CHAPTER XIV.
Lord Bute humiliates the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Grenville.—General Conway moves the Repeal of the Stamp Act.—Obtains leave to bring in a Bill.—Excited State of the Country.—Recommitment moved and rejected.—Desultory Opposition.—Final Debate.—The Repeal passed by a large Majority.—Conduct of Lord Rockingham.
While the House of Commons was busied in continuing to read American papers, and in other necessary affairs of the year, various attempts were carrying on for cementing that union between Lord Bute and the Opposition in reality, which seemed to exist, and in their votes did exist between them in Parliament. I have said that the Favourite every now and then hung out, by the intervention of his creatures, hopes of his pardon and protection to the late Ministers—with little sincerity, as the event showed. Partly, I believe, his conduct was actuated by a view of aweing the new Ministers into more deference for him; partly to prevent the diminution of the Crown’s authority, by relaxation towards the Americans. Certain it is, that Colonel Graeme, the Queen’s Secretary and much a confident, had indirectly and by an oblique channel opened a kind of negotiation. George Grenville, the most untractable of men, and the most unforgiving, recoiled at the proposal; and, even to save his darling Act, could scarce be brought to bow the knee again to the Favourite. It was with difficulty that he would hear of any other terms but a dismission of the Ministers before the fatal repeal should be passed. At length, the severe attacks made on him in the House of Commons, and threats of impeachments for having suppressed material notices, relative to the dangerous situation and humour of the Colonies, even from the year 1764, which Lord Halifax had been ordered by the King to lay before Parliament and had stifled, wrought on his stubborn temper; to which were added the despotic command of his imperious and intriguing elder brother, who, however, had the address to wriggle himself out of open genuflexion to the Favourite. By the intervention of the Duke of York, Lord Temple prevailed to have a meeting, of himself, his brother, and the Duke of Bedford, with the Favourite, at the house of Lord Eglinton, a Scotch emissary, alternately devoted to the Duke of York, to the Favourite, and to Lord Temple; at the same time Lord of the Bedchamber to the King. Towards the middle of January this extraordinary congress was settled and brought to bear; though, at the hour of meeting, Lord Temple excused himself from attending it. The Favourite, however, had the triumph of beholding the Duke of Bedford and George Grenville prostrate before him, suing for pardon, reconciliation, and support. After enjoying this spectacle of their humiliation for some minutes, the lofty Earl, scarce deigning to bestow upon them above half a score monosyllables, stiffly refused to enter into connection with them; on which the Duke of Bedford said, hastily, “he hoped, however, that what had passed would remain a profound secret.” “A secret!” replied the Favourite, “I have done nothing I am ashamed of,—has your Grace?”—and quitted the room. As if Lord Bute’s refusal of secrecy made it prudent to expose even more than Lord Bute could tell, the Duke went home, and at dinner, with sixteen persons, and before all the servants, he related what had passed; and then said to the Duchess and his court, “I was against taking this step, but you would make me.” Not nine months had intervened between the dismission of his brother Mackenzie by that faction, and their abject application to the Favourite for protection. What a trade is the politician’s, when it can so debase the human mind! Comfort yourself, ye poor, ye necessitous; what is the servility of your lot compared to this of titles and riches?
On the 21st of February the House of Commons came at last to the great question of the repeal of the Stamp Act. The Opposition endeavoured to fight it off by pretending fresh accounts were that very morning arrived of a disposition in some of the Colonies, particularly New York, to submit to the Act; from whence was inferred the inutility of repealing it. But this was properly treated as the lie of the day; and had no effect. General Conway moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal that Act; and drew an affecting and alarming picture of the mischiefs it had occasioned and threatened. All orders for goods from this country were stopped: the North Americans would neither take any more, nor pay for what they had had. Eight merchants, who had received orders to the amount of 400,000l., had received counter-orders. The debt to those merchants amounted to 950,000l. Antigua was near ruined by famine. The tax fell chiefly on the poor, particularly on the poor of Georgia. At home, the situation of our manufacturers was most calamitous. Nottingham had dismissed a thousand hands: Leicester, Leeds, and other towns in proportion. Three in ten of the labourers of Manchester were discharged. The trade of England was not only stopped, but in danger of being lost. If trade suffered, land would suffer in its turn. Petitions would have been sent from every trading town in England, but that they apprehended that the very hearing of their petitions would delay the repeal. Every part of the Act breathed oppression. It annihilated juries: and the Admiralty courts might drag a man three hundred miles from his habitation. The fisheries were in equal danger. The right of taxation he did not doubt would be given for us in Westminster Hall; but the conflict would ruin both countries. We had but five thousand men in three thousand miles of territory: the Americans an hundred and fifty thousand fighting men. If we did not repeal the Act, he did not doubt but France and Spain would declare war, and protect the Americans. As the Colonies would not take our manufactures, they would set up of their own. He had a piece of cloth, he said, in his pocket, made at Philadelphia, as cheap as in England. Would the House risk the whole for so trifling an object as this Act modified?
