NATIONAL REVIVAL
A common feeling of danger has produced a common spirit of
exertion, and we have cheerfully come forward with a surrender
of part of our property, not merely for recovering ourselves,
but for the general recovery of mankind.--PITT, _Speech of 3rd
December 1798_.
The desire of Pitt for peace with France led him in the autumn of 1796
to renew more formally the overtures which he had instituted early in
that year. His first offer was repelled in so insolent a way that the
King expressed annoyance at its renewal being deemed necessary to call
forth the spirit of the British lion. Pitt, however, despatched Lord
Malmesbury on a special mission to Paris; and the slowness of his
journey, due to the bad roads, led Burke to remark: "No wonder it was
slow; for he went all the way on his knees." Pitt's terms were by no
means undignified. He offered that France should keep San Domingo and
her conquests in Europe except those made from Austria. The French
reverses in Swabia and the check to Bonaparte at Caldiero made the
French Directory complaisant for a time; but his victory at Arcola (17th
November), the death of the Czarina Catharine, and the hope of
revolutionizing Ireland, led it to adopt an imperious tone. Its
irrevocable resolve to keep Belgium and the Rhine boundary appeared in a
curt demand to Malmesbury, either to concede that point or to quit Paris
within forty-eight hours (19th December).[462]
It argued singular hopefulness in Pitt that, despite the opposition of
the King, he should make a third effort for peace in the summer of the
year 1797, when the loyalty of the fleet was open to grave doubt, when
rebellion raised its head in Ireland, and Bonaparte had beaten down the
last defences of Austria; but so early as 9th April he urged on George
the need of making pacific overtures to Paris, seeing that Austria was
at the end of her resources and seemed on the point of accepting the
French terms. The untoward events of the next weeks deepened his
convictions; and to a letter of the Earl of Carlisle, pressing on him
the urgent need of peace, he replied as follows:
[_Draft._] _Private._
Downing St., _4 June 1797_.[463]
I can also venture to assure you that I feel not less strongly
than yourself the expediency of taking every step towards peace
that can be likely to effect the object, consistent with the
safety and honour of the country; and I have no difficulty in
adding (for your _private_ satisfaction) that steps are taken of
the most direct sort, and of which we must soon know the result,
to ascertain whether the disposition of the enemy will admit of
negotiation. On this point the last accounts from Paris seem to
promise favourably. You will have the goodness to consider the
fact of a step having been actually taken, as confidentially
communicated to yourself.
Three days previously Pitt had sent to Paris suggestions for peace.
Delacroix, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, whose asperities were so
unbearable in 1796, now replied with courtesy. Pitt therefore
persevered, declaring it to be his duty as a Christian and a patriot to
end so terrible a war. On the other hand Grenville pronounced the
negotiation mischievous at the present crisis, when the French
Government would certainly proffer intolerable demands. Much, it was
true, could be said in favour of concluding peace before Austria
definitely came to terms with France; and if Russia and Prussia had
shown signs of mediating in our favour, the negotiation might have had a
favourable issue. But neither of those Courts evinced good-will, and
that of Berlin angered Grenville. He therefore strongly opposed the
overture to France, and herein had the support of the three Whig
Ministers, Portland, Spencer, and Windham. The others sided with Pitt,
Lord Liverpool after some hesitation. On 15th June there were two long
and stormy meetings of the Cabinet, the latter lasting until midnight;
but on the morrow, the day after the collapse of the Nore Mutiny, the
Cabinet endorsed the views of Pitt. Thereupon Grenville entered a
written protest, and wrote to the King, stating that he would offer his
resignation if the times were not so critical. George thanked him, and
in a highly significant phrase urged him to remain at his post so as "to
stave off many farther humiliations."[464]
Malmesbury proceeded to Lille and entered into negotiations with the
French plenipotentiaries, Letourneur, Pléville, and Maret. The last was
he who came on a fruitless errand to London in January 1793, and finally
became Duc de Bassano, and Foreign Minister under Napoleon. It soon
appeared that the only hope of peace lay in the triumph of the Moderates
over the Jacobins at Paris. The former, who desired peace, and had an
immense majority in the country, at first had the upper hand in the
Chambers. They were willing to give up some of the French conquests on
the Rhine and in the Belgic Provinces, if their distracted and nearly
bankrupt country gained the boon of peace. Their opponents, weak in
numbers, relied on the armies, and on the fierce fanaticism which clung
alike to the principles and the conquests of the Jacobins. Pitt was
willing to meet France half-way. He consented to leave her in possession
of her "constitutional" frontiers, _i.e._, Belgium, Luxemburg, Avignon,
Savoy, and Nice, besides restoring to her and her allies all naval
conquests, except the Cape of Good Hope and Trinidad. Ceylon, a recent
conquest, was to be reserved for exchange. So far, but no farther, Pitt
consented to go in his desire for peace. Later on he assured Malmesbury
that he would have given way either on Ceylon or the Cape of Good Hope.
