Tax on Plate debated in the Commons--Tranquillity restored
in Ireland--Hessian and Hanoverian Troops taken into our
pay--Private Bill for a new Road from the Metropolis--The
French attack Minorca--Vote of Credit--Debates on the Prussian
Treaty--Speeches of Pitt and Murray--Militia Bill in the
Lords--Troops raised by Individuals--Violation of Public
Faith--The Prince of Wales attains his Majority--History of Lord
Bute--Scheme of taking the Prince from his Mother.
March 3rd.--On the report from the Committee for the tax on plate,
it was a day of total ignorance: Fox, Hume Campbell, and Pitt all
showed how little they understood the subject. The shrewdness of
the first, the assertions of the second, the diction of the latter,
were ridiculously employed on a topic that required only common
sense, and a little knowledge of business. Legge alone shone: he
entered, beyond his usual brevity, into a detail of the nature of
coin, exchange, gold, silver, premiums, and the mistaken or real
advantages of those manufactures. He observed, that plate was not
luxury, but a national way of hoarding; that this tax was to cease
where luxury began; for the greatest Lords were not to pay beyond
2000 ounces. That it would all go abroad, unless the proportions of
gold and silver were regulated. That Mr. Locke’s first treatise on
that subject had been written to serve a purpose: he had afterwards
understood the matter better. That while we overvalued gold in
proportion to silver, the French were taking the contrary extreme,
in order to draw silver into their country, and to encourage the
manufacture of plate, which proved a beneficial article of their
trade, and of which we were discharging ourselves. Of all dead
stock, plate was the most valuable. Louis the Fourteenth and
Charles the First had made great use of the resource of plate.
When employed, it comes out with its whole value about it. The
reputation of a stock of it has its weight. Would you in the outset
of a war produce your last stake? Would you, while increasing your
paper substance by borrowing on the Sinking Fund, diminish your
real treasure? Many other taxes would produce above 30,000_l._
On the second reading of the Bill, Legge argued against it with
more warmth: if gathered loosely, it would produce a trifle; if
strictly, three times as much as granted for. France would think
us bankrupt; no nation had done this but in sieges and civil wars.
He condemned it as a register of so much personal estate; and as
this knowledge would assist the housebreaker in his campaign; and
as it would go to the destruction of one of the most flourishing
manufactures in Europe, producing clear for the labour alone
32,000_l._ a year. Our silversmiths would now go to France, and
the plate would meet them there to be worked. Sir George Lyttelton
remarked that Legge’s arguments went against all inland duties in
general; and that as little wealth ought to lie dead as possible.
That on laying the coach-tax, the coach-makers came to the Treasury
and complained they should be ruined; yet their trade had increased
since. If we took a galleon, would it be advisable to lay up the
treasure against a day of calamity? He defended the method of
collecting this duty by Excisemen; did not find that Excise was now
so terrible: Sir Francis Dashwood had proposed an Excise on meat,
and he had not perceived that it had much shocked the House--in
fact, no powers, he said, were more gently exercised than those of
Excise. No complaint had been made on the coach-tax: this was to be
under the same regulation. Our trade would not bear more customs;
nor could we support the war, but by a despotic mortgage of the
whole Sinking Fund. His chief partiality to the plate-tax arose
from the poor being exempt from it.
George Grenville spoke well, chiefly censuring this as a tax to
be paid on honour--had the coach-tax been honourably paid? The
land-tax at the Revolution was laid on honour--did honour tax
itself fairly? Here only middling persons were to be rated; the
poor and the rich were equally exempted. This would be a sort
of _don gratuit_, or benevolence; the worst sort of tax. The
Parliament of Paris was copying our best times--from what were
we copying? Murray pleaded that by leaving the most magnificent
sort of plate, which is only where there is above 2000 ounces,
untaxed, no discouragement would be given to the manufacture. Dr.
Hay saying that this tax was unlike that on coaches, for they, if
not used, did not pay; Doddington replied, that he hoped Dr. Hay
would not wish the taxes postponed, till such could be found as all
men would approve. He did profess himself unequal to speak to what
many did know they were unequal to hear; but could not comprehend
how men, who had so long gone on losing so much interest by a
stock of plate, should now declare they would eat on trenchers,
because it was to be taxed at a halfpenny an ounce. He observed how
contradictory the objections were: in the same breath complaints
were made that this tax subjected us to excise, and was a tax upon
honour. The only unanswerable objection he had heard was, that
we were over-taxed already. He wished we had been as scrupulous
in former wars, yet this was the only war he remembered, purely
English.
