Montecuculli, who commanded the Imperialists on the Upper Rhine, skilfully deceived the vigilance of Turenne, and making a sudden march, sat down before Bonne. The prince of Orange eluding the French generals, left them behind him, and joined the Imperialists with his army. Bonne was taken in a few days; several other places in the electorate of Cologne fell into the hands of the allies, and Lewis was obliged to abandon all his conquests, except Maestricht and Grave, where he left the garrisons, and recalled the rest of his troops.

A congress was opened at Cologne under the mediation of Sweden, but was soon broken, as the parties could never agree on any condition.

The parliament assembled October 20th, and discovered great symptoms of ill humour. They remonstrated against a marriage which the duke of York was negociating with a catholic princess of the house of Modena, then in close alliance with France; and though the king told them that the marriage was already agreed on and even celebrated by proxy, they still insisted on their remonstrance; and extending their censures to other parts of government, they voted the standing army a grievance, and declared that they would grant no further supply, unless it appeared that the Dutch were so obstinate as to refuse all reasonable conditions of peace. To elude this attack, the king prorogued the parliament, and dismissed Shaftesbury from the office of chancellor, on account of his intrigues with the malcontent party. The great seal was given to sir Heneage Finch, by the title of lord keeper. Clifford, incapacitated by the test, retired into the country, and soon after died.

Ann. 1674.

The king, obliged again by his necessities to assem

ble the parliament, tried in vain by some popular acts to pave the way to the session. The commons began by applications for a general fast, thus inti. mating that the nation was in a very calamitous con dition. They addressed the king against his guards, pretending that they were as dangerous to liberty as illegal, since their establishment had never received the sanction of parliament. They took some steps about a new and more vigorous test against popery; they made an attack against the members of the cabal who had not followed the example of Shaftesbury. An address was voted for the removal of Buckingham, and articles of impeachment were drawn up against Arlington; the impeachment, however, was never prosecuted.

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A

The king having no hopes of obtaining any sup ply as long as he carried on the war against the Dutch, resolved on a separate peace, on the terms which they had proposed through the channel of the Spanish ambassador, and with apparent cordiality asked advice of the parliament, who concurred unanimously both in their thanks for this gracious condescension and in their advice for peace. The honour of the flag was yielded by the Dutch in the most extensive terms; a regulation of trade was agreed to; all possessions were restored to the same condition as before the war; the English planters in Surinam were allowed to remove at pleasure; and the States agreed to pay to the king the sum of eight hundred thousand patacoons, (nearly three hundred thousand pounds.). Four days after the parliament was prorogued, the peace was proclaimed in London to the great joy of the people. Spain had declared that she could no longer remain neuter, if hostilities were continued against Holland, and a sensible decay of the trade would have been the consequence of this rupture. This prospect

very much increased the national aversion to the

present war, and enlivened the joy for its conclu

sion.

There were ten thousand English troops in the French service who had honourably distinguished themselves in the armies of Lewis XIV. Charles said that he was bound by treaty not to recall these troops, but he obliged himself, by a secret article of the treaty, not to allow them to be recruited. His partiality to France prevented a strict execution of this article.

At this period Charles offered his mediation to the contending powers, and France readily accepted it; but it was apprehended that the allies would not be in the same disposition. In order to render this measure more popular in Holland, the king recalled Temple, and appointed him ambassador to the states-general. It is pretended that this wise minister being desirous to acquaint himself as far as possible with the real plan and intentions of the king in those popular measures, which he seemed again to have adopted, had a long conversation with his majesty, in which, after blaming the dangerous schemes of the cabal, he added to his reason→ ings the authority of Gourville, a Frenchman, for whom he knew the king had entertained a great esteem. "A king of England," said Gourville, "who will be the man of his people, is the great

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est king in the world, but, if he will be any "thing more, he is nothing at all." Theking, it is said, heard at first this discourse with some impatience, but being a great dissembler, he seemed moved at last, and laying his hand in Temple's, said with an appearing cordiality, " And I will be the man of my people." Hume, who relates this anecdote, quotes no authority in its support.

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The allies, far from being favourably disposed for peace, expressed a great ardour for the continuance of war. Holland had stipulated with Spain never

to come to any accommodation till all things in Flanders were restored to the same condition as they had been left by the Pyrenean treaty. The emperor had high pretensions in Alsace; the prince of Orange, who had great influence in the councils of the Dutch, was pleased to be at the head of great armies, and wished above all things to acquire a military fame. The success of the campaign had not, however, answered his expectations. He had fought at Senef against the great Condé, an obstinate and bloody battle, which was continued by moon-light, and it was darkness at last which put an end to the contest, and left the victory undecided. "The prince of Orange," said prince Condé, the best judge of military feats, " has acted in every "thing like an old captain, except venturing his "life too like a young soldier."

The prince of Orange, obliged to raise the siege of Oudenarde, besieges and takes Grave. Lewis, in a few weeks reconquers Franche-Comté. In Alsace, Turenne displaying all his military skill against a much superior enemy, by a sudden and forced march, attacks and beats at Sintzeim, the duke of Lorraine and the Imperialists, returns unexpectedly from Lorraine into Alsace, where seventy thousand Germans had taken up their quarters; and, after having defeated them at Mulhausem, he chases from Colmar the elector of Brandenburgh, gains a new advantage at Turkheim, and obliges the allies to repass the Rhine.

Buckingham, who had long by his wit and entertaining humour possessed the king's favour, was dismissed about this time; and Arlington, another member of the cabal, did not preserve much longer his influence, by the unsuccessful issue of his negociation with the prince of Orange.

Ann. 1675.

Under a pair of stairs in the tower, were found, March 16th, two corpse, (supposed to be those of Edward V. and his brother Richard, pretended to have been murdered by their uncle Richard III. in 1485,) which were interred in Westminster Abbey.

The parliament met April 13th, and the king in his speech recommended to them moderation in their proceedings and the strengthening of the royal navy. The commons drew up a new bill against popery and presented new addresses against Lauder dale; and though the king's answer was not satisfactory, they seemed still determined to persevere in their applications. Articles of impeachment were drawn up against the earl of Danby the treasurer, but they were disagreed to by the house. An address for recalling the English troops out of the French service was presented to the king, but not complied with by his majesty. In the house of peers, lord Lindesey introduced a bill for a new test, by which all members of either house, and all who possessed any office, were required to swear that it was not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the king: that they abhorred the traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against his person or against those who were commissioned by him; and that they will not at any time endeavour to make any alteration in the protestant religion, or the established government, either in. church or state.

This bill experienced great opposition, as might be expected from the present disposition of the nation. It was debated during seventeen days, and carried only by a majority of two in the upper house. It was sent to the commons, but a quarrel between