Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 4 (of 4)Walpole, Horace
History
Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 4 (of 4)
Walpole, Horace
Great Britain -- History -- 1760-1789; Great Britain -- History -- George III, 1760-1820
The next day, Captain Boyle Walsingham, in the Commons, moved for
all the letters and papers sent to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,
which had occasioned the prorogation of the Parliament there, and
had interrupted much business of consequence,--a punishment the more
severe, as the augmentation demanded had been accorded. Grenville again
complained of his Majesty’s waiving his prerogative, by promising not
to call over those troops but in case of rebellion,--a strange plea
in an opponent! but Grenville never liked opposition so well as in
_defence_ of prerogative; while to excuse his Majesty’s moderation,
Lord Barrington and Rigby maintained that, in case of emergency, the
King might disregard his promise,--a power of evasion very unnecessary
to claim, when it had been so lately and so wantonly violated, merely
to give a pension to Dyson, though the Irish had been promised that no
more such pensions on their country should be granted. The motion was
rejected by 178 to 66.[85]
Lord Chatham made another prolix motion, tending to censure the
Ministers for the answer they had advised the Crown to make to the
remonstrance from the City. His speech was long, animated with his
most nervous eloquence, and patchworked with his wildest ignorance
and inventions. He talked of _Androgeus, Lord Mayor of London_ in the
time of Julius Cæsar, defending the _privileges_ of the City, and of
the care Edward the First had of those liberties. Lord Gower told him
that so much had been said, and such full answers given by both Houses,
(who had both, indeed, approved the King’s answer,) on the Middlesex
election, that it would be tiring the House to say more on that
subject. The other Ministers sat silent and would not be provoked to
speak, though loudly called on by Lord Shelburne, the Duke of Richmond,
Lord Lyttelton, and Lord Temple. Lord Pomfret said a few words on the
factious behaviour of Beckford, who was defended by Lord Shelburne:--“I
shall always love him,” said that Lord, “for, when the citizens
murmured at the King’s answer, as they quitted St. James’s, the Lord
Mayor bade them admire his Majesty’s good humour, and told them the
answer came not from himself, but from his Ministers.” That motion,
too, was rejected by 85 to 37.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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