(483) Alluding to the Grand Rebellion against Charles the First.
(484) The Parliament which overthrew Sir R. W. was carried against him by his losing the majority of the Scotch and Cornish boroughs; the latter managed by Lord Falmouth and Thomas Pitt.
(485) Archibald Campbell, Earl of Islay, brother of John, Duke of Argyll, in conjunction with whom (though then openly at variance) he was supposed to have betrayed Sir R. W. and to have let the Opposition succeed in the Scotch elections, which were trusted to his management. It must be observed, that Sir R. W. would never allow that he believed himself betrayed by Lord Islay.
229 Letter 56 To Sir Horace Mann. London, March 3d, 1742.
I am Obliged to write to you to-day, for I am sure I shall not have a moment to-morrow; they are to make their motion for a secret committee to examine into the late administration. We are to oppose it strongly, but to no purpose; for since the change, they have beat us on no division under a majority of forty. This last week has produced no new novelties; his Royal Highness has been shut up with the measles, of which he was near dying, by eating China oranges.
We are to send sixteen thousand men into Flanders in the spring, under his Grace of Argyll; they talk of the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Albemarle to command under him. Lord Cadogan (486) is just dead, so there is another regiment vacant: they design Lord Delawar's for Westmoreland;(487) so now Sir Francis Dashwood (488) will grow as fond of the King again as he used to be-or as he has hated him since.
We have at last finished the Merchants' petition, under the conduct of the Lord Mayor and Mr. Leonidas;(489) the greatest coxcomb and the greatest oaf that ever met in blank verse or prose. I told you the former's question about the copy of a letter taken after the original was lost. They have got a new story of him; that hearing of a gentleman who had had the small-pox twice and died of it, he asked, if he died the first time or the second-if this is made for him, it is at least quite in his style. After summing up the evidence (in doing which, Mr. Glover literally drank several times to the Lord Mayor in a glass of water that stood by him,) Sir John Barnard moved to vote, that there had been great neglect in the protection of the trade, to the great advantage of' the enemy, and the dishonour of the nation. He said he did not mean to charge the Admiralty particularly, for then particular persons must have had particular days assigned to be heard in their own defence, which would take up too much time, as we are now going to make inquiries of a much higher nature. Mr. Pelham was for leaving out the last words. Mr. Doddington rose, and in a set speech declared that the motion was levelled at a particular person, who had so usurped all authority, that all inferior offices were obliged to submit to his will, and so either bend and bow, or be broken: but that he hoped the steps we were now going to take, would make the office of first minister so dangerous a post, that nobody would care to accept it for the future. Do but think of this fellow, who has so lost all character, and made himself so odious to both King, and Prince, by his alternate flatteries, changes, oppositions, and changes of flatteries and oppositions, that he can never expect what he has so much courted by all methods,-think of his talking of making it dangerous for any one else to accept the first ministership! Should such a period ever arrive, he would accept it with joy-the only chance he can ever have for it! But sure, never was impudence more put to shame! The whole debate turned upon him. Lord Doneraile (490) (who, by the way, has produced blossoms of Doddington like fruit, and consequently is the fitter scourge for him) stood up and said, he did not know what that gentleman meant; that he himself was as willing to bring all offenders to justice as any man; but that he did not intend to confine punishment to those who had been employed only at the end of the last ministry, but proposed to extend it to all who had been engaged in it, and wished that that gentleman would speak with more lenity of an administration, in which he himself had been concerned for so many years. Winnington said, he did not know what Mr. Doddington had meant, by either bending or being broken; that he knew some who had been broken, though they had bowed an bended. Waller defended Doddington, and said, if he was gilty, at least Mr. Winnington was so too; on which Fox rose up, and, laying his hand on his breast, said, he never wished to have such a friend, as could only excuse him by bringing in another for equal share of his guilt. Sir John Cotton replied; he did not wonder that Mr. Fox (who had spoken with great warmth) was angry at hearing his friend in place, compared to one out of place. Do but figure how Doddington must have looked and felt during such dialogues! In short, it ended in Mr. Pultney's rising, and saying, he could not be against the latter words, as he thought the former part of the motion had been proved . and wished both parties would join in carrying on the war vigorously, or in procuring a good peace, rather than in ripping open old sores, and continuing the heats and violences of parties. We came to no division-for we should have lost it by too many.
Thursday evening.
I had written all the former part of my letter, only reserving room to tell you, that they had carried the secret committee-but it is put off till next Tuesday. To-day we had nothing but the giving up the Heydon election, when Mr. Ppultney had an opportunity (as Mr. Chute and Mr. Robinson would not take the trouble to defend a cause which they could not carry) to declaim upon corruption: had it come to a trial, there were eighteen witnesses ready to swear positive bribery against Mr. Pultney. I would write to Mr. Chute, and thank him for his letter which you sent me, but I am so out of humour at his brother's losing his seat, that I cannot speak civilly even to him to-day.
It is said, that my Lord's Grace of Argyll has carried his great point of the Broad Bottom-as I suppose you will hear by rejoicings from Rome. The new Admiralty is named; at the head is to be Lord Winchilsea, with Lord Granard,(491) Mr. Cockburn, his Grace's friend, Dr. Lee, the chairman, Lord Vere Beauclerc;(492) one of the old set, by the interest of the Duke of Dorset, and the connexion of Lady Betty Germain, whose niece Lord Vere married; and two Tories, Sir John Hind Cotton and Will. Chetwynd,(493) an agent of Bolingbroke's-all this is not declared yet, but is believed.