A 1,003,993
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AMA

ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
E-PLURIBUS-UNUM
TUEBU
QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAME
CIRCUMSPICE
DA
506
ΑΙ
389
1856
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ย
1-
WORKS
OF
HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM.
SKETCHES OF STATESMEN
OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III.
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF
629
STATESMEN
WHO FLOURISHED IN
THE TIME OF GEORGE III.
BY
HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM, F.R.S.,
MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, AND OF
THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF NAPLES.
VOL. I.
LONDON AND GLASGOW:
RICHARD GRIFFIN AND COMPANY,
PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.
1858.
}
CONTENTS.
PAGE
- INTRODUCTION,
GEORGE III.,
LORD CHATHAM,
1
9
20
LORD NORTH,
49
·
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO LORD NORTH,
67
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH,
167
LORD THURLOW,
183
LORD MANSFIELD,
194
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS,
215
SIR WILLIAM GRANT,
225
MR. BURKE,
231
MR. FOX,
262
MR. PITT,
•
277
MR. SHERIDAN,
MR. WINDHAM,
MR. DUNDAS,
291
•
299
•
306
MR. ERSKINE,
MR. PERCEVAL,
314
323
LORD GRENVILLE,
MR. GRATTAN,
MR. WILBERFORCE,
330
335
•
343
•
iv
CONTENTS.
MR. CANNING,
•
PAGE
350
EFFECTS OF PARTY,
SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY,
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD,
EARL CAMDEN,
363
370
384
404
JOHN WILKEs—Demagogue Arts,
425
INDEX,
439
ร
STATESMEN
OF
THE TIME OF GEORGE III.
INTRODUCTION.
THE affairs of men, the interests and the history of
nations, the relative value of institutions as discovered
by their actual working, the merits of different systems
of policy as tried by their effects, are all very imper-
fectly examined without a thorough knowledge of the
individuals who administered the systems and pre-
sided over the management of the public concerns.
The history of empires is, indeed, the history of men,
not only of the nominal rulers of the people, but of all
the leading persons who exerted a sensible influence
over the destinies of their fellow-creatures, whether the
traces of that influence survived themselves, or, as in
the case of lesser minds, their power was confined to
their own times.
But, in another view, this kind of inquiry, this species
of record, is even more important. Not only the
world at large is thus instructed, but the character of
statesmen and rulers is improved. Examples are held
up of the faults which they "e to avoid, and of the
virtues which they are to culo te. Nor can history
ever be the school of potentates, whether on or near
the throne, unless the character and the conduct of
their predecessors be thoroughly scrutinized. This
B
2
INTRODUCTION.
task has been attempted in the following work, which
aspires, therefore, to a higher office than merely
amusing the vacant hours of the idle (the hours a little
more unemployed than the bulk of their time), and
aims at recording, for the warning or for the encou-
ragement of the great, the errors or the wisdom, the
vices or the virtues, of their predecessors. It is a well-
meant contribution, of which the merit is very humbly
rated by its author, to the fund of Useful Knowledge
as applied to the Education of those upon whose in-
formation or ignorance the fortunes of mankind in an
especial manner depend. But, how moderate soever
may be the merits of the contributor, the value of the
contribution cannot easily be estimated too highly, if,
by only stating the facts with careful accuracy, and
drawing the inferences with undeviating candour, those
who voluntarily assume the government of nations are
taught to regard their duties as paramount to their
interests, and made to learn that ignorance of their
craft is in their calling criminal, by having placed
before their eyes the examples of others-their signal
punishment to deter from vice, their glorious reward
to stimulate in well-doing. This salutary lesson will
be taught if the friends of mankind, the votaries of
duty, of peace, of freedom, be held up to veneration,
while their enemies, themselves the slaves of ambition
or avarice, and who would forge fetters for their fellow-
creatures or squander their substance or their blood,
are exhibited to the scorn and hatred of after-ages.
The chief objection to such a work, undertaken so
soon after the persons whom it undertakes to pourtray
have left this earthly scene, arises from the difficulty of
preserving strict impartiality in considering their
merits. This difficulty is not denied; its formidable
magnitude is not underrated. Even if no human feel-
ings with respect to men, between whom and our-
selves there may have existed relations of amity or of
hostility, swayed the mind; yet are we ever prone to

INTRODUCTION.
3
view through a distorting medium those whose prin-
ciples agreed with or differed from our own upon
questions still of daily occurrence of men, too, whose
party connexions united them with classes still in
existence and actively engaged in the proceedings of
the present day.
But, while this is admitted to render the attempt
difficult, it may not be found to make it hopeless. At
any rate we are placed in a choice of evils.
A post-
ponement till the day when there should be no
possibility of passion or prejudice shading the path of
the historian, may extinguish the recollections, also,
which alone can give value to his narrative. The
transfer of the work to mere strangers, who can be
animated by no feeling of a personal kind, leaves it in
hands, if not altogether incapable of performing it
satisfactorily, at least incomparably inferior in the
power of giving vivid likenesses of contemporary
statesmen. At the very least, these portraitures may
be regarded as materials for history, if not worthy of
being called historical themselves; and future penmen
may work upon them with the benefit of contemporary
testimony as to the facts, though free from the bias
which may have influenced the conclusions. The
author can only affirm, and this he does most con-
scientiously, that he has ever felt under a sacred
obligation to pursue the truth of his resemblances
without either exaggeration or concealment; that he
has written, or endeavoured to write, as if he had
lived in a remote age or country from those whose
rulers he has endeavoured to describe; and that if
any prejudices or predilections have operated upon his
mind, they have been unknown to himself. He is
quite aware that some may consider this as a very
equivocal test of his impartiality, if they do not rather
see in it an additional symptom of blind prepossession.
But he thinks the praise bestowed upon known politi-
cal adversaries, and the disapproval, admitted to be
4
INTRODUCTION.
just, of conduct frequently held by the party for whose
services to the cause of freedom he is most grateful,
will be taken as some evidence of general impartiality,
though it may not suffice to exempt him from the
charge of having sometimes unwarily fallen into the
snares that beset the path of whoever would write
contemporary annals. We may be permitted to add
the valuable and wholly unexceptionable testimony of
the surviving friends and partizans of some with
whom he widely differed, but to whose merits they
allow he has done justice.
No distinguished statesman of George III.'s time has
been omitted, except one very eminent person, Lord
Shelburne, afterwards Marquess of Lansdowne, to
whom, however, occasion has been taken of doing
some justice against the invectives of mere party
violence and misrepresentation by which he was as-
sailed. The reason of the omission has been of a
personal nature. The long and uninterrupted friend-
ship which has prevailed between the writer of these
pages and Lord Shelburne's son and representative,
both in public and private life, would have made any
account of him wear the appearance of a panegyric or
a defence of his conduct, rather than a judgment pro-
nounced on its merits. If it should be urged that a
similar reason ought to have prevented the appearance
of other articles, such as that upon Sir S. Romilly, Mr.
Horner, and Lord King, the answer is plain. Personal
friendship with those individuals themselves gave him
the means of judging for himself, and that friendship
was only another consequence of the merits which he
was called upon to describe and to extol. But in Lord
Shelburne's case, friendship for the son might have
been supposed to influence an account of the father,
who was personally unknown to the author.
It would be a very great mistake to suppose that
there is no higher object in submitting these Sketches
to the world than the gratification of curiosity respect-
INTRODUCTION.
5
10
ing eminent statesmen, or even a more important
purpose-the maintenance of a severe standard of
taste respecting Oratorical Excellence. The main
object in view has been the maintenance of a severe
standard of Public Virtue, by constantly painting
political profligacy in those hateful colours which are
natural to it, though sometimes obscured by the lustre
of talents, especially when seen through the false glare
shed by success over public crimes. To show man-
kind who are their real benefactors-to teach them
the wisdom of only exalting the friends of peace, of
freedom, and of improvement-to warn them against
the folly, so pernicious to themselves, of lavishing
their applauses upon their worst enemies, those who
disturb the tranquillity, assail the liberties, and ob-
struct the improvement of the world to reclaim
them from the yet worser habit, so nearly akin to
vicious indulgence, of palliating cruelty and fraud
committed on a large scale, by regarding the success
which has attended those foul enormities, or the
courage and the address with which they have been
perpetrated these are the views which have guided
the pen that has attempted to sketch the History of
George III.'s times, by describing the statesmen who
flourished in them. With these views a work was
begun many years ago, and interrupted by profes-
sional avocations-the history of two reigns in our
own annals, those of Harry V. and Elizabeth, deemed
glorious for the arts of war and of government, com-
manding largely the admiration of the vulgar, justly
famous for the capacity which they displayed, but
extolled upon the false assumption that foreign con-
quest is the chief glory of a nation, and that habitual
and dexterous treachery towards all mankind is the
first accomplishment of a sovereign. To relate the
story of those reigns in the language of which sound
reason prescribes the use-to express the scorn of
falsehood and the detestation of cruelty which the
6
i
INTRODUCTION.
uncorrupted feelings of our nature inspire-to call
wicked things by their right names, whether done by
princes and statesmen, or by vulgar and more harm-
Ïess malefactors-was the plan of that work. Longer
experience of the world has only excited a stronger
desire to see such lessons inculcated, and to help in
tearing off the veil which the folly of mankind throws
over the crimes of their rulers. But it was deemed
better to direct the attention of the people, in the
first instance, to more recent times, better known
characters, and more interesting events. In this
opinion these Historical Sketches had their origin.
The other work will probably (at least as regards the
author's name) be posthumous; it must, from its
nature, be too dull to be patiently borne from a living
writer.
It remains to be explained why the Dialogue upon
Monarchical and Republican Government was ori-
ginally omitted in the present publication, after being
announced in the advertisement. Beside the incon-
venience of increasing its bulk, it would have given
the book a controversial aspect, and engendered politi-
cal animosities, thus impeding the effects intended to
be produced by a work avoiding all partial or violent
discussions. For this reason the appearance of the
Dialogue was postponed. It was written many years
ago; its doctrines have been destined to receive material
confirmation from subsequent events: they are very
certain to become at no remote period the prevailing
faith of the country. It now appears in the third
volume of the Statesmen; but considerable additions
have been made to it, and it bears the date of 1848
instead of 1835. After Lord Spencer's death,
M. Arago was asked by letter if he had any objection
to be made the speaker in favour of Republick as
against Monarchy, such being his decided opinion;
it certainly was not Lord Spencer's; but he had been
the interlocutor in the Dialogues on Instinct, and
INTRODUCTION.
7
in all probability, he would not have objected to the form
of the discussion. By a singular accident the letter,
dated 23d February, 1848, crossed the telegraphic
account of M. Arago being just proclaimed the leading
member of the new Republican Government.
But, although this more general discussion had been
omitted, constant opportunities were afforded, in the
course of these Sketches, for contemplating the com-
parative vices and advantages of the two forms of
Government, for holding up to Sovereigns the immi-
nent perils into which they rush by setting up their
pretensions, and gratifying their caprices, at the
expense of their people's rights and interests—for
reminding the people of the mischiefs occasioned
to themselves by violent and sudden changes to
which the state of society has not been accommo-
dated-for exposing the evil consequences of those
abuses to which party connexions are liable-and,
above all, for teaching the important duty incum-
bent on all men, under what Government soever
they live, the sacred duty of forming their own
opinions upon reflection, nor suffering them to be
dictated by others whose object it is to deceive
and to betray. In proportion as the People are thus
educated and fitted for the task of Self-government,
will it be both safe and expedient to entrust them
with an increased share of power; and it would be
difficult to fix any bounds to the extent of that share,
other than are set to their own improvement in poli-
tical knowledge and experience.
"
}
9
GEORGE III.
THE centre figure round which the others that com-
pose this picture group themselves, and with which
they almost all have relations, is that of George III.,
a prince whose long reign, during by far the most
important period in the history of the human race,
rendered his character and conduct a matter of the
deepest interest, not only to the people of his vast
dominions, but to all mankind. He presided over the
destinies of the British Empire, the only free state in
the world, during an age that witnessed the establish-
ment of independence in the new hemisphere, and the
extension of liberty over a great portion of the old.
He ruled the most enlightened nation of modern
times, while civilization, rapidly spreading in all
directions, dispelled the remains of feudal darkness
in Europe, carried its light over other quarters of the
globe, and discovered and cultivated unknown re-
gions. Wherefore, his capacity, whether to appreciate
his position, or to aid in the progress of his people
and his species, if he should have the wisdom to
choose the right path, or to obstruct it, should he
erroneously deem resistance the better course, was a
matter of the greatest importance both to himself
personally, to the order in which his lot was cast, and
to the rest of mankind. Unhappily he took the
wrong direction; and, having once taken, persevered
in it with the pertinacity that marks little minds of
10
GEORGE III.
all ranks, but which in royal understandings often
amounts to a mental disease.
Of a narrow understanding, which no culture had
enlarged; of an obstinate disposition, which no edu-
cation, perhaps, could have humanized; of strong
feelings in ordinary things, and a resolute attachment
to all his own opinions and predilections, George III.
possessed much of the firmness of purpose which,
being exhibited by men of contracted mind without
any discrimination, and as pertinaciously when they
are in the wrong as when they are in the right,
lends to their characters an appearance of inflex-
ible consistency, often mistaken for greatness of
mind, and not seldom received as a substitute for
honesty. In all that related to his kingly office he
was the slave of deep-rooted selfishness; and no feel-
ing of a kindly nature ever was allowed access to his
bosom, whenever his power was concerned, either in
its maintenance, or in the manner of exercising it.
In other respects, he was a man of amiable disposi
tion, and few princes have been more exemplary in
their domestic habits, or in the offices of private
friendship. But the instant that his prerogative was
concerned, or his bigotry interfered with, or his will
thwarted, the most unbending pride, the most bitter
animosity, the most calculating coldness of heart, the
most unforgiving resentment, took possession of his
whole breast, and swayed it by turns. The habits of
friendship, the ties of blood, the dictates of conscience,
the rules of honesty, were alike forgotten; and the
fury of the tyrant, with the resources of a cunning
which mental alienation is supposed to whet, were
ready to circumvent or to destroy all who interposed
an obstacle to the fierceness of unbridled desire. His
conduct throughout the American war, and towards
the Irish people, has often been cited as illustrative
of the dark side of his public character; and his
treatment of his eldest son, whom he hated with
GEORGE III.
11
a hatred scarcely betokening a sound mind, might
seem to illustrate the shadier part of his personal
disposition; but it was in truth only another part
of his public, his professional conduct; for he had
no better reason for this implacable aversion than the
jealousy which men have of their successors, and
the consciousness that the Prince, who must suc-
ceed him, was unlike him, and, being disliked by him,
must, during their joint lives, be thrown into the hands
of the Whig party, the adversaries he most of all hated
and feared.
Although much of the character now portrayed
had its origin in natural defect, and part of it in a
mind tinged with disease, yet they who had the care
of his youth are deeply answerable for the neglect
which both added to it many defects, and prevented
those of nature from being eradicated or counteracted.
His mother, the Dowager Princess, was a woman of
neither knowledge, accomplishments, nor abilities;
and she confided his education to her friend, Lord
Bute. The want of instruction of which George III.
could complain must have been great indeed; for, if
any man was little likely to overrate the value of
superfluous or extensive information, it was he. Yet
a witness, above all suspicion, Sir Herbert Taylor, has
recorded that he lamented, while he admitted, his
want of education. Can there be a more shameful
thing related? Can any parties, in the station of his
royal parent and her favourite, be guilty of a more
disgraceful breach of duty than to leave the future
monarch of a free and enlightened people without
the instruction which all but the lower classes of
his subjects give to their children as a matter of
course?
Being far from deficient in natural quickness, and the
more regularly industrious because of his habitually
temperate life, he made himself thoroughly master of
all the ordinary details of business; insomuch, that
12
GEORGE III.
the same high authority has ascribed to him a more
thorough knowledge of the duties of each several
department in the state than any other man ever pos-
sessed; and this is the testimony of one both singu-
larly accurate in stating facts, and eminently qualified
to form such a comparative estimate by his own
intimate acquaintance with official details. We must,
however, take care not to overrate the difficulty or
the value of this acquirement. Kings have a peculiar
interest in ascertaining the bounds of each depart-
ment's duties and rights. They find protection in
keeping each within its own limits. Coming, of
necessity, into frequent contact with them all, mon-
archs can easily master the knowledge of their several
prerogatives and functions; so that this becomes like
heraldry and etiquette, wherein they are all great
proficients, emphatically a royal branch of knowledge.
No proofs remain, nor has even any assertion been
made, that he had any familiarity with the nobler
branches of information connected with state affairs;
the constitution and privileges of parliament; the
jurisdiction of Courts; the principles, nay, even the
details of banking, or of trade generally; the East
India or Colonial affairs of his empire; the interests
of foreign countries; the statistics of his own; all of
them kinds of knowledge as certainly worthy of
princes as they are generally despised by them. That
he was a diligent man of business, punctual to his
appointments, regular in the distribution of his time,
never wanting when his mechanical interposition was
required, always ready to continue at work until the
affair in hand was despatched, nor ever suffering
pleasure or distraction of any kind to interfere with
the transaction of the matters belonging to his high
station, is as undeniable as that all this might be
predicated of one who had the most limited capacity,
or the most confined information, and who had little
else to recommend him than the strict sense of his
GEORGE III.
13
official duties, and the resolution to make everything
yield to the discharge of them, those duties being
much more of the hand than the head.
But it would be a great mistake to imagine that
George III.'s ambition was confined within the range
of his abilities. He was impressed with a lofty feeling
of his prerogative, and a firm determination to main-
tain, perhaps extend it. At all events, he was resolved
not to be a mere name, or a cipher in public affairs ;
and, whether from a sense of the obligations imposed
upon him by his station, or from a desire to enjoy all
its powers and privileges, he certainly, while his reason
remained entire, but especially during the earlier period
of his reign, interfered in the affairs of government
more than any prince who ever sat upon the throne
of this country since our monarchy was distinctly
admitted to be a limited one, and its executive func-
tions were distributed among responsible ministers.
The correspondence which he carried on with his con-
fidential servants during the ten most critical years of
his life lies before us, and it proves that his attention
was ever awake to all the occurrences of the govern-
ment. Not a step was taken in foreign, colonial, or
domestic affairs, that he did not form his opinion upon
it, and exercise his influence over it. The instructions
to ambassadors, the orders to governors, the move-
ments of forces, down to the marching of a single
battalion, in the districts of this country, the appoint-
ments to all offices in church and state, not only the
giving away of judgeships, bishoprics, regiments, but
the subordinate promotions, lay and clerical; all these
form the topics of his letters; on all his opinion is
pronounced decisively; on all his will is declared
peremptorily. In one letter he decides the appoint-
ment of a Scotch puisne judge; in another the march
of a troop from Buckinghamshire into Yorkshire; in
a third the nomination to the Deanery of Worcester;
in a fourth he says that, "if Adam, the architect,
14
GEORGE III.
succeeds Worsley at the Board of Works, he shall
think Chambers ill used."*
For the greater affairs of state it is well known how
substantially he insisted upon being the King de facto
as well as de jure. The American war, the long
exclusion of the Liberal party, the French Revolution,
the Catholic question, are all sad monuments of his
real power. Of all his resolutions on these affairs, the
desire to retain America in subjection seems to have
been his strongest propensity; during the whole con-
test all his opinions, all his feelings, and all his designs,
turned upon what he termed the "preservation of the
empire." Nor was his rooted prejudice against both
the Whigs and the French unconnected with the part
they both took in behalf of the colonies. Rather than
quit his hold over those provinces and receive the
Whigs into his confidence, or do what he called "sub-
mitting to be trampled on by his enemies," he at one
time threatened to abdicate; and they who knew him
are well aware that he did not threaten without a fixed
resolution to act. No less than thrice within four
days, in March 1778, did he use this language, in the
agony of his mind, at having a junction with the Whig
party proposed by his chief minister; and upon one
occasion he says, "If the people will not stand by me,
they shall have another king, for I never will set my
hand to what will make me miserable to the last hour
of my life." The threat is revived upon the division
against Lord North four years afterwards.
That such a sovereign was, for the servants he
confided in, the best possible master, may well be
supposed. He gave them his entire and hearty
support. If he kept a watchful eye over all the pro-
ceedings both of parliament and the country; if we
find him one day commenting on the line taken in
* This was in 1777, in the middle of the most anxious moment of the
American contest; the letter immediately preceding relates to the sum of
affairs.
GEORGE III.
