you will take into your consideration this necessary addition of charge And after His Majesties conclusion of His Speech let me conclude nay let us all conclude with blessing God and the King Let us bless God that he hath given us such a King to be the Repairer of our Breaches both in Church and State and the restorer of our paths to dwell in That in the midst of War and Misery which rages in our Neighbour Countries our Garners are full and there is no complaining in our Streets And a Man can hardly know that there is a War Let us bless God that hath given this King signally the hearts of His People and most particularly of this Parliament who in their Affection and Loyalty to their Prince have exceeded all their Predecessors A Parliament with whom the King hath 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 chearfully 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 whilest the King on the other hand hath made your Counsels the foundations of all His proceedings and hath been so tender of you that he hath upon His own Revenue and Credit endeavoured to support even Foreign Wars that he might be least uneasie to you or burdensom to His People And let me say that tho' 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 Beha viour you have hitherto shewed towards Him Let us bless the King for taking away all our Fears and leaving no room for Jealousies For those Assurances and Promises He hath made us Let us bless God and the King that our Religion is safe That the Church of England is the care of our Prince That Parliaments are safe That our Properties and Liberties are safe What more hath a good English man to ask but that this King may long Reign and that this Triple-Alliance of King Parliament and People may never be dissolved The King having about that time made Si Edward Turner Speaker of the House of Commons Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer the Lord Chancellor acquainted them therewith and recommended to them His Majesties Pleasure for their Electing a new Speaker in the following Speech My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons HIs Majesty hath commanded me to tell you That he hath many things to say to you but he thinks not this a proper time but will defer it till the House of Commons be compleated with a new Speaker For His Majesty hath since the last Session as a mark of His Favour to His House of Commons and that he might reward so good a Servant taken their late Speaker Sir Edward Turner to be Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and called him by Writ to be an Assistant to this House I am therefore commanded to acquaint you Gentlemen of the House of Commons That it is the Kings Pleasure you repair to your House and Elect a Discreet Wise and Learned man who after he hath been by you Presented and that Presentation by His Majesty admitted shall then possess the Office of your common Mouth and Speaker And the King is pleased to be here to Morrow in the Afternoon to receive the Presentment of him accordingly The Commons having Elected Sir Job Charlton to be their Speaker who being by them Presented to the King Addressed himself to His Majesty in the following words Most Gracious Sovereign THe Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons in Obedience to your Royal Command have proceeded to the Choice of a Speaker They have among them many worthy Persons eminently qualified for so great a Trust yet with too favourable an Eye have cast it upon me who am really conscious to my self of so many infirmities rendring me much unsit for so great an Imployment And although my endeavours of excusing my self before them have not been successful yet they have been so Indulgent as to permit me to continue my endeavours therein before Your Majesties most piercing and discerning Judgment The Veneration due to Majesty which lodgeth in every Loyal Breast makes it not an easie matter to speak before Your Majesty at any time or in any capacity But to speak before Your Majesty in Your Exaltation thus gloriously supported and attended and that as Speaker of Your House of Commons requires greater Abilities then I can pretend to own I am not also without fear That the Publick Affairs wherein Your Majesty and Your Kingdom in this Juncture of time are so highly concern'd may receive detriment through my weakness I therefore with a plain humble heart prostrate at Your Royal feet beseech That You will Command them to review what they have done and to proceed to another Election To which the Lord Chancellour made the following Answer Mr. Serjeant Charlton THe King hath very attentively heard your discreet and handsome Discourse whereby you endeavour to excuse and disable your self for the place of Speaker In answer whereof His Majesty hath commanded me to say to you That he doth in no sort admit of the same For his Majesty hath had long experience of your Abilities good Affection Integrity and Resolution in several employments of great Trust and Weight He knows you have been long a Parliament-man and therefore every way fitted and qualified for the Employment Besides he cannot disapprove the Election of this House of Commons especially where they have expressed so much Duty in choosing one Worthy and Acceptable to him And therefore the King doth allow of the