The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume II Part 26

Another Roman Catholic treatise, ent.i.tled "The Church of England truly represented," begins by informing us that "the ignis fatuus of reformation, which had grown to a comet by many acts of spoil and rapine, had been ushered into England, purified of the filth which it had contracted among the lakes of the Alps."]

[Footnote 120: Barillon, July 19/29 1686.]

[Footnote 121: Act Parl. Aug. 24. 1560; Dec. 15. 1567.]

[Footnote 122: Act Parl. May 8. 1685.]

[Footnote 123: Act Parl. Aug. 31 1681.]

[Footnote 124: Burnet, i. 584.]

[Footnote 125: Ibid. i. 652, 653.]

[Footnote 126: Ibid. i. 678.]

[Footnote 127: Burnet, i. 653.]

[Footnote 128: Fountainhall, Jan. 28. 1685/6.]

[Footnote 129: Ibid. Jan. 11 1685/6.]

[Footnote 130: Fountainhall, Jan. 31. and Feb. 1. 1685/6.; Burnet, i.

678,; Trials of David Mowbray and Alexander Keith, in the Collection of State Trials; Bonrepaux, Feb. 11/21]

[Footnote 131: Lewis to Barillon, Feb. 18/28 1686.]

[Footnote 132: Fountainhall, Feb. 16.; Wodrow, book iii. chap. x. sec.

3. "We require," His Majesty graciously wrote, "that you spare no legal trial by torture or otherwise."]

[Footnote 133: Bonrepaux, Feb. 18/28 1686.]

[Footnote 134: Fountainhall, March 11. 1686; Adda, March 1/11]

[Footnote 135: This letter is dated March 4. 1686.]

[Footnote 136: Barillon, April 19/29 1686; Burnet, i. 370.]

[Footnote 137: The words are in a letter of Johnstone of Waristoun.]

[Footnote 138: Some words of Barillon deserve to be transcribed. They would alone suffice to decide a question which ignorance and party spirit have done much to perplex. "Cette liberte accordee aux nonconformistes a faite une grande difficulte, et a ete debattue pendant plusieurs jours. Le Roy d'Angleterre avoit fort envie que les Catholiques eussent seuls la liberte de l'exercice de leur religion."

April 19/29 1686.]

[Footnote 139: Barillon, April 19/29 1686 Citters, April 18/28 20/30 May 9/19]

[Footnote 140: Fountainhall, May 6. 1686.]

[Footnote 141: Ibid. June 15. 1686.]

[Footnote 142: Citters, May 11/21 1686. Citters informed the States that he had his intelligence from a sure hand. I will transcribe part of his narrative. It is an amusing specimen of the pyebald dialect in which the Dutch diplomatists of that age corresponded.

"Des konigs missive, boven en behalven den Hoog Commissaris aensprake, aen het parlement afgesonden, gelyck dat altoos gebruyckelyck is, waerby Syne Majesteyt ny in genere versocht hieft de mitigatie der rigoureuse ofte sanglante wetten von het Ryck jegens het Pausdom, in het Generale Comitee des Articles (soo men het daer naemt) na ordre gestelt en gelesen synde, in 't voteren, den Hertog van Hamilton onder anderen klaer uyt seyde dat hy daertoe niet soude verstaen, dat by anders genegen was den konig in allen voorval getrouw te dienen volgens het dictamen syner conscientie: 't gene reden gaf aen de Lord Cancelier de Grave Perts te seggen dat het woort conscientie niets en beduyde, en alleen een individuum vagum was, waerop der Chevalier Locqnard dan verder gingh; wil man niet verstaen de betyckenis van het woordt conscientie, soo sal ik in fortioribus seggen dat wy meynen volgens de fondamentale wetten van het ryck."

There is, in the Hind Let Loose, a curious pa.s.sage to which I should have given no credit, but for this despatch of Citters. "They cannot endure so much as to hear of the name of conscience. One that was well acquaint with the Council's humour in this point told a gentleman that was going before them, 'I beseech you, whatever you do, speak nothing of conscience before the Lords, for they cannot abide to hear that word.'"]

[Footnote 143: Fountainhall, May 17. 1686.]

[Footnote 144: Wodrow, III. x. 3.]

[Footnote 145: Citters, May 28/June 7, June 1/11 June 4/14 1686 Fountainhall June 15; ---- Luttrell's Diary, June 2. 16]

[Footnote 146: Fountainhall, June 21 1686.]

[Footnote 147: Ibid. September 16. 1686.]

[Footnote 148: Fountainhall, Sept. 16; Wodrow, III. x. 3.]

[Footnote 149: The provisions of the Irish Act of Supremacy, 2 Eliz.

chap. I., are substantially the same with those of the English Act of Supremacy, I Eliz. chap. I. hut the English act was soon found to be defective and the defect was supplied by a more stringent act, 5 Eliz. chap. I No such supplementary law was made in Ireland. That the construction mentioned in the text was put on the Irish Act of Supremacy, we are told by Archbishop King: State of Ireland, chap. ii.

sec. 9. He calls this construction Jesuitical but I cannot see it in that light.]

[Footnote 150: Political Anatomy of Ireland.]

[Footnote 151: Political Anatomy of Ireland, 1672; Irish Hudibras, 1689; John Dunton's Account of Ireland, 1699.]

[Footnote 152: Clarendon to Rochester, May 4. 1686.]

[Footnote 153: Bishop Malony's Letter to Bishop Tyrrel, March 5. 1689.]

[Footnote 154: Statute 10 & 11 Charles I. chap. 16; King's State of the Protestants of Ireland, chap. ii. sec. 8.]

[Footnote 155: King, chap. ii. sec. 8. Miss Edgeworth's King Corny belongs to a later and much more civilised generation; but whoever has studied that admirable portrait can form some notion of what King Corny's great grandfather must have been.]

[Footnote 156: King, chap. iii. sec. 2.]

[Footnote 157: Sheridan MS.; Preface to the first volume of the Hibernia Anglicana, 1690; Secret Consults of the Romish Party in Ireland, 1689.]

[Footnote 158: "There was a free liberty of conscience by connivance, though not by the law."--King, chap. iii. sec. i.]

[Footnote 159: In a letter to James found among Bishop Tyrrel's papers, and dated Aug. 14. 1686, are some remarkable expressions. "There are few or none Protestants in that country but such as are joined with the Whigs against the common enemy." And again: "Those that pa.s.sed for Tories here" (that is in England) "publicly espouse the Whig quarrel on the other side the water." Swift said the same thing to King William a few years later "I remember when I was last in England, I told the King that the highest Tories we had with us would make tolerable Whigs there."--Letters concerning the Sacramental Test.]

[Footnote 160: The wealth and negligence of the established clergy of Ireland are mentioned in the strongest terms by the Lord Lieutenant Clarendon, a most unexceptionable witness.]

[Footnote 161: Clarendon reminds the King of this in a letter dated March 14. "It certainly is," Clarendon adds, "a most true notion."]

[Footnote 162: Clarendon strongly recommended this course, and was of opinion that the Irish Parliament would do its part. See his letter to Ormond, Aug. 28. 1686.]

[Footnote 163: It was an O'Neill of great eminence who said that it did not become him to writhe his mouth to chatter English. Preface to the first volume of the Hibernia Anglicana.]