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dreadful imprecations on himself, if he did prevari- 1660. cate". He was all the while maintained by the presbyterians as their agent, and continued to give them a constant account of the progress of his negotiation in their service, while he was indeed undermining it. This piece of craft was so visible, he having repeated his protestations to as many persons as then grew jealous of him, that when he threw off the mask, about a year after this, it laid a foundation of such a character of him, that nothing could ever bring people to any tolerable thoughts of a man, whose dissimulation and treachery was so well known, and of which so many proofs were to be seen under his own hand.

was over

drunken

93

With the restoration of the king, a spirit of ex-The nation travagant joy spread over the nation, that brought run with on with it the throwing off the very professions of vice and virtue and piety: all ended in entertainments and ness. drunkenness, which overrun the three kingdoms to such a degree, that it very much corrupted all their morals. Under the colour of drinking the king's health, there were great disorders and much riot every where and the pretences of religion, both in those of the hypocritical sort, and of the more honest but no less pernicious enthusiasts, gave great advantages, as well as they furnished much matter, to the profane mockers of true piety. Those who had been concerned in the former transactions thought, they could not redeem themselves from the censures and jealousies that those brought on them by any method that was more sure and more easy, than by going into the stream, and laughing

b Sure there was some secret personal cause of all this malice against Sharp. S.

1660. at all religion, telling or making stories to expose both themselves and their party as impious and ridiculous.

The king's character.

The king was then thirty years of age, and, as might have been supposed, past the levities of youth, and the extravagance of pleasure. He had a very good understanding. He knew well the state of affairs both at home and abroad. He had a softness of temper, that charmed all who came near him, till they found how little they could depend on good looks, kind words, and fair promises; in which he was liberal to excess, because he intended nothing by them, but to get rid of importunities, and to silence all farther pressing upon him. He seemed to have no sense of religion: both at prayers and sacrament he, as it were, took care to satisfy people, that he was in no sort concerned in that about which he was employed. So that he was very far from being an hypocrite, unless his assisting at those performances was a sort of hypocrisy, (as no doubt it was;) but he was sure not to increase that by any the least appearance of religion. He said once to my self, he was no atheist, but he could not think God would make a man miserable only for taking a little pleasure out of the way. He disguised his popery to the last. But when he talked freely, he could not help letting himself out against the liberty that under the reformation all men took of inquiring into matters of religion: for from their inquiring into matters of religion, they carried the humour farther, to inquire into matters of state. He said often, he thought government was a much safer and easier thing where the authority was believed infallible, and the faith and submission of the people

1660.

was implicit about which I had once much dis-
course with him. He was affable and easy, and
loved to be made so by all about him. The great
art of keeping him long was, the being easy, and
the making every thing easy to him. He had made
such observations on the French government, that 94
he thought a king who might be checked, or have
his ministers called to an account by a parliament,
was but a king in name. He had a great compass
of knowledge, though he was never capable of much
application or study. He understood the mecha-
nics and physic: and was a good chemist, and much
set on several preparations of mercury, chiefly the
fixing it. He understood navigation well: but above
all he knew the architecture of ships so perfectly,
that in that respect he was exact rather more than
became a prince. His apprehension was quick, and
his memory good. He was an everlasting talker.
He told his stories with a good grace: but they
came in his way too often. He had a very ill opi-
nion both of men and women; and did not think
that there was either sincerity or chastity in the
world out of principle, but that some had either the
one or the other out of humour or vanity. He
thought that nobody did serve him out of love and
so he was quits with all the world, and loved others
as little as he thought they loved him. He hated
business, and could not be easily brought to mind
any but when it was necessary, and he was set to
it, he would stay as long as his ministers had work
for him. The ruin of his reign, and of all his af-
fairs, was occasioned chiefly by his delivering him-

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1660. self up at his first coming over to a mad range of

Clarendon's

character.

pleasure. One of the race of the Villers, then married to Palmer, a papist, soon after made earl of Castlemain, who afterwards, being separated from him, was advanced to be duchess of Cleveland, was his first and longest mistress, by whom he had five children d. She was a woman of great beauty, but most enormously vicious and ravenous; foolish but imperious, very uneasy to the king, and always carrying on intrigues with other men, while yet she pretended she was jealous of him. His passion for her, and her strange behaviour towards him, did so disorder him, that often he was not master of himself, nor capable of minding business, which, in so critical a time, required great application: but he did then so entirely trust the earl of Clarendon, that he left all to his care, and submitted to his advices as to so many oracles.

The earl of Clarendon was bred to the law, and was like to grow eminent in his profession when the wars began. He distinguished himself so in the house of commons, that he became considerable, and was much trusted all the while the king was at Oxford. He stayed beyond sea following the king's fortune, till the restoration; and was now an absolute favourite, and the chief or the only minister, but with too magisterial a way. He was always pressing the king to mind his affairs, but in vain.

d He had her the first night he arrived at London; she was then some months gone with child of the late countess of Sussex, whom the king adopted for his daughter, though lord Castlemain always looked upon

her to be his, and left her his estate when he died; but she was generally understood to belong to another, the old earl of Chesterfield, whom she resembled very much both in face and person. D.

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He was a good chancellor, only a little too rough, 1660. but very impartial in the administration of justice. He never seemed to understand foreign affairs welle: and yet he meddled too much in them. He had too much levity in his wit, and did not always observe the decorum of his post. He was high, and was apt to reject those who addressed themselves to him with too much contempt. He had such a regard to the king, that when places were disposed of, even otherwise than as he advised, yet he would justify what the king did, and disparage the pretensions of others, not without much scorn; which created him many enemies. He was indefatigable in business, though the gout did often disable him from waiting on the king: yet, during his credit, the king came constantly to him when he was laid up by it.

character.

The next man in favour with the king was the Ormond's duke of Ormond: a man every way fitted for a court of a graceful appearance, a lively wit, and a cheerful temper: a man of great expense, decent even in his vices f; for he always kept up the form of religion. He had gone through many transactions in Ireland with more fidelity than success. He had made a treaty with the Irish, which was broken by the great body of them, though some few of them adhered still to him. But the whole Irish nation did still pretend, that, though they had broke

e The author had not seen, I believe, the MS. History of Lord Clarendon's Life, written by himself. He at least understood foreign affairs better than any other of the ministers. None of them were much esteemed for that abroad, as has been said. I was told by

VOL. I.

the master of the rolls, (sir
Thomas Clarke,) that the lord
Clarendon never made a decree
in Chancery without the assist-
ance of two of the judges. O.

f See Cartes History of the
Life of this Duke of Ormond,
vol. ii. p. 555. See also the
Biogr. Brit. p. 899. O.

M

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