[Footnote 1: Sir H. Mann was an early friend of Walpole; and was
Minister at Florence from 1740-1786.]
[Illustration: SIR HORACE MANN.]
_Friday, Jan._ 22, 1742.
Don't wonder that I missed writing to you yesterday, my constant day:
you will pity me when you hear that I was shut up in the House of
Commons till one in the morning. I came away more dead than alive, and
was forced to leave Sir R. at supper with my brothers: he was all alive
and in spirits.[1] He says he is younger than me, and indeed I think
so, in spite of his forty years more. My head aches to-night, but we
rose early; and if I don't write to-night, when shall I find a moment to
spare? Now you want to know what we did last night; stay, I will tell
you presently in its place: it was well, and of infinite consequence--so
far I tell you now.
[Footnote 1: Sir Robert Wilmot also, in a letter to the Duke of
Devonshire, written on the 12th, says, "Sir Robert was to-day observed
to be more naturally gay and full of spirits than he has been for some
time past."]
Our recess finished last Monday, and never at school did I enjoy
holidays so much--but, _les voilà finis jusqu'au printems_! Tuesday (for
you see I write you an absolute journal) we sat on a Scotch election, a
double return; their man was Hume Campbell[1], Lord Marchmont's brother,
lately made solicitor to the Prince, for being as troublesome, as
violent, and almost as able as his brother. They made a great point of
it, and gained so many of our votes, that at ten at night we were forced
to give it up without dividing. Sandys, who loves persecution, _even
unto death_, moved to punish the sheriff; and as we dared not divide,
they ordered him into custody, where by this time, I suppose, Sandys has
eaten him.
[Footnote 1: Hume Campbell, twin brother of Hugh, third Earl of
Marchmont, the friend of Pope, and one of his executors. They were sons
of Alexander, the second earl, who had quarrelled with Sir Robert
Walpole at the time of the excise scheme in 1733. Sir Robert, in
consequence, prevented him from being re-elected one of the sixteen
representative Scotch peers in 1734; in requital for which, the old
earl's two sons became the bitterest opponents of the minister. They
were both men of considerable talents; extremely similar in their
characters and dispositions, and so much so in their outward appearance,
that it was very difficult to know them apart.]
On Wednesday Sir Robert Godschall, the Lord Mayor, presented the
Merchant's petition, signed by three hundred of them, and drawn up by
_Leonidas_ Glover.[1] This is to be heard next Wednesday. This
gold-chain came into parliament, cried up for his parts, but proves so
dull, one would think he chewed opium. Earle says, "I have heard an
oyster speak as well twenty times."...
[Footnote 1: Mr. Glover, a London merchant, was the author of a poem
entitled "Leonidas"; of a tragedy, "Boadicea"; and of the ode on
"Admiral Hosier's Ghost," which is mentioned in the letter to Conway at
p. 23.]
On this Thursday, of which I was telling you, at three o'clock, Mr.
Pulteney rose up, and moved for a secret committee of twenty-one. This
inquisition, this council of ten, was to sit and examine whatever
persons and papers they should please, and to meet when and where they
pleased. He protested much on its not being intended against _any
person_, but merely to give the King advice, and on this foot they
fought it till ten at night, when Lord Perceval blundered out what they
had been cloaking with so much art, and declared that he should vote for
it as a committee of accusation. Sir Robert immediately rose, and
protested that he should not have spoken, but for what he had heard
last; but that now, he must take it to himself. He pourtrayed the malice
of the Opposition, who, for twenty years, had not been able to touch
him, and were now reduced to this infamous shift. He defied them to
accuse him, and only desired that if they should, it might be in an open
and fair manner; desired no favour, but to be acquainted with his
accusation. He spoke of Mr. Dodington, who had called his administration
infamous, as of a person of great self-mortification, who, for sixteen
years, had condescended to bear part of the odium. For Mr. Pulteney, who
had just spoken a second time, Sir R. said, he had begun the debate with
great calmness, but give him his due, he had made amends for it in the
end. In short, never was innocence so triumphant!
