[645] As no one, who regards with attachment the present system of the English constitution, can look upon Lord Clarendon as an excellent minister, or a friend to the soundest principles of civil and religious liberty; so no man whatever can avoid considering his incessant deviations from the great duties of an historian as a moral blemish in his character. He dares very frequently to say what is not true, and what he must have known to be otherwise; he does not dare to say what is true. And it is almost an aggravation of this reproach, that he aimed to deceive posterity, and poisoned at the fountain a stream from which another generation was to drink. No defence has ever been set up for the fidelity of Clarendon's history; nor can men, who have sifted the authentic materials, entertain much difference of judgment in this respect; though, as a monument of powerful ability and impressive eloquence, it will always be read with that delight which we receive from many great historians, especially the ancient, independent of any confidence in their veracity.
One more instance, before we quit Lord Clarendon for ever, may here be mentioned of his disregard for truth. The strange tale of a fruitless search after the restoration for the body of Charles I. is well known. Lord Southampton and Lindsey, he tells us, who had assisted at their master's obsequies in St. George's chapel at Windsor, were so overcome with grief, that they could not recognise the place of interment; and, after several vain attempts, the search was abandoned in despair. Hist. of Rebellion, vi. 244. Whatever motive the noble historian may have had for this story, it is absolutely incredible that any such ineffectual search was ever made. Nothing could have been more easy than to have taken up the pavement of the choir. But this was unnecessary. Some at least of the workmen employed must have remembered the place of the vault. Nor did it depend on them; for Sir Thomas Herbert, who was present, had made at the time a note of the spot, "just opposite the eleventh stall on the king's side." Herbert's Memoirs, 142. And we find from Pepys's Diary, Feb. 26, 1666, that "he was shown, at Windsor, where the late king was buried, and King Henry VIII. and my Lady Seymour." In which spot, as is well known, the royal body has twice been found, once in the reign of Anne, and again in 1813.
[646] The tenor of Clarendon's life and writings almost forbids any surmise of pecuniary corruption. Yet this is insinuated by Pepys, on the authority of Evelyn, April 27 and May 16, 1667. But the one was gossiping, though shrewd; and the other feeble, though accomplished. Lord Dartmouth, who lived in the next age, and whose splenetic humour makes him no good witness against anybody, charges him with receiving bribes from the main instruments and promoters of the late troubles, and those who had plundered the royalists, which enabled him to build his great mansion in Piccadilly; asserting that it was full of pictures belonging to families who had been despoiled of them. "And whoever had a mind to see what great families had been plundered during the civil war, might find some remains either at Clarendon House or at Cornbury." Note on Burnet, 88.
The character of Clarendon, as a minister, is fairly and judiciously drawn by Macpherson, Hist. of England, 98; a work by no means so full of a tory spirit as has been supposed.
[647] Parl. Hist. 347.
[648] The Lords refused to commit the Earl of Clarendon on a general impeachment of high treason; and in a conference with the lower house, denied the authority of the precedent in Strafford's case, which was pressed upon them. It is remarkable that the managers of this conference for the Commons vindicated the first proceedings of the long parliament, which shows a considerable change in their tone since 1661. They do not, however, seem to have urged, what is an apparent distinction between the two precedents, that the commitment of Strafford was on a verbal request of Pym in the name of the Commons, without alleging any special matter of treason, and consequently irregular and illegal; while the 16th article of Clarendon's impeachment charges him with betraying the king's counsels to his enemies; which, however untrue, evidently amounted to treason within the statute of Edward III.; so that the objection of the Lords extended to committing any one for treason upon impeachment, without all the particularity required in an indictment. This showed a very commendable regard to the liberty of the subject; and from this time we do not find the vague and unintelligible accusations, whether of treason or misdemeanour, so usual in former proceedings of parliament. Parl. Hist. 387. A protest was signed by Buckingham, Albemarle, Bristol, Arlington, and others of their party, including three bishops (Cosins, Croft, and another), against the refusal of their house to commit Clarendon upon the general charge. A few, on the other hand, of whom Hollis is the only remarkable name, protested against the bill of banishment.
"The most fatal blow (says James) the king gave himself to his power and prerogative, was when he sought aid from the House of Commons to destroy the Earl of Clarendon: by that he put that house again in mind of their impeaching privilege, which had been wrested out of their hands by the restoration; and when ministers found they were like to be left to the censure of the parliament, it made them have a greater attention to court an interest there than to pursue that of their princes, from whom they hoped not for so sure a support." Life of James, 593.
The king, it is said, came rather slowly into the measure of impeachment; but became afterwards so eager, as to give the attorney-general, Finch, positive orders to be active in it, observing him to be silent. Carte's Ormond, ii. 353. Buckingham had made the king great promises of what the Commons would do, in case he would sacrifice Clarendon.
[649] Kennet, 293, 300. Burnet; Baxter, 23. The design was to act on the principle of the declaration of 1660, so that presbyterian ordinations should pass sub modo. Tillotson and Stillingfleet were concerned in it. The king was at this time exasperated against the bishops for their support of Clarendon. Burnet, ibid.; Pepys's Diary, 21st Dec. 1667. And he had also deeper motives.
[650] Parl. Hist. 421; Ralph, 170; Carte's Life of Ormond, ii. 362. Sir Thomas Littleton spoke in favour of the comprehension, as did Seymour and Waller; all of them enemies of Clarendon, and probably connected with the Buckingham faction: but the church party was much too strong for them. Pepys says the Commons were furious against the project; it was said that whoever proposed new laws about religion must do it with a rope about his neck. Jan. 10, 1668. This is the first instance of a triumph obtained by the church over the Crown in the House of Commons. Ralph observes upon it, "It is not for nought that the words church and state are so often coupled together, and that the first has so insolently usurped the precedency of the last."