credit, and the duke of York. A. C. 1684. and oppreffion. Cruelty was not natural to his The great difpofition; and therefore we must impute them arbitrary to the fanguinary temper of his brother, which he difpofition of had not refolution enough to restrain. That he difapproved of his conduct in many cafes, is highly probable. He appeared diffatisfied and unhappy even in the midft of his fuccefs and triumphs over his enemies. He was even heard to fay, "Brother, "I am too old to go again to my travels; you 66 may, if you pleafe." This expreffion was probably used in answer to fome violent proposal of the duke. The earl of Danby was now releafed upon bail, after a long imprifonment. Lord Petre, one of the popish noblemen, committed on the evidence of Dangerfield, had died in the Tower, after having written a letter to the king; in which he, on the faith of a dying man, protested his own innocence. The other four were admitted to bail, although the former judges had declared, that it was not in their power to enlarge, upon any fecurity whatsoever, a peer of the realm, who had been committed by the parliament. The duke of York was not fo favourable to his friends, as implacable towards his enemies. Dutton Colt, who had been member of the three laft parliaments, was accused of having called the duke a papist; of having declared he would be hanged at his own gate, rather than fuffer fuch a prince to afcend the throne; and of having reviled him with many expreffions of abufe. For thefe offences, he was fentenced to pay a fine of one hundred thousand pounds. The fame fine was awarded against Titus Oates, for having faid that the duke was a traitor. Two indictments for perjury were laid against him, but these were not tried till the next reign; in the mean time he remained in prifon. Since the detection of the Rye-house plot, two and thirty perfons were condemned 3. demned in ruinous fines, and fome of thefe like- A. C. 1685. wife fentenced to the pillory. When Charles had obtained poffeflion of all the charters that conftituted the corporations in England, he published a declaration, thanking his subjects in the most affectionate terms, for having repofed fuch confidence in their fovereign; affuring them he would use it with moderation, and convince the most extravagant republicans, that as the crown was the origin of the people's rights, fo it was the fureft fupport of their liberties. He was actually supposed to have planned a total change in his conduct. Those who undertake to justify or excufe his character, affirm that he intended to emancipate himself from that intolerable flavery in which he was held by his brother; to fend the duke of York beyond fea, or into Scotland, to recal Monmouth, and affemble a free parliament. If this was the cafe, death anticipated The king's the execution of his laudable defign. He was fud- death. denly feized with an apoplectic fit; after which he languished a few days, and on the fixth of February expired, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the twenty fifth of his reign. Notwithstanding the errors in his conduct, and the blemishes in his character, he was perfonally beloved by the people, who were overwhelmed with grief and aftonishment at his death. This forrow and furprise, cooperating with the terror of his fucceffor, and the deteftation of popery, ingendered a fufpicion of his having been taken off by poifon, but this, upon inquiry, appeared without foundation. During his laft illness, he received the facrament from the hands of a catholic prieft, and died in that communion. Two papers, written with his own hand, in defence of the Romish religion, were found in his clofet; and the duke imprudently ordered them to A. C. 1685. to be published. They served no other purpose than that of ftigmatizing the memory of his brother, and confirming the opinion of the public with regard to his own bigotry. His character. Charles II. was in his perfon tall and fwarthy, and his countenance marked with ftrong, harth lineaments. His penetration was keen, his judgment clear, his understanding extenfive, his conversation lively and entertaining, and he poffeffed the talent of wit and ridicule. He was eafy of accefs, polite, and affable: had he been limited to a private ftation, he would have passed for the most agreeable and beft-natured man of the age in which he lived. His greatest enemies allow him to have been a civil husband, an obliging lover, an affectionate father, and an indulgent mafter: even as a prince, he manifested an averfion to cruelty and injustice. Yet these good qualities were more than over balanced by his weakness and defects. He was a fcoffer at religion, and a libertine in his morals: careless, indolent, profuse, abandoned to effeminate pleasure, incapable of any noble enterprize, a ftranger to manly friendship and gratitude, deaf to the voice of honour, blind to the allurements of glory, and, in a word, wholly deftitute of every active virtue. Being himself unprincipled, he believed mankind were falfe, perfidious, and interested; and therefore he practised diffimulation for his own convenience. He was ftrongly attached to the French manners, government, and monarch: he was diffatisfied with his own limited prerogative. The majority of his own fubjects he defpifed or hated, as hypocrites, fanatics, and republicans, who had perfecuted his father and himfelf, and fought the deftruction of the monarchy. In these fentiments, he could not be fuppofed to pursue the intereft of the nation; on the contrary, he feemed to think that his own fafety was incom- A, C. 1685. patible with the honour and advantage of his people. Had he been an abfolute prince, the fubjects would have found themselves quiet and happy under a mild administration; but harraffed as he was by a powerful oppofition, and perplexed with perpetual indigence, he thought himself obliged, for his own ease and fecurity, to prosecute measures which rendered his reign a misfortune to the kingdom; and intailed upon him the contempt of all the other powers in Europe. Yet that misfortune Burnet. did not immediately affect the nation in its com- Wellwood. merical concerns. Trade and manufacture flourish- Rapin. ed more in this reign, than at any other æra of the English monarchy. Industry was crowned with fuccefs, and the people in general lived in ease and affluence*. * Charles had no iffue by his queen, but left a numerous progeny of natural children, by different concubines; the dukes of Monmouth, Cleveland, Grafton, Richmond, and St. Albans, befides the undiftinguished fruit of occafional commerce with a great variety of women. In the reign of Charles II. the arts and sciences were cultivated with good fuccefs, tho' they were very little encouraged by the fovereign; ye he had himself made fome proficiency in mechanics and chemistry, and was a good judge of genius. The most eminent men of the royal fociety, at its first inAtitution, were the lord Brouncker, Sir Robert Murray, Dr. Wilkins bishop of Chefter, Mr. Robert Boyle, who had made great progress in natural philofophy, and Dr. Ward afterwards bishop of Exeter, a profound mathematician, This period likewife produced the im- gedies Sheffield. A. C. 1685. purity. Wycherly difplayed the genius of true comedy, tho' rude and licentious. The earls of Dorfet, Rofcommon, and Mulgrave, wrote with eafe, fpirit, and negligence. Hallifax poffeffed refined talents; the writings of Sir William Temple are entertaining and inftructive. gedies are celebrated above all others, mous for poignancy of fatire and im- ers. JAMES |