«S5«- HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE FIRST INVASION BY THE ROMANS. BY JOHN LINGARD, D. D. VOLUME XII. FffiST AMERICAN, FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION. PHILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED BY EUGENE CUMMISKEY. W. S. VEXH, FKIKTER, NEW-YORE- 1830. CONTENTS OF THE TWELFTH VOLUME. CHAP. I. THE PROTECTORATE. RICHARD CROMWELL PROTECTOR. — PARLIAMENT CALLED. — DISSOLV- ED. MILITARY GOVERNMENT. LONG PARLIAMENT RESTORED. EXPELLED AGAIN. REINSTATED. MONK IN LONDON. — RE-AD MISSION OF SECLUDED MEMBERS.— LONG PARLIAMENT DISSOLV ED. — -THE CONVENTION PARLIAMENT. — RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. PAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 The two sons of Cromwell Richard succeeds his father Discontent of the army Funeral of Oliver Foreign transactions New parliament - Parties in parliament Recognition of Richard And of the other house Charges against the late go vernment - - 10 The officers petition - 11 The parliament dissolved 12 The officers recall the long parliament - - - 13 Rejection of the members formerly excluded - 14 Acquiescence of the differ ent armies - - .15 Dissension between parlia ment and, the officers - 16 PAGE 1718 20 ib. The officers obliged to ac cept new commissions - Projects of the royalists Rising in Cheshire - It is suppressed. - Renewal of the late dissen sion- ... Expulsion of the parliament 23 Government by the council of officers - Opposition of Monk His secrecy Lambert sent against him Parliament restored - Its first acts - - - Monk marches to York Monk marches to London Mutiny in the capital Monk addresses the house He is ordered to chastise the citizens - - ib. 21 2425 2628 ib. 29 30 31 ib. 32 IV CONTENTS. PAGE He joins them - - - 34 Admits the secluded mem bers - - - - ib. Perplexity of the royalists 35 Proceedings of the house 36 Proceedings of the general 37 Dissolution of the long par liament 38 Monk'.s interview withGran- ville ib. His message to the king - 39 The elections Rising under Lambert Influence of the cavaliers in the new parliament - The king's letters deliver ed - - - Declaration from Breda -t The two houses recall the king Charles lands at Dover - Charles enters London - PAGE 40 . ib. 42 ib. 43ib. 44 45 CHAP. II. CHARLES II. THE NEW COUNCIL. PROCEEDINGS IN THE CONVENTION PARLIA MENT. TRIALS AND EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. ECCLE- SIASTICAL ARRANGEMENTS. CONFERENCE AT THE SAVOY. RI SING OF THE FIFTH-MONARCHY MEN. NEW PARLIAMENT. EXE CUTION OF VANE. CORPORATION ACT.— ACT OF UNIFORMITY. PARLIAMENT IN SCOTLAND. EXECUTION OF AUGYLE. RESTORA TION OF EPISCOPACY IN SCOTLAND. ALSO IN IRELAND. ACT OF SETTLEMENT. — AND EXPLANATORY ACT FOR IRELAND. PAGE Conduct of the king - 48 His council ib. The two houses - - 49 Confirmation of parliament ib. Grants to the crown - 50 Court of wards abolished ib. The excise perpetuated - 51 Disbanding of the army 52 'Bill of indemnity - - 53 Fate of the regicides - 54 Executions 55 Punishment of the dead 56 Revolution in landed pro perty - - - - 57 Ecclesiastical arrangement 58 Royal declaration - 59 Policy of the chancellor 61 Insurrections - - - 62 New parliament - - 63 PAGE Acts passed - - 63 King's poverty - - 64 Reports of conspiracies - 65 King refuses the execution of the other conspirators ib. Trials of Lambert and Vane - - - - 66 Corporation act - - 68 Conferences at the Savoy - 69 Act of uniformity - - ib. The lords more liberal than the commons - - 70 Bishops restored to seats in parliament - - 71 Petition of the catholics - 72 Transactions in Scotland 74 Proceedings in parliament ib. Rescissory act . 75 Trial of Argyle - 76 CONTENTS. PAGE His condemnation and death 78 Other executions - . ib. Restoration of bishops - 79 Recall of the English gar risons - - - - 81 Transactions in Ireland ib. Restoration of bishops - 82 Disputes respecting landed property - ib. King's declaration The contending parties heard before the council Decisions of the court of claims Intrigues of the occupiers Final settlement - Its consequences PAGE 83 84 85 ib. 86 87 CHAP. III. CHARLES II. MARRIAGE OP THE DUKE OF YORK. OF THE KING. SALE OF DUN KIRK. INDULGENCE TO TENDER CONSCIENCES. ACT AGAINST CONVENTICLES. WAR WITH THE UNITED PROVINCES.. — GREAT NAVAL VICTORY. THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. — FIVE-MILE ACT. OBSTINATE ACTIONS ATSEA. GREATFIRE OFLONDON. PROCEED INGS IN PARLIAMENT. INSURRECTION IN SCOTLAND. SECRET TREATY WITH FRANCE.— CONFERENCES OPENED AT BREDA. THE DUTCH FLEET IN THE THAMES. PEACE OF BREDA. FALL OF CLA RENDON. p AGE ] CAGE National immorality 89 Disapproved by both houses 105 James's private marriage 90 Conventicle act 107 Disapproved by the royal Complaints against the family 91 Dutch 108 Publicly acknowledged 92 Contrast between the king Marriage of the princess and his brother 109 Henrietta ib. Address of the two houses 110 Portuguese match proposed Hostilities commenced to Charles 93 against the Dutch 111 Opposition of the Spanish Supply voted 112 .ambassador 94 New method of taxation 113 The French king advises it . ib. Loss of privilege by the Resolved in council 95 clergy ib. Rencontre between the two Naval regulations 114 ambassadors 96 Victory of the third of dune 115 Arrival of the princess 97 The plague in London - 11G King's behaviour to her 98 Regulations to suppress it 117 Sale of Dunkirk - 100 Symptoms of the disease 118 Disputes respecting tolera Terrors of the people 119 tion 101 Desolation of the city ib. Declaration of indulgence 102 The pestilence abates - 120 VI CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE Failure of the attempt at Secret treaty with Louis 138 Bergen 121 Dutch fleet in the river 139 Captures by sea - 122 Dutch fleet advances to Parliament at Oxford 123 Upnor 140 Five-mile act ib. Public discontent 141 Louis unites with the Dutch 125 Treaty of peace ib. Treaties 126 Clarendon's unpopularity 142 The four days' battle ib. Clarendon impeached by Intrigues of Louis - 128 Bristol 143 Operations by sea 129 Clarendon abandoned by Fire of London ib. the king 144 Exertions of the king 131 Clarendon deprived of the End of the conflagration ib. seal 146 Its extent and cause 132 Clarendon impeached by Proceedings in parliament ib. the commons - ib. Debate on Irish cattle 134 Clarendon protected by Debate on auditing public the lords 147 accounts 135 Clarendon ordered to quit Insurrection in Scotland 136 the kingdom by Charles ib. Difficulty of fitting out the Clarendon banished by act fleet 137 of parliament 148 CHAP. IV. CHARI ,ES II. THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE. SECRET NEGOTIATION WITH FRANCE.— , CONVERSION OF THE DUKE OF YORK. INTRIGUES TO ALTER THE- SUCCESSION. DIVORCE OF LORD ROOS. VISIT OF THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. SECRET TREATY WITH FRANCE. DEATH OF THE . DUCHESS. SECOND SECRET TREATY. MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS. CHARACTER OF THE CABAL. STOPPAGE OF PAYMENTS FROM THE EXCHEQUER. DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE. OF WAR AGAINST THE STATES. — VICTORY AT SOUTHWOLD BAY. — FRENCH CONQUESTS BY LAND. PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT. THE IN DULGENCE RECALLED. THE TEST ACT PASSED. PAGE The new ministry - 150 Triple alliance - 151 Temple sent to the" Hague ib. Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 153 Proceedings in parliament ib. Dispute between the houses 1 54 Licentiousness at court 156 Buckingham's intrigues ib. PACE Financial measure - 157 Secret negotiation with France - - - 158 Duke of York becomes a catholic - -_ - - ib. Secret consultation - 159 Progress of the negotiation 160 Meeting of parliament 161 CONTENTS. vii PAGE New coaventicle act - 161 Sufferings of the non-con- formists - * 162 Intrigues to alter the suc- - cession - 163 In favour of Monmouth ib. By a divorce - - 164 A supply voted - - 165 Visit of the dutchess of Or leans - - - 166 Contents of the secret treaty - - - ib. Death of the dutchess 168 Second treaty - • ib. Charles's evasions - 169 Meeting of parliament - 170 Assault on Coventry . ib. Proceedings against the catholics - - 171 Dispute between the houses ib. Death of the queen dowager 172 Death of duke of Albemarle ib. Narrow escape of Ormond 173 Attempt to steal the crown ib. Death of the dutchess of York - - 174 The cabal . . 175 Arlington - " - - 176 Clifford - . - ib. Buckingham - - 177 Lauderdale - - "ib. Ashley - - 178 Their religion - - ib. I PAGE They shut up the exche quer Fail in an attempt on the Dutch fleet Grant indulgence to dis senters Which is accepted by them Declaration of war Naval affairs - Battle of Southwold Bay Conduct of the duke of York Death of the earl of Sand. wich Victory of the English They pursue the Dutch Conquest by the French Proceedings in England Clifford made treasurer Elections during the pro rogation Opening of parliament New elections cancelled The supply voted Address against the decla ration of indulgence - The king appeals to ,the lords He cancels the declaration Test act introduced Test act passed Dissenters' relief bill - Remarks 179 180181 182183 184 ib. 185 ib. 186 ib. 187 188 190 ib. 191 ib. ib. 192 193194 ib. 196 197198 CHAP. V. CHARLES II. NAVAL ACTIONS. DISGRACE OF SHAFTESBURY. ADDRESS AGAINST LAUDERDALE AND BUCKINGHAM. IMPEACHMENT OF ARLINGTON. CONCLUSION OF PEACE. DESIGN OF EXCLUDING THE DUKE OF YORK. REPEATED PROROGATIONS OF PARLIAMENT. — INTRIGUES OF MONMOUTH. OF ARLINGTON. PROCEEDINGS OF THE POPULAR PARTY. NON-RESISTING TEST OFDANBY. — DISPUTE RESPECTING APPEALS. ANOTHER SESSION. REVIVAL OF THE DISPUTE. MOTION FOR DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. — PROCEEDINGS IN SCOTLAND — AND IRELAND. Campaigns by land PAGE - 199 Actions at sea PAGE . 200 Resignations . ¦ - 200 Congress at Cologne - 201 CONTENTS. PAGE Meeting and prorogation of parliament - - . 202 Disgrace of Shaftesbury 203 Marriage of the duke of York - - - 204 Twelfth session of parlia ment - - - 205 Removal of ministers - ib. Proceedings against Lau derdale - - 206 Proceedings against Buck ingham - - 207 Proceedings against Arling ton - - - - ib. Orders of the house of lords - - . 208 Proposals of peace from the States . 209 Treaty - - - 210 Designs against the duke of York - . - - ib. Projects of that prince - 211 Prorogation of parliament 212 The duke of Monmouth 213 Intrigues of the prince of Orange - . 214 Intrigues of Shaftesbury - ib. Intrigues of Arlington - 215 Plans of the opposition - 216 Plans of the ministry - 217 Remonstrance of the duke of York - - .218 Opening of the session - 2 1 9 PAGE Proceedings of the house of commons - - 219 Non-resisling test in the house of lords - - 221 Debate on the declaration 223 Debate on the oath - - ib. Objections - - 224 The test as amended in the committee - - 225 Dispute respecting appeals 226 Prorogation - - - 227 Another session - - ib. Renewal of the contest be tween the houses - - 228 Account of Lauzancy - 230 Transactions in Scotland - 232 Attempton the life of Sharp 233 Indulgence to ejected mi nisters - - • ib. Proceedings in parliament 234 Act against field conventi cles - - - - 235 Attempt at " comprehen sion" - - - - 236 The second indulgence - ib. Opposition in parliament - 237 Increase of conventicles 238 Ireland - 239 Recal of Ormond - ib. Claims of the natives - 240 Commission of review - ib. Commission dissolved - 241 Notes 243 HISTORY OF E N G L A N D, CHAP. I. THE PROTECTORATE. RICHARD CROMWELL PROTECTOR. PARLIAMENT CALLED.- — DISSOLV, ED. MILITARY GOVERNMENT. LONG PARLIAMENT RESTORED. — » EXPELLED AGAIN.— REINSTATED. MONK IN LONDON, — READ- MISSION OF SECLUDED MEMBERS. —LONG PARLIAMENT DISSOLV ED. THECONVENTIONPARLIAMENT.— RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. By his wife, Elizabeth Bourchier, Cromwell left two sons, Richard and Henry. There was a re- 16s8. markable contrast in the Opening career of these J^s ^a young men. During the civil war Richard lived in Crom- the Temple, frequented the company of the cava- weU- liers,: and spent his time in 'gaiety and debauchery. Henry repaired to his father's quarters ; and so rapid was his promotion, that at the age of twenty he held the commission of captain in the regiment of guards belonging to Fairfax, the lord-general. After the establishment of the common wealth, Richard married, and, retiring to the house of his father-in-law at Hursley in Hampshire, devoted himself to the usual pursuits of a country gentleman. Henry accom panied his father in the reduction of Ireland, which country he afterwards governed, first with the rank of major-general, afterwards with that of lord-deputy. It was not till the se cond year of the protectorate that Cromwell seemed' to recol lect that he had an elder son. He made him a lord of trade, then chancellor of the university- of Oxford, and lastly a member of the new house of peers. As these honours were far inferior to those which he lavished on other persons con nected, with his family, it was inferred that he entertained, a; Vol. XII. 1 2 HISTORY OP ENGLAND. fCHAr- t mean opinion -of Richard's abilities. A more probable con clusion is, that he feared to alarm the jealousy of his officers, and carefully abstained from doing that which might confirm the general -suspicions, that he designed to make the protec torship hereditary in his famijy. The moment -he expired, the -counsel assembled, Richard and the result of their deliberation was an order hb father. to proclaim Richard Cromwell (protector, on the ground that he had been declared by 'his late high-* ness his successor in that dignity.* Not a murmur of oppo sition was heard : the ceremony was performed in all places after the usual manner of announcing the accession of a new sovereign ; and addresses of condolence and congratulation poured in from the army and navy, from one hundred con gregational churches, and from the boroughs, cities, and counties. It seemed as if free-born Britons had been convert ed into- a nation of slaves. These compositions were drawn up in -the highest -strain of adulation, adorned with forced allusions from Scripture, and with all the extravagance of oriental hyperbole. ¦" Their sun *was set, sbut no night had ibllowed. They -had lost the -nursing father, by whose hand Sheydke^f bondage had been .broken from the necks and ^consciences of the godly. Providence !by one sad stroke .had taken away the breath from their snostr-ils, and smitten the head from their shoulders; but Jhad given them in return the noblest branch of that renowned stock, a prince distin guished iby the lovely composition of his person, ibut still more by &e"eminent qualities -of his mind. The late protec tor had- beena Moses to lead God's people out of the land of Egypt -, 'his son would be a Joshua to conduct them into a more full possession of truth and righteousness. Elijah had been talsen into heaven : Elisha remained, on earth, the inhe ritor of his mantle and his spirit !!"t * There appears good reason >to doubt this assertion. Tburloe indeed (vii. 372) informs Henry Cromwell that his father named Richard to succeed on the preceding Monday. But thisletter was written after the proclamation of Richard, -and its.cotftents are irreconcileable with the letters written be fore it We have one from lord Falconberg, dated on Monday, saying that no nomination had been made, and that Thurloe had promised to suggest it, but probably -would not perform his promise (Ibid. 365), and another from Thurloe himself to Henry Cromwell, stating the same thing as to the nomi nation (Ibid. 364). It may perhaps be said, that Richard was named on the Monday after the letters were written; but there is a second letter from Thurloe dated on the Tuesday, stating that the protector was still incapable of public business, andtbat matters would, he feared, remain till the death of his highness, in the same state as he described them in his letter on Mon day (Ibid. 366.) It was afterwards said that the nomination took place on the night before the protector's death, in the presence of four of the council (Falconberg in Thurloe, 375, and Barwick, ibid. 415) ; but the latter adds that many doubt whether it took place at all. t The Scottish ministers in Edinburgh, instead of joining in these addre«- €ff*p. I.] THE PROTECTORATE. 3 The royalists, who had persuaded themselves that the whole fabric of the protectorial power would fall f^ °"' in pieces on the death of Cromwell, beheld with the army. amazement the general acquiescence in the succes sion of Richard j and the foreign princes, who had deemed it prudent to solicit the friendship of the father, now hastened to offer their congratulations to his son. ep' Yet, fair and tranquil as the prospect appeared, an experienc ed eye might easily detect the elements of an approaching storm.- Meetings- were clandestinely held by the officers ; doubts were whispered of. the nomination of Richard: by his father ; and an opinion was encouraged among the military that, as the commonwealth' was the work of the army, so the ehief office in the commonwealth belonged to the commander of the army. Oh this account the protectorship had been be stowed on Cromwell ;." but his son was a civilian* who had never drawn his sword in the cause ; and to= suffer the su preme power to devolve on him, was to disgrace, to disinherit the men who had suffered so severely and bled so profusely,. in the contest. These complaints had probably been- suggested",, they were certainly fomented, by Fleetwood and his friend's* the colo nels Cooper, Berry, and Sydenham'. Fleetwood was brave in the field but irresolute in council ; eagep for the acquisitioa of power, but continually checked by scruples of conscience j; attached by principle to republicanism, but ready to aeqjiiesce in every change under the pretence of submission to the de crees of Providence, Cromwell, who knew the man, had raised him to the second command in the army, and fed hi» ambition with distant and delusive hopes; of succeeding to the supreme magistracy. The protector died, and Fleet woodr in stead of acting, hesitated, prayed, and consulted : the propi tious moment was suffered to pass by r he assented to the opi nion of the council in favour of Riena-Nl j and then- repenting of his weakness, sought to indemnify himself for the foes- by confining the authority of the protector to the civil administra tion, and procuring for himself the sole uncontrolled command of the army. Under the late government the'meetings of mi litary officers had been discountenanced and forbidden^ now they were encouraged to meet and consult ; and, in a body of more than two hundred individuals, they presented to Rich ard a petition, by which they demanded that no officer should es, prayed on the following Sunday " that the Lord* would be merciful to the exiled, and those that were in captivity, and cause thera to return with sheaves of joy ; that he would deliver all his people from the yoke of Pba- roah, and the task-masters of Egypt, and that he would cut off their oppress ors, and hasten the time of their deliverance." Thurloe, vii- 416. 4 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. tCtiAF.t be deprived but by sentence of a court-martial, and that the chief command of the forces, and the disposal of commissions, should be conferred on some person whose past services had proved his attachment to the cause. There were not want ing those who advised the protector to extinguish the hopes of the factious at once by arresting and imprisoning the chiefs ; but more moderate counsels prevailed, and in a firm but con ciliatory speech, the composition of secretary Thurloe, he re- O 14 plied that, to gratify their wishes, he had appointed his relative, Fleetwood, lieutenant-general of all the forces ; but that, to divest himself of the chief command, and of the right of giving or resuming commissions, would be to act in defiance of the " petition and advice," the instrument by which hp held the supreme authority. For a short time they appeared satisfied ; but the chief officers continued to hold meetings in the chapel at St. James's, ostensibly for the purpose of prayer, but in reality for the convenience Of deli beration. Fresh jealousies were excited ; it was said that another commander (Henry Cromwell was meant), would be placed above Fleetwood ; Thurloe, Pierrepoint, and St. John, were denounced as evil counsellors ; and it became evident to all attentive observers that the two parties must soon come into collision. The protector could depend-on the armies in Ireland and Scotland. In Ireland, his brother Henry govern ed without an opponent ; in Scotland Monk, by his judicious separation of the troops, and his vigilance in the enforcement of discipline, had deprived the discontented of the means of holding meetings, and of corresponding with each other. In England he was assured of the services of eight colonels, and, therefore, as it was erroneously supposed, of* their respective regiments, forming one half of the regular force. But his op ponents were masters of the other half, formed a majority in the council, and daily augmented their numbers by the acces sion of men who secretly leaned to republican principles, or sought to make an interest in that party which they consider ed the more likely to prevail in the approaching struggle* From the notice of these intrigues, the public at- Funeraiof tention was withdrawn by the obsequies of the late Oliver. protector. It was resolved that they should exceed irl magnificence those of any former sovereign, and with that view they were conducted according to the ceremonial observ- * For these particulars see the letters in Thurloe, vii. 386. 406. 413. 5. 434. '6, 7. 3. 447. 450.2, 3, 4. 462. 490, 1, 2, 3. 5, 6, 7; 8. 500: 510. 511. So great was the jealousy between the parties, that Richard and his brother Henry dar ed not correspond by letter. " I doubt not all the letters will be opened, ftbieb. come either to or from your highness, ^hich can be suspected to con tain business;" 454. For the principles now professed by the levellers, see note [A], fcrUp. I.] THE PROTECTORATE". 5 ed at the interment of Philip II. of Spain. Somerset-house was selected for the first part of the exhibition. The spectators, having passed through three rooms ep' hung with black cloth, were admitted into'the funeral cham ber ; where, surrounded with wax lights, was seen an effigy of Cromwell clothed in royal robes, and lying on a bed of state, which covered, or was supposed to cover, the coffin. On each side lay different parts of his armour : in one hand was placed the sceptre, in the other the globe ; and behind the head an imperial crown rested on a cushion in a. chair of state. But, in defiance of every precaution, it became necessary to inter the body before the appointed day ; and the coffin was secretly deposited at night in a vault atthe west end of the middle aisle of Westminster Abbey, under the gorgeous ceno taph which had recently been erected. The effigy was now removed to' a more spacious chamber : it rose from a recum bent to an erect posture ; and stood before the spectators not only with the emblems of royalty in its hands, but with the crown upon its head. For eight weeks this pageant was ex hibited to the public. As the day appointed for the funeral obsequies approached, rumours of an intended explosion du ring the ceremony Were circulated ; but guards from " the most trusty regiments lined the streets ; the 0T" procession, consisting of the principal persons in the city and army, the officers of state, the foreign ambassadors, and the members of the protector's family, passed along without in terruption ; and the effigy, which in lieu of the corpse was borne on a car, was placed with due solemnity in the ceno taph already mentioned. Thus did fortune sport with the ambitious prospects of Cromwell. The honours of royalty which she refused to him during his life, she lavished on his remains after death ; and then, in the course of a few months, resuming her gifts, exchanged the crown for A halter, and the royal monument in the abbey for an ignominious grave at Tyburn.* Before the reader proceeds to the more impor tant transactions at home, he may take a rapid view Foreign of the relations existing between England and foreign t^530" states. The War which had so long raged between the rival crowns of France and Spain was hastening to its ter mination ; to Louis the aid of England appeared no longer a matter of consequence ; and the auxiliary treaty between the * Thurloe, vii. 528, 9. Carrington apud Noble, i. 360—9. The charge for black cloth alone on this occasion was 69291.6s. 5d. Biblioth. Stow. ii. 448. I do not notice the silly stories about the stealth of the protector's body. b HISTORY OF ENG.LA.PJDi QCaif . ft two countries which had been renewed from year to year, was suffered to expire at the appointed' time. But in the north of Europe there was much to claim the attention of the new protector : the king of Sweden* after a short ug" peace, had again unsheathed the sword against his enemy, the king of Denmark. The commercial interests of the maritime states were deeply involved in the issue of the contest ; both England and Holland-prepared to aid their re spective allies ; and a Dutch squadron joined the Danish, while an English division, under the command of Ayscue, sailed to the assistance of the Swedish monarch. The severity of the winter forced Ayscue to return ; but as soon as the navigation: of the Sound was open, two powerful fleets were despatched to the Baltic : one by the protector, 'the other by the States ;- and to Montague, the English admiral, was entrusted the de^ licate and difficult commission, not only of watching the pro ceedings of the Dutch, but also of compelling them to ob serve peace towards the Swedes, without giving them occa sion to commence hostilities against himself. In this he was^ successful : but no offer of mediation could reconcile the con tending monarchs ; and we shall find Montague still cruizing in the Baltic at the time when Richard, from whom he deriv ed his commission, will be forced to abdicate the protecto- rial dignity.* In a few days after the funeral of his father, to New par- the surprise of the public, the protector summoned Nov.630. a parliament. How, it was asked, could Richard hope to control such an assembly, when the ge nius and authority of Oliver had proved unequal to the at tempt ? The difficulty was acknowledged ; but the arrears of the army, the exhaustion of the treasury, and the necessity of seeking support against the designs of the officers, com pelled him to hazard the experiment ; and he flattered him self with the hope of success, by avoiding the rock on which, in the opinion of his advisers, the policy of his father had split. Oliver had adopted the plan of representation prepar ed by the long parliament before its dissolution, a plan which, by disfranchising the lesser boroughs, and multiplying the members of the counties, had rendered the elections more independent of the government : Richard, under the pre tence of a boon to the nation, reverted to the ancient system ; and, if we may credit the calculation of his opponents, no fewer than one hundred and sixty members were returned from the boroughs by the interest of the court and its sup- * Burton's Diary, iii. 576. Thurloe, vol. vii. passim. Carte's Letters, ii. 157—182. Londorp, viii. 035. 708. Duraont, vi. 244. 852. 260. Gmxr. 1-3 THE PROTECTORATE. 7 porters. But to adopt the same plan in the conquered coun tries -of Scotland and Ireland would have been dangerous : thirty representatives were therefore summoned from each ; ¦and* as the elections were conducted under the eyes of the commanders of the forces, the members, with one solitary exception, proved themselves the obsequious servants of go vernment.* It was, however, taken as no favourable omen, that when the protector, at the opening of parlia- Parties in ment, commanded the attendance of the/commons jnern\a" in the house of .lords, nearly one-half of the mem- 1659. bers refused to obey. They were unwilling to sanction by their presence the existence of an au- une thority, the legality of which they intended to dispute, Or to admit the superior rank of the new peers, the representatives ef the protector, over themselves, the representatives of the people. ~ As soon as the lower house was constituted, it divid ed itself into three distinct parties. 1. The protectorists, about one half of the members, had received instructions to adhere inviolably to the provisions of the " humble petition and advice," and to consider the government by a single per son, with the aid of two houses, as the unalterable basis of the constitution. 2. The republicans, who did not amount to fifty, compensated for the deficiency of number by their energy and eloquence. Vane, Hazlerig, Lambert, Ludlow, Nevil, Bradshaw, and Scot, were ready debaters, skilled in the forms of the house, and always on the watch to take ad vantage of the want of knowledge or of experience on the part of their adversaries. With them voted Fairfax, who, after a long retirement, appeared once more on the stage. He constantly sat by the side and echoed the opinions of Hazlerig ; and, so artfully did he act his part, so firmly did he attach their confidence, that, though a royalist at heart, he was designed by them for the office of lord-ge.neral, in the event of the expulsion or the abdication of Richard. 3. The "moderates or neuters" held in number the medium be tween the protectorists and republicans. Of these, some wavered between the two parties ; but many were concealed cavaliers, who, in obedience to the command of Charles, had obtained seats in the house, or young men who, without any fixed political principles, suffered themselves to be guided by the suggestions of the cavaliers. To the latter, Hyde had sent instructions, that they should embarrass the plans of the protector, by denouncing to the house the illegal acts * Thurloe, vii. 541. 550. Ludlow, ii. 170. Bethel, Brief Narrative, 340. England's Confusion, p. 4. London, 1659. 8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. I. committed under the late administration; by impeaching Thurloe and the principal officers of state ; by fomenting the dissension between the courtiers and the republicans, and by throwing their weight into the scale, sometimes in favour of one, sometimes of the other party, as might appear most conducive to the interests of the royal exile.* - The lords, aware of the insecure footing on which tbn'oT'" tney st°.°d> were careful not to provoke the hostility Richard, of the commons. They sent no messages ; they pass ed no bills ; but, exchanging matters of state for questions of religion, contrived to spend their time in dicuss- ing the merits of a national catechism ;. the sinfulness of thea trical entertainments ; and the papal corruptions supposed to exist in the Book of Common Prayer.t In the lower house, the first subject which called forth the; strength of the differ ent parties was a bill which, under the pretence of recogniz ing Richard Cromwell for the rightful successor to his. father, would have pledged the parliament to an acquiescence in the existing form of government. The men of republican prin ciples instantly took the alarm. To Richard personally they felt no objection ; they respected his private character, and wished well to the prosperity of his family : but where, they asked, was the proof that the provisions of the " humble peti tion, and advice" had been observed ? where the deed of no mination by his father ? where the witnesses to the signature ? — Then what was the " humble petition and advice" itself? An instrument of no force in a matter of such high con cernment, and passed by a very small majority in a house, out of which one hundred members lawfully chosen had been unlawfully excluded. Lastly, what right had the commons to admit a negative voice, either in another house or in a single person ? Such a voice was destructive of the sovereignty of the people exercised by their representatives. The people. had sent them to parliament with power to make laws for the national welfare, but not to annihilate the first and most- valu able right of their constituents. Each day the debate grew more animated and personal : charges were made, and re crimination followed ; the republicans enumerated the acts of misrule and oppression under the government of the late pro-. tector ; the courtiers balanced the account with similar in stances from the proceedings of their adversaries during the sway of the long parliament ; the orators, amidst the multi- * Thurloe, i. 760; vii. 562. 604. 5. 9. 615. 6. Clarend. Fap. iii. 423. 4, 5.. 8. 432. 4. 6. There were forty-seven republicans; from one hundred to one hundred and forty counterfeit republicans and neuters, seventy-two lawyers. qpd above one hundred placemen. Ibid. 440. t Thurloe, 559. 609. 615. Chap. I.J THE protectorate. 9 tude of subjects incidentally introduced, lost sight of the origi nal question ; and the speaker, after a debate of eight days, declared that he was bewildered in a labyrinth of confusion, out of which he could discover no issue. Weari- Feb ]4 ness at last induced the combatants to listen to a compromise, that the recognition of Richard as protector should form part of a future bill ; but that, at the same time, his prerogative should be so limited as to secure the liberties of the people. Each party expressed its satisfaction. The republicans had still the field open for the advocacy of their favourite doctrines ; the protectorists had advanced a step, and trusted that it would lead them to the acquisition of great er advantages.* From the office of protector, the members pro ceeded to inquire into the constitution and powers other of the other house ; and this question, as it was in- house. timately connected with the former, was debated with equal warmth and pertinacity. The opposition appealed to the " engagement," which many of the members had sub scribed ; contended that the right of calling a second house had been personal to the late protector, and did not descend to his successors _j urged the folly of yielding a negative voice on their proceedings to a body of counsellors of their own creation ; and pretended to foretel that a protector with a yearly income of 1,300, 000 J., and a house of lords selected by himself, must inevitably become in the course of a few years master of the liberties of the people. When, M . ._ at the end of nine days, the speaker was going to put the question, Sir Richard Temple, a concealed royalist, demanded that the sixty members from Scotland, and Ireland, all in the interest of the court, should withdraw. It was, he said, doubtful from the illegality of their election whether they had any right to sit at all ; it was certain that, as the repre sentatives of other nations, they could not claim to vote on a question of such high importance to the people of England. Thus another bone of contention was thrown between, the parties ; eleven days were consumed before the Scottish and Irish members could obtain permission March 28 to vote, and then five more expired before the ques tion respecting the other house was determined. The new lords had little reason to be gratified with the result. They were acknowledged, indeed, as a house of parliament for the present -T but there was no admission of their claim to the * Journals, Feb. 1. 14. Thurloe, 603. 9, 10, 5. 7. Clar. Pap. iii. 434. 6. 9. In Burton's Diary the debate occupies almost two hundred pages, iii. 87 —287. Vol. XII. 2 10 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Cha*. I. peerage, or of a negative voice, or of a right to sit in subse quent parliaments. The commons consented " to transact business with them" (a new phrase of undefined meaning), pending the parliament, but with a saving of the rights of the . . ' ancient peers, who had been faithful to the cause ; pn and, in addition, a few days later they resolved that, in the transaction of business, no superiority should be ad mitted in the other house, nor message received from it, un less brought by the members themselves.* In these instances, the recognition of the protector Charles and of the two houses, the royalists, with some ex- fate"o-t,,e ceptions, had voted in favour of the court, under vernment. the impression that such a form of government was one step towards the restoration of the king. But on all other questions, whenever there was a prospect of throw ing impediments in the way of the ministry, or of inflaming the discontent of the people, they zealously lent their aid to the republican party. It was proved that, while the re venue had been doubled, the expenditure had grown in a greater proportion : complaints were made of oppression, waste, embezzlement, and tyranny in the collection of the excise ; the inhumanity of selling obnoxious ^individuals for slaves to the West India planters was severely reprobated ,*t instances of extortion were daily denounced to the house by the committee of grievances ; an impeachment was ordered against. Boteler accused of oppression in his office of major- general ; and another threatened against Thurloe for ille gal conduct in his capacity of secretary of state. But while these proceedings awakened the hopes and gratified the re sentments of the people, they at the same time spread alarm through the army ; every man conscious of having abused the power of the sword, began to tremble for his own safety ; and an unusual ferment, the sure presage of military violence, was; observable at the head quarters of the several regiments. " Journals, Feb. 18. Mar. 28 ; April 5, 6. 8. Thurloe, 615. 26. 30. 36. 40. 47. Clar. Pap, iii. 429. 432. Burton's Diary, iii. 817—69, 403.— 24. 510— 94 ; iv. 7—41. 46—147. 163—243. 293. 351. 375. t Clar. Pap. iii. 429. 32. Thurloe, 647. Burton's Diary, iii. 448 ; iv. 255. 263. 301. 403. 429. One petition stated that seventy persons, who had been apprehended on account of the Salisbury rising, after a year's imprisonment, had been sold at Barbadoes for " ],550 pounds' weight of sugar a-piece, more or less, according to their working faculties." Among them were di vines, officers, and gentlemen, who were represented as " grinding at the mills, attending at the furnaces, and digging in that scorching island, being bought and sold still from one planter to another, or attached as horses or beasts for the debts of their masters, being whipped at the whipping posts as rogues at their master's pleasure, and sleeping in sties worse than hogs in EDgland." Ibid. 256. See also Thurloe, i. 746. Crap. I.] THE PROTECTORATE. 1 1 Hitherto the general officers had been divided between Whitehall and Wallingford-house, the resi- Tl)e offi- dences of Richard and of Fleetwood." At White- t^r„s.peti" hall, the lord Falconberg, brother-in-law to the pro- tee i , Charles Howard, whom Oliver had created a vis count,* Ingoldsby, Whalley, Goffe, and a few others, formed a in tary council for the purpose of maintaining the ascendan cy of Richard in the army. At Wallingford-house,. Fleet wood and his friends consulted how they might deprive him of the command and reduce him to the situation of a civil magis trate : but how a third arid more numerous council appeared at St. James's, consisting of most of the inferior officers, and guided by the secret intrigues of Lambert, who, holding no commission himself, abstained from sitting among them, and' by the open influence of Desborough, a bold and reckless man, Avho began to despise the weak and wavering conduct of Fleetwood. Here originated the plan of a general council of officers, which was followed by the adoption of "the humble representation and petition," an instrument composed in lan guage too moderate to give reasonable cause of offence, but intended to suggest much more than it was thought prudent to express. It made no allusion to the disputed claim of the protector, or the subjects of strife between the two houses ; but-it complained bitterly of the contempt into which the good old cause had sunk, of the threats held out, and the pro secutions instituted against the patriots who had distinguished themselves in its support, and of the privations to which the military were reduced by asystem that kept their pay so many months in arrear. In conclusion, it prayed for the re dress of these grievances, and stated the attachment of the subscribers to the cause for which, they had bled, and their readiness to stand by the protector and parliament in its de- fence.t This paper, with six hundred signatures, was pre sented to Richard* who received it with an air of cheerfulness, and forwarded it to the lower house. There it was read, laid on the table, and scornfully neglected. But the military leaders treated the house/, with equal scorn : having obtained consent of the protector, they established a permanent coun cil of generaf officers ; and there, instead of fulfilling the ex pectations with which they had lulled his jealousy, successive ly voted, that the common cause was in danger, that the com mand of the army ought to be vested in a person possessing " Viscount Howard of Morpeth, July 20, 1657, afterwards created baron Dacre, viscount Howard of Morpeth, and earl of Carlisle, by .Charles II. 30 Ap. 1661. t "The Humble Representation and Petition, printed by Hills, 1659." Thurloe, 659. 12 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ICua*. f. its confidence, and that every officer should be called upon to testify his approbation of the death of Charles I. and of the subsequent proceedings of the military, a measure levelled against the meeting at Whitehall, of which the members were charged with a secret leaning to the cause of royalty.* Thi3 was sufficiently alarming ; but, in addition, the officers of the trained bands signified their adhesion to the " representation " of the army ; and more than six hundred privates of the regi ment, formerly commanded by colonel Pride, published their determination to stand by their officers in the main- Apnl 18. tenance of « the 0id cause.»| The friends of the pre* tector saw that it was time to act with energy ; and, by their influence in the lower house, carried the following votes : that no military meetings should be held without the joint consent of the protector and the parliament, and that every officer should forfeit his commission who would not promise binder his signature never to disturb the sitting or infringe the free dom of parliament. These votes met, indeed, with a violent opposition in the " other house," in which many of the mem- bers had been chosen from the military ; but the cour- pn ' tiers, anxious to secure the victory, proposed ano ther and declaratory vote in the commons, that the command of the army was vested in the three estates, to be exercised by the protector. By the officers this motion was considered as an open declaration of war ; they instantly met. ; and Des- borough, in their name, informed Richard that the crisis was at last come ; the parliament must be dissolved, either by the civil authority, or by the power of the sword. He might make his election. If he chose the first, the army would pro vide for his dignity and support ; if he did not, he would be abandoned to his fate, and fall friendless and unpitied.J The protector called a council of his confiden- The par- tial advisers. Whhelock opposed the dissolution, on dbTolved. the ground that a grant of money might yet appease the discontent of the military. Thurloe, Broghill, Fiennes.and Wolseley maintained, on the contrary, that the dis sension between the parliament and the army was irreconcile- A ril22 a^e :- an(* t'iat on t*ie nrst sh°ck between them the p" ' cavaliers would rise simultaneously in the cause of Charles Stuart. A commission was accordingly signed by Richard, and the usher of the black rod repeatedly summon ed the commons to attend in the other house. But true to * Thurloe, 662. Ludlow, ii. 174. t The Humble Representation and Petition of the Field Officers, eto. of the Trained Bands. London, 1659. Burton's Diary, iv. 388, note. X Thurloe, 655. 7, 8. 662. Burton's Diary, iv. 448—463. 472—480. Lud low, U. 176. 8. Cbap. 11 THE COMMONWEALTH. 13 their former vote of receiving no message brought by inferior officers, they refused to obey : some members proposed to de clare it treason to put force on the representatives of the na tion, others to pronounce all proceedings void whenever a por tion of the members should be excluded by violence ; at last they adjourned for three days, and accompanied the speaker to his carriage in the face of the soldiery assembled at the door. These proceedings, however, did not prevent Fiennes, the head commissioner, from dissolving the parliament ; and the important intelligence was communicated to the three na tions by proclamation the same afternoon.* Whether the consequences of this measure, so fa tal to the interests of Richard, were foreseen by his The offi* advisers, may be doubted. It appears that Thurloe "£ |„„g had for several days been negotiating both with the paiiia- republican and the military leaders. He had tempt- ment. ed some of the former, with the offer of place and emolument, to strengthen the party of the protector : to the latter he had proposed that Richard, in imitation of his father on one occa sion, should raise money for the payment of the army by the power of the sword, and without the aid of parliament^ But these intrigues were now at an end : by the dissolution, Rich ard had signed his own deposition ; though he continued to reside at Whitehall, the government fell into abeyance ; even the officers, who had hitherto frequented his court, abandon ed him ; some to appease, by their attendance at Wallingford- house, the resentment of their adversaries ; the others, to pro vide, by their absence, for their own safety. If the supreme au thority resided anywhere, it was with Fleetwood, who now held the nominal command of the army ; but he and his associates were controlled both by the meeting of officers at St. James's and by the consultations of the republican party in the city, and therefore contented themselves with depriving the friends of Richard of their commissions, and with giving their regi ments to the men who had been cashiered by his father.! Un able to agree on any form of government among themselves, they sought to come to an understanding with the republican leaders. These demanded the restoration of the long parlia ment, on the ground that, as its interruption by Cromwell had been illegal, it was still the supreme authority in the nation ; and the officers, unwilling to forfeit the privileges of their new * Whitelock, 677. England's Confusion, 9. Clarendon Pap. 451. 6. Ludlow, ii. 174. Merc. Pol. 564. t Thurloe, 659. 661. t See the Humble Remonstrance from four hundred non-commissioned Officers and Privates of-Major-general Goffe's Regiment (so called) of Foot. London, 1659. 14 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LCbaf. I. peerage, insisted on the reproduction of the other house, as a co-ordinate authority, under the less objectionable name of a senate. But the country was now in a state of anarchy ; the intentions of the armies in Scotland and Ireland remained un certain ; and the royalists, both presbyterians and cavaliers, M were exerting themselves to improve the general ay confusion to the advantage of the exiled king. As a last resource, the officers invited the members of the long parliament to resume their duties. With some diffi- y ' culty, two-and-forty were privately collected in the painted chamber ; and Lenthall, the former speaker, putting himself at their head, passed into the house through two lines of officers, some of them the very individuals by whom, six years before they had been ignominiously expelled.* The reader will recollect that, on a former oc- Reiection casion, in the year 1648, the presbyterian members members °^ l^e 'on§ parliament had also been excluded by formerly the army. Of these, one hundred and ninety-four excluded, were still alive, eighty of whom actually resided in the capital- That they had as good a right to re sume their seats as the members who had been expelled by Cromwell, could hardly be doubted ; but they were royalists, still adhering to the principles whch they professed during the treaty in the Isle of Wight ; and from their number, had they been admitted, would have instantly outvoted the advocates of republicanism. They assembled in Westmin- ster-hall ; and a deputation of fourteen, with sir George Booth, Prynne, and Annesley at their head, proceeded to the house. The doors were closed in their faces. ; a company of soldiers, the keepers, as they were sar- M ¦ " castically called, of the liberties of England, filled ay ' the lobby ; and a resolution was passed that no for mer member, who had not subscribed the engagement, should sit till further order of parliament. The attempt, however, though it failed of success, produced its effect. It served to countenance a belief that the sitting members were mere tools of the military, and supplied the royalists with the means of masking their real designs under the po pular pretence of vindicating the freedom of parliaments • Ludlow, 179—186. Whitelock, 677. England's Confusion, 9. t Journ. May 9, Loyalty Banished, 3. England's Confusion, 12. On the 9th, Prynne found his way into the house, and maintained his right against his opponents till dinner time. After dinner he returned, but was excluded by the military. He was careful, however, to inform the public of the particulars, and moreover undertook to prove that the long parlia ment expired at the death of the king: 1. on the authority of the doctrine laid down in the law books; 2. because all writs of summons abate by the kiDg's death in parliament ; 3. because the parliament is called by a king Csap.I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 15' By gradual additions, the house at last amounted to seven ty members, who, while they were ridiculed by their adver saries with the appellation of the " Rump," constituted them selves the supreme authority in the three kingdoms. They appointed, first a committee of safety, and then a council of state ; notified to the foreign ministers their restoration to power; and, to satisfy the people, promised by a printed declaration to establish a form of government, which should secure'civil and religious liberty without a single person, or kingship, or house of lords. The farce of addresses was re newed ; the "children of Zion," the asserters of the good old cause, clamorously displayed their joy,; and heaven was fatigued with prayers for the prosperity and permanence of the new government.* That government at first depended for its exist- Acquies- ence on the good will of the military in the neigh- th"dinV bourhood of London; gradually it obtained pro- rentar. mises of support from the forces at a distance. mie3, 1. Monk, with his officers, wrote to the speaker, congratulat ing him and his colleagues on their restoration to power, and hypocritically thanking them for their condescension in tak ing up so heavy a burthen ; but, at the same time, remind ing them of the services of Oliver Cromwell, and of the debt of gratitude which the > nation owed to his family, t 2. Lockhart hastened to tender the services of the regi ments in Flanders ; and received in return a renewal of his credentials as ambassador, with a commission to attend the conferences between the ministers of France and Spain at Fuentarabia. 3. Montague followed with a letter from the fleet; but his professions of attachment were received with distrust. To balance his influence with the seamen, Lawson received the command of a squadron destined to cruize in the channel ; and, to watch his conduct in the Baltic, three commissioners, with Algernon Sydney at their head, were joined with him in his mission to the two northern courts. J 4. There still remained the army in Ireland. From Henry Cromwell, a soldier possessing the affection of the military,, and believed to inherit the abilities of his father, an obstinate, regnant, and is his, the king* regnant's, parliament, and deliberates on his business; 4. becanse the parliament is a corporation, consisting of king, lords, and commons, and if one of the three be extinct, the body corpo rate no longer exists. See Loyalty Banished, and a True and Perfect Nar rative of what was done and spoken by and between Mr. Prynne, etc. 1669. * See the Declarations of the Army and the Parliament in the Journals, Mayi7, ' t Whitelock, 678. t Thurloe, 669, 670. Ludlow, ii. 199. Journals, May 7. 9, 18. 26. 31. 16 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. |.Csa!.;1. and perhaps successful, resistance was anticipated. But he wanted decision. Three parties had presented themselves to his choice ; to earn, by the promptitude of his acquiescence, the gratitude of the new government, or to maintain by arms the right of his deposed brother, or to declare, as he was strongly solicited to declare, in favour of Charles Stuart. Much time was lost in consultation : at length the thirst of resentment, with the lure of reward, determined him to un furl the royal standard ;* then the arrival of letters' from England threw him back into his former state of irresolution ; and, while he thus wavered from project to project, some of his officers ventured to profess their attachment to the com monwealth, the privates betrayed a disinclination to separate their cause from that of their comrades in England ; and sir Hardress Waller, in the interest of the parliament, surprised the castle of Dublin. The last stroke reduced Henry at once to the condition of a suppliant : he signified une his submission by a letter to the speaker, obeyed the commands of the house to appear before the council, and, having explained to them the state of Ireland, was graciously permitted to retire into the obscurity of private life. u y ' The civil administration of the island devolved on five commissioners, and the command of the army was given to Ludlow, with the rank of lieutenant-general of the horse.t But the republican leaders soon discovered that sion be*n~ *nev ^ad not Deen called to repose on a bed of tween par- roses. The officers at Wallingford-house began to liament dictate to the men whom they had made their nomi- ficers e ° na' meters, and forwarded to them fifteen demands, May 15. under the modest title of" the things which they had on their minds," when they restored the long parlia ment.:}: The house took them successively into consideration. A committee was appointed to report the form of government the best calculated to secure the liberties of the people ; the duration of the existing parliament was limited to twelve months ; freedom of worship was extended to all believers in the Scriptures and the doctrine of the Trinity, with the usual exception of prelatists and papists ; and an act of oblivion, after many debates, was passed, but so encumbered with pro- • Carte's Letters, ii. 242. Clar. Pap. 500, 501. 516. t Thurloe, vii. 683. 9. Journals, June 14. 27 ; July 4. 17. Henry Crom well resided on his estate of Swinney-abbey, near Soham, in Cambridge shire, till bis death in 1674. Noble, i. 227. t See the Humble Petition and Address of the Officers ; printed by Henry Hills, 1659. Chap. I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 1? visoes and exceptions, that it served rather to irri- j . .„ tate than appease.* The officers had requested that uy lands of inheritance, to the annual value of 10,000/., should be settled on Richard Cromwell, and a yearly pension of 8000/. on her " highness dowager," his mother. But it was observed in the house that, though Richard exercised no au thority, he continued to occupy the state apartments at White hall : and a suspicion existed that he was kept there as an object of terror, to intimate to the members that the same power could again set him up, which had so recently brought Mm down. By repeated messages, he was ordered to retire ; and, on his promise to obey, the parliament granted him the privilege of freedom from arrest during six months ; trans ferred his private debts, amounting to 29,000/., to the account of the nation ; gave him 2000/. as a relief to his present ne cessities ; and voted that a yearly income of 10,000/. should foe settled on him and his heirs, a grant easily made on paper, but never carried into execution. t But the principal source of disquietude still re mained. Among the fifteen articles presented to The latter the house, the twelfth appeared not in the shape of °j£f*td to a request, but of a declaration, that the officers new com- unanimously owned Fleetwood as " commander-in- missions. chief of the land forces in England." It was the point for which they had contended under Richard : and Ludlow, Vane, and Salloway, earnestly implored their col leagues to connive at what it was evidently dangerous to op pose. But the lessons of prudence were thrown away on the rigid republicanism of Hazlerig, Sydney, Nevil, and their as sociates, who contendedthat, to be silent was to acknowledge" in the council of officers an authority independent of the parlia ment. They undertook to remodel the constitution of the army. The office of lord-general was abolished ; June 9 no intermediate rank between the lieutenant-gene ral and the colonels was admitted ; Fleetwood was named lieutenant-general, with the chief command in England and Scotland, but limited in its duration to a short period, revoca ble at pleasure, and deprived of several of those powers which had hitherto been annexed to it. All military Commissions * Declaration of General Council of Officers, 27th of October, p. 5. For the different forms of government suggested by different projectors, see Lud low, ii. 206. t Journals, May 19. 25 ; July 4- 12. 16. Ludlow (ii. 198.) makes the pre sent 20.000J. ; but the sum of 2000J. is written at length in the Journals ; May 25. While he was at Whitehall, he entertained proposals from the royalists ; consented to accept a title and 20,000?. a year, and designed to escape to the fleet under Montague, but was too strictly watched to effect his purpose, Clar. Pap. iii. 475. 477. 8. Vol. XII. 3 18 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. (_CtUf.1. were revoked, and an order was made, that a committee of nine members should recommend the persons to be officers in each regiment ; that their respective merit should be can vassed in the house ; and that those who had passed this or deal, shotild receive their commissions at the table from the hand of the speaker. The object of this arrangement was plain : to make void the declaration of the military ; to weed out men of doubtful fidelity ; and to render the others depen dent for their situations on the pleasure of the house. Fleet wood, with his adherents, resolved, never to submit to the degradation, while the privates amused themselves with ridi culing the age and infirmities of him whom they called their new lord-general, the speaker Lenthall; but Hazlerig prevailed on colonel Hacker, with his officers, to conform : their example gradually drew others, and, at length, the most discontented, though with shame andTeluctance, condescend ed to go through this humbling ceremony. The republicans congratulated each other on their victory ; they had only ac celerated their defeat.* Ever since the death of Oliver, the exiled king Projects had watched with i..:3nse_interest the eourse of aiists6r0y events in England ; and each day added a new stimulus to his hopes of a favourable issue. The un settled state of the nation, the dissensions among his enemies, the flattering representations of his friends, and the offers of co-operation from men who had hitherto opposed his claims, persuaded him that the day of his restoration was at hand. That the opportunity might not be forfeited by his own backwardness, he announced to the leaders of the royalists his intention of coming to England, and of hazarding his life in the company of his faithful subjects. There was scarcely a county in which the majority of the nobility and gentry did not engage to rally round his standard : the first day of August was fixed for the general rising ; and it was de termined in the council at Brussels that Charles should repair in disguise to the coast of Bretagne, where he might procure a passage into Wales or Cornwall ; that the duke of York, with six hundred veterans furnished by the prince of Conde, should attempt to land from Boulogne on the coast of Kent ; and that the duke of Gloucester should follow from Ostend with the royal army of four thousand men, under the mare- schal Marsin. Unfortunately his concerns in England had been hitherto conducted by the council called The Knot, at the head of which was Sir Richard Willis. Willis, the read- * Journals passim. Ludlow, ii. 197. Declaration of Officers, 6. Thurloe, 679. Clarend. Hist. iii. 665. f?KA!N 1] THE COMMONWEALTH. 19 er is aware, was a traitor ; but it was only of late that the eyes of Charles had been opened to his perfidy by Morland, the secretary of Thurloe, who, to make his own peace, sent to the court at Bruges some of the original communications in the writing of Willis. This discovery astonished and per plexed the king. To make public the conduct of the traitor was to provoke him to farther disclosures ; to conceal it,. was to connive at the destruction of his friends and the ruin of his own prospects. He first instructed his correspondents to be reserved in their communications with " the knot ; " he then ordered Willis to meet fiim on a certain day Auu'^j 8' at Calais ; and, when this order was disregarded, openly forbad the royalists to give him information, or to fol low his advice.* But these precautions came too late. After the deposition of the protector, Willis had continued to communicate with Thurloe, who, with the intelligence which he thus obtained, was enabled to purchase the forbearance of his former op ponents. At an early period in July, the council was in pos session of the plan of the royalists. Reinforcements were immediately demanded from the armies in Flanders and Ireland ; directions were issued for a levy of u ^ fourteen regiments of one thousand men each ; measures were taken for calling out the militia ; numerous arrests were made in the city and every part of the country ; and the known cavaliers were compelled to leave the metropolis, and to produce security for their peaceable behaviour. These proceedings seemed to justify- Willis in representing the attempt as hopeless ; and, at his persuasion, " the knot " by circular letters forbad the rising two days before the ap pointed time. The royalists were thrown into ir- ^ remediable confusion. Many remained quiet at u y ' their homes ; many assembled in arms, and dispersed on ac count of the absence of their associates : in some counties the leaders were intercepted in their way to the place of rendezvous ; in others, as soon as they met, they were sur- * Clar. Pap. iii. 514. 7. 8. 20. 4. 6. 9. 31. 5. 