ng of France.
The opponents of exclusion proposed limitation of the royal power, in
a manner such as that which has since prevailed. Charles preferred
this amendment to the Constitution rather than an Act which enabled
parliament to regulate the succession. William of Orange vigorously
opposed it, as the same restraints might be retained when his wife
came to the throne. Halifax, who defeated the Exclusion Bill and
defended the Limitation Bill, assured the prince that it would never
be applied, as James had no chance whatever of succeeding his brother.
His only purpose in proposing his Bill was to preserve the succession,
according to law, from parliamentary control.

In order to obtain evidence that should ruin James's prospects, it was
resolved now to put the Catholic peers on their trial. Stafford came
first. He had not been in the secret of the fatal Treaty. But the
plans this time were cleverly laid. Although Lord Stafford was
entirely innocent, Count Thun, the Austrian envoy, was profoundly
impressed by the weight of the case against him and the weakness of
the defence. He was beheaded amid shrieks of execration and
exultation. Arundel was to come next; and Arundel did know enough to
compromise the duke. But the plan had failed. Nothing had been
discovered in Stafford's trial that could help the exclusion; and a
revulsion of popular feeling followed. Monmouth was now put
forward. If James could not be excluded he must make way for Monmouth,
if Monmouth was legitimate. The king was pressed to acknowledge him. A
black box was said to contain the necessary evidence of his mother's
marriage. A bishop was spoken of who knew all about it. Monmouth
himself accepted the idea. When the Duke of Plymouth died he refused
to wear mourning. He would not mourn, he said, for a brother who was
illegitimate. After the Test Act, the Exclusion Bill, the succession
of Monmouth, the indefatigable Shaftesbury had still one resource. He
tried an insurrection. When he found it impossible to draw the line
between insurrection and murder, he thought the position dangerous,
and went abroad. Russell and Sidney were put to death. Charles was
victorious over his enemies. He owed his victory to the French king,
who gave him L700,000, and enabled him to exist without a parliament
for three years.

It was during this struggle against the overshadowing suspicion of the
Dover Treaty that the Habeas Corpus Act was passed, a