The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (diy ebook reader .txt) π
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event of the conflict between the court and the Whigs
was no longer doubtful. He then returned to England: but he was
still excluded by the Test Act from all public employment; nor
did the King at first think it safe to violate a statute which
the great majority of his most loyal subjects regarded as one of
the chief securities of their religion and of their civil rights.
When, however, it appeared, from a succession of trials, that the
nation had patience to endure almost anything that the government
had courage to do, Charles ventured to dispense with the law in
his brother's favour. The Duke again took his seat in the
Council, and resumed the direction of naval affairs.
These breaches of the constitution excited, it is true, some
murmurs among the moderate Tories, and were not unanimously
approved even by the King's ministers. Halifax in particular, now
a Marquess and Lord Privy Seal, had, from the very day on which
the Tories had by his help gained the ascendant, begun to turn
Whig. As soon as the Exclusion Bill had been thrown out, he had
pressed the House of Lords to make provision against the danger
to which, in the next reign, the liberties and religion of the
nation might be exposed. He now saw with alarm the violence of
that reaction which was, in no small measure, his own work. He
did not try to conceal the scorn which he felt for the servile
doctrines of the University of Oxford. He detested the French
alliance. He disapproved of the long intermission of Parliaments.
He regretted the severity with which the vanquished party was
treated. He who, when the Whigs were predominant, had ventured to
pronounce Stafford not guilty, ventured, when they were
vanquished and helpless, to intercede for Russell. At one of the
last Councils which Charles held a remarkable scene took place.
The charter of Massachusetts had been forfeited. A question arose
how, for the future, the colony should be governed. The general
opinion of the board was that the whole power, legislative as
well as executive, should abide in the crown. Halifax took the
opposite side, and argued with great energy against absolute
monarchy, and in favour of representative government. It was
vain, he said, to think that a population, sprung from the
English stock, and animated by English feelings, would long bear
to be deprived of English institutions. Life, he exclaimed, would
not be worth having in a country where liberty and property were
at the mercy of one despotic master. The Duke of York was greatly
incensed by this language, and represented to his brother the
danger of retaining in office a man who appeared to be infected
with all the worst notions of Marvell and Sidney.
Some modern writers have blamed Halifax for continuing in the
ministry while he disapproved of the manner in which both
domestic and foreign affairs were conducted. But this censure is
unjust. Indeed it is to be remarked that the word ministry, in
the sense in which we use it, was then unknown.24 The thing
itself did not exist; for it belongs to an age in which
parliamentary government is fully established. At present the
chief servants of the crown form one body. They are understood to
be on terms of friendly confidence with each other, and to agree
as to the main principles on which the executive administration
ought to be conducted. If a slight difference of opinion arises
among them, it is easily compromised: but, if one of them differs
from the rest on a vital point, it is his duty to resign. While
he retains his office, he is held responsible even for steps
which he has tried to dissuade his colleagues from taking. In the
seventeenth century, the heads of the various branches of the
administration were bound together in no such partnership. Each
of them was accountable for his own acts, for the use which he
made of his own official seal, for the documents which he signed,
for the counsel which he gave to the King. No statesman was held
answerable for what he had not himself done, or induced others to
do. If he took care not to be the agent in what was wrong, and
if, when consulted, he recommended what was right, he was
blameless. It would have been thought strange scrupulosity in him
to quit his post, because his advice as to matters not strictly
within his own department was not taken by his master; to leave
the Board of Admiralty, for example, because the finances were in
disorder, or the Board of Treasury because the foreign relations
of the kingdom were in an unsatisfactory state. It was,
therefore, by no means unusual to see in high office, at the same
time, men who avowedly differed from one another as widely as
ever Pulteney differed from Walpole, or Fox from Pitt.
The moderate and constitutional counsels of Halifax were timidly
and feebly seconded by Francis North, Lord Guildford who had
lately been made Keeper of the Great Seal. The character of
Guildford has been drawn at full length by his brother Roger
North, a most intolerant Tory, a most affected and pedantic
writer, but a vigilant observer of all those minute circumstances
which throw light on the dispositions of men. It is remarkable
that the biographer, though he was under the influence of the
strongest fraternal partiality, and though he was evidently
anxious to produce a flattering likeness, was unable to portray
the Lord Keeper otherwise than as the most ignoble of mankind.
