1678. CHAP. though they here advanced a new pretension, might LXVII. justify themselves by the utility, and even necessity of it. But in other respects their charge against Danby was very ill, grounded. That minister made it appear to the house of lords, not only that Montague, the informer against him, had all along promoted the money-negotiations with France, but that he himself was ever extremely averse to the interests of that crown, which he esteemed pernicious to his master and to his country. The French nation, he said, had always entertained, as he was certainly informed, the highest contempt, both of the King's person and government. His diligence, he added, in tracing and discovering the popish plot, was generally known; and if he had common sense, not to say common honesty, he would surely be anxious to preserve the life of a master, by whom he was so much favoured. He had wasted no treasure, because there was no treasure to waste. And though he had reason to be grateful for the King's bounty, he had made more moderate acquisitions than were generally imagined, and than others in his office had often done, even during a shorter administration. THE house of peers plainly saw, that allowing all the charges of the commons to be true, Danby's crime fell not under the statute of Edward III.; and though the words, treason and traitorously, had been carefully inserted in several articles, this appellation could not change the nature of things, or subject him to the penalties annexed to that crime. They refused, therefore, to commit Danby upon this irregular charge: The commons insisted on their demand; and a great contest was likely to arise, when the King, who had already seen sufficient instances of the ill-humour of the parliament, thought proper Dissolu- to prorogue them. This prorogation was soon after followed by a dissolution; a desperate remedy in the present disposition of the nation. But the disease, it must be owned, the King had reason to esteem desperate. The utmost rage had been discovered by the Dec. 30. tion of the long parliament. commons, 1678. commons, on account of the popish plot; and their CHAP. fury began already to point against the royal family, LXVII. if not against the throne itself. The Duke had been struck at in several motions: The treasurer had been impeached: All supply had been refused, except on the most disagreeable conditions: Fears, jealousies, and antipathies were every day multiplying in parliament: And though the people were strongly infected with the same prejudices, the King hoped, that, by dissolving the present cabals, a set of men might be chosen more moderate in their pursuits, and less tainted with the virulence of faction. THUS came to a period a parliament, which had Its chasitten during the whole course of this reign, one year racter. excepted. Its conclusion was very different from its commencement. Being elected during the joy and festivity of the restoration, it consisted almost entirely of royalists; who were disposed to support the crown by all the liberality which the habits of that age would permit. Alarmed by the alliance with France, they gradually withdrew their confidence from the King; and finding him still to persevere in a foreign interest, they proceeded to discover symptoms of the most refractory and most jealous disposition. The popish plot pushed them beyond all bounds of moderation; and before their dissolution, they seemed to be treading fast in the footsteps of the last long parliament, on whose conduct they threw at first such violent blame. In all their variations, they had still followed the opinions and prejudices of the nation and ever seemed to be more governed by humour and party-views than by public interest, and more by public interest than by any corrupt or private influence. ; DURING the sitting of the parliament, and after its prorogation and dissolution, the trials of the pretended criminals were carried on, and the courts of judicature, places which, if possible, ought to be kept more pure from injustice than even national assemblies 90 CHAP. assemblies themselves, were strongly infected with LXVII. the same party rage, and bigoted prejudices. Cole man, the most obnoxious of the conspirators, was 1678. Trial of first brought to his trial. His letters were produced Coleman. against him. They contained, as he himself confessed, much indiscretion: But unless so far as it is illegal to be a zealous catholic, they seemed to prove nothing criminal, much less treasonable, against him. Oates and Bedloe deposed, that he had received a commission, signed by the superior of the Jesuits, to be papal secretary of state, and had consented to the poisoning, shooting and stabbing of the King: He had even, according to Oates's deposition, advanced a guinea to promote those bloody purposes. These wild stories were confounded with the projects