Chapter II

_Remarkable Instance of Suicide..... Affairs of the
Continent..... Meeting of the Parliament..... Address to the
King touching the Spanish Depredations..... The Excise
Scheme proposed by Sir Robert Walpole..... Opposition to the
Scheme..... Bill for a Dower to the Princess Royal----Debate
in the House of Lords concerning the Estates of the late
Directors of the South-Sea Company..... Double Election of a
King in Poland..... The Kings of France, Spain, and
Sardinia, join against the Emperor..... The Prince of Orange
arrives in England..... Altercation in the House of
Commons..... Debate about the Removal of the Duke of Bolton
and Lord Viscount Cobham from their respective
Regiments..... Motion for the Repeal of the Septennial
Act..... Conclusion of a remarkable Speech by Sir W.
Wyndham...... Message from the King for Powers to augment
the Forces in the Intervals between the two Parliaments.....
Opposition in the House of Peers..... Parliament
dissolved..... Dantzic besieged by the Russians.....
Philipsburgh taken by the French..... Don Carlos takes
possession of Naples..... Battle of Parma..... The
Imperialists are again worsted at Gustalla..... An Edict in
France, compelling the British Subjects in that Kingdom to
enlist in the French Army..... New Parliament in Great
Britain..... Debate on a Subsidy to Denmark..... Petition of
some Scottish Noblemen to the House of Peers..... Bill
explaining an Act of the Scottish Parliament touching
wrongous Imprisonment..... Misunderstanding between the
Courts of Spain and Portugal..... Sir John Norris sails with
a strong Squadron to Lisbon..... Preliminaries signed by the
Emperor and the King of France..... Proceedings in
Parliament..... Bill for preventing the Retail of Spiritous
Liquors..... Another for the Relief of Quakers in the
Article of Tithes..... Mortmain Act..... Remarkable Riot at
Edinburgh..... Rupture between the Czarina and the Ottoman
Porte..... The Session of Parliament opened by
Commission..... Motion in both Houses for a Settlement on
the Prince of Wales..... Fierce Debate on this Subject.....
Scheme by Sir John Barnard for reducing the Interest of the
National Debt..... Bill against the City of Edinburgh.....
Play-house Bill._

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REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF SUICIDE.

The most remarkable incident that distinguished this year in England was a very uncommon instance of suicide; an act of despair so frequent among the English, that in other countries it is objected to them as a national reproach. Though it may be generally termed the effect of lunacy proceeding from natural causes operating on the human body, in some few instances it seems to have been the result of cool deliberation. Richard Smith, a bookbinder, and prisoner for debt within the liberties of the king’s bench, persuaded his wife to follow his example in making away with herself, after they had murdered their little infant. This wretched pair were, in the month of April, found hanging in their bed-chamber, at about a yard’s distance from each other; and in a separate apartment the child lay dead in a cradle. They left two papers enclosed in a short letter to their landlord, whose kindness they implored in favour of their dog and cat. They even left money to pay the porter who should carry the enclosed papers to the person for whom they were addressed. In one of these the husband thanked that person for the marks of friendship he had received at his hands; and complained of the ill offices he had undergone from a different quarter. The other paper, subscribed by the husband and wife, contained the reasons which induced them to act such a tragedy on themselves and their offspring. This letter was altogether surprising for the calm resolution, the good humour, and the propriety with which it was written. They declared, that they withdrew themselves from poverty and rags--evils that, through a train of unlucky accidents, were become inevitable. They appealed to their neighbours for the industry with which they had endeavoured to earn a livelihood. They justified the murder of their child, by saying, it was less cruelty to take her with them, than to leave her friendless in the world, exposed to ignorance and misery. They professed their belief and confidence in Almighty God, the fountain of goodness and beneficence, who could not possibly take delight in the misery of his creatures; they therefore resigned up their lives to him without any terrible apprehensions; submitting themselves to those ways which, in his goodness, he should appoint after death. These unfortunate suicides had been always industrious and frugal, invincibly honest, and remarkable for conjugal affection.

AFFAIRS OF THE CONTINENT.

