compound than to take arms.

The body of the Tories being in this temper, it is not to be
wondered at if they heated one another, and began apace to turn
their eyes towards the Pretender; and if those few who had already
engaged with him, applied themselves to improve the conjuncture, and
endeavoured to list a party for him.

I went, about a month after the Queen's death, as soon as the Seals
were taken from me, into the country; and whilst I continued there,
I felt the general disposition to Jacobitism increase daily among
people of all ranks; amongst several who had been constantly
distinguished by their aversion to that cause. But at my return to
London in the month of February or March, 1715, a few weeks before I
left England, I began for the first time in my whole life to
perceive these general dispositions ripen into resolutions, and to
observe some regular workings among many of our principal friends,
which denoted a scheme of this kind. These workings, indeed, were
very faint; for the persons concerned in carrying them on did not
think it safe to speak too plainly to men who were, in truth, ill
disposed to the Government because they neither found their account
at present under it nor had been managed with art enough to leave
them hopes of finding it hereafter, but who at the same time had not
the least affection for the Pretender's person, nor any principle
favourable to his interest.

This was the state of things when the new Parliament which his
Majesty had called assembled. A great majority of the elections had
gone in favour of the Whigs; to which the want of concert among the
Tories had contributed as much as the vigour of that party and the