leave. We are a peaceable people, and cannot offer violence to any man." And looking upon the jury, he said, "You are Englishmen, mind your privilege, give not away your right." To which some of them answered," Nor will we ever do it." Upon this they were shut up all night without victuals or fire, or so much as a chamber-pot, though desired. Next morning they brought in the same verdict; upon which they were threatened the utmost resentments. The mayor said, he would cut Bushel's throat as soon as he could. The recorder said, he never knew the benefit of an inquisition till now; and that the next sessions of parliament a law would be made wherein those that would not conform should not have the benefis of the law *. The court having obliged the jury to withdraw again, they were kept without meat and drink till next morning, when they brought in the prisoners not guilty; for which they were fined forty marks a man, and to be imprisoned till paid. The prisoners were also remanded to Newgate for their fines in not pulling off their hats †. The jury, after some time, were discharged by habeas corpus returnable in the common-pleas, where their commitment was judged illegal. This was a noble stand for the liberty of the subject in very dangerous times, when neither law nor equity availed any thing. The conventicle-act was made to encourage prosecutions; and a narrative was published next year, of the oppressions of many honest people in Devonshire, and other parts, by the informers and justices; but the courts of justice outran the law itself.

Hitherto the king and parliament had agreed pretty well by means of the large supplies of money the parliament had given to support his majesty's pleasures; but now having assurances of large remittances from France, his majesty resolved to govern by

* The speech of the recorder, it appears by a quotation from the "State Trials" in a late publication, was fuller and stronger than Mr. Neal's abridged form represents it. "Till now (said this advocate for arbitrary power), I never understood the reason of the policy and prudence of the Spaniards in suffering the Inquisition among them, and certainly it will never be well with us till something like the Spanish Inquisition be in England." Stuart's Peace and Reform against War and Corrupiton, p. 63, note; and Gough's History of the Quakers, vol. 2. p. 336. -ED.

The prisoners excepted to this fine, as being arbitrarily imposed, in violation of the great charter of England, which saith, No man ought to be amerced, but by the oath of good and lawful men of the vicinage." The name of the judge, before whom the case of the jury was solemnly argued in the court of commonpleas, and by whom it was judged illegal, was Sir John Vaughan, then chiefjustice a name which deserves to be mentioned in this connexion with peculiar respect, and to be perpetuated by Englishmen with gratitude; for this adjudication confirmed in the strongest manner the rights of juries, and secured them from the attack of arbitrary and unprincipled judges. Sir John Vaughan was a man of excellent parts, and not only versed in all the knowledge requisite to make a figure in his profession, but he was also a very considerable master of the politer kinds of learning. He was the intimate friend of the great Selden, and was buried in the Temple-church, as near as possible to his remains. He died in 1674. His son published his Reports, in which is the above case. Gough, vol. 2. p. 336. British Biography, vol. 7. p. 130, 131; and Granger's History, vol. 3. p. 369.—

ED..

the prerogative, and stand upon his own legs*. His prime counsellors were, lord Clifford, Anthony Ashley Cooper, afterward lord Shaftesbury, the duke of Buckingham, earl of Arlington, and duke Lauderdale, who from the initial letters of their names were called the CABAL. Lord Clifford was an open Papist, and the earl of Arlington a concealed one. Buckingham was a debauchee, and reputed a downright Atheist; he was a man of great wit and parts, and of sounder prineiples in the interests of humanity, says Mr. Baxter, than the rest of the court. Shaftesbury had a vast genius, but, according to Burnet, at best was a Deist; he had great knowledge of men and things, but would often change sides as his interest directed. Lauderdale was a man of learning, and from an almost republican was become a perfect tool of the prerogative, and would offer at the most desperate councils. He had scarcely any traces of religion remaining, though he called himself a Presbyterian, and had an aversion to king Charles I. to the last. By these five ministers of state the king and duke of York drove on their designs of introducing Popery and arbitrary power; in order to which, a secret treaty was concluded with France; the triple alliance was broken, and a new war declared with the Dutch to destroy their commonwealth, as will be seen presently. By this means the king had a plausible pretence to keep up a standing army, which might secure him in the exercise of an absolute authority over his subjects, to set aside the use of parliaments, and settle the RomanCatholic religion in the three kingdoms. These were the maxims the court pursued throughout the remaining part of this reign.

In the beginning of this year died Dr. Anthony Tuckney †, born in September 1599, and educated in Emanuel-college, Cambridge. He was afterward vicar of Boston in Lincolnshire, where he continued till he was called to sit in the assembly of divines at Westminster. In the year 1645, he was made master of his college, and in the year 1648, being chosen vice-chancellor, he removed to Cambridge with his family. He was afterward master

Echard, p. 864. Rapin, p. 655.

