forced to abandon her own seas, unable to defend the mouths of her own rivers, regained almost as high a place in the estimation of her neighbours as she had held in the times of Elizabeth and Oliver;-and that all this change of opinion was produced in five days by wise and resolute counsels, without the firing of a single gun. That the Triple Alliance effected this will hardly be disputed; and if it effected nothing else, it must still be regarded as a masterpiece of diplomacy.

Temple's next mission was to Aix-la-Chapelle, where a general congress met for the purpose of perfecting the work of the Triple Alliance. On his road he received abundant proofs of the estimation in which he was held. Salutes were fired from the walls of the towns through which he passed; the population poured forth into the streets to see him; and the magistrates entertained him with speeches and banquets. After the close of the negotiations of Aix, he was appointed ambassador at the Hague. But in both these missions he experienced much vexation from the rigid, and, indeed, unjust parsimony of the government. Profuse to many unworthy applicants, the ministers were niggardly to him alone. They secretly disliked his politics; and they seem to have indemnified themselves for the humiliation of adopting his measures by cutting down his salary and delaying the settlement of his outfit.

At the Hague he was received with cordiality by De Witt, and with the most signal marks of respect by the States-General. His situation was in one point extremely delicate. The Prince of Orange, the hereditary chief of the faction opposed to the administration of De Witt, was the nephew of Charles. To preserve the confidence of the ruling party with out showing any want of respect to so near a relation of his own master was no easy task. But Temple acquitted himself so well, that he appears to have been in great favour, both with the Grand Pensionary and with the prince.

Considered as a measure of domestic policy, this treaty seems to be equally deserving of approbation. It did much to allay discontents, to reconcile the sovereign with a people who had, under his wretched administration, become ashamed of him and of themselves. It was a kind of pledge for internal good government. The foreign relations of the kingdom had at that time the closest connection with our domestic policy. From the Restoration, to the accession of the house of Hanover, Holland and France were to England what the right-hand horseman and the left-hand horseman in Bürger's fine ballad were to Wildgraf, the good and the evil counsellor,the angel of light and the angel of darkness. The ascendency of France was inseparably connected with the prevalence of tyranny in domestic affairs. The ascendency of Holland was as inseparably connected with the prevalence of political liberty, and of mutual toleration among Protestant sects. How fatal and degrading an influence Louis was destined to exercise on the British counsels, how great a deliverance our country was destined to owe In the main, the years which he spent at the to the States, could not be foreseen when the Hague seem, in spite of some pecuniary diffi Triple Alliance was concluded. Yet even then culties, occasioned by the ill-will of the English all discerning men considered it as a good ministers, to have passed very agreeably. He omen for the English constitution and the re-enjoyed the highest personal consideration. formed religion, that the government had attached itself to Holland, and had assumed a firm and somewhat hostile attitude towards France. The fame of this measure was the greater, because it stood so entirely alone. It was the single eminently good act performed by the government during the interval between the Restoration and the Revolution. Every person who had the smallest part in it, and some who had no part in it at all, battled for a share of the credit. The most close-fisted republicans were ready to grant money for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this popular alliance; and the great Tory poet of that age, in his finest satires, repeatedly spoke with reverence of the "triple bond."

He was surrounded by objects interesting in the highest degree to a man of his observant turn of mind. He had no wearing labour, no heavy responsibility, and if he had no oppor tunity of adding to his high reputation, he ran no risk of impairing it.

But evil times were at hand. Though Charles had for a moment deviated into a wise and dignified policy, his heart had always been with France; and France employed every means of seduction to lure him back. His impatience of control, his greediness for mo ney, his passion for beauty, his family affec tions, all his tastes, all his feelings, were practised on with the utmost dexterity. His interior cabinet was now composed of men such as that generation, and that generation alone, produced; of men at whose audacious profligacy the rats of our own time look with the same sort of admiring despair with which our sculptors contemplate the Theseus, and our painters the Cartoons. To be a real, hearty, deadly enemy of the liberties and religion of the nation was, in that dark con clave, an honourable distinction; a distinction which belonged only to the daring and impetuous Clifford. His associates were men tu whom all creeds and all constitutions were alike; who were equally ready to profess and to persecute the faith of Geneva, cf Lambeth, and of Rome; who were equally ready to be

tools of power without any sense of loyalty, manded his temper as well as he could, and and stirrers of sedition without any zeal for freedom.

