349. THE POPISH PLOT. (1678-79. HOWELL'S State Trials, ubi infra.) [Charles II had been restored to the throne in 1660. But the political antagonism between Protestants and Romanists continued. Extremists in each party hated and feared the other. Charles II was nominally a Church of England Protestant; but his brother and to-be successor, James II, then duke of York, was an avowed Romanist. Fanaticism and popular excitement would believe anything against the opponents. In 1678 the so-called Popish Plot was discovered, a plot by certain Jesuit priests and others to assassinate the king, massacre the Protestants, and burn London. The principal accused were Whitebread, Ireland, Harcourt, Langhorn, Wakeman, Grove, and Gavan. All were tried in 1678-1679, found guilty, and executed. The two principal witnesses against them were Titus Oates and William Bedlow, who became informers and recounted the various plans of the conspiracy, L. C. J. Thirteen and seven is twenty; then you went to Windsor about the 20th, it seems, and you say that eight days before you saw Mr. Ireland at his own house? S. Paine. Yes, my lord, about eight or nine days before that; I did see him at the door of his own house, which was a scrivener's in FetterLane. He was going into his own lodging. L. C. J. How long had you known him before that time? S. Paine. My lord, I knew him, for he came often to our house, when I lived at Mr. Grove's; he was the man that broke open the packet of letters that my master carried about afterwards, and he sealed all the packets that went beyond the seas. And he opened them still when the answers returned back again. Ireland. Now must all the people of my lodging come and witness that I was out of my lodging all August. is. L. C. J.- Call them. Ireland. Anne Ireland: Here she L. C. J.-Come, mistress, what can you say concerning your brother's being out of town in August? A. Ireland. My lord, on Saturday the 3d of August he set out to go into Staffordshire. L. C. J. How long did he con L. C. J. When was that? S. Paine. About a week before I went with my lord chamberlain to Windsor, which was a week after the king went thither. L. C. J. That must be about the 12th or 13th. Are you sure you saw him? S. Paine. - Yes, my lord, I am sure I saw him. L. C. J.-Do you know this maid, Mr. Ireland? Ireland. - I do not know her, my lord. L. C. J. She knows you by a very good token. You used to break open the letters at her master's house, and to seal them. S. Paine. He knows me very well, for I have carried several letters to him, that came from the carrier as well as those that came from beyond sea. L. C. J.-They will deny anything in the world. Ireland. I profess, I do not know her. Twenty people may come to me, and yet I not know them; and she, having been Mr. Grove's servant, may have brought me letters, and yet I do not remember her. But, my lord, here is my mother, Eleanor Ireland, that can testify the same. L. C. J.-Call her then. Eleanor Ireland. E. IreHere. Crier. land. your son went out of town? - He went out of town the 3d of August, towards Staffordshire. Ireland. My lord, there is Mr. Charles Gifford will prove that I was a week after the beginning of September and the latter end of August in Staffordshire. L. C. J. That will not do: for she says that she saw you in London about the 10th or 12th of August; and she makes it out by a circumstance, which is better evidence than if she had come and sworn the precise day wherein she saw him; for I should not have been satisfied unless she had given me a good account why she did know it to be such a day. She does it by circumstances by which we must calculate that she saw you about the 12th or 13th day. . . . You say you went out of town the 3d of August; who can swear you did not come back again? Ireland. — All the house can testify I did not come to my lodging. E. Ireland. - He went out of town the 3d of August, and did not return till a fortnight before Michaelmas. . . . Oates. My lord,. . . when we pretended to go into the country, we have gone and taken a chamber in the city, and have had frequent cabals at our chambers there. Mr. Ireland writ a letter as dated from St. Omers, when I took my leave of him at his own chamber, which was betwixt the 12th and 24th in London. He was there; and afterwards when I went to Fenwick's chamber he came thither; a fortnight or ten days at least, I am sure it was in August. L. C. J. - Here are three witnesses upon oath about this one thing.. Oates. Whereas he says, that the beginning of September he was in Staffordshire, he was in town the 1st of September, or 2d for then I had of him twenty shillings. 