The Parliament dissolved.] After passing the said Bill, his majesty made this short speech to

both houses:

My lords and gentlemen; I was in great hopes that this session would have produced" great good to the kingdom, and that it would have gone on unanimously for the good thereof, But to my great grief, I see there are such differences between the two houses, that I am afraid very ill effects will come of them. I know but one way of remedy for the present, assuring you, that, in the mean time, I shall show my sincerity with the same zeal I met you here. Therefore, my lord chancellor, I command you to do as I ordered you."

His lordship accordingly prorogued the parliament to the 14th of August. But before that day, it was dissolved by proclamation *. the said writ was granted; and before him to certify the true causes of his detainer and imprisonment, on the penalty of 100l. for the first offence, and 2001. and to be made incapable of holding his office, for the second: As also, under the like penalties, to grant the prisoner a true copy of the warrant of commitment and detainer, within six hours after demand. 2. To provide that no person shall be re-committed, for the same offence, after being enlarged by order of court, on the penalty of 5001. Also, 3. That if any judge, either in term-time, or vacation, refused any prisoner their Habeas Corpus, upon application, he should forfeit 500l. to the said prisoner. And 4. That no subject of this realm should be any longer liable to illegal imprisonments, in prisons beyond the seas.-Ferguson in his 'Growth of Popery,' with some bitterness, affirms, that this Bill met with great opposition from the lords; that it gave rise to several conferences between the two houses; and that, though it was far short of what it ought to have been, it was almost a miracle that their lordships suffered it to pass at all: And so much of truth there is in these assertions, that the committees of the two houses met several times upon it, without coming to any agreement; insomuch that the completing of the Bill was put off to the last hour of the sessions; and, even then, the commons were glad to admit of the lords' Amendments, that they might have the merit, and their fellow-subjects the benefit, of so useful a law." Ralph.

Shortly after the Dissolution a singular pamphlet made its, appearance, intitled, An Appeal from the Country to the City, for the preservation of his majesty's Person, Liberty, Property, and the Protestant Religion. For a copy of it see Appendix No. IX. "The impeachment of the five popish lords in the Tower, with that of the earl of Danby, was carried on with vigour. The power of this minister, and his credit with the king, rendered him extremely obnoxious to the popular leaders; and the commons hoped that, if he were pushed to extremity, he would be obliged, in order to justify his own conduct, to

PRINCIPAL OCCURRENCES AFTER THE DISSO-
LUTION--STATE OF THE MINISTRY--
MEAL-TUB PLOT-WHTG AND TORY.
"The general affection," says Mr. Hume,
borne the king, appeared signally about this
time. He fell sick at Windsor; and had two
or three fits of a fever, so violent as made his
life be thought in danger. A general conster-
nation seized all ranks of men, increased by
the apprehensions entertained of his successor.
In the present disposition of men's minds, the
king's death, to use an expression of sir William
Temple, was regarded as the end of the world.
The mal-contents, it was feared, would pro-
ceed to extremities, and immediately kindle a
civil war in the kingdom. Either their entire
success, or entire failure, or even the balance
and contest of parties, seemed all of them
events equally fatal. The king's chief coun-
sellors therefore, Essex, Halifax, and Sunder-
land, who stood on bad terms with Shaftesbury
and the popular party, advised him to send
secretly for the duke, that, in case of any
sinister accident, that prince might be ready to
assert his right against the opposition which he
was likely to meet with. When the duke
arrived, he found his brother out of danger;
and it was agreed to conceal the invitation
which Ire had received. (2d Sept.) His jour-
ney, however, was attended with important
consequences. He prevailed on the king to
disgrace Monmouth, whose projects were now
known and avowed; to deprive him of his
command in the army; and to send him be-
yond sea. He himself returned to Brussels;
but made a short stay in that place. He ob-
tained leave to retire to Scotland, under pre-
tence still of quieting the apprehensions of the
English nation; but in reality with a view of
securing that kingdom in his interests. Though
Essex and Halifax had concurred in the reso-
lution of inviting over the duke, they soon
found that they had not obtained his confi-
dence, and that even the king, while he made
use of their service, had no sincere regard for
their persons. Essex in disgust resigned the
treasury: Halifax retired to his country seat :
Temple, despairing of any accommodation
among such enraged parties, withdrew almost
entirely to his books and his gardens. The king,
who changed ministers as well as measures
with great indifference, bestowed at this time
the chief confidence on Hyde, Sunderland, and
Godolphin. Hyde succeeded Essex in the
treasury. All the king's ministers, as well as
himself, were extremely averse to the meeting
of the new parliament, which they expected to
find as refractory as any of the preceding.
The elections had gone mostly in favour of the

lay open the whole intrigue of the French al-
liance, which they suspected to contain a se-
cret of the most dangerous nature. The king,
on his part, apprehensive of the same conse-
quences, and desirous to protect his minister,
who was become criminal merely by obeying
orders, employed his whole interest to support

