JAMES THE SECOND.

55

invading the legal rights of that clergy which had given such c ^ rAP -signal proofs of affection and fidelity to his house. What 1(i8J- 'security then could his word afford to sects divided from himby the recollection of a thousand inexpiable wounds inflictedand endured?

When the first agitation produced by the publication of the some of

T-.1 I..... 1 . ... 1 , , . them side

Indulgence had subsided, it appeared that a breach haa W iu,ti, 0taken place in the Puritan party. The minority, headed by Courl>a few busy men whose judgment was defective or was biassedby interest, supported the King. Henry Care, who had long Care,been the bitterest and most active pamphleteer among theNonconformists, and who had, in the days of the Popish plot,assailed James with the utmost fury in a weekly journal en-titled the Packet of Advice from Rome, was now as loud inadulation, as he had formerly been in calumny and insult.*

The chief agent who was employed by the government tomanage the Presbyterians was Vincent Alsop, a divine of Als °p.some note both as a preacher and as a writer. His son, whohad incurred the penalties of treason, received a pardon; andthe whole influence of the father was thus engaged on the side »of the Court.** With Alsop was joined Thomas Rosewell. Rosewell.Rosewell had, during that persecution of the Dissenters whichfollowed the detection of the Rye House Plot, been falselyaccused of preaching against the government, had been triedfor his life by Jeffreys, and had, in defiance of the clearestevidence, been donvicted by a packed jury. The injusticeof the verdict was so gross that the very courtiers cried shame.

One Tory gentleman who had heard the trial went instantly toCharles, and declared that the neck of the most loyal subjectin England would not be safe if Rosewell suffered. The jury-men themselves were stung by remorse when they thoughtover what they had done, and exerted themselves to save thelife of the prisoner. At length a pardon was granted; but

‘ Wood’s Athena! Oxonienses; Observalor; Ileraclilus Ridens,patsim. But Care’s own writings furnish the best materials for an esti-mate of his character.

** Calamy’s Account of the Ministers ejected or silenced after theRestoration, Northamptonshire; Wood’s Athenai Oxonienses; RiographiaRrilannica.