Mr. Pitt’s opinion on the Army Reductions.--Address to the King.--
Symptoms of disunion among Ministers.--Fox’s rage.--Apprehensive
of treachery, he seeks to propitiate his old connections.--Sir
Francis Dashwood’s Budget.--Tax on Cider.--Discussion on Ways
and Means.--Pitt and George Grenville.--Ardent opposition to the
Cider-tax.--Petition from Newfoundland.--Humiliation of Fox.--
Debate in the House of Lords on the Cider-bill.--Passing of the
Bill.--Lord Bute’s alarm.--His resignation.--Its effect on
Fox.--George Grenville first Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor
of the Exchequer.--Removal of Sir Francis Dashwood.--Ministerial
changes and promotions.
When the day came for voting the army, Mr. Pitt attended. He approved
the measure, he said, as far as it went, but wished more troops were
allotted to America. That he had a very different opinion from many
of the peace: thought it hollow and insecure, _and that it would not
last ten years_. He showed no acrimony to Fox, he and Lord Temple both
seeming more hostile to Lord Bute; but he dropped, that if any body
would point out the right way to inquire what was the cause of so many
dismissions, he would second the motion. Beckford having wished the
army more reduced, Pitt said, such reductions had hurt us formerly.
After the peace of Ryswick the army was lessened to seven thousand; but
war followed in three years. After the treaty of Utrecht, but eight
thousand men were kept up, but that reduction produced a rebellion
and an army of fifteen thousand. Charles Townshend, dreading the lash
of Pitt on his late inconsistencies, retired early in the debate; but
the General, his brother, just arrived from Portugal, was lavish in
encomiums on the peace and peacemakers.
In a few days after, Beckford, seconded by Pitt, moved to address the
King to prefer officers on half-pay to those whose commissions were
fresher; and though Fox and the ministers objected, it was suffered to
pass. Sir Henry Erskine in the course of the debate frequently sounding
the King’s name, Mr. Pitt severely reprimanded the Speaker for not
stopping him.
In the progress of these debates, it was observed, that at least the
Favourite’s faction, if not himself, were hostile to Fox. On the
committee of accounts, Elliot and Lord North had been so personal
to him, that he lost his temper; and Beckford desiring him to save
appearances, he replied, he never minded appearances, but--he was going
to say, realities, when a loud burst of laughter from the whole House
interrupted him. His rage was so great, that, sitting down, he said
to Onslow,[296] though an enemy, “Did you ever see a man so treated
in my situation? but, by G--, I will have an explanation and ample
submission, or I will never set my foot in this House again.” Another
symptom of disunion was, that Lord Ravensworth[297] having moved for
the whole accounts of the war, Lord Hardwicke said it was impossible
to produce them yet; the paymaster had a deputy abroad who could not
have made them up. This being understood as a reflection on Fox, Lord
Hardwicke said, on the contrary, he had meant to vindicate him. Lord
Talbot concurred with this explanation; adding, “Nobody can imagine
that _I_ want to screen Mr. Fox;” an expression warmly taken up by Lord
Hilsborough, one of Fox’s friends.
If Lord Bute countenanced these hostilities, it was but consonant to
the folly of his character. Fox had boldness and wickedness enough
to undertake whatever the Court wished to compass. Fox seemed so
apprehensive of treachery, that he cast about to recover his old
connections. By Lord Albemarle, Lord Frederick Cavendish,[298] and Lord
Waldegrave, he laboured to be reconciled to the Duke of Cumberland and
the Duke of Devonshire. He asked Lord Waldegrave if the former was
still incensed against him. The other replied, he had not heard the
Duke mention him of late, but supposed his Royal Highness could not be
ignorant how much he had been abused by Murphy, known to write under
Fox’s direction. “Formerly he did so,” said Fox, “but I had not seen
him in a year and a half, till _hearing_ how violent the ‘Auditors’
were, I sent for him and stopped them;”--an excuse too weak _for_ a
sensible man to make _to_ a sensible man _through_ a sensible man. Lord
Waldegrave suspected that Fox’s views went deeper than reconciliation;
for shortly after this conversation Rigby came to the Earl, and sounded
him whether he would not take the Treasury, Lord Bute, he said, not
being able to stand his ground. As Lord Waldegrave had married my
niece,[299] I knew all these intrigues from him, and was actually in
his house at the time of this overture, of which he immediately told
me with an expressive smile, which in him, who never uttered a bitter
word, conveyed the essence of sense and satire.
