FOOTNOTES:
[73] The Czarina Elizabeth, who only confined the Princess Anne of Mecklenberg.
[74] Wife of Sir Edward Montagu.
[75] Sister of Admiral Byng.
[CHAPTER X.]
Contract of Alderman Baker for Victualling the Troops—Parliamentary Inquiries limited to Minorca—Byng’s Sentence produces various impressions—It is referred to the Judges—Conduct of the Judges on the Case referred to them—Conduct of Fox—The Admiralty signs the Sentence—The Sentence notified to the House of Commons—Mr. Pitt demands Money for Hanover—Lord George Sackville declares for Pitt—His Motives for so doing—Approaching Execution of Byng—Debate in the House of Commons on his Sentence—Members of the Court-Martial desirous to be absolved from their Oaths—The Author urges Keppel to apply to the House of Commons—Sir Francis Dashwood applies for Keppel—The King’s Message—Court-Martial Bill passes the House.
Feb. 7th.—The younger of the brothers carried the war into another quarter, attacking Alderman Baker on a contract he had obtained from the Government for victualling the troops in North America; and falling severely on his uncle Newcastle, whom he abused, with more outrage than wit, in a very florid strain of satiric irony. Fox defended Baker; Nugent, his patron: Baker on a subsequent day vindicated himself, and cleared the fairness of his contract.
George Townshend and the Tories were displeased with these hostilities to Newcastle, who they feared would be driven to unite with Fox, with whom the Duke consulted for the defence of Baker. His Grace and Fox being already complicated in the late measures, a new accession of common interest might renew their league. These apprehensions operated so strongly on Fox’s enemies, that great coldness was shown on the matter of inquiries; and when George Townshend could no longer in decency defer to call for papers previous to the examination, as he did at last, February 8th, the inquisition seemed affectedly limited to the loss of Minorca, on which subject, Newcastle and Fox had had leisure for months to remove from all offices whatever papers could be supposed to affect them. All discussion of the neglects in America, so extensive, so numerous, and so easily to be proved, were cautiously avoided. Indication sufficient, that the late Ministers had left no evidence against themselves, was, that in a Parliament constituted almost entirely of their friends, not a single objection was made by any of their dependents against the scrutiny into their conduct. The most upright Ministers had never met popular attacks with indifference—were Newcastle, Anson, Fox, more bold, or more innocent, than any of their predecessors? The farce of national justice had never appeared in more glaring colours: Mr. Byng had been kept a close prisoner from the instant of his arrest; thirty witnesses that he had demanded had been denied to him; every evidence that could possibly affect him had been produced—when the more powerful criminals were to be charged, a single part of their administration was selected, papers were demanded by guess, and it was left to the discretion of offices full of clerks, all creatures of the late Ministers, to send, omit, secrete, mangle, what part of those papers they pleased. No Committee was appointed to conduct the inquiry, nobody empowered to procure or manage evidence, or even to examine whether what was so partially demanded, was not still more partially granted. Mr. Pitt protracted a commodious gout—George Townshend, the other mock-champion of the people, was negotiating with Lord Granby, to unite the patriot Minister with the late chief of the criminal Administration.
During these clandestine treaties and juggles, the sentence pronounced on the Admiral grew a serious affair. The first impression taken was, that he must be pardoned. Many lawyers declared the sentence was illegal: at St. James’s it was received as definitive: the Sovereign, the Duke, Princess Emily, and their train, treated the notion of mercy as ridiculous; and no whispers from any of their late partizans breathed a more gentle spirit on the Court. At the Admiralty, on the contrary, a very different temper discovered itself. Admiral West, the friend of Pitt, and relation of Lord Temple, loudly demanded a revision of the 12th Article; and though, he said, he would not decline immediate service to which he was appointed, he declared his resolution of resigning, unless the Article was abrogated. Admiral Smith, natural brother of Lord Lyttelton and Sir Richard, who had been President of the Court-Martial, and was really a humane though weak man, wrote the most earnest letters to his brothers, to interest themselves in the safety of Mr. Byng, as the only method of quieting his (Smith’s) conscience. The Peer, blindly devoted to Newcastle and Hardwicke, returned an answer, that, to say no worse of it, did not breathe more humanity into a conscience already wounded.
Sir Richard, on the contrary, interested himself warmly for the condemned; and Lord Temple took part enough to make it a measure in the Admiralty to refuse to sign the warrant for execution, unless they were better satisfied on the legality of the sentence—if their consciences could be tranquillized by such opiates as the casuists of Westminster Hall could administer, Lord Hardwicke had no apprehension but the warrant might still be signed. Accordingly, the King referred the sentence to the Judges; and as there was no difficulty but what they could solve by pronouncing an absurdity legal, they soon declared, that a sentence, which acquitted of two crimes, and yet condemned, without specifying a third, was very good law. And thus, without an instance of interpreting a new, obscure, and doubtful statute in the most unfavourable sense, and contrary to the stream of precedents by which criminals recommended to mercy were constantly pardoned, the people of England (that some revengeful men might be gratified, and some guilty men might have their crimes atoned by the sacrifice of another man) obtained the alarming precedent of a sentence pronounced by implication! And this was the more alarming, as it was known that the word negligence[76] had been proposed in the Court-Martial, and had been rejected by them. Consequently, they had thought it their duty to condemn for no crime; and the Judges discovered the virtue of a crime in words, which the persons who framed the sentence had intended should not express it.
What added to the criminality of the Judges was, that the young Lord Torrington, the Admiral’s nephew, having petitioned the Admiralty for leave for his uncle to appeal against so unprecedented a sentence, they desired to see his reasons, and having received them, laid them before the King and Council, by whom they were referred to the Judges. The Judges, who had desired to see all the sentences in capital cases that had been given by Courts-Martial since the Revolution, excused themselves from examining Lord Torrington’s arguments, equally referred to them by the Council. One can hardly avoid saying on such inconsistent behaviour, that the Judges knew what was the inclination of the Council on the different papers referred to their consideration; and that they accordingly rejected an appeal from a novel sentence, which they pronounced law from precedents which had all taken their rise under the abrogated law.
