INTRODUCTORY. 



and perfidy on which Macaulay has so indignantly and justly 

 commented. The exiles of the restored king's earlier years 

 brought back, probably from their French experiences, that 

 ing for the plunder of the public revenue, which they 

 speedily made a fine art. It is likely too that the sight of 

 that wholesale gambling in public business, that reckless 

 disregard of public and private duty, which was conspicuous 

 in the higher ranks/may have given a stimulus to the spirit of 

 commercial gambling and intrigue which continued after the 

 Revolution, till the sharp surgery of the South Sea Bubble 

 and its reverses cured the propensity for a time. The 

 malignant intrigues of Charles's courtiers had also much to do 

 with that furious, rancorous, and lying party spirit which 

 disfigures the public life of England long after the politics of 

 the Restoration had become history. 



And yet it is certain that the mass of the nation was sound, 

 and still clung to those traditions of personal morality and 

 public liberty which had marked so characteristically the first 

 half of the century. Nearly the whole body of the Noncon- 

 formists, then so numerous both in town and country, adhered 

 to the stern simplicity and integrity of their Puritan ancestors. 

 The same must be true of the low or Latitudinarian clergy. 

 Nor do I doubt that the popularity of Nottingham among the 

 High Churchmen was due to the unblemished integrity of his 

 political character, as well as to the consistent manner in 

 which he maintained his Tory and High Church principles. 

 He may have been a fanatic on the subject of occasional 

 conformity, but he was not unfaithful to the Revolution. 



I think it highly probable that if the life of Charles had 

 been prolonged, he would have either suffered some serious 

 humiliation, or, to use his own phrase, have been sent on his 

 travels again. He owed much of the popularity which 

 attached to him to the dislike entertained towards his 

 brother, as he knew and said. Besides, the vices of kings are 

 often more popular than their virtues. But he had slain on 

 false charges and by corrupt judges some of the best as well 



