as any English subject could be under a prince of William's character. Though no man had taken a more prominent part in the Revolution than the Lord President, though no man had more to fear from a counterrevolution, his old enemies would not believe that he had from his heart renounced those arbitrary doctrines for which he had once been zealous, or that he could bear true allegiance to a government sprung from resistance. Through the last six months of 1690 he was mercilessly lampooned. Sometimes he was King Thomas and sometimes Tom the Tyrant.[1] William was adjured not to go to the Continent leaving his worst enemy close to the ear of the Queen. Halifax, who had, in the preceding year, been ungenerously and ungratefully persecuted by the Whigs, was now mentioned by them with respect and regret; for he was the enemy of their enemy.[2] The face, the figure, the bodily infirmities of Caermarthen, were ridiculed.[3] Those dealings with the French Court in which, twelve years before, he had, rather by his misfortune than by his fault, been implicated, were represented in the most odious colours. He was reproached with his impeachment and his imprisonment. Once, it was said, he had escaped; but vengeance might still overtake him, and London might enjoy the long deferred pleasure of seeing the old traitor flung off the ladder in the blue riband which he disgraced. All the members of his family, wife, son, daughters, were assailed with savage
- ↑ In one Whig lampoon of this year are these lines
"David, we thought, succeeded Saul,
When William rose on James's fall;
But now King Thomas governs all."In another are these lines:
A third says:"When Charles did seem to fill the throne,
This tyrant Tom made England groan.""Yorkshire Tom was rais'd to honour,
For what cause no creature knew;
He was false to the royal donor
And will be the same to you." - ↑ A Whig poet compares the two Marquesses, as they were often called, and gives George the preference over Thomas.
"If a Marquess needs must steer us,
Take a better in his stead,
Who will in your absence cheer us,
And has far a wiser head." - ↑ "A thin, ill-natured ghost that haunts the King."
