But some parts of the internal administration excited, during this autumn, much discontent.
Since Trenchard had been appointed Secretary of State, the Jacobite agitators had found their situation much more unpleasant than before.
Sidney had been too indulgent and too fond of pleasure to give them much trouble.

Nottingham was a diligent and honest minister; but he was as high a Tory as a faithful subject of William and Mary could be; he loved and esteemed many of the nonjurors; and, though he might force himself to be severe when nothing but severity could save the State, he was not extreme to mark the transgressions of his old friends; nor did he encourage talebearers to come to Whitehall with reports of conspiracies.
But Trenchard was both an active public servant and an earnest Whig.
Even if he had himself been inclined to lenity, he would have been urged to severity by those who surrounded him.

He had constantly at his side Hugh Speke and Aaron Smith, men to whom a hunt after a Jacobite was the most exciting of all sports.

The cry of the malecontents was that Nottingham had kept his bloodhounds in the leash, but that Trenchard had let them slip.

Every honest gentleman who loved the Church and hated the Dutch went in danger of his life.