[818] By 237 to 126. Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 1351.
[819] Mahon's Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 83; Bunbury's Correspond. of Hanmer, p. 48. The bill was carried in the Lords by 77 against 72.
[820] ‘If we scrutinize the votes of the peers from the period of the revolution to the death of George II., we shall find a very great majority of the old English nobility to have been the advocates of Whig principles.’ Cooke's Hist. of Party, vol. iii. p. 363.
[821] Compare Harris's Life of Hardwicke, vol. iii. p. 519, with the conversation between Sir Robert Walpole and Lord Hervey, in Hervey's Mem. of George II. vol. ii. p. 251, edit. 1848.
[822] Cooke's Hist. of Party, vol. iii. pp. 363, 364, 365, 463; Parl. Hist. vol. xviii. p. 1418, vol. xxiv. p. 493, vol. xxvii. p. 1069, vol. xxix. pp. 1334, 1494, vol. xxxiii. pp. 90, 602, 1315.
[823] This was too notorious to be denied; and in the House of Commons, in 1800, Nicholls taunted the Government with ‘holding out a peerage, or elevation to a higher rank in the peerage, to every man who could procure a nomination to a certain number of seats in parliament.’ Parl. Hist. vol. xxxv. p. 762. So, too, Sheridan, in 1792, said (vol. xxix. p. 1333), ‘In this country peerages had been bartered for election interest.’
[824] On this great influx of lawyers into the House of Lords, most of whom zealously advocated arbitrary principles, see Belsham's Hist. of Great Britain, vol. vii. pp. 266, 267; Adolphus's Hist. of George III. vol. iii. p. 363; Parl. Hist. vol. xxxv. p. 1523.
[825] It was foretold at the time, that the effect of the numerous creations made during Pitt's power would be to lower the House of Lords. Compare Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 76, with Erskine's speech in Parl. Hist. vol. xxix. p. 1330; and see Sheridan's speech, vol. xxxiii. p. 1197. But their language, indignant as it is, was restrained by a desire of not wholly breaking with the court. Other men, who were more independent in their position, and cared nothing for the chance of future office, expressed themselves in terms such as had never before been heard within the walls of Parliament. Rolle, for instance, declared that ‘there had been persons created peers during the present minister's power, who were not fit to be his grooms.’ Parl. Hist. vol. xxvii. p. 1198. Out of doors, the feeling of contempt was equally strong; see Life of Cartwright, vol. i. p. 278; and see the remark even of the courtly Sir W. Jones, on the increasing disregard for learning shown by ‘the nobles of our days.’ Preface to Persian Grammar, in Jones's Works, vol. ii. p. 125.
[826] In his Thoughts on French Affairs, written in 1791, he says, ‘At no period in the history of England have so few peers been taken out of trade, or from families newly created by commerce.’ Burke's Works, vol. i. p. 566. Indeed, according to Sir Nathaniel Wraxall (Posthumous Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 66, 67, Lond. 1836), the only instance when George III. broke this rule was when Smith the banker was made Lord Carrington. Wraxall is an indifferent authority, and there may be other cases; but they were certainly very few, and I cannot call any to mind.
[827] Nicholls, who knew him, says, ‘The political knowledge of Mr. Burke might be considered almost as an encyclopædia; every man who approached him received instruction from his stores.’ Nicholls's Recollections, vol. i. p. 20.