When George II. died, his grandson and successor, George III., was
twenty-two years of age. The Civil List of the new King was fixed at
L800,000 a year, "a provision," says Phillimore, in his "History of
England," "that soon became inadequate to the clandestine purposes of
George III., and for the purchase of the mercenary dependents, on the
rapport of whom his unconstitutional proceedings obliged him to depend."
The Civil List of George III. was not, however, really so large as that
of her present Majesty. The Civil List disbursements included such items
as Secret Service, now charged separately; pensions and annuities, now
charged separately; diplomatic salaries, now forming distinct items;
fees and salaries of ministers and judges, now forming no part of the
charge against the Civil List. So that though L924,041 was the Civil
List of George III. four years after he ascended the throne, in truth
to-day the Royal Family alone get much more than all the great offices
and machinery of State then cost. The Royal Family at the present time
get from the country, avowedly and secretly, about one million sterling
a year.
"At the accession of George III.," says Thackeray, "the Patricians
were yet at the height of their good fortune. Society recognized their
superiority, which they themselves pretty calmly took for granted. They
inherited not only titles and estates, and seats in the House of Peers,
but seats in the House of Commons. There were a multitude of Government
places, and not merely these, but bribes of actual L500 notes, which
members of the House took not much shame in assuming.. Fox went into
Parliament at twenty, Pitt was just of age, his father not much older.
It was the good time for Patricians."
A change of political parties was imminent; Whig rule had lasted seventy
years, and England had become tolerably disgusted with the consequences.
"Now that George II. was dead," says Macaulay, "a courtier might venture
to ask why England was to become a party in a dispute between two German
powers. What was it to her whether the House of Hapsburg or the House
of Brandenburg ruled in Silesia? Why were the best English regiments
fighting on the Maine? Why were the Prussian battalions paid with
English gold? The great minister seemed to think it beneath him to
calculate the price of victory. As long as the Tower guns were fired, as
the streets were illuminated, as French banners were carried in triumph
through London, it was to him matter of indifference to what extent the
public burdens were augmented. Nay, he seemed to glory in the magnitude
of those sacrifices which the people, fascinated by his eloquence and
success, had too readily made, and would long and bitterly regret. There
was no check on waste or embezzlement. Our commissaries returned from
the camp of Prince Ferdinand, to buy boroughs, to rear palaces, to rival
the magnificence, of the old aristocracy of the realm. Already had
we borrowed, in four years of war, more than the most skilful and
economical government would pay in forty years of peace."
The Church allied itself with the Tories, who assumed the reins of
government, and thenceforth totally forgot the views of liberty they
had maintained when in opposition. The policy of all their succeeding
legislation was that of mischievous retrogression; they sought to excel
the old Whigs in their efforts to consolidate the aristocracy at the
expense of the people.
"This reactionary movement," says Buckle, "was greatly aided by the
personal character of George III.; for he, being despotic as well
as superstitious, was equally anxious to extend the prerogative, and
strengthen the Church. Every liberal sentiment, everything approaching
to reform, nay, even the mere mention of inquiry, was an abomination in
the eyes of that narrow and ignorant Prince. Without knowledge, without
taste, without even a glimpse of one of the sciences, or a feeling for
one of the fine arts, education had done nothing to enlarge a mind which
nature had more than usually contracted. Totally ignorant of the
history and resources of foreign countries, and barely knowing their
geographical position, his information was scarcely more extensive
respecting the people over whom he was called to rule. In that immense
mass of evidence now extant, and which consists of every description of
private correspondence, records of private conversation, and of public
acts, there is not to be found the slightest proof that he knew any one
of those numerous things which the governor of a country ought to know;
or, indeed, that he was acquainted with a single duty of his position,
except the mere mechanical routine of ordinary business, which might
have been effected by the lowest clerk in the meanest office in his
kingdom.
"He gathered round his throne that great party, who, clinging to the
tradition of the past, have always made it their boast to check the
progress of their age. During the sixty years of his reign, he, with
the sole exception of Pitt, never willingly admitted to his councils a
single man of great ability: not one whose name is associated with any
measure of value, either in domestic or foreign policy. Even Pitt only
maintained his position in the State by forgetting the lessons of his
illustrious father, and abandoning those liberal principles in which he
had been educated, and with which he entered public life. Because George
III. hated the idea of reform, Pitt not only relinquished what he had
before declared to be absolutely necessary, but did not hesitate to
persecute to death the party with whom he had once associated in order
to obtain it. Because George III. looked upon slavery as one of those
good old customs which the wisdom of his ancestors had consecrated, Pitt
did not dare to use his power for procuring its abolition, but left
to his successors the glory of destroying that infamous tracle, on the
preservation of which his royal master had set his heart. Because George
III. detested the French, of whom he knew as much as he knew of the
inhabitants of Kamschatka or Thibet, Pitt, contrary to his own judgment,
engaged in a war with France, by which England was seriously imperilled,
and the English people burdened with a debt that their remotest
posterity will be unable to pay. But, notwithstanding all this, when
Pitt, only a few years before his death, showed a determination to
concede to the Irish a small share of their undoubted rights, the King
dismissed him from office, and the King's friends, as they were called,
expressed their indignation at the presumption of a minister who
could oppose the wishes of so benign and gracious a master. And when,
unhappily for his own fame, this great man determined to return to
power, he could only recover office by conceding that very point for
which he had relinquished it; thus setting the mischievous example
of the minister of a free country sacrificing his own judgment to the
personal prejudices of the reigning sovereign. As it was hardly
possible to find other ministers who to equal abilities would add
equal subservience, it is not surprising that the highest offices were
constantly filled with men of notorious incapacity. Indeed, the King
seemed to have an instinctive antipathy to everything great and noble.
During the reign of George II. the elder Pitt had won for himself a
reputation which covered the world, and had carried to an unprecedented
height the glories of the English name. He, however, as the avowed
friend of popular rights, strenuously opposed the despotic principles of
the Court; and for this reason he was hated by George III. with a hatred
that seemed barely compatible with a sane mind. Fox was one of the
greatest statesmen of the 18th century, and was better acquainted than
any-other with the character and resources of those foreign nations
with which our interests were intimately connected. To this rare and
important knowledge he added a sweetness and amenity of temper which
extorted the praises even of his political opponents. But he, too, was
the steady supporter of civil and religious liberty; and he, too, was
so detested by George III., that the King, with his own hand, struck his
name out of the list of Privy Councillors, and declared that he would
rather abdicate the throne than admit him to a share in the government.
"While this unfavorable change was taking place in the sovereign
and ministers of the country, a change equally unfavorable was being
effected in the second branch of the imperial legislature. Until the
reign of George III. the House of Lords was decidedly superior to the
House of Commons in the liberality and general accomplishments of its
members. It is true that in both Houses there prevailed a spirit which
must be called narrow and superstitious if tried by the larger standard
of the present age.
"The superiority of the Upper House over the Lower was, on the whole,
steadily maintained during the reign of George II., the ministers not
being anxious to strengthen the High Church party in the Lords, and the
King himself so rarely suggesting fresh creations as to cause a belief
that he particularly disliked increasing their numbers. It was reserved
for George III., by an unsparing use of his prerogative, entirely to
change the character of the Upper House, and thus lay the foundation for
that disrepute into which, since then, the peers have been constantly
falling. The creations he made were numerous beyond all precedent,
their object evidently being to neutralize the liberal spirit hitherto
prevailing, and thus turn the House of Lords into an engine for
resisting the popular wishes, and stopping the progress of reform.
