part iii. 21. This is very highly to the honour of that party whom he

had so much oppressed, if not betrayed. "It was a notable providence of God, he says, that this man, who had been the great instrument of state, and done almost all, and had dealt so cruelly with the nonconformists should thus by his own friends be cast out and banished; while those that he had persecuted were the most moderate in his cause, and many for him. And it was a great ease that befel the good people throughout the land by his dejection. For his way was to decoy men into conspiracies or to pretend plots, and upon the rumour of a plot the innocent people of many countries were laid in prison, so that no man knew when he was safe. Whereas since then, though laws have been made more and more severe, yet a man knoweth a little better what he is to expect, when it is by a law that he is to be tried." Sham plots there seem to have been; but it is not reasonable to charge Clarendon with inventing them. Ralph, 122.

[635] In his wrath against the proviso inserted by Sir George Downing, as above mentioned, in the bill of supply, Clarendon told him, as he confesses, that the king could never be well served, while fellows of his condition were admitted to speak as much as they had a mind; and that in the best times such presumptions had been punished with imprisonment by the lords of the council, without the king's taking notice of it. 321. The king was naturally displeased at this insolent language towards one of his servants, a man who has filled an eminent station, and done services, for a suggestion intended to benefit the revenue. And it was a still more flagrant affront to the House of Commons, of which Downing was a member, and where he had proposed this clause, and induced the house to adopt it.

Coventry told Pepys "many things about the chancellor's dismissal, not fit to be spoken; and yet not any unfaithfulness to the king, but _instar omnium_, that he was so great at the council-board and in the administration of matters there was no room for anybody to propose any remedy for what was amiss, or to compass anything, though never so good for the kingdom, unless approved of by the chancellor; he managing all things with that greatness which now will be removed, that the king may have the benefit of others' advice." Sept. 2, 1667. His own memoirs are full of proofs of this haughtiness and intemperance. He set himself against Sir William Coventry, and speaks of a man as able and virtuous as himself with marked aversion. See too _Life of James_, 398. Coventry, according to this writer (431), was the chief actor in Clarendon's impeachment, but this seems to be a mistake; though he was certainly desirous of getting him out of place.

The king, Clarendon tells us (438), pretended that the anger of parliament was such, and their power too, as it was not in his power to save him. The fallen minister desired him not to fear the power of parliament, "which was more or less, or nothing, as he pleased to make it." So preposterous as well as unconstitutional a way of talking could not but aggravate his unpopularity with that great body he pretended to contemn.

[636] _State Trials_, vi. 318; _Parl. Hist._

[637] Ludlow, iii. 118, 165 _et post_; Clarendon's _Life_, 290; Burnet, 226; _Oeuvres de Louis XIV._ ii. 204.

[638] Harris's _Lives_, v. 28; _Biogr. Brit._ art. Harrington; _Life of James_, 396; _Somers Tracts_, vii. 530, 534.

[639] See Kennet's _Register_, 757; Ralph, 78 _et post_; Harris's _Lives_, v. 182, for proofs of this.

[640] _Mem. of Hutchinson_, 303. It seems, however, that he was suspected of some concern with an intended rising in 1663, though nothing was proved against him. _Miscellanea Aulica_, 319.

[641] _Life of Clarendon_, 424. Pepys says, the parliament was called together "against the Duke of York's mind flatly, who did rather advise the king to raise money as he pleased; and against the chancellor, who told the king that Queen Elizabeth did do all her business in 1588 without calling a parliament, and so might he do for anything he saw." June 25, 1667. He probably got this from his friend Sir W. Coventry.

