Mr. Garth, the same day, presented a petition from the agent for Virginia against the New American Mutiny Bill, which ordered the billeting of soldiers on private houses, as there were no inns in that country; but this petition, too, the Ministers refused to hear. In the debate, Grenville quoting the Scotch law, young Thomas Townshend spoke well and warmly against making the Scotch law our precedent; and the younger Onslow said, that three Scots were preferred for one Englishman. Elliot spoke finely in answer; said he thought English and Scots were the same; and that if himself had merit enough, he should pretend to any English place. That partialities were always common; had been shown to Sussex,[81] and ought to be to Buckinghamshire; and if the men of the latter county[82] were the most worthy, he would support them. The House then adjourned for the holidays, when Grenville, finding the American merchants vehemently averse to his new bill for billeting soldiers in that country, promised to drop it.
CHAPTER V.
State of Parties.—King’s Illness.—Regency Bill.
When the Houses met again after the recess, a very new scene opened to the public, though unfolded by degrees, and of which all the springs were not at first discovered. Accident, the rashness of Opposition, and the intemperance of Ministers concurred and wrought up the ensuing confusions; but the source lay in the mutual jealousy of the Favourite and Grenville, on which I have already touched, and which terminated in lasting mortification to the two rivals, and gave birth to the various and fluctuating exhibition of politics that took place and succeeded each other from this period. In truth this was the era of faction, though it did not immediately predominate. Hitherto it might be said that the two parties of Whig and Tory still subsisted; though Jacobitism, the concealed mother of the latter, was extinct. The Court had indeed admitted few Tories into place, from their total want of abilities. But though Grenville and the Duke of Bedford had always called themselves Whigs, and the Chancellor Northington really was one, yet Lord Bute had left the standard of prerogative in the Court, and his successors had relaxed none of those high-flown doctrines. Nothing could be more despotic than Grenville’s nature. Bedford was drawn by the Duchess and Rigby to adopt any principles, however contrary to his opinion, that favoured her love of power, or Rigby’s rapacity: and Lord Mansfield retained great weight in a cabinet so framed to embrace boldly any arbitrary measures that he was always ready to suggest and always afraid to execute himself. On the other hand, the Opposition, though headed by Newcastle, who had sailed with every current, and though composed of great and proud families, dated from the stand they had made, or by resentment had been forced to make, to the Favourite’s plan of extending the prerogative. Lord Temple stood on no ground but popularity; and the cast of Mr. Pitt’s life, contrary to his temper, had thrown him too on the affections of the people. The crisis I am going to describe broke these ill-consolidated connections into several factions; and though one of those factions adhered more steadily to their professions than the rest, the subsequent contests were rather a struggle for power, than the settled animosity of two parties, though the body of Opposition still called itself Whig, an appellation rather dropped than disclaimed by the Court; and though the real Tories still adhered to their old distinctions, while they secretly favoured, sometimes opposed, the Court, and fluctuated according as they esteemed particular chiefs not of their connection, or had the more agreeable opportunity of distressing those who supported the cause of freedom. As their whole conduct was comprised in silent votes, and never was considerable enough to turn a single scale in the political changes,[83] I shall seldom mention them any more.
The King’s illness had occasioned a general alarm; but, though he escaped the danger, his health was so precarious, and he had such frequent disorders on his breast on taking the least cold, that all sober men wished to see a Regency settled by Parliament in case of his death. Yet most of those who possessed or hoped for power, dreaded such a bill: and even they, who wished best to their country, could not be without apprehension from it, as it would probably be framed on the model of the last, which contained the odious and arbitrary clause of præmunire,[84] and as it would undoubtedly be calculated to continue the domination of the Princess and the Favourite, or of the Ministers then in place, an alternative equally threatening to liberty. The Princess could by no means desire to hear a Regent nominated, as she could not flatter herself she should be the person in preference to the mother of the future King. Should even a minority not happen, the designation of the Queen for Regent would teach mankind whither to address their homage, and draw from the Princess that court which till now had been paid to her as all-powerful over the mind of her son. Lord Bute had brought himself into as disagreeable a predicament. By having quitted his place in the Cabinet, what pretensions could he have to one in the Regency? Should he even obtain one by the King’s recommendation or nomination, could he hope for any influence under the Queen, to whom the Council would bow? Could he promise himself that the present Ministers would impart that power to him under a Queen not likely to be his friend, from which they endeavoured to exclude him now, though possessing the favour of the King? The Ministers were still more jealous of any such bill. As, according to the plan of the last, the great officers in place at the time of the King’s death were to remain of the Council of Regency, Grenville and his adherents concluded that, to prevent such a contingency in their favour, they should immediately be removed. Accordingly those good men who preferred any eventual confusion to the loss of their places, set themselves roundly to work to prevent, or if they could not prevent the proposal, to stir up opposition from every quarter against such a regulation, be it what it might.
