Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/575

 STEELE. 57.1 pamphlets in the Whig interest, to which he had attached himself; and, having an ambition to s i t i n parliament, h e resigned his office o f commissioner o f stamps, i n order t o qualify himself for that honour. He was accordingly returned for Stockbridge a t the general election, and i s said t o have owed his return, i n common with too many others, t o the old trick o f kissing the voters' wives with guineas i n his mouth. Be this a s i t may, the parliament having met o n the 2nd o f March, 1714, a petition was presented against his return; but his pamphlets having rendered him peculiarly obnoxious t o the men then i n power, and the petition being the seventeenth o n the list, and therefore not likely t o come o n until the next session, the ministers resolved upon taking a shorter way with him. Accordingly, o n the 11th o f March, Mr. John Hungerford, a lawyer, who had been expelled f o r bribery i n the reign o f King William, having moved that the House should take into consideration, that part o f her majesty's speeches relating t o seditious libels, made a formal complaint against divers scandalous papers pub lished under the name o f Mr. Steele. On the next day Mr. Auditor Harley specified some printed pamphlets published b y Mr. Steele, “containing several paragraphs tending t o sedition, highly reflecting upon her majesty and arraigning her administration and government.” Mr. James Craggs, standing u p t o speak i n his behalf, and being pre vented from proceeding b y cries o f “order,” Mr. Steele rose and desired a week's time t o prepare for his defence, which was excepted against b y Mr. Harley, who moved for adjourning i t only t o the following Monday. On this Steele, assuming the sanctified deportment and manner o f that gentleman, “owned, i n the meekness o f his heart, that h e was a very great sinner; and hoped the member who spoke last, and who was s o justly renowned for his exemplary piety and devotion, would not b e accessary t o the accumulating the number o f his transgressions, by obliging him t o break the Sabbath o f the Lord, b y perus ing such profane writings a s might serve for his justifica