Note 424 — Chapter X · (continued 2)

Clarendon State Papers, ii. 481 et sæpe alibi. The protestant zeal of Hyde had surely deserted him; and his veracity in one letter gave way also. See vol. iii. p. 158. But the great criminality of all these negotiations lay in this, that Charles was by them soliciting such a measure of foreign aid as would make him at once the tyrant of England and the vassal of Spain; since no free parliament, however royalist, was likely to repeal all the laws against popery. "That which the king will be ready and willing to do, is to give his consent for the repeal of all the penal laws and statutes which have been made in the prejudice of catholics, and to put them into the same condition as his other subjects." Cottington to Father Bapthorpe. Id. 541. These negotiations with Rome were soon known; and a tract was published by the parliament's authority, containing the documents. Notwithstanding the delirium of the restoration, this had made an impression which was not afterwards effaced.