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MEMOIRS
OF THE REIGN OF
KING GEORGE THE THIRD.
VOL. III.
[Illustration:
_J. Cook, sc._
HON. CHARLES TOWNSHEND.
FROM THE ORIGINAL BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
London. Published by Richard Bentley 1845]
MEMOIRS
OF THE REIGN OF
KING GEORGE THE THIRD.
BY HORACE WALPOLE,
YOUNGEST SON OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD.
NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS.
EDITED, WITH NOTES,
BY SIR DENIS LE MARCHANT, BART.
VOL. III.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1845.
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
ADVERTISEMENT.
Since the publication of the preceding volumes of this work, the Editor
has been favoured with some important communications, which call for
his public and most grateful acknowledgements.
The Duke of Bedford kindly granted him the use of the valuable
collection of letters at Woburn, left by his ancestor, John Duke of
Bedford, from which he should have been less sparing in his extracts,
had not the publication of the concluding volume of that nobleman’s
correspondence been expected in the course of the present year.
The Editor’s inquiries have, in many instances, been materially
assisted by the Journal and Correspondence of Sir Gilbert Elliot--the
counsellor and intimate friend of Lord Bute, and one of the most
accomplished statesmen of his day. His papers are particularly
valuable, as constituting, perhaps, the only authority which can be
relied on for the views of the Court, at a time that it has been
charged with originating a system of unconstitutional interference with
the government of the country. Amongst them have been preserved some
very interesting letters that passed between Lord Bute and Sir Gilbert,
during critical periods of the political career of the former, which
throw considerable light on his character and intentions. Whatever
benefit may have been conferred on this work by the information thus
placed at the Editor’s disposal, is due to the liberality of the Earl
of Minto, who readily consented to the Editor’s consulting such of his
grandfather’s papers as related to the early part of George the Third’s
reign, adding at the same time several explanations which, coming from
a member of Sir Gilbert’s family, were especially valuable.
Through the friendship of Lord Brougham, to whom the Editor is also
indebted for many valuable suggestions, access was obtained to a
collection of George the Third’s Letters to Lord North, in the
possession of that nobleman’s accomplished daughter, Lady Charlotte
Lindsay, from which the Editor has made rather copious extracts,
illustrating, as he conceives, very forcibly, the personal character
of the King, and its influence on the events of his reign.
He has also to express his deep obligations to the Duke of Grafton,
for placing in his hands, without reserve, the autobiography of his
grandfather (the Minister of George the Third), a work in itself
of sufficient importance to deserve separate publication, and the
appearance of which at an earlier period would have refuted many of
the calumnies that have attached to the name of its noble writer. The
extracts given in the Appendix relate, almost exclusively, to his
Grace’s public conduct during his own administration and that of Lord
Rockingham.
It had been the Editor’s intention to insert in the Appendix the
biographies of some of the statesmen noticed in these Memoirs, of
whom less has hitherto been generally known than might have been
expected from their connexion with the politics of the day. With
this view he had prepared a life of Marshal Conway, and a selection
from his correspondence, two volumes of which were kindly entrusted
to him by the Right Honourable Sir Alexander Johnstone, from whom he
also obtained much interesting information respecting the Marshal’s
pursuits after he quitted office. The Appendix, however, is without
such an addition already too large; but should the subject appear not
to have been exhausted, the Editor proposes to publish the materials
he has collected in a separate volume, under the title of “Notes and
Biographical Sketches illustrative of the History of the Early Years of
the Reign of George the Third.”
7, HARLEY STREET,
_July, 20, 1845_.
CONTENTS
OF
THE THIRD VOLUME.
CHAPTER I.
A. D. PAGE
1767. Debates on East Indian Affairs 1
Wilkes and the Duke of Grafton 5
March 16th. The Houses adjourn for the Holidays 6
Expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain 6
March 28th. The Houses reassemble 11
Parliamentary Discussions 11
May 1st. Conversation on Indian Affairs 15
May 6th. Court of Proprietors vote themselves a Dividend 21
Conduct of Mr. Townshend 23
CHAPTER II.
1767. May 13th. Proposal to tax the Colonies 28
Passing of the Resolutions 37
Affairs of Lord Chatham 41
May 18th. Violent Conduct of the Court of India Proprietors 44
May 21st. Motion for Quebec Papers 45
State of Catholicism in England 47
May 26th. Motion on the Massachusets Act 47
Weakness of the Administration 49
June 1st. Grant moved to Prince Ferdinand 50
June 2nd. Victory of the Court in the House of Lords 54
CHAPTER III.
1767. Negotiations with the Bedford Party 58
July 2nd. Close of the Session 59
July 5th. Interview of Conway with the King 61
July 15th. Treaty with Lord Rockingham 69
July 20th. Meeting at the Duke of Newcastle’s 79
July 22nd. Interview of Lord Rockingham with the King 83
CHAPTER IV.
