CHARGES AGAINST MR. HASTINGS.--COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH FRANCE.--DEBTS OF
THE PRINCE OF WALES.
The calm security into which Mr. Pitt's administration had settled,
after the victory which the Tory alliance of King and people had gained
for him, left but little to excite the activity of party spirit, or to
call forth those grand explosions of eloquence, which a more electric
state of the political world produces. The orators of Opposition might
soon have been reduced, like Philoetetes wasting his arrows upon geese
at Lemnos, [Footnote: _"Pinnigero, non armigero in corpore tela
exerceantur."--Accius, ap. Ciceron._ lib. vii. ep. 33.] to expend the
armory of their wit upon the Grahams and Rolles of the Treasury bench.
But a subject now presented itself--the Impeachment of Warren Hastings--
which, by embodying the cause of a whole country in one individual, and
thus combining the extent and grandeur of a national question, with the
direct aim and singleness of a personal attack, opened as wide a field
for display as the most versatile talents could require, and to Mr.
Sheridan, in particular, afforded one of those precious opportunities,
of which, if Fortune but rarely offers them to genius, it is genius
alone that can fully and triumphantly avail itself.
The history of the rise and progress of British power in India--of that
strange and rapid vicissitude, by which the ancient Empire of the Moguls
was transferred into the hands of a Company of Merchants in Leadenhall
Street--furnishes matter perhaps more than any other that could be
mentioned, for those strong contrasts and startling associations, to
which eloquence and wit often owe their most striking effects. The
descendants of a Throne, once the loftiest in the world, reduced to
stipulate with the servants of traders for subsistence--the dethronement
of Princes converted into a commercial transaction, and a ledger-account
kept of the profits of Revolutions--the sanctity of Zenanus violated by
search-warrants, and the chicaneries of English Law transplanted, in
their most mischievous luxuriance, into the holy and peaceful shades of
the Bramins,--such events as these, in which the poetry and the prose of
life, its pompous illusions and mean realities, are mingled up so sadly
and fantastically together, were of a nature, particularly when recent,
to lay hold of the imagination as well as the feelings, and to furnish
eloquence with those strong lights and shadows, of which her most
animated pictures are composed.
It is not wonderful, therefore, that the warm fancy of Mr. Burke should
have been early and strongly excited by the scenes of which India was
the theatre, or that they should have (to use his own words) "constantly
preyed upon his peace, and by night and day dwelt on his imagination."
His imagination, indeed,--as will naturally happen, where this faculty
is restrained by a sense of truth--was always most livelily called into
play by events of which he had not himself been a witness; and,
accordingly, the sufferings of India and the horrors of revolutionary
France were the two subjects upon which it has most unrestrainedly
indulged itself. In the year 1780 he had been a member of the Select
Committee, which was appointed by the House of Commons to take the
affairs of India into consideration, and through some of whose luminous
Reports we trace that powerful intellect, which "stamped an image of
itself" on every subject that it embraced. Though the reign of Clive had
been sufficiently fertile in enormities, and the treachery practised
towards Ornichund seemed hardly to admit of any parallel, yet the
loftier and more prominent iniquities of Mr. Hastings's government were
supposed to have thrown even these into shadow. Against him, therefore,
--now rendered a still nobler object of attack by the haughty spirit with
which he defied his accusers,--the whole studies and energies of Mr.
Burke's mind were directed.
It has already been remarked that to the impetuous zeal, with which
Burke at this period rushed into Indian politics, and to that ascendancy
over his party by which he so often compelled them to "swell with their
tributary urns his flood," the ill-fated East India Bill of Mr. Fox in a
considerable degree owed its origin. In truth, the disposition and
talents of this extraordinary man made him at least as dangerous as
useful to any party with which he connected himself. Liable as he was to
be hurried into unsafe extremes, impatient of contradiction, and with a
sort of _feudal_ turn of mind, which exacted the unconditional
service of his followers, it required, even at that time, but little
penetration to foresee the violent schism that ensued some years after,
or to pronounce that, whenever he should be unable to command his party,
he would desert it.
The materials which he had been collecting on the subject of India, and
the indignation with which these details of delinquency had filled him,
at length burst forth (like that mighty cloud, described by himself as
"pouring its whole contents over the plains of the Carnatic") in his
wonderful speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts [Footnote: Isocrates, in
his Encomium upon Helen, dwells much on the advantage to an orator of
speaking upon subjects from which but little eloquence is expected--
[Greek: pezi ton phaulon chai tapeinon]. There is little doubt, indeed,
that _surprise_ must have considerable share in the pleasure, which
we derive from eloquence on such unpromising topics as have inspired
three of the most masterly speeches that can be selected from modern
oratory--that of Burke on the Nabob of Arcot's debts--of Grattan on
Tithes, and of Mr. Fox on the Westminster Scrutiny.]--a speech, whose
only rivals perhaps in all the records of oratory, are to be found among
three or four others of his own, which, like those poems of Petrarch
called _Sorelle_ from their kindred excellence, may be regarded as
sisters in beauty, and equalled only by each other.
Though the charges against Mr. Hastings had long been threatened, it was
not till the present year that Mr. Burke brought them formally forward.
