In part, HARLEY owed his new office to the personal credit which he had won with the Queen during his Speakership; and in part, also, to the friendship of MARLBOROUGH. On receiving the news of his appointment the Duke wrote to him, from the Camp:—‘I am sensible of the advantage I shall reap by it, in having so good a friend near Her Majesty’s person to present in the truest light my faithful endeavours for her service.’ [Sidenote: Marlborough to Harley; 13 June, 1704.] But their intercourse, if it ever attained to true cordiality at all, was cordial for a very short time. Brief confidence was followed by long distrust. HARLEY strove to strengthen himself by the use of channels of Court influence which were utterly inimical to the MARLBOROUGH connection. His efforts to make himself independent of that connection did not, however, lessen the prodigality of his assurances of friendship and fidelity. His political position thus became that of a man who was exposed to the attacks of many bitter enemies among the statesmen with whom he had begun his career, without being able to rely upon any hearty support from those with whom he now shared the conduct of affairs. He might count, indeed, on assailants from the ranks both of the extreme Whigs and the extreme Tories, whilst from most of his own colleagues of the intermediate party he would have to meet the greater danger of a lukewarm defence. In such a position the attack was not likely to be long waited for. Easiness of nature, and a tendency to alternate fits of close application with fits of indolence, always characterised him. And those qualities had an incidental consequence which opened to his opponents a tempting opportunity. HARLEY was habitually less careful of official papers than it behoved a Secretary of State to be.[34] He was also at all times prone to place a premature and undue confidence in his dependants. In 1707, William GREGG, one of the clerks in his office, abused his confidence by secretly copying some letters of the highest importance and by selling the copies to the Court of France. [Sidenote: THE CRIME OF WILLIAM GREGG, AND THE USE MADE OF IT BY HARLEY’S ENEMIES.]