ADMINISTRATION OF WILLIAM PITT.
[Sidenote: William Pitt.]
We come now to consider the most eventful administration, in many
important respects, in British annals. The greatness of military
operations, the magnitude of reforms, and the great number of
illustrious statesmen and men of genius, make the period, when Pitt
managed the helm of state, full of interest and grandeur.
[Sidenote: Early Life of Pitt.]
William Pitt, second son of the first Earl of Chatham, entered public
life at a very early age, and was prime minister of George III. at a
period of life when most men are just completing a professional
education. He was a person of extraordinary precocity. He entered
Cambridge University at the age of fourteen, and at that period was a
finished Greek and Latin scholar. He spent no idle hours, and evinced
but little pleasure in the sports common to boys of his age. He was as
successful in mastering mathematics as the languages, and was an
admirer of the profoundest treatises of intellectual philosophy. He
excelled in every branch of knowledge to which he directed his
attention. In 1780, at the age of twenty-one, he became a resident in
Lincoln's Inn, entered parliament the succeeding spring, and
immediately assumed an active part. His first speech astonished all
who heard him, notwithstanding that great expectations were formed
concerning his power. He was made chancellor of the exchequer at the
age of twenty-three, and at a time when it required a finance minister
of the greatest experience. Nor would the Commons have acquiesced in
his appointment to so important a post, in so critical a state of the
nation, had not great confidence existed as to his abilities. From his
first appearance, Pitt took a commanding position as a parliamentary
orator; nor, as such, has he ever, on the whole, been surpassed. His
peculiar talents fitted him for the highest post in the gift of his
sovereign, and the circumstances of the times, in addition, were such
as were calculated to develop all the energies and talents he
possessed. He was not the most commanding intellect of his age, but he
was, unquestionably, the greatest orator that England has produced,
and exercised, to the close of his career, in spite of the opposition
of such men as Burke, Fox, and Sheridan, an overwhelming parliamentary
influence. He was a prodigy; as great in debate, and in executive
power, as Napoleon was in the field, Bacon in philosophy, or
Shakspeare in poetry. It is difficult for us to conceive how a young
man, just emerging from college halls, should be able to answer the
difficult questions of veteran statesmen who had been all their lives
opposing the principles he advanced, and to assume at once the powers
with which his father was intrusted only at a mature period of life.
Pitt was almost beyond envy, and the proud nobles and princely
capitalists of the richest, proudest, and most conservative country in
the world, surrendered to him the guardianship of their liberties with
no more fear or distrust than the hereditary bondmen of Turkey or
Russia would have shown in hailing the accession of a new emperor. He
was born to command, one of nature's despots, and he assumed the reins
of government with a perfect consciousness of his abilities to rule.
He was only twenty-four years of age when he began to reign; for, as
prime minister of George III., he was, during his continuance in
office, the absolute ruler of the British empire. He had, virtually,
the nomination of his colleagues, and, through them, the direction of
all executive affairs. He was controlled by the legislature only, and
parliament was subservient to his will. What a proud position for a
young man to occupy! A commoner, with a limited fortune, to give laws
to a vast empire, and to have a proud nobility obedient to his will;
and all this by the force of talents alone--talents which extorted
admiration and respect. He selected Lord Thurlow as chancellor, Lord
Gower as president of the council, the Duke of Richmond as lord privy
seal, Lords Carmarthen and Sydney as secretaries of state, and Lord
Howe as first lord of the admiralty. These were his chief associates
in resisting a powerful opposition, and in regulating the affairs of a
vast empire--the concerns of India, the national debt, the necessary
taxation, domestic tranquillity, and intercourse with foreign powers.
But he deserved the confidence of his sovereign and of the nation, and
they sustained him in his extraordinary embarrassments and
difficulties.
[Sidenote: Policy of Pitt.]
