CONTINUATION
OF
THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
BY E. H. NOLAN
Volume III
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CONTENTS
[ MEETING OF PARLIAMENT ETC. ]
[ JUDGES MADE INDEPENDENT OF THE CROWN. ]
[ THE OPERATIONS OF THE WAR. ]
[ THE RESIGNATION OF MR. PITT. ]
[ CORONATION OF THEIR MAJESTIES. ]
[ FRANCE AND SPAIN DECLARE WAR AGAINST PORTUGAL. ]
[ DISSENSIONS IN THE CABINET. ]
[ THE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT AND THE CONCLUSION OF PEACE. ]
[ THE CHARACTER AND IMPEACHMENT OF WILKES. ]
[ MEETING OF PARLIAMENT, AND FURTHER PROCEEDINGS AGAINST WILKES. ]
[ PROPOSITION TO TAX THE AMERICAN COLONIES. ]
[ OPPOSITION OF THE AMERICANS. ]
[ WAR WITH THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. ]
[ THE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DEBATES ON COLONIAL TAXATION. ]
[ INSTABILITY OF THE CABINET. ]
[ ATTEMPTS TO FORM A NEW ADMINISTRATION. ]
[ OPPOSITION TO THE STAMP DUTIES IN AMERICA. ]
[ EMBARRASSMENT OF MINISTERS AND MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ SENTIMENTS OF THE AMERICANS ON THE DECLARATORY ACT. ]
[ THE DISSOLUTION OF THE ROCKINGHAM CABINET. ]
[ DECLINE OF LORD CHATHAM’S POPULARITY. ]
[ DOMESTIC TROUBLES AND COMMOTIONS. ]
[ THE RETURN OF WILKES, ETC. ]
[ RESIGNATION OF LORD CHATHAM. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DISCONTENTS IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND. ]
[ DISSOLUTION OF THE GRAFTON CABINET. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE MIDDLESEX ELECTION, ETC. ]
[ THE QUESTION OF CONTROVERTED ELECTIONS, ETC. ]
[ THE PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ REMONSTRANCE OF BECKFORD TO THE KING. ]
[ PROSECUTION OF WOODFALL AND ALMON. ]
[ DISPUTES RESPECTING FALKLAND ISLANDS. ]
[ DEBATE CONCERNING THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS OF THE LAW OF LIBEL. ]
[ QUARRELS BETWEEN THE LORDS AND COMMONS. ]
[ PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SHOREHAM. ]
[ RESOLUTIONS RESPECTING THE PUBLICATION OF DEBATES. ]
[ COMMITTAL OF THE LORD MAYOR AND ALDERMAN OLIVER TO THE TOWER. ]
[ CONTEST BETWEEN THE CITY AND LEGISLATURE. ]
[ THE QUESTION OF THE MIDDLESEX ELECTION. ]
[ THE QUESTION OF THE DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ RELEASE OF THE LORD MAYOR AND ALDERMAN OLIVER. ]
[ EDUCATION OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. ]
[ CITY PETITION TO THE KING. ]
[ DEBATES ON SUBSCRIPTION TO THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. ]
[ ECCLESIASTICAL NULLUM TEMPUS BILL. ]
[ TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS. ]
[ FATE OF THE QUEEN OF DENMARK. ]
[ DEATH OF THE PRINCESS DOWAGER OF WALES. ]
[ INVESTIGATION OF THE MIDDLESEX ELECTION. ]
[ THE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ THE CARIBBS OF ST. VINCENTS. ]
[ PETITION OF NAVAL OFFICERS. ]
[ SUBSCRIPTION TO THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. ]
[ DEBATES ON EAST INDIA MEASURES. ]
[ DISPUTES WITH THE AMERICAN COLONIES. ]
[ EARLY MEASURES IN THIS SESSION. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST AMERICA. ]
[ BILL FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF CANADA. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. ]
[ PACIFIC MEASURE OF LORD NORTH. ]
[ BURKE’S PLAN OF CONCILIATION. ]
[ PETITION OF THE CITY OF LONDON. ]
[ PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICANS. ]
[ EXPEDITION TO SEIZE STORES AT SALEM. ]
[ MEETING OF THE ASSEMBLIES AND OF GENERAL CONGRESS. ]
[ EXPEDITIONS AGAINST TICONDEROGA AND CROWN POINT, ETC. ]
[ EXPEDITION AGAINST CANADA. ]
[ DISPOSITION AND REVOLT OF THE VIRGINIANS. ]
[ CONDUCT OF CONGRESS TOWARDS NEW YORK, ETC. ]
[ PROSECUTION AND TRIAL OF HORNE TOOKE, ETC. ]
[ THE NAVY AND LAND ESTIMATES. ]
[ MOTIONS OF THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. ]
[ BURKE’S SECOND CONCILIATORY MOTION. ]
[ LORD NORTH’S PROHIBITORY BILL. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ SENTIMENTS OF FOREIGN POWERS, ETC. ]
[ EVACUATION OF BOSTON BY THE BRITISH. ]
[ UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK ON SULLIVAN’S ISLAND. ]
[ DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY CONGRESS. ]
[ EXPEDITION AGAINST NEW YORK. ]
[ DEFEAT OF THE AMERICANS ON LONG ISLAND. ]
[ CONFERENCE ON STATEN ISLAND. ]
[ CAPTURE OF FORT WASHINGTON. ]
[ CAPTURE OF FORT LEE, AND RETREAT OF WASHINGTON. ]
[ EXPEDITION AGAINST RHODE ISLAND. ]
[ SUCCESSES OF GENERAL CARLETON. ]
[ DEFECTION OF THE COLONISTS, ETC. ]
[ ATTEMPT TO FIRE HIS MAJESTY’S DOCKYARD AT PORTSMOUTH. ]
[ LETTERS OF MARQUE GRANTED. ]
[ BILL FOR DETAINING PERSONS IN PRISON CHARGED WITH HIGH-TREASON. ]
[ SPIRITED ADDRESS OF THE SPEAKER TO THE KING. ]
[ LORD CHATHAM’S MOTION FOR CONCESSIONS TO AMERICA. ]
[ BRITISH EXPEDITION UP THE HUDSON RIVER. ]
[ AMERICAN EXPEDITION TO LONG ISLAND. ]
[ CAPTURE OF GENERAL PRESCOT, ETC. ]
[ BATTLE OF THE BRANDYWINE, ETC. ]
[ EXPEDITION AND CAPTURE OF BURGOYNE. ]
[ CLINTON’S EXPEDITION UP THE HUDSON. ]
[ DUKE OF RICHMOND’S MOTION FOR INQUIRING INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION. ]
[ FOX’S MOTION FOR INQUIRING INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION. ]
[ INTELLIGENCE OF BURGOYNES DEFEAT ]
[ ROYAL ASSENT TO SEVERAL BILLS. ]
[ DEMONSTRATION OF PUBLIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND. ]
[ COMMITTEE FOR TAKING THE STATE OF THE NATION INTO CONSIDERATION. ]
[ BURKE’S MOTION RELATIVE TO THE EMPLOYMENT OF INDIANS. ]
[ COMMITTEE OF EVIDENCE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, ETC. ]
[ LORD NORTHS CONCILIATORY BILLS. ]
[ INTIMATION OF THE FRENCH TREATY WITH AMERICA. ]
[ INVESTIGATION OF THE STATE OF THE NAVY. ]
[ MOTION FOR EXCLUDING CONTRACTORS FROM PARLIAMENT. ]
[ REVISION OF THE TRADE OF IRELAND. ]
[ BILL FOR THE RELIEF OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. ]
[ MOTION OF CENSURE ON LORD GEORGE GERMAINE, ETC. ]
[ LORD CHATHAM’S LAST APPEARANCE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. ]
[ DEATH OF LORD CHATHAM, AND POSTHUMOUS HONOURS TO HIS MEMORY. ]
[ THE DUKE OF RICHMOND’S MOTION RESUMED. ]
[ NAVAL OPERATIONS IN THE BRITISH CHANNEL. ]
[ DISGRACEFUL INFRACTION OF THE CONVENTION OF SARATOGA. ]
[ LAFAYETTE’S EXPEDITION TO CANADA. ]
[ UNFORTUNATE ACTION UNDER LAFAYETTE. ]
[ SIR HENRY CLINTON TAKES THE COMMAND OF THE BRITISH TROOPS. ]
[ ARRIVAL OF THE COMMISSIONERS IN AMERICA WITH THE CONCILIATORY BILLS. ]
[ EVACUATION OF PHILADELPHIA BY THE BRITISH, ETC. ]
[ UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK BY THE AMERICANS AND FRENCH ON RHODE ISLAND. ]
[ OPERATIONS OF THE BRITISH ARMY. ]
[ ATTACK OF THE SAVAGES ON THE SETTLEMENT OF WYOMING, ETC. ]
[ ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH ENVOY AT PHILADELPHIA. ]
[ MOVEMENTS OF THE BRITISH AND FRENCH FLEETS. ]
[ CAPTURE OF DOMINICA BY THE FRENCH. ]
[ CAPTURE OF ST. LUCIE BY THE BRITISH. ]
[ RE-CAPTURE OF THE ISLANDS OF ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON. ]
[ FRENCH PLANS REGARDING CANADA COUNTERACTED BY WASHINGTON. ]
[ CAPTURE OF SAVANNAH BY THE BRITISH. ]
[ AFFAIR RESPECTING ADMIRAL KEPPEL AND SIR HUGH PALLISER. ]
[ TRIAL OF ADMIRAL KEPPEL AND VICE-ADMIRAL PALLISER. ]
[ INVESTIGATION RESPECTING THE CONDUCT OF GENERAL AND LORD HOWE. ]
[ RELIEF TO PROTESTANT DISSENTERS. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE TRADE OF IRELAND. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE MILITIA BILL. ]
[ BILL FOR THE IMPRESSMENT OF SEAMEN. ]
[ THE CAUSES OF THE RUPTURE WITH SPAIN. ]
[ SPANISH ATTEMPT UPON GIBRALTAR. ]
[ FRENCH AND ENGLISH FLEETS IN THE CHANNEL, ETC. ]
[ AFFAIRS IN THE WEST INDIES. ]
[ INEFFECTUAL ATTEMPT OF THE AMERICANS TO REDUCE SAVANNAH. ]
[ BRITISH INCURSIONS INTO VIRGINIA. ]
[ CAPTURE OF STONEY-POINT AND VERPLANKS. ]
[ BRITISH EXPEDITION AGAINST CONNECTICUT. ]
[ STONEY-POINT RE-CAPTURED, BUT DESERTED AT THE APPROACH OF THE BRITISH. ]
[ BRITISH GARRISON SURPRISED AT PAULUS-HOOK. ]
[ AMERICAN DISASTER AT PENOBSCOT. ]
[ AMERICAN RETALIATION ON THE INDIANS, ETC. ]
[ ACTION BETWEEN PAUL JONES AND CAPTAIN PEARSON. ]
[ LORD SHELBURNE ATTACKS MINISTERS IN THE CASE OF IRELAND. ]
[ LORD OSSORY’S ATTACK ON MINISTERS RESPECTING IRELAND. ]
[ LORD NORTH’S PROPOSITION FOR THE RELIEF OF IRELAND. ]
[ DEBATES ON ECONOMICAL REFORM. ]
[ BURKE’S PLAN OF ECONOMICAL REFORM. ]
[ REJECTION OF LORD SHELBURNE’S MOTION FOR A COMMISSION OF ACCOUNTS. ]
[ MINISTERIAL BILL FOR COMMISSION OF ACCOUNTS. ]
[ BILL FOR EXCLUDING CONTRACTORS FROM PARLIAMENT REJECTED. ]
[ MOTIONS REGARDING PLACES AND PENSIONS. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE INCREASE OF CROWN INFLUENCE. ]
[ LORD NORTH’S PROPOSAL RESPECTING THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. ]
[ GENERAL CONWAY’S PLAN OF RECONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. ]
[ POPULAR RAGE AGAINST THE CATHOLICS; RIOTS IN LONDON, ETC. ]
[ MEASURES ADOPTED BY PARLIAMENT, ARISING OUT OF THE LONDON RIOTS. ]
[ TRIAL OF LORD GEORGE GORDON AND THE RIOTERS. ]
[ ADMIRAL RODNEY’S SUCCESS AGAINST THE SPANIARDS. ]
[ RODNEY ENGAGES THE FRENCH FLEET. ]
[ EXPEDITION AGAINST SOUTH CAROLINA. ]
[ TREASON OF ARNOLD, AND FATE OF MAJOR ANDRE. ]
[ MARITIME LOSSES SUSTAINED BY THE BRITISH. ]
[ NOTICE OF THE RUPTURE WITH HOLLAND. ]
[ BURKE RE-INTRODUCES THE SUBJECT OF ECONOMICAL REFORM, ETC. ]
[ MOTION ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE MILITARY IN THE LATE RIOTS. ]
[ PETITION OF THE DELEGATES OF THE COUNTY ASSOCIATIONS. ]
[ THE MARRIAGE ACT CORRECTED. ]
[ MOTION OF FOX RESPECTING THE AMERICAN WAR. ]
[ THE GARRISON OF GIBRALTAR RELIEVED. ]
[ REVOLT IN WASHINGTON’S CAMP. ]
[ ARNOLD’S EXPEDITION TO VIRGINIA, ETC. ]
[ LORD CORNWALLIS’S EXPEDITION TO VIRGINIA. ]
[ SIEGE OF LORD CORNWALLIS IN YORK-TOWN. ]
[ LOSS OF THE BRITISH DOMINION IN FLORIDA. ]
[ FRENCH AND SPANISH FLEETS IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. ]
[ NAVAL ACTION WITH THE DUTCH. ]
[ COMMODORE JOHNSTONE ATTACKED BY DE SUFFREIN, ETC. ]
[ FURTHER OPERATIONS IN THE WEST INDIES. ]
[ SENTIMENTS OF FOREIGN POWERS TOWARD ENGLAND. ]
[ CENSURES ON RODNEY AND VAUGHAN. ]
[ MOTION OF SIR JAMES LOWTHER FOR PEACE, ETC. ]
[ RECENT EVENTS ON THE THEATRE OF WAR. ]
[ FOX’S MOTIONS FOR INQUIRY INTO THE NAVY. ]
[ MOTIONS OF INQUIRY IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. ]
[ DEBATES ON LORD GEORGE GERMAINE’S ELEVATION TO THE PEERAGE. ]
[ RENEWED ATTACKS ON LORD SANDWICH: RESIGNATION OF LORD NORTH. ]
[ BILL FOR EXCLUDING CONTRACTORS, ETC. ]
[ RESOLUTIONS RESPECTING WILKES EXPUNGED FROM THE JOURNALS. ]
[ DISFRANCHISEMENT OF CRICKLADE, ETC. ]
[ DEBATES ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF THE WAR IN AMERICA. ]
[ STATE OF THE WAR IN THE WEST INDIES, ETC. ]
[ SIEGE AND RELIEF OF GIBRALTAR. ]
[ PROSPECT OF GENERAL PACIFICATION. ]
[ RE-ASSEMBLING OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE WITH AMERICA, ETC. ]
[ PITT’S PLAN FOR REFORMING THE TREASURY ETC. ]
[ PETITION OF THE QUAKERS AGAINST THE SLAVE TRADE. ]
[ SETTLEMENT ON THE PRINCE OF WALES. ]
[ EXECUTION OF TREATIES, ETC. ]
[ DISSOLUTION OF THE COALITION MINISTRY—PITT MADE PRIME MINISTER. ]
[ EFFORTS OF THE OPPOSITION AGAINST THE NEW MINISTRY. ]
[ THE TRIAL OF PARTIES, AND TRIUMPH OF PITT. ]
[ MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. ]
[ ACTS TO PREVENT SMUGGLING, ETC. ]
[ BILL FOR THE RESTORATION OF FORFEITED ESTATES IN SCOTLAND. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ PITT’S FINANCIAL MEASURES. ]
[ BILL FOR THE FORTIFICATION OF THE DOCK-YARDS AT PORTSMOUTH AND PLYMOUTH. ]
[ PITT’S FINANCIAL MEASURES. ]
[ A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. ]
[ ATTEMPT ON THE KING’S LIFE. ]
[ TREATIES WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. ]
[ DEBATE ON THE TREATY OF COMMERCE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. ]
[ PITT’S PLAN OF FINANCIAL REFORM. ]
[ MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. ]
[ MOTION FOR INQUIRY INTO THE ABUSES OF THE POST-OFFICE. ]
[ DISPUTES BETWEEN GOVERNMENT, AND THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. ]
[ PITT’S FINANCIAL MEASURES. ]
[ ADDITIONS MADE TO THE BILL FOR TRYING CONTROVERTED ELECTIONS. ]
[ CLAIMS OF THE AMERICAN ROYALISTS, ETC. ]
[ CHARGE AGAINST SIR ELIJAH IMPEY. ]
[ IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS. ]
[ DERANGEMENT OF HIS MAJESTY: DEBATES ON THE REGENCY. ]
[ THE QUESTION OF THE REGENCY RESUMED. ]
[ ADOPTION OF A PLAN OF FORTIFYING THE WEST INDIAN ISLANDS. ]
[ BILL FOR THE COMMEMORATION OF THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS, ETC. ]
[ MOTION RESPECTING THE CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS, ETC. ]
[ IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS. ]
[ STATE OF PARTIES IN ENGLAND. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS. ]
[ FLOOD’S MOTION FOR REFORM OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ PITT’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT, ETC. ]
[ IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS. ]
[ PARLIAMENT PROROGUED, AND DISSOLVED. ]
[ SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES WITH SPAIN. ]
[ PROGRESS OF REVOLUTIONARY PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. ]
[ DEBATE ON THE WAR IN INDIA. ]
[ BILL FOR THE REGULATION OF CANADA. ]
[ SLAVE-TRADE ABOLITION BILL. ]
[ CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL, ETC. ]
[ BILL TO AMEND THE LAW ON LIBELS. ]
[ IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS. ]
[ PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. ]
[ STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN ENGLAND, ETC. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE RUSSIAN ARMAMENT. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. ]
[ PITT’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT. ]
[ ACT TO RELIEVE THE SCOTCH EPISCOPALIANS, ETC. ]
[ SHERIDAN’S MOTION RESPECTING THE ROYAL BURGHS OF SCOTLAND. ]
[ DEBATES ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, ETC. ]
[ BILL RESPECTING THE NEW FOREST AND TIMBER FOR THE NAVY. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. ]
[ STATE OF THE PUBLIC MIND IN ENGLAND. ]
[ EXECUTION OF THE FRENCH KING. ]
[ HOSTILE MESSAGE OF THE KING TO PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DECLARATION OF WAR BY THE FRENCH, ETC. ]
[ PITT’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT. ]
[ THE TRAITOROUS CORRESPONDENCE BILL. ]
[ RELIEF GRANTED TO MERCANTILE MEN. ]
[ RENEWAL OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S CHARTER. ]
[ RELIEF OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF SCOTLAND, ETC. ]
[ DISCUSSION ON A MEMORIAL PRESENTED TO THE STATES-GENERAL. ]
[ MR. GREY’S MEASURE OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ PROSPECTS OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, &c. ]
[ THE MILITIA AUGMENTED, ETC. ]
[ SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. ]
[ AGITATION IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. ]
[ INTRODUCTION OF FOREIGN TROOPS. ]
[ MOTION ON BEHALF OF LA FAYETTE. ]
[ MOTION FOR INQUIRY INTO THE RECENT FAILURES OF OUR ARMIES. ]
[ THE TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS. ]
[ THE PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ CORSICA ANNEXED TO THE CROWN OF ENGLAND. ]
[ LORD HOWE’S NAVAL VICTORY, ETC. ]
[ BRITISH CONQUESTS IN THE WEST INDIES. ]
[ MILITARY OPERATIONS ON THE CONTINENT. ]
[ THE INTERNAL CONDITION OF FRANCE. ]
[ CONVENTION WITH SWEDEN AND DENMARK. ]
[ BILL FOR THE SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT (CONTINUED.) ]
[ PITT’S PLAN TO MAN THE NAVY, ETC. ]
[ TERMINATION OF THE TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS. ]
[ MOTION FOR INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION REJECTED. ]
[ MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. ]
[ NAVAL AFFAIRS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, ETC. ]
[ FRENCH OPERATIONS IN HOLLAND, ETC. ]
[ TREATIES BETWEEN FRANCE AND PRUSSIA, ETC. ]
[ TREATY BETWEEN ENGLAND AND RUSSIA, ETC. ]
[ BILL TO PREVENT SEDITIOUS MEETINGS, ETC. ]
[ GREY’S MOTION FOR PEACE, ETC. ]
[ PITT’S FINANCIAL MEASURES. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ MILITARY AFFAIRS ON THE CONTINENT. ]
[ SURRENDER OF CORSICA AND THE ISLE OF ELBA. ]
[ DUTCH ATTEMPT TO RETAKE THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. ]
[ FRENCH EXPEDITION TO IRELAND. ]
[ DISPUTES BETWEEN FRANCE AND AMERICA. ]
[ PITT’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT. ]
[ MISSION OF LORD MALMESBURY TO PARIS. ]
[ STOPPAGE OF CASH PAYMENTS AT THE BANK. ]
[ GREY’S MOTION FOR REFORM, ETC. ]
[ BATTLE OFF CAPE ST. VINCENT. ]
[ THE BLOCKADE OF CADIZ, ETC. ]
[ INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE. ]
[ REDEMPTION OF THE LAND-TAX, ETC. ]
[ INCOME TAX SANCTIONED, ETC. ]
[ UNION WITH IRELAND CONSIDERED ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR GOVERNMENT IN FRANCE. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY DISCUSSIONS. ]
[ UNION WITH IRELAND COMPLETED. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ COMMENCEMENT OF THE UNION WITH IRELAND. ]
[ RESIGNATION OF MR. PITT, ETC. ]
[ MOTION FOR AN INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION. ]
[ WAR WITH THE NORTHERN POWERS. ]
[ DISSOLUTION OF THE NORTHERN CONFEDERACY. ]
[ PREPARATIONS FOR HOSTILITY. ]
[ MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. ]
[ ACT TO RELIEVE CATHOLICS, ETC. ]
[ WAR PROCLAIMED WITH FRANCE. ]
[ THE CAUSES FOR THE RENEWAL OF WAR WITH FRANCE. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ LETTER OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. ]
[ HIS MAJESTY’S INDISPOSITION. ]
[ CHANGE IN THE MINISTRY—PITT RESUMES OFFICE. ]
[ THE BUDGET—PARLIAMENT PROROGUED. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF FRANCE: NAPOLEON CREATED EMPEROR. ]
[ COALITION BETWEEN PITT AND ADDINGTON. ]
[ ARMY AND NAVY ESTIMATES, ETC. ]
[ DEBATE ON THE RUPTURE WITH SPAIN. ]
[ IMPEACHMENT OF LORD MELVILLE. ]
[ DISSENSIONS IN THE CABINET. ]
[ NAPOLEON CROWNED KING OF ITALY ]
[ CONQUESTS OF NAPOLEON IN BAVARIA. ]
[ THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, ETC. ]
[ THE GRENVILLE ADMINISTRATION. ]
[ PARLIAMENT PROROGUED, ETC. ]
[ WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND PRUSSIA, ETC. ]
[ DEBATE ON THE NEGOCIATION WITH FRANCE. ]
[ BILL FOR REMOVING THE DISABILITIES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. ]
[ TRIAL OF STRENGTH BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES. ]
[ DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ HOSTILITIES AGAINST TURKEY. ]
[ DISASTERS IN SOUTH AMERICA. ]
[ FRENCH INVASION OF PORTUGAL. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL. ]
[ MOTION RESPECTING THE DROITS OF ADMIRALTY, ETC. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ RISING OF THE SPANISH NATION, ETC. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL. CONFEDERATION OF FRANCE AND RUSSIA. ]
[ NAVAL AFFAIRS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. ]
[ CHARGES AGAINST THE DUKE OF YORK. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ FURTHER OPERATIONS IN SPAIN. ]
[ CAMPAIGN OF NAPOLEON IN ITALY. ]
[ BRITISH EXPEDITION AGAINST NAPLES AND WALCHEREN. ]
[ DISSENSIONS IN THE CABINET. ]
[ DEBATE ON THE WALCHEREN EXPEDITION. ]
[ PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SIR FRANCIS BURDETT. ]
[ PETITION OF THE IRISH CATHOLICS, ETC. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ THE MARRIAGE OF NAPOLEON, ETC. ]
[ ILLNESS OF HIS MAJESTY—OPENING OF PARLIAMENT, ETC. ]
[ OPENING OF PARLIAMENT BY THE REGENT ]
[ DEBATE ON THE RE-APPOINTMENT OF THE DUKE OF YORK TO THE WAR-OFFICE. ]
[ THE BULLION COMMITTEE, ETC. ]
[ SUBJECT OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE. ]
[ LOUD SIDMOUTH’S MOTION RESPECTING DISSENTING PREACHERS. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF THE IRISH CATHOLICS. ]
[ AMENDMENT OF THE CRIMINAL LAW ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF SPAIN, CAPTURE OF BADAJOZ, ETC. ]
[ AUGMENTATION OF THE CIVIL LIST. ]
[ BILL FOR PROHIBITING THE GRANT OF OFFICES IN REVERSION, ETC. ]
[ CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY, ETC. ]
[ ASSASSINATION OF MR. PERCEVAL. ]
[ ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LIVERPOOL. ]
[ BILL FOR PRESERVATION OF THE PEACE. ]
[ BILL TO EXTEND THE PRIVILEGES OF DISSENTERS. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT, ETC. ]
[ CAPTURE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO BY THE BRITISH. ]
[ STORM AND CAPTURE OF BADAJOZ. ]
[ WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND RUSSIA. ]
[ MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE WAR WITH AMERICA. ]
[ RENEWAL OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S CHARTER. ]
[ APPOINTMENT OF VICE-CHANCELLOR. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE TREATY WITH SWEDEN. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ BILL FOR ALLOWING THE MILITIA TO VOLUNTEER INTO THE LINE, ETC. ]
[ CAMPAIGN OF LORD WELLINGTON. ]
[ THE ALLIES ENTER PARIS; NAPOLEON DETHRONED, ETC. ]
[ HONOURS CONFERRED ON WELLINGTON, ETC. ]
[ VISIT OF THE ALLIED SOVEREIGNS. ]
[ TREATY OF PEACE WITH AMERICA, ETC. ]
[ RETURN OF NAPOLEON FROM. ELBA. ]
[ WAR RESOLVED ON; FINANCIAL MEASURES. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ CAPTURE OF PARIS.—SURRENDER OF NAPOLEON, ETC. ]
[ RETURN OF LOUIS XVIII. TO PARIS. ]
[ BRITAIN GAINS POSSESSION OF THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ RESTRICTIONS ON PUBLIC LIBERTY. ]
[ COMMITTEE ON THE POOR-LAWS, ETC. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. ]
[ MOTION FOR SECRET COMMITTEES PREPARATORY TO A BILL OF INDEMNITY. ]
[ EXTENSION OF THE BANK RESTRICTION. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ COMMITTEE ON THE CRIMINAL CODE. ]
[ MEASURES FOR RESUMPTION OF CASH-PAYMENTS. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ MOTION FOR INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION. ]
[ CESSION OF PARGA TO THE TURKS. ]
[ DECLARATION OF THE KING, ETC. ]
[ DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ BILLS FOR AMENDING THE CRIMINAL CODE. ]
[ MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE ON THE CORN-LAWS. ]
[ MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE RESPECTING FREE TRADE. ]
[ MESSAGE RESPECTING THE QUEEN ]
[ DEBATE ON THE HOLY ALLIANCE ]
[ MOTIONS FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, ETC. ]
[ REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEE. ]
[ MOTION TO RESTORE ROMAN CATHOLIC PEERS TO THEIR SEATS IN PARLIAMENT. ]
[ MOTION ON AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS, ETC. ]
[ ACTS FOR THE REDUCTION OF EXPENDITURE. ]
[ REDUCTION OF IMPOSTS, ETC. ]
[ MOTION FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM ]
[ CAUSE OF THE GREEKS—PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE. ]
[ MOTIONS TO REFORM THE CRIMINAL LAW. ]
[ MOTION TO REFORM THE SCOTCH REPRESENTATION. ]
[ MOTION RESPECTING THE DUTY ON THE LEEWARD ISLANDS. ]
[ EXPENSES OF THE CORONATION. ]
[ IRISH TITHE COMMUTATION BILL, ETC.—PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ ATTACK ON MINISTERS WITH REFERENCE TO SPAIN, ETC. ]
[ DISCUSSIONS ON THE REVOLT IN DEMARARA, ETC. ]
[ STATE OF THE BRITISH COLONIES. ]
[ BILL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF UNLAWFUL ASSOCIATIONS IN IRELAND. ]
[ COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF IRELAND. ]
[ MR. HUME’S MOTION AGAINST THE IRISH CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT, ETC. ]
[ STATE OF THE IRISH CHARTER SCHOOLS. ]
[ DEBATES ON ALLEGED ABUSES IN CHANCERY. ]
[ REGULATION OF THE SALARIES OF THE JUDGES. ]
[ REJECTION OF THE UNITARIAN MARRIAGE ACT, ETC. ]
[ ACT AGAINST COMBINATIONS AMONG WORKMEN. ]
[ SURRENDER, OF THE CHARTER OF THE LEVANT COMPANY. ]
[ PROPOSALS FOR THE ABOLITION OF CERTAIN TAXES, ETC. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ REVIEW OF FOREIGN RELATIONS. ]
[ MEASURES PROPOSED FOR RELIEVING COMMERCIAL DISTRESS. ]
[ BILL TO ENABLE PRIVATE BANKS TO HAVE AN UNLIMITED NUMBER OF PARTNERS, ]
[ APPOINTMENT OF A COMMITTEE ON EMIGRATION. ]
[ MODIFICATION OF THE CORN-LAWS. ]
[ BILL TO PREVENT BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS. ]
[ ALTERATION OF THE CRIMINAL CODE. ]
[ MODE FOR AMENDING THE REPRESENTATION OF EDINBURGH, ETC. ]
[ RESOLUTION FOR THE REGULATION OF PRIVATE COMMITTEES. ]
[ MOTION TO HOLD PARLIAMENT OCCASIONALLY IN DUBLIN AND EDINBURGH. ]
[ RESTORATION OF FORFEITED SCOTCH PEERAGES. ]
[ MOTION TO DISJOIN THE PRESIDENCY OF THE BOARD OF TRADE FROM THE ]
[ CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION, ETC. ]
[ PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. ]
[ MOTION FOR A SELECT COMMITTEE ON JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES, ETC. ]
[ KING’S MESSAGE RESPECTING THE CONDUCT OF SPAIN TOWARDS PORTUGAL. ]
[ RESOLUTIONS AGAINST BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS. ]
[ DEATH OF THE DUKE OF YORK. ]
[ DISSOLUTION OF THE MINISTRY. ]
[ REASSEMBLING OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ EXPLANATIONS OF MEMBERS, AND HOSTILITY TO THE MINISTRY. ]
[ OPINIONS OF HIS MAJESTY ON THE CATHOLIC QUESTION. ]
[ MOTION ON THE CHANCELLOR’S JURISDICTION IN BANKRUPTCY. ]
[ MOTIONS REGARDING THE STAMP-DUTY AND CHEAP PUBLICATIONS. ]
[ IMPROVEMENT OF THE CRIMINAL CODE. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ ADMINISTRATION OF LORD GODERICH. ]
[ DUKE OF WELLINGTON’S ADMINISTRATION. ]
[ DISCUSSIONS AND EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING THE DISSOLUTION OF THE GODERICH ]
[ MOTION FOR A GRANT TO THE FAMILY OF MR. CANNING. ]
[ REPEAL OF THE TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS. ]
[ MOTION ON THE STATE OF THE LAW. ]
[ BILLS CONNECTED WITH ELECTION OF MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DEATH OF THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL. ]