But this latter concession would have galled him deeply; for, as we
shall see, he deemed the possession of the Cape essential to British
interests in the East. Spain's demand for Gibraltar he waived aside as
wholly inadmissible, thus resuming on this question the attitude which
he had taken up in the years 1782-3.[465]
Far though Pitt went on the path of conciliation, he did not satisfy
the haughty spirits dominant at Paris. It was soon evident that the only
means of satisfying them were subterranean; and a go-between now offered
himself. An American, Melvill, who claimed to be on intimate terms with
the most influential persons at Paris, assured Malmesbury that he could
guarantee the concession of the desired terms, on consideration of the
payment of £450,000 to the leading men at Paris. Malmesbury at first
believed in Melvill's sincerity and sent him over to see Pitt. They had
some interviews at Holwood at the close of August, apparently to the
satisfaction of the Prime Minister; for, after referring the proposal to
Grenville, he laid it before the King. His reply, dated Weymouth, 9th
September, advised a wary acceptance of the terms, provided that France
also gave up her claim of indemnity for the ships taken or burnt at
Toulon in 1793.
The King did not then know of the _coup d'état_ of Fructidor 18 (4th
September), whereby Augereau, the right hand of Bonaparte, coerced the
Moderates and installed the Jacobins in power. The work was done with
brutal thoroughness, prominent opponents being seized and forthwith
deported, while the triumphant minority annulled the elections in
forty-nine Departments, and by unscrupulous pressure compelled voters to
endorse the _fiat_ of the army. Thus did France plunge once more into a
Reign of Terror, and without the golden hopes which had made the former
experiment bearable. Such was virtually the end of parliamentary
government in France. It is indeed curious that critics of Pitt, who
label his repressive measures a "Reign of Terror," bestow few words of
regret on the despicable acts of the "Fructidorians," whose policy of
leaden repression at home and filibustering raids abroad made the name
of Liberty odious to her former devotees.
The new tyrants at Paris withheld all news of the _coup d'état_ until
they could override the policy of the French plenipotentiaries at Lille.
There it seemed probable that peace might ensue, when, on 9th September,
the first authentic news of Augereau's violence arrived. Even so, Pitt
hoped that the triumphant faction would be inclined to enjoy their
success in peace. It was not to be. A member of the French embassy at
Lille discerned far more clearly the motives now operating at Paris,
that the new Directory, while making peace with Austria, would continue
the war with England in order to have a pretext for keeping up its
armies and acquiring compensations. In any case the successors of the
pacific trio with whom Malmesbury had almost come to terms, demanded
that England should restore every possession conquered from the French
or their allies. This implied the surrender of the Cape, Ceylon, and
Trinidad, besides minor places on which Pitt and his colleagues held
firm. Brief discussions took place, Malmesbury continuing to show tact
and good temper; but on Sunday, 17th September, the French
plenipotentiaries requested him, if he could not grant their demands, to
leave Lille within twenty-four hours. He departed early on Monday,
reached London by noon of Wednesday, and saw Grenville and Canning
immediately. Pitt, owing to news of the death of his brother-in-law,
Eliot, was too prostrate with grief to see him until the morrow. It then
appeared that the Directory on 11th September issued a secret order to
its plenipotentiaries to send off Malmesbury within twenty-four hours if
he had not full powers to surrender all Britain's conquests.[466]
Even now there was a glimmer of hope. By some secret channel, Melvill,
O'Drusse, or else Boyd the banker, Pitt received the startling offer,
that Talleyrand, if he remained in favour at Paris, could assure to
England the Dutch settlements in question if a large enough sum were
paid over to Barras, Rewbell, and their clique. Pitt clutched at this
straw, and on 22nd September wrote to the King, stating that for
£1,200,000 we could retain Ceylon, and for £800,000 the Cape of Good
Hope. While withholding the name of the intermediaries, known only to
himself and Dundas, he strongly urged that £2,000,000 be paid down when
a treaty in this sense was signed with France, provided that that sum
could be presented to Parliament under the head of secret service.
George, now at Windsor, cannot have been pleased that Pitt and Dundas
had a state secret which was withheld for him; but he replied on the
morrow in terms, part of which Earl Stanhope did not publish. "I am so
thoroughly convinced of the venality of that nation [France] and the
strange methods used by its Directors in carrying on negotiations that I
agree with him [Pitt] in thinking, strange as the proposal appears, that
it may be not without foundation."