[642] Ralph, 78, etc. The overture came from Clarendon, the French having no expectation of it. The worst was that, just before, he had dwelt in a speech to parliament on the importance of Dunkirk. This was on May 19, 1662. It appears by Louis XIV.'s own account, which certainly does not tally with some other authorities, that Dunkirk had been so great an object with Cromwell, that it was the stipulated price of the English alliance. Louis, however, was vexed at this, and determined to recover it at any price: il est certain que je ne pouvois trop donner pour racheter Dunkerque. He sent d'Estrades accordingly to England in 1661, directing him to make this his great object. Charles told the ambassador that Spain had made him great offers, but he would rather treat with France. Louis was delighted at this; and though the sum asked was considerable, 5,000,000 livres, he would not break off, but finally concluded the treaty for 4,000,000, payable in three years; nay, saved 500,000 without its being found out by the English, for a banker having offered them prompt payment at this discount, they gladly accepted it; but this banker was a person employed by Louis himself, who had the money ready. He had the greatest anxiety about this affair; for the city of London deputed the lord mayor to offer any sum so that Dunkirk might not be alienated. _Oeuvres de Louis XIV._ i. 167. If this be altogether correct, the King of France did not fancy he had made so bad a bargain; and indeed, with his projects, if he had the money to spare, he could not think so. Compare the _Mémoires d'Estrades_, and the supplement to the third volume of _Clarendon State Papers_. The historians are of no value, except as they copy from some of these original testimonies.

[643] _Life of Clar._ 78; _Life of James_, 393.

[644] See Supplement to third volume of _Clarendon State Papers_, for abundant evidence of the close connection between the courts of France and England. The former offered bribes to Lord Clarendon so frequently and unceremoniously, that one is disposed to think he did not show so much indignation at the first overture as he ought to have done. See pp. 1, 4, 13. The aim of Louis was to effect the match with Catharine. Spain would have given a great portion with any protestant princess, in order to break it. Clarendon asked, on his master's account, for £50,000, to avoid application to parliament. P. 4. The French offered a secret loan, or subsidy perhaps, of 2,000,000 livres for the succour of Portugal. This was accepted by Clarendon (p. 15); but I do not find anything more about it.

[645] As no one, who regards with attachment the present system of the English constitution, can look upon Lord Clarendon as an excellent minister, or a friend to the soundest principles of civil and religious liberty; so no man whatever can avoid considering his incessant deviations from the great duties of an historian as a moral blemish in his character. He dares very frequently to say what is not true, and what he must have known to be otherwise; he does not dare to say what is true. And it is almost an aggravation of this reproach, that he aimed to deceive posterity, and poisoned at the fountain a stream from which another generation was to drink. No defence has ever been set up for the fidelity of Clarendon's history; nor can men, who have sifted the authentic materials, entertain much difference of judgment in this respect; though, as a monument of powerful ability and impressive eloquence, it will always be read with that delight which we receive from many great historians, especially the ancient, independent of any confidence in their veracity.

One more instance, before we quit Lord Clarendon for ever, may here be mentioned of his disregard for truth. The strange tale of a fruitless search after the restoration for the body of Charles I. is well known. Lord Southampton and Lindsey, he tells us, who had assisted at their master's obsequies in St. George's chapel at Windsor, were so overcome with grief, that they could not recognise the place of interment; and, after several vain attempts, the search was abandoned in despair. _Hist. of Rebellion_, vi. 244. Whatever motive the noble historian may have had for this story, it is absolutely incredible that any such ineffectual search was ever made. Nothing could have been more easy than to have taken up the pavement of the choir. But this was unnecessary. Some at least of the workmen employed must have remembered the place of the vault. Nor did it depend on them; for Sir Thomas Herbert, who was present, had made at the time a note of the spot, "just opposite the eleventh stall on the king's side." Herbert's _Memoirs_, 142. And we find from Pepys's _Diary_, Feb. 26, 1666, that "he was shown, at Windsor, where the late king was buried, and King Henry VIII. and my Lady Seymour." In which spot, as is well known, the royal body has twice been found, once in the reign of Anne, and again in 1813.

[646] The tenor of Clarendon's life and writings almost forbids any surmise of pecuniary corruption. Yet this is insinuated by Pepys, on the authority of Evelyn, April 27 and May 16, 1667. But the one was gossiping, though shrewd; and the other feeble, though accomplished. Lord Dartmouth, who lived in the next age, and whose splenetic humour makes him no good witness against anybody, charges him with receiving bribes from the main instruments and promoters of the late troubles, and those who had plundered the royalists, which enabled him to build his great mansion in Piccadilly; asserting that it was full of pictures belonging to families who had been despoiled of them. "And whoever had a mind to see what great families had been plundered during the civil war, might find some remains either at Clarendon House or at Cornbury." Note on Burnet, 88.

