A large portion, perhaps a numerical majority, of the Whigs had favoured the pretensions of Monmouth: but Monmouth was now no more.

The Tories, on the other hand, had entertained apprehensions that the interests of the Anglican Church might not be safe under the rule of a man bred among Dutch Presbyterians, and well known to hold latitudinarian opinions about robes, ceremonies, and Bishops: but, since that beloved Church had been threatened by far more formidable dangers from a very different quarter, these apprehensions had lost almost all their power.

Thus, at the same moment, both the great parties began to fix their hopes and their affections on the same leader.

Old republicans could not refuse their confidence to one who had worthily filled, during many years, the highest magistracy of a republic.

Old royalists conceived that they acted according to their principles in paying profound respect to a prince so near to the throne.