A.D. 1673. which are very explicit, and extend to every branch of the court.97 Review of his political conduct. He found the records in a very bad condition; many of them having been defaced, misplaced, or embezzled. In a letter to Sir Harbottle Grimstone, Master of the Rolls, he represented the ill consequence of this state of the records, and desired that, where the originals were damaged, authentic copies might be engrossed and filed, and that, for the future, better care might be taken to preserve them. Lord Shaftesbury having been represented as a restless and ambitious man, it may not be im maining, with the following cessary charge to the suitors, and for their more expeditious and certain course of relief." * Sir Harbottle wrote him an answer, in which he acknowledged that Lord Shaftesbury justly called it a shameful complaint; said, that his predecessors had been very neg ligent therein; justified his own conduct by some steps which he had taken; and assured him he would, for the future, keep them in better order. 97 See page 16. proper to review his conduct from his first eň- A.D. 1673, gagement in public affairs till his dismission from them. When he went to King Charles the First at Oxford, the scheme which he proposed was a neutral one, intended for composing the national dissensions. When, for his own safety, he was forced into the parliament's quarters, he accepted of a command only in his native county, which had been harassed by the king's troops; and when he had conquered and driven out these troops, he laid down his commission, and never held any lucrative employment either under the parliament or under Cromwell, whom he openly opposed. For his important services in bringing about the Restoration, he was the first person admitted into the privy council; and the king voluntarily conferred on him the office of chancellor of the exchequer and under-treasurer. He came into employment without the interest of others, and he always stood upon an independent footing; and although he was allowed, even by his enemies, to have a genius superior to all the ministers, he continued in the same post above eleven years without any advancement. A.D. 1673. No instance has been produced, no accusation brought against him, that he endeavoured to raise himself higher, or that he formed any intrigue for that purpose. During the short time that he possessed the seals, he was constantly employed in an honourable discharge of his trust, and in promoting, by his authority and interest, the welfare of the public; and, at length, he resigned his power with a content and an alacrity altogether inconsistent with the ambition ascribed to him. CHAPTER III. Lord Shaftesbury rejects an offer of a bribe from the French King. Has a private audience with the King.-Enters into open opposition. Measures of the Opposition.- Habeas Corpus Bill passed by the Commons. Lord Shaftesbury retires into Dorsetshire.-His Letter to the Earl of Carlisle.— His influence in both houses.- Debates in the Lords. Corruption of the Parliament.-Destructive Bill in the House of Lords-Opposed by Shaftesbury. IMMEDIATELY after the removal of the Earl of A.D. 1673. Shaftesbury from the office of lord chancellor, Disorders intelligence was received of great disorders in Scotland. The Duke of Lauderdale's government in that country was so arbitrary and oppressive, and discovered so openly the designs of the court, that a general spirit of disgust and opposition was raised and spread among the people. The king therefore found himself deceived in his expectation of rendering the Scotch army subservient to his schemes of power. taken. About the same time, Bonne was taken by the Bonne Prince of Orange. This disconcerted the measures of the French monarch so much, that King A.D. 1673. Charles had reason to believe he should not be The king's complaint to the Earl of Oxford. supplied with the fifty thousand men who were engaged to be sent him when required.98 These circumstances, together with the discontents which the king found were spreading amongst the people of England, and the spirit which he saw was rising in the parliament, filled him with no small degree of uneasiness. Under this anxiety, the king opened his mind to the Earl of Oxford, complaining how ill the junto had used him: that they drove him on with such violence that he was very much in doubt what might be the consequence; that he had had but one man about him on whose fidelity and wisdom he could rely, and they would never 98 Charles had now abandoned his design of declaring himself a catholic, and was less inclined to venture upon the experiment of these foreign succours. In March of this year Colbert writes, "I did not think it was for your majesty's service to follow the measures yoù prescribed to me with regard to the offer of the troops with which you were willing to assist the king for the execution of his designs after the peace; for he is persuaded, as well as his ministers, that nothing is so capable of causing a general revolt in the nation as to show them that he can support his authority by foreign forces." Colbert promised any force that Charles might stand in need of; but assures his master that he has reason to believe that no very chargeable demand will be made on that head.-Dalrymple, p. 96. |