annual duties; yet the time pressed so much, that orders were sent to the Custom-house officers at Dublin, to plead the recess for the Christmas holidays, as an excuse for not clearing several ships then in port, who, as the annual bill was on the point of expiring, would not have paid the duties. It was marvellous in the eyes of most men that after such repeated mismanagement Lord Townshend should be suffered to retain his government. Many imputed it to his favour with Lord Bute; yet his daily insults to Sir George Maccartney, the Earl’s son-in-law, gave him little title to that patronage. I believe two other causes contributed to Lord Townshend’s impunity: one, the difficulty of finding a successor, every man of character or prudence dreading the abuse or the expense attendant on that post; the other was the King’s satisfaction in being able to govern one of his kingdoms, at least, by so worthless a Minister--for to be able to do wrong to a whole nation is the flowering time of prerogative. The Earl of Shannon was soon after gained over by hereditary corruption, and Lord Townshend remained triumphant. I shall briefly recapitulate a few incidents that fell out in the remainder of the year, and then close these long Memoirs with two events, of which, one was a royal marriage of the most extraordinary complexion, the other a royal death, which put an end to an influence that had given colour to all the troubles of the present reign. Lord Rockingham and his friends, wearied out by continual defeats, the consequences, in a good measure, of their own weak conduct, determined to sit still and give over parliamentary opposition, unless any new invasions of the constitution by the Crown should awaken the people to resistance, or foreign troubles should give an opportunity of attacking the Court by its becoming unpopular; for one of the evils of bad government is, that even the best men are apt to regard foreign disgraces as small misfortunes, when they serve to check the insolence of domestic tyranny. Yet might war be an additional evil; success would advance the power of the Crown, and such unrelaxed attention to recruiting the army with Scotchmen had been kept up, that the King had reason to depend on blind obedience from a great proportion of it. The marines were almost all Scots. The haughty English were too much at their ease to enlist in that despised service. The Scots, with not less pride, were never stubborn to their interest. A new occasion gave handle to reviving abuse on that nation and on their countryman Lord Mansfield. One Eyre, a wealthy citizen, had been detected in stealing writing-paper from public offices, was tried and convicted of that mean pilfering. He had married a Scottish woman, and three of her kinsmen solicited the Chief Justice to allow him to be bailed, which was granted. This partiality occasioning clamour, the three Scots avowed and defended in the public papers what they had done, which but