Affair of Colonel Brereton with the Duke of Grafton.--Tax on
Absentees.--Character of Lord Weymouth.--Attempted Treaty with
Grenville.--Successful one with the Bedfords.--Case of the Duke
of Portland.--Dunning made Solicitor-General.--Resignation of
Conway.--Affair of Lord Bottetort.--Corruption of the Corporation
of Oxford.--Bill for Septennial Parliaments in Ireland.--Attempts
to repress Bribery at Elections.--Bill to restrain the Recovery of
Crown Lands.--Dissolution of Parliament.
1767.
In the midst of this treaty the Duke of Grafton embarked himself in
a very ugly affair. One Brereton, a gamester, and not of the best
character even in that profession, which he had assumed on quitting the
army, declared publicly that, as he was betting on a game at whist at
Newmarket, he had seen Vernon and Meynell, the two negotiators, then
playing the game, cheat in concert. He offered to prove his assertion
with his sword, or in a court of justice. The accused bore the insult.
Brereton then wrote to Vernon, that having borne the King’s commission
he ought to have acted with more spirit, and demanded satisfaction.
Vernon declined giving it. It was not believed that they had cheated;
but their want of spirit was notorious. Other circumstances were
unfavourable to them. Meynell’s father had created a large fortune by
play, and nobody doubted but by unfair play. Vernon supported a great
expense by his skill in horse-racing. The Duke of Grafton took up their
cause with zeal; and summoning the Jockey Club[56] at a tavern in
Pall-mall, where it was usually held, he, at the head of a great many
men of the first quality, set their names to the expulsion of Brereton,
and caused their act to be printed in the public newspapers,--a
proceeding so unbecoming the dignity of the Duke’s situation and so
likely to expose him to Brereton’s resentment, that I had still so
much regard for him left, as to engage Mr. Conway to persuade him from
taking so indecent a step; but the Duke was inflexible.
About the same time arrived from Ireland a bill for imposing a tax
of four shillings in the pound on the pensions and places of all who
resided in England. It was undoubtedly a great grievance on Ireland,
that so much of their treasure was spent out of the country. The
Opposition there wished even to extend the tax to estates. The English
Government was become so indulgent as to intend allowing Septennial
Parliaments to that kingdom--but this bill was exceedingly unwelcome
here. The Commons of Ireland had passed it, hoping the Lords would
throw it out. The Lords, trusting in the same manner to the extreme
probability of its not receiving the assent of the Lord-Lieutenant,
had, in hopes of popularity, suffered the bill to pass through their
House too. Lord Frederick Campbell, Lord Townshend’s secretary, had
made no objection; and Lord Townshend himself, not to risk the odium
which all the rest had shifted from themselves, gave his assent
likewise. Councils were held here to seek means of defeating the bill,
but to no purpose. The Privy Council of England must either reject or
correct the bill. Should the Irish Parliament reject the amendments,
the bill must drop entirely; and as they had tacked the new imposition
to the bill for settling the revenue, the Crown would lose its whole
revenue for two years if the bill did not pass. The King was obliged to
give his consent.
As this bill not only fell heavy on Rigby’s post of Master of the
Rolls in Ireland, but would likewise affect that of Vice-Treasurer,
which was destined to him in the new arrangement, he grew difficult
and began to throw obstructions in the way of the treaty he had set on
foot. He should be ridiculed, he said, for acting under Mr. Conway,
and, therefore, if he did, would be well paid for it; that the Ministry
might yet have him, if they would make him Paymaster. To back his game
with threats, he notified his intention of proposing a call of the
House against the day on which the land-tax was to be voted, as if he
meant to reduce it lower, and called on Lord North to specify the day.
The latter said, he had already given notice that it was to be voted on
the following Wednesday.
Lord Hertford now told me he had acquainted the King with my intimation
of an intended treaty, who was much surprised, and protested he had
heard nothing of it. The Duke of Grafton had signified to Mr. Conway
that he had in general apprised his Majesty,--but his Grace was not
always strictly correct in what he said. He had certainly encouraged
the Bedfords to expect Mr. Conway’s resignation, and had imparted to
them his own desire of dismissing Lord Shelburne. On this they had
flattered themselves with obtaining the Seals of both Secretaries,
intending that Sandwich should be one. In truth, the preference they
gave to Lord Weymouth was both unjust and injudicious. Lord Sandwich,
by age, rank, experience, by having already been Secretary of State,
by having suffered with them in a common cause, and by very superior
abilities and activity, had every pretension to take place of Lord
Weymouth: and, though the unpopularity of Lord Sandwich was, I believe,
the sole reason of their having set him aside, (unless might be added
that Rigby knew he could more easily govern Weymouth,) there was
nothing in Weymouth’s character that recommended his morality. He was a
prompt and graceful speaker of a few apt sentences, which, coming from
a young and handsome figure, attracted more applause than they merited.
