Book I, Chap. V. THE COL LECTOR OF sided with the Parliamentarians during the Civil Wars. He was, however, one of those moderate statesmen who, in the words of a once-celebrated clerical adherent and martyr of LEIAN MSS. their party, Christopher Love, judged it an ill way to cure the body politic, by cutting off the political head.' In due time he also became one of those secluded members' of the Long Parliament who published the 'Remonstrance' of 1656, and who were then as strenuous-though far less successful-in opposing what they deemed to be the tyranny of the Protector, as they had formerly been in opposing the tyranny of the King. Sir Edward HARLEY promoted the restoration of CHARLES THE SECOND, and sat in all the Parliaments of that reign. He distinguished himself as a defender of liberty of conscience in 'unpropitious times ; and he won, in a high degree, the respect of men who sat beside him in the House of Commons, but were rarely counted with him upon a division. HARLEY'S TARY CAREER. Grey's vol, ix. p. 247. The first public act of Robert HARLEY of which a record has been kept is his appearance with his father, in 1688, at the head of an armed band of tenantry and retainers, assembled in Herefordshire to support the cause of the Prince of ORANGE, when the news had come of the Prince's arrival in Torbay. In the first Parliament of WILLIAM and MARY Robert HARLEY sat for Tregony. To the second he was returned by the burgesses of New Radnor. The first reported words of his which appear in the debates were spoken in the course of a discussion upon the heads of a Bill of Indemnity.' 'I think,' said he on this occasion, that the King in his message has led us. He shews us how to proceed for satisfaction of justice. There is a crime [of which] God says, He will not pardon it. 'Tis the shedding of innocent blood. that the West was a A gentleman said Chap. V. THE HAR shambles." What made that shambles? It began in law. Book I, It was a common discourse among the Ministers that "the THE COLKing cannot have justice.' The debate on the Bill of LECTOR OF Indemnity of 1690 may be looked upon as, in some sort, LEIAN MSS. the foreshadowing of a long spell of political conflict, in which Robert HARLEY was to take a conspicuous share. Twenty seven years afterwards the strife of parties was to enter on a new stage. Some of the men who acted as the political Mentors of the new member of 1689-90 were to live long enough to clamour for his execution as a traitor, and, on their failure to produce any adequate proof that he was guilty, were to console themselves by insisting on his exclusion from the Act of Grace' of 1717. Ms. Harl. 7524, f. 139, seqq. HARLEY won his earliest distinctions in political life by assiduous, patient, and even drudging labour on questions of finance. During six years, at least, he worked zealously as one of the Commissioners for stating the Public Accounts of the Kingdom.' In parliamentary debates on the public establishments and expenditure he took a considerable share. As a speaker he had no brilliancy. His usual tone and manner, we are told, were somewhat listless and drawling. But occasionally he would speak with a certain pith and incisiveness. Thus, in November, 1692, in a discussion on naval affairs, he said— We have had a glorious Grey's victory at sea. But although we have had the honour, the enemy has had the profit. They take our merchant ships.' Again, in the following year, when supporting the Bill for more frequent Parliaments, he spoke thus :-' A standing Parliament can never be a true representative. Men are much altered after they have been here some time. They are no longer the same men that were sent up to us.' Of the truth of that saying, in one of its senses, HARLEY Debates, vol. x, p. 268. Book I, Chap. V. THE COL became himself a salient instance. Bred a Whig, and during his early years acting commonly with the Whigs, his party ties were gradually relaxed. By temper and LEIAN MSS. mental constitution he was always inclined to moderate LECTOR OF THE HAR ON THE ATTAINDER measures. As the party waxed fiercer and fiercer, and as its policy came to be more and more obviously the weapon of its hatreds, HARLEY soon lay open to the reproach of being a trimmer. The growing breach became evident enough in the course of the debates on the treason of Sir HIS SPEECH John FENWICK, in November, 1696. He then argued, with force and earnestness, that atrocity in a crime is no justification or excuse for violence and unscrupulousness in a prosecutor. Some of his applications of that sound doctrine are very questionable. But it is to his honour that he preached moderation with consistency. He did not bend it to the exigencies of the party he was approaching, any more than to those of the party from which he was gradually withdrawing himself. OF FENWICK. Meanwhile he had signalised his powers in another way. By long study he had acquired a considerable knowledge of parliamentary law and precedent. He had taken his full share in the work of committees. In February, 1701, he was proposed for the Speakership, in opposition to Sir Thomas LITTLETON. He had a large body of supporters, nor were they found exclusively in the Tory ranks. The King sent for LITTLETON, and told him that he thought it would be for the public service that he should give way to the choice of Mr. HARLEY in his stead. But the election was carried by a majority of only four votes. It is a great encouragement to his party,' wrote TowNSHEND to WALPOLE, who was then in the country, and no small mortification to the Whigs.' HARLEY retained the Speaker ship until the third session of the first Parliament of Queen BOOK I. ANNE. Chap. V. THE COL LECTOR OF THE HAR THE ACT OF March. Whatever may have been the 'mortification of the Whigs' at his elevation, it is certain that at this time HARLEY LEIAN MSS. laboured zealously for the establishment of the Protestant HARLEY AND succession to the throne. In the preparation, facilitating, SUCCESSION. and passing of that measure he took so influential a part 1701. that, afterwards, he was able to say, in the face of his opponents, when they were most numerous and most embittered, 'I had the largest hand in settling the succession of the House of Hanover.' The assertion met with no denial. It is evident, too, that the qualities for which he was already reviled by extreme partisans on both sides were-in their measure-real qualifications, both for the office of Speaker and for the special task of that day. The party leaders who were then most eagerly followed were men bent on crushing their adversaries as well as conquering them. It was inevitable that by such men HARLEY'S moderation towards opponents should be regarded as more cajolery. And of that unhappy quality he was destined, at a later day, to acquire but too much. THE SECRE TARYSHIP OF STATE, 1704. Privy Council Register, On the 27th of April, 1704, Mr. Speaker HARLEY WAS sworn of the Privy Council. On the 18th of May he received the seals as one of the Principal Secretaries of State. He had scarcely entered on the duties of his office before Anne, voi. ii, he was busied with precautionary measures in Scotland P. 102. against an anticipated Jacobite insurrection, as well as with a large share of the foreign correspondence. But just at that busy time he found means to begin-though he could not then complete an act of charity which is memorable both on the recipient's account and on the score of some well known political consequences which eventually grew the recan At the time when HARLEY became a member of the Cronotares administration Daniel DE FOE lay in Newgate, under & conviction for seditious libel, committed in the parbhention of his famous tract, The Shortest Way with the Inssenters. The new Secretary sent a confidential person to the prison with instructions to visit Ju Fon, and to ask ham, in the Minister's name. What can I do for you?' DE For's characteristic rong muss ja pyen in his own words :— In return for the kind and generous message mmediately took per and as writ the story of the evom our Diessed Lord put blind man in the Ziosne,. The question • 120 x 200 28 should do unto thee?" Sange that such a question & causad, "Lord, dost thou see te voat thou shalt do for any misery, Lord that I becued not to make the appli I |
