For the first year of his term of office he kept seditious attempts in check, but discontent grew apace.
Lloyd was an indefatigable opponent of the Roman Catholic tendencies of James II., and was one of the seven bishops who for refusing to have the Declaration of Indulgence read in his diocese was charged with publishing a seditious libel against the king and acquitted (1688).
This is the centre of the swadeshi movement for the boycott of English goods, of the most seditious speeches and writings and of conspiracies for the assassination of officials.
Previous to 1886 the crime of murder was only punishable by 10 years' imprisonment, a sentence which in practice was reduced to two-thirds of that term; slander and libel were formerly offences which the law had no power to restrain, and no responsibility attached to seditious publications.
Finding that the walls of autocracy could not be overturned by blasts of revolutionary trumpets in the periodical press and in clandestinely printed seditious proclamations, the young enthusiasts determined to seek the support of the masses, or, as they termed it, " to go in among the people " (idti v narod).