Yet, considering the life he led, his parts must naturally have been
very good; for sitting up nightly, gaming and drinking till six in the
morning, and rising thus heated after noon, it was extraordinary that
he was master of himself, or of what little he knew. His great fortune
he had damaged by such profuse play, that his house was often full of
bailiffs; and he had exposed himself to receive such pressing letters
and in such reproachful terms, that his spirit was as much doubted,
as what is called his point of honour among gentlemen-gamesters. He
was in private a close and sound reasoner, and good-humoured, under
a considerable appearance of pride; but having risen on such slender
merit, he seemed to think he possessed a sufficient stock, and
continued his course of life to the total neglect of the affairs of his
office, the business of which was managed, as much as it could be, by
Mr. Wood, his under-secretary.[57]
Whether Grenville had got wind of the negotiation, or whether he
acted in consequence of the separate plan he had formed, he and Lord
Temple attempted a private negotiation with Lord Hertford by the means
of Calcraft and Governor Walsh.[58] The latter beating about for an
opening, though he had desired a private meeting, told Lord Hertford
that the Duke of Bedford had declared to Mr. Grenville that his friends
were impatient for places; and then asked Lord Hertford whether his
Lordship did not think it best for Mr. Grenville to remain detached,
and whether there were no hopes of the Court pardoning him? Lord
Hertford, who was all caution, had kept on the reserve; but I persuaded
him to encourage these overtures. If the Bedfords were not to be had on
moderate terms, it would be wise to get the Grenvilles, and break the
Opposition that way: that Lord Temple might be President, and Grenville
Paymaster. He answered, that Lord Temple’s ambition now was a Dukedom.
I said, that would be a cheap purchase. Lord Hertford readily consented
to court the Grenvilles. This negotiation seemed to explain Grenville’s
late conduct, and intimated that his intentions had not been much more
faithful to his connection than Rigby’s actions; unless Grenville
had suddenly resorted to this new plan on the Duke of Bedford’s
declaration--which, indeed, would acquit him, the declaration, I
think, having been made the very day, or the day before the meeting
of Parliament. But Rigby got the start by plunging at once into the
treaty, while Grenville was preparing to soften the Court by affected
moderation.
The negotiation now growing public, I urged Mr. Conway to tell it to
his brother. He said he would in general; on which I thought myself at
liberty but I own with not very justifiable casuistry, and communicated
the whole to Lord Hertford, who agreed to prevent the King from making
too large concessions.
On the 9th, Mr. Conway proposed an increase of the troops in Ireland,
which was indeed in a most defenceless state. The motion was much
liked, though Wedderburn made a pompous speech against standing armies.
The latter, too, attempted to put off the land-tax, on pretence that
Mr. Grenville was ill; but he had sent Lord North word that he did not
disapprove it, and it passed unanimously for three shillings in the
pound. About the same time came an account from Boston, that they had
agreed to take no more of our manufactures.
On the 11th, the Bedfords, fearing too great obstinacy would marr
their traffic, consented to submit to Conway, but insisted on removing
Shelburne, at least from half his department, with some lesser demands.
Conway stickled for the latter; but Grafton wishing to get rid of him,
told Lord Shelburne himself that he must not keep both America and the
southern province. Shelburne asked him, with a sneer, how Lord Chatham
would approve that arrangement? The Duke replied, He was reduced to do
the best he could. Shelburne desired till next day to consider, and
then made his option of the southern department: but though the Duke
had left him his choice, he now told him he must stick to America;
on which Shelburne desired another day, and in the meantime sent an
express to Lord Chatham, and by his advice, probably, persisted in
retaining the southern province; on which the Duke of Grafton again
grew desirous that Conway should resign soon after Christmas, and leave
the northern province open for Lord Weymouth.
