CHAP.

IV.

bound copy of the English Bible, and of exhorting him to
prize above all earthly treasures a volume which he had been
taught to regard as adulterated with false doctrine, was omit-
ted. What remained, however, after all this curtailment,
might well have raised scruples in the mind of a man who
sincerely believed the Church of England to be a heretical
society, within the pale of which salvation was not to be
found. The King made an oblation on the altar. He appeared
to join in the petitions of the Litany which was chaunted by
the Bishops. He received from those false prophets the unc-
tion typical of a divine influence, and knelt with the semblance
of devotion, while they called down upon him that Holy Spirit
of which they were, in his estimation, the malignant and
obdurate foes. Such are the inconsistencies of human nature
that this man, who, from a fanatical zeal for his religion,
threw away three kingdoms, yet chose to commit what was
little short of an act of apostasy, rather than forego the
childish pleasure of being invested with the gewgaws sym-
bolical of kingly power. *

Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely, preached. He was one of those writers who still affected the obsolete style of Archbishop Williams and Bishop Andrews. The sermon was made up of quaint conceits, such as seventy years earlier might have been admired, but such as moved the scorn of a generation accustomed to the purer eloquence of Sprat, of South, and of Tillotson. King Solomon was King James. Adonijah was Monmouth. Joab was a Rye House conspirator; Shimei, a Whig libeller; Abiathar, an honest but misguided old Cavalier. One phrase in the Book of Chronicles was construed to mean that the King was above the Parliament; and another was cited to prove that he alone ought to command the militia. Towards the close of the discourse the orator very timidly alluded to the new and embarrassing position in which the Church stood with reference to the sovereign, and reminded his hearers that the Emperor Constantius Chlorus, though not himself a Christian, had held in honour those Christians who remained true to their religion, and had treated with scorn those who sought to earn his favour by apostasy. The service in the Abbey was followed by a stately

Jan. 22.

Feb. 1.

* From Adda's despatch of
1686, and from the expressions of the
Père d'Orléans (Histoire des Révolutions

d'Angleterre, liv. xi.), it is clear that
rigid Catholics thought the King's con-
duct indefensible.

banquet in the Hall, the banquet by brilliant fireworks, and CHAP. the fireworks by much bad poetry.*

IV.

asm of the

Tories.

Addresses.

This may be fixed upon as the moment at which the enthu- Enthusisiasm of the Tory party reached the zenith. Ever since the accession of the new King, addresses had been pouring in which expressed profound veneration for his person and office, and bitter detestation of the vanquished Whigs. The magistrates of Middlesex thanked God for having confounded the designs of those regicides and exclusionists who, not content with having murdered one blessed monarch, were bent on destroying the foundations of monarchy. The city of Gloucester execrated the bloodthirsty villains who had tried to deprive His Majesty of his just inheritance. The burgesses of Wigan assured their sovereign that they would defend him against all plotting Achitophels and rebellious Absaloms. The grand jury of Suffolk expressed a hope that the Parliament would proscribe all the exclusionists. Many corporations

pledged themselves never to return to the House of Commons any person who had voted for taking away the birthright of James. Even the capital was profoundly obsequious. The lawyers and the traders vied with each other in servility. Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery sent up fervent professions of attachment and submission. All the great commercial societies, the East India Company, the African Company, the Turkey Company, the Muscovy Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, the Maryland Merchants, the Jamaica Merchants, the Merchant Adventurers, declared that they most cheerfully complied with the royal edict which required them still to pay custom. Bristol, the second city of the island, echoed the voice of London. But nowhere was the spirit of loyalty stronger than in the two Universities. Oxford declared that she would never swerve from those religious principles which bound her to obey the King without any restrictions or limitations. Cambridge condemned, in severe terms, the violence and treachery of those turbulent men who had maliciously

Mary at their Coronation in Westminster
Abbey, April 23. 1685, by Francis, Lord
Bishop of Ely, and Lord Almoner. I
have seen an Italian account of the Co-
ronation which was published at Modena,
and which is chiefly remarkable for the
skill with which the writer sinks the fact
that the prayers and psalms were in
English, and that the Bishops were here-
ties.

* London Gazette; Gazette de France; Life of James the Second, ii. 10.; History of the Coronation of King James the Second and Queen Mary, by Francis Sandford, Lancaster Herald, fol. 1687; Evelyn's Diary, May 21. 1685; Despatch of the Dutch Ambassadors, April 18. 1685; Burnet, i. 628.; Eachard, iii. 734.; A sermon preached before their Majesties King James the Second and Queen

10

20

CHAP.
IV.

The elections.

endeavoured to turn the stream of succession out of the an-
cient channel.*

Such addresses as these filled, during a considerable time,
every number of the London Gazette. But it was not only by
addressing that the Tories showed their zeal. The writs for
the new Parliament had gone forth, and the country was agi-
tated by the tumult of a general election. No election had
ever taken place under circumstances so favourable to the
Court. Hundreds of thousands whom the Popish plot had
scared into Whiggism had been scared back by the Rye House
plot into Toryism. In the counties the government could
depend on an overwhelming majority of the gentlemen of
three hundred a year and upwards, and on the clergy almost
to a man. Those boroughs which had once been the citadels
of Whiggism had recently been deprived of their charters by
legal sentence, or had prevented the sentence by voluntary
surrender. They had now been reconstituted in such a man-
ner that they were certain to return members devoted to the
crown. Where the townsmen could not be trusted, the free-
dom had been bestowed on the neighbouring squires. In some
of the small western corporations, the constituent bodies were
in great part composed of Captains and Lieutenants of the
Guards. The returning officers were almost everywhere in
the interest of the court. In every shire the Lord Lieutenant
and his deputies formed a powerful, active, and vigilant com-
mittee, for the purpose of cajoling and intimidating the free-
holders. The people were solemnly warned from thousands of
pulpits not to vote for any Whig candidate, as they should
answer it to Him who had ordained the powers that be, and
who had pronounced rebellion a sin not less deadly than witch-
craft. All these advantages the predominant party not only
used to the utmost, but abused in so shameless a manner that
grave and reflecting men, who had been true to the monarchy
in peril, and who bore no love to republicans and schismatics,
stood aghast, and augured from such beginnings the approach
of evil times.†