We must now quit Fox, to make room for a doughty hero of more comic
cast, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.[300] Hitherto he had but just
acted enough as minister, to show that he neither was one nor was fit
to be one. The time was now come for _opening the budget_, when it was
incumbent on him to state the finances, debts, and calls of Government;
and to chalk out a plan of proper supplies. All this he performed so
awkwardly, with so little intelligence or clearness, in so vulgar a
tone, and in such mean language, that he, who had been esteemed a plain
country gentleman of good sense, said himself afterwards, “People will
point at me, and cry, _there goes the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer
that ever appeared_!” His famous measure was the tax on cider; and
whoever would know more of his ability in conducting that business,
will find it amply detailed in the North-Britons; a coarse and satiric
picture, yet but little exaggerated. The tax itself deserves far more
than the author of it to live in the memory of English history, for the
crisis it occasioned or drove on.
In the discussion of these ways and means, George Grenville complained
that men objected to laying burthens on the sinking fund, and called
rather for new taxes. He wished gentlemen would show him _where_ to
lay them. Repeating this question in his querulous, languid, fatiguing
tone, Pitt, who sat opposite to him, mimicking his accent aloud,
repeated these words of an old ditty--_Gentle shepherd, tell me
where!_ and then rising, abused Grenville bitterly. He had no sooner
finished than Grenville started up in a transport of rage, and said,
if gentlemen were to be treated with that contempt--Pitt was walking
out of the House, but at that word turned round, made a sneering bow
to Grenville and departed. The latter had provoked him by stating the
profusions of the war. There is use in recording this anecdote: the
appellation of _The Gentle Shepherd_ long stuck by Grenville; he is
mentioned by it in many of the writings on the stamp act, and in other
pamphlets and political prints of the time.
The tax on cider raised a great flame in the western counties, and
by management, that flame was transported to the metropolis. All the
western members, however, attached to the Court, could not avoid
defending the interests of their constituents; and thus joining what
standing Opposition there was, the minority often divided near 120:
and as every step of the bill was ardently fought, divisions happened
frequently, and threw a kind of vivacity into the session. In the city
Sir William Baker acted strenuously against the Court, and Wilkes’s pen
was never idle.
In the meantime Fox received another humiliation. He had received a
petition for relief from the sufferers at Newfoundland. It was objected
to from all quarters of the House: general indemnification could not
be made to all the sufferers by the war, why then partial? Sir Francis
Dashwood, Lord Barrington, and Nugent supported Fox faintly; Ellis
and Rigby warmly; Lord George Sackville with panegyric, for which he
was reproved by Lord Strange, who, with G. Grenville, Stanley, and
Lord Frederick Campbell, treated Fox and his petition harshly. During
this altercation Lord Middleton, casting his eye over the paper,
observed that all the names to the petition were signed by the same
hand. This occasioned such an uproar, that Fox was obliged to ask
pardon, and withdraw the petition, pleading, that the paper had been
written out fair from the original, which had really been signed by
the petitioners. In private, he said that there had been a paragraph
not worded with sufficient respect to the House, which occasioned his
having the petition copied out by a clerk, and there had not been time
to get it signed again; but he stood so ill in the public eye, that
whatever he did received the worst construction.
March 28th. The Cider-bill had now laboured through the Commons, and
was read for the second time by the Lords. Lord Hardwicke spoke and
voted against it; but was answered well, and with severity, by Lord
Marchmont.[301] Lord Mansfield made a bad trimming speech, but voted
for the bill. Lord Lyttelton[302] spoke well against it. Lord Pomfret
heaped panegyrics on the Favourite, whose own speech was languid and
unargumentative. The Tory Lords who belong chiefly to the western
counties were most of them against the bill, as were nine of the
Bishops; but the bill was committed by a majority of 71 to 39.