It was hardly possible even for a man so penetrating as De Witt to foresee to what depths of wickedness and infamy this execrable administratior would descend. Yet many signs of the greaɩ wo which was coming on Europe-the visit of the Duchess of Orleans to her brother, the unexplained mission of Buckingham to Paris,-the sudden occupation of Lorraine by the French, - rendered the Grand Pensionary uneasy; and his alarm increased when he learned that Temple had received orders to repair instantly to London. He earnestly pressed for an explanation. Temple very sincerely replied that he hoped that the English ministers would adhere to the principles of the Triple Alliance. "I can answer," he said, "only for myself. But that I can do. If a new system is to be adopted, I will never have any part in it. I have told the king so; and I will make my words good. If I return, you will know more; and if I do not return, you will guess more." De Witt smiled, and answered that he would hope the best; and would do all in his power to prevent others from forming unfavourable surmises.

replied, calmly and firmly, that he should make no such declaration, and that if he were called upon to give his opinion of the States and their ministers, he would say exactly what he thought.

He now saw clearly that the tempest was gathering fast,—that the great alliance which he had framed, and over which he had watched with parental care, was about to be dissolved, that times were at hand when it would be necessary for him, if he continued in public life, either to take part decidedly against the court, or to forfeit the high reputation which he enjoyed at home and abroad. He began to make preparations for retiring altogether from business. He enlarged a little garden which he had purchased at Sheen, and laid out some money in ornamenting his house there. He was still nominally ambassador to Holland; and the English ministers continued some months to flatter the States with the hope that he would speedily return. At length, in June, 1671, the designs of the "Cabal" were ripe. The infamous treaty with France had been ratified. The season of deception was past, and that of insolence and violence had arrived. Temple received his formal dismission, kissed the king's hand, was repaid for his services with some of those vague compliments and promises which cost so little to the cold heart, the easy temper, and the ready tongue of Charles, and quietly withdrew to his little nest, as he called it, at Sheen.

In October, 1670, Temple reached London; and all his worst suspicions were immediately more than confirmed. He repaired to the Secretary's house, and was kept an hour and a half waiting in the antechamber, whilst Lord Ashley was closeted with Arlington. When at length the doors were thrown open, ArlingThere he amused himself with gardening, ton was dry and cold, asked trifling questions which he practised so successfully that the about the voyage, and then, in order to escape fame of his fruit soon spread far and wide from the necessity of discussing business, But letters were his chief solace. He had, as called in his daughter-an engaging little girl we have mentioned, been from his youth in of three years old, who was long after de- the habit of diverting himself with composi scribed by poets "as dressed in all the bloom tion. The clear and agreeable language of his of smiling nature," and whom Evelyn, one of despatches had early attracted the notice of his the witnesses of her inauspicious marriage, employers; and before the peace of Breda, he mournfully designated as "the sweetest, hope- had, at the request of Arlington, published a fullest, most beautiful child, and most virtuous pamphlet on the war, of which nothing is now too." Any particular conversation was impos- known, except that it had some vogue at the sible; and Temple, who, with all his constitu- time, and that Charles, not a contemptible tional or philosophical indifference, was suffi- judge, pronounced it to be very well written. ciently sensitive on the side of vanity, felt this He had also, a short time before he began to treatment keenly. The next day he offered reside at the Hague, written a treatise on the himself to the notice of the king, who was State of Ireland, in which he showed all the snuing up the morning air, and feeding his feelings of a Cromwellian. He had gradually ducks in the Mall. Charles was civil, but, formed a style singularly lucid and melodious, like Arlington, carefully avoided all conversa--superficially deformed, indeed, by Gallicisms tion on politics. Temple found that all his and Hispanicisms, picked up in travel, or in nemost respectable friends were entirely ex-gotiation,-but at the bottom pure Englishcluded from the secrets of the inner council; and were awaiting in anxiety and dread for what those mysterious deliberations might produce. At length he obtained a glimpse of light. The bold spirit and fierce passions of Clifford rendered him the most unfit of all men to be the keeper of a momentous secret. He told Temple, with great vehemence, that the States had behaved basely, that De Witt was a rogue and a rascal, that it was below the King of England, or any other king, to have any thing to do with such wretches; that this ought to be made known to all the world, and that it was the duty of the minister at the Hague to declare it publicly. Temple com