One

To what is said concerning Dr. Tuckney by Mr. Neal, and before in the note to p. 255, vol. 2, it is proper to add two facts which are much to his honour. is, that in his elections at St. John's, when the president, according to the language and spirit of the times, would call upon him to have regard to the godly, his answer was, "No one should have a greater regard to the truly godly than himself; but he was determined to choose none but scholars:" adding very wisely, "They may deceive me in their godliness; they cannot in their scholarship." The other fact is, that though he is said to have had a great hand in composing the confession and catechisms of the assembly at Westminster, and in particular drew up the exposition of the commandments in the larger catechism; yet he voted against subscribing or swearing to the confession, &c. set out by authority. This conduct the more deserves notice and commendation, because the instances of a consistent adherence to the principles of religious liberty among those who were struggling for liberty, were so few and rare in that age. In the year 1753, Dr. Samuel Salter, prebendary of Norwich, published a correspondence between Dr. Tuckney and Dr. Benjamin Whichcote, on several very interesting subjects. See Whichcote's Moral and Religious Aphorisms, preface the second, p. 15.- ED.

of St. John's and regius professor, which he held to the Restoration, when the king sent him a letter, desiring him to resign his professorship, which if he did, his majesty, in consideration of the great pains and diligence of the said doctor in the discharge of his duty, would oblige his successor to give him sufficient security in law, to pay him 1007. a year during his natural life. Upon this notice the doctor immediately resigned, and had his annuity paid him by Dr. Gunning, who succeeded him. After the coming out of the five-mile act he shifted about in several counties, and at last died in Spittle-yard, London, February 1669, in the seventy-first year of his age, leaving behind him the character of an eminently learned and pious man, an indefatigable student, a candid disputant, and an earnest promoter of truth and godliness*.

About the same time died Mr. William Bridge, M. A. the ejected minister of Yarmouth; he was student in Cambridge thirteen years, and fellow of Emanuel-college. He afterward settled in Norwich, where he was silenced by bishop Wren for nonconformity, 1637. He was afterwards excommunicated; and when the writ de excommunicato capiendo came out against him he withdrew to Holland, and became pastor to the English church at Rotterdam, where Mr. Jer. Burroughs was preacher. In 1642, he returned to England, and was one of the dissenting brethren in the assembly of divines. He was chosen after some time minister of Great Yarmouth, where he continued his labours till the Bartholomew act ejected him with his brethrent. He was a good scholar, and had a well-furnished library, was a hard student, and rose every morning winter and summer at four of the clock. He was also a good preacher, a candid and charitable man, and did much good by his ministry. He died at Yarmouth, March 12, 1670, ætat. seventy.

While the Protestant dissenters were harassed in all parts of the kingdom, the Roman Catholics were at ease under the wing of the prerogative; there were few or no processes against them, for they had the liberty of resorting to mass at the houses of foreign ambassadors, and other chapels, both in town and country: nor did the bishops complain of them in the house of lords, by which means they began in a few years to rival the Protestants both in strength and numbers. The commons represented the causes of this misfortune in an address to the king, together with

Calamy, vol. 2. p. 77; or, Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. 1. p. 205. + Calamy, vol. 2. p. 478. Palmer, vol. 2. p. 208.

In Peck's Desiderata Curiosa is a letter of William Bridge to Henry Scobel, Esq., clerk of the council, about augmenting the income of preachers, with the names of the Independent ministers of prime note in the county of Norfolk. This shews that he was a leading man among the Independents. Granger's History of England, vol. 3. p. 44. Dr. Grey imputes to Mr. Bridge a republican spirit, because, in a sermon before the commons, he said, "The king must not only command according to God's law, but man's laws; and if he don't so command, resistance is not resistance of power but of will. To say, that such resistance must only be defensive, is nonsense; for so a man may be ever resisting, and never resist." Grey, vol. 1. p. 187.

the remedies, which if the reader will carefully consider, he will easily discover the different usage of Protestant Nonconformists and Popish recusants *.

