to the "Instrument of Government," and | he hath been pleased to do: for we know a house the Lords were summoned also. Cooper designed for beggars and malefactors is a house took his seat for Poole, and became a of correction, and so termed by our law; but, prominent leader of the opposition. Animated debates took place on the question whether Richard should be "recognized' or "declared " Protector. On a resolution being proposed "saving the rights of Parliament," Cooper spoke with a vigour and resolution which we do not trace in his speeches under the more powerful sway of Oliver. The next great question was, whether the House would transact with the other House as with a House of Parliament. In this debate Cooper delivered a speech against Oliver's Peers. The speech, as published, is full of vigorous acrimony, but whether it was ever spoken as published may be doubted. The following extracts show its force and its bitterness: "That which we deliberate is not whether we will say, we do not care to be free, we like our old masters, and will be content to have our ears bored at the door-post of their House, and to serve them for ever; but, Sir, as if we were contending for shame as well as servitude, we are carrying our ears to be bored at the doors of another House; an House, Sir, without a name, and therefore it is but congruous it should consist of members without family; an House that inverts the order of slavery, and subjects us to our servants; and yet, in contradiction to Scripture, we do not only not think that subjection intolerable, but we are now pleading for it. In a word, Sir, it is a House of so incongruous and odious a composition and mixture, that certainly the grand architect would never have so framed it, had it not been his design, as well to show the world the contempt he had of us, as to demonstrate the power he had over us.' Again, the following description, if really spoken, must have sounded racily in the ears of many : "What I shall speak of their quality, or anything else concerning them, I would be thought to speak with distinction, and to intend only of the major part; for I acknowledge, Mr. Speaker, the mixture of the other House to be like the composition of apothecaries, who mix something grateful to the taste to qualify their bitter drugs, which else, perhaps, would be immediately spit out and never swallowed. So, Sir, his Highness of deplorable memory to this nation, to countenance as well the want of quality as of honesty in the rest, has nominated some against whom there lies no other reproach but only that nomination; but not out of any respect to their quality or regard to their virtues, but out of regard to the no-quality, the no-virtues of the rest; which truly, Mr. Speaker, if he had not done, we could easily have given a more express name to this other House than Mr. Speaker, setting those few persons aside, who, I hope, think the nomination a disgrace and their ever coming to sit there a much greater can we without indignation think of demned coward; one that out of fear and basethe rest? He, who is first in their roll, a conness did once what he could to betray our liberties, and now does the same for gain.* The second, a person of as little sense as honesty, preferred for no other reason but his no-worth, his no-conscience; except cheating his father of all he had was thought a virtue by him, who by sad experience we find hath done as much for his mother his country. The third, a Cavalier, a Presbyterian, an Independent; for the Republic, for a Protector, for everything, for nothing, but only that one thing money.† It were endless, Sir, to run through them all; to tell you of the lordships of seventeen pounds a year land of inheritance; of the farmer lordships, draymen lordships, cobbler lordships, without one foot of land but what the blood of Englishmen has been the price of. These, Sir, are to be our rulers, these the judges of our lives and fortunes; to these we are to stand bare, whilst their pageant lordships deign to give us a conference on their breeches. Mr. Speaker, we have already had too much experience how insupportable servants are when they become our masters. All kinds of slavery are miserable in the account of generous minds; but that which comes accompanied with scorn and contempt stirs up every man's indignation, and is endured by none whom nature does not intend for slaves as well as fortune.' These quotations reflect but little credit on Cooper's consistency or good feeling. He had been a supporter of the Protector and his government; had held office under him; had been the intimate friend of his son Henry; was supposed to have been the suitor for the hand of his daughter. Yet the great man is scarcely cold in his grave before Cooper assails him with this scurrilous abuse. It is difficult to say which is the more astonishing, the ingratitude or the "Nathaniel Fiennes, second son of Viscount