Stuart dynasty

KING AND EXILE. 305
According to the account of Bishop Ellis's life in
Mr. Leslie Stephen's ' Dictionary of National Bio-
graphy,' James II. did not wish the prelate to return
to the care of his western diocese in England. This
is possibly an error, although it is doubtful if he ever
performed episcopal duties again in his native land.
Philip Ellis had been educated at Westminster School
and Douay College, being known, both at Protestant
college and Roman Catholic seminary as "jolly Phil."
His abilities appear to have been considerable.*
Little trace of public events, such as the loss of
the Smyrna fleet in the spring of 1693, or the foiled
attack on Brest, of which Marlborough, Russell, and
Godolphin had apprised James II., and which took
place a little more than a year afterwards, are to be
found in the Stuart Papers at Windsor, but the
letters of Lord Caryll from St. Germain to Bishop
Ellis at Rome do certainly describe the situation as
it appeared at that time to a Jacobite partisan
resident abroad. The tendency was to exercise a
credulity regarding James's hopes in England, from
which experienced denizens of that country refrained,
believing that although men like Marlborough,
Russell, Godolphin, and even Halifax had made
themselves safe all round, j'et the people generally
were adverse to any disturbance of the Protestant
Settlement of 1688, and that this feeling had increased
since 1692.
An anonymous letter f from a friend, written at
* ' Dictionary of National Biography,' vol. xvii. pp. 287-28S.
t Macpherson's 'Original Papers,' vol. i. p. 450.