LXXXV. These, Sir, are to be our rulers, these the Judges of our lives CHAP. and fortunes. To these we are to stand bare, whilst their pageant Lordships deign to give us a conference on their breeches. The House of Lords are the King's great hereditary council; they are the highest court of judicature; they assist in making new laws and abrogating old; from amongst them we take our great officers of state; they are commonly our generals at land and our admirals at sea. In conclusion, they are both of the essence and constitution of our old government; and have besides the greatest and noblest share in the administration. Now certainly, Sir, to judge according to the dictates of reason, one would imagine some small faculties and endowments to be necessary for discharging such a calling; and such are not usually acquired in shops and warehouses, nor found by following the plough; and what other academies most of their Lordships have been bred in but their shops-what other arts they have been versed in but those which more required good arms and good shoulders than good heads, I think we are yet to be informed." * The recognition was carried by a majority of 177 to 113; but this attack hastened the dissolution, which terminated the Protectorate, and put an end to the danger, once so formidable, of a Cromwell dynasty. to further Shaftesbury's present policy was to assist in weakening His policy each party that successively gained an ascendency, till, by the Restorsome expression of the national will, the King should be ation. recalled. He intrigued against the officers at Wallingford House till the "Rump" was restored. He was then named a member of the "Council of State; " but, instead of taking his seat in it, he did all that he could to introduce disunion and discord among the members. Monk, calculating upon his influence, wrote to him, soliciting that none of the officers of the army in Scotland might be removed. He returned a favourable answer, and a friendly correspondence was established between them. He secretly encouraged a royalist rising in Dorsetshire, and incurred so much suspicion, that he * See Old Parliamentary History, xxi. 297. Biog. Brit. "Cooper." Life, 199. I have given only a short specimen of Sir Anthony's tirade, which is much more lively than well founded; for, with very few exceptions, Cromwell's peers Sept. 1659. He is taken up on sus CHAP. LXXXV. was taken into custody, and brought before the Council of State; but they were obliged to release him for want of evipicion, but dence; and the parliament, on the motion of a friend of his, released. Dec. 26. 1659. He is appointed a Commissioner for the command of the forces, A. D. 1660. resolved "that Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper is clear from the accusation laid against him, and that there is not any just ground of jealousy or imputation upon him." But the majority of this assembly being for the desperate experiment of a pure republic without any head, he encouraged them to cashier Lambert and Desborough, which led to another expulsion of the "Rump." He had next to agitate against "the Committee of Safety," consisting of officers who wished to restore "the Protectorate" under one of themselves; and he was mainly instrumental in upsetting them, by heading the mob which met in Lincoln's Inn Fields, by leading them to the Rolls House in Chancery Lane, — and by insisting that Lenthal should proceed to Westminster, and again take the chair as Speaker.* The first act of the restored "Rump" was to appoint Sir Anthony one of the Commissioners for the command of the forces; and he was enabled, by sudden orders for changing their officers and moving their quarters, to paralyse the power of Lambert. He next contrived, upon a vacancy for Wiltshire, to get himself returned to the House of Commons†; and he thenceforth mainly guided their proceedings with a view to the Restoration. Monk was advancing from the north, and, notwithstanding his dissimulation, little doubt was entertained as to his ultimate intentions. Shaftesbury wrote to him to hasten his march, and assured him that he need apprehend no resistance. Soon after Monk's arrival he instigated him to make the declaration at Guildhall for "a free parliament," which was as much as for the King's recall. Bonfires being lighted, at which rumps were roasted, as Shaftesbury was returning from the city with Colonel Popham, the mob surrounded the carriage, and, knowing them to be members of the House of Commons, loudly shouted, "Down with the Rump!" Shaftesbury looked out, and, smiling, exclaimed, "What, gentlemen, not one good steak in the whole rump ?" The * 3 Parl. Hist. 1571. † Com. Journ. Jan. 7. 1660. LXXXV. mob were tickled with the jest, and some of them asserting CHAP. that he was "a brave boy," they accompanied him with acclamations to his lodgings. Supports an end to Shaftesbury warmly supported the act for putting an end act to put to the Long Parliament, and he was appointed one of the the Long new Council of State who were to carry on the government Parlia till the Convention Parliament could assemble. ment. 1660. He is re the Con vention ment. To this parliament he was again returned as member for April, the county of Wilts; and he had completely recovered his popularity in the west, for he was now at the head of the poll. turned to When the House met, nothing remained but to arrange the ceremonial of the King's return. Sir John Grenville having Parliadelivered his Majesty's letter, Shaftesbury was appointed one of a select committee to draw up the answer; and he was chosen one of the Commissioners of the Commons to repair to Breda with the humble invitation and supplication of the parliament, "that his Majesty would be pleased to return, and take the government of the kingdom into his own hands." May 1. 