The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1, Thomas Babington Macaulay [ebook pc reader txt] 📗

Mansuete A

Cordelier Friar." Mansuete, a Cordelier, was then James's

confessor. To Mansuete therefore it peculiarly belonged to remind

James of a sacred duty which had been culpably neglected. The

writer of the broadside must have been unwilling to inform the

world that a soul which many devout Roman Catholics had left to

perish had been snatched from destruction by the courageous

charity of a woman of loose character. It is therefore not

unlikely that he would prefer a fiction, at once probable and

edifying, to a truth which could not fail to give scandal.

(1856.)


It should seem that no transactions in history ought to be more

accurately known to us than those which took place round the

deathbed of Charles the Second. We have several relations written

by persons who were actually in his room. We have several

relations written by persons who, though not themselves

eyewitnesses, had the best opportunity of obtaining information

from eyewitnesses. Yet whoever attempts to digest this vast mass

of materials into a consistent narrative will find the task a

difficult one. Indeed James and his wife, when they told the

story to the nuns of Chaillot, could not agree as to some

circumstances. The Queen said that, after Charles had received

the last sacraments the Protestant Bishops renewed their

exhortations. The King said that nothing of the kind took place.

"Surely," said the Queen, "you told me so yourself." "It is

impossible that I have told you so," said the King, "for nothing

of the sort happened."


It is much to be regretted that Sir Henry Halford should have

taken so little trouble ascertain the facts on which he

pronounced judgment. He does not seem to have been aware of the

existence of the narrative of James, Barillon, and Huddleston.


As this is the first occasion on which I cite the correspondence

of the Dutch ministers at the English court, I ought here to

mention that a series of their despatches, from the accession of

James the Second to his flight, forms one of the most valuable

parts of the Mackintosh collection. The subsequent despatches,

down to the settlement of the government in February, 1689, I

procured from the Hague. The Dutch archives have been far too

little explored. They abound with information interesting in the

highest degree to every Englishman. They are admirably arranged

and they are in the charge of gentlemen whose courtesy,

liberality and zeal for the interests of literature, cannot be

too highly praised. I wish to acknowledge, in the strongest

manner, my own obligations to Mr. De Jonge and to Mr. Van Zwanne.


221 Clarendon mentions this calumny with just scorn. "According

to the charity of the time towards Cromwell, very many would have

it believed to be by poison, of which there was no appearance,

nor any proof ever after made."-Book xiv.


222 Welwood, 139 Burnet, i. 609; Sheffield's Character of

Charles the Second; North's Life of Guildford, 252; Examen, 648;

Revolution Politics; Higgons on Burnet. What North says of the

embarrassment and vacillation of the physicians is confirmed by

the despatches of Van Citters. I have been much perplexed by the

strange story about Short's suspicions. I was, at one time,

inclined to adopt North's solution. But, though I attach little

weight to the authority of Welwood and Burnet in such a case, I

cannot reject the testimony of so well informed and so unwilling

a witness as Sheffield.


223 London Gazette, Feb. 9. 1684-5; Clarke's Life of James the

Second, ii. 3; Barillon, Feb. 9-19: Evelyn's Diary, Feb. 6.


224 See the authorities cited in the last note. See also the

Examen, 647; Burnet, i. 620; Higgons on Burnet.


225 London Gazette, Feb. 14, 1684-5; Evelyn's Diary of the same

day; Burnet, i. 610: The Hind let loose.


226 Burnet, i. 628; Lestrange, Observator, Feb. 11, 1684.


227 The letters which passed between Rochester and Ormond on

this subject will be found in the Clarendon Correspondence.


228 The ministerial changes are announced in the London Gazette,

Feb. 19, 1684-5. See Burnet, i. 621; Barillon, Feb. 9-19, 16-26;

and Feb. 19,/Mar. 1.


229 Carte's Life of Ormond; Secret Consults of the Romish Party

in Ireland, 1690; Memoirs of Ireland, 1716.


230 Christmas Sessions Paper of 1678.


231 The Acts of the Witnesses of the Spirit, part v chapter v.

In this work Lodowick, after his fashion, revenges himself on the

"bawling devil," as he calls Jeffreys, by a string of curses

which Ernulphus, or Jeffreys himself, might have envied. The

trial was in January, 1677.


232 This saying is to be found in many contemporary pamphlets.

Titus Oates was never tired of quoting it. See his Eikwg

Basilikh.


233 The chief sources of information concerning Jeffreys are the

State Trials and North's Life of Lord Guildford. Some touches of

minor importance I owe to contemporary pamphlets in verse and

prose. Such are the Bloody Assizes the life and Death of George

Lord Jeffreys, the Panegyric on the late Lord Jeffreys, the

Letter to the Lord Chancellor, Jeffreys's Elegy. See also

Evelyn's Diary, Dec. 5, 1683, Oct. 31. 1685. I scarcely need

advise every reader to consult Lord Campbell's excellent Life of

Jeffreys.


234 London Gazette, Feb. 12, 1684-5. North's Life of Guildford,

254.


