CHAPTER III.

A new Parliament.-Mr. Pitt re-elected.-The Minister loses several Questions.—Resigns and is created Earl of Orford.-Parliament adjourns. -Secret Negotiation with Mr. Pulteney.-That Affair truly stated.-Lord Cobham and his Friends excluded.-The new Arrangements settled by the Earl of Orford.-Stanzas of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams explained; and the Condition upon which Sir Robert Walpole became Minister.-Duke of Argyll's expression to Mr. Pulteney.-The Nation dissatisfied.

THE minister having become extremely odious to the nation by the unpopularity of his measures; and his influence being considerably diminished, by the union of several great interests against him; he had neither weight of character, nor extent of command sufficient to secure a majority in the new Parliament; which was elected in the spring of 1741.

In this Parliament, which met on the 4th of December 1741, Mr. Pitt was re-elected for Old

Sarum. The first question which the minister lost was the nomination of chairman of the committee of privileges and elections, Dr. Lee being chosen by a majority of four, against Mr. Earle, who had been supported by himself. After losing some questions upon the decisions of the contested elections, he saw there was a confirmed majority against him; and therefore, on the 3d of February 1742, he resigned his employments, and was created Earl of Orford; the Parliament being at the same time adjourned, by the King's command, to the 18th of the same month.

His friends, notwithstanding his resignation, were very numerous. His personal influence, therefore, added to great experience and address, made him still formidable to his opponents, and enabled him to secure his personal safety, by counteracting their further designs against him. For this purpose he selected from amongst them such as were known to be the most ambitious of power; with these an immediate negotiation was commenced; in the result of which, his utmost wishes were accomplished. For the opposition being composed of various and heterogeneous parties, (whose interest were united for the purpose only of his destruction), the first rumour of a partial nego

tiation gave an alarm to their leaders; and exciting such jealousies and suspicions amongst them, as ended in a general disunion, relieved him from all apprehensions of danger or inconvenience from their future exertions.

The negotiation was opened by a message from the Duke of Newcastle, requesting to see Mr. Pulteney privately, at the house of Mr. Stone, his Grace's secretary. Mr. Pulteney declined this invitation, but consented to receive the Duke at his own house, if Lord Carteret, afterwards Lord Granville, were allowed to be present at the conference. The condition was accepted, and the interview, in which the Duke was accompanied by Lord Hardwicke, took place the same evening. His Grace began with informing him, that he was sent by the King with an offer to place him at the head of the Treasury. Mr. Pulteney resisted the temptation for himself; but equally, or perhaps better, answered the purpose of Sir Robert Walpole, by proposing his friend Lord Carteret for the office. Though the conference ended without any positive determination; yet the treaty was necessarily kept open, by the undecided proposal of Mr. Pulteney. But intelligence of this conference, and a thousand conjectures concerning the object of it, were industriously circulated through the town; and pro

duced all the effects, both on public opinion, and on the spirits of the gentlemen in opposition, which the most sanguine friends and partizans of Sir Robert Walpole could have wished.

A second meeting of the same parties, a few. days afterwards, at the same place of rendezvous, opened the eyes of the most incredulous among the members of the opposition, and completed the dissolution of an association of interests, which a more immaculate minister than Sir Robert Walpole might have dreaded.

A coolness having long subsisted between the Lords Carteret and Cobham, the selection of the former for those private conferences (which were to fix the boundaries, and lay the foundations, of the new arrangements) was such a sort of marked exclusion of the latter, as could not but give offence to him, and his parliamentary friends; amongst whom were Mr. Pitt, Mr. Lyttelton, the four Grenvilles (Richard, George, James, and Thomas), and Mr. Waller. Lord Cobham, whose private character was high, and whose reputation had been assailed, in being deprived of his post in the army, was not of a temper to bear such treatment with indifference. His friends, who felt a large share of the contempt which was shewn towards him, gave him the strongest assu

rances of attachment and support; and immediately formed a separate party. In a short time they were joined by the Duke of Argyll, who, though he had taken the ordnance in the first moments of the change, quickly relented, and - returned to his old friends, who in a few weeks were joined likewise by many high and respectable characters; who perceived that the nation, as well as themselves, had been deceived by a partial, imperfect, and consequently an inadequate change of the ministry,

Sir Robert Walpole, now Earl of Orford, not approving of the nomination of Lord Carteret, for his successor at the treasury, prevailed on the King (since Mr. Pulteney had refused it) to insist upon the appointment of Lord Wilmington, who had been Sir Robert's president of the council from 1732*. It was some triumph to those whose purposes had been frustrated,

*To this appointment Sir Charles Hanbury Williams alludes, in a beautiful stanza. Lord Wilmington had, upon the accession of George the Second, been offered the treasury, if he would undertake to increase the civil list from 700,000. to 800,000; but being timid, he declined the offer; upon which the offer was next made to Sir Robert Walpole, who accepted it; and from that single circumstance became minister.