[ [!-- Note Anchor 55 --][Footnote 55: In the debates on the subject it was stated that the number of Hanoverians quartered in the two fortresses was nineteen hundred, and the number of British troops left in them was two thousand. Moreover, as has been already remarked, though Lord Shelburne spoke of arming Roman Catholics, it is probable that the Hanoverians were mostly Protestants.]
[ [!-- Note Anchor 56 --][Footnote 56: The Preliminary or Provisional Articles, as they were called, of which the Definitive Treaty was but a copy, were signed at Paris, November 30, 1782, during Lord Shelburne's administration. But the Definitive Treaty was not signed till the 3d of September of the following year, under the Coalition Ministry, which was turned out a few weeks afterward.]
[ [!-- Note Anchor 57 --][Footnote 57: We shall see in a [subsequent chapter] that even in this reign of George III. Pitt laid down the true principles of our legislation for the colonies in his bill for the better government of Canada.]
[ [!-- Note Anchor 58 --][Footnote 58: An admirably reasoned passage on the influence of the crown, especially in the reigns of the two first Hanoverian Kings, will be found in Hallam, "Constitutional History," c. xvi., vol. iii., p. 392, ed. 1832.]
[ [!-- Note Anchor 59 --][Footnote 59: The "Parliamentary History" shows that he had brought forward the same motion before 1780; since Lord Nugent, who replied to him, said "the same motion had been made for some years past, and had been silently decided on." From which it seems that it was never discussed at any length till May 8, 1780.]
[ [!-- Note Anchor 60 --][Footnote 60: On the division the numbers were: for the motion, 90; against it, 182.]
[ [!-- Note Anchor 61 --][Footnote 61: The division in 1782 was: 161 to 141; in 1783, 293 to 149.]
[ [!-- Note Anchor 62 --][Footnote 62: How systematic and open bribery was at this time is shown by an account of Sheridan's expenses at Stafford in 1784, of which the first item is—248 burgesses, paid £5 5s. each, £1302.—Moore's Life of Sheridan, i., 405.]
[ [!-- Note Anchor 63 --][Footnote 63: "Life of Pitt," i., 359.]
[ [!-- Note Anchor 64 --][Footnote 64: Lord North was a Knight of the Garter, the only commoner, except Sir R. Walpole, who received that distinction in the last century, and the latest, with the exception of Lord Castlereagh. on whom it has been conferred.]