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THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 
fi 
 
^-7/ 
 
 THREE 
 
 ENGLISH STATESMEN: 
 
 A COURSE OF LECTURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 "^ 
 
 POLITICAL HISTOEY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 BT 
 
 GOLDWIN SMITH. 
 
 e^ 
 
 MAOMILLAN & CO., LONDON. 
 ALEXANDER IRELAND & CO., MANCHESTER. 
 
 1867. 
 [All riyhts reserved.'] 
 

 s 
 
 
 OXF<)RD: 
 
 nv T. rr)MBK, M. A., E. B. GARDNER, K. P. HAIL, AND H. I-ATHAM, M. A. 
 
 PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 
 & 
 
TO 
 
 THOMAS BAYLEY POTTER, M.R, 
 
 «• I'ATHAM, .V.,\. 
 
 A STAUNCH FRIEND OF HHMANITV AND JUSTICE IN THEIR TIME OF NEED. 
 
 ^fiese Hectures 
 
 ARE DEDICATED. 
 
CONTEiNTS. 
 
 Lecture I. 
 
 » 
 
 PYM 
 
 II. CROMWELL 
 
 „ in. PITT 
 
 „ IV. PITT (continued) 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 65 
 
 145 
 227 
 
!» 
 
 II 
 
THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 I. 
 
 PYM. 
 
 .•-*• 
 
 Let us never glorify revolution. Statesman- 
 ship is the art of avoiding it, and of making 
 progress at once continuous and calm. Revolu- 
 tions are not only full of all that a good citizen 
 and a good Christian hates while they last, but 
 they leave a long train of bitterness behind. 
 The energy and the exaltation of character 
 which they call forth are paid for in the las- 
 situde, the depression, the political infidelity 
 which ensue. The great spirits of the Eng- 
 lish Revolution were followed by the men of 
 Charles II. Whatever of moral grandeur there 
 was in the French Revolution was followed by 
 Bonapartism and Talleyrand. Even while the 
 great men are on the scene, violence and one- 
 

 I 
 
 I ' 
 
 t! I 
 
 2 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 sidedness mar their greatness. Let us pray that 
 all our political contests may be carried on as 
 the contests of fellow citizen, and beneath the 
 unassailed majesty of law. But the chiefest 
 authors of revolutions have been not the chi- 
 merical and intemperate friends of progress, but 
 the blind obstructers of progress ; those who, in 
 defiance of nature, struggle to avert the inevit- 
 able future, to recall the irrevocable past ; who 
 chafe to fury by damming up its course the 
 river which would otherwise flow calmly be- 
 tween its banks, which has ever flowed, and 
 which, do what they will, must flow for ever. 
 
 If a revolution ever was redeemed by its 
 grandeur, it was the revolution which was 
 opened by Pym, which was closed by Cromwell, 
 of which Milton was the apostle and the poet. 
 The material forces have been seen in action 
 on a more imposing scale, the moral forces 
 never. Why is that regard for principle, which 
 was so strong among us then, comparatively so 
 weak among us now ? The greatest member 
 of parliament that ever lived, the greatest mas- 
 ter of the convictions and the feelings of the 
 House of Commons, was not Robert Peel, but 
 John Pym. But if Pym, in modem garb and 
 
 
 I 
 
 ii 
 
PYM. 
 
 using modern phrase, could now rise in his old 
 place, his words, though as practical as they 
 are lofty, would, I fear, be thought " too clever 
 for the House.' Is it that wealth, too much ac- 
 cumulated and too little diffused, has placed the 
 leadership of the nation in less noble hands \ 
 
 We must not regard this revolution merely 
 as the struggle of the English House of Com- 
 mons against the tyranny of Charles I. It was 
 part of a European conflict between two great 
 opposing currents of opinion, one running to- 
 wards the future, the other towards the past. 
 The Reformation, like all really great move- 
 ments, was religious ; but acting on the deepest 
 part of humanity, it impelled forwards the whole 
 nature of man ; and the reaction against it ac- 
 cordingly was a reaction of all the powers of 
 the past. In Spain the reaction, both political 
 and ecclesiastical, had triumphed through the 
 alliance of the Inquisition and the kings. In 
 France the political reaction had triumphed 
 through the policy of Hichelieu, whom some, 
 thinking more of organisation than of life, num- 
 ber with the friends of progress ; the rest was 
 to be done by Louis XIY. In Germany, Austria 
 and the CathoHc League had nearly crushed the 
 
 B 2 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
 4 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 independence of the Protestant states, and made 
 a Catholic empire of the land of Luther. At 
 first the Reformation, with liberty in its train, 
 had spread over all the nations that spoke a 
 Teutonic tongue ; it had spread over a great 
 part of France ; it had gained a footing in Italy 
 and Spain. Now, England and Holland seemed 
 to stand almost alone. It was a crisis as perilous 
 as that of the Armada. How natural to hu- 
 manity, wearied and perplexed with change, is 
 this yearning for the thrones and for the altars 
 of the past ! 
 
 In England, however, not only was there 
 this conflict between the Reformation and its 
 enemies. Here, the real reformation was still 
 to come. The reformation of Henry VIII. was 
 2 royal reformation, which put the king in the 
 place of the pope. The people were now to 
 have their reformation, a reformation of convic- 
 tion, which put conscience in the place both of 
 pope and king. 
 
 I take for granted a knowledge of the reign 
 of James I. ; the glories of Elizabeth lighting 
 up the shame of her successor; the fatal ques- 
 tion whether sovereign power resided with the 
 king or with the parliament, kept undecided by 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
UfEN. 
 
 ites, and made 
 ^. Luther. At 
 
 Y in its train, 
 tliat spoke a 
 over a great 
 
 oting in Italy 
 )nand seemed 
 sis as perilous 
 atural to hu- 
 th change, is 
 for the altars 
 
 Y was there 
 tion and its 
 on was still 
 y VIII. was 
 
 king in the 
 ^ere now to 
 n of convic- 
 
 ace both of 
 
 f the reign 
 ith lighting 
 fatal ques- 
 d with the 
 idecided bj 
 
 PYM. 5 
 
 her tact, forced to decision by his folly ; the 
 weaknesses of a sovereign who seemed born to 
 advance constitutional liberty by provoking re- 
 sistance which he could not quell, and proclaim- 
 ing principles of absolutism which he could not 
 sustain ; the close alliance between prerogative 
 and the priest party, the king insulting the 
 Puritan divines at the Hampton Court confer- 
 ence, and the bishops prostrate in grateful 
 ecstasies at his feet ; the government of fa- 
 vourites, whose names were bywords of infamy ; 
 the judicial murder of Raleigh ; the disgrace of 
 Chief Justice Coke, and of the common law in 
 his person ; the divorce of Essex ; the murder 
 of Overbury ; the mysterious threats by which 
 the murderers appealed not in vain to the guilty 
 conscience of the king ; the uprising of the 
 Commons ; the Protestation of Right ; the 
 storm of national resentment to which the court 
 sacrificed Bacon — Bacon, who served darkness 
 in the hope that when he had raised himself to 
 power his science would make the darkness 
 light, the dupe of a dream of beneficent des- 
 potism, a warning to fastidious minds if they 
 would work for the people to work with and 
 by the people. 
 
t|! 
 
 MM 
 
 ■I.'' 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 I, ! 
 
 6 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 I take for granted, too, a knowledge of the 
 early part of the life and reign of Charles : the 
 ominous episode of the Spanish match ; the 
 scenes of duplicity which followed, already re- 
 vealing the dark spot in Charles's character ; 
 the ascendancy of Buckingham, safely intrenched 
 in favour, more safely than ever Strafford was, 
 because his mind was not above that of his 
 master ; the coronation, in which the bishops 
 and their paraphernalia played so conspicuous 
 a part; the brief honeymoon of the new king 
 and his parliament ; the renewal of the struggle ; 
 Charles's policy oscillating between government 
 by parliament and government by prerogative, 
 and both ways fatally to himself; his foreign 
 policy oscillating between the support of Pro- 
 testant freedom, for which the nation called, 
 and the support of Catholic absolutism, towards 
 which his own heart yearned ; the French queen, 
 with her French notions of what a king and 
 a queen should be ; the beginnings of arbitrary- 
 taxation and military rule ; the " great, warm, 
 and rufflhig parliament," as Whitelocke calls it, 
 by which those encroachments were withstood ; 
 the Petition of Eight, that complement of the 
 Great Charter, which declares that Englishmen 
 
 ,1 
 
 i 
 
 
PYM. 
 
 shall never be subject to martial law, and which 
 if it be tampered with in our day, though it 
 be in the person of the humblest English sub- 
 ject, we purpose, after the example of our great 
 forefathers, to make good. 
 
 At last Charles broke with his parliament, 
 passionately dissolved it amidst a scene of 
 tempestuous violence (the Speaker being held 
 down in his chair till the protest of the Com- 
 mons had been made), and by proclamation 
 forbade any man to talk of a parliament being 
 ever held again. The leader of the Commons, 
 Sir John Eliot, was thrown into the Tower. 
 There he sank at last beneath the bad air and 
 the chills of his prison-house, constantly re- 
 fusing, as a champion of the law, to do homage 
 to lawlessness by submission. "My lodgings 
 are removed, and I am now where candle- 
 light may be suffered, but scarce fire." So he 
 writes when he is dying of consumption. The 
 court knew what they were doing. " 1 must 
 tell you," writes Lord Cottington to the rene- 
 gade Strafford, "that your old, dear friend Sir 
 John Eliot is very like to die." His family 
 petitioned for leave to bury him among his 
 fathers in his Cornish home. The king wrote 
 
8 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 li.'i 
 
 !|H!l 
 
 at the foot of the petition, "Let Sir John 
 Eliot's body be buried in the church of that 
 parish where he died." But Sir John Eliot's 
 spirit rose in the king's path in a decisive 
 hour. 
 
 Then followed eleven years of government 
 by prerogative — in place of ParHament, the 
 triune despotism of the Privy Council, the Star 
 Chamber, the Court of High Commission ; in 
 place of laws, proclamations ; in place of courts 
 of law, courts of arbitrary power ; in place of 
 legal taxation by parliament, forced loans, 
 monopolies, feudal and forest extortions, ship- 
 money ; the tenure of the judges made during 
 the king's pleasure, that they might be perfect 
 slaves to the king's will ; the tamperings with 
 the bench, by which old Judge Whitelocke 
 warned Laud he would in the end raise a 
 flame in the nation ; the " Book of Sports" 
 put forth not only to do despite to the Puritan 
 Sabbath, but to make a merry England, free 
 from political thought ; the Protestant cause 
 abroad openly abandoned ; the strength of the 
 nation declining as the power of the crown 
 rose, and Barbary pirates riding triumphant in 
 the Channel ; Straftbrd and Laud with their 
 
MEN, 
 
 it Sir John 
 Lirch of that 
 John Eliot s 
 ^ ci decisive 
 
 government 
 iament, the 
 3il, the Star 
 mission ; in 
 36 of courts 
 in place of 
 reed loans, 
 tions, ship- 
 ade during 
 be perfect 
 rings with 
 Vhitelocke 
 d raise a 
 'f Sports" 
 le Puritan 
 land, free 
 ant cause 
 th of the 
 le crown 
 phant in 
 ith their 
 
 PYM, 9 
 
 policy of Thorough ; Laud, Primate and Chan- 
 cellor, extirpating freedom of thought in Eng- 
 land ; Straiford, lord deputy of Ireland, making 
 ready there an army for the completion of the 
 joint work, and reading us two lessons which 
 from so able an enemy we shall do well to 
 learn; first, that a standing army is a standing 
 menace to public liberty ; and, secondly, that 
 arbitrary government in a dependency is the 
 stepping-stone to arbitrary government at home. 
 Hopelessly as it seemed at the time, Hampden 
 withstood ship-money : he was cast in his suit 
 before a servile and unjust court, but he proved 
 that in a righteous cause a defeat before an un- 
 just court may be a victory before the people. 
 
 With tyranny in the state, tyranny in the 
 church went hand in hand. Intimate is the 
 connection between political freedom and free- 
 dom of the soul : eternal is the alliance of the 
 Lauds and the Straffords against both. Heaction 
 in the state and reaction in the church, a Ho- 
 manising 'clergy, and a government tending to 
 martial law, these are the joint characteristics 
 not of one age alone. The drry bones of the 
 Tudor episcopate had now begun to live with 
 a portentous life of priestly ambition, the source 
 
I' 
 
 f'li: 
 
 :;'!! 
 
 <i 
 
 
 ■' 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 i; 
 
 10 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 of which was Rome, and which soon sought 
 union with its source. To unprotestantise the 
 Church of England, Laud laboured with canons 
 and ordinances, with books and sermons, with 
 preferments for the compliant, with whips, 
 pillories, and banishment for recusants, at a 
 rate which happily for us left prudence as well 
 as charity and humanity behind. Protestant 
 preachers were driven from their pulpits, harried 
 out of the kingdom — among them the favourite 
 preacher of an obscure sectary named Crom- 
 well. The altar was set up again in place of 
 the communion table. The eucharistic miracle, 
 the talisman of priestly power, was again per- 
 formed. Clerical celibacy, monachism, the con- 
 fessional, were coming in due course. Persons 
 of quahty especially embraced a religion of 
 flowers and incense, of millineries and uphol- 
 steries, of insinuating directors. Only some 
 spirits, too impatient and too logical, could 
 not be kept from cutting short the process and 
 going at once to Rome. The Protestant refugee 
 churches in England were crushed ; it seems 
 their members kept some trade secrets to them- 
 selves, and did not contribute so much as was 
 to be desired to the wealth of the kingdom. 
 
 I 
 
PYM. 
 
 II 
 
 The communion of the Protestant churches 
 abroad, which Hooker had acknowledged, was 
 renounced, because having no bishops they could 
 not be Christian ; and this no doubt was called 
 the reunion of Christendom. To all this the 
 hearty support of the Court was given, and it 
 was well earned The High Church clergy 
 preached the Loan as vigorously as the Real 
 Presence or the Apostolical Succession. The 
 court divine, Manwaring, said in one of his 
 famous sermons, " that the first of all relations 
 was that between the Creator and the creature ; 
 the next between husband and wife ; the third 
 between parent and child ; the fourth between 
 lord and servant ; and that from all these arose 
 that most high, sacred, and transcendent re- 
 lation between king and subject." In another 
 passage he asks himself " Why religion doth 
 associate God and the king?" and he answers, 
 "that it may be for one of three reasons; be- 
 cause in Scripture the name of god is given to 
 angels, priests, and kings ; or from the propin- 
 quity of offences against God and his anointed 
 king ; or from the parity of beneficence which 
 men enjoy from sacred kings, and which they 
 can no more requite in the case of the king 
 
(•I' 
 
 12 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
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 than in the case of God." He reasons, " that 
 as justice, properly so called, intercedes not be- 
 tween God and man, nor between the prince, 
 being a father, and tht jple as children (for 
 justice is between equals), so cannot justice be 
 any rule or medium whereby to give God or 
 the king his right." And again, he draws a 
 comparison between the dignity of angels and 
 that of Idngs from w^hich it is plain that bisliop- 
 rics are not in the gift of the angels. This 
 in the Chapel Boyal, where, as Pym said, that 
 doctrine was already so well believed that no 
 man needed to be converted. Manwaring, Sib- 
 thorpe, and Montagu belong as yet not wholly 
 to the past ; but the members of the Church 
 of England have the happiness of knowing that 
 there are some at least among her clergy in 
 high places who labour, and labour successfully, 
 to lay her foundations not in political power 
 but in the free affection of the people ; to pre- 
 sent her as the friend and the consecrator, not 
 as the enemy, of human progress; and to ally 
 her not with injustice but with justice. 
 
 When Charles dismissed his parliament, the 
 day was going hard with the Protestant cause 
 in Germany, the great scene of the conflict, to 
 
PYM. 
 
 13 
 
 which the eyes of all Protestants were wistfully 
 and sadly turned. Tilly and Wallenstein were 
 carrying all before them ; and the last hope of 
 Protestantism seemed to expire when the King 
 of Denmark was overthrown. Suddenly a light 
 shone in the north. Gustavus Adolphus ap- 
 peared upon the scene. Leipsic, the Gettysburg 
 of the seventeenth century, was fought ; and 
 the tidings of a great deliverance and the name 
 of a great deliverer made the heart of the 
 oppressed to leap for joy, and loosened the 
 knees of the oppressor. English and Scottish 
 soldiers of Gustavus, the Garibaldians of their 
 day, came back, not a few to England, many 
 to Scotland, with Garibaldian memories and 
 sentiments in their hearts. 
 
 Then Laud laid his rash hand upon the re- 
 ligious independence of Scotland ; and the 
 Scotch nation, nobles and commons, ministers 
 and people, wonderfully fused together by fiery 
 enthusiasm, poured like a lava torrent on the 
 aggressor. English sympathies fought on the 
 Scottish side ; English soldiers refused to con- 
 quer for Laud. Strafibrd's Irish army was not 
 ready. Government by prerogative fell, and 
 Charles called a parliament. 
 
14 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 After eleven years without parliaments, most 
 of the members were new. But they had not 
 to seek a leader. They had one whom all 
 accepted in John Pym. Pym had been second 
 only to Sir John Eliot as a leader of the patriot 
 party in the reign of James. He was one of 
 the twelve deputies of the Commons when 
 James cried, with insight as well as spleen, 
 " Set twal chairs ; here be bwal kings coming." 
 He had stood among the foremost of those 
 " evil-tempered spirits" who protested that the 
 liberties of parliament were not the favours of 
 the crown, but the birthright of Englishmen, 
 and who for so doing were imprisoned without 
 law. He i^ad resolved, as he said, that he 
 would rather suffer for speaking the truth, 
 than the truth should suffer for want of his 
 speaking. His greatness had increased in the 
 struggle against Charles I. He had been one 
 of the chief managers of the impeachment of 
 Buckingham ; and for that service to public 
 justice, he had again suffered a glorious im- 
 prisonment. He had accused Manwaring; he 
 had raised a voice of power against the Boman- 
 ising intrigues of Laud. In those days, he and 
 Strafford were dear friends, and fellow soldiers 
 
PYM, 
 
 15 
 
 in the same cause. But when the death of 
 Buckingham left the place of Fii\st Minister 
 vacant, Strafford sought an interview with Pym 
 at Greenwich ; and when they met began to 
 talk against dangerous courses, and to hint at 
 advantageous overtures to be made by the 
 court. Pym cut him short : " You need not 
 use all this art to tell me that you have a 
 mind to leave us. But remember what I tell 
 vou : you are going to be undone. And re- 
 member also, that though you leave us, I will 
 never leave you while your head is upon your 
 shoulders!" Such at least was the story cur- 
 rent in the succeeding age of the last interview 
 between the Great Champion of Freedom and 
 the Great Apostate. 
 
 Pym was a Somersetshire gentleman of good 
 family ; and it was from good families, such 
 families at least as do not produce Jacobins, 
 that most of the leaders of this revolution 
 sprang. I note it, not to claim for principle 
 the patronage of birth and wealth, but to show 
 how strong that principle must have been 
 which could thus move birth and wealth away 
 from their natural bias. • It is still true, not in 
 the ascetic, but in the moral sense, that it is 
 
*^', 
 
 16 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 11.1' 
 
 !< . ■ ' 
 
 ^i 
 
 [l;^ 
 
 hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven ; and when we see rich men entering 
 into the kingdom of heaven, hazarding the en- 
 joyment of wealth for the sake of principle, we 
 may know that it is no common age. Oxford 
 was the place of Pym's education, and there he 
 was distinguished not only by solid acquire- 
 ments, but by elegant accomplishments, so that 
 an Oxford poet calls him the favourite of Apollo. 
 High culture is now rather in disgrace in some 
 quarters, and not without a colour of reason, 
 as unbracinp' the sinews of action and destrov- 
 ing sympathy with the people. Nevertheless, 
 the universities produced the great statesmen 
 and the great warriors of the Commonwealth. 
 If the Oxford of Pym, of Hampden, and of 
 Blake, the Oxford of Wycliffe, the Oxford where 
 in still earlier times those principles were nursed 
 which gave us the Great Charter and the House 
 of Commons — if this Oxford, I say, now seems 
 by her political bearing to dishonour learning, 
 and by an ignoble choice does a wrong to 
 the nation which Lancashire is called upon to 
 redress — believe me, it is not the University 
 which thus offends, but a power alien to the 
 University and alien to learning, to which the 
 
 i»>*o 
 
PYM. 
 
 17 
 
 the kingdom 
 men entering 
 rding the en- 
 principle, we 
 age. Oxford 
 and there he 
 olid acquire- 
 lents, so that 
 ite of Apollo. 
 Tace in some 
 ir of reason, 
 and destroy- 
 N'evertheless, 
 it statesmen 
 timonwealth. 
 ien, and of 
 xford where 
 were nursed 
 i the House 
 now seems 
 ir learning, 
 wrong to 
 id upon to 
 University 
 ien to the 
 which the 
 
 University is, and, unless you rescue her, will 
 continue to be, a slave. 
 
 It is another point of difference between the 
 English and the French revolutions that the 
 leaders of the English revolution were as a rule 
 good husbands and fathers, in whom domestic 
 affection was the root of public virtue. Pym, 
 after being for some time in public life, married, 
 and after his marriage lived six years in retire- 
 ment — a part of training as necessary as action 
 to the depth of character and the power of sus- 
 tained thought which are the elements of great- 
 ness. At the end of the six years his wife died, 
 and he took no other wife but his country. 
 
 There were many elements in the patriot 
 party, united at first, afterwards severed from 
 each other by the fierce winnowing-fan of the 
 struggle, and marking by their successive as- 
 cendancy the changing phases of the revolution : 
 Constitutional Monarchists, aristocratic Repub- 
 licans, Republicans thoroughgoing, Protestant 
 Epincopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, and 
 in the abyss beneath them all the Anabaptists, 
 the Fifth Monarchy men, and the Levellers. 
 Pym was a friend of constitutional monarchy 
 in politics, a Protestant Episcopalian in religion ; 
 
: 
 
 3iii 
 
 i8 
 
 THREE El^GLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 ■^ ! 
 
 '.'I I 
 
 against a despot, but for a king ; against the 
 tyranny and the political power of the bishops, 
 but satisfied with that form of cliurch govern- 
 ment. He was no fanatic, and no ascetic. He 
 was genial, social, even convivial. His enemies 
 held him up to the hatred of the sectaries as 
 a man of pleasure. As the statesman and 
 orator of the less extreme party, and of the first 
 period of the revolution, he is the English coun- 
 terpart of Mirabeau, so far as a Christian patriot 
 can be the counterpart of a Yoltairean de- 
 bauchee. 
 
 Nor is he altogether unlike Mirabeau in the 
 style of his eloquence, our better appreciation of 
 which, as well as our better knowledge of Pym 
 and of this the heroic age of our history in 
 general, we owe to the patriotic and truly 
 noble diligence of Mr. John Forster, from whose 
 researches no small portion of my materials 
 for this lecture is derived. Pym^s speeches of 
 course are seventeenth-century speeches ; stately 
 in diction, somewhat like homilies in their divi- 
 sions, full of learning, full of Scripture (which 
 then, be it remembered, was a fresh spring of 
 new thought), full of philosophic passages which 
 might have come from the pen of Hooker or of 
 
against the 
 the bishops, 
 urch govern- 
 ascetic. He 
 His enemies 
 sectaries as 
 iesman and 
 i of the first 
 English coun- 
 Lstian patriot 
 Itairean de- 
 
 .beau in the 
 preciation of 
 dge of Pym 
 history in 
 
 and truly 
 from whose 
 "f materials 
 speeches of 
 les ; stately 
 
 their divi- 
 
 ure (which 
 
 spring of 
 
 ages which 
 
 oker or of 
 
 vf 
 I 
 
 PYM. 
 
 19 
 
 xi: 
 
 m 
 
 a 
 
 Bacon. But they sometimes strike the great 
 strokes for which Mirabeau was famous. Buck- 
 ingham had pleaded to the charge of enriching 
 himself by the sale of honours and offices, that 
 so far from having enriched himself he was 
 £100,000 in debt. " If this be true," replied 
 Pym, " how can we hope to satisfy his immense 
 prodigality ; if false, how can we hope to satisfy 
 his covetousness 1" In the debate on the Peti- 
 tion of Eight, when Secretary Cooke desired in 
 the name of the Idng to know whether they 
 would take the king's word for the observance 
 of their liberties or not, " there was silence for 
 a good space," none liking to reject the king's 
 word, all knowing what that word was worth. 
 The silence was broken by Pym, who rose and 
 said, " We have his majesty's coronation oath 
 to maintain the laws of England ; what need 
 we then to take his word T And the secretary 
 desperately pressing his point, and asking what 
 foreigners would think if the people of England 
 refused to trust their king's word, Pym rejoined, 
 " Truly, Mr. Secretaiy, I am of the same opinion 
 that I was, that the king's oath is as powerful 
 as his word." In the same debate the courtiers 
 the House to leave entire his majesty's 
 
 pray 
 
 c 2 
 
V ' 
 
 U .[ 
 
 i , .■ i 
 
 /I Hi 'I' 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 li 
 
 ! . 
 
 ; I 
 
 90 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 sovereign power — a Stuart phrase, meaning the 
 power of the king when he deemed it expedient 
 to break the law. " I am not able," was Pym's 
 reply, " to speak to this question. I know not 
 what it is. All our petition is for the laws of 
 England ; and this power seems to be another 
 power distinct from the power of the law. I 
 know how to add sovereign to the king's per- 
 son, but not to his power. We cannot leave 
 to him a sovereign power, for we never were 
 possessed of it." 
 
 The English Be volution was a revolution of 
 principle, but of principle couched in precedent. 
 What the philosophic salon was to the French 
 leaders of opinion, that the historical and an- 
 tiquarian library of Sir Robert Cotton was to 
 the English. And of the group of illustrious 
 men who gathered in that library, none had 
 been a deeper student of its treasures than 
 Pym. His speeches and state papers are the 
 proof. 
 
 When the parliament had met, Pym was the 
 first to rise. We know his appearance from 
 his portrait — a portly form, which a court 
 waiting- woman called that of an ox ; a fore- 
 head so high that lampooners compared it to 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
>,.5 
 
 lEN. 
 
 meaning the 
 
 it expedient 
 
 /' was Pym's 
 
 I know not 
 
 the laws of 
 
 3 be another 
 
 the law. I 
 
 3 king's per- 
 
 sannot leave 
 
 never were 
 
 ■evolution of 
 in precedent, 
 the French 
 Lcal and an- 
 tton was to 
 illustrious 
 none had 
 isures than 
 ers are the 
 
 yni was the 
 trance from 
 h a court 
 »x ; a fore- 
 jared it to 
 
 PYM. 
 
 81 
 
 a shuttle ; the dress of a gentleman of the 
 time : for not to the cavaliers alone belonged 
 that picturesque costume and those pointed 
 beards, which furnish the real explanation of 
 the fact that all women are Tories. Into the 
 expectant and wavering, though ardent, minds 
 of the inexperienced assembly he poured, with 
 the authority of a veteran chief, a speech which 
 at once fixed their thoughts, and possessed them 
 with their mission. It was a broad, complete, 
 and earnest, though undeclamatory, statement 
 of the abuses which they had come to reform. 
 For reform, though for root-and-branch reform, 
 not for revolution, the Short Parliament came : 
 and Charles might even now have made his 
 peace with his people. But Charles did not 
 yet see the truth : the truth could never pierce 
 through the divinity that hedged round the 
 king. The Commons insisted that redress of 
 grievances should go before supply. In a mo- 
 ment of madness, or what is the same thing, 
 of compliance with the counsels of Laud, Charles 
 dissolved the parliament, imprisoned several of 
 its members, and published his reasons in a pro- 
 clamation full of despotic doctrine. The friends 
 of the crown were sad, its enemies very joyful. 
 
 i 
 
IF 
 
 ■:i 
 
 22 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 Now, to the eye of history, begins to rise that 
 scaffold before Whitehall. 
 
 Once more Charles and Strafford tried their 
 desperate arms against the Scotch ; and once 
 more their soldiers refused to fight. Pym and 
 Hampden, meanwhile, sure of the issue, were 
 preparing their party and the nation for the 
 decisive struggle. Their head-quarters were at 
 Pym's house, in Gray's Inn Lane ; but meetings 
 were held also at the houses of leaders in the 
 country, especially for correspondence with the 
 Scotch, with whom these patriot traitors were 
 undoubtedly in league. A private press was 
 actively at work. Pym was not only the orator 
 of his party, but its soul and centre ; he knew 
 how not only to propagate his opinions with 
 words of power, but to organise the means of 
 victory. And now Charles, in extremity, turned 
 to the middle ages for one expedient more, and 
 called a Great Council of Peers, according to 
 Plantagenet precedents, at York. Pym flew at 
 once to York, caused a petition for a parlia- 
 ment to be signed by the peers of his party 
 there, and backed it with petitions from the 
 people, one of them signed by 10,000 citizens 
 of London. This first great wielder of public 
 
MEN. 
 
 PYM. 
 
 n 
 
 3 to rise that 
 
 'd tried their 
 h ; and once 
 t. Pym and 
 ) issue, were 
 ition for the 
 [•ters were at 
 but meetings 
 waders in the 
 ice with the 
 Jraitors were 
 e press was 
 y the orator 
 
 ; he knew 
 )inions with 
 le means of 
 nity, turned 
 t more, and 
 ccording to 
 *ym flew at 
 r a parlia- 
 - his party 
 
 from the 
 00 citizens 
 ' of public 
 
 4 
 
 opinion in England was the inventor of or- 
 ganised agitation by petition. The king sur- 
 rendered, and called a parliament. Pym and 
 Hampden rode over the country, urging the 
 constituencies to do their duty. The constitu- 
 encies did their duty, as perhaps they had never 
 done it before, and have never done it since. 
 They sent up the noblest body of men that ever 
 sat in the councils of a nation. The force of 
 the agitation triumphed for the moment, as 
 it did again in 1830, over all those defects in 
 the system of representation which prevail over 
 the public interest and the public sentiment 
 in ordinary times. The Long Parliament met, 
 while round it the tide of national feeling 
 swelled and surged, the long-pent-up voices 
 of national resentment broke forth. It met 
 not for reform, but for revolution. The king 
 did not ride to it in state ; he slunk to it in 
 his private barge, like a vanquished and a 
 doomed man. 
 
 Charles had called to him Strafford. The earl 
 knew his danger ; but the king had pledged to 
 him the royal word that not a hair of his head 
 should be touched. He came foiled, broken by 
 disease, but still resolute, prepared to act on the 
 
it: ? 
 
 hi' I 
 
 24 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 aggressive, perhaps to arraign the leaders of the 
 Commons for treasonable correspondence with 
 the Scotch. But he had to deal, in his friend 
 anil coadjutor of former days, with no mere 
 rhetorician, but with a man of action as saga- 
 cious ,ind as intrepid as himself. Pym at once 
 struck a blow which proved him a master of 
 revolution. Announcing to the Commons that 
 he had weighty matter to impart, he moved 
 that the doors should be closed. When they 
 were opened, he carried up to the Lords the 
 impeachment of the Earl of Strafford. The 
 earl came down to the House of Lords that 
 day with his brow of imperial gloom, his im- 
 petuous step, his tones and gestures of com- 
 mand: but scarcely had he entered the house 
 when he found that power had departed from 
 him ; and the terrible grand vizier of govern- 
 ment by prerogative went away a fallen man, 
 none unbonneting to him, in whose presence 
 an hour before no man would have stood 
 covered. The speech by which Pym swept 
 the house on to this bold move, so that, as 
 Clarendon says, " not one man was found to 
 stop the torrent,'' is known only from Claren- 
 don's outline. But that outline shows how the 
 
 
 f 
 .* 
 
leaders of the 
 •ondence with 
 in his friend 
 vith no mere 
 3tion as saga- 
 Pym at once 
 a master of 
 /ommons that 
 't, he moved 
 When they 
 he Lords the 
 rafford. The 
 f Lords that 
 oom, his im- 
 ires of corn- 
 id the house 
 ^parted from 
 of govem- 
 fallen man, 
 ►se presence 
 have stood 
 ym swept 
 so that, as 
 s found to 
 om Claren- 
 VB how the 
 
 PYM. 
 
 95 
 
 speaker filled the thoughts of his liearers with 
 a picture of the tyranny, before he named its 
 chief author, the Earl of Straiibrd; and how 
 he blended with the elements of indignation 
 some lighter passages of the earFs vanity and 
 amours, to mingle indignation with contempt 
 and to banish fear. 
 
 Through the report of the Scotch Commis- 
 sioner Baillie we see the great trial, to which 
 that of Warren Hastings was a parallel in 
 splendour, but no parallel in interest — West- 
 minster Hall filled with the Peers, the Com- 
 mons, the foreign nobility, come to learn if they 
 could a lesson in English politics — the ladies of 
 quality, whose hearts (and we can pardon them) 
 were all with the great criminal who made so 
 gallant and skilful a fight for life, and of whom 
 it was said that, like Ulysses, he had not beauty, 
 but he had the eloquence which moved ^ god- 
 dess to love. Among the mass of the audience 
 the interest, intense at first, flagged as the 
 immense process went on; and eating, drink- 
 ing, loud talking filled the intervals of the 
 trial. But there was one whose interest did 
 not flag. The royal throne was set for the 
 king in his place ; but the king was not there. 
 
,* i. 
 
 ''|« ■' ! 
 
 I ■ 
 
 *!■( : 
 
 }fi 
 
 li 
 
 26 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 He WO.S witli his queen in a private gallery, 
 the lattice-work of which, in his eagerness to 
 hear, he broke through with his own hands. 
 And there he heard, among other things, these 
 words of Pym : " If the histories of eastern 
 countries be pursued, whose princes order their 
 affairs according to the mischievous principles 
 of the Earl of Strafford, loose and absolved 
 from all rules of government, they will be 
 found to be frequent in combustions, full of 
 massacres and of the tragical ends of princes." 
 
 I need not make selections from a speech 
 so well known as that of Pym on the trial of 
 Strafford. But hear one or two answers to fal- 
 lacies which are not quite dead yet. To the 
 Ciiarge of arbitrary government in Ireland, 
 Strafford had pleaded that the Irish were a 
 conquered nation. " They were a conquered 
 nation," cries Pym. " There cannot be a word 
 more pregnant or fruitful in treason than that 
 word is. There are few nations in the world 
 that have not been conquered, and no doubt but 
 the conqueror may give what law he pleases 
 to those that are conquered ; but if the succeed- 
 ing pacts and agreements do not limit and re- 
 strain that right, what people can be secure ^ 
 
'MEN. 
 
 Lvate gallery, 
 eagerness to 
 I own hands, 
 things, these 
 js of eastern 
 js order their 
 •us principles 
 md absolved 
 :hey will he 
 tions, full of 
 of princes." 
 )m a speech 
 the trial of 
 iswers to fal- 
 yet. To the 
 in Ireland, 
 ish were a 
 conquered 
 i be a word 
 )n than that 
 1 the world 
 o doubt but 
 he pleases 
 the succeed- 
 mit and re- 
 be secure ? 
 
 PYM. 
 
 27 
 
 t 
 
 .i 
 
 -IS 
 
 A 
 
 England hath been conquered, and Wales hath 
 been conquered ; and by this reason will be in 
 little better case than Ireland. If the king by 
 the right of a conqueror gives laws to his people, 
 shall not the people, by the same reason, be re- 
 stored to the right of the conquered to recover 
 their liberty if they can V Strafford had alleged 
 good intentions as an excuse for his evil coun- 
 sels. " Sometimes, my lords," says Pym, " good 
 and evil, truth and falsehood, lie so near together 
 that they are hard to be distinguished. Matters 
 hurtful and dangerous may be accompanied with 
 such circumstances as may make them appear 
 useful and convenient. But where the matters 
 propounded are evil in their own nature, such 
 as the matters are wherewith the Earl of Straf- 
 ford is charged, as to break public faith and to 
 subvert laws and government, they can never 
 be justified by any intentions, how good soever 
 they be pretended." Again, to the plea that it 
 was a time of great danger and necessity, Pym 
 replies : " If there were any necessity, it was 
 of his own making ; he, by his evil counsel, had 
 brought the king into a necessity; and by no 
 rules of justice can be allowed to gain this ad- 
 vantage by his own fault, as to make that a 
 
 1 
 
IIHI: 
 
 
 J 
 
 ? -V 
 
 28 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESJfEK 
 
 ground of his juHtification which is a great part 
 of his offence." 
 
 Once we are told, while Pym was speaking, 
 his eyes met those of Strafford, and the speaker 
 grew confused, lost the thread of his discourse, 
 broke down beneath the haggard glance of his 
 old friend. Let us never glorify revolution ! 
 
 It is commonly said that Pym and Hampden, 
 finding that the evidence for the impeachment 
 had failed, made short work with their victim 
 by an Act of Attainder. Mr. Forster has dis- 
 covered proof that Pym and Hampden were 
 personally against resorting to an Act of At- 
 tainder, and in favour of praying judgment on 
 the evidence in the regular way ; but the opinion 
 of the majority being opposed to theirs, they 
 went with the rest. Guilty of treason against 
 the king Strafford was not for the king was his 
 accomplice. But he was guilty, and he stood 
 and stands clearly convicted of that which Pym 
 charged him — treason against the nation. He 
 had "endeavoured by his words, actions, and 
 counsels, to subvert the fundamental laws of 
 England and Ireland, and to introduce an ar- 
 bitrary and tyrannical government." The Act 
 of Attainder was not in those days what it would 
 
 d 
 
 o| 
 I] 
 
 l-i: 
 
UfEN. 
 
 PYM. 
 
 29 
 
 is a great part 
 
 Avan speaking, 
 
 d the speaker 
 
 his discourse, 
 
 glance of his 
 
 jvohition ! 
 
 nd Hampden, 
 
 impeachment 
 
 I their victim 
 
 'ster has dis- 
 
 ampden were 
 
 1 Act of At- 
 
 judgment on 
 
 it the opinion 
 
 theirs, they 
 
 3ason against 
 
 king was his 
 
 md he stood 
 
 ' which Pym 
 
 nation. He 
 
 actions, and 
 
 ital laws of 
 
 duce an ar- 
 
 The Act 
 
 hat it would 
 
 f 
 
 be in ours, an instrument of whicli no just man 
 would make use against the worst and most 
 dangerous of criminals. It had a place in juris- 
 prudence, and would have been used on the like 
 occasion as freely by one party as by the other. 
 In this case the process had been perfectly ju- 
 dicial, and the Act of Attainder did no more 
 than punish treason against the nation, as the 
 Statute of Treasons would have punished treason 
 against the king. *' Shall it be treason," asked 
 Pym, alluding to that statute, "to embase the 
 king's coin, though but a piece of twelvepence 
 or sixpence ; and must it not needs be the effect 
 of a greater treason to embase the spirit of his 
 subjects, and to set a stamp and character of 
 servitude on them, whereby they shall be dis- 
 abled to do anything for the service of the 
 king and the commonwealth V^ And he justly 
 reasoned that laws would be vain if they had 
 not a power to preserve themselves, if any as- 
 pirant to arbitrary power might with impunity 
 compass their subversion. Falkland voted for 
 the Act of Attainder, and Falkland would not 
 have voted for legislative murder. 
 
 The Lords hesitated ; left to themselves they 
 would have shrunk from convicting on a capital 
 
 %\ 
 
 ii 
 
 
 i 
 
 ... ,i 
 
:;ii 
 
 .-!. 
 
 tn 
 
 J) ! 
 
 30 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 charge. But the popular clamour was loud and 
 terrible. The Lords showed what in them is 
 called tact, and the Bill of Attainder passed. 
 
 The king had pledged his word that not a 
 hair of Strafford's head should be harmed ; and 
 to a chivalrous mind the release which Strafford 
 sent him would have made the pledge doubly 
 strong. But the king had casuists about him, 
 and the queen hated Strafford as the rival of 
 her power, though she allowed that he had fine 
 hands. Before the trial, Charles had attempted 
 to save his minister by making overtures to the 
 leaders of the opposition, which, as they would 
 have come in as a party on their own principles 
 and with full securities, they were not only en- 
 titled but bound as an opposition to accept. 
 But the negociation was broken off" by Bedford's 
 death. Charles still tried influence and en- 
 treaty. But the discovery of the queen's plot 
 (for hers it probably was), to bring up the army 
 and overawe the par'ament, sealed Strafford's 
 doom. And so that promise made in the con- 
 ference at Greenwich was kept to the letter. 
 Better had it not been so. Better to have 
 been satisfied with establishing the principle 
 that treason against the nation was as high 
 
SMEN. 
 
 ' was loud and 
 at in them is 
 ier passed. 
 >rd that not a 
 harmed ; and 
 hich Strafford 
 pledge doubly 
 ;ts about him, 
 s the rival of 
 at he had fine 
 lad attempted 
 ertures to the 
 LS they would 
 wn principles 
 3 not only en- 
 m to accept, 
 by Bedford's 
 nee and en- 
 queen's plot 
 up the army 
 id Strafford's 
 3 in the con- 
 o the letter, 
 ter to have 
 he principle 
 vas as high 
 
 PYM. 
 
 31 
 
 ' a crime as treason against the king, and then 
 Ho have exalted and hallowed the national 
 ^ cause by mercy. The other course exalted and 
 I half hallowed the crime. But it seems to have 
 I been the feeling of all patriots that the consti- 
 itution could not be safe while Strafford lived. 
 fit was the moderate and chivalrous Essex that 
 i uttered the hard words — " Stone dead hath no 
 ^'fellow." Falkland was a party to the death of 
 J Strafford ; so was Hyde, who, while he labours 
 J to create the contrary impression, unwittingly 
 I betrays himself by a subsequent admission, that 
 f throughout these transactions he and Falkland 
 ihad never differed from each other. So was 
 Lord Capel, though afterwards, when all was 
 I changed, himself dying as a royalist on the 
 I scaffold, he professed to repent of his vote. 
 I Laud was impeached also Surely no man 
 lever tried the sufferance of his kind more 
 I severely than this persecutor in the name of 
 Ian authority which was itself the rebel of yes- 
 terday. There is something singularly tyran- 
 nical in High Anglican pretensions. The vic- 
 Itims of Laud had seen with their own eyes the 
 introduction of the doctrines and the practices 
 which they were called upon to accept as the 
 
 
 
 ■^ 
 
 nS' 
 
I 
 
 ..j. 
 
 { 1 
 
 i 
 
 f--i 
 
 32 
 
 THREE ENaiASH STATESMEN. 
 
 iiiiineiuorliil Jiiul uubrokeii tradition of an iiii 
 imitablo and iiil^illihlc! cliurcli. Laud liad Icanit 
 government in tlie petty despotism of a col- 
 lege, lie was sul)ject, as his friends said, t<i 
 some intirniities of temper; "that is," remarks 
 Mr. llalhim, "lie was cholerie, harsh, vindictive, 
 and even cruel to a great degree." In the casci 
 of Felton he wished to revive the use of toi- 
 ture ; but tliis was too nnich, even lior thu 
 judges of Charles I. Clarendon tries to make 
 out that he sulfered for his impartial severity 
 to the vices of the great. No doubt he was 
 rude, rude as he would have been to college 
 undergraduates, to all orders of men, and he 
 made himself some enemies of rank thereby. 
 But he rose in life as the creature and parasite 
 of Buckingham. lie tried, say High Church 
 writers, with complacency, t(^ win Buckingham 
 to the Church's cause. To the Church's cause, 
 no ; but to some cause which needs the pa- 
 tronage of Buckinghams. Which element pro- 
 dominated in his character, that of the bigoted 
 and intolerant priest, or that of the ecclesiastical 
 
 adventurer, it is not easv to s 
 
 h 
 
 ay : pernaps iiie 
 
 th 
 
 Boman archives, when they are explored, may 
 throw some light upon the subject. No man 
 
 t 
 
 ''. ( 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
SMKN. 
 
 ion of Mil im 
 uiid liud learnt 
 ism of a col- 
 rioiuls said, t<i 
 it is," remarks 
 rsli, vindictive, 
 III tlio CMse 
 lie use of tor- 
 even for tlu' 
 tries to make 
 jirtial severity 
 doubt he wii.s 
 een to college 
 men, and lie 
 rank tlierebv. 
 e and ])arasite 
 High Church 
 1 Buckiughaiii 
 hurch's cause, 
 leeds the pa- 
 element prc- 
 3f the bigoted 
 13 ecclesiastical 
 })erhaps the 
 .explored, may 
 jct. No man 
 
 PYM. 
 
 33 
 
 ever so distinctly conceived the alliance between 
 civil and ecclesiastical tyranny. Who could 
 conceive it so distinctly as the ambitious head 
 of a hierarchy which was a creature of tlie 
 staU' 'i When he had got the gnuit j)olitical 
 ortices placed in clerical hands, Ik; thought that 
 all that man could do had been done for ihe 
 Church of Cod. Over the porch of St. Mary's 
 Clnirch at Oxford stand a Virgin and Child, 
 placed there by Laud. The Virgin she seems 
 to be ; but look closer, the circlet round lier 
 licad is not a heavenly crown, but the coronet 
 of a peeress. She is Political Ileligion, and in 
 her arms she bears the infant Unbelief. 
 
 Pym spoke of course in support of the im- 
 peachment of Laud. He denounced in lan- 
 guage strong but not virulent the perversion of 
 God's hiw to defend the lawlessness of man, the 
 abuse of the ministry ordained for the instruc- 
 tion of souls to the j)romotion of violence an^l 
 oppression. He remarked that " tliose who la- 
 boured in civil matters to set up the king above 
 the laws of the kingdom, did yet in ecclesias- 
 tical matters labour to set up themselves above 
 the king." Laud was consigned to the Tower; 
 but no further proceedings were taken against 
 
 D 
 
 • J 
 
 t«T 
 
Jill 
 Hill 
 
 u 
 
 34 
 
 TIlIiKK ENGLISH i^TATKSMHN. 
 
 liiin till tlio liiuul of dcjitli ^VMH on Pym ; and 
 I nni [HTsnMiliHl tliat luid Pvni lived, Land 
 Avoiild not have died. It wan tlic njirrowor 
 and nioiv cruel PresbyterianH that brought the 
 old man to the hloek. 
 
 And now tliat ])roniise of a elean aweepin<r 
 of the house from Hoor to roof, whieh Pvm 
 whispered in Clarendon's ear at the meeting- 
 of the parliament, was vigorously kept. All 
 the engine's of the tyranny were demolished ; 
 all its ehief agents dt»prived and banislied. 
 The retm*n to government without })arliamentH 
 was l)arred by the 'J^ricMniial Act. Ship-money 
 judges learnt, and bequeathed to nil who might 
 like them be tempted to pervert law to the 
 purposes of power, the lesson that the justice 
 of a nation, thoTigh it sleeps, may not be dead. 
 A doubt was raised whether the king would 
 consent to the punishment of so many and such 
 liigh delinquents. " Shall we therefore doubt 
 of justice," said Pym, " because we have need 
 of great justice ?" 
 
 It is mournful to say that one of the com- 
 plaints against the king was his lenity to Popish 
 priests. But in him, the persecutor of the Pu- 
 ritans, this lenity was not toleration, but con- 
 
on Pyin ; and 
 
 I lived, Land 
 
 tlio narrower 
 
 it Immglit 11 10 
 
 loan awecpinnr 
 
 \ wliich Py 11 1 
 
 tlie n loot i no" 
 
 iy kept. All 
 
 3 deniolisljed ; 
 
 ind InmlsluMl. 
 
 it })arlianientH 
 
 Ship-money 
 
 ill who niiijfht 
 
 law to the 
 
 it the justice 
 
 not be (lead. 
 
 king would 
 any and such 
 ^refore doubt 
 k^e have need 
 
 of the com- 
 ity to Popish 
 ►r of the Pu- 
 on, but con- 
 
 iTJA 
 
 35 
 
 nivance. When the law, hateful as it was, was 
 asserted, and the priests were left to tin; Com- 
 mons, their lives were safe safer, as (/larcndon 
 peevishly says, than if they had been pardoned 
 under the great seal. Pym di^elared expressly 
 that he did not desire a,ny n«^w laws against 
 Popery, or any rigorous courses in th(^ exc^cu- 
 tion of those already in force : lie was far from 
 seeking the ruin of thtiir persons or estates ; 
 (jidy he wished they might be kej)t in su(di a, 
 condition as to restrain tlunn from (h)ing luu't. 
 To restrain them from doing hurt was unhappily 
 in those days part of a state jsiuan's duty. Th(;y 
 were liegemen and soldiers of that successor of 
 the apostles whose cordederates were ]?hilip TT. 
 and CharK's TX., and who struck a medal in 
 honour of the massacre of St. IjaTtlndomew. 
 
 And now, all tliesc reforms having hvxm ac- 
 complished, all these offenders punished, all 
 these securities for lawful government provided, 
 the king having even assented to the act which, 
 in clear contradiction to his pi'erogative, forbade 
 the dissoluti(jn of the then parliament without 
 its own consent, was it not time to bring the 
 movement to a close, and to replace the sove- 
 reign power, which the parliament had virtually 
 
 D 2 
 
 i 
 
 ti 
 
^f 
 
 I 'i 
 
 111'' 
 
 •r:i|i, 
 
 ft til 
 
 1. 
 
 
 
 
 lilil 
 
 1:^) 
 
 i 
 
 ill 
 
 36 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 seized, in the king's hands *? So thought many 
 who had up to this point been zealous re- 
 formers, and some, at all events, whose opinions 
 we are bound to treat with respect. So thought 
 not Pym and Hampden. To them it seemed 
 that the king could not be trusted ; that the 
 last day of the parliament would be the last of 
 his good faith ; that they must go on till they 
 had left him no power to undo the work which 
 had been done. They remembered the double 
 answer to the Petition of Right. They re- 
 membered, as they showed on all occasions, the 
 fate of Sir John Eliot. We have good reason, 
 they perhaps had better rea ion, to believe that 
 the court was still hostile, still intriguing, still 
 aiming at a counter revolution ; and Clarendon 
 owns that Charles had been persuaded to con- 
 sent to measures which he abhorred, on the 
 ground that they might be afterwards revoked 
 on the plea of duress. To the last it proved 
 hard to bind this anointed king. But let us 
 not forget to say emphatically, that the leaders 
 of the Commons needed all this to justify them 
 in giving the word for revolution. ^^ 
 
 They prepared a great appeal to the nation, 
 which took the shape of the Grand Remon- 
 
 .* 
 
;houglit many 
 1 zealous re- 
 ^hose opinions 
 So thought 
 ?m it seemed 
 3d ; that the 
 be the last of 
 on till they 
 ) work which 
 d the double 
 t. They re- 
 occasions, the 
 good reason, 
 believe that 
 triguing, still 
 id Clarendon 
 aded to con- 
 red, on the 
 ards revoked 
 st it proved 
 But let us 
 the leaders 
 justify them 
 
 -i 
 
 the nation, 
 md Bemon- 
 
 PYM, 
 
 37 
 
 strance. Charles now went to Scotland, osten- 
 sibly to settle matters there and disband the 
 armies, really to make himself a party, and pro- 
 vide himself with weajions against the leaders 
 of the opposition. Episcopacy being at this 
 time threatened with abolition, he assured its 
 friends that if they could keep the church safe 
 during his absence, he would undertake for its 
 safety on his return. Hampden went, with other 
 delegates of the parliament, to watch him, while 
 Pym remained at the centre of affairs, one proof 
 among many that able, powerful, and revered as 
 Hampden was, Pym, not Hampden, was the real 
 chief. The higher social position of Hampden 
 is perhaps the main sovirce of the contrary im- 
 pression. King Pym was the name given to 
 Pym by the lampooners, and though in jest they 
 spoke the truth. " The most popular man," says 
 Clarendon, " and the most able to do hurt, that 
 hath lived in any time." The most able to do 
 hurt, that is the phrase : how can a leader of 
 the people use iiis power for good ? And now 
 came the sinister news of the attempt to make 
 away with or kidnap the covenanting chiefs in 
 Scotland ; and close upon it, at once terrible 
 and maddening to Protestant hearts, the tidings 
 
 » If- 
 
 
 lit! 
 
