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 1704 made strenuous endeavours to pass the bill against occasional conformity—a practice denounced by him as a 'scandalous hypocrisy.' For his untiring zeal on behalf of the bill he received the special thanks of the university of Oxford. He early acquired a high reputation as an able and effective debater, and from his high character, 'grave deportment, and mastery of the forms of the house, was supposed to have pre-eminent claims for the office of speaker, which became vacant in 1705. His candidature would undoubtedly have been successful had not his enemies hit upon the expedient of republishing his 'Remarks in the Grande Tour,' several passages in which had previously caused some comment as indicating a bias towards Jacobitism, and a probable leaning to Roman catholicism. The device, according to Oldmixon, was the invention of Robert Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, who, 'having one of those copies by him, reprinted it on that occasion; and to all that came to his house about that time he said: "Have you not seen Mr. B.'s travels?" Being answered in the negative, he went into a back parlour, where this impression of it lay, fetched it out, and gave every one a copy; till that matter was made up and the election secured' (History of England, 345). Among the more objectionable portions of the book was an account of his admission to kiss the pope's slipper, 'who,' the writer adds, 'though he knew me to be a protestant, gave me his blessing and said nothing about religion,' and a reference to William and Mary merely as Prince and Princess of Orange. To give point to the joke of republication, a 'table of principal matters' was added, in which a ludicrous travestie was given of certain of the contents. The issue purports to be the second edition, although a second edition had already appeared in 1693. The publication of the volume caused feeling to run very high, and, as Evelyn relates, 'there had never been so great an assembly on the first day of a sitting, being more than 450. The votes of the old as well as the new members fell to those called low churchmen, contrary to all expectation' (Diary, 31 Oct. 1705). The result was that John Smith, M.P. for Andover, was chosen over Bromley by a majority of forty-three votes. After the tory reaction following the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, Bromley was, on 25 Nov. 1710, chosen speaker without opposition. This office he exchanged in August 1713 for that of secretary of state. The death of Queen Anne caused the fall of the tory government, and he never again held office, though he maintained an influential position in the tory party. He died 13 Feb. 1731-2, and was buried at Baginton. His portrait is in the university gallery at Oxford.

Amid the keen and unscrupulous party strifes of this period of English history, and the peculiar temptations which beset politicians, Bromley succeeded in retaining a high reputation both for political prudence and for honesty. His undoubted sincerity rendered him, however, an extremely keen partisan. He displayed special bitterness in his attacks on Marlborough, and his comparison of the duchess to Alice Perrers, the mistress of Edward III, was a scandalous violation of the decencies of political warfare.



BROMLEY, WILLIAM (1699?–1737), politician, was second son of (1664-1732) [q. v.] He was elected upon the foundation at Westminster in 1714, at the age of 15. He was a member of Oriel College, Oxford, and was created D.C.L. on 19 May 1732. He was elected member for the borough of Warwick in 1727. On 13 March 1734 he was put forward by the party opposed to Walpole to move the repeal of the Septennial Act. Parliament was soon afterwards dissolved, and Bromley lost his seat for Warwick. He was elected in February 1737, on the death of George Clarke, to represent the university of Oxford, which his father had represented from 1702 till 1732. He died the following month, 12 March 1737. His wife, by whom he left no issue,, was a Miss Frogmorton. His portrait is in the Bodleian Gallery.



BROMLEY, WILLIAM (1769–1842), line-engraver, was born at Carisbrooke in the Isle of Wight. He was apprenticed to an engraver named Wooding, in London, and among his early productions were some of the plates to Macklin's Bible, the 'Death of Nelson,' after A. W. Devis, and the 'Attack on Valenciennes,' after P. J. de Loutherbourg. Later works were two portraits of the Duke of Wellington, after Sir Thomas Lawrence; and Rubens's 'Woman taken in Adultery.' Bromley was elected an associate engraver of the Royal Academy in 1819, and in the same year also a member of