Proposal to Tax the Colonies.--Debate on American Affairs.--Passing
of the Resolutions.--The House comes to an Agreement with the
East India Company.--Private Affairs of Lord Chatham.--Motion
for Papers relative to Quebec in the House of Lords.--State of
Catholicism in England.--Strength of the Opposition in the House
of Lords.--Weakness of the Administration.--Attempts made to
strengthen it.
1767.
On the 13th of May came on at last the great American questions.
Charles Townshend had already hinted, when he opened the budget, at new
taxes which he proposed to lay on the Colonies. He now opened them;
and very inadequate indeed did they prove, even in calculation, to
the loss of a shilling in the pound on land, part of which deficiency
they were intended to supply. Being so inconsiderable, and estimated
by himself as likely to produce but from 35,000_l._ to 40,000_l._
a-year, the House too lightly adopted his plan before it had been
well weighed, and the fatal consequences of which did not break out
till six years after. A concurrent cause weighed with many, and added
weight to the arguments of more, for inflicting a kind of punishment
on the refractory Colonies, some of which had stubbornly refused to
comply with the late Act enjoining them to make provision for the
army, with other parliamentary injunctions. Massachusets Bay had,
as I have said, taken upon themselves to execute the Act in their
own names, and on their own sole authority. This deed Townshend said
the Privy Council had advised his Majesty to annul. That Colony
contained a set of men disposed to inflame all the rest. He stated
fully, clearly, and with both authority and moderation, these several
topics; and concluded, he said, that many would think he proposed
too little, others too much. The Mutiny Bill had been opposed almost
everywhere; but Pennsylvania, and some few Colonies, had executed all
our orders. He wished he could name any more instances. New Jersey had
avoided the Act by appointing commissioners, with injunctions to act
_according to the custom of the provinces_. New York was so opulent
that he thought they ought to be kept in dependence. General Gage,
accordingly, was sending troops thither. Yet did the New Yorkists
commend themselves and boast that they could not remember the time when
they had refused aid to Britain. They had resolved, that if they should
grant the present demand, it _might_ exceed their abilities. This was
an extraordinary excuse. More contemptuously still, they promised
aid on the requisition of the Crown, but said nothing of Parliament.
Were these, he asked, the descendants of those men who had fled from
prerogative to America? Yet even this gracious compliance they held
themselves at liberty to refuse, if not in proportions to the other
provinces: if unreasonable--nay, if inconvenient. They would insist,
too, on his Majesty’s repaying what they should furnish to his troops,
when he should think proper. He would not read, he said, the letters to
their Governor, Sir Henry More, as too inflammatory. To comply, they
alleged, would be very serious; yet desired Sir Henry to represent
their obedience favourably. The Massachusets termed our acts _our_
ordinances, and asserted their own rights of taxation. Many they had
discountenanced and frightened from their assembly. Governor Bernard,
he believed, was a little heated against them;[11] yet the facts which
he charged on them were true. In general, it did not become Parliament
to engage in controversy with its Colonies, but by one act to assert
its sovereignty. He warned the House to beware lest the provinces
engaged in a common cause. Our right of taxation was indubitable; yet
himself had been for repealing the Stamp Act to prevent mischief.
Should their disobedience return, the authority of Parliament had
been weakened, and unless supported with spirit and dignity, must be
destroyed. The salaries of governors and judges in that part of the
world must be made independent of their assemblies; but he advised
the House to confine their resolutions to the offending provinces.
Pennsylvania was an answer to New York. New Jersey had limited the sum,
but had not said it would not comply. He thought it would be prudent
to inflict censure on New York alone; that some burthen ought to be
lightened at home, and imposed on America. He had hinted at taxes; he
would name some, though not as Chancellor of the Exchequer. They were
duties on wine, oil, and fruits from Spain and Portugal as they come
back; on china; and to take off the drawback on glass, paper, lead,
and colours. A commissioner of the customs, too, would be necessary in
America. Parliament ought to exercise its authority; but not contrary
to the constitution of the provinces. He then moved a resolution that
New York had disobeyed the Act, and that, till they should comply, the
Governor should be restrained from passing _any_ act of their Assembly.
