Identifier: histofengfromthe01macauoft (find matches)
Title: The history of England, from the accession of James the Second
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron, 1800-1859 Firth, C. H. (Charles Harding), 1857-1936
Subjects: Great Britain -- History James II, 1685-1688 Great Britain -- History William and Mary, 1689-1702
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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, a conqueror, aruler, a persecutor, a sequestrator, had been detested. The Puritan,betrayed and evil entreated, deserted by all the timeservers who, in hisprosperity, had claimed brotherhood with him, hunted from his home,forbidden under severe penalties to pray or receive the sacramentaccording to his conscience, yet still firm in his resolution to obey Godrather than man, was, in spite of some unpleasing recollections, an objectof pity and respect to well constituted minds. These feelings becamestronger when it was noised abroad that the court was not disposed totreat Papists with the same rigour which had been shown to Presby-terians. A vague suspicion that the King and the Duke were notsincere Protestants sprang up and gathered strength. Many persons II UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND 169 too who had been disgusted by the austerity and hypocrisy of theSaints of the Commonwealth began to be still more disgusted by theopen profligacy of the court and of the Cavaliers, and were disposed to
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GENERAL THOMAS DALVELLFrom a mezzotint by C. Turner, after an engraving by Vandrebanc doubt whether the sullen preciseness of Praise God Barebone mightnot be preferable to the outrageous profaneness and licentiousness ofthe Buckinghams and Sedleys. Even immoral men, who were not i7o HISTORY OF ENGLAND chap. utterly destitute of sense and public spirit, complained that the govern-ment treated the most serious matters as trifles, and made trifles itsserious business. A King might be pardoned for amusing his leisurewith wine, wit, and beauty. But it was intolerable that he should sinkinto a mere lounger and voluptuary, that the gravest affairs of stateshould be neglected, and that the public service should be starved andthe finances deranged in order that harlots and parasites might growrich. A large body of Royalists joined in these complaints, and addedmany sharp reflections on the Kings ingratitude. His whole revenue,indeed, would not have sufficed to reward them all in proportion tot

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