discords between them. Accordingly, on the 25th of February, 1667-8, he ordered a solemn declaration to be entered in the council books,* and public notice to be given, that he was resolved thenceforth, that upon no pretence whatsoever any pardon should be granted to any person for killing another in a duel or rencounter; but that the course of law should wholly take place in all such cases. These transactions in the council, during this short interval, in which so right and good a dis *London Gazette. A. D. 1667-8. unmolested. As, however, it was highly probable that Ossory would not allow the matter to rest here, the duke the next morning went down to the house, and there, with many an assurance to their lordships of the readiness with which he was always accustomed to give satisfaction to any one who chose to quarrel with him, and how "suitable and agreeable to his nature" this was, he gave his own version of the whole occurrence. Ossory could only answer, that from the minute manner in which the spot had been described, it was impossible that either could have mistaken it. The house of course interfered, and Buckingham was sheltered from his fiery oppo nent. The duke succeeded better in a pugilistic encounter he had soon afterwards in the Painted Chamber, during a conference between the two houses, with the Marquis of Dorchester. Buckingham lost a handful of hair, but he brought off the marquis's perriwig as a trophy. Both these stories are told by Clarendon in his Life, who would however, of course, give that version by which the duke appeared the most ridiculous. A. D. position appeared for the English interest, are 1667-8. Inquiry into the source of the national measures. thrown together, that the reader may form his judgment from whence they proceeded, and whose advice most probably prevailed at that time. Several of our historians, who have contented themselves with extracting from one another, and have not duly considered the characters of those who composed the council, have ascribed the national measures which were then taken chiefly to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, who was made lord keeper when the Earl of Clarendon was dismissed from the office of lord high chancellor ; as if it must necessarily follow, that, succeeding Lord Clarendon in the possession of the seals, though but the keeper of them, he must succeed him likewise in all his interest and political power. Sir Orlando had never appeared in a higher light than as chief baron of the exchequer, had never been versed in affairs of state, and was, at the delivering of the seals to him, so far advanced in years, that the reasons given in the Gazette for his dismission, five years after, were his great age and infirmities. At the 76 James the Second says of him, that "he was an honest, but a weak man."-Macpherson, vol. i. p. 48. same time, there were several in the council, men experienced in business and capable of it, and among them Lord Ashley, described even by his enemies, particularly by Father Orleans the jesuit, as a man of a vast genius, one of the greatest England had produced for many years; penetrating, bold, and steady: but this merit is ascribed to him only when any misconduct is charged upon the ministry, and writers are at a loss on whom to fix it; and then his character is raised, as if only to depress it the more. The spirit which had appeared in the council, in the foregoing instances, arose and operated from a full conviction and experience of the weak and unnational measures in which the king had been engaged; from the tendency of these, and of the king and some about him, towards popery; from the dependence the king had been brought into, and was himself too much inclined to, on the King of France; and from the large strides which that monarch was making in his schemes of depressing the house of Austria, and gaining the possession of the Spanish crown. A. D. 1667-8. The French king had, agreeably to the advice Conduct of the French in Mons. de Lyonne's memorial, postponed the King. A. D. 1667-8. war with Spain till England and Holland had weakened each other, though not so much as he desired; for the peace was concluded sooner than he expected. However, before the conclusion of it, and when he had reason to think that the two powers were very much exaspeJune 1667. rated against each other, in the same month in which Admiral Ruyter, with the Dutch fleet, sailed into the Thames as far as Chatham, and burnt several English ships lying there, he entered into a war with Spain; annulled (as is said before) the queen's renunciation of her title to the Spanish monarchy ;* and, with a powerful and unexpected force, invaded the Netherlands upon his queen's pretensions to Brabant, after the death of her father Philip the Fourth. Though the French king took this crisis, when England and Holland were so warmly engaged against each other, to attack the Spa * Upon the French king's marriage with the Infanta of Spain, the Infanta had made a renunciation of all her pretensions, titles, or claims whatsoever to the Spanish monarchy and dominions thereof, or to any part of the same. To prevent any evasions, it was drawn up in the strongest terms, and with the most binding clauses imaginable: it was ratified by the French king, and was the foundation of his marriage, as this was of the Pyrenean treaty, in which the act of renunciation was incorporated. nish Netherlands, which were unprovided for a sufficient defence, he omitted no artifices in order to make his way smoother to conquest. He had offered the Dutch to share the Spanish Netherlands with them, which had been Cardinal Richelieu's scheme, and which the States then wisely refused, though the province of Zealand was for accepting the terms. Wisely did the States refuse the offer; because nothing could be more dangerous to the Dutch than an extensive dominion, which must require proportionable supplies for its defence, and too much divert their attention from trade to war. After the peace was proclaimed between England and Holland, in the month of August 1667, and the dismission of Lord Clarendon in the same month,-two blows which the French king did not expect, he sent Monsieur Ruvigni to England, as mentioned before, to sound the disposition of the English ministry, and to know whether they were not entering into a closer union with Spain, which he had reason enough to apprehend, from the treaty of commerce lately concluded. He exerted likewise his politics, and tried his utmost arts to engage the English court * A. D. 1667-8. VOL. I. *Turenne's Memoirs. 2 A |
