great measure to what was done, or neglected to be done, in the last
four years of the queen's. The memory of these events being fresh,
I shall dwell as little as possible upon them; it will be sufficient
that I make a rough sketch of the face of the Court, and of the
conduct of the several parties during that time. Your memory will
soon furnish the colours which I shall omit to lay, and finish up
the picture.

From the time at which I left Britain I had not the advantage of
acting under the eyes of the party which I served, nor of being able
from time to time to appeal to their judgment. The gross of what
happened has appeared; but the particular steps which led to those
events have been either concealed or misrepresented--concealed from
the nature of them or misrepresented by those with whom I never
agreed perfectly except in thinking that they and I were extremely
unfit to continue embarked in the same bottom together. It will,
therefore, be proper to descend under this head to a more particular
relation.

In the summer of the year 1710 the Queen was prevailed upon to
change her Parliament and her Ministry. The intrigue of the Earl of
Oxford might facilitate the means, the violent prosecution of
Sacheverel, and other unpopular measures, might create the occasion
and encourage her in the resolution; but the true original cause was
the personal ill-usage which she received in her private life and in
some trifling instances of the exercise of her power, for indulgence
in which she would certainly have left the reins of government in
those hands which had held them ever since her accession to the
throne.