I will not detail the rest of the debate, the essence of which had been so much anticipated. The great, and no trifling argument on the other side, was the danger from being beaten out of an Act of Parliament, because disagreeable to those on whom it fell; and the high probability that the Americans would not stop there; but, presuming on their own strength, and the timidity of the English Government, would proceed to extort a repeal of the Act of Navigation. Grenville particularly exposed the futility of declaring a right which the Government would not dare to exert: and he pushed the Ministers home with giving up the brightest jewel of the Crown, the right of taxation. How would they justify it to his Majesty?—how to future Administrations? Mr. Pitt, who acknowledged his perplexity in making an option between two such ineligible alternatives, pronounced, however, for the repeal, as due to the liberty of unrepresented subjects, and in gratitude to their having supported England through three wars. He begged to stand a feeble isthmus between English partiality and American violence. He would give the latter satisfaction in this point only. If America afterwards should dare to resist, he would second a resolution of the most vigorous nature to compel her with every man and every ship in this country.
At half an hour past one in the morning the committee divided, and the motion was carried by 275 to 167. This majority, though the question was but a prelude to the repeal, decided the fate of that great political contest. And though Lord Rockingham with childish arrogance and indiscretion vaunted in the palace itself that he had carried the repeal against the King, Queen, Princess-dowager, Duke of York, Lord Bute, the Tories, the Scotch, and the Opposition, (and it was true he had,) yet in reality it was the clamour of trade, of the merchants, and of the manufacturing towns, that had borne down all opposition.[246] A general insurrection was apprehended as the immediate consequence of upholding the bill; the revolt of America, and the destruction of trade, was the prospect in future. A nod from the Ministers would have let loose all the manufacturers of Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, and such populous and discontented towns, who threatened to send hosts to Westminster to back their demand of repeal. As it was, the lobby of the House, the Court of Requests, and the avenues were beset with American merchants. As Mr. Conway went away they huzzaed him thrice, stopped him to thank and compliment him, and made a lane for his passage. When Mr. Pitt appeared, the whole crowd pulled off their hats, huzzaed, and many followed his chair home with shouts and benedictions. The scene changed on the sight of Grenville. The crowd pressed on him with scorn and hisses. He, swelling with rage and mortification, seized the nearest man to him by the collar. Providentially the fellow had more humour than spleen—“Well, if I may not hiss,” said he, “at least I may laugh,”—and laughed in his face. The jest caught—had the fellow been surly and resisted, a tragedy had probably ensued.
On the following Monday, when the report was to be made from the committee, Grenville’s friends, seeing the inutility of their struggles, laboured to persuade him to contest the matter no farther; but it was too much to give up his favourite bill and his favourite occupation, talking, both at once. The last debate, too, had been much abridged by the impatience of the committee, worn out by so many successive discussions of the same subject. Many speakers had not been attended to; others forced to sit down without being heard. Something of this was imputed to the partiality of Rose Fuller, the Chairman; and, before he could make his report, Mr. Shifner ironically proposed to thank him for his great impartiality;[247] Onslow defended, and moved to thank him seriously. This provoked so much, that Fuller was accused of not doing his duty by suppressing the riots and insults offered to several members who had voted against the repeal. The indignities heaped on George Grenville were particularized; and he himself said that both England and America were now governed by the mob. Conway quieted the dispute by declaring the pains taken by the Administration to prevent far greater tumults and extensive petitioning.
Lord Strange then proposed to postpone the Report, that, since repeal was intended, the House might rescind its resolution on the right of taxing, which would be inconsistent with giving it up. This the majority would not allow; and Dyson, on the modifying plan, hinting that internal taxes might be laid to ascertain the right, Lord Palmerston said, that modifying would be giving up the right and retaining the oppression. The Report being then made, Oswald moved to recommit it. Hussey showed the badness of the Act, which all allowed, (even Grenville having offered to correct it,) and declared the most advisable method was a requisition to the Provinces to raise money for the service of the Government. Norton broke out on the resistance of the Colonies, and said, that to resist a known law was High Treason. Huske, a wild, absurd man, very conversant with America, had still sense enough to show that the Americans could not be independent, for they would be obliged to lay an internal tax for the support of their own paper-currency, and could not impose that tax without the consent of Parliament. T. Townshend referred to a letter of Governor Bernard (a great favourite of Grenville, and warm for the sovereignty of England) in which he had advised to get rid of the Stamp Act. At eleven at night the recommitment was rejected by 240 to 133; and the Bill for Repeal was ordered to be brought in.