generally flowing with careless simplicity, but occasionally rising even into Ciceronian magnificence. The length of his sentences has often been remarked. But in truth this length is only apparent. A critic who considers as one sentence every thing that lies between two full stops will undoubtedly call Temple's sentences long. But a critic who examines them carefully will find that they are not swollen by parenthetical matter; that their structure is scarcely ever intricate; that they are formed merely by accumulation; and that, by the simple process of leaving out conjunctions, and substituting full stops for colons and semicolons, they might, without any alteration in the orde. of the

words, be broken up into very short periods, | the plans which they had the spirit to form: with no sacrifice except that of euphony. The and it is seldom that men who have the spirit long sentences of Hooker and Clarendon, on to form such plans, are reduced to the neces the contrary, are really long sentences, and sity of executing them. cannot be turned into short ones, without being entirely taken to pieces.

The best known of the works which Temple composed during his first retreat from official business are, an Essay on Government, which seems to us exceedingly childish; and an Account of the United Provinces, which we think a masterpiece in its kind. Whoever compares these two pieces will probably agree with us in thinking that Temple was not a very deep or accurate reasoner, but was an excellent observer, that he had no call to philosophical speculation, but that he was qualified to excel as a writer of Memoirs and Travels.

While Temple was engaged in these pursuits, the great storm which had long been brooding over Europe burst with such fury as for a moment seemed to threaten ruin to all free governments and ali Protestant churches. France and England, without seeking for any decent pretext, declared war against Holland. The immense armies of Louis poured across the Rhine, and invaded the territory of the United Provinces. The Dutch seemed to be paralyzed with terror. Great towns opened their gates to straggling parties. Regiments flung down their arms without seeing an enemy. Guelderland, Overyssel, Utrecht were overrun by the conquerors. The fires of the French camp were seen from the walls of Amsterdam. In the first madness of their despair, the devoted people turned their rage against the most illustrious of their fellow-citizens. De Ruyter was saved with difficulty from assassins. De Witt was torn to pieces by an infuriated rabble. No hope was left to the Commonwealth, save in the dauntless, the ardent, the indefatigable, the unconquerable spirit which glowed under the frigid demeanour of the young Prince of Orange.

The allies had, during a short period, ob tained the most appalling success. This was their auspicious moment. They neglected to improve it. It passed away; and it returned no more. The Prince of Orange arrested the progress of the French armies. Louis returned to be amused and flattered at Versailles. The country was under water. The winter approached. The weather became stormy The fleets of the combined kings could no longer keep the sea. The republic had obtained a respite; and the circumstances were such that a respite was, in a military view important; in a political view, almost decisive.

