pt in the Exchequer apart from other sums till
the Parliament should meet. In this way the King, while violating
the letter of the laws, would show that he wished to conform to their
spirit, Jeffreys gave very different counsel. He advised James to put
forth an edict declaring it to be His Majesty's will and pleasure that
the customs should continue to be paid. This advice was well suited
to the King's temper. The judicious proposition of the Lord Keeper
was rejected as worthy only of a Whig, or of what was still worse,
a Trimmer. A proclamation, such as the Chief Justice had suggested,
appeared. Some people had expected that a violent outbreak of public
indignation would be the consequence; but they were deceived. The spirit
of opposition had not yet revived; and the court might safely venture to
take steps which, five years before, would have produced a rebellion.
In the City of London, lately so turbulent, scarcely a murmur was heard.
[234]

The proclamation, which announced that the customs would still be
levied, announced also that a Parliament would shortly meet. It was not
without many misgivings that James had determined to call the Estates of
his realm together. The moment was, indeed most auspicious for a general
election. Never since the accession of the House of Stuart had the
constituent bodies been so favourably disposed towards the Court.
But the new sovereign's mind was haunted by an apprehension not to be
mentioned even at this distance of time, without shame and indignation.
He was afraid that by summoning his Parliament he might incur the
displeasure of the King of France.

To the King of France it mattered little which of the two English
factions triumphed at the elections: for all the Parliaments which had
met since the Restoration, whatever might have been their temper as to
domestic politics, had been jealous of the growing power of the House of
Bourbon. On this subject there was little difference between the Whigs
and the sturdy country gentlemen who formed the main strength of the
Tory party. Lewis had therefore spared neither bribes nor menaces to
prevent Charles from convoking the Houses; and James, who had from the
first been in the secret of his brother's foreign politics, had, in
becoming King of England, become also a hireling and vassal of France.

Rochester, Godolphin, and Sunderland, who now formed the interior
cabinet, were perfectly aware that their late master had been in
the habi