Shaftesbury

“ The next day they followed his advice, Essex and Salisbury alone remaining. In March came news of a catholic plot in Ireland. Shaftesbury at once demanded from the council the appointment of a secret committee. His informants, Irishmen of the lowest character, declared that aid had been asked for from Louis, and that Ormonde and Archbishop Plunket were in the plot. The information was undoubtedly false, and Shaftesbury could not have been its dupe. The court laughed at it; but London, where Shaftesbury's influence was very powerful, sustained him in the agitation. ”

“ This was the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801‒1885) , one of the most interesting personalities of the age, a man of the soundest intellect and the keenest perceptions, sagacious, far-seeing, of great honesty of purpose, modest and averse from notoriety, an ardent Christian and a broad-minded philanthropist.1
1 In Lord Shaftesbury, the earnest Christian philanthropist, the world was not slow to recognize the most eminent social reformer of the nineteenth century. ”

“ If the next generation of those who are born to rank and power are educated, in the words of Fenelon, to consider these things "as a ministry," which they hold for the benefit of the poor, the problem of life in England will become easier of solution. Such are Lord Shaftesbury's views, and as he throws them out with unceasing fervor in his conversation and conduct, they cannot but powerfully affect not only his own circle, but all circles through the kingdom. Lady Shaftesbury is a beautiful and interesting woman, and warmly enters into the benevolent plans of her husband. ”

“ Nothing could be less true of Lord Shaftesbury. While the direction of a score of great charitable undertakings rested on him, and his study was flooded with reports, Bills before Parliament and letters by the hundred,—he would remember to perform all sorts of little kindnesses to individuals having no special claim on him; and never by any chance did he omit an act of courtesy. No more perfectly high-bred gentleman ever graced the old school; and no young man, I may add, ever had a fresher or warmer heart. ”

“ Shaftesbury was dislodged from power by his rival Sunderland, who maintained himself largely by the aid of the cunning Frenchwoman who by her devotion, by the knowledge she had of Charles's shameful secret understanding with Louis, and by her ability, with which she deeply impressed her royal lover, still continued maîtresse en titre and spy of the Court of France at Whitehall.
But in the darkness in which all groped the adventures of none were more curious than Louis'. He bribed lavishly every one he stumbled against, so to speak, to show him the way towards the light. ”

“ His letters to his young friends are full of moral and religious advice, and the ‘Shaftesbury Papers’ show many traces of his practical benevolence to them. He went to church and took the sacrament regularly, respecting religion though he hated the priests. He is a typical example of the whig aristocracy of the time, and with better health might have rivalled his grandfather's fame.
Shaftesbury is a very remarkable figure in the literary history of his time. The ‘Characteristics’ give unmistakable indications of religious scepticism, especially in allusions to the Old Testament. ”

“ At Oxford he appeared with a numerous following, and, like the other whig chiefs, kept open table, and did his best to secure the goodwill of the commons (Lord Grey, Secret History, p. 10) . Shaftesbury's attempt to make the Exclusion Bill unnecessary, by inducing the king to name Monmouth his successor, having failed (North, Examen, p. 100) , the Oxford parliament was dissolved, and the reaction promptly set in. The protestant joiner, who in his dying speech represented himself as a kind of detective commissioned by Monmouth, was sacrificed, and Shaftesbury was put on trial for his life. ”

“ It bore neither name of place, nor date, nor any term of address, but commenced at once in a firm handwriting with these words:
"I have been more successful than I dared to hope.
"The Plot, as you will have heard, is shaking the country, Shaftesbury is the most forceful man in England, and no Papist is safe. There is no need for me to name the lords who have lately suffered. ”

“ It cannot be supposed that they were unaware of Shaftesbury's design of raising an insurrection in the city through agents more or less known to them. Thus when, during a visit to London in October 1682, Lord Russell accompanied Monmouth, Essex, and Sir Thomas Armstrong to the house of one Sheppard, a wine merchant in the city, where they found Rumsey and Ferguson, it is improbable that the sole or principal purpose was to taste Sheppard's sherry. ”

“ Many other amusing details of his domestic economy may be found in Shaftesbury's character, which was first printed in Dr. Leonard Howard's ‘Collection of Letters and State Papers,’ 1753; it was reprinted in the ‘Connoisseur,’ No. 81, 14 Aug. 1755 (Christie, Life of Shaftesbury, i. 25) . Dr. Drake (who printed it in Hone's ‘Everyday Book,’ ii. 1624) has omitted some disparaging remarks which Shaftesbury added. Shaftesbury lived near Hastings's residence, and, as a firm adherent of the parliamentary cause, was perhaps prejudiced against the sportsman's character. ”

“ Night after night the Trained Bands stood to arms and paraded the town as if an insurrection were expected before morning. During the winter which followed, wrote Shaftesbury, “the soberest and most peaceable of the people have, either in town or country, hardly slept for fear of fire or massacring by the Papists.” ”

“ But even apart from questions of humane sentiment and the supreme interests of social legislation, I always felt in my intercourse with Lord Shaftesbury that it would have been impossible for him to act for long together in subordination to, or even in concert with, any political leader. Resolute, self-reliant, inflexible; hating compromise; never turning aside by a hair's-breadth from the path of duty; incapable of flattering high or low ”

“ On 21 Oct. parliament met; by 15 Nov. a bill for excluding James from the throne had passed the commons and had reached the lords. There, through the ability of Halifax, ‘who was much too hard for Shaftesbury, who was never so outdone before’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. 18 Nov.) , the second reading was rejected by 63 to 30. Shaftesbury of course joined in the protest against the rejection. On the 16th he opened a debate as to the effectual securing of the protestant religion. He declared that as exclusion had been rejected the divorce of the king was the only expedient. ”

