The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume I Part 30

[Footnote 233: The chief sources of information concerning Jeffreys are the State Trials and North's Life of Lord Guildford. Some touches of minor importance I owe to contemporary pamphlets in verse and prose.

Such are the b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sizes the life and Death of George Lord Jeffreys, the Panegyric on the late Lord Jeffreys, the Letter to the Lord Chancellor, Jeffreys's Elegy. See also Evelyn's Diary, Dec. 5, 1683, Oct. 31. 1685. I scarcely need advise every reader to consult Lord Campbell's excellent Life of Jeffreys.]

[Footnote 234: London Gazette, Feb. 12, 1684-5. North's Life of Guildford, 254.]

[Footnote 235: The chief authority for these transactions is Barillon's despatch of February 9-19, 1685. It will be found in the Appendix to Mr.

Fox's History. See also Preston's Letter to James, dated April 18-28, 1685, in Dalrymple.]

[Footnote 236: Lewis to Barillon, Feb. 16-26, 1685.]

[Footnote 237: Barillon, Feb. 16-26, 1685.]

[Footnote 238: Barillon, Feb. 18-28, 1685.]

[Footnote 239: Swift who hated Marlborough, and who was little disposed to allow any merit to those whom he hated, says, in the famous letter to Cra.s.sus, "You are no ill orator in the Senate."]

[Footnote 240: Dartmouth's note on Burnet, i. 264. Chesterfleld's Letters, Nov., 18, 1748. Chesterfield is an unexceptional witness; for the annuity was a charge on the estate of his grandfather, Halifax. I believe that there is no foundation for a disgraceful addition to the story which may be found in Pope:

"The gallant too, to whom she paid it down, Lived to refuse his mistress half a crown."

Curll calls this a piece of travelling scandal.]

[Footnote 241: Pope in Spence's Anecdotes.]

[Footnote 242: See the Historical Records of the first or Royal Dragoons. The appointment of Churchill to the command of this regiment was ridiculed as an instance of absurd partiality. One lampoon of that time which I do not remember to have seen in print, but of which a ma.n.u.script copy is in the British Museum, contains these lines:

"Let's cut our meat with spoons: The sense is as good As that Churchill should Be put to command the dragoons."]

[Footnote 243: Barillon, Feb. 16-26, 1685.]

[Footnote 244: Barillon, April 6-16; Lewis to Barillon, April 14-24.]

[Footnote 245: I might transcribe half Barillon's correspondence in proof of this proposition, but I will quote only one pa.s.sage, in which the policy of the French government towards England is exhibited concisely and with perfect clearness.---- "On peut tenir pour un maxime indubitable que l'accord du Roy d'Angleterre avec son parlement, en quelque maniere qu'il se fa.s.se, n'est pas conforme aux interets de V. M.

Je me contente de penser cela sane m'en ouvrir a personne, et je cache avec soin mes sentimens a cet egard."--Barillon to Lewis, Feb. 28,/Mar.

1687. That this was the real secret of the whole policy of Lewis towards our country was perfectly understood at Vienna. The Emperor Leopold wrote thus to James, March 30,/April 9, 1689: "Galli id unum agebant, ut, perpetuas inter Serenitatem vestram et ejusdem populos fovendo simultates, reliquae Christianae Europe tanto securius insultarent."]

[Footnote 246: "Que sea unido con su reyno, yen todo buena intelligencia con el parlamenyo." Despatch from the King of Spain to Don Pedro Ronquillo, March 16-26, 1685. This despatch is in the archives of Samancas, which contain a great ma.s.s of papers relating to English affairs. Copies of the most interesting of those papers are in the possession of M. Guizot, and were by him lent to me. It is with peculiar pleasure that at this time, I acknowledge this mark of the friends.h.i.+p of so great a man. (1848.)]

[Footnote 247: Few English readers will be desirous to go deep into the history of this quarrel. Summaries will be found in Cardinal Bausset's Life of Bossuet, and in Voltaire's Age of Lewis XIV.]

[Footnote 248: Burnet, i. 661, and Letter from Rome, Dodd's Church History, part viii. book i. art. 1.]

[Footnote 249: Consultations of the Spanish Council of State on April 2-12 and April 16-26, In the Archives of Simancas.]

[Footnote 250: Lewis to Barillon, May 22,/June 1, 1685; Burnet, i. 623.]

[Footnote 251: Life of James the Second, i. 5. Barillon, Feb. 19,/Mar.

