T E M 



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T E M 



once of 18,000 workmen excited some alarm for the parl 

 they might take in the troubles which had already com- 

 menced, and which, a few years after, brought upon the 

 nation the armies of Rome under Vespasian and Titus, 

 and involved the temple and city of Jerusalem in one 

 common ruin, A.D. 70. 



TEMPLE, SIR WILLIAM, an eminent statesman, di- 

 plomatist, and writer, was born at Blackfriars, in London, 

 in the year 1628, and was the eldest son of Sir John 

 Temple, who was Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and 

 author of a History of the Irish Rebellion which began in 

 1641. He was educated first by his uncle, Dr. Henry 

 Hammond, a learned divine and zealous royalist, and was 

 afterwards, on his uncle being turned out of his living by 

 the parliament, sent to a school at Bishop-Stortford, and, 

 at the age of seventeen, to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 

 where the celebrated Cudworth was his tutor. He is said 

 by his sister, Lady Giffard, who wrote a memoir of him, to 

 have passed a gay idle life at Cambridge, and, after having 

 been there about two years, he went away without a de- 

 gree. He then went abroad, and having spent two years 

 in France, and visited Holland, Flanders, and Germany, 

 he returned to England, skilled in the French and Spanish 

 languages. As he was about to start on his travels, he 

 met, in the Isle of Wight, the young lady to whom, after 

 many delays and difficulties, arising out of want of fortune 

 and the opposition of the friends of both, he was eventually 

 united. She was the daughter of Sir Peter Osborne, a 

 devoted adherent of Charles I., and a great sufferer by his 

 devotion : letters of hers which are preserved show her to 

 have been a very superior woman : she remained faithful 

 to Temple through a long engagement, amid many and 

 frreat discouragements, and at last, after the death of her 

 lather, and after six years' waiting, they were married in 

 1(J54. It appears that, among many offers which she re- 

 jected for Temple, was one from Henry Cromwell. 



Temple was trained to no profession, though his father 



plishcd in July, 1067, by the treaty of Breda, which how- 

 ever Temple had no part in negociating, and the mode of 

 bringing about which he had not altogether approved of. 

 In 1066 Temple's services had been rewarded, without any 

 solicitation on his part, by a baronetcy. 



In the close of the year 1667 Temple received orders 

 from Arlington to repair to the Hague, to negociate a 

 treaty against France, and for the protection of the Spanish 

 Netherlands from that power ; and by his energy, judg- 

 ment, and address the celebrated Triple Alliance was con- 

 cluded on the 23rd of January, 1668. England, Holland, 

 and Sweden bound themselves bv this alliance to bring 

 about peace between France and Spain, and to prevent 

 France from entering the Low Countries. Temple had 

 thus achieved an object which he had had at heart, even 

 before the treaty of Breda, so favourable to French views, 

 a blow to the ambition of Louis XIV. The successful 

 conclusion of this treaty established Temple's diplomatic 

 fame, and was of the first importance to England and 

 Europe. 



Temple was next appointed ambassador at Aix, where 

 the negotiations for peace between France and Spain, in 

 pursuance of the Triple Alliance, were to be earned on. 

 On the conclusion of the peace of Aix, he was appointed 

 ambassador at the Hague. Hero he continued, carrying 

 out the policy of the Triple Alliance, till September, 1070, 

 when a complete change having been silently worked in 

 the councils of Charles II., and the celebrated secret treaty 

 'laving been made with France, Temple was ordered home, 

 found himself on his arrival in England no longer in the 

 confidence of Arlington, and in the summer of 1071 was 

 dismissed from his post. There was a rumour that Temple's 

 lismissal had been made a condition by the French go- 

 vernment. (Temple's Works, ii., 179.) He now retired to 

 Sheen, and meditated never again returning to public life, 

 saying that ' he had been long enough in courts and public 

 business to know a great deal of the world and of himself, 



was poor, independently of his appointment as Master of j and to find that they were not made for one another.' 



