V.

army to Flanders, which was to be commanded by SECTION the Duke of York in person. But the French Embassador, now well versed in the art of managing and corrupting the Members of the House of Commons, through Mr. Montague made a successful attack upon Lord Danby, then High Treasurer, and to save him from impeachment the Parliament was dissolved. The Duke Dal. Mem. ii. of York saw further than Charles and dreaded more

the impending storm: even before Lord Danby was impeached he secretly proposed to Barillon strong measures, supported by a cordial union with France; and when the impeachment was going on, in a letter dated the 5th of January, 1678/9, he writes that Charles had pressed for assistance from Lewis, upon the ground "that the attack upon the catholics, was only an attack upon the common cause of royalty," but this argument had lost its consequence, and Barillon coolly answered that Charles ought to disband his army before he could expect it, "for that is the essential point."

66

p. 253,254.

Charles is reported by Barillon, in a letter of the I. p. 256. 12th of January, 1679, to have said that he liked better to depend upon the King of France than his people, and at other times he begged the assistance of France in the most humiliating terms, but his intreaties were unsuccessful, for it was suspected that there was a secret understanding between him and the Prince of Orange. Besides he was not to be trusted about disbanding

SECTION
V.

Dal. Mem, ii. p. 258.

In his distress,

Charles turns

jects.

his army, and Barillon conceived it more advantageous to intrigue with the Members of Parliament, than with the King.

The proceedings against Lord Danby, the discovery to his own sub- of the Popish Plot, and the agitation of the Exclusion Bill had thrown the nation into a ferment, and a civil war seemed the necessary consequence. At this crisis, abandoned by France, Charles had no resource but in his own subjects, he therefore assembled a new Parliament, disbanded his newly raised forces, sent the Duke of York into Flanders, and by the advice of Sir William Temple constituted a new Privy Council, to which Lord Russell and the most popular leaders in the House of Commons were admitted.

Dal. Mem. ii. p. 340.

p. 91.

to get the

Duke to conform.

Charles now most anxiously endeavoured to prevail upon the Duke to make some concessions, and used Macph. Pap. i. every expedient which could be suggested. In January, 1679, Lady Powis was deputed from the Lords in the tower Charles tries to beg for their sakes that the Duke would withdraw, while the King urged him to take the protestant tests, as the only means of securing his continuance in England and preventing his utter ruin. The Parliament, which had sat sixteen years, was dissolved, and another summoned; Dal. Mem. ii. but before it met, on the 4th of March, 1679, the King sent the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester to endeavour to persuade the Duke to con

p. 261.

Dal. Mem. i. P. 49.

P. 93.

V.

form to the established Church. Upon this subject, SECTION however, James was still inexorable, he declined the conference and was highly displeased at the deputation having been sent to him. Notwithstanding the ill success of these prelates, on the 15th of June the attempt Macph. Pap.i. was repeated, and the Duke further pressed by his friends to change his religion. Charles, chagrined at the obstinacy of his brother and alarmed for his own safety, sent him, much against his inclination, out of the kingdom. He wished to have taken up his residence in France, but the King would not permit him.

again to

p. 281.

Charles could not long endure the thraldom of his Charles applies new council, and, within less than two months after it France. was formed, conjured France in the most abject manner to incline to put England under its dependence for Dal. Mem. ii. ever. Lewis kept him in suspense for some months, but, after the dissolution of the second Parliament, attended to his supplication. The Duke of York was consulted at Brussels, and expressed the utmost anxiety that the 1. p. 290. treaty should be concluded, he offered to lend, and actually did lend his own money to Lewis to enable him to pay the subsidies, and sent Churchill to Paris to assist in the negociation. Lewis, either actuated at last by the same wishes with the Duke or disposed to secure his further friendship, applied to Charles for permission for him to return to England, which was accordingly granted.

The condition at first proposed by Lewis was I. p. 285.

off.

SECTION
V.

p. 297.

that Charles should not assemble a Parliament for a number of years, and the term fixed was of three years, and after that time not till Lewis should give him leave. For this Charles was to receive 1,000,000 of livres per annum, by quarterly payments, and if he should be compelled to call a Parliament the French King himself was to judge whether the payments, if any remained due of the million a year, should be continued. The avowed Treaty broken reason for breaking off this negociation was the insertion of a clause by the French Embassador, to which even the base mind of Charles was not prepared to submit. Dal. Mem. ii. But it is probable that the alarm of the ministers of the King, particularly the Lords Hyde and Sunderland, and perhaps of the King himself at entering into a stipulation not to call a Parliament, whatever exigency of the country might require it, induced the King and his Ministers to break off the treaty in the end of November, 1679. Charles immediately made advances to the Dutch and Spaniards, and entered into a treaty with Spain. Lewis was then aware of his error and offered terms of conciliation through Barillon and the Duke of York, who was displeased at the measures taken in his absence and without his privity, but Charles was not to be prevailed upon. He told Barillon that the want of

Ib. p. 312.

an alliance lay at Lewis's door, “and if he dared to say so, it was the second fault of this kind which had been "committed by France; that, when the triple alliance was made, he had given information of it to Mr. de Rouvigny before hand."

..

SECTION

V.

Humiliating

Charles.

A more humiliating spectacle can hardly be found in history than was exhibited in the person of Charles the Second during the greater part of his reign; to so low situation of and mean a situation was he reduced, that he was trusted neither by his subjects, nor by foreign powers. By dissimulation and baseness it is true that he retained his throne, and died a King, but a reference to a few passages in the French correspondence will prove how little his situation, or that of his confidential adviser, his brother, was to be envied, after the fall of Clarendon. Even before the cabal was dismissed and when the first A connection money treaty was in agitation, Charles was aware how always odious. very obnoxious his connection with France would be to his people, who were generally disposed to favour Spain. In 1676, de Rouvigny writes to Lewis," it Dal. Mem. ii "will be difficult to conceive that a King should be so "abandoned by his subjects, that even among his "ministers he cannot find one, in whom he can place an entire confidence." And Courtin in 1677, writes, Ib. p. 142. as Rouvigny had done in the preceding year, that he could count upon only two friends in all England, the King

with France

p. 130.

and the Duke. Again 5th of August, 1677, the Lord 1. p. 138. Treasurer said in Courtin's presence, that " the King of

64

England hazarded his crown by opposing, as he did, "the universal desire of his subjects." On the 8th of May, 1679, Barillon wrote, that the power of Charles, by the factions of his own dominions was entirely sunk; that an alliance with him would therefore be of no

Ib. p. 258.