[43] The King of Prussia melted the gold coin which we furnished for our subsidy, and recoined it with much more alloy.
[44] On the cider-tax in the following reign.
[45] Sir Robert Walpole had brought in a Bill on general excise, but so virulent was the opposition made to it by his enemies, that, though he carried it, he had been in danger of his life, and was persuaded by his friends, against his own opinion, to drop it. Almost all his chief opponents lived to recant their opposition to that plan, as Mr. Pitt did on this occasion; which was the handsomer, as he had lost his cornetcy of horse, and his uncle Lord Cobham his regiment, for their opposition on that occasion.
[46] Basil Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, much better known in the following reign.
[47] Archibald Bower, author of the History of the Popes, was much exposed in print by Dr. Douglas, and a warm controversy was stirred up on that occasion.
[48] This Mr. Campbell, who had estates both in Scotland and Wales, had been one of the Lords of the Treasury during the Administration of Sir Robert Walpole, and died very aged since the year 1770.
[49] Frederick, Lord North, afterwards Prime Minister, eldest son of Francis, Earl of Guildford, who married to his second wife the widow of Lord Lewisham, elder brother of Mr. Legge.
[50] George Walpole, third Earl of Orford, grandson of Sir Robert Walpole. Lord Orford, whose intellects were never very sound, and which were afterwards much disordered, showed at no time a disposition to tread in the principles of his grandfather and family. He lived almost always in the country, and was chiefly influenced in politics, when he did take any part in them, by George Lord Townshend, who had deviated still more from the Whig principles of his grandfather; being poisoned by his mother, the celebrated Ethelreda, Lady Townshend. That lady had been very affected. She had a great deal of wit, which was seldom delicate, and had turned Jacobite on some disregard from the Duke of Cumberland. One day that she was very severe on the Royal Family, Margaret Cecil, Lady Brown, said to her, “Lady Townshend, it was very well, while you was only affected; but now you are disaffected, it is intolerable.” A famous bon mot of Lady Townshend on the Royal Family was occasioned by seeing them often at Ranelagh: she said, “This is the cheapest family to see, and the dearest to keep, that ever was.”
[51] Afterwards Sir George Brydges Rodney; much more known in the years 1780 and 1781.