THE Parliamentary History OF ENGLAND, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE YEAR 1803. FROM WHICH LAST-MENTIONED EPOCH IT IS CONTINUED DOWNWARDS IN THE WORK ENTITLED, VOL. XI. A. D. 1739-1741. LONDON: PRINTED BY T. C. HANSARD, PETERBOROUGH-COURT, FLEET-STREET: FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, & BROWN; J. RICHARDSON; BLACK, 1812. PREFACE. THE present Volume includes the Period from the 15th of November 1739, to the 24th of February 1741. The Materials from which it has been compiled are those stated in the Preface to the preceding Volume. It contains many important Debates not to be found in the Collections of Chandler or Timberland; and that no doubt may exist with regard to the sources from which they have been drawn, the Editor has given, at the beginning of each Debate, the title of the Work from which it is taken. The Debates compiled by Dr. Johnson for the Gentleman's Magazine, will all be preserved in this Collection. They began on the 19th of November 1740, and ended on the 23rd of February 1743. Great doubts have arisen with regard to their authenticity; but upon a comparison of any one of the Debates in the House of Lords-the Debate, for instance, on the Duke of Argyle's Motion upon the 9th of December 1740 respecting the State of the Army, or that on the 13th of February 1741 upon Lord Carteret's Motion for the Removal of Sir Robert Walpole-with the valuable Manuscript Reports of Archbishop Secker, then Bishop of Oxford, it will be seen, as was observed in a former Preface, how little credit is to be given to Sir John Hawkins's assertion, "that they were not authentic, but, except |