[ SUPPRESSION OF THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. ]
[ REJECTION OF MR. PEEL AT OXFORD. ]
[ THE TRIUMPH OF CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. ]
[ BILL FOR THE DISFRANCHISEMENT OF THE FORTY-SHILLING FREEHOLDERS. ]
[ THE CASE OF MR. O’CONNELL. ]
[ MOTION FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT, ETC. ]
[ STATE OF AFFAIRS IN IRELAND. ]
[ AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL DISTRESS. ]
[ MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE HOUSE ON THE STATE OF THE NATION. ]
[ REDUCTION OF SALARIES OF PUBLIC OFFICERS, ETC. ]
[ MOTION FOR REVISING THE WHOLE SYSTEM OF TAXATION. ]
[ COMMITTEE ON THE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S CHARTER. ]
[ DEBATE ON A PROPOSAL TO ALTER THE CURRENCY. ]
[ FINANCIAL STATEMENTS—BILL FOR REPEALING THE DUTY ON BEER, ETC. ]
[ MR. O’CONNELL’S BILL FOR REFORM BY UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE, ETC. ]
[ MR. O’CONNELL’S BILL FOR REFORM BY UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE AND VOTE BY ]
[ BILL FOR REMOVING THE CIVIL DISABILITIES AFFECTING JEWS. ]
[ BILL FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN CASES OF FORGERY. ]
[ BILL FOR AMENDING THE LAW OF LIBEL. ]
[ ALTERATIONS IN COURTS OF JUSTICE. ]
[ BILL TO AUTHORISE THE ADHIBITING OF THE SIGN-MANUAL BY STAMP. ]
[ DEATH OF THE KING, AND ACCESSION OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE, WILLIAM IV. ]
[ ROYAL MESSAGE TO PARLIAMENT—RUPTURE BETWEEN THE MINISTERS AND ]
[ PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING THEIR MAJESTIES’ VISIT TO LONDON. ]
[ MAJORITY AGAINST MINISTERS FOR A SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE CIVIL LIST. ]
[ FORMATION OF EARL GREY’S ADMINISTRATION. ]
[ STATE OF THE REFORM QUESTION. ]
[ INTRODUCTION OF THE REFORM BILL. ]
[ DEBATE ON THE MOTION THAT THE BILL BE READ A SECOND TIME, ETC. ]
[ MOTION OF ADJOURNMENT PENDING THE ORDNANCE ESTIMATES CARRIED AGAINST ]
[ THE BUDGET—PROPOSED CHANGES IN TAXES, ETC.—ARRANGEMENT OF THE CIVIL ]
[ MEETING OF PARLIAMENT—THE REFORM QUESTION RENEWED IN PARLIAMENT. ]
[ REJECTION OF THE REFORM BILL BY THE LORDS. ]
[ CONSEQUENCES OF THE REJECTION OF THE REFORM BILL. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ OPENING OF NEW LONDON BRIDGE, ETC. ]
[ REFORM BILL PASSED BY THE COMMONS. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE REFORM BILL IN THE LORDS. ]
[ DISTURBED STATE OF THE NATION. ]
[ REASSEMBLING OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ FAILURE OF THE ATTEMPTS TO FORM A NEW ADMINISTRATION—MINISTERS ]
[ IRISH AND SCOTCH REFORM BILLS PASSED. ]
[ BILL TO PREVENT BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS, ETC. ]
[ COMMITTEES ON IRISH TITHES. ]
[ COMMITTEE ON THE CHARTER OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY, ETC. ]
[ THE AFFAIRS OF THE WEST INDIES. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ RESIGNATION OF THE SPEAKER. ]
[ MEETING OF PARLIAMENT—RE-ELECTION OF MR. MANNERS SUTTON AS SPEAKER. ]
[ OPENING OF THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT BY THE KING IN PERSON. ]
[ BANK OF ENGLAND CHARTER RENEWED. ]
[ ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES. ]
[ RESOLUTIONS AGAINST BRIBERY, ETC. ]
[ BILL TO REMOVE THE CIVIL DISABILITIES OF JEWS.—PROROGATION OF ]
[ MR. O’CONNELL’S MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE UNION. ]
[ COMMISSION ISSUED TO INQUIRE INTO THE STATE OF THE IRISH CHURCH. ]
[ RENEWAL OF THE IRISH COERCION BILL. ]
[ RESIGNATION OF EARL GREY, ETC. ]
[ REJECTION OF THE IRISH TITHE QUESTION BY THE PEERS. ]
[ STATE OF ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS AND THE CLAIMS OF DISSENTERS. ]
[ FINANCIAL STATEMENTS, ETC. ]
[ BILL FOR THE REMOVAL OF THE CIVIL DISABILITIES OF THE JEWS, ETC. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. ]
[ SIR ROBERT PEEL APPOINTED PRIME-MINISTER. ]
[ DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ THE ACT ABOLISHING SLAVERY IN THE WEST INDIES CARRIED INTO EFFECT. ]
[ MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.—CONTEST FOR THE ELECTION OF SPEAKER. ]
[ DISCUSSION IN THE LORDS RESPECTING THE SLAVERY ABOLITION ACT. ]
[ MOTION OF THE MARQUIS OF CHANDOS TO REPEAL THE MALT-TAX. ]
[ THE DISSENTERS’ MARRIAGE ACT. ]
[ REPORT OF COMMISSION REGARDING THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, ETC. ]
[ REPEATED DEFEATS OF THE MINISTRY IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. ]
[ THE QUESTION OF THE APPROPRIATION OF THE SURPLUS OF THE REVENUES OF THE ]
[ RESIGNATION OF MINISTERS, AND RESTORATION OF LORD MELBOURNE’S CABINET. ]
[ MUNICIPAL REFORM AND THE IRISH CHURCH. ]
[ DISCUSSION REGARDING ORANGE SOCIETIES IN IRELAND. ]
[ DISCUSSIONS REGARDING CANADA. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ THE QUESTION OF ORANGE LODGES. ]
[ BILL TO REFORM THE IRISH MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. ]
[ COMMUTATION OF TITHES IN ENGLAND. ]
[ BILL FOR REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES, ETC. ]
[ BILL TO ALTER THE REVENUES AND TERRITORIES OF THE DIFFERENT SEES, ETC. ]
[ BILL TO ABOLISH THE SECULAR JURISDICTION OF BISHOPS, ETC. ]
[ BILL TO AMEND THE ENGLISH MUNICIPAL CORPORATION ACT. ]
[ BILL TO ALLOW FELONS’ COUNSEL TO ADDRESS THE JURY, ETC. ]
[ ABOLITION OF IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT, ETC. ]
[ MOTION FOR THE REDUCTION OF TAXATION ON BEHALF OF THE AGRICULTURISTS. ]
[ DISCUSSIONS ON THE COLONIES, AND ON OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ CONSIDERATION OF THE STATE OF IRELAND. ]
[ QUESTION OF ESTABLISHING A SYSTEM OF POOR-LAWS IN IRELAND. ]
[ NOTICES OF MOTIONS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES. ]
[ OPERATION OF THE NEW POOR-LAWS. ]
[ STATE OF THE BANKING SYSTEM, ETC. ]
[ CONSIDERATION OF THE FOREIGN POLICY OF ENGLAND UNDER THE WHIG ]
[ MOTION ON THE STATE OF THE NATION. ]
[ ILLNESS AND DEATH OF THE KING—REMARKS ON HIS CHARACTER. ]
[ THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA. ]
[ THE QUEEN’S MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES—EULOGIES OF THE LATE SOVEREIGN IN ]
[ BILL FOR PROVIDING THE SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN. ]
[ ALTERATIONS IN THE CRIMINAL LAW, ETC. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ STATE OF PARTIES AND ELECTIONS. ]
[ CITY BANQUET TO THE QUEEN. ]
[ OPENING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. ]
[ THE SUBJECT OF THE CIVIL LIST DEBATED. ]
[ THE SUBJECT OF THE PENSION LIST. ]
[ INTELLIGENCE FROM CANADA—DISCUSSION ON THE SUBJECT—ADJOURNMENT OF THE ]
[ PARLIAMENT REASSEMBLES—DEBATES ON CANADA—ADDRESS TO THE THRONE ]
[ THE QUESTION OF ELECTION COMMITTEES, ETC. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY QUALIFICATION BILL. ]
[ REVIVAL OF ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION, ETC. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE IRISH POOR-LAW BILL—THE BILL CARRIED. ]
[ MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE APPROPRIATION CLAUSE—MINISTERIAL PLAN FOR ]
[ COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS UPON THE IRISH MUNICIPAL BILL—THE ]
[ DEBATES IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON THE IRISH TITHE QUESTION. ]
[ THE IRISH POOR-LAW BILL CARRIED IN THE LORDS. ]
[ PROJECTED FORMATION OF A COLONY IN NEW ZEALAND, ETC. ]
[ FINANCIAL STATEMENTS, ETC. ]
[ MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE CORN-LAWS. ]
[ VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LAW. ]
[ A SELECT COMMITTEE TO INQUIRE INTO THE OPERATION OF THE POOR-LAWS. ]
[ COMBINATIONS IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND. ]
[ JOHN THOM. ALIAS SIR WILLIAM COURTENAY. ]
[ COMMITTEE ON CHURCH LANDS. ]
[ ACT FOR ABOLISHING PLURALITIES, ETC. ]
[ THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION DISCUSSED IN PARLIAMENT. ]
[ THE QUESTION OF CANADA RENEWED. ]
[ QUEEN PROROGUES PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DISAFFECTION AMONG THE WORKING CLASSES. ]
[ PROPOSED REDUCTION OF THE RATES OF POSTAGE. ]
[ THE STATE OF THE CONTINENT. ]
[ THE AFFAIRS OF IRELAND DISCUSSED IN PARLIAMENT. ]
[ IRISH MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS BILL. ]
[ PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT RESPECTING JAMAICA. ]
[ RESIGNATION OF MINISTERS, AND FAILURE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL TO FORM A NEW ]
[ THE SECOND JAMAICA BILL, ETC. ]
[ BILL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE-TRADE, ETC. ]
[ ACT FOR THE BETTER ORDERING OF PRISONS. ]
[ MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE HOUSE TO CONSIDER THE NATIONAL ]
[ THE BUDGET—PROPOSED REDUCTION OF POSTAGE DUTIES, ETC. ]
[ MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.—ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE QUEEN’S MARRIAGE. ]
[ BILL FOR THE NATURALIZATION OF PRINCE ALBERT. ]
[ QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE—HANSARD AND STOCKDALE. ]
[ THE IRISH MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS BILL, ETC. ]
[ ECCLESIASTICAL DUTIES AND REVENUES BILL. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ THE MARRIAGE OF THE QUEEN. ]
[ JEWS’ CIVIL DISABILITIES REMOVAL BILL. ]
[ CHURCH OF SCOTLAND: NON-INTRUSION QUESTION, ETC. ]
[ DISCUSSION ON THE CORN-LAWS. ]
[ RESOLUTION OF WANT OF CONFIDENCE IN THE GOVERNMENT. ]
[ PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ MEETING OF THE NEW HOUSE OF COMMONS, ETC. ]
[ RESIGNATION OF MINISTERS.—SIR ROBERT PEEL’S ADMINISTRATION. ]
[ STATEMENT OF SIR ROBERT PEEL AS TO HIS INTENDED COURSE OF PROCEEDING, ]
[ DEBATE ON THE CORN-LAWS—PROPOSITION OF MINISTERS ON THE SUBJECT. ]
[ FINANCIAL MEASURES—INCOME-TAX BILL, ETC. ]
[ MR. VILLIERS’S MOTION ON THE CORN-LAWS. ]
[ THE GREAT CHARTIST PETITION. ]
[ BILL FOR RESTRAINING THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN MINES AND ]
[ BILL FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ROYAL PERSON. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ ADDRESS TO THE CROWN ON THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. ]
[ THE CORN-LAW QUESTION RESUMED. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ AGITATION IN IRELAND, FORMATION OF THE FREE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND, ETC. ]
[ MOTION FOR THE STOPPAGE OF SUPPLIES. ]
[ RESTRICTIONS ON LABOUR IN FACTORIES, ETC. ]
[ THE CORN-LAWS AND FREE-TRADE QUESTION. ]
[ BANK CHARTER AND BANKING REGULATIONS. ]
[ SEES OF BANGOR AND ST. ASAPH. ]
[ MISCELLANEOUS MEASURES OF THE SESSION. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MR. O’CONNELL. ]
[ FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL POLICY—RETENTION OF THE INCOME-TAX, ETC. ]
[ THE SUGAR-DUTIES QUESTION. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF IRELAND—MAYNOOTH IMPROVEMENT BILL. ]
[ ACADEMICAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND. ]
[ QUESTION OF THE OREGON TERRITORY. ]
[ MISCELLANEOUS MEASURES OF THE SESSION. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ THE STATE OF THE CONTINENT. ]
[ STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THIS YEAR, ETC. ]
[ SETTLEMENT OF THE CORN-LAW QUESTION. ]
[ POSITION OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY ON THE DEFECTION OF SIR ROBERT PEEL. ]
[ THE CONDITION OF IRELAND.—DISTURBED STATE OF THE COUNTRY.—DISAFFECTION ]
[ POLITICAL AGITATION.—YOUNG IRELAND. ]
[ AFFAIRS OF INDIA.—BATTLE OF ALIWAL.—TOTAL EXPULSION OF THE SIKHS ]
[ STATE OF AFFAIRS AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.—SUCCESSES OF THE ]
[ STATE OF NEW ZEALAND.—SUPPRESSION OF THE NATIVE REVOLT. ]
[ OUR NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES. ]
[ RELATIONS WITH CONTINENTAL EUROPE. ]
[ STATE OF IRELAND.—PROGRESS OF FAMINE AND DISEASE. ]
[ CONTINUED POLITICAL AGITATION.—DREADFUL PREVALENCE OF CRIME. ]
[ MR. JOHN O’CONNELL ASSUMES THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPEAL ]
[ BITTER DISPUTES BETWEEN “OLD IRELAND” AND “YOUNG IRELAND.” ]
[ GENERAL STATE OF AFFAIRS IN GREAT BRITAIN. ]
[ POLITICAL AGITATION IN ENGLAND. ]
[ HOME NAVAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF THE YEAR. ]
[ GOVERNMENT PLAN OF EDUCATION. ]
[ BILL FOR CREATING A NEW DIOCESS OF MANCHESTER. ]
[ DEBATE ON THE ANNEXATION OF CRACOW. ]
[ PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ ASSEMBLING OF A NEW PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DEBATE ON THE DISTRESS OF THE NATION. ]
[ MEASURES FOR THE REPRESSION OF HOMICIDE AND OUTRAGE IN IRELAND. ]
[ MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF JEWISH DISABILITIES. ]
[ ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE.—CLOSE OF THE PARLIAMENTARY LABOURS OF 1847. ]
[ MUTINY OF SIKH TROOPS IN THE PUNJAUB. AND REVOLT OF CHUTTUR SINGH. ]
[ SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF MOOLTAN. ]
[ CAMPAIGN IN THE PUNJAUB UNDER LORD GOUGH. ]
[ SPAIN: DIPLOMATIC DISAGREEMENT WITH THAT COUNTRY; DISMISSION OF THE ]
[ THE CONTINENTAL REVOLUTIONS. ]
[ DENMARK.—SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. ]
[ VISIT OF FRENCH NATIONAL GUARDS TO LONDON. ]
[ AGITATION CONCERNING THE NAVIGATION LAWS. ]
[ REWARDS FOR INDIA SERVICE. ]
[ REFORM OF THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. ]
[ DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS. ]
[ PROSECUTION OF THE WAR IN INDIA, AND ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAUB. ]
[ CANADA.—POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.—OPPOSITION AND INSOLENT PROCEEDINGS ]
[ AUSTRALIA.—DISCONTENTS CREATED BY THE TRANSPORTATION QUESTION. ]
[ THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION UNDER SIR J. ROSS. ]
[ DEMANDS OF THE RUSSIAN AND AUSTRIAN EMPERORS UPON THE SULTAN OF TURKEY. ]
[ CONTINUED DISTRESS IN IRELAND—CRIME AND OUTRAGE—POLITICAL ]
[ POLITICAL STATE OF ENGLAND. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF 1849—OPENING OF THE SESSION. ]
[ REPEAL OF THE NAVIGATION LAWS. ]
[ AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS—MOTION FOR GOVERNMENTAL RELIEF. ]
[ VOTE OF THANKS TO THE ARMY IN INDIA. ]
[ MR. COBDEN’S MOTION FOR REDUCING THE ARMY AND NAVY. ]
[ MOTION ON THE STATE OF THE NATION ]
[ THE QUEEN’S VISIT TO IRELAND. ]
[ THE ROYAL VISIT TO SCOTLAND. ]
[ DEATH OF THE QUEEN DOWAGER. ]
[ DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS. ]
[ HOME EVENTS.—PROPOSAL FOR AN EXHIBITION OF THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. ]
[ COMPLIMENT TO LORD PALMERSTON. ]
[ ARRIVAL OF THE KOH-I-NOOR. ]
[ ATTACK UPON GENERAL HAYNAU. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY.—OPENING OF THE SESSION. ]
[ CONSTITUTIONS FOR THE COLONIES. ]
[ AUSTRALIAN COLONIES’ BILL. ]
[ BILL FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE LORD-LIEUTENANCY OF IRELAND. ]
[ MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS OF DEBATE. ]
[ PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DEATHS OF REMARKABLE PERSONS. ]
[ GENERAL PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF 1851. ]
[ EXHIBITION OF THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. ]
[ FOREIGN AFFAIRS—EUROPEAN RELATIONS. ]
[ DISCUSSIONS IN THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT CONCERNING THE STATE OF AFFAIRS AT ]
[ DIPLOMATIC DISPUTE WITH AUSTRIA AND TUSCANY, ARISING FROM AN OUTRAGE ]
[ STATEMENT OF MR. ERSKINE MATHER TO M. SALVAGNOLI.* ]
[ DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS DURING THE YEAR 1851. ]
[ DEATH OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS AND PARTY CONFLICTS DURING 1852. ]
[ THE MILITIA BILL.—DEFEAT AND RESIGNATION OF THE CABINET. ]
[ THE EARL OF DERBY’S ADMINISTRATION. ]
[ FOREIGN POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.—OUTRAGE ON MR. MATHER AT FLORENCE. ]
[ PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.—GENERAL ELECTION. ]
[ MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. ]
[ BOTH HOUSES CARRY RESOLUTIONS PLEDGING THEM TO THE FREE-TRADE POLICY. ]
[ THE GOVERNMENT SCHEME OF FINANCE.—DEFEAT AND RESIGNATION OF THE ]
[ FORMATION OF A NEW MINISTRY. ]
[ FOREIGN AFFAIRS.—BIRMESE WAR. ]
[ GENERAL EUROPEAN RELATIONS. ]
[ EFFORTS AGAINST THE SLAVE TRADE, AND TO SUPPRESS PIRACY. ]
[ DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS. ]
[ GENERAL STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN. ]
[ GENERAL CONDITION OF THE COLONIES. ]
[ DISCUSSIONS ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS.—RUSSIA AND TURKEY. ]
[ DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS. ]
[ HOME AFFAIRS.—GENERAL PROSPECTS. ]
[ FOREIGN AFFAIRS.—THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE, THE WAR WITH RUSSIA. ]
[ DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS. ]
[ HOME AFFAIRS—PUBLIC OPINION, AGITATION OF PEOPLE AND PARLIAMENT. ]
[ DEPARTURE OF THE BALTIC FLEET. ]
[ FINANCIAL OPERATIONS FOR THE YEAR. ]
[ VISIT OF THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. ]
[ DISTRIBUTION OF MEDALS BY THE QUEEN. ]
[ VISIT OF THE KING OF THE BELGIANS. ]
[ HER MAJESTY VISITS THE FRENCH EMPEROR. ]
[ VISIT OF THE KING OF SARDINIA TO THE ENGLISH COURT. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS, MINISTERIAL CHANGES, AND DIPLOMATIC ]
[ THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR—OPERATIONS IN THE CRIMEA AND BLACK SEA. ]
[ OPERATIONS IN THE SEA OF AZOFF. ]
[ OPERATIONS OF THE ALLIES IN THE BALTIC. ]
[ OPERATIONS IN THE WHITE SEA. ]
[ OPERATIONS IN THE PACIFIC, AND AGAINST THE RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS IN ]
[ CONCLUSION OF THE RUSSIAN WAR. ]
[ GENERAL CONDITION OF THE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. ]
[ DISPUTES WITH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ]
[ INTERNATIONAL MARITIME LAW. ]
[ HOME—GENERAL CONDITION OF GREAT BRITAIN. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. ]
[ FOREIGN AFFAIRS: RELATIONS WITH FRANCE, AND WITH OTHER EUROPEAN POWERS ]
[ DIFFERENCE WITH THE UNITED STATES. ]
[ CHINA—PROSECUTION OF THE WAR. ]
[ DEBATES ON THE CHINESE WAR-DEFEAT OF THE MINISTRY. ]
[ PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION. ]
[ RE-ASSEMBLING OF PARLIAMENT. ]
[ SUDDEN CONVENTION OF PARLIAMENT IN DECEMBER. ]
[ ART EXHIBITION IN MANCHESTER. ]
[ THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ]
[ PARLIAMENTARY AND POLITICAL. ]
Illustrations
[ General Burgoyne Addressing the Indians ]
[ British Surrendering to General Washington ]
[ Yarmouth: Nelson’s Monument ]
[ Portrait of Charles James Fox ]
GEORGE III.
CHAPTER I.
Accession of George III...... Meeting of Parliament, &c...... Judges made independent of the Crown..... Changes in the Cabinet..... The Operations of the War..... The Resignation of Mr. Pitt..... The Marriage of the King..... Coronation of their Majesties..... Meeting of Parliament..... Disturbances in Ireland..... War with Spain..... France and Spain declare War against Portugal..... Dissensions in the Cabinet..... Events in Germany, &c..... Negociations for Peace..... The Meeting of Parliament, and the Conclusion of Peace..... The Resignation of Bute..... The Character and Impeachment of Wilkes..... Changes in the Cabinet..... Meeting of Parliament, and further proceedings against Wilkes..... Proposition to tax the American Colonies..... Opposition of the Americans..... War with the North American Indians..... Domestic Occurrences
1760
ACCESSION OF GEORGE III.
Few monarchs ever ascended a throne under more auspicious circumstances than George III. The sources of national wealth and prosperity were daily becoming developed, and the British arms were everywhere victorious. So extensive were their conquests, indeed, that it may be said, the sun rose and set, at this date, within the limits of the British dominions.
Prince George, who was the eldest son of the late Frederick, Prince of Wales, was riding on horseback in the neighbourhood of Kew palace, with his groom of the stole, Lord Bute, when news was brought him that his grandfather was dead. This intelligence was confirmed soon after by the arrival of Mr. Pitt, the head of the government, and they repaired together to Kew. On the next morning George went up to St. James’s, where Pitt waited upon him, and presented the sketch of an address to be pronounced at the meeting of the privy council. Pitt, however, was doomed to find a rival where he thought to have found a friend. He was told by his majesty, that an address had already been prepared, which convinced him that Bute, on whose favour he had reckoned, would not be contented with a subordinate place in the new government, but would aspire to the highest offices in the state. In the course of the day, October 26th, George was proclaimed king with the usual solemnities.
The accession of George, notwithstanding, did not involve any immediate change in the existing administration. The Earl of Bute, together with Prince Edward, Duke of York, were admitted into the privy council, but it was given out that his majesty was satisfied, and even charmed, with the existing cabinet, and that he would make no changes, with the exception of a few in the household and in the minor offices. One of the first acts of George III., was a proclamation “for the encouragement of piety and virtue, and for preventing and punishing of vice, profaneness, and immorality.” This was naturally looked upon as a token of his majesty’s virtue and devotion, which view was borne out by his after character; for although the proclamation may be considered in the light of a dead letter as regards actual operation, it was enforced, or recommended, by his example; and example hath a louder tongue either than precept, proclamations, or laws. From the beginning to the close of his long reign, George III. manifested a decent, moral, and religious life, which doubtless had very beneficial effects upon society at large.
On the accession of the new king, parliament was prorogued, first to the thirteenth, and afterwards to the eighteenth, of November. In the meantime, public attention was engaged by the equipment of a large squadron of men-of-war and transports at Portsmouth, and speculations were rife as to the policy of the monarch—whether it would be favourable to war or to peace. All classes of society, however, agreed in anticipating the happiest results from his rule, since he had been born and bred among them, and was well acquainted with the language, manners, laws, and institutions of the people over whom he presided. Loyal and dutiful addresses, expressing such sentiments, were presented to the young monarch by the city of London, the two universities, and from various bodies of people, to all which he returned sententious but suitable replies, declaring his fixed resolve to respect their rights and conciliate their esteem. A letter was addressed to him by the venerable Bishop of London, Dr. Sherlock, as a parting benediction, in which he gave him the following wise council:—“You, sir,” he writes, “are the person whom the people ardently desire; which affection of theirs is happily returned by your majesty’s declared concern for their prosperity: and let nothing disturb this mutual consent; let there be but one contest, whether the king loves the people best, or the people him; and may it be a long, a very long, contest; may it never be decided, but let it remain doubtful; and may the paternal affection on the one side, and the filial obedience on the other, he had in perpetual remembrance.”
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT ETC.
The new king met parliament for the first time on the eighteenth of November. He opened the session with a speech, announcing not only the state of public and domestic affairs, but also the general principles by which he intended to rule. One clause in his speech was very gratifying to the people: “Born and educated in this country,” he observed, “I glory in the name of Briton.” Having uttered this memorable sentence, he said it would be the happiness of his life to promote the happiness and interests of his loyal and affectionate people; and that their civil and religious rights were equally as dear to him as the valuable prerogatives of his crown. He then declared, that on his accession to the throne of his ancestors he found the kingdom in a flourishing and glorious state; victorious and happy; although engaged in a necessary war, which, in the language of the late reign, he designated, “a war for the Protestant interest.” In this speech he neither spoke of peace nor negociation, but asked the assistance of parliament to prosecute this war with vigour. Finally, addressing the Commons on the subject of supplies, he concluded his speech thus:—“The eyes of all Europe are on you; from your resolutions the Protestant interest hopes for protection, as well as all our friends for the preservation of their independency; and our enemies fear the final disappointment of their ambitious and destructive views: let these hopes and fears be confirmed and augmented, by the vigour, unanimity, and despatch of our proceedings. In this expectation I am the more encouraged, by a pleasing circumstance, which I consider one of the most auspicious omens of my reign—that happy extinction of divisions, and that union and good harmony, which continue to prevail amongst my subjects, afford me the most agreeable prospects; the natural disposition and wish of my heart are to cement and promote them; and I promise myself, that nothing will arise on your part to interrupt or disturb a situation so essential to the true and lasting felicity of this great people.” This speech was warmly responded to by addresses from both houses of parliament; and the supplies for the ensuing year, amounting to £19,616,119, were cheerfully voted, while the civil list was fixed at £809,000; the king, on his part, consenting to such a disposition of the hereditary revenues of the crown, as might best promote the interests of the nation.