The character of Clarendon, as a minister, is fairly and judiciously drawn by Macpherson, _Hist. of England_, 98; a work by no means so full of a tory spirit as has been supposed.

[647] _Parl. Hist._ 347.

[648] The Lords refused to commit the Earl of Clarendon on a general impeachment of high treason; and in a conference with the lower house, denied the authority of the precedent in Strafford's case, which was pressed upon them. It is remarkable that the managers of this conference for the Commons vindicated the first proceedings of the long parliament, which shows a considerable change in their tone since 1661. They do not, however, seem to have urged, what is an apparent distinction between the two precedents, that the commitment of Strafford was on a verbal request of Pym in the name of the Commons, without alleging any special matter of treason, and consequently irregular and illegal; while the 16th article of Clarendon's impeachment charges him with betraying the king's counsels to his enemies; which, however untrue, evidently amounted to treason within the statute of Edward III.; so that the objection of the Lords extended to committing any one for treason upon impeachment, without all the particularity required in an indictment. This showed a very commendable regard to the liberty of the subject; and from this time we do not find the vague and unintelligible accusations, whether of treason or misdemeanour, so usual in former proceedings of parliament. _Parl. Hist._ 387. A protest was signed by Buckingham, Albemarle, Bristol, Arlington, and others of their party, including three bishops (Cosins, Croft, and another), against the refusal of their house to commit Clarendon upon the general charge. A few, on the other hand, of whom Hollis is the only remarkable name, protested against the bill of banishment.

"The most fatal blow (says James) the king gave himself to his power and prerogative, was when he sought aid from the House of Commons to destroy the Earl of Clarendon: by that he put that house again in mind of their impeaching privilege, which had been wrested out of their hands by the restoration; and when ministers found they were like to be left to the censure of the parliament, it made them have a greater attention to court an interest there than to pursue that of their princes, from whom they hoped not for so sure a support." _Life of James_, 593.

The king, it is said, came rather slowly into the measure of impeachment; but became afterwards so eager, as to give the attorney-general, Finch, positive orders to be active in it, observing him to be silent. Carte's _Ormond_, ii. 353. Buckingham had made the king great promises of what the Commons would do, in case he would sacrifice Clarendon.

[649] Kennet, 293, 300. Burnet; Baxter, 23. The design was to act on the principle of the declaration of 1660, so that presbyterian ordinations should pass _sub modo_. Tillotson and Stillingfleet were concerned in it. The king was at this time exasperated against the bishops for their support of Clarendon. Burnet, _ibid._; Pepys's _Diary_, 21st Dec. 1667. And he had also deeper motives.

[650] _Parl. Hist._ 421; Ralph, 170; Carte's _Life of Ormond_, ii. 362. Sir Thomas Littleton spoke in favour of the comprehension, as did Seymour and Waller; all of them enemies of Clarendon, and probably connected with the Buckingham faction: but the church party was much too strong for them. Pepys says the Commons were furious against the project; it was said that whoever proposed new laws about religion must do it with a rope about his neck. Jan. 10, 1668. This is the first instance of a triumph obtained by the church over the Crown in the House of Commons. Ralph observes upon it, "It is not for nought that the words church and state are so often coupled together, and that the first has so insolently usurped the precedency of the last."

[651] _Parl. Hist._ 422.

[652] France retained Lille, Tournay, Douay, Charleroi, and other places by the treaty. The allies were surprised, and not pleased at the choice Spain made of yielding these towns in order to save Franche Comté. Temple's _Letters_, 97. In fact, they were not on good terms with that power; she had even a project, out of spite to Holland, of giving up the Netherlands entirely to France, in exchange for Rousillon, but thought better of it on cooler reflection.

[653] Dalrymple, ii. 5 _et post_. Temple was not treated very favourably by most of the ministers on his return from concluding the triple alliance: Clifford said to a friend, "Well, for all this noise, we must yet have another war with the Dutch before it be long." Temple's _Letters_, 123.

[654] Dalrymple, ii. 12.

[655] Burnet.

[656] _Life of Clarendon_, 357.

[657] _Life of Clarendon_, 355.

