of his adminiftration were often extremely excep tionable, they invariably proceeded from a firm perfuafion that they were calculated to promote the welfare and happiness of the community. The grand defect in the character of this nobleman was, a want of liberality and comprehension of mind: he was a religious bigot; a character totally incompatible with that of a great statesman. He was under the influence of a thoufand weakneffes and prejudices; his ideas of the nature and extent of regal authority were extravagantly high: he was wholly unacquainted with the principles of toleration; he was haughty, intractable, conceited, and morofe; and entirely destitute of that spirit of mild wisdom and enlightened benevolence, which fo remarkably distinguished his illuftrious fucceffor, the great Lord Somers.

The first act paffed by the new parliament, pronounced every person who dared to affirm the King to be a Papist, incapable of holding any employment in church or state; a measure which obviously tended to increase the fufpicions already entertained respecting this point. The bifhops, who had been. previously restored to their spiritual functions, by virtue of the royal prerogative, exercifed under colour of the Act of Supremacy, were now admitted to their former stations in parliament, from which they had been fo long excluded. The power of the fword, which had been the immediate caufe of the civil war, was folemnly relinquifhed, and the doctrine of non-refiftance was explicitly avowed. The

Crown

Crown was invested with a power of regulating, or, rather, of new modelling, all the corporations throughout the kingdom, at pleafure; and all magistrates were obliged to declare, that it was not lawful, upon any pretence whatever, to take up、 arms against the Crown. All these different meafures, however, were but so many preludes to the famous Act of Uniformity, which took place in the fame feffion; and which fell, like a thunderbolt, upon the devoted heads of the presbyterian party; i. e. upon a class of men who conftituted, at that period, at least one half of the nation. To exhibit this act in its proper colours, it must be remembered, that the Convention Parliament, which restored the King, was compofed chiefly of prefbyterians, and that their generofity had fo far exceeded the limits of discretion, as to induce them to rely, with unfufpecting confidence, upon the royal declaration from Breda, in which they were flattered with the profpect of a general amnesty and liberty of confcience; and to reject the advice of fome of the most fagacious members of that affembly, who were of opinion, that fpecific conditions fhould be propofed to the King; who, in that critical fituation of his affairs, would gladly have acquiefced in any terms which the general welfare of the community had rendered it prudent or proper to infift upon. By the Act of Uniformity, however, the Church was not only reestablished in all her pristine rights, but the terms of conformity were made ftill more rigorous than in

any former period, with the exprefs view of excluding all of the prefbyterian denomination from the national communion; in confequence of which, about two thousand of the beneficed clergy voluntarily relinquifhed their preferments on Bartholo mew-Day 1662, when the Act of Uniformity, by a refinement of cruelty, was to take place, in order to prevent those who should refign their livings from making any advantage of their tythes for the preceding year. After making every reasonable. allowance for that mixture of adventitious motives by which, in fuch fituations, human nature will be ever in fome degree actuated, this must certainly be regarded as an afionifhing facrifice of tempora} intereft to integrity and confcience, and as exhibiting a noble proof of the deep impreffion which the Christian religion is capable of making upon the heart, and of the elevation of views and conduct which, in the most trying fituations, it is calculated to excite; but when we examine minutely into the reafons upon which this magnanimous feceffion was founded, we cannot but ftand aftonished at their extreme frivoloufness, and futi lity, and our admiration is almoft annihilated by contempt. The leaders of the prefbyterians, who were many of them men of great learning and abilities, did not object to a national establishment, as fuch; they were far even from profeffing to difapprove of the government of the church by bifhops; to the theological fyftem contained in the Thirty-nine Articles, they were very

ftrongly

ftrongly attached; and the ufe of a public formu. lary of worship they generally regarded, not only as lawful, but expedient: To what, then, did they object? To fubmit to r-ordination, by which the validity of the prior ordination by a prefbytery would virtually be impugned: They could not in confcience consent to kneel at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; nor could they make ufe of the fign of the Crofs in Baptifm; nor prevail upon themselves to bow at the name of Jefus; nor would they countenance the fuperftitions of the Romish Church, by wearing the ecclefiaftical veftments, which they reckoned amongst the deteftable abominations of that mother of harlots. It is difficult to determine whether a greater degree of bigotry was discoverable, in infifting upon these petty obfervances as terms of communion, or in rejecting them as anti-christian and unlawful :-this, however, is certain, that Clarendon, who was now poffeffed of abfolute authority, must have drank deep into the spirit of Laud, to have urged a meafure which had a direct tendency to alienate the minds of half the nation from the King's perfon and government; which plunged a great number of worthy and confcientious men into the depths of indigence and diftrefs, and which laid an extenfive foundation for a fchifm which still fubfists, and which has been productive of very pernicious confequences; though it must be acknowledged that much good has likewise resulted from it, but of fuch a nature, that the fainteft idea of it could

never enter within the narrow views of that honest but mistaken minister.

In the fummer of 1662, the inaufpicious mar. riage of the King with Catharine, Infanta of Portugal, was concluded. It is not certainly known what part the Chancellor took in this affair: the truth feems to be, that the King had refolved upon this alliance, and the minister therefore was com pelled to acquiefce in that which he had too much difcernment to approve. The pernicious effects of a catholic alliance were furely fufficiently obvious by the example of the former reign; and how the interests of this kingdom could be promoted by establishing the independency of Portugal, which was the great political confequence to be expected from this union, it was not eafy to demonftrate. Spain was already funk much too low in the scale of power, and nothing could more effectually contribute to confirm the dangerous afcendency already acquired by France, than this abfurd and impolitic measure. In the fame year a tranfaction took place, which has frequently been reprefented as highly fcandalous, and even criminal; I mean, the fale of Dunkirk; it does not, however, I must confefs, appear to me in this heinous light. The revenue of the Crown was at this period very narrow, and the expence of maintaining Dunkirk was great; and though it is undeniable that a powerful kingdom cannot, without incurring fome difgrace, part with any of its poffefs fions for pecuniary confiderations, yet it must be allowed