This, and some few preceding harangues of this extraordinary person, I give merely as a specimen of the rhetoric of a man, who certainly did not govern his country by his oratoric abilities. The reader must excuse me, if for the future I omit them, unless on very particular occasions; for though I have generally given myself the trouble to minute them down at the delivery, it were too impertinent to commit them to history. And I must beg so much indulgence, as when argument, or connexion, or grammar is observably wanting, that it may be remarked that at least in all other speeches I have taken care to write true English: in those of the Duke of Newcastle, the original has been faithfully copied.
Lord Sandwich then, with most ungraceful delivery, which yet was as powerful as the matter of his speech, lamented his misfortune of differing with his friend the Duke of Bedford, which he must do, though he found the reasons preponderate very little on the side of the Treaty, and though he agreed with his Grace in near half he had said: that he considered how little regard was paid to economy, and that nobody was less prepossessed in favour of the Ministry, whom he should gladly oppose, but where the exigencies of the public required his concurrence. That he knew their sentiments were to silence opposition at any rate; that influenced by that motive, they had last year reduced the Navy: however, he must own that the event had justified the reduction; that he should not concur now, if he did not hope that granting this subsidy would stop greater profusion. And, that the public might at least have this security even from the badness of the present Ministers, that they will even wave their own bad purposes, rather than hear disagreeable truths; which, for his part, he should always be ready to utter, though he did not approve being actuated by private connexions in public affairs.
The secret of this speech was, that the Duke of Bedford having acquainted Lord Sandwich with his intention of opposing the Treaty, and having desired him to consult the Duke, the latter had approved the opposition, but would not openly concur, for fear of offending the King; and as Lord Sandwich was the known creature of the Duke, it was thought proper that he should act this middle part, of voting for the Treaty, and censuring the Pelhams. The Duke went so far as to tell the King, that the Duke of Bedford spoke just better than the Duke of Newcastle, but that Lord Sandwich alone shone. The truth was, Lord Sandwich ruined his little remains of character for abilities; the Duke of Bedford was seen in a new light. The method with which he went through the Treaty, the great variety of matter of which through the whole Debate he showed himself master, and the coolness with which he mastered his own temper too, made him considered as a very formidable and able speaker.