[Horace Walpole characterises his epoch by the words — “It was the mode of the times to be paid by one favour for receiving another.”[29] At all events, it will be seen from
the text, that such was the mode of Russia in transacting business with England. The Earl of Sandwich, to whom Sir George Macartney could dare to address the above dispatch, distinguished himself, ten years later, in 1775, as First Lord of the Admiralty, in the North Administration, by the vehement opposition he made to Lord Chatharn’s motion for an equitable adjustment of the American difficulties. “He could not believe it (Chatham’s motion