Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 3 (of 4)Walpole, Horace
History
Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 3 (of 4)
Walpole, Horace
Great Britain -- History -- 1760-1789; Great Britain -- History -- George III, 1760-1820
The next day, though Saturday, the House sat, and the debate lasted
till two o’clock on Sunday morning, when it was carried to admit
Lutterell by only 197 voices to 143--so little was the Court sure of
their majority on so violent a measure! Some of their friends quitted
them. Harley, the Lord Mayor, fearing for his personal safety in the
City, was permitted by the Duke of Grafton to vote against the vote:
and several Tory members for counties absented themselves not to
offend their constituents,--evidence how little addresses had spoken
the real sense of the counties. Burke and James Townshend were severe
against the measure; Serjeant Glynn and Grenville[217] temperate,
and the latter much applauded. Beckford, on the military procession
of the gentlemen, said it put him in mind of Muley Ishmael, King of
Morocco, who, when he meditated a murder, put on his yellow sash.
When gentlemen in lace appeared, it announced a massacre: and he
compared the times to those of Rehoboam, who, rejecting the advice of
his father’s counsellors, followed that of the young men, by which he
lost ten tribes, and reigned over the two little ones (Scotland). Much
complaint was made of the arbitrary doctrines suggested by the writers
on the side of the Court. Norton, Lord North, and the Attorney-General
De Grey spoke firmly for Lutterell. Stephen Fox indecently and
indiscreetly said, Wilkes had been chosen only _by the scum of the
earth_--an expression often retorted on his family, his grandfather’s
birth being of the lowest obscurity. Young Payne, in another pompous
oration, abused the Supporters of the Bill of Rights, protesting, on
his honour, that his speech was not premeditated; but, forgetting part,
he inadvertently pulled it out of his pocket in writing! Charles Fox,
with infinite superiority in parts, was not inferior to his brother in
insolence.[218] Lutterell, the preceding night, had been assaulted by
persons unknown, as he quitted the House; and, for some months, did
not dare to appear in the streets, or scarce quit his lodging. He was
hissed out of one of the theatres; and going afterwards to Dublin, and
attending the debates of the House of Commons there, heard himself
named with very opprobrious terms, which he resenting, the member
answered with a firmness that Lutterell declined encountering.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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