THE PRINCE OF WALES.--FINANCIAL MEASURES.--MR. PITT'S EAST INDIA BILL.--
IRISH COMMERCIAL PROPOSITIONS.--PLAN OF THE DUKE OF RICHMOND.--SINKING
FUND.
The Whigs, who had now every reason to be convinced of the aversion with
which they were regarded at court, had lately been, in some degree,
compensated for this misfortune by the accession to their party of the
Heir Apparent, who had, since the year 1783, been in the enjoyment of a
separate establishment, and taken his seat in the House of Peers as Duke
of Cornwall. That a young prince, fond of pleasure and impatient of
restraint, should have thrown himself into the arms of those who were
most likely to be indulgent to his errors, is nothing surprising, either
in politics or ethics. But that mature and enlightened statesmen, with
the lessons of all history before their eyes, should have been equally
ready to embrace such a rash alliance, or should count upon it as any
more than a temporary instrument of faction, is, to say the least of it,
one of those self-delusions of the wise, which show how vainly the voice
of the Past may speak amid the loud appeals and temptations of the
Present. The last Prince of Wales, it is true, by whom the popular cause
was espoused, had left the lesson imperfect, by dying before he came to
the throne. But this deficiency has since been amply made up; and future
Whigs, who may be placed in similar circumstances, will have, at least,
one historical warning before their eyes, which ought to be enough to
satisfy the most unreflecting and credulous.
In some points, the breach that now took place between the Prince and
the King, bore a close resemblance to that which had disturbed the
preceding reign. In both cases, the Royal parents were harsh and
obstinate--in both cases, money was the chief source of dissension--and,
in both cases, the genius, wit, and accomplishments of those with whom
the Heir Apparent connected himself, threw a splendor round the
political bond between them, which prevented even themselves from
perceiving its looseness and fragility.
In the late question of Mr. Fox's India Bill, the Prince of Wales had
voted with his political friends in the first division. But, upon
finding afterwards that the King was hostile to the measure, his Royal
Highness took the prudent step (and with Mr. Fox's full concurrence) of
absenting himself entirely from the second discussion, when the Bill, as
it is known, was finally defeated. This circumstance, occurring thus
early in their intercourse, might have proved to each of the parties in
this ill-sorted alliance, how difficult it was for them to remain long
and creditably united. [Footnote: The following sensible remarks upon
the first interruption of the political connection between the Heir
Apparent and the Opposition, are from an unfinished Life of Mr. Sheridan
now in my possession--written by one whose boyhood was passed in the
society of the great men whom he undertook to commemorate, and whose
station and talents would have given to such a work an authenticity and
value, that would have rendered the humble memorial, which I have
attempted, unnecessary--
"His Royal Highness acted upon this occasion by Mr. Fox's advice and
with perfect propriety. At the same time the necessity under which he
found himself of so acting may serve as a general warning to Princes of
the Blood in this country, to abstain from connecting themselves with
party, and engaging either as active supporters or opponents of the
administration of the day. The ties of family, the obligations of their
situation, the feelings of the public assuredly will condemn them, at
some time or other, as in the present instance to desert their own
public acts, to fail in their private professions, and to leave their
friends at the very moment, in which service and support are the most
imperiously required.
"Princes are always suspected proselytes to the popular side. Conscious
of this suspicion, they strive to do it away by exaggerated professions,
and by bringing to the party which they espouse more violent opinions
and more unmeasured language than any which they find. These mighty
promises they soon find it unreasonable, impossible, inconvenient to
fulfil. Their dereliction of their principles becomes manifest and
indefensible, in proportion to the vehemence with which they have
pledged themselves always to maintain them, and the contempt and
indignation which accompanies their retreat is equivalent to the
expectations excited by the boldness and determination of their
advance."] On the one side, there was a character to be maintained with
the people, which a too complaisant toleration of the errors of royalty
might--and, as it happened, _did_ compromise; while, on the other
side, there were the obligations of filial duty, which, as in this
instance of the India Bill, made desertion decorous, at a time when co-
operation would have been most friendly and desirable. There was also
the perpetual consciousness of being destined to a higher station, in
which, while duty would perhaps demand an independence of all party
whatever, convenience would certainly dictate a release from the
restraints of Whiggism.
It was most fortunate for Mr. Sheridan, on the rout of his party that
ensued, to find himself safe in his seat for Stafford once more, and the
following document, connected with his election, is sufficiently
curious, in more respects than one, to be laid before the reader:
_R. B. Sheridan, Esq. Expenses at the Borough of Stafford for
Election, Anno_ 1784.
284 Burgesses, paid L5 5 0 each................L1,302 0 0
Yearly Expenses since.
L s. d.
House-rent and taxes ....... 23 6 6
Servant at 6s. per week, ... 15 12 0
board wages
Ditto, yearly wages ........ 8 8 0
Coals, &c. ................. 10 0 0
Ale tickets ................ 40 0 0
Half the members' plate .... 25 0 0
Swearing young burgesses ... 10 0 0
Subscription to the ........ 5 5 0
Infirmary
Ditto Clergymen's widows ... 2 2 0
Ringers .................... 4 4 0
--------- 86 11 0
----------
One year ............ 143 17 6
Multiplied by years . 6
---------- 863 5 0
Total expense of six years' parliament,
exclusive of expense incurred during
the time of election, and your own
annual expenses.......................... L2,165 5 0
The followers of the Coalition had been defeated in almost all
directions, and it was computed that no less than 160 of them had been
left upon the field,--with no other consolation than what their own wit
afforded them, in the title which they bestowed upon themselves of
"Fox's Martyrs."
