Had they been content to accuse him of lending his countenance, with a rashness unbecoming his high place, to an illconcerted scheme, that large part of mankind which judges of a plan simply by the event would probably have thought the accusation well founded.

But the malice which they bore to him was not to be so satisfied.

They affected to believe that he had from the first been aware of Kidd's character and designs.

The Great Seal had been employed to sanction a piratical expedition.

The head of the law had laid down a thousand pounds in the hope of receiving tens of thousands when his accomplices should return, laden with the spoils of ruined merchants.