On the 10th, Mr. Seymour[198] moved a question, that condemnation for accumulated libels should not be made a precedent. Lord North proposed to alter the word accumulated into many, which being adopted, and the favourers of the motion then abandoning it, it was thrown out.[199]
The same day the liverymen of London met, and drew up instructions to their members against the proceedings of the House of Commons. Alderman Beckford attended that meeting, and told them, he should think it his duty to obey his constituents, even in points against his opinion; and whereas they enjoined an attempt for triennial Parliaments, he wished they were to be annual. He declared too that he never would accept place or pension.
At the India House the Ministers were now successful, and prevailed by 290 voices against 250, to obtain the Company’s agreement to pay to the public 410,000l. annually, for five years, out of their newly-acquired territories.
Allen might have had his liberty, but refusing to ask pardon of Sir William Meredith, as the House enjoined, was continued in Newgate.
Mr. Grenville, though dipped with them in opposition, had never forgiven Lord Rockingham and his friends for succeeding him in power, and for repealing the Stamp Act, nor had ceased pelting them in pamphlets. Just before the Parliament met, he had written, or assisted in writing, a tract called the State of the Nation, in which they had been bitterly treated.[200] Hoping union with him, at least, willing to act with him in opposition, they had borne all former provocations. They now at last replied, in a large quarto called Observations on the State of the Nation. It was drawn up by Edmund Burke, and did more honour to his talents as a writer than as a politician. The book solidly confuted Grenville, exposed him, and exploded his pretensions to skill in finance; but then it made all approach to him impossible, notwithstanding Lord Temple’s endeavours to unite them. It almost as explicitly abjured Lord Bute,—a step the party two years after tried as injudiciously to recover, when it was too late. If the work did honour to the author and to his party’s principles, yet it showed that that party was composed of impracticable men; and, what was worse for their cause, it declared inviolable attachment to the Marquis of Rockingham, a weak, childish, and ignorant man, by no means fit for the head of Administration. Burke had far more shining abilities than solid conduct, and, being dazzled by his own wit and eloquence, expected that those talents would have the same effect on others. His ambition built airy castles, and would not attend to those parts of policy that make no immediate show. One quotation in his book was singularly happy, and in one line drew the portrait of Grenville,—Vixque tenet lachrymas quia nil lachrymabile cernit. It was, in truth, Grenville’s character to weep over woes that he wished to exterminate by rigour.[201]
CHAPTER XI.
American Affairs.—Re-election of Wilkes.—His Second Expulsion.—Payment of the King’s Debts.—Third Election and Expulsion of Wilkes.—Loyal Demonstrations.—Address of the Merchants of London.—Riots.—Lutterell appears as Candidate for Middlesex.—Wilkes again Elected and Expelled.—Lutterell declared duly Returned.—Excitement of the Country.—Meeting of the Freeholders of Middlesex.—Close of the Session.
1769.
The flame Grenville had kindled still blazed in the Colonies. The Assembly of New York declared by vote, that they had an internal legislature of their own, and for that vote their Assembly was dissolved. The English Parliament addressed the King against the refractory behaviour of the colony of Massachuset’s Bay. He answered, he would give the orders they recommended, as the most effectual method of bringing the authors of the late disorders to condign punishment. The Administration prepared a severe bill of præmunire against the Colonies, and even meditated taking away the charter of Massachuset’s Bay. The Chancellor was exceedingly alarmed at these authoritative plans, and looked on them as partly levelled at him, who must have contradicted himself ignominiously if he joined in them, or risked the loss of the Seals if he opposed them; but he prevailed on the Duke of Grafton to overrule the scheme, which had been the work of Lord Hillsborough, and it was laid aside. The Ministers, too, were sufficiently embarrassed with Wilkes.