The policy of the administration is not here to be discussed; but it
was the one pursued, in the main, by his father, and one which
gratified the national pride. The time has not yet come for us to
decide, with certainty, on the wisdom of his course. He was the
advocate of measures which had for their object national
aggrandizement. He was the strenuous defender of war, and he would
oppose Napoleon and all the world to secure preëminence to Great
Britain. He believed that glory was better than money; he thought that
an overwhelming debt was a less evil than national disgrace; he
exaggerated the resources and strength of his country, and believed
that it was destined to give laws to the world; he underrated the
abilities of other nations to make great advances in mechanical skill
and manufacturing enterprise; he supposed that English manufactures
would be purchased forever by the rest of the world, and therefore
that England, in spite of the debt, would make all nations contribute
to her glory and wealth. It was to him a matter of indifference how
heavily the people were taxed to pay the interest on a fictitious
debt, provided that, by their commerce and manufactures, they could
find abundant means to pay this interest. And so long as England could
find a market for her wares, the nation would not suffer from
taxation. His error was in supposing that England, forever, would
manufacture for the world; that English skill was superior to the
skill of all other nations; that there was a superiority in the very
nature of an Englishman which would enable him, in any country, or
under any circumstances, to overcome all competitors and rivals. Such
views were grateful to his nation; and he, by continually flattering
the national vanity, and ringing the changes on glory and patriotism,
induced it to follow courses which may one day result in overwhelming
calamities. Self-exaggeration is as fatal to a nation as it is to an
individual, and constitutes that pride which precedes destruction. But
the mere debt of England, being owed to herself, and not to another
nation, is not so alarming as it is sometimes supposed. The worst
consequence, in a commercial point of view, is national bankruptcy;
but if England becomes bankrupt, her factories, her palaces, her
warehouses, and her ships remain. These are not destroyed. Substantial
wealth does not fly from the island, but merely passes from the hands
of capitalists to the people. The policy of Pitt has merely enriched
the few at the expense of the many--has confirmed the power of the
aristocracy. When manufacturers can no longer compete with those of
other countries, upon such unequal terms as are rendered necessary in
consequence of unparalleled taxation to support the public creditors,
then the public creditors must suffer rather than the manufacturer
himself. The manufacturer must live. This class composes a great part
of the nation. The people must be fed, and they will be fed; and they
can be fed as cheaply as in any country, were it not for taxes. The
policy of Pitt, during the period of commercial prosperity, tended,
indeed, to strengthen the power of the aristocracy--that class to
which he belonged, and to which the House of Commons, who sustained
him, belonged. But it was suicidal, as is the policy of all selfish
men; and ultimately must tend to revolutionary measures, even though
those measures may not be carried by massacres and blazing thrones.
But we must hasten to consider the leading events which characterized
the administration of William Pitt. These were the troubles in
Ireland, parliamentary reforms, the aggrandizement of the East India
Company, the trial of Hastings, debates on the slave trade, and the
war with France in consequence of the French Revolution.
[Sidenote: Difficulties with Ireland.]
[Sidenote: The United Irishmen.]
The difficulties with Ireland did not become alarming until the French
Revolution had created a spirit of discontent and agitation in all
parts of Great Britain. Soon after his accession to power, Mr. Flood,
a distinguished member of the Irish House of Commons, brought in a
bill of parliamentary reform, which, after a long debate, was
negatived. Though his measure was defeated in the House, its advocates
out of doors were not cast down, but took measures to form a national
congress, for the amelioration of the evils which existed. A large
delegation of the people actually met at Dublin, and petitioned
parliament for the redress of grievances. Mr. Pitt considered the
matter with proper attention, and labored to free the commerce of
Ireland from the restraints under which it labored. But, in so doing,
he excited the jealousy of British merchants and manufacturers, and
they induced him to remodel his propositions for the relief of
Ireland, which were then adopted. Tranquillity was restored until the
year 1791, when there appeared at Belfast the plan of an association,
under the name of the _United Irishmen_, whose object was a radical
reform of all the evils which had existed in Ireland since its
connection with England. This association soon extended throughout the
island, and numbered an immense body of both Protestants and Catholics
who were disaffected with the government. In consequence of the
disaffections, especially among the Catholics, the English ministry
made many concessions, and the legislature allowed Catholics to
practice law, to intermarry with Protestants, and to obtain an
unrestrained education. But parliament also took measures to prevent
the assembling of any convention of the people, and augmented the
militia in case of disturbance. But disturbances took place, and the
United Irishmen began to contemplate an entire separation from
England, and other treasonable designs. In consequence of these
commotions, the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, and a military
government was enforced with all its rigor. The United Irish pretended
to submit, but laid still deeper schemes, and extended their
affiliations. In May, 1797, the number of men enrolled by the union in
Ulster alone was one hundred thousand, and their organization was
perfect. The French government was aware of the union, which gradually
numbered five hundred thousand men, and promised it assistance. The
Irish, however, relied chiefly upon themselves, and prepared to resist
the English government, which was resolved on pursuing the most
vigorous measures. A large military force was sent to Ireland, and
several ringleaders of the contemplated insurrection were arrested.
But the timely discovery of the conspiracy prevented one of the most
bloody contests which ever happened in Ireland. Nevertheless, the
insurrection broke out in some places, and in the county of Wexford
was really formidable. The rebels numbered twenty thousand men. They
got possession of Wexford, and committed great barbarities; but they
were finally subdued by Lord Cornwallis. Had the French coöperated, as
they had promised, with a force of fifteen thousand, it is not
improbable that Ireland would have been wrested from England. But the
French had as much as they could do, at this time, to take care of
themselves; and Ireland was again subjected to greater oppressions
than before.
The Irish parliament had hitherto been a mere body of perpetual
dictators. By the Octennial Bill, this oligarchy was disbanded, and
the House of Commons wore something of the appearance of a
constitutional assembly, and there were found in it some men of
integrity and sagacity. Ireland also had her advocates in the British
senate; but whenever the people or the parliament gained a victory
over the viceroy, some accident or blunder deprived the nation of
reaping the fruits. The Commons became again corrupted, and the
independence which Ireland obtained ceased to have a value. The
corrupted Commons basely surrendered all that had been obtained. In
vain the eloquence of Curran and Grattan. The Irish nation, without
public virtue, a prey to faction, and a scene of corruption, became at
last powerless and politically helpless. The rebellion of 1798 was a
mere peasants' war, without intelligence to guide, or experience to
counsel. It therefore miserably failed, but did not fail until fifty
thousand rebels and twenty thousand royalists had perished.
