Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/160

140 absolute—absolute as the able man can always make himself in times of disorder, if he is untroubled with moral scruples, when his competitors for power are as unprincipled as himself, and only his inferiors in capacity. But, as it was only a temporary convulsion which placed a person of so poor a type of character at the head of the Government, so Northumberland was detested while he was obeyed. Those who, like Cecil, were treated by him with apparent cordiality, those whom he had addressed as his friends, whom he seemed to intrust with his most secret thoughts, felt his influence like a nightmare. The growing discernment, the earnest interest in public affairs, and the consciousness of the disorganization of the State, which Edward exhibited more and more as he grew older, would have sooner or later brought forward other ministers; in two years he would be of age, when inquiry could not have been avoided; and Northumberland's influence would scarcely have survived the revelations which Arundel, whom he had imprisoned, Paget, whom he had stripped of his estates and expelled from the Order of the Garter, with the friends of Somerset, would have brought to