, ^ .^ ^^^^^.^ . V..,-. v> : ^^y " .. „„■„ , ^-^-^ ' .^^. vTTT^ ^A?vS ■^. '.^Wl^Jlts^^^ '^ ^^' ■,^*^*¥?Sl$ ■<^ /<^ ^ :^.«j^^< Wl >"] ^rNt^N?^^^^^r>t^'ts ^ Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031427499 Cornell University Library 3 1924 031 427 499 olin.anx HISTOEY OF ENGLAND DDRING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE THE THIED. VOLUME I. HISTORY OF ENGLAND DTIKINO THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE THE THIED. JOHN GEORGE PHILLIMOKB. " Usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam Content, et pHlcliros fasces, sEevaaque seuui'ea Proculcare, et ludibrio sibi habere videtur." — LuCEETius, "L'acerbo vero."— Leopaedi. VOLUME I. LONDON: VIRTUE BROTHERS & CO., 1, AMEN COENER, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1863. hi [T!ie right of Ti-anslation is re;e7-iecl.] CORn^ELL^ UNlVEFfSfTY LIBRARY^ PREFACE. Therk are several remarks in the following pages which make me desirous to state the opinions from which they proceed, and the motives from which they have been written. Truth has been my search. That it has been a successful one I do not presume to assert ; but at least I have endeavoured to prevent any hope or fear of a personal nature^ from having the slightest influence upon my language. I may be blamed, perhaps, for having chosen as the sub- ject of my narrative the events of a period so near our own ; that is a charge against which I offer no defence ; but having chosen it, was I to be guilty (as, if I had suppressed, or obscured, or varied what T believed to be true, I must have been) of a violation of candour and integrity ? There may be reasons why history should not be written at all ; there can be none why it should be written untruly. " In all other offices of life," says Polybius, " I praise a lover of his friends and of his country ; but in writing history I am obliged to divest myself of all other obligations, and to sacrifice them all to the * 1 shall be well content if the words of Statius to Vh'gil, in the FurgaiOrio, are applicable to me :— " Facesti, come quei che va di notte Che porta il luine dietro, fe a se non giovi Ma dopo sfe fa le persone dotte." VI PEEFACE. love of truth." Had I been a Gruelph, ought I to have denied the genius of Dante ? Had I been a Ghibeline, must I have disputed the capacity of Innocent the Third ? Far from me and mine be such pitiful littleness. As, if I had been a Frenchman, I should not have thought it my duty to deny that Henry the Sixth was crowned in Paris ; neither, being an Englishman, do I think myself called upon to defend our government of Ireland, the means by which our Indian empire was acquired, or the manner in which till within these few years it has been administered. Would any court chaplain venture to say, except in a funeral sermon, that George the First and George the Second were faithful husbands and affec- tionate parents, pure in their lives, elevated in their views, and careful of the welfare of England in preference to that of Hanover ? — that the mind of George the Third was refined and liberal ? — that he dealt fairly with Mr. Grenville and Lord Rock- ingham ? — that his children were well brought up ? — that his mother was spotless, and his wife witty, beautiful, and generous ? — that Lord Bute was not a minion raised by court favour to a post where his ignorance, mean understanding, and disregard of English honour, became national calamities ? " Nunc et Myrmidonum proceres Phrygia arma tremiscant, Nmic et Tydides et Larissaeus Achilles, Amnis et Hadriacas retro fugit Aufidus undas." ' ' " Say, that at Hector's feet Achilles lies, And Dionied from fierce ^neas flies ; Say, rapid Aufidus, with awful dread Runs backward from the sea and hides his head." — Duyden. PREFACE. Vn To condemn me for saying the reverse of this, is to say that Englishmen ought not to write or read the history of their country. Even the Egyptians, how- ever, were allowed to censure their monarchs after their death. " Take care," said the greatest of Eng- lish rulers to Sir Peter Lely, " that you draw my face as it is, with all its wens and wrinkles." And shall the citizen of a free state — who undertakes, not to delineate the features of an individual, but (following at an immeasurable distance, and with feeble steps to be sure, yet still following, in the path trodden by him who prophetically said his history was for all time) to hold up to others a glass from which the thoughts and passions, the virtues and the vices, the good and evil deeds, the spirit and character, of past generations are reflected, as a lesson to posterity — shrink from assuming the same liberty in behalf of truth ? Surely not. Fully convinced that our balanced con- stitution — that is, a limited monarch, an hereditary peerage, and a fairly chosen House of Commons — is better adapted to us, and more likely to promote the good of the commonwealth, than any other form of government, I have not abstained from expressing my admiration for republican energy, or from point- ing out the particular evils to which our monarchy, however limited, is inevitably exposed, from the habits of courts, the intrigues of courtiers, the ser- vility of peers,^ and, above all, from the corruption 1 " Our birthday nobles' splendid livery." " Would to God," says Mr. Burke, " the common fault of our peers was tou umoh spirit.' via PREFACE. of those who elect and those who are elected to the House of Commons. " Nam varize illudunt pestes." They require incessant vigilance. Grossly and most stupidly do we flatter ourselves, if we suppose our age is free from them ; for, whatever we may imagine, the complete triumph of mediocrity, and almost total extinction of taste and genius, are no security against time-servers and hypocrites. Great im- provements in machinery, enormous shops, and the most intense study of entomology, are quite con- sistent with the decay of all public spirit, and entire apathy to the motives that animated the men who gave England her rank among the nations ; nor will incessant and boisterous panegyrics on ourselves, and on the worst and coarsest parts of the national character, which are as disgusting to men of refine- ment as they are captivating to the herd of readers, avert any one calamity Ave have to apprehend, or remedy one single evil under which we suffer. "We may do well to recollect the passage in which Plu- tarch describes the Athenian pilots — "They gave great names to their ships — they called them Minerva, Neptune, Apollo— but they were cast away like other men." ISIor, if those instructed with the education of youth among us (I am making, I know, an extra- vagant supposition) were more ignorant of the art of writing than they are, and have been, with few ex- ceptions indeed, for the last forty years, would that, in my opinion, at all justify such a tone of exultation, or in any way improve the future prospects of the PREFACE. IX country. " I have lost all the blood in ray body," says Dr. Sangrado's dying patient, " and yet do not feel the better for it." If, instead of giving up their time to read, and servilely to repeat, what the Gernlans have written about the classics, they studied the classics themselves — if they read Livy instead of Niebuhr, and Demosthenes instead of Boeckh— if, instead of cram- ming their pupils for examinations, bringing every mind to the same dead, tutor's level, and so in nine cases out of ten stunting the intellectual growth of the unhappy boys for ever, they taught them to read Homer, and Virgil, and Cicero, and Euripides, as they were read by Milton and Dryden, by Addison and Barrow, and Atterbury and Fox— England might hope to shake off the sleepy drench which, where gain or physical exertion are not concerned, has so long benumbed her faculties. Then, instead of the authors of Tract Ninety, and the History of the British Beetle, and biographies of Fox-hunters and Railway Contractors, men might arise in England who would recall the days when the Tale of a Tub, and the Vision of Mirza, and the Idea of a Patriot King, delighted the readers of Milton, and Dryden, and Shakespeare, and added splendour to a litera- ture already glorious. Yielding to no one in loyal and dutiful attachment to her Majesty^ — an attachment founded, not upon the servile notions which her family was placed upon the throne of England expressly to destroy, but on the 1 " Je regarde ros rois d'line affeetion simplement legitime et civile iii esmuo ni desmue par interest privd de quoy je me scaia bon gii." — Montaigne, liv. iii. c. 1. X PEEFACE. solid ground of gratitude for the happiness which my country has enjoyed under her mild and consti- tutional rule — I have not hesitated to point out the crimes and errors of her kindred. To have done otherwise would have been adulation and a breach of trust. This, however, let me say — and I trust that my motive in saying it will not be misinterpreted — that my task has been made more grateful by the reflection that the censure I have pronounced on others is an eulogy on her, and that in condemning license, duplicity, and an exorbitant love of power, I have written an honest panegyric on " the king- becoming graces," the purity, the love of truth, and the strict regard to the constitution, which all my contemporaries know to be the characteristic qualities of Queen Victoria. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. PEELIMINAEY VIEW. PAGE Party Bias of Historians of the Reign of George tlie Third . . 3 Genius and Condition of the People 5 History of the Constitution 10 Magna Charta 15 Parliamentary B^presentation 18 Aristocracy 10 House of Commons 21 Revolution of 1688 26 EngKsh Church . . • . . 27 Prelates 28 Hampton Court Conferences 30 Clergy 35 Rise and Progress of Methodism 38 Condition of the Lower Orders 4:0 Disputes between the Upper and Lower Houses of Convocation . 41 Social State of the Country 42 Crimes and Punishments 50 East India Company 61 English Language ... 62 English Law, Blemishes of 65 Poor Laws, History of 73 Settlement, Law of 88 Multiphcation of Oaths 94 xn CONTENTS. Slave Trade and Slavery . Condition of Private Madhouses Material Prosperity, Increased National Debt English Poets Literature .... Tragedy, and Dramatic Writers PAGE 94 103 104 106 108 109 123 CHAPTER II. HISTOHICAL HEVIEW OF THE REIGNS OP GEORGE THE FIRST AND GEORGE THE SECOND, Eoyal Power and Government 126 Parliamentary Corraption 127 Whig Party ... ... . 129 Design to restore the Pretender on the Death of Queen Anne . 130 Kebellion of 1715 ... .... 132 South Sea Scheme .... ... ,. 137 Antipathy of George the First for his Son . 139 Impeachment of Lord Macclesfield 140 Law of Habeas Corpus ... 144. Character of the State Trials of the Period . 149 Employment of the English Language in Legal Proceedings . 150 Judges .... 150 Liberty of the Press 153 Walpole AdmiiTistration ... ... 153 Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester 154 Partial Pardon of Bolingbroke . . • . 156 Pdteney 157 Scheme for marrying the Daughter of the Countess of Platen to the Count of St. Plorentin 158 Revival of the Order of the Bath .... . 160 Treaty with Denmark in 1715 . 161 Proposed Invasion of England .... . 162 Treaty of Hanover . 164 Debate on the Treaty . 167 Naval Expeditions ... ... . 168 Death of George the Eirst . 169 Accession of George the Second .... . 169 Destruction of his Father's Will .... . 170 CONTENTS. Xlll Displeasure of George the Second with Walpole Queen Caroline ... Character of the King . Treaty of Seville in 1729 Quarrel between Townshend and Walpole Lord Harrmgton ..... Duke of Newcastle, Character of . Excise Scheme in 1734 . Dismissals and Appointments . Debate on the Repeal of the Septennial Act Victory at Dettingen in 174^3 . Naval Affairs t . . . . Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle . Hesignation of Walpole . Broad-Bottom Administration Death of the Prince of Wales . House of Commons Intrigues of the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Hardwicke against Walpole William Pitt Henry Pox Wilhara Murray .... Secret Service Money Bribery Prederiok the Great. HostiUties with Prance . Admiral Byng shot .... Resignation of the Ministry Pormation of a New Administration under the Duke of Devonshire State of Affairs on the Accession of Pitt to Office PAGE 170 171 172 173 174 174 174 175 176 177 180 181 183 186 192 192 194 198 199 202 203 206 207 209 210 212 213 213 215 CHAPTER III. IRELAND. Barrier between the Celt and the Anglo-Norman . , . .221 Incapacity of the English for the Government of other Races . . 222 Poyning's Law 224 Tyranny of Lord Grey 225 Sir Arthur Chichester 226 Tyrone and Tyrconnel, Phght of 226 xiv CONTENTS. PAGE Gonflscations 227 Falkland's System of Lenity 227 Oppressions by Lord Strafford 227 MshEebeffion 228 PoKcy of CromweU 239 Protestant Ascendancy under William the Third .... 230 Molyneux's Pamphlet claiming Legislative Independence for Ireland 233 Opposition of the ParKament to the English Goyernment . . . 234 Archbishop Boulter. — Manner in wliich the Government of Ireland was carried on in the Reigns of George the First and George the Second 235 Woollen Manufactures 243 Appeals from Irish Courts of Justice to the English House of Lords 243 CathoKcs deprived of Elective Franchise 243 Lord Chesterfield's Administration ....... 244 Surplus in the Treasury 247 Archbishop Stone 248 Neville expelled the House of Commons -. 249 Appointments and Pensions 251 State of Ireland on the Accession of George the Third . . . 255 Appbkdix to Book I. — Nobles 256 Law 256 Parties 258 Slave Trade. — Description of a Slave Ship .... 259 Manners 259 State of the Country 260 Cross of Gold and Cross of Wood 261 Excommunication 262 Intrigue of Sunderland and Stanliope 263 Labourers 262 Poor 262 War of 1739 263 Henry Smith 263 CONTENTS. BOOK 11. CHAPTER I. EEIGN OF GBOKGE THE THIUD. PAGE Affairs on the Accession of George the Third .... 267 Characters presented by the History of England during the Reign . 272 Absolutism of the,King 273 His Hostility to Aristocracy 277 The Princess Dowager and Lord Bute 279 Homage of aU Parties to the King 281 Lord George SackviUe 285 Lord Bute put into the Cabinet . " 285 Terms of the Speech 286 Tenure of Office by Judges 288 Supply 288 Dismissal of Mr. Legge 289 Minorca 291 Kesignation of Mr. Pitt 292 Transactions with Spain and France 293 Marriage of the King 300 Princess Charlotte 300 Meeting of Parhament 301 Sir John Cust elected Speaker 301 Speech of Mr. Pitt 302 Interview with the King . 304 Pitt accepts Pension and Title 305 Lord Bute becomes Tirst Minister ■ . 307 Mr. Grenvihe 308 Charles Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool 309 CHAPTER 11. Altered tone of the Spanish Court on the Change of Ministers . 311 Declaration of War 311 Erederick the Great 312 Peter the Third of Russia 314 CONTENTS. PAGE Change in Russian Policy . . 315 Murder of Peter the Third 315 Czarina Elizabeth .... 315 State of Parties in England .... . . 316 Lord Bute takes vacant Garter .... . . 318 The North Briton .... 320 Portugal . . . .... 323 Capture of the Havaimah . ... 324 Preliminaries of Peace with Prance ... . 327 Humiliating Terms ...... . 330 Count Vii-i .... ... . 331 Lord Bate's Ignorance of Eoreign Affairs . . . 331 He endeavours to secure the Support of Parliament . . . 333 Mr. Fox . . . . .... 335 Debate on the Preliminaries of Peace . . ... 338 Speech of Mr. Pitt ... ... . . 339 Vote in Pavour of Peace . 342 Financial Measures of Lord Bute 344 Division of Peers against Money Bill . . . . 346 Mr. Eox created Lord Holland .... .348 Appendix to Chapteb, II. — Comparison between the Peace of Utrecht and the Peace of Paris 350 Peace 356 Wealth of Bishops 356 Correspondence with Mr. Legge on the Hampshire Election . 357 Bute's Adherents — Provision ... . . 359 CHAPTER III. Mr. Grenville succeeds to Lord Bute Mr. Wilkes North Briton, No. 45, Publication of General Warrants and Seizui-e of Papers Proceedings against Mr. Wilkes Duel between Mr. Wilkes and Martia Question of Privilege Speech of Mr. Pitt .... " Essay on Woman "... Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester . 361 363 363 365 366 370 370 370 375 376 CONTENTS. xvii PAOE Expulsion of Mr. Wilkes from tlie House of Commons . . .378 Speech of Pitt on General Warrants 381 Case of General Conway 384 Position of Mr. Wilkes 385 CHAPTER IV. Proceedings of George the Third for the Overthrow of Grenville . 387 Negociations with Mr. Pitt 389 • failure of 395 Stipulations of the'old Ministry . . ' 395 Disputes as to Patronage . . 396 Royal Marriages 397 Peace of 1763 399 Colonial Possessions 399 America 401 Smuggling 403 Stamp Duties 406 Eesolutions of the House of Commons regulatmg the Trade of America 407 Eifeot of these Measures in America 408 Mr. Burke's Speech on American Taxation 411 Canada 420 Prencli Policy 421 English Policy 423 Lord Mansfield on the Principles of Colonial Law .... 425 CHAPTER V. Conduct of the King towards Ids Ministers 427 Subordinate Officers 427 Mr. Mackenzie, Lord Bute's Brother 428 Advance of the Power of the Crown 429 Secret Influence of Lord Bute 431 lOness of the King 431 Regency Question 432 Negociations for a new Ministry 439 Distress of Journeymen Silk Weavers 439 Riots . . 440 b xviii CONTENTS. PAGE Negociations with Mr. Pitt 440 Terms of Pitt 441 Reconciliation between Mr. GrenviUe and Lord Temple . . . 442 Refusal of Pitt to assist in the Construction of a new Government . 442 Triple Negociations of George the Third 443 Conditions insisted on by the old Ministers ..... 443 Another Attempt to obtain the Services of Mr. Pitt . . . 445 Rockingham Admiuistration 445 stipulations of . . . .... 446 Character of Lord Rockingham 446 Duke of Cumberland — Lis Support of the Ministry .... 448 CHAPTER VL INDIA. Condition of the Inhabitants during the Early History of the Species 449 Ancient Civilisation of 450 Early Splendour 453 Means by which our Empire in the East was founded . . .454 Neglect of Pubhe Works 457 Decline of the Empire after the Death of Aiirungzebe . . .459 EstabUshment of several Thrones on the Ruins of the Ancient Dynasty 460 The Deccan 463 Mysore 464 Mahratta Empire 465 Character of the Instructions to English Agents in 1689 . . . 466 Acquisitions of the East India Company 467 French East India Company 468 La Bourdonnais, Dupleix., and Bussy 469 Chve, Character of 469 Hostihties with the Prench 473 Perfidy of the EngKsh to the Prince of Tanjore .... 473 Successes of the Prench . . , 475 arrested by the Genius of CKve 477 Successful Defence of Arcot 479 Siege of Tritchinopoly 479 4g]^ Capitulation of Erench Troops 4S0 Disputes among the Allies of the English 480 Treaty with the Erench 48]^ Aggressions by the English, and War with Erance .... 482 Chve, Return of, to India, in 1755 485 CONTENTS. xix CHAPTER VII INDIA. PAGE The VaUey of the Ganges 486 Bengal 486 Oppression of the Natives . . 489 Salt Tax 491 Disputes in Orissa and Bengal 492 Capture of Calcutta by Surajah Dowlah 494 Tragedy of the Bl^ck Hole 494 Beeapture of Calcutta by the English 496 Negociations — Services of Omichund 497 Treaty with, aud Concessions by, Surajah 497 Schemes of Clive for the Capture of the French City of Chanderna- gore 498 Fraud perpetrated on Omichund 502 Parallel between the Characters of Clive and Jagurtha . . . 503 dive's Share of the Rapine 605 Operations against the French in the North of the Carnatic . . 505 Danger to the English Power in Bengal in 1758 .... 505 Attack on a Dutch Armament in the Hoogly 507 Olive's second Return to England 508 Claims of the Emperor on Bengal renewed 508 Deposition of Meer Jaffler . . ; 509 Meer Cossim .... 610 defeats the Emperor at Gyah 510 Law, the French Commander, taken prisoner 510 Resentment of Meer Cossim to the English 511 Abuses of the Exoneration of the Enghsh from Transit Duties . 512 Remonstrances of Meer Cossim 613 He abolishes the Duties 615 Resolutions of the Council 515 "War with the Nabob 617 Victories of the English 517 Meer Jaffier restored to the Government of Bengal .... 518 Conditions of his Restoration 519 Transit Duties reimposed 519 Death of Jaffier 520 Dominion of Nizam Ul Dowlah 520 Lord Clive appointed President of Bengal, &c 521 XX CONTENTS. PAGE Lord Clive returns to India 521 His Investments in East India Stock 522 Appropriation of tlie Revenues of Bengal to tlie Company . . 523 Sums of Money distributed among Servants of tlie Company by Mohammed Reza Khan 523 "Words of Clive on the general Corruption 524 Peace with Sujah Ul Dowlah, and Restoration of Lis Territories . 525 His Refusal to permit the English to trade Duty Free, or to build Eactories in his Dominions 526 Negociations of Clive with the Emperor 526 Surrender of Tribute and Jaghires by the Emperor . . . 526 He confirms the Company in their Possessions .... 527 Appendix to Chapters VI. ash VII. — Notes to explain the Government of Bengal from 1760 to 1765 529 Report of Committee. — Sums given to the English as the Price of their Assistance to Meer Jaffier, and of his Depo- sition in favour of Cossim 531 CHAPTEE VIII. Difficulties of the Rockingham Administration 534 Discontent in America 534 Speech from the Throne, and Amendments to the Address . . 534 Speech of Pitt 535 Taxation of the Colonies 538 Non-Representation of the Colonies 539 Speech of Mr. GrenviUe 54,0 Pitt's Reply 54]^ American Possessions 543 East India Company 543 American Stamp Act 544 Reply of General Conway — Secret Influence 548 Examination of Dr. Franklin before the House of Commons . .549 Questions ending his Examination 553 Debate in the Lords 652 Speech of Lord Camden 552 Lord Mansfield's Speech 553 BiU to ascertain the Power of the Legislature of Great Britain over her Colonies : 554 CONTENTS. Bill for the Repeal of the Stamp Act 55^! Popular Enthusiasm 555 Grenville received with Execration . . . . . .555 Stamp A ot receives the Royal Assent 555 Eifect of these Measures 555 Declaratory Act 556 Endeavours of the King to undermine his Ministers . . . .557 Remonstrances of Lord Rockingham 557 Jeremiah Dyson, an Agent of the King, forced upon Rockingham . 558 Valuable Public Measures passed before the Overthrow of the Ministry 559 Conduct of Lord Northingtou . 559 Negociatious with Pitt reopened 560 Nocturnal Visits of Lord Bute to the Princess Dowager . . . 561 Popularity of Mr. Pitt 561 He leaves the House of Commons 563 He is made a Peer 563 Results of the Kmgcraft of George the Third 565 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND DUKINQ THE EEIGN OF GlEOEGE THE THIEI). BOOK I. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY VIEW. It seems to be a law of nature, that as materials increase, the power of turning them to account diminishes. As we advance in life, experience teaches us the means of avoiding the errors into which at an earlier period we have been betrayed ; but the energy, the vehement hopes, and burning passions which would prompt us to make use of those sharp and salutary lessons are no more. So, if the great citizens of Greece and Rome, who wrote in the youth and dawn of history, had possessed the knowledge which is our inheritance, — if, instead of being confined within their narrow limits, in a view still wider than that which the great poet supposes to 2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. have been opened to our common parent, both hemi- spheres of earth had been stretched out before them, and every state and gradation of barbarism and re- finement had been unrolled in one great chart before their eyes, from the departed glories of India, to the capitals of modern Europe, and the seats of still growing and more recent opulence in America — from the stationary civilisation of China, to the sabbath- less activity of English enterprise, — if they could have examined political degradation in its various forms, from the submission of the helpless ryot, to the stagnant monotony of German servitude ; if they could have compared the evils of savage life with those of excessive luxury and factitious splendour — the condition of the Indian hunter, exposed to all ex- tremities of want and suffering, with that of blighted youth, condemned in factories to premature and in- cessant toil, or with that of the thousands who labour at their dismal and dreary task in the bowels of the earth, by whom the enjoyment of the common sun and air and skies are pleasures rarely tasted, — if the various forms into which the mind of man has been cast by different creeds and habits in every quarter of the globe had been placed under their eyes, the instruction they have transmitted to us would not, indeed, have been clothed in language of more consummate beauty, but would have been more various, comprehensive, and complete. If the CHAP. 1,] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE HI. 3 progress of modern Europe from barbarity to re- finement — from the rude licentiousness and abject fetichism described by Gregory of Tours, to the polished corruption pourtrayed by St. Simon, and the premature vices of barbarous Russia ; if those mighty and unprecedented events, the Eeforma- tion of the sixteenth, and the Revolution of the eighteenth, century, placing the nature of man in a totally different aspect, had been described by writers with the genius of Herodotus and Thucy- dides,^ of Livy and of Tacitus, a flood of light would now illuminate the darkest and most intricate recesses of our mysterious and still unfathomed nature. But it has been ordered otherwise, — as knowledge has increased genius has decayed ; and if the ancient intellect often wasted itself in empty speculation, the mind of modern times staggers under the weight of accumulated facts, which it has neither the strength to grasp nor the sagacity to methodise. The period of which I propose to write the history, is one which has never yet been described by writers free from the influence of party bias or sectarian animosity.^ ' How would the pen that has made the Coroyrean sedition, a feud in a little island, immoi'tal, have painted the uprising of a mighty people — " Irasque Leonum Vinola reousantum" — the crimes of Robespierre, and the genius of Mirabeau ? 2 In these paragraphs I allude to no living writer. B 2 4 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Of those who have undertaken to write the history of George the Third, some have indulged in unjust and indiscriminate censure, without allow- ing for the mean capacity of the ruler, or the effect of a worse than royal education. But by far the greater number have erred on the side of adulation, as. was to be expected from men who wrote under his reign or under that of his immediate descendants, or, indeed, who sought the favour of the majority of English readers. For in our country, since the first half of the seventeenth century, the absence of enlarged views has generally been considered a proof of solid merit ; and the faults of this monarch — his amazing narrowness of mind,^ his adherence to forms, and delight in homely pleasures — contributed not a little to his popularity among the inhabitants of this island, making them blind to his intrigues, his cunning, and a love of arbitrary power, that glowed in the bosom of Gleorge the Third as fiercely as it did in that of any of his predecessors on the throne of England. I shall endeavour to represent, freely and indifferently, the true character of his reign, having no inclination to flatter, and being careless whom, in the pursuit of truth, I may offend. Time enough ought to have elapsed since the events related in this volume, to 1 " He had perhaps the narrowest mind of any man I ever knew." — Lord Geestille, cited in Rogers's " Recollections." CHAP. 1.] DUEIKG THE BEIGN OF QEOEGE HI. 5 secure for me an impartial audience ; and if I am disappointed in this hope, I shall be content if I am numbered among the least of those who have consoled themselves for the neglect of contem- poraries whom they have disdained to court, by the expectation of an equitable verdict from the posterity whom they have endeavoured* to instruct. Before, however, I enter upon the narrative, I shall proceed to place under the eyes of the reader some account of the genius and condition of the people whom George the Third was called upon to govern, and of the constitution which, till deprived of reason, he employed every means short of direct violence to shake, perhaps I might say, to overthrow. That constitution, though much has been written upon it, has been very ill understood. It is a noble subject of study and meditation. No nation ever owed so much to their form of government as the English. It alone, by the protection it afforded to industry, and the invigorating spirit with which it animated even the humblest citizen — notwithstanding the corruption that no constitution can prevent, and which has spread like a gangrene through the land, the wasteful expenditure which no other nation would support, and the benetting^ chicane to which fresh meshes were added by the avarice of each 1 " Being thus benetted round with villains." — Hamlet. I am glad to employ " Words that wise Bacon or brave Raleigh spoke." 6 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. successive gang of judges^ — could have developed in so marvellous a degree tlie energies of the com- munity, and have enabled it to acquire a degree of wealth and power which, if compared with the natural resources and extent of the southern part of this island, appears like the dream of an extrava- gant romance. It alone could have vivified so selfish and rude a people, and saved them from the uniform lethargic servitude which still degrades a kindred race in Germany. It alone could have enabled them to pass through the reign I propose to write an account of, without a revolution. It has made them great, and, in spite of themselves, won for them a glorious and imperishable name in history. For the English, though possessed of many useful qualities, though brave, persevering, patient, enterprising, are neither a quick-witted, nor a far-seeing, nor a large- minded people. Their genius is neither penetrating nor comprehensive. They have no idea of grandeur. No people degenerate more rapidly, or require the standard which they should aim at to be more con- stantly before their eyes. No great nation has ever been so illogical, or — provided they heard certain sounds repeated, and saw certain forms observed — more implicit in their surrender of the reality which those sounds were intended to signify, and those forms ' See Roger North's account of the ehameless struggle for fees between tho Court of King's Bench and Common Pleas, given without tho least conscious- ness of its turpitude. CHAP. 1.] DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 7 to keep alive.^ That taste has not been allotted to them, the books that have been popular among them since the mob of the reading public has increased, — that is, from the death of Pope to the hour when I am writing, — and almost every public edifice, monument, or inscription in the land, are a sufficient proof. They sometimes endure genius, but they always encourage^ mediocrity. They pardon the errors of ordinary men far more easily than the eccentricities^ into which men of a superior nature are occasionally betrayed. Intellect, when portionless, they con- temn. Unless refined by careful education, even in the highest rank, and the softer sex, they are narrow-minded, rough, and trivial — distrusting all that is great, apt to sneer at all that is exalted detesting all that is extraordinary, and yet, when the example has once been set, rapidly passing from a blind hatred of all that is foreign, to the most servile and indiscriminating imitation. Their extra- vagance is commonplace,* and their very scepticism is taken on trust. ' e.g. the conge d'ilire etill preserved. 2 " Povera 6 nuda vai filosofia, Dice la tuiba al vil guadagno intesa." ' A modern writer censures W. Pitt for not easting up his grocer's bills. ■* e.g. the wild, unreasoning, and sudden adoption of all Niebuhr's paradoxes (which, by the way, were bonowed from Vico) on Eoman History; the anti- Eaphaelite school ; the doubt, cherished by Germans, but unknown to Plato and Aristotle, whether the same man wrote the parting of Hector and Andromache, and the meeting of Priam and Achilles, the Uiad and the Odyssey, &c. &c. 8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Thougli generally munificent and constitutionally stubborn, no people has ever surpassed them in the worship of money, by whomsoever acquired, or of rank to whomsoever given. The Statute Book shows too clearly that public spirit is not their charac- teristic. For in no free country have considerations of private interest so uniformly triumphed over the dearest interests of the commonwealth ; such enor- mous abuses been allowed to continue so long un- redressed; or, at last, when reform became inevitable, in spite of the misery they inflicted upon thousands and tens of thousands, touched with a more sparing and timidly parental hand.^ Accordingly, the virtues the English most appreciate are those of domestic life ; the crime they most abhor is direct, informal oppres- sion. To the inequalities and slights of social life — of which all classes among them are prodigal towards those whom, for whatever reason, they consider their inferiors, and which more sensitive races resent as wounds far more cruel than any material suffering — they are indifferent, not from philosophy, but want of perception. Their distinguishing moral defects are selfishness, respect for money, and its twin vice indifference to merit for its own sake. Their great 1 Among thousands of instances take the following : — Trial by battle took place in the year 1820 in an English court of justice. The Ecclesiastical Courts were not abolished till within these ten years, and then after a desperate struggle. Even now bishops appoint chancellors. The law ordered women to be burnt alive in 1770 ; it is said the hangman generally strangled them first — Ty consem. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 9 moral qualities are the love of truth, and fortitude ; it is in the hour of peril and adversity, when natures less robust shrink and quail, and abandon themselves to despair, that this noble element of the English being appears in the clearest light, and commands the respect of their most embittered adversaries. Their chief intellectual defect, to which many of the crimes and most of the disasters which disfigure our history are to be ascribed — and of which the annals of our law, wheresoever recorded, from the first page of the Year Books to the last volume of the Statutes, contain proofs almost incredible — is an inveterate empiricism, a delight in microscopic detail, and a total absence of anything like the power of generalisation. Their chief intellectual quality — a quality most precious, of which no people stand in greater need, and which has been vouchsafed to none in a larger degree — is that of improving by education. Their courage, less fiery, and more the result of habit and discipline, is steadier, more enduring, and less intractable than that of the French. From the hour when Henry the First appealed to his Saxon bow- men, saying that with their aid he would defy all the chivalry of France, to the hour when eighteen hun- dred English soldiers stood victors on the heights of Albuera ;^ from the victories of Edward the Third to 1 Napier. 10 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. the battle of Trafalgar ; in France, the scene of their earliest glory ; in Italy, in Germany, in Spain, in the East and in the West, in the Old World and in the New — by land, and still more by sea, the fighting men of England have preserved the foremost rank for deliberate valour and desperate energy among European warriors. If it is asked how such a constitution grew up among this people, the answer is twofold. First, nature had fixed the frontier of England.^ That of France was long, and is even now,^ in a certain sense, unsettled. For many centuries in that country every encroachment of royal power added to national strength and unity. To strengthen the executive influence, therefore, was long the first aim of every enlightened patriot.^ On the contrary, our geogra- phical situation not only ensured our national unity, but deprived our rulers of all excuse for keeping on foot a standing army — the instrument* by which the liberty of all other countries has been destroyed, and which, unless vigilantly watched, will assuredly one day prove fatal to our own. And secondly, the reason assigned by a great historian for the grandeur of Rome — the splendid virtues of a few eminent ' " This fortress built by nature for herself," says the greatest of her children. ^ In the eigliteenth century, French statesmen were always talking of " L'arrondissement du pre ;" i.e., Lorraine, Savoy, and the Low Countries. The " pr6 " is not quite complete yet. " Oh si Angulua ille ! " ' See the admirable work of M. Thierry, Ilistoire du Tiers Mat. * " L'Europe se perdra par les gens de guerre," says Montesquieu. CHAP. 1.] DUEING THE EEIQN OF GEOKGE HI. 11 citizens. These men kept their eyes steadily fixed on civil freedom as the end of all their struggles. While the object of the sanguinary violence of the League in France, was merely to determine whether arbitrary power should be wielded by Guise or Bourbon ; while the puerile contumacy of the Fronde had for its sole motive the vanity and interest of a frivolous and factious aristocracy, — the object of civil war in England before and after the wars of the Roses — ot Simon de Monlfort and of Bohun, as well as of Hampden, of Elliot, and of Soraers — was to take care that arbitrary power should not exist among us. In France the sordid motives of the few have often made useless the noble purposes and amazing self-devotion of the many. In England the gross propensities and selfish views of the many have been turned to the public service, or counteracted and neutralised by the lofty qualities of the few. Neither the long struggle against the House of Stuart, nor the Eevolution of 1688, nor Catholic emancipation, nor free trade were the work of the people. The restoration of Charles the Second, without one single guarantee ; the prosecu- tions of the Popish plot,^ and of the plot set up as a retaliation for it ; the murders of Lord Russell, of Algernon Sydney, of Cornish, of College, and, foulest • " Juries," says Bishop Burnet, " at this time were a shame to the nation, and a reproach to religion." 12 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [BOOK 1. of all, of Mary Gaunt and Alice Lisle ; tlie outcry for passive obedience in Queen Anne's time; the clamour against patriotism in G-eorge the Second's ; the resistance to the Jewish naturalisation bill ; the tenacious adherence to the Julian style in the calendar ;i the Spanish war of 1739; Lord George Gordon's riots ; the total neglect and cruel oppres- sion of our dependencies in India, Ireland, and America ; the American war ; the beginning of the war against France in 1793 ; the riots at Birming- ham, when Priestley's house was burnt over his head because he was erroneously supposed to be a philosopher ; the disgraceful peace of Amiens ; the "No Popery" cry of 1807, — in all these events the bias and inclination of the common English mind discovers itself unequivocally. To most of these the vulgar, titled and untitled, great and small, gave a ready sympathy and cordial approbation — it acquiesced in all. The constitution which made all the various and intractable elements of such a community work together for good ; which enlisted the prejudices of the people, the selfish pedantry of 1 " Greater difficulty was found in appeasing the clamour of the people against the supposed profaneness of changing the Saints' days in the calendar, and altering the time of all the immovahle feasts. At the period when the bill took effect, the populace marked their dissatisfaction by exclaiming, ' Give us back our eleven days,' and other tumultuary indications. The spirit was slow in subsiding, and years elapsed before the people were fully reconciled to tliis new regulation." — Coxe's Pelham. The Duke of Newcastle endeavoured to dissuade Lord Chesterfield from bringing forward the measure. CHAP, 1.] DUEINQ THE REIGN OF GEORGE HI. 13 the lawyer, the tradesman's desire of gain, the sullen arrogance of the well-born churl, the factitious pride^ and desire of court favour in a comparatively modern nobility, and occasionally even the hypocrisy of the priest on the side of patriotism in so many great emergencies ; which was able, in the words of the great orator of antiquity, to contract into the narrowest compass, the errors, vices, and infirmities of every class that it contained ; which, in spite of gross and grievous abuses, kept the Englishman free while the rest of Europe was enslaved, — deserves to be recorded as one of the greatest triumphs man ever achieved over evil, and among the greatest blessings that he ever was permitted during so long a period in any tolerable perfection to enjoy. To trace the history of that constitution in detail is a task that has been fulfilled by a modern writer,^ with rare diligence and scrupulous fidelity. The subject, however, is by no means exhausted ; there is much truth hidden in the epigrammatic phrase of Montesquieu that it was discovered in the primaeval forest. That certain principles of freedom were common to all the Gothic governments of Europe, is clear from the laws and traces of freedom, which, in Spain, as the story of Antonio Perez shows, lasted } " Pride that licks the dust ;" very different from that of Metellus and Popillius. 2 Mr. Hallara. 14 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. till the reign of Philip the Second, and in France, at least, were never quite obliterated. But while in France the crown was transmitted from father to son without interruption, and with accumu- lating influence, for more than three hundred years,^ in England it happened most fortunately that of the first six princes who ruled after William the Con- queror, four were usurpers, and only one a son, who succeeded in due course of succession to his father, and obtained the crown by an undisputed title. Each of these five princes had been obliged to appeal to the great barons for their support ; some had endeavoured to win the people to their side by promises of charters and concessions. The sixth, John — if Matthew Paris, a great and honest writer, is to be believed — held the crown of which he was not the heir, by a strictly elective title. The profligate, cruel, and odious character of this ruler ^ — not re- deemed by a single trait of courage, firmness, or generosity — his quarrel with the Church of Eome, and, above all, the defeat of his ally, Otho, the Emperor of Germany, at the battle of Bovines,^ by Philip Augustus, enabled the barons to extort from their humbled monarch the famous charter which is ' From 987 to 1316. The Valois branch did not ascend the throne of France till 1328 2 " Sordida foedatur foedante Johanne gehenna." — Matthew Paeis, p. 288. ' The English auxiliaries of Otho were led by the Eai-1 of Salisbuiy. He was struck down by the mace of tlie Bishop of Beauvais, Philippe de Dreux. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE HEIGN OF GEORGE III, 15 the basis of our constitution. It is singular, if any- thing in human affairs can be called singular, that the first great national victory of the French should have cemented the foundation of our liberty and their own servitude^ — that a victory by a French king over a Grerman emperor should have sealed the title-deed of English freedom. If Philip had been defeated, the feudal aristocracy would have been crushed in Eng- land, as, in consequence of his victory, it was ulti- mately in France. For the first time in that dreadful period of servitude and superstition, known by the name of the middle ages, which has branded upon modern Europe scars that even now, in this favoured country, are deep and visible, we behold the sign of regeneration, in the noble spectacle of a nation uniting all classes of freemen to break down arbi- trary power, and to establish the supremacy of right. The State vessel had laid fast hold of a strong ground, and swung in various directions without permanent injury, because it had a sure anchorage. Magna Charta,^ though its provisions were far 1 " C'iStait la loyautg qui devoit recueillir tous les fraits de la victoiie nationals." — Maeten, Hist., vol. iv. p. 280. ^ Let the reader compare the proviaions of Magna Charta, a.d. 1215, with the demands of the feudal aristocracy at Naples, 1470, in which there is not a single stipulation for any order but their own, — as preserved to us by Porzio, perhaps the greatest modern historian in the country which, Spain excepted, has produced the greatest historians of modern times : — "Le prinoipali domande eopra delle quale i Baroni firgevano col re voler 16 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. beyond tlie general notions of the age in whicli they were framed, and though it gave the most prosaic and precedent-ridden people in the world something solid and tangible to which they could appeal, and so far was of inestimable value, — might be, and owing to the unexampled corruption of our judges, repeatedly was, mutilated and explained away. But the measure which more than any other placed the liberties of England on a sure and solid basis, was the act of a foreigner,^ suggested probably by the ecclesiastics whom he always affected to consult — pattuire furono queste : — Che non volevano nelle sue richieste personalmente comparire Che fosse loro permesso di tener gente d'amii per difesa de' loro stati. Che potessero custodire le fortezze propvie co' loro soldati che non dovesse il re gravare i loro sudditi di'altra che dell' ordinaria imposizione. Che le sue genti d'arme non dovessero ne' loro stati alloggiare volendosene per le pro- prieservizie; e finalmente che fosse loro lecito senza torre lioenza da lui prendere soldo e sotto qualunque principe militare, purchfe I'arnii, non s' avessero a manneggiare contra del Regno." — Congiura de Baroni, lib. ii. ; Ed. Monzani, p. 65. " These demands I have thought it good to relate," says Porzio, " not only to preserve them for future ages, but that the present age may observe the insolence of these ancient nobles of tlie land, chiefly caused by constant exercise in arms." ' It is remarljable that the founder of our liberties, Simon de Montfort, was not of Norman extraction. He was the king's brotlier-in-law— " Alienoram filiam regis Johannis sororem regis deiponsavit." — Matthew Pakis, p. 393. " Et sciendum quod nemo sani capitis debet censere neque appellare Simonem nomine proditoris non enim fuit proditor sed regni Anglorum defensor." — Matthew Paris. I sliall quote two strilsing passages from the English Herodotus; — " Sic que labores finivit suos vir ille magnificus Simon Comes qui non solum sua sed se impendit pro oppressione pauperum assertione justitiae et regni jure. Fuerat utique literarum scientiS commendatus ofiioiis Divinis assidue interesse Gaudens, fiugalitati deditus, cni familiare fuit in noctibus vigilare, amplius quam dormire. Constans fuit in verbo, severus in vultu, niaxime fidus in orationibus, religiosorum eoclesiasticis magnam semper impendens reverentiam." — p. 855. Eobert GrostSte, Bishop of Lincoln, one of the greatest men that ever lived in this island, was his chief confidant ani counsellor. " Ipsiua consilio," says CUAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III, 17 I mean the issuing of writs to deputies of boroughs, by Simon de Montfort, which was the true origin of representative government among us. The seed was then sown which, notwithstanding many attempts to stifle it, was destined to produce a glorious harvest. As the law which regulates the relations of man to man in civil society daily became, under the in- fluence of judges, more absurd, more intricate, and more warped, to serve the selfish purposes of a class, the law establishing the relation of the subject to the ruling power advanced, under the influence of the House of Commons, more and more closely to perfection in every succeeding century ; and when the House of Stuart ascended the throne, our liberties were fortified by barriers which neither the kings of that incorrigible race, nor the priests and lawyers who supported them, were able to overthrow. In the Great Charter it is provided that the arch- bishops, bishops, earls, and greater barons, shall be summoned to the G-reat Council, by particular letters M. Paris, " tractabat ardua, tentabat dubia, finivit inchoata" — p. 865. Groetgte is said to have predicted the death of De Montfort and his eldest son, with whose education he had been entrusted. Laying his hand on the youth's head, he exclaimed, " My son, thou and thy father will both die on the same day, and by the same hand, but in the cause of justice and of truth." — Matthew Pakis, p. 857. " Quid voveat dulci nutricula majus alumno? " The name of this first of our state martyra dwelt long in the memory of the people. — See " Percy's Ballads," vol. ii. p. 198. Like King Arthur, and Sebastian of Portugal, and Monmouth, he was said to have escaped. — See "Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle," p. 659. " Such was the murder of Evesham, for battle none it was." 18 flISTOEY OF EISTGLAND [BOOK I. from the king ; and that all other persons holding immediately of the crown, shall receive a general summons from the sheriff. Thus some knights of the shires became members of the G-reat National Council. When it was that representatives of counties began to sit in the same house with repre- sentatives of boroughs, is a circumstance that has not yet been ascertained. It seems in the natural course of events that those who were returned to Parliament by election, and who represented others, should sit together with persons returned in the same manner with themselves, instead of belonging to a body who held their seats by an entirely different tenure. Whenever this took place, it is an event of pro- digious importance in our constitutional history. If we combine with this fact another circumstance peculiar to England, that the younger sons of nobles possessed no technical rank or privilege, but became blended with the mass of commoners, we shall see the main cause that gave strength and spirit to the popular element of our constitution, and formed that class of gentlemen^ to which, with all its faults, ' A Frenchman, in the seventeenth centmy, has described admirably well the constitution of the House of Commons. Speaking of the treachery of James the First to the Protestant and English cause, he says, " L'Agent d'Angleterre lui a encore dit . . . . que la basse chambre de leur Parlement, c'est a dire la noblesse, non qualifi^e et le tiers etat," ifcc. — Neg. de Jeaunin, vol. i. p. 145. Ed. Amsterdam, June 9, 10.07. CHAP. 1.] DUEING THE REIGK OF GEOEGE III. 19 England, more than to any other, owes the stability of her freedom. Men enriched by petty trades,^ and accustomed to submissive habits, could hardly be expected to confront Plantagenet, or to oppose the great feudal nobles whom they had long been accus- tomed to regard with implicit veneration. But when they were fortified by the infusion of gentle blood — when they saw upon their benches men of lineage as ancient, and spirit as inflexible, as those who belonged to the Upper House — when supported by the Bohuns, the Nevilles, and the De Yeres, by those whose names were fixed to the roll of Battle Abbey, or had been the war cry at Acre, the trader and the merchant acquired a courage unknown to those of the same rank in foreign nations. Thus our aristocracy became more popular, and our democracy more aristocratical, than the same classes in other countries, where they were divided by a barrier that was almost impassable. The fierce and rancorous hatred nourished by the third estate against the noble, engendered by cen- turies of scorn and oppression, that blazed forth at ' See Chaucer's description of the opulent Frantlin : — " It snowed in his house of meat and drink, Of alle deinties that men could of think: At Sessions there was he lord and sire, Full often time he was knight of the shire. " A shereve had he been, and a countonr, Was no where suiche a worthy vavasour." — Prologue. c 2 20 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I, the Frencli Revolution, and that to this hour is burnt in traces indelible on the mind and laws of France, was never known since the Norman and Saxon races mixed with each other in England. Sometimes the king appealed to the commons against the aristocracy, and as society became exposed to evils of a different kind, the aristocracy in their turn appealed to the people against the king. For some years after the Conquest^ the English people looked to the feudal king as a shelter from the petty tyrants who surrounded them, and aided him in controlling the great nobles; and again, Avhen the feudal system had fallen into decay, and the king of commercial and opulent England aimed at the power of continental monarchs, he found himself, thanks to our guardian waves, without an army to support him against the united force of the nobles and the middle class. It is true — and he must be blind to fact, or indifferent to morality, who denies it — that in consequence of this state of things, the House of Commons had become, at the time of the Revolution, an aristocratical assembly, and re- ' Robert de Belesme fortified Bridgnorth Castle against Henry the First. It was reduced to extremity. The nobles on the king's side were anxious that he should be admitted to terms. But the native soldiers — " tria millia pagensium militum"— exclaimed, " oppidum acriter expugna, traditorem coarta, neo pacem cum illo facias.'' He was driven out of England. " Onuiis Anglia exulante orudeli tyranno exultavit." — See Ordericus Vitalis, Eist. Norm. Scripiorea, p. 807. CHAP.l.] DUEINO THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 21 fleeting but faintly the sentiments of the middle, had ceased almost entirely to represent, or indeed (as the savage and foolish laws sometimes passed by it too plainly show) to care for the lower class. Yet it is also true that the terrible question which ushered in the French Revolution could never have been answered here, as it was on the other side the Channel/ At the close of the thirteenth century we find the House of Commons firmly established and recognised as an essential part of the constitution. If we carry our view further for another century, we see the effect of this in the mighty change that had been wrought in the English habit of thought and character. We see the determined appeal to right which, fatally for him- self, even the son of England's darling son, the heroic Black Prince, and the grandson of the most illus- trious of our greatest line of sovereigns, had ventured, in the intoxication of youth and fortune, to oppose.^ At the very moment when Eichard the Second imagined himself most secure, — when he had a packed parliament* at his devotion; when he had banished or put to death his most formidable opponents ; when ' Qu'est le tiers 6tat ? Rieti. 2 " Faotique sunt," says the old chronicler, " quasi una persona majores et minores plebis et communes contra antedlctos regni prsedones." — Knyghton, col. 2702. " Clamantes et dicentes deleantur de vild ne honor egregius Anglicanse gcntis per tales proditores viduetur." This is what Mr. Hume calls the despotism of Turlsey. And see ib., col. 2710, the address of the Lords and Commons: — •" Est besogne d^ mulere la gouvernaj'le de vous et de votre terre." * That the parliament was paclsed shows its importance. 22 EISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. all the great offices of the state and the law were in the hands of those favourable to his designs,— he was obliged to resign the crown/ and to sign an instru- ment declaring that he was unworthy to be a king. Such, at the close of the fourteenth century, was the temper of the English people and the spirit of the English government. To enter upon the wars which soaked the English soil for thirty -five years in blood, when a turbulent aristocracy, no longer led to foreign conquest, turned their arms against each other, is no part of my task.^ The close of this century exhibits a less favourable prospect. The extirpation of the great families before the balance of property had fallen into the scale of the commons, exposed our liberties to imminent danger in the beginning of the next, and enabled the crown, then worn by the most perfectly wicked and detestable of all modern tyrants, to attain the highest point of its elevation. As, however, the enormous wealth of the Church gradually found its way among the class out of which the House of Commons was selected, that 1 " Meque ad regimen et gubernationem dictorum regnorum . . . reoognosco reputo et veraoiter ex ceitS soientiS, judico fuisae et esse insufficieiitem penitus et iimtilem ao propter mea demerita notoria non immerito deponendum Ego Ricardua ReK propria nianu me subscribo. Cedulam illam distincte per- legit." — Rot. Pari., vol. iii. p. 416. 2" Mais encores m'a comptfe leroyEdouard,queen toutesles batailles qu'il avoit gagn^es que des ce qu'il venoit au dessus, il montoit i, cheval et cryoit que on bauvS,it le peuple, a qu'on tuSit les seigneurs, car d'iceux n'eschappoit nul ou bien peu." — Comines, vol. iii. p. 5. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE III. 23 body, which had sunk, during the reign of the first four Tudors, into a kind of apathy, not only asserted its ancient and, for a time, half-forgotten rights, but began to speak in a tone that became louder and louder with the consciousness of its strength and the exigencies of society. If we look abroad, we find at the close of the fifteenth century the royal power all over Europe encroaching upon the aristocracy. Ferdinand of Aragon, Ferdinand of Naples, Louis the Eleventh, Henry the Seventh, all had the same object in view, and pursued it each according to his peculiar disposition and opportunities — Ferdinand of Aragon by fraud, Ferdinand of Naples by fraud and violence, Louis the Eleventh by cruelty, Henry the Seventh by chicane. For a time it appeared as if the scheme would be as successful in England as it proved to be no long time afterwards on the Continent. But at this critical period of our history, the circumstance I have already mentioned, relating to the elements of which the House of Commons was composed, proved the safeguard of the country. The House of Commons that had stooped so low in the sanguinary reign of Henry the Eighth, that allowed him to bathe himself in innocent blood, and to indulge a savage nature against which neither youth, nor age, nor sex, nor distinguished services, nor obscurity, nor the veneration of the civilised world, furnished any protection ; that turned for a short time the 24 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Cambyses-like caprice of this fuiy of lust and blood^ into the religion of the state, and gave to his procla- mations the force of law, — still preserved inviolate some important barriers of the constitution. With characteristic egotism they vindicated their own rights while they abandoned those of the nation. But in asserting their own privileges they were, in reality, preparing the means to recover those liberties which they had been in so many instances base enough to surrender. When it pleased Grod to deliver England from the scourge of this merciless oppressor, though the character of the House of Commons had been lowered, the rights of that body were unimpaired. Its functions in the state were, constitutionally speaking, the same as in the days of Plantagenet. It was their exclusive privilege — a privilege em- phatically vindicated under Elizabeth — to regulate the amount and origin of every tax ; no law could be passed without their sanction; and when a distin- guished officer^ disgraced himself by a speech of almost sacerdotal adulatiop, inculcating an implicit ' Two lines of Corneille, in one of his most magnificent plays, go near to describe this : — " Si I'on doit le nom d'homme a qui n'a lien d' humain, A ce tigre alt^i'e de tout le sang Romaiu." — Cinna. But Augustus did not alter tlie religion of his country, and destroy by a cruel death those who worshipped as their fathere had done, and by a death still more cruel those who did not. " Sir Humphrey Gilbert. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 25 deference to the will of the sovereign — though that sovereign was Elizabeth — a high-spirited country gentleman/ who, if he had lived in France, would have belonged to the caste of nobles, but who was in England a representative of the people, chastised his baseness by a scornful and well-deserved rebuke. At the close of the sixteenth century the House of Commons had recovered its ancient power. It obliged Elizabeth to abandon her monopolies, and showed that it was equal to the part which, during the next half century, it was called upon to fulfil. When to the love of liberty was added the vehe- mence of religious enthusiasm, the impulse became irresistible. The reverence and gratitude universally felt for our magnanimous Elizabeth by the people whom she had placed at the head of Protestant Europe, made the warmest patriot willing to overlook the outbreaks of a fiery temper, and the disregard on some very few occasions shown to an ill-defined and irregular constitution. But under the miserable successor of this great Princess, stained with the most loathsome vices, and privy, there can be little doubt, to the blackest crimes, they were restrained by no such considerations. The epoch, from the accession of James the First to the breaking out of the Civil War, is the grand and glorious period of English history. In the ■■ Wentwoith. 26 HISTOET OF ENGLAND LBOOK I. Revolatioa of 1688 there is almost as much to blush for as to admire. The leading men seem to have been swayed chiefly by the motives of their own selfish interest. They carried on, almost without exception, a scandalous traffic with the Court of St. James and the Court of St. Germain. But if ever the character of men, for almost half a century actors on the public stage, was free from the taint of ordinary vices and infirmities — if ever it was given to modern Europeans with examples of prosperous baseness under their eyes, and the doctrines of a servile priesthood continually sounding in their ears, to act in a way that would have honoured those who heard the lessons of Socrates, and sat in the senate with Cato, — the patriots, who, in spite of obscure sufferings, of imprisonment, exile, confiscation, death, without stipulating one single benefit for themselves, rescued from oblivion the right of punishing evil counsellors, encountered with dignified firmness the extravagant pretensions of James, and wrung the assent to the Petition of Right from the lips of his prevaricating son, who abolished the Star Chamber and the High Commission Court, who drove Finch into exile, impeached Laud, brought Strafford to the block, and deprived the prelates of their seats in the House of Lords, have won that renown and are entitled to be honoured with that remembrance. CHAP.!.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE 1X1. 27 The English Church, when the prelates of it were thus deprived of a power which no other Protestant community allows them to possess, and which he who examines their votes will hardly think has con- tributed more to their own reputation than it has to the welfare of the community, had existed for three generations of Englishmen. During that short period it had set on foot an active and savage perse- cution^ against Catholic and Protestant, against all Christians who had not adopted precisely the creed, rites, and ceremonies which it had seemed good to the founders of this recent creation to establish. To exercise the right of private judgment, so far as to quit the Church of Kome, which had governed Christendom for centuries, was the duty of every Christian ; but to exercise it so far as to differ with the articles put out not one hundred years before by a Church that did not pretend to be infallible, and teachers that laid no claim to inspiration, was a crime to be punished, in some instances, by the stake, in all others by confiscation, by the lash and shears of the hangman, and by the pesti- lential dungeon, within the walls of which was death.^ 1 " It was the undoubted fundamental privilege of the Commons in Parliament, that all supplies should have their rise and beginning from them ; this had never been infringed or violated, or so much as questioned, in the worst times." — Clabendon, Hist , vol. i. p. 237. ^ Many dissenting ministers were killed by confinement in prison during the reign of Chailes the Second. — Neale's Sist. of the Puritans, 4to. vol. ii. p. 736. 28 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. It may doubted if any characters in modern his- tory are more thoroughly odious and contemptible than those of most of the English prelates, from the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth to the Eevolution— from Parker to Sheldon. Cranmer had set a terrible example of persecution and subserviency. He had dyed his hands deep in innocent blood ; and his incessant vacillation shows that he had not himself the strong and deep convic- tion which alone can extenuate intolerance. But Parker, Whitgift, Bancroft, Aylmer, Laud, Wren, Neale were savage tyrants, animated by avarice and ambition, parasites and plunderers, servile, rapa- cious, cruel, and insolent. They harassed some of the most virtuous of mankind, and some of the most learned and highly-gifted men England has ever had See especially the case of Delaune, — whose wife and children were destroyed at the same time, — Bampfteld, and Ealphson, all learned men. Women of blameless character were sent to beat hemp in Bridewell. And see the case of William Jenkins, who had signalised himself by hia loyalty in Cromwell's time, on his refusing to talie the Oxford oath, which Lord Southampton said no honest man could talce. He was flung into Newgate, and kept there, in spite of a certifi- cate that his life was in danger ; there he perished. " A little before his death he said, a man might be as effectually murdered in Newgate as at Tyburn ;" a fact of which Charles the Second's ministers were quite aware — as, among many other victims, the death of Colonel Hutchinson proves. One clergj'man in the pulpit told his congregation that the Nonconformists ought to be cured by vengeance. He urged them to set fire to the faggot, and to teach them by scourges and scorpions, and open their eyes with gall. — See Apjiendix, Address from the University of Cambridge. Neale, vol. ii. p. 726. The most infamous persecutors of this time were Archbishop Slieldon (a notorious unbeliever), Ward, Bishop of Salisbuiy; Barton, Bishop of Lincoln; Lampleigh, Bishop of Exeter ; Gunning, Bishop of Ely ; Sterne, Archbishop of York J Henchman, Bishop of London. CHAP. 1 3 DURING THE REIGN OE GEORGE III. 29 to boast of, by incessant persecutions — sometimes by petty vexations, sometimes by more terrible punishments, by confiscation, imprisonment, and death — for not adopting in all its details a creed that fifty years before was unknown to England, and that even then was strange, as it has ever since remained, to the rest of Christian Europe.^ The conduct of Parker, Aylmer, and Whitgift drew down repeated remonstrances from Elizabeth's wisest councillors. Burleigh, exasperated by re- peated instances of Whitgift's violence and cruelty, told him, in plain terms, that he found the articles to which "Whitgift required assent " so curiously penned, so full of branches and circumstances, as he thought the inquisitors of Spain had not so many questions to comprehend and trap their prey."^ And all their proceedings are marked with the meanness, feminine spite, and bitterness which so peculiarly distinguish the persecuting priest. The reader who will wade through the tedious pages of Strype, or study the delightful volumes of Fuller, will find abundant proof that as there was no punishment ' " What numbers of faithful and freeborn Englishmen have been constrained to forsake their dearest home, their friends, and kindred, whom nothing but the wide ocean, and the savage deserts of America, could hide and shelter from the fury of the bishops, because their conscience could not assent to things which the bishops thought indifferent; — cruel must that indifference be," " The greatest criminals in this town," writes Walpole, giving an account of the murder of several women by some drunken constables, none of whom were punished, " are the officers of justice. There is no tyranny which they do not exercise, no villany of which they do not partake." — Letters, vol. i. p. 191. ^ Sept. 22, 1783, fifty-eight persona received sentence oi death, really to be executed at the Old Bailey. ^ " Painted boards invited the poor to be drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence — straw for nothing." ■* 1751. See committee to inquire into the causes of vice in the lower orders. * " The mob very nearly tore in pieces Kadcliffe, a prisoner of war, taken on board the Soleil, mistaking him for the Cardinal of York. Radoliflfe said he had heard of the ferocity of London mobs, but could not have imagined they were so very dreadful." — Walpole's Letters, vol. ii. p. 89. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE HI. 51 sentences pronounced by our judges, and of the arguments used before thera, might almost imagine that he is reading the narrative of Gregory of Tours, or the history of some tribe in the infancy of civilisation. He will find a Chief Justice^ gravely stating that in a case of life and death a mistake in a special plea is fatal, and excludes the accused from a trial on the fact. Sometimes he comes to an account how, not by any sudden impulse of passion, but by the deliberate sentence of the law, speaking through a grave magistrate, men are pressed to death, and women burnt alive,^ and punishments formally ordered, and often executed,^ in barbarity not sur- ' See Ratcliffe's case, Foster's " Crown Law," p. 43. Such cruel petti- fogging could have happened nowhere but in England. Foster remonstrated in vain. ^ The " Annual Register," 1777, says, as a matter quite of conrae, " William Lavy and Sarah Parlcer, who were convicted in October sessions for counterfeit- ing silver coin. Lavy is to be hanged, and Parker burnt " (p. 168). June, 1786, six malefactors were executed before the gaol in Newgate. Phoebe Ham's was burnt about the same time for counterfeiting shillings. Compare this with the impunity of Arne and Huggins ! . ' " Let the several prisoners above named return to the gaol of the county of Surrey, from whence they came, and from whence they must be drawn to the place of execution ; and when they come there they must be severally hanged by the neck, but not till they be dead, for they must be cut down alive, then their bowels must be taken out and burned before their faces ; then their heads must be severed from their bodies, and their bodies severally divided into four quartets, and these must be at the king's disposal." — State Trials, vol. xviii. p. 351. " State Trials," vol. xU. p. 735. See the execution, under an Act of attainder, of Doctor Cameron, the brother of Lochiel, a man of exalted virtue, in 1753. A late writer (Macaulay, vol. iv. p. 769) is mistaken in saying that Sir John Fenwick's case is the last in which any Englishman, " inauditus tanquam innocens," has suffered death by bill of attainder. Cameron died with the K 2 52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. passed by those the wild Indians inflict upon their prisoners. Sometimes he reads how men of letters, for having used expressions much less offensive than are to be met with in the pages of the most classical English writers, are, at the will of a judge, placed in a position where they may be pelted to death by every brutal ruffian in the London mob.