ABSTRACT
Mr Pelham, who succeeded, was one of the elevesa of sir Robert Walpole. He inherited his skill in parliamentary management, and was competently versed in the business of finance. But his abilities were in no degree equal to the conduct of a war. In some respects, however, he was directly the reverse of his master. The manners of Walpole were blunt and undisguised; and, as he was a stranger to the sentiments, so he was not studious to employ the language of virtue, but where it was indispensibly necessary. During the whole period, from the resignation of lord Carteret, he appears to have preserved a total silence in parliament, respecting national questions, with a single exception. At length however, at the time, in which ministers had chosen to accept the terms, that were held out to them, an accidental circumstance tended to revive, in some degree, the ardour of parliamentary debate.
