1681. 10th Jan. tion of the parliament. CHAP. petuate the general ferment of the nation, he came LXVIII. secretly to a resolution of proroguing them. They got intelligence about a quarter of an hour before the black rod came to the door. Not to lose such Dissolu- precious time, they passed in a tumultuous manner some extraordinary resolutions. They voted, That whosoever advised His Majesty to prorogue this parliament to any other purpose than in order to pass the bill of exclusion, was a betrayer of the King, of the protestant religion, and of the kingdom of England; a promoter of the French interest, and a pensioner of France: That thanks be given to the city of London for their manifest loyalty, and for their care and vigilance in the preservation of the King, and of the protestant religion: That it is the opinion of this house, that that city was burned in the year 1666 by the papists, designing thereby to introduce arbitrary power and popery into the kingdom: That humble application be made to His Majesty for restoring the Duke of Monmouth to all his offices and commands, from which, it appears to the house, he had been removed by the influence of the Duke of York: And, That it is the opinion of the house that the prosecution of the protestant dissenters upon the penal laws is at this time grievous to the subject, a weakening to the protestant interest, an encouragement of popery, and dangerous to the peace of the kingdom. THE King passed some laws of no great importance: But the bill for repealing the thirty-fifth of Elizabeth, he privately ordered the clerk of the crown not to present to him. By this artifice, which was equally disobliging to the country party as if the bill had been rejected, and at the same time implied some timidity in the King, that salutary act was for the present eluded. The King had often of himself attempted, and sometimes by irregular means, to give indulgence to non-conformists: But besides that he had usually expected to compre hend hend the catholics in this liberty, the present re- CHAP. fractory disposition of the sectaries had much incensed LXVIII. him against them; and he was resolved, if possible, to keep them still at mercy. THE last votes of the commons seemed to be an attempt of forming indirectly an association against the crown, after they found that their association bill could not pass: The dissenting interest, the city, and the Duke of Monmouth, they endeavoured to connect with the country party. A civil war indeed never appeared so likely as at present; and it was high time for the King to dissolve a parliament, which seemed to have entertained such dangerous projects. Soon after, he summoned another. Though he observed, that the country party had established their interest so strongly in all the electing boroughs, that he could not hope for any disposition more favourable in the new parliament, this expedient, was still a prosecution of his former project, of trying every method by which he might form an accommodation with the commons: And if all failed, he hoped that he could the better justify to his people, at least to his party, a final breach with them. It had always been much regretted by the royalists, during the civil wars, that the long parliament had been assembled at Westminster, and had thereby received force and encouragement from the vicinity of a potent and factious city, which had zealously embraced their party. Though the King was now possessed of guards, which in some meaure overawed the populace, he was determined still farther to obviate all inconveniences; and he summoned the new parliament to meet at Oxford. The city of London showed how just a judgment he had formed of their dispositions. Besides re-electing the same members, they voted thanks to them for their former beha viour, in endeavouring to discover the depth of the horrid and hellish popish plot, and to exclude 3 the 1681. 1681. 150 CHAP. the Duke of York, the principal cause of the ruin LXVIII. and misery impending over the nation. Monmouth with fifteen peers presented a petition against assembling the parliament at Oxford, "where the two "houses," they said, "could not be in safety; but "would be easily exposed to the swords of the "papists and their adherents, of whom too many "had crept into His Majesty's guards." These insinuations, which pointed so evidently at the King himself, were not calculated to persuade him, but to inflame the people. March 21. New par THE exclusionists might have concluded, both from the King's dissolution of the last parliament, and from his summoning of the present to meet at Oxford, that he was determined to maintain his declared resolution of rejecting their favourite bill: But they still flattered themselves that his urgent necessities would influence his easy temper, and finally gain them the ascendant. The leaders came to parliament, attended not only by their servants, but by numerous bands of their partisans. The four city members in particular were followed by great multitudes, wearing ribbons, in which were woven these words, No popery! no slavery! The King had his guards regularly mustered: His party likewise endeavoured to make a show of their strength: And on the whole, the assembly at Oxford rather bore the appearance of a tumultuous Polish diet, than of a regular English parliament. THE King, who had hitherto employed the most gracious expressions to all his parliaments, particularly the two last, thought proper to address himself to the present in a more authoritative manner, He com liament at plained of the unwarrantable proceedings of the Oxford. former house of commons; and said that, as he would never use arbitrary government himself, neither would he ever suffer it in others. By calling, however, this parliament so soon, he had sufficiently shewn that no past irregularities could inspire him 151 with a prejudice against those assemblies. He now CHAP. afforded them, he added, yet another opportunity of LXVIII. providing for the public safety; and to all the world had given one evidence more, that on his part he had not neglected the duty incumbent on him. THE Commons were not overawed by the magisterial air of the King's speech. They consisted almost entirely of the same members; they chose the same speaker; and they instantly fell into the same measures, the impeachment of Danby, the repeal of the persecuting statute of Elizabeth, the inquiry into the popish plot, and the bill of exclusion. So violent were they on this last article, that no other expedient, however plausible, could so much as be hearkened to. Ernley, one of the King's ministers, proposed that the Duke should be banished, during life, five hundred miles from England, and that on the King's demise the next heir should be constituted regent with regal power: Yet even this expedient, which left the Duke only the bare title of King, could not, though seconded by Sir Thomas Littleton and Sir Thomas Mompesson, obtain the attention of the house. The past disappointments of the country party, and the opposition made by the court, had only rendered them more united, more haughty, and more determined. No method but their own, of excluding the Duke, could give them any satisfaction. 1681. THERE was one Fitz-harris, an Irish catholic, who Fitz-harhad insinuated himself into the Dutchess of Ports- ris's case. mouth's acquaintance, and had been very busy in conveying to her, intelligence of any libel written by the country party, or of any designs entertained against her or against the court. For services of this kind, and perhaps too, from a regard to his father, Sir Edward Fitz-harris, who had been an eminent royalist, he had received from the King a present of 250 pounds. This man met with one Everard, a Scotchman, a spy of the exclusionists, and 1681.. CHAP. an informer concerning the popish plot; and he LXVIII. engaged him to write a libel against the King, the Duke, and the whole administration. What Fitzharris's intentions were, cannot well be ascertained: It is probable, as he afterwards asserted, that he meant to carry this libel to his patron, the Dutchess, and to make a merit of the discovery. Everard, who suspected some other design, and who was well pleased, on his side, to have the merit of a discovery with his patrons, resolved to betray his friend: He posted Sir William Waller, a noted justice of peace, and two persons more behind the hangings, and gave them an opportunity of seeing and hearing the whole transaction. The libel, sketched out by Fitzharris, and executed partly by him, partly by Everard, was the most furious, indecent, and outrageous per formance imaginable; and such as was fitter to hurt than serve any party, which should be so imprudent as to adopt it. Waller carried the intelligence to the King, and obtained a warrant for committing Fitz-harris, who happened, at that very time, to have a copy of the libel in his pocket. Finding himself now delivered over to the law, he resolved to pay court to the popular party, who were alone able to protect him, and by whom he observed almost all trials to be governed and directed. He affirmed, that he had been employed by the court to write the libel, in order to throw the odium of it on the exclusionists: But this account, which was within the bounds of credibility, he disgraced by circumstances which are altogether absurd and improbable, The intention of the ministers, he said, was to send about copies to all the heads of the country party; and the moment they received them, they were to be arrested, and a conspiracy to be imputed to them. That he might merit favour by still more impor tant intelligence, he commenced a discoverer of the great popish plot; and he failed not to confirm all the |