Constitutional History of England Volume II Part 28

[662] De Witt was apprised of the intrigue between France and England as early as April 1669, through a Swedish agent at Paris. Temple, 179.

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

[663] Dalrymple, ii. 22.

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

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

[666] P. 49.

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

369.

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

[669] Dalrymple, 57.

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

[671] P. 84, etc.

[672] P. 23.

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

[674] Pp. 62, 84.

[675] P. 81.

[676] P. 33.

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

[678] _Life of James_, ibid.

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

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

[681] Burnet, p. 272.

[682] Baxter, pp. 74, 86; Kennet, p. 311. See a letter of Sheldon, written at this time, to the bishops of his province, urging them to persecute the nonconformists. Harris's _Life of Charles II._, p. 106.

Proofs also are given by this author of the manner in which some, such as Lamplugh and Ward, responded to their primate's wishes.

Sheldon found a panegyrist quite worthy of him in his chaplain Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. This notable person has left a Latin history of his own time, wherein he largely commemorates the archbishop's zeal in molesting the dissenters, and praises him for defeating the scheme of comprehension. P. 25. I observe, that the late excellent editor of Burnet has endeavoured to slide in a word for the primate (note on vol. i. p. 243), on the authority of that history by Bishop Parker, and of Sheldon's Life in the _Biographia Britannica_.

It is lamentable to rest on such proofs. I should certainly not have expected that, in Magdalen College, of all places, the name of Parker would have been held in honour; and as to the _Biographia_, laudatory as it is of primates in general (save Tillotson, whom it depreciates), I find, on reference, that its praise of Sheldon's virtues is grounded on the authority of his epitaph in Croydon church.

[683] Baxter, 87.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Id._ 561, 592.

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

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

[692] Commons' Journals, 28 and 29 March 1673; Lords' Journals, 24 and 29 March. The Lords were so slow about this bill that the lower house, knowing an adjournment to be in contemplation, sent a message to quicken them, according to a practice not unusual in this reign.

Perhaps, on an attentive consideration of the report on the conference (March 29) it may appear that the Lords' amendments had a tendency to let in popish, rather than to favour protestant, dissenters. Parker says that this act of indulgence was defeated by his great hero, Archbishop Sheldon, who proposed that the nonconformists should acknowledge the war against Charles I. to be unlawful. _Hist. sui temporis_, p. 203 of the translation.

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

[694] Kennet, p. 318.

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

CHAPTER XII

EARL OF DANBY'S ADMINISTRATION--DEATH OF CHARLES II.

The period of Lord Danby's administration, from 1673 to 1678, was full of chicanery and dissimulation on the king's side, of increasing suspiciousness on that of the Commons. Forced by the voice of parliament, and the bad success of his arms, into peace with Holland, Charles struggled hard against a co-operation with her in the great confederacy of Spain and the empire to resist the encroachments of France on the Netherlands. Such was in that age the strength of the barrier fortresses, and so heroic the resistance of the Prince of Orange, that, notwithstanding the extreme weakness of Spain, there was no moment in that war, when the sincere and strenuous intervention of England would not have compelled Louis XIV. to accept the terms of the treaty of Aix la Chapelle. It was the treacherous attachment of Charles II. to French interests that brought the long congress of Nimeguen to an unfortunate termination; and, by surrendering so many towns of Flanders as laid the rest open to future aggression, gave rise to the tedious struggles of two more wars.[696]

_Opposition in the commons._--In the behaviour of the House of Commons during this period, previously at least to the session of 1678, there seems nothing which can incur much reprehension from those who reflect on the king's character and intentions; unless it be that they granted supplies rather too largely, and did not sufficiently provide against the perils of the time. But the House of Lords contained unfortunately an invincible majority for the court, ready to frustrate any legislative security for public liberty. Thus the habeas corpus act, first sent up to that house in 1674, was lost there in several successive sessions. The Commons therefore testified their sense of public grievances, and kept alive an alarm in the nation by resolutions and addresses, which a phlegmatic reader is sometimes too apt to consider as factious or unnecessary. If they seem to have dwelt more, in some of these, on the dangers of religion, and less on those of liberty, than we may now think reasonable, it is to be remembered that the fear of popery has always been the surest string to touch for effect on the people; and that the general clamour against that religion was all covertly directed against the Duke of York, the most dangerous enemy of every part of our const.i.tution.