How completely this plan succeeded is well known to the readers of our
history; indeed, it was sure to be successful considering the character
of the men who were promoted. They consisted almost entirely of two
classes: of country gentlemen, remarkable for nothing but their wealth,
and the number of votes their wealth enabled them to control; and of
mere lawyers, who had risen to judicial appointments partly from
their professional learning, but chiefly from the zeal with which they
repressed the popular liberties, and favored the royal prerogative.
"That this is no exaggerated description may be ascertained by any one
who will consult the lists of the new-peers made by George III.
"Here and there we find an eminent man, whose public services were so
notorious that it was impossible to avoid rewarding them; but, putting
aside those who were in a manner forced upon the sovereign, it would
be idle to deny that the remainder, and of course the overwhelming
majority, were marked by a narrowness and illiberality of sentiment
which, more than anything else, brought the whole order into contempt.
No great thinkers, no great writers, no great orators, no great
statesmen, none of the true nobility of the land, were to be found among
the spurious nobles created by George III."
In the early part of his reign, George III. (whom even the courtly
Alison pictures as having "little education and no great acquired
information") was very much under the influence of his mother, who had,
previously to his being King, often spoken of her son with contempt.
The Princess of Wales, in turn, was almost entirely guided by Lord Bute,
represented by scandal, says Macaulay, as "her favored lover." "Of this
attachment," says Dr. Doran, "the Prince of Wales himself is said to
have had full knowledge, and did not object to Lord Bute taking
solitary walks with the Princess, while _he_ could do the same with
Lady Middlesex." The most infamous stories were circulated in the
_Whisperer_, and other journals of the time, as to the nature of the
association between the Scotch Peer and the King's mother, and its
results. Phillimore regards the Princess of Wales as "before and after
her husband's death the mistress of Lord Bute." The Princess Dowager
seems to have been a hard woman. Walpole tells us how, when the Princess
Dowager reproved one of her maids of honor for irregular habits, the
latter replied, "_Madame, chacun a son But_." "Seeing," says Thackeray,
"the young Duke of Gloucester silent and unhappy once, she sharply asked
him the cause of his silence. 'I am thinking,' said the poor child.
'Thinking, sir! and of what?'--'I am thinking if ever I have a son, I
will not make him so unhappy as you make me.'"
John Stuart, Earl of Bute, shared with William Pitt and John Wilkes
the bulk of popular attention during the first ten years of the King's
reign. Bute had risen rapidly to favor, having attracted the attention
of the Princess Dowager at some private theatricals, and he became by
her influence Groom of the Stole. His poverty and ambition made him
grasp at power, both against the great Commoner and the Pelham faction;
and a lady observer described the great question of the day, in 1760,
as being whether the King would burn in his chamber _Scotch_ coal,
_Newcastle_ coal, or _Pitt_ coal. Macaulay, who seems to have followed
Lord Waldegrave's "Memoirs," says of Bute: "A handsome leg was among his
chief qualifications for the stage.... His understanding was narrow,
his manners cold and haughty." His qualifications for the part of a
statesman were best described by Prince Frederick, who often indulged
in the unprincely luxury of sneering at his dependents. "Bute," said his
Royal Highness, "you are the very man to be envoy at some small proud
German Court> where there is nothing to do." Phillimore speaks of Lord
Bute as "a minion raised by Court favor to a post where his ignorance,
mean understanding, and disregard of English honor, became national
calamities."
The King's speech on his accession is said to have been drawn up by
Bute, who did not then belong to the Council, but the terms being
vehemently objected to by Pitt, it was actually altered after delivery,
and before it found its way to the printer.
Whatever were the relations between Lord Bute and the Princess
Dowager, it is quite certain that on more than one occasion George III.
condescended not only to prevaricate, but to lie as to the influence
exercised by Lord Bute. It is certain, from the "Memoirs" of Earl
Waldegrave, and other trustworthy sources, that the Scotch Earl, after
being hissed out of office by the people, was still secretly consulted
by the King, who, like a truly Royal Brunswick, did not hesitate to
use falsehood on the subject even to his own ministers. Phillimore,
in remarkably strong language, describes George III. as "an ignorant,
dishonest, obstinate, narrow-minded boy, at that very moment the tool
of an adulteress and her paramour." The Duke of Bedford has put upon
record, in his correspondence, not only his conviction that the King
behaved unfaithfully to his ministers, but asserts that he told him so
to his face.
In 1759, George was married to Hannah Lightfoot, a Quakeress, in Curzon
Street Chapel, May Fair, in the presence of his brother, Edward, Duke
of York. Great doubt has, however, been cast on the legality of this
marriage, as it would, if in all respects valid, have rendered null as a
bigamous contract the subsequent marriage entered into by the King. Dr.
Doran says that the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., when needing
money in later years, used this Lightfoot marriage as a threat against
his royal parents--that is, that he threatened to expose his mother's
shame and his own illegitimacy if the Queen would not use her influence
with Pitt. Glorious family, these Brunswicks! Walpole affirms that early
in his reign George III. admitted to his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland,
"that it had not been common in their family to live well together."
On the 18th of September, 1761, George was married to the Princess
Charlotte Sophia, of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, Hannah Lightfoot being
still alive. Of the new Queen, Philli-more says: "If to watch over the
education of her children and to promote their happiness be any part of
a woman's duty, she has little claim to the praises that have been so
lavishly bestowed on her as a model of domestic virtue. Her religion was
displayed in the scrupulous observance of external forms. Repulsive in
her aspect, grovelling in her instincts, sordid in her habits; steeped
from the cradle in the stupid pride which was the atmosphere of her
stolid and most insignificant race; inexorably severe to those who
yielded to temptation from which she was protected, not more by her
situation and the vigilance of those around her, than by the extreme
homeliness of her person; bigoted, avaricious, unamiable to brutality,
she added dulness and gloom even to the English court."
In 1761, the Duke of Bedford was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; that
unfortunate country, for centuries governed by men who tried to
exterminate its natives, and which was used under the first three reigns
of the House of Brunswick as a sponge out of which, regardless of much
bloodshed and more misery, gold could be squeezed for the dependents and
relatives of aristocrats in office. His reign of office in Ireland was
brief. Walpole says that "the ill-humor of the country determined the
Duke of Bedford to quit the Government, after having amply gratified his
family and dependents with pensions." It was this Duke of Bedford who
consented that the Princess of Hesse should have a pension of L6,000 a
year out of the Irish revenues, and who gave to his own relative, the
Lady Betty Waldegrave, L800 a year from the same source. Shortly after
this, Prince Charles, of Strelitz, the Queen's brother, received L30,000
towards the payment of the debts he owed in Germany. This L30,000 was
nominally given by the King out of the Civil List, but was really paid
by the nation when discharging the Civil List debts which it increased.
On the motion of Lord Barrington, L400,000 subsidy was granted this year
to the Landgrave of Hesse, under a secret treaty made by George II.,
without the knowledge or consent of Parliament, and L300,000 was also
voted to the Chancery of Hanover for forage for Hanoverian, Prussian,
and Hessian Cavalry.
On August 12th, 1762, George, Prince of Wales, was born; and in the same
year, with the direct connivance of George III., the peace of Paris was
made; a peace as disgraceful to England, under the circumstances, as can
possibly be imagined. Lord Bute, who was roundly charged with receiving
money from France for his services, and this with the knowledge of
the mother of George III., most certainly communicated to the French
minister "the most secret councils of the English Cabinet."
This was done with the distinct concurrence of George III., who was
himself bribed by the immediate evacuation of his Hanoverian dominions.
