Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Second, Volume 1 (of 3) by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Mr. Pelham was uneasy at Mr. Fox’s being admitted to the Duke in his illness, when he was excluded. The Duke asked Fox afterwards how the brothers had behaved during that crisis. He replied, “Both cried: the Duke of Newcastle over-acted it, but Mr. Pelham seemed really concerned.”—“Ay,” said the Duke, “I know they both cried; for the Duke of Newcastle, he cried, because he had not been in the morning to know how I did—but for Mr. Pelham, he is such a fellow, that I can believe he was in earnest!”

The 27th, Mr. Fox in the committee proposed the same army as last year, as there was no alteration of circumstances; Sir John Cotton to reduce it to fifteen thousand; and was seconded by Northey, Beckford, Prowse, Thornton, Norris, Bertie, and Robinson. Cotton was answered by William Lyttelton; as Beckford (who had wished that the Army had committed outrages, in order to have the nation sensible of the dangers from it) was by Dr. Lee, who, to palliate the change of his style, was so injudicious as to insist that the situation of affairs was highly altered by the deaths of the Prince and the Prince of Orange, and the birth of the Duke of Burgundy. Lord Egmont, who found himself almost alone in opposition, made a very artful speech; said, “He had hoped to have heard some answer from the Ministry to Sir John Cotton’s arguments; that for his own part, he should be very gentle, as it was not a time to provoke a power that nothing could resist, but should coolly ask for an answer. He ridiculed Dr. Lee with great delicacy and compliments; knew that he had reason for what he did; and that he had great views, and overlooked small ones, and that such principles would justify little deviations. Yet if the dreaded event of a possible minority should come to pass, it would always be easy to call troops from Ireland, where, and by the number of officers, you always have the root of an Army. That to facilitate the assembly of one, the Parliament will be sitting: that the Ministry ought to affect to show the good disposition of Government, now everything is so quiet; and that such a display of tenderness to the subject would produce real security. He made a strong panegyric on the King, but said those good principles of his Majesty were prevented from being exerted by his Ministers, who govern by force in a reign that has given no pretence for it. That if any one of them would act constitutionally, he would support that man in spite of little reflections; and would extend his hand in defence, where he had never extended it, if once the Government would quit this road of rigour. That the death of the Prince of Orange could be no argument for maintaining so large an Army; we cannot govern Holland; that indeed were the Dutch strong, and in a more flourishing situation, it might be a reason, when we might give and receive mutual assistance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.