thousand men on any emergency. The duke of
Argyle endeavoured to demonstrate the danger of depending for the safety
of the kingdom upon an undisciplined militia, a fleet, or an army of
auxiliaries. Then he represented the necessity of having recourse to a
regular army in case of invasion; and, after all, acknowledged that
the number proposed was no way sufficient for that purpose. All his
arguments were answered and refuted in an excellent speech by lord
Carteret; nevertheless, victory declared for the minister. The
parliament having granted every branch of the supply, towards the
payment of which they borrowed a sum from the sinking fund, and passed
divers other acts for the encouragement of commerce and agriculture, the
king, on the first day of June, gave the royal assent to the bills that
were prepared, and closed the session, after having informed both houses
that the states-general had acceded to the treaty of Vienna; that he had
determined to visit his German dominions, and to leave the queen regent
in his absence. He accordingly set out for Hanover in the beginning of
June. By this time the pragmatic sanction was confirmed by the diet
of the empire, though not without a formal protest by the electors
Palatine, Bavaria, and Saxony.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

CHAPTER II.

_Remarkable Instance of Suicide..... Affairs of the
Continent..... Meeting of the Parliament..... Address to the
King touching the Spanish Depredations..... The Excise
Scheme proposed by Sir Robert Walpole..... Opposition to the
Scheme..... Bill for a Dower to the Princess Royal----Debate
in the House of Lords concerning the Estates of the late
Directors of the South-Sea Company..... Double Election of a
King in Poland..... The Kings of France, Spain, and
Sardinia, join against the Emperor..... The Prince of Orange
arrives in England..... Altercation in the House of
Commons..... Debate about the Removal of the Duke of Bolton
and Lord Viscount Cobham from their respective
Regiments..... Motion for the Repeal of the Septennial
Act..... Conclusion of a remarkable Speech by Sir W.
Wyndham...... Message from the King for Powers to augment
the Forces in the Intervals between the two Parliaments.....
Opposition in the House of Peers..... Parliament
dissolved..... Dantzic besieged by the Russians.....
Philipsburgh taken by the French..... Don Carlos ta