1752.
Pour être bon historien, il ne faudroit être d’aucune religion, d’aucun pais, d’aucune profession, d’aucun parti.
[CHAPTER VIII.]
Reflections of the Author on commencing his Memoirs of the Year 1752—State of Parties—Treaty with Saxony—Duke of Bedford opposes it—Debates upon it in the Lords—Speeches of the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Sandwich, Marquis of Halifax, and Lord Granville—History of the Purchase of Scotch Forfeited Estates—Debates on the Scotch Forfeiture Bill.
I sit down to resume a task, for which I fear posterity will condemn the author, at the same time that they feel their curiosity gratified. On reviewing the first part of these Memoirs, I find the truth rigidly told. And even since they were written, I have often been struck with the censures which are passed on such historians as have fairly displayed the faulty sides of the characters they exhibit. Theopompus is called a satirist: Timæus was so severe,[204] as to be nicknamed Epitimæus, the Blamer. Some of our own annalists, as Wilson, Weldon, Osborn, (though frequently quoted,) are seldom mentioned without reproach. I defend them not: if their representations are exaggerated, they not only deserve reproach, but discredit.
On the other hand, I examined the candid authors. Two of our own, who deal wonderfully in panegyric, Clarendon and Echard, I find to have dispensed invectives with a liberal hand on men of parties opposite to their own—does then the province of praise and censure depend on the felicity of choosing one’s party? That shall never influence me—I would as soon wish to be rejected for flattering one party, as for blaming another. Nor can I, on the strictest consideration, determine to write like biographers and authors of Peerages and Compendiums, who sink all executions in a family, all blots in a ’scutcheon, and lay out their personages as fair as if they wrote epitaphs, not history. Does any noble family extinguish? One should grieve, on reading their genealogies, that such a succession of heroes, statesmen, patriots, should ever fail; if a little knowledge of mankind did not call forth the blemishes, which these varnishers have slubbered over. If I write, I must write facts. The times I describe have neither been glorious nor fortunate. Have our affairs gone ill, and yet were our Governors wise? Have Parliaments been venal, servile, and yet individuals upright? If I paint the battle of Dettingen in prosperous colours, am I an admired historian? If I mention hostages sent to France, am I an abusive one? Are there no shades, no degrees of vices and misconduct? Must no Princes be blamed, till they are Neros? Must Vespasian’s avarice pass unnoticed, because he did not set fire to the city—because he did not burn the means of gratifying his exactions?
Suppose I were to comply with this indulgent taste, and write thus:—George the Second was the most glorious Monarch that ever sat on the English Throne; his victories over the united arms of Spain and France[205] will illustrate our annals till time is no more; and his condescension and generosity will conspire to raise his private character to a level with his public. The Duke of Newcastle was a prodigy of sincerity, steadiness, and abilities. Mr. Pelham was the humblest man, the bravest Minister, the heartiest friend, the openest enemy. The Earl of Holderness the most graceful dancer that ever trod the stage of business since the days of Chancellor Hatton—avaunt, Flattery! tell the truth, my pen!
The miscarriage of the Rebellion had silenced Jacobitism; the death of the Prince of Wales had quashed opposition; and the removal of the Duke of Bedford and Lord Sandwich had put an end to factions in the Ministry. The ascendant of the Pelhams drew the attention of the disaffected, who began to see a prospect of the restoration, if not of the Stuarts, at least of absolute power; and this union was not a little cemented by the harmony of hatred, in which both the Pelhams and the Jacobites concurred against the Duke and the Duke of Bedford; neither the one nor the other were disposed at this juncture to stem the torrent. The Duke was determined not to give the Pelhams so fair an opportunity of mischief, as by setting up the standard of opposition during his father’s life; and the treasures which he expected at the King’s death, and would not risk losing,[206] he knew would indemnify the delay of his revenge. The Duke of Bedford, who had been driven into contention, not sought it himself, did not feel resentment enough for the loss of power, which he had never much coveted, to make him eager in returning ill-usage; and as he thought himself distinguished by the King’s esteem, he affected gratitude to the Master, more than revenge to the Ministers. Pitt and his little faction were rather unsatisfied, than in possession of any title to complaint; and yet from that quarter seemed to lower the first small cloud that might at all obscure the present halcyon season.
