Holland. The Spanish Ambassador | he failed is to be attributed less to to the Court of London had been em- himself than to his master. Of the powered by the States-General to treat disgraceful dealings which were still in their name. With him Temple kept up with the French Court, Danby came to a speedy agreement; and in deserved little or none of the blame, three days a treaty was concluded. though he suffered the whole punish

The highest honours of the Statement. were now within Temple's reach. After Danby, with great parliamentary the retirement of Clifford, the white talents, had paid little attention to staff had been delivered to Thomas European politics, and wished for the Osborne, soon after created Earl of help of some person on whom he could Danby, who was related to Lady Tem-rely in the foreign department. A plan ple, and had, many years earlier, tra- was accordingly arranged for making velled and played tennis with Sir Wil- Temple Secretary of State. Arlington liam. Danby was an interested and was the only member of the Cabal who dishonest man, but by no means desti- still held office in England. The temtute of abilities or of judgment. He per of the House of Commons made it was, indeed, a far better adviser than necessary to remove him, or rather to any in whom Charles had hitherto require him to sell out; for at that reposed confidence. Clarendon was time the great offices of State were a man of another generation, and did bought and sold as commissions in the not in the least understand the society army now are. Temple was informed which he had to govern. The mem- that he should have the Seals if he bers of the Cabal were ministers of a would pay Arlington six thousand foreign power, and enemies of the Es-pounds. The transaction had nothing tablished Church; and had in conse-in it discreditable, according to the quence raised against themselves and notions of that age, and the investment their master an irresistible storm of would have been a good one; for we national and religious hatred. Danby imagine that at that time the gains wished to strengthen and extend the which a Secretary of State might make, prerogative; but he had the sense to without doing any thing considered see that this could be done only by as improper, were very considerable. a complete change of system. He Temple's friends offered to lend him knew the English people and the the money; but he was fully deterHouse of Commons; and he knew mined not to take a post of so much that the course which Charles had responsibility in times so agitated, and recently taken, if obstinately pursued, under a Prince on whom so little remight well end before the windows liance could be placed, and accepted of the Banqueting-House. He saw the embassy to the Hague, leaving that the true policy of the Crown was Arlington to find another purchaser. to ally itself, not with the feeble, the Before Temple left England he had hated, the down-trodden Catholics, but a long audience of the King, to whom with the powerful, the wealthy, the he spoke with great severity of the popular, the dominant Church of Eng-measures adopted by the late Ministry. Jand; to trust for aid not to a foreign The King owned that things had Prince whose name was hateful to turned out ill. "But," said he, "if I the British nation, and whose suc- had been well served, I might have cours could be obtained only on terms made a good business of it." Temple of vassalage, but to the old Cavalier was alarmed at this language, and inparty, to the landed gentry, the clergy, ferred from it that the system of the and the universities. By rallying round Cabal had not been abandoned, but the throne the whole strength of the only suspended. He therefore thought Royalists and High Churchmen, and it his duty to go, as he expresses it, by using without stint all the resources" to the bottom of the matter." He of corruption, he flattered himself that strongly represented to the King the he could manage the Parliament. That impossibility of establishing either ab

of you till you have been there; and when you have rested yourself, come up again." Temple withdrew and stayed two days at his villa, but returned to town in the same mind; and the King was forced to consent at least to a delay.

solute government, or the Catholic re-, excused himself. The King affected ligion in England; and concluded by to treat his excuses as mere jests, repeating an observation which he had and gaily said, "Go; get you gone heard at Brussels from M. Gourville, a to Sheen. We shall have no good very intelligent Frenchman well known to Charles: "A king of England," said Gourville, "who is willing to be the man of his people, is the greatest king in the world, but if he wishes to be more, by heaven he is nothing at all!" The King betrayed some symptoms of impatience during this lecture; but at last he laid his hand kindly on Temple's shoulder, and said, "You are right, and so is Gourville; and I will be the man of my people."

