12. =The Stop of the Exchequer. 1672.=--Charles prudently delayed the declaration of his conversion to a more convenient season, but the opening of the war was fixed for the spring of =1672=. In spite of the large sums which he drew from Louis and from Parliament, his finances were in hopeless confusion, because of the enormous amount of money which he squandered on his numerous mistresses and his illegitimate children. It is said that the yearly income of the Duchess of Portsmouth was 40,000_l._, and that in one year she received no less than 136,000_l._ A caricature published in Holland aptly represented him as standing between two women, with empty pockets hanging out. At this time he had in his exchequer 1,400,000_l._, lent to him by the goldsmiths who, in those days, acted as bankers. On January 2, =1672=, probably at Clifford's suggestion, he refused to repay the principal, and arbitrarily diminished the interest from 12 to 6 per cent.[29] In consequence of this stop of the exchequer, as it was called, many of the goldsmiths became bankrupt, but Clifford became a peer and Lord High Treasurer. [Footnote 29: In the time of James I. the usual interest was 10 per cent. The Long Parliament paid 8.] [Illustration: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury, 1621-1683: from the National Portrait Gallery.] 13. =The Declaration of Indulgence. 1672.=--On March 15, Charles, though still hesitating to proclaim himself a Catholic, issued a Declaration of Indulgence. Claiming a dispensing power,[30] he suspended all penal laws in matters ecclesiastical, affecting either recusants or non-conformists, thus giving complete religious liberty to Roman Catholics as well as to Dissenters. To this measure, wise and statesmanlike in itself, but marred by the motives of its author and by its defiance of the law and of public opinion, Ashley gave his hearty support. He was rewarded with the Earldom of Shaftesbury. He had shortly before been made Lord Chancellor: being the last who held that post without being a lawyer. At that time the decisions of the Court of Chancery were still given in accordance with the view taken by the Chancellor of what seemed fair and equitable, and did not therefore require any elaborate legal knowledge. Even Shaftesbury's bitterest enemies acknowledged that he was scrupulously just. [Footnote 30: The right of pardon allows the king to remit the consequences to a particular person of a sentence passed on him. The right of dispensation allows him to remit beforehand the consequences of a breach of a law either to such persons as are named, or to all persons generally who may commit such a breach.]