A new subsidiary treaty with Saxony (a strange codicil to a general peace!) had been lately concluded; the pretence, the purchase of another Electoral vote for the Archduke Joseph, whom we persisted in making a candidate for the succession of the Empire, though his father and his mother were equally averse to see him King of the Romans. As he was immediate heir to his mother’s vast dominions, the Emperor could not but foresee, that, if the estates of the House of Austria fell to his son, it might even become difficult for himself to retain the empty diadem, when the means of grandeur should be devolved on his child; and the Empress-queen, who had not ceded a jot of power to a husband whose person she loved, was not desirous of calling her son Emperor, who might be less tractable, and more impatient to reign in earnest. Yet the dread the King felt of a new war in Germany, his jealousy of his nephew of Prussia, and even the favourite impulse of acting in contradiction to him, made his Majesty eager to hurry on the election, and profuse of subsidies, which were not to be issued from his own coffers. Lord Cobham, who, having no place to forfeit, was always used by Pitt as the trumpet of their discontents, openly sounded his disapprobation of the Treaty: and old Horace Walpole, who had waded through, and transacted so many treaties, without attaining a Peerage, was at last determined to try if he could not traverse negotiations to better purpose than he had negotiated.
On January 7th, the Parliament met again after the adjournment; and on the 16th, Mr. Pelham laid the Treaty before the House. The Duke of Bedford came to town on the 15th; so far from meditating opposition, that he was resolved to make use of the remains of the King’s favour, to ask a pension for the Duchess’s sister, Lady Elizabeth Waldegrave. The Duchess, who could not bear to be out of favour as well as out of power, and who always kept a reconciliation in view, had planned this suit, with at least as much prospect to tie down the Duke by an obligation to the King, from reverting to Opposition, as from kindness to her sister; and there was no doubt but the Pelhams would have pressed the King to grant so trifling a boon; for what could they wish more, when they had driven the Duke of Bedford to resign the power of serving all his friends, than to silence his murmurs, by serving the first friend of his for whom he should submit to solicit?
The prospect of allies in Opposition was immediately hung out to the Duke of Bedford, by some[207] who wished to fix him against the Court, and who wanted to engage him to speak against the Treaty, which they knew would either prevent him from soliciting the pension, or by touching so tender a point as a German subsidy, would provoke the King to refuse his request. This train caught effectually; and though the Duchess was alarmed, yet not having time to work back her husband, whose warmth was most impetuous, the Duke determined at once to oppose the Saxon Treaty.
22nd, Mr. Pelham opened the Treaty in the Committee. Old Horace Walpole spoke against it in a manner that showed how well he knew where the weakness of such treaties lay; and however astonishing such arguments were when coming from him, they were pressed with such force and weight as stilled their ridicule, had he not himself done justice upon himself, and concluded his oration with professing such duty to the King, that, though so averse to the Treaty, he should yet vote for it. The House burst into laughter at such absurd pretence for zeal, which could conquer its own conscience, but had not prevented him from exposing the measures of a Prince, for whom he expressed such veneration! Murray, Potter, Sir Harry Erskine, Sir Thomas Robinson, Sir William Yonge, Lord Hilsborough, Mr. Fox, Sir Peter Warren, Mr. Legge, and Charles Townshend, spoke for; Sir Walter Blacket, Beckford, Lord Strange, and Lord Cobham against it; but it was agreed to by 236 to 54.
On the 23rd it was reported to the House. Northey and George Haldane opposed it again. Nugent was zealous for it. Sydenham, reflecting on Nugent’s former religion, said, that he seemed not content with a majority of electors, but would have an Emperor chosen, like a Pope, by two-thirds. Vyner reflected on the King for bringing such expenses on the nation, after such obligations to it, and such noble provision made for his children. This Mr. Pelham answered finely, seriously, and pathetically; a manner in which he particularly shone. There was no division.
