army, and would have more incentives to courage and notice of the house, was the state of the charitable corperseverance; that the civil magistrate was able to pre-poration. This company was first erected in the year Their professerve the peace of the country; that the number of the one thousand seven hundred and seven. malcontents was altogether contemptible, though it sed intention was to lend money at legal interest to the might be considerably augmented by maintaining a poor upon small pledges; and to persons of better rank standing army, and other such arbitrary measures; that upon an indubitable security of goods impawned. Their other nations had been enslaved by standing armies; capital was at first limited to thirty thousand pounds, and howsoever they might find themselves necessitated but, by licenses from the crown, they increased it to to depend upon a military force for security against en- six hundred thousand pounds, though their charter was croaching neighbours, the case was very different with never confirmed by act of parliament. In the month regard to Great Britain, for the defence of which nature of October, George Robinson, esquire, member for Marhad provided in a peculiar manner; that this provision low, the cashier, and John Thompson, warehouse-keeper was strengthened and improved by a numerous navy, of the corporation, disappeared in one day. The prowhich secured her dominion of the sea; and, if properly prietors, alarmed at this incident, held several general disposed, would render all invasion impracticable, or at courts, and appointed a committee to inspect the state least ineffectual; that the land-army of Great Britain, of their affairs. They reported, that for a capital of though sufficient to endanger the liberties of an unarmed above five hundred thousand pounds no equivalent was people, could not possibly secure such an extent of found; inasmuch as their effects did not amount to the coast, and therefore could be of very little service in value of thirty thousand, the remainder having been preventing an invasion; that though they had all im- embezzled by means which they could not discover. aginable confidence in his majesty's regard to the liberty The proprietors, in a petition to the house of commons, of the subjects, they could not help apprehending, that represented that by the most notorious breach of trust should a standing army become part of the constitution, in several persons to whom the care and management another prince of more dangerous talents, and more of their affairs were committed, the corporation had fatal designs, might arise, and employ it for the worst been defrauded of the greatest part of their capital; and purposes of ambition; that though many officers were that many of the petitioners were reduced to the utmost gentlemen of honour and probity, these might be easily degree of misery and distress; they therefore prayed, discarded, and the army gradually moulded into quite a that as they were unable to detect the combinations of different temper. By these means, practised in former those who had ruined them, or to bring the delinquents times, an army had been new modelled to such a degree, to justice, without the aid of the power and authority that they turned their swords against the parliament for of parliament, the house would vouchsafe to inquire whose defence they had been raised, and destroyed the into the state of the corporation, and the conduct of constitution both in church and state; that with respect their managers; and give such relief to the petitioners The petition was to its being wholly dependent on the parliament, the as to the house should seem meet. people of England would have reason to complain of the graciously received, and a secret committee appointed same hardship, whether a standing army should be de- to proceed on the inquiry. They soon discovered a clared at once indispensable, or regularly voted from most iniquitous scene of fraud, which had been acted by year to year, according to the direction of the ministry; Robinson and Thompson, in concert with some of the that the sanction of the legislature granted to measures directors, for embezzling the capital, and cheating the which in themselves are unconstitutional, burdensome, proprietors. Many persons of rank and quality were odious, and repugnant to the genius of the nation, in- concerned in this infamous conspiracy; some of the first stead of yielding consolation, would serve only to de- characters in the nation did not escape suspicion and monstrate that the most effectual method of forging the censure. Sir Robert Sutton and sir Archibald Grant chains of national slavery, would be that of ministerial were expelled the house of commons, as having had a influence operating upon a venal parliament. Such considerable share in those fraudulent practices; a bill were the reasons urged against a standing army, of was brought in to restrain them and other delinquents what number soever it might be composed; but the from leaving the kingdom, or alienating their effects. expediency of reducing the number from about eighteen In the meantime, the committee received a letter from thousand to twelve thousand, was insisted upon as the signior John Angelo Belloni, an eminent banker at natural consequence of his majesty's declaration, by Rome, giving them to understand, that Thompson was which they were given to understand that the peace of secured in that city, with all his papers, and confined Europe was established; and that he had nothing so to the castle of St. Angelo; and that the papers were much at heart as the ease and prosperity of his people. transmitted to his correspondent at Paris, who would It was suggested, that if eighteen thousand men were deliver them up, on certain conditions stipulated in sufficient on the supposed eve of a general war in favour of the prisoner. This letter was considered as Europe, it was surely reasonable to think that a less an artifice to insinuate a favourable opinion of the prenumber would suffice when peace was perfectly re-es-tender, as if he had taken measures for securing Thomptablished. Whatever effect these reasons had upon the body of the nation, they made no converts in the house, where the majority resolved that the standing army should be maintained without reduction. Mr. Plummer complained that the country was oppressed by an arbitrary method of quartering soldiers, in an undue proportion, upon those publicans who refused to vote in elections according to the direction of the ministry. Mr. Pulteney asserted, that the money raised for the subsistence of eighteen thousand men in England, would maintain sixty thousand French or Germans, or the same number of almost any other people on the continent. Sir William Wyndham declared, that eighteen thousand of the English troops in the late war were maintained on less than two-thirds of the sum demanded for the like number; but no regard was paid to these allegations.