^ Some- times how, by employing the law as an instrument,^ a swindler has brought family after family to ruin,^ and flung fathers of families who had never heard of his name into prison, there, unless they were most heroic courage, and hia execution is a foul blot on the age in which he suffered. He had saved the lives of hundreds in the rebellion, mto which he was driven by his brother. "As soon as he came to the Tower gate, he was put into the hurdle. The Doctor entreated the favour of the sheriff that he would give orders to let his body hang till it was quite dead before the executioner began his further operation."— Foster's Crown Law, p. 109. 1 " Ann. Reg.," 1758, p. 99 ; and see especially Ibid., 1780, p. 207, where it is said " one man perished in the pilloiy." This was denounced by Burke, who moved for a criminal information against the editor of a paper for paragraphs abusing him in consequence. When there was a ramour that Ben Jonson was to be sentenced to the pillory, his mother, in the grand Cornelia-like spirit so denounced by our church, brought him poison to save him from degradation. ^ The Bastile was bad enough, but the prisoners there were seldom treated harahly, and one or two ministers only could make use of it. But every gaol in England was at the disposal of eveiy ruffian who chose to make a false affidavit, and speedy death would have been merciful, compared with the tortures inflicted by the gaoler, if he thought proper, on its inmates. There is nothing in the annals of the Bastile so shocking as the trials of Arne, Huggins, and Acton disclose. ^ James BoUand, who was hung at last for forgery. He was a sheriff's officer (" Ann. Beg.," 1772, p. 84, and p. 64,) ; Wilkinson, a man of property, all whose goods he seized by means of a fictitious bond and judgment. , . . " lu vain Wilkinson had recourse to the law ; he was harassed by. every possible subterfuge, and compelled to take refuge abroad to qualify himself for the in- solvent act." He drove one woman mad, and when her husband came home, in order to prevent him from bringing an action, he had him arrested for a consi- derable sum, whereby he gained time, the husband being unable to obtain bail. CHAP.l.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE 111. 53 rich enough to buy tbe services of an attorney, to languish for months without redress, and not unfrequently to perish altogether ; or he finds the account, formally given by the House of Commons, how the person, entrusted with the custody of debtors, puts one after another of the miserable wretches, who cannot pay the fees he chooses to extort from them, to a cruel and lingering death ;^ and he finds the judge, who has sentenced hundreds to death for stealing to the amount of five shillings, making himself an accomplice after the fact to this appalling crime, showing the strongest sympathy for the man whom it is indulgent to call a murderer, in the English meaning of the phrase, snatching him from the grasp of justice, and securing entire im- punity to his crime; or he reads how three women are executed for trifling offences, all of whom, says the statement,^ were drunk; or how Chief Justice Lee^ tells the magistrates of the city that unless some change is made in the management of the Old Bailey it will be impossible to attend the sessions, as twenty of the barristers and witnesses died the last time from the noisome stench of the prisoners. How a murderer was acquitted,* because the evi- 1 " state Trials," vol. xvii., p. 298, et seq. Trial of Arne, Huggina, Bain- bridge, and Acton, for BuooeBsive murders. They were acquitted on all, in spite of the clearest evidence. See Appendix. ' Qentleman's Magazine, vol. xx., 1750, June, p. 328. 3 Ibid., May. * Ibid., May, 1753 54 HXSTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I, dence of a child of nine years old could not be received. How another escapes because leading questions could not be put to a paralytic witness.^ How an old woman, accused of witchcraft, is stripped to her shift, and weighed before the parishioners in the church, against the parish Bible.^ How ladies of condition are mobbed in the park,^ some of whom are saved with great difficulty, and one of whom dies from the ill-usage. How a man, tried for flinging a sick child into the sea, is ac- quitted on the ground that there " could be no premeditated malice in such an act."* How four constables, convicted of the abuse of their office, in wantonly dragging a gentlewoman to prison, to extort money from her, are, on account of their poverty, only sentenced by the judge to two months' imprisonment.^ How two bailiffs, who com- mitted a most ferocious murder on a prisoner in their power, for refusing to give them what they required, are acquitted by the strong exertions of ' " Ann. ■Reg.," 1780, p. 236. ^ Susannah Hannocks, accused of bewitching her neighbom''s spinning-wheel. She outweighed the Bible, and was honourably acquitted. — Ann. Reg., 1759, p. 73. 3 " Ann. E«g.," 1759, p. 89. " Walpole'a Letters.'' " Grenville's Correspon- dence," vol. i. p. 309 : the beautiful Lady Coventry was one. * "Ann. Eeg.," 1759, p. 77. The judge said the accused in this case (captain of a slave ship) seems to have departed from the usual tenderness of his character I ^ Ibid., 1759, p. 128. Sir John Pratt, father of Lord Camden, was the judge. CHAP. 1.] DUEINQ THE BEIGN OF GEORGE lU. 55 tlie judge.^ How, while two men were hanging, a child, nine months old, was put into the hands of the executioner, who nine times stroked the child with a hand of one of the dead bodies.^ How the badness of the provisions at Portsmouth occasioned a mutiny, for which, instead of hanging the con- tractor, fifteen of the poor creatures, maddened by ill-treatment, were sentenced and put to death.* How an English privateer cutter, with the crew disguised, boarded an English ship close to the North Foreland, and robbed the crew and passen- gers of two thousand pounds in goods and money.* How, not the guards of a tyrant at Calcutta, but several constables, took up every woman they met, till they collected five or six and twenty, whom they thrust into prison, where they were kept all night with the doors and windows closed ; how the poor creatures screamed in vain for mercy ; how four were taken out dead,® and the rest in a dreadful state. How a man, aged seventy-four, was hanged for the murder of a child three days old, said to have been committed thirty-four years ago.^ How a woman is kidnapped.' How the crew of a Scotch vessel are murdered on board their own ship, in the port of ' " state Trials," vol. xvi. p. 1. Trial of Hugh Reason and Robert Tranter. •^ "Ann. Reg.," 1758, p. 89. * "Ann. Reg.," 1759, p. 78. 3 Ibid., 1768, p. 78. « Ibid., 1759, p. 131. * "Walpole's Letters," vol. i., p. 191. ' Ibid., 1759, p. 138. 5 6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. London.! How a sheriff's officer draws his sword, and falls on the crowd, cutting indiscriminately men, women, and children.^ How two footpads shot a gentleman dead in Holborn.^ How, between the years 1700 and 1750, one million and a half of human creatures,* at the very lowest computation, had been carried in English ships, manned of course by Christians, from Africa, one-eighth of whom were fortunate enough to find a grave in the ocean. How a man, indicted for bigamy, was acquitted by the express direction of the judge, because he had married three wives.^ How a girl, under thirteen, convicted of having robbed her father of fifteen pounds, was branded and imprisoned for six months.^ How a husband, wishing to get rid of his wife, swears a debt against her in her maiden name, and flings her into a sponging-house ; how the attorney, who came to her from her husband, on her refusing to sign a paper renouncing all claim on him, ordered her to be taken to Newgate, and how the Court of Common Pleas^ would not say the attorney's conduct was illegal. How another husband fastened his wife to a staple by a rope, 1 " Ann. Reg.," 1758, p. 117. ^ ji, _ i^Sd, p. 89. ^ lb., 1758, p. 109. * " We, the British Senate, the Temple of Liberty, have this fortnight been pondering methods to make more effectual that horrid traffic of selling negroes ; it has appeared to us 46,000 of these wretches are sold every year to the planta- tions." — Walpole's Letters, vol. ii. p. 19. See Gentleman's Magazine, 1763, p. 97, for an account of a mutiny on boaid a slave ship. 5 " Ann. Reg.," 1777, p. 197. « itij , jyj__ ^^g^ CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE IH. 57 her hands being secured by iron handcuffs, placing a very little food within reach of her mouth, and tying her up so tight that her toes only could touch the ground, till she perished.^ How, in the same year,^ one woman was convicted of murdering her father, another of murdering her uncle, a man of the murder of his son, and another man, by repeated acts of torture, of the murder of his daughter. How four young noblemen at Oxford kill a servant for refusing to drink the Pretender's health.^ How, notwithstanding the enormous sum levied on pretence of charity, several persons perish with cold in London streets.* How people guilty of a triQing riot are executed for high treason.^ How the Queen® narrowly escaped being robbed, returning in her state carriage from Guildhall.^ How the Neapo- litan ambassador was robbed in Grosvenor Square, by four men who stopped his carriage.^ How ninety- six persons were executed at the Old Bailey between ' "Ann. Reg.," 1767, p. 47. Mrs. Brownrigg is in the same volume. 2 1752. See " State Trials," H, vol. xviii., pp. 1118, 1194. ' Horace Walpole tells the story, and remarks, " one pities the poor boys.'' •* "Ann. Reg," 1760, p. 67. Fielding's "Increase of Robbers." "Account of the Sufferings of the Poor," vol. x. p. 433. nbid., 1758, p. 92. " Caroline, in 1728. She was saved because the gang were occupied witli robbing Alderman Heathcote as her carriage passed. See address of Lord Mayor and Aldermen (1744), stating the streets to be almost impassable. f " Ann. Reg.," 1784, p. 226. ' Ibid., 1777, p. 186. 25 George II., u. 37, an Act for preventing the horrid crime of murder. " Whereas the horrid crime of murder has of lato been more frequently perpetrated .... particularly in and near the metropolis," &c. 58 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. February and December. How an association was formed of boys and men, the boys to pick pockets, and the men to deliver them by cutting the person robbed across the eyes.^ How a man murdered and ate part of his mistress.^ How ten tailors are sentenced to a year's imprisonment in Newgate, for peacefully agreeing to raise the rate of wages ;* and, in the same volume, how a man is fined three shillings and fourpence for an attempt to ravish his wife's grandmother.* How a man who cut his wife's throat with a razor when she was asleep, was acquitted because he did not "disable her tongue, or put out her eye, or cut off her nose, or disable any limb."^ How another man, who mutilated his two apprentices,^ one of eight, the other of sixteen, escaped all serious punishment because he did not " lie in wait." ' How four men were executed for high treason at York, in a riot provoked by a cruel and unjust law.^ How, in a trial for high treason, the time of the court was occupied for several ' " Ann. Reg.," 1765, p. 214. = Ibid., 1777, p. 184. ' Ibid., 1765, p. 79. The law allowed the masters to combine against the men to lower wages, but punished the men who combined to raise them. •* Ibid., 1765, p. 82. ^ Ibid., 1763, p. 89. * In the sense of Lucan — " Infelix ferro molita juventus, Atque exseota virum." — Lib. x. p. 134. 1 " Ann. Reg.," 1764, p. 69, the words of the Coventiy Act. 8 Ibid., 1758, p. 92. " We have a civil war at homo, literally so in many counties ; the wise lords have made the Militia Bill so preposterous that it has raised a rebellion."— Ches- terfield, vol. iv. p. 106. CHAP, 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 59 hours by an argument that the criminal ought to escape because his Christian name was spelt with an " " instead of being spelt with an " e." ^ How, in another trial, it was argued also — and the argument gave rise to grave and serious doubt — that an assassin ought to escape because he was accused of intending to mutilate, whereas he intended to murder his victim.^ How victim after victim perished, or was goaded to lunacy, from privations in private madhouses, into which he had been sometimes carried by violence, and sometimes entrapped.^ How perjury was a regular trade, in- dicated by a particular sign.* Or (in the midst of judicial panegyrics on English law, and the good fortune of those who are happy enough to live under its protection) he will find Government ' Laj'er's case. — State Trials, vol. xvi. p. 94. ^ Woodburne and Goke'a case. — lb., vol. xvi. p. 64. ' " Pari. Hist.," vol. xv. p. 1290. The Report alleges the evidence of several women entrapped into private madhouses in London, detained therefor different periods, owing their release to mere accident. Dr. Battle, a physician distinguished for his knowledge in cases of lunacy, being asked if ever he had met persons of sound mind in confinement for lunacy, said it frequently happened. He related the case of a person at Manchester, whom he found in confinement for lunacy, and who he believed had been for some years in this confinement. He found him chained to his bed. . . . Being dismissed, he never heard anything more of the unhappy patient till Maodonald told him some time after he had died of a fever, . . . and a sum of money at his death devolved on the person who had charge of him. Dr. Monroe does not doubt that several persons have been improperly confined on pretence of lunacy, &o. * Walking about Westminster Hall with a straw in the shoe. " There being no nation under the sun where solemn peijuiy is so common, or where there arc such temptations to it." — ^Berkeley, vol. iii. p. 81. 60 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. seizing by violence, and sometimes after a des- perate resistance, on men to serve in the fleet ;i and a trading company, without the slightest legal authority, which when they asked for it was formally refused to them, kidnapping by an organised system, with entire impunity, the poorer class of English citizens, to transport them to an unhealthy climate,^ ' " Hottest press for seamen ever known — 800 swept away. The crew of the Prince of Wales, a letter of marque ship, stood to arms, and saved themselves by their resolution." — Arm. Reg., 1758, p. 99. See Franklin's admirable remarks on Judge Foster's vindication of this practice. (Vol. ii. p. 333.) " If the alphabet should say, ' Let us all fight for the defence of the whole,' that is equal ; but if they should say, ' Let A, B, C, D go and fight for us, while we stay at home and sleep in whole skins,' that is not equal, and therefore cannot be just." This has not escaped Voltaire : — " Un jour en me promenant sur la Tamise, I'un de mes rameurs voyant que j'^tais Fran9ai8, se mit ^ m'exalter d'un air fier la libertS de son pays, et me dit en jurant Dieu, qu'il aimait mieux ^tre Batelier sur la Tamise qu'ArohevSque en France. Le lendemain je vis mon homme dans une prison auprfes de laquelle je paasais ; il avait les fers aux pieds et tendait la main aux pasaants & travers la grille. Je lui demandai s'il faisait toujoura aussi peu de cas d'un archevSque en France. II me reconnut. ' Ah, Monsieur, r abominable gouvernement que celui ci ! On m'a enlev^ par force pour aller servir eur un vaisseau du Eoi en Norwfege. On m'arrache ma femme et a mes enfans, et on me jette dans une prison, les fers aux pieds, jusq'au jour de I'em- banquement, de peur que je ne m'enfuie.' Le malheur de cet homme et une injustice si criante me touchbrent sensiblement, un Frangais qui ^tait avec moi ; m'avoua qu'il sentait une joie maligne de voir que les Anglais qui nous repro- chent si hautement notre servitude ^taient esclaves aussi bien que nous." ^ " The scandalous method by which the company raise their militia should be abolished. There is but one season of the year when they can raise them at all, and then they are shut up in lock-houses."^LoED Olive's Speech, " Cavendish, Debates," vol. i. p. 262, 1769. And this in a country calling it«elf free ; where game, deer, fish, and young trees, were protected by the most terrible laws, and where the fox is still as sacred as Apis was in Egypt ! Of course nothing was done to redress the evil, which only affected the helpless. The mob sometimes took the law into their own hands, and broke open the dungeon in which their countiymen were confined. The master of a lock-up house in Chancery Lane, was tried before the Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, on an indictment for a conspiracy witli a Middlesex magistrate, to inveigle, kidnap, and cany out of the kingdom, several peraont. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 6i there to be the instrument of it in carrying on unjust wars, and in wringing from the miserable natives of Bengal, not for the national benefit, but for their own private advantage, whatever avarice the most insatiable could require — that is to say, in perpetrating all the foul crimes, all the acts of secret fraud and open violence from which that empire in the East, which has been so loudly boasted of, and which it may be now perhaps impossible to abandon, but which, if justice, truth, honour, and humanity are more than useful phrases, is a disgrace to our character as a nation, originally sprung, by which it has been raised, and on which, till within these last six years — from the deed forged by Olive to the scandalous annexation of Oude — it has been sup- ported, increased, and held together. Such was the practical education which the lower orders in England, during the eighteenth century, received It appeared great cruelties had been committed on a man unjustly confined there, by beating him with the thick end of a horsewhip, &c.,and carrying him away under a strong guard in the dead of the night, on board a ship lying before Gravesend. On the clearest evidence he was fouud guilty. — Ann. Beg., 1768, p. 123. " One of the crimps met with a young fellow, and told him he would treat him with a pot of beer if he would only say he was just enlisted to sei-ve in the East India Company. The man refused ; on which the man pulled a paper out of his pocket, and said he had a warrant against him for stealing a silver tanltard, a trick to get the young man into a lock-up house ; — a trick generally used to get young men into lock-up houses, where they are confined in such a manner as to make it impossible they should acquaint their friends with tlieir situation." — Ann. Reg., 1767, p. 83. A Middlesex justice convicted of falsely declaring a person liable to be pressed as an idle and disorderly person. — tb., 1780, p. 236. 62 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. from the Churcli, the law, the example of their superiors, and the institutions under which they lived. How they profited by it any one may judge who reads the scanty extracts I have gleaned from the volumes to which I have referred, and in which are chronicled murders, robberies, and wanton acts of fiendish cruelty, not exceeded by those which have been transmitted to us as having taken place under the Merovingian dynasty, together with the frauds, chicane, and meanness which are the evils of a more advanced civilisation. Nor is this surprising if we consider the influence the law must have on the manners of a people, from the character of whom it flows and on which it reacts with a noiseless but powerful and incessant operation. In other tests of the national character of the English there are marks of good as well as of evil. Our language, besides the defects incident to the other languages of modern Europe, rude with mono- syllables, and clogged with consonants, without any fixed or settled rule, and becoming therefore every day, as the mob of readers widens, more degenerate, trivial, and impure, — a magazine of capricious idioms, muttered rather than spoken, harsh, rugged, and inaccurate, — is, nevertheless, masculine, copious, and significant — a character which even the popular writers of the hour, and their half-educated readers, will find it difiQcult to wear away. It has been wielded CHAP. 1.] DUEINa THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 63 by great men, and they have fixed upon it the stamp of their immortal genius ; if it bears testimony to that want of generalising power, and that antipathy to abstract thought, which are the cleaving faults of the Anglo-Saxon nature, it proves likewise the daring energy, the sublime views, the masculine firmness, of the few, who, in spite of the vulgar, have made England great among the nations. So, too, our Church, with much that is merely formal, and not a little that is absolutely mis- chievous ; with its formal phrases^ — employed where there ought to be some respite from the falsehoods and flatteries of daily life — its useless dignitaries, and teachers of humility in the House of Lords, with its ill-distributed revenues, its worldliness, love of power, and manifold inconsistencies; its parody of the Church of Rome, where the Church of Rome is most hostile to the creed of Pro- testants,^ — has added many a deathless page to English literature, and some names, venerable for learning, piety, and genius, to the list of those on whom every patriot loves to dwell. But any one who wishes to know only the worst and most ignoble features of the English character, the narrowness, the purblind adherence to forms of which the 1 e.g., the phrase " our most religious and gracious king," which was used to Charles the Second and George the Fourth, and must be used if Nero or Helio- gabalus were on the throne. ' See the absolution in the office for the sick. 64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. meaning is absolutely forgotten, tlie indifiference to the welfare of others, the slovenly neglect of what is important, and the minute attention to what is meaningless, and, above all, the sordid respect for wealth, and abject deference to authority which are sometimes to be found among its baser elements, will find them unmixed, unredeemed, and stripped of all disguise — not trembling at themselves, but rampant and odious — in the biography of lawyers down to the time of which I am speaking, and in the history, so far as it has depended upon them, of the English law.^ In vain do we seek for one single scientific treatise connected with any subject of general jurisprudence; for one single work indicating enlarged views, among the works of English lawyers ; for any writings to be compared, I do not say, to the immortal works of Oujacius, Donellus, or Du Moulin — but for any above the level of the most me- chanical and sordid pettifogger that ever drew from chicane the means of prolonging his mischievous ex- istence. The treatise of Bracton, written in the reign of Henry the Third, the work of a canonist and a civilian, is superior to any that from that time to the accession of G-eorge the Third is to be found in the arid waste of English law. In vain do we look for a single attempt on the part of the judges to remedy ' See Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chaiicellois," and Kegel' North's Wovks, passim. CHATM.] DUETNG THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 65 evils, which every day must have forced upon their notice. In vain do we listen for a single word to denote any sympathy with the public weal, any sense of the frightful sufferings which make the soul sick in their perusal, and to which so much of the crime that they were every day called upon to punish must of course be attributed. On the con- trary we find them vehemently and acrimoniously^ resisting every attempt to correct even the most shocking of these abuses, as far as in them lay, and joining the practitioners in the lower part of the profession, to make the person who denounced them a mark for obloquy and persecution ; and yet no lawyer of our day can deny that at the accession of Gi-eorge the Third the English law presented a most revolting spectacle.^ No jurist can deny that its chicane was endless, its rules absurd, its punishments cruel and unavailing.^ If it were not so, how comes it to pass that in the last ten years it has undergone such material, though far from sufficient, alterations ? And if this be admitted, what is to be said of the moral character of those who for generation after ' In 1771 an address was presented by the Bar to the benchers of the Middle Temple, for the expulsion of Mr. Stephen, because he had written against im- prisonment for debt. (" Ann. Reg.," 1771.) At this time there were 4,000 prisoners for debt every year in England. ^ In 1773 Elizabeth Herring was burnt alive ; all the details are given. " Ann. Reg.," p. 131. 2 " He foimed a very low, and, lam afraid, a veiy just estimate of the Common Law of England, which he was called upon to administer." — Campbeij.'s Life of Mansfield. F 66 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. generation saw these evils, not only without any attempt to alleviate them, but with a fixed reso- lution to support all that could increase their viru- lence — careless, so long as their own fortunes were secured, what became of their contemporaries or posterity.^ I will enumerate some of these blemishes, on which the reader least conversant with legal subjects may form an opinion. But no one who has not carefully studied the subject, and few who have not done so with professional accuracy, can form an idea of the evils it occasioned, of their baneful effects on the morals of the people, and especially as a just retri- bution on the character of those who followed it as a profession, and who obstinately, on all occasions, resisted, and treated as a crime, even the slightest attempt at its amelioration.^ It rested upon falsehood.^ From the time when the judges transgressed their oaths, not from any philosophical view as to the progress of society, but to increase the power and income of the crown, in , ■■ Lord Loughborough actually flung out the bill, which had passed the Com- mons, changing the punishment of burning women alive to hanging. " English lawyers of high station (I do not speak of contemporaries) have always treated the advocates of improvement as personal enemies. ' See Shepherd's " England's Balme," a.d. 1657. He complains of the cruel oppression arising from the different writs — " original, capias, alias, pluries, exigent ; and proclamation, and capias utlagatum." Hale says, " miscarriages in causes upon small and trivial niceties in pleadings, have been too much wit- nessed." What would he have said if he had lived in WillianTthe Fourth's time? CHAP. 1.] DUEINa THE EEIGN OF GEORGE HI. 67 Edward the Fourth's time, by a stupid and clumsy fiction (which referred a person to the sweeper of the court for compensation for the loss of an estate), it had been one continued lie. The Court of Ex- chequer owed part of its jurisdiction to one falsehood, the Court of Common Pleas to another, the Court of Queen's Bench to a third.^ The action which in most cases determined the right to landed property, consisted of several falsehoods — a false plaintiff, a false defendant, a sham letter : any mistake in the technical statement of these falsehoods, any violation of the formal rules by which they were supported, sometimes deprived the suitor of his right alto- gether — always inflicted upon him great expense and inevitable delay. Acts of Parliament^ (incredible as such a statement seems, in recording the law of a civilised country) had a retrospective effect in all cases. Men have been hung for crimes which, when ' The whole shocking absurdity is clearly detailed by Miller, " Present State of the Civil Law in England," p. 126. ' Bacon's Abridgement, vol. vii. p. 438. " Every statute begins to have effect from the first day of that Session of Parliament in which it is made.'' KoU. Abridgement, vol. i. p. 465. Just. vol. iv. pp. 2, 5, 27. Hobart, p. 309. Siderfin, p.310. Brown's "Parliamentary Cases," vol.vi. p. 553. " Term Reports," vol. iv. p. 463, 660. Levinz, vol. i. p. 91. " I'his," says the commentator, " though often productive of the most provoking injustice, was sanctioned by so many decisions (judge-made law) that the interference of the legislature was necessary to control it. This was at last done, 33 George HI., c. 13. The very title of the Act is a proof of the state of jurisprudence in this practical country. It is ' An Act to prevent Acts of Parliament from taking effect from a time prior to the passing thereof.' " We shall look in vain for such a proof of barbarity in the legislation of any other civilised people. F 2 68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. they were committed, were liable to a comparatively trifling punishment,— men have been deprived of their property by legal rules which, when the con- tract under which they were engaged was entered into, did not exist.^ Trial by battle was then, as it indeed continued till 1820, incorporated with our jurisprudence. By the separation which still exists between the law in the Court of Chancery and the law in the Common Law Courts, what was law be- yond dispute in one was equally beyond dispute contrary to law in another. In the construction of wills,^ the same words, used to denote the in- tention of the testator, were construed in a totally different way if they related to real, and if they related to personal, property. If the object of the judges had been to frustrate the testator's intention, it could hardly have been more surely accomplished ' Ab a specimen of our practical wisdom in legislation, I will quote this in- stance : — In order to encourage the woollen trade, two statutes of Charles the Second required the dead to be buried in woollen, and imposed a penalty of £5 on the clergyman who should not certify to the churchwarden any instance in which the Act had not been complied with. The Acts fell into disuse, but of courae kept their place in the statute boot. All at once, an immense number of actions were brought against the London clergy by a common infoimer, for penalties under the Act; then it waa repealed by 54 George III., c. 108, to which a retrospective operation waa given. This instance combines most of the quali- ties for which our legislation is remarkable — slovenliness, utter indifference to the public good, delay, and the child of delay, precipitation. ^ The interpretations of wills by our judges became so shocking, and the cause of so much misery, that of late j'ears some of the worst have been abrogated by Acts of Parliament ; and the father is no longer made to disinherit the child he loved by a forced construction. There are quite absurdities enough remaining to satisfy a moderate appetite. See the letters of Mr. Sugden to a man of property, 1809. CUAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. G9 than by the arbitrary rules they adopted. They succeeded in their first object, i.e., in augmenting the profits of all who belonged to the profession of the law. The law of evidence was contrived to exclude the truth. Women who forged a shilling were burnt alive ; accused persons, if they refused to plead, were pressed to death ; prisoners for debt were murdered at the will of the gaoler. The forms of pleading in civil and criminal matters were so intricate as to render, unless in the very simplest case, a decision on the merits of the question hopeless.^ Jurors who acquitted a prisoner were banqueted at his expense.^ If they found in favour of the crown, in revenue cases, they were paid double the sum that they were paid if they found in favour of the defendant. The law of landed property was a mass of absurdities, so in- coherent and so perplexed, as to surpass anything the invention of the satirist could imagine. The ' Where the title to land was at stake, special pleading was dispensed with altogether, simply because the abominations of the system must have been brought home to the country gentlemen. The lawyere, like the hunted beaver, gave up a part to preseiTe the whole. The great object of jurisprudence ought to be to make technical mistake impossible. The great object of our judges was to make it inevitable, " that," as Lord Hobartsaid, "the law (pettifogging) might be an art ! " ^ See in " Luttrell's Diary " the account of the dinner given to the jury that acquitted the seven bishops, and to the jury that, in spite of the clearest evidence, acquitted Sir W. Duncombe (" the scrivener and city knight " of Pope) of the cheat for which he had been expelled the House of Commons. And see " Ann. Reg.," 1752. "The jury acquitted Owen for publishing the case of Alexander Munay ; they refused the usual present to special jurors after the trial." 70 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. evils of the Court of Chancery, which did not reach their meridian till the days of Lord Eldon, were still so terrible as to have become a proverb.^ Excom- munication — being what Lord Bacon called it, in his pregnant phrase, " a precursory judgment of the latter day ;" that is, the most awful sentence that a believer in Christianity, as it existed in England, could undergo, and depriving the person suffering it, and any one whose case depended on his evidence, of all civil right — was inflicted for the recovery of a few shillings, due to any pettifogger in a Bishop's Court who might choose to have recourse to such a method of oppression.^ The scandal, unknown to any other Christian country, was complained of by Lord Bacon, and by Milton^ in one of the most beautiful passages of his prose writings, blazing as they do with proofs ^ For an account of this see Miller, " Present State of the Civil Law in England," p. 184, " A highwayman who robbed Lord Ferrars was acquitted because Lord Ferrars being excommunicated could not give evidence. If Lord Ferrars had been witness to a murder, the murderer must havg escaped for the same reason. "Ann. Reg.," 1786, p. 26. "Lord George Gordon's excommunication (for not giving evidence in the Ecclesiastical Court) took twenty minutes reading in the Church of St. Mary-le-bone ; " and then good men were surprised at the irreligion of the lower classes, when such examples of profane folly were set by the Church, and falsehood was the essence of the law. ^ " And yet this most mild, though withal dreadful, and inviolable preroga- tive of Christ's diadem, excommunication, serves for nothing with them, but to prog and to pander for fees, or to display their pride and sharpen their revenge, debarring men the protection of the law." — Milton, Reformation in England, p. 65. The whole passage is in a strain of almost matchless eloquence. Dr. Cosins, Bishop of Durham, on the contrary, says it is a privilege of the Church of England above all the realms of Christendom that he has read of. — Cit. Lubn's Ecclesiastical Law. Tit. Ex, Ed. 1763. CHAP. 1,] DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE III. 71 of his sublime genius. But it was for the interest of legal practitioners that it should be prolonged, and therefore the blasphemous abuse complained of by Lord Bacon was not abolished till 1812. Regis- tration, a benefit so loudly called for, was confined to two counties, and till this year the interest of the attorneys has been employed successfully to prevent the diffusion of the benefit to the rest of England. Bj'- an absurdity entirely characteristic of and pe- culiar to our country (the evil was abolished in France in the fourteenth century), bishops had the power of appointing judges in matters merely secular, to decide on the validity of wills of personal estate.^ These offices were, in a vast number of instances, conferred on clergymen, their relations or favourites, utterly strangers to the rudiments of all jurispru- dence, and causing by their ignorance sometimes the absolute ruin, constantly the cruel vexation and expense, of the humbler class, who might be brought by any rapacious or mercenary practitioner under their jurisdiction. This continued till a very recent period. The judges, by arrogating to themselves the right of deciding on the libellous character of a publication, had entirely destroyed the liberty, with- out at all correcting the licence, of the press. Men who chose to risk their ears, or an infamous punish- ' There were three hundred Courts of Peculiars, &o., all the judgeships to which were in the gift of private individuals. 72 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. ment, at the discretion of such a judge as Page, wrote virulent libels, and often with impunity. In short, we may reverse what a great writer says of virtue, and say that, if seen in their true light, the abuses and oppressions that were shrouded under the veil of English law, and that lurked in its various recesses, would, if they could have been exposed to view, have excited universal hatred and contempt. But they were hidden from public view by a mist of technical phraseology. Penetrating writers — Butler, "Fielding, Swift,^ Pope, Bolingbroke, Walpole, Chesterfield, Hervey, Hume, and Burke — exposed them with more or less severity; but the public, unable to comprehend, and unwilling to grapple with the evil, looked upon them with apathy. If they could have seen, or in- deed if they could see, things as they really are, a regiment armed with bows and arrows on a day of battle would appear an absurdity less startling, a less daring disregard of experience, a rebellion less outrageous against reason, than English muni- cipal law as it existed till within a very few years of the period when I am writing,^ and as in some respects it still continues to be. Every invention for increasing his own gains and prolonging litigation that had occurred to the Eoman priest, the Norman ■" Swift's account of the case in " Gulliver's Travels," ia the severest satire in our language. " Even Southey, writing in 1825, saj's, " above all, we must get rid of the intolerable follies and chicane of the law." — Essays. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE BEIGN OF GEOBGE HI. 73 lawyer, or the " bloodhound of the crown " under the Stuarts and the Tudors, had been embodied and embalmed in our jurisprudence, and was carefully preserved in it.^ If the abuse was too flagrant to be borne — as for instance in the case of wager of law (which existed among us till 1830 as it existed in the barbarous codes), that is, the privilege of a person from whom a debt was claimed of getting rid of the claim*, by bringing a certain number of persons to swear they believed the defendant did not owe it — the evil was not abolished, but another form of concurrent action, free from that objection, provided — still carefully leaving the old pitfall in the path of the suitor. The picture of the social state of England would be incomplete without some notice of the poor laws. No institutions have ever tended more directly to social degradation — to prevent what they were in- tended to accomplish, and to accomplish what they were intended to prevent. For this evil lawyers are not peculiarly responsible. They aggravated indeed — of course they did not attempt to mitigate — but they did not create it ; and therefore I consider it apart from those national calamities of which they were the sole and immediate authors. It might have been supposed that practical wisdom would display itself most eminently and emphatically on this very subject, ' See Appendix. 74 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. among the inhabitants of a great and free country. It will be for the reader, when he has read the following account, and compared it with the history of this nation from the time of the last French war to the period when the danger of beholding the darkest scenes of the middle ages, renewed in the England of the nineteenth century, at last compelled the legislature — after the welfare of partridges and pheasants had been sufficiently cared for — to give some attention to a subject affecting directly one- ninth of the population, and in its not very remote consequences, every man who had or hoped to have a shilling he could call his own — to judge whether the antithesis, so incessantly in the mouths of those whom the English delight to honour, between theory and practice is well founded ; ^ and whether the absence of all general and controlling principles in English administration, from the management of a turnpike, to the laws affecting life and property, may not be the cause of great and undeniable calamities. The history of these laws has not yet been traced. The necessity for them arose out of the gradual dis- appearance of personal servitude from the English soil (where, from the earliest times, it appears to have been indigenous),^ the increasing value of labour, 1 " There is no country in Europe where so much money is collected for the poor, and none where it is so ill managed." — Berkeley, Essay, ^c, p. 68. " Bristol in the British times was the great port whence slaves were exported for Ireland. [WiUiam CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIQN OF GEOEGE III. 75 the diminution in the value of the precious metals, occasioned by the discovery of the mines of America, and the selfishness of those among whom the spoils of the Church were distributed in the sixteenth century. These persons took the lands of the monasteries and abbeys, but disregarded the elee- mosynary charges annexed to their enjoyment while belonging to their former owners, and the duties which those owners were compelled by public opinion, and a regard to their own security, as well as by habit and a feeling of duty, in some tolerable measure to fulfil.^ In the Saxon law we find a direct acknowledgment of personal servitude, " Let every one," it says, "know his teams of men, horses, and oxen."^ But it was the Norman conquest — establishing that most terrible of all forms of oppression, the dominion of one race over another inhabiting the same soil — that crushed for several WiUiatn of Malmesbury (i. 3, p. 17) says, in the days of King Alia, " Venales ex Noi'thumbiia pueri, familiaii scilicet et pcene ingeniti illi nationi consuetudine, adeo ut, nostra quoque ssecula viderunt non dubit^rant arotissimas necessi- tudines sub praetextu minimorum commodorum diatraheie." See 113, Manulfi Formulce, a.d. 660. Form of reclaiming a serf among the Franks. 1 I speak strictly of the plunderers of the day — the favourites of Heniy the Eighth, the Riohs, tlie Pagets, the Seymours, the Eussells, who pulled down churches, "and with their ruins built the pandar's bowel's." That property now stands exactly on the same footing as any other property. The crime was not in diminishing the scandalous and misapplied revenues of the Church, but (besides the cruelty of not providing for the losers of that revenue during their lives) in giving to individuals what belonged to the nation. ' "Quilibet homo noscat jugum suum hominum, equorum, et bovum." — WiLKiNS, Leges, Sax., p. 47. 76 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. generations the labourer to the earth, and made the iron enter into his soul — illustrating the noble lines of Spenser : — ^ " Woe, and woe, and everlasting woe Unto the English babe that shall be bom To live in thraldom to hia country's foe." The Saxon conquest was extermination ; that of the Norman was servitude. The old chroniclers vie with each other in describing the insolence of the conqueror, and the wretchedness of the vanquished.^ "At this time," says Eoger of Wendover, "when the Norman had fulfilled the will of God on the English race, when there was scarcely to be found through the kingdom one eminent person of English blood, when all were plunged in servitude and affliction, and to be called an Englishman was a disgrace." William of Malmesbury says, speaking of William Rufus, "He nevertheless let his fiiry loose upon the men ; first seizing their money then their land ; poverty was no protection to the poor, nor opulence to the rich." So complete was the thraldom ' "Nobilea Puellae despicabilium ludibrio armigeroram patebant et ab im- mundis nebulonibus oppressas, dedeous suum deplorabant." — Order. Vit., apud Script, Rev. Gall., p. 523. " Putabant quod quicquid vellent sibi liceret." — Domesday Book, vol. ii. p. 1. " Quidam liber homo .... qui modo effeotus est unus de villanis." What a terribly significant passage ! ^ They speak, allowance made for their homely language, like Tacitus, describing what he had witnessed, while every word has the burning energy of concentrated indignation, as men who were mad for the sight of their eyes that they saw. The old Saxon chronicler says, " Christ and hia saints were asleep." — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, vol. ii. p. 231, Ed. 1857. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE BEIGN OF GEORGE III. 77 that the Norman master, suing for the recovery of his slave, was entitled to his writ to have his native, de nativo habendo,^ which the lawyers, with their wonted felicity of expression, corrupted into the word nief. It is probable that in the time of John all the agricultural labourers, and most of the in- ferior tenants, were of this class.^ The villein is protected by a humane clause of Magna Oharta, ex- tending to him, as to the freeman, the privilege of not being fined, except for a great offence, and according to the nature of the offence, and saving his wainage,^ which is equivalent to the contenement of the freeman. But the 15th clause, limiting the right of the noble to exact aid from his vassal, and the famous 20th clause, are expressly limited to the free. It is plain from Fleta,* who wrote in the time • Villanage of either parent made the issue bond. Fleta, vol. i. p. 3. Bracton, fol. 4. Different from the law in Maroulfus. " Roger de Hoveden uses the word " Ruatious," as opposed to the "liber homo." He says, Richard tlie First's delegates" fecferunt venire coram se dequalibet villa, dominum,ao cum quatuor legalibus hominibus villse sive liberis, sive rasticis." — Last line, p. 778. ' Wainagium, that is, gagnagium. " Peeulium agricolas," says Du Cange, " quo nomine comprehenduntur omnia tam jumenta quam alia instrumenta quaa ad cultum agrovum et fructus colligendos sunt necessaria carucarnm Wannagia." — Boveden, p. 779. Fleta (p. 48) says this privilege of the villein was only available when he was fined by the king, " Cum per justic : Regios fuerint amerciati, secus si per dominos suos." * Fleta, vol. i. p. 30 ; vol. i. p. 3. Glanville, vol. v. pp. 5, 6. Bracton, fol. 4. Proverb. — " Jack would be a gentleman if he could speak French." Trevisa, the translator of Higden's Polyohronicon, says, " This manner (speaking French) was much used before the great deth, but sythe it is somewhat changed." Franklyn is equivalent to Franc-tenant. Zyn is like, a Saxon termination joined to a French word ; it means a native with rights equal to a Frenchman. 78 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. of Edward the First, that in his time the races were not completely blended. He mentions in his chapter on murder, an insulting distinction, which shows how deep the detestation of the races must have been. Murder could only be committed on a foreigner, alienigena ; and it was always to be assumed that the person slain was a foreigner, unless the contrary was proved. This shows that the assassination of the Normans by their serfs was frequent. Grlanville tells us that residence of a year and a day in a privileged town made the serf, if he be- came in that time a member of the corporate body, free. Froissart says that it was a custom in Eng- land, as it was in many other countries, for the nobles to keep their men in servitude.^ But the glories of Edward the Third's reign, as they exalted the national reputation, added to the sense of personal dignity among the humblest of those whose limbs were bred in England ; and the constant demand for soldiers to supply the royal armies, made the lord's possession of his bondsman more precarious. War and peace, menace and compromise, interest and generosity, all played their part in this noise- less and blessed revolution. The archer who had borne the "mighty bow"^ at Oregy and Poitiers, or the relation who heard such a man tell how 1 " TJn usage est en Angletene . . que les nobles ont de giandes Franohisea euv leura homines, et les tiennent en servage." ^ " And in his hand he bare a mighty bow." — Chauoee, Prologue. CHAP. 1.] DURING TUE REIGN OP GEORGE III. 79 the flower of the French nobility fled like sheep before him, was not likely to make a very sub- missive nief. So, too, the terrible pestilence — the " great deth " that laid Europe waste in the middle of the fourteenth century — added much to the value of labour.^ Accordingly, we find in the Statute Book language from which the gradual transition from the old state of things to another may be traced ; in 1362 an Act is passed declaring that pleadings shall be in English. This proves conclusively a prodigious change in the manners and opinions of the age. Again, in another Act, free labourers are dis- tinguished from others : it is provided that any man under the age of sixty, without any visible means of support, may be compelled to work ; that the old wages, and no more, shall be given to servants. Giving alms to beggars able to work is prohibited. All these enactments prove that labour was be- coming more scarce, and that there was an uneasy feeling in the legislating classes.' Mendicity followed ' Chaucer's Plowman, " That had y laid of dung full many a fother," is evidently free. He calls him the brother of the good parson, and gives him an amiable character : — " God loved he beste with all his herte At alle times, were it gain or smart; And than his neighbour right as himselve. He wold thresh and thereto dilie and delve, For Christe's sake, for every poor wight Withouten tire, if it lay in his might." N.B. — He paid no poor's rate. ' statute of Labourers, 23 Edward III.; 25th, with tho same object; NiclioU's " Poor Law," vol. i. p. 48. 80 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I, the disappearance of personal servitude. At the close of Edward the Third's reign, we find the Commons loud in their complaints that servants and labourers quitted their service for the slightest cause. But there is a very striking proof of the progress of emancipation, in a document of the twelfth year of Edward the Third, preserved to us by Eymer. The king mentions certain persons whom he has appointed to enfranchise his niefs, in return for a certain fine.^ Similar lamentations pervade the statutes of Eichard the Second. The lords complain that the corn is uncut, and that they cannot obtain the services of their villeins.^ The serf was endeavour- ing to win from the lord what the lord had extorted from the sovereign — a fixed right and an inviolable franchise. And it is clear that the main cause of the tremendous outbreak that convulsed England in the early part of Richard the Second's reign,' of which the Tory Hume has spoken like a philo- 1 " Manumisimus praefatum Johannem Symondson et totam sequelam snam et ipsoa ab omni opere servili exunimus et erga noa exoneravimus." — ^Rymee's F(BdeTa, vol. v. p. 44. 12 Edward III. " Volentes et conoedentes pro nobis et Hsered nostris quod idem Job. S. et tota Sequela sua in perpetuum liberi suit et libersB conditionis." 2 See Walsingham's account of the insurrection of the villeins belonging to the Abbey of St. Alban's, p. 259. " Cernentes villani jam tempus suae petitioni arridere mox petitiones specificant postulantes novos obartas illis fieri libertatum." 1 Richard II. 3 Is there anything shocking in these rude verses : — " With right and with might, With skill and with will, [Let CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE HI, 81 sopher and the Whig Burke like a narrow-minded partisan, was the attempt to seize in Essex on persons who asserted they were free, but who were claimed as slaves — whether rightfully or not, the lesson of history is the same. The king disarmed Let might help right, And skill go before will, And right before might. So goes GUI' mill aright." That waa not the Gothic notion. " Help truth, and truth shall help you," said John Ball, the priest, who was released from the prison of the Archbishop of Canterbury, into which he had been thrown for heresy. " He was," says Knyghton, " a violent priest, the foreranner of Wickliffe, as John the Baptist was of Jesus Christ." — Col. 2644. Col 2635. The king, says Knyghton, " Concessit eis cartam sub magno sigillo liberie quod omnes homines in regno Anglias liberi essent et liberrn conditionis et ab omni jugo servitutis et villenagii exuti pro se et haeiedibua suia in perpetuum nianerent, quae quidem carta eodem anno post festum sancti Micliaelis in parliamento apud West monaBterium per regem et magnates regni quassata fuit et annuUata et irrita et inanis judicata." Knyghton gives a remarliable proof of the honesty of purpose of these poor men. One of their companions having stolen a beautiful silver pix, they flung him and it into the fire, exclaiming, "Zelatores veritatis et justitiaa non fures aut latrones." They demanded what the Eoman law gave, but what the feudal law, down to the present hour denies : — " Ut omnes Wai-rennae tarn in aquis quam in pasco et boscis communes fierent omnibus ita ut libere possit tarn pauper quam dives ubicumque in regno, in aquis et staguis piscariis et bosoia et forestia feras capere, in campis leporea fugare."— Col. 2637. This is the account given by Walsingham, p. 247: — " Eustici quos bondos vel nativoa vocamus aimul cum ruralibus accolis in essexiS .... pro libertate tumultuare csepere . . . . et nulli omnino abi cujus de caitero astringi sei-vicio meditati sunt." Thoy send to Kent, " Pro libertate acquirendd. Cantiani itaque rcmandientes votis per ante desideratam fere totam provinciam con- citaverunt." They resolved to burn all the rolls of the courts — " Ut obaoleta anti- quorum memoria nullum jus omnino ipsonim domini in eos in pcsterum vindicaie valerent." He gives also a remarkable instance of their disinterestedness — " Quod nihil rapuerant omnino, sed omnia emerunt justo precio." They were far more scrapuloua than the nobles — " Et siquemquam reperissent in furto capita privaverunt " (p. 254). He gives the king's charter — " Ipsoa ab omni bondagio exuimus," &c. Similar proceedings in Suffolk: John of Canterbury's head cut ofl', " Quia fideliter deoert avit contra villanos de Bury pro jure monasterii." 82 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. the rioters by his promises, entrapped their leader to a conference, where he was put to death, and, when they were helpless and dispersed, violated the charter he had given, restored them to their servitude, and bathed England in their blood.^ It is in this reign we find the first traces of that law the most oppressive to which any free nation was ever forced to submit — the law of settlement,^ in an Act forbidding any servant or labourer to depart from one part of the kingdom to another. In the same reign, and in the reign of Henry the Fourth,' provision is made for the poor out of the fruits and profits of the Church ; and there is a case in the Year Books in the seventh year of Henry the Sixth, as to the right to a nief, who defended himself on the ground that he had resided a year and a day in the City of London. At this time, however, it is probable that personal servitude had almost entirely disappeared. The wars of Tork and Lancaster* Fitzherbert's " Natuia Brevium," vol. i. p. 76. " Writ of nief lies for the lord who claima inheritance in any villein when hia villein is run from him." — Plowden, p. 124, u. " En le comt€ de Kent ils ont contume que chacun nfe dans le comt^ nient contre €tant que son pfere flit nief Tissue sera franli." — In the Year Book of Henry the Sixth, year 7, de S. PASCHiE, p. 32, see. 27. "Brief de nativo Habendo." 1 Walsingham (p. 276) gives a curious account of the way in which the judge entrapped the jury {" quamquam falsi esse maluissent") into a conviction of the villeins. ^ 12 Richard II., c. 3. " Liber est," says Bracton, " qui potest ire quo vult." 3 15 Richard II., u. 6. 4 Homy IV., o. 11. « Godwin (" De Praesulibus AnglisB," p. 116) say.s, in Edward the Third's time land was worth twenty-five years' purchase ; in Edward the Fourth's it had fallen CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE 111. . 83 must have accelerated this result^ — the serf had become a citizen. Accordingly the language of the Statute Book increases in ferocity. From the reign of Henry the Seventh to that of Henry the Eighth, compulsory service and compulsory maintenance exhibit themselves with little disguise. Henry the Eighth endeavoured, by the severity of the law, to prevent the inevitable consequence of the sudden and violent confiscation which had been swallowed up by his rapacity, and the rapacity of those whom he had bribed to sanction his iniquities with the least possible advantage to the community. That Providence brings good out of evil, that the worst actions of the worst men may contribute to the welfare of some portion of society, is certain ; but we are not therefore to praise cruelty and justify oppression, or to do what in us lies (no matter how humble our capacity) to remove the boundaries of right and wrong. One Act provides that impotent persons, begging without a license, shall be taken up and whipped, or set in the stocks at the discre- tion of the justices. Another, with a brutality to ten. £1,000 in money, or £100 a year in land, are oflfered to any one who would arrest the Dulie of Clarence. — Eymek's Feedera, vol. xi. p. 654. ' The 9th Henry V., c. 5, bears testimony to depopulation. Pliilip de Comines tells UB that "Edward the Fourth told him he had fought on foot in nine pitched battles, and that as soon as the enemy began to fly, he mounted his horse and cried to them to spare the common people and kill the nobles." In 1514 Henry the Eighth manumitted two villeins. In 1536 the Lords flung out a bill for relieving bondmen, showing that somo sliU existed. — Sa Thomas Smith, X>e Mep. Ang., vol. iii. p. 8. G 2 84 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [COOK I. peculiar to our law, provides that every vagabond, whole and mighty in body, shall be tied to the cart's tail and whipped till his body be bloody by reason of such whipping. Such was the parental regard of the legislature for the poor, whom it had suddenly deprived of the resource to which they had been accustomed to turn for support for seven hundred years. The preamble of an Act passed in the 27th of Henry the Eighth, candidly remarks that, though the punishment of the poor is provided for, there is no provision made for their maintenance, nor yet for setting them to work ; and then proceeds to declare that the mayor of every city shall succour, keep, and find every of the said poor people by way of volun- tary and charitable alms. Such statutes, of course, were worse than useless. Irritated by their failure, the legislature, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, passed an Act to find any parallel for which, the annals of any country calling itself free may be searched in vain. After lamenting that the "godly Acts" which had hitherto been framed on the subject had not pro- duced the effect which was to be wished, and ascribing the failure "to the foolish pity and mercy of those who should have seen those godly laws executed," and suggesting that if the vagabonds, who were unprofitable members of the common- wealth, were punished by death, whipping, or CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 85 corporal servitude, it were not worse than their deserts ; it proceeds to enact, that " if any man or woman able to work should refuse to labour, and remain idle for three days, he or she should be branded on the breast with the letter V, and adjudged the slaves, for two years, of any one who should inform against such idlers." They vrere to be fed on bread and water, and such refuse meat as the master should think proper. He was to cause his slave to work, by beating, chaining, or otherwise, in such work and labour, how vile soever it be, as he should put him unto. If he or she ran away, the slave became the slave of his master for life, after being branded on the cheek with the letter S. If he ran away a second time he was " to suffer pains of death as felons ought to do." Another clause enabled the master to dispose of his slave as his chattel. Another directed the justices of the peace, if no informer appeared, to inquire after such loiterers, and if they had been vagrant for the space of three days, to put in force the provisions stated above. Another empowered the master to put a ring of iron about the neck, arm, or leg of his slave, for more knowledge and surety of the keeping him. The statute also contains a provision saving the rights of those who were entitled to "niefs of blood," showing that Englishmen might still be born slaves. 86 niSTOBT OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. It is only just to say that this detestable law, worthy of a den of banditti, was speedily repealed, and that though other savage and impolitic laws were passed on the same subject, no attempt was made to revive the clauses I have cited ; but it is a melancholy proof of the deliberate cruelty to which mistaken interest and barbarous ignorance could, in the age of Sir Thomas More, Hooker, Cartwright, and Erasmus, transport an English legislature. Continued complaints and increasing evils at last, after much abortive empiricism, produced the 43rd of Elizabeth, which became the basis of all future legislation on the subject. By this Act the right of the poor to public relief was formally established. It was directed that four overseers should be chosen in each parish, for setting children to work, and raising a stock of money for the purpose : justices were empowered to levy the rate by distress. Various laws were passed in the reign of James with regard to mendicants and vagrants. One, which continued in force till the reign of Anne, provides that "persons adjudged" (that is by the squires) "incorrigible and dangerous, should be branded on the left shoulder with a hot iron, of the breadth of a shilling, having a Eoman R upon it, and placed to labour ; and if after such judgment they were found begging and wandering, they were to be adjudged felons, and to suffer death without CHAP. 1.] DURING THE BEIGN OF GEORGE HI. 87 benefit of clergy." The next important statute, and that which perhaps has operated most banefully, and ■with the greatest harshness on the lower classes, is the law of settlement, passed in the year 1662. No law has been the cause of greater and more perfectly wanton litigation. If half the sums lavished in disputing settlements, between the years 1815 and 1835, had been funded, England might Have been for ever exonerated from the poor-rate.^ The egotism and want of foresight for which our legislation is so unhappily conspicuous, were never written in more legible characters. The law itself, besides its gross and disgusting inhu- manity, was a direct interference with natural right. It prevented the labourer from carrying his only property to the best market. It inflicted as great an injury on every man born in a certain class, as a lasting taint of our air, our water, or our earth would have been. Yet on this point, history — which describes so emphatically the far less serious calamities inflicted, not by statesmen, but by a maddened people, on a much smaller class, during a much shorter period, and which, horrible and wholly unjustifiable as they were, at any rate were the price of a great social regeneration in France — is altogether silent.^ The tears of the historian and the 1 In 1751 the poor-rate was calculated at three millions yearly. 2 " Carent quia vate sacro." 88 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. orator are kept for the great, the learned, and the beautiful — for the murdered queen and the exiled noble ; but when whole kingdoms are brought under one system of universal misery, by the folly of a king, the wickedness of a favourite, or the vanity of a harlot — by George the Third, or Bruhl, or Buck- ingham, or Pompadour, or Catharine of Eussia ; when the terrible curse ^ denounced against the Israelites, " In the morning thou shalfc say. Would God it were evening, and in the evening. Would God it were morning," is inflicted on the innocent labourer, and myriads of peasants are scourged to the bone by an unrelenting despotism, for century after cen- tury, — modern eloquence is mute, and modern sym- pathy at an end. " There is," says Adam Smith, in his great work, written at least a century after the law, " scarcely a poor man in England of the age of forty who has not been cruelly oppressed by the law of settlement." Such is the language not of an un- scrupulous demagogue, not of an excited enthusiast, but of a grave philosopher, composing, in the calm and silence of his closet, a work that deserves to be ranked among the most valuable productions of ' " Atqui non Massica Bacchi Munera, non illia epulce nocuere repostae." What are the Crimea of Robespierre, execrable aa he is, compared with those of Metternich or the Emperor Nicliolas ? Compared with Burke's correspondent, Catliarine of Eussia, he was a Man of Kosa. CHAP, 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III, 89 modern science.^ The principle of that law ia still in operation among us. Independently of the intrinsic wickedness of such a law, the cruelty with which it was carried into effect (as was sure to be the case if those to whom its operation was entrusted are con- sidered) added to its horrors. Sir Josiah Child tells us "that poor persons are often removed or passed to the place of their settlement during their sickness, to the great danger of their lives." The same writer, in his discourse on trade, dwells on the miserable condition of the poor, and the conse- quences of shifting, sending, and whipping bach the poor labourers to the place of their birth. The legisr lation of Edward the Sixth's time could hardly have complained of any " foolish pity " in those who now administered the poor law. Hay says that "the poor were lodged in houses that would not shelter them from the weather, clothed with rags that would ' To thia opinion I will add that of Burke, recorded in the valuable corre- spondence lately published : — "EESOLUTIONS OONCEKNING THE POOR LAWS." After stating the law, they proceed : — " That such arbitrary power of removal and restraint is a subversion of natural justice, a violation of the inherent rights of raanliind, and not justified by the true policy of a commercial nation, but totally repugnant thereto." " Resolved — That a committee be appointed to examine into the powera given by the laws for settling and mainta,ining the poor, and particularly the statute 13 & 1-t Charles II., to justices of the peace, and parish officers, and to report their opinion of the most effectual means of restoring the labouring part of this kingdom to that liberty which all free and industrious subjects ought to enjoy, of exercising then' industry wherever they shall find it most to their advantage." 90 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I, not cover their nakedness, without fuel to keep them warm, or food to sustain nature." Burn, a man thoroughly master of his subject, and of an under- standing that qualified him peculiarly for dealing with it, says, " that the overseers often contracted with persons of a savage disposition for the main- tenance of the. poor, to hold out a workhouse as a terrible alternative to those who would not acquiesce in the scanty pittance allowed them by the over- seers." He goes on to say that every cruelty short of scalping was practised on the English poor. Whipping continued to be a favourite remedy for poverty.^ By an Act passed, not in the reign of Hen- gist or Canute, but of George the Second,^ " a woman delivered of a child in a parish to which she does not belong, was liable to public whipping and sis months imprisonment." This while the court was swarming with concubines, one of whom was actually brought over from Hanover by George the Second, and placed under the same roof with his wife.^ In George the Third's time, an Act provides, "that no justice of the peace shall order any vagrant to be conveyed by a pass who has not been whipped or imprisoned for at least seven days." Certificates of the whipping, produced as a title to relief, are still among the records of our parishes. Is there any- 1 " In such time and manner as to the Justices shall eoom meet." 2 17 Geoi-ge II., o. 5, sees. 3, 4, 9, 25. » 32 George III., 0. 45. CHAr. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEOEGE III. 91 thing in Canciani^ more revolting to the instincts of freemen, or more surely proviiag the degradation of the people ? The great orator of antiquity dared not directly mention corporal punishment to an Athenian audience. He hints at the possibility of it as a consequence of servitude. Can stronger proof be given of the coarseness which it is so difficult to eradicate from the Anglo-Saxon nature, even in the highest ranks, and of the light in which the lowest class of the community was considered? Is it not evident that while the upper and middle classes were fenced round with every security that the most jealous caution could provide — that while they were enjoying the full benefit of the mighty works that had been wrought in England during the seventeenth century — of the dungeon of Elliot, and of the block of Sydney, and of the gibbet of College, and of the stake of Mrs. Gaunt — the labouring poor were still looked upon almost as the Norman considered the native serf : as machines to till the soil, to labour in the mine, to dig the canal, to man our fleets, to recruit our armies, and to obey a law which, con- niving at all that was flagitious in their superiors, reserved for them, even when innocent, the scourge and the gaol ; made hospitality to them a crime,^ and ' Leges Barbarorum. " " Any person giving a lodging to such persons (among others, those who pretended to any skill in physiognomy!) to be fined." — 17 George II., c. 5. 