Early in 1693, it was rumoured that Sunderland was consulted on all important questions relating to the internal administration of the realm; and the rumour became stronger when it was known that he had come up to London in the autumn before the meeting of Parliament and that he had taken a large mansion near Whitehall.  The coffeehouse politicians were confident that he was about to hold some high office.  As yet, however, he had the wisdom to be content with the reality of power, and to leave the show to others.475

His opinion was that, as long as the King tried to balance the two great parties against each other, and to divide his favour equally between them, both would think themselves ill used, and neither would lend to the government that hearty and steady support which was now greatly needed.  His Majesty must make up his mind to give a marked preference to one or the other; and there were three weighty reasons for giving the preference to the Whigs.

In the first place, the Whigs were on principle attached to the reigning dynasty.  In their view the Revolution had been, not merely necessary, not merely justifiable, but happy and glorious.  It had been the triumph of their political theory.  When they swore allegiance to William, they swore without scruple or reservation; and they were so far from having any doubt about his title that they thought it the best of all titles.  The Tories, on the other hand, very generally disapproved of that vote of the Convention which had placed him on the throne.  Some of them were at heart Jacobites, and had taken the oath of allegiance to him only that they might be able to injure him.  Others, though they thought it their duty to obey him as King in fact, denied that he was King by right, and, if they were loyal to him, were loyal without enthusiasm.  There could, therefore, be little doubt on which of the two parties it would be safer for him to rely.

In the second place, as to the particular matter on which his heart was at present set, the Whigs were, as a body, prepared to support him strenuously, and the Tories were, as a body, inclined to thwart him.  The minds of men were at this time much occupied by the question, in what way the war ought to be carried on.  To that question the two parties returned very different answers.  An opinion had during many months been growing among the Tories that the policy of England ought to be strictly insular; that she ought to leave the defence of Flanders and the Rhine to the States General, the House of Austria and the Princes of the Empire; that she ought to carry on hostilities with vigour by sea, but to keep up only such an army as might, with the help of the militia, be sufficient to repel an invasion.  It was plain that, if this system were adopted, there might be an immediate reduction of the taxes which pressed most heavily on the nation.  But the Whigs maintained that this relief would be dearly purchased.  Many thousands of brave English soldiers were now in Flanders.