302 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[SKPT. 



sen, and therefore in existence before the 

 civil wars. Now how came Clarendon by 

 them? People do not give away family 

 pictures to strangers ; they are among 

 the last things they sell; these families 

 did not themselves sell; Clarendon had 

 no family motive, and was not likely to 

 buy. The conclusion is irresistible. 



We come again to Pepys' diary and 

 presently we shall have Pepys' own testi- 

 mony to a particular fact. Pepys relates 

 a conversation of a party, where one 

 Captain Cocker, in the presence of Sir VV. 

 D'Oyley, and Evelyn, characterizing the 

 different ministers, says 4< My Lord Chan- 

 cellor minds getting of money, and nothing 

 else;" and next a conversation with him- 

 self of Sir H.Cholmley, who, speaking of 

 the impeachment, thought the Commons 

 would be able to prove the Chancellor had 

 taken money for several bargains that 

 had been made with the crown, and did 

 instance one that was already com- 

 plained of. 



Next come Anthony A. Wood's accusa- 

 tions. In his life of Judge Glynne, in the 

 Atheu. Ox., he says, " After the Restora- 

 tion, he made his eldest son serjeant by 

 the corrupt dealing of the then Chancel- 

 lor.' 1 '' Again, in speaking of David Jen- 

 kyns, he says, " Every body expected he 

 would be made a judge ; and so he might 

 have been, had he given money to the 

 than Lord Chancellor; but he scorned, 

 &c." Clarendon's son prevailed upon the 

 University to prosecute Anthony A. Wood j 

 and he was accordingly expelled till he 

 made proper recantation ; the book was 

 burnt; and costs to the amount of 34 

 inflicted. This proceeding proved nothing 

 but the vindictive feelings of the son and 

 the University so much indebted to 

 Clarendon. 



Andrew Marvell's severities against 

 Clarendon are well known ; but, though 

 proverbially an honest man, he was a 

 Presbyterian and a satirist. The rest 

 are tories even Pepys, whatever might 

 be his professions, had the true tory-spirit 

 in him. 



The next fact is Clarendon Park. This 

 park, situated near Salisbury, Charles I. 

 mortgaged for 20,000. Charles II. gave 

 the estate?, thus encumbered, to Monck, 

 who sold it to Clarendon ; and the king 

 gave him an order on the treasury for 

 20,000 to pay off this mortgage. But 

 more of this park. The timber belonged 

 to the crown, and the Commissioners of 

 the Admiralty wished to cut it down for 

 the navy. Clarendon was highly exaspe- 

 rated, and abused the Commissioners 

 roundly. One of them, Pepys, after ad- 

 vising with his friend Lord Sandwich, 

 waited on the Chancellor to propitiate 

 him, who, while he took care not to com- 

 mit himself, made Pepys understand that 



the Commissioners must report of the 

 timber, that there was none "Lord, 11 adds 

 poor Pepys, "to see how we poor wretches 

 dare not do the king good service for fear 

 of the greatness of these men." 



Clarendon, moreover it is now well 

 known from d'Estrade's papers origi- 

 nated the sale of Dunkirk, and was most 

 anxious about the terms, and the closing 

 of the bargain. The Parliament were 

 ready to take it off the king's hands, but 

 he declined money, money was the ob- 

 ject. But would Clarendon have been so 

 zealous to conclude the sale, against the 

 wishes of Parliament, if he was to have no 

 share ? It seems improbable coupled too 

 with the fact of his building immediately 

 after the sale a magnificent place in Pic- 

 cadilly, at an expence of 50,000. Where 

 was Clarendon to get this large sum 

 within three years of his holding office ? 

 The house and grounds covered the space 

 now occupied by Dover Street and Albe- 

 marle Street. It was called by the popu- 

 lace generally Dunkirk House, and some- 

 times Holland House, from a belief of his 

 having been bribed by the Dutch; at all 

 events, the persuasion was, the money was 

 unfairly come by, and of course it was. 

 Had Clarendon been in possession of 

 honourable resources they would have 

 been known no suspicions would have 

 been raised nor would there have been 

 any cause for guessing. 



So much for his rapacity and corrup- 

 tion : let us now turn to his political con- 

 duct ; and without dwelling on his well- 

 known advice to the king to govern with- 

 out parliaments, and do as Queen Eliza- 

 beth did, which for any thing he could 

 see, the king was well able to do with- 

 out insisting on his reply to Glencairn and 

 Rothes, who came to court to complain of 

 Lauderdale's intolerable oppressions, and 

 were referred by the king to his minister 

 that l> the assaulting of a minister, as 

 long as he had an interest with the king, 

 was a practice that never could be ap- 

 proved : it was one ot the uneasy things 

 that a House of Commons of England 

 sometimes ventured on, which was un- 

 grateful to the court" without adverting 

 farther to these matters, let os attend to 

 the great measures of his administration. 

 He was the undoubted adviser and fratner 

 of the declaration of Breda, which pro- 

 mised religious freedom in the largest 

 terms. Yet this very man was the chief 

 instigator of the subsequent persecutions. 

 The king and the ministers were in favour 

 of concessions to the Presbyterians; but 

 Clarendon stood up against them, backed 

 by the bishops. The first pretence was 

 seized upon Venner's mad enterprise in 

 the city ; sham plots were got up to excite 

 alarms, and generate hatreds, preparatory 

 to the introduction of the Act of Unifor- 



