16

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

ciiap. tion to the scheme of Regency. Yet the Whigs regarded him

—^—with unconquerable distrust and aversion. They could notforget that, he had, in evil days, been the first minister of thestate, the head of the Cavaliers, the champion of prerogative,the persecutor of dissenters. Even in becoming a rebel, he hadnot ceased to be a Tory. If he had drawn the sword against theCrown, he had drawn it only in defence of the Church. If hehad, in the Convention, done good by opposing the scheme ofRegency, he had done harm by obstinately maintaining thatthe throne was not vacant, and that the Estates had no right todetermine who should fill it. The Whigs were therefore ofopinion that he ought to think himself amply rewarded for hisrecent merits by being suffered to escape the punishment ofthose offences for which he had been impeached ten yearsbefore. He, on the other hand, estimated his own abilities andservices, which were doubtless considerable, at their full value,and thought himself entitled to the great place of Lord HighTreasurer, which he had formerly held. But he was disap-pointed. 'William, pn principle, thought it desirable to dividethe power and patronage of the Treasury among several Com-missioners. He was the first English King who never, fromthe beginning to the end of his reign, trusted the white staff inthe hands of a single subject. Danby was offered his choicebetween the Presidency of the Council and a Secretaryship ofState. He sullenly accepted the Presidency, and, while theWhigs murmured at seeing him placed so high, hardly at-tempted to conceal his anger at not having been placedhigher.*

Halifax. Halifax, the most illustrious man of that small party whichboasted that it kept the balance even between Whigs andTories, took charge of the. Privy Seal, and continued to bo

* London Gazette, Feb. 18. 1G8|; Sir J. Revesby's Memoirs.