War, therefore, was to be continued, and Mr. Pitt and his colleagues seemed to be confirmed in office: yet at this very moment the train was laying for their expulsion. Earl Bute was anxious to become secretary of state, and he was busily engaged in a correspondence with the noted intriguer, Bubb Doddington. A few days after the meeting of parliament his lordship declared to Doddington, that Lord Holderness “was ready at his desire to quarrel with his fellow ministers, and go to the king and throw up with seeming-anger, and then he (Bute) might come in without seeming to displace anybody.” This expedient, however, did not please Doddington, and Bute paid deference to his opinion. Still the two friends took counsel together on this important affair. In a letter from Doddington to Bute, which was written in December, he advises “that nothing be done that can be justly imputed to precipitation; nothing delayed that can be imputed to fear.” He adds: “Remember, my noble and generous friend, that to recover monarchy from the inveterate usurpation of oligarchy, is a point too arduous and important to be achieved without much difficulty, and some degree of danger; though none but what attentive moderation and unalterable firmness will certainly surmount.”
In his career of ambition, Bute, who was “better fitted to perform Lothario on the stage,” than to act as secretary of state, paid small regard to danger, but kept his eye fixed steadily on the point he had in view. In January, he told Doddington that “Mr. Pitt meditated a retreat;” and in the same month Doddington writes to him—“If the intelligence they bring me be true, Mr. Pitt goes down fast in the city, and faster at this end of the town: they add, you rise daily. This may not be true; but if he sinks, you will observe that his system sinks with him, and that there is nothing to replace it but recalling the troops and leaving Hanover in deposit.” Again, on the 6th of February, Lord Bute declared, that it was easy to make the Duke of Newcastle resign, but at the same time he expressed a doubt as to the expediency of beginning in that quarter. Doddington replied, that he saw no objection to this step; and that if Bute thought there was, he might put it into hands that would resign it to him when he thought proper to take it. But Bute was not disposed to try the duke too much, nor to risk too bold a leap at once: so all ill humours were concealed under a fair surface.
Had Earl Bute taken any decisive step thus early in the reign of the new king, it would probably have exposed him to public derision and scorn. At this time the old system seemed to please everybody; and among the supplies voted by the House of Commons, none were more freely granted than the continental subsidies, and especially that of £670,000 to the King of Prussia. His victory at Torgau, which subjected all Saxony—Dresden excepted—to his power, was made known in England just before the meeting of parliament, and it had the effect of raising him high in the public favour of the people of England. Nor was it less advantageous to him on the Continent. His victory, with its results, indeed, were a full compensation to him for the previous losses he had sustained during the campaign. Laudohn raised the siege of Cosel, and evacuated Silesia; the Russians raised that of Colburg, and retreated into Poland; and the Swedes were driven out of Western Pomerania. In the same spirit of gratitude, the parliament granted £200,000 to our colonies in America, for the expenses they had incurred, and the efforts they had made in the present war—a war which laid some of the groundworks of the independence which a few years later was claimed by those colonies.
JUDGES MADE INDEPENDENT OF THE CROWN.
By an act passed in the year 1701, under the reign of William III., the commissions of the judges were continued quamdiu bené se gesserint; or the power of displacing them was taken from the crown, and their continuance in office was made solely dependent on the faithful discharge of their duties, so that it might be lawful to remove them on the address of both houses to the king. Still, at the demise of the crown, their offices were vacated, and George II. had even refused to renew the commission of a judge who had given him personal offence. Towards the close of this session, his present majesty, in a speech from the throne, recommended an important improvement in this matter, which greatly increased his popularity. He declared his wish to render the bench still more independent of the crown, and the administration of justice still more impartial; and he recommended that provisions should be made for the continuance of their commissions and salaries, without any reference to the death of one king, or the accession of his successor. In compliance with this expressed wish, a bill was framed for rendering the judges thus independent, which was carried through both houses. It received the royal assent on the 19th of March, on which day his majesty put an end to the session.
CHANGES IN THE CABINET.
Before this event took place, a certain party in the state began to think that circumstances would authorise them to commence a gradual change of ministers, and of the policy of the nation. In this his majesty seems to have coincided, for on the same day that he closed the session, Mr. Legge, who was co-partner with Mr. Pitt in popularity, was unceremoniously dismissed from the office of chancellor of the exchequer, and Sir Francis Dashwood nominated his successor. On the same day, also, Lord Holderness having secured a pecuniary indemnification, with the reversion of the wardenship of the cinque ports, resigned the office of secretary of state in favour of Lord Bute. It was said that the king “was tired of having two secretaries, of which one (Pitt) would do nothing, and the other (Holderness) could do nothing; and that he would have a secretary who both could and would act.” At the same time, Lord Halifax was advanced from the board of trade to be Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and was replaced by Lord Barrington; and the Duke of Richmond, displeased by a military promotion injurious to his brother, resigned his post as lord of the bed-chamber. Other changes, of minor importance, took place—such as the introduction of several Tories into the offices of the court, and there was a considerable addition made to the peerage. These changes were, doubtless, unpalatable to Mr. Pitt; but Horace Walpole says that he was somewhat softened by the offer of the place of cofferer for his brother-in-law, James Grenville. At all events Mr. Pitt continued in office, and Earl Bute consented to leave the management of foreign affairs in his hands; but at the same time, both Bute and his majesty gave him to understand that an end must be put to the war.
THE OPERATIONS OF THE WAR.
Since the accession of George III., the events of the war had been various. Although Frederick the Great had driven the Russians and Austrians from his capital, they were still within his own territory; while the French were on the side of the Rhine, and the Swedes continued to threaten invasions. Such was his situation when he heard that George II, was dead; that his successor was desirous of peace; that some of his advisers were projecting a separate treaty with France; and that it was probable that the English subsidies would soon be discontinued. This intelligence in some degree was confirmed by the tardiness with which the subsidy, so readily granted by the parliament in December, was paid into his treasury. Nothing daunted, however, Frederick planned fresh campaigns, and remonstrated with England; and, as an effect of the bold front he put upon his affairs, he had the satisfaction of learning, before he went into winter-quarters, that the Russians had retired beyond the Vistula, and that the Austrians and Swedes had departed out of Brandenburg, Silesia, and Pomerania. Still his situation was a critical one. His losses in men had been great, his coffers were empty, and his recruiting was therefore difficult: he looked forward to the campaign of 1761 with doubt and anxiety.
Contrary to the general rules of war, this campaign opened in the very depth of the winter. Contrasting the strong constitutions of his troops with the less hardy character of his opponents, Prince Ferdinand resolved to take them thus by surprise. Accordingly, early in February, by a sudden attack, he drove the French out of their quarters near Cassel, and they were only saved from utter destruction, by the defiles, and other difficulties of the country, which favoured their retreat. Almost simultaneously with this achievement, the Prussian general, Sybourg, effected a junction with the Hanoverian general, Sporken, and took three thousand French prisoners. Subsequently, these generals defeated the troops of the empire under General Clefeld; and Prince Ferdinand followed up these advantages by laying siege to Cassel, Marbourg, and Ziegenhayn. He was ably seconded in his operations by the Marquis of Granby, but he failed in capturing these places, and was compelled to retire into the electorate of Hanover. The retreat of Ferdinand took place in April, and in the same month the hereditary Prince of Brunswick was defeated by the French under Broglie, near Frankfort.
At this time, Frederick had certain information that the English were negociating with the French. This information appears to have paralysed his efforts, for preparations were not recommenced before June. On their part the French, also, were inactive till that time, when Broglie, being joined by the Prince of Soubise with large reinforcements, endeavoured to drive Prince Ferdinand and the combined army of English and Hanoverians from their entrenchments at Hohenower. On two several days Broglie made a fierce attack upon his posts, chiefly directing his murderous fire against that commanded by Lord Granby; but on the second day the French gave way, and made a precipitate retreat, leaving behind them several pieces of cannon, with five thousand of their comrades sleeping the sleep of death. Their non-success produced mutual recriminations between Broglie and Soubise, who had never perfectly agreed, and they resolved to separate: Broglie crossed the Weser, and threatened to fall upon Hanover, while Soubise crossed the Lippe, as if with the intention of laying siege to Munster.
The division of the French army caused a corresponding division in that of Prince Ferdinand; for whilst he marched with one half to watch the operations of Broglie, the hereditary Prince of Brunswick marched with the other half to check the career of Soubise. The skill and vigour of Ferdinand prevented Broglie from making any important conquests, though he could not protect the country from his ravages. Perceiving, indeed, that he could not check the onward march of his enemy, Ferdinand turned aside into Hesse, and cut off all the communications of the French in that country, destroying their magazines and menacing their forts, which, as he foresaw, had the effect of alarming Broglie, and causing him to retreat out of Hanover. In the meantime, the hereditary Prince of Brunswick had checked the career of Soubise, and destroyed many of his magazines; and soon after the French went into winter quarters—Soubise on the Lower Rhine, and Broglie at Cassel.
Frederick had taken the field in the month of April, and had marched into Silesia, where the fortress of Schweidnitz was threatened by the Austrian general, Laudon. On his approach, Laudon retreated into Bohemia, where he was joined by fresh columns of Russians under Marshal Butterlin. At the same time another Russian horde, under Romanzow, re-occupied Pomerania. The Austrian and Russian generals conceived that they could hem in Frederick, and prevent his escape; but aware of his danger, the skilful monarch threw himself into his fortified camp of Buntzelwitz, from behind the strong ramparts of which he laughed his enemies to scorn. A blockade was attempted, but the country, wasted by long wars, had become like a wilderness, and afforded no food either for man or horse; while their provision-waggons, 5000 in number, had all been taken by a flying column of Prussians, under General Platen, who had also destroyed three of the largest magazines which the Russians had established on the confines of Poland. Famine stared them in the face, and breaking up their blockade, Butterlin marched into Pomerania, and Laudon to an entrenched camp, near Fribourg. Thus relieved, Frederick marched towards Upper Silesia, which proved to be an unfortunate movement; for Laudon, taking advantage of it, rushed from his entrenched camp, made an assault by night upon Schweidnitz, which lie took by storm, and then took up his winter-quarters in Silesia. About the same time the Russians, assisted by the Swedes, took Colberg, which enabled them to winter in Pomerania and Brandenburg.
In the meantime the arms of the English had, for the most part, been successfully employed. Pondicherry, the capital settlement of the French in, the East Indies, and their last stronghold in that country, surrendered at discretion to Colonel Coote, after the garrison and inhabitants had been reduced to the necessity of feeding on the flesh of camels and elephants, and even upon dogs and vermin. In the West Indies, also, Lord Rollo and Sir James Douglas reduced the island of Dominica, which, contrary to treaty, had been fortified by the French. A less important conquest was made on the coast of Brittany. A secret expedition, which had been for some time in preparation, suddenly sailed from Spithead, and under the command of Commodore Kepple, with troops on board under General Hodgson, took its course across the Channel. Great things were expected as the result of this expedition, but it only enacted the old story of “The mountain in labour.” The point against which this force was directed was the sterile rock of Bellisle, which, at the expense of two thousand lives, was captured. Thus disappointed, the people complained of the obstinacy of Pitt, and asked, sarcastically, what could be done with it? Nevertheless, if it was no use to England, it was a place of importance to France, as commanding a large extent of coast, and affording a convenient receptacle to privateers, whence it was insisted on as a valuable article of exchange, when peace was concluded between the two nations.
THE RESIGNATION OF MR. PITT.
At this time France was rapidly sinking under the efforts made to sustain war. Many of her colonies were conquered, her navy was ruined, and her finances exhausted, while the people were impoverished and discontented. Under these circumstances the king wished for repose and peace, and in this wish, Sweden, Poland, and even Russia were ready to join. Austria alone, whose empress-queen was bent on the recovery of Silesia, and the overthrow of its conqueror Frederick, was desirous of prolonging hostilities.
This wish of the king of France—which was also the wish of his people—seemed to be favoured by circumstances in England. The influence of Pitt was daily growing weaker, and Bute was fast gaining paramount ascendancy. The French ministers, therefore, flattered themselves that there would be no great difficulty in negociating; especially as they were ready and willing to make some sacrifices, in order to obtain peace. Accordingly an interchange of memorials was commenced, and in the month of July Mr. Stanley was dispatched to Paris, while the Count de Bussy came over to London, for the purpose of negociating. Preliminaries were mutually proposed and examined. On their part the French offered to cede Canada; to restore Minorca in exchange for Guadaloupe and Marigalante; to give up Senegal and Goree for Anamaboo and Acra; to renounce all claim to Cape Breton, on which no fortification was to be erected; and to consent that Dunkirk should be demolished. But one demand made by the French was fatal to the success of the negociations. They demanded the restitution of all the captures made at sea by the English before the declaration of war, on the ground that such captures were contrary to all international law, which restitution was sternly and absolutely refused, the English ministers arguing, that the right of all hostile operations results not from a formal declaration of war, but from the original hostilities of the aggressor. Another obstacle in the way of peace, was the refusal of the French to restore Cassel, Gueldres, and other places which they had taken from his Prussian majesty, although they were ready to evacuate what they occupied in Hanover. And as if these obstacles were not sufficient, the French preliminaries were accompanied by a private memorial, demanding from England the satisfaction of certain claims advanced by Spain, a country with which, though differences existed, England was at peace. The French ambassador was given to understand on this point, that the king of England would never suffer his disputes with Spain to be thus mixed up with the negociations carrying on with his country, and the cabinet called upon the Spanish ambassador to disavow all participation in such a procedure, and to state that his court was neither cognizant of it, nor wished to blend its trifling differences with the weighty quarrels of France. But this demand produced an unlooked-for budget, The Spanish ambassador at first returned an evasive reply, but he was soon authorized by the court of Spain to declare, that the proceedings of the French envoy had the entire sanction of his Catholic majesty; and that, while his master was anxious for peace, he was united as much by mutual interest as by the ties of blood with the king of France. The fact is, Charles III., who now occupied the throne of Spain, had privately agreed, before this date, with the King of France, to consider every power as their common enemy who might become the enemy of either, and to afford mutual succours by sea and land. It had been also stipulated between them, that no proposal of peace to their common enemies was to be made except by common consent; that the two monarchs were to act as if they formed one and the same power; that they should maintain for each other all the possessions which they might possess at the conclusion of peace; and finally, that the King of Naples might be allowed to participate in their treaty, though no other family, except a prince of the house of Bourbon, was to be admitted into this family compact.
Negociations for peace, therefore, proved abortive. Even Bute considered many of the proposals of the French if not insulting to the majesty of the British nation, at least inadmissible. Yet these négociations resulted in the downfall of Pitt. At the council-table, that great minister represented that Spain was only waiting for the arrival of her annual plate-fleet from America, and then she would declare war. He proposed, therefore, that her declaration should be anticipated by England: that war should be forthwith proclaimed against Spain, and a fleet sent out to intercept her ships and treasures from the western world. He likewise proposed an immediate attack upon her colonies; recommending the capture of the Havannah and the occupation of the Isthmus of Panama, from whence an expedition might be sent against Manilla and the Philippine Isles, to intercept the communication between the continent of South America and the rich regions of the East. It suited the purpose of Bute, however, to raise the laugh of incredulity as to the declaration of war by Spain, questioning, at the same time, the real meaning of the treaty entered into between the two Bourbons. The other members of the cabinet also—Lord Temple excepted—pronounced the measures proposed by Pitt too precipitate, and he had no alternative but to resign; especially as he found, also, that the king was adverse to his schemes. Accordingly, on the 6th of October, Pitt delivered up his seals to the king, which his majesty received with ease and firmness, but without requesting him to resume them. The monarch, notwithstanding, lamented to him the loss of so valuable a servant, while he declared that even if his cabinet had been unanimous for war with Spain, he should have found great difficulty in consenting to such a measure. Pitt was affected by the kind, yet dignified, behaviour of the young king. “I confess, sire,” said he, with emotion, “I had but too much reason to expect your majesty’s displeasure: I did not come prepared for this exceeding goodness: pardon me, sir; it overpowers,—it oppresses me.”
Pitt retired with a pension of £3,000 per annum, which was to be continued for three lives. The peerage was offered him, but he declined it personally, accepting it only for his wife and her issue. He was succeeded in office by Lord Egremont, son of the great Tory, Sir William Wyndam. At the same time Lord Temple retired from office, and the privy seal was given to the Duke of Bedford. The resignation of Mr. Pitt, with his honours and rewards, were published in the Gazette on the following day, and in the same paper a letter was published from the English ambassador at Madrid, which was replete with assurances of the pacific intentions of Spain. On this circumstance, combined with the resignation of Mr. Pitt, Burke remarks:—“It must be owned that this manouvre was very skilfully executed: for it at once gave the people to understand the true motive to the resignation, the insufficiency of that motive, and the gracious-ness of the king, notwithstanding the abrupt departure of his minister. If after this the late minister should choose to enter into opposition, he must go into it loaded and oppressed with the imputation of the blackest ingratitude; if, on the other hand, he should retire from business, or should concur in support of that administration which he had left, because he disapproved its measures, his acquiescence would be attributed by the multitude to a bargain for his forsaking the public, and that the title and his pension were the considerations. These were the barriers that opposed against that torrent of popular rage which it was apprehended would proceed from this resignation. And the truth is, they answered their end perfectly.”
This reasoning of Mr. Burke was strictly correct. The friends and partisans of Mr. Pitt raised violent clamours against Bute, for displacing a man who had raised the nation from its once abject state to the pinnacle of glory; and addresses, resolutions, and condolences were set on foot in London and the greater corporations, with a view of exciting the smaller cities and boroughs in England to follow the example. The press, also, was active in vilifying Bute for the part he had taken in this affair. But Bute had his friends as well as his enemies, and Pitt had his enemies as well as his friends. The press worked on both sides of the question; while it vilified Bute, it animadverted on Pitt’s pensions and honours. At the same time the people were only partially in the favour of the ex-minister. The progress of addresses, resolutions, and condolences was languid, and in some instances the people were disposed to cast odium upon, and to blacken the character of, the retired secretary. The popularity of Pitt was, in truth, obscured with mists and clouds for a time, and it was not till after he had raised a few thunder-storms of opposition, that his political atmosphere once again became radiant with the sunshine of prosperity. For the mind of Pitt was not to be long borne down by its heavy weight of gratitude to royalty, or by public accusations: he soon shook off the one, and resolutely braved the other.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING.
On the 8th of July the young king having called an extraordinary council, made the following declaration to its members:—“Having nothing so much at heart as to procure the welfare and happiness of my people, and to render the same stable and permanent to posterity, I have, ever since my accession to the throne, turned my thoughts towards the choice of a princess for my consort; and I now with great satisfaction acquaint you, that after the fullest information, and mature deliberation, I am come to a resolution to demand in marriage the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenberg Strelitz; a princess distinguished by every eminent virtue and amiable endowment; whose illustrious line has constantly shown the firmest zeal for the Protestant religion, and a particular attachment to my family. I have judged it proper to communicate to you these my intentions, in order that you may be fully apprised of a matter so highly important to me and to my kingdoms, and which I persuade myself will be most acceptable to my loving subjects.”
The preliminary negociations concerning this union had been conducted with great secresy, whence this announcement occasioned some surprise to most of the members of the extraordinary council. It met, however, with the warmest approbation of them all, and the treaty was concluded on the 15th of August. The Earl of Harcourt, with the Duchesses of Ancaster and Hamilton, were selected to escort the young bride to England, and Lord Anson was the commander of the fleet destined to convoy the royal yacht. Princess Charlotte arrived in England on the 7th of September, and on the following day she was escorted to St. James’s, where she was met by his majesty.
Before the arrival of the future Queen of England, in a letter to one of his correspondents, Lord Harcourt had given this description of her:—“Our queen, that is to be, has seen very little of the world; but her very good sense, vivacity, and cheerfulness, I dare say will recommend her to the king, and make her the darling of the British nation. She is no regular beauty; but she is of a pretty size, has a charming complexion, with very pretty eyes, and is finely made.” Lord Harcourt was right in his conjectures concerning the views which the king would take of his young bride. It is said, that in the first interview, although he saluted her tenderly, the king was disappointed in not finding in the princess those personal charms which he had expected. But this was only a momentary feeling. The king soon became interested in her artlessness, cheerful manners, and obliging disposition, while the whole court was loud in their praises of her affability, and even of her beauty. “In half an hour,” says Horace Walpole, “one heard of nothing but proclamations of her beauty: everybody was content; everybody was pleased.” So the marriage took place in the midst of good-humour and rejoicings: the nuptial benediction was given by Dr. Seeker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Duke of Cumberland gave away the bride.
CORONATION OF THEIR MAJESTIES.
Extraordinary preparations were made for the coronation of their majesties. It took place on the 22nd of September, and though described as solemn and magnificent, it did not materially differ from preceding coronations. The crown was placed on the head of the monarch by Archbishop Seeker, and before his majesty partook of the holy sacrament, he exhibited a very pleasing instance of piety before the assembled court. As he approached the altar, he asked if he might lay aside his crown; and when the archbishop, after consulting with Bishop Pearce, replied, that no order existed on the subject in the service, he rejoined, “Then it ought to be done;” at the same time taking the diadem from his head, he placed it, reverentially, on the altar. His majesty wished the queen to manifest the same reverence to the Almighty, but being informed that her crown was fastened to her hair, he did not press the subject. On the return of the procession, an incident occurred, which, had it happened among the nations of antiquity, would have been considered an omen of evil portent, which could only have been averted by a whole hecatomb of sacrifices. The most valuable diamond in his majesty’s diadem fell from it, and was for some time lost, but it was afterwards found, and restored to his crown. The coronation of George III. could boast of one very extraordinary spectator among the many thousands present. This was Charles Edward Stuart, the young Pretender, who had come over in disguise, and who obtained admission into the abbey, and witnessed all the ceremonies consecrating a king on that throne which he considered legitimately belonged to his father or himself! It is said that George knew that he was in London, and that he would not allow him to be molested; feeling, no doubt, secure in the affections of a loyal people. And that he was secure, the éclat with which the great festival of his coronation passed off, fully manifested. All combined to testify that their majesties were very popular, and that they had good reasons for anticipating a happy and prosperous reign.
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
The new parliament met on the 3rd of November, when Sir John Cust was elected speaker of the commons. He was presented to his majesty on the 6th, on which day the king, having first approved of the choice, thus addressed both houses:—“At the opening of the first parliament summoned and elected under my authority, I with pleasure notice an event which has made me completely happy, and given universal joy to my loving subjects. My marriage with a princess, eminently distinguished by every virtue and amiable endowment, while it affords me all possible domestic comfort, cannot but highly contribute to the happiness of my kingdoms, which has been, and always shall be, the first object in every action of my life.
“It has been my earnest wish that this first period of my reign might be marked with another felicity; the restoring of the blessings of peace to my people, and putting an end to the calamities of war, under which so great a part of Europe suffers: but though overtures were made to me, and my good brother and ally, the King of Prussia, by the several belligerent powers, in order to a general pacification, for which purpose a congress was appointed, and propositions were made to me by France for a particular peace with that crown, which were followed by an actual négociation; yet that congress has not hitherto taken place, and the negociation with France is entirely broken off.
“The sincerity of my disposition to effectuate this good work has been manifested in the progress of it: and I have the consolation to reflect, that the continuance of the war, and the further effusion of Christian blood, to which it was the desire of my heart to put a stop, cannot, with justice, be imputed to me.
“Our military operations have been in no degree suspended or delayed; and it has pleased God to grant us further important success, by the conquest of the islands of Belleisle and Dominica: and by the reduction of Pondicherry, which has in a manner annihilated the French power in the East Indies. In other parts, where the enemy’s numbers were greatly superior, their principal designs and projects have been generally disappointed, by a conduct which does the highest honour to the distinguished capacity of my general, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and by the valour of my troops. The magnanimity and ability of the King of Prussia have eminently appeared in resisting such numerous armies, and surmounting so great difficulties.
“In this situation I am glad to have an opportunity of receiving the truest information of the sense of my people by a new choice of their representatives: I am fully persuaded you will agree with me in opinion, that the steady exertion of our most vigorous efforts, in every part where the enemy may still be attacked with advantage, is the only means that can be productive of such a peace as may with reason be expected from our successes. It is therefore my fixed resolution, with your concurrence and support, to carry on the war in the most effectual manner, for the interest and advantage of my kingdoms; and to maintain to the utmost of my power the good faith and honour of my crown, by adhering firmly to the engagements entered into with my allies. In this I will persevere until my enemies, moved by their own losses and distresses, and touched with the miseries of so many nations, shall yield to the equitable conditions of an honourable peace: in which case, as well as in the prosecution of the war, I do assure you, no consideration whatever shall make me depart from the true interests of these my kingdoms, and the honour and dignity of my crown.”
His majesty concluded his speech by calling upon the commons for adequate supplies to enable him to prosecute the war with vigour, and by asking for a provision for the queen in case she should survive him. The commons, besides the usual address, sent a message of congratulation to the queen, and they proved the sincerity of their professions by making her a grant of £100,000 per annum, with Somerset House and the Lodge in Richmond Park annexed: a patent also passed the privy seal, granting her majesty the yearly sum of £40,000 for the support of her dignity. On the subject of the supplies for the ensuing year, however, a long and stormy debate took place; and a month elapsed before they were finally adjusted. Opposition to them chiefly arose from the circumstance that the sentiments of the people, and likewise of the court, were beginning to change respecting the German war. But Lord Egremont found himself compelled to walk in the very steps which Pitt had marked out, at least for some time, and the large demands made were pressed upon the parliament, and finally received its sanction. Seventy thousand seamen were voted, and it was agreed to maintain 67,676 effective men, beside the militia of England, two regiments of fencibles in Scotland, the provincial troops in America, and 67,167 German auxiliaries. Some new taxes, also, were imposed, including an additional one on windows, and an increased duty on spirituous liquors, in order to pay the interest of £12,000,000, which it was found necessary to borrow, to make good the deficiences of last session. In the whole the supplies for the year 1762, voted by the parliament, amounted to more than £18,000,000: two millions of which were required for the defence of Portugal.
GEORGE III. 1760-1765
DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.
In the month of October, Lord Halifax, the new Lord-lieutenant of Ireland met his Majesty’s first parliament in that country. The Irish parliament responded to the sentiments of the English parliament respecting the accession of the young monarch. Addresses replete with loyalty were voted by both houses; and the greatest confidence was expressed in the rule of Lord Halifax, auguring the happiest results from his administration, and promising cordial co-operation. That ill-fated country, however, was restless as the waves of the ocean. During the viceroyalty of the Duke of Bedford, it had been totally under the dominion of the lord’s justices, and they had recently made an attempt to gain popularity, by expressing doubts in the privy council concerning the propriety of sending over a money bill, lest the rejection of it should occasion the dissolution of the new parliament, and thereby endanger the peace of the country. They were opposed in their views by Lord Chancellor Bowes and his party, and party violence was inflamed to the highest pitch. The popular coalition prevailed so far as to alter the established custom, by sending a bill not for the actual supplies, but relating to a vote of credit for Ireland, whence all ferment on this subject subsided. In such a contest it is not likely that the people would have joined, but they had grievances of their own, which endangered the public tranquillity. In his speech to the new parliament, Lord Halifax had recommended that the linen trade, which had been confined to the southern parts of the kingdom, should be extended throughout the country, inasmuch as there was a large demand for it, and it might thereby be made a source of wealth to the whole country. True patriots would have observed the wisdom of, and have acquiesced in, this measure; but self-interest in Ireland, as in all countries under the face of the sun, prevailed over the feelings of patriotism. The people in the southern parts of the kingdom murmured at such a project, as it would affect their personal interests, and their discontents were increased by the conversion of considerable quantities of land from a state of tillage to that of pasturage, for the purpose of feeding more cattle. By this measure, great numbers of the peasantry were deprived at once, not only of employment, but of their cottages. Many small farms were indeed still let to some cottagers at rack-rent, which cottages had the right of commonage, guaranteed to them in their leases; but afterwards the commons were enclosed, and no recompense was made to the tenants by the landlords. Thus provoked, and being joined by the idle and dissolute, these unhappy people sought to redress their own wrongs by acts of violence. Fences were destroyed, horses and arms were seized, cattle were maltreated, and obnoxious persons, especially tithe-proctors, were exposed to their vengeance. Many were stripped naked, and made to ride on horses with saddles formed of the skins of hedgehogs, or buried up to their chins in holes lined with thorns that were trodden down closely to their bodies. From their outrageous violence these people obtained the name of “Levellers,” but afterwards, from the circumstance of their wearing white shirts over their clothes for the purpose of disguise, they were termed “White Boys.” Their outrages demanded the strong arm of the law, and the royal troops were employed in their suppression. Many suffered the extreme penalty of the law, though many more were permitted to escape through the lenity of the judges, whence the disorders long prevailed. As the rioters were all Romanists, a popish plot was suspected, and the Romish clergy were charged with promoting their outrages. A motion was made in parliament to investigate this matter, but there not being sufficient evidence to inculpate any parties, it was dropped, and no efficient remedy was therefore applied to heal the disorder.
WAR WITH SPAIN.
The year had not closed before the ministers found that a rupture with Spain was inevitable. The first intimation of it was detected in the menacing conduct of the court of Versailles; and Lord Bristol, the English ambassador at Madrid, was instructed to demand the real intentions of Charles III., and the real purport of the family compact. General Wall, the Spanish minister replied more insolently than before; but an open rupture was avoided till the plate-ships had arrived at Cadiz with all the wealth expected from Spanish America. Then it was seen that the political vision of Pitt could penetrate much deeper than that of Bute and his colleagues. Complaining of the haughty spirit and the discord which prevailed in the British cabinet, and of the insults offered to his sovereign, Wall informed Bristol that he might leave Spain as soon as he pleased, and at the same time issued orders to detain all English ships then in the ports of Spain. Lord Bristol returned; the Count of Fuentes, the Spanish ambassador, quitted London, and war was mutually declared by both countries.