George, then, was more sceptical than Pitt; and Grenville and
Malmesbury soon had cause to believe the offer to be merely an effort of
certain Frenchmen to speculate in the English funds. Nothing came of the
matter. Melvill, O'Drusse, and Talleyrand on the French side, and Boyd
in London, seem to have been the wire-pullers in this affair, which was
renewed early in October; it may have been only a "bull" operation. The
secret is hard to fathom; but Pitt and Dundas were clearly too
credulous. Such was the conclusion of Malmesbury. It tallied with the
pronouncement of Windham, who in one of his captious moods remarked to
Malmesbury that Pitt had no knowledge of the world, and kept in office
by making concessions, and by "tiding it over." Grenville (he said)
thought more of the nation's dignity, but was almost a recluse. In fact,
the Cabinet was ruled by Dundas, whom Grenville hated. Dundas it was who
had sacrificed Corsica, which involved the loss of Italy.[467] Windham
of course detested the author of the colonial expeditions, which had
diverted help from the Bretons. In the Chouans alone he saw hope; for
how could England struggle on alone against France if she could use all
the advantages offered by Brest and Cherbourg?
Much can be said in support of these contentions; for now that the
Directory threw away the scabbard, England felt the need of the stout
Bretons, whose armies had become mere predatory bands. The last
predictions of Burke were therefore justified. That once mighty
intellect expended its last flickering powers in undignified gibes at
the expense of Pitt and his regicide peace. Fate denied to him the
privilege of seeing Malmesbury again expelled from France and whipped
back "like a cur to his kennel." The great Irishman passed away, amidst
inconceivable gloom, in his 68th year, at Beaconsfield (8th July 1797).
In the view of Windham and other extreme Royalists, Burke was wholly
right, and Pitt's weakness was the cause of all his country's ills.
We may grant that the summer of the year 1797 was one of the worst
possible times in which to open a negotiation with triumphant France;
for she was certain to exact hard terms from a power whose credit and
whose prestige at sea had grievously suffered. Nevertheless, the
mistake, if mistake it was, is venial when compared with the
unstatesmanlike arrogance of the French Directors, who, when an
advantageous and brilliant peace was within their reach, chose to open
up a new cycle of war. Of late France had made use of the pretext that
she must gain her "natural frontiers"--the Rhine, the Alps, the
Pyrenees, and the Ocean--for the sake of security against the old
dynasties. By rejecting Pitt's overtures, her leaders now proclaimed
their resolve to dominate Italy and Germany and to secure supremacy at
sea. Their intrigues with British malcontents and the United Irishmen
also showed their determination to revolutionize our institutions. Thus
England was to be abased and insulted, while France lorded it over all
her neighbours and prepared to become mistress of the seas. The war
therefore ceased to be in any sense a war of principle, and became for
France a struggle for world-wide supremacy, for England a struggle for
national existence; and while democratic enthusiasm waned at Paris, the
old patriotic spirit revived everywhere in Great Britain. The newspapers
were full of appeals for unanimity; and on 20th November appeared the
first number of that bright and patriotic paper, the "Anti-Jacobin,"
under the editorship of Canning and Hookham Frere, which played no small
part in arousing national ardour. On the next day the French Directory
issued an appeal to France to bestir herself to overthrow the British
power, and to dictate peace at London.
There was need of unanimity; for while France was stamping out revolt,
and Great Britain felt increasingly the drag of Ireland, Pitt
encountered an antagonist of unsuspected strength. Over against his
diffuse and tentative policy stood that of Bonaparte, clear-cut, and for
the present everywhere victorious. While Pitt pursued that will o' the
wisp, a money-bought peace, the Corsican was bullying the Austrian
negotiators at Udine and Campo Formio. Finally his gasconnades carried
the day; and on 17th October Austria signed away her Netherlands to
France and her Milanese and Mantuan territories to the newly created
Cisalpine Republic. Bonaparte and the Emperor, however, agreed to
partition the unoffending Venetian State, the western half of which went
to the Cisalpines, the eastern half, along with Venice, Istria, and
Dalmatia, to the Hapsburgs. The Court of Vienna struggled hard to gain
the Ionian Islands; but on these, and on Malta, the young general had
set his heart as the natural stepping-stones to Egypt. At the close of
the year he returned to Paris in triumph, and was invited by the
Director, Barras, to go and conquer England.
Some such effort, either directly against London, or by a deadly
ricochet through Ireland, would have been made, had not Duncan, on 11th
October, crushed the Dutch off Camperdown, taking nine ships out of
fifteen. The consequences were far reaching. The Dutch navy was
paralysed; and without it the squadrons at Cherbourg and Brest were not
yet strong enough to attack our coasts, until the Toulon and Cadiz
fleets sailed northwards. Bonaparte, who was sent to survey the ports in
Flanders and the north of France, reported to the Directory on 23rd
February 1798 that there were fitting out at Brest only ten
sail-of-the-line, which moreover had no crews, and that the preparations
were everywhere so backward as to compel Government to postpone the
invasion until 1799. The wish was father to that thought. Already he had
laid his plans to seize Egypt, and now strongly advised the orientation
of French policy. A third possible course was the closing of all
continental ports against England, an adumbration of the Continental
System of 1806-13 for assuring the ruin of British commerce.
