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CHAP. affixed it to the parchment. He told the parliaLXVII. ment, that, as Danby had acted in every thing by his orders, he was in no respect criminal; that his pardon, however, he would insist upon; and if it should be found anywise defective in form, he would renew it again and again, till it should be rendered entirely complete: But that he was resolved to deprive him of all employments, and to remove him from court.

THE Commons were nowise satisfied with this concession. They pretended, that no pardon of the crown could be pleaded in bar of an impeachment by the commons. The prerogative of mercy had hitherto been understood to be altogether unlimited in the King; and this pretension of the commons, it must be confessed, was entirely new. It was however not unsuitable to the genius of a monarchy strictly limited; where the King's ministers are supposed to be for ever accountable to national assemblies, even for such abuses of power as they may commit by orders from their master. The present emergence, while the nation was so highly inflamed, was the proper time for pushing such popular claims; and the commons failed not to avail themselves of this advantage. They still insisted on the impeachment of Danby. The peers, in compliance with them, departed from their former scruples, and ordered Danby to be taken into custody. Danby absconded. The commons passed a bill, appointing him to surrender himself before a certain day, or, in default of it, attainting him. A bill had passed the upper house, mitigating the penalty to banishment; but, after some conferences, the peers thought proper to yield to the violence of the commons, and the bill of attainder was carried. Rather than undergo such severe penalties, Danby appeared, and was immediately committed to the Tower.

WHILE a protestant nobleman met with such violent prosecution, it was not likely that the catho

lics

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Popish

99 lics would be overlooked by the zealous commons. CHA P. The credit of the popish plot still stood upon the LXVII. oaths of a few infamous witnesses. Though such immense preparations were supposed to have been made in the very bowels of the kingdom, no traces plot. of them, after the most rigorous inquiry, had as yet appeared. Though so many thousands, both abroad and at home, had been engaged in the dreadful secret; neither hope, nor fear, nor remorse, nor levity, nor suspicions, nor private resentment, had engaged any one to confirm the evidence. Though the catholics, particularly the Jesuits, were represented as guilty of the utmost indiscretion, insomuch that they talked of the King's murder as common news, and wrote of it in plain terms by the common post; yet, among the great number of letters seized, no one contained any part of so complicated a conspiracy. Though the informers pretended that, even after they had resolved to betray the secret, many treasonable commissions and papers had passed through their hands; they had not had the precaution to keep any one of them, in order to fortify their evidence. But all these difficulties, and a thousand more, were not found too hard of digestion by the nation and parliament. The prosecution and farther discovery of the plot were still the object of general concern. The commons voted, that, if the King should come to an untimely end, they would revenge his death upon the papists; not reflecting that this sect were not his only enemies. They promised rewards to new discoverers; not considering the danger, which they incurred, of granting bribes to perjury. They made Bedloe a present of 500 pounds, and particularly recommended the care of his safety to the Duke of Monmouth. Colonel Sackville, a member, having, in a private company, spoken opprobriously of those who affirmed that there was any plot,

100

CHAP. was expelled the house. The peers gave power

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LXVII. to their committees to send for and examine such as would maintain the innocence of those who had been condemned for the plot. A pamphlet having been published to discredit the informers, and to vindicate the catholic lords in the Tower, these lords were required to discover the author, and thereby to expose their own advocate to prosecution. And both houses concurred in renewing the former vote, that the papists had undoubtedly entered into a horrid and treasonable conspiracy against the King, the state, and the protestant religion.

It must be owned that this extreme violence, in prosecution of so absurd an imposture, disgraces the noble cause of liberty, in which the parliament was engaged. We may even conclude from such impatience of contradiction, that the prosecutors themselves retained a secret suspicion that the general belief was but ill-grounded. The politicians among them were afraid to let in light, lest it might put an end to so useful a delusion: The weaker and less dishonest party took care, by turning their eyes aside, not to see a truth so opposite to those furious passions, by which they were actuated, and in which they were determined obstinately to per

severe.