1767. Attempt to procure an Earldom for Lord Holland 94
July 28th. Walpole sups with the Duke of Grafton 96
Sept. 4th. Death of Charles Townshend 99
Sept. 17th. Death of the Comte de Guerchy 102
Sept. 17th. Death of the Duke of York 103
Characters of the Royal Dukes 105
French Travellers in England and Ireland 107
Generosity of Conway 108
Conduct of Lord Townshend in Ireland 109
Nov. 24th. Meeting of Parliament 112
Debate on the Address 113
Nov. 29th. Negotiation with the Bedford Party 117
CHAPTER V.
1767. Affair of Colonel Brereton with the Duke of Grafton 132
Tax on Irish Absentees 133
Character of Lord Weymouth 135
Attempted Treaty with Mr. Grenville 136
Dec. 18th. Success of the Negotiation with the Bedfords 140
Dec. 21st. The Houses adjourn 141
1768. Case of the Duke of Portland 143
Jan. 14th. Dunning made Solicitor-General 146
Jan. 20th. Resignation of Conway 149
Affair of Lord Bottetort 151
Corruption of the Corporation of Oxford 153
Bill for Septennial Parliaments in Ireland 155
Feb. 1st. Death of Sir Robert Rich 156
Beckford’s Bribery Bill 157
Feb. 17th. Bill to restrain the Recovery of Crown Lands 161
Dissolution of Parliament 163
CHAPTER VI.
1768. On the Literature of the Early Part of the Reign of
George the Third 164
CHAPTER VII.
1768. Walpole determines to resume his Memoirs 180
Audacity of Wilkes 182
March 28th. Beginning of the Middlesex Election 186
Riots during the polling 187
April 20th. Wilkes surrenders to the King’s Bench 194
The General Elections 197
Plan for the Expulsion of Wilkes 200
Meeting of Parliament 203
Riots before the King’s Bench 204
May 11th. Petition of the Sailors to Parliament 206
May 12th. Mark of Distinction to Aldermen Harley 207
Debate on Wilkes in the Commons 216
French Designs on Corsica 217
Heroism of a Sailor 219
June 8th. Renewal of Wilkes’s Outlawry 223
June 18th. Sentence of Wilkes for the _North Briton_ and
the “Essay on Woman” 228
Riots at Boston 231
CHAPTER VIII.
1768. August 2nd. Lord Bute leaves England for the Continent 232
August 3rd. Death of Archbishop Secker 233
August 9th. Trial of a Soldier for Murder 235
Arrival of Christian the Seventh 235
Removal of Amherst from Virginia 239
Contemplated Disgrace of Lord Shelburne 245
Resignation of Lord Chatham 247
Lord Rochford made Secretary of State 248
Privy Seal given to Lord Bristol 250
State of the Country 253
Nov. 8th. Meeting of Parliament 255
Meditated Expulsion of Wilkes 256
Nov. 14th. Sir Joseph Mawbey presents a Petition from him 260
CHAPTER IX.
1768. War between Russia and Turkey 262
The King of France’s new Mistress 264
Nov. 17th. Death of the Duke of Newcastle 265
Affairs of Corsica 265
Quarrel between the Duke of Grafton and Lord Hertford 267
Nov. 23rd. Debates on Wilkes’s Case 271
Ayliffe committed to Newgate 279
Dec. 8th. Riots at the Middlesex Election 283
Characters of Townshend and Sawbridge 284
Character of Colonel Onslow 280
Dec. 14th. Election of Serjeant Glynn 289
Resolutions on American Affairs 289
The Cumberland Election 290
Wilkes demands to be heard at the Bar of the House of Lords 292
CHAPTER X.
1769. Jan. 2nd. Wilkes chosen Alderman 297
Jan. 13th. East India House rejects the Government
Proposition 297
Jan. 16th. Argument on Wilkes’s Writ of Error 298
Douglas Peerage Claim 299
Trial of Macquirk and Balf 307
Discussions concerning Wilkes 310
Jan 25th. Resolutions on America 313
Jan. 27th. Wilkes appears before the House of Commons 314
Feb. 2nd. Censure on him passed 325
His Expulsion carried 327
Republican Party in England 331
Mr. Grenville’s State of the Nation 333
Burke’s Reply 334
CHAPTER XI.
