Exclusion Bill once rejected, Halifax
followed up the blow by bringing forward a plan of Protestant securities
which would have taken from James on his accession the right of veto on
any bill passed by the two Houses, the right of negotiating with foreign
states, or of appointing either civil or military officers save with the
consent of Parliament. This plan, like his opposition to the Exclusion,
was no doubt prompted by the Prince of Orange; and the States of Holland
supported it by pressing Charles to come to an accommodation with his
subjects which would enable them to check the perpetual aggressions
which France was making on her neighbours.

[Sidenote: Trial of Lord Stafford.]

But if the Lords would have no Exclusion Bill the Commons with as good
reason would have no Securities Bill. They felt--as one of the members
for London fairly put it--that such securities would break down at the
very moment they were needed. A Catholic king, should he ever come to
the throne, would have other forces besides those in England to back
him. "The Duke rules over Scotland; the Irish and the English Papists
will follow him; he will be obeyed by the officials of high and low rank
whom the king has appointed; he will be just such a king as he thinks
good." Shaftesbury, however, was far from resting in a merely negative
position. He made a despairing effort to do the work of exclusion by a
Bill of Divorce, which would have enabled Charles to put away his queen
on the ground of barrenness and by a fresh marriage to give a Protestant
heir to the throne. The Earl's course shows that he felt the weakness of
Monmouth's cause; and perhaps that he was already sensible of a change
in public feeling. This, however, Shaftesbury resolved to check and turn
by a great public impeachment which would revive and establish the
general belief in the Plot. Lord Stafford, who from his age and rank was
looked on as the leader of the Catholic party, had lain a prisoner in
the Tower since the first outburst of popular frenzy. He was now
solemnly impeached; and his trial in December 1680 mustered the whole
staff of informers to prove the truth of a Catholic conspiracy against
the king and the realm. The evidence was worthless; but the trial
revived, as Shaftesbury had hoped, much of the old panic, and the
condemnation of the prisoner by a majority of his peers was followed by
his death on the scaffold. The blow produced its effect on all but
Charles. Sun