Pelham now devoted himself to the reduction of the national expenditure, and to the rearrangement of the finances. In the winter of 1749 he successfully carried out an extensive scheme for the reduction of the interest on the national debt to three per cent. (ib. xiv. 619–21). At the end of the following year the question of the Duke of Bedford's resignation caused a violent quarrel between Newcastle and Pelham, which for a time entirely suspended their private intercourse, and nearly broke up the ministry. The dissolution of the Leicester House party consequent on the death of the Prince of Wales (20 March 1751) was on the whole favourable to Pelham; but the discussions on the regency bill which ensued lost him the friendship of the Duke of Cumberland. In April 1751 Pelham expressed a wish to retire and take the sinecure office of auditor of the exchequer, but was dissuaded by the king. In June 1751 Pelham consented to Granville joining the ministry as lord president of the council. A curious account of the negotiations between Pelham and Granville was given to the House of Commons on 20 Feb. 1784, by Lord Nugent, who was the intermediary on that occasion (Parl. Hist. xxiv. 634). In the reform of the calendar which was adopted during this session Pelham cordially concurred (Coxe, Memoirs of the Pelham Administration, ii. 178). In November 1751 he took part in the debate on the land forces for the ensuing year, and drew a distinction between a standing army maintained against law, and one maintained by law (Parl. Hist. xiv. 1118). His resistance to the reduction of the land tax gave rise to the following paraphrase of the well-known epigram on Sir John Vanbrugh:
Lie heavy on him, land, for he
Laid many a heavy tax on thee
(ib. xiv. 1132; Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, 1847, i. 219). Contrary to his own convictions, and in defiance of his previous policy, he was induced by the king in January 1752 to propose the grant of a subsidy to the elector of Saxony. In the same session he continued his financial reforms by carrying a measure for the consolidation and simplification of the national debt (25 Geo. II, cap. 27). With his usual tolerance, he supported a bill for the naturalisation of the Jews, which became law in 1753 (Parl. Hist. xiv. 1412), but was repealed in the following year, with Pelham's consent, owing to the popular clamour against it (ib. xv. 142). He was ‘not unfriendly to the scheme’ of founding the British Museum, but was averse to raising the money by means of a lottery (Edwards, Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, 1870, pt. i. pp. 307–9). Though he supported Lord Hardwicke's bill for preventing clandestine marriages (26 Geo. II, cap. 33), his private opinions on the subject are disputed (Coxe, Memoirs of the Pelham Administration, ii. 267; Walpole, Letters, 1857, ii. 335). Pelham died at Arlington Street, Piccadilly, on 6 March 1754, from an attack of erysipelas, which is said to have been brought on by immoderate eating and want of exercise (ib. ii. 374). He was buried in the Pelham vault in Laughton Church, near Lewes. On hearing the news of his death, the king is said to have exclaimed, ‘Now I shall have no more peace’ (Coxe, Memoirs of the Pelham Administration, ii. 302).
Pelham was a timid and peace-loving politician, without any commanding abilities or much strength of character. He was a good man of business, and both an able and an economical financier. His temper was somewhat peevish, but his manners were conciliatory, and his opinions were tolerant. Though not a brilliant orator, he was an able debater and an excellent parliamentary tactician. His speeches were marked by readiness and common-sense; but the ‘candour and openness of his temper,’ according to Lord Hardwicke in his ‘Parliamentary Journal,’ ‘led him occasionally to depreciate the resources of the country, and to magnify the strength of the rival power’ (Coxe, Memoirs of the Pelham Administration, ii. 105). It is true that he chiefly maintained his influence in parliament by an elaborate system of corruption; but Horace Walpole, who hated him, believed that he ‘would never have wet his finger [in corruption] if Sir Robert Walpole had not dipped up to the elbow; but as he did dip, and as Mr. Pelham was persuaded that it was as necessary for him to be minister as it was for Sir Robert Walpole, he plunged as deep’ (Memoirs of the Reign of George II, i. 234–5). Pelham's private life was respectable, except that he was a ‘professed gamester’ (Glover, Memoirs by a celebrated Literary and Political Character, 1814, p. 48). Even Horace Walpole admits ‘that he lived without abusing his power, and died poor’ (Memoirs of the Reign of George II, i. 371).
A genuine attachment existed between Pelham and his brother, the Duke of Newcastle; and on Pelham's marriage, Newcastle assigned to him one-half of the property which he had inherited from his father (Coxe, ii. 305). In 1729 Pelham purchased Esher Place in Surrey, which, with the aid of Kent,
