On the 8th, the Duke of Bolton moved to see the instructions that had been given to Captain Hunt when he was sent to the Falkland Islands; but that demand was likewise rejected by 50 odd to 22. Those instructions had been so hostile, that Lord Chatham owned he had hoped, if a Parliamentary inspection of them could have been obtained, and consequently publicity, that they would have provoked Spain to break the new convention. On this and the former debate Lord Chatham spoke with infinite wit and much temper, and said, smiling at the youth of Lord North and Lord Suffolk, that old England was grown very old and decayed indeed under so many young men!
This pacification cut up by the roots Lord Chatham’s hopes, which had revived on the prospect of war; but though the nation might have called for the vigour of his spirited councils had war been declared, nobody was desirous of making war only to make him necessary,—especially when we had obtained reparation of an insult to which we had given the provocation. Wilkes did not wish Lord Chatham’s exaltation, by whom he had ever been discountenanced personally; and the Earl’s connection with Lord Shelburne set him at still greater distance from Wilkes, who, in truth, could but ill maintain his ground at all, and had no support but from the Common Council and the very mob. He had, indeed, lately obtained an approbation of his conduct from a majority of the Bill of Rights, but composed of the least substantial members. Macleane, one of his most noisy abettors in the House of Commons, and who had lent him money, had been bought off by the Court; on which Wilkes abused him in the newspapers. Macleane obliged the printer to discover the author, on which Macleane challenged Wilkes, and he making no reply, Macleane printed his challenge. Wilkes disavowed the libels, and affirmed that he had declared as much to a relation of Macleane, who had brought him the latter’s defiance, which Wilkes waived as not being the author of the abuse. Nor did the public think well enough of Macleane to interest themselves in his quarrel. Courage Wilkes thought he had displayed sufficiently; and blemishes in his private character, though set forth in the most odious colours by his adversaries, he had found could not wean the affections of the people. Yet his confidence in that particular proved soon afterwards more detrimental to his credit than all his former errors. Nor did he take any pains to disguise what he thought of his cause and his partisans; but with an ebriety of indiscretion he would joke on his own situation and adherents, even with men averse to his faction, the Scotch excepted, whom he never spared.
Nor was his cause grown obsolete. New events sprung out of it continually. To excite reflections on Wedderburne, who had drawn up the Yorkshire remonstrance, and was now Solicitor-General, Sir George Saville moved for leave to bring in a bill, ascertaining that expulsion did not create incapacity. He said he did not well know how to make a complaint, where the House was both the criminal and the judge, and when he himself was a party. Wedderburne and Grenville’s friends evaded the attack by voting for the motion, to prove their consistence,—a step men in their situation never take but when they have been inconsistent.[154] The motion was rejected by 167 to 103. The largeness of the minority was owing to these temporary evasions, and to the call of the House.
As the storm was blown over, the Duke of Richmond moved the Lords to address the King to remit pressing, unless the necessity still remained. Lord Chatham made an artful speech on the state of Europe, hoping to draw from the Ministers some unguarded expressions. Lord Halifax opposed the motion; but Lord Hillsborough fell into the snare, and with great encomiums on Lord Chatham, confessed he had long thought us in danger, and too weak; feared the peace would not last, and declared he had often pressed the other Ministers to increase our force. Lord Craven[155] asked him, Why then had he opposed a motion for that purpose but last March? Lord Chatham said, he now saw the motion was improper, for the Ministers owned the peace would not last; and he begged the Duke of Richmond to withdraw his motion. Lord Gower, thinking that assurance was the only remedy for indiscretion, denied point-blank that Lord Hillsborough had confessed any weakness or apprehensions; and Lord Suffolk, maintaining that the House was in possession of the question, and that it could not be withdrawn without leave, the Court Lords would have forced a division, but the Opposition would not vote.
