ommanding the clergy to read a form of prayer and thanksgiving
which had been prepared for this joyful occasion by Crewe and Sprat.
The clergy obeyed: but it was observed that the congregations made no
responses and showed no signs of reverence. Soon in all the coffeehouses
was handed about a brutal lampoon on the courtly prelates whose pens the
King had employed. Mother East had also her full share of abuse. Into
that homely monosyllable our ancestors had degraded the name of the
great house of Este which reigned at Modena. [305]

The new hope which elated the King's spirits was mingled with many
fears. Something more than the birth of a Prince of Wales was necessary
to the success of the plans formed by the Jesuitical party. It was
not very likely that James would live till his son should be of age to
exercise the regal functions. The law had made no provision for the
case of a minority. The reigning sovereign was not competent to make
provision for such a case by will. The legislature only could supply the
defect. If James should die before the defect had been supplied, leaving
a successor of tender years, the supreme power would undoubtedly devolve
on Protestants. Those Tories who held most firmly the doctrine that
nothing could justify them in resisting their liege lord would have no
scruple about drawing their swords against a Popish woman who should
dare to usurp the guardianship of the realm and of the infant sovereign.
The result of a contest could scarcely be matter of doubt. The Prince of
Orange or his wife, would be Regent. The young King would be placed in
the hands of heretical instructors, whose arts might speedily efface
from his mind the impressions which might have been made on it in the
nursery. He might prove another Edward the Sixth; and the blessing
granted to the intercession of the Virgin Mother and of Saint Winifred
might be turned into a curse. [306] This was a danger against which
nothing but, an Act of Parliament could be a security; and to obtain
such an Act was not easy. Everything seemed to indicate that, if the
Houses were convoked, they would come up to Westminster animated by
the spirit of 1640. The event of the county elections could hardly be
doubted. The whole body of freeholders, high and low, clerical and lay,
was strongly excited against the government. In the great majority of
those towns where the right of voting depended on the payment of local
taxes, or on the occupation of a t