UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND.

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an advantage to the party -which -was struggling to deprive him chap.

of his birthright. He had therefore been sent to govern Scot--

land, where the savage old tyrant Lauderdale was sinkinginto the grave. Even Lauderdale was now outdone. The ad-ministration of James was marked by odious laws, by bar-barous punishments, and by judgments to the iniquity offwhich even that age furnished no parallel. The Scottish PrivyCouncil had power to put state prisoners to the question. Butthe sight was so dreadful that, as soon as the boots appeared,even the most servile and hard-hearted courtiers hastened outof the chamber. The board was sometimes quite deserted:and it was at length found necessary to make an order that themembers should keep their seats on such occasions. TheDuke of York, it was remarked, seemed to take pleasure inthe spectacle which some of the worst men then living wereunable to contemplate without pity and horror. He not onlycame to Council when the torture was to be inflicted, butwatched the agonies of the sufferers with that sort of interestand complacency with which men observe a curious experi-ment in science. Thus he employed himself at Edinburgh,till the event of the conflict between the court and the Whigswas no longer doubtful. He then returned to England: buthe was still excluded by the Test Act from all public employ-ment ; nor did the King at first think it safe to violate a statutewhich the great majority of his most loyal subjects regardedas one of the chief securities of their religion and of their civilrights. When, however, it appeared, from a succession oftrials, that the nation had patience to endure almost anythingthat the government had courage to do, Charles ventured todispense with the law in his brother’s favour. The Duke againtook his seat in the Council, and resumed the direction ofnaval affairs.

These breaches of the constitution excited, it is true, some He “ "f-

1 1 ' posed iiy

murmurs among the moderate Tories, and were not unani- Halifax.