mother-his country. The third, a Cavalier, a Presbyterian, and Independent; for the Republic, for a Protector, for everything, for nothing, but only that one thing-money. It were endless, Sir, to run through them all; to tell you of the lordships of seventeen pounds a year land of inheritance; of the farmer lordships, draymen lordships, cobbler lordships, without one foot of land but what the blood of Englishmen has been the price of. These, Sir, are to be our rulers; these the judges of our lives and fortunes; to these we are to stand bare whilst their pageant lordships deign to give us a conference on their breeches. Mr. Speaker, we have already had too much experience how insupportable servants are when they become our masters. All kinds of slavery are miserable in the account of generous minds; but that which comes accompanied with scorn and contempt stirs up every man's indignation, and is endured by none whom nature does not intend for slaves, as well as fortune. Mr. Speaker, I blame not in these men the faults of their fortune any otherwise than as they make them their own; I object to you their poverty, because it is accompanied with ambition; I remind you of their quality because they themselves forget it; it is not the men I am angry with, but their Lordships. I must tell you, Sir, that most of them have had the courage to do things which, I may boldly say, few other Christians durst so have adventured their souls to have attempted. They have not only subdued their enemies, but their masters that raised and maintained them they have not only conquered Scotland and Ireland, but rebellious England too, and there suppressed a malignant party of magistrates and laws; and, that nothing should be wanting to make them indeed complete conquerors, without the help of philosophy they have even conquered themselves. All shame they have subdued as perfectly as all justice; the oaths they have taken they have as easily digested as their old General could himself; public covenants and engagements they have trampled under foot. In conclusion, so entire a victory they have over themselves, that their consciences are as much their servants, Mr. Speaker, as we are. But give me leave to conclude with that which is more admirable than all this, and shows the confidence they have of themselves and us. After having many times trampled on the authority of the House of Commons, and no less than five times dissolved them, they hope, for those good services to the House of Commons, to be made a House of Lords."

A Retort.-The seat on the left of the throne in Parliament had been appropriated to the Duke of York, as brother of Charles II., that on the right being reserved for the Prince of Wales; but the Queen proving barren, the Duke was looked upon as successor to the Crown, and took the right-hand chair. When Shaftesbury, as Lord Chancellor, presided for the first time in the House of Lords, he resolved to replace the duke in his proper seat. He informed the duke that he was in the wrong chair, and that his place was on the other side of the throne, as only heir presumptive. The duke being unwilling to quit his seat, Lord Shaftesbury told him that he could not proceed upon business till the House was in form. At length the duke was obliged to submit, but said, in a passion,

"My lord, you are a rascal and a villain." Shaftesbury, with great composure, replied, "I am much obliged to your royal highness for not calling me likewise a coward and a papist.”

Conjugal Relations.-At the opening of the eleventh session of the second Parliament of Charles II. (1672-3), the King's speech was followed by one from Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury, who in the course of it said: "Let us bless God that hath given this king signally the hearts of his people, and most particularly of this Parliament, who in affection and loyalty to their prince have exceeded all their predecessors; a Parliament with whom the King hath for many years lived with all the caresses of a happy marriage. Has the King had a concern? you have wedded it. Has his Majesty wanted supplies? you have readily, cheerfully, and fully provided for them. You have relied upon the wisdom and conduct of his Majesty in all his affairs; so that you have never attempted to exceed your bounds, or to impose upon him. . . And let me say, that though this marriage be according to Moses's law, where the husband can give a bill of divorce, put her away, and take another, yet I can assure you it is as impossible for the King to part with this Parliament as it is for you to depart from that loyalty, affection, and dutiful behaviour you have hitherto showed towards him." This Parliament, to which the name of "the Long Parliament" has frequently been given, lasted nearly eighteen years, not being dissolved until 1679.