Saye and Sele, who had, in the beginning of the Civil War, surrendered Bristol to the King's army without making any defence, and had been cor demned to death by a court-martial bat pardoned by the Earl of Essex, the General-in-Chief. He was now First Commissioner of the Great Seal, and one of Kichard Cromwell's chief advisers. His father and a younger brother, John, were also named by Cromwell members of the House of Lords: the father did not sit." "Supposed to be Lord Broghill, after the Restoration created Earl of Orrery; a poet and playwriter, as well as a versatile and ambitious politician." brew. r, and is said to have begun as a drayman; Colonel Pride, one of the lords, had been a and Colonel Hewson, another lord, had been a shoemaker." impudence of this speech. Not only had Cooper been a friend of Cromwell, but he had worn the colours of every party in the State, Cavalier and Republican, Presbyterian and Independent. And now the faculty of "ratting" which he himself had signally illustrated, he unblushingly condemned. It is impossible, when reading such passages in Cooper's life, not to feel how much truth there is in Dryden's satire: "Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit; Restless, unfixed in principles and place, In power unpleas'd, 'impatient of disgrace." There is one epithet here which perhaps ought to be changed. Shaftesbury was restless, impatient, irritable, and capricious. But he can hardly be said to have been always "bold.” Whatever boldness he did possess was, in the earlier stages of his career, tempered by discretion. He generally measured the vehemence of his language by the impunity of its utterance. A few months earlier, his disapproval of the Restoration and the shiftiness of politicians would have been touched with delicate and cautious wit. Now, the Protectorate and time-servers might safely be cauterized in terms of uncompromising indignation. And so through life. Although on many occasions Cooper's vanity, impatience, and irritability prevented him from reaping all the fruits of his energy and capacity, it was only towards the close of his career that his indiscretion threatened him with serious danger. He was often indiscreet, but this did not damage either his fortune or his position. On the contrary, one was improved, while the other was not impaired, by a very turbulent and restless prominence in public affairs during a very turbulent and restless epoch of our national history. After an animated debate the Commons affirmed the following resolution, "That this House will transact with the persons now sitting in the other House as a House of Parliament during this present Parliament, and that it is not hereby intended to exclude such Peers as have been faithful to the Parliament, from their privilege of being duly summoned as members of that House." Next came the question of settling a revenue on Richard Cromwell. Cooper resisted a proposal to this effect, but unsuccessfully. He was more successful in carrying a resolution that after the termination of that Parliament no tax should be in force without the distinct and special sanction of the House. Meanwhile, the clouds were gathering on the horizon. The House of Commons and the House of Lords were squabbling about forms. But there was a power in the country greater than that of Lords and Commons. That power was the army, which looked with contemptuous indignation at the temper which could debate forms and ceremonies, bowings and salutations, messengers and messages, while its own claims were treated with indifference. The officers had been accustomed to sit in council under Fleetwood's presidency at Wallingford House, and here they framed resolutions recommending the transfer of the military command to some one in whom they had confidence. These resolutions were insolent and menacing, and Richard appealed to Parliament, which passed two other resolutions imposing on all military officers oaths of allegiance to the Protector. These were sent up to the Lords. While the Lords were debating them, Richard assumed an air of firmness, and dissolved the Council of Wallingford. Fleetwood and Desborough defied his authority and demanded the dissolution of the Parliament. Richard was too weak to resist; he submitted; Parliament was dissolved; and the fate of Richard's Protectorate was sealed. | Not that the two generals, Desborough and Fleetwood, were hostile to Richard's civil supremacy. They were, on the contrary, bound to his person and his interests by ties of affinity. One was the husband of his sister, the other of his aunt. Their object was limited to curtailing his military authority. But like many other general officers who seek to attain certain ends of their own in times of disorder or unsettled government, they reckoned without their host. Their army had views very different from theirs. The men and many of the officers were for the most part of the