ve, my dearest life, that this will be the concluding epistle,
for this time, makes me undertake it with more cheerfulness than my
others." And it thus closes: "I pray God direct all your consultations;
and, my dearest dear, you guess my mind. A word to the wise. I never
longed more earnestly to be with you, for whom I have a thousand kind
and grateful thoughts. You know of whom I learned this expression. If I
could have found one more fit to speak the passion of my soul, I should
send it you with joy; but I submit with great content to imitate, but
shall never attain to any equality, except that of sincerity; and I will
ever be, by God's grace, what I ought and profess,

"Thy faithful, affectionate, and obedient wife,

"R. RUSSELL.

"I seal not this till Sunday morning, that you might know all is well
then. Miss sends me word that she is so, and hopes to see papa quickly;
so does one more."

V.

In October, 1680, Lord Russell moved in the House of Commons a
resolution that they ought to take into consideration how to oppose
Popery and prevent a Popish successor to the throne. A Bill was
accordingly brought in for excluding the Duke of York from the crown,
which passed the House of Commons, but was thrown out by the Lords, to
whom it was carried up by Lord Russell, attended by nearly the whole of
the Commons. About the same time Lords Shaftesbury, Russell, and
Cavendish presented the Duke of York to the grand jury for Middlesex at
Westminster Hall, as indictable, being a Popish recusant. In January,
1680-1, the Commons resolved that "until a Bill be passed for excluding
the Duke of York, they could not vote any supply, without danger to His
Majesty and extreme hazard to the Protestant religion."

Things had come to this crisis after years of arbitrary power, and the
humiliation of England in its king being a pensioner of Louis XIV. As
far back as 1669 a secret treaty was made with France, Charles engaging
to declare war against Holland, France to pay the king L800,000 annually
and make a division of the conquests, of which France would have the
largest share. In 1670 Colbert mentions Charles's ratification of this
treaty, having the king's seal and signature, and a letter from his own
hand. This treaty was kept secret from his ministers, and a pretended
treaty _(un traite simule)_ was to be promulgated, to which the
Protestant members of the Cabinet were to be parties. Colbert further
states that he was tol