Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/110

 ford (North). The spirit of the government was shown in the enforcement the penal laws against the protestant dissenters, and more especially in the proceedings intended to secure the surrender of the city and borough charters, culminating in the declaration (12 June 1683) of the forfeiture of the charter of the city, of London. Thus it was hoped to insure manageable parliaments and servile juries, while a judicial bench presided over by chief justices like Jeffreys would do the rest. Hide first hints of the system caused anxiety to the leaders of the late agitation. Early in September 1682 the king is found saying that he would willingly receive Monmouth (Hatton Correspondence, ii, 19) A fortnight afterwards Monmouth was arrested in the west, but soon liberated on bail: and on 19 Oct. Shaftesbury, who had been scheming to the last, took his departure for Holland. In the spring of 1683 ensued the discovery of the so-called Rye House plot, of which the purpose was said to have been the murder of the king and the Duke of York on their way from Newmarket to London, at a lonely house on the high road near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. Whatever may have been the truth as to the confessions concerning the projected assassination at the Rye House, there can be no doubt that among certain fanatics of the whig party a scheme for 'lopping' the king and his brother had been discussed, and that some of these fanatics had been in contact with several of the opposition lenders, among them Monmouth, William, lord Russell, Essex, Howard, and Algernon Sidney, upon whom Shaftesbury had urged the plan of a rising. The king came up to town so soon as any important names had been brought before the council. He displayed much concern on account of Monmouth, who contrived to escape for the time, but showed no hesitation with regard to the rest of the accused. In the case of Russell he is said to have repelled the pressure put upon him by the characteristic argument that unless he took Russell's life Russell would soon take his (Dartmouth's note to, ii. 280 n. As to the plot, see Life of William, Lord Russell, ii. 148–74, and , History of James II (1808), 50–5. For a list of the conspirators see Somers Tracts, viii. 405 seq.) Of course loyal addresses followed in profusion, and on 9 Sept. a thanksgiving day was celebrated (, i. 276, 279, 282; Somers Tracts, viii. 420, S.T.C. ii. 153 sq.) Not long afterwards Monmouth submitted himself to the king's grace; but he soon repented of his submission, was again banished the court, and repaired to the Hague. It is, however, doubtful whether Charles II had completely cast him off, or merely wished the Prince of Orange to suppose so (cf., ii. 416).

With the year 1684 the question presented itself whether the Triennial Act should he boldly violated, in compliance with the last secret agreement with Louis XIV, who was again at war with Spain and on the point of renewing the siege of Luxemburg. Halifax was for a parliament, but his influence had greatly paled before that of the Duke of York. Moreover Charles II, whose mediation remained prospective, and who still had considerable pecuniary claims on France, showed no wish to interfere with the proceedings of his debtor, and congratulated him on his capture of Luxemburg (June 1684). The reaction therefore continued, as the statue erected to the king in the Royal Exchange in this year remains to show. Danby and the noblemen imprisoned on popish plot charges were bailed, and Titus Oates was sentenced to a fine which meant perpetual imprisonment. The system of governing without parliament, however, made it necessary to reduce public expenditure. Tangier was abandoned (1683), and less defensible operations seem to have been at times resorted to with the king’ connivance to obtain money (see the case of Sir H. St. John, ib. ii. 457 ).

As the reign of Charles II approached its close, the clouds gathered. Rumours, fed by court gossip, went to and fro between London and Paris as to the king's intention of joining the church of Rome, and gave additional significance to a project for taking the nomination of the officers of the Irish army from the new lord-lieutenant, Rochester, and placing it and the control of that army in the hands of the king (, ii. 459–64;, i. 115, referring to the correspondence in Carte's ‘Life of Ormonde'). About the same time the king revoked a commission by which he had three years before delegated to the primate and others the disposal of ecclasiastical preferments within his immediate patronage (, 482). In May 1684 the last admiralty commission was revoked, and the office of lord high admiral again conferred upon the Duke of York, the king evading the Test Act by signing the most important documents appertaining to the office (, 12 May 1684). The duke had in 1882 returned from Scotland amidst royalist acclamations, but just before the close of the reign the relations between the brothers seem to have lost something of their old cordiality. Whatever might be his brother's plans, Charles was heard to remark, he was too old to go on his travels again. To meet the king' dissatisfaction the Duchess of