tions to meet his menaced doom with the resignation of a Christian, cheerfully participated with him in all the rigours of his confinement. At length, after a tedious state of suspense, Lord Delamere was brought to his trial; but the evidence against him appearing incomplete, he was, to the great disappointment of the King, acquitted.°

The ecclesiastical events next worthy of remark in the history of Manchester and the neighbourhood, are those which followed the resolution of James to establish a toleration of all sects in England. The ill-advised Monarch, on the plea that there was a power in the crown above the laws to dispense with penal statutes, became less cautious in his designs to introduce the religion of the Church of Rome; and, with the view of allowing the jesuits and other missionaries a free field for their exertions, took occasion to upbraid the bishops for their harsh treatment of non-conformists, and commanded that they should forthwith publish in their respective dioceses, that a full liberty of conscience, in the open profession of every religion, would be granted to all classes whatever of his Majesty's subjects. Dissenters being thus encouraged to revive the conventicles which had been suppressed, Mr Newcome, who had for five years been an exile from the town of Manchester by virtue of the five-mile act, returned to his separated flock, who were overjoyed to again hear their favourite teacher. The prosecution of dissenters by the penal laws now ceased; a public dispensation, or license-office, being set up, where, for the sum of fifty shillings, an indulgence for the free religious profession of every applicant, including that of his family, was readily granted.

The King next erected a new ecclesiastical commission, with power to exercise all manner of spiritual jurisdiction; which assumption of uncontrolled authority over the English church, together with the royal declaration of indulgence, soon brought over fresh swarms of jesuits and Popish priests, and mass-houses were publicly licensed throughout the country. Lastly, when an order appeared forbidding bishops to preach on controverted points of doctrine touching the Popish religion, or to declaim in any way against the religion of the King, the discontent was complete and universal; the relieved dissenters even protesting, that they would rather return to their former bondage than declare for the dispensing power of the

• That there were really grounds for the charge that Lord Delamere designed to raise the country in favour of Monmouth, was the opinion of some credible historians of this period, notwithstanding the inconclusive evidence, on the authority of a man of an unprincipled character, which was adduced at the trial.

King, and, as a consequence, to the iniquity which had emanated from it in the introduction of Popery into the land.

In the ecclesiastical sway thus exercised by the crown, there is no doubt but that James had been led into his bold experiment by reposing too great a confidence on the obligation which churchmen professed of non-resistance, upon any plea whatever, to the divine authority of kings. The time was, however, arrived, when a dereliction from this principle was indispensable. Every good churchman was compelled to decide, whether he ought not rather to break the obligation into which he had entered of non-resistance to kingly authority, than by a passive forbearance, to sanction a far greater crime in the attacks which were meditated against the existing establishment of a Protestant Church of England. The majority decided in the affirmative, considering their obligation to their church as paramount to an unconditional submission to kings; and hence, their new watchword of "Church and King," signified in the order of its terms the consideration which was conceived to have the precedence in every conscientious mind. In the Church. of Manchester these sentiments found an advocate in the warden of the College; and they were likewise entertained by his friend and predecessor, Dr Stratford.

Most eyes were now turned upon the Prince of Orange, who had married the Protestant daughter of James. William and Mary were invited to the crown, and the standard was eagerly joined which was raised in defence of Protestantism and civil liberty against the arbitrary designs of a Popish sovereign. James shrank from the formidable opposition, and abandoned his kingdom.

Among the clergy of the establishment who were particularly active in their exertions to confirm the accession of William and Mary to the throne of England, the name of Dr Stratford was mentioned with particular honour. He had showed himself, in the language of a panegyrist, an intrepid champion of the church of England, in the critical and dangerous times in which he lived. As a reward of his valuable services, he was, upon the 15th of December 1689, consecrated Bishop of Chester.P

P During this religious convulsion, Dr Stratford published the following works in aid of the Protestant cause: A Discourse concerning the necessity of Reformation, with respect to the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome. 1685.-A Discourse on the Pope's Supremacy, in answer to a Treatise entitled St Peter's Supremacy, faithfully discussed according to the Holy Scriptures, and Greek and Latin Fathers, and to a sermon of St Peter preached before the Queen Dowager, on St Peter's and St Paul's day, by Thomas Godden, D. D. London, 1668. 4to.-The people's right to read the Holy Scriptures asserted in answer to the sixth, &c. chapters of the second part of the Popish Representer. London, 1688-89. 4to.-The Lay Christian's obligations to read the Holy Scriptures. London, 1688-89. 4to.

The satisfaction, however, which was expressed upon the occasion of the revolution was but short-lived. In Lancashire, as indeed in other counties, many of the ancient families who had shed their best blood, and sacrificed most of their property for the royal house of the Stuarts, were inclined to retrace the steps which they had taken in their resistance to the Popish designs of James. Some few, notwithstanding, could boast, that, amidst all the ferment which had led to successful rebellion, they had themselves preserved their loyalty unextinct. This joint party became, therefore, unanimous in the opinion, that, as resistance to kingly authority had been the prelude to all the miseries in which the nation had been so long involved, no circumstance whatever, not even the royal declaration in favour of Popery, could vindicate taking up arms against the King, who held his authority by a divine right; and that it would be a sacrifice of the principle which they had kept inviolate for many years, to give their assent to any other doctrine than the hereditary and indefeasible right of the deposed sovereign to his crown. It was hence resolved, to make every exertion for the restoration of the exiled monarch, even though it should be necessary to enter into an alliance with the Roman Catholics, of whom a formidable number still entered into the population of Lancashire. The Papists being thus invited to make head in one common cause in favour of James, whom they regarded as a martyr to the Catholic faith, bestirred themselves with eagerness, and a coalition was formed, which was encouraged by the simultaneous insurrection in the same cause that was taking place in Ireland. Widely extended plots were consequently hatched in Lancashire, the chief inciters of which were the Lord Molyneux, Sir William Gerrard, Sir Rowland Stanley, Sir Thomas Clifton, Mr Walmsley, Mr Leigh Bankes, Mr Langton, Mr Blundell, the three sons of Mrs Culcheth, a Popish lady, two gentlemen of the name of Dickenson, and Mr Leigh of Lime.

