therlands, and concurred in hoping that some subsequent change of places might be negotiated. Had the character of English politics been such as to allow De Witt to pursue his own course, better terms might have been obtained in the first instance: it was now too late.

* See Temple's of May 27.; De Witt's of April 27. Temple, i. pp. 429. and 486. There is some confusion, probably some misprint, as to the dates.

CHAPTER X.

TEMPLE'S MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPOndence.

HIS DEVOTION

TO ORMOND AND TO ARLINGTON. OFFICIAL JEALOUSIES. PROJECT OF A NATIONAL COSTUME. DISTURBANCES IN SCOTLAND.- SEAT IN PARLIAMENT.

ALGERNON SIDNEY.

THE

HE correspondence to which we have referred for the political transactions of this eventful period, contains much other matter, which may tend to elucidate the character of Temple and his times.

During the whole course of his employment abroad, he kept up a correspondence with the Duke of Ormond, whom, from a very early period, he addressed in that language of devotion which he used with too little discrimination. To Ormond, a steady friend and worthy man, it was not misapplied. "I find the continuance of that favour to me which I am sure I never deserved the beginning of, and therefore must attribute it wholly to a generous disposition of obliging those who can the least pretend to it, and are the least capable of returning it. I shall make only this present use of it,-to beg

of your Grace that you will be pleased to esteem me the more your own, as all great persons are more apt to do those they oblige, than those who serve them." What follows is remarkable, as an evidence of Temple's earliest views of foreign affairs:

"My Lord Ambassador sets out for Spain tomorrow, where great preparations are made for his reception, with the greatest care and welcome that court can express. My Lord Holles is not so well used in France, but is of late so much unsatisfied, that it is believed he will be recalled; and yet, if his Majesty think it advisable to make a strict league with the Dutch, I know he has it now in his power, and will not then have reason to fear any ill influence from the aspect of this great comet that is risen of late, the French King, who expects not only to be gazed at, but admired, by the whole world. +

So early as 1663, Ormond solicited for Temple a grant of the reversion of the office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, after the death or resignation of his father, and of Sir Maurice Eustace, who had a prior reversionary grant. Clarendon and Arlington (then Secretary Bennet) supported the application, and "the King was resolved to oblige him both in the manner and the thing itself." He sent for him into his closet, and told him that "in reward of his good affections, and those services he

Sir Richard Fanshaw. See p. 73.
† Jan. 19. 1663. Ormond Papers, U. U.

P. 122.

had done him," alluding, apparently, to the Irish parliament, "and for an engagement to many more he expected from him hereafter, he resolved to give him the reversion of his father's place.* Although offices in courts of law are most improperly applied to such purposes, reversions may sometimes be highly advisable and convenient for all parties; but the system, which prevailed until our own times, of making some provision for a young man who devotes useful talents to the public service, even though the course of affairs should not allow of his serving for many years in a laborious office, has been abandoned with little regard to justice or policy. It is a reform, in which the ignorant many, and the wealthy few, have combined to drive from the service of their country, men whose only possession is character and talents.

To Ormond also, it would appear, Temple owed the first, and indeed, in its kind, the only honour that he received from the crown:-"I think I am bound to be ever acknowledging, and never returning by any more real services, the favour I received from your Grace's resolution to oblige me, which my Lord Arlington has acquainted me with, in your late recommendation to an honour † which his Majesty had pleased, but a very little time before, to confer upon me. I am, as I ought to be,

* April 7. 1664. The warrant was countersigned by Henry Bennet, as Secretary of State. Ormond Papers, U. U. p. 124.; and Q. Q. Q. iii.. p. 208.

The baronetcy.

as sensible of your Grace's intentions, as if the effort had been owing wholly to them, not only of this advance, but of any other that I have much more at heart; at least, if there be any such for his Majesty's gracious acceptance of my humble endeavours towards his service, both in the employment and honour I have received, more than I had reason to hope, or ambition to desire.” *

Of Ormond's letters we have very few. Temple having sent him some stuff, manufactured in Flanders, he writes t, "To-morrow I shall be in your livery, and perhaps try whether your Brussels camblet will resist Irish rain, as I have known it do that of Flanders. I must thank you for the present, as coming very seasonably, both in respect of the time of year, and that, for aught I can yet find, my Michaelmas rent would hardly have purchased two cloaks, and that your stuff will make me, if I shall be honestly dealt with."

In one of his letters, Temple asks the Duke to sit for his picture. We know not whether this

request was granted.

His connexion with Ormond was fortunate and lasting; not so all those on which he professed to set an equal value.

The vehemence of his expressions of devotion to Lord Arlington has already been noticed. There are other instances too remarkable to be omitted: -"Having taken the advantage of the Marquis's absence to make a step as far as Bruges, and wel

* Brussels, March 12. 1666.
+ Kilkenny, Oct. 14. 1666.

Ormond Papers, U. U.
Temple, ii. 453.