[252] Upon some of the topics touched in the foregoing pages, besides Hale and Foster, see Luders' Considerations on the Law of Treason in Levying War, and many remarks in Phillipps's State Trials; besides much that is scattered through the notes of Mr. Howell's great collection. Mr. Phillipps' work, however, was not published till after my own was written.
[253] Commons' Journals, 9 Jan. and 11 Feb. 1694-5. A bill to the same effect sent down from the Lords was thrown out, 17 April 1695. Another bill was rejected on the second reading in 1697. Id. 3 April.
[254] Somers Tracts, passim. John Dunton the bookseller, in the History of his Life and Errors, hints that unlicensed books could be published by a douceur to Robert Stephens, the messenger of the press, whose business it was to inform against them.
[255] State Trials, xiv. 1103, 1128. Mr. Justice Powell told the Rev. Mr. Stephens, in passing sentence on him for a libel on Harley and Marlborough, that to traduce the queen's ministers was a reflection on the queen herself. It is said, however, that this and other prosecutions were generally blamed; for the public feeling was strong in favour of the liberty of the press. Boyer's Reign of Queen Anne, p. 286.
[256] Pemberton, as I have elsewhere observed, permitted evidence to be given as to the truth of an alleged libel in publishing that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey had murdered himself. And what may be reckoned more important, in a trial of the famous Fuller on a similar charge, Holt repeatedly (not less than five times) offered to let him prove the truth if he could. State Trials, xiv. 534. But, on the trial of Franklin, in 1731, for publishing a libel in the Craftsman, Lord Raymond positively refused to admit of any evidence to prove the matters to be true; and said he was only abiding by what had been formerly done in other cases of the like nature. Id. xvii. 659.
[257] See the pamphlets of that age, passim. One of these, entitled "The Zealous and Impartial Protestant," 1681, the author of which, though well known, I cannot recollect, after much invective, says, "Liberty of conscience and toleration are things only to be talked of and pretended to by those that are under; but none like or think it reasonable that are in authority. 'Tis an instrument of mischief and dissettlement, to be courted by those who would have change, but no way desirable by such as would be quiet, and have the government undisturbed. For it is not consistent with public peace and safety without a standing army; conventicles being eternal nurseries of sedition and rebellion."—P. 30. "To strive for toleration," he says in another place, "is to contend against all government. It will come to this; whether there should be a government in the church or not? for if there be a government, there must be laws; if there be laws, there must be penalties annexed to the violation of those laws; otherwise the government is precarious and at every man's mercy; that is, it is none at all.... The constitution should be made firm, whether with any alterations or without them, and laws put in punctual vigorous execution. Till that is done all will signify nothing. The church hath lost all through remissness and non-execution of laws; and by the contrary course things must be reduced, or they never will. To what purpose are parliaments so concerned to prepare good laws, if the officers who are intrusted with the execution neglect that duty, and let them lie dead? This brings laws and government into contempt, and it were much better the laws were never made; by these the dissenters are provoked, and being not restrained by the exacting of the penalties, they are fiercer and more bent upon their own ways than they would be otherwise. But it may be said the execution of laws of conformity raiseth the cry of persecution; and will not that be scandalous? Not so scandalous as anarchy, schism, and eternal divisions and confusions both in church and state. Better that the unruly should clamour than that the regular should groan, and all should be undone."—P. 33. Another tract, "Short Defence of the Church and Clergy of England, 1679," declares for union (in his own way), but against a comprehension, and still more a toleration. "It is observable that whereas the best emperors have made the severest laws against all manner of sectaries, Julian the apostate, the most subtle and bitter enemy that Christianity ever had, was the man that set up this way of toleration."—P. 87. Such was the temper of this odious faction. And at the time they were instigating the government to fresh severities, by which, I sincerely believe, they meant the pillory or the gallows (for nothing else was wanting), scarce a gaol in England was without nonconformist ministers. One can hardly avoid rejoicing that some of these men, after the revolution, experienced, not indeed the persecution, but the poverty they had been so eager to inflict on others.
The following passage from a very judicious tract on the other side, "Discourse of the Religion of England, 1667," may deserve to be extracted. "Whether cogent reason speaks for this latitude, be it now considered. How momentous in the balance of this nation those protestants are which are dissatisfied in the present ecclesiastical polity. They are everywhere spread through city and country; they make no small part of all ranks and sorts of men; by relations and commerce they are so woven into the nation's interest, that it is not easy to sever them without unravelling the whole. They are not excluded from the nobility, among the gentry they are not a few; but none are of more importance than they in the trading part of the people and those that live by industry, upon whose hands the business of the nation lies much. It hath been noted that some who bear them no good will have said that the very air of corporations is infested with their contagion. And in whatsoever degree they are high or low, ordinarily for good understanding, steadiness and sobriety, they are not inferior to others of the same rank and quality; neither do they want the rational courage of Englishmen."—P. 23.
[258] Parl. Hist. iv. 1311; Ralph, 559.
[259] Baxter; Neal; Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial.
[260] Parl. Hist. v. 263. Some of the tories wished to pass it only for seven years. The high-church pamphlets of the age grumble at the toleration.