James placed great confidence in the support which was promised him from the Roman Catholics of Lancashire, aided by the old Protestant families who had supported his late father. Commissions were therefore sent over to the leaders of the conspiracy, with instructions to take the most efficient means for raising men. Pusillanimity, however, directed the councils of the Lancashire Jacobites. They did not venture to recruit openly in the county, but, in order to keep faith with the deposed monarch, sent out secret agents to London to raise men among the crowds of needy Irish, whom the poverty of the sister kingdom had sent thither for means of subsistence; and it was intended, as soon as a sufficient number of this ragged horde could be got together, to assemble them in strength, and to invite the county at large to declare for James; or, in failure of this appeal, to immediately

embark with their hired levy, and rally under the royal standard in Ireland. The agents sent out on this errand to the metropolis were likewise instructed to make extensive purchases of arms for the conspirators. Many boxes of accoutrements were accordingly sent to Lancashire, consisting of swords, pistols,, war-saddles, scarlet cloaks, &c.; but, for the sake of avoiding suspicion, they were seldom directed to Papists, but to such of the Protestants as were in the combination.

The number of Irish Papists sent into the county now began to excite great suspicion, and magistrates were blamed for their inactivity. This put the whigs of Manchester upon the alert, by whom the greatest exertions were made, by dint of bribery and espionage, to detect the movers of the plot. At last, six new warsaddles, directed to the three sons of Mrs Culcheth, the Popish widow beforementioned, were intercepted, and five Papists were taken into custody. The three brothers, however, effected their escape.

When this discovery was made, the magistrates of the quarter sessions in Manchester addressed a letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury, the principal secretary of state, dated the 18th of October 1689, stating what had come to their knowledge regarding the Lancashire plot, and concluding their letter after the following manner: "The rumour so possesses the enraged rabble, that we are more solicitous to appease that, than afraid of what the male-contented restless gentlemen can do, for we are sufficiently able and vigilant to free our country from danger. There are some constables and others deserve rewards for their extraordinary care. What we shall do with these offenders, with these saddles, or with others upon the like occasions, your Lordship's appointment according to his Majestie's good pleasure, will, with the greatest humility and faithfulness, be complied with and obeyed by your Lordship's most humble and obedient servants, H. Willoughby, Ralph Ashton, Ja. Holte, Tho. Lever, Joseph Yates, Nic. Starkie, Hen. Farringdon, Jos. Horton."

As the government, however, was too much occupied in its exertions to withstand the Irish insurrection, little attention was paid to the representation. The expected rising of the Lancashire jacobites was therefore counteracted by the exertions of Lord Delamere, who promptly invited a muster of Lancashire and Cheshire men upon Bowden Downs, near Altringham. The appeal was successful. Nearly 40,000 armed men, horse and foot, appeared for the defence of King William and the Protestant cause, against King James and his Popish adherents. The jacobite party became appalled, and no farther exertions of any consequence were made in Lancashire against the principles of the revolution.

For the exertions which Lord Delamere had made in the Protestant cause, he was summoned to the House of Peers under the new title of Earl of Warrington,

and afterwards accompanied his sovereign in his expedition to Ireland." The decisive battle of the Boyne soon followed, and with it every chance had vanished of the restoration of the exiled monarch.

During this effervescence, the warden of Manchester College kept pace with the exertions of his noble patron in warning his flock against the dangers which had beset the Church of England; and he was fervent in his exhortations to allow no representation to entice them into the ranks of the jacobites, to the imminent danger of the Protestant cause in England.

2. The Warden's Funeral Sermon on the Countess of Warrington.-A. D. 1691.

The Earl of Warrington, soon after the accession of his new honours, had the misfortune to lose his amiable consort, whom we have noticed as the voluntary partaker of his confinement in the tower, when he was arraigned by James upon the charge of high treason. She was a daughter of Sir James Langham, Bart. of Cotesbroke, in Northumberland. On the occasion of her funeral, the warden of Manchester College, in a sermon preached in the Church of Bowden before the disconsolate husband and his family, paid to the memory of this distinguished lady one of the most beautiful eulogiums that ever perhaps fell from the mouth of a preacher; and which merits to be perpetuated for the bright example which it holds out to all who move in the same responsible sphere.

"Her temper," said the warden, "was steady and even, equal to the very best, and superior to most of her sex; which, if more rare to be met with, is more highly to be valued when found in the weaker sex. An exact harmony and equal proportion of the elements, naturalists say, must concur to form a fine and even temperament of body; and in the temper of her mind there seemed so just a proportion of those dispositions which embellish and adorn human nature, as rendered it an exact composition, fitly disposed for the impressions of moral goodness, and the higher improvement of religious virtue.

"This evenness of temper was manifest in the calmness of her spirit, not easily ruffled by passion, nor discomposed by provocation. They must have known her long that could say they had once seen her in a passion, and not oftener out of humour :—and if she was once seen to be angry, it was when the provocation was too great to be put up without resentment, and was only an occasion to manifest, that she was liable to passions no less than others, but was better able to govern them than most.

9 It was upon a Sunday that King William passed through Chester, previous to his embarkation at Highlake; upon which occasion, Dr Stratford preached before his Majesty.