character. 1660. and had served him faithfully, but had no understanding in foreign affairs. He was a man of virtue, but could not fall into the king's temper, or become acceptable to him. So not long after the reArlington's storation, Bennet, advanced afterwards to be earl of Arlington, was by the interest of the popish party made secretary of state; and was admitted into so particular a confidence, that he began to raise a party in opposition to the earl of Clarendon. He was a proud [and insolent] man. His parts were solid, but not quick 9. He had the art of observing the king's temper, and managing it beyond all the men of that time. He was believed a papist. He had once professed it: and when he died, he again reconciled himself to that church r. Yet in the whole course of his ministry, he seemed to have made it a maxim, that the king ought to shew no favour to popery, but that all his affairs would be spoiled if ever he turned that way; which made the papists become his mortal enemies, and accuse him as an apostate, and the betrayer of their interests. was a man of great vanity, and lived at a vast expense, without taking any care of paying the debts which he contracted to support it.] His chief friend was Charles Berkeley, made earl of Falmouth, who, without any visible merits, unless it was the manag a They were very quick. S. r He was esteemed so good a courtier, that it was said he died a Roman Catholic to make his court to king James. But whatever his religion might be, he always professed himself of the whig party, as many papists had done before him: and particularly the famous [He Lambert, (who died a prisoner in the isle of Jersey,) declared a little before his death, he had always been of the church of Rome. D. s See the History of lord Clarendon's Life, for part of this man's merit. O. (Pepys observes, that no man, except the king, wished him alive again, ing the king's amours, was the most absolute of all 1660. the king's favourites: and, which was peculiar to himself, he was as much in the duke of York's favour as in the king's. Berkeley was generous in his expense : and it was thought, if he had outlived the lewdness of that time, and come to a more sedate course of life, he would have put the king on great and noble 100 designs. This I should have thought more likely, if I had not had it from the duke, who had so wrong a taste, that there was reason to suspect his judgment both of men and things. Bennet and Berkeley had the management of the mistress. And all the earl of Clarendon's enemies came about them: the chief of whom were the duke of Buckingham and the earl of Bristol. ham's cha The first of these was a man of noble presence. BuckingHe had a great liveliness of wit, and a peculiar fa-racter. culty of turning all things into ridicule with bold figures and natural descriptions. He had no sort of literature: only he was drawn into chemistry: and for some years he thought he was very near the finding the philosopher's stone; which had the effect that attends on all such men as he was, when they are drawn in, to lay out for it. He had no principles of religion, virtue, or friendship. Pleasure, frolic, or extravagant diversion, was all that he laid to heart. He was true to nothing, for he was not true to himselft. He had no steadiness nor conduct: he could keep no secret, nor execute any de after being killed in the engagement with the Dutch in the year 1665. See his Diary, vol. I. P. 344. But it appears, that the earl's friend, sir William Coventry, held him in great esteem, setting aside his sub- t No consequence. S. He 1660. sign without spoiling itu. He could never fix his thoughts, nor govern his estate, though then the greatest in England. He was bred about the king: and for many years he had a great ascendent over him but he spake of him to all persons with that contempt, that at last he drew a lasting disgrace upon himself. And he at length ruined both body and mind, fortune and reputation equally. The madness of vice appeared in his person in very eminent instances; since at last he became contemptible and poor, sickly, and sunk in his parts, as well as in all other respects, so that his conversation was as much avoided as ever it had been courted. found the king, when he came from his travels in the year forty-five, newly come to Paris, sent over by his father when his affairs declined: and finding the king enough inclined to receive ill impressions, he, who was then got into all the impieties and vices of the age, set himself to corrupt the king, in which he was too successful, being seconded in that wicked design by the lord Percy. And to complete the matter, Hobbs was brought to him, under the pretence of instructing him in mathematics: and he laid before him his schemes, both with relation to religion and politics, which made deep and lasting impressions on the king's mind. So that the main blame of the king's ill principles and bad morals was owing to the duke of Buckingham x. Bristol's character. The earl of Bristol was a man of courage and learning, of a bold temper and a lively wit, but of 1660. no judgment nor steadiness. He was in the queen's interest during the war at Oxford. And he studied 101 to drive things past the possibility of a treaty, or any reconciliation; fancying that nothing would make the military men so sure to the king, as his being sure to them, and giving them hopes of sharing the confiscated estates among them; whereas, he thought, all discourses of treaty made them feeble and fearful. When he went beyond sea, he turned papist. But it was after a way of his own: for he loved to magnify the difference between the church and the court of Rome. He was esteemed a very good speaker: but he was too copious, and too florid. He was set at the head of the popish party, and was a violent enemy of the earl of Clarendon. dale's cha Having now said as much as seems necessary to Lauderdescribe the state of the court and ministry at the racter. restoration, I will next give an account of the chief of the Scots, and of the parties that were formed among them. The earl of Lauderdale, afterwards made duke, had been for many years a zealous covenanter: but in the year forty-seven he turned to the king's interests; and had continued a prisoner all the while after Worcester fight, where he was taken. He was kept for some years in the tower of London, in Portland castle, and in other prisons, till he was set at liberty by those who called home the king. So he went over to Holland. And since he continued so long, and contrary to all men's opinions in so high y ("I am a catholic of the "church of Rome, not of "the court of Rome," are the words of the earl of Bristol in a yet unpublished speech ad- 1660. a degree of favour and confidence, it may be expected that I should be a little copious in setting out his character; for I knew him very particularly. He made a very ill appearance: he was very big: his hair red, hanging oddly about him: his tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him bedew all that he talked to: and his whole manner was rough and boisterous, and very unfit for a court. He was very learned, not only in Latin, in which he was a master, but in Greek and Hebrew. He had read a great deal of divinity, and almost all the historians ancient and modern: so that he had great materials. He had with these an extraordinary memory, and a copious but unpolished expression. He was a man, as the duke of Buckingham called him to me, of a blundering understanding [not always clear, but often cloudy, as his looks were always. Bowyer's Transcript.] He was haughty beyond expression, abject to those he saw he must stoop to, but imperious to all others. He had a violence of passion that carried him often to fits like madness, in which he had no temper. If he took a thing wrong, it was a vain thing to study to convince him that would rather provoke him to swear, he would never be of another mind: he was to be let alone and perhaps he would have forgot what he had said, and come about of his own accord. He was the coldest friend and the violentest enemy I ever knew: I felt it too much not to know 102 it. He at first seemed to despise wealth: but he delivered himself up afterwards to luxury and sensuality and by that means he ran into a vast expense, and stuck at nothing that was necessary to support it. In his long imprisonment he had great |