mons? What was Barebone's parliament? What dignity was Cromwell at length raised to?

4. What nation solicited peace from the protector? What distant countries vied with each other for his favour? What victories and acquisitions were gained under his government? Did he live a happy life? Mention a circumstance which shook his nerves. When did he die? What occurred to his sons?

5. What was the main effect of the accession of the independents to power? What was Roger Williams remarkable for? How did the quakers of that day differ from those of the present? Who was George Fox? Mention some other sects which then arose.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CHARLES II., A. D. 1660-1685.

The Restoration-Act of Uniformity-Fire of London-Persecution in Scotland-The Cabal Ministry-The Triple Alliance-The Test ActDutch War-The Popish Plot-Habeas Corpus Act-Whig and ToryWhig Conspiracies-Executions of Russell and Sidney.

1. THE RESTORATION.-After much intrigue among the different parties in the state, a new parliament assembled at Westminster on the 25th April 1660, the peers at the same time resuming their rights. General Monk, who had commanded the army in Scotland, and who was ready to do any thing to promote his own interests, now declared his intentions with regard to the exiled monarch, and by a solemn vote of both houses Charles II. was proclaimed king. He made his public entry into London on the 29th of May, the anniversary of his birth, amid the transports of the great majority of the population.

Charles appeared to deserve the love of his subjects by the wisdom and moderation of his early days of sovereignty. Monk received the title of Duke of Albemarle, and the faithful Hyde, created Earl of Clarendon, was made chancellor and prime minister. The council was composed of respectable men, selected indifferently from presbyterians and royalists. A general amnesty was proclaimed; and when the parliament, which was to regulate the exceptions, called for too great a number of victims, Charles moderated their zeal for vengeance: none but the regicide judges were excepted from his free pardon, and of the eighty who still survived, only ten suffered on the scaffold.

1662.

ACT OF UNIFORMITY.-The nation approved of their punishment and of the disbanding of the army-the instrument of their tyranny; but the question of episcopacy soon became a aubject of division between the monarch and a portion of his subjects. Charles re-established prelacy, with certain restrictions limiting the episcopal jurisdiction, and confirmed universal liberty of conscience, which he had promised in the Declaration A. D. of Breda. In the new parliament, the covenant was condeinned to be burnt, and an act of uniformity declared that every minister ought to receive episcopal ordination, approve of the Book of Common Prayer, and swear canonical obedience. This measure, which received a tardy assent from the king, rekindled the flames of religious dissent. Two thousand ministers renounced their livings rather than subscribe to an act consecrating the triumph of a church they had long kept down, and which, now triumphant in its turn, desired to bring them under the yoke of its ceremonies and doctrines. After parliament had been prorogued, Charles, in a declaration of tolerance, promised to alleviate in some degree the rigour of this act of uniformity; but when the parliament re-assembled, it refused to sanction such an indulgence.

A. D.

This body, as zealous for the crown as for episcopacy, had granted the king considerable supplies, although they were scarcely sufficient for the charges of the government. Instead of expending them economically, Charles squandered them in foolish dissipation; and in his indigence, making a traffic of the national honour, he sold Dunkirk to France for £350,000 sterling. A ruinous war against Holland increased 1665-67. his necessities and the discontent of the people. About the same time, the city of London, which the year before had lost 100,000 of its inhabitants by the plague, was almost destroyed by a terrible fire. The Mansion-house, Saint Paul's Cathedral, eighty-nine churches, and thirteen thousand two hundred private houses in all six hundred streets—were utterly ruined by this disaster.

2. PERSECUTION IN SCOTLAND.-The feeling against episcopacy was far stronger in Scotland than in England, yet the king was ready to enforce it there, though he had himself taken the covenant when he sought refuge among the Scots. He used to observe that "Presbyterianism was not a religion for a gentleman," and on the ground of so thoughtless a remark, he was ready to suppress the conscientious belief of a whole people. The presbyterians sent James Sharpe, an able member

of their own body, to attend to their interests in London, but he proved treacherous, and was gained over by the court, returning to Scotland as Archbishop of St Andrews. It was soon apparent that nothing but force could establish even the outward form of episcopacy. The religious persecution which ensued was the cause of an insurrection. The people forsook the churches and the ministers nominated by the bishops, to follow their own pastors, who celebrated divine worship in barns or in the fields. Severe penalties were enacted against all who attended conventicles, as these meetings were called, and to enforce more rigorous measures, Sir James Turner was sent into the west with an armed force. Some covenanters, however, fell upon him suddenly and made him prisoner, and, following up their success, resolved to march to Edinburgh; but they were attacked and defeated at Rullion Green, near the Pentland Hills: fifty were left dead on the field, and 130 were made prisoners, forty of whom perished by the hand of the executioner. In order to extort confession, many were put to the torture; and to Archbishop Sharpe belongs the infamous notoriety of having introduced a new instrument of torture called "the boots," in which the leg of the victim was crushed by a wedge driven in between the bone and an iron case or boot.