The same day (Feb. 11), Sir William Meredith, to favour the Duke of Portland, moved for a bill to take a clause from the bill of Nullum Tempus, which would assist the Duke’s pursuit of his cause; but the taking away of which was thought would be a singular hardship on Sir James Lowther. Lord North had prevailed on Sir James to give up the most exceptionable parts of that clause; yet the latter was so obnoxious, that after a long debate, leave was given by 152 to 123 for the bill to be brought in.[156] The Court party were furious against the injustice, and seemed glad to be oppressed once, as if one instance of partiality in their enemies would wipe out all their own arbitrary attempts and violences. They made all possible interest to defend the clause; and Charles Fox, the phenomenon of the age, undertook the patronage of it, and gave as much satisfaction to the party as disgust to the Opposition by the great talents he exerted on the occasion: yet acrimony and Dunning’s abilities prevailed that day (20th), and the bill was committed by a majority of 15. Still the weight of Lord Bute’s son-in-law effected what eloquence could not; in seven days the tide turned, and the bill was thrown out, by 164 to 154—a fair struggle of partiality on each side.
On the 13th, the Spanish declaration was discussed in the House of Commons. Lord Beauchamp and Lord Palmerston moved the address of thanks to the King. It was soberly worded, and only thanked for the communication and acceptance of peace. Lord North had softened the expressions much more than those in the address of the other House. This temperance prevented Dowdeswell from making a string of motions, which he had brought ready drawn; yet he harangued long. Forester, though attached to Lord Gower, surprised the House by pronouncing the address premature, as the ratification of Spain was not arrived. The debate lasted till past three in the morning, though unanimated. Barré was lively, Burke ill-heard, and Dunning tedious. Colonel Burgoyne made a fine set speech against the peace; and Lord Irnham, father of Colonel Lutterell, all zealous courtiers, voted against the address, but it passed easily.
The Duke of Newcastle[157] moved the address the next day in the Lords. Lord Camden opposed it, and was answered by Lord Mansfield. Lord Chatham spoke for two hours, but languidly and ill; Lord Shelburne better than he had ever done. But it was Lord Weymouth on whom all expectation hung: he expressed himself with much obscurity and mystery. He was understood to mean, that the Lords in Opposition had vainly tried to distinguish between what he had demanded, and what was now obtained; but that there was no material difference. He said he had, throughout the negotiation, told the Spanish Ambassador that he would not hear any talk on the right. When he resigned, he had looked on the treaty as broken off. His reasons for resigning had been of a different nature, and were such as he would not declare there. The Duke of Richmond, stating what he thought Lord Weymouth had said, in order, if possible, to dive into his meaning, the latter desired to repeat his own words, which, he said, had only been that he would defend his own part of the negotiation; that he had not said the present treaty did or did not agree with what he had demanded—that might be seen by his letters; that he would not hear the right mentioned before the Declaration; and that he could not help voting for the treaty as it now stood. That his resignation had been dictated by other political reasons, on which he had differed with his brother Ministers. All this verbal shuffling spoke nothing but treachery, irresolution, disappointment, or discovery of the mistake he had made. Wood did not scruple to confess to his friends that he himself had made a gross mistake, and repented it heartily; which could not but imply that he had drawn Lord Weymouth into the same error. The death of the Duke of Bedford had also lowered their importance; Lord Gower had been sweetened by the boon of the Duke’s Garter, and none of the faction were willing to sacrifice themselves to Wood’s blunder. Thus Weymouth was reduced to resort to the clemency of the Court, and to the occasion it might have for his narrow abilities hereafter. The address was carried by a proportion of 90 to 30; and by more, when the Duke of Richmond called for the proxies,—an usage, he said, he did not like, but had been desired to practise by Lord Rockingham, who was at Bath, and wished to give his negative to the peace. Lord Temple was not there, nor Lord Lyttelton, whose son-in-law Anglesey’s cause was pending, and made him fear to offend.[158] Lord Hardwicke voted for the pacification, and continued on that side, though he had treated his brother, the momentary Chancellor, so inhumanly for accepting the Seals but the last year. A protest of vast length was drawn up, and signed by sixteen peers. Lord Radnor signed a short one by himself.
