The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (diy ebook reader .txt) π
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the orders of their schoolmistress, without knowing that
they were committing a crime. The Queen's maids of honour asked
the royal permission to wring money out of the parents of the
poor children; and the permission was granted. An order was sent
down to Taunton that all these little girls should be seized and
imprisoned. Sir Francis Warre of Hestercombe, the Tory member for
Bridgewater, was requested to undertake the office of exacting
the ransom. He was charged to declare in strong language that the
maids of honour would not endure delay, that they were determined
to prosecute to outlawry, unless a reasonable sum were
forthcoming, and that by a reasonable sum was meant seven
thousand pounds. Warre excused himself from taking any part in a
transaction so scandalous. The maids of honour then requested
William Penn to act for them; and Penn accepted the commission.
Yet it should seem that a little of the pertinacious scrupulosity
which he had often shown about taking off his hat would not have
been altogether out of place on this occasion. He probably
silenced the remonstrances of his conscience by repeating to
himself that none of the money which he extorted would go into
his own pocket; that if he refused to be the agent of the ladies
they would find agents less humane; that by complying he should
increase his influence at the court, and that his influence at
the court had already enabled him, and still might enable him, to
render great services to his oppressed brethren. The maids of
honour were at last forced to content themselves with less than a
third part of what they had demanded.461
No English sovereign has ever given stronger proof of a cruel
nature than James the Second. Yet his cruelty was not more odious
than his mercy. Or perhaps it may be more correct to say that his
mercy and his cruelty were such that each reflects infamy on the
other. Our horror at the fate of the simple clowns, the young
lads, the delicate women, to whom he was inexorably severe, is
increased when we find to whom and for what considerations he
granted his pardon.
The rule by which a prince ought, after a rebellion, to be guided
in selecting rebels for punishment is perfectly obvious. The
ringleaders, the men of rank, fortune, and education, whose power
and whose artifices have led the multitude into error, are the
proper objects of severity. The deluded populace, when once the
slaughter on the field of battle is over, can scarcely be treated
too leniently. This rule, so evidently agreeable to justice and
humanity, was not only not observed: it was inverted. While those
who ought to have been spared were slaughtered by hundreds, the
few who might with propriety have been left to the utmost rigour
of the law were spared. This eccentric clemency has perplexed
some writers, and has drawn forth ludicrous eulogies from others.
It was neither at all mysterious nor at all praiseworthy. It may
be distinctly traced in every case either to a sordid or to a
malignant motive, either to thirst for money or to thirst for
blood.
In the case of Grey there was no mitigating circumstance. His
parts and knowledge, the rank which he had inherited in the
state, and the high command which he had borne in the rebel army,
would have pointed him out to a just government as a much fitter
object of punishment than Alice Lisle, than William Hewling, than
any of the hundreds of ignorant peasants whose skulls and
quarters were exposed in Somersetshire. But Grey's estate was
large and was strictly entailed. He had only a life interest in
his property; and he could forfeit no more interest than he had.
If he died, his lands at once devolved on the next heir. If he
were pardoned, he would be able to pay a large ransom. He was
therefore suffered to redeem himself by giving a bond for forty
thousand pounds to the Lord Treasurer, and smaller sums to other
courtiers.462
Sir John Cochrane had held among the Scotch rebels the same rank
which had been held by Grey in the West of England. That Cochrane
should be forgiven by a prince vindictive beyond all example,
seemed incredible. But Cochrane was the younger son of a rich
family; it was therefore only by sparing him that money could be
made out of him. His father, Lord Dundonald, offered a bribe of
five thousand pounds to the priests of the royal household; and a
pardon was granted.463
Samuel Storey, a noted sower of sedition, who had been Commissary
to the rebel army, and who had inflamed the ignorant populace of
Somersetshire by vehement harangues in which James had been
described as an incendiary and a poisoner, was admitted to mercy.
For Storey was able to give important assistance to Jeffreys in
wringing fifteen thousand pounds out of Prideaux.464
None of the traitors had less right to expect favour than Wade,
Goodenough, and Ferguson. These three chiefs of the rebellion had
fled together from the field of Sedgemoor, and had reached the
coast in safety. But they had found a frigate cruising near the
spot where they had hoped to embark. They had then separated.