On the 28th the Treaty was debated in the House of Lords. The Duke of Bedford opened the opposition to it, with professing, that his greatest difficulty lay in its having been the act of the King, so good a King, whom he had served seven years, and to whom he was agitated with the fear of being misrepresented: yet, that he could neither in conscience acquiesce, nor be content with silently opposing subsidiary treaties in time of peace; and the dangerous measures of wasting, when we ought to be saving. That if you treat after a war, you may obtain conditions certain; but what advantages can you make, where there is nothing to be given up or restored? That by paying for votes for the Archduke, we are purchasing advantages for our Allies, instead of for ourselves; and at the same time instruct those Princes who take our money, never to unite with us but for money. That with the people it must be a measure most unpopular, to tax them for money to be sent abroad, when they cannot possibly discern how it touches their own interest. And that in no shape the measure can be right, but when a war is approaching; whereas, we are but just emerged out of one. That the preamble is most injurious to the dignity of our Crown; it speaks us suppliants to that inconsiderable Prince, the King of Poland, who is most incapable to serve us, not only from the situation of his country, but from his bad administration. Besides, he might have been obliged to join us by the two Imperial Courts, as his ruling passion is to make Poland hereditary in his family—how great then is his condescension, if he will not take part against you! If he did, it would be of little consequence: it is only giving so much for levy-money. If England were attacked, of what use would Saxons be? That he did not think this country or Holland should always have such preparatory connexions on the Continent; and yet that this Treaty did not even stipulate that his Polish Majesty shall increase his forces. That the fifth Article was wretchedly drawn! and for that King’s vote—had it been secured, when it might have been—that Cologne had been lost for want of proper words to tie him down: a fit example to have made us more wary! and yet how many evasions open, if this Saxon Prince is disposed to elude his engagements! That we are not likely to bring about this election; and that we even keep off two of the electors, by showing them that they may ask a price for their votes. That Prussia’s protesting against the election is a new doctrine—and as new is this opportunity for Lords who love subsidizing! Notify your intentions, you may have thirty or forty of the College of Princes, who will take your money. Yet, while we are thus bounteous, Russia takes no steps, Austria few. But he supposed he should be told, that Holland is to pay part; he was sorry for it; Holland is still less able than we to be thus extravagant. But if Holland should not pay, who is to make good the deficiencies? If this is done with the consent of France, she only will have the merit: if without her consent, it will bring on a war.
He then turned to home considerations, and (as this was supposed to be a sacrifice offered by the Duke of Newcastle to the King’s German passions, contrary to the inclination of Mr. Pelham), he said it was extravagant imbecility, if this measure was yielded to by the Minister against his will. That the tenour was throughout the same, and parsimony or profusion took their turns, as individuals took prepossessions. That to please individuals,[208] the material service, the Navy, had been reduced to 8000 seamen: that to please individuals,[209] Nova Scotia had been profusely suckled, and its deficiences always supplied. That the land-tax, the malt-tax, the reduction of interest, had been carried on with spirit: yet for what have the public creditors been taxed, if the savings made at their expense are scandalously lavished? If measures are not changed, if men are not changed, we must go on de mal en pire. That when we pretend to economy, how judiciously is it exerted! It is displayed in contracting the rewards for removing the mortality of the cattle, or for discovering highwaymen! That our youngest daughter, Nova Scotia, is favoured, while Jamaica is neglected, by an Administration who neither grant protection to commerce, nor endeavour at any reformation of morals. The Duke concluded with a Motion for an Address, to represent that subsidiary treaties ought never to be concluded in time of peace, especially after a long war, and that they are neither necessary at present, nor likely to procure any real advantage.