The King expressed no repugnance to admitting the Bedfords, but
declared against their having more than two places in the Cabinet, lest
they should obtain influence there. He told Conway he would not have
yielded so far, if he (Conway) would have staid in; but that knowing
his determination of quitting, he had consented to admit Gower and
Weymouth; “though,” added his Majesty, “I have tried that party once
before, and never can trust them again.” In fact, though the capital
objection at Court was to Grenville, and though Lord Bute and his
friends advised the acquisition of the Bedfords, to separate them from
Grenville, yet the Butists lamented the loss of Conway, (whose temper,
void of ambition, self-interest, and animosity, interfered so little
with their views,) and declared on every occasion that no other man was
so proper to be at the head of the House of Commons. The King, too,
finding a Garter was demanded for the Duke of Marlborough amongst other
new conditions, suddenly called a Chapter of the Order before the
treaty was concluded, and gave the only vacant riband to his brother,
the Duke of Cumberland: an evidence of his dislike of the Bedfords, the
more marked, as I do not remember an instance of a single Garter given
but to Lord Waldegrave.
The Chancellor was much offended at not being either consulted or
informed of the treaty in agitation; yet he prevented Lord Chatham from
resigning on the meditated disgrace of his creature, Lord Shelburne.
Lord Chatham had set out from Bath in great wrath: yet being persuaded
to acquiesce, his wife gave out that he had not returned on Lord
Shelburne’s message, but was coming before. He was, however, displeased
enough to remain in his old state of seclusion and inactivity.
Neither Sandwich nor Rigby were contented with Postmaster and
Vice-Treasurer, the posts designed for them; and the latter openly
paid court to Grenville, and in private disavowed to him having either
conducted or approved the treaty: yet, on a question relative to
East Indian affairs, Rigby left the House, and Grenville, Burke, and
Wedderburn, were beaten by 128 to 41.
The negotiation was at length completed on the 18th of December
on these terms:--Mr. Conway was to remain Secretary of State till
February, and then resign the Seals to Lord Weymouth. Lord Gower to be
President; Lord Sandwich, Postmaster; Rigby, Vice-Treasurer of Ireland,
with the promise of Paymaster on the first opportunity; a Garter
to the Duke of Marlborough, and a Baron’s Coronet to Mr. Brand,[59]
when any Peers should be created; with some less considerable places
for others of their dependants. Yet did even this arrangement cost
nine thousand, others said, fifteen thousand pounds, a-year to
Government. Lord Northington who enriched himself by every distress
and change, got three thousand pounds a-year for ceding the post of
President. Lord Hilsborough obtained as much for that of Postmaster,
and Oswald was indemnified for the temporary admission of Rigby to
the Vice-Treasurership; yet was Lord Bute displeased with Oswald’s
dismission, though the latter was fallen into a state of dotage, and
appeared no more.[60]
On the 21st the House of Commons adjourned to the 14th of January
for the holidays; the Lords to the 21st, to avoid entering on Lord
Weymouth’s motion for considering the state of the nation, which was
fixed for the 14th.
Grenville and his few remaining friends, whether lulled by Rigby, or
too weak to show resentment, declared they had no cause to complain. I
asked Lord Temple’s friend, Mr. W. Gerard Hamilton, if the Grenvilles
and Lord Chatham would not now be reconciled? He replied, Lord Temple
and Lord Chatham might, but George Grenville never would; that his love
of business and love of money would both yield to his obstinacy.
Many persons ascribed the suggestion of the treaty to Lord Mansfield,
and to his weariness of opposition, which was not his turn, and in
which his aversion to Lord Chatham had solely embarked him. He wished
to obtain a seat among the sixteen Scotch Peers in the new Parliament
for his nephew, Lord Stormont.[61] But it had been sufficient cause to
Lord Mansfield to promote this new settlement that it would, as it did
entirely, give the finishing blow to Lord Chatham’s Administration.
The Bedfords saved Lord Eglinton in the succeeding Parliament from
being omitted of the sixteen; but his place in the Bedchamber they did
not recover for him, promising their friend, Lord Bolingbroke,[62]
that office on the first opportunity. Lord Eglinton was shot two years
afterwards on his own estate by a poacher.
On the 23rd, Lord Gower kissed hands. The King, to show how well he
could dissemble, told him he had never been happy since they parted.
This was overacting insincerity.