This, he owned, some had said would be confounding the innocent and the
guilty, and would dissolve their Assembly. On the contrary, others had
advised to block up harbours and quarter soldiers, but himself could
bear to hear of nothing military. Some were for a local tax; but that
would be to accept penalty in lieu of obedience.
This speech,[12] so consonant to the character of a man of business,
and so unlike the wanton sallies of the man of parts and pleasure, was
(however modified) but too well calculated to inflame the passions
of a legislature whose authority was called in question, and who are
naturally not prone to weigh the effusions of men entitled to as much
freedom as themselves, while in an apparent situation of dependence.
_Authority never measures liberty downwards_. Rarely is liberty
supposed to mean the independence of those below us; it is our own
freedom from the yoke of superiors. The Peer dreads the King, the
Commoner the Peer; the Americans the Parliament. Each American trader
thought himself a Brutus, a Hampden, while he wrestled with the House
of Commons; yet his poor negroes felt that their master, Brutus, was a
worse tyrant than Nero or Muley Ishmael. Had the Parliament of England
presumed by one god-like act to declare all the slaves in our Colonies
freemen, not a patriot in America but would have clamoured against
the violation of property, and protested that to abolish the power of
imposing chains was to impose them. O man! man! dare not to vaunt your
virtue, while self-interest lurks in every pore!
The above speech could but expand the narrow heart of Grenville with
triumph. It is a prophet’s holiday when woes accomplish his prediction.
As mortifying was it to Conway and Lord Rockingham’s party, who had
served their American brethren to so little purpose: yet they contended
still for moderate measures. Dowdeswell represented that the House
was not acquainted with the state of the laws in the Colonies, and
which of them it would be necessary to repeal: he said, he should
rather incline to enforce and amend the late Act. Beckford pleaded
for the Colonies, and affirmed that they had the better of Bernard in
every argument. Whether he spoke as by birth an American, or whether
by concert with Lord Chatham, that while the Ministers humbled the
Colonies, his lordship might still be supposed favourable to them, is
uncertain,--such a duplicity from his silence ran through the whole of
that his second administration. He seemed to be playing the despot,
and laying in at the same time for future patriotism. Burke roundly
imputed the plan to him, and called it weak, as resolutions ought to
be followed by deeds; and therefore, he said, he should oppose both.
He arraigned the idea of dissolving their Assemblies, at the same time
that the House seemed to allow them as a co-ordinate power, since
the execution of the Act was to depend on their acquiescence. Yet the
suspension of all their laws would fall heavier on the innocent, than
the punishment could on the guilty; and what effect would the penalty
have? Would not the turbulent be re-chosen? He advised a new model of
their police.
Grenville opposed by outgoing the proposals of the ministry, and said,
no moderation was to be suffered, when the authority of Parliament was
resisted. He knew that when they saw the Stamp Act repealed, they would
laugh at declarations. Lord Chatham had declared, should they still
resist, he would fill their harbours with ships and their towns with
soldiers. The declaration of the Lords had not been sent over. Bernard
had stated the requisition in the words of both Houses--Mr. Conway had
not; whether it was that he saw the fire kindled, and chose to retire.
Lord Shelburne had power to control the impertinent representation
of the Board of Trade. Lord Shelburne’s letter should be considered
hereafter. Bernard had begged for instructions in case of rebellion;
no answer had been sent to him. He supposed the Secretaries of State
would continue to represent the resolutions of Parliament as they had
done. The encouragement the provinces had met with, had excited them
to proceed in disobedience; yet, could no better be obtained, himself
would concur even in these means of enforcing submission. If the House
would support its magistrates there with no force, it were better to
pass no act. On the late seizures of corn, force had been employed
at home. He would advise the imposing on the Assembly-men an oath of
acknowledging the sovereignty of Great Britain, and on all men in the
Colonies. The taxes proposed, he thought, would be subversive of the
Act of Navigation. He would lay a tax on paper currency.
Conway replied, that he had not followed Mr. Grenville from office to
office to hunt out his faults or errors, nor had been employed in such
mean revenge; while men, by his orders, were dragged out of their beds
by general warrants. No order had been sent to himself from the House
of Lords to be transmitted to the Colonies; yet, as appeared, that
order had been transmitted. The Colonies were not mere corporations;
their charters gave them legislative power. On taxes they would always
be tender. The measure proposed to be taken with the Assemblies, he
thought, at once too violent and inefficient. Some provinces had
actually done more than they had been required to do.
