WILLIAM AND MABY.

19

was meditated against the Church. Even Burnet, who at a chap.later period felt a strong antipathy to Nottingham, owned, in t ' G8 j —some memoirs written soon after the Revolution, that the Kinghad judged well, and that the influence of the Tory Secretary,honestly exerted in support of the new Sovereigns, had savedEngland from great calamities.*

The other Secretary was Shrewsbury.** No man so young shrews-had within living memory occupied so high a post in the govern-ment. He had but just completed his twenty eighth year. No-body, however, except the solemn formalists at the Spanishembassy, thought his youth an objection to his promotion.***

He had already secured for himself a place in history by theconspicuous part which he had taken in the deliverance of hiscountry. His talents, his accomplishments, his graceful man-ners, his bland temper, made him generally popular. By theWhigs especially he was almost adored. None suspected that,with many great and many amiable qualities, he had such faultsboth of head and of heart as would make the rest of a life which

* These memoirs will be found in a manuscript volume, which is partof the Ilarleian Collection, and is numbered 6584. They are, in fact, thefirst outlines of a great part of Burnet’s History of His Own Times. Thedates at which the different portions of this most curious and interestingbook were composed are marked. Almost the whole was written beforethe death of Mary. Burnet did not begin to prepare his History of William’sreign for the press till ten years later. By that time his opinions, both ofmen and of things, had undergone great changes. The value of the roughdraught is therefore very great: for it contains some facts which he after-wards thought it advisable to suppress, and some judgments which heafterwards saw cause to alter. I must own that I generally like his firstthoughts best. Whenever his History is reprinted, it ought to be carefullycollated with this volume.

When I refer to the Burnet MS. Harl. 6584, I wish the reader to under-stand that the MS. contains something which is not fo be found in theHistory.

As to Nottingham’s appointment, see Burnet, ii. 8; the London Ga-zette of March 7. 168^; and Clarendon’s Diary of Feb. 15.

** London Gazette, Feb. 18. 168|.

*** Don Pedro do Ronquillo makes this objection.

2 *