6. Willis maintained his in nocence, and found many to believe him. Echard (p. 729) has published a letter with Morland's signature, in which he is made to say that he neversent any of the letters of Willis to the king, or even so much as knew his name ; whence Harris (ii. 215) infers thai-die, whole charge is false. That, however, St was true, no one can doubt who will examine the proofs in the Clarendon Papers (iii. 5 !8. 26. 9. 33. 5, 6. 42. 9. 56. 8. 62. 3. 74. 83. 5), and in Carte's Col lection of Letters (ii. 220. 56. 84). Indeed, the letter from Willis of the 9th of May. 1660, soliciting the king's pardon, leaves no room for doubt. (ClaT. Pap. 643). That Morland was the informer, and, consequently, that the let ter in Echard is a forgery, is also evident from the reward which he received at the restoration, and from his own admission to Pepys. See Pepys, i. 79. 82. 133. 8vo. 2(1 HISTORY OF ENGLAND* |CiUf< \. Eising in rounded or charged by a superior force. In Che- Cheshire. snire alone wag the rovai gtarl(jard successfully s' ' unfurled by Sir George "Booth, a person of con siderable influence in the county, and a recent convert to the cause of the Stuarts. In the letter which Aug. 2. |je circuiated, ne Was careful to make no mention of the king, but called on the people to defend their rights against the tyranny of an insolent soldiery and a pretended parliament. " Let the nation freely choose its representatives, and those representatives as freely sit without awe or force of soldiery." This was all that he sought : in the determina tion of such an assembly, whatever that determination might be, both he and his friends would cheerfully acquiesce.* It was in effect a rising on the presbyterian interest ; and the proceedings were in a great measure controlled by a com mittee of ministers, who scornfully rejected the aid of the catholics, and received with jealousy sir Thomas Middleton, though of their own persuasion, because he openly avowed himself a royalist. At Chester, the parliamentary garrison retired It is snp- into the castle, and the insurgents took possession pressed. Qf tne ^y. Each day brought them a new acces sion of strength ; and their apparent success taught them to augur equally well of the expected attempts of their con federates throughout the kingdom. But the unwelcome truth could not long be concealed ; and when they learned that they stood alone, that every other rising had been either pre vented or instantly suppressed, and that Lambert was hasten ing against them with four re'giments of cavalry and three of foot, their confidence- was exchanged for despair ; every gentleman, who had risked his life in the attempt, claimed a right to give his advice ; and their counsels, from fear, in experience, and misinformation, became fluctuating and con tradictory. After much hesitation, they resolved to proceed to Namptwich and defend the passage of the Weever ; but so rapid had been the march of the enemy, who sent forward part of the infantry on horseback, that the advance was already arrived in the neighbourhood ; and, while the royalists lay unsuspicious of danger in ug- ' the town, Lambert forced the passage of the river 19 at Winnington. In haste, they filed out of Nampt- s" wich into the nearest fields ; but here they found ' that their ammunition was still at Chester ; and, on the sug gestion that the position was unfavourable, hastened to take possession of a neighbouring eminence. Colonel Morgan, " Pari. Hist.xxiii. 107. CHAf.LJ THE COMMONWEALTH. 21 with his troop, attempted to keep the enemy in check : he fell with thirty men ; and the rest of the insurgents, at the ap* proach of their adversaries, turned their backs and fled. Three hundred were made prisoners in the pursuit, and few of the leaders had the good fortune to escape. The earl of Derby, who had raised men in Lancashire to join the royalists, was taken in the disguise of a ug- servant. Booth, dressed as a female, and .iding on a pillion, took the direct road for London, but betrayed himself at Newton Pagnell by his awkwardness in alighting from the horse. Middleton, who was eighty years old, fled to Chirk castle ; and, after a defence of a few days* capitu- lated on condition that he should have two months ug' to make his peace with the parliament.* The news of this disaster reached the duke of York at Bou logne, fortunately on the very evening on' which he was to have embarked with his men. Charles received it at Ro chelle, whither he" had been compelled to proceed in search of a vessel to convey him to Wales. Abandoning the hopeless project, he instantly continued his journey to the congress at Fuentarabia, with the expectation that, on the conclusion of peace between the two crowns, he should obtain a supply of money, perhaps still more substantial aid, from a personal in terview with the ministers, cardinal Mazarin and don Louis de Haro. Montague, who had but recently become a pro selyte to the royal cause, was drawn by his zeal into the most imminent danger. As soon as he heard of the insurrection, he brought back the fleet from the Sound in defiance of his brother commissioners, with the intention of blockading the mouth of the Thames, and of facilitating the transportation of troops. On his arrival, he learned the failure of his hopes ; but boldly faced the danger, appeared before the council, and assigned the want of provisions as the cause of his return. They heard him with distrust ; but it was deemed prudent to dissemble, and he received permission to withdraw.f To reward Lambert for this complete, though -al- Kenewai most bloodless, victory, the parliament voted him the of the late sum of 1000/., which he immediately distributed dissen- among his officers. But, while they recompensed sian' his services, they were not the less jealous of his ambition. They remembered how instrumental he had been in raising Cromwell to the protectorate ; they knew ug' ¦ ' * Clar. Hist. iii. 672—675. Clar. Pap. iii. 673. 4. Ludlow, ii. 223. White- lock, 683. Carte's Letters, 194. 202. Lambert's Letter, printed forThomai Neucumb, 1659. t Journals, Sep. 16. Clar. Pap. iii. 551. Carte's Letters, ii. 210. 236. Pepyf, Memoirs, i. 157. 22 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap, t. his influence in the army ; and they feared his control over the timid wavering mind of Fleetwood, whom he appeared to govern in the same manner as Cromwell had governed Fair fax. It had been hoped that his absence on the late expedi tion would afford them leisure to gain the officers remaining in the capital ; but the unexpected rapidity of his success had defeated their policy ; and, in a short time, the intrigue which had been interrupted by the insurrection, was resumed. While Lambert hastened back to the capital, bis ar- ep' ' my followed by slow marches ; and at Derby the officers subscribed a petition which had been clandestinely for warded to them from Wallingford-house. In it they complain ed that adequate rewards were not conferred on the deserving ; and demanded that the office of commander-in-chief should be given to Fleetwood without li nutation of time, and the rank of major-general to their victorious leader ; that no officer should be deprived of his commission, without the judgment of a court martial ; and that the government should be settled in g a house of representatives and a permanent se- ep' nate. Hazlerig, a man of stern republican principles, and of a temper hasty, morose, and ungovernable, obtained a sight of this paper, denounced it as an attempt to subvert the parliament, and moved that Lambert, its author, should be sent to the Towef : but his violence was checked by the declara tion of Fleetwood, that Lambert knew nothing of its origin ; and the house contented itself with ordering all copies of the obnoxious petition to be delivered up ; and with resolving that, " to augment the number of general officers was needless, chargeable, and dangerous."* From that moment a breach was inevitable. The house, to gratify the soldiers, had advanced their daily pay ; and, with a view of discharging their arrears, had raised the monthly assessment from 35,000/. to 100,000/.! But the military leaders were not to be diverted from their purpose. Meetings were daily and nightly held at Wallingford-house; and another petition with two hundred and thirty signatures was presented by Desborough, accompanied by all the field officers in the metropolis. In most points it was similar to the former ; but it contained a demand that, whoever should afterwards -"groundless]}' and causelessly inform the house against their servants, thereby creating jea lousies, and casting scandalous imputations upon them, should be brought to examination, justice, and condign punishment." This was a sufficient intimation to Hazlerig and his party to provide for their own safety. Three regiments, through the " Journals, Aug. 23. Sep. 22. 23. Ludlow, ii. 225. 7. 233. 244. t Journals, May 31 ; Aug. 18 ; Sep. ]. Chap. Lj tHE COMMONWEALTH. 23 medium of their officers, had already made the tender of their services for the protection of the house ; "Monk, from Scotland, and Ludlow, from Ireland, wrote that their respective armies were animated with similar sentiments ; and a vote was pass ed and ordered to be published, declaring it to be treason to le vy money on the people without the previous consent of parliament ; a measure which, as all the existing * ' ' taxes were to expire on the 1st. day of the ensuing year, made the military dependent for their future subsistence on the plea sure of the party. Hazlerig, thus fortified, deemed •himself a match for his adversaries ; the next morn- c " ' ing he boldly threw down the gauntlet ; by one vote, Lambert, Desbof ough, and seven other colonels were deprived of their commissions for having sent a copy of the petition to colonel Okey ; and, by a" second, Fleetwood was dismissed from his office of commander-in-chief, and made president of a board of seven members established for the government of the army. Aware, however,. that he might expect resistance, the repub lican chieftain called his friends around him during . ' the night ; and, at the dawn of day, it was discover ed that King-street and the Palace-yard were in the posses sion of two regiments of foot and four troops of horse, loud ly protesting that they would live and die with the parliament.* Lambert mustered about three thousand men. His first care was to intercept the access of mem- Expulsion bers to the house, and to. prevent the egress of the ¦?. -p,r' militia from the city. He then marched to West minster. Meeting the speaker, who was attended by his guard, he ordered the officer on duty to dismount, gave the command to major Creed, one of his own adherents, and scornfully directed him to conduct the " lord-general" to Whitehall, whence he was permitted to return to his own house. In Westminster, the two parties faced each other ; but the ardour of the privates did not correspond with that of the leaders ; and, having so often fought in the same ranks, they showed no disposition to imbrue their hands in each others' blood. In the mean time the council of state assem bled : on the one side Lambert and Desborough, on the other, Hazlerig and Morley, appeared to support their pretensions ; much time was spent in complaint and recrimination, much in hopeless attempts to reconcile the parties ; but the cause of the military continued to make converts ; the advocates of "Journals, Sep. 28; Ccl. 5. 10. 11, 12. Ludlow, ii. 229. 247. Carte's Letters, ii. 246. Thurloe, vii. 755. Declaration of General Council of Of ficers, 9 — 16. True Narrative of the Proceedings in Parliament, Council of of State, etc. published by special Order 1659. Printed by John Redmayne. 24 HI9T0RY OF ENGLAND. LC^r- 1. the " rump," aware that to resist was fruitless, consented to yield ; and it was stipulated that the house should cease to sit, that the council of officers should provide for the public peace, arrange a new form of government, and submit it to the approbation of a new parliament. An order that the forces on both sides should retire to their respective quarters, was gladly obeyed : the men mixed together as friends and brothers, and reciprocally promised never more to draw the sword against each other.* Thus a second time the supreme authority devolv- Govern- ed on the meeting at Wallingford-house. They im- the'coun- mediately established their favourite plan for the go- cii of offi- vernment of the army. The office of commander- ce«. in-chief, in all- its plenitude of power, was conferred on Fleetwood, the rank of major-general of the for ces in Great Britain was given to Lambert, and the officers who refused to subscribe a new engagement, were removed from their commands. At the same time they annulled by their supreme authority all proceedings in parliament on the 10th, 1 1th, and 12th of October, vindicated their own conduct in a publication with the title of " The Army's Plea,"t vest ed the provisional exercise of the civil authority in a commit tee of safety of twenty-three members, and denounced the pe nalties of treason against all who should refuse to obey its or ders, or should venture to levy forces without its permission. An attempt was even made to replace Richard c ' " Cromwell in the protectorial dignity : for this pur pose he came from Hampshire to London, escorted by three troops of horse ; but his supporters were outvoted by a small majority, and he retired to Hampton-court.J Of all the changes which had surprised and perplexed the * Whitelock,.685. Journals, Oct. 13. Clar. Pap. iii. 581. 590. Ludlow, ii. 247 — 251. Ludlow's account differs considerably from that by Whitelock. But the former was in Ireland, the latter present at the council. t See declaration of the General Council of Officers, 17. The Army's Plea for its Present Practice, printed by Henry HiHs, printer to the army, 1659, is in many parts powerfully written. The principal argument is, that as the parliament, though bound by the solemn league and covenant to defend the king's person, honour, and dignity, did not afterwards scruple to arraign, condemn, and execute him because he had brolTen his trust ; so the army, thought they had engaged to be true and faithful to the parliament, might lawfully rise against it, when they found that it did not preseve the just rights and liberties of the people. The condition was implied in the engagement; otherwise the making of the engagement would have been a sin, and the keeping thereof would have been a sin also, a(id so an adding of sin to sin. t Whitelock, 685. 6. Ludlow, ii. 250.286. 7. Clar. Pap. 591. Attherestora- tion Richard, to escape from his creditors, fled .to the continent ; and, af ter an expatriation of almost twenty years, returned to England to the neigh bourhood of Cheshunt, where he died in J713, at the age of eighty-six. No ble, i. 228. Chap. I-] THE COMMONWEALTH. 20) nation since the death of the last king, none had been receiv ed with such general disapprobation as the present. It was not that men lamented the removal of the rump : but they feared the capricious and arbitrary rule of the army ; and, when they contrasted their unsettled state with the tranquillity for merly enjoyed under the monarchy, many were not backward in the expression of their wishes for the restoration of the an cient line of their princes. The royalists laboured to improve this favourable disposition : yet their efforts might have been fruitless, had the military been united among themselves. But among the officers there were several who had already made their peace with Charles by the promise of their services ; and many who secretly retained a strong attachment to Ha zlerig and his party in opposition to Lambert. In Ireland, Barrow, who had been sent from Wallingford-house, found the army so divided and wavering, that each faction alternately obtained a short and precarious superiority ; and in Scotland, Cobbet, who arrived there on a similar mission, was, with se venteen other officers, who approved of his proposals, im prisoned by order of Monk.* From this moment the conduct of Monk will de- mand a considerable share of the reader's attention. t j„ J""" Ever since the march of Cromwell in pursuit of the Monk. king to Worcester he had commanded in Scotland ; where, instead of concerning himself with the intrigues and parties in England, he appeared to have no other occupation than the duties of his place, to preserve the discipline of his ar my, and enforce the obedience of the Scots. His despatches to Cromwell form a striking contrast with those from the other officers of the time. There is in them no parade of pie ty, no flattery of the protector, no solicitation for favours. They are short, dry, and uninteresting, confined entirely to matters of business, and those only of indispensible . neces sity. In effect, the distinctive characteristic of the man was an impenetrable secrecy.t Whatever were his predilections or opinions, his wishes or designs, he kept them locked up within his own breast. He had no confident, nor did he ever permit himself to be surprised into an unguarded avowal. Hence all parties, royalists, protectorists, and republicans. * Ludlow, ii. 237.252. 259.262.300. Clar. Pap. iii. 591. Carte's Let ters, 266. t " His natural taciturnity was such that most of his friends, who thought they knew him best, looked upon George Monk to have no other craft in him than that of a plain soldier, who would obey the parliament's orders, and see that bis own were obeyed." Price, Mystery and Method of his Majesty's happy Restoration, in Select Tracts relating to the Civil Wars in England, published by Baron Maseres, ii. 700. Vol. XII. 4 26 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. 1. claimed him for their own, though that claim was grounded on their hopes, not on his conduct. Charles had been induced to make to him repeatedly the most tempting offers, which were supported by the solicitations of his wife and his do mestic chaplain ; and Monk listened to them without displea sure, though he never unbosomed himself to the agents or the Chaplain so far as to put himself in their power. Crom well liad obtained some information of these intrigues ; but, unable to discover any real ground of suspicion, he content ed himself with putting Monk on his guard by a banter ing postscript to one of his letters. " 'Tis said," he added, there is a cunning fellow in Scotland, called George Monk, who lies in wait there to serve Charles Stuart ; pray use your diligence to take him and send him up to me."* After the fall of the protector Richard, he became an object of greater distrust ; and, to undermine his power, Fleetwood ordered two regiments of horse attached to the Scottish ar my to return to England, and the republicans, when the mili tary commissions were issued by the speaker, removed a great number of his officers, and supplied their places with creatures of their own. Monk felt these affronts : discon tent urged him to seek revenge ; and, when he understood that Booth was at the head of a considerable force, he dic tated a letter to the speaker, complaining of the proceedings of parliament, and declaring that, as they had abandoned the real principles of the old cause, they must not expect the support of his army. His object was to animate the insur gents ahd embarrass their adversaries ; but, on the very morn ing on which the letter was to be submitted for signature to his principal officers, the news of Lambert's victory arrived ; the dangerous instrument was instantly destroyed, and the secret most religiously kept by the few who had been privy to the intention of the general.! To this abortive attempt Monk, notwithstanding His secre- his wariness, had been stimulated by his brother, a cy" clergyman of Cornwall, who visited him with a message from sir John Grenville by commission from Charles Stuart. After the failure of Booth, the general dis missed him with a letter of congratulation to the parliament, but without any answer to Grenville, and under an oath of secrecy both as to his past and to his future projects.} But * Price, 712. t Price, 711. 716: 721. X AH that Grenville could learn from the messenger was, that his. bro ther regretted the failnre of Booth, and would oppose the arbitrary attempts of the military in England, an answer which, though favourable as far as it Chap. I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 27 the moment he heard of the expulsion of the mem- bers, and of the superior rank conferred on Lam- c " • bert, he determined to appear openly as the patron of the vanquished, under the alluring, though ambiguous, title of " asserter of the ancient laws and liberties of the country." Accordingly, he secured with trusty garrisons the' castle of Edinburgh and the citadel of Leith, sent a strong detach ment to occupy Berwick, and took the necessary measures to raise and discipline a numerous force of cavalry. At Leith was held a general council of officers : they approved of his object, engaged to stand by him, und announced their determination by letters directed to Lenthall, the speaker, to the council at Wallingford-house, and to the commanders of the fleet in the Downs, and of the army in Ireland. It ex cited, however, no small surprise, that the general, while he thus professed to espouse the defence of the parliament, ca shiered all the officers introduced by it into his army, and res tored all those whom it had expelled. The more discerning began to suspect his real intentions ;* but Hazlerig and his party were too elated to dwell on the circumstance, and, un der the promise of his support, began to organize the means of resistance against their military oppressors. Monk soon discovered that he was embarked in a most ha zardous undertaking. The answers to his letters disapproved of his conduct ; and the knowledge of these answers kindled among his followers a spirit of disaffection which led to nume rous desertions. From the general of an army obedient to his commands, he had dwindled into the leader of a volunteer force, which it was necessary to coax and persuade. Two councils were formed, one of the colonels of the longest stand ing, the other of all the commissioned officers^ The first perused the public despatches received by the general, and wrote the answers, which were signed by him as the presi dent ; the other was consulted on all measures respecting the conduct of the army, and confirmed or rejected the opinion a* the colonels by the majority of voices. But if Monk was con trolled by this arrangement, it served to screen him from sus picion. The measures adopted were taken as the result of the general will. . went, still left the king in uncertainty as to his real intentions. Clar. Pap. iii. 618. * Ludlow, ii. 269. Whitelock, 686. 689. 691. Price, 736, 743. Skin ner, 106— 9. Monk loudly asserted the contrary. " I do call God. to wit ness," he says in the letter to the speaker, Oct. 20, that the asserting of a commonwealth is the only intent of my heart." True Narrative, 28. When Price remonstrated with him, he replied : " you see who are about me and write these things. 1 must not show any dislike of them. J perceiye they are jealoujs enough of gie already," Price, 746, 28 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. I- Lambert To the men at Wallingford-house it became of sent the first importance to win by intimidation, or re- against opponents. In point of numbers and experience the forc^ under his com mand was no match for that led by Lambert ; but his maga zines and treasury were amply supplied, while his adversary possessed not money enough to keep his army together for more than a few weeks. Before the major-general reached Newcastle, he met three deputies from Monk on their way to treat with the council in the capital. As no arguments would induce them to open the negotiation with him, he al lowed them to proceed, and impatiently awaited the result. N q After much discussion, an agreement was conclud- ov' ' ed in London; but Monk, instead of ratifying it with his signature, discovered, or pretended to discover, injt much that was obscure or ambiguous, or contrary to his in structions ; the council agreed with him in opinon ; and a second negotiation was opened with Lambert at Newcastle to obtain from him an explanation of the meaning of the officers in the metropolis. Thus delay was added to delay ; and Monk improved the time to dismiss even the privates whose sentiments were suspected, and to fill up the vacan cies in the regiments of infantry by levies among the Scots. At the same time he called a convention of the Scottish es tates at Berwick, of two representatives from each county and one from each borough, recommended to them the peace of the country during his absence, and obtained from them the grant of a year's arrears of their taxes, amounting to 60,000/. in addition to the excise and customs. He then fixed his head quarters at Coldstreani.t In the mean while, the detention of Lambert in Parlia- the north by the artifices of Monk had given occa- stored?* sion t0 manv important events in the south. With in the city several encounters had taken place be- * See the Conferences of Ludlow and Whitelock with Fleetwood. Lud low, ii. 277. Whiteloek, 690. t Price, 741—4, Whitelock, 688. 9. Ludlow, 269. 271. 273. Skinner' 161.4. Chap. I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 29 tween the military and the apprentices;* a free parliament had become the general cry ; and the citizens exhorted each other to pay no taxes imposed by any other authority. Law- son, though he wavered at first, declared against the Dec army, and advanced with his squadron up the river as far as Gravesend. Hazlerig and Morley were admitted into Portsmouth by the governor, were joined by the force sent against them by Fleetwood, and marched towards Lon don that they might open a communication with the fleet in the river. Alarm produced in the committee of safety the most contradictory counsels. A voice ventured to suggest the restoration of Charles Stuart ; but it was replied, that their offences against the family of Stuart were of too black a die to be forgiven ; that the king might be lavish of pro mises, now that he stood in need of their services ; but that the revenge of parliament would absolve him from the obliga tion, when the monarchy should once be established. The final resolution was to call a new parliament against the 24th of January, and to appoint twenty-one conservators of the public peace during the interval. But they reckoned on an authority which they no longer possessed. The fidelity of the common soldiers had been shaken by the letters of Monk, and the declaration of Lawson. Putting - themselves under the command of the officers who had been lately dismissed, they, mustered in Lincoln's-inn- fields, marched before the house of Lenthall ih Chancery- lane, and saluted him with three vollies of musquetry as the representative of the parliament and lord-general of the ar my. Desborough, abandoned by his regiment, fled in despair towards Lambert ; and Fleetwood, who for some days had done nothing but weep and pray, and complain that "the Lord had spit in his face," tamely endeavoured to disarm by sub mission the resentment of his adversaries. He sought the speaker, fell on his knees before him, and surrendered his commission.t Thus the rump was again triumphant. The mem bers, with Lenthall at their head, resumed possession Jts nl-st of the house amidst the loud acclamations of the sol- p^" g6 diery. Their first care was to establish a commits tee for the government of the army, and to order the regiments *-TBe posts occupied by the army withinthe city were " St. Paul's church, the Royal 1 Exchange, Peeter-house in Aldersgate- street, and Bernnet's cas tle, Gresham coledge, Sipn coledge. Without London, were the Musses, Sumersett-house, Whitehall, St. James's, Scotland^yeard." MS. Diary by Thomas Rugge. , . • t Ludlow, 268. 276. 282. 7. 9. '290. 6. 8, Whitelock, 689- 690. 1. Clar. Pap. 625. 9. 636. 641. 7. 30 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap.!. in the north to separate and march to their respective quar ters. Of those among their colleagues who had supported the late committee of safety, they excused some, and pu nished others by suspension, or exclusion, or imprisonment : orders were sent to Lambert and the most active of his asso ciates to withdraw from the army to their homes, and then instructions were given to the magistrates to take them into custody. A council of state was appointed, and into the oath to be taken by the members was introduced a new and most comprehensive abjuration of kingship and the family of Stuart. All officers commissioned duringthe interruption by any other authority than that of Monk were broken ; the army was en tirely remodelled ; and the time of the house was daily occu pied by the continued introduction of officers to receive their commissions in person from the hand of the speaker.* In the meanwhile, Monk, to subdue or disperse Monk. the army of Lambert, had raised up a new and for- toVork! midable enemy in his rear. Lord Fairfax was be come a convert to the cause of monarchy ; to him the numerous royalists in Yorkshire looked up as to their lead er ; and he, on the solemn assurance of Monk, that he would join him within twelve days or perish in the attempt, under took to call together his friends, and to surprise the city of York. On the first day of the new year, each performed his j promise. The gates of York were thrown open to Fairfax by the cavaliers confined within its walls ;t and Monk, with his army, crossed the Tweed on his march against the advanced posts of the enemy. Thus the flame of civil war was again kindled in the north : within two days it was again extinguished. A messenger from parliament or dered Lambert's forces to withdraw to their respective quar ters ; dispirited by the defection of the military in the south, they dared not disobey : at Northallerton, the officers bid adieu with tears to their general ; and Lambert retired in pri vacy to a house which he possessed in the county. Still, though the weather was severe, though the roads were deep ly covered with snow, Monk continued his march : and at York, spent five days in consultation with Fairfax ; but to the advice of that nobleman, that he should remain there, assume the command of their united forces, and proclaim the king, he replied that, in the present temper of his officers, it would prove a dangerous, a pernici- an' ' ous, experiment. On the arrival of what he had * Journals, Dec. 26'; Jan. 31. i That the rising under Fairfax was in reality a rising of royalists, and prompted by the promises of Monk, is plain from the narrative of Monkton, in the LansUowae MSS. No. 988, f. 320. 334, See also Price, 748, Chap. I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 31 long expected, an invitation to Westminster, he resumed his march, and Fairfax, having received the thanks of parliament, disbanded his insurrectionary force.* ,. At York, the general had caned an officer who charged him with the design of restoring the kingly And thence government : at Nottingham, ho prevented with l j^n° 3^°°" difficulty the officers from signing an engagement to obey the parliament in all things " except the bringing in of Charles Stuart ;" and at Leicester, he was compelled to suf fer a letter to be written in his name to the petition ers from Devonshire, stating his opinion that the monarchy could not be re-established, representing the dan ger of recalling the members excluded in 1648, and inculcat ing the duty of obedience to the parliament as it was' then constituted, r Here he was met by two of the most active members, Scot and Robinson, ordered to accompany him during his journey, under the pretence of doing him honour, but, in reality, to sound his. disposition, andto'act as .spies on his conduct. He received them with respect as the repre sentatives of the sovereign authority ; and so flattered were they by his attentions, so duped by his wariness, that they could not see through the veil which he spread over his in tentions. Ashe advanced, he received at every stage ad dresses from boroughs, cities, and counties, praying him to restore the excluded members, and to procure a free and a full parliament. With much affectation of humility, Monk referred the deputies to the two delegates of the supreme power, who haughtily rebuked them for their officiousness, while the friends of Monk laboured to keep alive their hopes by remote hints and obscure predictions.} To lull the jealousy of the parliament, Monk had taken with him from York no more than five thou- Mutiny in sand men, a force considerably inferior to that which ' e caPlta ¦ was quartered in London and Westminster. But Jan. 28. from St. Alban's, he wrote to the speaker, request ing that five of the regiments in the capital might be removed before his arrival, alleging the danger of quarrels and seduc tion, if his troops were allowed to mix with those who had been so recently engaged in rebellion. .The order was in stantly made; but the men refused to obey. Why, they asked, were they to leave their quarters for the ac- , commodation of strangers ? Why were they to be sent from the capital, while their pay was several weeks in arrear ? The royalists laboured to inflame the mutineers, and * Price, 749—753. Skinner, 196. 200. 205. Journals, Jan. 6, t Price, 754. Sennet's Register, 32. i Price, 754. Merc. Polit. No. 604. Philips, 595. Journals, Jan. 16. 32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. I. Lambert was on the watch, prepared to place himself at their head ; but the distribution of a sum of money appeased their murmurs ; they consented to march ; and the next 3' morning tho general entered at the-head of his army, and proceeded to the quarters assigned to him at Whitehall.* M , . Soon after his arrival, he was invited to attend dre7sesathe and receive the thanks of the house. A chair had house. been placed for him within the bar : he stood un- Fe.b- 6' covered behind it ; and, in reply to the speaker, ex tenuated his own services, related the answers which he had given to the addresses, warned the parliament against a mul tiplicity of oaths and engagements, prayed, them not to give any share of power to the cavaliers or fanatics, and recom mended to their care the settlement of Ireland and the ad ministration of justice in Scotland. If there was much in this speech to please, there was also much that gave offence. Scot observed that, the servant had already learned to give direc tions to his mas'ters.t As a member of the council of state, he was summoned to abjure the house of Stuart, according to the late order of par liament. He demurred. Seven of the counsellors, he ob served, had not yet abjured, and he wished to know their reasons for the satisfaction of his own conscience. Experi ence had shown that such oaths were violated as easily as they were taken, and to him it appeared an offence against Providence to swear never to acquiesce in that which Provi dence might possibly ordain. He had given the strongest proofs of his devotion to parliament : if these were not suffi cient, let them try him again : he was ready to give more.} Ordered to The sincerity °f this declaration was soon put to chastise the test. The loyal party in the city, especially the citi- among the moderate presbyterians, had long been zens" on the increase. At the last elections the common * Price, 755. 7, 8. Journ. Jan. 30. Skinner, 219— 221. Philips, 594, 5, 6. Clar. Pap. iii. 666. 668. Pepys, i. 19. 21. t Journals, Feb. 6. New Pari. Hist. iii. 1575. Philips, 597. Price, 759. The lord-general Monk, his Speech. Printed by J. Macock, 1660. t Gamble, 228. Price, 759, 760. Philips, 595. About this time, a parcel of letters to the king, written by different persons in different ciphers, and en trusted to the care of a Mr. Leonard, was intercepted by Lockhart at Dun kirk, and sent by him to tbe council. Whenthe writers were first told that the letters had been deciphered, they laughed at the information as of a thing impraticable, but were soon undeceived by the decipherer, who sent to them by the son of"the bishop of Ely copies of their letters in cipher, with a correct interlineary explanation of each. They were astonished and alarmed; and, to save themselves from the consequences of the discovery, purchased of him two of the original letters at the price of 3002. Compare Barwick's Life, 171, and App. 402. 412, 5, 422, with the correspondence on the subject in the Clarendon Papers, iii. 668. 681. 696. 700. 715. After this, all letters of im portance were conveyed through the hands of the abbess of the English con vent at Gand. J-rJ, Chap. I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 33 council had been filled with members of a new character, and the declaration which they issued demanded " a full and free parliament according to the ancient and fundamental laws of the land." Of the assembly sitting in Westminster, as it con tained no representative from the city, no notice was taken ; the taxes which it had imposed were not paid ; and the com mon council, as if it had been an independent authority, re ceived and answered addresses .from the neighbouring coun ties. This contumacy, in the opinion of the parliamentary leaders, called for prompt and exemplary punishment ; and it was artfully suggested that, by making Monk the minister of their vengeance, they should open a wide breach between him and their opponents. Two hours after midnight he F b q received an order to march into the city, to arrest eleven of the principal citizens, to remove the posts and chains which had lately been fixed in the streets, and to destroy the portcullises and the gates. After a moment's hesitation, he fesolved to obey rather than hazard the loss of his commis sion. The citizens received him with groans and hisses ; the '^soldiers murmured ; the officers tendered their resignations. $*e merely replied that his orders left nothing to his discre tion ; but -the reply was made with a sternness of tone, and a gloftpiinesfijW^countenance, which showed, and probably was assumed-to show, that he acted with reluctance and with self- reproacbi* As- soon as the posts and chains were remo'wed, Monk sug gested, in a letter to the speaker, that enough had been done to subdue the refractory spirit of the citizens. But the parlia mentary leaders were not satisfied : they voted that he should execute his former orders ; and the demolition of the gates and portcullises was effected. The soldiers loudly proclaim ed their discontent: the general, mortified and ashamed, though he had been instructed to quarter them in the city, led them back to Whitehall.! There, on the review of these proceedings, he thought that he discovered proofs of a design, first to commit him with the citizens, and then to discard him entirely. For the house, while he was so ungraciously em ployed, had received, with a show of favour, a petition from the celebrated Praise-God Barebone, praying that no man might sit in parliament, or hold any public office, Who refused to abjure the pretensions of Charles Stuart, or any other sin gle person, Now this was the very case of the general, and his suspicions were confirmed by tin reasoning of ^ w his confidential advisers. With their aid, a letter to * Journ. Feb. 9. Price, 761. Ludlow, ii. 336. Clar. Pap. iii. 674. 691, Gamble, 236. Skinner, 231—7. t Journ. Feb. 9. Philips, 599. Vol. XII. 5 34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. I. the speaker was prepared the same evening, and approved the next morning by the council of officers. In it the latter were made to complain that they had been rendered the in struments of personal resentment against the citizens, and to require that by the following Friday every vacancy in the house should be filled up, preparatory to its subsequent disso lution and the calling of a new parliament. With- He joins out waiting for an answer, Monk marched back into with them. Finsbury-fields : at his request, a common council \that body had recently been dissolved by a vote of the par liament) was summoned ; and the citizens heard from the mouth of the general, that he, who yesterday had come among them as an enemy by the orders of others, was come that day as a friend by his own choice ; and his object was to unite his fortune with theirs, and by their assistance to ob tain a full and free parliament for the nation. This speech was received with the loudest acclamations. The bells were Soiled ; the soldiers were feasted ; bonfires were lighted ; and, -among the frolics of the night was " the ->asting of the rump," a practical joke which long lived in the traditions of the city. 4Scot and Robinson, who had been sent to lead back the gene ral to Whitehall, slunk away in secrecy, that they might es cape the indignation of the populace.* Admits the -** Westminster, the parliamentary leaders affect- secluded ed a calmness and intrepidity which they did not ™Feb eil feel" °f the insult offered t0 theif authority they took no notice ; but, as an admonition to Monk, brought in a bill to appoint his rival, Fleetwood, commander- in-chief in England and Scotland. The intervention of the Sunday allowed more sober counsels to prevail. They so licited the general to return to Whitehall ; they completed the Feb 17 k"l f°r tne qualifications of the candidates and the electors ; and, on the. day fixed by the letter of the officers, ordered writs to be issued for the filling up of the va cancies in the representation. This measure had been forced upon them ; yet they had the ingenuity to make it subservi ent to their own interest, by inserting a provision in the act, that no man should choose or be chosen who had not already bound himself to support a republican form of government. * Price, 765— 8. Clar. Pap. iii. 681. 692. 714. Ludlow, 337. Gamble 249. Skinner, 237—243. Old Pari. Hist. xxii. 94. Pepys, i. 24, 25. " At Strand-bridge I could at one time tell thirty-one tires ; in King-street, seven or"eight,and all along burning and roasting, and drinking for rumps; there being rumps tied upon sticks and carried up and down. The butchers at (he May-pole in the Strand rang a peal with their knives, when they were goin" to sacrifice their rump. On Ludgatehill there was one turningof the «pitthat had a rump tied to it, andanother basting of it Indeed it was past imagina tion. Ibid. 29. « s • CHAP. I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 35 But immediately the members excluded in 1648 brought for ward their claim to sit, and Monk assumed the appearance of the most perfect indifference between the parties. At his invitation, nine of the leaders on each side argued the case be fore him and his officers ; and the result Was, that the latter expressed their willingness to support thesecluded members, on condition that they should pledge themselves to settle the government of the army, to raise money to pay the arrears, to issue writs for a new parliament to sit on the 20th of April, and to dissolve themselves before that period. The general returned to Whitehall : the secluded members at- _ tended his summons ; and, after a long speech, de claratory of his persuasion that a republican form of govern ment and a moderate presbyterian kirk were necessary to se cure and perpetuate the tranquillity of the nation, he exhorted them to go and resume their seats. Accompanied by a great number of officers, they walked to the house ; the guards opened to let them pass ; and no opposition was made by the speaker or the members.* Haslerig, however, and the more devoted of his adherents, rose, and withdrew — a fortunate se cession for the royalists ; otherwise, with the addition of those among the restored members who adhered to a common wealth, they might on many questions have still commanded a majority, t To the cavaliers, the conduct of Monk on this occasion proved a source of the most distressing Perplexi- perplexity. On the one' hand by introducing the Jj™]',^ secluded members he had greatly advanced the cause of royalty. For, though Hollis, Pierpoint, Popham, and their friends, still professed the doctrines which they had maintained during the treaty in the Isle of Wight, though they manifested the same hatred of popery and prelacy, though they still incul cated the necessity of limiting the prerogative in the choice of the officers of state and in the command of the army, yet they were royalists by principle, and had, several of them, made the most solemn promises to the exiled king of labouring strenuously for his restoration. On the other hand, that Monk at the very time when he gave the law without control, should declare so loudly in favour of a republican government and a presbyte rian kirk, could not fail to alarm both Charles and his abet tors.} Neither was this the only instance : to all, cavaliers * Journals, Feb. 11. 13. 15. 17. 21. _ Price, 768—773. Ludlow, ii. 345. 351.3. Skinner, 256— 264. Clar. Pap. 663. 682. 8. Gamble, 260. 3. Phi lips, 600. The number of secluded members then Jiving was 194, of mem bers sitting or allowed to sit by tbe orders of the house 89. " A Declaration of the True state of the Matter of Fact," 57. t Hutchinson, 362. t Clar. Hist, iii, 730, 1. 3, 4. Papers, iii. 698, 36 History of eNglaKd. ' [chap. i. or republicans, who approached him to discover his inten tions, he uniformly professed the same sentiments, occasional ly confirming his professions with oaths and imprecations. 1 o explain this inconsistency between the tendency of his actions and the purport of his language, we are told by those whom he admitted to his private counsels, that it was forced upon him by the necessity of his situation ; that, without it, he must have forfeited the confidence of the army, which believed its safety and interest to be intimately linked with the existence of the commonwealth. According to Ludlow, the best soldier and statesman in the opposite party, Monk had in view an additional object, to deceive the suspicions and divert the vi gilance of his adversaries ; and so successfully had he imposed on the credulity of many (Hazlerig himself was of the num ber), that, in defiance of every warning, they bindly trusted to his sincerity, till their eyes were opened by "the introduction of the secluded membesr.* In. parliament tbe presbyterian party now ruled Proceed- without opposition. They annulled all votes rela- house*^ the t've to the death of the late king and their own expul sion from the house ; they selected a new council of state, in which the most influential members were royalists ; they appointed Monk commander-in-chief of the forces in the three kingdoms, and joint commander of the fleet with ad miral Montague ; they voted him the sum of 20,000/. in lieu of the palace of Hampton-court settled on him by the repub lican party ; they discharged from' confinement, and freed from the penalty of sequestration, sir George Booth and his associates, a great number of cavaliers, and the Scottish lords taken after the battle at Worcester ; they restored the com mon council, borrowed 60,000/. for the immediate pay of the army, declared the presbyterian confession of faith to be that of the church of England, ordered copies of the solemn league and covenant to be hung up in all churches, offered rewards for the apprehension of catholic priests, urged the «, . execution of the laws against catholic recusants, and fixed the 15th of March for their own dissolution, the 25th of April for the meeting of a new parliament.! Here, however, a serious, difficulty arose. The house of commons (according to the doctrine of the secluded members, it could be nothing more) was but a single branch of the le gislature. By what right could it pretend to summon a parlia ment ? Ought not the house of lords, the peers who had been » Price, 773. Ludlow, 449. 355. Clar. Pap. iii. 678. 697. 703.711. t Journals, passim. ^haf. I.] the commonwealth. 37 excluded in 1649, to concur ? Or rather, to proceed according todaw, ought not the king either to appoint a commission to hold a parliament, as was usually done in Ireland, or to name a guardian invested with such power,;as was' the practice formerly, when our monarchs occasionally resided in France ? But, on this point, Monk was inflexible* He placed guards at the door of the house of lords to prevent the entrance of the peers ; and he refused to listen to any expedient which might imply an acknowledgement of the, royal au- . Maroa 3 thority. To the arguments urged by others, he re plied, that the parliament according to law determined by the death of Charles I. ; that the present house could justify its sitting on no other ground but that of necessity, which did not apply to the fiouse of lords ; and that it was in vain to expect the submission, of the army to. a parliament called by royal authority. The military had, with reluctance, consented to the restoration of the secluded members ; and to ask more of them at present was to hazard all the advantages which had -hitherto been obtained.* Encouraged by the downfal of the republicans, the royalists throughout the country expressed their And of the- sentiments without restraint. In some places Senera)- Charles was proclaimed by the populace ; several ministers openly prayed for him in the churches ; the common council, in their address, declared themselves not adverse to his resto ration ; and the house itself was induced to repeal Marcll 10 the celebrated engagement in favour of a common wealth, without a single person or house of peers, and to em body under trusty officers the militia of the city and the coun ties, as a- counterpoise to the republican interest in the army. The judges of the late king and the purchasers pf forfeited property began to tremble. They first tempted the ambition of the lord-general with the offer of the sovereign authority.t * Clar. Pap: iii. 704. Ludlow, 364, 5. Price, 773. t Gamble, 270. Two offers of assistance were made to the general, on the supposition that he might aspire to the supreme power, one from the repub licans which I have mentioned, another from Bordeaux, the French ambas sador, in the name of cardinal Mazarin. On one of these offers he was ques tioned by sir Anthony Ashley Cooper in the council of state. If we may be lieve Clarges, one of his secret advisers, it was respecting the former, which he had mentioned to Cooper. To the offer of Bordeaux, he tells us that it was made through Clarges himself, and scornfully rejected by Monk, who nevertheless consented to receive a visit from Bordeaux, on condition that the subject should not be mentioned. Philips, 602. 4. Locke, on the con trary, asserts that Monk accepted the offer of the French minister ; thathis wife, through loyalty to the king, betrayed the secret ; and that Cooper put to the general such searching questions that he was confused, and, in proof of his fidelity, took away the commissions of several officers pf whom (he council was jealous. Memoirs of the earl of Shaftsbury, in Rennet's Regis ter, 86. 38 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. f. Rejected by him, they appealed to the military ; they repre- sented the'loss of their arrears, and of the property which March 14 f'iey had -acquired, as the infallible consequences of the restoration of the royal exile ; and they so jar wrought on the fears of the officers, that an engagement to op pose all attempts to set up a single person was presented to Monk for his signature, with a request that he would solicit M . ]g the concurrence of the parliament. A second coun cil of officers was held the next morning; the gene* ral urged the inexpediency of troubling the house with new questions, when it was on the point of dissolving itself; and by the address and influence of his friends, though with con siderable difficulty, procured the suppression of the obnoxious paper. In a short time he ordered the several officers to join their respective regiments, appointed a commission to inspect and reform the different corps, expelled all the officers Whose sentiments he hadreason to distrust, and then demanded and obtained from the army an engagement to abstain from all in terference in matters of state, and to submit in all things to the authority of the new parliament.* Dissolu- Nineteen years and a half had now elapsed since tionofthe the long parliament first assembled — years of revo- long par- lution and bloodshed ; during which the nation had lament. ma(je jne ^rial of almost every form of government, to return at last to that form from which it had previously de parted. On the 16th of March, one day later than was origi nally fixed, its existence, which had been illegally prolonged since the death of Charles I., was terminated by its own act.f March 16 The reader is already acquainted with its history. For the glorious stand which it made against the en croachments of the crown, it deserves both admiration and gratitude ; its subsequent proceedings assumed a more ambi guous character ; ultimately they led to anarchy and military despotism. But, whatever were its merits or demerits, of both posterity has reaped the benefit. To the first, we are indebted for many of the rights which we now enjoy ; by the second, we are warned of the evils which result from political changes,- effected by violence and in opposition to the habits and predilections of the people. Monk had now spent more than two months in Monk's in- England, and still his intentions were covered with temew a yejj Qf mystery, which no ingenuity, either of the Grenville. royalists or of the republicans could remove. Sir * Philips, 603. 6. Price, 781. Rennet's Reg. 113. Thurloe, vii. 852. 9. 870. Pepys, i. 43, Skinner, 279— 284. t Journals, Mar. 16, Chap. I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 39 John Grenville, with whom the reader is -already ac quainted, paid frequent visits to him at St. James's : but the object of the cavalier was suspected, and his at- M . , ,„ tempts to obtain a private interview were defeated by the caution of the general. After the dissolution, Mor- rice, the confidential friend of both, brought them together, and Grenville delivered to Monk a most flattering letter from the king. He received and perused it with respect. This was, he observed, the first occasion on which he could ex press with safety his devotion to the royal cause ; but he was still surrounded with men of hostile or doubtful sentiments ; the most profound secrecy was still necessary ; Grenville might confer in private with Morrice, and must consent to be himself the bearer of the general's answer. The heads of that answer were reduced to writing. In it Monk prayed the king to send him a conciliatory letter, which, at the proper season, he might lay before the parliament ; for himself he. asked nothing ; he would not name, as he was desired, his. re ward ; it was not for him to strike a bargain with his sove reign ; but, if he might obtrude his opinion, he^ advised Charles to promise a general, or nearly general, pardon, liber ty of conscience, the confirmation of the national sales, and the payment of the arrears due to the army. As soon as this paper had been read, he threw it into the fire, and bade Gren ville rely on his memory for its contents.* By Charles at Brussels the messenger was re ceived as an angel from heaven. The doubts which Hismes-. had so long tormented his mind were suddenly re- ka;|t.t0 ' e moved ; the crown, contrary to expectation, was offered without previous -conditions ; and nothing arr- dered Grenville to keep the papers in his custody, till the pro per season should arrive* In the meanwhile the writs for the new parlia- tions eleC ment had been issued ; and, as there was no court to influence, no interference of the military to control the elections,, the result may be fairly taken to express the sense of the country. The republicans, the cavaliers, the presbyterians, all made every effort in their power to procure the return of members of congenial sentiments. Of the three parties, the last was beyond comparison the most powerful, had not division paralyzed its influence.. The more rigid presbyterians, though they opposedthe advocates of the com monwealth because they were sectaries, equally deprecated the return of the king, because they feared also the restora tion of episcopacy. A much greater number, who still ad hered with constancy to the solemn league and covenant, deemed themselves bound by it to replace the king on the throne, but under the limitations proposed during the treaty in the Isle of Wight. Others, and these the most active and influential, saw no danger to be feared from a moderate epis copacy ; and, anxious to obtain honours and preferment, la boured by the fervour of their present loyalty to deserve the forgiveness of their past transgressions. These joined with the cavaliers ; their united efforts bore down all opposition ; and, in most places, their adversaries either shrunk from the Con test, or were rejected by overwhelming majorities.! But the republicans sought for aid in another di- Rising rection. Their emissaries penetrated into the quar- Larnbert. ters of the military, where they lamented the ap proaching ruin of the good did cause, regretted that * Clar. iii. 737—740. 742—751. Price, 790. Monk bad been assured, probably by- the French ambassador, that the Spaniards intended to detain the king at Brussels as a hostage for the restoration of Jamaica and Dunkirk. On this account he insisted that the king should leave the Spanish territory, and Charles, having informed the governor of his intention to visit Breda, left Brussels about two hours, if Clarendon be correct, before an order was issued for his detention. The several letters, though written and signed at Brussels, were dated from Breda, and given to Grenville the moment the king placed his feet on the Dutch territory. Clar. 740. __t Thurloe, vii. 866. 887. Price, 787. Carle's Letters, ii. 326. Clar. Pap. iii. 705. 714. 726. 730. 1. 3. It appears that many of the royalists were much too active. " When the complaint was made to Monk, he turned it off with a jest, that, as there is a fanatic party on the one side, so there is a frantic party on the other," 721. 2. CdAp. I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. """ 41 so many sacrifices had been made, so much bloOd had been shed in vain ; and again insinuated to the Officers', that they must forfeit the purchases which they had made ; to the pri vates, that they would be disbanded and lose f Heir arrears.* • A spirit of discontent began to spread through several corps, ¦' and a great number of officers .repaired to the metropolis. ,i! But, Monk, though he stilt professed himself a friend to repub lican government, now ventured to assume a bolder tone. The militia of the city, 'amounting to fourteen thousand men, was already embodied under his command: he had in his pocket a commission" frSm Charles, appointing hirh lord-gehe- ral oyer all, the military in the three kingdoms ; and rite h'adJ' resolved, should circumstances compel him to throw Off the mask, to proclaim the king, and to summoh'.eVery faithful sub* ject to repair to the royal standard. He "first or- , r dered the officers to return to their posts : he tJien di- p" ' reefed the promise'of submission to the. new4 parlistmerit' to be tendered to the privates, and'every man who refused to make it was immediately discharged.! At the same ifirne,Jthe friends ¦ of the commonwealth resojved to Appose Lambert, once the ! idol of the soldiery, to Monk. Lambert, indeed, was1^ prison- ¦ erin the Tower, confined by or der of thje cburfclf; but, with; the aid of a rope, be' descended from theSvinddw' ofhjs bed- "' chamber, Was received by eight wafprrneh in a' barge, and found a secure asylumin' the city. But; the citizens vifefeifdO' loyal to listen to the suggestions of* the party?he Mt •' ' j? ¦ „^t , his concealment, hastened into Warwickshire, col- : "'*pn Jected.frpm the discbhfehted regiments «rx troops of horgrj ""' an Ingoldsby, who, of a regicide, was becdme a'roy'a'l- pri " ist,;met 'him near Davehtry with an equal hiiriiber : a troop* "of ' Lambert's' tnWpaised over to his opponents ; and the Others, ¦ when' h,e" gave tbe word to charge', •pointed'their pistols to the ground, xhe unfortunate dommander "immediately turned and fled ; Ingoldsby followed ; the ploughed land' gave the advantage to the stronger horse ; the fugitive was overtaken, and, after an ineffectual effort to awaken the pity of i „ his former comrade, submitted to his fate. "He was pri ' conducted back to the Tower, at the time when the trained' '' bands, the volunteers, and the auxiliaries raised in the cjty, passed in review before the general in Hyde-park. The aux iliaries drank the king's health on their knees ; Lambert was at the moment driven under Tyburn "; and the spectators haft-';l * Thurloe, vii. 870. t Clar, Pap. iii. 715. Vol. XII. 6 42 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. I. ed with shouts and exclamations the disgrace of the prison- The convention parliament (so it was called be- Influence cause k had not been legally summoned) met on the valierlin" appointed day, the 25th of April. The presbyte- the'new" rians, by artful management, placed sir Harbottle .parliament. Grimstone, one of their party, in the chair ; but the cavaliers, with their adherents, formed a powerful majority, and the new speaker, instead of undertaking to stem, had the prudence to go along with, the stream. Monk sate as representative of Devonshire, his native county. To neutralize, the influence of the cavaliers among the com mons, the presbyterian peers who sat in 1648 assembled in the house of lords, and chose the earl -of Manchester for their speaker. But what right had they exclusively to con stitute a house of parliament ? They had not been summon ed 'in the usual manner by writ ; they could not sit as a part of the long parliament, which was now at least defunct ; and, if they founded their pretensions on their birthright, as consiliarii nati, other peers were in possession of the same pri vilege. The question was propounded to the lord-general, who replied that he had no authority to determine the claims of any individual. Encouraged by this answer, a few of the ex cluded peers attempted to take their seats, and met with no opposition : the example was imitated by others, and in a few days the presbyterian lords formed not more than one-fifth of the house. Still, however, to avoid- cavil, the peers who sat in the king's parliament at Oxford, as well as those whose pa tents bore date after the commencement of the civil war, ab stained for- the present from demanding admission.! Monk continued to dissemble. By his direction The king's -Grenville applied to a member, who was entering Hvered *~ ^e councu chamber, for an opportunity of speak ing to the lord-general. Monk came to the door, received from him a letter, and, recognizing on its seal the royal arms, commanded the guards to take care that the bear er did not depart. In a few minutes Grenville was called in, interrogated .by the president as to the manner in which he became possessed of the letter, and ordered to be taken into custody. " That is unnecessary," said Monk, " I find that he is my near, kinsman ; and I will be security for his appear ance." The ice -was now broken. Grenville was treated not as a * Rennet's Reg. 120. Price, 792. 