Lætamur, which, in Polish, is rejoice.—P. 431.
It would seem, that the followers of Shaftesbury wore the medal attached to their breast. See "A Panegyrick on their Royal Highnesses, and congratulating his return from Scotland, 1682."
Dryden does not here do justice to Shaftesbury, who certainly offered Charles I. the first fruits of his courage and address. Being heir to a plentiful fortune, a member of parliament, and high sheriff of the county of Dorset, he came to Oxford when the civil war broke out, and though then only twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, presented to the king a digested plan, for compromising matters between him and his subjects in arms against him: Charles observed, he was a very young man for so great an undertaking; to which, with the readiness which marked his character, he answered, that would not be the worse for the king's affairs, provided the business was done. He had, in consequence, a commission from the king, to promise indemnity and redress of grievances to such of the parliamentary garrisons as would lay down their arms. Accordingly, his plan seems to have taken some effect; for Weymouth actually surrendered to the king, and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, as his stile then was, was made governor. Some delays occurred in the course of his obtaining this office; and whether disgusted with these, and giving scope to the natural instability of his temper, as is intimated by Clarendon, or offended, as Mr Locke states, at Weymouth having been plundered by Prince Maurice's forces, he made one of those sudden turns, of which his political career furnishes several instances, and went over to the other side. After this, Clarendon says, that he "gave up himself, body and soul, to the parliament, and became an implacable enemy to the royal family." He raised forces in Dorsetshire, with which he took Wareham by storm, in October 1644, and reduced the greater part of the county to the obedience of the parliament. He held various high charges under the authority of the republic. In 1645, he was sheriff of Norfolk; in 1646, sheriff of Wiltshire; and in 1651, one of that committee, which was named for the revisal and reform of the law.
A vermin wriggling in the usurer's ear.—P. 432.
Shaftesbury was by no means in a hurry to submit to Cromwell's domination, any more than he had been to join the parliament; the uncontrouled authority of an individual, and of one too who was inaccessible to all arts of cajoling or management, and only acted upon his own opinions and impulses, presented to the art and ambition of our statesman a very unpromising field of exertion. Accordingly, he is said to have been active in opposing the dispossession of the long parliament; and, being a member of that convoked by the Protector in 1656, he signed the famous protestation against the personal usurpation of Cromwell, which occasioned a very sudden dissolution of that assembly. But notwithstanding this occasional opposition, he sat in all Cromwell's parliaments, was a member of his privy council, and was so far in his favour, that he is said by his enemies to have nourished hopes of succeeding him in his power, with which view he aimed to become his son-in-law. Hence he is called, in the "Dream of the Cabal,"
According to North, the Earl of Shaftesbury, "in all his ways and workings, held a concert with the antimonarchists and fanatics."[504] As to his dissipation, the well-known speech of Charles II., and his reply, are sufficient evidence. "I believe, Shaftesbury," said the gay monarch, "thou art the wickedest dog in England." "May it please your majesty," retorted the statesman, "of a subject I believe I am." North, the recorder of all that was evil concerning him, says, "whether out of inclination, custom, or policy, I will not determine, it is certain, he was not behind hand with the court in the modest pleasures of the time, and to what excess of libertinism they were commonly grown, is no secret. There was a deformed old gentleman, called Sir Paul Neal, who, they say, sat for the picture of Sydrophel, in Hudibras; and about town was called the Lord Shaftesbury's groom, because he watered his mares (I forbear the vulgar word) in Hyde Park, with Rhenish wine and sugar, and not seldom a bait of cheese-cakes."[505]
Whatever Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper's private political principles might be, he failed not to take a share of power upon the changes which so rapidly succeeded the death of Cromwell. Under the Rump parliament, he was one of the council of state, and a commissioner for managing the army, one of the committee to secure the Tower, and colonel of a regiment of horse. He made use of the influence which these situations afforded him, for hastening the Restoration. Sir Anthony had long held a secret correspondence with the loyal party, and was to have joined Sir George Booth at his rising, had he not been so suddenly crushed.[506]
He was taxed with this intended co-operation in parliament; but he was at least resolved not to bear witness against himself, for he made the highest professions of his innocence, and imprecated God's judgments on him and his posterity, if he had the slightest communication with the king, or his friends:[507] Nevertheless, he was one of those who invited Monk into England; was the first to supply him with a regiment of horse; was active in defeating the schemes of Lambert; and, in conclusion, was named one of the twelve members, who were deputed by the House of Commons to invite the king to return to his dominions.