The declaration of war was made on the 4th of January, and on the 19th parliament met after its adjournment, when the king informed both houses of the measures he had been compelled to adopt. The members of both houses were unanimous in their approbation of his majesty’s conduct, and in assurances of vigorous support. The consideration of the intelligence, notwithstanding, caused a stormy debate, but as no regular opposition was organized, and government was supported by Pitt, clamour died away, and the war met with general approbation. In the house of lords, a motion was made reprobating the expense of the German campaigns, and recommending a recall of the British troops for the security of our own dominions; but it was strongly opposed, and the previous question was carried by a large majority. Preparations were therefore made for war with Spain, without diminishing the expenses of the war in Germany; and while fresh troops were enlisted, some wise alterations were made by parliament in the militia laws, by which a line was drawn between those persons liable to serve, and such as were exempt.
Operations were commenced in the Havannah. On the 5th of March, an expedition sailed under the command of General Lord Albemarle and Admiral Pococke, in order to strike a severe blow against the commerce of Spain in that quarter. This expedition was joined in the West Indies by a strong squadron commanded by Sir James Douglas, and sailing through the Straits of Bahama, it arrived before the Havannah on the 5th of June. A landing was easily effected and siege was laid to the Moro, a strong fort which defended the harbour, and which was considered impregnable. The difficulties in making the approaches on a hard rocky soil were great, and the troops suffered from sickness, fatigue, and the fire of the enemy; but being joined by fresh reinforcements from New York and our West Indian Islands, the fort was isolated from the town, and it was then stormed through a narrow and perilous breach, and carried at the point of the bayonet. The city of Havannah maintained the siege a fortnight longer; but it was compelled to capitulate, and it was yielded up with 180 miles of country westward, or all the best part of the island of Cuba. Nine Spanish ships of the line and three frigates were taken in the harbour, and three ships of the line and a galleon were destroyed, while the booty that fell into the hands of the victors amounted to £3,000,000 sterling. But the ultimate advantages of this victory promised to be greater than its immediate results. By the possession of the Havannah, indeed, England obtained the absolute command of the passage pursued by the plate-fleets of Spain, and seemed to lay the wealth of that country at her feet.
It was not in the western hemisphere alone, that the dominions of the King of Spain were attacked. When the news of the war reached the East Indies an armament was fitted out at Madras, under the command of Admiral Cornish and Sir William Draper, which suddenly appeared off Manilla, the capital of Luconia, and the surrounding isles. Draper landed his forces and took possession of the suburbs of Manilla, before the inhabitants were well aware of the war between Spain and England. Manilla was governed by the archbishop, who proved by his conduct, that like the ecclesiastics of the middle ages, he could both fight and say mass. The archbishop excited the natives to assault the assailants in the rear, while at the head of about eight hundred Spainards he opposed them in front. The Indians fought with almost incredible ferocity; but they were cut to pieces by the sword, or died gnawing with their teeth the bayonets by which they were transfixed. The works of Manilla were carried by storm, and Draper’s forces, which were chiefly composed of Sepoys and Lascars, began to plunder and destroy the city. The inner citadel, however, remained uncaptured, and the archbishop with the magistrates, and some of the garrison threw themselves into it for safety. A capitulation ensued, by which the city and port of Manilla, with several ships and the military stores, were surrendered to England, while a ransom was given for all private property, amounting to 4,000,000 dollars. The fruits of this important conquest did not terminate here. Two ships were despatched from the British squadron to intercept the rich galleon Phillippina, and though they missed this prize, they captured the Santa Trinidad, a great Manilla and Acapulco galleon, with a cargo valued at 3,000,000 dollars. The whole group of islands then submitted to the English flag.
The English arms were equally successful in a series of attacks on the remaining French West India Islands. Martinique, Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Tobago, were all captured by an army under general Moncton and a squadron under Admiral Rodney, so that England obtained possession of the entire chain of the Caribbees. It was in vain that the French in that part of the world sought to stem the onward progress of the British arms: they were overpowering, and being hopeless of succour from their mother-country, the French everywhere submitted to the conquerors.
FRANCE AND SPAIN DECLARE WAR AGAINST PORTUGAL.
Before the news of the loss of Havannah and Manilla reached the court of Spain, that court had commenced a land campaign on the continent. A close alliance had long subsisted between England and Portugal, whence France and Spain at this period chose to consider the king of Portugal as the creature of the King of England. These two powers therefore determined on a rupture with Portugal, unless the Portuguese should renounce their English alliance. Preparations were accordingly made for an invasion of Portugal by France as well as by Spain, while in the meantime a joint memorial was presented by the two powers, inviting the king of that country to join the alliance of the Bourbons against Great Britain, which they were pleased to designate “the common enemy of all maritime nations.” At the same time they insisted that he should expel all English merchants and English sojourners from his kingdom, and close his ports to English shipping. It was added that if he acceeded to these proposals, his fortresses and sea-ports should be garrisoned by French and Spanish troops to protect him from England’s vengeance, but that if he refused—and the answer was to be given within four days—he must take the consequences of such a line of policy.
There were circumstances existing which ought to have disarmed all hostility on the part of France and Spain towards Portugal, even if that hostility had been founded in justice. The Portuguese had not yet recovered from the effects of the earthquake which, in 1756, had reduced a third part of Lisbon to a ruinous heap. Then again, the Portuguese power was acknowledged to be weak; but, above all, the King of Portugal was the near relation of the King of Spain. The weakness of the Portuguese government, however, was rather a temptation than a barrier to the view of the Spanish monarch, and as for the claims of kindred, they were absorbed in his views of ambition. Portugal was incorporated geographically, and he longed to incorporate it politically with Spain, whence the claims of misfortune and kindred were overlooked by him. Conscience, moreover, was not allowed to assert its sway over his actions, for he had armed himself against its lawful power by leaving the decision of peace or war to his Portuguese majesty. If he joined the Bourbon alliance, well and good, for the forces of France and Spain would obtain possession of Portugal at an easy rate; but if not, if he still adhered to his old alliance with England, then it would be manifest to all the world, if he lost the kingdom, it would be his own fault: in such cheap estimation does ambition hold morality.
At this period, Portugal had not an army exceeding 20,000 men, and her fleet was reduced to six ships of the line and a few frigates, while her fortresses were in ruins. In such a desperate condition, therefore, it might have been expected that, however repugnant to his inclinations, the heir of the house of Braganza would have broken his alliance with England, and have joined the Family Compact. Prudence would seem to have dictated such a step, but he acted otherwise. He had spirit enough to declare that he would never submit to such conditions; and the French and Spanish ambassadors quitted Lisbon, while their armies on the frontiers put themselves in motion towards his capital. Ruin seemed to await the monarch of Portugal. Braganza, Miranda, and Torre de Moncorvo were captured by the Marquis of Saria, who commanded the Spanish army north of the Douro, while another body of Spanish troops penetrated south of the Douro into Beira, and occupied a post near Almeida. But the Spaniards were doomed to receive a check. The militia and the brave peasantry of Portugal, assisted and directed by some British officers, maintained a destructive war of posts on the forces of Saria, and thus stemmed his onward progress till relief came from England.
On the 11th of May, George III. ordered the following message to be laid before the house of commons:—“His majesty, relying on the known zeal and affection of his faithful commons, and considering that in this conjuncture emergencies may arise, which may be of the utmost importance, and be attended with the most pernicious consequences, if proper means should not be immediately applied to prevent or defeat them; and his majesty also taking into his most serious consideration the imminent danger with which the kingdom of Portugal, an ancient and natural ally of his crown, is threatened by the powers now in open war with his majesty, and of what importance the preservation of that kingdom is to the commercial interests of this country, is desirous that the house would enable him to defray any extraordinary expenses of the war incurred, or to be incurred for the service of the year 1762; and to take all such measures as may be necessary to disappoint or defeat any enterprises or designs of his enemies against his majesty or his allies.”
This message was favourably received; Pitt advocated the cause of our ancient ally with fervour and eloquence, and the house of commons voted £1,000,000 sterling for the purposes therein specified. And this vote was followed by prompt and effective measures to arrest the arms of France and Spain. Eight thousand British troops under the command of Lord Tyrawley, the Earl of Loudon, General Townshend, Lord George Lennox, and Brigadiers Crawford and Burgoyne, landed in Portugal, and immediately commenced operations. At the same time the native Portuguese army consented to submit to the command of the Count de la Lippe, an active and experienced German officer, who had commanded the British artillery in Germany. The events of this campaign were complicated and various. Lippe concentrated the principal part of the Portuguese forces at Puente de Marcello, to prevent the progress of the Spanish arms northward, while Brigadier Burgoyne was detached to fall upon Valencia d’Alcantara, on the frontiers of Spain, southward. Burgoyne carried Valencia d’Alcantara by a coup-de-main, capturing a Spanish general with all his staff, and all the magazines which Spain had there collected for the purpose of an invasion along the Tagus, and then retraced his steps to Pnente de Marcello. At the same time Almeida was taken by the Spanish general, Count d’Aranda, and having garrisoned this place, and Ciudad Rodrigo, he marched towards the Tagus, designing to pass into the Alemtejo. When, however, he arrived at Villa Velha, on the Tagus, he found that the passage of the river would be disputed. Lippe, aware of his designs, had marched to Abrantes, the key of Portugal on the Tagus, and had posted detachments under Burgoyne and the Count de St. Jago at the adjacent passes of Alvite and at Niza. The Spanish general obtained possession of the castle of Villa Velha, and drove the Count de St. Jago from the pass of Alvite; but while some of the Spaniards were pursuing the routed Portuguese forces, Burgoyne threw a detachment across the Tagus upon Villa Velha, and while the Count d’Abrantes was amused in front by a feigned attack from Niza, this detachment, commanded by Colonel Lee, entered their quarters in the rear, and began a terrible fire of musquetry. It was under cover of the night that Lee entered the quarters of the Spanish commander, and thus surprised, the Spaniards were routed with terrible slaughter, while their magazines were destroyed and their guns spiked. This was a blow from which the Spaniards could not recover; and the French invading forces having failed in their co-operation, his provisions beginning to fail, the autumnal rains to descend in torrents, and the peasantry to block up the roads, the Count d’Aranda dismantled the few fortresses he had taken, and returned to Spain. To all these losses and defeats was added the capture of the Spanish ship, Hermione, off Cape St. Vincent, by the English, having treasure on board that amounted to nearly £1,000,000 sterling. The only expedition of the English which failed during this year was that against Buenos Ayres, which was as ill conceived as it was paltry. But this gave Spain no hope for the future. Taught experience by reverses, the war with England became, indeed, unpopular with the Spanish people, and their universal cry was, at the close of this campaign, “Peace with England, and war with all the world!”
DISSENSIONS IN THE CABINET.
Early in January of this year died the Czarina Elizabeth, one of the most bitter and inveterate enemies of our ally, the King of Prussia. She was succeeded in her empire by Peter III., who, by the month of March, had concluded a close alliance with Frederick, placing an army of 20,000 men, which had hitherto fought against him, entirely at his disposal to fight against Austria. This had no sooner become known to the English cabinet, than Bute and his party proposed that no further subsidies should be paid to Frederick; at the same time, they reminded his Prussian majesty, that he had himself declared that if he were once secured by the neutrality of Russia, he should have little need of further assistance from England. But the old Duke of Newcastle would not admit the validity of this reasoning of his colleagues. He waited on Bute, and declared his intention to resign, unless a subsidy of £2,000,000 was paid, and the continental war continued. Bute answered drily, “that if the money were granted, peace might be retarded;” but he never requested him to continue in office, nor said a civil word to the aged politician. Accordingly, the Duke repaired from the minister to his master, and resigned his office, refusing a pension which was offered as a reward for his services, and for the large sacrifices which he had made since he had been minister, out of his private fortunes. “If he could no longer be permitted to serve his country,” he said, “he was at least determined not to be a burden on it: that if his private fortune had suffered by his loyalty, it was his pleasure, his glory, and his pride; and that he desired no reward but his majesty’s approbation.” Horace Walpole says, that he retired from the royal presence comparatively a poor man, to find how solitary and deserted could be the mansion of an ex-minister. Newcastle had been more than forty-five years in the cabinet, and this utter disregard to money-making exhibits his patriotism in a strong light: few would have served their country so long without well replenishing their coffers, especially at that age, when the virtues of disinterestedness and self-abnegation were exotic rather than indigenous to the human heart.
Bute had his reasons for answering the Duke of Newcastle coldly, and the result answered his expectations. He succeeded the ex-minister at the head of the treasury, “taking the reins of government with almost as little experience as Phaeton, and meeting with a fall almost as soon.” Mr. George Grenville was appointed secretary of state; but he afterwards exchanged posts with Lord Halifax, who had recently been appointed head of the admiralty. Lord Barrington was removed from the Exchequer in which office he was succeeded by Sir Francis Dashwood, and he was appointed treasurer of the navy. Soon after the Duke of Devonshire resigned his post of lord high chamberlain, and the Earl of Hardwicke retired from public life altogether. Many of the friends of the duke retained their places or accepted others; but several noblemen and commoners of distinction before the end of the year ranged themselves in the ranks of opposition. Amongst these was the Duke of Newcastle, who, although during the summer he had abstained from opposing the government, at length formed a political connexion with the Duke of Cumberland, whom he had before invariably opposed.
EVENTS IN GERMANY, ETC.
Frederick of Prussia had not only entered into an alliance with Russia, but towards the end of May he had concluded a peace with Sweden. Backed by these two powers he boasted that he was in possession of more advantages than he could have derived from gaining three pitched battles, and without waiting for the English subsidy he took the field. He began operations in Silesia, and directed his attention to the recovery of Schweidnitz. He was aided in his designs by his brother, Prince Henry, who had gained an important battle near Freyburg, and thus changed the aspect of affairs in Saxony; but while he was intent on his plans, he was threatened with a sudden reverse of fortune. This was the death of his new ally, the Czar Peter.
After making peace with Frederick, and sending 20,000 of his troops to serve under him, Peter, from a spirit of admiration of the Prussian monarch, and of enthusiasm in his cause, insisted upon introducing the Prussian discipline, and even the Prussian uniform into his army. He set the example by appearing in the dress of a Prussian general, and he often observed that, if he had remained Duke of Holstein, he would have commanded a regiment in the Prussian service, and have become personally acquainted with Frederick. This naturally offended the national prejudices; but he took a more fatal step for his own welfare, by building or dedicating Protestant chapels, by ordering the removal of painted images of saints from the churches, and by checking the entrances of novices into convents. By these measures he therefore gained himself many enemies both among the military and the priesthood. Every third man he admitted into his councils or his presence, it has been said, was a traitor. His fall, however, might have been far distant but for the wife of his bosom. Catherine, Princess of Anhalt Zerbst, charmed the Russians as much as Peter disgusted them, and she was, moreover, induced to believe that he had discovered her guilty connexion with Count Gregory Orloff, and entertained a design of divorcing her and casting her into prison, that he might raise his own favourite mistress, Elizabeth Countess of Woronzow, to the throne. Hence—and being also inflamed with ambition—Catherine lent a willing ear to the complaints of the army, clergy, and nobility, and, aided by them, she effected another revolution in Russia. Habited in the garb of a man, and surrounded by some of the military and nobility, she proceeded to the church of the Virgin Mary of Casan, where a vast concourse of the clergy, the nobles, and the soldiery hailed her on her arrival as their deliverer. She was crowned sole empress by the Archbishop of Novogorod, and all present took the oath of allegiance to her. From the church, Catherine proceeded to the senate, which at once acknowledged her right, and swore fidelity to her cause. All the adherents of her husband were then arrested, and Peter himself was thrown into prison, where, after a few days, he died, as some say by disease, but more probably as others assert, by assassination.
No one was more interested in these proceedings than Frederick of Prussia. He conceived that he might find an enemy as implacable in Catherine as he had found in her predecessor, Elizabeth. His forebodings were not fully realized, for while the empress recalled the Russian troops serving under him, she restored the Prussian territories which had been occupied by Elizabeth, and promised to observe a strict neutrality. Thus set free from his fears, Frederick proceeded in his campaign with his accustomed vigour. Schweidnitz and Silesia were recovered, and the Austrians were driven into Bohemia, one part of the Prussian army advancing to the very gates of Prague. At the same time, the allied armies, under Prince Ferdinand and the Marquis of Granby, reduced Cassel, expelled the French from Hesse, and effected the salvation of Hanover—events which created alarm and despondency in the French cabinet.
NEGOCIATIONS FOR PEACE.
Notwithstanding the uninterrupted success of the British arms, Lord Bute was still anxious for peace. And his views at this time were seconded by the voice of the people, who loudly complained of the increased taxation and the expenses and burdens consequent upon this protracted war. Accordingly, having indirectly sounded some of the French cabinet, Bute engaged the neutral King of Sardinia to propose that it should resume négociations for peace. Both France and Spain, taught experience by their reverses, were eager for such a consummation; and Louis XV. had no sooner received the hint, than he acted upon it with all his heart and soul. Notes were interchanged, and it was agreed that a minister should be appointed on either side forthwith. In compliance with this agreement, the Duke of Bedford went as plenipotentiary and ambassador extraordinary to Paris, and the Duke de Nivernois came over to London in the same capacity. Preliminaries for peace were signed at Fontainbleau, on the third of November, by the ministers of Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal; and the sanction of the British parliament only was wanting to carry them into effect.
The terms of the preliminaries signed at Fontainbleau were as follow:—France consented to restore Minorca; to evacuate Hanover, Cleves, Wesel, Gueldres, the territories of the Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of Brunswick, and the Count de la Lippe Bucke-burg, and every place taken from his Prussian majesty. France, also, renounced all pretensions to Nova Scotia, and ceded the islands of Cape Breton and St. John, with the entire province of Canada, including the islands in the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence; that part of Louisiana which is situate east of the Mississippi, and the tract between the Ohio and St. Lawrence, on which French forts had been erected, and which had been the proximate cause of the war. On her part Spain resigned East and West Florida, with all pretensions to fish on the coast of Newfoundland; and conceded the full right of cutting logwood in the Bay of Honduras. France and Spain promised full restitution to Portugal, and the fortifications of Dunkirk were to be demolished, according to the tenor of previous treaties. For these advantages, England agreed to restore Pondicherry, in the East Indies, Goree, in Africa, and Martinique, Guadaloupe, Mari-galante, Desirade, and St. Lucie, in the West Indies, to France, together with Belleisle, in Europe. To Spain she was to give up the Havannah, with all other conquests in Cuba, The conquests England retained, beside those specified in the preliminaries, were Senegal, in Africa, and St. Vincent, Dominique, Tobago, Grenada, and the Grenadines, in the West Indies. On the whole, England would evidently become a great gainer; but the terms gave rise to great contention, and a struggle of party on the meeting of Parliament.
THE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT AND THE CONCLUSION OF PEACE.
Although the great body of the people of England desired peace, yet there was a section of the community equally desirous for the continuance of the war. The citizens of London had largely profited by it; and during the negociations of last year they had instructed their representatives to oppose any peace which did not reserve to England all, or the greater part, of their conquests. This feeling was heightened by the successes of the last campaign, and while the whole glory of the war was assigned by them to Pitt, the very name of peace was considered as a sacrifice of the national honour. Encouraged by these feelings, Pitt organised a party in opposition to the cabinet, and he was aided in this by many of the Whigs, who, irritated by the removal of so many of their adherents from office, looked with jealousy upon the actions of the favourite minister, Bute. The premier, likewise, was very unpopular with the people, for although his views of peace coincided with their own, yet he lacked the genius which could alone command their admiration; and his cold, formal manners, and known lust of power, subjected him to their scorn and contempt.
Parliament met on the 25th of November, and the preliminaries of peace were then laid before both houses for their decision. In his opening speech, his majesty remarked upon this subject:—“It was impossible to execute what this nation has so gloriously performed in all parts of the world, without the loss of great numbers of men. When you consider this loss, whether on the principles of policy or humanity, you will see one of the many reasons which induced me to enter early into negociation, so as to make considerable progress in it before the fate of many operations was determined; and now, to hasten the conclusion of it, to prevent the necessity of making preparations for another campaign. As by this peace my territories are greatly augmented, and new sources opened for trades and manufactures, it is my earnest desire that you would consider of such methods, in the settlements of our new acquisitions, as shall most effectually tend to the security of those countries, and to the improvement of the commerce and navigation of Great Britain. I cannot mention our acquisitions without earnestly recommending to your care and attention my gallant subjects, by whose valour they were made. We could never have carried on this extensive war without the greatest union at home. You will find the same union peculiarly necessary in order to make the best use of the great advantages acquired by the peace, and to lay the foundation of that economy which we owe to ourselves and to our posterity, and which can alone relieve this nation from the heavy burdens brought on it by the necessities of this long and expensive war.”
There were points in this pacific speech of his majesty which were perfectly unanswerable. Humanity, and the burdens of the country demanded that the sword should be sheathed, and the demand was eloquently seconded by the great advantages which England would secure by the peace. Notwithstanding, opposition was not disarmed, and a fierce war of words ensued. The motion for an address in the house of commons, approving of the terms of the treaty, was moved by Mr. Fox, Pitt’s ancient rival, who still retained the lucrative place of paymaster of the forces. Pitt followed on the opposite side. He came to the house, suffering from gout and wrapped up in flannel; but, nevertheless, supported by two members, in an elaborate argument of more than three hours, he advanced every objection that could be urged against the negociations. The whole tenor of the treaty was denounced by him as unsound and impolitic, and as derogatory to the honour of England. He came, he said, at the hazard of his life to the house that day, to lift up his voice, his hand, and his arm against the preliminary articles of a treaty which obscured all the glories of the war, surrendered up the interests of the nation, and sacrificed the public faith by the abandonment of long-tried and faithful allies. Fox, supported by George Grenville, replied in a less eloquent; tone, but with more cogent arguments, and the ministers obtained a large majority. In the house of lords, Bute undertook the defence of the measure, and in his speech, the clauses of which fell from his lips like so many minute-guns, he detailed the rise and progress of the negociations at large, and set forth the advantages which England would derive from the treaty in the best manner his talents for oratory—which were very mean—would permit. He concluded his speech with declaring, that he desired no other epitaph to be inscribed on his tomb, than that he was the adviser of such a peace. He was opposed by Lord Temple, and supported by the Earl of Halifax; and notwithstanding all the arguments of the opposing peers, the address was carried by a large majority. The treaty was therefore signed, and commercial communications, which had been stopped during the war, were reopened with France.
Pitt had declared in his speech, that the desertion of the King of Prussia, England’s most magnanimous ally, was insidious, base, and treacherous. A glance at the preliminaries will suffice to prove that Frederick’s interests were not forgotten. Frederick, moreover, was now in a condition to defend himself. At this very time, in fact, he had induced all the princes and states in Germany to sign a declaration of neutrality, which led first to a truce between Austria and Prussia, then to a congress, and finally, in that congress, to a treaty of peace between Austria, Prussia, Saxony, and Poland. This treaty was not signed till the 15th of February, 1763, but its terms were agreed upon before the close of the present year. Frederick retained Silesia, and all the territories that belonged to him before the war, and the other powers were compelled to rest satisfied with their legitimate possessions, without the slightest reparation for the damages they had endured, and the sums they had spent, during this dream of their ambition. Thus ended this Seven Years’ War—a war which had cost millions of lives, and in which a large portion of Europe was devastated, and carnage was earned into every quarter of the globe. England was a gainer by it, but her acquisitions cost so much blood, and treasures, that it may fairly be questioned whether her advantages were commensurate with the price she paid for them.
THE RESIGNATION OF BUTE.
Notwithstanding the large majority ministers had obtained in both houses of parliament on the subject of the newly-signed treaty, causes were at work which soon effected their overthrow. Pitt was resolutely bent on driving Bute from office; his stern opposition being ostensibly founded on an assertion that he had thrown away the best advantages in the treaty of peace. He was joined in his opposition by the old Duke of Newcastle, whose halls again became the resort of politicians. Meetings were held at his residence, in which nobles and commons alike concerted together the means of making the peace unpopular, and bringing Bute into still greater contempt with the public. Pens, dipped in gall, were set to work to demonstrate to the people that Martinique, Guadaloupe, St. Lucie, Pondicherry, and the Havannah ought to have been retained in the treaty of Fontainebleau; that compensation in money ought to have been obtained from both France and Spain; that, by demolishing the forts in Honduras, English subjects were deprived of the log-wood trade, and subjected to the jealous rage of the Spaniards; and that an opportunity of humbling the house of Bourbon had been completely thrown away. In maintaining these propositions, dark insinuations were thrown out, reflecting upon the characters of Bute, the king’s mother, and the Duke of Bedford. They had all, it was said, touched French gold. Epigrams, scandals, and stories, also, concerning Bute and the princess dowager, rang from one end of the country to the other. And the conduct of the princess and Bute seemed to justify the scandal, although it does not appear to have rested on sure grounds. Thus they precluded, as much as possible, all access to the king, except to Bute’s relatives connexions, and dependents; and when Bute visited the princess it was generally in the evening, and then in a sedan-chair belonging to a lady of the household of the princess, and with close-drawn curtains. His enemies did not fail to take advantage of his imprudent conduct, and they soon succeeded in making him the most unpopular man in the three kingdoms. This soon became manifest to the royal favourite; for addresses on occasion of this peace were refused by the counties of York and Surrey, and they came in slowly and ill-supported from other quarters. Bute, however, was too proud and unconciliating to make any attempt to set himself right in public opinion, and he suffered his enemies to work on, till his character became unredeemable, and his downfall was effected.
Still Bute might possibly have enjoyed his high station for some time longer had there not existed at this time a necessity for an increase of taxation, and for a loan of three millions and a half, to enable government to pay debts contracted during the war. This necessity could not be fairly imputed to Bute, but he was unfortunate in his plan of raising the loan, and in his choice of new taxes. Instead of throwing the loan open to competition, he disposed of the shares privately, and they immediately rose to eleven per cent, premium; whence he was charged with gratifying himself or his dependents with £350,000 at the public expense. His new tax was produced in the shape of ten shillings duty per hogshead on cider and perry, which was to be paid by the first purchaser, while an additional duty of eight pounds per ton was proposed to be laid on French wines, and half that sum on other wines. The tax on cider raised such a storm of opposition from the country members generally, without reference to party, that Bute was induced to alter both the sum and the mode of levying it—four shillings per hogshead was to be paid, and it was to be levied upon the grower, through the medium of the exciseman. This was not an unreasonable tax, for ale and porter were already taxed both directly and indirectly, and no argument could show that while a liquor produced from malt contributed to the public exigencies, a liquor produced from apples should be exempt. Englishmen, however, were always averse to the visits of the excisemen; and the city of London, the cities of Exeter and Worcester, and the counties of Devonshire and Herefordshire, the interests of which were concerned in the matter more nearly than the citizens of London, petitioned the commons, the lords, and the throne, against the bill. A general threat was made, that the apples should rot upon the ground rather than be made into a beverage subject to such a duty and such annoyances. In the house of commons, also, Pitt spoke long and eloquently against the bill; inveighing bitterly against the intrusion of officers into the private dwellings of Englishmen; quoting the well-known maxim that in England “every man’s house is his castle.” Stern opposition was, moreover, made in the house of lords; and, had Bute been wise, he would have bowed deferentially to the public feeling, and have adopted some other mode of raising the money less repugnant to the temper and disposition of the people. Bute, however, to use a figurative expression, proudly bared his head to the tempest which was playing around him. He was determined that the bill should pass, and he carried his point despite the fierce opposition of the whole country. The bill passed into a law, and although there were four different kinds of cider, varying in price from five to fifty shillings per hogshead, they were all taxed alike.
Yet Bute was not made of such stern material that he could defy the people with impunity. He had gained this victory over them, but he evidently felt that their voice was omnipotent, and that if he longer resisted it, he might possibly one day, and that soon, be doomed to suffer disgrace by defeat. Under these circumstances, almost as soon as the bill passed into a law, he surprised his friends and his enemies alike, by suddenly tendering his resignation. Opinions varied as to his motives for taking such a step. Some of his enemies said that he had retired from the rising storm of national indignation, and that Pitt had politically killed him; others that the king and queen, whose strict morality of conduct was well known, had at length taken umbrage at his intimacy with the queen dowager; while others asserted that he abandoned his post from a consciousness of guilt, and a dread of impeachment for certain acts not yet made known to the public. On the other hand, his friends asserted that his retirement arose from his hatred of the intrigues of a public life, and represented him as panting in the midst of the toils of his office for literary and rural retirement. His own reason, as expressed to a friend, was, that he found himself powerless in his own cabinet. “Single in a cabinet of my own forming,” he observed, “no aid in the house of lords to support me, except two peers, [Denbigh and Pomfret]; both the secretaries of state silent, and the lord chief justice, whom I myself brought into office, voting for me, yet speaking against me; the ground I tread upon is so hollow, that I am afraid, not only of falling myself, but of involving my royal master in my ruin. It is time for me to retire.” Bute retired as proudly as he had exercised his office, for he neither asked for pension nor sinecure, and his retirement was followed by that of Sir Francis Dashwood, chancellor of the exchequer, and of Fox, who were elevated to the peerage: the former as Baron le Despencer, and the latter as Baron Holland. Mr. George Grenville succeeded to the premiership, and also to the place which had been occupied by Dashwood, uniting in himself the offices of chancellor of the exchequer and first lord of the treasury. But Bute still acted behind the scenes. He pulled the strings, and Grenville and the rest of the cabinet answered his motions, as mechanically as though they had been so many puppets. Grenville, indeed, seems to have been chosen by the king and Bute, as a willing instrument for carrying their plans into ready execution.
