92

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

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cnAP. English Protestants, it contains not a word which could give■ ‘ offence, even at the Vatican. It was announced that William

and Mary would, with pleasure, assist in abolishing everylaw which made any Englishman liable to punishment for hisreligious opinions. But between punishments and disabilitiesa distinction was taken. To admit Roman Catholics to officewould, in the judgment of their Highnesses, be neither forthe general interest of England nor even for the interest ofthe Reman Catholics themselves. This manifesto was trans-lated into several languages, and circulated widely on theContinent. Of the English version, carefully prepared byBurnet, near fifty thousand copies were introduced into theeastern shires, and rapidly distributed over the whole king-dom. No state paper was ever more completely successful.The Protestants of our island applauded the manly firmnesswith which William declared that he could not consent toentrust Papists with any share in the government. TheRoman Catholic princes, on the other hand, were pleased bythe mild and temperate style in which his resolution was ex-pressed, and by the hope which he held out that, under hisadministration, no member of their Church would be molestedon account of religion.

Castei- It is probable that the Pope himself was among those whoembassy read this celebrated letter with pleasure. He had some10 nomc. months before dismissed Castelmaine in a manner whichshowed little regard for the feelings of Castelmaine’s master.Innocent thoroughly disliked the whole domestic and foreignpolicy of the English government. He saw that the unjustand impolitic measures of the Jesuitical cabal were far morelikely to make the penal laws perpetual than to bring aboutan abolition of the test. His quarrel with the court of Ver-sailles was every day becoming more and more serious; norcould he, either in his character of temporal prince or in hischaracter of Sovereign Pontiff, feel cordial friendship fora vassal of that court. Castelmaine was ill qualified to removethese disgusts. He was indeed well acquainted with Rome, andwas, for a layman, deeply read in theological controversy.*• Adda, Nov. 1685.