uthorized the Court of Aldermen to grant liveries to
several of the city companies, taking care that such only should be
admitted to the livery as were of "unquestionable loyalty" for the purpose
of voting.(1564) By this means four of the most pronounced Tories in the
city were returned, all of them being aldermen. These were Sir John Moore
and Sir William Pritchard, both of whom had been placed in the mayoralty
chair, one after the other (in 1681 and 1682), by court influence, Sir
Peter Rich, who had served as sheriff with Dudley North in 1682, and Sir
Samuel Dashwood, who filled the same office the following year with Peter
Daniel, both of them, like their immediate predecessors, being nominees of
the Crown. As soon as the House met the Commons unanimously granted the
king the full revenue which had been enjoyed by his brother.(1565)

(M804)

The bent of the king's mind was quickly discerned in the sentences
pronounced by judges eager to secure his favour. Titus Oates was taken out
of prison and whipt at the cart's tail from Aldgate to Newgate the day
after parliament met. Two days later he was again whipt from Newgate to
Tyburn, and the punishment was so mercilessly carried out that it nearly
cost him his life. Precautions had to be taken by the mayor to prevent a
display of force by Oates's partisans, who overturned the pillory on which
he was to stand.(1566) Dangerfield, another professional informer, was
made to undergo a punishment scarcely less severe. He survived the
punishment, but only to die from the effect of a vicious blow dealt him by
a bystander as he was being carried back to gaol from Tyburn.

(M805)

On the other hand Richard Baxter--the most learned and moderate of
Nonconformists--was tried at the Guildhall on a charge of having introduced
into his commentary on the New Testament some seditious remarks respecting
the attitude of the government towards dissenters. The infamous Jeffreys
presided at the trial, and spared neither counsel nor prisoner his
insolent invectives. The whole proceedings were nothing less than a farce,
and the evidence adduced was of such a flimsy character that Baxter
volunteered a remark expressing a doubt whether any jury would convict a
man on it. He was, however, mistaken. The sheriffs, like the mayor, were
but tools of the court party, and the jurymen selected to sit on the trial
did not hesitate to bring in a verdict of guilty. He was fortunate to get
off with no worse