8, 1780.]

[Footnote 60: On the division the numbers were: for the motion, 90;
against it, 182.]

[Footnote 61: The division in 1782 was: 161 to 141; in 1783, 293 to
149.]

[Footnote 62: How systematic and open bribery was at this time is shown
by an account of Sheridan's expenses at Stafford in 1784, of which the
first item is--248 burgesses, paid L5 5s. each, L1302.--Moore's _Life of
Sheridan_, i., 405.]

[Footnote 63: "Life of Pitt," i., 359.]

[Footnote 64: Lord North was a Knight of the Garter, the only commoner,
except Sir R. Walpole, who received that distinction in the last
century, and the latest, with the exception of Lord Castlereagh. on whom
it has been conferred.]

[Footnote 65: 233 to 315.]

[Footnote 66: It is perhaps worth pointing out, as a specimen of the
practical manner in which parliamentary business was transacted at that
time, that this great debate--in which (the House being in committee)
Mr. Dunning himself spoke three times, and Lord North, Mr. T. Pitt, Mr.
Fox, the Speaker (Sir F. Norton), the Attorney-general, General Conway,
Governor Pownall, the Lord-advocate, and several other members took
part--was concluded by twelve o'clock.]

[Footnote 67: February 8, 1780, on Lord Shelburne's motion for an
inquiry into the public expenditure.--_Parliamentary History_, xx.,
1346.]

[Footnote 68: 101 to 55.]

[Footnote 69: "Constitutional History," iii., 43.]

[Footnote 70: His language is said to have been that "there was at all
events one Magistrate in the kingdom who would do his duty."--Lord
Stanhope, _History of England_, vii., 48.]

[Footnote 71: "Lives of the Lord Chancellors," c. clxvii.]

[Footnote 72: Lord Stanhope's "History of England," vii, 56.]

CHAPTER IV.

Changes of Administration.--The Coalition Ministry.--The Establishment
of the Prince of Wales.--Fox's India Bill.--The King Defeats it by the
Agency of Lord Temple.--The Ministry is Dismissed, and Succeeded by Mr.
Pitt's Administration.--Opposition to the New Ministry in the House of
Commons.--Merits of the Contest between the Old and the New
Ministry.--Power of Pitt.--Pitt's India Bill.--Bill for the Government
of Canada.--The Marriage of the Prince of Wales to Mrs.
Fitzherbert.--The King becomes Deranged.--Proposal of a
Regency.--Opinions of Various Writers on the Course adopted.--Spread of
Revolutionary Societies and Opinions.--Bills for the Repression of
Sedition and Treason.--The Alien Act.--The Traito