A.D. 1670. in the protestant religion; and, if his grace would heartily join with him, and be steady in the support of it, he should make no question of bringing the king back from the fatal path into which he had entered. The duke, who was warm in everything at the beginning, but had no principle of steadiness, went out of the room, and returned several times, starting so many doubts, that, at last, Lord Ashley fell into some heat with him, and so they parted.

and with the Earl of Lauderdale.

As

The Earl of Lauderdale, likewise, informed Lord Ashley of the same; and urged to him the discouragement under which any of the king's servants must act who should thwart him in point of popery: but whether Lord Lauderdale did this from his own bias in favour of arbitrary power, or was set on to bring Lord Ashley into the designs of the court, did not appear. Lord Ashley thought him firmly attached to the protestant religion, he expatiated* upon the happiness and benefits of it, and laid before him the dreadful consequences which must attend any attempt to overturn it: but the Earl of Lauderdale had concerted his measures with the popish junto and with the Countess of Dysart, from

* Mr. Stringer.

whom he had received his information, and whom A.D. 1670. he afterwards married. He desired, therefore, Lord Ashley to be passive at least; but when he found he could not prevail, he left him abruptly,

66

saying, Well, my lord, you may do as you

please:" and though he did not become a proselyte to the Romish religion, yet his attachment to the court carried him into all its measures, however arbitrary, unjust, and oppressive, and however hurtful to the protestant interest.

ley's con

Lord Ashley could not now depend on the Lord Ashassistance of any in the council, except Prince

Rupert, who was always hearty for the protestant

cause, and Mr. Coventry, who was made secretary of state in the room of Sir John Trevor. He did, notwithstanding, upon all occasions oppose the counsels which prevailed; and set forth their dangerous tendency with such strength and force of reason, that the rest of the junto could not inspire the king with courage enough to put them so boldly in execution as the duke and his friends desired.

duct in

council.

to the

In his zeal to make converts to the principles His advice he himself advocated, Lord Ashley applied him- young nobility. self to gain the confidence of many of the young nobility; and if his advice was not always suc

A.D. 1670. cessful, his politeness preserved it from being offensive. Among other persons, he addressed himself to the Earl of Rochester, whose talents might have rendered him an ornament of his country. He represented to him, that a misapplication of his powers was an injury to the public; and that his course of life would be the ruin of his fortune, health, and reputation. Lord Rochester frankly replied, "My lord, it is true, and I am obliged to you; but I have really no other way of making my interest at court."

Lord Ashley's appli

the princes

of Ger

many.

Lord Ashley had penetrated the whole design cation to of the French king, who would be the only gainer by the late treaty. He saw, likewise, that his master, King Charles, was going to act a part dishonourable to himself and fatal to Europe. When, therefore, he had done his duty, as a subject and a counsellor, in dissuading the king from concluding the treaty, and in endeavouring afterwards to make it more advantageous, he carried his views farther; and found means to apprise several princes abroad of it, and of the danger which it threatened. This information he gave, in particular, to the Elector of Brandenburgh, the Duke of Saxony, and other protestant princes of the empire. He represented to them the neces

sity of their uniting against the power and ambi- A.D. 1670. tion of France; and he showed them that the French king's intentions were not limited to the overrunning of Holland and Flanders, but were plainly to bring all Europe under his subjection, and to extirpate the protestant religion.

豫

These princes were well acquainted with the character and abilities of Lord Ashley. The Elector of Brandenburgh knew that he had the principal hand in forming a treaty between King Charles and himself soon after the Restoration. They all had reason to believe that Lord Ashley had a perfect knowledge of the designs of the French and English courts: they were alarmed at the intelligence which he sent them; and soon after engaged the emperor, and other states of the empire, to enter into a league of common defence. Having, likewise, negotiated an alliance with Holland and Spain, who were to supply them with money, a powerful army was formed in Germany, by which the French king was checked in the progress of his conquests, and his affairs were so entangled, that he could not assist King Charles with the fifty thousand men which he was engaged to do by the treaty at Dover. Lord Ashley did not stop here: he took

A.D. 1670. another method to obstruct the measures of the

Meeting of parliament.

court, to prevent a war with the Dutch, and to render the treaty ineffectual; of which the journals of the house of lords produce the following proof.

When the parliament met, on the 24th of October, the lord keeper, by the king's command, displayed the honour and advantages of the triple alliance; and he took notice, "that since the beginning of the last Dutch war, the French had increased the number and greatness of their ships so much, that their strength by sea was thrice as much as it was before; and that, since the end of it, the Dutch had been very diligent also in augmenting their fleets: and in this conjuncture, when our neighbours armed so potently, even common prudence required that his majesty should make some suitable preparations, that he might, at least, keep pace with his neighbours, if not outgo them in number and strength of shipping; for that, this being an island, both our safety, our trade, and our being, depended upon our forces at sea."

The two houses addressed the king, that the

*The articles relating to this affair are among Lord Shaftesbury's papers.