enement, no courtly candidate could
dare to show his face. A very large part of the House of Commons was
returned by members of municipal corporations. These corporations had
recently been remodelled for the purpose of destroying the influence
of the Whigs and Dissenters. More than a hundred constituent bodies had
been deprived of their charters by tribunals devoted to the crown,
or had been induced to avert compulsory disfranchisement by voluntary
surrender. Every Mayor, every Alderman, every Town Clerk, from Berwick
to Helstone, was a Tory and a Churchman: but Tories and Churchmen were
now no longer devoted to the sovereign. The new municipalities were
more unmanageable than the old municipalities had ever been, and would
undoubtedly return representatives whose first act would be to impeach
all the Popish Privy Councillors, and all the members of the High
Commission.

In the Lords the prospect was scarcely less gloomy than in the Commons.
Among the temporal peers it was certain that an immense majority would
be against the King's measures: and on that episcopal bench, which
seven years before had unanimously supported him against those who
had attempted to deprive him of his birthright, he could now look for
support only to four or five sycophants despised by their profession and
by their country. [307]

To all men not utterly blinded by passion these difficulties appeared
insuperable. The most unscrupulous slaves of power showed signs of
uneasiness. Dryden muttered that the King would only make matters worse
by trying to mend them, and sighed for the golden days of the careless
and goodnatured Charles. [308] Even Jeffreys wavered. As long as he
was poor, he was perfectly ready to face obloquy and public hatred for
lucre. But he had now, by corruption and extortion, accumulated great
riches; and he was more anxious to secure them than to increase them.
His slackness drew on him a sharp reprimand from the royal lips. In
dread of being deprived of the Great Seal, he promised whatever was
required of him: but Barillon, in reporting this circumstance to Lewis,
remarked that the King of England could place little reliance on any man
who had any thing to lose. [309]

Nevertheless James determined to persevere. The sanction of a Parliament
was necessary to his system. The sanction of a free and lawful
Parliament it was evidently impossible to obtain: but it might not be
altogether impossible to bring together by corrupti