1670]

TREATY WITH FRANCE

743

obstructing the

King's plans is

ceeded to carry it out, to his own ruin and the lasting advantage of England. It is by the light afforded us by our knowledge of this plot that we must interpret every act of the two last Stuarts. Meanwhile, before so strange a change of policy as was implied in a war with Holland, so immediately after the Triple Parliament Alliance, could be made, it was necessary to get rid for a time of Parliament. For that body was beginning to prorogued. grow suspicious; it was impossible to keep the King's designs absolutely secret; moreover, the lavish expenditure of the Court and the riotous living of the King continued, and there were no ostensible sources of revenue to support it. Parliament began even to grumble at the life the King led. It was proposed to lay a tax on all who visited play-houses. A jest which Sir John Coventry made on this matter was displeasing to the King. Not yet powerful enough to punish such language arbitrarily, he took the mean step of employing his son Monmouth to hire bravos, who attacked Sir John in the streets and slit his nose to the bone. The indignation of the House was great. A strong Bill was passed against the perpetrators of the outrage, and malicious maiming made henceforth a capital felony. To get rid for the time of this troublesome Parliament, it was prorogued on the 2nd of April 1671, confessedly for a year, in fact for twenty-one months.

Money obtained

bankruptcy.

The Government could now carry out its change of policy unhindered. But, first of all, sufficient money had to be procured. This was done by an act of singular bad faith; nothing short, in fact, of declaring a national bankruptcy. It had been the custom for bankers to advance money to the Exchequer by a national upon the security of the revenue, which was to be set aside for the payment of both principal and interest. The Exchequer was at this moment under obligation to pay £1,300,000. The larger part of this had been advanced by bankers from funds intrusted to them by private individuals. A proclamation was suddenly issued that all payments from the exchequer should be suspended for one year, although interest was to continue, a promise which was not observed. The effect was a run upon the bankers and widespread distress.

This act of national robbery was followed by a piece of international dishonesty almost as bad. War had not yet been War declared declared against Holland, and the Dutch Smyrna fleet against Holland. was now on the way home. The English admirals were instructed to lay hands upon this valuable prize. The villany was

1672.

not even successful. The Dutch, though at peace, were not without suspicions; six men of war convoyed the fleet, the English were ignominiously beaten off. War was at length declared in March 1672. The French did not pretend an excuse, the English pretences were so trivial as to be almost worse than none. The declaration of war was speedily followed by a great naval battle. On the 28th of May, the Duke of York met De Ruyter in Southwold Bay, and a battle of that equal and obstinate kind which was habitual between the English and the Dutch was fought. Upon land the combatants were far less equally matched. The troops of Louis poured at once over Holland. The army almost reached Amsterdam. The populace, driven to frenzy by the sight, and always attached to the interests of the House of Orange, which were not at present in the ascendant, rose in fury against their Government. De Ruyter was insulted, De Witt torn to pieces by the mob, and the young Prince of Orange found the duty of saving the country thrust upon him. Both France and England offered him terms. He rejected both. He even suggested that, if the worst should arrive, the shipping in the harbours might yet carry a remnant of the Dutch to the East, and victorious. there establish a New Holland. The courage of the people was roused, the dykes were cut, and the country laid under water. Unable to find subsistence, the invading army was forced to retreat, and Holland was saved; for the Austrian house was now roused to come to its succour.

The Dutch

Declaration of indulgence. 1673.

One part of the intended plan had thus failed, and the funds at the disposal of the English ministry having been uselessly exhausted, it became necessary to summon Parliament. It met, after its long prorogation, in February 1673. During that period the second part of the King's plan had been tried also. Just before war had been declared with Holland a declaration of indulgence had been issued to conciliate the Protestant Dissenters. The King declared that it was his will and pleasure, making use of his supreme power in ecclesiastical matters, that the execution of all penal laws in matters ecclesiastical should be immediately suspended. The King's right to dispense with statutes in individual cases was scarcely disputed. The power of pardon indeed in some degree implied it. But this was a very different thing from a wholesale suspension of a series of Acts of Parliament. So dangerous did this power appear, both as a step towards arbitrary power and as a means of frustrating the efforts of Parliament in the suppression of Papacy, that the very Dissenters, whom it was intended to please, and whom

1673]

OPPOSITION OF PARLIAMENT
AMENT

Charles to

745

it had in fact much relieved, opposed it, and on the meeting of Parliament an address was carried by a considerable majority begging the King to recall the declaration. Charles, Parliament though complaining bitterly of the opposition of the compels Commons, was afraid to contest the matter, and with- withdraw it. drew the declaration, a sign of weakness which induced Shaftesbury, a statesman who was always to be found on the stronger side, to pass over to the popular party.

