volence which constitutes the highest perfection

of the human character.

Measures.

The first act passed by the new parliament Change of pronounced every person who dared to affirm the king to be a papist, incapable of holding any employment in church or state-a measure which obviously tended to increase the suspicions already entertained respecting this point. The bishops, who had been previously restored to their spiritual functions by virtue of the royal prerogative exercised under color of the act of supremacy, were now admitted to their former stations in parliament, from which they had been so long excluded. The power of the sword, which had been the immediate cause of the civil war, was solemnly relinquished, and the doctrine of nonresistance explicitly avowed. The crown was invested with a power of regulating, or rather of new-modelling, all the corporations throughout the kingdom, at pleasure; and all magistrates were obliged to declare, that it was not lawful upon any pretence whatever, to take up arms against the crown. All these different measures, however, were but so many preludes to the famous act of uniformity, which took place in the same session; and which fell like a thunderbolt on the devoted heads of the presbyterian party, i. e, upon a class of men who constituted at this period at least one half of the nation.

Act of Uni

formity.

To exhibit this act in its proper colors, it must be remembered, that the convention parliament which restored the king was composed chiefly of presbyterians; and that their generosity had so far exceeded the limits of discretion, as to induce them to rely with unsuspecting confidence upon the royal declaration from Breda, in which they were flattered with the prospect of a general amnesty and liberty of conscience; and to reject the advice of the more sagacious members of that assembly, who were of opinion that specific conditions should be offered to the king, who, in that critical situation of his affairs, would gladly have acquiesced in whatever terms had been proposed. By the act of uniformity, however, the church was not only re-established in all her pristine rights, but the terms of conformity were made still more rigorous than in any former period, with the express view of excluding all of the presbyterian denomination from the national communion; in consequence of which, about two thousand of the beneficed clergy voluntarily relinquished their preferments on Bartholomew1662. day 1662, when the act of uniformity, by a refinement of cruelty, was to take place, in order to prevent those who should resign their livings from reaping any advantage from the tythes of the preceding year. After making every allowance for that mixture of adventitious motives by

which, in such situations, human nature will be ever in some degree actuated, this must certainly be regarded as an astonishing sacrifice of temporal interest to integrity and conscience, and as exhibiting a striking proof of the deep impression which the Christian religion is capable of making on the heart. But when we examine minutely into the reasons upon which this magnanimous secession was founded, we cannot but stand ainazed at their extreme frivolousness and futility; and our admiration is almost annihilated by contempt. The leaders of the presbyterians, who were many of them men of great learning and abilities, did not object to a national establishment, as such; they were far even from professing to disapprove of the government of the church by bishops; to the theological system contained in the thirty-nine articles they were very strongly attached; and the use of a public formulary of worship they generally regarded not only as lawful but expedient. To what then did they object? To submit to re-ordination, by which the validity of the prior ordination by a presbytery would virtually be impugned. They could not in conscience consent to kneel at the sacrament of the Lord's supper; nor could they make use of the sign of the cross in baptism, nor prevail upon themselves to bow at the name of Jesus; nor would they countenance the su

Marriage of the King.

perstitions of the Romish church by wearing the ecclesiastical vestments, which they reckoned amongst the detestable abominations of that mother of harlots. It is difficult to determine, whether a greater degree of bigotry was discoverable in insisting upon these petty observances ast terms of communion, or in rejecting them as anti-christian and unlawful. This, however, is certain, that Clarendon, who was now possessed

of absolute authority, must have drank deep into the spirit of Laud, to have urged a measure which had a direct tendency to alienate the minds of half the nation from the king's person and government, which plunged a great number of worthy and conscientious men into the depths of indigence and distress, and which laid an extensive foundation for a schism, which still subsists, and which has been productive of very pernicious consequences. Though it must be acknowledged, that much good has likewise resulted from it, but of such a nature, that the faintest idea of it could never enter within the narrow views of that honest but mistaken minister.

In the summer of 1662, the inauspicious marriage of the king with Catharine infanta of Portugal was concluded, The conduct of the chancellor respecting this important event discovers rather acquiescence than approbation. The mischievous effects of a catholic alliance were surely

A

sufficiently obvious by the example of the former reign; and how the interests of this kingdom could be promoted by establishing the independency of Portugal, which was the great political consequence to be expected from this union, it were not easy to demonstrate. Spain was already sunk much too low in the scale of power; and nothing could more effectually contribute to confirm the dangerous ascendency recently acquired by France, than this violent dismemberment of her empire.

Dunkirk

In the same year a transaction took place, Sale of which has usually been represented as highly scandalous, and even criminal, the sale of Dunkirk. But it must be remembered, that the revenue of the crown was at this period very narrow, and the expence of maintaining Dunkirk disproportionately great, compared either with the amount of the revenue or the advantage arising from the possession. The diminution of the national honor by the sale of the place was therefore the only reasonable objection to which it was liable. Under the false and visionary idea, that essential benefits are to be derived from the possession of fortresses in foreign kingdoms, Calais, Dunkirk, Tangier, Port Mahon, and Gibraltar, have successively been occupied at an immense expence of blood and treasure; and the obstinate and unjust retention of the last of these places