THE CHARACTER AND IMPEACHMENT OF WILKES.
One of the most sturdy opponents of Bute and his administration had been the celebrated John Wilkes, member of parliament for Aylesbury, and a lieutenant-colonel in the Buckinghamshire militia. On first entering into office, Bute, by the advice of Bubb Doddington, had established a newspaper, styled “The Briton,” the ostensible object of which was, to advocate the measures of Bute’s administration. Many writers were employed to write for this paper; and while they exalted the premier, they did not fail to vilify his opponents. To oppose this organ of the ministers, another paper was set on foot, and conducted by Wilkes, under the title of “The North Briton.” Wilkes was a man of ruined fortune and of dissolute habits; but he was active, enterprising, and daring, and possessed a considerable fund of wit and repartee. In the beginning of this reign, he had solicited a lucrative post under government, but had been disappointed. His failure was attributed by him to the influence which Bute held over the monarch, and he began to vent his spleen against the minister and his coadjutors in scandalizing and calumniating their actions and private characters. Both in conversation and in the “North Briton,” they were ever made the butts of his ready wit. He even reviled, stigmatized, and heaped curses upon Bute’s country and countrymen. According to his showing, the river Tweed was the line of demarcation between all that was honourable and noble, and all that was dishonourable and servile—south of that river, honour, virtue, and patriotism flourished; north of it, malice, meanness, and slavery prevailed. Every Scotchman was painted by him as a hungry beggar, time-server, and traitor. Wilkes was, perhaps, not singular in his antipathies at this time against the Scotch, for wiser men than him exhibited them in their writings and in their conversation, arising in a great measure from the circumstance of the introduction of large numbers of them into the offices of government. But in this, Bute acted as any other man would have done under similar circumstances, as every one possesses by nature a predilection for their own country and countrymen. This conduct, therefore, of Wilkes was as unwise as it was unjust and impolitic. Still no danger would have occurred to himself from the display of such bitter feelings, had he confined his malevolence to the subjects of Great Britain. Grown bold by impunity, however, Wilkes at length pointed his pen at the royal family, and even at the monarch himself; and, by so doing, he raised a persecution against himself, which has rendered him a prominent object in the annals of his country. On the 19th of April his majesty prorogued parliament, and in the next number of the “North Briton,” the celebrated 45th, Wilkes accused the monarch of uttering a direct falsehood in his speech on that occasion. Whether Grenville was more sensitive than his predecessor had shown himself, or whether Bute instigated him to take notice of this attack, in order to revenge himself upon Wilkes, is not clear, but it is certain that on the 26th a general warrant was issued from the secretary of state’s office, signed and sealed by Lord Halifax, for the arrest of the authors, printers, and publishers of the seditious paper, and for the seizure of their papers. No names were specified in this warrant, and within three days, no less than forty-nine persons were taken upon mere suspicion. These were innocent, but on the 29th, Kearsley, the avowed publisher, and Balfe, the printer, were taken into custody, who confessed that Wilkes was the author of the paper. Accordingly, the crown lawyers having been consulted, the messengers were directed to seize Wilkes, and bring him forthwith before the secretary of state. It was in vain that the offender asserted that they were acting upon an illegal warrant: his papers were seized, and he was carried before Lord Halifax. At the request of Wilkes, his friend, Lord Temple, applied to the court of common pleas for a writ of habeas corpus, and the motion was granted; but before it could be prepared, he was committed to the Tower in close custody, and his friends, his counsel, and his solicitor were denied access to him. The confinement of Wilkes, however, was of short duration, for on the 3rd of May, a writ of habeas corpus was directed to the constable of the Tower, by which he was brought before the court in Westminster Hall. In that court he made a virulent speech against the existing administration, broadly asserting that there was a plot among its members for destroying the liberties of the nation, and that he was selected as their victim, because they could not corrupt him with their gold. The court took time to consider the matter, and on the 6th, Lord Chief Justice Pratt proceeded to deliver the joint opinion of the judges. This opinion was, that though the commitment of Wilkes and the general warrant were not in themselves illegal, as they were justified by numerous precedents, yet he was entitled to his discharge by virtue of his privilege as a member of parliament; that privilege being only forfeited by members who were guilty either of treason, felony, or a breach of the peace. Wilkes was therefore discharged, but the attorney-general immediately instituted a prosecution against him for the libel in question, and the king deprived him of his commission as colonel in the Buckinghamshire militia, and dismissed his friend Lord Temple from the lord-lieutenancy of Buckinghamshire, and struck his name out of the roll of privy councillors. The liberation of Wilkes was followed by a long inky war. Upon regaining the use of his pen, he wrote a letter to the secretaries of state, in which he complained of the treatment he had received, and accused them of holding in their hands, goods of which his house had been robbed by their messengers. This letter, to which government replied, was printed and distributed by thousands, and considerable numbers of the opposition in parliament rallied round the author of the “North Briton,” while the populace began to hail him throughout the country, as the noblest patriot England had known since the days of Algernon Sidney and Hampden. Taking advantage of his popularity, when he found publishers averse to the hazard of publishing his works, he established a printing-press in his own house, where he struck off copies of the proceedings against him, which were sold at one guinea each; a blasphemous and obscene poem entitled, “An Essay on Woman,” with annotations; and the forty-five first numbers of the “North Briton,” with notes and emendations. His pen was seconded by hundreds of newspaper writers and pamphleteers who wrote on his behalf, and John Wilkes thereby became one of the most popular men in all England. Men, even of talents and probity, though they detested his immoralities, associated his name with the idea of liberty, and the proceedings against him were designated as the tyrannical efforts of arbitrary power.
GEORGE III. 1760-1765
CHANGES IN THE CABINET.
Mr. George Grenville had been first brought into notice by his connexion with Mr. Pitt. He was a man of integrity and of understanding, but he lacked the personal influence, and the abilities which could alone give stability to a political party. His proceedings against Wilkes, moreover, had brought his cabinet into public contempt, and in the month of August he was deprived of the best supporter of his administration, by the death of Lord Egremont. The loss of this nobleman brought his cabinet, indeed, to the verge of dissolution, and a coalition of parties was hence deemed desirable. To this end Bute waited, at his majesty’s commands, on his stern rival, Pitt, to whom he stated the king’s wish of employing political talent and integrity without respect of persons or parties. This was done without the knowledge of the members of the existing cabinet, and Pitt consented to wait upon his majesty at Buckingham House. He was received graciously, and in a conference which lasted three hours, he expatiated on the infirmities of the peace, and the disorders of the state; and the remedy he proposed to adopt, was the restoration of the Whigs to office; they only, he asserted, having the public confidence. This was on Saturday, the 27th of August, and at this time his majesty made no objection to his proposals, and he appointed a second interview on the following Monday. On Sunday, Pitt was closeted with the Duke of Newcastle, in arranging the new administration, in full confidence that the king was acquiescent. Pitt, however, did not find his majesty so pliant on the Monday, as he expected, and he was doomed to experience a complete disappointment of his views and hopes. The king wished to provide for Grenville, by allotting him the profitable place of paymaster of the forces, and to restore Lord Temple to favour, by placing him at the head of the treasury; but although both Grenville and Temple were Pitt’s relatives, he would not consent. “The alliance of the great Whig interests which had supported the revolution government,” he said, “was indispensable.” The whole project, therefore, fell to the ground. His majesty broke up the conference by observing, “This will not do; my honour is concerned, and I must support it.”
Negociation with Pitt having failed, overtures were made to the Duke of Bedford, who, it was thought, possessed sufficient influence—though he was little less unpopular than Bute himself—to support the tottering cabinet. His grace accepted the post of lord president of the council, Lord Sandwich was made secretary of state, and Lord Egmont was placed at the head of the admiralty. Grenville still retained his post, though the Duke of Bedford gave his name to the ministry.
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT, AND FURTHER PROCEEDINGS AGAINST WILKES.
Parliament met on the 15th of November, when his majesty exhorted both houses to cultivate the blessings of peace; to improve the commercial acquisitions of the country; to attend to the reduction of the debts contracted in the late war; to improve the navy; and to promote domestic union, and discourage the licentious spirit which prevailed, to the utter subversion of the true principles of liberty.
The allusion in his Majesty’s speech to the licentious spirit prevalent at that time in England, had reference to Wilkes and his associates. Many men of fashion and dissipation had lived with him and upon him recently as boon companions and partners in debauchery. Together with him, they formed the Dilettanti Club in Palace Yard, and they also revived the Hell-Fire Club of the days of the Duke of Wharton, at Medmenham Abbey, Bucks, where they revelled in obscenity, and made everything that was moral or religious, a subject of their scorn and derision. Over the grand entrance of this abbey was inscribed, Fays ce que voudras, “Do what you like;” and the jokes of the members of the club consisted principally in wearing monkish dresses, and drinking wine out of a communion cup to a pagan divinity. For the entertainment of these men, some of whom were even more conspicuous in their profligacy than Wilkes himself, he took a house at the court end of the town, by which he incurred expenses his fortune could not support, and which they were not willing to discharge. They could feast at his table, and drink his claret; but his entertainments and his wit, which they equally enjoyed, must be set down to his own account. Nay, one of his companions, the new secretary of state, Lord Sandwich, one of the most notorious of the whole club, now suddenly turned round upon him, and accused him of leading a profligate and debauched life!
On the return of the commons to their own house, Grenville, aware of the intention of Wilkes to make a formal complaint respecting the breach of privilege, anticipated him by relating what had passed in the arrest and liberation of that member, and by laying the libel on the table. The house by a large majority-resolved, that the 45th No. of the “North Briton” was a false, scandalous, and seditious libel, and ordered that the said paper should be burned by the hands of the common hangman. In reply, Wilkes declared that the rights of all the members had been violated in his person, and he requested that the question of privilege should be at once taken into consideration. The house adjourned this question for one week, but on the same night, Lord Sandwich produced in the house of lords, a copy of the “Essay on Woman,” and loudly exclaimed against the profaneness and indecency of this poetical production of Wilkes. His attack on Wilkes surprised most men who heard him, but he was followed by one who had a right to complain. Dr. Warburton, now Bishop of Gloucester, inveighed bitterly on the use which had been made of his name in the annotations, and commented in severe language on the outrageous infidelity of the production, declaring that when the author of it arrived in hell, he would not find one companion there among its “blackest fiends.” A day was appointed for bringing John Wilkes to their lordship’s bar, to answer to a charge of a breach of privilege; but in the meantime, an event occurred which rendered it impossible for him to appear. In the course of the debate in the lower house, Mr. Martin, member for Camelford, who had been secretary to the treasury during Bute’s administration, and had been attacked in the “North Briton,” stigmatized Wilkes as a “cowardly, malignant, and scandalous scoundrel.” His words were twice repeated, as he looked across the house at the object of his attack, with rage flashing from his eyes. Wilkes seemed to hear with cool indifference, but on leaving the house, he addressed a note to Martin, and a meeting in Hyde Park was the consequence, in which the former was dangerously wounded. It was reported the next day that he was delirious, and crowds of people surrounded his house, hooting and shouting at his murderers: had he died, the populace would have considered him a martyr in the cause of liberty; but he recovered.
The question of privilege came on in the house of commons on the 23rd of November, and it lasted two whole days. Wilkes was defended by Pitt, who came to the house again enveloped in flannel, and this time supported by crutches. While Pitt defended him, however, he was careful to maintain his own character. He condemned the whole series of “North Britons,” as illiberal, unmanly, and detestable; declaimed against all national reflections, as having a tendency to promote disloyal feelings and disunity: asserted that his majesty’s complaint was well founded, just, and necessary; and declared that the author did not deserve to rank among the human species, as he was the blasphemer of his God, and the libeller of his sovereign. He was not connected with Wilkes, he said, nor had he any connexion with writers of his stamp. At the same time, he reprobated the facility with which parliament was surrendering its own privileges, carefully impressing on the house, that in so doing, he was simply delivering a constitutional opinion, and not vindicating the character of John Wilkes. The speech of Pitt was characterised by great eloquence and acuteness, but the measure was warmly defended by other members, and at the conclusion, a resolution was carried by a large majority, to the effect, “That the privilege of parliament does not extend to the case of writing and publishing seditious libels, nor ought to be allowed to obstruct the ordinary course of the laws in the speedy and effectual prosecution of so heinous and dangerous an offence.” The concurrence of the lords was not obtained without considerable difficulty, and when it was obtained, a spirited protest was signed by seventeen peers, affirming it to be “incompatible with the dignity, gravity, and justice of the house, thus to explain away a parliamentary privilege of such magnitude and importance, founded in the wisdom of ages, declared with precision in their standing orders, repeatedly confirmed, and hitherto preserved inviolable by the spirit of their ancestors; called to it only by the other house on a particular occasion, and to serve a particular purpose, ex post facto, ex parte, et pendente lite, the courts below.” On the 1st of December, a conference of both houses took place, when both lords and commons agreed in a loyal address to the king, expressive of their detestation of the libels against him; and Wilkes was ordered to attend at the bar of the commons in a week, should his health permit.
In the meantime—on the 3rd of the month—there was a terrible riot in London occasioned, by the burning of the “North Briton” in Cheapside. The execution of this sentence was entrusted to Alderman Harley, sheriff of London, and he assembled the city officers and the common hangman at the Royal Exchange, to put it into effect. The people, however, manifested a very different spirit from that of their representatives. So violent were they, that Harley was compelled to retreat to the Mansion House, where the lord mayor was sitting, surrounded by members of the common council, who were almost to a man the friends and admirers of Wilkes, and therefore not disposed to take part in the matter. The hangman was compelled to follow the sheriff. He had succeeded in partially burning the paper with a link, when cheered on by some gentlemen standing at the windows of houses near the spot, the mob rushed upon him, and rescued the fragments, carrying them in triumph to Temple Bar, where a fire was kindled and a large jack-boot was committed to the flames, in derision of the Earl of Bute. The city was restored to its usual tranquillity in about an hour and a half, the mob dispersing of their own accord; but the affair occupied the attention of parliament four days, during which time nothing else was done, except voting a pension of £80,000 as a dowry to the Princess Augusta, the king’s sister, who was about to be married to the Duke of Brunswick. In the debate on the subject of the riot, it was fully manifested that the populace of London was generally in favour of Wilkes; but both houses concurred in voting that the rioters were disturbers of the public peace, dangerous to the liberties of the country, and obstructors of national justice. Thanks were also voted to the sheriffs, and an address was presented to his majesty, praying that measures might be taken to discover and punish the offenders.
By their proceedings against Wilkes ministers had surrounded themselves with a maze of perplexity. Actions were brought by the printers, and others arrested under the general warrant, to recover damages for false imprisonment, and a verdict was universally given in their favour. These actions were brought against the messengers: Wilkes had nobler game in view. He brought actions against the two secretaries of state, Lord Egremont and Lord Halifax, and against Robert Wood, Esq., late under-secretary. Egremont was now dead, Halifax stood upon his privilege and defied the court, till relieved by the sentence of outlawry that was passed upon Wilkes, but Wood was condemned to pay £1000 damages to the plaintiff. At this trial, the lord chief justice Pratt was bold enough to declare that general warrants were unconstitutional, illegal, and absolutely void, and to challenge a reference of this opinion to the twelve judges. This was not deemed expedient, and Pratt’s judgment respecting the illegality of warrants was shortly afterwards confirmed by the court of king’s bench. The boldness of Pratt secured for him great popularity. He was presented with the freedom of the cities of London and Dublin, and others; and in addition to this mark of respect, the corporation of London requested that he would sit for his picture, which was to be placed in Guildhall, as a memorial of their gratitude.
The popularity of Wilkes was at this time increased by an attempt made upon his life by one Alexander Dun, a Scotchman, who sought admission into the patriot’s house, and who publicly declared that he and ten others were determined to cut him off. A new penknife was found in his pocket, and for this alleged attempt against the life of a member of parliament, Dun was carried before the commons, who voted him insane, and ordered his dismissal. The court of king’s bench, however, committed Dun to prison for want of bail and securities, and looking upon facts only in a cursory light, the people believed that the government was determined to make away with the defender of their liberties. All this tended to render the cabinet so obnoxious, that Horace Walpole was apprehensive that there would have been some violent commotion.
When the day arrived for the attendance of Wilkes at the bar of the house of commons, two medical gentlemen, Dr. Brocklesby and Mr. Graves appeared, and made a declaration that he was unable, from the state of his health, to obey the summons. The house granted a week’s delay, and the excuse being repeated, the grant was extended beyond the Christmas recess. At the same time it was ordered that a physician and surgeon of their own appointing should see Wilkes, and report their opinion on his case. These were refused admittance into his house; but to vindicate the character of his own medical attendants, and to have the laugh at the ministry, he called in two Scotch doctors, observing that as the house wished him to be watched, two Scotchmen would prove the most proper spies.
The Christmas recess arrived, and the Christmas festivities afforded a short truce to this war of politicians. Wilkes, who could not have been so ill as represented, went to Paris, where he obtained great admiration by his wit in the salons and soirées of that gay city. He was thus employed when the parliament met on the 19th of January, 1764. This was the day fixed for his appearance, but the speaker produced a letter from him, enclosing a certificate signed by a French physician and a French surgeon, testifying that he could not quit Paris without danger to his life. This certificate wanted the signature of a notary public to give it authenticity, and the house, therefore, resolved to proceed against Wilkes as though he were present. Witnesses and papers were examined, and it was resolved, that No. 45 of the “North Briton,” which had been voted a seditious libel, contained expressions of unexampled insolence and contumely toward his majesty, the grossest aspersions upon both houses of parliament, and the most audacious defiance of the whole legislative authority. It was also denounced as having a manifest tendency to alienate the affections of the people from their king, to withdraw them from obedience to the laws, and to excite them to insurrection. On the next day it was further resolved, that Wilkes should be expelled the house, and a new writ was issued for the borough of Aylesbury; a measure which ultimately had the effect of rendering him a popular champion in the struggle between the house of commons and the electors of Middlesex, which defined the power of the representative body in relation to its constituency. Even now it greatly increased the popularity of Wilkes among the great body of the people. On every opportune occasion they loudly expressed their sentiments in his favour. The king and his ministers were compelled to hear whenever they appeared in public the grating and unwelcome exclamation of, “Wilkes and liberty!”
Although ministers had triumphed over Wilkes personally, by obtaining his expulsion from the house, yet they were doomed to suffer a check from a motion naturally arising out of his prosecution. On the 13th of February, it was moved by the opposition, that Wilkes’ complaint of breach of privilege should be heard. On this subject they obtained a large majority; his complaint being thrown out, after a stormy debate which lasted three days and one whole night. This, however, was followed by a resolution moved by Sir William Meredith, in which they were not so successful, namely, “That a general warrant for apprehending and securing the authors, printers, and publishers of a seditious libel, together with their papers, is not warranted by law.” An adjournment was proposed, but Pitt and others made speeches upon the subject, and when the house divided, ministers had only the small majority of fourteen upon the question of adjournment. This was virtually a defeat, and the illegality of general warrants was so effectually established by the numbers who voted on the side of the opposition, and by the sentiments of the orators, that henceforth the use of them was wholly discontinued. If, therefore, this prosecution of Wilkes was impolitic, it had at least the effect of settling a great constitutional principle; nor was it long before the measures taken against him effected other alterations in the constitution equally important.
Wilkes having entered an appearance in Westminster Hall, was at length tried and convicted on two indictments, for publishing the 45th Number of the North Briton, and the “Essay on Woman.” He was afterwards outlawed for not appearing in court to receive his sentence, whence the suit he had instituted against Lord Halifax fell to the ground. The cause of Wilkes, however, being identified with that of the constitution, his popularity remained undiminished, and the spirit excited by the proceedings against him was still as rife with bitterness as ever.
PROPOSITION TO TAX THE AMERICAN COLONIES.
It was at this troubled season that George Grenville brought forward a motion for extracting a direct revenue from the colonies. The idea was not altogether new, for such a scheme had been hinted at during Sir Robert Walpole’s administration. At this time it seems to have been revived, by the general complaint heard among the people of England, of the burden of taxation which they were called upon to bear. His majesty proposed such a step, as a just, as well as advantageous measure for relieving the country from the financial difficulties which had been occasioned by a war undertaken for the protection and security of the colonies themselves. Accordingly, a series of resolutions, respecting new duties to be laid on goods imported by the Americans, was brought into the House by Grenville on the 10th of March. These resolutions passed with little notice; General Conway, it is said, being the only member who protested against them; and they received the royal assent on the 5th of April. The minister, also, proposed raising a direct revenue from the colonies in the shape of a stamp-tax, but this was objected to by the opposition, and it was postponed to another session. Certain restrictions, however, were at the same time laid upon the profitable contraband trade carried on by the Americans with the Spanish colonies; a trade alike advantageous to England and the North American colonists, but of which the Spanish government was constantly and bitterly complaining to the court of Great Britain.
OPPOSITION OF THE AMERICANS.
It seems probable that ministers undertook this scheme of taxation, in order to gain popularity. It had that effect in some slight degree. The country gentlemen, in particular, were well pleased with the prospect of the non-increase on the diminution of the land-tax, and other sections of the community hoped eventually to have their burdens lightened by such a measure. In proroguing parliament the king expressed his hearty approbation of it, auguring the augmentation of the public revenues, a unity of the interests of his most distant possessions, and an increase of commerce, as its natural results. Like the Greek fisherman in Theocritus, all dreamed of gold; but in the course of a few months this pleasant dream was swept away by a strong wind across the Atlantic.
The inhabitants of New England received these “wise regulations” of the British parliament “like knives put to their throats.” Perceiving that the claim made by their mother-country to tax the colonies for her own benefit, and at her own discretion, might possibly introduce a system of oppression, they boldly denied the authority of parliament to levy any direct tax on the colonies, and declared that it was a violation of their rights as colonists, possessing by charter the privilege of taxing themselves for their own support; and as British subjects, who ought not to be taxed without their legitimate representatives. The disaffection of the northern provinces extended to those of the south, and, as a strong measure of resistance, all engaged to abstain from the use of those luxuries which had hitherto been imported from Great Britain. They also made colonial taxation a subject of their petitions to king, lords, and commons, and thus firmly established the principle of resistance to such a measure. Their resistance was confirmed by an unwise measure of Grenville, who determined to intrust the execution of his prohibitory orders to military and naval officers, who were disposed to act with rigour. Government, also, had increased the salaries of judges, which gave rise to an opinion that it was desirous of diminishing their independence; and the governors had recently acted very arbitrarily, and when complaints were made no attention was paid to them, or if a reply was given, it was accompanied with rebuke. The colonists, moreover, were encouraged in their spirit of resistance by the emigration of numbers who had lately left England, and who being disaffected persons, diffused republican sentiments in all the provinces. The seeds of discontent were, in fact, sown far and wide before this new system of taxation was projected, and it had the effect of causing them to germinate and flourish.
WAR WITH THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
It unfortunately happened, that the news of colonial taxation arrived in America when the colonists were in no very pleasant humour. On quitting Canada, the French government still retained some slight connexion with the native Indians, and partly by their agents, and in part through encroachments made by the British on their hunting-grounds, they were incited to war. The tribes flew to arms, designing to make a simultaneous attack on all the English back-settlements in harvest-time, and though their secret was made known, and their intentions prevented in some places, yet the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia were mercilessly ravaged by them, and the inhabitants in those parts utterly destroyed. The Indians also captured several forts in Canada, and massacred the garrisons; and their flying parties frequently intercepted and butchered the troops that were marching from place to place, and plundered and murdered the traders in the upper part of the country. Success made them more bold, and it seems probable, from the display of courage and of military talent which they manifested, that French officers were among them. They even resolved to advance on the principal force stationed at Fort Pitt, and they marched forward in full confidence of victory. In their route they defeated a detachment under Captain Dalzel, and killed that unfortunate officer, and the soldiers escaped with difficulty into Fort Detroit. Fort Pitt was now surrounded by them, but they soon abandoned it, in order to attack Colonel Bouquet, who was advancing with a strong corps under his command for its relief. Fearful struggles took place between Colonel Bouquet and the Indians, in which a great number was killed on both sides, but they were finally routed, and as their bravest chiefs had perished, it was supposed that their loss was irreparable. The Indians, however, in the other parts of the country were not discouraged, and they surrounded an escort, and slew about eighty officers and men near the falls of Niagara. Thus disheartened, General Amherst used the powerful influence of Sir William Johnstone, who was enabled to detach the Indians of the Six Nations from the confederacy, and to engage them on the side of the British, and after various skirmishes and surprises, the rest submitted on conditions, or retired into the depths of their native wilds and forests. In the treaty concluded with them all occasions of future quarrels were guarded against; the limits of their territories were accurately defined; their past offences forgiven; and they were re-admitted to the friendship of Great Britain: the Indians on their part solemnly engaging to commit no more acts of violence.
These occurrences had for the most part happened in the summer and autumn of the year 1763. But the recollection of them was, from their very nature, strongly impressed upon the minds of the colonists, when they heard of the system proposed for their taxation. Moreover, every one was armed for the defence of his home and property against the Indians, and being now freed from their terrors in that quarter, they were bold to think that they might be used against their mother-country, should the scheme of colonial taxation not be abandoned. Hence the colonists made a show of resistance by passing strong resolutions against the measure, which were transmitted to their agents in London, to be laid before government. The province of Pennsylvania appointed a new agent to London, in the person of the celebrated Benjamin Franklin, who was instructed to oppose the stamp-act to the very utmost, and indeed every other act that might be proposed to the British parliament to tax the Americans without their consent. A more efficient agent than Franklin could not have been chosen by the Pennsylvanians. Born in humble life, he had, nevertheless, raised himself by genius and steady perseverance, to be a man of property and science, a leading magistrate, a high functionary in their state, a powerful writer, a statesman, and a philosopher.
DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES.
The measures of the new administration were generally approved of in the house of commons, and on dismissing the parliament the king thanked the members of both houses for their wise and spirited exertions, and exhorted them all to employ the present season of tranquillity in perfecting the peace so happily commenced. There was occasion for this exhortation. The cider-tax occasioned many turbulent meetings, which frequently ended in riot, and a great scarcity of provisions caused an increase of robberies and crime to a large amount. These evils were augmented by the discharge of large bodies of soldiers and sailors, who either could not find employment, or from their previous occupation could not settle down into habits of industry. Moreover, country gentlemen and landed proprietors from all parts of the United Kingdom came to the metropolis, in order to gain posts under government, leaving their estates to be managed by stewards and bailiffs, the results of which were that they involved themselves in debt, and that they raised their rents for the purpose of relieving themselves. Discontent everywhere prevailed, and especially in Scotland and Ireland, and many thousands emigrated to the North American provinces, that they might be able to obtain a subsistence for their families, and at the same time preserve their religion and the customs of their fathers.
This year was marked by many maritime discoveries. A spirit of enterprize, fostered by the munificence of the king, was displayed, indeed, equal to that which distinguished the 15th and 16th centuries, and which produced advantages to the country of equal importance to those produced by the recent war. Byron, Wallis, Carteret, Cook, and Mulgrave, all set sail during this year, and in a few years discoveries were made which outrivalled all which had occurred since the expeditions of Columbus.
During this autumn Pitt broke his recently-formed league with the old Duke of Newcastle, telling him in a letter that he resolved henceforward to act for himself, to keep himself free from all stipulations, and to oppose or support measures in parliament upon his own responsibility. It is not clear why Pitt came to this resolution; but perhaps it may have arisen from his growing infirmity of body and temper, and of his overbearing pride. From his letter, in fact, it is made very manifest that his pride was offended, because the system of war which he had so long and eloquently defended was given up “by silence” in a full house. Hence it was, probably, that he was induced to stand single, and dare to appeal to his country solely upon the merits—real or supposed—of his principles. At all events, it seems certain that his resolution did not arise, as some have imagined, from dark and inexplicable intrigue, though it may wear that imposing aspect. But after all, as it has been well observed, it is next to impossible to understand the extraordinary alternations of alliance, neutrality, and opposition, between Pitt and the old Duke of Newcastle.
In the course of this year, the treaty of Fontainbleau was somewhat shaken by a French ship of the line having seized Turk’s Island, in the West Indies, and making the English inhabitants prisoners. The Spaniards also annoyed and interrupted the English logwood-cutters at Honduras, and were supposed to have seized a ship in the Mediterranean. These occurrences happened during the recess of parliament, but before the houses met, both the court of France and Spain disavowed all hostile proceedings, and gave explanations to the English cabinet, which were deemed satisfactory. It was evident, however, that the Bourbon courts were not satisfied with the terms of the recent peace, and that their weakness alone prevented them from renewing the struggle: their chagrin and enmity were but ill-concealed under the mask of friendship, which defeat in the field of battle had compelled them to wear.
CHAPTER II.
GEORGE III. 1765-1769
The Meeting of Parliament..... Debates on Colonial Taxation..... Instability of the Cabinet..... Attempts to form a new Administration..... Opposition to the Stamp Duties in America..... Embarrassment of Ministers and Meeting of Parliament..... Sentiments of the Americans on the Declaratory Act..... The Dissolution of the Rockingham Cabinet..... Decline of Lord Chatham’s Popularity..... Meeting of Parliament..... East India Question..... American Taxation..... Changes in the Ministry..... Proceedings in America..... Domestic Troubles and Commotions..... The Return of Wilkes, &c...... Resignation of Lord Chatham..... The Affairs of Wilkes..... Meeting of Parliament..... Debate on Wilkes, &c...... Debates on America..... East India Affairs..... Prorogation of Parliament, &c...... Discontents in England and Ireland.
