MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
The session was opened on the 11th of November, and the principal topic of the king’s speech was the scarcity of corn; and measures were recommended, if necessary, for allaying or remedying the evil. The address was opposed in both houses, and in the commons four amendments were moved, but the government in every instance had a majority. On the subject of the embargo, however, and the delay of assembling parliament when the country was in such critical circumstances, ministers had a harder battle to fight. It was thought right to pass a bill of indemnity in favour of those who had acted in obedience to the council with respect to the embargo, and when this bill was brought in by a member of the cabinet, a remark was made, that although it provided for the security of the inferior officers, who had acted under the proclamation, it passed over those who advised the measure. This gave rise to much altercation and debate, especially among the lords, where the Earl of Chatham, Lord Camden, and others, who had long been the advocates of popular rights, vindicated the present exercise of royal prerogative, not on the plea of necessity but of right: arguing that a dispensing power was inherent in the crown, which might be exerted during the recess of parliament, but which expired whenever parliament reassembled. Camden asserted that Junius Brutus would not have hesitated to entrust such a power even to a Nero, and that it was at most but “a forty day’s tyranny.” The Earl of Chatham was a more powerful advocate of the measure. He vindicated the issuing of the embargo by legal authority during the recess of parliament as an act of power justifiable on the ground of necessity, and he read a paragraph from Locke on Government, to show that his views were borne out by that great friend of liberty, that constitutional philosopher, and that liberal statesman. The sentiments of the ministers, however, were strongly opposed by Lords Temple, Lyttleton, and Mansfield, the latter of whom, though he had once been spell-bound by court influence, “rode the great horse Liberty with much applause.” The Earl of Chatham replied, but the constitutional principles which his opposers laid down could not be answered with success, for although parliament passed the act of indemnity, yet the opposition lords so enlightened the public mind upon the subject, that the cry was instantly raised that the present ministers had sold their consciences to the court, and were in a league to extend the prerogative beyond the precedent of the worst periods in English history. The ferment was greatly increased by Mr. Beckford’s declaring in the house of commons, that the crown had in all cases of necessity a power to dispense with laws: an assertion which retraction, explanation, and contradiction from the same lips, could not efface from the public mind. When the bill passed it was in an amended state: the amendment including the advisers, as well as the officers, who had acted under the orders of council in enforcing the embargo. But even this, which implied an acknowledgment of error, was not sufficient to satisfy the public mind, for the clamour still continued against the ministers. The Earl of Chatham was also embarrassed by other circumstances, and in order to strengthen his hands, he was compelled to forego his determination, and to overlook his declaration, that he would never again have any connexion with the old Duke of Newcastle. The duke had a party which would be important to so weak a cabinet, and in order to gratify him, Lord Edgecumbe was ungraciously dismissed from his office of treasurer of the household, to make room for Sir John Shelley, a near relation of his grace. But the remedy was as bad as the disease. Indignant at the treatment which their colleague had received, Lord Resborough, the Duke of Portland, the Earl of Scarborough, Lord Monson, Sir Charles Saunders, first lord of the admiralty, Admiral Keppel, and Sir William Meredith, all sent in their resignation, and they, with their adherents, ranged themselves on the side of the opposition. These numerous secessions compelled Chatham to negociate more explicitly, not only with Newcastle’s party, but with that also which was headed by the Duke of Bedford. The place of first lord of the admiralty was offered to Lord Gower, who took a journey to Woburn, for the express purpose of consulting his grace upon the subject. But negociations with the Bedford party concluded with its total alienation from the administration, nor were those who accepted office thoroughly conciliated. These were Sir Edward Hawke, who was made first lord of the admiralty, and Sir Percy Brett and Mr. Jenkinson, who filled the other seats of the board; while Lords Hillsborough and Le Despenser were appointed joint postmasters. The ministry, as thus patched up, was more anomalous than ever, and Chatham aware of this, and seeing that his popularity was daily more and more declining, became a prey to grief, disappointment, and vexation. At times he sank into the lowest state of despondency, and left his incapable colleagues, to make their own arrangements and adopt their own measures. But they could not act efficiently without him. Burke says:—“Having put so much the larger part of his enemies and opposers into power, the confusion was such that his own principles could not possibly have any effect, or influence, in the conduct of others. If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other cause withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the contrary were sure to predominate. When he had executed his plan, he had not an inch of ground to stand upon. When he had accomplished his scheme of administration, he was no longer a minister. When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole system was on a wide sea without chart or compass.” Yet Chatham, just before the recess, put a bold front upon his affairs in the house. He proclaimed a war against party cabals, and asserted that his great point was to destroy faction, and that he could face and dare the greatest and proudest connexions. But this was an Herculean task which neither Chatham nor any other minister has yet been able to accomplish. Faction is an hydra-headed monster, which no man can destroy, either by the charms of his eloquence or the terror of his countenance.