[Sidenote: Union of England and Ireland.]
In June, 1800, the union of Ireland and England was effected, on the
same basis as that between England and Scotland in the time of Anne.
It was warmly opposed by some of the more patriotic of the Irish
statesmen, and only carried by corruption and bribery. By this union,
foreign legislation took the place of the guidance of those best
qualified to know the national grievances; the Irish members became,
in the British senate, merely the tools of the administration.
Absenteeism was nearly doubled, and the national importance nearly
annihilated in a political point of view. But, on the other hand, an
oligarchal tyranny was broken, and the bond of union which bound the
countries was strengthened, and the nation subsided into a greater
state of tranquillity. Twenty-eight peers and one hundred commoners
were admitted into the English parliament.
Notwithstanding the suppression of the rebellion of 1798, only five
years elapsed before another one was contemplated--the result of
republican principles, and of national grievances. The leaders were
Robert Emmet and Thomas Russell. But their treasonable designs were
miserably supported by their countrymen, and they were able to make
but a feeble effort, which immediately failed. These men were
arrested, tried, and executed. The speech of Emmet, before his
execution, has been much admired for its spirit of patriotism and
pensive eloquence. His grand mistake consisted in overrating the
strength of democratic influences, and in supposing that, by violent
measures, he could overturn a strong military government. The Irish
were not prepared for freedom, still less republican freedom. There
was not sufficient concert, or patriotism, or intelligence, to secure
popular liberty, and the antipathy between the Catholic and Protestant
population was too deeply seated and too malignant to hope,
reasonably, for a lasting union.
[Sidenote: Condition of Ireland.]
All the measures which have been adopted for the independence and
elevation of Ireland have failed, and the country is still in as
lamentable a state as ever. It presents a grand enigma and mystery to
the politician. All the skill of statesmen is baffled in devising
means for the tranquillity and improvement of that unhappy and
unfortunate country. The more privileges the people gain, and the
greater assistance they receive, the more unreasonable appear to be
their demands, and the more extravagant their expectations. Still,
there are great and shameful evils, which ought to be remedied. There
are nearly five millions of acres of waste land in the country,
capable of the highest cultivation. The soil is inexhaustibly rich,
the climate is most delightful, and the natural advantages for
agriculture and commerce unprecedented. Still the Irish remain
oppressed and poor; enslaved by their priests, and ground down to the
earth by exacting landlords and a hostile government. There is no real
union between England and Ireland, no sympathy between the different
classes, and an implacable animosity between the Protestant and
Catholic population. The northern and Protestant part of the island is
the most flourishing; but Ireland, in any light it may be viewed, is
the most miserable country, with all the gifts of nature, the worst
governed, and the most afflicted, in Christendom; and no human
sagacity or wisdom has yet been able to devise a remedy for the
innumerable evils which prevail. The permanent causes of the
degradation of the Irish peasantry, in their own country, have been
variously attributed to the Roman Catholic priesthood, to the tyranny
of the government, to the system by which the lands are leased and
cultivated, and to the natural elements of the Irish character. These,
united, may have produced the effects which all philanthropists
deplore; but no one cause, in particular, can account for so fine a
nation sinking into such poverty and wretchedness, especially when it
is considered that the same idle and miserable peasantry, when
transplanted to America, exhibit very different dispositions and
tastes, and develop traits of character which command respect and
secure prosperity.
[Sidenote: Parliamentary Reform.]
The first plan for parliamentary reform was brought forward by Pitt in
1782, before he was prime minister, in consequence of a large number
of the House representing no important interests, and dependent on the
minister. But his motion was successfully opposed. In May, 1783, he
brought in another bill to add one hundred members to the House of
Commons, and to abolish a proportionate number of the small and
obnoxious boroughs. This plan, though supported by Fox, was negatived
by a great majority. In 1785, he made a third attempt to secure a
reform of parliament, and again failed; and with this last attempt
ended all his efforts for this object. So persuaded was he of the
impracticability of the measure, that he even uniformly opposed the
object when attempted by others. Moreover, he changed his opinions
when he perceived the full connection and bearing of the subject with
other agitating questions. He was desirous of a reform, if it could be
obtained without mischief; but when it became a democratic measure, he
opposed it with all his might. Indeed, he avowed that he preferred to
have parliament remain as it was, forever, rather than risk any
prospects of reform when the country was so deeply agitated by
revolutionary discussions. Mr. Pitt perfectly understood that those
persons who were most eager for parliamentary reform, desired the
overthrow of the existing institutions of the land, or, at least, such
as were inconsistent with the hereditary succession to the throne,
hereditary titles, and the whole system of entailed estates. Mr. Pitt,
as he grew older, more powerful, and more experienced, became more
aristocratic and conservative; feared to touch any of the old supports
of the constitution for fear of producing a revolution--an evil which,
of all evils, he most abhorred. Mr. Burke, though opposed to the
minister, here defended him, and made an eloquent speech against
revolutionary measures. Nor can we wonder at the change of opinion,
which Mr. Pitt and others admitted, when it is considered that the
advocates of parliamentary reform also were associated with men of
infidel and dangerous principles. Thomas Paine was one of the apostles
of liberty in that age, and his writings had a very great and very
pernicious influence on the people at large. It is very singular, but
nevertheless true, that some of the most useful reforms have been
projected by men of infidel principles, and infidelity and
revolutionary excess have generally been closely connected.
