| OCR Text |
Show 234 ATP..OCIO'CS JUDGES. [ .\. D. lnS.i. king had a fever. Lord J(eepe·r. -" Gentlc1nen, what do you mean ? Can any thing be worse ? " J?irst Pl1ysician." Now we know what to do." Lord Keeper. - '' \Vhat i that? " Second Physician.-" To give hitn the cort ex." The exhibition of J e~uits' bark 'vas sanctioned by the council, but proved fatal, and. being continued, while the poor kinogrew weaker and weaker, at the end of four clay he expired. T'he lord keeper and the council " rere kept in ignorance of the fact that Chiffinch ( accu tomed to be employed on royal errands of a different sort) had been sent for a !{oman Catholic priest, to receive his eonfes. ion and ad mini .. ter the sacraments to him, when he bad declined the spiritual assi. tancc of a bishop of the church of E ngland. The council was still sitling when the news was brought that Charles was no more. After a short in t crvn1, ,Tame:--, who, leaving the death-becl of his brother, had decently engaged in a devotional xercise in his own closet, entered the apartlncnt in which the councillors 'vere asscmolcd, and a ll kneeling down, they Ralutcd hin1 as their Aovere ign. 'Vhcn he hall seated hirn elf in the chair of state, and delivered his declaration, which, with very g raciou expressions, smacked of the a rbitrary principle so soon acted upon, Lord Guilford surrenllcrcd the grPat seal into his hand:, and again r eceived it fron1 hi1n with the fonner title of lonl keeper. JnmC!s would, no doubt, have been 1nuch better pleased to hare t ransferred it to J cffreys ; but it wa. his policy, at the commencement of his reign, to 1nake no change in the adminis· tration, and be de ' ired all pl'e ent to retain the everal charges which they held under his dccea.-ed brother, a .... uring them that he earne::;Lly wished to itnilalc the good and gracious sovereign who e loss they deplored. A. D.1685.] FRAXCI ' NORTH. 235 Jeffreys, though continu ed a 1nember of the cabinet, was probably a good Jeal disn ppoi nled, and he r solved to lea\e nothing undone to mortify the 1nan who stood betvvcen him and his object, and to . tril'e him down a. soon a po sibl . The fir t que .. tion upon whi<'h Jatnc., con~ulted the council was respecting the le,~yino- of the dutie of eu ·t01ns and excise, which had been grant 'd by Parlimnent only during the life of the late king. ,..fhe lord keepC:'r intimating a c1< ar conviction that Parliament would ront inue the grant a.' from the demi 'e of the crown, r eemntnendcd a pro lamation r equiring that the duties should be collected nnd paid into the exchequer, and that the officers . hould keep the product cpm·aLe fi~om other revenues till the next c. sion of Parli::un cnt, in ortler to be dispo -ed of as his n1nje ty and the two house, should think fit. But the lord chief ju, tice r epre. en ted this advice as low and trimming, ~:1d he 1noved that ' his 1nnjcsty 8hould cause his royal p rochuna.tion to issue, com1nanding all officers to collect, and the ubjeets to pay, the~e dutic tor hi , nlaj c-ty's use, as part of the royal r ev en uc." 1"'he lord keeper ventured humbly to a k hi "' majc"' ty to con ider whether uch a proclamation would be for hi., . ervicc, a· j t n1ight g iYe a handle to his maje ty's ene1ni, , to say that hi ... 1naj sty, at the very entrance upon hi govennneni, levied n1o11cy of the ul>ject without the authoriLy of Parlinntent. The chief ju Lice's advice was far more palaLable. 'rbe proclmnation w hi ·h he recommended was therefore ordered to be drawn up, and wa' immediately i ., ned. '.fhc lord keeper had the ba.-cness to affix: the great seal to t his proclamation thinking as he did of it expediency and legality. But rather than r e.-ign or lJe turned out of his office, he \vas ready to concur in any outrage 011 the con. titution, or to submit to any perl-'onal inllignity. |
