A non-resisting, passively obedient revolution: Lord North and Grey and the tory response to the Sacheverell impeachment

This article is a notes and comments-style edition of two documents written by William North, Baron North and Grey, during the Sacheverell impeachment. The first of these was a response to arguments made by the Commons' managers before the Lords, the second was North and Grey's notes for his own speech in defence of Sacheverell. It is argued that together these encapsulate a strong tory's view of the impeachment and the revolution of 1688. Given the subsequently jacobite trajectory of North and Grey's career, it is suggested that these documents also offer an insight into the tory mentalité at the point when the first tory party was on the eve of its greatest political and electoral triumphs and before it turned against the Hanoverian dynasty. © 2012 The Parliamentary History Yearbook Trust.