302 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

t; H A p. that the French king should remit the sum oflx vil, 300,000 pounds, on condition that the parliamentl6 ' 8 - be dissolved; a measure, to which, he affirmed,the king was, of himself, sufficiently inclined ,were it not for his hopes of obtaining moneyfrom that assembly. The parliament, he said ,had already constrained the king to make peacewith Holland , contrary to the interests of thecatholic religion, and of his most christian majesty:And if they should meet again , they wouldsurely engage him farther, even to the making ofwar against France. It appears also from the sameletters , that the assembling of the parliament solate as April in the year 1675, had been procuredby the intrigues of the catholic and French party,who thereby intended to show the Dutch andtheir confederates, that they could expect noassistance from England.

When the contents of these letters were pub-licly known, they diffused the panic, with whichthe nation began already to be seized on accountof the popish plot. Al en reasoned more fromtheir fears and their passions than from the evi-dence before them. It is certain , that the restlessand enterprising spirit of the catholic church,particularly of the Jesuits, merits attention, andis, in some degree, dangerous to every othercommunion. Such zeal of proselytism actuates thatsect , that its missionaries have penetrated intoevery nation of the globe; and, in one sense,there is a popish plot perpetually carrying oilagainst all states, protestant, pagan, and rnaho-