Note I.
_That arts of foreign sway he did affect,
And guilty Jebusites from law protect,
Whose very chiefs, convict, were never freed;
Nay, we have seen their sacrificers bleed._--P. 320.
It is certain, that, whatever the private wishes of Charles may have
been, he neither did nor durst interfere, by his royal prerogative, to
prevent the execution of Stafford, Coleman, Langhorne, Plunket, and
other Catholics of rank, who were condemned on account of the Popish
Plot. Ireland, Fenwic, Gavan, Turner, and Harcourt, Jesuits, with
Whitebread, the provincial of the order, were all tried, sentenced, and
executed for the same conspiracy; persisting, to their last breath,
in the most solemn and deliberate asseverations of innocence: But
their dying testimonies only irritated the populace the more against
a religion, which taught its votaries to go down to the grave with a
manifest lie, as they supposed, in their right hand.
Note II.
_Mere truth was dull, nor suited with the port
Of pampered Corah, when advanced to court._
* * * * *
_Meanwhile a guard on modest Corah wait,
If not for safety, needful yet for state._--P. 320.
The Parliament, before whom Oates was examined, did not confine
themselves to simple approbation of his conduct. He was treated in a
manner suitable to the sense they had of his merit and importance. The
charge of his personal safety was recommended by the House of Commons
to the Lord General, the care of his lodgings and accommodation to the
Lord Chamberlain, and that of supplying him with money to the Lord High
Treasurer of England.
The state of Oates, in his splendour, is very well described by North:
"He was now in his trine exaltation; his plot in full force, efficacy,
and virtue; he walked about with his guards, assigned for fear of the
Papists' murdering him. He had lodgings at Whitehall, and L. 1200 _per
annum_ pension; and no wonder, after he had the impudence to say to the
House of Lords, in plain terms, that, if they would not help him to
more money, he must be forced to help himself. He put on an episcopal
garb, (except the lawn sleeves,) silk gown and cassock, great hat,
sattin hatband and rose, long scarf, and was called, or blasphemously
called himself, the Saviour of the Nation. Whoever he pointed at was
taken up and committed; so that many people got out of his way as from
a blast, and glad they could prove their last two years conversation.
The very breath of him was pestilential; and if it brought not
imprisonment or death over such on whom it fell, it surely poisoned
reputation, and left good Protestants arrant Papists, and something
worse than that, in danger of being put into the plot as traitors."
_Examen._ p. 205.
Note III.
_To have told his knowledge of the intrigue in gross,
Had been, alas! to our deponent's loss._--P. 322.
Oates never would say he had told all he knew, but always reserved
some part of his evidence to be changed or altered with the shifting
wind of faction or popularity. According to his first narrative, the
plot was laid against the persons of the king and Duke of York; and
their assassination was to take place during the fire of London. But he
had the impudence to say, in his picture of King James, that both his
brother and he were in that very plot for firing the city, a secret
which, he alleges, he could not discover at the time, on account of
a promise to Prince Rupert; and is pleased to add, that the prince
heartily repented of giving, and he of taking, that counsel. When he
was asked, in the House of Commons, whether he had told all he knew of
the conspiracy? this cautious witness, who was determined to have the
whole credit of saving the kingdom his own way, instead of entrusting
the House with the secret, told them a parable of a fox, who, having
occasion to cross a frozen stream with a goose, and being unwilling to
hazard his spoil, first carried over a stone of equal weight with the
goose, to see if the ice would bear it. In short, neither he, nor any
of his imitators, would say more, than that their immediate evidence
was all which they as yet thought meet to declare.
This would have been tolerated no where but in England, and during
that period of terror, suspicion, and infatuation, when these perjured
caitiffs were as dear to the people as those who tell stories of
Rawhead and Bloody-bones are to their nursery audience. The author has
said, and with much truth,
'Twas worse than plotting to suspect his plot.
The discovery of Coleman's letters, however irreconcileable with the
tale of the witnesses, above all, the murder of Godfrey, gave such
a bloody confirmation, that the people swallowed all that could be
told them about the horrors of the conspiracy; and, to use the warm
expression of the author of the "_Examen_," one might have denied his
Redeemer with less contest than attainted the veracity of Oates.
This popular ferment began to abate after the execution of Lord
Stafford; and, as the witnesses sunk in reputation, the king began
by degrees to discountenance Oates. He expelled him from Whitehall,
withdrew his guards, and reduced his pension to L.600. Upon this
Oates altered his dress, assumed a sword, and associated with the
more desperate of the popular faction, such as Rumbold, Colledge, and
Fergusson. In the reign of James II., his fortunes suffered a yet
more melancholy reverse; for, being most satisfactorily convicted of
perjury, by upwards of eighty witnesses, he was sentenced to two fines
of 1000 merks each; to be whipped, on two different days, from Aldgate
to Newgate, and from Newgate to Tyburn; to be imprisoned for life,
and to be pilloried five times every year. James had the imprudence
to exult in this cruel punishment. He told Sir John Reresby, that
the Popish plot was now dead; and, when that courtier obsequiously
answered, "and buried, please your majesty," he thought the jest worth
repeating, which his brother would hardly have done. It is true, no
punishment could be bad enough for the author of so many legal murders;
but the severity of the sentence was an injury to the law of the
land, though done through the person of so vile a criminal. The man's
impudence supported him under the conviction; and his fortitude under
the punishment was the means of regaining a share of his fallen credit.
After the Revolution, he was pardoned, and received a pension of L.400,
with the amount of which he was much dissatisfied, as well as with the
refusal of the Parliament to reverse his sentence, and restore his
capacity for his old trade of bearing evidence.
Note IV.
_Even Absalom------
Perceives the plot, too foul to be excused,
To aid designs, no less pernicious, used._--P. 323.
North, and other Tory writers, have affected to consider Shaftesbury
as the original author of the Popish plot. Of this there is no proof
whatever; and the internal evidence derived from the account of the
plot itself, is altogether inconsistent with the very idea. Shaftesbury
could never have given birth to such a heap of inconsistent fables; a
plan which he had forged would have been ingenious, consistent with
itself, accommodated to the circumstances of parties, and the times,
and therefore, in all probability, being less suited to the vulgar
palate, would not have made half the impression on the public. But we
can easily believe the truth of what he is alleged to have said, "that
whoever started the game, he had the full advantage of the chase." In
fact, this wonderful tale, probably at first invented by two or three
obscure knaves, with the sordid view of profiting by the credulity of
the English nation, would have fallen to the ground, had it not been
fostered and cherished by Shaftesbury, who very soon perceived it could
be made the means of turning out Lord Danby, and driving matters to
extremity against the Catholic faction. He might well indeed exult in
his management in the former particular, since Danby was the first
to introduce into the House of Commons that very discussion about
the plot, to which, as Shaftesbury managed it, he himself fell a
sacrifice.[411] But it was chiefly as a means of bringing forward the
Bill of Exclusion, and of crushing for ever the hopes of his mortal
foe the Duke of York,[412] that Shaftesbury became the patron of all
investigations connected with the plot, pushed them on with vigour
and vehemence, and dipped himself deep in the blood of the innocent
persons who fell sacrifices to the popular clamour he had excited, and
to evidence, which much less than Shaftesbury's abilities might easily
have discovered to be inconsistent and fabulous.
A humorous pamphlet, already quoted, represents Shaftesbury as
abandoning his pretensions to the crown of Poland, for the purpose of
following up the discovery of the Popish plot. "In the very height of
all this expectation, one night as his majesty elect lay musing upon
his bed, restless with the thoughts and expectation of the approaching
empire, there appeared to him, by the light of a lamp that was burning
in his chamber, a dreadful and most monstrous vision. The shape and
figure of it was very confused and irregular: sometimes it looked like
the whore of Babylon, naked, and of immense privities; presently, in
the twinkling of an eye, the form was changed, and it appeared like a
justice of the peace, strangled by a crew of ruffians, who afterwards
ran him through the body with his own sword, that it might be thought
he hanged himself; on a sudden it was altered again, and seemed a troop
of pilgrims, armed with black bills, that came the Lord knows whence,
landed the Lord knows where, and are gone the Lord knows whither.
His majesty seeing it vary so often, and so terribly, calling up all
the faith he had to his assistance, boldly demanded 'In the name of,
&c. what art thou?' Instantly, after a terrible clap of thunder,
accompanied with several flashes of lightning, it contracted itself
into the shape of a doctor of Salamanca, and, in a hideous tone, cried
out, 'I am a PLOT. Woe to England! farewell till 78;' and vanished.
No sooner was it gone, but a stupid amazement seized upon the majesty
of Poland, and cast him into a deep sleep, where he lay till morning,
when, awakening, he found himself stript of all the high and aspiring
thoughts that before had filled his mind; pity and compassion towards
his native country utterly cooled his ambition, and from that moment he
laid by all thoughts of converting the Turk, and resolved to stay at
home for confounding the pope.
"Thus has this good man, (for he is no more his majesty,) again
refused the highest promotion that perhaps any subject of England was
ever raised to, merely to stand in a gap here, and slay the plague that
was coming upon us."[413]
Note V.
_Have I for this------
Even when at helm, a course so dangerous moved,
To land your hopes, as my removal proved._
P. 325.
In 1679, the national discontent running exceedingly high, both on
account of the Popish plot, and for other reasons, the king, by the
advice of Sir William Temple, summoned a council of thirty persons,
fifteen of whom were the great officers of the crown, and fifteen
chosen from the country party. Shaftesbury was made president of this
council, against the opinion of Temple; and quickly found the means of
pressing his favourite measure of the Exclusion Bill. Monmouth, upon
whose interest in the king's affections he had great reliance, was
the person whom he proposed to nominate as successor, either by a law
to be passed for the purpose, or by prevailing on the king to declare
him legitimate. For this purpose, the interest of Shaftesbury was
exerted to have the duke sent down to Scotland, to oppose the insurgent
Covenanters, whom he defeated at Bothwell Bridge. The king's illness,
and the sudden revolution which took place in his councils, upon the
unexpected return of the Duke of York from Flanders, ruined this
project, and occasioned the disgrace of Monmouth, and the dismissal of
Shaftesbury.
Note VI.
_Amongst these, extorting Ishban first appears,
Pursued by a meagre troop of bankrupt heirs._
P. 328.
Sir Robert Clayton, alderman of London, and one of the representatives
of the city during the two last parliaments of King Charles II., was
warmly attached to the Whig party. He took an active concern, as a
magistrate, in examining the sham-plotter, Fitz-Harris; and was charged
by the Tories with an attempt to suborn that person to swear, that
he had been hired by the court to fix a plot upon the Protestants.
The examination of Fitz-Harris, who swore, and counter-swore, in many
different ways, besides avouching that he was bribed to concoct a
sham-plot, and to ascribe it to the Whigs, (a base manœuvre, too
often played off by both parties to be incredible,) added a thousand
improbable falsehoods about a Papist plot against the Protestants.
When removed from the city jail, and committed to the Tower, he told
another story: He was then in the power of the king, and alleged, that
Howard, and others, were in a plot to seize the king's person, and
that they had employed him to contrive the aforesaid sham-plot, in
order to charge upon the court the crime of subornation, &c. He added,
that Clayton, Bethel, Cornish, and Treby, the city-recorder, extorted
from him, by threats, his previous declaration concerning the Popish
plot, and used the most urgent means to compel him to impute the guilt
of Godfrey's murder to Danby, and to fix an accession to the Popish
conspiracy on the queen and Duke of York. The man was executed adhering
to this last story. Clayton, and the others accused of such infamous
practices, exculpated themselves in a pamphlet, entitled, "Truth
Vindicated," in which they showed many objections to Fitz-Harris's
final declaration. We must be contented to leave the affair in mystery;
and to regret there ever was a time in England, when the character and
common practices of both the leading parties in the kingdom were by no
means pure enough to exempt either from such foul suspicions.
Sir Robert Clayton, with the other London members, all of whom were
zealous Whigs, and whose re-election was hailed by the acclamations
of their party,[414] attended the Oxford Parliament in formidable
array; they were escorted by a numerous band of armed partizans,
who wore on their hats ribbons, bearing the label, "No Popery, no
Slavery," and were obviously prepared for something more than an usual
attendance upon their duty in the House of Commons. According to
Dugdale's evidence, Sir Robert Clayton was present at a carousal at
Lord Lovelace's, near Oxford, where Colledge, one of their principal
myrmidons, sung the unlucky ballad, which went so far towards his
condemnation.[415]
The story, that Sir Robert Clayton wished to purchase a peerage, seems
to have become popular. In the last will and testament of the Charter
of London is this, among other jocular bequests; "To Sir Robert Clayton
I bequeath all that the chamberlain has left of the common stock, to
purchase Paddington manor, with the demesnes and appurtenances thereto,
since there are now no _dukedoms_ to be purchased; and it is thought
that Tyburn, paying his arrears next year to the city, will yield a
better rate than 20l. _per cent._ in the banker's hands."--_Somers'
Tracts_, p. 185. His usury is also hinted at in a poem called, "The
Duke of Buckingham's Litany," and its consequences are enumerated among
the other follies of that prodigal peer:
From learning new morals from Bedlam Sir Payton;
And truth and modesty from Sir Ellis Layton;
From making our heirs, to be Morrice and Clayton,
_Libera nos, Domine._
It ought to be mentioned to Sir Robert Clayton's honour, that out of
his wealth, howsoever procured, he dedicated a portion to found the
mathematical school in Christ Church Hospital.
