t popular man in the nation, as well from the
mildness and integrity of his character, as from his zealous attachment
to the religion and liberties of his country. Though carried into some
excesses, his intentions were ever esteemed upright; and being heir to
the greatest fortune in the kingdom, as well as void of ambition, men
believed that nothing but the last necessity could ever engage him
to embrace any desperate measures. Shaftesbury, who was, in most
particulars, of an opposite character, was removed by the king from the
office of president of the council; and the earl of Radnor, a man who
possessed whimsical talents and splenetic virtues, was substituted in
his place.

It was the favor and countenance of the parliament which had chiefly
encouraged the rumor of plots; but the nation had gotten so much into
that vein of credulity, and every necessitous villain was so much
incited by the success of Oates and Bedloe, that even during the
prorogation the people were not allowed to remain in tranquillity.
There was one Dangerfield, a fellow who had been burned in the hand for
crimes, transported, whipped, pilloried four times, fined for cheats,
outlawed for felony, convicted of coining, and exposed to all the public
infamy which the laws could inflict on the basest and most shameful
enormities. The credulity of the people, and the humor of the times,
enabled even this man to become a person of consequence. He was the
author of a new incident called the meal-tub plot, from the place where
some papers relating to it were found. The bottom of this affair it
is difficult and not very material to discover. It only appears,
that Dangerfield, under pretence of betraying the conspiracies of the
Presbyterians, had been countenanced by some Catholics of condition, and
had even been admitted to the duke's presence and the king's; and that
under pretence of revealing new Popish plots, he had obtained access to
Shaftesbury and some of the popular leaders. Which side he intended to
cheat, is uncertain; or whether he did not rather mean to cheat both:
but he soon found, that the belief of the nation was more open to a
Popish than a Presbyterian plot; and he resolved to strike in with the
prevailing humor. Though no weight could be laid on his testimony, great
clamor was raised; as if the court, by way of retaliation, had intended
to load the Presbyterians with the guilt of a false conspiracy It must
be confessed, that the present pe