He had been, indeed, defied to this issue by the friends of the
Governor-General, whose reliance, however, upon the sympathy and support
of the ministry (accorded, as a matter of course, to most State
delinquents) was, in this instance, contrary to all calculation,
disappointed. Mr. Pitt, at the commencement of the proceedings, had
shown strong indications of an intention to take the cause of the
Governor-General under his protection. Mr. Dundas, too, had exhibited
one of those convenient changes of opinion, by which such statesmen can
accommodate themselves to the passing hue of the Treasury-bench, as
naturally as the Eastern insect does to the color of the leaf on which
it feeds. Though one of the earliest and most active denouncers of
Indian mis-government, and even the mover of those strong Resolutions in
1782 [Footnote: In introducing the Resolutions he said, that "he was
urged to take this step by an account, which had lately arrived from
India, of an act of the most flagrant violence and oppression and of the
grossest breach of faith, committed by Mr. Hastings against Cheyte Sing,
the Raja of Benares."] on which some of the chief charges of the present
prosecution were founded, he now, throughout the whole of the opening
scenes of the Impeachment, did not scruple to stand forth as the warm
eulogist of Mr. Hastings, and to endeavor by a display of the successes
of his administration to dazzle away attention from its violence and
injustice.
This tone, however, did not long continue:--in the midst of the
anticipated triumph of Mr. Hastings, the Minister suddenly "changed his
hand, and checked his pride." On the occasion of the Benares Charge,
brought forward in the House of Commons by Mr. Fox, a majority was, for
the first time, thrown into the scale of the accusation; and the abuse
that was in consequence showered upon Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas, through
every channel of the press, by the friends of Mr. Hastings, showed how
wholly unexpected, as well as mortifying, was the desertion.
As but little credit was allowed to conviction in this change, it being
difficult to believe that a Minister should come to the discussion of
such a question, so lightly ballasted with opinions of his own as to be
thrown from his equilibrium by the first wave of argument he
encountered,--various statements and conjectures were, at the time,
brought forward to account for it. Jealousy of the great and increasing
influence of Mr. Hastings at court was, in general, the motive assigned
for the conduct of the Minister. It was even believed that a wish
expressed by the King, to have his new favorite appointed President of
the Board of Control, was what decided Mr. Pitt to extinguish, by
cooperating with the Opposition, every chance of a rivalry, which might
prove troublesome, if not dangerous, to his power. There is no doubt
that the arraigned ruler of India was honored at this period with the
distinguished notice of the Court--partly, perhaps, from admiration of
his proficiency in that mode of governing, to which all Courts are, more
or less, instinctively inclined, and partly from a strong distaste to
those who were his accusers, which would have been sufficient to
recommend any person or measure to which they were opposed.
But whether Mr. Pitt, in the part which he now took, was actuated merely
by personal motives, or (as his eulogists represent) by a strong sense
of impartiality and justice, he must at all events have considered the
whole proceeding, at this moment, as a most seasonable diversion of the
attacks of the Opposition, from his own person and government to an
object so little connected with either. The many restless and powerful
spirits now opposed to him would soon have found, or made, some vent for
their energies, more likely to endanger the stability of his power;--
and, as an expedient for drawing off some of that perilous lightning,
which flashed around him from the lips of a Burke, a Fox, and a
Sheridan, the prosecution of a great criminal like Mr. Hastings
furnished as efficient a conductor as could be desired.
Still, however, notwithstanding the accession of the Minister, and the
impulse given by the majorities which he commanded, the projected
impeachment was but tardy and feeble in its movements, and neither the
House nor the public went cordially along with it. Great talents, united
to great power--even when, as in the instance of Mr. Hastings, abused--
is a combination before which men are inclined to bow implicitly. The
iniquities, too, of Indian rulers were of that gigantic kind, which
seemed to outgrow censure, and even, in some degree, challenge
admiration.
In addition to all this, Mr. Hastings had been successful; and success
but too often throws a charm round injustice, like the dazzle of the
necromancer's shield in Ariosto, before which every one falls
_"Con gli occhi abbacinati, e senza mente."_
The feelings, therefore, of the public were, at the outset of the
prosecution, rather for than against the supposed delinquent. Nor was
this tendency counteracted by any very partial leaning towards his
accusers. Mr. Fox had hardly yet recovered his defeat on the India Bill,
or--what had been still more fatal to him--his victory in the Coalition.
Mr. Burke, in spite of his great talents and zeal, was by no means
popular. There was a tone of dictatorship in his public demeanor against
which men naturally rebelled; and the impetuosity and passion with which
he flung himself into every favorite subject, showed a want of self-
government but little calculated to inspire respect. Even his eloquence,
various and splendid as it was, failed in general to win or command the
attention of his hearers, and, in this great essential of public
speaking, must be considered inferior to that ordinary, but practical,
kind of oratory, [Footnote: "Whoever, upon comparison, is deemed by a
common audience the greatest orator, ought most certainly to be
pronounced such by men of science and erudition."--_Hume_, Essay
13.] which reaps its harvest at the moment of delivery, and is
afterwards remembered less for itself than its effects. There was a
something--which those who have but read him can with difficulty
conceive--that marred the impression of his most sublime and glowing
displays. In vain did his genius put forth its superb plumage,
glittering all over with the hundred eyes of fancy--the gait of the bird
was heavy and awkward, and its voice seemed rather to scare than
attract. Accordingly, many of those masterly discourses, which, in their
present form, may proudly challenge comparison with all the written
eloquence upon record, were, at the time when they were pronounced,
either coldly listened to, or only welcomed as a signal and excuse for
not listening at all. To such a length was this indifference carried,
that, on the evening when he delivered his great Speech on the Nabob of
Arcot's debts, so faint was the impression it produced upon the House,
that Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville, as I have heard, not only consulted
with each other as to whether it was necessary they should take the
trouble of answering it, but decided in the negative. Yet doubtless, at
the present moment, if Lord Grenville--master as he is of all the
knowledge that belongs to a statesman and a scholar--were asked to
point out from the stores of his reading the few models of oratorical
composition, to the perusal of which he could most frequently, and with
unwearied admiration, return, this slighted and unanswered speech would
be among the number.
