he nature of this grievance, which,
however, was not redressed. A new trade was at this time opened with
Persia, through the dominions of the czar, and vested with an exclusive
privilege in the Russian company, by an act of parliament. The commons
voted forty thousand seamen for the service of the ensuing year, and
about thirty thousand men for the establishment of land-forces. They
provided for the subsidies granted to the king of Denmark and the
landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; and took every step which was suggested for
the ease and the convenience of the government.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

The parties in the house of lords were influenced by the same motives
which actuated the commons. The duke of Argyle, who had by this time
resigned all his places, declared open war against the ministry. In the
beginning of the session, the king's speech was no sooner reported by
the chancellor, than this nobleman stood up and moved that a general
address of thanks should be presented to his majesty, instead of a
recapitulation of every paragraph of the king's speech, re-echoed from
the parliament to the throne, with expressions of blind approbation,
implying a general concurrence with all the measures of the minister.
He spoke on this subject with an astonishing impetuosity of eloquence,
that rolled like a river which had overflowed its banks and deluged the
whole adjacent country. The motion was supported by lord Bathurst, lord
Carteret, the earl of Chesterfield, and lord Gower, who, though they
displayed all the talents of oratory, were outvoted by the opposite
party, headed by the duke of Newcastle, the earl of Cholmondeley,
lord Hervey, and the lord-chancellor. The motion was rejected, and the
address composed in the usual strain. The same motions for an inquiry
into orders and instructions which had miscarried in the lower house,
were here repeated with the same bad success; in the debates which
ensued, the young earls of Halifax and Sandwich acquired a considerable
share of reputation, for the strength of argument and elocution with
which they contended against the adherents of the ministry. When the
house took into consideration the state of the army, the duke of Argyle
having harangued with equal skill and energy on military affairs,
proposed that the forces should be augmented by adding new levies to
the old companies, without increasing the number of officers; as such
an augmentation served only to debase