This reduction in the ranks of his enemies, at the very commencement of
his career, left an open space for the youthful minister, which was most
favorable to the free display of his energies. He had, indeed, been
indebted, throughout the whole struggle, full as much to a lucky
concurrence of circumstances as to his talents and name for the
supremacy to which he so rapidly rose. All the other eminent persons of
the day had either deeply entangled themselves in party ties, or taken
the gloss off their reputations by some unsuccessful or unpopular
measures; and as he was the only man independent enough of the House of
Commons to be employed by the King as a weapon against it, so was he the
only one sufficiently untried in public life, to be able to draw
unlimitedly on the confidence of the people, and array them, as he did,
in all the enthusiasm of ignorance, on his side. Without these two
advantages, which he owed to his youth and inexperience, even loftier
talents than his would have fallen far short of his triumph.
The financial affairs of the country, which the war had considerably
deranged, and which none of the ministries that ensued felt sure enough
of themselves to attend to, were, of course, among the first and most
anxious objects of his administration; and the wisdom of the measures
which he brought forward for their amelioration was not only candidly
acknowledged by his opponents at the time, but forms at present the
least disputable ground, upon which his claim to reputation as a
finance-minister rests. Having found, on his accession to power, an
annual deficiency of several millions in the revenue, he, in the course
of two years, raised the income of the country so high as to afford a
surplus for the establishment of his Sinking Fund. Nor did his merit lie
only in the mere increase of income, but in the generally sound
principles of the taxation by which he accomplished it, in the
improvements introduced into the collection of the revenue, and the
reform effected in the offices connected with it, by the simplification
of the mode of keeping public accounts.
Though Mr. Sheridan delivered his opinion upon many of the taxes
proposed, his objections were rather to the details than the general
object of the measures; and it may be reckoned, indeed, a part of the
good fortune of the minister, that the financial department of
Opposition at this time was not assumed by any more adventurous
calculator, who might have perplexed him, at least by ingenious cavils,
however he might have failed to defeat him by argument. As it was, he
had the field almost entirely to himself; for Sheridan, though acute,
was not industrious enough to be formidable, and Mr. Fox, from a
struggle, perhaps, between candor and party-feeling, absented himself
almost entirely from the discussion of the new taxes. [Footnote: "He had
absented himself," he said, "upon principle; that, though he might not
be able to approve of the measures which had been adopted, he did not at
the same time think himself authorized to condemn them, or to give them
opposition, unless he had been ready to suggest others less distressing
to the subject."--_Speech on Navy Bills, &c. &c._]
The only questions, in which the angry spirit of the late conflict still
survived, were the Westminster Scrutiny and Mr. Pitt's East India Bill.
The conduct of the minister in the former transaction showed that his
victory had not brought with it those generous feelings towards the
vanquished, which, in the higher order of minds, follows as naturally as
the calm after a tempest. There must, indeed, have been something
peculiarly harsh and unjust in the proceedings against his great rival
on this occasion, which could induce so many of the friends of the
minister--then in the fulness of his popularity and power--to leave him
in a minority and vote against the continuance of the Scrutiny. To this
persecution, however, we are indebted for a speech of Mr. Fox, which is
(as he, himself, in his opening, pronounced it would be) one of his best
and noblest; and which is reported, too, with such evident fidelity, as
well as spirit, that we seem to hear, while we read, the _"Demosthenem
ipsum"_ uttering it.
Sheridan had, it appears, written a letter, about this time, to his
brother Charles, in which, after expressing the feelings of himself and
his brother Whigs, at the late unconstitutional victory over their
party, he added, "But you are all so void of principle, in Ireland, that
you cannot enter into our situation." Charles Sheridan, who, in the late
changes, had not thought it necessary to pay his principles the
compliment of sacrificing his place to them, considered himself, of
course, as included in this stigma; and the defence of time-serving
politics which he has set up in his answer, if not so eloquent as that
of the great Roman man master of this art in his letter to Lentulus, is,
at least, as self-conscious and labored, and betrays altogether a
feeling but too worthy of the political meridian from which it issued.
"Dublin Castle, 10th March, 1784.
"MY DEAR DICK,
"I am much obliged to you for the letter you sent me by Orde; I began to
think you had forgot I was in existence, but I forgive your past silence
on account of your recent kind attention. The new Irish administration
have come with the olive branch in their hand, and very wisely, I think;
the system, the circumstances, and the manners of the two countries are
so totally different, that I can assure you nothing could be so absurd
as any attempt to extend the party-distinctions which prevail on your
side of the water, to this. Nothing, I will venture to assert, can
possibly preserve the connection between England and Ireland, but a
permanent government here, acting upon fixed principles, and pursuing
systematic measures. For this reason a change of Chief Governor, ought
to be nothing more than a simple transfer of government, and by no means
to make any change in that political system respecting this country
which England must adopt, let who will be the minister and whichever
party may acquire the ascendancy, if she means to preserve Ireland as a
part of the British empire.
