CHARACTERS. 
‘this prince with a more than com- 
‘mon share of genius and taste. 
-Affability, sprightliness, wit, and 
-good-breeding, conveyed an amia- 
ble view of his character to those 
who surrendered judgment to the 
sudden and transient impressions of 
conversation and external manners. 
Tried by that system which 
ascribes transcendent merit to the 
graces, few royal characters appear 
more deserving of applause and ad- 
miration; few will stand lower in 
‘the decision of those who hold 
moral accomplishments to be the 
most essential ornaments of charac- 
ter, and the only genuine basis of 
esteem and praise. 
Without any sense of religious 
principles; ungrateful to bis own 
friends and those of his father; 
timid and fluctuating in his coun- 
‘sels; destitute of all pretensions 
to patriotism ; ever ready to sa- 
_ 4rifice the interest and glory of 
_-his country to the gratification of 
L his pleasures and the supply of 
his wants,—what remains to claim 
the approbation, or restrain the 
ee neapet reproach of impartial pos- 
terity ? 
- The satisfaction which Charles 
enjoyed in the later period of his 
feign, on account of his triumph 
over the Whig party, must have 
been greatly diminished, by the 
personal mortifications he incurred 
om the insolence ard treachery 
of France. How painful must it 
have been to discover that Louis 
ad been intriguing with those 
ery persons in England whom he 
had considered as enemies to his 
government, and to the inter- 
est of France! Nay, so little re- 
spect did Louis show, either to the 
honour or the domestic tranquillity 
#f Charles, (hat he was accessary to 
357 
a design of exposing him to the 
contempt of his subjects, and of all 
Europe, by a publication of the 
secret treaties by which Charles, to 
his disgrace, had connected bimself 
with the court of France. The en- 
croachments which the French king 
made upon Flanders, were a mock- 
ery of the engagements into which 
he had entered with Charles by the 
Jast money-treaty. His invasion of 
the principality of Orange, was an 
insult to the royal family of Eng- 
land. A circumstance which, we 
may believe, made a deeper im- 
pression upon the mind of Charles, 
was the withholding the pension 
promised to him for remaining an 
indifferent spectator of such out- 
rageous usurpation, at a time when 
he was reduced to the utmost dis- 
tress, on account of his contracted 
and embarrassed revenue. Thus, 
like the unhappy female who has 
fallen a prey to the snares of the 
licentious seducer, robbed of her 
innocence, and cheated of the re- 
ward of her prostitution, consigned 
to infamy and poverty, Charles, if 
any spark of sensibility remained, 
must have been torn with all those 
pangs of remorse and of shame 
which result from the consciousness 
of the bases: iniquity and most egre- 
gious fully. No wonder, if, as at- 
tested by cotemporary historians, 
he became pensive and melancholy, 
and entertained serious thoughts of 
changing the plan of his govern- 
ment. The arrangements be had 
made in the several corporations by 
the guo warran/o prosecutions, anda 
considerable reinforcement added to 
hisarmy by the garrison recalled from 
Tangiers, would probably encourage 
him to hope, that, if he called ano- 
ther parliament, he would find it 
more obsequious to his desires, 
Z 3 Description 
