JAMES THE SECOND

87

The Commons went into committee without delay, and5? A -''-

, J 1685 .

voted to the King, for life, the whole revenue enjoyed by his Tbe rc-brother. devoted.

The zealous churchmen who formed the majority of the proceod-House seem to liaye been of opinion that the promptitude !”l s com-with which they had met the wish of James J touching the ™eni-revenue, entitled them to expect some concession on his part. ' 6 n J n ro11 'They said that much had been done to gratify him, and thatthey must now do something to gratify the nation. TheHouse, therefore, resolved itself into a Committee of Re-ligion, in order to consider the best means of providing forthe security of the ecclesiastical establishment. In that Com-mittee two resolutions were unanimously adopted. The firstexpressed fervent attachment to the Church of England.

The second called on the King to put in execution the penallaws against all persons who were not members of thatChurch.**

The Whigs would doubtless have wished to see the Pro-testant dissenters tolerated, and the Roman Catholics alonepersecuted. Rut the Whigs were a small and a disheartenedminority. They therefore kept themselves as much as pos-sible out of sight, dropped their party name, abstained fromobtruding their peculiar opinions on a hostile audience, andsteadily supported every proposition tending to disturb theharmony which as yet subsisted between the Parliament andthe Court.

When the proceedings of the Committee of Religion wereknown at Whitehall, the King’s anger was great. Nor canwe justly blame him for resenting the conduct of the Tories.

If they were disposed to require the rigorous execution of thepenal code, they clearly ought to have supported the Ex-clusion Bill. For to place a Papist on the throne, and then to

* Journals, May 22. Slat. Jac. II. i. t.

*• Journals, May 26, 27. Sir J. Reresby’s Memoirs.