1765
THE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
Parliament assembled on the 10th of January, 1765. The leading topics of the king’s speech referred to continental events, from which he augured the continuation of peace. In allusion to American taxation and American discontents, he recommended the carrying out of Grenville’s measures, and the enforcing obedience in the colonies. He remarked:—“The experience I have had of your former conduct makes me rely on your wisdom and firmness, in promoting that obedience to the laws, and respect to the legislative authority of this kingdom, which is essentially necessary for the safety of the whole, and in establishing such regulations as may best connect and strengthen every part of my dominions for their mutual benefit and support.” In this speech, also, his majesty announced the approaching marriage of his youngest sister, the Princess Caroline, with the Prince Royal of Denmark: a union which was ultimately attended with tragical consequences.
Early in this session complaints were made by the opposition that the court of Spain had not paid the Manilla ransom, which gave rise to an angry debate; the ministers warmly defending the conduct of the Spaniards in this particular. An attempt was also again made by the opposition to procure a resolution against the illegality of general warrants, but decision on this point was eluded, and the previous question carried. Another motion, to restrain the attorney-general in his power of filing informations ex officio, which was made by the opposition, was likewise negatived by a ministerial majority. But these were only so many preludes to a storm which took place on the subject of colonial taxation.
DEBATES ON COLONIAL TAXATION.
It has been seen that the measure of laying a duty on stamps had been postponed, in order to give the colonists time to propose any other mode of taxation in lieu of it more agreeable to their own feelings. The agents of America, however, all replied that they were instructed not only to oppose the stamp-tax, but every other bill which assumed as a principle the right of taxing the colonies. They urged in reply to the statement, that it was reasonable for America to contribute her proportion toward the general expenses of the empire; that, “America had never been backward in obeying the constitutional requisitions of the crown, and contributing liberally, in her own assemblies, towards the expenses of wars, in which, conjointly with England, she had been engaged; that in the course of the last memorable contest, her patriotism had been so conspicuous, that large sums had been repeatedly voted, as an indemnification to the colonists for exertions allowed to be far beyond their means and resources; and that the proper compensation to Britain for the expense of rearing and protecting her colonies was the monopoly of their trade, the absolute direction and regulation of which was universally acknowledged to be inherent in the British legislature.”
In all ages of the world sovereign states have assumed to themselves the right of taxing their dependant colonies for the general good. A glance at ancient history, however, is sufficient to prove that there is danger in the expedient. By colonial taxation Athens involved herself in many dangerous wars, which proved highly prejudicial to her interests, and which reads a powerful lesson to modern states and kingdoms on this subject. The British king and British cabinet, however, had, like the Athenians, to learn a lesson from experience, and not from the pages of history. Conceiving that they had gone too far to recede, they were resolutely determined not to yield their claim of right. The memorials were not even allowed to be read in the house, for the British legislature, with few exceptions, considered the right which they questioned to be indisputable. Fifty-five resolutions of the committee of ways and means, relating to this branch of the revenue, were agreed to by the commons, and they were afterwards incorporated into an act for laying nearly the same stamp-duties on the American colonies as were payable at the time in England. The debate on this subject was generally languid, but on Townshend venturing to assert, that the Americans were “children planted by our care and nourished by our indulgence,” Colonel Barre, who had served beyond the Atlantic, and knew both the country and people well, exclaimed vehemently, “They planted by your care! No! your oppression planted them in America—they fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and inhospitable wilderness, exposed to all the hardships to which human nature is liable. They nourished by your indulgence! No! they grew by your neglect of them; your care of them was displayed, as soon as you began to take care about them, in sending persons to rule them who were the deputies of deputies of ministers—men whose behaviour on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them—men who have been promoted to the highest seats of justice in that country, in order to escape being brought to the bar of justice in their own. I have been conversant with the Americans, and I know them to be loyal indeed, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated; and let my prediction of this day be remembered, that the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still.” The prediction of Colonel Barre was treated as emanating from his loss of the regiment which he had commanded in America; and the bill passed both houses without any difficulty, and it received the royal assent by commission on the 22nd of March. It passed from a lack of knowledge of American affairs; from an indifference to the interests of the colonists; and from sheer cupidity. The profits which we had derived from commerce with the Americans, and which were the ostensible object proposed in planting the colonies, were not sufficient: if we could obtain it, we must share in their profits likewise. But this was a question which time only could solve; a riddle, which events must explain.
INSTABILITY OF THE CABINET.
Ministers seemed to have carried matters with a high hand in parliament during the previous debates, but there were nevertheless causes at work which tended to weaken and dissolve their administration. The Americans had already put their threats into execution concerning their abstinence from the use of British goods, and this created great alarm among shipowners, merchants, manufacturers, artizans, and labourers. The complaints of the two latter classes of the community were increased by a scarcity of bread, and the high price of provisions, which were ascribed to the maladministration of the ministers. These popular discontents, however, might have been disregarded, had not Grenville given offence to a royal personage, whose resentment would have ensured the downfall of even a much greater and more popular man than the prime minister.
About a week after he had given his assent to the American Stamp Act, it was reported that his majesty was seriously ill, and it would appear that his illness was a slight attack of that fearful malady which thrice afflicted him during his long reign, and incapacitated him for his kingly duties. This time his malady was transient; but, taking warning by it, he acquainted his ministers that he was anxious for a Regency Bill, and told them the particulars of his intention. The sketch of such a bill was drawn up by Fox, now Lord Holland, which left the regent to be named by the king, and which, among other members of the royal family, omitted the name of the queen. The queen’s name was subsequently added, but no mention was made of the Princess-dowager of Wales. The king himself proposed that he should be invested with power, from time to time, by instruments under his sign manual, to appoint either the queen or any other person of the royal family, usually residing in Great Britain, to be guardian of his succession and regent of the kingdom, until his successor should have attained his eighteenth year. A bill to this effect was carried in the upper house, but in the commons a motion was made requiring the king to name those persons whom he would intrust with so important a charge. This motion was negatived, and a question was then raised as to the construction of the words “any other member of the royal family,” and the answer given was, that they meant “the descendants of George the Second.” This interpretation would have excluded the princess-dowager from all share in the public councils, and therefore an amendment was moved at the next reading to insert her name next to that of the queen. This amendment was carried by a large majority; but it was foreseen that the king would resent the insult put upon his mother in both houses, and would attempt to rid himself of Mr. Grenville and Lord Halifax, who had omitted to insert her name in the bill at the very outset of the proceedings.
On the 15th of May, the king went in person to give his assent to this bill. On that occasion a mob of silk-weavers and others, from Spitalfields, went to St. James’s Palace with black flags and other symptoms of mourning and distress, to present a petition, complaining that they were reduced to a state of starvation by the importation of French silks. Both houses of parliament were surrounded by them, where they insulted various members, and even terrified the lords into an adjournment. In the evening they attacked Bedford-house, and began to pull down the walls, declaring that the duke had been bribed to make the treaty of Fontainbleau, and that it had brought poverty and all other curses into England. The riot act was read, and the mob dispersed, but the streets were crowded with soldiers for some days for fear of an outbreak. Reports were also spread of mutinies among the sailors at Portsmouth, insurrections among the Norwich weavers, and riots in Essex and Lancashire. The cabinet and country alike seemed to be fast going to pieces; whence his majesty, combined with the insult offered to his mother, resolved to make some attempt to form a new administration, hoping thereby to effect a change in the aspect of public affairs.
ATTEMPTS TO FORM A NEW ADMINISTRATION.
In a letter written to the Earl of Hertford, when the yells of the populace of London were ringing in his ears, Mr. Burke writes:—“The Regency Bill has shown such want of capacity in the ministers, such an inattention to the honour of the crown, if not such a design against it; such imposition and surprise upon the king, and such a misrepresentation of the disposition of parliament to the sovereign, that there is no doubt a fixed resolution to get rid of them all—unless perhaps of Grenville—but principally of the Duke of Bedford; so that you will have much more reason to be surprised to find the ministry standing by the end of next week, than to hear of their entire removal. Nothing but an intractable temper in your friend Pitt can prevent a most admirable and lasting system from being put together, and this crisis will show whether pride or patriotism be predominant in his character: for you may be assured he has it now in his power to come into the service of his country upon any plan of politics he may choose to dictate, with great and honourable terms to himself and to every friend he has in the world, and with such a strength of power as will be equal to everything but absolute despotism over the king and kingdom. A few days will show whether he will take this part, or that of continuing on his back at Hayes, talking fustian, excluded from all ministerial, and incapable of all parliamentary service: for his gout is worse than ever, but his pride may disable him more than his gout.”
At the very time Burke wrote thus, negociations were in progress with Pitt. For when ministers went to the king on the 16th of May, to receive his commands for his speech at the end of the session, he had given them to understand that he would only have it prorogued, since he intended to make a change in the administration. In consequence of this determination, his majesty sent his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, to Hayes, in Kent, to treat with Pitt. The final reply of Pitt to the offers is said to have been, “that he was ready to go to St. James’s provided he might carry with him the constitution.” A total change of men, measures, and counsels was involved in this reply; but the king had some “friends” whom he wished to retain in their official situations, and such a sweeping change could not be conceded. The Duke of Cumberland continued his endeavours to form a ministry for a day or two, but no one, possessing any merit, would undertake office when it was known that Pitt had refused, and the king was compelled to retain his old ministers. This was a mortifying circumstance in itself, but it was rendered doubly so by the insolent behaviour of some of the members of the cabinet. When he desired to know the conditions of their continuance in office, they peremptorily demanded a royal promise of never consulting the Earl of Bute; the instant dismissal of Mr. Mackenzie, his lordship’s brother, from his high offices in Scotland; the deprivation of the paymastership of the forces, held by Lord Holland, which should be given to a member of the House of Commons; the nomination of Lord Granby to be head of the army; and the discretionary power of nominating to the government of Ireland whoever they pleased. The king expressed his anger and astonishment at these hard terms, and bade them return at ten o’clock at night for his answer. A partial compliance, however, was necessary, and before the appointed hour he sent them word by the lord chancellor that he would not bind himself by a promise never to consult Bute, though he acquiesced in the propriety of not letting him interfere in the councils of the state; that he consented to displace Mr. Mackenzie from his office, as well as Lord Holland; but that he absolutely refused the article about Lord Granby. Ministers now took time to consider, but they were too fond of office to retire without being actually compelled. On the following morning they gave up the point of Lord Granby, and contented themselves with the promise of not permitting Bute to interfere. They were, therefore, to continue in office; and Charles Townshend was made paymaster of the forces, while Lord Weymouth was appointed to the government in Ireland. But the king considered that he was dishonoured, and that he was held in thraldom by his ministers, whence he soon made fresh efforts to deliver himself. Again he negociated with Pitt, and again negociations with him fell to the ground. Pitt could not engage without Lord Temple, and Temple, when sent for, raised objections which rendered the whole scheme abortive. But the king was resolute in his determination to free himself from the chains by which his ministers had enthralled him. Early in July, he once more applied to his uncle, who undertook to treat with the Duke of Newcastle, whose parliamentary weight was nearly a counterpoise to Pitt’s oratory and popularity. Newcastle joined Cumberland in addressing himself to the more moderate section of the opposition, and at length a new ministry was formed. The Marquis of Rockingham became head of the treasury; General Conway became one of the secretaries of state, and was intrusted with the House of Commons; the Duke of Grafton was the other secretary of state; Mr. Dowdeswell was the chancellor of the exchequer; the Earl of Hertford was made lord-lieutenant of Ireland, instead of Lord Weymouth; the president’s chair, vacated by the Duke of Bedford, was given to Lord Winchelsea; and the Duke of Newcastle contented himself with the privy seal. The celebrated Edmund Burke was engaged as private secretary by Lord Rockingham, and now, for the first time, had a seat in parliament. There seemed a reasonable hope that this ministry would obtain strength and durability, but it wanted Pitt for its supporter; and it was weakened in October by the death of the Duke of Cumberland. This blow was more severely felt, because there was a want of union in the members of this cabinet from the first, and where there is no union there can be no real strength. Moreover, the Earl of Rockingham, though one of the most honest, honourable, and well-intentioned men in existence at that period, lacked the ability for collecting the scattered energies of party, and forming them into a system, whence it was soon found that his cabinet was unpopular; and, at no distant period of time, it was compelled to give place to another. In the whole course of its existence, indeed, it exhibited the lack of that vitality which could alone make it memorable and enduring.
GEORGE III 1765-1769.
OPPOSITION TO THE STAMP DUTIES IN AMERICA.
The fatal effects of Grenville’s Stamp Act were soon made manifest—the storm which the anticipation of it had raised, grew into a perfect hurricane as soon as it was known in America that it was consummated. Throughout the whole country a disposition existed to resist to the death, rather than submit. The episcopalian and aristocratic colonists of Virginia, alike with the presbyterian and democratic colonists of New England, denounced the measure in the strongest language, and displayed strong feelings of dislike to it. Nay, the Assembly of Virginia, which hitherto had been pre-eminent in loyalty, was now the first to set an example of disobedience. The House of Assembly there was shaken by the eloquence of Patrick Henry, who took the lead in the debate. In a resolution which he brought forward against the Stamp Act, Henry exclaimed—“Cæsar had his Brutus; Charles I. his Oliver Cromwell; and George III.”—the orator at this point was interrupted by a voice crying “treason!” and, pausing for a moment, he added, “and George III. may profit by that example. If that be treason, make the most of it.” When tranquillity was restored, the assembly voted a series of resolutions, declaring that the first settlers in Virginia had brought with them all the privileges and immunities enjoyed by the people of England; that they possessed the exclusive right of taxing themselves in their own representative assemblies, which right had been constantly recognised by the king and parliament of Great Britain; and that every attempt to vest such a power in any other person or persons was illegal, unconstitutional, and unjust, and had a tendency to destroy both British and American independence. This had a great effect on the other colonies, and the house of representatives of Boston suggested that a congress should be held at New York, whither each province should send deputies to concert measures for averting the grievance of the Stamp Act. Nine out of thirteen of the colonies sent their delegates to this congress, and fourteen strong resolutions were passed condemnatory of the bill; and three petitions were concocted—one to the king, another to the lords, and a third to the commons. From the decorous manner adopted in its proceedings little alarm was excited, but by it an important point was gained to the Americans—a closer connexion was established by the meeting among the leading men of the various colonies; and thus a way was prepared for a more general and extensive combination should it be required by circumstances.
It was not in the assemblies alone that resistance to the Stamp Act was manifested. Ominous proceedings were adopted by the public. As soon as the news of it arrived in America, at Boston the colours of the shipping were hoisted half-mast high, and the bells were rung muffled; at New York the act was printed with a skull and cross bones, and hawked about the streets by the title of “England’s Folly, and America’s Ruin;” while at Philadelphia the people spiked the very guns on the ramparts. The public irritation daily increased, and when at length the stamps arrived, it was found impossible either to put them into circulation, or to preserve them from destruction. The distributors were even forced publicly to renounce, on oath, all concern with them; and riots broke out in Boston, and several other cities, at which the public authorities were compelled to connive. Law-agents generally resolved to forego the practice of their profession rather than use stamps, and all stamped mercantile or custom-house papers were seized as the ships came into port, and publicly committed to the flames. By the 1st of November, the time when the act came into operation, not a sheet of stamped paper was to be found; and, therefore, all business which could not be legally carried on without it, was brought to a stand—the courts of justice were closed, and the ports shut up.
These measures were followed by others far more injurious to the interests of Great Britain. Merchants entered into solemn engagements not to order any more goods from England; to recall the orders already given, if not fulfilled by the 1st of January, 1766; and not to dispose of any goods sent to them on commission after that date, unless the Stamp Act, and even the Sugar and Paper-money Acts were repealed. Measures were also taken to render the importation of British manufactures unnecessary. A society for the promotion of arts and commerce was instituted at New York, and markets opened for the sale of home-made goods, which soon poured into them from every quarter. Linens, woollens, paper-hangings, coarse kind of iron-ware, and various other articles of domestic life were approved by the society, and eagerly purchased by the public. People of the highest fashion even preferred wearing home-spun, or old clothes, rather than purchase articles which could conduce to the welfare of Britain; and lest the new manufactories should fail from want of materials, many entered into an engagement to abstain from the flesh of the lamb. All classes were animated by the spirit of resistance to their mother-country, and resolutions began to be circulated of stopping exports as well as imports, and of preventing the tobacco of Virginia and South Carolina from finding its way into the British markets. The flame even spread to the West Indian plantations; for in the islands of St. Christopher and Nevis, all stamps were committed to the flames, and the distributors compelled to resign office. Here was evidently work for the British Cabinet during the next session of parliament, and we proceed to show how they acted.
EMBARRASSMENT OF MINISTERS AND MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
During the recess, ministers, who were divided in opinion and thwarted by the king, could do nothing. It would not appear, indeed, that the subject was considered of such vital importance as to demand instant attention and extraordinary exertions. Parliament met on the 17th of December, but it was only to be prorogued for the Christmas holidays, and the king merely mentioned in his speech, that something had occurred in America which would demand the attention of the legislature. In the meantime a meeting was held at Rockingham-house, for the purpose of arranging measures against the opening of the session, and particularly with respect to America. Yet no vigorous measures were resolved on, and all which they did decide upon was merely the terms in which the king’s speech should be comprised when parliament reassembled.
A.D. 1766
Parliament reassembled on the 14th of January, when his majesty spoke more at length on the subject of the American colonies, and said that the papers were ordered to be laid before them. The subject was pointed out to the members as the principal object of their deliberation, and it was left to their wisdom, in full confidence the judgment and moderation of the two houses would conciliate the colonists without compromising the rights of the British legislature. Everything had been done, his majesty said, by the governors, and the commanders of the forces in America, for the suppression of riot and tumult, and the effectual support of lawful authority—they had failed, and the rest was left to them.
His majesty’s speech was followed by the presentation of the petitions from America, and of numerous petitions from the great manufacturing towns of the kingdom, which set forth the present ruin of all classes, with the prospective derangement of the national finances; all which seemed to declare that the time was arrived when effectual measures should be taken for their redemption. Then succeeded the debate. It was opened in the commons by Mr. Nugent, who condemned the opposition made by the colonists, to what he deemed a reasonable and easy tax, yet expressed his willingness to abandon it, provided they would solicit its repeal as a boon, and acknowledge the right of the British legislature to impose it: with him “a peppercorn as an acknowledgment of a right was of more value than millions without such a concession.” Burke followed; but nothing more is known of his first speech in parliament than that he astonished the house by the force and fancy of his eloquence, and that he gained by it the golden opinion of Pitt. That more experienced orator next spoke, and his sentiments were more to the purpose. After condemning the daring measures adopted by the late administration, and blaming the indecision and tardy efforts of their successors, against whom, as men, he had nothing to allege, as they were men of fair characters, and such as he rejoiced to see in his majesty’s service, bowing with grace and dignity to them, he observed—“Pardon me, gentlemen, but confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom; youth is the season of credulity. By comparing events with each other, and reasoning from effects to causes, methinks I plainly discover an overruling influence. I have had the honour to serve the crown, and if I could have submitted to influence, I might have continued to serve, but I would not be responsible for others. I have no local attachments: it is indifferent to me whether a man was rocked in his cradle on this side, or the other side of the Tweed. I sought for merit wherever it was to be found. It is my boast that I was the first minister who looked for it, and found it in the mountains of the north. I called it forth, and drew into your service a hardy and intrepid race of men!—men who, when left to your jealousy, became a prey to the artifices of your enemies, and had gone nigh to overturn the state in the war before the last. These men, in the last war, were brought to combat on your side; they served with fidelity as they fought with valour, and conquered for you in every part of the world. Detested be the national reflections against them!—they are unjust, groundless, illiberal, unmanly. When I ceased to serve his majesty as a minister, it was not the country of the man by which I was moved; but the man of that country wanted wisdom, and held principles incompatible with freedom.”
The great orator proceeded to observe, that when the resolution of taxing America was first taken he was ill in bed, and if he could have been brought to the floor of that house, he would have given his firm testimony against the measure. He then expressed a hope that the members of the British legislature would not consider it a point of honour, or themselves bound to persevere in carrying out what they had begun. His opinion was, that Great Britain had no right to lay a tax on the American colonies; but at the same time he uttered this seemingly contradictory opinion—that her authority over them was sovereign in all cases of legislation. He said—“The colonists are subjects of this kingdom, equally entitled with yourselves to all the natural advantages of mankind, and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen: equally bound by its laws, and equally participating in its free constitution. Taxation is no part of the legislative power. Taxes are the voluntary gift and grant of the commons alone. In legislation, the three estates of the realm are alike concerned; but the concurrence of the peers and the crown to a tax is only necessary to clothe it with the form of a law. The gift and grant is of the commons alone.” Having shown in what way the great bulk of the land had passed into the hands of the commons, he remarked—“When, therefore, in this house, we give and grant, we give and grant what is our own. But in an American tax what do we do? We, your majesty’s commons of Great Britain, give and grant to your majesty—what? our own property?—No; we give and grant the property of your majesty’s commons of America! It is an absurdity in terms. The distinction between legislation and taxation is essentially necessary to liberty. The crown, the peers, are equally legislative powers with the commons. If taxation be a part of simple legislation, the crown and the peers have rights to taxation as well as yourselves—rights which they will claim, which they will exercise, whenever the principle can be supported by power.” Pitt then proceeded to combat the arguments of those who asserted that America was represented in the British parliament. “I would fain know,” said he, “by whom an American is represented here. Is he represented by any knight of the shire, in any county in this kingdom? Or will you tell him that he is represented by any representative of a borough—a borough which perhaps its own representatives never saw? This is what is called the rotten part of the constitution. It cannot last a century: if it does not drop, it must be amputated.” Pitt concluded by reasserting, that the commons of America, represented in their assemblies, had ever been in possession of the constitutional right of granting their own money; and this kingdom had ever been in the possession of the rights of binding the colonies by her laws, and by her regulations and restrictions in trade, navigation, and manufactures, and in fact in everything, except taking money out of their pockets without their free and full consent.
The house was awed by Pitt’s oratory, and, for some time, no one rose to reply. General Conway at length broke the silence by frankly declaring that his sentiments were generally conformable to those of Pitt; and by excusing ministers for their tardy notice of the subject, on the grounds that the first news of the troubles were vague and imperfect. In denying the continued ascendency of Bute, however, the general spoke with great warmth, utterly disclaiming it for himself, and, as far as he could discern, for all the members of the cabinet. Grenville, who followed, did not treat Pitt with such urbanity. He defended himself and his measures with great warmth and ability, and boldly declared that the seditious spirit of the colonies owed its birth to the factions in the house of commons, and that gentlemen were careless of the consequences of what they uttered, provided it answered the purposes of opposition. As he ceased speaking, several members rose together; but Pitt was among them, and a loud cry was made for him, so that the rest gave way, and left him to answer the attack. Taking no notice of the denial which Conway gave to his charge concerning Bute’s holding paramount influence in the cabinet, which denial he could not with justice gainsay, he confined his remarks to Grenville’s arguments and grave charge. Since, he said, that member had gone into the justice, policy, and expediency of the Stamp Act, he would follow him through the whole field, and combat all his arguments. He bitterly complained that Grenville should have designated the liberty of speech in that house as a crime; but declared that the imputation should not prevent him from uttering his sentiments upon the subject. He then proceeded thus:—“The gentleman tells us America is obstinate—America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntary to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest.” Pitt then said, that in all our wants of money, no minister, since the revolution, had ever thought of taxing the American colonies; that he had, when in office, refused to burn his fingers with an American Stamp Act; and he recapitulated his arguments to prove that legislation and taxation were two different things, and that while we had a right to regulate the trade of the colonists, we could not legally or justly impose taxes upon them. He then asserted, that the profits to Great Britain from the trade of the colonies were two millions a year, and that this was the sum which carried England triumphantly through the last war, and the price America paid us for protection. “And shall,” he asked, “a miserable financier come with a boast, that he can fetch a peppercorn into the exchequer by the loss of millions to the nation?” He added—“I am convinced the whole commercial system of America may be altered to advantage: you have prohibited where you ought to have encouraged, and you have encouraged where you ought to have prohibited: improper restraints have been laid on the Continent in favour of the islands. Let the acts of parliament, in consequence of treaties, remain; but let not an English minister become a custom-house officer for Spain or for any foreign power. Much is wrong; much may be amended for the general good of the whole. The gentleman must not wonder that he was not contradicted, when, as a minister, he asserted the right of parliament to tax America. I know not how it is, but there is a modesty in this house which does not choose to contradict a minister—even your chair, sir, looks towards St. James’s. I wish gentlemen would think better of this modesty; if they do not, perhaps the collective body may begin to abate of its respect for the representative. A great deal has been said without doors of the power, the strength of America—it is a topic that ought to be cautiously meddled with. In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this country can crush America to atoms; but on this ground, on the Stamp Act, when so many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it;—in such a cause your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like a strong man; she would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitution along with her.” Pitt, then deprecating the conduct of those who judged the Americans with an eye of severity, said—“I acknowledge they have not acted in all things with prudence and temper; they have been wronged; they have been driven to madness by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness you have occasioned? Rather let prudence and temper come first from this side. I will undertake for America that she will follow the example. There are two lines in a ballad of Prior, on a man’s behaviour to his wife, so applicable to you and your colonies, that I cannot help repeating them:—
‘Be to her faults a little blind; Be to her virtues very kind.’”
Pitt concluded by proposing that the Stamp Act should be repealed, absolutely, totally, and immediately; but at the same time he advised, that the repeal should be accompanied by the strongest declaration of the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies, in everything that relates to trade and manufactures—in fact, in everything except taking their money out of their pockets without their consent.
This speech of Mr. Pitt had a potent effect upon the administration and the country at large. Nearly all the ministers coincided in his views, and petitions, which poured into the house from all parts against the stamp act, and which had been imperiously rejected by the late cabinet, were received with all due deference. Burke made two speeches against it, which were commended by Pitt, and filled the town with wonder. So great was the change in public opinion upon the subject, that a bill was brought in by the ministers for the repeal of the act, which bill was passed by a great majority. It was accompanied by a declaratory bill, setting forth the supreme right, sovereignty, &c. of Great Britain over her colonies in all other matters of legislation, and reprobating the tumultuous proceedings of the colonists. The repeal act was sent up to the lords, where it encountered a violent opposition, but it passed toward the end of March, when it received the reluctant consent of the crown. Sixty-one peers entered a strong protest against its non-taxing principle, and it was observed that in both houses the members belonging to the royal household voted with the opposition: a strong proof of his majesty’s feeling upon this subject.
It was asserted by some that ministers were “bullied” into the repeal of the stamp act by Pitt. This was manifestly unjust, both to the great orator and the ministers themselves. In this session they showed themselves equally ready to redress grievances at home as in America. Thus they proposed and carried a repeal of the obnoxious cider-tax, laying on a different duty, and the mode of collecting it; they passed an act for restraining the importation of foreign silks; and they abolished the old duties on houses and windows, and settled the rates with greater equity toward the middle and lower classes of society. They also appeased the general apprehension of a scarcity of bread, by orders to prevent the exportation of corn, and by enforcing the old laws against monopoly, forestalling, and regrating. Moreover, they passed a bill for opening free ports in the islands of Dominica and Jamaica; made several new and important regulations in the commercial system of the colonies; and took off some burdensome restrictions. Finally, they promoted the extension of trade in general by a commercial treaty with Russia, and they obtained from France a liquidation of those bills which had been left unsettled since the cession of Canada.
Still, though the legislative acts of this administration were of great importance to the country, and were calculated to insure popularity, its doom was sealed. By a large portion of the community, the members of which it was composed were considered as intruders, who kept Pitt out of office, and they had lost the confidence of the king by the repeal of the Stamp Act. The resentment of the king was also excited by their omitting to procure a supply of money for his younger brothers. Sensible of their weakness, the Duke of Grafton resigned office, and the seals which he resigned were given to the Duke of Richmond. When he resigned he declared that he had no fault to find with his colleague’s, except that they wanted strength, and that his opinion was, Mr. Pitt alone could give vigour and solidity to any administration in the present state of affairs. Under him, his grace said, he was “willing to serve in any capacity, not merely as a general officer, but as a pioneer: under him he would take up a spade or a mattock.” Such was the situation in which the ministers found themselves at the close of this session, which was prorogued early in June.
SENTIMENTS OF THE AMERICANS ON THE DECLARATORY ACT.
The manner in which the repeal of the Stamp Act was received in America seemed to justify the measure. Although accompanied with the Declaratory Act, it was welcomed by many persons among the higher classes, of honest and upright mind, with great satisfaction. Washington declared that those who were instrumental in procuring the repeal were entitled to the thanks of all well-wishers to Great Britain and her colonies. There were fierce republican spirits, however, in New England, who viewed the Declaratory Act in the same light which they had viewed the Stamp Act; and as soon as the first burst of joy had subsided, this was made the subject of their declamation, and a stimulus to popular excitement. Public writers were employed to prevent a return of harmony between Great Britain and her colonies, and though addresses of thanks were voted by the assemblies to the king, this was but an evanescent show of gratitude. The same temper was found especially to prevail in the assembly of Massachusets against the Declaratory Act, as had been displayed against the Stamp Act, and the spirit of resistance soon spread to the other colonies. The right of legislative authority assumed by Great Britain over her colonies was loudly questioned, and bills were passed in the assemblies independently of the British parliament, and in defiance of our declared sovereign legislative right. One breach was therefore healed by the repeal of the Stamp Act, but another was opened by the scarcely less obnoxious act with which it was accompanied. A tree of liberty had been planted, and there was a universal disposition to preserve its leaves and its fruits from the touch of kingly and sovereign power.
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE ROCKINGHAM CABINET.