[658] _State Trials_, vi. 807. One of the oddest things connected with this fire was, that some persons of the fanatic party had been hanged, in April, for a conspiracy to surprise the Tower, murder the Duke of Albemarle and others, and then declare for an equal division of lands, etc. In order to effect this, the city was to be fired, and the guards secured in their quarters and for this the 3rd of September following was fixed upon as a lucky day. This is undoubtedly to be read in the _London Gazette_ for April 30, 1666; and it is equally certain that the city was in flames on the 3rd of September. But, though the coincidence is curious, it would be very weak to think it more than a coincidence, for the same reason as applies to the suspicion which the catholics incurred; that the mere destruction of the city could not have been the object of any party, and that nothing was attempted to manifest any further design.

[659] Macpherson's _Extracts_, 38, 49; _Life of James_, 426.

[660] He tells us himself that it began by his reading a book written by a learned bishop of the church of England to clear her from schism in leaving the Roman communion, which had a contrary effect on him; especially when, at the said bishop's desire, he read an answer to it. This made him inquisitive about the grounds and manner of the reformation. _After his return_, Heylin's _History of the Reformation_, and the preface to Hooker's _Ecclesiastical Polity_, thoroughly convinced him that neither the church of England, nor Calvin, nor any of the reformers, had power to do what they did; and he was confident, he said, that whosoever reads those two books with attention and without prejudice, would be of the same opinion. _Life of James_, i. 629. The Duchess of York embraced the same creed as her husband, and, as he tells us, without knowledge of his sentiments, but one year before her death in 1670. She left a paper at her death containing the reasons for her change. See it in Kennet, 320. It is plain that she, as well as the duke, had been influenced by the Romanising tendency of some Anglican divines.

[661] Macpherson, 50; _Life of James_, 441.

[662] De Witt was apprised of the intrigue between France and England as early as April 1669, through a Swedish agent at Paris. Temple, 179. Temple himself, in the course of that year, became convinced that the king's views were not those of his people, and reflects severely on his conduct in a letter, December 24, 1669. P. 206. In September 1670, on his sudden recall from the Hague, De Witt told him his suspicions of a clandestine treaty. 241. He was received on his return coldly by Arlington, and almost with rudeness by Clifford. 244. They knew he would never concur in the new projects. But in 1682, during one of the intervals when Charles was playing false with his brother Louis, the latter, in revenge, let an Abbé Primi, in a history of the Dutch war, publish an account of the whole secret treaty, under the name of the Count de St. Majolo. This book was immediately suppressed at the instance of the English ambassador; and Primi was sent for a short time to the Bastile. But a pamphlet, published in London just after the Revolution, contains extracts from it. Dalrymple, ii. 80; _Somers Tracts_, viii. 13; _Harl. Misc._ ii. 387; _Oeuvres de Louis XIV._ vi. 476. It is singular that Hume should have slighted so well authenticated a fact, even before Dalrymple's publication of the treaty; but I suppose he had never heard of Primi's book. The original treaty has lately been published by Dr. Lingard, from Lord Clifford's cabinet.

[663] Dalrymple, ii. 22.

[664] _Id._ 23; _Life of James_, 442.

[665] The tenor of the article leads me to conclude, that these troops were to be landed in England at all events, in order to secure the public tranquillity without waiting for any disturbance.

[666] P. 49.

[667] Bolingbroke has a remarkable passage as to this in his _Letters on History_ (Letter VII.): it may be also alluded to by others. The full details, however, as well as more authentic proofs, were reserved, as I believe, for the publication of _Oeuvres de Louis XIV._, where they will be found in vol. ii. 403. The proposal of Louis to the emperor, in 1667, was, that France should have the Pays Bas, Franche Comté, Milan, Naples, the ports of Tuscany, Navarre, and the Philippine Islands; Leopold taking all the rest. The obvious drift of this was, that France should put herself in possession of an enormous increase of power and territory, leaving Leopold to fight as he could for Spain and America, which were not likely to submit peaceably. The Austrian cabinet understood this; and proposed that they should exchange their shares. Finally, however, it was concluded on the king's terms, except that he was to take Sicily instead of Milan. One article of this treaty was, that Louis should keep what he had conquered in Flanders; in other words, the terms of the treaty of Aix la Chapelle. The ratifications were exchanged 29th Feb. 1668. Louis represents himself as more induced by this prospect than by any fear of the triple alliance, of which he speaks slightingly, to conclude the peace of Aix la Chapelle. He thought that he should acquire a character for moderation which might be serviceable to him, "dans les grands accroissemens que ma fortune pourroit recevoir." Vol. ii. p. 369.

