Shaftesbury seems to have troubled himself very little about theories of government.  Halifax was, in speculation, a strong republican, and did not conceal it.  He often made hereditary monarchy and aristocracy the subjects of his keen pleasantry, while he was fighting the battles of the Court, and obtaining for himself step after step in the peerage.  In this way, he tried to gratify at once his intellectual vanity and his more vulgar ambition.  He shaped his life according to the opinion of the multitude, and indemnified himself by talking according to his own.  His colloquial powers were great; his perception of the ridiculous exquisitely fine; and he seems to have had the rare art of preserving the reputation of good breeding and good nature, while habitually indulging a strong propensity to mockery.

Temple wished to put Halifax into the new Council, and leave out Shaftesbury.  The King objected strongly to Halifax, to whom he had taken a great dislike, which is not accounted for, and which did not last long.  Temple replied that Halifax was a man eminent both by his station and by his abilities, and would, if excluded, do everything against the new arrangement that could be done by eloquence, sarcasm, and intrigue.  All who were consulted were of the same mind; and the King yielded, but not till Temple had almost gone on his knees.  This point was no sooner settled than his Majesty declared that he would have Shaftesbury too.  Temple again had recourse to entreaties and expostulations.  Charles told him that the enmity of Shaftesbury would be at least as formidable as that of Halifax, and this was true; but Temple might have replied that by giving power to Halifax they gained a friend, and that by giving power to Shaftesbury they only strengthened an enemy.  It was vain to argue and protest.  The King only laughed and jested at Temple’s anger; and Shaftesbury was not only sworn of the Council, but appointed Lord President.

Temple was so bitterly mortified by this step that he had at one time resolved to have nothing to do with the new Administration, and seriously thought of disqualifying himself from sitting in council by omitting to take the Sacrament.  But the urgency of Lady Temple and Lady Giffard induced him to abandon that intention.

The Council was organised on the twenty-first of April, 1679; and, within a few hours, one of the fundamental principles on which it had been constructed was violated.  A secret committee, or, in the modern phrase, a cabinet of nine members, was formed.  But as this committee included Shaftesbury and Monmouth, it contained within itself the elements of as much faction as would have sufficed to impede all business.  Accordingly there soon arose a small interior cabinet, consisting of Essex, Sunderland, Halifax, and Temple.  For a time perfect harmony and confidence subsisted between the four.  But the meetings of the thirty were stormy.  Sharp retorts passed between Shaftesbury