Chancellor, and the Black Rod was sent to summon the Commons. An effort was made to keep him out till

certain factious resolutions might be carried; but [Nov. 4, 1673.] before the motion could be seconded, "that the Duke of Lauderdale was a grievance," he had thrice knocked, and the door was thrown open to him. When the Commons came to the bar of the House of Lords, the King ordered the Lord Chancellor to prorogue the two Houses in his name till the 7th of January. Shaftesbury obeyed, and was virtually out of office.

It was now thought that he could not be more dangerous in any position than in his present, and the Duke of York extracted a royal promise that he should be immediately dismissed. The morning of Sunday, the 9th of November, before chapel at Whitehall, was fixed for the transfer of the Great Seal to Sir Heneage Finch, the Attorney General, who had been summoned then and there to receive it. We have a very amusing account of Shaftesbury's last appearance as Chancellor. As soon as he arrived at Court, he retired with the King into the closet, while the prevailing party waited in triumph to see him return without the purse. The first salutation being over, he said, Sir I know you intend to give the Seals to the Attorney General, but I am sure your Majesty never designed to dismiss me with contempt." The King, always good-humored, replied, “ Cods-fish, my Lord, I will not do it with any circumstance as may look like an affront." Then, Sir," said the Earl, "I desire your Majesty will permit me to carry the Seals before you to chapel, and send for them afterwards to my own house." To this his Majesty readily assenting, Shaftesbury entertained him with news and diverting stories till the very minute he was to go to the chapel, purposely to amuse the courtiers and his successor, who, he knew, were upon the rack for fear he should prevail upon the King to change his mind. The King, and the Chancellor still holding the purse, came out of the closet talking together and smiling, and marched together to chapel, without an opportunity being given for the King to say a word to any of them. They were all in great consternation; and some ran immediately to tell the Duke of York all their measures were broken, and others declared themselves to be inconsolable. The Attorney General nearly fainted away.*

At the conclusion of the service Shaftesbury carried the Great Seal home with him to Exeter House, and in the afternoon it was fetched from him by Mr. Secretary Coventry, who said, "I desired to be excused from this office; but being your relation and friend, they put it as an affront upon me." Shaftesbury gave up the Seal with an air of great cheerfulness, exclaiming-" It is only laying down my gown, and putting on my sword!" This emblem of hostility he actually ordered to be brought to him by his servant, and he immediately buckled it on.

* Echard.

+ Crown. Off. Min 1673.

The same evening Sir HENEAGE FINCH'S fears were all dissipated by his receiving the Great Seal from the King, with the title of Lord Keeper.

CHAPTER LXXXVIII.

CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD SHAFTESBURY TILL THE BREAKING OUT OF THE POPISH PLOT.

WHILE the ceremony of delivering the Great Seal to Sir Heneage Finch, as Lord Keeper, was going on in the pal[DEC. 19, 1673.] ace at Whitehall, Exeter House was crowded with the leading men of the country party, and Shaftesbury was by acclamation installed as their chief. He found the name of "patriot" all-atoning,-and the disgraced minister who had been the adviser of the most arbitrary measures, proclaiming himself the adversary of the Court, was hailed as the champion of the liberties of the people.

Next morning, accompanied by some of the young nobility, he went to the Royal Exchange, where all the great mer[DEC. 20.] chants and bankers then daily congregated-entered into familiar conversation with them, and feelingly deplored to them the depression of trade, and the miseries of the nation, arising from profligate measures, which he had in vain done his utmost to resist, till at last he had been dismissed for his integrity and boldness. They gathered round him with enthusiasm as a persecuted philanthropist, and vowed to live and die in his cause. But it was religion that gave him the prodigious power which from this time he wielded. He was regarded as the saviour of the nation from Popery, and, though among his private friends it was doubtful whether or not he believed in revelation, theologians were found to proclaim him from the pulpit as the saviour of the true faith, and to foretell that this fame, like that of the woman mentioned in the gospel, should live throughout all future generations.*