Note VII.
_Next him, let railing Rabsheka have place,
So full of zeal, he has no need of grace;
A saint, that can both flesh and spirit use,
Alike haunt conventicles and stews._--P. 328.
Sir Thomas Player, chamberlain of the city of London, was, like Sir
Robert Clayton, one of the city members, both in the Westminster
and Oxford parliaments; and, being as zealous as his colleague in
the popular cause, what has been said concerning their mode of
marching to Oxford, applies to him as well as to the other. He is
accused of libertinism, in the pasquinade quoted in the last note,
where the Charter of London makes him this bequest: "To Sir Thomas
Player, I leave all the manor of Moorfields, with all the wenches and
bawdy-houses thereunto belonging, with Mrs Cresswells[416] for his
immediate inheritance, to enjoy and occupy all, from the bawd to the
whore downward, at nineteen shillings in the pound cheaper than any
other person, because he may not exhaust the chamber by paying old
arrears, nor embezzle the stock by running into new scores."[417]
Note VIII.
_Let David's brother but approach the town,
Double our guards, he cries, we are undone._
P. 328.
When the Duke of York unexpectedly returned from Brussels, on the
news of the king's illness, his arrival spread discomfiture through
Shaftesbury's party in court, and rage and alarm among those in the
city. Sir Thomas Player, at the head of a numerous body of citizens,
or persons who called themselves so, made his appearance before the
lord-mayor, and court of aldermen; and after having expatiated, in a
set speech, upon the horrors of Popery, and upon the return of the
Duke of York, whose religion had first led to the conspiracy, and
whose recent arrival must necessarily give it new life, he gravely
demanded, that the city-guards should be doubled, and that four
companies, instead of two, should be appointed to duty every night.
The lord-mayor, after some discussion, evaded Sir Thomas's request,
by referring it to the livery. In the vehemence of the chamberlain's
oratory, a remarkable expression, noticed in the text, chanced to
escape him, "that he durst hardly go to sleep, for fear of awaking
with his throat cut." In the pretended account of this interview, he
is only made to say, that it was now out of doubt, that the Papists
had burnt the city; "And if they had not been disappointed, would have
cut our throats too at the same time, while we were endeavouring to
save the small remainder of our goods." But the publisher acknowledges,
he could give but an imperfect account of the "speech of this worthy
and deserving knight, and the Lord Mayor's generous reply thereunto."
"Cutting throats," indeed, appears to have been a frequent terror of
the zealous knight. In the Westminster parliament, he made a speech
on the Exclusion Bill, in which, after stating that he had read in
Scripture of one man dying for a nation, but never of three nations
dying for one man; he assured the House, that they "would be embroiled
in blood before they were aware of it;" that he had "_no patience to
think of sitting still while his throat was a cutting_;" and therefore
prayed, they would endeavour to have laws that might enable them
to defend themselves.[418] In the parliament of Oxford, Sir Thomas
Player made a violent speech, upon Fitzharris being withdrawn from the
city jail, and sent to the Tower, with a view, as he contended, of
stifling his evidence against the Duke of York and the Papists; and
concluded by making a motion, which was carried, that if any judge,
justice, or jury, should proceed upon him, and he be found guilty,
they be declared guilty of his murder, and betrayers of the rights of
the commons of England. In short, Sir Thomas Player was a hot-headed
violent factionary; but Rouse, one of his dependants who suffered for
the Rye-house plot, with his dying breath cleared Sir Thomas of any
accession to that conspiracy; and declared, that he broke with Lord
Shaftesbury, upon perceiving the violent plans which he agitated after
his being freed from the Tower. _State Trials_, p. 750.
Note IX.
_Judas, that keeps the rebels' pension-purse;
Judas, that pays the treason-writer's fee;
Judas, that well deserves his name-sake's tree;
Who at Jerusalem's own gates erects
His college for a nursery of sects._--P. 329.
Under the name of Judas, Dryden describes the famous Robert Ferguson,
a native of Scotland, and, by profession, an independant preacher, and
teacher of an academy at Islington.--_Ath. Ox._ Vol. II. p. 743. He
was one of those dark, intriguing, subtile, and ferocious characters,
that emerge into notice in times of turmoil and civil dissension, and
whose appearance as certainly bodes revolution, as the gambols of
the porpoise announce a tempest. Through the whole of his busy and
desperate career, he appears to have been guided less by any principle,
moral or political, than by the mere pleasure of dealing in matters
deep and dangerous, and exerting his ingenuity to shake the quiet
of the kingdom at the risk of his own neck. In organizing dark and
bloody intrigues; in maintaining the courage of the zealots whom he
engaged in them; in carrying on the mystic correspondence by which the
different parts of the conspiracy were to be cemented and conjoined;
in guarding against the risque of discovery, and, lastly, in effecting
with nicety a hairbreadth escape when it had taken place,--all these
perilous, dubious, and criminal manœuvres, at which the noble-minded
revolt, and the peaceful are terrified, were the scenes in which the
genius of Ferguson delighted to exert itself. When the magistracy of
London was thrown into the hands of the crown, the charter annulled,
and all means of accomplishing a revolution by the ancient existing
authorities, were annihilated, such a character as Ferguson became of
inestimable value to Shaftesbury, considering the new plans which he
had in agitation, and the persons by whom they were to be accomplished.
Accordingly, he shared much of that politician's confidence, while his
influence, as a popular and violent preacher in the city, gave him
every facility of selecting and training the persons fittest to assist
in the meditated insurrection. His chapel, in Moorfields, was crowded
with multitudes of fanatics, whom fired by his political sermons, and
occasionally stimulated by libels and pamphlets, from a private press
of which he had the management, as well as of a purse that maintained
it. He distributed most of the pamphlets written on the Whig party,
and was by no means averse to father even the most dangerous of them;
his vanity, according to Burnet, getting the better of his prudence.
Some notable pieces, however, of his composition, are still known;
his style was of that diffuse, coarse, and periphrastic nature, best
suited to the apprehension of the vulgar, upon whose dull intellects
sentiments are always impressive, in proportion to the length of
time they are forced to dwell on them. He wrote the "Appeal from the
Country to the City," where, in plain words, he points out the Duke of
Monmouth as successor to the crown, and that because he had a dubious,
or rather no title at all to claim it. "No person is fitter than his
Grace the Duke of Monmouth, as well for quality, courage, and conduct,
as for that his life and fortune stand on the same bottom with yours.
He will stand by you, and therefore you ought to stand by him. And
remember the old rule is, _He, that has the worst title, ever makes
the best king_; as being constrained, by a gracious government, to
supply what he wants in title; that, instead of _God and my right_, his
motto may be, _God and my people_." He proceeds to quote a historical
example for putting Monmouth on the throne, under the tutelage of
Shaftesbury, by stating that, after the death of Alexander, nothing
would pacify the dissensions which ensued, "but the choosing of King
Philip's illegitimate son, Aridæus, who, notwithstanding that he was a
man but of reasonable parts himself, might, as they thought, perform
the office well enough, by the help of his wise protector Perdiceas."
This extraordinary piece is filled with the most violent declamations
against the Papists, in that tawdry, bombastic, and inflammatory
eloquence, wherewith, to speak according to Dryden's parable, he
"tempted Jerusalem to sin."[419]
Ferguson also wrote the second part of "No Protestant Plot," another
very violent pamphlet, and several treatises on the same subject.
Meanwhile, other means were prepared to effect the desired change
of government. It is not necessary to enter particularly into the
well-known history of the Rye-house plot. Every body knows, that,
while Russel, Sidney, Monmouth, and others, undertook to raise an
insurrection in the country, Shaftesbury promised to head ten thousand
brisk boys in the city of London. Among these brisk boys were a fanatic
party, who agitated projects of assassinating the King and the Duke
of York, unknown to the more generous nobles, who proposed only to
secure the king's person. In all and each of these cabals, Ferguson
acted a distinguished part. When Shaftesbury fled from his house into
lurking places about Wapping, he trusted Ferguson with the secret of
his residence, although concealed from the noble-minded Russel, and the
generous Monmouth. By his intervention, he heartened and encouraged the
associates to break forth into open insurrection. With the inferior
conspirators, Ferguson was yet more intimate, and seems, in fact, to
have given life to the vague and desperate plans of _lopping_, as they
called the assassination of the royal brothers, by the countenance
which he pretended to procure the conspirators from those of superior
rank. He told West, he would procure the Duke of Monmouth's written
consent to his father's murder; although he afterwards allowed, he
durst not even mention such a plan to him. At length, when Shaftesbury,
weary of the delays of the other conspirators, left England for ever,
Ferguson and Walcot were the companions of his flight. By this the
plan of insurrection was for a time confounded, for the higher order
of the malcontents were ignorant of the lines of communication by
which the city cabal was conducted. Ferguson was therefore recalled,
and in an evil hour returned from Holland. His arrival gave new life
both to the upper and inferior conspiracy: in the former, six of the
leaders formed themselves into a regular committee, to extend their
influence and correspondence through the kingdom, and unite measures
with the disaffected in Scotland. The lower band of assassins matured
and prepared their plan for assassinating the king and duke as they
returned from Newmarket. Ferguson, who still acted in the capacity of
treasurer, which Dryden has assigned him, paid for the arms provided
for the enterprize; and, by his daring language, encouraged them to
proceed. He offered, in mockery, to consecrate the blunderbuss with
which Rumbold was to fire into the carriage; and when Sunday was fixed
for the day of action, he quoted the old Scottish proverb, "the better
day, the better deed." Even when, by the treachery of Keeling, the
plot was finally discovered, and the conspirators were dispersing in
dismay and terror, Ferguson took his leave of them with great gaiety,
and, trusting to the plots of Argyle and Jerviswood, with which he
was also intimate, told them, he hoped to meet them all at Dunbar.
This indifference, at such a crisis, led to a supposition, that he had
some secret correspondence with government: it was even said, that
the messenger who arrested Ferguson suffered him to escape, but of
this there seems no evidence. He retired to Holland, where he joined
the unfortunate Monmouth, and was a principal agent in pushing him
on to his western invasion, when, if left to himself, he would have
remained in quiet. He drew the proclamation which Monmouth issued
at his landing, a prolix, ill-worded production, stuffed with all
the true, and all the false accusations against James II., and where
the last so much drowned the others, that it was only calculated to
make an impression on the lowest vulgar. He was always earnest with
Monmouth, to take upon himself the title of king; and may be said to
have contributed greatly to every false step which he made, and to
the final destruction in which they ended. Of this Monmouth was so
sensible, that he told the king in their last interview, "That Ferguson
was chiefly the person who instigated him to set up his title of king,
and had been a main adviser and contriver of the whole affair, as
well to the attempting, as acting, what had been done;" but he had
little to answer when Halifax expressed his surprise, that he should
have given ear to him who, as he had long before told the late king,
"was a bloody rogue, and always advised to the cutting of throats."
Ferguson was taken, on this occasion, the third day after the battle
of Sedgemore. Yet, when so much blood was spilt, both with, and
without the forms of law, this man, who had been most active in the
conspiracy against the king, when Duke of York, and had now organized
an invasion and insurrection in his dominions, was, by the inexorable
James, freely pardoned and dismissed, to council and assist the next
conspiracy. Perhaps his life was saved by Sunderland, lest he had
disclosed what he probably knew of his intercourse with the Prince
of Orange, and even with Monmouth himself. Ferguson seems, on his
liberation, to have returned to Holland; and did not fail to take a
share in the intrigues which preceded the Revolution. He managed the
dissenters for the interest of the Prince of Orange; and endeavoured
to press upon William a sense of their importance. But other, and more
important engines, were now at work; and Ferguson seems to have enjoyed
but a subaltern consideration: Burnet, who made such a figure in the
expedition, avers, he did not even know him by sight.[420] When the
Prince of Orange was at Exeter, the dissenters refused him the keys of
their meeting house. But Ferguson was accustomed to surmount greater
obstacles. "I will take," said he, laughing, "the kingdom of heaven by
storm," and broke open the door with his own hand. After the Revolution
was accomplished, one would have thought Ferguson's machinations might
have ended. He had seen his party triumphant; he had been rewarded with
a good post;[421] and, what was probably dearer to him than either
principle or profit, his intrigues had successfully contributed to the
achievement of a great change of government. But it was not in his
nature to be in repose; and, having spent all the former part of his
life in caballing to drive James from the throne, he now engaged with
the same fervour in every conspiracy for his restoration. In the very
year which succeeded that of the Revolution, we find him deeply engaged
with Sir James Montgomery, and the other Scottish presbyterians,
who, discontented with King William, had united with the Jacobites.