There had been periods when Fox would not have suffered such casuistry in the profession to pass uncensured:—what was the part he now took?—It was not, in truth, an age to expect that a Regulus should exhort his country to pursue measures which would advance his own destruction. Few men would devote themselves, when other victims were marked for sacrifice. We will suppose, that Mr. Fox, implicated in the miscarriages of the last year, might not be sorry to see the busy timidity of Newcastle, or the dark councils of Hardwicke, transferring his, their own, and Anson’s neglects and mismanagements to Mr. Byng, and sweeping Court, Navy, Parliament, and Law, into a combination to cut off a man whom they had made obnoxious to the nation, because he was so to themselves—but what more crooked policy was that, which, not content with sheltering itself behind Mr. Byng, sought to ruin Mr. Pitt too, by painting him to the multitude as the champion of the condemned Admiral? It is irksome to me to tell what whispers, what open speeches, what libels, Mr. Fox and his emissaries vented to blacken Mr. Pitt and Lord Temple, for feeling symptoms of humanity towards a traduced, a condemned, a friendless man! Hardwicke moved steadily towards his point, the death of the criminal:—Fox sported with the life of that criminal, and turned mercy itself into an engine of faction to annoy his antagonist. Had Mr. Pitt effectually interposed, had the seal been set by his influence to Mr. Byng’s pardon, (however generous morality would scorn the office,) policy might have excused Mr. Fox for traducing such humanity:—but previously to make mercy impossible, by making it dangerous, by making it odious!—I know not where ambition would stop, if it could leap over such sacred sensations!
February 16th.—The day after the Judges had given their opinion on the sentence, the King in Council referred that opinion to the Admiralty. The King signs no sentence himself: where he does not interpose his prerogative of pardon, execution follows of course. In naval affairs, the Lords of the Admiralty sign the warrant. Lord Temple had dropped hints to the King in favour of Byng, but with more reserve with regard to the prisoner, than towards the majesty of the sovereign, to whom at one time he said in his closet, with a contemptuous sneer, “And if he dies well, what will you say then?” It was applied so ad hominem, that the King interpreted it as a reflection on his own courage. The Admiralty thus pushed, and weighing on one hand the unpopularity of a direct refusal to sign, and on the other the authority of the Judges, which had been given at their request, determined to comply. That very night Lord Temple, Dr. Hay, and Elliot, signed the sentence, and sent it to Portsmouth, ordering execution on the 28th. Admiral Forbes, in every part of his conduct uniformly amiable and upright, refused peremptorily to sign it.
While Mr. Byng was thus pursued or given up by his countrymen, our enemies acted a very different part. Voltaire, hearing of the Admiral’s trial, sent from Switzerland to the Court-Martial, a letter which he had casually received some time before from Marshal Richelieu, in which the latter spoke with encomiums on the behaviour of the English Commander:—but they, who had been so ready to censure Mr. Byng on the dispatch of his antagonist La Galissonière, were far from being equally forward to give any weight to Richelieu’s testimonial in his favour.
Feb. 17th.—Mr. Hunter, of the Admiralty, notified to the House of Commons the sentence pronounced against one of their members. The Speaker produced a long roll of precedents for expelling him before execution, lest his disgrace should reflect on the House. Lord Strange objected, good-naturedly, that this would be heaping cruelty, and seemed to exclude mercy, while yet there was an opening to it. Sir Francis Dashwood, a man distinguished by no milkiness of temper, connected with no friends of the prisoner, took this up strongly, and moved to call for the letter of the Court-Martial. Fox objected, that this would look like a censure on that Court. Sir Francis denied that he meaned it in that light. His view, he said, was, by considering the warmth of their recommendation, to lead to some application for mercy. Mr. Pitt seemed to favour that purpose, and lashed novel proceedings in Courts-Martial; and said he hoped that the letter, when produced, might lead the House to do something on that mortal twelfth Article: and he mentioned with disdain anonymous letters that he had received, threatening him as a favourer of Mr. Byng. Fox, to waive all humane impressions, called for the Order of the Day. Sir Francis would have renewed his Motion, but the House did not seem inclined to receive it; and it was lost.
Mr. Pitt had come that very day to the House of Commons for the first time since his illness, and as it was the first time since he was Minister of his acting there in office, it could not fail of being remarked, that he dated his Administration with a demand of money for Hanover. He delivered a message from the King, desiring support for his Electoral Dominions and for the King of Prussia. One cannot say which was most ridiculous, the richest Prince in Europe begging alms for his own country, or the great foe of that country becoming its mendicant almoner. The next day he opened the message, the purport of which was to ask 200,000l.; and he endeavoured to torture some consistence out of his conduct, sometimes refining, and when that would not do, glossing it over with what he would have put off for confident honesty. He succeeded better in attempting to divert reflections from himself to the Empress-queen, who, he said, if it had not been for the blood and treasure of Britain, would not have had it in her power to be ungrateful now.
He was seconded by Lord George Sackville, who affected to say he spoke only for form; yet talked forcibly on his now seeing a prospect of carrying on the war with success, as great part of the money was to be given to the King of Prussia—a better method than subsidiary treaties. Fox acted moderation; said, he should never provoke altercations, nor yet would ever decline them: it was sufficient to him that his part had been a consistent one. He had been told, indeed, that the German measures of last year would be a mill-stone about the neck of the Minister:—he hoped this German measure would be an ornament about the Minister’s neck! It was in truth the greatest instance of courage and capacity, and promised stability to Mr. Pitt’s Administration. Pitt replied, that he only rose again to show he would keep his temper and his word; though Mr. Fox’s reflections were but an ugly presage of his kind wishes to the new Administration. For Minister—the word never belonged so little to anybody as to himself: he had neither ministerial power nor influence. All he had done was, having had an opportunity of saying, “This I will do—that I will never do.” The money was granted nemine contradicente—even the Tories agreeing to it—I suppose, to prove their consistence too.
One event in this Debate requires a comment: Lord George Sackville declared himself for Mr. Pitt: he had seemed before to attach himself to Fox. This was the history of his variation:—the Primate had come over to offer his service to the new Lord Lieutenant; and both he and Lord George had paid court to Mr. Fox, and still more to Mr. Rigby, the Duke of Bedford’s Minister. The two former had received their assiduities cordially; Bedford himself, of a shy, uncommunicative nature, had treated the Primate with obstinate coldness, and absolutely declined on every occasion to talk to him on Irish business. The Duke’s own plan was to steer impartially between the two factions; at least for his first session.