In the debate in the Lords on the preliminaries of peace, Horace Walpole
tells us that "the Duke of Grafton, with great weight and greater
warmth, attacked them severely, and looking full on Lord Bute, imputed
to him corruption and worse arts." Count Virri, the disreputable agent
employed in this matter by the King and Lord Bute, was rewarded under
the false name of George Charles with a pension of L1,000 a year out of
the Irish revenues. Phillimore may well declare that Lord Bute was
"a minion, raised by court favor to a post where his ignorance,
mean understanding, and disregard of English honor, became national
calamities." To carry the approval of this peace of Paris through
the Commons, Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, was purchased with a most
lucrative appointment, although only shortly before he had published
a print of George, with the following lines, referring to the Princess
Dowager and Lord Bute, written under the likeness:--
"Son of a--------
I could say more."
To gain a majority in the House of Commons, Walpole tells us "that a
shop was publicly opened at the pay office, whither the members flocked
and received the wages of their venality in bank bills even to so low a
sum as L200, for their votes on the treaty. L25,000 was thus issued in
one morning." Lord Chesterfield speaks of the large sums disbursed by
the King "for the hire of Parliament men."
As an illustration of the unblushing corruption of the age, the
following letter from Lord Saye and Sele to Mr. Grenville, then Prime
Minister of England, tells its own terrible tale:--
"November 26th, 1763.
"Honored Sir:--I am very much obliged to you for that freedom of
converse you this morning indulged me in, which I prize more than the
lucrative advantage I then received. To show the sincerity of my words
(pardon, sir, the over-niceness of my disposition), I return enclosed
the bill for L300 you favored me with, as good manners would not permit
my refusal of it when tendered by you.
"Your most obliged and obedient servant,
"Sate and Sele.
"As a free horse needs no spur, so I stand in need of no inducement or
douceur to lend my small assistance to the King or his friends in the
present Administration."
That this was part of the general practice of the Government under
George III. may be seen by the following extract from an infamous letter
written about fifteen years later by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland: "No
man can see the inconvenience of increasing the Peers more forcibly than
myself, but the recommendation of many of those persons submitted to his
Majesty for that honor, arose from the engagements taken up at the press
of the moment to rescue questions upon which the English Government were
very particularly anxious. My sentiments cannot but be the same with
reference to the Privy Council and pensions, and I had not contracted
any absolute engagements of recommendations either to peerage or
pension, till difficulties arose which necessarily occasioned so much
anxiety in his Majesty's Cabinet, that I must have been culpable in
neglecting any possible means to secure a majority in the House of
Commons."
A good story is told of the great Commoner Pitt's repartee to Fox
(afterwards Lord Holland), in one of the debates of this period. "Pitt,"
says the _London Chronicle_, "in the heat of his declamation, proceeded
so far as to attack the personal deformity of Fox; and represented his
gloomy and lowering countenance, with the penthouse of his eye-brows,
as Churchill phrases it, as a true introduction of his dark and double
mind. Mr. Fox was nettled at this personal reflection, and the more so,
perhaps, that it was as just as it was cutting. He therefore got up, and
after inveighing bitterly against the indecency of his antagonist, in
descending to remark on his bodily defects, observed that his figure was
such as God Almighty had made it, and he could not look otherwise; and
then, in a tone between the plaintive and indignant, cried out, 'How,
gentlemen, shall I _look?_' Most of the members, apprehending that Mr.
Pitt had gone rather too far, were inclined to think that Mr. Fox had
got the better of him. But Mr. Pitt started up, and with one of those
happy turns, in which he so much excels, silenced his rival, and made
him sit down with a countenance, if possible more abashed than
formerly. '_Look!_ Sir,' said he--'_look_' as you _cannot_ look, if
you _would--look_ as you _dare_ not look, if you _could--look_ like an
_honest man_.'"
In the _London Chronicle_ for March, 1763, we find bitter complaints
that since 1760, "every obsolete, useless place has been revived, and
every occasion of increasing salaries seized with eagerness," and that a
great Whig leader "has just condescended to stipulate for an additional
salary, without power, as the price of his support to the Tory
Government."
In March, 1763, George III. gave four ships of war to the King of
Sardinia at the national expense, and in August appears to have given a
fifth vessel.
On the 23d of April, 1763, No. 45 of the _North Briton_, a journal which
had been started in opposition to Lord Bute's paper, the _Briton_, was
published, severely criticising the King's speech, and warmly attacking
Lord Bute. This issue provoked the ministers to a course of the utmost
illegality. A _general warrant_ to seize all persons concerned in the
publication of the _North Briton_, without specifying their names, was
immediately issued by the Secretary of State, and a number of printers
and publishers were placed in custody, some of whom were not at all
concerned in the obnoxious publication. Late on the night of the 29th
of April, the messengers entered the house of John Wilkes, M.P. for
Aylesbury (the author of the article in question), and produced their
warrant, with which he refused to comply. On the following morning,
however, he was carried before the Secretary of State, and committed
a close prisoner to the Tower, his papers being previously seized and
sealed, and all access to his person strictly prohibited. The warrant
was clearly an illegal one, and had only been previously resorted to
in one or two instances, and under very extraordinary circumstances, of
which there were none in the present case. Wilkes's friends immediately
obtained a writ of habeas corpus, which the ministers defeated by a mean
subterfuge; and it was found necessary to obtain a second before they
could bring the prisoner before the Court of King's Bench, by which
he was set at liberty, on the ground of his privilege as a Member of
Parliament. He then opened an angry correspondence, followed by actions
at law, against the Secretaries of State, on the seizure of his papers,
and for the wrongful arrest. These actions abated, although in the one
for the seizure of the papers a verdict was given for L1,000 damages and
costs. But in the mean time the Attorney-General had been directed to
institute a prosecution against Wilkes, in the King's Bench, for libel,
and the King had ordered him, to be deprived of his commission as
Colonel in the Buckinghamshire Militia. The King further exhibited his
resentment by depriving Lord Temple of the Lord-Lieutenancy of the same
county, and striking his name out of the Council-book, for an expression
of personal sympathy which had fallen from him. Worse than all, this
King George III. actually deprived General A'Court, MP. for Heytesbury,
of his commission as colonel of the 11th Dragoons, for having voted that
the arrest of Wilkes was a breach of privilege. He also caused it to be
intimated to General Conway, "that the King cannot trust his army in
the hands of a man who votes in Parliament against him." The House of
Commons ordered the _North Briton_ to be burned by the common hangman;
but when the authorities attempted to carry out the sentence, the
people assembled, rescued the number, and burned instead a large
jack-boot, the popular hieroglyphic for the unpopular minister.
Amongst the many rhymed squibs the following is worth repetition:--
"Because the _North Briton_ inflamed the whole nation,
To flames they commit it to show detestation;
But throughout old England how joy would have spread,
Had the real North Briton been burnt in its stead!"
The North Briton of the last line is, of course, the Scotch Earl Bute.
As an illustration of the then disgraceful state of the English law,
it is enough to notice that Lord Halifax, the Secretary of State, by
availing himself of his privileges as a peer, managed to delay John
Wilkes in his action from June, 1763, to November, 1764; and then,
Wilkes having been outlawed, the noble Earl appeared and pleaded the
outlawry as a bar to further proceedings. Ultimately, after five years'
delay, Wilkes annulled the outlawry, and recovered L4,000 damages
against Lord Halifax. For a few months Wilkes was the popular idol, and,
had he been a man of real earnestness and integrity, might have taken a
permanently leading position in the State.
In August, 1763, Frederick, Duke of York, was born. He was created
Prince Bishop of Osnaburg before he could speak. The King and Queen were
much dissatisfied because the clergy of the diocese, who did not dispute
the baby bishop's ability to attend to the souls of his flock, yet
refused to entrust to him the irresponsible guardianship of the
episcopal funds. This bishopric had actually been kept vacant by the
King nearly three years, in order that he might not give it to the Duke
of York or Duke of Cumberland. The income was about L25,000 a year, and
it was to secure this Prince Bishopric for the Duke of Cumberland that
George II. burdened the country with several subsidies to petty European
sovereigns.
