The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3

by Mrs. West

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  THE LOYALISTS:

  _AN HISTORICAL NOVEL._

  IN THREE VOLUMES.

  By Jane West

  The Author of "LETTERS TO A YOUNG MAN," "A TALE OF THE TIMES," &c.

  Preserve your Loyalty, maintain your Rights.

  _Inscription on a Column at Appleby._

  Strahan and Preston,Printers-Street, London.

  LONDON:PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,PATERNOSTER-ROW.1812.

  Transcriber's Note: The variant and inconsistant spellings in this text have been retained and Tables of Contents has been created.

  VOLUME I

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.CHAP. II.CHAP. III.CHAP. IV.CHAP. V.CHAP. VI.CHAP. VII.CHAP. VIII.CHAP. IX.CHAP. X.CHAP. XI.

  THE LOYALISTS.

  INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

  Abate the edge of Traitors, gracious Lord, That would reduce these bloody days again, And make poor England weep in streams of blood!

  Shakspeare.

  Those who have but an indifferent banquet to offer, are not usuallyinclined to discourage their guests, by a repulsive bill of fare; yetsurely, when a public invitation is given, there is honesty, andprudence too, in simply stating the kind of regale we are going tospread, lest a palled and sickly appetite should expect stimulants, or aperverted taste should pine for foreign luxuries and modern cookery,when we have nothing to set before them but plain old English food.Church and King now look as obsolete in a publication, as beef andpudding would at a gala dinner; yet let us remember, that as the latterhave fed our heroes from the days of Cressy and Agincourt to the presenttimes, so the former have fashioned minds fit to animate these mightybodies. It is only to those who have a relish for stern virtue and gravereflection, that I would recommend the following pages.

  I have dated this narrative in a peculiarly calamitous period, thoughwell aware that virtue, like happiness, is supposed to flourish most intimes of tranquility. Such times afford no subjects for the historian orthe bard; and even the moralist is often led to revert rather to thosestormy eras which roused the energies of the human soul, and compelledit to assert qualities of which they who have observed only the reposeof domestic life can form no conception. Man, attempting with finitepowers to compass the most stupendous designs in spite of physical ormoral obstacles; submitting to every privation, braving danger anddeath, often even defying omnipotence, and all for the sake of somespeculative tenet, some doubtful advantage, the post of honour burdenedby superlative responsibility, or the eminence of power attended withperpetual care, is an object no less interesting to the philosopher,than it is miraculous to the peasant, who places enjoyment in ease andanimal indulgence. It is on the motives and actions which characterisethis self-denial and enterprise, that the hero and the statesman fixtheir attention; forming their models, and drawing their conclusions,not from the passive inclinations, but from the capabilities of ourspecies, not from what man would or ought to prefer, but from what hehas achieved when stimulated by hope, goaded by ambition, or instigatedby desperation.

  Under the influence of these passions, how often has one restless spiritdisturbed the repose of a prosperous nation, and spread desolation andmisery over the fairest portions of the globe. Does God permit this--andis he righteous? Yes, short-sighted questioner of Omniscience, theFather of the universe is never more conspicuous in his paternal care,than when, by means of temporal afflictions, he draws our regards towardour heavenly country.--Then is death disarmed of the terrors which areplanted round the bed of prosperity; then is the soul freed from thatbondage of sensual delight, which impedes her spiritual exertion. The nolonger pampered body, subdued to spareness, braced by toil, elastic fromexertion, and patient from habit, is not a clog, but a meet companionfor its immortal associate. Prosperity, among many other evils,engenders religious apathy, and luxurious selfishness. She presents agorgeous stage, on which the puppets of vanity and petty ambition acttheir insignificant parts; adversity educates and exercises men.

  Nor is the moral harvest a mere gleaning of good deeds. Where misery andwickedness seem most to abound; where desperadoes and plunderers goforth to destroy and pillage; the passive virtues pray, and endure.Self-devoting generosity then interposes her shield, and magnanimousheroism her sword; benevolence seeks out and consoles distress; theconfessor intercedes with heaven; the patriot sacrifices his fortune andhis comforts; the martyr dies on the scaffold, and the hero in thefield. England hath often witnessed such piteous scenes, and many fearshe is now on the verge of similar calamities, which threaten to cloudher glory from the envy and admiration of foreign nations, making her ataunting proverb of reproach to her enemies, while she points a moral,and adorns a tale, for posterity. May those who govern her wide extendedempire, so study the records of our former woes, and shape theirpolitical course with such single-hearted observance of the unerringlaws of God, as to become, under his Providence, our preservers fromdanger; and may the governed, remembering the tyranny which originatedfrom insubordination; the daring ambition of popular demagogues; thehypocrisy of noisy reformers, and all the certain misery which arisesfrom the pursuit of speculative unattainable perfection, adhere to thoseinstitutions, which have been consecrated with the best blood inEngland, and proved by the experience of ages to be consistent with aslarge a portion of national prosperity, as any people have ever enjoyed.Yet as our offences may prevail over our prayers, let us prepare ourminds for times of trial. The public duties they require, are adapted tothe discussion of that sex, whose physical and mental powers fit it foractive life, and deliberate policy. But the exercise of the mildervirtues is imperiously called for in seasons of national alarm. Whetherwe are to endure the loss of our accustomed wealth and luxury, or toencounter the far heavier trial of domestic confusion, there are habitsof thinking and acting, which will conduce to individual comfort andimprovement. There are sorrows which neither "King nor laws can cause orcure;" enjoyments, that no tyrant can withhold; and blessings, whicheven the wildest theories of democracy cannot destroy. The asylum wherethese sacred heritages of a good conscience are generally concealed, isthe domestic hearth, that circumscribed but important precinct where thefemale Lares sit as guardians. Is it presumptuous in one, who has longofficiated at such an household altar, again to solicit the forbearanceand favour, which she has often experienced, by calling public attentionto a popular way of communicating opinions, not first invented byherself, though she has often had recourse to it. The tale she nowchooses as a vehicle, aims at conveying instruction to the presenttimes, under the form of a chronicle of the past. The political andreligious motives, which convulsed England in the middle of theseventeenth century, bear so striking a resemblance to those which arenow attempted to be promulgated, that surely it must be salutary toremind the inconsiderate, that reformists introduced first anarchy andthen despotism, and that a multitude of new religions gave birth toinfidelity.