There were several glorious speeches on both sides; Mr. Pulteney's two,
W. Pitt's [Chatham's] and George Grenville's, Sir Robert's, Sir W.
Yonge's, Harry Fox's [Lord Holland's], Mr. Chute's, and the
Attorney-General's [Sir Dudley Ryder]. My friend Coke [Lovel], for the
first time, spoke vastly well, and mentioned how great Sir Robert's
character is abroad. Sir Francis Dashwood replied that he had found
quite the reverse from Mr. Coke, and that foreigners always spoke with
contempt of the Chevalier de Walpole. This was going too far, and he was
called to order, but got off well enough, by saying, that he knew it was
contrary to rule to name any member, but that he only mentioned it as
spoken by an impertinent Frenchman.
But of all speeches, none ever was so full of wit as Mr. Pulteney's
last. He said, "I have heard this committee represented as a most
dreadful spectre; it has been likened to all terrible things; it has
been likened to the King; to the inquisition; it will be a committee of
safety; it is a committee of danger; I don't know what it is to be! One
gentleman, I think, called it _a cloud_! (this was the Attorney) _a
cloud_! I remember Hamlet takes Lord Polonius by the hand shows him _a
cloud_, and then asks him if he does not think it is like a whale."
Well, in short, at eleven at night we divided, and threw out this famous
committee by 253 to 250, the greatest number that ever was in the house,
and the greatest number that ever _lost_ a question.[1]
[Footnote 1: Lord Stanhope ("History of England," i. 24) gives a long
account of this debate, mainly derived from this letter.]
It was a most shocking sight to see the sick and dead brought in on both
sides! Men on crutches, and Sir William Gordon from his bed, with a
blister on his head, and flannel hanging out from under his wig. I could
scarce pity him for his ingratitude. The day before the Westminster
petition, Sir Charles Wager gave his son a ship, and the next day the
father came down and voted against him. The son has since been cast
away; but they concealed it from the father, that he might not absent
himself. However, as we have our good-natured men too on our side, one
of his own countrymen went and told him of it in the House. The old man,
who looked like Lazarus at his resuscitation, bore it with great
resolution, and said, he knew _why_ he was told of it, but when he
thought his country in danger, he would not go away. As he is so near
death, that it is indifferent to him whether he died two thousand years
ago or to-morrow, it is unlucky for him not to have lived when such
insensibility would have been a Roman virtue.
There are no arts, no menaces, which the Opposition do not practise.
They have threatened one gentleman to have a reversion cut off from his
son, unless he will vote with them. To Totness there came a letter to
the mayor from the Prince, and signed by two of his lords, to recommend
a candidate in opposition to the Solicitor-General [Strange]. The mayor
sent the letter to Sir Robert. They have turned the Scotch to the best
account. There is a young Oswald, who had engaged to Sir R. but has
voted against us. Sir R. sent a friend to reproach him; the moment the
gentleman who had engaged for him came into the room, Oswald said, "You
had like to have led me into a fine error! did you not tell me that Sir
R. would have the majority?"
When the debate was over, Mr. Pulteney owned that he had never heard so
fine a debate on our side; and said to Sir Robert, "Well, nobody can do
what you can!" "Yes," replied Sir R., "Yonge did better." Mr. Pulteney
answered, "It was fine, but not of that weight with what you said." They
all allow it; and now their plan is to persuade Sir Robert to retire
with honour. All that evening there was a report about the town, that he
and my uncle [_old_ Horace] were to be sent to the Tower, and people
hired windows in the City to see them pass by--but for this time I
believe we shall not exhibit so historical a parade....
Sir Thomas Robinson [Long] is at last named to the government of
Barbadoes; he has long prevented its being asked for, by declaring that
he had the promise of it. Luckily for him, Lord Lincoln liked his house,
and procured him this government on condition of hiring it.
I have mentioned Lord Perceval's speeches; he has a set who has a
rostrum at his house, and harangue there. A gentleman who came thither
one evening was refused, but insisting that he was engaged to come, "Oh,
Sir," said the porter, "what are you one of those who play at members of
parliament?"...
_RANELAGH GARDENS OPENED--GARRICK, "A WINE-MERCHANT TURNED
PLAYER"--DEFEAT OF THE INDEMNITY BILL._