Part 16 (1/2)
[176:1] Grosart, vol iii p 284
[178:1] Grosart, vol iii p 370
[178:2] _Ibid_, p 382
CHAPTER VI
LAST YEARS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
Marvell's last ten years in the House of Commons were made miserable by the passionate conviction that there existed in high quarters of the State a deep, dangerous, and well-considered plot to subvert the Protestant faith and to destroy by arland Marvell was not the victim of a delusion Such a plot, plan, or purpose undoubtedly existed, though, as it failed, it is now easy to consider the alarerated
Marvell was, of all public , the one most deeply imbued with the spirit of our free constitution Its checks and balances jumped with his humour His nature ithout any taint of fanaticis of the doctrinaire He was neither a Richard Baxter nor a John Locke He had none of the pure Erastianism of Selden, who tells us in his ini men have made for their own sakes, for quietness' sake” ”Just as in a family one man is appointed to buy theas spiritual jurisdiction; all is civil, the Church's is the saes jurisdiction over all; the Bishops they pretend to it as well as he; the Presbyterians they would have it to themselves, but over whom is all this, the poor layman” (see Selden's _Table Talk_)
This ood sense but it does not represent Marvell's way of looking at things He thought
In Marvell's last book, his famous pamphlet ”_An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Governland,” printed at Alish Protestants_, 1678, which ious stir and (it is sad to think) paved the way for the ”Popish Plot,” Marvell sets forth his view of our constitution in language as lofty as it is precise I know no passage in any of our institutional writers of equal s of England rule not upon the sa by force or by address usurped that due share which their people had in the governes in the possession of an arbitrary pohich yet no prescription can al) and exercise it over their persons and estates in a most tyrannical manner But here the subjects retain their proportion in the Legislature; the very land is represented in Parliament, and is a party to those laws by which the Prince is sworn to govern himself and his people No money is to be levied but by the cooods, or liberty, at the Sovereign's discretion: but we have the saht (modestly understood) in our propriety that the prince hath in his regality: and in all cases where the King is concerned, we have our just rehbourhood, in the Courts of Westh Court of Parliaative is no more than what the Law has deteritier currant, than upon the trial it is found to be legal He cannot commit any person by his particular warrant He cannot himself be witness in any cause: the balance of publick justice being so delicate, that not the hand only but even the breath of the Prince would turn the scale Nothing is left to the King's will, but all is subjected to his authority: by which , nor can he receive wrong; and a King of England keeping to these ance, be said to reent Ruler over a rational People In recoood a Government under his influence, his person is most sacred and inviolable; and whatsoever excesses are co of the free from the necessity or temptation; but his ministers only are accountable for all, and must answer it at their perils He hath a vast revenue constantly arising from the hearth of the Householder, the sweat of the Labourer, the rent of the Farmer, the industry of the Merchant, and consequently out of the estate of the Gentlee competence to defray the ordinary expense of the Crown, and maintain its lustre And if any extraordinary occasion happen, or be but with any probable decency pretended, the whole Land at whatsoever season of the year does yield him a plentiful harvest
So forward are his people's affections to give even to superfluity, that a forainer (or English abroad) would think they could neither will nor chuse, but that the asking of a supply were a ranted He is the fountain of all honours, and has moreover the distribution of so many profitable offices of the Household, of the Revenue, of State, of Law, of Religion, of the Navy and (since his present Majestie's time) of the Army, that it seems as if the Nation could scarce furnish honest s of England are in nothing inferiour to other Princes, save in beingtheir own subjects: but have as large a field as any of external felicity, wherein to exercise their own virtue, and so reward and incourage it in others In short, there is nothing that comes nearer in Government to the Divine Perfection, than where the Monarch, as with us, injoys a capacity of doing all the good iinable to mankind, under a disability to all that is evil”[181:1]
This was the constitution which Marvell, whose reat and whose curiosity was insatiable, believed to be in danger
No wonder he was agitated
The politics in which Marvell was i his last years are difficult to unravel and still in in the secret thoughts and wavering purposes of the king
Charles the Second, like uiltless of Stuart blood in his veins, was overned by his dislikes, his pleasures, and his financial necessities To suppose, as so but his women is to misread his character He had istrate of a nation of shopkeepers He was ever alive to the suprehts were often turned in the direction of the Indies, east and west He took a constant, though not always an honest, interest in the navy He hated Holland forthese reasons was his hatred of England's most formidable and ly Protestantis thicker than water, he hated Holland for what he considered her shabby treatment of his youthful nephehose ulti Charles's lican bishops, who had prevented hi his word, and foiled his purpose of a wide toleration He envied his brother of France the wide culture, the literature and art of Catholicisretted the Reforlish Church in colican liberties” akin to those enjoyed by the Gallican Church Charles was also jealous of Louis the Fourteenth, and in many ed for a navy to sweep the seas, for an arh to keep his Parliament in check, and for liberty for himself and for all those of his subjects ere so minded, to hear Mass on Sundays Behind, and above, and always surrounding these desires and dislikes, was an ever-present, ever-pressing need for ht have found it easy to be a patriotic king on five n Minister, and being what he was, and swayed by the considerations I have in policy was necessarily tortuous and perplexing As Ranke says, ”Charles was capable of proposing offensive alliances to the three neighbouring powers, to the Dutch against France, to the French against Spain and Holland, to the Spaniards against France to the detriment of Holland, but in these propositions two fundamental vieays recur--demands for land”[183:1]