92 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. awarded them, as a compensation for a life of incessant toil, the workhouse, into which they were farmed out, until they should relieve those whom they had toiled for in their youth on wages that made a provision for old age impossible, by descending into the wished-for grave ?^ I have dwelt at length on these laws which had their origin, not in benevolence, but necessity, because without some knowledge of them, and of the effect which they produced, it is impossible for any one to form a correct idea of the social state, or indeed of the public mind, in England in the middle of the eighteenth century. Their evil consequences were afterwards aggravated by other laws, not so inhuman indeed, but equally unreasonable. All motive for industry was taken from the labourer. The wages of labour were in fact paid out of the poor-rate. In 1834 seven millions and a half were levied for paupers. In one parish all the unem- ployed men were put up to sale weekly ; ten men were knocked down to a farmer for ten shillings. In another all the labour was paid for out of the rate. In another the clergyman was required to pay double the value of a large living in the shape of parochial relief. It seems surprising that the soil should have remained in cultivation. The reader ' In 1795, Mr. Fox said the greater part of the lower classes were lying at the mercy, or living on the charity, of the rich. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOKGE HI. 93 who will refer to the reports and evidence laid before the Houses of Lords and Commons in 1838, may form some notion of the practical genius of the English where great problems are to be solved, and foresight, a disregard of vulgar prejudice, and an absence of interested views are requisite. These laws, perhaps more than any other, attest the in- herent incapacity of our race for legislation. They ought to diminish the ignorant, presumptuous arro- gance with which Englishmen are apt to speak of theorists and principles, of foreign customs, and foreign jurisprudence. They compose a system of mingled selfishness, cruelty, and blundering not to be matched elsewhere ; and if it had been intended by their authors to harden the hearts of the rich, and brutalise the manners of the poor, — to sour their blood by oppression, and to quench in them every aspiration that distinguishes a freeman from a slave, — means more effectual could hardly have been devised for such a purpose. Among other causes of demoralisation^ active at 1 " The negroes," says Mr. Burke, "in our colonies, endure a slavery more complete, and attended with far worse circumstances, than what any people in their condition suffer in any other part of the norld, or have suffered in any other period of time. Proofs of this are not wanting. The prodigious waste which we experience in this unhappy part of our species, is a full and melancholy evidence of this truth." " From all that can be learnt," says Paley, a writer by no means inclined to take an elevated view of social obligations, or abstract right, "the inordinate authority which the plantation laws confer upon the slaveholder, is exorcised, by the English slaveholder especially, with rigour and brutality." 9i HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I, this period must be reckoned one peculiar to our- selves — the multiplication of oaths on the most trivial occasions, and the profanation of the most solemn rite of our religion ; and another which we shared with other nations, though as a commercial people we engrossed the largest portion of it, I mean the slave trade. In vain shall we look through the history of heathen states for any system of such intense and perfect wickedness, so utterly at variance with the plainest precepts of the re- ligion which those upholding it professed to revere, carried on with restless energy, consigning year after year thousands of innocent human beings to frightful sufferings, and maintained long after its horrors had been exposed, simply because it was profitable. The neighbourhood of the fiercest beasts of prey was not so dangerous to the miserable inhabitants of Africa, as the intercourse with Euro- pean Christians. That it was abolished we owe not to George the Third, who tenaciously upheld it; not to those who courted his favour by imitating his example, such as Thurlow, Scott, Jenkinson, and Dundas ; not even to the eloquence of Mr. Pitt, to the efforts of Wilberforce, or the pure and single-minded zeal of Olarkson ; but to the acci- dent which placed for a few months Grenville, Fox, and Grey at the head of administration, and en- abled them to force upon a hostile sovereign a CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III, 95 measure which he had employed all his iafluence to counteract/ In William the Third's time we find Parliament declaring that the slave trade is highly beneficial to England and her colonies.^ In 1712 the Queen relied on the Asiento contract as a palliation of the traitorous peace of Utrecht.^ The same sentiment is repeated in the reign of George the Second. Far from holding the doctrine at last laid down, after many vain endeavours to get rid of the question, by Lord Mansfield in Somerset's case (when Dunning,* to his disgrace, argued against freedom). Holt, PoUexfen, and eight other judges, with the engrained narrowness of their caste, declare that negroes are merchandise. If it were possible to smile at human inconsistencies, where they are the cause of such unspeakable misery, the question to which the religion of the slaveholder ' " We, the British Senate, the temple of liberty and bulwark of Protestant Christianity, have this fortnight been pondering methods to make more effectual that horrid traffic of selling negroes. It has appeared 46,000 of these wretches are sold every year to our plantations." — Walpolb's Letters, vol. li. p. 19. 1750. 2 10 William III., o. 20. ' It is more remarkable that such a passage as this should occur in Burke's works : — " A good ministry would have considered how a renewal of the Asiento [i.e. contract for supplying slaves] might have been obtained. We had as much right to ask it at the Treaty of Paris as at the Treaty of Utrecht. We had incomparably more in our liauds to purchase it. Floods of treasure would have poured into this kingdom from such a source." — Bokke, Observations, ^c. Works, vol. ii. p. 46. a.d. 1769. •• Having before said that he would maintain in any place and any court of tho kingdom, that our laws admit of no such property — can any technical rule, or the cant of any profession, palliate so gross a violation of morality ? 96 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. gave rise would be most amusing. They — men tena- cious to an extreme, not only of Christianity, but of the peculiar form of Christianity to which they belonged — were anxious to secure the eternal salva- tion of the negro whom they kidnapped, and to atone, by procuring him happiness in another world, for the misery they inflicted upon him in this. Accord- ingly, the practice of baptising the wretched slaves was common ; but a notion suddenly obtained that baptism was inconsistent with slavery, and excited the utmost consternation from New England to Carolina — all baptising came to an end. It was not till the opinion of the Attorney and Solicitor Generals Talbot and Yorke^ had been procured to the contrary (an opinion directly overruled by Lord Mansfield, in Somerset's case), and Gribson, the Bishop of London, had solemnly declared that Chris- tianity did not affect the property of the slaveholder in his human instrument, and their temporal interest was quite secured, that the terror thus excited was appeased, and the Christian men allowed their slaves to be saved (from what most of them held to be inevitable) the necessity of suffering the ex- tremest degree of torment for everlasting — so ' A.D. 1729. " We are of opinion that a slave, by coming from the West Indies into Great Britain, does not become free, and that baptism does not bestow freedom upon him. The master may legally compel him to return to the plantations." — Cit. Clakkson's History of the Slave Trade, p. 65. Slaves were advertised for as runaways, in the London papei-s, at this time. CUAP. 1.] DURING TH£ EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 97 true is the profound remark of one of the greatest of modern writers/ that our zeal works marvels when it chimes in with our hatred, our ambi- tion, or our avarice — he might have added our vanity — but, unless in persons rarely constituted, is impotent when it urges us to works of benevolence and self-denial. In a tract written in 1745,^ the African slave trade is called " the great pillar and support of the British plantation trade in North America." " My friends and I," said Oglethorpe, a man of godlike benevolence, who, like Sir G-eorge Savile, would have adorned the purest age, and who appears like a prodigy in the most corrupt,^ " were determined not to suffer slavery in Georgia, but the slave merchants and their adherents not only occasioned us much trouble, but at last got Govern- ment to sanction them." In 1760 South Carolina attempted to restrain the slave trade in vain. In 1776 the colonial minister, the most accomplished gentle- man of his day, said to a colonial agent, " We cannot 1 Montaigne, vol. i. p. 12. " Tract by a Britiah merchant. The argument is in the truly selfish spirit of tlie day ; — " Were it possible for white men to answer the end of negroes, our colonies would interfere with the manufacture of these kingdoms ; in such case we might have just reason to dread the prosperity of our colonies ; but while we can abundantly supply them with negroes we need be under no such apprehension." ' " If Oglethorpe was the firat man in the colony, his pre-eminence was founded on old Homer's maxim. He was the most fatigued and the first in danger ; distinguished by his cares and his labours, not by any exterior marks of grandeur — the more easily dispensed with, as they were certainly needless." — Hakeis's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 332. 98 HISTORY OP ENGLAND [BOOK I, allow the colonies to check, or in any way to dis- courage, a traffic so beneficial to the nation." It was reserved for Europe, after the destruction of the Eoman empire, to furnish more complete proofs than history had yet exhibited, that the human mind is capable of reconciling the most submissive belief in a religious creed, and the most scrupulous observ- ance of the external ceremonies it enjoins, with an utter disregard and systematic violation of its precepts. Such was the spirit (so carefully in- flamed by the clergy) which atoned for laying pro- vinces waste by founding a monastery in the dark ages ; and which, in the time of George the Second, induced some one to leave a plantation stocked with slaves to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.^ The first remarkable expostulation in favour of the negro, came, not from an English divine, but a French philosopher. Montesquieu, in ' The magniBoent cathedrals of Normandy, eo often appealed to as monuments of piety, were raised precisely at the time when the most fiendish cruelties were inflicted on the English, and by their most savage persecutors, especially Odo of Bayeux. To teach men that they could atone for a life of cruelty by such acts, was not the way to improve the condition of society. Yet this was a favourite doctrine of the clergy of the dark ages. The result was that, from Constantino downwards, every murderer and oppressor imagined that he could elude Divine justice on his death-bed by parting with riches, for which he no longer had any use — that they could iwy the favour of their Maker. The priests of Apollo and Minerva taught no such abomination. We have built a cathedral at Calcutta, but have not taken off the tax on salt, which annually destroys thousands, and inflicts disease in its most loathsome form on many more — sucli is our morality. " Vain human kind, fantastic race. Thy various follies who can trace." CHAP. ].] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE HI. 99 his noble work — which it has been reserved (and it is a characteristic of the period) for a popular writer of our day to speak of lightly, but which, for depth of thought, brilliancy of expression, and solid learning, is the text-book, as it must always remain, of the philosophic historian, as well as of every enlightened jurist — has exhausted all the power that sarcasm could lend to eloquence, in bringing home the enormous wickedness of the system to the mind of his contemporaries/ I anticipate a few years that I may do justice on this subject to two eminent members of the English Church — on both of whom I shall have occasion to make less favourable comments — Warburton and Paley. Both these dis- tinguished and powerful writers took occasion to denounce the slave trade : Paley in an admirable passage of his moral philosophy,^ Warburton in a sermon preached in the year 1766, stamped with many proofs of his masculine and daring intellect. The sentences in which he tears to shreds the wretched sophistry by which people anxious to be ' "Esprit des Lois," xv. 5. I will quote the two concluding paragraphs : — " II est impossible que nous supposions que cea gens la soient dea Iiommes, parceque si nous les supposions dea hommes, on commencerait a croire que nous ne sommes pas nous memes Chretiens. " De petits esprits exagferent trop I'injiistice qu'on fait aux Africains, car si elle 6tait telle qu'ils le disent, ne serait il pas venu dans la tete des princes d'Europe qui font entre eux tant de conventions inutiles, d'en faire une gen^rale en fkveur de la mis^ricorde." * The passage beginning, " But defect of right in the first purchase is the least crime with which this traffic is chargeable." H 2 100 HISTOEy . OK ENGLAND [BOOK I. deceived allowed themselves to be imposed upon, shall be cited here. We shall look in vain for any sentiment half so generous from those who presided in our courts of justice. Lord Mansfield's judgment in Somerset's case is timid, and was evidently de- livered with much reluctance. Thurlow — either from an instinctive delight in all that was brutal (which did not prevent him from being a gross hypocrite), or from a desire to please George the Third — sup- ported the slave trade and the horrors of the middle passage with all the uncompromising ferocity of a Liverpool merchant or of a Guinea captain. To the language of these timid and hardened lawyers, the generous ebullition of the priest stands out in bold relief.' " It has been pretended," he says, " in excuse of this violation of all things civil and sacred, that though these miserable outcasts be torn from their homes and native wilds by force and fraud, yet this violation of the rights of humanity improves their condition, and renders them less unhappy. But who are you who pretend to judge of another man's happiness ? — that state which each man under the instinctive guidance of his Creator forms for himself, and not one man for another. To know what con- stitutes mine or your happiness is the sole prerogative of Him who made us, and cast our minds into different moulds. Did these unhappy slaves ever complain to ' Wai'burton's Works, voL x. p. 54. Sermon 20. CHAP.l.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. . 101 you of their uuhappiness amid their native woods and deserts ? or rather, let me ask, did they ever cease complaining of their condition under you, their lordly masters?— where they see, indeed, the accommodations of civil life, but, the more to embitter their miseries, see them all pass by to others, unbeneflted by them. Be so gracious, then, ye petty tyrants over human freedom, to let your slaves judge for themselves what it is which makes their own happiness, and see whether they do not rather place it in their return to their own country, than in the contemplation of your grandeur, of which their distresses make so large a part." That the effects of this infernal traffic were most pernicious to the persons immediately engaged in it, is proved by Clarkson, who recites murder after murder committed with perfect impunity by the captains of slave dealers on their crew, as well as by the narratives which from time to time found their way into the " Annual Register," in which is to be found one account of seventy living slaves, some of whom were supposed to be labouring under a contagious disease, being flung into the sea, that the loss might fall on the insurers, instead of falling on the owners of the cargo. It may safely be said that the cruelties, dreadful as they were, of Eobespierre, and even of Marat, are as nothing compared with the slave trade as it was practised by the most civilised nations of Europe — that in the transportation of tens of thou- 102 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. sands of innocent persons annually from their native land, without the pretext of any provocation, there was contracted a greater portion of misery and guilt into a smaller space, than had ever existed in the heathen, world. The worst crimes recorded by Thucy- dides or by Tacitus — who mentions the execution of all the slaves of a murdered master (according to the stern old Roman law, and in obedience to a supposed state necessity), as having provoked the indignation of the Roman populace, and a resistance which was only put down by military power — are light and trifling in comparison. There is nothing to be com- pared with it in the history of human wickedness. It was abolished at once by the French revolutionist, yet in Mr. Burke's later works, abounding with in- vectives against all who were, however remotely and for the most beneficial purposes, concerned in the French Revolution, and calling for confederated Europe to employ fire and sword for their ex- termination, there is not to be found one syllable condemning the African slave trade : such power has custom, and it must be added, prejudice.^ Neither in the enumeration of the evils which ^ Shakespeare would have taught Mr. Burke, even from the h'ps of exiled royalty, that society presented worse evils than those he exhausted his powers in bewailing : — " Thou eeeflt we are not all alone unhappy; This wide and universal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene Which we play in." CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 103 afflicted England at this period, should the condition of private madhouses, which were turned, like the letter of the law, into an instrument of savage oppression, be forgotten.^ The facts detailed in the report of the committee, form, in England, no contrast to those which we discover wherever dis- interested exertion was requisite to counteract a growing evil. Witnesses of irreproachable character declare that in many instances persons had been confined for no other reason but the avarice or violence of husbands and relations. Some had been driven mad, some had perished — all were unavenged. These were the consequences of carrying too far a maxim^ in itself valuable, and allowing the elements of society to stagnate into pestilence for want of timely care and due consideration. Lord Bacon has told us that " a froward retention of custom " is to be dreaded, as the cause of danger to communities ; and that time, which no human power can arrest, is of all innovators the greatest. Before the eighteenth century had closed, his words received a tremendous illustration. And if there ever was a nation where constant attention to all public institutions is requisite, and incessant vigilance over those entrusted with their manage- ment — where everything requires perpetually to be 1 " Pari. Hist.," vol. xv. p. 1290. See particularly, " Ann. Reg.," 1778, p. 76. ' Quieta non movere. 104 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. recalled, in Machiavelli's words, to its first principles, and its original standard — it is among a people as entirely absorbed by the interests of tlie moment, as little capable of- being acted upon by remote influences, and so indifferent to abstract truth and general principle, as the English, The evils which I have pointed out, however dangerous to the moral qualities of the nation, did not arrest the course of our material prosperity. When the breath of liberty once animates the political body, it kindles a flame which hardly any amount of folly is able to extinguish. The long in- tervals of peace which the nation had enjoyed since the peace of Utrecht, had developed to an extra- ordinary degree the resources and opulence^ of the country — between the years 1726 and 1760, the amount of the official value of our exports had almost doubled. The population, estimated at five millions and three-quarters in Queen Anne's time, at the close of G-eorge the Second's reign is reckoned by a very competent and accurate judge at seven millions.^ The charge for the relief of the poor had increased during the same period from £950,000 to one million and a quarter. With the increase of employment, which the augmented exports prove, the rise in the rate of wages, and the fall in the price • Nicholh' " Poor Laws." The average of 1726, 1727, 1728, was £7,891,739. In 1760, it was £14,693,270. 2 ii,;^.^ ^^i_ ;;_ ^ g9_ CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III, 105 of corn, the physical condition of the labourer had materially improved.^ The consumption of tea had greatly increased: from 141,995 lbs., imported in 1711, it had reached the amount, in 1760, of 2,5 15,875 lbs. The cultivation of the potato had also become general — an addition to the means of human subsistence not without its dangers and evils, as a failure in the crop leaves the population depending exclusively upon it, without any means of support, there being no lower diet to which it can have recourse. Our great staple was still the woollen manufacture. Cotton was little used : spin- ning machines not yet invented. In 1758 the Duke of Bridgewater began the great work which bears his name, forming a means of water communication between Manchester and the neighbouring coal-fields with Liverpool. The first proof we find in the Statute Book that the attention of the legislature had been turned to the means of inland water transit, is in William the Third's reign, when two Acts were passed for making and keeping navigable the rivers Aire and Calder, and the river Trent.^ The mag- nificent canal of Languedoc, and a greater knowledge of Holland and its resources, probably suggested 1 Malthua proves that the day's earnings of the labourer in the seventeenth century would purchase three-quarters of a peck of corn ; and during the fiist half of the eighteenth century, a whole peck. — Cited by Nichols, vol. ii. p. 55. 2 William III., cc. 25, 26. 106 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. the idea which Brindley executed. The success of this enterprise encouraged others of the same kind, which led gradually to the network of canals and navigable rivers, that, before the invention of rail- ways, supplied the facilities of internal commerce over almost every part of England. Our national greatness was ripening. Never had the labourer's wages commanded so large a portion of the means of subsistence — never had there been so many signs of increased activity and enterprise. Had it not been for the rapid progress of corruption, the con- dition of England was, so far as the material in- terests of the upper and middle classes were con- cerned, one of almost unmixed prosperity. The national debt, however, increased, if not engendered by that corruption, had enlarged to dimensions which appear to us insignificant, but which our ancestors looked upon as awful. At the accession of George the First, it amounted to upwards of fifty- four millions ; at the Peace of Paris, three years after the accession of G-eorge the Third, it amounted almost to one hundred and thirty-nine.^ "Well might Burke exclaim with prophetic sagacity, "Nations are wading deeper and deeper into an ocean of boundless debt." Had it not been for the unlimited power of borrowing, how many unjust and capricious wars would have been avoided. How different would ' £54,145,363, aocesaion of George tho First ; £138,865,430, Peace of Paiia. CHAP, 1.] DUEING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 107 be our condition, and the condition of our posterity. If half the sum lavished to prevent any one bearing the name of Napoleon from residing in France, for replacing the Bourbons on the throne of France and Naples, for giving Belgium to Holland, Norway to Sweden, Finland to Eussia, Venice and Lombardy to Austria, had been employed by individual enterprise, what would now be the resources of England ! An account of the abuse of public credit would be a valuable contribution to political science. If Colbert repented that he had unfolded to Louis the Fourteenth the prodigious resources, till then unknown, of France, when he saw the growing extravagance of his master, every Englishman of the present day, not possessed of a contractor's fortune — and much more the labourer and the mechanic — has reason to regret that the fatal secret, which enables a government like ours to borrow any sums that may be requisite to gratify the passion of the day, however unreasonable and pernicious, was ever unfolded to those entrusted with the administration of affairs in England. For it is the dividend, not the cause, which the loan contractor has in view ; he would contribute as readily to the annihilation of all that is sacred among men, as to the support of it — more readily if the bargain was a more lucrative one ; the market price of stock is his standard of morality. This, 108 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. again, is a cause of degradation peculiar to modern times. Far better would it be that we should be crying out against a debt of one hundred and fifty- millions, than that we should be paying the interest on one between seven and eight hundred, and that in time of peace (and exclusive of local taxation, which is enormous) seventy-two millions of taxes yearly should be raised from the free and practical inhabitants of Great Britain. The splendid roll of English poets, beginning with Chaucer, the day-star of our language, who wrote before it had attained its meridian, closed with Pope, the luminary of its twilight, whose laboured and brilliant verse was the presage of its decline. The age of poetry, among those who speak the English tongue, then ceased, probably for ever. That of eloquence was to succeed — to be followed by a period without either, in which railways, theological disputes worthy of the Bj'-zantine empire, attempts^ nearly successful to revive in a Protestant country the worst follies of the darkest ages, Jesuitical casuistry,^ second-hand scepticism, schemes for fattening cattle, barren and mechanical philology, and the minute details of physi- cal science, have taken the place of those studies which formerly trained some few Englishmen in all times to be great, skilful, and magnanimous — able to serve their country in peace and war. The luminaries of the ' " Tracts for the Times." 2 Tract 90. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 109 happy times of Queen Anne shed a brilliant lustre over all the reign of the first, and over the early- part of that of the second, prince of the House of Brunswick. During this period Pope embodied his malevolence in some of the most admirably written verses in our language. His imitations of Horace, his " Essay on Man," his " Dunciad" were then composed. Berkeley, besides other smaller treatises, published several philosophical works, and a vindication of Christianity, thrown into the form of a dialogue, in a style rivalling that of Malebranche in beauty, most of them full of ingenious and profound speculation, and stamped with the goodness, the generosity, the love of virtue, the piety, the refined taste, the enlarged philanthropy, which enabled their author to soften the asperity of Swift, to win the suffrage of Pope, and. Christian as he was, to charm the ear of the sceptical and fastidious St. John. Bolingbroke and Swift embellished literature — the one by splendid declamation, the other by the terrible satire of Gulliver, and by the Drapier's Letters, which were not, as has been said, merely written to serve a party purpose, but to prevent a scandalous fraud, sup- ported by the avarice of the Duchess of Kendal.^ The art of political writing was carried to great perfection, and soon, like jurisprudence in the days ' Anderson's " Commorce," vol. ii. p. 124. Wood had been convicted of a fraud. 110 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. of Imperial Rome, became the sphere in whicli the most conspicuous abilities exerted themselves to gain the favour of the public. "Never," says one of the greatest masters of our language, " was writing in England at a higher pitch for learning, strength of diction, and elegance of style than in this reign (George the Second). All the good writing, too, was confined to political topics, either of civil, military, or ecclesiastical government, and all the tracts on these subjects printed in pamphlets."^ This kind of composition had, indeed, as was to be expected in a free country, ever since the press became an instrument of thought, flourished in this island. The efforts of Martin Marprelate, and the pamphlets of Cartwright (the most powerful writer of controversy in our language), in Elizabeth's time, opened the path, and were followed by the fierce and eloquent vituperation of Tom Tell Truth, levelled at the disgusting vices of James the First, and the blas- phemous servility of his Bishops ; by two tracts of Lord Bacon, on Church Eeform, which, if he had written nothing else, would be sufBcient to make his name immortal ; by " Killing no Murder," which made Cromwell himself tremble ; by various tracts of Milton, all instinct with genius, and especially the " Areopagitica," a defence of free discussion that no writer in any other nation has approached. As we ,' " Hervey's Memoirs," vol. i. p. 804. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. Ill descend we find the admirable tracts of Halifax, and the essays of De Foe/ Davenant, Julian Johnson, Trenchard, Anthony Collins, and Asgill; the Ex- aminer of Swift, the Craftsman, Cato's Letters, and the various papers of the great master Bolingbroke. Then we have the brilliant pamphlets of Lord Hervey. Lord Egmont distinguished himself extremely in the same manner, and kept the thread unbroken till the days when the polished invective of Junius cast all but Swift and St. John into the shade. But neither the letters of Junius, nor Dunning's attack on Lord Mansfield's doctrine in cases of libel, nor Burke's famous pamphlets, fall within the limits of this chapter. The worst of these pamphlets is far superior to anything the present age has produced, or (if we may judge of its capacity by what we read in its daily efforts) is capable of producing.^ Akenside, ' " The fellow who was pillorieil, I forget his name," says Swift, speaking of one of the most vigorous writers in our language. " Earless on high stood unabashed De Foe," says Pope, who is base enough to reproach De Foe with a punishment he had not done near as much to deserve as Pope himself. In the next line he reproaches Ridpath with the savage sentence of Jeffreys — a disgrace, not to Ridpath, but to England, and, as Pope has contrived it, to Pope himself — " Ridpath flagrant from the scourge below." But Pope had a thoroughly ungenerous nature; and where his vanity was touched, was quite implacable. His verses on Lady Mary Wortley ought to have driven him out of all social intercourse. Atterbury described him (the internal evidence of the anecdote establishes its truth) — " Mens curva in corpore curvo." " It is curious to observe how free these writers are from the vulgarity of thought and language, the slang phrases, &c., which mercantile habits have given to our literature : it is evident they addressed another class of readers. 112 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Thomson, Young, are to the great English poets what Claudian, Statius, and Lucan are to Lu- cretius, Yirgil, and Catullus. Grray, destitute of creative genius, writes with excessive labour, bor- rowing his thoughts from the Greek and Roman poets, and his language from Dryden. Goldsmith is sweet and captivating, but the greatest poet in the true sense of the word is Collins. The mighty writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were followed by others who addressed them- selves to a wider and of course an inferior class of readers. Our greatest writers lived in the time when the public was least numerous : they were beyond the mob.^ The decay of higher literature in England has steadily kept pace with the increasing number of those to whom authors appeal for encour- agement and support. It is hardly possible (we have as yet seen no instance of it) that a great work should be produced in an age when literature is a mercantile speculation. As the division of labour has added to the wealth of the community,^ but lowered the energies of the individual, so the habit ' Milton did not want to make a fortune or to be a peer. The mob could give him one, and the favour of a court the other — neither could establish the merit of " Paradise Lost." lu our day Cicero would have been a baron (not of the Exchequer), and Tacitus a baronet. ^ Of the two extremes, is not a savage who makes his canoe, tracts his game, and scalps his enemy, or is scalped by him, and endures hardships and tortures without a murmur, a superior being to the man who sells his vote (that is, betrays his country), and passes his life in making the eighteenth part of a pin's head ? CHAP.!.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 113 or necessity of composing works suited to the taste of ill-educated people has (especially in England) lowered the aspirations of those who are born to teach and elevate mankind.^ The marvellous eloquence and deep thought of Jackson of Barrow, and Jeremy Taylor— single sentences from whom outweigh all that churches are now thronged to hear— the caustic energy of South, the ever Various and unquenched spirit of Dryden, bursting forth like the living waters of a fresh fountain, and embodied in a style always suited to the subject, and of which it is impossible to be weary, were replaced by the elegance and inimitable humour of Addison, the pure idiom of Sharp, the easy sense of Tillotson, the Ciceronian style of Smalridge. These traditions were con- tinued, not unworthily, towards the close of the period I am endeavouring to describe, by the finished writing and keen argument of Middleton, the close logical reasoning of Clarke, and the flowing rhetoric of Sherlock. Butler displayed a power of subtle reasoning and a genius for metaphysical inquiry which no Englishman had ever equalled; his style is perplexed, and his^nalogy, skilful and ingenious as the argument is, is rather calculated to ' Perhaps as great a master of English prose as ever wrote, is a writer now almost unknown, Henry Smith, who preached at St. Clement Danes, and died certainly before 1609. There are passages in his works equal to those of any English prose writer. See Appendix. 114 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. confirm the believer than to convince the sceptic; but his sermons on human nature, and the preface to them, are full of arguments at once solid, original, and profound. This great man owed his elevation to the discriminating and steady patronage of Queen Caroline. But before the accession of George the Third, a new writer had come forward, the greatest man that the northern part of the island (which, fertile in useful qualities, is comparatively barren in taste and genius) has ever produced, ex- pressing in a style always perspicuous, and often informed by rare and genuine eloquence, the specu- lations of one of the most profound and compre- hensive intellects that man has ever been permitted to enjoy. This was David Hume — if political life be set aside, the greatest man born in this island during the eighteenth century. As an historian, he undertook, not from any base or sordid motive, but from disdain of vulgar opinion, the desperate cause of the Stuarts, and, indeed, of kings in general. Thus his graceful narrative, warped incessantly to this overruling purpose, is one continued misrepresen- tation. But wherever he has to deal with a more general question, wherever he has to point out the progress of society, and the shifting relations of the different elements composing it, the subject is at once lighted up by the most enlarged wisdom, and the most searching penetration. In metaphysics he CHAP. 1.] DUUING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 115 pushed the creed (then universally received) of Locke to its only legitimate consequence — universal scep- ticism. Berkeley had, with equal eloquence, and a boldness that, his profession considered, is most sur- prising, sought refuge from such a corollary in the shadowy spaces of an ideal world. Hume took up the argument where Berkeley left it, and carried it with merciless rigour to its utmost limits ; and such is the advantage of free discussion, so deeply concerned is the interest of truth in the full, unreserved ex- amination of every topic that reason will enable us to discuss, that this work of Hume's gave occasion to the most powerful work that has yet been seen on the side opposite to his own, and to the most complete refutation of that doctrine from which the scepticism of Hume is an irresistible conclusion.^ It was from deep meditation on the arguments of Hume that Kant was led into the train of thought which gave rise to his work, the greatest monument of meta- physical science that has been erected since the days of Aristotle, in which, following the track of Leibnitz,^ he overthrows the doctrine of Locke, on which the system of Hume, and of the French materialists during the eighteenth century, had been established. Kant's work is the text-book of all spiritualists, and the source of all that has been ' aya9r) S' ipig ijh ^poTotaiv ^ Nouveaux Essais sur I'entendement humain. I 2 116 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. written since it appeared. The reputation of Hegel, Fichte, and Schelling was ephemeral, but the splendour of Kant's reputation is not unimpaired only, but augmenting. Besides the history and his metaphysical treatises, Hume has written a volume of essays on political subjects, full of large and liberal sentiments, as of sagacious remarks, and anticipating much that is now the creed of statesmen. The faults of this great man are — a want of imagina- tion, and a certain coldness of temperament which often prevents him from displaying the sympathy due to the claims of freedom, of justice, and of virtue -^ a sophistry of which he must have been perfectly aware, exercised on the most important questions of morality ; and a disposition to look up to rank, which, but for the disinterested love of letters he exhibited during his whole life, and for the great allowance to be made for the habits and education of his countrymen, might sometimes be thought to border on servility. Very different from the character of this illustrious man is that of a person who began at this time to obtain eminence, and who has, in some measure, from his intellectual defects, which were exactly those most popular among us, obtained an exaggerated reputation. This was Samuel Johnson, a man of vigorous but contracted understanding, the slave of prejudices and ' Thua he could make no allowance for the naorbid sensitiveness of Eousseau. CHAP.l.] DUEING THE EBIGN OF GEOBGE III. 117 superstition that would disgrace a peasant — coarse in his habits, brutal in his language, honest in his errors, whom the English obstinately revere as a critic and a wit, though almost every page of his writings shows that he was as incapable of appre- ciating the highest order of poetry as a blind man would be of appreciating Raphael ; and the collec- tions which have been made of his sayings, though occasionally enlivened by vigorous expression and poignant repartee, contain many more proofs of obstinate prejudice, illogical evasion, and downright brutality. The redeeming qualities of his moral character were manliness, and a rude but touching and genuine benevolence : a most retentive memory, and strong natural sense, that sometimes dissipates the mist of inveterate prejudice, are the characteristics of his understanding ; of anything like refinement or philosophy he is altogether destitute. His language, when he puts aside for a moment his detestable style, is pointed, vigorous, and concise. His best works are the life of Savage, whom he loved ; the life of Dryden, whom he appreciated; the para- phrases of Juvenal; the verses on the death of a humble friend ;^ the preface to his Dictionary ; the letter to Lord Chesterfield ; above all, the review of Soame Jenyns. There is much in each of these of ' Those which begin — " Long vexed by many a trial here, See Levett to the grave descend." 118 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. which the most distinguished writer might be proud. As he was an indiscriminate admirer of the English Church, and an implicit worshipper of hereditary right, his reputation has been made a party watch- word by many ignorant and servile writers, and especially by one whose career has shown the power of mere insolence to impose over the English mind, and proved how an impostor, without the common learning of a schoolboy, in spite of incessant and ludicrous blunders^ — not master even of a tolerable style — was allowed by the blind, unreasoning flock of English readers, to assume the chair of the critic, and to dictate to them magisterially, for a quarter of a century, on subjects of which he had the first rudiments to learn. But what really distinguishes, in a literary point of view, the age which succeeded the great writers of Queen Anne's day, is the art of novel writing, which was carried to a pitch that, in spite of the brilliant writings of Walter Scott, has been never since at- tained. Smollett, though possessed of humour, and capable of describing with much effect low scenes and ordinary characters, is a coarse, narrow-minded, and virulent writer.^ But Richardson and Fielding ' This person translates " fallentis semita vifse," the path of deceitftd life ! and explains the German expression " Schatz" (treasure), applied by George the Second, when Prince of Wales, to Mary Bellenden, to mean chattering! — Ceoker's Wotes to Lady Hervey'a Letters. 2 Besides his novels, he composed an ill-written and malignant pamphlet, in CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 119 are two of the greatest men our country has produced, and deserve to be ranked at no great distance from Cervantes (the third name in modern literature), and the author of "Gil Bias." It is from the writings of these great painters that we gain the best insight into the manners of the age. The works of Fielding still preserve some hold over English readers. Those of Richardson ar^ fast becoming obsolete. What Shakespeare has said of a corrupted woman, is, as we have abundant reason to know, true of corrupted taste — it will " Sate itself in a celestial bed, And prey on garbage," Few are the contemporary admirers of the trash which pours like a deluge from the press in almost every shape, and under every name — from the biography of a surly, illiterate fox-hunter,^ to disser- tations against Raphael — who have given an hour to the sorrow of Clementina, or the machinations of Lovelace ; yet, if exquisite delineation of the minute workings of the soul, the most touching pathos, the most dramatic animation — if these be merits in a novelist, we shall look in vain for any parallel to the description of the agonies of guilt in its last dreadful four volumes, which he called a " History of England." ' It is from the translation of this hard, coarse writer that most Englishmen form their notions of " Don Quixote," the most pathetic and eloquent, as well as the wittiest work in modem prose. 1 "We, the countrymen of Milton, have lived to see this " ultimum" of what is commonplace. 120 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I hour, to the scenes in the cedar parlour, to the death- bed of Clarissa (which may bear a comparison with that of Don Quixote), to the remorse of Lovelace, to the fatal duel in which he expiates, as far as death could expiate it, his enormous crime, and to the effect produced by the letters, full of conciliation and repentance, that arrive from the Harlowes, whose pride has given way too late, when all is over, and the spotless being whom they have helped the ravisher and his agents to destroy, is beyond the reach of human wrong and suffering. Fielding's merits are different ; he is far superior to Richardson in style and the construction of a story ; perhaps it would be difficult to find any plot in the whole range of modern novel writing at all to be compared for felicity with that of " Tom Jones." Fielding was an excellent scholar, in the real sense of the word, as it was understood before we became the servile imi- tators of Teutonic pedants. He was a scholar, as Bossuet, and Massillon, and South, and Berkeley, and Milton, and Middleton were scholars ; that is, he had imbibed the spirit and appropriated the habits of thought and style belonging to the great masters of antiquity. In his day, when those who really devoted themselves to such studies were few, but excellent, not crammed into insignificance by trading tutors, it was not the business of a life limited to so short a space as ours, to replace an anapaest by an CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE IH. 121 iambic, or to determine whether the optative mood might not sometimes follow a particular particle. That was left to those whose disposition fitted them to be antiquarians and verbal critics, instead of orators and poets, who were to act as the pioneer does to the general, and on whose minds the im- mortal works of the greatest writers the world has seen might lie likq the Grrecian column on a barren moor, or the Elgin marbles in a London street, con- trasting with a deformity they could not embellish. Fielding's mind was of another sort ; he studied Ari- stophanes, Plutarch, Lucian, Rabelais, Horace, and Cervantes, as masters to teach, as models to imitate, and as rivals with whom he was to enter into a gene- rous competition. In pathos he is, like every other writer of romance but Cervantes, far inferior to his rival ; but in gaiety, or a buoyant cheerfulness that puts aside the calamities of existence, he is far be- yond, not Richardson only, who is deficient in these qualities, but all English novelists. His humour,^ grave, exquisite, and piercing, reminds the reader sometimes of Addison, and sometimes of Cervantes himself. He does not lay bare the inmost springs and motives of the soul with the fidelity and truth of Richardson, but he yields to him alone. For truth and breadth of colouring, his characters, though 1 See especially the inimitable chapter on hats in the " Life of Jonathan WUd." 122 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. not drawn with all the fine touches and strokes of his rival, have never been surpassed. They repre- sent not individuals, but a species — beings that never will disappear from England till our laws, consti- tution, religion, and the manners derived from them, undergo a total change ; though the external form is softened and a little disguised, the substance is the same. Few of us, indeed, have ever known an AUworthy. But he is more fortunate than most men who has not met with many an officer who, in reality, holds the creed, and almost echoes the sen- timents, of Ensign Northington (at any rate our court-martials show that many of the species still exist) ; magistrates at quarter sessions, whose intel- lectual descent may be traced in a direct line to Squire Western ; lawyers, who, like Dowling, declare that if they were in twenty places at once much of their business must remain undone ;^ parsons, thojigh not actually handlers of swine, as churlish, as sordid, and as tenacious of high Church principles as Trulliber ; and in every class of life, at the bar, in the pulpit, behind a counter, on the bench of justice, as on another bench, in the town and in the field, and even in public life — hypocrites as detestable as Blifil. If Richardson may be compared to Perugino and ' This afifeotation is as old as Chaucer. He says of his Serjeant-of-Law — " Nowhev so busy as he there was, And yet he seemed busier than he was." CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OP GEORGE III. 123 Vandyke, Fielding is the Rubens of novelists— like that great master, his colouring is always glorious ; and if they are sometimes indelicate, his figures are always animated with the crimson glow and swelling outlines of health and nature. Tragedy had expired among us with Rowe and others, in whose writings are to be found the last faint reflection of the genius which had once illumi- nated the buskined stage. It is difiicult to find a stronger proof in the history of literature, fruitful as it is in such evidence, that there are certain periods in the moral as in the physical world, which bring forth chosen fruits in great abundance, and which are followed by periods of dearth and scarcity, than the condition of the English stage during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Flagitious as are the works of the great comic writers after the Restoration, the overflowing wit and the command of language displayed in the comedies of Etherege, Yanbrugh, and Congreve, is marvellous.^ The reader is dazzled by an incessant blaze of allusion, antithesis, and repartee — it is a continued play of rockets ; a shower of artificial light ; a tissue of conversations that we may imagine in the presence of Charles the Second, with Rochester, and Buckingham, and ■ I do not include Wyoherley— a hard, unamiable writer, whom I always thought much overrated— nor even Farquhar, though full of spirit and incident, in the category of these extraordinary men. 124 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Sedley, and the frail beauties whose forms Lely has placed on his canvas, and whose actions G-rammont has commemorated in his memoirs. To be sure it is the wit of the head, not of the heart ; indeed, it is wit inconsistent with human feeling and sympathy. It is not like the wit of Cervantes, and Moliere, and Shakespeare — universal, for all time, and all languages, for every one of woman born— but the wit and ridicule that would rouse for a minute the languid smile of the worn-out sensualist, and amuse the venal courtier, who has just begged from his indo- lent master the sum which some victim of Jeffreys' has agreed to pay, in order to save himself from eviscera- tion — the creatures of a peculiar age and a factitious society ; wit that rises to the lips of the sneering cynic, the angry mistress,^ the dissolute man of fashion ; and ridicule that is produced sometimes by the contrast between those who scornfully lead, and those who blindly follow, the manners of the day, and sometimes by that between the rude coarseness of natural brutality and the affectations of artificial refinement. The next writer for the English stage who displayed original genius and real humour, was Foote, whose plays, though they sometimes degene- rate into farce, are full of vigorous satire, and comic situations. Sheridan, who follows him, is brilliant ' " Let Dorimant betray, and Loveit rage." CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 125 and artificial, but his laboured wit and studied dialogue fall much short of Oongreve, whom he constantly aspired to imitate. I have not mentioned Gay among dramatic writers, yet the " Beggar's Opera," brought out in 1728, still keeps possession of the stage, though the allusions to which it owed its excessive popularity are forgotten. Still, though there is some vivacity in the dialogue, the songs, and the habits that it discloses of a class now destroyed, but then to be met with in every part of England, are the causes of its prolonged existence. The quarrel between Peachum and Lockit was generally applied to the scene between Walpole and Townshend, and received with great applause. Sir Robert Walpole, to avoid the shafts perpetually aimed at him, at last brought forward the famous Licensing Bill, subjecting plays to the revision of the Lord Chamberlain — a strange enact- ment to be endured in a free country, but which, in spite of a brilliant speech from Lord Chesterfield against it, the minister succeeded in carrying, and which is still allowed to remain a badge of English indifference to refined and immaterial pleasures. 126 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. CHAPTER II. mSTOEICAL REVIEW OF THE EEIGNS OF GEOEGE THE FIEST AND GEOEGE THE SECOND. Since the Revolution, and the barriers it fortified rather than raised against the royal power, the government of England had become a mitigated aristocracy — meaning by that word, not a govern- ment of those technically noble, nor of an exclusive body (Lord Sunderland and Stanhope's attempt to make the House of Lords one was happily defeated), but a government of the territorial and moneyed aristocracy, reinforced by opulent merchants, suc- cessful lawyers, and eminent commanders by sea and land. The popular element, though it burst forth occasionally, and swept like a hurricane everything before it, had little direct influence on the general course of events, and was long unfavourable to the rule of the House of Brunswick. In the House of Commons it scarcely showed itself at all. This tendency had been materially worsened by the union with Scotland, which added a body generally as CHAP, 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III, 127 obsequious to the Crown as the very bishops to the peers, -and filled the House of Commons- with men greedy for place, returned for ludicrously small constituencies, and after elections from which every shadow of a popular franchise was elaborately excluded. Such a government, however, with all its faults, if they could have been restrained within reasonable limits, was perhaps no bad compromise with the evils and abuses incident to all human affairs ; but the vices inseparable from such a state of things developed themselves with gi_gantic strides under the reign of Walpole and his successors. When corruption supports power, power will abet corruption. Almost undisguised it became the mainspring of government — the House of Commons became its stronghold. Yast sums of money were distributed amongst the aristocracy and their depen- dents, sometimes under the disguise of sinecures and patent offices, sometimes in direct pecuniary gifts. By such means, as well as by his judicious policy, Walpole, not without some difiiculty, kept the crown on the head of George the First and of George the Second, and bribed the English nation with their own money to continue free. During the reign of George the Third the same system was at first continued, to establish the influence of the Crown ; but open and direct bribery was employed more and more rarely, and at the beginning of this 128 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. century, till the Reform Bill, had probably ceased altogether. But the Tories who supported Perceval, Sidmouth, Liverpool, Castlereagh, Vansittart, in their most absurd and oppressive measures, divided among themselves immense emoluments, in the shape of sinecures, pensions, and patent places, while the burdens of the country were increased in the most reckless manner by ministerial neglect and incapacity. These ministers, for the most part men of obscure origin and mean abilities, took advantage of the system which they found established, and wielded it with well-nigh fatal success against the cause of constitutional government, which the Whigs at any rate had employed it to support. It is true that the Whig party, to which the nation owed its deliverance from arbitrary power, were corrupted with long office and almost uninterrupted prosperity. During the reigns of G-eorge the First and G-eorge the Second, the Tory party, the majority of which were partisans of the House of Stuart, solely bent on breaking down the power of their rivals, were forced to borrow the old language of their foes, to declaim against the arbitrary language of speeches from the throne, and to come forward as champions of the people, and opponents of the prerogative. Up to the Revolution, the royal prerogative had been the sole object of constitutional jealousy ; it was to that which all provisions against encroachment 0HAP.2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE 111. 129 pointed, and against wMch barrier after barrier had been raised. But during the silent lapse of events and without any visible revolution, the executive power had been in great measure transferred to the aristocracy, of which the two Houses of Parliament were now almost exclusively composed ; against their abuse of the authority so confided, there was, while Parliament . was sitting, no security at all. Whatever they did, even those acts which set most at defiance the passions, prejudices, and in some cases the sound and righteous instincts of the people, was done in the name of the people, and by their authority. Any person who could succeed in ob- taining the favour of any of the great families then in the ascendant — Russell, Cavendish, Glrenville, or Pelham — was certain, though he was as worthless as Dodington or Eigby, or as thorough an adventurer as Barre, of obtaining his share in the numberless places, peerages, and reversions which were distributed among those bodies, and which amounted to a sum that even now — though far short of what was lavished among the Scotts, the Roses, and the Addingtons of a later generation — appears prodigious ; and as, without a civil war, the power of finding a cure for this evil rested in the very persons who profited by it, it appeared, especially after Mr. Burke's Bill for Economical Reform had been frittered away and evaded, almost remediless. The privileges of the 130 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. House of Commons were turned against the people, and used as an instrument for their oppression. Every day gave the Government, in spite of the dead letter of the constitution and the law, more and more the appearance of an imperious and interested oligarchy. Therefore, if George the Third and Lord Bute had acted with more dexterity, — if they had not early set the nation on their guard, and if the glories of the Seven Years' war had not gone far to pour balm into the blood of the people, who before Pitt's administration were in a state of alarming discontent, — if the scandalous peace of 1763, and the disasters of the American war, had not covered the councils which led to them with disgrace, and rendered their authors the just objects of national antipathy, it is difiQcult to say how far the scheme, certainly contrived and even carried to a considerable length, of governing England by the royal will alone, might have been successful. That there was a formed party at the death of Queen Anne, to restore the Pretender to the throne, may now, in spite of the solemn asseverations to the contrary of Lord Bolingbroke and Atterbury, be reckoned beyond dispute.^ The Duke of Hamilton ' The dispute is as to when the resolution was taken, llr. Rose, an authority for which I have no respect, says in a note to Coxe, cited in the " Marchmont Papers," vol. ii. p. 192, that just before Queen Anne's death the Toiy ministers hesitated which Ising to choose. And see " Marchmont Papets," vol. ii. p. 241, note. ClUP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 131 was the agent through whom the negociation between the Tory leaders and the son of James the Second was to have been carried on ; but his death in the duel with Lord Mohun interrupted for a time the intrigue which might have been fatal to English freedom.^ The Peace of Utrecht, which enabled France to recover her lost influence, and undid what so much blood and treasure had been lavished to accomplish, was concluded with the same object. The antipathy shown towards Harley^ by the violent Tories, and his ultimate disgrace, may be traced to his reluctance to engage irretrievably in the projects which those who raised him to power had in view. Neither he nor, I believe, Swift entered fully into the designs of Boling- broke and Atterbury, to declare the Pretender king, ' See Swift's most remarkable letter to Mrs. Dingley, giving an account of t)iis event (vol. xiv. p. 299, Edinburgh Ed., Nov. 15, 1712) :— " Before this comes to your hands you will have heard of the most tenible accident that almost has ever happened. This morning at eight, my man brought me word that Dulse Hamilton had fought Lord Mohun and killed him, and was brought home wounded. Lord Mohun (he was a detestable wretch) was killed on the spot. . . . The duke died on the grass before they could reach the house. Macartney, and one Hamilton, were the seconds, .... and are both fled. I am told a footman of Lord Mohun's stabbed Duke Hamilton; some say Macartney did so too. Mohun gave the affront and yet sent the challenge. I am infinitely concerned for the poor duke, &c. . . . He had the greatest mind in the world to have me go with him to France." Macartney came back, and was tried and acquitted at the Old Bailey in George the Fii-sfs reign. Hamilton, the duke's second, was tried immediately. — Swift, ibid,, 312. » " (Lady Masham) told (Harley) in her own house last Thursday morning, these words: 'You never did the queen any service, nor are you capable of doing her any.' "—Lewis to Swift, Swift's Works, vol. xv. p. 89. And see Lady Masham's letter iii. (lb.) to Swift, in which she calls Harley " that wretched man." K2 132 mSTOBY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. and set aside the Act of Settlement ; and the Com- mons, though there was sufficient evidence to esta- blish against Oxford^ a charge of high crimes and misdemeanours, could hardly have maintained the charge of treason, which might, beyond all doubt, have been made good against his brilliant and am- bitious colleague. It has been doubted whether more forbearing con- duct on the part of George the First might not have averted the rebellion which broke out the year after his accession, and he has been accused of making himself a party king ; but if we consider his ignorance of the character, and even of the language, of the people which he was taken from a little German court to govern, the inveterate hostility of the Jacobites against him, the profound indifference, if it ought not rather to be called the decided aversion, of the great mass of the English to his cause, — if we consider all these things, perhaps we shall come to the con- clusion that to put himself entirely in the hands of the Whigs, and to yield implicitly to their advice, was the wisest course he could pursue. An opposite course had involved William the Third in difBculties which it required all his abilities, and some assistance from accident — such the abhorrence inspired by the discovery of the plot for his assassination must be considered — to overcome. ' The Earl of Oxford died 1724. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 133 George the First, no more than that illustrious man, was the Tory king. Whether, if the Jacobites had played their game more prudently, if Louis the Fourteenth had not died at the crisis of the struggle, above all, if the Pretender had embraced the Protes- tant faith, or, like Henry the Fourth, displayed a readiness to listen to the arguments in favour of the national creed, the attempt to overthrow the House of Hanover might not have been successful, may perhaps be doubted. But the precipitate Kebellion of 1715 established the throne it was intended to overthrow. If Louis the Fourteenth had lived, it is probable that he would have sent the Pretender substantial resources, " My hopes," said Boling- broke, " sank as he declined, and died when he expired." The Regent, at first a neutral spectator, when the issue of the struggle was apparent, became a cordial supporter of the Hanoverian dynasty ; in- deed, when the standard of the Pretender was set up at the Brae of Mar, his cause was desperate. The death of his great protector, the discovery of the design at home, and the measures taken to defeat it, were fatal to a project which had been undertaken with precipitation, and was carried on without ability. Long before the publication of Lord Bolingbroke's letter to Sir "William Windham, none but the most in- corrigible bigot to hereditary right could have joined 134 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. in an endeavour to place upon the tlirone of England a ruler who, from education, temper, habit, and belief, must have been the determined and indefatigable enemy of our religion and our liberties. The repeal of the Triennial Act, soon after the accession of George the First, was a measure that necessity did, and alone could, justify. It is a conclusive proof that the mass of the people, including the gentlemen who filled the rural throne, and the country clergy, were not to be trusted with the Revolution settlement, but were willing to expose the constitution to fresh hazards. Bolingbroke, who has declaimed with great power against the measure, has, in another of his writings, furnished the best argument for its justification. It was justifiable as the death of Caesar was justifiable ; as the distribution of provisions belonging to other people, among the crew and passengers of a ship becalmed or driven out of its course, is justifiable; as the flinging goods overboard in a storm is justi- fiable ; as the attainder of Strafford was justifiable ; as the Revolution itself was justifiable ; as the sus- pension of the Habeas Corpus Act may be, and sometimes has been, justifiable. Necessity is the tyrant's plea when it is pretended ; when it exists it is the motive of the patriot, and, in the eye of dis- passionate reason, his vindication. The absence of G-eorge the First at Hanover facilitated the intrigue which ended in the temporary CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REiaN OF GEORGE III. 135 disgrace of Walpole and of Townshend. The authors of this cabal were Robert Earl of Sunder- land, the son of the profligate minister of James the Second, a man altogether worthy of such a parent, and of the maxims which he had Imbibed, and James, afterwards Elarl Stanhope, an unfortunate general and worse than unfortunate minister — one of those men who, because they are destitute of genius, have so often in this country acquired a reputation for sense and probity which their conduct on im- portant and critical occasions is far from justifying. Stanhope's conduct during this intrigue,^ the result of which had well-nigh deprived his master of the crown, is to the full as base and dishonest as that of Sunderland, and can be accounted for on no prin- ciples of honour or integrity. George the First brought with him from Hanover mistresses as rapacious, and satellites as ignoble, as those which drew down such deserved^ obloquy on Charles the Second. Bothman, Bernsdorff, Robethon, and two Turks,^ Mustapha and Mahomet, meddled more with public affairs, and were minions to the full as venal, ' Stanhope'3 conduct on this occasion was thoroughly treacherous. He oweil his appointment solely to Townshend and W^alpole, who placed in him the most unreserved confidence. He had been sent by them to Hanover, expressly to prevent the intrigue of Sunderland, which without his co-operation could not have been successful. ' " To these persons of ostensible consequence must be added two Turks. These low foreigners obtained considerable sums of money for recommendations to places." — Coxe's Life of Walpole, vol. i. p, 144, 136 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK J. as ChifiBncli, Pepys, and Smith ;^ nor were the rela- tions of Louisa Duchess of Portsmouth, of Barbara Duchess of Cleveland, or of Mrs. Eleanor Grwyn with Charles the Second, more notorious than those of Erengard Melusina Duchess of Kendal,^ and of Sophia Countess of Darlington with George the First ; and, as the vices of a new court, they were judged with more severity. It was by stooping to abet the vile arts of these mercenary creatures' by gorging their avarice, and by flattering the morbid detestation of G-eorge the First for his son, that Sunderland and Stanhope contrived for a very short time to engross the power which they employed to assail the constitution and bring the nation to the very verge of ruin.* 1 Dog Smith. 2 " Money was with her (the Daehess of Kendal) the principal and prevailing consideration ; and Walpole was often heard to say she was so venal a creature she would have sold the king's honour for a shilling advance to the best bidder." — Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. 141. " His other mistress was Sophia Charlotte Countess of Darlington. Her cha- racter for rapacity was not in ferior to that of the Duchess of Kendal." — TJjU, p. 142. The Duchess of Kendal, besides £7,500 pension, had the profits of the place of Master of the Horse, which, after the resignation of the Duke of Spmerset, was never filled up during the reign of George the First. The Countess of Platen had those of Master of the Buckhounds. — Ibid., p. 143. ' " Count Lippe's story of the Countess of Platen is certainly a lie. I am informed that she has not the least design of going to England. Neither do I find anything that looks the least like it in her conversation, though I have often the honour of her company, and am well with some other ladies that are in her good giaces, as you may perhaps soon find to your cost. I shall take care to bring you off as cheap as I can." — Townshend to Walpole, CoxE, vol. ii. p. 267, 4to. Walpole distinctly admits that VFood's patent was granted to enrich the Duchess of Kendal. — Ibid., p. 276. ■■ When Walpole came to resign, it is said the king returned the seals to liiin ten times. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 137 The South Sea scheme and the Peerage Bill have branded the administration of Sunderland and Stanhope with a mark of lasting infamy. The Peerage Bill was the most deadly blow that had been levelled at the constitution since the Act giving to the king's proclamations the force of law. It pro- vided that the number of English peers should not be increased beyond six, which, upon failure of issue male, might be supplied by new creations ; and that instead of sixteen elective peers from Scotland, twenty-live should be made hereditary from that part of the kingdom. It is superfluous to make a lengthened comment on a measure the immediate effect of which would have been to change the House of Lords into an oligarchy, and which at no distant time must have brought about a revolution. That this measure was defeated was owing almost entirely to the energies and determined opposition of Walpole, who, if he had done no more, would then have established an indefeasible claim to the gratitude of his country. In the South Sea scheme the blind infatuation of a credulous and mercenary people was succeeded by the frantic violence of despair. That the German concubines and favourites had, from the most sordid motives, fomented the delusion of the sufferers, and had largely profited by an event which plunged so many families in hopeless ruin, is evident beyond dispute ; it is also clear that large 138 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. sums had been paid to Charles Stanhope, Sunderland, Aislabie, and Craggs (the creature of Sunder- land).^ The first two escaped, the third was expelled the House of Commons, and the fourth destroyed himself. With questionable morality, but from no ungenerous motive, Walpole saved Sunderland and Charles Stanhope from the fate they merited.^ By his prudence and wisdom he allayed the indis- criminate fury of the people, and gave time for wiser counsels to prevail. He was able to mitigate the evil he had not been permitted to prevent. In the hour of darkness and danger, when the ship was driving fast upon the breakers, and the crew, instead ' Sir John Blunt, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Chester, Mr. Holditch, and Mr. Knight, had the chief disposal of the stock, which was thus distributed : — Earl of Sunderland 50,000 Duchess of Kendal 10,000 Countess of Platen ..... 10,000 Her two nieces 10,000 Mr. Craggs, Sen. 80,000 Charles Stanhope 10,000 Sword Blade Company .... 50,000 Charles Stanhope, under the name Stangape 250,000 In the third subscription — Aislabie list amounted to ... . 70,000 Sunderland „ 160,000 Craggs 59,000 A deficiency of £400,000, owing to Knight's contrivance, was proved absconded, and lived in great splendour at Pans. As Pope tells us — " Knight keeps his coach, for what are crowds undone To three essential Partridges in one V Gone every shame, and silent all reproach, Contending princes hand him to his coach.' "I'he present age saw nothing worse or baser during the railway mania, ' Stanhope escaped by three votes, Sunderland by eixty-one. He CHAP. 2.] DUBING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 139 of helping to save her, were occupied with schemes of wild and desperate revenge upon each other, he was the pilot to whom every eye was turned— he brought her safely into harbour. Even the slowj callous understanding of George the First was awakened to an appreciation of the danger from which he had been saved ; and from that hour till 1741, when an unnatural coalition of disappointed Whigs and factious Jacobites overthrew his power, Walpole remained, as he deserved to be, the chosen and almost the sole counsellor of the House of Brunswick. Meanwhile his influence was on a rock. The schemes and eloquence of Bolingbroke, the genius and influence of Carteret, — two men of rare abilities, — were employed in vain to shake the con- fidence of the king in the minister whose services became every day more conspicuous and decisive. During the administration of Sunderland, the antipathy of George the First for his son had displayed itself in the most signal manner. A scandalous scene took place at the christening of one of the Prince of "Wales's children. The prince told the Duke of Newcastle, who by the king's desire stood godfather to the child, that he was a villain, and shook his fist at him with the politeness and dignity common to the Grerman princes of that day. The king put his son under arrest, then ordered him to quit the palace, deprived him and the princess of 140 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. their guard, and gave formal notice that no one who visited him would be received at court. Surely, the minister who kept the crown on the head of such beings, without injury to the constitution, is entitled to the character of a great statesman. The South Sea frauds had brought about an event which strongly marks the barbarous state of the law, and the terrible evils that a profession always at that time rather making gain than justice the end of its labours, fostered. This was the impeachment of Lord Macclesj&eld — the first magistrate in England,^ by whom the judges were selected, the head of the law, the keeper of the king's conscience, who, having been Chief Justice, was now Lord Chancellor — for corruption, always foul, but in this case especially shocking, and the immediate cause of the deepest and most wide-spreading misery. The Lord Chan- cellor had the power of appointing the Masters in Chancery — an ofSce now abolished, but then, and till our own day, of very considerable importance.^ It was the duty of the Master to examine the subor- dinate details of matters brought before courts of equity, and lay an account of them before the Chancellor, and to take care that the arrangements ■■ He succeeded Holt as Lord Chief Justice, 1710; and became Lord Chancellor 1718. (" State Trials," vol. xvi. p. 770.) ^ It ought not to have been abolished, but reformed. It had run to seed, like eveiything else not incessantly watched in England. The want of such officers is now severely felt. The office was borrowed from that of maitres des requetes. CUAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOKGE UI. I4l ordered by the Court were properly carried into effect. In conforpaity with that disregard of the most ordinary rules of equity and practical sense which characterised at that time every portion of our municipal law, much of the personal property which was the subject of litigation was absolutely at the disposal of these men; and as every one appointed to carry a will into effect, and every one who dis- puted the construction of a will, might cause the testator's property to be the subject of a Chancery suit — to say nothing of the number of other causes which for different reasons were brought before that tribunal — it is easy to conceive the vast amount of property confided to their integrity. It was stated in the report of the House of Commons that once in thirty years all the property in England passed through the Court of Chancery. The Lord Chan- cellor, not satisfied with the enormous profits of his place, with a large sum bestowed on him by the Crown, with a great pension granted (till a sinecure should fall vacant) to his son, carried on, as it was clearly proved, and as he did not indeed attempt to deny, a regular traffic in these judicial offices. Nor, if his history be considered, is this at all surprising. Destitute of all liberal education, he had risen by skill in chicane, and influence with the class to which he originally belonged, to the office which he thus degraded. 142 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. The Masters in Chancery, appointed by this man, did exactly what was to be expected from their patron, and the means by which they had attained his favour. They embezzled the property of the suitors placed without any guarantee or security in their hands, out of which they began by taking the bribe which they had paid to the Chancellor or his wife (for Lady Macclesfield took an active part in these negociations) for their appointments. One of them, who was ruined by the South Sea speculations, absconded with all the money in his ofiBce. The Chancellor, as usual, sold his place — the successor followed in the same track ; at length the outcries of the plundered suitors could be no longer stifled. Lord Macclesfield fell like his illustrious predecessor. He was convicted by an unanimous vote, on evidence as irresistible as that which brought home still fouler and more wholesale iniquity to Lord Bacon, condemned to pay a fine of thirty thousand pounds, and to be imprisoned in the Tower till it was paid.^ Lord Macclesfield was a great favourite with George the First. When the scandalous quarrel between that monarch and his son broke out, he, as Lord Chief Justice, pronounced himself, and persuaded ' The Lords divided, 42 to 42, on the question " Whether the said Earl shall be for ever incapable of any office, place, or employment, in the state or the commonwealth." So it passed in the negative, to the great scandal of English justice. CHAT. 2.] DURING THE BEIGN OF GEORGE III. 143 others to pronounce, a most iniquitous decision, violating all precedent,^ and the plainest principles of natural right, by which the children of the Prince of Wales were declared to be under the control, not of the father, but of the grandfather. This act of judicial subserviency was, it must be admitted, eclipsed by the extraordinary baseness of the legis- lature in the reign of George the Third, when the Eoyal Marriage Act,^ — which has been the cause of so much immorality and unhappiness, has carried pollution to so many English hearths, and put in peril those whom it was intended to exalt, and which is still allowed to disgrace the Statute Book of those whom Milton described as " An old and haughty nation, proud In arms " — was passed to gratify the senseless pride Of that unconstitutional monarch. On this Act, the causes which led to it, and the admirable protest it drew forth, I shall have occasion to dwell, in the sequel of this history. ' " state Trials," vol. xv. p. 7196. Price and Eyre, then the Prince of Wales's chancellor, dissented. The arguments of the ten are sad stuff, and the case is among the many proofs that the law making judges irremovable has not made them independent. They said, " We are humbly of opinion that the education and care of the persons of your Majesty's grandchildren now in England, of Prince Fredericlt, eldest son of liis Royal Highness the Prince of Wales the ordering the place of their abode, and appointing their goveinore and their governesses, and other instructors, attendants, and servants, and the care and approbation of their marriages when grown up, do belong of right to your Majesty, as liing of this realm." ' 12 George III., e. 11. 1772. 144 HISTOKY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I, This was not, however, the only remarkable illus- tration of the character of our jurisprudence, and of the class of understanding which belonged to those whom the English selected for its interpretation : the abortive attempt to improve the law of Habeas Corpus, the corner-stone of our liberties, in the year 1768,^ is a memorable example of the peculiarity of the views of our statesmen and magistrates on such questions. The law of Habeas Corpus, or rather the principle on which the law is founded, is emphatically the boast of English jurisprudence. It distinguishes an English citizen not from the slaves only, but from the freemen of other countries. It is established in Magna Oharta ; it had been insisted upon in different ages, declared by strong and unanimous resolutions of both Houses of Parliament, and at length, after repeated evasions and subterfuges on the part of the judges, was incorporated with the written statutes, by the 31st of Charles the Second — an Act, be it remarked, not due to any lawyer, and placed, as was hoped, beyond the reach even of judicial pettifogging and prevarication. The principle was this, that every Englishman imprisoned by any authority whatsoever, had a ' It was on this occasion that Lord Temple said, with much spirit, " that he would not take the law from the judges as to the main principles of it, any more than he would ask the bishops about the great outlines of his religion." — Farl. Hist., vol. xv. p. 893. CHAP. 2.] DUKING THE REIGN OF GEORGE HI. 145 right to obtain a writ of Habeas Corpus, in order to procure his speedy trial, or his liberty by due course of law. The words of the statute are imperious. The punishments it inflicts on those who should frustrate its object are sharp and peremptory. It seems scarcely possible that a remedy so clear and so effectual, of such hourly service, and so easily under- stood, should have been rendered nugatory by chicane, pedantry, and fraud, or any other cause than direct violence and actual servitude. Such, however, proved to be the case, notwithstanding the manifest intention of the legislature, notwithstanding words as plain as can be used, notwithstanding the reiterated and undisputed declarations of Parliament. The efficacy of the remedy was made to depend on that compared with which the wave of the sea is firm, and a house built on sand permanent — the opinion of the judges — and in many cases was altogether taken away. At length, in the year 1751, a man of rank had occasion to apply for it ;^ he had been seized by a press-gang, and was confined in a prison. His friends applied for a Habeas Corpus. The proceedings which took place in consequence are thoroughly characteristic of English judges, English law, and English legis- ' So in " Tom Jones," Lord Fellamar endeavours to get rid of his rival by employing a lieutenant to press him. " His lordship, who was strictly a man of honour, and would by no means have been guilty of an action wliich the world in general would have condemned," is much shocked when he finds out that Jones is a gentleman. 146 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. lation. In the first place, the grossness of the outrage was the reason, alleged by the judges of a civilised country, why it was without a remedy. It was gravely stated from the bench, in this practical country, that the Habeas Corpus could not be granted, because the man applying for it was not only in- nocent, but not even accused of any crime. The preamble of the Habeas Corpus Act related only to real or pretended criminals. In the second place, the difficulty, according to the true, slovenly, empirical English system, was got rid of by the sacrifice of principle. The gentleman was released by order of the Secretary at War. Thus, the liberty of the subject, where the sufferer was a person of some consequence, was granted as a matter not of right, but of favour, and by an office of the Crown — the precedent of course re- maining. In the third place, though the alarm excited by this state of things led to an attempt by a patriotic lawyer to alter it, and a bill was brought in to give more sure and speedy relief to the subject, which, in spite of the opposition of the lawyers, was carried through the House of Commons, the bill was flung out of the House of Lords in consequence of the violent and determined opposition of the peers who belonged to the profession of the law — especially of Lord Hardwicke, who, to his indelible disgrace, took CHAP, 1.] DURING THE EBIGN OF GEOEGE III. 147 a prominent and, indeed, an almost furious part on this occasion/ In the fourth place, several questions had been put to the judges, not on any remote or abstruse topics, but such as a labourer from the plough in a free country ought to have been able at once to answer, on a plain fundamental principle of the constitution, lying at the root of all personal dignity and independence. They gave answers in which they directly contradicted each other as to law and practice. Some declaring, in the genuine spirit of those who kept Elliott in the Tower and burnt Mary Gaunt alive, that the judges were absolutely bound by the return made to the writ, even if it should be notoriously known to them and all the rest of mankind that the return to the writ was ' " Pail. Hist.," vol. XV. p. 895. Lord Chesterfield, sending his proxy to Lord Stanhope, saj's : — " If I am not much mistaken, we agree entirely in opinion for the Habeas Corpus Bill now depending in the House of Lords ; and I am confirmed in that opinion by a conversation I have lately had with a very able opposer of the bill, in which I reduced him to this one argument, that the bill was unnecessary. If only unnecessary, why not pass it ex alundanie, to satisfy people's minds upon a subject of that imporfa,nce ? But leave it in the breasts of the judges, and they will do what is right. I am by no means sure of that, and my doubts upon that head are warranted by the State Trials, in which there is hardly an instance of any person prosecuted by the Crown whom the judges have not veiy partially tried, and, if they could bring it about with the jury, condemned, right or wrong. We have had ship-money judges, dispensing judges, but I never read of any patriot judges, except in the Old Testament, and those perhaps were only so because at that time there was no king in Israel. There is certainly some prerogative trick in this conspiracy of the lawyers to throw out this bill ; for as no good reason is given for it, it may fairly be pre- sumed that the true one is a bad one." L2 148 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. false, and the prisoner improperly deprived of his freedom. Others, in whom the study of the law, and the influence of attorneys had not quenched every spark of reason and all idea of justice, denying (in more or less guarded language) a proposition so shocking to plain reason, and so entirely inconsistent with the rights of an English citizen. Thus, instead of a plain, manly declaration in favour of liberty, the judges delivered opinions full of jargon, contradiction, and absurdity. Lastly, in this state of things the legislature acquiesced. Lord Hardwicke promising that the judges should prepare a bill in the following year to remedy the evil com- plained of — a promise which, of course, as keeping it would have added nothing to Lord Hardwicke's income, or Lord Mansfield's authority, but would merely have protected the rights of the lower class from invasion, was never fulfilled ; nor was it till the year 1816^ that a measure so loudly called for by every motive of reason and humanity was passed without any reference to the judges, who were thus probably saved from the temptation which our history shows had. been frequently to them irre- sistible, of opposing a manifest improvement, and of darkening and weakening the rights which it was their especial and most sacred function to fortify and to explain. ' " Pari. Hiet.," vol. xxxii. p. 542. Serjeant Onslow proposed the measure. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 149 If we look to the State Trials during the reign of the first two princes of the House of Bruns- wick, though we meet with nothing that even approaches to the wickedness of the judges in Charles the Second's time, we find many absurdities to blush for, and much brutality to deplore. The same narrowness, the same ignorance of all that men of education ought to know, the same miserable quibbling which was woven by the Normans into our jurisprudence, continue ; and we see the judges gradually returning to that coarseness of language and demeanour of which our history, then and since, presents but too many and too conspicuous examples. The Acts of Parliament are absurd beyond belief. One law regulates the size of button-holes ; another the packing of butter in New Malton, Yorkshire.^ To enumerate these instances of prodigious folly would be endless. Among trials the most cruel is that of John Matthews, a boy of nineteen, a printer, under a statute of Anne,^ making the printing of certain opinions in favour of the Pretender's right to succeed to the English crown high treason. The work was seized in his house before publication. He was convicted on rather slender evidence (legally speaking) and executed.^ No effort seems to have ■• 17 George II., o. viii. A law passed 18G2 to regulate Irish doga. nth. ' " State Trials," vol. xv. p. 139. The proceedings were disgraced by those arguments so common in our courts, and so peculiar to those arising out of 150 HISTORY OF ENGLAND IBOOK I. been made to save him. Another proof of the ■ compass of the judicial mind during this period was exhibited in 1731, when a bill was brought in by Sir George Savile, " That all proceedings in courts of justice shall be in the English language " — almost four hundred years after the Act of 36th Edward the Third, providing "that all pleadings and judgments in the Courts of Westminster should for the future be in English : an Act which the judges, as it would have interfered with their power and their profit, contrived to render nugatory, as they did the Act of Entails, passed in Edward the First's time, and the Act against uses, passed in Henry the Eighth's. The measure encountered the most violent opposition. It was said that it would entirely destroy the value of our old records ; that the method of distributing justice must be entirely altered ; that it would occasion frauds and delay of justice, prevent the recovery of debts, and increase the number of attorneys. To all which Lord Ray- mond, the Chief Justice, added, that if the bill passed, the law must be translated into Welsh. Notwith- standing these weighty arguments, the bill was carried, and one detestable absurdity ceased to disfigure the most solemn proceedings of English courts of justice. Still the inveterate disposition of the barbarous Latin of the indictment, whether "impressit" could mean printing. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOBGE III. 151 the English to submit to authority formally exerted — to put the ofiOice in the place of the man/ to suppose that the mantle makes the prophet, to consider that everything done by a bishop must be holy, and every- thing done by a judge righteous — as it produced a most mischievous effect on all public functionaries, had an especially malignant influence on the bench of justice, and in the administration of the law. The salutary effect of the Eevolution, and of the examples of Somers and Holt on the conduct of the judges began to wear away ; and as proceedings in our courts of justice, civil and criminal, were enveloped in a mist of chicane which no person without a legal education could expect to penetrate, judges might commit great crimes under the shelter of legal forms, and without the possibility of detection ; sometimes, however, they were transported, by a natural bru- tality, and the long indulgence of uncontrolled caprice, into acts and language on which everybody could determine. One man, named Page,^ acquired even in that day an infamous pre-eminence, and was, as far as opportunity allowed him, the rival of Scroggs and Jeffreys. Moreover, he was detected in corrupt proceedings with regard to the election of Members of Parliament, at Banbury. But his 1 " And let the devil Be sometimes honoured for his burning throne." 2 " Slander and daggers dread from Delia's rage, Hard words and hanging if your judge be Page." 152 HISTOKY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. judicial wickedness, of which an account has been transmitted to us by an indignant moralist,^ in a work that will last as long as our language — though dwelt upon by Fielding and branded by Pope — was unnoticed by the House of Commons. The lives and fortunes of many Englishmen continued, till his death or his resignation, to be at the disposal of this illiterate ruffian, — indeed, he was raised from the Exchequer to the Common Pleas ; and from the Revolution to the present hour, no address has been presented against any judge ; from which the inference is obvious, either that during so long a period human nature has altered, or that the blind habit of acquiescing in the acts, however substantially unwarrantable, that emanate from persons dressed in a certain way, and invested with certain titles, has turned the responsibility of the judges into a dead letter. The reader will judge which of the two solutions is the real one. The judges had by this time arrogated to themselves a power in violation of the law, completely subversive of the liberty of the ' Johnson, " Life of Savage." " Mr. Page, then on the bench, treated him with his usual insolence and severity, and when he had summed up the evidence, endeavoured to exasperate the jury with this eloquent harangue : — ' Gentlemen of the jury, you are to consider that Mr. Savage is a very great man — a much greater man than you or I, gentlemen of the jury; that he wears fine clothes — much finer than you or I, gentlemen of the jury ; that he has abundance of money in his pocket — much more money than you or I, gentlemen of the juiy. But, gentlemen of the jury, is it not a very hard case that Mr. Savage should therefore kill you or me, gentlemen of the jury ? ' " The judge ordered Savage to be taken from the bar by force. CHAP. 2.] DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE HI. 153 press, a power which, where the accused person was helpless, they exercised with little commiseration. Had a writer without influence taken a third part of Pope's license with the fame of high and low, of ministers, nobles, of ladies of rank, and private men, he would have been pilloried, fined, and consigned to a noisome dungeon, to the tender mercies of Huggins, A.cton, and Bainbridge. Shebbeare and Defoe were condemned to the pillory for writings far less scurrilous than those which Pope, the eulogist of Lord Mansfield and Swift, the friend of the first minister, had written with perfect impunity. Franklin, the printer of the " Craftsman," was taken up,^ Home Tooke might have been condemned to the same punishment. I now return to Walpole's administration. Soon after his second accession to power a Jacobite conspiracy had been discovered, which, if allowed to take efifect, would have been as formidable to the reigning dynasty as any scheme it had yet been called upon to resist. The discontent and distress occasioned by the South Sea frauds was an oppor- tunity too favourable for the chiefs of the Jacobite party to overlook. It had provided in great abund- ance the materials for a civil war ; a plan was laid to barricade the streets of London, to surprise the ' " I am glad," said Johnson, " they did not put the dog in the piUory; he had too much literature for that." 154 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Tower and the Bank, to arrest the king and his family, and to proclaim the Pretender. The Duke of Orleans gave notice of it to the English government. Among the Jacobite malcontents in England, the most eminent in point of ability, and the most enterprising, was Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Eochester. Had he been a layman his moral character might have been considered as on a level with that of his associates ; but he was an unbeliev- ing priest, and consequently a hypocrite — of all characters, except those tainted with cruelty, the most odious. His ungovernable and overbearing temper had involved liim in acrimonious conflicts with most of those whom he had been entrusted to govern or required to obey. To the most exquisite taste, such as the proper study of classical writers alone could give, and which has now consequently disappeared, he joined vigorous sense, inflexible resolution, a noble contempt of money, very unusual in his profession, and a disregard of the higher morality, unhappily too common among its members. If principle had been any motive for his conduct, the study of Lord Clarendon's noble history might have guarded a man of his acuteness from the political opinions that early prepossession perhaps led him to adopt, and ambition afterwards to maintain. For the contemptible character of the princes of the House of Stuart discloses itself through CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 155 all the veils and charms of language with which Clarendon endeavours to conceal it ; and the events which followed the restoration of Charles the Second, the ingratitude with which he repaid the generosity of a confiding people — who, as the penalty of their egregious folly in restoring him without one single guarantee to his throne, were obliged to drain to the very dregs the bitter cup of national disgrace, and to exchange the glory that Cromwell had won for them for contempt and insignificance — would have taught a man far less gifted than Atterbury that the Stuarts were incorrigible, and degraded even to the level of continental sovereigns. Towards this dangerous priest "Walpole acted with uncommon moderation and forbearance. The evi- dence of his treason was more than sufiBcient to convince any reasonable person of his guilt— it has since been proved, not only by his own conduct, but by letters under his own hand. To a man habitually repeating a creed of which he did not believe a syllable, solemn asseverations of innocence were no more than a merely formal ceremony.^ The plot was discovered by means of the French Regent, and Walpole, with great art, put these words into the ' In 1717 he wrote to the Pretender, " My daily prayer is that you may have success. May I live to see that day, and live no longer than I do what IS m my power to forward it." At this time he had repeatedly sworn allegiance to George the First, whom he had assisted to crown, and had abjured the Pretender m words expressly excluding all equivocation, and on the true faith of a Christian. 156 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. king's account of it to Parliament :— " I should the less wonder at it had I, since my accession to the throne, in any one instance invaded the liberty or property of my subjects." Atterbury was de- prived of his honours and his country, but not of his private fortune, and ministers connived at an extraordinary method that was adopted for enabling him to receive the profits due at the time of his trial from his office as Dean of Westminster. But if Walpole got rid of this enemy, another and a far more formidable one was added at the same time and by his own consent to the list of his assailants. The Act of attainder against Bolingbroke was par- tially repealed, and he was permitted to return to England. He and Atterbury met at Calais — the last stage of one on his way home, the first step of the other on his way to banishment. Bolingbroke told Atterbury what had happened — " Then," said Atterbury keenly, " we are exchanged." Boling- broke, by an enormous bribe to a mistress of George the First,^ had obtained a partial pardon. In spite of the earnest remonstrances of his most sincere adherents, and in an evil hour, Walpole had yielded to the solicitations of the king,^ and had 1 " Either the present Viscount Chetwind, or his brother William, conveyed eleven thousand pounds from St. John's lady to Lady Walsingham, the Duchess of Kendal's niece." — WalpoWs Statement, OoxE, vol. ii. p. 345. 4to. 2 " Lord Bolingbroke," says Lady Mary Wortley, " in the drawing-room was tlie exact similitude of Satan when asking leave to torment an honest man." — Lady Mabt Woktley, vol. iii. p. 285. CHAP. 2.] DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE HI. 157 consented to support the act of grace which enabled the most brilliant of his enemies, and one of the most eloquent men that ever was born to speak the English tongue, to set his foot once more on his native soil. Though tongue-tied, his pen was free, and, less grateful for what had been granted than indignant for what had been withheld from him, Bolingbroke for more than twenty years assailed Walpole with all the vehement eloquence that genius, inspired by hatred, could supply. It is said, but the evidence does not appear to me con- clusive, that the death of George the First prevented Bolingbroke' s return to power. Bolingbroke was aided by Pulteney, whom Walpole had alienated by the avarice of power, which led him, sagacious as he was, into such frequent and substantial errors. Pulteney was a great writer and a great speaker in the House of Commons. His wit was brilliant and easy, and his taste, refined by studies which Walpole had never cultivated, saved him from those violations of decorum by which his rival wantonly aggravated his difBculties and embarrassments. But his great qualities were sullied by the most sordid avarice, and his domestic relations did not command respect.^ An opposition led by Bolingbroke in the Lords and Pulteney in the Commons would have obtained an ' " And Pulteney trucked the fairest fame For a right honourable name To call his vixen by." 158 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. earlier triumph over Walpole's government than that achieved in 1741, which at the very moment when it was won, reduced the victor to insignificance, and gave the conquered minister a revenge as signal as it was complete over an impotent and silenced enemy. A struggle for power between Carteret and Walpole,^ which turned upon a question whether Sir Luke Schaub, the creature of the first, or Horace, the brother of the second, should be entrusted with the negociation carried on at Paris, ended in the discom- fiture of the former. Carteret was deprived of his office of Secretary of State, and sent into honourable exile as Viceroy of Ireland.^ He was succeeded by the Duke of Newcastle, and Walpole's influence was still more firmly rooted than before. The scheme on which Carteret had relied was this : through Schaub, and at Carteret's suggestion, a scheme was carried on for marrying the daughter of the Countess of Platen to the Count of St. Florentin, son of the Marquis de la Yrilliere, and to obtain a dukedom for 1 Coxe's " Walpole," vol. ii. p. 269, 4to. ; letter of Townshend to Walpole.— " I would advise him (H. Walpole) not to mention anything to Sir Luke Schaub or the French ministers, of the match that is in agitation for the Countess of Platen's daughter with M. de la Vrilliere, except they take notice of it to him firet, in which case he is to express himself strongly for it." See ibid., p. 289. ^ See Lord Townshend's letter to the Duke of Grafton, April 1, 1724. (Coxe, vol. ii. p. 295.) " The first instance his Majesty has given is by removing Mr. Treby from the War Office, which he has this day disposed of to Mr. Henry Pelham ; and I believe the seals will be taken from Lord Carteret in a day or two to be given to the Duke of Newcastle. In that case the king intends the Chamberlain's place for your Grace, and Ireland for Lord Carteret." CHAP. 2.] DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 159 the future husband's family.^ This project was eagerly embraced by George the First, Carteret followed the king to Hanover. Townshend, recol- lecting the successful intrigue of Sunderland and Stanhope, accompanied him, and there, by bribing one concubine he baffled the other. The Duchess of Kendal, whom he calls in his letter to Walpole, " the good duchess and our fast friend," succeeded in counteracting the schemes of the Countess of Platen. Such was modern government in the eighteenth century, even in its most perfect form, and such the arts to which all who aspired to rule where courts were powerful were forced to have recourse. An English nobleman of exact honour, a great minister of a free state, was fain to flatter a creature, who in Athens or free Rome would have been relegated to the lowest classes of society, and to gain his point by inflaming her malevolent passions against another woman as corrupt and sordid as herself. On such points, in modern Europe, did the fate of millions hang after eight centuries of comparative civilisation, and twelve hundred, for the Continent at least, of Christianity ; and such were the beings who, when their vanity was mortified, or their interest over- looked, laid a vast portion of Europe during this ' The intrigue is explained, " Marchmont PapeiB," vol. i. p. 8. Bolingbiolie detected it. Lord Carteret endeavoured to set the Countess Platen against the Duchess of Kendal. Walpole and Townshend adhered to the latter. The revolution gave us a German concubine instead of a French one. 160 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. century — the age of Montesquieu and Hume — in blood and ashes. So great was our superiority to the nations and men who have been described to us by Livy, Plutarch, and Thucydides ; or, to borrow the phrase of Machiavelli, of those who were called Thomas and Peter, to those who were called Cassius and Scipio ! This period exhibits another strong proof of the totally different tone of feeling engendered by ancient and modern education. In 1724 "Walpole made a successful appeal to the plebeian part of our nature, by reviving the Order of the Bath.^ Thucydides or Scipio, nay, Cleon or Clodius, would not have thought it possible that the privilege of wearing a riband of a particular colour^ — conferred, not by a grateful senate, or a rescued nation, but by a minister, as the reward for indiscriminate support in the House of Commons, or by a harlot in return for a bribe, or indicating the favour of a single man, ill- educated, narrow-minded, and remarkably incapable of discerning merit — would be deemed a very con- siderable one, even by the meanest of their fellow- citizens ; and yet experience has shown that for such rattles and playthings educated and well-born ' 1725. The whole number created was 38. ^ The " Craftemau," describing the Parliament dissolved in 1727, under the name of a monster called Polyglott, " with above 500 mouths, whose chief diet was gold and silver," says, " his mane and tail are tied up with red ribands, but he viae usually led by the nose with a blue one." — Craftsman, vol. ii. p. 70. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 161 men were willing to sacrifice their own integrity, and the interests of the public. These were the habits impressed upon the Europe of the Goths and Germans in its infancy, that have grown stronger and stronger with the weakness of public spirit, that have flourished during its manhood, and that there is every reason to suppose will prevail with still greater vigour during the last stages of its decrepi- tude and decay. In the summer of 1715 George the First concluded a treaty with Denmark, by which Bremen and Verden, of which the King of Denmark, without any shadow of right, had plundered Sweden, were sold to the King of England, who in return guaranteed the possession of Sleswick (another robbery) .to the Danish crown.^ This unprincipled action, which none of his ministers ventured to resist, added much to the dangers by which he was beset, and united the north with the south against him. For by these acquisitions George the First made an implacable enemy of the King of Sweden. To dethrone George the First was one of the daring projects of a great minister, Cardinal Alberoni.^ Meanwhile ' " Le Roi George u'avait aucun bat en toutea ses actions que la possession de ces deux places, Bremen et Verden, eur les quelles il n'avait aucun droit, que de les avoir achetfes a vil prix aux Danois, a qui elles n'appertenaient pas." — VOLTAIKE. ' Flassan, " Histoire de la Diplomatie Fran9aiae," vol. v. p. 11. " La courte campagne de 1719, centre I'Espagne dans laquelle la France n'avait pour but que d'expulser du ministfere le Cardinal Alberoni." M 162 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [EOOK I. Baron von Gortz, tlie new minister of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, an able, enterprising man, inde- fatigable in his exertions to extricate his master from the difficulties by which he was surrounded, had detached Russia from the confederacy against Sweden. An alliance had been concluded on the Island of Aland between Sweden and Russia against England, Denmark, and Poland, and it had been agreed at first to co-operate with Alberoni in the invasion of England on behalf of the Pretender. This scheme was frustrated by the disgrace of Albe- roni, unable to resist the combinedhostility of France, Austria, and England. Still Grortz persevered. Russia agreed to furnish an army, and Charles the Twelfth was to invade England at its head. Alberoni had sent a subsidy of a million of French livres to Spaar, the Swedish minister at Paris. The invading army was to consist of 1,200 Swedish soldiers, and what the immediate result of such an invasion, headed by Charles the Twelfth, would have been, the success of the Pretender in 1745 may enable us to conjecture. Grortz was on his way to England when the conspiracy was discovered, by means of letters intercepted between him and Gyllenborg. Gyllen- borg was arrested in England, a measure entirely consistent with public law, and Gortz was arrested in Holland, a gross infraction of the rights of an independent sovereign. Both were soon released. OHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 163 The quadruple alliance/ between the Emperor, France, England, and the United Provinces, and the destruction of the Spanish fleet by Byng in the Mediterranean, a measure wholly indefensible,^ and worthy of such ministers as Sunderland and Stan- hope, obliged the King of Spain to dismiss Alberoni, — notwithstanding his intrigues, a really great min- ister, who by faithfully serving Spain had incurred the displeasure of France and England — and to accede to the terms proposed to him by the four powers. The assassination of Charles the Twelfth at Frederickshall, delivered George the First and England entirely from the danger which had been provoked by the desire of aggrandising himself in Germany without any regard to the interests of England. These acquisitions became links in the chain by which we were perpetually dragged back into the labyrinth of German war and negociation. The hope of obtaining the investiture of these duchies from the Emperor made George the First, and, through him, the nation he governed, the tools of the House of Austria, in forcing the Duke of Savoy to exchange Sicily for Sardinia by the quad- ' 2nd August, 1718. George the First authorised the Duke of Orleans to offer Gibraltar to the King of Spain for an equivalent, if he would join the quadruple alliance. ' Walpole, then in opposition, protested against it, because it was contrary to the law of nations, and a breach of solemn treaties. M 2 164 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. ruple alliance, tlius ultimately enabling the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon to reannex the Italian dominions to that race, for the brutal tyranny of Austria made submission to its yoke a crime even in the eyes of the least enlightened when there was any prospect of casting it off. But before the death of George the First other clouds drew over the political horizon of Europe, which cast a shadow over our domestic history. The alliance between Russia, France, and England — • called, from the place where it was signed, the Treaty of Hanover^ — furnished a copious theme for the vehe- ment attacks of opposition. It stipulated that the contracting parties should, if any of them were attacked, supply a certain contingent, in the shape of troops, or ships, or money, to the one assailed. The true object of this treaty, however, was to compel the Emperor to abandon the Ostend Company, and to resist a very formidable scheme, that, if it had taken place would probably have been successful, in favour of the Pretender. It exchanged the alliance of Austria for that of France wisely, as that was the ■• " The Pulteneys build great hopes upon the difficulties they promise them- selves will arise from foreign affairs, and especially the Hanover Treaty. I (Walpole) had a curiosity to open some of their letters, and find them full of this language. The two great topics he goes on to eay are the Civil List and Hanover ; then comes a sneer at ' righteous Sir Joseph,' Jebyll, illustrating Pope's lines — ' A joke on Jekyll, or some good old Whig, Who never changed his principles or wig.' " — Coxe's Wal2Mle, vol. ii. p. 492. 4to. Ed. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE KEIGN OF GEORGE 111. 165 only power from which England had anything to dread. Thirty years' peace, in spite of the folly of kings, and the intrigues of concubines in every court of Europe, was the result of this policy — the object of Bolingbroke's acrimonious and incessant vitu- peration. Townshend was the chief agent in this treaty, to which, notwithstanding the popular clamour, aggravated of course by the name it bore, it is now well known that George the First, who had a deep respect for the House of Austria, yielded a reluctant assent. England had been in con- siderable peril. Mr. Pitt termed the Treaty of Hanover " a treaty the tendency of which is dis- covered in the name — a treaty by which we dis- united ourselves from Austria, destroyed the building which we may now perhaps, without success, endea- vour to raise again, and weakened the only power which it is our interest to strengthen."^ Lord Chesterfield says, " Hanover rode triumphant on the shoulders of England." Both accusations were unfounded. The treaty preserved Gibraltar, des- troyed (what in the notions of the age was a great evil to England) the Ostend Company, and broke up the scheme in favour of the Pretender. A great debate took place in the House of Com- mons when this treaty and the Treaty of Vienna, which it was intended to guard against, between the ' 111 later life he disavowed these sentiments. 160 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. King of Spain and the Emperor, were laid before it. No stranger, except Lord Marchmont, who had been a plenipotentiary at the League of Cambray, was allowed to be present at the discussion. Mr. Walpole, the brother of Sir Robert Walpole, opened the debate. He entered into a full detail of the history of the different treaties, from the Treaty of Utrecht to the Treaty of Vienna. He enumerated the different treaties George the First had con- cluded, to preserve the balance of power — that of 1716 with the Emperor, that of 1717 with France and Holland, and the quadruple alliance in 1718, to which the King of Spain had been forced, after the destruction of his fleet in the Mediterranean, by Admiral Byng, to accede. He then mentioned the congress opened at Cambray under the mediation of the Kings of England and of France, to adjust the matters still in dispute between the Emperor and the King of Spain. That congress had been, he said, brought to an abrupt conclusion by intelligence that the Emperor and the King of Spain had con- cluded a secret treaty at Yienna. The object of that treaty was to establish the Ostend Company, and to secure the inheritance of the imperial dignity for the House of Austria, to recover Minorca and Gibraltar for Spain. It was to give a timely check to these designs that the Treaty of Hanover had been concluded. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 167 This speech gave rise to a long debate, which ended by a majority in favour of ministers, and approving the treaty, of 285 to 107. That the promise certainly made by George the First of restoring Gibraltar, and the loss of their fleet, lay at the hearts of the Spaniards, there can be no question ; but a still more galling provocation, the sending back the Infanta, the betrothed of Louis the Fifteenth, to Spain, by the Duke of Bourbon's mistress, Madame de Prie, was the immediate and determining cause of the alliance between Spain and Austria. The treaties of Hanover and Vienna engaged the attention of Europe. Spain haughtily repudiated the overtures of the Duke of Bourbon, and publicly received the Duke of Wharton as the accredited agent of the Pretender.'- The Emperor gained over the electors of Treves, Cologne, Bavaria, Mentz, and the Palatine. Russia prepared to co- operate in the invasion of England, which was to be attempted by a simultaneous attack from Russia, Norway, Spain, and Flanders. England exerted herself with equal vigour. Showers of English gold were poured out. A fleet was sent, under Sir Charles Wager, into the Baltic ; another, under Sir John "The Jacobite air, " Tlie King f.hall enjoy his own again," was played at the court of Spain, and the Dulte of Sisia openly said he hoped it would bu soon a Clime to talli of George the First as king of F.ngland. 168 HISTOKY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Jennings, to the Mediterranean ; and the result was that the fleets of Denmark and Russia did not leave their ports. Admiral Hosier at the same time was sent to Porto Bello — an expedition which brought dishonour on our arms and councils, but glory to our literature ; for it gave occasion to the most beau- tiful ballad in the English language. The peremp- tory demand of the restitution of Gibraltar, and the insolent conduct of Palm,^ the Austrian minister in London, roused the passions of the people, and drew forth an unanimous address from both Houses of Parliament, declaring that the House would stand by and support his Majesty against all open and secret enemies at home and abroad. Palm was obliged to leave the kingdom,^ a separate peace was soon made with the Emperor, who abandoned his ally, and the attack of Spain ou Gibraltar was defeated. If Austria had fulfilled her engagement, this must have been the signal of an European war. But the moderation of the French and of the English minister averted this calamity. Fleury, who, on the fall of the Duke of Bourbon, had succeeded to the management of affairs in ' "Pari. Hist.," vol. viii. p. 553. ^Zinzendorfi'aletter to Palm wa.s still more offensive than the memorial. The imperial minister at London advised his master to declare that the asser- tions in the king's speech were false. The Emperor ordered his memorial to the liing to be printed and circulated throughout England, thereby " appealing to the people against the king." Sir William Wyndliam, Sliippen, and Pultenuy joined in expressing llie liigliest indignation at tlie insult to the Crown. enAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 169 France, lent his cordial support to Walpole's pacific policy ; and though Spain still asserted her right to Gibraltar, the preliminaries of peace were signed by her ministers at Yienna, and the peace of Europe, if not formally, was substantially restored. The death of George the First changed for a moment the aspect of affairs; but by the skill of Walpole, who concluded the treaty with the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttle, peace was completely established by the Treaty of Seville.^ At this crisis, when Bolingbroke, whether on solid grounds or not, was in full expectation that he should reap the benefit of the court he had con- tinued to pay,^ and the money he had profusely lavished on the concubine of the king,^ George the First expired at Osnaburgh, in the same room, says Lord Hervey, in which he was born.* The first act of George the Second's reign deserves to be mentioned, as it illustrates the manners and morality of the sovereigns of that age. It was a capital felony in England, and a crime which would ' Between Great Britain, France, and Spain, 1729. ' " Though the late king durst not support me openly against his ministers, ho would have plotted with me against them ; and we should have served him, our country, and ourselves, by demolishing that power that is become tyranny in the paws of the greatest bear and the greatest jackanapes on earth." — Bolinglrolre to Wyndham, Coxe, vol. ii. p. f40. 4to. ' Walpole states the case thus :— "As he had the duchess entirely on his side, I need not add what might, or must, have been the consequence. He (Walpole) informed me (Etoiigh) the same day, that the bill in favour of St. John was wholly to be ascribed to the influence of the duchess."— /iii?., p. 345. * Hia only resemblance to Augustus. 170 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [COOK I. have been punished by death or the galleys in any European nation. This was the destruction of his father's will. Scores of Englishmen were put to death every three months for offences much less serious. The defence of this act is equally charac- teristic : it was, that G-eorge the First had also destroyed his father's will, under which G-eorge the Second had been entitled to considerable benefits. The exercise of this hereditary right, and the righteousness of such a defence, might perhaps have been questioned by the legatees of G-eorge the First. Such, however, were the notions of kings — and by no means of the worst kings — of the eighteenth century, and such the condition to which the doctrine so long and so carefully inculcated by the clergy, without any warrant from Scripture, that kings, like them- selves, were a sort of middle being between God and man,^ had reduced mankind, even after the Revolu- tion of 1688, in the most civilised portion of the globe. G-eorge the Second's reign divides itself into two periods, separated by the fall of Sir Robert "Walpole. That minister, by faithfully serving the father, had of course incurred the displeasure of the son, and the first impulse of the new sovereign was to disgrace the only Englishman who had the will and the 1 It is curious that submission to absolute power, which was the punishment of the Jew, should have been for so many centuries, and in so many eountiies, the duty of the Christian. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE HI. 171 power to keep the crown upon his head. From this act — worthy of the Stuarts — he was saved partly by the singular imbecility of the pompous formalist to whom he would have entrusted his own and England's destiny — but still more effectually by the influence of his wife/ a woman of uncommon abilities and penetration, who deserves to fill a conspicuous place in history.. As a wife, her conduct was, in spite of great and reiterated provocations, absolutely perfect. As a queen, if she discovered occasionally the weakness of her sex, her errors were venial in themselves, and redeemed by many proofs of candour and good sense. She was loved by all her children, except the Prince of Wales, the born enemy of his father, a being thoroughly worthless ; and whatever her faults might be, her name ought to be held in veneration by her posterity, for it is to her they owe the throne of England. One advantage George the Second had over his father. He could understand and even speak Eng- lish ; neither was he quite a stranger to the principles of our constitution. Of course he hated literature, but the neglect of sovereigns is far more beneficial to the real interest^ of taste and letters than their patronage, often mischievous, and almost always ' Caiolina Wilhelmina, daughter of the Margi'ave of Auspach. Iler early life was spent at the court of Berlin, with her aunt Sophia Charlotte, the most accomplished princess of her age. * Alfieri, " II Principe e le Lettcre," lib. i. c. 5. " II pvincipe per naiuiale sua 172 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. misapplied. Lord Hervey's admirable memoirs show that George the Second had a bad heart, and a tolerable understanding. His cardinal passion was avarice, then came the love of women — not " Through some certain strainers well refined," but in the very coarsest meaning in which it is pos- sible to use the words — and the delight in military parade, so deeply rooted in all German rulers, from the prince of half a dozen boors to the Emperor of Austria. The idea that any pleasure could be derived from contributing to the happiness of others, never seems to have crossed his narrow mind. He was a rigid observer of the most childish etiquette, and a slave to the most mechanical routine. His resentment was easily provoked and hardly pacified. He was brave and veracious, but, like most men fond of petty detail, ignorant of all the higher indole pende sempre maggiormente per i mediocri, o come piu vicini alia capacita sua e percio meno offendenti la sua ideale superiority o come piu ariendevoli al parlare o al tacere a mode sue.'' Again, " Come pub egli ragionevelmente proteggere e favorire una si alta cosa di cui per non esserne egli eapace, diffici- lissi'mamente pub farsi egli giudice ; e se giudice competente non ne pub essere, come mai rimuneratore illuminate puo farsene ? Per giudizio d'altri — e di ohi ? Di chi gli sta intorno — e chi gli sta intorno?" — Lib. i. c. 3. " II serait honteux si la flatterie infectSt le petit nombre dea gens qui pensent," says Voltaire. Horace, Virgil, Ovid, TibuUus, Dryden, Bacon, Ariosto, Tasso, all the writers of Louis the Fourteenth's days, except F^n^louand La Fontaine, and perliaps Corneille, sadly illustrate this truth. " Chi togliesse a Virgilio lo lodi di Augusto e dei Cesari, al Ariosto, b al Tasso le Estensi e a tanti altri scrittori le adulazioni tutte o i timidi loro riguardi non accresecrebbe egli di gran fatto la gloria agli autori e al lettore di gran lunga la luce il diletto e rutilitS,." — Alf. P. e le Lettere, I. i, CHAP. 2.] DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEOKGE III. 173 branches of the military art, and as unfit to lead an army in war, as to govern a kingdom in peace. In public life he was altogether indifferent to the welfare of England, except as it affected his Electo- rate's or his own. Always purchasing concubines, he was always governed by his wife. In private life he was a gross lover, an unreasonable master, a coarsely unfaithful husband, an unnatural parent, and a selfish man. The Treaty of Seville^ (signed by William Stan- hope, afterwards Lord Harrington), confirming the peace which the death of George the First had for a moment unsettled, was the last act of Townshend's administration. It was signed on the 9th of Novem- ber, 1729/ and Townshend resigned his office in the May that followed. The cause of his resignation was the superior authority and influence of his brother- in-law, Walpole, who was originally indebted to him for his introduction into public life. After many disputes, and much secret heart-burning, an open ' 1729, between England, Spain, and France. It etipulated the introduction of six thousand Spaniards into Tuscany, Pai-ma, and Placentia, to secure for Don Carlos the succession to these Duchies, if the reigning sovereign died without issue male, in spite of any resistance - by Austria. — Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. 303. . George the Second offered to guarantee the Pragmatic sanction at the same time, but in return for several concessions to him as Elector. " The king," says Chesterfield, " thinlis the guarantee so great a concession that it entitles him to ask anything or everything." ' It was a defensive alliance between England, Spain, and France, and after- wards Holland, 174 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. quarrel, almost attended witli personal violence, took place between these old friends and near relations. But Lord Townshend, when the struggle was oyer, acted with a dignity and forbearance of which history presents but few examples ; instead of heading a factious opposition to measures which were in the main he believed likely to promote the welfare of his country, and covering his private resentment under the name of public spirit, he withdrew to his country seat, and steadily refused to take any active part in public life, fearful lest he, like Lord Cowper, might be tempted to sacrifice the welfare of the state to the indulgence of a motive merely personal. This last act gives grace and elevation to a career never distinguished by any great display of genius or capacity. On his removal, the task of managing foreign affairs devolved upon Lord Harrington, and, greatly to the disappointment of Pulteney/ on the Duke of Newcastle, The first, an honest, illiterate, phlegmatic sensualist, not only without eloquence, but a voluntary mute in the House of Lords ; the second, a man whose high rank and large fortune enabled him to gratify a restless love of power, which seems to have been his sole conspicuous • " The other (Pulteney) had been Secretaiy at War, disgraced, retaken into the administration as cofferer ; but failing in his endeavours to be made Secretary of State (in 1724), had set himself at the head of opposition to the court, and meditated nothing but the ruin of Sir Robert Walpole, to whose account he placed the irremiesible sin of putting the Duke of Newcastle into that employ- ment he had pretended to." — Hekvey's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 8. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE RKIGN OF GEOEGE III. 175 quality. Frivolous to childishness, perfidious to a proverb, destitute of all that bore the faintest approach to capacity as a speaker or a statesman, he became, in spite of the dislike of the sovereign, the scorn of the judicious, and the hatred of those ■whom he had over and over again betrayed, the leader of the chief section of the Whig oligarchy, and the principal channel through which, for more than a quarter of a century, the highest rewards and honours of the community were distributed. The aristocratical element in our constitution reached its culminating point when the Duke of Newcastle — hated by the king, who truly said that he was not fit to be Chamberlain in the smallest court in Germany, distrusted by his colleagues, and despised by all — retained power for forty-six years, and was prime minister for eight.^ Experience, however, was soon to teach the English that royal favour was a worse test of merit than the support of an interested or venal aristocracy. The attempt of Sir Robert Walpole to establish the excise scheme in 1734 — a measure, in a financial point of view, undoubtedly beneficial, though liable to very grave objections, so far as the constitution was concerned — very nearly overthrew his govern- ' Newcastle was appointed principal Secretary of State on the dismissal of Lord Carteret in 1724. This office he held till 1754; he then became First Loiii of the Ticasury, which post he held till 1763 176 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. ment. He withdrew, before it was too late, from a conflict in whicli it became clear that the great majority of the people was on one side, and a small majority of their bribed representatives on the other. But though baffled in this conflict, his influence in the House of Commons, and over his master, remained immovable. A long list of dismissals from office of the peers and commoners who had deserted his banner in the conflict, and a remarkable vote of the House of Commons, selecting the Government list upon the ballot for a Committee of the Custom House Frauds, furnished conclusive evidence that the scheme of Bolingbroke was for the present un- successful. Marks of eminent favour were given to his adherents. Sir Charles Wager was, by Walpole's direct interference, appointed first Lord of the Admiralty, and Sir Philip Yorke, an attorney's son, a clear-headed accurate lawyer, without genius, who laboured through a long life not quite unsuccessfully to supply the defect of a narrow education, and had passed rapidly through the different stages of the pro- fession, was made Chief Justice of England, and raised to the dignity of a peer. The triumph of Walpole's influence was complete. The debates on the dis- missal of Lord Cobham and the Duke of Bolton, and on making officers of the army irremovable at the pleasure of the Crown, and that on the Place Bill, served only to confirm it. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 177 The debate on the repeal of the Septennial Act was attended with a result still more signal and important ; for on that occasion Sir W. Wyndham, the friend and pupil of Bolingbroke, and, from birth, fortune, and abilities, perhaps the most conspicuous member of his party, pronounced an elaborate and artful invective against the minister, and the system by which he governed. In his reply Walpole made a powerful and pointed attack on his great enemy Bolingbroke, the concealed author of the measures of opposition. He drew a picture of a man void of faith and honour, who had betrayed every master he had ever served, who owed his life and fortune to the clemency of the monarch against whom he had rebelled, and who returned such ill-deserved mercy by incessant efforts for the overthrow of his dynasty, the slave of impotent malevolence and of mortified ambition. "If," he said, "we can suppose such a person, can there be imagined a greater disgrace to human nature than such a wretch as this." The result of this vigorous harangue was for the moment to slacken the connection between the discontented Whigs and the Tories, and even to oblige Boling- broke' for a time to leave the country. But the fall ' Bolingbroke alludes to this with a good deal of resentment : — " Writing and speaking are of use to prepare, to accompany, and to support actions ; but they become impertinent when they go alone, and the whole scheme begins, continues; and ends in them. I am hurt, and your lordship will allow that I have good reason to be so, when I hear that the same persons as think my name N 178 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. of Bolingbroke's long triumphant rival was at hand. The habit of compromise, of management, and avoid- ing the direct assertion of a principle, which had so often extricated him from difficulties under which a less pliant minister would have sunk, now brought about his ruin. The nation, inflamed by opposition leaders, audacious falsehoods, and the hope of profit, clamoured for a commercial crusade — in other words, for a buccaneering war with Spain. Walpole was betrayed by those whom he had most obliged and most trusted — by the members of his own administration. John Duke of Argyle,^ sagacious to foresee what was impending, abandoned the minister, and lent the Opposition in the Lords whatever force was to be derived from reckless abuse and vehement assertion. Lord Isla,^ though Walpole would not sanction a direct charge of treachery against him, there can be little doubt betrayed his patron, in the Scotch returns which had been entrusted to his management. The Duke of Newcastle and Lord and, much more, my presence in Britain, whenever I am there, does them mis- chief, should express any expectation of the kind you mention from me. They treat me a little too lightly." — Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 179. Again he says, " He (Pulteney) thought my very name and presence in England did hurt." — Ooxe's Walpole, vol. iii. p. 523, 4to. 1739. ' " Fifteen Scotch members voted in the minority. Four are placed to the Duke of Argyle'e account." — Account of the Debate on the Convention, 1739 ; Coxe's Walpole, vol. iii. p. 518, 4to. " The Duke of Argyle got the Dukes Campbell from ViS."—Ibid., p. 250. ^ " He was a shameless prostitute to power, and extremely avaricious." — Glovek's Memoirs, p. 11. CHAP, 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 179 Hardwicke, whose intrigues had been long suspected by Walpole, plotted together for his overthrow. Lord Hardwicke disgraced himself by leaving the woolsack on which Walpole had placed him, to make a violent speech for the Spanish War. Neverthe- less' it must have been notorious to him, as it was to all in any way acquainted with the state of affairs, and especially Walpole, who was perfectly conversant with them, that the British merchants trading to the West Indies were for the most part engaged in carrying on an illicit trade,^ and that although the Spaniards had been occasionally transported into unjustifiable conduct by repeated provocation, the law of nations, and the principles of substantial justice were on their side. Instead, however, of resting his opposition to the war on this broad and solid ground, Walpole had recourse to the topic of expediency, thus encouraging and almost justifying the attacks of his enemies, who profited by the ' The ridiculous story of Captain Jenkins has been dwelt upon \>y Bwrke. The Spaniards had their Jenkins. The Spanish monarch, in his manifesto, cited an anecdote of an English captain who not obtaining the ransom he de- manded from two prisoners of distinction, cut off the nose and ears of one, and obliged him to swallow them. " Estas ridioulas fabulas," says the eloquent historian, " de que se burlaban las gentes sensataa Servian grandemente para irsitar las passiones del vulgo de uno y otro pueblo." — La Fuente, vol. xix. In no country does the word " vulgo " include so wide a class as in England. * An Act of Parliament, 8 George I. , c. 24, bears strong testimony to the piratical habits of the English. It declares that the number of piracies, felonies, and robberies upon the seas is very much increased .... whereby the trade in remote parts will greatly suffer, &c. We may judge how scrupulous such per- sons were on the coast of South America. N 2 180 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. admissions lie did not venture to withhold. The death of Queen Caroline, his firm and constant friend, had given full scope to court intrigues. The king was impatient for war, and the Duke of New- castle, seconded by the Lord Chancellor, eagerly- seized upon this opportunity to supplant his leader. The war thus entered upon was as inglorious as it was unjust. Begun in wickedness it ended in disgrace. At Dettingen indeed, in 1743, the impetuosity of the Duke de G-rammont frustrated the plan of Noailles, and gave the English a victory at the very moment when defeat appeared inevitable. But we were compelled to leave our wounded to the mercy of the enemy. It was rather a fortunate escape than a brilliant victory — it had a lustre pale and sickly indeed compared with the glories of Plantagenet. Walpole's prediction, made in the bitterness of his soul, was to the letter realised. He never shared ia the public infatuation. In the midst of the tumul- tuous excitement, when the Prince of Wales— a fit organ of the vulgar— stopped to drink success to the war at Temple Bar, and all the City bells were ringing, Walpole exclaimed, " Ay, they are ringing the bells now, they will be wringing their hands before long.''