From all these combining circumstances it arose that the prosecution of
Mr. Hastings, even after the accession of the Minister, excited but a
slight and wavering interest; and, without some extraordinary appeal to
the sympathies of the House and the country--some startling touch to the
chord of public feeling--it was questionable whether the inquiry would
not end as abortively as all the other Indian inquests [Footnote:
Namely, the fruitless prosecution of Lord Clive by General Burgoyne, the
trifling verdict upon the persons who had imprisoned Lord Pigot, and the
Bill of Pains and Penalties against Sir Thomas Rumbold, finally
withdrawn.] that had preceded it.
In this state of the proceeding, Mr. Sheridan brought forward, on the
7th of February, in the House of Commons, the charge relative to the
Begum Princesses of Oude, and delivered that celebrated Speech, whose
effect upon its hearers has no parallel in the annals of ancient or
modern eloquence. [Footnote: Mr. Burke declared it to be "the most
astonishing effort of eloquence, argument, and wit united, of which
there was any record or tradition." Mr. Fox said, "All that he had ever
heard, all that he had ever read, when compared with it, dwindled into
nothing, and vanished like vapor before the sun,"--and Mr. Pitt
acknowledged "that it surpassed all the eloquence of ancient and modern
times, and possessed every thing that genius or art could furnish, to
agitate and control the human mind."
There were several other tributes, of a less distinguished kind, of
which I find the following account in the Annual Register--
"Sir William Dolben immediately moved an adjournment of the debate,
confessing, that, in the state of mind in which Mr. Sheridan's speech
had left him, it was impossible for him to give a determinate opinion.
Mr. Stanhope seconded the motion. When he had entered the House, he was
not ashamed to acknowledge, that his opinion inclined to the side of Mr.
Hastings. But such had been the wonderful efficacy of Mr. Sheridan's
convincing detail of facts, and irresistible eloquence, that he could
not but say that his sentiments were materially changed. Nothing,
indeed, but information almost equal to a miracle, could determine him
not to vote for the Charge; but he had just felt the influence of such a
miracle, and he could not but ardently desire to avoid an immediate
decision. Mr. Mathew Montague confessed, that he had felt a similar
revolution of sentiment."]
When we recollect the men by whom the House of Commons was at that day
adorned, and the conflict of high passions and interests in which they
had been so lately engaged;--when we see them all, of all parties,
brought (as Mr. Pitt expressed it) "under the wand of the enchanter,"
and only vying with each other in their description of the fascination
by which they were bound;--when we call to mind, too, that he, whom the
first statesmen of the age thus lauded, had but lately descended among
them from a more aerial region of intellect, bringing trophies falsely
supposed to be incompatible with political prowess;--it is impossible to
imagine a moment of more entire and intoxicating triumph. The only alloy
that could mingle with such complete success must be the fear that it
was too perfect ever to come again;--that his fame had then reached the
meridian point, and from that consummate moment must date its decline.
Of this remarkable Speech there exists no Report;--for it would be
absurd to dignify with that appellation the meagre and lifeless sketch,
the
_Tenuem sine viribus umbram
In faciem aenae,_
which is given in the Annual Registers and Parliamentary Debates. Its
fame, therefore, remains like an empty shrine--a cenotaph still crowned
and honored, though the inmate is wanting. Mr. Sheridan was frequently
urged to furnish a Report himself, and from his habit of preparing and
writing out his speeches, there is little doubt that he could have
accomplished such a task without much difficulty. But, whether from
indolence or design, he contented himself with leaving to imagination,
which, in most cases, he knew, transcends reality, the task of
justifying his eulogists, and perpetuating the tradition of their
praise. Nor, in doing thus, did he act perhaps unwisely for his fame. We
may now indulge in dreams of the eloquence that could produce such
effects, [Footnote: The following anecdote is given as a proof of the
irresistible power of this speech in a note upon Mr. Bisset's History of
the Reign of George III.:--
"The late Mr. Logan, well known for his literary efforts, and author of
a most masterly defence of Mr. Hastings, went that day to the House of
Commons, prepossessed for the accused and against his accuser. At the
expiration of the first hour he said to a friend, 'All this is
declamatory assertion without proof:'--when the second was finished,
'This is a most wonderful oration:'--at the close of the third, 'Mr.
Hastings has acted very unjustifiably:'--the fourth, 'Mr. Hastings is a
most atrocious criminal;'--and, at last, 'Of all monsters of iniquity
the most enormous is Warren Hastings!'"] as we do of the music of the
ancients and the miraculous powers attributed to it, with as little risk
of having our fancies chilled by the perusal of the one, as there is of
our faith being disenchanted by hearing a single strain of the other.