Fox, early in the winter, had made great application to Lord George Sackville to move for retaining the Hessians, which being agreeable to the wishes of the Whigs, the new Ministers would have been beaten before they could bring on any of their popular questions. Lord George demanded previously, that the Duke of Bedford should engage to leave the Primate one of the Lords Justices; which would have been granted, but the Duke of Bedford himself hung off; for though he was willing to leave him so, he would not date his government with a promise that he thought would be so unpopular. From that time, Fox had either not fixed what should be the Duke of Bedford’s plan, or had been so occupied with his own situation and animosities, as not sufficiently to attend to Ireland. Rigby, devoted to Fox, and thinking himself sure of the Primate whenever he should please to want him, or concluding him totally fallen, and that his own best art of pleasing Fox would be to fling himself into the opposite faction, headed by Lord Kildare, who had married the sister of Lady Caroline Fox; for these, or some of these reasons, he had not had the precaution to model his master to the Primate’s views; who, finding himself rejected, or entertained so as to be rejected afterwards, instantly negotiated with Pitt, and worked his friend Lord George to list under the same colours: and other reasons concurred to facilitate that connexion.
Pitt, on the commencement of his Ministry, had professed to adhere to all his old declarations; and keeping himself retired and secluded from all access, affected to attract no dependents, to form no party. The Tories, who heard his professions, and saw him condescend to no Court-arts, were charmed with a Minister who seemed as visionary as themselves, and who threw as many difficulties on Government as when he was in Opposition;—but the Tories alone, as Lord George knew, could no more support a Minister than they could demolish one; and deeming Mr. Pitt’s system too romantic for duration, Lord George had leaned towards Fox, as made up of more practicable elements. Indeed, when Bedford proved as untamed as Pitt had been; and when Pitt condescended to make room in his virtue for Hanover, Lord George, (as the Primate with wonderful frankness avowed to Fox,) finding that Mr. Pitt “would now pursue human measures by human means,” made no difficulty of uniting with him. Lord George gave the same account to Fox too. Another reason of mortal complexion had probably some sway with Lord George—of nothing he was so jealous as of Conway. Fox had supported the latter’s plan of Militia; and the Duke of Richmond, brother of Lady Caroline Fox, was on the point of marrying Lady Mary Bruce, daughter-in-law of Mr. Conway. If Lord George then looked on the connexion of Fox and Conway as imminent and certain, no wonder he devoted himself to the contrary faction.
As the day approached for the execution of the Admiral, symptoms of an extraordinary nature discovered themselves. Lord Hardwicke had forgot to make the Clergy declare murder innocent, as the Lawyers had been induced to find law in what no man else could find sense. Lord Anson himself, in midnight fits of weakness and wine, held forth at Arthur’s on his anxiety to have Mr. Byng spared; and even went so far as to break forth abruptly to Lord Halifax, the Admiral’s relation by marriage, “Good God! my Lord, what shall we do to save poor Mr. Byng?” The Earl replied, “My Lord, if you really mean it, no man can do so much towards it as yourself.” Keppel, a friend of Anson, and one of the Judges, grew restless with remorse. Lest these aches of conscience should be contagious, the King was plied with antidotes. Papers were posted up with paltry rhymes, saying,
“Hang Byng,
Or take care of your King.”
Anonymous letters were sent to terrify him if he pardoned; and, what could not be charged, too, on mob-libellists, he was threatened, that unless Mr. Byng was shot, the city would refuse to raise the money for Hanover.
22nd.—The Militia Bill was considered in the Committee. Mr. Conway spoke for an hour very ably, to show how impracticable the plan of Townshend’s Bill was, how easy of execution his own, and then with modesty withdrew it. The Dissenters in some places petitioned against the exercise on Sundays, but their objections were not supported nor regarded.
On the 23rd, Keppel, More, and Dennis, three of the Court-Martial, waited on Lord Temple, and besought him to renew their application to the Throne for mercy; and the same day Sir Francis Dashwood acquainted the House that he intended to move a consideration of the twelfth Article. He said he had felt great animosity against the unhappy sufferer from the first representations; but his opinion was totally changed by the trial. That at most he could only impute misjudgment to Mr. Byng. To the Court-Martial he must impute it more strongly, who, he thought, had condemned the Admiral unjustly. No wilful error appeared against him. His manœuvre had been applauded: was nothing left to his judgment? Does the twenty-fifth resolution of the Court prove that he was negligent? The French had not waited for him: when they did not, he crowded more sail. The Council of War they never mentioned! Did not Mr. West approve the return to Gibraltar? Then, with increase of seriousness, he said, the Admiral’s blood will lie at the door of those who do not explain what they meaned by their sentence, of which no man else could give an interpretation. And it was the more necessary they should, as they had brought on officers an impossibility of serving under the twelfth Article. He reverted to the conduct of the Admiral, recapitulated some of the chief passages of the trial, urged that there had been an appearance of judgment in his conduct, which had only been defeated by the ships of the French being cleaner and in better order.
One witness had deposed, that there appeared no backwardness in the Admiral in coming to action; then, for God’s sake, of what was he condemned? Not a murmur was heard on his return to Gibraltar. It seems he did not hoist his top-gallant sail—that was, not doing his utmost! What a gross, shocking mistake of the Court-Martial, to think that the twelfth Article reached to this want of a top-gallant sail! The letter to the Admiralty he concluded had been laid before his Majesty, where he hoped the great severity of a blundering sentence would be properly considered—for, when it came to be considered and construed, could any man living suppose that the Court-Martial intended to express any blame but of error of judgment? Sure they were at liberty to explain this! It stood in the law that they might, but they must first be empowered by Act of Parliament to disclose what had passed amongst them. He spoke to their feeling, and hoped to hear the opinions of others on this cruel sentence.
Lord Barrington rose, as he said, to speak only to the Motion on the twelfth Article, and should lay Mr. Byng entirely out of the question, on whose conduct he, being a landsman, could not form an opinion: whatever favourable circumstances there were in his case, he hoped had been, and would be represented. The Article he justified on the necessity that had called for it. The last war had set out with conduct at sea not very honourable, yet no Court-Martial would condemn the offenders. This grew to be the universal complaint. It was said nobody would be hanged but for high treason. In a former war Kirby and Wade had been brought in guilty of disaffection to their Admiral, and had suffered. If the present Court-Martial misunderstood the Article in question, neither could one be framed which they would not misunderstand. He asked if this was a time to relax or enforce discipline? and moved for the Order of the Day.