  Nor let the serious hue which a story must wear that is dated in thosetimes, when the church militant was called to the house of mourning,deter the gay and young from a patient perusal. Whatever mere prudentialinstructors may affirm, worldly prosperity should not be held out as thecriterion, or the reward of right conduct. Let us remember St.Augustine's answer to those Pagans, who reproached him with the evilsthat Christians, in common with themselves, suffered from the thenconvulsed state of the world. They asked him, "Where is thy God?" But hedeclined fo
unding the believer's privileges on individual exemptions, orpersonal providences. "My God," said he, "in all his attributes,different from the false impotent Gods of the Heathen, is to be foundwherever his worshippers are;--if I am carried into captivity, hisconsolations shall yet reach me;--if I lose the possessions of thislife, my precious faith shall still supply their want;--and if I die,not as the suffering heathen dies, by his own impious and impatienthand, but in obedience to the will of God, my great reward begins. Ishall enter upon a life that will never be taken from me; and henceforthall tears shall be wiped from my eyes."

  Adversity purifies communities, as well as individuals. Iffastidiousness, selfishness, pride, and sensuality, conspire to cloud,with imaginary woes, the enjoyments of those whom others deem happy andprosperous; faction, discontent, a querulous appetite for freedom, andan inordinate ambition to acquire sudden pre-eminence, disturb publictranquillity, when a country has long enjoyed the blessings of plentyand repose. Previous to the commencement of that great rebellion, whichtore the crown and mitre from the degraded shield of Britain, ourforefathers, as we are informed by the noble historian of his country'swoes and shames[1], experienced an unusual share of prosperity. Duringthe early part of the reign of King Charles the First, he tells us,"this nation enjoyed the greatest calm, and the fullest measure offelicity that any people of any age for so long a time together had beenblessed with, to the envy and wonder of all the other parts ofChristendom." The portrait he draws is so striking, that I must exhibitit in its native colours. "A happiness invidiously set off by thisdistinction, that every other kingdom, every other state, were entangledand almost destroyed by the fury of arms. The court was in great plenty,or rather (which is the discredit of plenty) excess and luxury, thecountry rich, and what is more, fully enjoying the pleasure of its ownwealth, and so the more easily corrupted with the pride and wantonnessof it. The church flourishing with learned and extraordinary men; tradeincreased to that degree, that we were the exchange of Christendom;foreign merchants looking upon nothing so much their own, as what theyhad laid up in the warehouses of this kingdom; the royal navy in numberand equipage, very formidable at sea; lastly, for a complement of allthese blessings, they were enjoyed under the protection of a King of themost harmless disposition; the most exemplary piety; the greatestsobriety, chastity, and mercy, that ever Prince had been endowed with:But all these blessings could but enable, not compel, us to be happy. Wewanted that sense, acknowledgement, and value of our own happiness,which all but we had; and we took pains to make, when we could not findourselves miserable. There was in truth a strange absence ofunderstanding in most, and a strange perverseness of understanding inthe rest. The court full of excess, idleness, and luxury; the countryfull of pride, mutiny, and discontent. Every man more troubled andperplexed at what they called the violation of one law, than delightedor pleased with the observance of all the rest of the charter. Neverimputing the increase of their receipts, revenue, and plenty, to thewisdom, virtue, and merit of the crown; but objecting every smallimposition to the exorbitancy and tyranny of the government. The growthof knowledge and virtue were disrelished for the infirmities of somelearned men, and the increase of grace and favour to the church was morerepined and murmured at than the increase of piety and devotion in itwere regarded."