But the reform question did not deeply agitate the people of England
until a much later period. One of the most exciting events, in the
domestic history of England during the administration of Pitt, was the
trial of Hastings and the difficulties which grew out of the
aggrandizement of the East India Company.
[Sidenote: Warren Hastings.]
In the chapter on colonization, allusion was made to Indian affairs
until the close of the administration of Lord Clive. Warren Hastings
continued the encroachments and conquests which Clive had so
successfully begun. He went to India in 1750, at the age of seventeen,
as a clerk in the service of the company. It was then merely a
commercial corporation. His talents and sagacity insured his
prosperity. He gradually was promoted, and, in 1772, was appointed
head of the government in Bengal. But the governor was not then, as he
now is, nearly absolute, and he had only one vote in the council which
represented the company at Calcutta. He was therefore frequently
overruled, and his power was crippled. But he contrived to make
important changes, and abolished the office of the minister to whom
was delegated the collection of the revenue and the general regulation
of internal affairs--an office which had been always held by a native.
Hastings transferred the internal administration to the servants of
the company, and in various other ways improved the finances of the
company, the members of which were indifferent, comparatively, to the
condition of the people of India, provided that they themselves were
enriched. To enrich the company and extend its possessions, even at
the expense of justice and humanity, became the object of the
governor-general. He succeeded; but success brought upon him the
imprecations of the natives and the indignant rebukes of his own
countrymen. In less than two years after he had assumed the
government, he added four hundred thousand pounds to the annual income
of the company, besides nearly a million in ready money. But the
administration of Hastings cannot be detailed. We can only notice that
part of it which led to his trial in England.
[Sidenote: War with Hyder Ali.]
The great event which marked his government was the war with Hyder
Ali, the Mohammedan sovereign of Mysore. The province of Bengal and
the Carnatic had been, for some time, under the protection of the
English. Adjoining the Carnatic, in the centre of the peninsula, were
the dominions of Hyder Ali. Had Hastings been governor of Madras, he
would have conciliated him, or vigorously encountered him as an enemy.
But the authorities at Madras had done neither. They provoked him to
hostilities, and, with an army of ninety thousand men, he invaded the
Carnatic. British India was on the verge of ruin. Hyder Ali was every
where triumphant, and only a few fortified places remained to the
English.
Hastings, when he heard of the calamity, instantly adopted the most
vigorous measures. He settled his difficulties with the Mahrattas; he
suspended the incapable governor of Fort George, and sent Sir Eyre
Coote to oppose the great Mohammedan prince who threatened to subvert
the English power in India.
But Hastings had not the money which was necessary to carry on an
expensive war with the most formidable enemy the English ever
encountered in the East. He therefore resolved to plunder the richest
and most sacred city of India--Benares. It was the seat of Indian
learning and devotion, and contained five hundred thousand people. Its
temple, as seen from the Ganges, was the most imposing in the Eastern
world, while its bazaars were filled with the most valuable and rare
of Indian commodities; with the muslins of Bengal, the shawls of
Cashmere, the sabres of Oude, and the silks of its own looms.
This rich capital was governed by a prince nominally subject to the
Great Mogul, but who was dependent on the Nabob of Oude, a large
province north of the Ganges, near the Himmaleh Mountains. Benares and
its territories, being oppressed by the Nabob of Oude, sought the
protection of the British. Their protection was, of course, readily
extended; but it was fatal to the independence of Benares. The
alliance with the English was like the protection Rome extended to
Greece when threatened by Asia, and which ended in the subjection of
both Greece and Asia. The Rajah of Benares became the vassal of the
company, and therefore was obliged to furnish money for the protection
he enjoyed.
But the tribute which the Rajah of Benares paid did not satisfy
Hastings. He exacted still greater sums, which led to an insurrection
and ultimate conquest. The fair domains of Cheyte Sing, the lord of
Benares, were added to the dominions of the company together with an
increased revenue of two hundred thousand pounds a year. The treasure
of the rajah amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and
this was divided as prize money among the English.
[Sidenote: Robbery of the Princesses of Oude.]
The rapacious governor-general did not obtain the treasure which he
expected to find at Benares, and then resolved to rob the Princesses
of Oude, who had been left with immense treasures on the death of
Suraj-w Dowlah, the nabob vizier of the Grand Mogul. The only pretext
which Hastings could find was, that the insurrection at Benares had
produced disturbances at Oude, and which disturbances were imputed to
the princesses. Great barbarities were inflicted in order to secure
these treasures; but the robbers were successful, and immense sums
flowed into the treasury of the company. By these iniquities, the
governor found means to conduct the war in the Carnatic successfully,
and a treaty was concluded with Tippoo, the son of Hyder Ali, by which
the company reigned without a rival on the great Indian peninsula.
