JAMES THE SECOND.

187

timidity or of caprice. On such happy occasions it had been C y I ^|’ -usual for sovereigns to make the hearts of subjects glad by j 688 7"acts of clemency; and nothing could be more advantageousto the Prince of Wales than that he should, while still in hiscradle, be the peacemaker between his father and the agitatednation. But the King’s resolution was fixed. “I will go on,”he said. “I have been only too indulgent. Indulgenceruined my father.” * The artful minister found that his ad-vice had been formerly taken only because it had been shaped sunder-to suit the royal temper, and that, from the moment at which J0lie began to counsel well, he began to counsel in vain. Hehad shown some signs of slackness in the proceeding againstMagdalene College. He had recently attempted to convincethe King that Tyrconnel’s scheme of confiscating the propertyof the English colonists in Ireland was full of danger, and had,with the help of Powis and Bellasyse, so far succeeded thatthe execution of the design had been postponed for anotheryear. But this timidity and scrupulosity had excited disgustand suspicion in the royal mind.** The day of retribution hadarrived. Sunderland was in the same situation in which hisrival Rochester had been some months before. Each of thetwo statesmen in turn experienced the misery of clutching,with an agonizing grasp, power which was perceptibly slip-ping away. Each in turn saw his suggestions scornfullyrejected. Both endured the pain of reading displeasure anddistrust in the countenance arid demeanour of their master;yet both were by their country held responsible for thosecrimes and errors from which they had vainly endeavoured todissuade him. While he suspected them of trying to winpopularity at the expense of his authority and dignity, thepublic voice loudly accused them of trying to win his favourat the expense of their own honour and of the general weal.

Yet, in spite of mortifications and humiliations, they bothclung to office with the gripe of drowning men. Both at-

* Adda, ~ 1688 .

7 Jnly9.

** Sunderland’s own narrative is, of course, not to be implicitlytrusted. But he vouched Godolphin as a witness of what loojt placerespecting the Irish Act of Settlement.