Westminister election. § XXXIX. Earthquakes in London. XL. Pestilential fever at the session in the Old Bailey. § XLI. Disputes between Russia and Sweden. § XLII. Plan for electing the archduke Joseph King of the Romans. § XLIII. Opposition of the King of Prussia. § XLIV. Disputes with the French about the limits of Nova Scotia. § XLV. Treaty with Spain. § XLVI. Session opened. § XLVII. Debate on the address. § XLVIII. Supplies granted. § XLIX. Death and Character of the Prince of Wales. § L. Settlement of a Regency, in case of a minor Sovereign. LI. General naturalization bill. LII. Censure passed upon a paper entitled Constitutional Queries. LIII. Proceedings of the Commons on the Westminster election. § LIV. Mr. Murray sent prisoner to Newgate. LV. Session closed. Stile altered.

§ I. THE peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, however unstable or inglorious it might appear to those who understood the interests, and felt for the honour of their country, was nevertheless not unwelcome to the nation in general. The British ministry will always find it more difficult to satisfy the people at the end of a successful campaign, than at the conclusion of an unfortunate war. The English are impatient of miscarriage and disappointment, and too apt to be intoxicated with victory. At this period they were tired of the burdens, and sick of the disgraces, to which they had been exposed in the course of seven tedious campaigns. They had suffered considerable losses and interruption in the article of commerce, which was the source of their national opulence and power: They knew it would necessarily be clogged with additional duties, for the maintenance of a continental war, and the support of foreign subsidiaries; and they drew very faint presages of future success either from the conduct of their allies, or the capacity of their commanders. To a people influenced by these considerations, the restoration of a free trade, the respite from that anxiety and suspense which the prosecution of a war never fails to engender, and the prospect of a speedy deliverance from discouraging restraint and oppressive impositions, were advantages that sweetened the bitter

draught of a dishonourable treaty, and induced the majority of the nation to acquiesce in the peace, not barely without murmuring, but even with some degree of satisfaction and applause.

§ II. Immediately after the exchange of ratifications at Aix-la-Chapelle the armies were broke up: The allies in the Netherlands withdrew their several proportions of troops; the French began to evacuate Flanders; and the English forces were reembarked for their own country. His Britannic majesty returned from his German dominions in November, having landed near Margate, in Kent, after a dangerous passage; and on the 29th of the same month he opened the session of parliament. By this time the misunderstanding between the first two personages of the royal family had been increased by a fresh succession of matter. The prince of Wales had held a court of Stannary, in quality of duke of Cornwall; and revived some claims attached to that dignity, which, had they been admitted, would have greatly augmented his influence among the Cornish boroughs. These efforts roused the jealousy of the administration, which had always considered them as an interest wholly dependent on the crown: and, therefore, the pretensions of his royal highness were opposed by the whole weight of the ministry. His adherents, resenting these hostilities as an injury to their royal master, immediately joined the remnant of the former opposition in parliament, and resolved to counteract all the ministerial measures that should fall under their cognisance; at least, they determined to seize every opportunity of thwarting the servants of the crown, in every scheme or proposal that had not an evident tendency to the advantage of the nation. This band of auxiliaries was headed by the earl of E-t, Dr. Lee, and Mr. N-t. The first possessed a species of eloquence rather plausible than powerful: he spoke with fluency and fire: his spirit was bold and enterprising, his apprehension quick, and his repartee severe. Dr. Lee was a man of extensive erudition and irreproachable morals, particularly versed in the civil law, which he professed, and perfectly well acquainted with the constitution of his country. Mr. N-t was an orator of middling abilities, who harangued upon all subjects indiscriminately, and supplied with confidence what he wanted

in capacity: he had been at some pains to study the business of the house, as well as to understand the machine of government; and was tolerably well heard, as he generally spoke with an appearance of good humour, and hazarded every whimsical idea, as it rose in his imagination. lord Bolingbroke is said to have been the chief spring which, in secret, actuated the deliberations of the prince's court. That nobleman, seemingly sequestered from the tumults of a public life, resided at Battersea, where he was visited like a sainted shrine by all the distinguished votaries of wit, eloquence, and political ambition. There he was cultivated and admired for the elegance of his manners, and the charms of his conversation. The prince's curiosity was first captivated by his character, and his esteem was afterwards secured by the irresistible address of that extraordinary personage, who continued in a regular progression to insinuate himself still farther and farther into the good graces of his royal patron. How far the conduct of his royal highness was influenced by the private advice of this nobleman we shall not pretend to determine: but, certain it is, the friends of the ministry propogated a report, that he was the dictator of those measures which the prince adopted; and that, under the specious pretext of attachment to the heir apparent of the crown, he concealed his real aim, which was to perpetuate the breach in the royal family. Whatever his sentiments and motives might have been, this was no other than a revival of the old ministerial clamour, that a man cannot be well affected to the king, if he pretends to censure any measure of the administration.

