Secretary of State

In that paper he set forth a plan according to which he intended to govern when he should be restored.

He laid it down as a rule that one commissioner of the treasury, one of the two secretaries of state, the secretary of war, the majority of the great officers of the household, the majority of the lords of the bedchamber, the majority of the officers of the army, should always be Roman Catholics.

It was to no purpose that the most eminent compounders sent from London letter after letter filled with judicious counsel and earnest supplication.

It was to no purpose that they demonstrated in the plainest manner the impossibility of establishing popish ascendancy in a country where at least forty-nine fiftieths of the population and much more than forty-nine fiftieths of the wealth and the intelligent were Protestant.

He consented to give a share in the management of his affairs to one of the most distinguished of the compounders, Charles Earl of Middleton.

Middleton's family and his peerage were Scotch, but he was closely connected with some of the noblest houses of England.

He had resided long in England, and he had been appointed by Charles II one of the English Secretaries of State and had been entrusted by James with the lead of the English House of Commons.

His abilities and acquirements were considerable.