The Princess immediately took the oaths as Gouvernante to her son, and all orders of men submitted to her as quietly as in a monarchy of the most established duration; though the opposite faction was numerous, and she herself lethargic and in a very precarious state of health. Lord Holderness was sent to condole and advise her. She, who had long been on ill terms with, and now dreaded the appearance of being governed by her father, received the Ambassador and three letters written with the King’s own hand, in the haughtiest and most slighting manner. Lord Holderness was recalled in anger. The Princess, equally unfit to govern, or to be governed, threw herself into the arms of France, by the management of one Dubacq, a little Secretary, who had long been instilling advice into her, to draw her husband from the influence of Monsieur Bentinck and the Greffier, the known partizans of England; the former of whom, immediately after the death of the Prince, refused to admit Dubacq to a Council, to which she had called him, with the chiefs of the Republic, at the House in the Wood.
The Princess Royal was accomplished in languages, painting, and particularly music; the Queen, and the King too, before their rupture, had great opinion of her understanding; but the pride of her race, and the violence of her passions[185] had left but a scanty sphere for her judgment to exert itself.
November 14.—The Parliament met. Lord Coventry, and Lord Willoughby, of Parham, moved the Address in the House of Lords; Lord Downe and Sir William Beauchamp Proctor in the Commons. Sir John Cotton objected to the words our flourishing condition; but that was the only breath of opposition.
On the 18th, there was a meeting at the Speaker’s, to consult on punishing the Sheriffs for their insolent behaviour on the delivery of Murray; but they came to no resolution, except on remanding Murray to his imprisonment. Accordingly, on the 20th, Lord Coke moved to have the former votes on him read, and then to revive them. He spoke well, and treated Murray and the Sheriffs with great contempt. Lord Coke[186] had ready parts, a great memory, great Whig zeal. There was too much pomp in his turn, and vehemence in the expression of his dislikes, which were chiefly now directed against the Scotch, who had persecuted him bitterly, on a quarrel with his wife, a daughter of the late Duke of Argyle. He was on ill terms too with Mr. Pelham, and had intended to have opened on the neglect shown to the old Whigs; but his friend, Lord Hartington, the officious tool to Mr. Pelham’s ingratitude, had been with him that morning, and persuaded him to drop so general an attack. Lord Duplin seconded him. Sydenham opposed, and Lord Egmont,[187] who spoke with great caution, and apologized for undertaking the cause, was against unnecessary asperity; [he] said, “This man had demonstrated the insufficiency of the power of the House; that his imprisonment would not put a stop to pamphlets; that the public, who cannot judge as the House of Commons does, would think the whole an election matter—a point in which they are most jealous; that Murray had already suffered greatly; that to revive the sentence would be inflicting banishment, which will be no further voluntary, than as he will prefer it to imprisonment. That the sentence must be renewed every session; and that the Commons, though but a third part of the Legislature, would be exerting the power of banishment, which is unknown to the Crown itself. That such a stretch of authority would be doubly unpopular, after enacting a continuation of the Parliament by the Regency Bill last session. That in one point you had set yourselves a precedent of moderation by slighting the second set of Queries, after censuring the first, though the second attacked both King and Parliament; the first only the Duke. That contempt had stopped the progress of those libels; that contempt such as Lord Coke’s would be the properest treatment of Murray. That this prosecution can’t be pursued without some injustice, as it must be stopped somewhere, and it will be unjust not to proceed as far hereafter on any election complaint:” and then after a definition of true and false honour, he moved to adjourn.
Lord Coke replied in few but masterly words; defined true and false moderation, and said, “That true moderation is becoming when the culprit submits, but that it is parvi animique pusilli not to persecute a criminal who plumes himself on his defiance, and is the patron of a lost, fallen, unanimated cause!” Mr. Pelham commended both speeches, and added, “If the House has not all the authority it wishes, it ought at least to exert all it has.” The Motion for adjournment was rejected, and the resumption of the sentence agreed to without a division. Lord Coke then moved, that Murray should receive the sentence on his knees; and that the pamphlet called his Case might be read, which was unanimously voted a false, scandalous, and seditious libel; and then Lord Coke moved to address the King to order the Attorney-General to prosecute the author, printer, and publishers; adding, that he would not move any censure on the Sheriffs, but hoped it would be a warning to the City what Magistrates they choose. Sir John Barnard was to have made their submission, if any vote had been proposed against them.
The 22nd, Lord Barrington moved that the number of seamen for the ensuing year should be increased to ten thousand, and said archly, “That he did not intend to defend the change of his own opinion, but of those who ought to preserve a political steadiness in their conduct; that he did not think so large a number always necessary, but circumstances made them so now.” The Bedfords and Sandwichs were removed; the Pitts and the Lytteltons were to be cajoled, and so ten thousand became necessary. They were voted.
The 25th, Lord Coke moved to call the Serjeant-at-Arms, who reported that Murray was absconded. Lord Coke moved for a proclamation and reward for apprehending him, which Vyner and Sydenham opposed, and the latter made a speech worthy the ages of fanaticism, comparing Murray to Prophet Daniel, who would not kneel to Nebuchadnezzar’s Idol, and alleged the example of the Dissenters, who do not kneel at the Sacrament. Alderman Jansen defended the City, on which Lord Coke had reflected, and said, “That to have touched the Sheriffs would have raised a tumult.” A reward of five hundred pounds for apprehending Murray was voted on a division of 98 to 26.
The Duke had a fall as he was hunting at Windsor, was taken up speechless, and refusing to be blooded, grew dangerously ill with a pain in his side, and was given over by the physicians; but recovered. The King was inexpressibly alarmed, wept over him, and told everybody that was in his confidence, that the nation would be undone, left to nothing but a woman and children! He said to Mr. Fox of the Duke, “He has a head to guide, to rule, and to direct;” and always talked as if the Duke was to be sole Regent. Mr. Fox repeated this to him, who said, the King had talked to him himself in the same strain. “Why then, sir,” replied Mr. Fox, “don’t you just put him in mind, in those fits of tenderness, of what he has done to prevent your being so?” He replied, “That it was now too late to remedy; that the Regency Bill could not be repealed, and that even if it could, he had rather bear the ignominy that had been laid upon him, than venture giving the King the uneasiness of reflecting, if it were but for two hours in his own room, on the injury he had done him.”
Mr. Pelham was uneasy at Mr. Fox’s being admitted to the Duke in his illness, when he was excluded. The Duke asked Fox afterwards how the brothers had behaved during that crisis. He replied, “Both cried: the Duke of Newcastle over-acted it, but Mr. Pelham seemed really concerned.”—“Ay,” said the Duke, “I know they both cried; for the Duke of Newcastle, he cried, because he had not been in the morning to know how I did—but for Mr. Pelham, he is such a fellow, that I can believe he was in earnest!”