son, from his zeal for justice and affection for the English people. On this supposition, the proposals were rejected with disdain; and both houses concurred in an order that the letter should be burned at the Royal Exchange, by the hands of the common hangman. The lower house resolved, that it was an insolent and audacious libel, absurd and contradictory; that the whole transaction was a scandalous artifice, calculated to delude the unhappy, and to disguise and conceal the wicked practices of the professed enemies to his majesty's person, crown, and dignity.

REVIVAL OF THE SALT-TAX.

No motion during this session produced such a warm contest, as did that of sir Robert Walpole, when, after a long preamble, he proposed that the duties on salt, which about two years before had been abolished, should now be revived and given to his majesty, his heirs and successors, for the term of three years. In order to The next object of importance that attracted the sweeten this proposal, he declared that the land tax for

THE CHARITABLE CORPORATION.

prepared to make it void; Dennis Bond, esquire, and serjeant Birch, commissioners for the sale of the forfeited estates, were declared guilty of notorious breach of trust, and expelled the house, of which they were members: George Robinson, esquire, underwent the same sentence on account of the part he acted in the charitable corporation, as he and Thompson had neglected to surrender themselves, according to the terms of a bill which had passed for that purpose. During this session, five members of parliament were expelled for the most sordid acts of knavery; a sure sign of national degeneracy and dishonour. All the supplies were granted, and among other articles, the sum of two-and-twenty thousand six hundred and ninety-four pounds, seven shillings and sixpence, for the agio or difference of the subsidies payable to the crown of Denmark, in pursuance of the treaty subsisting between the late king and that monarch; but this was not obtained without a violent dispute. Mr. Pulteney, who bore a considerable share in all these debates, became in a little time so remarkable as to be thought worthy of a very particular mark of his majesty's displeasure. The king, on the first day of July, called for the council-book, and with his own hand struck the name of William Pulteney, esquire, out of the list of privy-counsellors; his majesty further ordered him to be put out of all the commissions of the peace. The several lord-lieutenants, from whom he had received deputations, were commanded to revoke them; and the lord-chancellor and secretaries of state were directed to give the necessary orders for that purpose.