 .i; 
 
 Ml 
 
 Ut . 
 
i' 
 
 38 
 
 TlinKE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 i 
 
 of tlu' risliiGf of tlie Catliollcs and of tlic mas- 
 sacre of the Protestiints in IreLmcl. The kini-- 
 was innocent of the Irish rebellion ; it was 
 simply a natural episode in the Irish land ques- 
 tion. But he wrote to Secretary Nicholas, " I 
 hope this ill news of Ireland will hinder some 
 of those follies in England." 
 
 It did not hinder the preparation of the Grand 
 Remonstrance. But a chivalrous nyyalist tried 
 to hinder all the follies in a more practical way. 
 A letter was one day delivered to Pym in the 
 house by a messenger who had received it from 
 a horseman in gray. When it was opened, there 
 dropt from it a rag which had been taken from 
 a plague sore, and was of course full of infection. 
 The writer intimated that, if this did not do the 
 business, a surer w^eapon would be tried. A 
 surer weapon, it seems, w^as tried, but it struck 
 the wrong man. The world improves, though 
 slowdy. Then it was the stab of the assassin's 
 dagger ; now it is only the stab of the assassin's 
 tongue. 
 
 And now the Grand Bem^onstrance was ready. 
 Manifestly drawn by Pym, it recites through a 
 long series of clauses, but with monumental 
 gravity and terseness, the gr'jvances for which 
 
 
MEN. 
 
 PYM. 
 
 39 
 
 [ of tlie luas- 
 [1. Tlie kini»- 
 lion ; it was 
 si I land qiics- 
 Nicholas, "I 
 liiiidcr some 
 
 of the Grand 
 H/yalist tried 
 >ractical way. 
 Pym ill the 
 eived it from 
 opened, there 
 n taken from 
 I of infection, 
 id I. )t do the 
 )e tned. A 
 )ut it struck 
 )ves, though 
 lie assassin's 
 ;he assassin's 
 
 e was ready. 
 s through a 
 nonumeiital 
 s for which 
 
 « 
 
 parliament had extorted redress, and concludes, 
 ill effect, hy calling on the nation to supj)ort 
 its leaders in n.aking the work good against 
 evil counsellors and reaction. On the morning 
 of the 23rd of November, 1641, it lay engrossed 
 upon the table of the House of Comnions ; not 
 the present House of Commons, as Mr. Forster 
 reminds us, but the narrow, ill-lighted, dingy 
 room in which for centuries some of the world's 
 most important work was done. And never, 
 perhaps, did that old room, never did any hall 
 of debate, witness such an oratoric struggle as 
 the debate on the Grand Remonstrance. The 
 speakers were Pym, Hampden, Falkland, Hyde, 
 Culpepper, Orlando Bridgman, Denzil Hollis, 
 Waller, Glyn, Maynard, others of name The 
 stake was the Kevolution and the fortunes of 
 all who were embarked in it. Cromwell said 
 that if they had lost he would have left Eng- 
 land. The forces were by tliis time evenly 
 balanced, for secession to the court hac made 
 great gaps in the patriot Jirray, and in the 
 royalist ranks were now seen not only Digby, 
 Hyde, Culpepper, but Falkland — Falkland, in 
 whose house, the free resort of all learning, a 
 college, as his friend calls it, situated in a purer 
 
 
 y 
 f 
 
 >! "i 
 
 A.I 
 
 
 ^4 
 
 ■m 
 
1 1 
 
 :Ji 
 
 m 
 
 40 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 I '' 
 
 air, no small part, perhaps, of the intellectual 
 elements of the revolution had been formed. 
 There were many waverers whose votes were 
 still to be lost or won. From noon to past 
 midnight the battle raged ; for a battle it was 
 of orators, not dictating pamphlets to the re- 
 porters, but grappling with each other for 
 victory. The merest skeleton, alas ! of the 
 speeches alone remains. Pym rose when the 
 debate was at its height, replying to the 
 leaders on the king's side — Hyde, Falkland, 
 Culpepper, and Sir Edward Dering. That the 
 house was thinned by fatigue before the divi- 
 sion has been proved to be a mistake; though 
 there were many trimmers who stayed away 
 altogether. At midnight, the Remonstrance 
 was carried by eleven — 159 to 148. So charged 
 was the air with the electricity of that fierce 
 debate, that when the royalist Palmer at- 
 tempted to protest, a tumult arose in which, 
 as one who was present says, they had almost 
 sheathed their sworcls in each others' breasts. 
 In the following days the exasperated majority 
 proceeded to violent measures against members of 
 the minority. Let us never glorify revolution ! 
 Now Charles arrived from Scotland, inflamed 
 
 ib 
 
 ;Jb 
 ■& p 
 P 
 
 |T 
 
 1 
 
mEN. 
 
 fie intellectual 
 been formed. 
 =?e votes were 
 noon to past 
 battle it was 
 its to the re- 
 ch other for 
 alas! of the 
 )se when the 
 ying to the 
 de, Falkland, 
 g. That the 
 ore the divi- 
 lake; though 
 stayed away 
 Remonstrance 
 
 So charged 
 f that fierce 
 
 Palmer at- 
 56 in which, 
 
 had almost 
 lers' breasts, 
 ted majority 
 t members of 
 revolution ! 
 nd, inflamed 
 
 PYM. 
 
 41 
 
 by contact with the fieiy spirit of Montrose, and 
 bringing the proofs he had sought of the com- 
 plicity of the opposition leaders with the Scotch. 
 I He found the royalist reaction strong, many 
 gained over by the queen, the students of the 
 Temple hot in his favour, a royalist lord mayor, 
 who got up for liim an enthusiastic reception 
 in the city. He was in an atmosphere of 
 violence. Whitehall was thronged with dis- 
 banded officers and soldiers, ready at his com- 
 mand to fall on. The parliament, by a bold act 
 of sovereign power, had raised for itself a guard. 
 Soon the names of Cavalier and Roundhead 
 were heard ; soon blood was shed, and the hand 
 which imfolds the book of histoiy turned the 
 red page of civil war. The French queen, 
 ignorant that in England a nation lay behind 
 the parliament, thought the time had come for 
 crushing the ringleaders and stamping out the 
 revolution. Even now it seems Charles wavered 
 between two policies, and made some overtures 
 to Pym. Then he gave ^tar to the queen and 
 Digby, impeached the five members, and went 
 himself, with an armed train, to seize them in 
 the House of Commons. All know how the 
 attempt was foiled ; how Lady Carlyle — a 
 
 
 
 ^:!iV 
 
 
 •,s4''. 
 
 |. 
 
 '«M 
 
TF 
 
 
 f^ 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 li'ii 1 
 
 liii k\ 
 
 i ,:! 1 ) 
 
 4« 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 storm-bird of this revolutionary storm, the 
 political devotee first of Strafford, and when 
 Strafford fell, of his conqueror — conveyed a 
 warning to Pym ; how the queen cried joyfully 
 that the king was master again of his king- 
 dom, and found that she had spoken too soon ; 
 how Charles entered the house, looked towards 
 the place, on the right hand near the bar, where 
 Pym sat, found that he and all the " birds" were 
 " flown ;" left the house amid cries of " Privi- 
 lege ; " tried the city ; found there now, instead 
 of an enthusiastic greeting, shouts of " To your 
 tents, Israel;" and departed from Whitehall, 
 to return once more ; how the five members 
 were brought back in triumph, " and," as Claren- 
 don says, with an irony too near the truth, " set 
 upon their thrones again ;" and how four thou- 
 sand freeholders of Buckinghamshire rode up to 
 protect their Hampden. Where are those four 
 thousand freeholders of Buckinghamshire now \ 
 And where then our English Hampden stood, 
 speaking for English liberty, who stands now 
 upholding martial law as the suspension of all 
 law? 
 
 Pym must now have seen that he had to 
 conduct a civil war. His first task was to 
 
 [st 
 
J storm, the 
 )rd, and wlien 
 — conveyed a 
 
 cried joyfully 
 L of his king- 
 >ken too soon ; 
 3oked towards 
 the bar, where 
 
 "birds" were 
 ies of " Privi- 
 
 now, instead 
 J of " To your 
 >m Whitehall, 
 five members 
 Ld," as Claren- 
 le truth, " set 
 )w four thou- 
 re rode up to 
 •e those four 
 nshire now ? 
 apden stood, 
 stands now 
 3nsion of all . 
 
 he had io 
 a-sk was io 
 
 PYM. 
 
 43 
 
 f strengthen the weak knees of the Lords. The 
 I special grievance of the Lords, the preference 
 J of upstart ecclesiastics to the great nobility in 
 I appointments to the offices of state, liad long 
 'I ago been redressed ; they saw that matters 
 f were going too far for an aristocracy, and they 
 I had begun by their qualms greatly to disturb 
 I the unity of action. They had thrcAvn out the 
 bill for taking away the votes of the bishops. 
 A great popular demonstration was got up 
 against obstruction. Pym carried the petitions 
 of the people to the Lords, and backed them 
 with a speech, in A.hich he said that the Com- 
 mons "would be sorry that the story of that 
 parliament should tell posterity that in so great 
 a danger and extremity the House oi Commons 
 should be enforced to save the kingdom alone." 
 The Lords again showed tact ; they passed the 
 bishops* bill with only three dissentient voices, 
 and they also passed the bill giving parliament 
 the command of the militia. 
 
 The passing of the bill for taking away the 
 bishops' votes was a matter of vital necessity 
 to Pym, who though himself, as has been said 
 already, an Episcopalian, and the reverse of a 
 fanatic, was thrown more and more, as the 
 
 i^i 
 
 ■ iJU 
 
 
 'far 
 
 m 
 
. Hi 
 
 ! i: i 
 
 !:m 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 
 fA 
 
 W' 
 
 
 m 
 
 11:1 
 
 Hi 
 
 K :' 
 
 1^1 
 
 44 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TESMEN. 
 
 struggle went on and the moderates seceded, 
 on the Presbyterians and the Independents. 
 Fr(jm the Independents we may be sure his 
 cultivated statesmanship would shrink ; but as 
 a leader ^le must have noted that the unwaver- 
 ing courage and devotion of these men, their 
 fixity of purpose, their terrible force, stood out 
 more clearly as the sky darkened and the storm 
 came on. Mirabeau marked the intensity of 
 convictit;u wdiich was to give ultim^ite ascen- 
 dancy to the chief of the Jacobins. Pyrix may 
 have marked the same thing in Cromwell. 
 
 The final rupture between the king and the 
 Commons took place on the demand of the par- 
 liament for the control of the mihtary forces of 
 the kingdom. No doubt if Charles had yielded 
 to this demand, nothing would have been left 
 him but the name and state of a king. And 
 yet while the king had the power of the sword, 
 could a constitution which he desired to over- 
 throw be secure ? The question is not made less 
 grave by the substitution of a standing army for 
 a militia. It may one day present itself again. 
 In truth it does partly present itself whenever 
 an attempt is made to bring the Horse Guards 
 under constitutional control. 
 
 1 i"'i 
 
 1 anj 
 j ieil 
 
 lof 
 
 '^ tlu 
 
 • talJ 
 
 A sin 
 
 ; the 
 
 i 
 
 f sqi 
 „ bei 
 
 
PYM. 
 
 45 
 
 A pause ensues of eight montlis, during wliicli 
 all Englishmen are choosing their parts, all 
 ])reparing for civil war ; the king's pursuivants 
 and his commissions of array are being encoun- 
 tered by the commissioners and the ordinances 
 of the parliament ; the old corselet and steel-cap, 
 Ihe old pike, and sword, and carbine are being 
 taken down from the wall where they had hung 
 since the time of the Armada ; the hunter and 
 the farmhorse are being trained to stand fire ; 
 squadrons of yeomen, battalions of burghers are 
 being drilled by officers who had served under 
 Gustavus ; French and German engineers are or- 
 ganising the artillery ; uniforms are being made 
 for Newcastle's white-coats, Hampden's green- 
 coats. Lord Save's blue-coats, the City of T-ondon's 
 red-coats ; banners are being embroidered with 
 mottoes, loyal or patriotic ; friends who have 
 taken opposite sides with sad hearts are waving 
 a last farewell across the widening gulf to each 
 other. Sir William Waller, the parliamentarian 
 general, writes to his future antagonist, the 
 royalist general. Sir Ralph Hopton : " My affec- 
 tions to you are so unchangeable, that hostility 
 itself cannot violate my friendship to your person; 
 but I must be true to the cause wherein I sei^ve. 
 
 Ik 
 
 i\» ''si? 
 

 if 
 
 i^^ 
 
 i'^M 
 
 
 tiij 
 
 46 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 The great God, who is the searcher of my heart, 
 knows with what reluctance I go upon this 
 service, and with what perfect hatred I lo(jk 
 upon a war without an enemy. The God of 
 peace in his good time send us peace, and in 
 the meantime fit us to receive it. We are both 
 on the stage, and we must act the parts tliat 
 arc assigned us in this tragedy. Let us do it 
 in a way of honour, and without personal ani- 
 mosities." Not only friend against friend, neigh- 
 bour against neighbour, but fatlier against son, 
 son against father, brother against brother, 
 women's hearts torn betw^een the husband who 
 fought on one side, the father and brother who 
 fought on the other ; those who last Christmas 
 met round the same board, before next ChristmaH 
 to meet in battle. If the High Church bishops 
 and clergy were too roughly handled, as un- 
 happily they were, let it be remembered that 
 this was their war. It was truly called Bellum 
 Episcopale. " I have eaten the king's bread," 
 said Sir Edmund Verney, the king's standard- 
 bearer, " near thirty years, and I will not do 
 so base a thing as to forsake him. I choose 
 rather to lose my life (which I am sure I shall 
 do) to preserve and defend those things which 
 
 '-, ar«] 
 
 ? reii 
 
 ^ Hul 
 
 I tlu 
 
 } bet 
 
 I of 
 
 
mEN. 
 
 PYM. 
 
 47 
 
 sr of my lieart, 
 go upon tliis 
 latrrd I look 
 The God of 
 peace, and in 
 We are both 
 he parts that 
 Let us do it 
 personal ani- 
 iriend, neigli- 
 r against son, 
 insc brother, 
 husband who 
 I brother wlio 
 ist Christmas 
 ixt Christmas 
 urch bishops 
 died, as nu- 
 mbered that 
 ailed Bellum 
 ing's bread," 
 s standard- 
 will not do 
 I choose 
 sure I shall 
 hings which 
 
 r 
 
 1. 
 
 are a<^ainst my conscience to preserve and defend ; 
 for I will deal freely with you, I have no reve- 
 rence for the bishops, for wliom this quarrel 
 subsists." Sir Edmund's presentiment was true : 
 the first battle released him from this struggle 
 l)etween his conscience and his chivalry. 
 
 Let it be noted, however, that the injunction 
 of Sir William Waller was not unobserved. 
 This war was on the wdiole carried on in a way 
 of honour ; and if not without personal ani- 
 mosity, at least without the savage cruelty 
 which has marked the c'vil wars of some na- 
 tions. It was waged like a war of principle, 
 like the war of a self-controlled and manly race. 
 It was entered upon too, by the Commons at 
 least, in the right spirit, as a most mournful 
 necessity, with public humiliation and prayer. 
 The playhouses were closed by an ordinance of 
 the Parliament as in a time of national sorrow. 
 These hypocrites, say royalists, knelt down to 
 pray, and rose up again to shed innocent blood. 
 And does not every religious soldier, when he 
 goes into battle, do the same ? 
 
 The king had now on his side \nost all the 
 nobility, most of the wealthier gentry, and the 
 more backward parts of the country, in which 
 
 m 
 
 ;*' -.i*,l 
 
 ■ <% 
 
 I: '^ 
 
 if 
 
 y^ 
 
 - (i 
 
 
 
 r-:t\ 
 
 
 
ii:!l!!i 
 
 .jlll I!, ;l r' 
 
 i} 
 
 U 
 
 48 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 the feudal tie between the landowners and the 
 peasantry was still strong ; such as the western 
 counties, Wales, and part of the north. Of 
 course he had the Episcopalian clergy, and the 
 cathedral towns and universities which were 
 vnider their influence. Oxford, once the in- 
 tellectual head-quarters of Sin^ )n de Montfort, 
 was now the head-quarters of Charles. The 
 Roman Catholics also were with him ; he and 
 they were in the same plot a,gainst liberty, 
 though they did not yet quite understand each 
 other. Pym and the Commons were strong 
 in the more advanced and commercial districts, 
 especially in the eastern counties. They had 
 all the great towns, even those in the districts 
 favourable to the enemy. " The town of Man- 
 chester," says Clarendon, " had from the be* 
 ginning, out of that factious humour whicli 
 possessed most corporations, and the pride of 
 their wealth, opposed the king, and declared 
 magisterially for the parliament." Birmingham, 
 too, according to the same authority, " was of 
 as great faiue for hearty, wilful, affected dis- 
 loyalty to the king as any place in England." 
 London was the head- quarters ; not a London 
 of warehouses at one end and Belgravias at 
 
PYM. 
 
 49 
 
 rners and the 
 s the western 
 e nor til. Of 
 3rgy, and the 
 which were 
 3nce the in- 
 de Montfort, 
 Charles. The 
 tiim ; he and 
 linst liberty, 
 ierstand each 
 were strong 
 cial districts, 
 .. They had 
 the districts 
 3wn of Maii- 
 'om the be- 
 Qiour which 
 he pride of 
 md declared 
 Birmingham, 
 y, "was of 
 [ifFected dis- 
 n England." 
 t a London 
 ilgravias at 
 
 the other, but a great city democracy, still 
 warlike, as the conduct of the train-bands at 
 Newbury proved, and devoted with heart and 
 purse to the cause. Above all, the Commons 
 had the lesser gentry and the independent 
 yeomanry, everywhere attached to the cause by 
 its religious side. Those independent yeomanry, 
 with high hearts and convictions of their own, 
 who filled the ranks of the Ironsjdes, who con- 
 quered for English liberty at Marston, Naseby, 
 and Worcester, in their native England are 
 now seen no more. Here they have left a 
 great, perhaps a fatal, gap in the ranks of 
 freedom. But under Grant and Sherman thev 
 still conquer for the good cause. 
 
 Foreign powers stood neutral. Happily for 
 us, Laud's desire of reunion with Eome had 
 not been fulfilled, and the Anglican reaction 
 in England remained isolated from the Catholic 
 reaction in the rest of Europe. The Anglican 
 Pope could not stoop to submission, and Home 
 would hear of no compromise. To all offers 
 of compromise, to all offers of anything but 
 submission, she then said non possumiis, and 
 she says non possumus still. So the Catholic 
 powers left Charles to the doom of a heretic 
 
 E 
 
 '4 
 
 
50 
 
 THREE ESaLLsn ,s7M 7XsJ/ /wV. 
 
 V IH 
 
 I 
 
 |>rin(M\ !Uh1 wlion Ins lu^nd loll on (lio s^'alVoM. 
 t(>ok tlu» (>])in>rtnniiy ol' Iniviny; Ins Ihu^ ml 
 liH^ion (>r works of nil. Sp.'iin |)l!iy«Ml lid- 
 own ii'Mnu^ in IvoImimI ; jukI IliolnOion ilii'on^li 
 ont. \hv wlioK* of (hos(» Irnnsnoiions lind Ihmmi 
 inirio'ninn' wilii tlio KnuKm's oT ll»o (\)n\nionM. 
 Th(^ s\in]>ntlnos of llii^ SImIvs of lloll.'md wore 
 Aviili il\o |>arlinn»on<, ihos(* of tho llonso of 
 Oranm^ willi tlio Ixinjr. 
 
 St.Mndinjj nnnv in ilioso days tluM'o was nono; 
 if tboro bad 1)0<m\, Cliarl(\s w«Mild liavo ornsliiMl 
 IvHTtv. The navy Ayas on tlio sido of tlio Ooni- 
 nu)ns. Tlio sailors won* inoliniMJ to Pnriianism, 
 and thoy woro tlio sons of ilioso who had fonglil 
 against tho yVnnada. 
 
 Tho voice oi' tho oannon was hiM'aldod ])v 
 
 « 
 
 voUoys of pajHM' nnssilos from hoih sidos. This 
 is the stormy birth -hour oi' owv n(*>ys|)a])or 
 press; and it is instnietiye to see tliat, from 
 the tirst, the party of "blood and eidtnre" 
 lield its own in rnthanism and ribahhy. A 
 statelier >yar of manifestoes meanwhile w^as 
 waired bei\yeen Pvm in tlie name of the Com- 
 mens, and Cbu'endoii in the name of the king. 
 Hal lam thinks that Clarendon had tlie best of 
 it. Mr. Forster scouts the idea. But I am of 
 
ryj]f. 
 
 Bt 
 
 <l)0 scMirold. 
 his liiK* ('(t|- 
 
 plnvcd licr 
 on lliron^li- 
 
 1M llild luMMl 
 
 lollimd AV(>r(> 
 I* House of 
 
 V AVMS none ; 
 
 IWV VV\\h]\V{] 
 
 of ihv C{)U\- 
 
 riiriinnism. 
 
 > lijul foiiglil 
 
 HTjiMed l)v 
 
 ■ 
 
 MideH. Tills 
 
 tlwit, Iroin 
 <l culture'" 
 nMrv. A 
 
 wliilo WHS 
 f tlio Coiii- 
 1' tlie king', 
 tlie l)08t of 
 ut T am of 
 
 IIjiIImim'm miiK 
 
 1. TV 
 
 Ml IM 
 
 Iryl 
 
 mir lo in.'i 
 
 I<r II 
 
 l(! 
 
 n;n("liiiioiil of l(>g{ilit;y covivr n, »<'Voliitioii ; Jind 
 H(i sli'otoliod, llio pMroliinont crnckH, mh f ll'inhdo?! 
 (locM not Ijiil lo friiirk. Yoi l*yni W!ih wh.r. in 
 
 |HVS<'Illlllg lllH ('}IIIN(5 JIH IC'g.'lliy {IM I 
 
 IcLr.'ill 
 
 ;»owMi 
 
 Mo I 
 
 o Jl 
 
 |;i\v loving people, who liiid iioi loiirnt lo lliink 
 of liiw JipJirt f'roiii M, king. Nor does lie (}iil io 
 diMitliiy IiIm power, wliioli liiy oH[ieoi;dly in iin- 
 niiiMkiiig rjilkioiow of prinoiplo. Ilydo luid nrgiiod 
 
 lliiii Hie kinir iiixJ 
 
 d Ji iillo U) ]\\h i( 
 
 )WfJ 
 
 ii;i] nie king IumI mh good a iitio t(» ni 
 of !!'ill iind ilH ningJi.zinoH, nw {iny c^f* Ihh niih- 
 jeclH .i;id to tlieir Iiomhoh ;ind landH, ;ind tluit 
 (o disposer of ili(! |»l;ie(i wiilioni liis ooriHont 
 would nlinki; ili(^ (onrKhitionH of* \)r()]H'r\y in 
 geii'-nd. "Hero," replioH J'yrri, "ilud ik laid 
 down for ;i |)rineij)]e wliioli would indeed pull 
 iij) llie very ioiindation of tlie liborfy, [)ro})e,rty, 
 iind interest oC (ivery Hiil)j(r,t in [)firtionljir, and 
 ol' nil tlio siiljjoctH in gonenil, if wo slionld 
 ;nlmit it (or a triitli tluit his rn;ijoHty lifilli tlio 
 s;inio riglit ;ind ti1l(; to liis towns {ind maga- 
 zines (l)ouglit with tlio jMiMif- money, ;»s wo 
 conooivo ili.'it at Ifidl to lifivo boon) tluit ovory 
 ])a]tieuliir iruin luitli to liis Ijouho, lands, and 
 
 « 
 
 goods ; for liis majesty's tov^ns aro no more 
 his own than his people aro his own ; and if* 
 
 E 2 
 
 J 
 
T(?n 
 
 
 ■M,i 
 
 ( I 
 
 , ■'^*i ■: 
 
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 i 
 
 m 
 
 i--,::i 
 
 52 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 the king had a property in all his towns, what 
 would become of the subjects' property in their 
 houses therein r' 
 
 A provision lal government of live peers and 
 ten commoners was formed, under the name of 
 the Committee of Safety, and installed at Derby 
 House. At its head was Pym. Hampden went 
 down to his county to muster his yeomen, and 
 to second and perhaps watch Essex, a military 
 grandee of rather lukewarm sentiments, though 
 honourable and trustworthv, whom it was 
 thought politic to make commander-in-chief 
 Pym in his youth had been in the Exchequer; 
 and the Chancellorship of the Exchequer was 
 the office destined for him when he and his 
 friends were on the point of forming a govern- 
 ment. He now used his financial knowledge 
 to organise the finance of the Commons in the 
 way of regular taxation extending over all the 
 districts in their power, to the envy of Claren- 
 don, whose side was supplied only by irregular 
 contributions and by the rapine, as wasteful as 
 it was odious, of Hupert. "One side,'' says 
 Clarendon, mournfully, "seemed to fight for 
 monarchy with the weapons of confusion, and 
 the other to destroy the king and government 
 
 wl 
 
 ml 
 
EN, 
 
 towns, what 
 irty in their 
 
 3 peers and 
 -he name of 
 ed at Derby 
 upden went 
 eomen, and 
 , a military 
 mts, though 
 )m it was 
 ^er- in -chief. 
 Exchequer ; 
 hequer was 
 he and his 
 
 a govern- 
 knowledge 
 ions in the 
 »ver all the 
 of Claren- 
 y irregular 
 tvasteful as 
 side," says 
 
 fight for 
 usion, and 
 overnment 
 
 PTM. 
 
 53 
 
 with all the principles and regularity of 
 monarchy." 
 
 Towards the end of October, 1642, whatever 
 there may have been on Pym s brow, deep care 
 must have been in his heart, for the king was 
 moving southw^ards on London, Essex was wait- 
 in ir on his march, and a battle was at hand. 
 Accordingly, on Monday, the 24th, came first, 
 borne on the wings of fear, the news of a great 
 defeat ; then better news, then worse news 
 aofain ; then Lord Wharton and Mr. Strode 
 from the army, with authentic tidings of the 
 doubtful victory of Edgehill. Edgehill, the 
 king's evening halting-place, looks out from the 
 brow of the high table-land on a wide cham- 
 paign ; and immediately below lies the little 
 town of Keynton, the evening halting-place of 
 Essex, Between Edgehill and Keynton is a 
 wood called the Graves, the burial-place of 
 five thousand Englishmen slain by English 
 hands, among them it was said of a soldier to 
 whom death was made more bitter by the 
 thought thar- he had fallen by the carbine, in 
 vai avoided, of his brother. There, on the 
 Sabbath day, October 23, Roundhead and Ca- 
 valier first tried the bitter taste of civil w^ar. 
 
 
 '' < 
 
 W 
 
 X \ 
 
 % 
 
 I '\'-\ 
 
r 
 
 64 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 
 II' . 
 
 From two o'clock till nightfall the plain be- 
 tween Edgehill foot and Keynton was filled 
 with the wild and coxifnsed eddies of a battle 
 fought by raw troops under inexperienced com- 
 manders. The action was, however, a sort of 
 epitome of the war. It began with the deser- 
 tion to the enemy of a body of Parliamentary 
 horse under Fortescue, named by his sponsors, 
 in proplietic irony, Sir Faithful. Rupert with 
 his cavalry carried all before him, rode headlong 
 off in pursuit, and returned with his wearied 
 horsemen to find the Parliamentary infantry in 
 possession of the field, and the king's person 
 in great danger. The army of the Commons 
 was enabled to hold its ground that night and 
 the next day, and thus to gain the semblance 
 of a victory — a semblance which was the saving 
 of the cause — by the zeal of the country people, 
 who eagerly brought them provisions, while the 
 king's soldiers, when they went out to forage, 
 were knocked upon the head. But as yet there 
 was no Cromwell in command, and the serving- 
 men and tapsters in the army were too many, 
 the Ironsides were too few, as in the Federal 
 army at Bull's Bun there was too much of 
 New York and too little of Illinois. Edgehill 
 
 m I 
 
 iti: 
 
3 plain be- 
 
 was filled 
 
 of a battle 
 
 ienced com- 
 
 [% a sort of 
 
 . the deser- 
 
 rliamentary 
 
 is sponsors, 
 
 lupert witli 
 
 le headlong 
 
 [lis wearied 
 
 infantry in 
 
 ng's person 
 
 3 Commons 
 
 b night and 
 
 semblance 
 
 the saving 
 
 itry people, 
 
 , while the 
 
 I to forage, 
 
 s jet there 
 
 le serving- 
 
 too many, 
 
 le Federal 
 
 much of 
 
 Edgehill 
 
 rYM, 
 
 55 
 
 h M ffl 
 
 was, in fact, our Bull's Run. The panic of the 
 Parliamentary horse at the first charge of the 
 Cavaliers was shameful. Some must have fled 
 still earlier, if there be any truth in Clarendon's 
 statement that though the battle began so late, 
 runaways, and not only common soldiers, but 
 officers of rank, were in St. Albans before night- 
 fall. If the Times correspondent had been 
 there, he would certainly have reported that 
 Englishmen would not fight. Our nation, like 
 the American nation of late, had to go through 
 greater trials, and be thrown more upon its 
 nobler self, before it could deserve victory. 
 
 The Commons voted Essex £5,000 for his 
 success. But meanwhile the king was taking 
 Banbury, and in a fortnight he was before 
 London. The Commons had gone into the con- 
 flict, like the people of the Northern States, full 
 of overweening confidence in their superior num- 
 bers and resources, and ignorant of the bitterness 
 of war. They had now found to their cost that 
 an aristocracy and its dependants, used, the 
 masters to command and the servants to obey, 
 have a great advantage over a democracy in the 
 field, till the democracy have learnt the higher 
 discipline of intelligent submission to command 
 
 if 
 
 i 
 
 ■' ' I ' 
 
 lit. 
 
 V* 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 ■41 
 
 ^i 
 
w 
 
 wr 
 
 St 
 
 TIinEE ENGLISH STATESMEN 
 
 I 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 !:iilii 
 
 % 
 
 
 % 
 
 illil 
 
 for the sake of tlieir own cause. From tlie pin- 
 nacle of exaltation they fell into the depth of 
 discouragement ; and the thirteen months of life 
 which remained to Pym were months of inces- 
 sant struggle against despondency, defection, and 
 disaster. The peers soon began to fall away. 
 The few members of the Upper House who 
 stayed at Westminster were a perpetual source 
 of timid councils. Essex himself, though he 
 kept his faith, felt the bias of his order ; he 
 was at best far from a great general, and his 
 operations in the field were apt to be affected 
 by fits of political moderation. The fortune of 
 war was on the whole decidedly in favour of 
 the king. The Fairfaxes were defeated at 
 Atherton. Sir William Waller, after the brief 
 career of victory which gained him the nick- 
 name of William the Conqueror, met with a 
 bloody and decisive overthrow at Koundway 
 Down. Bristol was surrendered by Fiennes, the 
 only notable instance of a want of military 
 courage among these leaders who, many of them 
 so late in life, had changed peaceful arts for 
 war. Only in the association of the eastern 
 counties, where Cromwell fought under Lord 
 Mandeville, the light of hope still shone. The 
 
py3f. 
 
 67 
 
 discovery of the plot formed by Waller, who 
 liiul been a leading patriot in the debate on the 
 Grand Kemonstrance, to deliver London to the 
 king, revealed the abyss on tiie edge of which 
 the leaders of the Commons stood. A mob of 
 women, and women in men's clothes, came to tiie 
 Tlonse of Commons, calling for tlie traitor Pym, 
 and it was necessary to disperse them with 
 cavalry. Hampden, Pym's second self, and the 
 second pillar of the cause, fell in a petty skirmish 
 on Chalgrove Field. Yet Pym seems to have 
 remained master of the burning vessel, tossed 
 as she was upon a raging sea. He managed 
 the war, kept watch against conspiracy, held 
 together the discordant and wavering party in 
 parliament, sustained by his eloquence the en- 
 thusiasm of the city. Unable to quell the 
 tendency of the peace party to treat, he adroitly 
 fell in with it ; went down himself to the city, 
 which had become infuriated at the report of 
 negociations, to vindicate the character of the 
 parliament, and thus remaining master of the 
 negociations, prevented them from degenerating 
 into surrender. Wliile the king, made confident 
 by success, was issuing proclamations promising 
 pardon to all but leading rebels, Pym daringly 
 
 
 
 ^(' 
 
 ?H 
 
 
 .M 
 
 '■m 
 
 iiti 
 
 n 
 
 .''Q 
 
58 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 f^ 
 
 
 
 I . ; 
 
 I ^i'i'' 
 
 
 
 'H 
 
 impeached the queen for the part which slie 
 was taking in the war. The queen was not in 
 his hands, nor hkely to be ; and if she had been 
 she would have been safe. The move was in- 
 tended only to commit Parliament past recall, 
 and to iiurl defiance at the king. The Presby- 
 terians were secured by the appointment of the 
 Assembly of Divines to reform the church after 
 their model. BuL it is evident that the free 
 nature ol Pym, and the free natures of other 
 men Hke Pym, struggled hard and long before 
 they could <3onsent to bow their necks to the 
 voke of the Calvinistic covenant, on which con- 
 dition alone the aid, now indispensable, could 
 be obtained from the Scotch. 
 
 The tide still ran for the king. Gloucester, 
 the last stronghold of the Commons in the west, 
 was in peril. Essex had sent to the Houses 
 proposals for an accommodation, the rejection of 
 which Pym and St. John, by their utmost efforts, 
 could only just procure. Then Pym went down 
 to the tent of Essex, tried on the moody and 
 jealous aristocrat the powers of persuasion which 
 had carried the Grand Remonstrance, and tried 
 them not in vi;'.n. Essex marched ; Gloucester 
 was relieved ; the king was worsted at New- 
 
 1 
 
 bu 
 cl( 
 
 of 
 tL 
 thi 
 ev( 
 
EN, 
 
 PYM. 
 
 59 
 
 which slie 
 was not in 
 le had been 
 )ve was in- 
 past recall, 
 rhe Presby- 
 aent of the 
 hurch after 
 at the free 
 3S of other 
 long before 
 !cks to the 
 which con- 
 able, could 
 
 Gloucester, 
 [1 the west, 
 he Houses 
 ejection of 
 lost efforts, 
 event down 
 aoody and 
 sion which 
 and tried 
 Gloucester 
 . at New- 
 
 I 
 
 bury ; and a ray of victory, l>reaking from the 
 cloud, shone upon Pym's last hour. 
 
 Work tells upon the sensitive organisations 
 of men of genius. Pym had been working, as 
 the preacher of his funeral sermon tells us, from 
 three in the morning till evening, and from 
 evening again till midnight. He must have 
 borne a crushing weight of anxiety besides. 
 The loathsome fables invented by the royalists 
 are not needed to account for the failure of his 
 health. He met his end, if we may trust the 
 report of his friends, with perfect calmness. 
 At the last, we are told, he fell into a swoon, 
 and when he recovered his consciousness, seeing 
 his friends weeping round him, he told them 
 that he had looked death in the face, and there- 
 fore feared not the worst lie could do ; added 
 some words of religious hope and comfort ; 
 and, while a minister was praying with him, 
 quietly slept with God. Funeral sermons are 
 not history. No character is flawless, least of 
 all the characters of men who lead in violent 
 times. But if the cause of English liberty was 
 a good cause, Pym's conscience, so far as we 
 can see, might well bid him turn calmly to 
 his rest. 
 
 
 't. . 
 
 I " 
 
 m\^4 
 
 ■'ii 
 
6o 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TESMEN. 
 
 ff^ 
 
 1 
 
 %. 
 
 :|l 111! 
 
 Til 
 
 The King of the Commons was buried with 
 the utmost pomp and magnificence in the rest- 
 ing-place of kings. The body was boriio from 
 Derby House to Westminster Abbey by ten 
 of tlie leading members of the House of Com- 
 mons, followed by both Houses of Parliament 
 in full mourning, by the Assembly of Divines, 
 and by many gentlemen of quality, with two 
 heralds of arms before the corpse bearing the 
 crest of the deceased. This last piece of state 
 shows how near we still are to feudalism, how 
 far from the Sans-culottes. Ten thousand pounds 
 were voted to pay Pym's debts, a proof that 
 he had not grown rich by the public service. 
 No doubt he had been obliged to keep some 
 state and hospitality, as head of the provisional 
 government, at Derby House. A pension was 
 also voted to his son, w^ho bore arms for the 
 parliament, but after the Restoration sank into 
 a baronetcy — one proof among many that pub- 
 lic virtue is not hereditary, and that its titles 
 ought not to be so. Nor did Oxford fail in its 
 way to do honour to the departed chief. The 
 news of Pym's death had been long eagerly 
 expected there, and when it arrived bonfires 
 were lighted, and there was high carousing 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 am| 
 
 mo) 
 seeJ 
 befl 
 he 
 
 ' I 
 
FYM. 
 
 6i 
 
 insion was 
 
 I 
 
 
 among the Cavaliers. He was gone, the man 
 most needful to the commonwealth, and as it 
 seemed at the hour of her utmost need. But 
 before he went he had turned the tide, and 
 lie bequeathed victory to his cause. 
 
 Had Pym lived and remained master of the 
 movement, what would have been the result ? 
 Into what port did he mean to steer his revo- 
 lution '] To have embarked on the sea of civil 
 war without a port in view would not have 
 been the part of a great man. The indica- 
 tions are very slight in themselves ; but taken 
 with the circumstances and the reason of the 
 case, they may perhaps amount to probability. 
 If my surmise is right, Pym would have pre- 
 served the monarchy, he would not have changed 
 the family, but he would have changed the 
 king. He would have put the king's nephew. 
 Prince Charles Louis, the eldest son of the Pro- 
 testant heroine, Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia, 
 on the English throne. The prince, unlike his 
 brothers Hupert and Maurice, had shown sym- 
 pathy with the Commons, and he was received 
 at London with much state just about the time 
 when Pym died. English history presented to 
 Pym's historic mind more than one example of 
 
 
 '^■rM 
 
 , J 
 
i ! 
 
 
 :i 
 
 lii >! 
 
 II''! 
 
 62 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 such a change of king. Thus he would have 
 done m 1643 what was afterwards done in 
 1688, but he would probably have done it 
 with a stronger and more statesmanlike hand, 
 less in the interest of the aristocracy and the 
 hierarchy, and more in the interest of the nation. 
 At the Kestoration, Pyms body was torn, 
 under a royal warrant, from its tomb, and 
 throvm with the bodies of other rebels below 
 the rank of regicide into a pit in the adjoining 
 churchyard. The great man of the heroic age 
 lies not beside the parliamentary tacticians 
 whom our age calls great. As you stand on 
 the north side of the nave of St. Margaret's 
 Church, where some canons' houses once were, 
 your feet are on the dust of Pym, of Blake 
 and Dean, of Strode, of May the parliamentary 
 historian, of Twiss the Prolocutor of the Assem- 
 bly of Divines, of Dorislaus the martyred envoy 
 of the Commonwealth, of Cromwell's mother, 
 whom also the chivalry a id oiety of the Ee- 
 storation tore out of her griwe, Hampden had 
 fallen and been buried in his own county, or 
 his dust too would be there. In the vestibule 
 of that vast and sumptuous but feebly conceived 
 and effeminately ornamented pile, no unmeet 
 
FYM. 
 
 63 
 
 ' <"^ 
 
 shrine of Plutocracy, the present House of Com- 
 mons, stand on either hand the statues of 
 parliamentary worthies. Pym is not there. 
 Ignorance probably it is that has excluded the 
 foremost worthy of them all. Pym does not 
 look down on the men who now fill the house 
 which once he led ; nor do they read on the 
 pedestal of his statue the moral of his political 
 life — " The best form of government is that 
 which doth actuate and dispose every part and 
 member of a state to the common good." But 
 Pym has a statue in history, and seldom has 
 there been more need for unveiling it than 
 now. 
 
 '■.5 
 
 Ml 
 
 "«t 
 
 -t 
 
 4 
 
 '!•' 
 
 I'* ' 
 
 4, .:'(!' 
 
'I 
 
m> 
 
 CROMWELL 
 
 
 If 
 
 1 
 
 
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 ■j^K.'i' 
 
 
 
 il 
 
 
 Hti'lBr '' 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 f 
 
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I 
 
iH^SH 
 
 1^ m 
 
 i I'M 
 
 If 
 
 II. 
 
 CEOMWELL. 
 
 I HAVE called my subject "Cromwell, I 
 ought, perhaps, rather to have called it the 
 Protectorate. For to that part of Cro:.iiweirs 
 life what I have to say will be almoi entirely 
 confined. I speak of him not as a general, 
 or as a party leader, but as a prince. 
 
 In the early debates on religion, amidst the 
 great orators of the Parliaments of Charles, 
 there had stood up a gentleman farmer of 
 Huntingdonshire, a fervent Puritan, with power 
 on his brow and in his frame, with enthusiasm, 
 genius, even the tenderness of genius in his 
 eye ; but in a dress which scandalised young 
 courtiers, and with an unmusical voice, his sen- 
 tences confused, his utterance almost choked by 
 the vehemence of his emotion. On him God had 
 not bestowed the gift of soul-enthralling words ; 
 his eloquence was the thunder of victory. 
 
 F 2 
 
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 +■ 
 1 
 
 ''•I : 
 
 ■iftfi' 
 
 : H 
 
 it 
 
 a 
 
 m 
 
68 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 i*' |:;ii,l 
 
 li 
 
 Victory went with him where he fought, 
 when she had deserted the standards of all the 
 other chiefs of his party. Hope shone in him 
 " as a pillar of fire," when her light had gone 
 out in all other men. He came to the front 
 rank from the moment when debating was 
 over, and the time arrived for organising war. 
 From the first he rightly conceived the condi- 
 tion of success — a soldiery of yeomen fearing 
 God, fearing nothing else, submitting them- 
 selves for the sake of their cause to a rigid 
 discipline, as the only match for the impetuous 
 chivalry of the Cavaliers : and his conception 
 was embodied in the Ironsides. Marston crowns 
 the first period of his career. It was won by 
 the discipline of his men. Then came the 
 struggle between his party, who wished to 
 conquer, and the Presbyterians, who but half 
 wished to conquer, who by this time hated the 
 sectaries in their own ranks more than the 
 common enemv, and whose aristocratic leaders 
 now saw plainly that the revolution was going 
 beyond the objects of an aristocracy, and that 
 it was likely to do too much for the people. 
 The Self-den}^ing Ordinance set aside the 
 Presbyterian commanders. It included in its 
 
CROMWELL, 
 
 69 
 
 operation Cromwell. But Fairfax desired liini, 
 before lie resigned his command, to perform one 
 service more ; and it was felt, as it could not 
 fail to be felt, tiiat to part with him was to 
 part w4th victury. This, as far as I can see, 
 not any intrigue of his, is the true account of 
 his retention in command. Naseby was won by 
 him with his new moo.el army ; it made him 
 the first man in England ; though since Mars- 
 ton the adverse factions had been viewing his 
 rising greatness with a jealous eye, and vainly 
 plotting his overthrow. Then came the cap- 
 tivity and the death of the king, with the 
 interlude of Hamilton's Scotch invasion, and 
 the victory of Pi*eston, gained in Cromwell's 
 fashion, which was not to manoeuvre, but to 
 train his men well, march straight to his enemy, 
 and fight a decisive battle — a fashion natural 
 perhaps to one who had not studied the science 
 of strategy, but at the same time merciful, since 
 no brave men perished otherwise than in fiight, 
 the loss of life was comparatwely small, the re- 
 sults immense. Cromwell is now the general 
 of the Commonwealth : he conquers Ireland ; 
 he conquers Scotland ; the " crowning mercy" 
 of Worcester puts supreme power within his 
 
 
 < '1 
 
 H-i^ 
 
 ■ ^1 
 
 ill 
 
■Ijij«k-ii. 
 
 I.-' 
 
 I . 'A 
 
 I 
 
 II i 
 
 70 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TESMEN. 
 
 grasp. After a pause, lie makes liimself Pro- 
 tector. 
 
 There are two points, dark spots as I think 
 them, in his career on which I must dwell to 
 pay a tribute to morality. The execution of 
 the King is treated by cynical philosophy in 
 its usual strain : " This action of the English 
 regicides did in effect strike a damp like death 
 through the heart of flunkeyism universally in 
 this world ; whereof flunkeyism, cant, cloth- 
 worship, and whatever other ugly name it 
 have, has gone about incurably sick ever since, 
 and is now at length in these generations very 
 rapidly dying." This is not the tone in whicli 
 the terrible but high-souled fanatics who did 
 it would have spoken of their own deed. They 
 at least so far respected the feelings of man- 
 kind, or rather their own feelings, as to drape 
 the scaffold with black. Cromwell would have 
 saved the king ; he would probably have made 
 terms with him, and, if he could have trusted 
 him, set him again upon his throne. Himself 
 a most tender husband and father, he had seen 
 Charles amidst his family, and had been touched. 
 But Charles could not see that he was fallen ; 
 his anointed kingship was still fact-proof. He 
 
CROMWELL, 
 
 71 
 
 tried to play off one of the two contending 
 parties against the other when it was a matter 
 of hfe and death to them both. Cromwell dis- 
 covered his duplicity. He then tried to frighten 
 Charles out of the kingdom, by sending hhn an 
 intimation at Hampton Court that there were 
 designs against his life. Charles fled from 
 Hampton Court, but, his flight being mis- 
 managed, he became a prisoner ui the Isle of 
 Wight. There he negociated with the Parlia- 
 ment, in which the enemies of Cromwell and 
 the Independents were still strong. At the 
 same time he was carrying on the intrigues 
 with the Royalist faction which produced the 
 rising in Kent and the invasion of England by 
 Hamilton. Before the army marched against 
 Hamilton, the officers, exasperated at having 
 their lives and their cause thus again put in 
 peril, after so many bloody fields, by the 
 duplicity of the king, held a prayer meeting 
 at Windsor, and there resolved — " That it was 
 their dutj if ever the Lord brought them back 
 in peace, t" call Charles Stuart, that man of 
 blood, to an account for the blood he had shed 
 and the mischief he had done to his utmost 
 against the Lord's cause and people in these 
 
 :. m 
 
 'If 
 
 1? 
 
 t 
 
 i 
 
 h 
 
 ■.'■J 
 
 M 
 
72 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 I i 
 
 ^^ 
 
 poor nations." They had before them a pre- 
 cedent in the case of Marv Stuart. When 
 they returned victorious, they signed a petition 
 " for justice e.nd a settlement of the kingdom." 
 Cromwell sends the petition to Fairfax, with 
 a letter, saying, that he finds among the officers 
 of his regimen li a great sense of the sufferings 
 of the kingdon, and a gieat zeal to have im- 
 partial justice done upon offenders. He adds 
 that he does himr'3lf from his heart concur with 
 them, and believes that God has put these things 
 into their hearts. Thus the king was brought 
 to trial and to the scaffold. This, so far as I can 
 see, is the real account of Charles's death, and 
 of Cromwell's share in it. Of CromwelFs own, 
 there is, touching this the gravest and most 
 questionable act of his life, no recorded word. 
 He does not touch on it in his speeches or his 
 letters ; he appears not to have touched on it 
 in conversation with his friends. Never did a 
 man more completely carry his secret with him 
 to the grave. That the execution of the king 
 was a fatal error of policy is a thing so clear 
 to us, thai we can scarcely suppose one so 
 sagacious as Cromwell to have been altogether 
 blind to it ; and it is, therefore, reasonable to 
 
 fl 
 
 4 » n- ♦ 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 one so 
 
 73 
 
 suppose that his course was determined not by 
 policy, but by sympathy with the feelings of 
 his soldiers. The fierce and hard Old Testa- 
 ment sentiments which were in their hearts 
 were in his heart too. Nothing, unhappily, 
 can be less true than that the act of the 
 regicides struck a damp through the heart of 
 flunkeyism, or that flunkeyism has gone about 
 incurably sick of it ever since. It is hberty, if 
 anything, that has gone about sick of it. The 
 blood of the royal martyr has been the seed of 
 flunkeyism from that day to this. What man, 
 what woman, feels any sentimental attachment 
 to the memory of James II. '? There would 
 have been less attachment, if possible, to the 
 memory of the weak and perfidious Charles, 
 if his weakness and his perfidy had not been 
 glorified by his death. 
 
 The other point is the slaughter of the gar- 
 risons of Drogheda and Wexford. Here again 
 the cynical philosophy, which from a satiety 
 as it seems of civilisation we are beginning to 
 affect, exults in the blow dealt to what it calls 
 false pliihmthropy, rose-water, universal pardon 
 and benevolence. It is to be hoped that these 
 philosophers will, as soon as possible, tell us 
 
 H 
 
 «i 
 
 \\ 
 
 i'l^i(;!#i 
 
 Mil 
 
1 , 1' 
 
 74 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 1 
 
 j 
 
 1 
 
 ,5 
 
 ill 
 
 
 f 
 
 '-_ 
 
 what philanthropy is not false, lest we should 
 all become brutes together. The war in Ireland 
 had been on both sides a war of extermination. 
 The Catholics had begun it by a great massacre 
 of the Protestants, on the reality or the atrocity 
 of which it seems to me idle to cast a doubt, 
 though assuredly if such deeds could ever be 
 pardoned, they might be pardoned in a people 
 !iO deeply wronged, so brutalised by oppression, 
 as tlie Catholics of Ireland then were. These 
 very garrisons had taken part, or were believed 
 to have taken part, in cruelties worse than those 
 committed by Nana Sahib. The feeling of Eng- 
 lish Protestants against the Papist rebels of Ire- 
 land, which of course Cromwell could not help 
 sharmg, was at least as strong as that of Eng- 
 lishmen in our own time against the Indian 
 mutineers. Cromwell summoned both places to 
 surrender, with an implied offer of mercy, before 
 he stormed. The laws of war in those days 
 were far less humane and chivalrous than they 
 are now : the garrison of a place taken h^ stori) . 
 was not held to have a right to quarter. The 
 Catholic hero, Count Tilly, had put not only the 
 garrison but the inhabitants of the great Pro- 
 testant city of Magdeburg to the sword ; and 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 75 
 
 '■I'll 
 
 i should 
 Ireland 
 aination. 
 nassacre 
 atrocity 
 a doubt, 
 ever be 
 a people 
 pression, 
 . These 
 believed 
 lan those 
 J of Eng- 
 Is of Ire- 
 not help 
 of Eng- 
 Indiaii 
 Dlaces to 
 y, before 
 se days 
 lan they 
 3y storiv 
 er. The 
 only the 
 eat Pro- 
 rd ; and 
 
 the same thing had been done by Alva and 
 other generals on the Catholic side. Cromwell 
 says in his despatch : " I am persuaded that 
 this is a righteous judgment of God upon these 
 wretches, who have imbrued their hands in so 
 much innocent blood ; and that it will tend to 
 prevent the effusion of blood for the future, 
 wliich are the satisfactory grounds to such 
 actions, which otherwise cannot but work re- 
 morse and regret." This excuse is not sufficient, 
 if any innocent persons were involved in the 
 slaughter ; no excuse can be sufficient for the 
 shedding of innocent blood on any occasion or 
 under any pretence, except in fair battle. But 
 it is at all events the excuse of a moral and 
 reasonable being. "Durst thou wed the hea- 
 ven's lightning and say to it. Godlike one ?" 
 This, I think, is the excuse of one who, under 
 the influence of a literary theory, has for the 
 moment divested himself of his morality and of 
 his reason too. 
 
