ot against
the throne itself. The duke had been struck at in several motions: the
treasurer had been impeached: all supply had been refused, except on the
most disagreeable conditions: fears, jealousies, and antipathies were
every day multiplying in parliament; and though the people were strongly
infected with the same prejudices, the king hoped, that, by dissolving
the present cabals, a set of men might be chosen, more moderate in their
pursuits, and less tainted with the virulence of faction.

Thus came to a period a parliament which had sitten during the whole
course of this reign, one year excepted. Its conclusion was very
different from its commencement. Being elected during the joy and
festivity of the restoration, it consisted almost entirely of royalists;
who were disposed to support the crown by all the liberality which the
habits of that age would permit. Alarmed by the alliance with France,
they gradually withdrew their confidence from the king; and finding him
still to persevere in a foreign interest, they proceeded to discover
symptoms of the most refractory and most jealous disposition. The Popish
plot pushed them beyond all bounds of moderation; and before their
dissolution, they seemed to be treading fast in the footsteps of the
last long parliament, on whose conduct they threw at first such violent
blame. In all their variations, they had still followed the opinions and
prejudices of the nation; and ever seemed to be more governed by humor
and party views than by public interest, and more by public interest
than by any corrupt or private influence.

During the sitting of the parliament, and after its prorogation and
dissolution, the trials of the pretended criminals were carried on; and
the courts of judicature, places which, if possible, ought to be kept
more pure from injustice than even national assemblies themselves,
were strongly infected with the same party rage and bigoted prejudices.
Coleman, the most obnoxious of the conspirators, was first brought to
his trial. His letters were produced against him. They contained, as he
himself confessed, much indiscretion: but unless so far as it is illegal
to be a zealous Catholic, they seemed to prove nothing criminal, much
less treasonable against him. Gates and Bedloe deposed, that he had
received a commission, signed by the superior of the Jesuits, to be
Papal secretary of state, and had consented to the poisoning, shooting,
and stabbing of the king: h