Spirited conduct of the Com mons. 1674. Peace with Osborne, created earl of Danby; a man not of splendid talents, but cautious and prudent, and who in the present situation of affairs seemed not ill-qualified to fill that important station. In the month of October 1673, the parliament was again convened, but a more refractory spirit began now to appear. The commons were highly offended with the treaty of marriage then in agitation between the duke of York and a princess of the house of Modena, and remonstrated warmly against it. They voted the alliance with France to be a grievance, and came to a resolution that they would grant no farther supply, unless the Dutch obstinately refused to treat of peace. Upon which the king, who had relinquished those magnificent projects which he had so lately entertained, thought proper to conclude a separate peace with Holland, through the mediation of the Spanish court, in the beginning of the year 1674. Great rejoicings were made on account of this peace; and it was hoped that the king, convinced of his past errors, would endeavour to retrieve the esteem and affection of his subjects by his future conduct. To confirm these favorable impressions, sir William Temple, who had negociated the triple alliance, and who stood higher than any man in the confidence of the States, was again appointed ambassador at the Hague: the mediation of the king was so lemnly offered in order to effect a general peace, and Nimeguen fixed on as the place of congress. As the continuance of the war could no longer answer any political purpose, the king may reasonably be supposed sincere, if not zealous, in his endeavours to restore the tranquillity of Europe. Lewis, also, whose schemes of ambition by the defection of England were totally frustrated, and who now found himself engaged alone against a formidable confederacy, though his armies still maintained a superiority in the field, was not averse to a treaty. But the prince of Orange, strengthened by the alliance of the Imperial and Spanish courts, and hoping for the accession of England, was secretly disinclined to listen to overtures of reconciliation; and aspired to the glory of humbling the pride of that haughty monarch, whom he regarded with detestation, not merely as the unprovoked invader of his native country, but as the common enemy and disturber of Europe. The French army, however, under the conduct of those consummate generals, Condé, Turenne, and Luxembourg, still continued to make a rapid progress: and the parliament, finding the mediation of Charles not attended with success, in the session held February 1677, after a long interval, during which it 1677. appears that large sums were remitted from France, voted an address to the king to enter into 1 a league offensive and defensive with the StatesGeneral. The king affected to resent this interference, as an encroachment upon his preroga tive, and, in anger, immediately adjourned the parliament. The fact was, that he had actually sold his neutrality to France; and that he had regularly received a pension from that court to the amount of two millions of livres, as the price of his honor and conscience. Throughout his whole reign, however, it was Insidious contrary to the maxims of policy by which Charles Policy of the Court. was governed, to risque a serious or violent rupture with the parliament; and he was convinced that some popular measure was absolutely requisite in the present circumstances, to palliate his conduct, and in some degree to redeem his reputation; and no measure could more effectually answer those purposes, than the marriage of the princess Mary, eldest daughter to the duke of York, to the Prince of Orange; who, by this alliance, might be led to entertain no very distant prospect of succeeding to the English crown. When this intention was made public, the highest degree of satisfaction was expressed by all parties: and the prince arriving in England at the end of the campaign, the marriage-ceremony was performed, to the great surprise and chagrin of the French monarch; who received the intelligence, to use the expression of Montague the English ambassador, "as he would have done that of the loss of an army." The good consequences expected from this union did not, however, immediately appear. The king indeed pretended to enter into an amicable consultation with the prince respecting the terms of the treaty of peace; which were at last settled in such a manner as to give satisfaction to the allies. And Charles protested, that if the plan then concerted was rejected by Louis, he would immediately join the confederacy. After the prince's departure, however, he resumed his clandestine negotiations with France, and made great concessions and abatements in the terms originally projected; for which he received pecuniary compensations from Lewis. And though Charles, finding that he incurred the indignation and contempt of all parties by the base duplicity of his conduct, seemed at length resolved in earnest to adopt vigorous and decisive measures, the parliament appeared no longer disposed to confide in his professions; and the allies, despairing of effectual support from England, signed a peace with France, at Nimeguen, in August 1678. 1678. trigues of It appears from late discoveries, that the pa- Secret Intriotic party in the house of commons, led by the PaSydney, Russel, &c. were secretly averse to en- triots. gage the nation in a war with France, notwithstanding the apparent incongruity of their public conduct: and in this they concurred with a great majority of the wisest and most dispassionate members of the United States, though not with the sentiments of the stadtholder; by whose authority and influence alone the war, without any adequate political necessity, had been so long continued. The leaders of the opposition in parliament well knew that no real danger was now to be apprehended from France. The king had it in his power to dictate the terms of the treaty of peace; and they with good reason entertained the strongest jealousies and suspicions, that the immense sums which must be voted, and the vast armaments which must be raised, in order to carry on a war against France, might eventually be directed against the religion and liberties of this kingdom. They were fully acquainted with the deep and dangerous designs which the king had formerly harboured against his subjects, and which want of power, and not want of inclination, had at length compelled him to abandon. The court of France, for very different but very obvious reasons, was equally solicitous to prevent the king from joining the confederacy; in consequence of which accidental union of interests, intrigues were carried on between the French ambassador and the members of opposition; and great sums of French gold were distributed, with the approbation or passive con |