After saying thus much, it may seem a sort of wilful profanation, to
turn to the spiritless abstract of this speech, which is to be found in
all the professed reports of Parliamentary oratory, and which stands,
like one of those half-clothed mummies in the Sicilian vaults, with,
here and there, a fragment of rhetorical drapery, to give an appearance
of life to its marrowless frame. There is, however, one passage so
strongly marked with the characteristics of Mr. Sheridan's talent--of
his vigorous use of the edge of the blade, with his too frequent display
of the glitter of the point--that it may be looked upon as a pretty
faithful representation of what he spoke, and claim a place among the
authentic specimens of his oratory. Adverting to some of those admirers
of Mr. Hastings, who were not so implicit in their partiality as to give
unqualified applause to his crimes, but found an excuse for their
atrocity in the greatness of his mind, he thus proceeds:--
"To estimate the solidity of such a defence, it would be sufficient
merely to consider in what consisted this prepossessing distinction,
this captivating characteristic of greatness of mind. Is it not solely
to be traced in great actions directed to great ends? In them, and them
alone, we are to search for true estimable magnanimity. To them only can
we justly affix the splendid title and honors of real greatness. There
was indeed another species of greatness, which displayed itself in
boldly conceiving a bad measure, and undauntedly pursuing it to its
accomplishment. But had Mr. Hastings the merit of exhibiting either of
these descriptions of greatness,--even of the latter? He saw nothing
great--nothing magnanimous--nothing open--nothing direct in his
measures, or in his mind. On the contrary, he had too often pursued the
worst objects by the worst means. His course was an eternal deviation
from rectitude. He either tyrannized or deceived; and was by turns a
Dionysius and a Scapin. [Footnote: The spirit of this observation has
been well condensed in the compound name given by the Abbe de Pradt to
Napoleon--"Jupiter Scapin."] As well might the writhing obliquity of the
serpent be compared to the swift directness of the arrow, as the
duplicity of Mr. Hastings's ambition to the simple steadiness of genuine
magnanimity. In his mind all was shuffling, ambiguous, dark, insidious,
and little: nothing simple, nothing unmixed: all affected plainness, and
actual dissimulation; a heterogeneous mass of contradictory qualities;
with nothing great but his crimes; and even those contrasted by the
littleness of his motives, which at once denoted both his baseness and
his meanness, and marked him for a traitor and a trickster. Nay, in his
style and writing there was the same mixture of vicious contrarieties;--
the most grovelling ideas were conveyed in the most inflated language,
giving mock consequence to low cavils, and uttering quibbles in heroics;
so that his compositions disgusted the mind's taste, as much as his
actions excited the soul's abhorrence. Indeed this mixture of character
seemed, by some unaccountable but inherent quality, to be appropriated,
though in inferior degrees, to everything that concerned his employers.
He remembered to have heard an honorable and learned gentleman (Mr.
Dundas) remark, that there was something in the first frame and
constitution of the Company, which extended the sordid principles of
their origin over all their successive operations; connecting with their
civil policy, and even with their boldest achievements, the meanness of
a pedlar and the profligacy of pirates. Alike in the political and the
military line could be observed _auctioneering ambassadors_ and
_trading generals_;--and thus we saw a revolution brought about by
_affidavits_; an army employed in _executing an arrest_; a
town besieged on _a note of hand_; a prince dethroned for the
_balance of an account_. Thus it was they exhibited a government,
which united the mock majesty of a bloody sceptre, and the little
_traffic of a merchant's counting-house_, wielding a truncheon with
one hand, and _picking a pocket with the other_."
The effect of this speech, added to the line taken by the Minister,
turned the balance against Hastings, and decided the Impeachment.
Congratulations on his success poured in upon Mr. Sheridan, as may be
supposed, from all quarters; and the letters that he received from his
own family on the occasion were preserved by him carefully and fondly
through life. The following extract from one written by Charles Sheridan
is highly honorable to both brothers:--
"Dublin Castle, 13th February, 1787.
"MY DEAR DICK,
"Could I for a moment forget you were my brother, I should, merely as an
Irishman, think myself bound to thank you, for the high credit you have
done your country. You may be assured, therefore, that the sense of
national pride, which I in common with all your countrymen on this side
of the water must feel on this splendid occasion, acquires no small
increase of personal satisfaction, when I reflect to whom Ireland is
indebted, for a display of ability so unequalled, that the honor derived
from it seems too extensive to be concentred in an individual, but ought
to give, and I am persuaded will give, a new respect for the name of
Irishman. I have heard and read the accounts of your speech, and of the
astonishing impression it made, with tears of exultation--but what will
flatter you more--I can solemnly declare it to be a fact, that I have,
since the news reached us, seen good honest _Irish_ pride, national
pride I mean, bring tears into the eyes of many persons, on this
occasion, who never saw you. I need not, after what I have stated,
assure you, that it is with the most heartfelt satisfaction that I offer
you my warmest congratulations...."
The following is from his eldest sister, Mrs. Joseph Lefanu:--
"16th February, 1787.
"MY DEAR BROTHER,
"The day before yesterday I received the account of your glorious
speech. Mr. Crauford was so good as to write a more particular and
satisfactory one to Mr. Lefanu than we could have received from the
papers. I have watched the first interval of ease from a cruel and
almost incessant headache to give vent to my feelings, and tell you how
much I rejoice in your success. May it be entire! May the God who
fashioned you, and gave you powers to sway the hearts of men and control
their wayward wills, be equally favorable to you in all your
undertakings, and make your reward here and hereafter! Amen, from the
bottom of my soul! My affection for you has been ever 'passing the love
of women.' Adverse circumstances have deprived me of the pleasure of
your society, but have had no effect in weakening my regard for you. I
know your heart too well to suppose that regard is indifferent to you,
and soothingly sweet to me is the idea that in some pause of thought
from the important matters that occupy your mind, your earliest friend
is sometimes recollected by you.
"I know you are much above the little vanity that seeks its
gratification in the praises of the million, but you must be pleased
with the applause of the discerning,--with the tribute I may say of
affection paid to the goodness of your heart. People love your character
as much as they admire your talents. My father is, in a degree that I
did not expect, gratified with the general attention you have excited
here: he seems truly pleased that men should say, 'There goes the father
of Gaul.' If your fame has shed a ray of brightness over all so
distinguished as to be connected with you, I am sure I may say it has
infused a ray of gladness into my heart, deprest as it has been with ill
health and long confinement...."