^ Fleury, the minister of France, driven 1 When the merchants complained of their losses to Sir Charles Wager, he said, " It is your own war, and you must take it for your pains.'' Accordingly wo read, a.d. April 21, 1747—" People are so frightened here CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 181 by a violent faction out of his orbit, was obliged to take the part of Spain. We had recourse to Austria, the most exacting, burdensome, and unprincipled of all allies. The death of Charles the Sixth made the war more complicated, and placed peace at a greater distance. We were entangled in the labyrinth of European politics. Spain, whom we had reckoned upon as an easy ^nd unresisting prey, was well prepared to meet us. We were baffled by the enemy whom we despised and had provoked. The trifling success at Porto Bello was ludicrously mag- nified, and an impostor' became the idol of the most easily deceived of nations. The miserable expedi- tion to Carthagena, and the boasting despatches of Admiral Vernon, speedily refuted by the event, were worthy of the spirit which had dictated the war, and the principles on which it had been under- taken. In the year 1744 a French fleet, consisting of twenty- three ships of war, entered the Channel. To meet this armament. Sir John Norris was sent ■with a fleet of twenty-nine sail under his command. The French fleet fled to Brest, and were allowed by Sir John Norris, an old man, to escape un- molested. It is calculated that in the course of this war the Spaniards captured four hundred and that all insurance upon homeward-bound ships was refused this day on 'Change." —Chest. Con., vol. iii. p. 17. Rotterdam. " Money was never so scarce in the city, nor the stocks so low, even during the Rebellion, as now." — Chestebfield, 1748. 182 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. seven English merchant ships. On the other hand the galleon, Nuestra Sefiora de Cordova, valued at dC3 13,000, was taken by Commodore Anson — the richest prize ever brought into an English harbour ; it made an individual opulent, but did not enrich the State, or set right the ledger of its ruined merchants. In 1744 the public were irritated by an indecisive engagement, notwithstanding a great superiority on the English side, with the French and Spanish fleets off Toulon. By the grossest injustice the court- martial acquitted Lestock, the subordinate who did not fight, and declared Admiral Matthews, who had displayed the most daring courage, to be incapable of serving for the future. In May, 1746, Admirals Anson and Warren gained a great victory off Cape Finisterre,^ for which Anson was made a peer, over a French fleet sailing to America. In October of the same year Admiral Hawke fell in with a fleet of nine line of battle ships, seven of which he captured, after an obstinate resistance : in both these instances the English force was greatly superior. The con- sequence of the war was, that Walpole, indeed, was driven from power ; but that England was invaded, that we and our allies were beaten on every spot where Lord Marlborough had conquered, that France acquired great military renown, and that in ' In this action Captain Thomas GienviUe, brother of Geoige Grenville, was killed. He died exclaiming, " How much better it is to die thus than to be tried by a comt-martial." Sic fortis Etruria crevit. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OJf GEOKGE 111. 183 spite of the valour of our soldiers and seamen we were glad to conclude a disastrous war, by a peace^ containing a clause more Ignominious than any to which the countrymen of Blake and Marlborough had been yet obliged to submit, compelling us to give hostages to France, by the deliberate offer of Lord Sandwich,^ the sole English negociator. Such was the just punishment of yielding on a question of war to the clamour of the populace, and the short- sighted avarice of tradesmen — the very evil which the aristocratical element in our constitution is in- tended to guard against. But the English gentry on this occasion were degraded into the vices of mobs and kings. To complete the picture, the terms of the Peace of Aix la Ohapelle were drawn with such shameful negligence as to make another war in no long time inevitable. By the Peace of Aix la Ohapelle, no provision of any kind was made for the surrender of those claims by Spain, the assertion of which had been the original pretext of the war. The plain and incontestable right to a free navigation (as it was called in 1739) was altogether unnoticed. France astonished all mankind by her ' Mr. Pelham's letters are full of prayers for peace. Mr. Legge says, writing to Pitt, " I congratulate you and every reasonable Englishman upon signing the preliminaries. When I saw .... we were growing ridiculous and contemp- tible, my noble ardour for peace was greatly heightened." — Chatham Corre- spondence, vol. i. p. 29. ^ " Le Comte de Sandwich offrit des otages en garantie de la remise du Cap Breton."— Flassan, vol. v. p. 419. 184 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. sacrifices. She had acquired Tournai, Gaud, Oude- narde, Nieuport, Alt, Brabant, Hainault. After Fontenoy, the allies had been defeated at Roucous, with the loss of 3,000 men ; and after Laufeldt the Comte de Lowenthal took Bergen-op-Zoom. All the Austrian Netherlands were in her possession. The capture of Maestricht^ banished all notion of pro- longing the war from the minds of her enemies. Holland was prostrate before her, and her generals were everywhere victorious ; indeed, when the French armies were led by Marshal Saxe, and the English by the Duke of Cumberland, to terminate the war as speedy as possible was the dictate of the plainest reason.^ Austria had been deprived, by Spain, of Parma and the Sicilies ; by Prussia, of Silesia ; by the Turks, of Servia and Belgrade. But the main object of the war, so far as France was concerned, was at an end,^ by the elevation of the husband of Maria Theresa, Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, to the throne of the empire, which it had been the aim of French policy, by transferring that dignity to the House of Bavaria, and then ' ",Sire, la paix est dans Maestrioht," said the Marechal de Saxe. ^ " Great Britain must have peace, my lord. Her ability to carry on this war, as little as it is, is greater than that of France. But there are other irwincibk reasons against it. I repeat, therefore, we must have peace aa soon as possible." — BoUngirohe to Marchmont, Marchmont Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 318. " My resignation," says Chesterfield, " made the peace, as it opened peoples' eyes to the danger of the war. The republic \i.e. of Holland] is saved by it from utter ruin, and England from bankruptcy." — Letter, May 13, 1748. ■^ France had already got Lorraine, 1735. CHAP. 2.] DUKING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 185 to that of Saxony, to prevent, England exchanged Cape Breton for Madras. But one dreadful scourge was for the moment averted ; for a new and terrible feature marked this war — ominous of unspeakable miseries to Europe. The savage inhabitants of Russia began to mingle with the disputes of civilised man. Thirty thousand barbarians were on their march under Prince Repnin, to join the army of the empress queen. They had already reached Bohemia when the peace sent them back to the dreary regions where nature had wisely placed them, from which they were too soon again to issue, to spread horror and desolation, and to blight all the efforts of civilised humanity. Long before these events had taken place, the people, irritated by disappointment, and the loss of national glory, imputed all their misfortunes to their rulers. It became impossible for Walpole to retain his power, though a direct motion to remove him was rejected by a considerable majority.^ His enemies visibly increased in strength. The zeal of his friends abated in the same pro- portion. He was betrayed by Newcastle and Hardwicke. On the meeting of the new parliament, it soon became evident that he could not command a ' Shippen, the Jacobite leader, withdrew, followed by thirty-four of his friends. Ue had a deep sense of his personal obligation to Walpole, who had probably saved his life. Bolingbroke was furious. — Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 246. 186 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. majority in the House of Commons — it is charac- teristic of the morality of the age that the fate of the minister was sealed by a division on the Chippen- ham Election Petition,^ which, of course, implies that on such questions the real merits of the case were altogether and systematically set aside. This took place on the 28th of January, and on the 11th of the following February he resigned. No change of policy or system, none of the advantages which had been boasted of in so many harangues as the certain consequence of his overthrow, took place.^ Triennial parliaments were not restored; placemen and pensioners were not excluded from Parliament • Walpole was not impeached ; corruption, far from ceasing, was increased ; and in 1744 Mr. Pitt said the little finger of one man (Carteret) had for six months pressed more heavily on the nation than the loins of a ministry which had continued for forty, years— a striking and unconscious testimony to the wisdom of Walpole's government and the factious selfish- ness of his opponents. The nation saw with disgust and surprise that it ' How pure the motives were of those who overthrew Walpole may be judged of fiom the opening sentence of Glover's "Memoirs:" — "Don Carlos (i.e. the Prince of Wales) told me it cost £12,000 in corruption, particularly among the Tories, to carry the Westminster and Chippenham elections and other points, which compelled Sir E. Walpole to quit the House of Commons." " Lord Carteret, Lord Gower, Lord Winchilsea, the Duke of Argyle, Mr. Sandys, took office. Mr Pitt, Lord Chesterfield, Mr. Waller, the Duke of Bedford, and Mr. Lyttolton remained in opposition. — Glover's Memoirs. CHAP. 2.] DUllING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 187 had been the dupe of a clamour/ raised for the most part from sordid motives, by men to whom the public good was utterly indifferent.^ Corruption remained, but the vigour and sagacity which had marked the administration of Sir R. Walpole were - no more.' Pulteney was the fii*st victim of his own treachery. On the death of Wilmington,* who, for a short time, was nominal minister, the management of affairs devolved on Henry Pelham — Lord Carteret holding the seals of the Foreign Office — an honest but timid and feeble man ; he was chosen in preference to Carteret at the special suggestion of Walpole to G-eorge the Second. The Eebellion of 1745 soon bore ' " Our infamoua leaders." — Glover's Memoirs. *Mr. Sandys and the old Whigs "not only did not propose any of those reforms for which they had long previously contended, but supported those veiy measures of foreign policy which they had before strenuously condemned, and even opposed the introduction of a place bill into the House of Commons to which they had formally and repeatedly pledged themselves." — Coxe's Memoirs of Pelham, vol. i. p. 59. 4to. See the account of the meeting at the Fountain Tavern, Glover's " Memoirs," p. G : — " The Duke of Argyle was restored to his regiment and command of ordnance. Everything which followed was nonsense, folly, knavery, &c. ; eveiy man shifted for himself, and the session concluded with screening Lord Orford from justice, deluding the people with the farce of a secret committee, and a ridiculous place bill, with the further promotion of Lords Cobham, Bathurst, Gower, Limerick Furnese, Harry Vane, and creating Mr. Pulteney Earl of Bath. ' How firmly Walpole oould resist his master where he thought the interests of the country really at stake, may be judged of by his expression, " There were two men wanted the command of the army — the king and the Duke of Argyle; but, by God I neither of them should have it." * Walpole uses an expression which strongly shows the insignificance of this minister. Wi-iting to Henry Pelham, and urging him to disappoint Carteret and Lord Bath, he says, " He (i.e. Lord Bath) will, if he can, make an arrant Wilmington of you."— Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 83. 4to. 188 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. a strikiBg testimony to the solid merit of Walpole, and to the dangers that he had succeeded in averting, as it did to the miserable condition of our councils and our arms.^ A handful of undisciplined bar- barians spread terror and dismay through the British empire. An entire indifference and apathy to the public interest seems to have succeeded to this degrading scepe. No remnant of popularity was left to varnish the barefaced effrontery of avarice and ambition. The nation resented any profession of regard to the public good as an affront to common sense and daily experience, and for this there was but too much reason, as it was after the scandalous defeat at Falkirk, when the country was supposed to be in the very crisis of its fate, when invasion had taken place, and a civil war, probably of some dura- tion, appeared inevitable, that the Whig leaders dictated to George the Second, who had endeavoured to shake off their supremacy and to choose a minister for himself, the terms on which he must be content to govern. On the king's return from Hanover, Lord Cob- ham insisted on the Duke of Newcastle's promise to give office to Mr. Pitt. At this time the king ' " A rebellion . . . filled the court and kingdom with a consternation which no time can parallel, and no circumstance can justify." — Glovek's Memoirs, p. 38. " General Hawley's beastly ignorance and negligence." — Ibid., p. 40. " A rebellion formidable only in the apprehensions of a pusillanimous and effeminate nation." — Ibid., p. 41. CHAl'.a.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 189 was angry with his ministers. It was to them, and to their jealousy of Granville, that he imputed the dismission of eight thousand Hanoverians ; nor had the unchecked progress of the Pretender's arms at home reconciled him to their conduct. He knew the aversion of the Pelhams to the unfortunate war in which we were engaged, and which was his darling object, and to which Lord Granville gave a cordial and even passionate support. Lord Gran- ville was supported by Lord Bath,^ eager to allay the smart of insignificance and universal scorn which was yet tingling in all his veins. These two noble- men advised the king to be true to his own interest, and had pledged themselves to make a government docile to the royal will and zealous for the royal war. On their side the Pelhams determined not to do the work of their enemies, but, before the supplies were voted, to bring matters to an issue. The Duke of Newcastle laid before the king a list of proposed alterations in the subordinate offices of government, intended to make way for the appointment of Pitt as Secretary at War. When the king came to Mr. Pitt's name, he acted as his grandson did half a century afterwards, when the son of Pitt proposed to include the son of Pitt's rival, and his own rival, in ' " The king complained to the Earl of Granville, . . . and even to the Earl of Bath, of this ungrateful attempt of the Pelhams to force into his councils and service a person (Pitt) whom he held in the utmost abhorrence." — Glover's Memoirs, p. 37. 190 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. his government at a crisis far more dangerous : George the Second gave a direct refusal to the arrangement. "I have promised Lord Cobham," said the Duke of Newcastle. "You must break your promise," replied the king. But in those days the prerogative was still confined within proper limits — the opinion or caprice of a single man was not allowed to outweigh the welfare of millions, or the influence of a real aristocracy. George the Third, when half mad, succeeded in excluding for the time from office the most illustrious of his subjects^ simply on the ground of his personal aversion; but George the Second, though Pitt at that time was but in the dawn of his reputation, was obliged to yield to the advice of those who were supported by the House of Commons.^ He did not yield without a struggle.^ Lord Bath endeavoured to gain the Cobhams. " Tell Lord Bath he deceived me in 1742, and shall not deceive me in 1745," was Lord Cobham' s reply to his overture. Still Granville went on, and actually took office. This was the famous three days' revolution, during which Gran- ' Mrs. WaUer told Glover she saw George the Second weep when Pitt kissed hands. — Memoirs, p. 42. ^ " The measure of a general resignation was immediately adopted. On the next day, Feb. 10th, 1746, the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Harrington resigned. The king immediately gave the seals to Lord Granville. But the following day Mr. Pelham, Lord Hardwicke, Lord Pembroke, Mr. Legge, Mr. George Grenville, and several others resigned their employments. Neither the king nor Lord Bath was prepared for this stroke." — Almon's Life of Pitt, vol. i. p. 217. CHAP. 2.] DUEING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 191 ville and Pulteney, then the two most unpopular noblemen in the kingdom, undertook the task of forming a government.^ The result of the struggle was that the king was obliged to give up his favourite minister, to place himself in the hands of the Whig families, and to receive as ministers those who personally were most obnoxious to him — Mr. Pitt, Mr. Legge, and Lord Chesterfield.^ Mr. * 1 " Hitherto the mini&ters deemed themselves secure of the king's approba- tion. ... A change, however, was effected in the royal mind by the strong remonstrances of the Dutch, the urgent representations of Lord Granville, and at the same time by the importunities of ministers themselves for the appoint- ment of Mr. Pitt as Secretary at War. Indignant at being controlled ... he declined to reinstate Lord Granville in the office of Secretary of State." — Coxe's Felham, p. 288. Lord Marchmont's account, "Marchmont Papers," vol. i. p. 174. " The Pelhams and their party were now sensible that the die was cast, and a meeting of the party took place at the house of the Lord Chancellor. All their adherents proving faithful, a, resolution was taken to convince the king of the weakness and impolicy of liis scheme by a general resignation. Lord Har- rington relinquished the seals on the 10th, and his example was followed by the Duke of Newcastle on the morrow. Mr. Pelham and the Duke of Bedford, with all tlie members of the Boards of the Treasury and Admiralty, resigned ; and, in conformity with the general resolutions, the whole of the ministiy either renounced their employments or expressed their intention to retire." — Coxe's Pelham, p. 289. The king never forgave Lord Harrington, who owed every- thing to him. ^ On the 9th Lord Granville offered homage. See Sir James Gray's letter : — " I gave you last week a hint of the insurrection in the closet. The ministry came to a sudden resolution not to do Lord Granville's business, by canying the supplies, &c. Lord Granville had both seals, one for himself, the other to give to whom he pleased. Lord Bath was named First Commissioner of the Treasury, &c. Thus far all went swimmingly ; they had only forgot one little point — which was to secure a majority in both Houses Lord Batli went to the king, and told him it would not do. Bounce went all the prospect to shivers, like the vessels in the ' Alchymist.' The king shut himself up in his closet, and refused to admit any more of the people who were pouring in upon him with white stafifa, gold keys, commissions. Lord Granville is as jolly as over, laughs, diinlis, owns it was mad, and that he would do it again to-morrow." — 192 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK 1. Pitt was made — the king's aversion to admitting him into the closet being for the time insurmount- able — Vice-Treasurer^of Ireland, and on the death of Wilmington, in the following May, Paymaster of the Forces. Thus was formed what, in the homely language of the time, was termed the " broad bottom administration," including not only the Cobhams but some of the most eminent Jacobites — Lord Gower^ especially, the former President of the Pretender's council in England, who returned to the office of Privy Seal, which he had accepted under Wilming- ton — a sacrifice of principle by which he became to the old Tories an object of unmitigated abhorrence and vituperation.^ The death of the heir-apparent, Frederick Prince of Wales, in 1751, broke up the opposition. The indecent and scandalous dispute between him and G eorge the Second, and especially his taking the Princess, actually in the pains of CoxE, p. 291. Glover says, Granville advised the king to go and appeal to the House of Commons (" JSIemoira," p. 31). See Lord Chesterfield's letter, Feb.lSj 1746 ; Duke of Newcastle's letter, Coxe, p. 296. Pitt was made joint Vice- Treasurer of Ireland. On the death of Wilmington he was made Paymaster. Feb. 10, 1746. " A crisis at last an-ived, when, for a measure of their own, in the midst of the session, when the whole eemee of the succeeding year was at stake, they insulted the king with resignation on resignation, and by the dint of distress, compelled him to suirender at discretion." Apology for a late resig- nation. " This was called a factious measure by some, and was universally con- demned by all, when it appeai'ed that the public had no concern in the dispute." ' This post was the first place offered, thirty-seven yeara afterwards, in 1782, to his son. It was refused by him, then a boy of twenty- two, because he would accept no office out of the cabinet. ' He was the Duke of Bedford's brother-in-law. ^ See Dr. King's " Memoirs." UnAP.2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 193 labour, at the peril of her life, from his father's palace, and the pecuniary struggle, when the king was obliged to give way in great measure to his demands, are detailed at length in the memoirs of the period — especially in the memoirs of Lord Harvey, which, in spite of the editor, is, both for style and matter the most valuable contribution that has been made in modern times to our domestic history. Dodington has also related with amusing simplicity his own baseness, his desertion of the king, the blasting of his hopes by the death of the prince, and the scorn with which he (Dodington) was treated by all around him. One of the first acts of George the Third was to make this model of all that was corrupt and infamous a peer. The death of the Prince of Wales gave great power to the king, and enabled him in his turn to dictate to his ministers, who, so long as opposition was formidable, insisted on their own terms. He prevented Lord Harrington — towards whom he cherished a strong and, it must be owned, a not unfounded resentment, on account of his conduct in 1746 — from becoming, on his return from Ireland, a member of the cabinet. He gave to Lord Granville the place of President of the Council, to the surprise of those who knew that the Pelhams had solemnly and repeatedly pledged themselves never to belong to any government of which that nobleman was a o 194 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. member. But whether from the decay of genius, or from that indifference for objects that at an earlier period of life are so dazzling and attractive, which is the common lesson of experience, Lord Granville made no attempt to recover his former influence, and became a mere cipher in the government. At the same time the seals of Secretary of State were given to Lord Holdernesse ; and the Duke of Bedford, irritated by the Duke of Newcastle's attempt to remove Lord Sandwich, and overruled by the cabal then called the Bedford House Party, resigned the seals in disgust ; Lord Trentham was dismissed. All the duke's followers joined the opposition ; but for the present their defection was insignificant. Lord Sandwich was succeeded in the Admiralty by Lord Anson. The House of Commons seems, on the death of the Prince, to have dwindled to the dimensions of a vestry,^ and the discussions of it to topics of parochial magnitude. The largest attendance of members was on a private turnpike bill, supported by the Duke of Bedford,^ and opposed by the Duke of Newcastle. The Duke of Bedford first took office under Mr. Pelham's administration. The malignant abuse of Junius prepossesses every generous mind in ' " I don't foresee," says Mr. Fox, " a debate this session, nor any difficulty to the minister, but that of getting forty every day to make a house." ^ See Dodington's " Diaiy." CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE HI. 195 his favour, and inclines good men to look with in- dulgence upon his faults as a statesman. But if his character be dispassionately and carefully examined, we shall see that although the charges brought against him by Junius are altogether without a shadow of foundation,— although there can be no doubt that he felt most acutely the cruel loss of his high- minded, amiable, and accomplished son,^ — and that to impute to one of the proudest noblemen in England, severely exact in pecuniary matters, and the owner of a princely fortune, the acceptance of bribes for concluding the Peace of Paris is the mere effusion of reckless malevolence — he was obstinate, overbear- ing, fond of money, wrong-headed, illiterate; and that his own faults, and still more the gross vices and corruption of the sycophants who surrounded him, in whose company he delighted, whom he placed in very responsible situations, and by whom he was usually governed,^ were the cause of great calamities, 1 Lady Tavistock soon followed her husband to the grave. The account of her grief is most affecting, and forms a contrast indeed to the manners of the day. 2 " The Dulce of Bedford was more under the influence of domestic and social prepossessions than was quite salutary for his public character ; for his relations weie Tories, and his companions profligates." — Rookinqham, Memoirs, p. 29. " I wish," says Lord Holland, " the baron may cure the Duke of Bedford's natural sight ; as to making his Grace see metaphorically, I defy him to do that." — Selwyn Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 209. " I send you the Duke of Bedford's despatches. You will see that that head- strong, silly wretch has already given up two or three points in his communica- tion with Choiseul, and that his design was to have signed without any com- munication here." — Lord Egremont to Mr. Grenville, Grenville Papers, vol. i. p. 475. Again, " What tliink you of the Duke of Bedford, who lets the king's 2 196 HISTOKY OF ENGLAND [BOOK 1. and much dishonour to his country. As a minister his inattention to the business of the all-important office at the head of which he was placed was scandalous ; as an ambassador he concluded the Peace of Paris, the most inexcuseably disgraceful (that of Yienna in this century alone excepted) among the unvarying proofs of the wretched in- capacity of our diplomatists ; as a public man he allowed himself to be the tool of Bute, and when his eyes were opened to the real character of the trans- action in which he had been engaged, he avenged himself not only by driving the favourite from the helm — a tardy and inadequate retribution — but by offering insults to the king as gross as the treachery of which he had been the dupe, from which a sense of personal dignity should have obliged a gentleman addressing one who could exact no reparation, to refrain. It is clear that at this time Pitt was looking to Leicester House; he employed all his influence with Lord Temple to shelter Murray from the charge, as certainly true as it ought to have been insignificant, of having held Jacobitical opinions in ministers be informed by the French ambassador of the appointment to sign the treaty?" — Grenville Papers, vol ii. pp. 29, 31. "The duke's exceUent qualities were always acknowledged by Lord Oharlemont, but no wonder, he used to add, that a secretary like Eigby, and a minister like Stone, rendered such qualities of no avail." — Hakdt's Life of Charlemont, vol. i. p. 54. Fox said he was " the most ungovernable governed man he ever knew." CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIQN OF GEORGE III. 197 early life. In 1754 we find him on Pelhatn's death proposing to " secularise Murray," and make him Chancellor of the Eschequer.'^ All this proves that he was then in some way connected with the Princess and her court ; and when the Princess Dowager, by her intrigues, prevented the marriage of George the Third with the Princess of Brunswick, whom George the Second had selected for his bride, and thus incurred the royal displeasure, — which might have been attended with very serious conse- quences to Lord Bute and to herself, and have revealed what would ill have borne the light, — Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt, to use the words of the former in one of his letters,^ " stood in the gap, and saved Leicester House." On the death of Henry Pelham in 1754 the calm was broken.^ In a moment all was confusion — Fox pressed his claims on one side,* Newcastle on the 1 " Grenville Papers," vol. i. p. 107. ^ There ia extant a very curious letter from Pitt to Temple, wliich was, I have no doubt, written at Lord Bute's request : — " I i-emain under so great uneasiness with regard to the part you shall determine on the Duke of Bedford's ques- tion, &o. {i.e. on Murray's case). If you should entertain any thought of supporting or going with the question, give me leave, my dear lord, to im- plore you to lay it aside, as I am deeply persuaded nothing could be so fatal to me and all our views," &o. — Orenville Correspondence, vol. i. p. 101. March 19, 1753. " Mr. Aldei-man Beckford was one of those who at that time (1753) paid their devoirs at Leicester House." — Anecdotes and Speeches of the JUarl of Chatham, vol. ii. p. 272. * " Anecdotes and Speeches," vol. i. p. 294. ■• Fox said, " Pelham's place was his due, and he would give way to nobody." 198 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. other, (leorge the Second exclaimed, "Now shall I have no peace ; " and the factious interests of the Whig oligarchy broke out anew under the ministry of his brother the Duke of Newcastle, who succeeded at length in obtaining the great object of his un- generous ambition. He openly grasped at the exclusive possession of all power, but his triumph was not without alloy. There were in the House of Commons at that time three men of great capacity and deep ambition, two of whom were not at all disposed to acquiesce implicitly in the Duke of Newcastle's system of administration, the cardinal principle of which was to possess undivided au- thority, and to distribute the patronage of the State (to the emoluments of it, it is but just to say that he was nobly indifferent^) without a rival : these two were Pitt and Fox, and the third was William Murray, the creator of almost everything that, up to the year 1830, did not shock reason, justice, and humanity in the English private law. The day of Pulteney, Chesterfield, and Granville had gone by. Pulteney's " Mr. Pelham died at aix on Wednesday the 6th. Mr. Fox was at the Marquis of Hartington's before eight." — Dodinqton's Diary, p. 238. '■ I never saw the king under such deep concern since the queen's death. His Majesty seemed unresolved, . . . and yet I could plainly discern a latent prepos- session in favour of a, certain person (Fox) who, within a few hours of Mr. Pelham's death, had made advances to the Duke of Newcastle and myself." — Lord Sardwicke, Chatham Correspondence, vol. i. p. 90. ' Lord Chesterfield says he was £300,000 poorer when ho quitted office than when he first accepted it. 0HAP.2.] DURING THE REIWN OF GEORGE HI. 199 peerage, Chesterfield's increasing infirmity and Granville's intemperance had placed them beyond the sphere of active competition for political power ; and at this time the eyes of men were fixed on the three eminent persons I have mentioned as the only men at all qualified, by abilities and eloquence, to break through the trammels of prescriptive routine, and to extort a recognition of their claims to high oflQcial rank from the jealous representative of the haughtiest and most exclusive oligarchy that, since the wars of the Roses, had swayed the destinies of England. The character and talent of these men were widely various, and in many respects formed a com- plete contrast to each other ; of the three, Pitt was the only patriot. Though his grand views were sometimes disfigured by inconsistency, and his noble qualities often clouded by affectation — though by his acceptance of peerages and pensions he put the veneration and gratitude of his countrymen to a severe test — no candid reader of his history can refuse to him the praise of comprehensive views, of great sagacity,- of lofty honour, and, above all, of preferring to every other consideration the welfare of his country, of making her honour his honour, and her prosperity the measure of his own. To these rare endowments he united an eloquence which the very words employed to describe that of 200 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Pericles seem intended to portray — an eloquence that flashed, and fulmined, and struck confusion and dismay among all but the most hardened of his antagonists. Imperfect as are the records of it which we possess, they contain some proofs of amazing vehemence and power, and he was un- tainted by the leprosy of corruption,^ which then stalked openly through the land, and which, under different disguises, and in different classes, is, at this hour, the blot and scourge of commercial England. Born to command, he was haughty and intractable. Far from tolerating a superior he would not endure an equal ; yet, like most men brought up by those who are not familiar with courts and kings, ' In 1753 it was proved that £1,453,400 had been in ten years expended in secret seiTice; this was quite independently of places, sinecures, and pensions. As a clue to the way in which it was disposed of, I insert the following letter from the " Grenville Papere," vol. iii. p. 145 : — " LoED Saye and Sele to Mb. Grenville. " Nov. %Uh, 1763. " Honoured Sir, — I am very much obliged to you for that freedom of converse you this morning indulged me in, which I prize more than the lucrative advantage I then received. To show the sincerity of my words (pardon, sir, the over-niceness of my disposition), I return enclosed the bill for £800 you favoured me with, as good manners would not permit my refusal of it when tendered by you. " Tour much obliged and most obedient servant, " Saye and Sele. " As a free horse needs no spur, so I stand in need of no inducement or douceur to lend my small assistance to the king or his friends in the present administration." Till the correspondence between members of the legislature and railway directors, at the time when a sta,tue was proposed to be erected to one of the latter class, is published, we shall hardly find more flagrant proof of general venality. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 201 and who, therefore, know not how to estimate their false glitter, and meretricious ornament, his courage failed when he was brought face to face with royalty. In the closet he was betrayed more than once into conduct which, but for the mighty deeds by which it was redeemed, would deserve the name of weak- ness, and even of adulation. He wanted nothing but a fit audience and a republican education to put him on a level with the great men of antiquity. Logical argument he seems never to have aimed at. His taste was fine and classical, nourished by the perusal of Greek eloquence and Roman poetry. His private life was spotless. If he was an actor abroad he wore no trappings at home ; if he sought by stateliness and reserve, by studied tones and mea- sured phrases, to impose on the Newcastles, the Graftous, the Dodingtons, and the Rigbys, he was simple, frank, and affectionate in his intercourse with his family : if he sometimes made violent and precipitate assertions, if he took some false steps, and refusing his aid to an honest and high-minded nobleman, became the tool of Newcastle and Grafton, and founded a ministry that was the cause of infinite woes to England, no one born in the precincts of our island should forget that his genius and energy raised her from an abyss of despondency and hu- miliation to a higher pitch of glory than she has both before or since been permitted to attain. 202 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Yery different were the qualities and disposition of Henry Fox, the son of a father who had raised himself in the course of a very long life from the condition of a menial to wealth and consequence. Trained in the school of Walpole and the Pelhams, who appreciated his strong sense and power of reasoning, he made a jest of patriotic sentiments, and wag steeped in the worst practices of the age in which he lived. Corruption was the atmosphere in which he breathed, and he carried it even beyond the toleration of that very indulgent age. He en- grafted himself on the patrician races of the country by marrying, much against the will of her family, a lady of noble, indeed almost royal, descent, and had contrived to amass a considerable fortune. But this shrewd, hard, unscrupulous, aspiring man, was a tender father, and a generous friend. Experience had not steeled him against that which the greatest of Englishmen and (Homer excepted) of poets has said is sharper than the wind of winter — benefits forgot, and no-more-remembered friendship. The in- gratitude of Rigby, one of the most contemptible profligates of the day, stung him to the very quick. Years afterwards he alludes to it in a way which shows how deeply the iron had entered into his soul. Strange inconsistency ! that the man who, when his ambition was concerned, snapped asunder, as the strong man did the green withies, the strongest ties CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE HI. 203 of all kinds, and reduced numbers without remorse to distress, who had braved without shrinking the hate of thousands, should wince under the stroke which such a hand as Eigby's could inflict, and break out into complaints that one would suppose a girl abandoned by her first lover, or a youth who had never tasted the bitter wave of life, would scarcely condescend to utter. Inferior in genius to either of these men, William Murray was superior to both in attainments and dex- terity. His qualities appear to have been those which belong to most of his countrymen — patience, caution, calmness, laborious diligence, great frugality, little or no imagination, and a Sabbathless pursuit of fortune. But to these, thanks to his education at Westminster and Christ Church, he joined a refinement and elegance by which they hardly ever are illustrated. His eloquence was clear, insinuating, persuasive, seldom, if ever, rising to impassioned vehemence, but occasionally, as in the famous judgment when he reversed Wilkes's outlawry, and in two or three speeches in the House of Lords, dignified, luminous, and impressive to an extraordinary degree ; it was admirably adapted to an exposition of principle from the bench, or a statement of fact at the bar. His familiarity with Koman models, and especially with the immortal fragments preserved to us in the Pandects, had inspired him with a thorough and 204 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. well-merited scorn for the barbarous phraseology, the shocking follies, and the incoherent decisions of the English law. His deep and varied knowledge, his love of literature, his enlarged and generous views on commerce, toleration, and the government of conquered territories, form a striking contrast to the narrowness, the antipathy to all that bore any mark of elevation or refinement, and the ignorance of all but the merest technical routine, that were (as all contemporary evidence assures us), in those days, and continued long afterwards to be, the charac- teristics of most English judges. A great master of the law of nations, he encountered foreign jurists, and drove them from the field, in a paper that obtained the praise of Montesquieu. Always, except where the Crown was concerned, aiming at sub- stantial justice, he scornfully rebuked, and had gone far to extinguish, the pettifogging tone and miserable quibbles which it was the immediate object of his successors to restore. Here, however, panegyric must end. Where politics interfered, his innate love of arbitrary power, fortified by education and the ties of blood, discovered itself in Parliament as an irresponsible adviser of the Crown, and on the bench of justice; and he was one of the chosen counsellors of the worst period of the reign of G-eorge the Third. To him, indeed, there is too much reason to suppose we must in great measure attribute the CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 205 unhappy education wliich George the Third received, and the mischievous doctrines that king imbibed in early life, and which, so long as reason was vouch- safed to him, he continued systematically to act upon. At this moment, Murray steadily refused to leave the beaten track of professional advancement ; and though he fought the battle of the government on the Treasury Bench so long as it was for his interest so to do, it was evident that he was not the man to prefer his country to his patron, or his patron to himself. Newcastle soon brought matters to a crisis. Even during the life of his brother his restless and feverish jealousy of power had been more than once on the point of breaking up the administration.^ After the death of Mr. Pelham, there being no longer any restraint on this morbid appetite, arising from the fear of scandal, it prevailed without control. He offered Fox the office of Secretary of State and the lead of the House of Commons,^ but insisted on ' See especially the queiulous letter, " Chatham Coriespondence," vol. i. p. 32; and 'again, p. 85; again, p. 55, when all private intercourse between the brothers ceased for some time. Coxe tells us that the Duke of Devonshire was so plagued with the jealous disposition of Newcastle, and the desponding temper of Pelham, that he resigned his office. "Dear brotlier, I must beg you not to fret yourself so muclr upon every occasion." — Pelham to Newcastle, Coxe, vol. i. p. 460. ' See the curious letter of Fox, in wliich he gives an account of this negocia- tion carried on throagh Lord Waldegrave. ("Chatham Correspondence," vol. i. p. 125.) " Lord Waldegrave added, what I always thought, that they considered tliemselves on such ground, and so sure of a majority, that the terror which liia 206 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. keeping the disposal of the secret service money (as the bribes given to members were called) entirely to himself. "My brother," said he, "told nobody what he did with the secret service money, no more will T." But his brother was himself what New- castle could not be — the leader of the House of Commons. Fox asked what was to be the scheme of the new elections. " All that," said Newcastle, " is arranged already." This was more than even Fox's love of office could digest,^ and after consulting with his friends he rejected Newcastle's proposal. " It was impossible," he said, " that he could on such conditions render the king any effectual service, or ' talk to gentlemen,' " that is, order them to vote, " without being ridiculous." To suppose that Pitt would stoop to responsible office under the control of Newcastle would have been absurd. Newcastle then had recourse to Sir Thomas Robinson, a man who had passed his life as a diplomatist in German Courts, unable to speak intelligible English, and altogether unacquainted with the House of Commons. Murray became Attorney-General ; Pitt and Fox consented to retain their places, but, as might have been expected, they lost no time in mortifying the lordship owned would influence him of our (Pitt and Fox's) junction, had no effect, nor would have till it was too late." Compare " Waldegrave's Memoirs," p. 32. ' " Mr. Fox, who had sullenly accepted the seals the day before, sullenly refused them yesterday." — Chesterfield, vol. iv. p. 111. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGK OF GEOEGE III. 207 helpless puppet whom the Duke of Newcastle had selected for their leader. Pitt soon took a very effectual means of showing his discontent. In an election petition a member had treated the charge of corruption with levity, and had moved the House to laughter on the topic of bribery. Pitt came down at once from the gallery, and expressed his regret at hearing a laugh on such a subject. " Did we," said he, "try to diminish our own dignity within the House when such attacks were made on it from without ; that it was almost lost, that it wanted support, that it had long been vanishing, that he hoped the Speaker would extend a saving hand to raise it. He only could restore it, yet scarce he." He ended by calling on all to assist, "else they would only sit to register the arbitrary edicts of one too powerful subject." On the same evening he and Fox fell fiercely on Sir Thomas Robinson for some imprudent expression about an election petition. " It was plain," said Walpole, " that Pitt and Fox were impatient of any superior, and as plain, by the complexion and murmurs of the House, that the inclinations of the members favoured neither of them. It was a packed parliament; the majority had been composed solely of boroughs, counties had ' been left to their own ill humours and to the country gentlemen." A new negociation was soon set on foot through 208 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. the medium of Lord Waldegrave, and at length Fox was induced to detach himself from Pitt, and to take a seat in the cabinet — a measure he had soon ample occasion to regret, for a war with our old and only rival was at hand, and to the management of affairs in such a crisis the ministry, crumbling to pieces from inherent weakness, was utterly inade- quate. It was evident that a war must soon break out between France and England. Prance at first looked to the support of Prussia. Frederick, how- ever, was little inclined to risk his fortune on a king like Louis the Fifteenth, and on a mistress like Madame de Pompadour. While the French minis- ters were endeavouring to overcome his reluctance by the lure of Hanover, Kaunitz proposed to the French court an alliance between France and Austria — the two powers which, for two centuries and a half, had convulsed Europe by their hostility. Proud as she was, Maria Theresa, to gain her ends, wrote with her own hand to Madame de Pompadour, as she wrote to the singer Farinelli at the court of Spain, and proposed to cement the league by marrying her daughter, Marie Antoinette, to the Dauphin. This was the alliance^ made between France, Austria, and Russia, which brought Frederick the Great to the verge of destruction, the aim of which ' Frederick called it the league " des troia cotillons." CHAP, 2.] DURING THE REmN OF OiEORGE III. 209 was the partition of Prussia. Urged by an ancient hatred of Prussia, and a dread of Frederick's en- croachments, Sweden hastened to join this league, as did the King of Poland and Saxony, whose daughter had married the Dauphin, at the instigation of Bruhl, of whom Frederick had spoken in terms of well-merited and measureless contempt. The strong inqjination of George the Second, who hated his nephew, the King of Prussia, like an eldest son, was to unite -with these confederates; but Pitt and the House of Commons saved England from this apostacy. George was obliged to sacrifice his personal feeling, and to join the King of Prussia. Hesse, Cassel, Brunswick, Gotha, and Lippe em- braced the same cause. The rest of the German Empire followed in the wake of Austria. In the meantime Pitt and the Grenvilles had entered into negociations with Leicester House and the Princess of Wales. A message, in 1755, was sent from the CroAvn to the House of Commons, asking for a vote of credit, which was granted. Ministers, however, could not prevent the king from going to Hanover, and everything bore the stamp of weakness and vacillation. Fox, to Pitt's great exasperation,^ ' Dodington, in his " Diary " (p. 284), gives an account of the scene at Lord Hillsborough's, between the two rivals. Pitt said the ground was altered — the connection between him and Fox was over ; that he would be second to nobody. Fox asked him what would put them on the same ground ; to which Pitt replied, " A winter in the cabinet, and a summer's regency." And see Coxe's "■Walpole," vol. ii. p. 405. P 210 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. was in the cabinet, and of the Regency. Ridiculous instructions^ were given to Boscawen and Hawke ; these were superseded by others, ordering Hawke to attack every Frenchman in the Channel without a declaration of war, an odious and piratical proceed- ing justly reprobated by European opinion. The king meanwhile, anxious for the safety of Hanover, entered into two treaties for subsidising Hesse^ and the Empress of Russia, which he sent home for ratification.^ Upon the former of these a sum of money was issued during the summer ; it passed the Regency without comment ; but Legge, the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, mortified by many slights which made his office neither creditable nor agree- able to him, refused to sign the warrants for the issue of the stipulated sums. He connected himself with Pitt, and was introduced by Pitt to Leicester ' " The Duke said Hawke might go out, but not attack the enemy unless he thought it worth while." — Dodington's Diary, p. 345. They resemble those issued in Hanover at the breaking out of the war of the French Revolution. The soldiers were ordered " to use their bayonets with moderation." — Vie Franzosen in Deutsehland. " In the American seas he (Boscawen) may be at liberty to fight ; it is possible, indeed, he may not meet them, but for this we are not responsible." — Walde- grave's Memoirs, p. 28. " Hawke to take a turn in the Channel to exercise the fleet, without any instructions whatever." — Ibid., p. 46. " After mature deliberation, it was resolved that Hawke should sail with hostile orders, but war was not to be declared." — Tbid., p. 48. ' " Chesterfield's Letters," vol. iv. p. 180. ' Fox said the country was in a sad way, but if it was in a better those who had the direction of it could no more cany on the war than his three children. See Dodington, p. 345 ; Brown's " Estimate," p. 91. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE III. 211 House. Then the Duke of Newcastle in his anguish had recourse to Pitt, but in vain. To save the king's honour Pitt said he would not oppose the Hessian subsidy, but that was all; with regard to the Russian contract he was inflexible. He would not, said he, support a system of subsidies. Then Sir Thomas Robinson was removed to one of those strictly menial offices about the court which modern usage — derived from the Byzantine Empire, from the ostentation of Constantine, and the servility of his bishops — still justifies men of education and birth in accepting even in a free country ; and Fox was made Secretary of State, with the full lead of the House of Commons. Relying on his majority within the walls of Parliament, his first act was to dismiss Pitt, Grenville, and Legge, who had attacked the German treaties in the debate on the address, from office. Then came news of the slaughter of G-eneral Braddock^ — a brutal and incompetent favourite of the Duke of Cumberland — with the English troops, whom, in spite of warning, he led into an ambuscade ; the loss of Minorca,^ and one of those terrible outbreaks of popular indignation ' "On this occasion Washington displayed the most brilliant valour, and escaped unhurt." — Banokoft, vol. i. p. 216. ' " Deplorable state of public affairs." — Chester fielcP a Letters, vol. iv. p. 187. " The sons of Britain, like those of Noah, must cover their parent's shame as well as they can, for to retrieve its honour is now too late." — Ihid., vol. iv. p. 234. p 2 212 HISTORY OF ENGLAKD [BOOK I. which convulse the face of empires.^ To appease the fury of the natioa, Byng— a brave man^ who lost his presence of mind— was put to death in, spite of the express recommendation of the court-martial that his life should be spared — an act of detestable cruelty which added to the disgrace of the country, but did not strengthen the government. Murray fled to the House of Lords/ and the first rank among the Common Law judges. Fox, insulted in his office, and unwilling to face the dangers thickening on all 1 " Minorca is gone, Oswego ia gone, the nation is in a ferment ; instructions, from counties, boroughs, in the style of 1641." — Walpole's Letters, vol. iii. p. 40. " Quaa regio in ten-is nostri non plena doloria," says Pitt. — Qrenville Papers, vol. i. p. 165. " However the case may be with regard to him (Byng), what can be the excuse for sending a force whicli, at the utmost, is scarcely equal to the enemy, upon so important and decisive an expedition ? Though, in the venality of the hour, it may be deemed suflScient to fling the whole blame on Byng, yet I will venture to say, the other is a question that, in the judgment of every impartial man, now and hereafter, will require a better answer than, I am afraid, can be given to it." — George Qrenville, Chatham Correspondence, vol. i. p. 164. ^ " The ministry, though they could agree in nothing else, seeing the danger, agreed in throwing the danger on Admiral Byng, whose life paid the forfeit of a."— Ibid., p. 434. " Whatever faults Byng may have, I believe he was not reckoned backward in point of personal courage." — George Grenville to Mr. Pitt, Ibid., p. 164. ' Potter's letter to Pitt (" Chatham Correspondence," vol. i. p. 158), sent by a safe hand to his wife, and from her by private channels to Pitt : — " Upon the deatli of the Chief Justice (Ryder), the intelligence he (Stone, Archbishop of Armagh) sent was, that all the Attorney General's (Murray) friends thought the office on every account so fit for him tliat it would be infatuation to decline it. But the Duke of Newcastle was frightened at the thought of what was to become of the House of Commons. If the whole business rested on Lord Duplin and Sir G. Lyttelton, the debates on the court side would be shorter, but there would not be a vote less." CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIQN OF GEORGE III. 213 sides, resigned his post ; and Newcastle/ unable to procure assistance, after many desperate attempts, was obliged to imitate his example. A new adminis- tration was formed under the Duke of Devonshire, Pitt being Secretary of State, and Lord Temple First Lord of the Admiralty. For this purpose, Mr. Grenville tells us, Pitt had condescended to open a negociation with Lady Yarmouth,^ with whom he had an interview. But as he refused to come in if the Duke of Newcastle remained in office, for the moment the negociation was abortive^ — another proof of the unhappy and degrading effect, even in limited monarchies, of the personal bias of the sovereign ; for on the debate on the address Mr. Pitt had arraigned this concubine with great asperity, and in terms that no 'one could mistake, for her rapacity, and the traffic she notoriously carried on in offices and honours — charges that no woman fit for the society of honest and high-minded men, even in a private station, could deserve. Again, the violent personal dislike ' " Pitt refused to secure Newcastle's retreat." — Chatham Correspondence, vol. i. p. 436. ' Walpole describes the pages running about and exclaiming, " Mr. Pitt wants Lady Tarmouth." But Glover accounts for this differently. He says Pitt could, not rely on Lord Hardwicke for a true account of the interview between himself and that nobleman, who had brought the Duke of Newcastle's offer to him, and that he visited Lady Yarmouth " to obviate the effects of the Chancellor's misrepresentations." — Memoirs, p. 83. ' " To be well with Lady Yarmouth is the best ground to stand ou,'' writes Pelham to Newcastle. — Coxe's Pelham, vol. ii. p. 463. 214 EISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. of the king to Temple and Pitt — fomented by the Duke of Cumberland, who refused to take command of the army abroad if Pitt remained in office at home — prevailed, and these two ministers were dismissed. Negociations were again entered upon with the Duke of Newcastle. Again Sir Thomas Robinson appeared upon the stage. A government as weak in intellectual qualifications as that which the duke had before formed, was about to take the management of affairs at this most alarming crisis. What the result would have been to this great country we may easily conjecture ; but it was spared the trial.^ Lord Chesterfield,^ moved by the imminent peril of the nation, interposed, and, in spite of the anger of the king, and the vain attempt of Lord "Waldegrave, at his entreaty, to form an administration,^ at last, after England had been three months without a government, effected the coalition between Pitt and Newcastle — between eloquence and corruption, between the pure gold and the alloy requisite to make it current, between the minister of measures and the minister of numbers.* 1 The glimpse of an axe frightened Newcastle, who had boasted that he would show both Pitt and Fox that the Parliament was his. ^ " Waldegrave's Memoirs," p. 110. ' " Lord Waldegrave is to be prime minister. To-morrow it will rain resig- nations, as it did in 1746." — Walpole's Letters, vol. iii. p. 81. ■i " Thus ended this attempt to deliver the king from hands he did not like." — Dodington's Diary, p. 398. And we may add, thus began an epoch of un- rivalled glory; CHAP, 2.] DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III, 215 To trace in detail the glories of the war on which the nation was now embarked, does not fall within my province. If the reign of G-eorge the Second had been up to this time a scene of factious selfish- ness, and often of national humiliation, it ended in a blaze of glory. The influence of the Crown was put aside. The great commoner — backed by an aris- tocracy still conscious of intrinsic worth, that had not as yet leatnt to make the employments of grooms, gamekeepers, watermen, and drill-sergeants the serious and almost the sole objects of their children's education — buoyed up, beyond the reach of court intrigues, by the energies of a free people still conscious of the spirit which animated them when they brought home captive kings — trampled the foes, foreign and domestic, of England into the dust, and smote down prerogative at home, while he revived the glories of Plantagenet abroad. When Mr. Pitt assumed the management of affairs he found England at the lowest ebb of power and reputation.^ In North America, Lord Loudon, with 12,000 men, thought ' See Lord Chesterfield's and Walpole's Letters, passim ; especially Chester- field, vol. iv. p. 189 : — " I most heartily and frequently applaud myself for having got out of that galere which has since been so ridiculously tossed, so eesentially damaged, and is now sinking." " I now quietly behold the storm from the shore, and shall only be involved, without particular blame, in the common ruin. The moment, you perceive, if you combine all the circumstances, cannot be very remote; on the contrary, it is so near that Maoliiavel himself, if he were at the head of our affairs, could not retrieve them." — Chesterfield Letters, vol. iv. p. 200. " Whoever is in, or whoever is out, I am sure we are undone. We are no longer a nation ; I never yet saw so dreadful a prospect." — Ibid., p. 213. 216 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [BOOK I, himself no match for the French with 7,000 ; and Admiral Holbourne, with nineteen ships of the line, declined attacking the French with eighteen, because they had a greater weight of metal.^ His first expeditions were unsuccessful. The death — it ought rather to be called the murder — of Admiral Byng,^ was more a proof of the baseness of ministers, of the unfeeling nature of the sovereign, and of the ferocity of the populace — delighted that for once the blood of a patrician should be shed by the power so prodigal of their own — than of any real increase either of wisdom in our councils or of vigour in our arms. But under the influence of Mr. Pitt, the scene soon changed.- He dispelled the efi"ects of that sleepy drench, which, ever since the accession of the House of Brunswick, seemed to have benumbed the faculties of England. He roused us from our lethargy.^ Victory after victory, conquest after conquest, fol- 1 " A new sea phraae,'' says Lord Chesterfield, " Blake never knew." ' " Lady Sophia Egerton was sent to the Duchess of Newcastle by the Princess Emily, to beg her to be for the execution of Byng." — Walpole, George II., vol. ii. p. 371. " Legge said we must not expect to draw down blessings en our fleets by human sacrifices." — Beown's Estimate, p. 91. ' " The country gentlemen deserted their hounds and their horses, preferring for once their parliamentary duty, . . . and displayed their banner for Pitt The Prince of Wales and his court, the powerful city of London, the majority of the clergy, law, and army, together with the whole populace, cordially and full of hope, co-operated in this signal event. The only discontented were the king and both Houses of Parliament ; the first grossly retaining his ancient prejudices, the two last dreading a change which might lessen the price of corraption." — Olover's Memoirs, p. 98. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE III. 217 lowed each other in rapid succession ; and a reign that had been one of the most inglorious in our annals, changed, as if by magic, into a splendid era of reputation and renown. Fontenoy, Eoucoux, Laufeldt, Hastenbeck, and Closterseven, were obliterated by Quebec and Mon- treal, by Lagos, Cherbourg, and Quiberon. Wolfe and Hawke, and, on a smaller scale, Amherst, Saunders, and Boscawen, were heroes fit to accomplish the schemes of such a lofty intellect as Mr. Pitt's. Neither the precipice nor the tempest — the one frowning on those who scaled the heights of Abraham, the other sweeping our fleet against the iron-bound coast of Brittany — could protect our enemies. Wolfe, covered with wounds, as the shadow of death thickened round him, and dimmed his bodily sight, only asked over and over again what his attendants saw, and when told ttat the enemy was totally defeated, ex- claimed, " I am satisfied." Hawke, when the pilot pointed out the danger from which it was barely possible to escape, merely said, "You have done your duty, now lay me alongside the enemy." Such was the spirit, unknown before to the House of Bruns- wick, that Pitt looked for ; such is the spirit that every one who carries his views beyond the grosser husk that hides the English genius, will be sure to find. The nation revelled in the intoxication of success. 218 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Instead of a civil war, wTiich at one time seemed almost approaching, the country was knit together as it had been in the ever-victorious conflict of the Spanish succession. The lightning eloquence of Pitt was seconded by the sword of Frederick the Great — by Prague, Rosbach, and Leuthen.^ The people who in 1757 were humbled and exasperated, savage from defeat, gloomily brooding over disgrace, and, like the Carthaginians of old, calling for the blood of chiefs and ministers, despised by their enemies, and dis- trusted by their friends, in 1760 believed themselves and were believed by others to be invincible. Never had such a change been wrought by the genius of a single man. Frequent defeat and constant adversity, difficulties hardly surmounted, and incessant morti- fication, had prepared the way for the glories of Marlborough — the greatest man, if civil and military genius be considered, that has ever taktti an active part in public life among us. He reaped the harvest which the immutable patience and constancy of our great deliverer had sown. Morez, Seneffe, Steinkirk, Landen, many a siege raised and many a battle lost, were the forerunners of Blenheim, Eamilies, and Malplaquet. Not so Chatham : he spoke, and at once, as if by magic, terror was exchanged for con- fidence, and humiliation for renown. Hated by the king, dreaded by the aristocracy — of which, in despite 1 1757. This Napoleon considered Frederick's most glorious victory. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE UI. 219 of his great alliance, he was but a recent and not a very congenial member — he was adored by the sound and uncorrupted part of the middle class, then beginning firmly to assert its power. They placed their blood and treasure at his command/ knowing that they would be employed as the price of that reputation which, whatever sciolists may think and dunces say, is the best defence of nations. The torrent of popularity was irresistible, and swept along with it all the petty jealousies of caste and party.^ Murmur, complaint, remonstrance, even inquiry, were at an end ; for unlimited confidence in the great minister was another word for unlimited power and unlimited renown. Such was the condition of England, and such the disposition of the people, such was the inheritance ' " The estimates for the expenses of the year 1759 are made up. I have seen them, and what do you think they amount to ? No less than £12,300,000 ; a most incredible sum, and yet already all subscribed. The unanimity of the House of Commons in voting such a sum is not less astonishing. This is Mr. Pitt's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." — Chesterfield's Letters, Dec. 15, 1758. " Near £12,000,000 have been granted this year, not only nemine contradicente, but nemine quiequid dicente." — Ibid., Feb. 27, 1759. ^ As a specimen of the tone Pitt brought into our councils, I will cite a passage in one of his letters to Temple: — "Three battalions of guards embark for Germany, we hope by Friday or Saturday. I trust your lordship will approve this sudden and somewhat bold measure. The cloud hung heavy — spirits began to droop — dignity, energy, and eclat were to be added to our ogerations, or ' retio sublapsa referri Spes DanaAm ' # and I stand responsible for the e^enV—OrenvilU Papers, vol. i. p. 347. 220 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. of glory abroad and content at home, to which George the Third succeeded, and which, governed by his narrow-minded obstinacy, and inveterate desire of arbitrary power, he hastened, like the pro- digal who has succeeded to the accumulated wealth of many generations, to squander and fling away. CHAP. 3.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 221 CHAPTER III. IRELAND. No country has for so many years been subject to such uniform misgovernment as Ireland has suffered under the dominion of the English. From the time of Henry the Second the history of that fated country is little else but a series of frightful crimes and disgusting corruption. The conquered race never amalgamated — indeed to this hour it has not amalgamated — with that of the conquerors. For many centuries deep detestation on one side, scorn and cruelty on the other, made the barrier between the Celt and the Anglo-Norman every hour wider and more impassable. Persons calling them- selves English statesmen ascribe this state of things to an incurable defect in the Irish character, in the same way, and with the same narrow arrogance, that they have pronounced the millions of Hindostan, enjoying a civilisation far more ancient than our own, to be utterly incapable of self-government, and to require the assistance of Highlanders and Saxons 222 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [COOK I. to improve tlieir morals, to collect their revenue, to direct tlieir industry, and to preside over the ad- ministration of their law. The reader, however, who studies the tragical pages of Irish story, who observes the system adopted by the English for the government of that country, who sees oppression exhibited in a form more shameless than it has ever displayed among European nations, and legislators in cold blood sanctioning barbarities from which, in the heat of contest, most invaders would recoil, and at which all but the most hardened tyrants would turn pale, — may judge how far this accusation is well founded, and whether such causes could, so long as man was man, have led by. possibility to any other result. Perhaps such an inquiry may lead him to think that the original impediment is to be found in the singular incapacity of the English for the govern- ment of other races, and of foreign countries, rather than in the character of a people falling below them in some important and many useful qualities, but equal and it may be superior to them in others, when it has shaken off the slough of a barbarity long carefully fostered by English influence. What- ever else is certain, this is clear, that the defects of the English nature have never been exhibited more conspicuously than in our intercourse with Ireland. On this subject we have unexceptionable evidence CHAP. 3.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE III. 223 reaching almost from the earliest period of the conquest. We have an interior history ; we have the language of the statutes ; we have the works of Sir John Davies, an Englishman of uncommon abilities, long resident in Ireland, and of Edmund Spenser. The English settled in Ireland, as is their wont when the standard at which they should aim is once removed from their sight, had rapidly degenerated. It appears by the preamble to the Statute of Kilkenny, the 40th of Edward the Third, that, "before the coming of Lionel Duke of Clarence they had become mere Irish in language, names, apparel, and all manner of living." They had more than once taken arms against the English. But our statutes from Henry the Second to Henry the Eighth, always maintain a marked distinction between the races, applying to one the expression English rebels, and to the other that of Irish enemies. To preserve this distinction, by this statute "alliance by marriage, nurture of infants, and all gossipred with the Irish " are made high treason. It was the purpose of those who governed Ireland for the crown of England, to draw an impassable line of demarcation between the Irish and the English. It was not possible, says Davies, they should be otherwise than outlaws and enemies to the throne of England. "They could bring no civil actions, 224 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. and it was repeatedly adjudged that to take their lives in time of peace was no felony." Instead of communicating their improvements to the Irish, the English borrowed from them the most shocking habits of barbarous life.