formists-a blot in the measure, deserving the severest reprehension..

X. Although Charles, in the season of vigour and gaiety, betrayed a manifest indifference to all religions, he ever retained a secret preference for that Romish service, whose rites were, in point of splendour and dramatic entertainment, so well accommodated to his taste. His brother, the Duke of York, was a Catholic bigot; and gaining an ascendant over Charles by alleviating his load of business, confirmed his inclination towards Popery. Under pretext of mitigating the rigours of the Act of Uniformity, the brothers concerted a declaration in favour of liberty of conscience, that the Catholics might obtain a free exercise of their religion, and share a toleration of which the dissenters seemed the primary objects. Their design, however, escaped not the eye of Parliament, who, in a remonstrance issued the following year, opposed it as tending to encourage schism, and to injure the Protestant religion. The Commons, thus looking with an eye of jealousy on both the Papists and the sectaries, released the King from his declaration at Breda, which, they justly observed, had been guarded and qualified

a breach of promise on the part of the King, as an act of prudential provision for public peace on the part of the govern ment.-Daubeny's Guide, p. 329, &e.

by promising indulgence subject to the approbation of Parliament. They affirmed that unlimited indulgence tended only to the multiplication of sects, and to the endangering of the Protestant succession, since some prevailing party might at length contend for an establishment; a chance which might probably introduce Popery. This remonstrance prevailed with the King to withdraw for the present his scheme of religious indulgence; and to issue a vague proclamation against priests and Jesuits, to which he was probably induced by the hope of a parliamentary supply. The Papists were meanwhile not remiss in encouraging the growth of dissenters; that a general toleration, including themselves, might be brought about. They were at once resolved to preserve their own phalanx united, and to divide the Nonconformists. The standing maxim avowed by the King was, to give relief to all dissenters, or to none.

XI. This year died the good and loyal Archbishop Juxon. He was succeeded by Sheldon, who during his predecessor's incapacity had long conducted the affairs of the church.

XII. 1664. Between Sheldon and Lord Clarendon it was at this period agreed, that the clergy should silently relinquish their privilege of taxing themselves in convocation, in order to be henceforward included in the money bills prepared by the Commons. As in consequence or

the regal influence with the ecclesiastical body, their supplies had always exceeded those of the Commons, they were content with this sacrifice of power for a commutation of profit; and the more so, as they were permitted to vote as freeholders at elections. The convocation has ever since ceased to be an efficient body; which is much to be regretted, on account of the growing disposition to introduce lay interference, and to shackle the fair authority of the clergy, in matters purely ecclesiastical *.

XIII. The Act of Uniformity, imposing a penalty of fine and imprisonment, having been deemed an insufficient security against the Nonconformists, the Commons now reinforced it by the well-known Conventicle Act, which appointed, that if five persons, unless under sixteen years of age, exceeding the members of any household, should convene in an unsanctioned place for the purposes of devotion, each individual so assembling, should incur, for the first offence, a fine of 51. and three months' imprisonment; for the second, a double penalty; and for the third, 1007. and transportation for seven years. This was mitigated in the Conventicle Act of 1670, to shillings instead of pounds. In this manner were the ejected clergy incapacitated for earning a livelihood by their profession: and the Five Mile Act of 1664-5, preventing them from approaching within five miles of any place

* See Wix on the Expedience of a Convocation.

where they had formerly preached, or from taking boarders, or from teaching a school, abolished whatever remains of their influence might be deemed dangerous; though certainly with too severe a hand. By another act they were compelled to take an oath, that they would attempt no alteration in church or state. By these seve rities the ejected clergy were reduced to the lowest ebb of distress: and some lived solely upon brown rye bread and water.. Baxter and others, who refused to preserve silence, suffered fine and imprisonment. Some became occasional conformists; others preached in houses with holes in the walls, communicating with other houses: whence probably is derived the name of several taverns in London, entitled," The Hole in the Wall." The quiet submission to penalties displayed by the Quakers, overpowered the force of government.

XIV. But whatever dislike subsisted among the different orders of Protestants, in jealousy towards the Papists they strenuously concurred; nor were the language and conduct of Charles at all calculated to diminish their common prejudices and suspicions. When they considered his French alliance; when they beheld him sanction the marriage of the heir-presumptive with a Catholic princess; they could hardly fail to conclude that arbitrary power and Popery were the scope of all his designs. Under the influence

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of such apprehensions, every report prejudicial to the Catholics, was but too readily credited. To them was attributed the conflagration of London; though probably the result of accident: and this groundless charge, which might be excused by the spirit of the times, stands to this day recorded on the commemorating column, which "like a tall bully lifts its head and lies*." At a subsequent period the information of Titus Oates drew from both Houses of Parliament a vote declaring the Lords and Commons to be of opinion, that there hath been, and still is, a damnable and hellish plot, contrived and carried on by the Popish recusants, for assassinating the King, for subverting the government, and for rooting out or destroying the Protestant religion. While the information of the infamous Oates is treated with the contempt it merits, let us not in modern times forget the inflammatory paragraphs in the letters of Colman the Jesuit, to a discovery of which it led; or the just remarks made on that disclosure, by the great English historian, who himself wholly discre dited Oates's narrative. "It is certain that the restless and enterprising spirit of the Catholic

* Many churches having been consumed, the ejected ministers, disregarding the threats of government, and urged by a sense of duty, preached from temporary rooms constructed of boards; from whence their places of worship assumed the name of tabernacles.