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Notwithstanding this abrupt departure, which did not savour much of magnanimity, the university chose sir William Trumball, secretary of state, as one of their representatives in parliament. The whig interest generally prevailed in the elections, though many even of that party were malcontents; and when the parliament met, Foley was again chosen speaker of the commons.
The earl of Portland growing troublesome, from his jealousy of this rival, the king resolved to send him into honourable exile, in quality of an ambassador-extraordinary to the court of France; and Trumball, his friend and creature, was dismissed from the office of secretary, which the king conferred upon Vernon, a plodding man of business who had acted as under-secretary to the duke of Shrewsbury.
By means of the reward offered in the proclamation, the greater part of the conspirators were betrayed or taken. George Harris, who had been sent from France with orders to obey sir George Barclay, surrendered himself to sir William Trumball, and confessed the scheme of assassination in which he had been engaged. Porter and Pendergrass were apprehended together.
The anti-Nebraska fusion carried the legislature, defeated Shields and, after a brief contest between Trumball, the anti-Nebraska Democrat, and Lincoln, the anti-slavery Whig, elected the former Senator. Congress had confessed its incompetency to deal with the Kansas problem and referred it to the decision of rude squatters on the frontier.
Fenwick being interrogated accordingly, gave an account of all the particulars of Monmouth's scheme, which was calculated to ruin the duke of Shrewsbury by bringing Smith's letters on the carpet. The duchess of Norfolk and a confidant were examined and confirmed the detection. The house called for Smith's letters, which were produced by sir William Trumball.
They had very recently been thwarted by him. They were bent on making Wharton a Secretary of State, and had therefore looked forward with impatience to the retirement of Trumball, who was indeed hardly equal to the duties of his great place.
To their surprise and mortification they learned, on the eve of the meeting of Parliament, that Trumball had suddenly resigned, and Vernon, the Under Secretary, had been summoned to Kensington, and had returned thence with the seals. Vernon was a zealous Whig, and not personally unacceptable to the chiefs of his party.
Trumball resigned the Secretaryship of State; and the Seals which he had held were given to Jersey, who was succeeded at Paris by the Earl of Manchester. It is to be remarked that the new Privy Seal and the new Secretary of State were moderate Tories. The King had probably hoped that, by calling them to his councils, he should conciliate the opposition.
Trenchard, whose vigilance and severity had made him an object of terror and hatred, was no more, and had been succeeded, in what may be called the subordinate Secretaryship of State, by Sir William Trumball, a learned civilian and an experienced diplomatist, of moderate opinions, and of temper cautious to timidity. The malecontents were emboldened by the lenity of the administration.
Monmouth communicated those impressions to the earl of Portland, who enlisted Smith as one of his intelligencers. Copies of the letters he had sent to the duke of Shrewsbury were delivered to secretary Trumball sealed up for the perusal of his majesty at his return from Flanders.
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