[668] Dalrymple, 31-57. James gives a different account of this; and intimates that Henrietta, whose visit to Dover he had for this reason been much against, prevailed on the king to change his resolution, and to begin with the war. He gained over Arlington and Clifford. The duke told them it would quite defeat the catholic design, because the king must run in debt, and be at the mercy of his parliament. They answered that, if the war succeeded, it was not much matter what people suspected. P. 450. This shows that they looked on force as necessary to compass the design, and that the noble resistance of the Dutch, under the Prince of Orange, was that which frustrated the whole conspiracy. "The duke," it is again said (p. 453), "was in his own judgment against entering into this war before his majesty's power and authority in England had been better fixed and less precarious, as it would have been, if the private treaty first agreed on had not been altered." The French court, however, was evidently right in thinking that, till the conquest of Holland should be achieved, the declaration of the king's religion would only weaken him at home. It is gratifying to find the heroic character of our glorious deliverer displaying itself among these foul conspiracies. The Prince of Orange came over to England in 1670. He was then very young; and his uncle, who was really attached to him, would have gladly associated him in the design; indeed it had been agreed that he was to possess part of the United Provinces in sovereignty. But Colbert writes that the king had found him so zealous a Dutchman and protestant, that he could not trust him with any part of the secret. He let him know, however, as we learn from Burnet, 382, that he had himself embraced the Romish faith.

[669] Dalrymple, 57.

[670] P. 68; _Life of James_, 444. In this work it is said that even the Duchess of Orleans had no knowledge of the real treaty; and that the other originated with Buckingham. But Dalrymple's authority seems far better in this instance.

[671] P. 84, etc.

[672] P. 23.

[673] P. 52. The reluctance to let the Duke of Buckingham into the secret seems to prove that more was meant than a toleration of the Roman catholic religion, towards which he had always been disposed, and which was hardly a secret at court.

[674] Pp. 62, 84.

[675] P. 81.

[676] P. 33.

[677] "The generality of the church of England men was not at that time very averse to the catholic religion; many that went under that name had their religion to choose, and went to church for company's sake." _Life of James_, p. 442.

[678] _Life of James_, ibid.

[679] Macpherson's _Extracts_, p. 51.

[680] 22 Car. 2, c. 1; Kennet, p. 306. The zeal in the Commons against popery tended to aggravate this persecution of the dissenters. They had been led by some rascally clergymen to believe the absurdity that there was a good understanding between the two parties.

[681] Burnet, p. 272.

[682] Baxter, pp. 74, 86; Kennet, p. 311. See a letter of Sheldon, written at this time, to the bishops of his province, urging them to persecute the nonconformists. Harris's _Life of Charles II._, p. 106. Proofs also are given by this author of the manner in which some, such as Lamplugh and Ward, responded to their primate's wishes.

Sheldon found a panegyrist quite worthy of him in his chaplain Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. This notable person has left a Latin history of his own time, wherein he largely commemorates the archbishop's zeal in molesting the dissenters, and praises him for defeating the scheme of comprehension. P. 25. I observe, that the late excellent editor of Burnet has endeavoured to slide in a word for the primate (note on vol. i. p. 243), on the authority of that history by Bishop Parker, and of Sheldon's Life in the _Biographia Britannica_. It is lamentable to rest on such proofs. I should certainly not have expected that, in Magdalen College, of all places, the name of Parker would have been held in honour; and as to the _Biographia_, laudatory as it is of primates in general (save Tillotson, whom it depreciates), I find, on reference, that its praise of Sheldon's virtues is grounded on the authority of his epitaph in Croydon church.

[683] Baxter, 87.

