venience spare. In this way, at an digested into a secret treaty which was expense very much less than that which signed at Dover in May 1670, Treaty of he incurred in building and decorating just ten years after the day Dover. Versailles or Marli, he succeeded in making England, during nearly twenty years, almost as insignificant a member of the political system of Europe as the republic of San Marino. His object was not to destroy our constitution, but to keep the various elements of which it was composed in a perpetual state of conflict, and to set irreconcilable enmity between those who had the power of the purse and those who had the power of the sword. With this view he bribed and stimulated both parties in turn, pensioned at once the ministers of the crown and the chiefs of the opposition, encouraged the court to withstand the seditious encroachments of the Parliament, and conveyed to the Parliament intimations of the arbitrary designs of the court. on which Charles had landed at that very port amidst the acclamations and joyful tears of a too confiding people. By this treaty Charles bound himself to make public profession of the Roman Catholic religion, to join his arms to those of Lewis for the purpose of destroying the power of the United Provinces, and to employ the whole strength of England, by land and sea, in support of the rights of the House of Bourbon to the vast monarchy of Spain. Lewis, on the other hand, engaged to pay a large subsidy, and promised that, if any insurrection should break out in England, he would send an army at his own charge to support his ally. which, for a moment, seemed likely to interrupt the newly formed friendship between the Houses of Stuart and Bourbon: but in a short time fresh assurances of undiminished good will were exchanged between the confederates. This compact was made with gloomy auspices. Six weeks after it had been signed and sealed, the charming princess, One of the devices to which he whose influence over her brother and resorted for the purpose of obtaining brother in law had been so pernicious an ascendency in the English counsels to her country, was no more. Her deserves especial notice. Charles, death gave rise to horrible suspicions though incapable of love in the highest sense of the word, was the slave of any woman whose person excited his desires, and whose airs and prattle amused his leisure. Indeed a husband would be justly derided who should bear from a wife of exalted rank and spotless virtue half the insolence which the King of England bore from concubines who, while they owed everything to his bounty, caressed his courtiers almost before his face. He had patiently endured the termagant passions of Barbara Palmer and the pert vivacity of Eleanor Gwynn. Lewis thought that the most useful envoy who could be sent to London, would be a handsome, licentious, and crafty Frenchwoman. The Duke of York, too dull to apprehend danger, or too fanatical to care about it, was impatient to see the article touching the Roman Catholic religion carried into immediate execution: but Lewis had the wisdom to perceive that, if this course were taken, there would be such an explosion in England as would probably frustrate those parts of the plan which he had most at heart. It was therefore deterSuch a woman was mined that Charles should still call Louisa, a lady of the House of Querouaille, whom our rude ancestors called Madam Carwell. She was soon triumphant over all her rivals, was created Duchess of Portsmouth, was loaded with wealth, and obtained a dominion which ended only with the life of Charles. The most important conditions of the alliance between the crowns were himself a Protestant, and should still, at high festivals, receive the sacrament according to the ritual of the Church of England. His more scrupulous brother ceased to appear in the royal chapel. About this time died the Duchess of York, daughter of the banished Earl of Clarendon. She had been, during some years, a concealed Roman Catholic. She left two daughters, Mary and more and more important. It at length Anne, afterwards successively Queens drew to itself the chief executive power, of Great Britain. They were bred and has now been regarded, during Protestants by the positive command several generations, as an essential part of the King, who knew that it would of our polity. Yet, strange to say, it be vain for him to profess himself a still continues to be altogether unknown member of the Church of England, if to the law: the names of the noblemen children who seemed likely to in- and gentlemen who compose it are herit his throne were, by his permission, never officially announced to the public: brought up as members of the Church no record is kept of its meetings and of Rome. resolutions; nor has its existence ever been recognised by any Act of Parliament. The principal servants of the crown at this time were men whose names have justly acquired an unenviable notoriety. We must take heed, however, that we do not load their memory with infamy which of right belongs to their master. For the treaty of Dover the King himself is chiefly answerable. He held conferences on it with the French agents: he wrote many letters concerning it with his own hand: he was the person who first suggested the most disgraceful articles which it contained; and he carefully concealed some of those articles from the majority of his Cabinet. of the During some years the word Cabal was popularly used as synony- The mous with Cabinet. But it hap- Cabal pened by a whimsical coincidence that, in 1671, the Cabinet consisted of five persons the initial letters of whose names made up the word Cabal; Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. These ministers were therefore emphatically called the Cabal; and they soon made that appellation so infamous that it has never since their time been used except as a term of reproach. Sir Thomas Clifford was a Commissioner of the Treasury, and had greatly distinguished himself in the House of Commons. Of the members of the Cabal he was the most respectable. For, with a fiery and imperious temper, he had a strong though a lamentably perverted sense of duty and honour. Few things in our history are more Nature curious than the origin and English growth of the power now posCabinet. sessed by the Cabinet. From an early period the Kings of England had been assisted by a Privy Council to which the law assigned many important functions and duties. During several centuries this body deliberated Henry Bennet, Lord Arlington, then on the gravest and