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their purpose, to the late Queen ANNE. They say, that for four years, she gave one hundred thousand pounds per annum, out of her Civil List, towards carrying on the war against France; and from hence they deduce an argument in proof of the œconomy and patriotism of that Princess. If the assertion had been true, the argument might have passed without notice. But when a compliment of this sort is paid, not only without foundation, but at the expence of truth, and of the nation, it is presumed that it will not be thought improper to state the Fact, for the information of those, who have not the Journals of Parliament, and other documents in their possession.

In fact, this pretended generosity was one of the most scandalous actions that the Crown ever committed by any Administration. It was a manifest and gross cheat upon the Public, who were extravagant losers by it; for some time after, viz. upon the 25th of June, 1713, the Queen acquainted the House of Commons, by message, that she had contracted a very large debt upon her Civil List revenues, which she was unable to pay, and therefore desired to make them good; and such was the complaisance of a Tory Parliament, that notwithstanding the detestation which must have arisen in every honest breast, upon the detection of this clumsy juggle, and though Mr.

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SMITH, one of the Tellers of the Exchequer honestly informed the House, that the estimate of this debt was astonishing to him, being made to amount to August 1710, to 400,000l. Whereas, he was able to affirm from his own knowledge, that it amounted at that time to little more than 100,0001. and though many others undertook to prove, that the funds given for 700,0001. had, in reality, amounted to 800,000l. and though these gentlemen had prevailed so far as to procure an address to the Crown for an account of the Civil List debt at Midsummer, 1713, and for a yearly account of the net produce of the Civil List revenue, no regard was paid to this information, nor to this address; none of these accounts were ever permitted to be laid before the House, and upon the very next day they voted no less a sum than 500,0001. for this service. This is the truth, and the whole truth, of that generous exploit of the daughter of King JAMES II. It was a mean trick, by which the nation was cheated of 400,0001.This Queen had as many private vices, and as few public virtues, as any Prince or Princess of her family.

On the fifth day of April, Mr. GRENVILLE'S

* The Tellers of the Exchequer were at that time Members of Parliament. They were excluded by Lord Bath's Act, 1743.

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Bill for trying Controverted Elections was brought from the House of Commons by Mr. GRENVILLE, attended by one hundred Members.

Lord CHATHAM supported the Bill, and passed some very elegant encomiums upon it. He then said, That as he had begun his life out of a Court, he hoped he should end it out of a Court. He had no view of interest. All he meant was to rouse his country to a just sense of the blessings of this Constitution. Then he desired that the House might be summoned after the Holidays, for he designed to bring in a Bill to reverse the proceedings of the House of Commons on the Middlesex Election. He declared that his intention by this Bill was to give the people a strong and thorough sense of the great violation of the Constitution, by those unjust and arbitrary proceedings.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Lord Chatham's Bill on the Middlesex Election, and Speech in support of the Bill-Lord Chatham's, Motion, and Speech, on the King's Answer to a Petition from the City of London-His Motion for a Dissolution of Parliament-Some Heads of a Speech on Representation-His Letter to Lord Temple on that Subject-Anecdote on the same Subject from Lord Buchan-Goes into Somersetshire.

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On the first day of May, 1770, the Earl of CHATHAM presented to the House a Bill, intituled,

A Bill for reversing the adjudications of the House of Commons, whereby JOHN WILKES, Esq; has been adjudged incapable of being elected a Member to serve in this present Parliament, and the freeholders of the county of Middlesex have been deprived of one of their legal representatives,

The said Bill was read the first time.

The following is an accurate copy of the Bill,

A Bill for reversing the adjudications of the House of Commons, whereby John Wilkes, Esq; has been adjudged incapable of being elected a Member to serve in this present Parliament, and the Freeholders of the County of Middlesex have been deprived of one of their legal Representa

tives.

WHEREAS the capacity of being elected a Representative of the Commons in Parliament is under known limitations of law) an original inherent right of the subject; and forasmuch as to deprive the subject of this high franchise and birth-right, otherwise than by a judgment according to the law of the land, and the constant established usage of Parliament conformable thereto, and part thereof, is directly contrary to the fundamental laws and freedom of this realm, and in particular to the act, "declaring the rights and liberties of the sub ject, and settling the succession of the crown," at the ever-memorable period of the Revolution: when free election of Members of Parliament was expressly vindicated and secured.

And whereas JOHN WILKES, Esq; having been duly elected and returned a knight of the shire to serve in this present Parliament for the county of Middlesex, was on the 17th of February, 1769, without being heard, adjudged incapable of being

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