Yet the intellect of Guildford was clear, his industry great, his
proficiency in letters and science respectable, and his legal
learning more than respectable. His faults were selfishness,
cowardice, and meanness. He was not insensible to the power of
female beauty, nor averse from excess in wine. Yet neither wine
nor beauty could ever seduce the cautious and frugal libertine,
even in his earliest youth, into one fit of indiscreet
generosity. Though of noble descent, he rose in his profession by
paying ignominious homage to all who possessed influence in the
courts. He became Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and as such
was party to some of the foulest judicial murders recorded in our
history. He had sense enough to perceive from the first that
Oates and Bedloe were impostors: but the Parliament and the
country were greatly excited: the government had yielded to the
pressure; and North was not a man to risk a good place for the
sake of justice and humanity. Accordingly, while he was in secret
drawing up a refutation of the whole romance of the Popish plot,
he declared in public that the truth of the story was as plain as
the sun in heaven, and was not ashamed to browbeat, from the seat
of judgment, the unfortunate Roman Catholics who were arraigned
before him for their lives. He had at length reached the highest
post in the law. But a lawyer, who, after many years devoted to
professional labour, engages in politics for the first time at an
advanced period of life, seldom distinguishes himself as a
statesman; and Guildford was no exception to the general rule. He
was indeed so sensible of his deficiencies that he never attended
the meetings of his colleagues on foreign affairs. Even on
questions relating to his own profession his opinion had less
weight at the Council board than that of any man who has ever
held the Great Seal. Such as his influence was, however, he used
it, as far as ho dared, on the side of the laws.
The chief opponent of Halifax was Lawrence Hyde, who had recently
been created Earl of Rochester. Of all Tories, Rochester was the
most intolerant and uncompromising. The moderate members of his
party complained that the whole patronage of the Treasury, while
he was First Commissioner there, went to noisy zealots, whose
only claim to promotion was that they were always drinking
confusion to Whiggery, and lighting bonfires to burn the
Exclusion Bill. The Duke of York, pleased with a spirit which so
much resembled his own supported his brother in law passionately
and obstinately.
The attempts of the rival ministers to surmount and supplant each
other kept the court in incessant agitation. Halifax pressed the
King to summon a Parliament, to grant a general amnesty, to
deprive the Duke of York of all share in the government, to
recall Monmouth from banishment, to break with Lewis, and to form
a close union with Holland on the principles of the Triple
Alliance. The Duke of York, on the other hand, dreaded the
meeting of a Parliament, regarded the vanquished Whigs with
undiminished hatred, still flattered himself that the design
formed fourteen years before at Dover might be accomplished,
daily represented to his brother the impropriety of suffering one
who was at heart a Republican to hold the Privy Seal, and
strongly recommended Rochester for the great place of Lord
Treasurer.
While the two factions were struggling, Godolphin, cautious,
silent, and laborious, observed a neutrality between them.
Sunderland, with his usual restless perfidy, intrigued against
them both. He had been turned out of office in disgrace for
having voted in favour of the Exclusion Bill, but had made his
peace by employing the good offices of the Duchess of Portsmouth
and by cringing to the Duke of York, and was once more Secretary
of State.
Nor was Lewis negligent or inactive. Everything at that moment
favoured his designs. He had nothing to apprehend from the German
empire, which was then contending against the Turks on the
Danube. Holland could not, unsupported venture to oppose him. He
was therefore at liberty to indulge his ambition and insolence
without restraint. He seized Strasburg,, Courtray, Luxemburg. He
exacted from the republic of Genoa the most humiliating
submissions. The power of France at that time reached a higher
point than it ever before or ever after attained, during the ten
centuries which separated the reign of Charlemagne from the reign
of Napoleon. It was not easy to say where her acquisitions would
stop, if only England could be kept in a state of vassalage. The
first object of the court of Versailles was therefore to prevent
the calling of a Parliament and the reconciliation of English
parties. For this end bribes, promises, and menaces were
unsparingly employed. Charles was sometimes allured by the hope
of a subsidy, and sometimes frightened by being told that, if he
convoked the Houses, the secret articles of the treaty of Dover
should be published. Several Privy Councillors were bought; and
attempts were made to buy Halifax, but in vain. When he had been
found incorruptible, all the art and influence of the French
embassy were employed to drive him from office: but his polished
wit and his various accomplishments had made him
was no longer doubtful. He then returned to England: but he was
still excluded by the Test Act from all public employment; nor
did the King at first think it safe to violate a statute which
the great majority of his most loyal subjects regarded as one of
the chief securities of their religion and of their civil rights.
