consisted of arguments in favour of the Catholic Church. Macaulay, however, says nothing against their authenticity, and states that they appear to be in the handwriting of Charles II. James II., he adds, declared them to be his brother's and had them 'printed with the utmost pomp of typography".

David Lloyd again, mentions "several majestick poems," written by Charles II. in his youth.

And

How should a literary man be defined? what are the limits beyond which a man is not literary? Is the term to be applied to the critic as well as the creator of literature: is it to be restricted to the producer of literature or may it be extended to the consumer also?

If to be very appreciative of literary smartness, to encourage it in others, to say witty things, with the power of writing them, to be a keen critic of the work of the playwright, to have sufficient command of letters to be an entertaining correspondent, and to carry a copy of a book like Hudibras in the pocket and often to refer to it, could give a man any claim to be considered literary, then Charles II. possessed it.

Moreover Charles II. may be given the credit of some little literary merit, if his proclamations were his own. Possibly they may have been as much the work of the ministers of the Crown as are kings and queens' speeches in modern times; but he is said to have had a considerable hand in, if he did not write entirely, the manifestoes

that appeared in his name. If this be true, it must have been with a good deal of satire that he wrote or dictated his proclamation against "Vicious, debauched, and profane persons! . . a sort of men of whom we have heard much, and are sufficiently ashamed, who spend their time in taverns, tipplinghouses and debauches; giving no other evidence of their affection to us but in drinking our health". Four days after the issue of this proclamation, Charles got horribly drunk himself, at the Mulberry Gardens. Further on in the same proclamation he piously laments "the licence and corruption of the time, and the depraved nature of man," as well as the "many enormities, scandals, and impieties in practice and manners, which laws cannot well describe, and consequently not well enough provide against, which may, by the example and severity of virtuous men, be easily discountenanced and by degrees suppressed". 1

1

Surely such a proclamation, coming from such a King, must have afforded his subjects intense amusement; and, if Charles II. was in reality its author, it was a magnificent specimen of irony!

In his letters-by the way, his handwriting was excellent, graceful and very clear-Charles II. could say a sharp thing, as when he wrote of Harry Killigrew: "I am glad the poor wretch has got

2

1 D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, "Royal Proclamations". 2 This was not the Killigrew presently to be noticed, but his son.

means of subsistence; but have one caution of him that you believe not one word he says of us here; for he is a most notorious liar, and does not want wit to set forth his stories pleasantly enough". And also to his sister: "They who do not believe anything to be reasonable designed unless it be successfully executed, have need of a less difficult game to play than mine". From a graver point of view, Charles II.'s beautiful letter to his sister, after his father's death, might well be given much higher praise than most of the writings of the literary rakes of his court. And if all his extant letters were collected, well selected and ably edited, they might form a volume, not only as interesting, but as entertaining, as many of the books of letters and autobiography that now pass under the name of literature.

To quote at any length from his letters here would be impracticable-but to show that he could put a good deal of meaning as well as expression into a few words, and that he had the rare art of administering a sharp rebuke in graceful and tender language, two specimens may be given. The first is from a short note written to his sister, Henrietta Anne, on the day after his landing in England at the Restoration:

"I arrived yesterday at Dover, where I found Monk, with a great number of the nobility, who almost overwhelmed one with kindness and joy for my return. My head is so dreadfully stunned with the acclamations of the people, and the vast amount