f the Exclusion Bill (S478), took this method
of gaining their ends.

It is said that they intended placing on the throne James, Duke of
Monmouth, a natural son of Charles, who was popularly known as the
"Protestant Duke." Algernon Sidney, Lord Russell, and the Earl of
Essex, who were prominent advocates of the Exclusion Bill (S478), were
arrested for participating in the plot. Essex committed suicide in
the Tower; Sidney and Russell were tried, convicted, and sentenced to
death on insufficient evidence. They died martyrs to the cause of
liberty,--Russell, with the fortitude of a Christian; Sidney, with the
calmness of a philosopher. The Duke of Monmouth, who was supposed to
be implicated in the plot, was banished to Holland (S486).

481. The Royal Society (1662).

Early in this reign the Royal Society was established for purposes of
scientific research. In an age when thousands of well-informed people
still cherished a lingering belief that lead might be changed into
gold; that some medicine might be discovered which would cure every
disease, (including old age, that worst disease of all); when every
cross-grained old woman was suspected of witchcraft, and was liable to
be tortured and hanged on that suspicion,--the formation of an
association to study the physical facts was most significant.

It showed that the time had come when, instead of guessing what might
be, men were at last beginning to resolved to know what actually is.
In 1684 an English mathematician and philosopher demonstrated the
unity of the universe by proving that the same law which governs the
falling of an apple also governs the movements of the planets in their
orbits. He published his great work on this subject a few years
later.

It was with reference to that wonderful discovery of the all-pervading
power of gravitation, which shapes and holds in its control the drop
of dew before our eyes, and the farthest star shining in the heavens,
that the poet Pope suggested the epitaph which should be graven on the
tomb of the great thinker in Westminster Abbey:

"Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night;
God said, `Let Newton be!' and all was light."

482. Chief Political Reforms; Abolition of Feudal Dues, 1660; the
Habeas Corpus Act, 1679.

As the age did not stand still with respect to progress in knowledge,
so it was not wholly unsuccessful in political progress. A great
reform inaugurated in the outset of Charles's r