Doddington replied, that he had no interest in this question, but as it touched Mr. Byng; in whose cause national justice, public and private compassion, were concerned too. That it was impossible to argue that ambiguities ought not to be cleared up. That for fear of bringing on a question, he would not call for the sentence; but he should be glad to know of what the Admiral stood condemned. He did know of what he was not condemned; and that supported him, as it was what stained neither the soldier nor the subject. Without doors the sentence was thought extremely cruel; and well might people think so, when the Judges who pronounced it declared they thought so themselves. Perhaps it might be deemed advisable not to carry it into execution: it certainly would be mercy to the Judges, and to the distress of their consciences; nor would clash with the King’s promise, who certainly never engaged his royal word to adopt the worst construction of a doubtful law. He wished to hear something thrown out for compassion.
This humane and pathetic speech—to the shame of our country I may call it this bold speech, considering in how unpopular circumstances it was made—was received with an attention and sensibility, which showed that truth and justice had been strangers, [who] to be approved, wanted only to be known.
Lord Strange said, he was at a loss to account for the Court-Martial being so affected. He thought the article plain enough, and to revise it would be more absurd than anything but the sentence. If the Court-Martial had done justice, how would it be just to them to alter the Article? They had puzzled themselves, and now the House was going to puzzle the service. We had no pretence to retry the cause. (An odd argument, if the Court had been puzzled, and had given an absurd sentence.) If the members of the Court would apply separately for revision, they might. For himself, he could not agree to weaken that Article; nor would it, he believed, be to any purpose. He had never seen a sea-sentence that a landsman could submit to. He wished the officers of the Navy were to be tried by a jury.
Campbell, a most humane and honest man, but who had never forgiven Mr. Pitt and the Grenvilles the share they had in overturning Sir Robert Walpole, and who had steadily adhered to Mr. Pelham and Fox, as successors of that Minister, could not help saying, that the law declared no execution could follow a marine trial, till the whole proceedings had been laid before the Admiralty. If they thought injustice had been done to Mr. Byng, would not they make earnest application for mercy?—if they made none, what must be the conclusion?
Beckford scrupled not to say, that the sentence was thought cruel; and Pitt, though owning how sensibly he felt the difficulty of speaking on that melancholy occasion, with true spirit avowed himself on the favourable side. The sentence, he said, had undergone discussion; for himself, he could never have agreed to it; but he thought the Legislature had nothing to do to advise the King on that his peculiar prerogative, mercy. He did wish it might be extended to the prisoner; and owned he thought more good would come from mercy than rigour. That it was more likely to flow from his Majesty, if he was left entirely free. For the Article, he did not wish, he said, to see discipline relaxed; but no Article could be enforced but when it was intelligible. And this being proved so obscure, it was not for the honour of national justice, that a sentence, issuing from its obscurity, should be carried into execution. Were Mr. Byng condemned of cowardice or disaffection, he himself, though single, would petition for execution. Of all men, the Commissioners of the Admiralty ought the least to interpose. But what indeed could add weight in the prisoner’s favour to the recommendation of his Judges?
Campbell, pursuing his blow, said, surely they who have all the proofs before them are the properest to enforce the recommendation of the Judges.
Sir Francis Dashwood, perceiving an impression of tenderness made, and unwilling to drive a majority to rigour, by furnishing them with the triumph of carrying a question, desired leave to withdraw his Motion on the Article; when Fox, who chose to wear, like the day, an aspect of compassion, and at the same time to fasten difficulty and unpopularity on the new Minister and his friends, rose to say, that he could not comprehend the delicacy of the Admiralty in not laying their scruples before the King. That during the nine years that himself had been Secretary at War, it had been his constant practice on all Courts-Martial to acquaint the King with any favourable circumstances that had appeared. That he had always found his Majesty disposed to lenity, and when he said nothing, the King would ask, “Have you nothing favourable to tell me?” Silence always implied that there was nothing. If the Lords of the Admiralty thought the Court-Martial meaned error of judgment, they ought to tell the King so. Any one Lord of the Admiralty might; Admiral Forbes might. That in signing the warrant, never till now had been used the words, “It is his Majesty’s pleasure.” He recommended it to them to consider the circumstances, and inform the King of them.
Pitt, in reply, bad him consider all that had passed for the last six months, and then judge if the Lords of the Admiralty were the proper persons to make representations on this case. He had no reason to expect any tenderness to himself or his friends; and, indeed, he supposed this speech of Fox was calculated to throw them under difficulties in another place. For himself, he had too much awe on his mind, to make so free with descriptions, as Fox had of personal colloquies.
Fox repeated, that this had been a very undue time to change the words, “the King’s consent,” to “the King’s pleasure.” In all late instances pleasure had never been used. That in what he had said, he had intended to agree with Mr. Pitt. On the present occasion he thought it particularly the duty of the Admiralty to speak out. And as to throwing them under difficulties, the more danger there would be in their speaking out, the more it was their duty. And to Mr. Pitt’s complaint of want of credit in the closet, he said, there never wanted a grain of ministerial influence to incline his Majesty to pardon.
Pitt asked, how Mr. Fox knew what might have passed on this occasion, when not an iota had transpired? His insinuations had been uncandid, nor had he egged Fox on to say what had fallen from him. The Speaker interposed; said, he disapproved these altercations, and begged they would only speak on what concerned the public. Hunter and Elliot produced precedents to show they had taken the word pleasure from the minutes in the books of the Admiralty. Prince George had particularly notified Queen Anne’s pleasure on Kirby and Wade: and the latter dropped, that it was decided by political writers, that in general Commanders-in-Chief should not be tried but for treachery. Lord Strange spoke to order, and to have the question read, that these discussions might be finished. The day concluded with Fox’s saying with great solemnity, that he had not said, and he thanked God had not heard, a word to exclude mercy—an asseveration he had better not have made. He had fastened the duty of representation on the Admiralty; if they applied for mercy, the odium would be theirs.—If they did not, the King remained in possession of pleading; that as the Admiralty had made no application for mercy, after being publicly exhorted to it, it was evident that they had no favourable circumstances to represent.
The next day Pitt did move the King for mercy, but was cut very short; nor did his Majesty remember to ask his usual question, whether there were any favourable circumstances? The Duke of Bedford, whose good heart broke from his connexions, applied too, was better heard, but with no better success. Mrs. Osborn, the Admiral’s sister, being advised to solicit the same Duke to present a petition from her, he excused himself, nor in all the openings to compassion that followed did his Grace take the least part; though he had been one of the most vehement to condemn the Court-Martial. He was always allowed by his governors to speak as he thought—seldom to act as he spoke. The same day seven of the Court-Martial applied to Lord Temple to intercede for mercy; he reported their solicitation to the King, but to no purpose.
