jesty, to acquaint you, that he is pleased | mediately repair to the place where the to defer declaring the causes of calling Commons usually sit, and there choose a this parliament, till there shall be a Speaker fit person to be your Speaker; and that of the House of Commons. It is, there- you present the person who shall be so fore, his majesty's pleasure, that you, gen- chosen, to his majesty, here, for his royal tlemen of the House of Commons, do im- approbation, on Friday next, at two of the clock." and Placentia, for Don Philip, under the guarantee of England. Even such wild and absurd fictions, that he had betrayed to Fleury and Patinho, the projected operations against Spain, and that he received from those ministers large remittances to bribe the parliament, were audaciously advanced, and confidently believed. "The minister had been no sooner forced into the war, than the mode of conducting it became an object of obloquy and censure. Violent murmurs were diffused throughout the nation, grounded on the ill success of the war, the loss of the commerce with Spain, of which those who forced the minister to commence hostilities most loudly complained; the neutrality of Hanover was represented as inconsistent with the dignity and interests of England, and falsely imputed to him. To these immediate causes of complaint were added apprehensions of future evils; the conclusion of a dishonourable peace with Spain was said to be in agitation, of which the basis was to be the restitution of Gibraltar and Minorca; the aggrandisement of France, the abasement of the house of Austria, the establishment of the elector of Bavaria on the throne of the empire, who would always remain attached to the house of Bourbon, and the guarantee of Parma to Don Philip, which would be a shameful breach of the guarantee of the pragmatic sanction. "The majority by which the motion to remove him was rejected, the death of sir William Wyndham, and the retreat of Bolingbroke into France, rendered him indolent, and inspired him with too much confidence in the support of the king, and in the strength of his friends. 'His success on this occasion,' as a contemporary pamphleteer justly expresses himself, threw him into a lethargy of power. He imagined that the breach between the Whigs and the Tories was too great to be repaired during the time of electing a new parliament; he thought that it would daily become wider; he seems to have mistaken the motives which induced the Tories to act as they did, and formed too favourable a judgment of the temper and spirit manifested by the people on that unjust motion. He gave them time to recon. cile this temporary ebb, and suffered the popular opinion against him to flow back again with increasing violence.' "While the minister laboured under this pressure of great unpopularity; while he was arraigned for the measures of others, of which he was accused of being the sole director; while the cabinet was divided, and the support from the crown so feeble; the exertions on the side of government were inadequate to the vi Then his majesty was pleased to retire ; and the Commons withdrew. List of the House of Commons.*] The following is a List of the Members of the House of Commons: rous efforts made by opposition. The Tories and Jacobites were reconciled with the disaffected Whigs, and all united to demolish their common enemy. Letters from the Pretender were circulated among the Jacobites and high Tories, exhorting them to use all their efforts for the purpose of effecting the disgrace of sir Robert Walpole; and such was the temper of the people, that his fall became the open or secret wish of all parties." Coxe's Walpole. numbers and weight of property in the Honse * "It was thought about this time, that the of Peers, were too disproportioned to that of the Commons; and consequently that the imof the House of Peers too small. His majesty, portance of a peerage was too great, and that ever since his accession to the throne, had been extremely frugal in bestowing titles of honour, and the evil complained of had been sensibly felt. It was therefore resolved that it should be remedied for the future, and that the constitution in that respect should be brought therefore had been made peers this summer. nearer to its first principles. Three commoners Mr. Bromley was made lord Montford, Mr. Stephen Fox lord Ilchester, and Mr. Howe lord Chedworth; all of them men of property, and their persons so unexceptionable, that, even in that period of discontent, their creations met with general applause." Tindal. "By the best judgment I can form of the list of this present parliament, and I have examined it very