The alliance against Holland, formidable as it was, was yet of such a nature that it could not succeed at all unless it succeeded at once. The English ministers could not carry on the war without money. They could legally obtain money only from the Parliament; and they were most unwilling to call Parliament together. The measures which Charles had adopted at home were even more unpopular than his foreign policy. He had bound himself by a treaty with Louis to re-establish the Catholic religion in England; and, in pursuance of this design, he had entered on the same course which his brother afterwards pursued with greater obstinacy to a more fatal end. He had annulled, by his own sole authority, the laws against Catholics and other dissenters. The matter of the Declaration of Indulgence exasperated one half of his subjects, and the manner the other half. Liberal men would have rejoiced to see toleration granted, at least to all Protestant sects. Many High Churchmen had no objection to the king's dispensing power But a tolerant act done in an unconstitutional way excited the opposition of all those who were zealous either for the Church or for the privileges of the people; that is to say, of That great man rose at once to the full dig- ninety-nine Englishmen out of a hundred. nity of his part, and approved himself a wor- The ministers were, therefore, most unwilling thy descendant of the line of heroes who had to meet the Houses. Lawless and desperate vindicated the liberties of Europe against the as their counsels were, the boldest of them had house of Austria. Nothing could shake his too much value for his neck to think of resortfidelity to his country-not his close connec- ing to benevolences, privy seals, ship-money, tion with the royal family of England-not the or any of the other unlawful modes of extortion most earnest solicitations-not the most tempt- which former kings had employed. The auing offers. The spirit of the nation,-that spi-dacious fraud of shutting up the exchequer rit which had maintained the great conflict furnished them with about twelve hundred against the gigantic power of Philip-revived | thousand pounds :—a sum which, even in betin all its strength. Counsels such as are in- ter hands than theirs, would hardly have suf spired by a generous despair, and are almost|ficed for the war-charges of a single year. always followed by a speedy dawn of hope, were gravely concerted by the statesmen of Holland. To open their dikes,-to man their ships, to leave their country, with all its miracles of art and industry,-its cities, its canals, its villas, its pastures, and its tulip gardens, buried under the waves of the German ocean, -to bear to a distant clime their Calvinistic faith and their old Batavian liberties, to fix, perhaps with happier auspices, the new Stadthouse of their Commonwealth, under other stars, and amidst a strange vegetation, in the Spice-Islands of the Eastern seas,-such were

And this was a step which could never be repeated;-a step which, like most breaches of public faith, was speedily found to have caused pecuniary difficulties greater than those which it removed. All the money that could be raised was gone; Holland was not conquered; and the king had no other resource but in a Parliament.

Had a general election taken place at this crisis, it is probable that the country would have sent up representatives as resolutely hos tile to the court as those who met in November 1640; that the whole domestic and foreign

policy of the government would have been in- | made a formal renunciation of the dispensing stantly changed; and that the members of the power before he prorogued the Houses. Cabal would have expiated their crimes on Tower Hill. But the House of Commons was still the same which had been elected twelve years before, in the midst of the transports of joy, repentance, and loyalty which followed the Restoration; and no pains had been spared to attach it to the court by places, pensions, and bribes. To the great mass of the people it was scarcely less odious than the cabinet. Yet, though it did not immediately proceed to those strong measures which a new House would in all probability have adopted, it was sullen and unmanageable; and undid, slowly indeed and by degrees, but most effectually, all that the Ministers had done. In one session it anni-thusiasm of the late Treasurer. They were not hilated their system of internal government. In a second session, it gave a deathblow to their foreign policy.

trust for aid, not to a foreign prince whose name was hateful to the British nation, and whose succours could be obtained only on terms of vassalage, but to the old Cavalier party, to the landed gentry, the clergy, and the universities. By rallying round the throne the whole strength of the Royalists and HighChurchmen, and by using without stint all the resources of corruption, he flattered himself that he could manage the Parliament. That he failed is to be attributed less to himself than to his master. Of the disgraceful dealings which were still kept up with the French court, Danby deserved little or none of the blame, though he suffered the whole punish

ment.

Hague in July, 1674. Holland was now se cure, and France was surrounded on every side by enemies. Spain and the Empire were in arms for the purpose of compelling Louis to abandon all that he had acquired since the treaty of the Pyrenees. A congress for the purpose of putting an end to the war was opened at Nimeguen under the mediation of England, in 1675; and to that congress Temple was deputed. The work of conciliation, however, went on very slowly. The belligerent powers were still sanguine, and the mediating power was unsteady and insincere.