Trustees having been appointed by charter to superintend a new settlement in Georgia, situated to the southward of Carolina in America, Mr. Oglethorpe, as general and governor of the province, embarked at Gravesend, with a number of poor families, to plant that colony. The king of Spain having equipped a very powerful armament, the fleet sailed on the fourth of June from the road of Alicant, under the command of the count de Montemar, and arrived on the coast of Barbary in the neighbourhood of Oran, where a considerable body of troops was landed without much opposition. Next day, however, they were attacked by a numerous army of Moors, over whom they obtained a complete victory. The bey or governor of Oran immediately retired with his garrison, and the Spaniards took possession of the place, from which they had been driven in the year one thousand seven hundred and eight. The strong fort of Mazalaquivir was likewise surrendered to the victors at the first summons; so that this expedition answered all the views with which it had been projected. Victor Amadasus, the abdicated king of Sardinia, having, at the instigation of his wife, engaged in some intrigues in order to reascend the throne, his son, the reigning king, ordered his person to be seized at Montcalier, and conveyed to Rivoli, under a strong escort. His wife, the marchioness de Spigno, was conducted to Seva. The old king’s confessor, his physician, and eight-and-forty persons of distinction, were imprisoned. The citadel of Turin was secured with a strong garrison; and new instructions were given to the governor and senate of Chamberri. The dispute which had long subsisted between the king of Prussia and the young prince of Orange, touching the succession to the estates possessed by king William III. as head of the house of Orange, was at last accommodated by a formal treaty signed at Berlin and Dieren. The Dutch were greatly alarmed about this time with an apprehension of being overwhelmed by an inundation, occasioned by worms, which were said to have consumed the piles and timber-work that supported their dykes. They prayed and fasted with uncommon zeal, in terror of this calamity, which they did not know how to avert in any other manner. At length they were delivered from their fears by a hard frost, which effectually destroyed those dangerous animals. About this time, Mr. Dieden, plenipotentiary from the elector of Hanover, received, in the name of his master, the investiture of Bremen and Verden from the hands of the emperor.

MEETING OF THE PARLIAMENT.

The history of England at this period cannot be very interesting, as it chiefly consists in an annual revolution of debates in parliament,--debates, in which the same arguments perpetually recur on the same subjects. When the session was opened on the sixteenth day of January, the king declared that the situation of affairs, both at home and abroad, rendered it unnecessary for him to lay before the two houses any other reasons for calling them together, but the ordinary dispatch of the public business, and his desire of receiving their advice in such affairs as should require the care and consideration of parliament. The motion made in the house of commons for an address of thanks, implied, that they should express their satisfaction at the present situation of affairs both at home and abroad. The motion was carried, notwithstanding the opposition of those who observed, that the nation had very little reason to be pleased with the present posture of affairs; that the French were employed in fortifying and restoring the harbour of Dunkirk, contrary to the faith of the most solemn treaties; that the British merchants had received no redress for the depredations committed by the Spaniards; that the commerce of England daily decreased; that no sort of trade throve but the traffic of Change-alley, where the most abominable frauds were practised; and that every session of parliament opened a new scene of villany and imposition.

ADDRESS TO THE KING.

