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 Rh religion' (, ii. 295-303; Lords' Journals, xi. 237, 242, 476, 688).

The settlement of Scotland and Ireland, and the course of colonial history also, owed much to Clarendon. The aims of his Scottish policy were to keep Scotland dependent on England and to re-establish episcopacy. He opposed the withdrawal of the Cromwellian garrisons, and regretted the undoing of the union which Cromwell had effected. Mindful of the ill results caused by the separation of Scottish and English affairs, which the first two Stuarts had so jealously maintained, he proposed to set up at Whitehall a council of state for Scotland to control the government at Edinburgh (Rebellion, ii. 17; Cont. pp. 92-106;, i. 202). His zeal to restore episcopacy in Scotland was notorious. Baillie describes him as corrupting Sharp and overpowering Lauderdale, the two champions on whom the presbyterian party had relied (Letters, iii. 464, 471;, i. 237). At Clarendon's persuasion the English bishops left Sharp to manage the reintroduction of episcopacy (ib. i. 240). Middleton's selection as the king's commissioner was largely due to his friendship with the chancellor (cf. ib. pp. 273, 365), and Middleton's supersession by Lauderdale in May 1663 put an end to Clarendon's influence over Scottish affairs (Memoir of Sir George Mackenzie, pp. 76, 112; `Lauderdale and the Restoration in Scotland,' Quarterly Review, April 1884).

Hyde's share in the settlement of Ireland is less easy to define. The fifteenth article of his impeachment alleges that he 'procured the bills for the settlement of Ireland, and received great sums of money for the same' (Miscellaneous Tracts, p. 39). His answer is that he merely acted as one member of the Irish committee, and had no special responsibility for the king's policy; but his council-notes to Charles seem to disprove this plea (Cont. p. 277; Clarendon State Papers, iii. App. xlvii). Sympathising less strongly with the native Irish than the king did, he yet supported the settlement-commissioners against the clamour of the Irish parliament. 'No man,' he wrote to the Earl of Anglesey, 'is more solicitous to establish Ireland upon a true protestant English interest than I am, but there is as much need of temper and moderation and justice in the composing that establishment as ever was necessary in any affair of this world' (ib. iii. App. xxxiv, xxxvi). He was anxious that the king should carry out his original intention of providing for deserving Irishmen out of the confiscated lands which had fallen to the crown, but was out-generalled by the Earl of Orrery (Cont. p. 272). His influence in Ireland increased after the Duke of Ormonde became lord-lieutenant (December 1661), and he supported Ormonde's policy. He did not share the common jealousy of Irish trade, and opposed the prohibition of the importation of Irish cattle (1665-6) with a persistency which destroyed his remaining credit with the English House of Commons (, Ormonde, ed. 1851, iv. 244, 263-7; Cont. pp. 9, 55-9, 89).

In the extension of the colonial dominions of England, and the institution of a permanent system of colonial administration, Hyde took a leading part. He was one the eight lords proprietors to whom on 24 March 1663 the first Carolina charter was granted, and the settlement they established at Cape Fear was called after him Clarendon County. He helped Baxter to procure the incorporation of the Company for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, of which he was himself a member (7 Feb. 1662). He joined the general council for foreign plantations (1 Dec. 1660), and the special committee of the privy council charged to settle the government of New England (17 May 1661; Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1574-1660 p. 492, 1661-8 pp. 30, 71, 125; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, ii. 290). The policy, which Clarendon probably inspired, endeavoured `to enforce the Acts of Parliament for the control of the shipping trade, to secure for members of the Church of England civil rights equal to those enjoyed by nonconformists, and to subordinate the Colonial jurisdiction by giving a right of appeal to the Crown in certain cases' (, The English in America; The Puritan Colonies, ii. 150). To prevent the united resistance of the New England states he supported measures to divide them from each other and to weaken Massachusetts (Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1661-1668, pp. 198-203, 377;, History of Massachusetts, ed. 1795, i. 544). In dealing with the colonies circumstances made Clarendon tolerant. He granted freedom of conscience to all settlers in Carolina, and instructed the governors of Virginia and Jamaica not to molest nonconformists (Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1661-8, p. 155; Stoughton, Ecclesiastical History of England, iii. 310). The worst side of his policy is shown in his support of the high-handed conduct of Lord Willoughby in Barbadoes, which was made the basis of the fifteenth article of his impeachment in 1667.

Hyde, although playing a conspicuous part in foreign affairs, exerted little influence upon them. His views were purely negative. He thought a firm peace between the king and his neighbours `necessary for the reducing