Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,030 pages of information about Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 1.

Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,030 pages of information about Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 1.
and Halifax, who led the opposite parties, In the Council, Halifax generally had the advantage.  But it soon became apparent that Shaftesbury still had at his back the majority of the House of Commons.  The discontents which the change of Ministry had for a moment quieted broke forth again with redoubled violence; and the only effect which the late measures appeared to have produced was that the Lord President, with all the dignity and authority belonging to his high place, stood at the head of the Opposition.  The impeachment of Lord Danby was eagerly prosecuted.  The Commons were determined to exclude the Duke of York from the throne.  All offers of compromise were rejected.  It must not be forgotten, however, that, in the midst of the confusion, one inestimable law, the only benefit which England has derived from the troubles of that period, but a benefit which may well be set off against a great mass of evil, the Habeas Corpus Act, was pushed through the Houses and received the royal assent.

The King, finding the Parliament as troublesome as ever, determined to prorogue it; and he did so, without even mentioning his intention to the Council by whose advice he had pledged himself, only a month before, to conduct the Government.  The counsellors were generally dissatisfied; and Shaftesbury swore, with great vehemence, that if he could find out who the secret advisers were, he would have their heads.

The Parliament rose; London was deserted; and Temple retired to his villa, whence, on council days, he went to Hampton Court.  The post of Secretary was again and again pressed on him by his master and by his three colleagues of the inner Cabinet.  Halifax, in particular, threatened laughingly to burn down the house at Sheen.  But Temple was immovable.  His short experience of English politics had disgusted him; and he felt himself so much oppressed by the responsibility under which he at present lay that he had no inclination to add to the load.

When the term fixed for the prorogation had nearly expired, it became necessary to consider what course should be taken.  The King and his four confidential advisers thought that a new Parliament might possibly be more manageable, and could not possibly be more refractory, than that which they now had, and they therefore determined on a dissolution.  But when the question was proposed at council, the majority, jealous, it should seem, of the small directing knot, and unwilling to bear the unpopularity of the measures of Government, while excluded from all power, joined Shaftesbury, and the members of the Cabinet were left alone in the minority.  The King, however, had made up his mind, and ordered the Parliament to be instantly dissolved.  Temple’s Council was now nothing more than an ordinary Privy Council, if indeed it were not something less; and, though Temple threw the blame of this on the King, on Lord Shaftesbury, on everybody but himself, it is evident that the failure

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.