1751-1754 66 days should be dropped out of the calendar, in order to make the reckoning correct. Large numbers of people fancied that they were cheated out of eleven days' pay, and mobs went about, shouting, Give us our eleven days." The timid Newcastle told Chesterfield that he hated new-fangled things-that he had better not meddle with matters so long established. The witty earl was wiser. He made a speech of which he has given a most ingenuous account in a letter to his son: "I consulted the ablest lawyers and the most skillful astronomers, and we cooked up a bill for the purpose. But then my difficulty began. I was to bring in this bill, which was necessarily composed of law-jargon and astronomical calculations, to both of which I am an utter stranger. However, it was absolutely necessary to make the House of Lords think that I knew something of the matter; and also make them believe that they knew something of it themselves, which they do not. For my own part, I could just as soon have talked Celtic or Slavonian to them. as astronomy, and they would have understood me full as well; so I resolved to do better than speak to the purpose, and to please instead of informing them." The peers were amused at Chesterfield. In 1751 an event occurred which, for some time, disturbed all the calculations of the scheming politicians of this intriguing age. Frederick, Prince of Wales, died after a short illness on the 20th of March. Leicester House, his town abode, had long been the central point of opposition to the Government. We have seen how far the unhappy estrangement of the prince from his parents was carried before the death of Queen Caroline. Years had passed over, and yet the animosities between the reigning king and the heir-apparent were never subdued. In 1751 George II., although a hale man, was in his sixty-eighth year. The worshipers of the rising sun grew bolder in their devotion. Bubb Doddington, the Treasurer of the Navy, resigned his office in March, 1749, having received a message from the prince that the principal direction of his royal highness' affairs should be put in the skillful intriguer's hands. He saw the prince at Kew, and was told that "what he could not do for me in his present situation must be made up to me in futurity." The prince further said "that he thought a peerage, with the management of the House of Lords, and the seals of Secretary of State for the southern provinces, would be the proper station for me, if I approved of it." Such was the mode 1754 in which England was to be governed by favoritism, had she endured the misfortune of a King Frederick I. In 1754 Henry Pelham died. The new constitutional doctrine that England was governed by the Cabinet, and that the Cabinet could retain office irrespective of the king's good will if it could secure the support of Parliament, was now fully established. The king may dismiss his ministry, however, and appeal to Parliament, and even to the country, but the proceeding has become hazardous and is not attempted. The Prime Minister selects from the chief officers of the Government, whose names he submits to the crown, those whom he will have in his cabinet, and he is not restricted as to their number nor their division between the two Houses of Parliament, except that prescription has fixed the number at not less than eleven-First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chancellor, Lord President of the Council, Lord Privy Seal, Chancellor of the Exchequer, First Lord of the Admiralty and the five Secretaries of State. This body is the responsible Government of the United Kingdom, and stands or falls together. Its meetings are secret, no records of its proceedings are kept, it is dishonorable to divulge its deliberations, each member is bound by its decisions. or must resign his office in the ministry, and in practice he is a member of Parliament. I REIGN OF GEORGE II., A.D. 1727-1760-NEWCASTLE PRIME MINISTER, FORMATION OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY, 1600-DEATH OF Aurungzebe, N religion as well as politics everything savoring of enthusiasm had long been scouted, and in polite society little of moral earnestness was to be found. There had, indeed, been much discussion as to the truth of Christianity, and for a long time there was a steady growth of opinion in favor of deism. Latterly, however, there had been a strong reaction in favor of Christian doctrines. Their noblest advocate, Butler, whose " Analogy" was published in 1736, writing as he did for educated men, appealed to the reason rather than to the heart. The task of moving the masses fell into the hands of John Wesley, who had in his youth striven to live a pious, beneficent life at Oxford, where he and his followers had been nicknamed Methodists. In 1738 Wesley came to believe that no real Christianity was possible without conversion, or a supernatural conviction of salvation. That which he believed he taught, and his enthusiasm gained him followers, in whom he kindled zeal equal to his own. Wesley was a minister of the Church of England, and in that Church he wished to abide; but the clergy counted him as a madman, and in 1739 he was obliged to gather his followers elsewhere than in churches. Whitefield, a born orator whose views were very similar to those of Wesley, preferred to preach in the open air. He stirred the hearts of immense crowds, as many as twenty thousand sometimes coming to hear him. At |