conspirators into so criminal an attempt, yet, "ought we not to involve all the roman-catholics "in the same guilt, or suppose them equally dis"posed to commit such enormous barbarities. Many holy men, he said, and our ancestors among the rest, had been seduced to concur with "that church, in her scholastic doctrines; who yet, had never admitted her seditious principles, "concerning the pope's power of dethroning kings, or sanctifying assassination. The wrath of heaven is denounced against crimes; but innocent error may obtain its favour; and nothing can be more hateful, than the uncharitableness of the puritans, who condemn alike to eternal torment, "even the most inoffensive partisans of popery. "For his part, he added, that the conspiracy, however atrocious, should never alter, in the least, his plan of government; while with one hand he punished guilt, with the other he would still sup"port and protect innocence." After this speech, he prorogued the parliament till the 22d of January.

CHAP. XLV.

TRIAL OF FATHER GARNETT, OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, AND OTHERS, FOR THE GUNPOWDER CONSPIRACY.

JAMES," says father More; "on his accession "to the important government of England, with a "view to conciliate the minds of every party, had "made vast promises to all; and particularly to

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"those catholics, whom high family rendered re"spectable at home, and whom exile had intro"duced to the notice and esteem of persons of distinction in foreign countries. He had either explicitly promised, that the severity of the laws "against the catholics should be mitigated; or by showing that the inhumanity of Elizabeth's penal "code was foreign to his disposition, had not obໄດ້ scurely intimated that the catholics should enjoy, "under his reign, a free exercise of their religion. "The religion of his mother also raised this hope; "he himself, though he had deviated from it "....... but it was in his boyhood, and was "thought to be owing more to the calamity of the "times than to his own judgment. Nor could a "courier, privately sent by the king to the pontiff, "the cardinal Aldobrandini, and others, steal so "secretly into the holy city, without its coming "to the ears of the public; and that very circum"stance, such as it was, upheld the hope of the "moderation of the monarch; but it soon began "to be observed, that the universal favour, both "of his subjects and of the neighbouring poten"tates, having rendered him quite secure in the possession of the throne, he seemed to give a more ready ear to the old ministers of Elizabeth. "These considered that too much indulgence was always shown to the catholics, if they were not "in a state of absolute oppression; and they were now perhaps of opinion, that it was less proper "to grant them any indulgences, as the rigid Cal"vinists, whose restlessness James had for many

"

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years experienced in Scotland, were still kept "under some restraints. Hence, before the first

year of his reign was elapsed, a bill was brought "into the parliament convened on the 19th of "March, in which all the laws, which Elizabeth "had enacted against the catholics, were directed "to be put in force, not only against priests and jesuits, but also against all persons of that com"munion." This is the act mentioned in the preceding chapter.-Father More then states the proclamation, which we have also noticed, and proceeds as follows :—

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"After these acts were passed, and when a pe"tition of the catholics, in which they had most humbly prayed for some relaxation of the laws "enacted for their destruction, had been rejected, "the hope of a more moderate government was "wholly extinguished in the hearts of many catho"lics; this was so much more the case, as they "had lost all confidence in the king. Contrary to "what he had declared not long before, he now

expressly avowed, that it had ever been far from "his intention to make any new law on the subject "of religion: and although the priests were princi

pally pointed at by the act, which he had passed, yet the penalties of it were equally denounced against the whole body; for, in the first place, 66 no one could be secure in his own house from

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persecution and vexation; and, in the next place,

every one who received a priest into his house,

(and without the presence of a priest he could "not exercise his religion),-incurred by James's

"law, if the priest was found in it, the guilt of high treason.

"Add to this, that the fourth section of the act, "passed in the first session of the parliament, ex"tended to all the former laws which had been "enacted against catholics, and, by the royal assent, gave them new activity. What could be expected, or looked for, from a man, who, after he "had experienced, during a long series of years, "the attachment of the catholics, and the hostility "of the puritans to himself and his mother, while "he reigned in Scotland, now professed, without

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any reason, that he had more to dread from the "catholic priests than from the rigid calvinists? "I say, what could be expected from such a man, "but that he would persecute the catholics with "that hatred which the puritans in Scotland had "so much merited? What the proclamation says "respecting the danger, which the king had in"curred from the catholics not many months be

fore, is not intelligible: for, although the priests, "Watson and Clarke, were found in sir Walter Raleigh's conspiracy, and perhaps suffered death

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deservedly, yet not even the anti-catholics them"selves can make out what ought to be thought of "that conspiracy. This conspiracy,' (says Wil

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son, in the History of those times), 'put on such "a face, that few or none can discover or know “what to make of it. That the muddy waters were stirred, was apparent, but it was with such

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a mixture, that little could be visible in it. The "lords Grey and Cobham, and sir Walter Raleigh,

were protestants; why should they strive to alter religion, though the priests, Markham, Baynham, "and others might? But it seems they joined together in a politic way, every one intending his "own ends: discontent being the ground-work upon which they built this slight superstructure, that, being huddled together, could not stand long. Raleigh's great accuser was a letter of "Cobham's, which, some say, afterwards he de"nied to be in his hand. Some of the conspira"tors may have desired to seem formidable, venting "their anger so, for being slighted; others strove "to make themselves so, that they might have the glory of enlarging the Roman powers; or they

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joined together, thinking their single strength "would not prevail. In this cloud, looking for "Juno they begot a monster, which having neither "head nor foot, some part lived, the other died *.' "The two priests atoned for their rashness by "their death; Markham and Baynham, though "catholics, expiated their fool-hardiness by banish"ment; and, of the protestants, some were punished "by death, others by the loss of their estates. In "this manner, the new king thought proper to

disperse the gloom, which had sprung up so unseasonably; but, from whatever quarter the dis"turbance arose, the ministers of James took care "that not the naked fact, but an exaggerated account of it, should be spread among the people, "in order that suspicion might fall on the most

*The writer has given in this place Wilson's own words, not More's translation of the passage which contains them.