contained in his letters; and Coleman received sentence of death. The sentence was soon after executed upon him. He suffered with calmness and constancy, and to the last persisted in the strongest protestations of his innocence. Of Ireland. COLEMAN'S execution was succeeded by the trial of Father Ireland, who, it is pretended, had signed, together with fifty Jesuits, the great resolution of murdering the King. Grove and Pickering, who had undertaken to shoot him, were tried at the same time. The only witnesses against the prisoners were still Oates and Bedloe. Ireland affirmed that he was in Staffordshire all the month of August last, a time when Oates's evidence made him in London. He proved his assertion by good evidence, and would have proved it by undoubted, had he not most iniquitously been debarred, while in prison, from all use of pen, ink, and paper, and denied the liberty of sending for witnesses. All these men, before their arraignment, were condemned in the opinion of the judges, jury, and spectators; and to be a Jesuit, or even a catholic, was of itself a sufficient 3d of December. proof 1678. proof of guilt. The chief justice, in particular, CHAP. gave sanction to all the narrow prejudices and bigoted LXVII. fury of the populace. Instead of being counsel for the prisoners, as his office required, he pleaded the cause against them, brow-beat their witnesses, and on every occasion represented their guilt as certain and uncontroverted. He even went so far as publickly to affirm, that the papists had not the same principles which protestants have, and therefore were not entitled to that common credence, which the principles and practices of the latter call for. And when the jury brought in their verdict against the prisoners, he said, "You have done, gentlemen, like 66 1679. very good subjects, and very good Christians, that "is to say, like very good protestants; And now "much good may their 30,000 masses do them :” Alluding to the masses by which Pickering was to be rewarded for murdering the King. All these unhappy men went to execution, protesting their innocence; a circumstance which made no impression on the spectators. The opinion that the Jesuits allowed of lies and mental reservations, for promoting 14th Jan. a good cause, was at this time so universally received, that no credit was given to testimony delivered either by that order or by any of their disciples. It was forgotten, that all the conspirators engaged in the gun-powder treason, and Garnet, the Jesuit, among the rest, had freely, on the scaffold, made confession of their guilt. THOUGH Bedloe had given information of Godfrey's murder, he still remained a single evidence against the persons accused; and all the allurements of profit and honour had not hitherto tempted any one to confirm the testimony of that informer. At last means were found to complete the legal evidence. One Prance, a silversmith and a catholic, had been * Sir William Scroggs. accused 1679. CHAP. accused by Bedloe of being an accomplice in the LXVII. murder; and upon his denial had been thrown into prison, loaded with heavy irons, and confined to the condemned hole, a place cold, dark, and full of nastiness. Such rigours were supposed to be exercised. by orders from the secret committee of lords, particularly Shaftesbury and Buckingham; who, in examining the prisoners, usually employed (as it is said, and indeed sufficiently proved) threatenings and promises, rigour and indulgence, and every art, under pretence of extorting the truth from them. Prance had not courage to resist, but confessed himself an accomplice in Godfrey's murder. Being asked concerning the plot, he also thought proper to be acquainted with it, and conveyed some intelligence to the council. Among other absurd circumstances, he said that one Le Fevre bought a second-hand sword of him; because he knew not, as he said, what times were at hand: And Prance expressing some concern for poor tradesmen, if such times came; Le Fevre replied, that it would be better for tradesmen, if the catholic religion were restored: And particularly, that there would be more church-work for silversmiths. All this information with regard to the plot, as well as the murder of Godfrey, Prance solemnly retracted, both before the King and the secret committee: But being again thrown into prison, he was induced, by new terrors and new sufferings, to confirm his first information, and was now produced as a sufficient evidence. HILL, Green, and Berry, were tried for Godfrey's murder; all of them men of low stations. Hill was servant to a physician: The other two belonged to the popish chapel at Somerset-house. It is needless to run over all the particulars of a long trial: It will be sufficient to say, that Bedloe's evidence and Prance's were, in many circumstances, totally irreconcilable; that both of them laboured under unsur |