The Duke of Newcastle replied in a wild, incoherent, incomprehensible speech of an hour and a quarter, in which he set out with saying, that he would not answer general heads, because the Duke of Bedford had descended to particulars; and yet the greatest deduction of his defence was an account of the three last wars. That for this, it was a measure of peace and economy, and that it is little as it is, because it is so great. That he remembered the argument used to blacken the great war was, that we have no interest on the Continent; and that the Dutch were reproached then, and are now. That he that is not for us, is against us: that there are those who would gladly accept the union of the Dutch. That if he thought this a greater burthen than England could bear, in proportion to the objections, he should be against it; but that if it prevents a war, the sooner England concludes this Treaty the better. That if we do not connect with the Continent, we shall be obliged to enter into the next, as we were into the last war. What was the occasion of the three last wars? Of the first, the succession to the Crown of Spain—but that can never happen again. Everybody knows the zeal of the present King of Spain. In the second, the war occasioned by the vacancy of the Throne of Poland, England took no part: if we had, it would have prevented the last; at least, it would have been better carried on. The last war was occasioned by the ambition of Bavaria. It cost us much, yet glad he was, for we should have been in a worse condition, if we had not entered into it. From the Treaty of Utrecht to that of Aix-la-Chapelle, there have been no four years without greater expenses than these four last. If the last war was occasioned by the vacancy of the Imperial Throne, the treaty in question is calculated to prevent such a vacancy and such consequences. That Holland, he hoped, would emerge out of her difficulties by the prudence of the present conjuncture—that his meaning was sufficiently explained, though it might be more elegantly; that more plainly, would be improper. That we have received the strongest assurances—what they are: if there should be any Motion for laying them before the House, he would be the first to oppose it. Have we never seen Saxony act against its interest? If any means had been omitted for engaging that Power in the common cause, the Ministry would have much to answer for. That the question of the necessity of the unanimity of the electors had been fully considered, though there was a time when no elector would have opposed. That the election had not hitherto proceeded, because Cologne did not understand itself obliged to concur. That we must get six votes, and therefore, whatever is demanded, must be granted, though Cologne did ask more, and it was not granted. All arts were tried to engage that elector without a subsidy. He then proved that the election might have been carried and been valid with a majority, and yet that we waited till we could secure two-thirds. That he was told we meddled everywhere; an accusation he was sometimes surprised to hear from some people. That the Fleet had repaired the miscarriages of the Army—was it not the duty of economic Ministers to supply the Sea Service? That for what had been hinted of the provocation we should give to France, the wisdom of that Power will admire us, not be angry, if we do nothing to hurt her.
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.
Lord Halifax then rose and said, “They who disapprove all treaties, cannot like this: they who are for no connexion with the Continent—” the Duke of Bedford interrupted him, and said, “That is not my opinion.” Lord Halifax replied, “But very like it.” The Duke again interposed, but the Duke of Argyle called him to order, and with acrimony said, that he had never seen such interruption given twice in one Debate. Lord Halifax then continued, that if the peace was not strengthened, it would only be a cessation of arms: that we must not be parsimonious, while France was dealing out a million in subsidies (this had been a most exaggerated calculation of the Solicitor-General[210] in the House of Commons), that she had offered more to Saxony, who had preferred our alliance with the lesser sum. That the money granted for Nova Scotia had been given to establish the settlement, not to carry on a war: that if the ships had been sent out too late last year, it was the fault of the Admiralty; and that of all men he least expected opposition from those two Lords, who had so lately approved these treaties.
This was the accusation for which the Duke of Bedford had waited; and he embraced it artfully. He said, that this was so far from a preventive measure, that it was more likely to raise a war; that he had indeed said nothing hitherto to explain the consistence of his own conduct, foreseeing that he might be attacked on it. That he had always wished to detach Bavaria from France, and thought it a great point gained, though not with a view to engage that vote for a King of the Romans; but that, while he had acted in the Ministry, he had disapproved this profusion of subsidies; and that, having made the most earnest representations against that to Bavaria, he had received the strongest assurances from one,[211] who had inclination to prevent, and power to hinder, that the subsidy then granted to the Elector of Bavaria should be the last we would give. He had then in his pocket a letter from Mr. Pelham, with a solemn promise of this.
Lord Granville put an end to the debate by a speech of spirit and humour; that the Motion was full of inflammatory matter, and that it was drawing the House into declaring against subsidiary treaties in general: that France can be attacked by no single Power; that leagues must humble her, subsidies cement leagues. France has no Pretender to be set up against her. She might say, “I will give no subsidies,”—and yet she does. That formerly during his Embassies, he had been asked by a great Prince[212] (the King of Denmark) what we meant by that magnificent bravado in the Preamble to our Mutiny Bill, where we say, that we keep up eighteen thousand men to preserve the balance of Europe. “I told him, my Lords, ‘One day can make those eighteen fifty thousand.’ If you say you will pay no more electors, you have erected a bridge without complete arches—and what kind of policy is that, if this House rejects a treaty already ratified by King and Commons! The Court of France does not regard guarantees—or indeed what Powers do? Would Prussia retain Silesia long, if he had nothing to defend it with but the guarantee? for, my Lords,” concluded he, laughing, “I must bring out some of my secrets too.” The Motion was rejected without a division. The next time the Duke of Bedford went to Court, the King took no notice of him; nor for some time.
