by an evasion: they inserted in their votes, that Stowel
was indisposed, and that a month's time was allowed him for the recovery
of his health.

But the chief violence of the house of commons appeared in all their
transactions with regard to the plot, which they prosecuted with the
same zeal and the same credulity as their predecessors. They renewed the
former vote, which affirmed the reality of the horrid Popish plot;
and, in order the more to terrify the people, they even asserted that,
notwithstanding the discovery, the plot still subsisted. They expelled
Sir Robert Can and Sir Robert Yeomans, who had been complained of for
saying, that there was no Popish, but there was a Presbyterian plot. And
they greatly lamented the death of Bedloe, whom they called a material
witness, and on whose testimony they much depended. He had been seized
with a fever at Bristol; had sent for Chief Justice North; confirmed all
his former evidence, except that with regard to the duke and the queen;
and desired North to apply to the king for some money to relieve him
in his necessities. A few days after, he expired; and the whole party
triumphed extremely in these circumstances of his death: as if such
a testimony could be deemed the affirmation of a dying man; as if his
confession of perjury in some instances could assure his veracity in the
rest; and as if the perseverance of one profligate could outweigh the
last words of so many men, guilty of no crime but that of Popery.

The commons even endeavored, by their countenance and protection, to
remove the extreme infamy with which Dangerfield was loaded, and to
restore him to the capacity of being an evidence. The whole tribe of
informers they applauded and rewarded: Jennison, Turberville, Dugdale,
Smith, La Faria, appeared before them; and their testimony, however
frivolous or absurd, met with a favorable reception: the king was
applied to in their behalf for pensions and pardons: their narratives
were printed with that sanction which arose from the approbation of
the house: Dr. Tongue was recommended for the first considerable church
preferment which should become vacant. Considering men's determined
resolution to believe, instead of admiring that a palpable falsehood
should be maintained by witnesses, it may justly appear wonderful, that
no better evidence was ever produced against the Catholics.

The principal reasons which still supported the clamor of the Popish
plot, were the app