ANECDOTES OF ITS PRACTICE IN FORMER REIGNS. 19

Whether these were attracted by the gold that was dispensed upon the occasion, or by faith in the royal touch, it is immaterial to inquire; suffice it to say, that the cures were performed, or at least were thought to be so, by many at the time. One of the royal 'surgeons says, "That the gift of healing is a truth as clear as the sun;" and that amongst the many blessings bestowed upon his Majesty, "This sanative faculty should be reckoned one, which doth denote his right, title and merit, and as a second gift from heaven, by those many thousands cured by him since his happy restoration." In proof of the saintly pretensions of this prince, the author says, that "When poor indigent souls had sought out remedy from physicians in vain, such afterwards who have come and obtained his Majesty's gracious touch, their diseases have been seen to vanish as being afraid to approach his royal hand." He adds,

Many of these have been relieved before they had got out of the Banquetting House; and some that have been brought in, both lame and blind, have recovered their limbs and sight in a very short time!"* This king is said to have touched more than 100,000 persons.

The gift of healing was preserved unimpaired in the person of James II., who, as appears by various parish registers, applied the royal touch to several persons; and no doubt with the same success as his royal predecessors. His son, as Mr. Carte informs us, operated also for the same malady ; although the historian was as unfortunate in his story as in the consequences of its relation.+ King William being an alien, and having no faith in the spell, did not practise it; but it was revived with the return of the Stuarts. Queen Anne, by the desire of her ministers, began to touch for the evil soon after her accession, and continued the farce during the whole of her reign. In most of the prayer books pub

* Brown's Charisma Basilicon, p. 2, 4, 6, &c.

Hist. Engl. i. 291, n.

20

DE FOE'S SOLUTION OF THE SPELL.

lished at this period, there is a proper ritual appointed for the occasion. One of the last persons she performed upon was the celebrated Dr. Johnson, then an infant, and labouring under the malady. His mother, in compliance with the prejudices of the times, took him to the queen, "who, with her accustomed grace and benignity, administered to the child as much of that healing quality as it was in her power to dispense, and hung about his neck the usual amulet of an angel of gold, with the impress of St. Michael the archangel on the one side, and a ship under full sail on the other." In this case, the charm failed of success; for the doctor was afflicted with the disease through a long life.* The queen is said to have touched two hundred persons the same day, which was the 30th of March, 1714.

That the spell succeeded in some particular instances may be inferred from the number of cures that are placed upon record. At the same time, but little reliance is to be placed upon the pompous narratives of credulous divines and courtsurgeons, who seasoned their writings with large doses of flattery, and are to be strongly suspected of knavery.

As to the mode by which it may have occasionally succeeded, there is but one rational solution, which is thus pointed out by De Foe: "The power of imagination, fancy, conceit, or faith, call it which you will, have all of them their particular influences in cases of disease, and some very strong natural reasons are given for it. There can remain, therefore, no doubt but that their contrary influences are also very strong; and he who firmly believes he shall not be cured, shall as certainly not be cured, as he that fancies he shall be cured, shall have the cure." De Foe continues, "If some of our kings have omitted it wholly, such as the late King William, it is plain to me, his majesty had not equal faith in the power of curing it, and did not think fit

*Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 4.

DE FOE'S SOLUTION OF THE SPELL.

21

to attempt it without the most material qualification."* Whiston tells us in his "Memoirs," he had been lately informed, that King William was prevailed upon once to touch for the king's evil, "praying to God to heal the patient, and grant him more wisdom at the same time;" which, he adds, implied that he had no great faith in the operation: yet was the patient cured notwithstanding.+

* Review, i. Supp. 3, p. 16.

+ Whiston's Memoirs, p. 653.

CHAPTER II.

Thirtieth of January Preachers.-Satirized by De Foe in his New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty.—Account of his Work.-Animadverted upon by Leslie and Drake.-Rise of the Distinction between High and Low Church.-Sacheverell's violent Politics.-Strictures upon them by De Foe.-And Dennis.-Leslie's New Association.-His Case of the Regale and the Pontificate.-And Scheme for an Union with the Gallican Church. -De Foe's Remarks upon it.—Proceedings of the Commons against the Dissenters.

1702.

WHILST the queen was engaged in adjusting the materials of a Tory government, and the latter was concerting schemes for the annihilation of its rivals, the press was not inactive in exposing the pretensions of the two great political parties that divided the nation.

In this war of politics, the clergy took a prominent lead. Each return of the thirtieth of January afforded them a fine opportunity for the discharge of their gall against Whigs and Dissenters, who became obnoxious to the reproach of rebels and schismatics, and were threatened with all the vengeance which the most martial church could inflict. In some of their sermons, they drew the most offensive parallels between the sufferings of Christ, and those of the royal martyr, the last of which they magnified in strains that denoted the utmost loyalty. Comparisons were also drawn between the agents of the two transactions, in the course of which the loyalty of the preachers often transported them beyond the bounds of decorum, and was thought to have

DE FOE'S SATIRE UPON CHURCH POLITICS.

23

ensnared them into the paths of blasphemy. Dr. Binkes, who had offended in this way in his late sermon before the convocation, received the censure of parliament; but as his politics were in fashion, it did not hinder his preferment, being soon afterwards promoted to the deanery of Lichfield, and chosen prolocutor of the lower house of convocation.

The absurd notions of government, propagated by the clergy, afforded a fruitful topic for the pen of De Foe. Soon after the accession of the queen, he commenced his attack upon them in a pamphlet intitled, "A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty: or, Whiggish Loyalty and Church Loyalty Compared. Printed in the year 1702." 4to. In illustration of the politics of the day, he produces some extracts from the sermons of the high-church clergy, which are of a sufficiently slavish character. The following from Dr. B- -ge, is suited to the meridian of an eastern despotism. "That if the king should, by his royal command, execute the greatest violence upon either our person or estate, our duty is to submit by prayers and tears, first to God Almighty, to turn the wrath of his vice-gerent, and by humble entreaty to beg his majesty's grace and pardon: but to lift up the hand against the lord's anointed, or resist the evil of punishment he thinks fit to inflict, this were a crime unpardonable either before God or man, and a crime which, we bless God," says the Rev. Doctor, "the very principles of our ever loyal mother, the church of England, abhors and detests."

In reply to this clerical scare-crow, De Foe argues, that the government of England is a limited monarchy, composed of king, lords, and commons, each having its separate powers, which are defined and limited by law that government and allegiance are both conditional, the oaths of subjects being of a constructive nature, intitling them to protection, which, without question, is the real meaning of all oaths of allegiance, otherwise perjury or state martyr