broken. After fermon the earl went home with the feals, and that evening the king gave them to the attorney-general.

After he had quitted the court, he continued to make a great figure in parliament; his abilities enabled him to shine, and he was not of a nature to reft. In 1675, the lord-treafurer Danby introduced the teft-bill into the houfe of lords, which was vigorously opposed. by the earl of Shaftsbury, who, if we may believe bishop Burnet, diftinguished himself more in this feffions than ever he had done before. This difpute occafioned a prorogation, and there enfued a reeefs of fifteen months.

When the parliament met again on the fixteenth of February, 1676-7, the duke of Buckingham argued, That it ought to be con fidered as diffolved. The earl of Shaftsbury, was of the fame opinion, and maintained it with so much warmth, that, together with the duke before-mentioned, the earl of Salisbury, and the lord Wharton, he was fent to the Tower, where he continued for thirteen months, though the other lords, upon their fubmiffion, were immediately discharged.

When he was fet at liberty, he managed the oppofition to the earl of Danby's adminiftration with fuch vigour and dexterity, that it was found impoffible to do any thing effectually in parliament without changing the fyftem which then prevailed.

The

The king, who defired nothing fo much as to be eafy, refolved to make a change, difmiffed all the privy-council at once, and formed a new one. This was declared on the twenty-firft of April, 1679; and, at the fame time, the earl of Shaftbury was appointed lord-prefident. He did not hold this employment longer than the fifth of October following. He had drawn upon himfelf the implacable hatred of the duke of York, by steadily promoting, if not originally inventing, the project of an exclufion bill; and therefore not wonder if a party was conftantly at work against him.

It is almoft incredible, how, in this inter val, the papifts lifted up their heads, braving the very face of juftice; for now they had got fuch a caft of evidence, that would have accufed innocence itself; there being a large fum of money offered by the lady Powis, if any would undertake to murder the earl, of Shaftsbury, against whom the rage of that bloody party was now fo great that they left no bafe and unwarrantable action unattempted to rob him of his life. Some were hired to ftab or fhoot him, others to fwear treafor against him, or any other courfe the devil could fuggeft, fo as he were but made away; on whofe life they thought the ill fuccefs of their diabolical machine depended. Libels, containing the blackeft treafons against his majefty, were ferged in the names of the

most

moft eminent proteftant peers of the nation, fcarce any perfons of integrity against the Ro man fuperftitions, but would have been made a party to it: but, who ever was omitted, the lord Shaftsbury was fure to be drawn into the plot.

Thefe were, by their mercenary agents, fecretly to be conveyed into the houfes of the Proteftants aforefaid; and then they wanted not a fet of bafe and mean fpirited villains to fwear it home upon them; perfons of that profligate and contemptible difpofition, that, for a mess of pottage, would not only forfake all claim to honefty and virtue, but proftitute their fouls to the luft and ambition of the worst of men but these were no new things to the brave and excellent, to be expofed by trials of this nature to the rage of brutish and inhuman wretches. To what a pitch of heroic magnanimity must that perfon needs be arrived that can buoy up his foul against such foul tempefts, when the confideration of fimple innocence fhall maintain a perpetual ferenity within, amidst all the cloudy fogs of adverfity!

Mr. Dangerfield gives a large account, in his Narrative, of two feveral times that he had attempted the life of the earl of Shatftfbury; and that he had been infligated thereto by the popish priests, and that the lady Powis, particularly, had offered him five hundred pounds to perform it, whereof he received twenty pounds in part, but that still he had

been

been providentially disappointed of that barbarous enterprize.

One day, Dame Cellier demanded of him, whether he had dispatched the earl; and he replying, that he could have no opportunity to come at him; "Give me the poniard," faid fhe, "you fhall fee what a woman can do for the catholic cause:" and, accordingly, by the inftigations of the devil, and a hellish rage which the Papists miscall a holy zeal, fhe addreffed herself to the execution of that execrable defign. She made a vifit to the earl, under pretence of paying her thanks for favours obtained through his means; but the confecrated dagger ftill lurked under the skirt of her gown, ready to have expressed her gratitude by opening the veins of this proteftant peer's heart. He had no reason to be over-fond of the converfation of fuch cattle; and therefore, in a fhort time, fhe was difmiffed without having an opportunity of putting her wicked and treacherous defign in

execution.

The catholic gallantry flops not here, but purfues this noble peer with forgery of his. hand, other, their little black artifices, and fham-plots. What base and villainous arts the Papists used, to deftroy the lord Shaftsbury, is not only evident by their many endeavours to have stabbed him, as hath been depofed by divers perfons, to whom the parliament, as well as the nation, have given belief; but may be further confirmed by their intercepting

letters

letters directed to his lordship: and after they had, in a hand as near the original as they could counterfeit, inferted treafon in them, they were tranfmitted to fuch as would certainly acquaint the miniftry with it. In fhort, one ftory of their mischievous practice of this kind, is this:

There was a gentleman, who was a commander of a regiment of horse in the service of Charles I. and loft all for his fake; and his majefty, Charles II. wrote to the noble peer about relieving him against the gout, with which he used to be afflicted. This letter was intercepted; and, the perfon then living in the French king's dominions, after adding to it an account, that the writer was able to furnith the earl with forty thousand men from France, to oppofe the duke of York's intereft, it was then conveyed to fome of the French king's minifters, who they fuppofed, would fend a copy of it hither; but, by a trange providence, the original was returned) into the gentleman's own hands.

So endless were the defigns and confpiracies. of the Papifts against this noble peer, that, notwithlanding they met with many difappointments in their attempts, the Almighty. Providence protecting his innocence from their hellish machinations, that another female agent was difcovered for tampering with Mr. Dugdale to retract what he had fworn before the king and parliament, towards the detec