ERRATA.-Page. 385, column 1, lines 3 and 4, for "theoretical, not practical,"
read spiritual, not temporal.-Page 468, line 7, from bottom, of Queries to Protestants,
for "of grace," read disgrace.

CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY NOT
OBTAINED BY THE REFORMATION.

D

that practised it with honest intention and sincerity. --Is it not then a subject of disgrace to the character JAMES A FRIEND TO TOLERATION, of our country, that a writer of such HIS PARLIAMENTS PERSECUTORS. political eminence as Mr. Cobbett, EATH having put an end to the as well as some of our most indecruel oppressions and tyranny pendent senators and patriots, should, of the "virgin Queen," she was suc- at this day, re-echo all the foul asceeded in the throne of these realms persions so industriously heaped upby James I. the son of Mary queen on catholic principles by their phrenof Scotland, who suffered for her zied and bigoted fathers, and coninflexible adherence to the catholic tinue to impute the present grievfaith under a warrant of the merci- ances of the nation, and they are less Elizabeth.-James was not only certainly no very light ones, to the the first of the royal race of Stuart Pope and the Jesuits. In an adthat swayed the sceptre of England, dress to the clergy, Mr. Cobbett has but the first also that reigned over talked most impudently and most the three kingdoms, and took the ignorantly of the noble_struggles title of king of Great Britain.-The made by his fathers in "the cause of rule of this family has given great religious liberty;" and he is conscope to our blustering demagogues stantly reminding his readers of the and hireling writers to rail about | tyrannical acts of the naughty Stuarts. Popery and Slavery, and to repre- The whig oracle, The Morning Chrosent each succeeding sovereign of this nicle, in its unprincipled attempts dynasty as tyrants and oppressors; to persuade the people of England but a cool and candid examination that the late unfortunate political of the events which took place du outrages at Nismes were the work ring the period of their sway, even of a religious persecution of the as detailed by the hugonot Rapin, French Protestants by the Bourbons, the archdeacon of Stowe, Mr. Ech- also took repeated occasions to boast ard, or the infidel Hume, will be suf- of the sacred love of civil and relificient to convince the reader that gious liberty which inflamed the the charge brought against the Stuarts breasts of the ancient members of ought rather to be affixed to the tur- his faction, and to extol the enlightbulent members of the senate during ened system of toleration which formtheir dominion, a set of malignant and ed the distinguished features of the mercenary bigots, constantly crying parliamentary contests that took place out for liberty of conscience, yet de- under the rule of this maligned family. manding the blood and lives of those-It is not my design to yindicate ORTHOD. JOUR. VOL. V.

B

the unconstitutional actsof the Stuarts, nor to defend the many errors committed by them, but I am prepared to prove, that throughout the whole period of the struggles of parliament during the rule of these monarchs, including the commonwealth, not one single fact can be brought forward to establish a claim in favour of the patriots, so called, of those days, to a real attachment to constitutional freedom; but, on the contrary, the whole of their proceedings were distinguished by an inveterate hatred towards the professors of popery, and an oppressive and tyrannical ascendancy over every other sect, but that of the ruling faction. In a word that the struggles, which are denominated by the present race of reformers as the struggles of liberty against Slavery and Popery, were, in truth and reality, the struggles of religious fanatics for political power-of conspiring anarchs for uncontrolled do

byterians flattered themselves that James, from being educated in their religion, would promote the reforming of the church of England, upon the plan of that of Scotland; and the catholics hoped to meet under his government, with gentler treatment, and more indulgence, than they had experienced beneath the yoke of Elizabeth--In this state of public anxiety, each party alternately biassed between hope and fear, came the famous conference at Hampton-court, which put a damper upon the puritans, who experienced a further disappointment by the opening speech of James to his first parliament.-Previous to this, it should be observed, that the new monarch issued a proclamation commanding all jesuits and other priests having orders from any foreign power, to depart the kingdom; but Rapin says, he took care to shew that he did not publish this proclamation in hatred to the catholic religion in general, but only on account of his dislike James was in the 36th year of his to the jesuits and their doctrine.age when he ascended the throne of James was very willing, observes England, but he had exercised the the same historrian, to allow the royal power over Scotland from his catholics to believe what they pleased coming of age, having succeeded to provided they renounced the belief the latter throne, when only a year of the pope's superiority over kings. old, on the deposition of his mother-If this account of the writer be by her rebellious subjects.-James true, we may here see the effects of a was baptised a catholic, educated a prejudiced education, because the calvinist, and became pope or head very history of the country over of the church of England, on his which he was called to preside, and accession to its crown.-At this the conduct of all his predecessors this time the nation was divided in- on the throne of England, with the to three parties, namely the establish- exception of the weak and pusillaed religion, the puritans, and the nimous John, gave a flat contradiccatholics, which latter was then very tion to such being the principles of considerable, not less than twenty roman catholics.-This proclamacatholic peers having seats in the up- tion against the jesuits and priests, per house. According to Rapin, each was followed by another, enjoining party entertained hopes favourable the puritans to conform to the worto themselves from the disposition ship of the established church.of the new monarch; the church of Thus stood matters with respect to England-men expected that he would religion, till the opening of the first conform to their religion, since it parliament, on the 19th day of March, was established by law; the pres-1604, when the king made a long

minion.

