c plots revived again. There had been another
got up, by a fellow out of Newgate, named DANGERFIELD, which is more
famous than it deserves to be, under the name of the MEAL-TUB PLOT. This
jail-bird having been got out of Newgate by a MRS. CELLIER, a Catholic
nurse, had turned Catholic himself, and pretended that he knew of a plot
among the Presbyterians against the King's life. This was very pleasant
to the Duke of York, who hated the Presbyterians, who returned the
compliment. He gave Dangerfield twenty guineas, and sent him to the King
his brother. But Dangerfield, breaking down altogether in his charge,
and being sent back to Newgate, almost astonished the Duke out of his
five senses by suddenly swearing that the Catholic nurse had put that
false design into his head, and that what he really knew about, was, a
Catholic plot against the King; the evidence of which would be found in
some papers, concealed in a meal-tub in Mrs. Cellier's house. There they
were, of course--for he had put them there himself--and so the tub gave
the name to the plot. But, the nurse was acquitted on her trial, and it
came to nothing.

Lord Ashley, of the Cabal, was now Lord Shaftesbury, and was strong
against the succession of the Duke of York. The House of Commons,
aggravated to the utmost extent, as we may well suppose, by suspicions of
the King's conspiracy with the King of France, made a desperate point of
the exclusion, still, and were bitter against the Catholics generally. So
unjustly bitter were they, I grieve to say, that they impeached the
venerable Lord Stafford, a Catholic nobleman seventy years old, of a
design to kill the King. The witnesses were that atrocious Oates and two
other birds of the same feather. He was found guilty, on evidence quite
as foolish as it was false, and was beheaded on Tower Hill. The people
were opposed to him when he first appeared upon the scaffold; but, when
he had addressed them and shown them how innocent he was and how wickedly
he was sent there, their better nature was aroused, and they said, 'We
believe you, my Lord. God bless you, my Lord!'

The House of Commons refused to let the King have any money until he
should consent to the Exclusion Bill; but, as he could get it and did get
it from his master the King of France, he could afford to hold them very
cheap. He called a Parliament at Oxford, to which he went down with a
great show of being armed and protected as if he were in d