The outbreak of the Popish Terror in 1678 provided an oppor tunity for Shaftesbury to attack the government by fanning the popular frenzy. Under his advice the opposition made an alliance with Louis whereby the French king promised to help them to ruin Danby on condition that they would compel Charles, by stop ping the supplies, to make peace with France, doing thus a grave injury to Protestantism abroad for the sake of a temporary party advantage at home. Upon the refusal in November of the Lords to concur in the address of the Commons requesting the removal of the queen from court, he joined in a protest and was foremost in all the violent acts of the session. He urged on the bill by which Catholics were prohibited from sitting in either House of Parlia ment, and was bitter in his expressions of disappointment when the Commons passed a proviso excepting James, against whom the bill was especially aimed, from its operation. A new parlia ment met on March 6, 1679. Shaftesbury had meanwhile warned the king that unless he followed his advice there would be no peace with the people. On March 25, he made a striking speech upon the state of the nation, especially upon the dangers to Protestantism and the misgovernment of Scotland and Ireland. He was sus pected, too, of fostering a revolt in Scotland. By the advice of Temple, Charles now tried the experiment of forming a new privy council in which the chief members of the opposition were in cluded, and Shaftesbury was made president, being also a member of the committee for foreign affairs. He did not, however, change his opinions or his action, and opposed the compelling of Pro testant Nonconformists to take the oath required of Roman Catholics. The question of the succession was now again prom inent, and Shaftesbury hastened his fall by putting forward Monmouth as his nominee, thus alienating a large number of his supporters. He pressed on the Exclusion Bill, and, when that and the inquiry into the payments for secret service and the trial of the five peers were brought to an end by a sudden prorogation, he is reported to have declared aloud that he would have the heads of those who were the king's advisers to this course. Before the prorogation, however, he saw the invaluable Act of Habeas Cor pus, which he had carried through parliament, receive the royal assent. In pursuance of his patronage of Monmouth, Shaftesbury now secured for him the command of the army sent to suppress the insurrection in Scotland. In October 1679, Shaftesbury was dismissed from the presidency and from the privy council, and when applied to by Sunderland to return to office he made as conditions the divorce of the queen and the exclusion of James. With other peers he presented a petition to the king in No vember, praying for the meeting of parliament, of which Charles took no notice. In April, upon the king's declaration that he was resolved to send for James from Scotland, Shaftesbury advised the popular leaders to leave the council, and they followed his advice. In March we find him unscrupulously eager in the prose
cution of the alleged Irish Catholic plot. On June 26, accom panied by fourteen others, he presented to the grand jury of West minster an indictment of the duke of York as a Popish recusant. The Exclusion Bill, having passed the Commons, was brought up to the Lords, and an historic debate took place, on Nov. 15, in which Halifax and Shaftesbury were the leaders on opposite sides. The bill was thrown out, and Shaftesbury signed the protest against its rejection. The next day he urged upon the House the divorce of the queen, and on Dec. 7, he voted for the condemna tion of Lord Stafford. He continued to advocate exclusion but all opposition was checked by the dissolution of parliament. A new parliament was called to meet at Oxford, to avoid the influences of the city of London, where Shaftesbury was popular. Shaftesbury, with fifteen other peers, petitioned the king that it might as usual be held in the capital. At this parliament, which lasted but a few days, he again made a personal appeal to Charles, which was re jected, to permit the legitimizing of Monmouth. The king's ad visers now urged him to arrest Shaftesbury; he was seized on July 2, 1681, and committed to the Tower, the judges refusing his petition to be tried or admitted to bail. This refusal was twice repeated in September and October, the court hoping to obtain evidence sufficient to ensure his ruin. In October he wrote offering to retire to Carolina if he were released. On Nov. 24, he was in dicted for high treason at the Old Bailey, but was released on bail on Dec. I. In 1682, however, Charles secured the appointment of Tory sheriffs for London; and, as the juries were chosen by the sheriffs, Shaftesbury felt that he was no longer safe from the vengeance of the court. Failing health and the disappointment of his political plans led him into violent courses. He appears to have entered into treasonable consultation with Monmouth and others, and after lying concealed in London, he fled to Harwich, and reached Amsterdam in the beginning of December. Here he was made a citizen of Amsterdam, but died there on Jan. 21, 1683. His body was sent in February to Poole, in Dorset, and was buried at Wimborne St. Giles.
Few politicians have been so abused as Shaftesbury. Dryden satir ised him, Macaulay condemned him, but Christie did much to re habilitate him. Christie's Life (1871), however, should be read with caution. Finally, in his monograph (1886) in the series of "English Worthies," H. D. Traill professes to hold the scales equally. He makes an interesting addition to our conception of Shaftesbury's place in English politics, by insisting on his position as the first great party leader in the modern sense, and as the founder of modern parliamen tary oratory.