206

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XX,

UiD3.

Effect Ofthe newDeclara-tion.

We shall fight the battle of the Catholics -with much greateradvantage at Whitehall than at Saint Germains.”*

Meanwhile the document from which so much was expectedhad been despatched to London. There it was printed at asecret press in the house of a Quaker: for there was among theQuakers a party, small in number, but zealous and active,which had imbibed the politics of William Penn.** To circulatesuch a work was a service of some danger: but agents werefound. Several persons were taken up while distributingcopies in the streets of the city. A hundred packets werestopped in one day at the Post Office on their way to the fleet.But, after a short time, the government wisely gave up theendeavour to suppress what could not be suppressed, and pub-lished the Declaration at full length, accompanied by a severecommentary. ***

The commentary, however, was hardly needed. The Decla-ration altogether failed to produce the effect which Middletonhad anticipated. The truth is that his advice had not beenasked till it mattered not what advice he gave. If James hadput forth such a manifesto in January 1G89, the throne wouldprobably not have been declared vacant. If he had put forthsuch a manifesto when he was on the coast of Normandy at thehead of an army, he would have conciliated a large part of thenation, and he might possibly have been joined by a large partof the fleet. But both in 1G89 and in 1692 he had held thelanguage of an implacable tyrant; and it was now too late to

* “En fm celle cy —j’entends la ddclaration — li’est quo pour rentrer;ct Ton pout beaucoup mieux disputer des affaires dcs Catholiques h Whyt-liall qti’a Saint Germain.” — Mazure, Appendix.

** Baden to the States General, June^. 1693. Four thousand copies,wet from the press, were found in this house.

*** Baden’s Letters to the States General of May and June 3693; AnAnswer to the Late King James’s Declaration published at Saint Germains,1693.