1769. American Affairs 336
Feb. 16th. Wilkes is re-elected 337
Feb. 17th. His second Expulsion 337
Feb. 21st. Meeting at the London Tavern 339
Feb. 24th. Defeat of the Ministry 340
Feb. 27th. Agreement with the East India Company 341
Feb. 28th. Message on the King’s Debts 343
March 16th. Third Election and Expulsion of Wilkes 347
Loyal Demonstration 349
Address of the Merchants of London 350
Riots 351
Lutterell appears as Candidate for Middlesex 353
April 12th. The Election 353
Lutterell declared duly returned 357
April 27th. Meeting at Mile End 361
May 8th. Lutterell’s seat confirmed 362
Close of the Session 365
May 24th. Petition of the Freeholders presented to the King 365
CHAPTER XII.
1769. Election of Pope Ganganelli 366
Quarrel between the French and Russian Ambassadors 368
Agitation after the Rising of Parliament 372
Lord Chatham appears at the King’s Levee 373
State of the Country 375
Horne’s Libel on Onslow 377
Aspersions on Lord Holland 379
Dr. Musgrave’s Pretended Discovery 384
Russian Project of attacking Constantinople 385
Conquest of Corsica 386
Petitions against the Parliament 389
Disturbance at the Execution of two Rioters 394
Irish Affairs 396
Prosecution of Vaughan 399
Remonstrance of Junius to the King 402
Story of the Duke of Gloucester and Maria Walpole 403
MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE THE THIRD.
CHAPTER I.
Debates on East Indian Affairs.--Wilkes and the Duke of
Grafton.--Expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain.--Parliamentary
Discussions.--Attempts to construct a new Administration in
Prospective.--The Court of Proprietors vote themselves a Dividend
in spite of the Ministry.--Extraordinary Conduct of Townshend in
the House of Commons.
1767.
I have said that the Opposition, perceiving how much the tide ran
against them, determined to attempt putting an end to the East Indian
business the moment the examination was closed; a weak and silly plan,
that betrayed a jealousy of their own cause. Sir William Meredith fixed
on the 14th for making that attempt. Lord Bute had been seriously
alarmed, and he and the Duke of Grafton exerted themselves to defeat
the Opposition. Beckford observed that the evidence had proved all
he had asserted, and said he intended to make some motions in
consequence, but the examination had been so voluminous, he had not
had time to digest his matter. Sir William Meredith said, he doubted
whether it was fit to proceed at all further or not: that it had been
Beckford’s own fault if the examination had been voluminous. His
questions to the evidences had been unjust, and would not have been
admitted in a court of justice. It were better to stop, if violence
alone was to be the consequence. The Ministers in the Treasury ought
to make the motions, if any were proper; but _they_ did not seem to be
trusted in this question. The Company would not make proposals while
a doubt subsisted of their having any property in the territorial
acquisitions. He did not know what motion to make; he thought that the
Speaker should leave the chair. Townshend and Conway spoke for allowing
more time; Grenville for going into the Committee to see if any one
had any proposal to make. Beckford declared he would never propose
any question of forfeiture. Norton, in a very indefinite speech,
said, if the Company had exceeded their charter, the Crown could call
them to account. That the acquisitions were not conquest, because the
King was not at war with the Mogul: they seemed to be only plunder.
It seemed to be difficult to know judicially what to do with those
acquisitions. They ought to be restored, but nobody wished to see that.
The Attorney-General desired Norton to give his opinion how to try
the case. He refused, saying, “It will be alleged that a prerogative
lawyer has pointed out to the Crown a way of getting possession.”
The Attorney-General showed that, by the nature of a process in the
courts of law, it was impossible for the King to recover his right by
law, supposing the territory were his by his prerogative, or by the
forfeiture of the Company. There must be an information of intrusion:
a jury must be chosen where the lands lie, and yet where there is no
sheriff. The sheriff must deliver the profits; must appoint a receiver
for the three provinces, who must give security for two years in a
court of law to examine the necessary witnesses. The court would not
order possession to be delivered. Then there must be a sequestration
of the Company’s effects. Having thus exposed with much humour the
fruitlessness of a legal suit, he said if nobody else would, he would
move for a bill to prevent the Company from making a dividend beyond
such a sum without consent of Parliament. It was necessary to frighten
them: he would not violate their charter, but as he thought they had no
right to their territorial revenues, _he would take the half of them_.
Wedderburn replied, that an action might lie against the Company as a
corporation: all he desired was to ascertain the right; the Legislature
would settle the rest. Grenville declaimed against any violence, and
said with passion, _the view was not to vest money in the public, but
in the Crown_; and a profuse Minister had been found who wanted to
give four millions to the King, a year before the general election. He
should advise to take this money by taxation. Conway said boldly, he
should insist on _security_ that this money, if taken, should be vested
in the public, not in the Crown. Taxation was like Mr. Grenville’s
Morocco politics. Burke pleaded that in the last charter the Crown had
granted the Company privileges as indemnification: what could that
mean but territory, revenue, and commerce? Yet he owned there was a
political reserve in the charters.
