Campbell, a most humane and honest man, but who had never forgiven Mr. Pitt and the Grenvilles the share they had in overturning Sir Robert Walpole, and who had steadily adhered to Mr. Pelham and Fox, as successors of that Minister, could not help saying, that the law declared no execution could follow a marine trial, till the whole proceedings had been laid before the Admiralty. If they thought injustice had been done to Mr. Byng, would not they make earnest application for mercy?—if they made none, what must be the conclusion?
Beckford scrupled not to say, that the sentence was thought cruel; and Pitt, though owning how sensibly he felt the difficulty of speaking on that melancholy occasion, with true spirit avowed himself on the favourable side. The sentence, he said, had undergone discussion; for himself, he could never have agreed to it; but he thought the Legislature had nothing to do to advise the King on that his peculiar prerogative, mercy. He did wish it might be extended to the prisoner; and owned he thought more good would come from mercy than rigour. That it was more likely to flow from his Majesty, if he was left entirely free. For the Article, he did not wish, he said, to see discipline relaxed; but no Article could be enforced but when it was intelligible. And this being proved so obscure, it was not for the honour of national justice, that a sentence, issuing from its obscurity, should be carried into execution. Were Mr. Byng condemned of cowardice or disaffection, he himself, though single, would petition for execution. Of all men, the Commissioners of the Admiralty ought the least to interpose. But what indeed could add weight in the prisoner’s favour to the recommendation of his Judges?
Campbell, pursuing his blow, said, surely they who have all the proofs before them are the properest to enforce the recommendation of the Judges.
Sir Francis Dashwood, perceiving an impression of tenderness made, and unwilling to drive a majority to rigour, by furnishing them with the triumph of carrying a question, desired leave to withdraw his Motion on the Article; when Fox, who chose to wear, like the day, an aspect of compassion, and at the same time to fasten difficulty and unpopularity on the new Minister and his friends, rose to say, that he could not comprehend the delicacy of the Admiralty in not laying their scruples before the King. That during the nine years that himself had been Secretary at War, it had been his constant practice on all Courts-Martial to acquaint the King with any favourable circumstances that had appeared. That he had always found his Majesty disposed to lenity, and when he said nothing, the King would ask, “Have you nothing favourable to tell me?” Silence always implied that there was nothing. If the Lords of the Admiralty thought the Court-Martial meaned error of judgment, they ought to tell the King so. Any one Lord of the Admiralty might; Admiral Forbes might. That in signing the warrant, never till now had been used the words, “It is his Majesty’s pleasure.” He recommended it to them to consider the circumstances, and inform the King of them.
Pitt, in reply, bad him consider all that had passed for the last six months, and then judge if the Lords of the Admiralty were the proper persons to make representations on this case. He had no reason to expect any tenderness to himself or his friends; and, indeed, he supposed this speech of Fox was calculated to throw them under difficulties in another place. For himself, he had too much awe on his mind, to make so free with descriptions, as Fox had of personal colloquies.
Fox repeated, that this had been a very undue time to change the words, “the King’s consent,” to “the King’s pleasure.” In all late instances pleasure had never been used. That in what he had said, he had intended to agree with Mr. Pitt. On the present occasion he thought it particularly the duty of the Admiralty to speak out. And as to throwing them under difficulties, the more danger there would be in their speaking out, the more it was their duty. And to Mr. Pitt’s complaint of want of credit in the closet, he said, there never wanted a grain of ministerial influence to incline his Majesty to pardon.
Pitt asked, how Mr. Fox knew what might have passed on this occasion, when not an iota had transpired? His insinuations had been uncandid, nor had he egged Fox on to say what had fallen from him. The Speaker interposed; said, he disapproved these altercations, and begged they would only speak on what concerned the public. Hunter and Elliot produced precedents to show they had taken the word pleasure from the minutes in the books of the Admiralty. Prince George had particularly notified Queen Anne’s pleasure on Kirby and Wade: and the latter dropped, that it was decided by political writers, that in general Commanders-in-Chief should not be tried but for treachery. Lord Strange spoke to order, and to have the question read, that these discussions might be finished. The day concluded with Fox’s saying with great solemnity, that he had not said, and he thanked God had not heard, a word to exclude mercy—an asseveration he had better not have made. He had fastened the duty of representation on the Admiralty; if they applied for mercy, the odium would be theirs.—If they did not, the King remained in possession of pleading; that as the Admiralty had made no application for mercy, after being publicly exhorted to it, it was evident that they had no favourable circumstances to represent.
The next day Pitt did move the King for mercy, but was cut very short; nor did his Majesty remember to ask his usual question, whether there were any favourable circumstances? The Duke of Bedford, whose good heart broke from his connexions, applied too, was better heard, but with no better success. Mrs. Osborn, the Admiral’s sister, being advised to solicit the same Duke to present a petition from her, he excused himself, nor in all the openings to compassion that followed did his Grace take the least part; though he had been one of the most vehement to condemn the Court-Martial. He was always allowed by his governors to speak as he thought—seldom to act as he spoke. The same day seven of the Court-Martial applied to Lord Temple to intercede for mercy; he reported their solicitation to the King, but to no purpose.
25th.—Admiral Norris went to George Grenville, and told him he had something on his conscience which he wanted to utter, and desired Mr. Grenville to apply to the House of Commons to absolve them from their oath of secrecy. Grenville did not care to meddle in it. Norris, Keppel, and Moore, mentioned it again to him at the Admiralty that morning; and he declining it, Moore said to him with wrath, “Then, Sir, the Admiral’s blood will not lie on us.” It happened that Horace Walpole, who had taken this affair much to heart, was not then in Parliament, having vacated his seat for Castlerising, that he might be chosen at Lynn, by desire of the corporation, in the room of his cousin, become a peer by the death of his father, Lord Walpole. Coming late that day to the House, though not a member, Horace Walpole was told of the application that had been made to Mr. Grenville, and looking for him to try to engage him to undertake the cause, Walpole was told that Mr. Keppel desired to be absolved from his oath as well as Norris. Walpole ran up into the gallery, and asked Keppel if it was true? and being true, why he did not move the House himself? Keppel replied, that he was unused to speak in public, but would willingly authorize anybody to make application for him. “Oh! sir,” said Walpole, “I will soon find you somebody;” and hurried him to Fox, who, Walpole fondly imagined, could not in decency refuse such a request, and who was the more proper, from his authority in the House, and as a relation of Mr. Keppel. Fox was much surprised, knew not what to determine, said he was uncertain—and left the House.
The time pressed, the Speaker was going to put the question for the Orders of the Day, after which no new Motion can be made; it was Friday too; the House would sit neither on Saturday nor Sunday, and but a possibility of two days remained to intercept the execution, which was to be on Monday; and the whole operation of what Keppel should have to say, its effects, the pardon if procured, the dispatch to Portsmouth, and the reprieve, all to be crowded into so few hours! Walpole was in agony what step to take—at that instant he saw Sir Francis Dashwood going up the House; he flew down from the gallery, called Sir Francis, hurried the notification to him, and Sir Francis, with the greatest quickness of tender apprehension, (the Speaker had actually read the question and put it while all this was passing,) called out from the floor before he had time to take his place, “Mr. Speaker”—and then informed the House of Mr. Keppel’s desire that some method might be found of empowering him and the other members of the Court-Martial to declare what had been their intention in pronouncing Mr. Byng guilty.