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 IValpole 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.

Why did you cross God's good intent
He made you for a President:

through the defection of Mr. Pulteney, to see him so soon baffled in his arrangement. The Duke of Argyll observed to him on the occasion, at a large meeting of their friends, at the Fountain Tavern in the Strandt, "That a grain of honesty was worth a cart-load of gold."

Back to that station go;

Nor longer act this farce of power,

We know you miss'd the thing before,

And have not got it now.

This meeting was held on the 12th of February 1742.There were near 300 members of both Houses of Parliament present. Amongst them were the following: Dukes of Bedford and Argyll-Marquis of Caernarvon-Earls of Exeter, Berkshire, Chesterfield, Carlisle, Aylesbury, Shaftsbury, Litchfield, Oxford, Rockingham, Halifax, Stanhope, Macclesfield, Darnley, Barrymore, Granard-Viscounts Cobham, Falmouth, Limerick, Gage, Chetwynd-Lords Ward, Gower, Bathurst, Talbot, Strange, Andover, Guernsey, Quarendon, Percival-Sir Edward Seymour, Sir Charles Mordaunt, Sir Erasmus Philips, Sir Robert Grosvenor, Sir Edward Dering, Sir Roger Burgoyne, Sir John Hind Cotton, Sir Henry Northcote, Sir William Carew, Sir Myles Stapylton, Sir Hugh Smithson, Sir William Morris, Sir John Rushout, Sir Michael Newton, Sir Roger Twisden, Sir Robert Long, Sir Charles Wyndham, Sir Jermyn Davers, Sir James Dashwood, Sir Watkyn Williams Wynne, Sir Cordel Firebrace, Sir Edward Thomas, Sir Francis Dashwood, Sir Jacob Bouverie, Sir John Chapman, Sir Abraham Elton, Sir John Peachey, Sir William Courtney, Sir James Hamilton-Mr. Pulteney, Mr Sandys, Mr. Gybbon, Mr. Doddington, Mr. Waller, Mr. Shippen, Mr. Fazakerley, Mr. Mellish, Mr. Alderman Heathcote, Mr. Bance, &c. &c.

The Earl of Harrington, who had been Sir Robert's secretary of state, was made president of the council. Lord Carteret accepted of Lord Harrington's seals; and Mr. Sandys was made chancellor of the exchequer, with a new board of treasury. A new board of admiralty, with the Earl of Whinchelsea at the head, were all the alterations of any consequence that were made.

The disappointment of the nation, at this trifling change of a few men, was greater than can be described. Many of the most respectable parts of the community were provoked and exasperated to the use of the bitterest language, which could express their execration and abhorrence of the junction that was thus formed between Mr. Pulteney, and the friends of the late minister.

The purpose of the meeting was, to consider of what was expedient to be done in the present critical conjuncture. But it was too late; the arrangements were settled before the meeting was called.

It is to this meeting that Sir Charles Hanbury Williams alludes, in one of his odes to Mr. Pulteney; where, invoking the Muse to display his hero's merit, he says,

Then enlarge on his cunning and wit;
Say, how he harangued at the Fountain;
Say, how the old patriots were bit,

And a mouse was produc'd by a mountain.

CHAPTER. IV.

The New Ministry charged with having bargained for the safety of the Earl of Orford.-Motion for an inquiry into the Earl of Orford's conduct. Mr. Pitt's speech in support of that motion. Motion lost-Second motion limiting the inquiry to the last ten years.—Mr. Pitt's speech in support of this motion.-The inquiry defeated by a parliamentary manœuvre.

A STRONG charge was brought against the new ministry by their opponents, who affirmed, in the most direct and positive terms, that Mr. Pulteney had first, and that his friends had afterwards, bargained with the Court for the safety of the Earl of Orford; that it was expressly on that condition they were admitted into office; and by that tenure only, they held their employments; that such bargain was a sale of the public confidence, and a total dereliction of principle; that there was a treason against the people as well as against the crown, and that this was the superlative degree of that treason. And in order to put these assertions to the test, a motion was made in the House of Commons, on the 9th of