The Whigs took pleasure in copying the precedents,[34] that had been set them at the famous Westminster Election, in 1742; and the Speaker had the satisfaction both times of executing the vengeance of either party, and indulging his own dignity. On the former occasion, his speech to the kneeling Justices was so long and severe, that the morning it was printed, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams complained to him of the printer’s having made a grievous mistake—“Where?—how? I examined the proof sheet myself!” Sir Charles replied, “in the conclusion he makes you say, more might have been said; to be sure you wrote it, less might have been said.”
The King on these votes commended the young men, and said to the Duke of Newcastle before the Duke of Bedford, “they are not like those puppies who are always changing their minds. Those are your Pitts and your Grenvilles, whom you have cried up to me so much! You know I never liked them.”
February 1.—Mr. Murray appeared at the bar of the House of Commons, and heard the High Bailiff’s charge. He asserted his innocence; said he should deny nothing that was true; that much was false; smiled when he was taxed of having called Lord Trentham and the High Bailiff rascals, and desired Counsel, which, after a debate of two hours, was granted to him, and a respite till the Wednesday following, upon condition of his being taken into custody, and giving bail for his appearance. Gibson, the upholsterer, was then brought to the bar, witnesses for and against him heard, and the words proved, though some members[35] of the House, who had been present at the conclusion of the scrutiny, did not hear him speak them. Sir William Yonge moved a resolution of his guilt, which was carried by 214 to 63, and he was committed to Newgate.
Sir William Yonge[36] was still employed in any government causes where the Ministry wanted to inflict punishments and avoid odium—their method of acquiring merit! His vivacity and parts, whatever the cause was, made him shine, and he was always content with the lustre that accompanied fame, without thinking of what was reflected from rewarded fame—a convenient ambition to Ministers, who had few such disinterested combatants! Sir Robert Walpole always said of him, “that nothing but Yonge’s character[37] could keep down his parts, and nothing but his parts support his character.”
FOOTNOTES:
[17] William, second son of George the Second, Commander of the army in Flanders, and Duke of Cumberland. He was, by an affectation of adopting French usages, called emphatically “The Duke,” during the latter years of George the Second and the beginning of the reign of George the Third.—E.
[18] Lord Sandwich had been Plenipotentiary at the Conference at Breda in 1747, and concluded the Peace at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1749.
[19] Richard Levison Gower.
[20] The second son of that name, Knight of the Garter and Master of the Horse, died Aug. 8, 1750, aged 49.
[21] Yesterday morning (Dec. 8, 1756), died at his house in the Stable-yard, St. James’s, the Right Hon. William Stanhope, Earl of Harrington, a General of his Majesty’s Forces, a Governor of the Charter-house, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and one of the Lords of his Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council.