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HISTORY OF ENGLAND,

chap. The liberty of unlicensed printing was of little or no use to

-the vanquished party; for the temper of judges and juries was

such that no writer whom the government prosecuted for alibel had any chance of escaping. The dread of punishmenttherefore did all that a censorship could have done. Mean-while, the pulpits resounded with harangues against the sin ofrebellion. The treatises in which Filmer maintained thathereditary despotism was the form of government ordained byGod, and that limited monarchy was a pernicious absurdity,had recently appeared, and had been favourably received bya large section of the Tory party. The University of Oxford,on the very day on which Russell was put to death, adoptedby a solemn public act these strange doctrines, and orderedthe political works of Buchanan, Milton, and Baxter to bepublicly burned in the court of the Schools.

Thus emboldened, theKing at length ventured to overstepthe bounds which he had during some years observed, and toviolate the plain letter of the law. The law was that not morethan three years should pass between the dissolving of oneParliament and the convoking of another. But, when threeyears had elapsed after the dissolution of the Parliamentwhich sate at Oxford, no writs were issued for an election.This infraction of the constitution was the more reprehensible,because the King had little reason to fear a meeting with anew House of Commons. The counties were generally on hisside; and many boroughs in which the Whigs had lately heldsway had been so remodelled that they were certain to returnnone but courtiers.

In a short time the law was again violated in order togratify the Duke of York. That prince was, partly on accountof his religion, and partly on account of the sternness andharshness of his nature, so unpopular that it had been thoughtnecessary to keep him out of sight while the Exclusion Billwas before Parliament, lest his public appearance should give

Influenceof theDuke ofYork.