Dr. Blackstone then moved an instruction to the committee for bringing in the bill, that all votes of the Assemblies should be expunged that were repugnant to the rights of the Legislature of Great Britain. Mr. Yorke said, that an Act declaratory of the right would be a virtual expunging of their votes. This George Grenville treated with much contempt, and as a mere evasion; and let loose all his acrimony against the Ministers for reversing his Stamp Act. Conway said he was surprised at so much fondness for a bill which the late Ministers had so much neglected while they had power to enforce it. He had been looking for the orders they had given, and could find but one, and that from the Treasury, settling how much poundage should be deducted from the profits of the Stamp-duty. This had been their only order till the 12th of July, when they had determined to send a military force. (This was at the conclusion of their power.) Grenville replied, orders had been given, for Stamp-officers had been appointed. At near two in the morning Dr. Blackstone’s motion was rejected without a division.
The Bill of Repeal was but faintly opposed in its course, the Opposition reserving their fire for the third reading. Wedderburne and Dyson, however, moved to annex a clause declaratory of the law, and enacting that in case any person or persons should print, or cause to be printed, any paper calling the said law in question, or abuse it in any manner whatsoever, should be guilty of a præmunire. The Ministers objected; and Rose Fuller, with severe invectives on the Tories, said such a motion would have been well-timed in the reigns of Henry VIII. or Charles II. Wedderburne replied by showing he had taken the words of his motion from the Act of Settlement. The motion was rejected.
March 4th was fixed for passing the declaratory Bill of Right, and the Repeal. Mr. Pitt objected again to the first, and avowed his opinion that the Parliament had no right of taxing North America while unrepresented. “He had heard,” he said, “that this opinion had been treated in his absence as nonsense, as the child of ignorance, as the language of a foreigner who knew nothing of the Constitution. Yet the common law was his guide; it was civil law that was the foreigner.” To this he added severe reflections on Dr. Hay, the person he alluded to, for having adopted arbitrary notions from the civil law. “For himself, he was sorry to have been treated as an overheated enthusiastic leveller, yet he had served the highest and best Prince in Christendom, and the most valiant and brave nation, and never would change his opinions till the day of his death. If he was one of the weakest men in the kingdom, at least he was one of the soberest;[248] had no animosities, no pursuits; he wished to live and die a dutiful subject, and to see such an Administration as the King should like, and the people approve. Wales had never been taxed till represented; nor did he contend for more than had been given up to Ireland in the reign of King William.” He quoted one or two authors; said he was a solitary, unconversing man, and not a very reading man neither; but he loved old books and old friends; and though his books and his opinions might be nonsensical, he should still adhere to them; and declared he never gave his dissent with more dislike to a question than he now gave it at present.” Dr. Hay excused himself, and pleaded having been misrepresented; and then he and Rigby argued for the repeal, if it must pass, without the declaratory law. Mr. Pitt moved to leave out the words in all cases whatsoever; and the debate turned chiefly on the resemblance or non-resemblance of Ireland to America, in the privileges enjoyed by the former. The amendment was rejected, and the bill passed.[249]
The Bill for Repeal was then read for the last time, and eagerly and obstinately combated by Grenville and his party. Bamber Gascoyne produced a letter written to Liverpool, by Sir William Meredith, in which the latter had said to the Mayor, “Lord Bute’s friends, Mr. Grenville’s party and the rank Tories, voted for this bloody question; and considering we had been beaten twice in the House of Lords, we were surprised to find our numbers were 275 to 167; I hope soon to send you word of the repeal. P. S.—Mr. Pitt will soon be at the head of affairs.”
Pitt rose and said, He had heard somewhere, no matter where—a bird in the air had told him—of a meeting that had lately been held (between Bute, Bedford, and Grenville) of which he could not learn the particulars; but had heard that at that meeting the noble Lord (Bute) behaved like himself and like a nobleman. It was a name which had been much bandied about in a way it did not deserve. “I am inflexibly bent,” continued he, “to resist his return to power; but how could that prophet (Sir W. Meredith) imagine a thing so improbable as that I should be at the head, when I am so extremely at the tail of affairs, as I am now, with five friends in the other House, and four in this? In the order and class of salutary and preventive things, I never felt greater satisfaction than in giving my vote for this repeal. You could not subsist and be a people with that defalcation of imports. America is over-glutted with nothing but the Stamp Act. Nothing but a disposition to heal and strengthen the Government can make you a people. I have my doubts if there would have been a Minister to be found who would have dared to have dipped the royal ermines in the blood of the Americans. This country, like a fine horse, to use a beautiful expression of Job, whose neck is clothed in thunder, if you soothe and stroke it, you may do anything; but if an unskilful rider takes it in hand, he will find that, though not vicious, yet it has tricks. I repeat it, I never had greater satisfaction than in the repeal of this Act.”