stern stuff which had formed the iron ranks of Oliver, grim Republicans who hated Prelacy only a degree more than they hated Monarchy. The Council of Officers would not hear of tolerating the personal rule of Richard. Ultimately it was proposed to restore the Rump, and the proposal became a resolution. A declaration inviting those members who had continued their sittings after the excution of Charles I. was presented to the old Speaker Lenthall. On the 7th May, 1659, the army of Richard brought back the Speaker and a portion of the Rump to the seats from which the army of Oliver had ousted them. Cooper eagerly sought to establish his seat in the restored House for the borough of Downton. He petitioned; but at first his son of our order and government; the parties petition was either rejected or postponed. are like so many floating islands, sometimes Probably his many tergiversations sub- joining and appearing like a continent, when jected him to the suspicion of the domi- the next flood or ebb separates them that it can nant party. But, though excluded from hardly be known where they will be next."* the House, he was admitted into the Council of State, as one of the ten non-Parlia- tisans in Cheshire, but was easily supA rising was attempted by Charles's par mentary members. His election caused pressed by Lambert. Shortly after this, great surprise, but is not wholly inexplica- Cooper was arrested on suspicion of corresble. Already men's minds were wavering ponding with the Royalist agents, but was between different forms of government. acquitted by the committee which examined The English army was, as we have seen, him. Meanwhile the generals, apprehendviolently Republican. It is not likely that ing some coup d'état on the part of Parliathe country gentry and men of substance ment, addressed a remonstrance to the sympathized with it. The weakness of House for its lenity to the recent rebels and Richard only suggested some stronger and its ingratitude to those who had punished more enduring form of government. Such them. The House was angry and cashiered thoughts might not safely find expression the generals; in return, the generals were at the time, but they would lead men to furious and threatened the Parliament. revolve the means of bringing about a Westminster beheld the troops of Lambert reactionary revolution. If there was any arrayed against the troops of the Parlia likelihood of effecting a change, there were ment, but no collision ensued, and Lambert no better instruments to employ for the triumphed without bloodshed. Cooper purpose than men whose natural restless-sided with the Parliament in the Council of ness was modified by a discreet perception State against Lambert. But he soon ceased of the best opportunity for changing. Such to sit, and the Council itself couid not maina man was Sir A. A. Cooper, and doubtless he owed his seat in the Council to the same suspicions which kept him from a seat in Parliament. He vehemently repelled the charge of being in correspondence with the exiled King; and we believe his assertion. But it is quite consistent with this denial that he should discern the temper of the times, and be prepared to conform his actions to the tenor of opinion. And it is not unlikely that he may have examined and discussed the means which the Royalists had at their command for the furtherance of tain itself against the Army. A rival Council was set up by the generals, which was soon merged in a Committee of Safety, among the members of which were Fleetwood, Lambert, and Desborough. The special objects of this body were to abolish tithes and prevent a monarchy. But it had neglected to secure the co-operation of Monk, whose attitude was one of armed and expectant inaction. His neutrality prevented the Council from preserving the ascendency which it had gained, The their cause. composition, not an army of mercenaries. It was, in its origin and its main It had mercenaries in its ranks, but its become soldiers not for money, nor for fashprincipal constituents were men who had It appears from the Clarendon army differed as much from any body of Papers, quoted by Mr. Christie, that over-ther in England or on the Continent, as it regular troops which had been known, eitures were made to him by Charles, to differed from any that has been known which he made no response. Overtures since. more significant in their tendency, though less important in their profession, were made to him in 1659 by one more eminent and powerful than Charles. Monk wrote to Cooper begging him to use his influence that no change might be made in the dis-ion, but for a cause which they deemed as posal of the men belonging to the Northern Precious as life. They were recruited from the middle ranks of society in an age when army. Similar letters were written to the the middle ranks possessed the soil of EngSpeaker and other members of Council: and it is clear that