The Marquis of Anandale having absconded on account of his share in
this conspiracy, Ferguson secreted him for several weeks; a kindness
which the Marquis repaid, by betraying him to government.[422] With
his usual good fortune, he was dismissed; either in consideration of
former services, or because a full proof against him was not to be
obtained. After this, he continued to engage in every plot against the
government; and each year published one or two pamphlets, which put
his ears, if not his neck, in peril. His last grand exhibition was an
attack upon Trenchard, the secretary of state, for the use of blank and
general warrants.[423] But that adventure, as the romance writers say,
was reserved for another demagogue. Finally, Ferguson, who had in this
remarkable manner kept his promise of being engaged in every conspiracy
of his time, and, had gained the honourable epithet of "The Plotter,"
died quietly, and in peace, after having repeatedly seen the scaffold
stream with the blood of the associates of his various machinations.
One touch alone softens the character of this extraordinary incendiary.
In all his difficulties, he is never charged with betraying his
associates. His person is thus remarkably described in the proclamation
for apprehending his person, among the other Rye-house assassins.
A description of several of the conspirators that are fled. London
Gazette, from August 2d, to August 6th, 1683.
"Robert Ferguson, a tall lean man, dark-brown hair, a great Roman
nose, thin jawed, heat in his face, speaks in the Scotch tone, a sharp
piercing eye, stoops a little in the shoulders. He has a shuffling
gait, that differs from all men; wears his periwig down almost over his
eyes; about 45 or 46 years old."
Note X.
_Here Phaleg, the lay Hebronite, is come._--P. 329.
Of James Forbes I can give but a slight account. He was placed by the
Duke of Ormond as travelling tutor to the young Earl of Derby, who had
married his grand-daughter. Carte says, he was a gentleman of parts,
virtue, and prudence, but of too mild a nature to manage his pupil.
In Paris the earl addicted himself to the society of one Merrit, a
worthless profligate; and the governor having cautioned his charge
against this acquaintance, was assaulted at disadvantage by Merrit,
and dangerously wounded. Lord Derby, it seems, not only countenanced
Merrit's assault upon Mr Forbes, but, at the instigation of some young
French rakes, consented to his governor's being tossed in a blanket.
The Duke of Ormond, finding that the earl was wild and impatient of
restraint, and that his tutor's sage remonstrances had but little
effect, recalled Forbes, and sent in his stead Colonel Thomas Fairfax,
a gallant and brave man, and roughly honest. Lord Derby was at first
restiff; but Fairfax telling him plainly, that he was sent to govern
him, and would govern him, and that his lordship must submit, and
should do it, the young nobleman had the sense to comply, broke off his
evil acquaintances, and behaved ever after with great propriety.[424]
Forbes's misadventures in Paris, though, according to Carte, they
inferred no real dishonour, are severely alluded to by Dryden in the
text. I am not anxious to unrip the ancient chronicle of scandal,
in order to trace Phaleg's amours. He appears to have become one of
Monmouth's dependants.
Note XI.
_Let Hebron, nay let hell, produce a man,
So made for mischief as Ben-Jochanan._--P. 330.
The Reverend Samuel Johnson, a party-writer of considerable merit. He
was a native of Warwickshire, and took orders after a regular course
of study at Cambridge. He obtained the small living of Curingham,
in Essex, by the patronage of a Mr Biddolph. The emoluments of this
benefice did not exceed eighty pounds a-year; and it was the only
church preferment he ever enjoyed. Dryden alludes to his poverty in
describing his original situation. Mr Johnson's patron, observing his
turn for politics, exhorted him to study the English constitution in
Bracton and Fortescue; but by no means to make his sermons the vehicle
for his political sentiments. The opinions which he formed in the
course of study, were such as recommended him as chaplain to the famous
Lord Russell.
While he was in this situation, and during the dependance of the Bill
of Exclusion, he endeavoured at once to show the danger to a national
religion from a sovereign who held opposite tenets, and to explode
the doctrine of passive obedience, in a work entitled, "Julian the
Apostate; with a short Account of his Life, and a Parallel betwixt
Popery and Paganism." In this performance, according to Wood, he was
assisted by Thomas Hunt the lawyer. This book, which made a good deal
of noise at the time, was answered by the learned Hickes, in a treatise
called "Jovian," in which, according to Anthony a Wood, the doctor
hath, with unquestionable clearness, laid open the folly, "ignorance,
weakness, and pernicious drift of that traitorous scribbler." Without
entering into the controversy, there can be little doubt, that, so
far as the argument from the example of the primitive Christians is
sound, Johnson has fairly made out his case. Indeed Dryden has little
left to say, except, that if they did resist Julian, which he seems
to admit, they were very wrong in so doing, and the less that is said
about it, the more will be the credit of the ancient church. Johnson
prepared a reply to "Jovian," called, the "Arts of Julian to undermine
Christianity;" but the Rye-house Plot having intervened, he did not
judge it prudent to publish it. He was called before the Privy Council,
who insisted upon knowing why this book, which had been entered at
Stationers Hall, was not published? His answer alleged, that the
ferment of the nation was so great as to render the further discussion
of the question imprudent. They then demanded a copy of the book; and
added, that, if they approved it, it should be published. To this
insidious proposal he boldly replied, that, having suppressed the book,
it only contained his private thoughts, which he could be compelled
to disclose to no man on earth. For this answer he was committed to
prison, and his house searched for the copies, which had fortunately
been bestowed elsewhere. The court finding themselves unable to reach
Johnson for _not_ publishing his second work, determined to try him
for publishing his first. Accordingly, he was brought to the bar and
insulted by Jefferies, who told him, he would give him a text, "Let
every man study to be quiet, and mind his own business."--"I minded my
business as an Englishman," answered this spirited man, "when I wrote
that book." All defence was in vain; he was condemned to a heavy fine,
and to lie in jail till it was paid, which in his circumstances was
equal to a sentence of perpetual imprisonment. Even from his prison
house, where he lay for five years, amid the accumulated distresses
of sickness and poverty, he let his countrymen hear his voice, and
failed not to enter an animated and vigorous protest against each new
encroachment upon the liberty and religion of England.[425] At length,
having published "An humble and hearty Address to all the English
Protestants in this present Army,"[426] exhorting them not to serve
as instruments to eradicate their religion and enslave their country,
he again fell under the grasp of power, was tried and sentenced to
be thrice pilloried, and whipped from Newgate to Tyburn; having been
previously degraded from his ecclesiastical orders. He bore both the
previous ceremony of degradation, and the cruel punishment which
followed, with the greatest magnanimity. When they disrobed him, he
told the divines present, that he could not but grieve, since all
he had written was to keep the gowns on their backs, they should
nevertheless be the unhappy instruments to pull off his. When they put
a Bible into his hand as a part of the formality of degradation, and
again took it from him, he was much affected, and said with tears, they
could not, however, deprive him of the use and benefit of that sacred
deposit.[427] On the 1st of December, 1686, he suffered the remainder
of his inhuman sentence; the pain being his, but the infamy that of
the persons who imposed it.
After the Revolution, the proceedings against this staunch patriot
were declared illegal; and he received a pension of L.300 yearly, with
L.1000 in money, and a post for his son. Crewe, Bishop of Durham, who
acted as one of the commissioners for discharging the duty of the
Bishop of London, and as such was active in Mr Johnson's degradation,
compounded with him against a suit at law, by payment of a handsome
sum. Yet Johnson's dangers were not over; for, such was the enmity of
the adherents of King James against him, that a party of desperate
assassins broke into his house by night, beat, wounded, and threatened
to pistol him, for the books he had written; but, upon his wife's
intreaties, at length desisted from their bloody design. The latter
part of his days were spent in quietness and independence.
The reader may contrast the character which Dryden has given of
Johnson, with that of Hampden, who, in an account of him to the Duchess
of Mazarine, says; "Being two years with him in the same prison, I had
the opportunity to know him perfectly well; and, to speak my thoughts
of him in one word, I can assure your Grace, that I never knew a man of
better sense, of a more innocent life, nor of greater virtue, which was
proof against all temptation, than Mr Johnson."--See Memorials of his
Life prefixed to his Works in folio.
Note XII.
_If Balack should be called to leave his place,
As profit is the loudest call of grace,
His temple, dispossessed of one, would be
Replenished with seven devils more by thee._--P. 331.
The famous Gilbert Burnet was then lecturer at St Clements, and
preacher at the Rolls chapel, under the patronage of Sir Harbottle
Grimstone, Master of the Rolls. King Charles was so anxious that he
should be dismissed, as to make it his particular request to Sir
Harbottle; but the Master excused himself. It was here he preached that
famous sermon on the day of the Gunpowder Treason, 5th November, 1684,
when he chose for his text, "Save me from the _lion's_ mouth, thou
hast heard me from the horns of the _unicorns_;" which, in spite of
the doctor's protestations to the contrary, certain suspicious persons
considered as an allusion to the supporters of the king's arms. For
this he was finally disgraced, and turned out of the chapel of the
Rolls. See note on the Buzzard, in the "Hind and Panther."
Note XIII.
_Some in my speedy pace I must out-run,
As lame Mephibosheth, the wizard's son._--P. 331.
Samuel Pordage, a minor poet and dramatist of the time, drew this
passing sarcasm on his person and pedigree, by a stupid poem, called
"Azariah and Hushai," published 1681-2; being an attempt to imitate
or answer "Absalom and Achitophel:" with what success the reader may
judge, from the following character of Dryden:
Shimei, the poet laureat of that age,
The falling glory of the Jewish stage,
Who scourged the priest, and ridiculed the plot,
Like common men, must not be quite forgot.
Sweet was the muse that did his wit inspire,
Had he not let his hackney muse to hire:
But variously his knowing muse could sing,
Could Doeg praise, and could blaspheme the king;
The bad make good, good bad, and bad make worse.
Bless in heroics, and in satires curse.
Shimei to Zabed's[428] praise could tune his muse,
And princely Azaria could abuse.
Zimri, we know, he had no cause to praise,
Because he dubbed him with the name of Bayes:
Revenge on him did bitter venom shed,
Because he tore the laurel from his head;
Because he durst with his proud wit engage,
And brought his follies on the public stage.
Tell me, Apollo, for I can't divine,
Why wives he cursed, and praised the concubine;
Unless it were, that he had led his life
With a teeming matron, ere she was a wife;
Or that it best with his dear muse did suit,
Who was for hire a very prostitute.
He also stepped forward to break a lance with our author, on the
subject of Shaftesbury's acquittal; and answered the "Medal" by a
very stupid poem, called the "Medal Reversed." To all this scurrilous
doggrel, Dryden only replied by the single couplet above quoted. He
calls Mephibosheth "the wizard's son," because the Reverend John
Pordage, vicar of Bradfield, in Berkshire, and father of the poet,
Samuel, was ejected from his cure by the commissioners of Berkshire,
for conversation with evil spirits, and for blasphemy, ignorance,
scandalous behaviour, devilism, uncleanness, and heaven knows what. His
case of insufficiency is among the State Trials, from which he seems to
have been a crazy enthusiast, who believed in a correspondence with
genii and dæmons.
Samuel Pordage was a member of the society of Lincoln's Inn. He wrote
three plays, namely, the "Troades," translated from Seneca, "Herod and
Mariamne," and "The Siege of Babylon." He also published a romance
called "Eliana," and prepared a new edition of "God's Revenge against
Murder," which was published after his death. Pordage was, moreover,
author of "Heroic Stanzas on his Majesty's Coronation, 1661," and
probably of other occasional pieces, deservedly doomed to oblivion.
Note XIV.
_Shun rotten Uzza as I would the pox._--P. 331.
Jack Hall, ranked as a sort of third-rate poet and courtier among the
minor wits of the time. In the "Essay on Satire," he is mentioned as
a companion of "little Sid, for simile renowned." Whether we suppose
Sidley, or Sidney, to be represented under that character, as they were
both at present in the country party, it is possible that Jack Hall
went into opposition with his friend and admirer. See the note upon
Hall, appended to the "Essay on Satire."
Note XV.
_Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
Made still a blundering kind of melody._--P. 331.
