Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/39

] Kensington Palace, Favourite Residence of William III.

to pieces by faction; that he was weary of the whole concern, and would return to Holland, never more to meddle with English affairs, but abandon them to the queen; that for ten months he had been vainly endeavouring to make peace betwixt the rabid factions of whig and tory, and to prevent them rushing at each other's throats; that they clearly regarded nothing but their mutual animosities, for in their indulgence they utterly neglected the urgent affairs of the nation. Their enemy was in Ireland, yet it had no effect in bringing them to their senses. Still worse, every department of the government was overrun with corruption, peculation, and neglect. The public service was paralysed; the public peace was entirely destroyed; and that, as for himself, with far from robust health and with the duty of