The new duty was carried by 245 to 142. Yet if Fox would have
yielded to it, the Duke of Newcastle would have given up the tax.
It produced at last but 18,000_l._
Let us turn our eyes for a moment to Ireland, where tranquillity
was at last restored by the prudence of Mr. Conway, and by the
venality of the patriots. Mr. Conway was armed with all the powers
and all the qualities that could compose the animosities of a
factious people, inflamed by mercenary chiefs; for he had authority
to satisfy their demands, his virtue gave no hold to abuse, his
temper kept _him_ impartial, and his good sense kept the Duke of
Devonshire so. The patriots dismissed the woes of their country,
for which they had no longer occasion; Mr. Boyle was first restored
to the Chancellorship of the Exchequer; Carter was made Secretary
of State; and Malone, King’s Counsel: pensions, with arrears, were
restored to the sufferers, and sprinkled on others; and, at the
conclusion of the Session, Mr. Boyle, for an Earldom and a pension,
resigned the Chair to Mr. Ponsonby, brother-in-law of the Lord
Lieutenant; Malone consented to accept a lucrative employment;
and Sir Arthur Gore a Peerage; but the late Speaker being burnt
in effigy by the mob, and Malone being insulted at his own door,
the latter was terrified, and declined from fear what he could
not resist from virtue: Sir Arthur Gore, too, waved his Peerage
for the present. On the departure of the Duke of Devonshire, the
Chancellor, Lord Kildare, and Lord Besborough, were appointed Lords
Justices. The Primate, enraged at this arrangement, quarrelled
with his friend the new Speaker, who was so far qualified to
succeed Mr. Boyle, that he made as little scruple to sacrifice his
connexions, to promote himself. The Primate had tried to make him
Speaker; Lord Kildare had opposed it: the Primate was now dropped;
and Lord Kildare and Mr. Ponsonby’s father divided the Government
between them; for the Chancellor was in a languishing state, came
over to England, and died soon after.[57]
England began to be alarmed with an invasion from France; the
Ministry had already made a requisition of the troops which
Holland ought by treaty to furnish us. Fox, Lord Granville, and
Lord Anson, had foretold that they would be refused; Newcastle
and the Chancellor insisted they would be sent; demanded them,
and were refused. On this a message was delivered to both Houses
to notify his Majesty’s having sent for the Hessians in his pay:
it was received with some murmurs, but not opposed. Lord George
Sackville, either to throw difficulties on the Duke of Newcastle,
with whom he was angry on Irish accounts, or to pay court to the
Throne, hinted a preference to Hanoverians, whose behaviour as
soldiers he much commended. This thought was embraced--if it had
not been concerted; and on the 29th of April, he proposed, in form,
to address the King to send for his Electoral troops, after stating
the weakness of the country, the vast extent of unguarded coast,
and the opinion of officers in favour of the utility and good
service of those foreigners.
The Tories owned they preferred Hanoverians to Hessians; but Pitt,
who came down ill, and affirming that nothing but the importance
of the question should have drawn him out of his bed, spoke long
against the measure; pleaded his respect for the King as the cause
of his opposition, as he feared we should advise his Majesty’s
involving another country of his in equal or worse peril than our
own. That this would be offering him our advice in his Electoral
capacity: that in no period of his life he had spoken against the
Hanoverians as bad troops: that against what force the French could
land we had certainly sufficient defence: that in 1690, when France
had beaten our fleet at Beachy-head, and had an Army in Ireland,
yet we had surmounted all that danger. That, in the Dutch war, even
with a suspected King, we had coped with Holland and France. De
Witte, the greatest man since Plutarch, had proposed an invasion to
D’Estrades, but he treated it as a chimeric attempt. Burnet says,
the Wirtemberghers were cruel friends: he should be for sending
these Hanoverians to Ireland: he would vote for raising any number
of new troops: the last unfortunate war had formed many great
officers; he would not interpose these foreigners to the promotion
of those gallant men; nor would force a vote upon the King, when he
might send for his troops without. Lord George replied with great
spirit and sense; and the Motion was agreed to by 259 to 92. The
next day this resolution was communicated at a conference to the
Lords, who agreed to it, after a severe speech from Lord Winchelsea
against the new patriots.[58]
The consideration of this danger, and of the measure of bringing
over foreigners, always obnoxious, at least as a precedent, was
often interrupted by one of those trifling affairs with which the