When, however, it appeared, from a succession of trials, that the
nation had patience to endure almost anything that the government
had courage to do, Charles ventured to dispense with the law in
his brother's favour. The Duke again took his seat in the
Council, and resumed the direction of naval affairs.
These breaches of the constitution excited, it is true, some
murmurs among the moderate Tories, and were not unanimously
approved even by the King's ministers. Halifax in particular, now
a Marquess and Lord Privy Seal, had, from the very day on which
the Tories had by his help gained the ascendant, begun to turn
Whig. As soon as the Exclusion Bill had been thrown out, he had
pressed the House of Lords to make provision against the danger
to which, in the next reign, the liberties and religion of the
nation might be exposed. He now saw with alarm the violence of
that reaction which was, in no small measure, his own work. He
did not try to conceal the scorn which he felt for the servile
doctrines of the University of Oxford. He detested the French
alliance. He disapproved of the long intermission of Parliaments.
He regretted the severity with which the vanquished party was
treated. He who, when the Whigs were predominant, had ventured to
pronounce Stafford not guilty, ventured, when they were
vanquished and helpless, to intercede for Russell. At one of the
last Councils which Charles held a remarkable scene took place.
The charter of Massachusetts had been forfeited. A question arose
how, for the future, the colony should be governed. The general
opinion of the board was that the whole power, legislative as
well as executive, should abide in the crown. Halifax took the
opposite side, and argued with great energy against absolute
monarchy, and in favour of representative government. It was
vain, he said, to think that a population, sprung from the
English stock, and animated by English feelings, would long bear
to be deprived of English institutions. Life, he exclaimed, would
not be worth having in a country where liberty and property were
at the mercy of one despotic master. The Duke of York was greatly
incensed by this language, and represented to his brother the
danger of retaining in office a man who appeared to be infected
with all the worst notions of Marvell and Sidney.
Some modern writers have blamed Halifax for continuing in the
ministry while he disapproved of the manner in which both
domestic and foreign affairs were conducted. But this censure is
unjust. Indeed it is to be remarked that the word ministry, in
the sense in which we use it, was then unknown.24 The thing
itself did not exist; for it belongs to an age in which
parliamentary government is fully established. At present the
chief servants of the crown form one body. They are understood to
be on terms of friendly confidence with each other, and to agree
as to the main principles on which the executive administration
ought to be conducted. If a slight difference of opinion arises
among them, it is easily compromised: but, if one of them differs
from the rest on a vital point, it is his duty to resign. While
he retains his office, he is held responsible even for steps
which he has tried to dissuade his colleagues from taking. In the
seventeenth century, the heads of the various branches of the
administration were bound together in no such partnership. Each
of them was accountable for his own acts, for the use which he
made of his own official seal, for the documents which he signed,
for the counsel which he gave to the King. No statesman was held
answerable for what he had not himself done, or induced others to
do. If he took care not to be the agent in what was wrong, and
if, when consulted, he recommended what was right, he was
blameless. It would have been thought strange scrupulosity in him
to quit his post, because his advice as to matters not strictly
within his own department was not taken by his master; to leave
the Board of Admiralty, for example, because the finances were in
disorder, or the Board of Treasury because the foreign relations
of the kingdom were in an unsatisfactory state. It was,
therefore, by no means unusual to see in high office, at the same
time, men who avowedly differed from one another as widely as
ever Pulteney differed from Walpole, or Fox from Pitt.
The moderate and constitutional counsels of Halifax were timidly
and feebly seconded by Francis North, Lord Guildford who had
lately been made Keeper of the Great Seal. The character of
Guildford has been drawn at full length by his brother Roger
North, a most intolerant Tory, a most affected and pedantic
writer, but a vigilant observer of all those minute circumstances
which throw light on the dispositions of men. It is remarkable
that the biographer, though he was under the influence of the
strongest fraternal partiality, and though he was evidently
anxious to produce a flattering likeness, was unable to portray
the Lord Keeper otherwise than as the most ignoble of mankind.
