shows that the nation is not yet recovered from this species of political mania.

Before the close of this year, the king exhibited plain indications of that attachment to the catholic religion which was so remarkable a characteristic of the Stuart family, and which at length terminated in their total ruin, In DeFirst De- cember he issued a declaration, in which was exclaration of Indulgence. pressed his intention of mitigating the rigor of the penal laws in favor of his peaceable nonconforming subjects, by virtue of his dispensing power. But the house of commons, who were equally adverse to papists and presbyterians, strongly remonstrating against the proposed indulgence, the king gave the first proof of that cautious and accommodating spirit which never forsook him, even when engaged in the prosecution of the deepest and most dangerous designs, by immediately desisting from his project; and, in order to pacify the parliament, a proclamation was soon after issued against Jesuits and Romish priests.

From this time, however, it was observed that the earl of Clarendon began to decline from that height of favor he had hitherto enjoyed. The king became sensible that this inflexible minister, notwithstanding his high theoretical principles, could never be brought to support any designs which might be formed either for the actual ex

War.

tension of prerogative, or for the advancement of popery. The resolution taken by the court in the following year, not without the concurrence of the parliament and the approbation of the nation in general, to declare war against Holland, evi- First Dutch dently marked the declension, or rather the annihilation of that nobleman's authority. The king's settled aversion to the manners, government, and religion of the Dutch nation, was the real ground of this war; and the jealousy entertained of those industrious republicans as commercial rivals was the cause of its popularity. It was, nevertheless, so palpably unjust, that the chancellor, whose probity remained unshaken in the midst of temptation, openly remonstrated against it, but without any effect. The war, however, was not carried on with that success which was expected. France and Denmark declared in favor of Holland; and the king, notwithstanding the memorable insult he received from the Dutch fleet commanded by De Ruyter, who, in the summer of 1667, sailed up the Med- 1667. way, and burnt several men of war lying in that river, thought proper to sign a treaty of peace at Breda in July, and to reserve to a more favorable opportunity the complete gratification of his hatred and revenge. The disgrace of the chan- Disgrace of cellor immediately followed. Popular prejudices Clarendon, ran high against him; and the king had the base

the Earl of

Triple Alliance.

ness and ingratitude to encourage a parliamentary impeachment for high treason against the man to whom he owed the most important obligations, who had been the guide and counsellor of his youth, and in whom he had once placed the most unlimited confidence. Happily he found means to escape into France, where he spent the remainder of his life in philosophic and dignified retirement,

The first political measure of the court after this event has met with very great and deserved applause. This was no other than the famous triple alliance concluded between England, Holland, and Sweden, for the avowed purpose of putting a stop to the military progress of the French monarch, whose power began about this time to appear extremely formidable, and who had, in contempt of every appearance of justice, entered the Spanish Low Countries with a numerous army, and threatened to make an entire conquest of those rich and extensive provinces. Lewis, however, did not choose to risque a rupture with this potent confederacy; and for a short time England, in consequence of this spirited conduct, appeared in her proper station, as the great bulwark of the common liberties of Europe. Some faint attempts were also now made by Buckingham, the new minister, to procure a relaxation of the terms of conformity; but the temper of the com

mons appeared totally adverse to every idea of that nature. They even inflicted additional penalties upon non-conformists; and, by a remarkable clause in the act passed against conventicles, the malignant spirit by which they were actuated, is strikingly manifested. If any dispute should arise with respect to the construction of the act, the judges are directed, contrary to the universal practice of the English courts of judicature in the interpretation of penal statutes, to explain the doubt in the sense least favorable to the delinquent. Such was indeed the violence with which the legislature now proceeded, that, had not the political circumstances of the times undergone an unexpected revolution, another Marian persecution was justly to be apprehended.

Cabal Ad

ministra

tion.

Towards the end of the year 1669, the prin- 1660. cipal executive offices of government were filled by Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley Cooper, afterwards earl of Shaftesbury, and Lauderdale, who composed that administration so well known by the appellation of the CABAL the majority of whom were, in the general opinion, men, who, to borrow the language of lord Clarendon," had heads to contrive, hearts to approve, and hands to execute any mischief." And it may with strict justice be affirmed, that the king, in concert with a secret, dark, and dangerous faction, was engaged in a conspiracy against

the religion, laws, and liberties of his kingdom. The dissimulation and perfidy of Charles are such as to make it extremely questionable, whether he ever really entered into the views with which the triple alliance was formed. However that may be, it is certain, that within two years after that event his political conduct was totally changed; and in an interview which took place in the 1670. spring of the year 1670 with his sister Henrietta, duchess of Orleans, a secret treaty was negotiated with the French king for the purposes of subverting the republic of Holland, of making the authority of Charles absolute, and of establishing once more the Romish religion in the King be- realms of Britain; as a prelude to which, Charles was formally absolved, and received into the bosom of the catholic church*.

comes a Catholic.

* The three great objects of the alliance between Lewis and Charles were as stated in the narrative. But Clifford and Arlington only, who were themselves papists, were privy to the whole project. The secret was in part kept from Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale, who were amused with a fictitious treaty, containing all the articles, except those relating to religion, of the former real treaty negotiated and signed unknown to them by lord Arundel of Wardour. "But," as Mr. Hume observes, "if popery was so much the object of the national horror, that even the king's own ministers either would not or durst not receive it, what hopes could he entertain of forcing the nation into it?" The king was so zealous a papist, that he wept for joy when he saw the

prospect