not doing more to put down schism. The profligate courtiers and royal mistresses laboured zealously to destroy his rising influence with the king, and Charles was at length induced, mainly through the influence of Lady Castlemaine, to deprive his old and faithful servant of the great seal (August, 1667). The dismissal from office of the over-powerful minister was the signal for a combined attack upon him by all his enemies; and when the house of commons met in October, articles of impeachment were prepared; but the charge of treason sent up to the house of lords was made in general terms, and was on that ground not entertained by the peers. A quarrel in consequence took place between the two houses, and ultimately Clarendon was with great reluctance induced, by the entreaties of his friends and the expressed wishes of the king, to terminate the dispute by retiring to France (29th November, 1697). He left behind him a vindication of his conduct, which, through the influence of his great enemy, the profligate duke of Buckingham, was voted by the commons to be scandalous and malicious, and was by their orders burned by the common hangman. An act of attainder was also proposed, but ultimately the two houses concurred (18th December, 1667) in passing an act of banishment which should for ever exclude him from the British dominions, unless he appeared and took his trial before the 1st of February, 1668. He was at first badly treated by the French, but he was at length allowed to take up his residence at Montpellier, where he completed his celebrated "History" and the "Memoirs of his own Life." From thence he removed to Rouen, where, in 1674, he addressed to the king, the queen, and the duke of York, an humble and earnest, but fruitless prayer for permission to die in his native country. He did not long survive the refusal of his petition. His death took place on the 9th of December, 1674, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. By his second wife he left six children, four sons and two daughters.
Clarendon's abilities were very great. He was a weighty and dignified speaker, and an able man of business—shrewd, prompt, and laborious; and he combined an earnest desire to uphold the constitution and promote the welfare of the country, with a sincere regard for the honour of the crown. Amid prevailing profligacy and corruption he was personally pure and incorrupt. In private life he was blameless, and he was a warm and steady friend; but his temper was hot, harsh, and arrogant, and he was deficient in docility and tact. His bigotry and intolerance led him into grievous errors as a statesman. His vindictive treatment of the puritans in England and the presbyterians in Scotland, and his connivance at the king's acceptance of a pension from the French king, have left a deep stain on his memory. His "History" is a very valuable and interesting work, containing not a few masterly and eloquent delineations of the characters of the leading men of his day, together with luminous reflections on public events. "But," says Mr. Hallam, "the prejudices of Clarendon, and his negligence as to truth being fully as striking as his excellencies, lead him not only into many erroneous judgments but into frequent inconsistencies." The principal works of the great historian are, besides his "History of the Rebellion," his own Life, "A Short View of the State of Ireland," "A Brief View of the Errors in Hobbes' Leviathan," and a "Collection of Tracts."—J. T.
HYDE, Henry, second Earl of Clarendon, eldest son of the preceding, was born in 1638. After the Restoration, he was appointed chamberlain to the queen, but his resentment at the harsh and unjust treatment which his father had received from the court made him join the opposition party. He took an active part, however, against the exclusion bill, and was in consequence taken again into favour, and made a privy counsellor in 1680. On the accession of James II., who had married his sister, Clarendon was first made lord privy seal, and then, in 1686, lord-lieutenant of Ireland. But he had no real power in the government, which was entirely directed by a Roman catholic junto in London; and after undergoing innumerable slights and mortifications, and abasing himself before the king in the most abject manner, he was at length dismissed from his office of lord-lieutenant (January, 1687) to make room for the notorious Tyrconnel. Lord Arundel, another Roman catholic, soon after superseded him in his office of privy seal. When the prince of Orange landed, Clarendon joined him at Salisbury, but he was coldly received, and his advice slighted; and when the crown was settled upon William and Mary, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new sovereigns. In spite of a warning given him by the king, he took an active part in the jacobite schemes of insurrection, and was in consequence committed to the Tower in 1690. He was soon released; but, having again engaged in a jacobite conspiracy (1691), he was once more sent to the Tower, where he lay about six months. His guilt was fully established, but his life was saved by the intercession of the queen and the entreaties of his brother Rochester. He spent the remainder of his days in retirement, and died in 1709. His State Letters and Diary were published in 1763.—J. T.
HYDE, Lawrence, Earl of Rochester, second son of the chancellor, was a leading statesman in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. In 1679 he was made first commissioner of the treasury, and was soon after elevated to the peerage. He was a most intolerant and uncompromising tory, and, in spite of his vices of drinking and swearing, was considered the head of the high church party. He made most vigorous efforts to supplant Halifax in the king's favour, and to thwart the moderate and constitutional counsels of that distinguished statesman; but, in consequence of some malversion in the management of the finances, he was "kicked up stairs," as his rival termed it, and was removed from his office to the less important post of lord-president. On the accession of his brother-in-law, James II., Rochester was appointed lord-treasurer, and thus became prime minister. He meanly truckled to the French court, begged from Barillon, the ambassador of Louis, to promote James' arbitrary schemes, and plainly told him—"Your master must place mine in a situation to be independent of parliament." He accepted, though with reluctance, a seat in James' high commission court, and was base enough, under the threat of dismissal from office, to join in the condemnation of Bishop Compton. But all his subserviency and zeal availed him nothing; as he refused to change his religion at the bidding of the king, the white staff was taken from him in December, 1686. He firmly adhered, however, to the royal cause at the revolution, until the flight of James, when he declared for the prince of Orange. In 1692 he was sworn of the council, and took a considerable part in public affairs, but never regained his former office or influence. He died in 1711.
His nephew, Henry, eldest son of the second earl of Clarendon, who succeeded to the peerages both of his father and uncle, was the author of a comedy called "The Mistakes," printed in 1758 at Strawberry Hill, of a few pamphlets and letters, and of some tragedies still in MS.—J. T.
HYDE, Sir Nicholas, chief-justice of the king's bench in the reign of Charles I., was the uncle of Chancellor Clarendon, and had the honour of instructing him in the knowledge of law. Sir Nicholas was employed by the duke of Buckingham in preparing his answer to the articles of impeachment drawn up against him by the house of commons, and from gratitude for his services on that occasion the duke procured him the appointment of chief-justice in 1626. In the following year Hyde presided at the trial of Sir John Eliot, Hollis, and Valentine, when they were indicted for forcibly holding the speaker of the house of commons in his chair, while certain resolutions were passed. The court inflicted heavy fines upon the patriots, and refused to allow them their habeas corpus—a decision which was afterwards censured by the Long parliament. Sir Nicholas died, 26th August, 1631, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.—His son, Lawrence Hyde, who was M.P. for Winchester after the Restoration, had a considerable share in promoting the escape of Charles II. after the battle of Worcester.—J. T.
HYDE, Thomas, D.D., a learned English divine and oriental scholar, was born 29th June, 1636. He was educated at King's college, Cambridge, and afterwards went to London in his eighteenth year to assist Walton in completing the Polyglot Bible. In 1658 he entered Queen's college, Oxford, where in the following year he was elected under-librarian of the Bodleian library, and in 1665 principal librarian. In 1660 he became prebendary of Sarum, and in 1678 archdeacon of Gloucester. On Dr. Pococke's death in 1691, Dr. Hyde was appointed Laudian professor of Arabic; and in 1697 he was made regius professor of Hebrew, and canon of Christ church. He also held the office of interpreter of oriental languages to Charles II., James II., and William III. He died in 1703. Hyde was a man of sound judgment as well as a profound scholar. He possessed an accurate knowledge of Hebrew, Syriac, Persian, Arabic, &c., as well as of the Malay and Armenian languages; and was one of the first Europeans who acquired a knowledge of Chinese. His