794. Ludlow, 379. Philips, 607. Clar. Pap. iii. 735. t L. Journ. xi. 4, 5, 6. Chaf. f.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 43 prisoner but a confidential servant of the sovereign. He de livered to the two housesthe letters addressed to them; and received in return a vote of thanks, with a present of five hun dred pounds. The letter for the army was read by Monk to his officers, that for the navy by Montague to the captains under his command, and that for the city by the lord mayor to the common council in the Guildhall. Each of these bodies voted an address of thanks and congratulation to the king. The paper which accompanied the letters to the two houses, 1. granted a free and general pardonto The decla- all persons, excepting such as might afterwards be ^J excepted by parliament, ordaining that every divi sion of party should cease, and inviting all who were the sub jects of the same sovereign to live in union and harmony :: 2. it declared a liberty to tender consciences, and that no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion which did not disturb the peace of the kingdom ; and promised moreover the royal assent to such acts of parliament as should be offered for the full grant* ing of that. indulgence : 3. it. alluded to the actions at law to which the actual possessors of estates purchased by them or granted lo them during the revolution, might be liable,, and purposed to leave the settlement of all such differences to the wisdom of parliament, which could best provide for the just satisfaction of the parties concerned : lastly, it promised to liquidate the arrears of the army under general Monk, and to retain the officers and men in the royal service upon the same pay and conditions which they actually enjoyed. This was the celebrated declaration from Breda, the royal charter, on the faith of which Charles was permitted to ascend the throne of his fathers.* Encouraged by the bursts of loyalty with which Tbe t the king's letters and declaration had been received, houses re- his agents made it their great object to procure his "al the return to England before limitations could be put klnS- on the prerogative. From the lords, so numerous were the cavaliers in the upper house, no opposition could be feared ; and the temper already displayed by the commons was cal culated to satisfy the wishes of the most ardent champions of royalty. The two houses voted that by the ancient and fun damental laws of the realm the government was and ought to be by king, lords, and commons ; they invited Charles to come and receive the crown to which he was born ; and, to relieve his more urgent necessities, they sent him a present of 50,000/., with 10,000/. for his brother the duke of York, * L. Journ, si, 7. 10. 44 -- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. .. Cny. 1.1 and 5000/. for the duke of pioucester. They ordered the arms and symbols pf the comm.onwealthto be effaced, the name of the king to be introduced in the public worship, and his succession. to be proclaimed as having commenced from the day of his. father's death.* Hale, the celebrated lawyer, ventured, with Prynne to call upon the house of commons to pause in thejr enthusiasm, and attend to the interest of the nation. The first moved the appointment of a committee to inquire what proportions had been offered by the long par liament, and what concessions had been made by the last 'kipg in ,16481 ; the latter urged the favourable opportunity of /coming to a mutual and permanent understandingpn all those claims, which had, been hitherto subjects of controversy be tween the two„houses and the crowp. But, ..Monk arose^ and strongly objected to an inquiry which ,m jght revive the fears and jealousies, the animosities and. bloodshed, of the years that were past. Let the king return while all was peace and har mony. He would come alone : he could bring no army with him: he would be as much at their mercy in Westminster as in Breda. . Limitations, ,if limitations were necessary, might , be prepared in the interval, and offered to him after his ar rival. At the conclusion pf this speech, the house resounded , with the acclarnatipns of the cavaliers ; and the advocates of ,the inquiry, awed, by the, authority of the general, and the clamour, of their.opponents, deemed it prudent to desist.t f ¦ • - ¦-....,- CMap. I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 45 sion- The roads were covered with crowds of people anxious to testify their loyalty while' they gratified their curiosity. On Blackheath he was received by the ay " army in battle array, and greeted with acclamations as he passed through the ranks : in St. George's fields the lord mayor and aldermen invited him to partake of a splendid collation in a tent prepared for the pur- London'6" pose ; from London-bridge to Whitehall the houses were hung with tapistry, and the streets lined by the trained bands, the regulars, and the "officers who had served under Charles I. The king was preceded by troops of horsemen, to the afnount of three thousand persons, in splendid dresses, attended by trumpeters" and footmen ; then came the lord mayor, carrying the naked sWord, after him the lord-general and the duke of Buckingham, and lastly, the king himself, riding between his two brothers. The cavalcade was closed by the general's life-guard, five regiments of horse, and two troops of noblemen and gentlemen. At Whitehall Charles dismissed the'lord mayor, and received in succession the two houses, whose speakers addressed him in strains of the most impassioned loyalty, and were answered by him with pro- testationsof attachment to the interests and liberties of his subjects. It was late in the evening before the ceremonies of this important day were concluded, when Charles observed to some of his. confidants, " It must surely have been my fault that I did not come before ; for I have met with no one to-day who did not protest that he always wished for my restora tion.** - " That the re-establishment of royalty was a blessing to the "country, will hardly be denied. It presented the best, per haps the only, means of restoring public tranquillity amidst the confusion and distrust, the animosities and hatreds, the parties and interests which had been generated by the events of the civil war, and by a rapid succession of opposite and epheme ral governments. To Monk belongs the merit of having, by his foresight and caution, effected this desirable object without bloodshed or violence ; but to his dispraise it must also be re corded, that he effected it without any previous stipulation on ihe part of the exiled monarch. Never had so fair an oppor tunity been offered of establishing a compact between the so vereign and the people, of determining by mutual consent the legal right of the crown, and securing from future encroach ment the freedom of the people. That Charles would have consented to such condition, we have sufficient evidence ; but n * Whitelock, 702. Rennet's Reg. 163. Clarend. Hist. iii. 772. Claren- don's Life by himself, Continuation, p. 7, 8. Evelyn's Diary, ii. 148. 46 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. I. when the measure was proposed, the lord-general declared himself its most determined opponent. It may have been, that his cautious mind figured to itself danger in delay ; it is more probable that he sought to give additional value to his services in the eyes of the new sovereign. But, whatever were the motives of his conduct, the result was, that the king ascended the throne unfettered with conditions, and thence inferred that he was entitled to all the powers claimed by his father at the commencement of the civil war. In a few years the consequence became manifest. It was found that by tire negligence or perfidy of Monk a door had been left open to the recurrence of dissension between the crown and the peo ple ; and that very circumstance which Charles had hailed as the consummation of his good fortune, served only to prepare the way for a second revolution, which ended in the perma nent exclusion of his family from the government of these king doms. 47 CHAP. II. CHARLES II. THE NEW COUNCIL. PROCEEDINGS IN THE CONVENTION PARLIA MENT. TRIALS AND EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. ECCLE SIASTICAL ARRANGEMENTS. CONFERENCE AT THE SAVOY. RIS ING OF THE FIFTH-MONARCHY MEN. NEW PARLIAMENT. EXE CUTION OF VANE. CORPORATION ACT. ACT OF UNIFORMITY.— PARLIAMENT IN SCOTLAND. EXECUTION OF AKGYLE. RESTORA- TION OF EPISCOPACY IN SCOTLAND. — ALSO IN IRELAND. ACT OF SETTLEMENT. — AND EXPLANATORY ACT FOR IRELAND. Never, perhaps, did any event in the history of this nation produce such general and exuberant joy as the return of Charles to take possession of the throne of his fathers. To the abolition of monarchy men attributed all the evils which they had suffered : from its restoration they predicted the revival of peace and prosperity. The known enemies of the royal cause slunk away to hide themselves from the effects of popu lar excitation : its triumph was every where celebrated with the usual manifestations of public joy ; and the arms of the commonwealth, with all the emblems of republicanism, were subjected to the foulest indignities and reduced to ashes. To keep alive the flame of loyalty, the royalists circulated in cheap publications most flattering portraits of the new king. He was described as a prince of kindly disposition and engag ing manners ; of sound judgment and becoming spirit ; and, above all, of the most inflexible attachment to the doctrines of protestantism, an attachment which had stood the test of temptation in circumstances the most trying and seductive. That there was some truth in these representations cannot be denied ; but one half of the picture was concealed : it should nave been added, that he was easy and indolent, the votary of dissipation and pleasure, and always ready to postpone the calls of business for the attraction of the ball-room, or the company of his mistresses. His advisers had persuaded themselves that the follies of the youth would be redeemed by 48 HISTORY OP ENGLAND. [Chap. II. the virtues of the man. But he had now reached his thirtieth year without amendment. He had, indeed, made promises, hadnnore than once torn himself from the unworthy connex ions to which he was enslaved, and had on emergencies dis played an energy deserving of that splendid prize to which he aspired. But these were transient efforts : tie quickly relaps ed into his former habits, and resumed with new relish the pursuit of enjoyment. Charles, however, on his arrival, did not suffer Conduct himself to be dazzled by the splendid prospect king6 around him. He was aware that his throne still i : rested on a very insecure foundation ; he saw the dangers which he had to avert, and the difficulties which he had to overcome ; and he formed a strong, and, as he fancied, unalterable resolution, to devote his chief attention to the busi ness of government, and to suffer no pleasure, no amour, to seduce him from the duties of his high office. His ministers congratulated each other on .the change wrought in the habits of their sovereign. But he soon began to feel uneasy under the restraint ; he was so beset with difficulties from the never- ceasing claims of the old royalists and of his more recent ad herents ; he found himself so perplexed hy the increasing multitude of affairs submitted to his consideration, that he gradually emancipated himself from the trammels, and sought relaxation in the company of the gay, the witty, and the disso lute. The consequence was, that he not only neglected his duties, but often suffered his mind to be prejudiced against the advice of his council by the sallies and sarcasms of his profli gate companions.* To an observant eye that council presented a sin- Hiscoun- gular assemblage of men, devoted to different par ties, and professing opposite principles. In the first place, were seen the royal brothers, James and Henry, who owed the distinction to their birth, with Hyde the chancellor, Ormond the lord-steward, lord Culpepper master of the rolls, and secretary Nicholas, the four counsellors, who had pos sessed the confidence of the king during his exile. Then came the lord-general, who by his recent conduct had indisso- lubly bound up his own lot with the fortunes of the house of Stuart, Morris the friend and confidant of the general, and two or three others, whose chief merit was the recommenda tion of Monk, grounded on the promises which he had made during the late revolution. With these two classes Charles • * Continuation of Clarendon's Life written by himself, 21. 46, 167. Ox ford, 1759. In the subsequent pages I shall refer to this work under the ntlt/te of Clarendon alone. Pepys, Diary, 37. 8vo. Chap. II.] CHARLES it. 49 was advised to associate all the surviving counsellors of his late father before the war ; a measure which, with a few who had faithfully adhered to the royal interests, introduced seve ral who had maintained the cause of the parliament against that of the crown. It is evident that, on a council thus con stituted, the king would look partly with distrust, partly with aversion. A remedy wasL discovered by the ingenuity of the chancellor, at whose suggestion the council appointed a com mittee of foreign affairs, consisting of himself, Ormond, Southampton, the lord treasurer, Monk, Nicholas, and Morris. These met for the purpose of considering therelations of the English with the other crowns of Europe ; but they employ ed the opportunity of meeting to debate and decide, without the knowledge of their colleagues, every question concerning the internal administration of the kingdom. The same sub jects were, indeed, afterwards submitted to .the consideration of the whole council ; but Charles had already adopted the opinion of the secret cabinet ; and the dissenters were either silenced by the reasoning of the favourite ministers, or over awed by the presence and authority of the sovereign.* With respect to the two houses, the king had only to speak and his wishes were gratified. As The two they had recalled him without conditions, so . they ouses" appeared willing to lay the liberties of the nation at his feet. The cavaliers identified their own triumph with the exaltation of the throne ; the presbyterians stood before it as repentant sinners anxious to efface the remembrance of their past de linquency ; and the few who were sincerely attached to re publican principles deemed it prudent to shelter themselves from notice amidst the crowd, and to echo the more courtly opinions of their colleagues. Fortunately the royal advisers were not disposed, or perhaps afraid, to take the utmost ad vantage of the general enthusiasm : and, on some occasions, Charles himself condescended to read to the two houses les sons of moderation and prudence.t The most important of their proceedings may conveniently be classed under the following heads. 1. The objection which had been raised before their convocation was renewed after the return of Confirma- the king. They had not been called by the royal diament"" writ ; they were therefore illegal assemblies, and their acts might hereafter be disputed in the courts of law. The obvious remedy was to dissolve them, and to summon a parliament after the usual manner, which might legalize by # Clarendon, 2. 27. t Clarendon 8, 9. Burnet, Hist, of his Own Times, i. 270, Ojsford, 1823. Vol. XII. 7 50 HISTORV OF ENGLAND. LChap. II. its authority the irregular proceedings of the convention. But this, to the king's advisers, appeared in the existing circum stances a dangerous experiment : they were not disposed to part with a house of commons so obsequious to their wishes ; and they preferred to pass an act,, declaring that the parliament summoned in the 16th of Charles I. was determined, and that the two housesthen sitting at Westminster constituted the two houses of parliament. It might, indeed, be asked, whence an assembly, illegal in its origin, could derive the power of giv ing to itself a legal existence ; but it was hoped that, as long as the convention sate, no man would venture to moot the question ; and on its dissolution every defect might be suppli ed by the authority of the succeeding parliament.* 2. The experience of former years had shown Grants to tnat> to restrain within due limits the pretensions of crown. the crown, it was necessary to keep it dependant on the bounty of the subject ; but the houses seemed to have adopted the contrary doctrine : they attributed the calamities which for so many years had afflicted the nation to the scanty provision made for the support of royalty ; they found, on inquiry, that the annual expenditure of the last king greatly exceeded his income ; and, to prevent the recurrence of the wants which he experienced, and of the illegal expe dients to which he had recourse* they raised the yearly revenue of the crown to the unprecedented amount of 1,200,000/. 3. But while they provided for the sovereign, they Court of were not unmindful of their own interest. In the ""lished preceding reigns, the proprietors of lands had fre- - quently and zealously sought to abolish tenures by * 'St. 12. Car.;fi. c. 1. The question, however, was brought forward by Drake, a royalist, under the name of Philips, in a tract called, "The Long Parliament Revived." Hefounded his opinion chiefly on the act of 17th of Charles I., wbich provided that the parliament should not be dissolved but by an express act of -parliament, and that every thing otherwise done, or to be done, for the dissolving of it should be of none effect Hence it follow ed that parliament could never be dissolved but by its own act ; and that the arguments of Prynn, which have been already noticed, were of no force: because, though true of -an ordinary .parliament, they did not apply to one secured from dissolution in this extraordinary manner. Drake was impeached by the commons; but the lords had the prudence to remit the case to the attorney-general to be proceeded with rn the ordinary courts of law. Se? Pari. Hist. vi. 145. 147i and App. i. The court wisely allowed the prosecution to be dropped. If the act of 17th of Charles were constru ed strictly according to the letter, the long parliament could never be dis solved by any other parliament, because no other meeting before its dis solution could be a legal parliament. It was, therefore maintained that, by the separation of the houses from the king, and the secession or ex clusion of so many members, it had fallen to pieces of itself. It had died a natural death. See the tract, "The Long Parliament is not Revived," Ibid, xviii. CHAP' Mll CHARLES II. 51 knights' service, confessedly the most onerous of the existing feudal burthens ; but their attempts were constantly defeated by the monarch and his courtiers, unwilling to resign the bene fits of marriages, reliefs, and wardships. Now, however, in this season of reconciliation and mutual concession, the pro posal was made and accepted ; the terms were arranged to the satisfaction of both parties ; and Charles consented to ac cept a fixed annual income of 100,000/. in place of the ca sual but lucrative profits of the court of Wards. Still the transaction did little honour to the liberality of the two houses. They refused to extend the benefit to inferior tenures i and the very act which relieved the lords of manors from the ser vices which they owed to the crown, confirmed to them the services which they claimed from those who held by tenure of copyhold. Neither did they choose to pay the price of the benefit, though it was to be enjoyed by themselves. Origi nally, the authors of the measure intended to raise the com pensation by a tax on the lands which had been relieved : the amount had actually been apportioned to the several counties by the committee, when a member, as it were accidentally, ask ed why they should not resort to the excise ; the suggestion was eagerly caught by the courtiers and many of the pro prietors : the injustice of compelling the poor to pay for the relief of the rich, though strongly urged, was contemptuously overlooked ; and the friends of the motion, on a division in a full house, obtained a majority of two. In lieu, therefore, of purveyance, military tenures, and their various incidents, fruits and dependences, the produce of one moiety of the excise, a constantly growing and more profitable branch of N v 21 revenue than the original compensation, was settled on the crown for ever.* 4. The excise, as the reader will recollect, had been introduced by the parliament to defray the T.he ex- charges of the war against the king. To reconcile petted the nation to so odious a tax, it was first voted for only a short period ; and, though it had been continued ever since by successive grants, an understanding always existed that, as nothing but necessity could justify the imposition, so it should most certainly cease with that necessity. By the last enactment, one half of it was now rendered perpetual ; nor was the house slow to dispose of the other. It had taken no measures to raise the revenue to the amount which it had voted : the festival of Christmas approached ; the king ad monished the members of his intention to dissolve the * 12 Car. ii. t. 24. C. Journ. May 25 ; Nov. 8. 19. 21 ; Dec. 15. 21. Pari' Hist. vi. 146. 52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [.Chap. II. parliament ; and the houses hastily passed three bills to im prove the receipts on wine licences, to regulate the post office, and to grant to the king the second moiety of the excise for his natural life, in full of the yearly settlement of 1,200,000/.* From that moment, all hope of its Bec" 81" extinction vanished ; and, in the course of a few reigns, the streamlet has swelled into a mighty river. The ex cise then produced 300,000/. ; it now produces 18,000,000/. per annum. 5. The existence of the revolutionary army (it Disband- amounted in the three kingdoms to more than sixty a™yf tbe thousand men) was to the monarch and his minis ters a subject of constant anxiety. It bad, indeed* contributed to place him on the throne ; but it might, with the same ease, precipitate him from it. Monk could no long er answer for its fidelity. When the first ebullitions of loyalty had subsided, many, both officers and privates, began to feel surprise that they had lent themselves to a revolution which must put an end to their accustomed licence and long established importance. The royalists, to whom the lord- general had given commissions, possessed not the confidence of the men ; the followers of Lambert in his late unfortunate attempt insinuating themselves into the quarters of the mili tary, called on them to re-assert the good old cause ; and un authorised meetings were held ; the death of Monk was planned, and measures were taken to form a general combi nation among the different corps. In opposition to these at tempts, Charles endeavoured to win the affections of the soldiery by the flattering manner in which he spoke of their discipline and loyalty, and the earnestness with which he re commended their services to the gratitude of his parliament ; while his ministers, with the aid of a numerous corps of spies, sought out the sowers of sedition, and, under various and feigned pretences, secured their persons. In both houses, members were instructed to represent the uselessness of- so numerous a force in a time of profound peace, the expense which it had already entailed, and the annual amount which it would continue to entail, on the nation. No opposition was offered to the motions with which they concluded. By suc- * C. Journ. Nov. 27; Dec. 21. In the debate on the post office bill, an amendment was proposed to exempt from the charge of postage all letters to and from members of the house of commons, " sitting the parliament," on the ground that they had as £ood a right to lhat indulgence as the privy counsellors by whom it wasenjoyed. Though the amendment was stig matized as beneath the dignity of the house, and fit only for mendicants, though the speaker declared that he was ashamed to put the question, it was carried, The lords, however, rejected it, and the commons acquiesced. Journ. of Com. Dec. 17- Pari. Hist. 163. Chap. II.] CHARLES II. 53 cessive grants, provision was made to liquidate all arrears .- regiment after regiment was disbanded ; and the measure was conducted with such attention to the wants and feelings of the men, that it was accomplished without exciting mutiny or public expressions of discontent.* 6. The proceedings on this subject were tedious ly protracted by the controversy between the two Bill of in*. houses on the bill of indemnity. In his declaration emmtv- from Breda, Charles had promised a general pardon, subject to such exceptions as might be suggested by the wisdom of parliament. The moment the question was brought forward, a wonderful diversity qf~ opinion was observed. Every member had some friend whom he wished to shield from punishment, or some enemy whom he sought to involve in it : considerations of interest or relationship, of friendship or re venge, weighed more than the respective merits of the par ties ; and distinctions- were made and resolutions passed, for which it was difficult to account on any rational grounds: At last, the bill was transmitted from the commons to the lords, who, as their sufferings had in general been more se vere, betrayed a more vengeful spirit. The chief points in discussion between the houses were, that the lords sought to include* in one sweeping clause of condemnation, all persons who ever sate in judgment on any royalist prisoners in a high court- of justice ; and that they refused all hope of mercy to nineteen of the king's judges who had surrendered them selves in consequence of a royal proclamation. By a clause in that instrument, the disobedient were threatened with ex ception from pardon both as to life and property : whence the commons inferred that the obedient had reason to expect such exception in their favour ; while the lords contended that they had only a right to trial before a court of justice, whereas, those- who disobeyed might be condemned for con tumacy. Charles, by repeated messages, advised moderation and clemency. It was evident that the commons had adopt ed the more rational explanation : the lords at last relented ; the other house met them by receding from some of its pre tensions ; and the act, after a long contest, received the royal assent. It declared, in the first place, that all injuries and offences against the crown or individuals, arising out of quar rels between political parties since the 1st of June, 1637, should be and were forgiven: then came the exceptions: 1. of fifty-one individuals actually concerned in the death of the king's father; 2. of Vane and Lambert ; 3, of lord Monson, Haslerigt and five others, as far as. regarded liberty and pro- " St. 12. Car, ii. c. 9. 15, 16. gl. Clarendon, 10, 11. Burnet, i. 274. 54 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [-CHir.il. perty ; 4, of all judges in any high court of justice ; and of Hutchinson, Lenthall, St. John, and sixteen others by name, as to eligibility to hold office, civil, military, or ecclesiastical. With respect to the case of the nineteen regicides who had voluntarily surrendered, it was yielded to the lords that they should be tried for their lives ; and, in return, was conceded to the commons, that they should not be executedwithout a subsequent act of parliament to be passed expressly for that purpose.* By most men, this general pardon was hailed as a national blessing, calculated to heal dissension and restore tranquillity ; by the great body of the cavaliers, it was received with mur murs and complaints. It disappointed their fondest hopes : they saw themselves left by it the victims of their loyalty, without redress for the injuries which they had received, or relief from the poverty to which they had been reduced ; while, in numerous instances, their more fortunate neighbours of the republican party" continued to revel in the undisturbed enjoyment of their new-gotten wealth, the fruit and reward of rebellion and injustice. " With truth, they exclaimed, may it be called an act of oblivion and indemnity ; but of oblivion of loyalty, and indemnity for treason. 7. Their discontent received some alleviation Fate of frorn the tragedy which followed. For years it had cides?61 keen sedulously impressed on the mind of Charles, that, as a son, he could never pardon the murder of his father ; as a sovereign, he ought not to connive at the pub lic execution of a king. To punish the regicides was, in his opinion, a sacred and indispensable duty ; and the exceptions established by the late act afforded him ample scope for the exercise of justice, or the gratification of revenge. Five-and- twenty out of the original number had indeed been already removed by death beyond the reach of any earthly tribunal, and nineteen had crossed the sea to escape the fate which awaited them in their native country.f Still twenty-nine re- * Journals of both Houses. St. 12, Car. ii. c. xi. Clarendon, 69. t Three of these, Whaley, Goff, and Dixwell, secreted themselves in New England, where they passed their lives in the constant fear of being discover ed by the officers of government. There is an interesting account of their adventures in Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, and in the history of these " Most Illustrious and Heroic Defenders of Liberty," published by Ezra Styles, S. T. D. LL.D. President of Yale College, Hartford, U. S. 1794. Three others, Corbet, Okey, and Berkstead, were apprehended in Holland, at the instance of Downing, and given up by the States, as an atonement for their former treatment of the king during his exile. They suffered under the net of attainder, on the 19th of April, 1662. Ludlow, iii. 82. State Trials, v. 1301 — 35. Pepys, i. 252. 8. Others sought refuge in Switzerland, where they believed themselves to be in constant danger of assassination from emissaries hired by the English court. Ludlow, iii. 113 — 134. Chap.IL] CHARLES II. 55 mained, all in custody, and several of them as deeply tinged with the blood of the late king, and as criminal in the eyes of the royal party, as the most obnoxious of their fellows. The fugitives were attainted by act of parliament ; the prisoners were arraigned before a court of thirty-four commissioners. There was much in the composition of this court to interest the curiosity of the spectators, and to agitate the feelings of the unhappy men at the bar. That cavaliers should sit in judgment on those who had brought the king to the block, might have been expected ; but by the side of the chancel lor, and Southampton, and Nicholas, were seated Manchester and Robartes, two of the parliamentary commanders, • Say and Hollis, the parliamentary leaders, Atkins and Tyrrel, par liamentary judges, Monk and Montague, two of Cromwell's lords, and Cooper, one of his most trusty advisers. These men, if they had not actually dipped their hands in the'king's blood, had been deeply engaged in the transactions which led to his death, or had powerfully supported the several revolutionary governments, which excluded his son and suc cessor from the throne. For such offences they might, in other circumstances, have had to plead for their lives ; but they bad made professions of repentance, and had been selected to -discharge this ungracious task that they might display both the extent of the royal clemency, and the sincerity of their own conversion. Most of the prisoners sought to deserve mercy by the in genuous and sorrowful acknowledgment of their crime : the others alleged in their justification, that they bore no per sonal malice to the royal victim : that they looked on his death as a solemn act of national justice, and that they proceeded un der the sanction of that authority which then exercised the supreme power in the nation. To the second of these pleas the court refused to listen : to the first it was replied, that in law the fact afforded sufficient evidence of the malice ; and, to the last, that an irregular and unlawful meeting of twenty- six persons, pretending to represent the commons of England, could not be considered as the supreme authority in the na tion. All were found guilty, and received judgment of death ; but the execution of those who had voluntari- ^If1' ly surrendered themselves was respited, according to the act of indemnity, for the subsequent consideration of parliament. The ten selected to suffer were Harrison, Scot, Carew, Jones, Clements, Scroop, who had subscribed the fatal warrant ; Cook, who acted as solicitor on the trial ; Ax- tele and Hacker, two military officers who guarded the roy al prisoner ; and Peters, the minister, whose fervid and in- 56 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. It. temperate eloquence had been so often employed to prepare and support the actors in that remarkable tragedy. The lan guage of these men, both in the court and after their condem nation, exhibited traits of the wildest fanaticism. For the justice of their cause they appealed to the victories which the Lord had given to their swords ; to their bibles, which incul cated the duty of shedding the blood of him who had shed the blood of his fellow men : and to the spirit of God which had testified to their spirit that the execution of Charles Stuart was a necessary act of justice, a glorious deed, the sound of which had gone into most nations, and a solemn recognition of that high supremacy which the King of heaven holds over the kings of the earth. Similar sentiments supported and cheered them on the scaffold. When they were told to repent, they replied that of their sins they had repented, and of forgiveness they were assured. But they dared not repent of their share in the death of the late king : for to repent of a good deed was to offend God. They were proud to suffer for such a cause. Their martyrdom would be the most glorious spectacle which the world had ever witnessed since the death of Christ. But let the persecutors tremble : the hand of the Lord was already raised to avenge their innocent blood ; and in a short time the cause of royalty would crouch before that of independence. They uttered the prediction with the confidence of prophets* and submitted to their fate with the constancy of martyrs. Peters alone appeared to shrink from the approach of death. The exhortation of his fellow sufferers revived his courage : a strong cordial braced his nerves ; and he mustered suffi cient resolution to say that he gloried in the cause, and defied the executioner to do his worst.t These examples did not satisfy the resentment of Punish- the royalists, who lamented as a misfortune that the thendead. most odious of the regicides had by a natural death escaped the fate of their associates. It was true they were attainted ; but the attainder affected all alike ; while the greater guilt of some called for more particular proofs of public reprobation. Revenge is ingenious : history could furnish instances of punishment inflicted on the remains " And the prediction was believed. From the Diary of Whaley, Goff, and Dixwell it appeal's that they looked on the execution of the regicides as the slaying of the witnesses foretold in the Book of Revelations, and that the prediction of a revolution in their favour was to be fulfilled in the mys terious year 1666. Theyear passed, and their hopes were disappointed ; but they consoled themselves with the persuasion that there was an error in the date of the Christian era, and that the accomplishment of the prophecy would speedily arrive. See Howell's State Trials, v. 1362. + Ibid. 947—1301. Chap. II.]. CHARLES II. 57 of the dead ; and in obedience to an order of the two houses, approved by the king, the bodies of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton, having been removed from their graves, were drawn on hurdles to Tyburn, taken out of their coffins, and hung at the three corners of the gallows on the anniversary of the death of Charles I., the day chosen for this expiatory ceremony. In the evening they were cut down and decapi tated :•; the heads fixed on the front of Westminster-hall, and the trunks thrown into a pit at the place of execution. To the cavaliers this revolting exhibition afforded aTSubject of merri ment and pleasantry : it met with the deserved reprobation of every man of sensibility and judgment. It was an outrage against the common feelings of humanity, and could contri bute nothing to the only real end of public punishment — the prevention of crime. .The man who dares to stake his life on the pursuit of his. object, will not be deterred by the fear of mutilation or suspension after death.* 8. Since the year 1642 a considerable portion of the landed property in every county had passed Revoiu- from the hands of the original owners into the pos- j1",^ session of new claimants ; and it was on this import- property. ant consideration that the founders of the common wealth rested their principal hope of its subsequent stability. Hundreds of their adherents had by the revolution been raised in the scale of society ; they were become invested with the wealth and influence that originally belonged to their supe- . riors ; and it was their interest to oppose with all their power the return of a.system which would reduce them to poverty and insignificance. Charles, in his declaration from Breda, touched on the subject in guarded and measured terms : " he " was willing that all controversies in relation to grants, sales, " and purchases, should be determined in parliament, which " could best provide for the just satisfaction of all who were " concerned." Parliament, however, made no such provi sion; It confirmed, indeed, as a measure of tranquillization, the judicial decisions which had been given in the court of law and equity; but the royal promise respecting the transfer of property by grants and sales was forgotten ; and, in conse quence, no relief was afforded to two numerous classes of men * Lord's Journals, xi. 205. Rennet's Reg. 367. Though Pride was in cluded in the order, his body was not disturbed. Afterwards (1661, Sep. 12, 14,)' about twenty bodies of persons buried in Henry VII. 's chapel, and the church of Westminster, were disinterred by the king's' ord.er, and buried again in the church-yard! Among these were the remains of Cromwell's mother, of his daughter Elizabeth Claypole, of admiral Blake, and ortolo- nel Mackworlh, who had'been interred irf the chapel, and of Pym, Doris- laus, Stroud," May the historian, Twiss and Marshall, divines, and of several others, buried in the church. Kennet, 534. Neal, 619. Voi.. XII. 8 58 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. II. belonging to the opposite parties. ' 1. At the very commence ment of the civil troubles many royalists disposed of a portion or the whole of their estates, that they might relieve 'the pe cuniary wants of the king, or enable themselves to raise men, and serve in the royal armies ; and at its conclusion all of them were compelled to have recourse to similar measures, that they might discharge their debts, and pay the heavy fines imposed on them by order of the revolutionary governments. That these men had strong claims on the gratitude and pity of the king and parliament, could not be denied ; but these claims were neglected ; the sales had been effected with their consent, they were bound by their own acts, and consigned to murmur in penury and despair. 2. The lands belonging to the crown, to the bishops, deans and chapters, and to a few distinguished cavaliers, had been granted away as re wards, or sold to the highest or the most favoured bidder. These were now reclaimed : forcible entries were made ; and Hie "holders, as they were not allowed to plead a title derived from an usurped authority, were compelled to submit to su perior right or superior power. To the argument that they were, the most of them, bona fide purchasers, it was truly re plied that they had taken the risk with the benefit : but when they appealed to the " just satisfaction " promised in the roy al declaration from Breda, Charles himself blushed at the rigour of his officers and adherents. By proclamation here- commended measures of lenity and conciliation ; he advised that the revolutionary purchasers should be admitted as te nants on. easy fines ; and, at the united request of the two houses, he established a commission to arbitrate between the contending parties. The consequence, however, was that, while the purchasers of the crown lands were in general permitted to remain in possession, the purchasers of the church lands were in numerous instances treated with extreme seve rity. The incumbents had themselves suffered hard measure ; they were old, and therefore anxious to provide for the support of ithek families after them ; and, instead of attending to the royal recommendation, they made no distinction among the bidders, but selected for tenants those individuals who made them the most advantageous offers.* 9. During the first period of the revolution, the Eccieiiiasti- presbyterian ministers had obtained possession of ment.anSe" tne Pai*isn churches ; but their orthodoxy was not less intolerant than that of their predecessors, and they pursued with equal violence the tlieological offences of * St. 12. Car. ii, c. 17. Rennet's Reg. 312. Clarendon, 183. Harris, iv, 348i Chap. II.] CHARLES II. 59 schism and heresy. Still, in defiance of their zeal sectarian ism continued to spread ; by degrees, the civil and military authority passed into the hands of the independents; the presbyterians, in proportion as their power declined, turned their eyes towards the exiled prince ; and their ministers, as far as prudence would permit, acted the part of zealous and successful missionaries in his favour; Now that Charles had recovered the crown, was he to expel from their livings the men from whom he had received these services ; or was he to protect them, and leave the episcopal clergy to pine in de privation and want ? The first savoured of ingratitude ; it was moreover pregnant with danger. It might provoke the presbyterian members, the majority of the house of commons, to oppose the court ; a thousand pulpits might join in advo cating the duty of resistance ; and the smouldering embers of civil war might be easily fanned into a flame by the breath .of the preachers. On the other hand, he was led by princi ple, and pledged in honour, to restore that hierarchy, in de fence of which his father had forfeited his crown and his life. This was loudly demanded by the cavaliers, and was repre sented by Hyde as providing the surest bulwark for the throne. Charles did not hesitate : the kirk was sacrificed to the church ; and every difficulty was surmounted by the sin gular address of the ministers, joined with the engaging man ner and real or affected moderation of the monarch. That the dominion of the ancient laws had re turned with the representative of the' ancient kings, Royal de- was a principle which no one ventured" to contra- c aratlon- diet ; but a principle, which taught the votaries of the "so lemn league and covenant" to tremble for the idol of their . worship, and threatened the presbyterian clergy with the loss of their livings. Their chief reliance was placed on the de claration from Breda, which promised the royal assent to an act of parliament for composing differences in religion, and on the services of their brethren who formed a powerful body in the house of commons. But Charles and his pohtic ad viser had no intention to redeem the royal pledge, or to en trust the decision of this important question to the doubtful orthodoxy of the two house's. The number of the bishops, who had been reduced to nine, was filled up by successive nominations ; the survivors of the sequestrated clergy were encouraged to re-enter on their benefices, or to accept a com position from the holders ; and the heads of the universities received a royal.mandate to restore to their colleges the eject ed fellows. At the same time, to lull the apprehensions of the presbyterians, offers of bishoprics were made to the- most eminent or moderate of the ministers ; ten obtained the no- Q0 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LChap. It» minal honour of being chaplains to the king, and all were con firmed in the possession of their benefices, where the legal claimant was dead, or neglected to enforce his right. But. these measures excited alarm : a bill for the settlement of re ligion was brought into the house of commons; and a resolu tion was passed that the question should be considered in a '' grand committee on every successive Monday." Hyde, in opposition, issued instructions to the friends of the court and the church ; they laboured zealously to perplex and protract the proceedings : two long and animated debates called forth the passions of the speakers ; and at last the sitting of the committee was suspended for three months that the king might have time to consult the divines of both communions.* For this purpose, papers were exchanged between certain of the bishops and a select number of ministers. On points of doctrine, they scarcely differed ; but one party contended warmly for the model of episcopal government formerly de-; vised by archbishop Usher, which the latter absolutely, reject ed as offering only another name for the establishment of the presbyterian system. t The disagreement had been foreseen; „. , and Charles was advised to interpose as moderator between the disputants.- He laid before them the draft of a royal declaration from the- pen of the chancellor, solicited their observations on its provisions, and '' offered to adopt any reasonable amendment. In a few days, it was published. It gave due praise both to the. orthodox and the presbyterian clergy ; avowed the king's at tachment to episcopacy, but with his conviction, that it might be so modified as, without impairing its real character, to re move the objections brought against it : and for that purpose it enjoined, 1. with respect to jurisdiction, that no bishop should exercise any illegal or arbitrary authority ; or pro nounce ecclesiastical censures, or celebrate ordinations with out the assistance and advice J of his chapter and of an equal * Clarendon, 74. Journal of Com. July 6. 20j 21. "The committee sat an hour in the dark before candles were suffered to be brought in, and then they were twice blown out ; but Ihe third time they were preserved, though with great disorder, till at last about ten at night it was voted," etc. MS. Diary of a Member, in Pari. Hist. vi. 79! 82. t Neal, ii. 568—75. It proposed that the several deans should hold month ly synods of the clergymen under their jurisdiction ; the bishops, yearly sy nods of those within their dioceses ; and the archbishops, every third year synods of the bishops and deputies from each diocese within their respective provinces : but in all these, the presidents were to possess no superior au thority, but only to be considered as primi inter pares. See the scheme in the History of Non-conformity, 339 — 344. X Instead of advice the presbyterians moved for the substitution of the word tonsent. Charles refused i and, when a passage frotn the turn 0act\i*i Chap. Il-l CHARLES II. 6 1 number of presbyters deputed by the clergy of the diocese, or confirm in any church without the information. and con sent of the minister ; and 2. with regard to the religious scru ples of the presbyterians, that the reading of the liturgy, the observance of the ceremonies, the subscription to all the thirty-nine articles, and the oath of canonical obedience, should not be exacted from'those who objected to them through mo tives of conscience.* These important concessions were received with joy and gratitude by the party. A meeting of Policy of London ministers declared that episcopacy, thus re- ctlior a" formed and improved, was a different thing from the episcopacy against which they had protested in the cove nant ; and their celebrated leader, Dr. Reynolds, whether his scruples were really silenced, or the restraint on his ambi tion only removed, signified his acceptance of the bishopric of Norwich. Yet the declaration, while it kept the word of promise to the ear, contained a passage which tended to. break it to the hope : it alluded to a synod to be convened, when the passions of men should be cooled, that the question might be fairly and. finally settled. The presbyterians had no inclination to depend on the uncertain decision of some future synod : they sought a permanent, not a temporary arrangement ; and, in a committee of the house of commons, with serjeant Hales at its head, a bill was formed for the purpose of converting the royal declaration into a law. Hyde saw that his own arts were directed against himself : he removed Hales from the house, to take his seat in the exchequer as lord chief baron ; the dependents of the court received instructions to vote against the bill.; secretary Morris opposed it in a long though mode- Nqv rate speech ; and, on "a motion that- it should be read a second time, it was rejected by a majority of twenty- eight in a" house of three hundred and forty members. Shortly afterwards the convention parliament was Dec. 29. dissolved. t was objected, hastily replied : " all that is in that book is not gospel." Ken- net, Reg. 283. * L. Journ. xi. 179. Neal, ii. 575—80. Originally it was intended to per mit all persons " to meet for 'religious worship, so be it, they do it not to the disturbance of the peace." But the presbyterians were not sufficiently libe ral to allow to others what they demanded for themselves. Baxter distin guished between tolerables and intolerables. The papists and socinians were intolerabtes : their worship could not conscientiously be suffered ; and, to satisfy the party, the clause was changed into a promise that no man should be disturbed for " difference of opinion in matters of religion." Rennet, Reg- 280. Oldmixon, 488. t Clarendon, 76. Journals of Com. Nov. 28. Pari. Hist. vi. 141. 152. I may observe that, on this occasion Charles exercised his pretension of 62 HISTORY OP ENGLAND. LChap.'H. That,' notwithstanding the general demonstration Insurrec- 0f loyalty, there were many who secretly lamented tions' the ruin, and ardently sought the restoration, of the republican government, could not be doubted. The royal ministers were placed in a situation in which even a super fluous degree of vigilance or severity might be vindicated, or, at least, excused on.account of the probability of danger. But, while they secured the more prominent and suspicious charac ters, such as Overton, Desborough, Day, and Courtenay, they appear to have overlooked or despised a conventicle of fana tics in Coleman street, under.the guidance of a wine-cooper, named Venner. The king was gone to Portsmouth in com pany with the queen mother ; and, on the. afternoon Jan. 6. °f the following Sunday, Venner called on his hear ers not to pray but to act, to take up arms in the cause of their King Jesus, to whom alone allegiance was due, and never to sheathe the. sword till Babylon should be made a hissing and a curse. To raise their courage, the en thusiast held out to them the conquest of the whole world : they should first lead captivity captive in England ; from England, proceed to possess the gates of the earth ; and then bind kings in chains and nobles in fetters of iron. What, if they were few in number, not more than sixty ? They would fight for him who had promised that one should chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. Arms had been prepared: the soldiers of the heavenly King hasten ed to St. Paul's, drove before them some of the trained bands, traversed the city, and withdrew, during the night, to Cane wood, between Highgate and Hampstead. The next morning, about thirty were apprehended by the military, and a persuasion existed that the remainder had dispersed ; but on Wednesday they were seen in different streets hastening towards the residence of the lord mayor, and exclaiming, "the King Jesus and their heads upon the ' gates." More fanatics had joined them : several rencontres took place with the guards and the trained bands: and the injury which they inflicted was equal to that which they re ceived ; but after the loss of two-and-twenty men killed on the spot, sixteen, most of them wounded, yielded to their op ponents, and the remaining, few escaped. The pri soners expiated their crime on the galjows. But the dispensing with the law in ecclesiastical matters, and yet noone ventured to complain. " It is our will and pleasure that none be judged to forfeit His presentation or benefice, or be deprived of it upon the statute of 1 3th Eliz. c. 12, so he read and declare bis assent to all the articles of religion, which only concern the confession of the true Christian faith, and the doc trine of the sacraments comprised in the book of articles in the said statute mentioned." Chap. II.] CHARLES II. 63 failure of the enterprize had not shaken their faith. They died in the same sentiments in which they had lived, pro claiming the sovereignty of their heavenly King, and denounc ing his vengeance against the usurpers of his prerogative, the kings of the earth.* I shall not detain the reader with the ceremonial of the coronation, or the rejoicings with which itwas New par. celebrated. Charles had previously called a parlia- \g^ent' ment after the ancient and legitimate form ; and the May 8. result of the elections showed that the fervid loyalty which blazed forth at his restoration had, in the course of twelve months, suffered butlittle abatement, In a few places, indeed, men of anti-episcopalian principles were returned, but the ma jority of the members consisted of royalists devoted to the person of the king, and ready to support the measures of the court. Some members of the council possessed seats in the lower house : but' it was not yet the custom to employ them as the acknowledged, leaders of the party. To save appear ances, the chancellor (he had lately been created earl of Cla rendon) privately communicated the wishes of the cabinet to a few of the most influential members, and each of these held a separate meeting of his friends and followers, whom he in structed in the part that each indiyidual had to act and the vote which it was expected that he should give. With the aid of a force thus previously, though secretly, organized in the house, the minister experienced little difficulty in defeating the desultory and unconnected efforts Of his opponents. This parliament, at the commencement of its long career, passed several laws of the highest impor- Acta pass- tance, both in regard to the pretensions of the crown, e ' and the civil and religious liberties of the people. 1. The so lemn league and covenant with the acts for erecting a high court of justice for the trial of Charles Stuart ; for subscrib ing the engagement ; for establishing a commonwealth; for renouncing the title of the present king ; and for the security of the protector's person, were ordered to be burnt in the midst of Westminster-hall by the hands of the common hang man. It was affirmed that the negative voice, and the com mand of the army, were rights inherent in the crown: to de vise any bodily harm to the king, and to distinguish between his person and his office, were made treason ; to call the king a heretic or a papist, was declared to incapacitate the offender from holding any office in church or state ; and the penalties of premunire were enacted against all who should assert that * St. Trials, vi, 105. Rennet, Reg. 354. 662. Heath, 471. Parker, De Rebus sui Temporis, 10. Pepys, i. 167—169. 64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chip. It. the parliament of 1641 was not dissolved, or that both houses or either house; possessed legislative authority independently of the sovereign. At the same time, severe restrictions were imposed upon the press, to prevent the publication of books maintaining opinions contrary to the Christian faith, or the doctrine or discipline of the church of England, or tending to the defamation of the church or state, or of the governors thereof, or of any person whomsoever.* 2. Though the convention parliament had under- ve'rty.^1'0' taken to make ample provision for the pecuniary , wants of the government, Charles was advised to apply to the two houses for additional aid, and obtained from their loyalty a grant of four subsidies, the ancient but now obsolete method of raising supplies. It has been said of the king that he was improvident ; that the establishment of his household was calculated on the most expensive scale ; that he made magnificent presentsLo his favourites and mistresses ; and1 that he squandered enormous sums in the unnecessary repair and improvement of the royal palaces; but it should also be remembered that at his restoration he found himself incum bered with a debt for which he could not be responsible, the enormous sum owing to the- armies in the three kingdoms un der the heads of arrears ; and that he was moreover compell ed from the destitute state of the several' arsenals to expend 800,000/. in the immediate purchase of naval and military stores. We are assured that in the Hirst fifteen months the only sum which could be devoted to the ordinary current ex penses of the state was the 70,000/. voted on account of the coronation. The parliament repeatedly listened to his solici- 166„ tations ; but the estimates were inaccurate ; the taxes proved deficient ;t they were tardily collected ; new debts were contracted before the original debts could be discharged ; and, during the whole course of his reign, Charles laboured under the pressure of a burthen which he was una ble to remove. This gave a peculiar tone to his policy. To procure money became his habitual pursuit : it entered into all his measures as the principal, or, at least, as an important, object : it dictated to him the match with Portugal and the sale of Dunkirk to 'France : and it seduced him into that clandestine correspondence and those pecuniary bargains With the French monarch, which have left an indelible stain on his memory. * Clarendon, 181. Statutes and Journals, passim. t Sir P. Warwick showed that, of the yearly sum of l,200,000i!. voted by- the convention parliament, no more that 900jt>00£. per annum vyas ever re ceived. Pepys, Diary, ii. 161. Chap. II.] CHARLES It. 65 3. Though the kingdom presented everywhere the appearance of tranquillity, the different parties Reports of continued to look on each other with jealousy and c.onsPira- apprehension. That there existed many, who, if they had possessed the means, wanted not the will, to over turn the royal government, cannot be doubted ; and these, by the imprudence of their language or their carriage, might occasionally minister just cause of suspicion ; but, on the other hand, there were also many, whose credulity was as extravagant as their loyalty ; who could discover traces of guilt in conduct innocent or indifferent ; and who daily besieged the council board with the history of their fears, and with denunciations of treason. Most of these informers met with deserved neglect ; but to some it was thought that great er credit was due ; the king communicated their discoveries to the two houses ; arrests were ordered, and convictions and executions followed. It has often been asserted that these plots had no real existence ; that they were fabricated by the ingenuity of Clarendon, who sought, by exciting unfound ed alarms, to procure the sanction of parliament to the mea sures which he meditated against the non-conformists. But the authors of this" charge, so disgraceful to his character, were men whose sufferings on the score of religion made them his enemies, and who never supported their assertions with any satisfactory proof ; nor is it undeserving of remark that, at the very same time, the royalists suspected him of a secret connexion with the republicans, because he received their informations with an air of coldness, and with expres sions of disbelief.* These reports and proceedings had, however, a considerable* influence on the temper of the two King re houses, and turned their attention to the fate of the „' th.e„ . . . . , .„,... . execution surviving regicides, who were still detained in prison. ef the Of those who had been excepted from the penalty other re- of death, all enjoying titles of honour were degrad- Sicides- ed ; and three, the lord Monson, sir Henry Mildmay, and Robert Wallop, on the 30th of January, were pinioned upon hurdles, and drawn through the streets with halters round their necks to the gallows at Tyburn. Of these who had sur rendered in consequence of the proclamation, the< punishment had been respited till further order of parliament. A bill for their immediate execution was now introduced, 16g2 passed by the lower house, and sent to the lords ; Jan '27 who read it once, examined the prisoners at their * See Monkton's account. Lansdowne MSS. 988, f. 346. Vol. 511. 9 66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. II. bar, and never afterwards noticed the subject.* The fact is, that these unhappy men owed their lives to the humanity of the king. "I am weary of hanging," he said to the chancel lor, " except for new offences. Let the bill settle in the houses, that it may not come to me ; for you know that I cannot pardon them."t There still remained Vane and Lambert, who, Trials of though not actually guilty of the death of Charles anTvane I> were considered as fit objects of punishment. Lambert had been the last to draw the sword against the royal cause, and was still looked up to by the re publicans as their nominal head. Vane, if he had incurred ridicule by his extravagance as a religionist, was highly distin guished by his abilities as a statesman. In the first capacity, he had published books replete with pious fanaticism and unintelligible theology : in the latter, he stood without a rival as to matters of finance and civil policy. To his councils and foresight the cavaliers chiefly attributed the almost uniform success of their adversaries ; but his great and unredeeming offence was one which, though never mentioned, could never be forgotten. He had been, at the beginning of the troubles, the cause of the death of Strafford, by communicating to Pym the document which he had purloined from his father's desk. There was, however, this peculiarity in the case both of Vane and Lambert, that though the convention parliament had refused to except them from the penalty of Sep 5. death, yet, on account of the declaration from Breda, it had recommended them to mercy in the event of conviction, and the recommendation had been favourably re ceived by the king.J Charles, indeed, was disposed to leave them in prison without further molestation ; but the house of commons ordered the attorney-general to bring 1661. them to trial, and by three successive addresses J1662. extorted the royal consent.