A. C. 1679. Habeas corpus, which was passed into an act before the end of the feffion. This is one great bulwark of British liberty, obliging the judge, under fevere penalties, to grant a writ of Habeas corpus, at the request of every prisoner, directing the jailor to produce him in court, and certify the caufe of his commitment. The king had for fome time entertained thoughts of proroguing the parliament; but, now his refolution was quickened by a hint of intelligence, importing, that the commons intended to draw up a remonstrance npon the grievances of the nation, like that which was prefented to his father before the commencement of the civil war. Alarmed by this information, he repaired to the house of peers on the twenty-feventh day of May, and fending for the commons, prorogued the parliament to the fourteenth day of Auguft. It was afterwards diffolved, without the advice of the council; and writs were iffued for new elections. This was a defperate remedy, which Charles would not have used, had not he thought his fervant's life was at stake, and his own crown in danger. He found himself at variance with a fet of people whom he could neither intimidate nor appease; he became penfive and fullen, and his temper vifibly changed from this period.

Trial of five jefuits.

After the prorogation, the five jefuits, namely Whitebread the provincial, Fenwick, Harcourt, Gavan, and Turner, were brought to trial. Oates deposed that Whitebread prefided at the confultation, in which it was refolved to affaffinate the king; and that the reft were affifting in the fame defign. Dugdale, the new informer, fwore that he had feen a letter, in the hand-writing of Whitebread, to father Ewers, defiring him to chufe bold and faithful perfons to murder the king; and that he had read an hundred letters to different people on the fame fubject. Confidering the craft and

circumfpection of the jefuits, this circumstance is A. C. 1679.
almost incredible. He likewife depofed, that Har-
court wrote an account of Godfrey's death to
Ewers, in Staffordshire, on the very night in which
that magiftrate was murdered; fo that it was known
in the country fome days before the body was dif-
covered at Primrofe-hill. Prance affirmed, that
Harcourt told him, there was a defign on foot to
take away the king's life; and that Fenwick faid,
fifty thousand men were ready to take arms, under
the command of the lords Bellafis, Powis, and
Arundel. Bedloe declared, that he had heard the
prifoners difcourfing with Coleman about fending
four ruffians to affaffinate the king at Windfor: that
he faw Harcourt take fourscore or an hundred
guineas out of a cheft, for the use of thofe affaffins:
that, at another time, this jefuit delivered an order
for two thousand pounds, as part of a greater fum,
to Sir George Wakeman, the queen's physician,
who faid that fifteen thousand pounds would be but
an indifferent reward for eftablishing religion, and
preventing the ruin of three kingdoms. The un-
happy prifoners obferved, in their own defence,
that the witneffes against them were perfons of def-
perate fortunes and infamous characters; that it
was very improbable they fhould communicate
fecrets of this nature to Oates, who had been ex-
pelled from St. Omer for fcandalous practices, and
even excluded from the facrament. They enume-
rated the self-contradictions that appeared in his
evidence: they produced fixteen witneffes of credit,
ftudents at St. Omer, and chiefly sons of reputable
parents, who fwore that Oates was in the feminary
during the time at which he faid the confultation
was held in London. Eleven other witnesses de-
clared upon oath, that Ireland, who had been exe-
cuted, was in the country at the time of thofe pre-
tended confultations, though Oates had forn he

was

.

A, C. 1679, was in town; and, in confequence of that depofition, the man had loft his life.. Oates, indeed, provided himself with fix or feven evidences, who declared they faw him in London at the time to which he had fworn; and, among the reft, one Smith, a school-master at Iflington, upon whose credit he chiefly depended. Thefe circumstances were fuppofed to invalidate the teftimony of fixteen papists, whom even Scroggs the judge had discountenanced and ridiculed: yet Smith retracted his evidence in the fequel. Gavan was fo weak as to defire that his innocence might be proved by the ordeal in that case, indeed, there would have been a poffibility of efcaping; whereas there was none in the common form of trial before such a judge and jury.

Langhorn is convicted,

death.