The news of Camperdown and Campo Formio added vigour to Pitt's appeal
for national union in his great speech of 10th November, in which he
gave proofs of the domineering spirit of the party now triumphant at
Paris. Very telling, also, was his taunt at the Whig press, "which knows
no other use of English liberty but servilely to retail and transcribe
French opinions." Sinclair, who had moved a hostile amendment, was so
impressed as to withdraw it; and thus at last the violence of the French
Jacobins conduced to harmony at Westminster.
Already there were signs that the struggle was one of financial
endurance. At the close of November 1797 Pitt appealed to the patriotism
of Britons to raise £25,500,000 for the estimated expenses of the next
year, in order to display the wealth and strength of the kingdom. He
therefore proposed to ask the Bank of England to advance £3,000,000 on
Exchequer bills; and he urged the propertied classes to submit to the
trebling of the Assessed Taxes on inhabited houses, windows, male
servants, horses, carriages, etc. The trebling of these imposts took the
House by surprise, and drew from Tierney, now, in the absence of Fox,
the leader of Opposition, the taunt that Pitt had to cringe to the Bank
for help. A few days later Pitt explained that the triple duty would
fall only upon those who already paid £3 or more on that score. If the
sum paid were less than £1 it would be halved. Those who paid £3 or more
would be charged at an increasing rate, until, when the sum paid
exceeded £50, the amount would be quadrupled. Nor was this all. By a
third Resolution he outlined the scheme of what was in part a
progressive Income Tax. Incomes under £60 were exempt; those between £60
and £65 paid at the rate of 2_d._ in the pound; and the proportion rose
until it reached 2_s._ in the pound for incomes of £200 or more.
Though Pitt pointed out the need of a patriotic rejoinder to the threats
of the French Government, the new Assessed Taxes aroused a furious
opposition. "The chief and almost only topic of conversation is the new
taxes," wrote Theresa Parker to Lady Stanley of Alderley. "How people
are to live if the Bill is passed I know not. I understand the
Opposition are much elated with the hope of the Bill's being passed, as
they consider Mr. Pitt infallibly ruined if it does, and that he must go
out."[468] The patriotism of London equalled that of the Foxites. City
men, forgetting that the present proposals were due to the shameless
evasions of the Assessed Taxes, raised a threatening din, some of them
declaring that Pitt would be assaulted if he came into the City. Several
supporters of Pitt, among them the Duke of Leeds, Sir William Pulteney
and Henry Thornton, opposed the new imposts, and the Opposition was
jubilantly furious. Sheridan, who returned to the fray, declared that
though the poor escaped these taxes they would starve; for the wealth
which employed them would be dried up. Hobhouse dubbed the Finance Bill
inquisitorial, degrading, and fatal to the virtues of truthfulness and
charity. Squires bemoaned the loss of horses and carriages and the hard
lot of their footmen. Arthur Young warned Pitt that if the taxes could
not be evaded, gentlemen must sell their estates and live in town. Bath,
he was assured, welcomed the new imposts because they would drive very
many families thither. He begged Pitt to reconsider his proposals, and,
instead of them, to tax "all places of public diversion, public dinners,
clubs, etc., not forgetting debating societies and Jacobin meetings";
for this would restrain "that violent emigration to towns, which the
measure dreadfully threatens."[469]
A sign of the hopes of the Opposition was the re-appearance of Fox.
Resuming his long vacant seat, he declared Pitt to be the author of the
country's ruin. For himself, he upheld the funding system, that is, the
plan of shelving the debt upon the future. The palm for abusiveness was,
however, carried off by Nicholls and Jekyll. The former taunted Pitt
with losing all his Allies and raising France to undreamt-of heights of
power, with failing to gain peace, with exhausting the credit and the
resources of England until now he had to requisition men's incomes. As
for Jekyll, he called the present proposals "a detestable measure of
extortion and rapacity." The debates dragged on, until, after a powerful
reply by Pitt in the small hours of 5th January 1798 the Finance Bill
passed the Commons by 196 to 71. The Lords showed a far better spirit.
Carrington declared that Pitt's proposals did not go far enough. Lord
Holland in a maiden speech pronounced them worse than the progressive
taxes of Robespierre. But Liverpool, Auckland, and Grenville supported
the measure, which passed on 9th January 1798 by 75 to 6.
For a time the Finance Bill injured Pitt's popularity in the City.
