her chamber, and then publicly by the bishop of London. For six weeks the bride had little to complain of, then her husband's character appeared in his recommending Lady Castlemaine, one of his mistresses, for a chief post in the queen's household, and though she resisted, the "good-natured" monarch actually forced his wife to receive his mistress as a constant attendant. He was even mean enough to keep her in poverty, allowing her for the first year, only £4,000 instead of the sum promised.

Catherine tried to submit, and at times they seemed on fair terms with each other, but the appearance of a new mistress led to a new estrangement. In connexion with the popish plots, the queen was greatly troubled; some of her servants were executed, and she herself accused of being a party to the king's intended death. After the decease of Charles, she resided till 1692 at Somerset House; she then returned to Portugal, of which country she was for a time queenregent. Her death took place suddenly in 1705. Catherine was characterised by great patience, and general correctness of manners, though living in one of the most corrupt courts of Europe. She was very fond of music and dancing, and was the first patroness in England of the Italian style of singing.

The children of Charles I. By Catherine his queen there was no issue, but by his mistresses, many illegitimate children, most of whom were ennobled, and some became the ancestors of existing noble families. Of these were James, Duke of Monmouth, the ancestor of the Dukes of Buccleugh, by Mary Walters; Charles, Duke of Southampton; Henry, Duke of Grafton, the ancestor of the Dukes of Grafton; and George, Duke of Northumberland, by Mrs. Palmer, afterwards the Duchess of Cleveland; Charles, Duke of St. Albans, the ancestor of the Dukes of St. Albans, by Nell Gwynne; Charles, Duke of Richmond, the ancestor of the Dukes of Richmond, by Louise Querouaille, a Frenchwoman, created Duchess of Portsmouth; Mary, Countess of Derwentwater, by Mary Davis, an actress; and several others.

EDWARD HYDE, EARL OF CLARENDON, 1608-1674. Edward Hyde was born at Dinton, in Wiltshire, and educated at Magdelen College, Oxford; subsequently he entered the Middle Temple for the study of the law. At the death of his father, his competent fortune made him independent of a profession, he therefore entered parliament in 1640, and was successful in procuring the abolition of the Earl-marshal's oppressive court. He also attacked the despotic "Court of the North", condemned the decision of the judges respecting shipmoney, and took part in the proceedings against Strafford. Shortly after this, feeling that the parliament was becoming violent in its measures, he stood up in support of the church and the throne, and in a private conference with the king was thanked for his services. From this time he became one of Charles's counsellors, and in 1643 was knighted, made chancellor, and a member of the privy council. He fled from England with the Prince of Wales in 1645, and resided for a time in Jersey, where he commenced his history. Having subsequently joined Charles II., he was sent in 1649 as his ambassador to Spain, from which country he returned in 1651, and was employed in the management of the court of the exiled prince. At this period, he suffered great privations; in 1652 he wrote, "I have neither clothes nor fire to preserve me from the severity of the season".

At the Restoration, Hyde rose to be the first in place, favor, and authority; but his haughtiness, irritability of temper, and the impossibility of meeting the wishes of all parties, produced ultimately a general dislike, which ended in his impeachment. When in exile, he removed from place to place in search of health, till he died at Rouen. In private life, Clarendon is said to have been constant in his friendships, and of strict morals; as a minister, he was sagacious enough, but deficient in courage and firmness, and hence disposed to be satisfied with expedients. Macaulay remarks-"It is principally to the general baseness and profligacy of the times that Clarendon is indebted for his reputation. He was, in every respect, a man unfit for his age-at once too good for it and too bad for it". Clarendon's principal work, "The History of the Great Rebellion", is in repute for its lively descriptions of persons and events, though its value is much lessened by its partiality in some parts, and inaccuracy in others. Hallam says, 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."

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Three of Clarendon's children figure in the history of the period Henry, the second Earl of Clarendon; Lawrence, created Earl of Rochester; and Anne, who married James, Duke of York, and became the mother of Queen Mary and Queen Anne.

ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, 1621-1683. Anthony A. Cooper was born at Wimborne and educated at Exeter College, Oxford; subsequently he entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn. In 1640, he was returned to the Short Parliament, for Tewkesbury, and adhered to the royal cause till he was deprived of the government of Weymouth, in 1643, when "he gave himself up body and soul to the parliament". He was a member of most of the short lived parliaments during the interregnum, and was also of the Protector's council. By the Convention parliament he was appointed one of the commissioners to Breda, and on the Restoration held several offices, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Ashley. As chancellor of the exchequer his influence was considerable, and mostly in opposition to Clarendon, and even when a member of the Cabal he was occasionally difficult to manage. In 1672, he was created Earl of Shaftesbury, and made lord chancellor; it is asserted that none of his decrees were reversed. He was dismissed from office in the year following by the influence of the Duke of York, this led him to join the opposition, and apply his remarkable activity and talent for intrigue to thwart the measures of the court. For about six months Shaftesbury was president of the new council proposed by Temple. It was while in this office that he carried through the Habeas Corpus Act, or as it was called in those days, Lord Shaftesbury's Act. After his dismissal from the presidency his conduct became violent, and the government to crush him brought against the Earl a charge of treason; though the jury acquitted him, he thought it necessary to withdraw to Holland, where he died almost immediately of gout. Shaftesbury was a man of great ability, but

according to Hallam "destitute of all honest principle"; and although he procured the passing of the Habeas Corpus Act, it is doubtful whether he had any regard for public liberty.

SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE. 1628-1698. Sir William Temple was born in London and educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Being a gay young man, he left Cambridge without a degree. After travelling the continent two years, he married, and lived with his father, the Master of the Rolls, at Dublin. In 1660, Temple was chosen a member of the Irish Convention, and after the Restoration was re-elected as a member of the Irish parliament. He came to England in 1663, and was soon employed in diplomatic services, which at various courts he continued till the peace of Nimeguen. After the failure of his council scheme he retired into private life at Moor-park, Surrey. It was in this retreat that Swift spent the greater part of ten years, assisting Sir William with his pen. In his retirement, Temple wrote his "Memoirs from 1672-1692," and other works: Dr. Johnson says of him, "he was the first writer who gave cadence to English prose". Temple was a model diplomatist, uniting politeness and address to honesty, and in an age of extremes, a respectable statesman. Macaulay says, "he is not without fair pretensions to the most honourable place among the statesmen of his time: A few of them equalled or surpassed him in talents; but they were men of no good repute for honesty. A few may be named whose patriotism was purer, nobler, and more disinterested than his; but they were men of no eminent ability. Morally, he was above Shaftesbury; intellectually, he was above Russell."

GEORGE VILLIERS, SECOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. 16271688. George Villiers was born in London and educated at Cambridge. During the civil war he served under the Earl of Holland, and was present with him at the battle of Worcester. After some years exile he returned to England in 1657, and married the daughter of Fairfax; at the Restoration he received his paternal estates. In a court so depraved as that of Charles's, Buckingham distinguished himself by his utter profligacy, and by pandering to his master's worst passions. His connexion with the Cabal is well known, as is also his subsequent connexion with Shaftesbury in factious opposition to the court. Ruined in fortune and health, he withdrew on the death of Charles, to his estate in Yorkshire, where he died at the house of one of his tenants, and not as Pope has it "in the worst inn's worst room". The following inimitable portrait is by Dryden : "A man so various that he seem'd to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome. Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts, and nothing long; But in the course of one revolving moon,

Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,

Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking."

ALGERNON SYDNEY. 1621-1683. Algernon Sydney was a younger son of Robert, second Earl of Leicester. His first appearance in public affairs was as captain of a troop of horse, in the Irish Rebellion, 1641. Returning to England, he and his brother Lord

Lisle were made prisoners by the parliament; joining that party, he took part in the civil war. Sydney was one of the king's judges, but was absent when the sentence was past, and did not sign the warrant. During the Protectorate, he lived at Penshurst, but on the restoration of the Long parliament in 1659, took his seat, and became one of the council of state. Before the Restoration was effected, he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Denmark; writing some political verses in the album of the University of Copenhagen, he gave occasion to Charles to suspect his loyalty. Sydney therefore remained abroad intriguing with the English exiles, and even proposing to Louis of France, to aid in the establishment of a republic in England. In 1677, he obtained a pardon and returned home; he almost immediately entered into intrigues in connexion with the French ambassador, from whom he took moneys, for forwarding the views of Louis. To promote his republican scheme, he took part with Shaftesbury and others to overthrow the government, for which he was arrested and executed for high treason.

