"Besides, as the thing was not to be debated, any body else would serve the turn as well as I, whom he had other use of; and, therefore, he had been thinking to send some other person. I saw he doubted I would take it ill; but told him, and very truly, he would do me the greatest pleasure in the world; for I never had less mind to any journey in my life. The king, that was the gentlest prince in the world of his own nature, fell into good humour upon seeing I took it not ill, pretended to think whom he should send, and at last asked me what I thought of my Lord Duras? I said, very well; upon which he seemed to resolve it. But the thing had been agreed in the morning."

The plain truth of the matter was, Charles was resolved not to fall out with France-however much he had seemed to give in to the wise counsels of Temple-and this was made clear by the event. The two days were prolonged into months, -the French evaded giving any positive denial. The king was softened, as Temple expresses it, by the softness of France, and the categorical answer, to be given within two days, was drawn out into a series of messages and replies. Thus, whilst Charles was acting with the deepest guile, did the goodness of his temper and the plausibility of his manners conceal the depth of his treachery from the otherwise quick discernment of Temple, whose error throughout, in every communication with the king, lay in imagining that aught like honesty and fair dealing were to be found in his composition. The power he possessed of imposing upon those whom he meant to delude into a belief of his sincerity, is well shewn in the following anecdotes. He had written a cajoling letter to Duke Hamilton and Lord Tweedale to come up to town, and prefer whatever charges they had to make against the Duke of Lauderdale. On their arrival, he gave them so good a hearing, that they thought they had fully convinced him; he only blamed them for not sooner complaining to himself of their grievances-and sent them down to Scotland, with full assurances that all should be left to the judgement of parliament. They posted down through a most tremendous fall of snow; but when they got home, instead of a session of parliament, came an order for its prorogation! The fact was, his seeming resolution to part with Lauderdale, and his kind usage of them, were designed to persuade the Commons to use himself better; but when he found it was to no purpose to look for money from the House, and had been obliged to sign a peace with the States, he dismissed them as of no further use. The imposition he practised upon Sir William Jones, the attorney-general, related by Roger North, with infinite glee, is still more discreditable. Charles appeared to give himself up entirely to his advice, would hear him talk for a long time together; and it was observed in the House of Lords, that he would sometimes lean on the hang

66

ings with him in conversation for a considerable while; so that not only others, but he himself, began to think that he had the king's ear, and would be a very great man. But all this while, says North, he little considered the king's character, who, finding the man inclined to melt in discoveries, afforded his ear thus much to him, in order to sound his depth, and find what he and his party aimed at. After his Majesty had drawn from him all that he was able, there was an end to such freedoms and familiarities; the king laid him aside, and shewed him no countenance at all. And for this piece of duplicity, he is applauded by the author of the Examen,-how wonderfully does party spirit improve a man's notions of morality! His telling the London ministers, who presented him with a richlyadorned bible, that it should be " the rule of his actions". that he would bring virtue and sobriety into repute, and discountenance profane drinkers, "who were of the devil's party, and not his," was but a vulgar sort of imposition. Occasionally his dissimulation seems to have been without any objectthe mere trick of an inveterate habit--as a practised stealer is unable to keep his hands out of his neighbour's pockets, though he knows them to be perfectly empty. Sometimes it was nothing but politeness, arising from the only good property of his nature,-that peculiar delicacy and softness of temper, which made him reluctant to hurt the feelings of men, by a too open avowal of his real sentiments. This bene

volence of language and manner so imposed upon a poor priest, who had been attempting his conversion, and whom Charles had treated with his wonted politeness, that he concluded his business done, and wrote immediately to the Père de la Chaise, at Paris, that they would quickly hear news of the King of England's having gone openly to mass.

What Sheffield means by saying that Charles, though full of dissimulation, was not false to his word, after these examples, is not very intelligible. By whatever name we are to call it, however, he had made such unsparing use of this artifice, that, in the latter end of his reign, he lost all credit, and could deceive none. "Men," says Lord Halifax, "compared notes, and got evidence-those who knew his face, fixed their eyes there, and thought it of more importance to see, than to hear what he said. His face was as little a blab as most men's; yet, though it could not be called a prattling face, it would sometimes tell tales to a good observer." It is thus his favourite minister lamely apologizes for his master:-" If he dissembled, let us remember, first, that he was a king, and that dissimulation is a jewel of the crown; next, that it is very hard for a man not to do sometimes too much of that, which he concludeth necessary for him to practise."

1

That a plain, country gentleman, with all his natural shrewdness, should have proved no match for so practised a deceiver, is not to be wondered at; but whether Sir John Reresby really felt the conviction he professed, seems to us extremely doubtful.

"The condescension of the king, in giving this satisfaction to so mean a person, convinced me very much of the truth of what he said; as did also his natural temper and constitution; for he was not an active, busy, or ambitious prince, but perfectly a friend to ease, and fond of pleasure; he seemed to be chiefly desirous of peace and quiet for his own time."

Under this conviction, we find him, when the great question of supplies comes to be debated, and doubts of the king's sincerity are freely and openly vented, endeavouring to convince the House of the propriety of reposing trust in the government; though, he confesses, there was ground for snspicion, and that it was very generally apprehended that his Majesty indeed meant to raise an army, but never designed to go on with the war:-" to say the truth, some of the king's own party were not very sure of the contrary." This is one of those inadvertencies of expression, which has led us to suspect that our author's credulity was wilful-that his blindness was feigned as convenient for one who hoped to thrive at courtand that, in reality, he himself was an unbeliever too.