The pension-bill was once more revived, and lost again in the house of peers. All the reasons formerly advanced against a standing army were now repeated; and a reduction of the number insisted upon with such warmth, that the ministerial party were obliged to have recourse to the old phantom of the pretender. Sir Archer Croft said, a continuation of the same number of forces was the more necessary, because, to his knowledge, popery was increasing very fast in the country; for in one parish which he knew, there were seven popish priests; and that the danger from the pretender was the more to be feared, because they did not know but he was then breeding his son a protestant. Sir Robert Walpole observed, that a reduction of the army was the chief thing wished for and desired by all the Jacobites in the kingdom; that no reduction had ever been made but what gave fresh hopes to that party, and encouraged them to raise tumults against the government; and he did not doubt but that, if they should resolve to reduce any part of the army, there would be post-horses employed that very night to carry the good news beyond sea to the pretender. His brother Horatio added, that the number of troops then proposed was absolutely necessary to support his majesty’s government, and would be necessary as long as the nation enjoyed the happiness of having the present illustrious family on the throne. The futility, the self-contradiction, and the ridiculous absurdity of these suggestions, were properly exposed; nevertheless, the army was voted without any reduction. Sir Wilfred Lawson having made a motion for an address to the king, to know what satisfaction had been made by Spain for the depredations committed on the British merchants, it was, after a violent debate, approved and the address presented. The king in answer to this remonstrance gave them to understand, that the commissaries of the two crowns had been so long delayed by unforeseen accidents, that the conferences were not opened till the latter end of the preceding February; and that as the courts of London and Madrid had agreed that the term of three years stipulated for finishing the commission should be computed from their first meeting, a perfect account of their proceedings could not as yet be laid before the house of commons. A bill had been long depending for granting encouragement to the sugar colonies in the West Indies; but, as it was founded upon a prohibition that would have put a stop to all commerce between the French islands and the British settlements in North America, it met with a very warm opposition from those who had the prosperity of those northern colonies at heart. But the bill being patronised and supported by the court interest, surmounted all objections, and afterwards passed into a law. While the commons deliberated upon the supply, sir Robert Walpole moved, that five hundred thousand pounds should be issued out of the sinking fund for the service of the ensuing year. Sir William Wyndham, Mr. Pulteney, and sir John Barnard, expatiated upon the iniquity of pillaging a sacred deposit, solemnly appropriated to the discharge of the national debt. They might have demonstrated the egregious folly of a measure, by which the public, for a little temporary ease, lost the advantage of the accumulating interest which would have arisen from the sinking fund, if properly managed and reserved. All objections vanished before the powers of ministerial influence, which nothing now could check but the immediate danger of popular commotion. Such hazardous interposition actually defeated a scheme which had been adopted by the minister, and even before its appearance alarmed all the trading part of the nation.

THE EXCISE SCHEME PROPOSED.

The house having resolved itself into a committee, to deliberate upon the most proper methods for the better security and improvement of the duties and revenues charged upon tobacco and wines, all the papers relating to these duties were submitted to the perusal of the members; the commissioners of the customs and excise were ordered to attend the house, the avenues of which were crowded with multitudes of people; and the members in the opposition waited impatiently for a proposal, in which they thought the liberties of their country so deeply interested. In a word, there had been a call of the house on the preceding day. The session was frequent and full; and both sides appeared ready and eager for the contest when sir Robert Walpole broached his design. He took notice of the arts which had been used to prejudice the people against his plan before it was known. He affirmed that the clamours occasioned by these prejudices had originally risen from smugglers and fradulent dealers, who had enriched themselves by cheating the public; and that these had been strenuously assisted and supported by another set of men, fond of every opportunity to stir up the people of Great Britain to mutiny and sedition. He expatiated on the frauds that were committed in that branch of the revenue arising from the duties on tobacco; upon the hardships to which the American planters were subjected by the heavy duties payable on importation, as well as by the ill usage they had met with from their factors and correspondents in England, who, from being their servants, were now become their masters; upon the injury done to the fair trader; and the loss sustained by the public with respect to the revenue. He asserted that the scheme he was about to propose would remove all these inconveniencies, prevent numberless frauds, perjuries, and false entries, and add two or three hundred thousand pounds per annum to the public revenue. He entered into a long detail of frauds practised by the knavish dealers in those commodities; he recited the several acts of parliament that related to the duties on wine and tobacco; he declared he had no intention to promote a general excise; he endeavoured to obviate some objections that might be made to his plan, the nature of which he at length explained. He proposed to join the laws of excise to those of the customs; that the further subsidy of three farthings per pound charged upon imported tobacco, should be still levied at the custom-house, and payable to his majesty’s civil list as heretofore; that then the tobacco should be lodged in warehouses, to be appointed for that purpose by the commissioners of the excise; that the keeper of each warehouse, appointed likewise hy the commissioners, should have one lock and key, and the merchant-importer have another; and that the tobacco should be thus secured until the merchant should find vent for it, either by exportation or home consumption; that the part designed for exportation should be weighed at the customhouse, discharged of the three farthings per pound which had been paid at its first importation, and then exported without further trouble; that the portion destined for home consumption should, in presence of the warehouse-keeper, be delivered to the purchaser, upon his paying the inland duty of fourpence per pound weight, to the proper officer appointed to receive it; by which means the merchant would be eased of the inconvenience of paying the duty upon importation, or of granting bonds and finding sureties for the payment, before he had found a market for the commodity; that all penalties and forfeitures, so far as they formerly belonged to the crown, should for the future be applied to the use of the public; that appeals in this, as well as in all other cases relating to the excise, should be heard and determined by two or three of the judges, to be named by his majesty; and in the country, by the judge of assize upon the next circuit, who should hear and determine such appeals in the most summary manner, without the formality of proceedings in courts of law or equity.