Charles Townshend declared he could not approve a general oath or test
that should comprehend all the Colonies. Of a tax on paper currency he
had had some thoughts. Yorke said, he thought, though the Chief Justice
Wilmot was of a different opinion, that the Privy Council could and
ought to annul the Act of the Massachusets.
Rigby dropped the question to satirize the Court. He wished he
knew who it was that framed our ministries. He and his friends
had been turned out from that ignorance. Europe must take us for
a nation of ministries, while by our actions it must think we had
no administration. Formerly we had annual parliaments; now annual
ministries: yet, though so many ministries were dismissed, no crime was
alleged against any. Let it be known who it was possessed that latent
power. He told the House that, in the Congress at New York, it had
been agreed to erect a statue to Lord Chatham. It had been afterwards
proposed to erect one to the King; no man had seconded the motion.
Wedderburn said it was faction that had the ruling influence, and
that Lord Bute must consequently have a large system. Conway declared
himself for a local tax on the disobedient.
To Townshend’s third resolution, Grenville proposed an amendment for
bringing in a bill to amend the late Act.[13] On this the House divided
at one in the morning, when the Court party rejected the amendment
by 180 to 98; Conway voting with Grenville and the Rockinghams in
opposition to Townshend’s question, though with different views,--the
former wishing to add rigour to the Act, the others to new-model
it. It will be seen in the votes what taxes were laid. The harsher
intentions were dropped, but the taxes produced sufficient evil.
The violence of Rigby’s invective against Lord Bute was imputed to
the latter’s rejection of new overtures from the Bedford faction.
Wedderburn’s outrage was still more remarkable; when he, who had been a
creature of the Favourite, pointed out his influence, who could doubt
its existence? Yet the accusation was more odious from a tool than
the crime of the accused. Conway was not at all supported by his old
friends, when attacked by Grenville. They were offended at his agreeing
with Wedderburn in imputing all the late changes to faction; yet had
he added that if there was a secret influence, nobody lamented it more
than he did. Charles Townshend, at the same time, not only threatened
to resign, but falsely affirmed he had offered his resignation to the
King, who would not accept it. Conway dreaded its being said that he
remained in place with all denominations of men. I satisfied him (and
so it proved) that Townshend spoke not a word of truth; and I showed
him how incumbent it was on him to carry through the East Indian
business, which nothing but his temper could bring to an accommodation.
In this I rendered an essential service to my country. Conway did
perfect the agreement; and the Parliament at last accepted 400,000_l._
a-year for two years.[14]
On the report of the American resolutions agreed to by the committee,
Grenville, Conway, and the opponents proposed to recommit them, but
were overruled; Charles Townshend making an admirably witty and
pathetic speech to prevent a division. Fitzherbert[15] took notice
that Mr. Conway’s dissent would be likely to do more harm than the
resolutions could do good. Grenville then moved his test to oblige
the Americans to acknowledge the sovereignty of Great Britain, but it
was rejected by 141 to 40. Three days after this, arrived an account
that Georgia had refused to comply with the Act in stronger terms than
any other Colony, and that South Carolina would probably be equally
disobedient.
At this period came to my knowledge a transaction, at which I have
already hinted, and which in truth at that time persuaded me of the
reality of Lord Chatham’s madness. When he inherited Sir William
Pynsent’s estate, he removed to it and sold his house and grounds
at Hayes, a place on which he had wasted prodigious sums, and
which yet retained small traces of expense, great part having been
consumed in purchasing contiguous tenements to free himself from all
neighbourhood. Much had gone in doing and undoing, and not a little
portion in planting by torch-light, as his peremptory and impatient
temper could brook no delay. Nor were these the sole circumstances
that marked his caprice. His children he could not bear under the same
roof, nor communications from room to room, nor whatever he thought
promoted noise. A winding passage between his house and children was
built with the same view. When at the beginning of this his second
administration, he fixed at North End by Hampstead, he took four or
five houses successively, as fast as Mr. Dingley, his landlord, went
into them, still, as he said, to ward off the noises of neighbourhood.
