Chesterfield, Scarbrough, and the Excise Bill

A previously unpublished history of the Excise Crisis, written by Lord Chesterfield in 1761 and kept among his ‘loose papers’ after his death, provides an intriguing view of how members of the house of lords exerted influence on the Court – if not on the first minister – during this tumultuous period in 1733. Chesterfield recounts how the earl of Scarbrough, his closest friend, appealed to Queen Caroline to abandon the proposed Bill, which would have enriched the civil list and thereby increased support for the royal household. Scarbrough informed the queen that the soldiers in his regiment would not fire upon their fellow subjects, and that he would not lead them into such an action. Sir Robert Walpole dropped his scheme the next day. Chesterfield concludes his narrative by speculating about the queen's attitude towards her subjects, and by confessing that he was wrong to have opposed Walpole's scheme almost three decades earlier

Excise · Political science · Law