In the mean time the Opposition in England became more and more formidable, and seemed fully determined to force the king into a war Danby, with great parliamentary talents, had with France. Charles was desirous of making paid little attention to foreign politics; and some appointments which might strengthen wished for the help of some person on whom the administration, and conciliate the confi. he could rely in that department. A plan was dence of the public. No man was more esteemaccordingly arranged for making Temple Se-ed by the nation than Temple ; yet he had never cretary of State. Arlington was the only mem- been concerned in any opposition to any gober of the Cabal who still held office in Eng-vernment. In July, 1677, he was sent for from land. The temper of the House of Commons made it necessary to remove him, or rather, to require him to sell out; for at that time the great offices of state were bought and sold as commissions in the army now are. Temple was informed that he should have the seals if he would pay Arlington six thousand pounds. The transaction had nothing in it discreditable, according to the notions of that age; and the investment would have been a good one; for we imagine that at that time the gains which a Secretary of State might make without doing any thing considered as improper, were very considerable. Temple's friends offered to lend him the money; but he was fully determined not to take a post of so much responsibility in times so agitated, and under a prince on whom so little reliance could be placed, and accepted the embassy to the Hague, leaving Arlington to find another purchaser.

Before Temple left England he had a long audience of the king, to whom he spoke with great severity of the measures adopted by the late ministry. The king owned that things had turned out ill. "But," said he, "if I had been well served, I might have made a good business of it." Temple was alarmed at this language, and inferred from it that the system of the Cabal had not been abandoned, but only suspended. He therefore thought it his duty to go, as he expresses it, "to the bottom of the matter." He strongly represented to the king the impossibility of establishing either absolute government or the Catholic religion in England; and concluded by repeating an observation which he had heard at Brussels from M. Gourville, a very intelligent Frenchman, well known to Charles: "A king of England," said Gourville, "who is willing to be the man of his people, is the greatest king in the world: but if he wishes to be more, by heaven he is nothing at all!" The king betrayed some symptoms of impatience during this lecture; but at last laid his hand kindly on Temple's shoulder, and said, "You are right, and so is Gourville; and I will be the man of my people." With this assurance Temple repaired to the VOL. III.--46

Nimeguen. Charles received him with caresses, earnestly pressed him to accept the seals of Secretary of State, and promised to bear half the charge of buying out the present holder. Temple was charmed by the kindness and politeness of the king's manner, and by the liveliness of his conversation; but his prudence was not to be so laid asleep. He calmly and steadily excused himself. The king affected to treat his excuses as mere jests, and gayly said, "Go, get you gone to Sheen. We shall have no good of you till you have been there; and when you have rested yourself, come up again." Temple withdrew, and stayed two days at his villa, but returned to town in the same mind and the king was forced to consent at least to a delay.

But while Temple thus carefully shunned the responsibility of bearing a part in the ge neral direction of affairs, he gave a signal proof of that never-failing sagacity which enabled him to find out ways of distinguishing himself without risk. He had a principal share in bringing about an event which was at the time hailed with general satisfaction, and which subsequently produced consequences of the highest importance. This was the marriage of the Prince of Orange and the Lady Mary.

In the following year Temple returned to the Hague; and thence he was ordered, at the close of 1678, to repair to Nimeguen, for the purpose of signing the hollow and unsatis factory treaty by which the distractions of Europe were for a short time suspended. He grumbled much at being required to sign bad articles which he had not framel, and still more at having to travel in very cold weather. After all, a difficulty of etiquette prevented him from signing, and he returned to the Hague. Scarcely had he arrived there when he received intelligence that the king, whose embarrassments were now far greater than ever, was fully resolved immediately to appoint him Se cretary of State. He a third time declined that high post, and began to make preparations for a journey to Italy; thinking, doubtless, that he should spend his time much more pleasantly 2 H