JAMES THE SECOND.

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It is remarkable that the most illustrious and the most chap.grossly injured man among the British exiles stood far aloof 16 S 5.from these rash counsels. John Locke hated tyranny and J°b“

. . .. " , y Locke v

persecution as a philosopher; but Ins intellect and his temper

preserved him from the violence of a partisan. He had livedon confidential terms with Shaftesbury, and had thus incurredthe displeasure of the court. Locke’s prudence had, however,been such that it would have been to little purpose to bringhim even before the corrupt and partial tribunals of that age.

In one point, however, he was vulnerable. He was a studentof Christ Church in the University of Oxford. It was deter-mined to drive from that celebrated college the greatest manof whom it could ever boast. But this was not easy. Lockehad, at Oxford, abstained from expressing any opinion onthe politics of the day. Spies had been set about him.Doctors of Divinity and Masters of Arts had not been ashamedto perform the vilest of all offices, that of watching the lipsof a companion in order to report his words to his ruin. Theconversation in the hall had been purposely turned to ir-ritating topics, to the Exclusion Bill, and to the character ofthe Earl of Shaftesbury, but in vain. Locke neither brokeout nor dissembled, but maintained such steady' silence andcomposure as forced the tools of power to own with vexationthat never man was so complete a master of his tongue and ofhis passions. When it was found that treachery could donothing, arbitrary power was used. After vainly' trying toinveigle Locke into a fault, the government resolved topunish him without one. Orders came from Whitehallthat he should be ejected; and those orders the Dean andCanons made haste to obey.

Locke was travelling on the Continent for his health whenhe learned that he had been deprived of his home and of hisbread without a trial or even a notice. The injustice withwhich he had been treated would have excused him if he had

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