 We pass on then +o the Protectorate. Great 
 questions concerning both the Church and the 
 State are still open; and till they aru settled the 
 judgment of history on Ci omwell can scarcely be 
 fixed. To some the mention of his reign still 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATES.:./. ^N\ 
 
 recalls po transient domination of liie po^vel's «»f 
 evil breaking through the divine order of the 
 political and ecclesiastical world. Others regard 
 his policy as a tidal wave, marking the line to 
 which the waters will once more advance, and 
 look upon him as a ruler who was before his 
 hour, and whose hour perhaps is now come. 
 Here we must take for granted the goodness 
 of his cause, and ask only whether he served 
 it, faithfully and well. 
 
 Of his genius there is little question. Cla- 
 rendon himself could nob be blind to the fact 
 that such a presence as that of this Puritan 
 soldier had seldom been felt upon the scene of 
 historv. Necessity, "who will have tlie man 
 and not the shadow," had chosen him from 
 among his fellows and rdaced her crown upon 
 his brow. I say again ht us never glorify re- 
 volution; let us not love the earthquake and 
 the storm more than the regular and beneficent 
 course of nature. Yet revolutions send capacity 
 to the front with volcanic force across all the 
 obstacles of envy and of class. It was long 
 before law-loving England could forgive one 
 who seemed to have set liis foot on law ; but 
 theri' never p^ihaps was a time when she was 
 
 a' 
 
ifff-^ ' mx 
 
 CROMWELL. 
 
 11 
 
 not at lieart proud of his glory, when she did 
 not feel safer beneath the pegis of his victorious 
 name. As often as danger threatens us, the 
 thought returns, not that we may have again 
 a Marlborough or a Black Prince ; but that the 
 race which produced Cromwell may, at its need, 
 produce his peer, and that the spirit of the Great 
 Usurper may once more stand forth in arms. 
 
 Of Cromwell's honesty there is more doubt. 
 And who can hope, in so complex a character, 
 to distinguish accurately the impulses of am- 
 bition from those of devotion to a cause ? Who 
 can hope, across two centuries, to pierce the 
 secret of so deep a heart '? We must not trust 
 the envious suggestions of sucli observers as 
 Ludlow or even Whitelocke. Suspicions of 
 selfish ambition attend every rise, however 
 honest, however inevitable, from obscuritv to 
 power. Through "a cloud not of wav only 
 but detraction rude," the "chief of men" had 
 " ploughed his glorious way to peace and truth." 
 These witnesses against liim are n t agreed 
 among themselves. Ludlow is sure that Crom- 
 well played the part of an arch-ljyp(xrite in 
 pressing Fairfax to command the army of Scot- 
 Iciiid ; but Mrs. Hutchinson is sure that ^hough 
 
 

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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 he was an arcli-hypocrite on otlior occasions, on 
 this he was sincere. After tlie death of the 
 king, after the conquest of Ireland, when the 
 summit of his ambition must have been full in 
 his view, he married his eldest son Richard to 
 the daughter of a private gentleman, bargain- 
 ing anxiously though not covetously about the 
 settlement, and caring, it seems, for nothing 
 so much as that the family with which the 
 connection was formed should be religious. Can 
 Richard have been then, in his fathers mind, 
 heir to a crown ? 
 
 Cromwell was a fanatic, and all fanatics are 
 morally the worse for th ir fanaticism : they set 
 dogma above virtue, they take their own ends 
 for God's ends, and their own enemies for His. 
 But that this man's religion was sincere who 
 can doubt \ It n(jt onlv fills his most private 
 letters, as well as his speeches and despatches, 
 but it is the only clue to his life. For it, when 
 past forty, happy in his family, well to do in 
 tl.\e world, he turned out with his children and 
 exposed ilil^ life to sword and bullet in obscure 
 skirmishes as well as in glorious fields. On his 
 doathbev^ his ilioughts wandered not like those 
 of Napoleon among the eddies of battle or in 
 
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CROMWELL. 
 
 iions, on 
 
 79 
 
 the mazes of statecraft, but among the religious 
 questions of his youth. Constant hypocrisy 
 would have been fatal to his decision. The 
 double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. 
 This man was not unstable in any of his ways : 
 his course is as straight as that of a great force 
 of nature. There is something not only more 
 than animal, but more than natural in his 
 courage. If fanatics so often beat men of the 
 world in council, it is partly because they throw 
 the die of earthly destiny with a steady hand 
 as those whose great treasure is not here. 
 
 Walking amidst such perils, not of sword and 
 bullet only, but of envious factions and in- 
 triguing enemies on every side, it was impos- 
 sible that Cromwell should not contract a weari- 
 ness, and perhaps more than a wariness of step. 
 It was impossible that his character should not 
 m some measure reflect the darkness of his time. 
 In establishing his government he had to feel 
 his way, to sound mens dispositions, to con- 
 ciliate different interests ; and these are pro- 
 cesses not favourable to simplicity of mind, still 
 less favourable to the appearance of it, yet com- 
 patible with general honesty of purpose. As to 
 what is called his liypocritical use of Scriptural 
 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
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 language, Scriptural language was his native 
 tojigue. In it he spoke to his wife and children, 
 as well as to his armies and his Parliaments : 
 it burst from his lips when he saw victory at 
 Diuibar : it hovered on them in death, when 
 policy, and almost consciousness, was gone. 
 
 He said that he would gladly have gone back 
 to private life. It is incredible that he should 
 have formed the design, perhaps not incredible 
 that he should have felt the desire. Nature no 
 d(mbt with high powers gives the wish to use 
 them ; and it must be bitter for one who knows 
 that he can do great things, to pass away before 
 great things have been done. But when great 
 things have been done for a great end on an 
 illustrious scene, the vi ?tor of Naseby, Dunbar, 
 ana Worcester, the saviour of a nation's cause, 
 may be ready to welcome the evening hour of 
 memory and repose, especially if, like Cromwell, 
 lie has a heart full of affection and a happy 
 home. 
 
 Of the religion of hero-worship I am no 
 devotee. Great men are most precious gifts of 
 Heaven, and unhappy is the nation which cannot 
 produce them at its need. But their importance 
 in history becomes less as civilisation goes on. 
 
 I-; ' 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 8i 
 
 A Timour or an Attila towers unapproachably 
 above his horde : but in the last great struggle 
 which the world has seen, the Cromwell was not 
 a hero, but an intelligent and united nation. 
 And to whatever age they may belong, the 
 greatest, the most god-like of men, are men, not 
 gods. They are the offspring, thougli the high- 
 est offspring, of their age. They would be no- 
 thing without their fellow-men. Did Cromwell 
 escape the intoxication of power which has 
 turned the brains of other favourites of fortune, 
 and bear himself alwavs as one wlio held the 
 government as a trust from God ? It was be- 
 cause he was one of a rehgious people. Did 
 he, amidst the temptations of arbitrary nde, 
 preserve his reverence for law, and his desire 
 to reign under it '{ It was because he was one 
 of a law-loving people. Did he, in spite of 
 fearful provocation, show on the whole remark- 
 able humanity 1 It was because he was one of 
 a brave and humane people. A somewhat larger 
 share of the common qualities — this, and this 
 alone it was which, circumstances calling him to 
 a great trust, had raised him above his fellows. 
 The impulse which lent vigour and splendour 
 to his government came from a great movement, 
 
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 not from a single man. The Protectorate with 
 its glories was not the conception of a lonely 
 intellect, but the revolutionary energy of a 
 mighty nation concentrated in a single chief. 
 
 I can never speak of Mr. Carlyle without 
 paying grateful homage to the genius which 
 produced tlie " French Revolution." That work 
 is his best, partly perhaps because it is free 
 from a hero. His " Cromwell" is hero-worship, 
 and therefore it is not true ; but like the alche- 
 mists who made real chemical discoveries while 
 they were in search of their visionary gold, 
 though he has failed to reveal a god, he has 
 not failed to help us in our study of the 
 character of a great man. 
 
 Carlyle prostrates morality before greatness. 
 His imitators prostrate it before mere force, 
 which is no more adorable than mere fraud, 
 the force of those who are physically weak. 
 We might as well bow doAvn before the hundred- 
 handed idol of a Hindoo. To moral force we 
 may bow down : but moral force resides and can 
 reside in those only whose lives embody the 
 moral law. It is found in the highest degree 
 in those at whom hero-worship sneers. Hero- 
 worship sneers at Falkland : yet Falkland by 
 
 « . 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 S3 
 
 his purity and his moderution has touched and 
 influenced the hearts of his countrymen for ever. 
 We sliall come to the vulgar worship of success, 
 and be confounded with those wlio look upon 
 misfortune as the judgment of Heaven upon the 
 vanquished. "The judgment of Heaven was 
 upon them, sir," said a Tory bishop, speaking 
 of the regicides, to Quin ; " the judgment of 
 Heaven was upon them — almost all of them 
 came to violent ends." " So, my lord," replied 
 Quin, " did almost all the Apostles." What 
 makes us men, not brutes, if it is not that 
 we reverence ourselves, and listen to the god 
 in our own breasts, instead of blindly follow- 
 ing the animal whom victory in a conflict of 
 force has marked out as the leader of our 
 herd "? 
 
 Neither force do I worship in Cromwell nor 
 arbitrary power. Milton was no Imperialist, no 
 admirer of the Caesars, no apologist of Nero. 
 I hope to show some ground for thinking that 
 arbitrary power was not dear to Cromwell's 
 heart. He was great enough, if I mistake not, 
 and felt himself great enough, to reign among 
 the free. An ignoble rature like that of Bona- 
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 never cared for the affection of a dependent 
 or for the obedience of a slave. 
 
 When a revolution is over, a government 
 must be founded, at once to gather in the fruits 
 and to heal the wounds of the struggle. And 
 the only men who can found it are those who 
 remain masters of the revolution. The man who 
 remained master of the English Revolution was 
 the victor of Worcester. The conquest of the 
 Royalists was not his only service, or his only 
 claim to supreme power. In the English, as 
 afterwards in the French Revolution, the foun- 
 tains of the social deep had at last been broken 
 up, and terrible forms of anarchy had begun to 
 appear. Cromwell had quelled anarchy as well 
 as tyranny. With a promptness and an integrity 
 which go far towards proving his paramount 
 devotion to the public good, as well as with 
 a courage, moral and personal, which has never 
 been surpassed, and at the same time with a 
 merciful economy of punishment which shows 
 how different is the vigour of the brave from 
 the vigour of the savage, he had confronted and 
 put down the great mutiny of the Levellers. 
 He had thus perhaps saved England from a 
 reign of terror. And they were no Parisian 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 8S 
 
 > 1 i.- 
 
 street mob, these insurgents with whom he had 
 to deal, nor were their leaders the declaimers of 
 the Jacobin Club. They were the best soldiers 
 that ever trod a field of battle, the soldiers who 
 had gained his own victories, led by men of 
 desperate courage, and fighting for a cause in 
 which they were reckless of their lives. 
 
 The decimated remnant of the Long Parlia- 
 ment was not a government. It was a Revolu- 
 tionary Assembly. It had lost the character of 
 a government when it deposed and beheaded 
 the king who had called it ; when it abolished 
 the other house, which was as essential a part 
 of a legal parliament as itself; when it was 
 reduced to a fourth of its legal number by 
 Pride's Purge and other violent acts of the 
 revolution. Nor was it fit to become the go- 
 vernment, though this was its aim. Revolu- 
 tionary assemblies, while the struggle lasts and 
 egotism is subdued by danger, often display 
 not only courage, energy, and constancy, but 
 remarkable self-control. So sometimes do revo- 
 lutionary mobs. But the struggle over, the 
 tendencies to faction, intrigue, tyranny, and 
 corruption begin to appear. The services of 
 the Long Parliament as a Revolutionary As- 
 
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 sembly had been immense ; its name will be 
 held in honour while English liberty endures, 
 But when it was victorious and aspired to be 
 the government, its rule was the tyranny of a 
 section, insufferable to the great body of the 
 nation. It was a dominant faction, maintaining 
 itself in power by daily violence, prolonging all 
 the evils and imperilling all the fruits of the 
 revolution. In finance it was subsisting by 
 revolutionaiy expedients, by the sale of public 
 property, and what was much worse, by con- 
 fiscation. Its office for sequestration in Haber- 
 dasher's Hall was crowded every day with the 
 trembling victims of its cruel deeds. It had 
 superseded the regular courts of justice by a 
 revolutionary tribunal which had put a man 
 to death fir having acted as the emissary of 
 Charles II. at Constantinople. In foreign policy 
 it was numing wild. It wanted to annex the 
 Dutch Republic, and when it was thwarted in 
 that chimerical scheme it plunged the two Pro- 
 testant nations into a fratricidal and disastrous 
 war. That it showed in the conduct of that 
 war great Republican vigour, and by the hand 
 of Vane created a navy with marvellous ra- 
 pidity, was but a slight compensation for so 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 87 
 
 calamitous an en'or. The measure by which it 
 was preparing to perpetuate its own existence 
 was as riuch a usurpation as tlie assumption 
 of supreme power by Cromwell. And yet what 
 could it do without a permanent head of the 
 state ? Had it issued writs for a Free Parlia- 
 ment and dissolved, it would not only have 
 committed suicide itself, but have plunged the 
 nation into an abyss of anarchy and confusion. 
 
 Cromwell was set up by the army : whence 
 an outcry against a government of musketeers 
 and pikemen. A government of musketeers 
 and pikemen is the greatest of calamities and 
 the deepest of degradations ; and how to escape 
 the danger of such government, which threatens 
 all European nations in their critical transition 
 from the feudal aristocraxjy of the past to the 
 democracy of the future, is now a pressing ques- 
 tion for us all. But the soldiers of Cromwell 
 were not mere musketeers and pikemen. They 
 were not like the legionaries of Caesar and the 
 grenadiers of Napoleon, raising the idol of the 
 camp to a despotic throne. They were the 
 best of English citizens in arms for the nation's 
 cause ; and when all was over with the cause, 
 tliey became the best of English citizens again. 
 
 
 
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 Tliroiigli tliem tlie Revolution luul conquered ; 
 they in truth were the Revohition. They had 
 no riglit, and tliey liad as little inclination, to 
 Bet up a niihtary tyranny ; but tliey had a right 
 to give a chief to the State and to support the 
 goverimient of the chief whom they had given. 
 It was in fact upon them and their general, not 
 upon the nation or any considerable party in it, 
 that the Parliament itself rested, and they and 
 their general were accordingly responsible for 
 its acts and for the continuance of its power. 
 
 Nor was the chief whom they gave to the 
 nation a Caesar ; much less was he a Bonaparte, 
 an unprincipled soldier of fortune vaulting on 
 the back of a Revolution to make himself an 
 emperor. The relation of Cromwell to the Eng- 
 lish Revolution was not that of a Napoleon, but, 
 if it is not blasphemy to mention the two names 
 together, that of a Robespierre. The chief of 
 the Rousseauists was the leader of the most 
 religious and the deepest part of the French 
 movement, though shallow was the deepest. 
 Cromwell was in like manner himself the leader 
 and embodiment of the most religious and the 
 deepest part of the English movement. He was 
 Puritanism anned and in power, not the sue- 
 
CnO.VWELL. 
 
 ft9 
 
 ccRHful general of a forcMgn war. I say tluit in 
 ihii case alike of tlie Pjiglinh and of tl»e French 
 Uv. olution the most leligiou.s j»art of the move- 
 ment was tlie deepest part. Tlie most religious 
 part of all movements is the deepest part. Be- 
 neath these social and political revolutions which 
 are now going on around us, and which seem to 
 move society so deej)ly, do we not perceive, 
 deeper than all, a revolution in religion — a 
 revolution which may one day clothe itself in 
 some form of power and cast the world again 
 in a new mould ? 
 
 The form of government which Cromwell 
 meant to found was a monarchv, with himself 
 cis mcjnarch. I do not doubt that this was his 
 design from the time when he took supreme 
 j)ower into his hands. But it was not to be 
 a Sjbuart monarchy. It was to be a Constitu- 
 tional and a Protestant monarchy, with Par- 
 liamentary government. Parliamentary taxation, 
 reform of the representation, an enlightened 
 and vigorous administration, the service of the 
 State freely opened to merit, trial by jury, law 
 reform, church reform, university reform, the 
 union of the three kingdoms, a pacified and 
 civilised Ireland, and with no halting and 
 
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 wavering foreign policy, but the glorious head- 
 ship of the Protestant cause in Europe; above 
 all with that to which Milton pointed as the 
 chief work of his chief of men, that for which 
 the leader of the Independents had through- 
 out fought and suffered — liberty of conscience. 
 CrornweU might well think that he thus gave 
 the nation all the substantial objects for which 
 it had fought. But how far in this policy per- 
 sonal ambition may have mingled with public 
 wisdom is a question which, as I said before, can 
 be answered by the Searcher of Hearts alone. 
 
 After the foundation of the monarchy would 
 necessarily have come a dynasty, with all the 
 accidents and infirmities to which dynasties 
 are liable; but this dynasty would have been 
 bound by stronger pledges than the Hanoverian 
 dynasty was to Protestantism and Constitutional 
 Government. 
 
 We need not sneer at the high aspirations of 
 Vane and the Republicans. If some men did 
 not aspire too high, the world in general would 
 fall too low. But few think that a democratic 
 republic would then have been possible even 
 for England ; much less would it have been 
 possible for the three kingdoms, as yet most 
 
CROMWELL, 
 
 91 
 
 imperfectly united, and two of them politically 
 in a very backward state. It must have been 
 an oligarchical republic like that of Holland: 
 and it must hav-'^ been, for a long time at least, 
 a party republic. Vane said that none were 
 worthy to be citizens who had not fought for 
 liberty. There would thus have been no pro- 
 spect of reconciliation or of oblivion : the fruit 
 of the nation's sufferings would have been a 
 chronic civil w .r. It was time to make Eng- 
 land again a nation. This a national govern- 
 ment alone could do. And as matters stood, 
 the government of a single chief, raised in some 
 measure above all parties, could alone be na- 
 tional. Cromwell's first act after Worcester 
 had been to press on the parliament a general 
 amnesty, in which he was supposed as usual 
 to have some sinister end in view. The first 
 day of his reign was the last of confiscation 
 and of vengeance. From that day every Ca- 
 valier was safe in person and estate ; might, 
 after a short probation, regain the full rights 
 of a citizen ; might, by mere submission to the 
 established government and without injury to 
 his honour, become eligible to the highest offices 
 of the state. 
 
 
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 THREE E^^GLISIl STATESMEN, 
 
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 The conduct of Cromwell luis been contrasted 
 with that of Washhigton. The two cases were 
 quite different. In the case of Washington 
 there had not been a civil war in the proper 
 sense of the term, but a national struggle 
 against an external power, which left the na- 
 tion united under a national government at its 
 close. England, as Cromwell said in his rough 
 way, stood in need of a constable : America 
 did not. 
 
 On the other hand, the insulting violence of 
 the manner in which Cromwell turned out the 
 Long Parliament is not to be justified. That 
 scene leaves a stain on his character as a man 
 and as a statesman. By thus setting his heel 
 on the honour of those with whom he had 
 acted, and whose commission he bore, he was 
 guilty of a breach of good policy as well as 
 of right feeling. He needlessly stamped the 
 origin of his own government with the cha- 
 racter of violent usurpation, and he made for 
 himself deadly enemies of all those on whom 
 he had trampled. It is not improbable that 
 he was hurried away by his emotions, which, 
 dissembler as he is supposed to have been, 
 sometimes got the better, to an extraordinaiy 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 93 
 
 extent, of his outward self-control : and that, 
 having wound himself up by a great effort to 
 a doubtful act, he w^nt beyond his mark, and 
 launched out into lanpiage and gestures which 
 to those who witnessed them seemed insane. 
 In his first speech to the Littlo Parliament, he 
 paid at least a tribute of homage to legality 
 and right feeling. "I speak here in the pre- 
 sence of some that were at the closure of our 
 consultations, and as before the Lord — the 
 thinking of an act of violence was to us worse 
 than any battle than ever we were in, or that 
 could be, to the utmost hazard of our lives: 
 so willing were we, even ve»T tender and de- 
 sirous, if possible, that these men might quit 
 their places with honour." Be it remembered, 
 too, that there was no insolent parade of mi- 
 litary power. Cromwell went down to the 
 house not in uniform, but in plain clothes. 
 Much less were there the arrests, the street 
 massacres, and the deportations, which consti- 
 tute the glory of a coup d'etat in France. 
 
 To restore the Constitutional and Protestant 
 monarchy in his own person was Cromwell's 
 aim. In this enterprise he had against him 
 all the parties; but he might flatter himself 
 
 
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 that lie had the secret wishes and the ten- 
 dencies of tlie nation on his side. He had in 
 his favour the divisions among his enemies, 
 which were such that they could scarcely ever 
 act in concert; his own surpassing genius; a 
 temperament which never knew despair ; a 
 knowledge of men gained by reading the heart 
 when it is most open, at the council-board in 
 dangerous extremity, or on the eve of battle 
 by the camp-fire side. And the army, though 
 opposed in the main to his design of restor- 
 ing the monarchy, was bound to his person 
 by the spell of victory. 
 
 The step from civil war to legal government 
 cannot be made at once. There must be a 
 period of transition, diu-ing which government 
 is half military, half legal, and while law is 
 gradually resuming its sway, the efforts of the 
 defeated parties to prevent a government from 
 being founded will have to be repressed by 
 force. It will be the duty of the head of the 
 government to see that his measures of re- 
 pression are strong enough and not too strong ; 
 that he hastens, as much as the enemies of the 
 government will permit, the restoration of the 
 reign of law. Cromwell well understood the true 
 
 ii 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 96 
 
 docT' lie of political necessity. " When matter?, 
 of necessity come," he said to his parliament, 
 " then without guilt extraordinary remedies 
 may be applied ; but if necessity be pretended, 
 there is so much the more sin." He did not 
 allow the government to be militaiy for an 
 hour ; but at once summoning the Barbones 
 Parliament, rendered up his authority into their 
 hands. " To divest the sword of all power in 
 the civil administration" was the declared ob- 
 ject of the great soldier in summoning this 
 assembly. A parliament the assembly is called ; 
 but it was not elective or represen»:ative ; it 
 was a convention of Puritan notables caLled by 
 Cromwell. It was denounced at the time and 
 has since been commonly regarded as a jvinta 
 of fanatics who wanted to sweep away law, 
 learning, and civil society to mai o room for the 
 code of Moses and the reign of the saints. It 
 went to w^ork in eleven committees ; for the 
 reform of the law ; for the leform of prisofis ; 
 for the reform of the finances and the light- 
 ening of taxation : ^or Ireland ; for Scotland ; 
 for the arm}''; for r3titions ; for public debts; 
 for the regulation of the commissions of the 
 peace and the reform of the poor-law ; for the 
 
 
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 advancement of trade ; for the advancement 
 of learning. Among its proceedings we find 
 measures for the care of lunatics and idiots, 
 for the regular performance of marriages and 
 the registration of births and deaths, for probate 
 of wills m all counties, for law reforms which 
 pointed both to a more speedy and cheaper 
 administrtiuon of justice and to the preparation 
 of a simple and intelligible code of law. We 
 have not yet carried into effect the whole pro- 
 gramme of these mad fanatics ; but we have 
 carried into effect a good part of it, and we 
 are hoping to carry into effect the rest. But 
 the Barbones Parliament was wanting in know- 
 ledge of government : it attempted too much 
 and it went too fast, common faults in a revo- 
 lution, when the minds of men are stimulated to 
 the morbid activity of political thought. It 
 aroused the formidable opposition of all the 
 lawyers and of all the ministers of religion : 
 it showed an inclination prematurely to reduce 
 the army, which, it is idle to doubt, was still the 
 indispensable support not only of the general's 
 power, but of the Cause ; and, moreover, it did 
 not do the essential thing ; it did not take 
 measures for the foundation of a government, 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 97 
 
 while it had no title to be the government itself. 
 Cromwell determined to bring its sittings to an 
 end. As usual, it is thought that he was play- 
 ing a deep game, that he had foreseen that the 
 Barbones Parliament must fail and that its 
 failure would render him more indispensable 
 than ever. A deep game indeed, to bring to- 
 gether the leading men among your own friends, 
 discredit them by failure, and then make them 
 your enemies by sending them away ! If Crom- 
 well intended that the Barbones Parliament 
 should prove a failure he took a strange way 
 to his end, for he undoubtedly summoned to it 
 the best men he could find — men so good that 
 his enemies were greatly chagrined at seeing an 
 assembly so respectable answer to his call. The 
 Machiavellian theory of his conduct was easily 
 framed after the event : no sagacity could have 
 framed it before. 
 
 Cromwell now called a council of leading men, 
 civilians as well as soldiers, to settle the govern- 
 ment : and this council made him Lord Pro- 
 tector of the three kingdoms, with the pro- 
 visional constitution called the Instrument of 
 Government. And if Cromwell set up arbitrary 
 power, here is the arbitrary power which he set 
 
 H 
 
 !: 
 
 •u 
 
 
 i t ■;! I'M.-, 
 
 ^^ 
 
fW, 
 
 1! *: 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 ur . The executive government is to be vested 
 in an elective Protector and a Council of State. 
 The members of the Council of State for the 
 first turn are named in the Instrument. When 
 a vacancy occurs, Parliament is to elect six can- 
 didates ; of these six the Council of State is to 
 choose two, and of these two the Protector is 
 to choose one. The powers of legislation and 
 taxation are to be vested in Parliament alone, 
 the Protector having only a suspensive veto for 
 twenty days. A Parliament is to be held once at 
 least in every three years. The Protector is to 
 have the disposal of the army with the consent 
 of the Parliament when Parliament is sitting, 
 of the elective Council of State when it is not. 
 In the event of war, Parliament is at once to be 
 convoked. The Protector and the Council are 
 empowered to frame ordinances for the govern- 
 ment of the country till Parliament meets ; a 
 temporary provision, which only gave a legal 
 character to an inevitable exercise of power. It 
 was probably designed by the chief framers of 
 the Instrument that the elective Protector should 
 make way for an hereditary king ; but no de- 
 sign was ever entertained of departing from the 
 constitutional principles on which this settle- 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 99 
 
 ment was based : on the contrary, those prin- 
 ciples were afterwards ixiost distinctly ratified 
 in the document called the Petition and Advice, 
 under which Cromwell was invited to take upon 
 him the title of king. The Protector declared 
 himself content to submit to all these limitations 
 of his power, and ready to submit to further 
 limitations, if by so doing he could satisfy the 
 Parliament and give peace to the nation. 
 
 The constitution enacted by the Instrument 
 presents several points of interest. Government 
 under it can hardly be party government, the 
 members of the Council of State being elected 
 by personal merit, for life, and under conditions 
 which prevent the Council from becoming a 
 cabinet or cabal. Provision is made for the 
 permanent existence of a national council, even 
 in the Parliamentary recess. The army is 
 brought thoroughly under the constitution. The 
 nation is secured against the danger of being 
 entangled in a war, without its own consent, by 
 the ministers of the crown. The organic legis- 
 lation of Cromwell's time may still deserve 
 the consideration of constitutional reformers, 
 if the nation should ever desire to emancipate 
 itself from the government of party, which by 
 
 H 2 
 
 
 
 if) 
 
 5 ^:!:^tj 
 
 
 m 
 
100 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 
 its faction-fights, its rogueries, its hypocrisies, 
 the ascendancy which it gives to mere Parlia- 
 mentary gladiators, — if the name of gladiator is 
 not profaned by applying it to the hero of a 
 venomous tongue, — and by its failures at home 
 and abroad, must be beginning to bleed serious 
 thoughts in the mind of every independent lover 
 of his country. 
 
 The Instrument embodied a measure of Par- 
 hamentary Reform, which Clarendon says was 
 fit to be more warrantably made and in a better 
 time. The representation was fairly redistributed 
 on the basis of population. The small boroughs 
 were swept away. Eepresentatives were given 
 to large towns hitherto unrepresented, Man- 
 chester among the number. The county repre- 
 sentation was greatly increased ; Yorkshire, for ex- 
 ample, having fourteen members. Not only real 
 but personal property was admitted as a qualifi- 
 cation for the county franchise, every person 
 being empowered to vote who had property of 
 any kind to the value of £200, so that the copy- 
 holders, of whom there were a large number at 
 that period, would have been enfranchised, as 
 well as the leaseholders for Hves, who were also 
 a numerous class. Tenants at will, on the other 
 
 -IP' '' 
 
CROMWELL, 
 
 lOl 
 
 hand, would not have been enfranchised unless 
 they had independent property, to the requisite 
 value, of their own. The result would have 
 been most worthy and independent county con- 
 stituencies, consisting in great measure of the 
 yeomen, whose political virtue and military 
 valour had just saved and still sustained the 
 country. The borough franchise, with all its 
 varieties of suffrage, was left untouched. If 
 this measure still does not sound democratic, 
 we must bear in mind that serfage had but 
 recently ceased to exist in England, while its 
 traces still lingered in Scotland ; that the manu- 
 facturing interest and the artisan class were in 
 their infancy ; that this was the last stage of 
 the feudal, whereas ours is the industrial era. 
 To know the value of Cromwell's Reform, we 
 have only to consider what the rotten boroughs, 
 to whicii the Restoration of course reveited, did 
 for us in the two centuries which followed the 
 Protectorate. 
 
 The Protector was now installed with mo- 
 derate state, and on the next 3rd of September, 
 his lucky day, he took the first great step to- 
 wards the restoration of Constitutional Govern- 
 ment by meeting his first Parliamttit. That 
 
 -•'iU. 
 
I02 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 ?i^ ! 
 
 •■^1 
 
 1,1 ■ i' 
 
 Parliament proved refractory. Instead of voting 
 the necessary supplies r.nd doing the business of 
 the country, its members fell to questioning the 
 right of the Protector. The answer to their 
 questionings was simple. If they wanted divine 
 right, it was by the Protector's hand that God 
 had saved them aU. If they wanted human 
 right, it was by virtue of his writ that they 
 were there. In the end it was found necessary 
 to put to each member a test, in the form of an 
 engagement to be faithful to the established 
 government by a single person and a parlia- 
 ment. The test was nothing more than was 
 implied in the writ under which each member 
 had been elected ; yet many of the Republicans 
 refused it and were excluded. Even after this 
 purgmg, the Parliament remained intractable. 
 It spent its time in the persecution of a Soci- 
 nian, and showed a tendency to tamper with 
 the fundamental principle on which Cromwell 
 always insisted — liberty of conscience. The 
 Protector at last dissolved it, with thunder in 
 his voice and on his brow ; and in doing so 
 he did well. 
 
 He was now driven again to govern for a time 
 without Parhament ; and the Royalist plots and 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 103 
 
 risings obliged him to appoint major-generals. 
 But his government was taking root. The na- 
 tion felt the beneficence of his administration ; 
 the glories of its foreign policy touched its heart. 
 Men contrasted them with the ignominy of the 
 Stuarts, as when the Stuarts were restored they 
 had reason to do again. The tidings of Blake's 
 victories were ringing through England when 
 the Protector again met a Parliament. 
 
 This time nothing w^as to be risked. The 
 known malcontents were from the first excluded. 
 Their exclusion, though veiled under a legal 
 form, was an act of arbitrary power. The jus- 
 tification for it was, that if these members had 
 been allowed to take their seats, they would 
 have done their best to overturn the govern- 
 ment ; that, if they had overturned the govern- 
 ment, they would have brought in not the 
 Republic of which Vane dreamed, nor the Reign 
 of the Saints of which Harrison dreamed, nor 
 the Covenanted King and the Calvinistic Church 
 of which the Presbyterians dreamed, but the 
 Stuarts ; and that if they Lid brought in the 
 Stuarts, they would have cancelled the revolu- 
 tion, wrecked the cause, and set their own heads 
 on Temple Bar. 
 
 
 U 
 
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 I'-p- 
 
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 104 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TESMEN. 
 
 After the exclusion, the Parliament still num- 
 bered three hundred and sixty members, friendly 
 in the main. And now the time was come for 
 the great attempt. A long train of waggons 
 bore through London streets the spoils and 
 trophies of Blake's victories over Spain. A 
 poet was writing — 
 
 "Let the brave generals divide that bough, 
 Our great Protector hath such wreaths enow : 
 His conquering head has no more room for bays, 
 Then let it be as the glad nation prays ; 
 Let the rich ore forthwith be melted down , 
 And the State fixed by making him a crown : 
 With ermine clad and purple let him hold 
 A royal sceptre made of Spanish gold." 
 
 By the series of resolutions called the Peti- 
 tion and Advice the Protector was invited to 
 take upon him the government by a higher 
 title, and with a second house, which was to 
 consist of seventy members to be named by the 
 chief magistrate with the consent of parliament. 
 Then followed the most anxious deliberation in 
 Cromwell's life. He spoke himself of royalty 
 v;ith indifference, as a feather in the cap, the 
 shining bauble for crowds to kneel and gaze at. 
 I am ready, for my part, to believe that a man 
 who has done such things in such a cause may, 
 
 % 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 105 
 
 by the grace of heaven, keep his heart above 
 tinsel. But we know why the title of king 
 might, apart from any love of tinsel, seem es- 
 sential to his policy. The lawyers could not get 
 on without it ; the people, as they then were, 
 craved for it. It was constitutional, whereas 
 that of Protector was not constitutional : it saved 
 persons adhering to the king de facto under the 
 statute of Henry VII., whereas that of Protector 
 did not. But the stern Republicans of the anny 
 were resolute against monarchy. It was not for 
 a king that they had shed their blood. To their 
 opposition Cromwell for the present yielded. 
 Probably he not only yielded to it, but respected 
 it. To be turned from his course by fear, it has 
 been truly said, was not a failing to which he 
 was prone. But ardent, sanguine, inexhaustible 
 in resources as he was, he was the victim of no 
 illusions. He knew the difference between the 
 difficult and the impossible ; he faced difficulty 
 without fear, and he recognised impossibility 
 without repining, and again turned his mind 
 steadily towards the future. 
 
 So Cromwell mingled not with the crowd of 
 kings. He wore no crown but "Worcester's 
 laureat wreath," and the more laureat wreath of 
 
 t iit 
 
 i\j'.. 
 
 
 '.,;.i« 
 
 

 
 io6 
 
 THREE ENGLtSH STATESMEN, 
 
 Milton's verse. Fate ordained that he should 
 stand in history a chief of the people. 
 
 Part of the Petition and Advice however was 
 carried into effect. The Protectorate had been 
 elective. The Protector was now empowered to 
 name his successor. There had hitherto been 
 only one House of Parliament : there were now 
 to be two, and the still half-feudal instincts of 
 the nation were to be indulged with a House of 
 Lords. This was the first Parliamentary settle- 
 ment of the new constitution ; the Instrument 
 of Government under which the Protector had 
 hitherto acted having been framed as a pro- 
 visional arrangement by a council of military 
 and political chiefs. To mark the legal com- 
 mencement of his power the Protector was in- 
 stalled with more solemnity than before, and 
 with ceremonies more resembling a coronation, 
 the account of which is given us by Whitelocke, 
 who, though no lover of Cromwell, seems to 
 have been impressed with the scene. In West- 
 minster Hall, under a canopy of state, was 
 placed a chair of state upon an ascent of two 
 degrees, with seats down the haU for the par- 
 liament, the dignitaries of the law, the mayor 
 and aldennen of London. Thither on the 26th 
 
 of 
 
 on 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 107 
 
 of June, 1657, went the Protector with his 
 council of atate, his ministers, his gentlemen, 
 sergeants -at -arms, officers, and heralds. His 
 Highness standing under the canopy of state, 
 the Speaker, in the name 'of the Parliament, put 
 on him a robe of purple velvet lined with 
 ermine, delivered to him the Bible, richly gilt 
 and bossed, girt on him the sword of state, and 
 put a golden sceptre into his hand. The same 
 functionary then gave him the oath to observe 
 the constitution, with solemn good wishes for 
 the prosperity of his government. Mr. Manton, 
 the chaplain, next by prayer recommended the 
 Protector, the parliament, the council, the forces 
 by land and sea, the whole government and 
 people of the three nations to the blessing and 
 protection of God. Then the people gave a 
 shout and the trumpets sounded. The Protector 
 took his seat in the chair of state, with the 
 ambassadors of the friendly nations and the high 
 officers of the Protectorate round him ; and as 
 he did so the trumpets sounded again, heralds 
 proclaimed the title of his Highness, and the 
 people shouted once more " God save the Lord 
 Protector." So looked sovereignty when for a 
 moment it emerged from feudalism and showed 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
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 itsulf in the aspect of the modern time. At 
 the gorgeous coronation of Napoleon, some one 
 asked the RepubHcan General Augereau whether 
 anything was wanting to the splendour of the 
 scene ? " Nothing," replied Augereau, " but the 
 presence of the million of men who have died 
 to do away with all this." There was not much 
 in Cromwell's installation to do away with which 
 any man of sense had died. We got back after- 
 wards to the more august and venerable cere- 
 mony, with the bishops, the anointings, the 
 champion in armour, and the glorious expense, 
 which the finances of the Protectorate could ill 
 bear. At the coronation of George III., as 
 Horace Walpole tells us. Lord Talbot, the Lord 
 Steward, had taught his horse to back all down 
 the hall after his rider had delivered the cup to 
 the king ; but the too- well-trained animal in- 
 sisted on backing into the hall and going all 
 up it with its tail in the king's face. 
 
 The second Parliament wasted time and vio- 
 lated the Protector's principles by the persecu- 
 tion of Naylor, a poor victim of the religious 
 frenzy which had seized many weak natures 
 in the vortex of a religious revolution. But it 
 voted supplies, and on the whole acted cordially 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 109 
 
 vvitli the Protector. Hope dawned on the grand 
 enterprise. 
 
 Its dawn was again overcast. When Parlia- 
 ment met after the recess, it was with the 
 excluded memberr. restored to their seats and 
 with an Upper House. The Upper House was 
 a failure. An old aristocracy may he j)atched 
 to any extent, especially if some freedom is 
 allowed in constructing Norman pedigrees ; but 
 to make a new one when the age of conquest 
 and conquering races is past, is happily not 
 an easy thing. Cromwell got few men of ter- 
 ritorial or social consequence to sit, and he 
 incurred many damaging refusals. He said 
 that he wanted something to stand between 
 him and the Lower House, his direct contests 
 with which were no doubt bringing a heavy 
 strain upon his government. But to make up 
 his House of Lords, he had to take many of 
 his supporters from the Lower House, where 
 the great battle of supplies was to be fought, 
 and probably to break up the lead for the 
 government there. The result was that the 
 Lower House fell foul of the Upper, and 
 the ship became unmanageable once more. At 
 the same time, and perhaps in consequence of 
 
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no 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 '••it' '■''<. I P ;' 
 
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 the distress of the Government, conspiraxjies, 
 both E-oyalist and Kepublican, had broken out 
 on the most formidable scale. It was necessary 
 at once to dismiss Parliament, and to deal 
 with this danger. And so effectually was it 
 dealt with, though at a small cost of blood, 
 that, after this, the Royalists rose no more. 
 The hopes of that party, in the eyes of the 
 shrewdest judges in Europe, were dead : and 
 Charles Stuart could scarcely obtain common 
 courtesy, much less recognition or support, from 
 Mazarin or Don Louis de Haro. Only the 
 Presbyterians had the power which, when Crom- 
 well was gone, they used with such happy re- 
 sults to the nation and themselves, of setting 
 the Stuarts again upon the throne. 
 
 In these contests with refractoiy parliaments, 
 the great soldier and statesman had to play 
 the part of an orator. He was too old to learn 
 a new art. He did not prepare his speeches; 
 and when he was asked to write down one 
 of them a few days after it had been delivered, 
 he declared that he could not remember a word 
 of it. Clumsier or more uncouth compositions 
 than the reports which have come down to us, 
 the records of bad oratory do not contain. The 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 Ill 
 
 grammar is hopeless, the metaphors and con- 
 fusions of metaphor most grotesque — " God 
 kindling a seed" — "the Lord pouring the nation 
 from vessel to vessel, till He poured it inco your 
 lap." The last editor only makes the matter 
 worse by his running commentary of admiring 
 ejaculations. But the speeches are not kings' 
 speeches. There runs through them all a strong 
 though turbid tide of thought. They are the 
 utterances of one who sees his object clearly, 
 presses towards it earnestly, and struggles to 
 bear forward in the same course the reluctant 
 wills and wavering intellects of other men. The 
 great features of his situation, the great prin- 
 ciples on which he was acting, are brought out, 
 as M. Guizot says, with a breadth and force, 
 which are a strong proof of a statesmanlike 
 intellect, and not a small proof perhaps of good 
 faith. But he pleaded to deaf ears. It is vain 
 to rail at those who refused to listen to him, 
 and who thwarted him to the ^-ad. They were 
 not great men. They were contending, many 
 of them at least, in singleness of heart, for what 
 they believed to be the good cause. They might 
 say with truth that Cromwell had changed ; 
 that the language of the Revolutionary Soldier 
 
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112 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
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 5ff..1ir 
 
 was not tliat of the Head of the State ; that his 
 mind had grown more comprehensive, his vision 
 clearer since he had risen to a higher point of 
 view and into serener air : and, as he liad 
 changed, they might represent him to them- 
 selves as a renegade and a traitor. These 
 misunderstandings between men who yesterday 
 stood side by side are another mournful part of 
 revolutions. We owe those who resisted Crom- 
 well forbearance and respect. So far as they 
 were struggling for English law against what 
 they believed to be lawless power, we owe them 
 gratitude. Principles are worth incomparably 
 more than any possible benefits of any one man's 
 rule. Yet the conduct of these patriots brought 
 ruin on all they loved. 
 
 When Parliament refused the necessary sup- 
 plies, the Protector was compelled to levy the 
 old taxes by an ordinance in Council: but he 
 did this with manifest reluctance, and with a 
 manifest desire to return to Parliamentary taxa- 
 tion, as well as to Parliamentar\ government in 
 other respects. The spoils of the Spanish gal- 
 leons helped his finances for a time. A less 
 noble source of supply was an income-tax of ten 
 per cent, levied on the Royalists after their great 
 
CROMWELL, 
 
 113 
 
 at his 
 vision 
 int of 
 3 had 
 them- 
 These 
 terdav 
 Dart of 
 Crom- 
 ,s they 
 b what 
 e them 
 parably 
 e man's 
 >rought 
 
 ry sup- 
 ivy the 
 I but he 
 with a 
 ly taxa- 
 
 lent in 
 |sh gal- 
 
 lA less 
 of ten 
 
 Li' great 
 
 revolt. In that great resource, frugality, the 
 government of Cromwell was rich ; considering 
 what it did, it was the cheapest government 
 England ever had. But the truth is, greatness 
 is generally cheap : it is littleness aping great- 
 ness that is so dear. The Protector offered to 
 lay the financial administration open to the most 
 rigorous inspection. He was not afraid, he said, 
 on that score to face the nation. He was ready, 
 in fact, to do anything, except to allow the 
 government to be overturned : rather than that, 
 he said, he would be rolled v/ith infamy into his 
 grave. 
 
 All this time he had been struggling with a 
 series of plots against his power and his life. 
 The ground on which his tottering throne was 
 reared heaved on all sides with conspiracy and 
 rebellion. The plotters were not only Royalists 
 but fanatical Republicans, leaguing themselves 
 in their frenzy with Royalists to their own 
 destruction. To the Republicans Cromwell be- 
 haved as to old friends estranged. The utmost 
 that he did was to put them for a time in 
 safe keeping, when they would have laid despe- 
 rate hands on the life of their own cause. He 
 was careful too of their honour ; and so long as 
 
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 ■■'^M 
 
114 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 'k. , 
 
 V. I S"JSi 
 ''I''::' 
 
 they would be quiet, never put to them any 
 oath or test. With the Boyahsts he dealt rigor- 
 ously, as old enemies, yet mercifully, as all fear- 
 less natures do. When they had risen in arms 
 against him, he placed them under the control 
 of the Major-Generals, and laid on them, not 
 a fine of the tenth part of their property, but an 
 income-tax of ten per cent. It is said that this 
 taxing of the Koyalists was a breach of the Act 
 of Oblivion. It was so ; but what was their 
 insurrection ? 
 
 In the punishment of political offences, Crom- 
 well did his best to return from the revolu- 
 tionary high courts of justice to trial by jury. 
 The first case with which he had to deal was 
 that of Lilburn, an aimless and egotistical agi- 
 tator, though otherwise pure and brave, who 
 had returned from exile merely to prevent the 
 settlement of the nation. Lilburn was sent 
 before a jury; but the jury being strong par- 
 tisans, and the court being crowded with the 
 friends of the accused, the government failed 
 to obtain a conviction, and was driven to the 
 worst course of all — that of mixing force 
 with law, by keeping Lilburn in custody after 
 his acquittal. The conspirators in Vowell and 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 115 
 
 Gerrard's plot, and those in Slingsby's plot, were 
 sent before a high court of justice. But Crom- 
 well's high court of justice was not like the 
 French revolutionary tribunal, or an Irish or 
 Jamaica court-martial. It consisted of a large 
 number of judges, including the highest func- 
 tionaries of the law, it sat publicly, proceeded 
 deliberately, and observed the legal rules of 
 evidence : nor, unless to murder the Protector 
 and overturn the government was no offence, 
 s^ias the slightest suspicion rest upon it of 
 having shed one drop of innocent blood. The 
 Koyalists taken in Penruddock's rebellion were 
 tried before juries in the counties where the 
 rebellion occurred : so little known to this mi- 
 litary despot were our present theories of mar- 
 tial law. The daggers of the Royalists were 
 always threatening the Protector's life. And 
 not their daggers only : a proclamation was cir- 
 culated, in the name of the exiled king, pro- 
 xnising great rewards and honours to whoever 
 would take the usurper off with pistol, sword, 
 or poison. It is commonly believed that his 
 nerves were completely shaken by the fear 
 of assassination; but the well-known passage 
 of Hume, describing the Protector's agonies of 
 
 I 2 
 
 :iit 
 
 m 
 
 w 
 
ii6 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 alarm, is a rhetorical improvement on the passage 
 in the rabidly Royalist work of Dr. Bates, the 
 court physician to Charles II., and I believe 
 the statement has no trustworthy foundation. 
 Cromwell, of course, took the necessary pre- 
 cautions, and as the author of " Killing no 
 Miurder" assured him, great precautions were 
 necessary ; but there is nothing in his bearing 
 or in his policy to the end of his life to show 
 that fear had shaken his fortitude ; and as- 
 suredly it did not shake his clemency. Of the 
 forty men arrested for Yowell and Gerrard's 
 plot, three only were sent before the high court 
 of justice, and of those three one was spared. 
 In Slingsby's plot five persons only suffered, 
 though it was a formidable conspiracy to de- 
 liver Hull to the Spaniards, and at the same 
 time to raise an insurrection in London, which 
 would have filled the city with fire and blood. 
 Few besides the actual leaders suffered death 
 for Penruddock's rebellion, though a good many 
 of their followers were transported. Fear for 
 his government, though his fife was in no 
 danger, impelled Bonaparte to murder a Bour- 
 bon prince who had approached his frontier. 
 Ormond, Cromwell's most formidable, as well 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 117 
 
 as his most honourable enemy, came to London 
 in disguise to get up a plot against the go- 
 vernment. His presence was detected. Crom- 
 well took Lord Broghil, Ormond's former asso- 
 ciate, aside, and said to him, "If you wish to 
 do a kindness to an old friend, Ormond is in 
 London ; warn him to begone." Those were 
 harder times than ours, and civil war begets 
 recklessness of human life : but the strongest 
 man of those times in his true strength has 
 bequeathed a lesson to the emasculate sen- 
 timentalism which counterfeits manliness by 
 affecting sympathy with deeds of violence and 
 blood. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Stuart 
 princes and their advisers were privy to as- 
 sassination plots. Cromwell had threatened 
 that if they used assassins, he would make it a 
 war of assassination. But he was not a Stuart 
 prince, and he never degraded his nobler nature 
 by putting his threat in execution. 
 
 Algernon Sidney, staunch republican as he 
 was, told Burnet that the Protector had just 
 notions of public liberty. In one respect at 
 least he had juster notions of liberty than his 
 parliaments, for he stood out against them for 
 
 
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 'V-1 
 
 '.im 
 
ii8 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
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 IS.' 1 ' 
 
 ■,-5f 
 
 freedom of conscience, and his veto on acts of 
 persecution was one of the powers which he 
 would never let go. "To save free conscience" 
 was the special task to which he had been 
 called by one who understood the interests of 
 freedom of conscience well, and he seems to 
 have performed that work faithfully according 
 to his lights, which it is especially necessary, 
 with reference to this subject, to bear in mind 
 were not those of an inspired hero, but those 
 of an uninspired Puritan of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, sitting at the feet of Hugh Peters and 
 in thraldom to Hugh Peters's superstitions, 
 beheving in the necessity of dogma, and be- 
 lieving, we may be quite sure, in witchcraft. 
 Theoretically, of course, his toleration embraced 
 only Protestants and Trinitarians, all sects of 
 whom he desired to see not only at peace with 
 each other, but united, in spite of those se- 
 condary diiferences which he deemed of no 
 importance compared with the vital principles 
 of the Christian faith. But the greatness of 
 his nature carried him beyond his theory, and 
 in all cases we find him practically the enemy 
 of persecution. He snatched Biddle, the So- 
 ciiiian, from the fangs of Parliament, placed 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 119 
 
 him in mild confinement, and, so soon as it 
 was safe, set him free. He tried to procure 
 the formal readmission of the Jews to Enof- 
 land, from which they had been banished since 
 the time of Edward I., and, failing in this, he 
 protected individual Jews who settled in this 
 country. He left the Roman Catholics prac- 
 tically unmolested in conscience and in their 
 private worship, while they were burning Pro- 
 testants alive wherever they had the power, 
 though he could not have permitted the open 
 celebration of the mass without causing an 
 outbreak among the people. The persecution 
 of Cathohc priests, which had been going on 
 during the latter days of the Parliament, soon 
 abated when he became Protector. At one 
 time he launched some fierce ordinances both 
 against the Catholics and the Anglicans, not 
 on account of their rehgious opinions but on 
 account of their political plots and insurrec- 
 tions. Generally the Anglicans enjoyed under 
 him as much liberty as they could expect, 
 when the foot of Laud had but just been taken 
 from the neck of the nation. All sects, in fact, 
 even the most unpopular, even those which 
 the Protector himself most hated and had the 
 
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120 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 
 bitterest reason to hate as the nurseries not only 
 of his political opponents but of the assassins 
 who sought his life, provided they would only 
 abstain from active attempts to overthrow the 
 government, were sure of obtaining under that 
 government the utmost measure of freedom 
 which could be expected from the most liberal 
 spirit of that age. The Presbyterians, who had 
 persecuted Cromwell with the most unrelenting 
 maHgnity, were never persecuted by him. On 
 the contrary, his scheme of church polity com- 
 prehended them, and he was most desirous that 
 they should come in. It was in this matter of 
 freedom of conscience that the man was most 
 before his age, and that the most momentous 
 issues hung upon his life : issues how mo- 
 mentous we see from the religious perplexity 
 and distress into which, partly by the reversal 
 of his policy, we have been brought. Reasons 
 have been already given for believing that this 
 was in him, not the toleration of indifference, 
 but the real toleration of a man of strong con- 
 viction. Much as his mind had grown in 
 stature, he remained to the last open to the 
 impressions even of very fanatical preachers 
 of the doctrines which had been the spring of 
 
 r 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 121 
 
 his own spiritual life. He liked to commune 
 with such enthusiasts as Foxe. This may have 
 been, and no doubt was, partly policy : it was 
 to persecuted sectaries that the government of 
 the Independent chief especially appealed. But 
 great simplicity of religious feeling is compatible 
 with high intellect : and, after all, the enthu- 
 siasts, who, whenever the spirit of the world 
 is deeply moved, come forth preaching a more 
 equal state of society, and a brotherhood of 
 man, are they the people whom the profoundest 
 political philosophy would most despise ? Are 
 they mere dreamers, or do they dream of that 
 which is to come ? 
 