The debate lasted till one in the morning when the Opposition were
beaten by 213 to 157. After the division I told the Duke of Richmond
that, notwithstanding our victory, I was as ready as ever to unite
Conway and his Grace’s friends on the American affairs. The King was
informed of Grenville’s apprehensions that the money to be taken
from the Company was designed for his Majesty, and highly resented
the insinuation--perhaps resented Grenville’s dislike of such a
disposition. There wanted no new aggravation of Grenville’s offences.
His tediousness in the closet had left a lasting impression; and an
ill-judged obstinacy of economy in an article of no great moment, but
which was ever before the King’s eyes, could not be forgotten. When his
Majesty took in a portion of the Green Park to form a new garden for
Buckingham House, the fields on the opposite side of the road were to
be sold; the price twenty thousand pounds. This sum Grenville refused
to issue from the Treasury. The ground was sold to builders, and a new
row of houses, each of which overlooked the King in his private walks,
was erected to his great annoyance.
Wilkes had come over the last year, during the recess of Parliament,
to try to obtain his pardon, and by the Duke of Grafton’s desire
wrote a very submissive letter to his Grace, to be shown to the King.
The Duke then told him his pardon could not be obtained without the
concurrence of Lord Chatham, and wished him to write to the latter
too. Wilkes, who had been abandoned and stigmatized by Lord Chatham,
though formerly intimate with and flattered by him, had too much
spirit to throw himself at Chatham’s feet, and refused: but, irritated
at his disappointment, he published an exaggerated account of that
transaction, with unjust severity on the Duke[1],--and returned to
Paris. His Grace, Lord Rockingham, and others of that connexion, had
yearly contributed the sum of 1000_l._ or 1100_l._ to his support.
Mr. Fitzherbert collected their donations. It was now the season of
collection. In defiance of the Duke, Wilkes sent over a new abusive
pamphlet against the Administration.
March 16th.--The Houses adjourned for the holidays.
At this period happened the sudden and total expulsion of the Jesuits
from Spain,--a measure so unexpected by them, that they were made
prisoners in their convents throughout the kingdom, without having
had the least intimation of their intended ruin; a moment of history
that will ever be remarkable. The order, renowned for their subtlety
and art, dreaded for the empire they had obtained over the consciences
of princes and private persons, and seated in the most bigoted
country upon earth, had neither sagacity to surmise their impending
destruction, nor one penitent so weak and devout as to give them
intelligence of what, for a whole year, was in agitation against them.
That fabric of human policy and wickedness fell to the ground in an
instant. Not a murmur was heard against the rigour of the sentence,
though they were conducted to the sea-coasts like exiled malefactors,
thrust into ships, and sent like cargoes of damaged goods to their
proprietor, the Pope. Clement XIII. though an enthusiast, could not
receive them. They were at last dispatched to Corsica, one and all,
after being tossed about at sea for _some months_,[2] stowed in
the narrow compass of a few vessels,--a fate so severe, that the
greatest enemy of Catholic imposition must commiserate the sufferers.
However detestable the maxims of the society, however criminal some
of the order might have been, the greater part were undoubtedly
innocent--many, perhaps, conscientious men; who, trusting to the
establishment and laws of the country, and believing the doctrines
they had been taught, had entered into religion. Let the impartial
mind weigh the weight of the calamity that fell like thunder on those
poor men! Torn from the tranquillity of their convents; too old or too
ignorant to turn to new professions; delivered up to an element they
were totally unaccustomed to, sickening with the natural effect of the
waves, and with want of room and air; banished for ever from their
country, relations, and friends; uncertain to what clime they were
driven; finding with difficulty one that would receive them, and that
one in a state of war, and the most unwholesome spot in Europe;--what
a state of lamentation and hopeless misery! What, too, must the
parents and friends of those unhappy men have felt? Could no middle
term be found? What a horrible post is that of a minister, when the
benefit or policy of the State calls for such sacrifices! No doubt
was entertained but that the Court of Madrid had discovered that the
Jesuits had been the incendiaries of the late insurrection there; and
its ministers seemed to have learnt and imbibed the deep secrecy and
resolute vigour of the Count D’Ocyras, the prime minister of Portugal,
the profoundest and most desperate politician of the age. From M. de
Mello, the Portuguese minister in England,[3] I received this account
of the springs that first gave birth to that revolution. When D’Ocyras
became all-powerful at Lisbon, he found the Portuguese settlements in
America, that bordered on the French, extremely neglected. Apprehending
a rupture with France from that quarter, he sent his own brother to
examine the Portuguese possessions. At the same period Ferdinand’s
Queen, who held the reins of the Spanish monarchy during the incapacity
of her husband, had made a treaty with Portugal for an exchange of
lands, in which Spain would have been gainer; intending to involve the
Court of Lisbon in a quarrel with the Jesuits of Paraguay, part of
which country was to be ceded to the Portuguese. The event happened
as she had foreseen: the Jesuits refused the exchange; and imputing
the machination to D’Ocyras, endeavoured to excite the confessors of
both Kings and Queens to attempt the ruin of that minister.[4] This
step drew upon them the wrath of that vindictive man, who, possessing
all the spirit of intrigue which seemed to have deserted the fathers,
never stopped till he had accomplished the destruction of the order.