25th.—Admiral Norris went to George Grenville, and told him he had something on his conscience which he wanted to utter, and desired Mr. Grenville to apply to the House of Commons to absolve them from their oath of secrecy. Grenville did not care to meddle in it. Norris, Keppel, and Moore, mentioned it again to him at the Admiralty that morning; and he declining it, Moore said to him with wrath, “Then, Sir, the Admiral’s blood will not lie on us.” It happened that Horace Walpole, who had taken this affair much to heart, was not then in Parliament, having vacated his seat for Castlerising, that he might be chosen at Lynn, by desire of the corporation, in the room of his cousin, become a peer by the death of his father, Lord Walpole. Coming late that day to the House, though not a member, Horace Walpole was told of the application that had been made to Mr. Grenville, and looking for him to try to engage him to undertake the cause, Walpole was told that Mr. Keppel desired to be absolved from his oath as well as Norris. Walpole ran up into the gallery, and asked Keppel if it was true? and being true, why he did not move the House himself? Keppel replied, that he was unused to speak in public, but would willingly authorize anybody to make application for him. “Oh! sir,” said Walpole, “I will soon find you somebody;” and hurried him to Fox, who, Walpole fondly imagined, could not in decency refuse such a request, and who was the more proper, from his authority in the House, and as a relation of Mr. Keppel. Fox was much surprised, knew not what to determine, said he was uncertain—and left the House.
The time pressed, the Speaker was going to put the question for the Orders of the Day, after which no new Motion can be made; it was Friday too; the House would sit neither on Saturday nor Sunday, and but a possibility of two days remained to intercept the execution, which was to be on Monday; and the whole operation of what Keppel should have to say, its effects, the pardon if procured, the dispatch to Portsmouth, and the reprieve, all to be crowded into so few hours! Walpole was in agony what step to take—at that instant he saw Sir Francis Dashwood going up the House; he flew down from the gallery, called Sir Francis, hurried the notification to him, and Sir Francis, with the greatest quickness of tender apprehension, (the Speaker had actually read the question and put it while all this was passing,) called out from the floor before he had time to take his place, “Mr. Speaker”—and then informed the House of Mr. Keppel’s desire that some method might be found of empowering him and the other members of the Court-Martial to declare what had been their intention in pronouncing Mr. Byng guilty.
Sir John Philipps opposed the Motion, saying, the cause was not before the House. George Townshend approved the question, saying he seconded it, not pleading so much for mercy to the prisoner, as to his Judges. Pitt rose and begged the House would consider seriously before they proceeded on so nice a matter: he wished first to see a direct application to the House. For himself, he should probably smart for it; he had received a menacing letter that very morning. He addressed himself to Keppel, wished he would break through his bashfulness and rise: it would be a foundation to him to vote for the Bill demanded; and then he should despise threats. Keppel rose. Dennis, a member of the Court-Martial, and of Parliament, was present, but had refused to join with Keppel in the application. The latter spoke with great sense and seriousness; declared, he did desire to be absolved from his oath; he had something on his mind that he wished to say. Many others of the Court-Martial, he said, had been with him that morning, and exhorted him to make the demand. Sir Richard Lyttelton said, another had been with him to the same end; and read a letter from the President, Admiral Smith, entreating him to move in the same cause. He then injudiciously went into the case of Mr. Byng, which, he said, he should think murder, if this method was not followed. Ellis had difficulties, he said; it ought to be known if the whole body desired this. It ought to be considered, that their opinions had been given in confidence of secrecy. Sir R. Lyttelton replied, Admiral Smith says they are all willing to be dispensed from their oath.
Lord Strange said, he had always been averse to meddling with Mr. Byng’s cause in Parliament, yet it was very difficult to avoid it, now the Judges themselves desired it. To refuse this dispensation to them would be a cruelty his blood ran cold at. Then the oath of secrecy being read, Thornbagh, a foolish man, who knew to do nothing but what he had sometimes seen done, moved for the Orders of the Day. Sir Francis Dashwood reprimanded him severely; and the House behaved with great decency: the Duke of Newcastle’s faction with total silence. Campbell, whose natural goodness could not on a surprise prefer the wrong side to the tender one, said, he rose for fear of being included in his opinion of the other day. He thought the Bill so necessary now, that he wished to have it read three times directly. George Grenville thought the members of the Court-Martial might speak without the Bill, as their oath only forbad them to divulge the opinion of any single man. Lord George Sackville was of the same opinion, and wished what had passed might be communicated to his Majesty without any address in form.
Keppel professed he had still doubts whether he could speak without a dispensing Act. Mr. Conway agreed with Lord George, and thought that such members of the Court-Martial as were in town ought to have a day to consider on it. Pitt said, he honoured Mr. Keppel for his doubt; wished him to consult with his friends that night; and told him, that in regard to them the House would sit the next day. For himself, he should in their case have no hesitation to speak without the Act, as they only desired to tell where it was most proper for them to tell: he hoped they would lay their sentiments at his Majesty’s feet the next morning. Some other opinions of no consequence following, Lord George Sackville begged the Debate might end, that Mr. Keppel might go immediately and consult his friends. Sir Francis Dashwood said they were not all in town; Mr. Keppel hoped if the major part were, it would be sufficient. The Speaker proposed that nothing of what had passed should be inserted in the votes.
26th.—A Cabinet Council was held to consider what was proper to be done on Mr. Keppel’s demand. Pitt told the King, that the House of Commons wished to have the Admiral pardoned. He replied shrewdly and severely, “Sir, you have taught me to look for the sense of my subjects in another place than in the House of Commons.”—However, it was determined that sentence should be respited for a fortnight, till the Bill could be passed, and his Majesty acquainted with what the members of the Court-Martial had to say. A temporary reprieve was accordingly dispatched to Portsmouth; and Mr. Pitt the same day delivered a message to the House of Commons, that his Majesty having been informed that a Member of that House had in his place declared that he had something of weight to say, which it was proper his Majesty should know, his Majesty had accordingly postponed execution till the matter could be cleared up. It had been objected in Council, that the words Member in his place would give offence, as unusual and inconsistent with the liberty of speech in Parliament, the Crown being supposed to have no knowledge or cognizance of what is said there. Pitt treated the objection with scorn; and, unluckily, commenced his Administration with a German subsidy and a breach of privilege.