Notwithstanding these various obstacles, the necessity of some provision surmounted all impediments; and the very opposition made by the Ministers did but serve to fix the irresolution of the Favourite. I saw that this was the favourable moment for bringing out the half-concealed, and, by consequence, for producing a total, rupture between Lord Bute and the Ministers. I early went to Lord Holland, and asked him why they did not think of a Regency-bill? He said he had pressed it on Lord Bute and Lord Mansfield, but the latter was too timid to propose it. That he himself had written twice to Lord Bute on that subject, and had given him leave to show his letters to the King, which he believed he had not done: himself, however, should not desist from pressing it, as he owned he believed the King in a consumption, and not likely to live a year. We then talked over all the considerable persons, and how their affections would probably lie on such a question. Among others I named Lord Granby, and said, he was wholly Grenville’s. “Yes,” replied Lord Holland, “and should the King die, might, if he had sense enough, be king himself; and now,” said he, “you see the wisdom of not letting any of the princes of the blood be at the head of the Army.” I was not so dull as not to see deeper into this hint. It informed me why Mr. Conway had been removed out of the Army with so much alacrity. It was a context to what Grenville himself had dropped to me on that head, “that the King could not trust his Army in such hands:”—that is, the Court was determined to insure the Army for whatever purposes they might have occasion to employ it in. Another of Lord Bute’s creatures told me about the same time that Grenville was grown too powerful in the House of Commons. I own I did not think the Constitution quite ruined, when the House of Commons could make a Minister formidable to the Crown. These and such like accidental passages discover how deep the views of the Court had gone. How happy for the nation that they who had laid such plans were so unequal to the execution!
A few days afterwards, Lord Holland desired to speak with me. He did not seem to have anything particular to say, but rather to want to sound me on the disposition of my friends in the Opposition; and to learn if, in case of a rupture between Lord Bute and Grenville, they would soften to the former. As I thought any encouragement from the Opposition would inspirit Lord Bute, and hasten his breach with the Ministers, I instilled that assurance as strongly as I could into Lord Holland, who said Lord Bute complained that the Duke of Cumberland and the Opposition were as acrimonious as ever. This was true but in part, for the Duke had already been gained to a certain degree by the King: and as Lord Holland was very inquisitive to know from me on what cause the Duke had been sent for to the King, and had been shut up with him for two hours on the foregoing Sunday, it was a proof that Lord Bute had not that confidence in Lord Holland which the world suspected. I did not then know of that private interview of the King with the Duke. Lord Holland said he guessed it was on the Regency-bill: that he believed the Ministers had not proposed such a bill to the King, but that his Majesty had to them,[85] and had ordered them to prepare one. Lord Holland rejoiced at it,—for he feared for the stocks. He repeated over and over that he believed things would remain as they were; but he dropped enough to convince me that that was by no means the intention of Lord Bute. “Things,” he said, “were not ripe yet; many things were wanting: he lamented the death of the late Duke of Devonshire, whose temper was not bitter, and who could have done much: that Opposition resorted to Mr. Pitt, who would have nothing to do with them: that Grenville would be glad to be well with Mr. Pitt, but that he, poor man, was ill in bed.” This tenderness to one he hated so much, was a clear indication that any assistance against the Ministers would be welcome. I soon learned how much farther these wishes had gone than I was then apprized of. I told him he knew enough of the Duke of Newcastle to be sure that the Court might have him whenever they pleased; and as Newcastle governed the Opposition, Lord Bute needed not doubt their concurrence. Still Lord Holland had the weakness to repeat that Lord Bute would be nothing, and meant no change. To facilitate my measures, I had it conveyed to the Bedfords, that the Favourite lost ground; and that Lord Holland was his instigator in promoting the bill,—an idea which I soon found they eagerly adopted, and as eagerly showed their resentment of on the first opportunity.
I imparted to Lord John Cavendish the probability of Mr. Pitt coming into place. He said, “If that should be so, we could no longer oppose: his family would take nothing, but the young Duke would go to Court.” This I reported to Lord Holland: he replied, To be sure, if there was any change, the Duke of Devonshire must be at Court; nor would the King scruple to say he had been in the wrong in refusing to see the late Duke.
At length it was declared that a bill of Regency was intended; but to the great dissatisfaction of mankind, it was declared, too, that the nomination of the Regent would be reserved by the bill in the King’s breast. The crowd instantly conceived that this was a mode of bestowing that important trust on the Favourite; a chimera too wild and much too dangerous to enter into so dastardly a nature as Lord Bute’s. I have no doubt but there was an uniform intention of appointing the Queen Regent; though to save the dignity of the Princess, and to keep up a dubious attention towards her, she might have obtained this palliative, with the contingency too, however improbable, of her outliving, and then occupying the place of the Queen. The Ministers rejoiced at these murmurs; and to pay their court to the Queen, and to mortify the Princess and her favourite, spared no pains to heighten this disgust, which they even pretended to adopt; proceeding so far as to make representations to the King against his keeping the nomination secret. His Majesty was obdurate. At last they obtained that the Regent should be one of the Royal Family: a clear indication of their affecting to suspect that he had had thoughts of Lord Bute for that high office. When this was conceded, and yet the Queen was not named, it seemed to intimate that she was not the person designed. Grenville and the Bedfords were not men to offend by halves, or to halt when they had gained ground. Pursuing their blow, they told his Majesty, that the Queen not being one of the Royal Family, if his Majesty had her in contemplation, it would be requisite to specify her by name. Even this point they carried at last. Yet thus had every step of the former Regency-bill furnished precedents for the most dangerous attempts. A power had been granted to the late King, of adding by his will four persons to the Regent’s Council. As prerogative seldom adheres to the strict letter of a precedent, but builds new pretensions on the slightest foundation, the Crown now, from four secret nominations, had jumped at once to demand a secret nomination of the Regent. Newcastle, one of the three authors[86] of the former bill, was still alive to behold its copy, as was also Fox, the opposer of it; but Newcastle now dreaded, and Fox recommended the example!