26

IUSTOEY 03? ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XXI.

I li')5.

Lords

Justices

appoint-

ed.

Reconci-liationbetweenWilliamand thePrincessAnne.

Tory party was in power, admitted to the smallest share in the■ direction of affairs.

There was one great humiliation which he could not bespared. William was about to take the command of the armyin the Netherlands; and it was necessary that, before he sailed,he should determine by whom the government should be ad-ministered during his absence. Hitherto Mary had acted as hisvicegerent when he was out of England: but she was gone. Hetherefore delegated his authority to seven Lords Justices, Teni-son, Archbishop of Canterbury, Somers, Keeper of the GreatSeal, Pembroke, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Devonshire, LordSteward, Dorset, Lord Chamberlain, Shrewsbury, Secretaryof State, and Godolphin, First Commissioner of the Treasury.It is easy to judge from this list of names which way the balanceof power was now leaning. Godolphin alone of the seven was aTory. The Lord President, still second in rank, and a few daysbefore first in power, of the great lay dignitaries of the realm,was passed over; and the omission was universally regarded asan official announcement of his disgrace.*

There were some who wondered that the Princess of Den-mark was not appointed Regent. The reconciliation, whichhad been begun while Mary was dying, had since her deathbeen, in external show at least, completed. This tvas one ofthose occasions on which Sunderland was peculiarly qualified tobe useful. He was admirably fitted to manage a personal nego-tiation, to soften resentment, to sooth wounded pride, to select,among all the objects of human desire, the very bait which wasmost likely to allure the mind with which he was dealing. On thisoccasion his task was not difficult. He had two excellent as-sistants, "Marlborough in the household of Anne, and Somersin the cabinet of William.

Marlborough was now as desirous to support the govern-* London Gazette, May 6. 1695.