February 16th.—The day after the Judges had given their opinion on the sentence, the King in Council referred that opinion to the Admiralty. The King signs no sentence himself: where he does not interpose his prerogative of pardon, execution follows of course. In naval affairs, the Lords of the Admiralty sign the warrant. Lord Temple had dropped hints to the King in favour of Byng, but with more reserve with regard to the prisoner, than towards the majesty of the sovereign, to whom at one time he said in his closet, with a contemptuous sneer, “And if he dies well, what will you say then?” It was applied so ad hominem, that the King interpreted it as a reflection on his own courage. The Admiralty thus pushed, and weighing on one hand the unpopularity of a direct refusal to sign, and on the other the authority of the Judges, which had been given at their request, determined to comply. That very night Lord Temple, Dr. Hay, and Elliot, signed the sentence, and sent it to Portsmouth, ordering execution on the 28th. Admiral Forbes, in every part of his conduct uniformly amiable and upright, refused peremptorily to sign it.
While Mr. Byng was thus pursued or given up by his countrymen, our enemies acted a very different part. Voltaire, hearing of the Admiral’s trial, sent from Switzerland to the Court-Martial, a letter which he had casually received some time before from Marshal Richelieu, in which the latter spoke with encomiums on the behaviour of the English Commander:—but they, who had been so ready to censure Mr. Byng on the dispatch of his antagonist La Galissonière, were far from being equally forward to give any weight to Richelieu’s testimonial in his favour.
Feb. 17th.—Mr. Hunter, of the Admiralty, notified to the House of Commons the sentence pronounced against one of their members. The Speaker produced a long roll of precedents for expelling him before execution, lest his disgrace should reflect on the House. Lord Strange objected, good-naturedly, that this would be heaping cruelty, and seemed to exclude mercy, while yet there was an opening to it. Sir Francis Dashwood, a man distinguished by no milkiness of temper, connected with no friends of the prisoner, took this up strongly, and moved to call for the letter of the Court-Martial. Fox objected, that this would look like a censure on that Court. Sir Francis denied that he meaned it in that light. His view, he said, was, by considering the warmth of their recommendation, to lead to some application for mercy. Mr. Pitt seemed to favour that purpose, and lashed novel proceedings in Courts-Martial; and said he hoped that the letter, when produced, might lead the House to do something on that mortal twelfth Article: and he mentioned with disdain anonymous letters that he had received, threatening him as a favourer of Mr. Byng. Fox, to waive all humane impressions, called for the Order of the Day. Sir Francis would have renewed his Motion, but the House did not seem inclined to receive it; and it was lost.
Mr. Pitt had come that very day to the House of Commons for the first time since his illness, and as it was the first time since he was Minister of his acting there in office, it could not fail of being remarked, that he dated his Administration with a demand of money for Hanover. He delivered a message from the King, desiring support for his Electoral Dominions and for the King of Prussia. One cannot say which was most ridiculous, the richest Prince in Europe begging alms for his own country, or the great foe of that country becoming its mendicant almoner. The next day he opened the message, the purport of which was to ask 200,000l.; and he endeavoured to torture some consistence out of his conduct, sometimes refining, and when that would not do, glossing it over with what he would have put off for confident honesty. He succeeded better in attempting to divert reflections from himself to the Empress-queen, who, he said, if it had not been for the blood and treasure of Britain, would not have had it in her power to be ungrateful now.
He was seconded by Lord George Sackville, who affected to say he spoke only for form; yet talked forcibly on his now seeing a prospect of carrying on the war with success, as great part of the money was to be given to the King of Prussia—a better method than subsidiary treaties. Fox acted moderation; said, he should never provoke altercations, nor yet would ever decline them: it was sufficient to him that his part had been a consistent one. He had been told, indeed, that the German measures of last year would be a mill-stone about the neck of the Minister:—he hoped this German measure would be an ornament about the Minister’s neck! It was in truth the greatest instance of courage and capacity, and promised stability to Mr. Pitt’s Administration. Pitt replied, that he only rose again to show he would keep his temper and his word; though Mr. Fox’s reflections were but an ugly presage of his kind wishes to the new Administration. For Minister—the word never belonged so little to anybody as to himself: he had neither ministerial power nor influence. All he had done was, having had an opportunity of saying, “This I will do—that I will never do.” The money was granted nemine contradicente—even the Tories agreeing to it—I suppose, to prove their consistence too.
