Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/235

 f. 43). He remained at Madrid, having been knighted by Charles, until some time after the Restoration. The delay in his return was due, it is said, though North denies it (, Examen, p. 26), to his fear of Lord Colepepper, who, having seen Bennet in a catholic church with Charles, had threatened that his head or Bennet's should fly for it. When he did return, after Colepepper's death, it was without the customary letters of revocation, and even without the knowledge of the secretaries of state . The king at once made him keeper of the privy purse. It is probable, but incapable of proof, that Bennet was now and throughout his life a catholic. He had, when in Flanders, urged Charles to declare his conversion, and had quarrelled with Bristol on the point ({sc|Carte's}} Ormond, iv. 109), and there is no doubt that he died a catholic ( Memoirs, i. 40, ed. 1790). Pepys, on 17 Feb. 1663, speaks of him as being so then. North, however, denies this with fairly strong evidence, which, if true, shows at any rate that his catholicism was disguised. It is certain that in later years he spent large sums upon rebuilding the church at his seat at Euston. Bristol, too, in his articles against Clarendon, 10 July 1663, affirms that in his practice and profession Arlington had been constant to protestantism; and at his impeachment in 1674 he was attacked, not as a papist, but only as a promoter of popery. Carte also (iv. 145) asserts only that he was thought to be a catholic. Probably he was destitute of serious conviction, and acted merely so as best to keep in favour. His knowledge of the king's temper, and of a courtier's arts, and his readiness to serve and encourage Charles in his dissolute habits, secured his position. In particular he shared with his intimate friend, Sir Charles Berkeley, the management of the royal mistresses (, i. 182, ed. 1833); and in November 1663 we find him acting with Edward Montague and Buckingham in the shameful scheme ‘for getting Mrs. Stewart for the king’ (, 6 Nov. 1663). In alliance with Lady Castlemaine he fostered the king's growing impatience with Clarendon, in opposition to whose wishes he was, in October 1662, on the enforced retirement of Nicholas, made secretary of state, while Berkeley succeeded to his office of keeper of the privy purse. In February 1663 Clarendon, at the king's wish, made him M.P. for Callington, though he declares that Bennet knew no more of the constitution and laws of England than he did of those of China (, Life, 400, 404). He never appears to have addressed the house, though Sheffield (Memoirs) says that none spoke better when obliged, and from being so silent was believed to be a man of much smaller parts than was really the case; but he is mentioned as serving on committees (Commons' Journals, 21 Feb. 1662–3). Burnet says his parts were ‘solid, but not quick,’ and Carte speaks of him as very fit for business, but a fourbe in politics. De Grammont declares that ‘Arlington, à l'abri de cette contenance composée, d'une grande avidité pour le travail, et d'une impénétrable stupidité pour le secret, s'était donné pour grand politique.’ By nobody is he mentioned with trust or affection, but appears to have been regarded throughout life as a selfish schemer. There is no doubt that he was concerned in advising the Declaration of Indulgence in 1662, though Burnet alone relates this (i. 352). He now became the centre of the opposition to Clarendon (Parl. Hist. iv. 395;, 1 July 1663) in alliance with Buckingham and Bristol, though there is nothing to connect him directly with the attack on the chancellor. He boasted to Charles of the use he could be to him in parliament, and how he had collected a party of country gentlemen in the house who would vote according to the king's wish. During 1663 he was made a baron by the title of Lord Arlington, though in the first warrant the title was drawn as Cheney ( 604). In 1664 he served on the committee for explaining the Act of Settlement in Ireland (, iv. 207), and in March 1665 on that for Tangiers; and he was the principal person connected with foreign affairs, with which he was better acquainted than any politician of Charles's court. His intimate knowledge of the languages of the continent no doubt greatly conduced to this influence; according to Evelyn (Diary, 10 Sept. 1678), he had the Latin, French, and Spanish tongues in perfection. ‘He has travelled much, and is the best bred and courtly person his Majesty has about him, so as the public ministers more frequent him than any of the rest of the nobility.’ Clarendon asserts that he brought the first Dutch war upon the nation, and there is little doubt that he was the adviser of the attack on the Smyrna fleet before war was declared (, p. 157). In 1665 he urged the king to grant liberty of conscience as being the best means of union during the war, and the readiest way of obtaining money ( 583). This, however, is scarcely consistent with Burnet (i. 412), who says that he had at this time attached Clifford to his interests; for we know that Clifford was doing all he could to pass the Five Mile Act. At this time Arlington lived at Goring House, where Arlington Street is now built