To do so would be felt by every member of experience to be an infringement on the prerogative of his sovereign; and it may be added that a contrary practice would certainly open the door to intrigue, or, what would be equally bad, a suspicion of intrigue, and would thus inevitably diminish the weight which even the Opposition desire to see a Prime-minister possess both in Parliament and in the country.
Notes: [Footnote 148: It is somewhat remarkable that Lord Macaulay, in his endeavors to estimate the population in 1685, takes no notice of any of these details mentioned by Mr.Abbott.] [Footnote 149: The details of this census of 1801 are given in a note in the preceding chapter (see page 185), from which it appears that the entire population of the United Kingdom was in that year 16,395,870.

Sir A.Alison, in different chapters of the second part of his "History of Europe," gives returns of subsequent censuses, from the last of which (c.lvi., s.

34, note), it appears that in 1851 the population amounted to 27,511,862.

an increase of 11,116,792 in half a century.] [Footnote 150: "Lives of the Chief-justices," by Lord Campbell, iii., 87, life of Lord Kenyon.] [Footnote 151: "What is this," said George III.

to Mr.Dundas, "which this young lord (Castlereagh) has brought over, which they are going to throw at my head?
The most Jacobinical thing I ever heard of! I shall reckon any man my personal enemy who proposes any such measure."-- _Life of Pitt_, iii., 274.] [Footnote 152: "Lives of the Chancellors," c.clxxxiv., life of Lord Erskine.] [Footnote 153: "Lives of the Chancellors," c.clix., life of Lord Thurlow.] [Footnote 154: See "Memoires de M.de Metternich," ii., 156.] [Footnote 155: "Lives of the Chief-justices," iii., 175.] [Footnote 156: Lord Stanhope, "History of England," i., 133.] [Footnote 157: "Lives of the Chief-justices," ii., 451.