Wade and Goodenough were soon discovered and brought up to
London. Deeply as they had been implicated in the Rye House plot,
conspicuous as they had been among the chiefs of the Western
insurrection, they were suffered to live, because they had it in
their power to give information which enabled the King to
slaughter and plunder some persons whom he hated, but to whom he
had never yet been able to bring home any crime.465
How Ferguson escaped was, and still is, a mystery. Of all the
enemies of the government he was, without doubt, the most deeply
criminal. He was the original author of the plot for
assassinating the royal brothers. He had written that Declaration
which, for insolence, malignity, and mendacity, stands unrivalled
even among the libels of those stormy times. He had instigated
Monmouth first to invade the kingdom, and then to usurp the
crown. It was reasonable to expect that a strict search would be
made for the archtraitor, as he was often called; and such a
search a man of so singular an aspect and dialect could scarcely
have eluded. It was confidently reported in the coffee houses of
London that Ferguson was taken, and this report found credit with
men who had excellent opportunities of knowing the truth. The
next thing that was heard of him was that he was safe on the
Continent. It was strongly suspected that he had been in constant
communication with the government against which he was constantly
plotting, that he had, while urging his associates to every
excess of rashness sent to Whitehall just so much information
about their proceedings as might suffice to save his own neck,
and that therefore orders had been given to let him escape.466
And now Jeffreys had done his work, and returned to claim his
reward. He arrived at Windsor from the West, leaving carnage,
mourning, and terror behind him. The hatred with which he was
regarded by the people of Somersetshire has no parallel in our
history. It was not to be quenched by time or by political
changes, was long transmitted from generation to generation, and
raged fiercely against his innocent progeny. When he had been
many years dead, when his name and title were extinct, his
granddaughter, the Countess of Pomfret, travelling along the
western road, was insulted by the populace, and found that she
could not safely venture herself among the descendants of those
who had witnessed the Bloody Assizes.467
But at the Court Jeffreys was cordially welcomed. He was a judge
after his master's own heart. James had watched the circuit with
interest and delight. In his drawingroom and at his table he had
frequently talked of the havoc which was making among his
disaffected subjects with a glee at which the foreign ministers
stood aghast. With his own hand he had penned accounts of what he
facetiously called his Lord Chief Justice's campaign in the West.
Some hundreds of rebels, His Majesty wrote to the Hague, had been
condemned. Some of them had been hanged: more should be hanged:
and the rest should be sent to the plantations. It was to no
purpose that Ken wrote to implore mercy for the misguided people,
and described with pathetic eloquence the frightful state of his
diocese. He complained that it was impossible to walk along the
highways without seeing some terrible spectacle, and that the
whole air of Somersetshire was tainted with death. The King read,
and remained, according to the saying of Churchill, hard as the
marble chimneypieces of Whitehall. At Windsor the great seal of
England was put into the hands of Jeffreys and in the next London
Gazette it was solemnly notified that this honour was the reward
of the many eminent and faithful services which he had rendered
to the crown.468
At a later period, when all men of all parties spoke with horror
of the Bloody Assizes, the wicked Judge and the wicked King
attempted to vindicate themselves by throwing the blame on each
other. Jeffreys, in the Tower, protested that, in his utmost
cruelty, he had not gone beyond his master's express orders, nay,
that he had fallen short of them. James, at Saint Germain's would
willingly have had it believed that his own inclinations had been
on the side of clemency, and that unmerited obloquy had been
brought on him by the violence of his minister. But neither of
these hardhearted men must be absolved at the expense of the
other. The plea set up for James can be proved under his own hand
to be false in fact. The plea of Jeffreys, even if it be true in
fact, is utterly worthless.
