into the House of Commons by Mr. Harley, who was then Speaker.

But, as I have said in another discourse,[2] it was very well
understood, some years before Her Majesty's death, how the new King
would act, immediately upon his entrance, in the choice of those (and
those alone) whom he resolved to trust; and consequently what reports
would industriously be raised, as well as spread, to expose the
proceedings of Her Majesty herself, as well as of her servants; who have
been ever since blasted as enemies to the present establishment, by the
most ignorant and malicious among mankind.

[Footnote 2: "Memoirs relating to the Change in the Queen's Ministry."
See vol. v. of present edition. [T.S.]]

Therefore, as it was my lot to have been daily conversant with the
persons then in power; never absent in times of business or
conversation, until a few weeks before Her Majesty's death; and a
witness of almost every step they made in the course of their
administration; I must have been very unfortunate not to be better
informed than those miserable pamphleteers, or their patrons, could
pretend to. At the same time, I freely confess, it appeared necessary,
as well as natural, upon such a mighty change as the death of a
sovereign, that those who were to be in power upon the succession, and
resolved to act in every part by a direct contrary system of politics,
should load their predecessors with as much infamy as the most
inveterate malice and envy could suggest, or the most stupid ignorance
and credulity in their underlings could swallow.

Therefore, as I pretend to write with the utmost impartiality, the
following History of the Four Last Years of her Majesty's Reign, in