1702. find that they had much credit with him, that he seemed to have made it a maxim, to let them often feel how little power they had, even in small matters: his favourites had a more entire power, but he accustomed them only to inform him of things, but to be sparing in offering advice, except when it was asked: it was not easy to account for the reasons of the favour that he shewed, in the highest instances, to two persons beyond all others, the earls of Portland and Albemarle; they being in all respects men, not only of different, but of opposite characters: secrecy and fidelity were the only qualities in which it could be said that they did in any sort agree. I have now run through the chief branches of his character f I had occasion to know him well, having The bishop has omitted one part of his character, that he told to earl Paulett and myself in the house of lords, soon after his death. He said king William was a man of no humanity, that he had no regard to any body or any thing but as they related to himself; and was entirely unconcerned what became of the world when he was out of it, and would not have been displeased that it had perished with him. And as an instance of his ill-nature, said, he once talked with him of a project the king of France had for drowning all Holland, and the people in it, which he thought the most barbarous design that ever entered into any tyrant's head: the king, he said, answered him very coldly, that he thought, whatever hurt the enemy was allowable in war. Sir William Temple, in a letter to king Charles the second, says, the prince of Orange told him, he did not trouble himself how the world was like to go when he was out of it; and perhaps we were the persons most concerned to look after that. This was the end of his highness's discourse, and the last part of it was spoke with a good deal of emotion. Vide Sir William Temple's Letters, published by Dr. Swift, vol. iii. p. 285. Which was a glorious character for a prince at the head of a government to give of himself, and for which posterity are highly obliged to him. D. (It is asserted, that the editors, whose omissions we know to have been very numerous in the first volume, directed parts of this history, in which king William's character was more fully delineated, to be left out. See Nichols's Litera observed him very carefully in a course of sixteen 1702. years: I had a large measure of his favour, and a free access to him all the while, though not at all times to the same degree: the freedom that I used with him was not always acceptable: but he saw that I served him faithfully, so, after some intervals of coldness, he always returned to a good measure of confidence in me: I was, in many great instances, much obliged by him; but that was not my chief bias to him: I considered him as a person raised up by God to resist the power of France, and the progress of tyranny and persecution: the series of the five princes of Orange, that was now ended in him, was the noblest succession of heroes that we find in any history and the thirty years, from the year 1672 to his death, in which he acted so great a part, carry in them so many amazing steps of a glorious and distinguishing providence, that in the words of David he may be called, the man of God's right hand, whom he made strong for himself: after all the abatements that may be allowed for his errors and faults, he ought still to be reckoned among the greatest princes that our history, or indeed that any other, can afford. He died in a critical time for his own glory; since he had formed a great alliance, and had projected the whole scheme ry Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, vol. i. p. 253. It is then added on the same authority, that the account of Dalrymple lord Stair and his family had been curtailed; which appears to have been really the case, on looking back to p. 369, vol. i. of Burnet's History. So tragical also are the complaints of Cunningham in his History 307 554 HIST. OF THE REIGN OF WILL. III. 1702. of the war; so that if it succeeds, a great part of the honour of it will be ascribed to him: and if otherwise, it will be said he was the soul of the alliance, that did both animate and knit it together, and that it was natural for that body to die and fall asunder, when he who gave it life was withdrawn. Upon his death, some moved for a magnificent funeral; but it seemed not decent to run into unnecessary expense, when we were entering on a war that must be maintained at a vast charge: so a private funeral was resolved on. But for the honour of his memory, a noble monument and an equestrian statue were ordered. Some years must shew whether these things were really intended, or if they were only spoke of to excuse the privacy of his funeral, which was scarce decent, so far was it from being magnificent. END OF KING WILLIAM THE THIRD'S REIGN. A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS OF THE FOREGOING VOLUME". THE BOOK V. Of the reign of king William and queen Mary. 1689. The effect of the king's ill 6 I was made bishop of Salisbury 8 Debates concerning the oaths 21 |