wisdom of this grave nation is so apt to be occupied. A new road
towards the eastern counties, by which the disagreeable passage
through the city would be avoided, had been proposed to be made on
the back of London. The Duke of Grafton had estates there, which,
by future buildings likely to accompany such an improvement, would
be greatly increased. Part of this road was to pass over grounds of
the Duke of Bedford, but in so small proportion as he thought would
not indemnify him for the desertion of other buildings, which he
had to a great amount in worse parts of the town. He consequently
took this up with great heat. The Duke of Grafton, old and
indolent, was indifferent about it. The Duke of Argyle, who did not
love[59] the Duke of Bedford, and others who _now_ wished to thwart
him and his faction, privately spurred up the Duke of Grafton to
make a point of this. Fox embraced the occasion as a trial for
power with Newcastle. Rigby, who had endeavoured to soften the
Duke of Bedford, now to humour Fox, adopted his master’s warmth,
and added all his own violence, treating the name of the Duke of
Grafton (who was much respected) with the greatest licentiousness
in the House of Commons. The Duke of Newcastle was frightened, and
wished to avoid the decision; but the Duke of Bedford, who had
received all manner of encouragement from the Chancellor and his
friends, pushed on the determination, was betrayed, was beaten, was
enraged,--in less than a year he proposed to the Duke of Grafton’s
friends to extend the plan of the road.
April 30th.--The estimate of the charge of the Hessian troops being
laid before the House, Pitt made a bitter speech on the Ministers,
as bubbling the nation, or being bubbled in this extravagant
bargain, which would cost 400,000_l._ more than a like number of
British troops. But we were going to be undone: he should be
undone with a clear conscience and untainted honour. Those who
supported such measures would bear the marks on their foreheads.
We could not carry on the American war, from our extravagance. God
could not bless a country with resources enough to resist such
profusion. He admired the _finesse_ of the Hessians, who from the
hungry allowance of Germany had raised their pay to British.
A few days afterwards, the Hanoverian estimate being brought, and
Lord Barrington commending it preferably to the Hessian (which
had been voted, and was past danger), Pitt, with great dexterity
of irony, commended it too, and lashed Lord Barrington for the
extravagance of the former, asking whether he or that Secretary at
War had been more severe on the Hessian account; on that subsidiary
juggle,--for the Hanoverian, no man could find fault with it--one
was the bargain of the Ministers, the other the simple measure of
his Majesty: there one saw the distinction! nothing but good flowed
from the King; nothing but ruin from his servants. “I choose,”
said he, “that they should fall by a friendly hand, and that the
condemnation of his patrons and friends should come from the noble
Lord. But must we engage mercenaries because France does? She has
not blood enough in her own veins for the purposes of universal
Monarchy. This waste on Hessians would have conquered America,
or saved Minorca, which he despaired of. Why did not the House
inquire why we had been so neglected? if so weak, why stayed till
now? whence else Minorca likely to be lost? what poor conduct! They
waited till some private man (Lord G. S.) dared to ask for foreign
troops. Had we been secured here, the fleet might have gone safely
to Minorca. The neglect looked wilful, and as if they hoped that
trade would call out for peace, and that Minorca to be regained
would be a screen for compounding for America,--but,” continued he,
“I don’t call this an Administration, it is so unsteady. One is at
the head of the Treasury; one, Chancellor; one, head of the Navy;
one great person, of the Army--yet, is that an Administration? They
shift and shuffle the charge from one to another: says one, I am
not General; the Treasury says, I am not Admiral; the Admiralty
says, I am not Minister. From such an unaccording assemblage of
separate and distinct powers with no system, a nullity results.
One, two, three, four, five Lords meet;--if they cannot agree,--oh!
we will meet again on Saturday;--oh! but says one of them, I am
to go out of town,--alas! said he, when no parties remain, what
aggravation of the crimes of the Ministry that no good comes from
such unanimity.”
Fox answered seriously, that nobody could be glad of or receive
advantage from the loss of Minorca; and he asked if Mr. Pitt
wished to see a sole Minister.
Pitt replied, that he did not wish to see a single Minister, but
a system and decision; that the loss of Minorca must be caused by
infatuation or design, for that miners for the defence of Fort
St. Philip were only raising _then_. Indeed, were Mr. Fox sole
Minister, there would be decision enough.