the ensuing year should be reduced to one shilling in | report, that the sale had been fraudulent; a bill was the pound. All the members of the country party were immediately in commotion. They expressed their surprise at the grossness of the imposition. They observed, that two years had scarcely elapsed since the king, in a speech from the throne, had exhorted them to abolish some of the taxes that were the most burdensome to the poor: the house was then of opinion, that the tax upon salt was the most burdensome and the most pernicious to the trade of the kingdom, of all the impositions to which the poor was subjected, and therefore it was taken off; but that no good reason could be produced for altering their opinion so suddenly, and resolving to grind the faces of the poor, in order to ease a few rich men of the landed interest. They affirmed, that the most general taxes are not always the least burdensome: that after a nation is obliged to extend their taxes farther than the luxuries of their country, those taxes that can be raised with the least charge to the public are the most convenient and easiest to the people: but they ought carefully to avoid taxing those things which are necessary for the subsistence of the poor. The price of all necessaries being thus enhanced, the wages of the tradesman and manufacturer must be increased; and where these are high the manufacturers will be undersold by those of cheaper countries. The trade must of consequence be ruined; and it is not to be supposed that the landed gentlemen would choose to save a shilling in the pound from the land-tax, by means of an expedient that would ruin the manufactures of his country, and decrease the value of his own fortune. They alleged that the salt-tax particularly affected the poor, who could not afford to eat fresh provisions; and that, as it formerly occasioned murmurs and discontents among the lower class of people, the revival of it would, in all probability, exasperate them into open sedition. They observed, that while it was exacted in England, a great number of merchants sent their ships to Ireland, to be victualled for their respective voyages; that since it had been abolished, many experiments had been successfully tried with salt for the improvement of agriculture, which would be entirely defeated by the revival of this imposition. They suggested that the land-tax was raised at a very small expense, and subject to no fraud, whereas that upon salt would employ a great number of additional officers in the revenue, wholly depending upon the ministry, whose influence in elections they would proportionably increase. They even hinted, that this consideration was one powerful motive for proposing the revival of an odious tax, which was in effect an excise, and would be deemed a step towards a general excise upon all sorts of provisions. Finally, they demonstrated that the salt-tax introduced numberless frauds and perjuries in different articles of traffic. Sir Robert Walpole endeavoured to obviate all these objections in a long speech, which was minutely answered and refuted in every article by Mr. Pulteney. Nevertheless, the question being put, the minister's motion was carried in the affirmative, and the duty revived; yet, before the bill passed, divers motions were made, and additional clauses proposed by the members in the opposition. New debates were raised on every new objection, and the courtiers were obliged to dispute their ground by inches.

THE KING SETS OUT FOR HANOVER. Nor did the house of peers tamely and unanimously submit to the measures of the ministry. The pensionbill being read, was again rejected, and a protest entered. A debate arose about the number of standing forces; and the earl of Chesterfield argued for the court motion. The earl of Oxford moved that they might be reduced to twelve thousand effective men. The carl of Winchelsea observed, that a standing army rendered ministers of state more daring than otherwise they would be, in contriving and executing projects that were grievous to the people; schemes that could never enter into the heads of any but those who were drunk with excess of power. The marquis of Tweedale, in reasoning against such a number as the ministry proposed, took occasion to observe, that not one shilling of the forfeited estates was ever applied to the use of the public; he likewise took notice, that the eighteen thousand men demanded as a standing force, were modelled in such a manner, that they might be speedily augmented to forty thousand men on any emergency. The duke of Argyle endeavoured to demonstrate the danger of depending for the safety of the kingdom upon an undisciplined militia, a fleet, or an army of auxiliaries. Then he represented the necessity of having recourse to a regular army in case of invasion; and, after all, acknowledged that the number proposed was no way sufficient for that purpose. All his arguments were answered and refuted in an excellent speech by lord Carteret; nevertheless, victory declared for the minister. The parliament having granted every branch of the supply, towards the payment MR. PULTENEY'S NAME STRUCK OUT OF of which they borrowed a sum from the sinking fund, THE LIST OF PRIVY-COUNSELLORS. and passed divers other acts for the encouragement of commerce and agriculture, the king, on the first day of The pension-bill was revived, and for the third time June, gave the royal assent to the bills that were prerejected in the house of lords. A bill for the encourage-pared, and closed the session, after having informed both ment of the sugar colonies passed through the lower houses that the states-general had acceded to the treaty house with great difficulty, but was lost among the of Vienna; that he had determined to visit his German peers: another, for the better securing the freedom of dominions, and to leave the queen regent in his absence. parliaments, by further qualifying members to sit in the He accordingly set out for Hanover in the beginning of house of commons, was read the third time, and thrown June. By this time the pragmatic sanction was conout upon the question. A committee had been appointed firmed by the diet of the empire, though not without a to inquire into a sale of the estate which had belonged formal protest by the electors Palatine, Bavaria, and to the late carl of Derwentwater. It appeared by the Saxony. VOL. II. 2 I

colony. The king of Spain having equipped a very powerful armament, the fleet sailed on the fourth of June from the road of Alicant, under the command of the count de Montemar, and arrived on the coast of Barbary in the neighbourhood of Oran, where a consiScheme-Bill for a Dower to the Princess Royal-Debate in the House derable body of troops was landed without much oppoof Lords concerning the Estates of the late Directors of the South-Sea Com-sition. Next day, however, they were attacked by a

