No More Learning

_--P. 323.

North, and other Tory writers, have affected to consider Shaftesbury
as the original author of the Popish plot. Of this there is no proof
whatever; and the internal evidence derived from the account of the
plot itself, is altogether inconsistent with the very idea. Shaftesbury
could never have given birth to such a heap of inconsistent fables; a
plan which he had forged would have been ingenious, consistent with
itself, accommodated to the circumstances of parties, and the times,
and therefore, in all probability, being less suited to the vulgar
palate, would not have made half the impression on the public. But we
can easily believe the truth of what he is alleged to have said, "that
whoever started the game, he had the full advantage of the chase. " In
fact, this wonderful tale, probably at first invented by two or three
obscure knaves, with the sordid view of profiting by the credulity of
the English nation, would have fallen to the ground, had it not been
fostered and cherished by Shaftesbury, who very soon perceived it could
be made the means of turning out Lord Danby, and driving matters to
extremity against the Catholic faction. He might well indeed exult in
his management in the former particular, since Danby was the first
to introduce into the House of Commons that very discussion about
the plot, to which, as Shaftesbury managed it, he himself fell a
sacrifice. [411] But it was chiefly as a means of bringing forward the
Bill of Exclusion, and of crushing for ever the hopes of his mortal
foe the Duke of York,[412] that Shaftesbury became the patron of all
investigations connected with the plot, pushed them on with vigour
and vehemence, and dipped himself deep in the blood of the innocent
persons who fell sacrifices to the popular clamour he had excited, and
to evidence, which much less than Shaftesbury's abilities might easily
have discovered to be inconsistent and fabulous.

A humorous pamphlet, already quoted, represents Shaftesbury as
abandoning his pretensions to the crown of Poland, for the purpose of
following up the discovery of the Popish plot. "In the very height of
all this expectation, one night as his majesty elect lay musing upon
his bed, restless with the thoughts and expectation of the approaching
empire, there appeared to him, by the light of a lamp that was burning
in his chamber, a dreadful and most monstrous vision. The shape and
figure of it was very confused and irregular: sometimes it looked like
the whore of Babylon, naked, and of immense privities; presently, in
the twinkling of an eye, the form was changed, and it appeared like a
justice of the peace, strangled by a crew of ruffians, who afterwards
ran him through the body with his own sword, that it might be thought
he hanged himself; on a sudden it was altered again, and seemed a troop
of pilgrims, armed with black bills, that came the Lord knows whence,
landed the Lord knows where, and are gone the Lord knows whither.
His majesty seeing it vary so often, and so terribly, calling up all
the faith he had to his assistance, boldly demanded 'In the name of,
&c. what art thou? ' Instantly, after a terrible clap of thunder,
accompanied with several flashes of lightning, it contracted itself
into the shape of a doctor of Salamanca, and, in a hideous tone, cried
out, 'I am a PLOT. Woe to England! farewell till 78;' and vanished.
No sooner was it gone, but a stupid amazement seized upon the majesty
of Poland, and cast him into a deep sleep, where he lay till morning,
when, awakening, he found himself stript of all the high and aspiring
thoughts that before had filled his mind; pity and compassion towards
his native country utterly cooled his ambition, and from that moment he
laid by all thoughts of converting the Turk, and resolved to stay at
home for confounding the pope.

"Thus has this good man, (for he is no more his majesty,) again
refused the highest promotion that perhaps any subject of England was
ever raised to, merely to stand in a gap here, and slay the plague that
was coming upon us. "[413]


Note V.

_Have I for this------
Even when at helm, a course so dangerous moved,
To land your hopes, as my removal proved. _
P. 325.

In 1679, the national discontent running exceedingly high, both on
account of the Popish plot, and for other reasons, the king, by the
advice of Sir William Temple, summoned a council of thirty persons,
fifteen of whom were the great officers of the crown, and fifteen
chosen from the country party. Shaftesbury was made president of this
council, against the opinion of Temple; and quickly found the means of
pressing his favourite measure of the Exclusion Bill. Monmouth, upon
whose interest in the king's affections he had great reliance, was
the person whom he proposed to nominate as successor, either by a law
to be passed for the purpose, or by prevailing on the king to declare
him legitimate. For this purpose, the interest of Shaftesbury was
exerted to have the duke sent down to Scotland, to oppose the insurgent
Covenanters, whom he defeated at Bothwell Bridge. The king's illness,
and the sudden revolution which took place in his councils, upon the
unexpected return of the Duke of York from Flanders, ruined this
project, and occasioned the disgrace of Monmouth, and the dismissal of
Shaftesbury.


Note VI.

_Amongst these, extorting Ishban first appears,
Pursued by a meagre troop of bankrupt heirs. _
P. 328.

Sir Robert Clayton, alderman of London, and one of the representatives
of the city during the two last parliaments of King Charles II. , was
warmly attached to the Whig party. He took an active concern, as a
magistrate, in examining the sham-plotter, Fitz-Harris; and was charged
by the Tories with an attempt to suborn that person to swear, that
he had been hired by the court to fix a plot upon the Protestants.
The examination of Fitz-Harris, who swore, and counter-swore, in many
different ways, besides avouching that he was bribed to concoct a
sham-plot, and to ascribe it to the Whigs, (a base manœuvre, too
often played off by both parties to be incredible,) added a thousand
improbable falsehoods about a Papist plot against the Protestants.
When removed from the city jail, and committed to the Tower, he told
another story: He was then in the power of the king, and alleged, that
Howard, and others, were in a plot to seize the king's person, and
that they had employed him to contrive the aforesaid sham-plot, in
order to charge upon the court the crime of subornation, &c. He added,
that Clayton, Bethel, Cornish, and Treby, the city-recorder, extorted
from him, by threats, his previous declaration concerning the Popish
plot, and used the most urgent means to compel him to impute the guilt
of Godfrey's murder to Danby, and to fix an accession to the Popish
conspiracy on the queen and Duke of York. The man was executed adhering
to this last story. Clayton, and the others accused of such infamous
practices, exculpated themselves in a pamphlet, entitled, "Truth
Vindicated," in which they showed many objections to Fitz-Harris's
final declaration. We must be contented to leave the affair in mystery;
and to regret there ever was a time in England, when the character and
common practices of both the leading parties in the kingdom were by no
means pure enough to exempt either from such foul suspicions.