235 The chief authority for these transactions is Barillon's

despatch of February 9-19, 1685. It will he found in the Appendix

to Mr. Fox's History. See also Preston's Letter to James, dated

April 18-28, 1685, in Dalrymple.


236 Lewis to Barillon, Feb. 16-26, 1685.


237 Barillon, Feb. 16-26, 1685.


238 Barillon, Feb. 18-28, 1685.


239 Swift who hated Marlborough, and who was little disposed to

allow any merit to those whom he hated, says, in the famous

letter to Crassus, "You are no ill orator in the Senate."


240 Dartmouth's note on Burnet, i. 264. Chesterfleld's Letters,

Nov., 18, 1748. Chesterfield is an unexceptional witness; for the

annuity was a charge on the estate of his grandfather, Halifax. I

believe that there is no foundation for a disgraceful addition to

the story which may be found in Pope:


"The gallant too, to whom she paid it down,


Lived to refuse his mistress half a crown."


Curll calls this a piece of travelling scandal.


241 Pope in Spence's Anecdotes.


242 See the Historical Records of the first or Royal Dragoons.

The appointment of Churchill to the command of this regiment was

ridiculed as an instance of absurd partiality. One lampoon of

that time which I do not remember to have seen in print, but of

which a manuscript copy is in the British Museum, contains these

lines:


"Let's cut our meat with spoons:


The sense is as good


As that Churchill should


Be put to command the dragoons."


243 Barillon, Feb. 16-26, 1685.


244 Barillon, April 6-16; Lewis to Barillon, April 14-24.


245 I might transcribe half Barillon's correspondence in proof

of this proposition, but I will quote only one passage, in which

the policy of the French government towards England is exhibited

concisely and with perfect clearness.


"On peut tenir pour un maxime indubitable que l'accord du Roy

d'Angleterre avec son parlement, en quelque maniere qu'il se

fasse, n'est pas conforme aux interets de V. M. Je me contente de

penser cela sane m'en ouvrir a personne, et je cache avec soin

mes sentimens a cet egard."-Barillon to Lewis, Feb. 28,/Mar.

1687. That this was the real secret of the whole policy of Lewis

towards our country was perfectly understood at Vienna. The

Emperor Leopold wrote thus to James, March 30,/April 9, 1689:

"Galli id unum agebant, ut, perpetuas inter Serenitatem vestram

et ejusdem populos fovendo simultates, reliquæ Christianæ Europe

tanto securius insultarent."


246 "Que sea unido con su reyno, yen todo buena intelligencia

con el parlamenyo." Despatch from the King of Spain to Don

Pedro Ronquillo, March 16-26, 1685. This despatch is in the

archives of Samancas, which contain a great mass of papers

relating to English affairs. Copies of the most interesting of

those papers are in the possession of M. Guizot, and were by him

lent to me. It is with peculiar pleasure that at this time, I

acknowledge this mark of the friendship of so great a man.

(1848.)


247 Few English readers will be desirous to go deep into the

history of this quarrel. Summaries will be found in Cardinal

Bausset's Life of Bossuet, and in Voltaire's Age of Lewis XIV.


248 Burnet, i. 661, and Letter from Rome, Dodd's Church History,

part viii. book i. art. 1.


249 Consultations of the Spanish Council of State on April 2-12

and April 16-26, In the Archives of Simancas.


250 Lewis to Barillon, May 22,/June 1, 1685; Burnet, i. 623.


251 Life of James the Second, i. 5. Barillon, Feb. 19,/Mar. 1,

1685; Evelyn's Diary, March 5, 1685.


252 "To those that ask boons


He swears by God's oons


And chides them as if they came there to steal spoons."


Lamentable Lory, a ballad, 1684.


253 Barillon, April 20-30. 1685.


254 From Adda's despatch of Jan. 22,/Feb. 1, 1686, and from the

expressions of the Pere d'Orleans (Histoire des Revolutions

d'Angleterre, liv. xi.), it is clear that rigid Catholics thought

the King's conduct indefensible.


255 London Gazette, Gazette de France; Life of James the Second,

ii. 10; History of the Coronation of King James the Second and

Queen Mary, by Francis Sandford, Lancaster Herald, fol. 1687;

Evelyn's Diary, May, 21, 1685; Despatch of the Dutch Ambassadors,

April 10-20, 1685; Burnet, i. 628; Eachard, iii. 734; A sermon

preached before their Majesties King James the Second and Queen

Mary at their Coronation in Westminster Abbey, April 23, 1695, by

Francis Lord Bishop of Ely, and Lord Almoner. I have seen an

Italian account of the Coronation which was published at Modena,

and which is chiefly remarkable for the skill with which the

writer sinks the fact that the prayers and psalms were in

English, and that the Bishops were heretics.


256 See the London Gazette during the months of February, March,

and April, 1685.


257 It would be easy to fill a volume with what Whig historians

and pamphleteers have written on this subject. I will cite only

one witness, a churchman and a Tory. "Elections," says Evelyn,

"were thought to be very indecently carried on in most places.

God