Lord George Sackville said, he had moved for Hanoverians from the
consideration of our unprovided state, and as a temporary Militia;
and _because the fleet sent into the Mediterranean was not superior
to the French_, and might be beaten; the French might follow their
blow and come hither. He was glad it had been mentioned, because
everybody was struck at Minorca being left as in time of profound
peace; it would become Ministers to prove that neglect, necessity.
It was known now, that after great preparations at Toulon,[60] of
which we had long been advertised, Marshal Richelieu was sailed
with considerable force to attack Minorca, where we had but
four regiments, in Fort St. Philip, under General Blakeney, the
Deputy-Governor, a stout soldier, but too old. Lord Tyrawley, the
Governor, was in England, so were his chief officers, members of
Parliament. Admiral Byng was sent, but too late, and with only ten
ships, and those in ill condition, and worse manned. The only hope
was in Fort St. Philip, for in an island of that importance all was
left to a hope. The late Duke of Argyle had begun a fort on the
other side of the harbour, which would have been inpregnable; but
Lord Cadogan, out of hatred to him, destroyed it, and built this,
less secure, at an enormous expense. On the 5th, came notice of the
French being landed on the island.
In the meantime passed through the Commons that distant and
forlorn _succedaneum_, the Militia Bill. A few persons had sat
till near six in the morning fabricating and fashioning it. Mr.
Pitt recommended it in another fine dissertation, and it was voted
without a division.
May 11th.--Mr. Fox delivered a message from the Crown, desiring to
be enabled against any emergency, and to make good the new treaty
with Prussia. The next day Sir George Lyttelton moved a vote of
credit for a million. It was much censured. Northey said he did
not oppose it, nor meaned to disturb an unanimity which had been
constant for two years in granting supplies. Now was not the time,
but a day would come for inquiring how they had been misapplied.
This vote of credit, he supposed, like that of last year, would
be perverted to German treaties. We were told last year that the
King had entered into engagements, and that we must not make him
break his word. Beckford said, six millions three hundred thousand
pounds were already given--what had been done for such a sum? who
could trust Ministers any further? We were all united; we wanted
nothing but an able head. The person at the head of the Treasury is
always so of the Administration; if he is not an able man, how can
we go on? The city said, Minorca was betrayed--I tell them, said
he, they don’t know the disability of the Administration. When we
seized the ships of France, did we imagine they would not revenge
themselves? Are we more secure in America for this neglect of the
Mediterranean? No. In the month of May you have prepared but two
regiments, and they are not gone. The French have sent two thousand
five hundred men to the West Indies;--twelve sail would have saved
Minorca.
To all these objections Sir George Lyttelton replied, that this
money would be restricted and subjected to account. Was Government
not to be supported on the first misfortune that happened? When one
happens would you not prevent another? if while we guarded Minorca,
our own coasts had been neglected, the Ministry would indeed be
blameable. Nothing had raised the supplies but the security of our
coasts. When the foreign troops should arrive, our fleets would
be more at liberty. Our spirit and activity had been admired by
all Europe; and it was more difficult to defend our spirit than
our neglect. This answer was not particular enough to satisfy
Nugent; he added his usual panegyric on the honesty of the Duke of
Newcastle.
Pitt made a fine lamentation on the calamitous situation of
affairs, and on the incapacity of the Ministers; begging them, if
they knew, to disclose the purposes for which this vote of credit
was intended. Was it to raise more men? we had 40,000 national,
and 14,000 foreign troops. Was it to make marine treaties? he
would joyfully assent. If Sir George could not say for what it
was designed, would he at least peremptorily say for what it
was _not_ designed? Still he was of so compounding a temper, he
would assent, though votes of credit had been so much abused.
The Ministers bragged of unanimity, of activity, of spirit--what
had all this harmony of councils and talents operated? safety?
are we safe? damage to the enemy? let them show when and where.
With this universal ay, all our outlying parts are exposed.
But he, alas! had no particular joy on being so strong on this
question: he did not want to load unhappy men who had undone
their country; men most unhappy, if they did not feel it. We
were told that there was no option but between this country and
America and the Mediterranean--so this great country could neither
provide for defence nor offence! _yet our activity was admired_?
