4

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CFIAP.

XXIII.

1697 .

Sunder-

land.

in scarcely anything else, were disposed to agree in aver-sion to the red coats.

AVhile such was the feeling of the nation, the Kingwas, both as a statesman and as a general, most unwillingto see that superb body of troops which he had formed withinfinite difficulty broken up and dispersed. But, as tothis matter, he could not absolutely rely on the support ofhis ministers; nor could his ministers absolutely rely onthe support of that parliamentary majority whose attach-ment had enabled them to confront enemies abroad and tocrush traitors at home, to restore a debased currency, andto fix public credit on deep and solid foundations.

The difficulties of the King’s situation are to be, in partat least, attributed to an error which he had committed inthe preceding spring. The Gazette which announced thatSunderland had been appointed Chamberlain of the RoyalHousehold, sworn of the Privy Council, and named one ofthe Lords Justices who were to administer the governmentduring the summer, had caused great uneasiness amongplain men who remembered all the windings and doublingsof his long career. In truth, his countrymen were unjustto him. For they thought him, not only an unprincipledand faithless politician, which he was, but a deadly enemyof the liberties of the nation, which he was not. What hewanted was simply to be safe, rich and great. To theseobjects he had been constant through all the vicissitudesof his life. For these objects he had passed from Churchto Church and from faction to faction, had joined the most