Note 45 — Chapter VII

Sir Robert Walpole had brought in a Bill on general excise, but so virulent was the opposition made to it by his enemies, that, though he carried it, he had been in danger of his life, and was persuaded by his friends, against his own opinion, to drop it. Almost all his chief opponents lived to recant their opposition to that plan, as Mr. Pitt did on this occasion; which was the handsomer, as he had lost his cornetcy of horse, and his uncle Lord Cobham his regiment, for their opposition on that occasion.