ISBN: 9781154210033

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1839. Not illustrat… More...

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1839. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... King would give up the prerogative of pardoning CHAP, after an impeachment-- mere trifles, observes t X Mr. Hallam, in comparison with the innovation 1719. projected. According to previous arrangement, the Peerage Bill appears to have encountered no opposition in the Lords (except a speech from Earl Cowper), and it passed through all its stages in a very few days. But far different was its reception in the Commons. On the 8th of December, it having been read a second time, the debate was taken on the question, That this bill be committed. The fate of the British Constitution seemed to hang suspended in the balance. On the ministerial side, the chief speeches were those of Craggs, Lechmere, and Aislabie; and though scarcely any particulars are preserved of them, we find them called by high authority very able performances. t Amongst the adversaries of the bill, the ingenuity and talent of Steele were as powerfully shown, and more fully reported. But by far the most splendid speech on that occasion was that of Walpole; and it may, in fact, be doubted if any harangue of so much eloquence and effect had ever yet been delivered in the House of Commons; whether we judge of it by the impression which we are told it produced, or by that which the records of it make Constit. Hist, vol. iii. p. 322. For the inducement held out by Ministers, see Lord M idle ton''s Minutes, Coxe''s Walpole, vol. ii. p. 172. f Speaker Onslow''s Remarks. VOL. I. N N CHAP, upon ourselves. He began with great spirit: t X'', That the usual path to the temple of honour had 1719. been through the temple of virtue; but, by this bill, it was now to be only through the sepulchre of a dead ancestor. He inveighed against Stanhope, who, he said, having got into the House of Peers, is now... Philip Henry Stanhope Stanhope, Books, History, History of England From the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles, 1713-1783 (Volume 1) Books>History, General Books LLC<