Oxford advised moderate measures, and is said to have made advances towards a reconciliation with the leaders of the whig party.

As he foresaw it would soon be their turn to domineer, such precautions were necessary for his own safety.

Bolingbroke affected to set the whigs at defiance; he professed a warm zeal for the church; he soothed the queen's inclinations with the most assiduous attention.

He and his coadjutrix insinuated, that the treasurer was biassed in favour of the dissenters, and even that he acted as a spy for the house of Hanover.

In the midst of these disputes and commotions the Jacobites were not idle.