This page has been validated.
xliv
INTRODUCTION.
him is that of treachery to James, who distinctly accuses him of having driven him upon those wild and arbitrary measures which caused his ruin,[1] with the intention of ruining him, whilst, through the medium of his wife and his uncle Henry Sidney, he had previously secured the favour of the Prince of Orange.
The Earl of Sunderland, on the other hand, in his letter of justification,[2] published after he fled to Holland, states in vindication of himself that he opposed to the utmost all those measures, and only acquiesced in them when it was hopeless to resist.[3] There can be no credit, however, given to these
- ↑ "The drift of that letter (Sunderland's letter of justification) being to reconcile himself to the people, he most falsely pretended to have constantly opposed all those measures which are now so much railed against, whereas in reality he did not only approve of them, but generally ran before the rest. He would often times, indeed, try the foid by his secret agents. Sir Nicholas Butler, Mr. Lob, and even Father Fetre himself, that he might seem only to oppose those dangerous methods which had their origin from him alone."—Life of James II., 283.
- ↑ See Letter in the Appendix.
- ↑ "Neither is it an excuse that I have got none of those things which usually engage men in public affairs. My quality is the same it ever was, and my estate much worse, even ruined, though I was born to a very considerable one, which I am ashamed to have spoyled, though not so much as if I had increased it by indirect means."