When peace was restored to India, and the company's servants had
accumulated immense fortunes, Hastings returned to England. But the
iniquities he had practised excited great indignation among those
statesmen who regarded justice and humanity as better supports to a
government than violence and rapine.
Foremost among these patriots was Edmund Burke. He had long been a
member of the select committee to investigate Indian affairs, and he
had bestowed great attention to them, and fully understood the course
which Hastings had pursued.
Through his influence, an inquiry into the conduct of the late
governor-general was instituted, and he was accordingly impeached at
the bar of the House of Lords. Mr. Pitt permitted matters to take
their natural course; but the king, the Lord Chancellor Thurlow, the
ministers generally, and the directors of the East India Company
espoused his cause. They regarded him as a very great man, whose rule
had been glorious to the nation, in spite of the mistakes and
cruelties which marked his government. He had added an empire to the
British crown, educed order out of anarchy, and organized a system of
administration which, in its essential features, has remained to this
time. He enriched the company, while he did not enrich himself; for he
easily might have accumulated a fortune of three millions of pounds.
And he moreover contrived, in spite of his extortions and conquests,
to secure the respect of the native population, whose national and
religious prejudices he endeavored not to shock. "These things
inspired good will. At the same time, his constant success, and the
manner in which he extricated himself from every difficulty, made him
an object of superstitious admiration; and the more than regal
splendor which he sometimes displayed, dazzled a people who have much
in common with children. Even now, after the lapse of more than fifty
years, the natives of India still talk of him as the greatest of the
English, and nurses sing children to sleep with a gingling ballad
about the fleet horses and richly-caparisoned elephants of Sahib
Warren Hostein."
[Sidenote: Prosecution of Hastings.]
But neither the admiration of the people of the East for the splendid
abilities of Hastings, nor the gratitude of a company of merchants,
nor the powerful friends he had in the English parliament, could
screen him from the malignant hatred of Francis, or the purer
indignation of Burke. The zeal which the latter evinced in his
prosecution has never been equalled, and all his energies, for years,
were devoted to the exposure of a person whom he regarded as "a
delinquent of the first magnitude." "He had just as lively an idea of
the insurrection at Benares as of Lord George Gordon's riots, and of
the execution of Nuncomar as of the execution of Dr. Dodd." Burke was
assisted in his vehement prosecution by Charles James Fox, the
greatest debater ever known in the House of Commons, but a man vastly
inferior to himself in moral elevation, in general knowledge, in power
of fancy, and in profound wisdom.
The trial was at Westminster Hall, the hall which had witnessed the
inauguration of thirty kings, and the trials of accused nobles since
the time of William Rufus. And he was a culprit not unworthy of that
great tribunal before which he was summoned--"a tribunal which had
pronounced sentence on Strafford, and pardon on Somers"--the tribunal
before which royalty itself had been called to account. Hastings had
ruled, with absolute sway, a country which was more populous and more
extensive than any of the kingdoms of Europe, and had gained a fame
which was bounded only by the unknown countries of the globe. He was
defended by three men who subsequently became the three highest judges
of the land, and he was encouraged by the appearance and sympathetic
smiles of the highest nobles of the realm.
[Sidenote: Edmund Burke.]
But greater than all were the mighty statesmen who conducted the
prosecution. First among them in character and genius was Edmund
Burke, who, from the time that he first spoke in the House of Commons,
in 1766, had been a prominent member, and had, at length, secured
greater fame than any of his contemporaries, Pitt alone excepted, not
merely as an orator, but as an enlightened statesman, a philosopher,
and a philanthropist. He excelled all the great men with whom he was
associated, in the variety of his powers; he was a poet even while a
boy; a penetrating philosopher, critic, and historian before the age
of thirty; a statesman of unrivalled moral wisdom; an orator whose
speeches have been read with increasing admiration in every succeeding
age; a judge of the fine arts to whose opinions Reynolds submitted;
and a writer on various subjects, in which he displayed not only vast
knowledge, but which he treated in a style of matchless beauty and
force. All the great men of his age--Johnson, Reynolds, Goldsmith,
Garrick, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Windham, North, Thurlow, Parr--scholars,
critics, divines, and statesmen--bore testimony to his commanding
genius and his singular moral worth, to his hatred of vice, and his
passionate love of virtue. But these great and varied excellences,
which secured him the veneration of the finest minds in Europe, were
not fully appreciated by his own nation, which was astonished rather
than governed by his prophetic wisdom. But Burke was remarkable, not
merely for his knowledge, eloquence, and genius but also for an
unblemished private life, for the habitual exercise of all those
virtues, and the free expression of all those noble sentiments which
only have marked exalted Christian characters. In his political
principles, he was a conservative, and preferred to base his views on
history and experience, rather than to try experiments, especially
when these were advocated by men whose moral character or infidel
sentiments excited his distrust or aversion. He did not shut his eyes
to abuse, but aimed to mend deliberately and cautiously. His
admonition to his country respecting America corresponded with his
general sentiments. "Talk not of your abstract rights of government; I
hate the very sound of them; follow experience and common sense." He
believed that love was better than force, and that the strength of any
government consisted in the affections of the people. And these he
ever strove to retain, and for these he was willing to relinquish
momentary gain and selfish aggrandizement. He advocated concession to
the Irish legislature; justice and security to the people of India;
liberty of conscience to Dissenters; relief to small debtors; the
suppression of general warrants; the extension of the power of juries;
freedom of the press; retrenchment in the public expenditures; the
removal of commercial restrictions; and the abolition of the slave
trade. He had a great contempt for "mechanical politicians," and
"pedler principles." And he lived long enough to see the fulfilment of
his political prophecies, and the horrors of that dreadful revolution
which he had predicted and disliked, not because the principles which
the French apostles of liberty advocated, were not abstractedly true,
but because they were connected with excesses, and an infidel
recklessness in the violation of established social rights, which
alarmed and disgusted him. He died in 1797, in the sixty-eighth year
of his age, beloved and honored by the good and great in all Christian
countries.
