Will.III. and was very uneafy at it; as, on the other hand, the king 1701. complained much of his intractable temper and imperious man

ner, and, by his intercourfe with him, the king came to fee, that he was not the man he had taken him for; that he had no large nor clear notions of affairs abroad; and that, instead of moderating the violence of his party, he inflamed them; fo that he often faid, that the year, in which he directed his counfels, was one of the uneafieft of his whole life. The earl, finding the king's coldness towards him, expoftulated with him upon it, and faid, he could ferve him no longer, fince he saw he did not trust him. The king heard this with his ufual phlegm, and concluded upon it, that he should see him no more. But Mr. Harley made the earl a little more fubmiffive and compliant. After the king was gone beyond fea, the earl alfo went into Ireland, where he used much art in obliging people of all forts, Diffenters as well as Papifts; yet fuch confidence was put in him by the High-church party, that they bore every thing at his hands. It was not eafy to behave himself towards the trustees for the Irish forfeitures, fo as not to give a general distaste to the nation, for they were much hated, and openly charged with par

with the Seventeen Provinces,
were intire in him. Yet, not-
withstanding all thofe advanta-
ges, he was but barely a match
for France. If his fon Philip II.
put France very hard to it, we
must not attribute that to the
power of Spain, but to the civil
wars of France; but, as foon
as Henry IV. had appeafed the
civil wars, and fettled the di-
ftracted condition of the king-
dom, the fuperiority of France
quickly appeared; and all the
world allows, that both the
branches of the houfe of Au-
ftria could not have prevented
fome fatal blow, that he was
preparing to ftrike, had not a
fudden and violent death ftop-
ped his defigns. Since that
time France has taken from
them a great part of Flanders,
the duchy of Burgundy, the
country of Roufillen, and fome
other places on the frontiers of

Spain, and has made confiderable conquefts on the fide of Germany. Spain is greatly difpeopled, and her maritime power entirely loft. And, ever fince the time Guftavus Adolphus broke the power of the German branch of the house of Auftria, we find that both branches united have made no tolerable balance against France; the experience of which has coft us and all Europe very dear, during the continuance of the two laft wars. Surely then it would be very extravagant, if, in order to make a balance in Europe, we fhall take away from the weight of the house of Auftria, which before was very much too light, and add to the weight of France, that was already exorbitandy great. And this must be the cafe, unlefs we turn the duke of Anjou out of the whole.

tiality,

tiality, injuftice, and corruption. That which gave the Will. III. greatest disgust in his administration there, was his ufage of 1701. the reduced officers, who were upon half-pay, a fund being fettled for that by act of parliament. They had been ordered to live in Ireland, and to be ready for fervice there. The earl called them before him, and required them to exprefs, under their hands, their readiness to go and serve in the Weft-Indies. But, they not complying with this, he fet them a day for their final anfwer, and threatened, that they should have no more appointments, if they stood out beyond that time. This was reprefented to the king as a great hardship put upon them, and as done on defign to leave Ireland deftitute of the fervice, that might be done by fo many gallant officers, who were all known to be well affected to the prefent government; upon which the king ordered a stop to be put to it.

Cole.

We are now come to the laft period of the life of king Death of James II. He had led, for above ten years, a very unactive king James. life in France. After he had, in fo poor a manner, aban- Kennet; doned first England, and then Ireland; he had entered into two defigns for recovering the crowns, which he may be faid more truly to have thrown away than loft. The one was broke by the defeat of the French fleet at fea before Cherburgh, in the year 1692: The other feemed to be laid with more depth, as well as with more infamy, when an army was brought to Dunkirk, and the defign of the affaffination was thought fure; upon which it was reafonably hoped, that the nation must have fallen into fuch confufions, that it would have been an eafy prey to an army ready to invade it. The reproach, that to black a contrivance caft upon him, brought him under fo much contempt, that even the abfolute authority of the French court could hardly prevail fo far, as to have common refpect paid him after that (b).

