In  the  spring  of  1688,  the  Catholics  fontied
three  separate  and  unfriendly  jMirties,  whose
favour  it  was  not  easy  for  a  minister  to  pre*-
fierve  at  the  same  time.  The  nobility  and
gentry  of  England  were,  as  they  .contmued
to  the  last,'  adverse  to  those  rash  courses
which  honour  obliged  them  apparently  to
support,  but  which  they  had  always  dreaded
as  dangerous  to  their  sovereign  and  their  re-
ligrjon.  Lords  Powis,  Bellasis,  and  Arundel,
▼ainly  laboured  to  inculcate  their  wise  max-
ims on  the  mind  of  James;  while  the  remains
of  the  Spanish  influence,  formerly  so  powei^
ful  among  British  Catholics,  were  employed
by  the  ambassador,  Don  Pedro  Ronquillo,  in
support  of  this  respectable  party.  Sunder-
land, though  he  began,  soon  after  bis  victory.
over  Rochester,  to  moderate  and  temper  the
royal  measures,  was  afraid  of  displeasing  his
impatient  master  by  openly  supporting  them.
The  second  party,  which  may  oe  called  the
Papal,  was  tnat  of  the  Nuncio,  who  had  at
'first  considered  the  Catholic  aristocracy  as
lukewarm  in  the  cause  of  their  religion,  but
who,  though  he  continued  outwardly  to  coun-
tenance all  domestic  efforts  for  the  advance-

*  "A  little  before  Christmas."— Life  of  James
II.  vol.  ii.  p.  131 ;  passages  Quoted  from  James'
Memoirs.  The  King's  own  Memoirs  are  always
deserrinff  of  great  consideration,  and  in  unmixed
eases  of  tact  are,  1  am  wtlliog  to  hope,  generally
eonclaaive.
