expose the
proceedings of Her Majesty herself, as well as of her servants; who have
been ever since blasted as enemies to the present establishment, by the
most ignorant and malicious among mankind.

[Footnote 2: "Memoirs relating to the Change in the Queen's Ministry."
See vol. v. of present edition. [T.S.]]

Therefore, as it was my lot to have been daily conversant with the
persons then in power; never absent in times of business or
conversation, until a few weeks before Her Majesty's death; and a
witness of almost every step they made in the course of their
administration; I must have been very unfortunate not to be better
informed than those miserable pamphleteers, or their patrons, could
pretend to. At the same time, I freely confess, it appeared necessary,
as well as natural, upon such a mighty change as the death of a
sovereign, that those who were to be in power upon the succession, and
resolved to act in every part by a direct contrary system of politics,
should load their predecessors with as much infamy as the most
inveterate malice and envy could suggest, or the most stupid ignorance
and credulity in their underlings could swallow.

Therefore, as I pretend to write with the utmost impartiality, the
following History of the Four Last Years of her Majesty's Reign, in
order to undeceive prejudiced persons at present, as well as posterity;
I am persuaded in my own mind, as likewise by the advice of my oldest
and wisest friends, that I am doing my duty to God and man, by
endeavouring to set future ages right in their judgment of that happy
reign; and, as a faithful historian, I cannot suffer falsehoods to run
on any longer, not only against all appearance of truth as well as
probability, but even against those happy events, which owe their
success to the very measures then fixed in the general peace.

The materials for this History, besides what I have already mentioned, I
mean the confidence reposed in me for those four years, by the chief
persons in power, were extracted out of many hundred letters written by
our ambassadors abroad, and from the answers as well as instructions
sent them by our secretaries of state, or by the first minister the Earl
of Oxford. The former were all originals, and the latter copies entered
into books in the secretaries' office, out of both which I collected all
that I thought convenient; not to mention several Memorials given me by
the ministers at home. Further, I was a const