are two doors, either to let in good or mischief upon us; they are much weakened by the artifice of our cunning enemies, and we ought to inclose them with boards of cedar. Popery and slavery. like two sisters, go hand in hand; and sometimes one goes first, sometimes the other; but whersoever the one enters, the other is always following close at hand. In England, Popery was to have brought in slavery; in Scotland, slavery went before, and Popery was to follow."*

Charles, without a minister, had sent for Sir William Temple, who produced a new-invented plan of government, -very plausi ble, but wholly inconsistent with our parliamentary constitution, which requires that the King shall have advisers possessing the confidence of the two Houses, and that when they lose that confidence they shall be changed. Temple recommended a permanent council, to the number of thirty, taken from different parties and ranks, fifteen being with, and fifteen without office ;great property being an indispensible qualification;—and that the King having no prime minister, should consult them on all affairs of state, and be governed by their opinion. Charles, in his present difficulties, agreed to try the experiment, and himself proposed that Shaftesbury should be a member of the new council. Against this Temple strongly remonstrated. The King said, he might be dangerous as a friend; but he was now irresistible as a foe. Shaftesbury being sounded, consented to join the new government, on the condition that he was President of the all-directing Council. This was consented to, and he was sworn in accordingly.

The King in person informed the two Houses that he had established a new Privy Council, not to exceed APRIL 21.] thirty; that he had made choice of such persons as were worthy and able to advise him, and was resolved in all his weighty and important affairs, next to the advice of his great council in parliament, to be guided by this Privy Council.†

Being installed as Lord President of the new-fangled Board, Shaftesbury was presented to the public as the most prominent member of the government. But he felt that he had only the appearance of power; that he could not rely upon the Court; that he was marked out for vengeance by the Duke of York; and that the proclamation of this Prince-as inheritor of the throne, if that event should ever happen, would be his death-warrant. He seems now deliberately to have taken up the plan which had probably often previously presented itself to his imagination, of setting up the Duke of Monmouth as heir apparent, on the

* 4 Parl Hist. 1116. It is said that 30,000 copies of this speech were printed and circulated in a few days after it was delivered,

Of this most aristocratic body twenty were members of the House of Lords, and of the remaining ten, several were the eldest sons of peers, or men in office under the Crown. The annual income of the thirty was estimated at 360,0002, and that of the House of Commons at 400,000l.

ground that there had been a contract of marriage between the King and Lucy Walters. Notwithstanding Charles's solemn denial of any such contract, a hope was entertained that he would acquiesce in the scheme, from his affection for his son and his regard for his own ease.

Shaftesbury felt that success was to be obtained only from the continuance of his personal popularity. This had not been at all impaired by his unexpected elevation, which was considered the triumph of the people, and which he construed into a proof that the King in his heart would be pleased with his brother's exclusion, and the legitimation of Monmouth. To retain his influence with the multitude, on which alone he could depend, he still worked the plot as ingeniously as ever, and encouraged the new discoveries and the new prosecutions which marked its frightful progress; although Charles not only treated with scorn the attempt to implicate the Queen, but in private manfully declared his conviction that the whole was a fabrication. The Ex-chancellor likewise still assiduously cultivated his connexion with the city. He lived in Thanet House, in Aldersgate Street; he declared his resolution to offer himself as a candidate for the office of Lord Mayor, and was pleased in the mean time to be addressed by his sobriquet of Alderman Shaftesbury,"-Buckingham being his brother citizen, and intriguing with him in the Court of Aldermen, in the Common Council, and in every Wardmote.*

But to establish his reputation on a permanent basis, he happily completed a reform, which almost makes his name respectable, notwithstanding all his follies and all his crimes. The personal liberty of the subject, the first end of good government, was yet very insecure in England. The common law declared that no man could be lawfully imprisoned, except upon a warrant specifying the crime of which he was accused, and that every man accused should be speedily brought to trial,-but had not provided any adequate remedy; and these salutary principles were constantly violated, by commitments in the name of the King in Council, by sending prisoners to distant gaols, by omitting to put their names in the calendar on a gaol delivery, by refusing writs for producing before the judges persons illegally imprisoned, and by gaolers disobeying such writs when they were sued out. Shaftesbury had several times attempted in vain to remedy such abuses; and he now, with admirable skill, framed a statute, by which personal liberty has been more effectually guarded in England than it has ever been in any other country in the world. This he caused to be introduced in the House of Commons, where it was generally supported. But a strong opposition to it was concerted in the House of Lords. Although avowedly the measure of the Lord President, all the weight of the Court was exerted against it, and several amendments were introduced in the

* Mem. James II. 651.