A.D. 1767
Chatham found that the warfare was an unequal one, and that he had not sufficient strength to withstand the power of his enemies. Hence, at the end of December, when all the appointments were made, he retired to his estate of Burton Pynset, which had been recently left him, where he took up his abode, doing nothing for the state, and yet taking the salary attached to his office. Parliament reassembled after the recess without him, his friends in the cabinet wondering at, and the king himself lamenting, his absence. Yet the ministers attempted to work without him. The chancellor of the exchequer proposed that the land-tax should be continued at four shillings in the pound, stating that the proceeds of such a tax would enable him to bring about the most brilliant operation of finance recorded in the annals of Great Britain. This was a new measure, for hitherto it had been the practice at the return of peace to take off any addition that had been made to the land-tax in time of war. Hence when Townshend proposed it in committee he was laughed at by the country members, who contended for its reduction to three, or even two, shillings in the pound. Townshend had nobody by him to second his assertions, or give him powerful support; and when Mr. Grenville moved that the land-tax should be reduced to three shillings, his motion was carried by a majority of eighteen. It was said that the country gentlemen in effecting this reduction, “had bribed themselves with a shilling in the pound of their own land-tax,” but as this was the first money-bill in which any cabinet had been successfully opposed since the Revolution, it was rightly viewed as a symptom of weakness in the administration: yet Townshend retained his office.
GEORGE III. 1765-1769
EAST INDIA QUESTION.
The great question discussed in parliament during this session related to the East Indies. At this period the East India Company held “the gorgeous East in fee.” The merchant princes of Leadenhall-street, who commenced their career with a strip of sea-coast on the outermost limits of Hindostan, had now acquired principalities and kingdoms, and had even made themselves masters of the vast inheritance of Aurungzebe. Fortunate as the Argonauts, they found and possessed themselves of the “golden fleece,” which had been the object of their search. Enormous fortunes were made with a rapidity hitherto unknown, and they were gathered into the laps of even the most obscure adventurers. The fables of the ring and the lamp were more than realised, and the fountain from whence these riches ran appeared to flow from an inexhaustible source. Men had only to go and stand by its brink, and if avarice could be satisfied, they might soon return home with not only sufficient wealth to maintain them in opulence and splendour, but with some to spare for the poor and needy.
Such were the views which government seems to have taken of these merchant princes. Early in November a committee was appointed for investigating the nature of their charters, treaties, and grants, and for calculating the expenses which had been incurred on their account by government. In the course of this scrutiny two questions suggested themselves to the committee; namely, whether the company had any right to territorial acquisitions, and whether it was proper for them to enjoy a monopoly of trade. Some of the members argued that the company had a right, while on the other side some maintained that, from the costly protection afforded it, government had an equitable claim to the revenues of all territory acquired by conquest. It was the opinion of the cabinet, that the state did not possess its proper share of the company’s profits, and the chancellor of the exchequer conceived that by either taking their territorial conquests into the hands of government, or making them pay largely for keeping that management in their ow a hands, the state would obtain that wealth of which it stood so much in need. Chatham’s attention was drawn to this subject, but he merely advised that Beckford should make a motion for examining into the state of the East India Company, and remained still in the west of England. This motion was made, and the house resolved itself into a committee of inquiry, and called for papers. In the meantime the company suggested an amicable arrangement, and presented a series of demands, among which were—that the administration should prolong the charter to the year 1800, or to a further term, and to confirm to the company the sole and exclusive trade of the East Indies for three years at least after the expiration of the charter granted in the last reign; that it should agree to an alteration in the inland duty upon tea, with the view of preventing smuggling; that it should allow a drawback on the exportation of tea; that it should alter the duties on calicoes and muslins; that it should consent to some proper methods of recruiting the company’s military forces, and for strengthening their cause in India; that it should prevent the commanders of the company’s ships and others from conveying any kind of warlike stores clandestinely to the East Indies; that it should use its strong interposition with the court of France to obtain large sums of money which the company had expended for the maintenance and transport of French prisoners to Europe; and that it should use its strong interposition likewise with the court of Spain with respect to the Manilla ransom, that the company might obtain indemnification for the great expenses incurred by that expedition. The company laid before the house their charters, treaties with the native sovereigns, letters and correspondence, and the state of their revenues in Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa; but the whole affair was so complicated, that the ministers could not make themselves thoroughly masters of the subject. Not one would, in fact, undertake the management of the business. They shifted the proposals from one to another, and could not come to any determination what to accept or what to reject. At every stage of the business it was attended with violent debates. Townshend was strongly in favour of an amicable arrangement with the company, laying great stress on the quantum to be given for the prolongation of the term of their charter, while Company declared that the salvation of the country depended upon the proper adjustment of this nice affair. Still Chatham kept aloof from the business, and he either would not from illness, or could not from despondency, give his thoughts and directions in writing as to what steps to take and what further motion to make. In the end, therefore, after many divisions, a bill was framed, granting nearly all that was asked for by the company, and binding it to pay £400,000 per annum, in half-yearly payments, and to indemnify the exchequer, should any loss be sustained in consequence of lowering the inland duties on tea, and the allowance of the drawback on its exportation. But the term of this contract was limited to two years; commencing from the 1st of February of the current year; so that the company had a further interference with their territories and wealth in prospect: but till the expiration of that term, their territorial rights were fully admitted.