fome want of zeal to defend the bonour of the R. family, and fome want of wisdom to promote the commercial interefts of the people, in the conduct of thofe fervants of the crown, in whom fuch virtues might be fuppofed moft eminently to refide, H. M. fhould begin to treat them with a fudden coolness, which the long funshine of favour that had preceded it could not but render extremely mortifying. But it is very furprizing, that, however mortifying fuch coolnefs must have been, it could engage them to take a step the very reverfe of what their fituation feemed to require. For, whether they thought the K's coolness to them proceeded from the nobleman fill fufpected of enjoying the private confidence of H. M. notwithftanding his retirement from court, and therefore were willing to fhew their refentment against him; or whether they imagined it must terminate in their own difmiffion, and were defirous of recovering before-hand the good graces of the people by a blow at the object of their averfion, they contrived to have that nobleman's brother turned out of a very honourable and lucrative employment, enjoyed by him in his own country, and in the difcharge of which he had not given the leaft room for complaint.

But it was impoffible this ftep fhould not be confidered by the K. as an affront put upon himfelf; and it was, at the fame time, very poffible that the people of England might think their welfare fo very little promoted by turning a Scotchman out of employment in Scotland, about the interior police and government of

which they never vouchsafed to give themselves the leaft trouble, as not to thank the authors of his difgrace; and it happened accordingly. The K's coolness changed to refentment, and the people's averfion turned to contempt.

But, defirous as the K. might be to remove them, and the people to fee them removed, it was no eafy matter to do it, as, how well foever H. M. might be affected to the reft of the miniftry, they fhared fo much in the odium at

tending the heads, that poffibly none of thofe noblemen or gentlemen, who were then thought fitteft to fill thefe important trufts, might be willing to accept of them, unless all the inferior offices were cleared at the fame time. Nay, one nobleman, when tried, went ftill farther. He infilted, it is faid, not only on fuch a thorough riddance, but on the filling of them with his own friends, under a pretence of guarding fo well against the fecret influence of L. B. over the members of the council, that, whatever that nobleman happened ftill to retain over the fupreme head, it might not be fufficient to obftru& any of his meafures for the welfare of the public. But these were terms, that, if it was rather prefumptuous in his lordship to offer, it would have been equally weak in the K. to accept; and therefore it cannot be very furprifing, if they were peremptorily rejected. Mr. P. whatever his thoughts might have been, is reported to have been much more decent, or rather complaifant, in his expreffions. At the fame time, that he pleaded the bad ftate of his health, as an excufe for

not

But, happily for the nation, thefe negociations, if we may give that name to transactions between a fovereign and his fubjects, were carried on by a royal perfonage, who, as, on the one hand, he could not be fufpected of any partiality for the favourite of the monarch, or the idol of the people, and therefore was certainly the fitteft perfon to act in an affair in which the monarch's ease and the. people's happiness were fo much concerned; fo, on the other hand, by his tried affection for both, and his uncommon knowledge of men and things, was beft qualified, in cafe his interpofition had not the defired iffue, to recommend to his majesty fuch other noblemen and gentlemen, as, though new in office, and not far gone in years, might, by joining to the rectitude of their intentions and the greatness of their abilities the confidence of both prince and people, more than replace, under a patriot king, and a free conflitution, the veterans they fucceeded.

Accordingly, at his royal highnefs's recommendation, the duke of Grafton and the right honourable Mr. Conway, brother to the Earl of Hertford, one of thofe members of the houfe of commons, who, at the close of the last feffion, had been deprived of all their employments, were appointed fecretaries of ftate, and the marquis of Rockingham firft lord, and

under treasurer of the exchequer, three places heretofore united in the perfon of the right honourable Mr. George Grenville; and almost all the other great offices of state were filled with new men, except that of lord privy feal, which was wifely conferred on the duke of Newcastle, as a place of ease suitable to his years, and yet of honour and confidence, the things of which his grace ever appeared moft ambitious, fufficient to reward his early and conftant fervices to the royal family, and in them to the British dominions.