^ They adopted the practice of Bouaght, or free quarters, and made it more intolerable ; "it was indeed the most heavy oppression ever used in any Christian or heathen nation." " Therefore, vox oppressorum, this crying sin did draw down as great or greater plagues upon Ireland than the oppression of the Israelites did draw upon the land of Egypt ; for the plagues of Egypt, though grievous, were of short continuance, but the plagues of Ireland lasted four hundred years together," Under the reign of sixteen monarchs, from Henry the Second to the Reformation, Ireland hardly knew a single righteous governor, or a single hour's prosperity. Of course, the antipathy to the op- pressor became more rancorous and implacable, and the vices of barbarians more and more inveterate. There every enemy to England was sure of sympathy. There Perkin Warbeck found shelter and support. In Henry the Seventh's reign an Act was passed, called "Poyning's law," intended to rivet the de- ' So in India the English borrowed from the native despots the practice of extorting the rent of land (the rent being whatever the collector chose to ask) by torture from the cultivators of the soil, women included (see Eeport of Madras Commission under Lord Harris) ; so they connived at the practice of torturing criminals to extort confession. CHAP. 3.] DUEING THE REIGN OF GEORGE HI. 225 pendence of Ireland on this country. It provided that no law should be proposed to the Irish Parlia- ment till it had the sanction of the English Privy- Council. But this did not abate the animosity of the Irish to their rulers. Henry the Eighth, though he succeeded in bribing some of the great nobles, found the opposition of the lower class and the hierarchy to the blasphemous medley of ludicrous contradictions which he turned into the creed of England, invincible. " The provinces," says Davies, "of Connaught and Ulster, and a good part of Leinster, were not reduced to shire ground, and though Munster was anciently divided into counties, the people were so degenerate, no justice dared execute his commission among them." This monarch flooded the Pale^ with a vast amount of base money. The embers of discontent smouldered till, in Eliza- beth's time, they broke out into an open flame. The tyranny of Lord Gray obliged Elizabeth to recall him ; indeed she was told that if he continued in Ireland, nothing would be left for her to rule over but ashes and dead bodies. She endeavoured to plant an English colony in Munster. The necessity of making terms with Tyrone is said to have hastened our great Queen's death. He was in arms when that event happened, and accepted Cecil's conditions. Tyrone was graciously received by ' This comprised Dublin, Louth, Meath, and Kildare. 226 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I James, wlio held out great encouragement to the Eomau Catholics, and for a time was undisputed king of Ireland. Sir Arthur Chichester, the Deputy, the pupil of Cartwright, and who had imbibed in all their uncompromising rigour the doctrines of the illustrious Puritan, soon inspired general alarm by his intolerance, not only among the native Irish, but all the old families of the Pale. He laid the first stone of the fabric of Protestant ascendancy, on the gate of which the withering line of Dante might have been inscribed, if it had been addressed to those without, instead of to those within. His inclination was not allowed to rest. Anony- mous information of a plot was given. Tyrone and Tyrconnel fled the country. Their estates, and those of several others, comprising almost all the six northern counties of Cavan, Fermanagh, Armagh, Derry, Tyrone, and Donegal, were confiscated. These lands were parcelled out among adventurers from England, and especially from Scotland. The citizens of London acquired a large tract of land in the neighbourhood of Derry, and gave that town the name of Londonderry. The whole territory of Innishowen, and all the other estates of Sir Colin O'Doherty, were granted to Chichester. The de- spoiled owners were generally considered the victimd of, a sham plot. From this hour we may date the obliteration of the line between the degenerate CHAP. 8,] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE IH. 227 English and native Irisli ; English by blood, and English by birth, all rallied under the Roman Catholic banner against the new settlers, as a common enemy. A commission of inquiry was issued by James, to examine the titles of all the lands in Leinster, and the neighbouring districts. Enormous confiscations followed. James seized on about 385,000 acres. . Claims were revived as old as Henry the Second. Advantage was taken of every technical flaw and informality. Estates were for- feited because they were not registered, though the proprietors had exerted themselves to the utmost to procure their registration, which the government officers had been unable or unwilling to effect. Juries who refused to find a title for the Crown were fined in the Castle Chamber at Dublin. The penal laws against the Catholics were now enforced with savnge ferocity. Every kind of oppression marked the close of James's reign, who, Mr. Hume tells us, to be seen in his best light, ought to be viewed as the legislator of Ireland. Falkland, the first deputy sent by Charles the First, followed, by express instruction from court, a system of lenity towards the Eoman Catbolics; but he was soon recalled, and after a short interval of government by the Lords Justices, the country was placed, from 1633 to 1641, under the terrible domination of Lord Strafford, one of the worst and Q 2 228 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. ablest men that ever expiated great crimes on this side the grave. He immediately entered upon a scheme, the object of which was to subvert the title to every estate in Oonnaught, and to establish in that province an entirely new plantation, in direct breach of his master's promise, made in return for a free gift of £12,000, to abstain from any such scrutiny. Charles took the gift, and the lands which it had been offered to secure. Strafford thus de- scribes his conduct towards a jury which had refused to find a title for the Crown, " We fined the sheriff in £1,000 to his Majesty: the jury were fined £4,000 each ; their estates were seized, and themselves imprisoned till the fine was paid." After the recall of this merciless oppressor, the Catholics in Ireland were in continual terror. The Lords Justices stopped the act of grace. Such was the state of things when the Irish Eebellion broke out ; and all the crimes that hatred, innate ferocity, fanaticism, and the thirst of ven- geance can inspire an infuriated rabble with the desire to perpetrate, were committed by the insur- gents. At that time an enthusiastic love of freedom had been transmitted from the generous patriots of England to those who exercised the chief influence over the determinations of the Irish legislature. The planters of English race, to whom estates in Ireland had been allotted, and who had encountered CHAP. 3.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE m. 229 all the hazard of settling there, and bidden defiance to the burning hatred of the indigenous population, were not men inclined to submit to the despotism in Church and State, which it was the purpose of Charles and his ghostly counsellors to establish. They must have been men of fierce natures and in- vincible resolution. A careful inquirer will find strong reason to believe that Charles the First directly fomented the Irish Rebellion,^ and certain proof that Henrietta Maria made use of his name to sanction it. In 1640 the Commons of Ireland refused the subsidies demanded by government, objected to the method of levying money hitherto employed, and presented a strong remonstrance, complaining of their abuses. Then came the struggle of the Roman Catholics, under the Earl of Antrim, the Earl of Ormonde, and the Earl of G-lamorgan, on the side of Charles, and the exterminating victories of Crom- well. The Irish recusants in their turn suffered all the calamities that could be inflicted on a vanquished race in a civil war. The policy of Cromwell was sagacious and cruel. His object was to make Ireland Protestant. For that purpose he had re- course to the only possible means — extirpation ; a word Lord Clarendon cites as frequently employed ' I do not mean that he sanctioned the frightful crimes that followed it, but that he set the stone rolling which it was beyond his power to stop. " Celui qui met un frein a la fureur des flots," is the only being who can arrest the madness of an excited multitude. 230 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. in bis day by the English. After the massacres of Tredah and Wexford, which completely cowed the Irish, Cromwell allowed, with his usual deep and sagacious policy, forty thousand of them^who, had they remained in Ireland, must have been implacable enemies to the English name — to quit the kingdom, and transplanted the rest into the province of Connaught, forbidding them to cross the Shannon under pain of death. There they remained till the Restoration. The conspiracy of Charles the Second and James the Second against the liberties and religion of England, succeeded to a great degree in Ireland. James the Second for a time inverted the relations between the Protestant and the Catholic — between the conquering and the conquered race — till, in 1691, William the Third reduced the Irish to com- plete submission, and deprived the aboriginal Irish and the first races of the English settlers, of every shadow of political importance, and almost of every civil right. His policy was different from that of Cromwell. The lives of the Irish were to be spared, but nothing that makes life tolerable was to be left to a prostrate and degraded race. Protestant ascendancy was complete, and as the result of it we find that code unparalleled for cold-blooded cruelty, in which all the dictates of antipathy and contempt are embodied and condensed, and by which every CHAP. 3.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 231 Eoraan Catholic was treated as a bigoted savage, whom it was doing God service to torraent and to destroy. Bad as the code was, the magistrates ap- pointed to enforce it were worse. For more than a century, whatever the wantonness of malevolent authority could do was done to testify the detestation and scorn of the ruling minority for the great mass pf the population. Their cruelties were not the effect of their terror, but of their security. The Catholic population, helpless and prostrate, became every hour more saturated with the vices of the slave ; but there is no proof that their masters ever blended the vices^ that always by a righteous doom cleave to the masters of slaves, with the austere and lofty virtues, the generous pride and sense of personal dignity, that often dis- tinguish a ruling caste. We find in them no traces of the virtues that redeem Spartan austerity, or Roman sternness, or Castilian arrogance. If we were to ransack modern history for examples of the worst features of a thoroughly corrupt and profli- gately selfish oligarchy, we could hardly find any more striking than those we should bring from the history of the Scottish nobles in the time of Charles and James the Second, or of those members of the 1 " The gentlemen of Ireland never thought of a radical cure, from overlooking the real cause of the disease, which in fact lay in themselves, and not in the wretches they doomed to the gallowB." — Youngs Journal, vol. ii. pp. 41, 42. 232 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Irish Parliament who, from the Revolution of 1688, for more than a century carried on a scandalous traffic with the rights and feelings of the Irish nation. Indeed, from the final conquest of Ireland by William the Third, Irish history is at end. The country was farmed out to a set of hirelings and assistants,^ who were to keep it in subjection, and in return, gorging their avarice and vanity, to manage it as they pleased. It was scourged, not governed, by lawless authority.^ If, taking advantage of the generous instincts of the people, and never-ex- tinguished pride, there now and then arose a man 1 " The condition of the obligation is this : — Your Excellency or your Grace wants to carry on his Majesty's business smoothly, and to have it to say when you go back that you met with no difficulties. This we have sufficient strength in Parliament to provide for, provided you appear to have the favour and countenance of government ; the money, be it what it will, shall be cheer- fully voted. As for the public, you shall do what you will, for we care for that no more than we suppose j'our Excellency or your Grace does ; but we repeat it again, our recommendations to places, pensions, &o., must prevail, or we shall not be able to keep our people in order. These are always the expressed, or at least the implied, conditions of these treaties, which either the indolence or the inefficiency of the governors- ratify. From that moment these undertakers bury the governor alive." — Chesterfield's Letters, vol. iv. p. 278. ^ " At this time," writes Lord Charlemont, " when we were involved in a war with the Portuguese, a plan was formed to comply with their request by suffering them to raise among the Catholics of Ireland, six regiments, to be officered with Irish gentlemen, &c. The measure was warmly opposed. Ireland could not spare so many of her inhabitants. I could not help wishing it success; the loss of inhabitants was not much, neither did they seem entitled to the benefit of the argument by whose oppression double the number was annually compelled to emigration, and it was but too evident that a principle of the most detestable nature lay hid under this specious reasoning. The Protestant Bashaws of the South and West were both to resign so many of these poor wretches, whom they looked upon and treated as their slaves." — Hakdy's Life of Charlemont p. 63, 4to. Ed. CHAP. 3.] DUrJNG THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE HI. 233 eminent by birth, by talent, or by position, who raised the thrilling cry of right and national regeneration, it was only done that he might increase his demands on the government, and sell himself, and the people who had trusted him, to a higher bidder. So rose Boyle,^ first Lord Shannon ; so rose Cox, Malone, Carter, and James Casigne Ponsonby ; so rose, during the unexampled infamy of the Union jobbing, a heap of names that history will not condescend to stigmatise. There are four splendid exceptions to this conduct : Molyneux, Swift, Charlemont, and Grattan, but the history of Charlemont and Grattan' s efforts does not fall within this volume. The efforts of Molyneux were long unavailing ; and those of Swift were ascribed, I hope and believe unjustly, to the convulsive pangs of baffled hope, and the ever-gnawing worm of an ulcerated ambition. After the Revolution several laws were passed in England binding on Ireland. The famous pamphlet of Molyneux, published in 1697, claiming legisla- tive independence for Ireland, was condemned by an angry vote of the English House of Commons. During the Tory ministry of Queen Anne the Irish Parliament became unmanageable, and opposed the 1 " Bell Boyle, when it was proposed to him to be a privy councillor, answered that he had determined never to accept an honour while there was a single guinea left in the treasury." — Geeabd Hamilton, Chatham Correspondence, voLii. p. 800. 234 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. English government.^ In 1709 a money bill was returned from England with alterations, on which account it was rejected by the Commons. Parlia- ments in Ireland still endured for the king's life. This continued till the year 1768, when the English government was obliged to give way, and a bill limiting the duration of Parliament to eight years obtained the royal assent. However, Queen Anne's ministers troubled themselves little about Irish agi- tation. Bolingbroke threatened, and Swift warned, but that was all. The last writer has, as is usual with him, summed up the case in a few words : "We never had leisure to think of that country when we were in power," says he, writing afterwards to Bolingbroke.^ ' Archbishop King (1711), writing to Swift, says, " If we could impeach as you can in England, and bring the malefactors to account, I should be for it with all my endeavour ; but to ehow our ill will, when we can do no more, seems to be no good policy in a dependent people. I reckon every chief governor who ia sent hei'e comes with a design to serve first those who sent him, and that our good must be only so far considered as it is subservient to the main design. The only difference between governors, as to us, is, to have fii-st a good-natured man that has soihe interest in our prosperity, and will not oppress us unneces- sarily."— (S'ioi/'i's Works, vol. xiv. p. 225. Edin. Ed. " They tell me, you in Ireland are furious against a peace ; and it is a great jest to see people in Ireland furious for or against anything."' — Swift to Sterne, 1711. '' There was a quarrel in ] 713 on the Lord Chancellor Phipps ; the Commons petitioning for his removal, the Lords supporting liim. The Irish Protestants were certainly in great alarm as to the intentions of the Toiy cabinet. See Swift's letter to Sterne, vol. xv. p. 85; the Primate's letter to Swift, ibid., p. 2S ; and Swift's letter to the Archbishop of Dublin, King. " We are determined on the conclusion," he says, " that Ireland must proceed on the same foot as England Neither do we think it worth our while to be opposed, and encourage our enemies, only for £70,000 a year, to supply which it may not bo hard to find other expedients." CHAP. 3.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE HI. 235 The reader of Archbishop Boulter's letters, who in fact governed Ireland from 1724 to 1742, will see the manner in which the government of Ireland was carried on during the reign of G-eorge the First and George the Second.^ There is scarcely an employ- ment, great or small, which the Archbishop does not claim — and in most instances with success — the right to dispose of, as the condition of relieving the ministry from all Irish difficulties. Not satisfied with Protestant ascendancy, he endeavours to estab- lish the domination of race : '•' I must request your Grace," he writes to Newcastle, "as I have of his lordship (Townshend), that you would both use your interest to have none but Englishmen put into the great places here for the future." He complains bitterly that the Mastership of the Eolls is permitted to be sold to a nativej' He murmurs at the promo- tion of Berkeley to a bishopric. He tells the minister that it is only by means of the bishops in the House of Lords that the king's government can be carried on ;' and though the bitter enemy of Swift, whom he even desires the government to watch during his visit to England, he corroborates his opinion as to the character of the Irish bench.* ' " The great point is, who shall govern the government." — Chesterfield's Letters, vol. iv. p. 17. Hbid., p. 19. nbid., p. 191. * Swift said that indeed the English ministers took laudable care to select the most spotless and learned men for Irish bisliops ; but that by some fatality, these 236 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Do not/ lie writes, send us over a clergyman to be made a bishop, simply because lie is too worthless and too profligate to be provided for on your side the Channel. The same sentiment is reiterated over and over again in his correspondence. It is sad to find in these letters, in 1726, the same com- plaints of emigration and of famine that we have heard in our time. He says many hundreds died for want of food.^ In another place he says, " We suffer little less than a famine every other year." A little afterwards he talks of a terrible scarcity, next to a famine. In 1728 he writes, "Upwards of four thousand two hundred men, women, and children have been shipped off from hence for the West Indies within these three years ; and of these, above three thousand one hundred this last summer. The whole north is in a ferment. The worst is that it affects only Protestants, and reigns chiefly in the north."^ Others of his letters urge (like those of his successors, in too uniform a strain — Stone, Dorset, Hartington, Bedford, Halifax, Cornwallis) that pensions may be granted to different noblemen to divines were always robbed and murdered on Hounslow Heath ; and the thieves took their papers, disguised themselves in their robes, and came over to Ireland in their stead. See his verses on Rundell's appointment ; and on the Archbishop leaving church suddenly to wait on the Duke of Dorset, &c. " I never dare look into a carriage," he says somewhere, " for fear I should be shocked by the sight of a bishop." ' This is the substance of several passages. ■" 2 " Chesteraeld's Letters," vol. iv. p. 181. ' Ibid., p. 210. CnAP. 3.] DUEINQ THE EEIG-N OF GEORGE III. 237 encourage their undeviating support of government : " My Lord Mount Alexander, and Lord Strangford/ have been with rae to desire that I would put your Grace in mind of them The case of the first is, that he has 7iothing at all to subsist upon, and is ready on all occasions to attend his Majesty's service in the House of Lords. The case of the latter is, that Xhere is a pension granted to my lord and his mother, but that, without an additional pension, he is unable to' be at the expense, &c." The next letter is for Lord Cavan, "who is never wanting in support of government." .The next letter asks for an increase of a Lord Altham's pen- sion. Thus were the miserable Irish made to support and nourish their oppression. Tyrannical ministers, pensioned nobles, a flagitiously corrupt parliament, a middle class stupefied by oppression, a starving and semi-barbarous peasantry, were the ingredients of the Irish nation at this time. There were three religions, the Eoman Catholic, the Pres- byterian, and the Anglican, of which the two former were under the ban of the law, being ex- cluded from all civil and military offices by the Test Act ; and the last, in numbers the least considerable, was in sole possession of the insulting emoluments of a Church which, of all institutions that ever existed among civilised men, was then, as it now ' " Chesterfield's Letters," vol. ii. p. 68. 238 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. is, the most absurd, which at that time had not one beneficial or redeeming attribute, but was an unmixed evil, the most galling badge of Irish servi- tude, and the incessant cause of Irish demoralisation and civil war. The end for which it existed was not to console and to instruct, but to degrade and to oppress, the great mass of Irishmen. Boulter, meanwhile, complains of the increasing Eoman Catholic population. He says, " the Roman Catho- lics multiply instead of diminish," notwithstand- ing the penal code and the humiliation to which every Roman Catholic was exposed. Other codes have been more sanguinary; none have been more substantially cruel, or more horribly impious. It kept its victims alive, to lacerate every feeling of their nature, till it had brought them to the con- dition of the beasts that perish. " Does he think I have forgiven him ? " said Tiberius, when told that one of his victims petitioned to be put to death. Such was the language of the Irish, and indeed of the English, legislator to the Roman Catholic. A series of laws were passed, aiming successively at each vulnerable part of our nature, which had hitherto accidentally escaped laceration, and in- tended to break down, impoverish, and torment those whom it would have been more merciful to exterminate. The law forbade the Roman Catholic to educate his children at home or abroad. It CHAP. 3.] DUKING THE REIGN OF GEOEGE lU. 239 ordered the priests of his religion (except the con- temporaries of the Act, who were to be registered) to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. It excluded him from all offices in the commonwealth, from the army, and the law in all its branches. It disabled him from taking, or purchasing, or holding through a trustee, any interest of any kind in land, except a lease, not exceeding thirty-one years, at a rent not less than two-thirds of the whole value. Any Eoman Catholic to whom any title should accrue by descent, devise, or settlement, was obliged to conform within six months, under pain of forfeiture to the next Protestant heir. No Roman Catholic could be guardian to any child, but the Court of Chancery might appoint some person to bring up the ward in the Protestant religion. It carried its abominable cruelty to the domestic hearth and the nuptial bed. By a promise of a large share of his estate, it tempted his son to rebel against him, and his wife to betray her trust, thus rewarding crimes when committed against a Roman Catholic, which the common instincts of our nature teach us to loathe and to abhor. No Papist was allowed to retain arms, and the search might be made at any time. Intermarriages were forbidden. The Roman Catholic priest who married one of his faith to a Protestant, was guilty of a felony. Bishop Burnet has left us an account of the way in which one of the most 240 HISTOBY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. persecuting of these Acts was carried. The Jaco- bites wished to represent William the Third as a favourer of Roman Catholics. For this purpose they brought forward a bill full of atrocious clauses against the Catholics, in hopes the court would oppose it. The court saw the snare, and did not resist the bill. The other side 'then inserted clauses still more revolting in the bill, hoping the Lords would alter it. The Lords, however, passed it as it stood, and so the bill, stuffed with the insolence and wanton cruelty of two contending factions, became law. " So that," says Speaker Onslow, " all the Papists now in England have their landed estates on a very precarious footing ;" in other words, they were at the mercy of spies and informers, the most degraded portion of the species. " It was no longer the Protestant that is to be on his guard against the Papist, but the Papist must be armed at all points, and watch night and day against the legal assaults of his wife, his children, and his kindred : if all these affections are secure, yet his neighbour has an interest to become an informer against him ; his sword of defence may wound himself, and the hospitality of his roof may leave him without a roof to shelter him. A bill of discovery may strip him in a moment of all his possessions."^ In short, the law said a Papist shall be nothing but a Papist. • MSS. British Museum, cited in Smyth's " Ireland." CHAP. 8.] DURING THE EEIGN OH- GEORGE HI. 241 Patriotism was impossible, industry without reward, education a crime, talent without any sphere in which it could exert itself; and yet the English, with their wonted penetration, and largeness of thought, complained that the Irish were ignorant, slothful, reckless, rebellious, and were amazed that the reluctant and tardy abolition of these laws did not at once, as by a charm, eradicate the evils they had engendered. It should be recollected, too, that this system of persecution fell upon the great majority of the population ; in this it differs to its disadvantage from the conduct of the Spaniards towards the Moors, and of Louis the Fourteenth towards the Protestants. The means, however, had a fitness to the end, that end being such as few tyrants would have dared to own to them- selves. Thoroughly paralysed and heart-broken, the Irish did not, till the close of the century, attempt to shake off the English yoke ; neither in 1715 nor in 1745 was there the slightest effort in favour of the Pretender.^ England reigned with undisputed supremacy over swamps, hovels, and potato grounds, and over jobbers, slaves, and beggars. Placemen and place-hunters now and then gave a ' " Jobs and clavct engross and ruin the people of fashion." — Chesterfield's Letters, vol. iii. pp. 890 and 339. " Let (the Patriots) make Connaught and Kerry know there is a king, a God, and a government, three things to which at present they are utter strangers." — Ibid,, vol. iv. p. 174. R 242 HISTOKY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. little trouble to the government. Murders, maimings, conflagrations, robberies, rapes, prevailed throughout the land; but abhorrence was kept down by fear, and, till 1782, none of the signs that indicate the rising of national fury interrupted what Boulter and Stone then, and Fitzgibbon, and Lord Castle- reagh, and Major Sirr afterwards, called peace, but what Tacitus has taught his readers to name the stillness of desolation.^ If we trace the commercial and political, as well as the moral and social, state of Ireland, we find our legislation characterised by all the short-sighted policy which really seems to infatuate the English, when the prospect of immediate gain is before their eyes. Lord Clarendon has left us the account of the conduct of the English Parliament, in prohibiting the importation of live cattle from Ireland in 1663 and 1665. Driven from this branch of industry, the Irish increased the number of their sheep and manufac- tured wool. Again did England interfere. In answer to an address from both Houses of Parlia- ^ " I see that you are in fears again from your White-boys, and have destroyed a good many of them. But I believe if the militaiy force had killed half as many landlords, it would have contributed more effectually to restore quiet. The poor people are used worae than negroes by their lords and masters, and theii' deputies, of deputies, of deputies. For there is a sentiment in eveiy human breast that asserts man's natural right to liberty and good usage, and that will, and ought to, rebel when oppressed and provoked to a certain degree." — Chester- field's Letters, vol. v. p. 463. Passage omitted in former editions. CHAP. 3.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 243 ment (1698), William the Third promised to do all that in him lay to discourage the woollen manu- facture in Ireland. The importation of wool and manufactured woollens from Ireland, was prohibited under pain of transportation. To regulate the trade of Ireland in subserviency to the views of the mercantile interest in England, it was requisite that England should have the power of controlling the Irish courts of justice. Influence over the Irish judges, and a final jurisdiction, alone could make her legislation effectual.^ This was established in the year 1719, when a private law-suit gave rise to a controversy, whether there lay an appeal from the Irish tribunals to the English House of Lords. This was the cause of an Act of Parliament^ declaring that the legislature of England " had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make statutes of sufBcient force and validity to bind the people and kingdom of Ireland ; " and secondly, " That the House of Lords of Ireland have not, nor of right ought to have, any jurisdiction to judge of affairs, or reverse any judgment, sentence, or decree given or made in any court within the said kingdom." In the first year of George the Second Boulter succeeded in getting an Act passed which de- prived all Catholics of the elective franchise. Every motive for conciliating the people was now taken ^ Molyneux, " Case of Ireland." ' 6 George I., c. 9. e2 244 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. away.' Every mark which distinguishes freemen from slaves, or, indeed, the slave of a king like Louis the Ninth or Henry the Fourth of France, from the slave of Caligula, or Henry the Eighth of England, had been obliterated, when a question began to be agitated which led the Irish Protestant landlord to reflect that when he sold the happiness of his country to England, his own rights had been com- prised in the bargain.^ Before I dwell on these transactions it is necessary to call the reader's attention to a short but splendid exception to this uniform scene of folly, oppression, and barbarity, which was exhibited during the time that Lord Chesterfield exercised the vice-regal authority, from March 1745 to October 1746. It is by his conduct in this ofiQce, not by his frivolous and superficial, though elegantly written, letters — inculcating a morality based exclusively on self-interest, and con- sistent with all vices but the most flagrant disregard of truth and honour — that Lord Chesterfield has established a claim on the gratitude and admiration of his countrymen. The supple courtier and unscru- 1 If our practical statesmen had deigned to consult the teachers of ancient wisdom, they would have been taught a different lesson from that inculcated by the Dodingtons and the Stones. " Solon seems to have given the people a most essential power — the choice of public ministers, and the right of calling them to account. For if the people is deprived even of these rights, it wiU be enslaved and hostile — lovXog dv tir) sai ■KoKifuoq." — Aristotle, ttoX. lib. ii. sc. 10. ' The Irish " thought themselves contemned ; they saw the channel of power totally diverted from the natives." — ^Walpole, George II., p. 281. CHAP. 3.] UURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 245 pulous man of fashion appears all at once in the dignified light of a great statesman, upright, en- lightened, generous ; disdaining all that is mean, crooked, or little, and steadily pursuing, in spite of the detestable examples before his eyes, and the atmosphere of corruption by which he was sur- rounded, a beneficent and noble policy. Instead of directions how to flatter harlots, or to win the favour of imbecile greatness, exhortations to seduce women, and advice to imitate the most worthless of mankind, we find philosophy in action, and amid the "dregs of Romulus," the disinterestedness of Cato and the wisdom of Pericles. There is nothing in any part of the elder Pitt's career more noble or becoming than the Irish administration of Lord Chesterfield. If it is asked how such a phenomenon is to be explained, — I say that Lord Chesterfield had a fine understanding and a generous nature, corrupted by vicious example and blurred by ex- cessive vanity. His just scorn for the gross vices and open brutality then fashionable in England flung him into the opposite extreme, and he adopted the vices of an amiable and a refined people. With these, it is only just to say, he imitated their virtues. Nothing is more remarkable in every part of his correspondence, even during the time he filled the most exalted posts, and was dictator of social life, than his delicate and attentive consideration for his 246 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. inferiors.^ As he advanced in life, — as, in his own phrase, he was admitted behind the scenes and saw the ropes and pulleys which set the machine at which the vulgar gazed in motion, — he detected the illusions by which in earlier life he had been misled. His scorn for kings and their favourites is un- bounded, nor do the pages of Montesquieu, or Eousseau, or Swift, contain more severe animad- versions on courts than experience has dictated to him who was long their assiduous denizen and most polished ornament. Had the opportunity been afforded him, he certainly would have struck out of letters never intended for publication much that offends the moralist ; but he might have left in them every syllable that relates to government or policy, to the interests of England or of Europe. His views on all these subjects are great and luminous, and far beyond the age in which he lived. His conduct in Ireland ; his resignation of office in 1748 ; his inter- ference (to which he himself never even alludes, and which saved the nation from a series of disasters) in 1756, were acts which became a great nobleman, ^ This leads me to believe that we do not know the truth of the quan'el between him and Dr. Johnson. Lord Chesterfield must have despised John- son's frantic bigotry, but he was not liliely to treat any man of letters with contempt. I quote, in support of this view, a passage worthy of F^nSIon : — " I shall go to London in November, upon the account of Lady Chesterfield, and even of my servants, who, not having the resources that I have, would be miserable here in the winter. The difference will be but little to me, it will be great to them ; which, in my mind, makes it a social duty." — Vol. iv. p. 134. CHAP. 3,] CUBING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 247 and entitle him to a conspicuous place in the scanty (since 1641 the roll is almost a blank) catalogue of English patriots. Let it not be thought a digression that I have paid this tribute to a man whose ad- ministration is an isthmus between two disastrous and disgraceful periods — a short but luminous interval, on which the eye of man may repose, in the dreary waste of wickedness and stupidity, of hypocrisy and selfishness, which for ages before, and almost a century afterwards, are the unvarying and hideous lineaments of Irish government. I return to the painful narrative. After the peace of Aix-la- Chapelle there was a considerable surplus in the Irish treasury — it amounted to upwards of £200,000. It was agreed that it should be applied to the reduction of the national debt of Ireland. The bill passed so drawn as to imply the king's consent. Under the same circumstances, in 1751, the Duke of Dorset declared, in his speech from the throne, that the king did graciously consent and recommend to them the same employment of the money. The Commons thanked the king for his recommendation, but took no notice of his consent. The bill was sent back from England with the word " consent " inserted, and the Commons acquiesced. Such were the precedents. To explain the sequel it is neces- sary to state that Primate Boulter had been succeeded in station and influence by another priest, 248 HISTORY OF ENGLAND tBOOK I. Stone/ as ambitious as himself, and, in private as well as in public life, a scandalous profligate. Burke has described him,^ " an atheist playing the part of a bigot" — a picture of finished depravity to which nothing can be added. His brother was the bosom friend of Newcastle and the Jacobite preceptor of (xeorge the Third, upheld by Murray and the Princess Dowager, in spite of all the remonstrances of Lord Harcourt and the Bishop of Norwich, his nominal superiors. This pious supporter of the Protestant religion and English government followed the track of his predecessor. At this time, however, Mr. Boyle,^ a man of no great abilities, but of consider- able genius for intrigue, had been twenty years Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and was at the head of a large knot of jobbers. These two men soon came into collision. The Duke of Dorset, following the tradition of English policy, relied on Stone. The seekers of office arrayed themselves under the banners of the two rivals. The first trial of strength was an attack on Mr. Neville, the Surveyor-General. ' " He had been hurried up through two or three Irish biuhoprios to the Primacy not only unwarrantably young, but without the graver excuses of learning and sanctimony." — ^Walpole, George II., vol. i. p. 231. ^Lord Chesterfield said to him, " My lord, you should take orders." ' " A man of moderate capacity." — Walpole, George IT., vol. i. p. 279. Before this, Lucas, an apothecary, had attempted to disturb the stagnant pool. He was banished — turned physician in Loudon, afterwards came back to Ireland, and was member for Dublin. CHAP. 3.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE UI. 249 By some he is called honourable, by others corrupt. But he must be a stranger to Irish proceedings in that day who supposes that if he had been Yerres he would not have been acquitted by one side, and that if he had been Phocion he would not have been found guilty by the other. Boyle triumphed, and Neville was expelled the House of Commons/ Having thus established his pre-eminence in a personal, Boyle resolved to try his strength on a national, question : it turned on the topic that has been mentioned, whether the king's consent should be mentioned in a bill dis- posing of the surplus money in the Irish treasury ; a bill so worded having been returned from England. Boyle caused the bill to be flung out by one hundred and twenty-two to one hundred and seventeen.^ In ' "I thought I perfectly understood the meaning of all your disputes in Ireland while they related only to the roasting or Boyleing of Arthur Jones Neville, Esq., and I heard of them with the same indifference with which I formerly heard those of Charles Lucas, apothecary. These objects were indif- ferent to me because I thought them so to Ireland ; and I humbly apprehend that the only point in question was the old one — who should govern the governor." — Chesterfield's Letters, vol. iv. p. 96. " The Speaker furnished himself as chief to the faction, but they had wiser heads to direct both them and their chiefs ; of these were Carter, the Master of the Rolls, Sir Richard Cox, and Malone." — Walpole, George II., vol. ii. p. 281. " Carter had always been a Whig, but had constantly fomented every dis- content against the Lord-Lieutenant, in order to be bought off." — Ibid. ' The toasts given to celebrate this victory over the primate contain impu- tations I cannot quote. Chesterfield says of them, " I think I discover in them all the guards of prudence, all the depths of policy, and all the urbanity of re- fined and delicate satire." — Letters, vol. iv. p. 96. " The Speaker's party, which is now, by the ill-management of others, become the majority of the House, deny the king's right to the surplus, &o. It is believed that the House of Commons will proceed to some personal votes against 250 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. consequence he was dismissed from his office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and all who voted with him were deprived of their places. The result of all this mock display of patriotic virtue may be stated in the words of Lord Charlemont's biographer — probably Grattan — " The particular question which became the trial of strength between the belligerent powers — Mr. Boyle, afterwards Lord Shannon, and the primate — was decided in favour of the latter. The professions of both were, in truth, ' re inania aut subdola.' For, after all the tempest which shook Ireland to its centre, the king's letter drew at once all the money out^ of the treasury, and the chiefs from whom all the ferment arose acted the same deceptive scenes which have been so often played in politics." Ministers at home were frightened. Lord Hartington, afterwards Duke of Devonshire, was sent over, by Henry Fox's influence, in the place of the Duke of Dorset. He not only rein- stated Mr. Boyle in - the chancellorship of the Exchequer, but created him an earl, and conferred upon him a pension of £2,000 a year for thirty-one the primate and Lord George Sackville, who are the capital objects of their aversion. This only is ceiiain, the Duke of Dorset is making what haste he can to come here, and will not, nor cannot [sic] go back again."— Ibid., p. 101. " Whoever has seen the first tide turn in favour of an opposition, may judge of the riotous triumphs occasioned by this victory. The ladies made balls, the mob bonfires, the poets pasquinades ; if Pasquin has seen wittier, he himself never saw more severe or less delicate lampoons." — Walpole, George II., vol. i, p. 283. CHAP. 8.] DUEING THE REIGN OF GEORGE UI. 251 years. Mr. Ponsonby was made Speaker without opposition.^ Mr. Carter was made Secretary of State, with an additional salary. Sir Richard Cox obtained a large pension. The inferior partisans^ were all provided for — " Nemo," says a contemporary writer, "non donatus abibat." So pure, so disinterested, so beneficial to the community, was this first out- burst of Irish, patriotism. From that time the biographer of Lord Charlemont tells us he resolved to bind himself to no such leaders.^ From 1767 to 1761 the Duke of Bedford was Lord-Lieutenant. He disgusted the Irish, says Plowden, by his cold- ness and his economy. He certainly did not deviate from the beaten path of his predecessors. He gave Rigby the Mastership of the Rolls, and another large Irish sinecure.* In answer to a letter desiring that the Landgravine of Hesse may be put on the Irish ' " In thia union of the primate with the Earl of Besborongh, the principles of each were, that the Earl, thinking the primate more attentive to power than riches, fed himself with the hope of drawing the profit to himself. The primate, inordinately ambitious, made no doubt of governing the youthful Speaker, and so bringing the whole power of the State into his own hands." — Plowden, vol. i, p. 315. " Sed tu victrix provincia ploras." ' Hardy, vol. i. p. 48. ' " The conduct of the leaders in 1753 made a deep impression on Lord Charlemont. From that time he resolved to be a freeman." — Habdt, Life of Charlemont, p. 51. " The imbecility, the general depression of the kingdom, the neglect of ministers at some periods, their contempt of the country at all times — contempt not confined to them, but diffused through every class of society in England — made it more particularly incumbent, as he thought, for some persons here to display a vigilance in favour of Ireland." — Ibid., p. 52. * £4,000 a year. 252 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. pension list for ^6,000 a year, he frankly says, " The leading people must have douceurs, by these means his Majesty may do what he pleases in that country.^ The Princess of Hesse may have her pension." In short, the duke, governed by the counsels of Stone and Rigby, put himself into the hands of the Undertakers. They were opposed by another fac- tion, equally corrupt, who called themselves Patriots.^ Lord Oharlemont refused to join with either. To please the Patriots a bill was passed, which, in fact, was a vote of money tO" Irish landlords — it was called a bill for granting a bounty on all flour and corn brought to Dublin by land carriage. This soon amounted to ^£50,000 a year. The Duke of ' " Bedford Correspondence," vol. ii. p. 335. 2 " The Castle will, I take it for granted, somehow or other procure a majority, which when the Patriots perceive, they will probably think half a loaf better than no bread, and come into measures. I wish, for the sake of Ireland, that they may ; for I am quite sure .... the public good never enters into the head of either party." — Chesterfield's Letters, vol. iv. p. 168. " My Lord, — I beg your Grace will pardon the liberty I take, in troubling you upon a subject which is of the utmost consequence to me and my family. Lord Harrington having some time ago wrote to Mr. Clements that he wished to sell his employment of Comptroller of the Customs in this port, Mr. Clements mentioned it to me ; and I wrote to some of my friends in London, to say that if you should be pleased to approve of Lord Harrington's resignation, I sliould be glad of this employment upon the terms wliich he had proposed to Mr, Clements, who told me that he declined it. Lord Harrington and my friends have accordingly agreed upon the terms ; but as his lordship's patent runs during pleasure only, the favour I would entreat from your Grace is, that this patent (through your Grace's most powerful interest with his Majesty) may be granted to a friend of mine /or my use during the lives of my three sons, William, John, and George." — Ponsonby to the Duke of Bedford, June 30, 1760. Bedford Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 416. CHAP. S.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE UI. 253 Bedford in vain attempted to limit the grant to a term of years ; he was compelled to grant it in per- petuity. This was the job of the Patriots. At the same time an addition of jCSOO a year was made to the salary of Mr. Ponsonby, as Speaker of the House of Commons ; this, in 1761, was augmented to jC2,000 a year, and in 1765 to ^4,000, besides the emoluments, and £500 from the crown each session ; which before this time had been considered sufficient. This was the job of the Undertakers. It was not likely that any dispute would again arise as to an undisposed-of surplus.^ The Duke of Bedford's want of judgment, and Rigby's counsels, gave rise to very serious disturbances ; one in particular, when the playhouse was destroyed, and which was put down by military force, assumed, after a few hours, very considerable dimensions. Mr. Pitt does not conceal his disapprobation of the Duke of Bedford's conduct.^ " They have sent ' " Loud as was the cry of patriotism in 1753, lamentable is it to reflect that when the boasted purity of these patriots was called into action by some of the few sincere supporters of the party, the majority became as recreant from the cause of civil freedom as the most venal prostitute to systematic corruption. . . In March, 1756, the House of Commons rejected a bill vacating the seats of such members as should accept any place or pension from the Crown, by 89 to 96."— Plowden, vol. i. p. 316. " The blaze excited in 1753 was no more seen. The chiefs who fanned that flame were completely gratified by the Court, and had not the least inclina- tion to indulge the public with such spectacles longer than suited their own sinister ambition." — HAnny's Life of Charlemont ; Barrington's Memoirs, vol. i. p. ,30. '" I am to observe to your Grace, with regard to the apprehensions you express 254 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. (Bolus to quell a storm," is Horace Walpole's comment on his policy. But bribes and titles pro- duced their usual effect. The tumult subsided ; everything returned to its former channel. The Irish pension was filled with the names of renegades and apostates, mixed with those of a satellite, of a female relation of the Duke of Bedford's,^ and of profligate English politicians. The Irish people who did not seek refuge in foreign lands were starved, plundered, and ground to dust by their own countrymen. All these evils were aggravated by the Irish Church establish- of designs for stopping the Money Bill., that as those apprehensions are founded only on the surmise of heats and resentments that miglit follow your non-com- pliance with the demands of the House in transmitting their resolutions to his Majesty, they will, it is hoped, immediately and entirely cease on your Grace's complying with the same, as above directed by the king." — Bedford Correspond dence, vol. ii. p. 301. " With regard to the causes of the late outrages, I cannot but remark that considering your Giaoe mentions this riot to have taken its rise in the Earl of Meath's liberty, chiefly inhabited by Protestant weavers, there is still more pregnant grounds to apprehend that the money transactions of Mr. Malone and Mr. Clements have probably been one fatal ingredient among others observed by your Grace towards distempering and revolting the minds of a manufacturing multitude, who (though nothing can extenuate the guilt of such an insmrec- tion) may perhaps have felt in their trade the consequence of such a scan- dalous and iniquitous business, which continues here to be viewed in the same light, and to stand the object of public animadversion." — Pitt to the DuTce of Bedford, Jan. 5, 1760, Ihid., p. 400. " As to the other part, of your calling for support to punish now the undu- tiful and impertinent, give me leave to say that his Majesty has all the inclination and resolution to support you ; but that it is his opinion, at present, that you should try all conciliatory ways, which from my own experience I think will succeed, especially now the Money Bill is transmitted to you." — Earl Qranville to the Duke of Bedford, Nov. 27, 1757, Ibid., p. 308. * Lady Betty Waldegrave. The duke gave her the pension which had been paid to the king's sister, the Queen Dowager of Prussia — £800 a year. CHAP. 3.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE m. 255 meut, among the most absurd and indefensible of all the evils by which the human race has ever been afflicted — the constant theme of derision and re- proach of every foreign writer, whatever may be his opinions, and never mentioned with a single word of praise, or, indeed, of moderate vituperation. Eichly endowed and bitterly hated, neither instructing nor intended to instruct the great body of the people, it still remains as a memorial of English bigotry, of Irish corruption, and of all that wise and good rulers would desire to obliterate from the minds of the nation entrusted to their government. Mean- while, the Patriots became earls and sinecurists,^ and the wrongs of their country remained without redress. This was the auspicious beginning of Parlia- mentary government in Ireland, and this the state of that miserable nation, after five hundred years of English rule, on the accession of George the Third. ' " Promotions, peerages, places, and pensions agi'eed to by George the Second, 1760:— "Peers to be promoted. — Lord Momington to be created an Earl ; Lord Ludlow to be created an Earl ; Lord Farnham to be created a Viscount ; Lord Russ- borough to be created a Viscount. "Peers to be created. — Sir Thomas Taylor to be created a Baron ; Mr. Cole, a Baron ; Mr. Browne, of Westport, a Baron ; Mr. Holmes, of the Isle of Wight, a Baron. " Privy Councillors to be made. — Earl of Drogheda, Lord Farnham, Sir William Fownes, Benjamin Burton, Esq. " Mr. Attorney-General to be Chief Justice of the King's Bench ; Mr. Solicitor- General to be Attorney ; Mr. John Gore to be Solicitor-General ; Mr. Anthony Foster, to be Counsel to the Commissioners." — Bedford Corr., vol. ii. p. 418. 256 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. APPENDIX TO BOOK I. Nobles. Twenty-nino peera were eummonecl to Parliament on the accession of Hcmy the Seventh. Law. " Notwithstanding all which, and the evident utility, safety, &c., the proposal for a general registry was unaccountably rejected, 1709." — Andeksok's Commerce, vol. ii., Registry Act, 1 Anne, c. 22, Preamble. Sir H. Spelman remarks that, in his time, while everything else became dearer, the life of man became cheaper. It was not above the value of twelve pence. Twelve pence then would purchase as much as forty shillings in these days. Yet a theft above the value of twelve pence is still (1772) liable to the same punishment. The passage in Blackstone is well known. " The statute of Rutland and the statute of Articuli Super Chartas were evidently meant to prohibit the Court of Exchequer from holding plea of any civil matter. Yet they (that is the judges of that court) retained the juris- diction they had usurped in defiance of them, by conniving at the complainant's falsely suggesting he was a debtor to the king." — Boote, Suit at Law, p. 32. "To draw these actions into tlieir court, the Court of King's Bench 'were obliged to resort to a fiction, as the Court of Exchequer had done.' " — Ibid., p. 33. •• An Act of Parliament, however, which shows the scandalous immorality of tlie Bar and the Bench, having been passed in Charles the Second's time, requiring ' the true cause of action to be stated in the writ,' the Court of King's Bench was suddenly reduced to the danger of losing its business. In order to obviate this they did not have recourse to the legislature, but, in the true spirit of English juris- prudence, had recourse to as despicable a trick as any pettifogger ever invented ' This curious device,' says Boote, ' was, if not invented, certainly connived at, by the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and occasioned a strong remonstrance from tlie Cliief Justice of tlie Common Pleas, who urged that the trick was not only in the face of the statute, but founded on an allegation false and contrary to law.' "—Ibid; p. 36. "These useless, unnecessarj', and unintelligible forms are continued, aa things APP.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 257 wonderfully material, and with much exactness followed, though one may venture to say that they only serve to swell the built of subsequent proceedings, and veiy unnecessarily increase the expense of a suit." — Ibid., p. 107. " Before the year 1662, it was in the power of any one man to destroy the credit of five liundred by arresting them, as was then the practice, on this writ for large sums and never declaring to avoid paying any costs. It even became a by-word to say, ' I'll bestow a bill of Middlesex upon him.'" — Ibid., p. 116. " This statute did not remedy the evil, nor was it remedied till 12 George I." —Ibid., p. 119. " Is it not monstrous that the mere chance of having caught a fish of two shillings value, — the stopping the course of a ti'ifling rivulet, — the cutting off the bough of a tree not worth sixpence, — the once riding across a ground, &c., should give rise to pleadings of 100, 150, or 200 slieets in lengtli, and occasion an expense of £150 or £200 ? And yet sucli sort of trespasses, or actions on the case grounded on such matters, whereby a right comes in question, give rise to the most extensive and expensive pleadings, and often end in the ruin of one or other of the parties concerned in the suit. "Where a poor man happens to be the defendant in such a case, it is impos- sible he should be able to contest such a suit, without risking the i uin of himself and his family, if he should have tlie misfortune to fail in his defence. And, indeed, considering the unavoidable uncertainty that is daily experienced in regard to decisions upon matters of this kind, it would in general be more advis- able for a poor man in such a case quietly to yield up his right, than to contest with a rich and potent adversary, in favour of whom the old adage is too often verified , viz. that might overcomes right. "But how poor soever a man may be, if he has a right, it is but natural for him to struggle to support it as long as he is able. And how great is the hard- ship the law puts him under, when, in order to do this, it obliges him to engage in such a labyrinth of tedious and expensive pleadings ! " So that after all, succeed or not succeed, a poor man in cases of this sort, as I observed before, had better quietly yield up his right, than contest with a powerful and litigious adversary, who is determined to have his will, thougli he tramples on the riglits and liberties of his neighbour." — Mistorical Treatise on the Courts of Kind's Bench and Common Pleas, pp. 260, 261. Tlie following sentences were written by Burke almost on his death-bed :— " No wonder that such villains . . . should proceed as they do, wlien our courts of justice seem by their proceedings to be in league with every kind of fraud and injustice." " They let people die while they are looking for redress, and then all the proceedings are to begin over again. . , . As to any relief in the other (the common law) courts, I have been in them, and would not trust the fame or fortune of any human creature to them, if I could possibly help it I have tried their justice. ... I know them of old, and am only sorry, at my present departure, that I have not had an opportunity of painting them in their proper colours." — Burke's Letters (Feb. 15, 1797) to Dr. Lawrence. Works, vol. ii. p. 871, ed. 1852. S 258 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. Interference of Baron Montague with the jury who acquitted Townley and Tilderley. — Historical Register, 1717, p. 17. Blacli Act, 4 George II., u. 22, " If any person being disguised ' shall appear' in any warren, any place where deer have been kept, on any heath or high road, death." " Quakers' affirmation not received in criminal cases." — 7 and 8 William III., c. 34, sec. 6. " Fox, as he loved sense and argument, could not hear a society who at once inverted the use of reason and the profession of justice." — Walpole's Memoirs, p. 150. " Resolved, nemine contradicente. That Thomas Bambrldge, the acting warden of the Prison of the Fleet, hath wilfully permitted several debtors to the Crown in great sums of money, as well as debtors to divers of his Majesty's subjects, to escape; hath been guilty of the most notorious breaches of his trust, great extortions, and the highest crimes and misdemeanours in the execution of his said office ; and hath arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into dungeons, and destroyed prisoners for debt, under his charge, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner, iu high violation and contempt of the laws of this kingdom. " Resolved, nemine contradicente, That John Huggins, Esq., late warden of the Prison of the Fleet, did, during the time of his wardenship, wilfully permit many considerable debtora in his custody to escape ; and was notoriously guilty of great breaches of his trust, extortions, cruelties, and other high crimes and misdemeanours, in the execution of his said ofSce, to the great oppression and ruin of many of the subjects of this kingdom. " Resolved, That it appears to this House that James Barnes was an agent of, and an accomplice with, the said Thomas Bambridge, in the commission of his said crimes. " Resolved, That it appears to this House that William Pindar was an agent of, and an accomplice with, the said Thomas Bambridge, in the commission of his said crimes. " Resolved, That it appears to this House that John Everett was an agent of and an accomplice with, the said Thomas Bambridge, in the commission of his said crimes. " Resolved, That it appears to this House that Thomas King was an agent of, and an accomplice with, the said Thomas Bambridge, in the commission of his said crimes." — Report from the Committee appointed to inquire into the state of Gaols of the Kingdom. The details are horrible. Pariies. " J'ltais venu plcin de I'id^e qu'un Whig ^tait un fin republicain ennemi de la royaut^i et un Toiy un partisan de I'ob^issance passive, mais j'ai trouvd que dans le parlement, tons les Whig ^taient pour la cour et les Toiys coutro elle." — Voltaire's . APP.] DURING THE BEIGN OF GEORGE III. 259 Slave Trade. — Description of a Slave Ship. " On Friday, the men slaves being very sullen and unruly, having had no sustenance of any kind for forty-eight hours, except a dram, we put one half of the strongest of them in irons. " On Saturday and Sunday all hands, night and day, could scarce keep the ship clear, and were constantly under arms, " On Monday morning many of the slaves had got out of irons, and were attempting to break up the gratings ; and the seamen not daring to go down the hold to clear our pumps, we were obliged, for the preservation of our own lives, to kill fifty of the ringleaders and stoutest of them. "It is impossible to describe the miseiy the poor slaves underwent, having had no fresli water fot five days. Their dismal cries and slirieks, and most frightful looks, added a great deal to our misfortunes ; four of them were found dead, and one drowned herself in the hold. This evening the water gained on us, and three seamen dropped down with fatigue and thirst, which could not be quenched, though wine, rum, and shrub were given them alternately. On Thursday morning the ship had gained, during the night, above a foot of water, and the seamen quite wore out and many of them in despair. About ten in the forenoon we saw a sail ; about two she discovered us, and bore down upon us ; at five spoke to us, being the King Qeorge, ot Londonderry, James Mackay, master ; he immediately promised to take us on board, and hoisted out his yawl, it then blowing very fresh. The gale increasing, prevented him from saving anything but the white people's lives (wliich were thirty-six in number), not even any of our clothes, or one slave, the boat being scarce able to live in the sea the last trip she made." — Ann. Beg., 1762, p. 118. When Sir Robert Walpole was told that he had been left in a minority, in the servant's House of Lords, he replied, " The Scotch peers have no footmen.'' " The Lady Bridget Osborne, daughter of Thomas Osborne, Duke of Leeds, bestowed herself in marriage on — Williams, a clergyman." — Hist. Reg., 1715. " Badness of roads — all beyond Sarum and Dorchester terra incognita ; road from Bath to Exeter deploiable ; would sooner travel to the south of France and back than to Falmouth."- — Gentleman's Magazine, 1770. " Materials miglit be collected, not for a pamphlet, but a regular treatise, under distinct heads, concerning the abuses and corruption which prevail among us, in every part of the public service." — Boldigbboke, vol. iv. p. 386. " Principal men became parties to the greatest frauds, and the highest of those who governed, and the lowest of those who were governed, contributed in their degrees to the universal rapine." — Ihid. Five hundred men assembled at the bottom of Gray's Inn Lane, and extorted money from passengeiB on foot and horaebaok, on pretence of being weavers, which they were not. 260 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. '• A sharp and bloody battle at the Haymarket between the new company of French strolleva and the gentlemen of London. They saluted the company with a general concerto of hissing, cat calls, peltings, &o. This continued three hours, notwithstanding a guard of sixty men. At last, the music booiss being torn and some of the bass viols broken, the company separated about 8 p.m., the mob throwing dirt upon them as they came out, and committing other extrava- gances. The French Ambassador was at the house, with other persons of distinction." — Eist. Reg., 1738. Broglie, in his despatch to the King of France, mentions the importance of the two Turkish pages, Mustapha and Mahomet. Duchess of Munster engaged to procure a peerage for Sir Richard Child, a violent Tory. State of the Country. Pretender's council of five were An'an, Orrery, North, Gower, and Bishop of Rochester. "France," said Henry Pelham, writing in 1750, "is in a condition, if she knew it, almost to dictate her own terms to all Europe." — Chatham Correspond- ence, vol. i. p. 50. " George Grenville asks, speaking of his own estate, 'Impius hseotam culta novalia miles habebit? Bai barns has eegetes?' Ai'e we to have the Russians and the Cossacks here ? " — Ibid., vol. i. p. 164. " Bolingbroke liad, by his writings, so irritated and inflamed the nation, that there was too much reason to fear the rage to which he had wrought up the great body of tlie people might produce the most desperate attempts." — OssLOW. " Recent experience," says Bolingbroke, writing in 1749, proves " how unfit we are become in every respect, except tlie courage of our common soldiers and sailors, to engage in war ; we shall not therefore, I suppose, provoke it easily or soon." " A rabble of three thousand men gathered in the mountains," — Letter of the Duke of Cumberland, cit. Coxe's Pelham. " For my part I have long dreaded it, and am as mucli convinced as my friend Lord Orford was, that this country will be fought for some time before the year is over. But nothing can go on right till the government has a head, which I liope it will not be long without, for Lord Harrington was to set out from Hanover last Friday, and the king intended to follow him in a very few days." — Pelham's Letter, CoxE, p. 258. 1745. " England, Wade says, and I believe, is for the first comer, and if you can tell whether the six thousand Dutch and ten battalions of English, or five thousand French and Spaniards will be here first, you know our fate." — Ibid., p. 264. " Had five thousand French landed in this island a week ago, I verily believe the conquest would not have cost them a battle." — Ibid. " Imagine everytliing in confusion, obstinate, angry, determined impracti- cability throughout."— i?'oa; to Sir C. H, Williams, Ibid. APP.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE HI. 261 Cross of Gold and Cross of Wood. Speaking of Charles the Fifth's interim, Voltaire eays: " Ce n'^tait pas so declarer chef de I'Eglise, eonime le roi d'Angleterre Henri le Huitifeme ; mais c'edt ^tfe etrc en eflfet si les Allemands avaient eu autant de docility que les Anglais." " Suit brought by Mr. Sellon, minister of St. James's Church, Clerkenwell, against Mr. Hawes, for preaching at Lady Huntingdon's Chapel, in that parish, decided in favour of Mr. Sellon. It was proved that 1,,500 or 2,000 people often resorted to it, and that Mr. Sellon was thereby greatly injured in the profits of his living ; that Lady Huntingdon had taken a lease of the ground, and that the chapel was her chapel." — Ann. Reg.., 1780, p. 21i. " In 1720, two bisliofs, with six or seven other prelates, petitioned the king that they might be incorporated for purchasing and improving forfeited and otiier estates." — Anderson, vol. ii. p. 100. " L'Eglise a toujours pens6 ainsi." — Montesquieu. Tlio Rev. Mr. Patten was, during many years, curate of Whitstable, at a very small stipend, and used every Sunday to travel, in a butcher's cart, to do duty at anotlier churcli. Whitstable, lying close to the sea, is veiy aguish, so that had lie been dismissed, it would have been very difficult for the Arch- bishop of Canteibury, to whom the living belonged, to have provided another curate at tho same low rate : this he well knew, and presuming upon it, was a great plague to every new primate. He kept a mistress publicly, and had that esteem for punch, that when his sermons were too long, some one showing liim a lemon, might at any time cause him to bring his discourse to an abrupt conclu- sion, that he might bo at liberty to adjourn to the public-house. " When Dr. Wake was Archbishop, some tale-bearer informed liis Grace, that Mr. Patten had given a marriage-certificate, which he had signed by the title of Bishop of Whitstable. At the next visitation, the Archbishop sternly asked Mr. P. whether the report was true? To wliich Patten replied, 'I shall answer your Grace's question by another. — Are you fool enough to take notice of it, if it be true?' " Wlien Dr. Seeker was enthroned, or soon after, he gave a charge to his clergy, and among other articles, found great fault with the scanty allowance often paid to curates. Mr. Patten, who was tliere (though not summoned, as his usual boldness at these meetings occasioned an order for him to be left out of the list), arose from his seat, and bowing to the Archbishop, said with a loud voice, ' I tliank your Grace.' After the charge was over, this troublesome subaltern, bustling through the crowd, came up to the metropolitan, who feeling that he could not avoid him, began with the usual question, ' You are, Sir, I apprehend, curate of Whitstable ?' 'I am so,' returned Mr. Patten, ' and have received the paltry sum of thirty pounds per annum from your Grace's predecessors, for doing the duty of a living which brings in full three hundred.' ' Don't enlarge, Mr. Patten,' said the Archbishop; 'No, but I hope your Grace teiM,' rejoined tho curate." — AmadoUs, ^c, p. 461. 262 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK I. " Religious animosities were out of date ; the public had no turn for contro- versy ; the Church had no writers to make them fond of it again." — Walpole's Hist. George II., vol. i. p. 147. After mentioning a generous action of Bishop Butler, Dr. King, the famous Jacobite, says, " Trevor, his successor, possessed of a large estate besides his bishopric, is of a different tuin of mind, but in common with many of his order. To speak freely, I know nothing that has brought so great a reproach on the Church of England as the avarice and ambition of our bishops. Chandler, Bishop of Durham ; Willis, Bishop of Winchester ; Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury ; Gibson and Sherlock, Bishops of London, all died shamefully rich." — Dr. King's Memoirs, p. 183. Dr. Cosins says, concerning this writ, " that it is a liberty or privilege peculiar to the Church of England above all the realms of Christendom that he has read of." — Cit. BuENS, Ecc. Law, ed. 1763. Tit. Excommun. ; and see 5 Elizabeth, 0.23. Intrigue of Sunderland and Stanhope. Carleton, Cadogan, Lechmere, Hampden, joined Sunderland. " At what precise period or by what inducement Stanhope was gained by Sun- derland, cannot be positively ascertained ; but from the general disinterestedness of his character, I am led to conclude that he did not lightly betray his friends." — Coxe's Walpole, p. 97, 4to. Labourers. 