Election and admits you for Speaker Sir Job Charlton seeing his excuse could not be admitted but that notwithstanding his Majesty had confirmed the Commons Choice by his Royal Approbation spake as follows Great SIR SInce it is Your Gracious Pleasure not to accept of my humble Excuse but by Your Royal Approbation to six me under this Great though Honourable Weight and to think me sit to be invested with a Trust of so high a nature as this is I take it in the first place to be incumbent upon me that I render Your Majesty all possible thanks which I now humbly do with a heart full of all Duty and affected with a deeper sense of Gratitude then I can find words to express Next from Your Royal Determination in this Affair whereby you have imprinted a new Character upon me I take courage against my own diffidence and chearfully bend my self with such strength and abilities as God shall give to the Service so graciously designed me no way doubting that Your Majesty
That he whose Counsels had been so successful in contriving His Restoration might be highly necessary and very much conduce to the Establishment of Him in His Kingdom and to shew the extraordinary Esteem he had for his Parts and Abilities he advanced him to be one of the first Rank in the Council placing him above his Royal Brother the Duke of Gloncester and even General Monke himself whom his Majesty use to 〈◊〉 Political Father And having in sundry respects saith Sir William Dugdale in his History of the Baronage of England whom we cannot suspect of Partiality manifested his Loyalty to Charles the First and his great Affection to his Country in the late perilous and difficult Times and likewise to our present Soveraign by his prudent and seasonable Advice and Consultation with General Monke in order to His Majesties Restoration in consideration of these his acceptable Services he was by Letters Patents bearing date at Westminster upon the 20th day of April in the Thirteenth Year of His Majesties Raign advanced to the Degree and Dignity of a Baron of this Realm by the Title of Lord Ashly of Wimbourne St. Giles and to the Heirs Males of his Body This Honour was conferred upon him in the Banqueting-House at White-hall three days before His Majesties Coronation in order to his assisting in the performance of that splendid Ceremony And when his Majesty was pleased to issue out the Grand Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the Trial of the Regicides directed to several Noble Persons choice was made of this Honourable Lord to be of the number of that Court his Majesty deeming him to be a Person whose Prudence and Loyalty render'd him as deserving of the Honour to which his Majesty therein preferred him as any other contained in that Commission And as if his Majesty had so high a Valuation for his Lordship that he thought his profound Parts and exemplary Loyalty merited a perpetual confluence of Royal Favours he raised him at several times to higher degrees of Honour making him Chancellor of his Exchequer Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer Lord Lieutenant of the County of Dorset and one of the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury But all these being too small to compensate his Merits and demonstrate the Royal Bounty and Princely Gratitude of his Soveraign whose Generous Nature inclines him to delight in nothing more then to reward like a King He was advanced to the Title and Dignity of an Earl being in the year 1672. created Earl of Shaftesbury and Lord Cooper of Paulet to him and the Heirs Males of his Body by Letters Patents bearing date at Westminster upon the 23 d. day of April in the Twenty Fourth Year of his Majesties Raign And in November following upon the Resignation of Sir Orlando Bridgeman his Majesty to gratifie the uninterrupted good Services of the Earl of Shaftesbury Chancellor of his Exchequer and one of the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury was pleased to give unto him the Keeping of the said Great Seal with the Title of Lord High Chancellor of England these are the words of the Gazette being the second Person that had enjoyed that Title since his Majesties Raign Whereby he was placed by his Great Master in the highest Orb that any Subject could possibly move in The Kings Conscience being as it were committed to his Care and Management And with what Prudence and Candour Honour and Integrity he acquitted himself in that great and weighty Imployment the Transactions of the Court of Chancery during the time of his Chancellorship will best testisie Justice then run in an equal Channel so that the Cause of the Rich was not suffer'd to swallow up the Rights of the Poor nor was the strong or cunning Oppressor permitted to devour the weak or unskilful Opposer but the abused found Relief suitable to their Distress and those by whom they were abused a severe Reprehension answerable to their Crimes The mischievous Consequences which commonly arise from the delays and other practices of that Court were by his ingenious and judicious Management very much abated and every thing weighed and determined with such an exact Judgment and Equity that it almost exceeds all possibility of belief And because the Traducers of this Lords Loyalty not only reproach him with the Tap which was an unquestionable