were instructed to say merely that the Upper House had no right
to alter a money bill; that the point had long been settled and
was too clear for argument; that they should leave the bill with
the Lords, and that they should leave with the Lords also the
responsibility of stopping the supplies which were necessary for
the public service. Several votes of menacing sound were passed
at the same sitting. It was Monday the eighth of April. Tuesday
the ninth was allowed to the other House for reflection and
repentance. It was resolved that on the Wednesday morning the
question of the Irish forfeitures should again be taken into
consideration, and that every member who was in town should be
then in his place on peril of the highest displeasure of the
House. It was moved and carried that every Privy Councillor who
had been concerned in procuring or passing any exorbitant grant
for his own benefit had been guilty of a high crime and
misdemeanour. Lest the courtiers should flatter themselves that
this was meant to be a mere abstract proposition, it was ordered
that a list of the members of the Privy Council should be laid on
the table. As it was thought not improbable that the crisis might
end in an appeal to the constituent bodies, nothing was omitted
which could excite out of doors a feeling in favour of the bill.
The Speaker was directed to print and publish the report signed
by the four Commissioners, not accompanied, as in common justice
it ought to have been, by the protest of the three dissentients,
but accompanied by several extracts from the journals which were
thought likely to produce an impression favourable to the House
and unfavourable to the Court. All these resolutions passed
without any division, and without, as far as appears, any debate.
There was, indeed, much speaking, but all on one side. Seymour,
Harley, Howe, Harcourt, Shower, Musgrave, declaimed, one after