somehow or other, the people would never support. Profiting
by this last pregnant circumstance, the lay Abbot of Marney
also in this instance like the other whig lords, was careful
to maintain, while he vindicated the cause of civil and
religious liberty, a very loyal and dutiful though secret
correspondence with the court of St Germains.

The great deliverer King William the Third, to whom Lord
Marney was a systematic traitor, made the descendant of the
Ecclesiastical Commissioner of Henry the Eighth an English
earl; and from that time until the period of our history,
though the Marney family had never produced one individual
eminent for civil or military abilities, though the country
was not indebted to them for a single statesman, orator,
successful warrior, great lawyer, learned divine, eminent
author, illustrious man of science, they had contrived, if not
to engross any great share of public admiration and love, at
least to monopolise no contemptible portion of public money
and public dignities. During the seventy years of almost
unbroken whig rule, from the accession of the House of Hanover
to the fall of Mr Fox, Marney Abbey had furnished a never-
failing crop of lord privy seals, lord presidents, and lord
lieutenants. The family had had their due quota of garters
and governments and bishoprics; admirals without fleets, and
generals who fought only in America. They had glittered in
great embassies with clever secretaries at their elbow, and
had once governed Ireland when to govern Ireland was only to
apportion the public plunder to a corrupt senate.

Notwithstanding however this prolonged enjoyment of undeserved