turn of fortune, and before eighteen months had elapsed, the intolerant
king and the intolerant Church were eagerly bidding against each other
for the support of the party which both had so deeply injured. A new
form of trial now awaited the Nonconformists. Peril to their personal
liberty was succeeded by a still greater peril to their honesty and
consistency of spirit. James the Second, despairing of employing the
Tories and the Churchmen as his tools, turned, as his brother had turned
before him, to the Dissenters. The snare was craftily baited with a
Declaration of Indulgence, by which the king, by his sole authority,
annulled a long series of statutes and suspended all penal laws against
Nonconformists of every sort. These lately political Pariahs now held
the balance of power. The future fortunes of England depended mainly on
the course they would adopt. James was resolved to convert the House of
Commons from a free deliberative assembly into a body subservient to his
wishes, and ready to give parliamentary sanction to any edict he might
issue. To obtain this end the electors must be manipulated. Leaving the
county constituencies to be dealt with by the lords-lieutenants, half of
whom preferred dismissal to carrying out the odious service peremptorily
demanded of them, James's next concern was to "regulate" the
Corporations. In those days of narrowly restricted franchise, the
municipalities virtually returned the town members. To obtain an
obedient parliament, he must secure a roll of electors pledged to return
the royal nominees. A committee of seven privy councillors, all Roman
Catholics but the infamous Jeffreys, presided over the business, with
local sub-committees scattered over the country to carry out the details.
Bedford was dealt with in its turn. Under James's policy of courting the
Puritans, the leading Dissenters were the first persons to be approached.
Two are specially named, a Mr. Margetts, formerly Judge-Advocate-General
of the Army under General Monk, and John Bunyan. It is no matter of
surprise that Bunyan, who had been so severe a sufferer under the old