During the State procession on 19th December 1797, when the King, Queen,
and Ministers went to St. Paul's to render thanks for the naval triumphs
of that year, he was hooted by the mob; and on the return his carriage
had to be guarded by a squadron of horse. Nevertheless, it is now clear
that Pitt's proposals were both necessary and salutary. The predictions
of commercial ruin were soon refuted by the trade returns. Imports in
1798 showed an increase of £6,844,000 over those of 1797; exports, an
increase of £3,974,000. In part, doubtless, these gratifying results may
be ascribed to renewed security at sea, the bountiful harvest of 1798,
and the recent opening up of trade to Turkey and the Levant. But, under
a vicious fiscal system, trade would not have recovered from the severe
depression of 1797. Amidst all the troubles of the Irish Rebellion of
1798, Pitt derived comfort from the signs of returning prosperity.
The confidence which he inspired was proved by the success of a
remarkable experiment, the Patriotic Contribution. In the midst of the
acrid debates on the Finance Bill, the Speaker, Addington, tactfully
suggested the insertion of a clause enabling the Bank of England to
receive voluntary gifts, amounting to one-fifth of the income. Pitt
gratefully adopted the proposal, and early in the year 1798 patriots
began to send in large sums. Pitt, Addington, Dundas, the Lord
Chancellor, and Lords Kenyon and Romney at once gave £2,000 each; the
King graciously allotted from the Privy Purse £20,000 a year during the
war. The generous impulse speedily prevailed, and the City once more
showed its patriotism by subscribing £10,000; the Bank gave £200,000. A
platform was erected near the Royal Exchange for the receipt of
contributions. Among others, a wealthy calico printer, Robert Peel,
father of the statesman, felt the call of duty to give £10,000. He went
back to Bury (Lancashire) in some anxiety to inform his partner, Yates,
of this unbusinesslike conduct, whereupon the latter remarked, "You
might as well have made it £20,000 while you were about it." If all
Britons had acted in this spirit, the new taxes would have met the needs
of the war. But, as will subsequently appear, they failed to balance the
ever growing expenditure, and Pitt in 1799-1800 had to raise loans on
the security of the Income Tax to make up its deficiencies.
A pleasing proof of the restoration of friendship between Auckland and
Pitt appears in a letter in which the former asked advice as to the
amount which he should give to this fund. He was now Postmaster-General,
and stated that his total gross income was £3,600, out of which the new
taxes took £320. Should he give £1,000? And what should he give for his
brother, Morton Eden, ambassador at Vienna? Pitt answered that £700
should be the utmost for him; the sum of £500 for Morton would also be
generous.[470] On the whole, £2,300,000 was subscribed--a sum which
contrasts remarkably with the driblets that came in as a response to
Necker's appeal in the autumn of 1789 for a patriotic contribution of
one fourth of the incomes of Frenchmen.
Even so, Pitt had to impose new taxes in his Budget of 1798, and to
raise a loan of £3,000,000. Further, on 2nd April, he proposed a
commutation of the Land Tax. Of late it had been voted annually at the
rate of 4_s._ in the pound, and produced about £2,000,000. Pitt now
proposed to make it a perpetual charge upon parishes, but to enable
owners to redeem their land from the tax at the existing valuation. The
sums accruing from these sales were to go to the reduction of the
National Debt. His aim, that of enhancing credit, was as praiseworthy as
his procedure was defective. For there had been no valuation of the land
for many years, and the assessments varied in the most surprising manner
even in neighbouring districts. Doubtless it was impossible during the
Great War to carry out the expensive and lengthy process of a national
valuation; but, as manufactures and mining were creating a new
Industrial England, the time was most unsuited to the imposition of a
fixed quota of Land Tax.