Elkanah Settle, whose original quarrel with our author is detailed
in the introductory remarks to their prose controversy, had now
further incensed him, by tergiversation in politics: For Elkanah,
although originally a Tory, was induced, probably by his connections
as poet-laureat for the city, to go over to the party of Monmouth and
Shaftesbury.[429] His new friends made use of his talents in a two-fold
capacity. Shaftesbury employed him to write a pamphlet in favour of
the Exclusion, entitled, "The Character of a Popish Successor." When
Settle afterwards recanted, he said, this piece, which made some
noise at the time, was retouched by "his noble friend in Aldersgate
Street," whose only objection was, that it was not sufficiently
violent in favour of insurrection. Settle, having a mechanical turn,
was also employed as chief engineer at the solemn pope-burning, which
we have so often mentioned; in which charge he acquitted himself much
to the satisfaction of his employers. On account of his literary and
mechanical merits, Sir Roger L'Estrange allots him the double office
of poet-laureat and master of the ordnance to the Whig faction, in the
following passage of a dialogue between Jest and Earnest:
"_Jest._ For instance, I knew a lusty fellow, who would not willingly
be thought valiant,[430] who has an indifferent hand at making of
crackers, serpents, rockets, and the other playthings that are proper
on the 5th of November; and has for such his skill received applause,
and victuals, from the munificent gentlemen about Temple-bar.
"_Earnest._ And he, I'll warrant, is made master of the ordnance?
"_Jest._ True; and I think him very fit for it. But he's like to have
another employment, of a strangely different nature; for, because this
dull wretch, once upon a time, wrote a fulsomely nonsensical poem,
in prose, being a character of a bugbear, he, forsooth, is designed
poet-laureat too!
"_Earnest._ These two offices, as you say, one would think, should
require diverse accomplishments: But then it may be said, that these
may well enough be supplied by one man; the poet to make ballads in
peace, and betake himself to his other business in war.
"_Jest._ Nay, his squibs and his poems have much what the same fortune;
they crack and bounce, and the boys and girls laugh at them.
"_Earnest._ Well, how great are the advantages! I thought the
author of the satyric work upon the "Observator," and Heraclitus,
or the _Person of Honour_, that obliged the pie-folks with poetical
reflections upon "Absalom and Achitophel;" I say, I thought these
forsaken scribblers might have bid fairest for the evergreen twig.
"_Jest._ I thought so too; but hunger will break stone-walls. Elk.
promises to vindicate Lucifer's first rebellion for a few guineas. Poor
Absalom and Achitophel must e'en hide themselves in the Old Testament
again; and I question whether they'll be safe there from the fury of
this mighty Cacadoggin.
"_Earnest._ Silly chit! has he not learned the apologue of the Serpent
and the File? But fare him well."--_Heraclitus Redens_, No. 50.
From the last part of this passage, it appears that Settle was then
labouring upon his answer to "Absalom and Achitophel," for which Dryden
condemned him to a disgraceful immortality. At length he came forth
with "Absalom Senior, or Achitophel Transprosed."[431]
In this piece Dryden's plan is followed, by applying the names and
history of scripture to modern persons and events. Thus, Queen
Elizabeth is Deborah, and Sir Francis Drake, Barak; the Papists are the
worshippers of Baal, and the Duke of York is Absalom. This circumstance
did not escape the wit of Dryden, who says of Settle, in the text,
For almonds he'll cry whore to his own mother,
Or call young Absalom King David's brother.
Indeed, Elkanah seems himself to have been sensible of the absurdity
of this personification, by which the king's brother, almost as old as
himself, was converted into the blooming son of David; and apologizes,
in his preface addressed to the Tories, for "the freedom of clapping
but about a score of years extraordinary on the back of Absalom.
Neither is it," he continues, "altogether so unpardonable a poetical
licence; since we find as great slips from the author of your own
'Absalom,' where we see him bring in a Zimri into the court of David,
who, in the scripture story, died by the hand of Phineas, in the days
of Moses.[432] Nay, in the other extreme, we find him, in another
place, talking of the martyrdom of Stephen, so many ages after; and, if
so famous an author can forget his own rules of unity, time, and place,
I hope you'll give a minor poet some grains of allowance."
Sir E. Godfrey's murder is disguised under that of Amnon, Tamar's rape
being explained the discovery of the plot:
Baal's cabinet intrigues he open spread;
The ravish'd Tamar, for whose sake he bled.
As Settle's poems have long fallen into total oblivion, from which his
name has only been rescued by the satirical pen of Dryden, and as he
was once thought no unequal rival for that great poet, the reader may
be curious to see a specimen of his style; I have therefore inserted
the few of the leading characters of "Absalom Senior," in which he has
"rhymed and rattled" with most tolerable success.
DUKE OF MONMOUTH.
In the first rank the youthful Ithream stood,
His princely veins filled with great David's blood;
With so much manly beauty in his face,
Scarce his high birth could lend a nobler grace;
And for a mind fit for this shrine of gold,
Heaven cast his soul in the same beauteous mould,
With all the sweets of prideless greatness blest,
And affable as Abraham's angel guest.
SHAFTESBURY.
That second Moses' guide resolved to free
Our Israel from her threatening slavery;
Idolatry and chains, both from the rods
Of Pharaoh masters and Egyptian gods.
* * * * *
Such our Barzillai; but Barzillai too,
With Moses' fate does Moses' zeal pursue;
Leads to that bliss which his own silver hairs
Shall never reach, rich only to his heirs.
Kind patriot, who, to plant us banks of flowers,
With purling streams, cool shades, and summer bowers,
His age's needful rest away does fling,
Exhausts his autumn to adorn our spring;
While his last hours in toils and storms are hurled,
And only to enrich the inheriting world.
Thus prodigally throws his life's short span,
To play his country's generous pelican.
The ungainly appearance, uncouth delivery, and versatile politics of
the famous Duke of Lauderdale, are thus described:
Let not that hideous bulk of honour 'scape,
Nadab, that sets the gazing crowd agape;
That old kirk-founder, whose coarse croak could sing
The saints, the cause, no bishop, and no king;
When greatness cleared his throat, and scoured his maw,
Roared out succession, and the penal law.
* * * * *
To Absalom's side does his Old Covenant bring,
With state razed out, and interlined with king.
JEFFERIES.
Of low-born tools we bawling Shimei saw,
Jerusalem's late loud-tongued mouth of law;
By blessings from almighty bounty given,
Shimei, no common favourite of heaven,
Whom, lest posterity should lose the breed,
In five short moons indulgent heaven raised seed,
Made happy in an early teeming bride,
And laid a lovely heiress by her side.[433]
But, as was reasonably to be expected, Settle has exerted his whole
powers of satire and poetry in the description of his antagonist
Dryden: And here let me remark, that almost all the adversaries of
our author commence their attack, by an unwilling compliment to his
poetical powers:
But Amiel[434] had, alas! the fate to hear
An angry poet play his chronicler;
A poet raised above Oblivion's shade,
By his recorded verse immortal made.
But, sir, his livelier figure to engrave,
With branches added to the _bays_ you gave,
No muse could more heroic feats rehearse;
Had with an equal all-applauding verse,
Great David's sceptre, and Saul's javelin, praised,
A pyramid to his saint, Interest, raised:
For which, religiously, no change he mist, }
From commonwealth's man up to royalist; }
Nay, would have been his own loathed thing, called priest; }
Priest, which with so much gall he does describe,
'Cause once unworthy thought of Levi's tribe.
Near those bright towers, where Art has wonders done, }
And at his feet proud Jordan's waters run, }
Where David's sight glads the blest summer's sun, }
A cell there stands, by pious founders raised,
Both for its wealth and learned rabbins praised;
To this did an ambitious bard aspire.
To be no less than lord of that blest choir;
Till wisdom deemed so sacred a command
A prize too great for his unhallowed hand.
Besides, lewd Fame had told his plighted vow
To Laura's cooing love, perched on a drooping bough;
Laura, in faithful constancy confined
To Ethiop's envoy, and to all mankind;
Laura, though rotten, yet of mould divine,
He had all her ----, and she had all his coin;
Her wit so far his purse and sense could drain.
Till every ---- was sweetened to a strain;
And if at last his nature can reform,
As weary grown of love's tumultuous storm.
'Tis age's fault, not his, of power bereft,--
He left not whoring, but of that was left.
Settle's end was utterly inglorious. In 1683, he deserted the cause
of the Whigs, and returned to that of the Tories; for whom he wrote
several periodical tracts, in one of which, entitled, "A Narrative," he
accused his old patron Shaftesbury of correcting the famous "Character
of a Popish Successor;" and objecting, that it did not speak favourably
enough of rebellion.[435] Whether compelled by poverty, or through
zeal for the royal cause, he became a trooper in King James's army,
when it was encamped on Hounslow-Heath.[436] Finally, he took the
prophetic hint conveyed in Dryden's lines, and became, not indeed the
master, but the assistant, to a puppet-show, kept by a Mrs Minns, in
Bartholomew-fair. Thus, the expression, which Dryden had chiefly used
in contemptuous allusion to the share which Settle had in directing the
Pope-burning, and the fire-works which accompanied it, was literally
fulfilled.[437] Nay, poor Elkanah, in his old age, was at length
obliged not only to write for the puppet-show, but to appear in it as
a performer, inclosed in a case representing a green dragon of his own
proper device. There are few readers, who need to be reminded of Pope's
famous lines,--
Yet lo! in me what authors have to brag on!
Reduced at last to hiss in my own dragon.
Avert it, heaven! that thou, my Cibber, e'er
Should'st wag a serpent-tail in Smithfield fair!
In the close of life, this veteran scribbler found admission to the
Charter-house; and in that hospital, in the year 1724, died the rival
of Dryden.
In person, Elkanah Settle was tall, red-faced, and wore a satin cap
over his short black hair.
Note XVI.
_Now stop your noses, readers, all and some,
For here's a tun of midnight-work to come,
Og from a treason-tavern rolling home._--P. 333.
Our author had very shortly before the publication of the second part
of "Absalom and Achitophel," made his enemy, Shadwell, the subject of
a separate and cutting personal satire, called "Mac Flecnoe." That
poem, as we have noticed in the introductory remarks, has reference
principally to the literary character of his adversary; while, in the
lines which follow, he considers him chiefly as a political writer, and
factionary of the popular party. Shadwell's corpulence, his coarse and
brutal debauchery, his harsh and clumsy style of poetry, fell under
the lash on both occasions; and it is astonishing, with what a burning
variety of colours these qualities are represented. The history of his
literary disputes with Dryden may be perused in the introduction to
"Mac Flecnoe." In the "Vindication of the Duke of Guise," Dryden has
also given a severe flagellation to his corpulent adversary, in which
he says, "that although Shadwell has often called him an atheist in
print, he believes more charitably of his antagonist, and that he only
goes the broad way, because the other is too narrow for him."
Besides avenging abundance of personal abuse, Dryden, in the person of
Shadwell, chastises a great supporter of the Whig cause and principles.
Shadwell himself complains, that, in the days of Charles and James,
he "was silenced for a non-conformist poet." He was the chief among
the "corrector-men," as the authors and publishers of the Whig party
were oddly entitled;[438] and received the reward of his principles
at the Revolution, succeeding, as is well known, our author in the
office of poet laureat. In the epilogue to the "Volunteers," a play of
Shadwell's, acted after his death, the friends of the Revolution are
called upon to applaud their favourite bard's last production:
Crown you his last performance with applause,
Who love, like him, our liberties and laws;
Let but the honest party do him right,
And their loud claps will give him fame, in spite
Of the faint hiss of grumbling Jacobite.
Note XVII.
_These, gloomy, thoughtful, and on mischief bent;
While those for mere good fellowship frequent
The appointed club, can let sedition pass,
Sense, nonsense, any thing to employ the glass._--P. 335.
The reader will find some account of the King's Head Club, Vol. VII.
p. 154. North gives the following lively account of the _vulgar_, as
he calls them, of the popular faction. Their employ, according to him,
was, "to run about whispering here and there, by which management they
kept up the spirits of their fools, whose fire, without a continual
_pabulum_ of fresh news, talks, and hopes, would go out. Amongst these,
the cues and hints went about; honest, drunken, lying fellows, good
company, and always dear friends. A nod, with a wink, had a notable
signification, if it followed, 'Have patience, you shall see.'--'I
know somewhat extraordinary will be done shortly and soon, which
will secure all on our side.' And thus passively wicked were these
underlings, or fry of the party: they knew of the intrigue no more,
and were concerned as the wood of drums and the brass of trumpets are
in the war."[439]--"The pastime of this meeting, called the Club, was
very engaging to young gentlemen, and one, who had once tasted the
conversation, could scarcely ever quit it. For some or others were
continually coming and going, to import or export news or stories, as
the trade required and afforded. There it was known in half an hour,
what any member said at the committee of elections, or in the house,
if it sat late. And every post carried the news and tales legitimated
there, as also the malign constructions of all the good actions of
the government, especially to places where elections were depending
to shape men's characters into fit qualifications to be chosen or
rejected. The Pope himself could not make saints so readily as they
Papists, and so half-three-quarter Papists, as belief was prompt
or difficult. And a lewd atheistical fellow was as readily washed
clean, and made a zealous Protestant. For that genus of perfection
was not wanted in this dispensation, where no vice, immorality,
heresy, atheism, or blasphemous wit, had not professors ready to
embrace willing disciples, who, for the sake of such sublimities of
wit and sense as they were accounted, were ready to prostitute all
principles of duty, and especially those that regarded allegiance to
the crown."[440]
The well-known distinction of this famous club was a green ribband: in
opposition to which, the Tories wore in their hats a scarlet ribband,
with the motto, _Rex et Hæredes_. The prologue to "Anna Bullen" very
sensibly expostulates against these party badges:
Was't not enough, vain men, of either side,
Two roses once the nation did divide;
But must it be in danger now agen,
Betwixt the scarlet and green ribbon men?