^ Their conduct at the Feb 19. bar presented a singular contrast. Lambert, who had so often faced his enemies in the field, trembled at the sight of a court of justice ; Vane, who had never drawn the sword, braved with intrepidity the frowns and partiality of his judges. The first hehaved with caution and modesty : he palliated his oppositon to Booth and Monk, by pretending that he was ignorant of their attachment to the house of Stuart ; and appealed to the royal mercy to which * C. Journ. 1661, July 1; 1662, Jan. 27; Feb. 1, 3. L. Journ. xi. 375. 380. Pepys, i. 243. t See Clarendon's notes in Clar. Pap. iii. App. xlvi. X C. Journ. 28. Aug. 1660 ; Sep. 5. L. Journals, xi. 156. $ C. Journ. July 1 ; Nov. 32, 1661 ; Jan. 10 ; Feb. 19, 1662. Chap. IL] CHARLES II. 67 he thought himself entitled by the king's proclamation and answer to the address of the convention parliament. He received judgment of death ; but was confined for life to the island of Guernsey, where he beguiled the hours of banish ment by the cultivation of two-arts in which he delighted, those of the florist and the painter. Vane, on the contrary, boldly maintained the principles which he une had formerly advocated. He was, he said, no traitor. By the act which rendered the long parliament indissoluble with out its own consent, the two houses were raised to a power equal and co-ordinate with that of the king, and possessed a right to restrain oppression and tyranny : by the war which followed between these equal authorities, the people were placed in a new and unprecedented situation to which the former laws of treason could not apply ; after the decision by the sword, " a decision given by that God, who, being judge of the whole world, does right, and cannot do other wise," the parliament became de facto in possession of the so vereign authority, and whatever he had done in obedience to that authority was justifiable by the principles of civil government, and the statute of the 11th of Henry VII. He spoke with a force of reasoning and display of, eloquence "which surprised the audience and perplexed the court ; and the judges were reduced to lay down this extraordinary doc trine, that Charles, in virtue of the succession, had been king de facto, and therefore in possession of the royal power, from the moment of his father's death. Hitherto by a king in possession had been understood a king in the actual exercise of his authority, which Charles most certainly was not ; but the judges supported their decision on the ground that he was the only person then claiming the royal power : a mise rable sophism, since the authority, the exercise of which con stitutes a king de facto, was actually possessed, by the parlia ment, which had abolished the very name and office of king.* To Charles his conduct on this occasion Was represented as an additional offence, a studied vindication of rebellion, a public assertion that the houses of parliament were the only supreme power in the nation. Those who had before petition ed for his pardon united in solicting his execution : the king, they maintained, was no longer bound by the royal word ; even God himself refused forgiveness to the unrepenting sin ner. His enemies prevailed, and Vane submitted with cheer fulness to his fate. On the scaffold, he displayed the same * St. Trials, vi. 119—186. But Vane did not merely obey the authority in actual exercise of the supreme power, he formed a part of that authority, keeping the king de jure out of possession. 68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. IT. intrepid bearing which he had manifested at his trial ; and \vas about to renew the advocacy of his principles to the spectators, when the trumpets were sounded in his face, and his notes were demanded and taken from him by the sheriff*. He suffered on Tower-hill. It was the spot where the blood of his victim, Strafford, had been shed ; and there he also fell an expiatory sacrifice to the manes of that nobleman. The one began, the other, after an interval of one-and-twenty years, closed, the list of proscription fur nished by this, period of civil discord.* 4. The feverish state of the public mind, agitat- Corpora- ed by successive reports of plots and the prosecu tion act. tjon Qf reaj or SUpp0sed conspirators, enabled the ministry to carry a measure, which they deemed highly con ducive to the stability of the restored government. Both the presbyterians and cavaliers had given proofs of their attach ment to the king ; but their loyalty was of a different order : the first sought to limit, the latter to extend, the powers of the crown ; the one looked on the constitution of the church as hostile, the other as favourable, to their respective views. In parliament the cavaliers were triumphant ; but the go vernment of cities and boroughs throughout the kingdom was chiefly in the hands of the presbyterians. To dispossess them of these strong holds became the policy of Clarendon ; and he accomplished his purpose by the corporation Dec. 20. acl;> which, after much opposition, was passed in to a law. By it, commissioners were appointed with the power of removing at discretion every individual holding office in or under any corporation in the kingdom ; and it wasrequired that all persons permitted to retain their situations should qualify themselves by renouncing the solemn league and covenant, by taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and by declaring upon oath their belief of the unlawfulness of taking up arms against the king on any pre tence whatsoever, and their abhorrence of the traitorous doc trine that arms may be taken up by his authority against his person, or against those that are commissioned by him. With respect to the admission of future officers, the act moreover provided, that no man should be eligible who had not, within the year preceding his election, taken the sacrament according to the rite of the church of England. Qualifying tests had been first introduced into our law to exclude the Roman ca tholics : now the precedent was urged to justify the exclusion of the dissenters ; the doctrine of passive obedience was es- -, c* VtlJs' \ 27,, ' S?-? 'll? letter of Char,es '« Harris> v. 32. St. Trials, vi. 187 — 198. Ludlow, ui. 89. Chap. II.] CHARLES II. 69 tablished by authority of the legislature ; and the performance of a religious duty was made an indispensible qualification for the holding of a secular office.* This act broke the pow er of the presbyterians in the state ; the act of uniformity drove them from the places which they still retained in the church. The king had promised that, preparatory to the comprehension of " the dissenting brethren," the Confer- Book of Common Prayer should be revised by a ^savoy commission of divines from both communions. March 25. They met at the Savoy ; previous debates respecting forms and pretensions occupied a considerable portion of time ; .at length, the discussion commenced with written pa pers, and was subsequently continued in personal conferences. But the presbyterians demanded so much, the bishops were disposed to concede so little, that no progress was made ; and when the commission (it had been limited to the duration of four months) was on the point of expiring, it was amica bly agreed to dismiss the minor subjects of controversy, and to confine the discussion to eight passages in the book, which in the apprehension of the dissenters could not be adopted without sin. With this view, the following question was pro posed for debate : " Can a command be sinful, enjoining that which is not in itself unlawful ?" After a long and fretful altercation, neither party was convinced, and both joined in a common answer to the king, that they agreed as to the end, but could come to no agreement as to the u y means.t This was the conclusion which had been expect ed and desired. Charles had already summoned Act °.f UI»- the convocation, and to that assembly was assigned fornllt"*- the task which had failed in the hands of the commissioners at the Savoy. Several of the bishops protested against any alteration 5 but they were overruled by 1662- the majority of their brethren ; certain amendments May 8' and additions were adopted ; and the book, in its approved form, was sanctioned by the king, and sent by him to the house of lords.} The act of uniformity fol- May 19' » St. 13 Car. 2. c. i. par. ii. t State TriaU, vi. .25 — 44. History of Non-conformity. Neal, ii. 601. In opposition to the bishops it was contended, that a command, enjoining what is lawful, may be sinful per accidens, or may be unlawfully command ed. The point to which the dispute referred was the kneeling at the com munion. Id. 328. X The most important of these alterations were perhaps the following : the insertion of the rubric respecting the posture of kneeling at the sacra ment, the admission of persons not yet confirmed to communion, and the dispensing with new married persons from the obligation of receiving the 70 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LCmr. II. lowed, by which it was enacted that the revised Book of Com mon Prayer, and of Ordination of Ministers, and no other, should be used in all places of public worship ; and that all beneficed clergymen should read the service from it within a given time, and, at the close, profess in a set form of words their " unfeigned assent and consent to every thing contained and prescribed in it." To this declaration many objected. In obedience to the legislature, they were willing to make use of the book, though they found in it articles and practices of the truth and propriety of which they doubted ; but to assert an unfeigned assent and consent to what they did not really be lieve or approve, was repugnant to the common notions of honesty and conscience. An attempt was made to relieve them on the transmission of a bill to amend the act 1663. 0f uniformity from the lower to the upper house. u y 25. rpne iorcjs ad^ed a declaratory clause, that the words " assent and consent should be understood only as to practice and obedience to the said act ;" but the commons instantly re jected the amendment ; the lords in a conference submitted to withdraw it ; and the only effect of the controver- u y sy was to place beyond a doubt the meaning in which the subscription was understood by the legislature.* There were two other clauses, which also gave offence. By one, it was provided that no person should administer the sacrament, or hold ecclesiastical preferment, who had not re ceived episcopal ordination ; by the other, that all incumbents, dignitaries, officers in universities, public schoolmasters, and even private tutors, should subscribe a renunciation of the covenant, and a declaration of the unlawfulness of taking up arms against the sovereign under any pretence. It was in vain that the lords objected : a conference followed ; the court came to the aid of the commons ; the opposition was abandoned, and the bill in its improved form received the royal assent.t The lords During the progress of this question, the lords more libe- had displayed a spirit of liberality which shocked rai than the the more rigid orthodoxy of the lower house. They commons. appeaied to the declaration from Breda. That in- communion on the day of marriage, and of the sick from the obligation of confessing their sins, and receiving absolution. * Lords' journals, xi. 573. 577. The duke of York and thirteen other peers entered their protests against the amendment, " because it was des tructive to the church of England as then established." 673. t St. 13, 14. Car. ii. c. iv. Clarendon, 153. In the conference between the houses much stress was laid on the opportunity which tutors possess of impressing what notions they please on the minds of their pupils. To this circumstance was attributed the strong. opposition made to Charles I. in par liament by the younger members; for, during the commonwealth, the cler gy of the church of England supported themselves by teaching, and brought up their pupils in principles of loyalty. Lords' Journals, 447. Chap. II.] CHARLES II. 71 strument was an offer made by the king as head of the ad herents to the church and the throne, and accepted by the several other parties within the kingdom. It was virtually a compact between him and the people, which fixed the price of his restoration. The people had done their part in receiv ing him ; it became him now to secure to them the boon which he had promised. That boon, as far as regarded re ligion, was liberty to tender consciences, and freedom from molestation on account of difference of religious opinion ; two things which, it was apprehended, could not be reconciled with the disqualifying enactments of the bill. The manager for the commons replied, that the declaration from Breda had been misunderstood. " Tender" was an epithet implying sus ceptibility- of impression from without ; a tender conscience was one which suffered itself to be guided by others ; the liberty to tender consciences was therefore confined to the " misled," and not extended to the " misleaders ;'' it was granted to the flocks, but not to the ministers. In aid of this sophistical exposition, he also observed, that the declaration referred to the peace of the kingdom and to a future act of parliament, as if the act to be passed had been one to impose restraint, instead of " granting indulgence," or the allusion to the peace of the kingdom had not been understood as an ex ception of the seditious and anarchical doctrines promulgated by some of the fanatical preachers.* The act of uniformity may have been necessary for the restoration of the church to its former discipline and doctrine ; but if such was the inten tion of those who formed the declaration from Breda, they were guilty Of infidelity to the king and of fraud to the people, by putting into his .mouth language, which, with the aid of equivocation, they might explain away ; and by raising in them expectations, which it was never meant to fulfil. The triumph of the church was now complete. The bishops had already been restored to their seats ft10sr1edPtore" in parliament, and the spiritual courts had been re- seats in established. To the first of these measures a strong pariia- opposition was anticipated from the united efforts men ' of the catholics and presbyterians in the house of lords : but of the catholic peers, one only, the viscount Stafford, voted against it ; and among the presbyterians the opposition was confined to the survivors of those who had originally sup ported the bill incapacitating clergymen from the exercise of temporal authority. The second was accomplished with equal facility ; but, at the same time, the ecclesiastical juris diction was curtailed of two of its most obnoxious appen- * Lords' Journals, xi. 449. 72 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. II. dages, the high commission court, and the power of adminis tering the oath ex officio.* Among others, the English catholics had cherish- ttacatho ed a hoPe of Pronting by the declaration from Bre- lics. da ; and that hope was supported by the recollection of their sufferings in the royal cause, and their know ledge of the promises made by Charles during his exile. The king was, indeed, well disposed in their favour. He deemed himself bound in honour and gratitude to procure them re lief; he knew the execration in which the penal laws against them Were held on the continent, and had often declared his resolution to mitigate, whenever he should.be restored to his father's throne, the severity of such barbarous June 8. enactments.! In June, 1661, the catholics met at Arundel-house, and presented to the lords a peti tion complaining of the penalties to which they were liable for the refusal of oaths incompatible with their religious opi nions. The presbyterian leaders lent their aid to the catho lic peers ; and Clarendon placed himself at the head of their adversaries. Not a voice was raised in favour of the statutes inflicting capital punishments ; but, after several debates, the house resolved that " nothing had been offered to move their lordships to alter any thing in the oaths of allegiance and . supremacy." In the mean time, colonel TukeJ was June 2i" nearcl at the bar against the sanguinary laws ; and several papers stating the grievances and prayer of the catholics had been laid on the table. The petitioners claimed the benefit of the declaration from Breda, and ob served, that the only objection to their claim rested on the supposition that the acknowledgment of the spiritual supre macy of the pope implied the admission of his temporal su periority. Against this they protested. The doctrine of his temporal authority was a problematical opinion, admitted in deed by some individuals, but no part of the catholic creed ; and the petitioners (so far were they from holding it,) offered to bind themselves by oath " to oppose with their lives and fortunes the pontiff himself, if he should ever attempt to exe cute that pretended power, and to obey their .sovereign in * St. 13. Car. ii. c 2. 12. Whoever will compare the account in Claren don, 138, with the Journals xi. 279. 81. 83, will be astonished at the inaccu racies of the historian. In five material points, including the principal part of his narrative, he is flatly contradicted by the testimony of the Journals. So far was the bill from being detained in the house of lords, that it was for warded through all its stages with almost unprecedented rapidity. It was sent from the commons on Thursday, and passed by the lords on the Tues day following. t Clarendon, 140. X Sir G. Tuke, of Cresting Temple in Essex. Pepys, i. 364. Chap. II.] CHARLES It. 73 opposition to all foreign and domestic power whatsoever with out restriction-."*^ The house, having received the report of a committee to inquire into " the sangui- Jaly 16" nary laws," resolved to abolish the writ de ha3retico inquiren- do, and to repeal all the statutes which imposed the penalties of treason on catholic clergymen found within the realm, of those of felony on the harbourers of such clergymen, or those of premunire on all who maintained the authority of the bishop of Rome. But this measure of relief did not equal the expectations of the laity, who sought to be freed from the fines and forfeitures of recusancy ? and the whole project was quashed by the cunning of an adversary, who moved and car ried a resolution that no member of the society of Jesuits should enjoy the benefit of the intended act. Immediately discord spread itself among the petitioners ; pamphlets in fa vour of and against the society were published ; and, on the one hand, it was contended that the boon, with whatever ex ceptions it were clogged, ought to be accepted, and that the Jesuits were bound in decency to resign their own preten sions for the common benefit of the body-; on the other, that the distinction sought to be established in the bill was ground less and unjust, and that, if the catholics consented to pur chase relief for themselves by the proscription of the order, they would entail on their memory the stigma of selfishness and - perfidy. Amidst these altercations, the committee at Arundel-house was dissolved ; the progress of the bill was suspended, at the request of the catholic peers ; and, in the succeeding session, no one ventured to recal it to the atten tion of parliament.! From the restoration of the royal authority in England, we may turn to its re-establishment in Scotland and Ireland ; ¦which countries, as they had not been mentioned in the de claration from Breda, depended for their subsequent fate on the good pleasure of the sovereign. * Kennel's Register, 476. t Journals, xi. 276. 286. 299. 310. -Rennet's Register, 469. 476. 484. 495. Orleans, 236. Letters from a Person of Quality to a Peer of the Realm, etc., 1661. Clarendon, in his account pf this transaction (p. 143.) tells us that tbe Jesuits were apprehensive ofbeing excluded from the benefit of the act, and broke up the committee at Arundel-house by declaring, that " catholics could not, with a good conscience, deprive the pope of his temporal authority, which he hath' in all kingdoms granted to him by God himself." But Cla rendon is, as usual, incorrect ; for they were actually excluded from the be nefit of the act (Journ. 310) : and in their " reasons," published by them at the-time, they declare that ever since the year 1618 all Jesuits, by order of their general, " are obliged, under pain, of damnation, not to teach the doc trine" which Clarendon ascribes to them, "either in Word, writing, or print." Kennet's Reg. 496. Vol. XII. 10 74 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. II. 1. With respect to Scotland, the first question Transac- submitted to the royal consideration was, whether it Scotland snould remain in its present state of an incorporated province, or be restored.to its ancient dignity of an independent kingdom. By his English advisers Charles was reminded, that the Scots were the original authors of the ca lamities which had befallen his family : they were now a con quered and prostrate people : let him beware how he replac ed them in a situation to display their accustomed obstinacy, and to renew their disloyal engagements. But the king cherished more kindly feelings towards the land of his fathers, and willingly acquiesced in the prayer of the Scottish lords, whom loyalty or interest had drawn to his court. The sur vivors of the committee of estates^whom he had named pre viously to his disastrous expedition into England in 1651, received orders to resume the government of Scotland, and the earl of Middleton was appointed lord commissioner ; the earl of Glencairn, lord chancellor ; the earl of Lauderdale, secretary of state ; the earl of Rothes, president of the coun cil ; and the earl of Crawford, lord treasurer. The two first had repeatedly proved their loyalty in the field ; the other three had suffered a long imprisonment for their services un der the duke of Hamilton ; of the five, Middleton chiefly possessed the confidence of the English cabinet, though Lau derdale, from the pliancy of his temper, and his constant at tendance on Charles, had won the personal affection of the monarch. In a short time a parliament was summoned to Proceed- meet at Edinburgh.* The terrors of punishment pariia- for Past delinquency had been held out as a warn- ment. ing to the prudence of the members ; and the house 1661. was found to be composed of cavaliers by principle, Jan' ' or of proselytes eager to prove the sincerity of their new political professions. To obtain from such men a recognition of the legitimate rights of the sovereign was an easy task ; but the commissioner had in view an object of more difficult attainment. In his opinion, the royal authority could never be secure till the church, by the restoration of the hierarchy, should be rendered dependent on the crown ; and, for this purpose, he undertook to exalt the prerogative, to de molish the covenant and the pretensions which had been built upon it, and to humble the pride, and curb the presump- * The proceedings of this parliament were afterwards called in question because the members neglected to sign the covenant, a condition required by a law then in force, and declaring the constitution of parliament without it null and void. Kirkton,88. From the habitual intoxication of Middle- ton and his friends, it was called the drunken parliament. Id. Chap. II.]. CHARLES II. 75 tion, of the kirkmen. By a series of acts it was declared that the power of appointing the chief officers in the state, of . calling and dissolving parliaments, of commanding the forces, an« of making treaties with foreign potentates, resided solely in the king ; that without his assent no acts passed in parlia ment could obtain the force of law ; that it was high treason for subjects to rise, or continue in arms, without the sanction of his authority ; that all assemblies under the pretence of treating of matters of state, civil or ecclesiastical, were, if holden without his special consent, contrary to law ; that neither the solemn league and covenant, nor the treaties aris ing out of it, could authorize any seditious interference with the churches of England and Ireland ; that, for the future, no man should take, or offer to' be taken by others, the said cove nant without his majesty's special warrant and approbation ; and that every individual holding office should subscribe a declaration of his submission to these acts, and take an oath of allegiance, acknowledging the king to be " supreme govern or over all persons and in all cases.'' The ministers had viewed these enactments, so rapidly succeeding each other, with misgivings and apprehension : they knew not how to re concile with their conscience* a declaration which seemed to make the destiny of millions dependent on the will of a sin gle man ; and they discovered in the oath an implied acknow ledgment of the king's spiritual supremacy, to the disherison of the kirk and of Christ. To their representations Mid dleton replied, that the sovereign did not claim any ecclesias tical authority in " the word, the sacraments, or the disci pline ; " but when tfiey prayed that the explanatory epithet " civil " might therefore be inserted before " governor," he contemptuously rejected their petition.* Emboldened by his success; the commissioner ven tured to recommend a measure unprecedented in the Rescissory annals of Scotland. Though much had been done to act clear the way before him, the lawyers still discovered a mul titude of legal obstacles to the accomplishment of his object ; and, to save time and debate, he resolved by one sweeping and decisive act to annul all the proceedings of all the Scot tish parliaments during the last eight-and-twenty years. The lord-treasurer and the young duke of Hamilton t objected, that two of these parliaments had been honoured with the * Scottish Acts, p. 10. 2, 3. 6." 8. 45. Kirkton, 90. Wodrow, 21—24. 26. App. viii. Baillie, ii. 449, 450. Burnet, j. 197-9. Oxford, 1823, and Mid- dleton's Narration in Miscel. Aul. 179. t A son of the marquess of Douglas, who obtained the title in conse quence of his. marriage with the heiress of the late duke of Hamilton, with 20,000/. out of the customs of Leith. Baillie, ii. 442. 76 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. it. presence and sanction of Charles I. and of his son, and that to rescind them would be to repeal the act of indemnity, and the approbation of the " engagement." But Middleton re plied, that on each occasion the king, though in possession, of physical liberty, had been under moral restraint ; and that the alleged acts, laudable as they were in their object, were grounded on motives so false and hypocritical, as to prove a disgrace to the national legislation. His reasoning, or his au thority, silenced his opponents ; the rescissory act was passed ; and at one blow every legal prop of the Scottish March 28. kjrt wag jeverjed with the ground. The ministers looked around them with astonishment. They met in several counties to consult and remonstrate ; but their synods were- everywhere dispersed or saspended by the authority of the government,* Another object of tbe commissioner, subsidiary Ar"vle°f -*° t'is former, was to intimidate by examples of pu nishment. In Englantl, the demands of justice had been satisfied with the blood of the regicides : to expiate the guilt of Scotland, a more illustrious victim was selected, the marquess of Argyle. No man had more deeply offend ed in the opinion of the cavaliers ; they called for vengeance against the betrayer of his sovereign and the murderer of Montrose ; and they represented him to Charles as the most crafty and selfish of demagogues, one, who, ' under every change, whether he -swayed the councils of the Scottish rebels;. or placed the crown on the bead of the true heir at Scone, or sat as a commoner in the parliament of the usurper, Rich ard, had always contrived to conceal, under the mask of patriotism, his only real object, the aggrandizement i l 7 of his family. The moment he arrived in London, to pay his court to the restored monarch, he was secured and conducted to the Tower ; his petition for a per sonal interview was refused through the influence of those who were acquainted with his insinuating manner, and the easy temper of the king ; and Charles, to escape from the painful task of deciding on his fate, sent him back to Scotland,. to be tried by his countrymen, or rather by his enemies in- parliament.t From them, Argyle had no reason to expect * 'Scottish Acts, p. 86. Wodrowr27. 31— 34. Burnet, 19fT. RKscel.AuL 182. t Warruton and Swinton were almost as odious to the cavaliers as Ar gyle. The first escaped the search of his enemies, tbe second: was discover ed and apprehended. But the zealous and stubborn covenantee dwindled into a meek and humble quaker, and by the ingenuousness of liis confession. saved his life, though he forfeited his estate. The witlings, however, con tended that, if he had not trembled, he never would have quaked. Baillie, U. 446. Kirkton, 98, 9. Wodrow, 86. Chap. II. J CHARLES II. 77 • either justice or mercy. He first sought to obtain delay, by soliciting a commission to examine witnesses ; then abandoning all defence, threw himself on the mercy 1661. of the sovereign ; and, when his submission was jjareh^s rejected as unsatisfactory by the parliament, claimed March/i i. the benefit of the amnesty formerly granted at Stir ling. To this, in opposition to the remonstrances of Middle- ton, Charles declared that he was fully entitled f and thus the charge against him was confined to offences alleged to have been committed since 1651 ; which were, that he had repeated ly employed defamatory and traitorous language in speaking of the royal family ; that he had obtained a grant of 12,000/. from Oliver Cromwell ; that he had given his aid to the Eng-. lish invaders against the liberty of his country ; and that he sat and voted in the parliament of Richard Cromwell, which had passed a bill abjuring the right of the Stuarts to the crowns of the three kingdoms. It was e scais, si depuis le commencement de la monarchic il s'est rien passe de plus glorieux pour elle — -— e'est une espece d'hommage, qui rte laisse plus- doub ter a nos ennemis meme, que notre couronne ne soit la prehllerd de' toute la chrStiente. C'etoit un malheur qne ee tumulte de Londres; ce seroit maintenant un malheur qu'il ne fut pas arrive, i. 132. 136'. t Rennet's Register, 512—617. 632. Clarendon, 165. J Pepys, i. 235. 245. 264. 267. Vol. XII. 13 98 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. 111. On the arrival of the fleet at Spithead, Charles King's be- quitted the house of Castlemain to meet the infan- havour to ta jn point of personai attractions and fashionable May 20. acquirements, she could not stand the competition with her dazzling and formidable rival : yet she was not without claims to beauty ; her good nature and good sense gave a charm to her conversation, and the more she was known, the more she displayed the amiable qualities of her heart. The king was gratfied beyond his expectations ; he thought himself fortunate in the acquisition of such a wife, and so little did he know of his own heart, that he boasted to his friends of the pattern of conjugal fidelity which he should thenceforth set to his court.* The royal pair came by easy journeys to Hampton-court, and lived for a few days in the most edifying harmony. But it was not the intention of Charles to estrange himself from the company of Castlemain, nor had he forgotten the imprudent promise which had been wrung from him by her tears. One day, taking " the lady" {such was her usual designation), by the hand, he presented her to the queen in the midst of a brilliant court. Catherine was able to subdue her feelings for the moment. She gave to her rival a most gracious reception : but in a few minutes her eyes were suffused with tears ; the blood gushed from her nose ; and she was conveyed in a fit to her apartment.! By Ihe king, this incident was considered a most heinous offence. He declared that he would never submit to the whims of his wife : he had been the cause of Castlemain's disgrace ; he was bound in honour to make her reparation. His dissolute compa nions applauded his firmness : Ormond and Clarendon ventured to remonstrate against the indecency and cruelty of the ap pointment. To their surprise, he replied, that whoever should oppose his design, would become the object of his everlasting displeasure, and that they, if they wished to please him, should employ their influence to overcome the obstinacy of the queen.J Clarendon had the meanness to undertake an of- * If Hume talk of " the homely person" of Catherine, others who knew her better, describe her differently. Clarendon, Contin. 167. Clar. Pap. iii. Supplem. xx. Charles himself, in a letter to the chancellor, speaks of her thus ; " her face is not so exact as to be called a beauty, though her eyes are excellent good, and not any thing on her face that in the least degree can shoque one. On the contrary, she has as much agreeableness in her looks altogether,, as ever I saw ; and, if I have any skill in physiognomy, which I think 1 have, she must be as good a woman as ever was born. Her conversation, as much as I can perceive, is very good; for she has wit enough, and a most agreeable voice. You would much wonder to see how well we are acquainted already. In a word, I think myself very happy." Macpher- son Papers, i. 22. note. t Clarendon, 168. } See the letter T)f Charles, note, LB]. Chap. 111.1 CHARLES II. 99 fice which he abhorred ; but Catherine refused to listen to his advice. Charles at the same time subjected her to the most painful mortifications. The Portuguese ambassador was in sulted on her account ; her countrywomen were sent back to Portugal ; Castlemain was daily introduced into her apart ment, where the mistress received the attentions of the king and the courtiers, while the queen sate alone, silent and un noticed. For several weeks she maintained the unequal con test ; at last her resolution failed : she consented to accept the services of her rival, and even treated her with kindness in private as well as public. But it was now too late : Charles applauded himself for his victory over what he called her way ward and wilful temper ; . and those who had before ad mired her constancy, pronounced her a weak and mutable woman.* The empire of Castlemain was established. She waited, indeed, (for such was the will of the king,) on Cathe rine ; to the scandal of all good protestants, she even attend ed her to mass ; but, on other occasions, the mistress proved the centre of attraction ; the king was always to be found at her suppers and entertainments ; officers were placed and displaced at her suggestion ; and she at last obtained the high er rank of duchess of Cleveland for herself with remainder to Charles and George Fitzroy, her children by the king. Ca therine, on the contrary, abstained from all political intrigues ; and, notwithstanding the prejudice against her religion, by her continual study to please her husband, the meekness with which she bore her wrongs, and the dignity and grace with which she performed the duties of her station, grew dai ly in the esteem of the public. Charles himself condemned, though he did not reform, his conduct, and, on occasion of her sickness, displayed all the anxiety and grief of the most affectionate husband. The physicians had oct^a despaired of her life ; and when she prayed him to allow her body to be interred with the remains of her fathers, and to protect her native country from the tyranny of Spain, he fell on his knees, and bathed her hands with his tears. Yet from this affecting scene he repaired immediately to the house of Castlemain, and sought amusement in the conversa tion of a new mistress, la Belle Stuart, the daughter of Wal ter, son of Lord Blantyre.t Catherine, however, recovered, and the king pursued his wonted course of dissipation and gallantry. * Clar. 169—180. t Letters du comte de Comminges, Pepys, v. App. 455, 456. He was sure^to find Stewart at Castlemain's, for, " il menaca la dame, ou il soupe tous les soirs, de ne ntettre jamais le pied chez elle, si la demoiselle n'y Hoit." 455. See also the Diary of Pepys himself, ii. 41. 50.'61. 103. 5, 6, 116. 143. 355. 100 HISTORY OF ENCLAND. [Chat. III. Sale of With the infanta, Charles-had received in money Dunkirk, and merchandize a portion of 350,000/. This sum afforded a temporary relief to the needy monarch ; but the expenses of the armament under lord Inchiquin for the protection of Portugal ; and of the expedition destined to take possession of Bombay ; soon involved him in fresh pecuniary embarrassments. The chancellor, to whose negligence he imputed the insufficient provision made for him by the con vention parliament, saw that, to prop up his declining credit, it was necessary to discover some new resource ; and he sug gested to Charles and the duke of York, the sale of 1662. Dunkirk to the French king. A' few weeks only May 19v had elapsed since he had described in strong colours the advantages which the nation derived from the possession of that sea-port : Charles, however, assented to the proposal ; Billings was secretly despatched to Paris ; and D'Estrades, who had been appointed ambassador to Hol land, came to England, at the invitation ofthe king, but under pretence of private business, in his way to the Hague. Claren don's first attempt was to shift the responsibility of the mea sure from himself to the council ; and with that view Charles mentioned it at his house before the duke, the treasurer, the lord-general, and the earl of Sandwich, who, though they ac knowledged that the charge of the place, amounting to- the annual sum of 120,000/. exceeded its real value, were still un willing to part with it, unless at a price which might justify the sale in the eyes of the public. The negotiation now be gan. Clarendon asked twelve, D'Estrades offered ' ug' '* two millions of livres ; but the first descended by degrees to seven, the other rose to four, and the bargain was at last concluded for five millions. Here, however, ep' ' a new difficulty arose. Charles required to be paid in ready money ; Louis would only advance two millions at once, and pay the remaining three by instalment ; in the course of two years. Both were inflexible ; and D'Estrades had sent his servants on board a vessel preparatory ep" to his departure, when an expedient was proposed and accepted, that Louis should give bills for the remainder, payable at different dates, which Charles might sell at the highest price -which he could procure. The treaty Qt' ' was now signed ; and the conditions on both sides were faithfully executed.* But the French king proved too * Clarendon, in the continuation of bis Own life, has given a detailed ac count of this transaction, written evidently for the purpose of exculpating himself: but his narrative is perpetually belied by the original documents iii the " Lettres d'Estrades, 279. 282, 383. 421, etc. in the supplement to the Chap. III.] CHARLES II. ]01 adroit for his English brother. A banker from Paris arrived in London, and, after a short negotiation, discounted the bills at something more than sixteen per cent. But the man was in realty a secret agent of the French cabinet ; the money which he paid was supplied by the French treasury ; and Louis, by this artifice, was enabled to buy up his own securi ties at a profit of five hundred thousand livres.* Though Charles and his ministers congratulated themselves On their success, they afterwards looked back on it with feel ings of regret. The sale of Dunkirk had no small influence on the subsequent fortune of each. The possession of it had flattered the national pride : it was a compensation for the loss of Calais ; it might equally open a way into the territory of England's most ancient and natural enemy. But Charles had sold it, not, it was said, to defray the expenses of the state, but to satisfy the rapacity of his mistresses, and to indulge in his wonted extravagance ; and Clarendon had advised the sale, not through any wish to gratify his sovereign, but in consequence of an enormous bribe from the king of France. This charge was undoubtedly false ; but the magnificent pile which he built for the residence of his family, was taken as a proof of his guilt, and the name of Dunkirk-house, which it soon obtained, served to confirm and perpetuate the belief of the people.! The public discontent began to be openly expressed ; Charles saw a formidable party growing up against him ; and Cla rendon, after a protracted struggle, submitted to his,fate, and fled to the continent.f We may now proceed to an important and per plexing question, on which it was impossible for the Disputes king to decide, without giving offence to a consider- ^Jehitioif. able portion of his subjects — the indulgence to ten der consciences, which he had promised in the declaration from Breda. Two years had been suffered to elapse, and yet he had done nothing to fulfil, but much that seemed to vio late, his word. The advocates of intolerance maintained that he was no longer bound by the declaration. To whom, they asked, had it been made ? To the parliament then sitting ? But that parliament had released him from all responsibility, third volume of the Clarendon Papers, xxi— xxv., in Combe's sale of Dun kirk, London, 1728, and Pepys, ii. 369." * Je gagnai sur ce marche cinq cent mille livres, sans que les Anglois s'en appercussent le banquier eloit un homme interpose par moi, qui, faisant le paiement de nies propres deniers, ne profitoit point de la remise. OEuvres de Louis XIV. i. 176, t Pepys, ii 250. t It is singular, that though Clarendon had spent so many years in exile, he employed Bellings, throughout the negotiation, as interpreter between him' and D'Estrades. 102 HI§TORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. III. by neglecting to remind him of the subject. To the people at large ? But the people had transferred their rights to their representatives in the succeeding parliament, and those repre sentatives had set the question at rest by enactments incom patible with such indulgence.* This sophistry, however, did not satisfy the royal mind. Charles thought himself bound in honour to redeem his pledge ; and, anxious as he was to re place the church on its former foundation, he still deprecated every measure which savoured of hardship or persecution against those who dissented from it. At the request of the presbyterian^, whose deputies were introduced to him by the lord-general, he promised to suspend the execution ofthe act of uniformity for three months, provided they would consent to read the book of common prayer during that period. Clarendon, though he disapproved of the promise, thought that, since it had been made, it ought also to be observed ; but the bishops and their friends pronounced it dangerous ; the judges illegal ; and all agreed that, in defiance of the royal prohibition, the patrons of benefices held by non-conformists would present on the appointed day, and that their presenta tions would be allowed by the courts of law. With feelings of shame the king recalled his word : the act came into force Au 24 on ^e ^ti* °f -A-Ugust; and two thousand ministers (the number is perhaps exaggerated,) resigned, or were deprived. The whole kingdom resounded with apolo gies on the one^ side, and complaints on the other. It was said that those who would not comply with the regulations, ought not to partake of the good things, of the church ; that the non-conformists were previously intruders ; and that they suffered no more than they originally inflicted. It was re plied, that the established clergy were ejected during the rage of civil war, the ministers in a season of domestic tranquillity ; the former incumbents by their hostility provoked the resent ment of the ruling power ; the present by their services in the restoration deserved its gratitude : the crime of the first was their political conduct ; of the latter adhesion to the'dic- tates of conscience : then a pittance at least, one-fifth of the income, was reserved for the family ofthe sufferer; now he was turned adrift, with no other resource but the casual be nevolence of the pious and the humane.! The king, though he had been compelled to yield, Deciara- yet held himself bound by his promise ; and this d'ulgence. feeling was kept alive by repeated petitions from the presbyterians, the independents, and the Ro- » Rennet's Reg. 850. Address of Commons, Journ., Feb. 27, 1663. t Clarendon, 156—160. Rennet, 747. Chap. Ill] CHARLES II. 103 man catholics, who all claimed the benefit of the declaration from Breda.* The question was again referred to the coun cil ; the leading members argued against indulgence ; Ro- bartes, lord privy seal, and Bennet, the new secretary of state, in its favour. The sovereign, they contended, possessed in virtue of his supremacy, the right of suspending penal laws in matters of religion ; James and Charles had raised a year ly revenue by the sale of such protection ; and the king might lawfully exercise a power which had never been denied in his father or grandfather. The suggestion was approved ; and notice of the royal intention was given in the declaration which he published for the purpose of ec' " refuting " the four scandals on the government." 1. The re publicans feared, and the discontented maintained, that the act of indemnity had been passed merely as a temporary measure, and that it was still intended to sacrifice, to the re venge and rapacity of the royalists, the lives and fortunes of those who had served the protector or the commonwealth. To this " scandal" the king replied by promising that, as he had freely confirmed, so he would most religiously observe, every provision in the act. 2. The successive revolutions of the last twenty years had taught men to doubt the stability even of the present government. It was the conviction of the royal brothers that, if at the commencement of the civil war, their father had possessed a small regular force, he might at once have put down his opponents ; and under this notion, when the army was disbanded, they retained in pay two or three regiments, with three troops of horse guards. The whole establishment did not amount to five thousand men.! Yet this force, small as it was, excited alarm. It might be augmented, and employed not to suppress insurrection, but to subvert the national liberties. Most of the nations on the continent had been originally free : it was by the institution of standing armies that they had been enslaved by despotic monarchs. Charles defended his conduct on the ground of * Both independents and presbyterians were true to their principles. The independents sought to obtain indulgence for all, catholics as well as others : the presbyterians could not in conscience concur in favour ofthe catholics, though they would not oppose them. The king might do as he pleased, but they would not advise him, or encourage him lo do it. Baxter's Life, part ii. p. 429. t July 4, 1663. " I saw his majesty's guards, being of horse andfoot, 4000 led by the general the duke of Albemarle, in extraordinary equipage and gallantry, consisting of gentlemen of quality and veteran soldiers, excellently clad, mounted and ordered, drawn up in battalia before their mati" in Hide- park, where the old earle of Cleveland trail'd ajpike, and led the right-hand file in a foote company, commanded by the lord Wentworth his son, a wor thy spectacle and example, being both of them old and valiant soldiers." Evelyn, ii. 202. See also the Travels of Cosmo, iii. 306. 104 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap.IIi. necessity. While so many factious spirits were employed in agitating the public mind, neither the person of the sovereign nor the freedom of the parliament, could be secure without an armed force. Of this proof had been furnished by the in surrection under Venner. But let the laws resume their former empire, let the discontented abandon their rebellious designs, and he would reduce that force to the smallest num ber consistent with the dignity of the crown ; for he would not yield to the most liberal among his subjects in his detesta tion of military and arbitrary rule. 3. By many it was said that the act of uniformity proved him to be a faithless un principled persecutor. He denied the charge. He had, in the first place, as in duty bound, provided by the act of uni formity for the settlement ofthe church ; it was his intention, in the next place, to fulfil his promise of securing ease to those who, through the scruples of a misguided conscience, refused to conform. For this purpose, he would make it his special care to solicit from parliament an act enabling him " to exer cise with more universal satisfaction that power of dispensing, which he conceived to be inherent in the crown." Nor did he doubt of the concurrence of the two houses. It was a measure to which he was pledged by his declaration from Breda, and without which it was unreasonable to expect the restoration of public tranquillity. 4. But the most pernicious scandal remained, that the king was a favourer of popery. This was the artifice by which so many well-meaning pro testants had been seduced to bear arms against his father, and his enemies had recourse to it at the present time with in tentions equally disloyal. Of his firm adhesion to the true protestant religion he had given convincing proofs under the most trying circumstances. Yet he could hot but know that the greater part of the English catholics had adhered, at the risk of their lives and fortunes, to the cause of the crown, and consequently of the church, against those, who, under the name of protestants, employed fire and sword for the subver sion of both ; and therefore he openly avowed that he did not mean to exclude catholics from some share of that indul gence which he had promised to tender consciences. It would be unjust to refuse to those who had deserved well, the boon which was granted to those who had not ; and the laws against catholics were so rigorous, so sanguinary, that to execute them would be to do violence to his nature. Let them not, however, presume so much on his goodness, as to look for toleration, or to scandalize protestants by the open practice of their worship ; otherwise they would find that he knew as well how to be severe when wisdom required it, as Cmap.HL] CHARLES II. 105 indulgent when charity and a sense of merit claimed indul gence from him.* But these were doctrines ill-adapted to the in tolerant notions of the age. The declaration, in- Disapprov- stead of making proselytes, was received by. the noUbs£bott' majority of the people with distrust ofthe motives, and a resolution of withstanding the wishes, of the king. They could not comprehend how an attachment to the inter ests of protestantism could exist with a willingness to grant any portion of indulgence to catholics : they recalled to mind the former reports of the king's apostacy, which had been circulated by the policy of his enemies during the common wealth, and they openly asserted that he cared little for the sufferings ofthe dissenters, but merely sought, under the pre tence of relieving them, to extend the same benefit to the papists. Charles, at the opening of the next Feb j8 session, condescended to vindicate himself from these aspersions, and, in proof of his own orthodoxy, de manded the enactment of new laws to check the progress of popery. But with respect to the dissenters, he represented it as desirable that the crown were vested with the power of extending indulgence to the peaceable among them, in cir cumstances when they might otherwise be tempted to expa triate themselves, or to conspire against the state,- , In accordance with the sentiments of the sovereign, the lord privy seal, aided by lord Ashley, brought into the upper house a bill enabling the king to dispense at his discre tion with the laws and statutes, requiring oaths, or subscrip tions, or obedience to the doctrine and discipline of the es tablished church. Both houses were immediately in a flame, The lower, though the bill was not before it, pre sented to the king an address, in which, having thanked him for the other parts of the declaration, they con- tended that the indulgence which was sought, would amount to the legal establishment of schism, would expose his majesty to the ceaseless importunities of the dissenters, would lead to the multiplication of sects and sectaries, and, ending in uni versal toleration, would produce disturbance instead of tran quillity, because, men of every religious persuasion form a distinct party, pursuing their peculiar interests, and acting in accordance with their peculiar prepossessions. In the higher house, the lord-treasurer placed himself at the head M . 5 of the opposition : during the first day's debate he was zealously supported by the bishops : on the second day the chancellor, though confined by a se- arc * See the Declaration ih Kennet, Regist. 848—91, Vol, XIL 14 106 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. HI. vere fit of the gout, left his room to lend his powerful aid to the cause of the church, and, in the vehemence of his zeal, indulged in a severity of language highly offensive to the sovereign. Their efforts succeeded ; the house passed to a different subject ; and the bill was suffered to remain unno ticed on the table.* Though Charles appeared to bear with composure the loss of this his favourite measure, he felt the disappointment keenly : and expressed his opinion to Claren don with a warmth which surprised and terrified the minis ter. From that day it became manifest that neither Claren don nor Southampton possessed his former credit with the sovereign. As to the bishops, Charles hesitated not to charge them with ingratitude and bigotry. It was, he said, to his promise from Breda that they owed their restoration to pow er, and now they employed that power to prevent him from fulfilling his promise. It was the intolerance of the prelates under his father which led to the destruction of prelacy, and now, as soon as they were replaced in their former situation, they reverted to the practice of intolerance. His carriage altered with his sentiments. Hitherto he had been accus tomed to receive and treat them with the most marked re spect. But henceforth -he was careful to show by his man ner that he held them in no esteem ; and the courtiers, aware ef the change in the royal mind, turned their persons and their sermons'into subjects ^of sarcasm and ridicule.! The king was, however, doomed to drink more deeply of the cup of mortification. He had asked permission to shelter the catholics, who had served the royal cause, from " the extreme severity of the penal statutes, and in return both houses presented to him an address for a procla- mation ordering all catholic priests to quit the king- p" ' dom, under the penalty of death. After a faint struggle he acquiesced. The champions of orthodoxy fol- . „ lowed up their success ; and, affecting to comply prl " with the royal recommendation, introduced a bill to check the growth of popery, but coupled with it another to arrest the diffusion of non-conformity. Both passed with ra pidity through the house of commons ; but in the house of lords their progress was continually impeded by the objec tions ofthe presbyterian and catholic peers ; and their patrons, at the close of the session, substituted ki their place an ad dress to the king, to put in execution all the penal Ju y 2 . jawg agamst catholics, dissenters, and sectaries of every description.! * C Journals, Feb. 27, 28. L. Journ. xi. 478. 82. 6. 91. t Clarendon, 245 — 9. Life of James, i. 428. ( L- Journ. xi. 558. 578. C. Journ. Ap. 27 i May 30. CtfAP. III.] CHARLES II. 107 In the summer, the cause of intolerance acquired additional strength from a partial rising of enthusi- Conven- asts in the northern counties. The government had tlcle'act- been apprized of their intentions : the duke of Buckingham, in quality of the king's lieutenant, proceeded with a detachment of guards to York, and summoned the militia ; and about fifty persons were arrested in Yorkshire and Westmoreland, of whom several paid the forfeit of their fol ly with their lives. From their situation in life it was plain that they acted under the secret guidance of others. Some professed the doctrines of the fifth-monarchy men : others justified themselves on the plea that the parliament had sitten more than three years, and that by the triennial act, passed in the 16th of Charles I., in default of writs issued by the king, they were permitted to assemble of themselves for the choice of new members. When Charles opened the next session he embraced the opportunity to sug- March 16. gest the repeal of an act which thus furnished a plea for seditious meetings, while the patrons of intolerance drew from the insurrection a new argument in favour of addi tional severities for the suppression of religious dissent. A com promise took place. It was, indeed, enacted that A rij 5 parliament should never be discontinued for more than three years ; but, to satisfy the king, all the compulsory clauses of the triennial act, which directed the keeper of the great seal to issue writs, and the sheriffs to hold' elections, in defiance of the royal pleasure, were repealed : and, on the other hand, Charles reluctantly gave his consent to the con venticle-act, which, it was hoped, would extinguish every form of heterodox worship. All meetings of more M J6 than five individaals, besides those of the family, for any religious purpose not according to the Book of Com mon Prayer, were declared seditious and unlawful conventi cles : and it was enacted that the punishment of attendance at such meetings by any person above sixteen years of age should be, for the first -offence, a fine of five pounds, or im prisonment during three months ; for the second, a fine of ten pounds, or imprisonment during six months ; for the third, a fine of one hundred pounds, or transportation for seven years ; and that, if the conscience of the offender led him to transgress the law more than thrice, the fine at each repetition of the offence should be augmented by the additional sum of one hundred pounds.* This act, so intolerant in its prin- " Miscel. Aul. 316. 19. 30. L. Jonrn. 620. C. Journ. Ap, 28; May 19. 14. 16. St. 16. Car. II, c. i. 4. Pepys, ii. 172. The cdnventicle-act was limit ed, as an experiment, to the duration of three years. Of the tricks some- 108 HISTORY -OF ENGLAND. (CiIjf. 111. ciple, and so penal in its consequences, was immediately en forced : it equally affected catholics and every denomination of dissenters ; but it was felt the most severely by the qua- kers, because, while others, when they met for the purpose of worship, sought to elude detection, these religionists, under the guidance, as they thought, of the Spirit of God, deemed it their duty to assemble openly, and to set at defiance the law of man. To describe the numerous and vexatious informa tions, prosecutions, fines, and imprisonments which, followed, would only fatigue the patience and pain the feelings of the reader. I may, however, observe, that the world had seldom witnessed a more flagrant violation of a most solemn engage ment. Toleration had been offered and was accepted, the king had been restored j and the church re-established ; and now, that the price was paid, the benefit was withheld ; and, instead of the indulgence promised in the contract, was sub stituted a system of penalties and persecution; The blame, iiowever, ought not to rest with the king. He did his best to fulfil his word. But the benevolent intentions of the mo narch were opposed by the most powerful of his ministers ? and the bigotry of these ministers was sanctioned by the prejudices and resentments of the parliament. Charles had now reigned four years, respected Com- and coitrted by his neighbours : in an evil hour he against was persuaded, against his better judgment, to uri- theDutch. sheath the sword, and to encounter the uncertain chances of war. He had formed a correct notion of the importance of commerce to the interests of his king dom, and was encouraged and seconded by his brother James, in his attempts to improve and extend the foreign trade of the English merchants. With this view, the African companyhad been established by charter ; the duke accepted the office of governor ; and the committee of management, of which he was chairman, constantly met in his apartments at Whitehall. The company flourished ; they imported gold dust from the coast of Guinea, and supplied, at a great profit, the West India planters with slaves ; but they met with formidable ri vals in the Dutch traders, who, during the civil war, had ere ct- times eniployed in parliament at these periods the reader may form some notion from the following instances : On the last day of the preceding session a bill for the belter observance of the sabbath was stolen off the table, and, when the king came to give the royal assent, was not to be found. Of course it did not pass into an act. In like manner, on the last day of the present session, a proviso to the conventicle-act respecting the quakers was also sto~ ten: but the former accident had awakened the vigilance of the clerk, and he discovered the theft in time to provide another copy of the proviso, and to have it passed through both houses before the king's arrival. L. Journ. Si.577. 619,20j Chap. III.] CHARLES II. 109 ed several forts along the coast of Africa, and now employed their superior power and influence to thwart the efforts, and arrest the progress, of the English intruders. The African company complained ; their complaints were echoed by the East India company, whose commerce was exposed to similar impediments and injuries'; and the merchants in the city called aloud for war, to protect their interests, and curb the insolence of the Hollanders. James advocated their cause with his brother. Such, he maintained, was the commercial rivalry between the two nations, that in the course of a few years war would inevitably ensue. But then it would be too late. Now was the proper time, before the race of naval commanders, formed during the commonwealth, should become extinct. But Charles (and he was supported by Clarendon), rejected the advice." He had learned wisdom from the history of his father and his grandfather. They had been driven into war by the clamour of the nation ; and the charges of war, in a short time, rendered them dependent on the will of the po pular leaders in parliament.