[Sidenote: Charles James Fox.]
Next to Burke, among the prosecutors of Hastings, for greatness and
popularity, was Charles James Fox; inferior to Burke in knowledge,
imagination, and moral power, but superior in all the arts of debate,
the most logical and accomplished forensic orator which that age of
orators produced. His father, Lord Holland, had been the rival of the
great Chatham, and he himself was opposed, nearly the whole of his
public life, to the younger Pitt. His political principles were like
those of Burke until the French Revolution, whose principles he at
first admired. He was emphatically the man of the people, easy of
access, social in his habits, free in his intercourse, without reserve
or haughtiness, generous, magnanimous, and conciliatory. He was
unsurpassed for logical acuteness, and for bursts of overpowering
passion. He reached high political station, although his habits were
such as destroyed, in many respects, the respect of those great men
with whom he was associated.
[Sidenote: Richard Brinsley Sheridan.]
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, another of the public accusers of Hastings,
was a different man from either Burke or Fox. He was born in Ireland,
but was educated at Harrow, and first distinguished himself by writing
plays. In 1776, on the retirement of Garrick, he became manager of
Drury Lane Theatre; and shortly after appeared the School for Scandal,
which placed him on the summit of dramatic fame. In 1780, he entered
parliament, and, when Hastings was impeached, was in the height of his
reputation, both as a writer and orator. His power consisted in
brilliant declamation and sparkling wit, and his speech in relation to
the Princesses of Oude produced an impression almost without a
parallel in ancient or modern times. Mr. Burke's admiration was
sincere and unbounded, but Fox thought it too florid and rhetorical.
His fame now rests on his dramas. But his life was the shipwreck of
genius, in consequence of his extravagance, his recklessness in
incurring debts, and his dissipated habits, which disorganized his
moral character and undermined the friendships which his brilliant
talents at first secured to him.
But in spite of the indignation which these illustrious orators
excited against Hastings, he was nevertheless acquitted, after a trial
which lasted eight years, in consequence of the change of public
opinion; and, above all, in view of the great services which he had
really rendered to his country. The expenses of the trial nearly
ruined him; but the East India Company granted him an annual income of
four thousand pounds, which he spent in ornamenting and enriching
Daylesford, the seat which had once belonged to his family, and which
he purchased after his return from India.
[Sidenote: Bill for the Regulation of India.]
Although Warren Hastings was eventually acquitted by the House of
Lords, still his long and protracted trial brought to light many evils
connected with the government of India; and, in 1784, acts were passed
which gave the nation a more direct control over the East India
Company--the most gigantic monopoly the world has ever seen. That a
company of merchants in Leadenhall Street should exercise an unlimited
power over an empire larger than the whole of Europe with the
exception of Russia, and sacrifice the interests of humanity to base
pecuniary considerations, at length aroused the English nation.
Accordingly, Mr. Pitt brought in a bill, which passed both Houses,
which provided that the affairs of the company should be partly
managed by a Board of Control, partly by the Court of Directors, and
partly by a general meeting of the stockholders of the company. The
Board of Control was intrusted to five privy counsellors, one of whom
was secretary of state. It was afterwards composed of a president,
such members of the privy council as the king should select, and a
secretary. This board superintends and regulates all civil, military,
and revenue officers, and political negotiations, and all general
despatches. The Board of Directors, composed of twenty-four men, six
of whom are annually elected, has the nomination of the
governor-general, and the appointment of all civil and military
officers. These two boards operate as a check against each other.
The first governor-general, by the new constitution, was Lord
Cornwallis, a nobleman of great military experience and elevated moral
worth; a man who was intrusted with great power, even after his
misfortunes in America, and a man who richly deserved the confidence
reposed in him. Still, he was seldom fortunate. He made blunders in
India as well as in America. He did not fully understand the
institutions of India, or the genius of the people. He was soon called
to embark in the contests which divided the different native princes,
and with the usual result. The simple principle of English territorial
acquisition is, in defending the cause of the feebler party. The
stronger party was then conquered, and became a province of the East
India Company, while the weaker remained under English protection,
until, by oppression, injustice, and rapacity on the part of the
protectors, it was driven to rebellion, and then subdued.