(b) His friends had generally reprefented him as incapable of confenting to fo fhocking an attempt, as that of affaffinating king William. But it is evident, from an original letter of his, in the archbishop's library at Lambeth, printed in the firit volume of fecretary Thurloe's State Papers, p. 666, that he was not averfe to the employing

He

of Roman Catholics in fuch a
defign against Oliver Cromwell,
even though they demanded, as
a reward for it, a toleration of
their religion in England, The
letter is as follows:

Paris, May 14, 1655-
"There is a propofition has
"been made to me, which is
"too long to put in a letter,

Will. III. He himself feemed to be the leaft concerned in all his mis1701. fortunes; and, though his queen could never give over meddling, yet he was the moft eafy, when he was leaft troubled with those airy schemes, upon which the was employing her thoughts. He went fometimes to the monaftery of La Trappe, where the poor monks were much edified with his humble and pious deportment (c). Hunting was his chief diverfion; and for the most part he led a harmless, innocent life, being fill

66

as may give a rife for your
recovery, they being all

"the whole matter. In the "mean time, he defires, in his own name and theirs, that you would let but one or two, "whom you must trust, know " "it, and enjoin them fecrecy. "This is all I can fay of it at "this time."

(c) Father Brettonneau, the Jefuit, in his Abridgment of the Life of king James II. extracted from an English Ma

"warned to be ready for fome-nufcript of the reverend Father
"thing that is to be done,
"without knowing what it is.
"They demand ten thousand
"livres in hand; and when
"the bufinefs is ended, fome
recompenfe for themselves,
"according to their feveral qua-
"lities, and the fame liberty
"for Catholics in England, as
"the Proteftants have in France.
"I thought not fit to reject
"this propofition,' but to ac-
quaint you with it, becaufe
"the first part of the defign
"fcems to me to be better laid

86

Francis Saunders, of the Society of Jefus, and Confeffor to that king,' tells us that the king never miffed going to La Trappe once a year. He would flay there three or four days, and fpend them in long meditations and fpiritual conferences with the abbot and his confeffor, whom he tock with him. He aflifted at the choir-hours, except at night; He eat nothing but eggs, railins, and other pulfe, unless he was indifpofed. But he was never fo infirm, but he would dine once with the religious in the refectory, where no meat nor flesh is ever ferved up. The king wrote likewife this account of his retirement there :

and refolved on,' than any "I have known' of that kind'; "and for the defects of the fe"cond, it may be fupplied by "fome defigns you may have to "join it. If you approve of it, "one of the four, intrusted by "Forafmuch as it has plea"the reft, will repair to you," fed the divine goodness, gra"his charges being borne, and "ciously to touch my heart, give you a full account of "when I was at La Trappe,

more

fill zealous about his religion (d). In the beginning of this Will. III. year, he had been fo near death, that it was generally 1701. thought

abridgment

98, 102.

character. Burnet,

Will. III. thought the decline of it would carry him off. He went to 1701. Bourbon in April, where he continued till the latter end of May, but had no benefit of the waters there. In the beginFather Bret- ning of September he fell into fuch fits, that it was concluded tonneau's he could not live many days. The French king came to fee of the life of him, and seemed to be much touched with the fight, and king James, repeated to him, what he had before promifed to his queen, that he would in cafe of his death, own the pretended prince of Wales as king of England. King James died on Friday the 16th of September, N. S. with great marks of devotion, and was interred in the church of the English Benedictines, in the fuburbs of St. James at Paris, in a private manner, and without any fort of folemnity, as he had defired. King James's He was a prince that feemed made for greater things, than will be found in the course of his life, more particularly of his reign: He was esteemed, in the former parts of his life, a man of great courage, as he was quite through it a man of great application to bufinefs: He had no vivacity of thought, invention, or expreffion: But he had a good judgment, where his religion or his education gave him not a biafs, which it did very often: He was bred with ftrange notions of the obedience due to princes, and came to take up as ftrange ones, of the submission due to priests: He was naturally a man of truth, fidelity, and juftice: But his religion was fo infufed in him, and he was fo managed in it by his priefts, that the principles, which nature had laid in him, had little power over him, when the concerns of his church ftood in the way: He was a gentle mafter, and was very easy to all who came near him: Yet he was not fo apt to pardon, as one ought to be, that is the vicegerent of that God, who is flow to anger, and ready to forgive: He had no personal

ticular in it, and fhews the ex-in purgatory prolonged, and
treme defire he had to fatisfy to lay out what I had defigned
the divine juftice. Confider- to obtain the divine mercy
⚫ing the life I have led (faid he with, to have thofe pains
in a queftion, which he had abridged, in charities for the
fet down in writing) and fee-relief of the poor, and prayers
ing my age and condition will
not let me practife all the
penances and mortifications,
which are neceffary to expiate
my fins, and to teftify my re-
pentance of them to God,
ought I not, reverend father,
* to be content to have my pains

for the dead. His confeffor could not enough admire the principles which had inspired him with fuch a fentiment; bat presently convinced him, that it carried him a little too far, and that one cannot defire to fee God too soon.