ALTERATIONS IN THE MINISTRY.

Sir Thomas Robinson had not been long in possession of the office of secretary of state, before it was generally perceived, that, though an honest well meaning man, and a favourite with the king, his abilities were not equal to the functions of that post. Much less were they so at this juncture, when the nation was on the point of being engaged in a difficult and expensive war, and plunged into foreign measures and connexions, which would require the utmost skill of an able politician to render them palatable to the people. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, though they scarce ever agreed in any other particular, had generally united in opposing his measures, and their superior influence in the house of commons, and universally acknowledged abilities, though of very different kinds, had always prevailed; uncommon as it was, to see two persons who held considerable places under the government, one of them being paymaster-general, and the other secretary at war, oppose, upon almost every occasion, a secretary of state who was supposed to know and speak the sentiments of his master. Sir Thomas himself soon grew sensible of his want of sufficient weight in the senate of the nation; and therefore, of his own accord, on the tenth of November, wisely and dutifully resigned the seals of his office to his majesty, who delivered them to Mr. Fox, and appointed sir Thomas master of the wardrobe, with a pension to him during his life, and after his death to his sons. Lord Barrington succeeded Mr. Fox as secretary at war; and soon after sir George Lyttelton was made chancellor of the exchequer, and a lord of the treasury, in the room of Mr. Legge, who had declared himself against the new continental system. However, notwithstanding these changes in the ministry, very warm debates arose in both houses, when the treaties of Russia and Hesse-Cassel came to be considered by them; some of the members were for referring them to a committee; but this motion was over-ruled, in consideration of his majesty’s having engaged in them to guard against a storm that seemed ready to break upon his electoral dominions, merely on account of our quarrel with the French. They were at length approved of by a majority of three hundred and eighteen against one hundred and twenty-six, in the house of commons; and by eighty-four against eleven, in the house of lords.

The house of commons then proceeded to provide for the service of the ensuing year, and for the deficiencies of the provisions for the former. Fifty thousand seamen, including nine thousand one hundred and thirty-eight marines, were voted, on the twenty-fourth of November, for the service of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, together with two millions six hundred thousand pounds for their maintenance; and thirty-four thousand two hundred and sixty-three land soldiers, with nine hundred and thirty thousand six hundred and three pounds, six shillings and ninepence, for their support. An hundred thousand pounds were voted as a subsidy to the empress of Russia; fifty-four thousand one hundred and forty pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence, to the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; and ten thousand pounds to the elector of Bavaria.