Commons 1715-1754

The Parliament of 1747 was far more settled then its predecessor, with much less acrimony between government and opposition. The comparative quiet of proceedings in the 1751 session was remarked on by Henry Fox who said that ‘a bird might build her nest in the Speaker’s chair, or in his peruke’, and never be disturbed. Many historians agree that these years of Henry Pelham’s administration were similar to the halcyon days Walpolian stability.

The 1741 election practically annihilated what remained of Sir Robert Walpole’s majority in the Commons. On 2 February 1742 he resigned from the government, thereby ending his unbroken 20-year tenure as ‘prime minister’. The establishment of a stable new ministry in the midst of Britain’s involvement in a European war, proved a long and torturous process. The ‘old corps’ Whigs, who had served and supported Walpole, remained numerically superior in the ministry and in Parliament.

When Parliament reassembled in January 1735 the political atmosphere was decidedly more confrontational than it had been in 1728. The excise crisis had given the opposition a taste of real success. Sir Robert Walpole was no longer the invincible minister he once appeared to be, and for the future he would find himself increasingly on the defensive in the Commons.

The general election which was held during August and September 1727 had been unexpected, being brought about by the sudden death of George I. The timing of the election caught William Pulteney off guard and demolished his plans to confront Robert Walpole with a strong opposition in the constituencies in the election anticipated for 1729. His next opportunity would not now be until 1734.

The process of consolidating the Whig regime continued into this Parliament. The elections held in March 1722 saw further Tory losses and more Whig gains, giving the Whigs an even greater overall majority than in 1715. However, ongoing rivalries among the senior Whig politicians ensured that the king’s ministry would not be a united body. Robert Walpole retained his position as first lord of the treasury, though largely in recognition of his value as a finance minister.

The highly eventful Parliament of 1715 was dominated by the political struggles occasioned by the transition to the new royal dynasty, the House of Hanover, following the death of Queen Anne on 1 August 1714. The new parliament should have run a three-year course to 1718, but the passage of the Septennial Act in 1716 extended its life, and that of each succeeding parliament, from three years to seven. The law was not to be changed again until the Parliament Act of 1911 which shortened the period between general elections from seven to five years.