seven peers who voted for the delay, forty-six were such as
enjoyed preferment in the church, commissions in the army, or civil
employments under the government. At length lord Bathurst waived his
motion for that time; then the house ordered that the present and former
directors of the South-Sea company, together with the late inspectors
of their accounts, should attend and be examined. They were accordingly
interrogated, and gave so little satisfaction, that lord Bathurst moved
for a committee of inquiry; but the question being put, was carried in
the negative: yet a very strong protest was entered by the lords in the
opposition. The next subject of altercation was the bill for misapplying
part of the produce of the sinking fund. It was attacked with all the
force of argument, wit, and declamation, by the earl of Strafford, lords
Bathurst and Carteret, and particularly by the earl of Chesterfield, who
had by this time resigned his staff of lord-steward of the household,
and renounced all connexion with the ministry. Lord Bathurst moved for
a resolution, importing that, in the opinion of the house, the sinking
fund ought for the future to be applied, in time of peace and public
tranquillity, to the redemption of those taxes which were most
prejudicial to the trade, most burdensome on the manufactures, and most
oppressive on the poor of the nation. This motion was overruled, and the
bill adopted by the majority. On the eleventh of June, the king gave
the royal assent to the bills that were prepared, and closed the session
with a speech, in which he took notice of the wicked endeavours that had
been lately used to inflame the minds of the people by the most unjust
misrepresentations.

DOUBLE ELECTION OF A KING OF POLAND.

Europe was now reinvolved in fresh troubles by a vacancy on the throne
of Poland. Augustus died at Warsaw in the end of January, and the
neighbouring powers were immediately in commotion. The elector of
Saxony, son to the late king, and Stanislaus, whose daughter was married
to the French monarch, declared themselves candidates for the Polish
throne. The emperor, the czarina, and the king of Prussia, espoused the
interests of the Saxon: the king of France supported the pretensions of
his father-in-law. The foreign ministers at Warsaw forthwith began to
form intrigues among the electors: the marquis de Monti, ambassador from
France, exerted himself so successfully, that he soon gained over the
prim