country party. The terrors of the plot had still a nighty influence over the populace; and the apprehensions of the duke's bigoted principles and arbitrary character weighed with men of sense and reflection. The king therefore resolved to prorogue the parliament, that he might try, whether time night allay those humours, which, by every other expedient, he had in vain attempted to mollify. In this measure he did not expect the concurrence of his council. He knew that those popular leaders, whom he had admitted, would zealousJy oppose a resolution, which disconcerted all their schemes; and that the royalists would not dare, by supporting it, to expose themselves to the vengeance of the parliament, when it should be assembled. These reasons obliged him to take this step entirely of himself; and he only declared his resolution in council. It is remarkable, that, though the king had made profession never to embrace any measure

without the advice of these counsellors, he had often broken that resolution, and had been necessitated, in affairs of the greatest cousequence, to control their opinion. Many of them in disgust threw up about this time; particularly lord Russel, the most popular man in the nation, as well from the mildness and integrity of his character, as from his zealous attachment to the religion and liberties of his country. Though carried into some excesses, his intentions were ever esteemed upright; and being heir to the greatest fortune in the kingdom, as well as void of ambition, men believed that nothing but the last necessity could ever engage him to embrace any desperate measures. Shaftesbury, who was, in most particulars, of an opposite character, was removed by the king from the office of president of the council; and the earl of Radnor, a man who possessed whimsical talents and splenetic virtues, was substituted in his place. It was the the validity of that pardon which had been pardon was merely a preliminary; and that, granted him. The lords appointed a day for neither by the canon law nor the practice of the examination of the question, and agreed to parliament, were they ever obliged, in capital hear council on both sides: But the commons cases, to withdraw till the very commencement would not submit their pretensions to the dis- of the trial itself. If their absence was consi cussion of argument and inquiry. They voted, dered as a privilege, which was its real origin, it that whoever should presume, without their depended on their own choice, how far they leave, to maintain before the house of peers the would insist upon it. If regarded as a dimine validity of Danby's pardon, should be account- tion of their right of peerage, such unfavour ed a betrayer of the liberties of the English able customs ought never to be extended commons. And they made a demand, that beyond the very circumstance established by the bishops, whom they knew to be devoted to them; and all arguments from a pretended the court, should be removed, not only when parity of reason, were in that case of little or the trial of the earl should commence, but also no authority. The house of lords were so when the validity of his pardon should be dis- much influenced by these reasons, that they cussed. The bishops before the reformation admitted the bishops' right to vote, when the had always enjoyed a seat in parliament: but validity of the pardon should be examined. so far were they anciently from regarding that The commons insisted still on their withdra dignity as a privilege, that they affected rather ing; and thus a quartel being commenced be to form a separate order in the state, indepen- tween the two houses, the king, who expected dent of the civil magistrate, and accountable nothing but fresh instances of violence from only to the pope and to their own order. By this parliament, began to entertain thoughts of the constitutions, however, of Clarendon, en- laying hold of so favourable a pretence, and of acted during the reign of Henry ii. they were finishing the session by a prorogation. While obliged to give their presence in parliamert; in this disposition, he was alarmed with sudden but as the canon law prohibited them from as- intelligence, that the house of commons was sisting in capital trials, they were allowed in preparing a remonstrance, in order to inflame such cases the privilege of absenting them- the nation still farther upon the favourite to selves. A practice, which was at first volun- pics of the plot and of popery (27th May). He tary, became afterwards a rule; and on the hastened, therefore, to execute his intention, earl of Strafford's trial, the bishops, who would even without consulting his new council, by gladly have attended, and who were no longer whose advice he had promised to regulate ba bound by the canon law, were yet obliged to whole conduct. And thus were disappointed withdraw. It had been usual for them to en- all the projects of the malcontents, who were ter a protest, asserting their right to sit; and extremely enraged at this vigorous measure of this protest, being considered as a mere form, the king's. Shaftesbury publicly threatened was always admitted and disregarded. But that he would have the head of whoever had here was started a new question of no small advised it. The parliament was soon after importance. The commons, who were now en-dissolved without advice of council; and w abled, by the violence of the people and the were issued for a new parliament (10th July' necessities of the crown, to make new acquisi- The king was willing to try every means which tions of powers and privileges, insisted that the gave a prospect of more compliance in his sub bishops had no more title to vote in the ques-jects; and in case of failure, the blame, he tion of the earl's pardon than in the impeach- hoped, would lie on those whose obstinacy ment itself. The bishops asserted that tl:e forced him to extremities." Hume.

