When the Parliament met again on the 16th of January, nothing was ready to be presented for their discussion on the East India Company. Lord Chatham, on his journey from Bath, was, or pretended to be, seized with the gout, and returned thither. Whether ill or not, it was plain he had determined to give no directions, for he sent none. He corresponded with none of the Ministers; and they were not eager to anticipate his intentions. The Duke of Grafton was charmed to be idle, Conway was disgusted, Townshend delighted in the prospect of confusion; however, on the 21st Beckford laid before the House of Commons the papers he intended to employ against the Company. Townshend moved to have the consideration put off for some time, to which Beckford acquiesced. On the 26th, the disposition of the troops in America being laid before the House, Grenville proposed that the Colonies should pay the regiments employed there. Beckford told him he was mad on the Stamp Act, and could think of nothing else: Charles Townshend ridiculed and exposed him infinitely on the same topic. Lord George Sackville blaming the disposition of the troops in that part of the world, Lord Granby told him the plan had been drawn by his own friend, General Amherst: the Court had a majority of 106 to 35. The next day, on the report, Grenville, dividing the House, had the mortification of being followed but by sixteen members, the Rockingham squadron declining union with him, and the Bedfords being kept back by the Duchess, still restless to return to Court. On the 3rd of February the House of Lords decided a great cause in favour of the Dissenters against the City of London, who asserted a right of fining them for refusing to act as Sheriffs;[318] Lord Mansfield made another Whig oration.