The King's sister, Augusta, was, like the rest of the Brunswick family,
on extremely bad terms with her mother, the Princess of Wales. The
Princess Augusta was married on January 16th, 1764, to the hereditary
Prince of Brunswick, who received L80,000, besides L8,000 a year for
becoming the husband of one of our Royal Family. In addition to this,
George III. and Queen Charlotte insulted the newly-married couple, who
returned the insult with interest. Pleasant people, these Brunswicks!
In March, 1764, the first steps were taken in the endeavor to impose
taxes on the American colonies, an endeavor which at length resulted
in their famous rebellion. The commanders of our ships of war on the
American coast were sworn in to act as revenue officers, the consequence
of which was the frequently illegal seizures of ships and cargoes
without any means of redress for the Americans in their own colony. As
though to add to the rising disaffection, Mr. Grenville proposed a new
stamp-tax. As soon as the Stamp Act reached Boston, the ships in the
harbor hung their colors half-mast high, the bells-were rung muffled,
the Act of Parliament was reprinted with a death's head for title, and
sold in the streets as the "Folly of England and Ruin of America." The
Americans refused to use stamped paper. The Government distributors
of stamps were either forced to return to England, or were obliged to
renounce publicly and upon oath their official employment; and, when
the matter was again brought before the English House of Commons, Pitt
denied the right of Parliament to levy taxation on persons who had no
right to representation, and exclaimed: "I rejoice that America has
resisted; three millions of people so dead to all feelings of liberty as
voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to
make slaves of all the rest." The supporters of the Government actually
advanced the ridiculously absurd and most monstrous pretension that
America was in law represented in Parliament as part of the manor of
East Greenwich.
The Earl of Abercorn and Lord Harcourt appear to have been consulted by
the Queen as to the effect of the previous marriage of George III. with
Hannah Lightfoot, who seems to have been got rid of by some arrangement
for a second marriage between her and a Mr. Axford, to whom a sum of
money was paid. It is alleged that this was done without the knowledge
of the King, who entreated Lord Chatham to discover where the Quakeress
had gone. No fresh communication, however, took place between George
III. and Hannah Lightfoot; and the King's first attack of insanity,
which took place in 1764, is strongly suggested to have followed the
more than doubts as to the legality of the second marriage and the
legitimacy of the Royal Family. Hannah Lightfoot died in the winter
of 1764, and in the early part of the year 1765, the King being
then scarcely sane, a second ceremony of marriage with the Queen
was privately performed by the Rev. Dr. Wilmot at Kew palace. Hannah
Lightfoot left children by George III., but of these nothing is known.
In the winter of 1764, and spring of 1765, George III. was, in
diplomatic language, laboring under an indisposition; in truth, he was
mad. Her present Gracious Majesty often labors under an indisposition,
but no loyal subject would suggest any sort of doubt as to her mental
condition. A Bill was introduced in 1764 in the House of Lords, to
provide for a Regency in case of the recurrence of any similar attack.
In the discussion on this Bill, a doubt arose as to who were to be
regarded as the Royal Family; fortunately, the Law Lords limited it to
the descendants of George II. If a similar definition prevailed to-day,
we should, perhaps, not be obliged to pay the pensions to the Duke of
Cambridge and Princess Mary, which they at present receive as members of
the Royal Family.
On the 80th of October, 1765, William, Duke of Cumberland, the King's
uncle, died. Dr. Doran says of him: "As he grew in manhood, his heart
became hardened; he had no affection for his family, nor fondness for
the army, for which he affected attachment. When his brother (Prince
Frederick) died, pleasure, not pain, made his heart throb, as he
sarcastically exclaimed, 'It's a great blow to the country, but I hope
it will recover in time.' He was the author of what was called 'the
bloody mutiny act.' 'He was dissolute and a gambler.' After the
'disgraceful surrender of Hanover and the infamous convention of
Kloster-seven,' his father George II. said of him, 'Behold the son who
has ruined me, and disgraced himself.'" His own nephew, George III.,
believed the Duke to be capable of murder. The Dukes of Cumberland in
this Brunswick family have had a most unfortunate reputation.
In 1766, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, brother of the King, married
Maria, Countess-Dowager of Waldegrave.
This marriage was at the time repudiated by the rest of the Royal
Family.
In October of the same year Caroline Matilda, the King's sister, married
Christian, King of Denmark, an unfeeling, dissolute brute. Our Princess,
who lived very unhappily, was afterwards accused of adultery, and
rescued from punishment by a British man-of-war.
In the autumn of 1766, in consequence of the high price of provisions
and taxes, large gatherings took place in many parts of the kingdom;
these assemblages were dispersed with considerable loss of life, of
course by the military, which the House of Brunswick was not slow to use
in checking political manifestations. At Derby the people were charged
by the cavalry, at Colton eight were shot dead, in Gloucestershire many
lives were lost; in fact, from Exeter to Berwick-on-Tweed there was one
ferment of discontent and disaffection. The people were heavily taxed,
the aristocracy corrupt and careless. As an instance of the madness of
the governing classes, it is sufficient to point out that in 1767,
while taxation was increasing, the landed gentry, who were rapidly
appropriating common lands under Private Enclosure Acts, most
audaciously reduced the land tax by one-fourth. During the first
thirty-seven years of the reign of George III., there were no less than
1,532 Enclosure Acts passed, affecting in all 2,804,197 acres of land
fliched from the nation by a few families. Wealth took and poverty lost;
riches got land without burden, and labor inherited burden in lieu of
land. It is worth notice that in the early part of the reign of George
III., land yielding about a sixth or seventh of its present rental, paid
the same nominal tax that it does to-day, the actual amount paid at the
present time being however smaller through redemption; and yet then the
annual interest on the National Debt was under L4,500,000, while to-day
it is over L26,000,000. Then the King's Civil List covered all the
expenses of our State ministers and diplomatic representatives; to-day,
an enormous additional sum is required, and a Prime Minister professing
economy, and well versed in history, has actually the audacity to
pretend that the country gains by its present Civil List arrangement.
In 1769 George III. announced to his faithful Commons he owed half
a million. John Wilkes and a few others protested, but the money was
voted.
In 1770 King George III. succeeded in making several buttons at Kew, and
as this is, as far as I am aware, the most useful work of his life, I
desire to give it full prominence. His son, afterwards George IV., made
a shoebuckle. No other useful product has resulted directly from the
efforts of any male of the family.
In 1770 Henry, Duke of Cumberland, the King's brother, was sued by Lord
Grosvenor for crim. con., and had to pay L10,000 damages. This same
Henry, in the following year, went through the form of marriage with a
Mrs. Horton, which marriage, being repudiated by the Court, troubled
him but little, and in the lifetime of the lady contracted a second
alliance, which gave rise to the famous Olivia Serres legitimacy issue.
The Royal Marriage Act, a most infamous measure for ensuring the
perpetuation of vice, and said to be the result of the Lightfoot
experience, was introduced to Parliament by a message from George
III, on the 20th February, 1772, twelve days after the death of the
Princess-Dowager, of Wales. George III. wrote to Lord North on the 26th
February: "I expect every nerve to be strained to carry the Bill. It is
not a question relating to the Administration, but personally to myself,
therefore I have a right to expect a hearty support from every one in my
service, and I shall remember defaulters."
