XXII. 1784. and when a fair prospect of supplanting that BOOK nobleman in a short time occurred, Mr. Fox scrupled not, to the astonishment and indignation of the kingdom, publicly to coalesce with lord North and his numerous partisans. The earl of Shelburne having been far more guarded in his previous declarations, as well as his subsequent political associations, escaped the obloquy which attended the more flagrant inconsistency of his once popular rival; who, by openly connecting himself with that individual minister of the crown whom he had so long and so successfully laboured to vilify and disgrace, had for ever forfeited his claim to the flattering appellation of "the Man of the People." On the dismission of the coalition administration, Mr. Pitt, the head of the new ministry, was in a manner compelled, like his predecessor lord Shelburne, to admit no inconsiderable proportion of the Tories to share in the honors and emoluments of government; and the nation, equally enraged at the Whigs and the Tories of the coalition, willingly excused the re-admission of those members of the old Tory administration who could plead the recent merit of inveighing against the coalition, and of opposing the India Bill of Mr. Fox. From this mixture of Toryism in the new administration, nevertheless, the most pernicious 1784. BOOK and direful consequences have ultimately resultXXII. ed. The reign of the present monarch has indeed been distinguished by a strange and dreadful fatality; and the deplorable infatuation almost invariably actuating the national councils, and which has been productive of such mighty mischiefs, may well appear to the contemplative and philosophic mind-penetrating beyond the dark cloud which bounds the view of common observers the destined means of accomplishing the grand and beneficent purposes of that wisdom in comparison with which the highest human saga. city is as weakness and folly. But these are reflections which more properly appertain to the province of the theologist than the historian. Proceed ings rela Westmin After the division which took place on the adtive to the dress, and which terminated in the complete ater return, triumph of the new ministry, the business which chiefly for a time occupied the attention of the house and of the public was the complaint stated by Mr. Fox respecting the conduct of the highbailiff of Westminster, who had obstinately and daringly refused to make the return in his favor, although he had upon the face of the poll a majority of 235 votes. Mr. Fox, however, was not deprived of his seat in parliament by this infamous procedure, being, through the interest of his friend sir Thomas Dundas, chosen member for the borough of Kirkwall, in the Orkneys; on XXIL 1784. which occasion Mr. Pitt, in the height of his ex- BOOK ultation, gratified his feelings by a sarcastical delineation of his antagonist, as a man on whom a sort of sentence of banishment had passed-who had been driven by the efforts of patriotic indignation as an exile from his native clime, and forced to seek for refuge on the stormy and desolate shores of the "Ultima Thulé." On the 24th of May a resolution was moved by Mr. Lee, late attorney-general, "that the highbailiff of Westminster on the day upon which the writ of election expired ought to have returned two citizens to serve in parliament for that city." A violent debate ensued; and the previous question having been moved by sir Lloyd Kenyon, it was ordered that the high-bailiff should attend the house on the day following. The sole pretext on which that officer rested his defence was, that, having ground to suspect the validity of many votes taken in the course of a poll of six weeks duration, he had granted a scrutiny, till the termination of which he could not in conscience make the return. To this an obvious and decisive answer presented itself. The scrutiny is nothing more than a revision of the poll by the returning officer; and if such revision is not, and cannot be, completed previous to the period at which the writ is returnable, the officer is bound, by the nature of his office, and the tenor of his XXII. 1784. BOOK oath, to make the return agreeably to the poll as it was actually taken. For if vague presumptions of the nature now alleged were admitted as just causes of procrastination, elections would be thrown entirely into the hands of the returning officer, who, if gained over by the court, might for any indefinite term prevent those who were obnoxious to the administration for the time being from taking their seats in parliament; and the representation of the kingdom would be thus rendered flagrantly corrupt, partial, and imperfect. Had the high-bailiff really felt those scruples of conscience by which he pretended to be thus embarrassed, the law of parliament allowed him to include all the candidates in the same return, which would at once have transferred the task and burden of the decision from his own conscience to the conscience of the house. After long pleadings by counsel at the bar of the house on either part, the motion was renewed, "that the high-bailiff be directed forthwith to make the return." To the disgrace of the new administration, this motion was vehemently opposed, and on a division finally negatived-the ayes being 117, the noes 195. It was then moved and carried, "that the high-bailiff do proceed in the scrutiny with all practicable dispatch." Thus was this business laid at rest during the present session; but the character of the new minister suffered, in XXII. 1784. consequence of the part which he took in the BOOK conduct of it, an indelible stain. Though as yet of years immature and unhackneyed in the ways of men, he was indignantly perceived capable with alacrity and eagerness to justify injustice, and to become an active and voluntary instrument of mean and insidious revenge. Mr. Saw an enquiry representa On the 16th of June a motion was made by Motion of Mr. Alderman Sawbridge, and seconded by Mr. bridge for Alderman Newnham, both of them representa- into the tives of the city of London, that a committee be state of the appointed to enquire into the present state of the tion. representation of the commons of Great Britain in parliament. The measure itself had the concurrence and support of Mr. Pitt, though the new minister professed in the usual language of ministers that the time was improper; and indeed the motion appears to have been calculated and designed rather to embarrass the minister than to promote the proposed object. Mr. Dundas, who had supported the former proposition of Mr. Pitt, luckily found a distinction which enabled him to oppose the present motion, without in the least diminishing his reputation for consistency. His objection was, that the committee now moved for was a select committee, whereas the committee for which he had formerly voted was a committee of the whole house. On the division |