  Such was the lowering calm of ungrateful discontent, which ushered in afearful season of crime and punishment, described at large by one whowas an illustrious actor on that eventful stage, and composed hishistory, "that posterity might not be deceived by the prosperity ofwickedness into a belief that nothing less than a general combination ofan whole nation, and a universal apostacy from their religion andallegiance, could, in so short a time, have produced such a prodigiousand total alteration; and that the memory of those, who out of duty andconscience have opposed that torrent which overwhelmed them, may notlose the recompence due to their virtues, but having undergone theinjuries and reproaches of that, might find a vindication in a betterage."

  In describing the scenes which ensued, "when an infatuated people, ripeand prepared for destruction, plunged by the just judgment of God intoall the perverse actions of folly and madness," he reads us suchimportant lessons as must strike an enlightened public, if recalled totheir attention. He tells us, by fatal experience, "that the weakcontributed to the designs of the wicked, while the latter, out of aconscience of their guilt, grew by desperation worse than they intendedto be. That the wise were often imposed upon by men of smallunderstandings. That the innocent were possessed with laziness, andslept in the most visible article of danger, and that the ill-disposed,though of the most different opinions, opposite interests, and distantaffections, united in a firm and constant league of mischief, whilethose whose opinions and interests were the same, divided into factionsand emulations more pernicious to the public than the treasons ofothers. Meanwhile the community, under pretence of zeal for religion,law, liberty, and parliament, (words of precious esteem in their justsignification,) were furiously hurried into actions introducing atheism,and dissolving all the elements of the Christian religion."

  So great were the miseries incident to civil commotion, so soon did themask fall off from those pseudo-patriots, that all parties except thecreatures of the ambitious Cromwel, ardently looked for the restorationof their imprisoned King, as a termination of their own sorrows, as wellas of his misfortunes. And when that hope was frustrated "by the mostconsummate hypocrisy and atrocious breach of all law and justice," theiron pressure of those times of pretended liberty and equality thatensued, led every one, who had not by some unpardonable crime hazardedhis own safety, to welcome back the son of the royal victim to theconstitution and honour of England, with such rash exuberance ofconfiding loyalty, that, by intrusting to his careless hand the fullpossession of unrestrained power, they laid the foundation of futurecontests and confusion. Such were the prospective evils with which theOliverian usurpation afflicted the state, while in the department ofmorals, piety was brought into such contempt by the extravagance offanatics, and the detected cheats of hypocrites, that atheism andprofaneness grew popular, as being more open and candid in their avowedprofligacy. The oppressive, or as his admirers call it, the vigorousgovernment of Cromwell humbled the proud spirit of Englishmen, who hadoften revolted at the excessive stretches of prerogative under theirlegitimate kings; and this new habit of submission, added to a deeprepentance for their late crime, so struck the independent character ofthe nation, that a cabal of atheists and libertines persuaded anunprincipled Prince that he might as easily found his throne on what wasthen deemed the firm basis of despotism, as many of the Continentalprinces had done. If, as Englishmen, we blush at the disgrace of a Kingsold to France, and a court and nation abandoned to such licentiouscontempt of all Christian obligations, that even decency is compelled toconsign their polite literature to oblivion, we must seek for the seedsof this twofold degradation in the times of which I propose to exhibit afamiliar portrait, illustrated by imaginary characters and events, butcarefully compared with warranted originals.

  It remains to say something of the conduct of this design. Public eventswill be stated with fidelity. Historical characters shall be butsparingly combined with feigned actions, but, where they, are, greatcare shall be taken that they be neither flattered, calumniated, norovercharged; and, I believe, they may be found to have behaved in muchthe same manner to others, as I shall represent them to do to theimaginary persons whom I bring on the scene. The long space of yearswhich this narrative embraces, is, I know, a great abatement of itsinterest. It is a fault which could not be avoided without falsifyingchronology at a period familiar to every well-read person, or losingsight of the admonitory lesson which the tale was intended to convey.

  I know that there is no small share of hardihood in my attempt: Bigotry,superstitious adherence to existing institutions, exclusive partialityto a sect, and pertinacious resistance to the increase of liberalinformation, are well-sounding epithets easily applied, and too gratefulto the million to wa
nt popularity. Those who write with no higher motivethan to please the prevailing taste, must beware of touching upon topicswhich are likely to rouse the hostile feelings of self-importance, andto disgust would-be statesmen and intuitive divines. Ridicule will neverdisprove those opinions which were held by the wisest and mostillustrious persons that England ever produced. Should I be sounfortunate as to provoke hostility where I look for co-operation;erroneous or undeserved censure shall not induce me to enter into acontroversy with those whom I believe to be sincere champions ofreligious truth, and to whose labours I am consequently bound to say,"God speed," though they may consider me as a doubtful ally, if not anenemy. To these I would address the dying words of the celebratednon-juror Archbishop Sancroft to his subscribing chaplain, Needham--"Youand I have gone different ways in these late affairs, but I trustHeaven's gates are wide enough to receive us both. I always took you foran honest man. What I said concerning myself was only to let you knowthat what I have done I have done in the integrity of my heart,_indeed in the great integrity of my heart_." Thus, only anxious todefend and support constitutional principles, I shall plead guilty tomany errors in taste, in the construction of the fable, as well as inthe style of the narrative, and throw myself on the mercy of the Publicwith regard to those points.

  [1] Lord Clarendon.