With this assurance Temple repaired to the Hague in July, 1674. Holland was now secure, and France was sur'rounded on every side by enemies. Spain and the Empire were in arms for the purpose of compelling Lewis to abandon all that he had acquired since the treaty of the Pyrenees. A congress for the purpose of putting an end to the war was opened at Nimeguen under the mediation of England in 1675; and to that congress Temple was deputed. The work of conciliation, however, went on very slowly. The belligerent powers were still sanguine, and the mediating power was unsteady and insincere.

But while Temple thus carefully shunned the responsibility of bearing a part in the general direction of affairs, he gave a signal proof of that never-failing sagacity which enabled him to find out ways of distinguishing himself without risk. He had a principal share in bringing about an event which was at the time hailed with general satisfaction, and which subsequently produced consequences of the highest importance. This was the marriage of the Prince of Orange and the Lady Mary.

In the following year Temple returned to the Hague; and thence he was ordered, in the close of 1678, to repair to Nimeguen, for the purpose of signing the hollow and unsatisfactory treaty by which the distractions of Europe were for a short time suspended. He grumbled much at being In the mean time the Opposition in required to affix his name to bad artiEngland became more and more for- cles which he had not framed, and still midable, and seemed fully determined more at having to travel in very cold to force the King into a war with weather. After all, a difficulty of etiFrance. Charles was desirous of mak-quette prevented him from signing, and ing some appointments which might he returned to the Hague. Scarcely strengthen the administration and conciliate the confidence of the public. No man was more esteemed by the nation than Temple; yet he had never been concerned in any opposition to any government. In July, 1677, he was sent for from Nimeguen. Charles received him with caresses, earnestly pressed him to accept the seals of Secretary of State, and promised to bear half the charge of buying out the present holder. Temple was charmed by the kindness and politeness of the King's manner, and by the liveliness of his Majesty's conversation; but his prudence was not to be so laid asleep. He calmly and steadily

had he arrived there when he received intelligence that the King, whose embarrassments were now far greater than ever, was fully resolved immediately to appoint him Secretary of State. He a third time declined that high post, and began to make preparations for a journey to Italy; thinking, doubtless, that he should spend his time much more pleasantly among pictures and ruins than in such a whirlpool of political and religious frenzy as was then raging in London.

But the King was in extreme necessity, and was no longer to be so easily put off. Temple received positive orders to repair instantly to England.

He obeyed, and found the country in a | It was clear that a majority of the state even more fearful than that which new House of Commons would be, to he had pictured to himself.

use a word which came into fashion a few months later, decided Whigs. Charles had found it necessary to yield to the violence of the public feeling. The Duke of York was on the point of retiring to Holland. "I never," says Temple, who had seen the abolition of monarchy, the dissolution of the Long Parliament, the fall of the Protectorate, the declaration of Monk against the Rump, "I never saw greater disturbance in men's minds."

The King now with the utmost ur

Those are terrible conjunctures, when the discontents of a nation, not light and capricious discontents, but discontents which have been steadily increasing during a long series of years, have attained their full maturity. The discerning few predict the approach of these conjunctures, but predict in vain. To the many, the evil season comes as a total eclipse of the sun at noon comes to a people of savages. Society which, but a short time before, was in a state of perfect repose, is on a sudden agi-gency besought Temple to take the seals. tated with the most fearful convulsions, and seems to be on the verge of dissolution; and the rulers who, till the mischief was beyond the reach of all ordinary remedies, had never bestowed one thought on its existence stand bewildered and panic-stricken, without hope or resource, in the midst of the confusion. One such conjuncture this generation has seen. God grant that we may never see another! At such a conjuncture it was that Temple landed on English ground in the beginning of 1679.