Mark of Loyalty and Honour it being got in conducting his Majesty to his Crown and Kingdom but have likewise quarrel'd at his constant Faithfulness to the Royal Interest and endeavour'd to abuse every thing he did for his Majesties Service as they have done the speech he made to the Parliament upon the account of the Dutch War And that the World may see the temper of the Men and upon what ground it is they were his Enemies I have set down the Speech verbatim as follows My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commous THe King hath spoken so fully so excellently well and so like Himself that you are not to expect much from me There is not a word in His Speech that hath not its full weight And I dare with assurance say will have its effect with you His Majesty had called you sooner and His Affairs required it but that He was resolved to give you all the ease and vacancy to your own private Concerns and the People as much respit from Payments and Taxes as the necessity of His Business or their Preservation would permit And yet which I cannot but here mention to you by the Crafty insinuations of some ill affected persons there have been spread strange and desperate Rumours which your Meeting together this day hath sufficiently proved both malicious and false His Majesty hath told you that He is now engaged in an important very expensive and indeed a War absolutely necessary and unavoidable He hath referred you to His Declaration where you will find the Personal indignities by Pictures and Medals and other publique affronts His Majesty hath received from the States their Breach of Treaties both in the Surinam and East-India business and at last they came to that heighth of Insolence as to deny the honour and right of the Flag though an undoubted Jewel of this Crown never to be parted with and by them particularly owned in the late Treaty of Breda and never contested in any Age. And whilest the King first long expected and then solemnly demanded Satisfaction they disputed His Title to it in all the Courts of Christendom and made great Offers to the French King if he would stand by them against us But the most Christian King too well remembred what they did at Munster contrary to so many Treaties and solemn Ingagements and how dangerous a Neighbour they were to all Crowned heads The King and His Ministers had here a hard time and lay every day under new Obloquies Sometimes they were represented as selling all to France to make this War Portsmouth Plymouth and Hull were to be given into the
French hands for Caution The next day news came that France and Holland were agreed Then the obloquy was turned from treachery to folly The Ministers were now Fools that some days before were Villains And indeed the Coffee-houses were not to be blamed for their last apprehensions since if that Conjunction had taken effect then England had been in a far worse case then now it is and the War had been turned upon us But both Kings knowing their Interests resolved to Joyn against them who were the Common Enemies to all Monarchies and I may say especially to ours their only Competitor for Trade and Power at Sea and who only stand in their way to an universal Empire as great as Rome This the States understood so well and had swallowed so deep that under all their present distress and danger they are so intoxicated with that vast ambition that they slight a Treaty and refuse a Cessation All this you and the whole Nation saw before the last War but it could not then be so well timed or our Alliances so well made But you judged aright that at any rate Delenda est Carthago That Government was to be brought down And therefore the King may well say to you 'T is your War He took his measures from you and they were just and right ones and He expects a suitable assistance to so necessary and expensive an Action which He has hitherto maintained at His own charge and was unwilling either to trouble you or burden the Country until it came to an inevitable necessity And His Majesty commands me to tell you that unless it be a certain Sum and speedily raised it can never answer the Occasion My Lords and Gentlemen Reputation is the great support of War or Peace This War had never begun nor had the States ever slighted the King or ever refused Him Satisfaction neither had this War continued to this day or subsisted now but that the States were deceived in their measures and apprehended His Majesty in that great want of money that He must sit down under any Affronts and was not able to begin or carry on a War Nay at this day the States support themselves amongst their People by this only falshood that they are assured of the temper of England and of the parliament and that you will not supply the King in this War And that if they can hold out till your meeting they will have new life and may take new measures There are lately taken two of their principal Agents with their Credentials and Instructions to this purpose who are now in the Tower and shall be proceeded against according to the Law of Nations But the King is sufficiently assured of His people Knows you better and can never doubt His Parliament This had not been mentioned but to shew you of what importance the frankness and seasonableness of this Supply is as well as the fulness of it