To wage war against the Ministry was the work of more ardent partisans.

He stood by and waited while Bolingbroke and Rochester and their allies in the press cried out that the Government was now in the hands of the enemies of the Church, accused the Whigs of protracting the war to fill their own pockets with the plunder of the Supplies, and called upon the nation to put an end to their jobbery and mismanagement.

The victory of Oudenarde in the summer of 1708 gave them a new handle.

"What is the good," they cried, "of these glorious victories, if they do not bring peace?
What do we gain by beating the French in campaign after campaign, if we never bring them nearer to submission?
It is incredible that the French King is not willing to make peace, if the Whigs did not profit too much by the war to give peace any encouragement." To these arguments for peace, Defoe opposed himself steadily in the _Review_.

"Well, gentlemen." he began, when the news came of the battle of Oudenarde, "have the French noosed themselves again?
Let us pray the Duke of Marlborough that a speedy peace may not follow, for what would become of us ?" He was as willing for a peace on honourable terms as any man, but a peace till the Protestant Succession was secured and the balance of power firmly settled, "would be fatal to peace at home." "If that fatal thing called Peace abroad should happen, we shall certainly be undone." Presently, however, the French King began to make promising overtures for peace; the Ministry, in hopes of satisfactory terms, encouraged them; the talk through the nation was all of peace, and the Whigs contented themselves with passing an address to the Crown through Parliament urging the Queen to make no peace till the Pretender should be disowned by the French Court, and the Succession guaranteed by a compact with the Allies.