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for the advantage of monarchy. Major Wildman was now made his secretary, and designed with other professed republicans to be commissioners of accounts, though some of them justly deserved to be called to an account themselves. Many changes were made in offices about court, and more were designed and generally filled up with persons who were remarkable for their trusts and service under Cromwell; a character which was not likely to recommend them to the parliament, or dispose them to make good the duke of Buckingham's engagement in their behalf. That engagement was the foundation of his present power and credit with the king, which would soon vanish, if he failed in the performance. All wise men judged that his design was to strike at the foundation of the government and succession; and it was probably to cover it, that after several months' discontinuance of his duty to the duke of York, he thought fit at last to make him a visit, in which he carried himself with great humility and submission. What professions he made of duty to his royal highness had scarce any more sincerity in them than the scene which was exhibited at Wallingford House, where at this time he celebrated a day of humiliation and seeking of God, in the same manner and with as much zeal in appearance as ever Fleetwood had performed such exercises in that place. By this devotion or hypocrisy, he made his court to the violent fanatics, the fittest persons to serve him as hands in the schemes he had laid, and all the expedients he thought proper to use to carry his points were calculated to gratify the worst part of the parliament and nation at the irreparable expense of the church and crown.

Of this sort was the indulgence which he proposed to all kinds of sectaries whatever, and yet there were great numbers still remaining of those monstrous sects which had sprung up in the times of usurpation. Such was the scheme of comprehension which he had formed, and en

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gaged his majesty to recommend it in his speech to the parliament. The two houses met on Thursday Feb. 6, but were directed to adjourn till the Monday following, when his majesty having acquainted them with the new league he had made with Holland, in order to the effectual mediation of a peace between France and Spain, and 302 desired of them a supply to fit out a considerable fleet pursuant to that alliance, concluded in these words: "And for the settling of a firm peace, as well at home as abroad, one thing more I hold myself obliged to recommend to you at this present, which is, that you would seriously think of some course to beget a better union. and composure in the minds of my protestant subjects in matter of religion; whereby they may be induced, not only to submit quietly to the government, but also faithfully give their assistance to the support of it."

There happened on this occasion an event, which seems to justify archbishop Sheldon's opinion, that the lord chancellor Clarendon ruined himself purely by neglecting to keep up his interest in the house of commons, and by suffering things to go there at random. In the two last sessions, there had been strange divisions among them, scarce two persons agreeing together, or daring to trust one another; the best things were opposed purely because this or that man proposed them, and every body that wished well to the church and crown were under terrible apprehensions of measures being taken that would be prejudicial, and perhaps in the end prove fatal to both. Never were there more melancholy descriptions of confusions and distractions than were given of those in this house of commons in the letters of the members for two years together, and never was there seen a more sudden turn than was now produced in an hour, when many honourable and wise persons thought it was scarce possible to produce it in an age. The sectaries had been exceedingly elated at the situation of affairs, and the dis

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position of the court in their favour; and had made too early and open discoveries of their expectations of coming soon into power, which did not pass unobserved. As soon as the house met, and before his majesty came, a motion was made upon divers informations from several counties and cities of new swarms of conventicles, and that persons generally disaffected to church government had boldly taken upon themselves to summon all of their own principles, and to promise them an act of comprehension to pass that session for a general toleration, the heads of which were offered in writing by one of the members. This reunited at once all the friends to the constitution in church and state, and a vote immediately passed, that such of the members as were of the privy council should attend his majesty with a request in the name of the house, that he would issue out a proclamation for putting in present execution the laws in force concerning religion and church government now established according to the act of uniformity. The duke of Buckingham's party pressed, but in vain, that the vote might be respited, because his majesty might possibly say something to them in his speech concerning that matter. After the speech was made, the same party pressed more earnestly than before, that the address might not be tendered till they had fully debated the particulars in his majesty's speech, which, as soon as it was read, was carried back to his majesty, and the vote being again affirmed, was delivered into the hands of a privy counsellor to be presented to the king in the afternoon.

Thus was defeated the scheme of a comprehension, which had the honour of having the duke of Buckingham for its author, and no doubt tallied with the other schemes which he had formed at this time; a circumstance which will raise no advantageous opinion of its being calculated for the benefit of either church or state. His grace met with other mortifications the same day, which fully shewed

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the vanity of his confident undertakings for the parliament. For when his friends moved to return his majesty thanks for his speech and for the new alliance, it was opposed, and after some debate was laid aside without a question. The king's present supply was then pressed; but the house resolved, that the committee for the mis-363 carriages of the war should make their report and receive directions from the house for their farther inquiry, and the reasons and causes of the present want and poverty of the kingdom should likewise be debated, before the supply should be taken into consideration. When that part of the king's speech came afterwards to be considered in the house, a motion was made that his majesty be desired to send for such persons as he should think fit to make proposals to him in order to the uniting of his protestant subjects; but it was rejected, and the house was so far from coming into any such measures as were proposed by the scheme then on foot, that they passed an act for continuing a former for suppressing seditious conventicles, and enlarging it in some particulars.

This was a great shock to the duke of Buckingham's credit at court. He had before thought himself so sure of the lieutenancy of Ireland, that he had promised offices, and named the persons who were to attend him into that kingdom: but it now behoved him more than ever to find matter of accusation, in order to the removal of the duke of Ormond. Sir Robert Howard, sir T. Littleton, Vaughan, Seymour, Garraway, and others of that cabal, left no stone unturned for that purpose. They had before ordered an inquiry into the ways of preventing the exportation of wool out of Ireland; and now they called for an account of the licenses which had been there granted, and of the recognisances which had been forfeited on account of any transportation of wool, and whether they had been extended or discharged, and by whom, when, and in what manner; but this afforded

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them no matter for an accusation. Thus they had made an order for the surveyor general of Ireland to lay before them the particulars of all the lands in that kingdom belonging to the crown, or forfeited since 1640, the persons to whom granted, the reserved rent, and the true yearly value; but this being found too voluminous, they afterwards limited it to lands not disposed of by the acts of settlement and explanation. Their design was to discover if some of Barker's lands had not been given to the duke of Ormond (as was falsely and maliciously whispered); but now calling for the result of their order, they found themselves disappointed, his grace having no interest in any of those lands. Barker's petition was examined by the committee of grievances, to which it was referred; but was so well answered by the king's council, and it appeared so plainly that the certificates, acquittances, and lots which he and his partners had got in Cromwell's time were obtained without any money given or service done for Ireland, and that it was only a bartering of certificates of money, brought in upon the Irish acts, for service done against the king in England, that his friends were ashamed of the cause and quitted the committee, and he himself desired it might be decently dropped by being put off to a long day. Another petition of the adventurers was presented to the house, and read on March 16, being signed by other persons than the former, but alike calculated to overthrow the settlement, and intended to wound the duke of Ormond through the sides of the commissioners. But after several hearings, sir Allan Broderick and sir Winston Churchill made the defence of the commissioners so clearly, and to the general satisfaction of the whole house, that the petition was dismissed at the latter end of April.

In the mean time, the duke of Ormond's impeachment was the common subject of discourse, and all occasions were embraced of throwing invidious reflections upon