and bred, unless he was clearly convinced, that he 1662. must certainly be damned if he continued in it. He was an honest and able man, much practised in intrigues, and knew well the methods of the Jesuits, and other missionaries. He told me often, there was nothing which the whole popish party feared more than an union of those of the church of England with the presbyterians: they knew, we grew the weaker, the more our breaches were widened; and that, the more we were set against one another, we would mind them the less. The papists had two maxims, from which they never departed: the one was to divide us: and the other was, to keep themselves united, and either to set on an indiscriminated toleration, or a general prosecution; for so we loved to soften the harsh word of persecution. And he observed, not without great indignation at us for our folly, that we, instead of uniting among ourselves, and dividing them, according to their maxims, did all we could to keep them united, and to disjoint our own body: for he was persuaded, if the government had held an heavy hand on the regulars and the Jesuits, and had been gentle to the seculars, and had set up a distinguishing test, renouncing all sort of power in the pope over the temporal rights 196 of princes, to which the regulars and the Jesuits could never submit, that this would have engaged them into such violent quarrels among themselves, that censures would have been thundered at Rome against all that should take any such test; which would have procured much disputing, and might have probably ended in the revolt of the soberer

1662. part of that church. But he found, that, though the earl of Clarendon and the duke of Ormond liked the project, little regard was had to it by the governing party in the court.

1663.

Bristol's designs.

The church party was alarmed at all this. And though they were unwilling to suspect the king or the duke, yet the management for popery was so visible, that in the next session of parliament the king's declaration was severely arraigned, and the authors of it were plainly enough pointed at. This was done chiefly by the lord Clarendon's friends. And at this the earl of Bristol was highly displeased, and resolved to take all possible methods to ruin the earl of Clarendon. He had a great skill in astrology, and had possessed the king with an high opinion of it: and told the duke of Buckingham, as he said to the earl of Rochester, Wilmot, from whom I had it, that he was confident that he would lay that before the king, which would totally alienate him both from his brother and from the lord Clarendon: for he could demonstrate, by the principles of that art, that he was to fall by his brother's means, if not by his hand: and he was sure this would work on the king. It would so, said the duke of Buckingham, but in another way than he expected for it would make the king be so afraid

It was always an objection to his skill in astrology, that he declared himself a papist the year before the restoration, which had disqualified him from any employment in England: but the truth was, he had turned, to qualify himself to serve under Don John, in

Flanders, who had a very great esteem for him, and there was little prospect of the change that happened the year after, nor had any almanack foretold it: but he took care to have his children brought up protestants, that they might not lie under the like disadvantage. D.

of offending him, that he would do any thing rather 1663. than provoke him. Yet the lord Bristol would lay this before the king. And the duke of Buckingham believed, that it had the effect ever after, that he had apprehended: for though the king never loved nor esteemed the duke, yet he seemed to stand in some sort of awe of him.

Clarendon

of lords.

But this was not all: the lord Bristol resolved to He accused offer articles of impeachment against the earl of in the house Clarendon to the house of lords, though it was plainly provided against by the statute against appeals in the reign of Henry the fourth. Yet both the duke of Buckingham and the lord Bristol, the fathers of these two lords, had broken through that in the former reign. So the lord Bristol drew his impeachment, and carried it to the king, who took much pains on him in a soft and gentle manner to dissuade him from it. But he would not be wrought on. And he told the king plainly, that, if he forsook him, he would raise such disorders, that all 197 England should feel them, and the king himself should not be without a large share in them. The king, as the earl of Lauderdale told me, who said he had it from himself, said, he was so provoked at this, that he durst not trust himself in answering it, but went out of the room, and sent the lord Aubigny to soften him: but all was in vain. It is very probable, that the lord Bristol knew the secret of the king's religion, which both made him so bold, and the king so fearful. The next day he carried the charge to the house of lords. It was of a very mixed nature: in one part he charged the lord Clarendon with raising jealousies, and spreading reports of the king's being a papist: and yet in the other

1663. articles he charged him with correspondence with

the court of Rome, in order to the making the lord Aubigny a cardinal, and several other things of a very strange nature. As soon as he put it in, he, it seems, either repented of it, or at least was prevailed with to abscond. He was ever after that looked on as a man capable of the highest extravagances possible. He made the matter worse by a letter that he wrote to the lords, in which he expressed his fear of the danger the king was in by the duke's having of guards. Proclamations went out for discovering him. But he kept out of the way, till the storm was over. The parliament expressed a firm resolution to maintain the act of uniformity. And the king being run much in debt, they gave him four subsidies, being willing to return to the ancient way of taxes by subsidies. But these were so evaded, and brought in so little money, that the court resolved never to have recourse to that method of raising money any more, but to betake themselves for the future to the assessment begun in the war. The convocation gave at the same time four subsidies, which proved as heavy on them, as they were light on the temporalty. This was the last aid that the spiritualty gave: for the whole proving so inconsiderable, and yet so unequally heavy on the clergy, it was resolved on " hereafter

u

By verbal agreement between archbishop Sheldon and lord Clarendon, and in consequence of which, without the intervention of any express law, and contrary to a former resolution of the house of commons, the inferior beneficed clergy

have constantly voted for members of the house of commons, and although there be no express laws for it. But see the other volume, p. 281. 0. (Where there is a longer note on this subject.)

to tax church benefices as temporal estates were 1663. taxed; which proved indeed a lighter burden, but was not so honourable as when it was given by themselves. Yet interest prevailing above the point of honour, they acquiesced in it. So the convocations being no more necessary to the crown, this made that there was less regard had to them afterwards. They were often discontinued and prorogued: and when they met, it was only for form. The parliament did pass another act, that was very acceptable to the court, and that shewed a confidence in the king, repealing the act of triennial parliaments, which had been obtained with so much difficulty, and was clogged with so many clauses, 198 which seemed to transfer the power from the crown to the people, that, when it was carried, it was thought the greatest security that the people had for all their other liberties. But it was now given up without a struggle, or any clauses for a certainty of parliaments, besides a general one, [hereafter the sitting and holding of parliament shall not be intermitted or discontinued above three years at the most, but] that there should be a parliament called within three years after the dissolution of the present parliament, and so ever afterwards; but without any severe clauses, in case the act was not observed.

As for our foreign negotiations, I know nothing in particular concerning them. Secretary Bennet had them all in his hands: and I had no confidence with any about him. Our concerns with Portugal were public and I knew no secrets about these.

By a melancholy instance to our private family it A plot disappeared, that France was taking all possible me

covered.