death of the king (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 512; Christie; Traill, pp. 46, 47).
On the occasion of the coronation, 20 April 1661, Cooper was raised to the peerage as Baron Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles, the title stipulated in his father's marriage settlement, in case he should rise to such an honour (Collins, Peerage, iii. 419); and on 13 May, Clarendon having given up the chancellorship of the exchequer, he was appointed to that post and the under-treasurership. This latter office he no doubt owed to his connection with Southampton, whose niece he had married as his third wife; and he held it until 1667, when the treasury was put in commission.
In the debate in the House of Lords on the Corporation Act (passed 19 Dec. 1661), which destroyed presbyterianism in the towns, Ashley, according to his biographer, Martyn (i. 255)—and his testimony is confirmed by later events—took a strongly liberal line. He opposed the illiberal provisions of the Act of Uniformity (19 May 1662), which destroyed presbyterianism in the church, and the Militia Act. He joined Bennet and Bristol in advising Charles to issue his first declaration in favour of the dispensing power (26 Dec. 1662); and when on the meeting of parliament, 18 Feb. 1662–3, a bill to turn the declaration into a law was presented by Lord Roberts, he warmly supported it, ‘out of his indifference in matters of religion’ (Clarendon, Life, ii. 95). Clarendon speaks strongly of the ability shown by Ashley. He ‘spake often, and with great sharpness of wit, and had a cadence in his words and pronunciation that drew attention.’
There seems no doubt that Ashley now threw in his lot with the cabal of young men who were opposing Clarendon. His conduct in the matter of Roberts's bill had caused him to rise rapidly in favour. According to Clarendon, he and Roberts now attended the meetings of the cabinet; and Pepys (15 May 1663) mentions him as one of the favourites at court through Bristol's means, and as the probable successor of Southampton at the treasury, ‘being a man of great business, and yet of pleasure and drolling too.’ The French ambassador, Comminges, declared of him (9 April 1663) that he was the only man that could be set against Clarendon for talent and firmness; and this opinion is confirmed by many witnesses.
As a minister Ashley was evidently very diligent. Papers written by him exist to show his minute care in collecting details as to the exchequer, customs and excise, the navy, merchant companies, manufactures, and revenues. His views on all trade questions were far in advance of his time; he hated monopolies, declaring that the restraining of a general trade was like the damming of increasing waters, which must either swell them to force their boundaries or cause them to putrefy where they are circumscribed. His practice in office delighted the businesslike Pepys (3 June 1667). Ashley was probably not quite free from corruption. Pepys seems fairly to establish at least one case of genuine bribery (20, 21 May 1666). But nothing has been found to justify the words of Pepys's friend that ‘my Lord Ashley will rob the devil and the altar, but he will get money if it be to be got’ (9 Sept. 1665).
On the outbreak of the Dutch war, which he favoured in opposition to Clarendon, Cooper was appointed treasurer of the prizes, and one of the commissioners to sit upon all appeals against sentences given by the judge of the admiralty (Clarendon, ii. 87). His appointment contained a proviso that he was to be accountable to the king alone. Clarendon vehemently opposed this proviso, and, in spite of Ashley's insistence, signed it at length only on Charles's express order. Ashley showed great jealousy in keeping the money entirely under Charles's control, and when his brother-in-law, William Coventry, proposed to devote the proceeds to the war, ‘my Lord Ashley did snuff and talk as high to him as he used to do to any ordinary man.’ Ashley's compliance with the king in this matter can scarcely be regarded as honourable, considering that he was chancellor of the exchequer. On the other hand, no imputation was ever made against him for misappropriation, nor was any charge brought against him when the accounts were inspected by the commission of 1668. From the first Ashley had taken a leading part in colonial affairs. He had been one of the council appointed on 1 Dec. 1660 for foreign plantations, which met for the first time on 7 Jan. 1661, and then constantly throughout the year (Cal. State Papers, Col. Series, 1661–8; Shaftesbury Papers, Public Record Office). He was also one of the nine to whom Charles had given a grant of Carolina on 24 March 1663, renewed in June 1665. He took a leading part in the management of the colony, and it was at his request that Locke drew up in 1669 a constitution for it, of which, though aristocratic in form, toleration was an important feature (Locke, x. 175, ed. 1812). The manuscript copy in Locke's handwriting is preserved in the ‘Shaftesbury Papers.’ In 1670 another grant of the Bahamas was given to him and five others, and in this charge too he showed the greatest industry. His interest in the Barbadoes and Guinea
