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VIII John Robinson's ‘State’ of the House of Commons, July 1780

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2009

Ian R. Christie
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Extract

The ‘State’ of the House of Commons reproduced here from the original in the Royal Archives at Windsor was prepared during July 1780 by John Robinson, secretary to the treasury under Lord North.Its purpose was to forecast the likely results of an immediate general election. This copy was provided for the information of George III, who had been urging the advisability of a dissolution of parliament for some weeks and who was keenly interested in the possibilities of political advantage to be gained from such a step. There is a presumption that Robinson retained another workingcopy in his office at the treasury for the use of himself and Lord North; but if this was indeed the case, it was not preserved among his papers, which are therefore much less informative about the general election of 1780 than they are about the run-up to the dissolution of 1784.

Type
Research Article
Information
Camden Fourth Series , Volume 39: Camden Miscellany XXX , July 1990 , pp. 441 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1990

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References

1. Christie, Ian R., The End of North's Ministry, 1780–1782 (1958), pp. 34–5Google Scholar. For the general context of events see ibid., pp.3–45. I gratefully acknowledge the gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen to publish this document.

2. Ibid., pp.20–21.

3. Extensive transcripts of Robinson's papers were made by B.F. Stevens and were edited by W.T. Laprade, as The Parliamentary Papers of John Robinson, 1774–1784 (Royal Historical Society, Camden 3rd series, vol. xxxiii, 1922)Google Scholar. Documents at pp.31–36 relate to the general election of 1780, mainly to specific matters of detail and with no reference to the ‘State’, and a few others are included in Historical MSS. Commission, Tenth Report, Appendix, part VI, at pp.29–37. All these papers were re-examined in 1951 by the present writer on behalf of the History of Parliament.

4. Christie, op. at. SirNamier, Lewis and Brooke, John, The History of Parliament. The House of Commons, 1754–1790 (3 vols., 1964).Google Scholar

5. Laprade, , Parliamentary Papers of John Robinson, pp.42–8, 65–105Google Scholar. Only the same fragment of the first of these returns exists in fair copy in the Lansdowne MSS. (where Laprade surmised it might be), but with up-dated attributions of political alignments which differ appreciably from those shown in Robinson's own copy.

6. Laprade, , p.42.Google Scholar

7. Christie, , The End of North's Ministry, pp.34–8, 157–163Google Scholar. All Members of Parliament and all successful candidates mentioned in the ‘State’ appear in the History of Parliament, and annotation giving information about them has therefore been considered unnecessary.

8. An error; Martin Fonnereau was now M.P., Thomas having died in 1779.

9. Reynolds did not stand. Thomas Orde and Bacon were the successful ministerial candidates.

10. There was a contest, and Devaynes lost the seat to another government supporter, Francis Basset.

11. Ill health caused Sebright to withdraw, and in the absence of another ministerial candidate, the seat went to the oppositionist, J.J. Pratt.

12. After a canvass Ongley declined and the seat went to Opposition.

13. Delaval's success without a contest secured both seats for Government.

14. Adam's successor, George Philipps, did in fact support Government.

15. Lister's successful machinations deprived Government of one supporter here.

16. Bond's son was elected in Sept. 1780.

17. Robinson was disappointed here. Cholwich declined and the sitting members were re-elected.

18. Palmer's successor, William Pochin, proved hostile to Government.

19. In September 1780 Pennant also was defeated by a ministerial candidate.

20. The election in September 1780 of Admiral Rodney's son on the Compton family interest secured one member for Government.

21. Jolliffe's object was a peerage.

22. Robinson was confused at this point and, inconsistently with all the evidence, inserted the figure 2 in the ‘Con’ column. This error has not been reproduced here.

23. An incorrect forecast. Thrale lost his seat to an opponent of Government.

24. An incorrect forecast. Both seats went to the Opposition.

25. Both seats went to supporters of Opposition.

26. In September 1780 Brown's success brought a gain of one seat to Government.

27. An incorrect forecast. Opposition candidates took both seats.

28. An incorrect forecast. The Grevilles lost one seat to an opposition candidate.

29. As corrected. Owing to arithmetical slips the original document shows these figures thus: THIS P 290 H 19 D 16 C 233, FUTURE P 252 H 47 D 70 C 189.

30. The Correct figures should be 45 and 25, with corresponding changes in the totals. Robinson added incorrectly on the detailed list that follows.

31. A column giving page references to the original manuscript has been omitted.

32. Incorrectly totalled by Robinson: the figure should be 41. But in this abstract he had omitted one seat for Gloucestershire, which makes up the correct total of 47 Hopeful.

33. See note 30.