Such was the substance of the famous excise scheme, in favour of which sir Robert Walpole moved that tha duties and subsidies on tobacco should, from and after the twenty-fourth day of June, cease and determine. The debate which ensued was managed and maintained by all the able speakers on both sides of the question. Sir Robert Walpole was answered by Mr. Perry, member for the city of London. Sir Paul Methuen joined in the opposition. Sir John Barnard, another representative of London, distinguished himself in the same cause.

He was supported by Mr. Pulteney, sir William Wyndham, and other patriots. The scheme was espoused by sir Philip Yorke, appointed lord-chief-justice of the king’s-bench, and ennobled in the course of the ensuing year. Sir Joseph Jekyll approved of the project, which was likewise strenuously defended by lord Hervey, sir Thomas Robinson, sir William Yonge, Mr. Pelham, and Mr. Wilmington, which last excelled all his contemporaries of the ministry in talents and address. Those who argued against the scheme, accused the minister of having misrepresented the frauds and made false calculations. With respect to the supposed hardships under which the planters were said to labour, they affirmed that no planter had ever dreamed of complaining, until instigated by letters and applications from London: that this scheme, far from relieving the planters, would expose the factors to such grievous oppression, that they would not be able to continue the trade, consequently the planters would be entirely ruined; and, after all, it would not prevent those frauds against which it was said to be provided: that from the examination of the commissioners of the customs, it appeared that those frauds did not exceed forty thousand pounds per annum, and might in a great measure be abolished, by a due execution of the laws in being; consequently this scheme was unnecessary, would be ineffectual in augmenting the revenue, destructive to trade, and dangerous to the liberties of the subject, as it tended to promote a general excise, which was in all countries considered as a grievous oppression. They suggested that it would produce an additional swarm of excise officers and warehouse-keepers, appointed and paid by the treasury, so as to multiply the dependents on the crown, and enable it still further to influence the freedom of elections: that the traders would become slaves to excisemen and warehouse-keepers, as they would be debarred all access to their commodities, except at certain hours, when attended by those officers: that the merchant, for every quantity of tobacco he could sell, would be obliged to make a journey, or send a messenger to the office for a permit, which could not be obtained without trouble, expense, and delay: and that should a law be enacted in consequence of this motion, it would in all probability be some time or other used as a precedent for introducing excise laws into every branch of the revenue; in which case the liberty of Great Britain would be no more. In the course of this debate, sir Robert Walpole took notice of the multitudes which had beset all the approaches to the house. He said it would be an easy task for a designing seditious person to raise a tumult and disorder among them: that gentlemen might give them what name they should think fit, and affirm they were come as humble suppliants; but he knew whom the law called sturdy beggars: and those who brought them to that place could not be certain but that they might behave in the same manner. This insinuation was resented by sir John Barnard, who observed that merchants of character had a right to come down to the court of requests, and lobby of the house of commons, in order to solicit their friends and acquaintance against any scheme or project which they might think prejudicial to their commerce: that when he came into the house, he saw none but such as deserved the appellation of sturdy beggars as little as the honourable gentleman himself, or any gentleman whatever.

{1733}

After a warm dispute, the motion was carried by a majority of sixty-one voices. Several resolutions were founded on the proposal: and to these the house agreed, though not without another violent contest. The resolutions produced a bill, against which petitions were preferred by the lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council of London, the city of Coventry and Nottingham. A motion was made that counsel should be heard for the city of London; but it was rejected by the majority, and the petitions were ordered to lie upon the table. Had the minister encountered no opposition but that which appeared within doors, his project would have certainly been carried into execution; but the whole nation was alarmed, and clamoured loudly against the excise-bill. The populace still crowded around Westminster-hall, blocking up all the avenues to the house of commons. They even insulted the persons of those members who had voted for the ministry on this occasion; and sir Robert Walpole began to be in fear of his life. He therefore thought proper to drop the design, by moving that the second reading of the bill might be postponed till the twelfth day of June. Then complaint being made of the insolence of the populace, who had maltreated several members, divers resolutions were taken against those tumultuous crowds and their abettors; these resolves were communicated to the lord-mayor of London, the sheriff of Middlesex, and the high-bailiff of Westminster. Some individuals were apprehended in the court of requests, as having fomented the disturbances; but they were soon released. The miscarriage of the bill was celebrated with public rejoicings in London and Westminster, and the minister was burned in effigy by the populace. After the miscarriage of the excise scheme, the house unanimously resolved to inquire into the frauds and abuses in the customs; and a committee of twenty-one persons was chosen by ballot for this purpose.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

BILL FOR A DOWER TO THE PRINCESS ROYAL.