 When we consider that the Protector's reign 
 lasted but five years and that it was a constant 
 struggle for the existence of his government 
 and his own life, and when we think what he 
 achieved, we must allow that his administration 
 was as high a proof of practical capacity as was 
 ever given by man. Or rather, it was as high 
 a proof as ever was given of the power of a 
 nation when, in a moment of extraordinary 
 exaltation, the nation finds a worthy organ in 
 its chief. 
 
 In the department of justice, the Protector 
 
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122 
 
 THREE Ejs^GLISlI STATESMEN. 
 
 I ii 
 
 put upon the bench the best judges probably 
 that Engkind had ever had, and at their head 
 Sir Matthew Hale. He made strenuous efforts 
 to reform those monstrous delays and abuses 
 of the Court of Chancery, which afterwards 
 insulted reason and sullied public justice for 
 nearly two hundred years. He wished to re- 
 form the criminal law, which the Tudor despots 
 and their aristocratic parliaments had made a 
 code of blood. " It was a scandalous thing," he 
 said, " that a man should be hanged for a theft 
 of twelvepence or sixpence when greater crimes 
 went unpunished." A man of the people, he 
 did not shaie the aristocratic recklessness of 
 plebeian blood, which had lavished, and which 
 when he was gone lavished still more, capital 
 punishment for vulgar offences, while the worse 
 offences of the privileged class went free. Had 
 he succeeded, the work of Romilly would have 
 been performed, in part at least, two centuries 
 before. 
 
 Everything was done to foster commerce, and 
 that interest seems at this time to have received 
 a permanent impulse, which bore it prosperously 
 onwards even through the maladministration 
 and the naval disasters of the E/Cstoration. A 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 123 
 
 Committee of Trade was formed, and Wliite- 
 locke, who was one of its members, savs that 
 this was an object which the Protector's 
 
 heart was greatly set Other than territorial 
 interests were now held to deserve care. If on 
 the subject of navigation laws Cromwell was a 
 Protectionist, so on the same subject was Adam 
 Smith. Slowly the light dawns even on the 
 highest peaks of thought. 
 
 A navy had been created by the Parliament 
 in the war with the Dutch ; when Vane, at the 
 head of the Admiralty, had shown that energy, 
 purity, and public spirit, added to intellect, will 
 make a great administrator, even of a man who 
 has not passed his life in office. But the Pro- 
 tector fostered that navy so well that if Blake 
 is the father of our naval tactics, Cromwell is 
 the father of our naval greatness. 
 
 The army, which found no equal in the field, 
 and on whose invincible prowess Clarendon could 
 not help dilating when it was disbanded by 
 Charles II., was in discipline equally without 
 a peer. Though the Protector's power rested 
 on the soldiery, their licence, if ever it broke 
 out, was rigorously repressed. In this so-called 
 military government, no soldier was above the 
 
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 ^\^mKlim: 
 
 ■ H; 
 
124 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 't 
 
 ift 
 
 law. The swaggering truculence of the prae- 
 torian towards fellow-citizens has no connection 
 with the military qualities which are the pledges 
 of victory over the enemy in the field. 
 
 Among the Chancellors of the University of 
 Oxford, the name of Oliver stands a startling 
 reality in a line of stately buckram. Cromwell 
 was not, like Pym and Hampden, highly cul- 
 tivated ; but he had been bred at a classical 
 school and at Cambridge ; and, what was of 
 more consequence, he had been trained intel- 
 lectually by converse with the highest intellects 
 on the highest subjects of the time. No brutal 
 soldier, no drill-sergeant, was he ; nor does his 
 policy as a democratic chief afford any reason 
 for believing that democracy will be the enemy 
 of culture. Though unlearned himself, he fos- 
 tered learning ; he saved and protected the 
 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He 
 founded the University of Durham. Learned 
 men and men of intellect of the opinions most 
 opposed to his own, studied and wrote in secu- 
 rity beneath his rule. Turn where you will, 
 you find him, when he is left to himself, sym- 
 pathising with what is noble, and a magnanimous 
 friend to freedom. Alone of English princes, he 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 125 
 
 set himself to draw merit and promise from the 
 Universities into the service of the State. The 
 men whom he placed at the head of Oxford were 
 Puritans of course, but they were learned men 
 and ruled well ; and the University improved 
 in nothing, except in political and religious 
 principles, when they were gone. 
 
 Cromwell's church reform, as well as his uni- 
 versity reform, was Puritan, but it was com- 
 prehensive. It was directed more to piety than 
 doctrine, and it imposed no tests. It left an 
 Established Church ; but it enlarged the liber- 
 ties of that Church to the utmost extent pos- 
 sible to the reformer, or even conceivable by 
 his mind ; and aimed at making the Establish- 
 ment national by taking in the whole nation, 
 not by crushing the nation into a sect. It gave 
 the people good ministers. Not only was it the 
 most liberal settlement of its time, but nothiog 
 so liberal followed for ages afterwards. Baxter, 
 who was no friend of Cromwell's, allows that 
 the Protector's commissioners " put in able and 
 serious preachers, who lived a godly life, of 
 what tolerable opinion soever they were, so that 
 many thousands of souls blessed God." And 
 thus the people gained that for which Cromwell 
 
 
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 126 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 himself had taken arms, and which in his eyes 
 was the great object of the civil war. 
 
 The conquest of Scotland was followed by an 
 incorporating union. Thus was achieved what, 
 down to that time, had been the greatest object 
 of English policy. Representatives of Scotland 
 were called to the Protector's Parliaments. The 
 country was necessarily occupied for some time 
 by an army : but that army did not insult or 
 oppress the people. As Independents, no doubt 
 they paid scanty respect to the divine right of 
 the Kirk. They sometimes took the word of 
 God out of His minister's mouth, and sat in 
 derision on the stool of repentance. In a few 
 cases, it is to be feared, they guided Scottish 
 maidens in paths which did not lead to heaven. 
 But their conduct generally seems to have been 
 better than that of any other soldiers in a con- 
 quered country. So far is religious fanaticism 
 from being the root of all vice in man. The 
 heritable jurisdictions, with their oppressive ab- 
 surdities, were swept away, and Scotch law 
 courts, the greatest nests of corruption in the 
 legal world, saw for a time the unwonted face 
 of justice. " Deil think them, a ween kinless 
 loons," was the pensive reflection of an old 
 
.18 eyes 
 
 I by an 
 1 what, 
 b object 
 icotland 
 s. The 
 [le time 
 isult or 
 
 doubt 
 right of 
 word of 
 
 sat in 
 
 1 a few 
 Scottish 
 heaven, 
 ve been 
 1 a con- 
 laticism 
 n. The 
 
 ive ab- 
 ch law 
 in the 
 ,ed face 
 kinless 
 an old 
 
 CROMWELL, 
 
 127 
 
 Scotch jobber. These were fine days every- 
 where for kinless loons. "We count those 
 years," says Burnet, " years of great prosperity." 
 The patriot statesmen of the Restoration dis- 
 solved the Union, and undid the Protector's 
 work, that they might exercise in Scotland a 
 provincial despotism, unchecked even by a Par- 
 liament of Cavaliers. 
 
 The Irish talk of the cvirse of Cromwell. 
 They ought rather to talk of the curse of the 
 Cromwellians. The real oppressors were the 
 military adventurers and the State creditors, 
 to whom the Long ParUament had assigned as 
 payment the confiscated lands of the Irish land- 
 owners implicated in the rebellion. That Crom- 
 well intended to exterminate the Irish is an 
 exploded fable : from the moment when the 
 rebellion was suppressed, he bade the mass of 
 the Irish people dwell in security and peace. 
 His rule unhappily was that of a Puritan over 
 Papists, of an Anglo-Saxon conqueror over con- 
 quered Celts, and this in an age when the 
 highest minds were almost inevitably victims 
 to prejudices of religion and race of which the 
 lowest minds ought now to be ashamed ; but 
 still it was the best government that Ireland 
 
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 128 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 1* I 
 
 had ever had. By uniting Ireland to England 
 and calling her representatives to his parlia- 
 ments he brought her under imperial rule, the 
 surest protection against local tyranny that he 
 could give. His policy in this respect was 
 ratified after another century and half of dis- 
 union and ascendancy by Pitt, or rather by 
 those calamities which great men avert, but 
 which to ordinary men are the only teachers 
 of wisdom. The chiefs of the Irish government 
 and law were appointed, not by a Dublin fac- 
 tion, but by him. He sent over an excellent 
 viceroy in the person of his son Henry, to whom 
 he gave counsels of gentleness and moderation ; 
 and with complaints of the wrongs done to the 
 Irish people we find mingled the mention of 
 the Protector's name as that of a power (though, 
 no doubt, he was too distant a power) of justice. 
 He even saw with a statesman's eye what Ire- 
 land from its very backwardness and unsettle- 
 ment might be made to do for England. In 
 a conversation with Ludlow, after dwelling on 
 the delays and expensiveness of English law, 
 he added that Cooke, the Chief Justice whom 
 he had sent to Ireland, determined more causes 
 in a week than Westminster HaU in a year. 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 129 
 
 " Ireland," he went on to say, " is a clean paper, 
 and capable of being governed by such laws as 
 shall be found most agreeable to justice, and 
 these may be so administered there as to afford 
 a good precedent to England itself, where, when 
 we shall once perceive that property may be 
 preserved at so easy and cheap a rate, we shall 
 never allow ourselves to be cheated and abused 
 as we have been." It is not in the matter of 
 conveyancing only that Ireland is a clean paper, 
 where such laws may be tried as shall be most 
 agreeable to justice and good precedents es- 
 tablished for England herself 
 
 Of Cromwell's colonial policy the records must 
 be sought in colonial archives. The American 
 historian, Mr. Bancroft, says : " Cromwell de- 
 clared himself truly ready to serve the brethren 
 and the churches in New England. The de- 
 claration was sincere. The people of New 
 England were ever sure that Cromwell would 
 listen to their requests and would take an 
 interest in all the details of their condition. 
 He left them independence and favoured their 
 trade. When his arms had made the conquest 
 of Jamaica he offered them the island, with the 
 promise of all th^ wealth which the tropical 
 
 K 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 ''mm\ 
 
 ' M i\ 
 
130 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 climate pours into the lap of industry, and 
 though they frequently thwarted his views they 
 never forfeited his regard." "English history," 
 proceeds Mr. Bancroft, "must judge of Cromwell 
 by his influence on the institutions of England. 
 The American colonies remember the years of 
 his power as the period when British sovereignty 
 was, for them, free from rapacity, intolerance, 
 and oppression. He may be called the benefac- 
 tor of the English in America, for he left them 
 to enjoy unshackled the benevolence of Pro- 
 vidence, the freedom of industry, of commerce, 
 of religion, and of government." Cromwell and 
 Chatham, these are the two English statesmen 
 the memory of whose sympathy America still 
 cherishes ; and were Cromwell and Chatham 
 " great un-Englishmen " and traitors to their 
 country *? 
 
 But it is to the foreign policy of Cromwell 
 that his countrv, even when she honoured 
 his name least, has always looked back with 
 a wistful eye. Unhappily it is a policy apt 
 not only to be admired but to be travestied 
 by wretched imitators when the age for it 
 is past. Such imitations are the mockery 
 and the bane of greatness. These are not 
 
^ IB 
 
 CROMWELL. 
 
 131 
 
 and 
 
 they 
 tory," 
 nawell 
 ^land. 
 ars of 
 3ignty 
 Tance, 
 mefac- 
 b them 
 f Pro- 
 imerce, 
 b11 and 
 tesmen 
 
 a still 
 
 atham 
 their 
 
 omwell 
 Inoured 
 with 
 Icy apt 
 -estied 
 for it 
 ^ockery 
 not 
 
 the days of commercial monopoly ; Spain ig 
 not now excluding the trade of all nations 
 from the western waters, and forcing them to 
 open the highroad of mercantile enterprise by 
 arms ; nor is Europe now divided between 
 Catholicism and Protestantism, waging against 
 each other internecine war. The intense spirit 
 of narrow nationality produced by the disruption 
 of Christendom has now begun to give place 
 again, if not to a new Christendom, at least to 
 something like a community of nations. Crom- 
 welFs was a war policy ; and so far as it was a 
 war policy, it was a bad policy, if Christianity 
 be true. But it was not a pohcy of mere ag- 
 grandisement. It was the championship of a 
 cause, a cause now out of date, but the best, the 
 purest, and the loftiest which the chief of Pu- 
 ritanism knew. Why did Cromv/ell league with 
 France against Spain when the power of Spain 
 was declining, when that of France was on the 
 point of rising to a height which threatened the 
 liberty of all nations % The answer is — first, 
 that the decline of Spain was scarcely yet 
 visible, even to the keenest eye ; the vast de- 
 pendencies, which we know now to have been 
 one cause of her decay, were still thought to be 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 the pillars of her towering greatness : secondly, 
 that if Cromwell^s dynasty had endured, the 
 France of Louis XI^^. would not have become 
 the tyrant of Europe, for that which made her 
 so was the prostration of England under the 
 feet of the French king, and this was the work 
 of the Restoration : but, thirdly, that Spain was 
 the power of persecuting Catholicism, and that 
 France, under Mazarin, though Catholic, was 
 tolerant compared with Spain. To form a great 
 Protestant league, and put England at its head 
 again, was a policy which, unlike that of modem 
 diplomatists, all the nation could understand, 
 which carried the heart of the nation with it, 
 and had the moral forces, as well as arms, upon 
 its side. The Protector stepped into the pLice 
 of Gustavus Adolphus, as the head of Protes- 
 tant Christendom. The first embassy which he 
 sent was to the daughter of Gustavus ; and 
 Christina, before the madness which mingled 
 with the heroic blood of Yasa had made hei its 
 jDrey, knew and acknowledged her father's heir. 
 Her master of the ceremonies was not so kind ; 
 but Whitelocke made his entry into the Swedish 
 capital in a snowstorm, and it was a hard trial 
 for a master of the ceremonies to stand bare- 
 
 \' ' \ 
 

 CROMWELL. 
 
 133 
 
 idly, 
 the 
 
 3ome 
 
 5 her 
 
 • the 
 
 work 
 
 I was 
 that 
 was 
 
 great 
 head 
 
 odem 
 
 stand, 
 
 Lth it, 
 upon 
 place 
 rotes- 
 ch he 
 and 
 gled 
 lei its 
 heir, 
 dnd ; 
 edish 
 1 trial 
 bare- 
 
 n 
 
 headed in a snowstorm bowing to the ambas- 
 sador of a regicide republic. A policy of mere 
 aggrandisement, without the championship of 
 a cause, is not a Cromwellian policy, nor are its 
 authois the heirs of Cromwell. Their meanness 
 stands contrasted with tlie majesty of the Pro- 
 tector. We have seen that, according to Mr. 
 Bancroft, Cromwell offered Jamaica to the 
 colonists of New England ; and if he annexed 
 Dunkirk, it was in those ports that, within the 
 memory of living men, Parma had mustered his 
 army ot invasion to be convoyed by the Armada. 
 Cromwell would have made England the head 
 at once of Protestantism and of Christendom. 
 As chief of Christendom, he chastised the pirates 
 of Tunis and Algiers, then the terror of christian 
 mailners on all seas. At home he was strug- 
 gling for his government and his life with a 
 swarm of enemies; abroad, under his outstretched 
 arm, the Protestants of France and Savoy wor- 
 shipped God in peace. I am not an adherent ot 
 non-intervention, if it means that England is to 
 have no sympathies, that she is never to inter- 
 pose for the defence of right or for the redress 
 of wrong. I believe that when she is again a 
 united nation, though she will not meddle or 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
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 bluster, she will make herself felt in the world 
 once more. Till she is united, no doubt she 
 must remain a nullity in Europe : no foreign 
 minister can act with effect, except as the organ 
 of the nation and with the nation at his back. 
 The case of the Protestants of Savoy stirred the 
 Protector's soul from its very depths : his feel- 
 ings were expressed by the pen of Milton ; and 
 surely never did such a secretary serve such a 
 Prince in such a cause. Cromwell did not send 
 vapouring despatches ; he interposed effectually, 
 and right was done. He talked of making the 
 name of an Englishman as respected as that of 
 a Roman in a strain suited to those days, not 
 suited to ours. But he did not seek to win 
 respect for the English name by ignoble swag- 
 ger, or by trampling on the weak. He spared 
 the dignity even of the Duke of Savoy, though 
 if the Duke had refused justice, he would have 
 struck him to the dust. 
 
 The part of a conqueror, which Europe ex- 
 pected that Cromwell would assume in his own 
 person, his good sense at once renounced : and 
 on the evei^ing of Worcester he sheathed his 
 sword for ever. Mr. Hallam, who was in- 
 fected with the Whig worship of Napoleon, 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 1.35 
 
 rji' 
 
 speaks of his idol as the child of philosophy 
 and of enlightenment, and contrasts ' im with 
 Cromwell, who, he says, " had sucked the dregs 
 of a besotted fanaticism." I find it difficult to 
 conceive any fanaticism either so besotted or so 
 cruel as that which leads a man to sacrifice the 
 hves of millions and the happiness of hundreds 
 of millions to his own " star." 
 
 " Cromwell," says Burnet, " studied to seek 
 out able and honest men and to employ 
 them, and so having heard that my father 
 had a very good reputation in Scotland for 
 piety and integrity, though he knew him to 
 be a Royalist, he sent to him desiring him 
 to accept a judge's place, and do justice iij 
 his own country, hoping only that he would not 
 act against his government ; but he would not 
 press him to subscribe or swear to it." This 
 man had indeed a royal eye for merit and a 
 royal heart to advance it in the state. Nor was 
 he too nice in scrutinizing the opinions of able 
 men, nor, so long as they served England well, 
 did he too curiously inquire how they would 
 serve him. Here again he stands contrasted 
 with Bonaparte, whose first thought in advancing 
 men was their subserviency to himself, who even 
 
 i1 '*:•' 
 
 vj 
 
136 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMAN. 
 
 avoided promoting officers of the artillery, be- 
 cause that service had the character of being 
 republican. There is no pledge of greatness so 
 rare, so decisive, or so noble as the choice of 
 associates who will not be tools. Blake was 
 a Republican. Lock hart, the chief instrument 
 of the Protector's foreign policy and the first 
 diplomatist of the day, was an old Royalist, 
 whose value Cromwell had discerned. He was 
 employed again as ambassador at Paris under 
 Charles II., and still showed something of the 
 spirit of the Protectorate in altered times. The 
 King of France once jjroduced a private letter 
 from Charles, obtained by corrupt influence and 
 contrary to Lockhart's public instructions. " Sire," 
 said Lockhart, " the King of Engknd speaks to 
 your Majesty only through me." Sir Matthew 
 Hale had been counsel to Straflbrd and the king : 
 and he well justified the Protector's choice by 
 boldly braving the wrath of the Protector him- 
 self, who, tried beyond endurance by the resist- 
 ance to the establishment of his government, 
 had been betraved into one of those brief out- 
 
 ft'' 
 
 breaks of arbitrary violence which, though culp- 
 able in themselves, illustrated the more signally 
 his general desire to govern under the law. 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 137 
 
 Royal natures, even on a throne, love sim- 
 plicity of life. The Protector kept such state 
 as became the head of a great nation, but it was 
 a modest state, unlike the tawdry paoreantry of 
 the court of Bonaparte. A man of little refine- 
 ment and accustomed to the comradeship of the 
 camp, Cromwell m private was apt to relieve 
 liis burdened mind with rude humour, boisterous 
 merriment, and even coarse practical jokes. But 
 when he received foreign ambassadors, he knew 
 how to show himself the head of a great nation 
 and the peer of kings. A leading pa.rt of his 
 entertainments was music, of which ho was very 
 fond. The court was the first household in 
 England, and, as enemle- confessed, a good pat- 
 tern to the others, let Mrs. Hutchinson in her 
 jealousy of the Cromwell women say what she 
 will. Whitehall was the scene of work. But 
 sometimes the Protector shuffled off that terrible 
 coil of business and anxietv^, and his hfeguards 
 waited to escort him (their escort was no need- 
 less pageantry) in his ride to Hampton Court. 
 There he refreshed his soul with quiet and 
 country air. Thither an organ had been brought 
 from the chapel of Magdalen College at Oxford, 
 to chase away for an hour the throng of cares. 
 
 
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 138 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TESMEN. 
 
 But the Protector's chief comfort and delight 
 was in his family, to which through all the 
 chances and changes of his life, in trial alike 
 and in victory, his heart had turned. They were 
 all gathered round him in the hour of his 
 greatness and of his peril, and remained bound 
 by strong affection to him and to each other. 
 One was missing, the eldest son, Oliver, who 
 had fallen in battle for the cause, and whose 
 image, as we know from Cromwell's last utter- 
 ances, never left his father's heart. Among 
 the rest the Protector's mother, ninety years old, 
 was brought to a scene strange to her and iu 
 which she had little com.fort, for every report 
 of a gun she heard seemed to her her son's 
 death, and she could not bear to pass a, day 
 without seeing him with her own eyes. We 
 mav trust the brief account of her end which 
 is found among the dry state papers of the 
 unimaginative Thurloe : — " My Lord Protector's 
 mother, ninety-four years old, died last night. 
 A little before her death she gave my lord her 
 blessing in these words : ' The Lord cause His 
 face to shine upon you and comfort you in all 
 your adversities, and enable you to do great 
 things for the glory of your most High God, 
 
elight 
 .1 the 
 alike 
 ■ were 
 )f his 
 bound 
 other. 
 ', who 
 whose 
 utter- 
 Lmong 
 rs old, 
 and hi 
 report 
 sons 
 day 
 We 
 which 
 f the 
 ector's 
 night, 
 d her 
 se His 
 in all 
 great 
 God, 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 CROMWELL. 
 
 139 
 
 and to be a relief unto His people. My dear son, 
 I leave my heart with thee. A good night.' " 
 
 T nave estimated Cromwell highly. I see no 
 ^jason why his nation in his age should 
 not in the terrible but fruitful throes of a 
 revolution have brought forth one of the 
 greatest of the sons of men. " A larger soul 
 never dwelt in a house of clay," said one 
 who had been much about his person, after his 
 death, when flattery was mute. His greatness 
 is not to be compared to that of conquerors. 
 Ten years more of Alexander and we should 
 have had ten more satrapies. Ten years more 
 of Napoleon and we should have had ten more 
 conquests at once pr( fligate and msensate, civili- 
 zation put back ten degrees more, the barharous 
 war spirit made ten degrees more powerful in 
 the world. Ten years more of Cromwell and 
 the history of England and of Europe might 
 have been changed. In England we should 
 have had no revival of the absolutist and 
 Romanising monarchy of the Stuarts ; no re- 
 surrection of the Cavalier party under the name 
 of Tories ; no waste of the energies of the nation 
 and disturbance of its progress by the renewal 
 of that barren struggle ; no restoration of the 
 
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140 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 1 i 
 
 hierarchy ; and if an hereditary House of Lords, 
 one at all events that could not have fancied 
 itself Norman, and must almost inevitably have 
 assumed more of the character of a national 
 Senate. In Europe, there would have been no 
 domination of Louis XIV. ; no extermina,tion of 
 French Protestantism ; probably no such crisis 
 as that of the French E/Cvolution. 
 
 And now the Protector's foot was on the 
 threshold of success. His glory, the excellence 
 of his administration, his personal dignity and 
 virtues were founding his government in the 
 allegiance of the people. The friends of order 
 were beginning to perceive that their best chance 
 of order lay in giving stabiHty to his throne. 
 Some of the great families, acting on this view, 
 had connected themselves by marriage with his 
 house. His finances were embarrassed ; but he 
 was about again to meet a Parliament which 
 would probably have voted him supplies and 
 concurred with him in settling the constitution. 
 His foot was on the threshold of success ; but 
 on the threshold of success stood Deatli. It was 
 death in a strano^e form for him : ior after all 
 his battles and storms and all the plots of 
 assassins against his life, this terrible chief died 
 
 did 
 

 Lords, 
 Fancied 
 y have 
 ational 
 eeii no 
 tion of 
 1 crisis 
 
 on the 
 jellence 
 ty and 
 in the 
 ►f order 
 chance 
 throne. 
 s view, 
 r'lih. his 
 but he 
 which 
 es and 
 itution. 
 ,s ; but 
 It was 
 fter all 
 lots of 
 lef died 
 
 CROMWELL, 
 
 141 
 
 of grief at the loss of his favourite daughter and 
 of watching at her side. 
 
 Up that steep and slippery path of worldly 
 greatness, so dangerous to the simplicity of faith 
 and virtue, the religious farmer of Huntingdon- 
 shire had wandered far awav from the Puritanism 
 of his youth. He felt it, and when his end was 
 near he asked his chaplain whether those who 
 had once been in a state of grace could fall from 
 it. He was assured that they could not. Then 
 he said, " I am saved, for I am sure that I was 
 once in a state of grace." The Calvinistic formula 
 has become obsolete for most of us : but we may 
 still trust that he who has once sincerely devoted 
 himself to God's service is not often allowed . to 
 become an enemy of God. 
 
 At the time of his installation, the Protector 
 had executed the power given him by Parlia- 
 ment of naming a successor. He had sealed up 
 the paper and addressed it to Thurloe, but had 
 kept both the paper and its secret to himself. 
 In his last illness, at Hampton Court, he sent to 
 London for the paper, telling the messenger 
 that it was on his study-table at Whitehall ; but 
 the paper could not be found. Whose name 
 did it contain ^ I doubt not, that of Richard 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
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 Cromwell. Perhaps the Protector's memory had 
 failed him, and he had really destroyed the 
 paper, still expecting that Kichard would suc- 
 ceed not as Protector under the power of nomi- 
 nation, but by act of Parliament as hereditary 
 king. Nor do I see any reason to question 
 Thurloe's statement that the Protector named 
 Richard his successor by word of mouth just 
 before he died. Wliat else was to be done ? 
 Ricliard was weak, as his father must too w^ell 
 have known; but he was popular and blameless, 
 and had the shadow of hereditary right. Henry 
 Cromwell was a man of mark as well as of 
 worth, but not of mark enough to bear the 
 burden unsupported by any other claim. Among 
 the generals there was not one to be thought of 
 since Ireton was gone. We know the rest. How 
 military ambition broke loose : how anarchy 
 ensued. Anarchy, not Cromwell's government, 
 brought on the Restoration. At last the nobler 
 spirit of the nation rose again. But the Re- 
 volution of 1688 was an aristocratic revolution ; 
 and there were other interests for which men 
 had given their lives at Marston and Naseby, 
 and with which, when Cromwell died before his 
 time, all was over for many a day. 
 
CROMWELL. 
 
 143 
 
 All was over here, and once more there was 
 an illustration of the frailty of systems and 
 institutions which depend on a single life. But 
 the counsels of Providence never depend upon a 
 single life. Just as the great struggle was com- 
 mencing in England, a little bark put forth on 
 the Atlantic, unnoticed amidst the great events 
 and the great actors of the time. Its passengers 
 were Puritan peasants, lumted out of their 
 homes by the Anglican hierarchy and its per- 
 secuting agents. It bore English Democracy, 
 safe beyond the reach of the Eiglish reaction, 
 to the shores of the New World. There, too, 
 it has encountered its old foes, the enemies of 
 liberty, both of body and soul. But there it 
 has triumphed : it has triumphed for itself, 
 and it has triumphed for us all. 
 
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III. 
 
 PITT. — I. 
 
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 The European movement which ended in the 
 French Revolution, Uke that w^iJch ended in 
 the Reformation, Hke all great movements of 
 humanity, was complex in its nature. It was 
 at once religious and politica,l, and it extended 
 to all the other parts of human life. In religion 
 it was almost entirelv critical and destructive. 
 To our generation was left the heavy task of re- 
 novating faith. The religion of Rousseau, indeed, 
 proved itself the strongest among the elements 
 which struggled for m^astery in the Revolution. 
 We can understand liow at the time it breathed 
 in its freshness like the breath of morning into 
 the feverish atmosphere of French life. But 
 it was merely a bastard Christianity, emotional, 
 sentimental, based on no conviction. The great 
 service done to religion during the eighteenth 
 century was the advancement of toleration, to 
 
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 148 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 which Frederic the great, tyrant as he was in 
 politics, was a real friend ; though it was the 
 toleration of indifference, not the toleration of 
 those, who with deep convictions, and because 
 they have deep convictions, reverence conscience 
 as the source, and liberty of conscience as the 
 sole guarantee, of truth. In the political sphere 
 also the movement was merely destructive ; it 
 pulled down feudalism without building up 
 anything in its place, and it has left European 
 society generally in a chaotic state, from which 
 the nations have sought refuge in democratic 
 despotism, pending the evolution of a sound and 
 permanent order of things. Two political ideals, 
 however, this century produced ; the half-classi- 
 cal, half- Christian Republicanism of Eousseau, 
 and the enlightened and beneficent despotism, 
 having its imaginary type in China, which was 
 the Utopia of Voltaire. In jurisprudence and 
 political economy, on the other hand, there were 
 positive and great results : in jurisprudence, the 
 reforms of law, especially the law of succes- 
 sion to property and the penal code, of which 
 the Code Napoleon is the most scientific em- 
 bodiment, though the philosophy of the pre- 
 vious century was the source ; in economy, free 
 
 '11 
 
PITT. 
 
 149 
 
 vas in 
 as the 
 ion of 
 ecaiise 
 science 
 as the 
 sphere 
 ve ; it 
 ig up 
 ropean 
 which 
 ocratic 
 id and 
 ideals, 
 
 isseau, 
 Dot ism, 
 )h was 
 !e and 
 B were 
 36, the 
 lucces- 
 which 
 c em- 
 pre- 
 Y, free 
 
 
 and all the 
 
 3nefits which the world has 
 received from the principles enunciated Ly 
 Hume, Turgot, and, greatest of all, Adam Smith. 
 The first part of Pitt s life — that part which 
 forms the subject of this evening s lecture — is a 
 product of the economical, and in some measure 
 also of the political, part of this European move- 
 ment, limited by the conditions imposed on the 
 leader of an aristocratic assembly and a minister 
 of the English crown ; the second part, which 
 will form the subject of the following lecture, is 
 a product of the reaction against the religious 
 Cvxid poHtical part of the same movement when it 
 had arrived at its revolutionary crisis and over- 
 turned the French Church and Throne. During 
 the first part of his life, Pitt is to be classed 
 with the philosophic and reforming kings and 
 ministers before the Revolution, whose names 
 ought not to be forgotten, though the Jacobins 
 chose to call the year of their frenzy the year 
 One ; with Joseph II. ; with Pombal, Aranda, 
 and Choiseul, the overthrowers of Jesuitism ; 
 with Tanucci, with Leopold of Tuscany, with 
 Turgot, with Frederic of Prussia, and with 
 Catherine of Kussia, so far as Catherine and 
 Frederic were organs of philosophy and reform. 
 
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 150 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 During tlie second part, ^10 tends, though lie does 
 not actually sink, to the level of the Metier niclis, 
 the Polignacs, the Percevals, and the Eldons. 
 The Pitt of my present lecture and the Pitt of 
 my next stand in strong contrast to each other, 
 though the connection is quite intelligible and 
 signally illustrates the power of circumstances 
 over any Lut the strongest men. The same 
 change is seen in the lives of Joseph and Cathe- 
 rine and other reformers in high places, who, 
 when the Revolution came, found out thfit cheir 
 trade was that of king. It is seen in the English 
 aristocracy, the more intellectual of whom had, 
 like the French aristocracy, been affecting scep- 
 ticism and Republicanism, as we may learn from 
 Horace Walpole, who is always throwing out 
 light Voltairian sentiments and cutting off the 
 head of Charles I. This evening we speak of 
 the happier Pitt, of him whose monuments 
 remain in free trade, an improved fiscal system, 
 I'eligious toleration, the first steps towards 
 colonial emancipation, the abolition of the slave 
 trade, the condemnation of slavery. Another 
 evening we shall speak of the Pitt whose monu- 
 ments remain in six hundred millions of debt, 
 and other evils political and social, of which the 
 
 des 
 
PITT. 
 
 151 
 
 bitter inheritance has descended to us and will 
 descend to generations yet to come. 
 
 William Pitt was born beneath a roof illus- 
 trious, but not likely to give birth to an apostle 
 of economical reform. What the inglorious 
 frugality of Walpole had saved, Chatham had 
 squandered in victory ; and he had added a 
 heavy burden of debt besides. But the fath.er 
 bequeathed to his child the exanq^le of purity, 
 of patriotism, of a high aspiring spirit, which 
 soared, if not to the summit of political heroism, 
 at least far above the place-hunters and in- 
 triguers of the time. He bequeathed to him 
 also of his eloquence, not the incommunicable 
 fire, but so much as assiduous culture under a 
 great master could impart, and sent him into 
 public life a youthful prodigy in the accomplish- 
 ment by which we choose our statesmen. From 
 the conversation of Chatham and of Chatham's 
 friends, Pitt, who was brought up at home, 
 must also have learned much ; and thus his 
 parliamentary maturity at twenty-one, though 
 a w^onder, is not a miracle. 
 
 I have noticed that Pitt was brought up at 
 home. He was nevertheless no milksop. AVe 
 complacently accept it as a full set-off against 
 
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 152 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 all the evils of public schools, that they make 
 boys manly. It is easy to see liow by cutting 
 bovs off from intercourse with men and women, 
 and confining them to the society of boys, you 
 may make .hem hard ; but not so easy to see 
 how you can make them manly. Pitt brought 
 up in the house of Chatham is, of course, too 
 exceptional a case to reason from : but no want 
 of manliness, either of mind or character, was 
 seen in this boy when he became Prime Minister 
 at twenty-four. 
 
 He, however, went to Cambridge at fourteen, 
 and stayed there seven years, during which he 
 was regular and read hard, owiiTg, it may be, 
 partly to the weakness of his health, which by 
 debarring from physical sports and enjoyments, 
 has perhaj s turned not a few men into the path 
 which leads to intellectual greatness. We are 
 beginning to know the power of education, and 
 the significance of the question, what sort of 
 culture it was that was undergone by a future 
 chief of the state. The classics, a school at once 
 of taste and of the political character formed by 
 a rather narrow and heathen love of libertv, 
 were the staple of Pitts training, as they had 
 been those of the English statesmen before him. 
 
VITT. 
 
 153 
 
 ,"H 
 
 make 
 utting 
 ^omen, 
 
 S, YOU 
 
 to see 
 'ought 
 3e, too 
 ) want 
 r, was 
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 irteen, 
 ich he 
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 To these he added the discipline of mathematics, 
 some jurisprudence, some expeiimental philo- 
 sophy, and a good deal of general literature, 
 including history. Historical pliilosophy was not 
 then in existence : it might have taught him, 
 the destined ruler of his country at the epoch 
 of the French Revolution, to view with intelli- 
 gence and meet w^itli calmness the tremendous 
 l)henomena of his time. But above all he read 
 the work, then new and unknown to his elder 
 rivals, of Adam Smith, to which, in his great 
 budget-speech of 1792, he referred as furnishing 
 the best solution to every question connected 
 with political economy and with trade. Pitt 
 was Adam Smith's first powerful disciple. And 
 from this source he drew not only the principles 
 of his commercial reforms and his budgets, but 
 a taUsman of command. The commercial and 
 manufacturing interests were rapidly rising in 
 importance, and with these interests Pitt alone 
 of the party leaders had qualified himself to 
 deal. The aristocratic statesmen, with their 
 purely classical training, seldom stooped to any- 
 thing so low as economy or finance. Fox 
 avowed his ignorance of political economy ; he 
 used to say he did not know why the funds 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 went up or down, but he liked to see them g(j 
 down because it vexed Pitt. Sir Francis Dash- 
 wood was thought good enough for the Chancel- 
 lorship of the Exchequer, though a sum of five 
 figures was said to be an inscrutable mystery to 
 his mind. The student of the " Wealth of Na- 
 tions" might have learnt, and perhaps he did 
 learn, from it, other things besides those which 
 he mentioned in his budget-speech. Free prin- 
 ciples hang together, and Adam Smith is, in an 
 unobtrusive way, the apostle of Democracy as 
 well as of Free Trade. 
 
 Pitt's tutor was Pre ty man, better known in 
 the annals of ecclesiastical rapacity by his later 
 name of Tomline. This man seems to have 
 done the classical and mathematical part of 
 his duty well : Pitt at least was grateful to 
 him, and gorged him — to satiate him was im- 
 possible — with preferment, till George III. cried 
 "Hold, enough." Tomline thus enriched, pro- 
 vided with the means of enriching his whole 
 tribe, and having inherited a private fortune 
 beside.^, subscribed, among others, £t,ooo to- 
 wards the payment of Pitt's debts, which sum 
 he afterwards tried to get repaid to him by tli(? 
 nation. 
 
em go 
 Dash- 
 lancel- 
 Df five 
 eiy to 
 Df Na- 
 le did 
 which 
 prhi- 
 in an 
 acy as 
 
 wn ill 
 ^ later 
 
 have 
 art of 
 ful to 
 us iin- 
 
 cried 
 , pro- 
 whole 
 jrtuiie 
 30 to- 
 h sum 
 jy tlu.' 
 
 PITT. 
 
 155 
 
 Bad physicians advised the stripling to drink 
 port, the panacea and almost the physical gospel 
 of the age ; and he followed their advice with 
 a vengeance. Hence disease and mortal langour 
 in his prime ; hence the constitution early de- 
 cayed which succumbed to the blow of Auster- 
 litz. Lord Stanhope — to whose most valuable 
 bio^.aphy, which forms the foundation of this 
 lecture, let me here acknowledge my great 
 obligations — Lord Stanhope says that Pitt was 
 only once seen drunk. There are traditions of 
 a different kind. In all other respects Pitt's 
 character, like that of his great father, was pure ; 
 and though the wits might scoff at the idea that 
 genius and morality could exist together, his 
 purity gave him a great advantage in self- 
 control, in conscientious industrv, in dignity of 
 bearing, in the confidence of the community — 
 especially of the middle classes — over his chief 
 rival, who, though he had a warm heart and 
 noble sympathies, was a rake, a gambler, corrupt 
 himself, and a corrupter of the youths about 
 him. Of religion there was little to be had 
 in those days ; and of that little not much re- 
 sided in Mr. Pretyman. Pitt was regular in his 
 attendance at the college chapel. He also read 
 
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 156 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 theology with his tutor, and some would have 
 us believe that he became a theologian at once 
 most learned and most orthodox, armed at all 
 points to maintain the Thirty-nine Articles 
 against all heresies, whether on the side of 
 Popery or Dissent ; while, on the other hand, 
 there is a tradition that, by his own avowal, 
 Butler's " Analogy " raised in his mind more 
 doubts than it solved, wherein he would by 
 no means have been unique. But it is plain 
 that he had not that strong and present sense 
 of things unseen by which the noblest characters 
 have been sustained. So far as integrity and 
 real desire of the public good would carry him, 
 he could go : but when the great trial came, the 
 trial which called for complete self-sacrifice, the 
 sustaining force was wanting, conscience yielded 
 to ambition, and the son of the morning fell. 
 
 As Chatham's son, Pitt entered public life 
 as a Whig. But Whig, by this time, meant 
 little more than Guelf or Ghibelin. The Whigs 
 were a party, and an illustrious party, while 
 they were making the Bevoiution of 1688, and 
 afterwards while they were defending the Re- 
 volution settlement against Louis XIV. abroad 
 and the Jacobites at home. But that stiuggle 
 
 ■k ». * V, 
 
PITT. 
 
 157 
 
 over, they became an oligarchy of great houses 
 squabbling among themselves for the high 
 offices of state. The long scene of degradation 
 which ensued had, for a time, been broken by 
 the rise of Chatham, a middle-class minister 
 putting the oligarchy under his feet, though 
 to do it he was obliged himself to connive at 
 corruption, and allow a Duke to do for his 
 government the work which the great Com- 
 moner abhorred. In this party government 
 of ours, which we take for an eternal ordinance 
 of nature, though it is but an accident of yes- 
 terday, everything depends on the existence of 
 a real division of opinion on some important 
 question. When the great questions are for 
 the time out of the way, party government 
 degenerates into a chronic faction-fight between 
 a connection which wants to get place and a 
 connection which wants to keep it. At this 
 time the great questions were out of the way, 
 there was no real division of parties, and a 
 reign of cabal and corruption naturally ensued. 
 All the factions ahke used power for class 
 purposes ; the nation had little interest in their 
 scuffles, and no hope but that by some accident 
 a man of heart and brain might get into his 
 
158 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 V\ 
 
 •■ii. 
 
 ■fij 
 
 
 ii 
 
 
 hands a measure of independent power, and 
 use it partly for the public good. 
 
 Pitt took his seat when only just of age for 
 the nomination borough of Appleby, and at 
 once came forward in debate. His command of 
 rounded sentences was already fearful ; assuredly 
 no youth ever wrote such stately despatches 
 to his mother. He gave the House without 
 delay a taste of his oratorio training, and early 
 showed his greatest gift as an orator, the power 
 of lofty sarcasm, which, in a House not much 
 in earnest, is so telling, both in its direct effect, 
 and because, unlike open invective, it suggests 
 a reserve of power. Those stately speeches of 
 his, with their long rolling periods, were, no 
 doubt, very imposing when they were delivered 
 with an imperial bearing and haughty gestures 
 from the summit of Parliamentary command. 
 But the best of them, and those best reported, 
 can scarcely be placed in the small number of 
 orations which deserve to live beyond the hour. 
 They contain few memorable words. That fusion 
 of reason in the fire of passion, the attribute 
 of the highest eloquence, is not there. They 
 are the works of talent, but not of genius. 
 
 The war with the American Colonies had 
 
 I' 
 
TITT. 
 
 159 
 
 almost run its guilty and disastrous course, and 
 was drawing near its shameful end. The North 
 ministry tottered to its fall. It was upheld 
 only by the personal support of the King, who, 
 like kings in general, was still for war. Pitt 
 went into strong opposition. He denounced the 
 war with a vehemence which, we should have 
 thought, would have seemed inexpiable to the 
 King. He supported Burke's motion for re- 
 trenchment, He took ap Parliamentary Keform 
 warmly, and made the question his own. This 
 he did with his guns levelled directly against 
 the corrupt influence of the court — " an in- 
 fluence," he said, which has been pointed at in 
 ever/ period as the fertile source of all our 
 miseries — an influence which has been substi- 
 tuted in the room of wisdom, of activity, of 
 exertion, and of success — an influence which 
 has grown with our growth, and strengthened 
 with our strength, but which unhappily has not 
 diminished with our diminution, nor decayed 
 with our decay." The court was so discredited 
 and detested that on his motion for a select com- 
 mittee Pitt was only beaten by 20. It has been 
 remarked that the Reformers never had so good 
 a division again till 183 1. Pitt also voted for 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESiVEN. 
 
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 the motion of the Radical Alderman Sawbrido^e 
 to shorten the duration of parliaments. If this 
 bright archangel of Toiyism had sat long in 
 opposition he might liave become a minister of 
 the Darker Power. 
 
 North fell ; and over the prostrate favourite 
 of the court Fox and Eockingham entered the 
 royal closet by storm. On Eockingham's death 
 Fox pressed the Duke of Portland on the King 
 as first minister, but the King carried Lore* 
 Shelburne, one of Chatham's old connection ; anil 
 Pitt, whose aspiring boyhood had refused offict 
 without a seat in the cabinet under Rock ^g- 
 ham, came into Shelburne's cabinet at twenty- 
 three as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The foot 
 of Adam Smith was on the steps of power. 
 
 The Shelburne ministry had to make peace 
 with the Americans, and with their allies, 
 France and Spain : but on the preliminaries of 
 peace the Government was overthrown by the 
 profligate coalition of Fox and North. Pro- 
 fligate that coalition was, not so much because 
 it violated political principle, for none of these 
 factions had much political principle to violate, 
 as because it violated personal honour. Fox 
 had spoken of North in terms which made an 
 
PITT. 
 
 l6i 
 
 alliance between them, manifestly concluded fur 
 the sake of getting back into place, equally 
 infaii /ms to them both. The king struggled ; 
 he ti.rned to Pitt ; (uid the dazzling offer of the 
 premiership was refused by a farsighted youth 
 of twenty -tliree. Then the king was forced to 
 go under the yoke : but this time the nation 
 was with him, and his defeat was a moral 
 victory. 
 
 A constitutional monircliy, according to the 
 classic aphorism of M. Thiers, is one in which 
 the king reigns and does not govern ; in the 
 less pointed words of Lord North, one in which 
 the king has only the appearance of po\Ner. 
 This highly artificial arrangement — for highly 
 artificial it is, when we consider that the king 
 is treated, even in our addresses to Heaven, 
 as though he were the real ruler, and we his 
 obedient subjects — is commonly taken to be 
 coeval with the monarchy of England. It came 
 into existence a century and a half ago, and has 
 not continued without interruption since that 
 time. The feudal kings, like the Saxon kings 
 before them, not only reigned but governed, and 
 were dejDOsed, and sometimes put to death, if 
 tliey governed ill. The Tudors were despots. 
 
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 162 
 
 THREE EXGLISII STATESMEN. 
 
 Tlu' Stimrta tried to be. William ITT., tliongh 
 a foreigner, Jiiul dependent on the Whigs for his 
 crown, was at the head of his own government, 
 had no foreign minister but himself, at a, time 
 when foreign policy vv^as the most impoitant 
 department, and vetoed the Triennial Act. 
 Anne changed the government and the policy of 
 the country at the whim of her waiting- woman. 
 The first constitutional king was George T., ;i 
 foreigner like William, very stuj)id, which Wil- 
 liam was not, miable to speak English, with 
 a Pretender across the water, and absolutely in 
 the hands of his Whig patrons. George IT. 
 was pretty much in the same case, and accord- 
 ingly he was only one degree less constitutional 
 than his father. But George III., as he told 
 Parliament in graceful compliment to the shades 
 of his ancestors, was born a Briton. " What 
 lustre," responded the Peers, "does it add to 
 the name of Briton when you. Sir, esteem it 
 among your glories.' Jacobinism was defunct ; 
 and the last nonjuring bishop died about this 
 time, ail apothecary at Shrewsbury, owning that 
 Providence had declared itself for the Hanover 
 line. Therefore, George TIL was not constitu- 
 tional : he wished not only to reign but to govern. 
 
 f *• 
 
ough 
 )r his 
 [nent, 
 
 time 
 ntiiiit 
 
 Act. 
 icy of 
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 I'lTT. 
 
 163 
 
 lie IS surely not much to be bhuned tor that 
 wish. Hearing a prayer put U}) every Sunday, 
 that he might be enabled to rule well, he might 
 not unnaturally conceive that it was a part of 
 his dnty to rule. Despotic ideas had been care- 
 fully infused by his mother and Lord Bute into 
 a mind which the absence of any other culture 
 left entirely open for their recepti(^ii ; for never 
 had a born Briton so un-British an education. 
 The Parliament of that day was not a free Par- 
 liament, but an oligarchical and rotten-borough 
 Parliament , and we might have sympathised 
 with the King if he had really intended to over- 
 ride the factions, put the oligarchy under the 
 feet of a national trustee, promote merit in the 
 public service without regard to connecti(jn, and 
 ofovern in the interest of the whole nation. 
 Unfortunately, George the Third's idea of merit 
 was Lord Bute and Mr Jenkinson, and his idea 
 of governing in the interest of the whole nation 
 was the American w^ar. It was unluckv, too, 
 if the new system was to restore purity, that it 
 was itself supported by corruption ; and that in 
 this corruption, and in the coarsest form of it — 
 that connected with elections — the King him- 
 self took an active part. If any one, in his 
 
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 164 
 
 TllRKE ENGLISH STATESMEy. 
 
 hatred of oligarchy, dreams of a patriot king, 
 let him awake from that dream. Sooner than 
 a i)atriot king, he will find an oligarchy ready to 
 divest itself of power. 
 
 George III. tried unconstitutional monarchy, 
 first hy Lord Bute, a walking-gentleman, and 
 failed ; then by Lord North, a good man of 
 business and a good parliamentary tactician, 
 but pliant enough to submit to government by 
 departments ; that is, a government in which 
 the king was first minister, and the departments 
 against their consciences carried on the King's 
 American Avar. But the end of that war broufjfht 
 the system to the ground amidst a storm of 
 odium ; and only the superior odium of the 
 Coalition could have given the King a third 
 chance. A third chance he now had, and having 
 twice before got hold of a tool who was not 
 strong enough to be a minister, he now got hold 
 of a minister who was rather too strong to be 
 a tool. 
 
 The Coalitioi. deserved to fall, but not on the 
 measure on wdiich it fell. It had become neces- 
 sary for humanity, and for the honour of the 
 countrv, to arrest the servants of the East India 
 Company in their career of crime. The govern- 
 
king, 
 I' than 
 ady to 
 
 larchy, 
 [1, and 
 lan of 
 itician, 
 ent by 
 which 
 bments 
 King's 
 rought 
 )rm of 
 of the 
 
 third 
 laving 
 as not 
 )t hold 
 
 to be 
 
 ion the 
 neces- 
 of the 
 India 
 overn- 
 
 PITT. 
 