In May, 1773, the East India Company, having to come before Parliament
for borrowing powers, a select committee was appointed, whose inquiries
laid open cases of rapacity and treachery involving the highest
personages, and a resolution was carried in the House of Commons
affirming that Lord Clive had dishonorably possessed himself of L234,000
at the time of the deposition of Surajah Dowlah, and the establishment
of Meer Jaffier. Besides this, it was proved that Lord Clive received
several other large sums in succeeding years. Phillimore describes this
transaction, in terrific language, as one of "disgusting and sordid
turpitude," declaring that "individual members of the English Government
were to be paid for their treachery by a hire, the amount of which
is almost incredible." A few years after this exposure, Lord Clive
committed suicide.
On the 18th of December, 1773, the celebrated cargoes of tea were
thrown over in Boston Harbor. The tea duty was a trifling one, but was
unfortunately insisted upon by the King's Government as an assertion of
the right of the British Parliament to tax the unrepresented American
colonies, a right the colonists strenuously and successfully denied.
The news of the firm attitude of the Bay State colonists arrived in
England early in March, 1774, and Lord North's Government, urged by the
King, first deprived Boston of her privileges as a port; secondly, took
away from the State of Massachusetts the whole of the executive powers
granted by the charter of William III., and vested the nomination of
magistrates of every kind in the King, or royally-appointed Governor;
and thirdly, carried an enactment authorizing persons accused of
political offences committed in Boston to be sent home to England to be
tried.
These monstrous statutes provoked the most decided resistance; all the
other American colonists joined with Boston, and a solemn league and
covenant was entered into for suspending all commercial intercourse
with Great Britain until the obnoxious acts were repealed. On the 5th
of Sept., 1774, a congress of fifty-one representatives from twelve
old colonies assembled in Philadelphia. The instructions given to them
disclaimed every idea of independence, recognized the constitutional
authority of the mother country, and acknowledged the prerogatives of
the crown; but unanimously declared that they would never give up the
rights and liberties derived to them from their ancestors as British
subjects, and pronounced the late acts relative to the colony of
Massachusetts Bay to be unconstitutional, oppressive and dangerous. The
first public act of the congress was a resolution declarative of their
favorable disposition towards the colony above mentioned; and, by
subsequent resolutions, they formally approved the opposition it had
given to the obnoxious acts, and declared that, if an attempt were made
to carry them into execution by force, the colony should be supported by
all America.
The following extract is from the "Address of the Twelve United
Provinces to the Inhabitants of Great Britain," when force was actually
used:--"We can retire beyond the reach of your navy, and, without any
sensible diminution of the necessaries of life, enjoy a luxury, which
from that period you will want--_the luxury of being free_."
On the 16th of November, 1775, Edmund Burke proposed the renunciation
on the part of Great Britain of the exercise of taxation in America,
the repeal of the obnoxious duty on tea, and a general pardon for past
political offenders. This was directly opposed by the King, who had
lists brought to him of how the members spoke and voted, and was
negatived in the House of Commons by 210 votes against 105. On the 20th
November, after consultation with George III., Lord North introduced a
Bill by which all trade and commerce with the thirteen United colonies
were interdicted. It authorized the seizure, whether in harbor or on the
high seas, of all vessels laden with American property, and by a cruel
stretch of refined tyranny it rendered all persons taken on board
American vessels liable to be entered as sailors on board British ships
of war, and to serve (if required) against their own countrymen. About
the same time, as we learn by a "secret" dispatch from Lord Dartmouth to
General Howe, the King had been unmanly enough to apply to the Czarina
of Russia for the loan of 20,000 Russian soldiers to enable him to crush
his English subjects in the American colonies. As yet the Americans had
made no claim for independence. They were only petitioners for justice.
In order to crush out the spirit of liberty in the American colonies,
the Government of George III., in February, 1776, hired 17,000 men from
the Landgrave and Hereditary Prince of Hesse Cassel, and from the Duke
of Brunswick. Besides these, there were levies of troops out of George
III.'s Hanoverian dominions, and that nothing might be wanting to our
glory, the King's agents stirred up the Cherokee and Creek Indians to
scalp, ravish, and plunder the disaffected colonists. Jesse says:
"The newly arrived troops comprised several thousand kidnapped German
soldiers, whom the cupidity of the Duke of Brunswick, of the Landgrave
of Hesse Cassel, and other German Princes, had induced to let out
for hire to the British Government.... Frederick of Prussia not only
denounced the traffic as a most scandalous one, but wherever, it is
said, the unfortunate hirelings had occasion to march through any part
of his dominions, used to levy a toll upon them, as if they had been so
many head of bullocks.... They had been sold, he said, as cattle, and
therefore he was entitled to exact the toll."
The consequence of all this was, on the 4th of July, 1776, the famous
declaration of the American Congress. "The history of the reigning
sovereign, they said, was a history of repeated injuries and
usurpations. So evidently was it his intention to establish an absolute
despotism, that it had become their duty, as well as their right, to
secure themselves against further aggressions.... In every stage of
these oppressions," proceeds the Declaration, "we have petitioned for
redress in the most humble terms. Our petitions have been answered only
by repeated injuries.
"A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define
a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." And the United
Colonies solemnly declare themselves to be "free and independent
States."
In 1777, during this American war, Earl Chatham, in one of his grand
speeches, after denouncing "the traffic and barter driven with every
little pitiful German Prince that sells his subjects to the shambles
of a foreign country," adds: "The mercenary aid on which you rely,
irritates to an incurable resentment the minds of your enemies, whom you
overrun with the sordid sons of rapine and of plunder, devoting them
and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an
American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my
country, I never would lay down my arms, never! never! never!" In reply
to Lord Suffolk, who had said, in reference to employing the Indians,
that "we were justified in using all the means which God and nature had
put into our hands," "I am astonished," exclaimed Lord Chatham, as he
rose, "shocked, to hear such principles confessed, to hear them avowed
in this House, or in this country; principles equally unconstitutional,
inhuman, and un-Christian. _That God and Nature put into our hands!_ I
know not what idea that Lord may entertain of God and Nature, but I know
that such abominable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and
humanity. What! attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to
the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife, to the cannibal savage,
torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating; literally, my Lords, eating
the mangled victims of his barbarous battles!"
And yet even after this we find George III. writing to Lord North,
on the 22d of June, 1779: "I do not yet despair that, with Clinton's
activity, and the Indians in their rear, the provinces will soon now
submit."
Actually so late as the 27th of November, 1781, after the surrender of
Cornwallis, we find George III. saying that "retaining a firm confidence
in the wisdom and protection of Divine Providence," he should be able
"by the valor of his fleets and armies to conquer America." Fox, in the
House of Commons, denounced this speech of the King's as one "breathing
vengeance, blood, misery, and rancor;" and "as containing the sentiments
of some arbitrary, despotic, hard-hearted, and unfeeling monarch, who,
having involved his subjects in a ruinous and unnatural war, to glut
his feelings of revenge, was determined to persevere in it in spite of
calamity." "Divest the speech," said he, "of its official forms, and
what was its purport? 'Our losses in America have been most calamitous;
the blood of my subjects has flowed in copious streams; the treasures of
Great Britain have been wantonly lavished; the load of taxes imposed on
an over-burthened country is become intolerable; my rage for conquest
is unquenched; my revenge unsated; nor can anything except the total
subjugation of my American subjects allay my animosity.'"
The following table shows what this disastrous war ultimately cost this
country in mere money; no table can efficiently show its cost in blood
and misery:--
Year.
Taxation.
Loans.
1775
L10,138,061
1776
10,266,405
L2,000,000
1777.