Philosophers, indeed, had a term, _vis inertiæ_, the inactivity of
action--was it by that we were to be saved? His charge, he said,
was, _that we had provoked before we could defend, and neglected
after provocation; that we were left inferior to France in every
quarter; that the vote of credit had been misapplied to secure
the Electorate; and that we had bought a treaty with Prussia by
sacrificing our rights_. He would not have signed it for the
five great places of those who had signed it. They had left us
unprovided, as a gap for German troops; and so German troops
at last became an English measure! The deceased gentleman (Mr.
Pelham) had meant economy, and was dragged into foreign measures
by one who had now got the Treasury. Could he every day arraign,
and yet continue to trust? and while new foreign measures were
in embryo?--yet if this treaty was restrained to the defence of
the King’s dominions, he should not know how to oppose it. He
had no resentment; nobody had injured him: of their measures and
incapacity indeed he thought ill. If he saw a child (Duke of
Newcastle) driving a go-cart on a precipice, with that precious
freight of an Old King and his family, sure he was bound to take
the reins out of such hands. He prayed to God that his Majesty
might not have Minorca, like Calais, written on his heart! He
concluded with proposing to take the very words of the last vote of
credit.
Sir George Lyttelton answered with great modesty, that the
Administration had not suffered by Mr. Pelham’s death, except by
_his_ advancement. Let it be considered who was at the head of the
Treasury, of the Admiralty, of the Chancery, &c. Could it be said
that we had done nothing, when we had taken 8000 French seamen?
Here he would rest the whole; no one calamity had happened yet.
George Grenville observed, that in December last the Fleet
consisted of 150 sail, of which 78 were of the line; of 42,700
seamen, of which 36,000 had been mustered: the marines had been
voted since--was this inability to send fourteen ships to the
Mediterranean? In January, there were sixty-two ships at home
capable of being employed. Fourteen ships had sufficed to keep the
Brest and Rochfort squadrons in their harbours. He commended Lord
Anson, and said, he had heard of representations being made from
the Admiralty for sending force to the Mediterranean. In the last
war, he remembered that the Admiralty was restrained from meddling
with the Mediterranean service, which was reserved to the Secretary
of State (Duke of Newcastle); if that restriction continued, the
Admiralty was not to blame. In America, Braddock had been defeated
in July; not a man was sent thither till within the last fortnight.
Fox replied, that he knew of no representation from the Admiralty.
The Fleet could not have been prepared so soon as Mr. Grenville
alleged: it is no neglect if things are preparing. Dates, he knew,
might save from punishment, but events only would save from blame.
Some merit he thought there was in the Prussian treaty, of which
the contrary, a breach, had been so much foretold. The question
before the House was not so diffuse as that of last year, because
the augmentation was made, and consequently not necessary now. He
wished the incapacity was in the Administration, not in the country
itself.
Pitt took little notice of Fox, only rising again to lash Sir
George Lyttelton, who had called it an opposal of epithets; very
little proper to come from him, said he, whose character is a
composition of epithets. But what! did we meet as an academy of
compliments? but Lyttelton had mistaken the day; for himself, he
said, had used no epithets that day. If Lyttelton would say, we
had no more resources, he would tell him he was incapable; and
when he disclaimed having had any hand in drawing the words of the
question, he saw Sir George was not at liberty to change them.
Lyttelton, much hurt, but firm, cried, he says I am a thing made up
of epithets--was not this the language of Billingsgate? The world
complained that the House was converted into a bear-garden--he
should not envy Mr. Pitt the glory of being the Figg or Broughton
of it--yet if he assumed fewer airs of superiority, it would do him
more honour.
Pitt, redoubling contempt, said with a sneer, we once lived in a
road of epithets together--hard! that my friend, with whom I have
taken sweet council of epithets, should now reproach me with using
them! Lyttelton, he said, was a pretty poetical genius: with his
pen in his hand, nobody respected him more: but what! were not
Billingsgate and Broughton epithets? He at once described Lyttelton
as an _innocent_, and would have fixed the use of invectives
on him. Sir George terminated the altercation and debate, by
protesting it was not his fault if he did not still live in
friendship with Mr. Pitt.