The year concluded with his Majesty making his second son, the Bishop
of Osnabrugh, Knight of the Bath.
The new year was opened by the publicity of an affair which, though in
agitation for some months past, had been known to very few persons.
It was common, particularly in Wales, for private jobbers to apply to
the Treasury, and offer to make out the title of the Crown to certain
lands which had been usurped from the domain, under pretence of having
been grants, though often the grantees had occupied much more than had
been granted. On these occasions a new grant was the condition and
reward of the informer. As these suits had regarded inconsiderable
property, or rather inconsiderable persons, such transactions had never
occasioned clamour. The precedent was now employed by so obnoxious a
man, and to the prejudice of so puissant a lord, that no marvel it
occasioned loud murmurs. Among the grants bestowed by King William
on his Dutch favourite, the Earl of Portland,--grants that in their
day had been sounded high by Opposition, and many of which had been
cancelled by Parliament,--the Duke of Portland still enjoyed the honour
of Penryn, adjoining to which he likewise possessed the forest of
Inglewood, which, having been part of Queen Caroline’s jointure, she
had held after Penryn had been granted to Lord Portland,--a strong
presumption that it made no part of what he had obtained--though on
her death he or his son had entered upon it, and had enjoyed the
forest to the present time. It was estimated at about eight hundred
pounds a-year; but whether of that value or not, included within its
precincts a large number of freemen, a material article to the Duke,
who was then contesting the interest of Cumberland and Westmoreland
at an unbounded expense with Sir James Lowther, one of the most
opulent subjects in Britain, and who, till now, had exercised almost
sovereignty over the voters of those counties. Sir James discovered the
flaw in the Duke of Portland’s title, and made the usual application
to the Treasury for leave to prove the defect, on condition of being
gratified with what he should recover to the Crown. The application
being made some months before, while Charles Townshend was alive and
Chancellor of the Exchequer, he, rash and thoughtless as he was, had
yet been struck with the inconveniences likely to follow from such
indulgence, and had stopped it. Sir James Lowther was not only a man
of a hateful character, but lay under the unpopularity of being Lord
Bute’s son-in-law. The affair, too, though simple in its own nature,
ultimately regarded elections, and must revive against the Scotch
favourite the odium which had attended the Dutch one, when the grant
was originally made. That the Duke of Portland was in Opposition
was, in prudence, an additional reason for not exerting the power of
the Crown in so ungracious an act; nor was it wise in the Favourite
to countenance his son in so hostile a step: a possession of land
and of interest in elections ravished from a potent family was a
violence that no time could obliterate. I speak of the Favourite’s
connivance hypothetically, for Lowther was of so mulish a nature,
that I question whether he, who treated the Favourite’s own daughter,
a very amiable woman, but hardly, would have paid much deference to
his father-in-law’s remonstrances. However, as Norton was supposed to
have hit the blot, and certainly was the conductor of the business,
it may be presumed that Lord Bute, though he denied having given his
approbation, was not sorry to see the Duke of Portland’s inveteracy
punished. That the King countenanced the suit may be presumed from
the unparalleled wantonness and inconsideration with which the Duke
of Grafton had now given it the Treasury’s sanction. The Duke of
Portland, who could not ascertain his right, had desired to see the
collection of grants in the office of the Surveyor-General. The Duke of
Grafton had allowed it, but Mr. Herbert,[63] the surveyor, refused to
communicate them, pleading that others would claim the same indulgence.
Grafton would not overrule the surveyor’s objection, on which Portland
reproached him, by letter, with breach of promise, in terms which the
Duke of Grafton said he could scarce take as a gentleman. The Duke
of Portland, though asserting his right, could never prove it, and
probably had none. More of this affair will appear hereafter. Mr.
