12

nisTOEX or England.

chap.

XXI.

1695 .

the King; and the King turned the delinquents out of theirplaces. *

But by this time delinquents far higher in power and rankwere beginning to be uneasy. At every new detection, theexcitement, both within and without the walls of Parliament,became more intense. The frightful prevalence of bribery,corruption and extortion was every where the subject of con-versation. A contemporary pamphleteer compares the stateof the political world at this conjuncture to the state of a cityin which the plague has just been discovered, and in whichthe terrible words, “Lord have mercy on us,” are already seenon some doors.** Whispers, which at another time would havespeedily died away and been forgotten, now swelled, firstinto murmurs, and then into clamours. A rumour rose andspread that the funds of the two wealthiest corporations in thekingdom, the City of London and the East India Company,had been largely employed for the purpose of corrupting greatmen; and the names of Trevor, Seymour and Leeds werementioned.

The mention of these names produced a stir in the Whigranks. Trevor, Seymour and Leeds were all three Tories, andhad, in different ways, greater influence than perhaps any otherthree Tories in the kingdom. If they could all be driven atonce from public life with blasted characters, the Whigs wouldbe completely predominant both in the Parliament and in theCabinet.

Wharton was not the man to let such an opportunity escapehim. At White’s, no doubt, among those lads of quality whowere his pupils in politics and in debauchery, he would have

* Commons’ Journals, March 8. 1695; Exact Collection of Debates andProceedings in Parliament in 1694 and 1695; L’Hcrmitagc, March -j* g .

** Exact Collection of Debates.