His inconsiderate promptitude was not less remarkable at Pynsent. A
bleak hill bounded his view; he ordered his gardener to have it planted
with evergreens; the man asked, “With what sorts?” He replied, “With
cedars and cypresses.” “Bless me, my lord!” replied the gardener,
“all the nurseries in this county (Somersetshire) would not furnish
a hundredth-part.” “No matter; send for them from London;” and they
were fetched by land-carriage. Yet were these follies committed when
no suspicion was had of his disorder. But by these and other caprices
he had already consumed more than half of the legacy of Pynsent. His
very domestic and abstemious privacy bore a considerable article in
his housekeeping. His sickly and uncertain appetite was never regular,
and his temper could put up with no defect. Thence a succession of
chickens were boiling and roasting at every hour to be ready whenever
he should call. He now, as if his attention to business demanded his
vicinity to town, bent his fancy to the repossession of Hayes, which
he had sold to my cousin, Mr. Thomas Walpole. The latter, under great
inquietude, showed me letters he had received from Lady Chatham,
begging in the most pathetic terms that he would sell them Hayes again.
She urged that it would save her children from destruction; and that
her children’s children would be bound to pray for him; requesting
that he would take some days to consider before he refused. He did;
and then wrote to her that he was very averse from parting with the
place, on which he had laid out much money; but if the air of Hayes
was the object, Lord Chatham was welcome to go thither directly for a
month, or for the whole summer; that he would immediately remove his
family, who were there, and Lord Chatham would find it well aired. This
she declined accepting. Mr. Walpole then sent Nuthall[16] to her.
She, who had never appeared to have a will or thought of her own, but
to act with submission at her lord’s nod, now received Nuthall alone,
and besought him not to own to her lord that she had yet received
any letter from Mr. Walpole, but to deliver it as just arrived, if
Lord Chatham should ask for the answer, and then carried him to her
lord. He seemed in health and reasonable; but asking if Nuthall knew
anything about Hayes, and being told the contents of the letter, he
said, with a sigh, “That might have saved me.” Lady Chatham, seeming
to be alarmed, said, “My lord, I was talking to Mr. Nuthall on that
subject; we will go and finish our discourse;” and carried him out
of the room. She then told him they had agreed to sell the Wiltshire
estate (part of Pynsent’s), and with part of the produce re-purchase
Hayes, which, however, they must mortgage, for they owed as much as the
sale would amount to. Mr. Walpole, distressed between unwillingness to
part with Hayes, and apprehension that Lord Chatham’s ill-health would
be imputed to him, as that air might have been a remedy, consulted the
Chancellor. The latter, on hearing the story, said, “Then he is mad,”
and sent for James Grenville. Asking when he had seen Lord Chatham,
Grenville replied, “The day before, and had found him much better.”
Lord Camden said, “Did he mention Hayes?” “Yes,” said Grenville, “and
then his discourse grew very ferocious.” No doubt there was something
in these words of Grenville that had the air of a part acted: one can
scarce believe a brother-in-law would have been so frank, had there
been no concerted plan in the phrenzy; yet what wonder if anything
seemed more credible than the fictitious madness of a first minister
in no difficult situation? From this period the few reports of the
few who had access to him, concurred in representing him as sedate,
conversable, even cheerful, till any mention was made of politics:
then he started, fell into tremblings, and the conversation was broken
off. When the session was closed, these reports wore away; and as he
remained above a year in close confinement at Hayes, unconsulting, and
by degrees unconsulted, he and his lunacy were totally forgotten, till
new interests threatened his re-appearance, which after many delays at
length happened, though with no solution given by any friend of so long
a suspension of sense or common sense. Mr. Walpole had yielded Hayes.
On the 18th the General Court of India Proprietors imitating and
actuated by members of Parliament, took a violent step, and at eleven
at night when all were retired but one hundred and fifty, balloted for
a petition against the Bill to regulate dividends; and so impetuous
were they, that they ordered the ballot should be closed at midnight.
Two persons protested against that measure. Such indecent behaviour
being stated to the House of Commons the next day, the petition was
rejected: but new proposals made by the directors were well accepted,
and the accommodation was voted on the 22nd.