Let me say the King has brought the States to that condition that your hearty conjunction at this time in supplying His Majesty will make them never more formidable to Kings or dangerous to England And if after this you suffer them to get up let this be remembred The States of Holland are Englands eternal Enemy both by Interest and Inclination In the next place to the supply for the carrying on of the War His Majesty recommends to you the taking care of His Debts What you gave the last Session did not near answer your own expectation Besides another confiderable Aid you designed His Majesty was unfortunately lost in the birth so that the King was forced for the carrying on of His affairs much against His will to put a stop to the payments out of the Exchequer He saw the pressures upon himself and growing inconveniencies to His People by great Interest and the difference through all His Business between Ready money and Orders This gave the King the necessity of that proceeding to make use of His own Revenue which hath been of so great effect in this War But though he hath put a stop to the trade and gain of the Bankers yet he would be unwilling to ruine them and oppress so many Families as are concerned in those Debts Besides it were too disprortionable a burden upon many of His good Subjects But neither the Bankers nor they have reason to complain if you now take them into your care and they have paid them what was due to them when the Stop was made with Six per Cent. Interest from that time The King is very much concern'd both in Honour and Interest to see this done And yet he desires you not to mis-time it but that it may have only the second place and that you will first settle what you intend about the Supply His Majesty has so fully vindicated His Declaration from that Calumny concerning the Papists that no reasonable scruple can be made by any good man He has sufficiently justified it by the time it was published in and the effects He hath had from it and might have done it more from the agreeableness of it to His own natural disposition which no good English man can wish other then it is He loves not bloud or rigorous severities but where mild or gentle ways may be used by a wise Prince He is certain to choose them The Church of England and all good Protestants have reason to rejoyce in such a Head and such a Defender His Majesty doth declare His care and Concerns for the Church and will maintain them in all their Rights and Priviledges equal if not beyond any of His Predecessors He was born and bred up in it It was that his Father died for We all know how great temptations and offers He resisted abroad when He was in His lowest condition And He thinks it the Honour of His Reign that He hath been the Restorer of the Church 'T is that He will ever maintain and hopes to leave to posterity in greater lustre and upon surer grounds then our Ancestors ever saw it But His Majesty is not convinc'd that violent ways are the Interest of Religion or the Church There is one thing more which I am commanded to speak to you of Which is the jealousie that hath been foolishly spread abroad of the Forces the King hath raised in this War Wherein the King hath opened himself freely to you and confessed the fault on the other hand For if this last Summer had not proved a miracle of Storms and Tempests such as secured their East-India Fleet and protected their Sea-coast from a discent nothing but the true reason want of Money could have justified the defect in the number of our Forces 'T is that His Majesty is providing for against the next Spring having given out Orders for the raising of seven or eight Regiments more of Foot under the Command of Persons of the greatest Fortunes and Quality And I am earnestly to recommend to you that in your Supplies
being Landed at Pool in Dorsetshire the Gentlemen of the County to shew the extraordinary respect they had to his Lordship and although they were not invited yet they got together and went in a body to meet the Corps and accompany'd it to his ancient Seat at Wimbourn St. Giles's where he was decently and honourably Interred and will have a stately Monument erected over him He made his Countess Sir William Cooper c. Executors of his Will wherein he gave very liberally to his Grand-Son the Lord Ashley and Intailed the whole Estate upon him after the death of his Son the present Earl of Shaftsbury And as he had formerly been the making of several of his Servants and others by his Liberality so he was no less bountiful at his Death having left very considerable Legacies to his Servants especially those who were with him in Holland besides several Gifts to pious and charitable uses And having thus traced this Nobleman from the Cradle through all the Labyrinths and Vicissitudes of his Life to the Hour of his Death and from thence to his Envied Grave I shall conclude this Tract with his Character a Character so extraordinary and rare that it will certainly deserve and therefore justly command the Admiration of all men But I will fist incert the Elegy and Character of Sir Walter Rawleigh wherewith the Author of his Life concludes his History thereof GReat Heart who taught thee so to die Death yielding thee the Victory Where took'st thou leave of life If here How could'st thou be so far from