May 14th.--The Prussian treaty was opened to the House by Sir
George Lyttelton. It stipulated that the King of Prussia should pay
61,000_l._ due on the Silesian loan; but admitted that 20,000_l._
was due to him, which the Parliament was desired to grant. Pitt
took the convention to pieces, interpreting it as a design in
the King of Prussia of returning indignity for indignity; and as
derogatory to the sovereignty of England, which was now giving
20,000_l._ to a Monarch, represented as intimidated, for unjust
claims, examined and pronounced so, and now allowed by a commission
of review, as unheard of as that exercised at Berlin; and founded
on admission of damages, by what kind of liquidation could not be
guessed. Had that King made a demand, or had this compensation been
offered to him? But he saw he said, that all the Powers of Europe
were setting up a new jurisprudence, and that we were no longer
to enjoy the empire of the ocean. For himself, he should affect
no superiority but what was common to him with twelve millions,
innocence of his country’s ruin, the superiority of the undone
over the undoers. If he could but be told that even by a protest
we had secured the rights of our Courts of Admiralty, he would
acquiesce; and should be glad, as it would bring the long sufferers
on the Silesian loan into their money. Yet he had rather vote them
the 60,000_l._: we did not want such a sum; the necessary thing
to us was the acknowledgment of the right. So thought the King of
Prussia, and said, I will take nothing, to show I set my foot on
your neck, and _how_ I am intimidated.--He hoped the Committee
would at least couple with the vote the assertion of our rights.
Murray answered in a long discussion, pleading like a lawyer _for_
the King of Prussia, though formerly, when consulted as a lawyer,
he had nobly confuted him like a statesman. He said, free ships
make free goods, and that a Prince whose property is taken must
judge by his own courts. That we did not allow that decision--if
his friendship were bought by allowing it, the purchase would be
too dear. That the single question was, whether the convention
did or did not give up our rights. That the King of Prussia had
not been alienated by our fault, but by his own interest, and
that breach had been kept up by his fear. That, under the name of
reprisals, he had paid himself, having the Silesian loan in his
power. That he had tried to list the powers of the Baltic, by the
captivating maxim of _free ships make free goods_. That he did not
demand one sixpence for goods of strangers taken on board Prussian
ships, and therefore could not demand satisfaction, as no injury
was done to him. He had made no reply to our memorial, nor ever
negotiated with us in defence of his principles; but retained the
Silesian loan. There had been thoughts of making war on him--but
how? if by the Queen of Hungary, then France would have taken part,
and a general war had ensued. As we detained his ships, he might
demand to appeal--very difficult to grant that, or to refuse it.
He then enlarged on the King of Prussia’s right and power of
appeal--urged the long time elapsed, the money dispersed, the
danger of a single-handed war with France; the advantage of
reconciliation with Prussia, who, by giving up the whole Silesian
debt, gave up at once his whole commission of revision. He had only
said, “Save my credit, give me something.” Who would have held off
for 20,000_l._? We did make that sort of _amende_ to him; we did
save his credit. Just so, the French seized the smuggler Mandrin in
the territory of Savoy, and hanged him--but when we sent a fleet
to America, and France wanted allies, she asked pardon of the King
of Sardinia. The same was our case with Spain on the convention
of 1739: they agreed to pay us for captures they had made, and to
liquidate with the South Sea Company. Nobody thought that by that
accommodation they gave up their principles of searching. In the
whole treaty we had not allowed the King of Prussia’s principles;
nor did it appear whether his goods had been condemned as an
enemy’s, or as contraband. Very uncertain what is contraband when
not expressed in any treaty. Spain calls tobacco so, because they
think it makes the English fight better. If we did not allow the
Northern Powers to carry some contraband goods, they could have
no trade. We had desired from the Prussian Minister a plan of a
treaty: he took a Swedish treaty for his model, in which it was
expressly stipulated that “free ships do _not_ make free goods.”
To have had it expressed now would have weakened it--a subtilty
which justifies my saying that he argued as Counsel for Prussia.
Pitt taxing him with it, he pretended not to have said, that it was
stipulated so in the Swedish treaty, but understood so in it.
The Committee, by a majority of 210 to 55, voted the money; and
four days afterwards war was proclaimed with France.
The same day (18th) the Militia Bill was read in the House of
Lords for the second time. The Duke of Bedford, thinking the Duke
of Newcastle would oppose or let it be dropped for want of time,
supported it strongly. Newcastle did oppose it, but faintly, with
Lord Granville and Lord Sandys, and suffered it to be committed.
Lord Halifax supported it well in the Committee; Lord Temple dared
the Ministers to throw it out. Lord Granville immediately attacked
it warmly, but it went through without a division.