Conway, who maintained his friendship with the House of Cavendish, of
which the Duke of Portland had married a daughter, was much hurt at
this exertion of the Crown’s power, and at the Duke of Grafton’s total
silence to him on that transaction.[64]
On the 14th of January the House of Commons met. Dunning was declared
Solicitor-General in the room of Willes,[65] who was made a Judge to
make room for him. This was an extraordinary promotion, as Dunning
was connected with Lord Shelburne, and was to be brought by him into
the ensuing Parliament. The affair indeed had been agitated before
the accession of the Bedfords, who wished to raise Wedderburn to the
Solicitor’s place; but the great reputation of Dunning decided it
in his favour. He was the most shining pleader then at the bar, and
being a zealous Whig, had distinguished himself greatly as counsel
for Wilkes. The fame of his eloquence sunk entirely and at once in
the House of Commons, so different is the oratory of the bar and of
Parliament. Lord Mansfield, Hume Campbell, and Lord Camden, maintained
a superior reputation in both kinds. Wedderburn shone brightest in the
House. Norton had at first disappointed the expectation entertained of
him when he came into Parliament; yet his strong parts, that glowed
through all the coarseness of his language and brutality of his manner,
recovered his weight, and he was much distinguished. But Sir Dudley
Rider,[66] the soundest lawyer, and Charles Yorke,[67] one of the
most reputed pleaders, talked themselves out of all consideration in
Parliament--the former by laying too great stress on every part of his
diffusive knowledge, the latter by the sterility of his materials.
Dunning soon neglected the House; whether embarrassed by his attachment
to Lord Shelburne, or by the affairs of Wilkes, which again became so
capital an article of parliamentary debates, and in which he could take
no part without offending the Crown or deserting his ancient client,
or whether sensible of his own ill-success, I do not pretend to
determine.[68]
Mr. Conway, who, as I have said, was disgusted at the Duke of Grafton’s
not communicating to him the step taken against the Duke of Portland,
received a new affront from the Bedfords, Rigby declaring he would not
kiss hands till after Conway’s resignation: he would not have been so
squeamish, had the post allotted to him been adequate to his desires.
Of this impertinence Conway took, properly, only this contemptuous
notice. He bade Grafton tell the Duke of Bedford that he ought to send
for Rigby and whip him; but the impertinence was so childish, he
himself should take no other notice of it. Grafton sent Weymouth to
Rigby, who denied the fact, said it was too absurd, and that he would
kiss hands on the 18th: but even that was an evasion, for the 18th
being the Queen’s birthday, he could not kiss hands on that day; and
on the 20th, Conway, impatient to be released, resigned the Seals. The
King would have exceeded his usual graciousness if he had not lately
showered it so insincerely on Lord Gower. He told Conway he had never
liked any man so well; insisted on his continuing Minister of the House
of Commons, and in the secret of affairs, and that he should depend on
him for the report of what passed in Parliament: that he wished to give
him the best regiment, and would give him the first that fell: did not
take his resignation ill; and ordered him to attend him in his closet
once a-week: asked him how the Duke of Grafton remained with regard to
the Bedfords: hoped the Duke would confine them to their agreements:
did not, he said, know whether Rigby spoke truth, but that he had
recanted on his (Conway’s) subject.
It appeared that these professions were not empty words. The King
continued to distinguish Conway by favour, confidence, and benefits.
He was constantly called to the most secret counsels of State, and
remained, as much as he would, a leader in the House of Commons. The
Queen, too, told him, she had seen many kiss hands, but wished to
see him soon kiss hands again. But this favour was no recommendation
to Grafton and his new allies, though Conway, who bore no rancour to
them, behaved with cordiality; and to introduce Lord Weymouth to the
succession he left him, made a dinner for him to meet the foreign
Ministers. But Grafton’s countenance grew so changed to him, that even
the Chancellor, who was but half a politician, perceived it at Council,
where the Duke paid no deference to Conway’s opinion. But though this
estrangement was probably owing to Rigby’s machination, joined to the
Duke’s fickleness, the secret lay deeper, and will appear hereafter,
should I continue these Memoirs, of which I am weary, and fear the
reader must be more so; though, as I was not engaged in the ensuing
transactions, and having quitted Parliament, am not able to detail the
debates there, my narrative will be less prolix, and the events lie
in a narrower compass. At present I mean to close this part with the
dissolution of the first Parliament of this reign.
The same day that Conway resigned the Seals, Lord Weymouth was declared
Secretary of State. At the same time Lord Hillsborough kissed hands
for the American department; but nominally retaining the Post Office,
the salary of which he paid to Lord Sandwich till the elections should
be over,--there being so strict a disqualifying clause in the bill
for prohibiting the Postmasters from interfering in elections, which
Sandwich was determined to do to the utmost, that he did not dare to
accept the office in his own name till he had incurred the guilt.