Fox had immediate notice by Rigby from the Duke of Bedford of what had passed in Council, and came armed to attack Pitt on this indiscretion. Pitt had no sooner delivered the Royal Message, than Fox rose cavilling. He desired to have the Message read again:—there were words in it that struck his ear in a very extraordinary manner! The King having been informed that a Member in his place! Who informed him? Who betrayed to the Crown what was said in Parliament? What Minister was so ignorant as to advise the Crown to take notice of having had such intelligence? Did Ministers dare to avow that they made representations of the speeches of particular men? Indeed, it had now been done for a laudable purpose; but by the same rule might be practised for a bad one; and on no account must be suffered to strengthen into a precedent. He desired to be showed one instance since the reign of James the First, where the privileges of Parliament had been so sported with.
Pitt replied with great indignation, that the time had been too pressing to consult precedents. He had not thought the life of a man was to be trifled with while clerks were searching records. He had founded himself on a peculiarity of case, that was its own precedent, and could be so to no other: a precedent that could never be extended but by a wicked Parliament. He had been doing his duty in Parliament the day before, had heard the momentous doubts of Mr. Keppel, and had represented them:—he should have been ashamed to run away basely and timidly, and hide his head, as if he had murdered somebody under a hedge. It had been the sense of the House, that what had passed should be laid before his Majesty; and he had accordingly thought it his duty to represent it. What would Mr. Fox have done? not have represented it? “You, sir,” said he, to the Chair, “may enter it with proper caution.” He appealed to the House, if what he had done had not been directly implied; and concluded, that he was ready to undergo the correction of the House.
Fox replied with as much temper as the occasion seemed to call for resentment, (but it is not always true that one is most angry when one is most in the wrong,) that he did not think his observation had been indecent. That he would now say nothing to Mr. Pitt’s charge, but would prove his own conduct good-natured. Had he said some things that Mr. Pitt had said, he should have thought his nature base. It had not been necessary to express a member of the House in his place. Yet if the Speaker could think of any palliative way of entering it in the journals, he should never think of it more.
Pitt said, the manner had been chosen to show the public that every method had been taken to ease the mind of his Majesty: and Lord Strange bore him testimony, that the communication had been intended by the House: and however Parliament would take it, he knew it was manly and right.
Mr. Keppel then said, that the definitions given the day before of the oath had engaged his utmost attention: and he had represented as well as he could to some of his brethren what latitude it had been thought they might take in dispensing with it: but they were not altered in the least, and till an absolving Act should pass, could say nothing.
“Do they still desire the Act?” said Lord Strange. “Could anybody,” replied Keppel, “mention what weight they had on their minds, and not desire it still?”
The Speaker then, trimming between Pitt and Fox, declared himself extremely hurt with the words, pronounced them wrong, and of most dangerous consequence, and what had always been reckoned breaches of privilege;—he was satisfied there had been no bad intention in it. He knew Mr. Pitt would as soon lose his hand, as violate the rights of Parliament—indeed, there had been no necessity for the words in question; the message might have been worded differently; but he would pawn his soul there had been no wrong design in it. It might be entered, observing that objections had been made to the offensive phrase; the necessity of which might be stated too. For Mr. Fox, he had done his duty, and himself would do public right to him. “I did the same justice to Mr. Pitt,” said Fox. General Conway agreed that there had been little occasion to describe so particularly what had passed; and he asked whether it was necessary to enter the whole of the Message.
“The House,” said the Speaker, “may enter what it pleases; but it is a Message sent solemnly by the King, and I never knew an instance of overlooking it.” George Grenville went farther, and said, he would never consent to have it entered defectively. Beckford called the Bill so unpopular a measure, that he wished to have it imputed to the House of Commons, not to the King, who, he desired it might be reported, had yielded to it unwillingly, and only for the sake of justice: Pitt he commended. Sir Francis Dashwood, with much more sincerity, said he was glad of the Bill, come how it would. It was gracious of the King to give room for it, and wise of his Ministers. Fox asked, now the respite was granted, whether it were not better to wait for a petition from the Court-Martial before the Bill was passed? better to wait at least till Monday for some material information, which might be hinted in the petition. Sir Francis replied, that the very words of the Message from the Crown were, that a respite was granted till the Bill should pass. Would it be decent, after such a message, to say we will postpone the Bill, however, till the Court-Martial petitions? If six only of the thirteen should desire the Bill, would you not grant it? The House cried, “No, no!”—as if it was justice due to the consciences of an indefinite, and not of a determined number!
Nugent said, his constant opinion had been, that the Admiral was sentenced for error of judgment only; and the oath he thought only a conditional one.
Fox, after refining much on the oath, said it was impossible but at the desire of the whole number, to permit some to disclose the opinions of others. Each man might tell his own motives. At least, let the desires of the majority be taken. He then asked if it was proper that a set of Judges should go about for three weeks, hearing solicitations from the friends of the prisoner, and then come and complain of their own sentence? For his part, his feeling sometimes operated upon his reason, and, he supposed, did on that of others. See, then, whither solicitation and bribery might go. The King desires to have his doubts cleared up—but don’t let this Bill go immediately to pardon. Give way to the Bill—what was to follow would be a subsequent consideration. The Court had gone no farther than to acquit the Admiral of cowardice. He hoped the Parliament would ask the King for the examination, either, to rescind the sentence or to order a new trial. He had not, he said, run away basely the day before, but from his judgment: Mr. Keppel had told him what he meaned to do. He did not think himself necessary to every council, and had foreseen what confusion would follow. He had not voted against the Bill, and said, “Let Mr. Byng die on Monday.” He had gone away, his compassion struggling with his reason. On consideration, he had returned like a man to the hard part. If the King had felt, was it not proper he should feel too? He begged care might be taken not to establish this measure for a precedent; nor could it be reasonable to frame a new Article of War, because the Court-Martial had not understood the present. He should be for the Bill, though he would not (like Mr. Pitt) declare that most good would follow from pardon. Hearing a great Minister say so, he thought pardon was determined. Yet, for himself, he should have left the merit of it to the King’s mercy—but now it was the act of the Minister. He still wished to see more grounds for the Bill. He would not require any of the members of the Court, he would only enable such as thought fit, to discover what had passed. Something extraordinary he would have to conclude this extraordinary act.
The art and abilities of this speech are evident: it will be much more difficult to discover in it the good-nature he had promised to display.