On the 24th, Lord Stanhope spoke well on its behalf. Lord Granville
again opposed it as absurd, unjust, and oppressive. He would
not amend it, he said, for he disliked it; he would not be for
it, because it was unamended. He would not be influenced by its
having passed the Commons, or by its being popular--yet it was not
popular, for often it had not been attended in the Commons by above
fifteen persons; consequently had been voted in not a legal House.
Lord Granville always strongly asserted the dignity of his own
House of Parliament against the other.
The Duke of Bedford argued for the Bill, and affirmed that the
people had only submitted to foreign forces on the promise of
a Militia Bill. The Chancellor declared against it on the
impracticability,--and (those who love liberty will love him for
it) on its omitting the declaration of the power of the Militia
being in the Crown, which had been asserted by Lord Clarendon and
Lord Southampton on the Restoration. Himself, he said, had never
been reckoned a prerogative lawyer, yet he would never _let_ the
prerogative be lessened with his consent.
If I have here marked out Lord Hardwicke’s memory to the
indignation of free men, he might pardon me:--there are always
numbers ready to admire the advocates of prerogative--Laud had his
adorers; Jefferies hardly escaped them.
Lord Bath spoke for the Bill; the Duke of Newcastle against it; and
it was rejected by 59 to 23.
On the 27th, the Parliament was prorogued. Old Horace Walpole
was at last declared a Peer, with Mr. Villiers and Sir Dudley
Rider; but the latter being taken ill on the very day he was to
have kissed hands, and dying the next, the Peerage was, with much
hardship, withheld from his son.
I did not mention in its place, because it falls in more properly
here, that on an apprehension of an invasion in the winter,
the Marquis of Rockingham, Lord Northumberland, Lord Downe and
others, had offered to raise troops of Light Horse, which had
been accepted; but Lord Gower proposing to the King, that instead
of this scheme, the great Lords should go into their counties,
and raise recruits for the Army, this plan was better liked, if
not suggested, by the Duke, and carried into execution with good
success. Lord Gower raised 400 men by his personal interest in
Staffordshire: Lord Ilchester and his nephew, Lord Digby, were as
successful in Somersetshire, enlisting the sons of many wealthy
farmers, upon promise that they should not serve out of England.
However, on a resolution of sending the force at Gibraltar to
Mahon, it was determined to replace them with this Somersetshire
regiment. Such a violation of public faith (for the recruits at
least could not conceive that the brother and nephew of a Secretary
of State had not authority for their assurances), created the
greatest clamour; and the men were driven by force on board the
transports. The consequence was very pernicious, as might have
been foreseen, and will be showed. I will mention another instance
of the injustice and cruelty of such breach of covenant. In the
late Rebellion, some recruits had been raised under a positive
engagement of dismission at the end of three years. When the term
was expired, they thought themselves at liberty, and some of them
quitted the corps in which they had been regimented. The Duke
ordered them to be tried as deserters; and not having received a
legal discharge, they were condemned. Nothing could mollify him;
two were executed.
June 4th.--The Prince of Wales attained the age prescribed for
his majority; by which the Regency Bill remains only a dangerous
precedent of power to posterity--no longer so to us, for whose
subjection it was artfully, though, by the grace of God, vainly
calculated! This epoch, however, brought to light the secrets
of a Court, where hitherto everything had been transacted with
mysterious decency. The Princess had conducted herself with great
respect to the King, with appearance of impartiality to Ministers
and factions. If she was not cordial to the Duke, or was averse to
his friends, it had been imputed less to any hatred adopted from
her husband’s prejudices, than to jealousy of the government of
her son: if the world should choose to ascribe her attention for
him to maternal affection, they were at liberty; she courted and
watched him neither more nor less for their conjectures. It now
at last appeared that paternal tenderness or ambition were not
the sole passions that engrossed their thoughts. It had already
been whispered that the assiduity of Lord Bute at Leicester House,
and his still more frequent attendance in the gardens at Kew and
Carlton House, were less addressed to the Prince of Wales than
to his mother. The eagerness of the Pages of the Back-stairs to
let her know whenever Lord Bute arrived [and some other symptoms]
contributed to dispel the ideas that had been conceived of
the rigour of her widowhood. On the other hand, the favoured
personage, naturally ostentatious of his person, and of haughty
carriage, seemed by no means desirous of concealing his conquest.
