State of the Ministry at the commencement of the year 1751--The Duke of Newcastle disagrees with the Duke of Bedford--Lord Sandwich’s subserviency to the Duke of Cumberland--Mr. Pelham adopts his brother’s jealousies--Removal of Lord Harrington on the King’s return to England--Some account of his career--Conclusion of the Spanish war--Meeting of Parliament--Mr. Pitt’s recantations--Circulation of a political paper, called “Constitutional Queries,” brought before the notice of Parliament--Motion for providing eight thousand seamen--The Westminster Election and Petition--Speeches of Lord Trentham and Mr. Fox--Debate on the Naval establishment--Quarrel of Pitt and Hampden--Breach of privilege--Anecdote of Onslow. It had been much expected that on the King’s return from Hanover several changes would be made in the Ministry. The Duke of Newcastle had, for some time before his attending the King thither, disagreed with the other Secretary of State, the Duke of Bedford, not only because he had brought the latter into the Ministry (his incessant motive of jealousy,) nor from the impetuosity of the Duke of Bedford’s temper, but from the intimate connexions that Lord Sandwich had contracted with the Duke.[17] Lord Sandwich had been hoisted to the head of the Admiralty by the weight of the Duke of Bedford, into whose affection he had worked himself by intrigues, cricket-matches, and acting plays, and whom he had almost persuaded to resign the Seals in his favour. There had been a time when he had almost obtained the Duke of Newcastle’s concurrence; and if he could have balanced himself between the Duke and the Duke of Newcastle, one may, without wronging the delicacy of his political character, suspect that he would have dropped the Duke of Bedford’s confidence. But a blind devotion to the Duke’s inclinations, which he studied in all the negotiations[18] of the war and the peace, protracting the one to flatter his command, and hurrying on the other when no part of Flanders was left for the Duke’s army, and himself was impatient to come over to advance his interest in the Cabinet, this had embroiled him with the Duke of Newcastle, and consequently cemented his old attachments.