that though they had all imaginable confidence in his majesty's regard for the liberty of his fubjects, should a standing army be ingrafted into the conftitution, another prince might arise of more dangerous talents and of deeper designs, and employ it for the worst purposes of ambition: that other nations had been enflaved by standing armies; and though the officers were at prefent men of honor and probity, these might be easily discarded, and the army newmodelled, in order to effect the fubverfion of the conftitution. The expence of this great military force was alfo infifted upon as extremely burdenfome and oppreffive to the nation; and it was afferted, that the money raised for the fubfiftence of 18 or 20,000 men in England would maintain 60,000 French or Germans. Previous to the Revolution it was well known that the people of England did not raise above two millions for the whole of the public charge; but now the current expenfe far exceeded that fum, and the civil lift, the intereft due to the public creditors, and the finking fund, added together, compofed a burden of fix millions yearly; and though at fo recent a period as the acceffion of the late king, the army did not exceed 6000 men, it was now augmented, on various pretences, to more than three times that number. And farther pretences would never be wanting, were parliament willing to liften to them for farther augmentations." These arguments, however, proved wholly fruitlefs and unavailing, and in proportion to the frequency of their repetition, the impreffion feems to have been impaired and weakened; for it is unhappily, though unquestionably, certain, that,、 for almost a century paft, the ftanding army has been a progreffive army, and that every effort for its reduction has terminated

The numbers on the divifion were 241 against 171 voices. Lord Hervey arging the multiplicity of feditious writings, as an argument against any reduction of the military force; Mr. Plumer replied, that if fcribblers gave the government uncalinefs, they ought to employ feribblers, and not foldiers, to defend them from the danger."

terminated in its encrease and enlargement. Such was the offence given by Mr. Pulteney to the court by the zealous part he took in this and other political queftions at this period, that the king, calling for the council-book, with his own hand ftruck out his name from the lift of privy-counfellors, which, however, only ferved to extend his fame, and establish his popularity.

Notwithstanding the indiscriminate support given by fir Robert Walpole, after the example of his predeceffors, to the long-established royal fyftem of continental politics, and without which he well knew the impoffibility of maintaining poffeffion, even for a day, of his high and precarious office, it ought not to be fuppofed that this minifter was abfolutely indifferent to the interest and welfare of the king-* dom over whofe councils he prefided. This it would be flagrant injustice to affirm. His fituation was, in many refpects, critical and hazardous; and if just allowance be made for the difficulties and embarraffments which he perpetually experienced from the prevalence of Hanover prejudices on the one fide, and jacobite prejudices on the other, it will not perhaps be too much to affert, that a man, upon the whole, better adapted to the station which he occupied, or better qualified to discharge the various and complicated duties of it, could no-where be found. To change the minister would have availed nothing without a radical change of fyftem; and fo long as the nation at large shall continue to approve, or acquiefce in, this corrupt and defective system, where is the minifter to be found, who shall with fincerity and earnestness labor to accomplish any comprehenfive plan of political reform? Or, indeed, what right have we to expect from any man fuch an heroic and, at the fame time, ufelefs effort of virtue? The celebrated ftatesman whose character and conduct we have now been contemplating-and whofe actions have been brought to the test of that fiery ordeal of relentless truth and justice which human frailty is fo incompetent to abide, and over