 165 
 
 ment brought in a bill taking India out of the 
 bands of the Company and putting it into the 
 hands of a board of seven commisHioners to be 
 named for the first time by })arliament and 
 afterwards by the crown. There can be no 
 doubt that the measure was framed in good 
 faith. Burke, whose zeal for Indian reform 
 none will question, was its framer. Fox him- 
 self, with all his faults, was a true friend of 
 humanity : let us honour his name for it, at 
 a time when contempt for humanity and sym- 
 pathy with cruelty is cultivated by fe.^bleness 
 as a proof of vigour, and lauded by public in- 
 structors as a healthy English tone. As, how- 
 ever, the majority in parliament were to have 
 the nominations for the first time, a cry was got 
 up that the party intended, by the appropriation 
 of overwhelming patronage, to perpetuate itself 
 in power. Set up by Pitt and the opposition, 
 this cry was swelled of course by the whole 
 East Indian interest, which by buying rotten 
 boroughs had made itself a great parliamentary 
 power, and was beginning, in the secret counsels 
 of Providence, to avenge, by its pestilential in- 
 fluence on English politics, the wrongs of the 
 ilindoo. The great standing army, estranged 
 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 from the ideas of English citizenship and from 
 reverence for English liberties, which is now 
 being trained up in India, may perhaps one day 
 carry further the work of retribution, and teach 
 people that they cannot practise rapine in an- 
 other country, even under pretence of propa- 
 gating Christianity, and with the tacit sanction 
 of their bishops, without entailing some conse- 
 quences en their own. The king was in a 
 paroxysm of rage and fear at the prospect of 
 having so much power taken out of his hands. 
 The bill, however, passed the Commons by a 
 large majority, and was on the point of passing 
 the Lords, when Lord Temple, who had before 
 been carrying on a most unconstitutional cor- 
 respondence with the King against the Ministers, 
 crept to the royal ear, and received from His 
 Majesty a paper to be handed about among the 
 Lords in the following terms : " His Majesty 
 allowed Earl Temple to say that whoever voted 
 for the India Bill was not only not his friend but 
 would be considered by him as an enemy ; and 
 if these words were not strong enough, Earl 
 Temple might use whatever words he deemed 
 stronger and more to the purpose." The only 
 words which could have been stronger and more 
 
PITT. 
 
 167 
 
 to tlie purpose would have been some having 
 reference to more substantial motives than af- 
 fection for the royal person. By a free use of 
 this august document, the India Bill was thrown 
 out ; and the Coalition ministers fell, most of 
 them in transports of rage, Lord North, with 
 his usual good-humour, declining to get out 
 of bed at twelve o'clock at night to give up the 
 seals, and forcing the royal envoy, wlio came 
 at that unseasonable hour, to have an interview 
 with Lady North, as well as with himself. For 
 a moment. Temple, the author of the plot, was 
 secretary of state ; but he immediately vanished 
 under a cloud of mystery which has never been 
 cleared away. Lord Stanhope is inclined to 
 think that Lord Temple having saved the 
 monarchy by a back-stairs intrigue, wished 
 to assure its salvation by getting himself made 
 a .Duke ; and that the King, faithful 'o first 
 principles, even in tiiis supreme hour of political 
 extremity, would make none but Royal Dukes. 
 A more obvious solution is that Tem})le, like 
 most intriguers, Wiis a coward, and that his 
 heart failed him as he touched his prize. What 
 is certain is, that Lord Tem]»le went to Stowe. 
 Meanwhile the King had turned again to Pitt ; 
 
 
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 i_ 
 
 iip% -<.* « 
 
i68 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 il 
 
 , 
 
 and Pitt was prime minister, and not only prime 
 minister, but, as the rest of the cabinet were 
 mere respectabilities, sole minister at twenty- 
 four. 
 
 Unluckily there was now a taint on his 
 appointment, which there would not have been 
 if he had dared to accept the prime minister- 
 ship before. Lord Stanhope defends the King 
 and his partners in this transaction. He says 
 the rules of the constitution were not then 
 settled. The principle that the King was not 
 to take notice of anything depending in Parlia- 
 ment had been asserted, as I apprehend, against 
 the Stuarts. But be this as it may, if the rules 
 of the constitution were not settled, the rules of 
 lionour Avere ; and the rules of honour, while 
 they permitted the King to dismiss his minis- 
 ters openly and appeal against them to the 
 country, did not permit him to stab them in 
 the dark. But, says L<: rd Stanhope, Pitt at all 
 events stands clear. His conduct was excusable 
 perhaps ; but if the transaction was criminal, 
 lie was not guiltless. He was an accomplice 
 after the f^ict. He ^'creened Lord Temple in 
 parliament. He accepted th( fruits of the 
 intrigue. Afterwards, he was himself called 
 
 
5 't 
 
 PITT, 
 
 169 
 
 upon to confront the prejudices of the King. 
 George III. was cunning, and though he might 
 quail before the haughty son of Chatham, he 
 must have felt in his heart that Pitt had once 
 been his accomplice. 
 
 Then came the famous struggle of the young 
 minister at the head of a minority, and without 
 a colleague to support him in the House of 
 Commons, against the superior forces and the 
 veteran chiefs of the Coalition. The merit of 
 Pitt in this struggle has been overrated. The 
 Opposition made him a present of the victory. 
 They should have proceeded not passionately 
 but vigorously against Temple, and treated Pitt 
 with cool forbearance, so os to avoid making 
 him an object of national sympathy. Tliey pro- 
 ceeded passionately but by no means vigorously 
 against Temple, and they assailed Pitt with 
 a ferocity which arrayed the sympathies of all 
 men on his side. The fact is, however, that 
 Pitt played a winning game from the beginning. 
 The numbers of the majority in the House were 
 no measure of their hold on the country. The 
 nation was weary of cabals which bandied power 
 from one set of place-hunters to another. Its 
 heart yearned towards the young, and as it 
 
 % «■-■'■ 
 
 f V- 
 

 
 (■ I- 
 
 
 170 
 
 THP.EE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 hoped pure and patriotic, son of Chatham. The 
 Tories wished the King to choose his own 
 ministers. The few Radicals that there were 
 liated the great Whig houses. The CoaUtion 
 was hated by all. 
 
 In the middle of the struggle the Clerkship 
 of the Pells (a sinecure office with an income of 
 £3,000 a year) fell vacant. The minister might 
 liave taken it himself, and Pitt was poor. 
 He fancied that if he lost his place he should 
 have to go hack to the bar. But he used the 
 windfall to redeem a pension which had been 
 improperly besto ved by the other party, thus 
 placing his own purity in contrast with their 
 corruption. As a minister he waged no war on 
 great sinecures, and he held the Wnrdenship of 
 the Cinque Ports himself But this act proved 
 at least that he was playing a high game, and 
 that he would not let his cupidity stand in the 
 way of his ambition. He shewed sagacity, too, 
 in putting off the dissolution, and thus giving 
 the opposition rope to hang themselves, and the 
 tide of opinion time to rise in his favour. Ev^en 
 in the House, the Opposition was at the last 
 gasp ; and when urged by ito leaders to throw 
 out the Mutiny Bill, it no longer answered the 
 
n. The 
 
 [lis own 
 re were 
 ]!oalitioii 
 
 Jlerkship 
 icome of 
 3r might 
 IS poor. 
 3 should 
 jsed the 
 lad been 
 ty, thus 
 th their 
 ) war on 
 nship of 
 
 proved 
 me, and 
 d in the 
 
 ty, too, 
 giving 
 
 and the 
 
 E s^en 
 
 +he last 
 
 u throw 
 
 red the 
 
 PITT. 
 
 171 
 
 spur. A JasL effort was made by a devoted 
 adheT'e-^t in the faliinsf hour of the <iTeat Whio- 
 
 1 
 
 iig 
 The dav before the dissolutic 
 
 some- 
 body .itoie the Great Seal But the fortitude 
 and resource of the young minister were equal 
 to the occasion, and a new Great Seal was at 
 once made. 
 
 When Pitt at last went to the country, there 
 was a rout of the Opposition never pa,ralleled 
 except when the Whigs, in their turn, threw the 
 Tories to the reformed constituencies in 1832. 
 The great majority with wliich Pitt returned 
 to the Rouse w^as a medley, in which high 
 Tories were mixed up with AldeiiTtan Sawbridge 
 and John Wiikes. But he rapidly gave it con- 
 sistene • by making his name the symbol of 
 P osperity and sound finance, and by attaching 
 conomerce, whose interests he alone understood, 
 iSrmly to his banner. Soon he ^vas all-powerful, 
 and the beginning of his reign is an ej)Ocli in 
 our historv. There had been no revolution. All 
 the cabinet were peers except Pitt himself; and 
 he was an earl's son. He had come into power 
 by the personal favour of tlie King. He could 
 do nothing against the King or his order. But 
 with these restiictions, lie wished to rule for the 
 
 
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PW 
 
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 Ilj 
 
 172 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 public good. His intellect was probably not so 
 high as that of Turgot, l)\it it was more practical : 
 and his task was not, like that of Turgot, almost 
 hopeless. Bright years, years bright for him- 
 self — and, on the whole, bright for his country — 
 lay before him. Such a })art can scarcely ever 
 be played again. In ordinary times, connection 
 and experience must rule. But it is possible 
 that, luider certain circumstances, the House of 
 Conmions may once more weary and disgust the 
 nation ; and that a statesman of high bearing 
 and known public spirit may once more appeal 
 wdth success from cabal and faction to the heart 
 of the people. 
 
 The highly aristocratic composition of Pitt's 
 Cabinet is a proof that there had been no 
 revolution : it has also been justly cited as one 
 of the many confutations of the theory that the 
 Tories are less oligarchical than the Whigs. 
 Under the influence of this theory, Lord Stan- 
 hope, a moderate Tory, sometimes lapses into 
 language fundamentally democratic. " In 1784 
 the independent freeholders of Yorkshire boldly 
 confronted the great houses" — this is an appeal 
 to a dangerous spirit, unless care is taken to 
 insert "Torv" before " freeholders,'' and " Whiff" 
 
 tt, 
 
riTT. 
 
 173 
 
 before " great lioiises." Tlie fact .seems to l>e 
 that the Tories being, thi'ougli some cause un- 
 explained by political science, rather more stupid 
 than the Whigs, liave been rather more often 
 obliged to take adventurers into pay ; but tliey 
 do this for oligarchical purposes, and an oligarch 
 is not the less an oligarch because he l<eeps a 
 bravo. 
 
 The young conqueror sullied his triumph by 
 most ungenerous conduct to his rival on the 
 subject of the Westminster Scrutiny. He had 
 the mortification, as deserved as it was bitter, 
 of finding himself at last placed in a minority 
 by the more generous feeling of his own fol- 
 lowers. In one of these debates, which, in spite 
 of the aristocratic character of the speakers, 
 were as rancorous and personal as anything in 
 an American Congress, Fox made a really great 
 speech, in which he read his young rival a well- 
 merited lecture on the expediency of modera- 
 tion in the use of victory. Nothing can exceed 
 the per tn ess and bad taste of Pitt's reply — 
 " I am not surprised if he should pretend to 
 be the butt of ministerial persecution ; and if, 
 by striving to excite the public compassion, 
 he should seek to reinstate himself in that 
 
 
 I S « » >» 
 
 'mi 
 
174 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STA TESMEX. 
 
 »»M 
 
 popularity which he once enjoyed, but which he 
 so unha]^pily has forfeited. For it is the best 
 and most ordinary resource of these pohtieal 
 apostates to court and offer {heniselves to perse- 
 cution, for the sake of the popular predilection 
 and pity which usually fall upon persecuted 
 men ; it becomes worth their while to suffer 
 for a time political martyrdom, for the sake of 
 the canonisation that awaits the suffering 
 martyr ; and I make no doubt the right lionour- 
 able gentleman has so much penetration, and at 
 the same time so much passive virtue about 
 him, that not only would he be glad to seem a 
 poor, injured, persecuted man, but he would 
 gladly seek an opportunity of even really suf- 
 fering a little persecution, if it be possible to 
 find such an opportunity." It m\ist have been 
 difficult for an opponent, or for any one indeed 
 but a partisan, to help very cordially abhorring 
 the gifted youth, from whose lips flowed un- 
 bidden such perfect periods as these ; especially 
 when at his back was a mob of Tory squires, 
 under the famous Kolle, hooting down the 
 speakers on the other side — a habit perhaps not 
 yet quite extinct. If there was any one in that 
 assembly to whom the term apostate might 
 

 :ring 
 
 iin- 
 
 :ially 
 
 lires, 
 
 the 
 
 not 
 
 that 
 
 light 
 
 riTT. 
 
 175 
 
 with justice have been apphed, it was the 
 vehement advocate of Parliamentarv Reform as 
 
 ft/ 
 
 the great antidote to secret influence who now 
 stood, through a most flagrant exercise of secret 
 influence, First Llinister of the Crown. 
 
 Pitt's great glories are economical and finan- 
 cial. In that sphere, as he touched neither pre- 
 rogative nor privilege, royalty and aristocracy 
 allowed him to have free play. They even 
 formed his support in contending against the 
 commercial tyranny of protection. 
 
 He found the finances after the American war 
 and the North Administration in a desperate 
 state. There were 14 millions of unfunded 
 debt ; exchequer bills were at 20 discount ; 
 consols were at 56. The customs were so laid 
 on that the smuggling trade in tea was double 
 the lawful trade in amount. The pupil of Adam 
 Smith set all this right, brought income by bold 
 taxation to a level with expenditure, and apply- 
 ing the principle which he was the first to grasp — 
 that reduction of duties will increase revenue by 
 increasing consumption — transferred the gains 
 of the smuggler to the national exchequer. He 
 was at the same time enabled to do away with 
 a number of places in the Customs and Excise, 
 
 ■I 
 
 I . 
 
 9'..; s 9M * 
 
176 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 .'M 
 
 Wwm. 
 
 III 
 
 mm r 
 
 III 
 
 m 
 
 
 and thereby not only to reduce the national 
 expense, but to stanch some of the sources of 
 corruption. He thus, in spite of some occasional 
 waste in armaments, the debts of the Prince 
 of Wales, and the voracity of the civil list, 
 turned deficit into surplus, and saved England 
 perhaps from a crash like that to which deficit 
 was hvuTying France. He was also the author 
 of the reform which put up loans to the highest 
 bidder, instead of making them government 
 patronage, with a toll to corruption. 
 
 Adam Smith had denounced funding. His 
 pupil, when obliged to borrow, borrowed in the 
 five rather than in the three per cents, to keep 
 down the capital debt and improve the chance 
 of paying oif. He had not read Lord Macaulay, 
 who from the growth of suburban villas " em- 
 bosomed in gay little paradises of lilacs and 
 roses," proves that a funded debt of eight hun- 
 dred millions is no burden to the nation. He 
 had not learnt that in the case of a national 
 debt, debtor and creditor are the same, so that, 
 as it seems, w^e might as well simplify the trans- 
 action by the use of the sponge. Still less, 
 probably, had he, like Lord Macaulay, discerned 
 the recondite truth, that the practice of fighting 
 
 ? i!|.?-,!» « » 
 
PITT. 
 
 ni 
 
 ational 
 rces of 
 jasional 
 
 Prince 
 vil list, 
 England 
 I deficit 
 
 author 
 highest 
 3rnment 
 
 g. His 
 1 in the 
 to keep 
 chance 
 acaulay, 
 em- 
 and 
 it hun- 
 )n. He 
 national 
 so that, 
 e trans- 
 ;ill less, 
 scerned 
 ghting 
 
 IS 
 ICS 
 
 u 
 
 with soldiers hired at the expense of posterity, 
 which removes the last restraint on war, is 
 favourable to the ascendancy of intelle3t over 
 force. He might have asked Lord Macaulay, 
 if a national debt was a blessing, why it should 
 not be doubled 1 
 
 In his anxiety to reduce the debt Pitt was 
 caught by the project of a sinking fund. When 
 national debts grew heavy, various projects 
 were devised in different countries for conjuring 
 them away without the unpleasant process of 
 paying. The Mississippi scheme and the South 
 Sea scheme were among the number. Tamper- 
 ing with the currency was a coarse expedient. 
 The simplest was that of the French Finance 
 Minister, Abbe Terrai, who repudiated fifty per 
 cent, and proved that the glory of repudiation 
 is not monopolised by republics. The sinking 
 fund was a project for conjuring away the debt 
 by the magic of compound interest. People 
 think that money at compound interest grows 
 of itself like a plant. But compound interest, 
 in the case of individuals, is merely compound 
 savings reinvested, and compound diversions of 
 capital from other investments. In the case of 
 a national sinking fund it is com^Dound payments 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
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 made by the nation to itself. Of course, as soon 
 as the question arises between further borrow- 
 ing, perhaps at a high rate of interest, for some 
 pressing emergency, and dipping into the sinking 
 fund, the sinking fund goes to the wall. There 
 arc only three courses for nations which have 
 run into debt — to bear the debt for ever, to be- 
 come bankrupt, or to remain at peace, retrench 
 and pay. 
 
 It does seem, however, that a nation ought 
 to take advantage of its immortality, and to 
 borrow on terminable rather than on perpetual 
 annuities. To the mortal creditor there is no dif- 
 ference between an annuity for the longest span 
 of moital interest and an annuity for ever. To 
 the immortal nation there is, between a burden 
 for a century and a burden for ever, all the 
 difference in the world. 
 
 Destiny mocks the hopes of man. This is 
 the minister of whom it was too truly said — 
 " Mr. Pitt's memory needs no statues. Six hun- 
 dred millions of irredeemable debt are the eternal 
 record of his fame." He ought, from his early 
 studies and experiences, to have felt more 
 strongly the injustice of laying burdens on 
 other generations without their own consent. In 
 
PITT. 
 
 179 
 
 as soon 
 borrow- 
 or some 
 sinking 
 Tliere 
 ;h Lave 
 ', to be- 
 retrench 
 
 11 ought 
 and to 
 erpetual 
 s no dif- 
 est span 
 ^er. To 
 I burden 
 all the 
 
 This is 
 T said — 
 51X hun- 
 ? eternal 
 lis early 
 t more 
 lens on 
 jent. In 
 
 barbarous ages, people when they went to war 
 fought themselves. Civilisation taught them 
 to hire, impress, or kidnap other people to light 
 for them. Still there was a check on war while 
 those who made it had to pay. Taxation of the 
 present was confined within narrow limits ; it 
 provoked unpleasant outcries, sometimes it pro- 
 voked resistance. So the expedient was hit upon 
 of taxing the mute and unresisting future. The 
 system was perfected by degrees. At first the 
 Government only anticipated payments which 
 they miglit, with some colour of reason, call 
 their own. Then they mortgaged particular 
 sources of revenue. Funding with us dates 
 from William III. ; hence to the author of the 
 great Whig epic, of which William is the 
 Achilles, the system seems all lilacs and roses. 
 
 Pitt's financial speeches were as notable as 
 his budgets. Inferior, no doubt, in knowledge to 
 those of Peel, they are superior in form, which 
 is something when people are to be instructed 
 on a subject to most men at once repulsive and 
 obscure. 
 
 In the mind of Pitt, as in that of Adam 
 Smith, as in that of Cobden, as in the counsels 
 of Providence, free trade v/as connected with 
 
 N 2 
 
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 ¥1 
 
 4: 
 
 
 i -v ' 
 
 
 
i8o 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 a policy of peace and goodwill among nations. 
 Pitt, too, was " an international man." Since the 
 religious wars of the sixteenth century, hatred 
 had been the law of Christendom. International 
 malignity had been organised under the name 
 of the Balance of Power. Each nation had 
 thought itself prosperous just so far as it could 
 prevent the prosperity of others. Hence pro- 
 tection, the colonial system, and commercial as 
 well as diplomatic wars. Chatham's glory had 
 been bound up with these notions, especially 
 with the notion of eternal enmity between 
 England and France. But Chatham's son, en- 
 lightened by a better teacher, commenced the 
 work of healing, through free commercial inter- 
 course, the divisions of Christendom. The pre- 
 cursor of Cobden, he carried, against strong- 
 opposition, a commercial treaty with France. 
 Fox Avas a man of larger sympathies than Pitt, 
 and if he had been in power would probably 
 have been on the whole a better foreign minis- 
 ter ; but party, sacred party, hurried him and 
 his liberal friends into denouncing the treaty 
 on the most iUiberal grounds of international 
 jealousy. In defending it, Pitt combated, in 
 - language which Cobden might have used, the 
 
itions. 
 ce the 
 tiatred 
 itional 
 name 
 Q had 
 , coukl 
 e pro- 
 cial as 
 y had 
 ecially 
 jtweeii 
 )n, en- 
 }d the 
 mter- 
 e pre- 
 strong 
 I'rance. 
 1 Pitt, 
 ^bably 
 iiiinis- 
 m and 
 treaty 
 tional 
 ed, in 
 d, the 
 
 PITT. 
 
 i8i 
 
 doctrine that France must be the unalterable 
 enemy of Britain. He treated as monstrous, 
 and as founded neither in nature nor in history, 
 the position that one nation could be the 
 unalterable enemy of another. He called it a 
 libel on society, as sujDposing the existence of 
 diabolical malice in the original frame of man. 
 He was obliged to pay some homage to the war 
 spirit, as in truth does Adam Smith ; and he 
 urges that whatever enriches us will, wlien the 
 time comes, give us the sinews of war. But he 
 returns to less equivocal ground in showing that 
 the chances of war will be diminished when 
 nations are bound together by free trade. The 
 chances of war will be diminished. Let us not, 
 in the face of so many victories of principle, 
 honour, passion over mere interest, imagine that 
 any bond of mere interest can do more. If to 
 slake a fierce hatred or to uphold a great cause 
 men will sacrifice their lives, much more will 
 they for a time sacrifice the luxuries for which 
 they are dependent on foreign trade. The only 
 sure guarantee of peace is morality. The next 
 greatest is not commerce but freedom, which 
 puts down standing armies. A commercial 
 treaty is a poor set-off against the mischief done 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 by a mil'taiy despotism, the great embodiment 
 and consecration of the war spirit in the world : 
 and if we were to truck our abhorrence of 
 mihtary despotism for such a treaty, we should 
 find — to put the question on the lowest ground 
 — that we had bought our mess of pottage far 
 too dear. 
 
 Adam Smith had advocated the union of 
 Ireland with England. He had pointed out 
 that free trade with England would far more 
 than make up to Ireland for the increase of 
 taxation — that by the union of his own country 
 with England, the Scotch people had been de- 
 livered from the Scotch aristocracy — that by 
 the same process Ireland " might be delivered 
 from a much more oppressive aristocracy, an 
 aristocracy the most odious of all, an aristocracy 
 of political and religious prejudice, which, more 
 than any other distinctions, animated the in- 
 solence of the oppressor and the hatred of the 
 oppressed, and made the natives of the same 
 country greater enemies than those of different 
 countiies ever were." At this time the relations 
 between Ireland and England were such as 
 could not be endured. The Protestant Ee- 
 publicans of the North of Ireland — they, mind, 
 
PITT. 
 
 183 
 
 not the Catholics — takinfj; advauta<2fe of the 
 weakness of England after her reverses in the 
 American war, and catchino: the infection of the 
 American Revolution, had risen in arms, under 
 pretence of forming a volunteer army for the 
 defence of the kingdom, and extorted legislative 
 independence. The result was not, be it re- 
 marked, a Federal union, with a Federal Govern- 
 ment having a definite province of its own, but 
 two independent Pailiaments under one Crown ; 
 and the Crown being constitutional, the two 
 Parliaments were two sovereign powers. There 
 was an hourly danger of a divergence of policy, 
 even on questions of peace and war. At the 
 same time, the Catholics remained excluded from 
 the Irish Parliament, and Protestant ascend- 
 ancy was thus left rampant, without any imperial 
 control. The consequence was that Ireland was 
 ruled, and her policy kept in union with that of 
 England by systematic corruption. Mr. Massey, 
 the recent historian of this period, has found, 
 among the original papers with which his work 
 is enriched, a sort of chart of the Irish Parlia- 
 ment, drawn up confidentially for the guidance 
 of Pitt :— 
 
 " H. H., son-in-law to Lord A., and brought 
 
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 .,t. 
 
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h 
 
 
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 i- ■ 
 
 V 
 
 1* 
 
 I 
 
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 5: 
 
 184 
 
 THREE ENGLTSII STATES ^fEiV. 
 
 into Parliament by liim. Studies the law ; wishes 
 to be a Commissioner of Barracks, or in some 
 similar place. Would go into orders, and take 
 a living. 
 
 " H. D., brother to Lord C. Applied for 
 office, but as no specific promise could be made, 
 has lately voted in opposition. Easy to be had, 
 if thought expedient. A silent, gloomy man. 
 
 " L. M., refuses to accept £500 a year: 
 states very high pretensions for his skill in 
 Plouse of Commons' management. Expects 
 £1,000 a year. — N.B. : Be careful of him. 
 
 " J. N. has been in the army, and is now on 
 half pay : wishes a troop of dragoons, or full 
 pay. States his pretensions to be fifteen years' 
 service in Parliament. — N. B. : Would prefer 
 office to military promotion ; but already has, 
 and has long had, a pension. Character, espe- 
 cially on the side of truth, not favourable. 
 
 " B. P., independent, but well disposed to 
 Government. His four sisters have pensions, 
 and his object is a living for his brother. 
 
 " T. P., brother to Lord L., and brought in 
 by him. A captain in the navy. Wishes for 
 some sinecure employment." 
 
 On the government side were the members 
 
PITT. 
 
 i8r. 
 
 for eighty-six proprietary seats, the owners of 
 wliicli had let them out for titles, offices, or pen- 
 sions. Sir Arthur Wellesley, at a kiter period, 
 found that a zealous su])porter of the govern- 
 ment had been endeavourinof to strenjxthen 
 the Union by appropriating to his own use the 
 gold provided for the collars of the order of 
 8t. Patrick, and putting copper in its place. 
 Meantime ftuuine, with pestilence in its train, 
 •stalked among the Irish people, who w-ere re- 
 duced to the level of beasts in everything except 
 that they had the capacity of suffering as men. 
 Does history afford a parallel to that agony of 
 seven centuries which has not vet reached its 
 close '? But England is the favourite of heaven, 
 and when she commits oppression it will not 
 recoil on the oppressor. 
 
 Pitt brought in a measure of free trade with 
 Ireland which was intended no doubt to pave 
 the way for union. Party, combined perhaps 
 with some real ignorance and prejudice, again 
 led the Foxites to the side of illiberality and 
 wrong. Their liberalism at the best was, in 
 fact, a narrow thing. Even Burke is found on 
 this question fighting, an Irishman against Ire- 
 land, as well as an economist airainst free trade. 
 
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 . 'if 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 : 
 
 i 
 
 L 
 
 ! 7 
 
 i; 
 
 And this time the Op{)usition had more than 
 one })Ower of evil on their side. In Irehmd the 
 jealous fears of ascendancy and jobbery were 
 aroused. In England Protection was strong. 
 Shall I tell it — eighty thousand Lancashire 
 manufacturers signed a petition against free 
 trade ? All men are alike sellish, and till their 
 seltishness is enlightened, all are protectionists. 
 Pitt fought gallantly against this host of j^re- 
 judices and cupidities. He was beaten, but liis 
 power was too strong to be shaken by the 
 defeat. 
 
 In the article of corn, Pitt was himself a 
 protectionist. He is taxed with apostacy by 
 Grenville, who had studied Adam Smith with 
 him, and who was a thoroughgoing adherent of 
 free trade. Probably the disturbing cause in 
 his mind was a remnant of the war theory of 
 international policy, which assumes that each 
 nation is a garrison, and must be ready to feed 
 itself in case of siege. However, the case against 
 the Corn Laws then was not so strong as it is 
 now. There was not then the vast manufactur- 
 ing and mining population which Protection 
 afterwards compelled to live on the produce of 
 an insufficient agricultural area, till it reached 
 
! than 
 id the 
 were 
 truiig. 
 lashire 
 t free 
 i their 
 onists, 
 if pre- 
 lut liis 
 y the 
 
 iself a 
 2y by 
 
 with 
 ent of 
 ise ill 
 ory of 
 
 each 
 feed 
 gainst 
 s it is 
 actur- 
 ectioii 
 Lice of 
 ached 
 
 riTT. 
 
 187 
 
 starvation prices, for the benefit of the land- 
 lords. 
 
 But what became of Parliamentary Eeforin '{ 
 At the opening of his ministry Pitt still hoisted 
 reform colours — still professed his determination 
 to press that which, as he said, " alone could 
 entitle Englishmen to the appellation of free, 
 and ensure to wise, to virtuous, and to consti- 
 tutional endeavours a victory over factious am- 
 bition, and corrupt venality, the great question 
 of Parliamentary Reform." But the lieformer 
 grew very tame in the Minister. When he did 
 bring a measure forward it was not like his first, 
 a liberal disfranchisement of rotten boroughs 
 and redistribution of seats, the same whicli 
 had been proposed by Chatham ; but a paltry 
 plan for gradually buying up rotten boroughs, 
 with the consent of the boroughmongers, and 
 transferring the seats to counties. Even this 
 was thrown out. The boroughmongers were 
 shocked at the idea of treating the franchise as 
 a matter of property to be bought or sold. The 
 minister evidently did not put forth his power 
 in support of the measure which consistency 
 required him to propose ; and if he succeeded in 
 persuading his dearest friends that his heart 
 
 
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 TIinEE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 4 
 
 w 
 
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 it 
 
 
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 W 
 
 was in it, tliat only shows that his dearest 
 friends did not always see to the bottom of 
 his heart. It must be borne in mind, how^ever, 
 that when Pitt first came forward as a Parlia- 
 mentary Reformer, at the close of the American 
 war, there was great public discontent : he had 
 made the nation contented, and now there was 
 apathy. Yet had a good measure passed, the 
 government and the nation alike would have 
 felt a calm confidence in the soundness of their 
 institutions, which would have prevented the 
 panic dread of French infection, and saved us 
 from the revolutionary war. This was the ac- 
 cepted season, and it departed, not to be recalled. 
 Sinecurism, as I said before, gross as it then 
 was, Pitt scarcely attempted to attack, though 
 with his Customs' reforms a number of useless 
 23laces fell. He even goes out of his way to 
 commend Addington for bestowing a colossal 
 sinecure on his nephew, a boy of sixteen. Per- 
 haps he thought corruption good enough for 
 Addington and kept purity for himself. But 
 the task would have been a hard one ; it might 
 even have cost him the power which he was 
 using, on the whole, for the public good. In the 
 last hour of the French monarch v, when the 
 
dearest 
 torn of 
 )wever, 
 Parlia- 
 aerican 
 he liad 
 re was 
 ed, the 
 1 have 
 )f their 
 ed the 
 ved us 
 the ac- 
 scalled. 
 it then 
 though 
 useless 
 vay to 
 olossal 
 
 Per- 
 gh for 
 
 But 
 might 
 e was 
 In the 
 311 the 
 
 riTT. 
 
 the wall, th 
 
 189 
 
 e re tor mm g 
 
 handv riting was on me wa 
 ministers found it impossible to reduce sinecures 
 and pensions. The ministry of the Duke of 
 Wellington and Sir Robert Peel estranged Tory 
 support from them when they tried to save 
 Toryism by the same means. It is vain to 
 appeal to these people to give wp the abuses 
 in order to save the system. What they care 
 for is not the system but the abuses. 
 
 There was one kind of corruption of which 
 Pitt himself was the prince. In the course of his 
 ministry he created or promoted in the peerage 
 one hundred and forty peers. The great mass 
 of these creations and promotions were not for 
 merit of any kind, but for political support. If 
 the Peerage of England intends, as it seemed 
 from the language held in the debate on life- 
 peerages that it did intend, to set up a divine 
 right against the nation, it had better not look 
 into its own annals : for taking those annals 
 from the days of Henry VIII. and his minions, 
 the real commencement of our present nobility 
 (the feudal nobility having been destroyed in 
 the Wars of the Koses), it would perhaps be 
 difficult to find a group of families whose en- 
 noblement had less to do with honour. The 
 
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 r 
 
 i 
 
 i M 
 
 if 
 
 H 
 
 ■' if! 
 
190 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 u 
 
 Stuarts sold peerages for money ; later peer- 
 makers have sold them for votes. " Besides 
 these appointments" — says Lord Stanlxope, after 
 giving an accomit of the accession of the Duke 
 of Portland and his friends to Pitt's govern- 
 ment — "beside these appointments, two or three 
 peerages, and two or three places of less amount, 
 gratified some less leading members of the same 
 connection." And not only the " less leading 
 members of the connection," who were thus 
 gratified, but their descendants to the end of 
 time, even thougli they might degenerate from 
 the littleness of their sires, were to have a sacred 
 and indefeasible right of legislating for a great 
 nation. Not only so, but if they did not choose 
 to leave their country houses or Newmarket for 
 a division, they were to have the right of de- 
 ciding by proxy the destinies of England. Is 
 this to be classed among the anomalies which 
 are no evils 1 Is not every anomaly an evil 
 which cannot be thought of, which cannot bo 
 mentioned to a foreigner, without shame ? I call 
 this use of peerages, and I may add that of 
 baronetcies, a kind of corruption. It is the 
 most potent of all kinds of corruption, when 
 the persons to be corrupted are wealthy men. 
 
riTT. 
 
 191 
 
 ^ter peer- 
 *' Besides 
 ope, after 
 the Duke 
 ; goveru- 
 3 or three 
 s amount, 
 ' the same 
 s leadmg 
 ^ere tluis 
 e end of 
 rate from 
 3 a sacred 
 r a great 
 ot choose 
 larket for 
 ht of de- 
 hmd. Is 
 es which 
 
 an evil 
 annot be 
 e ? I call 
 
 that of 
 t is the 
 )n, when 
 thy men, 
 
 wealthy upstarts perhaps, craving, as such men 
 crave, for hereditary rank. Even the social 
 position which a minister can partly bestow, is 
 no small source of influence in such a communitv 
 lis ours. Yi^alpole's bribery-fund was perhaps 
 £50,000 a year : a peerage, it may be even a 
 baronetcy, to an ambitious millionaire is worth 
 £50,000. Therefore, it is not wealth that will 
 keep a member of parliament entirely above 
 corruption. The only thing that will keep him 
 entirely above corruption is honour. 
 
 There can be no mistake as to the objects 
 with which, in Pitt's day, the power of con- 
 ferring peerages was used. " At the close of 
 the elections," says Lord Stanhope, " the King 
 showed his entire approval of his minister by 
 the grant — perhaps a little hivish — of seven 
 new peerages. The others were to baronies ; 
 but one, Sir James Lowtlier, whose influence at 
 Appleby had not been forgotten, was raised 
 at once to higher rank, as Earl of Lonsdale.' 
 I believe it would be putting the case mildly 
 to say that the beneficent influence of Sir James 
 Lowther at Appleby was the only public service 
 by which he had merited public honour. Irish 
 peerages, of course, were granted with even a 
 
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 192 
 
 T If REE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 more shameful prodigality than the English, 
 just as the Irish pension list received spies and 
 cast-off mistresses, whose names on the English 
 pension list would scarcely have been endured. 
 Pitt was on the point of making a loan-con- 
 tractor an Irish peer because he had j)arliamen- 
 tary influence in England. And this is called 
 " recruiting the peerage." So recruited, as Pym 
 said in another great peer-making epoch, " hon- 
 our itself would become a press." Perhaps Pitt 
 was sensible of this danger, when, in framing 
 the Regency Bill, he withheld from the Prince 
 of Wales the power of creating peers, which 
 would have been exercised under the advice 
 of Fox. 
 
 Pitt's admirers plead guilty on his behalf to 
 the charge of not patronising men of letters. 
 But patronage of men of letters was going out 
 of fashion, and it was happy for literature that 
 it was so. How can a statesman have leisure 
 to discriminate literary merit "? And if he cannot 
 discriminate, how can we desire that he should 
 patronise ? Of course he can be told what 
 writers are on iiis own side in politics, and he 
 can see wlio flatter him in their prefaces ; but 
 this is not what learning or the public wants. 
 
PITT. 
 
 193 
 
 A munificent despot, such as Louis XIV., may 
 foster a Court literature : a munificent party- 
 chief, such as the Wliig leaders in the reign of 
 Anne, may foster a party literature. A healthy 
 literature needs no fostering but that of freedom. 
 The best patron of intellect is an educated 
 people. 
 
 The newspaper press was not a great power 
 in Pitt's day. In laying a stamp duty on news- 
 papers, he speaks of it jestingly as an interest 
 with which the members of the House would 
 desire to stand well. If it had been a great 
 power, he would have deserved gratitude for 
 not tampering with journalists. The anonymous 
 press has done great service to reform, a service 
 which nothing else could have done. But if its 
 independence should ever be lost — if its great 
 organs should ever by patronage or social in- 
 fluence be made secretly subservient to the 
 purposes of a dishonest minister, if its chiefs 
 should ever forget the sacredness of their mis- 
 sion in the " gilded saloons" of power — it would 
 itself become the most potent and terrible, as 
 well as the vilest, of all the engines of cor- 
 ruption. Political evil is Protean in its forms. 
 New diseases, new dangers arise as civilisation 
 
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 194 
 
 TirnEE EXGLISlf STA TKSMKN. 
 
 advancoR ; and the corruption of an anonynioiiH 
 press is by no means among tlie least. 
 
 The reform of tlie Libel Law, in the interest 
 of liberty, received Pitt's cordial snj)])ort. He 
 was too great, at all events, to fear free criticism ; 
 thongh we may guess what he would have said 
 of the use of attacks on ])rivate character as a 
 mode of carrying on political war. Of no other 
 la^v reforms was he the author. Yet he had 
 before him a code which ought to have made 
 any statesman a la\\ reformer — a code truly and 
 fearfully aristocratic — a code which, for the 
 lower orders, was indeed written in blood — a 
 code which, while duelling and oilier offences of 
 persons of quality were practically overlooked, 
 inflicted capital punishment with an almost 
 unparalleled recklessness of human life on the 
 petty offences of the poor — a code which was 
 the proof of a deeper barbarism than the native 
 ferocity of the mitutored savage. This work 
 was left to Mackintosh and Romilly. Uncon- 
 sciously and involuntarily perhaps Pitt contri- 
 buted to law reform. He put Eldon at the 
 head of the law. And with Eklon at the head 
 of the law, reform could no longer be delayed. 
 Humanity, however, honours Pitt as the 
 
 /'V 
 
PITT. 
 
 »95 
 
 VM 
 
 iteivst 
 t. He 
 ticism ; 
 ^e said 
 T lis a 
 oiher 
 he had 
 3 made 
 ily and 
 \)r the 
 iood — a 
 3iices of 
 looked, 
 ahiK^st 
 on the 
 ch was 
 native 
 IS W( )rk 
 Uncon- 
 contri- 
 at the 
 16 head 
 |ayed. 
 as the 
 
 constant and powerful opponent of the slave- 
 trade. Perhaps he deserves in one respect to be 
 honoured above Wilbcrforce and Clarkson, in- 
 iisniuch as the rcsponsil)ility of the statesman is 
 greater than that of the private reformer. On 
 this question he remained true to his better 
 self, when on all other questions he had passed 
 to the side of reaction. In 1799 he carried 
 through the Commons a bill for the partial 
 abolition of the trade, which, to liis great grief, 
 was thrown out by the Lords, on grounds which 
 it must be left to the advocates of hereditarv 
 
 • 
 
 virtue to explain. His speech against the slave- 
 trade in 1792 is justly regarded as about his 
 best. A few years before, an action relating to 
 a policy of insurance on the value of certain 
 slaves had been tried in the King's Bench. The 
 question was, whether the loss of the slaves had 
 been caused by perils of the sea. A slave-ship, 
 with four hundred and forty-two slaves was 
 bound from the coast of Guinea to Jamaica. 
 Sixty of the slaves died on the passage from 
 overcrowding, but in respect of these it was not 
 contended that the underwriter was liable. The 
 captain, having missed Jamaica, found himself 
 short of water, and under the apprehension of 
 
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 196 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 scarcity, but before his crew and passengers had 
 been put on short allowance, he threw ninety-six 
 of the sickliest slaves overboard. A fall of rain 
 now gave him water for eleven days, notwith- 
 standing which he drowned twenty-six more of 
 the slaves. Ten in despair threw themselves 
 overboard, for a negro is human enough to feel 
 despair. The ship arrived in port before the water 
 was exhausted. " Thus," says Mr. Massey, " one 
 hundred and thirty-two human beings, if negroes 
 are human beings, were wilfully murdered." But 
 the city jury found that they were chattels, lost 
 by perils of the sea, and gave £32 damages for 
 each slave thrown overboard. The court granted a 
 new trial on the ground that there was no such 
 necessity for drowning the second batch of slaves 
 as to constitute a loss by perils of the sea. 
 There was not a thought, as Mr. Massey re- 
 marks, of proceeding against the captain or his 
 crew for homicide. And this is a law-case of 
 the nation which was conquering India to in- 
 troduce a higher civilisation, and which justified 
 its treatment of the Africans on the ground 
 that they were incorrigible barbarians. One 
 of the proofs of African barbarism adduced by 
 the slave-traders was that a boy had been put 
 
PITT. 
 
 197 
 
 tVn 
 
 rs had 
 3ty-six 
 of rain 
 ►twith- 
 lore of 
 iselves 
 to feel 
 5 water 
 
 \ " one 
 
 legroes 
 ." But 
 
 3ls, lost 
 
 lO'es for 
 
 anted a 
 10 such 
 f slaves 
 le sea. 
 sey re- 
 or his 
 ase of 
 to in- 
 ustified 
 oTound 
 One 
 ced by 
 3n put 
 
 to death by an African because a trader had 
 refused to buy him as a slave. Pitt replies that 
 the real reason why the boy had been put to 
 death was that he had three times run away 
 from his African master, who, by the native 
 custom, had to pay his value every time he was 
 brought back to him, and failing to dispose of 
 him to the English slave-traders, killed him in 
 anger, or to avoid having to pay for him again. 
 He cites a law from the West India Statute 
 Bouk, enacting that "if any negro or other 
 slave shall withdraw himself from his master for 
 the term of six months, or any slave that was 
 absent shall not return within that time, it shall 
 be adjudged felony, and every such person shall 
 suffer death." He then bids the House compare 
 the sudden wrath of the wild African, which 
 slew the negro after the third offence, with the 
 deliberate legislation of the civilised planter 
 which puts him to death for the first, and say 
 on which side the barbarism lies. The answer 
 must be of course that the barbarism lies on the 
 side which has not Enfield rifles but only bows 
 and arrows. The slavery party of those days 
 had not all the lights of science that the An- 
 thropologists have now ; but by the light of 
 
 
 Hill 
 
 
 ' • :i I 
 
 'W% 
 
 .■ 
 
 n 
 
198 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 ' 1') 
 
 W't 
 
 I i. ■-. 
 
 H-' 
 
 their own cupidity they had discovered the 
 argument that the negro was by nature in- 
 capable of civihsation. Pitt asks what a Roman 
 senator would have said of the Britons — whether 
 lie would not have said with confidence : ''There 
 is a people that will never rise to civilisation ; 
 there is a people destined never to be free — a 
 people without the understanding necessary for 
 the attainment of useful arts, depressed by the 
 hand of nature below the level of the human 
 species, and created to form a supply of slaves 
 for the rest of the world '? " 
 
 It was deposed on the side of the slave-owners 
 that the middle passage was a very happy part 
 of the negro's life ; the air of the hold was 
 exactly suited to his Tropical constitution ; when 
 on deck he made meriy and danced his national 
 dances. The privy Council on inquiry found 
 that, the better to secure the comfort of the 
 negroes in their Tropical hold, they were chained 
 two and two together or fastened by ringbolts 
 to the lower deck ; that they were allowed one 
 pint of water each daily under the line, with 
 two meals of yams and horse-beans ; and 
 that after their meals they were made to take 
 exercise by jumping on deck in their irons under 
 
the 
 
 wners 
 J part 
 was 
 when 
 ional 
 bund 
 f the 
 ained 
 bolts 
 d one 
 with 
 and 
 take 
 inder 
 
 
 PITT. 
 
 199 
 
 the lash. These were their national dances. 
 There was one argument for the slave-trade 
 which seems not to have been urged. The 
 reformers did not at this time venture to pro- 
 pose the abolition of slavery ; and, of the two, 
 slave trading was rather better than slave 
 breeding. 
 
 Of the Church Pitt seems to have had no 
 conception, except as an establishment, the 
 prizes of which were to be bestowed with some 
 regard for piety and learning, but with a pri- 
 mary regard to personal and political connection. 
 He gave Tomlirie a fat Bishopric and a fat 
 Deanery at the same time. One instance Lord 
 Stanhope has found in which he resisted the 
 solicitation of a powerful man in order to re- 
 ward a curate who had done his duty. He is 
 disclosed to us in the life of his great friend 
 Mr. Rose, coolly using a Deanery as a political 
 bribe, and enjoining his agent to see that the 
 object bargained for is secured. No thought 
 of purifying the Church as the spiritual organ 
 of the nation seems to have arisen in his mind. 
 A strange spiritual organ for the nation the 
 Church then was. Lord Stanhope has given us 
 the following correspondence : 
 
 A 
 
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 200 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TESMEN. 
 
 The Bislcop of Lichfield {Dr. CornwaUia) to Mr. Pitt. 
 
 " Wimpoie-' ' , June lo, 1791. 
 
 "Sir, — After the various instances of neglect and contempt 
 whicli Lord Cornwallis and I have experienced, not only in 
 violation of re})eated assurances, but of the strongest ties, 
 it is inij)ossible that I should not feel the late disapi)oint- 
 nient very deeply. 
 
 " With respect to the proposal concerning Salisbury, 1 
 have no hesitation in saying that the See of Salisbury cannot 
 be in any respect an object to nie. The only arrangement 
 which promises an accommodation in my favour is the pro- 
 motion of the Bishop of Lincoln to Salisbury, whicli would 
 enable you to confer the Deanery of St. Paul's upon me. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, etc., 
 
 "J. Lichfield and Coventry." 
 
 Mr. Pitt to the Bisliop of Lichfield. 
 
 " Downing-street, Saturday night, June 11, 1791. 
 
 " My Lord, — On my return to town this afternoon I found 
 your lordship's letter. I am willing to hope that on further 
 consideration, and recollecting all the circumstances, there are 
 parts of that letter which you would yourself wish never 
 to have written. 
 
 " My respect for your lordship's situation, and my regard 
 for Lord Cornwallis, prevent my saying more than that until 
 that letter is recalled your lordship makes any further inter- 
 course between you and me impossible. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, etc., 
 
 "W.Pitt." 
 
PITT. 
 
 201 
 
 The Bishop of Lichjleld to Mr. Pitt, 
 
 " Wimpolc-street, June ii, 1791. 
 
 " Sir, — Under the very gi-eut disappointment which I have 
 felt upon the hite occasion, I am much concerned that I was 
 induced to make use of expressions in my letter to you of 
 which I have since repented, and which upon consideration I 
 heg leave to retract, and I hope they will make no unfavour- 
 able impression upon your mind. 
 
 "Whatever may he your thoughts regarding the subject- 
 matter of the letter, I trust that you svill have the candour 
 to i>ardon those parts of it which may appear to be wanting 
 in due and proper respect to you. 
 
 " And believe me to have the honour, etc., 
 
 "J. Lichfield and Coventry." 
 
 Mr. Pitt to the PisJiop of Lichfield. 
 
 " Downing-street, June 12, 1 79 1 . 
 
 " My Lord, — I have this morning received the honour of 
 your lordship's letter, dated the nth, and have great satis- 
 faction in being able to dismiss from my mind any impres- 
 sion occasioned by a paragraph in the former letter which I 
 received from you. 
 
 " With respect to any further arrangement, I can only say 
 that I have no reason to believe that the Bishop of Lincoln 
 would wish to remove to Salisbury ; but, if he were, I should 
 certainly have no hesitation in recommending your lordship 
 for the Deanery of St. Paul's. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, etc., 
 
 " William Pitt." 
 
 < it 
 
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 'vA\ 
 
r 
 
 202 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 ^>\ 
 
 
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 III 
 
 jlH 
 
 HtI 
 
 *^ 
 
 I 
 t 
 
 in 
 
 In! 
 • Hi 
 
 He that (leHireth a biHliopric, desire tli a good 
 thing, hut he that desireth a bishopric and a 
 deanery togetlier, desireth a still better thing : 
 so, no doubt, Dr. Cornwallis would have inter- 
 preted the Scripture. And, be it observed, the 
 covetousness of the man, his meanness, his fla- 
 grant unworthiness to hold any spiritual oftice, 
 make no bad impression whatever on Pitt's 
 mind. The only thing that makes a bad im- 
 pression on his mind is the injurious expressions 
 touching himself. When these have been re- 
 tracted, he is quite ready to promote Dr. Corn- 
 wallis higher in the Church. 
 
 In another case we have an aspirant resorting 
 to the ingenious artifice of writing to thank the 
 minister for a blissful rumour which assigned to 
 him a mitre then vacant. The minister has the 
 pain of informing him that the rumour is un- 
 founded. 
 
 Lord Stanhope gives the correspondence be- 
 tween Pitt and Dr. Cornwallis, with the warning 
 that such a case could not occur now. A case 
 so gross and palpable could not occur now. But 
 may not things really just as bad occur now ? 
 May not a political tactician, and one to whom 
 regard for spiritual interests could scarcely be 
 
PITT. 
 
 203 
 
 iisorilicd except in jest, use spiritual preferment 
 to purchase the j)oUtical support of a gn.'at reli- 
 gious party as cynically as ever the 8up[»ort of 
 the lords of rotton boroughs was purchased by 
 Pitt? May we not, in return, hear religious 
 adulation poured forth by Pharisaic lips to a 
 patron whose only title to respect, in a religious 
 point of view, is that he is not a Pharisee '\ May 
 we not see men who profess to be pre-eminently 
 Christian supi)orting a policy pre-eminently un- 
 christian, because its author puts ecclesiastical 
 power into their hands 1 May we not see a re- 
 ligious connection, yesterday independent, to-day 
 laying down its independence and its influence 
 for good in the ante-chamber of a minister '? May 
 we not see divines, the authorised guardians of 
 the truth, shaping their doctrine to the taste of 
 the great bishop-maker of the day ? And if this 
 is so, are we really much better off now than we 
 were in the days of Pitt and Dr. Cornwallis ? 
 
 The highest rule of duty which Pitt knew in 
 the use of Church patronage he kept. He was 
 staunch to his friends. He had high words with 
 the King because the King insisted on making 
 Moore, instead of Tomline, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury. Tomline evidently thought that though 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 m^ 
 
i 
 
 204 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 
 iM 
 
 the country was in the midst of ii great war, the 
 government ought to have resigned. 
 
 Whether Pitt had been at all touched by tlie 
 scepticism of his century or not, he had imbibed 
 its toleration. He was always in favour of 
 Boman Catholic Emanciptition. lie was not dis- 
 inclined to the repeal of the Test and Corpora- 
 tion Acts. But he consulted the bishojis. It is 
 wonderful that of fourteen bishops two were in 
 favoiu' of the repeal. We maintain a political 
 hierarchy, and we must accept the natural re- 
 sults. It does not lie in the mouths of Noncon- 
 fonnists, who have political power in their hands 
 and fail to use it for the assertion of religious 
 freedom, to rail at the evils of the Establish- 
 ment ; for the blame of those evils rests on them. 
 I say it in no spirit of irony, but with sincere 
 conviction ; the marvellous thing in the charac- 
 ter of the state-bishops is not the illiberality of 
 the many, but the liberality of the few. Pitt's 
 episcopal advisers erred under the almost irre- 
 sistible pressure of the circvnustances in which, 
 not their own act, but the act of the community 
 liad placed them. Yet could they have had their 
 way, these questions would long ago have been 
 solved by civil war. Warned by his oracles — 
 
 >,>*•> 
 
war, tlie 
 
 I by the 
 
 imbibed 
 
 vour of 
 
 not dis- 
 
 Corpora- 
 
 s. It is 
 
 were in 
 
 political 
 
 l:ural re- 
 
 Noncon- 
 
 ir hands 
 
 [•eligious 
 
 tablish- 
 
 )n them. 
 
 sincere 
 
 cliarac- 
 
 ality of 
 
 Pitt's 
 
 )st irre- 
 
 which, 
 
 munity 
 
 id their 
 
 ^e been 
 
 'acles — 
 
 
 PITT. 
 