"You will say this is a very good plan for people in place, as it tends
to secure them against all contingencies, but this, I give you my word,
is not my reason for thinking as I do. I must, in the first place,
acquaint you that there never can be hereafter in this country any such
thing as party connections founded upon political principles; we have
obtained all the great objects for which Ireland had contended for many
years, and there does not now remain one national object of sufficient
importance to unite men in the same pursuit. Nothing but such objects
ever did unite men in this kingdom, and that not from principle, but
because the spirit of the people was so far roused with respect to
points in which the pride, the interest, the commerce, and the
prosperity of the nation at large was so materially concerned, that the
House of Commons, if they had not the virtue to forward, at least wanted
the courage to oppose, the general and determined wish of the whole
kingdom; they therefore made a virtue of necessity, joined the standard
of a very small popular party; both _Ins_ and _Outs_ voted
equally against government, the latter of course, and the former because
each individual thought himself safe in the number who followed his
example.
"This is the only instance, I believe, in the history of Irish politics,
where a party ever appeared to act upon public principle, and as the
cause of this singular instance has been removed by the attainment of
the only objects which could have united men in one pursuit, it is not
probable that we shall in future furnish any other example that will do
honor to our public spirit. If you reflect an instant, you will perceive
that our subordinate situation necessarily prevents the formation of any
party among us, like those you have in England, composed of persons
acting upon certain principles, and pledged to support each other. I am
willing to allow you that your exertions are directed by public spirit;
but if those exertions did not lead to _power_, you must
acknowledge that it is probable they would not be made, or, if made,
that they would not be of much use. The object of a party in England is
either to obtain power for themselves, or to take it from those who are
in possession of it--they may do this from the purest motives, and with
the truest regard for the public good, but still you must allow that
power is a very tempting object, the hopes of obtaining it no small
incentive to their exertions, and the consequences of success to the
individuals of which the party is composed, no small strengthening to
the bands which unite them together. Now, if you were to expect similar
parties to be formed in Ireland, you would exact of us more virtue than
is necessary for yourselves. From the peculiar situation of this country
it is impossible that the exertions of any party here can ever lead to
_power_. Here then is one very tempting object placed out of our
reach, and, with it, all those looked-for consequences to individuals,
which, with you, induce them to pledge themselves to each other; so that
nothing but poor public spirit would be left to keep our Irish party
together, and consequently a greater degree of disinterestedness would
be necessary in them, than is requisite in one of your English parties.
"That no party exertion here can ever lead to power is obvious when you
reflect, that we have in fact no _Irish government_; all power here
being lodged in a branch of the _English_ government, we have no
cabinet, no administration of our own, no great offices of state, every
office we have is merely ministerial, it confers no power but that of
giving advice, which may or may not be followed by the Chief Governor.
As all power, therefore, is lodged solely in the English government, of
which the Irish is only a branch, it necessarily follows that no
exertion of any party here could ever lead to power, unless they
overturned the English government in this country, or unless the efforts
of such a party in the Irish House of Commons could overturn the British
administration in England, and the leaders of it get into their places;
--the first, you will allow, would not be a very wise object, and the
latter you must acknowledge to be impossible.
"Upon the same principle, it would be found very difficult to form a
party in this country which should co-operate with any particular party
in England, and consent to stand or fall with them. The great leading
interests in this kingdom are of course strongly averse to forming any
such connections on your side of the water, as it would tend to create a
fluctuation in the affairs of this country, that would destroy all their
consequence; and, as to the personal friends which a party in England
may possibly have in this country, they must in the nature of things be
few in number, and consequently could only injure themselves by
following the fortunes of a party in England, without being able to
render that party the smallest service. And, at all events, to such
persons this could be nothing but a losing game. It would be, to refuse
to avail themselves of their connections or talents in order to obtain
office or honors, and to rest all their pretensions upon the success of
a party in another kingdom, to which success they could not in the
smallest degree contribute. You will admit that to a party in England,
no friends on this side of the water would be worth having who did not
possess connections or talents; and if they did possess these, they must
of course force themselves into station, let the government of this
country be in whose hands it may, and that upon a much more permanent
footing than if they were connected with a party in England. What
therefore could they gain by such a connection? nothing but the virtue
of self-denial, in continuing out of office as long as their friends
were so, the chance of coming in when their friends obtained power, and
only the chance, for there are interests in this country which must not
be offended; and the certainty of going out whenever their friends in
England should be dismissed. So that they would exchange the certainty
of station upon a permanent footing acquired by their own efforts,
connections or talents, for the chance of station upon a most precarious
footing, in which they would be placed in the insignificant predicament
of doing nothing for themselves, and resting their hopes and ambition
upon the labors of others.
"In addition to what I have said respecting the consequences of the
subordinate situation of this country, you are to take into
consideration how peculiarly its inhabitants are circumstanced. Two out
of three millions are Roman Catholics--I believe the proportion is still
larger--and two-thirds of the remainder are violent rank Presbyterians,
who have always been, but most particularly of late, strongly averse to
all government placed in the hands of the members of the church of
England; nine-tenths of the property, the landed property of the country
I mean, is in the possession of the latter. You will readily conceive
how much these circumstances must give persons of property in this
kingdom a leaning towards government; how necessarily they must make
them apprehensive for themselves, placed between such potent enemies;
and how naturally it must make them look up to English government, in
whatever hands it may be, for that strength and support, which the
smallness of their numbers prevents their finding among themselves; and
consequently you will equally perceive that those political or party
principles which create such serious differences among you in England,
are matters of small importance to the persons of landed property in
this country, when compared with the necessity of their having the
constant support of an English government. Here, my dear Dick, is a very
long answer to a very few lines in your postscript. But I could not
avoid _boring_ you on the subject, when you say 'that we are all so
void of principle that we cannot enter into your situation.'
