tment and
jealousy were they apt to entertain. They observed, that the king never
had any favorite; that he was never governed by his ministers, scarcely
even by his mistresses; and that he himself was the chief spring of all
public counsels. Whatever appearance, therefore, of a change might be
assumed, they still suspected that the same project was secretly in
agitation; and they deemed no precaution too great to secure them
against the pernicious consequences of such measures.

He wished to have a treaty and alliance with France for mutual
supports and for a Dutch war; and when various pretended obstacles and
difficulties were surmounted, a sham treaty was concluded with their
consent and approbation, containing every article of the former real
treaty, except that of the king's change of religion. However, there
was virtually involved, even in this treaty, the assuming of absolute
government in England; for the support of French troops, and a war with
Holland, so contrary to the interests and inclinations of his people,
could mean nothing else. One cannot sufficiently admire the absolute
want of common sense which appears throughout the whole of this criminal
transaction. For if Popery was so much the object of national
horror, that even the king's three ministers, Buckingham, Ashley, and
Lauderdale, and such profligate ones, too, either would not or durst
not receive it, what hopes could he entertain of forcing the nation into
that communion? Considering the state of the kingdom, full of veteran
and zealous soldiers, bred during the civil wars, it is probable that
he had not kept the crown two months after a declaration so wild and
extravagant. This was probably the reason why the king of France and the
French minister always dissuaded him from taking off the mask, till
the successes of the Dutch war should render that measure prudent and
practicable.

The king, sensible of this jealousy, was inclined thenceforth not
to trust his people, of whom he had even before entertained a great
diffidence; and though obliged to make a separate peace, he still kept
up connections with the French monarch. He apologized for deserting his
ally, by representing to him all the real, undissembled difficulties
under which he labored; and Lewis, with the greatest complaisance and
good humor, admitted the validity of his excuses. The duke likewise,
conscious that his principles and conduct had rendered him still more
obnoxious to the p