One event in this Debate requires a comment: Lord George Sackville declared himself for Mr. Pitt: he had seemed before to attach himself to Fox. This was the history of his variation:—the Primate had come over to offer his service to the new Lord Lieutenant; and both he and Lord George had paid court to Mr. Fox, and still more to Mr. Rigby, the Duke of Bedford’s Minister. The two former had received their assiduities cordially; Bedford himself, of a shy, uncommunicative nature, had treated the Primate with obstinate coldness, and absolutely declined on every occasion to talk to him on Irish business. The Duke’s own plan was to steer impartially between the two factions; at least for his first session.
Fox, early in the winter, had made great application to Lord George Sackville to move for retaining the Hessians, which being agreeable to the wishes of the Whigs, the new Ministers would have been beaten before they could bring on any of their popular questions. Lord George demanded previously, that the Duke of Bedford should engage to leave the Primate one of the Lords Justices; which would have been granted, but the Duke of Bedford himself hung off; for though he was willing to leave him so, he would not date his government with a promise that he thought would be so unpopular. From that time, Fox had either not fixed what should be the Duke of Bedford’s plan, or had been so occupied with his own situation and animosities, as not sufficiently to attend to Ireland. Rigby, devoted to Fox, and thinking himself sure of the Primate whenever he should please to want him, or concluding him totally fallen, and that his own best art of pleasing Fox would be to fling himself into the opposite faction, headed by Lord Kildare, who had married the sister of Lady Caroline Fox; for these, or some of these reasons, he had not had the precaution to model his master to the Primate’s views; who, finding himself rejected, or entertained so as to be rejected afterwards, instantly negotiated with Pitt, and worked his friend Lord George to list under the same colours: and other reasons concurred to facilitate that connexion.
Pitt, on the commencement of his Ministry, had professed to adhere to all his old declarations; and keeping himself retired and secluded from all access, affected to attract no dependents, to form no party. The Tories, who heard his professions, and saw him condescend to no Court-arts, were charmed with a Minister who seemed as visionary as themselves, and who threw as many difficulties on Government as when he was in Opposition;—but the Tories alone, as Lord George knew, could no more support a Minister than they could demolish one; and deeming Mr. Pitt’s system too romantic for duration, Lord George had leaned towards Fox, as made up of more practicable elements. Indeed, when Bedford proved as untamed as Pitt had been; and when Pitt condescended to make room in his virtue for Hanover, Lord George, (as the Primate with wonderful frankness avowed to Fox,) finding that Mr. Pitt “would now pursue human measures by human means,” made no difficulty of uniting with him. Lord George gave the same account to Fox too. Another reason of mortal complexion had probably some sway with Lord George—of nothing he was so jealous as of Conway. Fox had supported the latter’s plan of Militia; and the Duke of Richmond, brother of Lady Caroline Fox, was on the point of marrying Lady Mary Bruce, daughter-in-law of Mr. Conway. If Lord George then looked on the connexion of Fox and Conway as imminent and certain, no wonder he devoted himself to the contrary faction.
As the day approached for the execution of the Admiral, symptoms of an extraordinary nature discovered themselves. Lord Hardwicke had forgot to make the Clergy declare murder innocent, as the Lawyers had been induced to find law in what no man else could find sense. Lord Anson himself, in midnight fits of weakness and wine, held forth at Arthur’s on his anxiety to have Mr. Byng spared; and even went so far as to break forth abruptly to Lord Halifax, the Admiral’s relation by marriage, “Good God! my Lord, what shall we do to save poor Mr. Byng?” The Earl replied, “My Lord, if you really mean it, no man can do so much towards it as yourself.” Keppel, a friend of Anson, and one of the Judges, grew restless with remorse. Lest these aches of conscience should be contagious, the King was plied with antidotes. Papers were posted up with paltry rhymes, saying,
“Hang Byng,