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 orders to return privately to England, and he landed at Yarmouth on 16 Sept. 1670. He promised the pensionary to return, and that speedily, but his going was sufficient indication to De Witt of the turn things were taking. The suspicions which Temple had kept to himself were confirmed on his arrival. Arlington was deliberately offhand in his demeanour; the king, while professing the utmost solicitude about Temple's health and sea passage, obstinately refused to speak to him upon political matters. It was not until, at a meeting of ministers, Clifford blurted out a number of diatribes against the Dutch that Temple realised the full import of the situation. His resolution was instant and characteristic. ‘I apprehend,’ he says, ‘weather coming that I shall have no mind to be abroad in, and therefore decide to put a warm house over my head’ without a moment's delay. He withdrew to Sheen and enlarged his garden. Charles wrote to the states that Temple had come away at his own desire and upon urgent private affairs. In reality his recall had been demanded by Louis. It was not until June 1671 that he was allowed to write a farewell letter to the states, or that a royal yacht was sent to The Hague for Lady Temple and the ambassador's household. Though he wrote of the declaration of war upon the Dutch in 1672 as a thunderclap (Memoirs), he must have seen its approach pretty clearly for some time.

His enforced leisure was devoted by Temple to literature and philosophy. He had already composed (1667–8) and submitted to Arlington in manuscript his ‘Essay upon the Present State and Settlement of Ireland,’ a short but trenchant pamphlet, which was published, together with the ‘Select Letters,’ in 1701, but was not included in the collective edition of Temple's works. In it he condemned the ‘late settlement of Ireland’ as ‘a mere scramble,’ during which ‘the golden shower fell without any well-directed order or design;’ yet he recommended that the settlement, bad as it was, should be maintained not by balancing parties but by despotic severity; ‘for to think of governing that kingdom by a sweet and obliging temper is to think of putting four wild horses into a coach and driving them without whip or reins.’ As was only habitual among liberal or enlightened statesmen of his century, he ignored the claims of the native Irish to any legislative or other consideration. During 1671 he composed his ‘Essay upon the Original and Nature of Government’ (first published in 1680), which is notable not only for some fine images and sensible definitions, but as anticipating the view expressed nine years later in Filmer's ‘Patriarcha’ that the state is the outcome of a patriarchal system rather than of the ‘social compact’ as conceived by Hooker or Hobbes. At the same time he manages to avoid the worse extravagances of Filmer (see, Temple on Government, 1894; , English Prose, 1881, p. 316). In 1672 he penned his ‘Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands’ (London, 1672, 8vo; in Dutch, London, 1673; 3rd edit. 1676, 8th 1747; in French, The Hague 1685, Utrecht 1697), which was and deserved to be extremely popular, both at home and abroad. Temple used to declare that he was influenced in some points of style by the ‘Europæ Speculum’ of Sir Edwin Sandys [q. v.] If so, he was probably influenced no less by Sandys's large view of toleration. In the fourth chapter, upon the disposition of the Hollanders, the author displays a limpid humour and much quiet penetration; but it is curious that he never so much as mentions Dutch painting, then at its apogee. Jean le Clerc, while pointing out some errors (mostly trifling), praised the work as a whole as the best thing of its kind extant (English version by Theobald, 1718). His power as a rhetorical writer was displayed about the same time in his noble ‘Letter to the Countess of Essex’ (cf., Lect. on Rhetoric, 1793, i. 260).

When the necessity for a peace between England and Holland became apparent in 1674, Temple was called from his retreat in order to assist in the negotiation of the treaty of Westminster (14 Feb.) He went out to The Hague for the purpose, and his influence again helped to expedite matters. His reputation was now very high, and on his return he had the refusal not only of a dignified embassy to Madrid but (for the consideration of 6,000l.) of Williamson's secretaryship of state. He frequented the court, and became familiar with the new men who were rising into prominence, such as Halifax and his old acquaintance Danby. But his sojourn in England was not a long one, as in July 1674 he was again despatched as ambassador to The Hague. This embassy was rendered memorable by the successful contrivance of a match between William of Orange and Charles's niece Mary [see ], a match which was in reality of vastly greater import to England than the triple alliance. It seems to have been first hinted at in a letter from Temple to the prince dated 22 Feb. 1674; but the early stages of the negotiation are involved in considerable obscurity. As soon as Temple found the prince interested, he spared no pains to bring