SECTION Character of Macph. St. Change on Clarendon's fall. Fox, p. 23. suasion of the Duke of York, that he permitted him to be executed. 66 Upon his restoration, the Earl of Clarendon was intrusted, principally, with the administration of public affairs, and this country owes its liberty to that minister having discouraged a project for settling such a revenue upon the King, as should make him independent of parliaments, but "in all other things," James says in his Diary, "he he supported the crown's authority to the height." The general principles of Clarendon and his royal master were the same, they both held the doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance; they both were attached to an episcopalian form of church government, and both cordially hated and feared the presbyterians, and sectaries of all denominations, whom they considered as rebels and as rebels and republicans. republicans. Charles had been so long accustomed to be governed in his exile by the advice of Clarendon, that he willingly yielded to his guidance afterwards, and during his ad-. ministration, the security of the throne, rather than the increase of the royal power, seems to have been the principal object of his care. He was disgraced in the end of 1667. Immediately after his fall a change of measures took place. The ministry called the cabal was formed, the Duke of York consulted, and the King begun, as Mr. Fox says, "that career of mis-govern“ment, which, that he was able to pursue it to its "end, is a disgrace to the history of this country." Charles V. 275 Character of York. P. 196. The disposition and habits of thinking of the Duke SECTION of York were very different from those of his brother, and it is surprizing that he should have gained, and the Duke of kept for so long a time the powerful ascendancy over his mind, which was visible for the greater part of his reign. Burnet says * that the king never loved Burnet, i. or esteemed him, but stood in awe of him. excelled him in penetration and judgement, and yet, from the natural indolence of his disposition, frequently yielded to his opinion when contrary to his own. The Duke was fond of business and accustomed to examine every thing in its detail; he possessed an eager and ardent mind, and, for want of proper restraint and correction in his youth, was distinguished in his riper years by an obstinate perseverance in whatever resolution he made, or opinion he formed. His education had been much neglected in his father's life, at whose death he was about sixteen years of age; after his escape into France Sir John Berkely, who is described by Burnet as very arbi- Ib. p. 618. trary in his temper and notions, and seemed to lean to popery, was appointed his governor. James was the favourite of his mother; and his brother when he went to Scotland placed him under her care with directions Clar. Hist. ii. to obey her in all things, religion only excepted. * Burnet, knew him personally, and at one time intimately when Duke of York, and is confirmed in almost every particular by Barillon, who was acquainted with him, when he was farther advanced in life, and seated upon the throne. Nn p. 385. SECTION V. Macph. Pap. In exile, James a steady protestant, p. 31. There being no fund for a separate establishment for the Duke, he was entirely dependent upon her for support, and she treated him with much severity. The Duke soon grew discontented and, yielding to the natural violence of his disposition, in defiance of her commands set off for Brussels to advise with the Duke of Lorraine, and did not return till he had been also at the Hague, and Breda, where Hyde met him, disappointed in all his prospects, and in a humour to obey his mother's commands and return to her. But Clarendon omits to mention that the Queen mother invited the Duke to come back at the desire of the Queen of France, with the assurance of 12,000 crowns pension for his subsistence. It may be readily believed that this last assurance had more weight with him than any argument which Hyde could possibly use. The want of sensibility in his correspondence, while Duke of York, with the Prince of Orange has been remarked by Dalrymple; the same deficiency was manifested, after he became King, in the satisfaction he expressed at the bloody proceedings of Jeffries after Monmouth's defeat. During the exile of the royal family, the Duke reDal. Mem. i. sisted all the efforts of the Queen mother to persuade him to change his religion. And Dalrymple produces, as a strong proof of his attachment to the protestant faith, and the zeal with which he maintained that, as well as every other opinion, his having insisted upon the removal of the t P. 111. V. Duke of Gloucester from his mother, lest she should SECTION prevail upon him to become a catholic. And James also mentions in his Diary, that he was zealous in hin- Macph. Pap.i. dering his brother the Duke of Gloucester from changing his religion. But it has been shewn in a preceding page, that he acted under the orders of the King upon this occasion. all sectaries In the court of Lewis the Fourteenth the calvinists James believed could be no favourites, and James himself told Burnet, that when Cromwell was negotiating with Cardinal Mazarin, 66 among other prejudices he had at the "protestant religion this was one, that both his brother, "and himself being in many companies in Paris incog- Bura. i. p. 75. "nito, where they met many protestants, he found they "were all alienated from them, and were great ad"mirers of Cromwell, so he believed they were all "rebels in their heart." storation, both the sectaries The opposition, which his brother met with from the After the Resectaries after his return to England, did not tend to Princes hated weaken the force of those prejudices, or to give a more as rebels, favourable opinion of their political principles. And we may assume that after the restoration both the brothers entertained the same decided opinion of the throne having no honest supporters, but catholics and episcopalian But favoured protestants, while all other protestants were zealously episcopalians. attached to a republican form of government, and neces catholics and 9. 17. V. A VINDICATION OF SECTION sarily enemies to monarchy. It has been mentioned before that Burnet says Lord Clarendon suspected Charles to have embraced the catholic faith, and the diary of Macph. Pap. i. James confirms Burnet in some degree, for under the year 1660, he attributes the mistaken conduct of Clarendon to his fear of the King's bringing in the catholic religion. And if he, who was so highly in the confidence of Charles, entertained this apprehension, can it occasion surprize that the fears of his subjects should be awakened, and render them jealous of his conduct! Clarendon's administration, it has been already observed, was succeeded by the cabal, among the members of which it would be difficult to discover any one common principle, either in religion, or politics. By this extraordinary union of popular characters Charles might hope to conciliate the minds of his subjects, reconcile the sectaries to a monarchical form of government, and secure his own peaceable possession of the throne, for it does not appear, as yet, that he had formed any plan for increasing the power of the crown, which trembled upon his brow. Disappointed however in his expectations, and probably acting under the advice of the Duke of York, who had always been the advocate Charles turns of violent measures, he turned his thoughts to an alliance with France. Of his private wishes in this respect he gave hints to Rouvigny, the French Embassador, before the triple alliance was formed, but they not being at to France. 1 |