1660. He is apPoints pointed a Commissioner to Charles II. wait upon at Breda. with an accident on In this journey he met with a dangerous accident. Being He meets overturned in his carriage on a Dutch road, he received a wound between the ribs, which ulcerated many years after, his journey. and was opened when he was Chancellor. By way of compensation, this misfortune was the cause of his subsequent introduction to the famous John Locke. For the present he seemed to recover, and, accompanying the other Commissioners, he was able to throw himself at the King's feet. At this first interview they little anticipated either the extra- His graordinary intimacy, or the extraordinary enmity, which was afterwards to prevail between them. The King received the King. him very courteously, and told him "he was very sensible with what zeal and application he had laboured for his restoration." * * Life, 203. cious re ception by LXXXVI. CHAPTER LXXXVI. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD SHAFTESBURY TILL HIS AP- CHAP. SOON after the King's return, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, in recompense of his services, was made a Privy Councillor, June, 1660. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Lieutenant of the county of Dorset, Governor of the Isle of Wight, Colonel of a regiment of horse, and Baron Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles. Shaftes bury's various promotions on the Re storation. Difficulty in account ing for his quiet conduct for seven years. He sits on the trial of the regicides. His conduct for the next seven years seems wholly inexplicable; for he remained quiet, regular, and seemingly contented. He had a little excitement by sitting as a judge on the trial of the regicides, and joining in the sentence on some of his old associates. Not being a member of the Long Parliament, he had not joined in this particular treason, but he had often actually "levied war" against Charles I., and he had on several occasions acted under the parliament as zealously as Sir Harry Vane, for the purpose of keeping out Charles II., so that his life had been forfeited to the law by his co-operation with the prisoners. Still he thought it right and decent that he should countenance the proceedings against them. These trials being over, he seemed to sink down into a Treasury drudge. The office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, which he held, though a peer, was not then of much importance, and chiefly imposed the duty of attending to accounts. He was not a member of the Committee of the Council to whom, under Clarendon, the conduct of foreign affairs and the management of the business in parliament were intrusted. Strange to say, it was some years before he began seriously to try to undermine Clarendon. The only solution is, that his uncle, Southampton, the Lord Treasurer, who had become very infirm, left to him almost the sole direction of the Exchequer, with all its patronage; and, being strongly attached to Clarendon, probably laboured to induce him to abstain from any turbulent measures. Shaftesbury, along with Southampton, gave some opposition to the "Corporation CHAP. LXXXVI. Act" and the "Act of Uniformity;" and when Dunkirk had been sold, he expressed some disapprobation of that transaction. He strongly supported the "bill for indulgence," which was brought in to please the King, and was rejected by the hostility of Clarendon. But during these years he did not take by any means a prominent part in parliament, and he devoted himself much to the duties of his office. He considered himself bound regularly to attend His prothe King at Whitehall, to pay court to Lady Castlemaine, figate and to cultivate with unwearied assiduity his reputation for licentiousness, which he did so successfully as even to rival that of his Master. manners. Clarendon. But he became tired of routine business and the life of a A. D. 1667. He begins mere roué; and seeing with satisfaction the King's growing to intrigue dislike to Clarendon, he took every opportunity of widening against the breach between them. By the death of Lord Southampton, in May, 1667, all restraint was removed, and he entered into a strict alliance with Arlington and Clifford for Clarendon's overthrow. The Treasury was put into commission against Clarendon's strong opinion, and Shaftesbury contrived to get himself named the first efficient Commissioner, still retaining his office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. His influence from henceforth grew daily; he managed to make all the odium of the Dutch war fall upon the Chancellor, who had from the beginning disapproved of it; he aggravated the discontent of Cavaliers, Dissenters, and Roman Catholics, pointing out the Chancellor as the author of all their grievances; and he incited Lady Castlemaine to seek revenge upon the man who, to be sure, had earnestly tried to prevail upon the Queen to receive her as a lady of the bedchamber, but who had given her mortal offence by forbidding his wife to visit her. After a hard struggle, they spirited up the King to take the Great Seal from Clarendon, and, as a temporary Aug. 31. arrangement, to give it to Sir Orlando Bridgeman. Shaftesbury probably had thought of it for himself ever since it was promised to him by Cromwell; but neither the Court nor the public were yet at all prepared to see such a successor of Sir Thomas More and Lord Ellesmere, and his pretensions could not at present be put forward. If either Sir Jeffry 1667. |