r." Many of his friends implored him to give up the hopeless
and thankless task. Walpole still clung to office; still tried new
stratagems; planned new combinations; racked {189} his brain for new
devices. He actually succeeded in inducing the King to have an offer
made to the Prince of Wales of an addition of fifty thousand pounds a
year to his income, provided that Frederick would desist from
opposition to the measures of the Government. The answer was what
every one--every one, surely, but Walpole, must have expected. The
prince professed any amount of duty to his father, but as regards
Walpole he was implacable. He would listen to no terms of compromise
while the great enemy of himself and of his party remained in office.

[Sidenote: 1742--"The thanes fly from me!"]

The Duke of Newcastle had notoriously turned traitor to Walpole. Lord
Wilmington, whose "evaporation" as Sir Spencer Compton marked Walpole's
first great success under George the Second, was approached by some of
Walpole's enemies, and besought to employ his influence with the King
to get Walpole dismissed. It is said that even Lord Hervey now began
to hold aloof from him. It was only a mere question of time and the
hour. Walpole's enemies were already going about proclaiming their
determination not to be satisfied with merely turning him out of
office; he must be impeached and brought to condign punishment.
Walpole's friends--those of them who were left--made this another
reason for imploring him to resign. They pleaded that by a timely
resignation he might at least save himself from the peril of an
impeachment. Walpole showed a determination which had much that was
pitiable and something that was heroic about it. He would not
fly--bear-like, he would fight the course.

The final course soon came. The battle was on a petition from the
defeated candidates for Chippenham, who claimed the seats on the ground
of an undue election and return. Election petitions were then heard
and decided by the House of Commons itself, and not by a committee of
the House, as in more recent days. The decision of the House was
always simply a question of party; and no one had ever insisted more
strongly than Walpole himself that it must be a question of party. The
Government desired the Chippenham petition to succeed. On some
disputed {190} point the Opposition prevailed over the Government by a
majority of one. It is always said that Walpole then at onc