There is also another letter from this lady, of the same date, to Mrs.
Sheridan, which begins thus enthusiastically:--
"MY DEAR SHERI.
"Nothing but death could keep me silent on such an occasion as this. I
wish you joy--I am sure you feel it: 'oh moments worth whole ages past,
and all that are to come.' You may laugh at my enthusiasm if you please
--I glory in it...."
In the month of April following, Mr. Sheridan opened the Seventh Charge,
which accused Hastings of corruption, in receiving bribes and presents.
The orator was here again lucky in having a branch of the case allotted
to him, which, though by no means so susceptible of the ornaments of
eloquence as the former, had the advantage of being equally borne out by
testimony, and formed one of the most decided features of the cause. The
avidity, indeed, with which Hastings exacted presents, and then
concealed them as long as there was a chance of his being able to
appropriate them to himself, gave a mean and ordinary air to iniquities,
whose magnitude would otherwise have rendered them imposing, if not
grand.
The circumstances, under which the present from Cheyte Sing was extorted
shall be related when I come to speak of the great Speech in Westminster
Hall. The other strong cases of corruption, on which Mr. Sheridan now
dwelt, were the sums given by the Munny Begum (in return for her
appointment to a trust for which, it appears, she was unfit), both to
Hastings himself and his useful agent, Middleton. This charge, as far as
regards the latter, was never denied--and the suspicious lengths to
which the Governor-general went, in not only refusing all inquiry into
his own share of the transaction, but having his accuser, Nuncomar,
silenced by an unjust sentence of death, render his acquittal on this
charge such a stretch of charity, as nothing but a total ignorance of
the evidence and all its bearings can justify.
The following passage, with which Sheridan wound up his Speech on this
occasion, is as strong an example as can be adduced of that worst sort
of florid style, which prolongs metaphor into allegory, and, instead of
giving in a single sentence the essence of many flowers, spreads the
flowers themselves, in crude heaps, over a whole paragraph:--
"In conclusion (he observed), that, although within this rank, but
infinitely too fruitful wilderness of iniquities--within this dismal and
unhallowed labyrinth--it was most natural to cast an eye of indignation
and concern over the wide and towering forest of enormities--all rising
in the dusky magnificence of guilt; and to fix the dreadfully excited
attention upon the huge trunks of revenge, rapine, tyranny, and
oppression; yet it became not less necessary to trace out the poisonous
weeds, the baleful brushwood, and all the little, creeping, deadly
plants, which were, in quantity and extent, if possible, more noxious.
The whole range of this far-spreading calamity was sown in the hot-bed
of corruption; and had risen, by rapid and mature growth, into every
species of illegal and atrocious violence."
At the commencement of the proceedings against Hastings, an occurrence,
immediately connected with them, had brought Sheridan and his early
friend Halhed together, under circumstances as different as well can be
imagined from those under which they had parted as boys. The distance,
indeed, that had separated them in the interval was hardly greater than
the divergence that had taken place in their pursuits; for, while
Sheridan had been converted into a senator and statesman, the lively
Halhed had become an East Indian Judge, and a learned commentator on the
Gentoo Laws. Upon the subject, too, on which they now met, their views
and interests were wholly opposite,--Sheridan being the accuser of
Hastings, and Halhed his friend. The following are the public
circumstances that led to their interview.
In one of the earliest debates on the Charges against the Governor-
general, Major Scott having asserted that, when Mr. Fox was preparing
his India Bill, overtures of accommodation had been made, by his
authority, to Mr. Hastings, added, that he (Major Scott) "entertained no
doubt that, had Mr. Hastings then come home, he would have heard nothing
of all this calumny, and all these serious accusations." Mr. Fox, whom
this charge evidently took by surprise, replied that he was wholly
ignorant of any such overtures, and that "whoever made, or even hinted
at such an offer, as coming from him, did it without the smallest shadow
of authority." By an explanation, a few days after, from Mr. Sheridan,
it appeared that he was the person who had taken the step alluded to by
Major Scott. His interference, however, he said, was solely founded upon
an opinion which he had himself formed with respect to the India Bill,--
namely, that it would be wiser, on grounds of expediency, not to make it
retrospective in any of its clauses. In consequence of this opinion, he
had certainly commissioned a friend to inquire of Major Scott, whether,
if Mr. Hastings were recalled, he would come home;--but "that there had
been the most distant idea of bartering with Mr. Hastings for his
support of the Indian Bill, he utterly denied." In conclusion, he
referred, for the truth of what he had now stated, to Major Scott, who
instantly rising, acknowledged that, from inquiries which he had since
made of the gentleman deputed to him by Mr. Sheridan on the occasion, he
was ready to bear testimony to the fairness of the statement just
submitted to the House, and to admit his own mistake in the
interpretation which he had put on the transaction.
It was in relation to this misunderstanding that the interview took
place in the year 1786 between Sheridan and Halhed--the other persons
present being Major Scott and Doctor Parr, from whom I heard the
circumstance. The feelings of this venerable scholar towards "iste
Scotus" (as he calls Major Scott in his Preface to Bellendenus) were
not, it is well known, of the most favorable kind; and he took the
opportunity of this interview to tell that gentleman fully what he
thought of him:--"for ten minutes," said the Doctor, in describing his
aggression, "I poured out upon him hot, scalding abuse--'twas lava,
Sir!"
Among the other questions that occupied the attention of Mr. Sheridan
during this session, the most important were the Commercial Treaty with
France, and the Debts of the Prince of Wales.
