V. May 31. OHAP. with this condition, that the keepers of such establish4.D. 1676 .ments should prevent in them the reading and publication of libels against the king and his government.1 Another subject of complaint was furnished by the alleged depredations of the French cruisers on the English commerce. In the course of seven months fifty-three sail had been captured and carried into the French ports under the pretence that the ships or their cargo were Dutch property, which it had been fraudulently attempted to cover with the English flag. Charles, though he looked on this as an unavoidable evil during a maritime war, ordered the most energetic remonstrances to be made at the French court; and Louis, whose interest it was to avoid a quarrel with England, gave orders that justice should be done between the captors and the claimants. Some ships were restored, many were condemned. The sufferers complained; their complaints were echoed by the writers of the popular party; and it was insinuated that the members of government derived advantage from the losses of the merchant. These charges directed the attention of the council to the conduct of Sir Ellis Leighton, the secretary to the embassy in Paris, to whose care the interests of the petitioners had been intrusted. He was once the confidant of Buckingham, and is described as "the most corrupt man of the age." A warrant was signed for his committal to the Tower; but he escaped from the officers, and the charges against him were never submitted to judicial investigation.2 1 Kennet, 307. North, 138. Ralph, 297. 2 State Tracts, i. Marvell, 325. Kennet, 309. North, 487. Gazette, 1124, 1141, 1150. Correspondence of Clarendon and Rochester, i. 2. I shall for brevity refer to this collection by the title of Clarendon Correspondence. : V. - Preparatory to the opening of the next session, CHAP. Shaftesbury and his friends arranged a new plan of A.D. 1676 opposition. It was discovered that what they had so fruitlessly laboured to effect by their own efforts, had been unwittingly accomplished for them by the ignorance or imprudence of the court. The king, it was maintained, by the long prorogation, had in fact dissolved the parliament. If that assembly did not sit, its existence could be continued only by adjournment or prorogation: now the late parliament had not been adjourned, but prorogued, and that for fifteen months but such a prorogation was contrary to law, because it was incompatible with two statutes of Edward III., which ordained that a parliament should be held "once a year, or oftener, if need be;" whence they inferred that, as a prorogation contrary to law was of no effect, the parliament had in fact ceased to exist; it had been suffered to die a natural death. This novel and extraordinary opinion they laboured, by all the artifices in their power, to impress on the minds of the people: it was made the subject of discourse in every company; it was discussed in public and private, in clubs and in drawing-rooms; and men looked forward with intense interest to the debate which it was expected to provoke, at the opening of the approaching session. On the appointed day, the 15th of February, multitudes of people were observed at an early hour hastening to the parliament house; and in a short time Westminster Hall, the painted chamber, the Court of Requests, the lobbies and avenues, were crowded with strangers. These men, if we may believe one party, had been led there by curiosity to witness the result; but, according to the other, had been brought there 1677. Feb. 15 CHAP. from Southwark and Wapping, to intimidate the A.D. 1677. adherents of the court.1 Charles addressed the two V. houses in a speech which elicited the applause even of his adversaries. If, he said, any additional securities were wanted for the church, for liberty or property, he came prepared on his part to assent to every reasonable request; and therefore he called on them also to do their duty by avoiding the causes of dissension between the houses, by making provision for the increase of the navy, by continuing the additional excise, and by granting a moderate supply towards the extinction of the public debt. Thus they would promote the peace, the safety, and the prosperity of the kingdom; and, if any of these ends were disappointed, he called on God and man to witness that he at least was free from the blame.2 In both houses the first question introduced was the effect of the long prorogation. In the Commons the popular leaders proceeded with caution. Aware how unpalatable their new doctrine must be to the majority of the members, they contented themselves with suggesting an address for a dissolution, as the most eligible means of setting at rest the doubts which had arisen respecting the legality of their existence as an estate of parliament; but the house, after a long conversation, read a bill the first time according to custom, and postponed the consideration of the question to the following day. In the Lords the opponents of the court assumed a bolder tone. They promised themselves the support of the duke of York, of the 1 North, 66. L. Journ. xiii. 44. James adds that many of them were old officers from the army of the commonwealth.Macpher. i. 84. 2 L. Journ. xiii. 36. 2 Parl. Hist. iv. 825, 834. Marvell, i. 278. V. Catholic peers, and of all who, at the conclusion of CHAP the last session, had voted in favour of a dissolution. A.D. 1677. Buckingham rose, and in a speech of considerable ingenuity and eloquence contended that the parliament had ceased to exist. As soon as he sat down, Lord Frescheville moved that he should be called to the bar for the insult which he had offered to the house. The earl of Salisbury answered Frescheville with warmth and asperity, and was answered in his turn by Lord Arundell of Trerice. Shaftesbury and Wharton supported the motion of Buckingham; and Finch, who had lately been raised to the higher dignity of chancellor, opposed it in a long and laboured harangue. His assertion that the qualification, "if "need be," referred to both parts of the act of Ed ward III., savoured of special pleading; but he had certainly the advantage over his opponents, when he contended that by the triennal act of the 16th of Charles I., the vacations of parliament had been extended to three years; and that, if that act had been repealed, another of similar import had been substituted for it, and was at that very moment the law of the land. The debate continued five hours; but as soon as the proceedings in the House of Commons were known, the ministerial lords called for the question; the motion of Buckingham was negatived; Feb. 16. and he, with Salisbury, Shaftesbury, and Wharton, were ordered to retract their opinion, to acknowledge that their conduct was " ill-advised," and to beg pardon of the king and the house. On their refusal, all four Feb. 17. were committed to the Tower, to remain there till they should be discharged by the order of those whom they had offended. This decision had a considerable influence on the debate of the following day in the V. CHAP. House of Commons, where the popular party found A.D. 1677. themselves in a minority of one hundred and forty-two to one hundred and ninety-three.1 The arbitrary imprisonment of the four peers spread dismay through the ranks of the opposition, while it freed the lord treasurer from the most formidable of his opponents in the upper house. house. He knew that it was their object to remove him from office, and to force on the king a new administration formed out of their own party; and he therefore made it his policy to defeat their intrigues, by seeking to retain the favour of the sovereign, and to acquire that of the people. For the first he had only to relieve the royal indigence by competent supplies of money: with a view to the second he had all along displayed an ardent zeal for the suppression of popery, and now obtained permission to bring forward a plan for the security of the established church. His adversaries, on the contrary, resolved to embarrass all his measures by the obstinacy of their opposition, to cast doubts and ridicule on his zeal against popery, and to urge the popular cry for a war with France, at the same time refusing the necessary supplies, as long as they would have to pass through the hands of a minister who possessed not the confidence of parliament. These remarks will enable the reader to understand the manœuvres of the two parties during this session." 1 Parl. Hist. iv. 814, 824. Hatsell, ii. App. 5. Life of James, i. 504. 557. North, 65. Macpherson, 84. Burnet, ii. 105, 109. Marvell, i. 280, 530, 532. Buckingham slipped out of the house, but surrendered himself the next day. 2 Charles, in a conversation with Temple, acknowledged that among his opponents there were many that meant honestly, but said that "the heats and distempers of late had been raised by some "factious leaders, who thought more of themselves than of anything "else, and had a mind to engage him in a war, and then leave him |