Sir Robert Clayton, with the other London members, all of whom were
zealous Whigs, and whose re-election was hailed by the acclamations
of their party,[414] attended the Oxford Parliament in formidable
array; they were escorted by a numerous band of armed partizans,
who wore on their hats ribbons, bearing the label, "No Popery, no
Slavery," and were obviously prepared for something more than an usual
attendance upon their duty in the House of Commons. According to
Dugdale's evidence, Sir Robert Clayton was present at a carousal at
Lord Lovelace's, near Oxford, where Colledge, one of their principal
myrmidons, sung the unlucky ballad, which went so far towards his
condemnation. [415]

The story, that Sir Robert Clayton wished to purchase a peerage, seems
to have become popular. In the last will and testament of the Charter
of London is this, among other jocular bequests; "To Sir Robert Clayton
I bequeath all that the chamberlain has left of the common stock, to
purchase Paddington manor, with the demesnes and appurtenances thereto,
since there are now no _dukedoms_ to be purchased; and it is thought
that Tyburn, paying his arrears next year to the city, will yield a
better rate than 20l. _per cent. _ in the banker's hands. "--_Somers'
Tracts_, p. 185. His usury is also hinted at in a poem called, "The
Duke of Buckingham's Litany," and its consequences are enumerated among
the other follies of that prodigal peer:

From learning new morals from Bedlam Sir Payton;
And truth and modesty from Sir Ellis Layton;
From making our heirs, to be Morrice and Clayton,
_Libera nos, Domine. _

It ought to be mentioned to Sir Robert Clayton's honour, that out of
his wealth, howsoever procured, he dedicated a portion to found the
mathematical school in Christ Church Hospital.


Note VII.

_Next him, let railing Rabsheka have place,
So full of zeal, he has no need of grace;
A saint, that can both flesh and spirit use,
Alike haunt conventicles and stews. _--P. 328.

Sir Thomas Player, chamberlain of the city of London, was, like Sir
Robert Clayton, one of the city members, both in the Westminster
and Oxford parliaments; and, being as zealous as his colleague in
the popular cause, what has been said concerning their mode of
marching to Oxford, applies to him as well as to the other. He is
accused of libertinism, in the pasquinade quoted in the last note,
where the Charter of London makes him this bequest: "To Sir Thomas
Player, I leave all the manor of Moorfields, with all the wenches and
bawdy-houses thereunto belonging, with Mrs Cresswells[416] for his
immediate inheritance, to enjoy and occupy all, from the bawd to the
whore downward, at nineteen shillings in the pound cheaper than any
other person, because he may not exhaust the chamber by paying old
arrears, nor embezzle the stock by running into new scores. "[417]


Note VIII.

_Let David's brother but approach the town,
Double our guards, he cries, we are undone. _
P. 328.

When the Duke of York unexpectedly returned from Brussels, on the
news of the king's illness, his arrival spread discomfiture through
Shaftesbury's party in court, and rage and alarm among those in the
city. Sir Thomas Player, at the head of a numerous body of citizens,
or persons who called themselves so, made his appearance before the
lord-mayor, and court of aldermen; and after having expatiated, in a
set speech, upon the horrors of Popery, and upon the return of the
Duke of York, whose religion had first led to the conspiracy, and
whose recent arrival must necessarily give it new life, he gravely
demanded, that the city-guards should be doubled, and that four
companies, instead of two, should be appointed to duty every night.
The lord-mayor, after some discussion, evaded Sir Thomas's request,
by referring it to the livery. In the vehemence of the chamberlain's
oratory, a remarkable expression, noticed in the text, chanced to
escape him, "that he durst hardly go to sleep, for fear of awaking
with his throat cut. " In the pretended account of this interview, he
is only made to say, that it was now out of doubt, that the Papists
had burnt the city; "And if they had not been disappointed, would have
cut our throats too at the same time, while we were endeavouring to
save the small remainder of our goods. " But the publisher acknowledges,
he could give but an imperfect account of the "speech of this worthy
and deserving knight, and the Lord Mayor's generous reply thereunto. "
"Cutting throats," indeed, appears to have been a frequent terror of
the zealous knight. In the Westminster parliament, he made a speech
on the Exclusion Bill, in which, after stating that he had read in
Scripture of one man dying for a nation, but never of three nations
dying for one man; he assured the House, that they "would be embroiled
in blood before they were aware of it;" that he had "_no patience to
think of sitting still while his throat was a cutting_;" and therefore
prayed, they would endeavour to have laws that might enable them
to defend themselves. [418] In the parliament of Oxford, Sir Thomas
Player made a violent speech, upon Fitzharris being withdrawn from the
city jail, and sent to the Tower, with a view, as he contended, of
stifling his evidence against the Duke of York and the Papists; and
concluded by making a motion, which was carried, that if any judge,
justice, or jury, should proceed upon him, and he be found guilty,
they be declared guilty of his murder, and betrayers of the rights of
the commons of England. In short, Sir Thomas Player was a hot-headed
violent factionary; but Rouse, one of his dependants who suffered for
the Rye-house plot, with his dying breath cleared Sir Thomas of any
accession to that conspiracy; and declared, that he broke with Lord
Shaftesbury, upon perceiving the violent plans which he agitated after
his being freed from the Tower. _State Trials_, p. 750.


Note IX.

_Judas, that keeps the rebels' pension-purse;
Judas, that pays the treason-writer's fee;
Judas, that well deserves his name-sake's tree;
Who at Jerusalem's own gates erects
His college for a nursery of sects. _--P. 329.