1536. A bill concerning bondmen was rejected by the House of Lords. " Liber est," says Bracton, " qui potest ire qub vult." " Purum villenagium est qui scire non potest vespere quale servitium fieri debet mane.'' " Day labourers employed in repair of roads, for which they received no wages." — Bdkns, p. 309. Poor. " I think it may fairly be said that the poor laws in this country compose one of the most burdensome, complicated, and perplexed systems of economy that has ever been known in any country. . . . It is a full proof how much our very best virtues, separated from the direction of an enlarged and legislative prudence, may come to have all the effect and operation of vice." " Profession has nothing to do with locality ; by confining a man where he cannot have employment, and keeping him from where he can, you do him a double injury APP.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 263 Transportation to America is not more a punishment than to send him where he may possibly starve. Parishes consider themselves as having no common in- terest. It is to prevent a man from being a possible burden to one parish, that he is made an actual burden to another." — Burlce'a Works, vol. ii. p. 414, ed. 1852. rare/ 1739. Parliament had formally resolved that no peace should be concluded with Spain till the right of search had been abandoned. It is jurious to contrast the blustering tone with which we entered upon the war with the timid language of the ministera in vindicating the peace. Spain kept her right of search ; but Pelham said, " I am pereuaded that Spain will not allow her Guarda Costas to abuse that right." To so much purpose had tlia blood and treasure of England been lavished for nine years. No attempt was made to define the limits of the French and English territories in North America, or to settle the meaning of illicit trade with the Spanish colonies in South America. The unfunded debt was upwards of five millions and a half. Ee?tri/ Smith. As Henry Smith's works are little known, I cite some few passages to justify my assertion as to his eloquence. Of course it must be recollected that in those days it was usual for a clergyman of the English Churcli, even if he were a dean or a canon, to believe in tlie inspiration of tlie Old and New Testaments. " Who would have said that Jerusalem would have become an harlot — that the chosen people should become the most cursed upon tlie earth ? Yet so it is, saith Paul ; thus and thus have they done, and thus hath God forsaken them. Who would have thought" (and then follows a rapid enumeration of the sins of Noah, Lot, David, Solomon). "The strong men are fallen: the lights of the world fell like the stars of heaven. These tall cedars, strong oaks, fair pillars lie in the dust, whose tops glittered in the air, that they which think they stand may take heed lest they fall. Can I look upon these rains without compassion, can I remember tlrem without fear, unless I be a reprobate, and a heart of flint? Who am I, that I should stand, when these cedars are blown to the ground, and showed themselves but men ? The best man is but a. man, the worst are worse than beasts. They which had greater gifts than we, they which had deeper roots than we, they which have had stronger hearts than we, they which had more props than we, are fallen like a bird that is weary of her fliglit, and turned back in the twinkling of an eye. . . . Sometime, I may say, these wanted a tempter; sometime, I may say, these wanted time ; sometime, I may say, these wanted place ; sometime the tempter was present, and there wanted neitlier time nor place. But God held me back, that I should not consent; so near have we glided by sin, like a ship which strikes upon a rock and slips away, or a bird that scapes from the fowler when the net is on her. There is no salt but may lose his saltness, no wine 264: HISTOKT OF E^'GLA^'D [BOOK I. but may lose his strength, no flower but may lose his scent, no light but may be eclipsed, no beauty but may be stained, no fruit but may be blasted, no soul but may be coiTupted." Again, on Agi'ippa's " almost thou persuadest me to be a Chiiatian" : — ■'' Let U3 see what it is to be almost a Christian. Almost a Christian ia not a Christian. A Christian almost is like a woman that dieth in travail ; almost she brought forth a sou — but that ' almost ' killed the mother and the son." (A vehement enumeration follows.) " He which gives almost, gives not, but denies. He "which believes almost, believes not, but doubteth. Can the door which is almost shut keep out the tliief ? Can the cup which is almost whole hold the wine ? Can the ship which is almost sound keep out the water. The soldier wliich does but almost figlit is a, coward ; the physician which does but almost cure is a slubberer; the sei-vant which does but almost labour is a loiterer. .... If thou believest almost, thou shalt be saved almost ; as a pardon comes while the thief liangs upon the gallows, he is almost saved, but the pardon does him no good : so he wliich is almost zealous, almost righteous, which does almost love, almost believe, shall be almost saved." " Mcthinks I hear some men bid Solomon stay before he comes to ' all is vanity.' It may be that sin is vanity, and pleasure is vanity ; but shall we condemn all for sin and pleasure? What say you to beauty, whicli is Nature's dowiy, and cheera tlie eye ? Beauty is like a fair picture, take away the colour and there is notliing left- But what say j-ou to riches, whieli make men lords over tlie rest, and allow tliem to go brave, and lie soft, and fare daintily, and have wliat they list ? Kiches are like painted grapes, wliich look as though they would satisfy a man, but do not slake his hunger, nor quench his thirst. But what say you to honour, which sets a man aloft and makes the knee bow, and tlie tongue soothe, and the head stand bare, as though they were other kind of creatures above them ? Honour is like a king in a play, when his part is done his ornaments are taken from him. But what say you to profound know- ledge in deep mysteries, which makes men sought unto and called deep clerks and great doctoi-s ? Knowledge is like the letters which Uriah carried against himself. What say you to long lite, which causes a man to see his children's children, and makes him reverent before the people? Long life is like a long night when a man cannot sleep ; so age is wearisome with sickness and strives with itself because it cannot walk, nor talk, nor hear, nor see, nor taste, nor sleep, as it was wont, therefore wishes often the night were gone that the pain were past. Siiow me the light which will not darken. Show me the flowc:r that will not fade. Show me the fruit that will not corrupt. Show me the garment which will not wear. Show me the beauty which will not wither. Show me the strength which will not weaken. Show me the time which will not pass — and I wiU recall that all is vanity." BOOK II. BOOK II. CHAPTER I. EEIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD. The reign of George the Third began and ended in the intoxication of success, and the festal blaze of victory. But if at its outset and its close the political firmament was bright with glory, during the greater part of the intermediate time it was over- cast with clouds and beset with darkness. From the first resignation of the elder Pitt — excepting the short and wonderfully prosperous interval, from 1783 to 1792, when his son, with an enlightened wisdom beyond his era, seized upon and for the first time applied to the public service the maxims of political economy developed among English readers in the great work of Adam Smith — it was a scene of gloom, confusion, and discontent. A mighty empire lost by folly in the West, another won by fraud and violence in the East ;— the Church 268 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK 11. returning to its intolerant and servile doctrines ; — the law, rescued for a short time by Lord Mans- field from the gripe of attorneys, and made less revolting to sense and justice, but speedily restored by his successors lo the old anarchy of chicane and chance ;— the metropolis of England for four days delivered into the hands of a furious rabble, masking the purposes of robbers and incendiaries under the colour of religious zeal ; — a war undertaken in the spirit of the Crusades, to put down opinion by the sword ; — triumphs by sea, calamities by land ; — a son of England squandering the blood of her soldiers, dishonouring the flag that had waved at Blenheim and Ramilies, and chased into the sea by the foes she expected him to destroy ; — the fabric of public credit rocking and reeling from its founda- tions; — taxes increased, not only beyond example, but beyond what the wildest paroxysms of a dis- tempered fancy could have imagined that the nation would endure ; — the transition from an agricultural to a merely commercial and manufacturing people becoming every year more strongly marked ; — the old, frank, out-spoken vices of a plain, manly gene- ration exchanged for those of priests and courtiers, for superstition and hypocrisy ; — the decay of taste and literature ; — the ursuit of material interests and the study of physical science gradually super- seding every other object ; — classical studies at the CnAP.l.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 269 university, which had so long buoyed up, refined, and animated the heavy, rough, and sluggish English nature, degraded into a mechanical trick and drudgery, compared with which the routine of a shop is liberal — useless to those who did not submit to it ; ruinous, as the tone of thought among us at this hour too clearly proves, to those who did ;^ — all sense of things moral and intellectual rapidly diminishing; — mutiny in our fleet, revolt in our dependencies ; — the crimes and ill-success that sullied the cause of freedom abroad used as an argument to fortify all that was oppressive and illiberal at home; — the senate, adorned for almost half a century by an eloquence which, if it did not take from corruption all its evil, obliged it to conceal much of its deformity, gradually stripped, as doctrines which Elliot and Hampden never knew prevailed, of its ancient spirit ; — the intellect em- ployed in public life dwindling, till mediocrity or servility the most abject, sheltering and atoning for talent, were almost the sole passport to high station in Church or State ;— prerogative judges, unjustifiable prosecutions, iniquitous verdicts, cruel sentences ; — one noble measure, the abolition of the slave trade, ' E.g. See the new rules for the regulation of Oxford, worthy of the supposed authors of the " Epistola obscuroium virorum." Attila could have suggested nothing more favourable to " cramming," better calculated to stifle every gleam of taste ami original genius, or — as I suppose the commissionera intended — " To mako one mighty Dunciad of the land." 270 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK 11. carried by great and generous ministers, notwith- standing the bitter hostility and vile intrigues of low- minded time-servers and of a monarch steeled against pity, and deaf to eloquence; — rebellion in Ireland provoked by oppression/ and avenged by cruelties to which the scalping-knife was hardly wanting;^ — an union with that country purchased by corruption^ more sickening than any that has been recorded since the last days of the Eoman Kepublic; — two attempts of the Commons to punish great and notorious delinquents baffled in the House of Lords; — the crash of falling thrones in India welcomed with delight by those who were carrying on a bloody war in Europe for prescriptive right and established domination ; — in social life (nor let this be thought below the notice of the historian, as it illustrates the degradation and evil manners of the time) men and ' See Burke's recently published conespondence, (Works, letter, date 1796, ed. 1852), especially vol. ii. p. 325 : — " The Catholics finding themselves outlawed by the Government, which has not only employed the arm of abused authority against them, but the violence of lawless insurrection." And his comment on the practice of flogging Catholic soldiera because they refused to attend Pro- testant worship: — "You remember with what indignation I heard of the scoarging of the soldier at Carrick, for adhering to his religious opinions." — Letter, Dec, 1796, p. 347. " Whenever a hostile spirit on the part of Govern- ment is shown, the question assumes another form." " A man lashed to church against his conscience." — Ibid., p. 349. ^ Besides half hanging, a common punishment, hot pitch caps (I have heard this on conclusive authority) were put on the heads of the Irish peasants suspected of rebellion, and suddenly torn off. Probably scalping would have been more merciful. ' See " Cornwallis's Memoire." CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE HI, 271 women of the highest birth encouraging, by abject submission, the amazing insolence of a frivolous, illiterate upstart, the son of a menial, and edu- cated to be a menial himself; — profligacy (closely resembling that in the time of the Regent Orleans, and not, as that was, mitigated by wit, spirit, taste, or gentleness) encouraged by the example of the heir-apparent to the throne, and by two of his brethren — one of whom supported his mistress by allowing her to sell commissions in the army ; the other of whom, afterwards a king actually resisted by his subjects, Germans though they were, did not in this country escape the imputation of the blackest and foulest crimes ; — little manliness of character, little independence of thought ; — metaphysics, the queen of sciences, the mistress and architect of the materials out of which the adamantine basis of morality must be constructed, absolutely unknown ; — the most grovelling motives insisted upon in a text book for youth as the only sure support of virtue ;^ — the pursuit of wealth almost the only remaining indication that any power of thought remained among us ; — deference to rank, authority, and riches, carried by men of liberal education and gentle blood to a pitch almost incredible ; — expeditions^ so ill contrived and ill conducted as to revive 1 Paley's " Moral and Political Pliilosophy. • Waloheren. 272 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK 11. the memory of that to the Isle of Rhe, to bathe England in tears, and cover her councils and her arms with ridicule ; — a piratical attack on a weak, but high-minded and valiant nation/ sanctioned by the House of Commons, and vindicated by flippant gibes and venal eloquence ; — and at last, the country saved in spite of the folly of our rulers, not only by the incomparable valour of our soldiers and the military genius of a great captain, but by the judicial madness which, when the measure of his crimes was full, precipitated a mighty conqueror to destruction, and avenged the wrongs of prostyate Europe. Such are the characters presented by the history of England during the long reign of George the Third. The most humiliating period of that reign, and, indeed, of English story since the time of Henry the Eighth — the period when the tone and habit of the public mind was most vulgar and degraded, when the higher classes were most contemptible, the middle most obsequious, and the feelings of the lower blackest and most ulcerated — the period com- pared with which the present age is almost great, and certainly respectable — is the regency of that son whom George the Third hated with more than a stepmother's hate, with a hate exceeding that of the Electress Sophia for George the First, that of George 1 Capture of the Danish Fleet. CHAP, i.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 273 the First for George the Second, and even that of George the Second for Frederick Prince of Wales ; and who, to George the Third's disregard of truth, added the vices which that monarch had won the favour of conventional and domestic England by- eschewing (unless he had some purpose in view which libertines could assist) with the most unfor- giving and ostentatious animosity. The object of George the Third was to make his will as absolute in England as that of any German prince was over the boors and servile nobles in his dominions. Everything was to be drawn to his personal favour and inclination : ministers were not to look to the House of Commons, nor the House of Commons to the people — every tie of social affection and public trust was to be dissolved — parties were to be broken up — the great families were to be stripped, not only of the influence derived from the abilities and virtues of their representatives, but of that which property must always command in a free country. Nothing was to stand between the Crown and the populace. The Eockinghams, Grenvilles, Bedfords, Saviles, were to be reduced, so far as political authority was concerned, to the condition to which the nobles of Castile had been brought by Ximenes, and the French aristocracy by the third monarch of the house of Bourbon. The smile and favour of the sovereign were in the eighteenth T 274 HISTORY OF EKGLAND [BOOK II. century to be the sole object to wMch an English gentleman, however ancient his lineage, however great his possessions, however splendid his abilities, however numerous his titles to the love and venera- tion of his countrymen, should aspire. They were to stand in lieu of all other qualifications : with them Bute, or Sandwich, or Barrington — a minion, a knave, a parasite — were to be omnipotent ; with- out them Pitt, G-renville, Rockingham, Savile — probity, knowledge, station, genius — were to be ciphers. The king was to interfere directly and per- sonally in all the affairs of government, from the highest to the lowest and most minute detail of office — from the choice of a prime minister to the appointment of an architect. Even Louis the Four- teenth, in the height of his power, had been kept somewhat in check by the dread of public opinion, and of the sneers of a keen-eyed and sarcastic race/ but in England, where duller men, rolling without respite in the mire of practical life, were hardened against wit and opinion, and looked only to what they could see, and touch, and count, — to the letter of the law, and the distribution of wealth and 1 It is evident from St. Simon, that murmurs and criticisms were heard at Versailles, and even at Marli, and that "La garde qui veille aux barriferes du Louvre" eould no more save Louis the Fourteenth from the polished weapon of French irony in his life, than it could protect him against death. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 275 power, — the sovereign, if he could once emancipate himself from the control of the aristocracy — I use the word in its widest sense — if he could succeed in re- conciling the ends of arbitrary power to the forms of a free constitution, had no such restraint to apprehend. He would have no more to fear from gibes and epi- grams than Amurath or Aurungzebe. But let me not be unjust. If (xeorge the Third had quite succeeded in this object, England would have had no reason to dread a repetition of the injuries she bore under the Tudors, and did not bear under the Stuarts : men's lives and properties, the honour of their wives and daughters, so far as the monarch was concerned, would have been safe. He would have been able at the end of his reign, like the Jewish prophet, to have called on those whom he had ruled to witness whose ox or whose ass he had taken, or whom he had defrauded — and he would have obeyed the law. He would neither have exacted a hundred pallets from a great lady, as the price of an interview with her husband, like King John ; nor have flung members of parliament into prison for their votes and speeches, like Charles the First; nor have murdered them by bills of attainder, like Henry the Eighth. George the Third would not have imitated the debauchery of Augustus of Saxony, nor have allowed a courtezan to choose his min- isters and generals, like Louis the Fifteenth; nor T 2 276 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. would he have run about the streets of his capital beating respectable women with his cane, like the father of Frederick the Great. The earnings of the labourer and the tradesman would not have been squandered on harlots, and men as infamous as har- lots ; but (and in no very lavish measure) on para- sites, hypocrites, and dunces. He would have con- tented himself with exacting strict and absolute submission to his wishes in Church and State. He would have been satisfied if he could have excluded every glimmering of light from the moral horizon of England ; if he could have guarded himself against the danger of admitting to his councils any man of greater abilities than his own ; if he could have dis- posed of every place of importance in the kingdom to a series of beings like Lord Bute and Lord Sid- mouth, and have brought this island to be the Groshen of lords of the bed-chamber and maids of honour— a flat, monotonous level of German servitude and repose. If he suffocated all political speculation, he would have promoted agriculture. If to inquire into the nature and destiny of the soul would have been perilous, investigations into irrational matter, into acids and alkalis, and the habits of molluscse, topics in no way likely to cherish any love of inde- pendence, would have been secure, and perhaps en- couraged. The example he gave of temperance was to the last hour of his rational life a public blessing. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 277 Though, treading in the steps of his race, he was an unkind father, he was a faithful husband. The English pardoned much when they saw the virtues they most appreciate on the throne. About treaties, and wars, about the comparative merits of North and Shelburne, of Pitt and Fox, they differed widely ; but all grave and sober men agreed in paying a sincere and dutiful homage to the virtues which are the especial boast of England, and to which whatever is good among us is to be ascribed. They looked with terror on the unredeemed profligacy of the Prince of Wales ; and on the dissipation — the result of a bad example and early habits — which obscured, though it could not stain, the generous nature and marvellous abilities of Charles Fox;^ they forgot Lord Bute and the Princess Dowager ; they forgot the king's intrigues and the American war ; they cared not at all for the wrongs and sufferings of India; they stood by the minister he had chosen. In short, the besetting sin of George the Third was that which his nature and education made it hardly possible for him to avoid. Aristocracy, whether of wealth, of learning, of genius, or of station, was in his eyes a crime which the most implicit obedience, and servility the most abject, could hardly expiate, and which, if it deviated into a single indication of ' " His delights Were dolphin like — they showed Iiis back above Tlie element they lived in." 278 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. independence, awakened in his narrow mind an antipathy that circumstances might oblige him for a time to conceal, but that no lapse of time, and no services, however great, could obliterate. There are, as the greatest of political writers^ has told us, two elements which it ought to be the paramount object of him who aims at absolute authority to ex- tinguish — high spirit and mutual trust. The war which George the Third waged against them was implacable, and, as many a sad page of our annals shows, only too successful. His hatred was in pro- portion to the abilities of its object ; it was like that of Napoleon for Tacitus, and of Louis the Four- teenth for Fenelon. To conclude, the virtues of George the Third would have made a private man respectable, but he had no single quality that could make the king of a free people glorious. It would, however, be unjust to attribute to George the Third all the evil consequences of the system he adopted. A detestable education, and the influence of a corrupted, dissembling woman, bent on power and greedy of money, had developed much that was evil, and in no way tended to fortify what was good, in a character that it must have required no common skill to refine, and incessant attention to ameliorate. Fenelon himself would hardly have been adequate to such a task ; much less were Stone and the ' fpovtijia Ti Kai 7rioTi£. — Akistotle, xoX. v. 11. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 279 Princess Dowager equal to it, even if they had endeavoured to correct defects that, on the contrary, they did their utmost to exasperate. It is evident that George the Third had been early and carefully taught the lesson which had proved fatal to the House of Stuart, and which at one time was on the point of being destructive to himself. Lord Harcourt, his governor, a courtier, but not without a sense of honour, resigned rather than witness M'hat " he found himself unable to prevent." When Lord Harcourt was asked by the minister to assign the cause of his resignation, he replied that the reason was " too delicate to mention to any but the king himself," clearly pointing out the mother as the cause of the evil that he complained of. That mother, the Princess Dowager, was, in the opinion of all, high and low, of the best informed contem- porary writers, as well as of the populace, before and after her husband's death./ the mistress of Lord Bute. To him she sacrificed, if some writers are to be believed, at least one rival.^ To him she certainly sacrificed her reputation, and, what she valued more. 1 " Frederick Prince of Wales used to say Bute was a fine showy man, who would malce an excellent ambassador in a court where there was no business. Such was his Royal Highness's opinion of the noble lord's political abilities ; but the sagacity of the Princess Dowager has discovered other accomplishments, of wliich the prince, her husband, may not have been perhaps the most competent judge." — Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 38. 2 Walpole writes, " Lord Talbot is made an earl (this happened under Bute's 280 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK 11. her wealth. In order to strengthen her ascendancy over her eldest son, whom she despised, she ex- cluded him as much as possible from all society, while she carefully instilled into his mind the arbitrary notions which were exemplified in the petty courts of Germany, and which were in specu- lation the cherished maxims of her paramour. These were the seeds sown, which fell on a most congenial soil, and soon sprang up into a bitter harvest. No such prognostications, however, clouded the accession of G-eorge the Third to the throne, which influence). The comments on this extraordinary promotion are a little licen- tious, but as I am not commentator enough to wrap them up in Latin, I shall leave them to future expounders." . . . . " Lord Talbot is Lord Steward, My Lady Talbot, I suppose, would have found no charms in Cardinal Mazarin." . . . . " The rest of the changes which have less mystery I shall reduce to a catalogue." — Letter, March 17, 1761. See " Glover's Memoirs." " The putting Lord Talbot into the Duke of Rutland's place is believed to be the work of the Princess of Wales, of whom they speak with too much liberty." — Translation of the Spanish Ambassador in London's Letter to WalpoU, March 27, 1761, Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 106. " But a phenomenon that for some time occasioned more speculation than even the credit of the favourite, was the staff of Lord Steward being put into the hands of Lord Talbot, with the addition of an earldom. As neither gravity, rank, interest, abilities, nor morals could be adduced to countenance this strange exaltation, no wonder it caused very unfavourable comments. This lord was better known as a boxer and man of pleasure than in the light of a states- man. The Duchess of had been publicly divorced from her lord on his account, and was not the only woman of fashion who lived openly with him as his mistress. ... No wonder the promotion of such a man, in a reign that advertised piety, strengthened the suspicions already entertained of the sincerity of the court." — Walpole, George TIL, vol. i. p. 47. "The sober and conscientious part of mankind doubted, &c., nor were they much edified by rumours of a- less serious nature, whicli were now universally credited." — Character of George the Third, Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 53; CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 281 had "become at last the undisputed inheritance of his race. All parties hastened to pay their homage to their youthful sovereign. The Whigs saw in his peaceful succession the triumph of the principles which they were willing to believe inseparable from the reign of a prince of the House of Brunswick. The Tories, long excluded from office, and strangers to the court, readily seized on the occasion to put aside ancient animosities, and, under the shelter of hereditary right, to recognise the fourth descendant and the third monarch of the line to which the nation had determined to submit. The Earl of Litchfield,' Sir "Walter Bagot, and the principal Tories, went to court. Representatives of families whose names had not been heard at St. James's since the days when Harley and St. John stood aloof from each other in the presence of Queen Anne, and when in her ante- chamber Swift, irritable and gloomy, brooding over the approaching ruin of his hopes and the downfall of his party, scarcely deigned to receive the homage which the noblest of the noble and the fairest of the fair crowded round the poor and low-born master of a pen that weighed down the sword of Marlborough, to bestow. These auspicious omens were, however, but of short duration. In spite of the enthusiastic 1 " I called upon at eight to go to the cockpit, where we found such a crowd, especially of the old Tories, that with much difficulty we got up stairs.' Rockingham Memoirs. 282 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. loyalty which hailed the advent of G-eorge the Third to the throne of England, many signs soon began to portend a dark and stormy reign. The sky soon became full of evil prognostics. In conformity with the doctrines which he had imbibed George the Third exhibited, and indeed proclaimed, a settled purpose to annihilate every species of influence but that which* depended on his own power, and to give the mere will of the sovereign that influence which it had been the great object of the Eevolution .to destroy. That offices which immediately concern the common weal shall not be filled by the mere will and caprice of the sovereign is the very criterion of a free government.^ Wealth, popularity, services, descent, eloquence, all these ingredients of power in free countries were now, however, to be obstacles to trust and influence, as those who possessed tham might rely on something besides court favour for their importance. The royal prerogative was to break out as from a cloud. That kings dislike all eminence,^ and that virtue is more an object of suspicion to them than vice, is an old remark ; and this truth, so confirmed by history. ' " Tutte (caliche) sono infami che un solo puo togliere e dave." — Alfieri, II Principe e le Lettere, lib. iii. c. 8. ' Mr. Burke said kings are lovers of low company. Aristotle (ttoX, lib. v. 11) said, XSovripb^iXov i) Tvpavvlg Ko\aRtv6fiivoi yap xa/poviriv. And what accounts for the favour shown to the Sandwiches and Eigbys ? xP'?"™' "^ •jrovrjpoi tig T&, Trovrjpa, CHAP. 1,] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE HI. 283 was never more exemplified than during tlie reign of George the Third. He hated Lord Chatham ; he detested Charles Fox ; he disliked the second Pitt ; he could not endure Lord Grrenville. Eeally super- stitious, and professing the most extreme devotion, the most profligate libertines of the age, if they could be subservient to his views — such as the Duke of Queensberry, Lord Pembroke, Lord Talbot, George Selwyn, Sir Francis Dashwood, Lord Sandwich, and Henry Fox — were welcome to him ; while for George Grenville and the first Pitt, men whose character in private life was blameless, and who were moreover eminent for unaffected piety, he cherished an antipathy that overcame even his carefully cultivated powers of habitual dissimulation. The scheme of establishing his power on the ruins of our constitu- tion, and of making himself as absolute as Charles the Second wished to be, and for a time was — a scheme which, in fact, if kings could commit treason, was treason against the common weal — George the Third steadily and systematically acted upon ; and if he was compelled in some emergencies apparently to abandon it, he never for a moment lost the thought of it in his heart. Trained from his cradle to deceit, and very indifferent to truth, he made use of specious commonplaces to mislead those around him, and to give faith in his support to the very ministers whom it was his dearest wish and fixed 284 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. resolution to overthrow. The first words uttered by him after he was king of England were an appropriate prologue to his reign. They were a falsehood. He was riding when the signal of his grandfather's death, agreed upon between him and some menial at the palace, was conveyed to him. Turning his horse's head towards Kew, he said to his groom, " I say this horse is lame, and 1 forbid you to say the contrary." He was • still unmarried. George the Second, from wise and benevolent motives, had been anxious to see his heir married before his death, and with that view had proposed the hand of a princess of Brunswick, Wolfenbuttle, a beautiful and highly accomplished lady, to his grandson. The Princess Dowager, however, true to her system, and determined that her son should have no wife but of her choosing, interfered successfully to thwart this project. Lord Waldegrave's remark on this transaction deserves to be quoted, as well from its intrinsic value, and as it shows the notoriety of the relation in which Lord Bute stood to the Princess (the cause of so many calamities to this country'-), as because it has care- fully been kept back by the optimists who have under- taken to write the history of this humiliating epoch of English story : for these reasons, notwithstanding ' " Fuit ante Helenam," is Lord Chesterfield's pithy comment on Lord Bute's power. CHAP. 1.] DURING TIIE,EEIGN OF GEOEGE III. 285 the familiar tone in which it is written, it ought to find a place in the text of the narrative. " Here," that is, in sending for the Prince of Wales on occasion of the proposed marriage, " his Majesty was guilty of a very capital mistake ; instead of sending for the Prince he should have spoken firmly to the mother, — told her that as she governed her son she should be answerable for his conduct ; that he would overlook what had past and treat her like a friend, if she behaved in a proper manner ; but, on the other hand, if either herself, her son, or any person connected with them, should give any future disturbance, she should expect no quarter. He might then have ended his admonition by whis- pering a word in her ear that would have made her tremble." Before the ashes of George the Second were cold,^ two circumstances disclosed the spirit and policy of his successor : one, the favour shown to Lord George Sackville, a strict friend of Lord Bute's, who had dishonoured the English name at Minden, and was, at the close of the last reign, in a state of just and complete disgrace ; the other, the terms of the speech, and the minister by whom it was prepared. The first act of the king had been to put Lord Bute 1 " I never wish to see again such a scene of deBtraction and ruin laid by faction before the ashes of the late king were cold. I mean, by the servants of the Crown combining with the new influences to subvert the then system." — W. Fitt, Chatham Correspondence, vol ii. p. 360. 286 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. in tlie cabinet.^ The speech was drawn by him without any assistance from the other advisers of the Crown, and spoke with a purpose not to be mistaken of a bloody and expensive war, and of obtaining a just and honourable peace. In this state it was delivered to his colleagues, and it was not till after an argument of three hours with Lord Bute that Mr. Pitt succeeded in changing the words so far as not to cast a direct censure on his policy. Mr. Pitt must have been destitute of all penetration if he had not discovered the spirit and complexion of the new reign. He went to Newcastle, and urged him to make common cause against the favourite. Newcastle, impatient to shake off the yoke of Pitt's, imposing genius, with his usual baseness and pusillanimous cunning refused to take this course ; and thus George the Third was almost enabled to establish royal power at once on the ruins of English honour and prosperity. Newcastle, indeed, affected a wish to retire from public life ; but a few words, of course, from George the Third, whose schemes — though Newcastle's ultimate removal from office was essential to them — were not yet mature, induced him to remain and to drag his unrespected age through courts and antechambers, till he Was finally pushed off the stage by his insolent and ^ Nobody could have blamed his being made a Privy Councillor, which ecme writers defund at great length. CHAP, 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III, 287 successful rival. Much has been said of the ex- pression inserted in the speech, and alluding to the fact that, unlike his father and grandfather, George the Third was born within the precincts of this island. But no notice that I recollect has been taken of the scandalously servile reply — the result, no doubt, of Lord Bute's dictation — made to the speech by the House of Lords. "What a lustre does it cast upon the name of Briton when you. Sir, are pleased to esteem it among your glories." Strange language for a powerful aristocracy in a free country, still reckoning Howard, Berkeley, Somerset, Nevile, Seymour, Cavendish, Stanley among its technically noble ; Bagot, Harcourt, Wrot- tesley, Bering, Shirley, Oourtenay among its un- ennobled members ! Stranger still, for the country- men of Shakespeare and Hampden, of Ealeigh, Blake, and Marlborough, of Edward the Third, Elizabeth, and Cromwell, to use to an ignorant, dishonest, obstinate, narrow-minded boy, at that very moment the tool of an adulteress and her para- mour ! Such was the lesson of our judicial and ghostly teachers — of Neale and Laud, of Finch and Fleming. Yery different from that which Athens was taught by Solon, and Sparta by Lycurgus. So positively servile, in spite of all that laws and institu- tions can do, is the Teutonic genius, and so true is the remark of Mr. Burke, that he must have observed 288 HISTORY OF ENGLAND LBOOK II. little of manners who does not know that peers are too apt, forgetful of their proper dignity, to run headlong into an abject servitude. A measure was passed in the king's first Parlia- ment which has been the fraitful topic of ridiculous adulation. The judges at this time held their offices on good behaviour, or until the demise of the Crown. George the Third recommended that they should hold their offices though the king should die — a proposal by which, after the first days of his reign, he sacrificed not the smallest amount of patronage. This, however, was magnified by servile courtiers and venal writers, into the merit of having made the judges independent. By such unmeaning phraseology is the English public invariably misled. It never stops to inquire into the meaning of an established phrase, but perseveres in repeating the sound that has become familiar to it from one gene- ration to another. A stronger example of this propensity can hardly be found than the instance I have quoted. Nothing of importance was trans- acted this session, beyond fixing the supplies and the civil list. The supplies amounted to what was then considered the enormous sum of ^9,616,119 ; The civil list was fixed at ^0800,000 a year, a pro- vision that soon became inadequate to the clandestine purposes of George the Third, and for the purchase of the mercenary dependants, on the support of whom his CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 289 unconstitutional proceedings obliged him to depend. After these votes Parliament was dissolved. Before the new Parliament had met, the veil, thin as it was, held over the purposes of the court, had been rent away.^ A plan which had been suggested by Lord Bute to his satellite Dodington,^ and from which even that type of all that was politically base recoiled, was finally acted upon. Lord Holdernesse, the Secretary, was ordered to affect a quarrel and to resign. He retired with a large pension, and the reversion of the wardenship of the Cinque Ports, as the price of his Oriental docility. Lord Bute succeeded to his office. Another measure equally marked the ascendancy of the favourite, and the implacable nature of the king. Mr. Legge, the ablest financial minister of the day, was contumaciously ' As to the intrigues of Lord Bute, see " Dodington's Diary," especially Nov. 22, Dec. 20, and Jan. 2. " Lord Bute came and said he was sure the ministry had some idea of getting off our system, by setting up that of abandoning Hanover, and of supplying the money to distress France into a peace ; that they would, by their popularity, force this measure on the king. . . . For my part, I think they (the ministers) will continue the war as long as tliey can, and keep in, when it is over, as long as they can — and that will be as long as they please, if they are suffered to make peace. All which can never end well for the king and Lord Bute. W^e agreed upon getting runners, and to settle what he would disperse." " " Lord Bute came to me by appointment, and stayed a great while. I pressed him much to take the Seoretaiy's office, and provide otherwise for Lord Holdernesse. He hesitated, and then said if that was the only difficulty it could easily be removed, for Lord Holdernesse was ready at his desire to quarrel with his fellow ministers, . . and go to the king, and throw up, in seeming anger ; and then he (Bute) might come in without seeming to displace anybody. I own the expedient did not please m6."-^Dodington's Diary, Nov. 29. 290 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II, dismissed from office in revenge for his refusal during ttie last reign to do an act which would have made him infamous. He was ordered to withdraw from the friends who had brought him forward as candidate for Hampshire, and to transfer his family- interest to a cousin of Lord Bute's. This he refused to do, and in consequence his place was now vindic- tively taken away, with every circumstance—includ- ing a speech of Greorge the Third's, which no well- bred man would have made to his servant — that could aggravate such a mortification. He was succeeded by Lord Barrington, from whom no mark of spirit or independence was to be apprehended. Charles Townshend was appointed Secretary of War. Pitt was treated with marked neglect. On the very day of the new king's accession he had spoken to Lord Bute in language as dignified as it was sincere. He told the shallow upstart in plain terms that his advancement to the management of the affairs of the country would not be for his Majesty's service.^ Greorge the Third was determined to get rid of a man so intractable at all events.^ Pitt saw this clearly, and he saw that his great and noble scheme for recovering the oppor- tunity flung away at the Peace of Utrecht by the corruption and wickedness of Queen Anne's Jacobite ' " Eocbingham Memoirs," vol. i. p. 150. 2 Even Bute said " the king went too fast." These are the Dake of Newcastlt's words — " Turno tempus erit." — Ibid., p. 29. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE KEIGN OF GEOEGE HI. 291 ministers, and of circumscribing the power of France within such limits as might render her less formid- able to the tranquillity of Europe, was at an end. Negociations for a separate peace had been entered upon soon after the close of the last campaign, and it was intended that a separate treaty between France and England should supersede that by which matters in difference on the Continent were to be adjusted. With this view M. de Bussy had been accredited to the court of London, and Mr. Stanley to that of Versailles. The general congress was to be held at Augsburg. But before the preliminary discussions of the treaty between France and England had closed, Mr. Pitt inflicted a signal humiliation upon France by the capture of Belleisle. The scheme had been concerted before the death of the late ting, and the policy of George the Third and Lord Bute could not blight this enterprise. The conquest, much to the vexation of the English court, was achieved by Commodore Keppel and Major- General Hodgson ; and thus a security was provided for the recovery of Minorca, which it was beyond the reach of ordinary corruption and incapacity to destroy. The exultation at this success was great through- out the land, and the prospect of a peace dictated by this country to her humbled foe immediate. When unable to counteract the mischievous policy of the u2 292 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. court, or to struggle any longer against Lord Bute's ascendancy, Mr. Pitt retired from office. The cause of this resignation was as honourable to himself as it was disgraceful to his colleagues. In order to understand his conduct it will be necessary to turn our eyes for a short time from domestic politics, and to take a view of the relations between the courts of Versailles and of Madrid. On the 25th March, 1761, it had been agreed that a congress should be held at Augsburg. The French proposals had been sent to London, and the counter declarations of Prussia and of England to Paris. It had been agreed as a preliminary that the question of America should be treated between France and England as exclusively their own — a masterpiece of policy, which shows that Mr. Pitt's genius for diplomacy was equal to his great qualities as a minister of war. England,^ victorious in America, with such a man at the head of her councils, backed by a nation confident in her strength and aspiring to still more splendid triumphs, must, it was clear, give the law to France, driven out of the New World, on the verge of bankruptcy, and governed by a minister like Choiseul, certainly not destitute of talent and capacity, but careless, petulant, and fond of pleasure. Therefore, after having agreed to the cession of ' La Fuente, " Historia General de Espaua," Parte III. 1, viii., vol. xx. c. ii. f 37, CHAr. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE III. 293 Canada, of Senegal, and of Goree, the cabinet of Versailles underwent the mortification of finding her offers haughtily rejected by Great Britain (May, 1761). Choiseul in this extremity turned his eyes to Spain. On the death of his brother, Ferdinand the Sixth (August, 1759), Charles the Third,^ an excellent man, who deserves a much higher praise than that of the best and most amiable of European rulers in the century during which he lived, had left the throne of Naples to fill that of Spain. To the English nation, ever since their Admiral,^ under the threat of bombarding Naples, had obliged him within an hour to agree to a strict neutrality in the contest then going on between the English and his brother, he bore a deep antipathy. It grieved his generous and sensitive nature to see the English carrying on a contraband trade with the Indies, taking possession of the Spanish territories on the coast of Honduras, excluding the Spaniards from the right of fishing on Newfoundland, and firmly estab- lished in one of the strongest fortresses in their own peninsula. Moreover he was proud of his lineage, deeply attached to the French branch of the great Bourbon race, and had shown on all occasions a strong interest in their prosperity. Choiseul took advantage of these inclinations to engage the Spanish ' At Naples he was Charles the Seventh. ' 20th August, 1742. La Fuente, " Historia," vol. xix. p, 199. 294 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK If; monarcli.in his cause. In vain the Marquis Tanucci,^ his former minister at Naples, and Masones de Lima, his ambassador at Paris, endeavoured to resist the bias of his disposition. The perpetual entreaties of the French minister, pointing out the misfortunes of his country, the danger to which the unbalanced strength of England must expose all the maritime powers, and the glory that the House of Bourbon must acquire by combining to resist these arrogant enemies, triumphed over all their representations. The Marquis of Grimaldi was accordingly sent minister to Paris. A secret en- gagement, the forerunner of the famous family compact, was entered into between "Wall, the Spanish minister, and Ohoiseul ; and the latter, by mixing artfully the demands of Spain with those of France in the negociation then going on in London, bound up Spain indissolubly with the cause of France. Thus the French minister's pretended advances to peace, were, in fact, nothing but means for a new war. In conformity with this scheme Bussy pre- sented a memorial to Mr. Pitt, enforcing the claims of the King of Spain on England. They were three : the restoration of some Spanish ships, seized for carrying contraband goods ; the right of fishing in Newfoundland ; and the demolition of the English forts in Honduras Bay. If England refused to ' La Fuente, " Hist. Gen. cle Espaua," Parte IH. 1. viii., vol. xx. o. ii. p. 43. CHAP. 1.] DUEINQ THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 295 satisfy Spain on all or any of these points, and Spain should in consequence declare war against England, the French king, said Bussy, would think himself bound to assist his Catholic Majesty. To exaggerate the insolence of such a proceeding was impossible. It was without precedent in diplomatic history. A power with which we were at peace enforces its claims by the support of a power with which we were actually at war. It did not require the pride and genius of Mr. Pitt, but simply the feelings of a minister not utterly callous to the honour of his country, to resent so gross a provoca- tion. Mr. Pitt immediately returned the paper, and not content with demanding in his turn the absolute cession of Canada, Senegal, and Goree, the restora- tion of all the French conquests in the Indies and in Europe, the demolition of Dunkirk, and the imme- diate evacuation of Nieuport, Ostend, and the King of Prussia's territories, he sternly told the French envoy that he must not presume to intermeddle in the disputes between Spain and England. Spain had already interfered in behalf of France. It was evident to the great commoner that the two branches of the House of Bourbon were about to join in a common cause.^ Private intelligence corroborated ' Thus when the French propositions for peace were made, France was sure of the assistance of Spain, and determined to carry on the war. Conceal, wrote Clioiseul to Bussy, till the last moment, our alliance with Spain — " II ne fallait 296 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II" his suspicions. He took his resolution with charac- teristic energy and promptitude. He insisted that a fleet of twelve or fourteen ships should be sent at once to Cadiz. That Lord Bristol, our minister in Spain, should require a direct disavowal of Bussy's conduct from the Spanish minister, and an immediate explanation of the armaments preparing in the Spanish ports, and if he failed in obtaining an ex- plicit answer to his demands, that he should quit Spain without delay. He recalled Hans Stanley, and dismissed Bussy. He assembled the cabinet, laid before them the communication he had received, and urged the necessity of striking a blow at once by declaring war against Spain, before her galleons had entered her harbours, and before her prepara- tions were complete. He placed a daring and well- pas donner une alanne pr^maturde a I'Angleterre et I'avertir indiscr^tement de se tenir sur ses gardes centre la declaration de guerre de L'Espagne, qu'il faut au contraire disait M. de Choiseul dissimuler d'autant plus qu'elle sera plus prochaine." — Flassan, Hist, de la Vipl. Franfaise, vol. vi. p. 40G. This was the scheme against which Pitt had to fight, and which, so far as it depended on him he baffled, but which Lord Bute enabled to succeed. The King of Spain said to Tanucci, " Si Pitt quiere romper — rompa — ^y era asi que Pitt, queria romper porque Pitt habia traslucido la convencion secrefa cntre los gabinetes de Madrid y Versalles, ... la subita retirada de Pitt per- mitio a Espaiia alquier respire y le dib tiempo para prepararse." — La Fuente, vol. XX. p. 44. ' Pitt communicated what he knew to Bute, Sept. 2. Stanley wrote saying he had seen an article drawn up between France and Spain. — Ch. Corr., vol. ii. p. 140. August 13, Grimaldi wrote, " The fear of our court, which is not ill-founded, is for the fleet. They want to gain time till she is arrived at Cadiz." — Ibid., p. 143. " 1 have seen," says Stanley, " some of De Bussy's letters ; he knows more than he ought." — Ibid,, p. 141, CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 297 considered plan of operations before the cabinet. But his efforts were in vain. The treacherous New- castle, the wrong-headed Bedford, the pettifogging Hardwicke, Grenville, now in his decrepitude, played the game of Bute and the Princess Dowager. At three separate councils he endeavoured to inspire his colleagues with his own ardour, and at the third, finding his brother-in-law. Lord Temple, the only supporter of his measures, he flung up his ofiBce, declaring that he would no longer be responsible for measures that he was not allowed to direct^ — language that has been censured for arrogance, but that was strictly constitutional in the mouth of a Secretary of State, thwarted by his colleagues in a most important measure, concerning exclusively his own. department, and meaning only that it is the duty of a minister who differs with the rest of the cabinet on any question admitting of no compromise, to resign. In the meantime the King of Spain had 1 As Lord Temple truly says, " It waa a difference of opinion in a capital measure relative to Spain." — Qrenville Papers, vol. i. p. 404, Jenkinson writes, " In the council to-day Mr. Pitt declared his resolution to resign. He did it in ajs calm a manner as he was able, and said that he would not continue a minister of the king's without having the direction of his affairs. He thanked the old ministry for their civility to him ; seeming by that particularly to except Lord B." — Ibid., p. 391. The sycophant adds, " Thank God, he (Lord Bute) is quite calm on the occasion." Lord Bute himself calls Grenville " dear George" in his letters, twice ; says he sent him out of town, foreseeing what would happen ; and proceeds, " I own to you so impossible have I found it to go on, for some time past, with any hopes of success, that I should have thought it necessary for our sovereign to go with the new ministiy, though untried, inexperienced men; but," &c. 298 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK If. assured Choiseul that the only motive for his delay ia making common cause with France was his anxiety for the fleet of the Indies,^ which was not expected at Cadiz till the beginning of October. Twelve ships of war had been sent from different ports of Spain on different pretexts, but in reality to serve as a convoy to the galleons. Lord Bristol, in conformity with his instructions from Mr. Pitt, had informed the court of Madrid that the interference of France could in no way serve to adjust the matters in difference between Spain and England. That as to the fishery in Newfoundland, no con- cession whatever could be made, but that on the other points of dispute, there would be little difficulty in coming to an accommodation ; at the same time, Lord Bristol demanded an explanation of the extra- ordinary measures in the ports of Spain : whether Spain was about to contract any new league with France; and a distinct answer to the question whether the King of Spain recognised the proceed- ing of Bussy. The answers of Spain were at first evasive. But at length Wall told the English ambassador that Bussy had presented the memorial, with the full sanction of his master the King of Spain ; that he adhered fully to the demands that it contained ; and that with reference to the union of France and Spain, no third power had the right ' Flassan, " Histoiio do la Diplomatie Fian9aise," torn. vi. p. 314. CUAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 299 to prevent the two monarchs of the Hoase of Bourbon from giving each other mutual proofs of amity and good will. This firm and dignified reply- was followed by the signature of the family compact, the great triumph of Choiseul, on the 25th August, 1762, but which, if it proved his dexterity, bore testimony still more convincing and irresistible to the penetration and genius of the great English minister. The basis of the treaty was a league offensive and defensive between the two crowns against all enemies. It was stipulated that the interests of both nations should be considered as if they were not two, but one. That no proposition of peace should be received unless with the consent of both parties ; and that the treaty should extend to the other two rulers of the House of Bourbon, the King of Naples and the Duke of Parma. " It is difiScult to say," remarks a competent and well-informed con- temporary, speaking of Mr. Pitt's resignation, "which exulted most — France, Spain, or Lord Bute — at this event." In the meantime the king gave a proof of his blind deference to his mother's wishes, which took all men by surprise. While every thought was occupied by the negociation, the Privy Council was suddenly summoned to hear the king announce his intended marriage with the Princess Charlotte of Mecklen- burgh Strelitz, which soon afterwards took place. 300 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. Colonel Grrasme/ a notorious Jacobite agent, had been sent to different states in Germany, to discover among the little states of that enslaved country some Princess whose appearance, disposition, and under- standing would be to the mother of her future husband a complete guarantee against any dread of the loss of her ascendancy. For this purpose a better choice could hardly have been made. The new queen was chaste; but if to watch over the education of her children and to promote their happiness be any part of a woman's duty, she has little claims to the praises that have been so lavishly bestowed upon her as the model of domestic virtue. Her religion was displayed in the scrupulous ob- servance of external forms. Repulsive in her aspect, grovelling in her instincts, sordid in her habits ; steeped- from the cradle in the stupid pride which was the atmosphere of her stolid and most insig- nificant race ; inexorably severe to those who yielded to temptations from which she was protected, not more by her situation and the vigilance of those around her, than by the extreme homeliness of her person; bigoted, avaricious, unamiable to brutality, she added dulness and gloom even to the English court. The marriage was precipitated to prevent ' David Hume said to him, "I congratulate you, Colonel Grseme, on having exchanged the dangerous employment ot making kings, for the more luorativo one of making queens." CHAP. 1.] DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE III. 301 George the Third from again soliciting the hand of a lady of a sweet and generous temper/ one of the noblest and most beautiful of his subjects, who, by a lot the reverse of that which attended the royal bride, became the mother of a distinguished, high- minded, and intellectual race — especially illustrious for two highly gifted men, in whose destiny it was, both by the pen and the sword, by the qualities which fit men to lead in war and to rule in peace, by heroic courage and commanding genius, to exalt the fame and extend the dominion of their proud but not very grateful country. Before this event happened. Parliament had met, and after a just tribute to the merit of Mr. Onslow, who had filled the chair of the House for thirty- three years with an unblemished reputation, elected, under the auspices of Lord Bute, a gentleman of amiable manners and blameless life, but almost entirely recommended by his Tory principles — Sir John Oust — as Speaker.^ Mr. Pitt, on whom all eyes were turned, rose to speak on the address in answer to the speech, which declared the fixed resolution of the king to carry on the war in the most effectual manner for the advantage of the kingdom, and to maintain the good faith and honour of the Orown, by adhering firmly to our engagements with our allies, ' Lady Sarah Lennox. ' It had been offered to Mr. Prowse, who refused it. 302 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK 11. and to persevere until our enemies should yield to the equitable conditions of an honourable peace. Mr. Pitt's speech, guarded and temperate, was yet in the tone of suppressed alarm and indignation, which not only the treatment of himself, but all he had seen of the proceedings of George the Third and his advisers, could hardly fail to inspire. As his Majesty had adopted sentiments contrary to his own, he could hardly wish, he said, that the bulk of the nation should be on his side. The probability was that he was himself in error. Nothing as yet disclosed to the House proved the motives on which his advice for an immediate war with Spain was founded. He hoped the post would not depart with- out one word from ministers in favour of carrying on the war in Germany. How could they advise vigour in the speech from the throne, and yet be silent when vigorous measures were assailed. He had been robbed of his sleep for many days, and should be robbed of his honour if the troops were recalled from Glermany. The war in Germany pre- vented invasion. The way to peace was not to lessen our exertions. England was equal to both wars, the American and the German ; if carried on, nothing but conquest would follow ; but if we abandoned our allies, God would abandon us. Were we to lose the fruit of our efforts which we had spent a hundred millions to obtain, rather than spend CHAP. 1.] DURING THE BEIGN OF GEORGE HI. 303 twelve more ? The man who could give such advice ■was only fit to stand behind a counter. America had been conquered in Germany. Prince Ferdinand had been the saviour of Europe, and had shattered the military power of France. It was not from what had been said against the German war, but from what had not been said for it, that he augured ill for England. Government, he hoped, would in time lay open the proceedings of Spain. Let Parliament see the whflle negociation, let them see his patience and long-suffering. He had stated his opinion in writing lest false whispers, from those who ought to be above such underhand malice, might prejudice him in the eyes of his countrymen. From delicacy rather than positive duty, he would not divulge what had passed ; nay, he would persuade gentlemen not to be too fastidious in their criticisms on the treasury and the budget. As to the fisheries (Beckford had dwelt on this point), he had been overborne by numbers. He and Lord Temple would have made exclusive fisheries the sine qua non of peace. Were the nego- ciation to commence, he would stand for exclusive fisheries, nor sheath the sword till they were given up. Then, with a slight remark upon a verbal communi- cation from Fuentes, the Spanish ambassador, of which he said, " I did not much attend to it ; I said T had written to Lord Bristol and would let it rest there," — the great orator sat down. To this speech 304 HISTOKY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II, no answer was delivered. Mr. G-renville said a few words, wliicli were soon refuted by the event, as to the pacific intentions of Spain. The address passed without a negative. The queen's dowry was voted ; so were the supplies for the current year, amounting to ^618,000,000, ^12,000,000 of which were raised by annuities, chargeable on the sinking fund, and Parliament was adjourned. In the interview with the king, when Mr. Pitt resigned the seals of office, he was unable to resist the royal artifice and blandishments by which he was assailed; the plan which had been carefully contrived for his ruin was well-nigh successful. The orator who had triumphed over corruption in the days of Young and Dodington, the statesman whose name was a spell which paralysed the enemies of England, was unmanned by his emotions at a few civil words uttered by the royal hypocrite, who, as he well knew, had sacrificed him and the renown of the country he had made so great, to an unworthy favourite. Well would it be for the fame of Mr. Pitt if the words he then uttered could be blotted out of our records, and if the event by which they were followed could be consigned to forgetfulness. But it is the duty of the historian to relate the failings as well as the virtues, the unworthy as well as the noble actions, of the very few who deserve the name of great. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE 111. 305 After the king, acting at tlie special and earnest instigation of his mother and Lord Bute, had, in order to destroy his popularity, made Mr. Pitt an offer of rewards and titles, he burst into tears. " I confess, Sire," he said, " I had but too much reason to expect your Majesty's displeasure ; I did not come prepared for this exceeding goodness. Pardon me. Sire, it oppresses — it overpowers me." Perhaps English history 'does not exhibit a spectacle more mortifying to a lover of his country, than William Pitt weeping because a little money and a tawdry title had been offered to him, at the feet of George the Third. We do not read that Demosthenes wept, though ^schines says he was confused, in the presence of Philip, or Cicero in that of C^sar. Yet the Englishman approached far more nearly to these illustrious men than George the Third to their antagonists ; and the blow which the English monarch levelled at the reputation of the man he feared and hated was far more deadly, as it was more insidious, than any which they had the opportunity to inflict. Pitt fell into the snare, accepted a pension of £3,000 a year for himself, and a title for his wife. The object of the court was gained, and Bute hastened to proclaim his triumph. The very next night's Gazette that announced Pitt's resigna- tion, announced also, by a notice without precedent, the price for which he had been induced to blemish X 306 HISTORY OP ENGLAND [BOOK II. a reputation, up to that unhappy moment, without a stain. Yet even this error could not overthrow the affection of the English for their darling minister. There was a violent burst of indignation, but it soon subsided. Pitt wrote a haughty letter to Beckford/ which had a prodigious effect ; it appeared in the Pullic Ledger — three thousand copies of it sold before noon. " The City," says the hardened Rigby, •' is all fire and flame. Mr. Pitt's letter has brought back all his old friends." The designs of the court and the incapacity of ministers were indeed so apparent, that all men's eyes turned again in anxiety and distress to the quarter where they had so often and never vainly been directed. When Mr. Pitt, a few weeks after his resignation, went to the Guildhall on the Lord Mayor's day, he was welcomed with every mark of enthusiastic admiration. Lord Bute narrowly escaped destruction from the hatred of the people,^ and the king and queen were almost un- noticed — a lesson pregnant with instruction, had George the Third been capable of turning such a warning to account. The wretched Duke of New- 1 "Chatham Correspondence," vol. ii. p. 158. 2 See " Nuthall's Letter," vol. ii. p. 166. Speaking of the meeting of Parlia- ment, Nov. 25, 1762, a writer says, " Such a mob was perhaps never seen in our time betwixt Charing Cross and Westminster Hall. . . . Lord Bute was insulted both going and coming from the House ; and in the evening some soldiers were called in to support the constables " — Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 194. CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III, 307 castle had been deliglited with the success of the intrigue which removed Mr. Pitt from office;^ but he soon found that he had little reason for exultation. True to his nature, the Earl of Bute, now declared First Minister, heaped upon the old man every mark of insult and contempt. The seals of Mr. Pitt's ofQce were given to Lord Egremont, son of the cele- brated Sir "W. Wyndham ; and George Grenville — who had married Lord Egremont's sister — the brother of Lord Temple, and brother-in-law of Mr. Pitt, was, with the post of Secretary of State, appointed the new leader of the House of Commons. Plodding and methodical, versed in all the forms of the House,'^ possessed of great knowledge of busi- ' " I never saw the duke in higher spirits than after Pitt had given notice of resignation." — Sir E. Colebrooke, quoted by Sir Denis Le Marchant in a note to Walpole's Memoirs of Oeorge III. Lord Talbot advised the duke not to die of pleasure on the Monday, nor of fright on the Tuesday, Oct. 7, 1761. See the duke's letter to Mr. Grenville, " Grenville Papers," vol. i. p. 393. " I must see Lord Bute before I see the king, as I hope the gi'eat affair will be settled, and that I shall receive the king's orders to prepare the insti-uments this morning." At this veiy moment Lord Bute was describing the wretched creature to Mr. Grenville as " a crazy old man, deserving immediate punishment." — Ibid. p. 395. "Detail of Newcastle's conduct in last reign — odious in his (Bute's) opinion." — Ibid., p. 396. " Had certain information that Newcastle would resign when called upon ; thought it better to let the old man tide over a year or two of political life." This letter was taken to Mr. Grenville by one of Lord Bute's agents, Mr. Elliott, who had ordera after he had read it to Mr. Grenville to take it back again, which he did ; " but Mr. Grenville made Mrs. Grenville set down the heads of it immediately, which he repeated to her." —Ibid., p. 412. ' " Mr. Grenville is universally able in the whole business of the House, and, after Mr. Murray and Mr, Fox, is undoubtedly one of the best parliament men in the House." — Pitfa Letter to Newcastle, Chatham Correspondenoe, vol. _i. p. lOS. 308 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. ness, and considerable talent for debate, writing the sound idiomatic English, of which so few traces now remain, with vigour and perspicuity, Mr. Grenville was in many respects qualified for such a task. His pride was great, and his ambition ardent. Terrified, perhaps, by what he considered the reck- less profusion of public money by Mr. Pitt, dazzled certainly by the lure held out to him by Lord Bute, he accepted office, lending himself to the intrigues of the court, of which he soon became the victim, and abandoning his own connections — an injury which Mr. Pitt never forgave, and which was long resented with great bitterness by Lord Temple, and the other members of his family. The intrigues by which this state of things was brought about deserve the attention of the reader, not only because they fling light upon the future events of this disastrous reign, but because they clearly prove the character of those by whom the youthful sovereign was governed. The web had been elaborately ravelled. No one at the accession of George the Third supposed that Mr. Grenville could ever be brought into rivalry with Mr. Pitt. But he was carefully sought out by Lord Bute for the express purpose of weakening that minister's influence, and of establishing a precedent for breaking up all that was solid and respectable in party con- nection. The agent of Lord Bute in this intrigue CHAP. 1.