Note XVIII.
_But in the sacred annals of our plot,
Industrious Arod never be forgot;
The labours of this midnight magistrate
May vie with Corah's, to preserve the state._--P. 335.
Sir William Waller, son of the parliamentary general of the same
name, distinguished himself during the time of the Popish plot, by
an uncommon decree of bustling activity. He was a justice of peace;
and, unawed by the supposed fate of his brother in the commission,
and in knighthood, Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, he stood forth the bold
investigator of this bottomless conspiracy. It was he who had the
fortune, by the assistance of Captain Dangerfield, to detect what was
called the Meal-Tub Plot, which that fellow, who had been trafficking
with both factions, and probably meant to cheat both, chose to
represent as a sham conspiracy, contrived to ruin Shaftesbury and
his friends. Upon this occasion, Sir William had much closeting with
a magnanimous midwife, called Mrs Cellier, whom Dangerfield charged
as an agent of the court, and who afterwards alleged, that the
knight took some uncommon means to extort confessions from her. Sir
William Waller was also the person who discovered Fitzharris's Plot;
and he intimated, that the king, who intended to turn it upon the
Protestants, was so much displeased with his blowing up the project,
that he threatened to have him assassinated. The Tories alleged, that
the pleasure of making these discoveries was not Sir William's sole
reward, any more than zeal was his only motive for gutting the Popish
chapels. "In which," says North, "he proceeded with such scandalous
rigour, as to bring forth the pictures and other furniture of great
value, and burn them publicly; which gave occasion to suspect, and some
said positively, that, under this pretence, he kept good things for
himself; in a word, he was called the priest-catcher."[441] Anthony
Wood joins in the accusation of his rifling the Papists' houses of
goods, and appropriating chapel ornaments as popish trinkets. I find
that respectable person, Miles Prance, the witness, enters into a
solemn vindication of the justice, from the practices alleged by North,
Wood, and by the poet. "Another damnable scandal they have broached,
which, though it be principally levelled at Sir William Waller, as
if he, under pretence of searching for priests, and seizing popish
trinkets, should take away money, plate, and other things of value
from the owners, and necklaces of pearl for beads; yet, since I very
frequently went along with him, it does obliquely reflect upon me, and
I cannot but do that worthy gentleman the right to justify him against
such a most false, groundless, and malicious slander: I do therefore
declare, in the presence of God, and shall be ready to attest upon
oath, that whensoever I attended him in searches, which was almost
every day, I could never discover in him the least inclination to any
such base practices; but that, to the contrary, he behaved himself as a
good Christian and just magistrate; for, wherever we came, what money
we found was left in the owner's possession; and as for chalices, and
pieces of plate belonging to priests, and used in their mass, or for
keeping of holy oil, we did indeed batter or break them to pieces, but
always returned all the pieces to the proprietors. But their copes and
priestly vestments, superstitious pictures, habits of monks belonging
to their peculiar orders, and such like trumpery, we did sometimes take
away, and cause them to be publicly burned, never making any advantage
thereof. And as to any necklaces of pearl, reported to be by him taken
away, I am more than confident the same is as arrand a lie, as that he
thought one Bedingfield, whom he took at Newark, to have been the same
Bedingfield, who died in the Gatehouse; for he well knew it was another
man."[442] Prance confirms this attestation by a special case, in which
Sir William returned to a priest, not only his money, but a silver
tobacco-box.[443]
Derrick mentions Sir William standing candidate, in 1679, to be a
member of Parliament, in which he failed; and adds, that the publicans,
who trusted him, found much ado to get their money. When the court
party gained an ascendance, Sir William Waller was first struck out
of the commission, and afterwards committed to prison, to the great
triumph of the Tories.[444] He afterwards went to Holland, and with
Robert Ferguson and Bethel is specially excepted from the general
pardon granted after Monmouth's defeat. RALPH, Vol. I. p. 918.
Note XIX.
_Who for their own defence give no supply,
But what the crown's prerogatives must buy;
As if their monarch's rights to violate
More needful were, than to preserve the state!_--P. 336.
The Whigs of those days had constant recourse to the desperate remedy
of refusing supplies, when dissatisfied with the court. This ultimate
measure ought only to be adopted in cases of extremity; because the
want of means to maintain the usual current expences for the law, and
the defence of the country, gives a perilous shock to the whole system
of government. At that time, however, it was held so effectual a check,
and so necessary, that the Whig citizens, in a paper of instructions
furnished to their representatives in 1680-1, having thanked them for
their good service, more especially for their zeal for the Exclusion
Bill, proceed to recommend, "that they would still literally pursue
the same measures, and grant no supplies to the crown, till they saw
themselves effectually secured from popery and arbitrary power."
Note XX.
_His absence David does with tears advise,
To appease their rage; undaunted he complies._--P. 337.
In 1678-9, when the plot hung like a comet over England, the king
thought it necessary to assent to the counsel of the Earl of Danby,
and request the Duke of York to give way to the storm, and silence
the popular clamour, by retreating for a season to the Continent. The
Duke requested a particular order, lest it should be supposed he fled
from a consciousness of guilt. The order was in these words: "I have
already given you my resolution at large, why I think it fit that you
absent yourself some time beyond the seas. As I am truly sorry for
the occasion, so you may be sure I shall never desire it longer than
it may be absolutely necessary for your good and my service. In the
meantime, I think proper to give it you under my hand, that I expect
this compliance from you, and desire it may be as soon as conveniently
you can. You may easily perceive with what trouble I write this to you,
there being nothing I am more sensible of than the kindness you have
ever had for me. I hope you are as just to me, as to be assured, that
no absence, nor any thing else, can ever change me from being truly and
kindly yours, C. R. February 28th 1678-9." Superscribed, "For my most
dear friend the Duke of York."
Authors differ concerning the "store of parting tears," which were shed
on the separation of the royal brothers. Burnet says, that the duke
wept much, but the king did not seem affected. Others affirm, that both
brothers testified much emotion. The duke retired to Brussels, where he
remained till the time of the king's illness, so often mentioned.
Note XXI.
_Dissembled patriots, bribed with Egypt's gold,
Even sanhedrims in blind obedience hold._--P. 341.
That Charles II. was a pensioner of France, is now generally allowed.
But, though Louis was willing to afford the king of England such
supplies as to save him from the necessity of throwing himself on his
parliament, it was equally his policy to foster such opposition to him
in that assembly, as might totally engage the eyes of both parties
upon domestic feuds, and withdraw them from marking his own ambitious
strides towards universal power. For this it was necessary, that his
minister Barillon should have an understanding with the leaders of
the popular party. Hence each faction, as truly as loudly, accused
the other of the unworthy dependence on France, to which both were in
secret reduced. An account of the French intrigues with the popular
party, and of the money distributed among their chiefs, may be found in
_Dalrymple's Memoirs_.
Note XXII.
_From Hebron now the suffering heir returned,
A realm that long with civil discord mourned;
Till his approach, like some arriving god,
Composed and healed the place of his abode._--P. 343.
In some respects, the presence of the Duke of York in Scotland was very
acceptable to the nobles and gentry of that kingdom. There is, among
Somers' Tracts, a letter from a person of quality in Scotland, who
professes, that, although a zealous Protestant, he had been converted
from his opinion in favour of the Bill of Exclusion, by "the personal
knowledge of his very many excellencies and virtues." Doubtless, many
circumstances drew the Scots to the faction and favour of the Duke.
They saw the halls of their ancient palace again graced with the
appearance of royalty, and occupied by a descendant of their long line
of kings. The formal, grave, and stately decorum of James, was more
suitable to the manners of a proud, reserved, and somewhat pedantic
people, than the lighter manners of Charles. The proud, as well as the
ingenious, know, and feel, the value of favours conferred by those who
resemble them. York applied himself particularly to secure the personal
attachment of the Highland chiefs, and to staunch the feuds by which
their clans were divided. He, no doubt, reckoned upon the assistance of
these ready warriors, in case the sword had been drawn in England; but
he little foresaw, that the last hopes of his family were to depend on
the generous attachment of the descendants of the chieftains whom he
then cultivated, and that his race were to involve in their fall the
ruin of the patriarchal and feudal power of these faithful adherents.
But if the conduct of James in these particulars was laudable, on the
other hand, by introducing an inconsistent and absurd test into the
law, by making it the means of ruining a loyal and innocent nobleman,
the Earl of Argyle, by satiating his own eyes with the tortures
inflicted on the Covenanters,--he gave tokens of that ill-judged and
bigotted severity, which was the cause of his being precipitated from
the throne. Settle gives a juster, if a less poetical, account of the
manner in which he spent his exile:
Whilst sweating Absalon, in Israel pent,
For fresher air was to bleak Hebron sent,--
Cold Hebron, warmed by his approaching sight,
Flushed with his gold, and glowed with new delight,--
Till sacred, all-converting interest,
To loyalty their almost unknown guest,
Oped a broad gate, from whence forth issuing come
Decrees, tests, oaths, for well-soothed Absalom.
Note XXIII.
_'Mongst whom was Jothran, Jothran always bent
To serve the crown, and loyal by descent._--P. 343.
Admiral Legge, created Earl of Dartmouth by Charles II., and a
particular friend of the Duke of York. When James came to the throne,
he loaded Dartmouth with favours, and paid a singular testimony to
the family loyalty, celebrated in the text. In 1687, while the earl
attended the king on his progress, the city of Coventry presented his
majesty with a massive gold cup, which he instantly delivered to Lord
Dartmouth, telling him, it was an acknowledgement from the city for the
sufferings of his father, who had long lain in jail there, on account
of his adherence to the king during the civil wars. In the succeeding
year, Dartmouth was made admiral of the fleet of England. He was,
perhaps, the worthiest man, and most faithful servant, in the court of
King James, whom he truly loved and served, though he disapproved of
his arbitrary encroachments, and spoke his mind on the subject without
fear or scruple. Although a hereditary enemy of Lord Russell, Dartmouth
had the generosity to interfere in his favour. He set sail from Torbay,
with the English fleet, to intercept that of the Prince of Orange, at
the time of the Revolution. Had they met, a bloody action must have
been the consequence; but God ordered it otherwise. The same wind,
which carried the Dutch fleet into Torbay, forced back the English to
the Downs; and before Dartmouth could again put to sea, the officers
and sailors were as unwilling to resist the Prince of Orange, as the
nobles and land army. When Lord Dartmouth found it was entirely out of
his power to serve King James, he called a council of war, and joined
in an address to King William. In 1691-2, he was committed to the
Tower, on suspicion of holding correspondence with his old master.
Note XXIV.
_Nor can Benaiah's worth forgotten lie,
Of steady soul when public storms were high;
Whose conduct, while the Moor fierce onsets made,
Secured at once our honour and our trade._--P. 343.
General Edward Sackville, a gentleman of good quality, related to the
Dorset family, who had served at Tangier with great reputation, both
for courage and judgment. Being a particular friend of the Duke of
York, he expressed himself very contemptuously concerning the Popish
conspiracy, saying, "they were sons of whores who believed there was a
plot, and he was a lying rogue that said it." The Commons, being then
in the very height of their fermentation on this subject, not only
expelled Sackville from the House, but prepared an address to the king,
that he might be made incapable of holding any office. He was committed
to the Tower, but shortly afterwards set free, and restored to his
military rank, though not to his seat in the House. After noticing
Dartmouth, Sackville, and the other real friends of the Duke of York,
the poet stigmatizes those concealed enemies, who now affected to
congratulate his return:
---- ----Those who sought his absence to betray,
Press first their nauseous false respects to pay;
Him still the officious hypocrites molest,
And with officious duty break his rest.
A marginal note on Luttrell's copy points out the Earl of Anglesea as
particularly concerned in this sarcasm. In a prologue, spoken before
the duke at his first appearance at the theatre after his return,
Dryden is equally severe on these time-serving courtiers:
Still we are thronged so full with Reynard's race,
That loyal subjects scarce can find a place.
Thus modest truth is cast behind the crowd,
Truth speaks too low, hypocrisy too loud.
Let them be first to flatter in success;
Duty can stay, but guilt has need to press.
Note XXV.
_Who now an envious festival installs,
And to survey their strength the faction calls,
Which fraud, religious worship too, must gild;
But oh how weakly does sedition build!
For, lo! the royal mandate issues forth,
Dashing at once their treason, zeal, and mirth._--P. 346.