When Lord Cornwallis was sent to India, in 1786, the East India
Company had obtained possession of Bengal, a part of Bahar, the
Benares district of Allahabad, part of Orissa, the Circars, Bombay,
and the Jaghire of the Carnatic--a district of one hundred miles along
the coast. The other great Indian powers, unconquered by the English,
were the Mahrattas, who occupied the centre of India, from Delhi to
the Krishna, and from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea; also,
Golconda, the western parts of the Carnatic, Mysore, Oude, and the
country of the Sikhs. Of the potentates who ruled over these extensive
provinces, the Sultan of Mysore, Tippoo Saib, was the most powerful,
although the Mahrattas country was the largest.
[Sidenote: War with Tippoo Saib.]
The hostility of Tippoo, who inherited his father's prejudices against
the English, excited the suspicions of Lord Cornwallis, and a
desperate war was the result, in which the sultan showed the most
daring courage. In 1792, the English general invested the formidable
fortress of Seringapatam, with sixteen thousand Europeans and thirty
thousand sepoys, and with the usual success. Tippoo, after the loss of
this strong fort, and of twenty-three thousand of his troops, made
peace with Lord Cornwallis, by the payment of four millions of pounds,
and the surrender of half his dominions. Lord Cornwallis, after the
close of this war, returned home, and was succeeded by Sir John Shore;
and he by Marquis Wellesley, (1798,) under whose administration the
war with Tippoo was renewed, in consequence of the intrigues of the
sultan with the French at Pondicherry, to regain his dominions. The
Sultan of Mysore, was again defeated, and slain; the dynasty of Hyder
Ali ceased to reign, and the East India Company took possession of the
whole southern peninsula. A subsequent war with the Mahratta powers
completely established the British supremacy in India. Delhi, the
capital of the Great Mogul, fell into the hands of the English, and
the emperor himself became a stipendiary of a company of merchants.
The conquest of the country of the Mahrattas was indeed successful,
but was attended by vast expenses, which entailed a debt on the
company of about nineteen millions of pounds. The brilliant successes
of Wellesley, however, were not appreciated by the Board of Directors,
who wanted dividends rather than glory, and he was recalled.
[Sidenote: Conquest of India.]
There were no new conquests until 1817, under the government of the
Earl of Moira, afterwards Marquis of Hastings. He made war on the
Pindarries, who were bands of freebooters in Central India. They were
assisted by several native powers, which induced the governor-general
to demand considerable cessions of territory. In 1819, the British
effected a settlement at Singapore by which a lucrative commerce was
secured to Great Britain.
Lord Hastings was succeeded by the Earl of Amherst, under whose
administration the Burmese war commenced, and by which large
territories, between Bengal and China, were added to the British
empire, (1826.)
On the overthrow of the Mogul empire, the kingdom of the Sikhs, in the
northern part of India, and that of the Affghans, lying west of the
Indus, arose in importance--kingdoms formerly subject to Persia. The
former, with all its dependent provinces, has recently been conquered,
and annexed to the overgrown dominions of the Company.
In 1833, the charter of the East India Company expired, and a total
change of system was the result. The company was deprived of its
exclusive right of trade, the commerce with India and China was freely
opened to all the world, and the possessions and rights of the company
were ceded to the nation for an annual annuity of six hundred and
thirty thousand pounds. The political government of India, however,
was continued to the company until 1853.
[Sidenote: Consequences of the Conquest.]
Thus has England come in possession of one of the oldest and most
powerful of the Oriental empires, containing a population of one
hundred and thirty millions of people, speaking various languages, and
wedded irrecoverably to different social and religious institutions.
The conquest of India is complete, and there is not a valuable office
in the whole country which is not held by an Englishman. The native
and hereditary princes of provinces, separately larger and more
populous than Great Britain itself, are divested of all but the shadow
of power, and receive stipends from the East India Company. The
Emperor of Delhi, the Nabobs of Bengal and the Carnatic, the Rajahs of
Tanjore and Benares, and the Princes of the house of Tippoo, and other
princes, receive, indeed, an annual support of over a million
sterling; but their power has passed away. An empire two thousand
miles from east to west, and eighteen hundred from north to south, and
containing more square miles than a territory larger than all the
States between the Mississippi and the Atlantic Ocean, has fallen into
the hands of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is true that a considerable part
of Hindostan is nominally held by subsidiary allies, under the
protection of the British government; but the moment that these
dependent princes cease to be useful, this protection will be
withdrawn. There can be no reasonable doubt that the English rule is
beneficent in many important respects. Order and law are better
observed than formerly under the Mohammedan dynasty; but no
compensation is sufficient, in the eyes of the venerable Brahmin, for
interference in the laws and religion of the country. India has been
robbed by the armies of European merchants, and is only held in
bondage by an overwhelming military force, which must be felt as
burdensome and expensive when the plundered country shall no longer
satisfy the avarice of commercial corporations. But that day may be
remote. Calcutta now rivals in splendor and importance the old capital
of the Great Mogul. The palace of the governor-general is larger than
Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace; the stupendous fortifications of
Fort William rival the fortress of Gibraltar; the Anglo-Indian army
amounts to two hundred thousand men; while the provinces of India are
taxed, directly or indirectly, to an amount exceeding eighteen
millions of pounds per annum. It is idle to speculate on the destinies
of India, or the duration of the English power. The future is ever
full of gloom, when scarcely any thing is noticeable but injustice and
oppression on the part of rulers, and poverty and degradation among
the governed. It is too much to suppose that one hundred and eighty
millions of the human race can be permanently governed by a power on
the opposite side of the globe, and where there never can exist any
union or sympathy between the nation that rules and the nations that
are ruled, in any religious, social, or political institution; and
when all that is dear to the heart of man, and all that is consecrated
by the traditions of ages, are made to subserve the interests of a
mercantile state.
