The next struggle was on the 28th of Jan., on
the Chippenham election, when the minister was defeated by one, and
his friends advised him to resign; but it was not till after the 3rd
of Feb., when the majority against him upon the renewal of the last
question had increased to sixteen, that he intimated his intention
to retire. These facts, coupled with the inferences drawn by your
correspondent P.C.S.S. as to the suspicious style of the letter, and
the imprudence of such a communication, go far to prove that it was
a forgery: but the passage in _Walpole's Reminiscences_, vol. i. p.
cviii. ed. 1840, with which I will now conclude my remarks, seems to
set the question at rest:--
"Sir Robert, before he quitted the king, persuaded his Majesty
to insist, as a preliminary to the change, that Mr. Pulteney
should go into the House of Lords, his great credit lying in
the other House: and _I remember my father's action when he
returned from Court, and told me what he had done; 'I have
turned the key of the closet upon him,' making that motion
with his hand_.
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