SHAFTESBURY, ANTuoNv Asnr.Ev COOPER, Earl of, English statesman and philan thropist, is descended from a family intimately associated with the political history and literature of England. Sir John Cooper of Rockbourne, Hampshire, married Anne, daughter and sole heiress of sir Anthony Ashley of Wimborne, St. Giles, Dorsetshire, secretary-at-war in the reign of queen Elizabeth. Their eldest son, sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (born 1621), was actively engaged in public affairs during the civil wars. He first espoused the cause of royalty; he then became one of the most eminent of the par liamentary leaders in the council, and not the least active in the field. When he saw that the restoration was inevitable, he took so prominent a part in bringing back Charles II. that he was raised to the peerage as baron Ashley. He was a member of the justly infamous "Cabal" ministry, and was afterward appointed to be lord Chancellor, with the earldom of Shaftesbury. He was the "Achitophel" of Dryden,by whom his character is drawn with as much truth as power. He hated a calm, lived all his life in intrigues, and in his 62d year his "fiery soul" wore out his small and fragile body. He will be honored for all time by men of English race and descent as the author of the habeas corpus act. He also first introduced a bill rendering the judges independent of the crown.—His grandson, ANTHONY COOPER. third earl (barn 1671, died 1713), author of the Characteristics, the friend of Pope, and the other celebrities of the Au5ustan age, 1pbtained from Voltaire the questionable praise of being the boldest of the English phi liesophers.—The sixth earl was for many years chairman of committees of the house of lords.
His son, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, seventh earl of Shaftesbury, was b. in Gros venor square, London, April 28, 1801. He was sent to Harrow, and thence to Christ Church, Oxford, where lie obtained a first-class degree hi classics in 1822. He repre sented the borough of Woodstock from 1823 to 1830; the county of Dorset (in which the filthily estates are situated) from 1831 to 1846; and the city of Bath from 18-47 to 1851, when he succeeded to the earldom. During his long career in the lower house he' held one or two subordinate posts. He is better known by his attempts to improve the social condition of the laboring classes. As lie belonged to the conservative party. and repro seated an agricultural county, the manufacturers, and their organs in the press, received his allegations respecting the condition of their operatives in a hostile and antagonistic spirit, and retorted that the wages of families engaged in factories amounted to twice and three times the sum paid to the Dorsetsbire laborers. Yet lord Ashley returned
again and again to the charge; and on the death of Mr. Sadler, M.P., took charge of the ten hours' bill. The manufacturers declared with alarm that any reduction in the hours of labor would be fatal to our manufacturing supremacy. Successive governmenti naturally believed these prophecies, and almost all the leading statesmen of the day opposed the ten hours' bill. But public opinion declared in favor of a limitation of the hours of labor. Lord Ashley carried his bill through.parliament,_anthints.the_sailsfae tion of knowing that the opponents of the measure admit, without an exception, that it was an act of wise and beneficent legislation, and that their alarms were groundless. When he visited the manufacturing districts, he was honored with an enthusiastic ola tion. He refused to join sir H. Peel's administration in 1841 because that statesman refused to countenance the tell hours' bill. In 1846 he supported sir B. Peel in his pro posal to repeal the corn laws, an act which cost him his seat for Dorsetsbire. When he successfully contested Bath against Mr. Roebuck in 1847 he appeared on the field of politics as a "liberal conservative." After his accession to the earldom, Shaftesbury took a more prominent part in connection with various religions, social, and philan thropic societies. These are so numerous that a list of the associations with which he. is in some way officially concerned, would include almost every scheme having for its object the physical, moral, and spiritual improvement of society. He belongs to the evangelical party in the church of England, and is a prominent member of the chief church societies. He is married to in daughter of the fifth earl Cowper, and being thus it connection by marriage of the late viscount Palmerston (whose government he steadily supported), many of the ecclesiastical appointments and promotions of evangelical clergymen made by that minister were attributed to his influence. lie has followed up the ten hours' bill by obtaining the assent of parliament to other measures regulating defective workshops and factories, night-work, and the treatment of children by their s:nployeis. Among honors that have been conferred on Shaftesbury are the Oxford •I-gree of D.c.L. ill 1841, and the honorary citizenship of Edinburgh in 1878.