Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/398

Rh the whig assumption of 'abdication,' and the settlement of the crown upon William and Mary, speaking with vehemence against this measure in parliament, and afterwards refusing to take the oaths to the new government (Diary and Correspondence, ii. 260 sqq.; cf., iii. 376). He remonstrated with his younger niece Anne as to her unconcern about her father's misfortunes (Diary and Correspondence, ii. 249); while with the loss of Queen Mary's favour he, of course, abandoned all present prospect of office (, iii. 70). He spent part of the summer of 1689 'for his health' at Tunbridge Wells, and was at other times in the year 'diverting himself' at Swallowfield, Cornbury, and Oxford. Early in 1690 King William, specially irritated by reports that Clarendon had represented him as averse to the interests of the church (, iv. 51), informed Rochester that but for the queen's sake he would have excepted him, on account of Clarendon's cabals, from the act of grace (Diary and Correspondence, ii. 314). Not long afterwards these suspicions took a more definite shape. He was in frequent intercourse with Richard Graham, lord Preston [q.v.], who was plotting in behalf of James (ib. pp. 306-7). On 24 June, by the express direction of Queen Mary, who wrote to the absent king that she was 'sorrier than it may well be believed' for her uncle, he was placed under arrest, and on the following day lodged in the Tower (ib. pp. 319-20; cf., Diary, iii. 88 ; for Queen Mary's letter see , iii. 75; see , chap, xv.) Here he remained, under not specially considerate treatment, although his wife bore him company for a time, till 15 Aug. (Diary and Correspondence, ii. 320-9). After his liberation the threads of the conspiracy, the nucleus of which seems to have consisted entirely of protestants, were resumed. When Lord Preston, 31 Dec. 1690, was, on his way to St. Germains, arrested in the Thames, the letters found upon him included one from Clarendon to King James, expressing a hope that the 'marriage' he had been negotiating would soon 'come off,' and adding: 'Your relations have been very hard on me this last summer. Yet, as soon as I could go safely abroad, I pursued the business' (, iii. 724-5, and see note ib. as to the genuineness of these letters). Preston afterwards named Clarendon among his accomplices, and reaffirmed this statement before King William (ib. iv. 21; cf., Life of James II, ii. 443). Clarendon, who (4 Jan. 1691), after being examined before the cabinet council, had been once more consigned to the Tower, remained there for several months. His wife was once more his companion during part of his confinement, and, as on the previous occasion, he was visited by Rochester, Lord Cornbury, and Evelyn. In July he was allowed to go for air into the country under care of his warder; and his release on bail soon followed (, Life of Burnet, vi. 299-301).

The remainder of Clarendon's life was passed in tranquillity at his residences in the country. Cornbury was in 1694, owing to his pecuniary difficulties, denuded of many of the pictures collected by his father, and of at least a great part of its library; and in 1697, or shortly before, was sold by Clarendon to Rochester, though to spare his pride the sale was kept a secret till his death , i.*43-*47). Of the publication (1702-1704) of the first edition, in three volumes, of the 'History of the Rebellion' by its author's sons, the chief credit belongs to Rochester [q.v.]; but Clarendon took a great interest in the work (ib. i. *84). In 1704 he presented Evelyn with the three printed volumes (, Diary, iii. 169).

Clarendon died on 31 Oct. 1709. He has no pretensions to eminence as a statesman; but it is unnecessary to follow Macaulay in concluding private interest to have been the primary motive of his public conduct, or to accept all the cavils of Burnet (i. 472-3) against a man whom he evidently hated. A church of England tory of a narrow type, he was genuinely trusted by the great interest with which, on both sides of St. George's Channel, inherited sentiment and personal conviction identified him. At the time of the catastrophe of King James, he probably drifted further in opposition than he had intended; but there is no proof that he set great hopes for his own future upon the new government, and then became a conspirator through disappointment. In his `Diary (1687-1690) and Correspondence,' which, with the letters of his younger brother Rochester, first appeared in 1828, he appears as a respectable man, devoid neither of principle nor of prejudice, without any striking capacity for the management of affairs of state, and with none at all for the management of his own, at times querulous, and occasionally, as was natural in the friend of so many bishops, rather unctuous in tone. In Macky's 'Characters' he is said to have 'wit, but affectation.' Of his literary tastes his correspondence with Evelyn furnishes some illustrations; he had a remarkably fine collection of medals (, iii. 443), and was author of the 'History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church at Winchester, continued by Samuel Gale,' London, 1715, 8vo (, iii. 378). Lely's portrait of Clarendon (when Lord Cornbury) and of