SIR William Temple had lately been recalled from his foreign employments; and the King, who, after the removal of Danby, had no one with whom he could so much as discourse with freedom of public affairs, was resolved, upon Coventry's dismission, to make him one of his secretaries of state. But that philosophical patriot, too little interested for the intrigues of a court, too full of spleen and delicacy for the noisy turbulence of popular assemblies, was alarmed at the universal discontents and jealousies which prevailed, and was determined to make his retreat, as soon as possible, from a scene

12

which

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which threatened such confusion. Meanwhile, he CHA P. could not refuse the confidence with which his LXVII. master honoured him; and he resolved to employ it to the public service. He represented to the King, that, as the jealousies of the nation were extreme, it was necessary to cure them by some new remedy, and to restore that mutual confidence so requisite for the safety both of King and people: That to refuse every thing to the parliament in their present disposition, or to yield every thing, was equally dangerous to the constitution, as well as to public tranquillity: That if the King would introduce into his councils such men as enjoyed the confidence of his people, fewer concessions would probably be required; or if unreasonable demands were made, the King, under the sanction of such counsellors, might be enabled, with the greater safety, to refuse them: And that the heads of the popular party, being gratified with the King's favour, would probably abate of that violence by which they endeavoured at present to pay court to the multitude.

THE King assented to these reasons; and in con- New cert with Temple, he laid the plan of a new privy- council. council, without whose advice he declared himself determined for the future to take no measure of importance. This council was to consist of thirty persons, and was never to exceed that number. Fifteen of the chief officers of the crown were to be continued, who, it was supposed, would adhere to the King, and, in case of any extremity, oppose the exorbitances of faction. The other half of the council was to be composed, either of men of character, detached from the court, or of those who possessed chief credit in both houses. And the King, in filling up the names of his new council, was well pleased to find that the members, in land and offices, possessed to the amount of 300,000 pounds a-year; a sum nearly equal to the whole property of the house of commons,

H 3

against

CHAP. against whose violence the new council was intended. LXVII. as a barrier to the throne ".

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THIS experiment was tried, and seemed at first to give some satisfaction to the public. The Earl of Essex, a nobleman of the popular party, son of that Lord Capel who had been beheaded a little after the late King, was created treasurer in the room of Danby: The Earl of Sunderland, a man of intrigue and capacity, was made secretary of state: Viscount Halifax, a fine genius, possessed of learning, eloquence, industry, but subject to inquietude, and fond of refinements, was admitted into the council. These three, together with Temple, who often joined them, though he kept himself more detached from public business, formed a kind of cabinet council, from which all affairs received their first digestion. Shaftesbury was made president of the council, contrary to the advice of Temple, who foretold the consequence of admitting a man of so dangerous a character into any part of the public administration.

As Temple foresaw, it happened. Shaftesbury, finding that he possessed no more than the appearance of court-favour, was resolved still to adhere to the popular party, by whose attachment he enjoyed an undisputed superiority in the lower house, and possessed great influence in the other. The very appearance of court-favour, empty as it was, tended to render him more dangerous. His partisans, observing the progress which he had already made,

b

Their names were; Prince Rupert, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Finch, chancellor, Earl of Shaftesbury, president, Earl of Anglesea, privy-feal, Duke of Albemarle, Duke of Monmouth, Duke of Newcastle, Duke of Lauderdale, Duke of Ormond, Marquis of Winchester, Marquis of Worcester, Earl of Arlington, Earl of Salisbury, Earl of Bridgewater, Earl of Sunderland, Earl of Essex, Earl of Bath, Viscount Fauconberg Viscount Halifax, Bishop of London, Lord Roberts, Lord Hollis, Lord Russel, Lord Cavendish, Secretary Coventry, Sir Francis North, chief justice, Sir Henry Capel, Sir John Ernley, Sir Thomas Chicheley, Sir William Temple, Edward Seymour, Henry Powle.

hoped