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 [A. D. 1660.] Lambert. He next contrived to get himself seated in the House of Commons as representative for Downton, on the plea that he had been duly elected, and ought to have been returned for that place in the year 1640,* and he thenceforth mainly guided their proceedings with a view to the restoration. Monk was advanced from the north, and, notwithstanding his dissimulation, little doubt was entertained as to his ultimate intentions. Shaftesbury wrote to him to hasten his march, 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 mob were tickled with the jest, and some of them asserting that he was a brave boy," they accompanied him with acclamations to his lodgings. Shaftesbury warmly supported the act for putting an end to the Long Parliament, and he was appointed one of the new Council of State who were to carry on the government till the Convention Parliament could assemble. To this parliament he was again returned as member for the country of Wilts; and he had completely recover[APRIL, 1660.] ed his popularity in the west, for he was now at the head of the poll. When the House met, nothing remained but to arrange the ceremonial of the King's return. Sir John Grenville having delivered 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 Com[MAY 1.] mons 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.' In this journey he met with a dangerous accident. Being overturned in his carriage on a Dutch road, he received a wound between the ribs, which ulcerated many years after, and was opened when he was Chancellor. By way of compensation, this * 3 Parl. Hist. 1571. † He had twice unsuccessfully renewed his petition, in September 1645, and in May 1659. See Com. Jour. 7th January, 1660. 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 throw himself at the King's feet. At this first interview they little anticipated either the extraordinary intimacy, or the extraordinary enmity, which was afterwards to prevail between them. The King received him very courteously, and told him "he was very sensible with what zeal and application he had laboured for his restoration."* CHAPTER LXXXVI. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD SHAFTESBURY TILL HIS APPOINTMENT AS LORD CHANCELLOR. SOON after the King's ret urn, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, in recompense of his sevices was successively made a Privy Councillor, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Lieutenant of the county of Dorset, Governor of the Isle of Wight, and Baron Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles. [A. D. 1660.] He had His conduct for the next seven years seems wholly inexplicable; for he remained quite regular, and seemingly contented. 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 * Life, 203. to abstain from any turbulent measures. Shaftesbury, along with Southampton, gave some opposition to the "Corporation Act" and the "Act of Uuiformity;" and when Dunkirk had [1660-1667.] 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 the King at Whitehall, to pay court to Lady Castlemaine, and to cultivate with unwearied assiduity his reputation for licentiousness-which he did so successfully as even to rival that of his Master. But he became tired of routine business and the life of a mere roué; and seeing with satisfaction the King's growing dislike to Clarendon, he took every opportunity of widening 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 arrangement, to [AUG. 31. 1667.] 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 Jeffrey Palmer or Sir Heneage Finch, who with reputation filled the offices of Attorney and Solicitor General, had been appointed, there might have been some difficulty in removing them; but Bridgeman, from his age could not hold the Seal many years; and from his want of political importance might be set aside at pleasure. The expectant Chancellor zealously co-operated with those whose object it was,-not to bring Clarendon to [SEPT. 1667.] the scaffold, but to compel him to fly the country, -so that neither by the interest of the Duke of York, or a relenting of the King, he might ever recover power. When the im peachment for high treason came up from the Commons, with a requisition that the accused should be immediately imprisoned, Shaftesbury strenuously resisted the application, on the ground that the Commons had specified no particular act of treason; but he supported the bill by which Clarendon was banished for life, and was rendered liable to instant execution if he ever again set foot on English ground.* [JAN. 1668.] The first act of the new administration (constituting an exception to the whole foreign policy of this reign) was wise and virtuous-"the Triple Alliance," by which the free state of Holland was saved from the rapacity of a tyrant openly aspiring to the dominion of Europe. Sir William Temple has all the merit of this deviation into rectitude; and the surprise is, that those about the King permitted him, even for a time, to desert his cherished connection with France, which brought them plenteously avowed pensions and secret bribes. But the wax which sealed the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was hardly cold before they began to plot against it. Shaftesbury's apologists have contended that he was always an enemy to the French Alliance; but this is contrary to all contemporary testimony, as well as to all probability. I believe he did not take money from Louis, like his colleagues, for he was always above pecuniary corruption; but there cannot be a doubt that, with a view to gratify the King and to consolidate his own power, he acceded to the conspiracy for crushing the liberties of Holland, and for establishing, with French assistance, Popery and arbitrary government in England. "To compass this triple bond he broke, It has been suggested that, being now as keen a Protestant as when he denounced the Popish plot, it was on the enlightened principles of toleration that he supported "the Declaration of Indulgence," to which he induced the Lord Keeper Bridgeman to put the Great Seal. Unluckily, at this time he knew that Charles had been reconciled to Rome, and that the Declaration was a measure preparatory to the King's avowal of his conversion. He was too penetrating a genius not to discover that religious toleration was highly expedient; but, for the sake of his ambition, he would have been ready to prosecute Catholics or Protestants with indiscriminate zeal. Although Clifford certainly was the first to propose the shutting up of the Exchequer to the Council, there is great reason to think that Shaftesbury, who had the sole management of the finances as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, originated the nefarious scheme; and, at all events, he supported and defended it. * 4 Parl. Hist. 373. By this conduct he rose into unbounded favour with the King, who, though he afterwards pronounced him "the [A. D. 1672.] weakest and wickedest man of the age," now professed the highest admiration not only of his agreeable manners, but of the boldness, energy, and originality of his genius as a statesman. In anticipation of greater advancement, as a reward for his services in closing the Exchequer, he was created Earl of Shaftesbury. It is said that he was offered the Treasurer's staff, but that, on account of the national insolvency, for which he knew no real cure, he declined it. The CABAL was now in the zenith of its power. There were considerable jealousies among the members of the administration; but the energy of Shaftesbury prevailed, and he was the mainspring of all its operations. His reputation was not at all impaired by the general distress which followed the shutting up of the Exchequer, when he came forward with his remedy of stopping, by injunctions, all the suits against the bankers,-whereby commercial credit was to be restored. I have stated, in the Life of Lord Keeper Bridgeman, the refusal of that Judge to grant these injunctions, and his [Nov. 16.] consequent dismissal.* The ceremony of delivering the Great Seal to Shaftesbury, with the title of Lord Chancellor, took place next morning [Nov. 17.] at Whitehall, I presume, in the apartments of Lady Castlemaine.† "And the said Earle having received the Great Seale as Lord Chancellor, he presently attended his Majesty at his chappell in Whitehall in that capacity, bearing the said Seale before his Majesty."+ The event was thus announced to the public in the London Gazette. Whitehall, Nov. 17. 1672. "His Majesty, reflecting upon the age and infirmities of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, hath thought fit to admit of his resignation thereof, with all demonstration on his Majesty's part of his kindness and esteem of the said Lord Keeper's merit towards him; and his Majesty willing to gratify the uninterrupted good services of the Earl of Shaftesbury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, was pleased this day to give unto him the keeping of the said Great Seal, with the title of Lord Chancellor of England." * Ante, p. 234. † While she retained her ascendancy, the ministers met the king in her apartments every Sunday morning, and attended him from thence to the chapel-even when they were to receive the communion. + Crown Off. Min. 1672. |