Diary of the times of Charles II/Volume 1/Diary continued, July 24 to August 1

by Henry Sidney

On the 23rd, the wind chopped about, and we had very little all day; but, about two, we came in sight of Ostend and the West Capell; at night we plied up and down the coast, but, the wind being contrary, we could make but little way.

24th.⁠In the morning, we were in sight of Schonen, in the evening, of Goree, where we took a pilot on board, who brought us into the river Mayse; and, about two o'clock, the tide being almost spent, we came to anchor within three leagues of the Brill, and in sight of the Hague.

25th.⁠We had a dead calm in the morning; but, about twelve, it began to blow, and at four we got to Delf Haven, and at seven to the Hague, where I heard that the Prince was gone to Dieren. As soon as I came, I writ to Lord Sunderland and Sir William Temple short letters. I spoke with Mr. Meredith.^[1]

26th.⁠I waited upon the Pensioner;^[2] and, after I had made him my compliments, he told me I could not have come at a time when any proposition from England would be better received, for every body here was now much disposed that way; that he thought the King would do well to put the Spaniards in mind of the weakness of all the towns in Flanders, there being not above three hundred men in Charleroy. Soon after, Sir Gabriel Silvius came to me. He told me the French ambassador never came to see the Prince or Princess; that he hears the French find that there is nothing to be done without the Prince, and therefore that they intend to send Monsieur Schomberg as ambassador. He finds fault with the Prince that he does not live with respect enough to the Duke, and that the Duke is sensible of it. He thinks it necessary that the Prince should have a minister in England, and he would be the man. He is sorry the Prince does not use people better. My Lady Betty Selbourne complains and wails horribly.

That night I lay at Utrecht, in the suburbs; it being late, I could not get into the town.

27⁠ I came to Nimeguen, where Sir Lionel Jenkins used me with all the civility imaginable, and told me that the Prince had sent him word by his gentleman that he went a-hunting^[3] on Monday, and desired him to come on Tuesday.

28th.⁠I staid all day at Nimeguen, and made a visit to the two Dutch ambassadors, Monsieur Van Beverning^[4] and Monsieur Van Huren, who were very civil, and gave me a great chair and the hand.^[5] I went afterwards to see the house where the ambassadors met, and the Belvidere.

29th.⁠I went with my Lord Ambassador Jenkins to Dieren, to the Prince; I found him in an ill house, but in a fine country; after he had talked awhile with the ambassador, he took me into his bed-chamber, where I staid above two hours. He asked me many questions, and I informed him of every thing, much to his satisfaction. Afterwards, I went to the Princess, and delivered my letters and made my compliments. I then went to dinner; Lady Inchiquen was there, and Overkirk, the young Count de Nassau, and several others. After dinner, we came again to Nimeguen.

30th.⁠I came to Utrecht; as soon as I had supped I went into the Prince's yacht, and came all night, and about ten in the morning I got to the Hague. I sent to the Pensioner, but he was gone out of town, then to Monsieur Van Beuninghen, and he came before I could go to him.^[6]

Aug. 1st.⁠I writ to the Duke, to my Lord Sunderland, Sir W. Temple, and Mr. Mountstevens.

1. Mr. Meredith was secretary to the embassy at the Hague.
2. The Pensioner Fagel, thus described by Sir William Temple. "I find the Pensioner is the great man here, and acts all under the Prince's influence, though not without some distaste among the richer sort of people in the towns. He is a person whose dispositions may, I am confident, be proved to make him as partial to England as those of his predecessor (De Witt) were esteemed to France, in case there were any composition of those two interests here. The point upon which I judge this to turn chiefly is that of religion, in which I find him by his discourses very warm, and hear by others that he hath it very much at heart."—Temple's Works, iv. 33.
3. The Prince of Orange was passionately fond of hunting; his tastes, indeed, appear to have been very much those of his forefathers, the ancient Germans, of whom Csesar says, "Vita omnis in venationibus atque in studiis rei militaris consistit." The account which Sir William Temple gives of his first impressions of the Prince nine years before, is curious. "I find him in earnest a most extreme hopeful prince, and, to speak more plainly, something much better than I expected, and a young man of more parts than ordinary, and of the better sort; that is, not lying in that kind of wit which is neither of use to oneself nor any one else, but in good, plain sense, with show of application, if he had business that deserved it, and that with extreme good, agreeable humour and dispositions, and thus far on his way without any vice; besides being sleepy always by ten o'clock at night, and loving hunting as much as he hates swearing, and preferring cock ale before any sort of wine."— Temple's Works, i. 285.
4. Speaking of Monsieur Van Beverning, Sir W. Temple says: "I think he was, without dispute, the most practised and the ablest ambassador of any I ever met in the course of my employments." He mentions a comical instance of his forgetfulness of diplomatic etiquette on one occasion at Nimeguen, when, under the influence of wine and enthusiasm for the French, he met their ambassador in the public walks, he threw his arms round his neck and kissed him"—Temple's Works.
5. Points of diplomatic etiquette were considered very important in those days. By giving the hand is meant the giving the position on your right in your own house. Sir W. Temple, in the course of the treaty at Nimeguen, found himself very much embarrassed by these matters; and, to obviate the difficulty, he on one occasion proposed to the French ambassador the ingenious expedient of seeing him in bed; the point, however, was considered too important to be so disposed of.—Temple's Works.
6. Monsieur Van Beuninghen, Burgomaster of Amsterdam, had been employed as envoy in England, at Copenhagen, and at Stockholm; and he had been ambassador at the Court of Versailles. Voltaire, speaking of his conduct there, says, "Il avoit la vivacité d'un François et la fierté d'un Espagnol. II se plaisoit à choquer dans toutes les occasions la hauteur imperieuse du Roi, et opposat une inflexibilité républicaine au ton de superiorité que les ministres de France commencoient à prendre." Wicquefort ranks him among the most learned men of his day, as well as among the most illustrious of ambassadors. He must have been a very remarkable Dutchman, judging from the character drawn of him by Burnet. "The last of these (Van Beuning) was so well known both in France and England, and had so great credit in his own town, that he deserves to be more particularly set out. He was a man of great notions, but talked perpetually, so that it was not possible to convince him in discourse at least, for he heard nobody speak but himself. He had a wonderful vivacity, but too much levity in his thoughts. His temper was inconstant, firm and positive for a while, but apt to change from a giddiness of mind, rather than from any falsehood of his nature. He broke twice with the Prince after he came into a confidence with him. He employed me to reconcile him to him for the third time, but the Prince said he could not trust him any more. He had great knowledge in all sciences, and had such a copiousness of invention, with such a pleasantness as well as variety of conversation, that I have often compared him with the Duke of Buckingham, only he was virtuous and devout, much in the enthusiastical way. In the end of his days, he set himself wholly to mind the East India trade, but that was an employment not so well suited to his natural genius, and it ended fatally, for the actions sinking on the sudden, on the breaking out of a new war, that sunk him into a melancholy which quite distracted him. The town of Amsterdam was for many years conducted by him as by a dictator, and that had exposed them to as many errors as the irregularity of his notions suggested," i. 573. Temple, in writing about Van Beuninghen to Lord Arlington, prepares him for this terrible habit of talking. "Your lordship," he says, "will find nothing to lessen your esteem of his person, unless it be that he is not always so willing to hear as to be heard, and out of the abundance of his imagination is apt to reason a man to death . . . . . I have taken some care to prevent his supplying this talent too much in your conversations."—ii. 119.