attack upon the Prime-minister. In the House of Lords, Lord Carteret
was especially unsparing, and was brilliantly supported by Lord
Chesterfield. In the House of Commons, Samuel Sandys, a clever and
respectable country gentleman from Worcestershire, made himself quite a
sort of renown by his motions against Walpole. On Friday, February 13,
1741, a motion was made in each of the Houses of Parliament calling on
the King "to remove the Right Honorable Sir Robert Walpole, Knight of
the most noble Order of the Garter, First Commissioner for executing
the office of Treasurer of the Exchequer, Chancellor and
Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer, and one of his Majesty's most
honorable Privy Council, from his Majesty's presence and councils
forever." In the House of Lords the motion was made by Lord Carteret;
in the House of Commons by Mr. Sandys, who was nicknamed "the
motion-maker." The motion was lost by a large majority in the House of
Lords; and in the House of Commons there were only 106 for it, while
there were 290 against it. This was a victory; but it did not deceive
Walpole. There would soon be a new Parliament, and Walpole knew very
well that the country was already growing sick of the unmeaning war,
and that he was held {186} responsible alike for the war policy which
he had so long opposed, and the many little disasters of the war with
which he had nothing to do. In Walpole's utter emergency he actually
authorized a friend to apply for him to James Stuart at Rome, in the
hope of inducing James to obtain for him the support of some of the
Jacobites at the coming elections. What he could possibly have thought
he could promise James in return for the solicited support it is hard,
indeed, to imagine; for no one can question the sincerity of Walpole's
attachment to the reigning House. Perhaps if James had consented to go
into the negotiations Walpole might have made some pledges about the
English Catholics. Nothing came of it, however. James did not seem to
take to the suggestion, and Walpole was left to do the best he could
without any helping hand from Rome. Lord Stanhope thinks it not
unlikely that King George was fully aware of this curious attempt to
get James Stuart to bring his influence to bear on the side of Walpole.
The elections were fought out with unusual vehemence of partisanship,
even for those days, and the air was thick with caricatures of Walpole
and lampoons on his policy and his personal ch