CHAPTER II.
Showing how Peter the Headstrong bestirred him
self among the rats and cobwebs on entering into
office; and the perilous mistake he was guilty of,
in his dealings with the Amphictyons.
The very first movements of the great
Peter, on taking the reins of government,
displayed the magnanimity of his mind,
though they occasioned not a little marvel
and uneasiness among the people of
the Manhattoes. Finding himself constantly
interrupted by the opposition, and
annoyed by the advice of his privy council,
the members of which had acquired
the unreasonable habit of thinking and
speaking for themselves during the preceding
reign, he determined at once to
put a stop to such grievous abomination.
Scarcely, therefore, had he entered upon
his authority, than he turned out of office
all those meddlesome spirits that composed
the factious cabinet of William the
Testy; in place of whom he chose unto
himself counsellors from those fat, somniferous,
respectable families, that had
flourished and slumbered under the easy
reign of Walter the Doubter. All these
he caused to be furnished with abundance
of fair l
