The parliament, he said, had already constrained the king
to make peace with Holland, contrary to the interests of the Catholic
religion, and of his most Christian majesty: and if they should meet
again, they would surely engage him further, even to the making of
war against France. It appears also from the same letters, that the
assembling of the parliament so late as April in the year 1675, had been
procured by the intrigues of the Catholic and French party, who thereby
intended to show the Dutch and their confederates that they could expect
no assistance from England.
When the contents of these letters were publicly known, they diffused
the panic with which the nation began already to be seized on account of
the Popish plot. Men reasoned more from their fears and their passions,
than from the evidence before them. It is certain, that the restless and
enterprising spirit of the Catholic church, particularly of the Jesuits,
merits attention, and is in some degree dangerous to every other
communion. Such zeal of proselytism actuates that sect, that its
missionaries have penetrated into every nation of the globe; and, in
one sense, there is a Popish plot perpetually carrying on against all
states, Protestant, Pagan, and Mahometan.
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