been, this session of parliament, committed a prisoner to the Tower, and expelled this House for a breach of trust in the execution of his office, and notorious corruption, when secretary at war, was and is incapable of being elected a member to serve in this present parliament[1]." Now, Sir, to my understanding, no proposition of this kind can be more evident, than that the house of commons, by this very vote, themselves understood, and meant to declare, that Mr. Walpole's incapacity arose from the crimes he had committed, not from the punishment the House annexed to them. The high breach of trust, the notorious corruption, are stated in the strongest terms. They do not tell us that he was incapable because he was expelled, but because he had been guilty of such offences as justly rendered him unworthy of a seat in
- ↑ It is well worth remarking, that the compiler of a certain quarto, called, The Case of the last Election for the County of Middlesex considered, has the impudence to recite this very vote in the following terms, vide page 11, "Resolved, that Robert Walpole, Esq. having been this session of parliament expelled the House, was, and is, incapable of being elected a member to serve in the present parliament." There cannot be a stronger positive proof of the treachery of the compiler, nor a stronger presumptive proof, that he was convinced that the vote, if duly recited, would overturn his whole argument.