On the 21st the Duke of Richmond moved the Lords for papers relating
to a plan for a Civil Government at Quebec. It had been drawn by the
last ministers, and delivered to Lord Northington for his opinion,
who had never thought more on the subject. The motion was levelled at
him; and to please the Rockinghams, the Bedfords consulted with them
at Richmond-House previous to the motion: but it was baffled by giving
them the papers, after Lord Sandwich had been personally offensive in
his speech to the Duke of Grafton. Lord Gower the next day renewed the
question on the Act of the Assembly of Massachusets. It had been set
aside by the Privy Council, but not declared void _ab initio_, as Lord
Mansfield urged it ought to be, and as Lord Chief Justice Wilmot now
maintained too, though he had twice given his opinion to the contrary;
yet, though preferred by the Chancellor, he had now been gained by
Mansfield. It was a day of much expectation. The Opposition had even
hopes of success, having moved for papers which would resolve the
House into a committee, in which proxies are never counted; and in
proxies lay the material strength of the Court, who, if beaten, could
only have recovered the question on the report. Lord Mansfield, to
interpose solemnity, proposed, as his way was, that the Judges should
be consulted, and spoke with singular art and subtlety, disclaiming a
spirit of opposition. The Chancellor and Lord Northington treated him
most severely, the former taxing him directly with faction, and telling
him the motion was complicated, involved, irregular, and yet betraying
the marks of a lawyer. He quoted, too, a case in point in which the
late Lord Hardwicke had been of a contrary opinion. The House sat till
near ten, a late hour for that assembly, when the motion was rejected
by only 62 to 56. The day was made memorable by the Duke of York, who
spoke, and very poorly, against the Court, but did not stay to vote.
The two other Princes voted with their brother’s Administration. Seven
bishops were in the minority,--the consequence of the Crown permitting
great lords to nominate to bishopricks: the reverend fathers sometimes
having at least gratitude, or farther expectations, if they have no
patriotism. The Judges said afterwards that they would have excused
themselves from delivering their opinions, as the matter might come
before them in the Courts below.
The same day the Earl of Radnor proposed that the bishops should give
in the numbers of Papists in their several dioceses, which was ordered,
and much evaded by the Catholics. In fact, there was no singular
increase of that sect. Many Jesuits had fled hither on the demolition
of their order; but it was not a moment to make Popery formidable.
It was wearing out in England by the loss of their chief patrons,
the Catholic Peers, whose number was considerably diminished. The
Duchess of Norfolk,[17] a zealous, though not a religious woman, of
a very confused understanding, and who believed herself more artful
than she was, contributed, almost singly, to conversions, by bribes
and liberality to the poor. But Rome was reduced to be defensive; and
unless, as I apprehend, the Methodists are secret Papists, and no doubt
they copy, build on, and extend their rites towards that model, Popery
will not revive here, when it is falling to decay in its favourite
regions.
Another motion being made on the Massachuset’s Act on the 26th, Lord
Denbigh treated Lord Mansfield in still harsher terms than he had
experienced the last day. Lord Egmont spoke well against the same
person. The Duke of Bedford complained much of secret influence (Lord
Bute’s), and so assiduous had the Opposition been, that the Court had
a majority but of three voices--65 to 62.[18] The Duke of York was
absent, as was said, by the interposition of the Princess, his mother,
who had accompanied her reprimand with very bitter reproaches.
In the Commons much heat passed on the Dividend Bill, on which Dyson,
as manager,--and now become a very forward manager,--grew most
obnoxious to the Opposition, and the subject of many libels: but his
abilities and the strength of the Court carried the Bill through,
though even the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Conway, Secretary of
State, were inclined to show more favour to the proprietors. Another
proof of what Lord Chatham might have done, when so subordinate a
placeman as Dyson could lead the House of Commons against the chief
ministers there, when they disagreed with the measures of the Court.
These circumstances, however, the small majority in the Lords, the
variations of Townshend and Conway, and the want of dignity in wanting
a leader of the House of Commons, seemed to call for some speedy
change. I even feared that Conway would go into Opposition. He would
not, he said, resemble Lord Granby, and serve by turns under everybody.
