[318] The disgraceful practice of nominating Dissenters as Sheriffs, solely with the object of extorting the fines payable on their refusal to act, continued until the spirited resistance of Mr. Evans. The Corporation obtained a judgment against him in the Lord Mayor’s Court, which they expected to be as effectual in his case as it had proved with other contumacious Dissenters; but he appealed to the higher City Courts, and having failed there, carried his plea before the Judge Delegates, who, after a deliberate hearing, decided in his favour. The Corporation then, in turn, appealed to the House of Lords, and the Judges being consulted, Mr. Baron Perrot, the Judge who had distinguished himself by his panegyric on Lord Bute, was the only authority on the Bench that supported the views of the Corporation. The House of Lords accordingly confirmed the sentence of the Delegates. Lord Mansfield’s speech on the occasion, a composition of great ability and eloquence, is reported in the Parliamentary History, vol. xvi. p. 317.--E. [319] The fact, as I have since learnt from Rigby’s own account, who bragged of it long afterwards, stood thus. He and Wedderburne went to Grenville at Wootton, before the Parliament met, and proposed to him to try to take off two shillings in the pound. Grenville, who not only knew the impossibility of sparing so much, and the mischief the country would suffer, but flattered himself he should soon be Minister again, vehemently opposed the plan; however, as they persisted, he compromised the matter, by making them promise they would confine the reduction to one shilling, for which he not only voted but spoke ably, though so much against his opinion. Perhaps he would have done less hurt, if he had joined in the attempt to reduce it two shillings in the pound, which would have appeared so capital a mischief, that it might possibly have miscarried; and, indeed, supposing a possibility of so much conscientiousness in that or the next Parliament, is paying a compliment to them that may be thought to be overstrained. [320] Lord Chatham’s letter to the Duke of Grafton of the 23rd of February, in Chatham Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 218.--E. [321] Mr. Dowdeswell shared the prejudice entertained by most country gentlemen against the land-tax, probably as much as the resentment felt by the Rockingham party against Lord Chatham.--E. [322] Sir Edmund Isham, Bart., M. P. for Northamptonshire. He died in 1772.--E. [323] Sir Roger Newdigate, Bart., M. P. for the University of Oxford, and the founder of the prize which bears his name. He died in 1806, aged 87.--E. [324] What was the context, but that Lord Chatham and Grenville were honester men when Ministers than when patriots? [325] Quotation of Pitt on Grenville in a debate mentioned before. [326] See Letters to Sir Horace Mann, vol. i. p. 326.--E. [327] Sir William Maynard, M. P. for Essex, died in 1772.--E.