"I have received with the greatest pleasure the accounts of the very
considerable figure you have made this sessions in the House of Commons.
As I have no doubt but that your Parliament will be dissolved, God send
you success a second time at Stafford, and the same to your friend at
Westminster. I will not forgive you if you do not give me the first
intelligence of both those events. I shall say nothing to you on the
subject of your English politics, only that I feel myself much more
partial to one side of the question than, in my present situation, it
would be of any use to me to avow. I am the happiest domestic man in the
world, and am in daily expectation of an addition to that happiness, and
own that a home, which I never leave without regret, nor return to
without delight, has somewhat abated my passion for politics, and that
warmth I once felt about public questions. But it has not abated the
warmth of my private friendships; it has not abated my regard for
Fitzpatrick, my anxiety for you, and the warmth of my wishes for the
success of your friends, considering them as such. I beg my love to Mrs.
Sheridan and Tom, and am, dear Dick,
"Most affectionately yours, C. F. Sheridan."
With respect to the Bill for the better government of India, which Mr.
Pitt substituted for that of his defeated rival, its provisions are now,
from long experience, so familiarly known, that it would be superfluous
to dwell upon either their merits or defects. [Footnote: Three of the
principal provisions were copied from the Propositions of Lord North in
1781--in allusion to which Mr. Powys said of the measure, that "it was
the voice of Jacob, but the hand of Esau."] The two important points in
which it differed from the measure of Mr. Fox were, in leaving the
management of their commercial concerns still in the hands of the
Company, and in making the Crown the virtual depositary of Indian
patronage, [Footnote: "Mr. Pitt's Bill continues the form of the
Company's government, and professes to leave the patronage under certain
conditions, and the commerce without condition, in the hands of the
Company; but places all matters relating to the _civil_ and
_military_ government and _revenues_ in the hands of six
Commissioners, to be nominated and appointed by His Majesty, under the
title of 'Commissioners of the Affairs of India,' which Board of
Commissioners is invested with the 'superintendence and control over all
the British territorial possessions in the East Indies, and over the
affairs of the United Company of Merchants trading thereto.'"--
Comparative Statement of the Two Bills, read from his place by Mr.
Sheridan, on the Discussion of the Declaratory Acts in 1788, and
afterwards published.
In another part of this statement he says, "The present Board of Control
have, under Mr. Pitt's Bill, usurped those very imperial prerogatives
from the Crown, which were falsely said to have been given to the new
Board of Directors under Mr. Fox's Bill."] instead of suffering it to be
diverted into the channels of the Whig interest,--never, perhaps, to
find its way back again. In which of these directions such an accession
of power might, with least mischief to the Constitution, be bestowed,
having the experience only of the use made of it on one side, we cannot,
with any certainty, pretend to determine. One obvious result of this
transfer of India to the Crown has been that smoothness so remarkable in
the movements of the system ever since--that easy and noiseless play of
its machinery, which the lubricating contact of Influence alone could
give, and which was wholly unknown in Indian policy, till brought thus
by Mr. Pitt under ministerial control. When we consider the stormy
course of Eastern politics before that period--the inquiries, the
exposures, the arraignments that took place--the constant hunt after
Indian delinquency, in which Ministers joined no less keenly than the
Opposition--and then compare all this with the tranquillity that has
reigned, since the halcyon incubation of the Board of Control over the
waters,--though we may allow the full share that actual reform and a
better system of government may claim in this change, there is still but
too much of it to be attributed to causes of a less elevated nature,--to
the natural abatement of the watchfulness of the minister, over affairs
no longer in the hands of others, and to that power of Influence, which,
both at home and abroad, is the great and ensuring bond of tranquillity,
and, like the Chain of Silence, mentioned in old Irish poetry, binds all
that come within its reach in the same hushing spell of compromise and
repose.
It was about this time that, in the course of an altercation with Mr.
Rolle, the member for Devonshire, Mr. Sheridan took the opportunity of
disavowing any share in the political satires then circulating, under
the titles of "The Rolliad" and the "Probationary Odes." "He was aware,"
he said, "that the Honorable Gentlemen had suspected that he was either
the author of those compositions, or some way or other concerned in
them; but he assured them, upon his honor, he was not--nor had he ever
seen a line of them till they were in print in the newspaper."
