Note 372 — Chapter XVI · ON THE STATE OF THE CONSTITUTION IN THE REIGNS OF ANNE, GEORGE I., AND GEORGE II. (continued 2)

By the act of 6 Anne, c. 7, all persons holding pensions from the Crown during pleasure were made incapable of sitting in the House of Commons; which was extended by 1 Geo. I. c. 56, to those who held them for any term of years. But the difficulty was to ascertain the fact; the government refusing information. Mr. Sandys, accordingly proposed a bill in 1730, by which every member of the Commons was to take an oath that he did not hold any such pension, and that, in case of accepting one, he would disclose it to the house within fourteen days. This was carried by a small majority through the Commons, but rejected in the other house; which happened again in 1734 and in 1740. Parl. Hist. viii. 789; ix. 369; xi. 510. The king, in an angry note to Lord Townshend, on the first occasion, calls it "this villainous bill." Coxe's Walpole, ii. 537, 673. A bill of the same gentleman to limit the number of placemen in the house had so far worse success, that it did not reach the Serbonian bog. Parl. Hist. xi. 328, Bishop Sherlock made a speech against the prevention of corrupt practices by the pension bill, which, whether justly or not, excited much indignation, and even gave rise to the proposal of a bill for putting an end to the translation of bishops. Id. viii. 847.