The seeds of the dissolution of the ministry, as before shown, were thickly scattered, and it was easy to foresee that the event was at no great distance. Its fall, however, might have been retarded for a little space, had it not been for the intrigues of the chancellor, Henry Earl of Northington. In order to discredit the cabinet, that nobleman started numerous difficulties on some legal points that were submitted to his judgment, and set on foot several intrigues, which accelerated its downfall. The first token of his defection appeared in the strong dissatisfaction which he exhibited on account of the commercial treaty with Russia, and it was soon after made more fully manifest in a meeting of ministers on the subject of the government of Canada. There appears to have been no good ground for his opposition, but Northington panted for retirement, and longed to serve his ancient friend Pitt; whence it pleased him to denounce a report drawn up and submitted to the council on this subject as theoretical, visionary, and unworthy of practical statesmen. The meeting broke up without coming to any conclusion, and before another could be convened, Northington demanded an audience of the king; resigned under the pretence that the present ministry was unable to carry on the government; and recommended that his majesty should call Pitt into his councils. In consequence of this, Pitt received the personal commands of his majesty to form a new administration, offering him a carte blanche for its formation.
Hitherto Pitt had manifested great patriotism, having served his country, apparently, for the love of it alone. That he was ambitious, however, he now proved. In reply to his majesty’s commands he spoke of his infirmities, and—although he was only fifty-eight years old—of his great age. Under these circumstances he proposed taking to himself not the premiership, with the direction of the house of commons, but the office of privy-seal, which implied his exaltation to the peerage. The king and the country alike stared with astonishment at this proposition, but his views were not thwarted, and he proceeded to form his own cabinet. Negociations failed with Lord Temple, the Marquess of Rockingham, Lord Gower, Mr. Dowdeswell, and Lord Scarborough. In the midst of them, however, Pitt received an autograph note from his majesty, announcing his creation as Earl of Chatham, and thus stimulated, he proceeded in his task. On the 2nd of August the members of the new cabinet were formally announced in the Gazette. Pitt, as Earl of Chatham, took the office of privy-seal; Lord Camden was made chancellor; the Earl of Shelburne was appointed one of the secretaries of state; General Conway continued in office as the other; the Duke of Grafton was made first lord of the treasury; Charles Townshend became chancellor of the exchequer; Sir Charles Saunders succeeded to the admiralty; and the Earl of Hillsborough was nominated first lord of trade. Several changes were also made in the subordinate places of the treasury and the admiralty boards, and the strange medley, which soon became more mixed and various, has been thus described by Burke:—“He [Lord Chatham] made an administration so chequered and speckled; he put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed; a cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diversified mosaic; such a tesselated pavement without cement; here a bit of black stone, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers; king’s friends and republicans; Whigs and Tories; treacherous friends and open enemies; that it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on. The colleagues whom he had assorted at the same boards stared at each other, and were obliged to ask, Sir, your name? Sir, you have the advantage of me. Mr. Such-a-one, I beg a thousand pardons. I venture to say it did so happen, that persons had a single office divided between them, who had never spoken to each other in their lives, until they found themselves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads and points, in the same truckle bed.”
DECLINE OF LORD CHATHAM’S POPULARITY.
Lord Chesterfield characterised the exaltation of Pitt to an earldom as “a fall up stairs”—a fall which hurt him so much, that he would never be able to stand upright again. By his acceptance of a coronet, in truth, he greatly diminished his popularity. Burke undermined his influence in the city by two clever publications: in the first of these he gave an account of the late short administration, and in the second he gave a humorous and ironical reply to it, in which the disingenuous conduct of their successors was ably exposed. The wit of Chesterfield ably seconded the pen of Burke; and the Earl of Chatham soon found that though he was dignified by the king, he had shorn himself of all his honours in the sight of the people. The influence which the Earl of Bute was supposed to have had over him tended still more to blight his fair fame. He was taunted with being a willing agent of men whom he did not esteem, and his acceptance of a peerage was a never-failing source of invective. Moreover, in his negociations with his brother-in-law, Lord Temple, he had quarrelled with that nobleman, and all its disparaging circumstances were freely discussed to his lasting disadvantage.. A shower of pamphlets appealed against him, and the city of London, where his influence had recently reigned paramount, mortified him, by declining repeated proposals of presenting him with an address on his appointment. Men saw in him no longer the unblemished patriot, but looked upon him as a cringing slave to royalty for place and power. In their displeasure they may have judged too harshly, but it is certain, as Lord Chesterfield observed, that he was no longer Mr. Pitt in any respect, but only the Earl of Chatham. The charms of his eloquence were lost for ever, for when the people can place no confidence in their rulers, the finest oratory is but an empty sound.
It happened unfortunately for the Earl of Chatham’s popularity, that owing to a deficiency in the harvest of last year great scarcity prevailed, and as distress existed on the continent. The people, always disposed to look upon the dark side of the picture, apprehended that the country would be involved in all the horrors of famine. The price of provisions greatly increased, and in consequence tumultuous riots occurred in various parts of the kingdom, in which many lives were lost. Some of the rioters were captured, and special commissions were sent into the country to try them, and, in many instances, they were brought to condign punishment. A proclamation was issued for enforcing the law against forestallers and regraters, but as the price of all articles rose, and the city of London made a representation to the throne respecting large orders for wheat which had been received from the continent, another was issued prohibiting its exportation. At the same time an embargo was laid by royal authority on all outward-bound vessels laden with corn.
It was not in England alone that the waning influence of the Earl of Chatham became manifest. One of his first diplomatic attempts was to establish a powerful northern confederacy, principally between England, Prussia, and Russia, in order to counterbalance the formidable alliance framed by the Bourbons in their family compact. The king of Prussia, however, was averse to the formation of any new and stricter connexions with England, as well on account of the usage he had met with during the late war, as of the unsettled state of the government of Great Britain since the peace. “Till he saw,” he said, “more stability in our administration, he did not choose to draw his connexions with us closer,” and the negociations was therefore dropped.
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
The session was opened on the 11th of November, and the principal topic of the king’s speech was the scarcity of corn; and measures were recommended, if necessary, for allaying or remedying the evil. The address was opposed in both houses, and in the commons four amendments were moved, but the government in every instance had a majority. On the subject of the embargo, however, and the delay of assembling parliament when the country was in such critical circumstances, ministers had a harder battle to fight. It was thought right to pass a bill of indemnity in favour of those who had acted in obedience to the council with respect to the embargo, and when this bill was brought in by a member of the cabinet, a remark was made, that although it provided for the security of the inferior officers, who had acted under the proclamation, it passed over those who advised the measure. This gave rise to much altercation and debate, especially among the lords, where the Earl of Chatham, Lord Camden, and others, who had long been the advocates of popular rights, vindicated the present exercise of royal prerogative, not on the plea of necessity but of right: arguing that a dispensing power was inherent in the crown, which might be exerted during the recess of parliament, but which expired whenever parliament reassembled. Camden asserted that Junius Brutus would not have hesitated to entrust such a power even to a Nero, and that it was at most but “a forty day’s tyranny.” The Earl of Chatham was a more powerful advocate of the measure. He vindicated the issuing of the embargo by legal authority during the recess of parliament as an act of power justifiable on the ground of necessity, and he read a paragraph from Locke on Government, to show that his views were borne out by that great friend of liberty, that constitutional philosopher, and that liberal statesman. The sentiments of the ministers, however, were strongly opposed by Lords Temple, Lyttleton, and Mansfield, the latter of whom, though he had once been spell-bound by court influence, “rode the great horse Liberty with much applause.” The Earl of Chatham replied, but the constitutional principles which his opposers laid down could not be answered with success, for although parliament passed the act of indemnity, yet the opposition lords so enlightened the public mind upon the subject, that the cry was instantly raised that the present ministers had sold their consciences to the court, and were in a league to extend the prerogative beyond the precedent of the worst periods in English history. The ferment was greatly increased by Mr. Beckford’s declaring in the house of commons, that the crown had in all cases of necessity a power to dispense with laws: an assertion which retraction, explanation, and contradiction from the same lips, could not efface from the public mind. When the bill passed it was in an amended state: the amendment including the advisers, as well as the officers, who had acted under the orders of council in enforcing the embargo. But even this, which implied an acknowledgment of error, was not sufficient to satisfy the public mind, for the clamour still continued against the ministers. The Earl of Chatham was also embarrassed by other circumstances, and in order to strengthen his hands, he was compelled to forego his determination, and to overlook his declaration, that he would never again have any connexion with the old Duke of Newcastle. The duke had a party which would be important to so weak a cabinet, and in order to gratify him, Lord Edgecumbe was ungraciously dismissed from his office of treasurer of the household, to make room for Sir John Shelley, a near relation of his grace. But the remedy was as bad as the disease. Indignant at the treatment which their colleague had received, Lord Resborough, the Duke of Portland, the Earl of Scarborough, Lord Monson, Sir Charles Saunders, first lord of the admiralty, Admiral Keppel, and Sir William Meredith, all sent in their resignation, and they, with their adherents, ranged themselves on the side of the opposition. These numerous secessions compelled Chatham to negociate more explicitly, not only with Newcastle’s party, but with that also which was headed by the Duke of Bedford. The place of first lord of the admiralty was offered to Lord Gower, who took a journey to Woburn, for the express purpose of consulting his grace upon the subject. But negociations with the Bedford party concluded with its total alienation from the administration, nor were those who accepted office thoroughly conciliated. These were Sir Edward Hawke, who was made first lord of the admiralty, and Sir Percy Brett and Mr. Jenkinson, who filled the other seats of the board; while Lords Hillsborough and Le Despenser were appointed joint postmasters. The ministry, as thus patched up, was more anomalous than ever, and Chatham aware of this, and seeing that his popularity was daily more and more declining, became a prey to grief, disappointment, and vexation. At times he sank into the lowest state of despondency, and left his incapable colleagues, to make their own arrangements and adopt their own measures. But they could not act efficiently without him. Burke says:—“Having put so much the larger part of his enemies and opposers into power, the confusion was such that his own principles could not possibly have any effect, or influence, in the conduct of others. If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other cause withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the contrary were sure to predominate. When he had executed his plan, he had not an inch of ground to stand upon. When he had accomplished his scheme of administration, he was no longer a minister. When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole system was on a wide sea without chart or compass.” Yet Chatham, just before the recess, put a bold front upon his affairs in the house. He proclaimed a war against party cabals, and asserted that his great point was to destroy faction, and that he could face and dare the greatest and proudest connexions. But this was an Herculean task which neither Chatham nor any other minister has yet been able to accomplish. Faction is an hydra-headed monster, which no man can destroy, either by the charms of his eloquence or the terror of his countenance.
A.D. 1767
Chatham found that the warfare was an unequal one, and that he had not sufficient strength to withstand the power of his enemies. Hence, at the end of December, when all the appointments were made, he retired to his estate of Burton Pynset, which had been recently left him, where he took up his abode, doing nothing for the state, and yet taking the salary attached to his office. Parliament reassembled after the recess without him, his friends in the cabinet wondering at, and the king himself lamenting, his absence. Yet the ministers attempted to work without him. The chancellor of the exchequer proposed that the land-tax should be continued at four shillings in the pound, stating that the proceeds of such a tax would enable him to bring about the most brilliant operation of finance recorded in the annals of Great Britain. This was a new measure, for hitherto it had been the practice at the return of peace to take off any addition that had been made to the land-tax in time of war. Hence when Townshend proposed it in committee he was laughed at by the country members, who contended for its reduction to three, or even two, shillings in the pound. Townshend had nobody by him to second his assertions, or give him powerful support; and when Mr. Grenville moved that the land-tax should be reduced to three shillings, his motion was carried by a majority of eighteen. It was said that the country gentlemen in effecting this reduction, “had bribed themselves with a shilling in the pound of their own land-tax,” but as this was the first money-bill in which any cabinet had been successfully opposed since the Revolution, it was rightly viewed as a symptom of weakness in the administration: yet Townshend retained his office.
GEORGE III. 1765-1769
EAST INDIA QUESTION.
The great question discussed in parliament during this session related to the East Indies. At this period the East India Company held “the gorgeous East in fee.” The merchant princes of Leadenhall-street, who commenced their career with a strip of sea-coast on the outermost limits of Hindostan, had now acquired principalities and kingdoms, and had even made themselves masters of the vast inheritance of Aurungzebe. Fortunate as the Argonauts, they found and possessed themselves of the “golden fleece,” which had been the object of their search. Enormous fortunes were made with a rapidity hitherto unknown, and they were gathered into the laps of even the most obscure adventurers. The fables of the ring and the lamp were more than realised, and the fountain from whence these riches ran appeared to flow from an inexhaustible source. Men had only to go and stand by its brink, and if avarice could be satisfied, they might soon return home with not only sufficient wealth to maintain them in opulence and splendour, but with some to spare for the poor and needy.
Such were the views which government seems to have taken of these merchant princes. Early in November a committee was appointed for investigating the nature of their charters, treaties, and grants, and for calculating the expenses which had been incurred on their account by government. In the course of this scrutiny two questions suggested themselves to the committee; namely, whether the company had any right to territorial acquisitions, and whether it was proper for them to enjoy a monopoly of trade. Some of the members argued that the company had a right, while on the other side some maintained that, from the costly protection afforded it, government had an equitable claim to the revenues of all territory acquired by conquest. It was the opinion of the cabinet, that the state did not possess its proper share of the company’s profits, and the chancellor of the exchequer conceived that by either taking their territorial conquests into the hands of government, or making them pay largely for keeping that management in their ow a hands, the state would obtain that wealth of which it stood so much in need. Chatham’s attention was drawn to this subject, but he merely advised that Beckford should make a motion for examining into the state of the East India Company, and remained still in the west of England. This motion was made, and the house resolved itself into a committee of inquiry, and called for papers. In the meantime the company suggested an amicable arrangement, and presented a series of demands, among which were—that the administration should prolong the charter to the year 1800, or to a further term, and to confirm to the company the sole and exclusive trade of the East Indies for three years at least after the expiration of the charter granted in the last reign; that it should agree to an alteration in the inland duty upon tea, with the view of preventing smuggling; that it should allow a drawback on the exportation of tea; that it should alter the duties on calicoes and muslins; that it should consent to some proper methods of recruiting the company’s military forces, and for strengthening their cause in India; that it should prevent the commanders of the company’s ships and others from conveying any kind of warlike stores clandestinely to the East Indies; that it should use its strong interposition with the court of France to obtain large sums of money which the company had expended for the maintenance and transport of French prisoners to Europe; and that it should use its strong interposition likewise with the court of Spain with respect to the Manilla ransom, that the company might obtain indemnification for the great expenses incurred by that expedition. The company laid before the house their charters, treaties with the native sovereigns, letters and correspondence, and the state of their revenues in Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa; but the whole affair was so complicated, that the ministers could not make themselves thoroughly masters of the subject. Not one would, in fact, undertake the management of the business. They shifted the proposals from one to another, and could not come to any determination what to accept or what to reject. At every stage of the business it was attended with violent debates. Townshend was strongly in favour of an amicable arrangement with the company, laying great stress on the quantum to be given for the prolongation of the term of their charter, while Company declared that the salvation of the country depended upon the proper adjustment of this nice affair. Still Chatham kept aloof from the business, and he either would not from illness, or could not from despondency, give his thoughts and directions in writing as to what steps to take and what further motion to make. In the end, therefore, after many divisions, a bill was framed, granting nearly all that was asked for by the company, and binding it to pay £400,000 per annum, in half-yearly payments, and to indemnify the exchequer, should any loss be sustained in consequence of lowering the inland duties on tea, and the allowance of the drawback on its exportation. But the term of this contract was limited to two years; commencing from the 1st of February of the current year; so that the company had a further interference with their territories and wealth in prospect: but till the expiration of that term, their territorial rights were fully admitted.
While this subject was under parliamentary discussion, the proprietors of East India stock demanded of the court, that, as the company had gained so much territory and so many new advantages, a larger dividend should be declared. In compliance with this demand the dividends were increased from ten to twelve and a half per cent., which step called for the interference of government. In order to check a proceeding which was considered calculated to renew the gambling stock and share jobbing of the memorable South Sea year, two bills were brought into the house by ministers; one for regulating the qualifications of voters in trading companies, and the other for restraining and limiting the making of dividends by the company; fixing them at ten per cent. This latter bill encountered a most violent opposition both by the company and in the house, particularly by the lords, but it was carried, and received the royal sanction.
AMERICAN TAXATION.
Soon after the reassembling of parliament Mr. Grenville, intent upon taxing America, had proposed saddling that country for the support of troops, &c., and the chancellor of the exchequer, in reply, pledged himself to the house to find a revenue in the colonies sufficient to meet the expenses. Accordingly, during the session, he introduced a bill to lay certain duties on glass, tea, paper, and painters’ colours, imported from Great Britain into America. This bill was carried through both houses with the greatest facility, and another act passed with equal facility, which placed these duties, and all other customs and duties in the American colonies, under the management of the king’s resident commissioners. These acts were followed by one more justifiable. The assembly of New York had refused to comply with the statute requiring a grant of additional rations to the troops stationed in that province; and the refractory disposition of the colonists made it manifest that their intention was to deny the jurisdiction of Great Britain altogether. It was evident that a spirit of infatuation had taken deep root in America, and it was easy to foresee that confusion and bloodshed would one day ensue. Under these circumstances, and with a view of checking the onward progress of the march of insubordination, an act was passed, prohibiting the governor, council, and assembly of New York from passing any legislative act, till satisfaction should be given as to the treatment of the commissioners and troops, and submission paid to the Mutiny Act. But no measure which the parliament of England could devise, whether coercive or conciliatory, could tame the fierce spirit which the Stamp Act had created, and the new scheme of duties on imports was calculated to confirm in hostility to Great Britain. The breach grew wider and wider, until at length it was past all remedy.
CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY.
Parliament was prorogued on the 2nd of July, with a speech from his majesty, in which he acknowledged annuities of £8000, which had been settled during this session on each of the king’s brothers; namely, the Dukes of York, Gloucester, and Cumberland. During the recess, an event occurred which threatened to overthrow the tottering cabinet. This was the death of Charles Townshend, who suddenly expired on the 4th of September. But before his death, there were signs of a dissolution of the ministry, and Townshend was actually engaged in the projection of a new administration. Lord Northington and General Conway had both expressed a wish to resign, and the Duke of Grafton showed a greater disposition for pleasure than for business, whence negociations were opened by Townshend with the Rockingham party.
His death set these aside, but several changes soon afterwards took place among the great officers of state. The Earl of Chatham, afflicted with the gout, and indisposed to business, still remained idle; and the king therefore, authorized the Duke of Grafton to make the necessary changes in the cabinet. All that could be done, however, before the meeting of parliament, was to entrust the seals of the office of chancellor of the exchequer to Lord Mansfield, chief justice of the king’s bench, and to empower him to renew negociations with the Duke of Bedford, in which the Duke of Grafton had been unsuccessful.
The ministry was in this unsettled state when the parliament met in November. The principal point recommended to its attention by his majesty was the high price of corn, with the consequent suffering of the poor. This subject was also impressed on parliament by strong petitions from all parts of the country; and an act was passed, extending the prohibition against exportation, and encouraging the importation of grain.
In the midst of these proceedings, Lord North was prevailed upon to accept the chancellorship of the exchequer; Mr. Thomas Townshend, cousin of the late Charles Townshend, succeeded him as joint paymaster of the forces; and his place, as one of the lords of the treasury, was given to Mr. Jenkinson. Soon after this, General Conway and Lord Northington insisted on resigning, and fresh overtures were made to the Duke of Bedford. That nobleman having been gained over, Earl Gower became president of the council in the place of Lord Northington, and Lord Weymouth secretary of state in lieu of Conway. At the same time the Earl of Hillsborough was appointed third secretary of state, which was a new office; and he was succeeded as joint paymaster with Lord North, by the Duke of Bedford’s ally, Lord Sandwich. General Conway was appointed lieutenant-general of the ordnance; and the ministry, thus reconstructed, took the name of the Duke of Grafton’s administration. As for the Earl of Chatham he was still a cipher, keeping aloof at Bath, or at Burton Pynsent, or at Hayes in Kent, where he would neither see nor speak to anybody. But he still retained the privy seal, and still retained the emoluments of office, and the king was afraid to deprive him of them.
A.D. 1768
Parliament, in this session, extended the act which restricted the East India Company’s dividends to ten per cent.; but scarcely any other business was transacted beside the voting of supplies. The king prorogued parliament on the 10th of March, and on the 12th of that month it was dissolved by proclamation, it having nearly completed its legal term of seven years.
PROCEEDINGS IN AMERICA.
The new Revenue Act, which imposed duties on various articles of merchandise, excited great resentment in America. It was looked upon by the colonists, indeed, as a deceptive measure, having a similar object to that of the Stamp Act, and it had the effect of reviving a question, which the British parliament should have endeavoured to have consigned to utter oblivion. The Americans, animated by a spirit of resistance, would now no longer acknowledge that distinction between external and internal taxation, on which they had at first grounded their claim for relief. Their presses teemed with invectives against the British legislature, and it was confidently asserted that England was resolved to reduce the colonies to a state of abject slavery. The assembly of Massachusets Bay took the lead in opposing the government, and it soon engaged the other colonies to join in resisting the mother-country. A petition was likewise sent by that house to the king, and letters, signed by their speaker, to several of the British cabinet, containing statements of their rights and grievances, and soliciting relief.
A letter was also sent to Mr. De Berdt, their agent in London, instructing him to oppose the obnoxious measure on every ground of right and policy. This letter adverted to the appropriation of the revenue intended to be thus unconstitutionally raised—stating that it was to supply a support for governors and judges, and a standing army. On both these grounds, as well as its unconstitutional nature, the house opposed it, remarking, on the subject of the standing army, in the following terms, by way of remonstrance:—“As Englishmen and British subjects, we have an aversion to a standing army, which we reckon dangerous to our civil liberties; and considering the examples of ancient times, it seems a little surprising that a mother-state should trust large bodies of mercenary troops in her colonies, at so great a distance from her; lest, in process of time, when the spirits of the people shall be depressed by the military power, another Caesar should arise and usurp the authority of his master.”
A circular letter was sent, in the name of the assembly of Massachusets Bay, to the other provincial assemblies, informing them of the measures already taken; and it was couched in such terms that it had the effect of lulling the suspicions of some whose opinions were not so violent, and of making many of them firm adherents to the cause of liberty. The conduct of this republican assembly excited strong indignation in the ministry. A letter was sent, by Lord Hillsborough, to the governor, expressing great displeasure against those who had endeavoured to revive the dissensions which had been so injurious to both countries, and directing him to dissolve the assembly if it should decline to rescind the vote which gave rise to the circular. This letter was laid before the house; but instead of rescinding the vote, it justified the spirit and language of the circular, and declared that, as it had been answered by several of the assemblies, the vote had been already executed, and could not therefore be rescinded. The conclusion of this uncompromising reply was as follows:—“We take this opportunity faithfully to represent to your excellency, that the new revenue acts and measures are not only disagreeable, but in every view are deemed an insupportable burden and grievance, with very few exceptions, by all the freeholders and other inhabitants of this jurisdiction: and we beg leave, once for all, to assure your excellency, that those of this opinion are no ‘party or expiring faction;’—they have at all times been ready to devote their time and fortune to his majesty’s service. Of loyalty, this majority could as reasonably boast as any who may happen to enjoy your excellency’s smiles: their reputation, rank, and fortune, are at least equal to those who may have sometimes been considered as the only friends in good government; while some of the best blood in the colony, even in the two houses of assembly, lawfully convened and duly acting, have been openly charged with the unpardonable crime of oppugnation against the royal authority. We have now only to inform your excellency, that this house has voted not to rescind, as required, its resolution; and that, in a division on the question, there were ninety-two nays, and seventeen yeas. In all this we have been actuated by a conscientious, and finally, by a clear and determined sense of duty to God, to our king, our country, and our latest posterity; and we most ardently wish and humbly pray, that in your future conduct, your excellency may be influenced by the same privileges.”
A letter to the same import was addressed, by the assembly, to Lord Hillsborough. But this was its last act. When the governor had received the above communication, he immediately dissolved it, and the province was left for the remainder of the year without a legislature. Opposition, however, was not checked by such a measure—rather it was carried on with more spirit than ever. Riots took place at Boston and Halifax, and arms and ammunition were provided, under the pretext of anticipated war with France A meeting of delegates, from all the towns of the province, was convened at Boston, which was attended by deputies from every one except Hatfield. This convention sent a communication to the governor, disclaiming all intention of performing any act of government; professing to have met, in dark and distressing times, to consult and advise measures for the peace and good order of his majesty’s subjects in the province; and praying that he would call together the legislative assembly. The governor refused to receive any communication from the meeting, warned it of the irregularity of its proceedings, and assured it that his majesty was determined to maintain his entire sovereignty over the province. A deputation was then sent to the governor by the convention, but it was refused admission into his presence, and a committee of nine persons were appointed to consult on the best mode of promoting peace and good order in the province. This committee sent in its report, and the meeting drew up a petition to the king, which was transmitted to the agent in London, and it then broke up. This was on the 29th of September, and on the same day, two regiments and a detachment of artillery from Halifax inarched into Boston. These were soon after joined by two more regiments from Ireland, under General Gage; and thus awed, the province was restored to comparative tranquillity. But underneath this show of quiet there were heart-burnings, which nothing but the recognition of American independence could allay. Associations formed throughout the whole length and breadth of America, by the exertions of the assembly of Massachusets Bay, stirred up and kept alive the flame of discord, and occasion need but fan it, and it would kindle into a blaze; the lurid glare of which would be seen burning brightly, and raging furiously across the wide Atlantic. The proceedings in America were but as yet, in truth, the warnings of a terrible commotion—the first intimations of an irruption, more frightful in its nature, and more disastrous in its consequences, than the bursting forth of the fire-streaming bowels of Mounts Ætna and Vesuvius, or the devastations of an earthquake. For the storms of human passion, when they burst forth in war and bloodshed, are more desolating to the human family, than any outbreak of visible nature recorded in the many-paged annals of history.
DOMESTIC TROUBLES AND COMMOTIONS.
While America threatened some fearful catastrophe, Great Britain was scarcely less disturbed by internal troubles and commotions. Much as he desired the happiness of the people, the jewels set in his majesty’s crown were intermixed with sharp, piercing thorns. This is plainly observable in the previous pages, wherein the difficulties which had beset his various administrations, and which chiefly arose from the discordant passions of their members, are historically narrated. Burke rightly observes:—“Our constitution stands on a nice equipoise, with steep precipices and deep waters on all sides of it: in removing it from a dangerous leaning toward one side, there may be a risk of oversetting it on the other. Every project or a material change in a government so complicated, combined, at the same time, with external circumstances still more complicated, is a matter full of difficulties.” This is not the language of a casual observer of men and manners, but of a profound politician. It is borne out by his majesty’s early experience. The scheme which he adopted soon after his accession of breaking the power of the Whig aristocracy, and of calling men of different parties to the service of the state, was not only surrounded with difficulties, but fraught with clanger. Men looked with favour on the long-established supremacy of these great families, and their influence and power were therefore not easily broken. Bute sought to dissolve the spell; but the hand of Bute was not that of a magician, and he signally failed in the attempt. Broken, but not subdued, the aristocracy formed new parties, and acted upon new principles, all calculated, when dictated by the spirit of opposition, to annoy the sovereign, and disarrange the machinery of the state. Cabinets, formed with nice art and care, were unable to withstand their opponents; whence their frequent disarrangements and dissolutions. The age became signalised by ministerial revolutions and cabinet abortions; and why? because the cabinets formed were not supported by public opinion. Parliament itself had lost much of its credit with the people by reason of its indecisive measures. It had forfeited their confidence, nor could the recall of Pitt to the helm of state restore it to their favour, or rescue the sovereign from the dilemma in which he had placed himself. Intractable at all times, from the opposition he had met with, and from ill health, he had become so imperious, that, like an old Roman consul, he would fain have yoked the people, the cabinet, and the monarch to his chariot-wheels. Moreover, since he had become an earl, he was a changed man. He no longer sided with, but against, the people; sheltering himself from their clamours in the stronghold of privilege. Hence it was, that when he coalesced with others, he found no support on which he could lean with safety, and by which he could assist the monarch. His staff was but a reed on which, if he leant, it pierced his hand. This Chatham felt; and though he clung tenaciously to office, from the fear of displaying his weakness and incapacity, he only acted, when he did act, behind the scenes. Ministerial exertions were also paralysed by another cause. A prevalent notion existed that there was a mysterious power about the court which worked to the detriment of the public good. This was a constant theme of invective among the opposition, and, it would seem, not without good reason. But there was another cause of obstruction to the measures formed by government. This was found in the democratical spirit, which now universally prevailed. Courted by the aristocracy, who had till very recently
“Held them dangling at arm’s length in scorn,”
and grown comparatively wealthy since relieved from the pressure of war, the population became restless, jealous, and insubordinate. The man whose fortune was only made, as it were, yesterday, deemed himself as great a man as the highest and noblest born aristocrat; while the man who had squandered away his patrimony, sought to restore himself from his fallen position in society, by assuming principles of patriotism which in his heart he despised. Moreover, the conduct of their rulers, which had been too frequently vacillating and manifestly corrupt, taught the great body of the people to look upon them with suspicion and distrust. Talk they as loud as they might of honesty of intention, of unimpeachable integrity, and of pure patriotism, the people nevertheless would not now believe them. Hence, political associations began to be formed; taverns were made so many parliament houses; and the people seemed as if they were resolved to take the government into their own hands.
But oh! ye Muses, keep your votary’s feet From tavern-haunts where politicians meet Where rector, doctor, and attorney pause, First on each parish, then each public cause: Indited roads and rates that still increase; The murmuring poor, who will not fast in peace: Election zeal and friendship since declined, A tax commuted, or a tithe in kind; The Dutch and German? kindling into strife; Hull port and poachers vile!—the serious ills of life.