15
debate as "dangerous," at another "timid and vacillat-
ing," or discussing the composition of the majority or
its numbers upon the division, or suggesting that the
journey of Mr. Fox to Paris should "make the different
departments bring on all their business before he comes
back, as we shall have much less noise for the next
three weeks;" or expressing his conviction that "the
Speaker's illness is feigned, and all to let the opposition
have their pleasure at Newmarket;" he also asks,
"Who deserted you last night that you thought you
had a right to count upon? Give me their names,
that I may mark my sense of their behaviour at the
drawing-room to-morrow;" and again, "If the utmost
obsequiousness on my part, at the levee to-day, can
gain over Mr. Solicitor-General to your views, it shall
not be wanting." This was, indeed, efficiently sup-
porting a favourite ministry; and when he had one
forced upon him, his whole conduct was the reverse ;
all his countenance being given to their antagonists,
until the moment arrived when he could safely throw
them out.
Is
The first impression which such conduct makes
is unfavourable to the monarch, and may even
give rise to an opinion that it was unconstitutional.
But further reflection makes this somewhat more
than doubtful. The question is, "Does the king of this
country hold a real or only a nominal office?
he merely a form, or is he a substantive power in
our mixed and balanced constitution?" Some main-
tain, nay, it is a prevailing opinion among certain
authorities of no mean rank, that the sovereign, having
chosen his ministers, assigns over to them the whole
executive power. They treat him as a kind of trustee
for a temporary use, to preserve, as it were, some con-
tingent estate; or a provisional assignee, to hold the
property of an insolvent for a day, and then divest
himself of the estate by assigning it over. They regard
the only power really vested in the crown to be the
16
GEORGE III.
choice of ministers, and even the exercise of this to be
controlled by the parliament. They reduce the king
more completely to the condition of a state pageant or
state cipher than one of Abbé Sièyes's constitutions
did, when he proposed to have a Grand Functionary
with no power except to give away offices; upon
which Napoleon, then first consul, to whom the pro-
position was tendered, asked if it well became him to
be made a "Cochon à l'engrais à la somme de trois
millions par an?"* The English animal, according to
the Whig doctrine, much more nearly answers this
somewhat coarse description; for the Abbé's plan was
to give his royal beast a substantial voice in the
distribution of all patronage; while our lion is only
to have the sad prerogative of naming whomsoever
the parliament chooses, and eating his own mess in
quiet.
Now, with all the disposition in the world to desire
that Royal prerogative should be restricted, and the
will of the nation govern the national affairs, we cannot
comprehend this theory of a monarchy. It assigns to
the Crown either far too much revenue, or far too little
power. To pay a million
a-year, or more, for a name,
seems absurdly extravagant. To affect living under a
kingly government, and yet suffer no kind of kingly
power, seems extravagantly absurd. Surely the
meaning of having a sovereign is, that his voice should
be heard, and his influence felt, in the administration
of public affairs. The different orders of the state
have a right to look towards that high quarter all in
their turn for support when their rights are invaded
by one another's encroachments, or to claim the Royal
umpirage when their mutual conflicts cannot be settled
by mutual concessions; and unless the whole notion.
of a mixed monarchy, and a balance of three powers,
is a mere fiction and a dream, the royal portion of the
composition must be allowed to have some power, to
* A hog to be fatted at the rate of £120,000 a-year.
GEORGE III.
17
produce some effect upon the quality of the whole.
It is not denied that George III. sought to rule too
much; it is not maintained that he had a right to be
perpetually sacrificing all other considerations to the
preservation or extension of his prerogative. But
that he only discharged the duty of his station by
thinking for himself, acting according to his conscien-
tious opinions, and using his influence for giving these
opinions effect, cannot be denied unless by those who,
being averse to monarchy, and yet dreading a com-
monwealth, would incur all the cost, and all the far
worse evils, of a form of government which they think
the worst, rather than seek for a better, and would
purchase the continuance of the greatest evils at the
highest price, rather than encounter the risk of a
change. The example is worthy of imitation in all
times, which he set, in refusing to be made a state
puppet in his minister's hands, and to let his name be
used either by men whom he despised, or for purposes
which he disapproved. Nor could any one
charge him with ruling by favourites; still less could
any one, by pretending to be the people's choice,
impose himself on his vigorous understanding.
had intimate friends, with whom much of his time
was passed, but they were under his influence in all
things, and influenced him in none. Favour in other
quarters, whether pretended or really enjoyed, was
the sure preventive of any favour from him.
ever
He
That this Prince in his private life had many virtues,
we have already stated, with the qualification annexed
of these being always, even as regarded his strong
domestic affections, kept in subjection to his feelings
as a sovereign. With regard to his general disposi-
tion, it must be added that he belonged to a class of
men, not by any means the worst, but far beneath the
best, in the constitution of their hearts, those who
neither can forget a kindness nor an injury. Nor can
this sketch be more appropriately closed than with
C
18
GEORGE III.
two remarkable examples of the implacable hatred he
bore his enemies, and the steady affection with which
he cherished his friends.
Among the former, Lord Chatham held the most
conspicuous place, apparently from the time of the
American question; for at an earlier period his cor-
respondence with that great man was most friendly.
But the following is his answer to Lord North's
proposal that Lord Chatham's pension should be
settled in reversion on his younger son, afterwards so
well known as the second William Pitt. It bears date
August 9th, 1775. "The making Lord Chatham's
family suffer for the conduct of their father is not in
the least agreeable to my sentiments. But I should
choose to know him to be totally unable to appear
again on the public stage before I agree to any offer
of that kind, lest it should be wrongly construed into
a fear of him; and indeed his political conduct the
last winter was so abandoned, that he must, in the
eyes of the dispassionate, have totally undone all the
merit of his former conduct. As to any gratitude to
be expected from him or his family, the whole tenor
of their lives has shown them void of that most honour-
able sentiment. But when decrepitude or death puts
an end to him as a trumpet of sedition, I shall make
no difficulty in placing the second son's name instead
of the father's, and making up the pension £3000."
From the truly savage feelings which this letter
displays, it is agreeable to turn the eye upon so
amiable a contrast as the following affords, written to
the minister whom he ever loved beyond all his other
servants, and only quitted when the Coalition united
him to the Whigs:
"Having paid the last arrears (Sept. 1777) on the
Civil List, I must now do the same for you. I have
understood, from your hints, that you have been in
debt ever since you settled in life. I must therefore
insist that you allow me to assist you with £10,000, or
GEORGE III.
19
£15,000, or even £20,000, if that will be sufficient.
It will be easy for you to make an arrangement, or at
proper times to take up that sum.
You know me
very ill if you think not that, of all the letters I ever
wrote to you, this one gives me the greatest pleasure;
and I want no other return but your being convinced
that I love you as well as a man of worth, as I esteem
you as a minister. Your conduct at a critical moment
I never can forget."
These remarkable and characteristic letters naturally
introduce to us his two celebrated correspondents,
Lord Chatham and Lord North; the one, until Mr.
Fox came upon the stage, of all his adversaries, the
one he pursued with the most unrelenting hatred; the
other, of all his servants, the one for whom he felt the
warmest friendship.
20
LORD CHATHAM.
THERE is hardly any man in modern times, with the
exception, perhaps, of Lord Somers, who fills so large
a space in our history, and of whom we know so little,
as Lord Chatham; and yet he is the person to whom
every one would at once point, if desired to name the
most successful statesman and most brilliant orator
that this country ever produced. Of Lord Somers,
indeed, we can scarcely be said to know anything at
all. That he was a person of unimpeachable integrity,
a judge of great capacity and learning, a firm friend
of liberty, a cautious and safe counsellor in most diffi-
cult emergencies, all are ready to acknowledge. But
the authority which he possessed among his con-
temporaries, the influence which his sound and prac-
tical wisdom exercised over their proceedings, the
services which he was thus enabled to render in
steering the constitution safe through the most trying
times, and saving us from arbitrary power without
paying the price of our liberties in anarchy and blood-
shed,-nay, conducting the whole proceedings of a re-
volution with all the deliberation, and almost in the
forms, of an ordinary legal proceeding; have sur-
rounded his name with a mild yet imperishable glory,
which, in the contrast of our dark ignorance respect-
ing all the particulars and details of his life, gives the
figure something altogether mysterious and ideal. It
is now unfortunately too late, by supplying this infor-
mation, to fill up the outline which the meagre records
of his times have left us. But it is singular how much
of Lord Chatham, who flourished within the memory
LORD CHATHAM.
21
of the present generation, still rests upon vague tra-
dition. As a statesman, indeed, he is known to us by
the events which history has recorded to have hap-
pened under his administration. Yet even of his share
in bringing these about, little has been preserved of
detail. So, fragments of his speeches have been
handed down to us, but these bear so very small a
proportion to the prodigious fame which his eloquence
has left behind it, that far more is manifestly lost than
has reached us; while of his written compositions but
a few letters have hitherto been given to the world.
The imperfect state of Parliamentary Reporting in
his day is the great cause of this blank. From the time
of his entering the House of Commons to that of his
quitting it, the privileges of Parliament almost wholly
precluded the possibility of regular and full accounts
of debates reaching the public. At one period
they were given under feigned names, as if held in
the Senate of Rome by the ancient orators and states-
men; at another they were conveyed under the initials
only of the names borne by the real speakers. Even
when, somewhat later, these disguises were thrown
aside, the speeches were composed by persons who
had not been present at the debates, but gleaned a
few heads of each speaker's topics from some one who
had heard him; and the fullest and most authentic of
all those accounts are merely the meagre outline of the
subjects touched upon, preserved in the Diaries or
Correspondence of some contemporary politicians, and
presenting not even an approximation to the execution
of the orators. Thus many of Lord Chatham's earlier
speeches in the House of Commons, as now preserved,
were avowedly the composition of Dr. Johnson, whose
measured style, formal periods, balanced antitheses,
and total want of pure racy English, betray their
author at every line, while each debater is made to
speak exactly in the same manner. For some years
after he ceased to report, or rather to manufacture,
22
LORD CHATHAM.
that is, from 1751 downwards, a Dr. Gordon furnished
the newspapers with reports, consisting of much more
accurate accounts of what had passed in debate, but
without pretending to give more than the mere sub-
stance of the several speeches. The debates upon the
› American Stamp Act, in 1764, are the first that can
be said to have been preserved at all, through the
happy accident of Lord Charlemont, assisted by Sir
Robert Deane, taking an extraordinary interest in the
subject as bearing upon the grievances of Ireland;
and accordingly they have handed down to us some
notes, from internal evidence plainly authentic, of
Lord Chatham's celebrated speeches upon that ques-
tion. A few remains of his great displays in the
House of Lords have in like manner been preserved,
chiefly in the two speeches reported by Mr. Hugh
Boyd; the second of which, the most celebrated of
all, upon the employment of the Indians in the Ameri-
can war, there is reason to believe was revised and
corrected by Lord Chatham himself; and if so, it was
certainly the only one that ever underwent his revi-
sion. If any one will only compare the extreme slen-
derness of these grounds upon which to estimate a
speaker's claim to renown, or to judge of the character-
istics of his eloquence, with the ample means which
we have of studying the merits of almost all the an-
cient orators, and examining their distinguishing quali-
ties, he will be sensible how much any idea which we
can form of Lord Chatham's oratory must rest upon
tradition, that is, upon the accounts left by contem-
porary writers of its effects; and how little we are
enabled to judge for ourselves by examining the speci-
mens that remain of his composition. It seems little
short of presumption, after this statement, to attempt
including his character as an orator in the sketch which
may be given of this great man. But the testimony
of contemporaries may so far be helped by what re-
mains of the oratory itself, as to make some faint con-
LORD CHATHAM.
23
ceptions attainable of that eloquence which, for effect
at least, has surpassed any known in modern times.
The first place among the great qualities which
distinguished Lord Chatham, is unquestionably due to
firmness of purpose, resolute determination in the pur-
suit of his objects. This was the characteristic of the
younger Brutus, as he said, who had spared his life
to fall by his hand-Quicquid vult, id valde vult; and
although extremely apt to exist in excess, it must be
admitted to be the foundation of all true greatness of
character. Everything, however, depends upon the
endowments in company of which it is found; and in
Lord Chatham these were of a very high order. The
quickness with which he could ascertain his object,
and discover his road to it, was fully commensurate
with his perseverance and his boldness in pursuing it;
the firmness of grasp with which he held his advan-
tage was fully equalled by the rapidity of the glance
with which he discovered it. Add to this, a mind
eminently fertile in resources; a courage which nothing
could daunt in the choice of his means; a resolution
equally indomitable in their application; a genius, in
short, original and daring, which bounded over the
petty obstacles raised by ordinary men their squeam-
ishness, and their precedents, and their forms, and
their regularities-and forced away its path through
the entanglements of this base undergrowth to the
worthy object ever in view, the prosperity and the
renown of his country. Far superior to the paltry
objects of a grovelling ambition, and regardless alike
of party and of personal considerations, he constantly
set before his eyes the highest duty of a public man,
to further the interests of his species. In pursuing his
course towards that goal, he disregarded alike the
frowns of power and the gales of popular applause,
exposed himself undaunted to the vengeance of the
Court, while he battled against its corruptions, and
confronted, unappalled, the rudest shocks of public
24
LORD CHATHAM.
indignation, while he resisted the dictates of pernicious
agitators, and could conscientiously exclaim, with an
illustrious statesman of antiquity, "Ego hoc animo
semper fui ut invidiam virtute partam, gloriam non
invidiam putarem!"
Nothing could be more entangled than the foreign
policy of this country at the time when he undertook
the supreme direction of her affairs: nothing could be
more disastrous than the aspect of her fortunes in every
quarter of the globe. With a single ally in Europe,
the King of Prussia, and him beset by a combination
of all the continental powers in unnatural union to
effect his destruction; with an army of insignificant
amount, and commanded by men only desirous of
grasping at the emoluments, without doing the duties
or incurring the risks of their profession; with a
navy that could hardly keep the sea, and whose chiefs
vied with their comrades on shore in earning the cha-
racter given them by the new Minister,-of being
utterly unfit to be trusted in any enterprise of
the least apparent danger; with a generally prevail-
ing dislike of both services, which at once repressed
all desire of joining either, and damped all public
spirit in the country, by extinguishing all hope of
success, and even all love of glory-it was hardly
possible for a nation to be placed in circumstances
more inauspicious to military exertions; and yet war
raged in every quarter of the world where our domin-
ion extended, while the territories of our only ally,
as well as those of our own sovereign in Germany,
were invaded by France, and her forces by sea and land
menaced our shores. In the distant possessions of the
Crown the same want of enterprise and of spirit pre-
vailed. Armies in the West were paralyzed by the
inaction of a Captain who would hardly take the pains
of writing a despatch to chronicle the nonentity of his
operations; and in the East, while frightful disasters
were brought upon our settlements by Barbarian
LORD CHATHAM.
25
*
powers, the only military capacity that appeared in
their defence was the accidental display of genius and
valour by a merchant's clerk, who thus raised himself
to celebrity. In this forlorn state of affairs, which
rendered it as impossible to think of peace, as hopeless
to continue the yet inevitable war, the base and sordid
views of politicians kept pace with the mean spirit of
the military caste; and parties were split or united,
not upon any difference or agreement of public prin-
ciple, but upon mere questions of patronage and of
share in the public spoil, while all seemed alike actuated
by one only passion, the thirst alternately of power
and of gain.
As soon as Mr. Pitt took the helm, the steadiness of
the hand that held it was instantly felt in every motion.
of the vessel. There was no more of wavering coun-
sels, of torpid inaction, of listless expectancy, of abject
despondency. His firmness gave confidence, his spirit
roused courage, his vigilance secured exertion, in every
department under his sway. Each man, from the first
Lord of the Admiralty down to the most humble clerk
in the Victualling Office-each soldier, from the Com-
mander-in-Chief to the most obscure contractor or
commissary-now felt assured that he was acting or
was indolent under the eye of one who knew his
duties and his means as well as his own, and who
would very certainly make all defaulters, whether
through misfeasance or through nonfeasance, account-
able for whatever detriment the commonwealth might
sustain at their hands. Over his immediate coadjutors
his influence swiftly obtained an ascendant which it
ever after retained uninterrupted. Upon his first pro-
position for changing the conduct of the war, he stood
single among his colleagues, and tendered his resigna-
tion should they persist in their dissent; they at once.
succumbed, and from that hour ceased to have an
* Mr. Clive, afterwards Lord Clive.
26
LORD CHATHAM.
opinion of their own upon any branch of the public
affairs. Nay, so absolutely was he determined to have
the control of those measures, of which he knew the
responsibility rested upon him alone, that he insisted
upon the first Lord of the Admiralty not having the
correspondence of his own department; and no less
eminent a naval character than Lord Anson, as well as
his junior Lords, was obliged to sign the naval orders
issued by Mr. Pitt, while the writing was covered over
from their eyes!
The effects of this change in the whole management
of the public business, and in all the plans of the Go-
vernment, as well as in their execution, were speedily
made manifest to the world. The German troops were
sent home, and a well-regulated militia being estab-
lished to defend the country, a large disposable force
was distributed over the various positions whence the
enemy might be annoyed. France, attacked on some
points, and menaced on others, was compelled to retire
from Germany, soon afterwards suffered the most dis-
astrous defeats, and, instead of threatening England
and her allies with invasion, had to defend herself
against attack, suffering severely in several of her most
important naval stations. No less than sixteen islands,
and settlements, and fortresses of importance, were
taken from her in America, and Asia, and Africa, in-
cluding all her West Indian colonies, except St. Do-
mingo, and all her settlements in the East. The whole
important province of Canada was likewise conquered;
and the Havannah was taken from Spain. Beside
this, the seas were swept clear of the fleets that had
so lately been insulting our colonies, and even our
coasts. Many general actions were fought and gained;
one among them the most decisive that had ever been
fought by our navy. Thirty-six sail of the line were
taken or destroyed; fifty frigates; forty-five sloops of
war. So brilliant a course of uninterrupted success
had never, in modern times, attended the arms of any
LORD CHATHAM.
27
nation carrying on war with other states equal to it in
civilization, and nearly a match in power. But it is a
more glorious feature in this unexampled Administra-
tion which history has to record, when it adds, that all
public distress had disappeared; that all discontent in
any quarter, both of the colonies and parent state, had
ceased; that no oppression was anywhere practised,
no abuse suffered to prevail; that no encroachments
were made upon the rights of the subject, no malver-
sation tolerated in the possessors of power; and that
England, for the first time and for the last time, pre-
sented the astonishing picture of a nation supporting
without murmur a widely-extended and costly war,
and a people, hitherto torn with conflicting parties, so
united in the service of the commonwealth that the
voice of faction had ceased in the land, and any dis-
cordant whisper was heard no more. "These," (said
the son of his first and most formidable adversary,
Walpole, when informing his correspondent abroad,
that the session, as usual, had ended without any kind
of opposition or even of debate),-"These are the
doings of Mr. Pitt, and they are wondrous in our eyes!"
To genius irregularity is incident, and the greatest
genius is often marked by the eccentricity of its course,
as if it disdained to move in the vulgar orbit. Hence
he who is fitted by his nature, and trained by his habits,
to be an accomplished "pilot in extremity," and whose
inclinations carry him forth "to seek the deep when the
waves run high," may be found, if not "to steer too
near the shore," yet to despise the sunken rocks which
they that can only be trusted in calm weather would
have more surely avoided. To this rule it cannot be
said that Lord Chatham afforded any exception; and
although a plot had certainly been formed to eject
him from the Ministry, leaving the chief control of
affairs in the feeble hands of Lord Bute, whose only
support was court favour, and whose chief talent lay
in an expertness at intrigue, yet there can be little
28
LORD CHATHAM.
doubt that this scheme was only rendered practicable
by the hostility which the great Minister's unbending
habits, his contempt of ordinary men, and his neglect
of every-day matters, had raised against him among
all the creatures both of Downing Street and St. James's.
In fact, his colleagues, who necessarily felt humbled
by his superiority, were needlessly mortified by the
constant display of it; and it would have betokened a
still higher reach of understanding, as well as a purer
fabric of patriotism, if he, whose great capacity threw
those subordinates into the shade, and before whose
vigour in action they were sufficiently willing to yield,
had united a little suavity in his demeanour with his
extraordinary powers, nor made it always necessary
for them to acknowledge as well as to feel their in-
feriority. It is certain that the insulting arrange-
ment of the Admiralty, to which reference has been
already made, while it lowered that department in the
public opinion, rendered all connected with it his
personal enemies; and, indeed, though there have
since his days been Prime Ministers whom he would
never have suffered to sit even as puisne lords at his
boards, yet were one like himself again to govern the
country, the Admiralty chief, who might be far inferior
to Lord Anson, would never submit to the humiliation
inflicted upon that gallant and skilful captain. Mr.
