[337] If the King could place little confidence even in his Roman Catholic Sheriffs, still less could he rely on the Puritans.

Since the publication of the Declaration several months had elapsed, months crowded with important events, months of unintermitted controversy.
Discussion had opened the eyes of many Dissenters: but the acts of the government, and especially the severity with which Magdalene College had been treated, had done more than even the pen of Halifax to alarm and to unite all classes of Protestants.

Most of those sectaries who had been induced to express gratitude for the Indulgence were now ashamed of their error, and were desirous of making atonement by casting in their lot with the great body of their countrymen.
The consequence of this change in the feeling of the Nonconformists, was that the government found almost as great difficulty in the towns as in the counties.

When the regulators began their work, they had taken it for granted that every Dissenter who had been induced to express gratitude for the Indulgence would be favourable to the king's policy.
They were therefore confident that they should be able to fill all the municipal offices in the kingdom with staunch friends.

In the new charters a power had been reserved to the crown of dismissing magistrates at pleasure.