3*6 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

chap. to be papal secretary of state, and had consented

ixvn. to the poisoning, shooting, and stabbing of the* 678, king : He had even , according to Oates’s depo-sition , advanced a guinea to promote those bloodypurposes. These wild stories were confoundedwith the projects contained in his letters; andColeman received sentence of death. The sen-tence was soon after executed upon him Hesuffered with calmness and constancy, and to thelast persisted in the strongest protestations of hisinnocence.

©flreiand. Colkman’s execution was succeeded by thetrial of father Ireland, who, it is pretended, hadsigned, together with fifty jesuits, the great re-solution of murdering the king. Grove andPickering who had undertaken to shoot him ,were tried at the same time. The only witnessesagainst the prisoners were still Oates and Bedloe.Ireland affirmed, that he was in Staffordshire allthe month of August last, a time when Oates’sevidence made him in London. He proved hisassertion by good evidence, and would haveproved it by undoubted; had he not, mostiniquitousty, been debarred, while in prison,from all use of pen, ink, and paper, and deniedthe liberty of sending for witnesses. All thesemen, before their arraignment, were condemnedin the opinion of the judges, jury, and specta-tors; and to be a Jesuit, or even a catholic, was ofitself a sufficient proof of guilt. The chief justice 14

jd os December.

14 Sir William Scroggs.