Yet the intellect of Guildford was clear, his industry great, his
proficiency in letters and science respectable, and his legal
learning more than respectable. His faults were selfishness,
cowardice, and meanness. He was not insensible to the power of
female beauty, nor averse from excess in wine. Yet neither wine
nor beauty could ever seduce the cautious and frugal libertine,
even in his earliest youth, into one fit of indiscreet
generosity. Though of noble descent, he rose in his profession by
paying ignominious homage to all who possessed influence in the
courts. He became Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and as such
was party to some of the foulest judicial murders recorded in our
history. He had sense enough to perceive from the first that
Oates and Bedloe were impostors: but the Parliament and the
country were greatly excited: the government had yielded to the
pressure; and North was not a man to risk a good place for the
sake of justice and humanity. Accordingly, while he was in secret
drawing up a refutation of the whole romance of the Popish plot,
he declared in public that the truth of the story was as plain as
the sun in heaven, and was not ashamed to browbeat, from the seat
of judgment, the unfortunate Roman Catholics who were arraigned
before him for their lives. He had at length reached the highest
post in the law. But a lawyer, who, after many years devoted to
professional labour, engages in politics for the first time at an
advanced period of life, seldom distinguishes himself as a
statesman; and Guildford was no exception to the general rule. He
was indeed so sensible of his deficiencies that he never attended
the meetings of his colleagues on foreign affairs. Even on
questions relating to his own profession his opinion had less
weight at the Council board than that of any man who has ever
held the Great Seal. Such as his influence was, however, he used
it, as far as ho dared, on the side of the laws.
The chief opponent of Halifax was Lawrence Hyde, who had recently
been created Earl of Rochester. Of all Tories, Rochester was the
most intolerant and uncompromising. The moderate members of his
party complained that the whole patronage of the Treasury, while
he was First Commissioner there, went to noisy zealots, whose
only claim to promotion was that they were always drinking
confusion to Whiggery, and lighting bonfires to burn the
Exclusion Bill. The Duke of York, pleased with a spirit which so
much resembled his own supported his brother in law passionately
and obstinately.
The attempts of the rival ministers to surmount and supplant each
other kept the court in incessant agitation. Halifax pressed the
King to summon a Parliament, to grant a general amnesty, to
deprive the Duke of York of all share in the government, to
recall Monmouth from banishment, to break with Lewis, and to form
a close union with Holland on the principles of the Triple
Alliance. The Duke of York, on the other hand, dreaded the
meeting of a Parliament, regarded the vanquished Whigs with
undiminished hatred, still flattered himself that the design
formed fourteen years before at Dover might be accomplished,
daily represented to his brother the impropriety of suffering one
who was at heart a Republican to hold the Privy Seal, and
strongly recommended Rochester for the great place of Lord
Treasurer.
While the two factions were struggling, Godolphin, cautious,
silent, and laborious, observed a neutrality between them.
Sunderland, with his usual restless perfidy, intrigued against
them both. He had been turned out of office in disgrace for
having voted in favour of the Exclusion Bill, but had made his
peace by employing the good offices of the Duchess of Portsmouth
and by cringing to the Duke of York, and was once more Secretary
of State.
Nor was Lewis negligent or inactive. Everything at that moment
favoured his designs. He had nothing to apprehend from the German
empire, which was then contending against the Turks on the
Danube. Holland could not, unsupported venture to oppose him. He
was therefore at liberty to indulge his ambition and insolence
without restraint. He seized Strasburg,, Courtray, Luxemburg. He
exacted from the republic of Genoa the most humiliating
submissions. The power of France at that time reached a higher
point than it ever before or ever after attained, during the ten
centuries which separated the reign of Charlemagne from the reign
of Napoleon. It was not easy to say where her acquisitions would
stop, if only England could be kept in a state of vassalage. The
first object of the court of Versailles was therefore to prevent
the calling of a Parliament and the reconciliation of English
parties. For this end bribes, promises, and menaces were
unsparingly employed. Charles was sometimes allured by the hope
of a subsidy, and sometimes frightened by being told that, if he
convoked the Houses, the secret articles of the treaty of Dover
should be published. Several Privy Councillors were bought; and
attempts were made to buy Halifax, but in vain. When he had been
found incorruptible, all the art and influence of the French
embassy were employed to drive him from office: but his polished
wit and his various accomplishments had made him
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