seems to have been no anxiety among the French to know what was going on in the House of Commons. They inquired about its doings more than about its sayings.[1] When the first Parliament of Charles II. was opened, the chargé d'affaires Bastet wrote to De Lionne:
The sixteenth of this month, the Parliament met at Westminster, and the opening took place without the King's presence.... I was the only Frenchman there, none of our people being tempted to see it, as all of them are waiting for the day when His Britannic Majesty goes there in state. I would give Your Excellency a full and particular account of the sitting, if I did not fancy that all the openings of the English Parliament are very much alike, and so, that the account would be of no use and would only bore you.[2]
One might suppose that, though not interested in the formal proceedings of the first day, he would give a report of the following ones; but he never does it except by hints.[3]
About the time of Barrillon's embassy the French government began to take an interest in England's home politics. They had, as we know, rather good grounds for doing so. Louis XIV. held Charles II. in a sort of financial bondage, and his ambassador's position in London was something more than that of a foreign envoy. Barrillon accordingly followed very closely the progress of parliamentary business, and conveyed information about it to his royal master in his direct correspondence with him.[4] Sometimes he also wrote about it to the Secretary of State.[5] Some of those letters are very long, and enter into details concerning the debates of both Houses. At the time of Danby's impeachment (a momentous incident, which was not unconnected with French intrigue) Barrillon sent to his court the bill of indictment, with a translation of the speech delivered by the accused minister, to which
- ↑ Bellièvre, for instance, writes to Cardinal Mazarin: " Après avoir été assis [sic] douze heures, la Chainbre basse se vient de lever. A ce que j'ai pu en apprendre, ils n'ont rien resolu contre les Ecossaisinon que le comite des deux royaumes aurait pareille autorite sans eux que s'ils y assistaient; mais ils ont ordonne contre le Roi de la Grande-Bretagne que a lettre qu'il avait envoyee ne serait point prise pour une reponse, qu'on ne traiterait plus avec lui, soit en en- voyant ou en recevant des messages, et ont fait meme defense a toutes personnes d'apporter quelque chose de sa part." Letter dated January 13, 1648, Corre- spondance Politique, Angleterre, vol. 47, f. 21. Cf. letter from Grignan to Mazarin, February 17, 1648, ibid. 76, and letter of Belli{{Subst:e`}}vre to Servien, August 28, 1648, ibid. 273.
- ↑ Letter dated November 18, 1660, ibid., vol. 73. f. 125.
- ↑ Ibid. f. 175 (letter dated December 2), f. 193 (letter dated December 10).
- ↑ See, for instance, in vol. 127, Barrillon's letters to the King dated February 9, 1678 (f. 242), February 17 (f. 255), February 19 (f. 278), February 28 (f. 289),
- ↑ Letter dated February 14, 1678, ibid, f, 253,
