1685. by it so none would run that hazard. The earl of Rochester got this to be done before he came into the treasury: so he pretended, that he only held on in the course that was begun by others.

The king's coldness to

had been

The additional excise had been given to the late king only for life. But there was a clause in the act that empowered the treasury to make a farm of it for three years, without adding a limiting clause, in case it should be so long due. And it was thought a great stretch of the clause, to make a fraudulent farm, by which it should continue to be levied three years after it was determined, according to the letter and intendment of the act. A farm was now brought out, as made during the king's life, though it was well known that no such farm had been made; for it was made after his death, but a false date was put to it. This matter seemed doubtful. It was laid before the judges. And they all, except two, were of opinion that it was good in law. So two proclamations were ordered, the one for levying the customs, and the other for the excise.

These came out in the first week of the reign, and gave a melancholy prospect. Such beginnings did not promise well, and raised just fears in the minds of those who considered the consequences of such proceedings. They saw, that by violence and fraud duties were now to be levied without law. But all people were under the power of fear or flattery to such a degree, that none durst complain, and few would venture to talk of those matters.

Persons of all ranks went in such crowds to pay those who their duty to the king, that it was not easy to adfor the ex- mit them all. Most of the whigs that were ad623 mitted were received coldly at best. Some were

clusion.

sharply reproached for their past behaviour. Others 1685. were denied access. The king began likewise to say, that he would not be served as his brother had been he would have all about him serve him with

out reserve, and go thorough in his business. Many were amazed to see such steps made at first. The second Sunday after he came to the throne, he, to the surprise of the whole court, went openly to mass, and sent Caryl to Rome with letters to the pope, but without a character.

to be on

French

In one thing only the king seemed to comply He seemed with the genius of the nation, though it proved in equal terms the end to be only a shew. He seemed resolved with the not to be governed by French counsels, but to act king. in an equality with that haughty monarch in all things. And, as he entertained all the other foreign ministers with assurances that he would maintain the balance of Europe with a more steady hand than had been done formerly; so, when he sent over the lord Churchil to the court of France with the notice of his brother's death, he ordered him to observe exactly the ceremony and state with which he was received, that he might treat him, who should be sent over with the compliment in return to that, in the same manner. And this he observed very punctually, when the marshal de Lorge came over. This was set about by the courtiers as a sign of another spirit, that might be looked for in a reign so begun. And this made some impression on the court of France, and put them to a stand. But, not long after this, the French king said to the duke of Villeroy, (who told it to young Rouvigny, now earl of Galway, from whom I had it,) that the king of England, after all the high things given out in

1685. his name, was willing to take his money, as well as his brother had done f.

The king did also give out, that he would live in a particular confidence with the prince of Orange, and the States of Holland. And, because Chudleigh, the envoy there, had openly broken with the prince, (for he not only waited no more on him, but acted openly against him; and once in the Vorhaut had affronted him, while he was driving the princess upon the snow in a trainau, according to the German manner, and pretending they were masked, and that he did not know them, had ordered his coachman to keep his way, as they were coming towards the place where he drove ;) the king recalled him, and sent Shelton in his room, who was the haughtiest, but withal the weakest man, that he could have found out. He talked out all secrets, and The court

624 made himself the scorn of all Holland.

iers now said every where, that we had a martial

f

(From the now ascertained fact of James's receiving money from France, the truth of the anecdote here related cannot, as Mr. Fox observes, be doubted. See Fox's Hist. of the Reign of James II. p. 106.)

A pretty parenthesis. S. (See before, p. 594; but D'Orleans, in his History of the Revolutions in England, which was written, according to lord Bolingbroke in his Dissertation on Parties, p. 28. on materials furnished him by James II. gives the following account of the difference between the prince of Orange and Chudleigh: "The

prince of Orange still did the "duke of Monmouth much ho

66

66

nour, and ordered his troops "to salute him at reviews when "he happened to be present. "The king (Charles) had for"bid it to those he had in the "service of the States, by Mr. Chudley, then minister at the Hague, which the prince took so ill, that he was in a pas"sion with Chudley, who had given those orders to the "officers, without acquainting him, and threatened him, lifting up his hand. The "minister complained to his "master, who was so highly "offended at it, that he for"bad him seeing the prince." p. 276. Compare p. 576 of Burnet's History.)

66

66

66

prince who loved glory, who would bring France 1685. into as humble a dependance on us, as we had been

formerly on that court.

course of

The king did, some days after his coming to the The king's crown, promise the queen and his priests, that he life. would see Mrs. Sidley no more, by whom he had some children. And he spoke openly against lewdness, and expressed a detestation of drunkenness. He sat many hours a day about business with the council, the treasury, and the admiralty. It was upon this said, that now we should have a reign of action and business, and not of sloth and luxury, as the last was. Mrs. Sidley had lodgings in Whitehall orders were sent to her to leave them. This was done to mortify her; for [as she was naturally bold and insolent] she pretended that she should now govern as absolutely as the duchess of Portsmouth had done: yet the king still continued a secret commerce with her. And thus he began his reign with some fair appearances. A long and great frost had so shut up the Dutch ports, that for some weeks they had no letters from England: at last the news of the king's sickness and death, and of the beginnings of the new reign, came to them all at once.

in, The prince He

of Orange sent away the duke

first of Mon

The first difficulty the prince of Orange was was with relation to the duke of Monmouth. knew the king would immediately, after the compliments were over, ask him to dismiss him, if mouth. not to deliver him up. And as it was no way decent for him to break with the king upon such a point, so he knew the states would never bear it. He thought it better to dismiss him immediately, as of himself. The duke of Monmouth seemed sur

1685. prised at this. Yet at parting he made great protestations both to the prince and princess of an inviolable fidelity to their interests. So he retired to Brussels, where he knew he could be suffered to stay no longer than till a return should come from Spain, upon the notice of king Charles's death, and the declarations that the king was making of maintaining the balance of Europe. The duke was upon that thinking to go to Vienna, or to some court in Germany. But those about him studied to inflame him both against the king and the prince of Orange. They told him, the prince by casting him off had cancelled all former obligations, and set him free from them: he was now to look to himself: and instead of wandering about as a vagabond, he was to set himself to deliver his country, and to raise his 625 party and his friends, who were now like to be used very ill for their adhering to him and to his in

Some in

England

move for him.

terest.

They sent one over to England to try men's began to pulses, and to see if it was yet a proper time to make an attempt. Wildman, Charlton, and some others, went about trying if men were in a disposition to encourage an invasion. They talked of this in so remote a way of speculation, that though one could not but see what lay at bottom, yet they did not run into treasonable discourse. I was in general sounded by them: yet nothing was proposed that ran me into any danger from concealing it. I did not think fears and dangers, nor some illegal acts in the administration, could justify an insurrection, as lawful in itself: and I was confident an insurrection undertaken on such grounds would be so ill seconded, and so weakly supported, that it would not