JAMES THE SECOND-

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was Tyrconnel. His brutal manners made him unfit to repre- c ®| | p -sent the majesty of the crown. The feebleness of his under- 108standing and the violence of his temper made him unfit toconduct grave business of state. The deadly animosity whichhe felt towards the possessors of the greater part of the soil ofIreland made him especially unfit to rule that kingdom. Butthe intemperance of his bigotry was thought amply to atonefor the intemperance of all his other passions; and, in consi-*deration of the hatred which he bore to the reformed faith, hewas suffered to indulge without restraint his hatred of theEnglish name. This, then, was the real meaning of hisMajesty’s respect for the rights of conscience. He wishedhis Parliament to remove all the disabilities which had beenimposed on Papists, merely in order that he might himselfimpose disabilities equally galling on Protestants. It wasplain that, under such a prince, apostasy was the only roadto greatness. It was a road, however, which few venturedto take. For the spirit of the nation was thoroughly roused;and every renegade had to endure such an amount of publicscorn and detestation, as cannot be altogether unfelt evenby the most callous natures.

It is true that several remarkable conversions had recently Conver-taken place; but they were such as did little credit to the p°pery?Church of Rome. Two men of high rank had joined her com-munion; Henry Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, and JamesCecil, Earl of Salisbury. But Peterborough, who had been SaIis _°an active soldier, courtier, and negotiator, was now broken hur f-down by years and infirmities; and those who saw him totterabout the galleries of Whitehall, leaning on a stick andswathed up in flannels and plasters, comforted themselves forhis defection by remarking that he had not changed his reli-gion till he had outlived his faculties. * Salisbury was foolishto a proverb. His figure was so bloated by sensual indulgenceas to be almost incapable of moving, and this sluggish bodywas the abode of an equally sluggish mind. He was repre-sented in popular lampoons as a man made to be duped, as aman who had hitherto been the prey of gamesters, and who

* See the poems entitled The Converts and The Delusion.