t Alsop, a divine of
some note both as a preacher and as a writer. His son, who had incurred
the penalties of treason, received a pardon; and the whole influence of
the father was thus engaged on the side of the Court. [248] With Alsop
was joined Thomas Rosewell. Rosewell had, during that persecution of
the Dissenters which followed the detection of the Rye House Plot, been
falsely accused of preaching against the government, had been tried for
his life by Jeffreys, and had, in defiance of the clearest evidence,
been convicted by a packed jury. The injustice of the verdict was so
gross that the very courtiers cried shame. One Tory gentleman who had
heard the trial went instantly to Charles, and declared that the neck
of the most loyal subject in England would not be safe if Rosewell
suffered. The jurymen themselves were stung by remorse when they thought
over what they had done, and exerted themselves to save the life of the
prisoner. At length a pardon was granted; but Rosewell remained
bound under heavy recognisances to good behaviour during life, and to
periodical appearance in the Court of King's Bench. His recognisances
were now discharged by the royal command; and in this way his services
were secured. [249]

The business of gaining the Independents was principally intrusted to
one of their ministers named Stephen Lobb. Lobb was a weak, violent, and
ambitious man. He had gone such lengths in opposition to the government,
that he had been by name proscribed in several proclamations. He now
made his peace, and went as far in servility as he had ever done
in faction. He joined the Jesuitical cabal, and eagerly recommended
measures from which the wisest and most honest Roman Catholics recoiled.
It was remarked that he was constantly at the palace and frequently in
the closet, that he lived with a splendour to which the Puritan divines
were little accustomed, and that he was perpetually surrounded by
suitors imploring his interest to procure them offices or pardons. [250]

With Lobb was closely connected William Penn. Penn had never been a
strongheaded man: the life which he had been leading during two years
had not a little impaired his moral sensibility; and, if his conscience
ever reproached him, he comforted himself by repeating that he had a
good and noble end in view, and that he was not paid for his services in
money.

By the influence of these men, and of others less conspicuous, addresses
of thanks to the K