CHAP. 1667. "second payment (and which I presumed must "have been so certain, that I assigned it upon the marriage of my second son to him as a part of "his portion), but the remainder of the first sum "was so borrowed, or taken from me, that no part of it hath been paid to me or to my use; by which, and the inconveniences and damage "which hath since occurred to me from thence, I 66 66 may reasonably say that I am yet a loser, and in"volved in a great debt by that signal bounty of "his Majesty, which I hope will, in due time, be "made good to me under so good security as an "act of parliament." Without entering further, at present, into the subject of Lord Clarendon's finances, I may add, that the foregoing statements are supported by the testimony of letters to his sons, and the schedule of his debts.* With respect to the 16th charge, that he had “deluded and betrayed the King and the nation "in all foreign treaties and negotiations relating "to the late war, and discovered and betrayed his "secret councils to his enemies," Lord Clarendon says, "I do heartily wish that these particular "treaties, and the particulars in these treaties, "had been mentioned, wherein it was conceived "that I had deluded and betrayed his Majesty, "that I might have, at large, set down what"soever I have known and done in those treaties, "and then it would easily have been made to *Vol. III. p. 478. et seq., 535. 66 XVII. 1667. appear how far I have been from betraying and CHAP. deluding him." He then recapitulates the treaties which had been entered into, stating that in those with Portugal, the States, Sweden, and Denmark, he was not a commissioner; and that the articles of the treaty of Breda had been discussed at the council, and assented to by a great majority of those present, the King himself having "taken "the pains to discourse more," than Lord Clarendon had ever known him do upon any other business. It appears however, from the brief notice which has come down to us, that Lord Vaughan, who moved this article, meant to charge him with betraying the King's counsels to the French court; and that he probably alluded to the communications with Lord St. Albans, in 1667, and had some suspicion of the recent treaty between Charles and Louis. It is a sound principle, that such secret transactions ought to entail peril on the minister who is privy to them; but it is not probable that this view of the nature and extent of ministerial responsibility was then adopted, or that Clarendon's enemies hoped for more than to establish against him some act of correspondence with France, which, though undertaken by the King's direction, the King might be unwilling to avow. With respect to his correspondence with St. Albans, Lord Clarendon says, "It is very "true that I had been commanded by the King "to write most of the letters and directions which CHAP. XVII. 1667. 66 66 66 "had been sent to the Earl of St. Albans, from "the time of his going over concerning the treaty, his Lordship having (I presume by the same direction) directed most of his letters to 66 me; and most of the dispatches to the ambas "sadors were likewise prepared by me, they being by their instructions (without my desire or privity) to transmit their accounts to one of the "Secretaries, or to myself. But it is as true that "I never received a letter from either of them "but it was read entirely, in his Majesty's pre"sence, to those lords of the council who at"tended, when directions were given what an"swer should be returned; and I never did "return any answer to either of them, without "having first read it to the council, or having "first sent it to one of the Secretaries to be read "to his Majesty." In quoting this, and sundry previous assertions, which I have extracted from Lord Clarendon's Vindication, let me remark, that I do not claim for his unsupported denials of culpability more weight than is, a priori, deemed due to the prisoner's plea of "Not guilty." But I must direct attention, not only to the undefined nature of many of the charges, which, in the absence of specific allegations, could be met only by general denial, but also to the circumstance that the statements which Clarendon has thus put forth in his own defence, were, if untrue, open to contradiction by persons from whom he could expect XVII. 1667. no favour. He was declining to avail himself CHAP. of the absence of proof; he was throwing down the gauntlet, and inviting his opponents to specify and substantiate those accusations which, if he was guilty, it was his truest policy not to draw forth from that vague and unproved state in which they were comparatively harmless. CHAP. XVIII. CLARENDON IS KINDLY TREATED BY THE FRENCH GOVERN- JOURNEY TOWARDS AVIGNON. IS ASSAULTED BY RIOTERS AT 1667-1674. CHAP. XVIII. 1667. AFTER a protracted and difficult passage, Lord Clarendon found refuge at Calais, from whence he wrote to Lord St. Albans, enquiring if the French court would object to his proceeding to Rouen. St. Albans, whose recent professions had caused him to expect civility, returned a cold but favourable reply. Louis also wrote to him, with more civility and to the same effect, informing him that, he would be welcome to reside at Rouen; that, according to his request, a coach would be ready to meet him at Abbeville; and that letters were sent to the Lieutenant-Governors of Calais, Boulogne, and Montreuil, instructing them to treat him as a person whom their King esteemed, and to afford him a sufficient escort.* *Life of Clarendon, iii. 350. |