to submit to be only a coadjutor of the administration.  The younger Craggs, (86) a showy vapouring man, had been brought forward by the ministers to oppose Walpole; but was soon reduced to beg his assistance on one (87) of their ways and means.  Craggs caught his death by calling at the gate of Lady March, (88) who was ill of the small-pox; and being told so by the porter, went home directly, fell ill of the same distemper, and died.  His father, the elder Craggs, whose very good sense Sir R. Walpole much admired, soon followed his son, and his sudden death was imputed to grief; but having been deeply dipped in the iniquities of the South Sea, and wishing to prevent confiscation and save his ill-acquired wealth for his daughters, there was no doubt of his having despatched himself.  When his death was divulged, Sir Robert Owned that the unhappy man had in an oblique manner hinted his resolution to him.  The reconciliation of the royal family was so little cordial, that I question whether the Prince did not resent Sir Robert Walpole’s return to the King’s service.  Yet had Walpole defeated a plan of Sunderland that @would in future have exceedingly hampered the successor, as it was calculated to do; nor do I affect to ascribe Sir Robert’s victory directly to zeal for the Prince:  personal and just views prompted his opposition, and the commoners of England were not less indebted to him than the Prince.  Sunderland had devised a bill to restrain the crown from ever adding above six peers to a number limited., (89) The actual peers were far from disliking the measure; but Walpole, taking fire, instantly communicated his dissatisfaction to all the great commoners, who might for ever be excluded from the peerage.  He spoke, he wrote, (90) he persuaded, and the bill was rejected by the Commons with disdain, after it had passed the House of Lords. (91)

But the hatred of some of the junta at court had gone farther, horribly farther.  On the death of George 1.  Queen Caroline found in his cabinet a proposal of the Earl of Berkeley, (92) then, I think, first lord of the admiralty, to seize the Prince of Wales, and convey him to America, whence he should never be heard of more.  This detestable project copied probably from the Earl of Falmouth’s offer to Charles ii. with regard to his Queen, was in the handwriting of Charles Stanhope, elder brother of the Earl of Harrington:  (93) and so deep was the impression deservedly made on the mind of George ii. by that abominable paper, that all the favour of Lord Harrington, when secretary of state, could never obtain the smallest boon to his brother, though but the subordinate transcriber. (94) George I. was too humane to listen to such an atrocious deed.  It was not very kind to the conspirators to leave such an instrument behind him; and if virtue and conscience will not check bold bad men from paying court by detestable offers, the King’s carelessness or indifference in such an instance ought to warn them of the little gratitude that such machinations can inspire or expect.