"At the time of his majesty's restoration, as a most signal testimony of his majesty's good sentiments of his former actions, Shaftesbury was advanced to be one of the first rank in his majesty's most honourable privy council, and was placed above his majesty's royal brother, the Duke of Gloucester, and even General Monk himself, whom his majesty used to call his political father. And about three days before his majesty's coronation, he was in the Banquetting-house created Baron Ashley of Wimbourn, St Giles; and another addition of honour was conferred on him, Lord Cooper of Paulett; and at last, in the year 1672, he was made Earl of Shaftesbury, at the same time when Duke Lauderdale, the Earl of Arlington, and the Lord Clifford, were promoted."[508] To these honours were added substantial power and weight in the administration, called the cabal, from the initial letters of the ministers, names who composed it.[509] In this ministry, Shaftesbury was Chancellor of the Exchequer; and, on the resignation of Lord Keeper Bridgeman, became Lord High Chancellor of England. In this high station, he furthered, with all his policy and eloquence, the union with France against Holland, and the breach of the triple league; fatal measures, which tended to the destruction of our natural barrier against the universal dominion of France. It is probable, that Shaftesbury's ardent spirit flattered itself with the hopes of conducting a popular and triumphant war. But whatever were his motives, let it be remembered, to his honour, that French bribery, so common among the British ministers of the period, had no influence with Shaftesbury. Whether he found the war, ill managed by the court, and ill relished by the nation, was likely to do very little honour to those who had pushed it on; or whether he was dissatisfied with the share he enjoyed of the king's favour; or, finally, whether distrusting the easiness and mutability of the king's temper, is absolutely uncertain; but, moved either by these, or more patriotic motives, Shaftesbury, in the parliament of 1672-3, although in office, showed himself prepared to join opposition on very short notice.
Two circumstances seem chiefly to have influenced Shaftesbury in his change of politics in 1672. Some vacancies had occurred in the House of Commons, during a recess of parliament. These his lordship, as chancellor, had caused to be filled up, by issuing writs for election, of his own authority, without waiting for the speaker's warrant; a proceeding, which was deemed by the House an undue exertion of prerogative, and the elections were declared irregular and null. This greatly irritated Shaftesbury's haughty temper, who thought the crown did not support him with sufficient energy, in a step which he had taken to extend its influence. From this he judged, that the king had not energy sufficient to venture upon bold measures; and, consequently, that there was no room for the game of a minister, who delighted in bold and masterly strokes of policy. But this was yet more to be inferred from the king's conduct in the matter of the Indulgence. This was a declaration, which the king, by advice of Shaftesbury and his other ministers, had sent forth, on the 25th March, 1672, dispensing with the penal laws against non-conformists of every description, and indulging to Protestant dissenters the public, and to Catholics the private exercise of their religious worship. It is remarkable, that Shaftesbury, afterwards the champion for the test against popery, was made chancellor, chiefly for the purpose of affixing the great seal to this declaration, which the Lord Keeper Bridgeman refused to do. The House of Commons remonstrated against this exercise of prerogative. After an inefficient struggle, Charles recalled the declaration, and broke the seals with his own hand. From that moment Shaftesbury declared, that the king had forsaken himself, and deserved to be forsaken. Suspicious that a monarch, who preferred so evidently his peace and pleasures to his prerogative, would not hesitate to make the lesser sacrifice of an obnoxious minister; anxious also, on account of the preponderance of the Duke of York, who hated him, and whom he hated, the Chancellor probably foresaw, that, in making an apparent sacrifice of court favour, he would not only save himself, but become the leader, instead of being the victim, of the popular faction. Accordingly, he promoted the test act in the House of Commons, and stood forth in the House of Lords as the leader of the Protestant party, whom the declaration had grievously alarmed. From so unexpected a change, at this eventful period, his removal from office was a matter of course. But in the mode of accomplishing it, circumstances occurred, which strongly mark the character of Shaftesbury, who delighted in an opportunity of teasing and alarming his enemies, even in the very act of retreating before them. When he waited upon the king, to surrender the seals, he observed a circle of his enemies in the anti-chamber, anticipating, with triumph, his returning without these badges of his office. Upon obtaining his audience, the falling minister begged the king, that his dismissal might be so arranged, as not to appear as it he was thrown off with contempt. "Godsfish," replied the good-natured monarch, "I will not do it with any circumstance that looks like an affront." The earl then begged permission to carry the seals before the king to chapel, and return them afterwards from his house. His boon being granted, he carried on the conversation with much humour, upon such gay subjects as usually entertained the king, while his adversaries, upon the tenterhooks of anxiety, awaited the issue of so long an audience. But when they saw the king and the chancellor come out together smiling, and go in company to the chapel, the party concluded Shaftesbury's peace was made, and his expected successor was inconsolable. After enjoying this little triumph, Shaftesbury sent the seals to the king, and placed himself at the head of the country party, who, from the general and well-founded opinion of his talents, did not hesitate to adopt as their leader, one who had just deserted the banners of the enemy.