most delicate affairs. Secretary of State, had, since he came But by degrees its character changed. to manhood, resided principally on the It became too large for despatch and Continent, and had learned that cosmosecrecy. The rank of Privy Councillor politan indifference to constitutions was often bestowed as an honorary and religions which is often observdistinction on persons to whom nothing able in persons whose life has been was confided, and whose opinion was passed in vagrant diplomacy. If there never asked. The sovereign, on the was any form of government which he most important occasions, resorted for liked, it was that of France. If there advice to a small knot of leading minis- was any Church for which he felt a ters. The advantages and disadvantages preference, it was that of Rome. He of this course were early pointed out had some talent for conversation, and by Bacon, with his usual judgment and some talent also for transacting the sagacity but it was not till after the ordinary business of office. He had Restoration that the interior council | learned, during a life passed in travelbegan to attract general notice. During ling and negotiating, the art of accommany years old fashioned politicians modating his language and deportment continued to regard the Cabinet as an to the society in which he found himunconstitutional and dangerous board. self. His vivacity in the closet amused Nevertheless, it constantly became the King: his gravity in debates and conferences imposed on the public; | ness, the most dishonest man in the and he had succeeded in attaching to whole Cabal. He had made himself himself, partly by services and partly conspicuous among the Scotch insurby hopes, a considerable number of gents of 1638 by his zeal for the personal retainers. Covenant. He was accused of having Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale been deeply concerned in the sale of were men in whom the immorality Charles the First to the English which was epidemic among the politi-Parliament, and was therefore, in the cians of that age appeared in its most estimation of good Cavaliers, a traitor, malignant type, but variously modified if possible, of a worse description than by great diversities of temper and those who had sate in the High Court understanding. Buckingham was a of Justice. He often talked with noisy sated man of pleasure, who had turned jocularity of the days when he was a to ambition as to a pastime. As he canter and a rebel. He was now the had tried to amuse himself with archi- chief instrument employed by the court tecture and music, with writing farces in the work of forcing episcopacy on and with seeking for the philosopher's his reluctant countrymen; nor did he stone, so he now tried to amuse himself in that cause shrink from the unsparing with a secret negotiation and a Dutch use of the sword, the halter, and the war. He had already, rather from boot. Yet those who knew him knew fickleness and love of novelty than that thirty years had made no change from any deep design, been faithless in his real sentiments, that he still to every party. At one time he had ranked among the Cavaliers. At another time warrants had been out against him for maintaining a treasonable correspondence with the remains of the Republican party in the city. He was now again à courtier, and was eager to win the favour of the King by services from which the most illustrious of those who had fought and suffered for the royal house would have recoiled with horror. Ashley, with a far stronger head, and with a far fiercer and more earnest ambition, had been equally versatile. But Ashley's versatility was the effect, not of levity, but of deliberate selfishness. He had served and betrayed a succession of governments. But he had timed all his treacheries so well that, through all revolutions, his fortunes had constantly been rising. The multitude, struck with admiration by a prosperity which, while every thing else was constantly changing, remained unchangeable, attributed to him a prescience almost miraculous, and likened him to the Hebrew statesman of whom it is written that his counsel was as if a man had inquired of the oracle of God. Lauderdale, loud and coarse, both in mirth and anger, was perhaps, under the outward show of boisterous frank hated the memory of Charles the First, and that he still preferred the Presbyterian form of church government to every other. Unscrupulous as Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale were, it was not thought safe to entrust to them the King's intention of declaring himself a Roman Catholic. A false treaty, in which the article concerning religion was omitted, was shown to them. The names and seals of Clifford and Arlington are affixed to the genuine treaty. Both these statesmen had a partiality for the old Church, a partiality which the brave and vehement Clifford in no long time manfully avowed, but which the colder and meaner Arlington concealed, till the near approach of death scared him into sincerity. The three other cabinet ministers, however, were not men to be easily kept in the dark, and probably suspected more than was distinctly avowed to them. They were certainly privy to all the political engagements contracted with France, and were not ashamed to receive large gratifications from Lewis. The first object of Charles was to obtain from the Commons supplies which might be employed in executing the secret treaty. The Cabal, holding power at a time when our government was in a state of transition, united in On a itself two different kinds of vices | for these advances they received assignbelonging to two different ages and ments on the revenue, and were reto two different systems. As those paid with interest as the taxes came in. five evil counsellors were among the About thirteen hundred thousand last English statesmen who seriously pounds had been in this way entrusted thought of destroying the Parliament, to the honour of the state. so they were the first English states- sudden it was announced that it was men who attempted extensively to not convenient to pay the principal, corrupt it. We find in their policy at and that the lenders must content once the latest trace of the Thorough themselves with interest. They were of Strafford, and the earliest trace of consequently unable to meet their own that methodical bribery which was engagements. The Exchange was in afterwards practised by Walpole. an uproar: several great mercantile They soon perceived, however, that, houses broke; and dismay and distress though the House