The author of most of the characters in this volume himself deserves a
fuller character. The main portions of Burnet's original sketch (1683)
are therefore given here, partly by way of supplement, and partly to
illustrate the nature of Burnet's revision (1703):
'The great man with the king was chancellor Hyde, afterwards made Earl
of Clarendon. He had been in the beginning of the long parliament very
high against the judges upon the account of the ship-money and became
then a considerable man; he spake well, his style had no flaw in it,
but had a just mixture of wit and sense, only he spoke too copiously;
he had a great pleasantness in his spirit, which carried him sometimes
too far into raillery, in which he sometimes shewed more wit than
discretion. He went over to the court party when the war was like to
break out, and was much in the late king's councils and confidence
during the war, though he was always of the party that pressed the
king to treat, and so was not in good terms with the queen. The late
king recommended him to this king as the person on whose advices he
wished him to rely most, and he was about the king all the while that
he was beyond sea, except a little that he was ambassador in Spain; he
managed all the king's correspondences in England, both in the little
designs that the cavaliers were sometimes engaged in, and chiefly in
procuring money for the king's subsistence, in which Dr. Sheldon was
very active; he had nothing so much before his eyes as the king's
service and doated on him beyond expression: he had been a sort of
governor to him and had given him many lectures on the politics
and was thought to assume and dictate too much ... But to pursue
Clarendon's character: he was a man that knew England well, and was
lawyer good enough to be an able chancellor, and was certainly a very
incorrupt man. In all the king's foreign negotiations he meddled too
much, for I have been told that he had not a right notion of foreign
matters, but he could not be gained to serve the interests of other
princes. Mr. Fouquet sent him over a present of 10,000 pounds after
the king's restoration and assured him he would renew that every
year, but though both the king and the duke advised him to take it he
very worthily refused it. He took too much upon him and meddled in
everything, which was his greatest error. He fell under the hatred
of most of the cavaliers upon two accounts. The one was the act of
indemnity which cut off all their hopes of repairing themselves of
the estates of those that had been in the rebellion, but he said it
was the offer of the indemnity that brought in the king and it was
the observing of it that must keep him in, so he would never let that
be touched, and many that had been deeply engaged in the late times
having expiated it by their zeal of bringing home the king were
promoted by his means, such as Manchester, Anglesey, Orrery, Ashley,
Holles, and several others. The other thing was that, there being an
infinite number of pretenders to employments and rewards for their
services and sufferings, so that the king could only satisfy some few
of them, he upon that, to stand between the king and the displeasure
which those disappointments had given, spoke slightly of many of them
and took it upon him that their petitions were not granted; and some
of them having procured several warrants from the secretaries for the
same thing (the secretaries considering nothing but their fees), he
who knew on whom the king intended that the grant should fall, took
all upon him, so that those who were disappointed laid the blame
chiefly if not wholly upon him. He was apt to talk very imperiously
and unmercifully, so that his manner of dealing with people was as
provoking as the hard things themselves were; but upon the whole
matter he was a true Englishman and a sincere protestant, and what
has passed at court since his disgrace has sufficiently vindicated him
from all ill designs' (_Supplement_, ed. Foxcroft, pp. 53-6).
There is a short character of Clarendon in Warwick's _Mémoires_, pp.
196-8; compare also Pepys's _Diary_, October 13, 1666, and Evelyn's
_Diary_, August 27, 1667, and September 18, 1683.
66.
Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 638-9; _Continuation of the Life of Edward
Earl of Clarendon_, ed. 1759, pp. 51-2.
Page 226, l. 8. He was released from Windsor Castle in March 1660.
Compare Burnet's character, p. 228, ll. 2-4.
l. 19. _the Chancellour_, i.e. Clarendon himself.
Page 227, ll. 5 ff. John Middleton (1619-74), created Earl of
Middleton, 1656. He was taken prisoner at Worcester, but escaped to
France. As Lord High Commissioner for Scotland and Commander-in-chief,
he was mainly responsible for the unfortunate methods of forcing
episcopacy on Scotland.
William Cunningham (1610-64), ninth Earl of Glencairn, Lord Chancellor
of Scotland.
John Leslie (1630-81), seventh Earl and first Duke of Rothes,
President of the Council in Scotland; Lord Chancellor, 1667.
On the composition of the ministry in Scotland, compare Burnet, ed.
Osmund Airy, vol. i, pp. 199, ff.
67.