204

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

vm.

1688 .

Peculiarstate ofpublicfeeling aithis time,

against the rioters. Many of them, mostly young apprentices,■were apprehended; but the bills were thrown out at theMiddlesex sessions. The magistrates, many of whom wereRoman Catholics, expostulated with the grand jury and sentthem three or four times back, but to no purpose.*

Meanwhile the glad tidings were flying to every part of thekingdom, and were everywhere received with rapture.‘Gloucester, Bedford, and Lichfield, were among the placeswhich were distinguished by peculiar zeal: but Bristol andNorwich, which stood nearest to London in population andwealth, approached nearest to London in enthusiasm on thisjoyful occasion.

The prosecution of the Bishops is an event which standsby itself in our history. It was the first and the last occasionon which two feelings of tremendous potency, two feelingswhich have generally been opposed to each other, and either.of which, when strongly excited, has sufficed to convulse thestate, wei-e united in perfect harmony. Those feelings werelove of the Church and love of freedom. During many genera-tions every violent outbreak of High Church feeling, withone exception, has been unfavourable to civil liberty; everyviolent outbreak of zeal for liberty, with one exception, hasbeen unfavourable to the authority and influence of the pre-lacy and the priesthood. In 1688 the cause of the hierarchywas for a moment that of the popular party. More* than ninethousand clergymen, with the Primate and his most respect-able suffragans at their head, offered themselves to endurebonds and the spoiling of their goods for the great funda-mental principle of our free constitution. The effect was acoalition which included the most zealous Cavaliers, the mostzealous Republicans, and all the intermediate sections of thecommunity. The spirit which had supported Hampden in thepreceding generation, the spirit which, in the succeedinggeneration, supported Sacheverell, combined to support theArchbishop who was Hampden and Sacheverell in one. Those

* Reresby’s Memoirs; Cilters, July T J j. 1688; Adda, July T V; Barillon,July h -; Lutlrell’s Diary; Newsletter of July i .; Oldmixon, 139.; EllisCorrespondence.