Under the name of Judas, Dryden describes the famous Robert Ferguson,
a native of Scotland, and, by profession, an independant preacher, and
teacher of an academy at Islington. --_Ath. Ox. _ Vol. II. p. 743. He
was one of those dark, intriguing, subtile, and ferocious characters,
that emerge into notice in times of turmoil and civil dissension, and
whose appearance as certainly bodes revolution, as the gambols of
the porpoise announce a tempest. Through the whole of his busy and
desperate career, he appears to have been guided less by any principle,
moral or political, than by the mere pleasure of dealing in matters
deep and dangerous, and exerting his ingenuity to shake the quiet
of the kingdom at the risk of his own neck. In organizing dark and
bloody intrigues; in maintaining the courage of the zealots whom he
engaged in them; in carrying on the mystic correspondence by which the
different parts of the conspiracy were to be cemented and conjoined;
in guarding against the risque of discovery, and, lastly, in effecting
with nicety a hairbreadth escape when it had taken place,--all these
perilous, dubious, and criminal manœuvres, at which the noble-minded
revolt, and the peaceful are terrified, were the scenes in which the
genius of Ferguson delighted to exert itself. When the magistracy of
London was thrown into the hands of the crown, the charter annulled,
and all means of accomplishing a revolution by the ancient existing
authorities, were annihilated, such a character as Ferguson became of
inestimable value to Shaftesbury, considering the new plans which he
had in agitation, and the persons by whom they were to be accomplished.
Accordingly, he shared much of that politician's confidence, while his
influence, as a popular and violent preacher in the city, gave him
every facility of selecting and training the persons fittest to assist
in the meditated insurrection. His chapel, in Moorfields, was crowded
with multitudes of fanatics, whom fired by his political sermons, and
occasionally stimulated by libels and pamphlets, from a private press
of which he had the management, as well as of a purse that maintained
it. He distributed most of the pamphlets written on the Whig party,
and was by no means averse to father even the most dangerous of them;
his vanity, according to Burnet, getting the better of his prudence.
Some notable pieces, however, of his composition, are still known;
his style was of that diffuse, coarse, and periphrastic nature, best
suited to the apprehension of the vulgar, upon whose dull intellects
sentiments are always impressive, in proportion to the length of
time they are forced to dwell on them. He wrote the "Appeal from the
Country to the City," where, in plain words, he points out the Duke of
Monmouth as successor to the crown, and that because he had a dubious,
or rather no title at all to claim it. "No person is fitter than his
Grace the Duke of Monmouth, as well for quality, courage, and conduct,
as for that his life and fortune stand on the same bottom with yours.
He will stand by you, and therefore you ought to stand by him. And
remember the old rule is, _He, that has the worst title, ever makes
the best king_; as being constrained, by a gracious government, to
supply what he wants in title; that, instead of _God and my right_, his
motto may be, _God and my people_. " He proceeds to quote a historical
example for putting Monmouth on the throne, under the tutelage of
Shaftesbury, by stating that, after the death of Alexander, nothing
would pacify the dissensions which ensued, "but the choosing of King
Philip's illegitimate son, Aridæus, who, notwithstanding that he was a
man but of reasonable parts himself, might, as they thought, perform
the office well enough, by the help of his wise protector Perdiceas. "
This extraordinary piece is filled with the most violent declamations
against the Papists, in that tawdry, bombastic, and inflammatory
eloquence, wherewith, to speak according to Dryden's parable, he
"tempted Jerusalem to sin. "[419]

Ferguson also wrote the second part of "No Protestant Plot," another
very violent pamphlet, and several treatises on the same subject.
Meanwhile, other means were prepared to effect the desired change
of government. It is not necessary to enter particularly into the
well-known history of the Rye-house plot. Every body knows, that,
while Russel, Sidney, Monmouth, and others, undertook to raise an
insurrection in the country, Shaftesbury promised to head ten thousand
brisk boys in the city of London. Among these brisk boys were a fanatic
party, who agitated projects of assassinating the King and the Duke
of York, unknown to the more generous nobles, who proposed only to
secure the king's person. In all and each of these cabals, Ferguson
acted a distinguished part. When Shaftesbury fled from his house into
lurking places about Wapping, he trusted Ferguson with the secret of
his residence, although concealed from the noble-minded Russel, and the
generous Monmouth. By his intervention, he heartened and encouraged the
associates to break forth into open insurrection. With the inferior
conspirators, Ferguson was yet more intimate, and seems, in fact, to
have given life to the vague and desperate plans of _lopping_, as they
called the assassination of the royal brothers, by the countenance
which he pretended to procure the conspirators from those of superior
rank. He told West, he would procure the Duke of Monmouth's written
consent to his father's murder; although he afterwards allowed, he
durst not even mention such a plan to him. At length, when Shaftesbury,
weary of the delays of the other conspirators, left England for ever,
Ferguson and Walcot were the companions of his flight. By this the
plan of insurrection was for a time confounded, for the higher order
of the malcontents were ignorant of the lines of communication by
which the city cabal was conducted. Ferguson was therefore recalled,
and in an evil hour returned from Holland. His arrival gave new life
both to the upper and inferior conspiracy: in the former, six of the
leaders formed themselves into a regular committee, to extend their
influence and correspondence through the kingdom, and unite measures
with the disaffected in Scotland. The lower band of assassins matured
and prepared their plan for assassinating the king and duke as they
returned from Newmarket. Ferguson, who still acted in the capacity of
treasurer, which Dryden has assigned him, paid for the arms provided
for the enterprize; and, by his daring language, encouraged them to
proceed. He offered, in mockery, to consecrate the blunderbuss with
which Rumbold was to fire into the carriage; and when Sunday was fixed
for the day of action, he quoted the old Scottish proverb, "the better
day, the better deed. " Even when, by the treachery of Keeling, the
plot was finally discovered, and the conspirators were dispersing in
dismay and terror, Ferguson took his leave of them with great gaiety,
and, trusting to the plots of Argyle and Jerviswood, with which he
was also intimate, told them, he hoped to meet them all at Dunbar.
This indifference, at such a crisis, led to a supposition, that he had
some secret correspondence with government: it was even said, that
the messenger who arrested Ferguson suffered him to escape, but of
this there seems no evidence. He retired to Holland, where he joined
the unfortunate Monmouth, and was a principal agent in pushing him
on to his western invasion, when, if left to himself, he would have
remained in quiet. He drew the proclamation which Monmouth issued
at his landing, a prolix, ill-worded production, stuffed with all
the true, and all the false accusations against James II. , and where
the last so much drowned the others, that it was only calculated to
make an impression on the lowest vulgar. He was always earnest with
Monmouth, to take upon himself the title of king; and may be said to
have contributed greatly to every false step which he made, and to
the final destruction in which they ended. Of this Monmouth was so
sensible, that he told the king in their last interview, "That Ferguson
was chiefly the person who instigated him to set up his title of king,
and had been a main adviser and contriver of the whole affair, as
well to the attempting, as acting, what had been done;" but he had
little to answer when Halifax expressed his surprise, that he should
have given ear to him who, as he had long before told the late king,
"was a bloody rogue, and always advised to the cutting of throats. "
Ferguson was taken, on this occasion, the third day after the battle
of Sedgemore. Yet, when so much blood was spilt, both with, and
without the forms of law, this man, who had been most active in the
conspiracy against the king, when Duke of York, and had now organized
an invasion and insurrection in his dominions, was, by the inexorable
James, freely pardoned and dismissed, to council and assist the next
conspiracy. Perhaps his life was saved by Sunderland, lest he had
disclosed what he probably knew of his intercourse with the Prince
of Orange, and even with Monmouth himself. Ferguson seems, on his
liberation, to have returned to Holland; and did not fail to take a
share in the intrigues which preceded the Revolution. He managed the
dissenters for the interest of the Prince of Orange; and endeavoured
to press upon William a sense of their importance. But other, and more
important engines, were now at work; and Ferguson seems to have enjoyed
but a subaltern consideration: Burnet, who made such a figure in the
expedition, avers, he did not even know him by sight. [420] When the
Prince of Orange was at Exeter, the dissenters refused him the keys of
their meeting house. But Ferguson was accustomed to surmount greater
obstacles. "I will take," said he, laughing, "the kingdom of heaven by
storm," and broke open the door with his own hand. After the Revolution
was accomplished, one would have thought Ferguson's machinations might
have ended. He had seen his party triumphant; he had been rewarded with
a good post;[421] and, what was probably dearer to him than either
principle or profit, his intrigues had successfully contributed to the
achievement of a great change of government. But it was not in his
nature to be in repose; and, having spent all the former part of his
life in caballing to drive James from the throne, he now engaged with
the same fervour in every conspiracy for his restoration. In the very
year which succeeded that of the Revolution, we find him deeply engaged
with Sir James Montgomery, and the other Scottish presbyterians,
who, discontented with King William, had united with the Jacobites.
The Marquis of Anandale having absconded on account of his share in
this conspiracy, Ferguson secreted him for several weeks; a kindness
which the Marquis repaid, by betraying him to government. [422] With
his usual good fortune, he was dismissed; either in consideration of
former services, or because a full proof against him was not to be
obtained. After this, he continued to engage in every plot against the
government; and each year published one or two pamphlets, which put
his ears, if not his neck, in peril. His last grand exhibition was an
attack upon Trenchard, the secretary of state, for the use of blank and
general warrants. [423] But that adventure, as the romance writers say,
was reserved for another demagogue. Finally, Ferguson, who had in this
remarkable manner kept his promise of being engaged in every conspiracy
of his time, and, had gained the honourable epithet of "The Plotter,"
died quietly, and in peace, after having repeatedly seen the scaffold
stream with the blood of the associates of his various machinations.
One touch alone softens the character of this extraordinary incendiary.
In all his difficulties, he is never charged with betraying his
associates. His person is thus remarkably described in the proclamation
for apprehending his person, among the other Rye-house assassins.

