Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/125

 chiefly to Buckingham and Arlington. Buckingham's programme was toleration and comprehension of dissent, and Ashley, from a mixture of interest and principle, joined him warmly (, 12 Feb. 1669;, Documents inédits, &c., iii. 58). Ormonde particularly was still the object of their attacks. They promoted an investigation into his Irish administration and proposed an impeachment (, iv. 339). Under Buckingham's protection Ashley soon recovered his position with Charles; and, if Burnet may be trusted, he strengthened his influence by ‘managing for the king one of his mistresses, Miss Roberts’ (i. 484). He now assisted Buckingham by a remarkable paper addressed to the king in favour of toleration to all dissenters except Roman catholics and Fifth-monarchy men, as a necessary measure for increase of population and improvement of trade; urging wider naturalisation with the hope of attracting the ablest foreigners to the country, and suggesting with the same object a measure for the registration of titles to land as an infallible security to the purchaser or lender (, ii. app. i.) His clear and statesmanlike views are still further shown in the advice he gave the king in 1670 (ib. p. 9), with its distinction between trade and commerce, which led to the appointment in 1670 of the commission of trade.

The question of the succession to the throne began already to occupy men's minds. Buckingham first suggested the plan of divorce, and afterwards that of legitimising Monmouth. In 1670, in support of the former project, a bill was brought in for enabling Lord Roos to marry again after obtaining a divorce. Ashley vigorously supported the bill, which was warmly favoured by Charles ( (Grosart), ii. 316). The result was (ib. ii. 326) to strengthen his influence at court. Buckingham, Lauderdale, Ashley, Orrery, and Trevor are named as the governing cabal. In the second scheme Ashley appears also to have co-operated (, State Papers, i. 46), and he soon afterwards kept the idea of using Monmouth as a stalking-horse steadily in view (Lauderdale Papers, iii. preface).

The celebrated cabal was a toleration cabinet, but its members were at complete variance on any question into which the advantage of catholicism entered. Thus, when the infamous treaty of Dover was concocted in 1669 and 1670, it was necessary to keep from Buckingham and Ashley at least the condition by which Charles bound himself, for a money gift from Louis, to introduce catholicism into England. At the same time their support, and that of Lauderdale, was necessary to compass the other part of the treaty, the declaration of war against Holland. Accordingly Buckingham was permitted to arrange a mock treaty, the conditions of which were otherwise precisely those of the genuine treaty, but in which the objectionable articles were omitted. In this matter he consulted Ashley, who, while urging caution, took a decided part in arranging its conditions; and on 31 Dec. 1670 the latter, with the rest of the cabal, signed this mock treaty, the real treaty having been signed by Arlington, Clifford, Arundel, and Bellinge. Thus, while Ashley is free of all complicity in the catholic plot, he is fully responsible, from this early stage, for the second and iniquitous Dutch war.

As it was not found practicable to begin the war until March 1672, and as it was desirable not to allow it to be known that the engagement between Charles and Louis had lasted so long, the treaty of 31 Dec. 1670 was now replaced by a duplicate, signed on 2 Feb. 1672 by the same ministers as before; and this was produced to parliament as the original and sole treaty. That is, in common with the other members of the cabal, Ashley lent himself to a deliberate fraud. According to Martyn, Ashley had urged Buckingham not to make the treaty, and had endeavoured to persuade Charles also; but, finding this impossible, did his best to make it favourable for England, and especially he urged that the number of ships employed by France should be reduced, and the number of places to be taken by England increased by Worne and Goree; and this is borne out by Burnet (i. 527), who quotes Shaftesbury's own statements. Buckingham also, in his defence before the commons in 1674, declared that Ashley had joined him in urging the duty of consulting parliament before the war was begun. On the whole, having in mind the view then taken of ministerial responsibility, there is little, with the exception of the fraud implied in signing the 1672 duplicate, to blame in his conduct. There is no evidence of his having been bribed; he received nothing more than the formal presents (after the 31 Dec. 1670 treaty) customary on such occasions; Burnet's statement on this point (i. 535) being contradicted by the fact that no such jewelled picture as he refers to had ever been seen or heard of by those who, if it existed, must have known of it.

In 1670 Ashley had shared in the attempt made by the House of Lords to interfere in a money bill, which led to the loss of the intended supplies. Buckingham and Ashley urged in council that parliament should again be summoned to grant supplies, but were