Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/68

 60 COUNCIL AND CABINET, 1679-88 January was certainly no unanimity, and there was no definite principle on which members were selected beyond the recognition, in practice at least, that certain office-holders ought to be included. 1 Under James II the cabinet was overshadowed by a clique of catholic advisers. James himself attributes this to the machina- tions of Sunderland : The first step he made, to gain the King wholy to himself, and exclud not only My Lord Rochester, but any others whose intrest or abilitys might giue the least jealousie ; "he pers waded the King to apoint some of the most considerable Catholicks to meet at certain times either at his office, or at Mr. Chivins's, to consult of matters relateing to Religion, and he pretending to be much inclin'd too and at the last professing himself a Catholick, was not only admitted but soon had the chief direction of this Secrect [sic] juncto ; it was a sort of Committee from the Cabinet Council it self, whither by degrees he drew all business and by consequence made himself Vmpire of the whole transactions relateing to the government." . . . Indeed my Lord Arundell of Wardour before he was superanuated, might have deserued a place in that assembly (but it matters not which way a disability comes) but as for the rest, which was Father Petre, the Marques of Powis, the Lord Bellasis, and Dover, and some time after My Lord Castlemain ; it is no disparagement to them, to say, they were very unequally match'd, with one of the most cunning, dissembling, and design- ing statesmen of his time. 2 A little later is another interesting passage : As for other Councellors, My Lord Sunderland had rid himself of the danger of being twarted by them, by hooking all business into that Secret Committee at Mr. Chivens's ; so that not only the Privy Council was unacquainted with all transactions, till it was resolued they should be made publick, but the Cabinet Council itself was as much a stranger to them as the other, few matters of moment being treated of there, but the reading forreign letters ; and even least by that, they might get too much light into affairs, the King was prevail'd with to giue private instruc- tions to his Envoys abroad, never to write anything but Common news or publick transactions to the Earle of Middleton, the other Secretary of 1 Sir William Anson stated : ' It is noticeable that these cabinets of Charles II, unlike some later cabinets, were composed entirely of persons holding political as distinct from household offices ' (ante, xxix. 59). This is not quite correct, for Halifax and Sunderland both belonged to the cabinet before they held any office. 2 Life of James, ii. 745. This passage is partly a quotation from the king's own writings and partly a paraphrase. According to Barillon in February 1685 the members were Arundell, Belasyse, Talbot, and Germaine (C. J. Fox, History of James II, app. xlviii). In March 1686 he states that Powis had been added to the catholic lords ' who often meet at Lord Sunderland's ' (Dalrymple, Memoirs, ii, app., part i, p. 176). In Macpherson, Original Papers, i. 148, there is the following passage said to be derived from James's own memoirs : Sunderland ' got the King to establish a secret council of Roman Catholics, to meet at his office, or Mr. Chiffinch's, to consult of matters of religion. Being inclined to it, he drew by degrees all business to it ; and he himself was the umpire of all. It consisted of the lords Arundel, Powis, Bellasis, Dover, Castlemain, and father Petre. Castlemain was sent to Rome.'