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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a
prerogative which had never been questioned. If he had, since the
dissolution, done some harsh things, still those things were in
strict conformity with the letter of the law, and with the recent
practice of the malecontents themselves. If he had prosecuted his
opponents, he had prosecuted them according to the proper forms,
and before the proper tribunals. The evidence now produced for
the crown was at least as worthy of credit as the evidence on
which the noblest blood of England had lately been shed by the
opposition. The treatment which an accused Whig had now to expect
from judges, advocates, sheriffs, juries and spectators, was no
worse than the treatment which had lately been thought by the
Whigs good enough for an accused Papist. If the privileges of the
City of London were attacked, they were attacked, not by military
violence or by any disputable exercise of prerogative, but
according to the regular practice of Westminster Hall. No tax was
imposed by royal authority. No law was suspended. The Habeas
Corpus Act was respected. Even the Test Act was enforced. The
opposition, therefore, could not bring home to the King that
species of misgovernment which alone could justify insurrection.
And, even had his misgovernment been more flagrant than it was,
insurrection would still have been criminal, because it was
almost certain to be unsuccessful. The situation of the Whigs in
1682 differed widely from that of the Roundheads forty years
before. Those who took up arms against Charles the First acted
under the authority of a Parliament which had been legally
assembled, and which could not, without its own consent, be
legally dissolved. The opponents of Charles the Second were
private men. Almost all the military and naval resources of the
kingdom had been at the disposal of those who resisted Charles
the First. All the military and naval resources of the kingdom
were at the disposal of Charles the Second. The House of Commons
had been supported by at least half the nation against Charles
the First. But those who were disposed to levy war against
Charles the Second were certainly a minority. It could hardly be
doubted, therefore, that, if they attempted a rising, they would
fail. Still less could it be doubted that their failure would
aggravate every evil of which they complained. The true policy of
the Whigs was to submit with patience to adversity which was the
natural consequence and the just punishment of their errors, to
wait patiently for that turn of public feeling which must
inevitably come, to observe the law, and to avail themselves of
the protection, imperfect indeed, but by no means nugatory, which
the law afforded to innocence. Unhappily they took a very
different course. Unscrupulous and hot-headed chiefs of the party
formed and discussed schemes of resistance, and were heard, if
not with approbation, yet with the show of acquiescence, by much
better men than themselves. It was proposed that there should be
simultaneous insurrections in London, in Cheshire, at Bristol,
and at Newcastle. Communications were opened with the
discontented Presbyterians of Scotland, who were suffering under
a tyranny such as England, in the worst times, had never known.
While the leaders of the opposition thus revolved plans of open
rebellion, but were still restrained by fears or scruples from
taking any decisive step, a design of a very different kind was
meditated by some of their accomplices. To fierce spirits,
unrestrained by principle, or maddened by fanaticism, it seemed
that to waylay and murder the King and his brother was the
shortest and surest way of vindicating the Protestant religion
and the liberties of England. A place and a time were named; and
the details of the butchery were frequently discussed, if not
definitely arranged. This scheme was known but to few, and was
concealed with especial care from the upright and humane Russell,
and from Monmouth, who, though not a man of delicate conscience,
would have recoiled with horror from the guilt of parricide. Thus
there were two plots, one within the other. The object of the
great Whig plot was to raise the nation in arms against the
government. The lesser plot, commonly called the Rye House Plot,
in which only a few desperate men were concerned, had for its
object the assassination of the King and of the heir presumptive.
Both plots were soon discovered. Cowardly traitors hastened to
save themselves, by divulging all, and more than all, that had
passed in the deliberations of the party. That only a small
minority of those who meditated resistance had admitted into
their minds the thought of assassination is fully established:
but, as the two conspiracies ran into each other, it was not
difficult for the government to confound them together. The just
indignation excited by the Rye House Plot was extended for a time
to the whole Whig body. The King was now at liberty to exact full
vengeance for years of restraint and humiliation. Shaftesbury,
indeed, had escaped the fate which his manifold perfidy had well
deserved. He had seen that the ruin of his party was at hand, had
in vain endeavoured to make his peace with the royal brothers,
had fled to Holland, and had died there, under the generous
protection of a government which he had cruelly wronged. Monmouth
threw himself at his father's feet and found mercy, but soon gave
new offence, and thought it prudent to go into voluntary exile.