Burnet describes him " as a man of most extraordinary courage, a steady man, even to obstinacy, sincere, but of a rough and boisterous temper, that could not bear contradiction, but could give foul language upon it. He seemed to be a Christian, but in a particular form of his own; he thought it was to be like a divine philosophy in the mind; but he was against all public worship, and everything that looked like a church. He was stiff to all republican principles, and such an enemy to everything that looked like monarchy, that he set himself in a high opposition against Cromwell when he was made Protector. He had studied the history of government in all its branches beyond any man I ever knew." The following passage from Hallam sets Sydneys political character in a true light. He possessed no doubt, a powerful, active, and undaunted mind, stored with extensive reading on the topics in which he delighted. But having proposed one only object for his political conduct, the establishment of a republic in England, his pride and inflexibility, though they gave a dignity to his character, rendered his views narrower and his temper unaccommodating. It was evident to every reasonable man that a republican government, being adverse to the prepossessions of a great majority of the people, could only be brought about and maintained by force of usurpation. Yet for this idol of his speculative hours he was content to sacrifice the liberties of Europe, to plunge the country in civil war, and even to stand indebted to France for protection. He may justly be suspected of having been the chief promoter of the dangerous cabals with Barillon; nor could any tool of Charles's court be more sedulous in representing the aggressions of Louis XIV. in the Netherlands as indifferent to our honor and safety."

LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL. 1639-1683. Lord W. Russell was a younger son of the Duke of Bedford; he was educated at Cambridge. In company with his excellent wife, he loved the retirement and happiness of private life, but the venality of Charles and the papistical designs of the court, made it appear to him a duty to go forth and serve his country. In connexion with several members entertaining like views, so great an influence was gained in the House, that Charles was compelled to give up the Dutch war, and put an end to the Cabal ministry, which converted Buckingham and Shaftesbury

into popular leaders. Russell now unfortunately became connected with unprincipled men, and listened to designs of rebellion. The government charged him with being privy to the Rye House plot, of which there was no evidence; he was condemned nevertheless, and executed in Lincoln's Inn Fields, July 21. His attainder was annulled in the first year of William and Mary, on the ground that it was obtained by unjust constructions of law. Burnet speaking of Lord Russell says, He was a slow man and of little discourse, but he had a true judgment when he considered things at his own leisure. His understanding was not defective, but his virtues were so eminent that they would have more than balanced real defects, if any had been found in the other."

LADY RACHEL RUSSELL. Lady Rachel was the wife of Lord William Russell, and daughter of the Earl of Southampton. She was a woman distinguished for her ardent affection, piety, and courage; and was alike exemplary in prosperity and adversity. During the trial of her husband, she stood by his side, took notes of the proceedings, and by her firmness and affection, encouraged him to act as became a man and a patriot. After her husband's execution, she devoted the anniversary of the day when he was taken from his family, the day of his trial, and the day of his execution to solitary reflection and prayer. These three days were thus kept till her death in 1723.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

THE COVENTRY ACT. 1671. In a discussion in the House, Sir John Coventry put a question which reflected on the king's connexion with the female players. The gallants with Monmouth at their head resolved to punish this insult. A party of the royal guard waylaid Sir John, beat him, and then cut his nose to the bone. The Commons indignant, refused to proceed to business till they had marked their sense of the outrage, which they did by passing an act making malicious maiming or disfiguring of the person a capital felony.

THE TEST ACT. 1673. Charles issued in 1672 a proclamation of indulgence, suspending the penal laws against all non-conformists and recusants whatever. In the next year, the parliament on account of the secret views from which the indulgence proceeded, remonstrated against it. The public mind was opposed to it, as the Duke of York had turned Catholic and the Duchess had died one; the king was in alliance with France against the Protestant States of Holland, and many officers in the army were Catholics. Charles found himself compelled to give way; he recalled the indulgence, and gave his sanction to the Test Act, which enacted-that all persons holding public offices, civil or military, should take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy; receive the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England; and subscribe a declaration against the doctrine of transubstantiation: All persons neglecting to do so to be fined £500, and be rendered incapable of sueing in any court of law, of being a guardian, or of taking a legacy. This act continued law till its repeal in 1828.

HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 1679. From a remote period there had been a writ of Habeas Corpus called Corpus cum causa, as a remedy