This imputation, though at that time generally believed, and though, since that time, repeated by writers who ought to have been well informed, was without foundation.

It is certain that the mishap of the Dutch fleet could not, by any mode of communication, have been known at Westminster till some hours after the Bishop of Winchester had received the summons which called him away from Oxford.

The King, however, had little right to complain of the suspicions of his people.

If they sometimes, without severely examining evidence, ascribed to his dishonest policy what was really the effect of accident or inadvertence, the fault was his own.

That men who are in the habit of breaking faith should be distrusted when they mean to keep it is part of their just and natural punishment.