10,604,013
6,500,000
1778
10,732,405
6,000,000
1779
11,192,141
7,000,000
1780
12,265,214
12,000,000
1781
12,454,936
12,000,000
1782
12,593,297
13,500,000
1783
11,962,718
12,000,000
1784
12,905,519
12,879,341
1785
14,871,520
10,990,651
Total
L129,975,229
L93,869,992
The American war terminated in 1783; but as the loans of the two
following years were raised to wind up the expenses of that struggle, it
is proper they should be included. The total expense of the American war
will stand thus:--
Taxes
L129,975,229
Loans
93,869,992
Advances by the Bank of England
110,000
Advances by the East India Company
3,200,000
Increase in the Unfunded Debt
5,170,273
Total
232,325,494
Deduct expense of a peace establishment
for eleven years, as it stood in 1774
113,142,403
Net cost of the American war
L119,183,091
In addition to this must be noted L1,340,000 voted as compensation to
American loyalists in 1788, and L4,000 a year pension since, and even
now, paid to the descendants of William Penn, amounting, with compound
interest, to an enormous additional sum, even to the present date,
without reckoning future liability. And this glorious colony parted from
us in blood and shame, in consequence of a vain attempt to gratify the
desire of the House of Brunswick to make New England contribute to their
German greed as freely and as servilely as Old England had done.
Encouraged by the willingness with which his former debts had been
discharged, George HI., in 1777, sent a second message, but this
time for the larger sum of L600,-000, which was not only paid, but an
additional allowance of L100,000 a year was voted to his Majesty, and
L40,000 was given to the Landgrave of Hesse.
As an illustration of the barbarity of our laws, it is enough to say
that, in 1777, Sarah Parker was burnt for counterfeiting silver coin. In
June, 1786, Phoebe Harris was burnt for the same offence. And this in
a reign when persons in high position, accused of murder, forgery,
perjury, and robbery, escaped almost scot free.
In April, 1778, L60,000 a year was settled on the six younger princes,
and L30,000 a year on the five princesses. These pensions, however, were
professedly paid out of the King's Civil List, not avowedly in addition
to it, as they are to-day. The Duke of Buckingham stated that in 1778,
and again in 1782, the King threatened to abdicate. This threat, which,
unfortunately, was never carried out, arose from the King's obstinate
persistence in the worse than insane policy against the American
colonies.
In December, 1779, in consequence of England needing Irish soldiers to
make war on America, Ireland was graciously permitted to export Irish
woollen manufactures. The indulgences, however, to Ireland--even while
the Ministers of George III. were trying to enlist Irishmen to kill the
English, Scotch, and Irish in America--were made most grudgingly. Pious
Protestant George III. would not consent that any Irish Catholic should
own one foot of freehold land; and Edmund Burke, in a letter to an Irish
peer, says that it was "pride, arrogance, and a spirit of domination"
which kept up "these unjust legal disabilities."
On the 8th February, 1780, Sir G. Savile presented the famous Yorkshire
petition, signed by 8,000 freeholders, praying the House of Commons to
inquire into the management and expenditure of public money, to reduce
all exorbitant emoluments, and to abolish all sinecure places and
unmerited pensions. Three days later, Edmund Burke proposed a reduction
of the national taxation (which was then only a sixth part of its amount
to-day), and a diminution of the power of the Crown. Burke was defeated,
but shortly after, on the motion of Mr. Dunning, the House of Commons
declared, by a majority of 18 against the Government, "That the
influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be
diminished."
On the 20th March, 1782, Lord North, in consequence of the impossibility
of subduing the American colonies, determined to resign. The King
opposed this to the last, declaring that no difficulties should induce
him to consent to a peace acknowledging the Independence of America. "So
distressing," says Jesse, "was the conflict which prevailed in the mind
of George III., that he not only contemplated abandoning the Crown of
England for the Electorate of Hanover, but orders had actually been
issued to have the royal yacht in readiness for his flight." What a
blessing to the country if he had really persevered in his resolution!
Charles James Fox, who now came into power for a brief space, had,
says Jesse, "taught himself to look upon his sovereign as a mere dull,
obstinate, half-crazed, and narrow-minded bigot; a Prince whose shallow
understanding had never been improved by education, whose prejudices
it was impossible to remove, and whose resentments it would be idle to
endeavor to soften."
In 1784, George, Prince of Wales, was over head and ears in debt, and
the King, who appears to have hated him, refusing any aid, he resorted
to threats. Dr. Doran says: "A conversation is spoken of as having
passed between the Queen and the Minister, in which he is reported as
having said, 'I much fear, your Majesty, that the Prince, in his wild
moments, may allow expressions to escape him that may be injurious to
the Crown.'--'There is little fear of that,' was the alleged reply of
the Queen; 'he is too well aware of the consequences of such a course
of conduct to himself. As regards that point, therefore, I can rely
upon him.'" Jesse says of the Prince of Wales, that between eighteen and
twenty, "to be carried home drunk, or to be taken into custody by the
watch, were apparently no unfrequent episodes in the career of the
Heir to the Throne. Under the auspices of his weak and frivolous uncle,
the Duke of Cumberland, the Prince's conversation is said to have been a
compound of the slang of grooms and the wanton vocabulary of a brothel."
"When we hunt together," said the King to the Duke of Gloucester,
"neither my son nor my brother speak to me; and lately, when the chase
ended at a little village where there was but a single post-chaise to be
hired, my son and brother got into it, and drove off, leaving me to
go home in a cart, if I could find one." And this is the family Mr.
Disraeli holds up for Englishmen to worship!
In July, 1782, Lord Shelburne came into office; but he "always
complained that the King had tricked and deserted him," and had
"secretly connived at his downfall." He resigned office on the 24th
February, 1783. An attempt was made to form a Coalition Ministry, under
the Duke of Portland. The King complained of being treated with personal
incivility, and the attempt failed. On the 23d March, the Prince of
Wales, at the Queen's Drawing-room, said: "The King had refused to
accept the coalition, but by God he should be made to agree to it."
Under the great excitement the King's health gave way. The Prince, says
Jesse, was a member of Brooks's Club, where, as Walpole tells us, the
members were not only "strangely licentious" in their talk about their
sovereign, but in their zeal for the interests of the heartless young
Prince "even wagered on the duration of the King's reign." The King
repeated his threat of abandoning the Throne, and retiring to his
Hanoverian dominions; and told the Lord-Advocate, Dundas, that he had
obtained the consent of the Queen to his taking this extraordinary step.
Young William Pitt refusing twice to accept the Premiership, Fox and
Lord North came again into power. L30,000 was voted for the Prince of
Wales's debts, and a similar sum to enable him to furnish his house.
The "unnatural" Coalition Ministry did not last long. Fox introduced his
famous India Bill. The King, regarding it as a blow at the power of
the Crown, caballed and canvassed the Peers against it. "The welfare of
thirty millions of people was overlooked in, the excitement produced by
selfish interests, by party zeal, and officious loyalty." "Instantly,"
writes Lord Macaulay, "a troop of Lords of the Bedchamber, of Bishops
who wished to be translated, and of Scotch peers who wished to be
reelected, made haste to change sides." The Bill had passed the Commons
by large majorities. The King opposed it like a partisan, and when it
was defeated in the Lords, cried, "Thank God! it is all over; the House
has thrown out the Bill, so there is an end of Mr. Fox." The Ministers
not resigning, as the King expected they would, his Majesty dismissed
them at once, sending to Lord North in the middle of the night for his
seals of office.
On the 19th December, 1783, William Pitt, then twenty-four years of
age, became Prime Minister of England. The House of Commons passed a
resolution, on the motion of Lord Surrey, remonstrating with the King
for having permitted his sacred name to be unconstitutionally used in
order to influence the deliberations of Parliament. More than once the
Commons petitioned the King to dismiss Pitt from office. Pitt, with
large majorities against him, wished to resign; but George III. said,
"If you resign, Mr. Pitt, I must resign too," and he again threatened,
in the event of defeat, to abandon England, and retire to his Hanoverian
dominions. Now our monarch, if a king, would, have no Hanoverian
dominions to retire to.