Romarkable Instance of Sulcido--Affairs of the Continent--Meeting of the
Parliament Address to the King touching the Spanish Depredations-
The Excise Scheme proposed by Sir Robert Walpole-Opposition to the

advanced against a standing army were now repeated; bers in the opposition waited impatiently for a proposal, and a reduction of the number insisted upon with such in which they thought the liberties of their country so warmth, that the ministerial party were obliged to have deeply interested. In a word, there had been a call of recourse to the old phantom of the pretender. Sir Archer the house on the preceding day. The session was freCroft said, a continuation of the same number of forces quent and full; and both sides appeared ready and eager was the more necessary, because, to his knowledge, for the contest when sir Robert Walpole broached his popery was increasing very fast in the country; for in design. He took notice of the arts which had been used one parish which he knew, there were seven popish to prejudice the people against his plan before it was priests; and that the danger from the pretender was the known. He affirmed that the clamours occasioned by more to be feared, because they did not know but he these prejudices had originally risen from smugglers was then breeding his son a protestant. Sir Robert and fradulent dealers, who had enriched themselves by Walpole observed, that a reduction of the army was the cheating the public; and that these had been strenu chief thing wished for and desired by all the jacobites ously assisted and supported by another set of men, in the kingdom; that no reduction had ever been made fond of every opportunity to stir up the people of Great but what gave fresh hopes to that party, and encouraged Britain to mutiny and sedition. He expatiated on the them to raise tumults against the government; and he frauds that were committed in that branch of the revedid not doubt but that, if they should resolve to reduce nue arising from the duties on tobacco; upon the hardany part of the army, there would be post-horses em- ships to which the American planters were subjected ployed that very night to carry the good news beyond by the heavy duties payable on importation, as well as sea to the pretender. His brother Horatio added, that by the ill usage they had met with from their factors the number of troops then proposed was absolutely ne- and correspondents in England, who, from being their cessary to support his majesty's government, and would servants, were now become their masters; upon the inbe necessary as long as the nation enjoyed the happiness jury done to the fair trader; and the loss sustained by of having the present illustrious family on the throne. the public with respect to the revenue. He asserted The futility, the self-contradiction, and the ridiculous that the scheme he was about to propose would remove absurdity of these suggestions, were properly exposed; all these inconveniencies, prevent numberless frauds, nevertheless, the army was voted without any reduction. perjuries, and false entries, and add two or three hunSir Wilfred Lawson having made a motion for an ad-dred thousand pounds per annum to the public revenue. dress to the king, to know what satisfaction had been made by Spain for the depredations committed on the British merchants, it was, after a violent debate, approved and the address presented. The king in answer to this remonstrance gave them to understand, that the commissaries of the two crowns had been so long delayed by unforeseen accidents, that the conferences were not opened till the latter end of the preceding February; and that as the courts of London and Madrid had agreed that the term of three years stipulated for finishing the commission should be computed from their first meeting, a perfect account of their proceedings could not as yet be laid before the house of commons. A bill had been long depending for granting encouragement to the sugar colonies in the West Indies; but, as it was founded upon a prohibition that would have put a stop to all commerce between the French islands and the British settlements in North America, it met with a very warm opposition from those who had the prosperity of those northern colonies at heart. But the bill being patronised and supported by the court interest, surmounted all objec-house, discharged of the three farthings per pound which tions, and afterwards passed into a law. While the commons deliberated upon the supply, sir Robert Walpole moved, that five hundred thousand pounds should be issued out of the sinking fund for the service of the ensuing year. Sir William Wyndham, Mr. Pulteney, and sir John Barnard, expatiated upon the iniquity of pillaging a sacred deposit, solemnly appropriated to the discharge of the national debt. They might have demonstrated the egregious folly of a measure, by which the public, for a little temporary ease, lost the advantage of the accumulating interest which would have arisen from the sinking fund, if properly managed and reserved. All objections vanished before the powers of ministerial influence, which nothing now could check but the immediate danger of popular commotion. Such hazardous interposition actually defeated a scheme which had been adopted by the minister, and even before its appearance alarmed all the trading part of the nation.