 20 1 
 
 the keepers of tlie state conscience — Pitt re- 
 sisted a motion for the repeal of the Test and 
 Corporation Acts. You can see thnt, like Peel 
 resisting Catholic Emancipation and the repeal 
 of the Corn Laws, he is struggling against the 
 dawning light within liim, as well as against 
 the argnments from witlioiit. His reasoning is 
 founded on the assumption with which we are 
 now being made again familiar, tliat no man has 
 any political rights, and that it rests entirely 
 with the dominant party in the state to dole out 
 to tlieir fellow citizens just as much of political 
 fi'eedom and justice as they may think compa- 
 tible with the ascendancy of their own opinions 
 and with the safety of the political arrangements 
 by which that ascendancy is preserved. Such 
 advantages as he gains are due to the weakness 
 of his opponents, who, though their hearts were 
 on the side of justice, had not yet learnt, as in- 
 deed few public men have even now learnt, to 
 examine boldly the duty of the state in matters 
 of opinion. The revolting profanation of the 
 sacrament, which the Test and Corporation Act 
 involved, as it did not shock the clergy, naturally 
 did not shock the man of the world. 
 
 The Commutation of Tithes into a corn-rent 
 
 yM 
 
 A 
 
 f I 
 II 
 
^^B ' ^ 
 
 t- 
 
 it' 
 
 IflHi 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
 1:' 
 
 III 
 
 Mt' 
 
 
 1 
 
 mi ./ 
 
 
 ii i 
 
 206 
 
 THREE ENGLTSII -STATI'SMEN. 
 
 was rut's only Cliurcli reform. Tt was destined 
 mainly for Ireland. I liave seen among some 
 papers of Sir Robert Peel a ])ieture of the levy- 
 ing of titlie in a, Catholic's farm-yard by a Pro- 
 testant parson, who is jnst seizing the tenth pig, 
 while soldiers with fixed bayonets stand by to 
 sn}>port the law. The pietnre is a caricature of 
 coin'se, but caricature itself coidd scarcely add 
 deformity to the truth. Pitt, in his letter to 
 the Lord- Lieutenant, hopes that the Irish clergy 
 will take a sober and dispassionate view of the 
 matter ; that thev will luideratand how much 
 easier it is for them, by persisting in an odious 
 system, to imperil the government than for the 
 government to uphold them ; that they will pro- 
 pose an accommodation, which, originating with 
 them, would not be luibecoming. He apj)ealed 
 for a sober and dispassionate consideration of an 
 angry question to men whose whole existence 
 was a iierce conflict with a hostile nation. His 
 plan was rejected, and he gained nothing but 
 the credit with posterity of having been before 
 his time. 
 
 To pass froni home government to the depen- 
 dencies, Pitt had throAvn out the India Bill of 
 Fox, but he could not help bringing in one of 
 
les tilled 
 jX Honio 
 lie levy- 
 
 I a. Pro- 
 iitli pig, 
 (I l)y to 
 atiire of 
 ;ely add 
 iettcr to 
 
 I I clergy 
 J of the 
 ^v much 
 1 odious 
 L for the 
 vvill pro- 
 ng witli 
 
 i})ealed 
 )n of an 
 xistence 
 n. His 
 
 iig but 
 before 
 
 depen- 
 Bill of 
 one of 
 
 riTT. 
 
 207 
 
 his own. The Coinpany'.s servants — tlieir cu])i- 
 dity inflamed to the'utinost by tlie sight of such 
 gorgeous booty — liad burst tlirougli the frail bar- 
 rier which divides the rapacious trader from the 
 robber, and were heai)ing uj) fortunes by violence 
 and fraud, hardly paralleled, to borrow the words 
 of Mr. Massey, in the dark and bloody annals of 
 conquest. Pitt was trammelled by his opposi- 
 tion to Fox's measure, and by his alliance with 
 the East-India, interest and the ludjobs who 
 sat for its rotten boroughs. The result was 
 a half measure — the double government which 
 shambled on in its awkwardness till the Sepoy 
 Mutiny, by breaking up the army on which the 
 dominion of the Company rested, and thus de- 
 stroying one of the two powers, gave the system 
 a final blow. The abuse of Indian patronage, 
 the dread of which had been worked against 
 Fox's Bill, was not avoided by that of Pitt. The 
 corrupt dominion of Dundas in Scotland was 
 maintained to a great extent at the expense of 
 the Hindoo. And we soon find Lord Sydney, 
 an honourable member of the Cabinet, complain- 
 ing of the monopoly of army appointments in 
 India by Scotchmen ; of " insatiable ambition," 
 " sordid avarice," " base work," and "the character 
 
 'I 
 
 il 
 
 fi 
 
it • 
 ■ 1 . 
 
 J'' 
 
 208 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 
 :i! 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 il' 
 
 ijf! 
 
 : 
 
 J 
 
 
 rf' 
 
 I 
 
 hi 
 
 of men whom he had imprudently treated with 
 great openness, but who sho\ild never come into 
 his room again while he had a bolt to his door." 
 Perhaps there is still something in the feelings 
 of Scotchmen, even of pious Scotchmen, towards 
 the oppressed people of dependencies, which 
 savours of the old time. It mav be doubted, 
 however, whether the failure to incorporate India 
 completely with England ought to be reckoned 
 among the demerits of the Bill. Writers on the 
 government of dependencies have not sufficiently 
 considered the consequences of the relation to the 
 character of the imperial country. The effect of 
 incorporating a vast despotism like India with 
 a free nation perhaps remains yet to be seen. 
 There is a poison which is imbibed daily though 
 it is not perceived ; which was imbibed, though 
 it was not perceived, by Imperial Spain. 
 
 In the case of Hastings, the accusers being 
 Whigs, the Tories of course took the part of the 
 accused, with whom, indeed, as a representativu 
 of arbitrary and sanguinary violence, they had 
 sympathies of a more specific kind. Pitt, as is 
 well known, turned round in the middle, and to 
 the dismay of the mass of his party, who voted 
 against him, carried the impeachment by the 
 
FITT. 
 
 -09 
 
 ed with 
 )me into 
 is door." 
 feelings 
 towards 
 i, whicli 
 doubted, 
 ite India 
 •eckoned 
 •s on the 
 fficientlv 
 )n to the 
 effect of 
 [lia with 
 be seen, 
 though 
 , though 
 
 •s being 
 't of the 
 entativo 
 ley had 
 
 tt, as is 
 , and to 
 no voted 
 
 bv the 
 
 votes under his absolute command. His conver- 
 sion was so mysterious that it was avscribed to 
 jealousy of Hastings. But we may safely regard 
 it as conscientious, and as having been delayed 
 only by his inability to look thoroughly into the 
 case at an earlier stage. Hastings was a great 
 criminal, and one who, for the honour and in the 
 highest interest of the country, ought to have 
 been brought to justice ; though he might have 
 pleaded, in extenuation of his guilt, the evil 
 necessities of conquest, for which his masters 
 were more responsible than he. He was ab- 
 solved, and afterwards honoured, because his 
 crimes had served, or were supposed to have 
 served, the aggrandisement of England. And 
 if the aggrandisement of England is a redeem- 
 ing motive before God as well as before the 
 House of Lords, all, no doubt, will be well. 
 Then there will be no danger of retribution, 
 though our press, reflecting too faithfully the 
 morality of the nation, should preach, under 
 the thin disguise of rhetoric, doctrines which 
 in their naked form could be avowed only 
 in the cavern of a bandit or on the deck of a 
 buccaneer. 
 
 Hastings and his party complained, with some 
 
 
210 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 rl 
 
 hi 'Si 
 
 ( 111' 
 "I 
 
 i!;i 
 
 Ml' ! 
 
 [il 
 
 , 
 
 :M 
 
 1 :i 
 
 i^i 
 
 m 
 
 fllL' 
 
 reason, of the length of a trial, conducted by 
 a tribunal the dilatoriness of which equalled 
 its untrustworthiness for the purposes of justice. 
 It was about this time that a woman died in 
 Devon County Gaol, after an imprisonment of 
 forty-five years, for a debt of £19. 
 
 Parliament, however, displayed in the case of 
 Hastings a higher sense of justice and of the 
 national honour than it displays in cases of 
 wrong done to the subject races in the present 
 day. The conscience of the nation had not then 
 become seared by the long exercise of empire ; a 
 perverted code of imperial morality had not had 
 time to grow up, nor had the plea that an act 
 was done in the interest of the dominant race 
 yet become familiar and persuasive to English 
 minds. On these questions we grow worse ; 
 and we shall probably continue to grow worse 
 till for us, as for the American slave-owner, the 
 end arrives, and we find that neither the appro- 
 bation of our press, nor the acquiescence of 
 our state-clergy, is the connivance of the Power 
 which, after all, rules the world. 
 
 Adam Smith had proposed that the colonies 
 should be represented in the British Parliament. 
 Such was his cure for the conflict between 
 
iV^. 
 
 PITT. 
 
 211 
 
 iucted by 
 equalled 
 Df justice, 
 n died in 
 nment of 
 
 le case of 
 id of the 
 cases of 
 le present 
 I not then 
 jmpire ; a 
 d not had 
 tat an act 
 nant race 
 > English 
 w worse ; 
 ow worse 
 wner, the 
 le appro- 
 scence of 
 le Power 
 
 colonies 
 irliament. 
 between 
 
 imperial supremacy and colonial liberty, which 
 was gathering to a head while he wrote. At the 
 time, it was answered that this plan would be 
 impracticable on account of the distance. With 
 regard to the Australian colonies, the same 
 objection would be fatal now. You could not, 
 after a dissolution, wait till the returns to the 
 writs had been made from Sidney and Mel- 
 bourne, before reassembling Parliament. But 
 the more fatal objection is that the colonies 
 have national Parliaments of their own, and 
 that to let them send members to the national 
 Parliament of England also, and have a voice 
 in our national questions, while we should have 
 none in theirs, would involve a confusion of 
 functions full of absurdity and injustice. If you 
 have any common assembly for the mother 
 country and the colonies, it must be a Federal 
 Council, dealing with the interests of the empire 
 apart from those of the several nations : and 
 this Federal Council must in Federal questions 
 be above the national government of Great 
 Britain, an arrangement which Great Britain 
 would never endure. A moral, commercial, and 
 diplomatic union of all the communities of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race, including what must soon 
 
 P 2 
 
!i : ! 
 
 212 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 ■I I 
 
 t 1 
 
 become the greatest of those communities, the 
 United States of America, is no dream, and if 
 a national policy is pursued, may be made a 
 glorioub reality. But a political union of all 
 these comi.iunities, or of those still under the 
 nominal run of Britain, scattered as they are 
 over the globe, is a dream, and one from which 
 we shall soon awake. Colonial Emancipation, 
 while the tie of affection remains unbroken, is 
 the only mode of securing that to which we all 
 alike cling, that of which we all alike are proud. 
 There is no reason why it should not be ac- 
 companied with a mutual retention of the rights 
 of citizenship, so that an Englishman might, to 
 all intents and purposes, be an Australian in 
 Australia, and an Australian be an Englishman 
 here. There is no reason why the colonies 
 should not keep the old flag. The only thing 
 which need be given up, and this Nature pro- 
 claims aloud must be given up, is the pohtical 
 dependence of a nation on one side of the globe 
 upon a nation at the other. Towards Colonial 
 Emancipation Pitt made the first step, still 
 partly guided herein by his great teacher, who, 
 though he had proposed a plan which was not 
 feasible for the political incorporation of the 
 
lities, tlie 
 n, and if 
 ; made a 
 on of all 
 mder the 
 
 they are 
 om which 
 ncipation, 
 Droken, is 
 ich we all 
 ire proud, 
 ot be ac- 
 bhe rights 
 might, to 
 iralian in 
 glishman 
 
 colonies 
 nly thing 
 ture pro- 
 
 pohtical 
 the globe 
 
 Colonial 
 tep, still 
 her, who, 
 
 was not 
 of the 
 
 1 
 
 
 FITT, 
 
 213 
 
 colonies with the mother country, had placed 
 their uselessness as dependencies in a clear light. 
 The Canadas, which had remained ours when 
 we lost the British Colonies in America, had 
 hitherto been governed as dependencies. Pitt 
 now gave each of them a Parliament of its own, 
 and thus, in fact, made them separate nations, 
 though to complete the severance would have 
 been a measure at once out of the range of his 
 vision, and beyond his power. The people of 
 French Canada being Catholics, their admission 
 to political rights was, in fact. Catholic Emanci- 
 pation. The good King and his spiritual ad- 
 visers appear to have made no objection to this 
 feature of the plan. Perhaps it was thought 
 that Providence, for commercial objects, winked 
 in a colony at that which it would have visited 
 as impiety at home. There is a beautiful plas- 
 ticity in our political religion. Intent on pro- 
 ducing another England beyond the Atlantic, 
 Pitt piovided for the endowment of a State 
 Church, and for the creation of a peerage in the 
 colonv. UnoTateful Nature has refused both 
 boons ; though, in the plans now framed for 
 Canadian Confederation, there is a proposal for 
 a mock House of Lords, not hereditary, but for 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 l''i 
 
 HI 
 \\\ 
 
 i 
 
tl' 
 h"; 
 
 h 
 
 i« ^ii 
 
 ■,'»>„ 
 
 r f 
 
 214 
 
 THERE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 life, the proper materials for which the colonies, 
 from the instability of wealth and the absence 
 of any social distinctions there, will fail to fur- 
 nish, and which, if it is set up, will, I venture to 
 jDredict, in the end breed confusion. Pitt had no 
 philosophy of history to teach him that progress 
 is the law of things, that though the essence of 
 religion and morality does not change, all be- 
 sides is ever changing, that the scroll is not yet 
 all unrolled, and that Providence does not mean 
 merely to repeat itself over again in the new 
 world. He did not know that feudalism had 
 performed its part in the development of hu- 
 manity, that of a schoolmaster, to train society 
 for a larger freedom ; that it was bound up 
 with military aristocracy, the offspring of con- 
 quest, which with the age of conquest and 
 military ascendancy passes away ; that it was 
 based on a tenure of land, which the English 
 race had discarded from the moment when it 
 set foot on the new shore. What is more, Pitt 
 when he tried the experiment had not, like us, 
 seen the experiment fail. 
 
 Nor is Pitt's sagacity much to be impeached 
 because, under an unhappy star, he founded 
 Botany Bay. Leave nature to herself and she 
 

 } colonies, 
 e absence 
 ail to fur- 
 denture to 
 itt had no 
 t progress 
 essence of 
 e, all be- 
 is not yet 
 not mean 
 the new 
 ilism had 
 it of hu- 
 in society 
 )ound up 
 g of con- 
 aest and 
 at it was 
 English 
 when it 
 [lore, Pitt 
 like us, 
 
 npeached 
 founded 
 and she 
 
 FITT. 
 
 215 
 
 will choose the germs of new nations well. 
 Wise, beyond the reach of human wisdom, in 
 all her processes, she does not forget her wisdom 
 ill this most momentous process of propagating 
 humanity over its destined abodes. Careful in 
 the selection of the right seed for a plant, she 
 is not careless in selecting the right colonists. 
 Left to herself she selects the flower of English 
 worth, the founders of New England ; when 
 man undertakes to select for her, he selects the 
 convicts of Botany Bay, and taints the being of 
 future communities at its source with the pes- 
 tilence of a moral lazar-house. But the severance 
 of the American Colonies was supposed to be a 
 fatal blow to the prosperity of England, which 
 only the foundation of new colonies could coun- 
 tervail, though, as we all know, it proved an im- 
 mense gain, and turned the driblet of restricted 
 commerce mto a mighty current of wealth. 
 Our gaols too, dens of the most hideous de- 
 pravity, filth, and cruelty, called loudly for 
 depletion, and the dream was a flattering one 
 of turning the felony of England into the virtue 
 and industrv of other lands. Still mischief was 
 done, mischief of which the traces are not wholly 
 effaced yet. But I am falling into a repetition 
 
 
 
 "i. 
 
 
 m^ 
 
 rM 
 
 'I 
 
 
h t 
 
 81 
 
 i 
 
 ! 
 
 I 1 
 
 It 
 
 1 1' IS 
 
 I' I 
 
 li 
 
 ri-) 
 
 TIIRHH ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 of wliat I have said on the subject of colonies 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Towards the American Colonists Chatham's 
 son inherited the feelinfifs of Chatham. Not 
 only did he, as a member of the Shelburne 
 government, gladly take part in making peace 
 with them, but he desired in matters of trade 
 to treat them, to the utmost of his power, as 
 though they were Englishmen still. And they 
 are Englishmen still, if the England, which 
 notwithstanding all that the evil agents of a 
 selfish faction have done to breed bitterness 
 between us, her Colonists still love, will show 
 that she still loves them This was treason 
 and revolution yesterday : it is orthodoxy and 
 Conservatism to-dav. 
 
 It is said of Sir Robert Peel by a French 
 statesman, that he had no foreign policy but peace 
 and good- will among nations. The same thing 
 may be said of Pitt during the first ten years of 
 his power. He w^as remarkably free from the 
 vice of diplomacy. He did not meddle except 
 when he w^as called upon to do so, and then he 
 quietly and with dignity maintained the honour 
 of the country. It is ^vell for the nation when 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the most 
 
^ colonies 
 
 iliatliaiii's 
 in. Nut 
 ilielburno 
 iig peace 
 of trade 
 )ower, as 
 Lnd they 
 3, wliicli 
 snts of a 
 )itternesy 
 ^ill show 
 treason 
 oxy and 
 
 French 
 )iit peace 
 le thing 
 years of 
 rom the 
 
 except 
 then he 
 
 honour 
 n when 
 e most 
 
 r/TT 
 
 217 
 
 powerful mail in the government, because liis 
 ambition is op[)oHed to war. The son of Chat- 
 ham, while he was himself, and before he 
 became the organ of a panic-stricken and in- 
 furiated faction, was eminently a peace minister. 
 In 1792, while all the world was arming, he was 
 cutting down armaments ; his army that year 
 was only 18,000 men, and his army estimates 
 only £1,800,000. When shall we see such 
 estimates again ? 
 
 Once, indeed, the Minister was led into mak- 
 ing a demonstration against the aggrandise- 
 ment of Russia, in which he iiiiled to carry the 
 nation with him. There are politicians who 
 would say that he stood alone in his prophetic 
 wisdom. Probably he would at the time have 
 succeeded in exciting the nation more if India 
 had then been to us whjit it is now, and the 
 safety of the approaches to it had been as great 
 an object of solicitude. The Crimean war must 
 be set down partly to the account of India ; 
 and so must the false bent given to our diplo- 
 macy in the East, as will appear when in the 
 question of the Eastern nationalities, Nature 
 has asserted her power, and produced, in spite 
 of diplomacy. Christian communities which by 
 
 
 
 flfi 
 
 
 III 
 
 1, t,_. i 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 ';f 
 
 1 I 
 
 
 
 ^m 
 
Hf. 
 
 
 
 h 
 
 
 218 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 a more genial policy we might have made our 
 friends. This is not the place for a discussion 
 of the Russian peril. Mr. Massey holds the 
 usual language on the subject : " Eussia had 
 begun to unfold those gigantic schemes of 
 aggrandisement which modem statesmen have 
 justly regarded as menacing the independence 
 and civilisation of the continent with a new 
 irruption from the northern hive." The old 
 irruptions from the northern hive were those 
 of nomad hordes. They were in a word not 
 invasions but vast migrations. The modern 
 Russians, however backward, are a settled na- 
 tion, and will scarcely, like the Goths and Huns 
 of old, put their wi\es and children into their 
 waggons and descend with their herds upon 
 the south. The Christianity which ought to 
 restrain their lust of military aggrandisement 
 is unhappily itself neutralised by a State Church, 
 which, as usual, instead of being the reproving 
 conscience, makes itself the servile organ of the 
 passions of the Government by which it is 
 maintained. But it is in the government, not 
 the Russian people, that this lust of 
 
 in 
 
 aafizrandisement resides. In this case also the 
 
 'oto 
 
 beginning of political freedom will probably 
 
made our 
 discussion 
 holds the 
 Lissia had 
 hemes of 
 nen have 
 3pendence 
 h a new 
 
 The old 
 ere those 
 word not 
 ! modern 
 ittled na- 
 md Huns 
 nto their 
 'ds upon 
 ought to 
 disement 
 3 Church, 
 eproving 
 an of the 
 ch it is 
 lent, not 
 
 lust of 
 also the 
 Drobablv 
 
 PITT. 
 
 219 
 
 be the end of military rapacity ; and, since the 
 emancipation of the serfs, tlie beginning of 
 political freedom can scarcely be far distant. 
 The fear that Europe will soon be either Ee- 
 publican or Cossack does not seem to me chi- 
 merical; but the fear that it will be Cossack does. 
 The Minister also met with a check in bring- 
 ing forward a proposition, which w^as not his 
 own but the Duke of Richmond's, for the forti- 
 fication of the arsenals. Party came in as usual, 
 regardless of the safety of the country when 
 the paramount interest of faction was to be 
 served. But the feeling upon which party 
 played seems to have been confidence in the 
 sufiiciencv of the wooden walls. The nation 
 might, at all events, and may still truly say, 
 that Government has at its command a great 
 fleet, maintained at a vast expense to the 
 nation, and that it is bound, with this fleet, 
 to maintain an ascendancy in the British waters, 
 which if it would do, we should stand in little 
 need of fortifications. But the fleet is scattered 
 in petty squadrons over the world, for the 
 nominal defence of distant colonies and de- 
 pendencies, and for the hollow pretence, which 
 could not now be sustained six months after the 
 
 1* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 \\\ 
 
 
 "/.f 
 :**!.■ 
 
 1 
 
 if! 
 
 if 
 
 (• 
 
 t 1 
 
 i 
 
 
220 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 ■i i 
 
 !■ ■ 
 
 outbreak of a great war, of dominating in the 
 Mediterranean. The country is continually 
 pouring millions into the naval estimates, only 
 to be told that its own shores are defenceless, 
 and that millions more must be spent in forti- 
 fying them against French invasion. 
 
 As a member of Shelburne's government, Pitt 
 had been called on to defend, among the other 
 articles of the peace with America and her allies, 
 the abandonment of the clause in the treaty of 
 Utrecht, providing for the demolition of Dun- 
 kirk. North denounced the article, on the 
 ground that though Dunkirk was no longer 
 of real importance, the presence of our com- 
 missioners on the enemy's territory was to be 
 desired, because it perpetuated the memory of 
 former victories, exalted the dignity of Great 
 Britain, and humbled the pride of France. Such 
 has hitherto been the code of honour among 
 nations. Among men true dignity is inoffensive, 
 and he who is most careful of the honour of 
 others is thought likely to be most careful of his 
 own. Shelburne, like Chatham and Stanhope — 
 two ministers of spirit as well as sense — before 
 him, had proposed to give Gibraltar up to Spain 
 for an equivalent. Three times round that 
 
-'. 
 
 PITT. 
 
 22 I 
 
 g in the 
 ntinually 
 ttes, only 
 Fenceless, 
 in forti- 
 
 lent, Pitt 
 he other 
 er allies, 
 treaty of 
 of Dun- 
 on the 
 > longer 
 ir com- 
 s to be 
 Tiory of 
 f Great 
 . Such 
 among 
 fensive, 
 lour of 
 1 of his 
 hope — 
 -before 
 I) Spjiin 
 that 
 
 barren rock had the waters — Nature's destined 
 portal of peaceful commerce, and her destined 
 highway of kindly intercourse among the nations 
 of Christendom — been dyed with Christian blood 
 and covered with floating agony. It does not 
 command the entrance to the Mediterranean. 
 It has made Spain our enemy in every war of 
 the European Powers. When almost paralysed 
 by decrepitude, she dragged her feeble limbs 
 again and again to the attack, that she might 
 remove this stain on her escutcheon, this eyesore 
 of her honour. The recovery of it would be 
 the greatest bribe that a military adventurer 
 rising to power in Spain could offer to his 
 countrymen : and perhaps the day may not be 
 far distant when such a crisis may occur. But 
 let us by no means exercise any foresight in the 
 matter. Foresight is unworthy of a practical 
 nation. A passage in one of Pitt's letters seems 
 to indicate that he opposed Lord Shelburne on 
 this occasion. But, if he did, it must be borne 
 in mind that we had then no other station in 
 the Mediterranean. Minorca had been lost : 
 Malta was not yet ours. Pitt said " some naval 
 station in the Mediterranean is absolutely indis- 
 peusable, but none can be found so desirable 
 
 si 
 
 i 
 
222 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 vs. I 
 
 i'l 
 
 and secure as Malta." If we cite great au- 
 thorities, we must remember the circumstances 
 under wliich they spoke. But again I am re- 
 peating what I have said more than once before. 
 In the midst of his useful course Pitt was 
 almost thrown out of power by the illness of 
 the King, which, if it had lasted longer, would 
 have made the Prince of Wales Regent, and 
 transferred the government to his friends ; one 
 of the many warnings to nations in search of a 
 constitution not to embrace ours without con- 
 sidering all the liabilities of so peculiar and 
 complex a machine. The Prince of Wales, 
 partly from fiUal feeling, partly perhaps like 
 D'Orleans Egalit^, for the sake of another for- 
 bidden pleasure, flirted with Liberal principles, 
 which, however, of course, lost for ever their 
 place in what he was fond of calling his heart, 
 the instant that his foot touched the throne. 
 The debates on the Pegency Bill, under the 
 guise of a great constitutional discussion, were 
 a scuffle for power between two factions which 
 had accidentlly changed their positions with 
 regard to royalty for the moment, and got hold 
 each of the other's cant ; so that if Pitt could 
 say that he had im-Wliigged Fox, Fox might 
 
g-reat aii- 
 iimstances 
 I am re- 
 ce before. 
 Pitt was 
 illness of 
 er, would 
 ^ent, and 
 nds ; one 
 arch of a 
 lout con- 
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 >f Wales, 
 laps like 
 ther for- 
 rinciples, 
 ^er their 
 lis heart, 
 throne, 
 ider the 
 on, were 
 is which 
 lis with 
 got hold 
 tt could 
 X might 
 
 PITT. 
 
 223 
 
 '^f' 
 
 :S.i 
 
 have said that he had un-Toried Pitt. These 
 scenes revealed on the critical eve of the French 
 Eevolution the scandals of Royalty — a King, 
 in whom the ray of reason barely flickered 
 swaying the destinies of a nation — the Princes 
 mocking at the affliction of their father — the 
 Queen receiving with complacency the duellist 
 who had nearly killed her detested child. Not 
 long before had occurred the episode of the 
 Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert, in which 
 the Prince broke every law of honour, and 
 put up his bosom friend to tell a lie for him 
 in the House of Commons. But there are 
 extenuating circumstances in this case. First, 
 the Prince, like all princes, had been sacrificed 
 to the public good : he had never known equal 
 friendship, heard the voice of truth, or learnt 
 self-control and honour in the school of other 
 men. Secondly, his love for Mrs. Fitzherbert 
 was undoubtedly deep and sincere ; a lawful 
 marriage w^ith her might have been the means 
 of reclaiming him. Thirdly, he had not made 
 the laws which, in the case of royal marriages, 
 sacrificed affection to policy ; and, heir to a 
 kingdom as he was, he might have envied the 
 meanest servant in his train whose hand and 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 free. He 
 
 ifterwards 
 
 were tree. ±ie was atterwaras married to 
 a woman whom he had never seen, and the sight 
 of whom caused him at once to call for brandy, 
 while further researches have revealed that 
 he drowned the horrors of his wedding in an 
 enormous potation of liqueur. His mother had 
 been called down from her nurserv one after- 
 noon to dine at table with the family, and 
 introduced to a stranger, who after dinner led 
 lier into the next room, and went through the 
 form of marriage with her as the deputy of 
 the King of England. When she was brought 
 to St. James's, never having seen her destined 
 husband, she was going to fall down at the 
 feet of the wrong man. 
 
 The people showed their sympathy and their 
 loyalty when the King recovered. They passed 
 from mouth to mouth, and engraved on their 
 rings and snuff-boxes the words of the honest 
 Lord Chancellor Thurlow : " When I forget 
 my King may my God forget me." They 
 had not heard Buike's exclamation, " The best 
 thing he can do for you," or the more pungent 
 but highly improper comment of the graceless 
 Wilkes ; nor had they seen Pitt run out of 
 the House crying, "Oh what a rasccl." In the 
 
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 friends were holding a Cabinet at Windsor, 
 as they rose to go, the honest Lord Chancellor's 
 hat was missing. It was brought to him from 
 the Prince's room. 
 
 And now the sun of Pitt's glory has reached 
 its zenith. It declines towards the West and 
 night. • 
 
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IV. 
 
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 An optimist viev/ of history will not hold 
 good, any more than an optimist view of nature. 
 All will be well in the sum of things, but in 
 the meantime calamities occur. No greater 
 calamity ever occurred, no greater disaster ever 
 befell the cause of human progress, as it seems 
 to me, than the revolution which brouo^ht the 
 Liberal movement of the eighteenth century 
 to a violent crisis in France. Apart from the 
 faults of political character, the want of self- 
 control, the want of mutual confidence, the 
 levity, and worst of all the cruelty, which have 
 marked all their revolutions, the French were 
 from their circumstances, and from the evil 
 training which they had undergone, quite unfit 
 to take the political destinies of the world into 
 their hands. The abuses of their own govern- 
 ment were so flagrant, the obsoleteness of their 
 
230 
 
 THREE EXGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
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 own institutions was so manifest, that the 
 thouglit of caution and moderation was banished 
 from their minds, and tliey were content with 
 nothing sliort of introchicing a new order of 
 tilings, a new political creation as it were, 
 dating from the day of their revolt, which 
 they sought to extend to nations unwilling to 
 accept it, or unripe for a great change. They 
 had no middle class accustomed to government, 
 ready to take power into its hands, and furnish 
 wise rulers to the state when the aristocracy 
 had been overthrown. The peasantry and the 
 populace of their towns were brutalised to the 
 last degree by ignorance and oppression. The 
 court and the aristocracy were too utterly cor- 
 ]upt and effete to show any moral courage or 
 attempt to control the crisis which they had 
 themselves, by dallying with Liberalism and 
 Scepticism, helped to bring on ; they threw 
 the reins on the neck of a frenzied people, 
 and betook themselves, for the most part, to 
 ignominious flight. In the whole nation, though 
 there were generous aspirations, there was no 
 faith. The state superstition had been renounced 
 by all men in their hearts, even by its state 
 supporters, even by its own prieats : but its 
 
tliat the 
 ^ b[uiished 
 tent witli 
 
 order of 
 
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 was no 
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 its state 
 
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 rJTT. 
 
 231 
 
 political ascendancy had been tlie upas shade 
 which had forbidden any other religion to grow. 
 The creed of Rousseau was not a faitli but 
 an emotion, capable oi' impclUng, not of con- 
 trolling or sustaining men. Here, as Quinet 
 in his recent work has pointed out, lay the 
 loot of the whole failure. Institutions, an- 
 tiquated and decayed, may fall or be pulled 
 down ; but humanity can advance into a new 
 order of things only when it is borne forward 
 on the wings of a new faith. And not a step 
 will be made towards the attainment of a new 
 faith by guillotining all the tyrants and oli- 
 ofarchs in the world. 
 
 First there was a revolutionary movement 
 in which the generous hopes and glorious pro- 
 mises w^hich fascinated the youth of Words- 
 worth, Southey, and Coleridge were blended 
 with the premonitory symptoms of the crimes 
 and horrors to come, and accompanied by an 
 explosion of chimeras, of rhetoric, of theatrical 
 egotism, and of political folly, the fearful sig- 
 nificance of which is plain to the retrospective 
 eye of history. Then ensued Anarchy and 
 the Eeign of Terror, which has left so deep 
 and almost ineifaceable a stain on the cause 
 
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 232 
 
 TIIEEE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 of Progress, and from the effects of which that 
 cause has suffered ever since, and is suffering 
 to this hour. After Anarchy and the Terror 
 came a military despotism which, by its piratical 
 tyranny over Europe, put the hearts of all 
 nations on the side of tlie national despots, 
 who presented themselves as the only saviours 
 from the rule of a foreign conqueror and the 
 insolent myrmidons of his oppression. Not 
 only George III. and his Tory ministers, no^ 
 only the half-Liberal monarchy of Prussia, but 
 an Emperor of Austria, a Bourbon King of 
 Spain, became in the eyes of their trampled 
 subjects liberators and friends of freedom. We 
 are all glad that the Treaty of Vienna has 
 been torn up ; but it ought to be borne in 
 mind that it was in its origin, partly indeed 
 a counter-revolutionary arrangement of the 
 despots, but partly also a military anangement, 
 framed, not without necessity, to secure Europe 
 against the cruel rapacity of France. The 
 conquests of Napoleon may have hastened the 
 fall of feudalism, which in any case was in- 
 evitable ; but what was this compared with 
 the mischief done by the destruction of human 
 life and of the fruits of human labour, by the 
 
^'liicli that 
 ^ suffering 
 /he Terror 
 ts piratical 
 rts of all 
 il despots, 
 ' J saviours 
 I' and the 
 on. Not 
 isters, no^ 
 'ussia, but 
 King of 
 trampled 
 dom. We 
 cnna has 
 borne in 
 ly indeed 
 b of the 
 uigement, 
 :e Europe 
 ce. The 
 tened the 
 was in- 
 red with 
 of human 
 r, by the 
 
 PITT. 
 
 23.i 
 
 reaction created in favour of the old dynasties 
 and institutions, by the evil passions everywhere 
 aroused, above all by the permanent impulse 
 given to the great curse of this generation, the 
 system of standing armies, and generally to the 
 war spirit among nations ? The Code Napoleon 
 is vaunted as though it had sprung from the 
 conqueror's brain and been propfigated by 
 his arms ; but in fact it is merely the embodi- 
 ment of the more enlightened and humane 
 theories of jurisprudence which had been gain- 
 ing ground throughout the eighteenth century, 
 and had been to a great extent carried into 
 effect by paternal despots, such as Leopold of 
 Tuscany and Frederic the Great. And against 
 the Code Napoleon we have to set the revival 
 for the evil purposes of despotism of the state 
 religion and the state priesthood of France. 
 
 To the Napoleonic despotism France, after 
 a brief interlude of uncongenial freedom, has 
 returned ; and this despotism is the keystone 
 of the system of standing armies and govern- 
 ment by force in Europe. Like Slavery, it is 
 inherently propagandist ; and it has infected 
 the governing class, even in this country, with 
 a tendency to violence and martial law. Better 
 
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 234 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STA TESMEN. 
 
 than the Bourbon despotism it may be, inasmuch 
 as it openly embraces social equality and re- 
 ligious toleration, though it covertly undermines 
 the first by the creation of a military aristocracy, 
 and the second by its alliance with an obscur- 
 antist and Jesuitical priesthood. But if any 
 one is inclined to take Bonapartism at its own 
 estimate, and to concur in calling a Bonaparte 
 a Messiah, let him first consider the progress 
 which had been made under the forms of the 
 old institutions by Frederic the Great, Joseph 
 the Second, and William Pitt. 
 
 I do not wisli to excuse, much less to justify, 
 the despots of the Coalition. By their con- 
 spiracy, by their invasion of France, by the 
 outrageous threats which, through the pro- 
 clamation of the Duke of Brunswick, they 
 uttered against the independence of the French 
 people, they committed at once a great blunder 
 and a great crime, and they reaped the bitter 
 fruits of their offence. Wisdom, by the lips of 
 old Kaunitz, had warned them of their proper 
 course — to draw a cordon round the eruption 
 and let the volcano consume its own entrails, 
 as it assuredly would have done. They chose, 
 instead of this, to tap the crater, and bring 
 
, inasmuch 
 Y and re- 
 ndermines 
 ristocracy, 
 in obscur- 
 it if any 
 t its own 
 Bonaparte 
 progress 
 IS of the 
 t, Joseph 
 
 io justify, 
 leir con- 
 by tlie 
 the pro- 
 ;k, tliey 
 3 French 
 blunder 
 le bitter 
 3 h'ps of 
 f proper 
 eruption 
 entrails, 
 y chose, 
 i bring 
 
 PITT. 
 
 2.35 
 
 
 the lava-torrent down upon themselves. Their 
 attack at once threw the Ilevolution into the 
 hands of the violent party, and was the proxi- 
 mate cause of the massacres of September anci 
 of the Reign of Terror. It made the Revolu- 
 tion military. The creed of the Voltairians 
 was a creed of peace. Voltaire is never so 
 good as when he is ridiculing the cruel folly 
 which crimps a number of ignorant and innocent 
 peasants, dresses them up in uniform, teaches 
 them to march and wheel, and sends them off 
 to kill and be killed b} another army of pea- 
 sants, ignorant and innocent like themselves, 
 as a sacrifice to what is called the honour of 
 kings. The teachings of Rousseau were, if 
 possible, more pacific that those of Voltaire. 
 Robespierre by conviction and interest w^as 
 averse to war. And if the Girondins in their 
 egotism were ready, against their principles, to 
 invoke a war for the objects of their ambition, 
 the army of the Monarchy having been utterly 
 broken up, France was without an army, till the 
 advance of the Duke of Brunswick gave her 
 an army of despair. But we ..ast w^eigh the 
 misdeeds even of the Coalition of Pilnitz in 
 a just balance. The trade of these men was 
 
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 236 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 tc be kings : the world, time out of mind, had 
 sanctioned that trade : in many of the nations 
 over which they ruled, and which were too 
 backward for free institutions, the trade was 
 necessary still. But the French Ke volution pro- 
 claimed itself universal, and threat ned all the 
 tlirones and altars of the world with change. 
 It has been much praised for having done so, 
 as though it had soared beyond the narrow 
 bounds of national self-interest which limited 
 the vision of revolutionists in other nations. 
 Sucli proclamations cost no self-sacrifice ; they 
 may spring from vanity and folly as well as 
 from breadth of sympathy and catholicity of 
 view ; their value must be estimated by the 
 acts which follow ; and the acts of the pro- 
 claimers of universal brotherhood, in this in- 
 stance, towards foreign nations, as well as 
 towards each other, were unhappily the acts 
 of brothers Cain. Those who were the first 
 to welcome them with open arms were the 
 first to feel their rapacity and insolence. But; 
 at all events, the announcement of universal 
 revolution could not fail to arouse the instinct 
 of self-preservation in established governments, 
 and such a combination as the Coalition of 
 
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 mind, had 
 he nations 
 were too 
 trade was 
 ution pro- 
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 h change. 
 ^ done so, 
 le narrow 
 !h limited 
 r nations, 
 ice ; thev 
 -s well as 
 olicity of 
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 the acts 
 the first 
 v^ere the 
 ce. But; 
 universal 
 i instinct 
 irnments, 
 lition of 
 
 FITT. 
 
 237 
 
 Pilnitz was morally certain to result. Neither 
 the English Revolution of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury nor the American Revolution proclaimed 
 itself miiversal ; both of them entered at once 
 into friendly relations with other govern- 
 ments of whatever form ; vet these revolutions 
 did more in the end than the French Revolu- 
 tion for the liberties of mankind. 
 
 We may be thankful, at all events, that 
 the fortunes of humanity, in this its critical 
 transition from feudalism to the era of equality 
 and justice, are now partly placed in other 
 hands ; and that from the extinct volcano of 
 Jacobinism we may turn to a United Italy and 
 a United Germany, unsullied by terrorism and 
 full of hope. 
 
 There can be no sadder proof of the bad 
 effects of the French Revolution on the general 
 interest of Progress than the conversion of 
 Pitt to the side of the Reaction. He was as 
 far as possible from wishing to attack the 
 revolution. Probablv he sympathised with it 
 while it kept terms with reason and humanity. 
 He had entered into the most friendly relations 
 with the American Republic, notwithstanding 
 the influence of the American Revolution on 
 
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 238 
 
 THREE ENGL LSI/ STATERS MEN. 
 
 Ireland. In 1702, wlicn violence had already 
 begun in France, he reduced his army, struck 
 off two thousand seamen, and held out the 
 highest hopes of further relief from taxes within 
 the next fifteen years, " For although," said 
 he, in his budget-speech, " we must not count 
 with certainty on the continuance of our present 
 l)rosperity during such an interval, yet un- 
 questionably there never was a time in the 
 history of this country when, from the situation 
 of El 'rope, we might more reasonably expect 
 fifteen years of peace than we may at the 
 present moment." He looked forward to the 
 abolition of Customs' duties, which would have 
 been at the same time the inauguration of free 
 trade. All his plans and hopes were bound up 
 with peace. He stood aloof from the Congress 
 of Pilnitz. Had his action been free, he would 
 probably have stood aloof to the end. 
 
 The fears and passions of the Court, the 
 aristocracy, and the clergy, had, however, been 
 aroused ; the progress of the revolution daily 
 increased the excitement among these classes, 
 and it wiis raised to the highest pitch by the 
 declamations of Burke. As an economical and 
 Indian reformer, Burke, in the earlier part of 
 
 o 
 
id already 
 ny, struck 
 I out the 
 ces within 
 igh," said 
 not count 
 iir present 
 
 yet un- 
 le in tfie 
 
 situation 
 y expect 
 { at the 
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 >uld have 
 on of free 
 bound up 
 Congress 
 lie would 
 
 mrt, the 
 ^er, been 
 on daily 
 5 classes, 
 . by the 
 lical and 
 part of 
 
 PITT. 
 
 239 
 
 his career, had been one of the best organs of 
 the movement, into the reaction against which 
 he now flung himself headlong. If the greatness 
 of offences were to be measured, not l)y the 
 badness of the intenticm, but by the badness 
 of the effect, few greater offences would ever 
 have been committed than the publication of 
 the " Reflections on the French Revolution." 
 It was the special duty of a political philoso- 
 pher at that moment to allay passion, to bring 
 the nt tion under the dominion of its reason, and 
 to enable it to meet calmly and wisely tlie 
 tremendous crisis through which Europe was 
 evidently about to pass. Mr. Buckle thinks 
 that Burke, who up to this time had been the 
 first of statesmen, now suddenly went mjid. 
 But the truth is, that two of his best treatises, 
 the " Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe" and 
 the " Thoughts on Scarcity," were written after 
 the " Reflections on the French Revolution." 
 In a certain sense he had always been mad ; his 
 reason had always been liable to be overpowered 
 •by his imagination; he had always in his 
 moments of passion been incapable of self- 
 control ; he had always had in him that which 
 is commonly the root of madness, for he was a 
 
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 240 
 
 TIIREK ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 great egotist, and his egotism is always breaking 
 out under tlie tliin disguise of an affected self- 
 depreciation. He liad lost the ear of the House of 
 Commons as much bv his extravagance and rant 
 as by his prolixity ; he had come to be regarded 
 not only as a dinner-bell but as a fool ; and if 
 we are scandalised at the exclusion of thi:3 man 
 of genius from the Cabinet, people in 1789 
 would have been more scandalised at his admis- 
 sion. " Folly personified," he wa« called by one who 
 had just been hearing his speech on the Regency 
 Bill ; and the same witness says that he finished 
 his wild speech in a manner next to madness. 
 When the house wouJd not listen to his ravings, 
 he called them a pack of hounds. He described 
 the Lord Chancellor as a man with black brows 
 and a large wig, and said he was fit to do an act 
 worse than highway robbery. He spoke in 
 offensive language even of the afflicted King. 
 He called upon the Clerk to read the Great 
 Charter because a bill for the reduction of offices 
 trenched on sOme vested interests. He took a 
 dagger out of his pocket, and hurled it on the 
 floor of the House, as a symbol of the atrocity 
 of the French Revolution; upon which Sheridan 
 remarked that he had brought the knife, but he 
 
 lei 
 
I^. 
 
 PITT. 
 
 241 
 
 s break ill o- 
 3cte(l self- 
 5 House of 
 3 and rant 
 ) regjirded 
 ol ; and if 
 ' tliis man 
 
 in 1789 
 lis admis- 
 y one who 
 } RecfencY 
 e finished 
 madness. 
 s ravings, 
 described 
 Lck brows 
 do an act 
 spoke in 
 3d King, 
 le Great 
 of offices 
 e took a 
 t on the 
 
 atrocity 
 Sheridan 
 3, but he 
 
 had forgotten to bring the fork. He deserves 
 the national gratitude for having summoned 
 Hastings before the bar of justice ; but the vio- 
 lence of liis sallies in the course of the trial 
 gave a great advantage to the accused. Though 
 he was by principle a free trader, his party 
 passions had led him to oppose Pitt's measure 
 for free trade with Ireland. He was now dis- 
 credited, somewhat neglected by his friends, 
 restless from mortified self-love, and ready for 
 an outbreak. Mad in any other sense he was 
 not. 
 
 No doubt in the " Heflections " he is sin- 
 cere. He was i» worshipper of Constitutional 
 Monarchy. It was his Fetish. He loved and 
 adored it with the passionate loyalty whicli, as 
 an Irishman in his own country, he would have 
 felt towards the chief of his clan. Politics were 
 his religion, to which, in his mind, any other 
 religion was subservient, as he showed, when 
 for political purposes, he supported the imposi- 
 tion of the Thirty-Nine Articles on the reluctant 
 f^nnsciences of clergymen who had petitioned for 
 rei jf. His philosophy afforded no firm and 
 lofty ground of immutable faith in things un- 
 seen, from which he could form a rational 
 
 M 
 
 ;i ! 
 
 

 
 
 242 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STA TESMEX. 
 
 estimate of political systems, as things merely 
 subservient to the higher life of man, veneral)le 
 only for their utility, not to be altered without 
 good reason, but when there was good reason, to 
 be altered or abolished without superstitious scru- 
 ple, and destined like all other parts of the out- 
 ward vesture of humanity to pass away before the 
 end. He did not know that, while many things 
 that are of man are good, nothing is sacred but 
 that which is of God. He was not so much an 
 advocate as a priest of the constitution and its 
 mythical founders ; he preached sermons on it 
 as fervent as those of Bossuet, and defended its 
 absurdities by arguments which his piety sug- 
 gested as strange as ever a Roman friar used in 
 defence of his superstitions. According to him 
 it was ordered by a sort of divine wisdom that 
 Cornwall should have as many members as 
 Scotland, because the representation was thus 
 prevented from being too closely connected with 
 local interests. When the French Revolution 
 got beyond his consecrated type, it forfeited his 
 sympathies, and with a nature so passionate as 
 his, to forfeit sympathy was to incur hatred. 
 I do not complain of his strictures on the 
 
 petence of the French Revo- 
 
 folly 
 
 incom 
 
5' V 
 
 igs merely 
 1, veneral)le 
 ed without 
 1 reason, to 
 itioiis scru- 
 of tlie out- 
 ' before tlie 
 any things 
 
 sacred but 
 much an 
 Lon and its 
 nons on it 
 efended its 
 piety sug- 
 iar used in 
 ng to him 
 Lsdom that 
 embers as 
 
 was thus 
 ected witli 
 ilevolution 
 rfeited his 
 sionate as 
 latred. 
 Bs on the 
 ich Revo- 
 
 PITT. 
 
 243 
 
 'cely go bey 
 
 hitionists. Here lie could S( 
 the truth. But I complain of his blindness, 
 which charity, making the utmost allowance 
 for the frenzy of rhetoric, can scarcely 2>ronounce 
 altogether involuntary, to the evils of the French 
 Monarchy and Church — I should rather say his 
 raving panegyrics on things shocking to sense 
 and virtue. " Ideas furnished from the ward- 
 robe of a moral imagination " — " decent drapery 
 of life" — " vice losing half its evil by losing all 
 its grossness" — is it possible that he can sin- 
 cerely have applied such terms to the system 
 of Louis XV., of the Regent Orleans, of Car- 
 dinal Dubois 1 KnowTiig, as he must ha\^e done, 
 the character of the French aristocracy, can he 
 in perfect good faith have uttered in relation to 
 them the blasphemous extravagance that there 
 were two sources of all good in Europe, the 
 spirit of religion and the spirit of a gentleman \ 
 Knowing, as he must have done, the condition of 
 the French people, and the responsibility of the 
 Court for their misery, can he have failed to be 
 aware of the sophism of which he was guilty in 
 presenting that Court under the image of the 
 Dauphiness as a star rising full of beauty and 
 beneficence over the horizon of Versailles '? That 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN 
 
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 this beavitiful and beneficent mom 
 bankrupt is a fact of which its devotee just 
 shows himself conscious, and the remedy sug- 
 gested by the great pubHc morahst is in effect 
 robbery of the public creditor, which he thinks 
 preferable to any appropriation of the property 
 of the State Church. He defends the ecclesi- 
 astical sinecurism so enormous in France, on 
 the ground that ecclesiastics make as good a 
 use of property as laymen ; an argument which 
 would prove that there can scarcely be too much 
 corruption in the Church. His political philo- 
 sophy does not enable him, in his anti-revolu- 
 tionary transports, to distinguish between the 
 character of feudalism in its own day and its 
 character when its day was past, or between 
 the situation and the difficulties of the English 
 nation in 1688 and those of the French people 
 in 1789. In this vituperation of the National 
 Assembly and the movement party in France, 
 if he is sometimes telling, he sometimes sinks 
 to the level of a scold. His declamations against 
 declaimers, his sophistical attacks upon sophis- 
 ters, the contempt which he the economical 
 reformer affects for economists and calculators, 
 would move a smile if we did not know how 
 
 ti 
 r( 
 
rchy was 
 ^otee just 
 ledy siig- 
 1 in effect 
 he thinks 
 property 
 le ecelesi- 
 rance, on 
 s good a 
 ent which 
 too much 
 cal philo- 
 ti-revolu- 
 ween the 
 Y and its 
 between 
 
 Enghsh 
 ;h people 
 National 
 
 France, 
 nes sinks 
 LS against 
 n sophis- 
 jonomical 
 Iculators, 
 low how 
 
 e 
 
 PITT, 
 
 245 
 
 terrible their effect had been. He talks unc- 
 tuously of religion, and lashes himself and his 
 readers into fury against French Atheism. Soon 
 we find him at the feet of Catherine of Ilussia, 
 a Voltairian in creed, and more than a Voltairian 
 in practice, conjuring her, with fulsome flattery, 
 to lend the aid of her unrscrupulous arms in 
 crushing the objects of his political aversion. 
 Burke broke with his old party : he won the 
 affection, almost the worship, of a new party, 
 the fierce applause of a new audience. He 
 received a pension, and the promise of a peerage, 
 from the Court and the Tory Government. His 
 eminence entitled him to a pension if anybody 
 was to be pensioned, and to a peerage if he, a 
 peer of intellect, cared to be a lord. But that 
 he should accept these rewards of his change of 
 party was another proof of the truth of his own 
 statement — that the age of chivalry was gone. 
 
