While Mr. Byng was thus pursued or given up by his countrymen, our enemies acted a very different part. Voltaire, hearing of the Admiral’s trial, sent from Switzerland to the Court-Martial, a letter which he had casually received some time before from Marshal Richelieu, in which the latter spoke with encomiums on the behaviour of the English Commander:--but they, who had been so ready to censure Mr. Byng on the dispatch of his antagonist La Galissonière, were far from being equally forward to give any weight to Richelieu’s testimonial in his favour. Feb. 17th.--Mr. Hunter, of the Admiralty, notified to the House of Commons the sentence pronounced against one of their members. The Speaker produced a long roll of precedents for expelling him before execution, lest his disgrace should reflect on the House. Lord Strange objected, good-naturedly, that this would be heaping cruelty, and seemed to exclude mercy, while yet there was an opening to it. Sir Francis Dashwood, a man distinguished by no milkiness of temper, connected with no friends of the prisoner, took this up strongly, and moved to call for the letter of the Court-Martial. Fox objected, that this would look like a censure on that Court. Sir Francis denied that he meaned it in that light. His view, he said, was, by considering the warmth of their recommendation, to lead to some application for mercy. Mr. Pitt seemed to favour that purpose, and lashed _novel_ proceedings in Courts-Martial; and said he hoped that the letter, when produced, might lead the House to do something on that mortal twelfth Article: and he mentioned with disdain anonymous letters that he had received, threatening him as a favourer of Mr. Byng. Fox, to waive all humane impressions, called for the Order of the Day. Sir Francis would have renewed his Motion, but the House did not seem inclined to receive it; and it was lost. Mr. Pitt had come that very day to the House of Commons for the first time since his illness, and as it was the first time since he was Minister of his acting there in office, it could not fail of being remarked, that he dated his Administration with a demand of money for Hanover. He delivered a message from the King, desiring support for his Electoral Dominions and for the King of Prussia. One cannot say which was most ridiculous, the richest Prince in Europe begging alms for his own country, or the great foe of that country becoming its mendicant almoner. The next day he opened the message, the purport of which was to ask 200,000_l._; and he endeavoured to torture some consistence out of his conduct, sometimes refining, and when that would not do, glossing it over with what he would have put off for confident honesty. He succeeded better in attempting to divert reflections from himself to the Empress-queen, who, he said, if it had not been for the blood and treasure of Britain, would not have had it in her power to be ungrateful now.