The Lord Cowper,[35] although his merits are later than the rest,
deserveth a rank in this great council. He was considerable in the
station of a practising lawyer; but, as he was raised to be a
chancellor, and a peer, without passing through any of the intermediate
steps, which in late times hath been the constant practice, and little
skilled[36] in the nature of government, or the true interests of
princes, further than the municipal or common law of England; his
abilities, as to foreign affairs, did not equally appear in the council.
Some former passages of his life were thought to disqualify him for that
office, by which he was to be the guardian of the Queen's
conscience;[37] but these difficulties were easily overruled by the
authors of his promotion, who wanted a person that would be subservient
to all their designs; wherein they were not disappointed. As to his
other accomplishments, he was what we usually call a piece of a scholar,
and a good logical reasoner; if this were not too often allayed, by a
fallacious way of managing an argument, which made him apt to deceive
the unwary, and sometimes to deceive himself.

[Footnote 35: See vol. v., p. 372 of present edition. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 36: P. Fitzgerald says "altogether unskilled." [W.S.J.]]

[Footnote 37: See "The Examiner," Nos. 18 and 23, in vol. ix. of this
edition. [W.S.J.]]

The last to be spoken of in this list is the Earl of Nottingham,[38] a
convert and acquisition to that party since their fall, to which he
contributed his assistance; I mean his words, and probably his wishes;
for he had always lived under the constant visible profession of