* There was at this time a marked contrast between the characters of the royal brothers. Charles, Contrast though oppressed with debt, scattered his money thekuilt heedlessly and profusely ¦;, James was careful to and his measure his expenses by the amount of his income, brother. The king seemed to make gallantry the -chief occupation of life ; the duke to look upon it as an amusement ; and, while the one daily spent his time, " sauntering" in the company of his mistresses, the other attended to his duties in the Admiralty with the exactitude of the meanest clerk on the establish ment. In point of abilities, Charles was considered superi or ; but he wanted strength of mind to refuse an importunate suitor, or to resist the raillery and sarcasm of those whom he made his companions. James, with a judgment less correct, and with knowledge less extensive, formed his resolutions with slowness, but adhered to them with obstinacy. His word Was esteemed sacred ; his friends relied with confidence on his support, whatever sacrifice it might cost him ; and his ene mies knew that, till he had brought them on their knees, he would never forgive their offences. Yet no diversity of temper or opinion could diminish the affection of the two brothers, James was the most dutiful of subjects ; and, however he might disapprove the judgment, he always concurred in se conding the will, of the sovereign. He Was easy of access, and affable in discourse ; but his constant attention to preserve the dignity of his rank, gave to his manner a stateliness and * Clarendon, 196-201. Pepys. ii. 173. 110 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. (Chap. III. distance repulsive of that freedom and familiarity which the laughter-loving king indulged in the associates of his pleasures. In private life the duke was loved by few, but feared or re spected by all : in public, his industry was the theme of com- • mendation ; and the fame which he had acquired in the French army, was taken as an earnest of his future military prowess.* On the last meeting of parliament, the com- Addressof plaints of the merchants were heard before a corn- houses0 rnittee of the lower house. They contended that 1664. the treaty concluded by the Dutch with Cromwell, March 21. anrj since renewed by them with the king,* was not yet executed ; that the injuries sustained by the English tra ders had not been redressed, nor the island of Pulo Ron restor ed ; that English ships were -still seized and condemned under frivolous pretences ; that the natives of Africa and the Indies were frequently induced by promises and bribes to demolish the English factories ; that the Dutch, by proclaiming ficti tious wars, and establishing pretended blockades, assumed the right of excluding their rivals from the most frequented ports, and that the losses of the English merchants amounted, on a moderate calculation, to the enormous sum of seven or eight hundred thousand pounds.! The committee decided in favour ofthe complaints; Clifford, the chairman, supported their cause with considerable warmth, and Downing added the weight of his authority, derived from the office which he held as En glish resident at the Hague, both for the protector and the king. He was a bold, rapacious, and unprincipled man, who under Cromwell had extorted by menaces considerable sums, in the form of presents, from the Dutch merchants, and who now, by the violence of his speeches in parliament, and afterwards by the haughtiness of his carriage to the States, provoked a sus picion that he looked forward to a similar termination of . ., 21 the existing quarrel. The commons voted an ad dress, in which they petitioned the king, to take an effectual course for the speedy redress of these injuries, with a promise to stand by him with their lives and fortunes against all opposition : the lords concurred ; and Charles replied, . ;. 29 that he would demand justice by his ambassador, and, in case of denial, would rely on the offer which they had made him. Still, to dispassionate observers, it ap peared that, with a little conciliation on either part, the quar rel might be amicably adjusted. But Charles no longer lis tened to the suggestions of prudence : he found that by ac- * Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, ii. 78. Mem. de Grammont, i. 141. Burnet, i. 287. Pepys, ii. 143. 188. t L. Journ. xi. 599, 620. 626.. Chap. III.] CHARLES II. Ill ceding to the popular wish, he might gratify his personal re sentments against the Louvestein faction, which had -long rul ed the destinies of the republic. That faction had heaped in dignities on him during his exile, had stripped the house of Orange, of which his nephew was the head, of its ancient dignities, and what was perhaps a more unpardonable offence, had suffered caricatures to be published in ridicule of his apathy, his amours, and his indigence.* On the other hand, De Witt, who was acknowledged as the Louvestein leader, felt no disposition to make any concession to the menaces of a rival nation. He was resolved to maintain the commercial superiority of his countrymen ; he considered the Dutch navy as a match for that of England, and, by a defensive alliance, he had already secured the assistance of France. By some it was thought that the obstinacy of the States had been supported by the intrigues of Louis. But the contrary was the fact. For it suited not the interests of that prince to provoke or foment a quarrel, which must involve him in a war with En gland, at a time when he meditated hostilities against Spain.! In the mean while the African company had des patched sir Robert Holmes, with a few small ships Hostilities of war, to recover the castle of Cape Corse, of £°£men" which they had been dispossessed by their rivals. In searching a Dutch vessel, he discovered certain documents respecting Valkemberg, the Dutch governor, and the hostile tenor of these papers induced him to exceed his own com mission, and to assume offensive operations.! He compelled the forts on Goree to surrender, reduc- Feb ' edthe castle of Cape Corse, destroyed several fac tories on the coast, and then stretched across the Atlantic to the settlement of New Amsterdam, originally an English colony, and lately recovered by sir Richard -Nicholas, who, in honour ofthe (juke, his patron, had given to it the name of New York,§ On the first intelligence of these proceed- A ings, the Dutch ambassador presented an energetic remonstrance to the king, who replied, that the expedition had been sent out by the private authority ofthe company, that » Pepys, ii. 125. t L. Journ. 600. 3. Com. Journ, Ap. 21. 29. Temple, i. 305. 7. Louis, ii. 5. Le Clerc, ii. 62. Basnage, 711. X The king of Fantine had been supplied with money and ammunition to Induce him to attack the English fort at Cormantine. The Dutch denied the charge, but Charles replied, " that he has as full evidence of it, as he can have that there is such a fort.'- L. Journ. xi. 627. § Charles granted this tract of land to his brother, 12th March, 1664. Sir Richard Nicholas was groom of the bed-chamher.to the duke of York. Life of James, i. 400. Dalrymple, ii. App. 27. By mistake he has printed the letter with the date of 1669. 112 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LChap. III. Holmes should be put on his trial at his return, and that strict justice should be measured out to all the parties concerned.* With this assurance the States-general were satisfied ; but De Witt refused to sit down tamely .under the affront. By his intrigues with the States of Holland, he-procured. an order, loosely and ambiguously worded, to pass through u y the States-general, and, this with a secret explana tion, was forwarded to De Ruyter, the commander of the Dutch squadron in the Mediterranean. He had been sent there to cruize against the Turkish corsairs, in company with Lawson, the English admiral ; but now, pretending that he had orders to destroy a squadron of pirates at the Sep. 25. Canaries, he separated from his allies, retaliated on °]6554 tne English, along the coast of Africa, the injuries April. which they had inflicted on his countrymen, and, crossing to the West India islands, captured above twenty sail of English merchantmen. Lawson, through want of instructions, did not follow de Ruyter, but he was careful to inform the duke of York of his probable destina tion ; and, by order of that prince, two English fleets swept the narrow seas of the Dutch traders, which, to the number of one hundred and thirty sail, were carefully guarded in the English ports, as a fund of indemnification to the sufferers from the expedition under De Ruyter.! Charles, however, before he would rush blindly, Sof dy 'nto ^e contest) determined to secure a provision of money adequate to the undertaking. The charge of the war was calculated at two millions and a half, a sum un precedented in the annals of English finance : but the passions of the people were roused, and the council had the art to re move from themselves the odium of the demand. By their N „. secret -persuasion, sir Richard Paston, a country gentlemen of independent fortune, brought forward the proposition in the house of commons ; and when, to caf- ry on the deception, a known dependent of the ministers rose to suggest a smaller sum, he was eagerly interrupted by two members, supposed to have no connection with the court. The artifice escaped notice, and the original motion was car- * Holmes, on his return, was committed to the Tower, but cleared bim- self to the satisfaction of the king. Heath, Contin. 532. Pepys, ii. 235. i Life of James 1. 403. Clarendon, 225. 227. Le Clerc, ii. 65. 67. Bas- nage, 714. His majesty's narrative in Lords' Journ. ii. 275. The complaint of Charles in this narrative is confirmed by D'Estrades, who attributes the war to the expedition of Ruyter in obedience to the order of De Witt, " sans attendre, selon la disposition du 14e article de 1662, que le terme d'un (an) fut passe, pendant lequel le roi de la Grande-Bretagne devoit faire reparer- t'entreprise du chevalier Holmes." D'Estrades, iv. 315. " Intra anni spa^ tium." Dumont, vi. par. ii. p. 424. Chap. Ill] CHARLES II. 113 ried, after an animated debate, by a majority of ]665 seventy voices The lords assented, and the king Feb. 22. issued a declaration of war.* The provisions of this money-bill deserve the reader's attention, because they put an end to the New me- ancient system of taxation, and effected a consi- {Ration derable change in the acknowledged immunities of the clergy. 1. He is aware that, /rom the commencement of the contest between Charles 1. and his parliament, down to the restoration of his son, the manner of raising supplies by grants of subsidies, tenths and fifteenths had been aban doned, for the more certain and less cumbrous expedient of levying monthly assessments on the several counties. The ministers of Charles were not ignorant of the superior merit of the new plan ; but, as it was originally a revolutionary measure, and had excited the complaints of the people, they had deemed it prudent, in a former session, to revert to the old monarchical model. The experiment, however, failed ; the four last subsidies had not raised more than one half of the sum at which they were calculated ; the house consented that the new grant should be levied by twelve quarterly as sessments on the counties ;! and from that period the ancient subsidies fell into desuetude. 2. Hi- ^°eSg°bp„n" therto the clergy had preserved the honourable the clergy. privilege of taxing themselves, and had usually granted in convocation the same number of clerical subsidies as was voted of lay subsidies by the two houses of parliament. But this distinction could not conveniently be maintained, when money was to be raised by county rates ; and it was therefore agreed that the right of the clergy should be waived in the pre sent instance, but, at the same time, be preserved for them by a proviso in the act. The proviso, however, was illusory, and the right has never since been exercised. In return, the cler gy claimed, what could not in justice be denied, the privilege of voting as freeholders at elections ; a privilege which, though never expressly granted, has since been recognized by diffe rent statutes. J But a consequence followed from this arrange ment, which probably was not foreseen. From the moment that the convocation ceased to vote money, it became of little service to the crown. It was no longer suffered to deliberate, to frame ecclesiastical canons, or to investigate the conduct, * Com. Journ. Nov. 25 — Feb. 3. Lords' Journ. xi. 654, Clarendon, as usual, will appear inaccurate, if be be compared with the journals. See Clar. 228 — 231. Pepys tells us that, in framing the estimates, the Admiralty studied to make the charges of the last year as high as possible, ii. 228. t 17Car.ii. c. 1. X 10th Anne, c. 23. 18th George, ii. c. 18. Vol. XII. 15 114 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. HI. or regulate the concerns, of the church. It was, indeed, sum moned, and the members met as usual, but merely as a matter of form ; for a royal mandate immediately arrived, and an adjournment, prorogation, or dissolution followed. That; however, which seems the most extraordinary is, that this change in the constitution, by which one of the three estates ceased, in fact, to exist, and a new class of freeholders, un known to the law, was created, owes its origin, not to any legislative enactment, but to a merely verbal agreement be tween the lord chancellor and archbishop Sheldon.* From parliament, the lord high admiral hastened Naval to Gunfleet to superintend the naval preparations : tions8 Charles, by his commands, and occasionally by his presence, seconded the industry of his brother ; ! and, before the end of April, the most formidable fleet that England had ever witnessed, was ready to contend for the empire of the sea. The duke, despising the narrow preju dices of party, had called around him the seamen who fought and conquered in the last war ; and when the duke of Buck ingham and other noblemen, whose only recommendation was their birth and quality, solicited commissions, he laconi cally replied, that they might serve as volunteers : experience alone could qualify them to command. The future opera tions were arranged with his council, and, at his suggestion, an improvement was adopted, that something of that order should be introduced into naval, which was observed in mili tary, engagements. It was agreed that the fleet should be divided into three squadrons, the red under the command of the duke, the white under that of prince Rupert, and the blue under the earl of Sandwich ; that it should be formed in line preparatory to battle : and that the several captains should be . ..21 enjoined to keep the stations allotted to them by their respective commanders.! James unfurled his flag on board the Royal Charles ; ninety-eight sail ofthe line and four fire ships followed him to sea,§ and for more than a * See Echard, 818. Burnet, i. 340, note iv. 508, note. 1 Charles paid much attention to naval affairs. He studied the art of ship-building, and persuaded himself that he could make improvements in it. In a letter to prince Rupert, he says, ,: I believe that if ypu trie the twosloopes that were builte at Woolidge, which have my invention in Ibem, they will outsail any of the French sloopes." Lansdowne, MSS. MCCVI, p. 162. X " This was the first war wherein fighting in a line, and a regular form of battle was observed." Life of James, i. 405. This system introduced by the duke was invariably followed, till Clerk's " Essay on Naval Tac tics" induced lord Rodney to break through the enemy's line in his victory of the 12th of April, 1782. § Three were first rates, eleven second, fifteen third, thirty-two fourth, eleven fifth, and twenty-six merchant ships carrying from forty to fifty guns. Life of James, 405, Macpherson's Papers, i. 31. Chap- III.] CHARLES II. 1 1 5 month this formidable armament insulted the coast of Hol land, and rode triumphant in the German ocean. At length an easterly wind drove the English to their own shores, and the Dutch fleet immediately Victory of put to sea. It sailed in seven divisions, comprising ju^,e one hundred and thirteen ships of war, under the command in chief of Opdam, an officer, who in the late war had deserved the confidence of his countrymen. It exhibit ed a gallant and animating spectacle : the bravest and no blest of the youths of Holland repaired on board to share the dangers of the expedition ; and, as the admiral had re ceived a positive order to fight, every heart beat high with the hope or assurance of victory. Opdam himself was an exception. His experienced eye discovered, in the insuf ficiency of many among his captains, and the constitution of their crews, reason to doubt the result of a battle ; and to his confidants he observed : — " I know what prudence would suggest : but I must obey my orders, and by this time to morrow you shall see me crowned with laurel or with cypress."* Early in the morning of the 3d of June the hos tile fleets described each other near Lowestoffe. upe ' Seven hours were spent in attempts on each side to gain and keep the advantage of the wind : at length the English, by a skilful manoeuvre, tacked in the same direction with the enemy, and accompanied them in a parallel line, till the sig nal was made for each ship to bear down and engage its op ponent. The sea was calm, not a cloud could be seen in the sky ; and a gentle breeze blew from the south-west. The two nations fought with their characteristic obstinacy ; and, dur ing four hours, the issue hung in suspense. On one occasion the duke was in the most imminent peril. All the ships of the red squadron, with the exception of two, had dropped out of the line to refit ; and the weight of the enemy's fire was directed against his flag-ship, the Royal Charles. The earl of Falmouth, the lord Muskerry, and Boyle, son to the earl of Burlington, who stood by his side, were slain by the same shot ; and James himself was covered with the blood of his slaughtered friends. Gradually, however, the disabled ships resumed their stations ; the English obtained the superiority ; and the fire of the enemy Was observed to slacken. A short pause allowed the smoke to clear away ; and the confusion, which the duke observed on board his opponent, the Een- dratch, bearing Opdam's flag, induced him to order all his guns to be discharged into her in succession, and with deliberate * Basnage, i. 741. 11 G HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [C HAP. III. aim. At the third shot from the lower tier, she blew up, and the admiral, with five hundred men, perished in the explosion. Alarmed at the loss of their commander, the Dutch fled : James led the chace ; the four sternmost sail of the enemy ran foul of each other, and were consumed by a Jfire-ship, and three others shortly afterwards experienced the same fate. Van Tromp endeavoured to keep the fugitives together ; the darkness of the night retarded the pursuit of the conquerors ; and in the morning the Dutch fleet was moored in safety with in the shallows.* In this action, the most glorious hitherto fought by the navy of England, the enemy lost four admirals, seven thousand men slain, or made prisoners, and eighteen sail either burnt or taken. The loss of the victors was small in proportion. One ship of fifty guns had been taken in the beginning of the action ; and the killed and wounded amount ed to six hundred men. But among the slain, besides the no blemen already mentioned were the earls of Marlborough, and Portland, and two distinguished naval commanders, the admirals Lawson and Sampson.! At another time the report of such a victory would Tne . have been received with the most enthusiastic de- London!1 monstrations of joy ; but it came at a time when the spirits of men were depressed by one of the most ca lamitous visitations ever experienced by this or any other nation, In the depth of the last winter two or three isolated cases of plague had occurred in the outskirts of the metropolis. The fact excited alarm, and directed the attention of the public to the weekly variations in the bills of mortality. On the one hand, the cool temperature of the air, and the frequent changes in the weather, were-hailed as favourable circumstances ; on the other, it could not be concealed that the number of deaths, from whatever cause it arose, was progressively on the ad vance. In this state of suspense, alternately agitated by their hopes and fears, men looked to the result with the most intense * The result of the victory would have been more complete, had not the Royal Charles during the night slackened sail and brought to, which detain ed the rest of the fleet. For some time the fact was concealed from the duke, who had retired forest: but it gradually became known, and, from an inquiry instituted by the house of commous, it appeared that Brunk hard, one of the duke's servants who had been greatly alarmed during the battle, endeavoured at night to persuade the master to shorten sail, lest he should lead tbe ship into the midst of the enemy ; and, failing in this, after a pause, delivered to him an order, or something like an order, to the same effect. Burnet insinuates that the order came from the duke (i. 377); that it was forged by Brunkhard appears from the inquiry before the, house (Ibid. 378, note), from Clarendon, 269, and from the Life of James, i. 415. t There are numerous accounts of this battle : I have preferred that given by James himself. Life, i. 407 — 415- Chap. IH. j CHARLES II. 117 anxiety ; and, at length, about the end of May, under the influ ence of a warmer sun, and with the aid of a close and stag nant atmosphere, the evil burst forth in all its terrors. From the centre of St. Giles's the infection spread with rapidity over the adjacent parishes, threatened the court at Whitehall, and, in defiance of every precaution, stole its way into the city. A general panic ensued. The no bility and gentry were the first to flee ; the royal family followed ; and then all, who valued their personal safety more than the considerations of home and interest, prepared to imi tate the example. For some weeks the tide of emigration flowed from every outlet towards the country ; it was check ed at last by the refusal ofthe lord mayor to grant certificates of health, and by the opposition of the neighbouring town ships, which rose in their own defence, and formed a barrier round the devoted city. The absence of the fugitives, and the consequent cessation of trade and breaking up of establishments, Regula- served to aggravate the calamity. It was calculated suppress it. that forty thousand servants had been left without a home, and the number of artisans and labourers thrown out of employment was still more Considerable. It is true that the charity of the opulent seemed to keep pace with the pro gress of distress. The king subscribed the weekly sum of 1000/.; the city of 600/. ; the queen-dowager, the arch bishop of Canterbury, the earl of Craven, and the lord mayor, distinguished themselves by the amount of their benefactions ; and the magistrates were careful to ensure a constant supply of provisions in the markets : yet the families that depended on casual relief for the means of subsistence were necessarily subjected to privations, which rendered them more liable to receive, and less able to subdue, the contagion. The mor tality was at first confined chiefly to the lower classes, carry ing off in a larger proportion the children than the adult, the females than the men. But, by the end of June, so rapid was the diffusion, so destructive were the ravages of the dis ease, that the civil authorities deemed it time to exercise the powers with which they had been invested by an act of James I. " for the charitable relief and order- u y ing of persons infected with the plague."* 1. They divided the parishes into districts, and allotted to each district a com petent number of officers, under the denomination of exami ners, searchers, nurses, and watchmen. 2. They ordered * St. i James, i. c. 31. In the next session of parliament a bill was intro duced to extend these powers, but was lost through the refusal of the lords to allow, their houses to be shut up at the discretion of the constables. L- Journ. xi. 698. Marvell. i. 52. 118 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chae. III. that the existence of the disease, wherever it might penetrate, should be made known to the public by a red cross, one foot in length, painted on the door, with the words, " Lord have mercy on us," placed above it. From that moment the house was closed ; all egress for the space of one month was inexo rably refused ; and the wretched inmates were doomed to remain under the same roof, communicating death one to tbe other. Of these many sunk under the horrors of their situa tion : many were rendered desperate. They eluded the vigilance, or corrupted the fidelity, of the watchmen, and by their escape, instead of avoiding, served only to disseminate, the contagion.* 3- Provision was also made for the speedy interment of the dead. In the day time officers were always on the watch to withdraw from public view the bodies of those who expired in the streets ; during the night the tinkling of a bell, accompanied with the glare of links, announced the ap proach of the pest-cart, making its round to receive the vic tims of the last twenty-four hours. No coffins were prepared ; no funeral.service was read ; no mourners were permitted to follow the remains of their relatives or friends. The cart proceeded to the nearest cemetery, and shot its burthen into the common grave, a deep and spacious pit, capable of hold ing some scores of bodies, and dug in the church-yard, or, when the church-yard was full, in the outskirts ofthe parish. Of the hardened and brutal conduct of the men, to whom this duty was committed, men taken from the refuse of society, and lost to all sense of morality or decency, instances were related, to which it would be difficult to find a parallel in the annals of human depravity.! The disease generally manifested itself by the Symptoms usual febrile symptoms of shivering, nausea, head- ease.6 " ache, and delirium. In some, these affections were so mild as to be mistaken for a slight and transient indisposition.. The victim saw not, or would not see, the in sidious approach of his foe : he applied to his usual avoca tions, till a sudden faintness came on, the maculae, the fatal " tokens,'' appeared on his breast, and within an hour life was extinct. But, in most cases, the pain and the delirium left no * Persons thus escaping, if taken in company with others, and found to have infectious sores upon them, were liable to suffer death as felons : if without sores, to be treated as rogues and vagabonds. Ibid. vii. 1 Rugge, MS. 573. Echard, 823. Hodges, Loimologia, 23. De Foe, History of the Plague in London. Though DeFoe, for dramatic effect, wrote as an eye-witness, which he could not be, yet his narrative, as to the sub stance of the facts, is confirmed by all the other authorities. Hodges' and De Foe attribute also the deaths of many to the avarice of their nurses, who destroyed the lives, that they might carry off the money and trinkets of the patients. Chap, in.] CHARLES II. 1 19 room for doubt. On the third or fourth day, buboes or car buncles arose : if these could be made to suppurate, recovery might be anticipated ; if they resisted the efforts of nature, and the skill of the physician, death was inevitable. The suf ferings of the patients often threw them, into paroxysms of phrenzy. They burst the bands by which they were con fined to their beds ; they precipitated themselves from the windows ; they ran naked into the street, and plunged into the river.* Men of the strongest minds were lost in amaze ment, when they contemplated this scene of woe u^er™'0ip0le. and desolation : the weak and the credulous be came the dupes of their own fears and imaginations. Tales the most improbable, and predictions the most terrific, were circulated ; numbers assembled at different cemeteries to be hold the ghosts of the dead walk round the pits, in which then- bodies had been deposited ; and crowds believed that they saw in the heavens a sword of flame, stretching from West minster to the Tower. To add to their terrors, came the fanatics, who felt themselves inspired to act the part of pro phets. One of these, in a state of nudity, walked through the city, bearing on his head a pan of burning coals, and de nouncing the judgments of God on its sinful inhabitants ; another, assuming the character of Jonah, proclaimed aloud as he passed, " Yet forty days, and London shall be destroy ed ;" and a third might be met, sometimes by day, sometimes by night, advancing with a hurried step, and exclaiming with a deep sepulchral voice, " Oh, the great and dreadful God !" During the months of July and August the weather was sultry, the heat more and more op- of^1 ^ty" pressive. The eastern parishes, which at first had been spared, became the chief seat of the pestilence, and the more substantial citizens, whom it had hitherto respected, suffered in common with their less opulent neighbours.! In many places the regulations of the magistrates could no long er be enforced. The nights did not suffice for the burial of the dead, who were now borne in coffins to their graves at all hours of the day ; and it was inhuman to shut up the dwellings of the infected poor, whose families must have perished through want, had they not been permitted to go and seek relief. London presented a wide and heart-rending scene of misery and desolation. Rows of houses stood tenant- » Hodges, 57. 97— 132. t The weekly returns ofthe dead for these months were, 1006. 1268. 1761. 2785. 3014. 4030. 5312. 5568. 7496. I take no notice of the distinction made by the bills between those who died of tbe plague, and those who died of other diseases, because I conceive no reliance can be placed on it. 120 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. III. less and open to the winds ; others, in almost equal numbers, exhibited the red cross flaming on the doors. The chief tho roughfares, so lately trodden by the feet of thousands, were overgrown with grass. The few individuals who ventured abroad walked in the middle, and, when they met, declined on opposite sides, to avoid the contact of each other. But, if the solitude and stillness of the streets impressed the mind with awe, there was something yet more appalling in the sounds which occasionally burst upon the ear. At one mo ment were heard the ravings of delirium, or the wail of woe, from the infected dwelling ; at another, the merry song or the loud and careless laugh issuing from the wassailers at the tavern, or the inmates of the brothel. Men became so fa miliarized with the form, that they steeled their feelings against the terrors, of death. They waited each for his turn with the resignation of the Christian, or the indifference of the stoic. Some devoted themselves to exercises of piety ; others sought relief in the riot of dissipation, and the recklessness of des pair. September came ; the heat of the atmosphere The pesti- began to abate ; but, contrary to expectation, the abates mortality increased* Formerly a hope of recovery might be indulged ; now infection was the certain harbinger of death, which followed, generally, in the course of three days, often within the space of twenty-four p' ' hours. The privy council ordered an experiment to be tried, which was grounded on the practice of former times. To dissipate the pestilential miasm, fires of sea-coal, in the proportion of one fire to every twelve houses, were kindled in every street, court, and alley of London and West minster. They were kept burning three days and nights, and were at last extinguished by a heavy and conti- ep' ' "" nuous fall of rain. The next bill exhibited a consi derable reduction in the amount of deaths ; and the survivors congratulated each other on the cheering prospect.! jgP" ' But the cup was soon dashed from their lips ; and in the following week more than ten thousand vic tims, a number hitherto unknown, sank under the augmented violence of the disease. J Yet, even now, when hope had yielded to despair, their deliverance was at hand. The high winds, which usually accompany the autumnal equinox, cooled and purified the air ; the fever, though equally contagious, as- * The return for the week ending Sep. 5, was 8252. t The return fell to 7690. X The number returned was 8297, but it was generally acknowledged that the bills were very incorrect, and seldom gave more than two-thirds of the real number. Chap. III.] CHARLE9 II. 121 sumed a less malignant form, and its* ravages wete necessari ly more confined from the diminution of the population, on which it had hitherto fed. The weekly burials successively decreased from thousands to hundreds, and, in the beginning of December, seventy-three parishes were pronounced clear of the disease.* The intelligence was hailed with joy by the emigrants, who returned in crowds to ec' ^' take possession of their homes, and resume their usual occu pations : in February ihe court was once more fixed at Whitehall, and the nobility and gentry followed 1666- the footsteps of the sovereign. Though more than e ' ' one hundred thousand individuals are said to have perished, yet, in a short time, the chasm in the population was no long er discernible. The plague continued, indeed, to linger in particular spots,! but its terrors were forgotten or despised ; and the streets, so recently abandoned by the inhabitants, were again thronged with multitudes in the eager pursuit of profit, or pleasure, or crime. From the metropolis the pestilence had extended its destructive sway over the greater part ofthe king- Failure of dom. The fugitives carried the infection with them "Jb"^^ wherever they found an asylum ; and the mortality was generally proportionate to- the density of the population. % Fortunately it confined its ravages to the land ; the fleet con tinued healthy ; and, as soon as the ships damaged in the late engagement were repaired, the duke of York hastened to take the command ; but his eagerness was checked by the pro hibition of the king, who had been solicited by the queen-mo ther not to expose the life of ihe presumptive heir to the uncer tain chances of battle. The earl of Sandwich succeeded him, and sailed to watch the hostile navy in the Texel. In the meanwhile two fleets of Dutch merchantmen, the one from the East Indies, the other from Smyrna, valued at twen ty-five million of livres, steering round the north of Ireland * The decrease was as follows, 6460. 5720. 5068. 1806. 1388. 1787. 1359. 905.544. \ There was not a week in the year in which some cases of plague were not returned. For all these particulars, see Hodges, Loimologia ; DeFoe; the newspapers of the year ; Evelyn, Diary, ii. 245: Ellis, Letters, second series, iv.Za-. Pepys, ii. 266. 73. 6. 81. 86. 93. 7. 305. 9, 10. Clarendon, with his usual inaccuracy, makes the number of dead, according to the weekly bills, to amount to 160,000, wbicbr he says, ought, in the opinion of well-informed persons, to be doubled. (Clarendon, 326.) The number of burials, according to the bills, was only 97,306/ (Table prefixed to Loimo logia.) If we add one-third for omissions, the amount will be about 130,000 ; but from these must be deducted the deaths from other causes than the plague. X In August of the following year it raged with violence in Colchester, Norwich, Winchester, Cambridge, and Salisbury. Rugge, MS. Vol. XII. 16 122 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. HI- and Scotland, had taken shelter in the neutral harbour of Bergen in Norway. The temptation was too powerful lor the honesty of the king of Denmark : and, on con- u y' dition that he should receive a moiety of the profits, lie consented to connive at the capture of the Hollanders by the English fleet. Sandwich sailed immediately to Bergen, and Clifford, afterwards lord-treasurer, held an unsatisfactory conference with Alefeldt, the governor. That officer pro posed that the English should wait till he had received in structions from Copenhagen ; but Sandwich refused ; Tyd- diman entered the harbour with a powerful squadron ; and the Dutch moored their ships across the bay, and raised a „ battery of forty-one guns on the shore. A sudden change in the direction of the wind compelled the English to cast anchor under the cannon of the castle ; but Tyddiman, trusting to the neutrality of the governor, com menced the attack, and had already driven the enemy from most of their defences, when the garrison opened a destructive fire on the assailants. One ship was sunk ; the others, cut ting their cables, ran out to sea, and the enterprize was abandoned. With whom the blame of the failure ought 'to rest, Clarendon professes himself nnable to determine ; -Sandwich complained loudly ofthe duplicity and bad faith ofthe king of Denmark.; but sir Gilbert Talbot, the Eng lish ambassador, acquits the Danish authorities, and asserts that Sandwich .refused to wait but one day for the arrival of instructions from Copenhagen, under the notion that, by acting without the permission of the Dane, he should exclude him from any right of participation in the expected booty.* To the pensionary De Witt, the principal advo- by sea;6* eate '0I" tne war m Holland, to preserve the mer chantmen in Bergen was an object of the first im portance. _ Though a mere landsman, he took the command of the fleet, and impatient of the obstruction caused by a con trary wind, sought and discovered a new passage out of the Texel. He sailed to Bergen, and the merchantmen placed themselves under his protection : but the fleet was ep" ' dispersed by a storm, and Sandwich had the good fortune to capture eight men-of-war, two of the richest In- diamen, and about twenty other vessels. But avarice tempt ed him to take from the Indiamen a part of their cargo to the value of 2,000/., and the other flag-officers, with his permis sion, followed his example. The king and the duke as lord high admiral, condemned his presumption : he acknowledged * Clarendon, 270. 277—281. Pepys, ii. 324. Miscel. Aul. 359. Echard, 821 ; and sir Gilbert Talbot's Narrative among the Lansdowne MSS., 6859, p. 45. Ckaf. HI] CHARLES II. 123 his offence before the council, and was in punishment de prived of the command : but, to save his honour in the eyes of the public, received the appointment of ambassador to the court of Spain.* Charles, on account ofthe pestilence in London, had summoned the parliament to meet in Oxford. Fa^iafm®nt His object was to obtain another supply of money. a x or ¦ The expenses of the war, partly through the want of naval stores,! partly through the negligence and rapacity of the officers, had considerably exceeded the calculations of his ministers, and -the whole ofthe last parliamen- T tary grant was already mortgaged to the creditors ofthe public. With the king's request, that the two houses, by their liberality, would complete their own work, they cheerfully complied ; and an additional grant of 1,250,000/., with a present of 120,000/. to the duke " ct- ""* of York, was voted without a murmur. The next object which claimed their attention, was the danger to be feared from the enemies of monarchy. Algernon Sydney, and many ofthe exiles, had hastened to Holland, and offered their ser vices to the States. Whether the latter seriously meditated an invasion of England or Scotland, may be doubted : but they certainly gave naval and military commands to several of the refugees, and encouraged the formation of a council of English malcontents at the Hague. These corresponded with their friends in England ; the most sinister reports were put in circulation ; strangers, notwithstanding the mortality, were observed to resort to the capital ; and information was sent to Monk of secret meetings of conspirators, and of plots for the seizure of the Tower and the burning of the city. Rathbone, Tucker, and six of their associates *p' were apprehended, and paid the forfeit of their lives ; but colonel Danvers, the leader, escaped from the grasp of the officers, and found an asylum in the country. Alarm- Qct 3] ed by this insignificant plot, the parliament attainted several of the conspirators by name, and, in addition, every natural born subject who should remain in the ser vice ofthe States after a fixed day.J These enact- ^te'a>iie ments, however, did not satisfy the more timid or • Lords' Journ. xi. 687. Clarendon, 300 — 6. Coke, ii. 38. Miscel. Aul. 361. D'Estrades, ii. 364. Pepys, ii. 324. 9. 347. 352. Evelyn, ii. 248. t To supply the naval arsenals, Charles, of his own authority, suspended the navigation act, and yet the parliament took no notice of it. Coke, ii. 140. X L. Journ. xi. 688. 692. St. 17. Car. ii. c. 5. Parker, 78—87. Bur net, i. 393. Clarendon, 290. It has often been asserted that these plots, and the correspondence said to be carried on between the disaffected in England and the Dutch, were mere fictions. The following extracts from the letters of D'Estrades,'the French minister at the Hague, to his sovereign, will per- & 124 History of England. [Chap, hi. more zealous. During the pestilence, many of the orthodox clergy hi the'metropolis had persisted with the most laudable constancy in the discharge of their duties ; many, yielding to their fears, had skulked away from the scene of danger, and sought security in the country. The presbyterian ministers who had recently been ejected, seized the opportunity to as cend the vacant pulpits amidst the loud cries of their congre gations " what must we do to be saved." The self-devotion of these men, who braved the perils of death that they might administer the consolations of -religion to their afflicted bre thren, is said to have provoked the jealousy of their rivals ; and that jealousy, if it really existed, was speedily gratified by new penal enactments. That the law had been violated, no one could deny ; but the violation had been committed in circumstances so extraordinary as to be more worthy of praise than censure. To add, therefore, to the legal offence, it was pretended that the ministers had employed the opportunity to disseminate from the pulpit principles of sedition and trea son, representing the plague as a visitation from Providence, partly on account of their own expulsion from the churches, and partly on account of the immorality of the sovereign and his court : charges in which it is probable that the indiscre tion of one or two individuals was notonly exaggerated, but . unjustly extended to the whole body. However that may be, an act was passed, prohibiting every non-conforming minister to come, unless he were passing on the road, within five miles of any town sending members to parliament, or of any. village in which he had ever lawfully or unlawfully exercised his ministry, under the penalty of a fine of 40/. for every such offence, and of six months' impri sonment, if he refused in addition to take the oath of non-re sistance. For the better execution of this, the five-mile act, the bishops received from the orthodox clergy the names of all non-conforming ministers within their respective parishes ; spies and informers were every where employed and en couraged ; and the objects of suspicion Were compelled to fix themselves and their families in obscure parts of the country, where they depended for support on their own labour and the casual charity of others. But the oath was still refused ; and the sufferings of the victims served only to rivet their doc trines more firmly in the minds of their hearers.* haps prove the contrary. Les elats ont de grandes intelligences en Ecosse et parmi les ministres de leur religion en Angleterre. MSmoires d'Estrades' ii. 383. Oct 3, 1665. L'Ecosse fait entendre aux etats que des que votre majeste se declarera, elle a un fort parti a mettre en campagne et que les ministres de l'Angleterre de la meme religion de ceux de ce pays mandent la meme chose. Id. 385. '* L. Journ. xi.700. St. 37. Car. ii. c. 2. Wilkins, Con. iv. 583. Bur- Chap. III.] CHARLES 11. 125 De Witt had long sought to strengthen himself and his party with the protection of the king of Louis France ; and Louis was not unwilling to purchase w"Jne[h the services of a man, who governed the States of Dutch. Holland, and through them was able to control the other provinces of the republic. To him De Witt had communicated several proposals for the partition of the Spanish Netherlands ; and the king, though he nourished a more ambitious project in his own breast, to humour the Dutchman, consented to enter into a negotiation respecting th© conditions.* But, in 1665, Philip of Spain died, leaving the crown, and all the dominions dependent on it, to the infant his son, under the regency of Marianne of Austria, the queen- mother. Louis now determined, as he had previously intended, to take possession of Flanders, under the pretence, that by the custom of several provinces in the Netherlands, call ed the right of devolution, those provinces belonged to his wife, Maria Theresa, the daughter of Philip by his first marriage. It was, indeed, true that Louis by contract, and his young queen by a separate instrument, had solemnly re nounced all claim to the succession to the Spanish monarchy in general, and to Flanders, Burgundy, and Charolais in par ticular :! but it was contended that the king had been released from the obligation of the contract by the non-payment of the marriage portion on the part of Spain, and that Maria Tere sa had never been bound by the renunciation, because it was made during her minority. It chanced, however, that the Dutch, in virtue of the defensive alliance concluded between them and France in 1662, called upon Louis to join as their ally in the wrar ; and it seemed impolitic to provoke hostilities at the same moment with two such powers as England and Spain. It was, indeed, easy to elude the demand, by reply ing that a defensive treaty did not bind, when the party claiming aid had provoked the war ; but on the other hand, it was argued that Louis, by cheerfully uniting with the States, would render them less hostile to his intended occupation of net, i. 393 — 2. Clarendon, who, as usual, is very inaccurate, 217. 290. The act did not mention nonconformist ministers, but included them under the description of persons who had enjoyed ecclesiastical promotion, or preach ed at unlawful conventicles. * All the letters of D'Estrades, from his arrival in Holland till 1664, shew how firmly this unfortunate statesman had devoted himself to the interests of France. t Dumont, vi. part. i. 283. 8. By the law of devolution, which prevailed in several provinces of the Netherlands, the right of inheritance was given to the children of the first marriage, even females, to the exclusion of the issue by the second. Maria Teresa, the consort of Louis, was the daughter of Philip of Spain by his first wife ; Charles, the inheritor of the monarchy, was his son by the second. o 126 History of England. [Chap. ni. Flanders ; and that, under the pretext of preventing the des cents of the English, he might eovertly make preparations, and assemble troops on the nearest parts ofthe coast.* Louis followed this counsel : his ambassador informed Charles that unless peace were speedily concluded, his master would feel himself bound to take part against him in the war ; and the English king had the spirit to defy the power, rather than submit to the dictation, of a foreign prince. In January the French monarch, though with ma- Treaties, ny expressions of regret, declared war ; but, at the Jan616 reclamation of the English ambassador, granted three months to British subjects to withdraw with their effects from his territories.! The approach of a Franch force soon compelled the bishop of Munster, who, as the ally of Charles, had made a formidable inroad into the province of Overyssel, to submit to a disadvantageous peace ; Apnl 8: an(j ^ prenc[j agent at Copenhagen prevailed on F(iD j the king of Denmark to withdraw from his alliance with England, and to make common cause with the States. Charles, on his side, concluded a treaty. 6 ' ' with the king of Sweden, by which each party en gaged not to furnish munitions of war to the enemies of the other ; but failed in an attempt to create an opposition to De Witt in Holland through the intrigues of De Buat, a partisan of the house of Orange, who forfeited his life as a traitor to the republic! ' These negotiations occupied the first months of The four the new year : in May, prince Rupert and the duke tiey S bat °^ Albemarle assumed the joint command of the En glish fleet ; and insulted with impunity the coast of Holland. There was but little cordiality between the two admirals. The pride of Rupert could hardly brook an equal in rank and authority ; but the people remembered the former victories of Monk over the Dutch, and- Charles gratified the general wish by associating him with the prince in the chief command. They had returned to the Downs, when advice was received that the Dutch navy was not in a state to put to sea for several weeks, and that a French squadron, under the duke of Beaufort, had reached Belisle from the Mediter- * Id. part. ii. p. 412. OEuvres de Louis XIV., ii. 5— 11. 25. 130. ,t Dumont, vi. part iii. 82. Clar. 282. 8. Miscel. Aul. 373. Memoires d'Estrades, iii. 54. 64. Charles, on his part, offered freedom from molesta tion in person or property to all natives of France, or the United Provinces, residing in or coming into his dominions, " especially to those of the re formed religion, whose interest should particularly be owned by him." Rail*, i. 159. X Clarendon, 327. 9. 333—6, Dumont, vi. par. ii. 59. 83. 106. Chap. 111. - CHARLES II. 127 ranean. Unfortunately neither report was true. De Ruyter, accompanied by De Witt, had already ay 29 left the Texel : the duke of Beaufort had not passed the Straits of Gibraltar. Rupert, however, procured an order from court to hasten with twenty sail in search of the French, while Albemarle, with fifty-four, direct- ay ed his course to the Gun-fleet. The next morning June j the duke, to his surprise, descried the Dutch fleet of more than eighty men of war lying at anchor off the north Foreland. He had so often spoken with contempt of the ene my, had so severely criticized the caution of the earl of Sand wich, that to retire without fighting would have exposed him to the censure and derision of the public. A council of war was instantly summoned, the majority, in opposition to their own judgment, acquiesced in the rash, but decided, opinion of their commander, and the signal was made to bear down without delay on the enemy. No line was formed, no order observed ; the blue squadron, which led the van, fought its way through the hostile fleet ; but most of the ships of which it consisted were captured, or destroyed, or disabled. Darkness separated the combatants, and the action re-com menced with the return of light. But, if Monk on the preced ing day had fought for victory, he was now reduced to fight for safety. A reinforcement of sixteen sail added to 0 the hopes and the courage of the enemy : nor was it without the most heroic exertions that the English were able to protract the unequal contest till night. Monk, having burnt a part of his disabled ships, and ordered the others to make for the nearest harbour, opposed, in the morning, six teen that remained as a rear guard to the pursuit of De Ruy ter. But, in the hurry of their flight, they ran on the Galloper Sand, where the Prince Royal, the une boast of the English navy, was lost; and where the rest would probably have shared its fate, had not Rupert, with his squadron of twenty sail, at last arrived to their relief. He had received orders to return from St. Helen's on the first day of the battle ; nor was it ever explained why he did not join Albemarle till the evening of the third. The force of the hos» tile fleets was now more nearly balanced : they re newed the engagement on the following morning, une ' and, having passed each other five times in line, separated under the cover of a mist.* Such was the result of this suc cession of obstinate and sanguinary engagements. That the * Com. Journals, 1667, Oct. 31. Clarendon, 343, 4. Coke, 144. Heath, 560, Le Clerc, ii. 139. Basnage, i. 773. Pepys, ii. 398—402. 410. 1. 3. 5. 424,434,5. 128 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. HI. Dutch had a just claim to the victory, cannot be doubted; though, if we consider the fearful disparity of force, we must own that no disgraee could attach to the English. " They may be killed," exclaimed De Witt, " bnt they' will not be conquered." At home the. conduct of Monk was severely and deservedly censured ; but no one could convince him that he acted imprudently in provoking the battle; or that he had not inflicted more injury than he had received.* Both fleets stood in need of repairs : both, by extraordinary efforts, were in a short time again at sea. They u y ' met ; the victory was fiercely and obstinately disput ed ; but the better fortune, or more desperate valour, of the English prevailed. Few prizes were, however, made. With rash but successful daring, de Ruyter repeatedly turned on the pursuers, and kept them at bay, till the fugitives found a secure asylum in the Wierings. Rupert and Monk rode for weeks triumphant along the coast, interrupting the s' ' commerce, and insulting the pride of their enemies. At the suggestion of a native, Holmes, with a squadron of boats and fire-ships, was ordered to- enter the chan- ug' " nel between Ulie and Schilling, the usual rendez vous of vessels trading to the Baltic : in a short time two men of war, and one hundred and fifty merchantmen &' ' with their cargoes, were in flames, and the next day the neighbouring town of Brandaris, consisting of one thou sand houses, was reduced to ashes. At the sight of the con flagration De Witt maddened with rage, and swore by the almighty God that he would never sheath the. sword, till he had obtained his revenge : an oath which he religiously observed.! Louis was not unwilling that the two great mari- Intrigues time powers should exhaust themselves ih this tre- of Louis. mendous struggle. To his allies he had promised the co-operation of his fleet, but that promise was yet to be fuk- filled ; and instead of risking the French navy in battle against the English, he sought to occupy the attention of Charles by exciting rebellion in his dominions. With this view he employed agents to intrigue with the catholics in Ireland, who had lost their lands by the late act of settlement ; and encou raged the hopes of the English exiles, who persuaded' them selves that their party was still powerful in England. Alger- * Pepys, ii. 422. Com. Journ. Oct. 31. According to Evelyn, the Eng lish lost ten ships, one thousand seven hundred men killed and wounded, and two thousand taken (ii. 258): the Dutch acknowledged the loss of two admirals, seven captains, and one thousand eight hundred men. Le Clerc, ii. 142. t Clarendon, 345. Pepys, ii, 444. Miscel. Aul. 411, 2. Memoires d'Es trades, iii. 346. 361. ChAp.IU] CHARLES II. 129 non Sydney hastened from Languedoc to Paris : to tbe French ministers he maintained that the interest of France demanded the establishment of a republic in England ; and to the Freneh king he presented a memorial soliciting the gift of 100,000/. to enable his party to commence operations against the English government. But Louis petusad before he would part with so large a sum of money. In conclusion he offered Sydney 20,000/. in the first instance, with a promise of additional aid, if the rising should take place.* About the middle of August, however, the duke of Beaufort, contrary to the general expectation, Operati- arrived at La Rochelle from the Mediterranean, and ^J^ig.6*" a plan was arranged between the two powers for the junction of their respective fleets in the British Channel. The Dutch, for this purpose, had already passed the strait of Dover, when they descried the English under prince Rupert, De Ruyter, though on board, was confined by severe indispo sition ; the men betrayed a disinclination to fight without the presence and orders of their favourite commander ; and the fleet ran close into the shore in St. John's Road, near Bou logne. Rupert dared not follow : he turned to Oppose Beau fort, as he came up the channel ; but the violence of the wind compelled him to seek shelter at St. Helens, and „ the French squadron had the good fortune to arrive ep' ' safely at Dieppe. Louis, alarmed at the proximity of his fleet to the superior force of the English, by repeated mes sages insisted that the Dutch should proceed to give it protec tion. But their ships had suffered severely from the weather ; the admiral was still unable to take the command ; and instead of joining their allies, they embraced the first opportunity of returning to their own ports. Beaufort, however, extricated himself from the danger, and stole his Way down the channel with no other loss than that of the Ruby, of fifty-four guns.1 The storm which had driven the English fleet in to St. Helens, was productive of the most disas- Eire of trous consequences by land. On the night of Sun- Lo?ldon* day, the 2d of September, a fire burst out in Pudding-Jane, near Fish-street, one of the most crowded quarters of the metropolis. It originated in a bake-house ; the ep' ' buildings in the neighbourhood, formed of wood, with pitched roofs, quickly caught the flames ; and the stores with which they were filled, Consisting of those combustible articles used in the equipment of shipping, nourished the conflagration. * Louis XIV. ii. 203, and note ibid. Miscel. Aul. 433. t Clarendon, 347. Heath, 553- Miscel. Aul. 418. Louis XIV. ii. 219. 221—226. Temple, i. 477. Vol. XII. 17 130 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LChap. IH, To add to the mischief, the pipes from tbe new river were found empty* and the engine, which raised water from the Thames, was reduced to ashes. The lord mayor arrived on the first alarm : but his timidity and inexperience shrunk from the adoption of decisive measures : he refused for several hours to admit the aid of the military, and to those who advis ed -the demolition of a range of houses, replied that he m ust previously obtain the consent of their respective owners.! During the day the wind, which blew from the ep' " east, hourly augmented in violence ; and the fire spread with astonishing velocity, leaping from roof to roof, and frequently igniting houses at a distance, and in apparent security. The following night (" if night," says an eyewit ness, that could be called, which was light as day for ten miles -round,") presented a most magnificent, but appalling spectacle. A vast column -of fire, a mile in diameter, was seen ascending to the clouds ; the flames, as they rose, were bent and broken, and shivered by the fury of the wind; and every •blast scattered through the air innumerable flakes of fire, which falling on inflammable substances kindled new confla grations. The lurid glare of the sky, the oppressive heat of the atmosphere, the crackling of the flames, and the falling of the houses and churches, combined to fill every breast with astonishment and terror. Instead, however, of adverting to-the natural causes of the calamity, causes too obvious to escape an observant eye, the public. credulity listened to stories of malice and treachery. It -was said and believed, that men had been apprehended carrying with them parcels of an unknown substance, which on compression produced heat and flame ; that others had been seen throwing fire balls into. houses as they passed along the street ; that the foreign enemy had combined with -the re publicans and. papists to burn the city : and that the French residents in the capital, to the number of twenty thousand had taken up arms, and were massacring every native, who came in the way. These reports augmented the general terror and * On the authority of an old woman, the co'untess of 'Clarendon, and of a divine, 'Dr. Lloyd, whose brain had been affected by the study of the Apocalypse, Burnet gravely tells us a story of one Grant, a papist, a partner in the works at Islington, having on the preceding Saturday turned the cocks, and carried away the keys (Hist. i. 401.) But the fire happened on the 2d of September, and Higgons (Remarks, 219) proves from the books of the company, that Grant had no share in the works before the 25th of that month. t The duke of York says, that the expedient of blowing up houses with gunpowder was suggested by an old woman (Macpher. Pap. i. 36.) ; Eve lyn, by a party of sailors ; but " some tenacious and avaritious men, alder men, etc. would not permit it, because their houses must have been the first." ii. 266. Chap. 1IJ.] CHARLES n. 131 confusion. All were mingled together, men labouring to ex tinguish the flames, citizens conveying away their families* and goods, crowds flying from the imaginary massacre, others, in arms hastening to oppose the murderers, and mobs sur rounding and ill-treating every stranger, foreigner, and reputed papist, who ventured into the streets. Charles never appeared so deeply affected as at the sight of the conflagration. Breaking from his ^{^eious pleasures and his mistresses, he displayed an energy king. of mind and body of which his most intimate friends thought him no longer capable. Wherever the danger ap~ peared the greatest, the king was to be found with his brother, mixing among the workmen, animating them by his example, and with his own hand rewarding their exertions.* He divided* the city into districts, and gave the command of each district to one of the privy council. He ordered biscuits and other necessaries to be brought from the royal stores for the relief of the families in the fields, and ordered out strong patroles of his guards, to prevent robbery, and to conduct to prison all persons suspected and arrested by the populace, as the mOst likely means of preserving their lives. While the storm continued, the conflagration bade defiance to all the exertions of human ingenuity Endof the or power. In many places houses had been blown tion.38"1 up or demolished : but the ignited flakes were car ried over the empty space, or the ruins again took fire, or the flames unexpectedly turned in a new direction. On g. 5- the evening of Wednesday the violence of the wind began to abate ; and the duke of York saved the church of the Temple by the destruction of the neighbouring buildings, r the next morning a similar precaution was adopted g „ by the king to preserve Westminster-abbey and the palace of Whitehall. About five in the evening of Thursday the weather became calm ; and every heart beat with the hope that this dreadful visitation was approaching to its close. But in the night new alarms were excited. The fire burst out again in the Temple ; it was still seen to rage with una bated fury near Cripplegate, and a large body of flame made rapid advance towards the Tower. The duke and the other noblemen were immediately at their posts. With the aid of gunpowder large openings were made ; Charles attended at the demolition of the houses on the graff near the maga zine in the Tower ; and the conflagration, being thus prohibit- * " It is not indeed imaginable how extraordinary the vigilance and ac tivity of the king and the duke was, even labouring in person, and being present to command, order, reward, or encourage workmen." Evelyn, ii. 268. Life of James, i. 424, 132 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. (Chap. 111. ed from extending its ravages, gradually died away, though months elapsed before the immense accumulation of ruins ceased to present, appearances of internal heat and combus tion.