1 Ireland. This is a most false 1 This is the statement on which one of Oates' subsequent indictments for perjury was based. L. C. J.-Why did you go thither? Was that in your way? Ireland. - I went thither for the company of Sir John Southcot and his lady. L. C. J. How did you know that they went thither? Ireland. I understood they were to meet my lord Ashton and lady there. L. C. J. What, on Monday night? Ireland. Yes, my lord. Harrison. From whence I went with him to Tixwel, to my lord Ashton's house, there we were all with him. Ire L. C. J. Were not you at Wolverhampton with him? Harrison. No, my lord, I was not there, left him at West-Chester. land. My lord, I was at Wolverhampton with Mr. Charles Gifford, and here he is to attest it. L. C. J.-Well, sir, what say you? Gifford. My lord, I saw him there a day or two after St. Bartholomew's day, there he continued till the 9th of September; the 7th of September I saw him there, and I can bring twenty, and twenty more, that saw him there. Then, as he said, he was to go towards London, I came again thither on the 9th, and there I found him. And this is all I have to say. Ireland. My lord, there is one William Bowdrel, that will testify the same, if I might send for him. L. C. J.-Why haven't you him here? Ireland. She hath done what she can to bring as many as she could... We could have had them, if we had time. L. C. J.-Well, if you have any more to say, say it. Ireland. My lord, I have produced witnesses that prove what I have said. Oates. My lord, I do know that fore the testimony of one of the witday in September I speak of by a nesses cannot be true. And, to particular circumstance. prove this, he calls his mother, his sister, and Sir John Southcot's man, and Mr. Gifford. His mother and sister say expressly, that he went out of town the third of August, and the servant says, that he saw him at St. Albans the 5th of August, and continued in his company to the 16th (so that as to that, there is a testimony both against Mr. Bedlow and against Mr. Oates); and Mr. Gifford comes and says, he saw him at the latter end of August and beginning of September at Wolverhampton; whereas Mr. Oates hath sworn, he saw him the 12th of August, and the 1st or 2d of September, and tells it by a particular circumstance. Wherein, I must tell you, it is impossible that both sides should be true. But if it should be a mistake only in point of time, it destroys not the evidence, unless you think it necessary to the substance of the thing. If you charge one in the month of August to have done such a fact, if he deny that he was in that place at that time, and proves it by witnesses, it may go to invalidate the credibility of a man's testimony, but it does not invalidate the truth of the thing itself, which may be true in substance, though the circumstance of time differ. And the question is, whether the thing be true? Against this, the counsel of the king have three that swear it positively and expressly, that Ireland was here. Here is a young maid that knew him very well, and was acquainted with him, and with his breaking up of letters; and she is one that was Grove's servant: She comes and tells you directly, that about that time, which, by computation, was about the twelfth of August, she saw him go into his own house; which cannot be true, if that be true which is said on the other side; and she does swear it upon better circumstances than if she had barely pitched upon a day; for she must L. C. J.-I will tell you what you have proved, you have produced your sister and your mother and the servant of Southcot; they say you went out the third of August, and he gives an account you came to St. Albans on the 5th, and then there is another gentleman, Mr. Gifford, who says he saw you at Wolverhampton till about a week in September. Mr. Oates hath gainsaid him in that, so you have one witness against Mr. Oates for that circumstance. It cannot be true what Mr. Oates says, if you were there all that time, and it cannot be true what Mr. Gifford says, if you were in London then. And against your two witnesses, and the coachman, there are three witnesses, that swear the contrary, Mr. Oates, Mr. Bedlow, and the maid; so that if she and the other two be to be believed, here are three upon oath against your three upon bare affirmation. Then the Lord Chief Justice directed the jury thus: L. C. J. Gentlemen, you of the jury. It may seem hard, perhaps, to convict men upon the testimony of their fellow-offenders, and if it had been possible to have brought other witnesses, it had been well but, in things of this nature, you cannot expect that the witnesses should be absolutely spotless. . . . Ireland objects, that Bedlow charges him in August, when he was out of town all that time, and that there |