The subsequent debates of this session were occasioned by a bill to prevent the infamous practice of stock-jobbing, which with great difficulty made its way to the house of lords, who proposed some amendments, in consequence of which it was laid aside; and succeeded by another bill establishing a lottery, to raise five hundred thousand pounds for the relief of those who had suffered by the charitable corporation. After having undergone some alteration, it passed through both houses and obtained the royal assent. The king, by message to parliament, had signified his intention to give the princess royal in marriage to the prince of Orange, promising himself their concurrence and assistance, that he might be enabled to bestow such a portion with his eldest daughter as should be suitable to the occasion. The commons immediately resolved, that but of the monies arising from the sale of lands in the island of St. Christopher’s, his majesty should be empowered to apply fourscore thousand pounds as a marriage dower for his daughter; and a clause for this purpose was inserted in the bill, for enabling his majesty to apply five hundred thousand pounds out of the sinking fund for the service of the current year.

The opposition in the house of lords was still more animated, though ineffectual. The debates chiefly turned upon the pension bill, the number of land forces, and a motion made by lord Bathurst for an account of the produce of the forfeited estates which had belonged to the directors of the South-Sea company. The trustees for these estates had charged themselves with a great sum of money, and the lords in the opposition thought they had a right to know how it had been disposed. The ministry had reasons to stifle this inquiry, and therefore opposed it with all their vigour. Nevertheless, the motion was carried after a warm dispute, and the directors of the South-Sea company were ordered to lay the accounts before the house. From this it appeared that the large sums of money arising from the forfeited estates had been distributed among the proprietors, by way of dividend, even before recourse was had to parliament for directions in what manner that produce should be applied: lord Bathurst, therefore, moved for a resolution of the house that the disposal of this money, by way of dividend, without any order or direction of a general court for that purpose, was a violation of the act of parliament made for the disposal thereof, and a manifest injustice done to the proprietors of that stock. The duke of Newcastle, in order to gain time, moved, that as the account was confused, and almost unintelligible, the present directors of the company might be ordered to lay before the house a further and more distinct account of the manner in which the money had been disposed. A violent contest ensued, in the course of which the house divided, and of fifty-seven peers who voted for the delay, forty-six were such as enjoyed preferment in the church, commissions in the army, or civil employments under the government. At length lord Bathurst waived his motion for that time; then the house ordered that the present and former directors of the South-Sea company, together with the late inspectors of their accounts, should attend and be examined. They were accordingly interrogated, and gave so little satisfaction, that lord Bathurst moved for a committee of inquiry; but the question being put, was carried in the negative: yet a very strong protest was entered by the lords in the opposition. The next subject of altercation was the bill for misapplying part of the produce of the sinking fund. It was attacked with all the force of argument, wit, and declamation, by the earl of Strafford, lords Bathurst and Carteret, and particularly by the earl of Chesterfield, who had by this time resigned his staff of lord-steward of the household, and renounced all connexion with the ministry. Lord Bathurst moved for a resolution, importing that, in the opinion of the house, the sinking fund ought for the future to be applied, in time of peace and public tranquillity, to the redemption of those taxes which were most prejudicial to the trade, most burdensome on the manufactures, and most oppressive on the poor of the nation. This motion was overruled, and the bill adopted by the majority. On the eleventh of June, the king gave the royal assent to the bills that were prepared, and closed the session with a speech, in which he took notice of the wicked endeavours that had been lately used to inflame the minds of the people by the most unjust misrepresentations.

DOUBLE ELECTION OF A KING OF POLAND.