Nugent expressed his disapprobation of two trials. Pitt declared he would speak very shortly and clearly; sometimes, he owned, he did speak too warmly. He gave much commendation to Mr. Fox’s speech, though he did not foresee the same consequences; nor would he decide, whether in the present instance Fox’s reason or good-nature had got the better. He defended Mr. Keppel’s behaviour, which had sprung from former proceedings, not from solicitation. [For] himself, [he] did not wish the Admiral saved out of compassion, but out of justice: “for how,” said he, “can it be for my interest to take the part I now do?—I look only at the sentence. Is it so necessary that he should be executed just now?” On the other hand he would not give time for the Court-Martial to be tampered with. Like Fox, he had wished for better grounds; but when Mr. Keppel rose and pronounced what he did, it was irresistible. It became the unanimous opinion of the House to yield to his emotions. Some even would have passed the Bill that very day. Nor had anything ever come before Parliament that almost commanded such rapidity. “Ought not,” said he, “Mr. Byng, ought not his family, to be put out of that cruel situation? ought not the King? ought not the Court-Martial, some of whom were on the point of sailing to America? Why hang this matter up for some days, in which the fate of the nation might be decided?” There was nothing of party in this—any number that were willing to tell, ought to be heard: might not they want to say that they had thought themselves bound to find error of judgment capital? To them he would have the Article explained. He feared, if this was pending too long it might produce riots.
Henley, the Attorney-General, endeavoured still to show that the Bill was unnecessary, and that the members might dispense with their oath. He suggested that the Bill might be rejected in the other House; and asked, who was to examine the members of the Court-Martial?
Doddington said, he had sought compassion and relief—had found compassion even when he called; but relief could only come constitutionally through justice. The Court-Martial indeed did at last perceive that they might have been mistaken. Were he in their place, he should not have waited for a Bill—he should have thought a life was to be saved at any rate.
Legge declared himself free from any bias one way or other. Had Mr. Byng been found guilty, nobody would be more ready to condemn him: but it appeared that he was only a sacrifice to discipline; and we must not imagine that we should draw down blessings on our Fleets by human sacrifices. He begged that, by adhering to the letter of this Article, demonstrated to be both obscure and severe, they would not prevent Courts-Martial from bringing in nobody guilty.
Martin proposed that the members of the Court should be asked directly, if they had meant error of judgment: and then, if they thought error of judgment capital.
Lord George Sackville begged the Debate might finish, as the longer the question was agitated, the more difficulties would be started. Potter accordingly brought in the Bill, and it was read the first time. Fox then asked Mr. Keppel, which of his associates had empowered him to make the demand? He named, Holmes, Norris, Geary, and Moore. Fox said he asked this, because it was reported that none of the members desired to be absolved from their oath. The Bill was read the second time. Fox said, the King’s message prescribed a separate examination on oath; he hoped that direction would be observed. Potter moved to proceed to the Committee on the Bill. Lord Strange and Haldane objected; but Pitt asking if they wished to detain Holbourn, Broderick, and Holmes at home at so critical a time; and how they could proceed on Monday, if their difficulties were not then stated in the Committee; it was agreed that the Committee should immediately sit; and Fox said, that now it was agreed to have the Bill, the sooner it should pass the better. He moved, and was seconded by Pitt, that the members of the Court-Martial should be examined on oath. It was then settled that they were to disclose what they had to say only to the King and Council: that they should only tell the motives of their own behaviour, not those of others. George Grenville added a clause, that they should not be obliged to speak, if not willing. The Bill went through the Committee, and was ordered to be reported on Monday.
It may easily be imagined what variety of passions were excited by this extraordinary affair. Curiosity to know what black management had left such[77] scruples on the minds of some of the Judges of the Court-Martial, was the common and natural consequence: the very novelty of tools of power sinking under a consciousness of guilt, or under the conviction of having unwittingly been made the tools of power, was sufficient to raise the utmost attention. The few poor well-wishers of the condemned saw a gleam of truth darting upon a prison which they had scarce ventured to incur the odium of approaching—and if there had been such black management (a question scarce admitting an if, considering all that had preceded and all that followed) the actors in so dark a tragedy undoubtedly did not feel the most pleasing sensations from the illustration that now seemed unavoidable. The latter description of men appeared to be in danger of changing unpopular situations with the Admiral—they were soon the only satisfied class, the only triumphant—for by the very next day after the Bill had been read in the House of Commons, by Sunday evening it was blazed over the town, that the four sea-officers named by Mr. Keppel disclaimed him, and denied having empowered him to apply in their names. Mr. Pitt was thunderstruck—and well he might: he saw what consequences Fox would draw from this disavowal. Enquiry was made into the truth of the report. Holmes and Geary persisted that they had not commissioned Keppel. Sir Richard Lyttelton, an intimate friend of the latter, applied to him, and, as Sir Richard himself told me within an hour after he had seen Geary, begging him to consider the injustice and dishonourableness of retracting what he had authorized Keppel to say; he replied in these very words, “It will hurt my preferment to tell.”
Can I pass over these words cursorily?—or rather, do they want a comment? What dissertation could express more fully than they do themselves all they contained? Who had power to stop a sea-officer’s preferment? would it hurt his preferment to tell what affected no[78] powerful man with guilt? Did those words imply that he had nothing to tell? As thick a veil as was drawn over the particulars of this transaction, can it be doubted but that particulars there were of a heinous dye? And though Mr. Keppel’s scruples were treated as idle, though it was asserted that he had nothing to tell, though he saw Mr. Byng die, without telling; did not that attention of Geary to his interest supply articulation to Mr. Keppel’s conscience?—a fact that I shall mention presently, when the father[79] of the man whose power Geary dreaded, asked for a day of peculiar significance, will explain and cannot in the nature of things be disjoined from that sagacious captain’s conception of what interests were concerned to impose silence on the Court-Martial.
Monday, 28th.—The Bill was reported, and Potter moved to have it read the third time; when Fox rising, said, he heard some information was going to be given, which ought to precede any progress in the Bill. Holmes, a brother of one of the four, said, he had heard something had passed on Saturday, which he supposed the gentleman that had occasioned it would stand up and explain. Keppel rose, and said, he had particularized the names of four, who he understood and did believe had commissioned him to move the House on their behalf. That Holmes had said, “Sure you mistook me!” Another of them said the same. He argued it with them; they persisted, and said he had mistaken: Holmes adding, “I am easy in my mind, and desire to say nothing farther.” That he believed it would be useless to call Mr. Holmes. That for Geary, he was not absolutely off nor on, but should have no objection to speak if all were compelled. For the other two, Norris and Moore, they were desirous to abide by what they had said; that they had even written him a letter, in which they said, “The world says we have varied, but we desire to adhere to what we told you.” He read their letter, in which were these words: “We do authorize you to solicit for the Bill.” For himself, he thought his honour clear: when he had first spoken, it was from the uneasiness of his mind. He was told his oath did not bind him: he thought it did. If the House would think fit to relieve him, he should be glad. When he signed the sentence, he thought he did right—he had since been startled at what he had done.
