out a change. Lauderdale, who now took the lead in Scotch
affairs, published in 1669 a royal decree which enabled many of the
Presbyterian ministers to return to their flocks. A parliament which was
called under his influence not only recognized the royal supremacy, but
owned the king's right to order the government of the Church and to
dispense with ecclesiastical laws. The new system was just set on foot
in Scotland when Charles came forward to tempt his English ministers
with the same pledge of toleration. With characteristic audacity he
removed the one stumbling-block in the way of his project by yielding
the point to which he had hitherto clung, and promising, as Ashley
demanded, that no Catholic should be benefited by the Indulgence.
Whether the pledge of toleration was the only motive which induced the
ministers to consent to the war with Holland it is hard to tell. Ashley
had shown in bringing about the previous strife that he was no friend of
the Dutch. He regarded a close alliance with France as the one means by
which Charles could find himself strong enough to maintain religious
liberty against the pressure of the Parliament. It is possible that like
most statesmen of the time he looked on the ruin of Holland as a thing
inevitable, and was willing to gain for England whatever he could out of
the wreck. If the United Provinces were to become a part of France it
was better that a part of their territory, and that the most important
part, the Brill, Flushing, and the mouths of the Scheldt, should fall as
had been stipulated to England than that Lewis should have all.

[Sidenote: The Declaration of Indulgence.]

But whatever may have been the motives which influenced Ashley and his
colleagues the bargain was at last struck; and now that his ministers
were outwitted it only remained for Charles to outwit his Parliament. At
the close of 1670 a large subsidy was demanded for the fleet under the
pretext of upholding the Triple Alliance; and the subsidy was granted.
In the spring of 1671 the two Houses were adjourned and vigorous
preparations were made for the coming struggle. But as the rumours of
war gathered strength the country at once became restless and
dissatisfied. The power of Lewis, the renewed persecutions of the
Huguenots, had increased the national hatred of the French. Protestants'
hearts too trembled, as Baxter tells us, at the menacing armaments of
the "Catholic King." On the other hand the sense of a