The new parliament opened with the victory of an opposition, which
was fortified by strong clamour and strange coalitions. From the
event of the first divisions, Sir Robert Walpole perceived that he
could no longer lead a majority in the House of Commons, and
prudently resigned (after a dominion of one-and-twenty years) the
guidance of the state (1742). But the fall of an unpopular minister
was not succeeded, according to general expectation, by a millennium
of happiness and virtue: some courtiers lost their places, some
patriots lost their characters, Lord Orford's offences vanished with
his power; and after a short vibration, the Pelham government was
fixed on the old basis of the Whig aristocracy. In the year 1745,
the throne and the constitution were attacked by a rebellion, which
does not reflect much honour on the national spirit; since the
English friends of the Pretender wanted courage to join his
standard, and his enemies (the bulk of the people) allowed him to
advance into the heart of the kingdom. Without daring, perhaps
without desiring, to aid the rebels, my father invariably adhered to
the Tory opposition. In the most critical season he accepted, for
the service of the party, the office of alderman in the city of
London: but the duties were so repugnant to his inclination and
habits, that he resigned his gown at the end of a few months. The
second parliament in which he sat was prematurely dissolved (1747):
and as he was unable or unwilling to maintain a second contest for
Southampton, the life of the senator expired in that dissolution.

The death of a new-born child before that of its parents may seem an
unnatural, but it is strictly a probable, event: since of any given
number the greater part are extinguished before their ninth year,
before they possess the faculties of the mind or body. Without
accusing the profuse waste or imperfect workmanship of Nature, I