Note 87 — Chapter XIV · THE REIGN OF JAMES II.

It is well known that the House of Commons, in 1685, would not pass the bill for reversing Lord Stafford's attainder, against which a few peers had entered a very spirited protest. Parl. Hist. 1361. Barillon says, this was "parce que dans le préambule il y a des mots insérés qui semblent favoriser la religion catholique; cela seul a retardé la rehabilitation du Comte de Stafford dont tous sont d'accord à l'égard du fond." Fox, App. p. 110. But there was another reason which might have weight. Stafford had been convicted on the evidence, not only of Oates, who had been lately found guilty of perjury, but of several other witnesses, especially Dugdale and Turberville. And these men had been brought forward by the government against Lord Shaftesbury and College, the latter of whom had been hanged on their testimony. The reversal of Lord Stafford's attainder, just as we now think it, would have been a disgrace to these Crown prosecutions; and a conscientious tory would be loth to vote for it.