Had D’Ocyras[5] been a Jesuit instead of a statesman, the Jesuits might
have subsisted till the Roman Church itself shall fall like other
structures of human invention. So true it is, what I have more than
once remarked in these pages, that great benefits are seldom conferred
on mankind by good men. It is when the interests and passions of
ambition, villany, and desperation clash, that some general advantage
is struck out.
On the 28th, when the Houses re-assembled, nothing was ready for their
discussion. The Duke of Grafton had passed the holidays at Newmarket,
and when he returned, could not obtain admission to Lord Chatham. The
Directors of the East India Company, alarmed at the strength of the
evidence against them, had determined to make a compromise or bargain
with the Government; and, fearing Lord Chatham would reject their
proposal, had sent severally round to the members of the Cabinet, to
desire to treat. At a Council held the evening before the meeting
of the Parliament, Conway brought them all over to his opinion for
a treaty; and he, with the Duke of Grafton, and Charles Townshend,
were commissioned by the rest to negotiate. The last was grown a
great advocate for the Company, and said, that now, on the death of
his wife’s mother,[6] the Duchess of Argyle, he himself was become a
considerable proprietor of India stock--all the truth was, that he
intended to be so; the Duchess had not had a shilling in that fund. He
had acted with the same lightness when, as Chancellor of the Exchequer,
he had been to open the Budget before the holidays: he had caused
Onslow to make his excuse on pretence of illness, and then appeared
there walking about the House. Two days after he did open it--but of
that more hereafter, when I come to speak of his proposed taxes.
March 29th was the day appointed at the desire of the Opposition for
the call of the House, and Conway had proposed they should go on the
India business on that day, but Grenville had said he would insist on
the House being called over. They now would have put off the call for a
week to keep the members of their party in town, but Conway fixed them
to their first proposal, and on a division carried it by a majority of
fifty. Rigby then said, “We will put it off for a fortnight;” “No,”
said Conway, “_I_ will do that, for the Indian business is in a more
promising way than ever.” Grenville was thunderstruck: Conway’s spirits
showed how much he was pleased with his triumph--Grenville being the
only man who had ever inspired him with animosity.
The next morning he came to me early, and said, the Duke of Grafton had
told him things could not go on as they were; that Lord Chatham must
either come forth, or quit; and he thought would do the latter. Conway
therefore desired T would go to the Duke of Richmond, and say that I
had persuaded him to let me come to his Grace and tell him that if
he and his friends would not join Grenville, he (Conway) would assist
them in a new Administration, but would take no civil place under
any; should like to be Secretary at War, and Minister of the House of
Commons, if Townshend had his wish and was created a peer. His idea
was, that he might be Minister for the Military Department, if Lord
Granby could be removed.
I said, all this was idle; that neither the King nor the House of
Commons would come into it. That if he would not be First Minister,
Grenville must. That he (Conway) must take the Treasury, or nothing
would last; Lord Rockingham’s Administration had not lasted a year,
though with the assistance of the Duke of Grafton and his friends, and
with the hopes of acquiring Lord Chatham; now would have neither of
them. He could not be Minister of the House of Commons without power;
had Lord Rockingham imparted any to him before? He confessed he should
like some share of power, and I thought would not be sorry to have the
whole if Lord Rockingham could be brought to waive it. I told him I
would carry no such message as he proposed, for should it afterwards
prove necessary to place him at the head of the Treasury, the Duke of
Richmond and Lord Rockingham might say I had given them false hopes
and deceived them. Conway replied, all he meant was to keep them
from Grenville, whom he feared they would join. I saw no occasion, I
said, for any message: Rockingham and his friends would be rejoiced
to have him whenever he would go to them; but I would propose nothing
so ridiculous as Rockingham and Dowdeswell over again. He said, I
only refused because I wished him Minister in some other system, but
he would _never more be of any but with his old friends_. It was all,
I replied, that I desired too; our only difference was, that I chose
they should act under him, not he under them, which would never do.
In the meantime I would positively carry no message. A few days after
I gave him my reasons in writing, and convinced him. He then proposed
to be Secretary of State for America, which I approved. It was the
sphere in which he might make the greatest figure. His application
was indefatigable; his temper, moderation, attention to the business
of others when applied to, and the popularity he had already gained
with the Colonies, adapted him peculiarly to that province. We agreed
to adjust this plan with Lord Rockingham--but that project, like a
thousand others of that season, was disappointed.
