represented that Halifax loved the dignity and emoluments of
office, that, while he continued to be Lord President, it would
be hardly possible for him to put forth his whole strength
against the government, and that to dismiss him from his high
post was to emancipate him from all restraint. The King was
peremptory. Halifax was informed that his services were no longer
needed; and his name was struck out of the Council-Book.9

His dismission produced a great sensation not only in England,
but also at Paris, at Vienna, and at the Hague: for it was well
known, that he had always laboured to counteract the influence
exercised by the court of Versailles on English affairs. Lewis
expressed great pleasure at the news. The ministers of the United
Provinces and of the House of Austria, on the other hand,
extolled the wisdom and virtue of the discarded statesman in a
manner which gave great offence at Whitehall. James was
particularly angry with the secretary of the imperial legation,
who did not scruple to say that the eminent service which Halifax
had performed in the debate on the Exclusion Bill had been
requited with gross ingratitude.10

It soon became clear that Halifax would have many followers. A
portion of the Tories, with their old leader, Danby, at their
head, began to hold Whiggish language. Even the prelates hinted
that there was a point at which the loyalty due to the prince
must yield to higher considerations. The discontent of the chiefs
of the army was still more extraordinary and still more
formidable. Already began to appear the first symptoms of that
feeling which, three years later, impelled so many officers of
high rank to desert the royal standard. Men who had never before