 Of course the clergy were deeply moved, and 
 the drum ecclesiastic beat to arms. Horsley, 
 the leading political bishop of the day, and a 
 sort of ecclesiastical henchman of Pitt, is known 
 as the author of the maxim " that the people 
 have nothing to do with the laws but to 
 obey them." This prelate preached a sermon, 
 
 
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 1 
 
 n 
 
 1 
 
 .'H 
 
 n 
 
I ^ 
 
 ^.1 
 
 m 
 
 rat 
 
 II 
 
 
 * 
 
 246 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 published in his works, in which, correcting the 
 imperfect views of the Founder of Christianity, 
 he lays it down chat a conscientious submission 
 to the sovereign power is, no less than brotherly 
 love, a distinctive badge of Christ's disciples — 
 in other words, that the distinctive badge of 
 Christians is to love one another and be Tories. 
 He thanks God that in the Church of England 
 both these marks of genuine Christianity have 
 ever been conspicuous. He then proceeds to say 
 * that in the exercise of brotherly love, it is 
 perhaps the amiable infirmity of Englishmen 
 to be too easy in admitting the claim of a spirit- 
 ual kindred — that the times compel him to 
 remark that brotherly love embraces only bre- 
 thren — that the term of holy brotherhood is 
 profaned by an indiscriminate application — that 
 if persons living under the British constitution 
 have dared to exult in the proceedings of the 
 French revolutionists, with them it is meet that 
 we abjure all brotherhood ; a claim on our 
 charity these miserable men may have, they 
 have none on our brotherly affection.' If this 
 was preached by a man of sense and learning in 
 a responsible position and before an intelligent 
 audience, we may imagine what was preached 
 
 fi 
 tc 
 b 
 
iV. 
 
 PITT, 
 
 247 
 
 
 ecting tlie 
 iristianitj, 
 ubmissioii 
 brotherly 
 lisciples — 
 badge of 
 ^e Tories, 
 f England 
 nity have 
 ds to say 
 :>ve, it is 
 iglishmen 
 f a spirit- 
 l him to 
 only bre- 
 jrhood is 
 on — that 
 istitution 
 ?s of the 
 fleet that 
 on our 
 ve, tliev 
 If this 
 riling in 
 telHgent 
 :>reached 
 
 from the rural pulpit before the squire. It is 
 to be borne in mind, however, that if the State 
 bishops and clergy, who supposed their wealth 
 and +heir privileges to be in danger, inveighed 
 against the impiety of revolution, so did Robert 
 Hall, fascinated as he had been at first by its 
 political promises and hopes. The French atheists 
 shocked all decency, as well as all religion. 
 
 It must be added that Fox behaved unwisely. 
 His generous heart was on the side of liberty : 
 but there was too much in him of the Palais 
 Royal, too much of the former member of the 
 gambling club at A 1 mack's, where people played 
 for desperate stakes, with masks to conceal their 
 emotions and a wild masquerading dress to 
 typify their delirious excitement. The political 
 arena was to him still a gambling-table : and 
 his strong point was not self-control. He ought, 
 in the interest of his cause, to have repressed the 
 ardour of his sympathies, to have blamed the 
 excesses while he showed the benefits of the 
 Revolution, to have pointed out how inevitable 
 it was ill France, how diflerent was the case of 
 the English from that of the French Monarchy, 
 how small was the danger iu England of French 
 contagion ; and then to have insisted that for 
 
 'it\ 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 '"<*. 
 
^1 
 
 I 
 
 248 
 
 THIIFE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 whatever danger there might be, the right an- 
 tidote was not war or violent repression, but 
 timely measures of reform. He would thus Lave 
 strengthened the hands of Pitt, whom he must 
 have known to be moderate, in resisting the war 
 tendencies of his party and of the Court. Instead 
 of this he held the language of a Jacobin, and 
 at once inilamed the panic and wounded the 
 national pride by talking of the Bevolution as 
 the most glorious event since Saratoga and York- 
 town. His hot-headed followers, of course, went 
 beyond their chief. But he was the leader of 
 the Opposition, and the function of a leader of 
 Opposition is, at all costs and hazards, to assail 
 and to embarrass the Government. Whilst this 
 system of party government lasts it must be so. 
 But we will hope that party government is not 
 to be the end of all things ; and that in the 
 coui:*se of our political changes we shall find a 
 way of establishing a Government to which we 
 may all feel loyal, and which we may all desire 
 to support as the Government, not of a party, 
 but of the nation. 
 
 For one of his speeches Fox has been rather 
 unreasonably blamed. Speaking of the refusal 
 of the French guards to act against the people, 
 
 b( 
 st 
 tl 
 M 
 
right an- 
 ssion, but 
 thus Lave 
 
 I he must 
 ig the war 
 t. Instead 
 eobin, and 
 mded the 
 3hition as 
 and York- 
 irse, went 
 leader of 
 leader of 
 
 to assail 
 hilst this 
 List be so. 
 nt is not 
 t in the 
 
 II find a 
 diich we 
 11 desire 
 a party, 
 
 n rather 
 
 refusal 
 
 ' people, 
 
 PITT. 
 
 249 
 
 he said that the example of a neighbouring 
 nation had proved the fear of standing annies 
 to be unfounded, since it was now shown that 
 by becoming a soldier, a man did not cease to 
 be a citizen. This, at the time, brought on a 
 storm of denunciation, which still rebellows in 
 the histories. "All the objections," says Mr. 
 Massey, "that have been urged by theoretical 
 writers and popular orators against permanent 
 mihtary establishments, sink into insignificance 
 when compared with the appalling magnitude 
 of the danger attendant on an armed force which 
 is to arbitrate in disputes or conflicts between 
 the people and their rulers." Mr. Massey fails 
 to see that, as it is, the armed force in the hands 
 of the rulers all over Europe arbitrates in the 
 disputes and conflicts between the rulers and 
 the people. Standing armies are the bane of 
 the world, and to make them a perfect curse it 
 is only necessary to extinguish in the soldier 
 the last spark of the citizen and the man. 
 Soldiers, while they are soldiers, must submit 
 to a rigid discipline, and move at the word of 
 command : it is the condition of their calling and 
 the dictate of their honour. But I claim for the 
 soldier, whether officer or private, the rights of 
 
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 2riO 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 labour and of man. I claim for liim, in the first 
 place, the right to dispose, like other men, of his 
 own industry ; to make the best terms he can 
 for himself, like other men, in the labour market, 
 and to give his employer warning — such warn- 
 ing, of course, as the nature of the calling may 
 reasonably require — if fair terms are not allowed. 
 In this way our army might be smaller, but it 
 would be better than it is now. In the second 
 place, I claim for the soldier the right to retire, 
 and to deliver up his arms, though by no means 
 to use them against his employer, when he finds 
 that his military duties are likely to come into 
 conflict with his duties as a citizen. There will 
 be no fear of his exercising this right, unless the 
 heart of the nation is really against the Govern- 
 ment, and when the heart of the nation is 
 really against the Government, the Government 
 ought not, if politics are a matter of reason and 
 justice, to have the means of pi tting down the 
 nation by brute force. The habit of treating 
 the soldier for a long term of years as the 
 bondman of the Government and the blind 
 instrument of its will, is a relic of barbarism, 
 against which advanchig civilisation will in the 
 end protest. 
 
y. 
 
 I the first 
 len, of his 
 IS he can 
 ir market, 
 ich warn- 
 ling may 
 t allowed, 
 er, but it 
 je second 
 to retire, 
 no means 
 
 I he finds 
 !ome into 
 'here will 
 mless the 
 s Govern- 
 lation is 
 s^ernment 
 ason and 
 iown the 
 
 treating 
 3 as the 
 he blind 
 irbarisni, 
 
 II in the 
 
 PITT. 
 
 251 
 
 Pressed by his own party, not supported in 
 his resistance by the Opposition, Pitt, though 
 the spirit of Adam Smith struggled hard and 
 long in him, began to slide towards war. He 
 first showed his tendency by a royal proclama- 
 tion against seditious writings, and by measures 
 of half hostility towards France — an Alien Bill 
 pointed against French emissaries, an Act pro- 
 hibiting the circulation of assignats, and another 
 prohibiting the exportation of corn and flour to 
 France. At last he himself caught, or aflected 
 to catch, the panic, and held wild language 
 about his head being in danger. The French 
 Republicans meanwhile, by their aggressive vio- 
 lence and their frantic language, were giving 
 every possible handle to their enemies. To treat 
 their wild propagandism, their decrees of uni- 
 versal revolution, as the ravings of madmen, 
 whose paroxysm would soon be over, and who 
 would too surely avenge their outrages on 
 themselves, was the course pointed out by 
 wisdom : but it was ^xot an easv course for Pitt 
 to take The execution of the king — a proceed- 
 ing as disfjustino- in its theatrical levitv, as it 
 was shocking in its cruelty — gave a deathblow 
 to the hope of peace. The French ambassador 
 
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 252 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 was ordered to leave the kingdom, and there 
 was war. My belief is that Pitt felt he was 
 doing wrong : but though a patriot and a man 
 of honour, he had not a god in his breast. He 
 could not resign power and break with all his 
 friends. Reasoning like a financier, and seeing 
 the depreciation of the French assignats, he 
 thought that it would be a short war. When 
 he found himself deceived in this, he made 
 earnest, even humiliating efforts, to negotiate, 
 to buy, a peace. 
 
 And what Wcts the cause of this war which 
 suspended all political and social progress for 
 thirty years, or rather threw it back to a point 
 which it had reached early in the eighteenth 
 centurv, and under the fiscal burdens of which, 
 and its perhaps still heavier burdens of other 
 kinds, we still groan ? Established morality per- 
 mits statesmen to resort to arms without having 
 first tried arbitration, and this in cases where 
 their personal prejudices or rivalries may be 
 the real obstacles to a pacific settlement. But 
 they are bound to assign a definite ground of 
 war, without which there can be no assignable 
 terms of peace. In the case before us no definite 
 ground of war has been assigned down to the 
 
riTT. 
 
 253 
 
 present day. From the various authorities on 
 the subject, you would gather that England 
 took up arms to put down the Jacobins, to 
 save herself from the contagion of revolutionary 
 principles, to punish regicide, to check the terri- 
 torial aggrandisement of France, to establish the 
 existence of the Supreme Being, and to close 
 the navigation of the Scheldt. 
 
 To have gone to war for the purpose of closing 
 the Scheldt would have been the act of a greater 
 maniac than the Jacobins. It would have been 
 like fighting about a right of way in the middle 
 of an earthquake. But the truth was that we 
 were concerned in the matter only as guarantors, 
 and the Dutch did not call upon us to perform 
 our guarantee. 
 
 As Burke wrote against a Regicide peace, 
 he must have looked upon the execution of 
 the King as the ground of the war. The murder 
 of the French King \\as an offence against 
 heaven, and heaven would certainly have visited 
 it, and did visit it, though not by the thunder- 
 bolt, by a sure moral retribution, as well as 
 the still more dastardly and atrocious murder 
 of the Queen, upon the savages by whom it 
 was committed. But it was no offence against 
 
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 254 
 
 TIinKI': ESGLISII srATI':sMKN. 
 
 us. Tn WMs in fact comniittod partly in Imita- 
 tion of our execution of Charles I. And if tlie 
 murder of tlie King \v;is the cause of the war, 
 wliat was to he its ohii^cf? To brincf the Kiuir 
 to life again 'i Or to punish his mu.dercrs'? Or 
 to punis^ th<^ whole French nation i! Jf there 
 was to bt ? V Hegicide peace, how was a war 
 with llegic — . s t-^ he brought to an end ? 
 
 The vindlcati(m of public right is anotlier 
 o'round assio'ued for the w.ar. The conduct of 
 the French Republicans to the countries which 
 they overran was infamous. But they had vio- 
 lated no public right which we w^ere concerned 
 to defend. The aUied kinos had attacked them ; 
 they had beaten the allied kings, taken the 
 offensive, and commenced a career of conquest 
 in their turn. This was the fortune of w%ar. 
 And these allies of oiu's in the cause of public 
 right, what sort of champions of that cause w^ere 
 they ? Austria, Prussia, and Eussia had just 
 consummated the partition of Poland, the most 
 flagrant violation of public right in history, 
 and one against which, let them roll as many 
 stones to the mouth of that sepulchre as they 
 mil, nature and justice will protest till right 
 is done. Not only so, but when we had become 
 
 tl 
 
 It 
 
 till 
 
 1 « 4 "■% 
 
Y in imitn- 
 And if tlie 
 )f tlio war, 
 ■ the Kiiijr 
 crcrs ? Or 
 
 If tliere 
 ^ns a war 
 (1? 
 
 is another 
 onduct of 
 I'ies whicli 
 ' had vio- 
 concerned 
 :ed them ; 
 aken the 
 
 conquest 
 3 of war. 
 of public 
 luse were 
 had just 
 the most 
 
 history, 
 as many 
 ! as they 
 till right 
 I become 
 
 rirr. 
 
 -55 
 
 tlieir confederates, Austria and rrussla, took 
 j)osse8sion by robbers' law of Coiide and Valen- 
 ciennes, in s]>ite of tlic })roteHt of the Bour])ons, 
 for whom, as legitimate sovereigns of France, 
 tlie allies professed to fight ; and when Austria 
 afterwards, in concert with P>ona])arte, committed 
 an act of brigandage by the seizure of Venice, 
 this j)rodiiced in us no moral repugnance to 
 her alliance. The conduct of England ixr as 
 I am prepared to maintain, more disir^ercstcd 
 on the whole, as well as marked by greater 
 constancy and fortitude than .that of any other 
 nation engaged on either side. Her liberties, 
 imperfect as they were, breathed into her govern- 
 ment a spirit of honour which was not found 
 elsewhere, and checked infamies wdiicli in the 
 secret counsels of despotism were conceived with- 
 out shame and perpetrated without rebuke. But 
 even England from the beginning made it a 
 war of interest as well as of alleged principle ; 
 and our first act was the appropriation of the 
 Island of Tobago. 
 
 French propagandism, and especially the 
 propagandist decree of the 19th November, 
 1792, is another alleged jastiiication of the war. 
 But this was merely the counterblast to the 
 
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 256 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 m 1 ' li 
 
 A 
 
 : \ 
 
 propagandism of the Duke of Brunswick. If it 
 was lawful for the allies to declare themselves 
 the protectors of Monarchy in France, it was 
 equally lawful for the French to declare them- 
 selves the protectors of Republicanism in other 
 countries. We ourselves avowed, though with 
 faltering accents, that it was part of our object 
 to change the government of France. The decree 
 of the 19th November, so far as we were con- 
 cerned, was empty fanfaronade ; no execution 
 could be had of it in this country provided 
 our government behaved decently to our people ; 
 it might have been treated by England as the 
 insult of a lunatic, which touches no mans honour. 
 Was it against Frencli Atheism that we went 
 to war ? This probably was the leading motive 
 of the clergy. It cannot have been the motive 
 of Pitt. He at least must have had sense enough 
 to know that mankind could not be convinced 
 of the existence of a beneficent Creator by filling 
 creation with blood and havoc. And who were 
 the representatives of religion ? An Emperor 
 of Austria, who shortened his life by self- 
 indulgence ; a King of Prussia, of whom it 
 was said, in allusion to his emulation of Frederic 
 tlie Great, "that he had nothing of Solomon 
 
I 
 ,1 
 
 kvlck. If it 
 themselves 
 ce, it was 
 lare them- 
 n in other 
 )ugh with 
 our object 
 rhe decree 
 were con- 
 execution 
 provided 
 Lir people ; 
 .nd as the 
 IS honour, 
 b we went 
 ng motive 
 he motive 
 se enough 
 convinced 
 by filling 
 who were 
 Emperor 
 by self- 
 whom it 
 P Frederic 
 Solomon 
 
 PITT. 
 
 257 
 
 but his concubines ; " the Semiramis of the 
 North ; Prince-Bishops of the Rhine, whose 
 petty courts were noted as the sacred scenes 
 of every pleasure. Among ourselves, the Duke 
 of York with his Nancy Parsons ; Lord Chan- 
 cellor Thurlow, who died with the name of 
 God on his lips, bat not in prayer ; not to 
 mention the Minister himself, who sometimes 
 saw two speakers instead of one. 
 
 The great Tory authority, 8ir Archibald Ali- 
 son, is very frank and explicit. He says that 
 what the Government had in view was not 
 the conquest of the Republicans, but a danger 
 nearer home : that they dreaded domestic re- 
 volution if pacific intercourse were any longer 
 carried on with France. He cites a remark of 
 the Empress Catherine to the effect that war 
 is sometimes the only way of giving a useful 
 .direction to the passions, and says that in this 
 remark is to be found the true explanation 
 and the best vindication of the French war. 
 "The passions," he proceeds, "were excited, 
 democratic ambition was awakened ; the desire 
 of power, under the name of reform, was rapidly 
 gaining ground among the middle ranks, and 
 the institutions of the country were threatened 
 
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S:P^ 
 
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 ' i ■ 
 
 258 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 Ith 
 
 )lcnt as tl] 
 
 ^hicli li 
 
 \ overthrow as ^ 
 recently taken place in the French Monarchy. 
 In tliese circumstances the only mode of check- 
 ing the evil was by engaging in a foreign 
 contest, by drawing off the ardent spirits into 
 active service, and in lieu of the modern desire 
 for innovation, rousing the ancient gallantry 
 of the British people." Sir Archibald is cer- 
 tainly wrong as to the fact. The institutions 
 of the countrv were not threatened with over- 
 throw. The people were loyal ; they had shown 
 the utmost enthusiasm on the recovery of the 
 King's health. Burke himself said that not 
 one man in a hundred was a Revolutionist. 
 Fox's revolutionary sentiments met with no 
 response, but with general reprobation, and 
 caused even his friends to shrink from his 
 side. Of the so-called Jacobin Societies, the So- 
 ciety for Constitutional Information numbered 
 only a few hundred members, who, though they 
 held extreme opinions, were headed by men of 
 character, and were quite incapable of treason 
 or violence. The Corresponding Society was 
 of a more sinister character ; but its numbers 
 were computed only at 6,000, and it was swal- 
 lowed up in the loyal masses of the people. 
 
vhicli had 
 Monarchy, 
 of check- 
 a foreign 
 pirits into 
 em desire 
 
 gallantry 
 Id is cer- 
 nstitutions 
 ^vith over- 
 lad shown 
 3ry of the 
 
 that not 
 rolutionist. 
 
 with no 
 .tion, and 
 
 from his 
 3S, the So- 
 numbered 
 Dugh they 
 3y men of 
 of treason 
 ciety was 
 ^ numbers 
 was swal- 
 le people. 
 
 riTT, 
 
 259 
 
 Tlie mob at Birmingliam rose for Church and 
 King, and sacked tlie liouse of Priestley because 
 lie was an Atheist, or, what was the same thing, 
 a man of science. A Tory mob at Manchester 
 treated Mr. Walker, a respectable lleformer of 
 the place, in a similar manner. We liad a 
 Parliament of rotten boroughs, but still a Par- 
 liament ; a law framed more in the interest of 
 tlie rich than of the poor, but still a law ; a 
 free press ; trial by jury and Habeas Corpus, 
 no lettres de cachet, no Bastille. The State 
 Church was unjustly privileged, but n(jt per- 
 secuting ; and the Dissenters, if they did not 
 love the Test and Corporation Acts, had no 
 desire to worship the Goddess of Reason in 
 the form of a naked prostitute on the altar 
 of St. Paul's. The religious middle classes were 
 soon repelled by the impieties of the Eevolution, 
 social enthusiasts like Coleridge and Southey 
 by its atrocities, all men of sense by its mon- 
 key ism and its madness. Foreign emissaries can 
 do nothi/]g except where there is widespread 
 disaffection among the people. The army, navy, 
 yeomanry, and militia were perfectly sound. 
 Volunteers in large numbers answered the call 
 of the Government. At the threat of a French 
 
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 260 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 invasion the nation would have risen as it 
 had risen against the Armada. In Ireland 
 alone there was real and just hatred of the 
 Government : but the long pressure of an iron 
 tyranny had crushed Ireland in+o mute de- 
 spair : and m this case, as in all cases, Irish dis- 
 affection was rer.dered dangerous only by the war 
 which brought it the aid of foreign arms. The 
 Government had but to rule well, tread steadily 
 in the path of moderate reform, and keep the 
 defences in good order. England would then 
 have passed unscathed through the crisis, and 
 the wisdom of her rulers would have ensured 
 the gn^titude of the nation. But supposing 
 that the reverse had been the case : supposing 
 tha+ the Tory panic had been as well founded 
 as it was groundless ; — does the morahty of 
 Sir Archibald Alison and his party sanction 
 the maxim of the virtuous Catherine, that 
 governments are at liberty to divert trouble- 
 some aspirations into the channel of a foreign 
 war "? Is there anything more dangerous than 
 this in the ravings of the Jacobins ? Is there 
 anything more immoral in Machiavelli? The 
 principle, no doubt, is intended for the exclusive 
 use of such governments as Tories desire to 
 
 . « € ^\-% «. 
 
\^. 
 
 PITT. 
 
 261 
 
 ^nM 
 
 sen as it 
 n Ireland 
 ed of the 
 of an iron 
 mute de- 
 Irish dis- 
 by the war 
 rms. The 
 id steadily 
 keep the 
 ould then 
 crisis, and 
 e ensured 
 supposing 
 supposing 
 11 founded 
 orahty of 
 J sanction 
 rine, that 
 t trouble- 
 a foreign 
 rous than 
 Is there 
 >lli ? The 
 ! exclusive 
 desire to 
 
 uphold. But its application cannot be arrested 
 there. If the Tories had a right to divert 
 revolutionary sentiment into the channel of war, 
 the Jacobins had a right to divert reactionary 
 sentiment into the same channel : and Napoleon 
 had the same right to get rid in the same man- 
 ner of the sentiments which, as he declared, 
 threatened the stability of his throne. 
 
 The same remark applies to the excuse 
 founded on the danger of political contagion. 
 Are all governments to be alike licensed to 
 make war with their neighbours for the pur- 
 pose of political quarantine \ Is the privilege 
 to be extended to republics disquieted by the 
 neighbourhood of monarchies and aristocracies, 
 as well as to monarchies and aristocracies 
 disquieted by the neighbourhood of republics % 
 Or is it taken for granted tliat no free com- 
 monwealth can be so ill-rooted in the aifec- 
 tion of its citizens, or so wicked as to make 
 use of such a power \ 
 
 It is sad to say it, but when Pitt had once 
 left the path of right, he fell headlong into 
 evil. To gratify the ignoble fears and passions 
 of his party, he commenced a series of attacks 
 on English liberty of speaking and writing' 
 
 ^ii& M 
 
262 
 
 Til rep: ENGLISH STATESMEN 
 
 V 
 
 [l^.W- 
 
 i: a : ft 
 
 \ I 
 
 whicli Mr. Massey, a strong anti-revolutionist, 
 characterises as unparalleled since the time of 
 Charles I. The country was filled with spies. 
 A band of the most infamous informers was 
 called into activity by the Government. Men 
 were prosecuted for loose or dnmken words, 
 of which no man of sense would have taken 
 notice, and for speculative opinions with which 
 no Government had a right to interfere. An 
 attorney, named Frost, for saying in a coifee- 
 house, where he could not have intended to 
 conspire, and out of which he was, in fact, 
 kicked by the company, that he was for equality 
 and no king, was tried before Lord Kenyon, a 
 high Tory judge, and sentenced to six months' 
 imprisonment, to stand hi the pillory, to find 
 security for good behaviour, and to be struck 
 off the roll. The courts of quarter session, 
 wnth their benches of Tory squires, were em- 
 ployed to try political cases by the G(wern- 
 ment, to which their character as tribunals 
 must have been too well known. Associations 
 were formed under Government patronage, for 
 the detection and prosecution of sediti(jn, and 
 thus the impartiality of the jury was tainted 
 at its source. There was a Tory reign of terror, 
 
 11 
 
 
i^olutionist, 
 le time of 
 vith spies, 
 rmers was 
 ent. Men 
 en words, 
 ave taken 
 'itli wliicli 
 
 fere. An 
 I a cofFee- 
 teiided to 
 , in fact) 
 ►r equality 
 Kenyon, ;i 
 X months' 
 y, to find 
 be struck 
 V session, 
 were em- 
 ' Govern- 
 
 tribunals 
 5sociations 
 3nage, for 
 ition, and 
 IS tainted 
 
 of terror, 
 
 PITT. 
 
 263 
 
 to which a shVht increase of the panic among 
 the upper classes would pro])ably have lent 
 a redder hue. 
 
 Among other measures of repression the 
 Habeas Corpus Act was suspended ; and the 
 liberties of all men were thus placed at the 
 mercy of the party in power. The Habeas 
 Corpus Act is an Act of Parliament which 
 Parliament may suspend. But the security 
 of all English freemen from arbitrary arrest, 
 as well as from any punishment without a 
 trial by their peers, rests not on the Habeas 
 Corpus Act, but on the great clause of the 
 Great Charter, of which the Habeas Corpus 
 Act is merely a supplement and guarantee. 
 And the Great Charter is not an Act of Par- 
 liament: it is a fundamental covenant between 
 the Government and all the people of these 
 realms, a v^ovenant which was before Parliament, 
 which is above Parliament, and with which 
 if Parliament tampers, it may conthiue to 
 reign by force, but it will no longer reign 
 by right. The tyranny of the Crown is [)ast : 
 it is the tyranny of the House of Comm ns 
 against which we have now to guard. A 
 House of Commons, not the prerogative of 
 
 Kill 
 
 Is;, 1 
 
 'i 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 « 
 
264 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 m 
 
 ^' 
 
 M 
 
 m 
 
 y 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 >I 
 
 the Crown, was Pitt's instrument in his a 
 gressions upon public liberty. " I called a Par- 
 liament in Ireland," was the plea of Strafford, 
 when he was accused of arbitrary government. 
 " Parliaments without parliamentary liberties,' 
 replied Pym, "are but a fair and plausible 
 way to servitude." A clnss Parliament is an 
 oligarchy witli a broad basis, more powerful 
 for iniquity than any Crown. 
 
 In the cases of Home Tooke and his asso- 
 ciates, the Government well knew that tliore 
 was no real evidence of treason. The charge of 
 constructive treason was brought in instead 
 of that of sedition, to make an impression on 
 the nation and possess the public mind with 
 the idea that there were terrible conspiracies 
 on foot. But to brin£ :i to trial for their 
 lives for such a purpose was a profanation of 
 the courts of justice. The constructive treason 
 was made out thus : * The prisoners had issued 
 a prospectus for a convention. To issue a 
 prospectus for a convention was to enter into 
 a conspiracy to compel the Kmg to govern 
 otherwise than by the laws. A conspiracy to 
 compel the King to govern otherwise than by 
 thf: lav7f' was a conspiracy to depose him 
 
^*v. 
 
 PITT, 
 
 265 
 
 from the royal state, title, power, and govern- 
 ment. Such an attempt must lead to resistance. 
 Resistance must lead to the deposition of the 
 King, and his deposition must endanger his 
 life.' Such was the substance of the capital 
 indictment which it took the Attorney-General 
 nine hours to state. Supposing that policy 
 could ever find a place in the proceedings of 
 public justice, no sound policy could lead the 
 Government to incur an ignominious defeat. 
 Sir Archibald Alison says the trials did good, 
 because the acquittal of the prisoners showed 
 the public that liberty was not on the decline, 
 and the people, satisfied with this great victory 
 over their supposed oppressors, relapsed into 
 their ancient loyalty. A profoimd way of 
 attaching the people to the Government — to 
 exhibit it to them as a tyrannical aggressor 
 defeated in an attempt to wrest law to the 
 purposes of judicial murder ! 
 
 It was in one of these state trials, where 
 the accused, Major Cartwright, was the leader 
 of a Parliamentary Reform Association, that 
 the Pitt of fonner days, the Pitt who had 
 once been a member of the same association 
 and the foremost champion of its j.rinciples, 
 
 f 
 
 ■ li 
 
 I! 
 
I'fll). 
 
 266 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 It/. 
 
 inn 
 
 ,8> : 
 
 B^^p IH ;' )ji 
 
 SaRi^.V?' 
 
 IH 1'^' 
 
 wi n 
 
 51 • 
 
 S^Hj nf 
 
 III 
 
 
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 I 
 
 was put into the witness-box by the defence 
 to bear witness against Pitt the renegade from 
 Reform, the persecutor of Reformers in these 
 evil times. Pitt might plead that circumstances 
 were altered, and that when circumstances are 
 altered, honourable men may change. Honour- 
 able men may change, and that they should 
 have full liberty of change is essential to 
 the public interest and to the integrity of 
 public life. But no great nature ever passes 
 a sponge over its former self: no great nature 
 ever persecutes old friends. 
 
 It "vv^as in one of these trials, too, that Eldon, 
 then Sir John Scott and Attorney-General, 
 opened his attempt to procure the capital 
 conviction of a man who he knew had done 
 nothing worthy of death with a pathetic 
 exordium on his own disinterestedness and 
 virtue. "He should have nothing to leave 
 his chl^'iren but his good name." And then 
 he wept. The Solicitor-General wept with 
 his weeping chief. " What is the Solicitor 
 weeping tor'^" said one bystander to another. 
 *' He is weeping to think how very little the 
 Attorney will have to leave his children." 
 
 The juries at quarter sessions of course gave 
 
 HI 
 
 ;:VT|.«1|at*"1* •*••■- 
 
defence 
 :ade from 
 
 in these 
 imstances 
 ances are 
 
 Honour- 
 y should 
 eutial to 
 sgritj of 
 3r passes 
 it nature 
 
 it Eldon, 
 -General, 
 3 capital 
 lad done 
 
 pathetic 
 less and 
 to leave 
 Lud then 
 pt with 
 Solicitor 
 
 another, 
 ittle the 
 
 en. 
 
 )} 
 
 I 
 
 PITT. 
 
 267 
 
 rse gave 
 
 the verdicts desired by their proprietors on 
 the bench. The London juries on the whole 
 behaved well, and deserve our gratit.ids for 
 their guardianship of public liberty in its 
 hour of trial. Thev had not then been so 
 entirely relieved of apprehension for their own 
 liberties as to make them regardless of the 
 liberties of others. The judges behaved not 
 so well. Tiie tenure of the judges is inde- 
 pendent. But after all they belong to a 
 political party, and they belong to a social 
 class ; and these are influences which, even 
 on the judgment-seat, only the highest and 
 strongest natures can entirely put aside. How 
 to appoint judges who shall be strictly im- 
 partial in political cases, is, I fear, a problem 
 still to be solved. But the judge who does 
 in political cases show himself above everything 
 but justice is one of the greatest and noblest 
 benefactors of his kind ; he presents law in 
 its highest majesty to the reverence of the 
 people ; and extinguishes in the hearts of 
 men the sources of violence and revolution. 
 
 In Scotland the Tory reign of terror was 
 worse than in England. In Scotland there 
 was scarcely the mockery of a representation 
 
 i & I 
 
 'lit 
 
 
 \): 1 
 
 I 
 
 ;:^ij|.f1l;i:^-H.%. 
 

 268 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 II ^^1- 
 
 (jf the people. The entire electoral body was 
 not more than four thousand. Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow had each a constituency of thirty-three 
 electors. The county of Bute had one resident 
 elector, who constituted the meeting, called 
 over the freeholders, answered to his own 
 name, moved and seconded his own nomination, 
 put the question to the meeting, and unani- 
 mously elected himself Every county and 
 borough was in the hands of some proprietor. 
 The whole country was one nest of jobbery 
 and corruption, managed in the interest of 
 the Tories, or I suppose we must say of 
 religion and the Supreme Being, by that 
 eminent servant of He:.ven, Mr. Dundas. The 
 juries partook of the general slavishness, the 
 judges were fiercer Tories than the judges in 
 England, and much less honest. Thomas Muir, 
 a young advocate of high talents and attain- 
 ments, was an active champion of parliamentary 
 reform, as any man in Scotland who had 
 not the spirit of a serf would have been, 
 and had been a delegate to the Edinburgh 
 convention of Associated Friends of the People. 
 An indictment for sedition was preferred against 
 him by the GoA^ernment. "Every incident 
 
 of 
 
 of 
 
 << 
 
 of 
 of 
 mi 
 
 < % • V 4 ^ 
 

 FITT. 
 
 269 
 
 of the trial," says Sir Erskine May, the autlior 
 of the " Constitutional History of England," 
 "marked the unfairness and the cruel spirit 
 of his judges. In deciding on the relevancy 
 of the indictment, they dilated upon the enor- 
 mity of the offences charged, which in their 
 judgment amounted almost to high treason, the 
 excellence of our constitution, and the terrors 
 of the French Revolution. It was plain that 
 any attempt to amend our institutions was in 
 their eyes a crime. All the jurymen, selected 
 by the sheriff and picked by the presiding 
 judge, were members of an association at 
 Goldsmiths' Hall, who had erased Muir's name 
 from their books as an enemy to the consti- 
 tution. He objected that such men had 
 already prejudged his cause ; but he was 
 told that he might as well object to his 
 judges, who had sworn to maintain the con- 
 stitution. The witnesses for the Crown failed 
 to prove any seditious speeches, while they 
 all bore testimony to the earnestness with 
 which Muir had counselled order and obe- 
 dience to the law. Throughout the trial he 
 was browbeaten and threatened by the judges. 
 A contemptible witness against him was caressed 
 
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 Hi 
 
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 fif 
 
 270 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TESMEN. 
 
 by the puLlic prosecutor, and complimented 
 by the court ; while a witness for the defence 
 was hastily committed for concealing the truth, 
 and Muir, when he offered to speak on liis 
 witness's behalf, was silenced and told that 
 he had no right to interfere i^ the business. 
 In the spirit of a bygone age of judicature 
 the Lord Advocate denounced Muir as a de- 
 mon of sedition and mischief He even urged 
 it as a proof of guilt that a letter had been 
 found among his papers addressed to Mr. Fyshe 
 Palmer, who was about to be tried for sedition." 
 Let us hope that the age of judicature, when 
 a dominant party in possession of party courts 
 of justice, or of those still more convenient 
 instruments, courts of martial law, could murder 
 the objects of its political hatred under the form 
 of a trial, is as completely bygone as Sir 
 Erskine May imagines. Scroggs and Jeffreys 
 are in their graves of infamy ; but their spirit 
 is not quite dead. Muir defended himself 
 gallantly, and drew from the audience applause, 
 which one of the judges noticed as a proof 
 of the seditious feelings of the people. He 
 asserted that he was brought to trial for 
 promoting parliamentary reform. " The Lord 
 
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 himself 
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 a proof 
 le. He 
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 le Lord 
 
 PITT. 
 
 271 
 
 Justice -Clerk Braxfield," remarks Sir Erskine 
 May, "confirmed this assertion by charging 
 the jury that to preach the necessity of reform 
 at a time of excitement was seditious." The 
 judge harangued the jury against parliamentary 
 reform. " The landed interest," he said, " alone 
 had a right to be represented ; as for the 
 rabble who had nothing but personal property, 
 what hold had the nation on them V Another 
 judge said, " If punishment adequate to the 
 crime of sedition were to be sought for, it 
 could not be found in our law, now that 
 torture was happily abolished." Torture is 
 not abolished, if the theories now maintained 
 by servile lawyers and prerogative politicians 
 on the subject of martial law be true : if 
 these theories be true, English freemen are 
 still liable to torture. Muir was sentenced 
 to transportation for fourteen years. " Of the 
 three Koman punishments, crucifixion, expo- 
 sure to wild beasts, and deportation," said one 
 of the judges, "we have chosen the mildest." 
 Chosen the mildest he had not, but a people 
 not so barbarous as its rulers had forced 
 him to take it. In another trial, a judge said, 
 in summing up to the jury, " Gentlemen, the 
 
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 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 right of universal suffrage the subjects of 
 this country never enjoyed ; and were they 
 to enjoy it, they would not long enjoy either 
 liberty or a free constitution. You will there- 
 fore consider whether telling the people that 
 they have a just right to what would unques- 
 tionably be tantamount to a total subversion 
 of the constitution, is such a writing as any 
 person is entitled to compose, to print, and 
 to publish." Under such law, delivered from 
 the bench of justice, a man was condemned 
 to transportation for seven years. If, as Pym 
 said, parliaments without parliamentary liber- 
 ties are but a fair and plausible way to servi- 
 tude, jury trial without impartial judges and 
 honest juries is but a fair and plausible 
 wav to murder. 
 
 Was Pitt answerable for all this? He was. 
 With full knowledge of the facts he defended 
 these outrages and their perpetrators in Par- 
 liament. The infamy cannot be wiped away 
 from his once pure and patriotic name. Lord 
 Stanhope pleads that these and still more vio- 
 lent measures were demanded by the temper 
 of the time. Does not the very fact, that the 
 temper of the time was what Lord Stanhope 
 
 rages 
 of a 
 
Dt 
 
 PITT. 
 
 273 
 
 states it to have been, prove that there was 
 no danger of revolution, and therefore not 
 even that wretched justification for these out- 
 rages on liberty and law ? And if the demand 
 of a party was a warrant for violence in the 
 case of the Tories, was it also a warrant for 
 violence in the case of the Jacobins ? It seems 
 that Pitt even sank so far below his nobler 
 self as to entertain the thought of taking ad- 
 vantage of the free language of his rival, Fox, 
 and committing him to the Tower. 
 
 The worst Reign of Terror, however — a 
 Keign of Terror in no figurative B3Mse — was 
 in Ireland. Unhappy Ireland, and still more 
 unhappy England if Ireland is always to be 
 our weakness and our shame, the standing 
 confutation alike of our boasted statesmanship 
 and of our boasted love of justice ! In 1795, 
 the Duke of Portland and the Whig section 
 of the Cabinet, I fear against the wishes of 
 Pitt, had sent over Lord Fitzwilliam as Lord- 
 Lieutenant, with a policy of relief and con- 
 ciliation. But Fitzwilliam had been too open 
 in proclaiming his mission ; lie had been too 
 hasty in setting his heel on the agents of 
 tyranny and corruption ; most fatal error of 
 
 T 
 
 m 
 
 * ^ I 
 
274 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 'M 
 
 I 
 
 all, he had dismissed one of the great robber 
 house of Beresford. The whole nest of jobbers 
 were immediately alarmed ; and as the means 
 of arresting justice they naturally had recourse 
 to religion. They appealed against Catholic 
 Relief to the conscience of the King. We are 
 frail beings, but conscience is always obeyed 
 when she bids us deny a right to others. Fitz- 
 william fell ; not, it is to be feared, to the dis- 
 pleasure of Pitt, and was succeeded by Lord 
 Camden. Catholic Relief was thrown out by 
 the Irish Parliament, the Government now de- 
 claring against it. Not contented with this, 
 the Protestants began to organise themselves 
 for the repression of the Catholics ; the Cath- 
 olics organised on their side ; and the hatred 
 of the rival races and creeds burst forth. 
 
 I have myself sought and found in the 
 study of Irish history the explanation of the 
 paradox, that a people with so many gifts, so 
 amiable, naturally so submissive to rulers, and 
 everywhere but in their own country indus- 
 trious, are in their own country bywords of 
 idleness, lawlessness, disaffection, and agrarian 
 crime. But I will hare follow Mr. Massey, not 
 only one of the most matter-of-fact of writers, 
 
TITT. 
 
 275 
 
 but a most unquestionable enemy to revolution. 
 Mr. Massey writes thus : " Lord Carhampton, 
 the general commanding the forces in the dis- 
 turbed districts, let loose his troops upon the 
 wretched peasantry. It was enough for a 
 niagistrate, a squireen, or even a farmer to point 
 out any person as suspected, to have his habi- 
 tation burned down, his family turned adrift, 
 and himself either shot or transported, without 
 trial, without warrant, without inquiry. An 
 Act of Indemnity was passed by the Irish 
 Parliament, in the session of 1796, to protect 
 these enormities ; and the Insurrection Act 
 gave them for the future the sanction of law. 
 The suspension of the Habeas Corpus completed 
 this barbarous code, which, in effect, outlawed 
 the whole people of Ireland." The Government 
 armed a great body of Protestant yeomanry, 
 who were allowed to wear the Orange ribbon, 
 the badge of ascendancy. " The cruelties," says 
 Mr. Massey, " perpetrated by these men, both 
 before the rebellion, and while it was raging, 
 and after it was suppressed, differed only in 
 degree from the worst enormities (;f the French 
 revolutionists. Under the authority to search 
 for concealed arms, any person whom any 
 
 T 2 
 
 ■i 
 
 !i:!!!! 
 
 * 1 1 
 
 
276 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 'A\ :. 
 
 
 i •' 
 
 I 
 
 ruffian, calling himself a Protestant and a 
 loyalist, and either with or without a military 
 uniform, chose to suspect or to pretend to sus- 
 pect, was liable to be seized, tortured, md put 
 to death. Hundreds of unoffending people, and 
 people who were guilty of no other offence thah 
 professing the creed of their fathers, and of 
 letting fall a word of discontent, were flogged 
 till they were insensible, or made to stand upon 
 one foot on a pointed stake. These were 
 the most ordinary punishments. Sometimes 
 the wretched victim was half hanged, or the 
 scalp was torn from the head by a pitched' cap. 
 Catholics and reputed malcontents of the better 
 class were subjected to still worse treatment. 
 Militia and yeomanry, as well as the regular 
 troops, were billeted on them at free quarters ; 
 and this billet appears to have been invariably 
 construed as an unlimited licence for robbery, 
 devastation, ravishment, and, in case of re- 
 sistance, murder." 
 
 Sir Kalph Abercromby, on assuming the com- 
 mand of the army in Ireland, branded these 
 ruffians in general orders as formidable to every- 
 body but the enemy. To him it did not appear 
 essential to the honour of the profession that a 
 
 and 
 
PITT. 
 
 277 
 
 soldier should be licensed to play the butcher. 
 But he was at once hustled out of his command. 
 The Catholics, if they had not been goaded to 
 despair, would not have risen. Their priests had 
 no sympathy with the Atheists of the French 
 Republic. But the conduct of the Protestants 
 and of the Government drove them into the 
 arms of France and of the revolutionary con- 
 spirators of their own country, who were mostly 
 not Catholics, but Protestants, if they had any 
 religion at all. When the Catholic peasantry 
 did rise, they rose with the ruthless fury of 
 tortured and embruted slaves, and perpetrated 
 nameless atrocities in their turn. Then the 
 saturnalia of martial law were proclaimed ; 
 and under cover of that proclamation, the ven- 
 geance of the dominant race was poured out, 
 as we have just seen the vengeance of a domi- 
 nant race poured out, upon the victims of its 
 hate. Of that phrase martial law, absurd and 
 self-contradictory as it is, each part has a mean- 
 ing. The term martial suspends the right of 
 citizens to legal trial ; the term law suspends 
 the claim of an enemy to quarter and the other 
 rights of civilised war. The whole compound 
 is the fiend's charter ; and the public man who 
 
 i;p5 
 
 ii H 
 
 i 
 
 ■\i 
 
 • i 
 
278 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 I i| 
 
 connives at its introduction, who fails in his 
 day and in his place to resist it at whatever 
 cost or hazard to himself, is a traitor to civilisa- 
 tion and humanity, and though official morality 
 may applaud him at the time, his name will 
 stand in history accursed and infamous for 
 ever. The first notable case under martial law 
 in Ireland was that of Sir Edward Crosbie, a 
 gentleman residing near Carlow, where a rising 
 had taken place. I will give the case in the 
 words of Mr. Massey. " It unfortunately hap- 
 pened," says that writer, " that the miserable 
 rabble, before entering the town, had paraded 
 in the grounds of Sir Edward Crosbie, who 
 resided at a distance of a mile and a half from 
 Carlow. There was not a tittle of proof that 
 this gentleman was in any way connected with 
 the lioters, or that he had invited them to 
 assemble on his lawn at midnight, preparatory 
 to their lawless proceedings. He had not ac- 
 companied them, nor did it appear that he held 
 any communication with them. But Sir Edward 
 was a friend to Parliamentary Reform, and hos- 
 tile to the oppression of the tenantry by their 
 landlords. To be friendly to the poor and to 
 reform was presumptive evidence of disaffection ; 
 
PITT. 
 
 279 
 
 1 
 
 5 in his 
 ^'hatever 
 
 civilisa- 
 norality 
 me will 
 ous for 
 tial law 
 osbie, a 
 rising 
 
 in the 
 \j hap- 
 iserable 
 paraded 
 ie, who 
 ilf from 
 of that 
 id with 
 lem to 
 aratory 
 lot ac- 
 le held 
 Idward 
 id hos- 
 T their 
 md to 
 action ; 
 
 and presumptive evidence of disaffection was 
 sufficient proof of complicity in the rebellion 
 The day after the attempt on Carlow several 
 persons were seized, tried by court-martial, 
 and hanged for this offence. Among others 
 Sir Edward Crosbie was dragged before a set 
 of ignorant, blood-thirsty ruffians, who styled 
 themselves a court-martial. There was not a 
 particle of evidence which could have had the 
 least weight with a fairly constituted court, 
 though Catholic prisoners had been, by torture 
 and promises of pardon, converted into wit- 
 nesses against the accused. Numerous loyalists 
 came forward to state what everybody in the 
 neighbourhood knew, that Sir Edward was a 
 good subject of His Majesty, as well as one 
 of the few humane and accomplished gentlemen 
 that Ireland possessed. But these witnesses 
 were excluded from the place where the pro- 
 ceedings were held by the bayonets of the sol- 
 diery. A gentleman of rank and fortune, who 
 thought that Parliament phould be reformed, 
 and that squireens should not be permitted 
 to grind and insult the peasantry, was a dan- 
 gerous member of society, and must be made an 
 example of to deter others. Accordingly, Sir 
 
 li 
 
 m 
 
28o 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATES ME y. 
 
 
 Edward Crosbie was doomed to death by a 
 court-martial, the president of whicli was an 
 illiterate fellow who could not spell. The sen- 
 tence was immediately put in execution at the 
 gallows ; and the remains of the murdered gen- 
 tleman were abused in a manner shocking to 
 humanity." The passages of history which de- 
 live their character from the lower and viler 
 passions are apt to repeat themselves with 
 great fidelity. 
 
 Lord Corn wal lis, who had at length been 
 sent over by Pitt, in the place of the wretched 
 Camden, to stop these orgies of blood, states 
 in one of his letters that under martial law 
 "numberless murders are hourly committed 
 without any process or examination whatever.'' 
 " The yeomanry," he says, " are in the style of 
 the loyalists in America, cnly much more 
 numerous and powerful, and a thousand times 
 more ferocious. These men have served their 
 country, but they now take the lead in rapine 
 and murder. The Irish militia, with few officers, 
 and those chiefly of the worst kind, follow 
 closely on the heels of the yeomanry in murder 
 and every kind of atrocity ; and the Fencibles 
 take a share, although much behind-hand with 
 
PITT. 
 
 281 
 
 the others. The language of the principle 
 persons of the country all tends to encourage 
 this system of blood ; and the conversation, even 
 at my table, where you will suppose I do all I 
 can to prevent it, always turns on hanging, shoot- 
 ing, burning, etc. And if a priest has been 
 put to death, the greatest joy is expressed by 
 the whole company." He asserts from his own 
 knowledge of military affairs that of the num- 
 bers of the enemy reputed to be killed, a very 
 small proportion only are really killed in battle 
 — and adds that " he is afraid that any man 
 in a brown coat, who is found within several 
 miles of the field of action, is butchered with- 
 out discrimination." He describes the principal 
 persons of the country and the members of both 
 Houses of Parliament as " averse to all acts of 
 clemency, and desiring to pursue measures that 
 would terminate in the extirpation of the in- 
 habitants and the destruction of the country." 
 Lord Comwallis was no friend of rebels : he had 
 commanded apjainst rebels in America : he was 
 a Tory : he showed no weakness in quenching 
 the embers of the insurrection in Ireland. But 
 a burst of loyal execration arose against his 
 detestable clemency. Dr. Duiguenan, the organ 
 
282 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN, 
 
 i'M 
 
 of the Orange party, wrote to Lord Castlereagli 
 that the conduct of the Lord-Lieutenant had 
 rendered him an object not only of disgust, but 
 of abhorrence to eveiy loyal man. " You write," 
 says Cornwallis to General Ross, " as if you 
 believed that there was any foundation for 
 all the lies and nonsensical clamour about my 
 lenity. On my arrival in this country, I put 
 a stop to the burning of houses and murder of 
 the inhabitants by the yeomen, or any other 
 person who delighted in that amusement ; to 
 the flogging for the purpose of extorting 
 confession, and to the free quarters, which 
 comprehended universal rape and robbery 
 throughout the country." A party of the Mount 
 Kennedy corps of yeomanry (again I tell my 
 story in the words of Mr. Massey) were, on an 
 autumn night in the year 1798, patrolling the 
 village of Delbary, in the county of Wicklow. 
 Two or three of the party, led by Whollaghan, 
 one of their number, entered the cottage of a 
 labouring man named Dogherty, and asked 
 whether there were any bloody rebels there ? 
 The only inmates of the cabin were Dogherty's 
 wife and a sick lad, her son, who was eating 
 his supper. Whollaghan asked if the boy was 
 
riTT. 
 
 283 
 
 tlereagli 
 int Lad 
 ust, but 
 I write," 
 
 if you 
 ion for 
 out my 
 
 I put 
 rder of 
 
 other 
 nt ; to 
 torting 
 
 which 
 obbery 
 Mount 
 3)1 my 
 
 on an 
 ig the 
 cklow. 
 ighan, 
 3 of a 
 asked 
 here ? 
 erty's 
 sating 
 r was 
 
 Doghertys son, and being told he was — "Then, 
 you dog," said Wholhighan, " you are to die 
 here." " I hope not," answered the poor hid ; 
 and he prayed, if there was any charge against 
 him, to be taken before Mr. Latouche, a 
 magistrate in the neighbourhood, of known 
 humanity and justice. The fellow replied 
 that he cared nothing for Latouche, and 
 raised his gun. The mother entreated him, 
 for the love of God, to take her life in- 
 stead of her child's. Whollaghan, with a 
 volley of abuse, pulled the trigger twice, 
 but the piece missed fire. A comrade then 
 handed him another gun ; and the mother 
 rushed at the muzzle to shield her son. In 
 the struggle the piece went off, and the ball 
 broke young Dogherty's arm. When the boy 
 fell, the assassins left the cabin ; but Whol- 
 laghan returned, and seeing the lad supported 
 by his mother, cried out, " Is not the dog- 
 dead yet ? " " Oh, yes, sir," said the poor 
 woman, " he is dead enough." " For fear he 
 is not," said Whollaghan, " let him take this." 
 And with deliberate aim he fired a fourth 
 time, and Dogherty dropped dead out of his 
 mother's arms. Whollaghan was tried for 
 
 il 
 
 „•:• I 
 
 i 
 
 nw 
 
 •3 If 
 

 '^i 
 
 M , » 
 
 .84 
 
 TllliF.K KyarJSIl STATh:SMEN. 
 
 tlio nuirdiT, not 1)V a civil irihiinjil ns lio 
 shouM \\\\\K^ boon, l>ii( ]>y oourt-iiuirtinl. Tlic 
 laois wiM'o not illspiittHl ; hut tho (Iclciico was 
 tliai tlio poor hov Iwul Ihhmi a. ivluO, and lliat 
 tlio prisoiuM* was a Iniinaiio aiul loyal huUhh'!. 
 Thai tlio Dogliortvs won* rrludH is prohahlo 
 onouiih : as indood, savs Mr. Masscv, whom 
 1 am still tollowing, it was hardly j)ossil)lo 
 that a (^ilhoHo j)oasant could haw been any- 
 thinjjf tdso. Hiii no loa'al ovidonc(* of the tact 
 was tiMidorod ; and the hearsay, which was 
 admitted, was about as credible as the oaths 
 of the Orange-men who came to give Whol- 
 la^^han a characti^' for humanitv. Tlu^ real 
 ilet'enoe was that the prisoner and his com- 
 panions \vm\ been sent out with general orders 
 to shoot anybody they pleased. "The coiu't," 
 remarks Mr. Massev, "seemed to have been 
 of opinion that such orders were neither 
 unusual or unreasonable ; and it is difHcult 
 io extract from their tinding that they thought 
 the prisoner had been guilty even of an error 
 in judgment." They found that "the prisoner 
 did shoot and kill Thomas Dogherty, a rebel ; 
 but acquitted him of any malicious or wilful 
 intention of murder." 
 
