[12] To show how paramount he was in Parliament, and how powerless the Opposition, it is only necessary to read the list of the Acts which passed Parliament that year. Motion in the House of Peers by Lord Stanhope for non-interference in the internal affairs of France—unanimously rejected. Motion of a like tendency in the House of Commons—negatived. Motion in the House of Peers for facilitating the opening of negotiation with France—negatived. Motion for a vigorous prosecution of the war—carried. Sundry motions for preparing the way for peace with France—negatived. Motion in the House of Commons for inquiring into the state of the nation—negatived. Another to the same intent in the House of Peers—negatived. Motion in the House of Commons tending to a general pacification by Mr. Wilberforce—negatived. Motion of a similar tendency in the House of Lords—negatived.
[13] It is a curious fact that the subscription was filled in fifteen hours and twenty minutes; two on Thursday, six on Friday, six on Saturday, and one hour and twenty minutes on Monday.
[14] This worthy gentleman, who used to compel the peasantry to prostrate themselves before him, who flogged a man within an inch of his life for writing a note in French, which he could not understand, and kept another for some days in prison without the slightest shadow of a charge, was rewarded with a considerable pension and a baronetcy.
[15] The views of the Armed Neutrality have been since accepted by Europe.
[16] The error of Grenville's position lay in this, that the law of supply and demand can only work universally. It does not follow that it will act beneficially in a single country under protective laws.
[17] Malta had been ceded by Charles V. to the Knights of St. John in 1530, after they had been deprived of Rhodes by the advancing Turks. Bonaparte had taken possession of the island in 1798, while on his road to Egypt.
[18] Massey, vol. iv. 336.
[19] Owing to change of relations with France the punishment was not carried out.
[20] Lord Stanhope gives in his Life of Pitt the following list of the broad administration as planned by Mr. Pitt:—Treasury, Mr. Pitt; Secretaries of State, Lord Melville, Mr. Fox, Lord Fitzwilliam. The other offices were to have been given to Lord Spencer, Lord Grenville, the Duke of Portland, Lord Eldon, Lord Chatham, Mr. Windham, Lord Castlereagh, Lord Hampden, Lord Harrowby, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Canning.
[21] The representative of the Bourbon Dukes of Parma and Placentia. His father had received Tuscany, with the title of King of Etruria, in exchange for his Duchies, by the Treaty of Lunéville.