such
designs, as I still verily believe they had not?

I see there are some men who would fain persuade the world, that every
man that was in the interest of the late ministry, or employed by the
late government, or that served the late queen, was for the pretender.

God forbid this should be true; and I think there needs very little to
be said in answer to it. I can answer for myself, that it is notoriously
false; and I think the easy and uninterrupted accession of his majesty
to the crown contradicts it. I see no end which such a suggestion aims
at, but to leave an odium upon all that had any duty or regard to her
late majesty.

A subject is not always master of his sovereign's measures, nor always
to examine what persons or parties the prince he serves employs, so be
it that they break not in upon the constitution; that they govern
according to law, and that he is employed in no illegal act, or have
nothing desired of him inconsistent with the liberties and laws of his
country. If this be not right, then a servant of the king's is in a
worse case than a servant to any private person.

In all these things I have not erred; neither have I acted or done
anything in the whole course of my life, either in the service of her
majesty or of her ministry, that any one can say has the least deviation
from the strictest regard to the protestant succession, and to the laws
and liberties of my country.

I never saw an arbitrary action offered at, a law dispensed with,
justice denied, or oppression set up, either by queen or ministry, in
any branch of the administration, wherein I had the least concern.

If I have sinned against the whigs, it has been all negatively, viz.,
that I have not joined in the loud exclamations against the queen and
against the ministry, and against their measures; and if this be my
crime, my plea is twofold.

1. I did not really see cause for carrying their complaints to that
violent degree.

2. Where I did see what, as before, I lamented and was sorry for, and
could not join with or approve,--as joining with jacobites, the peace,
&c.,--my obligation is my plea for my silence.

I have all the good thoughts of the person, and good wishes for the
prosperity of my benefactor, that charity and that gratitude can inspire
me with. I ever believed him to have the true interest of the protestant
religion and of his country in his view; and if it should be otherwise,
I should be very sorry. And I must