From this time, Shaftesbury must always be considered as in opposition to the court. For, although a number of the country party were admitted into the council of state, formed by the advice of Temple, and Shaftesbury himself was president, he was, in fact, no more united to the king's party, than a detachment of besiegers become a part of the garrison of a besieged town, because a bastion or redoubt has been surrendered to them by capitulation.
This was the argument concerning the credibility of the plot-witnesses, which was so triumphantly urged by the Tories, who asked, "Are not these men good witnesses, upon whose testimony Stafford, and so many Catholics, have been executed, and whom you yourselves have so long celebrated as men of credit and veracity? You have admitted them into your bosom; they are best acquainted with your treasons. They are determined in another shape to serve their king and country; and you cannot complain, that the same measure which you meted to others, should now, by a righteous doom of vengeance, be measured out to you."[510] To this there was but one answer: "We have been duped by our own prejudices, and the perjury of these men; but you, by employing against us witnesses whom you know to be forsworn villains, and whom their versatility has sufficiently proved to be such, are doing with your eyes open what we did in the blindness of prejudice, and are worse than us, as guilt is worse than folly." But this, though the Whigs' true defence, required a candid disavowal of the Popish plot, and reprobation of the witnesses; and that no true Protestant would submit to.
As matters carried more and more the appearance of actual insurrection and civil war, the more wealthy of the citizens of London, to whom nothing could be more ruinous than such an event, began to draw to the royal party. They were grieved also, that the ancient course of feasting and hospitality, observed by former sheriffs, had given way for furious cabals in coffee-houses; and, by degrees, a large body of citizens, who had, according to North, good hearts, and good spirits, were formed for the purpose of restoring the ancient order and course of living in the city. By means of this party, Sir John Moor was elected Lord Mayor; for whose character and conduct, and that of Shute and Pilkington, the Whig sheriffs, whom Dryden here terms his "two gouty hands," see the two last notes on the Second Part of "Absalom and Achitophel," pp. 401, 403. It was a great advantage to the court, that the military chiefs of the city, i. e. the officers of the trained bands, &c. were attached to the royal cause; and it was very much by their emphatic interference, that the election of sheriffs for 1683 was carried against the Whig party.
Until 1663, milled money was not struck in England; and the hammered coin, which continued to be in circulation long after that period, was liable to be clipped, which occasioned great frauds on the public, and loss to individuals. It is remarkable, that the verses which follow, describing the cypher-like state of royalty, to which the country party wished to reduce the king, agree accurately with what North believed to be Shaftesbury's real designs upon the authority and person of Charles. "If he was really a friend to any human kind, besides himself, I believe it was to King Charles the second; whose gaiety, breeding, wit, good-humour, familiarity, and disposition to enjoy the pleasures of society and greatness, engaged him very much, that had a great share of wit, agreeableness, and gallantry himself. But this same superiority spoiled all; his majesty would not always be influenced by him, but would take short turns on his toe, and so frustrate his projects; and finding by that he could not work under him, he strove, if possible, to reduce his authority, and get above him. It seems, by what was given out, that he would not have hurt the king personally, but kept him tame in a cage, with his ordinary pleasures about him. And if he was privy to the cruel stroke intended at the Rye, or any way concurring, it was the necessity of affairs, such as are laws to a politician, and superior to all human engagements, that obliged him. And of that sort, the chief was self-preservation; for, though he had found the king very easily reconciled, as not being in his nature vindicative, it was possible that humour, as age advanced, might spend; and he had launched so deep in treason, as it seemed necessary that either the king or he should fall." Examen. p. 119.
