Howe had, like Baxter, been personally a gainer by the recent change of policy.

The same tyranny which had flung Baxter into gaol had driven Howe into banishment; and, soon after Baxter had been let out of the King's Bench prison, Howe returned from Utrecht to England.

It was expected at Whitehall that Howe would exert in favour of the court all the authority which he possessed over his brethren.

The King himself condescended to ask the help of the subject whom he had oppressed.

Howe appears to have hesitated: but the influence of the Hampdens, with whom he was on terms of close intimacy, kept him steady to the cause of the constitution.