The pecuniary part of the arrangement no longer presented any difficulty; and Sir William was not quite so decided in his refusal as he had formerly been. He took three days to consider the posture of affairs, and to examine his own feelings; and he came to the conclusion that "the scene was unfit for such an actor as he knew himself to be." Yet he felt that, by refusing help to the King at such a crisis, he might give much offence and incur much censure. He shaped his course with his usual dexterity. He affected to be very desirous of a seat in Parliament; yet he contrived to be an unsuccessful candidate; and, when all the writs were returned, he represented that it would be useless for him to take the seals till he could procure admittance to the House of Commons; and in this manner he succeeded in avoiding the greatness which others desired to thrust upon him.

The Parliament had obtained a glimpse of the King's dealings with France; and their anger had been unjustly directed against Danby, whose conduct as to that matter had been, on the whole, deserving rather of praise than of censure. The Popish plot, the murder of Godfrey, the infamous inventions of Oates, the discovery of Colman's letters, had excited the nation to madness. All the disaffection The Parliament met; and the viowhich had been generated by eighteen lence of its proceedings surpassed all years of misgovernment had come to expectation. The Long Parliament the birth together. At this moment itself, with much greater provocation, the King had been advised to dissolve had at its commencement been less that Parliament which had been elected violent. The Treasurer was instantly just after his restoration, and which, driven from office, impeached, sent to though its composition had since that the Tower. Sharp and vehement votes time been greatly altered, was still far were passed on the subject of the more deeply imbued with the old cava- | Popish Plot. The Commons were lier spirit than any that had preceded, or that was likely to follow it. The general election had commenced, and was proceeding with a degree of excitement never before known. The tide ran furiously against the Court.

prepared to go much further, to wrest from the King his prerogative of mercy in cases of high political crimes, and to alter the succession to the Crown. Charles was thoroughly perplexed and dismayed. Temple saw him almost

daily, and thought him impressed with | fore, been left to form their own cona deep sense of his errors, and of the jectures as to the object of this very miserable state into which they had extraordinary plan, "this Constitubrought him. Their conferences be- tion," as Temple himself calls it. And came longer and more confidential; and Temple began to flatter himself with the hope that he might be able to reconcile parties at home as he had reconciled hostile States abroad; that he might be able to suggest a plan which should allay all heats, efface the memory of all past grievances, secure the nation from misgovernment, and protect the Crown against the encroachments of Parliament.

we cannot say that any explanation which has yet been given seems to us quite satisfactory. Indeed, almost all the writers whom we have consulted appear to consider the change as merely a change of administration, and so considering it, they generally applaud it. Mr. Courtenay, who has evidently examined this subject with more attention than has often been bestowed upon it, seems to think Temple's scheme Temple's plan was that the existing very strange, unintelligible, and abPrivy Council, which consisted of surd. It is with very great diffidence fifty members, should be dissolved, that we offer our own solution of that there should no longer be a small what we have always thought one of interior council, like that which is now the great riddles of English history. designated as the Cabinet, that a new Privy Council of thirty members should be appointed, and that the King should pledge himself to govern by the constant advice of this body, to suffer all his affairs of every kind to be freely debated there, and not to reserve any part of the public business for a secret committee.

We are strongly inclined to suspect that the appointment of the new Privy Council was really a much more remarkable event than has generally been supposed, and that what Temple had in view was to effect, under colour of a change of administration, a permanent change in the Constitution.

The plan, considered merely as a Fifteen of the members of this new plan for the formation of a Cabinet, is council were to be great officers of State. so obviously inconvenient, that we canThe other fifteen were to be independent not easily believe this to have been noblemen and gentlemen of the great-Temple's chief object. The number of est weight in the country. In ap- the new Council alone would be a most pointing them particular regard was serious objection. The largest cabito be had to the amount of their pro- nets of modern times have not, we perty. The whole annual income of believe, consisted of more than fifteen the counsellors was estimated at members. Even this number has gene300,000l. The annual income of all the members of the House of Commons was not supposed to exceed 400,000l. The appointment of wealthy counsellors Temple describes as "a chief regard, necessary to this Constitution."

