DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6915#0031
MEMOtRS OF JOHN DUNNING, LORD ASHBURTON.
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further motions; his labours and assiduities were already determined. He
moved that the committee might be adjourned, and kept open for a few days ;
but his intention was only to give other gentlemen an opportunity of conveying
their sentiments through that medium to the House. In fact, this defeat of
opposition concluded the discussion. A motion by Serjeant Adair, for with-
holding the grant of further supplies, till the grievances of the people were
redressed, was negatived without a debate ; and when Mr. Dunning moved to
receive the report of the committee on the 10th of April, the question for the
chairman's quitting the chair was carried hy a majority of forty-three.
Such was the termination of this famous contest, which, considering the
means used to interest the people at large, the strenuous exertions of opposition,
the alarming tendency of the resolutions past on the 6th and 10th of April, and
the menacing aspect of the times, may be safely pronounced one of the most
critical struggles which the constitution had sustained since the Revolution.
The extreme irritation which marked the proceedings of this session was
allayed by that alarming explosion of popular fury, the riots in June; a consi-
derable portion of good-humour was restored by some temporary successes in
America; and the minister found it perfectly safe to dissolve the parliament in
the autumn.
Mr. Dunning was again returned for Calne, and it may be proper in this
interval to mention the unrivalled consideration in which he was held. At the
Bar, he was beyond competition the first in practice and estimation, and his
popularity was at least equal, but perhaps in a general view superior, to that
of any member of opposition. It were endless to cite the numerous acknow-
ledgments on this head which are scattered in contemporary speeches and
writings ; but the judgments of Dr. Johnson, Mr. Gibbon, and Mr. Burke, must
be allowed to have irresistible weight.
The opinion of Dr. Johnson is disclosed in an anecdote by Mr. Bos well. " I
told Dr. Johnson," he says, " that I had talked of him to Mr. Dunning a few
days before, and had said, that in his company we did not so much interchange
conversation as listen to him ; and that Dunning observed upon this, " One is
always willing to listen to Dr. Johnson :" to which I answered, " That is a
great deal from you, Sir."—" Yes, Sir, (said Johnson) a great deal indeed.
19
further motions; his labours and assiduities were already determined. He
moved that the committee might be adjourned, and kept open for a few days ;
but his intention was only to give other gentlemen an opportunity of conveying
their sentiments through that medium to the House. In fact, this defeat of
opposition concluded the discussion. A motion by Serjeant Adair, for with-
holding the grant of further supplies, till the grievances of the people were
redressed, was negatived without a debate ; and when Mr. Dunning moved to
receive the report of the committee on the 10th of April, the question for the
chairman's quitting the chair was carried hy a majority of forty-three.
Such was the termination of this famous contest, which, considering the
means used to interest the people at large, the strenuous exertions of opposition,
the alarming tendency of the resolutions past on the 6th and 10th of April, and
the menacing aspect of the times, may be safely pronounced one of the most
critical struggles which the constitution had sustained since the Revolution.
The extreme irritation which marked the proceedings of this session was
allayed by that alarming explosion of popular fury, the riots in June; a consi-
derable portion of good-humour was restored by some temporary successes in
America; and the minister found it perfectly safe to dissolve the parliament in
the autumn.
Mr. Dunning was again returned for Calne, and it may be proper in this
interval to mention the unrivalled consideration in which he was held. At the
Bar, he was beyond competition the first in practice and estimation, and his
popularity was at least equal, but perhaps in a general view superior, to that
of any member of opposition. It were endless to cite the numerous acknow-
ledgments on this head which are scattered in contemporary speeches and
writings ; but the judgments of Dr. Johnson, Mr. Gibbon, and Mr. Burke, must
be allowed to have irresistible weight.
The opinion of Dr. Johnson is disclosed in an anecdote by Mr. Bos well. " I
told Dr. Johnson," he says, " that I had talked of him to Mr. Dunning a few
days before, and had said, that in his company we did not so much interchange
conversation as listen to him ; and that Dunning observed upon this, " One is
always willing to listen to Dr. Johnson :" to which I answered, " That is a
great deal from you, Sir."—" Yes, Sir, (said Johnson) a great deal indeed.