period, than by a thorough detection of the whole intrigue, carried on
with the greatest privacy and application, which must be acknowledged to
have for several days disconcerted some of the ministry, as well as
dispirited their friends; and the consequences thereof, which have in
reality been so very pernicious to the kingdom.

But because the principal leaders in this design are the same persons to
whom, since the loss of their power, all the opposition has been owing
which the court received, either in treaties abroad, or the
administration at home; it may not be improper to describe those
qualities in each of them, which few of their admirers will deny, and
which appear chiefly to have influenced them in acting their several
parts upon the public stage. For I do not intend to draw their
characters entire, which would be tedious, and little to the purpose,
but shall only single out those passions, acquirements, and habits,
which the owners were most likely to transfer into their political
schemes, and which were most subservient to the designs they seemed to
have in view.

The Lord Somers[11] may very deservedly be reputed the head and oracle
of that party; he hath raised himself, by the concurrence of many
circumstances, to the greatest employments of the state, without the
least support from birth or fortune; he hath constantly, and with great
steadiness, cultivated those principles under which he grew. That
accident which first produced him into the world, of pleading for the
bishops whom King James had sent to the Tower, might have proved a piece
of merit, as honourable as it was fortunate, but the old republican
spirit, which the Revolution had restored, began to teach other
lessons--That since we had accepted a new King, from a Calvinistical
commonwealth, we must also admit new maxims in religion and government.