[371] Lord Hardwicke threw out the militia bill in 1756, thinking some of its clauses rather too republican, and, in fact, being adverse to the scheme. Parl. Hist. xv. 704; H. Walpole's Memoirs, ii. 45; Coxe's Memoirs of Lord Walpole, 450.
[372] By the act of 6 Anne, c. 7, all persons holding pensions from the Crown during pleasure were made incapable of sitting in the House of Commons; which was extended by 1 Geo. I. c. 56, to those who held them for any term of years. But the difficulty was to ascertain the fact; the government refusing information. Mr. Sandys, accordingly proposed a bill in 1730, by which every member of the Commons was to take an oath that he did not hold any such pension, and that, in case of accepting one, he would disclose it to the house within fourteen days. This was carried by a small majority through the Commons, but rejected in the other house; which happened again in 1734 and in 1740. Parl. Hist. viii. 789; ix. 369; xi. 510. The king, in an angry note to Lord Townshend, on the first occasion, calls it "this villainous bill." Coxe's Walpole, ii. 537, 673. A bill of the same gentleman to limit the number of placemen in the house had so far worse success, that it did not reach the Serbonian bog. Parl. Hist. xi. 328, Bishop Sherlock made a speech against the prevention of corrupt practices by the pension bill, which, whether justly or not, excited much indignation, and even gave rise to the proposal of a bill for putting an end to the translation of bishops. Id. viii. 847.
[373] 25 Geo. 2, c. 22. The king came very reluctantly into this measure: in the preceding session of 1742, Sandys, now become chancellor of the exchequer, had opposed it, though originally his own; alleging, in no very parliamentary manner, that the new ministry had not yet been able to remove his majesty's prejudices. Parl. Hist. xii. 896.
[374] Mr. Fox declared to the Duke of Newcastle, when the office of secretary of state, and what was called the management of the House of Commons, was offered to him, "that he never desired to touch a penny of the secret service money, or to know the disposition of it farther than was necessary to enable him to speak to the members without being ridiculous." Dodington's Diary, 15th March 1754. H. Walpole confirms this in nearly the same words. Mem. of Last Ten Years, i. 332.
[375] In Coxe's Memoirs of Sir R. Walpole, iii. 609, we have the draught, by that minister, of an intended vindication of himself after his retirement from office, in order to show the impossibility of misapplying public money, which, however, he does not show; and his elaborate account of the method by which payments are made out of the exchequer, though valuable in some respects, seems rather intended to lead aside the unpractised reader.
[376] This secret committee were checked at every step for want of sufficient powers. It is absurd to assert, like Mr. Coxe, that they advanced accusations which they could not prove, when the means of proof were withheld. Scrope and Paxton, the one secretary, the other solicitor, to the treasury, being examined about very large sums traced to their hands, and other matters, refused to answer questions that might criminate themselves; and a bill to indemnify evidence was lost in the upper house. Parl. Hist. xii. 625 et post.
[377] See vol. i. [254], [255].
[378] Parl. Hist. vi. 1265. Walpole says, in speaking for Steele, "the liberty of the press is unrestrained; how then shall a part of the legislature dare to punish that as a crime, which is not declared to be so by any law framed by the whole?"
[380] The instances are so numerous, that to select a few would perhaps give an inadequate notion of the vast extension which privilege received. In fact, hardly anything could be done disagreeable to a member, of which he might inform the house, and cause it to be punished.