Charles first allowed Sir William Teotiation, the defensive treaty with Holland, which, after Sweden had joined it, became known as the Triple Alliance (1668) This alliance had for its objectsparties to come to each other's assistance by sea and land if attacked by any power (France being here intended), to force Spain to make peace with France on the terms already offered, and to coreed to by Spain
The Triple Alliance was not only very popular in England, but was good diploe of practical politics that France and Holland land; nor could it easily be maintained that the alliance was hostile to France, as it provided that Spain should be forced to accept the terms France had already proposed
What wrecked the Triple Alliance and prepared the way for the secret Treaty of Dover (1670), was the iious difficulties which, despite the Act of Unifor wanted to patch up peace, and to secure so plan of comprehension or coion should be tolerated and Presbyterianiset his way The Church and the House of Commons, full as the latter was of his pimps and pensioners, were as obstinate as mules in this matter of toleration
They would neither favour Papists nor Dissenters, protested against Indulgences as unconstitutional, and claislation against Nonconformists which they had purchased with so many and such lavish supplies As a matter of fact, these penal laere very fitfully enforced In London they were often totally disregarded, and we read of congregations nu Presbyterian services The Lord Mayor for the ti
What was Charles to do? After the fall of Clarendon, the king's favourite privy councillors, called the ”Cabal,” because the initial letters of their names formed a hich for some time previously had been in common use, represent only too faithfully the confusion and corruption of the titon a cautious one, Buckinghaood terlish sectaries; Ashley made no pretence to be a Christian, but favoured philosophic toleration; whilst Lauderdale, one of the most learned ministers that ever sat in council (so Ranke says[185:1]), was, as a matter of profession, a Presbyterian, but in reality a 's interests, and prepared at any e or suppress all Free Institutions
Irritated, disgusted, thwarted, and annoyed, the king, acting, it well may be, under the influence of his accomplished sister, the beautiful and ill-fated duchess of Orleans, struck up, to use Marvell's oords, ”an invisible league with France” The negotiations were either by word of ard in his history gives an interesting account of this s are apparent as the objects of the Treaty of Dover The Dutch Republic is to be destroyed, and the cause of Catholicisland is to be promoted and maintained It was this latter object that seems most to have excited the hopes of the duchess of Orleans A wohout Charles promised to profess himself openly a Roman Catholic at the time that should appear to be most expedient, and subsequently to that profession he was to join with Louis inwar upon the Dutch Republic At the date of this bewildering agreeh treason by statute even to _say_ that Charles was a Ro's public conversion should lead to disturbances, Louis promised an ”aid” of two millions of _livres_ and an arreed to pay the whole cost of the Dutch War _on land_, and to contribute thirty land's share of the plunder was to be Walcheren, Sluys, and Cadsand A remarkable conversion! It is difficult to suppose that either Charles or Louis were quite serious over this part of the business Yet there it is The Catholic provisions of the secret Treaty of Dover were only known to Clifford, whose soul was fired by theton, who did not share the confident hopes of his co-religionist Clifford thought there were thousands of Englishlish Catholics ould be both willing and able to assu Arlington thought otherwise
The king's public conversion never took place No hint was given of any such i event Parliaood deal about the Triple Alliance and voting large suain till February 1673
To pick a quarrel with the Dutch was never difficult Marvell tells us hoas done ”A sorry yacht, but bearing the English Jack, in August 1671 sails into thetwice as they call it, sharp upon him Which must sure have appeared as ridiculous and unnatural as for a lark to dare the hobby”
The Dutch ad ”Why,” was told ”because he and his whole fleet had failed to strike sail to his small craft” The Dutch commander then ”civilly excused it as a matter of the first instance, and in which he could have no instruction, therefore proper to be referred to theirthus acquitted itself, returned fraught with the quarrel she was sent for”[187:1] Surinaainst the law of nations was always happening there A third reat use of by the pro at Dort representing De Witt sailing up the Medway very much in the manner described in Marvell's poem Medals also had been struck and distributed in coainst Holland by England and France in March 1672 The Declaration of War was preceded by the Declaration of Indulgence, whereby, wrote Marvell, ”all the penal laws against Papists for which forainst Nonconforely, were at one instant suspended in order to defraud the nation of all that religion which they had so dearly purchased, and for which they ought at least, the bargain being broke, to have been reimbursed”[187:2]