1662. 11th June.

ALL the defence, which Vane could make, was CHA P. fruitless. The court, considering more the general LXIII. opinion of his active guilt in the beginning and prosecution of the civil wars, than the articles of treason charged against him, took advantage of the letter of the law, and brought him in guilty. His courage deserted him not upon his condemnation. Though timid by nature, the persuasion of a just cause supported him against the terrors of death; while his enthusiasm, excited by the prospect of glory, embellished the conclusion of a life, which, through the whole course of it, had been so much disfigured by the prevalence of that principle. Lest pity for a courageous sufferer should make impression on the populace, drummers were placed under the scaffold, whose noise, as he began to launch out in reflections on the government, drowned his voice, tion. and admonished him to temper the ardour of his 14th June. zeal. He was not astonished at this unexpected incident. In all his behaviour, there appeared a firm and animated intrepidity; and he considered death but as a passage to that eternal felicity, which he believed to be prepared for him.

THIS man, so celebrated for his parliamentary talents, and for his capacity in business, has left some writings behind him: They treat, all of them, of religious subjects, and are absolutely unintelligible: No traces of eloquence, or even of common sense, appear in them. A strange paradox! did we not know, that men of the greatest genius, where they relinquish by principle the use of their reason, are only enabled, by their vigour of mind, to work themselves the deeper into error and absurdity. It was remarkable, that, as Vane, by being the chief instrument of Strafford's death, had first opened the way for that destruction which overwhelmed the nation; so by his death he closed the scene of blood. He was the last that suffered on

account

and execu

1662.

CHA P. account of the civil wars. Lambert, though conLXIII. demned, was reprieved at the bar; and the judges declared, that, if Vane's behaviour had been equally dutiful and submissive, he would have experienced like lenity in the king. Lambert survived his condemnation near thirty years. He was confined to the isle of Guernsey; where he lived contented, forgetting all his past schemes of greatness, and entirely forgotten by the nation: He died a Roman catholic.

Presbyterian clergy

HOWEVER odious Vane and Lambert were to the

ejected. presbyterians, that party had no leisure to rejoice at 24th Aug. their condemnation. The fatal St. Bartholomew approached; the day, when the clergy were obliged by the late law, either to relinquish their livings, or to sign the articles required of them. A combination had been entered into by the most zealous of the presbyterian ecclesiastics to refuse the subscription: in hopes that the bishops would not venture at once to expel so great a number of the most popular preachers. The catholic party at court, who desired a great rent among the protestants, encouraged them in this bstinacy, and gave them hopes that the king would protect them in their refusal. The king himself, by his irresolute conduct, contributed either from design or accident, to increase this opinion. Above all, the terms of subscription had been made strict and rigid, on purpose to disgust all the zealous and scrupulous among the presbyterians, and deprive them of their livings. About 2000 of the clergy, in one day, relinquished their cures; and to the astonishment of the court, sacrificed their interest to their religious tenets. Fortified by society in their sufferings, they were resolved to undergo any hardships, rather than openly renounce those principles, which, on other occasions, they were so apt, from interest, to warp or elude. The church enjoyed the pleasure of retaliation: and even

pushed,

LXIII.

1662.

pushed as usual, the vengeance farther than the CHA P. offence. During the dominion of the parliamentary party, a fifth of each living had been left to the ejected clergymen ; but this indulgence, though at first insisted on by the house of peers, was now refused to the presbyterians. However difficult to conciliate peace among theologians, it was hoped by many, that some relaxation in the terms of communion might have kept the presbyterians united to the church, and have cured those ecclesiastical factions which had been so fatal, and were still so dangerous. Bishoprics were offered to Calamy, Baxter, and Reynolds, leaders among the presbyterians; the last only could be prevailed on to accept. Deaneries and other preferments were refused by many.

Dunkirk

French.

