family entirely in bis own power, which no one among them doubted to be
fully equal to the wannest wishes of his own heart. Nor for a considerable
time does it appear that any of these gentlemen doubted of their own power.
All the steps towards the unfortunate peace, which they were in so much haste
to conclude, seems to have been taken with the fullest confidence, that it would
infallibly lead to the restoration of James, and they seem to have been perfectly confounded to find, that after it was made, and the honour and the interests
of the nation thrown away, they were just as near their object as when they
began, few of the external difficulties being removed, while those of an internal
or domestic kind were multiplied at least seven fold. It was the increase and
the insurmountable nature of these difficulties, not at all foreseen when the attempt was first thought on, that produced so much ill will and disunion among
the parties, disgusted Oxford, terrified the queen herself, and while they distracted the last miserable and melancholy years of her reign, brought her in the end prematurely to the grave. Their difficulties, indeed, from the beginning were prodigiously augmented. Scarcely had the arrangements for bringing in the friends of James been begun, than two of the firmest and most powerful of them, the earl of Anglesey and the earl of Jersey, were removed by death. The earl of Rochester died soon after, who was the Ahithophel of the party. The duke of Hamilton followed, and the sudden death of the queen herself completed the ruin of the project. The regency upon whom the supreme authority devolved in the interim between the death of the queen and the arrival of the new king, both those that had been appointed by act of parliament, and those who in virtue of that act had been named by himself, were whigs, and in common with all of their party, zealous for the protestant succession; of course the late ministers had neither countenance nor protection from them, and it was among the first of his majesty's regal acts to dismiss them to a man from all their offices, places, and powers. The resolution of parliament on its being convened, to prosecute the leading men among them, completed their misery. Oxford was sent to the Tower, where he was confined for years. Bolingbroke and Ormond fled to the continent, and, to confirm all that had been previously surmised against them, joined themselves to the few malcontents, who, with James, formed the miserable court of St Gel-mains.
Oxford had, at an early stage of the business, discovered that it could scarcely be effected, and during the latter part of his administration, seems to have laboured to shake himself free of it, as well for his own honour and interest as to calm the terrors of his royal mistress. But he was beset on all hands. The wretched peace which he had concluded, and the enmity of the whigs, begirt him in perpetual alarm, against which the friendly aid of the tories was his only resource. In the end, however, the impatience of the tories, and their reckless contempt of consequences, became equally troublesome and dangerous, and his great aim seems to have been by breaking their measures to recommend himself to the elector of Hanover, through whose patronage he probably hoped to be able either to conciliate the whigs or to brave their resentment. The subject of this memoir was not by any means so sharp-sighted as Oxford, but he was equally selfish, and far more regardless of the interests of others; and he no sooner saw the scheme of the Jacobites broken by the death of the queen, than he took measures to ingratiate himself with the new dynasty. For this purpose he wrote a letter to his majesty George I., when he was on his way through Holland, to take possession of his new dominions; soliciting his particular notice, and promising the most dutiful obedience and faithful service in whatever his majesty might be pleased to employ him. In this letter, it is not unworthy of remark, that he appeals to the part he acted