“ If such a traveller there be, let him rest assured that nothing in Shaftesbury, saving only the view over limitless miles of Vale, stretching away into the distance, is worth the climbing up to it, and that to make its near and intimate acquaintance is only to dispel that distant dream of an unearthly beauty which afar off seems to belong to it. ”

“ Shaftesbury, after the dissolution [50] of the Royal Parliament, being accused of entering into a conspiracy against the King, found himself within the gloomy walls of London Tower. His spirits and wit did not forsake him; and when accosted by one of the Popish lords, whom he had been instrumental in sending there not long before, he replied, “that he had been lately indisposed with an ague, and was come to take some Jesuit’s powder.” Everything which ingenuity, prompted by malice, could suggest was done to injure in public estimation the late popular nobleman, and to prejudice his trial. ”

“ He left one son, Anthony Ashley, the fourth earl of Shaftesbury.
Shaftesbury was a man of lofty and ardent character, forced by ill-health to abandon politics for literature. He was liberal, though much fretted by the difficulty of keeping out of debt. He was resolved, as he tells his steward, not to be a slave to his estates, and never again to be ‘poorly rich.’ He supported several young men of promise at the university or elsewhere. He allowed a pension of 20l. ”

“ The reader must seek elsewhere, and elect for himself, whether Shaftesbury was or was not guilty of all the plots and conspiracies against King and country of which he has been accused. To the Duke of York he made himself most obnoxious. He was instrumental in establishing the Test Act, which made Roman Catholics ineligible for public offices; he was, moreover, the champion of the Exclusion Bill, and opposed James’s marriage with Mary of Modena; and there is little doubt that the Duke did all to undermine Shaftesbury’s favour with the King. ”

“ In 1884 he received the freedom of the city of London. In May 1885 he was presented with an address from old scholars of the ragged schools. In reply he declared that he would rather be president of the ragged schools than of the Royal Academy; but for himself he would only say that the feeling in his heart was, ‘What hast thou that thou hast not received?’
Shaftesbury retained a great part of the vigour both of his mind and body to very near the end of his life. The infirmities of old age showed themselves chiefly in gout and deafness. ”

“ At Shaftesbury, truly shines a splendid proof of royal sanctity; for to his merit must it be attributed, that there a numerous choir of women dedicated to God, not only enlighten those parts with the blaze of their religion, but even reach the very heavens. There reside sacred virgins wholly unconscious of contamination, there, continent widows, ignorant of a second flame after the extinction of the first; in all whose manner, graceful modesty is so blended with chastened elegance, that nothing can exceed it. ”

“ Lord Shaftesbury, who was never old when business pressed. Strong common sense, knowledge of the statute law, and above all, uncompromising impartiality, made him an autocrat in his department. When once he heard a case, and deliberately pronounced judgment, submission almost invariably followed. A man of the largest experience as a Parliamentary agent has been heard to say that he remembered only one case in which the House reversed a decision of Lord Shaftesbury; and on that occasion it became necessary to prevail on the Duke of Wellington to speak in order to overcome the "old Earl." ”

“ As many people know, Lord Shaftesbury has a very beautiful voice—indeed, an enterprising American syndicate once offered him a thousand pounds a night to go to the United States and sing in public!! It is needless to say that this offer was refused, but in interesting contrast to it is the fact that Lord Shaftesbury one night came to the Great Assembly Hall from the West End during a furious tempest which would have deterred nine men out of ten, and sang "The Star of Bethlehem," and an excerpt from "Elijah," to the poor people who were being fed at the time. ”

“ A quarter of a century had not passed since a bold and determined man had risen up and governed Great Britain. Why should not history repeat itself in this respect? the prospect was alluring. Possessing strong influence, great vanity, and an unscrupulous character, Shaftesbury resolved to stir the nation to its centre, at the expense of peace, honour, and bloodshed.
On the 21st of October, Parliament assembled, when Lord Danby, much against his majesty's inclination, brought the subject of the plot before the Commons. ”

“ Lord Shaftesbury, on the contrary, who aimed at the same easy, dégagé mode of communicating his thoughts to the world, has quite spoiled his matter, which is sometimes valuable, by his manner, in which he carries a certain flaunting, flowery, figurative, flirting style of amicable condescension to the reader, to an excess more tantalising than the most starched and ridiculous formality of the age of James I. There is nothing so tormenting as the affectation of ease and freedom from affectation. ”

“ The chancellor, Finch, opened it with a speech, in which he said that the king ‘supported by his favour the creatures of his power.’ ‘My lords,’ said Shaftesbury, ‘I think we are all agreed that in this kingdom there are none but creatures of the divine power; the power of the king does not extend further than the laws determine’ (Ranke, iv. 77) . In the debate as to how to deal with Danby the opposition lords voted for the lesser punishment of banishment, and Shaftesbury, with Essex and the chancellor, drew up the argument for the conference with the commons. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Essex's commission, dated 31 Oct. (Shaftesbury Papers, Record Office) , distinctly states that Shaftesbury is to take orders from himself, both houses of parliament, and from the major-general commanding in the west, i.e. Holborne (compare Ludlow, Memoirs, i. 135, and Vicars, Parl. Chron. iv. 77) . In May 1645 he was appointed to command the forces which were to besiege Corfe Castle, but, troops not being forthcoming, he was unable to accomplish anything. It was in 1645 that he was called upon to bear witness against Denzil Holles on the charge of transactions with Charles. ”