The Power of James at the Height--His Foreign Policy--His Plans of Domestic Government; the Habeas Corpus Act--The Standing Army--Designs in favour of the Roman Catholic Religion--Violation of the Test Act--Disgrace of Halifax; general Discontent--Persecution of the French Huguenots--Effect of that Persecution in England--Meeting of Parliament; Speech of the King; an Opposition formed in the House of Commons--Sentiments of Foreign Governments--Committee of the Commons on the King's Speech--Defeat of the Government--Second Defeat of the Government; the King reprimands the Commons--Coke committed by the Commons for Disrespect to the King--Opposition to the Government in the Lords; the Earl of Devonshire--The Bishop of London--Viscount Mordaunt--Prorogation--Trials of Lord Gerard and of Hampden--Trial of Delamere--Effect of his Acquittal--Parties in the Court;Feeling of the Protestant Tories--Publication of Papers found in the Strong Box of Charles II.--Feeling of the respectable Roman Catholics--Cabal of violent Roman Catholics; Castlemaine--Jermyn;White; Tyrconnel--Feeling of the Ministers of Foreign Governments--The Pope and the Order of Jesus opposed to each other--The Order of Jesus--Father Petre--The King's Temper and Opinions--The King encouraged in his Errors by Sunderland--Perfidy of Jeffreys--Godolphin; the Queen; Amours of the King--Catharine Sedley--Intrigues of Rochester in favour of Catharine Sedley--Decline of Rochester's Influence--Castelmaine sent to Rome; the Huguenots illtreated by James--The Dispensing Power--Dismission of Refractory Judges--Case of Sir Edward Hales--Roman Catholics authorised to hold Ecclesiastical Benefices;--Sclater;Walker--The Deanery of Christchurch given to a Roman Catholic--Disposal of Bishoprics--Resolution of James to use his Ecclesiastical Supremacy against the Church--His Difficulties--He creates a new Court of High Commission--Proceedings against the Bishop of London--Discontent excited by the Public Display of Roman Catholic--Rites and Vestments--Riots--A Camp formed at Hounslow--Samuel Johnson--Hugh Speke--Proceedings against Johnson--Zeal of the Anglican Clergy against Popery--The Roman Catholic Divines overmatched--State of Scotland--Queensberry--Perth and Melfort--Favour shown to the Roman Catholic Religion in Scotland--Riots at Edinburgh--Anger of the King; his Plans concerning Scotland--Deputation of Scotch Privy Councillors sent to London--Their Negotiations with the King --Meeting of the Scotch Estates; they prove refractory--They are adjourned;arbitrary System of Government in Scotland--Ireland--State of the Law on the Subject of Religion--Hostility of Races--Aboriginal Peasantry; aboriginal Aristocracy--State of the English Colony--Course which James ought to have followed--His Errors--Clarendon arrives in Ireland as Lord Lieutenant--His Mortifications; Panic among the Colonists--Arrival of Tyrconnel at Dublin as General;his Partiality and Violence--He is bent on the Repeal of the Act of Settlement; he returns to England--The King displeased with Clarendon--Rochester attacked by the Jesuitical Cabal--Attempts of James to convert Rochester--Dismission of Rochester--Dismission of Clarendon; Tyrconnel Lord Deputy--Dismay of the English Colonists in Ireland--Effect of the Fall of the Hydes JAMES was now at the height of power and prosperity. Both in England and in Scotland he had vanquished his enemies, and had punished them with a severity which had indeed excited their bitterest hatred, but had, at the same time, effectually quelled their courage. The Whig party seemed extinct. The name of Whig was never used except as a term of reproach. The Parliament was devoted to the King; and it was in his power to keep that Parliament to the end of his reign. The Church was louder than ever in professions of attachment to him, and had, during the late insurrection, acted up to those professions. The Judges were his tools; and if they ceased to be so, it was in his power to remove them. The corporations were filled with his creatures. His revenues far exceeded those of his predecessors. His pride rose high. He was not the same man who, a few months before, in doubt whether his throne might not be overturned in a hour, had implored foreign help with unkingly supplications, and had accepted it with tears of gratitude. Visions of dominion and glory rose before him. He already saw himself, in imagination, the umpire of Europe, the champion of many states oppressed by one too powerful monarchy. So early as the month of June he had assured the United Provinces that, as soon as the affairs of England were settled, he would show the world how little he feared France. In conformity with these assurances, he, within a month after the battle of Sedgemoor, concluded with the States General a defensive treaty, framed in the very spirit of the Triple League. It was regarded, both at the Hague and at Versailles, as a most significant circumstance that Halifax, who was the constant and mortal enemy of French ascendency, and who had scarcely ever before been consulted on any grave affair since the beginning of the reign, took the lead on this occasion, and seemed to have the royal ear. It was a circumstance not less significant that no previous communication was made to Barillon.
Both he and his master were taken by surprise. Lewis was much troubled, and expressed great, and not unreasonable, anxiety as to the ulterior designs of the prince who had lately been his pensioner and vassal. There were strong rumours that William of Orange was busied in organizing a great confederacy, which was to include both branches of the House of Austria, the United Provinces, the kingdom of Sweden, and the electorate of Brandenburg. It now seemed that this confederacy would have at its head the King and Parliament of England.