The same erroneous views by which the opposition to the Irish Commercial
Propositions was directed, still continued to actuate Mr. Fox and his
friends in their pertinacious resistance to the Treaty with France;--a
measure which reflects high honor upon the memory of Mr. Pitt, as one of
the first efforts of a sound and liberal policy to break through that
system of restriction and interference, which had so long embarrassed
the flow of international commerce.
The wisdom of leaving trade to find its own way into those channels
which the reciprocity of wants established among mankind opens to it, is
one of those obvious truths that have lain long on the highways of
knowledge, before practical statesmen would condescend to pick them up.
It has been shown, indeed, that the sound principles of commerce which
have at last forced their way from the pages of thinking men into the
councils of legislators, were more than a hundred years since
promulgated by Sir Dudley North; [Footnote: McCulloch's Lectures on
Political Economy]--and in the Querist of Bishop Berkeley may be found
the outlines of all that the best friends not only of free trade but of
free religion would recommend to the rulers of Ireland at the present
day. Thus frequently does Truth, before the drowsy world is prepared for
her, like
"The nice Morn on the Indian steep,
From her cabin'd loophole peep."
Though Mr. Sheridan spoke frequently in the course of the discussions,
he does not appear to have, at any time, encountered the main body of
the question, but to have confined himself chiefly to a consideration of
the effects which the treaty would have upon the interests of Ireland;--
a point which he urged with so much earnestness, as to draw down upon
him from one of the speakers the taunting designation of "Self-appointed
Representative of Ireland."
Mr. Fox was the most active antagonist of the Treaty; and his speeches
on the subject may be counted among those feats of prowess, with which
the chivalry of Genius sometimes adorns the cause of Error. In founding,
as he did, his chief argument against commercial intercourse upon the
"natural enmity" between the two countries, he might have referred, it
is true, to high Whig authority:--"The late Lord Oxford told me," says
Lord Bolingbroke, "that my Lord Somers being pressed, I know not on what
occasion or by whom, on the unnecessary and ruinous continuation of the
war, instead of giving reasons to show the necessity of it, contented
himself to reply that he had been bred up in a hatred to France."--But
no authority, however high, can promote a prejudice into a reason, or
conciliate any respect for this sort of vague, traditional hostility,
which is often obliged to seek its own justification in the very
mischiefs which itself produces. If Mr. Fox ever happened to peruse the
praises, which his _Antigallican_ sentiments on this occasion
procured for him, from the tedious biographer of his rival, Mr. Gifford,
he would have suspected, like Phocion, that he must have spoken
something unworthy of himself, to have drawn down upon his head a
panegyric from such a quarter.
Another of Mr. Fox's arguments against entering into commercial
relations with France, was the danger lest English merchants, by
investing their capital in foreign speculations, should become so
entangled with the interests of another country as to render them less
jealous than they ought to be of the honor of their own, and less ready
to rise in its defence, when wronged or insulted. But, assuredly, a want
of pugnacity is not the evil to be dreaded among nations--still less
between two, whom the orator had just represented as inspired by a
"natural enmity" against each other. He ought rather, upon this
assumption, to have welcomed the prospect of a connection, which, by
transfusing and blending their commercial interests, and giving each a
stake in the prosperity of the other, would not only soften away the
animal antipathy attributed to them, but, by enlisting selfishness on
the side of peace and amity, afford the best guarantee against wanton
warfare, that the wisdom of statesmen or philosophers has yet devised.
Mr. Burke, in affecting to consider the question in an enlarged point of
view, fell equally short of its real dimensions; and even descended to
the weakness of ridiculing such commercial arrangements, as unworthy
altogether of the contemplation of the higher order of statesmen. "The
Right Honorable gentleman," he said, "had talked of the treaty as if it
were the affair of two little counting-houses, and not of two great
countries. He seemed to consider it as a contention between the sign of
the Fleur-de-lis, and the sign of the Red Lion, which house should
obtain the best custom. Such paltry considerations were below his
notice."
In such terms could Burke, from temper or waywardness of judgment,
attempt to depreciate a speech which may be said to have contained the
first luminous statement of the principles of commerce, with the most
judicious views of their application to details, that had ever, at that
period, been presented to the House.
The wise and enlightened opinions of Mr. Pitt, both with respect to
trade, and another very different subject of legislation, Religion,
would have been far more worthy of the imitation of some of his self-
styled followers, than those errors which they are so glad to shelter
under the sanction of his name. For encroachments upon the property and
liberty of the subject, for financial waste and unconstitutional
severity, they have the precedent of their great master ever ready on
their lips. But, in all that would require wisdom and liberality in his
copyists--in the repugnance he felt to restrictions and exclusions,
affecting either the worldly commerce of man with man, or the spiritual
intercourse of man with his God,--in all this, like the Indian that
quarrels with his idol, these pretended followers not only dissent from
their prototype themselves, but violently denounce, as mischievous, his
opinions when adopted by others.
In attributing to party feelings the wrong views entertained by the
Opposition on this question, we should but defend their sagacity at the
expense of their candor; and the cordiality, indeed, with which they
came forward this year to praise the spirited part taken by the Minister
in the affairs of Holland--even allowing that it would be difficult for
Whigs not to concur in a measure so national--sufficiently acquits them
of any such perverse spirit of party, as would, for the mere sake of
opposition, go wrong because the Minister was right. To the sincerity of
one of their objections to the Treaty--namely, that it was a design, on
the part of France, to detach England, by the temptation of a mercantile
advantage, from her ancient alliance with Holland and her other
continental connections--Mr. Burke bore testimony, as far as himself was
concerned, by repeating the same opinions, after an interval of ten
years, in his testamentary work, the "Letters on a Regicide Peace."
