Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/414

 in the name of William III. In March 1689 he was appointed high sheriff of Herefordshire, and at a by-election in April was returned to parliament, through the influence of the Boscawen family, for the borough of Tregony. At the general election in March 1690 he was returned for New Radnor borough, which he continued to represent thenceforth until his elevation to the House of Lords.

By birth and education Harley was a whig and a dissenter, but by slow degrees he gradually changed his politics, ultimately becoming the leader of the tory and church party. Harley quickly showed his aptitude for public business in the house, and on 26 Dec. 1690 was selected one of the commissioners for taking the public accounts. In 1693 Harley, who ' knew forms and the records of parliament so well that he was capable both of lengthening out and of perplexing debates,' joined with Foley and the tories in opposing the court, and 'set on foot some very uneasy things that were popular' (, Hist. of his own Time, iv. 197). At Harley's instance, in January 1694, a humble representation 'was made to the king on his refusal to pass the Place Bill (Parl. Hist. v. 831), but his motion for a further answer after the king's reply had been received was defeated by a large majority (ib. v. 837). In November of this year he brought in the Triennial Bill, which was this time quickly passed into law (6 & 7 Wm. & Mary, c. 2). In 1696 he succeeded in establishing the National Land Bank (7 & 8 Will. Ill, c. 31), which the tories predicted would completely eclipse the Bank of England, a delusion that was quickly dispelled by the utter failure of the scheme. At the end of this year he opposed the bill of attainder against Sir John Fenwick (ib. v. 1104-6). In December 1697 he carried a resolution that the military establishment should be reduced to what it had been in 1680, and in December 1698 that the army in England should not exceed seven thousand men, in consequence of which William was compelled to dismiss his Dutch guards. Harley had now become a great power in the house, for, while acting almost always with the tories, he contrived by his moderation and finesse to retain the favour of many of the whigs and dissenters. At the meeting of the new parliament on 10 Feb. 1701 he was elected speaker, a position for which he was well qualified by his minute knowledge of parliamentary procedure, by a majority of 120 votes over Sir Richard Onslow (Journals of the House of Commons, xiii. 325), Sir Thomas Lyttelton, the speaker of the former parliament, having withdrawn from his candidature at the request of the king. Harley was again electe speaker after the general election at the end of this year, but only by the narrow majority of four, being opposed by Lyttelton, whom the king this time openly favoured (ib. p. 645). On 19 June 1702 Harley was appointed custos rotulorum of Radnorshire, and at the meeting of Anne's first parliament in October was for the third time elected to the chair (Parl. Hist. vi. 46), and in November presented the thanks of the house to the tory admiral, Sir George Rooke, for his 'great and signal services' (Journals of the House of Commons, xiv. 39). Thwarted in their plans for the active prosecution of the war by the extreme high tories, Marlborough and Godolphin determined to obtain the dismissal of Nottingham and his followers. Harley was sworn a member of the privy council on 27 April 1704, and on 18 May was appointed secretary of state for the northern department in the place of Nottingham, while Mansel, the Earl of Kent, and St. John replaced Sir Edward Seymour, the Earl of Jersey, and Clarke. Harley, in spite of his new appointment, continued to occupy the chair until the dissolution of parliament in April 1705. In 1704 he took part in the debate on the constitutional case of Ashby v. White, and maintained that the sole judgment of election matters was vested in the House of Commons (Parl. Hist. vi. 277-9). In consequence of the conduct of the tory majority in the lower house the ministry began more and more to rely upon the whig party. A curious account of a dinner given by Harley in January 1706, with a view of cementing the alliance of the ministers with the whigs, is preserved in 'The Private Diary of William, first Earl Cowper' (Roxburghe Club, 1833, p. 33), where it is recorded that, after the lord treasurer had gone, 'Sr Harley took a glass and drank to Love and Friendship and everlasting Union and wish'd he had more Tockay to drink it in (we had drank two Bottles, good, but thick). I replied his white Lisbon was best to drink it in, being very clear. I suppose he apprehended it (as I observ'd most of the Company did) to relate to that humour of his, which was, never to deal clearly or openly, but always with Reserve, and if not Dissimulation or rather Simulation : and to love Tricks even where not necessary, but from an inward satisfaction he took in applauding his own Cunning. If any Man was ever born under a Necessity of being a knave, he was.' On 10 April 1706 Harley was appointed one of the commissioners for the union with Scotland. In December Sunderland became se-