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE HI. 309 was Mr. Charles Jenkinson, afterwards Earl of Liverpool, who was originally employed still more disgracefully in that which his patron carried on with the Princess Dowager, and thereby laid the foundations of his fortune. A more pliant instru- ment, a man better fitted to prosper by dark under- hand intrigue, or to keep up a back-stairs' influence, and to list a mercenary body together under the name of king's friends, against the government, could not, even in that period, have been selected. Accord- ingly, in the recently published volumes,^ which are so important as a clue to the labyrinth of these double and triple intrigues, we find Jenkinson a busy agent. He expresses his regret at the success of our great ally the King of Prussia. He flings out in- sinuations against Mr. Pitt. He declares himself "in love" with Lord Bute. Another very striking circum- stance, as it shows how completely George the Third could throw aside, when it suited his purpose, all the religious and moral scruples of which he con- tinually made such a parade, is Lord Bute's declara- tion as to Mr. Fox. That politician's name having been mentioned by Mr. Grenville as that of a person whom it had been thought important, rather by others than himself, to secure in the league against Mr, Pitt, Lord Bute declared that the king's aversion to so wicked a man was insurmountable, and desired 1 The " Grenville Papers." The editor's work is admirably well done. 310 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND IBOOK ]I. that his name might never be mentioned in the hearing of the pious monarch. In less than six months from this time we find George the Third, in the pursuit of his single object — the removal of every man from power, independent from station, abilities, or integrity — endeavouring to supplant Lord Egre- mont, and to give Mr. Fox his place ; and assigning a reason which might have enabled the great French dramatist to add a line to his inimitable picture of a finished hypocrite — " We must have bad men to govern bad men." CHAP. 2.1 DUElNa THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 311 CHAPTER II. The change of ministers was no sooner known tlian the tone of the Spanish court was altered.^ The pacific assurances^ which for awhile had imposed upon Lord Bristol were exchanged for peremptory- demands of reparation. All explanation of the treaty between Spain and France was haughtily refused. The ambassadors were recalled by their respective courts, and a declaration of war was published nearly at the same time by the courts of London and Madrid.* ■ LaFuenteeays the answers of the Spanish minister, Wall, seemed no longer those of the same man. " No pareoian de aquel mismo hombre." — Hist. Gen. Espana, vol. xx. p. 46. " So Jenkinson (he being the echo of Bute) writes to Mr. Granville ; " I just now read a despatch from Lord Bristol, which gave me the greatest pleasure. I think I see in it an appearance of good humour and good faith, and an overture made for terminating our disputes with Spain, consistent with our honour and our interest." The letter is dated Oct. 22, 1761. ' La Fuente gives Charles the Third's declaration of war, vol. xx. p. 19. In it is this sentence : — " El gobierno Ingles no conoce otra ley, quo la do su engrandeoimiento por tierra y su despotismo por mar." La Fuente says the new ministers " EUoa mismos se vicron en la necessidad de seguir la politica del ministro caido, que asi volvib a engrandecerse en la opinion y a aoreditaise de previsor y perspicaz." — P. 45. 312 HISTOBT OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. Bat the opportunity of intercepting the Spanish galleons had been lost.^ Mr. Pitt's triumph was complete. The pusillanimous courtiers by whom he had been displaced were obliged to adopt the very measures they had at first refused to sanction, at a time when a great part of the advantage which might have resulted from it had passed away. As a proof of the baseness that predominated in our councils, it is on record that the Duke of Bedford actually proposed we should abandon our heroic ally, the King of Prussia, to instant destruc- tion, by withdrawing our troops from his army. This was at the moment too shocking even for Lord Bute to sanction. But, though fear of public opinion, induced him to resist this scandalous motion, he founded his resistance to the proposal, however, on grounds not connected with the substantial merits of the question, and made it evident that Frederick could no longer rely on the support of England. From that hour,^ the King of Prussia thought and ' " I have now good reason to believe that Spain will declare war to U8 — that is, that it will very soon, if it has not already, assist France, in case the war continues. This will be a great triumph to Mr. Pitt, and fully justify his plan of beginning with Spain first, and having the first blow, which is often half tlie battle." — Chestebpield, p. 21. Nov., 1761. The stocks fell to 664 ! they had never been lower than 72 even in 1745. ^ Jenkinson, more siio, liints at the intended treachery. " I thinlc," he writes to Mr. Grenville, " when you return to town you will find a change of sentiment (!) with regard to continental measures, and I think we begin to turn our thoughts seriously towards putting an end to that burden" — i.e. towards betraying our ally. — Grenville Papers, vol. i. p. 440. April 13, 1762. CHAP, 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOUGE III. 313 spoke of his alliance with England in terms of the most unmitigated scorn ; and when we in our turn, in our hour of trial and distress, endeavoured to secure the co-operation of Prussia, our overtures were slighted for those of the despotic ruler of a semi-barbarous country, and the friendship of Russia was preferred to that of England by the victim of Lord Bute's and George the Third's perfidy. Such was the effect of this almost unexampled baseness. And England, left alone to encounter France, Spain, and her own colonies, expiated the crime of Greorge the Third's favourite by repeated disasters, and humilia- tion, which, since the expulsion of the Stuarts, she had never known. But the session passed without any vote of the usual subsidy to Frederick the Gi-reat, engaged in a war almost desperate, and en- tangled with difficulties which nothing but amazing genius, exertions incredible, and a marvellous turn of fortune in his favour at the very moment when his destruction appeared inevitable, could have enabled him to overcome. At the moment when Lord Bute determined to abandon Frederick, his condition was apparently desperate.' His army had now crumbled away to • His armies had fought, since the close of 1756, nineteen pitched battles ; of these he had lost eleven, and been victorious in eight. Seven out of the eight victories had been won by himself in person; of the eleven defeats he had been present only at three. His reverses had been sometimes terrible, but his recoveries had been almost miraculous. 314 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK 11. sixty thousand men, half of whom were under his own command in Silesia, and the other half under his brother Henry arrayed against Daun. Schweid- nitz, the stronghold of Silesia, had been taken by the Austrians, Colberg by the Russians, and he had lost a large portion of Saxony. Frederick was hemmed in between the Russians in Pomerania, and the Austrians in Silesia. The French, under Broglio and Soubise, were indeed driven back at Kirchden- kern,^ but this was far from being an adequate com- pensation for the long train of calamities that had followed each other during this year. All his resources were exhausted, — England refused all further subsidies. The loss of Prussia itself ap- peared inevitable ; when the sudden death of his implacable enemy, the Empress Elizabeth,^ and the succession of his ardent and passionate admirer, Peter the Third, to the throne of Russia, rescued him from the perils by which he was encompassed, and enabled him once more to bid defiance to his enemies. The first act of Peter's reign was, on the very evening of Elizabeth's death, to acquaint Frederick with his accession. He then released, clothed, and sent back to Frederick all the Prussian prisoners. Money was distributed by his orders in Pomerania to all the inhabitants of Pomerania who ' On this occasion a high compliment was paid to the valour of a Scottish regiment by Prince Ferdinand. 2 gjij January, 1762. CHAP. 2.] DURmG THE HEIGN OF GEOEGE HI. 315 had suffered by the depredations of the Russian army. Seed was given to the husbandmen, and his army was ordered to obey the Prussian monarch. This change in Russian policy produced a similar change in the disposition of the Swedes. On the same day that the peace between Prussia and Russia was proclaimed at Berlin, the peace between Sweden and Prussia w^s signed at Hamburgh. But the fulness of this prosperity was of short duration. Before Peter's orders could be executed, before the fortresses had been evacuated which he had ordered to be given up, and while the different detachments were yet in motion, intelligence arrived that Peter had been murdered by his wife, who, though she recalled the orders for immediate hostilities with Prussia, which — under an erroneous impression that Frederick had urged her husband to take measures against her — she had at first issued, resolved to keep within the bounds of an exact neutrality. That such a woman should have been praised by men of letters and philosophers is one of the most frightful proofs of the tone of moral feeling in Europe during the eighteenth century, and o'f the condition to which the Gothic governments had brought mankind.^ The Czarina Elizabeth, brutal as ' Casti, in the " Poema Tartaro," has described the conrt of Knssia at this period. The English reader wiU find a picture of the habits of Mr. Burke'a correspondent, and D'Alembert's patroness, in Spenser's " Fairy Queen," book. iii. canto 7, stanza 50- 316 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [BOOK II, her habits were, and though she wallowed in orgies too scandalous for history to describe, was not steeled against all mercy, and did not, like Catharine, take the murderers of her husband to her bed. Yet not only did Voltaire, and Diderot, and D'Alembert praise the unsexed Catharine, but Burke, in his frantic hatred of the Eevolution, condescended to address her — who had not only committed assassina- tion after assassination, but, without a pretext or shadow of a ground of war, had deluged Warsaw with the blood of its inhabitants — in terms of respect and veneration, as a main support of social order and morality. This respite, however, enabled Frederick to storm the Austrian position at Burkersdorf, and to recover the strong fortress of Schweidnitz. Shortly after- wards Prince Henry defeated the Austrian General Stolberg at Freiberg. Kleist spread terror and dis- may by his ravages up to the gates of Eatisbon ; and Glatz was the only remaining conquest in the hands of Austria, when negociations were entered upon between Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great, amid wasted provinces, and ruined cities, and a population decimated by famine, fire, and sword. In England, parties now consisted of that headed by Mr. Pitt — of great weight in the country, but little strength in the House of Commons ; of that headed by the Duke of Newcastle — of great CHAP. 2.] DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE III. 317 strength in the House of Commons, but little weight in the country ; of that of Fox, and of that of Rigbj, and the followers of the Duke of Bedford, including the most grossly profligate politicians of that grossly flagitious age. Worn out by repeated insults from the favourite, the Duke of Newcastle, who had betrayed everybody else, found himself the dupe of his own treachery, and retired from office.^ When, under provocations even to him intolerable, he faltered out a threat of resignation, he was, much to his surprise, taken at his word,^and on the 26th May, 1762, the Gazette announced that the king had been pleased to appoint the Earl of Bute to the office of First Lord of the Treasury. Among those who hastened to abandon the fallen minister the prelates set the most conspicuous example of ingratitude. There were not three bishops on the bench who did not owe their mitres to Newcastle. Mtoy had been raised by him from obscurity and indigence to the rank and enormous wealth which our Church, treading in the steps of Rome, has deemed it con- ' See hia complaints, recorded by Kigby, " Bedford Correspondence," vol. ii. p. 425, " that the Whigs were given up ;" " that he could bear it no longer." Public orders were sent to the dock-men to vote as they pleased. Private ordera were given them to vote for Stuart, against the Duke of New- castle's candidate. " Lord Bute," said the duke, " is sole dictator." — Rockingham Memoirs, p. 86. " Is it possible," he exclaims, " for me to go on with this man? Was ever any man in my station treated with so nmch slight and contempt '? " ^ " The king did not drop one word of concern at my leaving him, nor even made mo a polite compliment, after fifty years' service and devotion to the royal family."— iiiA, p. 112. 318 HISTOET OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. formable to apostolic precept and example to confer on men whose especial function it ought to be to place before the eyes of other men models of humility and self-denial. After his fall one bishop only attended his levee — Cornwallis of Lichfield, a man whose birth would have ensured his promotion, and who, therefore, was not so much indebted to the minister as those whom his patronage alone had lifted from the dust to inhabit palaces and sit in the House of Lords : they followed the star of prefer- ment, hoping that wherever it might stop it would point out the shortest road to Lambeth, and crowded the cockpit, where the new favourite held his levee. George Grenville succeeded to the ofiBce Lord Bute had quitted of Secretary of State; and, as a crowning proof of the favourite's omnipotence, Sir Francis Dashwood, equally known for the wildest dissoluteness of manners, his attachment to Tory doctrines, and utter ignorance of the rudiments of public business, was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. Another act of Lord Bute's showed that the love of power, which he was without capacity to wield, was in him subservient to the most childish vanity, for he took the vacant garter, and thereby not only lost the opportunity of obliging some nobleman as frivolously eager for such a bauble as himself, but aggravated much the load of his fast increasing un- CHAP. 2.] CUBING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 319 popularity. The Duke of York was the companion of his installation. Much about the same time he was made Ranger of Richmond Park/ which office was taken from the king's aunt, Princess Emily. All the honours and emoluments of the State were evidently at his disposal.^ It seemed as if the days of the caterpillars of the commonweal — of Gaveston, of De Vere, Poole, Kerr, and Villiers — were revived ; and the native insolence of the upstart, the child of a weak head and a cold heart, discovered itself in a thousand ways to the proud and powerful class, which, as our annals show — and it is not the most obscure jewel in the diadem of England's glory — had so often struck down and brought low the arrogance of kings and their undeserving minions. Symptoms of an angry feeling soon discovered themselves, and, though such ephemeral publications are generally below the notice of history, the North Briton, a weekly paper, must be mentioned, not on account of any intrinsic merit, but of its great circu- lation, and of the mischievous and foolish measures taken by ministers to destroy the author, whom they 1 Rigby writes, " Most members of the cabinet are as much afraid of differing from Lord Bute as they had been of differing from Mr. Pitt." — Bedford Corre- spondence, vol. iii. p. 57. ^ " Mrs. Ryde was here yesterday. She is acquainted with a brother of one of the yeomen of the guard, and he tells her the liing cannot live without Lord Bute ; if he goes out anywhere he stops when he comes back to ask of the yeomen of the guard if Lord Bute has come yet; and the lords look as mad as can be at it." — Countess Temple, Grenville Papers, vol ii. p. 22. Dec. 17, 1762. 320 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. thus raised from the obscurity and utter distress which would otherwise have been his inevitable lot, to wealth, and for a certain time even to reputation. The folly of government alone could have entitled so profligate a libeller as Wilkes to a name in history. His talents for composition were hardly above the average ; his knowledge was scanty and superficial ; he was bankrupt in fortune and in character. For a short time he became one of the most important men in England. A series of virulent libels appeared in the North Briton, pointed at the Earl of Bute. The names of the persons assailed were printed, for the first time, at full length.^ The loves of Queen Isabella and Mortimer were the theme of one of the earliest papers. The allusion was manifest ; but the topic was too delicate, and in spite of the law of libel as it then existed, the creation of the judges — of course, there- fore, oppressive and uncertain, and placing at the dis- posal of persons coarse and illiterate to a proverb, the power of inflicting on the most innocent and upright of mankind a savage and degrading punishment — it was not thought expedient to risk the publication of what a man so reckless and desperate as Wilkes, buoyed up by public opinion, might choose to say in ■< See passage in the Spectator, on Lady Q— p — t — 3. Pope says — "E'en Guthrie saves half Newgate by a dash." In the " Annual Register " of the day the first letter only is written — ^Loixl B., Duke of B., the K. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE lU. 321 his defence ; and it was resolved to wait for another opportunity. Wilkes was assisted by Churchill, a man of real genius, the author of satires, written, indeed, with little care, but full of masculine energy and bitter vituperation. Both these men were assisted clandestinely, and supplied with money, by Earl Temple, the elder brother of Grenville, and one of the most singular personages who took a part at that time in public affairs — laborious, well read in the history of our constitution, a frequent, and sometimes an effective speaker in the House of Lords ; regular in his habits, munificent in his gifts/ pedantic, and even brutal in his manners, fond of petty intrigue, and strangely eager for the trappings of a master whom he delighted to insult. Meanwhile, it had become necessary for England to interfere on behalf of an ancient ally, Portugal, assailed without provocation because she continued true to her engagements. France and Spain insisted that Portugal should detach herself from England,^ and put her principal ports in the possession of Spanish soldiers. To this insulting demand the 1 To George Grenville, James Grenville, and Pitt. See " Grenville CoiTe- Bpondenre." He settlud a thousand a year on Pitt. ^ " Pretender que el monarca y la cort« de Portugal no mir^ran la entrada de tropas estrangeias en su reino sin consentiraiento suyo como una invasion violenta, fuera suponerlos deposeidos de todo sentimiento de honor nacional. Pero con este conooimieuto obraban los Borbones." — La Fdente, vol, xx. p. 50. Part iii. lib. 8. 322 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. court of Portugal returned a firm, dignified, and eloquent answer; and on her refusal, war was de- clared by these powers against her. A message was delivered to the House of Commons asking for the means of defraying the expense incurred by the pro- tection of this helpless ally ; and, in spite of a disgraceful speech from Lord G-eorge Sackville, a million — the money asked — was voted. A grosser or more unequivocal disregard of right is not, until the partition of Poland, to be found in modern European history. The annals of our East Indian empire contain, it is true, in almost every page, proofs as appalling of the little effect produced by the doc- trines of Christianity on the minds of men, and of violations as flagrant of the rules by which society is held together. But in general some pretext for hostility, however flimsy, has been thought useful, at least, by those whose conduct is the subject on which the public opinion of Christendom is to be exercised. Nor should it be forgotten that the consequences of the terrible visitation at Lisbon, of the earthquake of 1755, were still felt throughout that kingdom, and that the King of Spain was the brother-in-law of the King of Portugal.^ Notwithstanding the treachery and incompetence of those who had supplanted him, the noble policy of '' Charlea the Third in his Pioclatnation, complains of the King of Portugal's " Ciega pasion a los Ingleses." — La Fuente, vol. xx. p. 53. CHAP. 2.] DUEING THE EEIQN OF GEOEGE 111. 323 Pitt bore its natural fruits. The vessel, to borrow the metaphor of Cicero, held on its way from the original impulse, though the motion of the oars had ceased. General Monckton and Admiral Rodney took Mar- tinique. Granada, St. Lucie, Tobago, and St. Vincent followed. Such was the blow dealt to the French ; that to Spain was still more serious. After a siege of two months and ten days, the Havannah,^ the key of the Spanish possessions in America, and the jewel of the Spanish Antilles,^ was taken by the Earl of Albemarle, at the head of the land forces, and Sir George Pocock. By this conquest the English gained a treasure of fifteen millions of dollars, a territory extending sixty leagues to the west, an immense quantity of maritime stores, nine ships of the line, and three frigates. Such was the blow dealt to the Spanish empire in the West. In the East, Manilla, the capital of Lugon and the Philippine Islands, capitulated to Sir W. Draper. The Aca- pulco galleon, the Santissima Trinidad, was captured, with a cargo valued at three millions of dollars, ' The Spanish Governor, Don Juan de Prado, a boasting coward, when called upon to take measures for the defence of the Havannah, which it was expected the English would attaclj, used to say, " No tendrfe yo la fortuna de que los Ingleses vengan."— La Fuente, vol. xx. p. 62. Don Luis Velasco nobly upheld the honour of the Spanish flag. He was mortally wounded in the breach. The English commanders, who admired his valour, had given special ordere to save him. The Marquis Gonzalez, a worthy rival of Velasco in his fame, also fell by a glorious death on this occasion. ° " La joya da las Antillas y la Clave de las Americas Espanolas." — La FnENTE. T 2 324 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. by a frigate of the line from Sir W, Draper's squadron ; and the Hermione, bound from Guinea to Cadiz, with a cargo still more valuable, was cap- tured off Cape St. Yincent. In spite of Lord Bote and his master, England was invincible. The Count de la Lippe Buckeburg, a soldier of great reputation, trained in the wars of Germany, who had superseded Lord Tyrawly in the command of the Portuguese troops, ably seconded by General Burgoyne, succeeded in baffling the invasion, which at first had been formidable, of the French and Spanish army in Portugal. The only compensation that Spain obtained during the war, for her repeated losses, was the conquest of the Portuguese colony of San Sacramento, by Don Pedro Ceballos, the governor of Buenos Ayres. These victories,^ which would have made an honourable peace easy, made such a peace as Lord Bute was determined to conclude more difficult. The capture of the Havannah was decisive of the war ; but we had ministers who wept for our vic- tories, and to whom our conquests were a burden.^ ' " The favourite and his creatures toolc no part in the transports of the nation. . . . He was infatuated {i.e. bribed), and breaking through all baniera of glory, he sent the Duke of Bedford to Paris to settle the preliminaries. . . . The city and merchants showed some symptoms of indignation at this alacrity for treating. The Duke of Bedford was hissed as he passed through the principal streets, and treasonable papers were dispersed in the villages round London. But in Fiance the Duke was received as their guardian angel." — ^Walpole, Oeorgelll., vol. i. p. 191. " See Eigby's letter, Wiffen, vol. ii. p. 473 ; " Bedford Correspondence," vol. iii. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE BEIGN OF GEORGE IH. 325 Negociations were conducted on our part with an anxiety for peace which it would have been impru- dent to have exhibited in the midst of the greatest disasters, and by which the French did not fail to profit, A letter is actually extant in which Lord Bute entreats the enemies of England to consent to the terms of peace before the result of the last expedition could be known, lest, if it should be successful, public feeling should oblige him to insist on more honourable terms — so entirely was all public spirit stifled among those in power. Desirous of shelter for measures that could hardly fail to provoke a hurricane of indignation. Lord Bute, through Lord Halifax, endeavoured to conciliate the Duke of New- castle. Even after his resignation, the duke had shown his anxiety for office. He had made over- tures through Lord Barrington — a fit agent for such a purpose — to Lord Bute ; but Lord Bute having delayed giving his assent to the proposal, the duke had already connected himself with the opposition, now headed by the Duke of Cumberland. He turned p. 42. " Mr. Pitt, it is plain, does govern ; and the worst of it is, he governs not only in the cabinet but in the opinion of the people. . . . Depend upon it, my lord, this is the madness of the times, and there is but one cure for it, the defeat of some of our projects. While we succeed and make conquests, the fire is constantly fanned. For my own part 1 should not be sorry to hear that the next windmill you attack should get the better of you." " Rockingham Papers," vol. i. p. 126. Lord Bute, vexed at the conquest of the Havannah. Fox says, " Had Lord Bute seen me this morning, he should have told me our enemies would not make peace ; be must now, I am afraid, say our friends could not." 326 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK 11. all his restless activity against tlie government, was urgent with all his friends to resign, and indignant with them for not at once complying with his request. Meanwhile, Lord Bute, solicitous lest the generals and admirals of England should, by other conquests, make his task of receiving the law from van- quished enemies more perilous, and his corruption (for that his hands were not clean from unlawful gain was not doubted by his contemporaries^) more manifest, despatched the obtuse and overbearing Duke of Bedford as the herald of peace to France. The Duke of Bedford was received, as Lord Boling- broke had been when, fifty-one years before, he was despatched on a similar mission, with every mark of rapture and exultation. The Dake de Nivernois — eminent for the graces, accomplishments, and amiable character which, notwithstanding their dissolute habits, distinguished so many members of the French aristocracy, and in this respect furnishing a marked contrast to the rustic habits and boisterous de- meanour of our own — represented France on this ' Thia was inferred not only from the terms of the peace, but from his pro- digious expenditure, which the fortune, though vast, that he had inherited from his father-in-law, and which was only a life estate, could not account for. See " Wilberforce's Memoirs." " I speak within compass when I assert that within the last three years he (Bute) has expended between two and three hundred thousand pounds." — Almon, vol. i. p. 328. And see Walpole's last " Memoirs of George III.," where he accounts for the little money left by the Princess Dowagei'. CUAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 327 occasion/ The preliminaries of peace were soon signed — such as the most bitter enemy of England could not, a year ago, have ventured to anticipate. By this treaty Great Britain restored to France the island of Belleisle, in Europe ; the island of Goree, in Africa ; the islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique, in the West Indies ; Pondicherry and Chandernagore in the East. The right of France, so steadily- refused by Mr. Pitt, to fish on the banks of New- foundland, and within three leagues of our coasts,^ was recognised, and the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon were ceded as a shelter for her fishermen. Havannah and the other acquisitions of England, without reserve, were given back to Spain. This was done in spite of the warm expostulations of two members of Lord Bute's cabinet,^ Mr. Grenville and Lord Egremont, who had sense to discern, and patriotic spirit to feel, but not firmness enough to resent, this wanton sacrifice of our strength. Our ' Flassan, vol vi. p. 474. ^ "I cannot doubt France will restore all the cod they shall take within les3 than three leagues of our coasts in North America — a distance easily measured, especially at sea ! " — C hesteefield, vol. iv. p. 355. ' " During the summer, when the negociation for peace was set on foot, Mr. Grenville had many struggles with Lord Bute (who feared that the negocia- tion might break off), which he was desirous to keep up higher than Lord Bute could be brought to consent to. Mr. Grenville represented strongly against the giving up Guadaloupe and Santa Lucia ; wanted to have an equivalent asked for Guadaloupe ; and insisted and prevailed to have a compensation for the Havannah. Guadaloupe was given up at an extraordinary council, called when Mr. Grenville was ill in bed, and not able to attend it." — Grenville Papers, vol. i. p. 450, 328 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. other conquests we were permitted to retain. In America we gained Canada, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, all Louisiana to the east and south-east of the Mississippi, and Florida. In the West Indies, Tobago, Dominique, St. Vincent, and G-ranada ; in Africa, Senegal and its dependencies were ceded to us. In Europe, Minorca was restored in the same condition as when it was conquered.^ It was agreed that the harbour and fortifications of Dunkirk should be demolished. In the East Indies the King of France agreed to recognise Mahommed Ali Khan as Nabob of the Carnatic, and Salabad Jung as Soubah of the Deccan;^ he renounced all acquisitions on the coast of Coromandel, and en- gaged not to erect any fortifications in the province of Bengal.^ A splendid catalogue — maimed indeed, and mutilated of its fair proportions by corrup- tion and imbecility,* but a testimony to the might of England, when wielded by a daring and patriotic minister,® that it was beyond the power of George ' " Spain also gave us the right of cutting logwood — ' palo de tinto' — sA Hon- duras, but paying for it. . . . It was our undoubted right, confirmed by former treaties, to cut logwood gratis." — Chesteefield, vol. iv. p. 355. ^ This stipulation in his favour cost Salabad Jung his life. ' Marten's " Recueil de Trait^s," torn. i. p. 33. Wenck, vol. iii. p. 270. * For proof of the Dulie of Bedford's incompetence see Lord Egremont's letter to George Grenville, " Grenville Correspondence," vol. i. * Some years afterwards, Walpole writes, " Their [i.e. the French] panic at Mr. Pitt's name is not to be described. Whenever they were impertinent, I used to drop, as by clianoe, that he would be minister in a few days, and it never failed to eilenco thoni," — Letters, vol. v. p. 6. CHAP. 2.] DUEING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 329 the Third and his accomplices altogether to de- molish/ Still, to any man who loved England, and to any one who wished the national honour to remain un- blemished, the terms of this peace must have been ' "We have by no means made so good a bargain with France ; for, in trath, what do we get by it, except Canada, with a very proper boundary of the river Mississippi, and that is all ? As for the restrictions upon the French fishery in Newfoundland, they are very well per la predica, and for the Commissary whom we sliall employ ; for he will have a good salary from hence, to see that those restrictions are complied with ; and the French will double that salary that ha may allow them all to be broken through. It is plain to me that the French fishery will be exactly what it was before the war. " The three Leeward Islands which the French yield to us, are not all together worth half so much as that of St. Lucia, which we give up to them. Senegal is not worth one quarter of Goree. The restiiotions of the French in the East Indies are as absurd and impracticable as those of Newfoundland ; and you will live to see the French trade to the East Indies just as they did before the war. But, after all I have said, the articles are as good as I expected with France, when I considered that no one single person who can-ied on this negociation on our parts was ever concerned or consulted in any negociation before. Upon the whole, then, the acquisition of Canada has cost us fourscore millions sterl- ing. I am convinced we might have kept Guadaloupe, if our negociators had known how to have gone about it." — Chesterfield's Letters, vol. iv. p. 353. " Les sujets de la France, auront la liberty de la pgche et de la sficherie sur une partie des c6te8 de la Terre Neuve . , . . Et sa Majesty B. consent de laisser aux sujets du Roi trfes Chretien la liberty de p^cher dans le Golfe Saint Laurent, 3, condition que les sujets de la France n'exercent la dite p^che qu'i la distance de trois lienes de toutes les cotes appartenantes S, la Grande Bretagne. . . . Et pour ce qui concerne la p6che hors du dit Golfe les sujets de S. M. T. C. ne I'exerceront qu'a la distance de quinze lienes desobtea de I'iele du Cap Breton. " Le Roi de la Gr. B. c6de les isles da Saint Pierre et de Miquelon en toute preprints ^ S. M. trfes Chrfitiene, pour servir d'abri aux p&heurs Franyois. " Art. 6. New Orleans et de I'isle dans laquelle elle est situ^e." By the Peace of Paris the French retained of all Louisiana only the state of New Orleans and the island on which it stands. They gave up New Scotland and Canada. The right of fishing on Newfoundland was common to them with the English. But they gave up Cape Breton, and received as a compensa- tion islands St. Pierre and Miquelon. In the West Indies they lost only 330 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. matter of bitter humiliation and regret. Great indeed was the contrast between the conduct ot defeated France to Spain, and of triumphant Eng- land to Frederick the Great. Twice in fifty years England allowed her ministers to tear the laurel from her brow, and sullied the triumphs of a glorious war by a dishonourable peace. Twice in that short period, and each time under the rule of a Tory government, she fortified her enemies and betrayed her friends. In 1712 she deserted the Catalans/ whom she had stimulated to resistance; in 1763 she abandoned the King of Prussia, whom she had obliged herself by the most solemn obliga- tions, and to whom she was bound by every tie of honour and gratitude, to support. The Duke of Bedford, as, to his great indignation, he discovered when it was too late, was throughout this scandalous transaction, a mere tool in the hands of Lord Bute. Dominica, Tobago, St. Vincent, Granada, and the Gianadines ; but in return regained Martinique and the other islands in return for Minorca. They abandoned Senegal in the East Indies, Coromandel, and Orixa — all they had acquired since 1749. They promised to keep no more troops in Bengal. Dunkirk was to be restored to the condition in which it was before the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Havannah was restored to Spain, but she ceded to England Florida and her share of Louisiana, that is, the territory to the east and south- east of the Mississippi, and renounced all right of fishery in Newfoundland. The right of log cutting in Honduras Bay was allowed to the English, but they were to destroy their fortifications. The Spanish and French troops were to evacuate Portugal. St. Sacramento was restored. ' " Esta irregular conducta de la Rcina do Inglaterra en cuyo auxilio y apoyo tanto habian eonfidado, tenia indignados k los Catalanes," &e. — La Fuente, tomo xviii. p. 356. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 331 The real negociation was clandestinely carried on by the Sardinian minister at Paris, the Bailli de Solar, through the medium of Count Viri, the Sardinian minister in London, by whom Lord Bute and his master disclosed the most secret councils of the cabinet to the French minister.^ The outlines of the peace — Lord Bute being utterly ignorant of foreign affairs — were arranged solely by Viri. For these services Viri was put on the Irish pension list, for jG1,000 yearly, under a false name.^ The trans- action recalled the worst days of Charles the Second. The peace, notwithstanding the conquests of the Havannah, and the Manillas, and the islands in the West Indies, was not more advantageous to England than that which France had offered to sign in 176L Portugal, indeed, we did not abandon ; the conquest, made by the governor of Buenos Ayres, of the colony of St. Sacramento, was restored to her, and the troops of France and Spain evacuated her territory. Towards Frederick Lord Bute acted with a consistent treachery, of which that monarch was perfectly aware. After Lord Bute had entered into a secret negociation with Austria,* the common enemy, to whom he literally offered the dominions of our ally, the first news Lord Bute received of his 1 This was done by George the Third's special direction. ' George Charles. ' Through Sir Joseph Yorke. See " Rockingham Memoira,'' vol. i. p. 94. 332 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. overtures was from Knyphausen/ the King of Prussia's minister, who showed him a copy of his own proposals, which Austria was prudent enough to reject. The antipathy of George the Third and Lord Bute for their heroic ally is especially dis- played by the article of the Treaty of Paris, which provides that England shall abandon Prussia, and France Austria, in case either power shall prolong hostilities beyond the 15th March, 1763, and that France shall at once evacuate Hanover, Hesse, Lippe, Buckeburg, but evacuate as soon as she can^ — that is retain — Wesel, Gueldres, Cleves, and generally all the territories belonging to the King of Prussia.' Lord Bute was callous enough to say, in the House of Lords, that these provinces of the King of Prussia were to be scrambled for, and the peers of England were careless enough of the national honour to listen to this statement — for which the minister ought to have lost his head — without any mark of indignation, ' Lord Bute had, in the most profligate manner, made proposals first of all to the Emperor of Eussia, then to (he Court of Vienna. " A correspondence was carried on with the Court of Petersburg, in which the minister .... said, or insinuated in verj strong terms, that we should behold with concern the late Emperor of Russia's withdrawing from the alliance, and recalling his troops from the assistance of the empress-queen ; that this country did not wish that the King of Pnissia should be aggrandised at the expense of the House of Austria, but would rather desire that power revert to its primitive Electoral State." — History of Minority, p. 52. ^ " Aassitot que faire se pouiTa." ' " Is not a general guarantee of all the King of Prussia's dominions to him infringed, by giving up his towns to the enemy ? " — History of the Minority, 1262. CHAP. 2.] DUKING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 333 or even of surprise,^ Fortunately Frederick did not stand in need of our assistance ; and when the peace of Hubertsbourg was signed, he came out of the fiery trial he had gone through unscathed, still holding Silesia in his iron grasp, without the loss of an inch of territory, and without having incurred a shilling of debt. I must add, to complete the picture, that France preserved, with the exception of Russia, all her allies, while England remained for nearly ten years after the war without one, Portugal excepted, on the continent of Europe.^ After having thus thrown away the national interest and the national honour, the next step was to secure the support of Parliament. Opposition began to assume a formidable shape. The Duke of Cumberland, the Duke of Devonshire, and the Marquis of Rockingham were leagued together. The great commoner — such he still was — stood aloof. ' Wenck, vol. iii. p. 268, contains ttiepacte de famille, twenty-eight articles. " Principe de ce traits qui attaque une couronne, attaque I'autre." ' As a proof of Lord Bute's treason to his countiy, I subjoin an extract from his letter, cited by Sclilosser, vol. ii. p. 416. Archives du Royaume Carton, K. 155. " Vous V0U8 laisseji battre, et nous ne pouvons plus faire la paix : nous n'oserons la proposer au parlenient. M. de Choiseul, d&ol^ de voir rompre la n^gociation, engage le roi a ^crire h M. de Soubise. Mon cousin, je vous ^oris la pr^seiite qu'aussilo t que vous I'aurez regue vous passiez la rivifere de Fulde, et grievous attaquiez les ennemis, sans compter surles dispositions qui vous convien- dront, et quelque soit le succfes vous n'en serez pas responsible." Choiseul adds, in a private letter, " La lettre du roi sur le mar^chal est trop formelle pour que j'ai rien k y ajouter, mais je puis vous dire que quand I'arinfie du roi seiait d^traite jusq'au dernier homme, et qu'il fut obligfi d'en lever une nouvelle, S. M. n'en serait point eftrayde." 334 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK U. but his tone towards ministers was sullen and menacing. It was requisite to find a champion. To talk of Sir Francis Dashwood's undertaking the defence of the Treaty of Paris would have been not very- polished irony. Grenville had been refractory in the cabinet, and, trained in habits of deference to Pitt, could hardly be depended upon in debate. In this crisis the court had recourse to Fox. No greater proof could be given of the straits to which it had been reduced by George the Third's extrava- gant ideas of regal power. No man had been more obnoxious to Leicester House ; no man was more detested, or with better reason,^ by the Princess Dowager. A year had not elapsed since Lord Bute had begged Mr. Grenville not to shock the king by the mention of his name. Now, however, George the Third made the discovery that bad men must be employed to govern bad men, and Grenville, who had quarrelled with his family for Lord Bute's sake, and thus, to a certain degree, put himself in ■■ He had caused the most virulent lampoons and caricatures to be written against her. See especially Walpole's account of one called the "Turnstile," a print of George the Third, then Prince of Wales. Under the figure was written — Son of a — I could say more. "Mr. Fox," says Walpole (June 1, 1757), "has found some caricaturist at least equal to George Townshend, and who manages royal personages with as little ceremony." CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 335 his power, was taught the value of court promises.^ He was abruptly and ignominiously compelled to resign the lead of the House of Commons, which was entrusted to Fox, and the seals of Secretary of State to Lord Halifax, whom he succeeded at the Admiralty. In addition to the lucrative place of Paymaster, a sinecure office was given to Mr. Fox, who became a member of the cabinet, and was in * the House of Commons the responsible minister of the Crown. He^ at once set about the purchase of the House of Commons.* The lowest bribe given was £200. The Treasury was the scene where the traffic was carried on by his emissaries. The demands of the, representatives of England were so enormous, that money was actually wanting to defray the necessary expenses of the king's household. Such was the commentary on the specious profes- sions of purity with which the new reign was ' See Lord Bute's insolent letters to him, " Grenville Papers,'' vol. i. pp. 446, 449. " The king is at the bottom of the intrigua." - "Leavingthe grandees to their ill humour, Fox directly attacked the separate members of the House of Commons, and with so little decorum on the pai-t of buyer or seller, that a shop was publicly opened at the pay office, whither the membei-s flocked and received the wages of their venality in bank bills, even to so low a sum as £200, for their votes on the Treaty. £25,000 were issued in one morning, and in a single fortnight a vast majority was purchased to approve the peace." — ^Walpole, George III., p. 199. Lord Chesterfield, in an originally omitted passage (vol. v. p. 468), " The profusion of the Civil List has been so great in buildings, undeserved pensions, and the hire of Parliament men, that I am assured the king is the poorest man in his dominions, the Civil List being now above £500,000 in debt." (July 27, 1764.) ' " Droit au solido allait Barthdl^mi ! " 336 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. ushered in. Having secured a majority of those whom he could corrupt, he hastened to take revenge on those who were beyond the reach of bribes, and promises, and intimidation. An unsparing and un- exampled proscription was let loose against all con- nections, however humble, and however remote, of those who refused to support the ministry. Neither age, nor compassion, nor respect for past services were allowed to save the victims. The helpless widow, the Custom House officer, maimed in the service of the Crown, were stripped of their little salaries. Nor was this violence confined to the weak. The Duke of Devonshire had declined Fox's invitation to support the new scheme of government in measured and respectful terms, but, unwilling, from constitutional indolence, to embarrass the government, or to make a parade of his hostility, continued to hold the office of Lord Chamberlain. On his refusal to attend a summons to the cabinet, the king sent him, through a menial, a message that would have been affronting to any one in the rank of a gentleman ; insulted him a second time when the Duke attended to resign his wand of office, and struck, with his own hand, his name out of the list of Privy Councillors, a mark of displeasure by which ' " Roclsingliam Memoirs," vol. i. p. 1D5. " I believe there never was such behaviour to the first and beat subject the king has." — Duke of Newcastle's Letter, aad p. 143, ibid. CnAP.2.1 DUEING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE III. 337 his grandfatlier had stigmatised the cowardice of Lord G-eorge Sackville and the reckless hate of Pulteney.^ This was done without the knowledge of Mr. Fox, Parliament met on the 25th November. The king was insulted on his way to Westminster, and, but for the interference of the guards, Lord Bute would have been torn to pieces by the populace. For the ferocity which they displayed, the savage criminal law, and the neglect of an opulent Church, that had never endeavoured to raise them to the level of heathens, were more to blame than the unhappy victims of a state of things tending exclusively to the benefit of the rich ; but the love of their country, the sense of shame, the honest instinct which taught them to resent the "foul scorn" that their blood and the blood of their children should have been shed in vain, — owing to the intrigues of a foreign woman and her lover, and a youth carefully ill-educated that he might be a tool in the hands of such beings, and fitted for their purposes, — was their own. Many years afterwards, when the new system had reached its height, when the eyes of the upper as well as the lower classes were at last opened to the humiliation of their country, and the provoca- 1 He (Pulteney) had published private conversations on the most important subjects. 338 HISTOHY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. tion given by tlie court to every man of high and liberal feeling had become intolerable, several young men of condition, and among them Thomas, the second son of George Grenville, eminent in after life for every quality that belongs to the character of an accomplished and fastidious gentle- man, headed, in the disguise of sailors, the mob that stormed the Admiralty in a transport of national indignation. On the 9th of December, 1763, the debate on the preliminaries took place in both Houses. Lord Hard- wicke attacked the terms of the treaty in the House of Lords, which, he truly said, notwithstanding the capture of the Havannah and of the Philippines, were worse than might have been obtained the year before. He complained also of the assiduity with which prerogative was now cried up, more than it had ever been by the most ductile parliaments. The Duke of Grafton, looking full upon Lord Bute, accused him of corruption. Lord Bute and the Chancellor Henley defended the peace, as did Lord Mansfield in a very able speech, and the prelimi- naries were approved without a division by that assembly. It was not, however, to that body, containing so many gilded baubles of a court,^ and twenty-five priests, that the eyes of those who hoped ' Lord Bute had increased the number of lords of the bedchamber from twelve to twenty- two. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE HI. 339 the lionour of England might still be saved were turned. It was on the house of which the illustrious man whose labours had been so ill requited and turned to so poor an account was a member, that expecta- tion fastened. It was uncertain whether his health would suffer him to attend ; and, in spite of a packed majority, ministers feared that a flame might be kindled in the nation which it would not be in their power to allay. They accordingly resisted a motion which would have postponed the debate by referring the preliminaries to a committee of the whole House ; and while they were endeavouring to hurry through the question, in the absence of their dreaded enemy, the venal assembly was suddenly startled by a mighty clamour. Then, amid the roar of an applaud- ing and fearfully excited multitude, the doors opened, and Mr. Pitt appeared, borne in the arms of his servants, who laid him down within the bar. By the help of his crutch, and supported by his friends, he staggered to his seat amid the affected sneers, and evident alarm, of the most callous among those who had received the hire and salary of corruption — the Jenkinsons and Eigbys, the satellites of Bute, and the companions of the Duke of Bedford. Pain and disease sat on his emaciated countenance, and it was manifest that the cruel disorder to which he had been so long a prey was making rapid strides on his constitution. At length he rose, and in a speech, z2 340 HISTOKY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. during which he was allowed the privilege of occa- sionally sitting down, and was obliged to strengthen himself with cordials, he inveighed against the treaty of Lord Bute, declaring that he came to raise his voice, his hand, his arm against the articles of a treaty which sullied the glories of the war, sur- rendered the dearest interests of the nation, and, by sacrificing our allies, inflicted an indelible stain on the public faith. He then proceeded, in a voice often languid, and interrupted by paroxysms of agony, to analyse the articles of the treaty. He said that he was anxious our king should not abuse his prosperity, and that when Mr. Stanley went first to Paris he was willing to have made peace, had France then been sincere, but she meant only to cajole us till the family compact and the preparations of Spain for supporting it were complete. He then went, at a length which the placemen called tedious, into the question of the fisheries. Before the death of the Czarina, which had changed in our favour the aspect of affairs in Grermany, — before the acquisition of Guadaloupe, the Havannah, and Pondicherry, — the Duke de Choiseul had asked for a single rock : they had now fishing vessels, a fishery in full right. He never would have granted it. He contended for the whole exclusive fishery, but was overruled, not by a foreign enemy, but by another enemy. He went through the cessions in America and Africa, CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEOEGE in. 341 and declared that he would not have agreed to any terras approaching those which had been admitted. After France had put us to the expense of fourteen additional millions, and our arms had been crowned with such splendid success, were we to be content with the same conditions ? The French have said that they must have St. Lucie as a security for Guadaloupe ; was that a reason to be given to an English Parliament ? We should have had Guada- loupe and Hispaniola. He drew a striking contrast between the noble delicacy of the French honour in obtaining everything for Spain, and our baseness in sacrificing Frederick the Great. He said he had never envied French councils till now. Their conduct was magnanimous and becoming a great people J ours was insidious, tricking, base, and treacherous. With the happiness of allusion, in which, perhaps, no English orator ever equalled him — certainly none whose speeches ai'e on record — he said we ought to have made a family compact with the King of Prussia, seizing an expression then in every one's mouth to barb his argument. There had been a time when he had seen every unsound principle disclaimed ; it was now otherwise — clouds darkened our prospect. He warned ministers to consider before it was too late that the House of Brunswick could never stand secure on any principles but those of the Revolution, or the maxims which had brought 342 nisTOET OF England [book it. them thither and given them the crown of these realms. Of the peace he thoroughly disapproved ; it was insecure, inadequate, dishonourable, and he saw in the terms of it the seeds of a future war. Mr. Fox rose to reply and Pitt immediately with- drew. The division shows the disgraceful state of the House of Commons ; three hundred and nineteen members voted in favour of the peace, and sixty- eight against it. The glories of the Seven Years' war were thus blasted by the hirelings of prerogative, and a moral injury inflicted upon England which far overbalanced all the advantages we had won. But the degradation of the country was inseparable from the unconstitutional power aimed at by the Crown, and the Princess Dowager was, unhappily for England, but too much in the right when she exclaimed, on hearing of the division, " Now my son is king." She did not add that he was king of a nation corrupted to the very core — actually sold to a foreign enemy, and soon to be dismembered by its own subjects. '' Never more," said her pupil, in the first ebulli- tion of his triumph, " shall the Whig grandees be admitted to power." Such was the royal gratitude for services which, in spite of faction and treachery, bad placed and kept the House of Brunswick on the throne of England. As a proof of this resolu- CHAP, 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 343 tion, the Dukes of Newcastle and Grafton and the Marquis of Rockingham were dismissed from the lieutenancies of their respective counties. The Duke of Devonshire, whom Fox had made a merit of saving, refused to be under any obligation to the court, and scornfully resigned the same office. Every art was used to procure addresses from cor- porations. Attempts were made to gain the city of London, but the hostility of that body to Lord Bute's system was determined and inexorable. Measures still more violent were intended. Several of the chief opponents of government, Lord Lincoln — whom Fox particularly hated — among the rest, held patent places for life. These places, whatever we may think of the policy by which such rights were con- ferred, were looked upon by the law as freeholds. It was proposed to take them from the holders. The Chancellor — a man by no means remarkable for scrupulous probity, though less corrupt than many of those who preceded, and some of those who fol- lowed him — was asked whether it might not be referred to the judges to say whether the king should not recall the patents bestowed in former reigns. Lord Northington replied, " Yes ; such a case might be sent to the judges, and then it might be referred to them to decide on Magna Charta." Sir Fletcher Norton, Solicitor-General — a man of hardened and flagitious character, the career of whom is one of the 344 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND [BOOK ir. most flagrant proofs how wide a gulf divided, in that day, the most ordinary notions of probity from professional success — actually advised that the places should be taken away at once, and then the former holders might try if the law would restore them. In spite of this advice the project was abandoned, probably because the greedy supporters of the court were reluctant to sanction a doctrine that might be turned against themselves, and to cut from under their own feet the soil that might one day bear a golden harvest. The vessel of Lord Bute's folly, however, was not yet full, and his financial measures were soon to effect what insulted nobles and national dishonour had not yet succeeded in accomplishing. A loan of three millions and a half had been negociated with such gross improvidence that the contractors realised a profit of j£350,000, much to the indignation of those competent to form a judgment on such matters, who ascribed, perhaps erroneously, the plunder of the public rather to malversation than incompe- tence.^ It was resolved to provide for the interest of the new debt by a tax on cider, to be raised by the excise — almost the very scheme which Sir R. Walpole, in the zenith of his power, had been compelled to abandon. Walpole, however, yielded 1 It was said that a sum of five figures was an impenetrable mystery to Sir Francis Dashwood, Lord Bute's Chancellor of the Exchequer. CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE UI. 345 to public opinion, of which he knew how to estimate the value. In this respect he was not imitated by the arrogant and empty being now at the head of affairs. Even if no other argument could have been urged against the measure, the gross injustice of flinging the burden of a national debt on the beverage of the lower class in a few counties ought to have been fatal to it.^ The tax was to be levied without drawback or allowance for the risks to which a commodity, exposed to many peculiar risks, and often grown at an enormous loss to the producer, is liable. The whole nation was in a flame. But to every argument save one, Lord Bute's majority was inaccessible. It was on this occasion that Mr. Pitt made one of his happiest allusions. Mr. Grenville, in defending the tax, had dwelt on the impossibility of imposing any other. " Where could I lay another tax ? I defy the right honour- able gentleman to tell me where." This he repeated several times in a queruloiis and angry voice ; when ' " History of theMinority," p. 109, shows Lord Bute was as indifferent to truth as his master. Jenkinson, Lord Bute's secretary, desired Sir James Hodges to call on Lord Bute, which Sir James did. The minister urged him to get the petition on the cider tax withdrawn. On being questioned by Lord Temple, Lord Bute absolutely denied, upon liis honour, that he had ever, directly or in- directly, promised to repeal the eider tax if the city would withdraw their petition — that the report was a factious lie. On which an inquiry took place into tho conduct of Sir James Hodges, before the City Council, who proved to llio satisfaction of all present who was the liar.— See Pari. Sist., p. 1,314, Protest on the Cide/ Bill. 346 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BOOK IF. Mr. Pitt quoted, from his bench, in a musical tone, a passage from a favourite song of the day — " Gentle shepherd, tell me where?" The measure was of course carried through the Commons, and gave rise to a violent debate in the House of Lords, where it also passed. For the first time in our history, forty-nine peers divided against a money bill. Just at this time, however, when the triumph of the minister over everything like honour, probity, and independence was complete — when it was evident there was a majority in both Houses ready to do his bidding, and a monarch on the throne who was a puppet, moving as he and the Princess Dowager pulled the wires ; when the Whigs were scattered and dismayed, divided by petty jealousies, and weakened by inces- sant desertions ; when the thunder of Mr. Pitt's eloquence rolled in vain over the benches on which sat a careless or a hostile audience ; when the people, deprived of their natural leaders, alarmed the wise and good by giving their confidence to reckless demagogues, and inclined them to overlook the worst errors of authority ; when the evil work was on the point of consummation, and everything seemed to promise success to the schemes so dear to him, — to the amazement of every one. Lord Bute, the author of the new state of things, resigned, CHAP. 2.] DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 347 leaving his master to extricate himself as he could from the labyrinth of fraud, intrigue, and peculation in which he had involved king, parliament, people, and the most precious interests of the commonwealth. Various reasons have been assigned for this pro- ceeding, by his enemies and by his friends. A philo- sophical love of retreat (as if a mind like Lord Bute's was capable of §uch an exalted motive), and a dread of the populace, have been positively insisted upon as the cause of his resignation ; but the main reason undoubtedly was terror lest the Duke of Bedford,^ who had discovered his intrigues with France, his corruption and his treachery to England, should carry his threat of moving for an impeachment into execution. The duke, with all his faults, was an honest Englishman, and when he discovered that Lord Bute had communicated his most secret instructions to Choiseul, his indignation knew no bounds. Had Lord Bute been firm, the triumph over the constitution would have been, for the time at least, complete. The hearts of Englishmen were ' This appears from the evidence of contemporaries. Lord Chesterfield says, (vol. iv. p. 411), "Duke of Bedford svveare he will have Lord Bute attaclied personally in both Houses." And "Rockingham Papers," vol. ii. p. 47:— "Duke of Bedford's most sanguine wish is that Lord Bute may show enough of his liead to lose it." " His Grace," says the second Loi'd Hardwicke, " has taken an antipatliy to Lord Bute on account of the transaction of last summer." — RocTc- ingham Memoirs, vol. i. p. 176. April, 1764. And see Dr. Musgrave's examina- tion, " Pari. Hist.," 1763. It was not till Torcy's Memoirs were publibhed that Louis the Fourteenth's offer of a bribe of four millions to the Duke of Marl- borough transpired. 348 HISTOKY OF ENGLAND [BOOK II. tainted, and the most masculine intellects of the day (Mr. Pitt excepted) were labouring in the cause of despotism. It was becoming every day more clear that court favour was the only road to power. Indifference to the constitution was increasing rapidly among the gentlemen of England. The language of the courtiers of Charles the First, between the years 1628 and the glorious year of national regeneration and revenge, 1641, was grow- ing fashionable. Lord Bute's cowardice postponed these dangers ; yet the struggle was not at an end. The phalanx of mercenaries kept together, though the leaders ran away. The accomplice who had carried his schemes into effect with so gross a disregard of private morality and public honour, withdrew at the same time from the stage he had trodden so long and so audaciously. Mr. Fox — created Lord Holland, and after a short struggle permitted to keep his sinecure, and the still more lucrative place of Paymaster — escaped from the tempest he had roused, to pass the remainder of his life in dishonoured opulence, branded with a title which had been the reward of frontless profligacy, abhorred by most of his fellow-citizens, and unable by abject humiliation to recover the favour of his former patrons.^ 1 For Fox'a unpopularity, see " Selwyn CoiTespondence," p. 269 : " I (Fox)hato London, and London hates me." And Gray's bitter lines, beginning — [Old CHAP. 2.] DURING THE EEIGK OF GEOEGE HI, 349 " Old, and abandon'd by each venal friend, Here Holland foim'd the pious resolution To smuggle a few years, in hopes to mend A broken character and constitution. " On these congenial scenes he fix'd his choice : Earl Goodwin trembled for his neighbouring sand. Here seagulls scream and cormorants rejoice, And mariners, though shipwreck'd, fear to laud," &c. " When I am in England," he writes to George Selwyn, "you are so unlike other people, I- shall see you now and then." — Selwyn CorrespondeMe, p. 210. For his attempt to conciliate the Duke of Cumberland, see " Rockingham Memoire," vol. i, p. 238. The Duke of Cumberland never again admitted Fox to his presence except at public levees. — Lord Albemarle, Rockingham Memoirs, vol. i. p. 133. 350 HISTORY OF ENGLAND [BK, II., CH. 2. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IL Comparison between the Peace of Utrecht and the Peace of Paris. Peace op Utbecht, 1713. So early as 1707 Mis. Masham en- deavoured to insinuate herself into Queen Anne's favour. Those who made their court to her talked that there was not a Jacobite now in the nation ; and that, without doubt, she would reign out peaceably her whole life ; but she need not concern herself about a German family, &o. Several pamphlets were occasionally published, all blaming the war, the ministers, the allies, &c. — particularly a piece called, " The Conduct of the Allies," which was spread with un- common industry, and found after- wards to contain the political creed of the Tory party, which all the ortho- dox friends of France embraced very readily. (Sir Robert Walpole's History of the Parliament.) The French having been defeated in eveiy engagement, resolved to sue for peace in 1710. A party, which the French had at all times found in England, consisting of those who were attached to slavish and prerogative principles, were art- fully set to work to abuse and vilify the Whig ministry and the Duke of Marlborough. Peace of Pakis, 1762. Upon the death of King George the Second (1760), Lord B , a descend- ant of the house of Stuart, who had been groom of the stole to the Prince of Wales, it is well known did intend and attempt to take the lead in the ad- ministration, as soon as the breath was out of the late king's body. Several pamphlets were occasionally publislied, all blaming the war, Mi'. Pitt, the King of Prussia, &c., par- ticularly " Considerations on the Ger- man War," written by one Israel Mauduit, which was spread with un- common industry, and found afterwards to contain the political creed of those who were endeavouring to make them- selves minister's. For which seasonable service to England (not to France we may assure ourselves), the author was in a little time rewarded with a, good place. The French having been defeated in eveiy quarter of the world, resolved to sue for peace in 1761. Several pamphlets and letters in the public papers published, abusing Mr, Pitt, the ministry, the King of Prussia, Prince Ferdinand, &c. APR] DURING THE EEIGN OF GEORGE HI. 351 Peaoe op TJTnEonT, 1713. During tlie negociationa at Gertrii- deiiberg, the insiiiceiilyaiid du|ilicity of the Fiench were discovered, by tlieir attempt to inalie a separate (not a general) peace. The Freiicli them- Bclves declared they were not anxious about the success of that negociation, as they were sure of carrying their point in England by a cliange of the ministers and measures of that court. (Tiudal, Burnot, Dr. Hare, &c.) The Earl of Sunderland dismissed (without any rea.ion assigned) from his post of Secretary of State. Every engine set to work to vilify the conduct of the Whig ministry, and even the Duke of Marlbororough's peiBonal courage, notwithstanding all his victories, called in question. In a few months after the dismission of the Secretary of State, the whole Whig ministry turned out ; all which arose purely from the influence of the favourite. First the Earl of Godol- phin, Lord Treasurer ; and next the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Steward ; and all the rest afterwards. Tories placed in their Btead. Rejoicings in France on the account. Upon these changes public credit was lower than it had ever been known. The new ministers being in the interest of France, were resolved to patch up a peace with her, upon any terms that she would agree to, without the allies. " Finding the House of Lords could not be brought to favour their designs, they (the ministry) resolved to make an experiment, that none of our princes had ventured on in former times. A Peace of Paris, 1762. Mr. Pitt rejected with disdain M. Bus.