The King asked Lord Hertford by what means any composition with the
East India Company had been obtained? He replied, that sensible of his
Majesty’s difficulties, and fearing that, notwithstanding the right of
the Company had been weakened by the examination, the House would never
be induced to vote it away; he and his brother had prevailed on the
rest of his Majesty’s servants to take the gentler method of treaty.
The King owned that he was inclined to keep Lord Chatham, if capable
of remaining in place, _having seen how much his Government had been
weakened by frequent changes_. He wished that things might remain as
they were, at least till the end of the Session, when he might have
time to make any necessary alterations. At his levee his Majesty asked
James Grenville aloud, how Lord Chatham did? he replied, “Better.” The
King said, “If he has lost his fever, I desire to be his physician,
and that he would not admit Dr. Addington any more into his house. He
shall go into the country for four months; not so far as Bath, but
to Tunbridge.” He repeated the same words publicly to Lord Bristol;
everybody understanding that his Majesty’s wish was to retain Lord
Chatham.[7]
On the 1st of May Beckford was to have proposed his resolutions; but
Crabb Boulton,[8] an India Director, informing the House that there
was now a prospect of accommodation with the Ministry, and that a
general court to ratify the terms could not be held till the next week,
when he did not doubt but they would approve the plan, which was only
temporary, Beckford consented to postpone his motions. Sir W. Meredith
called on him to read his questions. Rigby with much roughness said,
he believed Beckford had no questions to propose; yet he should have
some hopes of the accommodation succeeding, if Mr. Townshend (who
was the fittest to be at the head of _that_ Administration) would,
as Chancellor of the Exchequer, say _he_ had hopes. Townshend, with
great decency, declared he had. Grenville, who had early in the
session declared for a temporary accommodation, was much hampered and
hurt: and having nothing to object, reverted to the former wrangle on
Morocco politics, and said, that to take by violence was squeezing
laws, as Mahometan governments do; but anything might be taken by legal
taxation. Conway took this up with infinite humour, ridiculing _legal
tyranny_; and as Grenville had asked if Lord Chatham would come into
this agreement, said, he hoped it would be no mortification to hear
that the Council would be unanimous. He laughed too at Rigby, who had
been on the point of saying that Charles Townshend was the fittest man
to be at the head of _any_ administration; but he had turned round in
time and seen his friend Mr. Grenville, or it might have made a fatal
difference! Grenville replied angrily, he did not envy any junction
between Lord Chatham and Conway: he knew what attempts had been made to
disunite him and the Bedfords. Rigby in a greater rage said, nothing
should disunite them; (he might have said, _but interest_, which made
Rigby leave Grenville in less than two years;) himself had always stuck
by his friends--he did not abandon his family and friends. As this was
levelled at Conway, it either meant his former separation from the
Court when Lord Hertford remained with it, or his disunion now with the
Rockinghams, amongst whom was not one of his family but the Duke of
Richmond, his wife’s son-in-law. Rose Fuller said properly, he did not
understand such unparliamentary declarations, as of being actuated only
by connexions. Conway protested he did not know what Rigby had meant,
who called out contemptuously, “Oh! I meant nothing.” The House was
unanimous for waiting till that day sennight.
When I went to the Duke of Richmond the next morning with Conway’s plan
of being Secretary for America, I found him displeased at Conway’s
attack on Grenville and Rigby. I urged, as was true, that they had
given the provocation, and that Conway had not said half enough in
return. His Grace was hurt too, on thinking that Conway had declared an
union with Lord Chatham. I said, I was come a proof of the contrary;
that Conway would oppose the American Bill, and was resolved to
resign--though I would not be bound that he would; that he declared
he would not take the Treasury from Lord Rockingham. But I was come, I
said, to ask, in case Lord Chatham’s health should not permit him to go
on, and the King should order Conway to form an Administration, whether
his Grace and his friends would take on? The Duke insisted on Conway’s
resigning before the end of the session. It was true, in his discontent
with Lord Chatham, Conway had told them he would quit, though with no
definite time marked; and it was on that rash promise the Rockinghams
built all their hopes of breaking up the Administration--a point I was
as eager to prevent the accomplishment of. I replied coldly, it had
been usual for ministers to send for opponents: it was new to hear an
Opposition order a minister to come to them. “But, my lord,” said I,
“to cut matters short, Mr. Conway will not resign before the end of
the session.” The Duke said, Dowdeswell was reserved, and would not
speak out while Mr. Conway remained in place. I laughed, and asked,
what it signified what Mr. Dowdeswell would do? My question was, what
the party would do? He said, they would insist on the dismission of two
or three of Lord Bute’s friends. I asked, “Why?” He said, “To weaken
Bute, whose friends would desert him, if they perceived he could not
protect them.” “Then, my lord,” replied I, “either he will not let you
come in, or will soon turn you out again to prevent that defection.”
