The Secret History of the Court and Reign of Charles the Second, by a Member of His Privy Council, Vol. 1 of 2: To Which Are Added Introductory ... Notes, and a Supplement, Continuing the N

Excerpt from The Secret History of the Court and Reign of Charles the Second, by a Member of His Privy Council, Vol. 1 of 2: To Which Are Added Introductory Sketches of the Preceding Period From the Accession of James I., With Notes, and a Supplement, Continuing the Narrative in a Summary Manner to the RevolutionNo part of our annals has been more difr figured by the ignorance, prejudices, and mifreprefentations of party-writers than the reigns of the Stewarts. By fome thofe princes have been raifed to the rank of gods, and by others degraded to a level with daemons. The hirelings of defpotifm and the advocates for the rights of men were likely to exhaufi: up'on fuch a fubjeét their ingenuity and their eloquence. Mr. Hume has given the name of a hifiory'to his funeral oration on the death of Charles I. And to his artful apology for the mifconduét of that king's fucceffors. Mrs. Macauley thought the like title due to her beautiful, but' rhapfodical effufions on' the fame events. But no man of common fenfc' will place an implicit confidence in either. He knows that the belt minds are liable to be warped by the heat of political controverfy He wifhes therefore for a difpafiionate Prate ment of faéls, which may lead to the difco very of truth, and afford juft grounds of ra~ tional conviétion.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.