V. 
 
 PfTT. 
 
 a«5 
 
 ll MS lie 
 
 inl. Tl,(. 
 •Mid llijit 
 
 I NUl|j('t'i. 
 l>n>I>;i|)|(» 
 
 ^'. whom 
 l)<>.s.sil)lo 
 ^HMi jiiiy- 
 
 i^'li was 
 H^ oaths 
 3 Whol- 
 'Ik^ real 
 
 • 
 
 iH coin- 
 
 I onloi's 
 
 ! court," 
 
 '0 been 
 
 noithor 
 
 ^lifHoult 
 Iiought 
 
 II error 
 ►risoiier 
 
 rebel ; 
 wilful 
 
 Their H(niiin(M)t,H hw\\\, in [wvX, to have Ijecii 
 pretty much the Hnnic as tJio.sc which pn-vail 
 ill high oHieial regioim now. The trial took 
 placid at Dublin. The prnsidcnt of tln' <!ourt- 
 niartial was oi!«' of the holding ineiiibcrH of that 
 order who are the guardiaiiH ol" an honour and 
 a. inorality ab;,ve those of the; eorninon h(!rd : 
 ho was the Karl of KnniHkillcui. 
 
 In Tij>pera,ry, Mr. 'I'hoinas Judkin Fitzg(!rald, 
 a tnaTi of conspieuous loyah.y, was made; high- 
 sherifli', and acted as a, sort of jirovoHt-inarshal 
 in that district. His plan, says Mr. Maswjy, was 
 to Beize |)ersons whom he chow; to suspc^et, 
 often without the slightest ground, if not Irorn 
 sheer malice, wwX \>y dint of tin; lash and 
 tlireats of instant death, to extort confessions 
 of guilt and accusations of other persons. lie 
 recommended himself especially to the a[)pro- 
 bation of all loyal men by attacking a some- 
 what higher class of persons than most of his 
 compeers ventured to attack. Mr. Wrigbt, a 
 teaclier of lajiguages at Clonmel, and a man 
 of good family, heard that he was suspected. 
 He hastened to deliver himself up, in tlie 
 liope that he might thus save his cha- 
 racter and life. But Fitzgerald was not to 
 
 ' \\ 
 
 1 J 
 
a86 
 
 rilRKK ENiUsli^n ST A TKSMKN. 
 
 1)0 (lis!i|>|K)into(l of Inn vit^iiin. !fo rocoivcd 
 Mr. Wright with a. tonuMit of aluiso, and onlcriMl 
 him to fall on liis kiU'OH to reocivo Iiih wmi- 
 tonoo. *' Yoii aro a rclud," said ho, "and a, 
 prinoipal in this robollion. Von aro io rocoivo 
 five hnndrod laslu^H, and thon to bo Hhot." 
 Tho ]H)or man lu^ggcd for timo, and wa,,s ho 
 rash as io ask for a trial. This aroused Fitz- 
 gerald to fnrv ; he railed at his prisoner for 
 daring to open his month after ho was eon- 
 denniod. Wright was hurried to tlu^ fl'*Sf?'''S~ 
 ladders, whieh were oreoted in the main street ; 
 and expecting innnodiate death, had })laced 
 his liat before his face while ho nuittered a, 
 praver. Fitzgerald with his own hand tore 
 away ti»o hat, trampled on it, (h'agged his 
 fainting victim by the hair, kicked him, and 
 tiiudly slai^liod him with a sword, drawing 
 blood. Wright was then fastened to the 
 bidder. Fifty hishes had been inflicted, wluMi 
 a Major Riall came up ami asked what Wright 
 liad done. The Sheriff answered by flinging 
 Riall a note taken from the person of Wright, 
 as a justificaiion of tho punishment to which 
 he wa^ subjected. The note was in French — 
 a language of which Fitzgerald was wholly 
 
riTT. 
 
 2R7 
 
 igtK»rjini atid coiiinlfKjd two lines excMiHing 
 (]i(^ writ<'r for linvitig failcil in a visiting 
 cngjigcntR'nt. Kijill MHHurod Fitzgerald tliat 
 the !i(>te was perlVujtIy liarnileHH ; nevcjrthcloKH, 
 the Inwli eontinued io deneend \\\\\\\ the (jnivcr- 
 ing entrnilH W(;r(^ viHil)le through the fl'iyed 
 tlesli. Th(^ liJingniJMi wmh tlien <)rdered to 
 ii|)])ly liiH thongK to a pnrt of thi; hocly whic^h 
 hjid not yet heen torn, while tlie Slieri ff 
 hinmelf went to the genonil in command of 
 the diHtriet for i\.\\ order to put hiw j)riHon(!r 
 to dejitli. The order, however, was not given, 
 and Wright wmh released. 
 
 To add to the bright roll of EngliHh honour, 
 Mr. Thomas Judkin Fitzgcjrald rec(!ived a j)(;n- 
 sioii, and, at the Union, was made a baronet 
 of the United Kingdom. 
 
 Tliese men were not fiends ; they were a 
 dominant class, the planter -class of Ireland, 
 maddened with cruel panic and administering 
 martial law. It is good that these things 
 should be recalled to mind when we see men 
 of letters and artists, who have been brought 
 up in the air of English li})erty and within 
 the sound of Christian church bells, proposing 
 to blow Fenians from guns, and to re-enact 
 
 ^irfH 
 
 ,.V 'J 
 
 i 
 
 it 
 
288 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 on Irish insurgents the atrocities which marked 
 the putting down of the Indian mutineers. 
 
 Ireland had what one of our prelates calls 
 a Missionary Church ; that is an establish- 
 ment profusely endowed out of the penury 
 and misery of the Irish people ; and the 
 bishops and clergy of which were intended, 
 I suppose, to be placed by their wealth and 
 privileges above the passions of any class, 
 and enabled boldly to preach justice and 
 mercy. What weie they doing \ Were they 
 preaching justice and mercy, or were they 
 doing what the prelates and clergy of the 
 planter church of Jamaica do now — drawing 
 up certificates of Christian character for men 
 whose hands were red with innocent blood 1 
 It is a point which I have never been able 
 clearly to ascertain. 
 
 There is nothing in this revolting history 
 more revolting than the cant about loyalty. 
 Loyalty is not due from the conquered and 
 the oppressed to the conqueror and oppressor. 
 Nothing is due but submission, which the 
 conqueror and oppressor must enforce as best 
 he can. 
 
 The Indemnity Act passed by the Irish 
 
 r^ 
 
PITT, 
 
 289 
 
 Parliament unfortunately proved insufficient 
 to cover all these acts of the supporters of 
 order, and especially the use of torture. Cer- 
 tain bloody-minded persecutors, pseudo-philan- 
 thropists, and Hiberno-philists were proceeding 
 to appeal to the courts of law against indis- 
 criminate butchery, torture, and arson. So 
 the Parliament — of the temper and language 
 of whose members. Lords and Commons alike, 
 we have heard Lord Cornwallis's description — 
 passed a more comprehensive Act, which effect- 
 ually screened every murderer, torturer, and 
 incendiary from the law. Safe under this 
 Act, Fitzgerald, when arraigned before a jury, 
 vaunted his exploits in the face of justice. 
 He named several persons whom he had 
 flogged under circumstar jes more aggravated 
 than those before the court. He mentioned 
 one man who had cut his throat to escape 
 the horrors and ignominy of torture. He ad- 
 mitted or boasted that in his search for rebels 
 he had flogged many persons who had proved 
 to be perfectly innocent. Lord Avonmore, who 
 tried the case, did not dissemble his grief and 
 indignation at having to administer such a 
 law as that which had recently been enacted. 
 
 
 m 
 
 (■r 
 
 mi 
 
290 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 After dwelling on the flagrancy of the outrnge, 
 for which he said no damages would have been 
 too great, he ended by saying that the words 
 of the Act placed an insuperable bar between 
 injury and redress, and set all equity and jus- 
 tice at defiance. . And with that he dashed 
 the Act upon the cushion, and threw himself 
 back on his seat. 
 
 Lord Moira brought the state of things in 
 Ireland before the British Legislature ; of course 
 without effect. The Government supported 
 their subordinates. If it is the luty of govern- 
 ments to support their subordinates, the people 
 must support themselves. Statesmen are learn- 
 ing to make an easy reputation for chivalry 
 by supporting their subordinates at the expense 
 of humanity, justice, and the honour of the 
 nation. Public morality requires that a sub- 
 ordinate should be supported in difficulty al- 
 ways, in error sometimes, in crime never. 
 
 Lord Stanhope charitably ascribes these hor- 
 Tors, in the refusal of all inquiry into which 
 he apparently concurs, to a helpless crisis in 
 human affairs, such as is described by the 
 Cardinal de Eetz, caused by accident and mis- 
 chance, not by the faults or errors of mankind. 
 
PITT. 
 
 291 
 
 It was no helpless crisis, but the natural con- 
 sequence of Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, 
 sustained by the oligarchical government and 
 hierarchy of this country. They were the 
 authors before God of the Rebellion, though 
 the people died for it by earthly law. And 
 how far, I ask again, is the benefit of these 
 excuses to extend ? If ever the hand of fate 
 was seen in history, it was in the history of 
 the French Revolution. If ever a crisis could 
 be called helpless, it was that of 1793. Is 
 this to absolve the Jacobins ? No ; there have 
 been misfortunes in Irish annals — misfortunes 
 which were not faults — misfortunes which the 
 rulers of Ireland in past times may fairly 
 plead in their own excuse at the bar of his- 
 tory. The partial nature of the Anglo-Norman 
 Conquest of Ireland, which led to the forma- 
 tion of an English pale instead of a national 
 aristocracy mingling in course of time with 
 the native race, was the original spring from 
 which this bitterness flowed. But Protestant 
 ascendancy was a fault, not a misfortune. And 
 the obstinate maintenance in the interest of 
 a class of an alien church and an alien land- 
 law in Ireland are faults, not misfortunes, 
 
 u 2 
 
 I) 
 
 "1^ i 
 
 k 
 
 'ft 
 
 
292 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TKSMEN. 
 
 HOW. The guilt of the consequences in the 
 eye of Heaven, rests on the Government, 
 though still, by earthly law, the people pay 
 the penalty. 
 
 The appearance of Hoche and his French 
 armament of liberation in Bantry Bay was a 
 warning which could not be neglected. Irish 
 disaffection, if it is not formidable in itseii, 
 will always be formidable when it is backed 
 by foreign aid. If Hoche had landed, he 
 would, for the time at least, have been master 
 of Ireland. The Orange yeomanry and militia, 
 though they could murder, burn, and torture, 
 could not stand before an enemy, as they 
 showed when they were led against the small 
 French force afterwards landed by Humbert. 
 And with steam instead of sails Hoche would 
 have landed. It had become manifest that 
 the Orange government of Ireland was not 
 only criminal but dangerous. Pitt now resolved 
 to carry the Union, and the Union was car- 
 ried. It was carried through an Irisli Parlia- 
 ment in which the Irish people were not 
 represented, and which had no sort of right 
 or title to dispose of the independence of the 
 nation. And through that Parliament it was 
 
PITT. 
 
 293 
 
 was 
 
 carried by bribery and corruption of every 
 kind, including the prostitution of lionours and 
 offices as well as pensions, so foul and infa- 
 mous that men of honour, such aR Lord Corn- 
 wallis, who were employed in the operation, 
 shrank with loathing from their task. One 
 million two hundred cind sixty thousand pounds 
 were distributed among the proprietors of 
 boroughs as compensation for the loss of 
 their means of preying on the State, and the 
 peerage was again recruited with houses which 
 derive from this noble origin their divine right 
 of legislating for the nation. The acquiescence 
 of the Catholics was procured by fraud ; the 
 hope of emancipation was distinctly held out 
 to them as the price of their concurrence, and 
 was not fulfilled. The Union vras a good and 
 an indispensable measure. It was, as Pitt 
 saw, the only chance of saving Ireland from 
 Protestant ascendancy and provincial tyranny : 
 and legally of course it is perfectly valid. To 
 give it moral validity, it requires the free 
 ratification of the Irish people. When the 
 Union is what Pitt declared it was to be, a 
 union of equal laws, that ratification will be 
 obtained. 
 
 % 
 
 I t, 
 
294 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 Pitt is generally held to have been a bad war 
 minister. That he was not a successful war 
 minister is certain : and i ar, if in anything, 
 ministers may be judged by their success. His 
 navy gained victories by dint of British sea- 
 manship and courage. His military operations 
 ended almost uniformly in disaster. His forces 
 were never found on a decisive field. Like a 
 bad chess-player he ran over the board taking 
 pawns, while the adversary was checking his 
 king. He carried his victorious arms from To- 
 bago to St. Domingo, from St. Domingo to St. 
 Lucia, and from St. Lucia to Guadaloupe. This 
 was the traditional mode of making war on 
 France ; and he did not see how different was 
 the France on which he had now to make war. 
 Meantime his allies were being beaten in battles, 
 which, if they had been won, would have given 
 him as many sugar islands as he pleased ; and 
 which, being lost, swept away the sugar islands 
 in the general ruin. When Bonaparte and the 
 best army of France were in Egypt and off the 
 board, Pitt took advantage of their absence, not 
 to join his allies in dealing a decisive blow, but 
 to make an isolated descent on the enemy's 
 country, the weakest operation in proportion to 
 
PITT. 
 
 295 
 
 the force employed which can be undertaken, 
 and one which in this case ended in ignominious 
 failure. He had not his father's eye for men. 
 Chatham would have brought Nelson to the 
 front before. When Nelson had won the Nile, 
 Pitt only gave him the lowest rank in the peer- 
 age, and said, in defence of this parsimony in 
 rewarding merit, that Nelson would live a^s the 
 winner of the greatest of naval victories, and 
 that no one would ask whether he had been 
 made a baron, a viscount, or an earl. This, 
 when the highest rank in the peerage was being 
 every day bestowed on political subserviency, 
 and even on political corruption : when Sir 
 James Lowther was made an earl direct for his 
 influence at Appleby. Pitt is open to a worse 
 censure that that of merely failing to distin- 
 guish merit. When he allowed himself to be 
 made minister by an unconstitutional use of the 
 King's personal influence, he had sold himself to 
 the fiend, and the fiend did not fail to exact the 
 bond. Twice Pitt had the criminal weakness to 
 gratify the King's personal wishes by entrust- 
 ing the safety of English armies and the honour 
 of England to the incompetent hands of the 
 young Duke of York. This absurd princeling 
 
 , \\ 
 
 
 !'lti 
 
 
 'iiiiii 
 I 'I 
 
 i I', \ 
 
296 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 t 
 
 3 
 
 actually objected to acting under the command 
 of Claiifait, the most competent and eminent of 
 the allied generals : and to gratify his conceit, 
 the command-in-chief was assumed by tlie Em- 
 peror, the arch-incompetency of all. But, after 
 all, could promotion by merit be expected at the 
 hands of governments whose essence was privi- 
 lege \ It was against promotion by merit that 
 they were fighting. To accept promotion by 
 merit would have been to accept the revolution. 
 In the sixth year of the war, the nation was 
 brought to the brink of destruction by a mutiny 
 in the fleet, caused entirely by the vices of the 
 administration. The pay of the sailors and their 
 pensions had not been increased since the time 
 of Charles II., in spite of the immense rise of 
 prices since that period, which must have been 
 felt more than ever in time of war. This, while 
 millions were being paid to boroughmongers and 
 sinecurists, and when Tomline was not satisfied 
 unless he had a rich bishopric and a rich deanery 
 too. Light weight of provisions was served, a 
 sailor's pound being fourteen ounces instead of 
 sixteen ; and even for this short weight the 
 sailors were dependent on pursers taken from a 
 low class, who cheated them without limit. The 
 
PITT. 
 
 297 
 
 disinbution of prize-money wtis most unfair ; tlie 
 discipline most vexatious ; the officers, wlio were 
 appointed entirely by interest, were incompetent 
 and tyrannical ; and seamen who had fought the 
 battles of the country, seamen scarred with hon- 
 ourable wounds, were sworn at and abused like 
 dogs by insolent and worthless boys. At last 
 the sailors rose and respectfully demanded re- 
 dress. The Government, conscious of its guilt, 
 was compelled to accede to their demands, and 
 even to dismiss a number of officers from the 
 service. But the spirit of mutiny once roused, 
 naturally broke forth again in a more turbulent 
 and dangerous form. It was suppressed at last, 
 and justice of course was done on the piincipal 
 mutineers, who were hanged or flogged through 
 the fleet. It must be owned, however, that even 
 in the case of the worst offenders, justice was 
 tempered with mercy, for no lord of the Admi- 
 ralty was either flogged or hanged. Since that 
 time, and owing originally to the mutiny, the 
 navy has been in a sounder state. Neither that 
 nor any service will be in a perfectly sound state 
 till dismissal is the highest punishment. And 
 now — Democracy is such an ungrateful thing — 
 can any one point out to us an instance in 
 
 I 
 
298 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 /■' 
 
 I 
 
 history, from Athens down to the American 
 "Republic, in which a Democracy treated its 
 defenders as the British seaman was treated 
 before the mutiny at Spithead? Democracy 
 does not build Blenheims and crea.te vast estates 
 for the general or the admiral ; but it is just, 
 and it cannot help being just, to the soldier 
 and the sailor. 
 
 What Pitt's war finance was, tax-payers need 
 not to be told. He did make an effoii: to keep 
 borrowing within bounds, but it soon broke 
 down, and he plunged headlong into an abyss 
 of debt. In this he was backed by a Parliament 
 of the rich and idle trained to public extrava- 
 gance by prodigality at home. His own reck- 
 lessness in private expenditure is too well known. 
 It compelled him to accept somewhat ignomi- 
 nious aid. This system of laying burdens on 
 posterity removes, as I have said before, the 
 last check on war. Nor is it capable of moral 
 defence. The theory on which Pitt and his 
 supporters acted — that they had a right to 
 mortgage the estate which they bequeathed to 
 posterity — assumed that the earth belonged 
 to one generation of men. The earth does 
 not belong to one generation of men, but to 
 
 
 A 
 
PITT. 
 
 299 
 
 God, who has given it to each generation in 
 its turn. 
 
 Of Pitt's war taxes the most notable were the 
 income-tax and the succession-tax. The income- 
 tax is a tax which ought to be resorted to only 
 in time of war or in some national emergency 
 which excites the national spirit as much as war. 
 It is only when the national spirit is so excited 
 that there is a chance of true returns. In ordi- 
 nary times the income-tax is a tax on honesty, a 
 premium on dishonesty, a corruptor of national 
 and especially of commercial honour. Pitt pro- 
 posed a succession duty on real and peisonal 
 property alike ; but the landlord Parliament 
 threw out the duty on real property, and passed 
 that on personal property alone. There are no 
 Trades Unions in the House of Commons. 
 
 Pitt had gone into the war reckoning on the 
 failure of the French finances. While French 
 finance was recruited by despair, he was driven 
 to a suspension of cash payments. There is no 
 great mystery, I apprehend, about the character 
 and effects of this measure. It was, in fact, a 
 forced loan, which was paid off, at the expense 
 of great national suffering, by the return to cash 
 payments after the war. Meantime it caused 
 
 i 
 
 |:i' 
 
 I I 
 
 II 
 
 -1 f 
 
 l!i 
 
300 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 a depreciation of the currency, which bore hard 
 on fixed incomes, while it did not affect the 
 landowners, whose rents could be raised. 
 
 All political progress was, of course, suspended 
 in England, as it was over Europe generally, in 
 these disastrous years. Pitt's speeches were full 
 of claptrap against democracy, as though Equa- 
 lity were responsible for the political calamities 
 which Privilege had brought on in France. He 
 now openly renounced Parliamentary Reform, 
 and began to declaim in the full Tory strain 
 against following false luminaries and abandorxing 
 the polestar of the British constitution. He and 
 his party maintained that the rotten borough 
 Parliament, the stench of whose corruption rose 
 to heaven, which was wasting the blood and 
 substance of the people in a class war, and bru- 
 talising them at the same time, had been found 
 amply sufficient for securing their happiness, and 
 that the system ought not to be idly and wan- 
 tonly disturbed, from any love of experiment, or 
 predilection for theory. It would be very wrong 
 to do anything wantonly or idly, or from mere 
 love of experiment, or predilection for theory. 
 But supposing that an absurd system of repre- 
 sentation did work well, not only for those who 
 
PITT, 
 
 301 
 
 monopolise power and patronage under it, and 
 who of course find it practically excellent, but 
 for the nation : still its absurdity would be an 
 evil calling for amendment, because institutions 
 ought to command the reverence of the people, 
 which they cannot do unless they are intelligible 
 and consistent with reason. And if theory is 
 nothing, and if the people are already practically 
 represented, where is the great danger of bring- 
 ing the theory into accordance with the practice ? 
 Great allowance is to be made for the Torv 
 Minister in this matter : but had he been one 
 of the first of statesmen, he would have seen 
 how sure an antidote against disaffection and 
 foreign contagion was to be found in timely and 
 moderate Reform. 
 
 It has been said that when Pitt had once 
 gone into the war, he ought to have made 
 it a crusade. Burke complained at the time 
 that he did not : and the charge has been re- 
 peated with great amplitude of rhetoric by Lord 
 Macaulay. If Pitt did not actually proclaim a 
 crusade, he used language about the salvation 
 of Europe wild enough to satisfy most fanatics, 
 and the flagitious nonsense which he did not 
 talk himself, he allowed his colleagues and 
 
 m 
 
 
 " l. 
 
302 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TESMEN. 
 
 
 subordinates to talk for him. So far as he re- 
 strained liimself or them, he is to be praised, 
 as Lord Stanhope justly says, for not having 
 given the war a character which would have 
 made it internecine. But as to a crusade, who 
 were to be the crusaders \ Would the borough- 
 mongers and the sinecurists have played the 
 part of Tancred and Godfrey % Would Tomline 
 and Dr. Cornwallis have gone forth, like the 
 bishops of the middle ages, at tlie head of the 
 army of the Cross % Burke himself, the Peter the 
 Hermit of this crusade, would he have left Bea- 
 consfield and his pension to share the doom of 
 those whom he had sent forth to die ? Save the 
 Sepulchre ! So ve Gatton and Old Sarum ! Save 
 the Earldom of Lonsdale, save the Clerkship of 
 the Pells, the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, 
 the Tellership of the Exchequer, the salaries of 
 the Six Clerks, and the Deputy Chafe-wax ! 
 Save the Deanery of St. Paul's and " the onlv 
 arrangement which can offer any accommoda- 
 tion in my favour!" Crusading is self-sacrifice. 
 Tliese men were carrying on a war in their own 
 interest, with armies of peasants trepanned by 
 drink and the recruiting sergeant, with seamen 
 levied by the press-gang, and with the money 
 
PITT. 
 
 3'^3 
 
 of future generations. They had not self- 
 sacrifice enough even to suppress for the mo- 
 ment their own petty jealousies and interested 
 intrigues for office in ttie most desperate 
 moments of the struggle. The ruling class, I 
 apprehend, bore little of the burden. If their 
 taxes rose, their rents and tithes rose also ; and 
 they shared a vast mass of patronage besides.* 
 The great merchants who supported the war 
 were in like manner growing rich, as great 
 merchants in war often do, at the expense of their 
 less opulent rivals. Burke had described them 
 on a former occasion as snuffing with delight 
 the cadaverous scent of lucre. The crusading 
 spirit, if it was anywhere, was on the side of 
 the French youths, who went forth shoeless and 
 ragged, without pay, with nothing but bread 
 and gunpowder, to save their country from 
 the Coalition, and, as some of them thought, 
 to overthrow tyranny of body and soul, and 
 open a new reign of justice and happiness for 
 mankind. When the French Revolution had 
 turned to the lust of military aggrandisement 
 embodied in Bonaparte, the crusading spirit 
 passed to the other side, and then the leaders 
 of England might appeal to it not in vain. 
 
 1 1 
 
 ;i1 
 
304 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STA TESMEN. 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 Pitt did not know why he had gone to 
 war, and therefore when he found himself aban- 
 doned by most of his allies, the rest requiring 
 subsidies to drag them into the field, the cause 
 of Europe, as it was called, thus renounced by 
 Europe itself, everything going ill, and no 
 prospect of amendment, he did not know how 
 or on what terms to make peace. This is called 
 his firmness. He vaguely represented himself 
 as fighting for security for the past and repara- 
 tion for the future, and his words were parroted 
 by his party ; but it was not stated what the 
 reparation or the security was. He pretended 
 at one time that there was no government in 
 France with which a treaty could be made. 
 There was always a government in France, even 
 during the Heign of Terror, obeyed by the 
 nation and the national functionaries, and with 
 which, therefore, a treaty might have been 
 made. It signifies nothing, as everybody would 
 now admit, how polluted the origin or character 
 of a foreign government may be, you must treat 
 with it as a government. If its origin and cha- 
 racter are polluted, or even questionable, you 
 need not, and if you are jealous of the honour 
 of your country and your own you will not, 
 
PITT. 
 
 305 
 
 tl 
 
 fling England into its arms, or eagerly place 
 her hand in the hand which has been held up 
 to heaven in perjury and is stained Tvith in- 
 nocent blood. But you must treat all govern- 
 ments as governments ; it is tlie only way of 
 fixing responsibility where circumstances not 
 under your control have fixed power. 
 
 Pitt, however, finding disasters thickening, 
 did struggle to make peace. He underwent 
 great humiliations to obtain it. His envoys 
 waited, with a submissiveness and a patience 
 which must call a blush to ever}^ English cheek, 
 m the antechambers of the insolent and domi- 
 neering Directory. He even offered to pay two 
 of the Directors the heavy bribe which they 
 demanded. England trying to bribe two 
 sharpers to vouchsafe her a peace ! But the 
 profligate lust of aggrandisement which had 
 now taken the place of defensive objects in 
 the councils of the French Government, the 
 insufferable temper of its chiefs, the divisions 
 in the Directory between the Jacobins and the 
 party of Heaction, and at the same time the 
 divisions in the English Cabinet between Pitt, 
 who was for peace, and Grenville, who was 
 still for war, prolonged the bloodshed and the 
 
 r! 
 
 
 ,tl 
 
3o6 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 misery for eight years. At last, in 1801, peace, 
 and an ignominious peace, was inevitable. Pitt 
 lias bicn suspected of having slipped out of 
 office a^d put Addington in to eat the dirt, 
 meaning h'mself to leturn to power when the 
 dirt had been eaten. There seems to be no 
 gi'ound for the suspicion, though Pitt's con- 
 duct at this juncture is not easy to under- 
 stand. The ostensible cause of Pitt's retirement 
 was the King's refusal to allow him to redeem 
 the pledge which he had given to the CatJiolics 
 at the time of the Irish Union. Not only was 
 his honour involved, but it was of vital im- 
 portance to the nation, engaged in a desperate 
 struggle, that the estrangement of the Irish, 
 from whom a large proportion of our soldiers 
 were drawn, should be brought to an end. But 
 the King had a conscience. Pitt resigned, put- 
 ting in his friend and creature, Addington, 
 merely, as I am convinced, to keep his place for 
 him till the Catholic difficulty could be solved. 
 " Mr. Pitt," said Sir James Graham, speaking 
 of the Catholic Emancipation, "w^as prepared 
 to do the right thing at the right moment ; but 
 genius gave way to madness, and two genera- 
 tions have deplored the loss of an opportunity 
 
PITT. 
 
 307 
 
 which never will return." Genius gave way to 
 madness, but to madness practised upon by 
 genius of another kind. The chief performer 
 was Lord Loughborough, of whom when he 
 died His Majesty was pleased to say (having 
 first assured himself that the melancholy news 
 v/as true) "that a greater rogue was not 
 left in his dominions." Loughborough's coad- 
 jutor was Auckland, afterwards spurned as a 
 knavish intriguer both by Pitt and by the King. 
 Their instruments in tampering with the con- 
 science of the half-insane King were Moore, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, the odour of whose 
 nepotism has reached the nostrils even of our 
 generation, and the Primate of Ireland, who 
 was called in as a wolf to decide this question 
 of conscience as to the claims of the sheep. 
 There is scarcely a worse intrigue in history. 
 
 And now came a strange turn of affairs. 
 Scarcely was Pitt out and Addington in, when 
 Pitt sent the King a promise never to moot the 
 question of Catholic Emancipation again during 
 his life. Not only so, but he undertook, in case 
 any one else should moot the question, to find the 
 means of setting it aside. The reason alleged for 
 this strange sacrifice of a pledge and a principle, 
 
 X 2 
 
 
 't 
 
 V 
 
3o8 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 that the 
 
 of the Ki 
 
 ind 
 
 was tnat tne agitation 
 the subject had brought on a recurrence of his 
 iUnesa. If this was true, we may remark, in 
 the first place, that here is another warning to 
 nations in search of a constitution ; and, in the 
 second place, that if the state of the King's mind 
 was such that he could not consider a State ques- 
 tion of the most vital and pressing importance 
 without bringing on derangement, he was physi- 
 cally unfit for the duties of his office, and he 
 ought to have given place to a Regent. Lord 
 Stanhope urges the claim of His Majesty's con- 
 science to loyal forbearance, but perhaps he does 
 not sufficiently consider, on the other hand, the 
 claim of the nation to existence. The doctrine 
 that one man ought to die for the people has 
 been propounded, though not by auspicious lips ; 
 but no one has yet propounded the doctrine 
 that the people ought to die for one man. Not 
 only George III., but his highly conscientious 
 son and successor, had scruples about Catholic 
 Emancipation and the Coronation oath : and 
 George the Fourth's successor might have had 
 the same. This is not constitutional government. 
 What great measure of reform would ever have 
 been carried, if it had required the free personal 
 
 
PITT. 
 
 309 
 
 assent of the Sovereign and the majority of the 
 House of Lords % George III. was against the 
 abolition of the slave-trade. Were the horrors 
 of the middle passage to go on while he lived ? 
 But the fact is, his conscience was not a God- 
 made conscience, it was a bishop-made and chan- 
 cellor-made conscience ; and it had not the firm- 
 ness any more than the purity of the God -made. 
 It would have given w\ay under vigorous pres- 
 sure, as it always did. He had ordered his yacht 
 for Hanover more than once ; but he counter- 
 manded it when people were firm. 
 
 One thing, at all events, ought to have been 
 done. The secret intriguers against justice and 
 the safety of the nation ought to have been 
 dragged into the light of day, and made per- 
 sonally responsible for the advice which they had 
 given the King. But how could Pitt do this — 
 he who had allowed himself to be made Prime 
 Minister by the secret and equally infamous in- 
 trigue between the King and Temple \ The 
 fiend always claims his bond. 
 
 The situation, however, was now absurd. Pitt 
 was out, though by his abandonment of the 
 Catholic cause the sole ostensible ground of his 
 retirement had been removed : Addington was 
 
 •!i 
 
 "S 
 
 I 
 
310 
 
 THREE ENGLISH ST A TESMEN. 
 
 in, equally without reason. Of course Pitt's 
 friends wished at once to take out the warming- 
 pan and put back the man. But to do this was 
 now not easy. The warming-pan did not know 
 that it was a warming-pan. It had been told 
 by Pitt when he put it in that it was the man 
 of the crisis. It toor the flatterer at his word. 
 It grew settled and self-satisfied in place. The 
 King, who had revered the august Pitt, was 
 attracted with magnetic force to the comfortable 
 mediocrity of Addington. He addressed him in 
 the most affectionate terms — " The King cannot 
 find words sufficiently expressive of His Majesty's 
 cordial approbation of the whole arrangements 
 which his own Chancellor of the Exchequer has 
 wisely, and His Majesty chooses to add most 
 correctly recommended.'' Pitt aimself, though 
 clearly conscious of the disarrangement, was, for 
 a long time, forbearing : he had enough to rest 
 on : but his younger friends were more impa- 
 tient. Canning lampooned Addington, who had 
 a brother named Hiley, and a brother-in-law 
 named Bragge : — 
 
 " When the faltering periods lag, 
 
 When the House receives them drily, 
 Cheer, oh, cheer him, Brother Bragge, 
 Cheer, oh, cheer him, Brother Hiley." 
 
 to ^ 
 him 
 and 
 
PITT. 
 
 3»i 
 
 And again, when the Thames was being fortified 
 witli blockhouses : — 
 
 " If blocks cun from danger deliver, 
 
 Two i)laces are safe from the French, 
 The one is the mouth of the river. 
 The other the Treasury bench." 
 
 The same active and ingenious spirit proposed 
 to present to Addington a round-robin, telling 
 him how much everybody wished him to resign ; 
 and as there was a difficulty in getting the best 
 signatures. Canning suggested that the round- 
 robin should be sent in without signatures, and 
 that Addington should be told that he could 
 have the signatures if he liked. It was proposed 
 that Addington, as being Speaker was his spe- 
 cialty, should be made Speaker of the House of 
 Lords; they would have made him Speaker of 
 Elysium if that place had been vacant. For 
 three years all the world was out of joint, and 
 everybody was in perplexity. Mr. Wilberforce 
 wrote in his diary : " I am out of spirits, and 
 doubtful about the path of duty in these politi- 
 cal battles. I cannot help regretting that Ad- 
 dington's temperance and conciliation should not 
 be connected with more vigour." And then he 
 puts up a prayer to Heaven for guidance. Heaven, 
 
3<2 
 
 TllUKK KNaill^ll STATESMEN, 
 
 T s\ispoct, K*ft tlioso politiciaiiH protty innch to 
 tluMHst'lvrs. 
 
 At Inst iiocessity, wlucli will liiivt^ tho nuin 
 and not the warinino;-pan, came in the shjipe 
 of the renewal of the war with a (hm^in* of 
 invasion. A little snhterraiiean work was done 
 by the Lord (^liaiieellor Kldon, and Ad(lin(^ton 
 temul himself and his friends jj^ently lifted ont 
 of plaee, and Pitt (piietly installed in their 
 room, Eldon remaining Chancellor in the new 
 administration. Tjord Eldon'a conduct in this 
 matter, of wdiich many h;ird things liavc been 
 said, has been a good deal cleared by Lord 
 Stanhope. Addington, it appears, authorised 
 the Chancellor to open negotiations, and all 
 that can be said is, that he was not kept 
 inibrmed of their progress, and was by no 
 means graiitied at their result. Eldon thought 
 himself above the rules. He was the King's 
 own Chancellor, not a mere member of ephe- 
 meral a^^ministrations. Had not the King, when 
 the Chancellor was appointed, buttoned up 
 the great seal in the breast of his coat, and 
 taking it out said — " I give it you from my 
 heart T' However, after the light thrown upon 
 the transaction by Lord Stanhope, we are happy 
 
riTT. 
 
 3M 
 
 ^ 
 
 to acqui(»sco ill TFIh MMJfsty s intimation fo "liiH 
 cxcelltiTit L(>r(] ('lian(;(^llor," tli;it " tlic; Ufiri^^iit- 
 ncKH of Lord Eldon h mind, and Imh attac^limf^nt 
 to tlio Kinnr, Iiavo horncj Iiim with credit and 
 liononr, and (what the; Kin<^ knowH will not 
 1)0 witliont its (hie wcMf^lit) with th(; ;ij>pro})a- 
 tion of his Sovereign, throng!) an un[)l(!JiHMrit 
 hi])yrintli." Tlie last two words at nil evcntH 
 arc true. 
 
 Pitt came in to conduct a war, and tliis 
 time a necesHjiry war ; for I nm convinced 
 tliat with the perfidy and rnpine of T^onnpnrte 
 no peace coidd be made, that tlio struggle 
 with liim was a struggle for the independence' 
 of all nations against the armed and disci- 
 plined hordes of a conqueror as cruel and as 
 barbarous as Attila. Tlie outward mask of 
 civilisation Bonaparte wore, and he could use 
 political and social ideas for the purposes of 
 bis ambition as dexterously as cannon ; but 
 in character he was a Corsican and as savage 
 as any bandit of his isle. If utter selfishness, 
 if the reckless sacrifice of humanity to your 
 own interest and passions be vileness, history 
 has no viler name. I can look with pride 
 upon the fortitude and constancy which England 
 
 i I 
 
 is 
 
 ■i : 
 
 % 
 
 'X 
 
3'4 
 
 THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN. 
 
 displayed in the contest with the universal 
 tyrant. The position in which it left her at 
 its close was fairly won : though she must 
 now be content to retire from this temporary 
 supremacy, and fall back into her place as 
 one of the community of nations. But Pitt 
 was still destined to fail as a war minister ; 
 and Trafalgar was soon cancelled by Austerlitz. 
 "How I leave my country!" Such, it seems, 
 is the correct version of Pittas last words. 
 Those words are perhaps his truest epitaph. 
 They express the anguish of a patriot who 
 had wrecked his country. 
 

 APPENDIX 
 
 I I 
 
THl 
 
 Ti 
 
 hold( 
 
 of H 
 
 in tl 
 
 at t] 
 
 high 
 
 as t 
 
 ofth 
 
 (iv. 
 
 gent] 
 
 Bucl 
 
 (as 
 
 ridin 
 
 Prot 
 
 says 
 were 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE ANCIENT FREEHOLDERS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 I 
 
 The number of the Buckinghamshire free- 
 holders who brought up the Petition in favour 
 of Hampden, and to whom reference is made 
 in the lecture on Pym, was variously estimated 
 at the time ; by themselves it was placed as 
 high as six thousand, by their enemies as low 
 as two thousand. (See Mr. Forster's "Arrest 
 of the Five Members," p. 353, note.) Rush worth 
 (iv. p. 487) says: — "This day divers knights, 
 gentlemen, and freeholders of the County of 
 Bucks, to the number of about four thousand 
 (as they were computed), came to London, 
 riding every one with a printed copy of the 
 Protestation lately taken in his hat." Clarendon 
 says : — " As soon as the citizens and mariners 
 were discharged, some Buckinghamsliire men. 
 
 U I 
 
 
3'8 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 who were said to be at the door with a 
 petition, and had, indeed, waited upon the 
 triumph -Cvith a train of several thousand men, 
 were called in ; who delivered their petition 
 in the name of the inhabitants of the County 
 of Buckingham, and said it was brought to 
 the town by about six thousand men " 
 
 In " Whitelocke's Memorials" (vol. iv. p. 272) 
 there is an entry respecting the writer's election 
 as a knight of the shire for Buckingham, which 
 throws some light on the number of the free- 
 holders. "At the election of the knights of 
 the shire for Bucks, my friendd marched into 
 Bucks one thousand horse, and were in the 
 field above three thousand, so that I was 
 first and unanimously elected, and with me 
 Colonel Ingoldsby, Sir Bichard Piggott, Mr. 
 Hambden (the son of the great man), and 
 Mr. Granville." This was under Cromwell's 
 Beform Act, embodied in the Instrument of 
 Government, which gave votes for counties not 
 only to freeholders, but to all persons holding 
 property, by whatever tenure, to the value of 
 £200 ; so that probably many leaseholders and 
 copyholders took part in the election. On the 
 other hand, those who had fo."'ght for the 
 
 Kini 
 
 were] 
 
 state 
 
 quari 
 
 pend| 
 
 who 
 
 to V 
 
 was 
 
 wive 
 
 to si 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 3'9 
 
 King since the commencement of the troubles 
 were disabled from voting ; and in the divided 
 state of the other party, consequent on the 
 quarrel between the Presbyterians and Inde- 
 pendents, it is not likely that all the electors 
 who remained qualified would come forward 
 to vote for a man connected as Wliitelocke 
 was with the Protector. Not a few of the 
 wives of the freeholders who rode up to London 
 to support Hampden must have been widows. 
 Whitelocke's words seem to imply that the 
 other candidates had their special cavalcades 
 of adherents as well as himself, though they 
 may have been less numerous than his own. 
 We may feel pretty sure, from the habits of 
 life prevalent at that time, that the bulk of 
 these electors were really Buckinghamshire men 
 resident on the holdings which formed their 
 electoral qualifications. 
 
 Whitelocke gives this account of the Ironsides : 
 — " Cromwell nad a brave regiment of horse 
 of his countrymen, most of them freeholders 
 and freeholder's sons, and who upon matter 
 of conscience engaged in this quarrel. And 
 thus being well armed within by the satisfac- 
 tion of their own consciences, and without by 
 
 tj.'; 
 
 i?! 
 
320 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 good iron arms, they would as one man stand 
 firmly and fight desperately." 
 
 M. Guizot, in his " History of the English 
 Revolution," notices the subdivision of land and 
 the increase of the different classes of resident 
 proprietors as characteristic of the period of 
 Charles I., ascribing them, in part, to the break- 
 ing up of the great Church estates, which had 
 been granted to courtiers, by whose prodigality 
 they were dispersed, and to the sale of Crown 
 lands enforced bv the fiscal necessities of the 
 Crown. 
 
 There seems to be no doubt that in the 
 seventeenth century, and even at a later period, 
 England contained a much larger number chan 
 at present of yeomen freeholders subsisting by 
 the cultivation of their own land. The cha- 
 racter of these men appears to be very distinctly 
 marked upon the history of our revolution. 
 They are the heart and the sinews of the 
 Puritan cause. In ordinary times they accept 
 the leadership of the higher gentry, as the lists 
 of Parliament show : but they have independent 
 opinions of their own : it is upon matter of con- 
 science that they engage in the quarrel ; and 
 when the aristocracy desert the cause they 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 3^1 
 
 stand firm to it, adhere to a leader of their own 
 class, and bear him on to victory. An inde- 
 pendent yeomanry has left a similar mark in 
 the history of other countries, where that class 
 has borne the brunt of patriotic or religious 
 struggles, and most recently and signally in 
 the history of the United States, where the 
 yeomen, especially those of the west, were, 
 throughout the late struggle with the slave- 
 owners, the unshaken pillars of the Republic. 
 The farmer, though less active-minded, of 
 course, than the trader or the artizan, is, as 
 a general rule, more meditative, has more 
 depth of character, and, when a principle comes 
 home to him, grasps it more firmly. 13 ut to 
 make his spirit independent, he should be the 
 owner of his own land. 
 
 The remnant of these yeomen still lingers, 
 under the name of " statesmen," in Cumberland 
 and Westmoreland, where they formed, in the 
 language of Wordsworth, " a perfect republic of 
 shepherds and agriculturists, proprietors for the 
 most part of the land which they occupied and 
 cultivated." But from the rest of England they 
 have either altogether disappeared, or are very 
 rapidly disappearing. Such, at least, is the 
 
 Y 
 
 
 II 
 
 ! 1 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 conviction of all whom I have been able to 
 consult, whether general economists or persons 
 of local knowledge and experience. We have, 
 unfortunately, no published statistics, of a 
 trustworthy kind, as to the proprietorship 
 of land, and the changes which it has been 
 undergoing. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli, indeed, in the speech in which 
 he attacked the passage in the text, boasted 
 that there were still four thousand freeholders 
 upon the electoral register of Bucks, and he 
 implied that these were freeholders of the old 
 yeoman class, part of " the backbone of the 
 country.^' There are not only four thousand 
 freeholders on the register, but four thousand 
 five hundred, the number having recently in- 
 creased. But an inspection of the register at 
 once indicates, and local inquiry decisively con- 
 firms the indication, that, for the most part, 
 these are not freeholders of the old yeoman 
 kind. Of the 4,500, 2,100 only are at once 
 occupiers and owners ; and of the holdings of 
 these 2,100, more than half are at an estimated 
 rental of less than £14. The holdings of a 
 large proportion are in towns, as Mr. Disraeli 
 iiimself is always complaining, and belong to 
 
APPEXDTX. 
 
 J 2 -■» 
 
 a class of electoral nuisance which he is always 
 scheming to clear aw^ay from the fair face of the 
 rural creation. The descrii)tions of the pro- 
 perties in the electoral register are not precise, 
 but when inspected, and compared with the 
 electors' phices of abode, it will be found that 
 they are seldom suggestive of a freehold farm 
 cultivated by a resident owner.* 
 
 * In speaking of this question at Guildford, I took as ii 
 specimen the electoral register of the parish of Chalfont 
 St. Giles, Bucks, not because I had or pretended to have any 
 local information as to that parish, but as I stated at the 
 time, because it happened to be the first rural parish in the 
 register of the county. T believe I gave the analysis cor- 
 rectly- But there appears to be some discrepancy, not only 
 between the electoral register and the actual list of land- 
 holders in the parish, some of whom are females, or register 
 their votes in other parishes, but between the impressions of 
 local informants as to the character of some of the holdings 
 and their occupants. The Rector, who challenged my state- 
 ment in. a published letter, makes lo, and according to a list 
 with which he has since favoured me, even 13 '• homesi ids,'" 
 while another informant think Sl that the designation of 
 " yeomaji subsisting by the cultivation of his own land" can 
 be properly applied only to two holders, whose farms tog..- 
 ther comprise but 82 acres out of a total acreage of 3,550. 
 The last-mentioned informant also states, and is sup- 
 ported by other persons acquainted with the district in the 
 statement, that the class of freeholders which existed in 
 Hampden's days is quietly disappearing from that part 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Tlie change is due, no clonLt, mainly to 
 economical causes independent of legislation. 
 Wealth has of late years accum\dated to an 
 immense extent in commercial hands, and the 
 
 of the country. It is useless, however, to carry on a 
 discussion res])ecting a single disimted instance, when 
 the general fact is undisputed. I only wish to remark 
 that my assertions were not "random:" they were an 
 account of a document before me, to which Mr. Disraeli 
 had appealed. 
 
 In the same speech (or, as I should rather call it, epilogue 
 to my lecture) I alluded, in passing, to the connection of 
 Milton with Chalfont St. Giles. My words I believe were, 
 "There Milton found a refuge, at the time when Mr. Dis- 
 raeli's party was in the ascendant." This seems to have been 
 turned, in an abridged rei)oii;, into " Thither Milton fled 
 from the Tory mercies of the Kestoration." The Rector 
 thereupon reminded me with some asperity that Milton had 
 left London to avoid the plague, and that he was secured 
 against personal danger by the Act of Indemnity. Milton 
 left London to avoid the plague ; but he came to Chalfont, 
 I ai^prehend, because in that district the Hampden and 
 Cromwell connection was very strong, and he would there 
 be safe from annoyances against which no Act of Indemnity 
 could secure him. (See Murray's Handbook for Bucks, 
 under Amersham.) My real words imported no more. 
 Milton, however, did not feel himself quite so safe as the 
 Rector of Chalfont thinks. 
 
 •* On evil days though fallen and evil tongues ; 
 In darkness, and wHh dangers compassed round 
 And solitude." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 325 
 
 first ambition of its possessors generally is to 
 invest it in land. Prices are thus offered for 
 land which the smaller holders cannot resist. 
 The high prices of the French war led land- 
 owners into extravagjmce which, when peace 
 and the fall of prices arrived, probably com- 
 pelled the sale of many a yeoman's or small 
 gentleman's estate. The habits of the farmer 
 class generally, and of their families, have be- 
 come more luxurious and expensive, and the 
 [iroduce of a small holding has not sufficed for 
 their desires. M<jney has also been borrowed 
 for improvements, and the land has gone in the 
 end to pay the debt. The running out of the 
 leases on the Church and College estates has 
 converted a considerable number of holdings 
 which were practically almost freeholds into 
 tenancies at will. 
 
 It seems impossible, however, that entails, 
 or to speak more accurately family settlements, 
 and the law of primogeniture in succession to 
 intestates, which though seldom operative itself, 
 leads the custom, should not greatly contribute 
 to prevent the subdivision of land. Cases have 
 been mentioned to me in which a subdivision 
 has evidently followed upon the disentailment 
 
326 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 of a great estate, among others that of the 
 great Buckingham estate, the disentail ment 
 of which, as I am informed, has brought into 
 existence a considerable number of smaller 
 proprietors.* 
 
 I shall not attempt here to enter into the 
 economical part of the question. All the ordi- 
 nary laws of human nature must be reversed 
 with regard to this subject, if security of tenure 
 is not conducive to the progress of agriculture, 
 provided that the holder has wherewithal to 
 improve the land. It can scarcely be thought 
 possible that land, if it continues to bear 
 anything like its present price, can pass to any 
 considerable extent into the hands of peasant 
 proprietors : but if thrown into a free market, 
 it might pass to some extent into the hands of 
 smaller holders subsisting by agriculture, and 
 from whom active and successful farming might 
 be expected. 
 
 * I liave been uiulerstood as saying i\mi Jiva hundred tVce- 
 lu)l(lers Iiave been called into existence by the breaking np of 
 the Bnckingbain estates. But this is a mistake. What J 
 said was, that five hundred had been added to the number of 
 the Buckinghamshire freeholders on the electoral registei-, 
 and that the recent increase, as I was informed, was partly 
 caused by the breaking up of the Buckingluun estate. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 327 
 
 In a political point of view, the country has 
 reason to lament the loss of a worthy and in- 
 dependent class of citizens. The most indepen- 
 dent class now are the skilled artisans ; but the 
 skilled artisans, with all their intelligence, 
 have not the political any more than they have 
 the physical robustness of the yeoman : and 
 moreover they are not, like the yeomen, a mili- 
 tary power. 
 
 In a social point of view the absence of so 
 many of the great proprietors from their estates, 
 either wholly or during the London season, and 
 the immense interval between them and the 
 mass of the labouring population, are great 
 drawbacks from the civilising influence which 
 they are supposed to exercise. It is open to 
 inquiry, at all events, whether a body of 
 proprietors, tolerably educated, always resident 
 and always in immediate contact with the 
 labourer, might not be a beneficial supplement 
 to the squire and the tenant-farmer, the squire 
 pressing the tenant, the tenant pressing those 
 beneath him. 
 
 Let artificial restrictions, such as the unna- 
 tural privilege of tying up land to ]:ersons not 
 in being, be removed ; let land be brought 
 
Ji * * "" 
 
 328 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 freely into the market : and all inducements 
 and influences will, in the course of nature, have 
 their just weight and find their proper level. 
 Such, in every point of view, is the dictate 
 of the general good, whatever the desire of 
 maintaining a territorial aristocracy for poli- 
 tical purposes may have to say upon the other 
 side. 
 
 n 
 
sements 
 •e, have 
 r level, 
 dictate 
 >sire of 
 or poli- 
 tie other 
 
 
 1 
 #