y first
appeared marshalled against each other, he, with many wise and good men,
took the conservative side. He thenceforward followed the fortunes of
the court, enjoyed as large a share of the confidence of Charles the
First as the reserved nature and tortuous policy of that prince allowed
to any minister, and subsequently shared the exile and directed the
political conduct of Charles the Second. At the Restoration Hyde became
chief minister. In a few months it was announced that he was closely
related by affinity to the royal house. His daughter had become, by a
secret marriage, Duchess of York. His grandchildren might perhaps wear
the crown. He was raised by this illustrious connection over the heads
of the old nobility of the land, and was for a time supposed to be
allpowerful. In some respects he was well fitted for his great place. No
man wrote abler state papers. No man spoke with more weight and dignity
in Council and in Parliament. No man was better acquainted with general
maxims of statecraft. No man observed the varieties of character with a
more discriminating eye. It must be added that he had a strong sense of
moral and religious obligation, a sincere reverence for the laws of his
country, and a conscientious regard for the honour and interest of the
Crown. But his temper was sour, arrogant, and impatient of opposition.
Above all, he had been long an exile; and this circumstance alone would
have completely disqualified him for the supreme direction of affairs.
It is scarcely possible that a politician, who has been compelled by
civil troubles to go into banishment, and to pass many of the best years
of his life abroad, can be fit, on the day on which he returns to his
native land, to be at the head of the government. Clarendon was no
exception to this rule. He had left England with a mind heated by a
fierce conflict which had ended in the downfall of his party and of his
own fortunes. From 1646 to 1660 he had lived beyond sea, looking on all
that passed at home from a great distance, and through a false medium.
His notions of public affairs were necessarily derived from the
reports of plotters, many of whom were ruined and desperate men. Events
naturally seemed to him auspicious, not in proportion as they increased
the prosperity and glory of the nation, but in proportion as they tended
to hasten the hour of his own return. His wish, a wish which he has not
disguised, was that, till his countrymen brought bac