Essex perished by his own hand in the Tower. Russell, who appears
to have been guilty of no offence falling within the definition
of high treason, and Sidney, of whose guilt no legal evidence
could be produced, were beheaded in defiance of law and justice.
Russell died with the fortitude of a Christian, Sidney with the
fortitude of a Stoic. Some active politicians of meaner rank were
sent to the gallows. Many quitted the country. Numerous
prosecutions for misprision of treason, for libel, and for
conspiracy were instituted. Convictions were obtained without
difficulty from Tory juries, and rigorous punishments were
inflicted by courtly judges. With these criminal proceedings were
joined civil proceedings scarcely less formidable. Actions were
brought against persons who had defamed the Duke of York and
damages tantamount to a sentence of perpetual imprisonment were
demanded by the plaintiff, and without difficulty obtained. The
Court of King's Bench pronounced that the franchises of the City
of London were forfeited to the Crown. Flushed with this great
victory, the government proceeded to attack the constitutions of
other corporations which were governed by Whig officers, and
which had been in the habit of returning Whig members to
Parliament. Borough after borough was compelled to surrender its
privileges; and new charters were granted which gave the
ascendency everywhere to the Tories.
These proceedings, however reprehensible, had yet the semblance
of legality. They were also accompanied by an act intended to
quiet the uneasiness with which many loyal men looked forward to
the accession of a Popish sovereign. The Lady Anne, younger
daughter of the Duke of York by his first wife, was married to
George, a prince of the orthodox House of Denmark. The Tory
gentry and clergy might now flatter themselves that the Church of
England had been effectually secured without any violation of the
order of succession. The King and the heir presumptive were
nearly of the same age. Both were approaching the decline of
life. The King's health was good. It was therefore probable that
James, if he came to the throne, would have but a short reign.
Beyond his reign there was the gratifying prospect of a long
series of Protestant sovereigns.
The liberty of unlicensed printing was of little or no use to the
vanquished party; for the temper of judges and juries was such
that no writer whom the government prosecuted for a libel had any
chance of escaping. The dread of punishment therefore did all
that a censorship could have done. Meanwhile, the pulpits
resounded with harangues against the sin of rebellion. The
treatises in which Filmer maintained that hereditary despotism
was the form of government ordained by God, and that limited
monarchy was a pernicious absurdity, had recently appeared, and
had been favourably received by a large section of the Tory
party. The university of Oxford, on the very day on which Russell
was put to death, adopted by a solemn public act these strange
doctrines, and ordered the political works of Buchanan, Milton,
and Baxter to be publicly burned in the court of the Schools.
Thus emboldened, the King at length ventured to overstep the
bounds which he had during some years observed, and to violate
the plain letter of the law. The law was that not more than three
years should pass between the dissolving of one Parliament and
the convoking of another. But, when three years had elapsed after
the dissolution of the Parliament which sate at Oxford, no writs
were issued for an election. This infraction of the constitution
was the more reprehensible, because the King had little reason to
fear a meeting with a new House of Commons. The counties were
generally on his side; and many boroughs in which the Whigs had
lately held sway had been so remodelled that they were certain to
return none but courtiers
In a short time the law was again violated in order to gratify
the Duke of York. That prince was, partly on account of his
religion, and partly on account of the sternness and harshness of
his nature, so unpopular that it had been thought necessary to
keep him out of sight while the Exclusion Bill was before
Parliament, lest his appearance should give an advantage to the
party which was struggling to deprive him of his birthright. He
had therefore been sent to govern Scotland, where the savage old
tyrant Lauderdale was sinking into the grave. Even Lauderdale was
now outdone. The administration of James was marked by odious
laws, by barbarous punishments, and by judgments to the iniquity
of which even that age furnished no parallel. The Scottish Privy
Council had power to put state prisoners to the question. But the
sight was so dreadful that, as soon as the boots appeared, even
the most servile and hardhearted courtiers hastened out of the
chamber. The board was sometimes quite deserted: and it was at
length found necessary to make an order that the members should
keep their seats on such occasions. The Duke of York, it was
remarked, seemed to take pleasure in the spectacle which some of
the worst men then living were unable to contemplate without pity
and horror. He not only came to Council when the torture was to
be inflicted, but watched the agonies of the sufferers with that
sort of interest and complacency with which men observe a curious
experiment in science. Thus he employed himself at Edinburgh,
till the
prerogative which had never been questioned. If he had, since the
dissolution, done some harsh things, still those things were in
strict conformity with the letter of the law, and with the recent
practice of the malecontents themselves. If he had prosecuted his
opponents, he had prosecuted them according to the proper forms,
and before the proper tribunals. The evidence now produced for
the crown was at least as worthy of credit as the evidence on
which the noblest blood of England had lately been shed by the
opposition. The treatment which an accused Whig had now to expect
from judges, advocates, sheriffs, juries and spectators, was no
worse than the treatment which had lately been thought by the
Whigs good enough for an accused Papist. If the privileges of the
City of London were attacked, they were attacked, not by military
violence or by any disputable exercise of prerogative, but
according to the regular practice of Westminster Hall. No tax was
imposed by royal authority. No law was suspended. The Habeas
Corpus Act was respected. Even the Test Act was enforced. The
opposition, therefore, could not bring home to the King that
species of misgovernment which alone could justify insurrection.
