Shortly after this Lord Bute faid " it would be easy to make the Duke of Newcastle resign-but who should be the fucceffor? He thought it not advisable to begin there." Doddington replied, " that he saw no objection; but, if Lord Bute was averse, it might be put into hands that would refign it to him whenever he chose to take it." It is obfervable that Lord Bute declared his belief that the Duke of Newcastle harbored no hoftile intentions, nor, in case of refignation, would he oppose the future Ministry. Doubtless this Nobleman, who had grown old in the service of the House of Brunswic, and had long poffefied the favor and confidence of the late King, felt at this period little propenfity to oppose the measures, or refift the inclinations, of a young Monarch borne along by the full tide of popularity and profperity. Perceiving his political consequence lost, and confcious of being at once hated as a rival and contemned as an incumbrance, he appears to have been now folicitous only to fecure an honorable retreat. But from the difficulty of appointing an immediate successor, his Grace was permitted yet awhile to linger in office, the mere cypher of a Minifter, and the phantom of his former greatness.

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The enormous supplies demanded for the profecution of the war amounting to nineteen millions, of which twelve millions were funded at an high interest, were granted without inquiry or hefitation. Amongst the most remarkable articles of the national expenditure was the sum of 200,000l. voted by the Commons, in consequence of an express message from the Throne, as a compenfation to the several provinces of America for the extraordinary expences incurred by them in their vigorous and strenuous efforts during the present war, and which the Parliament virtually acknowledged by this grant to be more than adequate to their proportional ability. Nor was the present grant the first of this nature wifely and indulgently conceded by the Parliament; and affording a pleasing and striking contrast to the enormous folly displayed in the extravagant sums lavished in German

and

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and Pruffian subsidies. The civil Lift was fixed at the clear annual fum of 800,000l. payable out of the Aggregate Fund, in lieu of the hereditary and other specific revenues settled on the late King. Towards the close of the session, a very popular measure was recommended by the new Monarch in a fpeech from the Throne, by which much reputation of patriotism and disinterestedness was gained at a very inconfiderable expence. Notwithstanding the Act passed in the reign of King William, by which the cominissions of the Judges were continued during their good behaviour, their offices determined at the demise of the Crown; though no inftance had in fact occurred fince the Revolution in which a Judge had been removed at the acceffion of a new Sovereign. The King however now declared that he confidered the independency and uprightness of the Judges as essential to the impartial administration of justice, and one of the best securities of the liberty of the subject, as well as conducive to the honor of the Crown. He therefore recommended that such farther provision should be made for securing the Judges in the enjoyment of their offices, and the permanency of the salaries annexed to them, notwithstanding such demise, as should be thought expedient. The Commons acknowledged, in a very loyal address, their grateful sense of his Majesty's attention to an object so interesting to his people, and a Bill framed for the purpose passed both Houses in a very short time. It is evident that no real sacrifice was made on the part of the Crown in this instance for neither was any purpose to be answered by the removal of the Judges promoted under the late reign, nor would any Minifter have ventured previously to advise, or subsequently to justify, fo unprecedented and unconstitutional a measure. As Princes are however in general not only fond of power, but of the thadow of it, praise is due to every indication of a disposition favourable to liberty; and it is a conceffion, however occasionally over-rated, which ought not to be mentioned but in terms of approbation and applause,

Mr. Onflow, Mr. Onflow, who with the highest honor and reputation had occupied for more than thirty years the office of Speaker in five fucceffive Parliaments, now bending under the weight of increasing years and infirmities, declared his determination to retire from public business. The House, sensibly affected at the prospect of this separation, immediately and unanimously voted, " that the thanks of the House should be given to Mr. Speaker, for his long and faithful fervices for the unfhaken integrity of his conduct for his steady impartiality in the exercise of his office and his unwearied endeavors to promote the real interests of his King and Country-to maintain the honor and dignity of Parliament, and to preferve inviolable the rights and privileges of the Commons of Great Britain." This venerable patriot rose to express his gratitude to the House for the diftinguished honor thus conferred upon him but he found his sensations too powerful for utterance, and after a vain effort to speak he was relieved by a gush of tears. At length in broken sentences he declared to the House "his inability to hear, without emotions by which he was entirely overpowered, these last expressions of their kindness and goodwill. He had received the noblest reward which could possibly be bestowed upon the highest merit the thanks and, the approbation of his country. He acknowledged the imperfection of his services, but he protefted that wherein he had failed, it was involuntarily; and he hoped he had obtained the pardon of those to whom any cause of offence had been inadvertently given. To give fatisfaction to all had been his constant aim, his study, and his pride. In retirement and obscurity, faid he, shall I now fpend the remainder of my days; and in the bosom of that retirement my ardent and conftant prayer will be, that the Constitution of this country be preserved inviolate, and more particularly that the freedom, the dignity, and authority of this House may be perpetual." The House then unanimoufly refolved on an address to the King, beseeching his Majesty to confer some fignal mark of his Royal favor on the Right