It was read the third time on the 30th, and was attacked with energy by
the Duke of Grafton; by Lord Dartmouth[303] with decency and propriety;
by Lord Lyttelton, though with censures on the political pamphlets of
the time; and by the Duke of Newcastle, who complimented the rising
generation. It having been reported that, on hearing the City would
petition the King against the bill, as they had both Houses, on the
ground of the bill being calculated to extend the excise, Lord Bute
had sent word to the leading men of the City, that if they would drop
their petition, the bill should be repealed the next session, he
thought it necessary to explain the foundation of that report; he had
only sent word, he said, that if the bill proved a bad one, which he
did not believe it would, he would try to get it repealed. This was
one of his best speeches, though not divested of pomp, and with much
affected contempt of popularity. Lord Ravensworth expressed great scorn
of the City assuming the dictatorial tone. Lord Denbigh was still
more bitter, and spoke with so much wit and applause that in very
few days he was made a Lord of the Bedchamber. Lord Temple having in
both debates been very personal to the Favourite, and having declared
in favour of excise, as Lord Bute had against it, Lord Denbigh said
he hoped the King, to please the City, would remove the Minister who
was against excise, and place that Lord who was for it at the head
of the Treasury. The bill was passed, sixty-two lords being for it,
thirty-eight against it. After the first debate, the Lords Oxford,
Foley, and Willoughby protested; the first and last of the King’s
bedchamber. After the second debate, the Duke of Bolton,[304] Earl
Temple, and Lord Fortescue protested.
Immediately after the House rose the Sheriffs hurried to St. James’s;
and, though at so unusual an hour, and without having previously asked
leave, presented to the King a petition not to pass the bill; but he
passed it the very next morning.
Few political clouds seemed less big with mischief than this storm,
unnaturally conjured up, and little likely to last; for what principle
of union could there be in common between the City of London and two
or three distant counties whose apples were to be taxed? The spell,
_excise_, was pronounced, but had lost its terrors. They who sounded
loudest the alarm, neither were alarmed, nor expected to breathe much
dread into others. But there was a frame of nerves more easily thrown
into disorder; fear seized on the Favourite; he said, “We shall have
thirty thousand men come down to St. James’s!” The assault that had
been made on him the first day of the session had left a lasting
impression; and he had showed, early in the reign, that fortitude
was not a ruling ingredient in his composition. He had appointed
himself a guard of bruisers the day of his attending the King into the
City in 1761, when Mr. Pitt made his insolent parade thither at the
same time. Now, bating the slight distemperature occasioned by the
cider-tax, England seemed to be willingly, and submissively, prostrate
at the Favourite’s feet. Would she have rebelled for a partial tax,
after acquiescing in the peace? Fear does not calculate, but lumps
apprehensions in the gross. The panic was taken, and on the 7th of
April, to the surprise of mankind, it was notified that Lord Bute
intended to resign the next day, and to retire for his health, not
being able to go through the fatigue of business.
It is true, that he had at times declared, that as soon as he had made
the peace, he would quit his post; but few had heard the declaration,
and fewer believed it. The Ministers knew nothing of his intention
till the day before it was publicly notified; and Fox was so entirely
out of the secret, that he reproached the Earl bitterly for leaving
him in that ignorance and dilemma. The Favourite’s own speeches in
Parliament expressing a wish of retirement had rather confirmed men
in the opinion that he had no thoughts of it. No one act had had the
least air of his giving up his power, nor had any measures been taken
to replace him or carry on the present system; but the best comment on
his behaviour at that moment was his subsequent conduct. The fondness
he retained for power, his intrigues to preserve it, the confusion he
helped to throw into almost every succeeding system, and his impotent
and dark attempts to hang on the wheels of Government, which he only
clogged, and to which he dreaded even being suspected of recommending
drivers, all proved that neither virtue nor philosophy had the honour
of dictating his retreat; but that fear, and fear only, was the
immediate, inconsiderate, and precipitate cause of his resignation.[305]
Yet let me not be thought to lament this weak man’s pusillanimity. I am
condemning his want of policy, but rejoice at it. Had he been firm to
himself, there was an end of the constitution! The hearts of Englishmen
were corrupt and sold, and the best heads amongst them toiled in the
cause of Despotism. A happy panic blew up the system of absolute
power when it had lasted but five months; and a trifling Opposition
overturned in a fortnight the work of that majority which a fortnight
had purchased. Yet the struggle was not over. The rod fell into abler
and more resolute hands; the mercenaries were not disbanded, though the
commander-in-chief ran away. Fortunately he became incompatible with
his successors; and liberty owed its salvation, not to its friends, but
to discord among the conspirators.