Pitt's policy seemed formed upon the assumption that
either each public functionary was equal to himself in
boldness, activity, and resource, or that he was to
preside over and animate each department in person.
Such was his confidence in his own powers, that he
reversed the maxim of governing, never to force your
way where you can win it; and always disdained to
insinuate where he could dash in, or to persuade
where he could command. It thus happened that his
colleagues were but nominally coadjutors, and though
they durst not thwart him, yet rendered no heart-
service to aid his schemes. Indeed it has clearly
LORD CHATHAM.
29
appeared since his time that they were chiefly induced
to yield him implicit obedience, and leave the un-
divided direction of all operations in his hands, by the
expectation that the failure of what they were wont
to sneer at as "Mr. Pitt's visions" would turn the tide
of public opinion against him, and prepare his down-
fall from a height of which they felt that there was no
one but himself able to dispossess him.
The true test of a great man—that at least which
must secure his place among the highest order of
great men-is his having been in advance of his age.
This it is which decides whether or not he has carried
forward the grand plan of human improvement; has
conformed his views and adapted his conduct to the
existing circumstances of society, or changed those so
as to better its condition; has been one of the lights
of the world, or only reflected the borrowed rays of
former luminaries, and sat in the same shade with the
rest of his generation at the same twilight or the
same dawn. Tried by this test, the younger Pitt
cannot certainly be said to have lived before his time,
or shed upon the age to which he belonged the
illumination of a more advanced civilization and more
inspired philosophy. He came far too early into
public life, and was too suddenly plunged into the
pool of office, to give him time for the study and the
reflection which can alone open to any mind, how
vigorous soever may be its natural constitution, the
views of a deep and original wisdom. Accordingly
it would be difficult to glean, from all his measures
and all his speeches, anything like the fruits of inven-
tive genius; or to mark any token of his mind having
gone before the very ordinary routine of the day, as
if familiar with any ideas that did not pass through
the most vulgar understandings. His father's intellect
was of a higher order; he had evidently, though with-
out much education, and with no science of any kind,
yet reflected deeply upon the principles of human
30
LORD CHATHAM.
action, well studied the nature of men, and pondered
upon the structure of society. His reflections fre-
quently teem with the fruits of such meditation, to
which his constantly feeble health perhaps gave rise
rather than any natural proneness to contemplative
life, from whence his taste must have been alien; for
he was eminently a man of action. His appeals to the
feelings and passions were also the result of the same
reflective habits, and the acquaintance which they had
given him with the human heart. But if we consider
his opinions, though liberal and enlightened upon
each particular question, they rather may be regarded
as felicitous from their adaptation to the actual cir-
cumstances in which he was called upon to advise or
to act, than as indicating that he had seen very far
into future times, and anticipated the philosophy
which further experience should teach to our more
advanced age of the world. To take two examples
from the two subjects upon which he had both
thought the most, and been the most strenuously
engaged in handling them practically as a statesman,
our relations with France and with America :-The
old and narrow notions of natural enmity with the
one, and natural sovereignty over the other, were the
guides of his whole opinions and conduct in those
great arguments. To cultivate the relations of peace
with our nearest neighbour, as the first of blessings to
both nations, each being able to do the other most
good in amity and most harm in hostility, never
appears to have entered into the system of policy
enlightened by that fiery soul, which could only see
glory or even safety in the precarious and transient
domination grasped by a successful war. To become
the fast friends of those colonies which we had planted
and long retained under our protecting government,
and thus both to profit ourselves and them the more
by suffering them to be as independent as ourselves,
was an idea that certainly could not be said once to
LORD CHATHAM.
31
have crossed his impetuous and uncompromising
mind; for it had often been entertained by him, but
only to be rejected with indignation and abhorrence,
as if the independence of America were the loss of
our national existence. Upon all less important
questions, whether touching our continental or our
colonial policy, his opinion was to the full as sound,
and his views as enlarged, as those of any statesman
of his age; but it would not be correct to affirm that
on those larger ones, the cardinal, and therefore the
trying, points of the day, he was materially in advance
of his own times.
If we turn from the statesman to survey the orator,
our examination must be far less satisfactory, because
our materials are extremely imperfect, from the circum-
stances already adverted to. There is indeed hardly
any eloquence, of ancient or of modern times, of which
so little that can be relied on as authentic has been pre-
served; unless perhaps that of Pericles, Julius Cæsar,
and Lord Bolingbroke. Of the actions of the two first
we have sufficient
sufficient records, as we have of Lord
Chatham's; of their speeches we have little that can
be regarded as genuine; although, by unquestionable
tradition, we know that each of them was second only
to the greatest orator of their respective countries;
* Thucydides gives three speeches of Pericles, which he may very
possibly have in great part composed for him. Sallust's speech of Cæsar
is manifestly the writer's own composition; indeed it is in the exact style
of the one he puts into Cato's mouth, that is, in his own style. It is,
however, remarkable, that the first instance of Reporting was the precau-
tion taken by Cicero to have the debate on the conspiracy preserved, as we
find from Plutarch.—(Cato, c. 23.)
The following note is from Mr. Hazlitt's edition of the Duke of Wel-
lington's speeches, and refers to Julius Cæsar's:-"It is hardly necessary
to remark that we have no remains of his speeches; for the notes he gives
of his addresses (conciones) to the soldiers, in his Commentaries, only are
the heads, and were written long after; the speech in Sallust, like that of
Cato, is plainly the historian's own composition. Sallust's diligence in
collecting information upon that famous debate must have been confined to
the topics merely, though Cicero had laid the foundation of reporting, and
even of short-hand reporting, on that occasion. But even as to the topics,
32
LORD CHATHAM.
l
while of Bolingbroke we only know, from Dean Swift,
that he was the most accomplished speaker of his time;
and it is related of Mr. Pitt (the younger), that when
the conversation rolled upon lost works, and some
said they should prefer restoring the books of Livy,
some of Tacitus, and some a Latin tragedy, he at once
decided for a speech of Bolingbroke. What we know
of his own father's oratory is much more to be gleaned
from contemporary panegyrics, and accounts of its
effects, than from the scanty, and for the most part
doubtful, remains which have reached us. The im-
pression made upon Mr. Pitt himself, is described in a
very interesting letter written after the debate of 31
May, 1777.*
the Fourth Catilinarian shows how unfaithful his account of the debate is.
Indeed, nothing can be more unfair than his whole treatment of Cicero.
Of Cæsar's letters two or three remain, and they are truly admirable.”
*THE HON. WM. FITT TO THE COUNTESS OF CHATHAM.
"MY DEAR MOTHER,
HOTEL, KING STREET,
Saturday Morning, May 31, 1777.
"I had not time to write last night, as the House did not rise till
near ten, and I then went in quest of a dinner. In the way of information,
therefore, this letter will come late; which you will have the goodness to
forgive. It is with another motive that I write it; which is, that I cannot
help expressing to you how happy beyond description I feel in reflecting
that my father was able to exert, in their full vigour, the sentiments and
eloquence which have always distinguished him.
"His first speech took up half-an-hour, and was full of all his usual
force and vivacity. I only regretted, that he did not always raise his
voice enough for all the House to hear everything he said. If they felt as
I did, however, they must have heard abundantly enough to be charmed
and transported.
"I have not time and I fear scarcely memory, to do justice to his par-
ticular expressions; most of which, I flatter myself, you will hear from
himself, as well as, in general, the substance of what he said. He spoke
a second time, in answer to Lord Weymouth, to explain the object of his
motion, and his intention to follow it by one for the repeal of all the Acts
of Parliament, which form the system of chastisement. This he did in a
flow of eloquence, and with a beauty of expression, animated and striking
beyond conception. The various incidents of the debate you will undoubt-
edly learn; so that I need not detain you with an account of them. You
will, I think, also hear, that among the supporters of the motion, Lord
}
LORD CHATHAM.
33
All accounts, however, concur in representing those
effects to have been prodigious. The spirit and vehe-
mence which animated its greater passages-their
perfect application to the subject-matter of debate-
the appositeness of his invective to the individual as-
sailed the boldness of the feats which he ventured
upon the grandeur of the ideas which he unfolded-
the heart-stirring nature of his appeals,-are all con-
fessed by the united testimony of his contemporaries;
and the fragments which remain bear out to a con-
siderable extent such representations; nor are we likely
to be misled by those fragments, for the more striking
portions were certainly the ones least likely to be
either forgotten or fabricated. To these mighty attrac-
tions was added the imposing, the animating, the com-
manding power of a countenance singularly expressive;
an eye so piercing that hardly any one could stand
its glare; and a manner altogether singularly striking,
original, and characteristic, notwithstanding a pecu-
liarly defective and even awkward action. Latterly,
indeed, his infirmities precluded all action; and he is
described as standing in the House of Lords leaning
upon his crutch, and speaking for ten minutes together
in an under-tone of voice scarcely audible, but raising
his notes to their full pitch when he broke out into
one of his grand bursts of invective or exclamation.
But, in his earlier time, his whole manner is repre-
sented as having been beyond conception animated
and imposing. Indeed the things which he effected
Shelburne was as great as possible. His speech was one of the most in-
teresting and forcible, I think, that I ever heard, or even can imagine.
Lord Mansfield appeared to me to make a miserable attempt to mislead
his hearers and cavil at the question.
"I have almost forgot my original object, which was only to congratu-
late you on this most happy event; on which I cannot say enough, though
I feel it is unnecessary to say anything. I am going out of town at eleven
with Lord Althorpe.
Adieu, my dear Mother, and believe me,
"Your ever dutiful and affectionate Son,
D
"W. PITT."
34
LORD CHATHAM.
principally by means of it, or at least which nothing
but a most striking and commanding tone could
have made it possible to attempt, almost exceed
belief. Some of these sallies are indeed examples of
that approach made to the ludicrous by the sublime,
which has been charged upon him as a prevailing
fault, and represented under the name of Charlatanerie,
-a favourite phrase with his adversaries, as in later
times it has been with the ignorant undervaluers of
Lord Erskine. It is related that once in the House
of Commons he began a speech with the words "Sugar,
Mr. Speaker,"-and then, observing a smile to per-
vade the audience, he paused, looked fiercely around,
and with a loud voice, rising in its notes and swelling
into vehement anger, he is said to have pronounced
again the word "Sugar!" three times, and having thus
quelled the house, and extinguished every appearance
of levity or laughter, turned round and disdainfully
asked, "Who will laugh at sugar now?" We have
the anecdote upon good traditional authority; that
it was believed by those who had the best means of
knowing Lord Chatham is certain; and this of itself
shows their sense of the extraordinary powers of his
manner, and the reach of his audacity in trusting to
those powers.
There can be no doubt that of reasoning,-of sus-
tained and close argument, his speeches had but
little. His statements were desultory, though striking,
perhaps not very distinct, certainly not at all detailed,
and as certainly every way inferior to those of his
celebrated son. If he did not reason cogently, he
assuredly did not compress his matter vigorously.
He was anything rather than a concise or a short
speaker; not that his great passages were at all diffuse,
or in the least degree loaded with superfluous words;
but he was prolix in the whole texture of his discourse,
and he was certainly the first who introduced into our
senate the practice, adopted in the American war by
т
LORD CHATHAM.
35
Mr. Burke, and continued by others, of long speeches,
-speeches of two and three hours, by which oratory
has gained little, and business less. His discourse
was, however, fully informed with matter; his allu-
sions to analogous subjects, and his references to the
history of past events, were frequent; his expression
of his own opinions was copious and free, and stood
very generally in the place of any elaborate reasoning
in their support. A noble statement of enlarged
views, a generous avowal of dignified sentiments, a
manly and somewhat severe contempt for all petty or
mean views-whether their baseness proceeded from
narrow understanding or from corrupt bias-always
pervaded his whole discourse; and, more than any
other orator since Demosthenes, he was distinguished
by the grandeur of feeling with which he regarded,
and the amplitude of survey which he cast upon the
subject-matters of debate. His invective was unspar-
ing and hard to be endured, although he was a less
eminent master of sarcasm than his son, and rather
overwhelmed his antagonist with the burst of words
and vehement indignation, than wounded him by the
edge of ridicule, or tortured him with the gall of bitter
scorn, or fixed his arrow in the wound by the barb
of epigram. These things seemed, as it were, to be-.
token too much labour and too much art-more
labour than was consistent with absolute scorn-more
art than could stand with heart-felt rage, or entire con-
tempt inspired by the occasion, at the moment, and on
the spot. But his great passages, those by which he
has come down to us, those which gave his eloquence
its peculiar character, and to which its dazzling success
was owing, were as sudden and unexpected as they
were natural. Every one was taken by surprise.
when they rolled forth-every one felt them to be so
natural, that he could hardly understand why he had
not thought of them himself, although into no one's
imagination had they ever entered. If the quality
36
LORD CHATHAM.
of being natural without being obvious is a pretty
correct description of felicitous expression, or what is
called fine writing, it is a yet more accurate repre-
sentation of fine passages, or felicitous hits in speak-
ing. In these all popular assemblies take boundless
delight; by these above all others are the minds
of an audience at pleasure moved or controlled.
They form the grand charm of Lord Chatham's
oratory; they were the distinguishing excellence of
his great predecessor, and gave him at will to wield
the fierce democratie of Athens, and to fulmine over
Greece.
It was the sagacious remark of one of the most
acute of critics, as well as historical inquirers, that
criticism never would be of any value until critics
cited innumerable examples. In sketching the char-
acter of Lord Chatham's oratory this becomes the more
necessary, that so few now living can have any recol-
lection of it, and that all our knowledge of its peculiar
nature rests upon a few scattered fragments. There
is, however, some security for our deducing from these
a correct notion of it, because they certainly, according
to all accounts, were the portions of his discourse
which produced the most extraordinary effect, on
which its fame rests, and by which its quality is to
be ascertained. A few of these may, therefore, be
referred to in closing the present imperfect outline
of this great man's eloquence.
His remark on confidence, when it was asked by
the ministry of 1766, for whom he had some for-
bearance rather than any great respect, is well known.
He said their characters were fair enough, and he was
always glad to see such persons engaged in the pub-
lic service; but, turning to them with a smile, very
courteous, but not very respectful, he said-"Confide
in you? Oh no-you must pardon me, gentlemen—
* Hume-Essays.
LORD CHATHAM.
37
youth is the season of credulity-confidence is a plant
of slow growth in an aged bosom!"
Some one, having spoken of "the obstinacy of
America," said "that she was almost in open rebel-
lion." Mr. Pitt exclaimed, "I rejoice that America
has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all
the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to let themselves
be made slaves, would have been fit instruments to
make slaves of all the rest!"-Then speaking of the
attempt to keep her down-"In a just cause of
quarrel you may crush America to atoms; but in this
crying injustice" (Stamp Act)-"I am one who will
lift up my hands against it-In such a cause even your
success would be hazardous. America, if she fell,
would fall like the strong man; she would embrace
the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitution
along with her. Is this your boasted peace-to
sheathe the sword, not in its scabbard, but in the
bowels of your countrymen ?"-It was in this debate
that Mr. Burke first spoke, and Mr. Pitt praised his
speech in very flattering terms.
"Those iron barons (for so I may call them when
compared with the silken barons of modern days) were
the guardians of the people; and three words of their
barbarous Latin, nullus liber homo, are worth all the
classics. Yet their virtues were never tried in a
question so important as this." (The Pretension of
Privilege in the House of Commons)—“A breach is
made in the Constitution-the battlements are dis-
mantled the citadel is open to the first invader-the
walls totter-the place is no longer tenable-what
then remains for us but to stand foremost in the
breach, to repair it, or to perish in it?-Unlimited
power corrupts the possessor; and this I know, that
where law ends, there tyranny begins."
In reference to the same subject, the expulsion of
Mr. Wilkes, he exclaimed in a subsequent debate-
"The Constitution at this moment stands violated.
38
LORD CHATHAM.
If the breach be effectually repaired, the people will
return to tranquillity of themselves. If not, let discord
reign for ever!-I know to what point my language
will appear directed. But I have the principles of an
Englishman, and I utter them without fear or reserve.
Rather than the Constitution should be tamely given
up, and our birthright be surrendered to a despotic
Minister, I hope, my Lords, old as I am, that I shall
see the question brought to an issue, and fairly tried
between the people and the Government."-Again he
said "Magna Charta-The Petition of Right-the
Bill of Rights-form the Bible of the English Con-
stitution. Had some of the King's unhappy pre-
decessors trusted less to the Commentary of their
advisers, and been better read in the Text itself, the
glorious Revolution might have remained only pos-
sible in theory, and their fate would not now have
stood upon record, a formidable example to all their
successors.' "No man more than I respects the just
authority of the House of Commons-no man would
go farther to defend it. But beyond the line of the
Constitution, like every exercise of arbitrary power,
it becomes illegal, threatening tyranny to the people,
destruction to the state. Power without right is the
most detestable object that can be offered to the
human imagination; it is not only pernicious to
those whom it subjects, but works its own destruc-
tion. Res detestabilis et caduca. Under pretence
of declaring law, the Commons have made a law,
a law for their own case, and have united in the
same persons the offices of legislator and party and
judge.

""
""
These fine passages, conveying sentiments so noble
and so wise, may be read with advantage by the
present House of Commons when it shall again be
called on to resist the Judges of the land, and to
break its laws, by opening a shop for the sale of
libels.
LORD CHATHAM.
39
66
His character-drawn, he says, from long experi-
ence of the Spaniards, the high-minded chivalrous
Castilians, we believe to be as just as it is severe.
Speaking of the affair of Falkland's Island, he said-
They are as mean and crafty as they are insolent
and proud. I never yet met with an instance of
candour or dignity in their proceedings; nothing but
low cunning, artifice, and trick. I was compelled to
talk to them in a peremptory language. I submitted
my advice for an immediate war to a trembling
council. You all know the consequences of its being
rejected."-The speech from the throne had stated
that the Spanish Government had disowned the act of
its officer. Lord Chatham said "There never was a
more cdious, a more infamous faleshood imposed on a
great nation. It degrades the King, it insults the
Parliament. His Majesty has been advised to affirm
an absolute falsehood. My Lords, I beg your atten-
tion, and I hope I shall be understood when I repeat,
that it is an absolute, a palpable falsehood. The King
of Spain disowns the thief, while he leaves him un-
punished, and profits by his theft. In vulgar English,
he is the receiver of stolen goods, and should be
treated accordingly." How would all the country, at
least all the canting portion of it, resound with the
cry of "Coarse! vulgar! brutal!" if such epithets and
such comparisons as these were used in any debate
now-a-days, whether among the "silken barons," or
the "squeamish Commons" of our time!
In 1775 he made a most brilliant speech on the
war. Speaking of General Gage's inactivity, he said
it could not be blamed, it was inevitable. "But what
a miserable condition," he exclaimed, "is ours, where
disgrace is prudence, and where it is necessary to be
contemptible! You must repeal these acts," (he said,
alluding to the Boston Ports and Massachusetts Bay
Bills,) and you WILL repeal them. I pledge myself
for it, that you will repeal them. I stake my reputa-
"
40
LORD CHATHAM.
tion on it. I will consent to be taken for an idiot if
they are not finally repealed." Every one knows
how true this prophecy proved. The concluding
sentence of the speech has been often cited,—“If the
ministers persevere in misleading the King, I will not
say that they can alienate the affections of his subjects
from his crown; but I will affirm that they will make
the crown not worth his wearing. I will not say that
the King is betrayed; but I will pronounce that the
kingdom is undone."
Again, in 1777, after describing the cause of the
war and "the traffic and barter driven with every
little pitiful German Prince that sells his subjects to
the shambles of a foreign country," he adds, "The
mercenary aid on which you rely irritates to an incur-
able resentment the minds of your enemies, whom
you overrun with the sordid sons of rapine and
of plunder, devoting them and their possessions
to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an
American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign
troop was landed in my country, I never would
lay down my arms, never! never! never!" Such
language, used in the modern days of ultra loyalty
and extreme decorum, would call down upon his
head who employed it the charge of encouraging
rebels, and partaking as an accomplice in their
treasons.
It was upon this memorable occasion that he made
the famous reply to Lord Suffolk, who had said, in
reference to employing the Indians, that "we were
justified in using all the means which God and nature
had put into our hands." The circumstance of Lord
Chatham having himself revised this speech is an in-
ducement to insert it here at length.
