Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/65

 1922 COUNCIL AND CABINET, 1679-88 57 recognized committee of the council. Not only did the com- mittee change its character, but it also changed its name. Whereas down to about the end of 1680 the secretaries of state in their official correspondence to English representatives abroad speak of the committee of intelligence, afterwards they no longer use this term, but refer in precisely similar ways to the committee of foreign affairs. 1 It is probable that the changed status of the committee was due to the alterations which had taken place in its membership. There were originally nine or ten members the lord chancellor (Heneage, Lord Finch), 2 the lord president (Shaftesbury), 2 Monmouth, the lord chamberlain (Arlington), Sunderland, Essex, Halifax, Coventry, secretary of state, Sir William Temple, and probably Prince Rupert. 3 Of these, Shaftesbury, Monmouth, Sunderland, Essex, and Temple had been turned out by February 1681, and Coventry had practically ceased to attend after he had relinquished his secretaryship. 4 The additions were Robartes in May 1679, 5 Laurence Hyde in November 1679, 6 Jenkins and Godolphin in February 1680, and Seymour in January 1681. If the surviving members of the committee of intelligence be compared with the first available list 7 of those present at a meet- ing of the committee for foreign affairs there is a remarkable 1 Thus, Jenkins to Silvius, 14 May, 21 December 1680, and Jenkins to Sackville, 25 April 1681, to Bulstrode 11 November 1681 (Public Record Office, State Papers, For. Entry Books, 188-90). There are scores of other references. In a letter to Philip Warwick (Gal. of State Papers, Dom., 1680-1, p. 95) Jenkins says that his letters had been read at the committee of foreign affairs, but he clearly was referring to the committee of intelligence (Register of the committee of intelligence, 28 November 1680). It is noteworthy that Sunderland, the other secretary, also frequently mentions the committee of intelligence during 1680 (State Papers, For. Entry Book, 19 ; Henry Sidney, Diary, i. 229, &c.)- Unfortunately he was dismissed in January 1681, and the papers relating to his second secretaryship are so few that I have been unable to find any references by him to the committee after January 1681. 2 ' Who with the two secretaryes may be present at all comittees as often as they see fitt.' Original note in Privy Coun. Reg. Ixviii. 5. prefixed to the register of the committee of intelligence. He was first present 18 September 1679. 5 Privy Coun. Reg. Ixviii. 60. He succeeded Shaftesbury as lord president in October, having been created earl of Radnor in July. 6 Ibid. 289. This is the last addition mentioned in the council register. 7 Christie, ii, app. cxviii-cxxii. Miss Foxcroft (i. 339) has shown the date to be January 1682 and not, as printed, June 1681. I think it is clear that those summoned to meet the king in the afternoon were the niembers of the foreign committee, and that the morning meeting was merely an informal discussion. Otherwise I cannot account for the omission to invite Clarendon to the afternoon gathering. I suppose the arch- bishop of Canterbury was invited so that the church might be represented when such important subjects as a possible war with France or a reconciliation with Shaftesbury were under discussion, although he may have been a member, as later archbishops were, of the cabinet. For convenience of comparison these lists are printed, infra, app ii.
 * His name is not given in the list in the privy council register, but heads that-
 * He was not present from 4 April 1680 to 25 January 1681.