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very great resentment of both Houses, and such rage on the part of Lord Shaftesbury, that he said aloud in the House, that he would have the heads of those who were the authors of the prorogation." Indeed the King could hardly have contrived a measure that should so completely belie his public declaration on forming his coun-cil. 66 By the constant advice of such a council, His Majesty is resolved hereafter to govern "his kingdoms, together with the frequent use "of his great council of Parliament, which he "takes to be the true ancient constitution of "this state and government."

At the time of the prorogation, the House of Commons were occupied in examining into the pensions of members of the former parliament. It appeared by the report of the committee of secrecy, that 20,000l. per annum were paid quarterly by the commissioners of excise, for secret service to members of Parliament. About thirty members who received pensions were named by Sir Stephen Fox; but the house had only time to examine two or three before the dissolution. Several, it appeared, had received the money as a compensation for giving up a share in the farm of the excise.

On the same day that Parliament was prorogued, the King gave his assent to the Habeas Corpus Act. From the passing of Magna

Charta to that of the act of Habeas Corpus, a period of more than four centuries and a half, many attempts had been made, without success, to ensure the execution of that blessed clause, by which it is enacted, that no freeman should be imprisoned or punished, except by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. The provisions of the present act of Habeas Corpus, which are too well known to require enumeration here, are, I believe, the same as those of the bill introduced in 1675, and are so admirably adapted to secure the personal liberty of the subject, as to merit the praise of all historians. The censure of James the Second, conveyed in the following passage, is, however, superior in value to any panegyric. In his advice to his son, he says, "It was a great misfortune to the people, as well as to the crown, the passing of the Habeas Corpus Act; since it obliges the crown to keep a greater force on foot, than it needed otherwise to preserve the government, and encourages disaffected, turbulent, and unquiet spirits, to contrive and carry on, with more security to themselves, their wicked designs; it was contrived and carried on by the Earl of Shaftesbury to that intent."* The part here attributed to Lord Shaftesbury, in framing this

*Life of James, b. ii. p. 621.

law, instead of being disgraceful, does great credit to his sagacity, and entitles him to the gratitude of the people of England. The Whigs in the council, though few in number, may have likewise assisted in obtaining the King's consent to the act. Even the act now passed, however, excellent as it is, was not scrupulously observed till after the Revolution. The peculiar distinction of that great event is not, as some suppose, to have established the right of Parliament to depose the King, and alter the succession of the crown, a principle often before asserted in the course of our history, but to have brought into easy and undisturbed practice those ancient rights and liberties, which the Plantagenets had attempted in vain to subvert, which the Tudors had often been allowed to trample upon, and which the Stuarts sacrificed their throne to destroy.

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OF YORK. -DISGRACE OF MONMOUTH AND SHAFTESBURY.- PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. MEAL-TUB PLOT. RETIREMENT of ESSEX AND HALIFAX.—THEIR CHARACTERS.-PETITIONS FOR THE MEETING OF PARWHIGS AND

LIAMENT. ABHORRING

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ADDRESSES.

CHARACTER OF THE PARTIES SO CALLED.

May 29.

In the spring of the year 1679, the insurrection which is known by the name of the rising of Bothwell Bridge, broke out in Scotland. In the first encounter with the insurgents, which happened at Loudon Hill, Captain Graham, afterwards celebrated as Viscount Dundee, was defeated. When

June 2.

this news was communicated to the council, Lord Russell stood up and began a speech, saying, "he was so far from wondering that this trouble happened now, that he rather wondered it did not happen long ago, since His Majesty thought fit to retain incendiaries near his person, and in his very council." Upon which the Duke of Lauderdale, seeing that he was aimed at, and recollecting the parliamentary

addresses against him, asked leave to withdraw. But the King replied, with a motion of his hand, "No, no, sit down, my Lord; this is no place for addresses.” *

North, who relates this saying, does not hesitate to accuse Lord Shaftesbury and the Whigs of exciting the rebellion, which was the subject of debate. As the only authority he alleges in support of this position, is a rumour in an anonymous pamphlet, that forty copies of a speech of Lord Shaftesbury's had been sent to Scotland, it may seem unnecessary to refute so groundless a charge. But as it has been credited by the impartial Ralph, and as the affairs of Scotland may afford a specimen of the temper of the government in general, it is by no means superfluous to enquire into the real causes of the Scotch insurrection.

At the time of the Restoration, it became a question at court, whether prelacy should be reestablished in Scotland. Lauderdale, whose sufferings, abilities, and knowledge of his countrymen, gave weight to his opinion, advised, that the presbyterian form of church government should be continued, as more congenial to the religious opinions of the nation. But Clarendon and Middleton advised the restoration of prelacy,

*North Ex. p. 79.

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