The Nonconformists were encouraged to expect from him, not only toleration, but also comprehension.

Even the Roman Catholics were conciliated; and some of the most respectable among them declared, to the King's face, that they were satisfied with what Dykvelt proposed, and that they would rather have a toleration, secured by statute, than an illegal and precarious ascendency.

[266] The chiefs of all the important sections of the nation had frequent conferences in the presence of the dexterous Envoy.

At these meetings the sense of the Tory party was chiefly spoken by the Earls of Danby and Nottingham.

Though more than eight years had elapsed since Danby had fallen from power, his name was still great among the old Cavaliers of England; and many even of those Whigs who had formerly persecuted him were now disposed to admit that he had suffered for faults not his own, and that his zeal for the prerogative, though it had often misled him, had been tempered by two feelings which did him honour, zeal for the established religion, and zeal for the dignity and independence of his country.