THE EXCISE SCHEME PROPOSED. The house having resolved itself into a committee, to deliberate upon the most proper methods for the better security and improvement of the duties and revenues charged upon tobacco and wines, all the papers relating to these duties were submitted to the perusal of the members; the commissioners of the customs and excise were ordered to attend the house, the avenues of which were crowded with multitudes of people; and the mem

He entered into a long detail of frauds practised by the knavish dealers in those commodities; he recited the several acts of parliament that related to the duties on wine and tobacco; he declared he had no intention to promote a general excise; he endeavoured to obviate some objections that might be made to his plan, the nature of which he at length explained. He proposed to join the laws of excise to those of the customs; that the further subsidy of three farthings per pound charged upon imported tobacco, should be still levied at the custom-house, and payable to his majesty's civil list as heretofore; that then the tobacco should be lodged in warehouses, to be appointed for that purpose by the commissioners of the excise; that the keeper of each warehouse, appointed likewise by the commissioners, should have one lock and key, and the merchant-importer have another; and that the tobacco should be thus secured until the merchant should find vent for it, either by exportation or home consumption; that the part designed for exportation should be weighed at the custom

had been paid at its first importation, and then exported without further trouble; that the portion destined for home consumption should, in presence of the warehousekeeper, be delivered to the purchaser, upon his paying the inland duty of fourpence per pound weight, to the proper officer appointed to receive it; by which means the merchant would be eased of the inconvenience of paying the duty upon importation, or of granting bonds and finding suretics for the payment, before he had found a market for the commodity; that all penalties and forfeitures, so far as they formerly belonged to the crown, should for the future be applied to the use of the public; that appeals in this, as well as in all other cases relating to the excise, should be heard and determined by two or three of the judges, to be named by his ma jesty; and in the country, by the judge of assize upon the next circuit, who should hear and determine such appeals in the most summary manner, without the formality of proceedings in courts of law or equity.

Such was the substance of the famous excise scheme, in favour of which sir Robert Walpole moved that the duties and subsidies on tobacco should, from and after the twenty-fourth day of June, cease and determine The debate which ensued was managed and maintained by all the able speakers on both sides of the question. Sir Robert Walpole was answered by Mr. Perry, mem ber for the city of London. Sir Paul Methuen joined in the opposition. Sir John Barnard, another representative of London, distinguished himself in the same cause.

alarmed, and clamoured loudly against the excise-bill The populace still crowded around Westminster-hall, blocking up all the avenues to the house of commons. They even insulted the persons of those members who had voted for the ministry on this occasion; and si Robert Walpole began to be in fear of his life. He therefore thought proper to drop the design, by moving that the second reading of the bill might be postponed till the twelfth day of June. Then complaint being made of the insolence of the populace, who had mal treated several members, divers resolutions were taken against those tumultuous crowds and their abettors; these resolves were communicated to the lord-mayor of London, the sheriff of Middlesex, and the high-bailiff of Westminster. Some individuals were apprehended in the court of requests, as having fomented the disturb ances; but they were soon released. The miscarriage of the bill was celebrated with public rejoicings in London and Westminster, and the minister was burned in effigy by the populace. After the miscarriage of the excise scheme, the house unanimously resolved to inquire into the frauds and abuses in the customs; and a committee of twenty-one persons was chosen by ballot for this purpose.

BILL FOR A DOWER TO THE PRINCESS
ROYAL.