whofe

whose burning ploughshares no man ever yet with impunity passed—was poffefsed, nevertheless, of talents admirably calculated for public life. An understanding clear, masculine, and vigorous, was in him combined with a temper mild, equable, and difpaffionate. And by the moft perfect accuracy and regularity of method, the toils of government were rendered apparently easy and pleasant. He was fully fenfible of the folly of that warlike spirit which had predominated in the British councils fince the æra of the Revolution. The favorite object of his administration was to preferve and maintain the general tranquillity; and the treaty of Vienna, recently concluded at a moment fo critical, ftrongly indicated his extreme folicitude for the continuance of peace. He conceived the profperity of the nation to be moft effectually advanced by the encouragement of manufactures and commerce, the true principles of which he perfectly comprehended and steadily pursued. His return to office had been diftinguished by a moft beneficial alteration of the commercial fystem of Great Britain, in the abrogation of a multiplicity of duties payable on the importation of raw materials, and the exportation of wrought goods. And it has been affirmed, that he found the English book of rates almost the worst, and left it the very best, in Europe. At this period he had formed a project, to which he appears to have been incited by the clearest conviction of its utility, for effecting a radical alteration in the national fyftem of taxation. The principal branches of the revenue might at this time be divided into port-duties or customs duties of excise-and taxes levied on immoveable property, fuch as the duties on land, houfes, hearths, and windows. This latter description of duties the minifter confidered as of a nature highly oppreffive, partial, and inequitable. And the various taxes on consumable commodities, to which every citizen contributes in an exact proportion to his confumption; and which, being included in the price of the commodity, are easily and infenfibly paid;

conftituted,

conftituted, in his opinion, incomparably the most eligible mode of raising the supplies neceffary for the public fervice. He also well knew the grofs and fhameless frauds daily practifed in the collection of the customs; and which, from the very nature of those frauds, and the extreme facility of committing them, he had no hope to remedy. He thought, therefore, that to convert the greater part of the customs into duties of excife, would be equally advantageous to government, and to the fair trader; and that the laws of excife might be fo ameliorated, that, notwithstanding the odium generally attached to them as oppreffive and arbitrary, no juft or real ground of complaint should remain. With a view, therefore, to an effential change in the first fpecies of taxation, and to the eventual annihilation of the laft, he brought into the house, in the month of February, 1732, a bill for the revival of the falt duties, which had been repealed fome years back, as a fubftitute for one fhilling in the pound of the land-tax--and if this proposal met the approbation of the house, he fignified his intention— the land-tax being at this time two fhillings only in the pound-altogether to abolish that tax in the course of the ensuing feffion; in which he declared he should rejoice, as the annihilation of a moft grievous and intolerable burden. "The duty on falt," he said, "affected, it was true, all clafses of citizens, the poor as well as the rich; but the burden of this tax been fo equally and generally diffused, the fum contributed by the lower claffes of the people would be found, on computation, so trifling, as fcarcely to deserve the mention. This tax, while it exifted, was never the fubject of complaint; and when it was repealed, no one feemed to think himself benefited. He knew," he said, "the reproaches he had to expect on this occafion; but he had been long accustomed to be affronted and infulted, both within the walls of that place, and without and while he knew his intentions to be upright, and his only aim to serve his country to the best of his knowledge, and the utmost

of

of his power, he should continue to difregard thofe reflec tions which he was confcious he did not deferve." After very vehement and obftinate debates, in which the minifter was repeatedly charged with deep and malignant defigns against the liberties of his country, and the welfare and happiness of his fellow-citizens, which no one perhaps feriously suspected him to harbor, the bill paffed by a majo rity of 207 voices against 135. And it must be acknowledged, that the oppofition against the measures of fir Robert Walpole's administration was fo invariable, and at times fo intemperate, that the bounds of patriotifm and faction seem to have been divided by a very flender partition. In the course of the present feffion, the penfion bill was a third time paffed by the commons, and rejected by the lords. And on the 1ft of June, 1732, the king terminated the feffion with a speech, in which he informed the parlia ment of the formal acceffion of the states-general to the treaty of Vienna; and declared his intention of visiting his electoral dominions, and of leaving the queen, as before, fole regent during his abfence. On his arrival in Germany, he had the fatisfaction at length to receive the inveftitures of the duchies of Bremen and Verden, fo long folicited, and fo long delayed by the policy, pride, or refentment of the emperor.

During this fummer, Victor Amadeus, the abdicated monarch of Sardinia, was discovered to be deeply engaged, at the instigation of his wife, the marchionefs of St. Sebaftian, in intrigues for the refumption of the crownupon which, his perfon was feized by order of his fen, the reigning king, and conveyed to Rivoli; and the marchioness committed clofe prifoner to the caftle of Seva. And the world had a new proof, little wanted indeed, how weak are the ties of gratitude and affection, when placed in competition with the fuggeftions of ambition and intereft!

At