Another affair of a private nature became politics, though of little
consequence. Lord Bottetort, of the Bedchamber, and a kind of
second-rate favourite, had engaged in an adventure with a company
of copper-workers at Warmley. They broke. Lord Bottetort, in order
to cover his estate from the creditors, begged a privy seal, to
incorporate the Company, as private estates would not then be
answerable. The King granted his request, but Lord Chatham, aware of
the deception, honestly refused to affix the Seal to the Patent,
pleading that he was not able. Lord Bottetort, outrageous at the
disappointment, threatened to petition the House of Lords to address
for the removal of Lord Chatham, as incapable of executing his office.
The Earl would not yield, but in the middle of the next month, did
acquiesce in resigning the Seal for a short time, that, being put into
commission, it might be set to the grant;[69] after which he resumed it
again,--to as little purpose as he had held it before. Lord Bottetort,
not able to retrieve his losses, obtained the Government of Virginia in
the following summer, and repaired thither, where he died.
The bill for restraining the Dividends of the East India Company was
renewed, and after great debates carried by 130 to 41. Wedderburn
opposed it strongly, and took occasion to ask, Who was the Minister of
the House of Commons, now General Conway had resigned? He complained,
too, of the erection of a third Secretary of State.
The nearness of a general election had now turned the attention of all
men that way; and such a scene of profligacy and corruption began to
display itself, that even the expiring House of Commons thought it
became the modesty of their last moments to show indignation, if they
showed no repentance: and while they were separately pursuing the same
traffic, much of their public time was consumed in stigmatizing the
practice. Beckford, on the 26th of January, moved for leave to bring in
a bill to oblige the members to swear that they had not bribed their
electors--a horrid bill, likely to produce nothing but a multiplication
of perjury! It came out now, that the city of Oxford had acquainted Sir
Thomas Stapylton[70] and Mr. Lee,[71] that they should be chosen for
that town if they would contribute 7500_l._ towards paying the debts
of the Corporation. The two gentlemen refused, and Oxford sold itself
to the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Abingdon. Lord Strange took up the
matter with zeal, and Sir Thomas was ordered to produce to the House
the letter by which the offer had been made. It is not worth returning
to this subject, and therefore I will conclude it briefly here. The
Mayor of Oxford, and ten more of the Corporation, appearing at the Bar,
confessing their crime, and asking pardon, Lord Strange moved to commit
them to Newgate for a short time. This, after a debate, was agreed to.
Beckford proposed an address to the Crown, that the Attorney-General
might be ordered to prosecute them; but the House did not come into it,
and they were discharged after confinement for five days. Dowdeswell
proposed that Sir Thomas Stapylton should be thanked for rejecting the
offer, and for telling the Corporation, that, as he did not intend to
sell them, he could not afford to buy them; but Conway objecting that a
mere rejection of corruption did not deserve the thanks of the House,
which ought not to be rendered too common, the motion was dropped.
The Duke and Earl not having been so scrupulous, and their agreement
with the town having been entered into the book of the Corporation,
the town-clerk was sent off with it to Calais; and Lord Strange was
prevailed upon to absent himself from the House till the matter was
hushed up.[72]
The Irish Parliament, which it was not so easy for the Crown to
gratify, was consequently less tractable; and since the tax on places
and pensions had sent over a bill for making their Parliaments, which
lasted during the life of each reigning King, septennial,--this,
in truth, had been a grievous concession made by the members to
popularity, and in which both Houses had again trusted to the negative
of the Crown. The Members of the House of Commons, who might look
on themselves, under so young a Prince, as seated for life, could
not taste a measure that rendered those seats precarious, or, if
renewed, expensive. To their surprise and grief, the Council here
advised the King to pass the bill--but with these alterations:
instead of septennial, they made those Parliaments octennial, that
both kingdoms might not be in tumult and confusion at the same time
every seven years: and whereas the bill, as sent over, was not to
take place under seven years; to punish those who had sent it, it was
to operate immediately. If accepted on its return to Ireland, the
Members would suffer for their promptitude in passing it; if rejected,
they would lose their popularity--or should they start any method of
rejection hostile to the Court, it would still be in the power of
the Court to dissolve them. Lord Camden was the principal adviser
of the King’s assent being given, from his affection to liberty and
a free constitution--laudable motives, but productive afterwards of
much inconvenience; for the Irish, who were pushing to throw off
all dependence on England, looked on the concession as a symptom of
weakness, and consequently hurried farther from that union which was
necessary to both kingdoms. Scotland had been averse to union, but
reaped the fullest benefits from it; and it was likely to confer many
on Ireland, and to remove that narrow spirit by which we had been
influenced to treat them with injustice. Mr. Grenville’s imprudence and
rash economy had drawn such another line of separation between Great
Britain and America; and he and Lord George Sackville Germaine[73] will
long be remembered as the authors or causes of those divisions which
have embroiled the mother-country and its members. The King’s assent
to the Octennial Bill was received with such transports of joy all
over Ireland, that the Parliament did not dare but pass it with its
corrections, and were obliged to thank his Majesty for having passed it.