Committee, with a view of defeating it, under the belief that the Commons would not agree to them. The third reading is said to have been carried by an accident. According to Bishop Burnet, "Lords Grey and Norris were named to be tellers. Lord Norris being a man subject to vapours, was not all times attentive to what he was doing. So a very fat lord coming in, Lord Grey counted him for ten, as a jest, at first; but seeing Lord Norris had not observed it, he went on with his misreckoning of ten, so it was reported to the House, and declared that they who were for the bill were the majority, though it indeed went on the other side."*

The majority being declared from the woolsack in favour of the bill, Shaftesbury perceived a great commotion among the courtiers. at a result so little expected on either side. With much presence of mind he instantly started on his legs, and after speaking near an hour, during which many members entered and left the House, concluded with a motion on some indifferent subject. It was now impossible that the House could be retold, and no farther question could be made upon the bill in the Lords There was a strong hope that the Commons would disagree to the amendments,-upon which they had to determine at a "conference," while the King was coming to put an end to the session. But they at last waived all their objections; and Shaftesbury, who managed the conference for the Lords,-before the King entered, reported that "the bill had been delivered back closed up and perfected." Charles being seated on the throne, the title of it was read, along with several others, and the words "Le roy le voet" being pronounced, it for ever became law.†

The prorogation was hurried by the progress in the House of

* In the Oxford edition of Burnet's History, there is the following note by Speaker Onslow: "Sec minute book of the House of Lords with regard to this bill, and compare there the number of Lords that day in the House, with the number reported to be in the division, which agrees with the story.-O." There must certainly have been some mistake, accidental or wilful, for the members were declared to be 57 to 55; and by the minute book of the Lords it appears that there were only 107 peers in the House. We must suppose that before the Lord Chancellor was aware of the mistake, he had put the additional motion, "that this bill do pass," and that it had been agreed to as a matter of course after the division.

† 31 Car. 2. c. 2. It is a common saying, without any foundation, that Jenke's case produced the Habeas Corpus Act. His illegal imprisonment occurred in 1666 (St. Tr. 1190), and had been forgotten in the subsequent excitement of the Popish plot. Shaftesbury's attention had been particularly drawn to the subject from the charges brought against Lord Clarendon, and from his own imprisonments. He had introduced bills which partially met the evils complained of, in 1668, 1670, and 1674, and 1675. The final measure carried in 1679, was long called "Lord Shaftesbury's Act."—Life of Shaftesbury, ii. 221.

James II, in the true spirit of tyranny, to his dying day thought this one of the worst acts ever passed. "It was a great misfortune to the people," says he, "as well as to the Crown, the passing of the Habeas Corpus Act, since it obliges the Crown to keep a greater force on foot to preserve the government, and encourages disaffected, turbulent, and unquiet spirits to carry on their wicked designs: was contrived by the Earl of Shaftesbury to that effect."-Life, vol. ii. 621.

[MAY 26.]

Commons of the Bill for excluding the Duke of York from the succession to the Crown, which, by a large majority, had been there read a second time. This bill, which Shaftesbury openly countenanced, opened the way for Monmouth's pretensions, by enacting that on the death or resignation of his present Majesty, the Duke of York should not inherit the crown; and that if he landed in England he should be attainted. The apparent object was merely to let in the Princess Mary and the Princess Anne; but Shaftesbury expected, that if the King's brother, who had long been considered next heir, could be set aside, there would be little difficulty in bringing forward the youth in whose name he intended to govern. Over the existing House of Commons he had a complete control, and he had been able to carry the most important questions against all the influence of the Court in the House of Lords.

