that they were under no oath or obligation which rendered such desertion liable to serious punishment. But James determined to punish them, even condignly, in order to strike a sufficient terror into the whole army. He consulted the judges as to whether he did not possess this power; they said that he did not. Instead of accepting this answer, James dismissed Herbert, the chief justice of the King's Bench, Sir John Holt, another judge of the same bench and recorder of London, and put in their places Sir Robert Wright, a creature of Jeffreys', a man of ruined and base character, Richard Allibone, and Sir Bartholomew Shower as recorder. With these infamous instruments he went to work; and, instead of trying the offenders by court-martial, he brought them before these men in the King's Bench and in the Old Bailey, and hanged them in sight of their regiments. By these outrages on every law and principle of constitutional safety James thought he had terrified the army into obedience; and he now attacked the very existence of the universities, in order to give the education of the country into the hands of popery.
James commenced his encroachments on the universities by ordering one Alban Francis, a Benedictine monk, to be admitted a master of arts in that of Cambridge. That many persons not strictly admissible by the rules of the university had received honorary degrees, including foreigners of different forms of faith, and even a Turk, was indisputable; but the object of these favours was so clear that no mischief could arise from the practice. But now the universities were but too well aware that James aimed at a thorough usurpation of these schools by the catholics, to lightly pass the matter by. The heads of colleges sent hastily to Albemarle, their chancellor, begging him to explain to the king that the person named could not be admitted according to the statutes; at the same time they conceded so far as to offer to admit Francis on his taking the oaths of supremacy and obedience. He refused. James menaced the authorities, but in vain, and he summoned them before the High Commission Court. John Pechell, the vice-chancellor of the university, attended by eight fellows, including tin illustrious Isaac Newton—afterwards Sir Isaac—appeared, and were received by Jeffreys with all his devilish bluster. Pechell was soon terrified at this most brutal monster, whose employment alone would have sufficiently stamped the character of James; and, when any of the other fellows attempted to speak, Jeffreys roared out, "You are not vice-chancellor; when you are, you may talk; till then, hold your tongue." Finding, however, that, though he could embarrass, he could not bend the vice-chancellor, Jeffreys, by order of James, declared Pechell dismissed from the office of vice-chancellor, and all his emoluments suspended. This was a gross violation of the rights of the university, and Jeffreys added to the outrage a piece of his usually blasphemous advice to the fellows—" Go your way and sin no more, lest a worse thing befall you."
The decease of the president of Magdalene College, Oxford, enabled James to follow up his plans without loss of time. Magdalene was one of the very richest of the English foundations, and consisted of a president, forty fellows, and thirty scholars, called Demies. It was the law of the foundation that the president could only be elected from those who were or had been members of that college, or of New College. The president died in March, 1687, and the 13th of April was fixed for the election of the new one. A Dr. Smith, a learned orientalist, and an enthusiastically loyal man, applied for the royal consent, but was informed that the king was determined to give it only to one of his own religion; and, to the astonishment and disgust of the college, one Anthony Farmer was named as the royal nominee. The choice seemed made to insult the university in the highest degree possible, for not only was Farmer a popish convert, but a man of the most drunken, debauched, and infamous character who could have been picked from the vilest haunts of unameable wickedness. The astounded fellows humbly but earnestly remonstrated, but in vain. On the appointed day, spite of the king's positive injunctions, and the presence of his agent, the choice fell on a distinguished and highly virtuous member of the college, John Hough.
The irate king summoned the fellows before the beastly Jeffreys and the High Commission, as he had summoned the heads of the university of Cambridge. There Jeffreys exhibited his constant display of insufferable Billingsgate; and when Dr. Fairfax, one of the fellows, had the boldness to call in question the legality of the High Commission, he lost all patience. "Who is this man? What commission has he to be impudent here? Seize him; put him into a dark room. What does he do without a keeper? He is under my care as a lunatic. I wonder nobody has applied to me for the custody of him." But, after all, the character of Farmer was shown to be so vilely reprobate, that he was dropped, and the college ordered to receive Dr. Parker, bishop of Oxford.
Parker was not an openly acknowledged papist, but was understood to be really one; but he was neither a fellow of Magdalene nor New College, and the fellows were firm enough to stand by their own election of Dr. Hough. James determined to go in person to Oxford and overawe these obstinate men; and he was the more bent upon it, having in the meantime suffered a similar defeat in endeavouring to force a catholic into the hospital connected with the Charterhouse school. The trustees refused, and were called before Jeffreys. There he began browbeating the master, Thomas Burnet, but was unexpectedly opposed by the venerable duke of Ormond. At this the bully swagger of this most hideous and contemptible judge that ever sat on a bench at once gave way, for he had no real courage. He stole from the court, and the scheme failed for the day. But the High Commission having sentenced Hough to be deposed from the presidentship of Magdalene, and Fairfax from his fellowship, again met, and summoned the trustees of the Charterhouse. Here again they were awed by a letter addressed to the king, signed by the trustees, including the names of Ormond, Halifax, Danby, and Nottingham, the chiefs of all the great parties who secured to James his crown, and still by their forbearance kept it on his head, so that they were compelled to pause before proceeding further.
On the 16th of August James set out on a progress, with every display of royal state which could impress on the minds of his subjects an idea of his kingly security. He proceeded to Portsmouth, Southampton, Bath; thence by Gloucester and Worcester to Ludlow, Shrewsbury, and Chester; whence