*It xtcnt ^v t'"s deplorable accident two-thirds of the me tropolis, the whole space from the Tower to the Temple, had been reduced to ashes. The number of houses consumed amounted to thirteen thousand two hundred, of churches, including St. Paul's, to eighty-nine, covering three hundred and seventy-three acres within, and sixty-three s 7 without the walls. In the fields about Islington and Highgate were seen lying on the bare ground,, or under huts hastily erected, two hundred thousand individuals, many in a state of utter destitution, and the others watching the small remnant of their property which they had snatched from the flames. Charles was indefatigable in his exertions to afford relief, and to procure them lodgings in the nearest towns and villages.! Its cause Whoever considers the place in which the fire began, the violence of the wind, and the materials of which the houses were built, will not be at a loss to account for the origin and the extent of the conflagration. But it was an age in which political and religious prejudices had pervert ed the judgments of men. Some considered it as an evident visitation of Providence in punishment of sin ; but of what sin? Of the immorality of the king and the courtiers, replied the more rigid religionists ; of the late rebellion, recriminated the cavaliers.! Others attributed it to the disloyalty and re venge, either of the republicans, who sought to destroy the seat of the monarchy, or of the monarchy, or of the papists, who wished to punish the strong hold of orthodoxy. But of these charges, though the individuals suspected were ex amined before the council and the lord chief justice, though the house of commons ordered a sjrict inquiry to be instituted, * London Gazette, No. 85. Clarend, 348—352. Evelyn, ii. 263—7. Philips, 652. Burnet, i. 401.2; and Pepys, in the confusion has divided one day into two. Diary, iii. 16 — 35. t St. Trials, vi. 807. Evelyn, ii. 271. X Two remarkable coincidences have been noticed. At the trials of cer tain conspirators in the preceding April, it appeared that they had intended to set fire to London on the 3d of September of the last year, that they might avail themselves of Ihe confusion to overturn the government (Lon don Gazette, Ap. 23 — 26): and it was about one in the morning oLSep. 3, of this year that tbe fire made its appearance. Again, in 1656, a treatise was advertised, purporting to show from the Apocalypse, that in the year 1666 the Romish Babylon would be destroyed by fire. (Marc. Pol. in Burton's Diary, i. cxlvii.) Now this great fire actually happened in 1666, the year foretold, though it destroyed not the Romish, but.the, English Ba? bylon. Chap. IH.] CHARLES II. 133 though every species of conjectural and hearsay evidence was admitted, yet no vestige of proof could ever be discovered. The report of the committee still exists, a complete refutation of the calumny.* Subsequently, however, on the monument erected to perpetuate this calamitous event, it was, and still stands, recorded, that " the burning of this protestant city was begun and carried on by the treachery and malice of the po pish faction." Next to the guilt of him who perpetrates an atrocious crime, is the guilt of those who charge it on the innocent.! In the same month, when the parliament assem bled, it became manifest that the popularity of the Procced- king was on the wane in the lower house. The Jj'ame'nt.'^" late disaster had thrown a gloom over the public mind ; and the murmurs of the people were echoed in the speeches of their representatives. The duke of Buckingham sought the company of the discontented ; by tales of the roy al extravagance and immorality, he sharpened their indignation and won their confidence ; and, in a short time, a formidable party was arrayed against the advocates of the court. No man, indeed, could be more immoral than Buckingham him self ; but Charles, to gratify the anger of Castlemaine, had: banished him from court, and resentment made him a saint and a patriot. The commons began, indeed, by voting a sup ply of 1,800,000/. ; yet, while they held out the money as a lure to the king, they required several concessions before they would deliver it into his hands. 1 . According to ancient cus tom, they displayed their zeal against the catholics. The at tempt to fasten on them the charge of having fired the capi tal, unfortunately failed ; but a committee was appointed " to inquire into the insolence of the papists and the increase of popery ;" and, though the information which they procured, consisted of tales so childish and improbable that they dared not pronounce an opinion.! yet it served as the foundation of an address to the king ; and Charles, in accordance with their petition, commanded, by proclamation, all priests and Jesuits to quit the kingdom ; gave directions to the judges and magis- * These examinations are printed in Howell's State Trials, vi. 807 — 866. One Hubert, a French proteslant, who formerly worked as a silversmith in the city, gave himself up as the incendiary, was examined before the committee (see his examination, p. 824), and, persisting in his story, was condemned and executed. The man was clearly insane. " Neither the judges, nor any present at the trial, did believe him guilty ; but that he was a poor distracted wretch, weary of his life, and chose to part with it this way." Clarendon, 353. See also Higgons on Burnet, 215. t The monument was begun in 1671, and finished in 1677; the inscription was written by Dr. Thomas Gale, afterward dean of York, Pennant's London, 347. X It is published in the State Trials, vi. 851 — 6. 134 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. III. trates to execute the -laws against recusants, to disarm all pa pists, and to administer the oaths of allegiance and suprema cy to all persons suspected of popery ; and ordered the com manders of regiments to dismiss from the army every officer and soldier who should refuse the oaths, or had not received the sacrament. 2. In 1663 complaint had been made in parlia- Irish m"11 ment that the agricultural interest of England was tie. sacrificed to that of Ireland ; that the annual impor tation of Irish cattle, amounting to more than" sixty thousand beeves and a proportionate number of sheep, depress ed the prices in the English market : and that the English far mers were no longer able to pay their rents to their landlords or their taxes to the king. The result was an act prohibiting under severe penalties the importation of cattle from the Irish to the English ports. There now remained but one re source for the Irish farmer, the introduction of the dead car case in place of the live animal ; and to rneet this a bill was brought in during the session at Oxford, to extend the prohibi tion to salt beef, bacon, and pork. It was lost by the hasty prorogation of parliament, but revived in the present session. Never, for many years, had any question excited such agita tion in the public mind, or such animosities in the two houses. On the one part, it was contended that the parliament was bound in duty to protect the agricultural interest, which com- f)rised not only the farmers and their servants, but all the land- ords in the kingdom ; on the other, that the people had a right to purchase their food at the cheapest market ; that it was unjust to protect one interest at the expense of another ; and that, if the Irish were not allowed to export their cattle, they would not be able to import the manufactures of Eng land. The bill, after much contestation, was sent to the lords, and returned by them with amendments, to which the com mons objected. The opponents of the measure hoped, by fomenting the dissension, to suppress the bills : but the king was so anxious not to lose by delay the supply which had been voted, and so alarmed by the tumultuous meetings of the agriculturists in the country, that he commanded the duke of York and his friends in the house of lords to desist from their opposition. They withdrew before the division, and the bill was suffered to pass into a law.* * Miscel. Aul. 432. 6, 7. 9. 436. Coke, 151—144. Clarendon, 371— 383. Carte, ii. 317—322. 329—334. In the course of these debates, Buck ingham said that whoever opposed the bill, must have an Irish interest in hi* heart, or an Irish intellect in his head. Lord Ossory challenged him j but he chose to mistake the place of meeting, and to give an account of the whole proceeding to the house. Both were put under custody, and after- Chap. Ill] CHARLES 11. 135 3. Reports were circulated that the supplies pre viously voted for the war had been diverted from On the au- their original destination : and a bill was carried tQe p„wjc through the commons appointing commissioners to accounts. audit the public accounts. Charles, at the solicitation of sir George Carteret, treasurer of the navy, and of Coop er, recently created lord Ashley, treasurer of the prize mo ney, openly declared that he would never yield his consent. It was a direct invasion of the royal prerogative ; it would pre vent men from taking office if, instead of the regular method of auditing accounts, they were to be interrogated- at will by the commons, and subjected te the arbitrary judgment of that house ; and, which was the most cogent argument of all, it would reveal to the public the many and valuable grants which the king had made of the national money to his favou rites and mistresses. But to oppose it openly might provoke and confirm suspicion : when the bill came to the upper house, the lords voted an address to the king to appoint a commission of inquiry ; the commons resolved that such an address, pending the bill, was unparliamentary, and the two houses found themselves involved in an endless controversy respecting their rights and privileges. Charles, however, was now assailed from a different quarter. His opponents threa tened to impeach the countess of Castlemain ; and his anxie ty to screen her from prosecution induced him to employ his influence in favour of the bill. The Jan 2'4 lords passed it with a few trifling amendments ; and then its supporters, as if their only object had been to excite the distrust of the nation, instead of proceeding with a mea sure which they had so warmly pursued, suffered the bill to lie without notice on the table. The means of raising the supply by a pole tax and by eleven monthly assess- Feb g ments were voted, and the king, having obtained his end, prorogued the parliament.* wards reconciled. Next he quarrelled with lord Dorchester, respecting a seat in a conference with the commons. The marquess in the scuffle lost bis perriwig, the duke a handful of hair. The two champions were sent to the Tower, and reconciled. L. Journ. xri. 18, 19. 52. Clarendon, 376 —9. Miscel. Aul. 423—6. * L. Journ. xii. 34. 47. 52. 72. 81. 88. C. Journal, Jan. 24, Feb. 7. Cla rendon, 368. 374. Charles, however, in the April following, did appoint a commission of lords and commons, " for taking accounts of the several sums of money which had been raised and assigned to his majesty's use during the war, and of all such moneys and profits as had been made of prizes taken since the beginning of the war, with power to call to account all treasurers, receivers, etc. and all such authority, as might serve for the effectual and impartial execution of the said commission." They sate, continued the inquiry, for many months, and made reports to the house of commons. There was, however, no important result. ' 1 36 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. HI. During this session, the council was seriously insuiToc- alarmed by the news of an insurrection in Scotland, Scotland. an insurrection attributed at first to foreign intrigue, but provoked in reality by religious persecution. The eastern and northern counties had apparently acquiesced in the restoration of episcopacy ; but in the west and south a strong spirit of resistance had been manifested. Most of the ministers were ejected, and their places supplied by clergy men, whose youth and habits were not calculated to render them acceptable to the people. When they took possession of their cures, they were generally received with contumely, sometimes with vollies of stones from crowds of women and children ; and when they ascended the pulpit, their churches were deserted by the majority of the parishioners. These followed their former pastor to the barn and the moor ; the circumstances under which they met kindled the enthusiasm both ofthe preacher and his hearers ; and they separated with a firm determination to adhere to the national covenant, and to oppose to the death the " antichristian" institution of bish ops. The parliament made laws to put down conventicles, and enforce attendance at the parish church ; the high com mission court endeavoured to subdue the most refractory by arbitrary and disproportionate punishments ; and, as a last resource, a body of soldiers, under sir James Turner, an Eng lishman, was sent into the west to levy fines, and secure obe dience to the law. Without attaching entire credit to the ex aggerated tales of the sufferers, we may presume that these military missionaries did not discharge their duties in a man ner to please or conciliate the natives ; numerous frays occur red between them and the religionists on whom they Nov 13 were quartered : one of the soldiers was shot at Dairy in Galloway ; the offenders- secured his com panions for their own safety ; their number quickly increased ; they surprised and made prisoner sir James Tur ner himself ; and, astonished at their success, began to deliberate respecting their future proceedings. They scarce ly exceeded two thousand men ; but, on the ground that " God was able to save by few as well as by many," they chose offi- cers, renewed the covenant, and resolved to march ov' ' towards Edinburgh. The night was cold and dark ; and, on their arrival at Bathgate, their force had dwindled to less than one half of its original amount. They nevertheless continued to advance ; but the gates were shut ; and the roy al army under Dalziel followed their footsteps. They re- treated from Collingtown to Rullion-green, near the OT: ' Pentland Hills, where their commander, colonel Wallace, faced the enemy. Of the ministers who accompa- ChaP.HLI CHARLES II. 137 nied them, Crookshank and Maccormick, natives of Ireland, took their station among the cavalry to fight the battle of the Lord ; Welch and Semple; natives of Scotland, ascended a neighbouring eminence to pray. The former fell iri the first charge ; the latter, as soon as they saw the loss of the battle, saved'their lives by flight. About fifty of the insurgents were left dead on the field, and one hundred and thirty were made prisoners. It was a time when perhaps some effect might have been produced by the lenity of government ; but the prelates deemed it more prudent to intimi- ec' * date by severity. Twenty were executed in the Eec ^ capital,, and about the same number in Glasgow, Ayr, Irvine, and Dumfries. All refused the oath, pec. 22. and died professing their adhesion to the covenant. The king ordered a rigorous inquiry to be made into the ori gin of the insurrection ; and the chief of the prisoners were tortured in the " boots," to draw from them the confession of their real object. But no trace could be discovered of any correspondence between them and the foreign enemy : the court became convinced that persecution had goaded them to resistance ; and an order was issued that the whigs (the name by which the covenanters were now designated) should be treated with less severity.* The suppression of this tumult relieved the king from one source of disquietude : there remained J^Jj]1* another, which he knew not how to remove — the oUttheS poverty of the exchequer. To prepare the fleet for fleet. sea required an immediate supply of money ; and the grant made by the parliament, though liberal in the amount, offered but a distant resource. In the former years the royal wants had been promptly accommodated by the bankers, a few opulent individuals, members of the company of goldsmiths, and aldermen in the city. These it was custom mary to introduce into the royal presence ; they were ac quainted with the amount ofthe intended loan ; each subscrib ed for such portion as he chose to take, and received in re turn the assignation of some branch of the public revenue, entitling him to its produce till the capital, with the interest at eight per cent., should be entirely discharged.? But this * Kirkton, 229—255. Wodrow, 247—256. App. 86, 7, Sv Burnet, i. 451. " Tbe poor people, who were at this time in contempt called whiggs, became namefatbers to all that owned ane honest interest in Briiain, who were called whiggs after them even at the court of England ; so strangely doth Providence improve man's mistakes for the farthering of the Lord's purpose." 'Kirkton, 255. t Clarendon, 393—6, 314 ; 5. Life of James, i. 425. Macpherson, Fap. i. 367. The bankers were accustomed to charge eight per cent, on loans, and to give six per cent, on deposits. The manner of payment may be un- Yol. XII. IS 138 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Cmr.IM, expedient was now impracticable, on account of the embar rassments, caused by the plague and the fire, in mercantile and pecuniary transactions. The bankers had suffered con siderable losses ; money had grown scarce ; the destruction of merchandize had diminished the receipt of the customs and excise ; and the inability of the treasury to fulfil its engage ments had impaired the royal credit. In an evil hour, sir William Coventry proposed to lay up the larger ships in ordi nary, and to equip only two squadrons of light frigates, one to harass the enemy's trade in the Channel, and the other that in the German Ocean. The duke of York objected with considerable force, that such an expedient was in truth an abandonment of the sovereignty of the sea, and an invitation to the Dutch to insult the English coast, and plunder the ma ritime counties. But the difficulty of procuring .money, and the expectation of a speedy peace, weighed with the rest of the council ; and Charles consented to a measure which sub sequently gave him keener regret, and brought on him more lasting disgrace, than perhaps any other act of his govern ment.Secret '^"^e king OI" France, who had completed his treaty preparations for the invasion of Flanders in the with spring, was anxious to free himself from the incum- Louis. brance ofthe war with England. Through Ruvigny, the agent of the French protestants at his court, he persuad ed the earl of St. Alban's, who, it was rumoured, had pri vately married the queen-mother, to proceed to London and sound the disposition of Charles. The English king earnestly wished to try again his fortune by sea ; but the difficulty of fitting out the fleet subdued his repugnance to a treaty, and he consented to send commissioners to Breda, on condition that an armistice should accompany the negotiation.* Louis met with greater difficulty on the part of the States, who, aware that his intended conquest of Flanders must Dee.14. Prove injurious to their interests, sought to divert him from his purpose by continuing the war, from which he had recently pledged himself not to withdraw with- put their consent. But the monarch, irritated by their ob- derstood from the following order in council, published in March of this year: that all persons " who had lent'money for his Majesty's service in the present war, upon the credit or tbe late act for 125,000?. whose orders were of the numbers of 99, 100, and so forwards to 126, should take notice that there remained money for them in bank at the receipt of his Majesty's ex chequer, ready to pay both their principal and interest, and should therefore cause their respective orders and tallies to be brought into the exchequer; and give their acquittances, that they might receive their loans and inter ests, according to the said act." * Clarendon, 419. Crap. III.-) CHARLES II. 139 jections and delays, discovered an expedient by which he disappointed their hopes. Without the knowledge of the ministers at either court he opened a secret negotiation with Charles. Each prince addressed his letters to the queen Henrietta Maria, Louis as to his aunt, Charles as to his mo ther ; and that princess forwarded them to their destination, under covers as from herself. Neither had any real cause of hostility against the other, and the only difficulty arose from a desire in the English king to recover the isles in the West Indies, which had been taken by the French, and on the part of Louis to obtain a pledge that England should not oppose his designs against Spain. At length they compromised these pretensions, and it was agreed that each should abstain from hostilities against the other ; that France should restore her conquests in the West Indies ; that England, during the space of one year, should afford no assistance to Spain ; and that so much of this treaty as was fit to meet the eye of the public should be afterwards inserted in a pub- prl lie treaty. Both kings solemnly pledged themselves to the observance of the articles in a paper under their respective signatures, which for greater privacy and security was de posited with Henrietta Maria, as their common relation and friend.* While the secret treaty proceeded, the French ambassador reiterated his demands at the Hague, The Dutch and four out of the seven provinces, eager for peace, riyeer'n * e resolved to withdraw their contributions towards the expense of the war. De Witt with his party was com pelled to yield ; Breda was named for the place of , the congress, and in the month of May the ambassa- ay dors of the several powers assembled. But the pensionary still thirsted for revenge : he knew that the Dutch fleet was ready to sail, and that England had no fleet to oppose ; and he determined not to throw away the opportunity which for tune had placed in his hands. When the armistice was pro posed, the Dutch immediately refused their consent, on the ground that it would occupy as much time to discuss its con ditions as those ofthe peace itself: and while the English ar gued, and the French remonstrated, De Witt left the Texel in company with De Ruyter, and ordered the fleet to the amount of seventy sail to join him in separate squadrons at the buoy off the Nore. The English government was not taken by surprise. The # For the knowledge of this singular transaction, the first of th« secret treaties between Louis and Charles, we are indebted to Louis himself is his OEuvres, ii. 256. 286. 8,9; v. 399. 405. 140 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. III. warnings of the duke of York had awakened them e to a sense ofthe danger ;. and three months before, orders had been issued to raise a fort at Sheerness, to throw a boom across the Medway at the stakes, to mount the guns on the batteries, and to prepare a competent number of fire- ships. But it was not easy to carry these orders into execu tion. The commissioners of the navy already owed more than 900,000/. Their credit was gone : the sailors refused to serve, the labourers to work, the merchants to sell, without immediate payment : and to procure ready money either by application to the treasury, or by loan from the bankers, was impossible.* De Witt, that he might distract the, attention of the council, ordered one division of his fleet to sail np the Thames as far as Gravesend, and the other to destroy, which was his chief object, the shipping in the Medway. The fort at Sheerness opposed but a feeble re7 sistance. Though Charles, to hasten the completion of the works, had visited them twice during the winter, they were still in an unfinished state, and a few broadsides levelled them with the ground. At the first alarm, Monk, by the royal or der, hastened to the mouth of the Medway. He erected bat teries, and moored guardships, for the protection ofthe boom, and sunk five ships before it in the narrowest part of the channel. He had not completed these preparations, une ' when the Dutch advanced with the wind and tide in their favour ; but the obstruction hi the passage opposed an insuperable bar "to their progress, and they were compelled to fall back with the ebb. During the night, however, they discovered a new channel sufficiently deep for large ships at high water, and in the morning worked their way "ne ' without impediment in this direction. The men of war immediately pointed their guns against the batteries ; and a heavy fireship, running against the boom, hung upon it. A second followed in the like manner ; the chain broke under their united weight ; and, in a short time, the guardships were in a blaze. The hull of the Royal Charles, a first rate, which through neglect of orders had not been removed, became the prize of the conquerors. Monk, disappointed but not disheartened, hasten- to^pno^. ed b*ck to Upnor Castle. The night was employed in mounting guns and collecting ammunition : in the morning the batteries were manned with volunteers from the navy ; and the return of the tide exhibited a sight most galling to the pride of every Englishman,— "-the "ne ' Dutch fleet advancing triumphantly up the river. • See Pepys, in. 156. 162. 9. 174. CHAr.Hf.J CHARLES II. 141 Two men of war led the line ; then came six enormous fire- ships ; after them followed the rest of the squadron. The men of war anchored to receive and return the fire of the batteries; and the fireships, passing behind them, pursued their course, reducing to ashes the three first rates, the Royal James, the Oak, and the London. At the ebb, their com mander Van Ghent, whether he had fully executed his orders, or was intimidated by the warm reception which he experi enced, made the signal to the fleet to fall down the river, and, having burnt two of his own vessels which had grounded, re joined in safety the other division at the Nore.* To the English, if we consider the force of the enemy and the defenceless state of the river, the P0untjle„tai'" loss was much less than they had reason to expect ; ° but the disgrace sunk deep into the heart of the king, and the hearts of his subjects. That England, so lately the mistress ofthe ocean, should be unable to meet her enemies at sea, and that the Dutch, whom she had so often defeated, should ride triumphant in her rivers, burn her ships, and scatter dis may through the capital and the country, were universally subjects of grief and indignation. Many attributed it to that eternal source of every calamity, the imaginary machinations of the papists ;t others were taught to believe that the king had secretly leagued with the enemy for the purpose of de pressing the nation, that he might the more easily establish a despotic government ; and numbers contrasted the disastrous result of the present war against the Dutch under a king, with the glorious result of the former war under a protector. But their reasoning was evidently unjust. Whatever might be the faults of Charles, he had conducted the war with equal spirit, and till this moment with more signal success. Even the disgrace at Chatham, originating from a measure which had been forced upon him by pecuniary distress, had not in reality diminished the power nor impaired the resources of the country. For six weeks De Ruyter continued to sweep the English coast. But his attempts to burn the jje™*e:y ships at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Torbay, were successively defeated; and, though he twice threatened to remount the Thames, the spirited opposition with which he was received by a squadron of eighteen sail, under sir Ed ward Spragge, induced him to renounce the design. In thp mean time the Dutch negotiators, who had purposely pro- * C. Journals, Oct. 31. Pepys, iii. 237- 241, 2. 6. 50; v. 17. Evelyn, ii. ^87.8.221. t Pepys, iii. 245. 252. 142 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ICai*"- III. traded the conferences at Breda, began to be alarmed by the rapid progress of the French army in Flanders ; for Louis, Ma ll soon.after his secret treaty with Charles, passed the ay " frontiers with an army of seventy thousand men, nominally commanded by himself, but really under the guid ance of Turenne. Castel-Rodrigo, the Spanish governor, dis mantled several fortresses ; Binche, Tournay, Oudenarde, Courtrai, and Douai opened their gates ; and Louis was actu ally occupied in the siege of Lisle, when the States hastened to withdraw their objections to the proposals of England, that they might have leisure to secure themselves against the am bition of their powerful ally.* Three treaties were signed by the English commissioners on the same day. By u y ' one with Holland it was stipulated that both par ties should forget past injuries, and remain in their present condition, which confirmed to the States possession of the dis puted island of Pulo Ron, and to the English their conquests of Albany and New York. By the second with France, Louis obtained the restoration of Nova Scotia, and Charles that of Antigua, Monserrat, and part of St. Kitts ; and by the last with Denmark, which country had acceded to the war, as the ally of the Dutch, the relations of amity were re-esta blished between the two crowns.t There Was nothing in the conditions of peace to Unpopu- mortify the pride or to prejudice the interests of the Ciaren- nation ; yet the calamities which had accompanied don. the war, the plague, the fire, and the disgrace at Chatham, though over the two first no human coun sels could have had any control, had soured the temper of the people ; and Charles, anxious to divert attention from his own misconduct, was not unwilling, to sacrifice a victim to the public discontent. Ever since the restoration, Clarendon had exercised the power, though without the name, of prime mi nister ; and to his pernicious counsels it was become the fa shion to attribute every national calamity. It must be con fessed that, with a correct judgment and brilliant talents, he had contrived, whether it arose from the infirmity of his na ture, or the necessity of his situation, to make himself enemies among every class of men. The courtiers had been alienated * The success of Louis produced a benefit to England, which was unex pected : it induced " one Brewer, with about fifty Walloons, who wrought and dyed fine woollen cloths," to migrate to this kingdom. " The king en tertained them against our barbarous law, or rather usage, against foreigners partaking the benefit of natural-born English ; and by them the English, in a few years' time, were instructed to make and dye fine woollen cloths cheep er by forty per cent, than they could do before." Coke, ii. 161. X See them In Dumont, vii. par. i. 40—57. Mem. d'Estrades, ir. 396— 428. Temple, L 481. Chap. III.] CHARLES II. 143 from him by the haughtiness of his manner, and his perpe tual opposition to their suits, their projects, and their extrava gance ; the friends of liberty, by his strenuous advocacy of every claim which he conceived to belong to the prerogative, and his marked antipathy to every doctrine, which seemed to him to savour of republicanism ; and the catholics, the pres byterians, and the several classes of dissenters, by his obsti nate and successful opposition to the indulgence to tender consciences, promised by the king in his declaration from Breda, He had offended the house of commons by reproach ing them with conduct similar to that of the long parliament, and the house of lords by complaining that they suffered the commons to usurp the lead in public business, and were conr tent with maintaining their own privileges.* The king, indeed, had been accustomed to listen to him with respect, almost with awe. But these sentiments gradually wore away. The courtiers mimicked the gravity of Clarendon in the royal pre sence ; they ridiculed his person and manner; they charg ed him with interested motives ; and represented him as a morose pedagogue, claiming to retain the same control over the mind of the man, which he had once exercised over that of the boy. Charles laughed and reproved ; but frequency of repetition insensibly produced effect : and feelings of sus picion and aversion were occasionally awakened in the royal breast. Nor did Clarendon himsejf fail to aid the efforts of his enemies. He often contradicted the favourite opinions of the king ; sometimes carried measures against him in the house of lords ; and, on more than one occasion, so far forgot himself at the council table, as to speak with a vehe mence and authority which hurt the pride of the monarch. His opposition in the house of lords to the bill for indul gence to tender consciences was never forgotten ; and re cently, when the plan of putting the treasury in commission was debated during the parliament at Oxford, his conduct had given deep and lasting offence. He was at last taught to feel that, though he might still be consulted as formerly, he no lohger enjoyed the royal friendship ; and his political oppo nents, seeing the slippery ground on which he stood, labour ed to precipitate his fall.t As early as the year 1663, the" earl of Bristol, a catholic peer, in a moment of irritation, proceeding ^ekim- from some supposed injury offered to him by Cla- {^rUt,,]. rendon, requested an audience of Charles in the i66». presence of lord Arlington ; and, forgetting the re- July 9. * Clarendon, 383— 5. t Clarendon, 245. 8. 321. 358. 361. Life of James, i, 398. 428. Pepysy iv. 268. 144 history of England. [Chap. hi. spect due to the monarch, openly reproached him with his indolence, his expenses* and his amours ; charged him with sacrificing his best friends, and among them him- selfj to the ambition of the chancellor, and ended with a threat that, unless justice were done to him within tWenty- four hours, he would raise a storm, which should astonish both the king and his minister. Bristol escaped With diffi culty from the personal resentment of his sovereign ; and the next day, rising in the house of lords, impeached Clarendon of high treason, and of divers heinous misdemeanors. But this pompous denouncement, when he descended into particu lars, dwindled into the ridiculous Charge that the chancellor had laboured both by his public conduct and private discourse, to create a belief that the king was in heart a papist, and that on himself, his vigilance, and authority, depended the preservation of the protestant establishment. The judges being consulted, replied that none of the offences charged, supposing them proved, could amount to high treason ; and the king, by issuing a warrant for the apprehension of the accuser, put an end to the prosecution. Bristol absconded for a time, and returned not to court till the fall of his adversary.* . This abortive attempt did not dishearten the ene- nbandcuw m'es °^ l^G chancellor. They lost no opportunity him. of undermining his credit with the king or the na tion : men of opposite interests gradually crept into the council ; and his refusal to allow his wife to visit Castle main gave mortal offence both to Charles and his mistress, t The reader is aware of Buckingham's conduct during the last session of parliament. At its conclusion, the king, who had obtained from one of his agents secret information of his in- .» trigues, deprived him of his offices at court, and 1667. ordered him to surrender to the lieutenant of the ^une^"' Tower- Tn? duke concealed himself ; but the agent died; Buckingham made his peace with Castle- * Clarendon, 208. L. Journals, xi. 55. 59, 60. St. Trials, 312—8. Life of James, i. 427. Pepys, ii. 62. 70,90. 95. Clarendon attributes Bristol's enmity to the king's refusal of supplying him with money, which refusal he attributed to tbe chancellor. But the real offence arose out of the follow ing circumstance :— When Charles was annoyed by the reflections made in the house of commons during the debate on the revenue, he informed the house that sir Richard Temple, a leader nf the opposition, had offered, on certain conditions, to obtain for him a more ample revenue than lie could desire. At the request of the commons, he named the earl of Bristol as the bearer of the offer; who hastened to the house, and, being admitted, in an ingenious and eloquent speech vindicated both himself and Temple from the imputation. C. Journals, 1663, June 13. 20. 26; July 1. Tbe giving up of his name was the offence, which he imputed to the advice of Clarendon. * t Clarendon, 361. Life of James, 28. Macpherson, 35, 7. Chap. Ill, J CHARLES II. 145 main, presented himself to the lieutenant, was examined be fore the council, discharged, permitted to kiss the T . 1fi king's hand, and. restored to his former employ ments.* From that moment the doom of Clarendon was sealed. When the Dutch fleet rode victorious in the mouth ofthe river, he had advised the king to dissolve" the parlia ment, and support the troops on the coast by forced contribu tions from the neighbouring counties, to be repaid out of the next supply. This counsel was divulged by some of his ene mies, and represented as a plan to govern the kingdom with a standing army in the place of the parliament. The imputa tion was every Where received with expressions of abhor rence," and provoked the additional charges of venality and ambition. The presents which he had been in the habit of receiving from all who sought his friendship or protection, were held forth as- proofs of his rapacity : that magnificent pile called Clarendon-house was said to be so far beyond the resources of his private fortune; that it must have been raised with the aid of money received from the enemies of his coun try ; and the marriage of his daughter to the duke of York was attributed to his desire of becoming the father of a race of monarchs ; a desire which had moreover led him to in troduce to the royal bed a princess incapable of bearing children, that the crown might descend to the issue of the duchess.f The latter charge was hot only circulated in pub lic, but insinuated to Charles himself, together with the in formation, that the convention parliament would have settled a much more ample revenue on the crown, had not its libe rality been checked -by the jealousy or the presumption of Clarendon. :{: If the king appeared to listen to these sugges tions, he still refused to believe that the chancellor had been unfaithful to his trust in any point of importance : but he was daily beset by Buckingham, Arlington, sir William Coventry, andrlady Castlemain, who represented to him the discontent of the nation, the power of the chancellor's enemies, and the probable consequences of an impeachment in parliament ;, and he at last informed that minister, through the duke of York, that he expected him to resign, as an expedient by, which he might at the same time save himself from prosecution, * Clarendon, 434. Pepys, iii. 276. 287, 8. 292. Carte, ii, 347. 9. i " How far this jealousy may haye entered into the king himself, to make him more easily part with his minister, I leave it for others to guess." lAte of James, 393. Burnet, i. 435. X " Some have thought, not improbably, that this remissness of his pro ceeded from a jealousy that tbe king was inwardly inclined to popery." Life of James, 393. On the contrary, it is said by sir William Conventry, that it proceeded from an overweening opinion of his own influence, " that he could have the command of parliaments for ever." Pepys, iv. 276. Vol. XIL 19 146 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LChap. 111. and spare his sovereign the pain of taking his office from him. But the pride of Clarendon scorned to bend to And de- the storm ; and consciousness of innocence urged of the'seal' n™ t0 Drave the malice of his enemies. He waited Aug. 26. on the king, and avowed his determination not to resign — it would amount to a confession of guilt ; expressed a hope that the seal would not be taken from him — it would prove that his sovereign was dissatisfied with his ser vices ; and conjured him to disbelieve the suggestions of lady Castlemain — for she was an angry and vindictive woman. After a conference of two hours, he retired, leaving the king disappointed by his obstinacy, and offended by his allusions to " the lady." The duke of York pleaded strongly in behalf of his father-in-law. But he himself was no longer in favour : the influence of the brother yielded to that of the mistress ; and the chancellor received a positive order to surrender the A 30 great seal, which was delivered to sir Orlando Bridgeman, chief justice of the common pleas* In six weeks the parliament assembled. Buck- neachea ingham had previously been restored to his place in by the the council and the bed-chamber ; and Bristol, issu- commons. jug from his retirement, 'had appeared again at court. Oct 15 ^"° an a^dress of thanks from the two houses for the removal ofthe chancellor, the king replied, by pro mising never more t© employ him in any capacity whatsoever. It may be that by this promise he hoped to satisfy the ene mies of Clarendon ; but they argued that the fallen statesman might, oh some future day, recover the favour of his sovereign, or be restored by his son-in-law, should that prince succeed to the throne ; their personal safety demanded precautions against his subsequent revenge ; and to consummate his ruin, it was resolved to proceed against him by impeachment. Seventeen charges were fabricated in a committee of the lower house, imputing to him venality and cruelty in the discharge of his office of chancellor, the acqui sition by unlawful means of enormous wealth, the sale of Dun kirk to France, the disclosure of the king's secrets to his ene mies, and the design of introducing a military government without the intervention -of parliament Nothing, however, * Clarendon, 422—5. 7. 435—40. Life of James, 427—9. Macpher- s.on, Pap. 138. Pepys, iii. 332. 8. Pepys tells a laughable story of Castle main, who, when she heard about noon that Clarendon had left the king after their interview, leaped out of bed, and ran into the aviary, that she might observe his countenance as he passed. 334. — Bridgeman was unfor tunate in his promotion. Afraid of deciding wrong, he laboured to please both sides, and always gave something to each of the contending parties in his court. He lost his reputation. North's Lives, etc, i. 179. Chap. Ill] CHARLES II. 147 could be more informal than the proceedings on this occasion. No papers were ordered, no witnesses were examined ; the several charges were adopted on the credit of members, who engaged to produce proof whenever it might be deemed necessary ; and the house in a body im- 12' peached Clarendon at the bar of the house of lords of high treason, and other crimes and misdemeanors, requesting, at the same time, that he might be committed to custody, till they should exhibit articles against him.* It is probable, that from the absence of the duke of York, (he was confined to his chamber by the And pro- small-pox), the enemies of Clarendon had promised {he'fords'' themselves an easy victory. But the duke commis sioned his friends to defend his father-in.-law ; the bishops felt themselves bound to support him as the patron of orthodoxy ; and several peers, convinced of his innocence, cheerfully se conded their efforts. They did not, indeed, dare openly to advocate his cause, but they entrenched themselves behind forms and privileges ; they contended that to commit on a general charge was contrary to ancient practice ; that the first precedent in its favour was furnished by the impeachment of the earl of Strafford, a precedent which the house would not follow, because the attainder had been reversed, and the pro ceedings erased from the journals ; and they maintained that the lords ought to be careful how they sanctioned a pretension, which might prove in future times prejudicial to them and their posterity. After several animated °v" debates, it was twice resolved by a small majority, Nov 20 that the accused should not be committed, because no specific charge was contained in the impeachment.t The commons resented this decision of the lords : Cnar]es conferences were repeatedly held, and each house orders pertinaciously adhered to its former opinion. The him to king's perplexity daily increased. He observed that {Jin'gdom. the proceedings began to take the same course as in the impeachment of the earl of Strafford ; and the calamities which followed the condemnation of that nobleman stared him in the face. He proposed, as an expedient, that the earl should clandestinely leave the kingdom ; but no argument, no entreaty, could prevail on Clarendon to take a step, which he deemed derogatory from his character ; and the monarch, * C. Journals, Nov. 6. 8. 11. State Trials, vi. 330. Clarendon, 445—8. 450. Life of James, i. 431. Pepys, iii. 410, 411, 420. t Clar. 450. L. Journ. 135— 7. Pepys, iii. 415. Clarendon, in a letter to Ormond, says, " I must not omit to tell you, that the duke of York hath been and is as gracious to me, and as much concerned for me, as is possible. I have not many other friends to brag of." Carte, n. App. 38. 148 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. rCBAp. ih. irritated by his obstinacy, began to speak of him in terms of aversion. His enemies now ventured to make use of the roy al name. It was rumoured that the king had also offences to punish, that Clarendon had presumed to thwart him in his amour with the beautiful Miss Stewart, and had persuaded her to marry the duke of Richmond. The earl, in a letter which he sent by the lord keeper, denied" this charge : the king read it, burnt it deliberately in the flame of a candle, and coolly replied, that he was unable to understand its contents, but wondered what Clarendon was doing in En gland. * This hint, however, was lost on the determined mind of the fallen minister. It was followed by an unavowed message delivered by the bishop of Hereford ; the same advice was then urged by the French ambassador, and, when every other expedient had failed, the duke of York, by express command, N 29 cal"ried to him a royal order to retire to the conti nent. He reluctantly obeyed ; and having address ed a vindication of himself to the house of lords, secretly withdrew to France.! „ . , His departure put an end to the quarrel between Dished by tne two houses,} but did not satisfy the resentment act of par- or the apprehensions of his enemies. His vindica- liament. i\on was voted a scandalous and seditious libel, and ordered to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. In a few days followed an act banishing him for life, disabling him from holding office, subjecting him to the penalties of high treason if he returned to England, and rendering him incapable of pardon unless by act of parliament^ * Clarendon, 454—6. Life of James, i. 432. .L. Journ. 154. That Charles was offended with the marriage, is certain. Clar. 453. If we may believe Stewart herself, she wished to marry to relieve herself from his im portunities, and therefore accepted the offer of the duke of Richmond with the king's acquiescence. Pepys, iii. 203. But the report was that Charles thought of her for his own wife, that he consulted Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, on the means of procuring a divorce, that Sheldon revealed the secret to Clarendon, and that Clarendon, to secure the succession to his daughter's issue, brought about the marriage of Stewart with the duke of Richmond. Burnet i. 436. Lord Dartmouth's Note, 438. Pepys, iii. 293. It makes against this story, that when a divorce was suggested after wards to Charles, he replied that his conscience would not permit it. Life of James, i. 439. t It is certain that the duke took the order to Clarendon ; yet lord Corn- bury says, that his father withdrew, because it was intended to dissolve the parliament, and try him by a jury of peers. Carte, ii. App. 39. X The commons, however, entered two resolutions on their journals, that in such cases the accused ought to be secured, and that, when he is in custo dy, the lords may limit a time within which the particular charge may be specified. C. Journ. Dec. 5. • $ L. Journ. 154. 157. 162. 7. 9. St. 19, Car. ii. c, 10. Chap. Ill] CHARLES II. 149 Notwithstanding this severity, it is certain that he fell a victim to the hostility of party. The charges against him were not supported by any lawful proof, and most,«if not all, were satisfactorily refuted in his answer.* Yet he must not be considered an immaculate character. His dread of re publicanism taught him to advocate every claim of the pre rogative, however unreasonable, and his zeal for orthodoxy led him to persecute all who dissented from the establishment. He was haughty and overbearing ; his writings betray in many instances his contempt for veracity : and his desire of amassing wealth provoked Evelyn to remark of him, that " the lord chancellor never did, nor would do, any thing but for money."t He bore with impatience the tedium of exile ; but bis frequent solicitations for permission to return were treated with neglect by Charles, who felt no inclination to en gage in a new contest for the sake of a man, whom he had long before ceased to esteem. Clarendon died at Rouen in Normandy, in 1674. * Clarendon, 478. t See Historical Inquiry respecting the character of Clarendon by the Hon. George Agar Ellis, 1827. 150 CHAP. IV CHARLES II. THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE. SECRET NEGOTIATION WITH FRANCE.— CONVERSION OF THE DUKE OF YORK. INTRIGUES TO ALTER THE SUCCESSION. DIVORCE OF LORD ROOS. VISIT OF THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS. SECRET TREATY WITH FRANCE. DEATH OF THE DUCHESS. SECOND SECRET TREATY. MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS. CHARACTER OF THE CABAL. STOPPAGE OF PAYMENTS FROM THE EXCHEQUER. DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE. OF WAR AGAINST THE STATES. — VICTORY AT SOUTHWOLD BAY. — FRENCH CONQUESTS BY LAND. PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT. THE IN DULGENCE RECALLED. THE TEST ACT PASSED. By the exile of Clarendon the ministry, which had T vlrv Deen established at the restoration, was entirely dis solved. The duke of Ormond resided in his go vernment of Ireland, Southampton was dead, Albemarle in capacitated by age and infirmity, and Nicholas had resigned. The new cabinet, or, as it was called in the language of the time, " the king's cabal,"* consisted of the duke of Bucking ham, who held no ostensible office till he purchased that of master of the horse from Monk, of sir Henry Bennet, now lord Arlington, principal secretary of state, of the lord keeper Bridgeman, and of sir William Coventry, one of the commis sioners ofthe treasury.! Ofcthese, Coventry, by his superior information and abilities, excited the jealousy of his col leagues ; but unfortunately possessed not the art of pleasing * Pepys, iv. 343. The word " cabal" at this period meant a secret coun cil. See the Diaries of Pepys and Evelyn, and Whitelock, (p. 477) as early as the year 1650. By D'Estrades the present ministers are called "la cabale d'Espagne." IVEstrades, v. 39. The whole council was divided into three committees: one for foreign affairs, the real cabal ; another for militaryand naval affairs; a third for trade ; and a fourth for the redress of grievances. Jan. 31. t Southampton, the lord treasurer, died May 16th, 1667, and June 1st the treasury was put into commission. The commissioners were, the duke of Albemarle, Lord Ashley, sir Thomas Clifford, sir William Coventry, and sir John Duncombe. Chap. IV.] CHARLES II. 151 the king, who, from his habit of predicting evil, gave him the name of " the visionary.'' Buckingham and Arlington were bitter enemies at heart; though the necessity of their situa tion made them apparent friends. Bridgeman was consulted for convenience. Hitherto he had acquired no particular claim to the favour ofthe monarch, or the confidence of the people. «*. The rapid conquests of the French king in Flan ders during the last summer, had drawn the eyes Jnfan"^Ie of Europe towards the seat of war in that country. The pope, Clement IX. through pity for the young king of Spain, and the States, alarmed at the approach of the French arms to their frontier, offered their mediation. To both Louis returned the same answer, that he sought nothing more than to vindicate the rights of his wife : that he should be content to retain possession of the conquests which he had already made, or to exchange them either for Luxemburg, or Franche- comte, with the addition of Aire, St. Omer, Douai, Cambrai, and Charleroi, to strengthen his northern frontier ; and that he was willing to consent to an armistice for three months, that the Spanish government might have leisure to make its election between these alternatives. But Spain was not suf ficiently humbled to submit to so flagrant an injustice ; the time was sullenly suffered to pass by, and the me diators renewed their instances to obtain from Louis Jan 17 a prorogation of the armistice for the additional space of three months. He consented to abide by his former offer during that term ; but refusing the armistice, overran in the mean time the whole province of Franche-comte, for the sole purpose, as he pretended, of compelling Spain to come to a decision.* If it was the interest of England, it was still more the interest of the States, to exclude France from Temple the possession of Flanders. Under this persuasion, Hague.' " the new ministers had despatched sir William 1667. Temple to the Hague, with a proposal that both Dec< 22- nations should unite with Spain, and compel the French monarch to retire within the former limits of his king dom. The States were embarrassed. On the one hand, they considered the interposition of the Span- Jan g^ ish Netherlands as the great bulwark of their inde pendence against the superior power of France : on the other, they hesitated to engage in a dangerous war against an an cient friend and ally at the advice of a prince whom they knew to be their personal enemy. But Temple acted with promp- * OEuvres de Louis, ii. 326, 334. 344—55 ; v. 419. 152 HISTORY OP ENGLAND. [Chap. IV. titude and address ; he appealed to their fears ; he represent ed the danger of delay, and, contrary to all precedent at the Hague, in the short space of five days he negotiated an' ' three treaties, by which, if he did not succeed to the full extent of his instructions, he trusted to oppose at least an effectual barrier to the further progress of the invaders. The first was a defensive league by which the two nations bound themselves to aid each other against any aggressor with a fleet of forty men of war, and an army of six thousand four hundred men, or with assistance in money in proportion to the deficiency in men : by the second, the contracting powers agreed by every means in their power to dispose France to conclude a peace with Spain on the alternative al ready offered, to persuade Spain to accept one part of that alternative before the end of May, and, in case of a refusal, to compel her by war ; on condition that France should not in terfere by force of arms.* These treaties were meant for the public eye : the third was secret, and bound both Eng land and the States, in case of the refusal of Louis, to unite with Spain in the war, and not to lay down their arms till the peace of the Pyrenees were confirmed. In a few days, Swe den acceded to the league, which from that circumstance ob tained the name ofthe triple alliance. t Louis received the news of this transaction with an air of haughty indifference. His favourite commanders, Conde and Turenne, exhorted him to bid defiance to the interfe rence of the three powers : his cabinet ministers to be con tent with the alternative which he had himself proposed. He assented to their advice ; but for a reason, of which they were ignorant. In consequence of the infirm state of the young king of Spain, he had secretly concluded with the em peror Leopold an " eventual" treaty of partition of the * Temple, Works, i. 415. After all, this was little more than the States had already proposed to Louis, as appears from a letter from him, dated Jan. 17, before be had heard of these treaties. Ce seroit un coup pour la paix, qui la rendroit infaillible et prompte, si le roi de la Grande-Bre- tagne entroit dans le meme sentiment des etats-generaux, d'obliger les Espagnols a l'acceptation des deux alternatives. OEuvres, v. 421. Si la fa^on en eut et<5 un peu plus obligeante, il n'y auroit eu rien a desirer. Tem ple, i. 490. t Temple's Works, i. 312 — 84. Dumont, vii. 66. 68. Much praise has been lavished on this negotiation, as if it had arrested Louis in his career of victory, and preserved the independence of Europe. From the refer ences in the preceding and following notes, it will be seen that it accom plished nothing more than the_ French king himself was anxious to effect. He had already stipulated in " the eventual treaty" with the emperor, to re quire from Spain the same conditions as were now prescribed by England and the States ; he had employed the influence of Leopold to obtain the consent of the Spanish cabinet to those conditions, and he had commis sioned d'Estrades to solicit the co-operation of England and the States, both by advice and threats, to extort lhat consent. Chap. IV.] CHARLES II. 153 Spanish monarchy on the expected death of Charles, and by that treaty had already bound himself to do the very thing which it was the object of the allied pow ers to effect.* The marquess of Castel-Rodrigo, the Spanish go vernor of the Netherlands, sought delay, under Treaty of the vain hope of inducing the Dutch (of England chapeile he was secure) to engage at once in the war. But the intervention of the emperor, in consequence of the even tual treaty, put an end to the hesitation of the Spanish ca binet ; the ambassadors of the several powers met A .. 22 at Aix-la-Chapelle ; Spain made her choice ; the conquered towns in Flanders were ceded to Louis, and peace was re-established between the two crowns.t The conduct of Charles during the whole of this transaction served to raise him in the estimation of Europe. But the States could ill dissemble their disappointment. They never doubted that Spain, with the choice in her hands, would preserve Flanders, and part with Franche-comt6. It was this persuasion that in duced them to refuse the first project of the English ministry, and to prefer the binding of Louis to his offer of the alterna tive. The result was owing, it is said, to the resentment of Castel-Rodrigo, who, finding that the States would not join with England to confine France within its ancient limits, re solved to punish them by making a cession, which brought the French frontier to the very neighbourhood of the Dutch territory.^ When the parliament assembled after the ad journment, Buckingham discovered that his success Proceed- against Clarendon in the last session had proceeded, Ji^'entf^ not from his own influence, but the unpopularity of Feb. 10. that statesman. His immediate dependents in the low er house were heard without attention ; and the jealousy of the churchmen had been awakened by his close connexion with the presbyterians, that ofthe cavaliers by his discharge of the republicans, whom the late administration had incarcerated as a measure of precaution. Neither did it add to the reputation of the prime minister that his profligacy had led him, for the sake of lady Shrewsbury, with whom he lived in open adul tery, to fight a duel, in which one of his seconds was Jan lg killed on the spot, and the earl of Shrewsbury, the in- * OEuvres de Louis, ii. 360—72. See the account of the " eventual treaty," whioh was kept secret for almost a century, in the works of Louis, vi. 402. t Temple, 420— 56. D'Estrades, v. 351. Dumont, vii. 89. 91. Louis, vi. 417. ' X Temple, 414—7. Vol. XII. 20 154 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. IV. jured -husband, was mortally wounded* The commons be gan by instituting a rigid inquiry into the conduct of persons employed under the former administration. Prince Rupert and the duke of Albemarle had already furnished narratives of their proceedings during the war : commissioner Pett was -impeached of culpable neglect in the care of his majesty's ships when the Dutch«ntered the river ; Penn of the embez zlement of prize goods to the value of 115,000/. ; andBrunk- hard, who had absconded, was expelled the house for his presumption in having ordered sail to be slackened during the pursuit after the victory of the 3d of June, 1665. To these proceedings Buckingham had no objection ; but, to his sur prise, the commons voted only one half of the sum which he demanded under the head of naval expenses, and obstinately resisted all his efforts to obtain some favour for the dissenters in accordance with the wish of the sovereign. The con venticle act would expire within six months ; and Charles, who still felt himself bound by the declaration of Breda, was anx ious to prevent its renewal. Aware of the rock on which his former -endeavours had split, he was careful to make no mention of the catholics : he confined his request of indul gence to the -dissenters among his protestant subjects ; but the very report of his intention had awakened the usual cry that the church was in danger ^ on the morning, just before he expressed his wish to the two houses, the commons voted an address to him, to put in execution all the laws against non- conformistsand papists ; and afterwards, a bill was passed and sent to the lords, having for its object to continue the exist ing penalties against the frequenters of conventicles. This, however, did not prevent the friends of toleration from pro posing, in conformity with the royal suggestion, measures for a "i 28. t'le comPrehensi°n °f protestant dissenters ; but the p motion, after several adjourned debates, was nega tived, on a division, by a majority of more than two to one.t The remaining business in parliament was now in- Dispute terrupted by a most violent quarrel between the two ^ etween n0UseSj on a qUestion of privilege. Several years houses. had passed since Skinner, a private trader, preferred to the king in council a complaint of divers injuries which he alleged that he had suffered from the agents of the * Pepys, iv. 15. Lady Shrewsbury was daughter to the earl of Cardi gan. Report said that, in the dress of a page, she held' the duke's horse while he was lighting with her husband. — When Buckingham took her to his own house, the duchess observed to him, that it was not for her and his mistress to live together; he replied — " Why, so I have been thinking, ma dam, and therefore have ordered your coach to carry you to your father's." Pepys, 109. t Pepys, iv- 34. C. Journals, Ap. 28. Pari. Hist. iv. 413—422. Chap. IV.J CHARLES II. 155 East-India company. After several hearings, the council commissioned the archbishop of Canterbury, 1656. .the chancellor, and two other lords to effect a com- Marcl1 23' promise between the parties ; but the company refused to abide by their decision, and the king was advised to recommend the case to the attention of the house of ec' " lords, as the supreme court of judicature in the nation. But the opponents of Skinner objected to the jurisdic tion of the lords. The cause, it was maintained, 1667. did not come before them by way of appeal, or bill jan' 2|' of review, or writ of error. It was an original complaint, which must be first heard in the ordinary courts of law. In the following session, Skinner petitioned the lords for redress ; the company renewed their ®ct- ®>- objection ; but the house pronounced the complain ant entitled to damages, and appointed a committee to assess the amount. After the adjournment, the company petitioned the house of commons for protection 1668- against the usurpation of the lords. By the upper arc house this petition was voted a scandalous libel : the lower not only received it, but passed resolutions censur- ing the conduct of the lords as contrary to law, and derogatory from the rights of the subject. They were met with opposite resolutions from the upper house, declaring the votes of the commons a breach of privilege, and the proceed ings of the lords warranted both by law and precedent. Thus open war was declared ; each house obstinately main tained its own pretensions ; the lords resolved to pass no other bill than that of the supply ; and the commons .re- jected a bill which had been sent to them for the re- ay gulation of the trials of peers. By the king, the ninth of Slay had been fixed for the conclusion of the ses- sion. Early in the morning the commons sent a ay message to the lords, proposing a suspension of all proceed ings in the cause till the next meeting of parliament, and hav ing received no answer, resolved that whosoever should put in execution the orders or sentence of the house of lords in the case of Thomas Skinner, should be deemed a traitor to the liberties of Englishmen, and an infringer of the privileges of the house of commons. The king, having given the royal assent to the bills which were prepared, ordered the two houses to adjourn, and expressed a hope that, before he should meet them again, some expedient might be discovered for the accommodation of this difference. The commons obey ed : the lords continued to sit, called before them sir Samuel Barnardiston, the govearor of the company, and committed him to the custody of the black rod, till he should have paid 156 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chat. 1 V. to the king a fine of 300/. Having thus vindicated their au thority, they also adjourned.