They were immediately convicted; though fenand fuffers tence was not produced till after the trial of Langhorn the lawyer, who was accused by the fame evidence as a principal agent in the confpiracy. He objected to the credit of fuch infamous witnesses who had received pardon and recompence for betraying their fellow-fubjects. Oates declared, that instead of receiving a recompence, he had spent fix or seven hundred pounds of his own money. Bedloe likewise affirmed, that he was feven hundred pounds in advance. Langhorn obferved the improbability of these affertions, confidering that when they first appeared they were in extreme indigence. He infisted He infifted upon the evidence by which Oates had been proved perjured; but the judge gave him to understand, that he could not reject an evidence as perjured, until he was formally convicted of perjury. Oates had fworn that he lodged in the house of Grove at the time of the great confultation; Grove's wife and fervant depofed, that he did not. The judge obferved, that, being in difguife, he might have lodged there without being

known.

known. The witneffes for the prisoner were in A. C. 1679. fulted by the court, and mal-treated by the people. One of them was hurt, to the imminent danger of his life. A woman declared fhe could not give evidence, unless the court would promife to protect her. The judge told her, all he could do, was to punish thofe by whom the might be affaulted. Langhorn, rather than fhe fhould run the rifque of her life, waved her teftimony. When he was convicted, the barbarous multitude teftified their joy by loud acclamations. He and the jefuits received sentence of death, and protested their innocence to the last moment of their lives. bread, in particular, declared his abhorrence of all equivocation, and of the maxim efpoufed by fome jefuits, touching the lawfulness of depofing and affaffinating princes.

White

The humané reader cannot, without horror, reflect upon the fate of thofe unhappy perfons, who fell a facrifice to the favage prejudice of the multitude, excited by the villainy of the most abandoned miscreants; and inflamed by the arts of a malignant faction. By this time, however, the populace began to be gorged with blood: the rage of their refentment had exhaufted itself. The proteftations, the composure, and pious deportment of the fufferers, made impreffion upon the minds of all who retained the lealt fentiment of humanity; and now they began to reflect upon the characters of the informers and the abfurdities of their information, which, in the hurry and precipitation of their vengeance, they had wholly overlooked. On Sir George the eighteenth day of June, the chief-justice peo- acquitted. ceeded to the trial of Sir George Wakeman, the queen's physician. Oates had faid, at his firft examination, that he knew nothing against this perfon but by hearsay; yet now he fwore he had feen a letter from him to Afhby the jefuit, advising him

to

Wakeman

A. C. 1679. to use a milk-diet, and be pumped at the Bath: and likewife expreffing his zeal for the defign of affaffinating or poisoning the king. He then repeated his former accufation of the queen. Wakeman reminded the judge of the informer's folemn declaration, that he knew nothing against him but by hearsay. He proved, by his own fervant, and the apothecary at the Bath, that he did not write, but dictate, the paper fent to Afhby; and that nothing could be more abfurd than to prefcribe a milk-diet with the use of the Bath water. Bedloe prevaricated fcandalously in his evidence against this phyfician who, together with three Benedictine monks tried at the fame time, were acquitted by the jury. Oates and Bedloe, perceiving their credit was now entirely blafted, loudly taxed the chief-juftice Scroggs with partiality, becaufe he acted in these trials with unufual moderation. This judge thought proper to turn with the tide of popular prejudice; and, as the queen's character was, in a great measure, concerned with that of her phyfician, he was unwilling to give offence to the king, without any profpect of advantage.

quelled by

Rebellion in In Scotland the duke of Lauderdale's intereft deScotland clined apace. He had been accufed before the Monmouth, council of England, by the duke of Hamilton, and feveral other noblemen, who proved him guilty of the most arbitrary and tyrannical administration. His memory had begun to fail him, and the king was defirous of letting him fall gently; being refolved to veft the government of Scotland in the hands of the duke of Monmouth, who was now the minion of the people. At prefent it was fo relaxed, and the distractions in England were fo well known, that the covenanters rejected all restraint, and took arms in defence of their conventicles. They hated Sharpe, archbishop of St. Andrews, with the most implacable enmity, as an apoftare,