[The dead and living Cleopatra.]—This coming to the fair one’s knowledge, she never ceased, till she had made such a rupture between her fond General and Yonge, as had like to have ended in the total ruin of the latter.
[CHAPTER II.]
Mr. Alexander Murray summoned to the bar of the House of Commons, and committed to Newgate—Sir William Yonge—Debate on the Army—Evidence of the witnesses against Mr. Murray, and remarks in Parliament upon it—Quarrel of Lord Coke and the Speaker—The party of the Prince of Wales—Murray’s behaviour in the House of Commons considered contemptuous; he is sentenced to closer confinement—Sir John Cotton—Report on Murray’s case—Character of Lord Egmont—Colonels Lyttleton, Townshend, and Conway—Sir Henry Erskine—Charge against General Anstruther—Vices of the people—Sir John Barnard—Factions—Subsidy to Bavaria—Lord Chesterfield’s bill for reforming the calendar; his character—Naturalization Bill.
February 4th.—An army of 18,850 men was proposed. Lord Limerick[38] moved for 15,000. Ever since the defeat of Lord Bath, he had been listed under the Prince, but for the last three or four years had lived retired in Ireland. He had preserved a sort of character from the impossibility of his being dismissed with the rest of his friends, as he had secured the reversion of a large sinecure for life, and, consequently, had less occasion to be intriguing after new preferment. His speeches were reckoned severe, and it was not his fault if they did not answer the character; he meant to wound, but his genius did not carry equal edge with his temper. Martin, a West Indian lawyer, attached to the Prince, made a speech of great wit against standing armies, with very new arguments. The eighteen thousand men were voted in the committee by 240 to 117, and carried next day on the report, after a long debate, by 175 to 75.
6th.—The High Bailiff produced eight witnesses against Mr. Murray, who gave the strongest evidence of his menaces and seditious behaviour. He was then heard by his Counsel, who brought the High Constable, Carne, Mr. Gascoyne, Lord Carpenter, and Sir John Tyrrel, to invalidate the charge. The first only proved that the words might have been said without his hearing them; the second confirmed the accuser’s charge in some particulars. Lord Carpenter, with the greatest decency, gave the most unconscientious evidence; but though he confined it to negatives, he at last contradicted himself, and was materially contradicted by Sir John Tyrrel, a foolish young Knight, who did not know how to reconcile his awe of the House with the little regard he had for what he was ready to depose. Lord Carpenter was undertaking Westminster, and having lately succeeded to a large estate, seemed to think elections the most equal way of restoring the sums which his father had amassed by excessive usury. The Counsel made small defence; one of them even made an excuse for engaging in that cause. Mr. Murray then advanced to the bar, and said he was ashamed of nothing he was accused of having said, but calling Lord Trentham a rogue to the chimney-sweeper, which was below him to have done.
The High Bailiff made short, clear, and fair observations on the evidence. Colonel Richard Lyttleton then moved a long resolution of the proofs being full, and was seconded by Colonel George Townshend. Sir Francis Dashwood opposed it, and would have reduced all the proofs to immaterial words, and the probability of one of the witnesses having mistaken the sound of a voice when he did not see the face of the person who spoke them, though he turned immediately and saw Mr. Murray, whose voice he had recollected. Lord Duplin replied. Sir John Cotton reflected on the length of the motion brought ready drawn, and complained of the House not having paid due regard to his evidence for Gibson; and both he and Sir Francis laid great stress on the dignity and character of Lord Carpenter. Mr. Fox answered in one of the finest, most spirited, and artful speeches that he ever made; set Lord Duplin’s evidence against Cotton’s; summed up the whole charge and proofs, and instead of ridiculing Sir John Tyrrel’s ridiculous evidence, as less able speakers would have done, he enforced it, commented it, and then produced it against Lord Carpenter’s. Lord Egmont made an artful speech, W. Pitt a florid one, T. Pitt a dull one.
During the debate, the strangers in the gallery were called to, to withdraw; the Speaker said that was his business, unless any gentleman would move it, and then he would be obliged to him. Lord Coke rose, moved it, and said, “Sir, I am that gentleman, and grant your request.” The Speaker immediately ordered them to withdraw, and said with a smile, “and, my Lord, I have obeyed your commands.” But as soon as they were gone, he fell into a pompous passion, and complained of Lord Coke’s repeating his words; having mistaken a disposition to pomp in another for burlesque, which he did not perceive was the result of the thing, and not of the intention. The episode concluded with Lord Coke’s begging his pardon, and with his being content to have thought himself affronted, as at all events it had procured him submission.
Of the Prince’s people only thirteen stayed to vote; and towards midnight, the resolution was carried by 210 to 74. It was then moved to send Mr. Murray close prisoner to Newgate. Sir John Cotton and others divided on the word close, but were only 52 to 169: Lord Egmont and his faction had retired. The young Whigs, angry at this second division, determined to bring Murray on his knees; and it was proposed to Mr. Pelham in the lobby: he consented, and it was moved by Colonel Lyttleton and Lord Coke. The Tories were enraged, and divided again, after Mr. Dowdeswell had moved for the Tower; but a precedent having been quoted of Middleton, the Sheriff of Denbigh, being sent to Newgate (in times[39] that the Whigs loved now to imitate, from the aversion they had felt to the first example), while they were disputing on the word close, and Mr. Harding had made the Clerk read the journal till it came to the resolution of addressing the King even to take away an office from Middleton, Mr. Fox recurred to that precedent, and said, “If the gentlemen of North Wales, where the Middletons of Chirk Castle are one of the most ancient families, would yield the precedence to the Murrays, he would consent that the latter should go to the Tower.”