THE RETURN OF WILKES, ETC.
Such was the state of society when writs were issued for a new election. Encouraged by it, John Wilkes once more stepped upon the stage, and offered himself as a candidate for the suffrages of the people. And, as it has been well said, Mephistopheles himself could not have chosen a better time for mischief. For, at this time, the populace had no idol in whom they could place their confidence, and they hailed his reappearance with delight. By their aid, indeed, he soon became enabled to insult his sovereign, and to trample on the legislature with impunity. Unprincipled as he was, he became the man of their choice, and their “champion bold” in the cause of what was called liberty.
Wilkes had made an attempt to return to England during the Rockingham ministry, but that party would not receive his overtures. Recently he had also sounded the Duke of Grafton, with whom he had formerly been on terms of intimacy; but his application for his mediation with the king was treated by that nobleman with neglect and disdain. Thus disappointed, and finding his situation at Paris, from his accumulated load of debt, disagreeable, he at length resolved to brave every danger. During the elections, he boldly presented himself at Guildhall, as a candidate to represent the metropolitan city in parliament. He was received with rapturous applause by the populace; but his present views were frustrated by some of the good citizens of London, who exerted all their influence to insure his defeat. Nothing daunted, however, Wilkes immediately offered himself for the county, and he was returned by the freeholders of Middlesex, by a very large majority. The mob, on this occasion, was in a transport of joy. The air rang with shouts of “Wilkes and Liberty!” and by way of exhibiting their exultation at their triumph, they demolished Bute’s windows in the west, and the windows of the mansion-house, in the east of the city.
Having secured his election for Middlesex, and confident of the support of the people, Wilkes appeared, in the month of April, in the court of king’s bench, and declared himself ready to submit to the laws of his country. Lord Mansfield, then on the bench, suggested that as he was not before the court by any legal process, no notice could be taken of his professed submission, and he was permitted to depart. On retiring, he was received with loud acclamations by the mob, and the general impression was, that Wilkes had conquered the government, and that the arm of the people was stronger than the arm of the law. Wilkes, likewise, may have flattered himself that he was secure from all further process; but, if so, he soon found himself deceived. Within a week, a writ of capias ut legatum was issued against him, and he was taken into custody. Sergeant Glynn, his counsel, pointed out several errors in the outlawry, and offered bail; but the judges decided that no bail could be taken, and he was at once committed to the king’s bench prison. But the populace was resolved to reverse this decree. As he was proceeding over Westminster-bridge, they stopped the coach in which he was conveyed, took out the horses, and dragged him in triumph through the city, to a public-house in Spitalfields, where they retained him till nearly midnight. Wilkes, however, thought proper, when the people dispersed, to repair to the marshal of the king’s bench, out of whose hands the mob had rescued him, and surrender himself. But as soon as it was known that the “patriot” was in prison, the mob showed signs of rescuing him again. Crowds collected around his prison-house, pulled down the outward fence, and made a bonfire with it on the spot. An order was sent to the horse-guards, and a body of soldiers were stationed near the prison, but this only tended to increase the popular excitement. Every day, for nearly a fortnight, the mob abused the soldiers, and the soldiers threatened the mob, so that the metropolis was one continued scene of riot and confusion; Wilkes adding fuel to the flames from within the doors of his prison.
Such was the public temper when parliament reassembled on the 10th of May. The people supposed that neither strong walls, nor stronger laws, could prevent Wilkes from taking his seat in the house of commons, as member for Middlesex; and they assembled in great numbers round the gates of his prison, in order to escort him to Westminster. But the gates remained bolted and barred, and Wilkes continued secure within. They waited patiently for awhile, but when doubts arose whether they should be permitted to see then-idol, their patience at first grew into uneasiness, until at length it gendered into a storm of furious disappointment and passion. Demands were made for his appearance, but they were unheeded and unanswered. Their violence grew with their clamour, and it was in vain that they were urged to depart in peace. Stones and brickbats were aimed at the heads of the magistrates who attempted to read the riot act, and the military by whom they were guarded. Self-defence compelled the order to fire, which was readily obeyed by the soldiers; the more so, because the companies selected for the service were nearly all Highlanders and Lowland Scots, whose strong national feelings had been wounded by Wilkes, in his North Briton. Four or five persons were killed, and many more wounded; and among those who perished was a youth of the name of Allen, who had taken no part in the riot. One of the soldiers gave chase to a young man who had been pelting them, and by mistake shot Allen in a cow-house, near St. George’s-fields, while he was in the act of protesting his innocence. This occurrence tended to increase the popular rage. At the coroner’s inquest, a verdict of wilful murder was brought in against the soldier who shot Allen, and two others were charged with aiding and abetting. Maclean—for that was the name of the soldier who shot Allen—was committed to prison, and warrants were issued against the others as accessories. At the same time, Mr. Gillam, one of the Surrey magistrates, who had given the order to fire, was indicted for murder. On the other hand, the parliament then sitting voted loyal addresses to his majesty on the occasion, with assurances that every measure, which was adopted for the maintenance of the authority of the laws, had their hearty concurrence; and Lord Barrington returned thanks to the officers and men employed in this service, and directed that the crown lawyers should defend the soldiers under prosecution. This had the effect of exasperating the populace still more. They saw that the soldiers would be acquitted—which was actually the case, and rewarded likewise—and the exploit was named by the unenviable denomination of “The Massacre of St. George’s-fields.” Exciting papers were stuck up in every part of the metropolis, and even on the very walls of St. James’s-palace. The mansion-house was assailed so frequently that a constant guard of soldiers was necessary to defend it from demolition. The firm of civil authority appeared too weak to control the unbridled passions of the populace; and it was rendered still more impotent by other riots and disturbances which broke out unconnected with politics. Coalheavers, sailors, and watermen at this time complained of low wages, and of frauds practised upon them by their employers; and Stepney-fields likewise became a scene of combat which could only be quelled by the military.
On the 8th of June, Wilkes’s case was again heard in the king’s bench. His outlawry was reversed, because he had voluntarily surrendered: but he was sentenced, for the seditious sentiments contained in the ‘North Briton’, to be confined in prison ten calendar months, and to pay a fine of £500; and for publishing the ‘Essay on Woman’, to pay a similar fine, and to be imprisoned twelve calendar months, to commence at the expiration of the term of the former imprisonment. He was, also, to find security for his good behaviour for seven years—himself in the sum of £1000, and two sureties in £500 each. On the trial, facts were divulged very disgraceful to the temper of the people. In order to ensure impunity for their idol, anonymous letters had been sent to chief-justice Mansfield, threatening him, and insulting him by every species of insult and intimidation. His lordship spoke feelingly and wisely in delivering the judgment of the court on these unworthy and unmanly proceedings:—“The last event,” said he, “which can happen to a man never comes too soon, if he falls in support of the law and liberty of his country; for liberty is synonymous with law and government: as for himself, the temper of his mind, and the colour and conduct of his life, had given him a suit of armour against these arrows.”
The sentence passed against Wilkes tended only to increase his popularity. Though immured within the walls of a prison, he became now in the very zenith of his fame. Subscriptions were raised to pay off his debts; valuable presents were conferred on him; and his portrait met the eyes of the passers-by, over the doors of the public-houses, in every part of the kingdom. The popularity of Wilkes was, if possible, augmented by the issue of the trials of the magistrate and soldiers for the murder of Allen, and those who fell in “the massacre of St. George’s-fields.” They were all acquitted; and instead of being censured for a breach of discipline by the authorities, Maclean received from government the sum of thirty guineas for his sufferings on a false accusation. This was exceedingly impolitic; for it had the effect of further exasperating that huge-chafed monster, the populace, whose power is not to be provoked or despised with impunity.
RESIGNATION OF LORD CHATHAM.
A ministry so hetrogeneous in its composition as that which now administered the affairs of Great Britain could hardly be expected to act in union and with firmness at this critical season. The Earl of Chatham gave proof that he was not disposed to act with the opponents of Wilkes, by declaring to Sir William Beauchamp, who was contesting the election of Middlesex with Sergeant Glynn, and who applied to him for his assistance and countenance, that he constantly declined meddling in elections. His disinclination to act at all was, also, elicited by the Duke of Grafton, who sighed “after a life much more pleasing to his mind” than that of presiding over the government. Grafton urged the Countess of Chatham—for he dared not trouble his lordship—to state whether she thought her lord would resign. The countess, in reply, assured the noble duke that there was but little prospect of his ever being able to enter much into business; and intimated, that he was privy to, and highly disapproved of, an intention entertained of dismissing Lord Shelburne; adding, that he would never consent nor concur in such a removal, his services being of great importance to the administration. All the while the Earl of Chatham knew that it was Lord Shelburne’s intention of resigning voluntarily, which he did immediately after, having for his successor, as secretary for the southern department, Lord Weymouth from the northern, in whose post the Earl of Rochford was placed. From this cause, and being also displeased with the conduct of his colleagues regarding America, Chatham at length resolved to tender his resignation. He wrote to the Duke of Grafton, informing him that his health would no longer permit him to be useful to his majesty, and begging that his grace would lay him at his majesty’s feet, with his utmost duty and earnest request, that he would grant him his royal permission to resign the privy seal. It was in vain that the Duke of Grafton endeavoured to dissuade him from his purpose, on the grounds that his services were at this moment indispensable. His request was repeated in more positive terms, and a letter was sent also to the king to the same intent. His majesty now tried whether the refractory lord could not be brought to a proper sense of his duty. He wrote in reply:—“As you entered upon this employment in August, 1766, at my own requisition, I think I have a right to insist on your remaining in my service; for I with pleasure look forward to the time of your recovery, when I may I have your assistance in resisting the torrent of factions this country so much labours under. This thought is the more frequent in my mind, as the lord chancellor and the Duke of Grafton take every opportunity to declare warmly their desire of seeing that: therefore I again repeat it, you must not think of retiring, but of pursuing what may be most conducive to your health, and to my seeing you take a public share in my affairs.” It is probable that the Earl of Chatham was not so sanguine as his majesty concerning his ability to resist “the torrent of factions,” for he shrunk from his task in coward fear. In his reply, affliction, submission, gratitude, veneration, and despair was seen in almost every line, and he insisted upon adhering to his purpose. Accordingly, he sent the privy seal by Lord Camden, who delivered it into the king’s hands, and who, to increase the monarch’s embarrassments, wished to resign likewise. Overcome by his majesty’s entreaties, however, Camden consented to remain in office.
The resignation of Chatham did not excite greater interest than the resignation of the meanest officer in the state. Even Thackeray, his admiring biographer, was obliged to make this confession:—“A greater contrast in the feelings of the cabinet and the nation upon the present resignation of Lord Chatham to those which were evinced upon his dismission from office in 1757, and upon his retirement in 1761, can scarcely be imagined. His dismission in 1757 excited one common cry of enthusiastic admiration towards himself, and of indignation towards his political opponents. The attention, not only of Great Britain, but of the whole of Europe, was attracted by his resignation in 1761; and although the voices of his countrymen were not so universally united in his favour as upon the former occasion, the event was considered as affecting the interests of nations in the four quarters of the globe. The resignation of Lord Chatham, in 1768, was, in fact, nothing more than the relinquishment of an appointment in which he had long ceased to exercise his authority, or to exert his abilities. It was expected by the ministry—it was little regarded by the people of Great Britain—it was almost unknown to the continent of Europe.” So low had the Earl of Chatham descended from his giddy height of popularity—so little to be depended upon is the breath of the people.
On the contrary, the causes which led to the retirement of Lord Shelburne, had the effect of increasing the reputation of that ex-minister, and of endearing him to the public. The ancient republic of Genoa had long been endeavouring to reduce the Corsicans to her obedience, but was compelled to give up the contest in despair. She resigned her right of sovereignty—real or pretended—to Louis XV.; and the French fitted out an armament to take possession of Corsica by force of arms. The Corsicans maintained that they were not to be bought and sold like revolted subjects and rebels; and their chosen chief, General Paoli, represented the cruelty of the case to all Europe, addressing himself in a special manner to England. As islanders and freemen, the English warmly sympathised with them. The Earl of Chatham and Lord Shelburne, likewise, felt deeply interested in the cause of the Corsicans; and the latter authorised Lord Rochford, the ambassador at Paris, to address a spirited remonstrance to the French cabinet on the subject. These orders, however, were not supported by the rest of the administration; the French court took no notice of the remonstrance; and Lord Shelburne was compelled to resign. Corsica was therefore abandoned to France, who established her supremacy by shedding much blood. This naturally created feelings of respect for Lord Shelburne in the breasts of the English people; and, as naturally, the feelings of contempt for his cold, calculating, official colleagues.
THE AFFAIRS OF WILKES.
By this time Sergeant Glynn had been elected for the county of Middlesex. Glynn was the friend and companion of Wilkes, and it happened that some of the chairmen of his opponent killed a man of the name of Clarke in an affray. At this period, such events were by no means uncommon, but as Sir William Beauchamp was a ministerial candidate, the populace spread surmises abroad, and circulated accusations detrimental to his character. He was charged with being an employer of assassins, and two of his chairmen were tried at the Old Bailey for murder. They were acquitted, but this only tended to increase the popular excitement against the ministers. Wilkes still more inflamed it by his intemperate conduct. Lord Weymouth sent a letter to the bench of magistrates for the county of Surrey, expressing the warmest approbation of their conduct, and recommending them to quell all tumults on their first rising by the aid of the civil and military power. This letter, or a copy of it, having fallen into the hands of Wilkes, it was published by him, with an inflammatory preface, in which he called the affair in St. George’s Fields “a horrid massacre, and the consequence of a hellish project deliberately planned.” Irritated by his imprisonment, Wilkes, indeed, seems now to have set his fortune on the cast of a die, and the only way of playing the game successfully, seems to have been, considered by him, that of inflaming the passions of the people, already enraged beyond endurance, to the utmost. But the ministers resolved that he should not act with impunity, and this last act determined them upon taking effectual measures to overthrow his cause, finally and for ever. But the determination taken by them only aided the “patriot” in his ambitious projects, and tended to increase their own unpopularity.
GEORGE III. 1765-1769
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
Parliament, with the Duke of Grafton at its head, assembled on the 8th of November. In his speech his majesty alluded to the signs of commotion among the continental powers which now existed; to the state of our American colonies, especially to the proceedings at Boston, which he denounced in strong terms; and to the late abundant harvest, which he viewed with satisfaction, as having come opportunely to the relief of his poorer subjects. In the house of lords the address was agreed to unanimously, but the commons offered many objections, criticising the conduct of government with reference to America, Corsica, and its continental policy, whence it was not carried without much angry feeling.
The first question debated was that of corn. To prevent the recurrence of scarcity, a bill was prepared for enlarging the prohibition against exportation, and for preventing distillation from wheat. A more effectual mode of securing plenty would have been to have passed a bill for the better cultivation of the lands already in use, and for the enclosure of large tracts of land then uncultivated. But government had no extended views at this period, and, moreover, its attention was absorbed in the consideration of the one all-engrossing subject—civil discord.
DEBATE ON WILKES.
Before the session was a week old, Wilkes and the parliament were at open war. Determined upon keeping up the spirit of animosity among his admirers, the great agitator presented a petition to the house of commons, by means of Sir Joseph Mawbey, one of the members for Southwark, which recited all the proceedings of government against him, and claimed redress and liberty as a member of that house. A violent debate took place, and it was agreed that Wilkes should have liberty to attend the house to support his allegations, and that he should be allowed the assistance of counsel. He was to appear on the 2nd of December, but in the meantime a member moved for an Inquiry into the occurrences in St. George’s Fields, and of the conduct of the military employed on that occasion. This motion was negatived, and when Burke, who acted as leader of the Rockingham party, renewed it, it shared the same fate: some observed because many members were afraid of investigating the subject too closely.
A.D. 1769
The house postponed the hearing of Wilkes and his counsel, and this postponement was several times repeated. They were unheard on the 23rd of January, when Mr. Martin, member for Gatton, moved, “That John Wilkes, Esq., although he is convicted of publishing a seditious libel, is entitled to privilege of parliament.” An amendment was moved by Lord North to the effect, “That John Wilkes, Esq., although he is convicted of printing and publishing a malignant, seditious, and scandalous libel, and of printing and publishing three obscene and impious libels, and now stands committed to the king’s-bench prison, by virtue of two several judgments in the court of king’s-bench, for the said offences, is entitled, by privilege of parliament, to be discharged from his imprisonment for the said offences.” After a fiery debate, the amendment was carried by a large majority; and Mr. Martin, feeling himself disgraced by its making him the patron of sedition, obscenity, and impiety, moved, “That, in entering in the votes of this day the proceedings of the house upon the said question, the original motion be stated, with the proceedings of the house in making the several amendments thereto.” This was reasonable, but when put to the vote it was rejected.
By these proceedings the temper of the house towards Wilkes was fully manifested, and it seemed morally certain that when his petition was taken into consideration it would prove a failure. It was on the 27th of January that this debate fairly commenced. On that day Lord North moved that the petitioner’s counsel should be confined to two specified points only; namely, to prove the allegations in his petition, which asserted that Lord Mansfield had altered the record of his indictment the day before his trial in Westminster-hall; and that Mr. Carteret Webb, solicitor to the treasury, had bribed one Curry, a man in Wilkes’s employment, to purloin the copy of the “Essay on Woman,” for which he was undergoing imprisonment. This motion was agreed to, though not without fierce opposition, and Wilkes appeared at the bar of the house on the 31st, to make good these allegations. He objected, that as a member he could not legally appear there without taking the oaths, but this was overruled, he then proceeded to support his allegations, but all he could substantiate was, that Lord Mansfield had made an alteration on the record, and as this was in accordance with ancient custom, and had been sanctioned by all the judges, the house agreed, without a division, that the petitioner had not made good the two allegations upon which he had been heard, and that his petition was frivolous.
The tables were now turned. Lord Weymouth made a complaint in the upper house, regarding a breach of privilege, in publishing his letter sent to the magistrates of Surrey, with an inflammatory preface. A conference between the two houses had been held, and Wilkes was charged with this misdemeanour before the bar of the commons. But at that bar Wilkes not only avowed himself the author of the publication, but claimed the thanks of his country for having exposed Weymouth’s “bloody scroll.” It was immediately resolved by the commons that he was guilty of a seditious libel, calculated “to inflame and stir up the minds of his majesty’s subjects to sedition, and to a total subversion of all good order and legal government.” This was on the 2nd of February, and on the following day Lord Barrington moved, “That John Wilkes, Esq., a member of this house, who hath at the bar of this house certified himself to be the author and publisher of what this house has resolved to be an insolent, scandalous, and seditious libel, and who has been convicted in the court of king’s-bench of having printed and published a seditious libel, and three obscene and impious libels, and by the judgment of the said court has been sentenced to undergo twenty-two months imprisonment, and is now in execution under the said judgment, be expelled this house.” A long and vehement debate followed this motion, Burke, Grenville, Beckford, and others taking the part of Wilkes, but the motion was carried by a large majority at midnight, and a new writ was issued for the election of another member for Middlesex.
Burke denominated the expulsion of Wilkes from the house as the fifth act of the tragi-comedy acted by his majesty’s servants, for the benefit of the agitator, at the expense of the constitution. As for Wilkes himself, he was nothing daunted by it, for after indulging in many witticisms at the expense of his adversaries, he declared that he would stand again for Middlesex, and expressed his conviction that he should be returned. And the event answered his expectation. Liberty and Wilkes were now synonymous terms, and no ministerial candidate had a chance of obtaining the popular favour in preference to him. He was rechosen representative for Middlesex free of all expense to himself, but the house declared him incapable of being elected during the present parliament. The popularity of Wilkes, however, increased in proportion as the opposition to him in the house assumed a vindictive character. The agitator, in fact, only laughed at his adversaries, and said he would try again. Great efforts were made this time by the ministerial party to ensure his defeat, but it was to no purpose. Assisted by the public press, the mob, and many opulent merchants, who deemed him the champion of liberty, Wilkes was again triumphantly returned member for Middlesex: his opponent, Mr. Dingley, not being able to get himself named for fear of the mob’s violence. But again the house of commons declared Wilkes’s return null and void, and ordered a new writ.
The popular feeling was displayed on the occasion of this second election in a very unequivocal manner. The partisans of Dingley met at the King’s-arms tavern, in Cornhill, for the purpose of proposing a loyal address to his majesty, in contradiction of certain instructions which had been prepared by the city. This was prevented by the Wilkites, who mingled among them, and who created such an uproar, that nothing could be agreed upon. At a second meeting, however, in another place, the Dingleyans were more successful; but on the 22nd of March, when they went to present the address, they were beset by a countless mob, shouting, “Wilkes and liberty—liberty and Wilkes for ever!” They were even pelted with dirt from the kennels, and assailed with every species of violence and insult. A hearse was dragged before them, covered with paintings, representing the death of Allen, in St. George’s-fields, and the murder at Brentford by Sir William Proctor’s chairmen. So violent was the conduct of the mob, that many of those who were going with the address made off through by-streets, or ran into houses for protection. Few remained when they arrived at the court of St. James’s, and the mob attempted to pass through the gates with their ominous vehicle. This was resisted by the guard, and when the mob persevered, Lord Talbot rushed out and seized two of them, while the soldiers on duty captured fifteen more, and they were carried to prison.
In opposing the election of Wilkes, therefore, there was considerable danger. Hence, when the third writ was issued, Colonel Henry Lawes Luttrell, who was then sitting in the house as member for Bossiney, conceived that he, as a military man, might assist ministers in their dilemma by offering himself as a member for Middlesex. To this end he vacated his seat for Bossiney, and the house ordered the sheriffs to be in attendance with a large number of extra constables round the hustings at Brentford, for the preservation of peace. Encouraged by this care, and by the colonel’s boldness, two other candidates appeared at the hustings, to solicit the suffrages of the people. But all the care of the government, and all the exertions of the candidates were vain. Wilkes was a third time re-elected, and illuminations throughout the whole city of London testified the triumph of the people. The house of commons, however, was firm in its opposition to the popular idol and the popular feeling. A motion was made, and carried by a large majority, to alter this return, and to insert the name of Luttrell in place of Wilkes. The freeholders of Middlesex, looking only at the poll-book, exclaimed against the iniquity of this measure, as Luttrell had not above a fourth part of the votes which were entered on behalf of Wilkes; and they presented a petition to the commons, begging them to rescind their motion. An animated discussion followed this petition, but Luttrell was confirmed in his seat by a still greater majority. The exertions of the people were, therefore, rendered null and void, but Wilkes was as great a favourite with them as ever. Ten days after, he was chosen alderman of the city of London; and he was represented everywhere as a meritorious patriot, who was suffering for the cause of the people. And it cannot be denied that the conduct of ministers towards Wilkes assumed rather the aspect of vindictive persecution than that of strict justice. It was this that gave to Wilkes the importance he had obtained in the sight of the populace—an importance which his merits and his talents could never have given him.
DEBATES ON AMERICA.
During this session, committees had been appointed by both houses to examine and report upon papers relative to American affairs, which were submitted to them by the crown. Measures of rigour were urged by majorities in both houses. The lords voted strong-resolutions relative to the unwarrantable and rebellious conduct of the legislature and people of Massachusets-bay, and recommended, in an address to the king, that the criminals should be brought over to England and tried by a special commission, according to a statute of the thirty-fifth of Henry the Eighth. It was moved in the commons that they should concur in this measure; and, after a long and spirited debate, in which many warning voices were lifted up against it, the motion was carried. This was on the 26th of January, and a few days after the subject was again brought before the house of commons, and the ministers were again warned of the danger of driving matters to extremities. Mr. Rose Fuller moved that the address should be recommitted, but no arguments which he, or any speaker that took part with him adduced, could alter the disposition of the house upon the subject, and his motion was negatived by a large majority. On the 14th of March, the subject of American affairs was resumed. This was occasioned by a petition, or remonstrance, from New York, which denied the right of parliament to tax the Americans in any way. Lord North proposed that such a paper should not be received. He was opposed by Mr. Grenville, Mr. Burke, and Colonel Barre; but the house had made up its mind to show no favour to the Americans, and Lord North’s motion was carried. Colonel Barre reminded the house that he had predicted all that would happen on passing the Stamp Act, and he now boldly asserted, that if ministers persisted in their present course, the whole continent of North America would rise in arms, and these colonies perhaps be lost to England for ever. But the ministers were deaf to argument, remonstrance, and warning, and they still determined upon rigorous measures. Later in the season, Governor Pownall moved, in a long speech, that the revenue acts affecting America should be forthwith repealed. This was the only mode of preserving the allegiance of that country; but it was pleaded that the session was too far advanced to enter upon the subject—all important as it was—and its discussion was therefore deferred till the next meeting of parliament, and then it was too late.
EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.
During this session the charter of the East India Company was prolonged for the further term of five years, on conditions similar to those in the last agreement. The company was to continue to pay £400,000 per annum, and to continue to export British goods, at an average of equal value with those sent to India during the last five years. The company, however, was now allowed to increase its dividend to twelve and a half per cent., provided it did not in any one year put on more than one per cent. If any decrease of dividend was found to be necessary, then the sum payable to government was to be reduced proportionately, and if the dividend fell to six per cent., it was to cease altogether. This bargain had scarcely been renewed when intelligence arrived from Hindostan, that Hyder Ally had reduced the company, after an expensive war, to sue for a dishonourable peace, and India stock fell rapidly.
PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT.
Early in this session it was announced in a message from the king, that, in consequence of a deficiency in some branches of the revenue appropriated to the civil list, debts had been contracted to the amount of £513,511, which his majesty trusted that house would enable him to discharge. The opposition demanded the production of papers to account for these arrears, which were promised by Lord North, if they would vote the money first. This proposition was warmly opposed, but, in the end, the house showed its loyalty by voting the money. On the 9th of May, the king went down to prorogue parliament. This was the day after the last vehement debate and division on the election of Wilkes; and as he was passing from the palace to the house of lords, he was grossly insulted by the populace. In his speech, his majesty exhorted the members, with more than ordinary earnestness, to exert themselves in their several counties to repress the efforts of the disaffected, and in maintaining public peace and good order.
DISCONTENTS IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND.
There was great occasion for his majesty’s advice to the members of parliament, but they were powerless to effect that which he desired, and which was a “consummation devoutly to be wished” by every lover of good order. During this summer, discontent was more prevalent than at any preceding period of this reign. The disputes with the Americans, and the expulsion of Wilkes from his seat in parliament, had the effect of keeping the public mind in a state of constant excitement. This latter cause gave the greater umbrage to the people, because a man was sitting in his place who was supported only by a minority. This involved a constitutional right of great importance, and a question was mooted, whether expulsion constituted disqualification during the current parliament. The pen of Dr. Johnson was employed in proving the affirmative; his chief argument being, that the power of disqualification was necessary to the house of commons, for otherwise expulsion would not be a real, but a nominal punishment. Other pens were employed in proving the contrary; and among them was that of Junius, whose argument rested on the axiom that political expediency does not prove existing law, and who defied his opponents to produce any statute applicable to the subject. Junius also argued that, although the house of commons could expel, the concurrence of every branch of the legislature was necessary to incapacitate. Junius, whose extraordinary powers as a writer on politics have rarely, if ever, been surpassed, was the most bitter antagonist of the present government. The Middlesex election was eagerly embraced by him as an opportunity of advancing the great object he had in view—namely, that of the restoration of the Whig aristocracy to power. He dipped his pen in gall for this purpose, attacking the Duke of Grafton’s administration with virulent invective and energetic eloquence, if haply he might effect its overthrow. He marred his fame, however, by an exhibition of personal resentment against individual members of the cabinet, and by putting forth foul calumnies from his secret hiding-place against the highest characters in the realm. Political writers may be bold in uttering truth, but when they use slander as one of their most powerful weapons, then they sink their characters as men, and forfeit their claim to be heard by society. But this was not the opinion in those days of turbulent excitement. Junius was heard and heeded by the mass, and though he did not break up the administration, which was the main object he had in view, his writings had the effect of confirming the people in their opposition to government. Faction was so prevalent that ministers sought to counteract it by procuring loyal addresses from various parts of the country. Only four counties, a few corporations, and the two universities responded to their call; while, on the other hand, numerous petitions of a contrary tendency, were got up without any difficulty. Discontent ruled dominant before the legislature reassembled, both in the city of London, and throughout the whole country. With a view of embarrassing government, Alderman Beckford was again elected to the mayoralty, although some ancient by-laws forbade the same person to be chosen twice within the space of seven years. This objection was urged, but overruled by precedents. Ministerial troubles grew on every side. Ireland, as well as England and America, was in a state of trouble and commotion. At this time it was overrun by Levellers, White-boys, Oak-boys, and Hearts-of-Steel—factions which were bound together by secret oaths and a mutual detestation of tithes. Nor was the Irish parliament less disorderly. In the month of October a bill was brought into the Irish house of commons for increasing the military establishment in that country, which was recommended by the lord-lieutenant, and although it was carried, it was not till after it had encountered a violent opposition. In the month of November, also, the Irish commons claimed the right of framing all money-bills, which hitherto had been sent over to them by the English cabinet. They rejected the one sent over this year, and although they voted a more liberal supply of their own freewill, the lord-lieutenant would not recognise the newly-claimed right. He called it a violation of the law, and an encroachment upon the king’s prerogative. He entered his protest against it, and he then suddenly prorogued parliament before it had done any business. Thus his majesty was surrounded by troubles in almost every part of his dominions. England, Ireland, and America were all arrayed against him, and insubordination was the order of the day. What made his situation more critical was, that he had not a minister of sufficient ability to guide the helm of the state, so as to keep it clear from the rocks and the shoals by which it was surrounded.
