Cooper was at once placed on the privy council, receiving also a formal pardon for former delinquencies. In the discussions re garding the Bill of Indemnity he was instrumental in saving the life of Haselrig, and opposed the clause compelling all officers who had served under Cromwell to refund their salaries. He was one of the commissioners for conducting the trials of the regicides, but was himself attacked by Prynne for having acted with Cromwell. He was named on the council of plantations and on that of trade. At the coronation in April 1661 Cooper had been made a peer, as Baron Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles, in recognition of his services at the Restoration ; and on the meeting of the new parliament in May he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer and under-treasurer. He opposed the persecuting acts now passed —the Corporation Act, the Uniformity Bill, against which he is said to have spoken three hundred times, and the Militia Act. He is stated also to have influenced the king in issuing his dispensing declaration of Dec. 26, 1662, and he zealously supported a bill for the purpose of confirming the declaration. He was himself the author of a treatise on tolerance. He was now recognized as one of the chief opponents of Clarendon and the High Anglican policy. On the outbreak of the Dutch War in 1664 he was made treasurer of the prizes, being accountable to the king alone for all sums received or spent. He was also one of the grantees of the province of Carolina and took a leading part in its manage ment. On the death of Southampton, Ashley was placed on the commission of the treasury, Clifford and William Coventry being his principal colleagues. He appears to have taken no part in the attempt to impeach Clarendon on a general charge of treason.
The new administration was headed by Buckingham, whose toleration and comprehension principles Ashley shared to the full. An able paper written by him to the king in support of these principles, on the ground of their advantage to trade, has been preserved. He excepts, however, from toleration Roman Catholics and Fifth Monarchy men. His attention to all trade questions was close and constant ; he was a member of the council of trade and plantations appointed in 167o, and was its president from 1672-76; he also co-operated in the design of legitimizing Mon mouth as a rival to James. In the intrigues which led to the infamous treaty of Dover he had no part, for as a Protestant he could not be trusted with the knowledge of the clause bind ing Charles to declare himself a Catholic. In order to blind the Protestant members of the Cabal a sham treaty was arranged in which this clause did not appear, and under this misunder standing he signed the sham Dover treaty on Dec. 31, 167o. This treaty, however, was kept from public knowledge. He op posed the "Stop of the Exchequer," the responsibility for which rests with Clifford, but in the other great measure of the Cabal ministry, Charles's Declaration of Indulgence, he concurred. He was rewarded by being made earl of Shaftesbury and Baron Cooper of Pawlett by a patent dated April 23, 1672. It is stated
too that he was offered, but refused, the lord treasurership. On Nov. 17, 1672, however, he became lord chancellor, in which position he offended the House of Commons by issuing writs to fill the vacant seats. This, though grounded on precedent, was regarded as an attempt to fortify Charles. The writs were can celled, and the principle was established that the issuing of writs rested with the House itself. It was at the opening of parliament that Shaftesbury made his celebrated "delenda est Carthago" speech against Holland, in which he urged the Second Dutch War, on the ground of the necessity of destroying so formidable a commercial rival to England, excused the Stop of the Exchequer which he had opposed, and vindicated the Declaration of Indulg ence. On March 8, he announced to parliament that the declara tion had been cancelled, and for affixing the great seal. to this declaration he was threatened with impeachment by the Com mons. The Test Act was now brought forward, and Shaftesbury, who appears to have heard how he had been duped in 167o, sup ported it, with the object probably of getting rid of Clifford. He now began to be regarded as the chief upholder of Protestantism in the ministry; he lost favour with Charles, and on Sept. 9, 1673, was dismissed from the chancellorship. Among the reasons for this dismissal is probably the fact that he opposed grants to the king's mistresses.
Charles soon regretted the loss of Shaftesbury, and endeav oured, unsuccessfully, as did also Louis, to induce him to return. He now became the popular leader against the measures of the court, and may be regarded as the intellectual chief of the oppo sition. At the meeting of parliament on Jan. 8, 1674, he carried a motion for a proclamation banishing Catholics to a distance of m. from London. During the session he organized and directed the opposition in their attacks on the king's ministers. On May 19 he was dismissed from the privy council and retired to Wimborne, where he continued to urge the necessity of a new parliament. He was in the House of Lords, however, in 1675, when Danby brought forward his famous Non-resisting Test Bill, and headed the opposition during this session with ability, supporting the right of the Lords to hear appeal cases, even where the de fendant was a member of the Lower House. Parliament was pro rogued for 15 months until Feb. 15, 1677, but the opposition main tained that a prorogation for more than a year was illegal. In reply Shaftesbury, with three others, was sent to the Tower. In June Shaftesbury applied for a writ of habeas corpus, but was only released on Feb. 26, 1678, after his letter and three petitions to the king. Being brought before the bar of the House of Lords he made submission as to his conduct in declaring par liament dissolved by the prorogation, and in violating the Lords' privileges by bringing a habeas corpus in the King's Bench.