Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/303

 In 1675 he offered to the lords a bill providing that no person should hold office or sit in either house without declaring on oath that he considered resistance to the kingly power criminal, and would never endeavour to alter the government of either church or state. It was an impolitic and useless endeavour to protect the established constitution, and is said to have been suggested to Danby by his friend the Duke of Lauderdale. Danby apparently regarded the measure merely as a weapon for attacking both catholics and dissenters. The opposition, led by Shaftesbury, took every advantage of the dissenters' grievances, and Danby, bowing before the storm which the bill raised among them under Shaftesbury's astute guidance, suffered it to drop. To propitiate the prelates, he, however, encouraged during 1676 a renewal of the persecution of the dissenters and catholics under the existing laws. The Cabal ministry had encouraged toleration, and Charles II manifested a reluctance to accept an intolerant policy. In the hope of meeting the royal scruples, Danby directed each bishop to prepare a census of papists and nonconformists in his diocese. Danby believed that the king might thus be convinced that the numbers of those opposed to the established church were not formidable, and that their suppression could be undertaken without exciting any widespread commotion (Duke of Leeds' MSS. in Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. pt. vii. pp. 14 sq.) During 1677 Danby declared openly, Burnet says, against popery in all companies, and his nomination of Compton to the see of London and of Sancroft to Canterbury was viewed as a practical confirmation of his spoken opinions.

In foreign politics one of Danby's earliest schemes was aimed at the predominance of France. In 1674 he brought the war with the Dutch to a close, and laid the foundation of peace. In 1675 the proposal to marry Mary, the Duke of York's daughter, to William of Orange was first suggested. Charles at once assented; the duke was reluctant to sanction the arrangement, but Danby supported the match with enthusiasm, and by his persistency brought it to fruition. In October 1677 William came to England: Charles and James both urged a postponement of the marriage negotiation until at least the treaty of Nimeguen was signed; but Danby firmly contended with William that there was no just cause for delay, and the wedding took place on 21 Oct. 1677.

Louis XIV resented the union, and regarded Danby's conduct in pressing it forward as seriously imperilling his position in Europe. But the French monarch knew that Charles II was pliable, and that the control of foreign politics was always to a large extent under the king's personal direction. Against his better judgment Danby, too, had money by Charles II from France as the price of England's neutrality in the wars in which Louis XIV was embarked. He disliked the proceeding, but could continue in office on no other condition than that of according it a tacit favour. In the beginning of 1676 he and Lauderdale were parties to a formal treaty between the two kings, by which they bound themselves not to make any further diplomatic arrangement with a foreign power except by mutual consent; and Charles promised, in consideration of a pension, to prorogue or dissolve parliament if any attempt were made to force other treaties on him (, p. 99). Danby did what he could to render this engagement nugatory. But by the king's orders he pressed the French cabinet for the promised bribes, and 200,000l. was paid. The perilous negotiation was kept secret. But in January 1677-8 Charles II desired Danby to repeat it on a bolder scale. The opposition to the government in parliament was gaining strength. The king was in pressing want of money. Throughout England the jealousy of France was growing, and war seemed inevitable. Charles, with habitual cynicism, determined to turn the situation to his personal profit, and directed Danby to inform Ralph Montagu (afterwards duke of Montagu) [q. v.], the English ambassador in Paris, that Louis could only secure peace by paying the king of England six million livres a year for three years. Danby obeyed, and the royal commands were forwarded to Montagu in letters dated 17 Jan. 1677-8 and 25 March 1678. To each letter the king added a postscript in his own hand-writing, 'I aproue of this letter, C.R.' Danby judiciously bade Montagu take all possible care 'to leave this whole negotiation as private as possible for fear of giving offence at home.' At a later date he asserted that he had no fear of any personal danger in making the corrupt proposal to Louis, because he wrote 'by the king's command upon the subject of peace and war, wherein his Majesty alone is at all times sole judge, and ought to be obeyed not only by ministers of state, but by all his subjects.'

The perfidy of the transaction was unmistakable. Five days before the second letter was despatched an act of parliament had passed under Danby's auspices authorising the raising of money to carry on war with France.