This plot was greedily adopted as an engine against the court, by the popular party ; more, it may be believ ed, from blind credulity, than from deliberate injustice ; yet the proceedings that were founded upon it were truly disgraceful. Coleman, father Ireland, Grove, Pickering, and other innocent men, suffered death for the supposed conspiracy, on the contradictory testimony of incredible witnesses, and after trials in which the judge and juries seemed to be the abettors of perjury. For two years, the Protestant credulity and vengeance were satiated from time to time with such legal murders, till the execution of the venerable Lord Strafford called forth sonic pity and remorse in the public mind. In the midst of these furious proceedings, the parliament, which had sat for 17 years, was dissolved. The suc ceeding one was actuated by the same immeasurable hatred of Popery on the one hand, which throws so much discredit on their judgment and charity; and, on the other hand, by a jealousy of the king's power, and a regard to the cause of civil liberty, which, though debased by its connection with baser prejudices in religion, was ultimately conducive to the greatest public good. It is to this parliament that we are indebted for the habeas Corpus act, the most important barrier that was ever raised against the personal oppression of the subject in a modern or ancient commonwealth. The standing army, and the king's guards, were in the same session voted to be illegal. 'But the inefficacy of mere laws in defence of the subject, when opposed to un principled administrations, had been so sensibly felt, that the commons justly deemed their work incom plete unless the duke of York were excluded from the succession to the crown. A bill, therefore, for the pur pose of excluding him was prepared, and passed the House of Commons ; but being vigorously resisted by the court, by the church, and by the Tories, it was lost in the House of Lords. The restrictions offered by the king to be put upon a Popish successor, are supposed to have been among the most powerful of those means to which he was indebted for success in opposing the bill. During these agitations, the duke of York, at the king's desire, had retired to Brussels ; but an indisposition of the king's brought him back to England, to be ready in case of any similar accident, to assert his right to the throne. After prevailing upon Charles to disgrace his natural son, the duke of Monmouth, who had become exceedingly popular, James retired to Scotland, under pretence of quieting the apprehensions of the English liation, but in reality to strengthen his interests in that part of the kingdom. This secession served still more to inflame the country party, who were strongly attached .to Monmouth, and were resolved to support him against the duke of York.
The milder administration in Scotland, which had taken place under Tweedale and Murray, was of short continuance. Lauderdale, at first the friend and as sociate in government of those Scottish patriots, and a favourer of the Presbyterians, abandoned the interests of his country and humanity, and his administration relaps ed into the same tyranny from which he had relieved The object of the court in sanctioning his oppres sions, was to make Scotland, in its state of servitude, an instrument to accomplish the servitude of England ; and it was an article in Charles's second treaty with the French monarch, to which Lauderdale was privy, that the Scotch army was to be brought to co-operate with the French troops for the establishment of Charles's absolute power. In proportion as the severities of
government increased, the field and armed conventicles of the Scottish Presbyterians grew more numerous. Yet it was not until these severities had been carried to the last extreme, it was not until the letters of inter communing " had been issued, that law-burrows f had been taken out by the king against his whole subjects ; and that 6000 lawless Highlanders had been let loose upon the low countries, which they filled with robberies, tortures, and outrage, in every shape. It was not, in fact, until an insurrection had been purposely excited by the government, that the persecuted conventicles had recourse to arms.
The conduct of Lauderdale, who was the chief actor in these scenes of violence, was completely approved and justified at court ; but in consequence, probably, of the state of politics in England, at the time when the Whigs were strongest in the House of Commons, some of the grievances were in part redressed, and the High landers and law-burrows were recalled ; but the per secution of conventicles continued, and indemnity was granted for every species of violence in suppressing them. After the assassination of Archbishop Sharpe by a troop of fanatics, who had been driven to madness by his oppressions, an act committed by a few individuals was imputed to the whole fanatic sect, (so the majority of the nation was called by government,) and those who attended field or armed conventicles were ordered to be indiscriminately massacred. A rising was at last pro duced in the west of Scotland, where the insurgents, though undisciplined peasants, defeated the infamous Graham of Claverhouse, afterwards Viscount Dundee, and took possession of Glasgow. The duke of Monmouth was sent with an army from England to subdue them ; but, lest the generous mildness of his nature should prevail, he had sealed orders, which he was not to open till in sight of the rebels, but to fall upon them with out previous negotiation. In pursuance of these orders, :Monmouth attacked them at Bothwell Bridge, where the Scottish peasants, headed only by their clergy, were soon defeated. Four hundred were killed in the field, and a body of 1200, who surrendered at discretion, were preserved from massacre by the humanity of Mon mouth.
During these troubles, the king had made a vain at tempt to obtain a little popularity, by removing a prince who was odious to so large a part of time community, and by sending his brother James out of the kingdom. In vain, also, had he attempted to break the opposite party, by making their leaders, Sunderland, Halifax, and Essex, his ministers, and by framing a new council, into which a still greater number of the popular party was brought, and at the head of which Shaftesbury himself was placed. Charles made those men his coun sellors, but he concealed from them his intentions, and his secret transactions with France, and gave his con fidence to an opposite party. The duke of York, though abroad, still exercised an influence which became para mount after an illness with which the king was seized ; on which occasion James returned, and persuaded his brother to send Monmouth into the same banishment from which he had himself returned. As the parliament of 1679 was as strongly in the popular interests as their predecessors, Charles determined to dissolve it, and to call another in 1680.