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just and most for the interest of the king his A.D.1662.

master."

He afterwards said, "it was his opinion, after all, that a present should be made of it to the French king, and the recompense left to his liberality; but, as he had not the sole direction, and was obliged, for his own sake, to conduct himself carefully in so delicate an affair, he was under a necessity of concealing his own sentiments, and seeming to adhere to those of others, that he might not be thought the principal promoter of the treaty."

All the rest of the council, except the Duke of York, were against the sale. It is evident, therefore, that by Lord Clarendon's care to conceal his own sentiments, and his seeming to be of theirs, the king was to be looked on as the great mover of the treaty, in order to screen the chancellor : an unworthy artifice in a minister, to put his prince upon a wrong and unnatural action, and shelter

Que son sentiment avoit été après cela d'en faire un present à vôtre majesté, et de laisser dependre la récompense de sa libéralité. Mais que comme il n'étoit pas le maître et qu'il avoit un notable intérêt de se ménager dans une

affaire si délicate que celle-ci, il étoit obligé de cacher ses sentimens, et de paroître adhérer à ceux des autres, afin de n'être pas pris pour le principal promoteur du traité.—Do. le 21 Août 1662, p. 303.

The coun

cil oppose

the sale of

Dunkirk.

A.D. 1662. himself, at the same time, under the opinion of those who opposed it. 65

The treaty carried on.

Lord Clarendon had before told the Count d'Estrades, that "he would not lay any great stress on the offers made by the King of Spain; because the king had rejected them purely from his ardent desire to enter into a close alliance with his master." "*

The French king, though he was impatient to be in possession of Dunkirk, and showed the Count d'Estrades his unwillingness that it should continue in the hands of England, † affected, as did his minister likewise, a great coolness in the transactions; whilst, from his knowledge of King Charles's necessities, he reduced him to very low

* Qu'il ne me vouloit point faire valoir les offres que faisoit l'Espagne là-dessus, parce que le roi son maître les avoient toutes rejettées, dans la passion qu'il avoit de se lier étroitement avec vôtre majesté.-Lettre du Comte d'Estrades au Roi, de Londres, le 17 Août 1662, p. 287.

+ Pour mon intérêt la dite place seroit mieux entre les mains des Espagnols, ou des Hollandois, ou démolie, qu'elle n'est présentement, pour plusieurs raisons qu'il est superflu de dire. Lettre du Roi à Monsieur le Comte d'Estrades, de St. Germain en Laye, le 27 Août, p. 310.

65 It appears very clearly from Clarendon's writings, particularly where he speaks of his own impeachment, that he had no idea of the responsibility of the ministers of the crown, as we now understand that responsibility.

Lord

terms in the sale. At the same time, he pursued A.D.1662. his point every way, by engaging the Duke of York in his interest, and by presents* to the duchess, Lord Clarendon's daughter. 6 Clarendon, being apprehensive, from the seeming coolness of the French king and Count d'Estrades, and from the low offers made by them, that they did not set a just value on Dunkirk, † "endeavoured to make the count sensible of the great importance of the place, with regard both to its situation and harbour, by which it had acquired so great a name; and he magnified the advantages

*Count d'Estrades' Me

moirs, p. 315.

+ Là-dessus il s'étendit encore à me faire voir l'importance de cette place, par sa situation et ses ports, qui lui avoient acquis dans les tems passés une si grande reputation; et à m'exaggérer les

avantages que vôtre majesté en
pouvoit tirer, s'il arrivoit ja-
mais qu'elle eût quelque des-
sein à pousser ses conquêtes
dans la Flandre.-Lettre du
Comte d'Estrades au Roi, de
Londres, le 21 Août 1662, p.
303.

66 The corruption of our days, however gross it may be, affords no parallel to the open and every-day practice of this period. This present-D'Estrades does not inform us what it was-was offered to the duchess as she returned from church with her husband. The duke very much admired it, and the lady exhibited it with great satisfaction at court. One of the ordinary annual items of Charles's expenditure was 10,000l. in presents to foreign ambassadors.-Dalrymple.

A.D. 1662. which the French king would draw from thence, if he should have any design to push his conquests in Flanders." It is surprising that any Englishman, much more that a minister of state, who had the least suspicion of the French king's designs upon Flanders, should promote such a sale, and even use that as an argument to induce him to be a purchaser.

Commissioners ap pointed.

On the 1st of September, a commission was signed by the king, empowering Lord Clarendon, the Earl of Southampton, the Duke of Albemarle, and the Earl of Sandwich, to adjust, conclude, and sign the treaty with the Count d'Estrades for the sale of Dunkirk and its dependencies; but the three last, and the rest of the council, strenuously opposed the sale, and threw all the difficulties they could in the way. Count d'Estrades informed his master, in a letter dated October 27th, 1662, the day the treaty was signed, that "the chancellor had a great deal to bear with during the contest which had been raised

*

* Je ne dois pas ométtre que le chancélier est celui de tous qui a eu le plus à souffrir pendant les contestations qui ont été formées par tout le conseil sur cette affaire. Les commissaires sont ceux qui ont

le plus travaillé à la rompre, et l'on peut dire que les raisons alleguées pour cela ont été si fortes, que le Roi d'Angleterre et Monsieur le Duc d'York en auroient été ebranlez s'il n'avoit pris soin de les maintenir

by all the council, and especially by the three . A.D. 1662. commissioners joined with him: that they had urged such reasons against the treaty, that even the king and the Duke of York would have been staggered with them, if the Lord Clarendon had not taken care to confirm them in the first resolution: that he was now looked upon as the sole author of the treaty: that his enemies and all the Spanish cabal attacked him upon his conduct in

gleterre, elle ne se tiendroit
obligée qu'à des bienseances
qui ne l'embarqueroient à rien;
que comme son intérêt seul
l'avoit engagé à la première
affaire pour se venger du mau-
vais traitement qu'il avoit recû
des Espagnols, et de la crainte
où il étoit d'être supplanté par
leur cabale, aussi la seule con-
sidération et l'intérêt qu'il
trouvoit à s'appuyer de la
France lui faisoit oublier les
veritables intérêts du roi son
maître, et lui faire sacrifier
pour cela une place qui valoit
plus pour la reputation de l'An-
gleterre, et pour sa considéra-
tion à l'égard des étrangers,
que toute l'Irelande.-Lettre
du Comte d'Estrades au Roi,

dans les prémières resolutions.
Cela a parû presque à toute la
cour, et de là je pris mon occa-
sion de m'en prendre à lui
comme au seul auteur du traité.
Ses ennemis et toute la cabale
d'Espagne ont attaqué là-des-
sus sa conduite, et prôné haute-
ment que comme elle avoit été
mal entenduë sur le mariage
du Portugal, en ce qu'il avoit
été fait sans s'assurer aupara-
vant de la protection de la
France, de même il paroissoit
imprudent en cette occasion,
parce qu'il abandonnoit Dun-
kerque sans auparavant être
assuré de cette liaison étroite
qu'il se vantoit que devoit pro-
duire ce traité avec vôtre ma-
jesté; que quand la France se
verroit maîtresse de cette place de Londres, le 27 Oct. 1662,
sans aucune stipulation d'en-
p. 352.
gagement particulier avec l'An-

VOL. I.

T

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