(397) CHAPTER VI. THE DUKE OF YORK QUITS THE KINGDOM-DANBY PARDONED BY VI. FROM the prorogation the lord treasurer derived CHAP. this important benefit; it suspended the proceedings A.D. 1679. against him, and afforded him a breathing-time to provide for his own security. His first care was to break the combination of his enemies by entering into a private treaty with some of the leaders; the Lord Holles in one house, and Lyttleton in the other, were induced to make to him, under certain conditions, a promise of neutrality, if not of support, on the question of impeachment; and the king by his advice dissolved the parliament, summoning at the same time Jan. 24. another to meet at the expiration of forty days. Never perhaps did a general election take place at a season of more intense excitement. The flame kindled in the capital had spread to the remotest corners of the country; and the minds of men were agitated by rumours and jealousies the most extraordinary and unfounded. They believed at the same time that the king was a party to the conspiracy, and that his death VI. CHAP. was one of the great objects of the conspirators; they A.D. 1679. suffered their judgments to be swayed by words instead of facts, but by words apparently of tremendous import, though without any definite meaning; and the candidates in the interest of the court were everywhere assailed with cries of the danger of Protestantism, and the bloody designs of the papists. The returns proved that the influence of the minister was no match for the phrensy of the people. His adherents were rejected with marks of infamy, and their places supplied with men breathing vengeance against the Catholics, and against an administration by which they believed that the Catholics were secretly supported.1 The unfavourable result of the elections suggested to Danby the necessity of some expedient to propitiate and disarm his opponents. They had failed to exclude the duke of York from the House of Lords; he undertook to remove him from the kingdom. To sound the disposition of that prince, certain persons, some his known friends, others considered as neutral, were employed to explain to him the expediency of a voluntary but temporary exile; and when he refused to purchase impunity for the minister by his own disgrace, Danby advised the king to send him an order to quit England, and to fix his residence at Brussels. But the good-nature of Charles recoiled from so harsh and ungracious a proceeding; the suggestion of an attempt to convert his misbelieving brother was adopted as less offensive to his feelings; and the archbishop with some of his brethren received a commission to bring back the strayed sheep to the fold of Feb. 22. the established church. These prelates waited on the duke; they represented to him the pain which it gave 1 Burnet, ii. 177. L. Journ. xiii. 448. North, 504, 505. THE DUKE QUITS ENGLAND. 399 VI. them to behold the son of a martyred king absent- CHAP. ing himself from the national worship; they in- A.D. 1679. veighed in sharp and bitter terms against the principles of the Roman church: and they maintained that she "both taught and practised doctrines destructive "of salvation;" an assertion which, with his permission, they were prepared to establish, "not by perplexing him with the subtleties and niceties of the "schools, but by a plain text or two, and a plain "obvious matter of fact." James replied that he doubted not the uprightness of their motives, though he knew that the suggestion came from an enemy; that it would be presumption in him, a layman, to enter the lists against professed theologians; that he had not changed his religious creed without a serious examination of the distinctive doctrines of the two churches, or a clear foresight of the sacrifices which that change would entail upon himself; and that to renew the investigation would require more leisure than he at that time possessed, and more deep and continued attention than he could under existing circumstances command. The failure of the prelates and the importunity of the treasurer subdued the reluctance of Charles, who at length mustered sufficient courage to hint to James that his expatriation for a short time offered the most probable means of mitigating the hostility of his enemies. The duke professed himself ready to submit to the royal will, but at the same time solicited two favours; one, an order in writing to quit the kingdom, that he might not appear to steal like a coward from the contest; the other a solemn promise that his rights should not be sacrificed in his absence to the pretensions of Monmouth, who, it was now reported, had provided four witnesses to establish, in the VI. CHAP. event of the king's death, a contract of marriage beA.D. 1679. tween his father and mother. The order was immeFeb. 28. diately given in the form of a most affectionate letter; and Charles, having assembled the council, declared March 3. "in the presence of Almighty God that he had never "given or made any contract of marriage, nor was ever married to any woman whatsoever but his wife, Queen Catherine, then living." For greater security he subscribed this declaration, commanded the counsellors present to attest its execution with their signatures, and ordered the instrument with their testimony to be enrolled in Chancery.' James, accompanied by March 4 the duchess, departed the next day for Brussels: his daughter Anne was left under the care of her uncle, that it might not be said that her father meant to seduce her from the Protestant worship.2 The parliament opened with a violent altercation March 6. respecting the choice of a speaker. Seymour, who had discharged the office in the last, was re-elected by the new House of Commons. This, however, accorded not with the designs of the lord treasurer, and it was resolved that when, according to custom, he should beg of the king to be excused, his prayer should be granted; but Seymour, aware of the intention, omitted in his speech the usual disqualifying March 7. expressions, and merely stated that he stood there to receive his majesty's approbation. The chancellor was 1 This declaration, as well as another made on the 6th of January has been published by Mr. Rose from the rolls in chancery.—Ob servations on Fox, App. p. 59. 2 James (Memoirs), i. 530, 536, 537, 541. Dalrymple, ii. 212 Burnet, ii. 194. The discourse of the prelates is in Clar. Corresp. ii. App. 467-471. The duke afterwards wrote to the archbishop an account of his conversion, which did not take place till after the Restoration, and in consequence of the fullest conviction.James (Memoirs), i 539, 540. PARDON GRANTED TO DANBY. 4C1 VI. disconcerted: Charles had more self-possession; he CHAP. whispered in the ear of that officer, who answered A.D. 1679. that Seymour was reserved for a different employment, and that the Commons must proceed to a new election. This affront to the speaker elect has been represented as the consequence of a private quarrel between him and the Lady Danby. But it is scarcely credible that the treasurer, with an impeachment hanging over his head, would wantonly plunge into another quarrel with the House of Commons merely to gratify the resentment of his wife; and the subsequent proceedings appear to show that the attempt was made in consequence of the secret understanding between him and some of the popular leaders. The person whom he sought to substitute in the place of Seymour was Sir Thomas Meres, one of his most active and eloquent opponents in the late parliament; but the Commons adhered to their first choice; and to their petition that the king would not invade their March 11. undoubted right, an answer was returned, bidding them not to waste the time but to obey. They re- March 12, quested him to reconsider their petition, and he pro- March 13. rogued the parliament for two days. When the house met again, Seymour was never mentioned: as if no dispute had previously existed, Serjeant Gregory, on March 15 the motion of Lord Russell, seconded by Lord Cavendish, was placed in the chair, and the new speaker immediately received the approbation of the king. By this arrangement Charles saved to the crown the right of refusing the person elected; and the Commons took from the privy counsellors, by whom it had hitherto been exercised, the privilege of proposing the |