CHAP. 1671. THE Commons passed another bill for laying a duty on tobacco, Scotch salt, glasses, and some other commodities. Against this bill the merchants of London appeared by petition before the house of lords. The lords entered into their reasons, and began to make amendments on the bill sent up by the commons. This attempt was highly resented by the lower house, as an encroachment on the right, which they pretended to pass alone, of granting money to the crown. Many remonstrances passed between the two houses; and by their altercations the 228 April. king was obliged to prorogue the parliament; and he thereby lost the money which was intended him. This is the last time that the peers have revived any pretensions of that nature. Ever since, the privilege of the commons, in all other places except in the house of peers, has passed for uncontroverted. THERE was a private affair, which, during this sessions, disgusted the house of commons, and required some pains to accommodate it. The usual method of those who opposed the court in the money bills was, if they failed in the main vote, as to the extent of the supply, to levy the money upon such funds as they expected would be unacceptable, or would ⚫ prove a nobleman, the tenor of whose life was so unexceptionable, and who, by restoring the ancient and legal and free government to three kingdoms, plunged in the most destructive anarchy, may safely be said to be the subject in these islands, who, since the beginning of time, rendered the most durable and most essential services to his native country. The means also, by which he atchieved his great undertakings, were almost entirely unexceptionable. His temporary dissimulation, being absolutely necessary, could scarcely be blameable. He had received no trust from that mongrel, pretended usurping parliament whom he dethroned; therefore could betray none. He even refused to carry his dissimulation so far as to take the oath of abjuration against the king. I confess, however, that the Rev. Dr. Douglas has shown me, from the Clarendon papers, an original letter of his to sir Arthur Hazelrig, containing very earnest, and certainly false protestations, of his zeal for a commonwealth. It is to be lamented that so worthy a man, and of such plain manners, should ever have found it necessary to carry his dissimulation to such a height. His family ended with his son. 66 LXV. prove deficient. It was proposed to lay an imposi- CHAP. tion upon playhouses: the courtiers objected, that the players were the king's servants, and a part of 1671. his pleasure. Sir John Coventry, a gentleman of the country party, asked, "whether the king's pleasure lay among the male or the female players?" This stroke of satire was aimed at Charles, who, besides his mistresses of higher quality, entertained at that time two actresses, Davis and Nell Gwin. The king received not the raillery with the good humour which might have been expected. It was said, that this being the first time that respect to majesty had been publicly violated, it was necessary, by some severe chastisement, to make Coventry an example to all who might incline to tread in his footsteps. Sands, Obrian, and some other officers of the guards, were ordered to way-lay him, and to set a mark upon him. He defended himself with bravery, and after wounding several of the assailants, was disarmed with some difficulty. They cut his nose to the bone, in order, as they said, to teach him what respect he owed to the king. The commons were inflamed by this indignity offered to one of their members, on account of words spoken in the house. They passed a law, which made it capital to maim any person; and act. they enacted, that those criminals, who had assaulted Coventry, should be incapable of receiving a pardon from the crown. Coventry THERE was another private affair transacted about this time, by which the king was as much exposed to the imputation of a capricious lenity, as he was here blamed for unnecessary severity. Blood, a disbanded officer of the protector's, had been engaged in the conspiracy for raising an insurrection in Ireland; and on account of this crime he himself had been attainted, and some of his accomplices capitally punished. The daring villain meditated revenge Blood's upon Ormond, the lord lieutenant. Having by ar- crimes. 