The Duke was desirous that Grenville should be paymaster. I taxed him
with leaning to Grenville. He said, neither he nor his party inclined
to Grenville, though the Duke of Newcastle laboured for it daily. I
asked him why his Grace himself, who had acted so long with Lord Bute
was now so averse to him? He said “Formerly Lord Holland had swayed
him, and that Lord Bute had then followed the same measures as had been
observed in the late reign.” I cried, “Good God! my lord, were general
warrants the same measures!” He paused, and said it was true, they had
been ill-conducted. The Duke added, his party, Conway and Grenville,
would be too strong for Bute. I said, the whole nation united would
certainly be too strong for him; but that union would never happen, for
there were not places enough to content all. The more his Grace and his
friends were averse to Bute, the sooner Grenville would court him: the
Tories and the Scotch would always adhere to him. I said at last; “My
lord, I will not be unreasonable; offer Grenville to be Paymaster.”
Still the Duke reverted to the dismission of some of Bute’s friends. I
said, “If your Grace is in this mind, I will advise Mr. Conway to stay
where he is, and not return to a weak and inefficient Opposition. All
your Grace says, tends to or must end in making Grenville minister.”
He was alarmed, and said, if others would acquiesce, he would not be
obstinate.
Here lay the misfortune. The Cavendishes, inveterate to Bute for the
affront put on their late brother, saw--would see--no other object of
fear. Whereas, though Bute had been the prime source of the attacks
made on liberty, his pusillanimity had defeated his own purpose.
Grenville, still more arbitrary, was intrepid and inflexible; and
whether minister in concert with Bute, or independent of him, was a
more formidable enemy to liberty, than an ignorant, trembling, exploded
favourite.
Conway was hurt at my report of the above conversation, as I intended
he should be. My object was to make the Rockinghams submit to him, or
prevent his resignation. He would not hear of Grenville. They stickled
for the Bedfords, urging that it would prevent Bute from turning them
out again; whereas, it was more likely to advance it, as Grenville
would stoop to Bute rather than remain subordinate to Rockingham and
Conway. The intractable man of all was, as usual, Lord John Cavendish.
The Duke of Portland himself, inveterate as he was to Bute, had the
sense to see that if they came into place before the new Parliament, it
would secure all their elections. Nobody’s fortune suffered like his
Grace’s at that ensuing period, by yielding to the obstinacy of Lord
John, and the ill-conducted ambition of Lord Rockingham.
Mr. Conway having declared in Council against the intended plan for
America, it was determined that Charles Townshend should conduct it
through the House, and the fifth of May was settled for his opening
it: but his strange irresolution and versatility could not conceal
itself, even on so public an occasion. That very morning he pretended
to have fallen down stairs and cut his eye dangerously. On this Lord
North was deputed to execute the task, and was going to explain it
to the House; when Rigby, to deprive Lord North of the honour, or to
embarrass Townshend, who had shuffled with them, or that Grenville had
not determined what part to take, moved, with affected compliments on
Townshend’s absence, to wait till he could appear, and it was agreed to.
The next day, the Opposition, who, so often foiled, were alert in
making a hussar-kind of war, moved by surprise in both Houses to know
what had been done on the affair of the Massachusets. In the Commons,
the motion made by Grenville was rejected without a division. In the
Lords, the majority against the motion was but nine, but with a great
majority of proxies.
The East India Company had offered, in consideration of certain new
advantages granted to them in their tea-trade, to pay four hundred
thousand pounds a-year for three years to the Government; and though
this sum was far below Lord Chatham’s first sanguine wishes, the
impossibility of their affording more, or the impracticability of
persuading Parliament to extort more, had brought the bargain nigh to a
conclusion;--when, on the 6th of May, a general court of proprietors,
where faction and speech-making were as rife as in the House of
Commons itself, suddenly determined to treat themselves with the sweets
of a dividend, before their funds should be tied up for the purposes
of the treaty. The directors had foreseen and secretly insinuated
this to the Ministers for prevention; but in the intemperance of the
assembly, did not dare to avow the advice they had given. The dividend,
so contrary to the faith of the treaty then pending with, and so
contemptuous of, Parliament, was voted; and, as if themselves were
accountable to none, they dismissed, without a hearing, five of their
own servants, against whom there were grievous charges.
The indecency and insult of this proceeding raised high resentment in
the House of Commons; and though Dempster and W. Burke, two of their
own members, ventured to avow their own share of the criminality,
justifying themselves as proprietors, (a character which surely, as
judges, they ought to have avoided,) yet the moderation of Conway
prevented the House from proceeding to rigour and censure, though he
said with firmness, that if the Company should hang out the flag of
defiance, he should be ready to meet it. The directors were ordered to
give an account the next day of what had passed.
