The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1865-01-27

time to land in Ireland. All the leading
statesmen and divines in England were to
be murdered. Three or four schemes had
been formed for assassinating the king.
He was to be stabbed. He was to be pois.
oned in his medicine. He was to be shot
with silver bullets. The public mind was
so sore and excsab!e that these lies rcad.
~ found credit with the vulgar; and two
events which speedily took place led even
some rejecting men to suspect that the
tale, though evidently distorted and exag-
gerated, might have some foundation.
Edmund Coleman, very busy and not
very honest Roman Catholic intriguer, had
been among the persons accused. Search
was made for his papers. 1t was found
that he had destroyed the greater part of
them. But few which had escaped,
contained some passages which, to minds
strongly prepossessed, might seem to con-
firm the evidence of Oates. Those passa-
ges, indeed, when candidly construed, ap-
pear to express little more than the hopes
which the posture of affairs, the prediec-
tons of Charles, the still stronger predi-
lections of James, aud the relations exist
ing between the French and English
courts, might naturally excite in the mind
of Roman Catholic strongly attached to
the interests of bis church. But the coun-
try was not then inclined to copstrue the
letters of Papists candidly; and it Was
urged, with some show of reason, that, if
papers which had been passed over as un-
important were filled with matter SO suspi-
cious, some great mystery of iuiquity must
have been contained in those documents
which had been carefully committed to
the flames
The capital and the whole nation went
mad with hatred and fear. The penal
laws, which had begun to lose something
of their edge, were sharpened anew
Everywhere justices were busted in search
ing houses and Selling papers. A the
jails were filled with Papists. London
had the aspect of city in state Of siege.
The train bands were under arms all
night. Preparations were made for barri-
cading the great thoroughfares. Patrols
marched up and down the street. Can
non we're planted round Whitehall. No
citizen thought himself safe unless he car
ried under his coat small fail loaded
with lead to brain the Popish assassins.
The houses insisted that "a guard should
be placed in the vaults over which they
sat, in order to secure them against Sc
cond Gunpowder Plot. All their proceed
ings were of piece with this demand
To such temper had eighteen years of
misgosernment brought the most loyal
Parliament that had ever met in Eng
land.
Meanwhile, the courts of justice, which
ought to be, in the midst of political com.
motions, sure places of refuge for the in
nocent OF every party, were disgraced by
wilder passions aud fouler corruptions than
were found even ON the hustings. The tale
of Oates, though it had sufficed to convulse
the whole realm, would not, until confirmed
by other evidence, suffice to destroy the
humblest of those whom he had accused.
For, by the old law of England, two wit
nesses are necessary to establish a charge
Of treason But the success of the first
imposture produced its natural conse
quences. In few weeks he had been
raised from penury and obscurity to opu
lence, to power, which made him the
dread of princes and mobiles, and to noto-
riety such as has for low and hard minds
all the attractiveness Of glory. He was
not long without coadjutors and rivals. A
wretch named Carstairs who had earned a
living in Scotland by going disguised te
conventicles and then Informing against
the preachers, led the way. Bedloe, {
noted swindler, followed and soon from
all the brothels, gambling houses, anC
spunging houses of London, false witness
es poured forth to swear away the lives o
Roman Catholics. One came with "a story
about an army of 10000 men, who were
to muster in the disguise of pilgrims a
Corunna, and to sail theuce to Wales -
Another had been promised canonizatior
and five hundred pounds to murder tn,
king. A third had stepped into an eating
house in Convent garden, and had Their
heard a great Roman Catholic banker VOW
in the hearing Of all the CUES and draw
ers, to kill the beretical tyrant Oates
that he might not be eclipsed by his imi.
itators, soon added large supplement tt
his original narrative. He had the por
tentous impudence to affirm, among othe
things, that he had once stood behind ;
door which was ajar, and had there over
heard the queen declare that she had re
solved to give Der consent to the assassina
ton of her husband. The vulgar believ
ed, and the highest magistrates pretended
to believe, even such fictions as these
The chief judges of the realm were cor
rupt, cruel and timid. The leaders of tn
country party encouraged the prevailing
delusion. The most respectable among
them, indeed, were themselves so far de
luded as to believe the greater part of tn
evidence of the plot to be true. Sucf
men as Shaftesbury and Buckingham
doubtless perceived that the whole was I
romance. But it was romance which
served their turn, and to their scared con
science the death of an Innocent man gav'