carefully, we appear to be so strong, that I think we can but just be called the minority; and I am very sure that such a minority, well united and well conducted, might soon be a majority. But Hoc opus hic labor 'est.' It will neither be united nor well conducted. Those who should lead it will make it their business to break and divide it; and they will succeed. I mean Carteret and Pulteney. Their behaviour for these few years has, in my mind, plainly shewn their views and their negociations with the court: but, surely, their conduct at the end of last session puts that matter out of all dispute. They feared even the success of that minority, and took care to render it as insignificant as possible. Will they then not be much more apprehensive of A LIST OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS Bedford. Samuel Ongley; died, no new writ ordered.-Sir Boteler Chernocke. BERKSHIRE. Penyston Powney.——Winch. Howard Packer; died, a new writ ordered, Nov. 18, 1746.-Henry Pye. Windsor.-Henry Fox ; made a lord of the treasury, and a new writ being ordered, Dec. 21, 1743,he was re-elected. Then made secretary at war; and a new writ being ordered, May 27, 1746, he was re-elected.-Lord Sidney Beauclerk; died, a new writ ordered, Nov. 28, 1744.-Lord George Beauclerk. Reading. William Strode.-John Blagrave. Wallingford. John Bance.-John RushAbingdon. John Wright. BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. Rich. Grenville. - Rich. Lowndes. Buckingham. George Denton.-George to others; and many will, by that time, present themselves. the success of this; and will not both their merit and their reward be much the greater for defeating it? If you will tell me that they ought rather to avail themselves of these numbers, and, "For example, the court generally proposes at the head of them, force their way where some servile and shameless tool of theirs to be they are so impatient to go, I will agree with Chairman of the Committee of Privileges and you, that in prudence they ought; but the fact Elections. Why should not we, therefore, is, they reason quite differently, desire to get pick out some whig of a fair character, and in, with a few by negociation, and not by vic-with personal connections, to set up in opposi tory with numbers, who they fear might presume upon their strength, and grow troublesome to their generals. "On the other hand, sir Robert must be alarmed at our numbers, and must resolve to reduce them before they are brought into the field. He knows by experience, where and how to apply for that purpose; with this difference only, that the numbers will have raised the price, which he must come up to. And this is all the fruit I expect from this strong minority. You will possibly ask me, whether all this is in the power of Carteret and Pulteney? I answer, yes; in the power of Pulteney alone. He has a personal influence over many, and an interested influence over more. The silly, halfwitted, zealous whigs consider him as the only support of whiggism; and look upon us as running headlong into Bolingbroke and the tories. The interested whigs, as Sandys, Rushout, and Gibbon, with many others, are as impatient to come into court as he can be; and, persuaded that he has opened that door a little, will hold fast by him to squeeze in with him, and think they can justify their conduct to the public, by following their old leader, under the colours (though false ones) of whiggism. tion? I think we should be pretty strong upon this point. But as for opposition to their Speaker, if it be Onslow, we shall be but weak; he having, by a certain decency of behaviour, made himself many personal friends in the mi. nority. The affair of Carthagena will of course be mentioned; and there, in my opinion, a question, and a trying one too, of censure, lies very fair, that the delaying of that expedition so late last year was the principal cause of our disappointment. An address to the king, desiring him to make no peace with Spain, unless our undoubted right of navigation in the West Indies, without molestation or search, be clearly and in express words stipulated, and till we have acquired some valuable possession there, as a pledge of the performance of such stipulation: such a question would surely be a popular one, and distressful enough to the ministry. "I entirely agree with you, that we ought to have meetings to concert measures some time before the meeting of the parliament; but that I likewise know will not happen. I have been these seven years endeavouring to bring it about, and have not been able. Fox-hunting, gardening, planting, or indifference, having always kept our people in the country, till the "What