eng: 
which they had propofed through the channel of the 
Spanilh ambaffador. For form fake, he afked the advice 
of his parliament, who concurring heartily in the mea- 
flire, a peace was foon concluded. 
In the mean time, A. D. 1674, the war between the 
Dutch and the French went on with vigour. The Dutch 
forces w’ere commanded by tire prince of Orange, who 
was pofTelfed of courage, activity, vigilance, and pati¬ 
ence ; but he was inferior in genius to thofe confummate 
generals, Conde, Turenne, &c. oppofed to him. He was, 
therefore, always unfuccefsful ; but dill found means to 
keep the field againfi his viftorious enemies. Thefe 
■Itruggles for the prefervation of freedom interefied the 
Engli(h flrongly in his favour; fo that, from being his 
oppofers, they now wilhed to lend him aflifiance. They 
confidered their alliance with France as tending to the 
fubverfion of the proteflant religion, and therefore ought 
to be abandoned. The commons therefore addrefied 
the king, reprefenting the danger to which the king¬ 
dom was expoled front the increafing power of France ; 
and they allured him, in cafe of a war, that they would 
not be backward in fupplies. Charles was not "difpleaf- 
ed with the latter part of their addrefs, fince money was 
fo neceffary to his voluptuous pleafures. He therefore 
told them, that unlefs they granted him fix hundred 
thoufand pounds, it would be impofiible for him to equip 
an army fit to look the French in the face. The com¬ 
mons refilled to furnifli the fum ; and the king reproved 
them for their diffidence, and immediately ordered them 
to adjourn. The marriage of the duke of York’s eldell 
daughter, the princefs Mary, heir-apparent to the crown, 
with the prince of Orange A. D. 1677, was a meafure 
that gave great fatisfaftion to the proteftant interefi in 
England. The negociation was brought about by the 
king's own delire ; and the proteftants now faw a happy 
profpect before them of a fuccellion that would be fa¬ 
vourable to the reformation. A negociation for peace 
between the French and the Dutch was fet on foot ; but 
the mutual animofities of thefe dates not being fufficiently 
quelled, the war was continued for fome time longer. 
The king, therefore, to fatisfy his parliament, who^de- 
chired loudly again!! the French, fent over an army of 
three thoufand men, under the command of the duke of 
Monmouth, to fecure Oftend. A fleet alfo was fitted 
out, and a quadruple alliance was now projected between 
England, Holland, Spain, and the emperor. Thefe vi¬ 
gorous meafures brought about the famous treaty of 
Nimeguen, A. D. 1678, which gave a general peace to 
Eilrope. 
The blelTings of peace, however, were tranfitory in this 
kingdom, by giving place to anarchy and religious perfe- 
cution. One Kirby, a chemift, informed the king, as he 
was walking in the park, that there was a defign againfi: 
his life ; that two men, called Grove and Pickering, had 
engaged to fhoot him ; and fir George Wakeman, the 
queen’s phyfician, had undertook to poifon him. This 
intelligence, he faid, came from Dr. Tongue, a divine, 
who, being examined, declared to the trealurer, lord 
Danby, that the papers expofing the confpiracy, had been 
thru ft under his door. This wild and incoherent ftory 
would probably have been configned to oblivion, had not 
tl'e duke of York infilled on a regular enquiry being in- 
llituted. It was now found that Kirby and Tongue lived 
in drift intimacy with a perfon named Titus Oates, who 
pretended to know more of the matter, and who judged 
it proper to give evidence before fir Edmtindfbiiry God¬ 
frey, an aftive magiftxate, in hopes that his declaration 
would obtain more notoriety, and entitle him to a greater 
reward. The intelligence of Oates tended to ffiew, that 
the pope, having afl'umed the fovereignty of England and 
Iieland, on account of the herefy of the prince and 
people, had delegated his authority to the jefuits, whole 
general had lupplied by commiffions all the chief offices, 
both civil and military, appertaining to both kingdoms. 
