_Alderman Oliver’s letter._ Richard Oliver (1734?-1784), Alderman of Billingsgate Ward and M.P. for the City of London; remembered for his defiance of the House of Commons in the case of the printer Millar, for which he was committed to the Tower, 1771. On 6 September 1778 Oliver wrote a letter, soon published in the papers, declining nomination as Lord Mayor and quitting his seat in Parliament in view of a prospective visit to his property in Antigua, W.I., which he feared stood in danger of seizure by France; _The Annual Register_ for 1778, “Chronicle,” pp. 200-201. _Mr. H. Stanley._ Hans Stanley (1720?-1780), M.P. for Southampton, Governor of the Isle of Wight, and Cofferer of the Household. He had lived for some years in France and was regarded as an authority on the affairs of that nation. _Mr. Byng._ George Byng (1735-1789), nephew of the third Viscount Torrington; M.P. for Wigan. An ardent supporter of Fox, he here acts in the role of party whip. _Mr. Robinson._ John Robinson (1727-1802), M.P. for Harwich and a Secretary of the Treasury. A favorite of George III’s, Robinson managed the Treasury boroughs and served as the King’s personal agent in Parliament. In _The Castle of Infamy_, 1780, an anonymous satirist describes how Rob[in]son’s quick Eye Controll’d the _pension’d, plac’d_, expectant Fry.... At his shrewd Look, his pregnant Nod, or Wink, The Spirits of all Parties rise or sink. PAGE 61 _the Fermeurs Generaux._ The _Fermiers-Généraux_ were the body of French officials who, under the _Ancien Régime_, leased as a concession the collection of taxes. _Gen. Conway._ Henry Seymour Conway (1721-1795), second son of the first Baron Conway; M.P. for Bury St. Edmunds; General; Governor of Jersey; cousin and correspondent of Horace Walpole. PAGE 62 _Admiral Barrington._ Samuel Barrington (1729-1800), fifth son of the first Viscount Barrington; Rear-Admiral; Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies until superseded by Byron in January 1779. _Count Broglio._ Victor-François, Duc de Broglie (1718-1804), Marshal of France; appointed Commander-in-Chief on the Coasts on the Ocean, May 1778. _Mr Sawbridge._ John Sawbridge (1732?-1795), Radical M.P. for the City of London; an intimate of John Wilkes’, and active in founding the Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights. _Sister Macauly._ Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay (1731-1791), afterwards Mrs. Graham, sister of the foregoing; republican bluestocking; wrote _The History of England from the Accession of James I to That of the Brunswick Line_, 1763-83, much praised and damned in its day for its republicanism; visited America and stopped with Washington for ten days, 1785. Dr. Johnson took satisfaction in having exposed her principles by once desiring her to invite her footman to sit at table with her; _Boswell’s Johnson_, ed. Hill and Powell, I, 447. _Warley-Common._ In Essex, where one of the militia camps was situated. PAGE 63