then, is nothing to be done? Are we very day before the meeting of the parliament. to give it up tamely, when the prospect seems Besides, would it be easy to settle who should so fair? No; I am for acting, let our numbers be at those meetings? If Pulteney and his be what they will. I am for discriminating, people were to be chose, it would be only inand making people speak out; though our forming them beforehand, what they should numbers should, as I am convinced they will, either oppose or defend; and if they were not lessen considerably by it. Let what will hap- there, their own exclusion would in some depen, we cannot be in a worse situation than gree justify, or at least colour their conduct. that we have been in for these last three or four As to our most flagitious House, I believe you years. Nay, I am for acting at the very be- agree there is nothing to be done in it; and for ginning of the sessions, and bringing our num- such a minority to struggle with such a mabers the first week; and points for that pur-jority, would be much like the late king of pose, I am sure, are not wanting. Some occur Sweden's attacking the Ottoman army at Bento me now, many more will, I dare say, occur der, at the bead of his cook and butler. [VOL. XII. ] [0] Grenville; made a lord of the admiralty; and a new writ being ordered, Dec. 22, 1744, he was re-elected. Chipping Wicomb. Edmund Waller; made cofferer to his majesty; and a new writ being ordered, Dec. 22, 1744, he was re-elected.-Harry Waller. Aylesbury. William visc. Petersham.— Chas. Pilsworth. Agmondesham. Thomas Gore; made commissary-general of the musters; a new writ ordered, Feb. 21, 1746. He was re-chosen for Portsmouth.-Sir Henry Marshall; lord mayor of London 1745.-William Drake. Wendover. John Hampden.-Ralph visc. Fermanagh; created earl Verney in the kingdom of Ireland. Great-Marlow. Sir Thomas Hoby; died, a new writ ordered, Nov. 27, 1744.Samuel Tuffnell.-Will. Ockenden. "These are difficulties, the insurmountable difficulties, that I foresee; and which make me absolutely despair of seeing any good done. However, I am entirely at the service of you and the rest of my friends who mean the pub. lic good. I will either fight or run away as you shall determine. If the duke of Argyle sounds to battle, I will follow my leader; if he stays in Oxfordshire, I will stay in Grosvenor square. I think it is all one which we do as to our House; your's must be the scene of action, if action there be; and action I think there should be, at least for a time, let your numbers be what you will." Lord Chesterfield to Mr. Dodington, dated Spa, September 8, 1741. See Coxe's Memoirs of sir R. Walpole, vol. 3, p. 579. March 15, 1744.- Sir John Moles- Leskard. Charles Trelawney.` Truro. Charles Hamilton; Clerk of the houshold to the prince: made receivergeneral and collector of the revenues in the island of Minorca, and a new writ being ordered, Dec. 22, 1743, be was re-elected.-James Hammond; equerry to the prince; died, a new writ ordered, June 10, 1742.-Edward Boscawen. Bodmyn. John Laroche.-Thomas Bludworth; groom of the bedchamber to the prince of Wales. Helston. Francis Godolphin, nephew to the late earl of Godolphin.-Thomas Walker. Saltash. John Cleveland; clerk of the checque in the navy-office, Plymouth, made a commissioner of the navy; and a new writ ordered, April 12, 1743.Stamp Brooksbank.-Thomas Corbet. Camelford. Will. earl of Inchiquin.Charles Montague; auditor-general to the prince of Wales for the county of Cornwall. Westlow. Sir Charles Wager; first lord of the admiralty, made treasurer of the navy; and a new writ being ordered, Dec. 16, 1742, he was re-elected, and died; a new writ ordered, Dec. 2, 1743.-Benjamin Keene; a commissioner of trade and plantations, made paymaster of divers annual bounties and pensions; and a new writ being ordered, Dec. 22, 1744, he was reelected.-John Frederick. Grampound. Daniel Boone; made commissary-general of the musters; and a new writ being ordered, July 13, 1742, he was re-elected.-William Banks. East low. Jas. Buller.-Francis Gashry; joint secretary to the treasury, and secretary to sir Robert Walpole, as chancellor of the exchequer. Penryn Edward Vernon; made his election for Ipswich; a new writ ordered, Feb. 14, 1743.-John Evelyn. George Boscawen. Tregony. Thomas Watts; prothonotary of the court of common pleas.-Henry Penton; under secretary to the duke of Newcastle, one of the principal secretaries of state.-George Cooke; made auditor of his majesty's duchy of Cornwall; and a new writ being ordered, June 18, 1751, he was re-elected. Bossiney. Tho. Foster.-Richard Liddel; Fowey. Jonathan Rashleigh.