Yet was he ill content with his old friends, who persisted in a
junction with Grenville for fear of Bute. The Duke of Grafton himself,
who could not penetrate to Lord Chatham, thought some change necessary.
Lord Northington, alarmed for himself by the attack on the Canada
papers, and apt to scent decay in a ministry, told Lord Hertford the
present system could not hold. I engaged Lord Hertford to warn the King
not to open his closet precipitately on Lord Northington’s alarm. But
I was not without apprehension myself on meeting the Duke of Grafton
returning very privately from Richmond,--nothing being so unusual as
his Majesty’s seeing any ministers there. The King had sent for him and
insisted on his seeing Lord Chatham the next day. The Duke was very
inquisitive to know how Lord Chatham was: I told the Duke he would find
him much disordered. The Duke said to me, “If we can beat them well in
the House of Lords next Tuesday, perhaps we may get the Bedfords.”
I was struck, and concluded that Lord Bute was terrified at the Duke
of Bedford’s and Rigby’s late attacks; or that Lord Northington had
alarmed both him and the King; but Lord Hertford assured me that the
Duke’s own propensity lay towards the Bedfords.
On the 1st of June, Mr. Conway moved the House to grant 11,000_l._ to
Prince Ferdinand. The Prince had expended so much of his own money
for the immediate necessities of the army, intending to pay himself
out of the chest of contributions, with which the late King had
solely entrusted him: a German, who had the care of it, had run away
and left no money. The debt to the Prince had been delivered in with
the general accounts; and when the debts were liquidated with the
Hanoverian Chancery, both sides pretended to a balance in their own
favour. Grenville had given notice to have all debts brought in within
a year. So many disputes had arisen after the account was closed, that
the Treasury informed Prince Ferdinand they could not pay him, he must
apply to Parliament. Dowdeswell had prevented Mr. Conway from applying
for the debt the last year, and now, with Grenville and Rigby, opposed
the reimbursement of the Prince, insisting the money had been paid to
the Hanoverian Chancery, and that he must get it thence. Lord Granby
was violent against this refusal, but the House was as much averse to
paying the money. Samuel Martin, who by order of Grenville’s Treasury,
as their Secretary, had written to Prince Ferdinand an approbation
of his accounts, being called upon, said very impertinently, he had
emptied his head of all that trash and trumpery--and went out of
the House. Conway and even Grenville, took severe notice of that
expression, which Dyson defended; he and Martin either resenting
Conway’s opposition to the Dividend Bill, or obeying the secret
ill-will of the Court to the House of Brunswick. Dowdeswell calling for
some necessary papers, the business was put off for some days.
The Duke of Grafton found Lord Chatham, as he thought, incurably
nervous, and so unfit to continue minister, that the Duke himself
talked of quitting too.[19] He told Mr. Conway and me that he had
never seen the King so much agitated; that his Majesty was not
disinclined to take Lord Rockingham, but protested he had almost rather
resign his crown than consent to receive George Grenville again. I was
much more surprised when the Duke proposed to call in Lord Rockingham
and his friends as a support to the then Administration; and to make
Mr. Yorke President of the Council, in the room of Lord Northington.
I told his Grace that Lord Rockingham and his party would listen to
no junction with Lord Chatham. The Duke was of the same opinion,
and seemed to have thrown it out only to mark his fidelity to the
latter, whom, he said, he could not propose to dismiss, Lord Chatham
having told him that morning he would not retire but by his Majesty’s
command. I asked the Duke whether, if Lord Chatham continued, his
Grace would not remain in place, rather than throw all again to the
hazard? He seemed to allow he would: yet said, Lord Rockingham and
his friends would not be sufficient addition. I replied, “My Lord,
that is what they say themselves, and therefore would bring Grenville
and the Bedfords: but the fact is not so. They would now be so much
stronger than last year, as the King would not now have an option to
make between them and Lord Chatham; and therefore Lord Bute would be
obliged to support them now, as what he hates most is the connection
of Grenville and the Bedfords.” I earnestly begged the Duke to make
no overtures to Lord Rockingham till the session was closed, as the
distance of six or seven months to another session would make him and
his followers more tractable. The Duke was desirous of getting rid of
Lord Shelburne; and it was plain would have accorded all they could
wish to the Rockinghams, if on one hand Lord Chatham and Lord Camden,
and on the other Lord Bute’s friends, might be suffered to remain in
their places.
