604 



BRITAIN. 





Britain. 



CUAHLFsII. 



1679. 



Archbi- 

 shop 



Sharpe as- 

 sassinated. 



Insurrec- 

 tion in 

 Scotland. 



The Duke 

 fYork . 

 leaves the 

 kingdom. 



Parliament 

 dissolved. 



6000 lawless Highlanders had Seen let loose upon the 

 low countries, which they filled with robberies, tor- 

 tures, and outrage, in every shape. It was not, in 

 fact, until an insurrection had been purposely excited 

 by the government, that the persecuted conventicles 

 had recourse to arms. 



The conduct of Lauderdale, who was the chief 

 actor in these scenes of violence, was completely ap- 

 proved and justified at court ; but in consequence, 

 probably, of the state of politics in England, at the 

 time when the Whigs were strongest in the House of 

 Commons, some of the grievances were in part re- 

 dressed, and the Highlanders and law-burrows were 

 recalled ; but the persecution of conventicles conti- 

 nued, and indemnity was granted for every species of 

 violence in suppressing them. After the assassina- 

 tion of Archbishop Sharpe by a troop of fanatics, 

 who had been driven to madness by his oppressions, 

 an act committed by a few individuals was imputed 

 t'o the whole fanatic sect, (so the majority of the na- 

 tion was called by government,) and those who at- 

 tended field or armed conventicles were ordered to be 

 indiscriminately massacred. A rising was at last 

 produced in the west of Scotland, where the insur- 

 gents, though undisciplined peasants, defeated the 

 infamous Graham of Claverhouse, afterwards Vis- 

 count Dundee, and took possession of Glasgow. 

 The Duke of Monmouth was sent with an army 

 from England to subdue them ; but, lest the gene- 

 rous mildness of his nature should prevail, he had 

 sealed orders, which he was not to open till in sight 

 of the rebels, but to fall upon them without previous 

 negotiation. In pursuance of these orders, Monmouth 

 attacked them at Bothwell Bridge, where the Scot- 

 tish peasants, headed only by their clergy, were soon 

 defeated. Four hundred were killed in the field, and 

 a body of 1200, who surrendered at discretion, were 

 preserved from massacre by the humanity of Mon- 

 mouth. 



During these troubles, the king had made a vain 

 attempt to obtain a little popularity, by removing a 

 prince who was odious to so large a part of the com- 

 munity, and by sending his brother James out or the 

 kingdom. In vain, also, had he attempted to break 

 the opposite party, by making their leaders, Sunder- 

 land, Halifax, and Essex, his ministers, and by framing 

 a new council, into which a still greater number of the 

 popular party was brought, and at the head of which 

 Shaftesbury himself was placed. Charles made those 

 men his counsellors, but he concealed from them his 

 intentions, . and his secret transactions with France, 

 and gave his confidence to an opposite party. The 

 Duke of York, though abroad, still exercised an 

 influence which became paramount after an illness 

 with which the king was seized ; on which occasion 

 James returned, and persuaded his brother to send 

 Monmouth into the same banishment from which he 

 had himself returned. As the parliament of 1679 

 was as strongly in the popular interests as their pre- 

 decessors, Charles determined to dissolve it, and to 

 call another in 1680. 



After this, Charles, during eighteen months, avoid- 

 ed calling a new parliament, and employed the inter- 

 mediate space in securing a great part of the nation 



in defence of his brother and himself ; in dismissing BritaJ 

 from the ministry his popular ministers, Essex, Hali- 

 fax, and Shaftesbury; and in increasing his army, by 

 his brother's advice. The opponents of the court 

 were, in the mean time, neither idle nor timid. Mon- 

 mouth returned from exile without leave, and was re- 

 ceived with joy and triumph by the people. Shaftes- 

 bury, the popular leader, at the head of a band of 

 nobility, formed a project to impeach the Duke of 

 York as a Popish recusant. Addresses from bodies 

 of the nobility, from counties, and from boroughs, 

 against Popery, and petitions for a new parliament, 

 came to the king from all quarters. These the 

 court counteracted by procuring addresses from a 

 party, which expressed their abhorrence pf the peti- 

 tioning Whigs ; and the nation was divided into two 

 violent parties of petitioners and abhorrers. The 1'arliair 

 commons of that parliament, which Charles thought assembl 

 proper to assemble in 1680, after these agitations, ' 

 was as unruly as the former. Pressing, like their pre- 

 decessors, for the favourite exclusion bill, they de- 

 termined against granting all supplies to the king un- 

 til it should be carried. Charles determined, there- 

 fore, to dissolve them, and sent his usher of the black 

 rod for that purpose to the house, whilst they were but so 

 blending an absurd resolution respecting the burning d' sso ' T 

 of London by the Papists, with another highly to 

 their honour, for emancipating their fellow Protest- 

 ants, the dissenters, from the intolerant laws still sub- 

 sisting against them. 



It was doubtful if Charles would ever call another 

 parliament ; but the support which he had received 

 from the church party, determined him to try a new 

 election, in spite of the popular majorities which had 

 hitherto prevailed in the commons. He summoned Anew 

 the new parliament to meet at Oxford, a place re- l'< m en 

 markable for its loyalty ; intending, by this prefe- c ' lllcd 

 rence, to shew his displeasure at London. But this 

 innovation raised new objects of passion 1 ; for the 

 king's aversion to his capital was construed into 

 aversion at his people. In this fourth parliament of 

 the present reign, the country party still prevailed. 

 It consisted almost entirely of the same members, who 

 chose the same speaker, and who instantly fell into 

 the same measures, the impeachment of Danby, the 

 repeal of the laws against dissenters, the inquiry in- 

 to the Popish plot, and the bill of exclusion. A dis- 

 pute with this parliament respecting Fitzharris, an 

 Irish Papist, who pretended to confess the secret of 

 another popish plot, more tremendous than the last, 

 gave the king a pretence for dissolving them. The wn j c ]j 

 king imprisoned Fituharris ; the commons avowed speed! 

 his cause, and wished to impeach him themselves, in dissol 

 order to protect him. This, however, was but the 

 pretence for the dissolution. Charles had secured 1 

 to himself a good pension from France, and was de- 

 termined to have no more parliaments. This was, 

 indeed, a condition on which he was base enough to 

 receive his stipend from Louis. The measure of 

 dissolution was exceedingly successful. The most 

 flattering addresses poured in from all parts of the 

 kingdom ; the cries of divine right, and indiscriminate 

 obedience, for a time overwhelmed the voice of liber- 

 ty ; and men seemed to vie with each other, to havt 



