Note 314 — Chapter X

Clarendon and Hume inveigh against the parliament for this publication; in which they are of course followed by the whole rabble of Charles's admirers. But it could not reasonably be expected that such material papers should be kept back; nor were the parliament under any obligation to do so. The former writer insinuates that they were garbled; but Charles himself never pretended this (see Supplement to Evelyn's Diary, p. 101); nor does there seem any foundation for the surmise. His own friends garbled them, however, after the restoration; some passages are omitted in the edition of King Charles's Works; so that they can only be read accurately in the original publication, called The King's Cabinet Opened, a small tract in quarto; or in the modern compilations, such as the Parliamentary History, which have copied it. Ludlow says he has been informed that some of the letters taken at Naseby were suppressed by those intrusted with them, who since the king's restoration have been rewarded for it. Memoirs, i. 156. But I should not be inclined to believe this.

There is, however, an anecdote which may be mentioned in this place: A Dr. Hickman, afterwards Bishop of Derry, wrote in 1690, the following letter to Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, a copy of which, in Dr. Birch's handwriting, may be found in the British Museum. It was printed by him in the Appendix to the Inquiry into the Share K. Charles I. had in Glamorgan's Transactions, and from thence by Harris, in his Life of Charles I., p. 144.

"My Lord,—Last week Mr. Bennet [a bookseller] left with me a manuscript of letters from King Charles I. to his queen; and said it was your lordship's desire and Dr. Pelling's, that my Lord Rochester should read them over, and see what was fit to be left out in the intended edition of them. Accordingly, my lord has read them over, and upon the whole matter says he is very much amazed at the design of printing them, and thinks that the king's enemies could not have done him a greater discourtesy. He showed me many passages which detract very much from the reputation of the king's prudence, and something from his integrity; and in short he can find nothing throughout the whole collection, but what will lessen the character of the king and offend all those who wish well to his memory. He thinks it very unfit to expose any man's conversation and familiarity with his wife, but especially that king's; for it was apparently his blind side, and his enemies gained great advantage by showing it. But my lord hopes his friends will spare him; and therefore he has ordered me not to deliver the book to the bookseller, but put it into your lordship's hands; and when you have read it, he knows you will be of his opinion. If your lordship has not time to read it all, my lord has turned down some leaves where he makes his chief objections. If your lordship sends any servant to town, I beg you would order him to call here for the book, and that you would take care about it."

Though the description of these letters answers perfectly to those in the King's Cabinet Opened, which certainly "detract much from the reputation of Charles's prudence, and something from his integrity," it is impossible that Rochester and the others could be ignorant of so well-known a publication; and we must consequently infer that some letters injurious to the king's character have been suppressed by the caution of his friends.