His advising the sale of
Dunkirk seems the heaviest and truest part of the charge; but a mistake
in judgment, allowing it to be such, where there appear no symptoms of
corruption or bad intentions, it would be very hard to impute as a crime
to any minister. The king's necessities, which occasioned that measure,
cannot with any appearance of reason be charged on Clarendon; and
chiefly proceeded from the over frugal maxims of the parliament itself,
in not granting the proper supplies to the crown.
* See note A, at the end of the volume.
When the impeachment was carried up to the peers, as it contained an
accusation of treason in general, without specifying any particulars, it
seemed not a sufficient ground for committing Clarendon to custody. The
precedents of Strafford and Laud were not, by reason of the violence of
the times, deemed a proper authority; but as the commons still insisted
upon his commitment, it was necessary to appoint a free conference
between the houses. The lords persevered in their resolution; and the
commons voted this conduct to be an obstruction to public justice, and a
precedent of evil and dangerous tendency. They also chose a committee to
draw up a vindication of their own proceedings.
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