WILLIAM XIIE TIIIED.

11

the Whigs: for he was one of those tools who had passed,together with the buildings and furniture of the public offices, -from James to William: he affected the character of a HighChurchman; and he was known to be closely connected withsome of the heads of the Tory party, and especially withTrevor.*

Another name, which was afterwards but too widely cele-brated, first became known to the public at this time. JamesCraggs had begun life as a barber. He had then been a footmanof the Duchess of Cleveland. His abilities, eminently vigorousthough not improved by education, had raised him in the world;and he was now entering on a career which was destined to end,after a quarter of a century of prosperity, in unutterable miseryand despair. He had becoqie an army clothier. He wasexamined as to his dealings with the colonels of regiments; and,as he obstinately refused to produce his books, he was sent tokeep Guy company in the Tower.**

A few hours after Craggs had been thrown into prison,a committee, which had been appointed to inquire into thetruth of a petition signed by some of the hackney coachmen ofLondon, laid on the table of the House a report which exciteduniversal disgust and indignation. It appeared that these poorhardworking men had been cruelly wronged by the board underthe authority of which an Act of the preceding session hadplaced them. They had been pillaged and insulted, not onlyby the commissioners, but by one commissioner’s lacquey andby another commissioner’s harlot. The Commons addressed

* Commons’ Journals, Feb. 16. 1G95; Collection of the Debates andProceedings in Parliament in 1694 and 1695; Life of Wharton; Burnet,ii. 144.

** Speaker Onslow's note on Burnet, ii. 583.; Commons’ Journals,Mar. 6, 7. 1695. The history of the terrible end of this man will be foundin the pamphlets of the South Sea year.

CIIAP.

XXI.

1635 .