a battle ensued, and the insurgents were totally dispersed. About seven hundred of these persecuted and misguided men fell in the pursuit, and twelve hundred were made prisoners. But, the execution of two clergymen excepted, this was all the blood that was shed. Monmouth used his victory with great moderation. Such prisoners, as would promise to live peaceably in future, were dismissed.

That lenity, however, unfortunately awakened the jealousy of the court. Monmouth was recalled and disgraced; and the duke of York, who had found a pretence to return to England, was entrusted with the government of Scotland. Under his administration, the covenanters were exposed to a cruel persecution; and such punishments were inflicted upon them, even on frivolous pretences, as made humanity shudder, and would disfigure the character of any prince less marked with severities than that of James. He is said to have been frequently present at the torturing of the unhappy criminals, and to have viewed their sufferings with as much unfeeling attention, as if he had been contemplating some curious experiment3o.

A. D. 1680.

While these things were passing in Scotland, a new parliament was assembled in England, where the spirit of party still raged with unabated fury. Instead of petitioners and abhorrers (or those who applied for redress of grievances, and such as opposed their petitions), into which the nation had been for some time divided, the court and country parties came now to be distinguished by the still prevailing epithets of WHIG and TORY. The court party reproached their antagonists with their affinity to the fanatical conventiclers in Scotland, who were known by the name of whigs; and the country party pretended to find a resemblance between the courtiers and the popish banditti in Ireland, to whom the appellation of tory was

30. Burnet, vol. ii. This account of the apathy of James is confirmed by his letters in Dalrymple's Append. part i.

affixed.

affixed31. Such was the origin of those party-names, which will, in all probability, continue to the latest posterity.

The new parliament discovered no less violence than the former. The commons voted, that it is the undoubted right of the subjects of England to petition the king for the sitting of parliament and the redress of grievances; and they resolved that to traduce such petitioning is to betray the liberty of the people, to contribute to subvert the ancient constitution, and to introduce arbitrary power. They renewed the vote of their predecessors, laying the whole blame of the popish plot on the religion of the duke of York; and they brought in a bill for excluding him from the throne. This bill was passed after a warm debate, and carried up to the house of peers; where Shaftesbury and Sunderland argued powerfully for it, and Halifax no less strenuously against it. Through the forcible reasoning of the latter, who discovered an extent of abilities and a flow of eloquence which had never been exceeded in the English parliament, the bill was rejected by a considerable majority of the lords 32.

Enraged at this disappointment, the commons discovered their ill humour in many violent and unjustifiable proceedings. They prosecuted the abhorrers; they impeached the judges, and they persecuted all the most intimate friends of the duke of York. At last they revived the impeachment of the popish lords in the Tower, and singled out the viscount Stafford as their victim. He was accordingly brought to trial; and, although labouring under age and infirmities, he defended himself with great firmness and presence of mind, exhibiting the most striking proofs of his innocence.. Yet, to the astonishment of all unprejudiced men, he was condemned by a majority of twenty-four voices. He received with surprise, but resignation, the fatal verdict; and the people, who had exulted over his conviction, were softened into

31. Burnet, vol. ii. Hume, vol. viii. 32. Burnet, vol. ii. James II. 1680.

tears

tears at his execution, by the venerable simplicity of his appearance. He continued on the scaffold to make earnest protestations of his innocence, and expressed a hope that the present delusion would soon be over. A silent assent to his asseverations was observed through the vast multitude of weeping spectators; whilst some cried, in a faultering accent, "We believe you, my Lord!" The executioner himself was touched with the general sympathy. Twice did he suspend the blow, after raising the fatal axe; and when at last, by a third effort, he severed that nobleman's head from his body, all the spectators seemed to feel the stroke 33.