Nevertheless, Pitt took as basis the assessment of 1797, and made it a
perpetual charge upon each parish. The results have in many cases been
most incongruous. Agricultural land, which was generally rated high,
continued to pay at that level long after depreciation set in. On the
other hand, large tracts in the manufacturing districts, rapidly
increasing in value, paid far less than their due share. In some cases
where a barren moor has become a hive of industry, the parish now raises
its quota by a rate of .001 in the pound. In a few cases, where the fall
in value has been severe, the rate is very heavy, in spite of remedial
legislation. Pitt could not have foreseen differences such as these;
but, in view of the rapid growth of manufactures in the Midlands and
North, he should have ensured either a re-valuation of the parochial
quotas or a complete and methodical redemption from the Land Tax. He
took neither course, and that, too, in spite of the warnings of Lord
Sheffield and Sinclair as to the injustice and impolicy of his
proposals. They passed both Houses by large majorities, perhaps because
he offered to landlords the option of redeeming their land at twenty
years' purchase. Less than one fourth of the tax was redeemed before the
year 1800, a fact which seems to show that the landed interest was too
hard pressed to profit by the opportunity. As Sir Francis Burdett said,
country gentlemen had to bear a heavy burden of taxation, besides
poor-rates, tithes, and the expense of the mounted yeomanry. Thurlow
compared the country magnates to sheep who let themselves be shorn and
re-shorn, whereas merchants and traders were like hogs, grunting and
bolting as soon as one bristle was touched. In defence of Pitt's action,
it may be said that he hoped to secure a considerable gain by the
investment of the purchase money in Consols and to enhance their value;
but it appears that not more than £80,000 a year was thus realized.[471]
The prevalence of discontent early in 1798 and the threatened coalition
of Irish and British malcontents will be noticed in the following
chapter. Pitt was so impressed by the danger as to press for the
suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act and the renewal of the Aliens Act
(April 1798). As happened in 1794, the revival of coercion produced
vehement protests. Already the Duke of Norfolk had flung defiance at
Ministers. Presiding at a great banquet held at the Crown and Anchor, on
the occasion of Fox's birthday, 24th January, he not only compared the
great orator to Washington, but hinted that the 2,000 men present might
do as much as Washington's handful had done in America. Finally he
proposed the distinctly Jacobinical toast, "Our Sovereign, the Majesty
of the People." For this he was dismissed from the command of a militia
regiment and from the Lord Lieutenancy of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Fox chose to repeat the toast early in May 1798, when large parts of
Ireland were on the brink of revolt. In so dire a crisis it behoved a
leading man to weigh his words. But the wilful strain in his nature set
all prudence at defiance. Thereupon several of Pitt's friends
recommended a public prosecution for sedition, or at least a reprimand
at the bar of the House of Commons. To the former course Pitt objected
as giving Fox too much consequence, besides running the risk of an
acquittal; but he saw some advantage in the latter course; for (as he
wrote to Dundas) Fox, when irritated by the reprimand, would probably
offer a new insult and could then be sent to the Tower for the rest of
the Session. The suggestion is perhaps the pettiest in the whole of
Pitt's correspondence; but probably it was due to the extremely grave
situation in Ireland and the fear of a French invasion. Further, Fox had
ceased to attend the House of Commons; and a member who shirks his duty
is doubly guilty when he proposes a seditious toast. Pitt, however, did
not push matters to extremes, and the course actually adopted was the
removal of the name of Fox from the Privy Council by the hand of
George III on 9th May.
Sixteen days later, Pitt and Tierney had a passage of arms in the
House. That pugnacious Irishman had thrust himself to the fore during
the secession of Fox and other prominent Whigs from the House, and had
to bear many reproaches for his officiousness. He also nagged at Pitt at
every opportunity, until, on his opposing a motion of urgency for a Bill
for better manning the Navy, Pitt's patience gave way. He accused the
self-constituted leader of seeking to obstruct the defence of the
country. The charge was in the main correct; for Tierney's opposition to
a pressing measure of national defence was highly unpatriotic.
Nevertheless, Tierney had right on his side when he called Pitt to order
and appealed to the Speaker for protection. Rarely has that personage
been placed in a more difficult position. Pitt was right in his facts;
but etiquette required that he should withdraw or at least attenuate his
charge. Addington politely hinted that the words were unparliamentary,
but suggested that the Minister should give an explanation. Pitt stiffly
refused either to withdraw his words, or to explain their meaning. There
the incident closed. On the next day, Saturday, 26th May, Tierney sent
Pitt a challenge, which was at once accepted.
We find it difficult now to take seriously a duel between a slim man of
near forty who had rarely fired a shot in sport, never in anger, and a
stoutly built irascible Irishman, for whom a good shot meant lynching or
lasting opprobrium. Visions of Bob Acres and Sir Lucius O'Trigger flit
before us. We picture Tierney quoting "fighting Bob Acres" as to the
advantage of a sideways posture; and we wonder whether the seconds, if
only in regard for their own safety, did not omit to insert bullets. The
ludicrous side of the affair soon dawned on contemporaries, witness the
suggestion that in all fairness Pitt's figure ought to be chalked out on
Tierney's, and that no shot taking effect outside ought to count. But,
on the whole, people took the incident seriously. Certainly the
principals did. Pitt made his will beforehand, and requested Addington
as a friend to come and see him, thereby preventing his interposition as
Speaker. He asked Steele to be his second; but, he being away from town,
Dudley Ryder took his place. Leaving Downing Street about noon on
Whitsunday, 27th May, the pair walked along Birdcage Walk, mounted the
steps leading into Queen Street, and entered a chaise engaged for their
excursion. After passing the villages of Chelsea and Putney, and,
topping the rise beyond, they proceeded along the old Portsmouth Road,
which crosses the northern part of Putney Heath. At the top of the steep
hill leading down into Kingston Vale they alighted, made their way past
the gibbet where swung the corpse of a well-known highwayman, Jerry
Abershaw, long the terror of travellers on that road. Did Pitt know that
libellers likened him to the highwayman; for "Jerry took purses with his
pistols, and Pitt with his Parliaments"? Lower down Pitt and Ryder found
Tierney and his second, General Walpole, in a charming dell radiant with
golden gorse and silver birches.[472]
But they were not alone. That fine Whitsuntide had brought many chaises
along the road; and not a few curious persons skirted the rising ground
towards Putney and Wimbledon. To these inquisitive groups rode up a tall
bland-looking man, now more than usually sedate. It was Addington.
