He repeatedly represented to Barillon, that this step would place England in the dependence of France for ever. The terms asked by the Duchess of Portsmouth and Lord Sunderland were still higher. The King at length agreed, however, to accept of one million of livres yearly for three years, with the condition that parliament should not be assembled during that time.

In the hope that a treaty would be concluded on these terms, Charles told his council, that he had resolved to prorogue his

Oct. 15.

that Parliament for a twelvemonth; and that he would hear no reasons on the subject. But Sir William Temple stood up and said, with great freedom, "That as to the resolution he had taken, he would say nothing, because he was resolved to hear no reasoning upon it; therefore he would only presume to offer him his humble advice, as to the course of his future proceedings, which was, that His Majesty, in his affairs, would please to make use of some council or other, and allow freedom to their debates and advices; after hearing which, His Majesty might resolve as he pleased; that if he did not think the persons or number of this present council suited to his affairs, it was in his power to dissolve them, and constitute another of twenty, or ten, or of five, or any number he pleased, and to alter them again when he would; but to make counsellors that should not counsel, he doubted whether it were in His Majesty's power, or no, because it implied a contradiction."

This wise and constitutional speech seems to have had no effect in altering the intention of the King; who had, however, previously left room for a change of counsel, by ordering the immediate prorogation to extend only to the 26th January.

A new plot broke out about this time, which was nick-named the Meal-tub plot. An in

famous character, of the name of Willoughby, or Dangerfield, a friend of Bedloe, was released from prison by Mrs. Cellier, a Popish midwife, who obtained the money for that purpose from Lady Powis, a very eminent person of the Catholic religion. He contrived to cajole these two ladies, by pretending a knowledge of a plot carrying on by the Presbyterians. To support his pretensions, he made acquaintance as well as he could with the lower emissaries of the Opposition. He hid a treasonable paper in the bed-chamber of Colonel Mansel; and, by the advice of Mrs. Cellier, took the Custom-house officers there to search for prohibited goods. He then found the paper he had himself concealed, and immediately called out, "Here's Treason!" Some days afterwards, another paper, containing a treasonable association, was found by Sir W. Waller in Mrs. Cellier's house, concealed in a meal-tub. Upon enquiry, it appeared that Dangerfield had seen the Duke and the King, under pretence of discovering a Presbyterian plot, and had received from the Duke twenty guineas. Both parties endeavoured to represent him as an agent of their opponents. But whilst his connection with Mrs. Cellier and Lady Powis was proved and avowed, his intimacy with Lord Shaftesbury was only inferred from two unimportant letters directed to that Lord,