miniſters.—He committed many illuſtrious members of both houſes of parliament to the tower, for oppoſing his arbitrary ſchemes.—He levied many taxes upon the people without conſent of parliament;—and then impriſoned great numbers of the principal merchants and gentry for not paying them.—He erected, or at leaſt revived, ſeveral new and arbitrary courts, in which the moſt unheard-of barbarities were committed with his knowledge and approbation.—He ſupported that more than fiend, arch-biſhop Laud and the clergy of his ſtamp, in all their church-tyranny and helliſh cruelties.—He authorized a book in favor of ſports upon the Lord's day; and ſeveral clergymen were perſecuted by him and the mentioned pious biſhop, for not reading it to the people after divine ſervice.—When the parliament complained to him of the arbitrary proceedings of his corrupt miniſters, he told that auguſt body, in a rough, domineering, unprincely manner, that he wondered anyone ſhould be ſo fooliſh and inſolent as to think that he would part with the meaneſt of his ſervants upon their account.—He refuſed to call any parliament at all for the ſpace of twelve years together, during all which time, he governed in an abſolute lawleſs and deſpotic manner.—He took all opportunities to encourage the papiſts, and to promote them to the higheſt offices of honor and truſt.—He (probably) abetted the horrid maſſacre in Ireland, in which two hundred thouſand Proteſtants were butchered by the Roman Catholics.—He ſent a large ſum of money, which he has raiſed by his arbitrary taxes, into Germany, to raiſe foreign troops, in order to force more arbitrary taxes
