In the upper house, an amendment was moved by the Marquess of Rockingham, similar to that of Lord John Cavendish, and was followed by debates of equal violence. By the Earl of Shelburne the speech was denounced as a tissue of sophisms, and as a composition of unqualified absurdity, treachery, cruelty, hypocrisy, and deceit. He attempted to show, indeed, that all its paragraphs were false, differing only in this—that some of the falsehoods were fallacious, some specious, and some notorious. The Duke of Richmond maintained that America was lost for ever, and he thought that we had better sit down quiet and contented at the loss, consoling ourselves with the reflection that it had been no fault of our own, but, solely that of an unjust and imbecile administration. But even Lord Shelburne did not concur in this opinion: he never meant, he said, this country to give up its right of commercial control over America, which was the essential bond of connexion between the two countries; and he declared that as the national debt was truly and equitably the debt of every individual in the empire, whether at home, or in Asia, or America, the Americans ought in some way, to contribute to its discharge. Lord Sandwich, the first lord of the Admiralty, more warmly opposed the doctrine of quiescence propounded by the Duke of Richmond. It was, he said, derogatory to the honour and destructive to the interests of England; and he declared that he would hazard every drop of blood, and his last shilling, rather than see his country set at defiance, bullied, and dictated to, by her undutiful and ungrateful children; her disobedient and rebellious subjects. The amendment was negatived by a majority of ninety-one against twenty-six. Fourteen peers had it entered on the journals, at full length, as a protest signed by themselves.
On the 16th of November, Lord John Cavendish produced a copy of the proclamation issued by Lord Howe and his brother, as commissioners, and proposed that, in conformity to its tenor, the house should resolve itself into a committee for revising the acts by which the colonists felt themselves aggrieved. This proposition was seconded by Burke, and many of the opposition harangued in its favour. Ministers, however, opposed such a step, on the ground that this inquiry into grievances had been proffered only to those who should return to their duty, and hence a disavowal of independence, and an acknowledgment of British supremacy were requisite, before any measures of reconciliation could be adopted by Great Britain. On a division the motion was lost by a majority of one hundred and nine against forty-seven.
After the rejection of the proposition of Lord John Cavendish, many members of opposition, especially those of the Rockingham party, seceded from the business of parliament, alleging that it was useless to discuss or oppose ministerial measures. This conduct, however, was blamed by the majority of the opposition, who contended that no member of parliament could, consistently with his duty, desert the interests of his country, merely because he felt that his party would be outvoted. It was agreed that no one could infer from thence that his attendance would be useless, and that a respectable minority, though not able to carry measures of its own, might, nevertheless, modify injurious laws and counsels, by exposing their pernicious tendency. Some who held these opinions made efforts to bring the great orator, Chatham, to the charge again; but his gout prevented him from coming to the house, and little could be elicited from him beyond a declaration that his sentiments with regard to America were the same which he had always professed, and which stood fully explained in his Provisional Act. At the same time he expressed his fears that, in a few years, France would set her foot on English ground. Thus, cleared of its members, the house of commons voted the army and navy estimates without any display of violent opposition. The number of seamen voted was 45,000, and £3,205,505 were voted for the expenses of the navy; exclusive of £4000 for the support of Greenwich Hospital, and £500,000 to go towards the discharge of the debts of the navy. The army estimates voted, were about £3,000,000 exclusive of extras, and some new contracts with German princes, for more German troops to serve in America. These supplies being granted, on the 13th of December, both houses adjourned for the Christmas recess.
ATTEMPT TO FIRE HIS MAJESTY’S DOCKYARD AT PORTSMOUTH.