Mr. Rolle, the hero of The Rolliad, was one of those unlucky persons,
whose destiny it is to be immortalized by ridicule, and to whom the
world owes the same sort of gratitude for the wit of which they were the
butts, as the merchants did, in Sinbad's story, to those pieces of meat
to which diamonds adhered. The chief offence, besides his political
obnoxiousness, by which he provoked this satirical warfare, (whose plan
of attack was all arranged at a club held at Becket's,) was the lead
which he took in a sort of conspiracy, formed on the ministerial
benches, to interrupt, by coughing, hawking, and other unseemly noises,
the speeches of Mr. Burke. The chief writers of these lively productions
were Tickell, General Fitzpatrick, [Footnote: To General Fitzpatrick
some of the happiest pleasantries are to be attributed; among others,
the verses on Brooke Watson, those on the Marquis of Graham, and "The
Liars."] Lord John [Footnote: Lord John Townshend, the only survivor, at
present, of this confederacy of wits, was the author, in conjunction
with Tickell, of the admirable Satire, entitled "Jekyll,"--Tickell
having contributed only the lines parodied from Pope. To the exquisite
humor of Lord John we owe also the Probationary Ode for Major Scott, and
the playful parody on _"Donae gratus eram libi."_] Townshend,
Richardson, George Ellis, and Dr. Lawrence. [Footnote: By Doctor
Lawrence the somewhat ponderous irony of the prosaic department was
chiefly managed. In allusion to the personal appearance of this eminent
civilian, one of the wits of the day thus parodied a passage of Virgil:
_"Quo tetrior alter
Non fuit, excepto_ Laurentis _corpore Turni."_]
There were also a few minor contributions from the pens of Bate Dudley,
Mr. O'Beirne (afterwards Bishop of Meath), and Sheridan's friend, Read.
In two of the writers, Mr. Ellis and Dr. Lawrence, we have a proof of
the changeful nature of those atoms, whose concourse for the time
constitutes Party, and of the volatility with which, like the motes in
the sunbeam, described by Lucretius, they can
_"Commutare viam, retroque repulsa reverti
Nunc huc, nunc illuc, in cunctas denique partes."_
Change their light course, as fickle chance may guide,
Now here, now there, and shoot from side to side.
Dr. Lawrence was afterwards a violent supporter of Mr. Pitt, and Mr.
Ellis [Footnote: It is related that, on one occasion, when Mr. Ellis was
dining with Mr. Pitt, and embarrassed naturally by the recollection of
what he had been guilty of towards his host in The Rolliad, some of his
brother-wits, to amuse themselves at his expense, endeavored to lead the
conversation to the subject of this work, by asking him various
questions, as to its authors, &c.,--which Mr. Pitt overhearing, from the
upper end of the table, leaned kindly towards Ellis and said,
_"Immo age, et a prima, dic, hospes, originc nobis."_
The word "hospes," applied to the new convert, was happy, and the
"_erroresque tuos_," that follows, was, perhaps, left to be
implied.] showed the versatility of his wit, as well as of his politics,
by becoming one of the most brilliant contributors to The Antijacobin.
The Rolliad and The Antijacobin may, on their respective sides of the
question, be considered as models of that style of political satire,
[Footnote: The following just observations upon The Rolliad and
Probationary Odes occur in the manuscript Life of Sheridan which I have
already cited:--"They are, in most instances, specimens of the powers of
men, who, giving themselves up to ease and pleasure, neither improved
their minds with great industry, nor exerted them with much activity;
and have therefore left no very considerable nor durable memorials of
the happy and vigorous abilities with which nature had certainly endowed
them. The effusions themselves are full of fortunate allusions,
ludicrous terms, artful panegyric, and well-aimed satire. The verses are
at times far superior to the occasion, and the whole is distinguished by
a taste, both in language and matter, perfectly pure and classical; but
they are mere occasional productions. They will sleep with the papers of
the Craftsman, so vaunted, in their own time, but which are never now
raked up, except by the curiosity of the historian and the man of
literature.
"Wit, being generally founded upon the manners and characters of its own
day, is crowned in that day, beyond all other exertions of the mind,
with splendid and immediate success. But there is always something that
equalizes. In return, more than any other production, it suffers
suddenly and irretrievably from the hand of Time. It receives a
character the most opposite to its own. From being the most generally
understood and perceived, it becomes of all writing the most difficult
and the most obscure. Satires, whose meaning was open to the multitude,
defy the erudition of the scholar, and comedies, of which every line was
felt as soon as it was spoken, require the labor of an antiquary to
explain them."] whose lightness and vivacity give it the appearance of
proceeding rather from the wantonness of wit than of ill-nature, and
whose very malice, from the fancy with which it is mixed up, like
certain kinds of fireworks, explodes in sparkles. They, however, who are
most inclined to forgive, in consideration of its polish and
playfulness, the personality in which the writers of both these works
indulged, will also readily admit that by no less shining powers can a
license so questionable be either assumed or palliated, and that nothing
but the lively effervescence of the draught can make us forget the
bitterness infused into it. At no time was this truth ever more
strikingly exemplified than at present, when a separation seems to have
taken place between satire and wit, which leaves the former like the
toad, _without_ the "jewel in its head;" and when the hands, into
which the weapon of personality has chiefly fallen, have brought upon it
a stain and disrepute, that will long keep such writers as those of the
Rolliad and Antijacobin from touching it again.
Among other important questions, that occupied the attention of Mr.
Sheridan at this period, was the measure brought forward under the title
of "Irish Commercial Propositions" for the purpose of regulating and
finally adjusting the commercial intercourse between England and
Ireland. The line taken by him and Mr. Fox in their opposition to this
plan was such as to accord, at once with the prejudices of the English
manufacturers and the feelings of the Irish patriots,--the former
regarding the measure as fatal to their interests, and the latter
rejecting with indignation the boon which it offered, as coupled with a
condition for the surrender of the legislative independence of their
country.