I have mentioned how utterly Fox was disconcerted at this unexpected
resignation. His first movement was to press Lord Bute to retain the
Treasury, at least for six months. That attempt was fruitless. His
next step was to secure his own peerage. Again was he astonished to be
told that he had agreed to cede the Pay-office on going into the House
of Lords. This he peremptorily denied. But he had dealt with a worthy
pupil of his own. Lord Shelburne, who had negotiated between him and
Lord Bute, when Fox undertook the conduct of the House of Commons,
had told the Earl that Fox would quit the Pay-office for a peerage;
but Fox had only stipulated to give his support for that reward. He
now broke out against his scholar, reproached him for concealing Lord
Bute’s intention of retiring, and spoke of Shelburne to everybody
_as a perfidious and infamous liar_; those were his usual words. The
probability was, that Shelburne intended to slip into the Pay-office
himself. The Favourite, who would have declared Fox his successor,
excused Lord Shelburne to him, and, in his pedantic style, called the
secrecy he had observed _a pious fraud_; for Fox, he said, he knew
would not have engaged in the management of the Parliament, had he been
apprized that he (Bute) intended to retire, and it had been necessary
to the King’s affairs that Fox should carry them through the session.
This very offer of the Treasury to Fox showed how little the Favourite
had taken any measures for carrying on his master’s business for the
future, and corroborates the presumption that a sudden panic was the
immediate cause of his retreat.
Fox refusing to accept them, the post of First Lord of the Treasury and
the Seals of Chancellor of the Exchequer were, on April 8, the very
day on which the Favourite resigned, bestowed on George Grenville. Sir
Francis Dashwood was removed to the Great Wardrobe; and the barony of
Despencer, then in abeyance between him and his nephew, Sir Thomas
Stapleton, was granted to him: the one to repair, the other to decorate
his fall.
Some other promotions were made of the Favourite’s and Fox’s adherents;
and, to strengthen the new system, many favours were heaped on the
Duke of Bedford’s dependents. Of the first sorts was the preferment
of Oswald to be Vice-Treasurer of Ireland; of Hunter[306] and Harris
to the Treasury; of Lord Digby[307] to the Admiralty; to which board
were added, by Grenville, Lord Howe[308] and young Thomas Pitt.[309]
The Earl of Northumberland was named to the chief government of
Ireland, which had been offered to, and refused by, Lord Granby,
who, as I hinted before, was now appointed Master of the Ordnance;
from which old Marshal Ligonier was by force removed, but softened
with a pension, which he refused to accept till accompanied with an
English peerage. General Townshend,[310] though only a Major-General,
was made Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance; Lord Harcourt[311]
replaced Lord Northumberland as Chamberlain to the Queen; and, in the
room of the former, Lord Weymouth was made her Master of the Horse.
The Duke of Queensberry[312] succeeded the deceased Lord Tweedale
as Justice-General of Scotland: the Seal was given to the Duke of
Athol,[313] and the Privy Seal to Mr. Mackenzie, the Favourite’s
brother. John Pitt[314] was turned out to make room for Sir Edmund
Thomas.[315] Lord March[316] and Lord Cathcart[317] obtained green
ribands.