e authority had been transferred to the crown. Decisions at
variance with the spirit of the constitution had been obtained from
the tribunals by turning out Judge after Judge, till the bench had
been filled with men ready to obey implicitly the directions of the
government. Notwithstanding the King's repeated assurances that he would
maintain the established religion, persons notoriously hostile to that
religion had been promoted, not only to civil offices, but also to
ecclesiastical benefices. The government of the Church had, in defiance
of express statutes, been entrusted to a new court of High Commission;
and in that court one avowed Papist had a seat. Good subjects, for
refusing to violate their duty and their oaths, had been ejected from
their property, in contempt of the Great Charter of the liberties of
England. Meanwhile persons who could not legally set foot on the island
had been placed at the head of seminaries for the corruption of youth.
Lieutenants, Deputy Lieutenants, Justices of the Peace, had been
dismissed in multitudes for refusing to support a pernicious and
unconstitutional policy. The franchises of almost every borough in the
realm bad been invaded. The courts of justice were in such a state
that their decisions, even in civil matters, had ceased to inspire
confidence, and that their servility in criminal cases had brought on
the kingdom the stain of innocent blood. All these abuses, loathed by
the English nation, were to be defended, it seemed, by an army of
Irish Papists. Nor was this all. The most arbitrary princes had never
accounted it an offence in a subject modestly and peaceably to represent
his grievances and to ask for relief. But supplication was now treated
as a high misdemeanour in England. For no crime but that of offering
to the Sovereign a petition drawn up in the most respectful terms, the
fathers of the Church had been imprisoned and prosecuted; and every
Judge who gave his voice in their favour had instantly been turned out.
The calling of a free and lawful Parliament might indeed be an effectual
remedy for all these evils: but such a Parliament, unless the whole
spirit of the administration were changed, the nation could not hope to
see. It was evidently the intention of the court to bring together, by
means of regulated corporations and of Popish returning officers, a
body which would be a House of Commons in name alone. Lastly, there
were circumstances which raised a grave susp