the Rolls in Ireland, and when deprived of this lor some 

 vcars during the civil wars, was exceedingly hampered in 

 Iiis finances. Sir John Tempi; to this ap- 



pointment in 1653, the year before his son's marriage ; and 

 his sun, after his marnajr with him in lr> 



Under his father's roof hi Dublin, or in a country-seat in 

 the county of Carluw, Temple pa.-^ed ii\c years, which 



During this retirement Temple devoted himself to gar- 

 dening, the improvement of his house at Sheen, and litera- 

 ture, and published several of the works on which his repu- 

 tation as a writer rests ; among them, the ' Observations 

 upon the United Provinc-cs,' published in 1672. Temple 

 was summoned however from nis literary retirement in the 

 summer of 1074, to conclude the second Dutch war, and 



were divided between literary pursuits and county busi- he obeyed the summons. He was on the jpoint of starting 



and which were marked" by the birth and death of for the Hague, as envoy and plenipotentiary for this pur- 

 iive children. In 1UOO Temple was chosen, without soli- , pose, when the Spanish ambassador in London rccchcd 

 citation or even previous knowledge, member of the Irish full power to negociate there, and in three days the treaty 



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convention of that year for the county of Carlow. 



After the Restoration he \\; >' for the same 



of Westminster was concluded. Temple was now offered 

 the embassy to Spain, which, at his father's wish, he re- 



county in the first regular parliament, that was called : he fused. He was very soon after appointed again to the 



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had his father for his colleague, and a younger brother was 

 member for the city of Carlow. He appears to have been 

 a very active and useful member of parliament. In July, 

 1001, he was one of the commissi'iucis sent to wait on the 

 king, and urge several measures affecting the intere 

 Ireland. On the prorogation of the parliament in 1003, 

 Temple went to reside in Knijland. He carried an intro- 

 duction from the duke of Ormond to Lord Arlington, secre- 



. as ambassador extraordinary, and the uevt year 

 ambassador to the congress at Nimcgucn. The peace of 

 Ximegueii, concluded in the beginning of 1679, ill carried 

 out the views which Temple assiduously laboured to esta- 

 blish, and he was glad to avail himself of a point of form 

 for the purpose of withholding his signature to the treaty. 

 Temple now returned to England to receive an offer of 

 the post of secretary of state, which he refused, lie was 



tary of state, who conceh ed a great fondue. -s lor him, and much consulted by the king, who had just lost the services 



procured him to be appointed, in Ki'i". of Lord Danby : and in the ministerial difficulties which 



to the bishop of Minister. The object of this mis-ion was followed upon Danby 's impeachment and committal, Tem- 



'h over an invasion by the bishop of VJ pie submitted to the kin" a plan of a council, which the 



"which England, then at war king adopted: not always following Temple's opinions 



with the Dutch, had guarantei .1 ; and though however as to the peisons of whom it should be composed, 



the bishop, who bad made I lie first achane and. above all, in defiance of his advice, placing Lord 



went off from hi it. and. in fear of France, con- Shafteslmry at the head of it. This council was not long- 



matic employment, that he wa.s appointed i:i the 



year, through Lord Arlington's influence, ::t the 



at liinssels for two years presents no 

 iar interest. It was his bnsine-s at fust to 

 neutrality of Spain in the Dutch war, and 

 .1 understanding between Spain 

 lo a treaty which was then ! 

 ' which nevei' i ; 



nit peace with the United Pro- 

 vinces and Mice. This last object was accom- 



learning and rural pursuits. He now composed his 'Me- 



moirs.' He died oil the 27th January, 1699". No particu- 



f his death have been transmitted to us. 

 After the Revolution of loss, Sir William Temple re- 

 fused office from William III., who was very anxious for 

 his coim-rl and for tlie authority of his name, lint his 

 son, \\ith his permission, accepted the plaee of secretary at 

 nd within a week after committed suicide. 

 :h"i. ii^ statesman nor as author does Sir William 

 Temple occupy a foremost place; but in both characters 



' .1' ,.1_U1.. rl'l :_ _ , 



he is more than respectable. 



The following is \\ happy 

 2B2 



