The secret history of White-Hall, from the restoration of Charles II down to the abdication of the late K. James writ at the request of a noble lord, and conveyed to him in letters, by ̲̲̲late secretary-interpreter to the Marquess of Louvois, who by that means had the perusal of all the private minutes between England and France for many years : the whole consisting of secret memoirs, which have hitherto lain conceal'd, as not being discoverable by any other hand / publish'd from the original papers, by D. Jones, gent.

LETTER L. (Book 50)

Of the Duke of York's Politicks upon his entring into a close Correspondence with France, as the French Politicians represent them.

My LORD,

AS I have transmitted to your Lordship the exactest Particulars I could learn concerning the King's entring into a pri∣vate Treaty with France, and in my last the Censure of this Court thereupon; I have also to the best of my remembrance given you likewise an Account of the Duke's being drawn into a close Corre∣spondence

with them some time before; but whether it were that the Ministers on this side conceived such a Judgment of the King, as I have already related, and such of the Duke, which I am just about to relate, I cannot possitively determine; but thus it is they censure him, saying, That though he was so much a Bigot in Religion that he was totally averse to the Aurangian Alliance, unless it could be reconciled to those ends which he proposed to himself thereby, and especially about Replanting both the Popish Religion and Absolute Power in the three Kingdoms, and incline rather to the Match suggested with the Dauphine, with an in∣tent the more friendly to oblige his Most Christian Majesty to assist him through all the difficulties he fore-saw he had to pass; yet he was not a little affraid, of the great Resistance he knew would necessarily be made against such an Alliance, which many in England looked upon as the most per∣nicious that ever could befall their Nati∣on; being also of himself not a little jea∣lous, that if once such a Match between his Eldest Daughter and the Dauphine were concluded, some sly practises might be carried on by the French Court, against the Issue he should have by his now Dutch∣ess, in favour of that his Daughter might probably have by the Dauphine; and there∣fore that he was much more willing and desirous, if it might be compassed, that a

Match might in time convenient be con∣cluded between his said Daughter rather and his Dutchesses Brother, the Duke of Modena, or some Italian Prince, of no power enough to be apprehended to enter∣tain any such Designs; and that as much French as she was before, his Dutchess was now of the same Sentiments too, being married, and in hopes of a numerous Is∣sue by the Duke. These are all the Par∣ticulars I have hitherto met with, in rela∣tion to the Duke and his Dutchess's Senti∣ments, and with which I conclude, who am,

My LORD,

Your Lordship's Most Humble and Devoted Servant.

Paris, Feb. 14. 1680. N. S.