208 



JAMES ii. JAMES'S PALACE. 



sion from the throne, which was, however, rejected 

 by the lords. When the royal party again prevailed, 

 tile duke, in 1681, was sent into Scotland, where he 

 acted with great rigour, not to say cruelty, to the 

 remnant of the Covenanters. It is even said that he 

 sometimes personally assisted at the torture of crimi- 

 nals, and altogether exhibited himself as a man of a 

 severe and unrelenting temper. During the whole 

 of the remaining reign of Charles II., indeed, during 

 which he possessed great influence in the govern- 

 ment, he was forward in promoting all the severe 

 measures that disgraced it. 



On the death of Charles II., in February, 1685, 

 the duke succeeded, under the title of James II., 

 and, from the time of his ascending the throne, seems 

 to have acted with a steady determination to render 

 himself absolute, and to restore the Roman Catholic 

 religion. After disgusting the great majority of his 

 subjects, by attending mass with all the ensigns of 

 his dignity, he proceeded to levy the customs and 

 excise without the authority of parliament. He even 

 sent an agent to Rome, to pave the way for a solemn 

 re-admission of England into the bosom of that church, 

 and received advice, on the score of moderation, 

 from the pope himself. This conduct encouraged 

 the rebellion of the duke of Monmouth. The unre- 

 lenting temper of James was again exhibited in the 

 executions on this account. The legal proceedings 

 under Jeffreys were brutal in the extreme ; and it is 

 estimated that no fewer than 251 persons suffered in 

 the west of England by the cruel proceedings of that 

 infamous judge, which it was the custom of the king 

 to gibe upon, under the name of Jeffreys' campaign. 

 The temporary awe, produced by this severity, even 

 in parliament, was so great, that James was en- 

 couraged to throw off almost all disguise, both in 

 regard to religion and government. By virtue of his 

 assumed disposing power, he rendered tests of no 

 avail, and filled his army and council with Roman 

 Catholics. He put Ireland entirely into their hands, 

 and governed Scotland by a few noblemen who had 

 become converts to the same faith. He gradually 

 proceeded to a direct attack on the established 

 church, by the formation of an ecclesiastical commis- 

 sion, which cited before it all clergymen who had 

 done any thing to displease the court. A declara- 

 tion of indulgence in matters of religion, was 

 ordered to be read by the clergy in all the churches 

 of the kingdom. Seven bishops met, and drew up a 

 loyal and humble petition against this ordinance, 

 which step being considered as an act of disloyalty, 

 they were sent to the tower. The innovations, in re- 

 gard both to the religion and government, gradually 

 united opposing interests, and a large body of nobi- 

 lity and gentry concurred in an application to the 

 prince of Orange, who had been secretly preparing a 

 fleet and an army for the invasion of the country. 

 James, who was long kept in ignorance of these 

 transactions, when informed of them by his minister 

 at the Hague, was struck with terror equal to his 

 former infatuation ; and, immediately repealing all 

 his obnoxious acts, he practised every method to 

 gain popularity. All confidence was, however, 

 destroyed between the king and the people. Wil- 

 liam arrived with his fleet in Torbay, November 4, 

 1688, and landed his forces ; but the remembrance 

 of Monmouth's rebellion, for some time, prevented 

 the people in the west from joining him, until, at 

 length, several men of rank went over, and the royal 

 army began to desert by entire regiments. Incap- 

 able of any vigorous resolution, and finding his over- 

 tures of accommodation disregarded, he resolved to 

 quit the country. He repaired to St Germain, 

 where he was received with great kindness and hos- 

 pitality by Louis XIV. In the mean time, the throne 



of Great Britain was declared abdicated, and was 

 filled, with the national and parliamentary consent, 

 with his eldest daughter, Mary, and her husband. 

 William, conjointly; Anne, who had equally with her 

 sister, been educated a strict Protestant, being de- 

 clared next in succession, to the exclusion of the 

 infant prince. Assisted by Louis XIV., James was 

 enabled, in March, 1689, to make an attempt for the 

 recovery of Ireland. The battle of the Boyne, 

 fought July, 1690, compelled him to return to 

 France. All succeeding projects for his restoration 

 proved equally abortive, and he spent the last years 

 of his life in acts of ascetic devotion. He is even 

 said to have entered into the society of Jesus. He 

 died at St Germain, September 16, 1701, at the age 

 of sixty-eight. 



JAMES III., the Pretender. See Stuart, James 

 Edward Francis. 



JAMES, ROBERT, an ingenious physician and 

 medical writer, but best known as the inventor of a 

 specific for the cure of fever, was born in 1703. He 

 practised medicine in London, and engaged in the 

 compilation of a medical dictionary, which appeared 

 in 1743, in three volumes, folio. In this work James 

 is said to have been assisted by his friend Dr John- 

 son, who has warmly eulogized his professional skill, 

 in his Lives of the Poets. He published, in 1751, a 

 Dissertation upon Fevers, the purpose of which was 

 to recommend a peculiar medicine, since known by 

 the name of James's powder, For this preparation 

 he procured a patent, and sold it as a secret remedy, 

 by which he exposed himself to the hostility of his 

 professional brethren, who looked upon his conduct 

 as inconsistent with the dignity of the medical char- 

 acter. James's powder is now known to be anti- 

 moniated phosphate of lime; and a preparation very 

 similar to if., it not exactly the same, has long had a 

 place in the London Pharmacopoeia. The genera) 

 respectability of his character as a man of science 

 and literary acquirements, enabled him, in a great 

 degree, to triumph over the prejudices excited by a 

 mode of conduct which placed him so near the level 

 of those pests of society, the majority of advertising 

 empirics and venders of patent medicines. In 1760, 

 he published a work, entitled the Practice of Physic 

 (2 vols., 8vo.), and subsequently a treatise on canine 

 madness, and a dispensatory. One of his last literary 

 labours was, a Vindication of the Fever Powder, not 

 published till after his death, which took place in 

 1776. 



JAMES'S PALACE, ST, in Pail-Mall, London, a 

 royal palace, stands on the site of an hospital of the 

 same name. It has been the acknowledged town 

 residence of the English kings since Whitehall was 

 consumed, in 1695 ; but, though pleasantly situated 

 on the north side of St James's park, and possessing 

 many elegant and convenient apartments, calculated 

 for state purposes, yet it is an irregular brick build- 

 ing, without a single external beauty to recommend 

 it as a palace. In the front, next to St James's 

 street, little more than an old gate-house appears, ' 

 which serves as an entrance to a small square court, 

 with a piazza on the west of it, leading to the grand 

 staircase. The buildings are low, plain, and mean. 

 Beyond this are two other courts, which have little 

 appearance of a king's palace. The state apartments 

 look towards the park ; and this side, though cer- 

 tainly not imposing, cannot be pronounced mean. 

 It is of one story, and has a regular appearance not 

 to be found in other parts of the building. The 

 south-east wing was destroyed by fire in 1808, and 

 has never been rebuilt, though the whole of the 

 palace was repaired in 18213. The rooms of 

 the king are magnificent in a high degree. It is 

 from this place that the cabinet of the king of Great 