-William St. Michael. John Ord; died, a new St. Maws. Robert Nugent.-James Doug- of the exchequer; third son of the earl of Orford. Thomas Coplestone. Cumberland. Sir James Lowther.-Sir Joseph Pennington; died, a new writ ordered, Dec. 10, 1744.-Sir John Pennington. Carlisle. Charles Howard; groom of the bedchamber to his majesty.-Jobn Stanwix; not duly elected.-John Hylton; died, a new writ ordered, Nov. 18, 1746. John Stanwix; lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of foot. Cockermouth. Wm. Finch.-John Mordaunt; colonel in the Foot Guards, and equerry to his majesty. DERBYSHIRE. Wm. marq. of Hartington.Sir Nathaniel Curzon. Derby Town. Lord James Cavendish ; made auditor of foreign accompts or imposts in Ireland: a new writ ordered, March 1, 1742.-John Stanhope.→→ Will. visc. Duncannon; son in-law to the duke of Devonshire, made a lord of the Admiralty; and a new writ being ordered, June 23, 1746, he was reelected. Totness. Sir Charles Willes; died, a new writ ordered, Jan. 18, 1742Joseph Danvers.-Sir John Strange; solicitor-general and recorder of London, both which he resigned. Plymouth. Arthur Stert.-Lord Vere Beauclerk; made a lord of the Admiralty; and a new writ being ordered, Dec. 22, 1744, he was re-elected. Oakhampton. George Lyttelton; made a lord of the treasury; and a new writ being ordered, Dec. 22, 1744, he was re-elected. Thomas Pitt; assay-master for the coinage of tin to the prince of Wales. Barnstaple. Henry Rolle.-John Harris. Plympton Earle. Tho. Clutterbuck; a lord of the Admiralty, made treasurer of the navy; and a new writ being ordered, May 7, 1742, he was re-elected and died; and a new writ ordered, Nov. 26, 1742.-Richard Edgecumbe; created lord Edgecumbe; a new writ ordered, April 26, 1742.—Rich. Edgecumbe; eldest son of lord Edgecumbe. -William lord Sundon. Honiton. Sir W. Yonge; made joint vice-treasurer, and receiver-general, and paymaster of all his majesty's revenues in the kingdom of Ireland; and a new writ being ordered, May 10, 1746, he was re-elected.-H. Reginald Courtenay. Tavistock. Charles viscount Fane.-Lord Sherard Manners; died, a new writ ordered, Jan. 20, 1742.-James viscount Limerick. Ashburton. John Harris; master of his majesty's houshold. John Arscot; commissary-general of the marines. Dartmouth. George Treby; died, a new writ ordered, March 16, 1742.-Walter Cary. Lord Archib. Hamilton; a lord of the admiralty. Bere-Alston. Samuel Heathcote.-Sir Tiverton. Arthur Arscot.-Sir Dudley DORSETSHIRE. Edm. Mort. Pleydell.-George Chaffin. Poole. Joseph Gulston; South Sea director.-Thomas Missing. Dorchester. John Brown.-Nathaniel Gundry; made one of his majesty's counsel at law; and a new writ being ordered, July 14, 1742, he was reelected. Lyme Regis. Henry Holt Henley.John Scrope. Weymouth and Melcombe Regis.—Josh. Damer.-John Tucker.-John Raymond.-James Stuart. Bridport. William Bowles; made his election for Bewdley, upon the electors, &c. withdrawing their petition. A new writ ordered, March 25, 1742.-George Richards; died, a new writ ordered, Nov. 28, 1746.-T. Hen. visc. Deerhurst; died, a new writ ordered, Nov. 27, 1744.-Thomas Grenville; captain of the Defiance man of war. Killed, May 3, 1747, in an engagement, when the whole French fleet were taken; and a new writ ordered, May 19, 1747.— G. Wm. visc. Deerhurst.-Jas. Grenville; deputy-paymaster of the forces, and commissioner of trade. Shaftesbury. Peter Walter. - Charles Ewer; died, a new writ ordered, June 24, 1742.-George Pitt. Warcham. Henry Drax. John Pitt; made a commissioner of trade and plantations; and a new writ being ordered, Dec. 22, 1744, he was reelected. Corfe Castle. John Bond; died, a new writ ordered, Nov. 27, 1744.-Henry Banks.-Thomas Erle Drax. DURHAM. George Bowes.-John Hedworth; died, but no new writ ordered. Durham. Henry Lambton.-John Shaftoe; died, a new writ ordered, April 5, 1742.-John Tempest. ESSEX. Thomas Bramston.-Sir Robert Abdy. Colchester. John Olmius.-Matt. Martin; not duly returned or elected.-Charles Gray.-Samuel Savill. ordered, Dec. 23, 1741.-Velters Corn- Hereford. Edw. Cope Hopton.-Thos. Leominster. John Caswall; died, a new Weobly. Henry visc. Palmerston; chief remembrancer of his majesty's court of exchequer in Ireland.-George lord Carpenter; lieutenant colonel of the first troop of Horse Guards. HERTFORDSHIRE. Jacob Houblon.-C. Gore. St. Albans. James West; joint-secretary of the treasury. Thomas Ashby; died, a new writ ordered, Feb. 4, 1743. -Hans Stanley. KENT. suc Sir Roger Twisden.-Sir Edward Maidstone. Heneage lord Guernsey.— Queenborough. Richard Evans.-Tho- LANCASHIRE. James lord Strange.-Richard Shuttleworth. Preston. James Shuttleworth.-Nicholas Fazakerley. |