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Rh of them, sober as well as drunk, avow it in the most unreserved manner.

"The House of Commons in those days must have been very different from what it has become in our times, for we see all the distinguished men, Oxford, Bolingbroke and others, seeking to be advanced to the Peerage instead of considering it as a retirement. Sir Robert Walpole raised it not only by talents which were particularly adapted to it, but by using it as one of the best instruments of the false government adopted at the accession of the House of Hanover and persevered in during the reigns of George I. and George II.

"The diary of Lord Melcombe gives not only a very just idea of the manner of carrying on the Government of England during his own time, but of the English Government for a long time to come; in short, till some public event alters the ordinary course of things, allowing for the difference between a quiet Court whose only object was to get through, and such an active and numerous royal family as the present.

"The removal of Lord Granville left the field open for the Pelhams, who had always betrayed Sir Robert Walpole, and had every talent for obtaining Ministry, none for governing the kingdom, except decency, integrity, and Whig principles. Their forte was cunning, plausibility, and cultivation of mankind; they knew all the allures of the Court; they were in the habits of administration; they had been long keeping a party together.