And, even had his misgovernment been more flagrant than it was,
insurrection would still have been criminal, because it was
almost certain to be unsuccessful. The situation of the Whigs in
1682 differed widely from that of the Roundheads forty years
before. Those who took up arms against Charles the First acted
under the authority of a Parliament which had been legally
assembled, and which could not, without its own consent, be
legally dissolved. The opponents of Charles the Second were
private men. Almost all the military and naval resources of the
kingdom had been at the disposal of those who resisted Charles
the First. All the military and naval resources of the kingdom
were at the disposal of Charles the Second. The House of Commons
had been supported by at least half the nation against Charles
the First. But those who were disposed to levy war against
Charles the Second were certainly a minority. It could hardly be
doubted, therefore, that, if they attempted a rising, they would
fail. Still less could it be doubted that their failure would
aggravate every evil of which they complained. The true policy of
the Whigs was to submit with patience to adversity which was the
natural consequence and the just punishment of their errors, to
wait patiently for that turn of public feeling which must
inevitably come, to observe the law, and to avail themselves of
the protection, imperfect indeed, but by no means nugatory, which
the law afforded to innocence. Unhappily they took a very
different course. Unscrupulous and hot-headed chiefs of the party
formed and discussed schemes of resistance, and were heard, if
not with approbation, yet with the show of acquiescence, by much
better men than themselves. It was proposed that there should be
simultaneous insurrections in London, in Cheshire, at Bristol,
and at Newcastle. Communications were opened with the
discontented Presbyterians of Scotland, who were suffering under
a tyranny such as England, in the worst times, had never known.
While the leaders of the opposition thus revolved plans of open
rebellion, but were still restrained by fears or scruples from
taking any decisive step, a design of a very different kind was
meditated by some of their accomplices. To fierce spirits,
unrestrained by principle, or maddened by fanaticism, it seemed
that to waylay and murder the King and his brother was the
shortest and surest way of vindicating the Protestant religion
and the liberties of England. A place and a time were named; and
the details of the butchery were frequently discussed, if not
definitely arranged. This scheme was known but to few, and was
concealed with especial care from the upright and humane Russell,
and from Monmouth, who, though not a man of delicate conscience,
would have recoiled with horror from the guilt of parricide. Thus
there were two plots, one within the other. The object of the
great Whig plot was to raise the nation in arms against the
government. The lesser plot, commonly called the Rye House Plot,
in which only a few desperate men were concerned, had for its
object the assassination of the King and of the heir presumptive.
Both plots were soon discovered. Cowardly traitors hastened to
save themselves, by divulging all, and more than all, that had
passed in the deliberations of the party. That only a small
minority of those who meditated resistance had admitted into
their minds the thought of assassination is fully established:
but, as the two conspiracies ran into each other, it was not
difficult for the government to confound them together. The just
indignation excited by the Rye House Plot was extended for a time
to the whole Whig body. The King was now at liberty to exact full
vengeance for years of restraint and humiliation. Shaftesbury,
indeed, had escaped the fate which his manifold perfidy had well
deserved. He had seen that the ruin of his party was at hand, had
in vain endeavoured to make his peace with the royal brothers,
had fled to Holland, and had died there, under the generous
protection of a government which he had cruelly wronged. Monmouth
threw himself at his father's feet and found mercy, but soon gave
new offence, and thought it prudent to go into voluntary exile.
