influence of the new Government. The Whigs came to the opening of
this Parliament full of as much violence as could possess men who
expected to make their court, to confirm themselves in power, and to
gratify their resentments by the same measures. I have heard that
it was a dispute among the Ministers how far this spirit should be
indulged; and that the King was determined, or confirmed in a
determination, to consent to the prosecutions, and to give the reins
to the party, by the representations that were made to him that
great difficulties would arise in the conduct of the Session if the
Court should appear inclined to check this spirit, and by Mr. W--'s
undertaking to carry all the business successfully through the House
of Commons if they were at liberty. Such has often been the unhappy
fate of our Princes: a real necessity sometimes, and sometimes a
seeming one, has forced them to compound with a part of the nation
at the expense of the whole; and the success of their business for
one year has been purchased at the price of public disorder for
many.

The conjuncture I am speaking of affords a memorable instance of
this truth. If milder measures had been pursued, certain it is that
the Tories had never universally embraced Jacobitism. The violence
of the Whigs forced them into the arms of the Pretender. The Court
and the party seemed to vie with one another which should go the
greatest lengths in severity: and the Ministers, whose true
interest it must at all times be to calm the minds of men, and who
ought never to set the examples of extraordinary inquiries or
extraordinary accusations, were upon this occasion the tribunes of
the people.

The Council of Regency which began to sit as soon as the Queen died,