But it is time to hasten to the consideration of the remaining
subjects connected with the administration of William Pitt.
The agitations of moral reformers are among the most prominent and
interesting. The efforts of benevolent statesmen and philanthropists
to abolish the slave trade produced a great excitement throughout
Christendom, and were followed by great results.
In 1787, William Wilberforce, who represented the great county of
York, brought forward, in the House of Commons, a motion for the
abolition of the slave trade. The first public movements to put a stop
to this infamous traffic were made by the Quakers in the Southern
States of America, who presented petitions for that purpose to their
respective legislatures. Their brethren in England followed their
example, and presented similar petitions to the House of Commons. A
society was formed, and a considerable sum was raised to collect
information relative to the traffic, and to support the expense of
application to parliament. A great resistance was expected and made,
chiefly by merchants and planters. Mr. Wilberforce interested himself
greatly in this investigation, and in May brought the matter before
parliament, and supported his motion with overwhelming arguments and
eloquence. Mr. Fox, Mr. Burke, Mr. William Smith, and Mr. Whitbread
supported Mr. Wilberforce. Mr. Pitt defended the cause of abolition
with great eloquence and power; but the House was not then in favor of
immediate abolition, nor was it carried until Mr. Fox and his friends
came into power.
[Sidenote: War with France.]
The war with France, in consequence of the progress of the revolution,
is too great a subject to be treated except in a chapter by itself.
Mr. Pitt abstained from all warlike demonstrations until the internal
tranquillity of England itself was affected by the propagation of
revolutionary principles. But when, added to these, it was feared that
the French were resolved to extend their empire, and overturn the
balance of power, and encroach on the liberties of England, then Pitt,
sustained by an overwhelming majority in parliament, declared war upon
France, (1793.) The advocates of the French Revolution, however, take
different views, and attribute the rise and career of Napoleon to the
jealousy and encroachments of England herself, as well as of Austria
and Prussia. Whether the general European war might not have been
averted, is a point which merits inquiry, and on which British
statesmen are not yet agreed. But the connection of England with this
great war will be presented in the following chapter.
Mr. Pitt continued to manage the helm of state until 1806; but all his
energies were directed to the prosecution of the war, and no other
events of importance took place during his administration.
[Sidenote: Policy of Pitt.]
His genius most signally was displayed in his financial skill in
extricating his nation from the great embarrassments which resulted
from the American war, and in providing the means to prosecute still
more expensive campaigns against Napoleon and his generals. He also
had unrivalled talent in managing the House of Commons against one of
the most powerful oppositions ever known, and in a period of great
public excitements. He was always ready in debate, and always retained
the confidence of the nation. He is probably the greatest of the
English statesmen, so far as talents are concerned, and so far as he
represented the ideas and sentiments of his age. But it is a question
which will long perplex philosophers whether he was the wisest of that
great constellation of geniuses who enlightened his brilliant age. To
him may be ascribed the great increase of the national debt. If taxes
are the greatest calamity which can afflict a nation, then Pitt has
entailed a burden of misery which will call forth eternal curses on
his name, in spite of all the brilliancy of his splendid
administration. But if the glory and welfare of nations consist in
other things--in independence, patriotism, and rational liberty; if it
was desirable, above all material considerations, to check the current
of revolutionary excess, and oppose the career of a man who aimed to
bring all the kings and nations of Europe under the yoke of an
absolute military despotism, and rear a universal empire on the ruins
of ancient monarchies and states,--then Pitt and his government should
be contemplated in a different light.
That mighty contest which developed the energies of this great
statesman, as well as the genius of a still more remarkable man,
therefore claims our attention.
* * * * *
REFERENCES.--Tomline's Life of Pitt. Belsham's History of
George III. Prior's and Bissett's Lives of Burke. Moore's
Life of Sheridan. Walpole's Life of Fox. Life of
Wilberforce, by his sons. Annual Register, from 1783 to
1806. Macaulay's Essay on Warren Hastings. Elphinstone's and
Martin's Histories of India. Mill's British India. Russell's
Modern Europe. Correspondence of Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke.
Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors. Boswell's Life of
Johnson. Burke's Works. Schlosser's Modern History.