A description of several of the conspirators that are fled. London
Gazette, from August 2d, to August 6th, 1683.

"Robert Ferguson, a tall lean man, dark-brown hair, a great Roman
nose, thin jawed, heat in his face, speaks in the Scotch tone, a sharp
piercing eye, stoops a little in the shoulders. He has a shuffling
gait, that differs from all men; wears his periwig down almost over his
eyes; about 45 or 46 years old. "


Note X.

_Here Phaleg, the lay Hebronite, is come. _--P. 329.

Of James Forbes I can give but a slight account. He was placed by the
Duke of Ormond as travelling tutor to the young Earl of Derby, who had
married his grand-daughter. Carte says, he was a gentleman of parts,
virtue, and prudence, but of too mild a nature to manage his pupil.
In Paris the earl addicted himself to the society of one Merrit, a
worthless profligate; and the governor having cautioned his charge
against this acquaintance, was assaulted at disadvantage by Merrit,
and dangerously wounded. Lord Derby, it seems, not only countenanced
Merrit's assault upon Mr Forbes, but, at the instigation of some young
French rakes, consented to his governor's being tossed in a blanket.
The Duke of Ormond, finding that the earl was wild and impatient of
restraint, and that his tutor's sage remonstrances had but little
effect, recalled Forbes, and sent in his stead Colonel Thomas Fairfax,
a gallant and brave man, and roughly honest. Lord Derby was at first
restiff; but Fairfax telling him plainly, that he was sent to govern
him, and would govern him, and that his lordship must submit, and
should do it, the young nobleman had the sense to comply, broke off his
evil acquaintances, and behaved ever after with great propriety. [424]
Forbes's misadventures in Paris, though, according to Carte, they
inferred no real dishonour, are severely alluded to by Dryden in the
text. I am not anxious to unrip the ancient chronicle of scandal,
in order to trace Phaleg's amours. He appears to have become one of
Monmouth's dependants.


Note XI.

_Let Hebron, nay let hell, produce a man,
So made for mischief as Ben-Jochanan. _--P. 330.

The Reverend Samuel Johnson, a party-writer of considerable merit. He
was a native of Warwickshire, and took orders after a regular course
of study at Cambridge. He obtained the small living of Curingham,
in Essex, by the patronage of a Mr Biddolph. The emoluments of this
benefice did not exceed eighty pounds a-year; and it was the only
church preferment he ever enjoyed. Dryden alludes to his poverty in
describing his original situation. Mr Johnson's patron, observing his
turn for politics, exhorted him to study the English constitution in
Bracton and Fortescue; but by no means to make his sermons the vehicle
for his political sentiments. The opinions which he formed in the
course of study, were such as recommended him as chaplain to the famous
Lord Russell.

While he was in this situation, and during the dependance of the Bill
of Exclusion, he endeavoured at once to show the danger to a national
religion from a sovereign who held opposite tenets, and to explode
the doctrine of passive obedience, in a work entitled, "Julian the
Apostate; with a short Account of his Life, and a Parallel betwixt
Popery and Paganism. " In this performance, according to Wood, he was
assisted by Thomas Hunt the lawyer. This book, which made a good deal
of noise at the time, was answered by the learned Hickes, in a treatise
called "Jovian," in which, according to Anthony a Wood, the doctor
hath, with unquestionable clearness, laid open the folly, "ignorance,
weakness, and pernicious drift of that traitorous scribbler. " Without
entering into the controversy, there can be little doubt, that, so
far as the argument from the example of the primitive Christians is
sound, Johnson has fairly made out his case. Indeed Dryden has little
left to say, except, that if they did resist Julian, which he seems
to admit, they were very wrong in so doing, and the less that is said
about it, the more will be the credit of the ancient church. Johnson
prepared a reply to "Jovian," called, the "Arts of Julian to undermine
Christianity;" but the Rye-house Plot having intervened, he did not
judge it prudent to publish it. He was called before the Privy Council,
who insisted upon knowing why this book, which had been entered at
Stationers Hall, was not published? His answer alleged, that the
ferment of the nation was so great as to render the further discussion
of the question imprudent. They then demanded a copy of the book; and
added, that, if they approved it, it should be published. To this
insidious proposal he boldly replied, that, having suppressed the book,
it only contained his private thoughts, which he could be compelled
to disclose to no man on earth. For this answer he was committed to
prison, and his house searched for the copies, which had fortunately
been bestowed elsewhere. The court finding themselves unable to reach
Johnson for _not_ publishing his second work, determined to try him
for publishing his first. Accordingly, he was brought to the bar and
insulted by Jefferies, who told him, he would give him a text, "Let
every man study to be quiet, and mind his own business. "--"I minded my
business as an Englishman," answered this spirited man, "when I wrote
that book. " All defence was in vain; he was condemned to a heavy fine,
and to lie in jail till it was paid, which in his circumstances was
equal to a sentence of perpetual imprisonment. Even from his prison
house, where he lay for five years, amid the accumulated distresses
of sickness and poverty, he let his countrymen hear his voice, and
failed not to enter an animated and vigorous protest against each new
encroachment upon the liberty and religion of England. [425] At length,
having published "An humble and hearty Address to all the English
Protestants in this present Army,"[426] exhorting them not to serve
as instruments to eradicate their religion and enslave their country,
he again fell under the grasp of power, was tried and sentenced to
be thrice pilloried, and whipped from Newgate to Tyburn; having been
previously degraded from his ecclesiastical orders. He bore both the
previous ceremony of degradation, and the cruel punishment which
followed, with the greatest magnanimity. When they disrobed him, he
told the divines present, that he could not but grieve, since all
he had written was to keep the gowns on their backs, they should
nevertheless be the unhappy instruments to pull off his. When they put
a Bible into his hand as a part of the formality of degradation, and
again took it from him, he was much affected, and said with tears, they
could not, however, deprive him of the use and benefit of that sacred
deposit. [427] On the 1st of December, 1686, he suffered the remainder
of his inhuman sentence; the pain being his, but the infamy that of
the persons who imposed it.