In the mean time the Opposition had mustered all their forces for
another battle in the House of Lords. In such manœuvres Sandwich and
Rigby were excellent; and Lord Rockingham himself, who had been so
indolent a minister, was become as industrious a partisan as either of
them. Accordingly, on the 2nd of June the Duke of Richmond made three
motions; one, a resolution that there ought to be a civil government
established in Canada; the others implied censure on the neglect, and
were aimed at Lord Northington. The latter denied his having thrice
refused to attend the Council on that business; but the Duke of
Richmond proved upon him that he had even written that refusal to Lord
Winchelsea, the then President of the Council. Lord Mansfield did not
appear in the debate, so deeply had he felt his late treatment. The
Ministers rejected the motions by 73 to 61. This was reckoned a great
victory after the Court had been so hard run in the last division. Both
sides agreed to adjourn for ten days, considering the heat and lateness
of the season.
The King, who, to please the Duke of Grafton, had seemed to give in to
the measure of sending for Lord Rockingham, now wrote to Lord Chatham
to press him to continue in place. To Mr. Conway his Majesty was
profuse of his favour,--told him he knew his intention of resignation
was from a point of honour and adherence to a rash promise,--begged
Conway not to distress him by quitting before the end of the
session,--offered him any military boons,--and owned he wished Lord
Edgcumbe had not been turned out. Conway replied, he hoped another
time his Majesty would follow his own excellent judgment. To Lord
Hertford the King declared he would submit to neither faction; would
take some of Lord Rockingham’s friends, if they would be reasonable;
but Grenville he would never forgive; and at last said, emphatically,
“My lord, you will see a strange scene!” Conway was touched with the
King’s behaviour, and said that, as soon as he had resigned, he would
tell Lord Rockingham that he had acquitted his promises to them, and
should have no farther connection with them. I told him there were many
independent men who would not sit still and see the closet taken by
storm. No, he replied, it was what he himself and the Rockinghams had
come in two years before to prevent.
Finding how unacceptable the motion in Prince Ferdinand’s favour had
been to the House, Conway dropped it, and the King gave the Prince a
pension of two thousand pounds a-year. It had been suspected that his
Highness had made great advantage by the war; but he had pressed so
earnestly for this money, that Conway believed him not rich, and was
afraid of his being disgusted and gained by France, from which Court he
had rejected the most shining offers.[20]
After the recess at Whitsuntide, the lords of the Opposition engaged
warmly against the Dividend Bill, and had frequent and late sittings,
which still protracted the session. The Duke of Richmond was the chief
manager, and even moved for a conference with the Commons, to know why
the latter had passed the bill, but was beaten by 98 to 51, the Duke
of York voting in the minority: but the Bedfords were much cooled.
The Duchess and Lord Gower perceiving the Court much at a loss to
recruit or prop up the Administration, thought the opportunity fair
for making their peace, and Lord Gower even went during the holidays
to the Duke of Grafton, at Wakefield-lodge. The Duke provoked at the
Duke of Richmond, and already hostile to him by the rivalship of age
and relationship,[21] offered Lord Gower any terms for himself and his
friends, only with the exclusion of Grenville. Rigby would not abandon
Grenville, and prevailed on the Duke of Bedford to say they would not
come in to be turned out again in six months, and therefore should
previously insist on the dismission of Lord Bute’s creatures. The Duke
of Grafton desired Lord Gower to reconsider his offers--if refused, the
Rockinghams would accept. Mr. Conway and I saw the bad policy of this
conduct, and that the Bedfords would plead merit to the Rockinghams in
their refusal, and would encourage the latter to stipulate too, which
they were enough inclined to do for the same dismission of Lord Bute’s
people.
The Dividend Bill was carried in the committee by 60 to 41. Lord
Mansfield had returned to that contest, and with Lord Lyttelton and
Lord Temple combated the bill eagerly.[22] In the course of it, a
favourable account arrived from India of the Company’s affairs; yet the
Duke of Grafton would not relinquish the bill. Some few lords signed a
protest drawn by Burke, and corrected by Lord Mansfield.