150 
JAMES IL. 
artfully confused the two transactions so as to make it appear that the 
accused were involved in the guilt of the Rye-House Plot. Russell 
and Sidney were executed. Kssex, another conspirator, cut his throat 
in prison. Haımpden was convieted of a misdemeanor, Monmouth 
was banished. 
27. Circumstances now enabled the King to recall his brother from 
exile, and, in spite of the Test Act, restore to him the 
Death of „mmand of the navy. Danby and other victims of the 
Charles IL. en „ ; . 
exclusion frenzy” were released from imprisonment, 
The King was never in gayer humor. But on the 2nd of February 
1685, he was suddenly smitten down with apoplexy, and on the tth he 
was dead. 
HOUSE OF STUART. JAMES Il. 
1685 to 1688 A.D. 
CHAPTER XLL 
1. All attempts to deprive the Duke of York of his right to the 
guccession having failed, that Prince now ascended the 
Mosel 9? £hrone under the title of James II, With his Queen, 
Mary of Modena, he was crowned on April 23rd, 1685, 
2. James Il. began to reign with the nation as a whole strongly 
prepossessed in his favor. He was not personally popu- 
Pharneter Jar like his brother Charles, but he had a reputation for 
opinions of sincerity and earnestness which commanded public con- 
James Il. fidence. As a naval officer he had displayed both skill 
and courage; and as a man of business he had proved 
himself methodienl and accurate, A devoted Roman Catholic, he 
differed in religion from the great majority of his subjects; but he had 
gained respect by firmly adhering to his principles under trying circum- 
stances. Irom his father and his grandfather he had inherited high 
notions of the royal prerogative, His own nature was somewhat arbi- 
trary and self-willed He had little of the tact which enabled his brother 
to escape difficulties greater perhaps than ever surrounded himself, 
AN proper efforts to secure fair treatment for his proseribed co-religion- 
ists merit our approval, but even one who has no sympathy wich the 
spirit of the penal laws which then oppressed the Catholies must seo 
the folly of attempting to set aside summarily those laws by an exer- 
ciso of the royal prerogative, 
3. The first and oly Parliament of James’s reign met a few weeks 
Parliament after his coronation. The King had previously assured 
* his Council that he intended to maintain the laws in- 
violate, and uphold the rights of the Church of England. "This 
promise had sent a thrill of loyal enthusiasm through the country,