Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/131

 the time of the Duke of York's conversion. Clarke (Memoirs of James, i. 546) declares that Shaftesbury went on this course of unscrupulous violence in order to outdo Danby, who, to save himself, also affected belief in the plot. In December, however, Danby was ruined, and on 24 Jan. 1679 parliament was dissolved. It seems probable that Danby had made arrangements with Shaftesbury and the popular leaders for a dissolution on condition that he were not impeached. The new parliament met on 6 March. The chancellor, Finch, opened it with a speech, in which he said that the king ‘supported by his favour the creatures of his power.’ ‘My lords,’ said Shaftesbury, ‘I think we are all agreed that in this kingdom there are none but creatures of the divine power; the power of the king does not extend further than the laws determine’ (, iv. 77). In the debate as to how to deal with Danby the opposition lords voted for the lesser punishment of banishment, and Shaftesbury, with Essex and the chancellor, drew up the argument for the conference with the commons. He vigorously opposed, too, the right of the bishops to vote in treason cases. Meanwhile Charles thought of reconciling himself with the opposition. On 7 April Barillon reported that Shaftesbury, Halifax, and other chiefs of the country party, were professing good intentions to the king, who showed a desire to satisfy them. In the course of the month Shaftesbury was made president of a newly constituted privy council, with a salary of 4,000l. a year and official rank next to that of the chancellor, Charles promising that nothing of importance should be done without the consent of the whole council. Ralph (i. 438) assumes that this was only to buy off his opposition for the time, and Burnet says that the king thought that he was angry only because he was not employed. Ralph's view is probably correct, for on 25 March Shaftesbury had made a violent but eloquent speech on the state of the nation (ib. i. 434), referring chiefly to the dangers of protestantism, and especially to the misgovernment of Scotland and Ireland under Lauderdale and Ormonde [see, first ]. The attack on Ormonde, for which he had been at great pains to secure evidence in Ireland (, iv. 574), was one of the unprincipled actions of Shaftesbury's life, and can be explained only by his anxiety now to catch at any weapons. Ossory, Ormonde's son, replied to Shaftesbury with such warmth that Ormonde a few weeks later wrote to excuse him [see ].

In taking his new office Shaftesbury had relinquished none of his views. On 21 April he took a prominent part in the debate on the question of requiring protestant nonconformists to take the oaths exacted from Roman catholics. The motion, however, was carried against him, and he declared that he would not have taken office had he thought that he could not succeed in such a matter. The new privy council rapidly disclosed two parties on the question of Monmouth's succession, which was favoured by Shaftesbury and opposed by his kinsman Halifax. After James's dismissal to Flanders many meetings of Shaftesbury and Monmouth took place (ib. iv. 578). To defeat their design Charles again solemnly declared that he was never married to Monmouth's mother.

On 4 May a resolution was passed in the commons to bring in a bill to exclude James from the throne. Shaftesbury always upheld simple exclusion. Essex and Halifax, on the other hand, favoured the scheme of limitations, which Shaftesbury declared would create a democracy rather than a monarchy. The second reading of the bill was carried on the 21st; but a sudden prorogation on 26 May, at the instance of the Halifax cabal, and in violation of the promise given by Charles, put an end to the bill. Shaftesbury angrily avowed that he would have the heads of the advisers of this step (, Memoirs, ii. 519). One great measure, the Habeas Corpus Act, brought in by Shaftesbury, long known as ‘Shaftesbury's Act,’ was passed during this short session, though apparently only by an amusing trick (, ii. 335).

The Halifax cabal, joined by Henry Sidney and the Duchess of Portsmouth, now urged the Prince of Orange to come to England, in order to take the position which Shaftesbury desired for Monmouth. Sunderland endeavoured also to bring Shaftesbury himself into the plan; but this was frustrated by the enmity between him and Halifax. In July the king once more unexpectedly dissolved parliament, an act again noticed by Shaftesbury with expressions of the bitterest resentment. Meanwhile the rebellion in Scotland in June had offered Shaftesbury an occasion for putting Monmouth forward, by obtaining for him the command of the troops; but he failed in an attempt to raise guards for the king's person to be commanded by the favourite. At the end of August, when the king fell ill, Sunderland, to frustrate Shaftesbury, sent for James in haste. Both he and Monmouth were again ordered from court upon Charles's recovery; but in October, having effected a money treaty with Louis, Charles was able to take the step of recalling James and dismissing ‘Little Sincerity,’ the cant name for Shaftesbury used between the king and James, from the