INQUIRY INTO THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.

But this harmony was of short duration. It soon appeared, that those who had declaimed the loudest for the liberties of their country, had been actuated solely by the most sordid and even the most ridiculous motives of self-interest. Jealousy and mutual distrust ensued between them and their former confederates. The nation complained, that, instead of a total change of men and measures, they saw the old ministry strengthened by this coalition; and the same interest in parliament predominating with redoubled influence. They branded the new converts as apostates and betrayers of their country; and in the transports of their indignation, they entirely overlooked the old object of their resentment. That a nobleman of pliant principles, narrow fortune, and unbounded ambition, should forsake his party for the blandishments of affluence, power, and authority, will not appear strange to any person acquainted with the human heart; but the sensible part of mankind will always reflect with amazement upon the conduct of a man, who seeing himself idolized by his fellow-citizens, as the first and firmest patriot in the kingdom, as one of the most shining ornaments of his country, could give up all his popularity, and incur the contempt or detestation of mankind, for the wretched consideration of an empty title, without office, influence, or the least substantial appendage. One cannot, without an emotion of grief, contemplate such an instance of infatuation—one cannot but lament that such glory should have been so weakly forfeited; that such talents should have been lost to the cause of liberty and virtue. Doubtless he flattered himself with the hope of one day directing the councils of his sovereign; but this was never accomplished, and he remained a solitary monument of blasted ambition. Before the change in the ministry, Mr. Pulteney moved, that the several papers relating to the conduct of the war, which had been laid before the house, should be referred to a select committee, who should examine strictly into the particulars, and make a report to the house of their remarks and objections. The motion introduced a debate; but, upon a division, was rejected by a majority of three voices. Petitions having been presented by the merchants of London, Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, and almost all the trading towns in the kingdom, complaining of the losses they had sustained by the bad conduct of the war, the house resolved itself into a committee to deliberate on these remonstrances. The articles of the London petition were explained by Mr. Glover, an eminent merchant of that city. Six days were spent in perusing papers and examining witnesses; then the same gentleman summed up the evidence, and in a pathetic speech endeavoured to demonstrate, that the commerce of Great Britain had been exposed to the insults and rapine of the Spaniards, not by inattention or accident, but by one uniform and continued design. This inquiry being resumed after the adjournment, copies of instructions to admirals and captains of cruising ships were laid before the house: the commons passed several resolutions, upon which a bill was prepared for the better protecting and securing the trade and navigation of the kingdom. It made its way through the lower house; but was thrown out by the lords. The pension-bill was revived and sent up to the peers, where it was again rejected, lord Carteret voting against that very measure which he had so lately endeavoured to promote. On the ninth day of March, lord Limerick made a motion for appointing a committee to inquire into the conduct of affairs for the last twenty years; he was seconded by sir John St. Aubyn, and supported by Mr. Velters Cornwall, Mr. Phillips, Mr. W. Pitt, and lord Percival, the new member for Westminster, who had already signalized himself by his eloquence and capacity. The motion was opposed by sir Charles Wager, Mr. Pelham, and Mr. Henry Pox, surveyor-general to his majesty’s works, and brother to lord Ilchester. Though the opposition was faint and frivolous, the proposal was rejected by a majority of two voices.

1742

Lord Limerick, not yet discouraged, made a motion on the twenty-third day of March, for an inquiry into the conduct of Robert earl of Orford, for the last ten years of his administration; and, after a sharp debate, it was carried in the affirmative. The house resolved to choose a secret committee by ballot; and in the meantime presented an address to the king, assuring him of their fidelity, zeal, and affection.

Sir Robert Godschall having moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the act for septennial parliaments, he was seconded by sir John Barnard; but warmly opposed by Mr. Pulteney and Mr. Sandys; and the question passed in the negative. The committee of secrecy being chosen, began to examine evidence, and Mr. Paxton, solicitor to the treasury, refusing to answer such questions as were put to him, lord Limerick, chairman of the committee, complained to the house of his obstinacy. He was first taken into custody; and still persisting in his refusal, committed to Newgate. Then his lordship moved, that leave should be given to bring in a bill for indemnifying evidence against the earl of Orford; and it was actually prepared by a decision of the majority. In the house of lords it was vigorously opposed by lord Carteret, and as strenuously supported by the duke of Argyle; but fell upon a division, by the weight of superior numbers. Those members in the house of commons who heartily wished the inquiry might be prosecuted, were extremely incensed at the fate of this bill. A committee was appointed to search the journals of the lords for precedents; their report being read, lord Strange, son to the earl of Derby, moved for a resolution, “That the lords refusing to concur with the commons of Great Britain, in an indemnification necessary to the effectual carrying on the inquiry now depending in parliament, is an obstruction to justice, and may prove fatal to the liberties of this nation.”—This motion, which was seconded by lord Quarendon, son of the earl of Lichfield, gave rise to a warm debate; and Mr. Sandys declaimed against it, as a step that would bring on an immediate dissolution of the present form of government. It is really amazing to see with what effrontery some men can shift their maxims, and openly contradict the whole tenor of their former conduct. Mr. Sandys did not pass uncensured: he sustained some severe sarcasms on his apostacy from sir John Hinde Cotton, who refuted all his objections; nevertheless, the motion passed in the negative. Notwithstanding this great obstruction, purposely thrown in the way of the inquiry, the secret committee discovered many flagrant instances of fraud and corruption in which the earl of Orford had been concerned. It appeared, that he had granted fraudulent contracts for paying the troops in the West Indies; that he had employed iniquitous arts to influence elections; that for secret service, during the last ten years, he had touched one million four hundred fifty-three thousand four hundred pounds of public money; that above fifty thousand pounds of this sum had been paid to authors and printers of newspapers and political tracts, written in defence of the ministry; that on the very day which preceded his resignation, he had signed orders on the civil list revenues for above thirty thousand pounds; but as the cash remaining in the exchequer did not much exceed fourteen thousand pounds, he had raised the remaining part of the thirty thousand, by pawning the orders to a banker. The committee proceeded to make further progress in their scrutiny, and had almost prepared a third report, when they were interrupted by the prorogation of parliament.

The ministry finding it was necessary to take some step for conciliating the affection of the people, gave way to a bill for excluding certain officers from scats in the house of commons. They passed another for encouraging the linen manufacture; a third for regulating the trade of the plantations; and a fourth to prevent the marriage of lunatics. They voted forty thousand seamen, and sixty-two thousand five hundred landmen, for the service of the current year. They provided for the subsidies to Denmark and Hesse-Cassel, and voted five hundred thousand pounds to the queen of Hungary. The expense of the year amounted to near six millions, raised by the land-tax at four shillings in the pound, by the malt-tax, by one million from the sinking-fund, by annuities granted upon it for eight hundred thousand pounds, and a loan of one million six hundred thousand pounds from the bank. In the month of July, John lord Gower was appointed keeper of his majesty’s privy-seal; Allen lord Bathurst was made captain of the band of pensioners; and on the fifteenth day of the month, Mr. Pulteney took his seat in the house of peers as earl of Bath. The king closed the session in the usual way, after having given them to understand, that a treaty of peace was concluded between the queen of Hungary and the king of Prussia, under his mediation; and that the late successes of the Austrian arms were in a great measure owing to the generous assistance afforded by the British nation.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760