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The history of England from the accession of James II
by Baron Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay
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Excerpt:
Some of those who were about the king advised him not, on the eve of the meeting of parliament, to'drive, the'.anost tloquent and ttccomplished statesman of the age injtosepposkion. They, represented' thajt Halifax loved .the dignity,..snai emohif who had his ear gave him advice which he was but too willing to take. They represented to him that his rigorous policy had been eminently successful, that little or no resistance had been made to his will, that thousands of Huguenots had already been converted, that, if he would take the one decisive step which yet remained, those who were still obstinate would speedily submit, France would be purged from the taint of heresy, and her prince would have earned a heavenly crown not less glorious than that of Saint Lewis. These arguments prevailed. The final blow was struck. The edict of Nantes was revoked; and a crowd of decrees against the sectaries appeared in rapid succession. Boys and girls were torn from their parents and sent to be educated in convents. All Calvinistic ministers were commanded either to abjure their religion or to quit their country within a fortnight. The other professors of the reformed faith were forbidden to leave the kingdom; and, in order to prevent them from making their escape, the outports and frontiers were strictly guarded. It was thought that the flocks, thus separated from the evil shepherds, would soon return to the true fold. But in spite of allthe vigilance of the military police there was a vast emigration. It was calculated that, in a few months, fifty thousand families quitted France forever. Nor were the refugees such as a' country can well spare. They were generally persons of intelligent minds, of industrious habits, and of austere morals. In the list are to be found names eminent in war, in science, in literature, and in art. Sotne of the exiles offered their swords to William of Orange, and distinguished themselves by the fury with which they fought against their persecutor.Others avenged themselves with weapons still more formidable, and, by means of the presses of Holland, England, and Germany, inflamed, during thirty years, the public mind of Europe against the French government. A more peaceful class erected silk manufactories in the eastern suburb of London. One detachment of emigrants taught the Saxons to make the stuffs and hats of which France had hitherto enjoyed a monopoly. Another planted the first vines in the neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope.*
...ft Council Book. The erasure is dated Oct. 21, 1686. Halifax to Chesterfield; Barillon, Oct. f§.
. t Barillon, ££f, 1685; Le"wfa to Barillon, ^; Nov. •&•
J There is a remarkable account of the tirst appearance of th* tymptoms of discontent among t;ie Tories in a letter of Halifax to Chesterfield, written in October, 1685. Buraot, i. 6JJI.
In ordinary circumstances the courts of Spain and of Rome
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* The contemporary tracU in various languages on the subject of this persecution, are innumerable. An eminently clear, terse, and spirited summary will be found in Voltaire'* Siecle de Louh XIV. would nave eagerly applauded a prince who 'had made vigorous war on heresy. But such was the hatred inspired by the injustice and haughtiness of Lewis, that, when he became a persecutor, the 'Courts of Spain and Rome took the side of religious liberty, and loudly reprobated the cruelty of turning a savage and licentious soldiery loose on an unoffending people.* One cry of grief and rage rose from the whole of Protestant Europe. The tidings of the revocation of the edict of Nantes reached England about a week before the day to which the parliament stood adjourned. It was clear then that the spirit of Gardiner and of Alva was still the spirit of the Roman Catholic. Church. Lewis was not inferior to James in generosity and humanity, and was certainly far superior to James in all the abilities and acquirements of a statesman. Lewis had, like James, repeatedly promised to respect the privileges of his Protestant subjects. Yet Lewis was now avowedly a persecutor of the reformed religion. What reason was there, then, to doubt that James waited only for an opportunity to follow the example? He was already forming, in defiance of the law, a military force officered to a gWart extent by Roman Catholics. Was there any thing- unreasonable in the appretension that this force might ho employed to do what the' French dragoons had done }i "••« i'-~f- .wwuii Sdubi'-j il-jjjiup James was almost as much disturbed as his subjects liif-lhtf conduct of the court of Versailles. In truth, that court had acted as if it had meant to embarrass and annoy him. He. was about to ask from a Protestant legislature a full toleration for Roman Catholics. Nothing, therefore, could be more un welcome to him than the intelligence that, in a neighboring country, toleration had just been withdrawn by a Roman Cath-' olic government from Protestants. His vexation was increased by a speech which the Bishop of Valence, in 'the name 'of the: Gallican clergy, addressed at this time to Lewis the Fourteenth.-' The pious sovereign of England, the orator said, looked to the Most Christian king, the eldest son of flie Church, for support against an heretical nation. It was remarked that the members of the House of Commons showed particular anxiety to