The keen and violent attack made upon the dissenting and fanatical clergy, in these and the following lines, called forth the indignation of the famous Edmund Hickeringill, who had been originally one of Cromwell's fighting saints, was at this time rector of All-Saints, in Colchester, and was notorious for composing fanatical pamphlets, songs, and sermons.[511] This reverend gentleman did not let the sun go down without venting his ire; for, the very next day after the publication of "The Medal," he sent to the press an answer to it, entitled. "The Mushroom, or a Satire against libelling Tories and prelatical Tantivies; in answer to a Satire against Sedition, called the Medal, by the author of Absalom and Achitophel; and here answered by the author of the Black Nonconformist, the next day after the publication of the Medal, to keep the sale thereof." To this unintelligible title-page succeeds a prefatory epistle, and a poem almost equally unintelligible, as will appear from a few extracts:
Epistle to the Tories and Tantivies:
"About the year of our Lord 1218, at Paris, in a synod, or convocation of the clergy, one that was appointed to clerum, or preach the convocation sermon, was put to his trumps, and much troubled in his gizzard what to say or what subject to insist upon. Whereupon the devil, who always catches men napping, and observing the preacher to be melancholy and perplexed in mind, appears to him, as he sat in a brown study, and asked him why he was so careful what to preach? Say thus, quoth the devil—The princes of hell salute you, O the princes and prelates of the church, and gladly give you thanks, that, through your default and negligence, all souls go to hell, &c. &c. &c."
The poem itself begins thus:
"The Mushroom" concludes with the following awful threat; which, doubtless, must have greatly appalled Dryden:
The ingenious author tacks to his poem some rants of inimitable nonsense and scurrility in prose, in which he is pleased to intimate, that there is, from the wonderful celerity of its production, some ground for believing, that he himself, the author, had received miraculous aid.
"And if any man think or say, that it is a wonder if this book and verses were composed and writ in one day, and sent to the press, since it would employ the pen of a ready writer to copy this book in a day—it may be so.
"But it is a truth, as certain and stable as the sun in the firmament, and which, if need be, the bookseller, printer, and other worthy citizens that are privy to it, can avouch for an infallible truth—deo soli gloria—when a divine hand assists, one of despicable, dull, and inconsiderate parts, may do wonders, which God usually performs by most weak and unlikely instruments."
A single extract more may be added, to shew the high popularity of "Absalom and Achitophel" among the country gentlemen of England. "What sport it is to see an old country justice, with his eager chaplain at his elbow, putting his barnacles on his nose; bless us, how he gapes and admires Nat. Thomson, the addresses in the Gazette, Abhorrences, Heraclitus, or the Observator! But shew him but—"Absalom and Achitophel"—oh—then the man's horn mad, there's no holding him; then he hunts up, and though in his dining-room, how he spends, with double mouth, and whoops and hallows, just as he hunts his dogs when at full cry. "That—that—that—that—Rattle—Towzer—Bulldog—Thunder—that—that—" while the little trencher-chaplain echoes to him, and cries, "Amen."
Shaftesbury was at this period little above sixty years old. But he was in a state of premature decrepitude; partly owing to natural feebleness of body, and partly to an injury which he received by an overturn in a Dutch carriage when he was in Holland, in 1660, as one of the parliamentary committee. He received on this occasion a wound, or bruise in his side, which came to an internal exulceration; so that in the year 1672 he was opened by Mr Knolls the surgeon, under the direction of Dr Willis, and an issue inserted for the regular discharge of the humour. This one of his biographers has called the "greatest cure that ever was done on the body of man."[512] The royalists forgot the honourable cause in which this injury was received, nothing less than a journey undertaken to invite the king to repossession of his throne, when they made its consequences the subject of scurrilous jests.[513] Dryden had already called Shaftesbury "the formidable cripple;" and in the Essay of Satire, he sarcastically describes the contrast between the activity of his spirit, and the decrepitude of his person.
THE END OF THE NINTH VOLUME.
Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.