to the happiness of those around us, is, in itself, not only an engaging, but an estimable quality. His support of the Queen during the heats raised by the Popish plot, ought to be taken rather as a proof that he was not a monster, than to be ascribed to him as a merit; but his steadiness to his brother, though it may and ought, in a great measure, to be accounted for upon selfish principles, had at least a strong resemblance to virtue. The best part of this Prince's character seems to have been his kindness towards his mistresses, and his affection for his children, and others nearly connected to him by the ties of blood. His recommendation of the Dutchess of Portsmouth and Mrs. Gwyn, upon his death-bed, to his successor, is much to his honour; and they who censure it, seem, in their zeal to show themselves strict moralists, to have suffered their notions of vice and virtue to have fallen into strange confusion. Charles's connection with those ladies might be vicious, but at a moment when that connection was upon the point of being finally, and irrevocably dissolved, to concern himself about their future welfare, and to recommend them to his brother with earnest tenderness, was virtue. It is not for the interest of morality that the good and evil actions, even of bad men, should be confounded. His affection for the Duke of Gloucester, and for the Dutchess of Orleans, seems to have been sincere and cordial. To attribute, as some have done, his grief for the loss of the first to political considerations, founded upon an intended balance of power between his two brothers, would be an absurd refinement, whatever were his general disposition; but when we reflect upon that carelessness which, especially in his youth, was a conspicuous feature of his character, the absurdity becomes still more striking. And though Burnet more covertly, and Ludlow more openly, insinuate that his CHAP. I. CHAP. I. fondness for his sister was of a criminal nature, I never could find that there was any ground whatever for such a suspicion; nor does the little that remains of their epistolary correspondence give it the smallest countenance. Upon the whole, Charles the Second was a bad man, and a bad king: let us not palliate his crimes; but neither let us adopt false or doubtful imputations, for the purpose of making him a Monster. Reflections upon the probable consequen ces of his reign and death. Whoever reviews the interesting period which we have been discussing, upon the principle recommended in the outset of this chapter, will find, that, from the consideration of the past, to prognosticate the future, would, at the moment of Charles's demise, be no easy task. Between two persons, one of whom should expect that the country would remain sunk in slavery, the other, that the cause of freedom would revive and triumph, it would be difficult to decide, whose reasons were better supported, whose speculations the more probable. I should guess that he who desponded, had looked more at the state of the public, while he who was sanguine, had fixed his eyes more attentively upon the person who was about to mount the throne. Upon reviewing the two great parties of the nation, one observation occurs very forcibly, and that is, that the great strength of the Whigs consisted in their being able to brand their adversaries as favourers of Popery; that of the Tories, (as far as their strength depended upon opinion, and not merely upon the power of the crown,) in their finding colour to represent the Whigs as republicans. From this observation we may draw a further inference, that, in proportion to the rashness of the Crown, in avowing and pressing forward the cause of Popery, and to the moderation and steadiness of the Whigs, in adhering to the form of monarchy, would be the chance of the people of England, for changing an ignominious despotism, for glory, liberty, and happiness. CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF THE EARLY PART OF THE REIGN OF * Accession of James II..... His Declaration in Council :....Accepta "ble to the Nation.....Arbitrary Designs of his Reign.....Former "Ministers continued.....Money Transactions with France..... "Revenue levied without Authority of Parliament......Persecu"tion of Dissenters.....Character of Jefferies.....The King's Af"fectation of Independence.....Advances to the Prince of Orange..... The primary Object of this Reign.....Transactions "in Scotland....-Severe Persecutions there.....Scottish Parlia"ment.....Cruelties of Government.....English Parliament; Its Proceedings.....Revenue.....Votes concerning Religion......Bill "for Preservation of the King's Person.....Solicitude for the "Church of England.....Reversal of Stafford's Attainder reject❝ed.....Parliament adjourned.....Character of the Tories.....Situa"tion of the Whigs." 1685. Accession of James II. CHARLES the SECOND expired on the sixth of CHAP. II. February 1684-5, and on the same day his successor was proclaimed King in London, with the usual for malities, by the title of James the Second. The great Feb. 6th: influence which this prince was supposed to have pos sessed in the government, during the latter years of his brother's reign, and the expectation which was entertained, in consequence, that his measures, when monarch, would be of the same character and complexion with those which he was known to have highly approved, and of which he was thought by many to have been the principal author, when a subject, left little room for that spirit of speculation, which generally attends a demise of the Crown. And thus an event, which, when apprehended a few years before, Ꮐ CHAP. II. had, according to a strong expression of Sir William Temple, been looked upon as the end of the world, was now deemed to be of small comparitive impor 1685. First steps of his reign. His declara cil. tance. Its tendency, indeed, was rather to ensure perseverance than to effect any change in the system which had been of late years pursued. As there are, however, some steps indispensably necessary on the accession of a new prince to the throne, to these the public attention was directed, and, though the character of James had been long so generally understood, as to leave little doubt respecting the political maxims and principles by which his reign would be governed, there was probably much curiosity, as upon such occasions there always is, with regard to the conduct he would pursue in matters of less importance, and to the general language and behaviour which he would adopt in his new situation. His first step was, of course, to assemble the privy council, to whom he spoke as follows: "Before I enter upon any other business, I think tion in coun- « fit to say something to you. Since it hath pleased "Almighty God to place me in this situation, and I 66 am now to succeed so good and gracious a king, as "well as so very kind a brother, I think it fit to de"clare to you, that I will endeavour to follow his ex"ample, and most especially in that of his great cle“ mency and tenderness to his people. I have been 66 reported to be a man for arbitrary power; but that "is not the only story that has been made of me: and "I shall make it my endeavour to preserve this go"vernment, both in Church and State, as it is now by "law established. I know the principles of the Church "of England are for Monarchy, and the members of "it have shown themselves good and loyal subjects; "therefore I shall always take care to defend and "support it. I know too, that the laws of England are 68 1685. *sufficient to make the King as great a monarch as I CHAP. II. can wish; and as I shall never depart from the just "rights and prerogatives of the crown, so I shall 66 never invade any man's property. I have often "heretofore ventured my life in defence of this na“tion; and I shall go as far as any man in preserving "it in all its just rights and liberties."* to the nation. With this declaration the council were so highly Acceptable satisfied, that they supplicated his Majesty to make it public, which was accordingly done; and it is reported to have been received with unbounded applause by the greater part of the nation. Some, perhaps, there were, who did not think the boast of having ventured his life, very manly, and who, considering the transactions of the last years of Charles's reign, were not much encouraged by the promise of imitating that monarch in clemency and tenderness to his subjects. To these it might appear, that whatever there was of consolatory in the King's disclaimer of arbitrary power, and professed attachment to the laws, was totally done away, as well by the consideration of what his majesty's notions of power and law were, as by his declaration, that he would follow the example of a predecessor, whose government had not only been marked with the violation, in particular cases, of all the most sacred laws of the realm, but had latterly, by the disuse of parliaments in defiance of the statute of the sixteenth year of his reign, stood upon a foundation radically and fundamentally illegal. To others it might occur, that even the promise to the Church of England, though express with respect to the condition of it, which was no other than perfect acquiescence in what the King deemed to be the true principles of monarchy, was rather vague with regard to the nature, or degree of support to which the royal speaker might * Kennet, III. 420. |