The slaughter in the West was over. The slaughter in London was
about to begin. The government was peculiarly desirous to find
victims among the great Whig merchants of the City. They had, in
the last reign, been a formidable part of the strength of the
opposition. They were wealthy; and their wealth was not, like
that of many noblemen and country gentlemen, protected by entail
against forfeiture. In the case of Grey and of men situated like
him, it was impossible to gratify cruelty and rapacity at once;
but a rich trader might be both hanged and plundered. The
commercial grandees, however, though in general hostile to Popery
and to arbitrary power, had yet been too scrupulous or too timid
to incur the guilt of high treason. One of the most considerable
among them was Henry Cornish. He had been an Alderman under the
old charter of the City, and had filled the
they were committing a crime. The Queen's maids of honour asked
the royal permission to wring money out of the parents of the
poor children; and the permission was granted. An order was sent
down to Taunton that all these little girls should be seized and
imprisoned. Sir Francis Warre of Hestercombe, the Tory member for
Bridgewater, was requested to undertake the office of exacting
the ransom. He was charged to declare in strong language that the
maids of honour would not endure delay, that they were determined
to prosecute to outlawry, unless a reasonable sum were
forthcoming, and that by a reasonable sum was meant seven
thousand pounds. Warre excused himself from taking any part in a
transaction so scandalous. The maids of honour then requested
William Penn to act for them; and Penn accepted the commission.
Yet it should seem that a little of the pertinacious scrupulosity
which he had often shown about taking off his hat would not have
been altogether out of place on this occasion. He probably
silenced the remonstrances of his conscience by repeating to
himself that none of the money which he extorted would go into
his own pocket; that if he refused to be the agent of the ladies
they would find agents less humane; that by complying he should
increase his influence at the court, and that his influence at
the court had already enabled him, and still might enable him, to
render great services to his oppressed brethren. The maids of
honour were at last forced to content themselves with less than a
third part of what they had demanded.461
No English sovereign has ever given stronger proof of a cruel
nature than James the Second. Yet his cruelty was not more odious
than his mercy. Or perhaps it may be more correct to say that his
mercy and his cruelty were such that each reflects infamy on the
other. Our horror at the fate of the simple clowns, the young
lads, the delicate women, to whom he was inexorably severe, is
increased when we find to whom and for what considerations he
granted his pardon.
The rule by which a prince ought, after a rebellion, to be guided
in selecting rebels for punishment is perfectly obvious. The
ringleaders, the men of rank, fortune, and education, whose power
and whose artifices have led the multitude into error, are the
proper objects of severity. The deluded populace, when once the
slaughter on the field of battle is over, can scarcely be treated
too leniently. This rule, so evidently agreeable to justice and
humanity, was not only not observed: it was inverted. While those
who ought to have been spared were slaughtered by hundreds, the
few who might with propriety have been left to the utmost rigour
of the law were spared. This eccentric clemency has perplexed
some writers, and has drawn forth ludicrous eulogies from others.
It was neither at all mysterious nor at all praiseworthy. It may
be distinctly traced in every case either to a sordid or to a
malignant motive, either to thirst for money or to thirst for
blood.
In the case of Grey there was no mitigating circumstance. His
parts and knowledge, the rank which he had inherited in the
state, and the high command which he had borne in the rebel army,
would have pointed him out to a just government as a much fitter
object of punishment than Alice Lisle, than William Hewling, than
any of the hundreds of ignorant peasants whose skulls and
quarters were exposed in Somersetshire. But Grey's estate was
large and was strictly entailed. He had only a life interest in
his property; and he could forfeit no more interest than he had.
If he died, his lands at once devolved on the next heir. If he
were pardoned, he would be able to pay a large ransom. He was
therefore suffered to redeem himself by giving a bond for forty
thousand pounds to the Lord Treasurer, and smaller sums to other
courtiers.462
Sir John Cochrane had held among the Scotch rebels the same rank
which had been held by Grey in the West of England. That Cochrane
should be forgiven by a prince vindictive beyond all example,
seemed incredible. But Cochrane was the younger son of a rich
family; it was therefore only by sparing him that money could be
made out of him. His father, Lord Dundonald, offered a bribe of
five thousand pounds to the priests of the royal household; and a
pardon was granted.463
Samuel Storey, a noted sower of sedition, who had been Commissary
to the rebel army, and who had inflamed the ignorant populace of
Somersetshire by vehement harangues in which James had been
described as an incendiary and a poisoner, was admitted to mercy.
For Storey was able to give important assistance to Jeffreys in
wringing fifteen thousand pounds out of Prideaux.464
None of the traitors had less right to expect favour than Wade,
Goodenough, and Ferguson. These three chiefs of the rebellion had
fled together from the field of Sedgemoor, and had reached the
coast in safety. But they had found a frigate cruising near the
spot where they had hoped to embark. They had then separated.
