218 
austrious and well informed—And 
as he had shewn himself on many 
occasions a bitter and powerful 
enemy; so, from his friendship, 
(were his efforts on the side of go- 
yernment at all proportioned to his 
zeal when hitherto opposed to it) 
much valuable assistance might he 
expected by the minister, Of Mr. 
Hobhouse, it need only to be re- 
marked, that with many, it seemed 
merit to have converted to the sup- 
port of government, on any terms, 
one of those, who had hitherto in 
his public conduct, on all occasi- 
ons, appeared as its most active 
and implacable opponent. 
But however important this re- 
crult (and important to a certain 
degree it might have proven) in the 
lower house of parliament; in that 
of the lords, where the weakness of 
government was eminently conspi- 
cuous, some stand it was necessary 
to make against the individuals of 
that order, who, almost without 
exception, included in their oppo- 
sition to Mr. Addington and _ his 
measures, whatever of rank, weight 
in the country, (arising either from 
birth or fortune) or of talent, were 
to be found in that assembly. In 
yain were impression and convic- 
tion expected by ministers to be 
produced by the legal sophistry or 
imperious dicta of the lord chancel- 
lor and the lord chief justice of the 
king’s Bench in defence of their 
measures. In vain did the lords 
Pelham, Hobart, and Westmore- 
land, aided occasionally by the fi- 
nancial experience of lord Auk- 
land, expend themselves in mea- 
sured, florid, and official harangues: 
the brilliancy and imagination of 
lord Moira; the experience and 
weight of character of earls Fitz- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1803. 
william, Carlisle, Porchester, Carys- 
fort, and Radnor; and the solid and 
perspicuous eloquence of earl Spen- 
cer and Jord Minto, reduced them 
to absolute insignificance. Or if 
their whole strength were put forth 
on any signal occasion, and even 
when combating with the mighty aid 
of popular prejudice on their side, 
the single opposition of lord Gren- 
ville in some splendid exertion of his 
his oratorical powers, at once com- 
manding the assent of all who heard 
him, and the conviction of those 
who were not so fortunate, like the 
day-spring gaining on the shades of 
night, chased away or dissipated 
their arguments into nothingness or, 
merited oblivion. ; 
In order therefore to establish 
some sort of equipose in the upper 
house of parliament, the calling up 
thither of lord Hawkesbury was re- 
sorted to, as the only remedy within 
the reach of administration. The 
minister doubtless was assured to 
find in the abilities of his new asso- 
ciates, an adequate substitution for 
the powers of the former in the 
house of commons. Some other 
changes also took place about the 
same period in the government, 
which, at the moment that they 
evinced its unsteadines, marked also 
its feebleness in a striking degree. 
Lord Pelham, a nobleman who 
was more distinguished for his cha-~ 
racter of integrity and uprightness 
of principle, than his talents, 
resigned the situation of one of the 
principal secretaries of state, and 
was succeeded by Mr. C. Yorke, 
late secretary at war: the place of 
the latter was filled up by Mr, 
Bragge, the member for ‘Bristol, 
who had already resigned one situ- 
ation to make room for Mr. Tierney ; 
and 
