etired loaded with marks of royal favour. He was succeeded by
Sunderland, who was also appointed one of the Lords Justices, not
without much murmuring from various quarters. [795] To the Tories
Sunderland was an object of unmixed detestation. Some of the Whig
leaders had been unable to resist his insinuating address; and others
were grateful for the services which he had lately rendered to the
party. But the leaders could not restrain their followers. Plain men,
who were zealous for civil liberty and for the Protestant religion, who
were beyond the range of Sunderland's irresistible fascination, and
who knew that he had sate in the High Commission, concurred in the
Declaration of Indulgence, borne witness against the Seven Bishops, and
received the host from a Popish priest, could not, without indignation
and shame, see him standing, with the staff in his hand, close to the
throne. Still more monstrous was it that such a man should be entrusted
with the administration of the government during the absence of the
Sovereign. William did not understand these feelings. Sunderland was
able; he was useful; he was unprincipled indeed; but so were all the
English politicians of the generation which had learned, under the
sullen tyranny of the Saints, to disbelieve in virtue, and which had,
during the wild jubilee of the Restoration, been utterly dissolved in
vice. He was a fair specimen of his class, a little worse, perhaps, than
Leeds or Godolphin, and about as bad as Russell or Marlborough. Why he
was to be hunted from the herd the King could not imagine.

Notwithstanding the discontent which was caused by Sunderland's
elevation, England was, during this summer, perfectly quiet and in
excellent temper. All but the fanatical Jacobites were elated by the
rapid revival of trade and by the near prospect of peace. Nor were
Ireland and Scotland less tranquil.

In Ireland nothing deserving to be minutely related had taken place
since Sidney had ceased to be Lord Lieutenant. The government had
suffered the colonists to domineer unchecked over the native population;
and the colonists had in return been profoundly obsequious to the
government. The proceedings of the local legislature which sate at
Dublin had been in no respect more important or more interesting than
the proceedings of the Assembly of Barbadoes. Perhaps the most momentous
event in the parliamentary history of Ireland at this time was a dispute
between the two Houses whi