Probably he was the most anxious man alive. He knew that his weakness as
Speaker had freed Pitt from the necessity of apologizing to Tierney as
the occasion demanded. Now, too, as Speaker, he ought to intervene. As a
friend, pledged by Pitt to secrecy, he could do nothing but look on.
Below, in the dell, the seconds saw to the pistols and measured the
distance--twelve paces. Pitt and Tierney coolly took aim, and, at the
signal, fired. Addington's heart must have leaped with joy to see Pitt's
figure still erect. Again the seconds produced pistols, and again the
pair fired: but this time Pitt discharged his weapon into the air. Was
it a sign of his contrition for his insult to Tierney, or of his
chivalrous sense of Tierney's disadvantage in the matter of
target-space? Certain it is that Walpole leaped over the furze bushes
for joy on seeing the duellists still erect.
Thus ended the duel, to the satisfaction of all present. Pitt had
behaved with spirit, and Tierney had achieved immortal fame. But that
the duel was fought at all caused deep concern. Hannah More was
inexpressibly shocked at the desecration of Whitsunday; Wilberforce also
was deeply pained. Indeed, he deemed the matter so serious as to propose
to give notice of a motion for preventing duelling; but he dropped it
on Pitt frankly assuring him that, if carried, it would involve his
resignation. George III signified to Chatham his decided disapproval,
and expressed to Pitt a desire that such an incident should never occur
again. "Public characters," he added, "have no right to weigh alone what
they owe to themselves; they must consider what they owe to their
country." Thomas Pitt strongly reprobated the conduct of Tierney in
challenging Pitt; for we find the latter replying to him on 30th May: "I
shall feel great concern if the feelings of my friends betray them into
any observations on Mr. Tierney's conduct reproachful or in the smallest
degree unfavourable to him, being convinced that he does not merit
them." This is the letter of a spirited gentleman. Buckingham evidently
sympathized with Thomas Pitt; for he expressed his surprise that the
Prime Minister should risk his life against such a man as Tierney. A
more jocular tone was taken by the Earl of Mornington, soon to become
the Marquis Wellesley. Writing to Pitt from Fort St. George on 8th
August 1799 (three months after the capture of Seringapatam), he
expressed strong approval of his Irish policy and concluded as follows:
"I send you by Henry a pair of pistols found in the palace at
Seringapatam. They are mounted in gold and were given by the late King
of France to the 'citizen Sultan' (Tippoo). They will, I hope, answer
better for your next Jacobin duel than those you used under Abershaw's
gibbet."[473]--What became of those pistols?
The general opinion was adverse to Pitt's conduct. For at that time the
outlook in Ireland could scarcely have been gloomier, and Bonaparte's
armada at Toulon was believed to be destined for those shores. In such a
case, despite the nice punctilio of honour, neither ought Tierney to
have sent a challenge nor Pitt to have accepted it. The recklessness of
Pitt in this affair is, however, typical of the mood of the British
people in the spring and summer of that year. The victories of Jervis
and Duncan, the rejection of Pitt's offers of peace by the French
Directory, and its threats to invade these shores, aroused the fighting
spirit of the race. As the war became a struggle for existence, all
thoughts of surrender vanished. The prevalent feeling was one of
defiance. It was nurtured by Canning in the "Anti-Jacobin," in which he
lampooned the French democrats and their British well-wishers. Under
the thin disguise of "the Friend of Humanity" he satirized Tierney in
the poem, "The Knife-Grinder," a parody, in form, of Southey's "Widow,"
and, in meaning, of Tierney's philanthropic appeals. In a play, "The
Rovers," he sportfully satirized the romantic drama of Schiller, "The
Robbers." In one of the incidental poems he represented the hero, while
in prison, recalling the bright days
at the U-
-niversity of Göttingen,
-niversity of Göttingen.
Pitt was so charmed with this _jeu d'esprit_ that he is said to have
added the following verse in the same mock-heroic style:[474]
Sun, moon, and thou, vain world, adieu,
That Kings and priests are plotting in;
Here doomed to starve on water gru-
-el, never shall I see the U-
-niversity of Göttingen,
-niversity of Göttingen.
A Prime Minister who can throw off squibs, and a nation that can enjoy
them, will not succumb even in the worst crisis.
