the true reasons which rendered the peace less answerable to the
success of the war than it might and than it ought to have been.
Judgment has been passed in this case as the different passions or
interests of men have inspired them. But the real cause lay in the
constitution of our Ministry, and much more in the obstinate
opposition which we met with from the Whigs and from the Allies.
However, sure it is that the defects of the peace did not occasion
the desertions from the Tory party which happened about this time,
nor those disorders in the Court which immediately followed.

Long before the purport of the treaties could be known, those Whigs
who had set out with us in 1710 began to relapse back to their
party. They had among us shared the harvest of a new Ministry, and,
like prudent persons, they took measures in time to have their share
in that of a new Government.

The whimsical or the Hanover Tories continued zealous in appearance
with us till the peace was signed. I saw no people so eager for the
conclusion of it. Some of them were in such haste that they thought
any peace preferable to the least delay, and omitted no instances to
quicken their friends who were actors in it. As soon as the
treaties were perfected and laid before the Parliament, the scheme
of these gentlemen began to disclose itself entirely. Their love of
the peace, like other passions, cooled by enjoyment. They grew nice
about the construction of the articles, could come up to no direct
approbation, and, being let into the secret of what was to happen,
would not preclude themselves from the glorious advantage of rising
on the ruins of their friends and of their party.

The danger of the succession and the badness of the peace were the