History of Civilization in England, Vol. 1 of 3

by Henry Thomas Buckle

[798] The education of George III. had been shamefully neglected; and when he arrived at manhood he never attempted to repair its deficiencies, but remained during his long life in a state of pitiable ignorance. Compare Brougham's Statesmen, vol. i. pp. 13–15; Walpole's Mem. of George III. vol. i. p. 55; Mahon's Hist. of England, vol. iv. pp. 54, 207.

[799] See some good remarks by Lord John Russell in his Introduction to the Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. p. lxii.

[800] In a motion for reform in Parliament in 1782, he declared that it was ‘essentially necessary.’ See his speech, in Parl. Hist. vol. xxii. p. 1418. In 1784 he mentioned ‘the necessity of a parliamentary reform,’ vol. xxiv. p. 349; see also pp. 998, 999. Compare Disney's Life of Jebb, p. 209. Nor is it true, as some have said, that he afterwards abandoned the cause of reform because the times were unfavourable to it. On the contrary, he, in a speech delivered in 1800, said (Parl. Hist. vol. xxxv. p. 47): ‘Upon this subject, sir, I think it right to state the inmost thoughts of my mind; I think it right to declare my most decided opinion, that, even if the times were proper for experiments, any, even the slightest, change in such a constitution must be considered as an evil.’ It is remarkable that, even as early as 1783, Paley appears to have suspected the sincerity of Pitt's professions in favour of reform. See Meadley's Memoirs of Paley, p. 121.

[801] In 1794 Grey taunted him with this in the House of Commons: ‘William Pitt, the reformer of that day, was William Pitt, the prosecutor, ay and persecutor too, of reformers now.’ Parl. Hist. vol. xxxi. p. 532; compare vol. xxxiii. p. 659. So, too, Lord Campbell (Chief-Justices, vol. ii. p. 544): ‘He afterwards tried to hang a few of his brother reformers who continued steady in the cause.’ See further, on this damning fact in the career of Pitt, Campbell's Chancellors, vol. vii. p. 105; Brougham's Statesmen, vol. ii. p. 21; Belsham's History, vol. ix. pp. 79, 242; Life of Cartwright, vol. i. p. 198; and even a letter from the mild and benevolent Roscoe, in Life of Roscoe, by his Son, vol. i. p. 113.

[802] Such was the king's zeal in favour of the slave-trade, that in 1770 ‘he issued an instruction under his own hand commanding the governor (of Virginia), upon pain of the highest displeasure, to assent to no law by which the importation of slaves should be in any respect prohibited or obstructed.’ Bancroft's American Revolution, vol. iii. p. 456: so that, as Mr. Bancroft indignantly observes, p. 469, while the courts of law had decided ‘that as soon as any slave set his foot on English ground he becomes free, the king of England stood in the path of humanity, and made himself the pillar of the colonial slave-trade.’ The shuffling conduct of Pitt in this matter makes it hard for any honest man to forgive him. Compare Brougham's Statesmen, vol. ii. pp. 14, 103–105; Russell's Mem. of Fox, vol. iii. pp. 131, 278, 279; Belsham's Hist. of Great Britain, vol. x. pp. 34, 35; Life of Wakefield, vol. i. p. 197; Porter's Progress of the Nation, vol. iii. p. 426; Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party, vol. ii. p. 157; and the striking remarks of Francis, in Parl. Hist. vol. xxxii. p. 949.

[803] That Pitt wished to remain at peace, and was hurried into the war with France by the influence of the court, is admitted by the best-informed writers, men in other respects of different opinions. See, for instance, Brougham's Statesmen, vol. ii. p. 9; Rogers's Introduction to Burke's Works, p. lxxxiv.; Nicholls's Recollections, vol. ii. pp. 155, 200.

[804] The mere existence of such a party, with such a name, shows how, in a political point of view, England was receding during this period from the maxims established at the Revolution. Respecting this active faction, compare the indignant remarks of Burke (Works, vol. i. p. 133) with Albemarle's Rockingham, vol. i. pp. 5, 307; Buckingham's Mem. of George III. vol. i. p. 284, vol. ii. p. 154; Russell's Mem. of Fox, vol. i. pp. 61, 120, vol. ii. pp. 50, 77; Bedford Correspond. vol. iii. p. xlv.; Parr's Works, vol. viii. p. 513; Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 74; Burke's Correspond. vol. i. p. 352; Walpole's George III. vol. iv. p. 315; The Grenville Papers, vol. ii. pp. 33, 34, vol. iii. p. 57, vol. iv. p. 79, 152, 219, 303; Parl. Hist. vol. xvi. pp. 841, 973, vol. xviii. pp. 1005, 1246, vol. xix. pp. 435, 856, vol. xxii. pp. 650, 1173.

[805] See an extraordinary passage in Pellew's Life of Sidmouth, vol. i. p. 334.

[806] This decline in the abilities of official men was noticed by Burke, in 1770, as a necessary consequence of the new system. Compare Thoughts on the Present Discontents (Burke's Works, vol. i. p. 149) with his striking summary (Parl. Hist. vol. xvi. p. 879) of the degeneracy during the first nine years of George III. ‘Thus situated, the question at last was not, who could do the public business best, but who would undertake to do it at all. Men of talents and integrity would not accept of employments where they were neither allowed to exercise their judgment nor display the rectitude of their hearts.’ In 1780, when the evil had become still more obvious, the same great observer denounced it in his celebrated address to his Bristol constituents. ‘At present,’ he says, ‘it is the plan of the court to make its servants insignificant.’ Burke's Works, vol. i. p. 257. See further Parr's Works, vol. iii. pp. 256, 260, 261.

[807] The military success of his administration is related in very strong language, but not unfairly, in Mahon's Hist. of England, vol. iv. pp. 108, 185, 186, and see the admirable summary in Brougham's Statesmen, vol. i. pp. 33, 34: and for evidence of the fear with which he inspired the enemies of England, compare Mahon, vol. v. p. 165 note; Bedford Correspond. vol. iii. pp. 87, 246, 247; Walpole's Letters to Mann, vol. i. p. 304, edit. 1843; Walpole's Mem. of George III. vol. ii. p. 232; and the reluctant admission in Georgel, Mémoires, vol. i. pp. 79, 80.