From Rcstoratio7i to Revohttion. 355 



and bigoted, could have so invited disaster as to have estranged 

 these easily managed gentlemen. Yet James II. contrived to 

 do so, and that after many warnings. He ascended the throne 

 amidst the wild enthusiasm of his Tory supporters. In a 

 brief interval his Popish leanings drove half this party into 

 the arms of the Whigs. Even then he was afforded a further 

 opportunity of regaining their affections when the Rye House 

 plot scared them back into Toryism. The House of Commons, 

 refilled at this period of panic with a body of men devoted to 

 his interests, might have kept his enemies at bay as long as 

 he lived, but the king's bigotry drove him to ruin. The 

 disaffected Whigs at home communicated with their exiled 

 friends abroad. Insurrection broke out in Scotland. Its leader, 

 Argyle, was taken prisoner and executed, and the danger 

 seemed over. A second insurrection occurred in the West of 

 England, and Monmouth its leader met with a similar fate, and 

 again the danger was averted. But the king would read no 

 warnings in these repeated signs of his people's disaffection. A 

 struggle began betwixt the Anglican and Roman Churches, and 

 the king siding with the latter, persecuted the representatives 

 of the former. Riots broke out all over the country, and William 

 of Orange came to the fore as champion of the opposition. 

 The Whigs rallied round him, but the Tory squires were only 

 half-hearted. Their love for the Anglican Church had over- 

 powered their devotion to the throne, and had William's 

 relationship been as close to the former as it was to the latter, 

 their hesitation would not have lasted a moment longer. He 

 had however been bred in a hotbed of Presbyterianism and this 

 fact divided once again the landed interest into two hostile 

 factions. Ab tne royal bigotry increased, and the very tenets 

 of Anglicanism became jeopardised, William's following in- 

 creased in proportion as that of James decreased. The 

 Declaration of Indulgence, the prosecution and committal to 

 the Tower of the Bishops, and the birth of the Prince of 

 Wales, were all events which precipitated the approaching 

 revolution. The greater bulk of the Tory Churchmen joined 

 the Whigs and openly proved their defection by neglecting 

 the usual loyal greetings to the judges on the summer cir- 