Hon.

Hon. Arthur Onflow, Efq. for his great and eminent services; and his Majesty in return expressed in high terms his esteem and approbation of the character and public conduct of the Speaker; and a pension of 3000l. per annum was granted him for his own life and that of his son, afterwards ennobled by the title of Lord Onflow.

On the 19th March (1761) the Parliament was prorogued, after a speech from the Throne expressing his Majesty's entire approval of their conduct, and in a short time diffolved by proclamation, and a new Parliament convened. Upon the very day on which the dissolution took place. Mr. Legge was dismissed from his office of Chancellor of the Exchequer; two days after which Lord Holderness, having first secured an ample pecuniary indemnification, together with the reversion of the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, refigned the Seals, which were immediately delivered to the Earl of Bute, who appointed the celebrated Charles Jenkinson, now Lord Hawkesbury, his under-secretary. The circumstances attending the dismission of Mr. Legge are somewhat remarkable. Not now to advert to the resolution taken to discard all the members of the Whig Administration, that Minifter had given peculiar offence to the King when Prince of Wales, by his conduct at the last general election. Mr. Legge had, as it appears, in consequence of very earnest folicitation, offered himself a candidate as Knight of the Shire for the County of Southampton. After the canvass was successfully terminated, and every idea of oppofition had vanished, a message was received by Mr. Legge from the Prince, requesting him, in preffing and somewhat peremptory terms, to relinquish his pretenfions in favour of Sir Simeon Stuart, a near relation of the Earl of Bute. Mr. Legge, in reply, represented in very respectful language his earnest defire to gratify the wishes of his Royal Highness, had timely intimation been given him of his intention; but as things were now circumftanced, he could not in honor to himself, or justice to his friends, recede from the nomi

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nation already made. This was a species of contumacy altogether unpardonable; and the new Monarch took a very early and decisive opportunity to demonstrate to the world how different was his system of thinking from that of Louis XII. who, with a magnanimity truly royal, declared it beneath the dignity of a King of France to revenge the quarrel of a Duke of Orleans. Notwithstanding the advancement of Lord Bute, the entire management of foreign affairs still remained with Mr. Pitt, matters not being as yet mature for a total change; and the fall of Mr. Legge, which was the certain prelude to an approaching catastrophe, and which ought to have been the signal for an immediate and general refignation, seemed to give little alarm, and made no visible alteration in the political system. He was succeeded by Sir Francis Dafhwood, a zealous Revolution Tory, intimately connected during the last reign with the Court of Leicester House, and who confidered the Earl of Bute as already occupying the poft of First Lord of the Treasury; and his firm attachment to that Nobleman, doubtless, compenfated for his palpable deficiency in the qualifications requifite to the just discharge of the duties of his station.

Previous to the resumption of the regular narration of events, it will be neceffary, at least useful, to advert to the general state of parties at this period-for it must no more be inferred, from the perfect serenity which had, under a wife and magnanimous Administration, prevailed for several years paft throughout the Kingdom, that no political parties or dormant feeds of animofity existed, than, during the peaceful intervals of the eruptions of Etna or Vesuvius, that no combustible materials threatening future explosion were lodged in the concavities of these volcanos. The grand parties which divided the nation at this juncture, nominally indeed co-incided with those which prevailed at the distant æras of the Revolution and Acceffion. But a real and most material alteration had taken place. By the impolitic violence of the measures adopted by the Whigs on their restoration to power, a great proportion of the