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INTRODUCTION.
it. In so doing, he acted in direct opposition to his master's wishes, and we cannot be surprised to find, that when he called upon the King next day he should find him, as he says he did, in a very bad humour. He was allowed, however, to return to the Hague, but the part he afterwards took in forwarding to the government at home the strong memorial of the States upon the rejection of the Bill of Exclusion by the Lords, and which it was generally believed he did at the suggestion of Lord Sunderland,[1] determined his recall. He returned to England in June, 1681, and, contrary to his expectations, was kindly received by the King, with whom probably he was personally a favourite, for
- ↑ This does not appear, however, to have been the fact. Sir W. Temple says: "They believed it a thing directed and advised from hence, and, in a word, by Lord Sunderland, to Mr. Sidney, his uncle, as a matter that would be of weight to induce the King to pass the bill. But besides that, Lord Sunderland protested to me, after council, that he knew nothing of it, till he received a copy from Mr. Sidney, who sent the original to the secretary. I thought he could not understand the King so ill as to believe that would be a motive to him to pass the bill, or that it could have any other effect than to anger him at the Dutch for meddling in a matter that was domestic not only to the nation but to the crown." It is pretty clear from the Journal that the Prince of Orange was at the bottom of this plan of the Memorial.—Temple's Works, ii., 542.
