ne, perhaps equalling that of ancient
Rome. Had England continued much longer in the same condition, and
under the same government, it is not easy to conceive that he could have
failed of his purpose.

In proportion as these circumstances exalted the French, they excited
indignation among the English, whose animosity, roused by terror,
mounted to a great height against that rival nation. Instead of taking
the lead in the affairs of Europe, Charles, they thought, had, contrary
to his own honor and interest, acted a part entirely subservient to the
common enemy; and in all his measures had either no project at all, or
such as was highly criminal and dangerous. While Spain, Holland, the
emperor, the princes of Germany, called aloud on England to lead them
to victory and to liberty, and conspired to raise her to a station
more glorious than she had ever before attained, her king, from mean,
pecuniary motives, had secretly sold his alliance to Lewis, and was
bribed into an interest contrary to that of his people. His active
schemes in conjunction with France were highly pernicious; his
neutrality was equally ignominious; and the jealous, refractory behavior
of the parliament, though in itself dangerous, was the only remedy for
so many greater ills, with which the public, from the misguided counsels
of the king, was so nearly threatened. Such, were the dispositions
of men's minds at the conclusion of the peace of Nimeguen: and these
dispositions naturally prepared the way for the events which followed.

We must now return to the affairs of Scotland, which we left in some
disorder, after the suppression of the insurrection in 1666. The king,
who at that time endeavored to render himself popular in England,
adopted like measures in Scot-* land, and he intrusted the government
into the hands chiefly of Tweddale and Sir Robert Murray, men of
prudence and moderation. These ministers made it their principal object
to compose the religious differences, which ran so high, and for which
scarcely any modern nation but the Dutch had as yet found the proper
remedy. As rigor and restraint had failed of success in Scotland, a
scheme of comprehension was tried; by which it was intended to diminish
greatly the authority of bishops, to abolish their negative voice in the
ecclesiastical courts, and to leave them little more than the right
of precedency among the Presbyters. But the Presbyterian zealots
entertained great jealousy against this