第9章 Letter III(2)

King Charles,and more than him,the duke and the popish faction,were now at liberty to form new schemes;or rather to pursue old ones,with less reserve,against the religion and liberty of England.As soon as the famous cabal had the whole administration of affairs,these designs were pushed without any reserve at all.I am not writing the history of this reign;nor have I undertaken any thing more than to make a few observations on the several turns of parties in it.I need not therefore descend into particular proofs of the designs which I attribute to the court;nor into a deduction of the measures taken to promote them,and the efforts made to defeat them.That these designs were real,can be doubted of by no man;since without quoting many printed accounts,which are in the hands of every one,or insisting on other proofs,which have not seen the light,and such there are,the abbot Primi's relation of the secret negotiations between the King and his sister,the duchess of Orléans,published in 1682,as I think,and immediately suppressed,as well as the history of the Jesuit d'Orléans,written on memorials furnished to him by King James the Second,put the whole matter out of dispute,and even beyond the reach of cavil.It is sufficient for my purpose to observe,that the tide of party,which had run so strongly for the court,and had been seldom so much as slackened hitherto,began now to turn,and to run year after year more strongly the other way.

When this Parliament sat down,for it deserves our particular observation that both houses were full of zeal for the present government,and of resentment against the late usurpations,there was but one party in Parliament;and no other party could raise its head in the nation.This might have been the case much longer,probably as long as King Charles had sat on the throne,if the court had been a little honester,or a little wiser.No Parliament ever did more to gain their prince than this.They seemed for several years,to have nothing so much at heart as securing his government,advancing his prerogative,and filling his coffers.The grants they made him were such as passed for instances of profusion in those days;when one million two hundred thousand pounds a year for the civil list,the fleet,the guards and garrisons,and all the ordinary expenses of the government,was thought an exorbitant sum;how little a figure soever it would make in our times,when two thirds of that sum,at least,are appropriated to the use of the civil list singly.But all this was to no purpose:a foreign interest prevailed;a cabal governed;and sometimes the cabal,and sometimes a prime minister had more credit with the King than the whole body of his people.When the Parliament saw that they could not gain him over to his own,and to their common interest;nor prevail on him by connivance,compliance,and other gentle methods;they turned themselves to such as were rough,but agreeable to law and the custom of Parliament,as well as proportionable to the greatness of the exigency.That they lost their temper,on some particular occasions,must not be denied.They were men,and therefore frail:but their frailties of this kind proceeded from their love of their country.They were transported,when they found that their religion and liberty were constantly in danger from the intrigues of a popish faction;and they would have been so transported,no doubt,if liberty alone had been attacked by a Protestant faction.Then it was,that this High-Church Parliament grew favourable to Protestant Dissenters,and ready to make that just distinction,so long delayed between them and popish recusants,that the whole Protestant interest might unite in the common cause.Then it was,that this prerogative-Parliament defied prerogative,in defence of their own privileges,and of the liberties of their country.