torians have
taken to record this frivolous event, proves with what pleasure the news
was received by the nation.

* Franklyn, p. 09. Rush. vol. i. p. 175, 176, etc., 325,
326, etc.

The house of commons, when informed of these transactions, showed the
same attachment with the sailors for the Protestant religion; nor was
their zeal much better guided by reason and sound policy. It was not
considered that it was highly probable the king and the duke themselves
had here been deceived by the artifices of France, nor had they any
hostile intention against the Hugonots; that, were it otherwise yet
might their measures be justified by the most obvious and most received
maxims of civil policy; that, if the force of Spain were really so
exorbitant as the commons imagined, the French monarch was the only
prince that could oppose its progress, and preserve the balance of
Europe; that his power was at present fettered by the Hugonots, who,
being possessed of many privileges, and even of fortified towns, formed
an empire within his empire, and kept him in perpetual jealousy and
inquietude; that an insurrection had been at that time wantonly and
voluntarily formed by their leaders, who, being disgusted in some court
intrigue, took advantage of the never failing pretence of religion,
in order to cover their rebellion, that the Dutch, influenced by these
views, had ordered a squadron of twenty ships to join the French fleet
employed against the inhabitants of Rochelle;[*] that the Spanish
monarch, sensible of the same consequences, secretly supported the
Protestants in France; and that all princes had ever sacrificed to
reasons of state the interests of their religion in foreign countries.
All these obvious considerations had no influence. Great murmurs and
discontents still prevailed in parliament. The Hugonots, though they had
no ground of complaint against the French court, were thought to be as
much entitled to assistance from England, as if they had taken arms in
defence of their liberties and religion against the persecuting rage
of the Catholics. And it plainly appears from this incident, as well
as from many others, that, of all European nations, the British were
at that time, and till long after, the most under the influence of that
religious spirit which tends rather to inflame bigotry than increase
peace and mutual charity.

On this occasion, the commons renewed their eternal complaints against
the growth of P