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affect tenderness of heart and reverence for the constitution ofthe realm. The contrast between the new Declaration and thepreceding Declaration excited, not without reason, generalsuspicion and contempt. "VVhat confidence could be placed inthe word of a Prince so unstable, of a Prince who veered fromextreme to extreme ? In 1692 nothing would satisfy him but theheads and quarters of hundreds of poor ploughmen and boat-men who had, several years before, taken some rustic libertieswith him at which his grandfather Henry the Fourth would havehad a hearty laugh. In 1693 the foulest and most ungratefultreasons were to be covered with oblivion. Caermarthenexpressed the general sentiment. “I do not,” he said, “under-stand all this. Last April I was to be hanged. This April I amto have a free pardon. I cannot imagine what I have doneduring the past year to deserve such goodness.” The generalopinion was that a snare was hidden under this unwonted cle-mency, this unwonted respect for law. The Declaration, it wassaid, was excellent; and so was the Coronation oath. Everybody knew how King James had observed his Coronation oath;and every body might guess how he would observe his Declara-tion. While grave men reasoned thus, the Whig jesters werenot sparing of their pasquinades. Some of the Noncom-pounders, meantime, uttered indignant murmurs. TheKingwasin bad hands, in the hands of men who hated monarchy. Hismercy was cruelty of the worst sort. The general pardon whichhe had granted to his enemies was in truth a general proscrip-tion of his friends. Hitherto the Judges appointed by theusurper had been under a restraint, imperfect indeed, yet notabsolutely nugatory. They had known that a day' of reckoningmight come, and had therefore in general dealt tenderly withthe persecuted adherents of the rightful King. That restraintHis Majesty had now taken away. lie had told Holt andTreby

CHAP

xx.

1633 .