fallen! Great Britain, Ireland, and America, BOOK are equally dissatisfied, and have equal reason to be dissatified, with the ministry. The people," he said, " were justly alarmed at the system of violence practising abroad, and the venal and arbitrary conduct adopted at home. The circumstances of the times made them uncommonly at tentive to the operations of parliament. Hence the publication of the parliamentary debates; and where was the injury, if the members acted upon honest principles? For a public assembly to be afraid of having their deliberations published, is monstrous, and speaks for itself. No mortal can construe such a proceeding to their advantage; it is sufficient to open the eyes of the blind. Were not the commons absolute slaves to the man who holds the golden keys of the treasury, they could never have rendered the very name of parliament ridiculous, by carrying on a constant war against Mr. Wilkes. Matters being thus circumstanced, the commons being both odious and contemptible, there remains but one possible remedy for the evil-the commons must, according to the unanimous and earnest wish of the nation, be dissolved: not that I imagine this alone sufficient-no: the influence of the crown is become so enormous, that some stronger bulwark must be erected for the defence of the constitution. The act for establishing septennial

XV.

BOOK parliaments must be repealed. Formerly the inconveniences attending short parliaments had 1771. great weight with me, but now we are not debating upon a question of convenience. Our all is at stake, our whole constitution is giving way; and therefore, with the most deliberate and so lemn conviction, I declare myself a convert to triennial parliaments." The motion was rejected by seventy-two to twenty-three voices.

It did not tend to diminish the public discontents, that a bill was brought into parliament at this period, " for enabling certain persons to enclose and embank part of the river Thames adjoining to Durham-yard," &c. it being considered as an invasion of the property claimed by the city of London in the soil or bed of the river. But whatever might be the motives in which this bill originated, or whatever indemnification the city of London might be entitled to expect as proprietors of the soil, certain it is, that the magnificent and stupendous pile of buildings constructed in virtue of this act, under the appellation of the Adelphi, will remain to future times a noble monument of architectural genius and utility, and will be considered as reflecting honor on the reign of George III. when the vast sums expended on subsidies, pensions, and extravagant grants to the crown, are consigned to indignation or oblivion.

XV.

1771.

In the speech from the throne at the termina- воок tion of the session (May 8, 1771), his majesty congratulated the parliament on the prospect of a permanent continuance of peace, and earnestly exhorted them to discourage and suppress all groundless suspicions and domestic disturbances, in order that the national happiness might be rendered complete. His majesty declared, "that he had no other object, and could have no other interest, than to reign in the hearts of a free and happy people." Certainly, if this could, by a high stretch of courtly complaisance, be supposed "the only object" of his majesty's reign, it must at least be allowed that he had hitherto been peculiarly unfortunate in the choice of those means and ministers which he had employed in the attainment of it.

Soon after the rising of parliament the city of London presented another petition and remonstrance to the king, in which they complain of this bill as a violation of their chartered rights, of the arbitrary imprisonment of their chief magistrate, of the enormity of erasing a judicial record in order to stop the course of justice; and again urge, on these accounts, as well as upon the grounds formerly stated, the immediate dissolution of the parliament, and the removal from his majesty's person and councils, for ever, of the present wicked and despotic ministers. But this

BOOK petition, however vehement and intemperate in xv. its language, excited neither alarm nor very pe1771. culiar attention. The storm had in a great mea

sure spent its rage; and, though the waves still fluctuated with apparent violence, the danger of ministerial shipwreck was past. The king, in answer to this petition, coldly expressed his readiness to redress the real grievances of his subjects; but he was sorry to find that a part of them renewed requests which he had repeatedly refused to comply with.

During the recess of parliament died the earl of Halifax, a nobleman generous, liberal, and accomplished; but as a minister, unpopular and unfortunate. He was one of the few whigs who enjoyed any share of court favor during the present reign; but tory maxims were unhappily predominant, and his ambition induced him to acquiesce and temporize. Nevertheless he filled the high office of lord lieutenant of Ireland, to which he was appointed on the return of the duke of Bedford in 1761, with distinguished ability and applause. The earl of Suffolk succeeded the earl of Halifax as secretary of state for the northern department, and the duke of Grafton accepted the vacant post of lord privy-seal.

The summer and autumnal months rolled away in a sort of sullen languor, and, no circumstances of a nature peculiarly urgent arising, the parlia

ment was not convened till January 21, 1772, BOOK when the session was opened with a speech from ~ the throne, in which his majesty confidently announced the continuance of peace, from the repeated assurances he had received of the amicable disposition of the powers on the continent. It occasioned therefore great surprize, when in a Enormous few days a demand was made on the part of ad- the peace ministration, for twenty-five thousand seamen to ment. be employed in the service of the current year, under the pretext of the necessity of our maintaining a superior force, both in the East and West Indies, to the French, who had lately sent considerable reinforcements to those distant quarters. It was said in reply, "that this was in fact a war establishment in the midst of peacethat if so great an augmentation was in present circumstances thought necessary, it was impossible to say when it could with propriety be diminished-that the apprehension of an attack from France was futile and ridiculous, and that the naval force of that power employed in actual service was totally inadequate to any hostile attempt-that the present motion would add 500,0001. to the public expence-and that, bending under the weight of an enormous public debt, it behoved us to adopt effectual measures for its reduction; instead of which, our peace establishment was every year increasing, and was