1689. would meet with great opposition, and give a general ill impression of the prince, as insatiable and jealous in his ambition: there was an ill humour already spreading it self through the nation and through the clergy: it was not necessary to increase this; which such a step as was now proposed would do out of measure: it would engage the one sex generally against the prince: and in time they might feel the effects of that very sensibly: and, for my own part, I should think my self bound to oppose it all I could, considering what had passed in Holland on that head. We talked over the whole thing for many hours, till it was pretty far in the morning. I saw he was well instructed in the argument: and he himself was possessed with it. So next morning I came to him, and desired my congè. I would oppose nothing in which the prince seemed to be concerned, as long as I was his servant. And therefore I desired to be disengaged, that I might be free to oppose this proposition with all the strength and credit I had. He answered me, that I might desire that when I saw a step made: but till then he 819 wished me to stay where I was k.

I heard no more

of this; in which the marquis of Hallifax was single
among the peers: for I did not find there was any
one of them of his mind; unless it was the lord Cul-
pepper, who was a vicious and corrupt man, but
made a figure in the debates that were now in the
house of lords, and died about the end of them'.
Some moved, that the princess of Orange might be
put in the throne; and that it might be left to her,
to give the prince such a share either of dignity or
k Is all this true? S.
done in effect, while the king
Yet was not the same thing had the sole administration? S.

power as she should propose, when she was declared 1689. queen. The agents of princess Anne began to go about, and to oppose any proposition for the prince to her prejudice. But she thought fit to disown them. Dr. Doughty, one of her chaplains, spoke to me in her room on the subject. But she said to my self, that she knew nothing of it.

The proposition, in which all that were for the filling the throne agreed at last, was, that both the prince and princess should be made conjunct sovereigns. But, for the preventing of any distractions, that the administration should be singly in the prince m The princess continued all the while in Holland, being shut in there, during the east winds, by the freezing of the rivers, and by contrary winds after the thaw came. So that she came not to England till all the debates were over ". The prince's enemies gave it out, that she was kept there by order, on design that she might not come over to England to claim her right. So parties began to be formed, some for the prince, and others for the princess. Upon this the earl of Danby sent one over to the princess, and gave her an account of the present state of that debate: and desired to know her own sense of the matter; for, if she desired it, he did not doubt but he should be able to carry it for setting her alone on the throne. She made him a very sharp answer: she said, she was the prince's wife, and would never be other than what she should be in conjunction with him and under him;

m See the establishment made on the marriage of queen Mary with Philip of Spain. O.

n

Why was she sent for till the matter was agreed? This

clearly shews the prince's ori-
ginal design was to be king,
against what he professed in his
declaration. S. (Compare note
at p. 631.)

1689. and that she would take it extreme unkindly, if any, under a pretence of their care of her, would set up a divided interest between her and the prince. And, not content with this, she sent both lord Danby's letter and her answer to the prince. Her sending it thus to him was the most effectual discouragement possible to any attempt for the future to create a misunderstanding or jealousy between them. The prince bore this with his usual phlegm : for he did not expostulate with the earl of Danby upon it, but continued still to employ and to trust him. And afterwards he advanced him, first to be a marquis, and then to be a duke.

820 During all these debates, and the great heat with The prince, which they were managed, the prince's own behamind after viour was very mysterious. He stayed at St. James's:

declared his

long si

lence.

he went little abroad: access to him was not very easy. He heard all that was said to him: but seldom made any answers. He did not affect to be affable, or popular: nor would he take any pains to gain any one person over to his party. He said, he came over, being invited, to save the nation: he had now brought together a free and true representative

• There was a great meeting at the earl of Devonshire's, where the dispute ran very high between lord Hallifax and lord Danby, one for the prince, the other for the princess: at last lord Hallifax said he thought it would be very proper to know the prince's own sentiments, and desired Fagel would speak, who defended himself a great while by saying he knew nothing of his mind upon that subject, but if they would know

his own, he believed the prince would not like to be his wife's gentleman usher; upon which lord Danby said he hoped they all knew enough now; for his part, he knew too much; and broke up the assembly, as sir M. Wharton, who was present, told me. D. (This note has been already published by sir John Dalrymple in the appendix to his Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 342.)

of the kingdom: he left it therefore to them to do 1689. what they thought best for the good of the kingdom: and, when things were once settled, he should be well satisfied to go back to Holland again". Those who did not know him well, and who imagined that a crown had charms which human nature was not strong enough to resist, looked on all this as an affectation, and as a disguised threatening, which imported, that he would leave the nation to perish, unless his method of settling it was followed. After a reservedness, that had continued so close for several weeks, that nobody could certainly tell what he desired, he called for the marquis of Hallifax, and the earls of Shrewsbury and Danby, and some others, to explain himself more distinctly to them.

He told them, he had been till then silent, because he would not say or do any thing that might seem in any sort to take from any person the full freedom of deliberating and voting in matters of such importance: he was resolved neither to court nor threaten any one: and therefore he had declined to give out his own thoughts: some were for putting the government in the hands of a regent: he would say nothing against it, if it was thought the best mean for settling their affairs: only he thought it necessary to tell them, that he would not be the regent : so, if they continued in that design, they must look

P Did he tell truth? S. He seems to have acted right, considering the circumstances he was then in. If he was sincere in it, it was not only wise, but great. If he had done otherwise, it would have hurt him, and brought him into many difficulties. He made a better

judgment quite through this
matter than any of the people
about him. His natural tem-
per might contribute to it. But
with all his errors, he appears,
in all times of his life, to have
been by far the ablest man con-
cerned in his affairs, or at that
time in Europe. O.

1689. out for some other person to be put in that post 9: he himself saw what the consequences of it were like to prove so he would not accept of it: others were for putting the princess singly on the throne, and that he should reign by her courtesy: he said, no man could esteem a woman more than he did the princess but he was so made, that he could not think of holding any thing by apron-strings: nor could he think it reasonable to have any share in the government, unless it was put in his person, and that for term of life: if they did think it fit to settle it otherwise, he would not oppose them in it: but he would go back to Holland, and meddle no more in their affairs: he assured them, that whatsoever others might think of a crown, it was no such thing 821 in his eyes, but that he could live very well, and be

It was resolved to

well pleased without it. In the end he said, that he could not resolve to accept of a dignity, so as to hold it only the life of another: yet he thought, that the issue of princess Anne should be preferred, in the succession, to any issue that he might have by any other wife than the princess'. All this he delivered to them in so cold and unconcerned a manner, that those, who judged of others by the dispositions that they felt in themselves, looked on it all as artifice and contrivances.

This was presently told about, as it was not in

4 Was not this a plain confession of what he came for? S.

A great concession truly. S. s The duke of Leeds told me the reasons that prevailed were the ill state of his health, from whence they concluded he could not last long; and that a man of courage was necessary for

settling the government at first; but the marquis of Hallifax told the prince he might be what he pleased himself, (the first night he came to St. James's ;) for as nobody knew what to do with him, so nobody knew what to do without him. D.