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For spite of him, the weight of bufincfs fell
On Abfalom, and wife Achitophel.

Thus wicked but in will, of means bereft,
He left not faction, but of that was left.

Mr. Horace Walpole, with that juftnefs which mark all his writings, obferves, The portrait drawn by Dryden is admirable, but Bayes is an original creation. Dryden fatirized Buckingham; Villiers in the Rehearsal made Dryden fatirife himself. The fame gentleman remarks it as an instance of astonishing quickness, that the Duke being present at one of the plays of Dryden, where a lover says,

My wound is great because it is fo finall,

his Grace cried out,

Then it would be greater were it none at all.

The play was inftantly damn'd.

On the 7th of June, 1671, he was inftalled Chancellor of the University of Cambridge; and he entertained that learned body nobly at York-houfe, where his father had done on the fame occafion forty years before and during this year he advised the declaration of indulgence, published March 15, for fufpending the penal laws againft diffenters. In 1672 he

was

was fent a fecond time, together with the earls of Arlington and lord Hallifax, to the French king, then at Utrecht, to concert measures fecretly for carrying on the fecond Dutch war. Upon the meeting of the parliament the ensuing year, a complaint being made of him in the house of commons, for revealing the king's councils, and correfponding with his enemies, in his defence of himself before that house he confeffed fome part of his bad administration, and betrayed more of his affociate Arlington. In 1674, he again fell under the displeasure of the king, and ceafing to be useful, Charles declared the chancellorship of the university of Cambridge vacant, and the duke of Monmouth was chosen in his room. joined the nonconformists, and the earl of Shaftesbury, in their oppofition to the court, against the famous bill to prevent the danger that may arise from perfons difaffected to the government, which was brought into the houfe of lords in April 1675. In this bill was inserted the test, by which, befides the oaths required of magiftrates in corporations, viz. I A. B. do declare that it is not lawful upon any pretence

About this time he

what

whatsoever to take up arms against the king, there was added the following: I A. B. do fwear, that I will not endeavour an alteration of the proteftant religion, established by law in the church of England, nor will I endeavour any alteration in the government of the kingdom, in church or ftate, as it is by law established. This was proposed to be taken by all who enjoyed any beneficial offices, ecclefiaftical, civil or military, and by all privy counsellors, juftices of the peace, and both houses of parliament. The court party efpoufed the bill with great zeal, and it was as ftrenuously oppofed by the country party, who looked on it as a project to divide the protestants, and to strengthen the popish party. The chief fpeakers for the bill were the lord treasurer Danby, the lord keeper Finch, and the bishops Morley and Ward. Thofe on the fide of oppofition were the lords Hallifax and Holles, the earls of Salisbury and Shaftesbury, and the duke of Buckingham. These, with the marquis of Winchester, nine earls, and seven barons, entered their proteft against it, "conceiving that any bills which "impofeth an oath on the peers with a penalty, as doth that upon refufal of that oath, they "fhall

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"fhall be made incapable of fetting and voting "in their house, as it is a thing unprecedented "in former times, fo it is in their opinion the "higheft invafion of the liberties and privileges "of the peerage that poffibly may be, and moft "deftructive of the freedom which they ought "to enjoy as members of parliament; because "the privileges of fetting and voting in parliament is an honour they have by birth, and a " right fo inherent in them, as that nothing can "take away, but what by the law of the land "muft withal take away their lives, and cor66 rupt their blood." And when the bill was committed, they got in this provifo, That it fhould be no hindrance to their free speaking and voting in parliament. The bill mifcarried by the king's proroguing the parliament. The duke's oppofition was perfectly confiftent to his tolerating principles; for the October following he brought a bill into the houfe of lords for tolerating the diffenters, and was appointed one of the managers in a conference between the two houfes of parliament upon the point of the jurisdiction of the upper houfe. The king, defirous to check the heats and animofities occafioned

VOL. I.

by

by the difputes, prorogued the parliament in November till February 1677, which being upwards of a year, the duke of Buckingham made

speech that day, to fhew that in this prorogation his majesty had exceeded the bounds of his prerogative, and attempted to prove from ancient ftatutes the parliament was diffolved. He ludicrously remarked, the ancient laws of the realm are not like women, for they are not one jot the worfe for being old: he perfifted in his affertion that the king had exceeded his prerogative, and that the parliament was diffolved. He was feconded by the earls of Shaftesbury and Salisbury, and lord Wharton; great debates arose in the house; a motion was made that the four lords be committed to the tower, for contempt of the authority and being of the present parliament, there to remain during the pleasure of his majesty and the house of peers. The duke, while lord Anglefey was fpeaking against the commitment, left the house. The lords, in a rage at his withdrawing himself, defigned to addrefs the king for a proclamation against him; the duke, foreseeing the event, appeared next day in his place; The court lords immediately cried out,

To

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