0. The Ministers
found that, on this occasion, neither their honest nor their dishonest
supporters could be trusted. For, in the minds of the most respectable
men, the prejudice against standing armies was of too long growth and
too deep root to be at once removed; and those means by which the Court
might, at another time, have secured the help of venal politicians
were, at that moment, of less avail than usual. The Triennial Act was
beginning to produce its effects. A general election was at hand. Every
member who had constituents was desirous to please them; and it was
certain that no member would please his constituents by voting for a
standing army; and the resolution moved by Harvey was strongly supported
by Howe, was carried, was reported to the House on the following day,
and, after a debate in which several orators made a great display of
their knowledge of ancient and modern history, was confirmed by one
hundred and eighty-five votes to one hundred and forty-eight. [5]

In this debate the fear and hatred with which many of the best friends
of the Government regarded Sunderland were unequivocally manifested. "It
is easy," such was the language of several members, "it is easy to
guess by whom that unhappy sentence was inserted in the speech from the
Throne. No person well acquainted with the disastrous and disgraceful
history of the last two reigns can doubt who the minister is, who is now
whispering evil counsel in the ear of a third master." The Chamberlain,
thus fiercely attacked, was very feebly defended. There was indeed in
the House of Commons a small knot of his creatures; and they were men
not destitute of a certain kind of ability; but their moral character
was as bad as his. One of them was the late Secretary of the Treasury,
Guy, who had been turned out of his place for corruption. Another was
the late Speaker, Trevor, who had, from the chair, put the question
whether he was or was not a rogue, and had been forced to pronounce
that the Ayes had it. A third was Charles Duncombe, long the greatest
goldsmith of Lombard Street, and now one of the greatest landowners of
the North Riding of Yorkshire. Possessed of a private fortune equal to
that of any duke, he had not thought it beneath him to accept the place
of Cashier of the Excise, and had perfectly understood how to make
that place lucrative; but he had recently been ejected from office by
Montague, who thought, with good reason, that he was not a man t