Europe was now reinvolved in fresh troubles by a vacancy on the throne of Poland. Augustus died at Warsaw in the end of January, and the neighbouring powers were immediately in commotion. The elector of Saxony, son to the late king, and Stanislaus, whose daughter was married to the French monarch, declared themselves candidates for the Polish throne. The emperor, the czarina, and the king of Prussia, espoused the interests of the Saxon: the king of France supported the pretensions of his father-in-law. The foreign ministers at Warsaw forthwith began to form intrigues among the electors: the marquis de Monti, ambassador from France, exerted himself so successfully, that he soon gained over the primate, and a majority of the catholic dietines, to the interests of Stanislaus; while the Imperial and Russian troops hovered on the frontiers of Poland. The French king no sooner understood that a body of the emperor’s forces was encamped at Silesia, than he ordered the duke of Berwick to assemble an army on the Rhine, and take measures for entering Germany in case the Imperialists should march into Poland. A French fleet set sail for Dantzic, while Stanislaus travelled through Germany in disguise to Poland, and concealed himself in the house of the French ambassador at Warsaw. As the day of election approached, the Imperial, Russian, and Prussian ministers delivered in their several declarations, by way of protest, against the contingent election of Stanislaus, as a person proscribed, disqualified, depending upon a foreign power, and connected with the Turks and other infidels. The Russian general Lasci entered Poland at the head of fifty thousand men: the diet of the election was opened with the usual ceremony on the twenty-fifth day of August. Prince Viesazowski, chief of the Saxon interest, retired to the other side of the Vistula, with three thousand men, including some of the nobility who adhered to that party. Nevertheless, the primate proceeded to the election: Stanislaus was unanimously chosen king; and appeared in the electoral field, where he was received with loud acclamations. The opposite party soon increased to ten thousand men; protested against the election, and joined the Russian army, which advanced by speedy marches. King Stanislaus finding himself unable to cope with such adversaries, retired with the primate and French ambassador to Dantzic, leaving the palatine of Kiow at Warsaw. This general attacked the Saxon palace, which was surrendered upon terms: then the soldiers and inhabitants plundered the houses belonging to the grandees who had declared for Augustus, as well as the hotel of the Russian minister. In the meantime, the Poles, who had joined the Muscovites, finding it impracticable to pass the Vistula before the expiration of the time fixed for the session of the diet, erected a kelo at Cracow, where the elector of Saxony was chosen and proclaimed by the bishop of Cracow, king of Poland, under the name of Augustus III., on the sixth day of October. They afterwards passed the river, and the palatine of Kiow retiring towards Cracow, they took possession of Warsaw, where in their turn they plundered the palaces and houses belonging to the opposite party.

CONFEDERACY AGAINST THE EMPEROR.

During these transactions, the French king concluded a treaty with Spain and Sardinia, by which those powers agreed to declare war against the emperor. Manifestoes were published reciprocally by all the contracting powers. The duke of Berwick passed the Rhine in October, and undertook the seige of fort Kehl, which in a few days was surrendered on capitulation: then he repassed the river and returned to Versailles. The king of Sardinia having declared war against the emperor, joined a body of French forces commanded by mareschal de Villars, and drove the Imperialists out of the Milanese. His Imperial majesty, dreading the effects of such a powerful confederacy against him, offered to compromise all differences with the crown of Spain, under the mediation of the king of Great Britain; and Mr. Keene, the British minister at Madrid, proposed an accommodation. Philip expressed his acknowledgments to the king of England, declaring, however, that the emperor’s advances were too late, and that his own resolutions were already taken. Nevertheless, he sent orders to the count de Montijo, his ambassador at London, to communicate to his Britannic majesty the motives which had induced him to take these resolutions. In the meantime he detached a powerful armament to Italy, where they invested the Imperial fortress of Aula, the garrison of which was obliged to surrender themselves prisoners of war. The republic of Venice declared she would take no share in the disputes of Italy; the states-general signed a neutrality with the French king for the Austrian Netherlands, without consulting the emperor or the king of Great Britain; and the English councils seemed to be altogether pacific.

ARRIVAL OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE.