This speech gave great offence to Grenville, who replied, “Let his bird have told him what it would, yet, in justice to the noble Lord (Bute), he would declare that it was impossible to behave better than he had done; but why was that meeting mentioned? to what end? He had heard a bird speak, too, of a meeting, or meetings, on other occasions. But the gentleman had doubted whether a Minister would have been found to dip the royal ermines in blood;—no, sir, not dip the royal ermines in blood; but I am one who declare, if the tax was to be laid again, I would do it; and I would do it now if I had to choose; since he has exerted all his eloquence so dangerously against it, it becomes doubly necessary. It is necessary from the increase of the debt in the late war; he knows I was against the enormous expense of the German war. Are all those boasted triumphs shrunk to the meanness of supporting such a measure as this? I envy not the popularity; let him have the bonfire; I rejoice in the hiss. Was it to do again, I would do it.”
Pitt desired to say one word in answer. “What that bird, alluded to two years ago, did say, I will tell gentlemen. The noble Lord (Bute) came to my lodging on a message from the King—I suppose because I was lame—not to converse with a hermit, but about coming into the King’s service. The noble Lord behaved with great fairness. I had an interview; was dismissed with the same marks of favour by the King. Some time ago I had another meeting with a royal person (Duke of Cumberland), who is no more. I objected to the brother of the noble Lord being Minister for Scotland; had no objection to his having a sinecure. I was again dismissed with the same graciousness by the King. But I am charged with the expense of the German war. If the honourable gentleman had such strong objections to that war, why did he not resign his post of Treasurer of the Navy?” Grenville had nothing to reply; and in fact it ill became him to plead disapprobation of measures in which he had concurred, rather than resign so very lucrative an employment.
The repeal passed by 250 to 122. It made its way even through the House of Lords by a majority of more than thirty, but was followed by a strenuous protest drawn up by Lord Lyttelton. Lord Camden took the same part as Mr. Pitt, and declared against the right of taxing. He also detected Lord Mansfield, who had quoted two laws that had never existed. As I am possessed of no notes relative to the debates in that House, I do not pretend to extend the detail of them. The most remarkable event was Lord Bute’s speaking: he censured the timidity of the repeal, wished to see firm and able Ministers, and denied enjoying any present influence, and protested against accepting any future power.
The victorious Ministers having thus secured a majority on the most difficult point, determined to make use of it to alleviate other aggrieved subjects, and to extend their own popularity. The tax on Cider had given great uneasiness to the Western counties, particularly from its being collected by the mode of excise. The City of London had adopted those disgusts; and Lord Bute, under whose Administration the tax had been laid, had sunk beneath the panic after he had carried the measure. To alter that mode of collection was the next step taken by the Ministers; and they found it no difficult task to obtain the assent of so time-serving a Parliament, who by turns enacted and repealed whatever was proposed to them, and who supported every successive Minister of that period, and deserted him the moment he lost his power. I do not know that other Parliaments have not, or would not have been as bad; but no Parliament ever had so many opportunities of being impudent. The Opposition not well pleased with Lord Bute’s ineffectual support, and angry that he did no more than encourage them to oppose, were little anxious to save the honour of his Cider Act, and the repeal of the excise passed easily.
In all these debates, nothing was more marked than the acrimony between Grenville and Conway. The latter appeared to be a much abler man of business than had been expected. Mr. Dowdeswell, on the contrary, sunk much in the estimation of mankind, and seemed but a duller edition of Mr. Grenville, though without his malignity. Never did the intemperate rage of talking, which possessed the latter, display itself more copiously than on the debates relative to the Stamp Act. It occasioned his being ridiculed with much humour.
The man who did not make long speeches, but who absented himself on pretence of illness on most of the debates, was Charles Townshend. He was afraid, by speaking, of losing a place which nothing had given, nothing could preserve, but his speaking.
But though the heat of the day lay on Conway, the power was solely engrossed by Lord Rockingham. He admitted the Duke of Grafton and Mr. Conway to no partnership. He was even so indiscreet as to bestow on a relation of his own the vacant place of Commissioner of the Revenue in Ireland, which had been promised by Lord Hertford, the Lord-Lieutenant, to an Irishman of note.[250] This occasioned ill-blood between the Lord-Lieutenant, Conway’s brother, and the head of the Treasury. Lord Hertford, whose great property lay in that country, and who had always assiduously courted the Irish, was at first very successful there. But his economic temper, malevolently exaggerated, and too great propensity to heap emoluments on his children, though in few instances, and an appearance of similitude in the disposition of his son, Lord Beauchamp, soured the conclusion of that Session of Parliament, and occasioned to the Viceroy several mortifications.