the king's
service and doated on him beyond expression: he had been a sort of
governor to him and had given him many lectures on the politics
and was thought to assume and dictate too much ... But to pursue
Clarendon's character: he was a man that knew England well, and was
lawyer good enough to be an able chancellor, and was certainly a very
incorrupt man. In all the king's foreign negotiations he meddled too
much, for I have been told that he had not a right notion of foreign
matters, but he could not be gained to serve the interests of other
princes. Mr. Fouquet sent him over a present of 10,000 pounds after
the king's restoration and assured him he would renew that every
year, but though both the king and the duke advised him to take it he
very worthily refused it. He took too much upon him and meddled in
everything, which was his greatest error. He fell under the hatred
of most of the cavaliers upon two accounts. The one was the act of
indemnity which cut off all their hopes of repairing themselves of
the estates of those that had been in the rebellion, but he said it
was the offer of the indemnity that brought in the king and it was
the observing of it that must keep him in, so he would never let that
be touched, and many that had been deeply engaged in the late times
having expiated it by their zeal of bringing home the king were
promoted by his means, such as Manchester, Anglesey, Orrery, Ashley,
Holles, and several others. The other thing was that, there being an
infinite number of pretenders to employments and rewards for their
services and sufferings, so that the king could only satisfy some few
of them, he upon that, to stand between the king and the displeasure
which those disappointments had given, spoke slightly of many of them
and took it upon him that their petitions were not granted; and some
of them having procured several warrants from the secretaries for the
same thing (the secretaries considering nothing but their fees), he
who knew on whom the king intended that the grant should fall, took
all upon him, so that those who were disappointed laid the blame
chiefly if not wholly upon him. He was apt to talk very imperiously
and unmercifully, so that his manner of dealing with people was as
provoking as the hard things themselves were; but upon the whole
matter he was a true Englishman and a sincere protestant, and what
has passed at court since his disgrace has sufficiently vindicated him
from all il