After the Revolution, the proceedings against this staunch patriot
were declared illegal; and he received a pension of L. 300 yearly, with
L. 1000 in money, and a post for his son. Crewe, Bishop of Durham, who
acted as one of the commissioners for discharging the duty of the
Bishop of London, and as such was active in Mr Johnson's degradation,
compounded with him against a suit at law, by payment of a handsome
sum. Yet Johnson's dangers were not over; for, such was the enmity of
the adherents of King James against him, that a party of desperate
assassins broke into his house by night, beat, wounded, and threatened
to pistol him, for the books he had written; but, upon his wife's
intreaties, at length desisted from their bloody design. The latter
part of his days were spent in quietness and independence.
The reader may contrast the character which Dryden has given of
Johnson, with that of Hampden, who, in an account of him to the Duchess
of Mazarine, says; "Being two years with him in the same prison, I had
the opportunity to know him perfectly well; and, to speak my thoughts
of him in one word, I can assure your Grace, that I never knew a man of
better sense, of a more innocent life, nor of greater virtue, which was
proof against all temptation, than Mr Johnson. "--See Memorials of his
Life prefixed to his Works in folio.


Note XII.

_If Balack should be called to leave his place,
As profit is the loudest call of grace,
His temple, dispossessed of one, would be
Replenished with seven devils more by thee. _--P. 331.

The famous Gilbert Burnet was then lecturer at St Clements, and
preacher at the Rolls chapel, under the patronage of Sir Harbottle
Grimstone, Master of the Rolls. King Charles was so anxious that he
should be dismissed, as to make it his particular request to Sir
Harbottle; but the Master excused himself. It was here he preached that
famous sermon on the day of the Gunpowder Treason, 5th November, 1684,
when he chose for his text, "Save me from the _lion's_ mouth, thou
hast heard me from the horns of the _unicorns_;" which, in spite of
the doctor's protestations to the contrary, certain suspicious persons
considered as an allusion to the supporters of the king's arms. For
this he was finally disgraced, and turned out of the chapel of the
Rolls. See note on the Buzzard, in the "Hind and Panther. "


Note XIII.

_Some in my speedy pace I must out-run,
As lame Mephibosheth, the wizard's son. _--P. 331.

Samuel Pordage, a minor poet and dramatist of the time, drew this
passing sarcasm on his person and pedigree, by a stupid poem, called
"Azariah and Hushai," published 1681-2; being an attempt to imitate
or answer "Absalom and Achitophel:" with what success the reader may
judge, from the following character of Dryden:

Shimei, the poet laureat of that age,
The falling glory of the Jewish stage,
Who scourged the priest, and ridiculed the plot,
Like common men, must not be quite forgot.
Sweet was the muse that did his wit inspire,
Had he not let his hackney muse to hire:
But variously his knowing muse could sing,
Could Doeg praise, and could blaspheme the king;
The bad make good, good bad, and bad make worse.
Bless in heroics, and in satires curse.
Shimei to Zabed's[428] praise could tune his muse,
And princely Azaria could abuse.
Zimri, we know, he had no cause to praise,
Because he dubbed him with the name of Bayes:
Revenge on him did bitter venom shed,
Because he tore the laurel from his head;
Because he durst with his proud wit engage,
And brought his follies on the public stage.
Tell me, Apollo, for I can't divine,
Why wives he cursed, and praised the concubine;
Unless it were, that he had led his life
With a teeming matron, ere she was a wife;
Or that it best with his dear muse did suit,
Who was for hire a very prostitute.

He also stepped forward to break a lance with our author, on the
subject of Shaftesbury's acquittal; and answered the "Medal" by a
very stupid poem, called the "Medal Reversed. " To all this scurrilous
doggrel, Dryden only replied by the single couplet above quoted. He
calls Mephibosheth "the wizard's son," because the Reverend John
Pordage, vicar of Bradfield, in Berkshire, and father of the poet,
Samuel, was ejected from his cure by the commissioners of Berkshire,
for conversation with evil spirits, and for blasphemy, ignorance,
scandalous behaviour, devilism, uncleanness, and heaven knows what. His
case of insufficiency is among the State Trials, from which he seems to
have been a crazy enthusiast, who believed in a correspondence with
genii and dæmons.

Samuel Pordage was a member of the society of Lincoln's Inn. He wrote
three plays, namely, the "Troades," translated from Seneca, "Herod and
Mariamne," and "The Siege of Babylon. " He also published a romance
called "Eliana," and prepared a new edition of "God's Revenge against
Murder," which was published after his death. Pordage was, moreover,
author of "Heroic Stanzas on his Majesty's Coronation, 1661," and
probably of other occasional pieces, deservedly doomed to oblivion.


Note XIV.

_Shun rotten Uzza as I would the pox. _--P. 331.

Jack Hall, ranked as a sort of third-rate poet and courtier among the
minor wits of the time. In the "Essay on Satire," he is mentioned as
a companion of "little Sid, for simile renowned. " Whether we suppose
Sidley, or Sidney, to be represented under that character, as they were
both at present in the country party, it is possible that Jack Hall
went into opposition with his friend and admirer. See the note upon
Hall, appended to the "Essay on Satire. "


Note XV.

_Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
Made still a blundering kind of melody. _--P. 331.