In 1784, L60,000 was voted by Parliament to defray the King's debts. In
consequence of the large debts of the Prince of Wales, an interview was
arranged at Carlton House, on the 27th April, 1785, between the Prince
and Lord Malmesbury. The King, the Prince said, had desired him to send
in an exact statement of his debts; there was one item, however, of
L25,000, on which the Prince of Wales would give no information. If it
were a debt, argued the King, which his son was ashamed to explain,
it was one which he ought not to defray. The Prince threatened to go
abroad, saying, "I am ruined if I stay in England. I shall disgrace
myself as a man; my father hates me, and has hated me since I was
seven years old.... We are too wide asunder to ever meet. The King has
deceived me; he has made me deceive others. I cannot trust him, and
he will not believe me." And this is the Brunswick family to which the
English nation are required to be blindly loyal!
In 1785, George, Prince of Wales, was married to a Roman Catholic lady,
Mrs. Fitzherbert, a widow. It is of course known that the Prince treated
the lady badly. This was not his first experience, the history of Mary
Robinson forming but one amongst a long list of shabby _liaisons_. A
question having arisen before the House of Commons, during a discussion
on the debts owing by the Prince, Charles James Fox, on the written
authority of the Prince, denied that any marriage, regular or irregular,
had ever taken place, and termed it ah invention.... destitute of the
slightest foundation. Mr. Fox's denial was made on the distinct written
authority of the Prince, who offered, through Fox, to give in the
House of Lords the "fullest assurances of the utter falsehood" of the
allegation; although not only does everybody know to-day that the
denial was untrue, but in point of fact the fullest proofs of the denied
marriage exist at this very moment in the custody of Messrs. Coutts, the
bankers. Out of all the Brunswicks England has been cursed with, George
I. is the only one against whom there is no charge of wanton falsehood
to his ministers or subjects, and it is fairly probable that his
character for such truthfulness was preserved by his utter inability to
lie in our language.
Not only did George, Prince of Wales, thus deny his marriage with Mrs.
Fitzherbert, but repeated voluntarily the denial after he became King
George IV. Despite this denial, the King's executors, the Duke of
Wellington and Sir William Knighton, were compelled by Mrs. Fitzherbert
to admit the proofs. The marriage took place on the 21st December, 1785,
and Mrs. Fitzherbert being a Roman Catholic, the legal effect was to bar
Prince George and prevent him ever becoming the lawful King of England.
The documents above referred to as being at Coutts's include--
1. The marriage certificate. 2. A letter written by the Prince of Wales
acknowledging the marriage. 3. A will, signed by him, also acknowledging
it, and other documents. And yet George, our King, whom Mr. Disraeli
praises, authorized Charles James Fox to declare the rumor of his
marriage "a low, malicious falsehood;" and then the Prince went to
Mrs. Fitzherbert, and, like a mean, lying hypocrite as he was, said, "O
Maria, only conceive what Fox did yesterday; he went down to the House
and denied that you and I were man and wife."
Although when George, Prince of Wales, had attained his majority, he had
an allowance of L50,000 a year, L60,000 to furnish Carlton House, and an
additional L40,000 for cash to start with, yet he was soon after deep in
debt. In 1787, L160,000 was voted, and a portion of the Prince's
debts was paid. L20,000 further was added as a vote for Carlton House.
Thackeray says: "Lovers of long sums have added up the millions and
millions which in the course of his brilliant existence this single
Prince consumed. Besides his income of L50,000, L70,000, L100,000,
L120,000 a year, we read of three applications to Parliament; debts to
the amount of L160,000, of L650,000, besides mysterious foreign loans,
whereof he pocketed the proceeds. What did he do for all this money? Why
was he to have it? If he had been a manufacturing town, or a populous
rural district, or an army of five thousand men, he would not have
cost more. He, one solitary stout man, who did not toil, nor spin, nor
fight--what had any mortal done that he should be pampered so?"
The proposed impeachment of Warren Hastings, which actually commenced
on February 13th, 1788, and which did not conclude until eight years
afterwards, excited considerable feeling, it being roundly alleged that
Court protection had been purchased by the late Governor-General of
India, by means of a large diamond presented to the King. The following
rhymed squib tells its own story. It was sung about the streets to the
tune of "Derry Down":--
"I'll sing you a song of a diamond so fine,
That soon in the crown of the monarch will shine;
Of its size and its value the whole country rings,
By Hastings bestowed on the best of all Kings.
Derry down, &c.
"From India this jewel was lately brought o'er,
Though sunk in the sea, it was found on the shore,
And just in the nick to St. James's it got,
Convey'd in a bag by the brave Major Scott
Derry down, &c
"Lord Sydney stepp'd forth, when the tidings were known--
It's his office to carry such news to the throne;--
Though quite out of breath, to the closet he ran,
And stammer'd with joy ere his tale he began.
Derry down, &c.
"'Here's a jewel, my liege, there's none such in the land;
Major Scott, with three bows, put it into my hand:
And he swore, when he gave it, the wise ones were bit,
For it never was shown to Dundas or to Pitt.'
Derry down, &c.
"'For Dundas,' cried our sovereign, 'unpolished and rough,
Give him a Scotch pebble, it's more than enough.
And jewels to Pitt, Hastings justly refuses,
For he has already more gifts than he uses.
Derry down, &c.
"'But run, Jenky, run!' adds the King in delight,
'Bring the Queen and Princesses here for a sight;
They never would pardon the negligence shown,
If we kept from their knowledge so glorious a stone.
Derry down, &c.
"'But guard the door, Jenky, no credit we'll win,
If the Prince in a frolic should chance to step in:
The boy to such secrets of State we'll ne'er call,
Let him wait till he gets our crown, income, and all.
Derry down, &c.
"In the Princesses run, and surprised cry, 'O la!
'Tis big as the egg of a pigeon, papa!'--
'And a pigeon of plumage worth plucking is he,'
Replies our good monarch, 'who sent it to me.'
Derry down, &c.
"Madame Schwellenberg peep'd through the door at a chink,
And tipp'd on the diamond a sly German wink;
As much as to say, 'Can we ever be cruel
To him who has sent us so glorious a jewel?'
Derry down, &c.
"Now God save the Queen! while the people I teach,
How the King may grow rich while the Commons impeach;
Then let nabobs go plunder, and rob as they will,
And throw in their diamonds as grist to his mill.
Derry down, &c."
It was believed that the King had received not one diamond, but a large
quantity, and that they were to be the purchase-money of Hastings's
acquittal. Caricatures on the subject were to be seen in the window of
every print-shop. In one of these Hastings was represented wheeling away
in a barrow the King, with his crown and sceptre, observing, "What a
man buys, he may sell;" and, in another, the King was exhibited on his
knees, with his mouth wide open, and Warren Hastings pitching diamonds
into it. Many other prints, some of them bearing evidence of the style
of the best caricaturists of the day, kept up the agitation on this
subject. It happened that there was a quack in the town, who pretended
to eat stones, and bills of his exhibition were placarded on the walls,
headed, in large letters, "The great stone-eater!" The caricaturists
took the hint, and drew the King with a diamond between his teeth, and
a heap of others before him, with the inscription, "The greatest
stone-eater!"