A. D. 1681.

The execution of Stafford opened, in some measure, the eyes of the nation, but did not diminish the violence of the commons. They still hoped, that the king's urgent necessities would oblige him to throw himself wholly upon their generosity. They therefore brought in a bill for an association to prevent the duke of York, or any papist, from succeeding to the crown; and they voted, That whoever had advised his majesty to refuse the Exclusion bill, were enemies to the king and kingdom. Nor did they stop here. They resolved, that until a bill to exclude the duke of York should pass, the commons could grant the king no supply, without betraying the trust reposed in them by their constituents. And that Charles might not be enabled, by any other expedient, to support the government, and preserve himself independent, they farther resolved, That whoever should thereafter advance money on the customs, excise, or hearth-money; or whoever should accept or buy, any tally of anticipation upon any part of the king's revenue, should be adjudged to hinder the sitting of parliament, and become responsible for his conduct at the bar of the house of commons34.

Having got intelligenee of these violent proceedings, Charles came to a resolution to prorogue the parliament;

33. Burnet, vol. ii. Hume, vol. viii. and Jan. 1681.

34. Journals, Dec. 1680,

for

for although he was sensible, that the peers who had rejected the exclusion bill, would still continue to defend the throne, he saw no hope of bringing the commons to any better temper, and was persuaded that their farther sitting could only serve to keep faction alive, and to perpetuate the general ferment of the nation. When they received information of his design, they resolved, that whoever advised his majesty to prorogue his parliament, for any other purpose than to pass the bill of exclusion, was a betrayer of the king, an enemy to the protestant religion and to the kingdom of England, a promoter of the French interest, and a pensioner of France35. This furious resolution, and others of the same nature, determined the king instantly to dissolve the parliament, instead of proroguing it.

Both parties had now carried matters so far, that a civil war seemed inevitable, unless the king, contrary to his fixed resolution of not interrupting the line of succession, should agree to pass the bill of exclusion. Charles saw his danger, and was prepared to meet it. A variety of circumstances, however, conspired to preserve the nation from that extremity, and to fling the whole powers of government finally into the hands of the king.

The PERSONAL CHARACTER of Charles, who, to use the words of one who knew him well," with great quickness "of conception, pleasantness of wit, and variety of knowledge, "had not a grain of pride or vanity in his whole composition36," had always rendered him the idol of the populace. The most affable, best bred man alive, he treated his subjects like noblemen, like gentlemen, like freemen; not like vassals or boors. His professions were plausible, and his whole behaviour engaging; so that he won upon the hearts, even while he lost the good opinion of his subjects; and often balanced. their judgment of things by their personal inclination 37.

35. Journals, Jan. 10, 1681.

37. Bolingbroke, Dissertation on Parties. VOL. IV.

T

36. Sir William Temple.

These

These qualities, and this part of his conduct, went a great way to give the king hold of the affections of his people. But these were not all. In his public conduct too, he studied, and even obtained a degree of popularity; for although he often embraced measures inconsistent with the political interests of the nation, and sometimes dangerous to the liberty and religion of his subjects, he had never been found to persevere obstinately in them, but had always returned into that path which the general opinion seemed to point out to him. And, as a farther excuse, his worst measures were all ascribed to the bigotry and arbitrary principles of his brother. If he had been obstinate in denying, to the voice of his commons, the bill of exclusion, he had declared himself ready to pass any other bill, that might be deemed necessary to secure the civil and religious liberties of his people during the reign of a popish successor, provided it did not tend to alter the descent of the crown in the true line. This, by the nation at large, was thought no unreasonable concession; and, if accepted, would have effectually separated the king from the duke of York, unless he had changed his religion, instead of uniting them together by a fear made common to both. But the die was thrown; and the leaders of the whig party were resolved to hazard all, rather than hearken to any thing short of absolute exclusion38.

This violence of the commons increased the number of the king's friends among the people. And he did not fail to take advantage of such a fortunate circumstance, in order to strengthen his authority, and to disconcert the designs of his enemics. He represented to the zealous abettors of episcopacy, the multitude of presbyterians and other sectaries who had entered into the whig party, both in and out of parliament; the encouragement and favour they met with, and the loudness of their clamours against popery and arbitrary power; which, he insinuated, were intended only to divert

38. Burnet, vol. ii.

the