However that be, we cannot but remark, when such were the half-avowed suspicions of an hereditary loyalist, and thorough-going courtier, like Reresby, how just and reasonable must have been the apprehensions entertained by the popular party; and nothing more, we think, is wanting to account for and explain that connexion, which, at this time, is known to have subsisted between its leader and the French king, than the alarm which, on this head, for very different reasons, they alike entertained. To Louis, this army was an object of dread, as threatening to place a bar to his aggressions upon the States, for whose protection it was professedly raised. To the independent leaders in parliament it was a subject of much more reasonable and serious alarm, as designed rather to overawe the liberties of England, than to repress the encroachments of France. Their views thus happening to coincide, each made use of the other's agency to bring about its dissolution, an object alike ardently desired by both; and surely, when we bear in mind Charles's mercenary treaties with the court of France-the pension he was to receive-the army stipulated to be maintained to assist him in establishing absolute monarchy at home, we have no great reason to blame the opposite party for making use of French gold to defeat his

machinations, and attempting to foil him with his own favourite weapons. There are few rules so general among those by which men have to regulate their conduct, whether in public or private affairs, as not to admit of some exceptions; and if such intrigues can in any case be considered justifiable, they must have been so in that of the popular leaders-for this was Can 'extreme case. Against them bribery was employed by the court, to procure votes, to such a degree, as to gain for the parliament in which they sat, the appellation of the "pension parliament;" of whose members it was not unaptly said by Charles, they cried the louder to be the better bought." Of the state of this parliament, Andrew Marvel, a man himself of incorruptible integrity, drew up a view, shewing how large a portion was under the influence of the crown. From this it appeared, that one-third of the House held benefices from his Majesty; and, with great reason, the author asks -what soldier in pay-what officer in the navy-what householder under government, can forget that he is his Majesty's servant and domestic. Yet these gentlemen, says he, being full, are less dangerous. Those from whom the worst evils were to be apprehended, were such as were still in expectation of places and pensions-who had yet to earn their reward and these constituted the majority of the House. The small remainder bore no greater proportion to the whole mass, than that of a handful of salt, which preserved the gross body from corruption. This representation is, in the main, doubtless true. Now that the views and intentions of the popular chiefs were good and honourable, is testified by the French despatches themselves, from which we derive our knowledge of the intrigue-that bribery and corruption were employed against them to a most alarming extent, is proved by Marvel and others. The only question to be considered, therefore, is, whether, in this extreme case, they were justified in using the same arts in their defence, which their adversaries had recourse to in the attack. This is a question which it would require some nice casuistry accurately to determine; and however we might be disposed to decide, it must be confessed, the moral feelings are not likely to be improved by the consideration.

But to return: for whatever secret purpose this army might be intended, the pretext of war was still kept up by the court; and, at the king's levee, his Majesty told Sir John Reresby, and some other members then present, that "unless they speedily raised the money they had voted, it would come after the French king had done his work." War-nothing but war-dwelt ever upon the tongues of him and his brother; though it was shrewdly suspected that peace lay at their hearts. Even Lord Danby himself, when it was insinuated against him

that he had advised the king to conclude one, acknowledged, "it was not impossible but such a design there might be; but that if so it were, it proceeded from nothing but the king's own judgement, who was that way very much bent, if lawful it were so to say." Finally, Sir John thought the thing had but an unlikely aspect, particularly after he had "seen the king, duke, and French ambassador, so very often merry and intimate together at the Duchess of Portsmouth's lodgings, laughing at those who believed it in earnest." We shall not be surprised, after this, to find the House "full fraught with jealousies and fears"-members, in their speeches, hinting at the army, then levying, as rather "designed to erect absolute monarchy at home, than infest the enemy abroad"-complaints of evil counsellors—and a long debate, producing nothing but an address to the king, "that before they proceeded to grant any more money, his Majesty would be pleased to declare war."One method which the minister took to allay the heats and overcome the repugnancy of the House, strikes us as somewhat strange, in whose days, affairs of this sort are managed in so much more dextrous and delicate a manner. He sent for several members of the House-Sir John among the rest—to the Treasury chamber, and there delivered them a sort of lecture. "He told us, it became all good subjects to withstand such motions and proceedings, which tended only to perplex the minds of men, and disturb the public tranquillity; in short, to raise jealousies against the government." The end of the whole business, however, was this: whilst the Commons were addressing the king to lay aside evil counsellors, and the king was replying, that their addresses were so extravagant, he was unwilling to give such answers as they deserved, the confederates were obliged to patch up the best peace they could with France. :

"We blamed the States for their ready compliance; the States blamed the Spaniard, who was full of his offers, while he had neither men, arms, nor money, in Flanders, to defend it; and they both fell upon the parliament of England, who, when they should have given money, and made other preparations for the war, were wasting their time in quarrelling at home with the government, and with each other."

The king threw the blame on the commons, plainly telling them, in his speech, that it was owing to their negligence; whilst the country in general blamed the king, who had so long deferred to engage in the alliance; which, if he had sooner done, the French would not have been "able to make so good a market, as they had done, by the peace." From this charge the king defended himself by a strain of reasoning quite characteristic of the man; and discovering pretty plainly what