This plan was the subject of frequent conversation between the King and Temple. After a month passed in discussions to which no third person appears to have been privy, Charles declared himself satisfied of the expediency of the proposed measure, and resolved to carry it into effect.

It is much to be regretted that Temple has left us no account of these conferences. Historians have, there

rally been thought too large. The Marquess Wellesley, whose judgment on a question of executive administration is entitled to as much respect as that of any statesman that England ever produced, expressed, during the ministerial negotiations of the year 1812, his conviction that even thirteen was an inconveniently large number. But in a Cabinet of thirty members what chance could there be of finding unity, secrecy, expedition, any of the qualities which such a body ought to possess? If, indeed, the members of such a Cabinet were closely bound together by interest, if they all had a deep stake in the permanence of the Administration, if the majority were

itself, and that the consequence would be disunion, altercation, tardiness in operations, the divulging of secrets, every thing most alien from the nature of an executive council?

Is it possible to imagine that considerations so grave and so obvious should have altogether escaped the notice of a man of Temple's sagacity and experience? One or two things. appears to us to be certain, either that his project has been misunderstood, or that his talents for public affairs have been overrated.

We lean to the opinion that his project has been misunderstood. His new Council, as we have shown, would have been an exceedingly bad Cabinet. The inference which we are inclined to draw is this, that he meant his Council to serve some other purpose than that of a mere Cabinet. Barillon used four or five words which contain, we think, the key of the whole mystery. Mr. Courtenay calls them pithy words; but he does not, if we are right, apprehend their whole force. "Ce sont," said Barillon, "des Etats, non des conseils."

dependent on a small number of lead- | prepared to brave? Could there be ing men, the thirty might perhaps act any doubt that an Opposition would as a smaller number would act, though soon be formed within the Cabinet more slowly, more awkwardly, and with more risk of improper disclosures. But the Council which Temple proposed was so framed that if, instead of thirty members, it had contained only ten, it would still have been the most unwieldy and discordant Cabinet that ever sat. One half of the members were to be persons holding no office, persons who had no motive to compromise their opinions, or to take any share of the responsibility of an unpopular measure, persons, therefore, who might be expected, as often as there might be a crisis requiring the most cordial co-operation, to draw off from the rest, and to throw every difficulty in the way of the public business. The circumstance that they were men of enormous private wealth only made the matter worse. The House of Commons is a checking body; and therefore it is desirable that it should, to a great extent, consist of men of independent fortune, who receive nothing and expect nothing from the the Government. But with executive boards the case is quite different. Their business is not to check, but to act. The very same things, therefore, In order clearly to understand what which are the virtues of Parliaments we imagine to have been Temple's may be vices in Cabinets. We can views, the reader must remember that hardly conceive a greater curse to the the Government of England was at country than an Administration, the members of which should be as perfectly independent of each other, and as little under the necessity of making mutual concessions, as the representatives of London and Devonshire in the House of Commons are and ought to be. Now Temple's new Council was to contain fifteen members who were to hold no offices, and the average amount of whose private estates was ten thousand pounds a year, an income which, in proportion to the wants of a man of rank of that period, was at least equal to thirty thousand a year in our time. Was it to be expected that such men would gratuitously take on themselves the labour and responsibility of Ministers, and the unpopularity which the best Ministers must sometimes be

that moment, and had been during nearly eighty years, in a state of transition. A change, not the less real or the less extensive because disguised under ancient names and forms, was in constant progress. The theory of the Constitution, the fundamental laws which fix the powers of the three branches of the legislature, underwent no material change between the time of Elizabeth and the time of William the Third. The most celebrated laws of the seventeenth century on those subjects, the Petition of Right, the Declaration of Right, are purely declaratory. They purport to be merely recitals of the old polity of England. They do not establish free government as a salutary improvement, but claim it as an undoubted and immemorial