House was now in a much more angry temper; and many voices were
boldly raised in menace and accusation. The ministers were told
that the nation expected, and should have, signal redress.
Meanwhile it was dexterously intimated that the best atonement
which a gentleman who had been brought into the House by
irregular means could make to the public was to use his ill
acquired power in defence of the religion and liberties of his
country. No member who, in that crisis, did his duty had anything
to fear. It might be necessary to unseat him; but the whole
influence of the opposition should be employed to procure his
reelection.27

On the same day it became clear that the spirit of opposition had
spread from the Commons to the Lords, and even to the episcopal
bench. William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, took the lead in
the Upper House; and he was well qualified to do so. In wealth
and influence he was second to none of the English nobles; and
the general voice designated him as the finest gentleman of his
time. His magnificence, his taste, his talents, his classical
learning, his high spirit, the grace and urbanity of his manners,
were admitted by his enemies. His eulogists, unhappily, could not
pretend that his morals had escaped untainted from the widespread
contagion of that age. Though an enemy of Popery and of arbitrary
power, he had been averse to extreme courses, had been willing,
when the Exclusion Bill was lost, to agree to a compromise, and
had never been concerned in the illegal and imprudent schemes
which had brought discredit on the Whig party. But, though
regretting part of the conduct of his friends, he had not, on
that account, failed to perform zealously the most arduous and
perilous duties of friendship. He had stood near Russell at the