During the short session of parliament, in the spring of 1674, he carried addresses for a public fast "to implore the

[A. D. 1674.] protection of the Almighty for the preservation of

church and state against the undermining practices of popish recusants ;”—“ for the removal from office of all counsellors popishly affected, or otherwise obnoxious or dangerous; and specifically "for the dismissal of the Dukes of Lauderdale and Buckingham.” He next attempted the impeachment of Arlington, but here he was baffled; and he likewise failed in the attempts which he

* Parker, 206. 271. Macph. Pap. i. 69. Life of James, i. 488.

made to exclude the Duke of York from sitting in the House of Lords, as his Royal Highness submitted to abjure the temporal power of the Pope, and a bill for a more stringent test to be taken by all the ministers of both Houses was lost.* The parliamentary reports of this period are so defective, that there are but scanty remains of his speeches in the House of Lords during the remainder of his life.

In the following session his party in the Lords was strengthened by the Duke of Buckingham, who, having quarrelled

with Charles, now joined in raising the cry of "No LA. D. 1675.] Popery." But Danby imitated the arts of his opponents, and greatly mitigated the Protestants by marrying the Princess Mary, in spite of her father's remonstrances, to the Prince of Orange, and issuing a proclamation against popish recusants. Though these measures were denounced as artifices of the "popish party,' the impeachment which had been moved against the minister was dropped.

The Court, to pursue its success, introduced a bill into the Lords, which was either to expel Shaftesbury from the House of Lords, or to degrade him. This was entitled "An Act to prevent the Dangers which may arise from Persons disaffected to the Government," and required, from all persons in office, and all members of parliament, a declaration in favour of passive obedience, with an oath "never to endeavour the alteration of the government in church or state." It had very nearly become the law of the land, and utterly extinguished our free constitution. Its defeat we owe entirely to Shaftesbury's unexampled energy and boundless resources. Unfortunately we can by no means laud the purity of his motives, but we are exceedingly beholden to his exertions; and this much I think I may fairly say for him, that although he would not scruple for his private ends to abet the most arbitrary principles and the most profligate measures, yet he seems to have acted more heartily and joyously in a good cause when his ambition called upon him to support it.

On this occasion, heading a small party in the Lords, and with a decided majority against him in the Commons,-by his skilful management he defeated the Court and saved the country. Not until after five days' debate would he suffer the bill to be read a second time, and, in a protest circulated throughout the nation, he asserted that “it struck at that freedom of debating and voting which is necessary for those who have the power to alter and make laws, and that the bill obliged every man to abjure all endeavours to improve the government of the church, without regard to any thing that Christian compassion, or the necessity of affairs might at any time require." The Lords resolved, "that the reasons given in the said protest did reflect upon the honour of the House, and were of dangerous consequence;" but this

only produced a more violent protest from Shaftesbury against the resolution.

He kept the bill twelve days in the committee, the House sitting from an early hour in the morning till eight in the evening, and sometimes till midnight. The Government proposed, as an amendment, that the oath should be, "not to endeavour to alter the Protestant religion, or the government either of church or state." He asked "where are the boundaries, or how much is meant by the Protestant religion?"