"I am astonished," exclaimed Lord Chatham, as he rose, “shocked, to
hear such principles confessed, to hear them avowed in this House or in
this country; principles equally unconstitutional, inhuman, and unchristian.
"My Lords, I did not intend to have trespassed again on your atten-
LORD CHATHAM.
41
tion, but I cannot repress my indignation. I feel myself impelled by
every duty. My Lords, we are called upon, as members of this House,
as men, as Christian men, to protest against such notions, standing near
the throne, polluting the ear of majesty. That God and nature put into
our hands!-I know not what idea that Lord may entertain of God and
nature, but I know that such abominable principles are equally abhorrent
to religion and humanity. What! attribute the sacred sanction of God
and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife, to the cannibal
savage, torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating; literally, my Lords,
eating the mangled victims of his barbarous battles! Such horrible
notions shock every precept of religion, divine and natural, and every
generous feeling of humanity; and, my Lords, they shock every sentiment
of honour; they shock me as a lover of honourable war, and a detester of
murderous barbarity.
"These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of
them, demand most decisive indignation. I call upon that Right
Reverend Bench, those holy ministers of the Gospel, and pious pastors of
the Church; I conjure them to join in the holy work, and to vindicate
the religion of their God. I appeal to the wisdom and the law of this
Learned Bench, to defend and support the justice of their country. I call
upon the Bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn, upon
the learned Judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from
this pollution. I call upon the honour of your Lordships to reverence the
dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the
spirit and humanity of my country to vindicate the national character.
I invoke the genius of the constitution. From the tapestry that adorns
these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble Lord frowns with indig-
nation at THE DISGRACE OF HIS COUNTRY! In vain he led your victo-
rious fleets against the boasted Armada of Spain; in vain he defended and
established the honour, the liberties, the religion, the Protestant religion
of his country, against the arbitrary cruelties of Popery and the Inquisi-
tion, if these more than Popish cruelties and inquisitorial practices are let
loose amongst us, to turn forth into our settlements, among our ancient
connexions, friends, and relations, the merciless cannibal, thirsting for the
blood of man, woman, and child-to send forth the infidel savage-
against whom? Against your Protestant brethren: to lay waste their
country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name
with these horrible hell-hounds of savage war-hell-hounds, I say, of savage
war. Spain armed herself with bloodhounds to extirpate the wretched
natives of America, and we improve on the inhuman example of even
Spanish cruelty: we turn loose these savage hell-hounds against our
brethren and countrymen in America, of the same language, laws, liberties,
and religion, endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify humanity.
My Lords, this awful subject, so important to our honour, our constitution,
and our religion, demands the most solemn and effectual inquiry; and I
again call upon your Lordships, and the united powers of the state, to
examine it thoroughly and decisively, and to stamp upon it an indelible
stigma of the public abhorrence. And I again implore those holy Prelates of
our religion to do away these iniquities from among us; let them perform
a lustration-let them purify this House and this country from this sin.
"My Lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more;
42
LORD CHATHAM.
but my feelings and my indignation were too strong to have said less.
I could not have slept this night in my bed, or have reposed my head on
my pillow, without giving this vent to my eternal abhorrence of such
preposterous and enormous principles."*
There are other celebrated passages of his speeches
in all men's mouths. His indignant and contemp-
tuous answer to the minister's boast of driving the
Americans before the army-"I might as well think
of driving them before me with this crutch!". is well
known. Perhaps the finest of them all is his allusion
to the maxim of English law, that every man's house
is his castle. It was the one that Lord Denman
always admired the most. The close agreement of
Lord Chatham with that great Magistrate on the ques-
tion of Parliamentary Privilege may well be noted.
"The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to
all the forces of the crown. It may be frail-its roof
may shake the wind may blow through it-the storm
may enter the rain may enter-but the King of Eng-
land cannot enter!-all his force dares not cross the
threshold of the ruined tenement !"
These examples may serve to convey a pretty ac-
curate idea of the peculiar vein of eloquence which
distinguished this great man's speeches. It was of
the very highest order; vehement, fiery, close to the
subject, concise, sometimes eminently, even boldly,
figurative; it was original and surprising, yet quite
natural. To call it argumentative would be an abuse
of terms; but it had always a sufficient foundation of
reason to avoid any appearance of inconsistency, or
error, or wandering from the point. So the greatest pas-
sages in the Greek orations were very far from being
such as could stand the test of close examination in
regard to their argument. Yet would it be hyper-
critical indeed to object that Demosthenes, in the
* There hangs so much doubt upon the charge brought against Lord
Chatham, of having himself employed the Indians in the former war, that
the subject is reserved for the Appendix.
LORD CHATHAM.
43
most celebrated burst of all ancient eloquence, argues
for his policy being rewarded although it led to defeat,
by citing the example of public honours having been
bestowed upon those who fell in gaining five great
victories.
Some have compared Mr. Fox's eloquence to that
of Demosthenes; but it resembled Lord Chatham's
just as much, if not more. It was incomparably more
argumentative than either the Greek or the English
orator's; neither of whom carried on chains of close
reasoning as he did, though both kept close to their
subject. It was, however, exceedingly the reverse of
the Attic orator's in method, in diction, in conciseness.
It had nothing like arrangement of any kind. Except
in the more vehement passages, its diction was perhaps
as slovenly, certainly as careless as possible, betoken-
ing indeed a contempt of all accurate composition.
It was diffuse in the highest degree, and abounded in
repetitions. While the Greek was concise, almost to
being jejune, the Englishman was diffuse, almost to
being prolix. How the notion of comparing the two
together ever could have prevailed seems unaccount-
able, unless it be that men have supposed them alike
because they were both vehement, and both kept the
subject in view rather than run after ornament. But
that the most elaborate and artificial compositions in
the world should have been likened to the most
careless, and natural, and unprepared, that were ever
delivered in public, would seem wholly incredible if
it were not true. The bursts of Mr. Fox, however,
though less tersely and concisely composed, certainly
have some resemblance to Lord Chatham's, only that
they betray far less fancy, and, however vehement
and fiery, are incomparably less bold. Mr. Pitt's
oratory, though admirably suited to its purpose, and
as perfect a business kind of speaking as ever was
heard, certainly resembled none of the three others who
have been named. In point of genius, unless perhaps
44
LORD CHATHAM.
for sarcasm, he was greatly their inferior; although,
from the unbroken fluency of his appropriate language,
and the power of an eminently sonorous voice, he
produced the most prodigious effect.
It remains to speak of Lord Chatham as a private
man, and he appears to have been in all respects
exemplary and amiable. His disposition was exceed-
ingly affectionate. The pride, bordering upon inso-
lence, in which he showed himself encased to the
world, fell naturally from him, and without any effort
to put it off, as he crossed the threshold of his own
door. To all his family he was simple, kindly, and
gentle. His pursuits were of a nature that showed
how much he loved to unbend himself. He delighted
in poetry and other light reading; was fond of music;
loved the country; took peculiar pleasure in garden-
ing; and had even an extremely happy taste in laying
out grounds. His early education appears to have
been further prosecuted afterwards; and he was
familiar with the Latin classics, although there is no
reason to believe that he had much acquaintance with
the Greek. In all our own classical writers he was
well versed; and his time was much given to reading
them. A correspondence with his nephew, which
Lord Grenville published about forty years ago,
showed how simple and classical his tastes were, how
affectionate his feelings, and how strong his sense of
both moral and religious duty. These letters are re-
printed in a work which has been published since the
first edition of this book, because the answers have since
been recovered; and it contains a great body of other
letters both to and from him. Amongst the latter are
to be found constant tokens of his amiable disposition.
The most severe judge of human actions, the critic
whose searching eye looks for defects in every por-
trait, and regards it as fiction, not a likeness, when he
fails to find any, will naturally ask if such a character
as Lord Chatham's could be without reproach; if
LORD CHATHAM.
45
feelings so strong never boiled over in those passions
which are dangerous to virtue; if fervour of soul
such as his could be at all times kept within the
bounds which separate the adjoining provinces of
vehemence and intemperance? Nor will he find
reason to doubt the reality of the picture which he
is scrutinizing when we have added the traits that
undeniably disfigured it. Some we have already
thrown in; but they rather are shades that give effect.
and relief to the rest, than deformities or defects.
It must now be further recorded that not only was
he impracticable, difficult beyond all men to act
with, overbearing, impetuously insisting upon his
own views being adopted by all as infallible, utterly
regardless of other men's opinions when he had
formed his own, as little disposed to profit by the
lights of their wisdom as to avail himself of their co-
operative efforts in action-all this is merely the
excess of his great qualities running loose uncon-
trolled; but he appears to have been very far from
sustaining the exalted pitch of magnanimous inde-
pendence and utter disregard of sublunary interests
which we should expect him to have reached and
kept as a matter of course, from a more cursory
glance at the mould in which his lofty character was
cast. Without allowing that a considerable admixture.
of the clay which forms earthly mortals must have.
entered into his composition, how can we account for
the violence of his feelings, when George III. showed
him some small signs of kindness in the closet, upon
his giving up the seals of office? "I confess, Sir, I
had but too much reason to expect your Majesty's
displeasure. I had not come prepared for this ex-
ceeding goodness. Pardon me, Sir," he passionately
exclaimed, "it overpowers-it oppresses me!" and
he burst into tears in the presence of one who, as a
moment's reflection must have convinced him, was
playing a part to undermine his character, destroy

46
LORD CHATHAM.
his influence, and counteract all his great designs
for his country's good. But some misplaced senti-
ments of loyalty may have produced this strange
paroxysm of devotion. The colour assumed by his
gratitude for favours conferred upon his family and
himself was of a more vulgar hue, and still less
harmonized with the Great Commoner's exalted
nature. On learning the King's intention to grant
him a pension (in order effectually to undo him), he
writes to Lord Bute a letter full of the most humili-
ating effusions of extravagant thankfulness-speaks
of "being confounded with the King's condescension
in deigning to bestow one thought on the mode of
extending to him his royal beneficence,❞—considers
"any mark of approbation flowing from such a spon-
taneous source of clemency as his comfort and his
glory," and prostrates himself in the very dust for
daring to refuse the kind of provision tendered "by
the King in a manner so infinitely gracious," and
for proposing, instead of it, a pension to his family.
When this prayer was granted, the effusions of grati-
tude "for these unbounded effects of beneficence
and grace which the most benign of sovereigns has
condescended to bestow," are still more extravagant;
and "he dares to hope that the same royal benevo-
lence which showers on the unmeritorious such un-
limited benefits, may deign to accept the genuine
tribute of the truly feeling heart with equal conde-
scension and goodness." It is painful to add what
truth extorts, that this is really not the sentiment and
the language with which a patriot leaves his sove-
reign's councils upon a broad difference of honest
opinion, and after being personally ill-used by that
monarch's favourites; but the tone of feeling, and
even the style of diction, in which a condemned
felon, having sued for mercy, returns thanks when
his life has been spared. The pain of defacing any
portion of so noble a portrait as Lord Chatham's must
LORD CHATHAM.
47
not prevent us from marking the traits of a somewhat
vulgar, if not a sordid, kind, which are to be found on
a closer inspection of the original.
Reference has been made to the generally infirm
state of his bodily health, but a report was very pre-
valent that at one period of his life he laboured under
some depression of spirits, aggravated in all proba-
bility by the treatment which he had experienced
from inferior minds, devoid of all gratitude for his for-
mer services, and all due appreciation of his great
capacity, may readily be admitted. It is also the fact,
that through repeated attacks of an hereditary gout,
to which he was from his early age a martyr, he
experienced great irritability during the same period,
namely, that of his last Administration. The intrigues
of his Cabinet, his unhappy differences with George
Grenville first, and afterwards with Lord Temple also,
his brothers-in-law, together with the admitted seve-
rity of his gout during the time in question, will suf-
ficiently explain the reluctance which he showed to
engage in business, to attend Cabinet meetings, and to
present himself at Court. The remaining circum-
stances relied upon, as his squandering away the
ample legacy of Sir William Pynsent, and his impetu-
ous proceedings in carrying on improvements at his
Kentish villa, with no regard to expense, and even
little attention to the period of the day or night
when he required the work to be done, may all
be well accounted for by the known ardour of his
disposition; and are truly to be reckoned among the
natural ebullitions of the same vehement determina-
tion of purpose which, exerted upon greater things,
formed the leading feature of his commanding char-
acter. The same kind of charge has been made
against Napoleon, from the like overflowings having
been remarked of a genius grand, and consistently
grand, while it occupied only its proper channel; and
imputations of this kind, it must be observed, are
48
LORD CHATHAM.
always acceptable to those who envy the greatness
which they cannot aspire to emulate, and misconstrue
actions which they cannot comprehend.
Such was the man whom George III. most feared,
most hated, and most exerted his kingcraft to dis-
arm; and such, unhappily, was his momentary suc-
cess in this long-headed enterprise against the liber-
ties of his people and their champions; for Lord
Chatham's popularity, struck down by his pension,
was afterwards annihilated by his peerage.

!
49
LORD NORTH.
THE minister whom George III. most loved was, as
has been already said, Lord North, and this extra-
ordinary favour lasted until the period of the Coalition.
It is no doubt a commonly-received notion, and was
at one time an article of belief among the popular
party, that Lord Bute continued his secret adviser
after the termination of his short administration; but
this is wholly without foundation. The King never
had any kind of communication with him, directly or
indirectly; nor did he ever see him but once, and the
history of that occurrence suddenly puts the greater
part of the stories to flight which are current upon this
subject. His aunt, the Princess Amelia, had some
plan of again bringing the two parties together, and
on a day when George III. was to pay her a visit at
her villa of Gunnersbury, near Brentford, she invited
Lord Bute, whom she probably had never informed of
her foolish intentions. He was walking in the garden
when she took her nephew down stairs to view it,
saying there was no one there but an old friend of his,
whom he had not seen for some years. He had not
time to ask who it might be, when, on entering the
garden, he saw his former minister walking up an
alley. The King instantly turned back to avoid him,
reproved the silly old woman sharply, and declared
that, if ever she repeated such experiments, she had
seen him for the last time in her house. The asser-
tion that the common reports are utterly void of all
foundation, and that no communication whatever of
any kind or upon any matter, public or private, ever
E
50
LORD NORTH.
took place between the parties, we make upon the most
positive information, proceeding directly both from
George III. and from Lord Bute. But we go farther :
the story is contrary to all probability; for that Prince,
as well as others of his family, more than suspected
the intimacy between his old governor and his royal
mother, and, according to the nature of princes of
either sex, he never forgave it. The likelihood is,
that this came to his knowledge after the period of his
first illness, and the Regency Bill which he, in conse-
quence of that circumstance, proposed to parliament;
for it is well known that he then had so much regard
for the Dowager Princess as to turn out George Gren-
ville because he passed her over as Regent. Conse-
quently, the discovery which we are supposing him to
have made must have been some time after Lord
Bute's ministry closed. Certain it is that the feeling
towards him had become, for some reason or other,
not neutral, negative, or passive; but such as rules
men, and still more princes, when favour is succeeded
by dislike; for we may then say what was so wittily
observed respecting Louis XV. on a very different
occasion-"Il n'y a rien de petit chez les grands.'
His correspondence with his other ministers, to which
we have had access, speaks the same language; a very
marked prejudice is constantly betrayed against Scotch-
men and Scotch politics.
""
The origin of Lord North's extraordinary favour
was his at once consenting to take the office of prime
minister when the Duke of Grafton, in a moment of
considerable public difficulty and embarrassment, of
what, in those easy days of fair weather, was called
danger, suddenly threw up the seals, and retired to
his diversions and his mistress at Newmarket.
North was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and
leader of the House of Commons. He had thus al-
ready the most arduous by far of the government
duties cast upon him; and his submitting to bear also
Lord
LORD NORTH.
51
the nominal functions and real patronage and power
of the First Lord of the Treasury seemed but a slender
effort of courage or self-devotion. As such, however,
the King considered it; nor during the disastrous and
really difficult times which his own obstinate bigotry
and strong tyrannical propensities brought upon the
country, did he ever cease to feel and to testify the lively
sense he always felt of the obligation under which Lord
North had laid him personally, by coming to his assist-
ance upon that emergency. In fact, responsibility,
which, to almost all official personages, proves the great-
est trial, is the most heavily felt, and the most willingly
shunned, presses with peculiar weight upon the great
public functionary who by law is wholly exempt from
it, and in practice never can know it, unless during
the interval between one ministry and another. The
less he is in general accustomed to this burthen, the
more hard does he find it to bear when he has no
minister to cast it upon. Accordingly kings are pecu-
liarly helpless, extremely anxious, and not a little
alarmed, when any event has, as they term it, "left
them without a government." The relief is propor-
tionably great which they experience when any one,
after such an interregnum in times of difficulty, "comes
(as they also term it) to their assistance," and "consents
to stand by them." This Lord North did for George
III. in 1772; and his conduct never was forgotten by
that Prince. Indeed, the gratitude and personal affec-
tion is very remarkable which he showed ever after
at least till the fatal Coalition on which so many politi-
cal reputations were shipwrecked, and so total a loss
was made of both court and popular favour; and it
forms one of the not very numerous amiable traits in
his character. A striking instance has already been
given in speaking of this monarch.
It must be acknowledged that he was singularly
fortunate in the minister whom he thus obtained, and
indeed in the change which he made. The Duke of
52
LORD NORTH.
Grafton, though a man endowed with many valuable
qualities for his high station, remarkable for a liberality
on ecclesiastical matters rare in any rank, and any one
thing rather than the character painted by the perse-
vering malice and audacious calumnies of Junius, who
made him and the Duke of Bedford, together with
Lord Mansfield, the choice objects of his unsparing
and systematic abuse, was nevertheless of no great
weight in debate, and of habits which the aristocratic
life in those days had little fitted to meet the unceasing
claims of official duty upon a statesman's time and
attention. The industry of professional slanderers, too,
being counteracted by no brilliant political achieve-
ments, had concurred with the discontents prevailing
at home, and dissensions yet more formidably showing
themselves in the colonies, to lower his reputation in
the country, and to make the task of government such
as he plainly shrank from.
The helm, thus abandoned, fell into the hands of
Lord North, then in the vigour of his faculties, in no
respect disadvantageously known to the country, and
an undoubted favourite with the House, which for
some time he had led. His success there was very con-
siderable. Few men in any station have, indeed, left
behind them a higher reputation as a debater, and above
all, as the representative of the government. We now
speak of his fame after his accession to the chief com-
mand in the public councils, as well as the warfare of
parliament, had consolidated his authority, exhibited
his debating powers, and multiplied his victories. It
was his lot to maintain the conflict in times of unpre-
cedented difficulty, and against antagonists such as no
minister ever had to meet, if we except Mr. Addington,
who was speedily overthrown in the rencounter. The
resistance of our whole American empire had ended in
a general rebellion, and all the military prowess failed
to quell it, as all the political measures of the govern-
ment had failed to prevent it, or rather had ripened dis-
LORD NORTH.
53
content into revolt. A series of political disappoint-
ments first, and then of military disasters, had made our
American affairs hopeless, when the war extended itself
to Europe, and our hitherto invincible navy could not
prevent the English coasts and even harbours from being
insulted, while our West India islands were ravaged, and
our trade in those seas was swept away by the enemy's
marine. Nor had the nation the accustomed consola-
tion, and government the usual topic of defence, that our
disasters befel us through the proverbially fickle fortune
of war and the chances of the elements. Every one
failure could be traced to the perverse course of
impolicy and injustice combined, in which the colonial
revolt took its rise. The Americans, unprepared for
resistance, and unwilling to risk it, had been driven
on by the tyrannical bigotry which presided over our
councils, and for which the King was really answer-
able, although by the fictions of the constitution his
servants only could be blamed. Add to this, that the
opposition was led first by Mr. Burke, and afterwards
by Mr. Fox, both in the prime of their extraordinary
faculties, ranking among their zealous adherents such
men as Barrè, Dunning, Lee, supported by the whole
phalanx of the Whig aristocracy, and backed always
by the prodigious weight of Lord Chatham's authority;
occasionally by the exertions of his splendid eloquence,
burning brighter than ever as it approached the hour
of its extinction. The voice of the people, at first
raised against the colonies, soon became loud against
the government; and each blunder and each disaster
made the storm of public indignation rage more and
more violently. Even in point of numbers the parlia-
mentary forces were not so unequally matched as we
have seen them during subsequent seasons of warlike
discomfiture; for while Mr. Pitt has had majorities of
three or four to one in his support, under all the
failures of his continental projects, Lord North was
frequently reduced to fight with majorities so scanty
54
LORD NORTH.
as rather resembled the more recent balance of parlia-
mentary power, than the ordinary workings of our
constitution.