The other important question which I have mentioned as engaging, during
the session of 1787, the attention of Mr. Sheridan, was the application
to Parliament for the payment of the Prince of Wales's debts. The
embarrassments of the Heir Apparent were but a natural consequence of
his situation; and a little more graciousness and promptitude on the
part of the King, in interposing to relieve His Royal Highness from the
difficulties under which he labored, would have afforded a chance of
detaching him from his new political associates, of which, however the
affection of the Royal parent may have slumbered, it is strange that his
sagacity did not hasten to avail itself. A contrary system, however, was
adopted. The haughty indifference both of the monarch and his minister
threw the Prince entirely on the sympathy of the Opposition. Mr. Pitt
identified himself with the obstinacy of the father, while Mr. Fox and
the Opposition committed themselves with the irregularities of the son;
and the proceedings of both parties were such as might have been
expected from their respective connections--the Royal mark was but too
visible upon each.
One evil consequence, that was on the point of resulting from the
embarrassed situation in which the Prince now found himself, was his
acceptance of a loan which the Duke of Orleans had proffered him, and
which would have had the perilous tendency of placing the future
Sovereign of England in a state of dependence, as creditor, on a Prince
of France. That the negotiations in this extraordinary transaction had
proceeded farther than is generally supposed, will appear from the
following letters of the Duke of Portland to Sheridan:--
"Sunday noon, 13 Dec.
"DEAR SHERIDAN,
"Since I saw you I have received a confirmation of the intelligence
which was the subject of our conversation. The particulars varied in no
respect from those I related to you--except in the addition of a
pension, which is to take place immediately on the event which entitles
the creditors to payment, and is to be granted for life to a nominee of
the D. of O----s. The loan was mentioned in a mixed company by two of
the Frenchwomen and a Frenchman (none of whose names I know) in
_Calonne's_ presence, who interrupted them, by asking, how they
came to know any thing of the matter, then set them right in two or
three particulars which they had misstated, and afterwards begged them,
for God's sake, not to talk of it, because it might be their complete
ruin.
"I am going to Bulstrode--but will return at a moment's notice, if I can
be of the least use in getting rid of this odious engagement, or
preventing its being entered into, if it should not be yet completed.
"Yours ever,
"P."
"DEAR SHERIDAN,
"I think myself much obliged to you for what you have done. I hope I am
not too sanguine in looking to a good conclusion of this bad business. I
will certainly be in town by two o'clock.
"Yours ever,
"P."
"Bulstrode, Monday, 14. Dec.
"9 A. M."
Mr. Sheridan, who was now high in the confidence of the Prince, had
twice, in the course of the year 1786, taken occasion to allude publicly
to the embarrassments of His Royal Highness. Indeed, the decisive
measure which this Illustrious Person himself had adopted, in reducing
his establishment and devoting a part of his income to the discharge of
his debts, sufficiently proclaimed the true state of affairs to the
public. Still, however, the strange policy was persevered in, of adding
the discontent of the Heir-Apparent to the other weapons in the hands of
the Opposition;--and, as might be expected, they were not tardy in
turning it to account. In the spring of 1787, the embarrassed state of
His Royal Highness's affairs was brought formally under the notice of
parliament by Alderman Newenham.
During one of the discussions to which the subject gave rise, Mr. Rolle,
the member for Devonshire, a strong adherent of the ministry, in
deprecating the question about to be agitated, affirmed that "it went
immediately to affect our Constitution in Church and State." In these
solemn words it was well understood, that he alluded to a report at that
time generally believed, and, indeed, acted upon by many in the
etiquette of private life, that a marriage had been solemnized between
the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert--a lady of the Roman Catholic
persuasion, who, with more danger to her own peace than to that of
either Church or State, had for some time been the distinguished object
of His Royal Highness's affection.
Even had an alliance of this description taken place, the provisions of
the Royal Marriage Act would have nullified it into a mere ceremony,
inefficient, as it was supposed, for any other purpose than that of
satisfying the scruples of one of the parties. But that dread of Popery,
which in England starts at its own shadow, took alarm at the
consequences of an intercourse so heterodox; and it became necessary, in
the opinion of the Prince and his friends, to put an end to the
apprehensions that were abroad on the subject.
Nor can it be denied that, in the minds of those who believed that the
marriage had been actually solemnized, [Footnote: Home Tooke, in his
insidious pamphlet on the subject, presumed so far on this belief as to
call Mrs. Fitzherbert "Her Royal Highness."] there were, in one point of
view, very sufficient grounds of alarm. By the Statute of William and
Mary, commonly called the Bill of Rights, it is enacted, among other
causes of exclusion from the throne, that "every person who shall marry
a Papist shall be excluded and for ever be incapable to inherit the
crown of this realm."--In such cases (adds this truly revolutionary Act)
"the people of these realms shall be and are hereby absolved of their
allegiance." Under this Act, which was confirmed by the Act of
Settlement, it is evident that the Heir-Apparent would, by such a
marriage as was now attributed to him, have forfeited his right of
succession to the throne. From so serious a penalty, however, it was
generally supposed, he would have been exempted by the operation of the
Royal Marriage Act (12 George III.), which rendered null and void any
marriage contracted by any descendant of George II. without the previous
consent of the King, or a twelve months' notice given to the Privy
Council.
That this Act would have nullified the alleged marriage of the Prince of
Wales there is, of course, no doubt;--but that it would also have
exempted him from the forfeiture incurred by marriage with a Papist, is
a point which, in the minds of many, still remains a question. There
are, it is well known, analogous cases in Law, where the nullity of an
illegal transaction does not do away the penalty attached to it.