Tell it not

The Lord Keeper Finch, his successor, exclaimed, in Gath, nor publish it in the streets of Ascalon, that a Peer of so great parts and eminence as my noble and learned friend, a member of the Church of England, and the champion of the reformation, should confess that he does not know what is meant by the Protestant religion." Several Bishops followed, explaining that the Protestant religion is comprehended in the thirty-nine articles, the liturgy, the catechism, the homilies, and the canons of the Church of England. From the few preserved fragments of Shaftesbury's reply, it seems to have been most splendid-pointing out the defects in these standards of orthodoxy, with the opposite interpretations put upon them by different parties in the Church, and asking whether it should be a crime to propose to restore the liturgy to what it was in the days of Queen Elizabeth? Overhearing a Bishop, who had become very indolent since his elevation, say to another Bishop, "I wonder when he will have done preaching," he said in an under tone to be heard distinctly all over the House," when I am made a Bishop, my lord,”—and then proceeded triumphantly with his speech.* The King attended the debates very regularly, sometimes sitting in his chair of He eagerly supstate, but more frequently standing by the fire. ported the bill, which he was told was a panacea for all the evils of faction, and would make the rest of his reign quiet and happy. Yet he could not but smile at this jest upon the Bishop. Buckingham was stimulated by envy to make a ruder assault upon the right reverend bench, but he was not equally felicitous.†

The Bill at last passed and was sent down to the Commons, where preparations were ordered to be made for its good reception by a very copious distribution of bribes.

It was read a second time by a large majority, and it was now thought quite safe,-when Shaftesbury arrested its prog[MAY.] ress, and defeated it, by stirring up a quarrel between the two Houses on a question of privilege. This he dexterously in

* Inconvenience seems to have been felt then, as now, from the room in which the Lords assemble being too small, so that remarks in private conversation are heard across the table. From this and other causes, a meeting of the Lords has more the appearance of a club for idle lounging than of a deliberative assembly to pass laws. A. D. 1845. The spacious and splendid hall in which the Lords now assemble has deprived them of all excuse for their errors on the score of locality.

A. D. 1848.

† 4 Parl. Hist, 714.

flamed to such a pitch of violence, that it threatened a public convulsion; and it could only be appeased by putting a sudden end to the session.

At this time it happened that appeals were brought to the House of Lords from the Court of Chancery in three suits, in which members of the House of Commons were the respondents, and they received notice to appear at the bar of the House of Lords to hear the appeals argued and adjudged.

Writs of error from the Courts of common law had been brought in the House of Lords without dispute from a very remote era; but appeals in Equity suits were of very recent origin, and their legality had been denied. On Shaftesbury's suggestion, the matter was taken up in the Commons, and all those over whom he had influence joined in a vote which was nearly unanimous and seemed wholly unconnected with politics, “that the notice served upon the members of that House to appear at the bar of the House of Lords was a breach of privilege." Shaftesbury himself, in the Upper House, strongly insisted on their right to hear appeals from the Courts of Equity, and that it could make no difference whether the parties were or were not members of the House of Commons; otherwise a denial of justice must follow. The Commons, in a fury, which court, and country party shared, committed Shirley and Stoughton, two of the appellants, to the Tower,-resolved "that to prosecute in the House of Lords any cause against a member of their House was a breach of privilege ; "—declared -declared "that no appeal lay from the Courts of Equity to any other tribunal and ordered that the four barristers who, by order of the Lords, had pleaded before that House in one of the appeals, should be taken into custody. Shaftesbury, delighted to see the quarrel go on so gloriously, made a long and inflammatory speech in defence of the rights of the peerage, and, describing the imprisonment of the four barristers as an insupportable insult, moved that they should be immediately set at liberty by order of the House. The resolution was carried with tumultuous applause, and the captive barristers were forcibly rescued by the Usher of the Black Rod, the officer of the Lords,-from the Serjeant at Arms, the officer of the Commons,--who was so frightened by his loss that he suddenly absconded, to escape the punishment of his pusillanimity. But the enemies of the Test Bill declared in the Commons, that “if this outrage were submitted to, not only the privileges of the Commons, but the liberties of England were for ever subverted," and an order was made that the four barristers should be recaptured. Next morning, Speaker Seymour passing up Westminster Hall saw one of them, Pemberton (afterwards Chief Justice,) and with the assistance of some of the officers of the House took him prisoner, and lodged him in "Little Ease."* The other

* For this exploit the Speaker received the special thanks of the House. 4 Parl. Hist. 733.