liberty of the subject, as well as conducive to the BOOK honour of the crown. He therefore recom

XIII.

mended that such farther provision should be 1761. 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 minister have ventured previously to advise, or subsequently to justify, so unprecedented and unconstitutional a measure. As princes are, however, in general, not only fond of power, but of the shadow of it, praise is due to every indication of a disposition favourable to liberty; and it is a concession, however occasionally over-rated, which ought not to be mentioned but in terms of approbation and applause.

Mr. Onslow, who with the highest honour and Resignareputation had occupied for more than thirty speaker, years the office of speaker in five succeeding slow.. parliaments, now bending under the weight of

BOOK increasing years and infirmities, declared his deXIIL. termination to retire from public business. The 1761. house, sensibly affected at the prospect of this separation, immmediately and unanimously voted,

that the thanks of the house should be given to Mr. Speaker, for his long and faithful services -for the unshaken integrity of his conductfor his steady impartiality in the exercise of his office-and his unwearied endeavours to promote the real interests of his king and country-to maintain the honour and dignity of parliament, and to preserve inviolable the rights and privileges of the commons of Great Britain." This venerable patriot rose to express his gratitude to the house for the distinguished honour 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 flood of tears. At length, in broken sentences, he

66

declared to the house
his inability to hear,
without emotions by which he was entirely over-
powered, these last expressions of their kindness
and good-will. He had received the noblest
reward which could possibly be bestowed upon
the highest merit-the thanks and the appro-
bation of his country. He acknowledged the im-
perfection of his services, but he protested that
wherein he had failed, it was involuntarily; and
he hoped he had gained the pardon of those to

1

XIII.

whom any cause of offence had been inadvert- BOOK ently given. To give satisfaction to all, had been his constant aim, his study, and his pride. In 1761. retirement and obscurity, said he, shall I now spend the remainder of my days; and in the bosom of that retirement my ardent and constant 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 unanimously resolved on an address to the king, beseeching his majesty to confer some signal mark of his royal favor on the right hon. Arthur Onslow, esq. 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 Onslow.

On the 19th of March the parliament was prorogued, after a speech from the throne, expressing his majesty's entire approval of their conduct; and in a short time dissolved by proclamation, and a new parliament convened. Upon the very day on which the dissolution took Dismission place, Mr. Legge was dismissed from his office Legge. of chancellor of the exchequer; two days after Resigna

which lord Holderness, having first secured

of Mr.

tion of lord

an Holderness. BOOK ample pecuniary indemnification, together with XIII. the reversion of the wardenship of the Cinque 1761. Ports, resigned the seals, which were immediSucceeded ately delivered to the earl of Bute, who apof Bute. pointed the celebrated Charles Jenkinson, after

by the earl

wards lord Hawkesbury, his under-secretary. The circumstances attending the dismission of Mr. Legge are somewhat remarkable. Not to advert to the resolution taken to discard all the members of the whig administration, that minister 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 solicitation, offered himself a candidate as knight of the shire for the county of Southampton. After the canvass was successfully terminated, and every idea of opposition had vanished, a message was received by Mr. Legge from the prince, requesting him, in pressing and somewhat peremptory terms, to relinquish his pretensions 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 desire to gratify the wishes of his royal highness, had timely intimation been given him of his intention; but, as things were now circumstanced, he could not in honor to himself, or justice to his friends, recede from the nomination already

XIIL

1761.

made. This was a species of contumacy altoge- воок ther 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 Orléans. 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 resignation, seemed to give little alarm, and made no visible alteration in the political system. He was succeeded by sir Francis Dashwood, a zealous revolution tory, intimately connected during the last reign with the court of Leicester-house, and who considered the earl of Bute as already occupying the post of first lord of the treasury: and his firm attachment to that nobleman, doubtless, compensated for his palpable deficiency in the qualifications requisite to the just discharge of the duties of his station.

Previous to the resumption of the regular nar-State of ration of events, it will be necessary, at least parties useful, to advert to the general state of parties at