The same day, the livery of London determined to petition the King on grievances; and on the 5th of July their petition was delivered to him by the Lord Mayor, Beckford, and three more, but was received with the utmost coldness and neglect.
Two days after, the Court was surprised with a more unexpected phenomenon. Lord Chatham appeared at the King’s levee when it was thought he would never produce himself again, or was not fit to be produced in public. He was perfectly well, and had grown fat. The Duke of Grafton had just time to apprise the King of this mysterious visit. The King was very gracious, and whispered him to come into the closet after the levee, which he did, and staid there twenty minutes. Much silence was observed on what passed; though by degrees it was affirmed that the conversation was only general and indifferent. Yet hints were dropped that the King, sounding Lord Chatham on the Middlesex election, the opinion he gave was not favourable to his Majesty’s wishes.[230] The active part taken by Lord Shelburne, Beckford, and Calcraft, made this greatly probable; and his Lordship’s subsequent conduct corroborated the idea. Still was Lord Chatham very desirous of recovering his power; and it was not his style to be harsh in the closet.[231] It was remarked, too, that, not to embitter his reception, he had come when Lord Temple[232] was detained at Stowe, by entertaining there several of the foreign ministers. Lord Chatham lingered affectedly, in the outward room, after his audience, as if to display the recovery of his health and understanding. To the Duke of Grafton and the Bedfords he was awkward and cool; embraced Lord Granby and General Harvey[233] (a personal military favourite of the King), and was very civil to Lord Hertford and Mr. Conway. In the evening he returned to Hayes.
Whatever were the motives of his re-appearance, the prospect certainly favoured him, whether he had a mind to present himself as a mediator to the fears of the Court, or as a Captain-General to the Opposition. His creatures governed the City: Lord Granby, influenced by Calcraft, and dreading the loss of popularity, talked of resigning. The Chancellor was disgusted with Grafton, whose marriage had hurt him at Court. Ireland, by the absurd conduct of Lord Townshend, was in confusion; and the Bedfords were pressing to send Lord Sandwich thither, which would have increased the ill-humour. And though the Ministers had thoughts of giving satisfaction to the Colonies, yet, having refused to give that assurance in Parliament, the Americans would no longer trust them. The Virginians had voted the right of taxation to be in themselves, and resolved on a petition against our sending for the criminals to be tried in England,—a violent measure, dictated by rashness, and, almost as soon as announced, dropped by timidity. Great divisions reigned in the East India Company, in which Lord Clive and Sir Laurence Dundas were contending to engross sole power, the Company having more places to bestow than the First Lord of the Treasury; the exorbitant wealth of our empire going hand-in-hand with the advance of prerogative, in the views of most of our patriots. Wilkes, in the meantime, whatever were his views, had honesty enough not to smother his private resentments; and, at this very moment, published an envenomed pamphlet against Lord Chatham. It was unjustly silent on his merits and services, but touched with truth the defective parts of his character.
A former friend of Wilkes, who had abandoned him, was more cruelly, because more iniquitously, treated. Among the rabble of Wilkes’s agents was one Horne, parson of Brentford. He was son of the poulterer to the Princess of Wales; but, whether from principle, vanity, or want of more decent means to attempt distinguishing himself, he had attached himself to that demagogue; and, with slender parts, had become his scribe in composing scurrilities for the newspapers, and his factor at all popular meetings.[234] In other respects his morals were not reproached; though, as came out afterwards he had, to please Wilkes, ridiculed his Lords the Bishops, and, to please himself, indulged in more foppery than became his profession. He now infamously aspersed Mr. Onslow,[235] one of the Lords of the Treasury, as having accepted 1000l. to procure a place for a person in the West Indies,—a transaction which was proved to have been a gross imposition on the person who paid the bribe, and in which Mr. Onslow had in no shape been concerned, till the defrauded person applied to him for redress. Horne impudently avowed the printed charge to be his; for which Onslow prosecuted, and cast him in damages at the assizes in Surrey.[236]
Some damp, too, was thrown on the zeal of the Opposition, by the refusal of Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Kent, to join in the popular petitions. The city of Bristol, on the other hand, determined to petition, and voted their contempt to their member, Lord Clare: but the most grievous outrage fell on the Duke of Bedford. He was Lord-Lieutenant of Devonshire, had a great estate in the county, and exercised most signal charity there. In order to prevent a petition of the county, he went down thither; but while he was at prayers in the Cathedral of Exeter, a tumultuous mob assembled, pouring out execrations on him; and had not the bishop conducted him by a private passage to the palace, his life had been in danger. At Honiton, the fury of the people rose to such a height, that they pelted him with stones, and set bull-dogs at him.[237]
In the meantime, Lord Bute returned privately to England from the waters of Barege, which, it was given out, had perfectly restored his health; but the temper of the times not favouring his timidity, or the latter renewing his disorder, he, in a short time, retired to Italy. The Court of France, however, not being the dupe of his pretended loss of credit, gave him the same guard, at his lodgings at Barege, as attended the Comtesse de la Marche, a Princess of the blood; and his vanity was so weak as to accept this safe homage.