_Corruption of the parliament._--The real vice of this parliament was not intemperance, but corruption. Clifford, and still more Danby, were masters in an art practised by ministers from the time of James I.

(and which indeed can never be unknown where there exists a court and a popular a.s.sembly), that of turning to their use the weapons of mercenary eloquence by office, or blunting their edge by bribery.[697]

Some who had been once prominent in opposition, as Sir Robert Howard and Sir Richard Temple, became placemen; some, like Garraway and Sir Thomas Lee, while they continued to lead the country party, took money from the court for softening particular votes;[698] many, as seems to have been the case with Reresby, were won by promises, and the pretended friendship of men in power.[699] On two great cla.s.ses of questions, France and popery, the Commons broke away from all management; nor was Danby unwilling to let his master see their indocility on these subjects. But, in general, till the year 1678, by dint of the means before mentioned, and partly no doubt through the honest conviction of many that the king was not likely to employ any minister more favourable to the protestant religion and liberties of Europe, he kept his ground without any insuperable opposition from parliament.[700]

_Character of the Earl of Danby._--The Earl of Danby had virtues as an English minister, which serve to extenuate some great errors and an entire want of scrupulousness in his conduct. Zealous against the church of Rome and the aggrandis.e.m.e.nt of France, he counteracted, while he seemed to yield to, the prepossessions of his master. If the policy of England before the peace of Nimeguen was mischievous and disgraceful, it would evidently have been far more so, had the king and Duke of York been abetted by this minister in their fatal predilection for France. We owe to Danby's influence, it must ever be remembered, the marriage of Princess Mary to the Prince of Orange, the seed of the revolution and the act of settlement--a courageous and disinterested counsel, which ought not to have proved the source of his greatest misfortunes.[701] But we cannot pretend to say that he was altogether as sound a friend to the const.i.tution of his country, as to her national dignity and interests. I do not mean that he wished to render the king absolute. But a minister, hara.s.sed and attacked in parliament, is tempted to desire the means of crushing his opponents, or at least of augmenting his own sway. The mischievous bill that pa.s.sed the House of Lords in 1675, imposing as a test to be taken by both houses of parliament, as well as all holding beneficed offices, a declaration that resistance to persons commissioned by the king was in all cases unlawful, and that they would never attempt any alteration in the government in church or state, was promoted by Danby, though it might possibly originate with others.[702] It was apparently meant as a bone of contention among the country party, in which presbyterians and old parliamentarians were a.s.sociated with discontented cavaliers.

Besides the mischief of weakening this party, which indeed the minister could not fairly be expected to feel, nothing could have been devised more unconst.i.tutional, or more advantageous to the court's projects of arbitrary power.

It is certainly possible that a minister who, aware of the dangerous intentions of his sovereign or his colleagues, remains in the cabinet to thwart and countermine them, may serve the public more effectually than by retiring from office; but he will scarcely succeed in avoiding some material sacrifices of integrity, and still less of reputation.

Danby, the ostensible adviser of Charles II., took on himself the just odium of that hollow and suspicious policy which appeared to the world. We know indeed that he was concerned, against his own judgment, in the king's secret receipt of money from France, the price of neutrality, both in 1676 and in 1678, the latter to his own ruin.[703] Could the opposition, though not so well apprised of these transactions as we are, be censured for giving little credit to his a.s.surances of zeal against that power; which, though sincere in him, were so little in unison with the disposition of the court? Had they no cause to dread that the great army suddenly raised in 1677, on pretence of being employed against France, might be turned to some worse purposes more congenial to the king's temper?[704]