[684] This is asserted by Burnet, and seems to be acknowledged by the Duke of York. The court endeavoured to mitigate the effect of the bill brought into the Commons, in consequence of Coventry's injury; and so far succeeded, that instead of a partial measure of protection for the members of the House of Commons, as originally designed (which seemed, I suppose, to carry too marked a reference to the particular transaction), it was turned into a general act, making it a capital felony to wound with intention to maim or disfigure. But the name of the Coventry act has always clung to this statute. _Parl. Hist._ 461.

[685] The king promised the bankers interest at six per cent., instead of the money due to them from the exchequer; but this was never paid till the latter part of William's reign. It may be considered as the beginning of our national debt. It seems to have been intended to follow the shutting up of the exchequer with a still more unwarrantable stretch of power, by granting an injunction to the creditors who were suing the bankers at law. According to North (_Examen_, pp. 38, 47), Lord-Keeper Bridgman resigned the great seal rather than comply with this; and Shaftesbury himself, who succeeded him, did not venture, if I understand the passage rightly, to grant an absolute injunction. The promise of interest for their money seems to have been given instead of this more illegal and violent remedy.

[686] _Parl. Hist._ 515; Kennet, 313.

[687] Bridgman, the lord-keeper, resigned the great seal, according to Burnet, because he would not put it to the declaration of indulgence, and was succeeded by Shaftesbury.

[688] _Parl. Hist._ 517. The presbyterian party do not appear to have supported the declaration, at least Birch spoke against it: Waller, Seymour, Sir Robert Howard in its favour. Baxter says, the nonconformists were divided in opinion as to the propriety of availing themselves of the declaration. P. 99. Birch told Pepys, some years before, that he feared some would try for extending the toleration to papists; but the sober party would rather be without it than have it on those terms. Pepys's _Diary_, Jan. 31, 1668; _Parl. Hist._ 546, 561. Father Orleans says, that Ormond, Arlington, and some more advised the king to comply; the duke and the rest of the council urging him to adhere, and Shaftesbury, who had been the first mover of the project, pledging himself for its success; there being a party for the king among the Commons, and a force on foot enough to daunt the other side. It was suspected that the women interposed, and prevailed on the king to withdraw his declaration. Upon this, Shaftesbury turned short round, provoked at the king's want of steadiness, and especially at his giving up the point about issuing writs in the recess of parliament.

[689] 25 Car. II. c. 2; Burnet, p. 490.

[690] The test act began in a resolution (February 28, 1673) that all who refuse to take the oaths and receive the sacrament, according to the rites of the church of England, shall be incapable of all public employments. _Parl. Hist._ 556. The court party endeavoured to oppose the declaration against transubstantiation, but of course in vain. _Id._ 561, 592.

The king had pressed his brother to receive the sacrament, in order to avoid suspicion, which he absolutely refused; and this led, he says, to the test. _Life of James_, p. 482. But his religion was long pretty well known, though he did not cease to conform till 1672.

[691] _Parl. Hist._ 526-585. These debates are copied from those published by Anchitel Grey, a member of the Commons for thirty years; but his notes, though collectively most valuable, are sometimes so brief and ill expressed, that it is hardly possible to make out their meaning. The court and church party, or rather some of them, seem to have much opposed this bill for the relief of protestant dissenters.

[692] Commons' Journals, 28 and 29 March 1673; Lords' Journals, 24 and 29 March. The Lords were so slow about this bill that the lower house, knowing an adjournment to be in contemplation, sent a message to quicken them, according to a practice not unusual in this reign. Perhaps, on an attentive consideration of the report on the conference (March 29) it may appear that the Lords' amendments had a tendency to let in popish, rather than to favour protestant, dissenters. Parker says that this act of indulgence was defeated by his great hero, Archbishop Sheldon, who proposed that the nonconformists should acknowledge the war against Charles I. to be unlawful. _Hist. sui temporis_, p. 203 of the translation.

[693] It was proposed, as an instruction to the committee on the test act, that a clause should be introduced, rendering nonconformists incapable of sitting in the House of Commons. This was lost by 163 to 107; but it was resolved that a distinct bill should be brought in for that purpose. 10 March 1673.

[694] Kennet, p. 318.

[695] Commons' Journals, 20 Jan. 1674; _Parl. Hist._ 608, 625, 649; Burnet.