Such was the strife, and in such untoward circum-
stances, which Lord North had to maintain, with the
help only of his attorney and solicitor-generals, Thur-
low and Wedderburn, to whom was afterwards added
Dundas. But a weight far more than sufficient to
counterbalance this accession was about the same time
flung into the opposite scale, and rendered its prepon-
derance still more decided. Mr. Pitt signalized his
entrance into Parliament by the most extraordinary
eloquence, at once matured and nearly perfect in its
kind, and by lending all its aid and all its ornament
to the opposition. Nothing daunted, the veteran
minister persevered in maintaining the conflict, and
was only driven from the helm after he had fought
triumphantly for six years against the greater part of
the Whig chiefs, and desperately for two more against
the whole of the body thus powerfully reinforced.
All contemporary reports agree in representing his
talents as having shone with a great and a steady
lustre during this singularly trying period. Without
any pretensions to fill the higher ranks of eloquence,
with no accomplishments of learning beyond the
scholarship which a well-educated Englishman gains
at Oxford, with political information such as the his-
torical reading of well-informed men could give, he
displayed so thorough an acquaintance with official
and Parliamentary business as easily supplied all
defects in those days of scanty political acquirement,
while his clear excellent sense, which never failed him
and constantly gave him the victory over men of more
brilliant genius; his natural tact, still further improved
by practice and deep knowledge of men; his ready
fluency; his cool determined courage-would alto-
gether have made him a most accomplished debater,
even independent of those peculiar qualities in which
LORD NORTH.
55
he, and indeed all his family, excelled most other
men qualities of singular virtue in any station of
either house of Parliament, but in him who holds the
first place, of most sovereign efficacy in retaining and
rallying his followers, and in conciliating the audience
at large-a wit that never failed him, and a suavity of
temper that could never be ruffled. Combating his
powerful adversaries at such a disadvantage as he, for
the most part, was compelled to work up against, from
the almost unbroken series of failures which he was
called to defend or extenuate, his tactics were greatly
admired as well as his gallantry. Nothing perhaps in
this way ever showed both skill and boldness more
than his unexpectedly granting a motion for inquiring
into the State of the Nation, supposed in parliamentary
procedure to be a vote of distrust in the Ministry; for
when, to a long and powerful speech introducing that
proposition, he contented himself with making an able
and complete reply, and then suddenly professed his full
readiness to meet the question in detail, by going at once
into the committee, the enemy were taken altogether
unprepared, and the whole affair evaporated in smoke.
To give examples of his unbroken good-humour, as
enviable as it was amiable, and perhaps still more use-
ful than either, would be to relate the history of al-
most each night's debate during the American war.
The rage of party never was carried to greater excess,
nor ever more degenerated into mere personal vio-
lence. Constant threats of impeachment, fierce at-
tacks upon himself and all his connexions, mingled
execration of his measures and scorn of his capacity,
bitter hatred of his person-the elaborate, and daz-
zling, and learned fancy of Burke, the unbridled licence
of invective in which the young blood of Fox nightly
boiled over, the epigrams of Barrè, the close reasoning
and legal subtlety of Dunning, the broad humour and
argumentative sarcasm of Lee-were, without inter-
mission, exhausted upon the minister, and seemed to
56
LORD NORTH.
have no effect upon his habitually placid deportment,
nor to consume his endless patience, while they wea-
ried out his implacable antagonist. By a plain homely
answer he could blunt the edge of the fiercest decla-
mation or most refined sarcasm; with his pleasantry,
never far-fetched, nor ever over-done, or misplaced,
or forced, he could turn away wrath and refresh the
jaded listeners, while, by his undisturbed temper, he
made them believe he had the advantage, and could
turn into a laugh, at the assailant's expense, the invec-
tive which had been destined to crush himself. On
one or two occasions, not many, the correspondence
of contemporary writers makes mention of his serenity
having been ruffled, as a proof to what excesses of
violence the opposition had been carried, but also as
an occurrence almost out of the ordinary course of na-
ture. And, truly, of those excesses there needs no
other instance be cited than Mr. Fox declaring, with
much emphasis, his opinion of the minister to be such
that he should deem it unsafe to be alone with him
in a room.
But if it would be endless to recount the triumphs
of his temper, it would be equally so and far more
difficult to record those of his wit. It appears to have
been of a kind peculiarly characteristic, and eminently
natural; playing easily and without the least effort;
perfectly suited to his placid nature, by being what
Clarendon says of Charles II.'s, "a pleasant, affable,
recommending sort of wit;" wholly unpretending; so
exquisitely suited to the occasion that it never failed
of effect, yet so readily produced and so entirely
unambitious, that although it had occurred to nobody
before, every one wondered it had not suggested itself
to all. A few only of his sayings have reached us,
and these, as might be expected, are rather things
which he had chanced to coat over with some sarcasm
or epigram that tended to preserve them; they conse-
quently are far from giving an idea of his habitual
LORD NORTH.
57
pleasantry and the gaiety of thought which generally
pervaded his speeches. Thus, when a vehement de-
claimer, calling aloud for his head, turned round and
perceived his victim unconsciously indulging in a soft
slumber, and becoming still more exasperated, de-
nounced the Minister as capable of sleeping while he
ruined his country-the latter only complained how
cruel it was to be denied a solace which other criminals
so often enjoyed, that of having a night's rest before
their fate. When surprised in a like indulgence dur-
ing the performance of a very inferior artist, who, how-
ever, showed equal indignation at so ill-timed a recre-
ation, he contented himself with observing how hard
it was that he should be grudged so very natural a
release from considerable suffering; but, as if recollect-
ing himself, added, that it was somewhat unjust in the
gentleman to complain of him for taking the remedy
which he had himself been considerate enough to ad-
minister. The same good-humour and drollery quitted
him not when in opposition. Every one has heard of
the speech which, if it had failed to injure the objects
of its attack, was very effectual in affixing a name
upon its honest and much respected author. On Mr.
Martin's proposal to have a starling placed near the
chair and taught to repeat the cry of "Infamous
coalition!" Lord North coolly suggested that, as long
as the worthy member was preserved to them, it would
be a needless waste of the public money, since the star-
ling might well perform his office by deputy. That
in society such a man must have been the most de-
lightful of companions may well be supposed. In his
family, and in all his private intercourse as in his per-
sonal character, he was known to be in every re-
spect amiable; of scrupulous integrity and unsullied
honour.
As a statesman, his merits are confessedly far inferior
to those which clothed him as a debater and as a man.
The American war is the great blot upon his fame; for
58
LORD NORTH.
his share in the Coalition was only exceptionable on
account of the bitterness with which his adversaries had
so long pursued him; and if they could submit to the
fellowship of one upon whom they had heaped such
unmeasured abuse, they seemed to recant, or even to
confess that the opinions which they had previously pro-
fessed of him they had not really entertained. That
ill-fated measure of the Whigs seemed to be rather a
tribute of tardy justice to their great adversary, and it
was not for him either to reject it or to scrutinize the
motives from which it was paid. But the policy towards
our colonies, of which he had been the leading advocate
in Parliament, and for which he was primarily respon-
sible as minister, can admit of no defence; nor in his
position, and upon so momentous a question, is it
possible to urge, even in extenuation of his offending,
that he was all along aware of the King's egregious
folly, which obstinately persisted in a hopeless and
ruinous struggle against the liberties of his people.
That this, however, was the fact, there exists no kind of
doubt; he was long resolved to quit the helm, because
George III. insisted on a wrong course being steered
-that helm which he ought to have quitted as soon as
his mind was made up to differ with the owner of the
vessel, unless he were permitted to follow his own
course; and he was only kept at his post by constant
entreaties, by monthly expostulations, by the most
vehement protestations of the misguided Prince against
a proceeding which must leave him helpless in the
hands of his implacable enemies, and even by promises
always renewed to let him go would he but remain
for a few weeks, until some other arrangement could
be made. It is fit that this certain and important fact
should be stated; and we have before us the proofs of
it under the hand of the Royal Suitor to his reluctant.
servant's grace and favour, whose apparently fixed
purpose of retirement he uses all these expedients to
defeat, or at least to obstruct and retard, if he cannot

LORD NORTH.
59
frustrate. This importunity working upon the feelings
of a well-natured person like Lord North, might easily
be expected to produce its intended effect; and the
unavoidable difficulty of retreating from a post which,
while he held it, had become one of peril as well as
embarrassment, doubtless increased the difficulty of
abandoning it while the danger lasted.
But although we may thus explain, we are not the
better enabled to excuse the minister's conduct. When
he found that he could no longer approve the policy
which he was required to pursue, and of course to
defend, he was bound to quit the councils of his
obstinate and unreasonable Sovereign. Nor can there
be a worse service, either to the Prince or his people,
than enabling a Monarch to rule in his own person,
dictating the commands of his own violence or caprice,
through servants who disapprove of his measures, and
yet suffer themselves to be made instruments for carry-
ing them into execution. A bad King can desire
nothing more than to be served by such persons, whose
opinions he will as much disregard as their inclinations,
but whom he will always find his tools in doing the work
of mischief, because they become the more at the Mon-
arch's mercy in proportion as they have surrendered
their principles and their will to his. Far, then, very far
from vindicating the conduct of Lord North in this
essential point, we hesitate not to affirm that the dis-
crepancy between his sentiments and his measures is
not even any extenuation of the disastrous policy which
gave us, for the fruits of a long and disastrous war, the
dismemberment of the empire. In truth, what other-
wise might have been regarded as an error of judgment,
became an offence, only palliated by considering those
kindly feelings of a personal kind which governed him,
but which every statesman, indeed every one who acts
in any capacity as trustee for others, is imperatively
called upon to disregard.
While, however, truth requires this statement, justice
60
LORD NORTH.
equally demands that, in thus denouncing his offence,
we should mark how very far it is from being a solitary
case of political misconduct. Upon how many other
great occasions have other ministers sacrificed their
principles, not to the good-natured wish that the King
might not be disturbed, but to the more sordid appre-
hension that their own government might be broken
up, and their adversaries displace them, if they man-
fully acted up to their well known and oftentimes re-
corded opinions? How many of those who, but for
this unwelcome retrospect into their own lives, which
we are thus forcing upon them, would be the very first
to pronounce a pharisaical condemnation on Lord
North, have adopted the views of their opponents,
rather than yield them up their places by courageously
and honestly pursuing the course prescribed by their
own? Let us be just to both parties: but first to the
conductor of the American war, by calling to mind the
similar delinquency of some who have succeeded to his
power, with capacity of a higher order than his, and of
some who resembled him only in their elevation to
high office, without his talents to sustain it or to adorn.
The subject, too, has a deeper and more general
interest than merely that of dispensing justice among
individuals; it concerns the very worst offence of
which a minister can be guilty-the abandonment of
his own principles for place, and counselling his Sove-
reign and his country, not according to his conscience,
but according to what, being most palatable to them,
is most beneficial to the man himself.
Mr. Pitt joining the war party in 1793, the most
striking and the most fatal instance of this offence,
is the one which at once presents itself; because of all
Lord North's adversaries there was none who pursued
him with such unrelenting rancour, to the pitch of
emptorily refusing all negotiations with the Fox party,
unless their new ally should be expelled, when he,
with a magnanimity rare indeed among statesmen,
per-
LORD NORTH.
61
instantly removed the obstacle to his bitter adversary's
elevation, by withdrawing all claims to a share of
power. No one more clearly than Mr. Pitt saw the
ruinous consequences of the contest into which his new
associates, the deserters from the Whig standard, were
drawing or were driving him; none so clearly perceived
or so highly valued the blessings of peace, as the fin-
ance minister who had but the year before accom-
panied his reduction of the whole national establish-
ment with a picture of our future prosperity almost
too glowing even for his great eloquence to attempt.
Accordingly it is well known, nor is it ever contra-
dicted by his few surviving friends, that his thoughts
were all turned to peace. But the voice of the court was
for war; the aristocracy was for war; the country was
not disinclined towards war, being just in that state of
excitable (though as yet not excited) feeling which it
depended upon the government, that is, upon Mr. Pitt,
either to calm down into a sufferance of peace, or rouse
into a vehement desire of hostilities. In these circum-
stances, the able tactician, whose genius was confined to
parliamentary operations, at once perceived that a war
must place him at the head of all the power in the state,
and, by uniting with him the more aristocratic portion of
the Whigs, cripple his adversaries irreparably; and he
preferred flinging his country into a contest which he
and his great antagonist by uniting their forces must
have prevented; but then he must also have shared
with Mr. Fox the power which he was determined to
enjoy alone and supreme. This was a far worse offence
than Lord North's; although the country, or at least the
patrician party, shared with the crown the prejudices
to which Mr. Pitt surrendered his own judgment, and
the power to reward his welcome conversion. The
youngest man living will not survive the fatal effects
of this flagrant political crime.
The abandonment of the Catholic question by the
same minister when he returned to power in 1804
62
LORD NORTH.
and the similar sacrifice which the Whigs made at his
death to the bigotry of George III., are often cited as
examples of the same delinquency. But neither the
one nor the other of these passages presents anything
like the same aspect with the darker scene of place-
loving propensities which we have just been surveying.
The marked difference is the state of the war; the
great desire which the Pitt party had of conducting hos-
tilities with vigour, and which the Fox party had of
bringing them to a close. The more recent history,
however, of the same question affords instances more
parallel to those of the American and the French wars.
When peace was restored, and when even the obstacle
to the emancipation presented by George III.'s obsti-
nate bigotry was removed, they who had so long talked
the uncouth language, so strange to the constitution
of a free country, of yielding to "unhappy preju-
dices in a high quarter, impossible to be removed,” had
now no longer any pretext for uttering such sounds as
those. The Regent, afterwards the King, had no
prejudices which any man, be his nature ever so sensi-
tive, was called on to respect; for he had, up to the
illness of his father, been a warm friend of the Catholics.
Yet, no sooner did he declare against his former prin-
ciples, than Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning also de-
clared that his conscience (the scrupulous conscience of
George IV.!) must not be forced, and one administra-
tion was formed after another upon the principle of aban-
doning all principle in order to follow the interests of
the parties, and of leaving the domestic peace of the
country by common consent out of view. The present
state of Ireland, and indeed to a certain degree the
unworthy course pursued by their successors on Irish
affairs, is the fruit, and the natural fruit, of this wholly
unprincipled system.
The subject of Parliamentary Reform affords other
illustrations of a like kind. To alter the constitution
of parliament as one party termed it, to restore it as
LORD NORTH.
63
another said, but to change its actual structure as all
admitted, might be right or it might be wrong; might
be necessary for the peace of the country, or might be
the beginning of inextricable confusion; but at any
rate statesmen were called upon to decide so grave a
question upon its own merits-a question by far the
most momentous of any that statesmen were in this
world ever summoned to discuss in the peaceful
deliberations of council, or senators to decide by the
weapons of argument alone-a question which, in any
other age, perhaps in any other country, must have
been determined, not by deliberations of politicians
or arguments of orators, but by the swords and the
spears of armed combatants. Yet this question has
more than once, and by more than one party, been
made the subject of compromise, at one time taken up,
at another laid down, as suited the convenience rather
than the duty of statesmen. Of a certainty, those men
have no right to blame Lord North for remaining in
office, though disapproving the American war, rather
than break up the government and open the doors of
Downing Street to the Opposition. In one respect,
indeed, Lord North has been by far outdone by them.
No exigency of party affairs ever drove him back to
the side of the American controversy which he had
escaped. But the "Reformers of the Eleventh Hour,"
having made all the use of their new creed which they
well could, took the opportunity of the new reign to cast
it off, and, fancying they could now do without it, re-
turned into the bosom of their own church, becoming
once more faithful supporters of things as they are,
and sworn enemies of reform,
A new and perhaps unexpected vindication of Lord
North has been recently presented by the Canadian
policy of liberal governments, as far as mistakes by
inferior artists can extenuate the failings of their more
eminent predecessors. When the senseless folly was
stated of clinging by colonies wholly useless and
64
LORD NORTH.
merely expensive, which all admit must sooner or
later assert their independence and be severed from the
mother country, none of all this was denied, nor indeed
could it; but the answer was, that no government
whatever could give up any part of its dominions
without being compelled by force, and that history
afforded no example of such a surrender without an
obstinate struggle. What more did Lord North, and
the other authors of the disgraceful contest with
America, than act upon this bad principle?
But a general disposition exists in the present day
to adopt a similar course to the one which we have
been reprobating in him, and that upon questions of
the highest importance. It seems to be demanded by
one part of the community, and almost conceded by
some portion of our rulers in our days, that it is the
duty of statesmen when in office to abdicate the
functions of Government. We allude to the unworthy,
the preposterous, the disgraceful doctrine of what are
called "open questions." Its infamy and its audacity
has surely no parallel. Enough was it that the Catho-
lic Emancipation should have been taken up in this
fashion, from a supposed necessity and under the
pressure of fancied, nay fictitious difficulties. No one
till now ever had the assurance to put forward, as a
general principle, so profligate a rule of conduct;
amounting indeed to this, that, when any set of poli-
ticians find their avowed and recorded opinions incon-
sistent with the holding by office they may lay them
aside, and abdicate the duty of Government while they
retain its emoluments and its powers. Mark well, too,
that this is not done upon some trivial question,
which all men who would act together in one body
for the attainment of great and useful objects may and
oftentimes must waive, or settle by mutual
cessions-nothing of the kind; it is upon the greatest
and most useful of all objects that the abdication is
demanded, and is supposed to be made. Whether
con-
LORD NORTH.
65
Reform shall be final or progressive-whether the
Elective Franchise shall be extended or not-whether
voting shall be by Ballot or open-whether the Corn
Laws shall be repealed or not-such are the points
upon which the ministers of the Crown are expected
to have exactly no opinion; alone of the whole com-
munity to stand mute and inactive, neither thinking,
neither stirring-and to do just precisely neither more
nor less than—nothing. It is surely unnecessary to
"The word abdicate," on which men de-
say more.
bated so long one hundred and fifty years ago, is the
only word in the dictionary which can suit the case.
Can any one thing be more clear than this, that there
are questions upon which it is wholly impossible that
a Government should not have some opinion, and
equally necessary that, in order to deserve the name
of a Government, its members should agree? Why
are one set of men in office rather than another, but
because they agree among themselves, and differ with
their adversaries upon such great questions as these?
The code of political morality recognizes the idem
sentire de republica as a legitimate bond of virtuous
union among honest men; the idem velle atque idem
nolle is also a well-known principle of action; but
among the associates of Catiline, and by the confession
of their profligate leader. Can it be doubted for a
moment of time, that when a Government has said,
"We cannot agree on these the only important points
of practical policy," the time is come for so recon-
structing and changing it, as that an agreement im-
periously demanded by the best interests of the state
may be secured? They are questions upon which an
opinion must be formed by every man, be he states-
man or individual, ruler or subject. Each of the
great measures in question is either expedient or it is
hurtful. The people have an indisputable right to the
help of the Government in furthering it if beneficial,
in resisting it if pernicious; and to proclaim that, on
F
66
LORD NORTH.
these subjects, the governors of the country alone.
must stand neuter, and leave the questions to their
fate, is merely to say that, whensoever it is most
necessary to have a Government, we have no Govern-
ment at all: and why? Because they in whose hands
the administration of affairs is vested are resolved
rather to keep their places than to do their duty.
A similar view is sometimes put forward and even
acted upon, but of so vulgar, so incomparably base a
kind, that we hardly know if we should deign to
mention it. The partizans of a ministry are wont to
say for their patrons, that, unless the country call for
certain measures, it shall not have them. What! Is
this the duty of rulers? Are men in such stations to
give all that may be asked, and only to give because
of the asking, without regarding whether it be a boon
or a bane? Is the motto of them that hold the citadel
to be "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you?"-
Assuredly such men as these do not rise even to the
mean rank of those disgraced spirits elsewhere, who
while in life
visser senza infamia e senza lodo;
but of them we may at least say as of these,
Non ragionam di lor ma guarda e passa.*
*
While Lord North led the House of Commons, he
had extremely little help from any merely political
men of his party. No ministers joined him in defend-
ing the measures of his Government. His reliance
was upon professional supporters; and Gibbon has de-
scribed him as slumbering between the great legal
Pillars of his administration, his Attorney and Solici-
tor General, who indeed composed his whole strength,
until Mr. Dundas, also a professional supporter, being
Lord Advocate of Scotland, became a new and very
valuable accession to his forces.