tents in the last reign had attacked the crown: and though the manner of subscribing and delivering petitions was now somewhat regulated by act of parliament, the thing itself still remained; and was an admirable expedient for

and for uniting the nation in any popular clamour. As the king found no law, by which he could punish those importunate, and, as he deemed them, undutiful solicitations, he was obliged to encounter them by popular applications of a contrary tendency. Wherever the church and court party prevailed, addresses were framed, containing expressions of the highest regard to his majesty, the most entire acquiescence in his wisdom, the most dutiful submission to his prerogative, and the deepest abhorrence of those who endeavoured to encroach upon it, by prescribing to him any time for assembling the parliament. Thus the nation came to be distinguished into Petitioners and Abhorrers. Factions indeed were at this time extremely animated against each other. The very names, by which each party denominated its antagonist, discover the virulence and rancour which prevailed. For besides petitioner and abhorrer, appellations which were soon forgotten, this year is remarkable for being the epoch of the well-known epithets of Whig and Tory, by which, and sometimes without any material difference, this island has been so long divided. The court party reproached their antagonists with their affinity to the fanatical conventiclers in Scotland, who were known by the name of Whigs: the country party found a resemblance between the courtiers and the popish banditti in Ireland, to whom the appellation of Tory was affixed. And after this manner, these foolish terms of reproach came into public and general use; and even at present scem not nearer their end than when they were first invented.-' As the kingdom was regularly and openly divided into two zealous parties, it was not diffi cult for the king to know, that the majority

favour and countenance of the parliament, which had chiefly encouraged the rumour of plots; but the nation had gotten so much into that vein of credulity, and every necessitous villain was so much incited by the success of Oates and Bedloe, that, even during the proro-infesting the court, for spreading discontent, gation, the people were not allowed to remain in tranquillity. There was one Dangerfield, a fellow who had been burned in the hand for crimes, transported, whipped, pilloried four times, fined for cheats, out-lawed for felony, convicted of coining, and exposed to all the public infamy which the laws could inflict on the basest and most shameful enormities. The credulity of the people, and the humour of the times, enabled even this man to become a person of consequence. He was the author of a new incident, called the Meal-tub Plot, from the place where some papers, relating to it, were found. The bottom of this affair it is difficult, and not very material, to discover. It only appears, that Dangerfield, under pretence of betraying the conspiracies of the presbyterians, had been countenanced by some catholics of condition, and had even been admitted to the duke's presence and the king's: and that, under pretence of revealing new popish plots, he had obtained access to Shaftesbury, and some of the popular leaders. Which side he intended to cheat, is uncertain; or whether he did not rather mean to cheat both: but he soon found that the belief of the nation was more open to a popish than a presbyterian plot; and he resolved to strike in with the prevailing humour. Though no weight could be laid on his testimony, great clamour was raised; as if the court, by way of retaliation, had intended to load the presbyterians with the guilt of a false conspiracy. It must be confessed that the present period, by the prevalence and suspicion of such mean and ignoble arts on all sides, throws a great stain on the British annals. One of the most inuocent artifices practised by party men at this time, was the additional ceremony, pomp and expence, with which a pope-burning was cele-of the new house of commons was engaged in brated in London: (17th Nov.) The spectacle served to entertain, amuse, and inflame, the populace. The duke of Monmouth likewise came over without leave, and made a triumphant procession through many parts of the kingdom, extremely caressed and admired by the people. All these arts seemed requisite to support the general prejudices, during List of the House of Commons.] October 7, the long interval of parliament. Great endea 1679. The New Parliament met, but was Yours were also used to obtain the king's con- prorogued to the 17th, and then was adjournsent for the meeting of that assembly. (1680.)ed to the 30th. At last, after seven more Seventeen peers presented a petition to this prorogations, they met for the dispatch of bupurpose. Many of the corporations imitated siness on the 21st of Oct. 1680. The followthe example. Notwithstanding several inarksing is a List of the Members of the House of of displeasure, and even a menacing procia- Commons: mation from the king, petitions came from all parts, earnestly insisting on a session of parliament. The danger of popery, and the terrors of the plot, were never forgotten in any of these addresses. Tumultuous petitioning was

interests opposite to the court: but that he
might leave no expedient untried, which could
compose the unhappy differences among his
subjects, he resolved at last, after a very long
interval, to assemble the Parliament."
FIRST SESSION OF THE FOURTH PARLIAMENT
OF KING CHARLES II.

A LIST OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, IN
KING CHARLES THE SECOND'S FOURTH
PARLIAMENT, WHICH MET OCTOBER
21, 1680.
Abington,

one of the chief artifices by which the malcon- Sir John Stonehouse.
VOL. IV.
4 E

Agmondesham,

Sir Roger Hill,

Sir William Drake.

St. Albans,
Thomas Pope Blount,
Samuel Grimstone.
Aldborough, (Suffolk)
John Bence,
John Corrance.
Aldborough, (Yorkshire)
Sir Godfrey Copely,
Sir B. Stapleton.
Allerton, North,
Sir Gilbert Gerrard,
Sir Henry Calverly.
Andover,
Francis Powlet,
Sir Robert Henley.
Anglesea,
Richard Bulkley.
Appelby,
Richard Tufton,
Anthony Lowther.
Arundel,

William Garraway,
James Butler.
Ashburton,
Thomas Raynell,
Richard Duke.
Aylsbury,

Sir Richard Ingolsby,
Sir Thomas Lee.