15S 



CHARLES. 



rupture with the Dutch ; and, as the king did not 

 choose to apply to |iarlininent for money to carry on 

 the projected war, he caused the exchequer to be 

 shut up in January, 1G72, and, by several other dis- 

 graceful and arbitrary proceedings, gave great dis- 

 gust and alarm to the nation. The naval operations 

 against the Dutch were by no means successful, and, 

 a new parliament being called, which strongly ex- 

 pressed the discontent of the nation, the OHM was 

 dissolved, and a separate peace made with Holland 

 in l-.;i. Divisions in the cabinet, fluctuations in 

 the king's measures, and parliamentary contests, fol- 

 lowed, and occupied the next three years, mull, in 

 1677, Charles performed a popular act, by marrying 

 his niece, the princess Mary, to the prince of Orange. 

 By taking some decided steps in favour of the Dutch, 

 he also forwarded the peace of Nimeguen, in 1678. 

 The same year was distinguished by the pretended 

 discovery of the celebrated popish plot, for the as- 

 sassination of the king, and the introduction of the 

 Catholic religion. Notwithstanding the infamous 

 characters of Gates and Bedloe, and the improbable 

 nature of their disclosures, their tale, supported by 

 the general suspicion of the secret influence of a 

 Catholic faction, met with universal belief; and, in 

 relation thereto, tin- parliament exhibited nearly as 

 much credulity and heat as the vulgar. Many Ca- 

 tholic lords were committed ; Coleman, the duke of 

 York's secretary, and several priests, were hanged ; 

 and a venerable nobleman, the earl of Stafford, was 

 beheaded. The duke of York thought fit to retire 

 to Brussels, and a bill for his exclusion from the 

 throne passed the house of commons. Such was the 

 state of the country, that Charles was obliged to 

 give way to some popular measures, and the great 

 palladium of civil liberty, the habeas corpus bill, 

 passed during this session. The temper of the par- 

 liament was so much excited, that the king first pro- 

 rogued and then dissolved it. The court now sought 

 to establish a balance of parties; to distinguish 

 which, the terms whig and tory were about this time 

 invented. 



In 1680, a new parliament assembled, and the 

 commons again passed the exclusion bill, which was 

 rejected by the lords. This parliament was also dis- 

 solved in the next year, and a new one called at Ox- 

 ford, which proved so restiff; that a sudden dissolu- 

 tion of it ensued ; and, like his father, Charles de- 

 termined henceforward to govern without one. By 

 the aid of the tory gentry and the clergy, he obtained 

 loyal addresses from all parts of the kingdom, and 

 attachment to high monarchical principles came 

 again into vogue. The charge of plots and con- 

 spiracies was now brought against the Presbyterians. 

 A person named College was executed upon the same 

 infamous evidence as had been previously turned 

 against the Catholics ; and the famous earl of Shaftes- 

 bury, who headed the popular party, was brought to 

 trial, but acquitted. The nonconformists, generally, 

 were also treated with much rigour ; and a step of 

 great moment, in the progress to arbitrary power, 

 was the instituting suits at law (quo warrantos) against 

 most of the corporations in the kingdom, by which 

 they were intimidated to a resignation of their chart- 

 ers, in order to receive them back so modelled as to 

 render them much more dependent than before. 

 These rapid strides towards the destruction of liberty 

 at length produced the celebrated Ryehouse plot, 

 the parties to which certainly intended resistance ; 

 but that the assassination of the king was ever for- 

 mally projected seems very doubtful. It certainly 

 formed no part of the intention of lord William Rus- 

 sel, whose .execution, with that of Algernon Sidney, 

 on account of the plot, forms one of the striking 

 events of this disgraceful reign. 



Charles was, at this time, as absolute as any sove- 

 reign in Europe ; and, had he been an active prince, 

 the fetters of tyranny might have been completely 

 riveted. Scotland, which, at different periods of his 

 reign, had been driven into insurrection by the arbi- 

 trary attempts to restore Episcopacy, was at length 

 completely dragooned into submission ; and the relics 

 of the Covenanters were suppressed with circum- 

 stances of great barbarity. It is saiil, however, that 

 Charles was becoming uneasy at this plan, which 

 was chiefly supported oy the bigoted austerity of (lie 

 duke of York; and that he had made a resolution i> 

 relax, when he expired, from the consequences of an 

 apoplectic fit, in Feb., 1685, in the fifty-fifth year ot 

 his age, and twenty-fifth of his reign. At his death, 

 he received the sacrament, according to the rites of 

 the Romish church, and thus proved himself to have 

 been, during the whole of his life, as hypocritical as 

 profligate. 



The character of Charles II. requires little ana- 

 lysis. He was a confirmed sensualist and volup- 

 tuary ; and, owing to the example of him and his 

 court, his reign was the era of the most dissolute 

 manners that ever prevailed in England. The stage 

 was an open school of licentiousness, and polite liter- 

 ature was altogether infected by it. Charles was a 

 man of wit, and a good judge of certain kinds of 

 writing, but was too deficient in sensibility to feel 

 either the sublime or the beautiful, in composition ; 

 neither was he generous even to the writers whom 

 he applauded. He possessed an easy good nature, 

 but united with it a total indifference to anything 

 but his own pleasure; and no man could be more 

 destitute of honour or generosity. His ideas of the 

 relation between king and subject, were evinced by 

 his observation on Lauderdale's cruelties in Scot- 

 land : " I perceive," said he, " that Lauderdale has 

 been guilty of many bad things against the people of 

 Scotland ; but I cannot find fiat he has acted in any 

 thing contrary to my interest." Yet, with all his 

 selfishness and demerits as a king, Charles always 

 preserved a share of popularity with the multitude, 

 from the easiness of his manners. Pepys' memoirs, 

 and other private documents, however, clearly show 

 the opinion of the more reflecting portion of his sub- 

 jects; and it is now pretty generally admitted, that, 

 as he was himself a most dishonourable and heartless 

 monarch and man, so his reign exhibited the English 

 character in a more disgraceful light than any other 

 in British history. It need not be added, that he 

 left many illegitimate children, the descendents of 

 some of whom are still among the leading peerage 

 of the country. The fate of his most distinguished 

 son, the ill-fated duke of Monmouth, is an affair of 

 history. 



CHARLES EDWARD STUART, called the Pre- 

 tender, grandson of James II., king of England, son 

 of James Edward and Clementina, daughter of prince 

 Sobiesky, was born in 1720, at Rome, where his fa- 

 ther enjoyed the friendship of the popes Clement 

 XI. and Innocent XIII. The last scion of the royal 

 house of Stuart, from the very cradle he was inspired 

 with an impulse, that induced him, at the early age 

 of twenty-two, to attempt the recovery of the throne 

 of his ancestors. Supported by the court of Rome, 

 he went to Paris in 1742, disguised as a Spanish 

 courier, and succeeded in gaining over to his views 

 Louis XV. 15,000 men were on the point of sailing 

 from Dunkirk for England, when the English admiral 

 Norris dispersed the whole French fleet, before it had 

 gained the open sea. This prevented the French 

 court from undertaking a second expedition ; all the 

 requests of Edward were in vain, and he now re- 

 solved to trust to his own exertions. With borrowed 

 money, and seven trusty officers, he landed like 



