petition was presented to the House of Lords by the Duke of
Bedford. Lord Carteret moved that the petitioners should be heard by
themselves, and, if they should desire it, by counsel. It was agreed,
after some debate, that the petitioners should be heard by themselves
in the first instance, and that if afterwards they desired to be heard
by counsel their request should be taken into consideration. Lord
Chesterfield in the course of the debate contrived ingeniously to give
a keen stroke to the convention while declaring that he did not presume
as yet to form any opinion on it, or to anticipate any discussion on
its merits. "I cannot help," he said, "saying, however, that to me it
is a most unfavorable symptom of its being for the good of the nation
when I see so strong an opposition made to it out-of-doors by those who
are the most immediately concerned in its effects."

A debate of great interest, animation, and importance took place in the
House of Lords when the convention was laid before that assembly. The
Earl of Cholmondeley moved that an address be presented to the King to
thank him for having concluded the convention. The address was drawn
up by a very dexterous hand, a master-hand. Its terms were such as
might have conciliated the leaders of the Opposition, if indeed these
were to be conciliated by anything short of Walpole's resignation, for,
while the address approved of all that had been done thus far, it
cleverly assumed that all this was but the preliminary to a real
settlement; and by ingenuously expressing the entire reliance of the
House on the King's taking care that proper provision should be made
for the redress of various {165} specified grievances, it succeeded in
making it quite clear that in the opinion of the House such provision
had not yet been made. The address concluded most significantly with
an assurance to the King that "in case your Majesty's just expectations
shall not be answered, this House will heartily and zealously concur in
all such measures as shall be necessary to vindicate your Majesty's
honor, and to preserve to your subjects the full enjoyment of all those
rights to which they are entitled by treaty and the Law of Nations."
An address of this kind would seem one that might well have been moved
as an amendment to a ministerial address, and understood to be
obliquely a vote of censure on the advisers of the Crown. It seems the
sort of address that Carteret might have mov