see him. The character
of Street makes it impossible to believe that he would have been more
scrupulous than his brethren. The character of James makes it impossible
to believe that a refractory Baron of the Exchequer would have been
permitted to retain his post. There can be no reasonable doubt that the
dissenting Judge was, like the plaintiff and the plaintiff's counsel,
acting collusively. It was important that there should be a great
preponderance of authority in favour of the dispensing power; yet it
was important that the bench, which had been carefully packed for the
occasion, should appear to be independent. One Judge, therefore,
the least respectable of the twelve, was permitted, or more probably
commanded, to give his voice against the prerogative. [86]

The power which the courts of law had thus recognised was not suffered
to lie idle. Within a month after the decision of the King's Bench
had been pronounced, four Roman Catholic Lords were sworn of the Privy
Council. Two of these, Powis and Bellasyse, were of the moderate
party, and probably took their seats with reluctance and with many sad
forebodings. The other two, Arundell and Dover, had no such misgivings.
[87]

The dispensing power was, at the same time, employed for the purpose
of enabling Roman Catholics to hold ecclesiastical preferment. The new
Solicitor readily drew the warrants in which Sawyer had refused to be
concerned. One of these warrants was in favour of a wretch named Edward
Sclater, who had two livings which he was determined to keep at all
costs and through all changes. He administered the sacrament to his
parishioners according to the rites of the Church of England on Palm
Sunday 1686. On Easter Sunday, only seven days later, he was at mass.
The royal dispensation authorised him to retain the emoluments of his
benefices. To the remonstrances of the patrons from whom he had received
his preferment he replied in terms of insolent defiance, and, while the
Roman Catholic cause prospered, put forth an absurd treatise in defence
of his apostasy. But, a very few weeks after the Revolution, a great
congregation assembled at Saint Mary's in the Savoy, to see him received
again into the bosom of the Church which he had deserted. He read his
recantation with tears flowing from his eyes, and pronounced a bitter
invective against the Popish priests whose arts had seduced him. [88]

Scarcely less infamous was the conduct of Obadiah Walker. He was