next day the queen was prevailed upon to turn him out, though the seals were not delivered till yesterday. It was likewise said, that Mrs. Masham is forbid the court; but this I have no assurance of. Seven lords of the whig party are appointed to examine Gregg, who lies condemned in Newgate; and a certain lord of the council told me yesterday, that there are endeavours to bring in Harley as a party in that business, and to carry it as far as an impeachment. All this business has been much fomented by a lord whom Harley had been chiefly instrumental in impeaching some years ago. The secretary always dreaded him, and made all imaginable advances to be reconciled, but could never prevail; which made him say yesterday to some who told it to me, that he had laid his neck under their feet, and they trod upon it. I am just going this morning to visit that lord, who has a very free way of telling what he cares not who hears; and if I can learn any more particulars worth telling, you shall have them, I never in my life saw or heard such divisions and complications of parties as there have been for some time: you sometimes see the extremes of whig and tory driving on the same thing. I have heard the chief whigs blamed by their own party for want of moderation, and I know a whig lord in good employment who voted with the highest tories against the court, and the ministry, with whom he is nearly allied. My lord Peterborow's[1] affair is yet upon the anvil, and what they will beat it out to, no man can tell. It is said that Harley had laid a scheme for an entire new ministry, and the men are named to whom
- ↑ See vol. XI, p. 21.
