sting left in the soul by such treatment remains longer, and is productive of more pernicious consequences to the peace and welfare of a country, than superficial observers can conceive.

How insignificant a circumstance will sometimes set a whole nation in a flame, especially when the tinderbox of the clergy is well provided with every material, and their skill and strength are exerted in the matter ! The ignorance of the mass of the labouring people, and of many of those above them, was deplorably great. Ignorance is the fruitful mother of bigotry and false zeal and the cause of that religion which can be promoted by blasphemy, drunkenness, and debauchery could not have found more able champions, whose ardour increased with their intoxication and excesses, and who, in proportion as they grew more wicked, became more fervid in their zeal".

To the ignorance of the mass of the people, which rendered them the easy prey of a religious demagogue, a failure of the preceding harvest gave an additional stimulus. Provisions were remarkably dear. The labouring classes were very much straitened, and doubtless the long continuance of the war, which was justly become unpopular, tended to sour their minds, and to prepare them for a public manifestation of their discontent. This ill-humour was heightened by a circumstance which brought great odium on the ministry, though no blame could be justly attached to their conduct. In the preceding year, a considerable number of Germans, driven from the Palatinate, their native soil, by distress, sought refuge in England, which, greatly to its honour, has often been the asylum of the miserable, and were entertained, both by the public, and by individuals, with great benevolence and compassion. That the country should be sensibly affected by acts of hospitality to a few thousand strangers is absurdity itself. But the labouring people thought so; and finding provisions dear, they fancied that an encampment of Palatines in the vicinity of the metropolis was the cause. As they were fed at the public expense, the ministers of state were the authors of the sufferings of the poor

The sufferings of the dissenters, by lawless mobs, were but the beginning of sorrows. It was the object of the tories to crush them entirely, and such would have been the effect, as it was the design of Sacheverell's triumph, had not death been their friend, and by one stroke of his hand frustrated all the purposes, and all the wishes of their enemies.

Queen Anne regularly attended Dr. Sacheverell's trial. Her heart, from nature and education, was with the tories: circumstances, however, had hitherto kept her in the hands of the whigs, who are accused of not having treated her with all the respect which was due. But the timidity of her natural disposition, and the fear of evils from a change, had hitherto detained her in their power. Their arguments on the trial were not much calculated to gratify her taste. To be told that she derived her authority from the people, that her best title to the crown depended on acts of parliament, and that in case of oppression subjects might resist, and dethrone the tyrant, were political dogmas which it required a far stronger mind

English. Their displeasure was heightened by another consideration: these poor people were not of the church of England, and it was an aggravation of the crime to take its children's bread, and give it to foreign presbyterian dogs. These causes of discontent were fomented by the industry of the tories, who asked, if they did not see that it was the design of the whig administration, by introducing, and afterwards naturalizing, so many foreigu protestants, to increase the number of dissenters, and thus first weaken, and afterwards overthrow the established church. Such politicians as the labouring people of that day, were better qualified to believe than to reason; and by the heartiness of a belief, which was not without its corresponding works, they were prepared to advocate the cause of Sacheverell, in all those ways which zeal of heart and violence of hands required. The Londoners gave the tone to the minds of their brethren in the country.

than Anne's to relish and approve, They must have shocked all the tory feelings of a frame in which the blood of the Stewarts flowed with so strong a tide. On the other hand, the assertions of Sacheverell and his adherents, that rulers derive their power from God, and are accountable to him alone, and that resistance, in any case to their authority, is a damnable sin, must have been sweeter to her taste than honey from the honey-comb. The marked attachment which so large a portion of the people shewed for the supporters of these opinions, and the odium which fell so heavily on the whigs, as materially to affect both their character and influence, emboldened the queen to shake off that party, under whose direction she had hitherto acted, and to throw herself into the arms of the tories".

"The soul of Anne was cast in the same mould as her father's. They thought and felt alike: but the object of their idolatry was different: James's was the church of Rome, Anne's the church of England. Exceedingly limited in its capacities, it seemed framed for being the seat of a bigotted attachment to her religious system; and this disposition was cherished under the tuition of Compton, bishop of London. Finding a mind adapted to his purpose, he crammed it full of those narrow principles which are not unbecoming a monk in his cell, but are inconceivably pernicious to a sove reign on the throne. A nation, which commits the education of the heir apparent of the crown to a bigot for a religious sect, is sowing hemlock to poison the next generation, and is planting woe for them to reap. A wrong bias given to the youthful mind, may retard or prevent the happiness of millions; and may keep alive the flame of religious animosity among different sects, so as considerably to diminish the strength and endanger the safety of the country. The same pupil, under the fostering care of a Tillotson, or a Burnet, by acquiring from the dignified tutor an enlarged mind, and a liberal heart, would have treated all with kindness, and united all in the bonds, at least, of forbearance and affection, of harmony and peace.

A step so bold, and so important, could not be effectually taken without a new parliament, which though some partial changes in administration soon appeared, was necessary to an entire alteration in the system. This measure was considerably facilitated by that tone which the trial of Sacheverell gave to the public mind. The clergy heightened the effect by their discourses; and while preparations were made for the dissolution, they strenuously recommended both from the pulpit, and in their private intercourse with their parishioners, candidates who were zealous for Dr. Sacheverell and their church. Such is the testimony borne by bishop Burnet, whose office and situation enabled him to judge and to speak with certainty on the subject. A tory ministry, and a tory house of commons, were Sacheverell's bequest to his country. The value of the legacy, with respect to the dissenters, will be seen in the following pages: and their power will be found to have been exercised with as little honour to their country, as tenderness to the dissenting body. Harley, St. John, Harcourt, and others of the same spirit, now filled the chief offices of state, and had the sole direction of public affairs.

The first thing under their administration which affected the dissenters, was the introduction of the old bill against occasional conformity. For seven years it had slept, but from the complexion of the times fears were entertained that it would awake again;

Such a spirit of violence prevailed through all the country, that thousands of whigs, from a regard to personal safety, dared not exercise their right of election; and many, who did, suffered severely for their boldness. Burnet, vol. II. p. 554.

and these fears were increased by the political changes that took place in consequence of Sacheverell's triumph, which brought their enemies into power. Nor were they vain; for though the business was not immediately taken up, it was not lost sight of; and on the fifteenth of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eleven, the earl of Nottingham, a zealous suppporter of the church, who had lately gone over to the whigs, brought into the house of Lords a bill which embraced the object for which the tories had been so long earnestly struggling. It was entitled "an act for preserving the protestant religion, by better securing the church of England, and for confirming the toleration granted to protestant dissenters by an act for supplying the defects thereof." From a lord, whose word of honour, on account of the superior dignity of nobility, is equal to another man's oath, who would expect to find that in a bill with such a title, it was proposed to be enacted, "if any person who filled an office or place of trust and profit under government, and common-council men in corporations, who should be present at any meeting for divine worship, where there were more than ten persons besides the family, in which the liturgy was not used, should, upon conviction, forfeit the said office and place of trust and profit; and continue incapable of enjoying any such situation, till he should be able to make oath, that he had not been present at any conventicle during a whole year, and in that time had at least thrice received the Lord's supper according to the rites and usage of the church of England."

That the tories, who had never concealed their enmity to dissenters, should introduce such a bill, was naturally to be expected. It was the boon