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court by the death of the earl of Portland, high treasurer of England; a man so jealous of the archbishop's credit with the king, that he always endeavoured to lessen it by all the arts and ways he could; which he was so far from effecting, that, as it usually falls out, when passion and malice make accusation, by suggesting many particulars which the king knew to be untrue, or believed to be no faults, he rather confirmed his majesty's judgment of him, and prejudiced his own reputation. His death caused no grief in the archbishop; who was upon it made one of the commissioners of the treasury and revenue, which he had reason to be sorry for, because it engaged him in civil business and matters of state, in which he had little experience, and which he had hitherto avoided. But being obliged to it now by his trust, he entered upon it with his natural earnestness and warmth, making it his principal care to advance and improve the king's revenue by all the ways which were offered, and so hearkened to all informations and propositions of that kind; and having not had experience of that tribe of people who deal in that traffick, (a confident, senseless, and for the most part a naughty people,) he was sometimes misled by them to think better of some projects than they deserved but then he was so entirely devoted to what would be beneficial to the king, that all propositions and designs, which were for the profit (only or principally) of particular persons how great soever, were opposed and crossed, and very often totally suppressed and stifled in their birth, by his power and authority; which created him enemies enough in the court, and many of ability to do

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mischief, who knew well how to recompense discourtesies, which they always called injuries.

And the revenue of too many of the court consisted principally in enclosures, and improvements of that nature, which he still opposed passionately, except they were founded upon law; and then, if it would bring profit to the king, how old and obsolete soever the law was, he thought he might justly advise the prosecution. And so he did a little too much countenance the commission for depopulation, which brought much charge and trouble upon the people, which was likewise cast upon his

account.

He had observed, and knew it must be so, that the principal officers of the revenue, who governed the affairs of money, had always access to the king, and spent more time with him in private than any of his servants or counsellors, and had thereby frequent opportunities to do good or ill offices to many men; of which he had had experience, when the earl of Portland was treasurer, and the lord Cottington chancellor of the exchequer; neither of them being his friends; and the latter still enjoying that place, and having his former access, and so continuing a joint commissioner of the treasury with him, and understanding that province much better, he still opposed, and commonly carried every thing against him: so that he was weary of the toil and vexation of that business; as all other men were, and still are of the delays which are in all despatches, whilst that office is executed by commission.

The treasurer's is the greatest office of benefit in the kingdom, and the chief in precedence next the

archbishop's, and the great seal so that the eyes of all men were at gaze who should have this great office; and the greatest of the nobility, who were in the chiefest employments, looked upon it as the prize of one of them; such offices commonly making way for more removes and preferments : when on a sudden the staff was put into the hands of the bishop of London, a man so unknown, that his name was scarce heard of in the kingdom, who had been within two years before but a private chaplain to the king, and the president of a poor college in Oxford. This inflamed more men than were angry before, and no doubt did not only sharpen the edge of envy and malice against the archbishop, (who was the known architect of this new fabric,) but most unjustly indisposed many towards the church itself; which they looked upon as the gulph ready to swallow all the great offices, there being others in view, of that robe, who were ambitious enough to expect the rest.

In the mean time the archbishop himself was infinitely pleased with what was done, and unhappily believed he had provided a stronger support for the church; and never abated any thing of his severity and rigour towards men of all conditions, or in the sharpness of his language and expressions, which was so natural to him, that he could not debate any thing without some commotion, when the argument was not of moment, nor bear contradiction in debate, even in the council, where all men are equally free, with that patience and temper that was necessary; of which they who wished him not well took many advantages, and would therefore contradict him, that he might be transported with some inde

cent passion; which, upon a short recollection, he was always sorry for, and most readily and heartily would make acknowledgment. No man so willingly made unkind use of all those occasions, as the lord Cottington, who being a master of temper, and of the most profound dissimulation, knew too well how to lead him into a mistake, and then drive him into choler, and then expose him upon the matter, and the manner, to the judgment of the company; and he chose to do this most when the king was present; and then he would dine with him the next day.

The king, who was excessively affected to hunting and the sports of the field, had a great desire to make a great park for red as well as fallow deer, between Richmond and Hampton court, where he had large wastes of his own, and great parcels of wood, which made it very fit for the use he designed it to but as some parishes had common in those wastes, so many gentlemen and farmers had good houses and good farms intermingled with those wastes of their own inheritance, or for their lives, or years; and without taking in of them into the park, it would not be of the largeness or for the use proposed. His majesty desired to purchase those lands, and was very willing to buy them upon higher terms than the people could sell them at to any body else, if they had occasion to part with them; and thought it no unreasonable thing, upon those terms, to expect from his subjects; and so he employed his own surveyor, and other of his officers, to treat with the owners, many whereof were his own tenants, whose terms would at last expire.

The major part of the people were in a short time prevailed with, but many very obstinately refused; and a gentleman, who had the best estate, with a convenient house and gardens, would by no means part with it; and the king being as earnest to compass it, it made a great noise, as if the king would take away men's estates at his own pleasure. The bishop of London, who was treasurer, and the lord Cottington, chancellor of the exchequer, were, from the first entering upon it, very averse from the design, not only for the murmur of the people, but because the purchase of the land, and the making a brick-wall about so large a parcel of ground, (for it is not less than ten or twelve miles about,) would cost a greater sum of money than they could easily provide, or than they thought ought to be sacrificed to such an occasion; and the lord Cottington (who was more solicited by the country people, and heard most of their murmurs) took the business most to heart, and endeavoured by all the ways he could, and by frequent importunities, to divert his majesty from pursuing it, and put all delays he could well do in the bargains which were to be made; till the king grew very angry with him, and told him, he was resolved "to go through with it, and had already caused "brick to be burned, and much of the wall to be "built upon his own land;" upon which Cottington thought fit to acquiesce.

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The building the wall before people consented to part with their land, or their common, looked to them as if by degrees they should be shut out from both, and increased the murmur and noise of the people who were not concerned, as well as of them

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