Elkanah Settle, whose original quarrel with our author is detailed
in the introductory remarks to their prose controversy, had now
further incensed him, by tergiversation in politics: For Elkanah,
although originally a Tory, was induced, probably by his connections
as poet-laureat for the city, to go over to the party of Monmouth and
Shaftesbury. [429] His new friends made use of his talents in a two-fold
capacity. Shaftesbury employed him to write a pamphlet in favour of
the Exclusion, entitled, "The Character of a Popish Successor. " When
Settle afterwards recanted, he said, this piece, which made some
noise at the time, was retouched by "his noble friend in Aldersgate
Street," whose only objection was, that it was not sufficiently
violent in favour of insurrection. Settle, having a mechanical turn,
was also employed as chief engineer at the solemn pope-burning, which
we have so often mentioned; in which charge he acquitted himself much
to the satisfaction of his employers. On account of his literary and
mechanical merits, Sir Roger L'Estrange allots him the double office
of poet-laureat and master of the ordnance to the Whig faction, in the
following passage of a dialogue between Jest and Earnest:

"_Jest. _ For instance, I knew a lusty fellow, who would not willingly
be thought valiant,[430] who has an indifferent hand at making of
crackers, serpents, rockets, and the other playthings that are proper
on the 5th of November; and has for such his skill received applause,
and victuals, from the munificent gentlemen about Temple-bar.

"_Earnest. _ And he, I'll warrant, is made master of the ordnance?

"_Jest. _ True; and I think him very fit for it. But he's like to have
another employment, of a strangely different nature; for, because this
dull wretch, once upon a time, wrote a fulsomely nonsensical poem,
in prose, being a character of a bugbear, he, forsooth, is designed
poet-laureat too!

"_Earnest. _ These two offices, as you say, one would think, should
require diverse accomplishments: But then it may be said, that these
may well enough be supplied by one man; the poet to make ballads in
peace, and betake himself to his other business in war.

"_Jest. _ Nay, his squibs and his poems have much what the same fortune;
they crack and bounce, and the boys and girls laugh at them.

"_Earnest. _ Well, how great are the advantages! I thought the
author of the satyric work upon the "Observator," and Heraclitus,
or the _Person of Honour_, that obliged the pie-folks with poetical
reflections upon "Absalom and Achitophel;" I say, I thought these
forsaken scribblers might have bid fairest for the evergreen twig.

"_Jest. _ I thought so too; but hunger will break stone-walls. Elk.
promises to vindicate Lucifer's first rebellion for a few guineas. Poor
Absalom and Achitophel must e'en hide themselves in the Old Testament
again; and I question whether they'll be safe there from the fury of
this mighty Cacadoggin.

"_Earnest. _ Silly chit! has he not learned the apologue of the Serpent
and the File? But fare him well. "--_Heraclitus Redens_, No. 50.

From the last part of this passage, it appears that Settle was then
labouring upon his answer to "Absalom and Achitophel," for which Dryden
condemned him to a disgraceful immortality. At length he came forth
with "Absalom Senior, or Achitophel Transprosed. "[431]

In this piece Dryden's plan is followed, by applying the names and
history of scripture to modern persons and events. Thus, Queen
Elizabeth is Deborah, and Sir Francis Drake, Barak; the Papists are the
worshippers of Baal, and the Duke of York is Absalom. This circumstance
did not escape the wit of Dryden, who says of Settle, in the text,

For almonds he'll cry whore to his own mother,
Or call young Absalom King David's brother.

Indeed, Elkanah seems himself to have been sensible of the absurdity
of this personification, by which the king's brother, almost as old as
himself, was converted into the blooming son of David; and apologizes,
in his preface addressed to the Tories, for "the freedom of clapping
but about a score of years extraordinary on the back of Absalom.
Neither is it," he continues, "altogether so unpardonable a poetical
licence; since we find as great slips from the author of your own
'Absalom,' where we see him bring in a Zimri into the court of David,
who, in the scripture story, died by the hand of Phineas, in the days
of Moses. [432] Nay, in the other extreme, we find him, in another
place, talking of the martyrdom of Stephen, so many ages after; and, if
so famous an author can forget his own rules of unity, time, and place,
I hope you'll give a minor poet some grains of allowance. "

Sir E. Godfrey's murder is disguised under that of Amnon, Tamar's rape
being explained the discovery of the plot:

Baal's cabinet intrigues he open spread;
The ravish'd Tamar, for whose sake he bled.

As Settle's poems have long fallen into total oblivion, from which his
name has only been rescued by the satirical pen of Dryden, and as he
was once thought no unequal rival for that great poet, the reader may
be curious to see a specimen of his style; I have therefore inserted
the few of the leading characters of "Absalom Senior," in which he has
"rhymed and rattled" with most tolerable success.

DUKE OF MONMOUTH.

In the first rank the youthful Ithream stood,
His princely veins filled with great David's blood;
With so much manly beauty in his face,
Scarce his high birth could lend a nobler grace;
And for a mind fit for this shrine of gold,
Heaven cast his soul in the same beauteous mould,
With all the sweets of prideless greatness blest,
And affable as Abraham's angel guest.

SHAFTESBURY.

That second Moses' guide resolved to free
Our Israel from her threatening slavery;
Idolatry and chains, both from the rods
Of Pharaoh masters and Egyptian gods.

* * * * *

Such our Barzillai; but Barzillai too,
With Moses' fate does Moses' zeal pursue;
Leads to that bliss which his own silver hairs
Shall never reach, rich only to his heirs.
Kind patriot, who, to plant us banks of flowers,
With purling streams, cool shades, and summer bowers,
His age's needful rest away does fling,
Exhausts his autumn to adorn our spring;
While his last hours in toils and storms are hurled,
And only to enrich the inheriting world.
Thus prodigally throws his life's short span,
To play his country's generous pelican.

The ungainly appearance, uncouth delivery, and versatile politics of
the famous Duke of Lauderdale, are thus described:

Let not that hideous bulk of honour 'scape,
Nadab, that sets the gazing crowd agape;
That old kirk-founder, whose coarse croak could sing
The saints, the cause, no bishop, and no king;
When greatness cleared his throat, and scoured his maw,
Roared out succession, and the penal law.

* * * * *

To Absalom's side does his Old Covenant bring,
With state razed out, and interlined with king.

JEFFERIES.

