allowed that Dunkirk was of no real use, and that it was a very heavy burden upon the Crown. The diminution of the national honour, by the fale of the place, was therefore the only reasonable objection to which the ceffion of it was liable. An unfortunate idea has been long prevalent in this country, that essential benefits are to be derived from the poffeffion of fortreffes in foreign kingdoms; and Calais, Dunkirk, Port Mahon, and Gibraltar, have fucceffively been occupied, at an immenfe expence of blood and treafure, with a view to the attainment of thefe chimerical advantages. Gibraltar alone, at a moderate computa. tion, has, fince the year 1704, when it was first captured, coft this nation upwards of thirty millions fterling-A few more fuch conquefts, and we are undone!

Before the clofe of this year, the King exhibited plain indications of that attachment to the catholic religion, which was fo remarkable a characteristic of the Stuart family, and which at length terminated in their total ruin. In December the King iffued a declaration, in which he expreffed his intention of mitigating the rigour of the penal laws, in favour of his peaceable non-conforming fubjects, by virtue of his dispensing power; but the House of Commons, who were equally adverfe to papists and prefbyterians, ftrongly remonstrating against the proposed indulgence, the King gave the first public proof of that cautious and accommodating fpirit, which never forfook him even when engaged

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engaged in the profecution of the deepest and most dangerous defigns, by immediately defifting from his project; and, in order to pacify the Parliament, a proclamation was soon after iffued against Jefuits and Romish priests. From this time, however, it was obferved, that the Earl of Clarendon began to decline from that height of favour he had hitherto enjoyed: the King became fenfible, that this inflexible minifter could never be brought to fupport any defigns which might be formed, either for the extenfion of Prerogative or the advancement of Popery. The refolution taken by the Court in the following year, not without the concurrence of the Parliament, and the approbation of the nation in general, to declare war against Holland, evidently marked the declenfion, or rather the annihilation, of that nobleman's authority.-The King's fettled averfion to the manners, government, and religion of the Dutch nation, was the real ground of this war; and the jealoufy entertained of thofe induftrious republicans, as commercial rivals, was the caufe of its popularity; it was, however, fo palpably unjuft, that the Chancellor, whose probity remained unfhaken in the midst of temptation, openly remonftrated against it, but without any effect. The war, however, was not carried on with that fuccefs which was expected: France and Denmark declared in favour of Holland; and the King, notwithstanding the memorable infult he received from the Dutch fleet, commanded by De Ruyter, who in the fummer of 1667 failed up the Medway, and

burnt

burnt feveral men of war lying in that river, thought proper to fign a treaty of peace at Breda in July, and to referve to a more favourable opportunity, the complete gratification of his hatred and revenge. The difgrace of the Chancellor immediately followed; popular prejudices ran high against him; and the King had the bafenefs and ingratitude to encourage a parliamentary impeachment for high treafon against the man to whom he owed the most important obligations, who had been the guide and counsellor of his youth, and in whom he had once placed the most unlimited confidence:happily he found means to escape into France; where he spent the remainder of his life in philofophic and dignified retirement.

The first political measure of the Court, after this event, has met with very great and deferved applaufe. I refer to the famous triple alliance concluded between England, Holland, and Sweden, for the avowed purpose of putting a flop to the military progress of the French Monarch; whofe power began, about this time, to appear extremely formidable, and who had, in contempt of every appearance of juftice, entered the Spanish Low Countries with a numerous army, and threatened to make an entire conqueft of thofe rich and extenfive provinces. Louis, however, did not chufe to rifque a rupture with this potent confederacy; and for a fhort time England, in confequence of this fpirited conduct, appeared in her proper ftation, as the great bulwark of the common liberties of Europe. Some faint

attempts

attempts were also now made by Buckingham, the new minister, to procure a relaxation of the terms of conformity: but the temper of the Commons appeared totally adverse to every idea of that nature. They even inflicted additional penalties upon Nonconformists; and, by a remarkable clause in the act paffed against conventicles, the malignant fpirit by which they were actuated, is strikingly manifefted. If any dispute should arife with respect to the conftruction of the act, the judges are directed, contrary to the univerfal practice of the English courts of judicature in the interpretation of penal statutes, to explain the doubt in the sense least favourable to the delinquent. Such was, indeed, the violence with which the Legislature now proceeded, that, had not the political circumstances of the times undergone an unex pected revolution, another Marian perfecution was justly to be apprehended.

Towards the end of the year 1669, the principal executive offices of government were filled by Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Afhley Cooper, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, and Lauderdale, who compofed that administration fo well known by the appellation of the CABAL; men who, to borrow the language of Lord Clarendon, had "heads to contrive, hearts to approve, and hands "to execute, any mifchief:" and it may with strict justice be affirmed, that the King, in concert with thefe abandoned minifters, was engaged in a conspiracy against the religion, laws, and liberties of his kingdom. The diffimulation and perfidy of Charles

Charles are fuch as to make it extremely questionable, whether he ever really entered into the views with which the triple alliance was formed: however that may be, it is certain that within two years after that event, his political conduct was totally changed; and, in an interview which took place in the spring of the year 1670 with his fifter, Henrietta, Duchefs of Orleans, a fecret treaty was negociated with the French King, for the purposes of fubverting the Republic of Holland, of making the authority of Charles abfolute, and of establishing once more the Romish religion in the realms of Britain; as a prelude to which, Charles was formally abfolved, and received into the bofom of the Catholic Church. In purfuance of this plan, the King had the unparalleled affurance to convene the Parliament in October, and to procure fupplies to a very large amount, under pretence of the danger to be apprehended from the increasing power of France, and the obligation and neceffity of fupporting the triple alliance. When money was thus obtained, the mask was thrown off, and military preparations were openly made; but, in order to fecure an additional fupply, as nothing farther could be expected from Parliament, an infamous resolution was taken, previous to a declaration of war, to shut up the Royal Exchequer; by which means, the vast fums advanced by the bankers, upon the credit of the funds provided by Parliament, were confifcated. The diftrefs, confternation, and ruin, confequent on this enormous violation of

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