CHIAPTER LXXXV. LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR SHAFTESBURY FROM HIS BIRTH TILL CHAP. LXXXV. WE pass at once from a mere lawyer,-"leguleius quidam cautus et acutus, præco actionum, cantor formularum, auceps syllabarum,”—to a Chancellor who did not affect to have even Sudden a smattering of law, but who possessed brilliant accomplish- transition ments as well as talents, and who, as a statesman, is one of Bridgeman to SHAFTESthe most extraordinary characters in English history: "For close designs and crooked counsels fit, A daring pilot in extremity, Pleas'd with the danger when the waves ran high, He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit, Would steer too near the sands to boast his wit. In friendship false, implacable in hate, Resolv'd to ruin or to rule the state. Then seiz'd with fear, yet still affecting fame, from BURY. bable career. From the birth and boyish position of ANTHONY ASHLEY ShaftesCOOPER, so enterprising, so energetic, so aspiring, so reckless, bury's proit might have been expected that he would have quietly devoted himself to dogs and horses, and that if his breast was ever fired by ambition, it would only have been to be High Sheriff of the county or Chairman of Quarter Sessions. While a schoolboy he was a Baronet in possession of large landed estates, yielding him a revenue of 8000l. a year. The subject of this memoir was the son of Sir John Cooper His birth. of Rockborne, in Hampshire, who was created a baronet by James I., and Anne Ashley, only daughter and heiress of Sir Anthony Ashley, of Wimborne, St. Giles's, in the county of Dorset, who had been Secretary at war to Queen Elizabeth. He was born at Wimborne, St. Giles's, July 22. CHAP. LXXXV. His educa tion. At Oxford. At Lincoln's Inn. His marriage. 1621. His grandfather died in 1627, and his father in 1631, when the title, with the fortunes of both families, descended upon him. His early education was intrusted to Mr. Guerdean, a fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, selected by Sir Anthony for strictness of principle and severity of temper, — the old gentleman often saying, "that youth could not have too deep a dye of religion, for business and conversation in the world would wear it to a just moderation." It cannot be objected that the pupil showed himself over strait-laced and stiff from this early discipline. It is related that the youth, while only thirteen years of age, showed the energy of his character by defeating a scheme of his trustees to deprive him of a large part of his property. Being a ward of the Crown, he went alone to Noy, the Attorney-General, and acquainted him with the proceedings, observing that he had no one to depend upon but him, who had been the friend of his grandfather. Noy, pleased with his spirit, zealously undertook his cause in the Court of Wards, and succeeded for him, without taking any fees.† In 1636 he was entered of Exeter College, Oxford, where he early distinguished himself by refusing to submit to some traditionary tricks attempted to be put upon him as a freshman, and by stirring up a rebellion against the seniors. I find nothing more recorded of his academical life, except that his wit, affability, and courage gained him the good-will of the University. He improved himself more by conversation than by study, and, though not grossly deficient in acquirements becoming a gentleman, he might well have been designated "acerrimi ingenii — paucarum literarum." Having remained about two years at Oxford, -to finish his education he was transferred to Lincoln's Inn, -where he remained for a short time,-associating with other young men of fortune like himself, frequenting the theatres and fencing schools, but without any thought of being called to the bar or studying the law. While only eighteen he married a young lady of great LXXXV. beauty and accomplishments, a daughter of Lord Keeper CHAP Coventry, and niece of the Earl of Southampton. After his marriage he lived with his father-in-law; and now in a legal atmosphere, he must have imbibed the few loose notions of jurisprudence which he ever possessed. But instead of listening to the coifed sages of the law who frequented Durham House, he delighted himself, when accompanying the family into Worcestershire, to act the part of a fortune-teller, -which he did with great reputation, by the assistance of a servant who got into all the love stories of the houses which he visited. But such a mixture of contradictions was he, that according to Bishop Burnet he himself "had the dotage of astrology in him to a high degree," and he declared, “that a Dutch doctor had from the stars foretold him the whole series of his life." himself bury. In one of these visits to the country he was invited to a Ingratiates public dinner given by the Bailiffs of Tewkesbury. Sir Harry with the Spiller, "a vain man, that despised all whom he thought his corporation inferiors," thought fit to put many affronts on the Bailiffs and of Tewkestheir entertainment, in the presence of the first gentlemen of the county, before whom they were desirous of appearing to the best advantage. Young Sir Anthony rose in defence of the corporation, and retorted on the assailant his rough raillery with such wit and success as to gain the victory, and completely to silence him. a member of This occurrence had an important influence on Shaftes- He is bury's future destiny. The invasion of the Scots and the elected general discontents rendering a parliament indispensable, parliament. after an experiment of above eleven years' duration to rule by prerogative, -a writ came down to elect members for Tewkesbury, and the burgesses unanimously