eclaration would be satisfactory to all
good men; that they would not suffer themselves to be misled; nor give
advantage to enemies and ill-designing persons, ready to seize every
opportunity of embroiling the government. He gave them to understand
that his necessary absence had occasioned the late adjournment; but as
soon as God should bring him back, their parliament should be assembled.
Even this explanation, seconded by all the credit and address of his
ministers, failed in allaying the national ferment, which rose to the
very verge of rebellion.

LORD SOMERS DISMISSED.

The king, who from his first accession to the throne had veered
occasionally from one party to another, according to the circumstances
of his affairs and the opposition he encountered, was at this period so
incensed and embarrassed by the caprice and insolence of the commons,
that he willingly lent an ear to the leaders of the tories, who
undertook to manage the parliament according to his pleasure, provided
he would part with some of his ministers who were peculiarly odious to
the commons. The person against whom their anger was chiefly directed
was the lord chancellor Somers, the most active leader of the whig
party. They demanded his dismission, and the king exhorted him to resign
his office; but he refusing to take any step that might indicate a fear
of his enemies or a consciousness of guilt, the king sent a peremptory
order for the seals by the lord Jersey, to whom Somers delivered them
without hesitation. They were successively offered to lord chief justice
Holt, and Trevor the attorney-general, who declined accepting such a
precarious office. Meanwhile the king granted a temporary commission to
three judges to sit in the court of chancery; and at length bestowed
the seals, with the title of lord keeper, on Nathan Wright, one of the
sergeants at law, a man but indifferently qualified for the office to
which he was now preferred. Though William seemed altogether attached to
the tories and inclined to a new parliament, no person appeared to take
the lead in the affairs of government; and, indeed, for some time the
administration seemed to be under no particular direction.

SECOND TREATY OF PARTITION.

During the transactions of the last session, the negotiation for a
second partition treaty had been carried on in London by the French
minister Tallard, in conjunction with the earls of Portland and Jersey,
and was soon brought to