In correct views of political economy, the advantage throughout this
discussion was wholly on the side of the minister; and, in a speech of
Mr. Jenkinson, we find (advanced, indeed, but incidentally, and treated
by Mr. Fox as no more than amusing theories,) some of those liberal
principles of trade which have since been more fully developed, and by
which the views of all practical statesmen are, at the present day,
directed. The little interest attached by Mr. Fox to the science of
Political Economy--so remarkably proved by the fact of his never having
read the work of Adam Smith on the subject--is, in some degree,
accounted for by the skepticism of the following passage, which occurs
in one of his animated speeches on this very question. Mr. Pitt having
asserted, in answer to those who feared the competition of Ireland in
the market from her low prices of labor, that "great capital would in
all cases overbalance cheapness of labor," Mr. Fox questions the
abstract truth of this position, and adds,--"General positions of all
kinds ought to be very cautiously admitted; indeed, on subjects so
infinitely complex and mutable as politics and commerce, a wise man
hesitates at giving too implicit a credit to any general maxim of any
denomination."
If the surrender of any part of her legislative power could have been
expected from Ireland in that proud moment, when her new-born
Independence was but just beginning to smile in her lap, the acceptance
of the terms then proffered by the Minister, might have averted much of
the evils, of which she was afterwards the victim. The proposed plan
being, in itself, (as Mr. Grattan called it,) "an incipient and creeping
Union," would have prepared the way less violently for the completion of
that fated measure, and spared at least the corruption and the blood
which were the preliminaries of its perpetration at last. But the pride,
so natural and honorable to the Irish--had fate but placed them in a
situation to assert it with any permanent effect--repelled the idea of
being bound even by the commercial regulations of England. The wonderful
eloquence of Grattan, which, like an eagle guarding her young, rose
grandly in defence of the freedom to which itself had given birth, would
alone have been sufficient to determine a whole nation to his will.
Accordingly such demonstrations of resistance were made both by people
and parliament, that the Commercial Propositions were given up by the
minister, and this apparition of a Union withdrawn from the eyes of
Ireland for the present--merely to come again, in another shape, with
many a "mortal murder on its crown, and push her from her stool."
As Mr. Sheridan took a strong interest in this question, and spoke at
some length on every occasion when it was brought before the House, I
will, in order to enable the reader to judge of his manner of treating
it, give a few passages from his speech on the discussion of that
Resolution, which stipulated for England a control over the external
legislation of Ireland:--
"Upon this view, it would be an imposition on common sense to pretend
that Ireland could in future have the exercise of free will or
discretion upon any of those subjects of legislation, on which she now
stipulated to follow the edicts of Great Britain; and it was a miserable
sophistry to contend, that her being permitted the ceremony of placing
those laws upon her own Statute-Book, as a form of promulgating them,
was an argument that it was not the British but the Irish statutes that
bound the people of Ireland. For his part, if he were a member of the
Irish Parliament, he should prefer the measure of enacting by one
decisive vote, that all British laws to the purposes stipulated, should
have immediate operation in Ireland as in Great Britain; choosing rather
to avoid the mockery of enacting without deliberation, and deciding
where they had no power to dissent. Where fetters were to be worn, it
was a wretched ambition to contend for the distinction of fastening our
own shackles."
* * * * *
"All had been delusion, trick, and fallacy: a new scheme of commercial
arrangement is proposed to the Irish as a boon; and the surrender of
their Constitution is tacked to it as a mercantile regulation. Ireland,
newly escaped from harsh trammels and severe discipline, is treated like
a high-mettled horse, hard to catch; and the Irish Secretary is to
return to the field, soothing and coaxing him, with a sieve of provender
in one hand, but with a bridle in the other, ready to slip over his head
while he is snuffling at the food. But this political jockeyship, he was
convinced, would not succeed."
In defending the policy, as well as generosity of the concessions made
to Ireland by Mr. Fox in 1782, he says,--
"Fortunately for the peace and future union of the two kingdoms, no such
miserable and narrow policy entered into the mind of his Right Honorable
friend; he disdained the injustice of bargaining with Ireland on such a
subject; nor would Ireland have listened to him if he had attempted it.
She had not applied to purchase a Constitution; and if a tribute or
contribution had been demanded in return for what was then granted,
those patriotic spirits who were at that time leading the oppressed
people of that insulted country to the attainment of their just rights,
would have pointed to other modes of acquiring them; would have called
to them in the words of Camillas, _arma aptare atque ferro non auro
patriam et libertatem recuperare_."
The following passage is a curious proof of the short-sighted views
which prevailed at that period, even among the shrewdest men, on the
subject of trade:--
"There was one point, however, in which he most completely agreed with
the manufacturers of this country; namely, in their assertion, that if
the Irish trader should be enabled to meet the British merchant and
manufacturer in the British market, the gain of Ireland must be the loss
of England. [Footnote: Mr. Fox also said, "Ireland cannot make a single
acquisition but to the proportionate loss of England."] This was a fact
not to be controverted on any principle of common sense or reasonable
argument. The pomp of general declamation and waste of fine words, which
had on so many occasions been employed to disguise and perplex this
plain simple truth, or still more fallaciously to endeavor to prove that
Great Britain would find her balance in the Irish market, had only
tended to show the weakness and inconsistency of the doctrine they were
meant to support. The truth of the argument was with the manufacturers;
and this formed, in Mr. Sheridan's mind, a ground of one of the most
vehement objections he had to the present plan."
It was upon the clamor, raised at this time by the English
manufacturers, at the prospect of the privileges about to be granted to
the trade of Ireland, that Tickell, whose wit was always on the watch
for such opportunities, wrote the following fragment, found among the
papers of Mr. Sheridan:--
"A VISION.