He was supported by Mr. Pulteney, sir William Wynd- | ham, and other patriots. The scheme was espoused by sir Philip Yorke, appointed lord-chief-justice of the king's-bench, and ennobled in the course of the ensuing year. Sir Joseph Jekyll approved of the project, which was likewise strenuously defended by lord Hervey, sir Thomas Robinson, sir William Yonge, Mr. Pelham, and Mr. Winnington, which last excelled all his contemporaries of the ministry in talents and address. Those who argued against the scheme, accused the minister of having misrepresented the frauds and made false calculations. With respect to the supposed hardships under which the planters were said to labour, they affirmed that no planter had ever dreamed of complaining, until instigated by letters and applications from London: that this scheme, far from relieving the planters, would expose the factors to such grievous oppression, that they would not be able to continue the trade, consequently the planters would be entirely ruined; and, after all, it would not prevent those frauds against which it was said to be provided: that from the examination of the commissioners of the customs, it appeared that those frauds did not exceed forty thousand pounds per annum, and might in a great measure be abolished, by a due execution of the laws in being; consequently this scheme was unnecessary, would be ineffectual in augmenting the revenue, destructive to trade, and dangerous to the liberties of the subject, as it tended to promote a general excise, which was in all countries considered as a grie- The subsequent debates of this session were occavous oppression. They suggested that it would produce sioned by a bill to prevent the infamous practice of an additional swarm of excise officers and warehouse-stock-jobbing, which with great difficulty made its way keepers, appointed and paid by the treasury, so as to to the house of lords, who proposed some amendments, multiply the dependents on the crown, and enable it in consequence of which it was laid aside; and succeeded still further to influence the freedom of elections: that by another bill establishing a lottery, to raise five hunthe traders would become slaves to excisemen and ware-dred thousand pounds for the relief of those who had house-keepers, as they would be debarred all access to their commodities, except at certain hours, when attended by those officers: that the merchant, for every quantity of tobacco he could sell, would be obliged to make a journey, or send a messenger to the office for a permit, which could not be obtained without trouble, expense, and delay: and that should a law be enacted in consequence of this motion, it would in all probability be some time or other used as a precedent for introducing excise laws into every branch of the revenue; in which case the liberty of Great Britain would be no more. In the course of this debate, sir Robert Walpole took notice of the multitudes which had beset all the approaches to the house. He said it would be an easy task for a designing seditious person to raise a tumult and disorder among them: that gentlemen might give them what name they should think fit, and affirm they were come as humble suppliants; but he knew whom the law called sturdy beggars: and those who brought them to that place could not be certain but that they might behave in the same manner. This insinuation was resented by sir John Barnard, who observed that mer-directors of the South-Sea company. The trustees for chants of character had a right to come down to the court of requests, and lobby of the house of commons, in order to solicit their friends and acquaintance against any scheme or project which they might think prejudicial to their commerce: that when he came into the house, he saw none but such as deserved the appellation of sturdy beggars as little as the honourable gentleman himself, or any gentleman whatever.-1733. After a warm dispute, the motion was carried by a majority of sixty-one voices. Several resolutions were founded on the proposal: and to these the house agreed, though not without another violent contest. The resolutions produced a bill, against which petitions were preferred by the lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council of London, the city of Coventry and Nottingham. A motion was made that counsel should be heard for the city of London; but it was rejected by the majority, and the petitions were ordered to lie upon the table. Had the minister encountered no opposition but that which appeared within doors, his project would have certainly been carried into execution; but the whole nation was

suffered by the charitable corporation. After having undergone some alteration, it passed through both houses and obtained the royal assent. The king, by message to parliament, had signified his intention to give the princess royal in marriage to the prince of Orange, promising himself their concurrence and assistance, that he might be enabled to bestow such a portion with his eldest daughter as should be suitable to the occasion. The commons immediately resolved, that out of the monies arising from the sale of lands in the island of St. Christopher's, his majesty should be empowered to apply fourscore thousand pounds as a marriage dower for his daughter; and a clause for this purpose was inserted in the bill, for enabling his majesty to apply five hundred thousand pounds out of the sinking fund for the service of the current year.

The opposition in the house of lords was still more animated, though ineffectual. The debates chiefly turned upon the pension bill, the number of land forces, and a motion made by lord Bathurst for an account of the produce of the forfeited estates which had belonged to the

these estates had charged themselves with a great sum of money, and the lords in the opposition thought they had a right to know how it had been disposed. The ministry had reasons to stifle this inquiry, and therefore opposed it with all their vigour. Nevertheless, the motion was carried after a warm dispute, and the direc tors of the South-Sea company were ordered to lay the accounts before the house. From this it appeared that the large sums of money arising from the forfeited estates had been distributed among the proprietors, by way of dividend, even before recourse was had to parliament for directions in what manner that produce should be applied: lord Bathurst, therefore, moved for a resolution of the house that the disposal of this money, by way of dividend, without any order or direction of a general court for that purpose, was a violation of the act of parliament made for the disposal thereof, and a manifest injustice done to the proprietors of that stock. The duke of Newcastle, in order to gain time, moved, that as the account was confused, and almost unintelligible, the present directors of the company might be ordered