Sunderland retired to Althorpe, from whence he wrote to the Duchess of Shrewsbury—"I can say, with exact truth, that, for five or six years that I have had the honour to be near the King, I have assisted the party I joined, and every individual man of that party, according to my dealing with them, to the best of my understanding; but if nineteen things are done and the twentieth left undone, though it is impossible, you know, how it is; and yet my politics are not changed, nor shall they." That they would have changed, however, had he been allowed an opportunity of showing them, can scarcely be doubted, as was the case with other friends of his, of whom he writes—"I am informed that some of the House of Commons who usually were thought to be influenced by me, have gone wrong of late, in particular Sir W. Trumbull, Mr. Duncombe, and Mr. Methuen. For the two first, I think people need only consider one moment the difference between men in good places and good-humour, and out of them angry and unsatisfied. I believe nobody has seen or heard of any in these circumstances that have not changed a good deal."[1] Lord Sunderland had seen a good deal of the world and of mankind, but with all this knowledge he must have been very ignorant of him-
- ↑ Letter to the Duke of Shrewsbury, January, 1698.
