which the following motions were instanly made in a tumultuous manner, That the alliance with France was a grievance; that the evil counsellors. of the king were grievance; that the duke of Lauderdale was a grievance; and then the house rose in great confusion. The king soon saw that he could expect no supply from the commons for carrying on the war, which was so odious to them; he resolved, therefore, to make a separate peace with the Dutch, on terms which they had proposed through the channel of the Spanish ambassador. For for sake, he asked the advice of his parliament, who concurring heartily in his intentions, a peace was concluded accordingly.

This turn in the system of the king's politics, was very pleasing to the nation in general; but the Cabal quickly saw that it would be the destruction of all their future attempts and power. Shaftesbury, therefore, was the first to desert them, and go over to the country party, who received him with open arms, and trusted him with unbounded reserve. Clifford was dead Buckingham was desirous of imitating Shaftesbury's example. Lauderdale and Arlington were exposed to all the effects of national resentment. Articles of impeachment were drawn up against the former, which, however, were never prosecuted; and as for the other, he every day grew more and more out of favour with the king, and contemptible to the people. This was an end of the power of a junto, that had laid a settled plan for overturning the constitution, and fixing unlimited monarchy upon

its ruins.

In the mean time, the war between A. D. the Dutch and the French went on with 1674. the greatest vigour; and although the

latter were repressed for a while, they still continued making encroachments upon the ene

mies territories. The Dutch forces were commanded by the prince of Orange, who was possessed of courage, activity, vigilance, and patience, but he was inferior in genius to those consummate generals opposed to him. He was, therefore, always unsuccessful; but still found means to repair his losses, and to make head in a little time against his victorious enemies. These ineffectual struggles for the preservation of his country's freedom,interested the English strongly in his favour; so that, from being his opposers, they now wished to lend him assistance. They considered their alliance with France as threatening a subversion of the protestant religion; and they longed for an union with him, as the only means of security. The commons, therefore, addressed the king, representing the danger to which the kingdom was exposed from the growing greatness of France; and they assured him,in case of a war, that they would not be backward in their supplies. Charles was not displeased with the latter part of their address, as money was necessary for his pleasures. He therefore told them, that unless they granted him six hundred thousand pounds, it would be impossible for him to give them a satisfactory answer. The commons refused to trust to his majesty professions; his well known profusion was before their eyes. The king reproved them for their diffidence, and immediately ordered them to

adjourn. The marriage of the duke of A. D. York's eldest daughter, the princess Mary, 1677. heir apparent to the crown, with the

prince of Orange, was a measure that gave great satisfaction in these general disquietudes about religion. The negociation was brought about by the king's own desire; and the protestants now saw an happy prospect before them of a succession that would be favourable to their much loved reformation

formation. A negociation for peace between the French and the Dutch followed soon after, which was rather favourable to the latter. But the mutual animosities of these states not being as yet sufficiently quelled, the war was continued for some time longer. The king,therefore,to satisfy his parliament, who declared loudly against the French, sent over an army of three thousand men to the continent, under the command of the duke of Monmouth, to secure Ostend. A fleet was also fitted out with great diligence; and a quadruple alliance was projected between England, Holland, Spain, and the Emperor. These vigorous mea-sures brought about the famous treaty of Nime

guen, which gave a general peace to EuA. D. rope. But though peace was secured 1678. abroad, the discontents of the people still continued at home.

CHAP.

THIS

CHAP. XXXVI.

CHARLES II. (Continued.)

HIS reign presents the most amazing contrasts oflevity and eredulity,ofmirth and gloomy suspicion. Ever since the fatal league with France, the people had entertained violent jealousies against the court. The fears and discontents of the nation were vented without restraint ; the apprehension of a popish successor, an abandoned court, and a parliament which though sometimes assertors of liberty, yet continuing seventeen years without change; these naturally rendered the minds of mankind timid and suspicious, and they only wanted objects on which to wreak their ill humour.

you

When the spirit of the English is once roused, they either find objects of suspicion or make them. On the twelfth of August, one Kirby, a chemist, accosted the king, as he was walking in the Park, "Sir, said he, keep within the company, your "enemies have a design upon your life, and "may be shot in this very walk." Being questioned in consequence of this strange intimation, he offered to produce one doctor Tongue, a weak credulous clergyman, who had told him that two persons, named Grove and Pickering, were engaged to murder the king; and that Sir George Wakeman, the queen's physician, had undertaken the same task by poison. Tongue was introduced to the king with a bundle of papers relating to this pretended conspiracy, and was referred to the lord treasurer Danby. He there declared that the papers were thrust under his door; and he afterwards declared, that he knew the author of them,

who

desired that his name might be concealed, as he dreaded the resentment of the Jesuits.

This information appeared so vague and unsatisfactory, that the king concluded the whole was a fiction. However Tongue was not to be repressed in the ardour of his loyalty; he went again to the lord treasurer, and told him, that a pacquet of letters, written by Jesuits concerned in the plot, was that night to be put into the post-house for Windsor, directed to one Bedingfield, a Jesuit, who was confessor to the duke of York, and who resided there. These letters had actually been received a few hours before by the duke; but he had shewn them to the king as a forgery, of which he neither knew the drift nor the meaning. This incident still farther confirmed the king in his incredulity. He desired, however, that it might be concealed, as it might raise a flame in the nation; but the duke, solicitous to prove his innocence, insisted upon a nicer discussion, which turned out very different from his expectations.

Titus Oates, who was the fountain of all this dreadful intelligence, was produced soon after, who with seeming reluctance, came to give his intelligence. This mau affirmed that he had fallen under the suspicion of the Jesuits, and that he had concealed himself, in order to avoid their resentment. This Titus Oates was an abandoned miscreant, obscure, illiterate, vulgar, and indigent. He had been once indicted for perjury, and afterwards chaplain on board a man of war, and dis missed for unnatural practices. He then professed himself a Roman catholic, and crossed the sea at St. Omer's, where he was for some time maintained in the English seminary of that city. The fathers of that college sent him with some dispatches to Spain; but after his return, when they be· came better acquainted with his character, they would