29th.—Lord Harley, seconded by Northey, made a Motion for declaring against subsidiary treaties in time of peace. It occasioned a warm Debate; and Prowse, escaping from his usual plausibility, said, that he could discover no symptoms of economy in the Administration, though indeed they had enforced it, for by lowering interest, and by the land-tax of three shillings, both landed and monied men were reduced to be economists. Beckford, Fazakerley, Sir Roger Newdigate, Morton, Sydenham, Cooke, Delaval, and Sir Walter Blacket, spoke for the Motion: Hampden against it, but with a sneer, said, that he approved bribing electors, as he saw by other instances how it had contributed to quash opposition. Mitchell taxed old Horace Walpole with his unparliamentary behaviour, in speaking on one side and voting on the other. The Solicitor-General, Sir Henry Erskine, Nugent, Ellis, Tracy, and Sir William Yonge, all opposed the Motion; and lastly, Mr. Pelham, who seized the opportunity of venting the anguish he had felt the day before in the House of Lords (which from that day he never attended more), and of abusing with much bitterness and ability the Duke of Bedford and Lord Sandwich. The Motion was rejected by 180 to 52. After the Debate, Mr. Pelham asked Fox, if he had gone too far in invectives. “No,” answered Fox, “as they began; though you originally gave the provocation.” “Oh! Fox,” replied he, “you did not feel for me, as I should for you in the same circumstances!”
In the beginning of February, Lord Cardigan was appointed Governor of Windsor Castle, and was succeeded as Chief Justice in Eyre by the Duke of Somerset.
4th.—Died Sir John Cotton; the last Jacobite of any sensible activity.
21st.—Sir John Barnard, whose popularity had suffered by the share he had had in reducing the interest of the public debt to three per cent., made a proposal to tie down six hundred thousand pounds a year of the Sinking Fund, from the year 1758, towards discharging the whole national incumbrance. Beckford supported him; but Mr. Pelham and the Solicitor-General opposing it, his scheme was rejected without a division. We shall see him afterwards addressing himself to his lost popularity with more success, and as it often happens, on a worse foundation.
25th.—Lord Winchelsea had summoned the Lords to consider an Admiralty Bill, which had passed the Commons without opposition, and which was designed to commute the punishment of transportation into working in the Dockyards. Bills of less invidious appearance had often raised a flame in combustible seasons: this seemed to introduce a kind of galley slavery, yet was really converting a species of disgraceful criminals, who only corrupt our Plantations, into useful members of society. Could the monthly shambles at Tyburn (that scene that shocks humanity, and reproaches our Police!) be exchanged for severe labour in the same way, it would reflect honour on a Legislature, which ought not to wanton in such punishment of its members as death and banishment, but to extract public utility, even from crimes. The Duke of Newcastle, fearing to be attacked himself, and the Chancellor, as apprehensive for his silent son-in-law, Lord Anson, the head of the Admiralty and patron of the Bill, prevailed on Lord Northumberland to rise, commend the Bill, and then move to have it put off for six weeks. The Duke of Bedford called him to order for entering upon the Bill before it was read.
28th.—Lord Tyrawley was sent to Lisbon, to accommodate some differences which had been occasioned by our Captains openly running Portugal pieces, which had used to be brought on board our ships by the decent intervention of the Monks.