Thus, of the four named, two adhered: one (Geary) did not prove that Keppel mistook him. Whether he mistook Holmes must remain a doubt—it is scarce probable that Holmes had been very positive against the measure: Keppel would scarce have named a man, who was far from agreeing with him. That it will remain a doubt too, whether there had not been unwarrantable practices in, or even with, the Court-Martial, is the fault of those who stifled conscientious evidence. Charity itself would grow suspicious, had it observed all I observed; and yet I give but as suspicions what I do not know was fact. That some wished for time to practise afterwards on the Court-Martial; that Geary was willing to be practised on; and that some were practised on before they appeared in the House of Lords, can, I think, never be a doubt more.
Fox assured Mr. Keppel that his character was not affected by what Holmes and Geary had said: the Bill indeed was affected by it: yet what he would have done for five, he would do for three; that is, if the three would petition for it. Of the Court-Martial, seven, he observed, were in town. Of them, Holbourn had declined to meddle; Dennis had withdrawn from the House; Holmes declared himself easy in his mind; Geary had desired not to speak, unless the whole number did. Thus a majority of those in town did not approve the Bill. He therefore desired that the three willing ones would sign a petition, saying, in their opinions they had something to tell material for the King’s information. If it was not material enough to have the sentence reversed, but only that they might explain their own motives, he should not think the Bill necessary.
Nugent said, though not one should apply, the absurdity of the sentence was glaring enough to call for the Bill. Fox interrupted him, speaking to order—the sentence was not before the House. Nugent replied, every man in the House had read the sentence—could they, who, in conscience, honour, and justice, had signed the letter for mercy, refuse to speak if their mouths were opened? Fox said, the sentence and letter ought first to be called for. The sentence was on oath, the letter not. He affirmed he did not believe they had anything material to say. Would Mr. Keppel say he thought it material?
Velters Cornwall condemned the Bill, and said, Mr. Byng had undone one Ministry, was going to undo another: the King had been advised ignobly and unwisely.
Colonel John Fitzwilliam, who had never opened before in Parliament, came with much importance and a list of questions to examine Mr. Keppel; but they were so absurd and indecent, that at every one the House expressed their disgust by a groan—such were, “Had he not voted Mr. Byng to be shot because he thought he deserved it? Did he not think so still? Would his conscience be easier after he had spoken?”—It is sufficient to say of this man, that his character was hateful. In the Army he was odious as a spy and creature of the Duke. That very morning he had passed two hours with Mr. Keppel, labouring to divert him from his purpose. Stanley severely censured Fitzwilliam, observing that he had put many questions to Keppel, which he was under oath not to discover, and from which this Bill was calculated to absolve him: and he took notice sensibly, (of what seemed to have been totally overlooked,) that any man who is to die, has at least a right to know for what he is to die. Fox urged, that the words of the Royal Message were, “because their discovery may show the sentence to be improper.” From Mr. Keppel’s present silence, he inferred that there was nothing material to be discovered. He moved to call Norris and Moore, to hear if what they had to say would affect the sentence. But Sir Francis Dashwood objected, that this was the very question which the House was passing the Bill in order to have answered. Mr. Keppel (who Mr. Fox might have suspected had had other solicitations than from the relations of the Admiral) rose, and said, he would explain himself as fully as he could:—when he signed, he thought he did right—he would go further—no, he had better not—had uneasiness, or would never have signed the letter of intercession—the explanation of the Article has increased his inquietude—he had rather it should be thought poor weakness than a desire of giving trouble. He concluded with these words: “I do think my desire of being at liberty does imply something great, and what his Majesty should know.” The House was struck:—Fox said, “I am satisfied. Afterwards I shall propose means to prevent such Bills for the future.”
Charles Townshend, who had taken no part hitherto, and who had followed Mr. Pitt into a system built on the ruin of Mr. Fox, said, to the surprise of everybody, that he had intended to second Fox, but was content too. He congratulated the House on obtaining these grounds for their proceedings by Mr. Fox’s means. His brother, offended at this wonderful declaration, told him, if he had been present the first day, he would not have wanted those grounds. Charles appealed to the House, if first, second, or third day, they had been so fully explained. Pitt, still more provoked, said, with the utmost contempt, and with the most marked accent, no man of common sense or common integrity could say this matter had been opened on any other foundation—yet he wished Charles Townshend joy that his conscience was made easy. But how did it appear that the King was so misinformed? “May I,” added Pitt, “fall when I refuse pity to such a suit as Mr. Keppel’s, justifying a man who lies in captivity and the shadow of death! I thank God, I feel something more than popularity; I feel justice!” The Message, he owned, had been disorderly, and he was under correction for it, yet it was strict truth. For this attack, it went to the very veracity of a man: but he did not, like Fox and Townshend, go upon hearsay. For his part, if his country were safe that day twelvemonth, he should pray that Mr. Fox might be in his place, nor would he use those miserable arts that are employed to prop a wretched station. He congratulated the House on that act of necessary justice. His equal wish was, that Mr. Byng might live or die to the satisfaction of the nation.
Fox, sneering and insulting, said, he was glad Mr. Pitt had heard commendations of him from Mr. Charles Townshend[80]—indeed they had a little ruffled Mr. Pitt’s temper. By his wishing to continue in the Administration for a twelvemonth, he seemed to think he could save this country. For himself, he had not been driven out; he had had reasons for retiring. Since, had he obstructed any public measure? Had he, totidem verbis, proposed some questions that had been opposed last year, they would have been opposed again: he had chosen rather to retire; and in the distressed situation of his country, would not oppose; unless he saw measures carried on destructive to England, or distressful to his Majesty. His own consistence should be literal, lest afterwards he should not have parts enough to show it was substantial—indeed, he had never understood a Court.
The Speaker observed, that two-thirds of what both had said, was nothing to the question. Pitt replied, that he was surprised at being coupled with Mr. Fox, who had spoken five times, he but once—yet Fox had not been suppressed. “Could I,” said he, “sit silent under the accusation of misinforming the King?” The Speaker vindicated himself, talked of his unbiassed impartiality and integrity; and the Bill passed, Cornwall dividing the House with 22 more against 153; and it was sent to the Lords.