chap XXIII.} 1766. Feb. |
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Gilmore and George Dempster; Lord George Sack
ville, whom this ministry had restored, and brought into office; Oswald, Sackville's colleague as vicetrea-surer for Ireland; Barrington, the paymaster of the navy, were all known to be in the opposition.
The lobbies1 were crammed with upwards of three hundred men, representing the trading interests of the nation, trembling and anxious, and waiting almost till the winter morning's return of light, to learn their fate from the resolution of the house.
Presently it was announced that two hundred and seventy five had voted for the repeal of the act, against one hundred and sixty-seven for softening and enforcing it. The roof of St. Stephens rung with the loud shouts and long cheering of the victorious majority.
When the doors were thrown open, and Conway went forth, there was an involuntary burst of gratitude from the grave multitude, which beset the avenues; they stopped him; they gathered round him as children round a parent, as captives round a deliverer.
The pure-minded man enjoyed the triumph, and while they thanked him, Edmund Burke, who stood near him, declares, that ‘his face was as if it had been the face of an angel.’
As Grenville moved along, swelling with rage and mortification, they pressed on him with hisses.2 But when Pitt appeared, the whole crowd reverently pulled off their hats; and the applauding joy uttered around him, touched him with tender and lively delight.
Many followed his chair home with benedictions.
2 Walpole, II. 299, is the authority. The ‘indignities’ are again referred to, ibid, 300; and at 306 Grenville is reported as saying in the House of Commons, ‘I rejoice in the hiss.’ Walpole is not to be implicitly relied upon; but such exact references to what passed publicly, and to what was said in the House of Commons, seem worthy of credit.
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