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Stepping in at the Breach.-In 1673, Lord Clifford, the Lord Treasurer and head of the Cabal," had undertaken to open a debate in the Lords, "for establishing a perpetual fund, in order to advance the prerogative, and render Parliament inconsiderable. He prepared a set speech to that purpose, which he read to the Lord Chancellor (Shaftesbury), who desired to hear it again; and, upon the second reading, he charged his memory with the substance of it, promising he would likewise come roundly into the debate. This gave him an opportunity he wished for, to be revenged of the courtiers and the Lord Clifford, who, pursuant to the determination of the Cabal, began the debate with the very speech he had showed the Lord Chancellor; while his Majesty and the Duke of York were then in the house to countenance the design. The country lords, and those who were not in the secret, stared at one another; the whole House at the end of the speech, meditating the fate of England, remained in an awful silence; when Chancellor Shaftesbury stood up, and answered Clifford's speech from the beginning to the end, showing that his propositions were extravagant; that what he aimed at would end in confusion, and the ruin of the government; that it might perhaps send the royal family abroad again, to spend their lives in exile, without hope of a return. All which he spoke with so much spirit and sharpness, that he confounded the court counsels. While he was speaking, the Duke of York, enraged at him, whispered the King, 'What a rogue have you of a Lord Chancellor !' The King briskly replied, "'Od's fish, what a fool have you of a Lord Treasurer." "-Parliamentary Debates, 1668-1741.

LORD HALIFAX.

(1630-1695.)

The "Trimmer."-George Savile, Viscount Halifax, was (writes Macaulay) the first in genius among the statesmen of his times. "His polished, luminous, and animated eloquence, set off by the silver tones of his voice, was the delight of the House of Lords. He was the chief of those politicians whom the two great parties contemptuously called Trimmers. Instead of quarrelling with this nickname, he assumed it as a title of honour, and vindicated, with great vivacity, the dignity of the appellation. Everything good, he said, trims between extremes. The temperate zone trims between the climate in which men are roasted and the climate in which they are frozen. The English Church trims between the Anabaptist madness and the Papist lethargy. The English Constitution trims between Turkish despotism and Popish anarchy. Virtue is nothing but a just temper between propensities, any one of which, if indulged to excess, becomes vice. Nay, the perfection of the Supreme Being himself consists in the exact equilibrium of attributes, none of which could preponderate without disturbing the whole moral and physical order of the world. Thus Halifax was a trimmer on principle. He was also a trimmer by the constitution both of his head and of his heart."

Influential Oratory.-Rejection of the Exclusion Bill.— In October, 1680, the Parliament met. The Whigs had so great a majority in the Commons that the Exclusion Bill went through all its stages there without difficulty. The whole nation now looked with breathless anxiety to the House of Lords. The assemblage of peers was large. The King himself was present. The debate was long, earnest, and occasionally furious. Some hands were laid on the pommels of swords, in a manner which revived the recollection of the stormy Parliaments of Henry the Third and Richard the Second. Shaftesbury and Essex were joined by the treacherous Sunderland. But the genius of Halifax bore down all opposition. Deserted by his most important colleagues, and opposed to a crowd of able antagonists, he defended the cause of the Duke of York in a succession of speeches which, many years later, were remembered as masterpieces of reasoning, of wit, and of eloquence. It is seldom that oratory changes votes. Yet the attestation of contemporaries leaves no doubt that, on this occasion, votes were changed by the oratory of Halifax. The bishops, true to their doctrines, supported the principle of hereditary right, and the bill was rejected by a great majority.-Macaulay's History. Hume remarks that Halifax "was animated as well by the greatness of the occasion as by a rivalship to his uncle Shaftesbury, whom, during that day's debate, he seemed in the judgment of all to have totally eclipsed."

LORD SOMERS.

(1650-1716.)

Rapid Elevation.-The name of this statesman is closely associated with the Declaration of Right in 1688, and with the legislative union with

Scotland in 1707. He first came prominently into note as junior counsel for the Seven Bishops on their trial in 1688, and was sent to the Convention Parliament of that year. Under William III. he received rapid preferment. In 1693, while attorney-general, he was made keeper of the great seal, and in 1697 was raised to the woolsack. "John Somers (writes Macaulay) was the son of a country attorney. At thirty-seven he had been sitting in a stuff gown on a back bench in the Court of King's Bench. At forty-two he was the first lay dignitary of the realm. . Without one drop of patrician blood in his veins, he had taken his place at the head of the patrician order with the quiet dignity of a man ennobled by nature. His serenity and his modesty, his self-command, proof even against the most sudden surprises of passion; his self-respect, which forced the proudest grandees of the kingdom to respect him; his urbanity, which won the hearts of the youngest lawyers of the Chancery bar, gained for him many private friends and admirers among the most respectable members of the opposition. The instrument known by the name of the Declaration of Right was prepared by a committee of which Somers was chairman. The fact that the low-born young barrister was appointed to so honourable and important a post in a Parliament filled with able and experienced men, only ten days after he had spoken in the House of Commons for the first time, sufficiently proves the superiority of his abilities."

