General Discontent.-Unpopularity of Clarendon.-Its Causes. He is disliked by the King. His Enemies at Court. — Marriage of Miss Stewart. - Lady Castlemaine. - Bucking- ham. Death of Southampton. - Clarendon unsupported by any Party or Class. Hostility of the Commons. - Par- liament summoned, and immediately dismissed. - Death of Lady Clarendon. Clarendon is advised to resign, that he Great Seal given to Sir O. Bridgman. — Meeting of Parlia- ment. Address to the King on the Dismissal of Clarendon. -Proceedings against Clarendon in the House of Commons. Heads of Accusation. Debates. Impeachment of Clarendon for High Treason. The Lords demur be- cause no particular Treason is specified. Conference. The Lords refuse to commit on the General Charge. Attempts to induce Clarendon to quit the Kingdom. — Clarendon's Letter to the King. He at length consents to At Avignon. At Montpelier.-His Literary Occupations. Removal to Moulins. His Letter to the Duchess of York.- View of the State of Society, and of Public Events after Cla- rendon's Administration. State of Liberty during his Ad- ministration. Security of Property. - Personal Liberty. — Intimidation of Juries. Proclamations. Restrictions on the Press. Nature of Ministerial Duties and Responsibilities in the Seventeenth Century. Clarendon's Character as a View of Lord Clarendon's Writings. History of the Rebel- lion.-Life, and Continuation. Religion and Policy.-Con- templations and Reflections on the Psalms.Essays.— An- TABLE OF DESCENDANTS OF THE LORD CHANCELLOR CLA- THE LIFE OF EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. CHAPTER I. COMPOSITION THE PRIVY COUNCIL. -CHARACTER OF RESTORATION. HYDE TAKES HIS SEAT IN THE HOUSE OF HYDE RECOM- ABOLITION OF FEUDAL TENURES. PECUNIARY 1660. I. 1660. THE Lord Chancellor was a witness of the Restor- CHAP. ation. He was with Charles at Canterbury in his progress to London; followed his triumphal entry Hyde takes to the capital; and took his seat on the 1st of his seat in June, as Speaker in the House of Lords. He of Lords, also sat on the same day in the Court of Chancery; and Lord Manchester was made Speaker, pro Chancery. the House and in the Court of I. 1660. CHAP. tempore, in his absence.* He now entered upon the arduous duties of that, high office, of which hitherto he had borne only the envy and the name. His labours had indeed been great; but they had been not the well-defined duties of a recognised office, but the more varied, harrassing, and intricate labours of adviser and manager, in all that concerned the King's affairs.† Unsuccess ful attempts to exclude That Hyde, at this time, exercised great influence over the King, is to be learnt from the Hyde from evidence of those by whom his influence was depre office. cated. He paid the natural penalty of power, and found enemies in such as either feared or envied him. Monk is said to have been a secret enemy §; and the Queen and Jermyn seem to have retained their ancient grudge, and to have intrigued against him with the Presbyterian leaders. | The Catholics, (as Broderick wrote in January, 1660) looked upon him as inimical. The Presbyterians, according to the same informant, although they regarded him as "the only man that hath and will keep out Popery, 66 *Lords' Journals. "Soon after the King thought proper to grant a commission under his great seal, to Sir Orlando Bridgman, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, to execute that place whenever the "Lord Chancellor should be absent." Parl. Hist. iv. 69. 66 † Of his labours as a correspondent with adherents in England I have spoken already. Bishop Burnet informs us that he also " kept a register of all the King's promises, and of his own; and did all that "lay in his power afterwards to get them all to be performed. He was, "also, all that while giving that King many wise and good advices. "But he did it too much with the air of a governor, or of a lawyer. "Yet then the King was wholly in his hands." Burnet's Own Times, i. 150. Thurloe, vii. 892. Clarendon State Papers, iii. 738. 744. Burnet's Own Times, i. 150. note. Clar. State Papers, iii 738. 66 I. 1660. "and, because he understands the law, preserve CHAP. property," yet also believed him "irrecon"cileable to their form," and were anxious to have made such conditions as would have excluded him from power. The leading Presbyterians, Lords Manchester and Bedford, with Pierrepoint, Popham, Waller, and St. John, are reported to have spoken very bitterly with respect to the King's adherents; and, as Samborne expresses it in a letter to Hyde, say "they cannot be secure if they permit "so much as a kitchen-boy to be about the King, "of his old party."+ Hyde was informed by another correspondent, that it was "believed con"fidently that if the Parliament make conditions "with the King (which is supposed) there will be great heaving to remove him from his council." + An opposition was also threatened to his retention of the office of Chancellor; and it was so serious, that Hyde appears to have intimated his willingness to resign that office, rather than obstruct the May 31. King's return. § "This day," said Broderick, in a letter of the 13th of May, "I dined with the 66 66 Speaker and the President of the Council; and debating a motion made by Sir Walter Earle, "that the great officers of the nation ought to be "chosen by Parliament, and confirmed by the King, I found the President, after a declaration "of his loyalty to His Majesty, and regard to my "Lord Chancellor and Lord * Clar. State Papers, iii. 655. Lieutenant (from + Ibid. iii. 705. Ibid. iii. 744. |