Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/407

A.D. 1722.] it some embarrassment. But in this, as in all other views, they proved more sanguine than profound. Sir Luke Scraub, the English ambassador, was immediately informed of it, on condition, it was said, that no one should die for it.

Walpole was instantly on the alert on this startling discovery. He prevailed on the king to put off his journey to Germany. Troops were drawn round London, and a camp formed in Hyde Park. The king took up his residence at Kensington, in the very midst of the soldiers, and the prince of Wales retired to Richmond. General Macartney was dispatched for still more troops from Ireland; some suspected persons were arrested in Scotland; the states of Holland were solicited to have ships and soldiers in readiness; an order was obtained from the court of Madrid to forbid the embarkation of Ormonde; and general Churchill was dispatched to Paris to make all secure with the regent. This would have been ample preparation for the security of the country; but Walpole did not mean to stop short of the utter extirpation of the concealed mischief. All conceivable means of obtaining information of its fomentors and ramifications were set in motion. The letters of the conspirators were seized in the post, and, in order to throw the government on a wrong scent, the Jacobites wrote letters with assumed names and false news — but to little purpose; Walpole had already the names of the principal conspirators, and warrants were in prompt preparation for their arrest.

On the 21st of May Kelly, a nonjuring clergyman, was seized by two messengers at his lodgings in Bury Street. They came upon him by surprise, secured his sword and papers, which they foolishly laid in a window whilst they made further search. Kelly, who had twice their wit and courage, instantly recovered his sword and papers, and, threatening to run any one through who approached him, he burnt his papers in a candle with his left hand, whilst he held his drawn sword in his right. Having consumed the papers, he quietly surrendered himself. Neynoe, an Irish catholic priest, before the officers could force his house, tied together the blankets and sheets, and let himself down on a garden wall overlooking the Thames, whence he leaped into the water, but, not being able to swim, he was drowned. Layer, a young barrister of the Temple, also attempted escape, but unsuccesfully. Carte, the celebrated Jacobite historian, had secured his retreat in good time to France. Plunket, an Irish Jesuit, was seized with his papers. No sooner had lord North learned the arrest of Layer, the Templar, than he fled, for he had been in close correspondence with him. He reached the Isle of Wight, but was discovered and brought back. Lord Orrery and the duke of Norfolk, undoubtedly amongst the principal conspirators, were arrested and sent to the Tower; but they were soon released again, either because the evidence against them was insufficient, or that the government did not wish to convict them. It would seem, too, as if there was a desire to pass over Atterbury as well, for the warrant against him was not issued till the 24th of August, when he was arrested at the deanery at Bromley, in Kent. A very trivial circumstance tended to complete the evidence which rendered it necessary to apprehend him. A correspondence was discovered betwixt two individuals bearing the names of Jones and Illington; add through the circumstance of a lapdog of the late Mrs. Atterbury, called "Harlequin," being repeatedly mentioned in the correspondence, it was ascertained that "Illington" or "Jones" was no other than the bishop. When brought before the council, Atterbury refused to say anything, except irreverently using our Saviour's words before the high priest — "If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I also ask you, you will not answer me, nor let me go." He was sent to the Tower.

No sooner was his imprisonment known than the high churchmen raised a terrible outcry. They declared the incarceration of a prelate an outrage upon the church; they protested that the plot was a mere sham, got up for the ruin of a political opponent. The clergy prayed for him in the churches, and a touching print was issued, representing the bishop looking through the bars in his prison, and holding in his hand a portrait of archbishop Laud. It was actively circulated that the bishop was, moreover, very severely treated in the Tower, but this treatment appears to have consisted in a rigid examination of his correspondence, and scrutiny of both persons and even pigeon-pies going to him, for the same purpose. The ferment without and the busy agitation of his partisans were the very cause of these vigilant measures. Whilst these things were in progress, the king and prince were advised to make a progress through the western counties to gain a little popularity there, and so prevent any countenance to rebellion in that quarter.

Parliament opened its first sitting on the 9th of October. The rumour of invasion, of course, gave the tone to the king's speech. He recited the leading facts of the conspiracy, and observed that he should the les wonder at them, had he in any one instance, since his accession to the throne of his ancestors, invaded the liberty or property of his subjects. He very justly described the Jacobites as creating the very evils they complained of. "By forming plots they depreciate all property that is vested in the public funds, and then complain of the low state of credit. They make an increase of the national expenses necessary, and then clamour at the burthen of taxes, and endeavour to impute to my government as grievances, the mischiefs and calamities which they alone occasion."

The very first act was to suspend the habeas corpus act for a year, after again placing Mr. Compton in the chair. Mr. Spencer Cowper and Sir Joseph Jekyll opposed its enactment for so unusually long a period; but it was carried by two hundred and forty-six votes against one hundred and ninety-three. The next matter which came under consideration was the declaration of the pretender, issued at Lucca on the 22nd of September. In this absurd proclamation, foundded, no doubt, on very false information as to the public feeling in England, it was stated that if George would quietly retire to his proper dominions of Hanover, the title of king of those dominions should be conceded by king James, and that he would solicit all other states to confirm that title, and that, moreover, he would take measures to secure the king of Hanover's succession to the British crown should the direct line chance to fail. This declaration was characterised by both houses as most insolent, and ordered to be burnt by the common hangman; and a joint address was presented to his majesty, declaring the futility of the enemy's designs against