We borrow a few sentences from Lord Macaulay to enable our readers
to judge, in brief space, the nature of Warren Hastings's position,
standing impeached, as he did, on a long string of charges, some of them
most terrible in their implication of violence, falsehood, fraud, and
rapacity. Macaulay thus pictures the situation between the civilized
Christian and his tributaries: "On one side was a band of English
functionaries, daring, intelligent, eager to be rich. On the other side
was a great native population, helpless, timid, and accustomed to crouch
under oppression." "When some new act of rapacity was resisted there came
war; but a war of Bengalees against Englishmen was like a war of sheep
against wolves, of men against demons." There was a long period before
any one dreamed that justice and morality should be features of English
rule in India. "During the interval, the business of a servant of the
Company was simply to wring out of the natives a hundred or two hundred
thousand pounds as speedily as possible, that he might return home
before his constitution had suffered from the heat, to marry a peer's
daughter, to buy rotten boroughs in Cornwall, and to give balls in St.
James's Square." Hastings was compelled to turn his attention to foreign
affairs. The object of his diplomacy was at this time simply to get
money. The finances of his government were in an embarrassed state, and
this embarrassment he was determined to relieve by some means, fair or
foul. The principle which directed all his dealings with his neighbors
is fully expressed by the old motto of one of the great predatory
families of Teviotdale: "Thou shalt want ere I want." He seems to have
laid it down, as a fundamental proposition which could not be disputed,
that, when he had not as many lacs of rupees as the public service
required, he was to take them from anybody who had. One thing, indeed,
is to be said in excuse for him. The pressure applied to him by his
employers at home was such as only the highest virtue could have
withstood, such as left him no choice except to commit great wrongs, or
to resign his high post, and with that post all his hopes of fortune and
distinction. Hastings was in need of funds to carry on the government of
Bengal, and to send remittances to London; and Sujah Dowlah had an ample
revenue. Sujah Dowlah was bent on subjugating the Rohillas; and Hastings
had at his disposal the only force by which the Rohillas could be
subjugated. It was agreed that an English army should be lent to Nabob
Vizier, and that for the loan he should pay four hundred thousand pounds
sterling, besides defraying all the charge of the troops while employed
in his service. "I really cannot see," says Mr. Gleig, "upon what
grounds, either of political or moral justice, this proposition deserves
to be stigmatized as infamous." If we understand the meaning of words,
it is infamous to commit a wicked action for hire, and it is wicked to
engage in war without provocation. In this particular war, scarcely one
aggravating circumstance was wanting. The object of the Rohilla war was
this, to deprive a large population, who had never done us the least
harm, of a good government, and to place them, against their will, under
an execrably bad one.... The horrors of Indian war were let loose on the
fair valleys and cities of Rohilcund. The whole country was in a
blaze. More than a hundred thousand people fled from their homes to
pestilential jungles, preferring famine, and fever, and the haunts
of tigers, to the tyranny of him to whom an English and a Christian
government had, for shameful lucre, sold their substance, and their
blood, and the honor of their wives and daughters.... Mr. Hastings
had only to put down by main force the brave struggles of innocent
men fighting for their liberty. Their military resistance crushed, his
duties ended; and he had then only to fold his arms and look on, while
their villages were burned, their children butchered, and their women
violated.... We hasten to the end of this sad and disgraceful story. The
war ceased. The finest population in India was subjected to a greedy,
cowardly, cruel tyrant. Commerce and agriculture languished. The rich
province which had tempted the cupidity of Sujah Dowlah became the
most miserable part even of his miserable dominions. Yet is the injured
nation not extinct. At long intervals gleams of its ancient spirit
have flashed forth; and even at this day valor, and self-respect, and a
chivalrous feeling rare among Asiatics, and a bitter remembrance of the
great crime of England, distinguish that noble Afghan race."
Partly in consequence of the proposed legislation by Fox on the affairs
of the East India Company, and partly from personal antagonism, members
of the Indian Council hostile to Governor-General Hastings were sent out
to India.
Amongst his most prominent antagonists was Francis, the reputed author
of Junius's Letters. It was to Francis especially that the Maharajah
Nuncomar of Bengal addressed himself. "He put into the hands of Francis,
with great ceremony, a paper containing several charges of the most
serious description. By this document Hastings was accused of putting
offices up to sale, and of receiving bribes for suffering offenders to
escape. In particular, it was alleged that Mahommed Reza Khan had been
dismissed with impunity, in consideration of a great sum paid to the
Governor-General.... He stated that Hastings had received a large sum
for appointing Rajah Goordas treasurer of the Nabob's household, and for
committing the care of his Highness's person to Munny Begum. He put in a
letter purporting to bear the seal of the Munny Begum, for the purpose
of establishing the truth of his story."
Much evidence was taken before the Indian Council, where there was
considerable conflict between the friends and enemies of Hastings. "The
majority, however, voted that the charge was made out; that Hastings had
corruptly received between thirty and forty thousand pounds; and that he
ought to be compelled to refund."
Now, however, comes an item darker and more disgraceful, if possible
than what had preceded.
"On a sudden, Calcutta was astounded by the news that Nuncomar had been
taken up on a charge of felony, committed, and thrown into the common
jail. The crime imputed to him was, that six years before he had forged
a bond. The ostensible prosecutor was a native. But it was then, and
still is, the opinion of everybody, idiots and biographers excepted,
that Hastings was the real mover in the business." The Chief-Justice
Impey, one of Hastings's creatures, pushed on a mock trial; "a verdict
of Guilty was returned, and the Chief-Justice pronounced sentence of
death on the prisoner.... Of Impey's conduct it is impossible to speak
too severely. He acted unjustly in refusing to respite Nuncomar. No
rational man can doubt that he took this course in order to gratify
the Governor-General. If we had ever had any doubts on that point, they
would have been dispelled by a letter which Mr. Gleig has published.
Hastings, three or four years later, described Impey as the man 'to
whose support he was at one time indebted for the safety of his fortune,
honor, and reputation.' These strong words can refer only to the case
of Nuncomar; and they must mean that Impey hanged Nuncomar in order to
support Hastings. It is therefore our deliberate opinion that Impey,
sitting as a judge, put a man unjustly to death in order to serve a
political purpose."
Encouraged by success, a few years later, Hastings, upon the most unfair
pretext, made war upon and plundered the Rajah of Benares, and a little
later subjected the eunuchs of the Begums of Oude to physical torture,
to make them confess where the royal treasure was hidden.
It is evident from Miss Burney's diary that the King and Queen warmly
championed the cause of Warren Hastings, who, after a wearisome
impeachment, was acquitted.
In 1788, the King's insanity assumed a more violent form than usual,
and on a report from the Privy Council, the subject was brought before
Parliament. In the Commons, Pitt and the Tory party contended that the
right of providing for the government of the country in cases where
the monarch was unable to perform his duties, belonged to the nation at
large, to be exercised by its representatives in Parliament. Fox and the
Whigs, on the other hand, maintained that the Prince of Wales possessed
the inherent right to assume the government. Pitt, seizing this argument
as it fell from Fox, said, at the moment, to the member seated nearest
to him, "I'll unwhig the gentleman for the rest of his life."
During the discussions on the Regency Bill, Lord Thurlow, who was
then Lord Chancellor, acted the political rat, and coquetted with both
parties. When the King's recovery was announced by the royal physicians,
Thurlow, to cover his treachery, made an extravagant speech in defence
of Pitt's views, and one laudatory of the King. After enumerating the
rewards received from the King, he said, "and if I forget the monarch
who has thus befriended me, may my great Creator forget me." John
Wilkes, who was present in the House of Lords, said, in a stage aside,
audible to many of the peers, "Forget you! he will see you damned
first." Phillimore, describing Lord Chancellor Thurlow, says that
he--"either from an instinctive delight in all that was brutal" (which
did not prevent him from being a gross hypocrite), "or from a desire to
please George III.--supported the Slave Trade, and the horrors of the
Middle Passage, with the uncompromising ferocity of a Liverpool merchant
or a Guinea captain."