speech to both houses, in which he catholics, some of whom he called professed his intention to govern his to his councils, raised a jealousy in subjects of all religious persuasions the whole protestant interest, and it with mildness and lenity, declaring was found necessary to devise meaat the same time his aversion to harsh sures to wean the affections of the or cruel measures. He stated it as monarch from them. But how this his belief that more danger was to was to be done, became a question be apprehended from the politics of of some moment since the general the puritans, than from the tenets of conduct of the catholics under Elitheir faith; and as for the catholics, zabeth could afford no hopes that he acknowleged that theirs was the any imprudent step on their part mother church, though not, he con- would take place to forfeit the good ceived, without blemishes. That the opinion James entertained of their judges had pressed the laws farther civil allegiance to him. A device howthan was intended against recusants; ever was not long wanted. Cecil, the and that he hoped parliament would son of the insidious Lord Burghley, consider of some milder expedients the contriver of Babington's plot for the future. In conclusion, he and of queen Mary's murder, was signified a desire of seeing all Eu- then at the head of the royal counrope united in religion, which he cils, and possesed all the inventive thought was not an impracticable genius of his perfidous father in formprospect, provided all parties would ing plots and conspiracies. He had abandon excesses. This speech gave betrayed his former mistress in the considerable umbrage to the puri- decline of her life to his present tans, nor was it by any means relish- master, her hated rival, and he was ed by the members of the established now resolved that James should sacrichurch, or any of the protestant fice his mother's and his own genuine sects. A system of religious tolera- friends to his inborn hatred of them. tion did not enter the views of any -Accordingly a plot was resolved of these parties, all of whom cordi- on, which Cecil undertook to bring ally hated the catholics, and wish-to maturity. The father of James, ed to see them crushed, lest some of the former should be obliged to restore the ill-gotten estates they then possessed by the confiscations and seizures of the preceding reign.The puritans in particular were enraged at the king's charging them with being 66 ever discontented with the present government, and impatient of any superiority, which made their sect insufferable in a well governed common wealth."--James, however, had received too many testimonies of the correctness of his opinion of that sect during his reign in Scotland, not to be jealous of their power here; and his son and successors afterwards experienced the fatality of their deposing principles.

On the other hand, the known partiality of the king towards the

king Henry Darnley, had been actually blown up by a protestant_gunpowder plot, and he himself had very narrowly escaped a similar danger during his dominion in Scotland; it was therefore suggested that as the king must naturally have an aversion to a gunpowder conspiracy, such an one should be attempted, and laid at the door of the Catholics.

Forgery," says the Rev. Mr. Whitaker, in his Vindication of Mary queen of Scots," Forgery; I blush for the honour of protestantism while I write it, seems to have been peculiar to the reformed.....I look in vain for one of those accursed outrages of imposition amongst the disciples of popery."-It is not my intention to enter into a minute detail of this diabolical transaction,

normous barbarities. The wrath of Heaven (he continued) is denounced against crimes, but inn cent error may obtain its favour; and nothing can be more hateful than the uncharitableness of the puritans who condemn alike to eternal torments even the most inoffensive partizans of popery. This mild and tolerant spirit evinced by the monarch did not accord with the heated and revengeful disposition of the puritan faction in both houses. The strong bias shewn by James to the principles of catholics in contradistinction to his dislike of the turbulent and restless spirit of the calvinists, worked the adherents of the latter doctrine into a pitch of fury, which could not be satiated but by the total ruin and extirpation of the former.James having ended his speech, the parliament was immediately prorogued, without entering on any business, until the 21st day of January ia the succeeding year. - During this session, the people were again put into a consternation by a sudden rumour and outcry at court, that the king was stabbed with an envenomed knife about twenty miles from London. This rumour, however, was nothing more than a political manoeuvre of ministers to draw money from parliament, and keep the people in alarm for the safety of their sovereign, in which they well suc ceeded.-The commons granted the supplies very liberally, and both houses united in adding fresh pains and penalties to those already enacted by Elizabeth to suppress the growth of popery. And to complete all, says Echard, "With hearts full of affection for God's great deliver. ance of the whole kingdom from ruin and desolation, they made a special act to have the fifth day of No. vember for ever solemnized with public thanksgivings: imputing the discovery of the treason to God, in in

the reader will do better to consult Dr. Milner's Letters to a Prebendary, or Mr. Reeve's History of the Christian Church, where he will find the infamous intrigues of the crafty Cecil exposed, and the catholics, as a body, completely cleared of being concerned in it. I shall only observe, the first session of that parliament passed over without any very important occurence, and its sitting was prorogued until the seventh of February, 1605; this prorogation was afterwards extended to the 7th of October following, and then again to the fifth of November; but on the night previous to the last mentioned day, search was made under the parliament-house, and some barrels of gun-powder concealed among faggots was, as intended, discovered, together with Mr. Guy Fawkes, a soldier of fortune and a professed catholic, who, on being taken into custody, implicated eight more individuals equally as desperate and unprincipled as himself, one of whom, Francis Tresham, it should be observed, was upon such terms with the prime minister, Cecil, that he had access to him at all hours not only of the day but also of the night.-A strong presumptive proof that he was Cecil's agent in managing the conspirators. -The discovery being made, the most industrious means were taken to spread the news through the kingdom, and great care was used to inflame the minds of the people against papists and popish plots. That the king himself, did not believe it to be a catholic conspiracy is evident from the tenor of his speech to both houses which met on the 9th, four days after the discovery, when James, with much candour informed the members," that though religion had engaged the conspirators in so criminal an attempt, yet ought we not to involve all the roman catholics in the same guilt, or suppose them equally disposed to commit such e-spiring the king with a divine spirit