Of low-born tools we bawling Shimei saw,
Jerusalem's late loud-tongued mouth of law;
By blessings from almighty bounty given,
Shimei, no common favourite of heaven,
Whom, lest posterity should lose the breed,
In five short moons indulgent heaven raised seed,
Made happy in an early teeming bride,
And laid a lovely heiress by her side. [433]

But, as was reasonably to be expected, Settle has exerted his whole
powers of satire and poetry in the description of his antagonist
Dryden: And here let me remark, that almost all the adversaries of
our author commence their attack, by an unwilling compliment to his
poetical powers:

But Amiel[434] had, alas! the fate to hear
An angry poet play his chronicler;
A poet raised above Oblivion's shade,
By his recorded verse immortal made.
But, sir, his livelier figure to engrave,
With branches added to the _bays_ you gave,
No muse could more heroic feats rehearse;
Had with an equal all-applauding verse,
Great David's sceptre, and Saul's javelin, praised,
A pyramid to his saint, Interest, raised:
For which, religiously, no change he mist, }
From commonwealth's man up to royalist; }
Nay, would have been his own loathed thing, called priest; }
Priest, which with so much gall he does describe,
'Cause once unworthy thought of Levi's tribe.
Near those bright towers, where Art has wonders done, }
And at his feet proud Jordan's waters run, }
Where David's sight glads the blest summer's sun, }
A cell there stands, by pious founders raised,
Both for its wealth and learned rabbins praised;
To this did an ambitious bard aspire.
To be no less than lord of that blest choir;
Till wisdom deemed so sacred a command
A prize too great for his unhallowed hand.
Besides, lewd Fame had told his plighted vow
To Laura's cooing love, perched on a drooping bough;
Laura, in faithful constancy confined
To Ethiop's envoy, and to all mankind;
Laura, though rotten, yet of mould divine,
He had all her ----, and she had all his coin;
Her wit so far his purse and sense could drain.
Till every ---- was sweetened to a strain;
And if at last his nature can reform,
As weary grown of love's tumultuous storm.
'Tis age's fault, not his, of power bereft,--
He left not whoring, but of that was left.

Settle's end was utterly inglorious. In 1683, he deserted the cause
of the Whigs, and returned to that of the Tories; for whom he wrote
several periodical tracts, in one of which, entitled, "A Narrative," he
accused his old patron Shaftesbury of correcting the famous "Character
of a Popish Successor;" and objecting, that it did not speak favourably
enough of rebellion. [435] Whether compelled by poverty, or through
zeal for the royal cause, he became a trooper in King James's army,
when it was encamped on Hounslow-Heath. [436] Finally, he took the
prophetic hint conveyed in Dryden's lines, and became, not indeed the
master, but the assistant, to a puppet-show, kept by a Mrs Minns, in
Bartholomew-fair. Thus, the expression, which Dryden had chiefly used
in contemptuous allusion to the share which Settle had in directing the
Pope-burning, and the fire-works which accompanied it, was literally
fulfilled. [437] Nay, poor Elkanah, in his old age, was at length
obliged not only to write for the puppet-show, but to appear in it as
a performer, inclosed in a case representing a green dragon of his own
proper device. There are few readers, who need to be reminded of Pope's
famous lines,--

Yet lo! in me what authors have to brag on!
Reduced at last to hiss in my own dragon.
Avert it, heaven! that thou, my Cibber, e'er
Should'st wag a serpent-tail in Smithfield fair!

In the close of life, this veteran scribbler found admission to the
Charter-house; and in that hospital, in the year 1724, died the rival
of Dryden.

In person, Elkanah Settle was tall, red-faced, and wore a satin cap
over his short black hair.


Note XVI.

_Now stop your noses, readers, all and some,
For here's a tun of midnight-work to come,
Og from a treason-tavern rolling home. _--P. 333.

Our author had very shortly before the publication of the second part
of "Absalom and Achitophel," made his enemy, Shadwell, the subject of
a separate and cutting personal satire, called "Mac Flecnoe. " That
poem, as we have noticed in the introductory remarks, has reference
principally to the literary character of his adversary; while, in the
lines which follow, he considers him chiefly as a political writer, and
factionary of the popular party. Shadwell's corpulence, his coarse and
brutal debauchery, his harsh and clumsy style of poetry, fell under
the lash on both occasions; and it is astonishing, with what a burning
variety of colours these qualities are represented. The history of his
literary disputes with Dryden may be perused in the introduction to
"Mac Flecnoe. " In the "Vindication of the Duke of Guise," Dryden has
also given a severe flagellation to his corpulent adversary, in which
he says, "that although Shadwell has often called him an atheist in
print, he believes more charitably of his antagonist, and that he only
goes the broad way, because the other is too narrow for him. "

Besides avenging abundance of personal abuse, Dryden, in the person of
Shadwell, chastises a great supporter of the Whig cause and principles.
Shadwell himself complains, that, in the days of Charles and James,
he "was silenced for a non-conformist poet. " He was the chief among
the "corrector-men," as the authors and publishers of the Whig party
were oddly entitled;[438] and received the reward of his principles
at the Revolution, succeeding, as is well known, our author in the
office of poet laureat. In the epilogue to the "Volunteers," a play of
Shadwell's, acted after his death, the friends of the Revolution are
called upon to applaud their favourite bard's last production:

Crown you his last performance with applause,
Who love, like him, our liberties and laws;
Let but the honest party do him right,
And their loud claps will give him fame, in spite
Of the faint hiss of grumbling Jacobite.


Note XVII.

_These, gloomy, thoughtful, and on mischief bent;
While those for mere good fellowship frequent
The appointed club, can let sedition pass,
Sense, nonsense, any thing to employ the glass. _--P. 335.

The reader will find some account of the King's Head Club, Vol. VII.
p. 154. North gives the following lively account of the _vulgar_, as
he calls them, of the popular faction. Their employ, according to him,
was, "to run about whispering here and there, by which management they
kept up the spirits of their fools, whose fire, without a continual
_pabulum_ of fresh news, talks, and hopes, would go out. Amongst these,
the cues and hints went about; honest, drunken, lying fellows, good
company, and always dear friends. A nod, with a wink, had a notable
signification, if it followed, 'Have patience, you shall see. '--'I
know somewhat extraordinary will be done shortly and soon, which
will secure all on our side. ' And thus passively wicked were these
underlings, or fry of the party: they knew of the intrigue no more,
and were concerned as the wood of drums and the brass of trumpets are
in the war. "[439]--"The pastime of this meeting, called the Club, was
very engaging to young gentlemen, and one, who had once tasted the
conversation, could scarcely ever quit it. For some or others were
continually coming and going, to import or export news or stories, as
the trade required and afforded. There it was known in half an hour,
what any member said at the committee of elections, or in the house,
if it sat late. And every post carried the news and tales legitimated
there, as also the malign constructions of all the good actions of
the government, especially to places where elections were depending
to shape men's characters into fit qualifications to be chosen or
rejected. The Pope himself could not make saints so readily as they
Papists, and so half-three-quarter Papists, as belief was prompt
or difficult. And a lewd atheistical fellow was as readily washed
clean, and made a zealous Protestant. For that genus of perfection
was not wanted in this dispensation, where no vice, immorality,
heresy, atheism, or blasphemous wit, had not professors ready to
embrace willing disciples, who, for the sake of such sublimities of
wit and sense as they were accounted, were ready to prostitute all
principles of duty, and especially those that regarded allegiance to
the crown. "[440]

The well-known distinction of this famous club was a green ribband: in
opposition to which, the Tories wore in their hats a scarlet ribband,
with the motto, _Rex et Hæredes_. The prologue to "Anna Bullen" very
sensibly expostulates against these party badges:

Was't not enough, vain men, of either side,
Two roses once the nation did divide;
But must it be in danger now agen,
Betwixt the scarlet and green ribbon men?