* DANTE, Inf.
APPENDIX.
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO LORD NORTH.
"23rd Feb. 1768.
"NOTHING can be more honourable to Admn than the
Division when not expected. Mr. Dowdeswell will not get
credit by so weak a manœuvre.”
“25 April, 1768.
"Though entirely confiding in your attachment to my
Person, as well as in y* hatred of ev' lawless proceeding,
yet I think it highly proper to apprize you, that the ex-
pulsion of Mr. Wilkes appears to be very essential and
must be effected. The case of Mr. Ward, in the reign of
my great-grandfather, seems to point out the proper method
of proceeding. If any man were capable of forgetting
his criminal writings, his speech in Court last Wedy wa
be reason enough, for he declared 45 a Paper that the
Author might glory in, and the blasphemous Poem a mere
ludicrous Production."
"28 Jan 1769.
"Great pleasure at ye great majority last night.* I
attribute it principally to the ability shewn by you, both
in planning the measure and executing it.”
"3d Feby 1769.
"Honourable conclusion of debate this morning,† and
promises a proper end of this irksome affair. Inconsistency
of those who opposed to-day what they supported yester-
day."
* This refers to the Debate upon the Resolutions and address to the King
respecting the Disturbances in America, after a very long debate in which
Lord North, Mr. Dowdeswell, Mr. Burke, Mr. George Grenville, the Attorney
and Solicitor General, Alderman Beckford, and Col. Barré took part; the
House divided at three in the morning. For the address 155; against it 89.
+ On Lord Barrington's motion for the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, which was
carried by 219 against 137: the resolution moved by the Attorney General
de Grey, of censure on Mr. Wilkes for a seditious Libel, having been carried
the day before by 239 against 136.
68
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"31 March, 1769.
"This instant heard that the Grand Jury have refused
to find Bills against those concerned in the audacious Tu-
mult at St. James's on 22nd. Enquire."
Same day, past 11, P.M.
"Factious and partial conduct of the Grand Juries. If
there be no law to quell Riot, and if Juries forget their
oath to be guided by facts, not faction, this Constitution
must be overthrown. I am ready to take any forward part,
and I trust every honest man will join to crush this Party
that aims at the very vitals of all Government."
"6 April, 1769.
Spirit shewn by the House of C., which I ascribe
chiefly to the spirit and good conduct you have shewn."
"9 May, 1769.
"Received acct of very honourable Issue of yesterday's
Debate and List of Speakers.* The House has with becom-
ing dignity supported their own Privileges, without which
they cannot subsist, and it is now my duty to see the Laws
obeyed."
"7 Jan. 1770.
† I am so desirous that every man in my service should
take part in the Debate on Tuesday, that I desire you will
very strongly press Sir S. Elliott and any others that have
not taken a part last Session. I have no objection to your
adding that I have particularly directed you to speak to
them.'
19
"23d Jany 1770.
'Lord Weym" and Lª Gower will wait on you this morn-
*This refers to the Debate on Monday the 8th of May, upon the Petition
against the return of Mr. Luttrell for Middlesex, instead of Mr. Wilkes. On
the division the yeas were 221, the noes 152, although the counsel for the
sitting member admitted that Mr. Wilkes had polled 1143 votes, and Mr.
Luttrell only 296!
† Tuesday, 9th January, on the opening of the third Session of the
thirteenth Parliament. The address was carried by 254 against 138. In
this debate Mr. Fox spoke and voted with the Government, and soon after-
wards was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty.
LORD NORTH.
69
ing to press you in the strongest manner to accept the office
of first Lord Comm' of y° Treasury. My mind is more
and more strengthened in the rightness of the measure wh
wd prevent ev³ other desertion. You must easily see that
if you don't accept, I have no peer at present that I wª con-
sent to place in the D. of Grafton's employ."
*
"29 Jany 1770.
"This morning or after the debate see Gen. Conway, for
I know how much he is pleased with these little marks of
attention. By placing some confidence in him you may
rely on his firm support. How did you find Lª Mansfield
last night? Had you any conversation wh Lord C. J.
Wilmot.'
"1 Feb. 1770.
"A Majy of 40 on the old ground at least ten times†
before the House, is a very favourable auspice on your
taking a lead in the Adm". A little spirit will soon restore
order in my service. I am glad to find that Sir G. Elliott
has again spoke."
"1st Feby 1770.
"In consequence of my negotiation wh the D. of Graft.
Col. Fitzroy has in the handsomest manner declined the
place of Vice Chamberlain. Sound Mr. Robinson."
"2nd Feby 1770.
As the Question proposed by Mr. Dowdeswell was
well called to catch many Persons, I think it has been
rejected by a very handsome Majority."
"16 Feby 1770.
"How has Sir L. Dundas received the answer to his very
unreasonable and unseasonable proposal? I suppose Mr.
*The Duke of Grafton resigned the office of First Lord of the Treasury on
the evening of the 28th of January, and was succeeded by Lord North, at
that time Chancellor of the Exchequer.
† On the motion of Mr. Dowdeswell against the resolution which had been
passed some days before, incapacitating Mr. Wilkes.
† This refers to Mr. Dowdeswell's motion for incapacitating Wilkes.
70
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
Robinson is not to vacate till after the debate of Monday.*
Lª Weym¹ will go to you tomorrow before the rest of yº
Comp to say that as La Townd wa dislike resigning the
Secret, he cannot advise pressing him. I think La Hali-
fax a proper Privy Seal. I wish you wd open the intended
arrangement to him, wh will be kindly taken."
"28 Feby 1770.
"To see the Majority constantly encrease gives me the
greatest pleasure."
"6 March, 1770.
"I hope to hear from you this eve what has passed at
Guildhall in the morning."
"11 March, 1770.
"I shall be glad to hear what Precedents you have got.
I continue of opinion that an Answer must be given to the
Remonstrance, and that unless the Instances are very similar
of having directed a certain number to attend, it will be
every way best to receive them on the Throne."
"13 March, 1770.
"As the House is up come between 7 and 8 wh the
answer to the Remonstrance."
(C
Nothing more respectful to me, nor
to themselves, than the conduct of the
day.”‡
"16 March, 1770.
more honourable
Majority yester-
"18 March, 1770.
"The intended Resolutions seem very proper, and as they
dont end wh any severity agt the La Mayor or Sheriffs, will
meet with a feeble opp", for on that depended the Union of
* This was the Debate on the question that the resolution declaring Mr.
Wilkes incapable of being elected to serve in the present Parliament, was
agreeable to the law of the land and custom of Parliament. On a division,
this was carried by 237 against 159.
†This refers to the division on Mr. Grenville's motion on the state of the
Civil List, upon which the Division was for the motion 165, against it 262.
This was on the Debate on Sir Thomas Clavering's motion, that the
Remonstrance of the City, and the King's answer to it, be laid before the
House. This was carried by 271 to 108.
LORD NORTH.
71
all the Adverse Party. People were very anxious at Court
to learn your plan for tomorrow, party Sir T. Clavering, who
wd be flattered by some communication wh his conduct on
Thursday seems to deserve."
"20 March, 1770.
"Presses strongly for giving an answer on the Throne to
ye Remonstrance.
"5 April, 1770.
"I cannot help expressing some surprise at seeing Gen¹
Conway's name in support of Sir E. Astley's motion which
is so antiquated an opposition Point, and wh no candid man
cd be supposed to adopt."
"Debate in teeth of standing order.”
("
"9 April, 1770.
"12 April, 1770.
Approve the step you have taken, and will write a civil
note to La Weyth on ye impossibility of having given any
rise to his Brother on this occasion."
"20 April, 1770.
"About the approaching vacancy for Westm³, I am con-
vinced that it is not worth while to occasion a tumult in
the city by encouraging a contest, unless some man of inde-
pend character wª stand, wh I dont expect."
"4 April, 1770.
"The offer of ye Vice Treasurership will undoubtedly
confirm the D. of Beaufort in his very handsome manner
of acting though he has declined. Let Lª Edge. kiss
hands. Sir E. Hawke may now appoint an adm. on ye
Plym¹ Stat", which at the desire of yº D. of Grafton he
deferred till Lª Ed. &c."
“13 May, 1770.
"Mr. Pitt having resigned his office of groom to the
* This was a motion for a return of all Pensions granted during the present
Parliament, which was lost by 162 to 104. General Conway spoke in favour
of the motion.
72
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
bedchamber, I have directed Lª Bristol to notify Sir S. Osb.
as his Successor."
"16 June, 1770.
"As Mr. Wallace declines the vacant seat on the K.
bench, authorise you to enable Lª Mansfield to sound
Mr. Ashurst: if he declines, the preference must be given to
Sergt Burland, whom Lª Mansfield thinks superior in
talents to Serg Nares, particularly as I find the nomination
of the latter wd be very detrimental to the Interest of the
D. of Malb¹, as his Influence at Oxford wd be much shook
by opening that Borough for so many months."
t
"16 June, 1770.
"The step you have taken in forwarding the appoint-
ment of a Judge on the removal of Sir W. Black to ye
Common Pleas, meet my thorough approbation."
"1 Oct 1770.
“You will hear of applications for the Roy. Regt of
Horse Guards on ye death of Lª Granby. I therefore tell
you that Gen. Conway, when Sergt, and on his resignation,
had a promise of them. I therefore shall immdy send to
Lª Barrington to make out the notification.”
5 Nov 1770.
"My bro™s have this day applied abt the means of paying
the D. of Cumba's damages and costs, wh. if not pa this day
se'enight, the Proc's will certainly force the house, which
at this licentious time will occasion reflexions on yº rest of
the family. Whatever can be done, ought to be done."
"The sum likely to be procured, £13,000."
Same day.
9th Nov 1770.
"The more I reflect on Lª Mansfield's suggestion of not
assembling Parliament till the arrival of y° Spanish Messr³,
the more I am convinced that it wª be injurious to that
Court; and that of Versailles w augur from it that we
had resolved at all events to accommodate the dispute.
LORD NORTH.
73
Yet I wish to hear what he has said on it, and on ye ap-
point of a Chancellor, and wh. has passed between you
and the Attorney General. La Weym has applied for his
cousin, La Dysart, for one of the sixteen."
''
d
h
"11 Dec 1770.
"La Mansfield has been here to explain his conduct,
and says that, as it is now known that a Chancellor is
appointed, he makes no diff in acting as Speaker of the
House of Lds for some time, nay sa for a month or two if
that cª be of any utility."
"16 Nov 1770.
"Sends enclosed an Extract from Foster's Report of the
case of Broadfoot, for the murder of Com. Callaghan, wh.
contains his opinion on the legality of impress, which is to
come on to-day.
CC
Expectation of war wh Spain."
"14 Dec 1770.
“*Lord G. Germaine's two motions, and the very
handsome majorities in favour of Govt Intentions to make
Ld Sandwich Secy for the Northern Department.
"In the Month of December greatest expectations of
important information about Spanish affairs from a Ms
Francis."
"17 Dec 1770.
"+Lord George Germaine omitting so many days to call
Gov' Johnstone to account, does not give much idea of his
resolution, but that he has at length been persuaded by his
Friends to take this step."
"19 Dec. 1770.
"I am glad Mr. Thurlow consents to assist, which will
satisfy Mr. Wedderburn. I am certain this arrangement
will be of considerable advantage to the Stability of the
Government. La Sandwich to be sworn in."
* This was upon the attendance of Peers' eldest sons, King's Serjeants,
and the Attorney and Solicitor General, being Members of Parliament, to
carry messages to the House of Lords.
The duel, which was fought on 17th December, arose out of the Debate
on the 14th.
74
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"26 Dec 1770.
"By an intercepted letter from the Duc de Choiseul to
the French Chargé des Affaires at Hamburgh my opinion
is confirmed, that we shall not have such offers from the
Court of Spain as can enable us to preserve the blessings of
peace."
"13 Jany 1771.
"As Lª Suffolk does not speak French, might not La
Rochd take the whole foreign Department, as at other
Courts, and Lª S. wd have the home, including Scotland
and Ireland."
"16 Jan. 1771.
"If La Halifax wishes the Northern Department, he
may have it.'
"16 Jany 1771.
"As Lord Hardwick has declined accepting the Northern
Seals, you will this eve call on Lª Dartmh wh the same
offer."
"17 Jany
"Lª Darm¹ has taken time to consider. Much pleasure."
"23 Jany 1771.
"If any thing were wanting to confirm my opinion of
the worth and disinterestedness of La C. J. Wilmot, his
noble conduct at this occasion must establish it—wh is a
little contrasted w¹ what you mention of his intended suc-
cessor.*
The Pension ought to be £2,000 per annum.
"4 Feby 1771.
"Mr. Seymour's motion has no appearance of candor,
and cannot do honour to the supporters."
"11 Feby 1771.
"What has passed in the H. of C. this day is a fresh
* De Grey, then Attorney General.
This refers to Sir William Meredith's motion for leave to bring in a
Bill to repeal the clause in the Nullum Tempus Act, giving parties twelve
months to sue, notwithstanding the Act, of which clause Sir James Lowther
had taken advantage, by commencing or giving notice of a great number of
LORD NORTII.
75
proof that Truth, Justice, and even honour are constantly
to be given up whenever they relate to Sir James Lowther.
Though this cannot please you, yet it does no way endanger
Administration."
"14 Feby 1771.
'The great majority last night is very creditable. The
seeing Col. Burgoyne's name on the side of the Ministry
is so extraordinary* that I almost imagine it is a mistake,
and that Nich. Calvert's name among the Majy is also
erroneous.
،،
""
"21st Feb 1771.
'Sorry so very arbitrary a measure as the D. of Porta's
dispute shª be sent to a Come, though glad yº Maj³ is les-
sened, wh may be a means of throwing it out before it comes
to H. of Ls.
66
Very much considª the affair of the Printers, and in
the strongest manner recommend that ev caution may
be used to prevent its becoming a serious business. It is
highly necessary that this strange and lawless method of
publishing debates in the Papers should be put a stop to.
But is not the H. of Las the best Court to bring such mis-
creants before, as it can fine as well imprison, and has
broader shoulders to support the odium of so salutary a
measure.'
""
actions. Ministers opposed the motion, but were defeated by 152 to 123.
They were also, on the 20th of February, defeated on the second reading of
the Bill, by 155 to 140. On the 27th of February the Bill was lost by 164
to 154, on the motion that the House go into Committee, Mr. Fox and
Lord North strongly opposing the Bill; the former defended Sir James
Lowther's title, and the latter pronounced a warm panegyric upon him.
Lord North's entire difference with the king, on the subject of Sir James
Lowther is remarkable, for his speech on the 27th was long after the king's
letter. The king's dislike of Sir James Lowther is also remarkable, con-
sidering he was Lord Bute's son-in-law. This dislike, so long before Sir
James had given him personal offence, by taking part with his brothers,
(the Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland,) seems to indicate the alienation
from Lord Bute.
* He opposed Government upon the Address on the Falkland Island
question-the majority was 271 to 157. Colonel Burgoyne both spoke and
voted against the Government. Nicholson Calvert spoke and voted in
favour and in support of the Government.
† On the 8th of February the House of Commons took into consideration
the question of printing their Debates. This came on again on the 19th,
when a resolution against one of the printers passed by 115 to 31.
76
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"26 Feby 1771.
"So many of the principal* Persons in opposition in ye
Minority today, and the number, only 19, is extraordi-
nary."
"28 Feby 1771.
"The gaining of the Court of Sweden is no real object
for this Country. If after considerable expence that is
effected, it will be impossible to keep her Friendship with-
out a Subsidy: for that Power cannot subsist without
foreign money. Besides, as there is no public mode of
obtaining the money expended in that corruption, it must
be taken from my Civil List, and conse" new debts incurred;
and when I apply to Parliament for them, an odium is cast
upon me, as if the money had been expended in bribing
Parliament. I therefore think we ought only to feed the
opposition to France, to prevent that Crown from carrying
material Points."
"8 March, 1771.
"Rejoiced at the good conclusion of yesterday's debate.
Wisdom of leaving the opposition to their own divisions."
Same day.
"Desires application to the Chanc" of Camb. to nominate
a proper person to the Professorship of Modern History.
Gray."
"10 March, 1771.
§I think these offices being instituted for promoting
learning in ye Universities ought not to be given by favour,
but according to merit."
"17 March, 1771.
"If Lord Mayor and Oliver not committed, the Autho-
rity of the H. of C. is annihilated. Send Jenkinson to
* The division was 162 to 19. Sir George Savile, Dunning, Barré, Dow-
deswell, Alderman Sawbridge, William Burke, were in the minority, and are
the "principal persons" referred to by the king.
ဟာ
Written on the death of the king of Sweden.
Gray the poet who was appointed.
This refers to the same professorship.
LORD NORTH.
77
Lª Mansfª for his opinion of the best way of enforcing the
commitment, if these People continue to disobey. You
know very well I was averse to meddling with the Printers,
but now there is no retreating. The honour of the Com-
mons must be supported."
"19 March, 1771.
"Delighted with conduct of ye Majority. Suggests
sending La Mayor to the Tower by water privately, to
avoid rescue."
"28 March, 1771.
"I would on no account pass the Bills otherwise than in
Person at a moment like this: believe me the spirit you
shewed yesterday will prevent its being often called upon.
They now know you are not to be alarmed."
"26 April, 1771.
"Mr. Sawbridge's motion so absurd and § Mr. Corn-
wall's so indecent to his bro" members, that they cannot
do much credit to the disjointed opposition."
"7 May, 1771.
"Enquire of Mr. Dyson, who is so thorough a master
of Form, whether the speech ought not to say, My Good
Brother the King of Spain, rather than his Catholic
Majesty."
"11 June, 1771.
"The D. of Grafton has very handsomely accepted the
Privy Seal. He even thought the Confidential Cabinet too
numerous; and on La Bristol's getting the P. S. he desired
that it might be stipulated that he shª not be of yº meet-
ing; and as he thinks the same in his own case, there is no
* On the motion of Welbore Ellis, that the Lord Mayor (Brass Crosby)
do attend in his place tomorrow (19th March), which was carried by 267 to 80.
This refers to the debate upon Welbore Ellis's motion for sending the Lord
Mayor and Alderman Oliver to the Tower, which was carried by 202 to 39.
For shortening the duration of Parliament-lost by 105 to 54.
& Mr. Cornwall's motion on the Lottery Bill, that no members should be
allowed to subscribe for more than twenty tickets, rejected by 31 to 11.
The Session closed on the 8th of May, when the king in his speech
say's, “the satisfaction I have obtained from his Catholic majesty."
78
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
On of occa-
reason for summoning him on Ministerial questions, except
when they are to be debated in the H. of Lds.
sions if his advice is asked, he can give it privately."
"2 January, 1772.
I.
"Has heard from La Bellamont of the intention of Col.
Luttrell to come over to resign his seat for Midd Sug-
gests a private intimation to Lord Townshend (Lª Lt) not
to give the Col. leave."
"2d Jany 1772.
"Sir Jeff. Amherst's letter commends his own services
too much. General Conway having quitted the Seals
HANDSOMELY wh a promise of the Blues, his appointment
cannot be considered as forgetting Sir Jeff. The 3d Guards
always held by a Scotchman. That Instance also wt foun-
dation.
"Mr. Allen is only an additional proof of that aversion
to English Govt and of that avowed profligacy that the
Gent" of that Country seem to despise, masking with the
name of Conscience, and must sooner or later oblige this
Country seriously to consider w the uniting to this Crown
wd not be yº only means of making both Islands flourish.
"La Townd's idea of a Pension to La Shannon when the
Session is over seems absurd-to let him to do all the mis-
chief he can while his assiste ca be of use, and then reward
him when his good wishes can avail nothing.”
"6 Jan³ 1772.
"The sketch of the speech I approve. † When the sen-
tences are a little rounded, and that the foreign article is
added, it will make a very good one.”
"23d Jany 1772.
"I shall be glad to have some conversation with you on
the publications against both Houses of Parliament."
""
"29th Jany 1772.
"There cannot be a stronger proof that the opposition
is agt men not measures, than Sir C. Saunders and Adm¹
* Answers to Various Applications.
† The Parliament was opened by the King on the 21st.
LORD NORTH.
79
Keppel objecting to an add' number of Seamen, for which
they used to cry."
"5 Feb 1772.
"On the Royal Marriage Act, desires a Clause to make
the Consent of the Regent nec' when the King is a minor."
"6 Feby 1772.
"Sir Gilb. Elliott's son, a pretty young man, and I sª be
glad to place him in the Army; but a Capt Lieut' at once
wd offend many Peers and Members of the H. of C."