Essex perished by his own hand in the Tower. Russell, who appears
to have been guilty of no offence falling within the definition
of high treason, and Sidney, of whose guilt no legal evidence
could be produced, were beheaded in defiance of law and justice.
Russell died with the fortitude of a Christian, Sidney with the
fortitude of a Stoic. Some active politicians of meaner rank were
sent to the gallows. Many quitted the country. Numerous
prosecutions for misprision of treason, for libel, and for
conspiracy were instituted. Convictions were obtained without
difficulty from Tory juries, and rigorous punishments were
inflicted by courtly judges. With these criminal proceedings were
joined civil proceedings scarcely less formidable. Actions were
brought against persons who had defamed the Duke of York and
damages tantamount to a sentence of perpetual imprisonment were
demanded by the plaintiff, and without difficulty obtained. The
Court of King's Bench pronounced that the franchises of the City
of London were forfeited to the Crown. Flushed with this great
victory, the government proceeded to attack the constitutions of
other corporations which were governed by Whig officers, and
which had been in the habit of returning Whig members to
Parliament. Borough after borough was compelled to surrender its
privileges; and new charters were granted which gave the
ascendency everywhere to the Tories.
These proceedings, however reprehensible, had yet the semblance
of legality. They were also accompanied by an act intended to
quiet the uneasiness with which many loyal men looked forward to
the accession of a Popish sovereign. The Lady Anne, younger
daughter of the Duke of York by his first wife, was married to
George, a prince of the orthodox House of Denmark. The Tory
gentry and clergy might now flatter themselves that the Church of
England had been effectually secured without any violation of the
order of succession. The King and the heir presumptive were
nearly of the same age. Both were approaching the decline of
life. The King's health was good. It was therefore probable that
James, if he came to the throne, would have but a short reign.
Beyond his reign there was the gratifying prospect of a long
series of Protestant sovereigns.
The liberty of unlicensed printing was of little or no use to the
vanquished party; for the temper of judges and juries was such
that no writer whom the government prosecuted for a libel had any
chance of escaping. The dread of punishment therefore did all
that a censorship could have done. Meanwhile, the pulpits
resounded with harangues against the sin of rebellion. The
treatises in which Filmer maintained that hereditary despotism
was the form of government ordained by God, and that limited
monarchy was a pernicious absurdity, had recently appeared, and
had been favourably received by a large section of the Tory
party. The university of Oxford, on the very day on which Russell
was put to death, adopted by a solemn public act these strange
doctrines, and ordered the political works of Buchanan, Milton,
and Baxter to be publicly burned in the court of the Schools.
Thus emboldened, the King at length ventured to overstep the
bounds which he had during some years observed, and to violate
the plain letter of the law. The law was that not more than three
years should pass between the dissolving of one Parliament and
the convoking of another. But, when three years had elapsed after
the dissolution of the Parliament which sate at Oxford, no writs
were issued for an election. This infraction of the constitution
was the more reprehensible, because the King had little reason to
fear a meeting with a new House of Commons. The counties were
generally on his side; and many boroughs in which the Whigs had
lately held sway had been so remodelled that they were certain to
return none but courtiers
In a short time the law was again violated in order to gratify
the Duke of York. That prince was, partly on account of his
religion, and partly on account of the sternness and harshness of
his nature, so unpopular that it had been thought necessary to
keep him out of sight while the Exclusion Bill was before
Parliament, lest his appearance should give an advantage to the
party which was struggling to deprive him of his birthright. He
had therefore been sent to govern Scotland, where the savage old
tyrant Lauderdale was sinking into the grave. Even Lauderdale was
now outdone. The administration of James was marked by odious
laws, by barbarous punishments, and by judgments to the iniquity
of which even that age furnished no parallel. The Scottish Privy
Council had power to put state prisoners to the question. But the
sight was so dreadful that, as soon as the boots appeared, even
the most servile and hardhearted courtiers hastened out of the
chamber. The board was sometimes quite deserted: and it was at
length found necessary to make an order that the members should
keep their seats on such occasions. The Duke of York, it was
remarked, seemed to take pleasure in the spectacle which some of
the worst men then living were unable to contemplate without pity
and horror. He not only came to Council when the torture was to
be inflicted, but watched the agonies of the sufferers with that
sort of interest and complacency with which men observe a curious
experiment in science. Thus he employed himself at Edinburgh,
till the
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