His Defence at the Bar of the Commons.-Various attempts were made to impeach Somers, on charges more or less frivolous. The poet Prior, writing in February, 1700, said, "To-morrow is the great day when we expect that my Lord Chancellor will be fallen upon, though God knows what crime he is guilty of, but that of being a very great man and a wise and upright judge." In 1701, hearing that the Commons were about to vote his impeachment, Somers requested permission to address them at their bar, which was granted. When he had finished, he was asked from the chair who had informed him that there was a debate respecting him in the House. He replied, "He was strongly surprised at a question that he never knew was put to any man that came to desire the favour of being heard; and that, if the question was asked to bring the least prejudice to any man in England, he would not only be content to be under the censure of the House, but suffer the worst thing that might befall him upon earth, rather than do a dishonourable thing." The impeachment was carried by 198 against 188.

Mock Impeachment.-After sending up to the Lords their impeachment of Somers and others, in 1701, the Commons delayed progress with the matter, while the House of Lords insisted that the trials should either proceed or be dropped. The Commons demanded a joint committee of both Houses to consider the methods of proceeding, and urged that otherwise they would be "giving up the rights of the Commons of England, established by unquestionable precedents and the usage of Parliament, and making all impeachment (the greatest bulwark of the laws and liberties of England) impracticable for the future." But the Lords rejoined, "They do not find that ever such a committee was appointed on

occasion of impeachment for misdemeanors, and their lordships think themselves obliged to be extremely cautious in admitting anything new in matters relating to judicature." The Lords gave notice of their intention to bring on the trial on a certain day; the Commons passed an order forbidding any member of the House to appear at the "pretended trial.” The trial being opened with the usual formalities in Westminster Hall, and no member of the Lower House appearing with evidence against the defendant, the Lords adjourned to their own chamber, and declared the impeachment dismissed.

ROBERT HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD.
(1661-1724.)

House of Commons Tact.-Confessedly one of the most influential of the members of the House of Commons was he whom the last three Parliaments of William III. elected for their Speaker; yet no man would have listened patiently for five minutes to Robert Harley anywhere but in the House of Commons. There he was supreme. The country gentlemen voted for him, though they remembered that his family went to a meeting-house. The younger members put forth their most able and graceful representative to honour him, when Henry St. John seconded his third nomination. And posterity itself had cause to be grateful to him when, employing for once this influence in its service, he joined Tory and Whig in a common demand for the best securities of the Act of Settlement. It was not genius, it was not eloquence, it was not states. manship that had given Harley this extraordinary power. It was House of Commons tact.-Forster on De Foe.

Reputed Wisdom.-Harley's influence in Parliament (writes Macaulay) was out of all proportion to his ability. His intellect was both slender and slow. He was unable to take a large view of any subject. He never acquired the art of expressing himself in public with fluency and perspicuity. To the end of his life he remained a tedious, hesitating, and confused speaker. He had none of the external graces of an orator, His countenance was heavy, his figure mean and somewhat deformed, and his gestures uncouth. Yet he was heard with respect. For such as his mind was, it had been assiduously cultivated. He had that sort of industry and that sort of exactness which would have made him a respectable antiquary or King-at-Arms. He constantly had, even with his best friends, an air of mystery and reserve, which seemed to indicate that he knew some momentous secret, and that his mind was labouring with some vast design. In this way he got and long kept a high reputation for wisdom. It was not till that reputation had made him an Earl, a Knight of the Garter, Lord High Treasurer of England, and master of the fate of Europe, that his admirers began to find out that he was really a dull puzzle-headed man.

Endurance of the English People.-Pope relates that some one had observed of a measure proposed, that the people would never bear it. "None of us," replied Harley, "know how far the good people of England will bear."