Monk was feeling his land much more extensively than they do way. Another passage quoted by Mr. now, and from the religious, thoughtful, and Christie from the Clarendon State Papers citizens in arms rather than professional earnest section of those ranks. They were describes the discord of parties which pre- soldiers. Yet the object which had banded vailed at this time, and presaged the coming them together, the success which they had change. achieved, the victories which they had won, the wonderful revolution which they had "The confusions now," writes Major Wood, June 3, 1659,"are so great that it is not to be credited; the chaos was a perfection in compari- ! "Clarendon State Papers, iii. 479." is thus described in a letter cited by Mr. writes Mordaunt to Hyde, effected in the condition of England, all combined to inspire them with a unity of feeling far stronger than the esprit de corps on which professional soldiers justly pride themselves. They were the established and recognized representatives of a great and triumphant principle. They had changed the England of the Stuarts into the England of the Commonwealth. They had triumphed over the King and the Prelacy; they had humbled Parliament; they had confronted and cowed their own leader, the great Oliver, when he ventured to aspire to the name and power of king. No wonder that such an army should have become a caste, a proud, sensitive, jealous, and menacing caste. No wonder that its chiefs After Monk came up to London, he was should be suspicious of any encroachment | beset by the conflicting intrigues of Cooper on its powers, and its officers of any en- and Haselrig. Eventually Cooper tricroachment on its principles. But, notwith- umphed, and Monk proceeded, at his instanding all the forces which tended to in-stigation, to Westminster, where he despire union, there were other forces which more strongly tended to inspire disunion. The civilians by whom the army was recruited retained many of their civilian predilections. Some remained Presbyterians, while others, hardened and braced by the struggles of a conflict which had been no less theological than martial, were implacable Independents. Again, Monk had little sympathy with Lambert, Fleetwood, and the London generals; Fairfax was decidedly hostile to them; the army of the North had only a partial sympathy with the army of the South. As each section became conscious of this latent disagreement from the other, the suspicion which each harboured towards the other became more The Rump Parliament came to an end confirmed. Such was the state of feeling in April, 1660. A Convention Parliament when, in November, 1659, commissioners of the two Houses met on the 25th of that from Monk came up to London to treat month. By this time Monk had matured with Fleetwood, and were afterwards in- his plans in favour of the King. The two duced to confer with Cooper and Sir A. Houses had sent commissioners to Charles Haselrig. They left London with the as- at Breda; one of the commissioners was surance that, if Monk declared for the Cooper. On the first of May, Sir John Parliament, he would be named Generalis- Grenville appeared in both Houses, and simo of all its forces. Before the end of pre-ented the King's letters to the two the month, Cooper, in conjunction with Speakers. On the 29th of May Charles eight members of the old Council of State, himself entered London amid the acclamahad secured the power and restored the tions of an enthusiastic populace. He had Parliament, and appointed Monk Com- returned without conditions and restricmander-in-Chief of the forces in England tions, to the dismay of one party, the and Scotland. Cooper was, in the follow-mixed fear and satisfaction of another, but ing January elected member of a new to the unqualified joy of the majority of Council of State, and at length, in Jan- the English people. manded a free Parliament. The Rump were alarmed, not only at the demand, but also at the enthusiasm which it excited. They saw that it was now impossible to retain the supreme power within their own small circle, and proceeded to vote for completing the number of members. But they clogged the vote with qualifications which would have restricted the new members to their own party. This plan was opposed by Monk, who insisted on the readmission of the excluded members. Monk carried his point, and was appointed Commander-in-chief, and issued to Cooper the commission of Governor of the Isle of Wight. uary 1650, obtained his seat for Downton One incident connected with this journey on his old petition of 1640. Shortly after, to Breda had lasting consequences to the Speaker handed to him in the House Cooper. While travelling his carriage his commission of colonel of the regiment was upset, and his fall caused an internal of horse, of which Fleetwood had been de- abscess, from which he suffered during the prived. The policy which Cooper now