The Duke of York maintained some interest in the city, by being
captain-general of the Artillery Company, who invited him to dine at
Merchant-Taylors' Hall, on April 21, 1682. The party of Monmouth and
Shaftesbury resolved to have a meeting in opposition to that which was
proposed; and tickets, at a guinea a piece, of which the following is
a copy, were circulated among their adherents:
"It having pleased Almighty God, by his wonderful providence, to
deliver and protect his majesties person, the Protestant religion, and
English liberties, hitherto from the hellish and frequent attempts of
their enemies the Papists; in testimony of thankfulness herein, and
for the preserving and improving mutual love and charity among such
as are sensible thereof, you are desired to meet many of the loyal
Protestant nobility, gentry, clergy, and citizens, on Friday the 21st
day of this instant April, 1682, at ten of the clock, at St Michael's
Church, in Cornhill, there to hear a sermon, and from thence to go to
Haberdashers' Hall, to dinner, and to bring this ticket with you."
A sermon was accordingly prepared for this great occasion;[445] and
doubtless contained what is vulgarly called a touch of the times. All
other preparations for this great entertainment were made with proper
magnificence; but the design was utterly quashed by the following
proclamation:
"Whitehall, April 19. His Majesty was pleased, this afternoon, to make
the following order in council, at the court of Whitehall, this 19th
day of April, 1682. By his Majesty, and the Lords of his Majesty's most
honourable privy council.
"Whereas, the appointing of publique fasts and thanksgiving is matter
of state, and belongs only to his majesty, by his prerogative, and
his majesty being informed that, in the city of London, invitations
have been made of great and unusual numbers, by printed tickets, one
of which is hereunto annext; his majesty looks upon the same as an
insolent attempt, in manifest derogation of his right, and of dangerous
consequence: The matter of the said invitation being of a publique
nature, and the manner of carrying it on, tending to sedition, and
raising distinctions and confederacies among his subjects, against
the known laws and peace of the kingdom, his majesty, therefore, by
the advice of his council, hath thought fit, and doth hereby strictly
charge and command the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, as they will
answer the contrary at their peril, to take immediate and effectual
care to prevent and hinder the said meeting, as an unlawful assembly;
and all sheriffs, constables, and others his majesty's officers in the
said city, are hereby commanded to be aiding and assisting therein."
This disappointment, trifling as it may seem, was of great disadvantage
to the Whigs. It made them ridiculous; which is more fatal to a
political party than any other misfortune; for few chuse to belong to
the faction who have the laugh against them. The Tory poets exulted in
the opportunity of showing their wit; and we have perpetual allusions
to this ludicrous incident, in the fugitive pieces of the time. Thus,
Otway, in the prologue to the "City Heiress, or Sir Timothy Treatall:"
This dæmon lately drew in many a guest,
To part with zealous guinny for no feast;
Who, but the most incorrigible fops,
Forever doomed in dismal cells, called shops,
To cheat and damn themselves to get their livings,
Would lay sweet money out in sham thanksgivings?
Sham-plots you may have paid for o'er and o'er,
But who e'er paid for a sham treat before?
In a congratulatory poem on the Whigs entertainment, we have a similar
strain of exultation, though, I believe, it is there ironical:
Hollow boys, hollow, hollow once again!
'Tother half crown shall then reward your pain;
Alas! poor Whigg, where wilt thou sneaking go,
Thy wine is spilt, thy pyes and cakes are dough;
Down go the coppers, tables, shelves, and all,
And so fare well to Haberdashers' Hall.
"The Loyal Feast, appointed to be kept in Haberdashers' Hall, on
Friday the 21st of April, 1682, by his Majesty's most loyal true-blue
Protestant Subjects, and how it was defeated."
The Whigs from north to south, from east to west,
Did all contribute to a loyal feast;
To this great work, a guiney was the least.
They cleared the stalls of fish, flesh, fowl, and beast,
Where Tony and brave Perkin was a guest;
But what succeeded this, made up the jest.
* * * * *
Tony was small, but of noble race,
And was beloved of every one;
He broached his tap, and it ran apace,
To make a solemn treat for all the town.
He sent to yeoman, knight, and lord,
The holy tribe to entertain,
With all the nation could afford;
But Tony will never be himself again.
* * * * *
With thanks and prayers for our good king,
They vowed to solemnize the day;
But royal Charles, he smoked the thing,
And sent the rabble with a pox away.
He sent his summons to the cit,
Seditious meetings to refrain;
The feast was broke, and the guests were beshit,
And Tony will never be himself again.
And now the capons fly about,
With fricassees of amber grice,
And chickens ready dressed, they shout
About the street for pence apiece.
The Whigs did wish the counsel choked,
Who did this noble feast restrain;
All down in the mouth, to be thus bawked,
Poor Tony will ne'er be himself again.
Note XXVI.
_First write Bezaliel, whose illustrious name
Forestals our praise, and gives his poet fame:
The Kenites rocky province his command._--P. 347.
The Marquis of Worcester, Lord President of Wales, was a keen opponent
of the Bill of Exclusion; insomuch, that, by a vote of the Commons
in 1680, he was declared a favourer of Popery, (then an imputation
of tremendous import,) and an address was appointed to be preferred
against him, Halifax, Clarendon, and others, as enemies to the king
and kingdom. It may be supposed, that this was far from lowering the
marquis in the king's esteem; on the contrary, in 1682, he was created
Duke of Beaufort. At the Duke of Monmouth's invasion he commanded in
Bristol, and was an effectual means of stopping his progress; for,
when he approached that city, which contained many of his partisans,
the Duke of Beaufort, finding there was great danger of an insurrection
in the place, declared, that he would burn the town the instant he
saw the slightest symptoms of disloyalty. When this was made known to
Monmouth, he exclaimed, "God forbid I should be the means of exposing
so noble a city to the double calamity of sword and fire!" Accordingly,
he instantly altered the direction of his march, leaving behind him
that rich and populous city, which, if he could have carried it,
contained men to increase his forces, stores to supply them, arms to
equip them, and money to pay them. This proved a fatal indulgence of
compassion:
"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff."
The Duke of Beaufort continued to be a friend to James, after, by
abdicating his throne, he had ceased to be a friend to himself. He
voted against William in the Convention Parliament. Lord Herbert,
of Ragland, the duke's eldest son, in whom he "saw all his glories
copied," as the poet has it, was, according to Wood, entered at Christ
Church, Oxford, and took the degree of Master of Arts in 1681.
An account of the Duke of Beaufort's noble house-keeping, and mode of
educating his family, has been preserved by Roger North, and presents
so curious a picture of the interior of a great family, in the end of
the 17th century, that I think the reader will be pleased to see it:
"One year his lordship, (the Lord Chief Justice North, afterwards Lord
Keeper Guilford,) concluding at Bristol, made a visit at Badminton
to the Duke of Beaufort, and staid about a week. For the duke was
descended from a North of his lordship's family, viz. one of the Lord
Edward North's daughters, whom a lineal ancestor of his Grace married.
So, besides conformity of principle, with respect to the public, they
were, by this relation, qualified for mutual respect and honour. I
mention this entertainment as an handle of shewing a princely way of
living, which that noble duke used, above any other, except crowned
heads, that I have had notice of in Europe; and, in some respects,
greater than most of them, to whom he might have been an example. He
had above L. 2000 per annum in his hands, which he managed by stewards,
bailiffs, and servants; and, of that, a great part of the country,
which was his own, lying round about him, was part, and the husbandmen,
&c. were of his family, and provided for in his large expanded house.
He bred all his horses, which came to the husbandry first colts, and,
from thence, as they were fit, were taken into his equipage; and,
as by age, or accident, they grew unfit for that service, they were
returned to the place from whence they came, and there expired;
except what, for plenty or unfitness, were sold or disposed of. He had
about two hundred persons in his family, all provided for, and, in
his capital house, nine original tables covered every day: and, for
the accommodation of so many, a large hall was built, with a sort of
alcove at one end, for distinction; but yet the whole lay in the view
of him that was chief, who had power to do what was proper for keeping
order amongst them; and it was his charge to see it done. The tables
were properly assigned, as, for example, the chief steward with the
gentlemen and pages; the master of the horse with the coachmen and
liveries; an under steward with the bailiffs and some husbandmen; the
clerk of the kitchen with the bakers, brewers, &c. all together; and
other more inferior people, under these, in places apart. The women
had their dining-room also, and were distributed in like manner: my
lady's chief woman with the gentlewomen; the housekeeper with the
maids, and some others. The method of governing this great family was
admirable and easy, and such as might have been a pattern for any
management whatever; for, if the Duke or Duchess (who concerned herself
much more than he did; for every day of her life, in the morning, she
took her tour, and visited every office about the house, and so was
her own superintendant) observed any thing amiss or suspicious, as a
servant riding out, or the like, nothing was said to that servant,
but his immediate superior, or one of an higher order, was sent for,
who was to enquire and answer if leave had been given, or not; if
not, such servant was straight turned away. No fault of order was
passed by; for it may be concluded, there are enough of them that pass
undiscovered. All the provisions of the family came from foreign parts,
as merchandize. Soap and candle were made in the house, so likewise
the malt was ground there; and all the drink that came to the duke's
table, was of malt sun-dried upon the leads of his house. Those are
large; and the lanthorn is in the centre of an asterisk of glades, cut
through the wood of all the country round, four or five in a quarter,
almost _a perte de vue_. Diverse of the gentlemen cut their trees
and hedges to humour his vistos; and some planted their hills in his
lines, for compliment, at their own charge. All the trees, planted in
his parks and about, were fenced with a dry wall of stone, taken out
where the tree was set. And with all this menagery and provision, no
one, that comes and goes for visits, or affairs with the duke, (who
was lord-lieutenant of four or five counties, and Lord President of
Wales,) that could observe any thing more to do there than in any other
nobleman's house; so little of vain ostentation was to be seen there.
At the entrance where coaches ordinarily came in, the duke built a neat
dwelling-house; but pompous stables, which would accommodate forty
horses, as well as the best stables he had. This was called the inn,
and was contrived for the ease of the suitors, as I may call them;
for, instead of half-a-crown to his servants at taking horse, sixpence
there, for form, served the turn; and no servant of his came near a
gentleman's horse; but they were brought by their own servants, except
such as lodged, whose equipages were in his own stables.
"As for the duke and duchess, and their friends, there was no time
of the day without diversion. Breakfast in her gallery, that opened
into the gardens; then perhaps a deer was to be killed, or the gardens
and parks, with the several sorts of deer, to be visited; and if it
required mounting, horses of the duke's were brought for all the
company. And so, in the afternoon, when the ladies were disposed to
air, and the gentlemen with them, coaches and six came to hold them
all. At half an hour after eleven, the bell rang to prayers, so at six
in the evening; and, through a gallery, the best company went into an
aisle in the church, (so near was it,) and the duke and duchess could
see if all the family were there. The ordinary pastime of the ladies
was in a gallery on the other side, where she had diverse gentlewomen
commonly at work upon embroidery and fringe-making; for all the beds
of state were made and finished in the house. The meats were very
neat, and not gross; no servants in livery attended, but those called
gentlemen only; and, in the several kinds, even down to the small beer,
nothing could be more choice than the table was. It was an oblong and
not an oval; and the duchess, with two daughters only, sat at the
upper end. If the gentlemen chose a glass of wine, the civil offers
were made either to go down into the vaults, which were very large and
sumptuous, or servants, at a sign given, attended with salvers, &c. and
many a brisk round went about; but no sitting at table with tobacco
and healths, as the too common use is. And this way of entertaining
continued a week, while we were there, with incomparable variety: for
the duke had always some new project, building, walling, or planting,
which he would show, and ask his friends their advice about; and
nothing was forced or strained, but easy and familiar, as if it was,
and really so I thought it to be, the common course and way of living
in that family.
"One thing more I must needs relate, which the duke told us smiling,
and it was this: When he was in the midst of his building, his
neighbour, the Lord Chief Justice Hales, made him a visit; and
observing the many contrivances the duke had for the disposing of so
great a family, he craved leave to suggest one to him, which he thought
would be much for his service, and it was, to have but one door to his
house, and the window of his study, where he sat most, open upon that.
This shows how hard it is for even wise and learned men to consider
things without themselves. The children of the family were bred with a
philosophical care. No inferior servants were permitted to entertain
them, lest some mean sentiments, or foolish notions and fables, should
steal into them; and nothing was so strongly impressed upon them as a
sense of honour. Witness the Lord Arthur, who, being about five years
old, was very angry with the judge for hanging men. The judge told
him, that, if they were not hanged, they would kill and steal. 'No,'
said the little boy, 'you should make them promise upon their honour
they will not do so, and then they will not.' It were well if this
institutionary care of parents were always correspondent in the manners
of all the children; for it is not often found to prove so." _Life of
the Lord Keeper Guilford_, p. 132.
Note XXVII.
_Brave Abdael o'er the prophet's school was placed;
Abdael, with all his father's virtue graced._--P. 348.
Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, son to the restorer of the monarchy.
He seems to have had no particular character of his own, excepting
that he was fond of mechanics, and suggested some improvements on the
diving-bell. The Whig writers seldom mention him without a sneer at his
understanding.[446] His talents were, however, sufficient to recommend
him to be chancellor of Cambridge, in place of the Duke of Monmouth,
once the idol of the university, but whose picture they, in 1682,
consigned to the flames, with all the solemnities of dishonour.[447]
There is a Pindaric ode upon the election of the Duke of Albemarle
to this presidency over the seat of the Muses, containing a suitable
quantity of bombast and flattery; it concludes by promising his grace
a poetical immortality:
Some happy favourite of the nine,
Some Spenser, Cowley, Dryden, shall be thine;
Happy bards, who erst did dream
Near thy own Cam's inspiring stream;
He midst the records of immortal fame,
He midst the stars shall fix thy name,
The muses safety, and the muses theme.
When Monmouth undertook his ill-fated expedition, Albemarle marched
against him with the militia of Devon; but the ex-chancellor of
Cambridge baffled the attempts of his successor to coop him up at
Lyme, and compelled him to retreat with some disorder. Monmouth, after
assuming the title of king, sent a summons to Albemarle to claim his
allegiance, who returned a cold and contemptuous answer. In 1687,
Albemarle was sent abroad as governor of Jamaica; in which island he
died.
Note XXVIII.
_Eliab our next labour does invite,
And hard the task to do Eliab right._--P. 348.
Sir Henry Bennet was the constant attendant of Charles II. during
his exile: after the Restoration, he became a member of the Cabal
administration, and secretary of state. He was finally Lord
Chamberlain, and through many turns of politics retained the favour
of Charles II., perhaps as much from making himself useful in his
pleasures, as from the recollection of his faithful attachment. He was
learned, and accustomed to business; but, being naturally of a slow
understanding, and having acquired a formal manner during his stay in
Spain, much enhanced by a black patch which he wore to conceal a wound
on his nose, there was something ridiculously stiff in his demeanour.
Charles II., who put no value upon a friend in comparison to a jest,
is said to have had much delight in seeing the Duke of Buckingham, or
any of his gay courtiers, by the help of a black patch and a white
staff, enact Harry Bennet. Mulgrave thinks, that a ludicrous idea being
thus associated with Arlington, and all that concerned him, he came
to be generally thought a man of less abilities, than he really was.
He adds, he was of a generous temper, and served his friends warmly.
Being once ungratefully used by one whom he had benefited, he asked
Mulgrave, what effect he thought it would have upon him; and prevented
his answer, by saying, it should neither cool his present friendship,
nor prevent him of the greatest happiness of his life, which was to
serve the first deserving person that fell in his way.[448] Although
the Duke of York disliked Arlington, yet he suffered him to retain his
situation at court. His religion may have saved him from disgrace; for
Arlington was privately a Catholic, and avowed himself to be so on his
death-bed.[449] He died July, 1685.
Note XXIX.
_And blessed again, to see his flower allied
To David's stock, and made young Othriel's bride._--P. 349.
Lady Isabella Bennet, only daughter and heiress of the Earl of
Arlington, was married to Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, second son
of Charles II. by the Duchess of Cleveland. This match was against
the inclination of the duke's mother; for Derrick says, he saw a
letter from her to Danby, dated at Paris, in 1675, thanking him for
endeavouring to prevent the match. The Duke of Grafton was bred to
the sea. After Monmouth had taken the popular courses which we have
reviewed, the king endeavoured to set Grafton, though inferior in
all personal accomplishments, in opposition to him, in the hearts
of the people. He was appointed steward of the Loyal Apprentices'
entertainment,[450] and otherwise placed in the public eye, as the
rival of Monmouth. He also was admitted to share his more profitable
spoils, getting one of the regiments of the guards, formerly under
Monmouth's command, when the Duke of Richmond was made Master of
the Horse.[451] Grafton was sent against Monmouth on his landing in
the west, and attempted to beat up his rear with a body of horse,
as he marched towards Frome; but was defeated, and very nearly made
prisoner.[452] The Duke of Grafton participated in the general
discontent which James II's measures excited through the kingdom,
and remonstrated against them with professional frankness. The king
ridiculed a seaman's pretensions to tenderness of conscience; and
Grafton answered sturdily, that "if he had not much religion himself,
he belonged to a party who had." He was with the king when he headed
his army to march against the Prince of Orange, and joined with
Churchill, in exhorting him to hazard a battle. We must hope, that they
meant to share the risque which they recommended; and that it was only
a consciousness that the king had deserted his own cause, which induced
them to go over to the prince, when their counsel was rejected. On the
28th September, 1690, the Duke of Grafton was mortally wounded at the
siege of Cork, as he commanded the squadron which covered the landing.
He seems to have been a brave, rough, hardy-tempered man, and would
probably have made a figure as a naval officer.
Note XXX.
_Even envy must consent to Helon's worth;
Whose soul, though Egypt glories in his birth,
Could for our captive ark its zeal retain,
And Pharaoh's altars in their pomp disdain._--P. 349.
Lewis Duras, Earl of Feversham, brother of the French Marshals Duras
and De Lorge, and nephew to the famous Marshal Turenne. He was born of
a Huguenot family, and retained his religion, or the form of it, when
both his brothers conformed to the Catholic church. The Duke of York's
opportune return from Flanders is said, by Sir John Reresby, to have
been planned by this nobleman; who is, therefore, introduced here with
singular propriety. He is said to have been brave; but appears, from
the only remarkable action in which he was ever engaged, to have been
a bad general, and a cruel man. James II., who had a high esteem for
Feversham, placed him at the head of that body of disciplined troops,
which checked the career of Monmouth. He advanced to Bridgewater, of
which Monmouth had got possession, with some of the finest regiments
in the service, and 30 field pieces. The unfortunate adventurer
seemed to have no refuge left, but to disperse his forces, and fly
for his safety; when the mode in which Feversham conducted himself
gave him a fair chance for victory and a crown. He encamped in the
open country, three miles from the enemy, with only a dry ditch in his
front; dispersed his cavalry in the neighbouring hamlets, and retired
quietly to bed, without either sending out reconnoitering parties, or
establishing advanced posts.[453] It is no wonder, that, that in such
a careless state, he should have been completely surprised; it is only
singular, that, even allowing for the cowardice of Lord Grey, who fled,
instead of performing the safe and easy duty committed to him of firing
the horse-quarters of Feversham's army, he should have been able to
recover the consequences of his negligence. Monmouth's men fought for
three hours after they had been deserted by their cavalry, with the
innate courage of English peasants. Feversham was still hard pressed,
notwithstanding the gallant assistance afforded him by Dumbarton; when
the Bishop of Bath and Wells decided the day, by causing the artillery
to be turned upon the flank of Monmouth's followers. When they had
given way, Feversham exhibited more of the cold-blooded cruelty of
his country, than he had done of their genius and fiery valour, while
the battle lasted. The military bishop also proved himself a better
lawyer than the general, as he had shewn himself in the fight a better
soldier; but it was not till a warm expostulation was made on his part
that the general ceased to execute the prisoners by martial law, and
reserved them to a still more cruel fate from the forms of law, as
administered by the brutal Jefferies. Neither Feversham's blunders, nor
his brutality, seemed to lessen his merit in the eye of his sovereign.
He received the order of the Garter, on the 31st July, 1685, probably
on the vacancy occasioned by the Duke of Monmouth's death, whose memory
was on this occasion treated with signal ignominy.[454] At the time
of the Revolution, Lord Feversham was commander in chief, and proved
himself incapable of taking any spirited steps for James's interest;
for the army he commanded, though the officers were disaffected,
would probably have fought, had they been once fairly committed in
opposition to the Dutch. When the king resolved to abandon everything,
and forsake his kingdom, he left behind, a letter to Feversham, stating
that he should not expect his troops at present to expose themselves.
The general might have secured a part of his forces, by retreating
along with the high-spirited Viscount of Dundee, who marched back
into Scotland with the Scottish regiments; but Feversham was a man
of another mould, and rather chose to augment the general confusion,
by disbanding the army. When James was detected by the fishermen of
Kent, in his attempt to leave the kingdom, Feversham, with a party of
his guards, was sent to conduct him back to his capital. James also
chose him for the messenger, when, yielding to sad necessity, he sent
a letter to the Prince of Orange, inviting him to St James's. With
a view, doubtless, to increase the terror of the king's mind, and
precipitate his intention of a second flight, the prince arrested the
bearer of this humiliating embassy. This was the last public occasion
on which James had occasion to employ the services of the unmilitary
nephew of the great Turenne, whose name is connected with the most
blame-worthy and most melancholy passages of his reign.
Note XXXI.
_Our list of nobles next let Amri grace,
Whose merits claimed the Abethdin's high place;
Who, with a loyalty that did excel,
Brought all the endowments of Achitophel._--P. 349.
These lines, which sufficiently vouch their author to have been
Tate, refer to Sir Heneage a Finch, an eminent lawyer, who was first
attorney-general, and, upon Shaftesbury losing his seals, succeeded
him as Lord Keeper. He was a most incorruptible judge, and could not
be swayed in his decisions even by the king's interference, which upon
all political occasions was omnipotent with him. He was a good lawyer,
and a ready orator; but upon this last accomplishment, he set, as
all lawyers do, rather too high a value: for they, whose profession
necessarily leads them often to speak against their own opinion, and
often to make much of trifles, are apt to lose, in the ingenuity of
their arguments, the power of making a real impression upon the bosom
of their hearers. North says, that the business, rather than the
justice, of the court, flourished exceedingly under Finch; for he was
a formalist, and took exceeding pleasure in encouraging and listening
to nice distinctions of law, instead of taking a broad view of the
equity of each case. He was a steady and active supporter of the Tory
party on all occasions; in reward of which, he was created Earl of
Nottingham. After a long and lingering disease, which terminated in a
deep depression of spirits, this great lawyer died in 1682, and was
succeeded by Lord Guilford, as Lord Keeper.
Note XXXII.
_Than Sheva none more loyal zeal have shown,
Wakeful as Judah's lion for the crown._--P. 350.
Sir Roger L'Estrange was descended of a good family in Norfolk, and
during the civil war was in arms for the king.[455] Being taken
prisoner by the parliament, he was condemned to die, but found means to
obtain a pardon. He was a good performer on the violin; a quality which
recommended him to Cromwell, under whose government he lived, if we
may trust one of his antagonists, in ease and affluence; a circumstance
with which he was afterwards as often reproached as our author with his
panegyric on the Protector. The instant, however, that the restoration
of monarchy approached, L'Estrange was among the first to hail it,
and stepped forth to answer a pamphlet of Milton, on the subject of
a republic, by a retort, which he irreverently entitled, "No Blind
Guides." After the Restoration, he was the great champion of the court,
the high church, and the Tory party. His principal vehicle of political
instruction was the "Observator," a paper published twice a week; but
he also edited another, called "Heraclitus Ridens;" and, independently
of both, published answers, replies, rebutters, and sur-rebutters, to
every attack made upon him, besides quires of pamphlets on all popular
subjects. For these good services, he was knighted by King James. His
style is in the last degree mean, crabbed, and low; yet he possesses
some power of argument and sarcasm. He appears to have first invented,
or at least first practised to a great extent, the foolish custom of
printing emphatic passages in a different type from the rest of the
page, and thereby too often effecting a point, which the reader is
unable to trace. For the other deeds of L'Estrange, and his numerous
bead-roll of fugitive pieces, the reader may consult the article in the
Biographia.
Note XXXIII.
_Calm were the elements, night's silence deep,
The waves scarce murmuring, and the winds asleep;
Yet fate for ruin takes so still an hour,
And treacherous sands the princely bark devour._--P. 351.
The Duke of York, after a short visit to England, returned to Scotland
by sea. The vessel unfortunately struck upon a bank, called the Lemman
Ore; and the duke, with a few attendants, who crowded into the barge,
were all who escaped from the wreck. Burnet says, that the duke
showed no anxiety about the safety of any one save his dogs and his
priests, whom the bishop maliciously classes together. Others say, he
was principally interested about Churchill, who, at the Revolution,
requited his anxiety but indifferently. The Gazette says, that when the
barge put off, the poor sailors, who remained to perish, manned the
sides in the usual honorary form, and, indifferent to their own fate,
hailed the duke's safety with three cheers; a circumstance alluded to
a few lines below, where it is said, the sufferers,
With last loud breaths, their master's 'scape applaud.
In this shipwreck perished the Earl of Roxburghe, Mr Hyde, a son of the
great Clarendon, the Lord O'Brien, the Laird of Hoptoun, Sir Joseph
Douglas, Colonel Macnaughton, and about 300 seamen, besides the persons
of the duke's retinue.
