his conduct as odious though useful to the king, calls him
a "perfidious rogue," and remarks that "all the world took notice of him
for a most ungrateful villain for his pains."[3] On the 1st of July 1663
he was created a baronet. Downing had from the first been hostile to the
Dutch as the commercial rivals of England. He had strongly supported the
Navigation Act of 1660, and he now deliberately drew on the fatal and
disastrous war. During its continuance he took part at home in the
management of the treasury, introduced the appropriation of supplies,
opposed strongly by Clarendon as an encroachment on the prerogative, and
in May 1667 was made secretary to the commissioners, his appointment
being much welcomed by Pepys.[4] He had been returned for Morpeth in the
convention parliament of April 1660, a constituency which he represented
in every ensuing parliament till his death, and he spoke with ability on
financial and commercial questions. He was appointed a commissioner of
the customs in 1671. The same year he was again sent to Holland to
replace Sir William Temple, to break up the policy of the Triple
alliance and incite another war between Holland and England in
furtherance of the French policy. His unpopularity there was extreme,
and after three months' residence Downing fled to England, in fear of
the fury of the mob. For this unauthorized step he was sent to the Tower
on the 7th of February 1672, but released some few weeks afterwards. He
defended the Declaration of Indulgence the same year, and made himself
useful in supporting the court policy. He died in July 1684. Downing
Street, London, is named after him, while Downing College, Cambridge,
derived its name from his grandson, the 3rd baronet. The title became
extinct when the 4th baronet, Sir Jacob G. Downing, died in 1764.

Downing was undoubtedly a man of great political and diplomatic ability,
but his talents were rarely employed for the advantage of his country
and his character was marked by all the mean vices, treachery, avarice,
servility and ingratitude. "A George Downing" became a proverbial
expression in New England to denote a false man who betrayed his
trust.[5] He published a large number of declarations and discourses,
mostly in Dutch, enumerated in Sibley's biography, and wrote also "A
True Relation of the Progress of the Parliament's Forces in Scotland"
(1651), _Thomason Tracts_, Brit. Mus., E 640 (5).

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The date of his b