Were there any part of the nation to which the ferment,
occasioned by the Popish plot, had not as yet propagated itself, the new
elections, by interesting the whole people in public concerns, tended to
diffuse it into the remotest corner; and the consternation universally
excited proved an excellent engine for influencing the electors. All the
zealots of the former parliament were rechosen: new ones were added: the
Presbyterians, in particular, being transported with the most inveterate
antipathy against Popery, were very active and very successful in the
elections. That party, it is said, first began at this time the abuse of
splitting their freeholds, in order to multiply votes and electors. By
accounts which came from every part of England, it was concluded, that
the new representatives would, if possible, exceed the old in their
refractory opposition to the court, and furious persecution of the
Catholics.
The king was alarmed when he saw so dreadful a tempest arise from such
small and unaccountable beginnings. His life, if Gates and Bedloe's
information were true, had been aimed at by the Catholics: even the
duke's was in danger; the higher, therefore, the rage mounted against
Popery, the more should the nation have been reconciled to these princes
in whom, it appeared, the church of Rome reposed no confidence.
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