* At the restoration of peace, trade quickly return- Licenti- ed into its ancient channels ; the murmurs of dis- ousness at content ^ere gradually hushed ; and the expiration of the conventicle act afforded relief and satisfaction to the dissenters. The present proved the most tranquil pe riod of the king's reign, but it was disgraced by the extrava gance and licentiousness of the higher classes. The gallants of the court shocked the more sober of the citizens by their open contempt ofthe decencies of life,t while Charles laughed at their follies, and countenanced them by his example.- At the same time that he renewed his visits and attentions to the duchess of Richmond, he robbed the theatres of two cele brated actresses, known to the public by the dignified appella tions of Moll Davies and Nell Gwin. Davies had attained emi nence as a dancer — Gwin attracted admiration in the charac ter and dress of a boy. The former received a splendid es tablishment in Suffolk-street, and bore the king a daughter, afterwards married into the noble family of the Radclyffes. The latter became the mother of the first duke of St. Albans. Charles never allowed her to interfere in matters' of state ; but he appointed her of the bed-chamber to the queen, and assigned her lodgings in the neighbourhood ofthe court. She was so wild, and witty, and eccentric, that he found in her company a perpetual source of amusement, a welcome relief from the cares that, weighed so heavily upon him at times, in the subsequent years of his reign. Habit, however, still pre served to Castlemain the empire, which she had formerly ac quired. She suppressed all appearances of jealousy, and sought her revenge by allowing herself the same liberties in which her paramour indulged.^ While Charles pursued his pleasures, Bucking- If RiS"kS ^am S0US^lt to consolidate his own power. By de- ingham. Srees he weeded all, of whose fidelity he was sus picious, out of the different departments of the ad- * St. Trials, vi. 710—63. L. Journ. xii. 420. 7. Pari. Hist. iv. 422. Marv. 109. On the 8th of May the commons sate on this question from dinner time till five the next morning. Marvell, i. 107. Pepys, iv. 103. Barnardiston remained in custody till the night of Aug. 10, the day before the expiration of adjournment. By whose authority he was discharged, he did not know. Pail. iv. 431. t See Pepys, iv. 116.118. 145. Sir Charles Sedley and lord Buckhurst distinguished themselves above others. Ibid. 185, 6, 7. X Pepys, iv. 10. 14. 90. 11 1. 223. 250. Evelyn, ii. 339. Burnet, i. 457. Sandford, 652.4. About this time, May 11, a meteor was seen, and the ignorance and bigotry of the people are amusingly described by Pepys on the occasion. " The world do make much discourse of it, their apprehen sions being mighty full of the rest of the city to be burned, and the papists to cut our throats." iv. 113. v l Chap. IV.] charles ii. 157 ministration. Secretary Morrice was exchanged for sir John Trevor ; the duke of Ormond, after a long struggle surrender ed the government of Ireland to the lord Robartes ; and Co ventry himself was provoked to furnish a decent pretext for his dismissal. Buckingham had procured a farce to be writ ten for the purpose of ridiculing him on the stage. Coventry sent the duke a challenge ; the matter was laid before the king in council ; and the challenger was sent to the Tower, and deprived of office. But the principal person, against whom he directed his attacks, was the duke of York. He was aware of the contempt which that prince expressed for his character, and of the influence exercised by the duchess, Clarendon's daughter, oyer the mind of her husband. James received repeated affronts in the name of the king, which he bore without complaint. The conduct of the admiralty was blamed ; his friends were displaced ; and the dependents of his adversary were introduced into his office in defiance of his remonstrances. It was rumoured that he had lost the royal confidence, and would soon be deprived of his place of lord high admiral. But Charles was recalled to a sense of the pro tection which he owed his brother, by the boldness of an old cavalier, sir William Armourer, who told him publicly of the reports in circulation respecting his jealousy of the duke of York. He instantly replied, that they were false ; and when Buckingham, under pretence of fear for his life from the re sentment of James, affected to travel surrounded by armed men, the king laughed in his face at the utter folly of the in sinuation. The minister began to feel alarm : he turned to solicit a reconciliation with the duke, and received a contemp tuous refusal.* Buckingham, however, might depend on the royal favour as long as he could supply the king with mo- m'"aaSUr|,al ney. That nothing was to be obtained from the lir berality of the parliament, had been proved by the proceedings in the last session ; and an attempt was therefore made lo re duce the annual expenditure below the amount of the royal income. On examination, it was found that the yearly re ceipts did not exceed 1,030,000/. ; by a new regula tion, three-fourths of this sum were allotted to defray u y ' the expenses of the civil list, and of the remaining fourth, 100,000/. was appropriated to discharge the interest of the * Life of James, 432—40. Macph. Pap. i. 41. 3. 5. 7. 50. Pepys, iv. 151. 5. 8. 188. 191, 2. 5. 246. 9. 255. 7. 262. The reports mentioned by Penys are confirmed by the duke of Ormond: " Arlington told me that I joined too much in my counsel and conversation with men unsatisfied: and (which I wondered al) he named the duke and the archbishop of Canter bury." Carte, ii. App. 67. 158 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. (.Chap. IV. public debt, the remainder to cover accidental deficiencies, and to pay, as far as it would go, the several pensions granted by the king.* But this plan of economy accorded not with the Secret ne- royal disposition, nor did it offer any prospect of ^?tiation extinguishing the debt. Charles remembered the France. promise of pecuniary assistance from France in the beginning of his reign ; and though his previous ef forts to cultivate the friendship of Louis had been defeated by an unpropitious course of events, he resolved to renew the experiment. Immediately after the peace of Aix-la-Cha- pelle, Buckingham opened a negotiation with the duchess of Orleans, the king's sister in France, and Charles, in his con versation with the French resident, apologized for his con- duct in forming the triple alliance, and openly ex- ay " pressed his wish to enter into a closer union, a more intimate friendship, with Louis. These overtures were at first received with coldness and reserve, which, instead of checking, seemed to stimulate the ardour ofthe king. There was one point in which both monarchs agreed, their hatred of the Dutch. Charles could not forget their inhospitality during the time of his exile ; the unsuccessful termination of the late war had strengthened his dislike ; and he ardently wished for the opportunity of gratifying his revenge. On the other hand, the pride of Louis had often been offended by the pride of these republicans ; and their presumption in acced ing to the secret articles in the triple alliance was deemed by him the strongest proof of their ingratitude. About the end of the year the communications between the two princes be came more open and confidential ; French money, or the promise of French money, was received by the English mi nisters ; the negotiation began to assume a more regular form, and the most solemn assurances of secrecy were given, that their real object might be withheld from the knowledge, or even the suspicion, of the States.t In this stage of the proceedings Charles received Duke of an important communication from his brother York be- james# Hitherto that prince had been an obedient * See it at length in Ralph, i. 175. t See the papers in Dalrymple, ii. 4 — 21. They are all published as re ferring to the same subject. But this is a mistake. The letters of Feb. 27, 1669, in p. 4, and of Jan. 19, 1669, in p. 19, ought to be dated in 1665, and lhat of Feb. 9, 1669, in p. 21, in the year 1666. This is evident from their contents. Also Macpherson, i. 56. The secret, however, was not kept. For the sole information of the king of Sweden, PHffendorf, his agent, was permitted by Turenne to read a letter from Colbert, the ambassador in Eng land, who boasted of his successs, adding that he had made some of the leading ministers to feel, sentir toute l'etendue de la liberalite de sa ma- jeste, This Puffendorf communicated to de Witt. Temple, ii. 40. Chap. IV.] CHARLES II. 1 59 and zealous son of the church of England ; but Dr. comes a Heylin's History of the Reformation had shaken his Catholic- religious credulity, and the result of the inquiry was a convic tion that it became his duty to reconcile himself with the church of Rome. He was not blind to the dangers to which such a change would expose him ; and he therefore purposed to con tinue outwardly in communion with the established church, while he attended at the catholic service in private. But, to his surprise, he learned from Symonds, a Jesuit missionary, that no dispensation could authorize such duplicity of conduct : a similar answer was returned to the same question from the pope, and James immediately took his resolution. He com municated to the king in private that he was determined to embrace the catholic faith; and Charles, without hesitation, replied that he was of the same mind, and would consult with the duke on the "subject in the presence of lord Arundel, lord Arlington, and Arlington's confidential friend, sir Thomas Clifford. Of these three, the first was a known catholic ; the other two had hitherto professed themselves protestants, but more for fashion's sake, than through any real attachment to the reformed creed. They, like most others in the higher circles of society at that period, had, in the language of James, " their religion still to choose." The meeting was held in the duke's closet. Charles, with tears in his eyes, lamented the hard- Secret con- ship of being compelled to profess a religion which ^igg^"' he did not approve, declared his determination to Jan. 25. emancipate himself from this restraint, and request ed the opinion of those present, as to the most eligible means of effecting his purpose with safety and success. They ad vised him to communicate his intention to Louis, and to solicit the powerful aid of that monarch.* Here occurs a very interesting question, — was Charles sincere, or not ? That of the two churches he preferred the more ancient, there can be no doubt. Both the duke of Or mond and Daniel O'Nial had seen reason to suspect him of a secret leaning towards the catholic worship about the time of the conferences at the Pyrenees ; and he had recently avow ed the same to Arlington and Cliffbrd.t But the king's re ligious belief was of his own creation. To tranquillize his * James, i. 440. Dalrymple, ii. 22. Macpher. i. 50- 52. See also the travels of Cosmo for the orthodoxy of James, 456. t Carte's Ormond, ii. 254. James i. 441. That he was a staunch protestant in 1658 is evident from the papers in Thurloe, i. 740—5; but in 1669, tbe author of Cosmo's Travels remarks, that though he " observes with exact attention the religious rites of the church of England, there is reason to believe that he does not entirely acquiesce, and thathe may perhaps cherish; other inclinations." 456. 160 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. IV. conscience, he had persuaded himself that his immoralities were but trifling deviations from rectitude, which a God of infinite mercy would never visit with severity ; and, as for speculative doctrines, the witty and profligate monarch was not the man to sacrifice his ease and to endanger his crown for the sake of a favourite creed. He was the most accom plished dissembler in his dominions ; nor will it be any in justice to his character to suspect, that his real object was to deceive both his brother and the king of France. In his next letter to his sister Henrietta, he informs her that the duke had been brought into " the business on the score of religion," and he openly told her at Dover, that " he was not so well satisfied with the catholic religion, or his own condition, as to make it his faith."* Now, however, the secret negotiation proceeded Progress of with greater activity ; and lord Arundel, accompani- tion™SOt™~ ed by sir Richard Bellings.t hastened to the French court. He solicited- from Louis the present of a considerable sum, to enable the king to suppress any insur rection which might be provoked by his intended conversion, i and offered the co-operation of England in the projected in vasion of Holland, on the condition of an annual subsidy during the continuation of hostilities. To these proposals no direct objection was made ; and the discussion turned chiefly on one point, whether the declaration of the king's catholicity should precede or follow the declaration of war. James, with all the fervour of a proselyte, urged his brother to publish his conversion without delay. War, by creating a want of money, would render him dependent on the bounty of parliament ; but now he was his own master ; the army was loyal ; all the governors of garrisons were attached to his person : the sufferings of the non-conformists from the intole rance of the established church would teach them to look on any change as a benefit, and within the pale of the establish ment itself there were numbers who had no settled notions of religion, but were ready to fashion their creed by their conve nience. Louis, on the contrary, represented to the king, that a pre mature declaration might endanger his crown and his person ; that nine-tenths of his subjects were hostile to the catholic faith ; that religious discord acted with the fury and the rapidi ty of a volcano ; that insurrection was to be expected in the * Dalrymple, i. 226 ; ii. 22. t Bellings bad been secretary to the catholic confederacy in Ireland, and since the restoration had been confidentially employed by Clarendon in se veral foreign negotiations. On this occasion he was instructed to draw the articles of the treaty. James, i. 442. Chap. IV.] CHARLES II. 161 capital and in every part of his dominions, and that his army was too small, his friends were too few to countenance the hope of his being able to suppress his opponents. Charles made but a faint endeavour to refute this reasoning. The at tempt, he acknowledged, wore the appearance of madness, yet there were reasons to think that it might succeed. In these discussions the year passed away. At Christmas the king publicly received the sacrament ; the absence of James, who had been accustomed to accompany his brother, though it did not escape notice, awakened no suspicion.* After repeated adjournments, the parliament had been suffered to meet in October. The commons Meeting immediately reviyed the quarrel with the lords res- mfenarlia' pecting the case of Skinner. They ordered the Oct! 19. printer of " The Grand Question concerning the Ju dicature ofthe House of Lords" to be prosecuted, voted that Barnardiston had behaved like a good. commoner of England, and passed a bill, vacating the judgment pronounced against him, as contrary to law and the privileges of parliament. It was immediately rejected by the lords,, who, on their part, passed a. bill in vindication of their jurisdiction, which met with a similar fate in the commons. For some time no farther communication took place between the two houses, and the king, to preyent a more violent rupture, put an end to the ses sion by adjournment. The interval was spent by him in earnest endeavours to heal this misunder- ec' " standing ; and, when they met again, he recommended to both to erase all .the proceedings out ofthe journals, and to abstain ' from the renewal of the question; They consented : in appearance each house was replaced in the same pei, 14 situation in which it stood before the quarrel : in re- Feb. 22. ality the victory was gained fey the common^. By the erasures, the two judgments of the lords .were vacated, and from that moment their claim to original jurisdiction in civil causes has been silently abandoned.! The public business now occupied- the attention of Earliament, 1. The expiration of" the conventicle act New con- ad raised the hopes of the dissenters, and the lord- a*"'10'8 ' keeper and chief justice Hales had been employed to draw an act of comprehension, by which the greater part of them might be incorporated with the establishment. On the one side, Wilkins, bishop of Chester, with Tillotson, Stil- Hngfleet, and Burton ; on the other, Bates, Manton, and Bax- * Dalrymple, ii. 30—37, Life of James, i. 442. Macpher. i. 50. t L. Journ. xii. 287- 291. Com. Journ. Feb. 22. Pari. Hist. iv. 431. St- Trials, vi. 763—70. ' " Vol. XII. 21 162 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. iCnsr.tV.- ter* were consulted : and, to remove the chief stumbling-block, the controversy respecting the validity of presbyterian ordi nation, it was ingeniously proposed that the bishop in the form of re-ordination should make use of the words, " to serve as minister in any parish in England." But the agitation of the project threw the kingdom into a ferment. Parker and Patrick distinguished themselves by the warmth of their wri tings in support of orthodoxy, and Owen by his learning, Marvell by his wit, ranked at the head of their opponents. One party contended that, to concede at all was to betray the cause of the church, the other that a comprehension of the dissenters offered the only sure expedient to check the diffu sion of socinianism and popery. The house of commons did not degenerate from the zeal which it has displayed on so ma ny former occasions. A bill for the suppression of conventi cles was sent to the house of lords : it met with a strong op position from the duke of York and his friends, as well as from- the presbyterian peers ; but Charles, though he had promised his protection to the non- conformists, deemed it prudent to in- .. terfere, and by his solicitations this intolerant bill pn ' was suffered to pass. By it certain fines were en acted against all persons above sixteen years of age who should attend, and all ministers who should officiate, at any religious service different from that of the church of England, against the occupiers of the houses in which meetings for that pirpose should be held, and against the magistrates who should neglect to enforce the provisions of the law.* This act subjected the dissenters to a portion of Sufferings those severities, whichhad been so frequently inflicted conform" on ^e catholics. Spies and informers multiplied : the isis. ministers found it necessary to abscond ; houses were entered by force, and searched without cere mony ; and the inmates were dragged to prison, condemned to pay fines. That ease, of which the king was so fond, suf fered repeated interruptions from complaints and appeals to his justice;. When the non-conformists reminded him of his promise of indulgence, he acknowledged the hardship of their case, and checked the vigilance of the officers : when the ma- fistrates remonstrated, that these religious meetings were hot- eds of sedition, he asked, why then did they not execute the law; and to the clergy who complained of the prevalence of sectarianism, he sarcastically replied, that it would never have been the case, had they paid less attention to their dues and more to their duties. Among the sufferers none excited more admiration than the quakers, by, their fearless adhesion to their * St. 22. Car. ii. c. i. Burnet, 449—51. Cxx*. IV-1 CHARLES II. 163 principles. Disdaining the precautions taken. by the other reli gionists, they proceeded, at the usual hour, 6*penly but peacea bly to their meeting house, and, being carried before the ma gistrates, refused to pay the fines, and were committed to pri son. On their release, they returned to the place of meeting as if nothing had happened : the doors were closed ; they assem bled in the street ; and Penn and Mead successively preached. But the auditory was soon dispersed ; and the preachers were indicted before the lord mayor and recorder, on the charge of having created a riot. During the trial, the firm and tem perate behaviour of the prisoners formed a striking contrast with the harsh and violent proceedings of the court. The jurors having, after a confinement of thirty-six hours, return ed a verdict of not guilty, were fined forty marks each, and committed to prison ; and Penn and Mead, though acquitted, suffered the same punishment for contempt, in refusing to un cover their heads in presence of the court.* 2. The mind of Buckingham was still haunted with the apprehensions of revenge on the part of Intrigues to the late chancellor's family, if James were ever to succession. succeed -to the crown. The reader will remember that a boy, of the name of Crofts, the reputed son of the king by Lucy Barlow, had been placed for education at the Ora tory in Paris. Soon after the restoration, he came to En gland ; Charles ordered him to conform to ihe established church, created him, by the advice of Bristol and Castlemain, but in opposition to the remonstrances of the queen mother and Clarendon, duke of Monmouth, and gave to him in marriage the countess of Buccleugh, the most 16g3- wealthy heiress in Scotland.! Buckingham, ob- In favour serving the unbounded affection of the king for this of M"n- young man, resolved to set him up as a competitor for the crown in opposition to the duke of York. It was confidentially whispered at court that Charles intended to own him for his successor, and the earl of Carlisle and lord Ashley ventured to hint to the king, that if he wished to ac knowledge a private contract of marriage with the mother of Monmouth, it would not be difficult to procure witnesses who would confirm it with their testimony. The monarch replied without hesitation that, "much as he- loved the duke, he had * Burnet, i. 471. Neal. c. viii. St. Trials, vi. 951—1036. Sewell. ii. 259 —71. James, or perhaps the compiler of his life, tells us that " the rigorous church of England men were let loose, and encouraged underhand to persecute, that the non-conformists might be more sensible of the ease they should have when the catholics prevailed." (Life, i. 443.) Marvell that " the lieutenancy of London alarmed the king continually with the fear of the conventicles, so that be gave them powers." i. 420. t Clarendon, 205, 6, 7. 164 HIST6RY OF ENdLAND. [C'bap.IV', rather see him hanged at Tyburn than own him for his le-> gitimate son."* Buckingham, though disappointed, was not dis- vorcedi couraged. He often lamented the king's misfortune in being married to a Woman whose' repeated mis carriages proved that she would never bear him a successor to the throne. When he offered to steal her away, and Con vey her to some distant region where she Would be never heard of, Charles laughed at his folly : but he Was listened to with greater attention when he suggested to the monarch to take another wife. He hdd already consulted lawyers and divines ; and Burnet, afterwards bishop of Sarum, in an ela borate judgment, had decided that barrenness in the woman furnished in certain cases a lawful cause for polygamy or di- vorce.t Of the two a divorce appeared prefe able, as it offered less to shock the feelings of the public ; but in cases of divorce no instance could be found of a subsequent legal marriage pending the lives Of the parties. The duke, how ever, undertook to create a precedent. Lady Roos had long lived in adultery ; she had been separated from her husband by sentence of the ecclesiastical judge ; and her children by her paramour had been declared . illegitimate by act of parlia- M ment. A more favourable case could hardly be wished for ; and a bill was introduced into the up per house, " to enable the lord Roos 174 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. IV. threw a cloak over the keeper's head, and forced a gag into his mouth, promising to spare his life, if he remained quiet : but his struggles provoked them to knock him down, and wound him in the belly. The clergyman then put the crown under his cassock, one of his companions secreted the globe in his breeches, and the other having filed the sceptre, depo sited the pieces in a bag. Accidentally the son of Edwards came by at the time ; the alarm was given ; the robbers ran ; one of them fired at the first sentinel, who, though untouch ed, immediately fell ; the second offered no resistance ; and all three had nearly reached their horses at St. Catherine's- gate, when they were overtaken and secured. They were carried before sir Gilbert Talbot, but the clergyman, who was the leader, refused to answer. Charles himself, through curiosity, or at the instigation of others, attended, when the prisoner improved the opportunity to flatter and terrify the king. He said that his name was Blood ; that he had seized the duke of Ormond, and would have hanged him at Ty burn : that he had even-on one occasion undertaken to shoot the king himself at Battersea, but, the moment he took his aim, the awe of majesty unnerved him, and his piece drop ped harmless to the ground. He was, however, but one of three hundred, who had sworn to revenge each other's blood. The king might act with him as he pleased. He might doom him to suffer — but it would be at the risk of his own life, and of the lives of his advisers — or he might show him mer cy — and he would secure, the gratitude and services of a company of fearless and faithful followers. If the unprece dented attempts of the ruffian excited surprise, the conduct of Charles was a mystery, which no one could understand- He not only forgave the offence offered to himself, but he so licited and obtained for Blood thPj^lrdon of Ormond, order ed him to remain as a gentleman at court, and gave him an estate of the yearly rent of 500/. in Ireland, probably as a compensation for that which he had previously forfeited.* 5. For a long time the health of the duchess of theadhuchf York had visibly declined, and she died at St. ess of James's in her thirty-fourth year, having been the York. mother of eight children, of whom only two daugh- * See for both facts sir Gilbert Talbot's Narrative. Lansdowne, MSS. 1659, p. 1 — 15. Evelyn, who dined in company with Blood at sir Thomas Clifford's, describes him thus : " The man had not only a daring, but a vil- lanous unmerciful countenance, but very well spoken, and dangerously in sinuating." Evelyn, Diary, ii. 341. Blood's companions were Hunt, his son-in-law, and Parret, who had been lieutenant to major-general Harrison under the commonwealth. Charles told Ormond that he had certain rea sons for asking him to pardon Blood. He replied that bis majesty's com mand was a sufficient reason. Talbot, ibid. Chap.IV-V CHARLES II. , 175 ters survived her, Mary and Anne, both afterwards 1671. queens of England. She had been educated in the May 3L regular performance of all those devotional exercises which were practised in the church of England before the civil war. She attended at the canonical hours of prayer ; she publicly received the sacrament in the royal chapel on every holiday, and once in every month ; and she always prepared herself for that rite by auricular confession and the absolution of the minister. After the birth of her last child, she became still more religious, spending much of her time in her private ora tory, and in conversation with divines ; and for several months before her death it was observed that she had ceased to re ceive the sacrament, and began to speak with tenderness of the alleged errors of the church of Rome. Suspicion was excited ; and her brother, lord Cornbury, in person, her fa ther, the exiled earl of Clarendon, by letter, endeavoured to confirm her in the profession of the established doctrines. But she had already been reconciled in August to the church of Rome, and in her last illness receiv- A^ ed the sacrament from the hands of Hunt, a Fran ciscan friar. Blandford, bishop of Oxford, her protestant confessor, visited her on her death-bed ; but the duke in formed him of her change of religion, and he contented him self .with speaking to her a few words of consolation and ad vice. Her conversion was known only to five persons ; but the secret gradually transpired, and its "publication served to confirm the suspicion that the duke himself was also a ca tholic. He attended, indeed, occasionally on the king du ring the service in the chapel, but two years had elapsed since he received the sacrament.* Though the second of the secret treaties with France had been concluded in January, the ratifica tions were not exchanged till June, at which time it is proba ble that Charles had consented to engage in the projected war against the States, and to postpone to an indefinite pe riod the announcement of his conversion. Louis had already sent presents to the commissioners who signed the treaty at Dover ; he now sent others to Buckingham, Ashley, and Lau derdale who had signed the second treaty in June. In this there was nothing unusual ; but, to bind the leading ministers more strongly to his interests, he granted a pension of ten thousand livres to lady Shrewsbury, the mistress of Buck ingham ; and, when a similar pension was declined by Ar- * Life of James, i. 452. Burnet, i. 537. Evelyn, ii. 380. Travels, of Cosmo, 456. 176 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. IV. lington, bestowed a magnificent present on his wife.* The only privy counsellors, entrusted with the secret of the king's connexion with Louis, were Arlington, Clifford, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale : they formed the cabinet or cabal, in which, according to the practice introduced by Clarendon, every measure was debated and determined before it was submitted, for the sake of form, to the consideration of the council, and with them he consulted respecting the Arlington. preparatj0Ils for tne war- i. Arlington, originally sir Henry Bennet, had signalized himself in the civil war, during which he received a sabre wound in the face. From Madrid, where he resided as ambassador from the king, he was recalled and introduced into the ministry by the enemies of Clarendon. To strength of mind or brilliancy of parts, he had few pretensions ; but he was an easy and pleasing speak er, was well acquainted with the routine of business, and co vered the deepest cunning under the most insinuating ad dress. As the best bred man in the English court, he ac quired the favour of the king and of the foreign noblemen whom business or pleasure brought to the capital ; and Charles, as a proof of his esteem, married the lord Aifg72i Harry, afterwards the duke of Grafton, his son by Castlemain, now created duchess of Cleveland, to the daughter of Arlington, a most beautiful child only five years old. In the cabinet, the prudence of this minister shrunk from the responsibility of being the foremost to sug gest or to defend measures of doubtful tendency ; and his timidity afterwards proved his safeguard. It was taken for moderation, and served to mitigate the displeasure and re sentment of the people. He retained to the last the friend ship of his sovereign, t 2. The influence which Clifford, by his industry 01 ' and eloquence, had acquired in the house of com mons, had originally recommended him to the notice of the ministers ; and under the patronage of Arlington, he had ra pidly advanced in preferment. He now held the offices of privy counsellor, treasurer of the household, and commission er of the treasury. He was brave, generous, and ambitious ; constant in his friendships, and open in his resentments ; a '. * Dalrymple, ii. 81, 82. Buckingham, to enhance the merit of his services, asserted that the Spaniards had offered him 200,0002. Colbert observes, " Je crois qu'il n'en est rien ; mais je crains que l'appelit de ces nouveax commis- saires (Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale) ne soit grand." Ibid. 81. By a singular coincidence, the initials of the names of these ministers form the word " cabal." t Life of James, i. 398. Clarend. Pap. iii. Sup. Ixxxi. Evelyn, ii. 372. 432. Macph. i. 48- Burnet, i. 170. Clarendon's Life, 181. 196. Works of Sheffield, duke of Buck, ii. 84. ClSlP.tV.] CHARLES II. 177 minister with clean hands in a corrupt court, and endued with a mind capable of forming, and a heart ready to execute, the boldest and most hazardous projects. The king soon learned to prefer his services before those of his more cautious patron* 3. With Buckingham, his levity and immorality, his ambition and extravagance, the reader is already hJa1mklDS" acquainted. Even when he was considered the prime minister, pleasure formed his favourite pursuit. He turned the night into day, and indulged in every sensual gra tification " which nature could desire or wit invent." Charlesr much as he Was amused with the follies of the duke, frequent ly treated him with contempt ; his princely fortune (a landed estate of 20,OOGZ.) insensibly disappeared ; his mind became enfeebled with his body ; and he lingered out the last years of his life in penury and disgrace.? 4. Lauderdale made it the great object of his policy, to advance his own fortune by securing the J^" royal favour. He was ungainly in his appearance, and boisterous in his manner ; but his experience in business, his ready acquiescence in every wish of the sovereign, and the boldness with which he ridiculed the apprehensions arid predictions of his colleagues, endeared him to the monarch.' It was not in Lauderdale's disposition to alloW principles, either political or religious, to interfere with his interest. A sincere friend to the covenant, he made it the constant sub ject of ridicule ; a violent enemy to the catholics, he lent his support to every measure in their favour ; and with a strong predilection towards a limited and constitutional monarchy, he fearlessly executed in his native country the most arbitra ry determinations of the government. For these reasons he had numerous enemies among the dissenters, and the men of liberal principles : and on another account, he had incurred the hatred of all the cavaliers both English and Scots. He was accused of having been a principal in the sale of Charles I. to the parliament, and of having received a e considerable portion of the money. But the efforts of his countrymen to bring him into disgrace recoiled on their own heads. The king remained his friend: Middleton, the chief of his enemies, was removed from the government of Scotland, and that high office, after a decent interval, was bestowed on Lauder dale himself. But his triumph served only to multiply his enemies. The English cavaliers took up the cause of their * Evelyn, ii. 3S6, 7. Penys, CorrespnnuVree, v. 79. Macph. i. 48. t Burnet, i. 171. Maeph. i. 467. Evelyn, ii. 355. Clarendon, i. 369. North's Lives, i. 97. Vol. XII. 23 178 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. IV. northern brethren, and waited with impatience for the fa vourable opportunity of gratifying their vengeance by accom plishing the downfal ofthe Scottish favourite.* . . ! 5. Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper formerly possess ed the ear of Cromwell ; at the restoration, through the influence of Monk, whose friendship he had gained, and of Southampton, whose niece he had married, he Was ap pointed chancellor of the exchequer, and soon afterwards called to the house of lords by the title of baron Ashley. When Charles said of him that he was " the weakest and wickedest man of the age," the king consulted his anger more than his judgment. Ashley possessed talents of the highest order, but made them subservient to his passions and interest. As long as the royal cause promised to be successful, he was careful to suggest the most arbitrary measures, and to support them at the expense of liberty and justice : but when the current turned, when the spirit of discontent, which animated the house of commons, led him to anticipate a failure, he di vested himself of his employment at court, and, coming for ward as the champion of popular right, " usurped a patriot's all-atoning name." But whether he served the king, or the king's opponents, he was still the same character, displaying in his conduct a singular fertility of invention, a reckless con tempt of principle, and a readiness to sacrifice the rights of others in the pursuit of his object, whether it were the acqui sition of power, or the gratification of revenge.t . Of these five ministers, Lauderdale adhered to eion'"61" tne Scottish covenant; Buckingham, with all his ridicule of bishops and sermons, called himself an orthodox churchman ; and Ashley was supposed to belong to no church whatever. Of Arlington and Clifford, it has often been said that they were catholics. But hitherto they had certainly professed themselves protestants, though perhaps, like many others, for no better reason than because protes tantism was in fashion. For, during the revolutions of the last twenty years, the immorality of the royalists, the cant of the fanatics, and the successive prevalence of contrary doc trines in the pulpits, had, especially among the higher classes, unsettled religious opinion, and rendered men indifferent to * Burnet, i. 174. Clarendon, 51. Miscel. Aul. 212. 234. Pepys, 154. In the Scottish parliament, it had been agreed that a certain number of delin quents should he incapacitated from holding office, not openly by the ma jority of votes, but secretly by way of ballot, to prevent family feuds between the excluders and the excluded. Amongthe names was'that of Lauderdale. But Charles disapproved of the proceeding, and recalled Middleton. See the pleadings before the king in Miscel. Aul. ibid. + Macph. 70. Dalrymple, ii, 15. Burnet, i. 164, 5. Clarendon, 26. 245. Chap. IV.] CHARLES II. 1 79 particular forms of worship. It may, however, be that the knowledge of the duke's conversion, and of the king's, sen timents, made impression on Arlington and Clifford. The latter certainly embraced the catholic faith before the close of the Dutch war : Arlington continued a protestant till his last sickness, when he was reconciled to the church of Rome.* These were the ministers, with whose assistance Charles determined to engage in the war against They shut the States ; a war from which he promised himself cheque"" an abundant harvest of profit and glory, in the humi liation of a republic, the prosperity of which held Out to his subjects the example of successful rebellion ; in the supe riority which the trade of the British merchants would de rive from the ruin of their commercial rivals ; and in the ad ditional authority with which he would be himself invested at the head of a conquering army and navy. To obtain these results it was necessary to make the most gigantic efforts, and to provide pecuniary funds commensurate with these efforts. An ample supply had been already granted by parliament ; to secure the stipulated subsidy from France a third treaty had been concluded with Louis ;t and an additional resource was now discovered by the ingenuity of Ashley or Clifford. £ The reader is aware that ever since the time of Cromwell the bankers and capitalists had been accustomed to advance mo ney to the government, receiving in return assignations of some branch ofthe public revenue till both capital and interest should be extinguished. Hitherto the exchequer had maintained its cre dit by the punctuality with whiehit discharged these obligations : but now it was proposed, 1. to suspend alfpayments to the public creditors for the space of twelve months, which would permit, the king to devote the whole of his income to the pur poses of the war ; and 2. to add the interest now due to the capital, and to allow six per cent, interest on this new stock, * In May 1671, Evelyn from Clifford's convprsalion, " suspectpd him a little .of warping to Rome." (Evelyn, ii. 341.382.) In May 1673, James calls him " a new convert." Life of James, i. 484. t It is plain that a Ihird treaty was concluded in the beginning of 1672. Dalrymple nolices it as merely a Latin copy of Ihe second trealy, signed on Feb. 5th ; but that it was different in some points, appears from this, that the command of the English auxiliaries was given by it to the rluke of Mon mouth (Dalrym. ii. 88). The services of Montague were so pleasingto Louis on this occasion, that he solicited Charles to send to the ambassador the or der of the garter, and allow him (Louis) the pleasure of presenting it to Montague. OEnv. de Louis, v. 493. March 21, 1672. X It seems doubtful with whom this measure originated. Evelyn assigns it to sir Thomas Clifford (Diary, ii. 3t!l. 385). probably hecause he was clio- sen to recommend it to the privy council. In Arlington's letters it is altri. buted to lord Ashley, and James_says lhat " it whs he (Ashley) who advised. tue shutting UP &e BJohequerV Life; i, 486v See also Burnet, i. JXS3. 180 HISTORt OF ENGLAND. {Gait, tt. which would afford a reasonable compensation to the holders for any inconvenience which they might suffer from the de lay. Clifford, as one of the commissioners of the treasury, carried this project from the cabinet to the privy council ; he endeavoured to defend if on the ground of state necessity ; and requested that no member would raise objections, unless he were prepared to offer some other expedient equally pro ductive, and equally expeditious.* Clifford was supported by Ashley ; the council gave its consent ; and the sus- jan z pension was announced by proclamation to the pub lic It stated that the safety of the kingdom ren dered it necessary to forbid the payment of any money oul of the exchequer in virtue of existing warrants and securities, but promised that the creditors should receive " interest at the rate of six per cent. ; that no person whatsoever should be defrauded of any thing lhat was justly due, and that the restraint should not continue any longer than one year."t By this iniquitous act, a sum of about 1,300,000/. was placed at the disposal of the ministers : but the benefit Was dearly pur chased with the loss of popularity and reputation. Many of the bankers who had placed their money in the exchequer failed ; a general shock was given to the commercial credit of the country, and numbers of annuitants, widows, and or phans were reduced to a state of the lowest distress.} In this attempt the five ministers could not fail of Fail in an success ; in the next they met with a signal defeat. th^Dutch Jt was known that in the month of March a fleet of fleet. Dutch merchantmen, laden with the commerce of the Levant, would pass up the Channel ; and a reso lution was taken to capture them as lawful prizes, without any previous declaration of war. To the objection that such conduct would resemble the rapacity of the pirate and the highwayman, it was replied, that arrogance and avarice had led the Hollanders to trample on all the received usages of civilized nations, and that they could not reasonably complain, if they received such treatment as they had already inflicted upon others. § The States, however, were not to be taken unawares. The immense preparations of Louis had opened their eyes to the danger which menaced them ; and the recal Dec 4 °^ Temple, who had negotiated the triple league ; and the mission, in his place, of Downing, a man so hateful in Holland that he fled back to England to escape the * Temple, ii. 181. + Declaration. In the Savoy, by the king's printers. i L. Journ. xii. 526. Norih.Examen. 37- Parker, 121, Marvell, ii. 476. § See the question discussed in Parker, 124. exxr.tV.] CHARLES II. 181 vengeance of the mob,* taught them to suspect that Charles was the secret ally of the French king. Un- rg7b% der this impression, they were careful to furnish protection to their merchantmen, and to acquaint their naval commanders with the possibility of a sudden rupture between the two nations. The task of intercepting the Dutch fleet was entrusted by the English ministers to sir Robert Holmes, who received orders to take under his command all the ships which he should find at Portsmouth, or should meet at sea. Holmes, at the back of the Isle "of Wight, saw the squadron of sir Edward Spragge, which had recently destroyed the Algerine navy in the Mediterranean ; but, unwilling that another should obtain any share in the glory and M . „ profit of the enterprise, suffered him to pass by. The next morning he descried his object, sixty sail of mer chantmen, many of them well armed, under convoy of seven men of war. Van Nesse, the Dutch admiral, saw the design of Holmes, and so admirably did he dispose his force, so gal lantly was he seconded by the officers and men under his command, that he completely baffled all the efforts of his en terprising opponent. During the night the English admiral received a reinforcement ; in the morning he renewed the action ; and at last succeeded in cutting off one man of war and four merchantmen, two of which proved of considerable value. The failure was certainly owing to the presumption and ambition of Holmes. To Charles it became a subject of bitter disappointment, both as it diminished the pecuniary resources on which he had reckoned, and as it covered him and his advisers with disgrace. For both his subjects and foreigners united in condemning the attempt, which they would probably have applauded, had it been crowned with success, t During the last war with Holland the counsels of government had been distracted, and the most se- And grant rious alarm had been repeatedly excited, by the close '"" " to and dangerous correspondence between the foreign dissenters. enemy and the malcontents within the kingdom. Since that period the number of the latter had been multipli ed by the intolerant enactments against the dissenters ; and, to apply a remedy to the evil, the king's advisers determined " Downing was sent to the Tower for his cowardice. Temple, ii. 180. • t James, i. 456. Macph. Pap. i. 58. Marvell, ii. 478. Heath, 581,2. Not withstanding this attack, both parties faithfully observed the provision in the treaty of Breda, that, in case of a rupture, the ships end merchandize be- lonjing to the subjects of either party, and existing in the ports and territory of the other, should not be molested for six months. Ex naves, merces, et bona qusevis motabilia qus in porlibus et ditione partis adverse nine inde hcarere et eitare deprehendentur. Dumont, vii. 47. 182 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. IV. March 15 to carry 'nto execution his favourite project of in dulgence to tender consciences. With this view, a declaration was published, stating that the experience of twelve years had proved the inefficacy of coercive measures in matters of religion ; that the king found himself " obliged to make use of that supreme power in ecclesiastical matters which was not only inherent in him, but had been declared and recognized to be so by several statutes and acts of parliament ;" that it was his intention and resolution to main tain the church of England in all her rights, possessions, doc trine, and government ; that it was moreover his will and pleasure that " all manner of penal laws in matters ecclesias tical, against whatsoever sort of non-conformists or recu sants, should be from that day suspended ;" and that to take away all pretence for illegal or seditious conventicles, he would license a sufficient number of places and teachers for the exercise of religion among the dissenters, which places and teachers so licensed should be under the protection of the civil magistrate ; but that this benefit of public worship should not be extended to the catholics, who, if they sought to avoid molestation, must confine their religious assemblies to private houses.* . This declaration, like the former, had been mov- accepted e^ m the council by Clifford', and seconded by by them. Ashley : the provision respecting the catholics was added to satisfy the scruples of the lord-keeper; By the public it was received with expressions of applause or vituperation, as men were swayed by interest or religion. Its opponents complained that it tolerated popery, and con sequently idolatry ; that, by affording encouragement to schism, and the opportunity of meeting to the factious, it must tend to weaken the stability both of the church and of the throne ; and that it claimed for the king a power subversive of a free constitution, — the power of dispensing with the laws. In reply, it was contended by the advocates of indulgence, that religious opinion was beyond the control of government, and that no people could be powerful abroad, as long as they were divided by dissension at home ; that the public exercise of their worship was still forbidden to the catholics ; that the indulgence, by removing religious discontent, was calculated to strengthen both the church and the throne ; that no claim was set forth by the king, which did not by ancient usage be long to the crown ; and that the power of dispensing with the law in matters ecclesiastical, necessarily grew out of the ecclesiastical supremacy, and in civil matters, out of the very • Pari. Hist, iv.515. CW. IV.] CHARLES II. 183 nature of government ; for no form of goverment could be per fect, in which the executive power did not possess the means of providing for the exigencies of the state during the inter vals when the legislative power was not assembled. Thus to. dispense with the penal laws respecting religion had been the practice of every sovereign since the reformation ; and_ the king himself, during the late war with Holland, had sus pended the trade and navigation acts without exciting contra diction or murmur. The result showed the power of interest over principle. The dissenters, who had been in the habit of confining within the narrowest limits the pretensions of the Crown, gratefully accepted the indulgence, and pre sented by their ministers an address of thanks^ to the king ; while the ardent friends of orthodoxy began to dispute their own doctrine of passive obedience, and to think that the pre rogative ought to be fettered in those cases, in which it might operate in opposition to their own claims and preposses sions.* In a few days appeared the English and French declarations of war. Louis was content to assert, Declara- that after the many insults which he had suffered ^[J.0 from the arrogance of the States, to dissemble his resentment would be to detract from his glory. Charles con descended to enumerate the several causes of his dis- pleasure: the unwillingness of the States to regulate with him according to treaty the commerce of the two na tions in the East Indies ; their perfidious detention of the En glish traders in Surinam ; their refusal to strike to his flag in the narrow seas ;t and the repeated insults which had been offered to him personally by injurious medals and defamatory publications. It was his duty to maintain the honour of hia crown, to preserve the trade and commerce of the nation, and to protect from oppression the persons of his subjects. But, if this consideration compelled him to appeal to arms, it was still his intention to " maintain the true intent and scope of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and in all alliances which he had made, or should make, in the progress of the war, to preserve the ends thereof inviolable, unless provoked to the contrary."} * For these particulars and reasonings, see Parker, 251 — 8. Pari. Hist. iv. App. xii. xlii. Arlington to Gascoign, 66. James, i. 455. It is often said, but certainly without authority, that the lord-keeper refused to put the seal to the declaration. Had this been the case, he would probably have been dismissed in March instead of November. t The negotiations on this subject show that the king claimed as a right what the Hollanders would yield only as a compliment. Parker, 106 — 9. X Pari. Hist. iv. 512. Dumont, vii. 163, 4. " Yet," says Marvell, " it is as clear as the sun that the French had by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle agreed to acquiesce in their former conquests in Flanders ; and that the 184 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. fCHAP.IV. In a few days, the king of Sweden, the second party to the triple alliance, acceded to the designs of Charles and Louis, . ... and, under the specious pretence 6f preserving the p" ' peace of Germany, bonhd himself by a secret treaty, to make war on any prince ofthe empire, who should under take to aid the States in the approaching war between them and the king of France.* The Dutch were the first at sea ; and De Ruyter, Naval with seventy-five men of war, and a considerable affairs. number of fire-ships, stationed himself between Do ver and Calais, to prevent the intended junction of the French and English fleets. The duke of York could muster no more M - than forty sail at the Nore ; but with these he cOntriv- y ed, under the cover of a fog, to pass unnoticed by the enemy, and, proceeding to St. Helens, awaited the arrival of the French squadron under D'Estrees. The corn- May 10 bined fleet now sailed in search of the enemy, whom they discovered lying before Ostend. But the pru- May 19. dence of De Ruyter refused to engage even on equal terms. Availing himself of the shallows, he kept his opponents at bay, and baffled all their manoeuvres with a skill which extorted their admiration. At last he reached Goree, and the duke returned to South wold bay, that his ships might take in their full compliment of men and provi sions, t In a few days, De Ruyter learned, from the cap- Battle of tain of a collier, the situation and employment of the wo'l'dbay English fleet. He suddenly resolved to become the May 27. aggressor, sailed from Goree in the evening with his whole force, and would probably have surprised his English, Swede, and Hollander, were reciprocally bound to be aiding against whomsoever should disturb that regulation." (Marvell, ii. 482.) This, though it has been repeated hundreds of times, is far from being an accu rate exposition of the transaction. The real object of the triple alliance was to compel the crowns of France and Spain to make peace on the terms already offered by France, and to guarantee to Spain the provinces in the Netherlands which should remain to her after that peace — Tantpour aider A faire finir par leur intervention la guerre qui s'etait alors alliance entre les deux couronnes, que pour garantir aussi le plus fortement et efficacement, que faire se pourroit, la paix. — The peace was accordingly made at Aix-la- Chapelle; and the kings of England and Sweden, and the States, signed the act of guarantee— protnettent par ces presentes de garantir le dit traile — and promised if Louis were, under any pretest whatever, to invade any of the territories belonging to Spain, — aucun des royaumes, estats, pays, oil sujets du roi calholique, — to employ all their forces in resisting the aggres sion and obtaining reparation. See tiie act of guaranty in Dumont, vii, J07. In the treaty between Louis and Charles, the treaty of Aix-la-Cha- pelle was confirmed, and no infraction of it took place during the war. * Dumont, vii. 169. Miscel. Aul. 68. 70. t James, 457—91. Miscel. Aul. 69, 70. ' Chap. IV.] CHARLES II. 185 enemies at anchor, had it not been for the sagacity of Cogolin, the commander of a French frigate. That officer, on account of his ignorance of the coast, had cast anchor during the night at a distance of some miles from Southwold bay. At M ,9fi the first dawn he descried two Dutch men of war .of aj ' equal force, which immediately brought to, and stood from him, and, concluding from these motions that the main body could not be far distant, he discharged his guns in succession as a signal. James immediately ordered every ship to get un der weigh, and take her station in the line : but the wind was easterly, and the tide to leeward, and not more than twenty sail could form to meet the enemy. The duke, with a part of the red squadron, opposed de Ruyter and the fleet "from the Maese ; the earl of Sandwich, with part of the blue, Van Ghent and the fleet from Amsterdam. D'Estrees received Banker with the ships from Zealand : but both stood under easy sail to the southward ; and, as they never came to close action, suffered comparatively but little injury.* Seldom has any battle in our naval annals been more stubbornly contested. The English had to Conduct struggle with a bold and experienced enemy, and j^Jj8 against the most fearful disparity of force. Their ships were so intermingled among the multitude of their op ponents, that they could afford little support to each other ; still they fought with the most desperate courage, hoping to protract the action till they could be joined by the remainder of the fleet in the bay. About eleven o'clock, the duke's ship, the Prince, of one hundred guns, had lost above one-third of her men, and lay a motionless wreck on the water. Having ordered her to be towed out of danger, he passed through the window of the cabin into his shaloupe, rowed through the ene my's fire, and unfurled the royal standard in the St. Michael, of ninety guns.t The earl of Sandwich, in the Royal James, re peatedly beat off the enemies, by whom he was sur- Death of rounded ; carried by boarding a seventy gun ship ganeda.rt of which lay athwart his hawse, and killed Van Ghent, wich. the commander of the Amsterdam squadron : but, after an engagement of eight hours, the Royal James became unmanageable ; of two fire ships which approached, one was sunk by her guns, the second grappled her on the larboard side ; and in a few minutes that noble vessel was enveloped in * James, i. 461—5. t James, 465, 6. So afraid were the sailors of fire ships, lhat the duke ex pressly forbad the name to be mentioned during the action. If any man saw a fire ship approaching, he was ordered to communicate his suspicion in a whisper to the nearest officer, 465. Vol. XII. 24 186 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LChap- IV- flames. The duke, from a distance to leeward) saw the blue flag towering above a dense column of smoke ; and ordered the Dartmouth, and a number of boats, to hasten to the as sistance of the crew. Between two and three hundred were saved ; the rest, with their gallant commander, perished in the waves.* During the afternoon, the other ships joined the Victory fleet, and the combatants began to fight on a footing English °f equautv- About five it was reported to the duke, that the St. Michael could with difficulty ' be kept afloat, on account of the injury which she had received in her hull ; and, trusting again to his shaloupe, he transported his flag to the London. De Ruyter was the first to shrink from the conflict. He sailed about seven to overtake the Zealand squadron ; and most of the English took the opportunity of joining d'Estrees to leeward, while the duke, with five-and- twenty sail, remained to the windward of the enemy. Thus ¦terminated this bloody and obstinate engagement. While we give due praise to the conduct of the Dutch admiral, and to the bravery of his men, we must not forget that, with all the disadvantages of surprise, and wind and tide against them, the cool and determined courage of the English obtained the vic tory. They lost one, their opponents three ships of the line.t In the morning, the two divisions of the English Who pur- fleet joined, and it was determined to proceed to the Dutch6 Nore ; but in a short time De Ruyter, who had sail- May 29. ed to the southward, re-appeared ; and James or dered the line to be formed, and made the signal to bear down on the enemy. They immediately fled ; a general chase was ordered, and twice the Dutch ships, disabled in the * Ibid. 467, 8. He appears 'to have had a presentiment of his fate. " When Evelyn (ii. 369.) took leave of him, the earl said, he should see him no more. " No," he added, '' they will not let me live. Had I lost a fleet I should hate fared better. But be it as it pleases God. I must do something, I know not what, to save my reputation." Evelyn tells us that Monk and Clifford were accustomed to describe the earl's caution as cowardice, and that the words in italics allude to his expedition to Bergen. May they not allude to the con duct of Monk, as if he had said : Had 1, by excess of courage, lost a fleet, as Monk did, I should have fared better? — "He dined," says Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, " in Mr. Digby's ship the day before the battle, when no body dreamt of fighting, and showed a gloomy discontent, so contrary to his usual cheerful humour, that we even all took notice of it ; but much more after wards." Works, ii. 14. tlbid. 