The imbecility of the Opposition, notwithstanding the large accession to their numbers on the question of the warrants, had left the Ministry in possession of full power. The sense of the nation had in vain appeared to be averse to them. It still continued so, wherever its genuine voice could be heard: and never more than on the following occasion. The death of the Earl of Hardwicke had left open the honour of High Steward in the University of Cambridge. Lord Sandwich, on the prospect of that event, had declared himself a candidate for that office, though attended with neither salary nor power. Lord Royston, son of the deceased and now Earl of Hardwicke, was his competitor. Ambitious industry was never exerted so indefatigably as by Sandwich on this occasion. There was not a corner of England, nay, not the Isle of Man, unransacked by him for votes. He ferreted out the mad, the lame, the diseased, from their poor retreats, and imported them into the University. Letters on letters were written, and fawning applications made to all who could influence a vote of any country clergyman. Lord Hardwicke, on the other hand, was cold, proud, and void of generosity.[454] With the clergy, indeed, he had much connection: and, being a man of no vice, and by poring over historic MSS., supposed to be learned, he seemed adapted to fill a nominal charge in a society that is expected to be devout and studious. At least, the profligacy of Sandwich could not but be unsuitable to them, whether they had the reality, or only the semblance of religion and learning. When the day of election came on, the votes appeared to be equal, though each side pretended to have a majority of one. Great altercations ensued, and the meeting broke up in confusion; on which recourse was had to common law, where, after many months, a decision was pronounced in favour of Lord Hardwicke. Many instances appeared of bribery practised by Lord Sandwich; who, besides being rejected, experienced many insults and indignities. The under-graduates who, having no votes, had not been courted by him, were riotous, and hissed his chief agents: and when he went to the University in the month following, and dined in the hall of Trinity College, they marked their abhorrence of him by quitting the hall, and refusing to dine with him! Young Thomas Pitt,[455] and Frederick Montagu,[456] Sandwich’s own cousin, who had gone down to support him, were so disgusted with his practices, and with the factious confusion he had caused in the University, that they declared they would assist his cause no longer. When the former told him he would ruin the University, he replied, “That would be nothing to him: it would be the better for Oxford.” Yet himself had been bred at Cambridge--but Oxford was cherished by the Court.