Marshal Sir Robert Rich[74] dying on the 1st of February, the King,
who learnt the news on coming from Richmond, would not dine till he
had written to Mr. Conway that he gave him the vacant regiment, and
intended him a better--meaning the Blues, after Lord Ligonier.
On the 4th of January, the bill to regulate dividends was carried in
the House of Lords by 70 to 30. Lord Weymouth apologized for himself,
the Duke of Bedford, and their friends, saying, “that to be consistent,
they must vote against the Court, as they had warmly opposed the same
bill the last year.” Lord Temple told them they were pitifully silent
now.
On the second reading of Beckford’s Bribery-bill, Dowdeswell and Burke
opposed it for multiplying oaths, and while it restrained the Commons,
left a power of corruption in the Crown and nobility. By the clause to
disqualify those who bribed, it would subject the rights of elections,
they said, to the courts below. The bill, however, was committed. But
before the day came, the House went on new matter of the same species.
Boroughs had been publicly advertized for sale in the newspapers; and
there was a set of attorneys who rode the country and negotiated seats
in the most indecent manner. Reynolds and Hickey, two of them, were
taken up by order of the House, and some of those borough-brokers were
sent to Newgate.
When the Bribery-bill was read in the committee, the oath appeared
horrid to everybody, and was so rigorously worded, that it would
have excluded every neighbourly act of kindness or charity. This was
universally disapproved. The disqualifying clause met with not much
better success. It would have encouraged informers without being a
check on the Crown and Treasury. Dowdeswell proposed a clause to take
away their votes at elections from all officers of the revenue. Upon
this, one Fonnereau, a peevish man, who had all his life been a Court
tool, complained that Chauncy Townshend,[75] a brother-dependant,
but more favoured, had so much interest with the Ministers, that one
Bennet, parson of Aldborough, and attached to Townshend, had vaunted
that he could obtain the dismission of any officer of the revenue
who should vote for Fonnereau.[76] Grenville caught artfully at this
complaint, and with Blackstone and Dowdeswell insisted on inquiring
into the affair. The Ministry made but a bad figure, though Lord North
shone greatly, and was ably supported by Dyson. But the House was
empty, few of the new courtiers were there, and of them Rigby took no
part, till Grenville had left the House. Conway added to their distress
by threatening to pursue up the affair of Fonnereau’s complaint.
Arthur Onslow, the late Speaker, who died on the very day of this
Committee, had ordered the House to be acquainted that he died in peace
on hearing of that bill. But though the good old man’s detestation of
corruption did him honour, the House reasoned too soundly to attempt
a vain cure by increasing a blacker crime--perjury. When the bill was
again read in the Committee on the 19th, it was so ill received, that
Beckford, the author, left the House in the middle of the debate.
Dowdeswell and all his party resisted the bill; but Grenville, to
flatter the country-gentlemen, who can ill afford to combat with great
lords, nabobs, commissaries, and West-Indians, declaimed in favour of
the bill; but the courtiers moving for the Chairman to leave the Chair,
Dowdeswell said, he could approve that proposal no more than the bill,
as there had been instructions given to the committee on his clause
for disqualifying officers of the revenue. On this he was reduced to
vote with Grenville; but they were beaten by 96 to 69, and the bill was
thrown out.
Bradshaw, the Duke of Grafton’s favourite secretary of the Treasury,
having been concerned in the business at Aldborough complained of by
Fonnereau, the Opposition hoped to reach the Duke himself, and ordered
the parson to their bar. He demanded counsel. Grenville vociferously
ranted against allowing counsel on so enormous a crime as bribery, but
was put to shame for his tyranny by Sir Gilbert Elliot, who showed
that even on treason and murder, counsel was allowed to prisoners.
