not procured without much addrefs and great dif- c H A P. ficulty". VI. THE Coalition was confolidated at the house of 1763. the Duke of Newcastle; and their refiftance of March. every effort to divide them, convinced the minifter that their union would, in time, be fatal to his afcendancy. per Parliament. PARLIAMENT had refumed its fittings before 20th Jan. this coalition was formed; but no bufinets of impor- Meeting of tance claimed their attention, till the fupplies for the current year were fubmitted to the Houfe of Commons. The fum to be raised by loan was three millions and a half. In this moderate financial exertion the miniftry were expofed to virulent cenfure. It was alleged that they privately difpofed 8th Mar. of the loan, which in a few days rofe to eleven cent. premium; and thus, at the expence of the public, gratified their own creatures with benefits to the amount of three hundred and fifty thousand pounds. General objections, however, would have produced little effect beyond the paffing moment, had not a more fpecious object of attack presented itself in one of the modes of fupply: this was the act for impofing a tax on perry and cyder. THE minister at first intended to lay a duty of Cyder tax. ten fhillings per hogfhead, on the liquor fold by retail, confining the tax to the victualler : the next project was to lay the fame affeffment on the first buyer. Neither of thefe proposals was agree The city of London prefented a tardy and reluctant address (May 12th), but the Lord Mayor did not attend with it at St. James's, and the bells of feveral parishes were muffled during the proceffion. The party is ftated to have confifted of the following perfons: the Dukes of Devonshire, Bolton, and Portland; Marquis of Rockingham; Earls Temple, Cornwallis, Albemarle, Ashburnham, Hardwicke, and Befborough; Lords Spencer, Sondes, Grantham, and Villiers; Mr. Pitt, Mr. J. Grenville, and Sir George Savile. Hiftory of the late Minority, p. 89 to 93. See Mr. Legge's fpeeches in the Debates, North Briton. Hiftory of the late Minority, p. 107. Debrett's Debates, vol. iv. p. 131. VI. CHA P. able to the country gentlemen, and therefore the mode was altered to an impofition of four fhillings per hogfhead on the grower; and the regulations of the excife were extended to the collection of this duty. 1763 Objections. 28th and 30th Mar, AGAINST this fyftem it was not difficult to raise a loud and diffufive clamour. The fame arguments and efforts which in 1733 had nearly driven Walpole from the helm, could not fail of being again employed. In the House of Commons Mr. Pitt, as the leader of oppofition, detailed the accustomed topics, inveighed against the admiffion of excife officers into private dwellings, and adverting to the excellent maxim that every man's houfe is his caftle, deprecated the extenfion of excife laws to individuals, who, by their birth, education, and profeffions, were entirely diftin&t from the trader. A petition was prefented from the city of London, but without effect and the bill finally paffed. In the Lords it met with equal oppofition; forty-nine peers divided againft it, and two protefts, each figned by three peers, were entered on the journals. These protests were couched in ftrong terms; and the tranfaction is rendered more remarkable from the unprecedented fact, that the Houfe of Lords divided on a money bill. IT was a capital error in Lord Bute's adminiftration, to perfevere in a meafure which gave fo much diffatisfaction, and afforded eafy means of extending the influence of oppofition. Not the city of London alone, but thofe of Exeter and Worcester, the counties of Devon and Hereford, and several other towns and places, inftructed their reprefentatives to refift the tax; fent letters of thanks to those who had diftinguished themselves in oppofition; formed affociations, and even entered into Not only to the Commons, but to the Lords, and the Throne. combinations, VI. 1763. combinations, to let their apples rot under the CHA P. trees, rather than make them into cyder, subject to fuch impofitions. In a word, no public measure fince the excife act propofed by Sir Robert Walpole, had occafioned fo great a ferment in the nation. Prudence fhould have dictated to Lord Bute an imitation of Walpole; he faw he could neither stem the popular torrent, nor mitigate its fury, and fhould have withdrawn himself from its effects, by renouncing the obnoxious measure. It BESIDES the determined efforts of a preconcerted obfervaoppofition, and the general invectives against the tions. extenfion of the excife laws, many fpecious reafonings were adduced against the cyder tax. was faid to be enormous in amount, and unequal in application. It was computed to equal the rent of the land from which it arofe; and the occupier being obliged to pay the whole fum within fix weeks from the time of making the cyder, remained expofed, without allowance or drawback, to all the lofs arifing from thofe accidents to which fo hazardous a commodity is fubject. To prove the inequality of the tax, it was alleged that all the different forts of cyder were fubject to the fame impofition : of these there were computed to be four; the worst of which was made from the windfalls, and could only be ferviceable for family confumption; this, and the other three forts, varying in value from eight to fifty fhillings a hogfhead, were taxed alike, by which means the common drink of the day-labourer was fubject to as heavy a charge as the luxurious beverage of men of ample fortunes. The affertion that it is impoffible to discriminate the claffes of cyder, fo as to impofe a proportionate duty, was decried as difplaying more strongly the impolicy of the tax ". & See Coxe's Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole, chap. 41, See cafe of the county of Devon, published by the diretion of the committee. CHAP. VI. 1763. In this feffion, in confequence of a message from the King, the Houfe of Commons voted a compenfation to the fubjects of North America, for ex14th Mar. pences incurred during the war, in levying, clothing, and paying troops raised by the refpective provinces. The public bufinefs being early difpatched, parliament was prorogued. Relief to ministry. SOON after the paffing of the cyder tax, when Lord Bute's friends and enemies confidered him fo permanently fixed in office that the long labours of a well-united oppofition would be requifite for his 8th April. expulfion, he astonished the public by a sudden refignation. Sir Francis Dafhwood followed his example. Mr. Grenville fucceeded them both as first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer; and notice was given to the foreign minif ters, that His Majefty had confided the executive powers of government to Mr. Grenville, Lord Ha lifax, and Lord Egremont. A place in the cabinet was offered to Mr. Pitt, but he infifted on such extravagant terms, that the King could not in honour comply: he demanded the removal of every person who had in any manner been engaged in making the peace: the peace and even required that the terms of the treaty fhould be meliorated. The King anfwered, he would never withdraw his protection from those whofe conduct he approved, or reprobate measures which he had fanctioned with his approbation *. Obfervations on lord Bute's refignation. THE fudden termination of Lord Bute's minif terial career, and his dereliction of that power which it was thought his chief aim to acquire and his principal labour to extend, gave rife to various contradictory fpeculations. By fome it was attributed to fear of impeachment, augmented by the profpect of the Duke of Bedford's return from Paris, By an act paffed this feflion, John Harrison received a reward of 5,000l. for his ingenious labours towards the difcovery of the longitude. From private information. and |