resignation, he would now have been still at the helm. Pelham's great adviser, lord Orford, said to him, "If you had taken my advice, and held the exchequer under Wilmington, the whole had dropped into your mouth." Pelham, however, received the appointment from the king, and this was communicated in a letter from Carteret, who candidly told him that, as the old friend and colleague of Pulteney, lord Bath, he had done all in his power to secure the office for him, but now he would support Pelham cordially, notwithstanding.
Pelham was at this period forty-seven years of age, of far inferior talent to Orford, but pursued his cautious principles and acted under his advice. It was necessary for the king at this juncture, when the English generals were incensed against the Hanoverian officers, that he should have a powerful majority in the commons. This he could not expect with the unpopular Pulteney, but Pelham, supported by all the adherents of both Newcastle and Orford, might carry him through. Orford gave Pelham the most able advice. "Gain time," he said, "strengthen yourself, and enter into no hasty engagements." To strengthen himself he found places for his friend Henry Fox, and for lord Middlesex, the friend of the prince of Wales. He bestowed the post of paymaster of the forces, which he now vacated, on lord Winnington, and assuming that of chancellor of the exchequer, he satisfied Sandys, who held it, by a peerage and a place in the household. In December the lords Gower and Cobham resigned in disgust, because the Hanoverian troops were still retained, and Pelham then gave the privy seal, which Gower had held, to lord Cholmondeley, though Bath strained every nerve to procure it for lord Carlisle.
The course of events co-operated with Pelham. At this juncture died lord Hervey and the duke of Argyll, by which the opposition was greatly weakened in the house of peers. Argyll had forfeited much of his once great reputation by his frequent changes, and by his late Jacobite tendencies; but his brother, the earl of Isla, who succeeded him, was a far meaner character. He was of a singularly base mind, and his countenance, according to Sir Hanbury Williams, denoted it.
On the return of the king and Carteret, parliament was opened on the 1st of December. The first trial of the opposition was on the address, on which occasion its real strength was not called forth, and this was carried by two hundred and seventy-eight votes against one hundred and forty-nine. But the subject of Hanoverian troops and Hanoverian measures soon displayed its extent and virulence. There was a vehement feeling against everything relating to Hanover, and Pitt lost no time in denouncing Carteret and his measures in the most bitter terms. On the very first night of the session he declared that he was "an execrable, a sole minister, who seemed to have drunk of the potion which poets described, as causing men to forget their country." On a subsequent occasion he denominated him "the Hanover troop minister," a "flagitious task-master," with the sixteen thousand Hanoverians as his placemen, and with no other party. The thunder of Pitt was echoed by others, and the scene in the commons was described by a spectator as like nothing but a tumultuous Polish Diet.
There was a determined resolve to force the dismissal of the Hanoverian troops, though France, irritated by the treaty of Worms, determined now no longer to act as auxiliaries merely, but to declare hostilities against both Austria and England, and take the field with still increased forces. Night after night the Hanoverian troops and Hanoverian measures were attacked by motions of varied form but like intent, and by speeches of the most outspoken character. The ministerial majorities betrayed a strong feeling on the subject, even amongst the supporters of government, whilst the public out of doors were fiercely inflamed against Hanover, bestowing on that electorate the deepest execrations. Toasts of "No Hanoverian King!" were heard in companies which were usually styled loyal, and Carteret received the full, concentrated abuse of the whole kingdom, he was accused of being a traitor, a drunkard, and a madman. "He is never sober," wrote Horace Walpole, "and his rants are amazing, but so are his parts and his spirit." Carte, the Jacobite historian, wrote to the pretender that Carteret was doing infinite service to his cause, and had been absurd enough to boast openly that it was impossible to govern England except by corruption.
Such was the ferment amid which opened the year 1711. The furious storm which was raging against everything Hanoverian, quailed ministers. Pelham was afraid of standing up for the continuance of the foreign troops, and his brother, the duke of Newcastle, was, from a zealous advocate for them, converted into as zealous an opponent of them. At this crisis lord Orford, roused by the danger, when France was not only preparing for a determined war, but was again encouraging an invasion by the pretender, suddenly quitted his retreat at Houghton, at the urgent request of the king, and appeared in his place in the house of lords. Though he had been a member of that house for some time, he had never spoken there, declaring to his brother Horace that he had left his tongue in the house of commons; he now determined to break silence. It was time; except Carteret, all the other ministers had come to the conclusion that it was necessary to drop all mention of the foreign troops, and to sacrifice the king's honour by leaving unvoted the money necessary for the foreign subsidies. Orford first exerted his influence with the cabinet. He commended the firmness of Carteret, he encouraged Pelham and the rest of the timid members of the privy council. He reminded them of the statement of the king to both houses on the 18th of February; that he had received intelligence of unquestionable truth, that the pretender's eldest son had arrived in Paris, and was concerting an invasion under engagement of the French government, to support him with a fleet. Having revived their drooping courage, he then rose in the house of peers; and though suffering under an acute disease, he spoke with an animation which never was surpassed in his best years. He declared that he could never have believed that it would be necessary for him to appear amongst them on such an occasion as that; that he should be called upon to remind their lordships and the country of their danger, and their obligations to their king and the nation. Nothing but the wind, he declared, had at this moment preserved us from