"After supping on a few Colchester oysters and a small Welsh rabbit, I
went to bed last Tuesday night at a quarter before eleven o'clock. I
slept quietly for near two hours, at the expiration of which period, my
slumber was indeed greatly disturbed by the oddest train of images I
ever experienced. I thought that every individual article of my usual
dress and furniture was suddenly gifted with the powers of speech, and
all at once united to assail me with clamorous reproaches, for my
unpardonable neglect of their common interests, in the great question of
surrendering our British commerce to Ireland. My hat, my coat, and every
button on it, my Manchester waistcoat, my silk breeches, my Birmingham
buckles, my shirt-buttons, my shoes, my stockings, my garters, and what
was more troublesome, my night-cap, all joined in a dissonant volley of
petitions and remonstrances--which, as I found it impossible to wholly
suppress, I thought it most prudent to moderate, by soliciting them to
communicate their ideas individually. It was with some difficulty they
consented to even this proposal, which they considered as a device to
extinguish their general ardor, and to break the force of their united
efforts; nor would they by any means accede to it, till I had repeatedly
assured them, that as soon as I heard them separately, I would appoint
an early hour for receiving them in a joint body. Accordingly, having
fixed these preliminaries, my Night-cap thought proper to slip up
immediately over my ears, and disengaging itself from my temples, called
upon my Waistcoat, who was rather carelessly reclining on a chair, to
attend him immediately at the foot of the bed. My Sheets and Pillow-
cases, being all of Irish extraction, stuck close to me, however,--which
was uncommonly fortunate, for, not only my Curtains had drawn off to the
foot of the bed, but my Blankets also had the audacity to associate
themselves with others of the woollen fraternity, at the first outset of
this household meeting. Both my Towels attended as evidences at the
bar,--but my Pocket-handkerchief, notwithstanding his uncommon
forwardness to hold forth the banner of sedition, was thought to be a
character of so mixed a complexion, as rendered it more decent for him
to reserve his interference till my Snuff-box could be heard--which was
settled accordingly.
"At length, to my inconceivable astonishment, my Night-cap, attended as
I have mentioned, addressed me in the following terms:--"
* * * * *
Early as was the age at which Sheridan had been transplanted from
Ireland--never to set foot upon his native land again--the feeling of
nationality remained with him warmly through life, and he was, to the
last, both fond and proud of his country. The zeal, with which he
entered, at this period, into Irish politics, may be judged of from some
letters, addressed to him in the year 1785, by Mr. Isaac Corry, who was
at that time a member of the Irish Opposition, and combated the
Commercial Propositions as vigorously as he afterwards, when Chancellor
of the Exchequer, defended their "consummate flower," the Union. A few
extracts from these letters will give some idea of the interest attached
to this question by the popular party in both countries.
The following, dated August 5, 1785, was written during the adjournment
of ten days, that preceded Mr. Orde's introduction of the Propositions:--
"Your most welcome letter, after hunting me some days through the
country, has at length reached me. I wish you had sent some notes of
your most excellent speech; but such as we have must be given to the
public--admirable commentary upon Mr. Pitt's _Apology to the People of
Ireland_, which must also be published in the manner fitting it. The
addresses were sent round to all the towns in the kingdom, in order to
give currency to the _humbug_. Being upon the spot, I have my
troops in perfect order, and am ready at a moment's warning for any
manoeuvre which may, when we meet in Dublin previous to the next
sitting, be thought necessary to follow the petitions for postponing.
"We hear astonishing accounts of _your_ greatness in particular.
Paddy will, I suppose, some _beau jour_ be voting you another
50,000, [Footnote: Alluding to the recent vote of that sum to Mr.
Grattan.] if you go on as you have done.
"I send to-day down to my friend, O'Neil, who waits for a signal only,
and we shall go up together. Brownlow is just beside me, and I shall
ride over this morning to get him up to consultation in town.... we must
get our Whig friends in England to engraft a few slips of Whiggism here
--till that is done, there will be neither Constitution for the people
nor stability for the Government.
"Charlemont and I were of opinion that we should not make the volunteers
speak upon the present business; so I left it out in the Resolutions at
our late review. They are as tractable as we could desire, and we can
manage them completely. We inculcate all moderation--were we to slacken
in that, they would instantly step forward."
The date of the following letter is August 10th--two days before Mr.
Orde brought forward the Propositions.
"We have got the bill entire, sent about by Orde. The more it is read,
the less it is liked. I made notable use of the clause you sent me
before the whole arrived. We had a select meeting to-day of the D. of
Leinster, Charlemont, Conolly, Grattan, Forbes, and myself. We think of
moving an address to postpone to-morrow till the 15th of January, and
have also some resolutions ready _pro re nata_, as we don't yet
know what shape they will put the business into;--Conolly to move. To-
morrow morning we settle the Address and Resolutions, and after that,
to-morrow, meet more at large at Leinster House. All our troops muster
pretty well. Mountmorris is here, and to be with us to-morrow morning.
We reckon on something like a hundred, and some are sanguine enough to
add near a score above it--that is too much. The report of to-night is
that Orde is not yet ready for us, and will beg a respite of a few days
--Beresford is not yet arrived, and that is said to be the cause.
Mornington and Poole are come--their muster is as strict as ours. If we
divide any thing like a hundred, they will not dare to take a victory
over us. Adieu, yours most truly,
"I. C."
