WILLIAM AND MAKT.

23

King’s Bench. Sir Robert Atkyns, an eminent lawyer, who had crappassed some years in rural retirement, but whose reputation was 16aa ~still great in Westminster Hall, was appointed Chief Baron.Powell, who had been disgraced on account of his honest decla-ration in favour of the Bishops, again took his seat among theJudges. Treby succeeded Pollexfen as Attorney General; andSomers was made Solicitor.*

Two of the chief places in the Royal household were filled The

A . ^ house-

by two English noblemen eminently qualified to adorn a court, hold.

The high spirited and accomplished Devonshire was namedLord Steward. No man had done more or risked more forEngland during the crisis of her fate. In retrieving her liber-ties he had retrieved also the fortunes of his own house. Hisbond for thirty thousand pounds was found among the paperswhich James had left at Whitehall, and was cancelled byWilliam.**

Dorset became Lord Chamberlain, and employed the in-fluence and patronage annexed to his functions, as he had longemployed his private means, in encouraging genius and inalleviating misfortune. One of the first acts which he was underthe necessity of performing must have been painful to a man ofso generous a nature, and of so keen a relish for whatever wasexcellent in arts and letters. Dryden could no longer remainPoet Laureate. The public would not have borne to see anyPapist among the servants of their Majesties; and Dryden wasnot only a Papist, but an apostate. He had moreover aggra-vated the guilt of his apostasy by calumniating and ridiculingthe Church which he had deserted. He had, it was facetiouslysaid, treated her as the Pagan persecutors of old treated her

* These appointments were not announced in the Gazette till the 6th ofMay; but some of them were made earlier.

** Rennet’s Funeral Sermon on the first Duke of Devonshire* and Me-moirs of the Family of Cavendish, 170S.