The same day was read for the first time a Bill to empower the Government to purchase, at the rate of about an hundred thousand pounds, the estates in Scotland forfeited by the late Rebellion, and which the King was to cede to the public, in order to have colonies settled on them, especially of Foreign Protestants. The necessity of the purchase was pretended to arise from mortgages on them, and which would even consume the property in a few years, and pass them from the King’s hands into those of the mortgagees. Grants of money to Scotland have ever been suspicious: the influence of the Duke of Argyle over the ductility of the Ministry was most notorious; the claims now erected on these forfeitures most incredible; and the establishment of Colonies in parts so barren, so uninviting, of such unpleasant neighbourhood, most improbable and impracticable. One circumstance alone, of public notoriety, staggered all credit in the sum demanded. Lord Lovat, at the bar of the House of Lords, had declared that his was the best estate in Scotland, for there were no debts upon it—it now appeared charged with a mortgage of thirty thousand pounds! Vyner, Northey, Beckford, Sydenham, Fazakerley, Prowse, and the Whig-General Mordaunt, opposed the Bill. The Scotch Lord Advocate, Mr. Pelham, Sir William Yonge, and Oswald, with fine warmth supported it, and it passed that day without a division; and again on the second reading, March 2d, when it was faintly opposed by the same people, and defended by the same, and by the Attorney-General.[213]
March 4th.—The Bill was reported: Vyner observed that no retribution had been made to any parts of England that had suffered by the Rebels, though ten thousand pounds had been given to Glasgow alone, to compensate their damages. Sir John Mordaunt asked with spirit, whether Englishmen would go to these intended settlements for twenty pounds a year, only to have land a fifth cheaper? Whether the English Ministry meant to send 28,000 men only to starve? or whether they would suffer themselves to be sent? He said, the Scotch were so attached to the individual spots of their tribes, that when Glenbucket had wanted to transplant his M’Donalds to the site of the M’Phersons, the colonists had been murdered, their houses burnt, and Glenbucket himself received several wounds. That this scheme would set the whole Highlands in a flame—“when that is done,” said he, “I will congratulate the gentlemen who brought in the Bill—in the mean time, let me tell them, that so impotent or so supine is the Government in that part of the island, that there is now a person, a man of five hundred pounds a year, who forced three or four hundred Drummonds into the Rebellion, and has sons in Lord John Drummond’s regiment in France, who lives tranquilly, securely, on his own estate in Scotland, and triumphs over the well-affected and loyal.”
General Campbell maintained the probability of establishing the Colony in question, and instanced in one at Strontean, where mines are carried on by a company from hence, who are well received there, who have polished the country, and where three to one are well-affected. Legge said, that this system will have more effect than all that had been done about dress and jurisdictions, because those regulations were imposed by force; but this was to be purchased: that the economy of the measure could not be questioned, as, by buying mortgaged estates, you may prevent future Rebellions, and consequently avoid the heavy charges which Rebellion occasions. That the Colony must be sent armed; and that for some time the Army must be used as a succedaneum to this measure, though force produces only artificial loyalty in breasts, that will still be waiting for opportunities of revenge; but that nest-egg of Rebellion must be crushed in time of peace; that if this measure is not adopted, the remaining alternatives were, to acquiesce under incidental Rebellions, or to exterminate the disaffected by fire and sword; that what is loyalty or disloyalty here, is there food or starving. Feed the clans, they will obey; starve them they must rebel: that the means, therefore, of eradicating this spirit in the common people are obvious; polish them, introduce the arts of peace amongst them—the disloyalty of the gentlemen is with more difficulty to be subdued.
Lord Coke spoke with animosity[214] against the measure, as being a Scotch measure; Lord Hilsborough with approbation of it, as resembling what, he said, he had experienced in Ireland, where he had seen mountains of Papists settled at last by Protestants, after two or three colonies had been successively driven off; and he said sensibly, “have we 6000 men who keep all Scotland in order, and will they not be able to protect this little colony?”
Northey objected to the economy of a measure which was pretended [to be] calculated to save the expense of an Army, and yet must be put in execution by an Army! and he stated the collusive manner in which the calculation was drawn up, and observed that the claims erected were 270,000l.; that the estates to be purchased are 16,000l. a year; that it is allowed, that there is personal estate sequestered to the amount of 19,000l.; and yet that that sum was not allotted towards the purchase. The Report was agreed to by 171 to 34. Lord Gower’s sons[215] were in the minority: none of the Duke’s servants were present but Felton Hervey, and he too was against the Bill.
7th.—Prince Edward, the young Prince of Orange, and the Earls of Lincoln, Winchelsea, and Cardigan, were declared Knights of the Garter: the Scotch Earl of Dumfries had the Green Ribband, and Lord Onslow the Red.
Some differences happened upon a ship of ours taking sailors out of an Embden vessel; and a Bill was brought in to prevent insuring Embden ships.
9th.—The Scotch Bill was passed in the Commons, on a division of 134 to 39.