During the recess of parliament, the public mind was agitated by acts of incendiarism, which seemed at one time to denote that a conspiracy had been entered into for the destruction of both our shipping and our arsenals. In 1764, Choiseul, the French minister, had concocted a plan for such a fearful catastrophe, but having divulged it to Grimaldi, then prime minister of Spain, through him it was discovered to Lord Rochford, our ambassador at Madrid, and the scheme therefore failed. Ministers might have taken warning from this circumstance, and have had the dock-yards and arsenals watched with sufficient vigilance, as to prevent so disastrous an event from ever taking place. By this time, however, they had returned to their old confidence, and on the 7th of December, a fire broke out in the dock-yard at Portsmouth, which threatened its total destruction. It was got under by great exertions, and it passed at first for an accident, but on the 15th of January, one of the under-clerks of the dock-yard having occasion to move some hemp in the hemp-room, discovered a machine and combustible materials, which had evidently been placed there by the hands of an incendiary. Some weeks before, a sullen, silent man, a painter by trade, and who was known by the name of John the Painter, had been seen loitering about the yard, and he was now suspected to be the delinquent. Suspicion fastened still stronger upon him because he was known to have recently come from America, and a cry of alarm instantly spread through the country that American incendiaries had arrived in England, and would spread fire and destruction on every hand. It was necessary that John the Painter should be taken, and soon after he was identified at Odiam in Hampshire, where he had been apprehended for a burglary. John was brought up to London for examination, but he was so taciturn, and so wise in keeping his own counsels, that neither the privy-council, nor the lords of the admiralty, nor other officers who interrogated him, could elicit anything from him that would tend to his crimination. What authority, however, failed to perform, that craft brought about. On the suggestion of Earl Temple, another painter, who had been also in America, was put into the same ward with John, in order to circumvent and entrap him. Fellow-feeling caused the taciturn prisoner to open his mouth. His brother painter pretended to sympathise in his misfortunes, descanted largely on his travels in America, and professed principles similar to his own. The travelled painter did all this with such address, that he finally gathered from John that his real name was Aitken; that he had entered into many regiments from which he had deserted so soon as he had received the bounty-money; that he had traversed England through nearly all its parts, sometimes robbing on the highway, and sometimes filching and stealing in towns while he worked at his trade: that he went to America, where he commenced politician and reformer of abuses, and where he conceived the notion of serving the cause of liberty by burning our shipping and our principal trading cities and towns; that he then left America for France, where he had several interviews with Silas Deane, the agent of congress; that Silas Deane encouraged his project, by giving him money and promising him rewards commensurate with the service he should render the American cause; that he then procured a French passport and came over to Canterbury; and that on leaving Canterbury he proceeded to Portsmouth, where he began to compound and prepare his combustibles, after which he went into the dock-yard and made the attempt of which he was suspected. The manner in which this evidence was derived was certainly contrary to the spirit of the English law, and repugnant to the feeling and practice of the present day, but on this evidence vouched by the travelled painter, John the Painter was condemned and executed. There was no doubt left on any mind either as to the culprit’s guilt, or to his connexion with Silas Deane; but before his death he is said to have confessed to some naval officers, that most of what his accuser had testified against him, was true—that he had, indeed, applied to Deane, who had promised him a reward of great price when his work should be done. Nothing transpired which would inculpate Choiseul the French minister, but as he was still in office, and as his animus was well-known, he was thought to have been concerned in this plot likewise. But it failed; and the circumstance had the effect of still further exciting the enmity of the English people towards the Americans.
CHAPTER VIII.
GEORGE III. 1777-1778
Letters of Marque granted..... Bill for Detaining Persons in Prison charged with High-treason..... Miscellaneous Debates..... Spirited Address of the Speaker to the King..... Lord Chatham’s Motion for Concessions to America..... Parliament Prorogued..... Successes of Washington..... British Expedition up the Hudson River..... American Expedition to Long Island..... Capture of General Prescot, &c...... Battle of the Brandywine, &c..... Capture of Philadelphia..... Opening of the Delaware..... Close of Howe’s Campaign..... Expedition and Capture of Burgoyne..... Clinton’s Expedition up the Hudson..... Meeting of Parliament..... Debates on America..... Duke of Richmond’s Motion for Inquiring into the State of the Nation..... Fox’s Motion for Inquiring into the State of the Nation..... Army and Navy Estimates..... Intelligence of Burgoyne’s Defeat..... Royal Assent to Several Bills..... Parliament Adjourned.