to sweeten, this proposal, he declared that the land tax for the ensuing year should be reduced to one shilling in 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 scarce 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 were 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 gentleman 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 amongst 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 Wal

pole 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.

§ XXXIV. The pension bill was revived, and for the third time rejected in the house of lords. A bill for the encouragement of the sugar colonies passed through the lower house with great difficulty, but was lost among the peers: another, for the better securing the freedom of parliaments, by further qualifying members to sit in the house of commons, was read the third time, and thrown out upon the question. A committee had been appointed to inquire into a sale of the estate which had belonged to the late earl of Derwentwater. It appeared by the report, that the sale had been fraudulent: a bill was 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 ninety-four pounds, seven shillings and six-pence, 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.

XXXV. Nor did the house of peers tamely and unanimously submit to the measures of the ministry. The pension bill 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 earl 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 never could 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 of which they borrowed a sum from the sinking fund, and passed divers other acts for the encouragement of commerce and agriculture, the king, on the first day of June,* gave the royal assent to the bills that were prepared, and closed the session, after having informed both houses that the states general had acceded to the treaty of Vienna: that he had determined to visit his German dominions, and to leave the queen regent in his absence. He accordingly set out for

Hanover in the beginning of June. By this time the pragmatic sanction was confirmed by the diet of the empire, though not without a formal protest by the electors palatine, Bavaria, and Saxony.

An. 1782.

§ I. Remarkable instance of suicide. II. Affairs of the Continent. III. Meeting of the Parliament. § IV. Address to the King touching the Spanish depredations. V. The Excise scheme proposed by Sir Robert Walpole. § VI. Opposition to the scheme. § VII. Bill for a dower to the Princess Royal. § VIII. Debate in the House of Lords concerning the estates of the late Directors of the South Sea Company. § IX. Double election of a King in Poland. X. The Kings of France, Spain, and Sardinia join against the Emperor. § XI. The Prince of Orange arrives in England. § XII. Altercation in the House of Commons. § XIII. Debate about the removal of the Duke of Bolton and Lord Viscount Cobham from their respective regiments. § XIV. Motion for the repeal of the septennial act. § XV. Conclusion of a remarkable speech by Sir W. Wyndham. § XVI. Message from the king for powers to augment the forces in the intervals between the two Parliaments. § XVII. Opposition in the House of Peers. Parliament dissolved. § XVIII. Dantzick besieged by the Russians. § XIX. Philipsburgh taken by the French. Don Carlos takes possession of Naples. § XX. Battle of Parma. § XXI. The Imperialists are again worsted at Guastalla. An edict in France compelling the British subjects in that kingdom to enlist in the French army. § XXII. New Parliament in Great Britain. § XXIII. Debate on a subsidy to Denmark. § XXIV. Petition of some Scottish noblemen to the House of Peers. § XXV. Bill explaining an act of the Scottish Parliament touching wrong imprisonment. § XXVI. Misunderstanding between the Courts of Spain and Portugal. Sir John Norris sails with a strong squadron to Lisbon. § XXVII.