UNPOPULARITY OF CLARENDON. 147 III. mortify the pride or to prejudice the interests of the CHAP. nation; yet the calamities which had accompanied the A.D. 1667. war, the plague, the fire, and the disgrace at Chatham, though over the first two no human counsels 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 minister; and to his pernicious counsels it was become the fashion to attribute every national calamity. It must be confessed that, with a correct judgment and brilliant talents, he had contrived, whether it arose from the infirmity of his nature or the necessity of his situation, to make himself enemies among every class of men. The courtiers had been alienated from him by the haughtiness of his manner, and his perpetual opposition to their suits, their projects, and their extravagance; 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 Presbyterians, and the several classes of dissenters, by the belief that through his obstinate and successful opposition they had been deprived of the indulgence to tender consciences promised by the king in his declaration from Breda. He had offended the House of Commons by reproaching 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 content with maintaining their own privileges' The king, 1 Clarendon, 383-385. CHAP. indeed, had been accustomed to listen to him with A.D. 1667. respect, almost with awe. But these sentiments III. gradually wore away. The courtiers mimicked the gravity of Clarendon in the royal presence; they ridiculed his person and manner; they charged 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 suspicion and averson were occasionally awakened in the royal breast. Nor did Clarendon himself 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 vehemence and authority which hurt the pride of the monarch. His opposition in the House of Lords to the bill for indulgence to tender consciences was never forgotten; and recently, 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 longer enjoyed the royal friendship; and his political opponents, seeing the slippery ground on which he stood, laboured to precipitate his fall.' The first attempt was made by the earl of Bristol in 1663. The reader is aware that it failed; and the failure served for a time to confirm the power of the chancellor. Still he grew more unpopular; men of 1 Clarendon, 245, 248, 321, 358, 361. Life of James, i. 398, 428. Pepys, iv. 268. LOSES FAVOUR WITH THE KING. 149 III. opposite interests found their way into the council; OHAP. his great friend and supporter, the earl of South- A.D. 1667. ampton, died; and the countess of Castlemaine and the duke of Buckingham leagued together to effect his overthrow. To the lady he had given mortal offence by forbidding his wife to visit her, a prohibition which he refused to withdraw even at the request of the king.1 Buckingham, during the last session, had placed himself in opposition to the court, and declared open war against Charles and his mistress. But his intrigues with the disaffected had been bctrayed by one of the agents; and, after the proroga- Feb. 8. tion, the king deprived him of all the offices which he held under the crown, and ordered him to surrender himself to the lieutenant of the Tower. He absconded, March 11. but fortunately the agent died, and the duke, having made his peace with Castlemaine, presented himself to the lieutenant, was examined before the council, June 18. discharged, permitted to kiss the king's hand, and restored to his former employments." From that July 16. moment the doom of Clarendon was sealed. When the Dutch fleet rode victorious in the mouth of the river he had advised the king to dissolve the parliament, and support the troops on the coast by forced contributions from the neighbouring counties, to be repaid out of the next supply. This counsel was divulged by some of his enemies, and represented as a plan to govern the kingdom with a standing army in the place of the parliament. The imputation was everywhere received with expressions of abhorrence, and provoked the additional charges of venality and 1 Clarendon, 361. 2 Clarendon, 434 347, 349. Life of James, i. 428. Macpherson, 35, 37. III. CHAP. ambition. The presents which he had been in the A.D. 1667. 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 country; 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 introduce to the royal bed a princess incapable of bearing children, that the crown might descend to the issue of the duchess.' The latter charge was not only circulated in public, but insinuated to Charles himself, together with the information that the convention parliament would have settled a much more ample revenue on the crown, had not its liberality been checked by the jealousy or the presumption of Clarendon. If the king appeared to listen to these suggestions, 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, and Lady Castlemaine, 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 1 "How far this jealousy may have entered into the king him"self, to make him more easily part with his minister, I leave it "for others to guess."-Life of James, i. 393. Burnet, i. 435. 2 "Some have thought, not improbably, that this remissness of "his proceeded from a jealousy that the king was inwardly in"clined to popery."-Life of James, i. 393. On the contrary, it is said by Sir William Coventry, that it proceeded from an overweening opinion of his own influence, "that he could have the "command of parliaments for ever."-Pepys, iv. 276. HE IS DEPRIVED OF THE SEAL. 151 III. the duke of York, that he expected him to resign, as CHAP. an expedient by which he might at the same time A.D. 1667. save himself from prosecution, and spare his sovereign the pain of taking his office from him. But the pride of Clarendon scorned to bend to the August 26, storm; and consciousness of innocence urged him to brave the malice of his enemies. He waited 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 services; and conjured him to disbelieve the suggestions of Lady Castlemaine-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 by Morrice to surrender the great seal, which was delivered to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, August 36 chief justice of the Common Pleas.' In six weeks, the parliament assembled. Bucking- Oct. 10. ham had previously been restored to his place in the council and the bedchamber; and Bristol, issuing from his retirement, had appeared again at court. To an Life of James, i. 427 1 Clarendon, 422-425, 427, 435-440. -429. Macpherson Pap. 138. Pepys, iii. 332, 338. Pepys tells a laughable story of Castlemaine, 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 unfortunate 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 forfeited his reputation.-North's Lives, &c. i. 179. |