468 — 471. "The duke of York himself had the noblest share in this day's action: for when his ship was so maimed as to be made incapable of service, he made her lye by to refit, and went on board another that was hotly engaged, where he kept up his standard till she was disabled, and then left her for a third, in order to -renew the fight, which lasted from break of day till sunset." Works of Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, who was pre sent, ii 15. Chap. IV.] CHARLES II. 187 late action, were on the point of falling into the hands of the pursuers, and as often saved by the timely intervention of a tog. On the second day, the Dutch found a se cure shelter within the Wierings ; and the - English ay fleet returned in triumph to the river.* By land, the storm, which had so long menaced Conquests the States, soon burst on their most distant fron- i,y th and proceeded to consider, in the first against place, the case of the duke of Lauderdale. It waa « C. Journ. Jan. 12, 13, 14. t Pari. Hist. iv. 620. OSaf. V.]< CHARLES II. 207 alleged against him, that as chief of the administra- Lauder- tion in Scotland, he had raised an army for the pur- j^'^ pose of employing it to establish arbitrary power in England, and that at the council in England, when a ma gistrate was charged before it with disobedience to the royal declaration, he had said, " your majesty's edicts are equal with the laws, and ought to be observed in the first place." It was " resolved that an address should be presented to the king to remove Lauderdale from all his employments, and from the royal presence and councils for ever."* Buckingham, aware that he was destined to be A . , the next victim, solicited and obtained permission to Bucking- address the house. His first speech was confused ham- and unsatisfactory ; nor did his second, on the fol- ^ J^ lowing day, supply the deficiencies of the former. He represented himself as a man, who had spent a princely fortune in the service of his country ; and reminded his hearers of the patriotism with which he had once braved the resent ment of the court. He offered nothing in defence of the con duct of the ministry ; but sought by evasion and falsehood to shift the responsibility from himself. Some of their mea sures he pretended that he had opposed, in conjunction with the earl of Shaftesbury ; some he imputed to lord Clifford, who was no longer alive to rebut the charge : some he openly attributed to his known enemy, the earl of Arlington ; and of others he darkly insinuated that the blame lay with the royal brothers, by the enigmatical remark, that a man might hunt the hare with a pack of beagles, but not with a brace of lobsters. His submission obtained for him some indulgence from the house. It was voted, indeed, that, like Lauderdale, he should be removed from the royal presence and councils ; but with respect to office, only from those employments which he held during pleasure ; words that left him at liberty to dis pose by sale of such as he held by patent.t To the address against him, as well as that against Lauderdale, Charles briefly replied, that he would take it into consideration. Against Arlington was exhibited an impeachment of treason, and other crimes of high misdemeanor, And against in a great number of articles, arranged under the Aj]in3Si|°' three heads of promoting popery, embezzling and * C. Journ. Jan. 13. Pari. Hist. iv. 625—30. X C. Journ. Jan. 13, 14. Pari. Hist. iv. 630—49. Burnetii. 38. Reresby, 24. At the same time the house of lords was employed in an inquiry arising out of the complaint of the trustees of the young earl of Shrewsbury, againstthe duke of Buckingham and the countess dowager of Shrewsbury ; and an award was made that " the duke should not converse or cohabit with the countess for the future, and that each should enter into security to ticking's majesty in the sum of ten thousand pounds a-piece for that purpose.'' L. Jour. xii. 628. 208 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. V. wasting the royal treasure, and betraying the trust reposed in him as privy counsellor. Of these articles three parts in four had evidently no ciier foundation than suspicion and report, and the ease with which they were refuted served to throw ridicule on the whole charge. Arlington addressed the house with more firmness than had been expected. To the asser tions of Buckingham he gave the most pointed contradiction ; and represented the injustice of imputing to one counsellor the blame or merit of measures which had been adopted in consequence of the judgment and advice of the whole board. Arlington had secret friends among those who appeared open ly as his enemies : they acknowledged that there was much force in his arguments ; and the motion to inflict on him the same punishment as dri Lauderdale was rejected by a majority of forty voices. All that his enemies could obtain, after a debate of five days, was the appointment of a committee to inquire, what part of the articles could be so far established as to furnish ground for impeach ment ; and this committee, whether it was through the difficulty of procuring satisfactory proof, or the intrigues of the leaders in favour of the accused, never presented any report.* By the lords the conduct of Buckingham and Ar- Orders of lington, who had condescended to plead their own oHords!6 cause before the house of commons, was considered Jan. 20. derogatory from the dignity of the peerage ; and a standing order was made, that no peer should an swer any accusation before the commons in person, or by counsel, or by letter, under the penalty of being committed to the custody of the black rod, or to the' Tower, during an' ' the pleasure of the house. In obedience to another order all the peers in attendance, whether protestants or ca tholics, took the oath of allegiance, which had been framed in the third year of James I., as a renunciation of the tempo ral claims ascribed to the pope, and of the anti-social doc trines imputed to the catholics. The duke of York hesitated at first. It had never been proposed to princes standing in the same relation with himself to the throne, and he was un willing to establish a precedent to bind those who might suc ceed him. But, some of the lords making a distinction be tween heir-presumptive and heir-apparent, he waiv ed the objection, and took the oath in the same manner as all the other members of the house.* • C. Journ. Jan. 15, 20, 21. Feb. IS. Pari. Hist. iv. 649—57. Burnet, ii. 38. t Lords' Journ, xii. 606. 8. 12. Macph. Pap. i. 71. Chap. V-1 CHARLES II. 209 In the mean while the commons betrayed no dis- pronosal position to grant a supply, and Charles, weary of of peace S the war, sought some expedient to disengage him- fr°m the self without disgrace from his connexion with gta,es' France, The allied sovereigns no longer retained that proud superiority which they had won in the first year of hostilities, By sea the English had gained no considerable advantage s by land the tide of success had turned in favour of the States, Spain and Austria had come forward to their aid : Montecu- culli, the imperial general, had deceived the vigilance of Tu- renne, and laid siege to Bonn ; the prince of Orange, having reduced Naerden, by a bold and skilful march joined Mon- tecuculli : Bonn surrendered ; and the army, which main tained the French conquests iq the united provinces, cut off from all communication with the mother country, was com pelled to make a precipitate retreat on the ancient frontiers of France. At this moment, the States an' ' made to Charles, through the Spanish ambassador, Del Fres* no, an offer of acceding to the terms which they had refused at the congress of Cologne.* This unexpected step was dif ferently interpreted by their friends and foes : the truth is, that the concession was the price at which the States had purchased the aid of Spain. The queen-regent refuged to engage in a war with England ; and her ambassador, when he signed the public treaty of alliance, received from the States a secret power of negotiating with AmJ 20 the English king on the following basis : that the conquests on each side should be restored ; that the honour of the flag should be yielded to Charles ; and that a sum of money, not exceeding 800,000 crowns, should be paid to him as an indemnification for the expenses of the war.f Whether Louis had obtained information of the secret, is uncertain,^ During the autumn he refused the king an advance of money ; now he offered, through his ambassador Ruvigny, a large sum towards the equipment of the fleet. But Charles had conv municated the proposal of the States to both houses of parlia^ ment, and had been advised by them to commence the nego? tiation. He replied to Ruvigny, that he had gone too far to recede ; that necessity prevented him-frorn supporting France any longer as her ally, but that he still hoped to be of service to his good brother as mediator between him and his oppo nents. Sir William Temple was appointed to negotiate with Del Fresno ; in three days, the articles were satisfactorily * L. Journ. 616. t Dumont, vii. 242. Vol, XII, 27 210 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. V. adjusted : and Charles announced to his parliament, Feb. ll. tljat ne j^j concjutied « a speedy, honourable, and, he trusted, a lasting peace."* By this treaty, the king obtained the substance Treaty. ^ njg demands jjj tne summer of 1672, with the exception of an acknowledgment for the permission to fish in the British seas, the mention of which was carefully avoided by both powers. The States consented that their ships and fleets should lower their flags and topsails to every British man of war, on any part of the sea from Cape Finisterre to Van Staten in Norway, as a matter of right, and not merely of compliment ; that the English settlers in Surinam should be freely permitted to leave that colony in English ships ; that all subjects of dispute between the East-India companies of the two nations should be referred to the decision of arbitrators to sit in London ; that whatever questions might not be determined by them in the space of three months should be referred to the decision of the queen-regent of Spain ; and that the States should pay to the king of Great Britain the sum of eight hundred thousand crowns by four yearly instalments. Charles had formerly demanded for the prince of Orange the dignity of stadthold- er, admiral, and captain general, both to him and his pos terity for ever : but the States prevented the agitation of the question by conferring those offices on him and his heirs a few days previously to the opening of the negotiation.! The reader is already aware, that ever since the Designs, fall of Clarendon, the violent opponents of that no- Duke8"/19 bleman feared the resentment of the duke of York, York. and considered their own safety to be intimately connected With his exclusion from the throne. The duke's subsequent adoption of the catholic creed had furnish ed them with an advantage of which they were not slow to avail themselves. They appealed to the religious passions of the people ; .they magnified the danger which threatened the established church ; and they called for the establishment of securities, which, though they equally affected the whole body of catholics, were in the intention of the framers chiefly di rected against the duke's right to the succession. Their first " L. Journ. 925. 8. 32. Dalrymple, ii. 96. Temple, ii. 247—50. It ap pears that now the committee for foreign affairs, or the cabinet council, con sisted of Finch, lord keeper, viscount Latymer, lord treasurer, and the earl of Arlington, and sir John Coventry, secretaries of state. Temple, ibid. t Dumont, vii. 253. There was added a secret article, that neither power should assist the enemies of the other ; but this was explained to mean, not that Charles should recal the English troops serving in the French army, but that he should not suffer them to be kept up to their full complement by re. emits. Temple, ii. 250. CtfAP. V.] CHARLES II. 211 ,step towards his exclusion was the enactment of the test; which not only stripped him of the extensive influence attach ed to his office of lord high admiral, but held him out to the people as unfit to be trusted with employment under governs ment, and consequently still more unfit to fill the most exalt ed magistracy in the state. Their next attempt was to expel him from the house of lords, and from the councils and the presence of his brother ; and for this purpose they had de vised a more comprehensive test ;* and moved in the last session, that whoever refused to take it should be disabled from sitting in parliament, and prohibited from approaching within five miles of the court. This bill had been arrested in its progress by the prorogation : it was now introduced a se cond time under more favourable auspices. The court party did not venture to resist it directly ; but they proposed that the duke of York should be excepted from its operation ; the amendment was carried by a majority of two voices ; and from that moment the bill was neglected by its patrons, be cause, as Shaftesbury observed, it was no longer worth the acceptance of the party. At the same time, in the house of lords, a different plan of securities had been devised and adopted ; to disarm all catholics ; to prevent the princes of the blood from marrying any but protestants, and to provide that all the younger branches of the royal family, the, eldest sons of catholic peers, and all the children of other catholics* if the father were dead, should be brought up protestants. The earl of Carlisle moved, that to a prince of the blood, the penalty for marrying a catholic should be the forfeiture of his right to the succession. He was warmly supported by Hali fax and Shaftesbury, and as warmly opposed by the lord keeper, and the earl of Peterborough : the bishop of Winchester, with several of the prelates, came to the aid of the latter, main taining that such a penalty was inconsistent with the princi ples of Christianity, and the doctrine of the church of Eng land : and, after a long and animated debate, the amendment was rejected by a triumphant majority.! The duke of York had now but a cheerless pros pect before him. He was fully aware of the object Projects *- The notion of a more comprehensive test originated from tbe 6malt num ber of resignations, which had followed the enactment of the last. It had disappointed the expectations of its more ardent advocates. (Marvel, i. 458). Instead of inferring, which was the truth, that they had overrated the real number of catholics in office, they included in the new test a denial of more ofthe catholic doctrines, as if the men, if any such there were, who had not hesitated to abjure a part of their creed for the preservation of their places, would not as readily, through the same motive, abjure the remainder. t L. Journ. xii. 618. 626. 647. 9. C. Journ. Jan. 21. ; Feb. 5, 20, James, i. 489. Macph. 71, 2. 5. 9. "2l% HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. V. bf that Gf his enemies, of the talents and influence of some, pnnce. an() 0ftne reckless unprincipled characters of others. He saw that his power and popularity were gone ; the wa vering disposition of his brother forbad him to place his reli ance on the support of the throne ; and the victoiy, which he had recently obtained in the house of commons, was so tri fling that it could not impart confidence; though it might exclude despair. The first expedient, which suggested itself to his mind, was a dissolution of parliament ; but the result of ano ther election was uncertain ; and Charles had always betrayed an insuperable dislike to the experiment. He would, he said* try the temper ofthe bouse of commons once more. If they granted him a supply, they should continue to sit : if they re fused, he would then dissolve them. The duke next resolved to retard, as much as was in his power, the meeting of parlia ment, the only opportunity which his enemies would have of accomplishing their purpose.* But for this it was necessary to supply his brother with money ; and money could be pro cured only from the king of France. Fortunately, however, for his object, the views of Louis, in respect to the meeting of parliament; coincided with his own. That prince, though deserted by his ally, still Proroga- proved a match for his enemies. If he lost Grave; p'arlia- ne flad gamed several battles ; and the relinquish ment-, ment of his conquests in the Netherlands had been more than balanced by the possession of the impor tant province of Franche-Comte4 Yet he had reason to dread the accession of England to the Confederacy against him, and willingly listened to the duke of York who suggested that he should purchase the neutrality, by relieving the ug" wants of his English brother. The sum demanded was 400,000/. ; but Louis pleaded the immense charges ofthe War, and theexhaustion of his treasury ; Charles descended to 300,000 pistoles > 500,000 crowns were at length Nov 10 offered and accepted ; and the parliament was pro- roguedby proclamation from the 10th of November, to the 13th of ApriK All parties professed themselves satis- fieds Charles obtained a temporary relief from his pecuniary embarrassments ; Louis was freed from the apprehension of a war with England during the approaching year ; and James had gained an additional delay of five months to watch the secret intrigues, arid prepare against the intended attack of his opponents.! * See Colertian's Letter in Journals of the Com. ix. 525. t Dalrymple, ii. App. 98, 9. Dalrymple observes that the information ih the letters of Ruvigni tallies well with the beginning of Coleman's corres pondence. It does more. It shows the busy, intriguing disposition of Cole- CrtAP.V.l CHARLES II. 213 But whom,, it may be asked, did those opponents Duke f mean to substitute in his place as presumptive heir Monmouth. to the crown -? Hitherto they had fixed their eyes on the young duke of Monmouth, nor was it unreasonable for them to hjpe that the king's partiality for his son would serve to reconcile him to the exclusion of his brother. Neither did Monmouth himself appear indifferent to the splendid prize which solicited his pursuit, or prove inattentive to the sugges tions of those who flattered and irritated his ambition. By their advice, he begged of Charles the appointment of com mander-in-chief, which had been abolished, at the death of Monk, as an office dangerous to be placed in the hands of a subject, at a time when revolutionary principles were still cherished in the country. James was alarmed : he remon strated against the measure ; but the affection of the king re fused to. listen to his arguments, and the patent was engross ed, and received the royal signature. The duke of York, however, had his suspicions. He took it up from the table ; his jealous eye immediately discovered several era sures ; and these, on examination, proved to be obliterations of the word " natural," wherever Monmouth was described as the son of the king. Charles felt indignant at the fraud Which had been practised upon him : he tore the paper into fragments ; but his anger quickly subsided ; the offence was forgiven, and Monmouth obtained a second patent, drawn, however, in proper form, and with the admission of the ob noxious epithet. Still his advisers were not satisfied. They instructed him to ask also for the command of " the Scottish army, the levy of which they attributed to views hostile to the liberties of England. The king, with his usual facility, granted the request ; but when Monmouth insisted that this commission should be drawn for life, and without mention of his illegitimacy, he was disappointed in both points by the vigilance and firmness -of Lauderdale.* man, which was so well known to the duke, that he was not trusted by him. Coleman sought to procure money from Louis through Ferrier and Pom- ponne, at the very time when this bargain was concluded with Ruvigni ; and so ignorant was he of its existence, that he afterwards attributes the proroga tion to the advice given by himself and his friends. Coleman's Letter, Com. •Journ. ix. 526. * James, i. 496, 7. The next year the duke of York was more successful. Russell, colonel ofthe foot guards, solicited leave to sell his commission, and the king agreed to purchase it for the earl of Mulgrave, who was afterwards duke oFBuckingham- But Mulgrave had seduced the mistress of Monmouth, "who, in revenge, extorted, by his importunity, from the king a promise ofthe regiment for himself. (1675. Ap. 24.) Mulgrave spoke to the duke. He observed to him, that as the regiment of two thousand four hundred men formed the strength of the army, the succession to the crown might one day depend on the fidelity of its commander. James instantly caught the alarm. He applied to the king, to Monmouth, to the minister, but in vain. At last he prevailed on Russell, in consideration of a valuable present, to tell the king that he repented of his design : that it would break his heart to leave the 214 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. V. A second, and in many respects a more formida- Intrigucs ble rival, was William, prince of Orange, the next Ul-n!1!! nf in succession to the crown after the duke of York prince ot , ¦ Orange. and his children. W uliam was a protestant ; ins heroic exertions in defence of his country had ex alted him in the eyes of all who dreaded the ambitious de signs of the French monarch ; and some of the popular lead ers in England had not hesitated to pledge themselves to his service and to advocate his interests, even at a time when he was at war with their sovereign. The correspondence be tween them passed through the hands of Du Moulins, who, on suspicion of treachery, bad been dismissed from the office of lord Arlington, and had obtained in Holland the appoint ment of private secretary to the prince. His agents in En gland were Frymans, a Dutchman, and William Howard, the member for Winchelsea, and afterwards lord Howard of Escrick. The first was screened from detection by his ob scurity ; but the discovery of certain important documents, furnished to the States by Howard, led to his incarceration in the Tower, where he purchased his pardon by an ingenuous confession. The king then became acquainted, for the first time, with the plan arranged between the prince and his En glish adherents, guided, as it was believed, by Shaftesbury during the last winter, — that the Dutch fleet should suddenly appear at the mouth of the river ; that they should improve the panic which it would occasion, to raise the people ; and that the king should be compelled by clamour and intimida tion ft> separate from his alliance with France. The conclu sion of peace prevented the attempt ; but did not dissolve the connexion. It was proposed with the aid of money from Holland, to form a party in parliament, which should force Charles to join with the States as an ally in the war ; and the prince was not only encouraged to hope for success by ex aggerated statements of the national discontent, but advised to be in readiness to take advantage of any revolution which might follow.* The king was aware of the correspondence, but Shaftes- not 0I" tne particulars : and his jealousy was aug- bury. mented by the ambiguous language of the instruc tions found upon Carstairs, an agent from the prince for the levy of troops. He resolved to watch more narrowly the conduct of Shaftesbury, who already began to practise service of his sovereign. Thus Monmouth was disappointed. Buck. Memoirs, ii. 33—38. Maph. i. 84. * D'Avaux, i. 8. Burnet, ii. 56. Burnet, however, should be corrected by Temple, ii. 286. 294. 334. 337. Chap. V.] CHARLES II. 215 those arts of exciting the passions of the people, which he af terwards employed to a greater extent, and with a more fa vourable result. He represented himself as having earned by his zeal for protestantism the hatred of the papists : under pretence that his life was in danger from their malice, he pro cured lodgings in the house of Cook, an anabaptist preacher, and announced to the citizens that he trusted for his safety to their vigilance and fidelity. But the king had no intention that the agitator should gain the ascendancy in the capital. He informed Shaftesbury that he was acquainted with his intrigues ; he ordered him to quit London and retire to his house in the country ; he dined in public with the lord mayor on the 29th of October, and accepted, in a gold box, the free dom of the city. On such occasions the king was irresistible. In defiance ofthe reports circulated against him, he won by his affability and cheerfulness the hearts of the citizens.* During the summer Charles had leisure to decide on the fate of the three ministers, who had drawn {on, ng' upon themselves the displeasure of the parliament. He considered Lauderdale as a servant of the crown of Scot land, and resolved to retain him in all his offices in opposition to the votes Ofthe house of commons. Buckingham he dis missed without regret ; and that nobleman immediately joined Shaftesbury, and proved himself a valuable auxiliary in the ranks of his former enemies. Arlington, by the royal com mand, accepted from sir Joseph Williamson the sum of 6,000£. for the secretaryship of state, and was raised to a more ho nourable, though less influential, office, that of chamberlain ofthe household. He did not, however, disguise to himself the real cause of his removal. He had observed the rapid progress which the new treasurer, lately created earl of Danby, had made in the royal favour ; he saw that, to support his own declining credit, it was necessary to render some signal service to the king ; and with this view he proposed to him the negotiation of a marriage between William, prince of Orange, and Mary, eldest daughter and presumptive heir to the duke of York. As the prince was a protestant, such marriage, he argued, would tend to allay the religious appre hensions of the people ; and, as it would open to him a fair prospect of succeeding to the throne, it might reasonably be expected in return, that he should divorce himself from his political connexion with the popular leaders, and second the king in his endeavours to mediate a general peace. It was in vain that the duke of York objected : when he claimed the rights of a parent, he was told that his children were the pro-* * Macph. i. 73. Kennet, 300. 2 I 6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. V. perty of the nation ; and when he urged the indelicacy of making his daughter the wooer, it was replied, that it would be the care of the negotiator to lead the prince by hints and suggestions to make the first proposal. Charles entered warmly into the project, and the earls of Arlington and Os sory proceeded with their families to the Hague, under the pretence of visiting the relations of their wives, two sisters of „ 1Q the house of Beverwaert. But William had already ', ' taken his determination. For Arlington he had contracted an insuperable aversion, and when that minister complained to him in his uncle's name of his reluctance to accept the king's" mediation, and of his intrigues against the royal authority, he replied that peace must depend on the consent of those allies who had so generously rescued his country from the grasp of the invader, and that his honour forbade him to enter into explanations which might compro mise the safety of his friends in England. To the earl of Ossory, whom the prince, on account of his naval reputation, treated with more respect, had been assigned the first mention of the intended marriage ; but the moment he attempted to introduce the subject, William interrupted him by the laconic remark, that, in the existing circumstances, he was not in a condition to think of a wife. The fact was, that his English adherents were alarmed. They admonished him to be on his guard against the wiles and sophistry of Arlington, and con jured him to reject the proposal of marriage as an artifice de vised by his enemies, to destroy his popularity, by persuading the people that he was joined in league with the king and the duke against their liberties and religion. The advice was re ligiously obeyed ; and the envoys, having paid a short visit to their relations, returned to England. Here Arlington found that the failure of his mission did not contribute to raise him in the estimation of his sovereign, and that Danby had im proved the opportunity furnished by his absence, to render himself the lord of the ascendant.* Plans of the As tne winter passed, the leaders of the two great opposition, parties held numerous consultations, to recruit their forces, and arrange their plans against the approach ing session of parliament. In the house of lords the adver^ saries of the minister could present a small but formidable minority under the duke of Buckingham, the earls of Shaftes^ * James, i. 500—2. Temple, ii. 287—295. 334. Coleman's Letter, C. Journ. ix. 527. The origin of the prince's aversion to Arlington arose from that minister's attempts in favour of the project to legitimate Monmouth. Macp. i, 74. 84. When the offer of niarriage was made, he knew that th'e dutchess of York was in an advanced state of pregnancy, a circumstance which con siderably lessened its value. Cbap.V.] CHARLES II. 217 bury and Salisbury, and 'the lord Wharton, la that of the commons they formed" a numerous party under active and experienced leaders ; among whom were Garroway and Lee, veterans who had long been listened to as oracles in the house ; Powle and Lyttleton, skilled in the science of forms, and the application of precedents ;* lord Cavendish, distin guished by the versatility of his talents and the elegance of his manners, the votary at the same time of ambition and of pleasure, ardent in his pursuits, and implacable in his resent ments ; lord Russel, less brilliant and less eloquent than his friend, but more regular in his morals, and more respected by his colleagues ; sir William Coventry, whose experience easily detected the arts and sophistry of the ministers, and whose apparent want of passion gave the semblance of impartiality to his opinions ; and Birch, who had been a colonel in the revolutionary army, and was now the roughest, boldest speaker in the house.* To these should be added Meres, Saeheverell, Vaughan, and several others, ready and zealous debaters on every question ; but the master spirit, who guid ed the motions ofthe whole body, was the earl of Shaftesbury, and to him was occasionally joined the earl of Arlington, who, through his eagerness to humble a successful rival, forgot his obligations to his sovereign, and readily lent his aid to oppose those counsels, in the origination of which he no longer par ticipated. Among them, it was determined to insist on the recal of the English troops serving in the French army ; to advise an immediate union with the allies for the purpose of breaking the power of Louis XIV, ; to impeach the earl of Danby ; and to refuse all pecuniary aid as long as he should retain the office of lord treasurer. Some of these were po pular measures ; all were calculated to embarrass the court, and might, by leading to a change of administration, place Shaftesbury and Arlington once more at the head of the government.! Danby, on the other hand, prepared to meet his 0f the mi. opponents with a confident anticipation of victory, nister. He had persuaded himself that their success in the former' session was owing to the dexterity with which they employed the cry of '' no popery," and marshalled in their favour the religious fears and jealousies of the people. He obtained permission of the king to oppose them with their * Sir Edward Seymour once reflected on Birch's former occupation, that of a common carrier. " It is true," he replied, " I was once a carrier, end it is well for the gentleman that he was not one too. For if be had, he would never have been any thing else." Burnet, ii. 80. note. X See Burnet, ii. 80 — 83, and Temple ii. 309. Temple was employed by the king to expostulate with Arlington. Vol. XII. 28 218 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [.Chap. v. own weapons, and for this purpose, to employ the whole power of government in putting down* every species of sec tarianism and dissent, and to rally the cavaliers and ihe clergy ' round the throne, by identifying the cause of the Jan 25. church' w'th that of tbe .court. A council Was held by appointment at Lambeth j several of the bishops- met the lord keeper, the lord treasurer, Lauderdale, andthe ¦ two secretaries of state; the king's anxiety for the support and prosperity of the establishment was explained } the aid of the prelates and clergy was demanded ; and a plan of com bined operation was arranged; In a few days the first fruits of the consultation appeared. A proclamation was published, ' embodying six orders which had recently been made in coun cil, that all natives who had taken orders in the church of Romej should quit the realm in the space of six weeks; under - the penalty of death ;* that every subject of the three king* doms, who presumed to attend at mass, either in the queen's- chapel or in any chapel belonging to the foreign ambassadors, should for that offence suffer a year's imprisonment and pay a fine of one hundred marks, of which a third part should be given as a reward to the informer ; that all Convictions of popish recusants, particularly among the. opulent classes, should be brought to a conclusion without delay, and certified into his majesty's exchequer; that any papist, or reputed papist, who should dare to enter the palaces of WhitehaH, or of ¦ St. James's, or any other place where the court might chance to be, shpuld, if a peer, be committed to the Tower, if under - the rank of a peer, to one of the common gaols ; and, lastly, ¦ that, since all licences for separate places of worship had been recalled, the laws for the suppression of conventicles should be rigorously enforced.! Remon- ^ ^e popular party, this proclamation was ridr- strance of culed as a weak and unworthy artifice to blind the ¦ the duke of eyes 0f the people. Among the catholics and non- . '"" ' conformists, it created considerable alarm. A depu tation of ministers waited on the duke of York, reminded him of his frequent declarations in favour of liberty of con science, and solicited his protection against the intolerant policy of the cabinet. But James had already remonstrated in vain. He had represented to the king, that such severity _ to the dissenters was dangerous, because it might goad that numerous and powerful body to resistance ; and with respect to catholics, it was ungrateful, on account of their former ser- * In this and all similar proclamations, Mr. John Haddleston was excepted on account of his services to the king after the battle of Worcester. t Wilkins, Con. iv. 595. Kennet, 301. Burnet, 253. •Chap. V".] CHARLES II. 219 vices to his father, and unnecessary, because, few as they ' were in number, and incapacitated by tests and disqualifica tions, they possessed not the power, even if they had the will, of injuring the establishment. But Charles, assured of his brother's submission, cared little for his objections : he even prepared for him a more bitter mortification. In virtue of the royai mandate, the bishop of London conducted the prin cess Mary to church, and conferred on her the rite of con firmation in defiance ofthe authority of her father.* At the appointed time, the session was opened with a speech from the throne. The king assured Opening the two houses, that his great object in calling them °ion.eses -together was to come to a right understanding with April 13. his parliament, and to expose to the world the hol low and wicked designs of those who sought to drive him toa dissolution. But these men would find themselves disappoint ed; He was neither so weak nor so irresolute as to part with his friends in order to oblige his enemies. In the speech of the lord keeper, the chief novelty was an awkward attempt to justify the late intolerant proclamation. The government, he said, was placed in a most delicate and difficult situation, between the church on one side, and the dissenters and catho lics on the other. If the king suspended the execution of the penal laws, he was told that he deserted the cause of the church : if he enforced them, he was reproached with the charge of persecution. But it was better to have some rule than none ; otherwise universal toleration, and endless con fusion, the necessary consequences of toleration, must ensue. The king had followed the rule laid down by the legislature, and, if any man felt aggrieved by it, he was still at liberty to ap peal to the wisdom and equity of parliament, the best judge of the real interests of the nation, Of the plan devised at Lambeth, that part which regarded the suppression of popery was entrusted ?™c; neth~e to the friends of the minister in-the house of com- house of mons, where, to such a proposal, ho opposition could commons. be expected. Resolutions were accordingly voted ; April 21 committees were appointed, and bills were intro duced. Still nothing was done. That zeal for orthodoxy, which had formerly animated the members, seemed to be ex tinct, and not one' of the bills proceeded any farther than the second reading. The fact was, that the popular leaders cared little for the suppression of popery, when their opponents * James, i, 499, 500. Macpherson (i. 75. 81. 4.) postpones the confirmation. of the princess to the following year. X L. Journ. *i. 653. 4- 220 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [€«**>. V. could claim the chief merit of thfe measure.* Their efforts were directed to the pursuit of their own objects. 1. They obtained a renewal of the address to remove Lauderdale A 2* from office ; but Charles was now furnished with pr ' a ready answer, — that the words laid to his charge, if spoken at all, were spoken before the last act of grace, and must therefore be covered by it ; and that the act of the Scottish parliament for the levy of the army necessarily Ad T 26 arofi9 out of a preceding act in 1663, when Lander- dale was not the royal commissioner.! 2. Lord William Russel called the attention of the house to the con duct of the lord treasurer 5 and seven articles of impeachment were exhibited against him, charging him with improper use of the authority of his office, to deceive the king, enrich his own family, and squander the royal treasure. There ap pears to have been little ground for any of these charges : but Danby did not rely solely on his innocence. He was careful to purchase adherents in the house, not after the man ner of his predecessors, by offering presents to the more eminent speakers, but by seeking out silent votes, which might be procured at a lower price, and therefore in greater M 3 number. The articles against him were debated separately, and each in its turn was rejected.}; 3. Resides Danby, the Dutch and Spanish ambassadors had also been lavish of money. Their object was to procure the re-? vocation of ihe English regiments in the French army ; and their efforts were zealously aided by the popular party. To the address, for this purpose presented by the house, Charles M 8 replied, that the English corps was inconsiderable in point of number ; and he would take care that it should not be recruited. More than this he could not do : to recal it would be inconsistent with his honour. This an swer provoked a most vehement debate in a committee of fc Com. Journ. Ap. 16, 17. 21. May 27. Marvell, i. 217. 237. 240. "We Were confident," says Coleman, " that the ministers having turned their faces, lie parliament would do so too, and still be against them, and be as little for persecution then, as they were for popery before." Com. Journ. ix. 527. t Burnet disgraced himself on this occasion. Out of ill humour at (he treatment which he had received from Lauderdale, he revealed to bis ene mies the purport of a confidential conversation with that nobleman, and re peated it, though apparently with reluctance, at the bar of the house of com mons. " The truth is," he says of himself, " I had been above a year in. per petual agitation, and was not calm or cool enough to reflect on iny conduct as I ought to have done.'' By this treachery he lost the favour of the king, and also of the duke of York, who had previously protected him from the re sentment of Lauderdale. Burnet, ii. 63— 5. Marvell, i. 221. X Com. Journ. Ap. 26, 27, 30. May 3. Pari. Hist. iv. 688— 695. Burnet, ii. 69. Marvell> '• 225- 7- 426- ,f vve may believe Coleman, 200,000i. was spent in bribes by the different parties during this session. Com. Journ. ix. 528. •Citif-V.] CHARLES II. 221 the whole house. On one side it was maintained M 10 that the English amounted to eight thousand men, that they formed the chief force in the army commanded by Turenne, and that to their gallantry were owing most of the advantages which had been gained by thatgeneral. On the other, it was contended that they did not exceed two thou sand horse and foot ; that, on the conclusion of the peace with tlie States, it was naturally understood that they were not to be recalled 5 and that a much greater number of British subjects was actually .serving in .the Dutch army under the prince of Ocange. On a division, the tellers were charged with negligence or fraud ; instantly the leaders who sat on the lowest benches sprung to the table, and the other mem bers on each side crowded to their support. Lord Cavendish and Sir John Hanmer distinguished themselves by their vio- lennce ; and -epithets of insult, with threats of defiance, were reciprocally exchanged. The tumult had lasted half an hour when thg speaker, without asking permission, took possession of the chair : the mace, after some resistance, was again placed on the table ; the members resumed their seats ; and, on the motion of Sir Thomas Lee, a promise was given by each m his turn, that he would take no notice out of doors of what had happened within. The discussion of the question was again brought forward. On one May 20! occasion the ministers obtained the majority by a sin- June 2. .gle voice ; on another they were defeated by the easting vote of the speaker. A new address was ordered ; bat there is no evidence that it was ever presented.* The more important part of the ministerial pro ject, the panacea for all the evils ofthe nation, was ^°"n'!aest reserved for the house of lords, in which the court in the was assured of an overwhelming majority. This house of was introduced in the shape of a test to be taken by s' all members Of parliament ; by privy counsellors, magistrates, and all persons holding office under the crown. The test it self was made up #f the several oaths and declarations which, by successive acts of parliament after the restoration, had been imposed upon members of corporations, officers of the army, and ministers of the church. These acts, however, had been passed at a time when the nation had not recovered from 4hat phrenzy of loyalty into which it had been thrown by the return of the king : now the minds of men had been allowed leisure to cool; an intention of establishing arbitrary power * Com. Journ. May 8. 10,ll. 20. June, 2. Pari. Hist, iv. 699—709. Mar vell, iit 232. Cavendish and Newport, in consequence of their behaviour on this occasion, were forbidden the court. Ib. 526. 222 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [CfcAf. V. had, by report, been attributed to the king ; and the doctrines of the year forty-one had begun to resume their former influ ence. That protection and allegiance are correlative, and that the law which secures the rights of the people sanctions- resistance to the invasion of those rights, were principles openly inculcated and maintained ; and it was to check their diffusion, and to remove their supporters from parliament and office, that the non-resisting test had been devised'. The king interested himself warmly in its success. He attended daily, standing as a spectator at the fire-side; but his presence, though it might animate the champions of the court, did not dismay or silence their opponents.* The debates occupi ed seventeen days, often from an early hour till eight in the evening, sometimes till midnight. It is acknowledged,. that on no former occasion had such a display of eloquence and ability been exhibited in that house ; never had any ques tion, been discussed with so much obstinacy and address- The lords, who chiefly distinguished themselves by their ad vocacy of the measure, were the lord treasurer, the lord . keeper, and the bishops Morley and Ward ; and to these were opposed the acknowledged leaders of the popular party, with two catholic peer s, the marquess of Winchester and the lord Petre.f The former argued that the principle of the test had already been recognized in the acts for corporations, the mili tia, and the church ; that the only object of the present bill was to render that principle more generally Useful by extend ing its operation ; that it would thus offer a sufficient securi ty both to church and state ; and at the same time a security so " moderate," that it could not be refused by any but those who cherished seditious and antimonarchical sentiments ; and who, on that very account, ought not to be trusted with the office of making or of administering the laws.- Their oppo nents replied, that the question was now altered ; that while the test was confined to persons in inferior situations, there re mained the higher court of parliament to explain its meaning; and control its application : but that now it was intended ,-to bind the parliament itself, and to make all ranks of men de pendent on the pleasure of the sovereign. Such a test invest ed both the crown and mitre with a divine right, which could " " If not the sun, tbe lire-side was always in their faces," Marvell, i. 516. " X In Macpherson's extracts, we are told that when Shaftesbury applied to the catholic peers for their support, some replied that they dared not oppose the king. It might provoke him to execute the penal laws against thero, perhaps to seek their exclusion from parliament, in which they knew from experience that Shaftesbury's party would concur. " He swore that he and his friends never would, and wished that his tongue might cleave to the roof of his mouth, if he ever spoke for so unjust a thing." Macph, i. 80. CSir. V.] CHARLES II. 223 not be controlled by any human power, and amounted in ef fect to a " dissettlemenLof the whole birthright of England." When it came to be debated in its several parts,. the opposition lords objected that the first clause, ^eb*te ,on which pronounced it " unlawful, on any pretence \&\io^ a" whatsoever, to take up arms against the king,'' was calculated to provoke doubts and questions, which a wise ad ministration would seek to prevent What, it might be asked, was the distinction between passive obedience and the unlaw fulness of resistance in any circumstances whatsoever ; where the difference between an absolute government and a limited monarchy, if there were no boundary to submission under either ? Against the second, that it " is traitorous to take up > arms by the king's authority against his person," (an allusion to the language of the parliament during the civil war,) they argued, that circumstances might occur, as in the case of Henry VI., in which such taking up of arms might tend to the benefit and safety ofthe sovereign ; and the third, which ex tended the same doctrine to the employment of force against persons commissioned by the crown, they described as lead ing to the most oppressive and alarming result. It specified neither the object of the commission, nor the qualification of the commissioner ; but made it treason to oppose with force the unlawful aggression not only of sheriffs and magistrates, but even of naval and military officers ; for all these were arm ed with commissions from the king, and might pretend to act in " pursuance of such commission." The great struggle, however, remained. The oath was at first Conceived in the following words : th^oath.11 " I do. swear that I will not endeavour the alteration , of the government either in. church or state." The practice of multiplying oaths was represented as impious, by holding out temptations to perjury, and as useless, because oaths bind only men of honourable and virtuous minds, from whom se dition or. rebellion is not to be apprehended. But to this oath in particular it was objected, that if it were made a necessary qualification for- a seat-in parliament, it would operate to the disherison both ofthe people, and the peerage : ofthe people, by trenching on their right of entrusting to men of their own choice the power of imposing the public taxes ; and of the peerage, by depriving the peers, who should refuse to take it, of the right to which they were born of sitting in that house, and taking a part in the discussion of all subjects debated within its:walls. The latter part of this objection was urged with so much vehemence that the ministers deemed it pru dent to yield. The lord treasurer proposed a resolution, which, at the suggestion of the duke of York, was changed 224 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. V. into a standing order of the house, that " no oath should ever be imposed, by bill or otherwise, the refusal of which should deprive any peer of his place or vote in parliament, or of liberty of debate therein."* ... When the house proceeded to consider the form jec >ons. oj. tjie pr0p0ge(j oath, the bishops were exposed to the profane jests and irreverent sarcasms of the duke of Buck ingham, and called upon to answer several searching and vexatious inquiries' by the dissenting peers. What, it was asked, was this episcopal government to which the eubjfict had now to swear allegiance ? From whom did the prelates profess to derive their powers ? They replied, that the priesthood* and the powers of the priesthood, came to them from Christ, the license to exercise those powers from the civil magistrate. "But," exclaimed the lord Wharton, " ex communication is one of those powers: do yoa derive from the sovereign the license to exeommunicate ihe sovereign V This, it was answered, was to suppose an extreme case which had never arrived, and probably never would arrive. Others observed, that the oath provided only for "the government," or discipline of the church : why were its doctrines omitted 1 The government of the chureh of Rome was episcopal : no catholic would object to take the oath, even if at the same time he should meditate the subversion of one ehurch, and the establishment of the other. This objection alarmed the lord treasurer, and he offered to add the words '* the pro testant religion." " But what," asked the earl of Shaftesbury, " is the protestant religion ? Where are its boundaries ? How are they to be ascertained ?" The bishop of Winchester re plied, that the protestant religion was comprehended in the thirty-nine articles, the liturgy, the catechism, the canons, and the homilies. His opponent again inquired, whether every thing contained in these five books were part and parcel of the protestant religion? If so, then it must be contended that their authors were infallible, and had laid dbwn nothing _ * L. Journ. xii. 673. Macph. i. 81, Ih lieu of the oath proposed by the bill, and all other tests to be taken by members of parliament, the following was moved-as an amendment by the marquess of Winchester: " I swear that I will never by threats, injunctions, promises, advantages, or invita tions, by or from any person whatsoever, or through the hope or prospect of any gift, place, office or benefit whatsoever, give my vote otherwise than according to my opinion and conscience, as I shall be truly and really per suaded, upon the debate of any business in parliament." Such an oath would probably have been as unpalatable to the opponents as to the adhe rents of the minister. It was, however, seconded and supported ; and the odium of rejecting it was left to the lord keeper, who contended, that the hope of reward was not incompatible with integrity of conduct ; and was sometimes necessary to stimulate the indolent and the indifferent. Pari. Hist. iv. App. lxii. Chap. V.] CHARLES II. 225 which ought to be rejected or reformed. If not, then the ob jection recurred ; the precise limits ofthe protestant religion were unknown, and no man could' conscientiously bind him self by oath never to alter a system, with the real extent of which he was unacquainted. To escape from the difficulty, the words, "now established by law in the church of En gland," were added. From the government of the church, the debate proceeded to the government in the state. Here the opponents of the measure renewed the struggle with equal obstinacy. Were the civil institutions of the country so perfect, as to admit of no improvement ? Could no combination of circumstances ever occur to make some alteration expedient ? Let the house give it's sanction to this part of the oath, and the chief privi lege of the peerage was .gone for ever. They might assem ble and vote supplies ; but to legislate on any subject con nected with the government of the country would be a vio lation of the test. They must abandon their duty as a part of the legislature, or perform it under the guilt of perjury. At length, after a variety of amendments and ad- Tne te9t as journmehts, divisions and protests, the declaration amended and oath were passed in the committee, in the fol- in.tne wm- lowing improved form. " I, A. B. do declare that mit,ee- it is hot lawful, on any pretence whatsoever, to take up arms against the king ; and I do abhor the traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against his person or against those that are commissioned by him according to law, in time of rebellion and war, and acting in pursuance of such comr mission. I, A. B. do swear that I will not endeavour any alteration of the protestant religion now established hy law in the church of England, nor will I endeavour any alteration in the government, in church or state, as it is by law esta blished." There only remained to determine the penalty of a refusal to take the test, which, in defiance of all the efforts ofthe opposition, was fixed at a fine of 500/., and incapacity to hold office or commission under the crown. But, as this incapacity did not affect the right of sitting in either house, the members of both were made subject to a repetition of the fine in every succeeding parliament.* , * For this important debate, see the Lords' Journals, sii 665. 9. 671. 3. 4. 7. 682. Pail. Hist. iv. 7. 14—721. App. xviii. — xlvil. Burnet, ii. 71—4. Mar vell, i. 510—8. North, 62. The test was originally devised by Clarendon ; but his son, who on the death of the exile had succeeded to the title, -con stantly opposed it. His name is in all the protests entered in the journals ; and the king was so- displeased with his conduct, that he deprived him of his place of chamberlain to the queen. Marvell, i. 227. Vol. XII. 29 226 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Chap. V. To retard the progress of the bill, had been the Dispute great object of the country party in the house of inswap- lords : to throw it out was to be the achievement of peals. their associates in that of the commons. But even there much had lately happened to shake their con fidence in their own power ; the fate of the impeachment of Danby, arid the rejection of a bill to prevent members from accepting places under government, had convinced them that the ministers could command the votes of many secret, but faithful, adherents. To relieve them from their apprehen sions, an event occurred Which, if it were not, as is probable, originally contrived, was at least most dexterously improved, to suspend the course of ordinary business in both ' houses, and to provoke a dissolution, or at least a prorogation, of par liament. At all times it had been customary to appeal by writ of error from the decisions in the courts of law to the house of lords, as the supreme judicature in the nation, and, during the reign of James I. similar proceedings had been in troduced relative to judgments in chancery. It happened that at this period the defendants in three of these appeals to the justice of the lords, possessed seats in the house of commons; and when notice to appear was served on sir John Fagg, one of the three, the house voted such a notice a breach of privilege. The lords insisted on their ay ' claim. Theirs was the only court to decide on writs of error or appeal ; they sate only at the same time with the house of commons ; and therefore, if they could not hear causes in which the members of that house were parties, a denial of justice must follow. The commons disputed the inference — it might be a suspension, but not a denial of jus tice — the appeal might be heard, when the parties were no longer entitled to the privilege of parliament. Nothing could be weaker than such reasoning : but they compensated for its weakness by the vigour of their conduct. They com mitted to the Tower 'Shirley and Stoughton, two of the ap pellants ; resolved that to prosecute in the house of lords any •cause against a member of their house was a breach May 12. 0f privilege.; declared that no appeal lay from the May 28. chancery to any other tribunal ; and voted that four June l. barristers, who, by order of the lords, had pleaded before them in one of the appeals, should be taken into custody. This last insult set the higher house in a flame ; and the opponents of the test, whose real aim was to foment the quarrel, were the foremost to defend the rights -of the June 2 Peera§e- The captive barristers were rescued by the usher of the black rod from the grasp of the serjeant at arms, who suddenly absconded, that he might es- Chap. V.J CHARLES II. '227 cape the punishment with which the house of commons had determined to visit his pusillanimity or negligence. Two days afterwards, the speaker, as he passed through Westminster hall', arrested- Pemberton, one of the barristers, arid took his prisoner with him to his chamber ;* the new serjeant at arms brought the other three out of the court of king's bench, and all four were conveyed to the Tower. The house of lords was not slow to undertake their protection-. A message was- sent to the lieutenant to set them at liberty, and, when he-demurred, four writs of habeas corpus were forwarded by the lord keeper, commanding him to produce his prisoners before- the king in his j„°g g high court of parliament. The lieutenant was per plexed. He consulted the house of commons, which forbad him to obey the writs ; and; in this choice of evil's,, he pre ferred as the less dangerous to incur the displeasure of the lords.t During tile altercation, Charles had addressed both houses in the tone, and with the dignity, of a ^o°l°sa'" master. They were, he told them, the dupes of Junes. men, enemies to him and to the church of England :. the authors of the quarrel sought riot the preservation of privilege, but the dissolution of parliament : let the two houses confer coolly and dispassionately together: they would' easily discover the means of reconciliation, or, if they did not, he would judge impartially between them, for he could not sit a silent spectator of a dispute which threatened to spread itself through the nation, for a mere question of privilege. But his advice was disregarded : the irritation ofthe parties was nourished by repeated acts of defiance ;.. and on the fourth day, the king came to the house of lords, and une 9' put an end to the session.^ The short duration of the recess, and the assur ance that the parliament should meet again in Another October, led to a suspicion that the government was oTi^ reduced to the lowest state of pecuniary distress ; * Burnet (but to Burnet alone little credit is due,) tells us, that Seymour- the Speaker was " the most immoral and impious man of the age, the unjust- est and blackest man that lived in his time." Of his pride, an instance is related by lord Dorchester, that when.his carriage broke down near Charing- cross, he took possession of the first gentleman's carriage that caine by,, ami turned out the owner, telling him, it was more proper that he, than the speaker of the house of commons, should Walk in the street. Burnet, ii. 70, note. t L. Journ, 679, 80. 91..4. 8. 700. 6. 10. 13. 16. 18. 720. 3. 5. 7. Com. Journ. May 5. 15. 28; June 1. 4.8. Marvell, i. 517. Burnet, ii. 75. Pari. Hist. iv. 721. St. Trials, vi. 3121. * Com. Journals, June 5, 9. L. Journ. 725. 9. 228 HISTORY OF ENGLAKD. [C«af. V, and the leaders of the country party resolved to persist in their plan of opposing a supply, with the hope of provoking a dissolution of the administration, or of the parliament. The first would offer to their ambition the offices held by their op ponents, the latter would be succeeded by a general election, in which they promised themselves a decided superiority. The houses accordingly met : the king solicited the aid of his- people to pay off the anticipations on the revenue, amount ing to 800,000/., and to put the navy in a condition Oct: 19. to maintain the. dignity of the British flag.* In the committee on the royal speech, the ministers ob tained at first the majority by the casting vote of the chair man. But on a second division they were defeated by a small majority, and the house refused to entertain the ques tion of supply on account of anticipations. This was a se vere disappointment : yet Danby did not despond : a long session would afford him the opportunity ef appealing to the ambition and cupidity of the members ; and it was possible that several might oppose the court now, with the sole view of attaining a higher price for their future services. The house proceeded with the public business. It was voted that 400,000/. per annum should be taken from the customs, and applied to the maintenance ofthe navy ; that a sum of 300,000/. should be raised and placed in the chamber of London, and be appropriated to the building of twenty ships of war ; that papists should be disabled from sitting in either house of par liament ; that a bill should be introduced to recal the Eng lish forces serving in the French army ; and that a remedy should be devised to prevent bribery in elections. In the di visions which these questions produced, the balance inclined alternately in favour of the opposite parties ; and the ma jorities were so trifling, that it was impossible to foresee which Renewal of would ultimately obtain the superiority.} In the the contest house of lords, Shirley hastened to revive the ques- betweenthe tion of his appeal. Each party sought to cast on houses. tjje otner tne 0