This triumph of the Opposition, or Country party, as they were now called, was immediately followed up. No doubt grave Passes the suspicions, even knowledge, though perhaps imperfect Test Act, knowledge, of the stipulations of the Treaty of Dover excited them to active measures. They proceeded to bring in and pass the Test Act, which rendered it necessary that the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England should be received, and a statement made by all who held any temporal office that they rejected the doctrine of Transubstantiation. As this necessity was to extend from the lowest to the highest, it reached the Peers and other high officials, who were untouched by the oath required by the Act of Supremacy, and compelled the Lord Treasurer Clifford, with Arlington, to retire from office, and the Duke of York himself to resign his position of High Admiral.

causing the

to resign,

The triumph of the Country party in passing this Bill was complete, and was followed by the resignation of all the Cabal ministers with the exception of Lauderdale. Cabal ministers Clifford withdrew entirely from public life, Arlington took an employment in the royal household, Shaftesbury and Buckingham threw in their lot with the Opposition, and became its leaders. Lauderdale continued ruler in Scotland. After this triumph, the Opposition were content to leave unmentioned the closing of the Exchequer, and to vote a large supply, conscious that by refusing to acknowledge the dispensing power, and by carrying the Test Act, they had in fact thwarted both branches of the King's great scheme. The final overthrow of the policy of the Cabal with Holland. was secured when the Commons compelled the King, by a threatened refusal of supplies, to conclude a separate peace with Holland, where Temple resumed his duties as anibassador.

and makes peace

Feb. 9, 1674.

Apparent

The Government fell into the hands of Sir Thomas Osborne, soon created Lord Danby, who became Lord Treasurer. His political views in some respects reproduced those of Clarendon. He wished to establish the monarchy in a

inconsistency of Danby's administration.

strong position, with the help of all the conservative elements in the country, and to see the Church of England supported in all its influence against both the Church of Rome and the Nonconformists. His foreign policy was however different. His feeling was strongly national. He disliked before all things the idea of a French alliance, and wished to recur to the policy of the Triple Alliance. Except then in his wish to increase the power of the Crown, he differed in all respects from the King, his master; and this difference of opinion gives a strange appearance of vacillation to the conduct of the Government during his tenure of power.

Difficulties of the Opposition.

Difficulties of Louis.

The same character of inconsistency is traceable in the conduct of the Opposition, for the execution of their foreign policy did not appear compatible with their security at home. They desired war with France, but war with France implied a considerable army; with their knowledge of Charles's objects, they could not bring themselves to trust him with the command of such an army. They thus, while demanding war, refused the only means of carrying it on. The apparent inconsistency of the politics of the time was still further increased by the actions of the French King. To him also Charles was an object of profound inistrust. He would have been glad enough to carry out that King's schemes by the intervention of his own power. He by no means wished Charles's absolute authority to be established without his assistance. He preferred to neutralize the political influence of England by keeping Parliament and King in a constant state of mutual mistrust. The otherwise confused action of Danby's ministry becomes clear if it be borne in mind that the minister was constantly urging war with France, while the King was all the time pensioner of that country; that the Commons, certain of the King's connection and of his real objects, though unable to prove them, were unwilling to trust him on any point, though as anxious as the Treasurer for a French war; and that Louis was unceasingly engaged in intriguing with both parties in order to keep England from interference abroad. Throughout these years the Opposition was led by Buckingham and Shaftesbury, and was of the most vigorous description. It was

to the misfortune of the party that it was so led. Both those noblemen belonged to the class of ready and unprincipled statesmen which the rapid alternation of power during the last thirty years had produced, and they gave a character of unscrupulousness and faction to the Opposition which its really great objects did not render necessary.

1675]

DANBY'S GOVERNMENT

Attempts at

1675.

747

Danby's views of domestic government are shown by the attempt, in 1675, to render an oath against resistance to the royal power in all cases, and against any attempt to change arbitrary rule. the government of Church or State, obligatory on all place-holders and all members of either House of Parliament. The Bill was carried in the Lords, but met with such violent opposition in the Lower House that it was ultimately dropped. At the end of the same year, to prevent the free and sometimes seditious language used in the coffee-houses, which were to Englishmen then much what clubs now are, all coffee-houses were suddenly shut up. This attempt to carry despotism into social life raised such a storm of wrath, that, after a short time and under some restrictions, the coffee-houses had to be reopened. Again, in the Parliament of 1677, Lords Shaftesbury, Salisbury, Wharton, and the Duke of Buckingham, maintaining that the late lengthened prorogation of Parliament was illegal, were all four imprisoned in the Tower, and remained there for more than a year.

Parliament

check Louis.

In the face of vehement opposition, and in spite of the unpopularity of his views of government, the Treasurer succeeded by means of bribery in continuing in office. But it was in connection with the affairs of Europe that the mistrust of the Opposition and the meanness of the King were most clearly shown. wishes to The separate peace with Holland had been completed in February 1674; but though England had thus withdrawn from it, the war still continued on the largest scale on the Continent. Holland had indeed been saved by the firmness of the Prince of Orange. Austria and Spain had come to his assistance, and the war, turned aside from its original purpose, was now directed chiefly against these allies, of which Spain, as usual, was the greatest sufferer. FrancheComté was again occupied; Alsace taken by Turenne, who passed the Rhine and laid waste the Palatinate; and after the death of that great general in 1675, the French still continued to make head against the European alliance along their whole frontier, although with less unvarying success. Supported by the well-known wishes of the Lord Treasurer, the Country party were not contented with the withdrawal of England from the French alliance. They eagerly desired that the nation should take its proper place as one of the chief members of the league against the French. It became necessary for the views of Louis that the constant declaration of this wish should be silenced. He therefore, at the price Charles to of 500,000 crowns, purchased from Charles a lengthened

Louis bribes

prorogue it.