The History of England Volume VI

LXVI

HistEng6_251-300.indd 34 6/17/11 11:15 AM 1674. Schemes of the Cabal. LXVI Schemes of the Cabal Remonstrances of Sir William TempleCampaign of I674- A Parliament- Passive obedience- A Parliament- Campaign of I675Congress of Nimeguen- Campaign of I676Uncertain conduct of the King- A ParliamentCampaign of I677- Parliament's distrust of the King - Marriage of the Prince of Orange with the Lady Mary- Plan of peaceNegociations - Campaign of I678Negociations - Peace of NimeguenState of affairs in Scotland ~~~ I F WE CONSIDER the projects of the famous Cabal, it will appear hard to determine, whether the end, which those ministers pursued, were more blameable and pernicious, or the means, by which they were to effect it, more impolitic and imprudent. Though they might talk only of recovering or fixing the king's authority; their intention could be no other than that of making him absolute: Since it was not possible to regain or maintain, in opposition to the people, any of those powers of the crown, abolished by late law or custom, without subduing the people, and rendering the royal prerogative entirely uncontroulable. Against HistEng6_251-300.indd 35 6/17/11 11:15 AM CHAPTER LXVI such a scheme, they might foresee, that every part of the nation would declare themselves, not only the old parliamentary faction, which, though they kept not in a body, were still numerous; but even the greatest royalists, who were indeed attached to monarchy, but desired to see it limited and restrained by law. It had appeared, that the present parliament, though elected during the greatest prevalence of the royal party, was yet tenacious of popular privileges , and retained a considerable jealousy of the crown, even before they had received anyjust ground ofsuspicion. The guards, therefore, together with a small army, new levied, and undisciplined , and composed too of Englishmen, were almost the only domestic resources, which the king could depend on in the prosecution of these dangerous counsels. The assistance of the French king was, no doubt, deemed by the Cabal a considerable support in the schemes which they were forming; but it is not easily conceived, that they could imagine themselves capable of directing and employing an associate of so domineering a character. They oughtjustly to have suspected, that it would be the sole intention of Lewis, as it evidently was his interest, to raise incurable jealousies between the king and his people; and that he saw how much a steddy uniform government in this island, whether free or absolute, would form invincible barriers to his ambition. Should his assistance be demanded; if he sent a small supply, it would serve only to enrage the people, and render the breach altogether irreparable; if he furnished a great force, sufficient to subdue the nation, there was little reason to trust his generosity, with regard to the use, which he would make of this advantage. In all its other parts, the plan of the Cabal, it must be confessed, appears equally absurd and incongruous. If the war with Holland were attended with great success, and involved the subjection of the republic; such an accession of force must fall to Lewis, not to Charles: And what hopes afterwards of resisting by the greatest unanimity so mighty a monarch? How dangerous, or rather how ruinous to depend upon his assistance against domestic discontents ? If the Dutch, by their own vigour, and the assistance of allies, were able to defend themselves, and could bring the war to an equality, the French arms would be so employed abroad, that no considerable reinforcement could thence be expected to second HistEng6_251-300.indd 36 6/17/11 11:15 AM HISTORY OF ENGLAND the king's enterprizes in England. And might not the project of over-awing or subduing the people be esteemed, of itself, sufficiently odious, without the aggravation of sacrificing that State, which they regarded as their best ally, and with which, on many accounts, they were desirous of maintaining the greatest concord and strictest confederacy? Whatever views likewise might be entertained of promoting by these measures the catholic religion; they could only tend to render all the other schemes abortive, and make them fall with inevitable ruin upon the projectors. The catholic religion, indeed, where it is established, is better fitted than the protestant for supporting an absolute monarchy; but would any man have thought of it as the means of acquiring arbitrary authority in England...