It may be said that during this unhappy reign religious per secution grew fiercer every day in Scotland, where, oppressed by Lauderdale, the king's commissioner, the covenanters re volted in 1679, after murdering Sharpe, the unpopular archbishop of Saint Andrews. Although successful against Graham of Claverhouse at the battle of Loudon Hill, they were completely defeated at Bothwell Bridge, on the Clyde, by the Duke of Monmouth, the king's illegitimate son.

3. After Clarendon's fall, which was the result of a courtintrigue, the king intrusted the government of England to five corrupt ministers, Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale-whose initials formed the word Cabal, the title by which this infamous ministry is best known. Charles was suspected of a secret leaning towards popery, which his brother, the Duke of York, openly professed. This circumstance, combined with the discontent caused by his prodigality, had changed the liberal disposition of the Commons, who began to have recourse to the ancient practice of resistance and economy. Charles's penury, the advice of his ministers, and his inclination for absolute power, instigated him to adopt means

for freeing himself from the control of parliament. He was persuaded that the royal authority was in danger unless he made it independent, and in that he could succeed only by a close alliance with France, which offered to support him with her treasures and her armies. Although a member of the A.D.) Triple Alliance concluded at the Hague between England, 1668. Sweden, and Holland, to check the ambition of Louis XIV., he suddenly changed his policy, and formed a secret treaty with the King of France, from whom he received money, A. D. and in the war which this prince declared, two years 1670. after, against Holland, the English and French fleets acted in concert against that of the States. The new parliament, which Charles's necessities obliged him to summon, voted but very trifling supplies, and among other conditions passed the famous Test Act, compelling every public officer to swear, in addition to the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, that he did not believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation. Thus all Romanists were excluded from employment, and even the Duke of York was compelled to resign the command of the fleet.

Charles had now become weary of the war against Holland, and a treaty was entered into, by which it was agreed that the conquests on each side should be restored, that the honour of the flag should be ceded to England, and that 800,000 crowns should be paid by the Dutch as an indemnification for the expenses of the war. He did not however break off all connexion with Louis. Jealous of the progress and glory of this prince, who contended alone against a host of enemies, the English desired to increase the number, and pressed the king to join the European coalition. Seduced by the offer of immense supplies, Charles appeared to yield to the public wishes: he married the Princess Mary, daughter of the Duke of York, to the Prince of Orange, and began to make preparations for the war against France. But at one time diverted by the love of pleasure, at another by the specious promises of Louis XIV., he hesitated to declare his intentions; and while he delayed from day to day, the English learnt with surprise that by the treaty of Nimeguen the King of France had 1678. dictated peace to all Europe.

A.D.

4. THE POPISH PLOT.-The violence exercised against the Nonconformists (a term including all who would not acknowledge episcopacy), the general belief that the king's relations with Louis tended to the re-establishment of absolute power

and of the Romish religion, the Duke of York's conversion to popery, and the fear of having one day a papist for their king, began to alienate the affections of the people from the throne. The most dangerous enemy of the court was Ashley Cooper, formerly a member of the Cabal, afterwards Lord Shaftesbury and chancellor of England; a despotic minister but a factious subject, joining all parties but adhering to none; an enthusiastic advocate of the royal authority in public, and yet constantly the secret leader of the opposition. He hated the Duke of York and the catholics. To ruin them he took advantage of the prevailing disposition of the public mind, and, by the instrumentality of an impudent impostor named Titus Oates, he was enabled to lay before parliament an account of a pretended popish plot. Oates declared that the Jesuits had determined to assassinate the king, and that the crown would be offered to the Duke of York, on condition of his receiving it as a gift from the pope, in default of which he was to perish like his brother; that the great fire of 1666 was the work of the Jesuits, who, already enriched by pillage, were planning another fire and general massacre, after which their dominion would be established throughout the kingdom. All these assertions, alike destitute of truth and probability, were greedily believed by the excited people. Oates was summoned before the two houses of parliament. Blinded by their prejudices and by Shaftesbury's artifices, they declared that the popish recusants were engaged in a diabolical plot against the king, his government, and religion. The impostor was rewarded by apartments in the palace of Whitehall, and a pension of £1200. To the old test oath the parliament added an additional clause on the necessity of abhorring popery as idolatry, and violently carried on the trials instituted on the denunciations of Oates and two other informers, whom the hope of gain had now brought to his assistance. Coleman, secretary to the Duchess of York, was arrested, and his papere were seized, among which was found an extensive correspondence with his friends on the continent. The documents displayed a great zeal for the Romish faith, but there were no traces of a conspiracy. He was nevertheless condemned to death, and his execution was followed by that of many Jesuits, undoubtedly not less zealous for their church, but not less innocent of the crime of treason.

5. This pretended conspiracy concealed a deep-laid scheme against the Duke of York, whom the leaders of the popular or