Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/273

 that suite all the Christmas hollydayes of a most bitter winter, did begett all the effects of cold, even to the marrow of my bones.'

Southwell, who already in 1671 had again occupied a temporary diplomatic appointment, in 1679 took the post of Envoy Extraordinary to the Elector of Brandenburg, and terminated his connection with the Privy Council. His experienced eye possibly doubted the stability of the new system; nor was he mistaken. The sun did not continue to shine very long, and after the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament in March 1681, and the complete failure of Sir William Temple's plans, a reaction in favour of the King set in, through the violence of the advanced section of the Whig party in the struggle round the Exclusion Bill, of which the King cleverly took advantage, knowing that, whatever else might happen, the public mind dreaded most of all the renewal of the appearance of the symptoms of civil war. Southwell on his return from Brandenburg practically retired into private life, and fixed his residence permanently at Kings Weston. Thence he resumed his correspondence with Sir William, who by this time was engaged in a fresh series of encounters with his different enemies, who all over Ireland had at once taken heart. Ormonde also hesitated to support his wish to be a Privy Councillor, and the farmers renewed their attacks. Sir William, as usual, stood firmly by his own view of law and right and determined to fight out the issue, notwithstanding all the wise saws and sermons of Sir Robert on the wisdom of compromise. So the battle went on more fiercely than ever. 'I love peace,' he writes to Southwell, 'but will not buy it on base terms.' 'We are like a cat in a cupboard,' says Lady Petty, 'and must leap forth. We are now in a close fight with the farmers: lend us your prayers.'

His position at the Admiralty was another cause of trouble,