followed "Clarendon State Papers, iii. 650." Baron Ashley of Wimborne St Giles. A few days later he received an appointment which in our age would be impossible, that of Chancellor of the Exchequer and Under-Treasurer. In our day it is inconceivable how a Chancellor of the Exchequer could sit in the House of Lords. But one Cooper was now in his thirty-ninth year. He had given, not open and consistent, but seasonable and efficient aid to the of two things is clear. Either the office Restoration. Nor was the King allowed was in those days less financially importo remain ignorant of his merits. While tant than it is now, or its general imCharles halted at Canterbury, on his way portance was so great that it was considto London, he made Cooper a Privy Coun-ered expedient to combine its tenure with cillor. The Convention Parliament having a seat in the House of Lords. Lord been confirmed by statute, Cooper retained Campbell, however, is wrong in stating his seat in the House of Commons, and that Ashley gave himself to routine busisupported the Government there. He was ness and the life of a roué. Without one of the thirty-four Special Commission- claiming for him the morality of a purist, ers apppointed, at the close of the Session, it is only just to observe that there is no to try twenty-eight regicides who had proof that in an age of general laxity Ashbeen "excepted for life and estate." ley was pre-eminently profligate. That he Among the accused were Harrison and may have attended the levees of Lady Hugh Peters; among the judges, Monk Castlemaine, and have sauntered in the and Montague, of whom one had been a company of other royal mistresses, is not general in Cromwell's army and the other improbable; but in doing this he only a peer in Cromwell's Upper House. Ten showed himself not superior to the general of the former were executed at once; the demeanour of the society in which he remainder having surrendered in obedi- lived. It was one baleful effect of the ence to the Royal Proclamation, were res-tone adopted after the Restoration, not pited till a special Act should be passed only by the Court, but by many of the for their execution. That Act was never people who had groaned under Puritan passed, and they escaped the infliction of strictness, that men affected vices from death. which they were really free. And as a character for gallantry implied the profession of certain showy qualities, of which most men are vain, it is not unlikely that Ashley's vanity gave colour to an imputation which was common to the whole courtly circle in which he moved. As to the other imputation, it is equally unfounded. Ashley did not concentrate on routine duties the time which he is represented to have stolen from frivolity. At this time the debates in the House of Lords were more vehement and more thorough than those in the Commons. The opinions of members of the Upper House commanded a more general attention throughout the country than those of the Lower; and on the important questions then under debate Ashley spoke neither unfrequently nor ineffectively. He opposed the Corporation Act, and the Act of Uniformity, and the Act which imposed on all militia officers the same tests as were contained in the Corporation and Uniformity Acts, except renunciation of the Covenant. He vigorously supported a Bill for enabling the King to dispense with the provisions of the Act of Uniformity. Had this Bill become law, it would have prevented many a bitter couflict in aftertimes; but it was lost. Of Ashley's rest of his life. Not the least part of the misfortune was that it subjected him to the lampoons of scurrilous assailants, whose foul imagination suggested an origin of the malady as shameful as it was false. Mr. Christie is at great pains to defend Cooper from the charge of criminal inconsistency in sitting as a judge on these trials. We think this is superfluous. Cooper lived in an age which was not nicely sensitive as to alternations of political partizanship. Cooper's delicacy was not greater than that of his contemporaries; but it certainly was not less. Monk, Montague, and Manchester sat on the trial of the regicides, and they had all taken an active and avowed part in the events which led to the trial and sentence of Charles I. Cooper was out of Parliament at the time, devoting himself to the business of sessions and assizes, and there are reasons for supposing that he regarded the execution of the King with disapproval. Having given active assistance to the de facto government of Cromwell, he undoubtedly would have behaved with greater decency if he had refused to sit as judge on the men who had laid the foundation of that government. But his inconsistency or indecency was far less flagrant than that of his colleagues. The Convention Parliament having been dissolved, Cooper ceased to sit in the House of Commons. Before the new Parliament met, in 1661, he had been created |