[Footnote: Thus, a man, by contracting a second marriage, pending the
first marriage, commits a felony; and the crime, according to its legal
description, consists in marrying, or contracting a marriage--though
what he does is no more a marriage than that of the Heir-Apparent would
be under the circumstances in question.
The same principle, it appears, runs through the whole Law of Entails
both in England and Scotland, and a variety of cases might be cited, in
which, though the act done is void, yet the doing of it creates a
forfeiture.] To persons, therefore, who believed that the actual
solemnization of the marriage could be proved by witnesses present at
the ceremony, this view of the case, which seemed to promise an
interruption of the Succession, could not fail to suggest some
disquieting apprehensions and speculations, which nothing short, it was
thought, of a public and authentic disavowal of the marriage altogether
would be able effectually to allay.
If in politics Princes are unsafe allies, in connections of a tenderer
nature they are still more perilous partners; and a triumph over a Royal
lover is dearly bought by the various risks and humiliations which
accompany it. Not only is a lower standard of constancy applied to
persons of that rank, but when once love-affairs are converted into
matters of state, there is an end to all the delicacy and mystery that
ought to encircle them. The disavowal of a Royal marriage in the Gazette
would have been no novelty in English history; [Footnote: See, in
Ellis's Letters of History, vol. iii. the declarations of Charles II.
with respect to his marriage with "one Mrs. Walters," signed by himself
and published in the London Gazette.] and the disclaimer, on the present
occasion, though intrusted to a less official medium, was equally
public, strong, and unceremonious.
Mr. Fox, who had not been present in the House of Commons when the
member for Devonshire alluded to the circumstance, took occasion, on the
next discussion of the question, and, as he declared, with the immediate
authority of the Prince, to contradict the report of the marriage in the
fullest and most unqualified terms:--it was, he said, "a miserable
calumny, a low malicious falsehood, which had been propagated without
doors, and made the wanton sport of the vulgar;--a tale, fit only to
impose upon the lowest orders, a monstrous invention, a report of a fact
which had not the smallest degree of foundation, actually impossible to
have happened." To an observation from Mr. Rolle that "they all knew
there was an act of Parliament which forbade such a marriage; but that,
though it could not be done under the formal sanction of the law, there
were ways in which it might have taken place, and in which that law, in
the minds of some persons, might have been satisfactorily evaded,"--Mr.
Fox replied, that--"he did not deny the calumny in question merely with
regard to certain existing laws, but that he denied it _in toto_,
in point of fact as well as of law:--it not only never could have
happened legally, but it never did happen in any way whatsoever, and had
from the beginning been a base and malicious falsehood."
Though Mr. Rolle, from either obstinacy or real distrust, refused, in
spite of the repeated calls of Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Grey, to declare
himself satisfied with this declaration, it was felt by the minister to
be at least sufficiently explicit and decisive, to leave him no further
pretext in the eyes of the public, for refusing the relief which the
situation of the Prince required. Accordingly a message from the Crown
on the subject of His Royal Highness's debts was followed by an addition
to his income of L10,000 yearly out of the Civil List; an issue of
L161,000 from the same source, for the discharge of his debts, and
L20,000 on account of the works at Carlton House.
In the same proportion that this authorized declaration was successful
in satisfying the public mind, it must naturally have been painful and
humiliating to the person whose honor was involved in it. The immediate
consequence of this feeling was a breach between that person and Mr.
Fox, which, notwithstanding the continuance, for so many years after, of
the attachment of both to the same illustrious object, remained, it is
understood, unreconciled to the last.
If, in the first movement of sympathy with the pain excited in that
quarter, a retractation of this public disavowal was thought of, the
impossibility of finding any creditable medium through which to convey
it, must soon have suggested itself to check the intention. Some middle
course, however, it was thought, might be adopted, which, without going
the full length of retracting, might tend at least to unsettle the
impression left upon the public, and, in some degree, retrieve that loss
of station, which a disclaimer, coming in such an authentic shape, had
entailed. To ask Mr. Fox to discredit his own statement was impossible.
An application was, therefore, made to a young member of the party, who
was then fast rising into the eminence which he has since so nobly
sustained, and whose answer to the proposal is said to have betrayed
some of that unaccommodating highmindedness, which, in more than one
collision with Royalty, has proved him but an unfit adjunct to a Court.
The reply to his refusal was, "Then I must get Sheridan to say
something;"--and hence, it seems, was the origin of those few
dexterously unmeaning compliments, with which the latter, when the
motion of Alderman Newenham was withdrawn, endeavored, without in the
least degree weakening the declaration of Mr. Fox, to restore that
equilibrium of temper and self-esteem, which such a sacrifice of
gallantry to expediency had naturally disturbed. In alluding to the
offer of the Prince, through Mr. Fox, to answer any questions upon the
subject of his reported marriage, which it might be thought proper to
put to him in the House, Mr. Sheridan said,--"That no such idea had been
pursued, and no such inquiry had been adopted, was a point which did
credit to the decorum, the feelings, and the dignity of Parliament. But
whilst His Royal Highness's feelings had no doubt been considered on
this occasion, he must take the liberty of saying, however some might
think it a subordinate consideration, that there was another person
entitled, in every delicate and honorable mind, to the same attention;
one, whom he would not otherwise venture to describe or allude to, but
by saying it was a name, which malice or ignorance alone could attempt
to injure, and whose character and conduct claimed and were entitled to
the truest respect."
END OF VOL. I.