after mentioning some particular cases of oppression which the Roman Catholics had complained of, he acknowledged that the situation had made great 'tourbillons' in his mind; but, he continued, 'I retreat to the sayings following:—1. God is above all.2. Few designs succeed thoroughly.3. Naturam expellas furcà.4. The balance of knavery.5. The follyes of our enemies.6. Res nolunt male administrari.7. We shall live till we dye.8. Time and chance, &c.9. Another shuffling may cause a better dealing.10. Fish in troubled waters.11. Trees may grow the better for pruning.12. Lets do what we can.13. 'Twill be all one 2,000 yrs hence.14. Una salus miseris nullam sperare salutem.15. Some other Bowls may drive the Jack from the Best.16. Playing at tennis in a wheelbarrow, etc'
'The late new addition to the Council,' Southwell replied, 'is a new light which is very dazzling, and will need all yr 16 axioms for consolation.... I wish it were as easy to find the cure as the disease. A consultation of doctors is scarce to be thought of; for such advising might be called combination, and so pass for witchcraft. Wherefore all I can at present think of, is to pray God that there may be from all good Protestants, such demonstrations of Loyalty, zeal, and affection to his Majesty's person and Government, that their enemies may not have credit in objecting that his authority is not safe in their hands, or that they are still the race of those who murdered the father.'[1]
Sir William still went on hoping against hope. He disliked the extreme Protestant interest, and he had suffered so much under preceding Councils, that he was inclined to take a lenient view of the present members, and could not help trusting that things might still not come to the worst, and that, as on other occasions, the sun might shine forth again.
'I will set all the Goblins, Furies, Demons, and Devills, which stand straggling up and down within this letter, in battle array,' he writes to Southwell on June 5, 1686. He acknowledges that he knows he is not 'a general favourite' and that Kerry will be 'a gnawing vulture,' and that he is himself
- ↑ June 2, 1686.
