UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND.

255

the succession; but during some days it seemed that he would citap.submit. He wavered, asked what sum the Commons wouldgive him if he yielded, and suffered a negotiation to beopened with the leading Whigs. But a deep mutual distrustwhich had been many years growing, and which had beencarefully nursed by the arts of France, made a treaty im-possible. Neither side would place confidence in the other.

The whole nation now looked with breathless anxiety to theHouse of Lords. The assemblage of peers was large. TheKing himself was present. The debate was long, earnest,and occasionally furious. Some hands were laid on the pom-mels of swords, in a manner which revived the recollectionof the stormy Parliaments of Henry the Third and Richardthe Second. Shaftesbury and Essex were joined by the Exclusiontreacherous Sunderland. But the genius of Halifax bore " bydown all opposition. Deserted by his most important col- 'heLords.leagues, and opposed to a crowd of able antagonists, he de-fended the cause of the Duke of York, in a succession ofspeeches which, many years later, were remembered asmasterpieces of reasoning, of wit, and of eloquence. It isseldom tliat oratory' changes votes. Yet the attestation ofcontemporaries leaves no doubt that, on this occasion, voteswere changed by the oratory' of Halifax. The Bishops, trueto their doctrines, supported the principle of hereditary right,and the bill was rejected by a great majority. *

* A peer who was present has described the effect ofHalifax’s oratoryin words which I will quote, because, though they have been long inprint, they are probably known to few even of the most curious and dili-gent readers of history.

“Of powerful eloquence and great parts were the Duke’s enemies whodid assert the bill; but a noble Lord appeared against it who, that day,in all the force of speech, in reason, in arguments of what could concernthe public or the private interests of men, in honour, in conscience, inestate, did outdo himself and every other man; and in fine his conductand his parts were both victorious, and by him all the wit and malice ofthat party was overthrown.”

This passage is taken from a memoir of Henry Earl of Peterborough,