In truth, all patriots were now straining their utmost to repel an
aggressive and insolent enemy. The Volunteer Movement more than ever
called forth the manly exertions of the people; and one of the most
popular caricatures of the time (May 1798) shows Pitt as a Volunteer
standing rigidly at attention. Sermons, caricatures, pamphlets, and
songs, especially those of Dibdin, served to stimulate martial ardour.
Singular to relate, Hannah More (now in her fifty-third year) figured
among the patriotic pamphleteers, her "Cheap Repository" of political
tracts being an effective antidote to the Jacobinical leaflets which
once had a hold on the poorer classes. Space will not admit of an
account of all the agencies which heralded the dawn of a more resolute
patriotism. Though the methods were varied, the soul of them all was
Pitt.[475]
The tone of public opinion astonished that experienced writer, Mallet du
Pan, who, on coming from the Continent to England, described the change
of spirit as astounding. There the monarchical States, utterly devoid of
dignity and patriotism, were squabbling over the details of a shameful
peace. "Here," he writes in May 1798, "we are in the full tide of war,
crushed by taxation, and exposed to the fury of the most desperate of
enemies, but nevertheless security, abundance, and energy reign supreme,
alike in cottage and palace. I have not met with a single instance of
nervousness or apprehension. The spectacle presented by public opinion
has far surpassed my expectation. The nation had not yet learnt to know
its own strength or its resources. The Government has taught it the
secret, and inspired it with an unbounded confidence almost amounting to
presumption." No more striking tribute has been paid by a foreigner to
the dauntless spirit of Britons. Rarely have they begun a war well; for
the careless ways of the race tell against the methodical preparation to
which continental States must perforce submit. England, therefore,
always loses in the first rounds of a fight. But, if she finds a good
leader, she slowly and wastefully repairs the early losses. In September
1797 the French Directory made the unpardonable mistake of compelling
her to prepare for a war to the knife. Thenceforth the hesitations of
Pitt, which had weakened his war policy in 1795-6, vanished; and he now
stood forth as the inspirer of his countrymen in a contest on behalf of
their national existence and the future independence of Europe.
FOOTNOTES:
[462] "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 259-368; "Dropmore P.," iii, 239-42,
256, 287, 290.
[463] Pitt MSS., 102. See Stanhope, iii, App., for the letters of the
King and Pitt; "Dropmore P.," iii, 310 _et seq._; also C. Ballot, "Les
Négociations de Lille," for an excellent account of these overtures and
the European situation.
[464] See Pitt's letter of 16th June to the King and new letters of
Grenville in "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies"; "Windham's Diary," 368;
C. Ballot, _op. cit._, ch. v and App.; Luckwaldt (_vice_ Huffer)
"Quellen," pt ii, 153, 161, 176, 183.
[465] On 1st August 1797 Wilberforce wrote to Pitt a letter (the last
part of which is quoted in Chapter XX of my former volume) urging him,
even if the negotiation failed, to declare on what terms he would resume
it. In Mr. Broadley's library is a letter of Lord Shelburne to
Vergennes, dated 13th November 1782, which makes it clear that Pitt in
1782-3 was wholly against the surrender or the exchange of Gibraltar.
[466] Ballot, _op. cit._, 302, who corrects Thiers, Sorel, and Sciout on
several points.
[467] "Dropmore P.," iii, 377, 380-2; "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 590.
[468] "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 1076; "The Early Married Life of Lady
Stanley," 149.
[469] Pitt MSS., 193. Mr. Abbott, afterwards Lord Colchester, differed
from his patron, the Duke of Leeds, on this question. See "Lord
Colchester's Diaries," i, 124-31.
[470] B.M. Add. MSS., 34454.
[471] "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 1434-54, 1481; "Mems. of Sir John
Sinclair," i, 310, 311.
[472] Addington's description (Pellew, "Sidmouth," i, 206) fixes the
spot. Mr. A. Hawkes, in an article in the "Wimbledon Annual" for 1904,
places it in front of the house called "Scio," but it must be the deeper
hollow towards Kingston Vale. Caricatures of the time wrongly place the
duel on the high ground near the windmill. A wag chalked on Abershaw's
gibbet a figure of the two duellers, Tierney saying: "As well fire at
the devil's darning-needle."
[473] Pretyman MSS.; "Dropmore P.," iv, 222.
[474] The hero is probably Robert Adair, the Whig "envoy" to St.
Petersburg in 1791,
"the youth whose daring soul
With _half a mission_ sought the frozen pole."
Pitt's authorship of the lines quoted above is denied by Mr. Lloyd
Sanders in his Introduction to the "Anti-Jacobin" (Methuen, 1904); but
his arguments are not conclusive. Lines 370-80 of "New Morality" are
also said to be by Pitt.
[475] In "Pitt and Napoleon Miscellanies" I shall describe Pitt's work
in the national defence. See an excellent account of the popular
literature of the time in "Napoleon and the Invasion of England," by H.
F. B. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley, i, ch. vii.