from the beginning to the end of his reign, trusted the white
staff in the hands of a single subject. Danby was offered his
choice between the Presidency of the Council and a Secretaryship
of State. He sullenly accepted the Presidency, and, while the
Whigs murmured at seeing him placed so high, hardly attempted to
conceal his anger at not having been placed higher.13

Halifax, the most illustrious man of that small party which
boasted that it kept the balance even between Whigs and Tories,
took charge of the Privy Seal, and continued to be Speaker of the
House of Lords.14 He had been foremost in strictly legal
opposition to the late Government, and had spoken and written
with great ability against the dispensing power: but he had
refused to know any thing about the design of invasion: he had
laboured, even when the Dutch were in full march towards London,
to effect a reconciliation; and he had never deserted James till
James had deserted the throne. But, from the moment of that
shameful flight, the sagacious Trimmer, convinced that compromise
was thenceforth impossible, had taken a decided part. He had
distinguished himself preeminently in the Convention: nor was it
without a peculiar propriety that he had been appointed to the
honourable office of tendering the crown, in the name of all the
Estates of England, to the Prince and Princess of Orange; for our
Revolution, as far as it can be said to bear the character of any
single mind, assuredly bears the character of the large yet
cautious mind of Halifax. The Whigs, however, were not in a
temper to accept a recent service as an atonement for an old
offence; and the offence of Halifax had been grave indeed. He had
long before been conspicuous in their front rank during a hard
fight for liberty. When they were at length victorious, when it