THE next measure of the king has not had the good fortune to be justified by any party; but is often considered, on what grounds I shall not determine, as one of the greatest mistakes, if not blemishes, of his reign. It is the sale of Dunkirk to the French. The parsimonious maxims of the sold to the parliament, and the liberal, or rather careless disposition of Charles, were ill suited to each other; and notwithstanding the supplies voted him, his treasury was still very empty and very much indebted. He had secretly received the sum of 200,000 crowns from France for the support of Portugal; but the forces sent over to that country, and the fleets maintained in order to defend it, had already cost the king that sum; and together with it, near double the money which had been paid as the queen's portion. The time fixed for payment of his sister's portion to the duke of Orleans was approaching. Tangiers, a fortress from which great benefit was expected, was become an additional

burden

D'Estrades, 17th of August 1662. There was above half of 500,000 pounds really paid as the queen's portion. C c

VOL. VII.

LXIII,

CHA P. burden to the crown; and Rutherford, who now commanded in Dunkirk, had increased the charge of that garrison to a hundred and twenty thou

1662.

sand pounds a year. These considerations had such influence, not only on the king, but even on Clarendon, that this uncorrupt minister was the most forward to advise accepting a sum of money in lieu of a place which he thought the king from the narrow state of his revenue, was no longer able to retain. By the treaty with Portugal it was stipulated that Dunkirk should never be yielded to the Spaniards: France was therefore the only purchaser that remained. D'Estrades was invited over by a letter from the chancellor himself in order to conclude the bargain. Nine hundred thousand pounds were demanded. One hundred thousand were offered. The English by degrees lowered their demand: The French raised their offer: And the bargain was concluded at 400,000 pounds. The artillery and stores were valued at a fifth of the sum.c The importance of this sale was not, at that time, sufficiently known, either abroad or at home. The French monarch himself, so fond of acquisitions, and so good a judge of his own interests, thought that he had made a hard bargain ; and

D'Estrades, 21st of August, 12th of September 1662.

It appears, however, from many of D'Estrade's letters, particularly that of the 21st of August 1661, that the king might have transferred Dunkirk to the parliament, who would not have refused to bear the charges of it, but were unwilling to give money to the king for that purpose. The king, on the other hand, was jealous lest the parliament should acquire any separate dominion or authority in a branch of administration which seemed so little to belong to them: A proof that the government was not yet settled into that composure and mutual confidence which is absolutely requisite for conducting it.

e Id. 3d. of October 1662. The chief importance indeed of Dunkirk to the English was, that it was able to distress their trade, when in the hands of the French: But it was Lewis the XIVth who first made it a good sea-port. If ever England have occasion to transport armies to the continent, it must be in support of some ally whose towns serve to the same purpose as Dunkirk would, if in the hands of the English.

and this sum, in appearance so small, was the CHA P. utmost which he would allow his ambassador to offer.

LXIIL

1662.

dulgence.

A NEW incident discovered such a glimpse of the king's character and principles, as, at first, the nation was somewhat at a loss how to interpret, but such as subsequent events, by degrees, rendered sufficiently plain and manifest. He issued a declaration Declaraon pretence of mitigating the rigours contained in tion of inthe act of uniformity. After expressing his firm re- 26th Dec. solution to observe the general indemnity, and to trust entirely to the affections of his subjects, not to any military power, for the support of his throne, he mentioned the promises of liberty of conscience, contained in his declaration of Breda. And he subjoined, that," as in the first place he had been "zealous to settle the uniformity of the church of England, in discipline, ceremony, and govern"ment, and shall ever constantly maintain it: So as for what concerns the penalties upon those "who, living peaceably, do not conform them"selves thereunto, through scruple and tenderness "of misguided conscience, but modestly and with"out scandal perform their devotions in their own way, he should make it his special care, so far as "in him lay, without invading the freedom of par"liament, to incline their wisdom next approach

66

66

ing sessions to concur with him in making some "such act for that purpose, as may enable him to "exercise, with a more universal satisfaction, that

power of dispensing which he conceived to be in"herent in him." Here, a most important prerogative was exercised by the king; but under such artful reserves and limitations as might prevent the full discussion of the claim, and obviate a breach between him and his parliament. The foundation of

Kennet's Register, p. 850.

.