fear But sure thou diest and quit'st the state of Flesh and Blood before that fate Else what a Miracle was wrought To triumph both in flesh and thought I saw in every stander by Pale Death Life only in thine Eye The Legacy thou gav'st us then We 'll sue for when thou diest agen Farwel Truth shall this Story say We died Thou only livest that day Thus died that Knight who was Spain's Scourge and Terrour and Gondamor's Triumph whom the whole Nation pitied and several Princes interceded for Queen Elizabeths Favourite and her Successors Sacrifice a Person of so much Worth and so great Interest that King James would not execute him without an Apology One of such incomparable Policy that he was too hard for Essex was the Envy of Leicester and Cicill's Rival who grew jealous of his excellent Parts and was afraid of being supplanted by him His Head was wished on the Secretarie's Shoulders and his Life valued by some at an higher Rate than the Infanta of Spain though a Lady incomparably excelling in both the Gifts of Mind and Body Authors are perplex'd under what Tophick to place him whether of Statesman Sea-man Souldier Chymist or Chronologer for in all these he did excell he could make every thing he read or heard his own and his own he could easily improve to the greatest Advantage He seemed to be Born to that onely which he went about so dexterous was he in all his Undertakings in Court Camp by Sea by Land with Sword and with Pen. The Earls person was somewhat small but very comely God and Nature having distributed in the framing thereof an exact agreeableness and an equal proportion to every Part and Member But as the smallest Cabinets usually inclose the Richest Jewels so his little Body inclosed a great and vastly Capatious Soul the Virtues and Perfections whereof as far transcended the generallity of the offspring of Adam as Gold exceeds Silver or Diamonds transcends Pebles in value He had a couragious and undaunted Mind a deep Judgment and a quick and ready Apprehension he was Religious towards God Loyal to his Prince True to his Country Faithful to his Friends Charitable to his Enemies Liberal to the Poor Chaste in his Affections and made the keeping of his Solemn Contracts in Marriage Sacred and Inviolable and the preserving his Chaste Soul free from Polution a considerable part of his Religion He was Courteous and Affable in his Carriage towards all Men Sociable and Free in his Converse yet so wonderfully reserved as to any of his great Designs and Projects that he never revealed his Intentitions to the nearest Relations or the most intimate Friends which made him so extraordinary usefull to His Majesty in the late Times and rendered him capable of ordering and disposing all publick Actions and Councils so that they naturally tended towards his Restoration 'T was his close and reserv'd temper that rendered the penetrating into his Sentiments and Intentions a work so intricate and perplexing that the greatest diligence of the many Spies who had their Eyes constantly fix'd upon and perpetually watched and pried into his Actions were not able to effect it and made it a Task too hard and difficult even for Cromwel himself to perform It was that which rendered those who undertook it unable to prove him Guilty of a Plot wherein he was really engaged and was a principal promoter and contriver thereof Viz. The rising of Sir George Booth And this close and reserved temper strongly argues his Innocency in the late charge of Treason for can any Man in his right Senses imagine that the Earl who had till now been so reserved and private in all his Designs even to near Relations noble Personages and familiar Friends should all on a suddain relinquish his constant and avowed Practice and transform himself into a perfect Changeling by freely discovering that he designed no less than Rebelling against his Soveraign The levying Men the forming of an Army and deposing the King and thereby put himself into the Power and expose his Life and Honour to the mercy of Six or Eight needy and mercinary Fellows That he should do so will appear very improbable if we reflect upon the temper of the Earl and the condition of the Men who pretended to such a familiarity with him and insight into his Designs unless we can suppose that the longer he lived the more foolish he grew or that the more experience he had of the endeavours of the Papists to effect his Ruine by fixing the Guilt of Treason upon him the more careful he would be to furnish them with Witnesses to prove and make good their Charge He was such a Proficient in Wisdom and Policy that he seem'd like a Second Solomon and so clear an understanding of the Mysteries both of Law and Divinity that he could easily and with great readiness resolve the most difficulty Queries and discuss the greatest Mysteries and Critical Nicities thereof Which made Dr. Ward Bishop of Sailsbury who held an intimate Correspondence with him delight in his Converse and value his acquaintance at a high rate And so did Sir Matthew Hailes Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench and many more both Lawyers and Divines who had the happiness to be acquainted with him And occasioned His Majesty as it is said upon the being informed of his desiding a very difficult Case when he was Chancellor to affirm as