XI.

"restriction to the Committee of the whole House CHAP. "in the manner of raising the sum named by the "House."*

"After which," says Lord Clarendon, "no man adventuring to name the proportion that should "be given," and "while the House was in deep "silence, expecting that motion," Sir Robert Paston, as had been preconcerted, rose, and moved that a supply should be voted of two millions and a half. "The silence of the House," pursues Lord Clarendon, "was not broken: they sat as in "amazement until a gentleman, who was be"lieved to wish well to the King, without taking "notice of what had been proposed, stood up and "moved that they might give the King a much "less proportion;" after which two other members, unconnected with the court, "who had pro"mised to second, renewed the motion, one after "the other." The House divided, and Paston's motion was carried by 172 to 102.‡ On the following day the House considered, in committee, "the method and manner of raising" this unprecedented sum; and while this difficult matter was under consideration, the King, on the strength of the munificent vote, obtained from the City, for present use, an immediate loan of 200,000l.§ A bill, to the provisions of which, and its important

*Commons' Journals, Nov. 25. 1664.
+ Life of Clarendon, ii. 310.

Commons' Journals, Nov. 25. 1664.
Life of Clarendon, ii. 311.

1664.

XI.

CHAP. changes in the system of finance, I shall afterwards advert, passed both Houses in the course of the winter*; and on the 22d of February, 1665, the King issued a declaration of war.

1665.

* Commons' Journals, Feb. 3. 1664. Lords' Journals, Feb. 7.

CHAP. XII.

EXAMINATION OF THE CHARGE AGAINST CLARENDON, THAT
HE ENCOURAGED FICTITIOUS PLOTS; AND THAT HE WAS
UNJUST TO THE PRESBYTERIANS. - KING'S SPEECH AT THE

REPEAL

OPENING OF THE THIRD SESSION OF PARLIAMENT.
OF THE TRIENNIAL ACT. CONVENTICLE ACT. CONSPI-
RACIES.- FIVE-MILE ACT. OPPOSED BY SOUTHAMPTON.
CONDUCT OF CLARENDON CONSIDERED. — INTOLERANCE OF
THAT AGE. INTOLERANT PROCEEDINGS UNDER THE PRO-
TECTORATE.- CLARENDON'S PRINCIPLES WITH RESPECT TO
TOLERATION.

1663-1665.

CHAP.

XII.

1665.

Clarendon

BEFORE a narration of the events of the war with Holland, and of the consequent negotiations with foreign powers, it is necessary to attend to some important matters of internal policy, under the Charges administration of Lord Clarendon, involving se- against rious charges against his character as a statesman. examined. He is accused of a grave offence-of having encouraged fictitious plots, and excited fears in the public mind, for the sake of rendering the supposed danger a plea for severity against Dissenters.

This charge is not substantiated. It has not been proved that Clarendon was mistaken in his assertion of the existence of danger; much less that he asserted that which he did not believe to be true. His situation as minister did not exempt him from being deceived, or even from sharing in a popular delusion; yet even sensible and approved

CHAP.
XII.

1665.

writers are apt to exaggerate the degree of intui-
tion which a minister, situated like Clarendon, was
likely to possess. To unravel delusive tales is a
task requiring not only sagacity but more time and
patience than one, whose cares are many and
weighty, is perhaps able or willing to bestow. It
is also unjust to ascribe to the person at the head
of affairs the sanction and direction of every false
tale of conspiracy with which inferior agents may
alarm the country, or to suppose that the rumour
upon
which he acted was originally propagated by
his authority. Political hatred of a particular sect
might actuate persons in inferior stations as strongly
as it could actuate the first minister of the crown;
and the desire of contributing, by false rumours,
to their own advancement might influence them
still more strongly. That Clarendon never tam-
pered, even indirectly, with the infamous promul-
gators of false accusations, is almost proved by the
circumstance of none such having ever avowed it.
There was a time when any charge which would
have served to load the fallen minister would have
been favourably received by his numerous ene-
mies; and men sufficiently infamous for such a
service would not have scrupled to betray their
employers. Yet no such accusation has ever ap-
peared. Yarranton, (who in 1681 published a state-
ment, professing to show that the Worcestershire
plot, in November, 1661, alleged by Sir J. Pack-
ington, was fictitious,) although he appears to have
been tampered with by Bristol, brings no charge

against Lord Clarendon.*
deed, extant, but of a very different nature—not
that he lent his ear too willingly to such false
tales, but that he was culpably negligent of the
King's safety, in treating too lightly the inform-
ation which was brought to him. The narrative of
Sir Philip Monkton† affords a curious spectacle of
the credulous violence of the Royalists, the diffi-
culties which beset Lord Clarendon, and the abuse
and calumny to which he was exposed for not
rendering himself the subservient instrument of
party rancour.

An accusation is, in- CHAP.

Nor was his conduct open to suspicion with respect to the plot in the winter of 1661, which is so confidently stated to have been fictitious. He did not eagerly avail himself of the information tendered, in November, by Sir John Packington and other members of the House of Commons. Not until a deputation from the Commons had waited on the King, on the 11th of December ‡, alleging the receipt of letters and messages from numerous counties, concerning a conspiracy of alarming extent, did the minister appear to have countenanced the rumour. And when, on the 19th, he delivered a message from the King to the Lords, informing them of the intimations he had received, and entreating the advice and counsel of both Houses, a conference ensued, in which the Chancellor proposed to submit the evidence to the investigation of a joint committee of lords *Ralph, 53. et seq. + Vol. III. p. 532.

Ralph, 56. Parker's History of his Own Times.

XII.

1665.