that his Majesty's command for the expulsion of Mr. Locke from the College is fully executed.

"MY LORD,

TO THE BISHOP OF OXON.

J. OXON."

"I have your Lordship's of the 16th, and have acquainted his Majesty therewith, who is well satisfied with the College's ready obedience to his commands for the expulsion of Mr Locke. SUNDERLAND."

The meanness of Fell's (the Bishop of Oxford) conduct was certainly never exceeded, seeing by his own unblushing confession, that he had been instrumental in laying snares for the destruction of one who was a member of his own College, and to whom he stood therefore in the relation of a father; and of one with whom he had lived in habits of friendship during the time of his prosperity: as a proof of which, one or two amongst many letters from the same hand, and in the same phrases of friendship, are here inserted.

TO HIS ESTEEMED FRIEND MR JOHN LOCKE, AT THANET HOUSE, IN ALDERSGATE STREET.

66 SIR,

" June 1, 1680.

"You are not to excuse your address by letter as if it could give a trouble to me; I assure you I have that respect and friendship for you, that I should have been glad to have heard from you, although you had no other business than to let me know you were in health, especially since you left this place in such a condition as might make your friends appre hensive for you. As to the proposal concerning books, we have two years since quit our hands of our stock to men of trade, so that the interest is now with those we dealt with. I have spoke this morning with one of them, Mr Pitt, who within few days will be in London, and will there attend upon you; he seems to approve of the terms offered, so that presume he will close with them. I have no more to add at present, but desire that when you write to Monsieur Justell, you would represent the esteem I have for him. Let me also desire you to be assured that I am your

I

Affectionate friend,
JOHN OXON."

From the same affectionate friend, of an earlier date, indorsed 1675.

"SIR,

"November 8.

"I am sorry for the occasion of your voyage, but wish you success in it, and by no means expect you should add to it, by a journey hither upon the score of ceremony. It is that which I by no means expect from my friends, and I hope the rest of the Chapter are of the same mind. When we have occasion to meet next, I shall propose your concern to the company, and with my affectionate remembrances, remain, Sir, Your assured friend and servant,

J. FELL."

And many other letters directed to the worthily esteemed John Locke, Esq., at Thanet House, in Aldersgate Street.

Of the illegality of the proceeding there can now be no doubt. The visitatorial power of the Crown can only be executed by the Lord Chancellor; and the King, like every other visitor, is bound, before he pronounces sentence against any party, to hear him, or at least to cite him, and give him an opportunity of being heard. It is but fair, however, to add, that, at the time of the transaction alluded to, the rights and powers of visitors were much more loose and unsettled than at present. The leading decision on the visitatorial power (the Exeter College case) took place many years afterwards, and the necessity of a visitor's acting strictly and properly, in that capacity, was not finally established before the case of the King and the Bishop of Ely.

Resistance was, however, made even at Oxford a few years later, but it was at a time when the rights and privileges, not of an obnoxious individual, but of the whole ecclesiastical order, were attacked; at a time when the blind despot, then on the throne, fortunately aimed his blows, not only against the liberties of his country, but against the Church itself, and broke the terms of the secret articles, offensive and defensive, so well understood at all other times between the parties concerned, which are inferred in the union of Church and State.

When I say it was fortunate that James II. aimed his

blows against the Church, which secured her assistance in the work of the Revolution, I by no means express an opinion that the gentlemen of England were so dead to all feelings of patriotism, that they would have surrendered their liberties for ever without a struggle. That country which, in the preceding age, had produced a Hampden, a Pym, a Coke, and a Hutchinson, would doubtless have burst asunder the bonds of tyranny, even without the assistance of the Established Church, although the effort might have cost a second civil

war.

The persecution which had driven Locke from his country, the tyranny which had illegally deprived him of his situation at Oxford, did not cease after his retreat to Holland; the King's minister at the Hague demanded amongst several others named in his memorial, that Locke should be delivered up, describing him as secretary to the late Earl of Shaftes bury, a state crime worthy of such extraordinary interposition.

Mémoire présenté par Monsieur Schelton, Envoyé Extraordinaire de sa Majesté de la Grande Bretagne à Messeigneurs les Estats Généraux.

