nience from excessive poverty. Hyde quitted Madrid in 1651, and lived at Antwerp with his family until the autumn, when the king returned to Paris. Here ho conducted the principal business of the English court, collecting for their benefit such sums as lie could procure to diminish their pecuniary embarrassments. That they were in extreme penury is evident from Hyde's correspondence. lie says in 1652, " I have neither clothes nor fire to preserve me from the sharpness of the season ;" and in the following year, "I have not had a livre of my own these three months." He had also other evils to contend with ; the queen was his open foe, and ho had enemies striving to undermine him in the favour of the king; and though the behaviour of the king was friendly, he could not avoid being vexed at his judo.
hence and inordinate dissipation. Thus Hyde followed the fortunes of the king, affording him during his exile all the service that he was able; conducting his affairs, advising hie actions, and composing the quarrels of his supporters. lie was rewarded with the appointment lord•chaoccllor, an empty title, as the king was then situated, powerless and poor, yot, 10 all respects, the utmost that could be bestowed on him.
The death of Oliver Cromwell revived the hopes of the Royalists. During the short protectorship of his son the restoratioo of Cheries name daily more probable. " Hyde, Ormond, Colepepper, and Nicholes were at this timo the four confidential counsellors by whose tdvice Charles was almost exclusively directed. Of these four Hydo bore the greatest share of business, and was believed to possess the greatest influence. The measures he recommended were tempered with sagacity, prudence, and moderation." "The chancellor was a witness of the Restoration : he was with Charles at Canterbury in his progress to London, followed his triumphal entry to the capital, and took his seat on the let of June (1660) as speaker of the House of Lords : he also sat on the same day in the Court of Chancery." He retained the office of chancellor of the exchequer until the king could find a fit person to succeed him. Thus from a powerless and poverty stricken guardian of an exiled king he suddenly rose to be the " first in place, favour, and authority, among the ministers of a monarch, who, while invested by the public with sovereign power, still evinced towards him the deference of a pupil." The part that Hyde took in the principal measures that occupied the parliaments assembled after the Restoration may be learned from Lord Clarendon's Life,' written by himself, in Mr. Lister's ' Life of Clarendon,' and 'Burnet's ' History of his own Times.' We pass to the narration of an event of immediate personal importance and interest to the chancellor which occurred in the autumn of 1660. Anne Hyde, his daughter, who was in the household of the Princess of Orange, during a visit to the queen at Paris had contracted an attachment to the Duke of York, the result of which was a secret marriage, solemnised in September, in time to legitimatise their first child, born on the 22nd of the following month. This marriage was offensive, not only at court, but also to the chancellor, "who broke out," as he tells us, "into an immoderate passion against the wicked ness of his daughter." It was at first doubtful whether this unpopular
marriage might not tend to diminish the favour and power of the chancellor. These doubts however were soon removed. The king entertained no suspicions of artifice or collusion on the part of Hyde, and to prove that he entertained none, created him a baron, under the title of Lord Hyde of Hindon. On the occasion of the coronation, which took place in April 1661, the further dignity of the earldom of Clarendon was conferred on him, and he received from the king a gift of 20,000/, The principal events which now took place were, the king's marriage with Catherine of Portugal, the negotiation of a loan from the King of France, and the sale of Dunkirk. Clarendon took an active part in bringing each of these events to pass : his anthority and station required that in all important matters his opinions and decision should be expressed. Whatever may be thought of his share in the pro motion of the king's unhappy marriage, or in the sale of Dunkirk, there can be no second opinion as to his deep culpability in sanctioning Charles in becoming a dependent borrower from the king of France.
The opposition of the chancellor to the king's inclination to Roman Catholicism, as well as to other wishes he had formed, diminished his share of royal favour, and gave opportunity to his enemies to cabal against him with a greater probability of accomplishing his overthrow, than had ever been reasonably entertained. Among these enemies was the Earl of Bristol, a bold, ambitious, intriguing man, who sought to aggrandise himself at Clarendon's expense. Bristol, who was politically embarmseed to such an extent that he could only extricate himself by some desperate effort, thinking that Clarendon might be anccessfully attacked, drew up articles of impeachment, and accused him of high treason, in tho House of Lords. "Tho Lords referred the charges to the Judges; the Jndgea unanimously returned an answer that the charge had not been regularly and legally brought in, inasmuch as a charge of high treason cannot be originally exhi bited to the House of Peers by any one peer against another; and that if the charges were admitted to be true, yet there is not any treason in them." " The Lords resolved unanimously, that they concurred with the Judges. Bristol absconded, and a proclamation was issued for his apprehension ; and thus ridiculously and utterly failed this rash attempt to assail the character and power of Clarendon." Clarendon still continned the principal conductor of the public affairs, and such was the condition of the kingdom in politics both domestic and foreign, the poverty of the exchequer, the difficulty of raising supplies, the profligacy of the court and the king's absolute neglect of business on the one hand, the relation of England to foreign powers and the Deitch war on the other, that ho had difficulties of no ordinary magnitude to contend with. Discontent was general throughout the country; the war with Holland was unpopular, and the terms of peace which followed it were still more so. These feelings of irritation and disgust were vented upon Clarendon, and the public, without regard to justice, heaped upon him the odium of every measure and event.