"He acquitted himself in this place with great approbation of all men," said Lady Masham, "till the year 1700; but then, on account of not being able to stay in London so long as he was wont to do, he laid it down without saying anything to any one till he had surrendered his commission to the king, who very unwillingly received it, telling him that, were his attendance ever so small, he was sensible his continuance in the commission would be useful to him, and that he did not desire he should be one day in town on that account to the prejudice of his health; but he told the king he could not be satisfied to hold a place of that profit without giving more attendance on it than he was able, and humbly therefore begged to be discharged from that service; which was the last public service he undertook."1

While Locke was taking part in the reform of the currency, and during the four years of his zealous work as a commissioner of trade and plantations, his relations with King William and his chief advisers were very intimate. Whether he was often at court, paying his respects to both king and queen, before Mary's death, and afterwards to William alone, we are not told; but there can be no doubt that his friendship was sought after and prized by the sovereigns, who, if they did not cultivate such coarse society as Charles the Second and James the Second had found pleasure in, had learnt at the Hague that kingly dignity is only enhanced by free and genial intercourse with men of worth. “This I may say, as having had it from those to whom his

1 MSS. in the Remonstrants' Library; Lady Masham to Le Clerc, 12 Jan., 1704-5.

majesty expressed so much," wrote Lady Masham, "that, whatever opportunities Mr. Locke had had of making himself so well known to him, the king had a very great opinion of him as a wise and an honest man.

One instance of William's great opinion of Locke had very disastrous consequences. He does not appear, until 1700, to have renewed the request for permission to retire from the board of trade which he had made in January, 1696-7; but the worse health in which he found himself at the following Christmas time would have afforded ample excuse for such a proposal, especially after an increase of his illness, of which the king was unintentionally the cause. He had been kept close prisoner within doors at Oates for more than a month when, on the 23rd of January, 1697-8, to his surprise he received an urgent summons from King William to present himself at once at Kensington. It was a dismal winter morning, cold and raw. Lady Masham begged him to send back the messenger with word that he was too ill to make the journey. But he insisted upon going: the king would not send for him if he did not want him; and if there was any work for him to do, he must try to do it. So he rode through snow and wind in the coach that had been despatched for him. On Monday afternoon he returned, more dead than alive. As soon as he was well enough to answer Lady Masham's question as to the business for which he had been summoned, all the answer she could get from him was that "the king had a desire to talk with him about his own health, as believing that there was much similitude in their cases "2 and all the

1 MSS. in the Remonstrants' Library; Lady Masham to Le Clerc, 12 Jan., 1704-5.

2 Ibid.

particulars his friends could afterwards obtain were that he had advised his majesty, whenever his asthma was troublesome, to abstain from wine and heavy feeding.' These answers were doubtless true as far as they went, and they told all that Locke felt himself justified in telling; but they were only a part of the truth, and they occasioned in the minds of Lady Masham and some of his other friends a prejudice against King William which was not altogether warranted.

What was the real motive of the untimely summons to Locke is nowhere recorded; but a tolerably safe guess can be made. The peace of Ryswick had been ratified in November, 1697, and thereby had been triumphantly terminated the long struggle of William of Orange and protestantism and liberty against Louis the Fourteenth, catholicism and tyranny. A special ambassador had to be sent to France, and, after careful consideration, it was decided early in January that this office should be filled by the king's most trusted and trustworthy friend, William Bentinck, Earl of Portland, and that he should be attended by a suite fit to represent the dignity of England in Paris. Of courtiers there were plenty eager to join the embassy, and a goodly show of them was wanted; but there was more need and less supply of honest men to aid the ambassador-a Dutchman, and, however shrewd and worthy, not well versed in English politics or institutions -in doing wisely the serious work that had to be done. Was Locke fastened upon as the best person to go as Portland's right-hand man? That seems to be a fair surmise when we remember how anxious the king had been, nine years before, that he should go as ambassador to the court of the elector of Brandenburg, and how many

1 Le Clerc,Eloge de M. Locke,' in the Bibliothèque Choisie.'

Et. 65.

fresh proofs had since been furnished of his wonderful honesty and wonderful ability; and on no other supposition can we so well understand the only document we have to throw any light on the mystery.

This document is a letter addressed by Locke, on the Thursday after his return to Oates, to his friend Somers, now lord chancellor, referring in very guarded terms to the public business on hand, but stating with painful precision some of its personal concomitants, as a sequel to an interview between them on the previous Saturday. Sunday, in the evening," Locke here wrote, "after I had waited on the king, I went to wait on your lordship, it being, I understood, his majesty's pleasure I should do so before I returned hither. My misfortune in missing your lordship I hoped to repair by an early diligence the next morning, but the night that came between destroyed that purpose, and me almost with it. For, when I was laid in my bed, my breath failed me. I was fain to sit up in my bed, where I continued a good part of the night, with hopes that my shortness of breath would abate, and my lungs grow so good-natured as to let me lie down to get a little sleep, whereof I had great need. But my breath constantly failing me as often as I laid my head upon my pillow, at three I got up, and sat by the fire till morning. My case being brought to this extremity, there was no room for any other thought but to get out of town immediately; for, after the two precedent nights without any rest, I concluded the agonies I laboured under so long in the second of those would hardly fail to be my death the third, if I stayed in town. As bad weather, therefore, as it was, I was forced early on Monday morning to set out and return hither. His majesty was so favourable as to propose the employment your lordship mentioned; but

the true knowledge of my own weak state of health made me beg his majesty to think of some fitter person, and more able, to serve him in that important post; to which I added my want of experience for such business. That you may not think this an expression barely of modesty, I crave leave to explain it to you, though there I discover my weakness, that my temper, always shy of a crowd of strangers, has made my acquaintances few, and my conversation too narrow and particular to get the skill of dealing with men in their various humours and drawing out their secrets. Whether this was a fault or no to a man that designed no bustle in the world, I know not. I am sure it will let you see that I am too much a novice in the world for the employment proposed." "The king," Locke added," was graciously pleased to order me to go into the country to take care of my health. These four or five days here have given me a proof to what a low state my lungs are now brought, and how little they can bear the least shock. I can lie down again, indeed, in my bed, and take my rest; but, bating that, I find the impression of these two days in London so heavy upon me still, which extends further than the painfulness of breathing and makes me listless to everything, so that methinks the writing this letter has been a great performance. My lord, I should not trouble you with an account of the prevailing decays of an old pair of lungs, were it not my duty to take care his majesty should not be disappointed, and, therefore, that he lay not any expectation on that which, to my great misfortune every way, I find would certainly fail him; and I must beg your lordship, for the interest of the public, to prevail with his majesty to think on somebody else, since I do not only fear, but am sure, my broken health will never permit me to accept the great