On the eighth the directors appeared at the bar of the House, and owned
that they had disapproved of making a dividend in the present situation
of their affairs, and pending the negotiation with Parliament. Dyson,
on this, moved for leave to bring in a bill for regulating the making
of dividends.
It was on that day, and on that occasion, that Charles Townshend
displayed in a latitude beyond belief the amazing powers of his
capacity, and the no less amazing incongruities of his character.
He had taken on himself, early in the day, the examination of the
Company’s conduct; and in a very cool sensible speech on that occasion,
and with a becoming consciousness of his own levity, had told the House
that he hoped he had atoned for the inconsideration of his past life
by the care he had taken of that business. He had scarce uttered this
speech, but, as if to atone for that (however false) atonement, he
left the House and went home to dinner, not concerning himself with
Dyson’s motion that was to follow. As that motion was, however, of a
novel nature, it produced suspicion, objection and difficulties. Conway
being pressed, and not caring to be the sole champion of an invidious
measure, that was in reality not only in Townshend’s province, but
which he had had a principal hand in framing, sent for him back to
the House. He returned about eight in the evening, half-drunk with
champagne, and more intoxicated with spirits. He rose to speak without
giving himself time to learn, and without caring what had been in
agitation, except that the motion had given an alarm. The first thing
he did, was to call God to witness that he had not been consulted
on the motion,--a confession implying that he was not consulted on
a business in his own department; and the more marvellous, as the
disgrace of which he seemed to complain or boast of, was absolutely
false. There were sitting round him twelve persons who had been in
consultation with him that very morning, and with his assistance had
drawn up the motion on his own table, and who were petrified at his
most unparalleled effrontery and causeless want of truth. When he sat
down again, Conway asked him softly, how he could affirm so gross a
falsehood? He replied carelessly, “I thought it would be better to say
so;” but before he sat down, he had poured forth a torrent of wit,
parts, humour, knowledge, absurdity, vanity, and fiction, heightened
by all the graces of comedy, the happiness of allusion and quotation,
and the buffoonery of farce. To the purpose of the question he said
not a syllable. It was a descant on the times, a picture of parties,
of their leaders, of their hopes, and defects. It was an encomium and
a satire on himself; and while he painted the pretensions of birth,
riches, connexions, favour, titles; while he affected to praise Lord
Rockingham, and that faction, and yet insinuated that nothing but parts
like his own were qualified to preside; and while he less covertly
arraigned the wild incapacity of Lord Chatham,[9] he excited such
murmurs of wonder, admiration, applause, laughter, pity, and scorn,
that nothing was so true as the sentence with which he concluded, when
speaking of Government; he said, it was become what he himself had
often been called, a weathercock.
Such was the wit, abundance, and impropriety of this speech, that for
some days men could talk or inquire of nothing else. “Did you hear
Charles Townshend’s champagne speech?” was the universal question. For
myself, I protest it was the most singular pleasure of the kind I ever
tasted. The bacchanalian enthusiasm of Pindar flowed in torrents less
rapid and less eloquent, and inspires less delight, than Townshend’s
imagery, which conveyed meaning in every sentence. It was Garrick
writing and acting extempore scenes of Congreve. A light circumstance
increased the mirth of the audience. In the fervour of speaking
Townshend rubbed off the patch from his eye, which he had represented
as grievously cut three days before: no mark was discernible, but to
the nearest spectators a scratch so slight, that he might have made,
and perhaps had made it himself with a pin.[10] To me the entertainment
of the day was complete. He went to supper with us at Mr. Conway’s,
where, the flood of his gaiety not being exhausted, he kept the table
in a roar till two in the morning, by various sallies and pictures, the
last of which was a scene in which he mimicked inimitably his own wife,
and another great lady with whom he fancied himself in love, and both
whose foibles and manner he counterfeited to the life. Mere lassitude
closed his lips at last, not the want of wit and new ideas.
To solve the contrast of such parts and absurdity in the same
composition, one is almost tempted to have recourse to that system of
fairy manicheism, wherein no sooner has one benevolent being endowed
the hero of the tale with supernatural excellence, but a spiteful hag
of equal omnipotence dashes the irrevocable gift with some counter
qualification, which serves to render the accomplished prince a monster
of contradictions.
It was not less worth reflection, that, while this phenomenon of genius
was, perniciously to himself, and uselessly to his country, lavishing
an unexampled profusion of parts on wanton buffoonery, only to excite
transient and barren applause; the restorer of his country was lurking
in darkness and shrouding a haughty sterility of talents from the
public eye, under the veil of frenzy or untractable obstinacy. The
simplicity of a great character was wanting both to Lord Chatham and
Townshend.