chose their champion as one of their representatives,-in his absence, without his knowledge,—and when he was only nineteen years of age. Before parliament met, his father-in-law, the Lord Keeper, Jan. 1640. died, and he was thenceforth his own master, or rather the slave of his own passions and caprice. He took his place in the House of Commons during the A warm royalist. CHAP. LXXXV. Short Par liament. short parliament which met in April, 1640*; but I cannot find any account of any of his speeches, although it seems impossible that he should have remained silent during the Sits in the three weeks which elapsed before the dissolution. It is said that he diligently attended the House of Commons, and every day practised the useful lesson of writing out a report of their proceedings. We cannot doubt that he warmly supported the Court in the grand struggle which was led on opposite sides by Hyde and Hampden, whether the supply demanded should be granted before the consideration of grievances? Till he met with the affront about the garrison of Weymouth, hereafter to be related, he was an ardent friend of high prerogative. Not returned to the Long Parliament. He joins the royal standard. For this very reason probably, he had given dissatisfaction to his constituents at Tewkesbury; and it being very difficult for a man of such principles, in the universal rage for reform, to find a seat, he was not returned to the Long Parliament. However, he exerted himself to the utmost in support of the royal cause. When hostilities were about to commence he attended the King to the north, and he was present at the ceremony of erecting the royal standard at Nottingham. In 1643, after various conferences with the leading royalists at Oxford, he was ordered to his house at Wimborne St. Giles, in the hope that he might get some of the towns in the western counties which were held for the parliament to declare for the King. He now declaimed with great eloquence at public meetings on the tyranny of the parliament, A. D. 1644. and the good intentions of Charles I.; and he displayed such boldness and address in the intrigues he carried on, that he Weymouth prevailed on the inhabitants of Weymouth to expel the parliamentary garrison, and to receive him as governor of the town in the King's name. Poole, Dorchester, and other places in that county were about to follow their example. But Prince Maurice, who held a superior command in the west, superseded him as governor of Weymouth, refused to recognise the terms on which he had induced it to come over to the Crown, and treated the young baronet with great Gets pos session of for the King. He is dis. gusted by Prince Maurice. * The son of the Duke of Albemarle sat in parliament, after the Restoration, at the age of fifteen. CHAP. LXXXV. disdain. Sir Anthony took a journey to Oxford to lay his case before the King, and meeting with no redress, "he was thereby so much disobliged that he quitted the King's party, He goes and gave himself up body and soul to the service of the parliament, with an implacable animosity against the royal cause. over to the parliament. ble practice on chang ing sides. Upon this, as upon every subsequent change, however His laudaviolent, claiming the credit of being a perfectly consistent politician, and contending that the friends whom he abandoned had left those principles to which he steadily adhered, --he pretended that the aspect of public affairs had suddenly changed, and he now affirmed that all who had a true regard for the monarchy ought to fight under the Earl of Essex. But it must be related to his honour, that he was now governed by a rule which he always afterwards rigidly observed, and which went far to redeem him from the odium of his frequent tergiversations, that he never betrayed the secrets of a party he had left, or made harsh personal observations on the conduct of his old friends;-not only trying to keep up a familiar private intercourse with them, but abstaining from vindictive reflections upon them in his speeches or his writings. Having travelled secretly from Oxford to London, he there July, 1644. formally sent in his adhesion to the parliament. He was received, as may be supposed, with great cordiality; but a committee of the House of Commons being appointed to confer with him and to examine him, he absolutely refused to make any discovery either as to persons or the management of affairs of what he had observed while he had been on the Clarendon. This account of Shaftesbury's first change of party differs considerably from that given in the Memoir of his Life by Locke. I should have had no difficulty in preferring Locke to all other authority, had he been narrating from his own knowledge and observation; but during these events he was a boy at school, and he did not form an acquaintance with Shaftesbury till the year 1666. Then, struck by his conversation, and fascinated by his kindness, he was blind to his vices, and gave implicit credit to all he heard from a man of such distinction. The memoir, and the " Letter from a Person of Quality," were both written at Shaftesbury's request, and on his representations. The converted patriot, in vindication of his consistency, was desirous that it should be supposed that he had been at the head of a middle party between the King and the parliament; whereas there is no doubt that, in the language of Clarendon, “ he gave himself up body and soul," first to the one, and then to the other. The accurate Whitelock says, "he professed his great affection for the parliament, and his enmity to the King's party, from whom he had revolted; and was now in great favour and trust with the parliament." |