A.D. 1660. "that they were so necessary for the government of the kingdom, that neither prince nor people could be in any tolerable degree happy without them." The commons vindicated the honour of the last parliament, and declared them innocent of King Charles the First's murder; which they said was the act of a few ambitious and bloody persons. They said, that, after such an universal shaking of the foundations of government, great care must be had to repair the breaches; and much circumspection and industry used to provide things necessary for the strengthening of those repairs, and preventing whatsoever might disturb or awaken them: and since the king's own judgment had prompted to him the necessity of making the kingdom happy, by the advancement of religion, the security of the laws, liberties, and estates of the people, and the removing all jealousies and animosities, they could not doubt of his effectual performance of those things. Two days afterwards, the following commissioners were chosen to be sent to Breda: viz. the Earls of Warwick, Oxford, and Middlesex, Lord Viscount Hereford, Lord Berkley, and Lord Brook, for the peers; Lord Fairfax, Lord Falkland, Lord Bruce, Lord Castleton, Lord Herbert, Lord Man restored. deville, Sir Horatio Townshend, Sir Anthony A.D. 1660. Ashley Cooper, Sir George Booth, Sir John Holland, Sir Henry Cholmly, and Denzil Holles, Esq., for the commons. These were ordered to The king present the humble invitation and supplication of the parliament, "That his majesty would be pleased to return, and take the government of the kingdom into his hands:" and on the 8th of May, the king was solemnly proclaimed, the speakers and members of both houses attending. CHAPTER VII. Sir Anthony made one of the new Privy Council. Advanced to the Peerage. His Generosity. Conduct of Charles.Dissolution of Parliament. - [Sir Anthony sits at the trial of the Regicides.]- The new Parliament assemble. - Their Proceedings. Sale of Dunkirk. A.D. 1660. THE suddenness with which this restoration was brought about was surprising to the world, and it far exceeded the king's hopes; but, according to Mr. Locke, Sir Anthony had laid the plan of it some time before. This plan he had formed when all the forces who had appeared for the king were defeated, and when the court abroad and the royalists at home were totally dispirited. Sir Anthony's conduct accounts for that uncertainty with which Lord Clarendon and other historians confess Monk to have acted; who, it is evident, was turned and directed by his policy, and fixed by his resolution. When Sir Anthony attended, with the other conferred Anthony. commissioners, at Breda, 56 the king distinguished A.D. 1660. him in a particular manner; and told him, "he Honours was very sensible with what zeal and application upon Sir he had laboured for his restoration." As a proof that the king sincerely thought so, Sir Anthony was one of the first persons admitted into the privy council. On the 9th of June 1660, he was made governor of the Isle of Wight, * and colonel of a regiment of horse. He was likewise made chancellor of the exchequer and under-treasurer, and was appointed lord-lieutenant of the county of Dorset. Even whilst the king was at Canterbury, before the coronation, he was created a baron, by the title of “ Baron Ashley f of Win * These two commissions, which are among Lord Shaftesbury's papers, are under the hand and seal of Monk, by virtue of an authority from : the king the last was probably for the regiment of horse which had been Fleetwood's, and was given to Sir Anthony by the parliament, March 27th. + He chose this title pursuant to an article in the settlement upon his father's marriage with the only daughter of Sir Anthony Ashley, "That if Sir John Cooper or his heirs should come to be honoured with the degree of peerage, they should take that for their title."-Gibson's Camden, i. 175. 56 This was an unhappy journey for Sir Anthony. It was upon this occasion he received that serious injury, which grew into an abscess, and embittered the rest of his life. This accident has already been incidentally mentioned in the introduction, as the remote occasion of the earl's intimacy with Mr. Locke. A.D. 1660. burn St. Giles." In the preamble to his patent, the king farther acknowledged "the restoration to be chiefly owing to him; and that, after many endeavours to free the nation from the evils in which it was involved, he at length, by his wisdom and counsels, in concert with General Monk, delivered it from the servitude under which it so long had groaned." These employments and honours were conferred on him without any application or secret addresses, and without his endeavouring to obtain any private articles for himself before the king's coming over. Nay, from what passed between Sir Anthony and Monk previous to the Restoration, it is plain that he had insisted with Monk, that the king should be brought in upon proper 57 This is a mistake: his name frequently occurs as Sir A. A. Cooper after this time, particularly in the commission for the trial of the regicides. The date of his patent of peerage is 20th April 1661, a few days before the meeting of the new parliament. 5 Lord Clarendon attributes Sir Anthony's appointment as privy counsellor to the special recommendation of Monk, and adds, that this honour was the rather conferred upon him because, "having lately married the niece of the Earl of Southampton, it was believed that his slippery humour would be easily restrained and fixed by the uncle."-Life of Clarendon by himself. |