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1921 IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 381 treated Lord of Orford with the utmost ingratitude ' ; x and Admiral Vernon, who said he would support the tax ; he knew that ' the Duty would fall upon the Planter ', but c they would otherwise be for raising money by a Tax upon the People here, which would effect [sic] himself, and concluded that his shirt was near him, but his skin was nearer '. 2 He ' is not heard of scarcely, but in the house of commons, where he is a frequent but a very bad speaker, and there they will hardly bear to hear him, although he makes a noise, and declares he will be heard, and the house grows thin as soon as he begins a After all these efforts the planters and merchants were not at all certain of victory. They secured the support of William Pitt, ' the leading Member of the Opposition ', and drew up a brief for him to speak against the tax. Further, they obtained a promise of help from the Scottish and Irish members. The latter were gained by an undertaking, given apparently by the gentlemen of the Planters' Club, to support in return a tax on foreign linens which would serve to protect the Scotch and Irish linen industries. 4 The combination of interests was succes- ful : the motion was carried against the ministry. The picture is clear : the merchants and planters divided into groups ' beating up ' the residential parts of the city ; their well- written case, with, as some one comments, more assertion than argument, the ministerial party professing to be unable to under- stand it until they have heard the debates in the house ; their difficulties in the face of the intrigues of Dodington and the vociferous declamation of Admiral Vernon. But this is not all. The organization was merely temporary : the time was not yet come when the old jealousies were laid aside, and a permanent society could be formed including both planters and merchants. Fifteen years later, the first definite trace appears of an organization of the West India interest other than the Planters' Club. This organization was generally known as the Society of West India Merchants, a title that suggests analogy to the Society of London Merchants trading to Virginia and Maryland which seems to have developed at about the same time. 5 The 1 Ibid. See also Walpole Letters, ed. Toynbee (Oxford, 1903-5), i. 154, n. 6, 165, 188-9. 2 Letter-book of Lascelles and Maxwell, 1743-5, p. 119, letter dated 12 February 1743/4 to George Hannay. 3 Ibid. The letter continues : ' He uses many expressions peculiar to himself. He says Cardinal Fleury was an old Jesuitical son of a . . . that no Nation this side H — 1 is so much in Debt as this Nation, and was himself a single Man he would leave it and go to new England, which he calls the Land of Canaan, and he foresees this country will be ruined very soon by exorbitant Taxes.' 4 Ibid. t p. 95, letter dated 17 January 1743/4 to John Fairchild ; and p. 249, letter dated 2 March 1744/5 to John Fairchild. 8 Reference to this society is made in the Chatham Papers, 95. See also Merchants' Minutes, vol. i, meeting of 4 July 1769.