§ III. The weight which the opposition derived from these new confederates in the house of commons was still greatly overbalanced by the power, influence, and ability that sustained every ministerial project. Mr. Pelham, who chiefly managed the helm of affairs, was generally esteemed as a man of honesty and candour, actuated by a sincere love for his country, though he had been educated in erroneous principles of government, and in some measure obliged to prosecute a fatal system, which descended to him by inheritance. At this time he numbered Mr. Pitt among his fellow ministers, and was moreover supported by many other individuals of distinguished abilities; among whom

the first place in point of genius, was due to Mr. M. who executed the office of solicitor general. This gentleman, the son of a noble family in North Britain, had raised himself to great eminence at the bar, by a most keen intuitive spirit of apprehension, that seemed to seize every object at first glance; an innate sagacity, that saved the trouble of intense application; and an irresistible stream of eloquence, that flowed pure and classical, strong and copious, reflecting, in the most conspicuous point of view, the subjects over which it rolled, and sweeping before it all the slime of formal hesitation, and all the entangling weeds of chicanery. Yet, the servants of the crown were not so implicitly attached to the first minister as to acquiesce in all his plans, and dedicate their time and talents to the support of every court measure indiscriminately. This was one material point in which Mr. Pelham deviated from the maxims of his predecessor, who admitted of no contradiction from any of his adherents or fellow servants, but insisted on sacrificing their whole perception and faculties to his conduct and disposal. That sordid deference to a minister no longer characterized the subordinate instruments of the administration. It was not unusual to see the great officers of the government divided in a parliamentary debate, and to hear the secretary at war opposing with great vehemence a clause suggested by the chancellor of the exchequer. After all, if we coolly consider those arguments which have been bandied about, and retorted with such eagerness and acrimony in the house of commons, and divest them of those. passionate tropes and declamatory metaphors which the spirit of opposition alone had produced, we shall find very little left for the subject of dispute, and sometimes be puzzled to discover any material source of disagreement.

§ IV. In the month of November his majesty opened the session of parliament with a speech, acquainting them, that the definitive treaty of peace was at length signed by all the parties concerned: that he had made the most effectual provision for securing the rights and interests of his own subjects; and procured for his allies the best conditions, which, in the present situation of affairs, could be obtained. He said, he had found a general good disposition in all parties to bring the negotiation to a happy con

clusion and observed, that we might promise ourselves a long enjoyment of the blessings of peace. Finally, after having remarked that times of tranquillity were the proper seasons for lessening the national debt, and strengthening the kingdom against future events, he recommended to the commons the improvement of the public revenue, the maintenance of a considerable naval force, the advancement of commerce, and the cultivation of the arts of peace. This speech, as usual, was echoed back by an address to the throne from both houses, containing general expressions of the warmest loyalty and gratitude to his majesty, and implying the most perfect satisfaction and acquiescence in the articles of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle..

V. The members in the opposition, according to custom, cavilled at the nature of this address. They observed, that the late pacification was the worst and most inglorious of all the bad treaties to which the English nation had ever subscribed that it was equally disgraceful, indefinite, and absurd: they said, the British navy had gained such an ascendancy over the French at sea, that the sources of their wealth were already choaked up; that the siege of Maes-tricht would have employed their arms in the Low Countries till the arrival of the Russians; and that the accession of these auxiliaries would have thrown the superiority into the scale of the allies. They did not fail to take notice, that the most important and original object of the war was left wholly undecided; and demonstrated the absurdity of their promising, in the address, to make good such engagements as his majesty had entered into with his allies, before they knew what those engagements were. In answer to these objections, the ministers replied, that the peace was in itself rather better than could be expected; and that the smallest delay might have proved fatal to the liberties of Europe. They affirmed, that the Dutch were upon the point of concluding a neutrality, in consequence of which their troops would have been withdrawn from the allied army; and, in that case, even the addition of the Russian auxiliaries would not have rendered it a match for the enemy. They asserted, that if the war had been prolonged another year, the national credit of Great Britain must have been entirely ruined, many of the public funds having