1*6 



COOPER. 



Eloper. t fog done for the settlement of the nation." The 

 """ *~~~' king, it is believed, authorised him to try the experi- 

 ment in his own county ; and he appears to have ob- 

 tained possession of Weymouth, at that time a garri- 

 soned town, on an understanding of the above nature. 

 Prince Maurice, however, having troops in the neigh- 

 bourhood, entered Weymouth, and permitted his sol- 

 diers to live at free quarters on the inhabitants. Sir 

 Anthony remonstrated warmly against this infraction 

 of his promise ; but finding representations ineffectual, 

 he broke off a pending negotiation with the towns of 

 Poole and Dorchester, apprising them that he could 

 not be responsible for the fulfilment of the promised 

 conditions. The king, preferring the counsels of his 

 old adherents to the propositions of so young a person 

 as Sir Anthony, the latter was induced, as some say, 

 by a consideration of safety, but more probably by of- 

 fended pride, to change sides, and connect himself 

 with parliament. His disposition rendering him ardent 

 in whatever he espoused, he soon accepted a commis- 

 sion from parliament, and raised forces in Dorsetshire 

 to combat the royal cause ; but, notwithstanding his 

 activity in the field, he is said to have been regarded 

 by the Court among the least rancorous of their oppo- 

 nents. 



Sir Anthony appears to have taken no part in the 

 proceedings connected with the trial of Charles. When 

 Cromwell began to throw off the mask, and to appro- 

 priate to himself the power of which lie had stripped 

 his sovereign, Shaftesbury had the courage to join a 

 few spirited men in opposing his usurpation ; although 

 Cromwell sought to gain him, along with other persons 

 of consequence, by appointing them members of his 

 privy council. After the Protector's death, Sir An- 

 thony was suspected to be in correspondence with the 

 royalists. Appearances were strongly against him, but 

 he had the address to obtain an acquittal of the charge. 

 He next aimed at the same result by indirect means, 

 engaging Monk to march southward with his army, and 

 taking an active part in detaching Vice-admiral Law- 

 son, who commanded the fleet, from the cause of the 

 commonwealth. The Restoration being accomplished, 

 Sir Anthony became a member of the privy council, 

 and was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron 

 Ashley. He is said to have owed his first appoint- 

 ments at court to the influence of the Earl of South- 

 amptom, to whose family he was related by marriage. 

 After being for some time chancellor of the exchequer, 

 he became one of the lords commissioners of the trea- 

 sury, and lord-lieutenant of the county of Dorset. In 

 April 1672 he was created Earl of Shaftesbury, and, 

 towards the end of the year, invested with the high 

 post of chancellor of England. It is singular enough 

 that Shaftesbury, doubtful as his character was in most 

 respects, is allowed to have acquitted himself with 

 equal honour and ability in the capacity of a judge. 

 He laboured to abridge the delays of process as much 

 as possible ; and though he failed in persuading the 

 lawyers to relinquish their circuitous forms, he suc- 

 ceeded, by his habits of attention and decision, in clear- 

 ing a great part of the arrears of that court. 



Of his proceedings in a political character, a very 

 different opinion is entertained. Though he does not 

 appear to have been privy to all the conditions of 

 Charles' disgraceful treaty with France, he had a prin- 

 cipal hand in giving effect to the Dutch war — to the 

 projects relative to a change of religion — and to the 

 exercise of a corrupt influence in the election of mem- 

 bers of parliament. The shutting up the exchequer, 



the boldest, perhaps, of all the measures of this shame- Cooper, 

 less reign, is now considered to have been less the act *"" *Y"»* 

 of Shaftesbury, than of his iniquitous coadjutor in of- 

 fice Clifford. At last, in 1673, the tide of popular 

 opinion running very strongly against the French al- 

 liance, and Charles being disappointed in his dream of 

 a golden harvest from Dutch captures, Shaftesbury de- 

 termined not to remain so long with the court, as to 

 lose the alternative of gaining favour with the people. 

 Charles was hard pressed by parliament to cancel the 

 obnoxious declaration of indulgence, in regard to liber- 

 ty of conscience ; a declaration which, from its partiali- 

 ty to Catholics and Protestant dissenters, had given 

 great alarm to the church. Shaftesbury, and his bro- 

 ther members of the cabal, strongly dissuaded the king 

 from complying ; but Charles disregarded their argu- 

 ments, and made, in parliament, a public renunciation 

 of the act. Shaftesbury now saw that the king had 

 secret views, and that a minister was unsafe in en- 

 countering public odium in his service. He therefore 

 took his measures, not merely for withdrawing from 

 court, but for assuming a lead in the opposition. The 

 ostensible ground which he took, was that of resistance 

 to the Duke of York's succession tcfthe crown, and of 

 alarm for the Protestant religion. 



We are now arrived at the epoch in Shaftesbury's 

 life, when he became definitively the opponent of the 

 Court. As leader of the opposition, he discovered per- 

 haps more talent and exertion than in any former situa- 

 tion. His usual residence was in London, towards the 

 interior of the city, where his popularity became ex- 

 tremely great. The long parliament having re-assem- 

 bled in February 1677, after a recess of fifteen months, 

 Shaftesbury argued that it ought to be considered as 

 dissolved. This opinion he asserted with so much 

 warmth, that the court thought proper to commit him 

 and three other peers to the Tower. His fellow pri- 

 soners were not slow in making their submission, and 

 obtaining a discharge ; but Shaftesbury at first took 

 higher ground, and brought his case before the Court 

 of King's Bench. Being, however, remanded to the 

 Tower, and becoming anxious to resume his station in 

 the ranks of opposition, he made a virtue of necessity, 

 and, on declaring his submission, was restored to li- 

 berty. He now came forward as a powerful opponent 

 of the Earl of Danby's administration. A change be- 

 coming indispensible, the king professed to adopt the 

 advice of Sir William Temple, and to call to his privy 

 council the most distinguished men in public life in 

 the kingdom. When all was on the eve of being set- 

 tled, and Sir William, with his friends, were making 

 the definitive arrangements, the king inserted the name 

 of Shaftesbury as lord president of the council, and 

 made a jest of all Sir William's objections to this un- 

 expected nomination. Had Sir William been of a sus- 

 picious disposition, he would have discovered, that this 

 act of Charles was nothing more than a part of the dis- 

 simulation which he had carried on throughout the 

 whole proceedings for the arrangement in question. 

 Shaftesbury retained his station of lord president from 

 April to October 1679 ; but finding that, without pos- 

 sessing influence over the measures of the court, he was 

 in danger of ruining his popularity, he took the deter- 

 mination to withdraw from all official employment. _ 



The year ] 678 was the a?ra of that mysterious in- 

 trigue, the Popish plot. Shaftesbury having seized with 

 avidity this favourable opportunity of shaking the 

 power of the Duke of York, and having pursued the 

 parties accused with unrelenting severity, has got ere- 