The verses, which follow those concerning this lamentable accident,
describe the return of the Duke of York with his Duchess to England; a
voyage which they performed without any sinister accident, and landed
there upon the 27th May, 1682. On this occasion, they received many
poetical greetings, both on the duke's escape and their happy arrival;
as, for example, Otway's "Prologue to the Duchess, on her return from
Scotland, at the Duke's theatre, at Venice Preserved, &c. acted 31st
May, 1682."
"A Pindarique Ode on their Royal Highnesses Return from Scotland, after
their escape at Sea."
"To the Duke on his Return, 29th May, 1682, written by Nathaniel Lee."
"A Congratulatory Poem to her Royal Highness, upon the arrival of their
Royal Highnesses in England, May 27th, 1682."
"To his Royal Highness at his happy Return from Scotland, written by a
Person of Quality, 30th May, 1682."
Heaven, who declares, in wonders so divine,
Care of succession in the rightful line,
That it protects you, with a guardian hand,
From Whiggish lemans, both of sea and land.
Also, "A Panegyric on their Royal Highnesses, and Congratulation on
their Return from Scotland."
Note XXXIV.
_This year did Ziloah rule Jerusalem,
And boldly all sedition's syrtes stem._--P. 353.
Sir John Moor, the tory Lord Mayor, an aged and respectable citizen,
of a mild character, and even hesitating and cautious in forming
his measures, though sufficiently determined when once satisfied of
their propriety. "Which character," says North, "was cut out for this
time and public occasion; for nothing but such firmness of mind, and
manifest goodness, with a seeming passive disposition, could have
protected from those rages of violence, as very often threatened him,
and which, probably, had broke loose on any one in his post, that had
carried matters with a stern and minatory behaviour."[456] He was
proposed by the court-party in the city for Lord Mayor, and, being
scarcely opposed by the other faction, easily carried his election.
The Whigs were led into this blunder, by mistaking the principles,
and under-rating the resolution, of the candidate. Sir John Moor had
been bred a non-conformist; and, though he had taken the test with a
view to civic honours, that was no more than had been done by Bethel,
Cornish, and others, who retained in full vigour their sectarian
principles. Besides, from the gentleness and softness of the new
Lord Mayor's demeanour, his smooth and diffident way of talking in
private, and his embarrassed elocution in public, they conceived that,
even if completely gained by the court, he would prove too passive
and timorous, to serve them essentially against active and energetic
opponents. In both these particulars they were woefully mistaken.
Sir John proved to be most keenly disposed to second all the court
measures; and he was kept up to the pitch of resolution necessary for
carrying them through, by the constant support, encouragement, and
advice of the Duke of Ormond, whom the court employed to back him, and
who, during the contests which followed, dined with the Lord Mayor two
or three times every week.[457] This election, and its consequences,
was a severe blow to the fanatical interest in the city; the jovial
custom of banquets and feasting was revived; and the musicians, who had
been long under restraint, were restored to their privilege, which they
employed in chaunting forth the praises of Sir John the Restorer.[458]
More, of Morehall, was not for a time more celebrated in song, than the
Lord Mayor, his namesake; and a general revolution appeared to have
taken place in the manners, as well as the principles, of the citizens,
which, under the Whig government, had savoured not a little of the
ancient days of fanatical severity.
Note XXXV.
_Howe'er encumbered with a viler pair
Than Ziph or Shimei, to assist the chair;
Yet Ziloah's loyal labours so prevailed,
That faction, at the next election, failed._--P. 353.
Ziph and Shimei were the Whig sheriffs in 1681; concerning whom,
see note upon Shimei in Part First. The _viler pair_ were Thomas
Pilkington, and Samuel Shute, who followed out the practice of their
predecessors, in the mode of packing the juries on political trials,
and had the honour to arrange that which acquitted the Earl of
Shaftesbury. They were much hated by the court; and, when they came
with the recorder to invite the King to dine with the Lord Mayor,
Charles forgot his usual politeness so far, as to answer sternly, "so
agreeable was the city's invitation, that he would accept it, though
brought by messengers so unwelcome to him as these two sheriffs."[464]
Sir John Moor had a most violent contest with these two persons,
concerning the election of sheriffs for the ensuing year, about which
the court were exceedingly anxious.
It had been customary, when these elections were matters of little
consequence, that the Lord Mayor designated a citizen to hold the
office of sheriff, by the ceremony of drinking to him, and sending
him the cup. It was agreed by the court, that this custom should be
revived, as throwing the choice of one of the sheriffs into the hands
of their partizan, Sir John Moor. This being settled, the Mayor, in
full form, drank to Dudley North, brother of the Lord Keeper Guilford,
a Levant merchant, who accepted of that expensive office, to please
his brother, and to serve the court. The popular party determined to
controvert this election; denying that a sheriff could be elected
otherwise than by the Livery, and proposed Papillon and Dubois, sturdy
Whigs, for their candidates. The court, on the other hand, contending
that North was duly and incontrovertibly elected, by the jolly mode
already mentioned, proposed a Mr Box for the other sheriff, whose
office only they allowed to be vacant. The Common Hall, held on this
occasion, was as tumultuary as a raging tempest. At length the Lord
Mayor, with the party who denied there were two vacancies, withdrew;
while the country party remained, and polled for Papillon and Dubois,
under the direction of Shute and Pilkington, the last year's sheriffs.
The court, affecting to consider this as a riot, interfered on that
pretext, and a warrant was granted for committing the sheriffs to the
Tower. Having found bail to answer for a misdemeanour, they returned
to the charge with the same ardour as ever, and were actually about
to complete their poll, when the hall was adjourned by the orders of
the Lord Mayor. The whole weight of the court was necessary to keep
up the Lord Mayor's heart at this crisis. He was sent for to the
Privy Council, encouraged, soothed, schooled, and finally assured,
by a writing under the Lord Keeper's hand, that he might adjourn the
Common Hall, &c. as he thought proper. Thus heartened, the Lord Mayor
assumed to himself the whole management of the poll, although the
sheriffs opened books for another, and, denying the legality of any
election, excepting his own, declared Box duly returned. This citizen,
however, apprehensive of the consequences of acting under so dubious
a nomination, fined off, and declined to serve. One Rich was found,
with more zeal and courage; and, during the tumult of a Common Hall,
which resounded with the cries of "no election," &c. this gentleman was
elected sheriff by a few of the Lord Mayor's partizans, and declared
duly returned by the Lord Mayor, who immediately proceeded to dissolve
the Common Hall. North and Rich were accordingly sworn in as sheriffs
for the year; but a guard of the Train Bands was necessary to protect
them, while they thus qualified themselves for entering on their office.
This contest was followed by another, for the office of Lord Mayor.
Gould, the popular candidate, was returned by a considerable majority;
but, upon a scrutiny, the court-party, by dint of real or pretended
disqualifications, gained such an advantage, that Pritchard, their
candidate, was returned by a majority of fourteen voices.
The importance of these elections was soon visible. The popular party
were utterly disheartened, and their leaders exposed to the same
practices from packing juries, which they had themselves employed. The
court used their victory remorselessly. Pilkington, the ex-sheriff, was
found liable in 100,000l. damages, for having said that "the Duke of
York had fired the city, and was now come to cut all their throats."
Those concerned in carrying on the double poll, were severely fined, as
guilty of a riot. Sir Patience Ward, an alderman of the popular party,
was declared obnoxious to a charge of perjury, for an inconsistence in
his evidence on Pilkington's trial.[465] In short, the royal vengeance
was felt by all who had been active in opposition to the court.
But the extent of the court's victory was best evinced by the conduct
of Shaftesbury; who, seeing his strong-hold, the magistracy of the
city, thus invaded, and occupied by his enemies, fled from his house
in Aldersgate-street, and for some time lay concealed in Wapping,
trusting for his safety to the very lowest of mankind. From this hiding
place, he sent forth messages to the other heads of the party, in which
he urged the most desperate measures. But, finding it impossible to
combine the various persons concerned in one plan of enterprize, and
sensible of the danger of discovery, which each day's delay rendered
more imminent, after a bitter contest between fear and rage, he fled to
Amsterdam. His retreat was followed by the trial of the conspirators in
the Rye-house Plot; and doubtless, the court, on that occasion, knew
well how to avail themselves of the power of selecting juries so long
possessed by their enemies, and now in their own hands. During the
short remainder of this reign, the king's authority was paramount and
supreme; his enemies were at his feet, and not a whisper of opposition
disturbed his repose;--a deceitful and delusive calm, which his
unfortunate successor soon saw changed into a tempest.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 411: "An excellent new Ballad between Tom the Tory, and Toney
the Whig. (Danby and Shaftesbury.) Scene, the Tower."
_Toney_. Thou wants not wickedness, but wit,
To turn it to thy profit;
Who but a sot would hatch a plot,
And then make nothing of it?
'Twas I was fain to rear thy barn,
And bring it to perfection;
I made the frighted nation sue
To me for my protection.
]
[Footnote 412: They were on such bad terms, that, while Shaftesbury
was sitting as Chancellor, he had occasion to call the Duke of York to
order; the Duke, as he passed the chair, told Shaftesbury, in a low
voice, he was "an insolent scoundrel:" "I thank your Grace," retorted
the Chancellor, with inimitable readiness, "for having called me
neither a coward nor a Papist."]
[Footnote 413: "A modest Vindication of the Earl of Shaftesbury,
in a Letter to a Friend, concerning his being elected King of
Poland."--_Somers' Tracts_, p. 153.]
[Footnote 414: Witness an excellent ballad, which calls itself, "The
Suburbs' Thanks for the City's Election:"
We gave commission, that our thanks should wait on
The kind electors of Sir Robert Clayton,
Sir Thomas Player, Pilkington, and Love;
Thus we our joy by this return do prove.
* * * * *
Meekly and modestly they played their parts;
I do not wonder that they won your hearts:
Had you elected others in their stead,
Sure you had done a very evil deed;
For who could equalize the love and care
Of Clayton, Pilkington, of Love, and Player?
]
[Footnote 415: See Vol. VII. p. 4.]
[Footnote 416: Who kept a noted bagnio.]
[Footnote 417: _Somers' Tracts_, p. 185.]
[Footnote 418: Debates of the Westminster and Oxford Parliaments, 1689.
p. 39.]
[Footnote 419: The citizens are invited to go to the top of the
Monument, and to fancy to themselves the following objects, which are
sure to come to pass whenever popery prevails, _i. e._ when the Duke of
York succeeds to the throne.
"First, imagine you see the whole town in a flame, occasioned this
second time by the same popish malice that set it on fire before. At
the same time fancy, that, among the distracted crowd, you behold
troops of Papists ravishing your wives and daughters, dashing your
little childrens' brains out against the wall, plundering your
houses, and cutting your own throats, by the name of heretic dogs.
Then represent to yourselves the Tower playing off its cannon, and
battering down your houses about your ears. Also, casting your eye
towards Smithfield, imagine you see your father, or your mother, or
some of your nearest and dearest relations, tied to a stake, in the
midst of flames, when, with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, they
scream and cry out to that God, for whose cause they die, which was a
frequent spectacle the last time Popery reigned amongst us. Fancy you
behold those beautiful churches, erected for the true worship of God,
abused and turned into idolatrous temples, to the dishonour of Christ,
and scandal of religion; the ministers of God's word torn to pieces
before their eyes, and their very best friends not daring even to speak
in their behalf. Your trading's bad, and in a manner lost already,
but then the only commodity will be fire and sword; the only object,
women running with their hair about their ears, men covered with blood,
children sprawling under horses feet, and only the walls of houses left
standing; when those that survive this fatal day may sigh and cry, Here
once stood my house, there my friend's, and there my kinsman's; but,
alas! that time is past. The only noise will then be, O my wife, O my
husband, O my dearest children! In fine, what the devil himself would
do, were he upon earth, will, in his absence, infallibly be acted by
his agents the Papists." See _State Tracts_, p. 102. Burnet mentions
Ferguson being the author, in his "Letter occasioned by a Second Letter
to Dr Burnet."]
[Footnote 420: Letter occasioned by a Second Letter to Dr Burnet, p. 7.]
[Footnote 421: House-keeper to the excise-office, worth 500l. a-year,
with little trouble.]
[Footnote 422: _Balcarras' Account_, p. 524.]
[Footnote 423: _Ralph._ Vol. II.]
[Footnote 424: Carte's "Life of Ormond," vol. II. p, 444.]
[Footnote 425: After the Revolution these pieces were collected into
a volume, and entitled, "A second five years Struggle against Popery
and Tyranny." The preface bears, that "they were written, not out of
harm's way, but in the enemy's quarters, with so great danger as well
as difficulty, that I lived for many years together only from term to
term. But no man ought to count his life dear to him in the cause of
his country; for he that is bound to love one neighbour as himself,
must in proportion love ten millions of neighbours so many times better
than himself."]
[Footnote 426: That of James II., then encamped on Hounslow Heath.]
[Footnote 427: They omitted to strip off his cassock; and that slight
circumstance rendered the degradation imperfect, and saved his
benefice.]