(C
My Mother is no more.'
8th Feb 1772.
"26 Feb 1772.
“I expect every nerve to be strained to carry the Billt
(Roy¹ Marr.). It is not a question that relates to Admin-
istration but personally to myself, therefore I have a right
to expect a hearty support from ev³ one in my Service, and
I shall remember Defaulters."
"2nd March, 1772.
"I am glad to find that Mr. Montague's motion§ has
been rejected, as it will keep many worthy men in good
humour. Besides the abolition of the day wd not be very
delicate."
"12th March 1772.
"Unless my Impression of the absence of Col. Burgoyne
* Debate on the 29th in Committee of Supply, Keppel and Saunders
There was no division.
opposed any increase in the number of seamen.
The Princess Dowager of Wales.
The Royal Marriage Bill. In the summer of 1771, the Duke of Cum-
berland married Mrs. Horton, and in the spring of 1772, the Duke of Glou-
cester declared that he had been married to the Countess Dowager of Wald-
grave since 1766. This gave rise to the Marriage Bill.
§ On the 2d of March Mr. Montague moved for a repeal of the Act for
the observance of the 30th of January. His motion was rejected by 125
to 97.
|| On the second reading of the Royal Marriage Bill, on the 9th of March,
the division was 268 to 140. On the 11th, on the motion for going into
80
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
and Lt Col. Harcourt from yesterday's division had been
corrected, I really shª have thought myself obliged to have
named a new Gov' instead of the former, and to have re-
moved the other from my Bedchamber."
"14 March, 1772.
“I wish a List cd be prepared of those that went away
and of those that deserted to the Minority (on Division in
the Come).* That wª be a rule for my conduct in the
Drawing Room tomorrow."
"2d April, 1772.
"You ought to oppose the Petition from the Dissenters †
personally in every stage, wh will give you the applause of
the Established Church. If you shª be beat, it will be in
doing y' duty, and yº H. of L. will prevent any Evil. It
is indeed the duty of the Ministers to prevent any altera-
tions in so essential a part of the Constitution as what
relates to the Established Religion; and there is no shadow
for the Petition, as the Crown regularly grants a noli pro-
sequi if any over nice Justice of the Peace encourages Pro-
secutions.'
"6 July, 1772.
"The advice given this morning by you to Mr. Eden
was perfectly agreeable to M. des Vergenne's letter about
the Plan formed in April for changing the Constitution of
Sweden this month."
Committee, the numbers were, ayes 300, noes 64. Fox took a strong part
against the Bill. He had resigned his place at the Admiralty on the 21st
of February, chiefly from his determination to oppose this Bill.
* The division in Committee on the Royal Marriage Bill was 200 to 164.
This Bill received the Royal assent on the 1st of April.
† Sir Henry Hoghton's Bill for giving relief to Protestant Dissenters was
brought in, without a division, on the 3d of April. The Bill was read a
second time on the 14th by a majority of 70 to 9, and it afterwards passed
the Commons, but was thrown out in the Lords by 102 to 29, on the 19th
of May. On the 7th of April Fox moved for leave to bring in a Bill to
repeal the Marriage Act, 26 of Geo. II., which was carried by 62 to 61: but
afterwards, on the 19th of May, it was thrown out by 92 to 34.
The Revolution in Sweden took place in the month of August, 1772.
It began on the 12th and was completed on the 21st.
LORD NORTH.
81
“Alarmed at the dispatches from France.
“1 August, 1772.
The declara-
tion of an Intention to continue the Quai at Dunkirk be-
gun last year
wd look like a hidden desire to Enter on War.
But when I consider how very unsettled ev³thing is in
that Country, and more so the character of the Monarch,
I am convinced they do not foresee the danger they are
running into.—Strenuous agst War, and for any temperate
discussion wh France. We must get the Colonies into
order, before we engage wth our neighbours."
"9 Augst 1772.
"The perplexed interference of the Southern Sec and
the Board of Trade (in Colonial Affairs) gave rise to the
American Department."
"24 Augst 1772.
"The death of Calcraft will, I trust, bring the Borough
of Rochester into its ancient hands.
"Very minute œconomy in the establt of his 3d and 4
sons, Clarence and Kent."
"25 Nov 1772.
"I know I may depend on your remaining Stiff in treat-
ing with the E. I. Comps. Till now your Conduct towª the
Directors is much to your honour; any wavering now
would be disgraceful."
(( 19 Dec 1772.
"Very zealous abt E. I. affairs; surprised at finding
La G. Germ. in the majority, and a Speaker for what the
Rockinghams alone opposed,* and also that T. Townshend
was silent."
"20 Deer 1772.
"I have no objection to Mr. C. Fox vacating his seatt
tomorrow.'
""
* Debate on 18th December, upon the Bill for preventing the East India
Company from sending out Supervisors to India for six calendar months.
The Bill was carried by 153 to 28.
On being appointed a Lord of the Treasury.
G
82
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"1 Jany 1773.
"Hear of the failure of Clifford & Co. in Holland. En-
quires anxiously w" any effect on Commercial Houses here.
Is St G. Colebrooke's house in a precarious situation ?”
"3 March, 1773.
“The remonstrance of the City is the most violent,
insolent, and licentious ever presented."
d
"20 April, 1773.
"A dispatch from Creutz, the Swedish Minister at Paris,
to the K. of S., intercepted in Germany, says that M.
D'aiguillon, believing that England wª certy take umbrage
if he were to send a Fleet to the assist. of S., he cd not
think of that mode of succour, for that at all events he
wd avoid a War with England."
"French Fleet countermanded."
((
d
"25 April, 1773.
"21 May, 1773.
D'aiguillon s to La Stormont, who sd our Fleet was
suspended, 'Les Matelots sont renvoyés, ce n'est pas une
suspension, c'est une cessation.
"22 May, 1773.
"*Approves Lª N's conduct in voting as a Man, but not
exerting his Power as a Minister against Lª Clive. I own
I am amazed that private Interest could make so many
Individuals forget what they owe to their country, and
come to a resolution that seems to approve La Clive's
rapine." +
"8 June, 1773.
"Long letter about appointment of Members of Council
at Calcutta; rejoices that Gen. Monkton has declined, be-
* On Burgoyne's motion on the 21st May of censure against Lord Clive,
which was carried without a division, an amendment moved by Fuller having
been negatived by 155 to 95.
This refers to a resolution moved by Wedderburn "that at the same
time Lord Clive rendered great and meritorious service to the country."
which was carried without a division.
LORD NORTH.
83
cause he thinks Clavering much the fittest. Monson,
though not showy, has excellent sense. Majr Gen. Frazer
does right in withdrawing. I dont know the personal
qualifications of others, except Mr. Francis, who is allowed.
to be a man of Tallents.' Andrew Stewart I shª think it
wrong to take, though perhaps the Scotch may make a
Party for him."
“17 July, 1773.
"At the Instance of Lª W. he is to appoint Col. Bur-
goyne to the 17th Light Dragoons."
"30 July, 1773.
“I shall hear with pleasure y acet of Mr. Darwin's in-
tended discovery of some great stroke meditated by France
in the Event of a new War."
66
"19 Oct 1773.
Extraordinary Manifesto, of wh. you sent a copy—ra-
ther surprised at La Ossery's name to it-those who have
property in Ireland must dislike the measure-but this con-
duct is calculated not to dissuade but to revolt-5 noble-
men subscribers. The king dispenses the Military Patron-
age.'
"14 Jany 1774.
"A M³ Frances, a Spanish Agent, requires Mr. Harris
to be sent back to Madrid; if not, the Spanish Emb' is to
threaten War. This I think absurd till we know the S. E.
new Instructions."
"4 Feb 1774.
"Gen. Gage, though just returned from Boston, expresses
his willingness to go back at a day's notice, if convenient
measures are adopted. He says, They will be Lions while
we are Lambs; but if we take the resolute part, they will
undoubtedly prove very meek. Four Regts sent to Boston
will, he thinks, be sufft to prevent any disturbance.
All men now feel that the fatal compliance in 1766 has
encreased the pretensions of the Americans to thorough
Independence.
84
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"The extreme insolent letter to the
Day's Public Advertiser. There is but
have framed that Piece of Insolence." *
"11 Feby 1774.
Speaker in this
one Man could
"13 Feby 1774.
"I am glad the Printer is committed,† and that he has
confessed Mr. Horne to be the person that delivered the
Paper to him.”
"16 Feb 1774.
"I am greatly incensed at the presumption of Charles
Ι
Fox in forcing you to vote with him last night, but approve-
ment of your making y' Friends vote in ye maj³. Indeed
that young man has so thoroughly cast off every Principle
of common honour and honesty that he must become as
contemptible as he is odious. I hope you will let him know
you are not insensible of his conduct towards you."
"17 Feby 1774.
"It is surprising that Mr. Fox has been decent and sub-
missive."
แ 23d Feby 1774.
"Great joy at the Majority on a Question agt Dissenters.
"I think Mr. C. Fox wa have acted more becomingly to
you and himself if he had absented himself from the House,
for his conduct is not to be attributed to conscience but to
his aversion to all restraint."§
"26 Feby 1774.
"Sorry the H. of C. has yesterday been overawed by a
false love of popularity."
* The Letter of Rev. John Horne under the signature of "Strike but
hear," to the Speaker, Sir Fletcher Norton, was taken into consideration by
the House, and voted nem. con. to be a Scandalous Libel.
He was only ordered to attend the House on the 14th.
Fox took the high privilege ground and made Lord North join with him
in voting that Woodfall (the printer) should be committed to the Gate house
and not to the custody of the Serjeant at arms only. This was lost by 152
to 68; Lord North voting with Fox in the minority, Jenkinson, Dyson, and
the Secretaries of the Treasury voting against the Minister.
§ Charles Fox was dismissed from his place of Lord of the Treasury on the
24th of February.
!! On the motion of Sir Edward Astley to make the Grenville act perpete
LORD NORTH.
85
"14 March, 1774.
cr
Beginning of coercive Laws agt Massachusets.
d
"La Dartmouth approves the Bill for altering the Council
of Mass. but disapproves the trying American offenders in
England-prefers their Trial in Nova Scotia."
"23 March, 1774.
"Feebleness and futility of opposition to Boston Post
Bill."
" 3ª April, 1774.
"Dispatches from Lª Stormont wh information that orders
have issued for the equipment of a Fleet at Toulon.
"The conduct of our Colonies makes Peace very desir
able, and Russia does not deserve that we shª run any risk
to save her Fleet."
"8 May, 1774.
“Lª Hardwick is to apply for his Brot to be a Bº and for
Braedalb. to come again into H. of Lds on a declaration
that he wd support Ministers. Dr. Yorke cannot be the
first BP from Camb. Dr. Hurd wª meet general approba-
tion."
d
"26 June, 1774.
"I hope the Crown will always be able in either House
of Parlt to throw out a Bill: but I never shall consent to
use any expression that tends to establish that at no time
the Right of the Crown to dissent is to be used.”
"Just seen Mr. Hutchinson, late Gov' of
"1 July, 1774.
Mass., and am
He owns the
now well convinced they will soon submit.
Boston Post Bill to have been the only wise and effectual
method."
ual, carried by 250 to 122. Lord North, the Attorney General, Jenkinson,
and Fox voting in the minority. In the debate, Fox made a violent personal
attack upon Lord North, although voting with him.
* Respecting the answer to the City address, praying the refusal of the
Royal assent to the Bill, to establish a fund for the administration of Justice
and support of the civil government of Quebec. This Bill received the Royal
assent on the 22d of June when the King prorogued Parliament.
86
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"Wedy 24 Augt 1774.
Wh
"The request of the Solicitor General in favour of Lady
Erskine* does not raise him in my opinion, but I agree
you that it must be acquiesced in; at the same time the
Pension applied for by the Duke of Buccleugh."
"24 Augt 1774.
Proposes a Dissolution on acct of the Congress in
America. Peace between Russia and Turkey, and unsettled
state of French Ministry, and in hopes of getting more
landed gent".
"Write to Chanc² and Prest, but not above a week before
the measure is to be put into execution.”
"11 Sept 1774.
"THE DIE IS CAST. The Colonies must now either
triumph or submit. I trust they will submit. I have no
objection afterwards to their seeing that there is no inclina-
tion at present to lay fresh taxes on them. But there must
always be one Tax to keep up the Right."
"Month of October.
Notes on Elections-Especially
those for the City and for Middlesex-in wch great interest."
((
"27 Oct. 1774.
Appointment of Hurd, on death of Bº of Bangor."
"18 Nov 1774.
>
"The New England Govts are now in a state of Rebellion.
Blows must decide wh' they are to be subject to this country
or independent."
"19 Nov 1774.
"Gen. Gage in his private letter speaks of suspending
the Acts, wh is absurd.'
15 Dec 1774.
“Dislike Lª N.'s proposal of sending Comms to America
to Enquire."
* Widow of Sir Henry Erskine, and Sister of the Solicitor General.
LORD NORTH.
87
"15 Jany 1775.
"Grants permission to the Duke of Glouc to go abroad.
Persists in refusing to make a provision for his Family.
'I cannot deny that on the subject of this D. my heart is
wounded. I have ever loved him with the fondness one
bears to a child.' 'His highly disgraceful step,' &c. 'His
wife, whom I never can think of placing in a situation to
answer her extreme Pride and Vanity.' Should any accident
befal the D. I shall certainly take care of his children."
"22nd Jany 1775.
"*Nothing can be more calculated to bring the Americans
to a due submission, than the very handsome majority that
at the outset appears in both Houses."
66
"8 Feb. 1775.
†The language of the address ought to open the eyes
of the deluded Americans, but if it does not it must set ev
delicate man at liberty to avow the propriety of the most
coercive measures.
"15 Feby 1775.
Though a friend
"Return secret letter from Maryland.
to holding out the Olive Branch, yet I believe that when
once vigorous measures appear to be the only means, the
Colonies will submit.' I despise anonymous letters, and
shall never look to the Right or to the left, but steadily
pursue that Track which my Conscience dictates to be the
Right one."
"19 Feby 1775.
"I approve the Res" ‡ to be moved to morrow abt America.
* In the House of Lords, Lord Chatham's motion on the 20th January to
withdraw the troops from Boston was lost by 68 to 18. In the Commons,
on the motion of Alderman Harley "that the London Petition for recon-
ciliation with America, be referred to the Committee, to whom the Ameri-
can papers had been referred, and that the Petitioners might be heard."
This was lost by 197 to 81. A similar motion on a Petition from Bristol
was rejected by 192 to 65.
† The Debates on the Address in the Commons were on the 2d and 6th,
and in the Lords on the 7th of February. In the latter the Address was
carried by 104 to 29. In the Commons by 304 to 105 upon the Address,
and by 288 to 105 upon the Report.
"That if any Colony shall make a provision that shall be approved by
88
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
Lord Suffolk tells me that the Sol Gen¹ will join you on
Wednesday, if he can make a real distinction to cover him-
self from the strictness of opposition. Lª Guernsey and
Mr. C. Finch will do so, and say that the question is now
different. I have sent to the D. of Newcastle that Lord T.
Clinton might be recalled from Bath, but have not suc-
ceeded."
"23d Feby 1775.
"Midd Election.*-Greater majority than in the last
Parl. I dont comprehend the reason of Mr. Sol' Gen's
chusing to speak, unless he thinks upon that Question being
consistent is a veil over that duplicity that often appears in
his political deportment. I own the frankness of yº Att
Gen¹ is much more to my mind."
d
"28 Feby 1773.
"Mr. Lockhart to be made a Lord of Session on the
application of Lª Mansfield; Sir G. Elliott's Bro' to be Gen¹
of the
""
"6 March, 1775.
"The Languor of opposition arises from feeling the
sense of the nation against them. I am convinced that the
line adopted in American affairs, if rectitude, candour, and
becoming firmness be attended to, will be crowned with
success."
"27 March, 1775.
“I dont chuse to give encouragement in favour of Capt.
Fitzpatrick. I dont chuse to fill my Family with profest
Gamesters."
"4 April, 1775.
"I am astonished at the unreasonable demands of Lt Col.
Parliament for its own expences, it will be proper to forbear to levy any Tax
upon such Colony unless for the regulation of Commerce." This was carried
by 274 to 88.
* Upon Wilkes' motion to expunge the Resolution respecting his election
and expulsion. Thurlow, (Attorney General) opposed and Wedderburn
(Solicitor General) supported it. On the division the numbers were 239 to
171 against the motion.
To the American Bills.
LORD NORTH.
89
Maclean, which have the air of his being actuated by the
overcunning his countrymen are accused of."
"6 April, 1775.
"I see by Public Adverts that the Livery yesterday voted
a Remonstrance agt American Measures. A meeting where
the business was proposed by Capt. Allen cannot be very
creditable. I am therefore clear there shª be no answer.”
"11 April, 1775.
"I send notes on the affairs of America by Gen. Burgoyne,
which I think worthy of attention. Send for the General
and hear his ideas. I am sorry Howe seems to look on
New York as the Post of Confidence, as I think Burgoyne
would best manage a negociation. A full conversation will
send B. away in good humour, who at present feels a little
hurt at not being a little let into the views of Govt."
“21 April, 1775.
“I cannot refrain from the pleasure of just expressing the
Joy I feel at the good news arrived this day from Paris, and
to commend myself for not having taken any step till the
former bad account should be confirmed."
Same day.
"I consent to Sir Wat. Willms being Lieutt of Mereoneth
if he means to be grateful. If otherwise, favours granted
to Persons in opposition is not very politic."
"28 April, 1775.
“Very warm zeal this day in ye House of C.”
"15 May, 1775.
"Very great majority in favour of ye amendment."+
* Upon the Message for settling Buckingham House on the Queen, in lieu
of Somerset House. Taken into consideration by the House on the 26th
of May.
Upon bringing up the Remonstrance of the Assembly of New York.
Lord North moved an amendment censuring the claim of the New York
Assembly, as derogatory to and inconsistent with the authority of Parlia-
ment. The amendment was carried by 186 to 67. Parliament was pro-
rogued on the 26th of May.
90
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"3 July, 1775.
"fullest approbation of the conduct of
Clavering and Francis, and the strongest censure of that of
Hastings and Barwell, in the first disputes in y° Supreme
Council at Calcutta."
“Augt 1, 1775.
"Considerable difficulty in finding reinforcements for
Gen. Gage. The king has procured five Batts, and his
Electoral Troops amounting to 2,355 effectives. They
require an advance of £10,000.”
"4 August, 1775.
Precedents of paying Hanoverians in the last war, are
not to be found. The business having been conducted
verbally by D. of Newcastle and Mr. Munkhausen.
"I claim nothing but to be reimbursed in all expences.
"1. March through ye Electorate, and all charges till
Shipment.
"2. After Embarkation, Officers and men Pay as
British Troops.
"3. Expence of levying an equal number,
"4. Recruiting while in British pay.
“9th Augt 1775.
“The making Lª Chatham's family suffer for the conduct
of their Father, is not in the least agreeable to my senti-
ments. But I should chuse to know him to be totally
unable to appear on the public stage before I agree to any
offer of that kind, lest it shª be wrongly construed to fear
of him, and, indeed, his political conduct the last winter
was so abandoned, that he must in the eyes of the dispas-
sionate have totally undone all the merit of his former con-
duct. As to any gratitude to be expected from him or his
Family, the whole tenour of their lives have shewn them
void of that most honourable sentiment. But when
decrepitude or death puts an end to him as a Trumpet of
Sedition, I shall make no difficulty in placing the Second
son's name instead of the Father's, and making up the
Pension £3,000."
LORD NORTH.
91
"18 Augt 1775.
"Blames the delay in framing a Proclamation declaring
the Americans to be Rebels, forbidding all intercourse w
them. 1. To prevent that intercourse; and, 2. to shew a
determination to prosecute all measures to force that deluded
people to submission.
"Gen. Hold is just arrived, and owns that nothing but
force can bring the Americans to reason.
"26 Augt 1775.
"Lord Barrington despairs of recruiting the old Regi-
ment, and wishes the American war to be alone carried on
by Sea. The King dislikes giving Regts in order to get
men."
"10 Sept 1775.
"Address from Manchester, most dutiful and affectionate.
As you wish the Spirit to be encouraged, I have no objec-
tion, though I know from fatal experience that they will
produce counter Petitions.
"If the opposition is powerful next Session, it will sur-
prise me, for I am fighting the battle of the legislature,
therefore have a right to expect an almost unanimous sup-
port, for I know the uprightness of my intentions, and
therefore am ready to stand any attack of ever so dangerous
a kind."
