the penal laws against protestant dissenters vigorously executed. To secure the support of the common council for the crown, a false return, carried out with shameless illegality, was made at the midsummer election of sheriffs, two tories being returned in the place of Shaftesbury's friends. He now felt that there was no chance of escape if another indictment were preferred against him, since the sheriffs had the nomination of the juries. On the night of the election he is said to have left his house and to have found a hiding-place in the city (Ralph, i. 710). With Russell, Monmouth, and others, he began to consult as to the possibility of a concerted rebellion in different parts of the country. He and Russell jointly were to make themselves masters of the Tower and manage the city, and Russell the west country; while Monmouth made a progress in Cheshire (Christie, ii. 445). Burnet gives a different account, declaring that Essex and Russell were opposed to Shaftesbury's views (ii. 349). But in September Monmouth was arrested. Shaftesbury now urged an immediate rising in Cheshire under Russell, while he himself answered for the city, promising Russell to join him with ten thousand brisk boys from Wapping. About Michaelmas day, however, he left Thanet House, ‘stept aside, but not before a warrant was signed for his apprehension’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. 497 b), and was for some weeks concealed in obscure houses in the city and Wapping, busily engaged in fomenting the rising. In the beginning of November, at a meeting in the house of Shepherd, a wine merchant, a report was read from Shaftesbury, and it was arranged by those present to rise a few days later. At a second meeting on 19 Nov., however, it was decided to postpone action for a few weeks. Upon this Shaftesbury, knowing or being told that fresh warrants were out against him, determined to flee at once. It is difficult to believe that the search for Shaftesbury was earnest; it was obviously more to the interest of the crown to frighten him away than to arrest him; and it is probable that the same course was pursued in his case as in that of the Earl of Argyll when he came to London [see Campbell, Archibald, ninth Earl of Argyll]. Before leaving London Shaftesbury had a meeting with Essex and Salisbury, when ‘fear, anger, and disappointment had wrought so much upon him, that Lord Essex told me he was much broken in his thoughts, his notions were wild and impracticable’ (Burnet, ii. 350). He reached Harwich in disguise as a presbyterian minister, with his servant Wheelock. Here he was in imminent danger of discovery, but, after waiting some days for a fair wind, was able to leave Harwich for Holland on 28 Nov. 1682. After a stormy passage, during which other vessels in company with his were lost, he reached Amsterdam in the first days of December. Upon his petition he was placed in safety by being admitted a burgher of Amsterdam; one inhabitant welcoming him, it is said, with a pungent reference to his famous speech, ‘Carthago nondum est deleta.’ For a week he lodged in the house of an English merchant named Abraham Keck, on the Guelder Kay, associating chiefly with Brownists. Here, about the end of December, he was seized with gout, which flew to the stomach, and which caused him excruciating pain. On Sunday, 21 Jan. 1683, he died in his servant's arms, between eleven and twelve in the morning. It was stated that his death was hastened by the cessation in the flow from his abscess. The news reached London on 26 Jan.; on 13 Feb. his body left Amsterdam to be taken to Poole in Dorsetshire (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. 389 a). According to Martyn it was met by the principal gentlemen of the county of all shades of opinion, who accompanied the hearse to Wimborne St. Giles, where he was buried.
Shaftesbury was undoubtedly the most eminent politician of his time; Burnet (i. 175) declares that he never knew any man equal to him in the art of governing parties. His subtlety and readiness of resource fitted him especially for a foremost place, under the existing conditions of political life. The leaders, with scarcely an exception, led lives of mystery and intrigue; in Shaftesbury's case the springs of his action can even now be often only guessed at. With the exception of Locke he had no intimate friends; North says that if he were a friend to any human being, besides himself, it was to Charles II (p. 119). That he was a man of keen ambition is very certain, though Ralph's phrases (i. 711) are extravagant. As a statesman he will always remain memorable, because, starting from the conception of tolerance, he opposed the establishment of an Anglican and royalist organisation with decisive success. He seems always to have espoused the doctrines that had the greatest future, and he may be regarded as the principal founder of that great party which opposed the prerogative and uniformity on behalf of political freedom and religious tolerance (Ranke, iv. 166, 167). The extremely modern type of Shaftesbury's character renders him especially interesting as a politician. In him, as is observed by Mr. Traill (Shaftesbury, ‘English Worthies,’ p. 206), are fore-
