BRITAIN. 



601 



607. 



a>rs in 



ptlanj. 



rsecu- 

 of the 



ilij-ttrj. 



a of the 

 g for 

 .blish 

 foptry. 



1670. 



In turning our intention, at this period, to the sis- 

 ter kingdom, we liiul the yoke of prelacy, which tin- 

 restoration had imposed on Scotland, attended with 

 the most atrocious oppression. Middlrton, w!io:,c 

 drunkenness and cruelties had made his administra- 

 tion of Scottish affairs contemptible as well as odious, 

 was disgraced in 1663, and was succeeded by Lau- 

 dcrdale, who, with a dark and vindictive temper, had 

 yet the merit of intending more lenity to his Presby- 

 terian countrymen, than the fury of the prelates, on 

 whom he was dependent, would permit him to exer- 

 cise. A court of ecclesiastical commission traversed 

 the kingdom, bound by no forms of law, and confi- 

 ned to no place nor time of meeting, but established 

 on the strictest principles of the Spanish inquisition. 

 The civil and military affairs were subordinate to 

 them ; their sentences were pronounced without ac- 

 cusation, evidence, or defence. The soldiery were 

 let loose upon the people ; all who attended, or wore 

 suspected of attending, the Presbyterian form of 

 worship, were fined, imprisoned, or transported to 

 the plantations. When sufferings too great for hu- 

 man patience, had at length driven the Scottish Pres- 

 byterians to insurrection, their defeat at Pentland af- 

 forded a pretext for judicial bloodshed, as well as fine 

 and proscription. But the victims died with such 

 exultation, that it was at last difficult to procure ex- 

 ecutioners. M'Cail, a young preacher whom the 

 prelates had excruciated to extort a confession of his 

 associates, endured the torture of the iron boot till 

 his leg was crushed and broken, and expired in ex- 

 tacy on the scaffold, exclaiming, with a sublime en- 

 thusiasm, " Farewell, thou sun, and moon, and stars ! 

 farewell, world and time ! farewell, weak and frail 

 body ! Welcome eternity ! welcome angels and saints ! 

 welcome Saviour of the world ! and welcome God, 

 the Judge of all!" 



Towards the conclusion of an unfortunate and 

 disgraceful war, the king was compelled to mitigate 

 every where the rigours of government ; and when he 

 had sacrificed Clarendon, the prelates lost their chief 

 upport. The violence of the Scottish archbishops had 

 also been artfully fomented by Lauderdale, till it reach- 

 ed a crisis destructive to themselves. A milder admi- 

 nistration succeeded, and the nation began to breathe 

 again under the auspices of Tweedale, Kincardine, 

 and Sir Robert Murray, and enjoyed for a time, if 

 not the blessings of liberty, at least those of a hu- 

 mane and impartial government. After the fall of 

 Clarendon, the most unprincipled part of Charles's 

 reign was yet to be acted. Clarendon is accused of 

 having connived at his receiving money from France 

 unknown to his people; but this heavy charge is not 

 proved against him, (adduced by Dalrymple in his 

 Memoirs). That Charles had been, from the first 

 years of his reign, guilty of this meanness, is, however, 

 certain ; and in the beginning of the year 1670, he 

 signed an agreement with Louis XIV., by which 

 the king of England was to receive 1 200,000 a year, 

 and the king of France was to assist in establishing 

 Popery and despotic power in England : both were 

 to unite in the plan of destroying the Dutch repub- 

 lic. In the very year that Charles signed this infa- 

 mous treaty, the commons, deluded by his declara- 

 tions about the triple alliance, voted him between 



VOL. IV. PART II. 



200,000 and 300,000. No one as yet su:,p ' "'a- 



the fraud that was carrying on. Lord Lucas was the -* 

 first public speaker, who had the sagacity to discover, H * 

 and the boldness to cxprii-s in the House of Lords, 

 while the king himself was present, the absurdity of 

 this useless waste of the public money, and to de- 

 mand why the maintenance of the triple alliance 

 needed such supplies. 



It may naturally be asked, who were the king's ^ 

 ministers at this disgraceful period ? After the dis- adrninistra- 

 mission of the old royalists, the administration of the tion. 

 Cabal succeeded, so named from the initial letters of 

 the five names, Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, 

 Ashley, (afterwards Shaftesbury,) and Lauderdale. 

 Those men, it is probable, were all ready to betray 

 their king as well as their country ; yet it is certain 

 that Charles betrayed them, keeping from some of 

 them the real state of his connection with France, 

 and of what he was pleased to call his religion. 



The Cabal, however, had the guilt and disgrace of Grounds of 

 commencing the second Dutch war ; although Charles a new war 

 concealed from them the secret of his bribe from "K 3 " 18 '- t 

 France, for fear they should demand a share of it. ' 

 The recal of Sir W. Temple from the Hague, and 

 the appointment of Downing, who was odious to the 

 Dutch, announced the unalterable intention of Eng- 

 land to quarrel. The grounds of the quarrel on the 

 side of England were, that a whole Dutch fleet had 

 refused, upon their own coasts, to strike their sails 

 to a small English unarmed yacht. But the public 

 of England did not participate in this crime of their 

 government ; it was even necessary to prorogue par- 

 liament, lest the general opinion should be expressed. 

 Such was the public feeling, that when the Dutch 

 deputies were sent to beg peace from Charles, the 

 people of England followed their coaches with tears, 

 and the court was obliged to remove them to Hamp- 

 ton, from the eyes of the public ; a device which on- 

 ly increased the general pity. 



A variety of events gave notice to the English, that 

 the war against Holland was but a pare of Charles's 

 scheme for the destruction of the Protestant faith 

 and liberty. When he wanted more money, and 

 dreaded to apply to parliament, he seized the issues 

 of the exchequer ; a measure which filled the mercan- 

 tile world with bankruptcy and distress. 



The Duke of York, already deeming himself inde- ^, 

 pendent of public opinion, had openly declared his | York 

 conversion to popery ; and Charles, for the sake of declare;, hra 

 the professors of that religion, issued a declaration of conversion 

 indulgence of conscience, and asserting a dispensing to ^"P^T- 

 power in the crown. No pretence of toleration could 

 reconcile the English to this usurpation ; for it was 

 justly said, that if the king could dispense with one 

 law, he might dispense with all ; and the pretence of 

 general toleration was known, besides, to be a false 

 one. In the mean time, the Dutch, attacked by 

 Louis by land, and by the navies of England and 

 France by sea, and deserted by Sweden, seemed on the 

 point of being sacrificed. Louis's declaration of war 

 had at least a bold and open, although a shameless 

 effrontery ; Charles's declaration was not issued till 

 he had attempted to pilfer their Smyrna fleet from 

 the unfortunate republic, and after he had been dis- 

 graced and disappointed in the attempt. War was 



