eminent politicians of this school was Nottingham. At his
instance the Convention had, before the throne was filled, made
such changes in the oath of allegiance as enabled him and those
who agreed with him to take that oath without scruple. "My
principles," he said, "do not permit me to bear any part in
making a King. But when a King has been made, my principles bind
me to pay him an obedience more strict than he can expect from
those who have made him." He now, to the surprise of some of
those who most esteemed him, consented to sit in the council, and
to accept the seals of Secretary. William doubtless hoped that
this appointment would be considered by the clergy and the Tory
country gentlemen as a sufficient guarantee that no evil was
meditated against the Church. Even Burnet, who at a later period
felt a strong antipathy to Nottingham, owned, in some memoirs
written soon after the Revolution, that the King had judged well,
and that the influence of the Tory Secretary, honestly exerted in
support of the new Sovereigns, had saved England from great
calamities.16

The other Secretary was Shrewsbury.17 No man so young had within
living memory occupied so high a post in the government. He had
but just completed his twenty-eighth year. Nobody, however,
except the solemn formalists at the Spanish embassy, thought his
youth an objection to his promotion.18 He had already secured for
himself a place in history by the conspicuous part which he had
taken in the deliverance of his country. His talents, his
accomplishments, his graceful manners, his bland temper, made him
generally popular. By the Whigs especially he was almost adored.
None suspected that, with many great and many amiable qualities,
he had such faults both of head and of heart as would make the