1671. CHA P. tifice drawn off the duke's footmen, he attacked his LXV. coach in the night-time, as it drove along St. James's street in London; and he made himself master of his person. He might here have finished the crime, had he not meditated refinements in his vengeance: He was resolved to hang the duke at Tyburn; and for that purpose bound him, and mounted him on horseback behind one of his companions. They were advanced a good way into the fields; when the duke, making efforts for his liberty, threw himself to the ground, and brought down with him the assassin to whom he was fastened. They were struggling together in the mire, when Ormond's servants, whom the alarm had reached, came and saved him. Blood and his companions, firing their pistols in a hurry at the duke, rode off, and saved themselves by means of the darkness. BUCKINGHAM was at first, with some appearances of reason, suspected to be the author of this attempt. His profligate character, and his enmity against Ormond, exposed him to that imputation. Ossory soon after came to court; and seeing Buckingham stand by the king, his colour rose, and he could not forbear expressing himself to this purpose: "My lord, "I know well that you are at the bottom of this late "attempt upon my father: But I give you warn"ing; if by any means, he come to a violent end, "I shall not be at a loss to know the author: I shall "consider you as the assassin: I shall treat you as such; and wherever I meet you, I shall pistol you, though you stood behind the king's chair; " and I tell it you in his majesty's presence, that you may be sure I shall not fail of performance." If there was here any indecorum, it was easily excused in a generous youth, when his father's life was exposed to danger. 66 i Carte's Ormond, vol. ii. p. 225. A LITTLE i LXV. 1671. A LITTLE after, Blood formed a design of carry- CHAP. ing off the crown and regalia from the Tower; a design to which he was prompted, as well by the surprising boldness of the enterprise, as by the views of profit. He was near succeeding. He had bound and wounded Edwards, the keeper of the jewel-office, and had gotten out of the Tower with his prey; but was overtaken and seized, with some of his associates. One of them was known to have been concerned in the attempt upon Ormond; and Blood was immediately concluded to be the ring-leader. When questioned, he frankly avowed the enterprise; but refused to tell his accomplices. "The fear "of death," he said, "should never engage him, ei"ther to deny guilt, or betray a friend." All these extraordinary circumstances made him the general subject of conversation; and the king was moved, by an idle curiosity, to see and speak with a person so noted for his courage and his crimes. Blood might now esteem himself secure of pardon; and he wanted not address to improve the opportunity. He told Charles, that he had been engaged, with others, in a design to kill him with a carabine above Battersea, where his majesty often went to bathe: That the cause of this resolution was the severity exercised over the consciences of the godly, in restraining the liberty of their religious assemblies: That when he had taken his stand among the reeds, full of these bloody resolutions, he found his heart checked with an awe of majesty; and he not only relented himself, but diverted his associates from their purpose: That he had long ago brought himself to an entire indifference about life, which he now gave for lost; yet could he not forbear warning the king of the danger which might attend his execution: That his associates had bound themselves by the strictest oaths to revenge the death of any of the confederacy: And that no precaution or power could secure any one from the effects of their desperate resolutions. WHETHER 1 С НА Р. 1671. WHETHER these considerations excited fear or LXV. admiration in the king, they confirmed his resolution of granting a pardon to Blood; but he thought it a point of decency first to obtain the duke of Ormond's consent. Arlington came to Ormond in the king's name, and desired that he would not prosecute Blood, for reasons which he was commanded to give him. The duke replied, that his majesty's commands were the only reason that could be given; and being sufficient, he might therefore spare the rest. Charles carried his kindness to Blood still farther: He granted him an estate of five hundred pounds ayear in Ireland; he encouraged his attendance about his person; he showed him great countenance, and many applied to him for promoting their pretensions at court. And while old Edwards, who had bravely ventured his life, and had been wounded in defending the crown and regalia, was forgotten and neglected, this man, who deserved only to be stared at, and detested as a monster, became a kind of favourite. Duke declares himself catholic. men. ERRORS of this nature in private life have often as bad an influence as miscarriages in which the public is more immediately concerned. Another incident happened this year, which infused a general displeasure, and still greater apprehensions into all The dutchess of York died; and in her last sickness, she made open profession of the Romish religion, and finished her life in that communion. This put an end to that thin disguise which the duke had hitherto worn; and he now openly declared his conversion to the church of Rome. Unaccountable terrors of popery, ever since the accession of the house of Stuart, had prevailed thoughout the nation; but these had formerly been found so groundless, and had been employed to so many bad purposes, that surmises of this nature were likely to meet with the less credit among all men of sense; and nothing but the duke's imprudent bigotry could have convinced the |