Wade and Goodenough were soon discovered and brought up to
London. Deeply as they had been implicated in the Rye House plot,
conspicuous as they had been among the chiefs of the Western
insurrection, they were suffered to live, because they had it in
their power to give information which enabled the King to
slaughter and plunder some persons whom he hated, but to whom he
had never yet been able to bring home any crime.465
How Ferguson escaped was, and still is, a mystery. Of all the
enemies of the government he was, without doubt, the most deeply
criminal. He was the original author of the plot for
assassinating the royal brothers. He had written that Declaration
which, for insolence, malignity, and mendacity, stands unrivalled
even among the libels of those stormy times. He had instigated
Monmouth first to invade the kingdom, and then to usurp the
crown. It was reasonable to expect that a strict search would be
made for the archtraitor, as he was often called; and such a
search a man of so singular an aspect and dialect could scarcely
have eluded. It was confidently reported in the coffee houses of
London that Ferguson was taken, and this report found credit with
men who had excellent opportunities of knowing the truth. The
next thing that was heard of him was that he was safe on the
Continent. It was strongly suspected that he had been in constant
communication with the government against which he was constantly
plotting, that he had, while urging his associates to every
excess of rashness sent to Whitehall just so much information
about their proceedings as might suffice to save his own neck,
and that therefore orders had been given to let him escape.466
And now Jeffreys had done his work, and returned to claim his
reward. He arrived at Windsor from the West, leaving carnage,
mourning, and terror behind him. The hatred with which he was
regarded by the people of Somersetshire has no parallel in our
history. It was not to be quenched by time or by political
changes, was long transmitted from generation to generation, and
raged fiercely against his innocent progeny. When he had been
many years dead, when his name and title were extinct, his
granddaughter, the Countess of Pomfret, travelling along the
western road, was insulted by the populace, and found that she
could not safely venture herself among the descendants of those
who had witnessed the Bloody Assizes.467
But at the Court Jeffreys was cordially welcomed. He was a judge
after his master's own heart. James had watched the circuit with
interest and delight. In his drawingroom and at his table he had
frequently talked of the havoc which was making among his
disaffected subjects with a glee at which the foreign ministers
stood aghast. With his own hand he had penned accounts of what he
facetiously called his Lord Chief Justice's campaign in the West.
Some hundreds of rebels, His Majesty wrote to the Hague, had been
condemned. Some of them had been hanged: more should be hanged:
and the rest should be sent to the plantations. It was to no
purpose that Ken wrote to implore mercy for the misguided people,
and described with pathetic eloquence the frightful state of his
diocese. He complained that it was impossible to walk along the
highways without seeing some terrible spectacle, and that the
whole air of Somersetshire was tainted with death. The King read,
and remained, according to the saying of Churchill, hard as the
marble chimneypieces of Whitehall. At Windsor the great seal of
England was put into the hands of Jeffreys and in the next London
Gazette it was solemnly notified that this honour was the reward
of the many eminent and faithful services which he had rendered
to the crown.468
At a later period, when all men of all parties spoke with horror
of the Bloody Assizes, the wicked Judge and the wicked King
attempted to vindicate themselves by throwing the blame on each
other. Jeffreys, in the Tower, protested that, in his utmost
cruelty, he had not gone beyond his master's express orders, nay,
that he had fallen short of them. James, at Saint Germain's would
willingly have had it believed that his own inclinations had been
on the side of clemency, and that unmerited obloquy had been
brought on him by the violence of his minister. But neither of
these hardhearted men must be absolved at the expense of the
other. The plea set up for James can be proved under his own hand
to be false in fact. The plea of Jeffreys, even if it be true in
fact, is utterly worthless.
The slaughter in the West was over. The slaughter in London was
about to begin. The government was peculiarly desirous to find
victims among the great Whig merchants of the City. They had, in
the last reign, been a formidable part of the strength of the
opposition. They were wealthy; and their wealth was not, like
that of many noblemen and country gentlemen, protected by entail
against forfeiture. In the case of Grey and of men situated like
him, it was impossible to gratify cruelty and rapacity at once;
but a rich trader might be both hanged and plundered. The
commercial grandees, however, though in general hostile to Popery
and to arbitrary power, had yet been too scrupulous or too timid
to incur the guilt of high treason. One of the most considerable
among them was Henry Cornish. He had been an Alderman under the
old charter of the City, and had filled the
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