Dunning, the new Solicitor-General, but not yet in Parliament, appeared
as counsel for Bennet, who was a jovial, sporting young parson,
neither very moral, nor very modest. Dunning exerted himself with
great lustre. Fonnereau, to save 40_l._ (for he was a very miser) had
refused counsel, and behaved so obstinately and absurdly, that though
Grenville, Wedderburn, and Dowdeswell supported, and gave him hints,
with all their parliamentary craft, he counteracted his own witnesses;
and it came out that he had not only been more criminal himself than
the clergyman, but for a series of years had established and profited
of Ministerial influence in the borough in question. Conway was
converted by the rancour of the charge, and with Hussey, as they were
the two most candid men in the House, threw such disgrace on Fonnereau,
that the parson was acquitted by 155 to 39; the most remarkable event
of the debate being a warm dispute between the late friends Rigby and
Grenville, in which the former attacked and treated the latter without
management.
Though this was the last debate in that Parliament, another had
intervened of more weight, but I chose not to intermingle the subjects.
On the 17th of February Sir George Saville moved to renew a bill drawn
by Lord Chief Justice Coke, and passed in the reign of James the
First for quieting the minds of those who possessed Crown lands, by
preventing the Crown from suing for the recovery of them after they
had been enjoyed by private persons for sixty years. Sir George made
the proposal in very general terms, and with great decency, though in
a style too metaphoric. The intention was evidently suggested by the
recent case of the Duke of Portland, but he affected not to allude
to it, nor to pass any censure on that act. The case they knew would
present itself to every man, and the less animosity they discovered
the more easily they hoped the bill would find its way through the
House and be at once a silent reproach to and a real check upon the
Crown. Sir Anthony Abdy seconded the motion. Lord North objected on
the impropriety of the time, the very end of a parliament; and he
urged that such bills should only arise out of grievances: he called
to know if any such existed. Lord Clare said, that the Crown having
actually in contemplation to give up or sell to the public many forests
and wastes for cultivation and increase of provisions, such a bill
would impede that scheme. Charles Yorke, in a very long deduction,
argued against vexatious revisals. Himself, when Attorney-General,
he said, had been consulted by persons who had obtained such grants
and had condemned them. So had Lord Mansfield, whose abilities and
merits were only exceeded by slander. He then stated the case of the
Duke of Portland, which, he said, had been treated with incaution and
precipitation; and that the Duke ought to have had the preference given
to him, as being in possession, over Sir James Lowther. Norton replied
that the case had been four months in agitation; that the preference
could not be given to the Duke, who contested the right of possession
with the Crown, and did not sue for it. That though his Grace’s grant
dated sixty-three years before the dispute, the encroachment was not
of equal antiquity, the lands in question having appertained to the
Queen Dowager, who had granted them on lease, which had not expired
till the year 1724, when the Dukes of Portland had appropriated them to
themselves. He challenged Yorke to meet him in any court in England,
and fight out that cause. Yorke evaded the challenge; though Norton and
Rigby again called on him to be explicit. Much complaint was made of
the surveyor’s refusal of the sight of necessary papers. Sir William
Meredith spoke, with more applause than he had ever done, in behalf of
the bill. Grenville trimmed with all his art, not to offend Lord Bute
and Sir James Lowther. Lord Barrington, in order to get rid of the bill
at that time, approved of passing it in another Parliament, and said
he should be desirous of taking away the _nullum tempus_[77] from the
clergy likewise. Lord John Cavendish, throwing out insinuations against
the Duchy Court of Lancaster for issuing vexatious notices, Stanley
said he had been desired by Lord Strange to defy in his name any
accuser. Lord North, to avoid putting a negative on so popular a bill,
moved for the orders of the day, and at eleven at night his motion
was carried by 134 to 114, many courtiers voting in the minority as
favourers of the bill.
On the 11th of March the Parliament was dissolved. Thus ended that
Parliament, uniform in nothing but in its obedience to the Crown.
To all I have said I will only add that it would have deserved the
appellation of one of the worst Parliaments England ever saw, if its
servility had not been so great, that, as the times changed, it enacted
remedies for the evils it had committed with the same facility with
which it had complied with the authors of those evils. Our ancestors,
who dealt in epithets, might have called it the _impudent_ Parliament.