12

HISTOllY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XI.

1G8D.

Ministe-rial ar-range-ments.

devotion to his cause was that he should he one of themselves,a stanch and ardent Whig; that he should show favour to nonebut AVhigs; that he should make all the old grudges of theWhigs his own; and there was but too much reason to appre-hend that, if he disappointed this expectation, the only sectionof the community which was zealous in his cause would beestranged from him.*

Such were the difficulties by which, at the moment of hiselevation, he found himself beset. Where there was a goodpath he had seldom failed to choose it. But now he had only achoice among paths every one of which seemed likely to lead todestruction. From one faction he could hope for no cordialsupport. The cordial support of the other faction he couldretain only by becoming himself the most factious man in hiskingdom, a Shaftesbury on the throne. If he persecuted theTories, their sulkiness would infallibly be turned into fury. Ifhe showed favour to the Tories, it was by no means certain thathe would gain their goodwill; and it was but too probable thathe might lose his hold on the hearts of the Whigs. Somethinghowever he must do; something he must risk: a Privy Councilmust he sworn in: all the great offices, political and judicial,must be filled. It was impossible to make an arrangement thatwould please every body, and difficult to make an arrangementthat would please any body; but an arrangement must hemade.

What is now called a ministry he did not think of forming.Indeed what is now called a ministry was never known in Eng-land till he had been some years on the throne. Under the

* ITcrc, and in many other places, I abstain from citing authorities,because my authorities are too numerous to cite. My notions of the temperand relative position of political and religious parties in the reign ofWilliam the Third, have been derived, not from any single work, but fromthousands of forgotten tracts, sermons, and satires; in fact, from a wholeliterature which is mouldering in old libraries.