During many years he was restrained by older and wiser men; and it was not till those whom he had early been accustomed to respect had passed away, and till he was himself at the head of affairs, that he openly attempted to obtain for the hereditary nobility a precarious and invidious ascendency in the State, at the expense both of the Commons and of the Throne.
In 1695, Spencer had taken his seat in the House of Commons as member for Tiverton, and had, during two sessions, conducted himself as a steady and zealous Whig.
The party to which he had attached himself might perhaps have reasonably considered him as a hostage sufficient to ensure the good faith of his father; for the Earl was approaching that time of life at which even the most ambitious and rapacious men generally toil rather for their children than for themselves.

But the distrust which Sunderland inspired was such as no guarantee could quiet.

Many fancied that he was,--with what object they never took the trouble to inquire,--employing the same arts which had ruined James for the purpose of ruining William.

Each prince had had his weak side.

One was too much a Papist, and the other too much a soldier, for such a nation as this.