the earldom of Shaftesbury. But
the dream of triumph soon passed away. The Duke of York had owned at the
outset of the war that recourse could only be had to Parliament when
success had put Charles in a position "to obtain by force what he could
not get by pleasanter ways." But the delay of winter exhausted the
supplies which had been procured so unscrupulously, while the closing of
the Treasury had shaken credit and rendered it impossible to raise a
loan. It was necessary therefore in 1673, though the success Charles had
counted on was still delayed, to appeal to the Commons. But the Commons
met in a mood of angry distrust. The war, unpopular as it was, they left
alone. What overpowered all other feelings was a vague sense, which we
know now to have been justified by the facts, that liberty and religion
were being unscrupulously betrayed. There was a suspicion that the whole
armed force of the nation was in Catholic hands. The Duke of York was
suspected of being in heart a Catholic, and he was in command of the
fleet. Catholics had been placed as officers in the land force which was
being raised for a descent upon Holland. Lady Castlemaine, the king's
mistress, paraded her change of faith; and doubts were fast gathering
over the Protestantism of the king. There was a general dread that a
plot was on foot for the establishment of Catholicism and despotism, and
that the war and the Indulgence were parts of the plot.

[Sidenote: The Test Act.]

The change of temper in the Commons was marked by the appearance of what
was from that time called the Country party with Lord Russell, Lord
Cavendish, and Sir William Coventry at its head, a party which
sympathized with the desire of the Nonconformists for religious
toleration, but looked on it as its first duty to guard against the
political and religious designs of the Court. The House listened unmoved
to the fiery address of the new Lord Chancellor in favour of the war, an
address which ended with the phrase, "Delenda est Carthago," so often
quoted against him afterwards, as they listened unmoved to the king's
declaration of his steady adherence to the Indulgence. "I shall take it
very ill," said Charles, with unusual haughtiness, "to receive
contradiction in what I have done; and, I will deal plainly with you, I
am resolved to stick to my declaration." As to the Declaration of
Indulgence, however, all parties in the House were at one. The Commons
resolved "that penal statute