1, 1685; Evelyn's Diary, March 5, 1685.]

[Footnote 252:

"To those that ask boons He swears by G.o.d's oons And chides them as if they came there to steal spoons."

Lamentable Lory, a ballad, 1684.]

[Footnote 253: Barillon, April 20-30. 1685.]

[Footnote 254: From Adda's despatch of Jan. 22,/Feb. 1, 1686, and from the expressions of the Pere d'Orleans (Histoire des Revolutions d'Angleterre, liv. xi.), it is clear that rigid Catholics thought the King's conduct indefensible.]

[Footnote 255: London Gazette, Gazette de France; Life of James the Second, ii. 10; History of the Coronation of King James the Second and Queen Mary, by Francis Sandford, Lancaster Herald, fol. 1687; Evelyn's Diary, May, 21, 1685; Despatch of the Dutch Amba.s.sadors, April 10-20, 1685; Burnet, i. 628; Eachard, iii. 734; A sermon preached before their Majesties King James the Second and Queen Mary at their Coronation in Westminster Abbey, April 23, 1695, by Francis Lord Bishop of Ely, and Lord Almoner. I have seen an Italian account of the Coronation which was published at Modena, and which is chiefly remarkable for the skill with which the writer sinks the fact that the prayers and psalms were in English, and that the Bishops were heretics.]

[Footnote 256: See the London Gazette during the months of February, March, and April, 1685.]

[Footnote 257: It would be easy to fill a volume with what Whig historians and pamphleteers have written on this subject. I will cite only one witness, a churchman and a Tory. "Elections," says Evelyn, "were thought to be very indecently carried on in most places. G.o.d give a better issue of it than some expect!" May 10, 1685. Again he says, "The truth is there were many of the new members whose elections and returns were universally condemned." May 22.]

[Footnote 258: This fact I learned from a newsletter in the library of the Royal Inst.i.tution. Van Citters mentions the strength of the Whig party in Bedfords.h.i.+re.]

[Footnote 259: Bramston's Memoirs.]

[Footnote 260: Reflections on a Remonstrance and Protestation of all the good Protestants of this Kingdom, 1689; Dialogue between Two Friends, 1689.]

[Footnote 261: Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Marquess of Wharton, 1715.]

[Footnote 262: See the Guardian, No. 67; an exquisite specimen of Addison's peculiar manner. It would be difficult to find in the works of any other writer such an instance of benevolence delicately flavoured with contempt.]

[Footnote 263: The Observator, April 4, 1685.]

[Footnote 264: Despatch of the Dutch Ambasadors, April 10-20, 1685.]

[Footnote 265: Burnet, i. 626.]

[Footnote 266: A faithful account of the Sickness, Death, and Burial of Captain Bedlow, 1680; Narrative of Lord Chief Justice North.]

[Footnote 267: Smith's Intrigues of the Popish Plot, 1685.]

[Footnote 268: Burnet, i. 439.]

[Footnote 269: See the proceedings in the Collection of State Trials.]

[Footnote 270: Evelyn's Diary, May 7, 1685.]

[Footnote 271: There remain many pictures of Oates. The most striking descriptions of his person are in North's Examen, 225, in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, and In a broadside ent.i.tled, A Hue and Cry after T. O.]

[Footnote 272: The proceedings will be found at length in the Collection of State Trials.]

[Footnote 273: Gazette de France May 29,/June 9, 1685.]

[Footnote 274: Despatch of the Dutch Amba.s.sadors, May 19-29, 1685.]

[Footnote 275: Evelyn's Diary, May 22, 1685; Eachard, iii. 741; Burnet, i. 637; Observator, May 27, 1685; Oates's Eikvn, 89; Eikwn Brotoloigon, 1697; Commons' Journals of May, June, and July, 1689; Tom Brown's advice to Dr. Oates. Some interesting circ.u.mstances are mentioned in a broadside, printed for A. Brooks, Charing Cross, 1685. I have seen contemporary French and Italian pamphlets containing the history of the trial and execution. A print of t.i.tus in the pillory was published at Milan, with the following curious inscription: "Questo e il naturale ritratto di t.i.to Otez, o vero Oatz, Inglese, posto in berlina, uno de'

princ.i.p.ali professor della religion protestante, acerrimo persecutore de' Cattolici, e gran spergiuro." I have also seen a Dutch engraving of his punishment, with some Latin verses, of which the following are a specimen: