Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/8

Finch councillor 4 Feb. 1679-80, and was first lord of the admiralty from 19 Feb. following to 22 May 1684. He was elected M.P. by both Lichfield and Newtown in March 1681, but was called to the House of Lords by his father's death, 18 Dec. 1682. As a privy councillor he signed the order for the proclamation of James II, and up to the time of Monmouth's insurrection was one of that king's steadiest supporters. But the ecclesiastical policy afterwards adopted by the government damped the loyalty of the cavaliers and laid the foundation of that new tory party which held itself aloof from the Jacobites. Nottingham came in time to be recognised as their head. Their distinguishing tenet was devotion to the established church in preference even to hereditary right. In the reign of Anne they were called the Hanoverian tories, and sometimes known by the nickname of the 'Whimsicals.' Nottingham's career was consistent throughout. He was one of the last men in England to accept the revolution settlement; but having once accepted it, he was one of the very few eminent statesmen of his time who never seem to have intrigued against it. Though Swift accuses him of having corresponded with the Stuarts, the charge, made in a moment of great exasperation, is not countenanced by any of his contemporaries. His private character is universally represented as stainless. Howe tells us that he had an intrigue with an opera singer, Signora Margaretta, afterwards Mrs. Tofts. But this was empty gossip. Both his principles and his virtues marked him out to be a leader of the clergy, with whom his influence was unbounded. This influence was the secret of Nottingham's importance for nearly a generation after the death of Charles II.

In the spring of 1688 the whigs resolved to take Nottingham into their confidence, and invite his co-operation in the intended revolution. He was for a time inclined to join in the appeal to the Prince of Orange ; but on second thoughts he declared that he could take no active part against his rightful sovereign. He admitted that his share in their confidence had given the whigs the right to assassinate him on breaking with them, and some of them were rather inclined to take him at his word. But they ended by relying on his honour, and had no reason to regret it.

Nottingham was a prominent figure in the parliamentary debates which followed James's flight from England. The tories were in favour of Bancroft's plan - a regency, that is, during the minority of the Prince of Wales; and this was the policy proposed by Lord Nottingham in the House of Lords. The motion was only lost by 51 votes to 49 ; and then the lords proceeded to consider the resolution which had been adopted by the commons declaring the throne vacant. This was opposed by Nottingham, and the resolution was rejected by 55 votes to 41. But the House of Commons refused to give way, and the House of Lords found it necessary to yield. Nottingham proposed a modification of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy for the sake of tender consciences, which was accepted by both houses, and he then fairly threw in his lot with the new regime, though he still maintained in theory his allegiance to the Stuarts. Nottingham, according to Bishop Burnet, was the author of the distinction between the king de jure and the king de facto, in which the old cavalier party found so welcome a refuge.

In December 1688 he was made one of the secretaries of state with charge of the war department, an office which he retained till December 1693. One of his first duties was the introduction of the Toleration Act. He seems to have sincerely believed it to be conducive to the stability of the church. It left the Act of Uniformity, the Test and Corporation Acts, the Conventicle Act, the Five Mile Act, and the act making attendance at church compulsory, in full force, only enacting that on certain conditions dissenters might be exempted from the penalties attaching to the violation of the law. These conditions were intended to serve as a test by which dangerous dissenters could be distinguished from harmless ones. Those, it was thought, who would subscribe five of the Thirty-nine Articles, take the oath of allegiance, and sign the declaration against popery might be safely trusted. Ten years before, Nottingham, as a member of the House of Commons, had framed a bill on much the same lines, which only failed to become law by an artifice. At the same time he now brought in a less popular measure, a comprehension bill, for enabling dissenters to conform to the church of England. The Bishop of London supported the bill in the House of Lords, where, oddly enough, it was violently opposed by Bishop Burnet. But Nottingham would probably have succeeded in his efforts had it not been for the dissenters themselves. Those who were unwilling to accept the compromise were naturally interested in preventing others from accepting it, and between the active hostility of its enemies and the lukewarm support of its friends, the measure fell to the ground. An attempt made at the same time by some members of the whig party to repeal the Test Act was dropped with it. When William III set out for Ireland in the summer of 1690 he left behind him a council of nine, of whom Nottingham was