This page has been validated.
INTRODUCTION.
xci
vices, that he offered to pay half the sum of £10,000 which was asked by Secretary Coventry, as the price of his resignation. Temple declined the offer and the office, and was again sent as Ambassador to the Hague, being probably influenced to accept this post by his regard for the people of Holland generally, and by his sincere attachment to his friend the Prince of Orange.[1]
On his return, in 1679, he found the King completely embarrassed, involved in violent contention
- ↑ The following character of the Prince of Orange is conceived and drawn in Sir William Temple's best style.—"The humour of kindness to the young Prince, both in the people and army, was not to be dissolved or dispersed by any medicines or operations, either of rigour or artifice; but grew up insensibly with the age of the Prince, ever presaging some revolution in the state, when he should come to the years of aspiring and managing the general affections of the people; being a Prince who joined to the great qualities of his royal blood the popular virtues of his country; silent and thoughtful; given to hear and to enquire; of a sound and steady understanding; much firmness in what he once resolves, or once denies; great industry and application to his business, little to his pleasures; piety in the religion of his country, but with charity to others; temperance unusual to his youth and to the climate; frugal in the common management of his fortune, and yet magnificent upon occasion; of great spirit and heart, aspiring to grow great, but rather by the service than by the servitude of his country; in short, a Prince of many virtues, without any appearing mixture of vice."—Temple's Works, i., 194.
