Volume III Part 25 (1/2)

says Ronquillo. ”Il est absolument mal propre pour le role qu'il a a jouer a l'heure qu'il est,” says Avaux. ”Slothful and sickly,” says Evelyn. March 29. 1689.]

[Footnote 61: See Harris's description of Loo, 1699.]

[Footnote 62: Every person who is well acquainted with Pope and Addison will remember their sarcasms on this taste. Lady Mary Wortley Montague took the other side. ”Old China,” she says, ”is below n.o.body's taste, since it has been the Duke of Argyle's, whose understanding has never been doubted either by his friends or enemies.”]

[Footnote 63: As to the works at Hampton Court, see Evelyn's Diary, July 16. 1689; the Tour through Great Britain, 1724; the British Apelles; Horace Walpole on Modern Gardening; Burnet, ii. 2, 3.

When Evelyn was at Hampton Court, in 1662, the cartoons were not to be seen. The Triumphs of Andrea Mantegna were then supposed to be the finest pictures in the palace.]

[Footnote 64: Burnet, ii. 2.; Reresby's Memoirs. Ronquillo wrote repeatedly to the same effect. For example, ”Bien quisiera que el Rey fuese mas comunicable, y se acomodase un poco mas al humor sociable de los Ingleses, y que estubiera en Londres: pero es cierto que sus achaques no se lo permiten.” July 8/18 1689. Avaux, about the same time, wrote thus to Croissy from Ireland: ”Le Prince d'Orange est toujours a Hampton Court, et jamais a la ville: et le peuple est fort mal satisfait de cette maniere bizarre et retiree.”]

[Footnote 65: Several of his letters to Heinsius are dated from Holland House.]

[Footnote 66: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Evelyn's Diary, Feb. 25 1689/1690]

[Footnote 67: De Foe makes this excuse for William

”We blame the King that he relies too much On strangers, Germans, Huguenots, and Dutch, And seldom does his great affairs of state To English counsellors communicate.

The fact might very well be answered thus, He has too often been betrayed by us.

He must have been a madman to rely On English gentlemen's fidelity.

The foreigners have faithfully obeyed him, And none but Englishmen have e'er betrayed him.”]

--The True Born Englishman, Part ii.]

[Footnote 68: Ronquillo had the good sense and justice to make allowances which the English did not make. After describing, in a despatch dated March 1/11. 1689, the lamentable state of the military and naval establishments, he says, ”De esto no tiene culpa el Principe de Oranges; porque pensar que se han de poder volver en dos meses tres Reynos de abaxo arriba es una extravagancia.” Lord President Stair, in a letter written from London about a month later, says that the delays of the English administration had lowered the King's reputation, ”though without his fault.”]

[Footnote 69: Burnet, ii. 4.; Reresby.]

[Footnote 70: Reresby's Memoirs; Burnet MS. Hart. 6584.]

[Footnote 71: Burnet, ii. 3, 4. 15.]

[Footnote 72: ibid. ii. 5.]

[Footnote 73:

”How does he do to distribute his hours, Some to the Court, and some to the City, Some to the State, and some to Love's powers, Some to be vain, and some to be witty?”]

--The Modern Lampooners, a poem of 1690]

[Footnote 74: Burnet ii. 4]

[Footnote 75: Ronquillo calls the Whig functionaries ”Gente que no tienen practica ni experiencia.” He adds, ”Y de esto procede el pasa.r.s.e un mes y un otro, sin executa.r.s.e nada.” June 24. 1689. In one of the innumerable Dialogues which appeared at that time, the Tory interlocutor puts the question, ”Do you think the government would be better served by strangers to business?” The Whig answers, ”Better ignorant friends than understanding enemies.”]

[Footnote 76: Negotiations de M. Le Comte d'Avaux, 4 Mars 1683; Torcy's Memoirs.]

[Footnote 77: The original correspondence of William and Heinsius is in Dutch. A French translation of all William's letters, and an English translation of a few of Heinsius's Letters, are among the Mackintosh MSS. The Baron Sirtema de Grovestins, who has had access to the originals, frequently quotes pa.s.sages in his ”Histoire des luttes et rivalites entre les puissances maritimes et la France.” There is very little difference in substance, though much in phraseology, between his version and that which I have used.]

[Footnote 78: Though these very convenient names are not, as far as I know, to be found in any book printed during the earlier years of William's reign, I shall use them without scruple, as others have done, in writing about the transactions of those years.]

[Footnote 79: Burnet, ii. 8.; Birch's Life of Tillotson; Life of Kettlewell, part iii. section 62.]