eas.

[Sidenote: The Bill of Securities.]

Great as was the value of the Habeas Corpus Act it passed almost
unnoticed amidst the political storm which the ministry had to face. The
question of the Succession threw all others into the shade. At the
bottom of the national panic lay the dread of a Catholic king, a dread
which the after history of James fully justified. Unluckily on the
question of the succession the new ministers were themselves divided.
Shaftesbury was earnest for the exclusion of James and he was followed
in his plan of exclusion by Lord Russell. Against a change in the order
of hereditary succession however Charles was firm; and he was supported
in his resistance by a majority of the Council with Temple and Lord
Essex, Lord Halifax, and Lord Sunderland at its head. It was with the
assent of this party that Charles brought forward a plan for preserving
the rights of the Duke of York while restraining his powers as
sovereign. By this project the presentation to Church livings was to be
taken out of his hands on his accession. The last Parliament of the
preceding reign was to continue to sit; and the appointment of all
Councillors, Judges, Lord-Lieutenants, and officers in the fleet, was
vested in the two Houses so long as a Catholic sovereign was on the
throne. The extent of these provisions showed the pressure which Charles
felt, but Shaftesbury was undoubtedly right in setting the plan aside as
at once insufficient and impracticable. The one real security for
English freedom lay in a thorough understanding between King and
Parliament; and the scheme of Charles set them against one another as
rival powers in the realm. It was impossible in fact that such a harmony
could exist between a Protestant Parliament and a Catholic sovereign.

[Sidenote: The Exclusion Bill.]

Shaftesbury therefore continued to advocate the Exclusion in the royal
Council; and a bill for depriving James of his right to the Crown and
for devolving it on the next Protestant in the line of succession was
introduced into the Commons by his adherents. In spite of a powerful
opposition from patriots like Lord Cavendish and Sir William Coventry
who still shrank from a change in the succession the bill passed the
House by a large majority. It was known that Charles would use his
influence with the Peers for its rejection, and the Earl therefore fell
back on the tactics of Pym. A bold Remonstrance was prepared in the
Commons. The City of