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mSTORT OF ENGLAND.

chap, eager section of tlic opposition, of those men who, under the—names of Roundheads, Exclusionists, and Whigs, had main-tained with various fortune a contest of five and forty yearsagainst three successive Kings. This party, lately prostrateand almost extinct, but now again full of life and rapidlyrising to ascendency, was troubled by none of the scrupleswhich still impeded the movements of Tories and Trimmers,and was prepared to draw the sword against the tyrant on thefirst day on which the sword could be drawn with reasonablehope of success.

Three men are yet to be mentioned with whom Dykveltwas in confidential communication, and by whose help hehoped to secure the good will of three great professions.Compton. Bishop Compton was the agent employed to manage theiierhert. clergy: Admiral Herbert undertook to exert all his inlluenceover the navy; and an interest was established in the army bythe instrumentality of Churchill.

The conduct of Compton and Herbert requires no expla-nation. Having, in all things secular, served the crown withzeal and fidelity, they had incurred the royal displeasurebyrefusing to be employed as tools for the destruction of theirown religion. Both of them had learned by experience howsoon James forgot obligations, and how bitterly he remem-bered what it pleased him to consider as wrongs. The Bishophad by an illegal sentence been suspended from his episcopalfunctions. The Admiral had in one hour been reduced fromcimrchiii. opulence to penury. The situation of Churchill was widelydifferent. He had been raised by the royal bounty fromobscurity to eminence, and from poverty to wealth. Havingstarted in life a needy ensign, he was now, in his thirty-seventh year, a Major General, a peer of Scotland, a peerof England: he commanded a troop of Life Guards: he hadbeen appointed to several honourable and lucrative offices;and as yet there was no sign that he had lost any part of thefavour to which he owed so much. He was bound to James,not only by the common obligations of allegiance, but bymilitary honour, by personal gratitude, and, as appeared tosuperficial observers, by the strongest ties of interest. But