About the same time a convention was signed with Spain, which terminated the long-subsisting disputes respecting the British settlements on the Mosquito shore and the Bay of Honduras. By this treaty the Mosquito settlements were formally relinquished; and, in return, the boundaries of those on the coast and Bay of Honduras were somewhat extended. In a political point of view this convention answered a valuable purpose, by removing a source of national disputes; but it is to be regretted that the claims of humanity and justice were overlooked. The Mosquito settlers, who amounted to many hundred families, and who had from time immemorial occupied their lands, under British protection, were ordered to evacuate the country in eighteen months; nothing further being stipulated in their favour, than that the king of Spain should “order his governors to grant to the said settlers all possible facilities for their removal to the settlements agreed on by the present convention.” In all measures for the public good, the rights of private individuals should be regarded, but, by this treaty, they were manifestly sacrificed.
AFFAIRS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.
During this year the affairs of the Prince of Wales attracted much notice. At its commencement he had formed an acquaintance with a widow lady of the name of Fitzherbert: a lady several years older than himself, but still possessing many personal attractions. They resided together at Brighton, and it was first supposed, and then asserted, that they were married according to the Romish ritual, and the story gained sufficient credence as to be subsequently noticed in the house of commons. The money spent in her support, and in orgies, and gambling, rendered the income which he possessed from the civil list, and the Duchy of Cornwall revenues, &c., amounting to £64,000 per annum, wholly inadequate to meet his expenditure, and the consequence was, that he had contracted debts to the amount of more than £100,000, beside £50,000 expended on Carleton-house. The young prince had long incurred his majesty’s displeasure for the countenance which he gave to the leaders of opposition, and to the Whigs in general; and this displeasure was deepened by his connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert, and his extravagances. His majesty, indeed, was deeply afflicted by the conduct of the heir apparent, and his orgies were more particularly distressing to him, from the circumstance that they were carried on at a period when, at the prayer of Mr. Wilberforce and other pious gentlemen, he had issued a royal proclamation against vice and immorality, and all kinds of Swearing, drunkenness, and licentiousness. It is said that both the king and queen had many conversations with him on his dissipated conduct, and that the latter exerted a mother’s influence to detach him from the Whigs, and especially from Fox, who stood the highest in his favour. All their exertions, however, were unavailing: he still drank and gambled, and still retained his connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert and the Whigs. It is probable that had he listened to the advice and remonstrances of their majesties, that provision would have been made for the payment of his debts; but when it was found that he resolved to follow his own course, the king resolved that no assistance should be afforded him, either out of his own private purse, or by a vote in parliament. In the preceding session, when Pitt called the attention of the house to the civil list, Sheridan, who was the most constant companion of the prince, and was wont by his wit to set his table in a roar, took an opportunity of mentioning his patron’s embarrassments, and Pitt replied that he had received no commands from his majesty on the subject, and therefore could not interfere. This was of bad omen to any application that might be made to his majesty on the subject, for Pitt doubtless knew that his majesty had resolved not to recommend its attention to the members of parliament. Nevertheless, though the prince knew of his father’s estrangement from him, he afterwards sent Lord Southampton, his groom of the stole, to lay the state of his affairs before his majesty. Lord Southampton was graciously received; but the schedule of his royal highness’s debts was too long to admit of a prompt reply, and he did not obtain any definite answer to his application. A month elapsed, and then the king informed his son by letter, that he could sanction neither a motion in the commons for the increase of his income, nor a motion for a grant to discharge his debts. For some time a plan had been recommended by his friends, the Whigs, for the dismissal of the officers of his court, and the reduction of the establishment of his household to that of a private gentleman; and this the prince now resolved to carry into effect. Coach-horses, race-horses, and saddle-horses were all sold; a stop was put to the works at Carleton-house; the state-apartments were shut up; the prince dismissed his officers; and he descended so low as to live like a private gentleman. By this step his estimated savings were £40,000 per annum; and this was to be set apart, and vested in trustees, for the payment of his debts. The act was a noble one if the motive was pure; but that demands a doubt. His majesty had before been declaimed against as parsimonious and harsh; and he was now represented as an unnatural parent and a merciless miser, who was hording up millions, which he had neither the taste nor the spirit to employ; while, on the other hand, the prince was held up as a living miracle of honour, and a martyr to his high principles and delicate feelings. The advisers of the young prince, doubtless, foresaw that this would be the consequence if he was compelled to make the sacrifice; and the prince himself could scarcely be a stranger to their expectations. But though, for the honour of natural affection, he may be acquitted of the charge of wishing to bring his father into contempt, yet it seems clear he had an idea that by sinking into obscurity, and, by consequence, lowering the dignity of the high rank to which he belonged, he should obtain both an increase of income and a grant for the payment of his debts. But the event did not justify such an anticipation. All the members of his father’s court attributed his act to childish spite and spleen, or to a malicious design of injuring the popularity of his majesty and his ministers; and when he wrote to the king, explaining his motives, it was replied, that if he chose to take a rash step, he must likewise take the consequences. His conduct, indeed, seems to have increased the distance which had too long subsisted between the prince and his father; for when he hastened to Windsor, on occasion of his majesty’s escape from the attempt made upon his life by Margaret Nicholson, although he was received by the queen, the king refused to see him. But this may have arisen chiefly from his profligate connexions, which must have been exceedingly offensive to a mind of such moral and religious mould as his majesty possessed: a sacrifice made for the payment of debts could scarcely thus have acted upon honourable feelings, unless, indeed, the king looked upon it in connexion with his dissipated and gambling habits. This subject, however, in the dearth of more important, together with that of the impeachment of Hastings, formed the staple of public and private discussion; some taking part with the king, and some with the prince, as best suited their respective views or passions. It would appear that both Fox and Sheridan assured the prince that his popularity was so great, as to hold out a certain hope that a money-vote might be carried, despite his father and the chancellor of the exchequer; and that having gained his assent to the plan, great exertions were made to gain the support of the independent members of parliament, although they lacked the means of purchasing the votes of these said “independent members.” In the meantime the Duke of Orleans, Philippe Egalité, who was one of the most intimate friends of the Prince of Wales, and had betted large sums of money with him this year at Newmarket and Epsom, offered to relieve his necessities by a loan of French money. The prince appears to have been inclined to accept the offer; but his Whig friends discovered it, and convinced him of its impropriety, as it had a perilous tendency of placing the future sovereign of England in a state of dependence on the House of Bourbon. But the Whigs in thus advising the prince, had a care for their own honour as well as his future interests: had they allowed him to take the money, no matter upon what conditions, an ill savour would have been brought upon their names as a party; a savour more odious than that which attaches itself to the memory of those patriots, in the days of Charles II., who touched the gold of Louis XIV.
CHAPTER XVI.
GEORGE III. 1787-1789
Meeting of Parliament..... Debate on the Treaty of Commerce between England and France..... Pitt’s Plan of Financial Reform..... Motion for the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts..... Affairs of the Prince of Wales..... Motion for Inquiry into the Abuses of the Post-Office..... Impeachment of Warren Hastings..... Parliament Prorogued..... Continental Affairs..... Meeting of Parliament..... Dispute between Government and the East India Company..... Pitt’s Financial Measures—Additions made to the Bill for trying Controverted Elections..... Claims of the American Royalists, &c..... The Slave-Trade Question..... Charge against Sir Elijah Impey..... Impeachment of Warren Hastings..... Parliament Prorogued..... Continental Alliances..... Derangement of His Majesty..... Meeting of Parliament..... Debates on the regency
A.D. 1787