The danger of war was no sooner blown over, than the Ministers precipitated themselves, though not unwarned, into a new difficulty, which, had it been conducted by the Opposition with the same address with which it had been planned, might have produced very serious consequences. The scheme was laid by Wilkes, who had far more enterprising invention than judgment, and was a better leader of hussars than a general. Assured of the juries in the City of London, he pushed on the printers to hazard all lengths, both in abuse and in publishing the debates with the names of the several speakers,—a liberty always deemed by Parliament a breach of privilege. But he did not solely depend on the perseverance of the London juries in acquitting libellers. The City pretended to exemption from the jurisdiction of the House of Commons, founding their claim on the restitution of their Charter by King William, which had been taken away by Charles the Second, though King William did no more than restore their ancient rights; but they arrogated their immunity from grants of ancient Kings. Secure of the attachment of Crosby, the Lord Mayor, Wilkes hoped the House of Commons would embroil themselves with the City, where he knew their authority would be resisted. Hints of this plot had been conveyed to Lord North many months before, and yet he had not the caution to avoid it. The two George Onslows, the elder very indiscreet, the younger very intemperate, were, from being the friends and champions of Wilkes, become his inveterate foes; and between wantonness and design, he daily inflamed their anger. A complaint being made to the House of the licentious freedom practised of printing debates, Colonel Onslow seized the opportunity of venting his rage against a saucy paper in which he had been most scurrilously treated. The printers of the debates were ordered to attend, though not without opposition and a division made by the Aldermen Townshend and Oliver. To this order no obedience was paid by the offenders; on which, the elder Onslow moved, February the 19th, that they should be questioned for contempt; but Lord North, who generally leaned towards moderation, desired that they might have allowance not to appear till the next day, which was agreed to; but as they continued to abscond, the House voted that if the summons were delivered at their own houses, it should be regarded as if they had been delivered to the printers in person. The House also addressed the King to order them to be taken into custody; and their contumacy not ceasing, it was carried on the 25th by a majority of 160 to 17, that they should be taken into custody.[159] This was what Wilkes had aimed at, and the consequences will appear presently.
About this time happened a considerable change in the Court of Denmark. The King, a weak and capricious little mortal, had early conceived a marked aversion for his Queen, the youngest sister of England, and had disgraced their cousin, the Prince of Hesse, for espousing her cause; as did his grandmother, the first Queen Dowager. Bernsdorffe, his Prime Minister, was devoted to the Court of Russia, and during the King’s absence in England and France, the Russian Minister had treated the Queen with great want of respect. As she was of a dauntless spirit, she took upon her to order him to quit Denmark; and on the King’s return, feeling his incapacity and her own courage, she assumed such an ascendant over him, that she not only got rid of his favourite, young Count Holke, but, aided by the King’s physician, who was thought to be equally dear to both their Majesties, she dismissed Bernsdorffe and all the old Ministry, flung herself into the French faction, and transferred the whole power of the government to the beloved physician, Struensee. These despotic acts were accompanied by many extravagances, and more scandal. She reviewed the troops in a masculine habit, and when she went to meet her mother, the Princess of Wales, was dressed in regimentals with breeches of buckskin, though of enormous corpulency. The Princess lamenting to her the fall of Bernsdorffe, the ancient servant of the family, the Queen of Denmark said, “Pray, madam, allow me to govern my own kingdom as I please!” Such early haughtiness was no omen of a tranquil reign.
On the 4th of March a bill was moved for in the House of Commons by Sir George Colebrooke,[160] to allow the East India Company to maintain here a regiment of two thousand men, for supplying recruits to the defence of their settlements. It was to be composed of foreign Protestants. The matter was debated without partiality, the Ministry affecting to take no part in it, and Lord North not attending the discussion. Yet, if he stood neuter, the Scotch faction at Court were far from indifferent to the scheme. Sir Gilbert Elliot,[161] in a fine studied oration, supported it with all his abilities; Dyson laboured it, and it was carried to commit the bill. One Stewart, a Scot, was destined for colonel; and I myself heard the Duke of Argyle and Lord Frederic Campbell exulting on the success, and congratulating one another that the King would at least have another regiment at his command,—a point of view which numbers of our northern brethren kept ever in their eye.