184

HISTOliY OF ENGLAND.

cijap.

viii.

i(IS8.

information which he had been commanded to prepare, andmoved that the defendants might be ordered to plead. Thecounsel on the otherside objected that the Bishops had beenunlawfully committed, and were therefore not regularly beforethe Court. The question whether a peer could be requiredto enter into recognisances on a charge of libel was argued atgreat length, and decided by a majority of tr.e Judges infavour of the crown. The prisoners then pleaded Not Guilty.That day fortnight, the twenty-ninth of June, was fixed fortheir trial. In the meantime they were allowed to be at largeon their own recognisances. The crown lawyers acted pru-dently in not requiring sureties. For Halifax had arrangedthat twenty-one temporal peers of the highest considerationshould be ready to put in bail, three for each defendant; andsuch a manifestation of the feeling of the nobility would havebeen no slight blow to the government. It was also knownthat one of the most opulent Dissenters of the City hadbegged that he might have the honour of gjving security forKen.

The Bishops were now permitted to depart to their ownhomes. The common people, who did not understand thenature of the legal proceedings which had taken place in theKing’s Bench, and who saw that their favourites had beenbrought to Westminster Hall in custody and were suffered togo away in freedom, imagined that the good cause was pro-spering. Loud acclamations were raised. The steeples ofthe churches sent forth joyous peals. Sprat was amazed tohear the bells of his own Abbey ringing merrily. He promptlysilenced them: but his interference caused much angry mut-tering. The Bishops found it difficult to escape from theimportunate crowd of their well-wishers. Lloyd was detainedin Palace Yard by admirers who struggled to touch his handsand to kiss the skirt of his robe, till Clarendon, with somedifficulty, rescued him and conveyed him home by a bye path.Cartwright, it is said, was so unwise as to mingle with thecrowd. Some person who saw his episcopal habit asked andreceived his blessing. A bystander cried out, “Do you knowwho blessed you?” “Surely,” said he who had just been