His bows grew more theatric, his graces contracted some meaning,
and the beauty of his leg was constantly displayed in the eyes of
the poor captivated Princess. Indeed, the nice observers of the
Court-thermometer, who often foresee a change of weather before
it actually happens, had long thought that her Royal Highness was
likely to choose younger Ministers than that formal piece of empty
mystery, Cresset; or the matron-like decorum of Sir George Lee. * *
* * * * Her simple husband, when he took up the character of the
Regent’s gallantry, had forced an air of intrigue even upon his
wife. When he affected to retire into gloomy _allées_ with Lady
Middlesex, he used to bid the Princess walk with Lord Bute. As soon
as the Prince was dead, they walked more and more, in honour of his
memory.
The favour of Lord Bute was scarce sooner known, than the
connexions of Pitt and Legge with him. The mystery of Pitt’s breach
with Fox was at once unravelled; and a Court secret of that nature
was not likely long to escape the penetration of Legge, who wormed
himself into every intrigue where his industry and subservience
could recommend him--yet Legge had not more application to power,
than Newcastle’s jealousy of it. Such an entrenchment round the
successor alarmed him. It was determined in his little council
that the moment the Prince of Wales should be of age, he should be
taken from his mother; but the secret evaporating, intimations by
various channels were conveyed to the Duke of Newcastle and to the
Chancellor, how much the Prince would resent any such advice being
given to the King, and that it would not be easy to carry it into
execution. The Prince lived shut up with his mother and Lord Bute;
and must have thrown them under some difficulties: their connexion
was not easily reconcileable to the devotion which they had infused
into the Prince; the Princess could not wish him always present,
and yet dreaded his being out of her sight. His brother Edward, who
received a thousand mortifications, was seldom suffered to be with
him; and Lady Augusta, now a woman, was, to facilitate some privacy
for the Princess, dismissed from supping with her mother, and sent
back to cheese-cakes, with her little sister Elizabeth, on pretence
that meat at night would fatten her too much.
The Ministers, too apt to yield when in the right, were now
obstinate in the wrong place; and without knowing how to draw
the King out of the difficulty into which they were pushing him,
advised this extraordinary step. On May 31st, Lord Waldegrave, as
the last act of his office of Governor, was sent with letters of
the same tenour to the Prince and to his mother, to acquaint them
that the Prince, being now of age, the King, who had ever shown the
greatest kindness and affection for him, had determined to give him
40,000_l._ a-year, would settle an establishment for him, of the
particulars of which he should be informed, and that his Majesty
had ordered the apartments of the late Prince at Kensington and of
the Queen at St. James’s to be fitted up for him: that the King
would take Prince Edward too, and give him an allowance of 5000_l._
a-year.
After a little consult in their small Cabinet, both Prince and
Princess sent answers in writing, drawn up, as was believed, by
Legge, and so artfully worded, that the supposition was probable.
The Prince described himself as penetrated by the goodness of
his Majesty, and receiving with the greatest gratitude what his
Majesty in his parental affection was pleased to settle on him;
but he entreated his Majesty not to divide him from his mother,
which would be a most sensible affliction to both. The answer
of the Princess marked, that she had observed with the greatest
satisfaction the impression which his Majesty’s _consideration_ of
the Prince had made on him; and she expressed much sensibility of
all the King’s kindness to her. On the article of the separation
she said not a word.
What now was the King to do? The Prince had accepted the allowance
as _given_; and had refused to leave his mother, which had not
been made a _condition_ of the gift. Was the gift to be revoked,
because the Prince had natural affection? Was the whole message
to be carried into execution, and a young man, of age by Act of
Parliament, to be taken by force, and detained a prisoner in the
palace? What law would justify such violence? Who would be the
agents of such violence? His Majesty himself, and the late Prince
of Wales, had furnished the Prince with precedents of mutinying
against the Crown with impunity. How little the Ministers, who
had planned the first step, knew what to advise for the second,
was plain, from their giving no further advice for above a month;
and from the advice which they did give then, and from the
perplexity in which they remained for two months more, and from
the ignominious result of the whole transaction, both to the King
and to themselves at last. But we must first proceed to other
occurrences.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] The new Speaker soon came over too, and went to Newmarket:
George Selwyn seeing him very busy at the hazard-table, said, “With
what expedition the Speaker passes the Money-bills!”
[58] A _bon mot_, much repeated at this time, was not more
favourable to the King, who, making the nation pay him for this
defence of himself, Doddington said, “His Majesty would not for the
world lend himself a farthing.”
[59] Vide the Debates on the Sheriffs-depute.
[60] The threatened invasion had been a blind to disguise the
design on Minorca.