The causes of the increase of Popery were, 1. The great number of Jesuits who were all over the kingdom. 2. The chapels in great towns for saying mass, besides ambassadors' houses, whither great numbers of his majesty's subjects resorted without control. 3. The fraternities or convents of priests and Jesuits at St. James's, and in several parts of the kingdom, besides their schools for the educating youth. 4. The public sale of Popish catechisms, &c. 5. The general remissness of magistrates, and other officers, in not convicting Papists according to law. 6. Suspected recusants enjoying offices by themselves or their deputies. 7. Presentations to livings by Popish recusants, or by others as they direct. 8. Sending youth beyond sea under tutors, to be educated in the Popish religion. 9. The few exchequer processes that have been issued forth, though many have been certified thither. 10. The great insolence of Papists in Ireland, where archbishops and bishops of the pope's creation appear publicly, mass being said openly in Dublin, and other parts of the kingdom. The remedies which the house proposed against these growing mischiefs were,

1. That a proclamation be issued out to banish all Popish priests and Jesuits out of the realm, except such as attend the queen and foreign ambassadors. 2. That the king's subjects be forbid going to hear mass and other exercises of the Romish religion. 3. That no office or employment of public authority be put into the hands of Popish recusants. 4. That all fraternities, convents, and Popish schools, be abolished, and the Jesuits, priests, friars, and schoolmasters, punished. 5. That his majesty require all the officers of the exchequer, to issue out processes against Popish recusants convict, certified thither. 6. That Plunket the pretended primate of Ireland, and Talbot archbishop of Dublin, be sent for into England, to answer such matters as should be objected against them.

The king promised to consider the address, but hoped they would allow him to distinguish between new converts, and those who had been bred up in the Popish religion, and served him and his father in the late wars. After some time a proclamation was issued, in which his majesty declares, that he had always adhered to the true religion established in this kingdom against all temptations whatsoever; and that he would employ his utmost care and zeal in its defence. But the magistrates, knowing his majesty's inclinations, took no care of the execution of it. Nay, the duke of York, the king's brother, having lately lost his duchess, lord Clarendon's daughter, who died a Papist †, made a formal

Rapin, vol. 2. p. 658.

+ This Dr. Grey is unwilling to admit, though he owns that Monsieur Mainborough published, in French, her declaration for renouncing the Protestant religion,

abjuration of the Protestant religion at this time before father Simon, an English Jesuit, publicly declaring himself a Roman Catholic; the reason of which was, that the present queen having no children, the Papists gave the duke to understand, that they were capable to effect his majesty's divorce, and to set aside his succession, by providing him with another queen, which they would certaily attempt, unless he would make an open profession of the Roman-Catholic religion, which he did accordingly.

The house of commons was very lavish of the nation's money this session, for though there was no danger of an invasion from abroad, they voted the king 2,500,000l. with which his majesty maintained a standing army, and called the parliament no more together for almost two years. After the houses were up, the Cabal began to prosecute their scheme of making the king absolute; in order to which, beside the 2,500,000l. granted by parliament, they received from France the sum of 700,000l. in two years, which not being sufficient to embark in a war with the Dutch, the king declared in council, by the advice of Clifford, that he was resolved to shut up the exchequer, wherein the bankers of London. (who had furnished the king with money on all occasions at great interest) had lodged vast sums of other people's cash deposited in their hands. By this means the bankers were obliged to make a stop, which interrupted the course of trade, and raised a great clamour over the whole kingdom. The king endeavoured to soften the bankers, by telling them it should be only for a year, and that he would pay the arrears out of the next subsidies of parliament; but he was worse than his word; so that great numbers of families and orphans were reduced to beggary, while the king gained about 1,400,000Z.

A second advance of the Cabal towards arbitrary power, was to destroy the Dutch commonwealth; for this purpose the triple alliance was to be broken, and pretences to be found out for quarrelling with that trading people. The earl of Shaftesbury used this expression in his speech to the parliament for justifying the war, Delenda est Carthago, that is, "The Dutch commonwealth must be destroyed:" but an occasion was wanting to justify it to the world. There had been a few scurrilous prints and medals struck in Holland, reflecting on the king's amours, below the notice of the English court, which the Dutch however caused to be destroyed. Complaints were also revived of the insolence of the Dutch in the East-Indies, and of the neglect of striking the

and he quotes largely from Dr. Richard Watson, a celerated English divine, who published an answer to it. The amount of his defence of the duchess, as it appears in this quotation, is, that when on account of her illness the worship of her oratory had been deserted, it was renewed again by her order, and the doors of her chamber, which was adjoining to it, were opened that she might hear the prayers; and that the bishop of Oxford was sent for to administer the sacrament to her. In opposition to this, which rises to presumptive evidence only, and in support of Mr. Neal, it may be added, that sir John Reresby says, that she died with her last breath declaring herself a Papist." Memoirs, p. 19.-ED.