WILLIAM THE THIRD.

9

error into which he had been hurried by passion, that, though chap.never reconciled to the Court, he distinguished himself by his ' ~ a .~ -zeal for the vigorous prosecution of the war, and that his lastwork was a tract in which he exhorted his countrymen to remem-ber that the public burdens, heavy as they might seem, werelight when compared with the yoke of France and of Rome.*

About a fortnight after the death of Halifax, a fate far morecruel than death befell his old rival and enemy, the Lord Presi-dent. That able, ambitious and daring statesman was againhurled down from power. In his first fall, terrible as it was,there had been something of dignity; and he had, by availinghimself with rare skill of an extraordinary crisis in public affairs,risen once more to the most elevated position among Englishsubjects. The second ruin was indeed less violent than the first:but it was ignominious and irretrievable.

The peculation and venality by which the official men of that Pariia-age were in the habit of enriching themselves had excited in the JSqSStfespublic mind a feeling such as could not but vent itself, sooner ' c 5“ U p h _ 8or later, in some formidable explosion. But the gains were }{,° n p °b licimmediate: the day of retribution was uncertain; and the offices,plunderers of the public were as greedy and as audacious asever, when the vengeance, long threatened and long delayed,suddenly overtook the proudest and most powerful among them.

The first mutterings of the coming storm did not at all in-dicate the direction which it would take, or the fury with whichit would burst. An infantry regiment, which was quartered atRoyston, had levied contributions on the people of that townand of the neighbourhood. The sum exacted was not large. InFrance or Brabant the moderation of the demand would havebeen thought wonderful. But to English shopkeepers andfarmers military extortion was happily quite new 7 and quite insup-

* An Essay upon Taxes, calculated for the present Juncture of Affairs,

1693.