ons;
nevertheless, the motion passed in the negative. Notwithstanding this
great obstruction, purposely thrown in the way of the inquiry, the
secret committee discovered many flagrant instances of fraud and
corruption in which the earl of Orford had been concerned. It appeared,
that he had granted fraudulent contracts for paying the troops in
the West Indies; that he had employed iniquitous arts to influence
elections; that for secret service, during the last ten years, he had
touched one million four hundred fifty-three thousand four hundred
pounds of public money; that above fifty thousand pounds of this sum had
been paid to authors and printers of newspapers and political tracts,
written in defence of the ministry; that on the very day which preceded
his resignation, he had signed orders on the civil list revenues for
above thirty thousand pounds; but as the cash remaining in the exchequer
did not much exceed fourteen thousand pounds, he had raised the
remaining part of the thirty thousand, by pawning the orders to a
banker. The committee proceeded to make further progress in their
scrutiny, and had almost prepared a third report, when they were
interrupted by the prorogation of parliament.

The ministry finding it was necessary to take some step for conciliating
the affection of the people, gave way to a bill for excluding certain
officers from scats in the house of commons. They passed another for
encouraging the linen manufacture; a third for regulating the trade of
the plantations; and a fourth to prevent the marriage of lunatics.
They voted forty thousand seamen, and sixty-two thousand five hundred
landmen, for the service of the current year. They provided for the
subsidies to Denmark and Hesse-Cassel, and voted five hundred thousand
pounds to the queen of Hungary. The expense of the year amounted to near
six millions, raised by the land-tax at four shillings in the pound, by
the malt-tax, by one million from the sinking-fund, by annuities granted
upon it for eight hundred thousand pounds, and a loan of one million six
hundred thousand pounds from the bank. In the month of July, John lord
Gower was appointed keeper of his majesty's privy-seal; Allen lord
Bathurst was made captain of the band of pensioners; and on the
fifteenth day of the month, Mr. Pulteney took his seat in the house
of peers as earl of Bath. The king closed the session in the usual
way, after having given them to understand, that a treaty of p