ginal of which this seemed an ill copy;" and he made various domestic excuses, which finally induced the King to excuse him; Laurence Hyde was again the substitute, and Mr. Thynne was sent over to him with instructions; in pursuance of which, he soon concluded a treaty of the purport prescribed; and the parliament was assembled, in order to receive the information. t

The union of William and Mary, which ought to have given strength to the common interests of England and Holland, had in one respect the contrary effect. Such was the distrust which the Dutch people had, and not without reason, of the Court of England, that their Prince's connection with it diminished their confidence in him; and disposed them to listen more favourably to the offers of Louis, whose victories at the commencement of

* Jan. 10. 1678.; Dumont, vii. pt. 1. p. 341. Appendix C.

The houses met by adjournment on the 23rd of December, 1677, and were again adjourned until, and on, the 15th of January, 1678, in expectation of an important communication "towards the satisfaction of their late addresses." On the 23rd of January, the King made a very warlike speech, in which he told parliament that "he had made such alliances with Holland as were for the preservation of Flanders, and spoke of obtaining a peace by force. He desired, of course, a plentiful supply. During all this period, the French King played with his pensioner; sometimes suspending the payment of the pension, sometimes promising it, or more, on condition that parliament should not be suffered to meet. Louis also negotiated, on equally infamous terms, with the popular leaders. Of these intrigues, one principal object was the ruin of Danby, whose opinions were known to be hostile to France. And it is not to be understood that all the warlike votes of the Commons proceeded from a patriotic abhorrence of the ambitious Louis; they were sometimes intended to embarrass the government, and perhaps to render a declaration against France less probable, by assigning to it objects more extensive than any upon which Charles would venture. Parl. Hist. iv. 891. 895-6. (See Dalrymple, i. 148–159,, and 178-228.; and Lingard, xiii. 3. 14. 23. 52.) In the summer of 1676, Courtin had succeeded Ruvigni as ambassador in London.

1678, and the undue influence which he obtained over some of the principal men in the Seven Provinces, enabled him to propound terms of peace, much less favourable to Spain *, than those which Charles had required.

Louis's attempts at bribery were not confined to the politicians of Holland. Temple was one day with Lord Danby, when a packet arrived from Mr. Ralph Montagu, the ambassador at Paris, reporting a conference with M. Louvoist, who was charged "to make the King of England the offer of a great sum of money for his consent" to the terms of France; this communication was to be made, not to the Secretaries of State, but to the Treasurer only, and with the offer of " a very considerable sum for himself, that should be sent over in money, jewels, or bills, as he should choose."

Danby took no notice of this offer, but went on, conjointly with Temple, "with the treaty with the confederates." Sidney Godolphin ‡ was now sent over, to persuade the Prince, in consequence of the backwardness of the parliament, to acquiesce in a modification of the terms; and Godolphin, as well as Hyde, reported the violent disposition of

* "Restoring only six towns to the Spaniards, and mentioning Lorraine but ambiguously." - ii. 439.

Francis le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, was almost an hereditary minister. He was born in 1641, and was Secretary for the War Department at an early age. Biog. Univ, xxv, 286.

Afterwards Earl of Godolphin [Bankes, iii. 317.], the well-known coadjutor of Marlborough during a great part of the reign of Queen Anne. Burnet gives him a very high character, but he was not a very consistent politician. Temple was apparently ignorant of the purport of these instructions (which are in Danby's Letters, p. 346.), and believed that war, rather than peace, was the object of the mission.

the Dutch people towards peace. And France, now secure of Holland, and successful in the war*, treated lightly the King's interference.

Temple was once more pressed to go over, to ascertain whether the Dutch would go on with the war, if England would take part in it; but he once more excused himself, knowing the Dutch too well to expect that they would declare themselves, unless the King should have first taken measures with his parliament for carrying on the war.† Godolphin was again sent over.

In answer to the communication of Hyde's treaty, the House of Commons had addressed the King to insist upon the reduction of France to the Pyrenean Treaty ‡, and had promised their support in a war undertaken upon that principle: here they went too far for the King, from whom accordingly they received a rebuke§; whereupon they voted a supply, specifically for the support of a war with France, and addressed him for an immediate declaration. I

Meanwhile troops had been raised, and there was really an appearance of war; Temple was employed by the Lord Treasurer to compose a speech for the King to deliver to the two houses. In this proposed speech, the King tells his parliament,

* In the beginning of 1678 he took Ghent and Ypres.

§ P. 916.

P. 955. In the debate which followed, Secretary Williamson said that "things were as bad as bad could be; which he explained to mean, that now we had made a treaty with Holland, and came to the rest of the allies, Holland flew off." - P. 959, 960.

¶ Temple, iv. 340.

after some expressions of conciliation, that, seeing the state of the war, he had proposed such terms * to France as would leave Flanders defensible; that when France made difficulties, he made an alliance with Holland, which was to be offensive against France if they would not accept the terms; and he stated the terms proposed. He hoped thereby to satisfy "the just concernment they had so often expressed for the preservation of Flanders. . . . But I will confess," he proceeded, "I am ashamed to find myself so much deceived as I have been by France upon this occasion; who, contrary to all they have so often professed and promised me, have cut off all hopes of reasonable peace by

any

which Flanders might be saved; but on the other side making difficulties first upon one tone, then upon another, as the necessity of the Spaniards, or the disposition of the Dutch, gave them occasion, they have all along too plainly discovered their designs of carrying on the war to the full conquest of Flanders, whilst they endeavour to amuse the world, and us in particular, with the

* That they should restore to Spain Charleroy, Aeth, Oudenarde, Courtray, Tournay, Valenciennes, Condé, and all others which should be taken after that time (as St. Ghislain, Ghent, and Ypres had unfortunately been); that they should restore all that they had taken in Sicily (which is a case now happily prevented); that they should restore Maestricht to the Dutch, and Lorraine to the Duke; that the peace of the Emperor should be made upon the foot of affairs in that time by which Philipsburg would have remained to the Emperor, and the loss of Friburg would have been prevented, -a truce in the North." While Charles boasted of the terms he had prescribed, he had ordered Danby to write the celebrated letter of the 25th of March, in which reduced terms were proposed (Tournay and Valenciennes, especially, being omitted), and money for himself demanded! - Danby's Letters,

discourses or overtures of a peace." The speech then criticised the terms * which France had offered, with a limitation to the 10th of May; and stated that the King would at once have declared war upon the discovery of the practices of the French, but that he wished first to make his alliances with the rest of the confederates, " and therein to pursue the good advice they had hinted to him themselves, in one of their addresses, to provide that none of the parties should depart from the alliance." He hinted, that, with very good intentions, their precipitate prohibition of French commodities had occasioned some difficulty as to the Dutch. However he never found the confederates willing to carry on the war by common consent. He had augmented his forces, and sent troops to Flanders, and was ready to declare the war, on signature of the treaties, but first desired the advice of parliament.

With Temple's views, this was an excellent speech; and it was very adroitly framed, with the view of conciliating parliament, and persuading them that the King's view of foreign policy was conformable to theirs.

Whether Charles would have consented to speak it, and thus to commit himself decidedly against France, was never ascertained; because inform

"They include the present restitution of Sweden, and the Duke of Holstein.... They would indeed keep Lorraine, while they pretend to restore it; for they will keep Nancy, Marsal, and the highways through that country; and they will have Tournay, Valenciennes, Condé, and Ypres, which are the very keys of Flanders on that side, besides Dinant or Charlemont on the other."