Note XVIII.

_But in the sacred annals of our plot,
Industrious Arod never be forgot;
The labours of this midnight magistrate
May vie with Corah's, to preserve the state. _--P. 335.

Sir William Waller, son of the parliamentary general of the same
name, distinguished himself during the time of the Popish plot, by
an uncommon decree of bustling activity. He was a justice of peace;
and, unawed by the supposed fate of his brother in the commission,
and in knighthood, Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, he stood forth the bold
investigator of this bottomless conspiracy. It was he who had the
fortune, by the assistance of Captain Dangerfield, to detect what was
called the Meal-Tub Plot, which that fellow, who had been trafficking
with both factions, and probably meant to cheat both, chose to
represent as a sham conspiracy, contrived to ruin Shaftesbury and
his friends. Upon this occasion, Sir William had much closeting with
a magnanimous midwife, called Mrs Cellier, whom Dangerfield charged
as an agent of the court, and who afterwards alleged, that the
knight took some uncommon means to extort confessions from her. Sir
William Waller was also the person who discovered Fitzharris's Plot;
and he intimated, that the king, who intended to turn it upon the
Protestants, was so much displeased with his blowing up the project,
that he threatened to have him assassinated. The Tories alleged, that
the pleasure of making these discoveries was not Sir William's sole
reward, any more than zeal was his only motive for gutting the Popish
chapels. "In which," says North, "he proceeded with such scandalous
rigour, as to bring forth the pictures and other furniture of great
value, and burn them publicly; which gave occasion to suspect, and some
said positively, that, under this pretence, he kept good things for
himself; in a word, he was called the priest-catcher. "[441] Anthony
Wood joins in the accusation of his rifling the Papists' houses of
goods, and appropriating chapel ornaments as popish trinkets. I find
that respectable person, Miles Prance, the witness, enters into a
solemn vindication of the justice, from the practices alleged by North,
Wood, and by the poet. "Another damnable scandal they have broached,
which, though it be principally levelled at Sir William Waller, as
if he, under pretence of searching for priests, and seizing popish
trinkets, should take away money, plate, and other things of value
from the owners, and necklaces of pearl for beads; yet, since I very
frequently went along with him, it does obliquely reflect upon me, and
I cannot but do that worthy gentleman the right to justify him against
such a most false, groundless, and malicious slander: I do therefore
declare, in the presence of God, and shall be ready to attest upon
oath, that whensoever I attended him in searches, which was almost
every day, I could never discover in him the least inclination to any
such base practices; but that, to the contrary, he behaved himself as a
good Christian and just magistrate; for, wherever we came, what money
we found was left in the owner's possession; and as for chalices, and
pieces of plate belonging to priests, and used in their mass, or for
keeping of holy oil, we did indeed batter or break them to pieces, but
always returned all the pieces to the proprietors. But their copes and
priestly vestments, superstitious pictures, habits of monks belonging
to their peculiar orders, and such like trumpery, we did sometimes take
away, and cause them to be publicly burned, never making any advantage
thereof. And as to any necklaces of pearl, reported to be by him taken
away, I am more than confident the same is as arrand a lie, as that he
thought one Bedingfield, whom he took at Newark, to have been the same
Bedingfield, who died in the Gatehouse; for he well knew it was another
man. "[442] Prance confirms this attestation by a special case, in which
Sir William returned to a priest, not only his money, but a silver
tobacco-box. [443]

Derrick mentions Sir William standing candidate, in 1679, to be a
member of Parliament, in which he failed; and adds, that the publicans,
who trusted him, found much ado to get their money. When the court
party gained an ascendance, Sir William Waller was first struck out
of the commission, and afterwards committed to prison, to the great
triumph of the Tories. [444] He afterwards went to Holland, and with
Robert Ferguson and Bethel is specially excepted from the general
pardon granted after Monmouth's defeat. RALPH, Vol. I. p. 918.


Note XIX.

_Who for their own defence give no supply,
But what the crown's prerogatives must buy;
As if their monarch's rights to violate
More needful were, than to preserve the state! _--P. 336.

The Whigs of those days had constant recourse to the desperate remedy
of refusing supplies, when dissatisfied with the court. This ultimate
measure ought only to be adopted in cases of extremity; because the
want of means to maintain the usual current expences for the law, and
the defence of the country, gives a perilous shock to the whole system
of government. At that time, however, it was held so effectual a check,
and so necessary, that the Whig citizens, in a paper of instructions
furnished to their representatives in 1680-1, having thanked them for
their good service, more especially for their zeal for the Exclusion
Bill, proceed to recommend, "that they would still literally pursue
the same measures, and grant no supplies to the crown, till they saw
themselves effectually secured from popery and arbitrary power. "


Note XX.

_His absence David does with tears advise,
To appease their rage; undaunted he complies. _--P. 337.

In 1678-9, when the plot hung like a comet over England, the king
thought it necessary to assent to the counsel of the Earl of Danby,
and request the Duke of York to give way to the storm, and silence
the popular clamour, by retreating for a season to the Continent. The
Duke requested a particular order, lest it should be supposed he fled
from a consciousness of guilt. The order was in these words: "I have
already given you my resolution at large, why I think it fit that you
absent yourself some time beyond the seas. As I am truly sorry for
the occasion, so you may be sure I shall never desire it longer than
it may be absolutely necessary for your good and my service. In the
meantime, I think proper to give it you under my hand, that I expect
this compliance from you, and desire it may be as soon as conveniently
you can. You may easily perceive with what trouble I write this to you,
there being nothing I am more sensible of than the kindness you have
ever had for me. I hope you are as just to me, as to be assured, that
no absence, nor any thing else, can ever change me from being truly and
kindly yours, C. R. February 28th 1678-9. " Superscribed, "For my most
dear friend the Duke of York. "

Authors differ concerning the "store of parting tears," which were shed
on the separation of the royal brothers. Burnet says, that the duke
wept much, but the king did not seem affected. Others affirm, that both
brothers testified much emotion. The duke retired to Brussels, where he
remained till the time of the king's illness, so often mentioned.


Note XXI.

_Dissembled patriots, bribed with Egypt's gold,
Even sanhedrims in blind obedience hold.