of matters growing to that pass that his Majesty might be forced to part with them, and yet I saw not authority left in the Crown either to do that without the venture of greater mischiefs, or to live without another parliament till the present humours cool. Both these considerations meeting together, cast me upon the thoughts of the King establishing a new council of such a constitution as might either gain enough with the present Parliament, by taking in so many persons of those who had most among them, and thereby give ease and quiet both to the King and his people."
This plan having been received and adopted with equal amazement and pleasure, and as a thing sent from Heaven, Sir W. Temple says, "Upon the new constitution of the Council, my Lord Sunderland had, by Mr. Sidney, desired that we might join together in perfect confidence and distinct from any others in the course of the King's affairs; whether I would enter into the other secretary's office or no, which, I said, I was very willing to embrace. . . . . This confidence had not run on above a fortnight when my Lord Sunderland asked me if I were willing my Lord Essex should be received into it, which I consented to, though with intimation to Lord Sunderland of the opinion I had
