[To Sidney Godolphin, Earl of Godolphin]

26 June 1708

My Lord,

It is really work enough, and requires some Application and Time also, to heal and Allay the Ferment that This late Affair has raised here, Or indeed my Ld but to lay it asleep for a while, for Once in Three yeares it must revive, and perhaps Encrease, for mischief Seldome Declines.

Tis hard my Ld That Medicine should Thus turn to Poison, and what was Contrived to secure a Nation Should Expose it: The Trienniall Bill has This irreparable Mischief in it, That it keeps alive Our Divisions, and Sets us Triennially together by the Eares all Over the Nation.

The remainder of Strife which my Ld had its beginning in the Center, is Now Diffused into The Circle; the Intrest makeing, Heaving, and Struggling, tho' it be now Spread in the Countrys remote from hence, is yet as Eagerly Pusht, and has in proportion as mischievous Causes, and as ill Effects as here; Nay as if They were a sport (tho' I look on them I Confess with another view) and that the Gentlemen Could Divert Themselves with the Distractions of their Country. The D of Argile and the E of Marr have been as it were Playing a Game at Elections in Kinross and Clackmannon, two shires united by the Treaty.