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HISTORY

O F

Lord NORTH's Administration.

PARTI.

From Lord North's appointment to the head of the Treasury, to the diffolution of Parliament

in 1774.

CHA P. I.

Difcontents occafioned by the decifion of the house of Commons upon the Middlefex election-Partial repeal of the American port duties-Mr. Grenville's bill for regulating proceedings reSpecting controverted elections-His death and character Addrefs and remonftrance from the city of London to bis Majefty-The Earl of Chatham's motion in the house of Lords. Addrefs of both houfes on the city remonftrance-Commotions in Ireland-State of finance for the year 1770-Death of Mr. Beckford, and fate of parties in the city-Falkland's Iflands feized on by the Spaniards-Preparations for war -Negotiations-Refignations-The dispute with Spain adjufted-Probable motives which led to that event--Situä-, tion of France-Meeting of Parliament-Mifunderftanding between the two houfes-Lord North's plan of finance

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for 1771-Proceedings of the house of Commons against certain printers.-Conduct of the magiftrates of London-The record of their proceedings erased by order of the house--The Lord Mayor and Alderman Oliver committed to the Tower -Refolutions refpecting Mr. Wilkes-Bill to enable the Eaft India Company to raise a military force.

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ISTORY cannot furnish fuch another inftance of a great nation, the wonder and admiration of the whole earth, under an established form of government, and in a time of profound peace, fo rapidly lofing the refpect and estimation in which it was held, as this country exhibited, during the few fhort years that intervened between the conclufion of the peace of Paris, and the time when the minifter, whofe administration we are now to treat of, took the lead. Inftability and weakness marked each fucceffive appointment. In fome, these defects were inherent in the men; in others, they arose from the partial fupport, which they derived from the fource of power; whilst among the people difcontents, clamours, and outrages prevailed; fo as that neither the respect which is naturally annexed to lawful authority, nor even the intervention of a military force, could fupprefs or check them. The administration which immediately preceded that of which lord North became the head, was indeed the longeft, but, at the fame time the weakest, of any in that period. It would scarcely be credited, if the fact was not incontrovertible, that a French frigate refufed to pay that compliment to the British flag, in our own channel, which has been regularly given ever fince we claimed a fuperiority on the ocean.

Thefe domeftic broils were firft excited, and afterwards. kept up, by a bold and able leader of the people, who hav

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ing diffipated a large fortune by unbridled exceffes, found his creditors become clamorous and his expedients forfake him, whilst an habitual negligence of his affairs, ferved to precipitate thofe diftreffes which he feemed unmindful to avert. Reduced to extremities, he became a patriot, and, in conjunction with fome men equally bold, and poffeffing talents equally well adapted to the attempt, gained the warm patronage of the people. The oppofition to government raised by these active partifans was more violent and effectual, than that which was carried on against Sir Robert Walpole, even when a Pulteney spoke and a Bolingbroke wrote, to rouse the indignation of the people. A daring attack upon the Sovereign, in a publication supposed to have been written by Mr. Wilkes, the head of this confederacy, caufed his papers to be feized, and himself to be taken into cuftody. This proceeding brought to light a licentious poem, equally replete with profaneness and obfcenity. Every individual member of adminiftration was fhocked at fuch flagitious impiety; and the offences of the man, in whose cuftody it was found, against his God and his King, were defcanted upon with all the energy of virtuous reprobation in both houfes of Parliament. Even Mr. Wilkes's affociates in thofe unhallowed orgies, which this poem was compofed for the purpose of animating, declared their abhorrence of the crime. The discovery worked an immediate conversion on a noble lord, who had heretofore been distinguished by his zeft for thefe profanations with tears in his eyes he read to the house the maledictory verfes, and execrated them with all the fervour of new-born zeal. The houfe of Lords cenfured, the houfe of Commons expelled, the offender; the latter voted that Mr. Wilkes, in whose custody the poem was found, thould be deprived of his feat in that house, and a new writ was accordingly iffued by the speaker for electing another member for the county of Middlefex, which he reprefented.

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reprefented. The freeholders, whether from diftruft of the purity of the motives which led the houfe of Commons to inflict this punishment on their profligate member, or actuated by a fpirit of indifcriminating oppofition, rechofe Mr. Wilkes for their reprefentative. The house rejected him as ineligible, and declared that a member expelled their houfe, was virtually incapacitated from fitting there during. that parliament: notwithstanding which, a fecond election terminated in the fame manner. At length another candidate was prevailed upon to ftart; he had 296 votes, Mr. Wilkes 1193: the fheriffs returned the latter, the house rejected him, and voted his opponent, Capt. Luttrell, duly elected *. It was even debated, whether the fheriffs' fhould not feel the displeasure of the house for their conduct; but this difpofition was renounced, when Sir Fletcher Norton declared, that those officers were bound in duty to act as they had done: the house, indeed, might fet afide their return, but could not punish the sheriffs for making it under the pecufiar circumftances of the cafe.

This decifion excited great difcontents; the people denied that the houfe of Commons had a right to reject a mem ber who had been duly returned by a majority of good votes, and who had no legal incapacity: expulfion, they faid, threw fuch an one on his conftituents, for them to decide, as they thought fit, on his delinquency; and if he was still the man of their choice, the utmoft power poffeffed by the Commons reached to make the election void, but it could not give the feat to a candidate who had the feweft fuffrages. They contended, that although the houfe of Commons cxpelled, it could not incapacitate; fuch a profcription could be only rendered legal, by the concurrence of all the three diftinct parts of the legiflature. The cry was induftriously

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Spread, that the house of Commons was affuming to itself a power, which had never been exercifed in fuch a latitude; it was dangerous to the conftitution, in the present inftance, and likewife a flagrant violation of the rights of the people; and, when drawn into a precedent, might in future times be made ufe of to ftill more fatal purposes. On thefe grounds the city of London petitioned the King, praying him to diffolve the parliament. The nation caught the alarm, and petitions to the same purport were fent up from various parts of the kingdom; the object of which was, in fome meafure, counteracted by the addreffes to the throne, expreffive of the peoples approbation of the conduct of parliament. It was whilft this ferment was at its height, that the Duke of Grafton thought fit to withdraw himself from power, and refign the administration of affairs to Lord North *.

This minifter, the eldeft fon of the Earl of Guilford, is defcended from an ancient family, the younger branch of which rofe into confiderable confequence under the favour of Henry VIII. and from the ancestors fo patronized, many eminent men have fprung in different ages, diftinguished for their valour, wisdom, learning and abilities. When the States of Holland threw off the yoke of Spain, Roger, the fecond Lord North, diftinguished himself among the English who supported the cause of religion and liberty in the Low Countries, and was wounded in the engagement before Zutphen, in which Sir Philip Sidney was flain. His fon died in the Netherlands, and his grandfon, Dudley Lord North, was nominated by both houfes of parliament in 1645, in conjunction with the Earls of Northumberland, Effex and Warwick, to manage the affairs of the Admiralty. The statesmen and writers who have fince fprung from this tock, are well known to every one,

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