Diary of the times of Charles II/Volume 1/Diary continued, August 20 to August 30, 1679
August 20.I was visited by the Bishop of Munster's agent; I went to see Monsieur Spiegle, the Holstein minister, and Monsieur Van Beuninghen, who is still of the same mind, that there is nothing to be done so well as a league with Spain, and desires me to write to my Lord Sunderland so.
21st. Mr. Bracy was with me, a gentleman of Dort, of the English faction, and who desires to be of the council of Holland, which Sir W. Temple had undertaken. Afterwards, Monsieur de Groot, minister of the Elector Palatine, came to me. He is nephew of Hugo Grotius. Sir Alexander Collier was with me in the afternoon. I went to see Mr. Rockwood, who told me how the French ambassador took place of the Prince Elector's base son, that he had not yet been with him, because he did not know whether his master would suffer him to yield the pas to him.
24th.Mr. Meredith told me of one Serjeant, a priest, a friend of Coleman[1] that fled hither, and, being asked by Mr. Rockwood if there was any plot, he said he could not be so disingenuous as to deny it absolutely to him, and therefore he would confess to him that they had thoughts of bringing in their religion, and, in order to do it, they desired that as many as could should be employed in the army. He said he believed that the Jesuits had the design of taking away the King's life, which they called bringing their business about in a natural way, but we, said he, would never admit of such a thing.[2]
28th.Colonel Fitz'Patrick and I had a great deal of discourse of this country: he told me they were in an ill condition, that they owed sixty millions, and paid £50,000 every year for interest, and that some of their soldiers had not been paid for these three years.
29th.The Pensioner was with me: we had a great deal of discourse about the guarantee, and then about the merchants, whom he will assist, but he advises them to have patience for a while. I writ to Mr. Godolphin, to Lord Sunderland, and to Mr. Spencer, for some money, and to the Duke.
30th.I received letters from Lord Sunderland, Lady Sunderland, and others.
- ↑ Coleman the Jesuit.
- ↑ "It is first to be remembered that there was really and truly a Popish plot in being, though not that which Titus Oates and his associates pretended to reveal—not merely in the sense of Hume, who, arguing from the general spirit of proselytiam in that religion, says there is a perpetual conspiracy against all governments, Protestant, Mahometan, and Pagan; but one, alert, enterprising, effective, in direct operation against the established Protestant religion in England. In this plot the King, the Duke of York, and the King of France, were chief conspirators; the Romish priests, and especially the Jesuits, were eager co-operators.* ***
"The conspiracy, supposed to have been concerted by the Jesuits, at St. Omers, and in which so many English Catholics were implicated, chiefly consisted, as is well known, in a scheme of assassinating the King. Though the obvious falsehood and absurdity of much that the witnesses deposed in relation to this plot render it absolutely incredible, and fully acquit those unfortunate victims of iniquity and prejudice, it could not appear at the time an extravagant supposition, that an eager, intriguing faction should have considered the King's life a serious obstacle to their hopes.****
"Nothing could have been more anxiously wished at St. Omers than the death of Charles; and it does not seem improbable that the atrocious fictions of Oates may have been originally suggested by some actual though vague projects of assassination, which he had heard in discourse among the ardent spirits of that college."— Hallam's Const. Hist. ii. 572.