匣

The approbation, with which the public received their nominations proved answerable to the moft fanguine expectations of his royal highnefs, particularly that of the M. of R. on account of his lordship's great intereft in the pub. lic welfare, in quality of one of the greatest land-holders in Eng land; and fill more the manner, in which he has ever acquitted himfelf of the duties of that important relation, which, the less they have been infifted upon. by political, moral, or even religious writers, the more they require the affiftance of illufirious examples to recommend and enforce the due oblervance of them.

Much, therefore, as the people might be pleafed to fee themfelves thus rid of minifters, by whom they had confidered themfelves as not a little aggrieved in point of liberty, and hurt in that of proper ty, that pleasure was greatly heightened by feeing them fucceeded by men, from whom they might expect not only redrefs, but improvement in both thefe refpects. The chiefs of the new miniftry, inftead of en

croaching

Croaching upon the royal authority by attempting to tie up the K's hands, and hut his ears, with more respect to his perfon, and greater advantage to the public, took care to fill the inferior departments in their gift with men of approved talents, unimpeached integrity, and fuch politenefs of manners, as could not but greatly contribute to render all application to them equally agreeable and effectual; and to give the people a ftriking proof of deference to their voice, as well as attention to their welfare, foon after their appointment, they obtained a peerage for lord chief juftice Pratt.

When we faid that this choice of minifters was univerfally approved, we could not be understood to mean, that no pens were drawn against them far from it. But all the writers blows returned upon thofe in defence of whom they were ftruck. In railing at this alteration, as the work of L. B. they were weak enough to call it the heaviest of the many heavy blows, which that nobleman had given the nation fince his removal from the reins of government; by which they gave thofe, who wifhed well to the new miniftry, a handle for retorting, that the late miniftry muft, of course, have fubmitted to be his tools, fince it was impoffible for him to ftrike any blows at the public, without the concurrence of the acting ministry, and they themfelves had been the acting miniftry, without interruption, from his removal to the appointment of the prefent. By ftyling L. B. Sejanus, they raifed the idea of a monfter the very reverfe in every refpect of the monarch, who has thought proper to honour that

nobleman with his confidence ; and thereby confirmed the charge brought against thofe, whofe caufe they cipoufed, of their having acted in their profecution of libels and libellers more from a fpirit of perfonal refentment for the alperfions caft on themfelves, than a juft indignation at the infults offered their mafter.

All their other allegations against the prefent ministry were equally weak in themfelves, or ill grounded. One, in particular, was to perfectly ridiculous, and absurd, as to deferve being mentioned. They charged the M. of R. with jockeyfhip, as they were pleafed to ftyle it, as though any diversion could become noblemen, in general, better than that, by which the breed of one of the nobleft and moft ufeful animals is fo much improved, or the M. in particular, whofe property lies chiefly in a county where the breeding of hories is a capital employment; and many of whofe tenants might, therefore, be fuppofed to receive great benefit from his predilection for that kind of field sport. Their folly must be very great, who could chufe fuch wretched arguments to defend men, the general tenor of whofe conduct was by no means fo bad, as not to atone, in a great meafure, for fome particular parts of it. A faithful picture of the E. of H.'s conduct when at the head of the board of trade and plantations, and when governor of Ireland, and a fimple narrative of the many immerfe fums facrificed by the to the neceffities of the people, whilft Mr. G. prefided at the board of treafury, joined to his great care to prevent the nation's generosity

crown

· generosity being abufed by the exorbitant claims of greedy foreigners, for loffes fuftained by them in fighting their own battles, would, alone, have been fufficient to prove, that however mistaken, or even inconfiderate, these minifters might have been, on fome occafrons, in the choice of measures to promote the honour of the crown, and the welfare of the fubject, they ever had the intereft of both fincerely at heart.

It was this confideration, we are willing to fuppofe, that induced the city of London, in an addrefs they foon after prefented to the K. on the joyful occafion of the birth of a third fon to H. M. to glance at the late changes, by afluring him that his faithful citizens of London, from their zealous attachment to his royal houfe, and the true honour and dignity of his crown, whenever a happy establishment of public measures hould prefent a favourable occafion, would be ready to exert their utmoft abilities in fupport of fuch wife councils, as apparently tended to render his majesty's reign happy and glorious.

