with a favourable aspect. Thus they endeavoured to persuade King William, that his success was owing to their support, and that the Tories were his enemies. It is remarked, by a writer who understood the state of parties, that King William found the Tories the better subjects, as the Whigs wished to restrain the royal prerogative in various instances, which was by no means agreeable to his Majesty. Burnet places this circumstance to the credit of the Whigs, who, he says, were jealous of the liberties of the country. "But," says the writer to whom I have alluded, "notwithstanding the opinion of this Right Reverend Father of the Church, I am apt to think from the known conduct of the Whigs, that they were less afraid of arbitrary power, than of their being themselves out of all power: for we have seen them, as well as the Tories, advocates for, and stretching the prerogative while they had the helm of government in their hands, though when out of power, as violent for restraining it, and extending the liberties of the people, at the expence of the rights of the crown."[1] They consented to set aside Episcopacy in Scotland, though, as will be shewn in another chapter, it might have been retained with the approval of the country. They therefore viewed the Church with suspicion. Exceptions there were: but still the charge, with respect to the majority, is correct. Those Whigs, who were attached to the Church, were Whigs in politics only, and not in Ecclesiastical matters, on which they agreed with the Tories. Of this class was Swift, during the early portion of his political career—a Whig in Politics, but on all Ecclesiastical subjects standing forth as the unflinching
- ↑ Life of the Duke of Ormonde, 1747. p. 118.