The motion for bringing in the Bill was carried only by a majority of
nineteen, which is thus announced to Mr. Sheridan by his correspondent:--
"I congratulate with you on 108 minority-against 127. The business never
can go on. They were astonished, and looked the sorriest devils you can
imagine. Orde's exhibition was pitiful indeed--the support of his party
weak and open to attack--the debate on their part really poor. On ours,
Conolly, O'Neill, and the other country gentlemen, strong and of great
weight--Grattan able and eloquent in an uncommon degree--every body in
high spirits, and altogether a force that was irresistible. We divided
at nine this morning, on leave to bring in a Bill for the settlement.
The ground fought upon was the Fourth Resolution, and the principle of
that in the others. The commercial detail did not belong accurately to
the debate, though some went over it in a cursory way. Grattan, two
hours and a half--Flood as much--the former brilliant, well attended to,
and much admired--the latter tedious from detail; of course, not so
well heard, and answered by Foster in detail, to refutation.
"The Attorney General defended the constitutional safety under the
Fourth-Resolution principle. Orde mentioned the Opposition in England
twice in his opening speech, with imputations, or insinuations at least,
not very favorable. You were not left undefended. Forbes exerted his
warm attachment to you with great effect--Burgh, the flag-ship of the
Leinster squadron, gave a well-supported fire pointed against Pitt, and
covering you. Hardy (the Bishop of Down's friend) in a very elegant
speech gave you due honor; and I had the satisfaction of a slight
skirmish, which called up the Attorney General, &c...."
On the 15th of August Mr. Orde withdrew his Bill, and Mr. Corry writes--
"I wish you joy a thousand times of our complete victory. Orde has
offered the Bill--moved its being printed for his own justification to
the country, and no more of it this session. We have the effects of a
complete victory."
Another question of much less importance, but more calculated to call
forth Sheridan's various powers, was the Plan of the Duke of Richmond
for the fortification of dock-yards, which Mr. Pitt brought forward (it
was said, with much reluctance) in the session of 1786, and which
Sheridan must have felt the greater pleasure in attacking, from the
renegade conduct of its noble author in politics. In speaking of the
Report of a Board of General Officers, which had been appointed to
examine into the merits of this plan, and of which the Duke himself was
President, he thus ingeniously plays with the terms of the act in
question, and fires off his wit, as it were, _en ricochet_, making
it bound lightly from sentence to sentence:--
"Yet the Noble Duke deserved the warmest panegyrics for the striking
proofs he had given of his genius as an engineer; which appeared even in
the planning and construction of the paper in his hand! The professional
ability of the Master-general shone as conspicuously there, as it could
upon our coasts. He had made it an argument of posts; and conducted his
reasoning upon principles of trigonometry, as well as logic. There were
certain detached data, like advanced works, to keep the enemy at a
distance from the main object in debate. Strong provisions covered the
flanks of his assertions. His very queries were in casements. No
impression, therefore, was to be made on this fortress of sophistry by
desultory observations; and it was necessary to sit down before it, and
assail it by regular approaches. It was fortunate, however, to observe,
that notwithstanding all the skill employed by the noble and literary
engineer, his mode of defence on paper was open to the same objection
which had been urged against his other fortifications; that if his
adversary got possession of one of his posts, it became strength against
him, and the means of subduing the whole line of his argument."
He also spoke at considerable length, upon the Plan brought forward by
Mr. Pitt for the Redemption of the National Debt--that grand object of
the calculator and the financier, and equally likely, it should seem, to
be attained by the dreams of the one as by the experiments of the other.
Mr. Pitt himself seemed to dread the suspicion of such a partnership, by
the care with which he avoided any acknowledgment to Dr. Price, whom he
had nevertheless personally consulted on the subject, and upon whose
visions of compound interest this fabric of finance was founded.
In opening the Plan of his new Sinking Fund to the House, Mr. Pitt, it
is well known, pronounced it to be "a firm column, upon which he was
proud to flatter himself his name might be inscribed." Tycho Brahe would
have said the same of his Astronomy, and Des Cartes of his Physics;--but
these baseless columns have long passed away, and the Plan of paying
debt with borrowed money well deserves to follow them. The delusion,
indeed, of which this Fund was made the instrument, during the war with
France, is now pretty generally acknowledged; and the only question is,
whether Mr. Pitt was so much the dupe of his own juggle, as to persuade
himself that thus playing with a debt, from one hand to the other, was
paying it--or whether, aware of the inefficacy of his Plan for any other
purpose than that of keeping up a blind confidence in the money-market,
he yet gravely went on, as a sort of High Priest of Finance, profiting
by a miracle in which he did not himself believe, and, in addition to
the responsibility of the uses to which he applied the money, incurring
that of the fiscal imposture by which he raised it.
Though, from the prosperous state of the revenue at the time of the
institution of this Fund, the absurdity was not yet committed of
borrowing money to maintain it, we may perceive by the following acute
pleasantry of Mr. Sheridan, (who denied the existence of the alleged
surplus of income,) that he already had a keen insight into the fallacy
of that Plan of Redemption afterwards followed:--"At present," he said,
"it was clear there was no surplus; and the only means which suggested
themselves to him were, a loan of a million for the especial purpose--
for the Right Honorable gentleman might say, with the person in the
comedy, '_If you won't lend me the money, how can I pay you?_'"