of Commons was spread through all society. Meanwhile chiefly composed of Cavaliers, and rapid strides were made towards desthough places and French gold had potism. Proclamations, dispensing been lavished on the members, there with Acts of Parliament, or enjoining was no chance that even the least what only Parliament could lawfully odious parts of the scheme arranged at enjoin, appeared in rapid succession. Dover would be supported by a Of these edicts the most important majority. It was necessary to have was the Declaration of Indulgence. By recourse to fraud. The King ac- this instrument the penal laws against cordingly professed great zeal for the Roman Catholics were set aside; and, principles of the Triple Alliance, and that the real object of the measure pretended that, in order to hold the might not be perceived, the laws ambition of France in check, it would against Protestant Nonconformists be necessary to augment the fleet. were also suspended. The Commons fell into the snare, and voted a grant of eight hundred thousand pounds. The Parliament was instantly prorogued: and the court, thus emancipated from control, proceeded to the execution of the great design. Shutting the United and their extreme A few days after the appearance of the Declaration of Indulgence, War with war was proclaimed against Provinces, the United Provinces. By sea the Dutch maintained the strug- danger. gle with honour; but on land they were The financial difficulties however at first borne down by irresistible force. were serious. A war with A great French army passed the Rhine. of the Ex- Holland could be carried on Fortress after fortress opened its gates. chequer. only at enormous cost. The Three of the seven provinces of the ordinary revenue was not more than federation were occupied by the insufficient to support the government in vaders. The fires of the hostile camp time of peace. The eight hundred were seen from the top of the Stadtthousand pounds out of which the house of Amsterdam. The Republic, Commons had just been tricked would thus fiercely assailed from without, not defray the naval and military was torn at the same time by internal charge of a single year of hostilities. dissensions. The government was in After the terrible lesson given by the the hands of a close oligarchy of powerLong Parliament, even the Cabal did ful burghers. There were numerous not venture to recommend benevolences selfelected Town Councils, each of or shipmoney. In this perplexity which exercised, within its own sphere, Ashley and Clifford proposed a flagi- many of the rights of sovereignty. tious breach of public faith. The These Councils sent delegates to the goldsmiths of London were then not Provincial States, and the Provincial only dealers in the precious metals, States again sent delegates to the but also bankers, and were in the States General. A hereditary first habit of advancing large sums of magistrate was no essential part of money to the government. In return this polity. Nevertheless one family, singularly fertile of great men, had friends of his line. He enjoyed high gradually obtained a large and some- consideration as the possessor of a what indefinite authority. William, splendid fortune, as the chief of one of first of the name, Prince of Orange the most illustrious houses in Europe, Nassau, and Stadtholder of Holland, as a Magnate of the German empire, had headed the memorable insurrection as a prince of the blood royal of Engagainst Spain. His son Maurice had land, and, above all, as the descendant been Captain General and first minis- of the founders of Batavian liberty. ter of the States, had, by eminent But the high office which had once abilities and public services, and by been considered as hereditary in his some treacherous and cruel actions, family, remained in abeyance; and raised himself to almost kingly power, the intention of the aristocratical party and had bequeathed a great part of was that there should never be another that power to his family. The influence Stadtholder. The want of a first maof the Stadtholders was an object of gistrate was, to a great extent, supplied extreme jealousy to the municipal oli- by the Grand Pensionary of the Progarchy. But the army, and that great vince of Holland, John de Witt, whose body of citizens which was excluded abilities, firmness, and integrity had from all share in the government, raised him to unrivalled authority in looked on the Burgomasters and Depu- the councils of the municipal oligarchy. ties with a dislike resembling the dislike with which the legions and the common people of Rome regarded the Senate, and were as zealous for the House of Orange as the legions and the common people of Rome for the House of Cæsar. The Stadtholder commanded the forces of the commonwealth, disposed of all military commands, had a large share of the civil patronage, and was surrounded by pomp almost regal. Prince William the Second had been strongly opposed by the oligarchical party. His life had terminated in the year 1650, amidst great civil troubles. He died childless: the adherents of his house were left for a short time without a head; and the powers which he had exercised were divided among the Town Councils, the Provincial States, and the States General. The French invasion produced a complete change. The suffering and terrified people raged fiercely against the government. In their madness they attacked the bravest captains and the ablest statesmen of the distressed commonwealth. De Ruyter was insulted by the rabble. De Witt was torn in pieces before the gate of the palace of the States General at the Hague. The Prince of Orange, who had no share in the guilt of the murder, but who, on this occasion, as on another lamentable occasion twenty years later, extended to crimes perpetrated in his cause an indulgence which has left a stain on his glory, became chief of the government without a rival. Young as he was, his ardent and unconquerable spirit, though disguised by a cold and sullen manner, soon roused the courage of his dismayed countrymen. It was in vain that both his uncle and the French King attempted by splendid offers to seduce him from the cause of the Republic. To the States General he spoke a high and inspiriting language. He even ventured to suggest a scheme which has an aspect of antique heroism, and which, if it had been accomplished, would have been the noblest subject for epic song that is to be found in the whole compass of modern history. He told the deputies that, even if their natal soil and the marvels with which |