If this really was the city of London's motive, they were much to be commended. But then, it were greatly to be wifhed, that those whom they entrusted with the expreffing of their fentiments, had contrived to do it with more refpect to the K. and lefs bitterness to the new miniftry, who had they any finifter defigns, could fcarce have expected greater advantages from a conftant run of city adulation, than from this fingle ill-timed blow, by which, at the expence of a fhort-lived pain, thofe wea

3

pons they had moft to dread from might be effectually blunted. They were scarce long enough in office to have any actual measures to defend, except their having obtained a peerage, as we have already mentioned, for a right honourable lawyer, to

whom the citizens themselves, far from having any objection to him, had paid the highest compliments for his knowledge in the law, as well as his uprightness in the difpenfation of it.

Had the new miniftry been ever fo willing to let pafs unnoticed this attempt on their good name, they could not have done it, con fidering how intimately the cause of his majefty's glory was blended with that of their private character; and, whoever they employed in this tafk, fuppofing they had occafion to employ any, for the attack was too warmly and too univerfally refented, not to procure them any volunteers, it was fpeedily and effectually performed, by undermin ing at one blow the credibility of the accufers; the accufation, though heavy, being too vague and indefinite to admit of any other method. The fuperiority in point of opulence and education, of thofe who were merely inhabitants of the capital, over thofe, who, in quality of freemen, could alone be ftyled citizens, and the ftill greater fuperiority, in both these refpects, of fuch of the citizens as never troubled their heads about city affairs, over those who did, were clearly pointed out; fo clearly, that the fober, well-meaning, unambitious Londoners, who attended beft to their own private concerns, thought they could not

ex

exculpate themselves better than by fubfcribing to the charge against their representatives in common council, who had thus wretchedly betrayed the dignity and importance of the most refpectable trading corporation, not only in Great Britain, but the whole universe.

As the duke of Cumberland had recommended the new miniftry, he conftantly affifted them with his advice; an advantage, which, it is very probable, the nation could not have enjoyed under any other miniftry, and which, alone, might compenfate all the defects, if real, which the friends of the old miniftry were continually finding in them. This advantage, however, though of continuance enough to be felt by the nation, did not laft as long as the nation could have wished, even under men of equal integrity and capacity with the prefent, and Whilft his greater experience. royal highness was preparing one evening to affift at one of thofe councils frequently held to put matters in a way of being more speedily dispatched by the privy council, and without whofe affift

ance

the privy council bufinefs muft go on as flowly as the parliament bufinefs would without that of committees, he was 31st. O&. feized with a fudden dif1765. order, of which he had fome fymptoms the evening before, and in a fit of fhivering funk fenseless almost inftantaneously, in the arms of the earl of Albemarle.

It is hardly poffible to exprefs the greatness and the univerfality of the grief expreffed upon this occafion. Not only their majefties, and the rest of the royal family, mourned for him as a most affectionate uncle and brother; his family

as a most mild and generous mafter; the poor, whom he kept at work, as a moft juft and charitable employer; and all ranks, in general, as a true and zealous patriot, and a moft wife and fteady councellor; but even the poor manufacturers, who a little before had been bitterly complaining of the want of work, occafioned by frequent court mournings and the interruption of the American trade, now, on a furmife that his majefty might difpenfe with it for their fakes, as earnestly called out for a deep and general mourning fuitable to the great and general lofs the nation fuffered in the death of his royal highness.

How warm foever thefe fentiments were, they were equally juft, as must appear by a fhort view of his royal highness's character. Born with all the talents that could be wifhed for in fo elevated a ftation, he very early, under a mother fond of letters, and a father allowed to be one of the best foldiers in Europe, added learning to his natural good taste, and knowledge in arms to his innate bravery. What was ftill of more confequence, he cherished, and, if poffible, improved the greatest goodness of heart by frequent acts of benevolence, fo that his face, his perfon, his manner, in which the hero, however confpicuous, was almost eclipfed by the man, formed but a faint picture of his fentiments. Accordingly, when called to the head of armies his country found in him a most wise, intrepid, and indefatigable afferter of her rights, and the troops employed under him a father as well as a leader. If the laft war in Flanders, in which his royal

highness