Yet the Whigs, though suffering the just punishment of

See the London Gazette during the months of February, March, and April, 1685.

It would be easy to fill a volume with what Whig historians and pamphleteers have written on this subject. "I will cite only one witness, a churchman and a Tory. Elections," says Evelyn,

66

"were thought to be very indecently
carried on in most places. God give a
better issue of it than some expect!"
May 10. 1685. Again he says, "The
truth is there were many of the new
members whose elections and returns
were universally condemned." May 22.

IV.

their errors, though defeated, disheartened, and disorganised, CHAP. did not yield without an effort. They were still numerous among the traders and artisans of the towns, and among the yeomanry and peasantry of the open country. In some districts, in Dorsetshire for example, and in Somersetshire, they were the great majority of the population. In the remodelled boroughs they could do nothing: but, in every county where they had a chance, they struggled desperately. In Bedfordshire, which had lately been represented by the virtuous and unfortunate Russell, they were victorious on the show of hands, but were beaten at the poll.* In Essex they polled thirteen hundred votes to eighteen hundred.† At the election for Northamptonshire the common people were so violent in their hostility to the court candidate that a body of troops was drawn out in the marketplace of the county town, and was ordered to load with ball. The history of the contest for Buckinghamshire is still more remarkable. The Whig candidate, Thomas Wharton, eldest son of Philip Lord Wharton, was a man distinguished alike by dexterity and by audacity, and destined to play a conspicuous, though not always a respectable, part in the politics of several reigns. He had been one of those members of the House of Commons who had carried up the Exclusion Bill to the bar of the Lords. The court was therefore bent on throwing him out by fair or foul means. The Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys himself came down into Buckinghamshire, for the purpose of assisting a gentleman named Hacket, who stood on the high Tory interest. A stratagem was devised which, it was thought, could not fail of success. It was given out that the polling would take place at Ailesbury; and Wharton, whose skill in all the arts of electioneering was unrivalled, made his arrangements on that supposition. At a moment's warning the Sheriff adjourned the poll to Newport Pagnell. Wharton and his friends hurried thither, and found that Hacket, who was in the secret, had already secured every inn and lodging. The Whig freeholders were compelled to tie their horses to the hedges, and to sleep under the open sky in the meadows which surround the little town. It was with the greatest difficulty that refreshments could be procured at

*This fact I learned from a newsletter in the library of the Royal Institution. Van Citters mentions the strength of the Whig party in Bedfordshire. † Bramston's Memoirs.

Reflections on a Remonstrance and Protestation of all the good Protestants of this Kingdom, 1689; Dialogue between Two Friends, 1689.

СПАР.
IV.

such short notice for so large a number of men and beasts, though Wharton, who was utterly regardless of money when his ambition and party spirit were roused, disbursed fifteen hundred pounds in one day, an immense outlay for those times. Injustice seems, however, to have animated the courage of the stouthearted yeomen of Bucks, the sons of the constituents of John Hampden. Not only was Wharton at the head of the poll; but he was able to spare his second votes to a man of moderate opinions, and to throw out the Chief Justice's candidate.*

In Cheshire the contest lasted six days. The Whigs polled about seventeen hundred votes, the Tories about two thousand. The common people were vehement on the Whig side, raised the cry of "Down with the Bishops," insulted the clergy in the streets of Chester, knocked down one gentleman of the Tory party, broke the windows and beat the constables. The militia was called out to quell the riot, and was kept assembled, in order to protect the festivities of the conquerors. When the poll closed, a salute of five great guns from the castle proclaimed the triumph of the Church and the Crown to the surrounding country. The bells rang. The newly elected members went in state to the City Cross, accompanied by a band of music, and by a long train of knights and squires. The procession, as it marched, sang "Joy to Great Cæsar," a loyal ode, which had lately been written by Durfey, and which, though like all Durfey's writings, utterly contemptible, was, at that time, almost as popular as Lillibullero became a few years later.† Round the Cross the trainbands were drawn up in order: a bonfire was lighted: the Exclusion Bill was burned: and the health of King James was drunk with loud acclamations. The following day was Sunday. In the morning the militia lined the streets leading to the Cathedral. The two knights of the shire were escorted with great pomp to their choir by the magistracy of the city, heard the Dean preach a sermon, probably on the duty of passive obedience, and were afterwards feasted by the Mayor.‡

In Northumberland the triumph of Sir John Fenwick, a courtier whose name afterwards obtained a melancholy cele

Memoirs of the Life of Thomas
Marquess of Wharton, 1715.

See the Guardian, No. 67.; an ex-
quisite specimen of Addison's peculiar
manner. It would be difficult to find in

the works of any other writer such an instance of benevolence delicately flavoured with contempt.

The Observator, April 4. 1685.