ABSTRACT
On 13 August 1723 Grafton found himself once more in Dublin, manoeuvring among local cliques, selecting and drawing together those men who he thought would be most use to him when the parliamentary session began. If anybody imagined that the government’s mistakes could not be compounded, Grafton soon proved him wrong. But certain features of British politics in Dublin, London, and Hanover aggravated the effects of the Duke’s autonomous bungling. The most insidious of these elements was an intrigue reaching from Hanover to Ireland, which we must quickly review.