HAUT ET PUISSANTS SEIGNEURS,

Vos Seigneuries ayant fait sçavoir il y a trois jours au sousigné Envoyé Extraordinaire de sa Majesté le Roi de la Grande Bretagne, la résolution qu'elles avoyent prise de bannir tous les sujets rebelles du Roi son maître des terres de leur domination, sur les réprésentations que sa Majesté avait faites aux Ambassadeurs de cet Estat, le susdit Envoyé Extraordinaire auroit eu lieu de se contenter en partie des esgards que vos Seigneuries avoyent tesmoigné pour sa Majesté en cette rencontre s'il n'en eut reçu des ordres exprès de réprésenter à vos Seigneuries qu'elle apprend avec un très sensible deplaisir que tant de ses sujets rebelles (dont les noms sont si-dessous spécifiés) se sont refugiés dans les provinces de vostre obéissance, lesquels se sont attiré sa juste indignation et colère, en ce que contre la foy et l'obéissance qu'ils doivent à leur souverain, ils ont conspiré contre la vie de sa sacrée personne, contre le gouvernement dont le bouleversement à fait depuis assez long temps le but de leurs des

sins, et qu'ils ne se lassent de former tous les jours de nouveaux projets de trahison et d'infamie, et de déchirer la renommée et la gloire de sa Majesté par toutes sortes de papiers diffamatoires qu'ils font imprimer et distribuer en ces pays. Or sa Majesté voyant le danger auquel sa sacrée personne est exposée, tant que ces traîtres et fils dénaturés de leur patrie trouvent un azile dans les provinces de vos Seigneuries, où ces scélérats par la grande facilité continuent à correspondre avec ceux de leur party en Angleterre et en Ecosse, et à s'assembler et consulter sur la destruction du repos et de la prospérité des royaumes de sa Majesté, elle se persuade que vos Seigneuries non seulement les en chasseront, mais aussi les saisiront et envoyeront en Angleterre conformement à leur propre déclaration faite sur ce sujet. Et certes, il semble que l'amitié, que de droit et d'intéret de bons voisins doivent les uns aux autres, ne le demande pas seulement, mais il y a des raisons bien plus fortes, à sçavoir des traités entre sa Majesté et cet estat, qui luy donnent ces prétentions, outre que la prosperité de leur estat, à laquelle sa Majesté prend tant de part, depend de celle des affaires du Roi. Et c'est pourquoi le susdit Envoyé Extraordinaire d'Angleterre croit que vos Seigneuries voudront d'abord donner les mains à cette saisie et bannissement d'autant plus qu'elles dans l'extract de leur résolution de Mardy le 15 de May, de l'année présente, veulent bien donner les assurances de concourir en tout ce que dependra d'elles pour le maintien des traités et de la bonne intelligence entre sa Majesté et cet estat. Fait à la Haye à 17 May, 1685.

(Signé) B. SCHELTON.

Then follows a list of the proscribed, including Locke. He was therefore under the necessity of living very much concealed, and of going out only at night, in order to avoid observation. His occupations, however, were such as could not have given offence to the most jealous Government; and he had actually, at one time (as says Le Clerc), removed from Amsterdam to Utrecht, to avoid the possible suspicion of being connected with Monmouth, or of abetting his expedition, having no good opinion either of the leader or of his undertaking. He certainly left Amsterdam on the 16th of

April, 1685, and remained at Utrecht till the 23rd of May following, which last date coïncides exactly, I believe, with the Duke of Monmouth's departure from the Texel.

It was during this secluded residence with M. Veen in 1685 that his Letter on Toleration was finished. The subject had many years before engaged his attention, as I find a long article on Toleration in his Common-place Book, dated 1667, containing his early thoughts on that most important of all questions, as he first committed them to writing. It concludes thus: "But to show the danger of establishing uniformity, to give a full prospect of this subject, there remain yet these following particulars to be handled:

1st. To show what influence Toleration is like to have upon the number and industry of your people.

2nd. What force must compel all to a uniformity in England; to consider what party alone, or what parties, are likeliest to unite, to make a force able to compel the rest.

3rd. To show that all that speak against Toleration, seem to suppose that severity and force are the only arts of government, and way to suppress any faction, which is a mistake.

4th. That for the most part the matters of controversy and distinction between sects are no parts, or very inconsiderable ones, and but appendages of true religion.

5th. To consider how it comes to pass that the Christian religion has made more factions, wars, and disturbances in civil societies than any other, and whether Toleration and Latitudinism would not prevent those evils.

6th. The making the terms of church communion as large as may be, i. e. that your articles in speculative opinions be few and large, and ceremonies in worship few and easy, which is Latitudinism.

7th. That the desiring and undertaking to prove several doctrines which are confessed to be incomprehensible, and to be no otherwise known but by revelation, and requiring men to assent to them in the forms proposed by the doctors of your several churches, must needs make a great many Atheists.

But of these when I have more leisure. Sic cogitavit J. Locke, 1667."