in fact at Shaftesbury's mercy, and the
end for which Shaftesbury had been playing was at last secured. In
January 1679 the Parliament of 1661, after the longest unbroken life in
our Parliamentary annals, was at last dissolved.

[Sidenote: The New Ministry.]

A new Parliament was at once summoned and its election took place in a
tumult of national excitement. The process of Parliamentary corruption
now took a further step. Danby had begun the bribery of members. With
the election of 1679 began on a large and systematic scale the bribery
or "treating" of constituents. If members had come to realize the money
value of the seats they held, the voters for these members were quick to
realize the money value of the seats they bestowed. "I am told," writes
the Venetian ambassador, Sarotti, "that in the more conspicuous and
populous places their election will cost some of the candidates five
thousand scudi (about a thousand pounds) each." The new members were
still for the most part Churchmen and country gentlemen, but they shared
the alarm of the country, and even before their assembly in March their
temper had told on the king's policy. James was sent to Brussels.
Charles began to disband the army and promised that Danby should soon
withdraw from office. In his speech from the throne he asked for
supplies to maintain the Protestant attitude of his Government in
foreign affairs. But it was impossible to avert Danby's fall. The
Commons insisted on carrying his impeachment to the bar of the Lords. It
was necessary to dismiss him from his post of Treasurer and to construct
a new ministry. In the existing temper of the Houses such a ministry
could only be found in the men who had brought about Danby's fall.
Shaftesbury became President of the Council. The chiefs of the Country
party, Lord Russell and Lord Cavendish, took their seats at the board
with Lords Holles and Robartes, the older representatives of the
Presbyterian party which had merged in the general Opposition. Savile,
Lord Halifax, as yet known only as a keen and ingenious speaker, entered
the ministry in the train of Shaftesbury with whom his family was
connected. Lord Sunderland, a man adroit and unscrupulous but as yet
ranked in the Opposition, was admitted to the Council; while Lord Essex
and Sir H. Capel, two of the most popular among the Country leaders,
went to the Treasury and Admiralty. The recall of Sir William Temple,
the negotiator of the Triple Alliance, f