It would be abfurd to enter into all the details of this 
LAND. 687 
pretended plot; fiifnce it to fay, that Oates the informer 
was one of the moft infamous of mankind ; and that, be¬ 
fore the council, he betrayed his impoftures in fitch a 
manner, as would have difcredited the moft confident 
dory, and the moft reputable evidence. Yet, notwitli- 
ftanding this, the plot very foon became the fouree of 
terror to the people ; and Danby, out of oppolition to 
the French interefi, rather encouraged the impofture; 
and by his fuggeftions one Coleman, who had been fecre- 
tary to the late duchefs of \ ork, was implicated in 
this affair, and ordered to be arrefted. Among his pa¬ 
pers were found fome very free remarks relative to the 
fentiments and principles of the king ; and people taking 
this for a confirmation of the truth of Oates’s ftory, con¬ 
founded a bufinefs, which had no relation to it, with a 
frefli idea of the confpiracy. The murder of firEdmundf- 
bury Godfrey, which never had been accounted for, 
completed the general delufion, and rendered the preju¬ 
dices of the nation abfolutely incurable. The funeral of 
this magiftrate, who was found lying in a ditch near Prim- 
rofe-hill, with his fword (ticking in his body, like the 
exhibition of Caefar’s wounds, ferved to inflame the 
people againfi the catholics, who were fufpefted to have 
been guilty of this atrocity in order to liifle evidence, 
to a degree of dangerous fury. 
While the nation was in this ferment, the parliament 
was allembled. • The king, in his fpeech, fcarcely ad¬ 
verted to the plot about which fo much had been laid; 
but Danby, who courted popularity, laid open the mat¬ 
ter to the houfe of peers. Charles, incenfed at his folly, 
obferved, “Though you do not believe it, you will find 
that you have given the parliament a handle to ruin your- 
felf, and to difturb all my affairs.: you will furely live to 
repent it.” Danby had afterwards fufficient reafon to 
applaud the fagacity of his mailer. The cry of the plot 
was echoed from one houfe to the other ; a folemn fall 
was voted ; and addreffes palled for the removal of the 
popilh recufants from London. Lords Powis, Strafford, 
Arundel, Peters, and Bellafis, were impeached for high 
trealon ; and both houfes, after hearing the evidence of 
Oates, voted, “ That the lords and commons are of opi¬ 
nion, that there hath been, and Hill is, a damnable plot 
contrived and carried on by the popilh recufants, for af- 
laffinating the king, for fubverting the conftitution, and 
for rooting out and deltroying the proteftant religion.” 
Oates was applauded and carelfed, and encouraged by 
a penlion of twelve hundred pounds a-year. Such bounty 
called forth new witnelfes. William Bedloe, a man, if 
pollible, more infamous than Oates, appeared next on the 
itage. At firft he confined his intelligence to Godfrey’s 
murder, which, he laid, had been perpetrated in Somer- 
fet-houle, where the queen lived, by the papilts. He 
loon alter enlarged his information, by acculing feveral 
perlons of conlequence, of having joined in a popilh plot; 
and, though he grofsly contradicted hintfelf, the nation 
was determined to believe every thing he advanced. 
Charles law the torrent was too llrong to be refilled. A 
bill had been brought into parliament for a new teft, in 
which popery was denominated idolatry ; and all the 
members of both houfes, who refilled this tell, were to 
be excluded. The duke of York, in the molt pathetic 
manner, moved, that an exception might be admitted in 
his favour; protefting, that whatever his religion might 
be, it Ihould only be a private thing between God and 
his own foul, and never Ihould appear in his public con¬ 
duct. Notwithltanding this appeal, he prevailed only by 
two voices. The ferment both in and out of parliament 
was foon increaied by the treachery of Montague, who 
had been ambaflador at Paris. He p.refented to the houfe 
ot commons, of which he was a member, a letter from 
the treafurer Danby, counter-figned by the king, in which 
the moll palpable proofs of Charles’s dilgraceful intrigues 
with the F'rench court w'ere laid open. Danby was im¬ 
mediately impeached by the commons; but the peers re. 
lufed to commit him j and the quarrel role to Inch a 
height 
