CHAPTER III.
Distinction between late Motions on General Warrants shown in the Votes.—Dismissal of Officers.—Proceedings against Almon deferred.—Mr. Grenville’s Resolutions.—Dr. Browne’s Pamphlet.
The next day Sir William Meredith, uneasy that Dr. Hay’s ridiculous preface should, by being united to his question, pass for his, proposed his difficulty to the House, the Speaker having been so impartial as to delay the impression of the votes. Grenville confessed it was hard, and yielded that a distinction should be made. Conway caught artfully at this concession, acknowledged Grenville’s candour, owned he had been too warm himself, but desired Ministers to observe what difficulties were brought on gentlemen by such unparliamentary arts. Grenville repented his concession, and Dyson, the Jesuit of the House, endeavoured to explain it away; but Conway pinned them down to what had been yielded, and the votes were so cooked as to ascribe the amendment to the House, and distinguish it from Meredith’s original motion.
Not content with this atonement, the elder Onslow, two days afterwards, on a motion for paving the streets, parodied Dr. Hay’s question, but desired it might not be printed in the votes, as none of his constituents would understand it.
We of the Opposition had another business on the anvil, as knotty and full of difficulties as the question on General Warrants, and on which it was as arduous to decide whether we should bring it into Parliament or not. This was the complaint on the dismission of officers for their parliamentary conduct. Lord John Cavendish had pledged himself to move it; and it would not only revive the odium against the Ministers on a topic of such popular sound, but the cruelty exercised on General A’Court, deprived of his bread for a silent vote, and the rigour shown to Conway, though so decent and conscientious, had been particularly crying. Still there were both solid and private objections. The all-puissance of the Court was sure of putting a negative on the question; and thence officers would become still more dependent when the Crown should be thus authorized to cashier them at pleasure, by the approbation of Parliament. Charles Yorke and Charles Townshend were afraid of a debate that would reduce them to quit their allies before they had made their peace, or to oppose the Crown on so favourite a branch of prerogative as that of holding a scourge over its dependents. The Duke of Richmond, though he had promised, if the question should be stirred, to take part for Conway, could not wish for the occasion of differing with an Administration with whom, on every other point, he was united; and the officers in general, though they would have rejoiced to be emancipated from their dependence, were as little desirous of seeing a topic agitated, which would have obliged them to approve the practice, or exposed them to the resentment of the Crown, with the certainty, at the same time, that a censure of the practice could not be obtained by so weak an Opposition. Nor, hurt as I was at the treatment of my friend, could I myself wish to have the matter discussed in Parliament, where, by voting against the measure of dismissing officers for their conduct in the House, I must in fact have condemned my father, who had used the same severity, though on far higher provocation, and against determined opponents. Even Conway himself, aware that he should be deserted by his brethren, the officers, was by no means eager for bringing on the question. In this dilemma, Lord Temple advised Lord John to go to Hayes, and learn of Mr. Pitt whether, if they should defer the motion, he should be for it, when he should be able to come forth. This very advice indicated that Lord Temple at that time knew not Mr. Pitt’s mind, and wished to learn it for his own private reasons. Mr. Pitt’s answer then, and his change on the same occasion afterwards, marked that at that hour he had received no overtures from the Court, and that afterwards he probably had, as will be seen. Lord John went to Hayes, and found Mr. Pitt in bed with the gout. Pitt said he knew not when he should be able to come to the House: if he could he should be warmly with the Opposition; yet he feared too many negatives on that question would authorize the Court to dismiss officers. He condemned the practice strongly; and said whatever party or division of party might prevail hereafter, he hoped, though he grew an infirm old man, and that all was over with him, that they would do justice, not only to the persons dismissed, but to the principle. He was sorry the question of the Warrants had been stirred this year: had Opposition waited till a decision against them had been pronounced in Westminster Hall, not an argument in their behalf would have remained.—When Lord John returned with this answer, I begged him to wait, and to give out that it was in compliment to Mr. Pitt, which would do credit to our cause—and by delaying, I hoped to avoid the question.
Almon,[57] an active and officious printer for the Opposition, and attached to Lord Temple and Wilkes, having been prosecuted for publishing the excellent letter on libels, appeared on February 6th, in the King’s Bench, to show cause why an attachment against him should not be issued. As Lord Mansfield would not openly appear in this cause (he himself being severely treated in that pamphlet), as Judge Denison[58] had resigned, and the new judge had not taken his seat, Wilmot,[59] the remaining judge in that court, said, “It would be too much for him to take upon himself.” The Attorney-General moved to have Almon bound over to the next term. His counsel desired he might be heard, or dismissed; but he was bound over. This suit was afterwards dropped when Mr. Grenville found it convenient to have libels written against the Administration.
The same day Onslow moved for a call of the House for that day fortnight, that the House might be full on the great questions of Dismission of Officers, of Canada Bills, the Money due on the Manilla Ransom, the Cider Tax, &c.; and it was agreed to.
