caused by the conduct of the ministers on whom, new as he was to
the details of English affairs, he was forced to rely for
information about men and things. There was indeed no want of
ability among his chief counsellors: but one half of their
ability was employed in counteracting the other half. Between the
Lord President and the Lord Privy Seal there was an inveterate
enmity.69 It had begun twelve years before when Danby was Lord
High Treasurer, a persecutor of nonconformists, an uncompromising
defender of prerogative, and when Halifax was rising to
distinction as one of the most eloquent leaders of the country
party. In the reign of James, the two statesmen had found
themselves in opposition together; and their common hostility to
France and to Rome, to the High Commission and to the dispensing
power, had produced an apparent reconciliation; but as soon as
they were in office together the old antipathy revived. The
hatred which the Whig party felt towards them both ought, it
should seem, to have produced a close alliance between them: but
in fact each of them saw with complacency the danger which
threatened the other. Danby exerted himself to rally round him a
strong phalanx of Tories. Under the plea of ill health, he
withdrew from court, seldom came to the Council over which it was
his duty to preside, passed much time in the country, and took
scarcely any part in public affairs except by grumbling and
sneering at all the acts of the government, and by doing jobs and
getting places for his personal retainers.70 In consequence of
this defection, Halifax became prime minister, as far any
minister could, in that reign, be called prime minister. An
immense load of business fell on him; and that load he was unable
to sustain. In wit and eloquence, in amplitude of comprehension
and subtlety of disquisition, he had no equal among the statesmen