In November the prince of Orange arrived at Greenwich, in order to espouse the princess royal; but the marriage was postponed on account of his being taken ill: and he repaired to Bath, in Somersetshire, to drink the water for the recovery of his strength. Henrietta, the young duchess of Marlborough, dying about this time, the title devolved to her sister’s son, the earl of Sunderland. Lord King resigning his office of chancellor, it was conferred upon Mr. Talbot, solicitor-general, together with the title of baron; a promotion that reflected honour upon those by whom it was advised. He possessed the spirit of a Roman senator, the elegance of an Atticus, and the integrity of a Cato. At the meeting of the parliament in January, the king told them, in his speech, that though he was no way engaged in the war which had begun to rage in Europe, except by the good offices he had employed among the contending powers, he could not sit regardless of the present events, or be unconcerned for the consequences of a war undertaken and supported by such a powerful alliance. He said, he had thought proper to take time to examine the facts alleged on both sides, and to wait the result of the councils of those powers that were more immediately interested in the consequences of the rupture. He declared he would concert with his allies, more particularly with the states-general of the United Provinces, such measures as should be thought most advisable for their common safety, and for restoring the peace of Europe. In the meantime, he expressed his hope that they would make such provision as should secure his kingdom, rights, and possessions from all dangers and insults, and maintain the respect due to the British nation. He said, that whatever part it might in the end be most reasonable for him to act, it would in all views be necessary, when all Europe was preparing for arms, to put his kingdom in a posture of defence. The motion for an address of thanks produced as usual a debate in both houses, which, it must be owned, appears to have proceeded from a spirit of cavilling, rather than from any reasonable cause of objection.

ALTERCATION IN THE COMMONS.

The house of commons resolved to address his majesty for a copy of the treaty of Vienna. Sir John Rushout moved for another, desiring that the letters and instructions relating to the execution of the treaty of Seville, should be submitted to the inspection of the commons; but, after a hard struggle, it was over-ruled. The next motion was made by Mr. Sandys, a gentleman who had for some time appeared strenuous in the opposition, and wrangled with great perseverance. He proposed that the house should examine the instructions which had been given to the British minister in Poland, some years before the death of king Augustus, that they might be the better able to judge of the causes which produced this new rupture among the powers of Europe. The motion being opposed by all the court members, a contest ensued, in the course of which Mr. Pulteney compared the ministry to an empyric, and the constitution of England to his patient. This pretender in physic, said he, being consulted, tells the distempered person there were but two or three ways of treating his disease; and he was afraid that none of them would succeed. A vomit might throw him into convulsions that would occasion immediate death; a purge might bring on a diarrhoea that would carry him off in a short time; and he had been already bled so much, and so often, that he could bear it no longer. The unfortunate patient, shocked at this declaration, replies, “Sir, you have always pretended to be a regular doctor; but now I find you are an arrant quack. I had an excellent constitution when I first fell into your hands, but you have quite destroyed it; and now I find I have no other chance for saving my life, but by calling for the help of some regular physician.” In the debate, the members on both sides seemed to wander from the question, and indulge themselves in ludicrous personalities. Mr. H. Walpole took occasion to say, that the opposition treated the ministry as he himself was treated by some of his acquaintances with respect to his dress. “If I am in plain clothes,” said he, “then they call me a slovenly dirty fellow; and if by chance I wear a laced suit, they cry, What, shall such an awkward fellow wear fine clothes?” He continued to sport in this kind of idle buffoonery. He compared the present administration to a ship at sea. As long as the wind was fair, and proper for carrying us to our designed port, the word was, “Steady! steady!” but when the wind began to shift and change, the word was necessarily altered to “Thus, thus, and no nearer.” The motion was overpowered by the majority; and this was the fate of several other proposals made by the members in the opposition. Sir John Barnard presented a petition from the druggists, and other dealers in tea, complaining of the insults and oppression to which they were subjected by the excise laws, and imploring relief. Sir John and Mr. Perry, another of the city members, explained the grievous hardships which those traders sustained, and moved that the petition might be referred to the consideration of the whole house. They were opposed by Mr. Winnington, sir W. Yonge, and other partisans of the ministry; and these skirmishes brought on a general engagement of the two parties, in which every weapon of satire, argument, reason, and truth, was wielded against that odious, arbitrary, and oppressive method of collecting the public revenue. Nevertheless, the motion in favour of the sufferers was rejected. When the commons deliberated upon the supply, Mr. Andrews, deputy-paymaster of the army, moved for an addition of eighteen hundred men to the number of land forces which had been continued since the preceding year. The members in the opposition disputed this small augmentation with too much heat and eagerness. It must be acknowledged, they were by this time irritated into such personal animosity against the minister, that they resolved to oppose all his measures, whether they might or might not be necessary for the safety and advantage of the kingdom. Nor indeed were they altogether blameable for acting on this maxim, if their sole aim was to remove from the confidence and councils of their sovereign, a man whose conduct they thought prejudicial to the interests and liberties of their country. They could not, however, prevent the augmentation proposed; but they resolved, if they could not wholly stop the career of the ministry, to throw in such a number of rubs as should at least retard their progress. The duke of Bolton and lord Cobham had been deprived of the regiments they commanded, because they refused to concur in every project of the administration. It was in consequence of their dismission, that lord Morpeth moved for a bill to prevent any commissioned officer, not above the rank of a colonel, from being removed, unless by a court-martial, or by address of either house of parliament. Such an attack on the prerogative might have succeeded in the latter part of the reign of the first Charles; but at this juncture could not fail to miscarry; yet it was sustained with great vigour and address. When the proposal was set aside by the majority, Mr. Sandys moved for an address to the king, desiring to know who advised his majesty to remove the duke of Bolton and lord Cob-ham from their respective regiments. He was seconded by Mr. Pulteney and sir William Wyndham; but the ministry foreseeing another tedious dispute, called for the question, and the motion was carried in the negative. The next source of contention was a bill for securing the freedom of parliament, by limiting the number of officers in the house of commons. It was read a first and second time; but when a motion was made for its being committed, it met with a powerful opposition, and produced a warm debate that issued in a question which, like the former, passed in the negative. A clergyman having insinuated in conversation that sir William Milner, baronet, member for York, received a pension from the ministry, the house took cognizance of this report; the clergyman acknowledged at the bar that he might have dropped such a hint from hearsay. The accused member protested, upon his honour, that he never did nor ever would receive place, pension, gratuity, or reward from the court, either directly or indirectly, for voting in parliament, or upon any other account whatever. The accusation was voted false and scandalous, and the accuser taken into custody; but in a few days he was discharged upon his humble petition, and his begging pardon of the member whom he had calumniated. The duty upon salt was prolonged for eight years; and a bill passed against stock-jobbing.

MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE SEPTENNIAL ACT.

But the subject which of all others employed the eloquence and abilities on both sides to the most vigorous exertion, was a motion made by Mr. Bromley, who proposed that a bill should be brought in for repealing the septenntal act, and for the more frequent meeting and calling of parliaments. The arguments for and against septennial parliaments have already been stated. The ministry now insisted upon the increase of papists and Jacobites, which rendered it dangerous to weaken the hands of the government; they challenged the opposition to produce one instance in which the least encroachment had been made on the liberties of the people since the septennial act took place; and they defied the most ingenious malice to prove that his present majesty had ever endeavoured to extend any branch of the prerogative beyond its legal bounds. Sir John Hinde Cotton affirmed, that in many parts of England the papists had already begun to use all their influence in favour of those candidates who were recommended by the ministers as members in the ensuing parliament. With respect to his majesty’s conduct, he said he would not answer one word; but as to the grievances introduced since the law was enacted for septennial parliaments, he thought himself more at liberty to declare his sentiments. He asserted, that the septennial law itself was an encroachment on the rights of the people; a law passed by a parliament that made itself septennial. He observed, that the laws of treason with regard to trials were altered since that period; that in former times a man was tried by a jury of his neighbours, within the county where the crimes alleged against him were said to be committed; but by an act of a septennial parliament he might be removed and tried in any place where the crown, or rather the ministry, could find a jury proper for their purpose; where the prisoner could not bring any witnesses in his justification, without an expense which perhaps his circumstances would not bear. He asked, if the riot act was not an encroachment on the rights of the people? An act by which a little dirty justice of the peace, the meanest and vilest tool a minister can use, who, perhaps subsists by his being in the commission, and may be deprived of that subsistence at the pleasure of his patron, had it in his power to put twenty or thirty of the best subjects in England to immediate death, without any trial or form but that of reading a proclamation. “Was not the fatal South-Sea scheme,” said he, “established by the act of a septennial parliament? And can any man ask, whether that law was attended with any inconvenience; to the glorious catalogue I might have added the late excise bill, if it had passed into a law; but, thank heaven, the septennial parliament was near expiring before that famous measure was introduced.”