Grenville then proposed his thirty-five resolutions[60] towards a bill for laying duties on America, by his memorable Stamp Act. This famous bill, little understood here at that time, was less attended to. It removed the burthen of a tax to distant shoulders; and the most momentous acts are seldom much discussed, when no immediate interest occurs to oppose them. The colonies, in truth, were highly alarmed, and had sent over representations so strong against being taxed here, that it was not thought decent or safe to present their memorial to Parliament. The chief colonies had long been increasing in power and opulence; and wise men had not been wanting to foresee how difficult it would become for so small an empire as Britain to contain them within the necessary limits of dependence. Nor would that subjection probably be maintained, but by garrisons and regular forces; the charge of which, if borne by the colonies themselves, would leave to England but a precarious power over them; or would be too weighty an expense on the mother-country; and would even place a greater military force in the hands of the Crown than would be consistent with the freedom of this constitution; for of necessity the troops stationed in America must be often changed, and brought back to Britain; or might grow too intimately connected with the colonists; or might lose sight of all obedience but to their own officers. Long had the colonies been neglected, or overlooked. Sir Robert Walpole, whose maxim was, Quieta non movere, had been content with seeing no troubles arise in America. He had left that province to its proper minister, the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State, who had a closet full of despatches from that quarter unopened for a large number of years.[61] The Board of Trade, whose department it was, had sunk into a perfect sinecure for Members of Parliament; insomuch that Martin Bladen,[62] one of the commissioners, applying himself to the duties of his office, it was said with humour, that Bladen was Trade, and the other commissioners the Board. Two events concurred to rouse both the Americans and the English Government from this lethargy. The first was the conquest of Canada, which, delivering the colonies from apprehensions of the French, had thus early taught them to feel their own weight and importance. The second was the power of the Crown being in the hands of Grenville. It had been proposed to Sir Robert Walpole, to raise the revenue by imposing taxes on America; but that Minister, who could foresee beyond the benefit of the actual moment, declared it must be a bolder man than himself who should venture on such an expedient. That man was found in Grenville, who, great in daring, and little in views, was charmed to have an untrodden field before him, of calculation and experiment. The opposition of the Americans touched a third string predominant in his nature,—an obstinacy of supporting his will and his power. In the light of easing and improving an overburthened country and revenue, he was not blameable in wishing it could be accomplished. Nor, considering how great a debt had been incurred by supporting the colonies in the last war, was it unreasonable to desire that they should assist their mother in contributing to lighten a burthen become almost too grievous to be supported. But to this single object were all Grenville’s views and knowledge confined. His policy by no means embraced impediments or consequences. To say that his plan would be confined to the present assistance as then chalked out, was what neither himself pretended, nor was it by any means adequate to the mischiefs the attempt might produce. He himself termed it but an experiment towards farther aid, and as such the Americans immediately understood it. Little did he weigh the danger of a contest between the mother-country and such distant, extensive, and now powerful subjects. Less did he attend to the opportunity he threw into the hands of Spain and France, of exciting a mutinous spirit in our colonies, and when occasion should serve, of throwing assistance into them against their parent. Least of all did he foresee the damage he would inflict on trade, and how far the expected aid would be from compensating the loss the British merchant would suffer by a quarrel with our outlying brethren; but it was the fate of the times I am now describing,—I mean during the administrations of Lord Bute and Grenville,—to stir questions which, for the happiness of the whole, had better have slept in oblivion. The Americans soon learned to enter upon and discuss those problems of government, the benefits of which happy nations had better enjoy than agitate; which, from the perversity of man, are never universally assented to, and consequently cannot be moved without mischief; and which wisdom will never recal from speculation into dispute, but when the afflictive hand of power makes opposition to them the only remedy left against tyranny and arbitrary will.
From this moment nothing was heard from America but questions on the right of taxation, and whether the colonists had not carried with them all the birthrights of English freemen: whether their assemblies were not Parliaments, and whether any man could be taxed who was not represented. Parallels were drawn between the Americans, Scotland, and Ireland; and while all obedience was acknowledged[63] to the Crown, the jurisdiction of the British Parliament came to be undervalued, and set at nought. Every assumption of liberty that had been pleaded here against our kings, was now set up against the jurisdiction of England. The overflow of political writings in these islands had long been transmitted for vent to America, and were now the basis of a new paper war. Nor were there wanting in the chief provinces men of subtle and liberal minds, who knew how to set their pretensions in the fairest light. Still less was there a dearth of aspiring demagogues, who felt how much consideration must attend real or affected patriotism. On both sides of the ocean, there happily were found some men of that moderate frame of mind, who, though commonly the last to attain credit in the loud cry of faction, were successful in tempering the evil, though censured at home, and but ill rewarded with the attention they merited from America.