His faithful devotee, Lord Holland, was scarce less obnoxious to the City. The contemptuous flippancy of his sons, and his own[238] indiscreet interference in behalf of Lutterell, had brought him again on the stage, which he pretended to have quitted. The multiplicity and difficulty of his accounts as Paymaster during the war had prevented their being liquidated. The Barons of the Exchequer had called on him to make them up. He had obtained from the Crown a delay of process, pleading the impediments he received from the proper officers in Germany. This was, probably, true. It is also probable, that he was not impatient to be disburthened of such large sums,[239] on which he made considerable interest. The petition from Middlesex had made this one of their charges, in their bill of grievances, and described Lord Holland as the defaulter for unaccounted millions. Touched to the quick at this imputation, he wrote a civil letter to the Lord Mayor, complaining of the aspersion, and referring him for the falsehood of the accusation to Alderman Beckford, whom Lord Holland said he had satisfied of the injustice of it. The Mayor returned only a card, to say he was not answerable for the contents of the petition; yet he had harangued on it, as well as presented it. Beckford advertised that Lord Holland had sent him his defence, but that it had not satisfied him. Lord Holland then published a justification in the papers. Indeed, the violence of the petition was much blamed; and, as if conscious of it, the authors had neither ventured to sign or date it.
Whatever had been Lord Chatham’s views in going to Court, it appeared that now, at least, his part was taken. A reconciliation was made between him and Mr. Grenville, which, though never cordial, served at least to alarm the Bedfords, who, according to their laudable practice, made immediate overtures to the three brothers,[240] offering to be content to save Lord Gower, Rigby, and one or two more of their friends at most; in which number they were careful not to stipulate for their ally, the Duke of Grafton. These overtures, though renewed at different times, were rejected. As if to condemn themselves more, they published a severe pamphlet against the political conduct of Lord Chatham.
Wiltshire and Worcestershire then agreed on a petition, and one from Surrey was presented. But the capital stroke was struck by the electors of Westminster, who petitioned the king to dissolve the Parliament,—a step not only absurd, but of most dangerous precedent. To require him to dissolve an assembly so obsequious, and of whom they complained for humouring his vengeance, was on the face of it ridiculous and void of all probability of success. A refusal, indeed, they might wish to receive, as it would but inflame their grievance: but on pretence of violated liberty to seek for redress from the Throne, the aggressor against the bulwark of liberty, however then betrayed to the Crown, was as noxious a measure as could have been devised. What King but might obtain some servile addresses against the most incorruptible House of Commons? Was prerogative the champion to resort to in defence of injured freedom? The invitation sent to the Danes by our short-sighted and ignorant ancestors, and the expedient of calling over the heir of the Crown of France by the barons in the reign of King John, were scarce more big with folly and indiscretion. What could triumphant rebellion have demanded more of a King than to dissolve one Parliament and expose himself to a new election amidst enraged subjects? It was the act of a rash multitude—yet did not want abettors, who ought to have acted on sounder and soberer principles. Was this, alas! a moment to fill the nation with tumult and disorder? Was the constitution so gone (and nobody thinks worse than I do of the provocation given by the Court in the case of Lutterell) that anarchy was the sole engine left that could restore it? Could Lord Chatham, or Lord Temple, or Grenville (of whom the former had lost their popularity, and the latter never had any) hope to
“Ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm?”