But Charles dreaded his ascendancy, and, forgetting his promise to do nothing without the advice of his new Council, resorted to the prorogation without consulting any one, except the Lord Keeper, Essex, and Halifax. Shaftesbury considered himself secure while this House of Commons remained,--which he thought in no danger, as it had sat little more than twelve months, while the last preceding House of Commons had existed near eighteen years.

The prorogation had been to the 14th of August; and he indiscreetly boasted of the measures he should then bring forward, and was sure to carry, to crush his opponents. What then must have been his astonishment, when sitting one day as Pre[JULY 10.] sident of the Council, the King suddenly turning to the Chancellor, ordered him to prepare a proclamation for the dissolution of the present and the calling of another parliament,— whereupon the Council immediately broke up, without any opportunity having been given for deliberation or remonstrance. This was the result of a secret consultation which the King had held with Sunderland and Temple, who thought a more dangerous House of Commons could not be elected, and that delay gave some hope of reaction. When Shaftesbury had left the councilchamber, he passionately swore "that he would have the head of the man who had given such advice."

He had presently to watch the elections for the House of Commons, which turned out as favourably as he could desire; and he looked forward with impatience to the first day of a new session; but he was again confounded, while sitting in council, by the King ordering the Chancellor to prepare a commission for the proroga tion of parliament for a twelve-month. The members not in the secret gazed on each other with signs of wonder, and the President rose to speak; but Charles commanded silence, saying "he had foreseen and weighed every objection, and that having taken his resolution he would be obeyed." He was emboldened to take this decisive part by a secret treaty with France, by which, in con

sideration of preventing the meeting of the English parliament, be received a bribe of a million of livres.

Shaftesbury was immediately removed from his office of President, and his name was struck out of the list of Privy Councillors. Lord Russell, and the other popular leaders, seeing that the Council was not consulted in matters of the highest moment, resigned their seats in it, acknowledged him as their chief, and organised a regular opposition to the government. The names of "the Court and country parties" gave way to other appellations, at first used in derision, and afterwards proudly adopted by those to whom they were applied,—and the grand struggle began between the TORIES and the WHIGS. The former consisted chiefly of the old Cavaliers and High Churchmen, who stood up for passive obedience and the divine right of kings; the latter, of more moderate Churchmen, with many dissenters, who insisted that government was established for the welfare of the governed.* The Whigs had among them some men of pure patriotism, as well as great talents; but their cause was for a long time tainted by the reckless Shaftesbury, who pretended to adopt their principles, while he cared for nothing but the gratification of his own ambition. His chief object now was to keep up an excitement in the public mind till parliament should meet.

On the 5th of November, he had a grand gunpowder-plot procession, headed by Guy Fawkes, to keep up a horror of the Papists; but this was nothing to a new pageant he got up for the 17th of November, the anniversary of the accession of that Protestant princess Queen Elizabeth. First appeared a bellman with a slow and sole.nn pace, exclaiming at intervals, in a sepulchral tone, "Remember Godfrey;" next came a representation of the body of the murdered magistrate borne by one habited like a Jesuit; then followed nuns, monks, priests, Catholic bishops in capes and mitres, Protestant bishops in lawn sleeves, six Cardinals with their red hats, and, last of all, the Pope in a litter, attended by "Arch-chancellor the Devil." The procession having marched through the city at night amidst the glare of several thousand flambeaux, the whole population turning out to witness it and to call down vengeance on the heads of those who paid homage to the SCARLET LADY, halted at Temple Bar,-when at a concerted signal the Pope and his attendants were precipitated into the flames with a shout, "the echo of which," according to the account published by Shaftesbury's orders, "reached by continued reverberations to Scotland, and France, and Rome itself damping them all with dreadful astonishment." This exhibitin,

*The two parties, always being distinguished by their respective devotion to prerogative and to liberty, exchanged sentiments on several points, and on none more strikingly than their feeling towards Roman Catholics, at starting, the Tories favouring them, and the Whigs persecuting them; while many years before the Roman Catholic Relief Bill passed, they were supported by the Whigs, and discountenanced by the Tories.