"16 Sept 1775.
"Preparations for Expedition agt North Carolina; about
4,000 men to be at Cork 15 December."
"16 Oct 1775.
"Agrees to send 3,000 men, chiefly from Ireland, agt
North Carolina first. Out of hope that the Highland
settlers will join, will consider the raising of a Highland
Regt.
"25 Oct. 1775.
"On the receipt of your letter I have ordered Elliott's
Dragoons to march from Henley to Hounslow. These
handbills are certainly spread to cause terror; but they may
in the timid Duke I saw yesterday, but I thank God I am
92
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
not of that make. I know what my duty to my Country
makes me undertake, and threats cannot prevent me from
doing that to the utmost extent.”
"3 Nov 1775.
"Your note containing the very handsome majority of
yesterday* makes me hope that the debates on America will
be shortened. The House cannot possibly hear the same
speeches frequently repeated, or the H. of C. must be com-
posed of more politeness than formerly.
d
"The answer of the Emp. of Russia to my letter is a clever
refusal, not in so genteel a manner as I shª have thought
might have been expected from her. She has not had the
civility to answer me in her own hand, and has thrown out
some expressions that may be civil to a Russian ear, but
certainly not to more civilized ones. I am anxious to know
wh the D. of Grafton, as his speeches in Parlt daily become
more hostile, does not feel it to his credit to resign his
employment. If not, you must feel that I cannot let many
days more elapse before I send for his Seal.”
ce
"4 Nov 1775.
but called the
Surprised that the Opp" in the H. of C. were not con-
tent wt the words used in the H. of L.,
measure Contrary to Law."‡
d
"6 Nov 1775.
"If the Privy Seal be not conferred on Lª Weym³, he
will think himself hardly treated and will resign, which will
affect Lª Gower and the rest of his party, so as at least to
make them less Zealous. I trust in Lª Dart's good sense.
Many Grooms of the Stole have been summoned to Cabinet
meetings, particularly the late Lord Pembroke. I propose
La D. to attend them.-Unless La W. shª apply, I do not
intend to summon him."
d
* On the 1st of November Col. Barré moved for a return of the number
of our forces in America. It was lost by 170 to 63. The question on the 2d
was on the second reading of the Militia Bill. This was carried by 259 to 50.
† A motion by the Duke of Manchester on the 1st of November, that
bringing foreign troops into any part of the dominions of the Crown is
dangerous and unconstitutional. This was rejected by 75 to 32.
In the Commons, on the 2d November, Sir James Lowther moved that
this was Contrary to Law." This was negatived by 203 to 81.
LORD NORTH.
93
d
"7 Nov 1775.
The
"The acct of Lª Dartmb gives me infinite concern.
office of Groom of the Stole is equally honourable w¹ that
of Privy Seal, especially when called to the Cabinet. I feel
the evil of disobliging Lª D., Lª W., or La George Germaine,
and hope the former, as the most cool, will reconsider it.
I shall do every thing to extricate you from the difficulty.
You are my sheet anchor, and I shall in the whole transac-
tion try to secure your ease and comfort. As to your offer
it is most handsome, but I can never consent to it. The
profits and honours of your employment are in the best
hands, and I shall be glad when opportunities occur of y*
acquiring some of the solid advantages for your Family."
<<
"7 Nov 1775.
Though my Finances are in a very disgraceful situa-
tion, yet to make the situation you are in happy, I consent
to give Lª Rochfª £2,500 a-year and next blue Ribband.
What you mention of my kindness is agreeable to me, and
indeed honourable to you, as the affectionate regard I have
for you arises from the very handsome conduct you have
held when others shamefully deserted my service."
"8 Nov 1775.
“Lª Weym¹ has chosen Privy Seal; Lª Suffolk to remain
in the Northern Departt. La Darth will succeed Lª
Rochfª in the Southern, and Lª G. G. the American."
d
d
"9 Nov 1775.
"Extremely displeased at La Dartmb's obstinate pursuit
of the Privy Seal. La Weym" cannot pleasantly transact
business with Spain, and LG. Germ. cannot treat with the
Continent." *
"12 Nov 1775,
"The Troops of the Duke of Brunswick shewed so much
want of courage last war, that Carleton, who can have but
a small number of British Troops, ought to have the Hes-
sians."
* Lord Weymouth at last consented to release the King from his promise
of the Privy seal. He consented to succeed Lord Rochford in the Southern
department, and Lord Dartmouth was made Lord Privy Seal.
94
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
'
"13 Nov 1775.
Opposition object to every measure proposed.* The
Majy is so very great that I shª imagine it wª render the
battles less frequent."
८८
"14 Nov 1775.
The giving Commissions to German Officers to get men
I can by no means consent to; for it in plain English
amounts to making me a kidnapper, wh. I cannot think a
very honble occupation.”
"15 Nov 1775.
"The E. I. Directors in their dispatch manifestly wish
to hurt neither Hastings or his adversaries, and will there-
fore most probably disoblige both."
"28 Nov 1775.
"Astonishment at the presumption and impudence of
bringing forward matters of the greatest delicacy in Irelª
without order."
"2 Feby 1776.
"Before I go to Dinner I must tell you that things are
far from desperate wh Lord Howe, and that I dont despair
of bringing things to rights by a greater degree of right-
headedness in La Sandwich than of wrongheadedness on
yº other side."
3 Feby 1776.
"Command of North American fleet settled by Lª Sandh
compliance."
"29 March, 1776.
"I cannot express my astonishment at Lord Harcourt's
presumption in telling Lª Drogheda there wd be no diff in
making him an Irish Marquis. I refused to make Irish
Marquises to La Hertford and Lª Townshend.—I desire I
may hear no more of Irish Marquises. I feel for English
Earls, and dont chuse to disgust them."
* On the 8th there was a Division on the Army Estimates-227 to 73. And
on the 13th on raising the Land Tax to 4s. in the Pound, there was a division
of 182 to 47.
LORD NORTH.
95
"30th March, 1776.
"If strong reasons do not occur in favour of Sir John
Dalrymple, I should prefer ano" English Puisne Baron of
Excher in Scota." *
"31 March, 1776.
"I shall aid your claim to appoint the Rec™ Gen¹ of
Jamaica as a Treasury appointment, provided the grant be
made out for your Sons. I shall always be, if possible,
happier than yourself to provide for your children. It has
not been my Fate in general to be well served—by you I
have, and therefore cannot forget it."
"25 April, 1776.
"The Absurdity of Sir J. Lowther† is so far unpleasant
that it gives unnecessary trouble to the House of C. It is
very plain that the Opposition dont well know how to con-
duct themselves, when they can submit to be led by such
a man."
"30th April, 1776.
CC
66
Great Maj on old question.”
“27 May, 1776.
m
Change in Governor of the Princes, on account of their
dislike of Lª Holderness. The Preceptor must therefore
be also changed, to take off the appearance of a victory of
the Princes over Lª H. La Dart. and La Ashburn decline.
I pressed Lª Bruce, whom you and I consider as proper
from the purity of his morals, from his never having mixed
in Party. I sa that Party and private Vices left me only a
choice among three. He accepted, on condition that the
Bº of Litchfield consented to succeed Bp. of Chester as
d
* The vacancy was made by the death of Baron Mure, who also held the
place of Receiver General of Jamaica. An attempt was made to obtain this
for Baron Mure's Son, but Lord George Germaine appointed his own son,
afterwards Duke of Dorset, who held it till his death in 1841. While Baron
Mure held it, the emoluments rose from £700 a-year to £1,000; but during
the Duke of Dorset's time they had risen to £6,000 a-year.
His motion was "that the Employment of Foreign Troops is contrary to
the constitution and not warranted by Law." This was lost by 149 to 88.
On the motion by Wilkes himself to expunge the Resolution respecting
him. Lost by 186 to 92.
96
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
Preceptor. I place no small glory in being convinced that
I am cordially loved by that good man (La Dartm")."
"28th May, 1776.
"The Bp. of Lichfield has wh great modesty and pro-
priety agreed to be Preceptor. La Bruce declined and the
D. of Montague accepted."
"17th Sept 1776.
"The request of La Mansfield, after a zealous support
of near 16 years without having ever asked a favour from
the Crown, entitled him very reasonably to ask the mark
of favour he has yesterday."
"31 Oct 1776.
“On the vacancy of the Arbpck of York, that see must
be offered to the Bp. of London. If he accepts, Bp. of
Chester to come to London. If not, Chester to York. I
wish on this occasion to bring a man of exemplary conduct
on yº Bench.”
"1st Nov 1776.
"Great appearance at the opening of Session. Though
I am not credulous as to the authenticity of ye acct of
Debates, yet there is one this morning which contains such
admirable Strokes on the Times, stated to have been pro-
duced in y' speech that it has infinitely amused me.
"4 Nov 1776. ·
"Secure the city of N. York. I hope the Rebel army
will soon be dispersed."
"15 Nov 1776.
d
“I had learnt from La Weym¹ that Charles Fox had
declared at Arthur's last night that he shª attend the
House this day and then set off to Paris, and not return
till after the Řecess. Bring as much forward as you can
before the Recess, as real business is never so well consid-
*To be made an Earl, but with a special Limitation. He was created Earl
on the 19th Oct. 1776.
†The amendment to the Address was negatived by 212 to 87.
LORD NORTH.
97
ered as when the Attention of the House is not taken up
by noisy declamation.”
"Rancor of Lª G. Germ.'s agnst Carleton."
66
"13 Dec 1776.
Same day.
Bp. of London came to acquaint me of the death of the
Abpck of York and to decline that See."
"24 Feby 1777.
"La G. G. will tomorrow propose Clinton for Canada
and Burgoyne to join Howe, but I don't approve the recall
of Howe."
"21 March, 1777.
"The Death of the king of Portugal, the fall of Pombal,
the timidity of the New Queen, and the bigotry of her hus-
band, make me hope that I shall be able to prevent war
between that country and Spain."
((
"29 March, 1777.
£1,000 given in part advance to Mr. Forth, a secret
agent employed at Paris."
"31 March, 1777.
Bp. of London died this morning. I wish the Abp. of
Canty to recommend a proper successor.
""
"2 April, 1777.
"The Talents of the Bp. of Oxford point him out as the
properest person for the vacant see. I desire you to offer
it to him.'
"I feel great pleasure at the zealous
“20 April, 1777.
support from so
* In Committee on the Debate on the Civil List, Sir James Lowther, on the
Resolution granting an additional sum for the better support of His Majesty's
Household, moved as an amendment to insert the words "and for the differ-
ent branches of the Royal Family," giving as his reason the wants of the
King's two Brothers. This was postponed, it being irregular to move an
Amendment upon a Report, and the original Resolution was carried by 231
to 109. On the 9th of May, Sir James Lowther moved an address on behalf
of the Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland, which was negatived by 152 to 45.
H
98
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
large majority of the H. of C. in a matter personally re-
garding myself. On your fitness, except a desperate faction,
there wª not be a single dissentient voice."
" 14 May, 1777.
“The French have committed Cunningham, Capt of an
American Privateer, to prison at Dunkirk. A proof that
the Court of Versailles mean to keep up appearances."
"31 May, 1777.
"La Chatham's motion can have no other use but to
convey some fresh fuel to the Rebels. Like most of the
other productions of that extraordinary brain, it contains
nothing but specious words and malevolence."
66
d
"4 June, 1777.
ҠI have not the smallest doubt that Truth ought to
be the chief object in a speech from the Throne. It is,
therefore, safest to leave out the Foreign article. I also
agree wb Lª Mansfield as to the omission in the Paragraph
to the H. of C. from the strange language used by the
Speaker. As to the last art. I am much more of his opin-
ion which may favour the suspicion that there is an inten-
tion rather to plaister over the breach w¹ the Colonies than
radically to cure the Evil. In my opinion the Americans
will treat before winter."
+
5 June, 1777.
"Worsley, the Surveyor Gen' of Bd of Workes, is dying.
I think it wª make a very pretty House of Commons em-
ployment. Adam the architect formerly applied to you;
* On the 30th of May, Lord Chatham moved an Address to stop hostilities
with America. This was lost by 99 to 28.
† On proroguing Parliament on the 6th of June.
On presenting the Household Bill at the Bar of the House of Lords on
the 7th of May, the Speaker (Sir Fletcher Norton) had expressed the confi-
dence of the House of Commons, "that the King would apply wisely, what
they had granted liberally." This speech having been objected to by Mr.
Rigby in the Commons, a motion by Charles Fox, approving of it, was
carried almost unanimously without a division, and the thanks of the House
given to the Speaker for his said Speech.
LORD NORTH.
99
but if any Professional Man is named, I shall think Cham-
bers hardly used.” *
“16 July, 1777.
"If timidity actuates the French Ct to delay taking an
open hostile part, some little success in N. America may
make her more cautious in taking up a losing game.
""
"18 July, 1777.
"Sir W. Hamilton has not given up his idle application of
being made a Privy Counsellor. It is but lately Embassds
have got that feather. It wd be improper to be given to
Envoys. We must husband honours."
“ 17 Aug 1777.
"French proposals through Forth."
“22 Aug 1777.
"It is irksome to find the conduct of the French so fluc-
tuating, whether from timidity or duplicity."
66
“19 Sept. 1777.
Having paid the last arrears on the Civil List, I must
now do the same for you. I have understood by your
hints that you have been in debt ever since you settled in
Life. I must therefore insist that you allow me to assist
you with £10,000, £15,000, or even £20,000, if that will
be sufft. It is easy for you to make an arrangement, and
at proper times to take up that sum.
You know me very
ill, if you dont think that of all the letters I ever wrote to
you this one gives me the greatest pleasure, and I want no
other return but your being convinced that I love you as
well as a man of worth as I esteem you as a Minister. Yr
conduct at a critical moment I never can forget.
"Wentworth and Edwards, two Agents at Paris, pro-
phecy War."
d
"28 Oct 1777.
"Yr letter to La Howe will I trust make him turn his
* Mr. Keene was appointed.
Uor M
100
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
thoughts to the mode of War best calculated to distress the
Americans, wh. he seems as yet carefully to have avoided.
“Uniform preference of Thurlow to Wedderburn.”
29th Nov 1777.
"I should have thought the handsome proposal delivered
by you to the D. of Gloucester wa have deserved at least
the Civility of not applying for a public provision for a
Person who must always be odious to me. Your answer was
highly proper, and confirms my opinion of your being the
fittest messenger for matters of delicacy; as you stick to
your instructions, which you do not mutilate by chusing
to explain."
"4 Dec 1777.
"Thanks for L. N.'s firmness in supporting the reverses
in America."
"21 Dec 1777.
"A letter written by Franklin or by his Instructions
singular. The writer adds, Offensive, and calculated to
increase animosity,' but Franklin is too deep to draw it up
solely from Malevolence; it occurs to me, therefore, that
if he cª obtain any answer, it wª be tacitly acknowledging
him and his Colleagues in the Capacity they assume, and
consequently admitting the Right of the rebel Colonists to
make such appointments and to be united States; and per-
haps, if he does not succeed in that object, of publishing
something in Europe that may carry the air of our having
acted with cruelty, wh I am certain no Officer, either mili-
tary or civil in my service, could be guilty of. They cer-
tainly cd not make much distinction among Rebels; but if
they have erred, I rather think it has rather been from too
much civility towards them."
"25 Dec 1777.
"If it shª be thought right to enquire through a Board
of General Offers into the defence laid by Lt Gen. Burgoyne
that his orders were positive (wh I much incline to), the
reference ought to extend to the failure of the expedition.
La G. G. may be contented with an enquiry into what bears
on himself; but when my name is mentioned, it shª be a
LORD NORTH.
101
candid, not a partial enquiry. La G. seemed yest to
agree it shª not perhaps be termed a Court of Enquiry; but
all the General Offs Equal or superior in rank to Gen' B.
who have served in America shª be assembled to enquire."
"27 Dec 1777.
"The letters from Wentworth are wrote with so little
method, and are so verbose that it is very difficult to collect
what he wishes to convey. Mr. Eden * is the very oppo-
site. He writes in a short, clear, and intelligent stile, and
has stated all that is necessary. I am surprised that so
many of the Cabinet have doubted of the propriety of
bringing the unhappy fate of La G. Bur's exped to an
Enquiry."
"28 Dec 1777.
"The letter from Mr. Wentworth has certainly a very
unpleasant appearance, though I cannot think it of so cer-
tain a nature as to look upon a war wh the H. of Bourbon
as inevitable."
"31 Dec 1777.
"Wentworth is an avowed Stockjobber, and, though I ap-
prove of Employing him, I never let that go out of my mind.
This despatch has nothing to build on, but it convinces
me that Bancroft is entirely an American, and that every
word he has used on the late occasion is to deceive. Per-
haps they think Went. sent from Fear. If that is Frank-
lin's opinion, the whole conduct he has shewn is wise."
"2 Jany 1778.
"I have declined accepting the proposals of Mr. Camp-
bell and Mr. Johnes. Most of their officers having never
been in the army, we are to encourage rais" indept compa-
nies in Wales."
"5 Jany 1778.
"The Letter of Wentth is so exact a copy of the one rec
*Afterwards created Lord Auckland.
† Saratoga.
102
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
from the Ambass that it does not require great sagacity to
see that the intelligence has been collected from the former.
Whether it is exactly true or not, we are taking all the
steps that wª be proper if the intentions of our neighbours
shª prove as represented."
"7 Jany 1778.
"However insidious the conduct of France may appear,
it is pleasant to feel that we are taking all necessary steps;
and my mind is perfectly prepared to meet what I shª cer-
tainly think a very unhappy event, from the consciousness
that I have scrupulously attempted to avoid, and that with
a single grievance France chuses to be the aggressor.
Forth writes without flowers, and the whole of his Stile
seems to shew he expects a War."
Mr.
9 Jany 1778.
's
"I believe nobody ever thought of employing Prince
Ferdª of Brunswick in N. America; but Lord
correspondent at Wilton, Doyley, told Lª G. Germ. that it
sha be well considered who was to have the command in
Am. For that wh the letters wrote from hence to the
Brothers it was neither safe nor prudent to leave it with
them. Let this be enquired into.”
((
"10 Jany 1778.
D'Oyley explains that he meant That after the letters
that had been written to the Houses, it shª be necs to use
means of persuading them to remain in the command, if it
was wished that they shª remain;' and that by the letters
he meant the last despatches of Lª G. Germain to Sir W.
Howe, wh were so cold and dry in respect to Sir W's suc-
cesses in Pennsy¹, and left him in doubt of his continuance
in the command.”
d
"13 Jany 1778.
and
"Voluminous and undigested letters of Mr. Wentwth.
Things seem on the same uncertain ground as last year.
"A Trifle may any hour cause War to break out;
though the French Ministers wish to avoid it, yet they will
not leave off their dealings with Rebels, by which they ev
LORD NORTH.
103
day may be drawn into what they don't chuse. Frankª and
Deane either have no power to treat or are not inclined.
While nothing short of independency will be accepted, I
don't think that there is a Man either bold or mad enough
to presume to treat for the Mother Country on such a
basis. Perhaps the time will come when it may be wise
to abandon all Amer. but Canada, Nova Scotia, and the
Floridas; but then the generality of the nation must see
it first in that light, but to treat wh Independents can
never be possible. 'La Amherst thinks nothing less than
an additional army of 40,000 men sufft to carry on offen-
sive War in N. Amer.; that a Sea War is ye only wise
Plan, to make the Amer. come into any Plan that G. B.
can decently consent to; and that at this hour they will
laugh at any proposition. As to ye Gen's, it will be difft to
get Sir W. H. to remain, and not less so to get Lª G. G.
to act with him in such a manner as will make the efforts
of others not abortive on that head.' What is still more
material to be settled is the Plan on wh Administration is
to repel the difft attacks when Parliament meets, as to
calling for Papers, proposing enquiries, &c., &c."
"16 Jany 1778.
"I return Papers from Wentw¹. I do not trust much
to accts from Bancroft. He is a stockjobber, and is not
friendly to England. Perhaps the Manager is not less a
dabbler. Above all he wishes to be thot active. Men of
his cast are credulous."
"17 Jan 1778.
"The enclosed Paper from Sir J. Yorke gives me the
same opinion with you, that is he so thoroughly trained to
business there are but few situations he wd not fill with
credit. One is sorry, when there is so great a dearth of
able men, that he shª be immured in the Post of Political
Watchman at the Hague."
d
"31 Jan 1778.
"I shª have been greatly surprised at the inclination
expressed by you to retire, had I not known that, however
you may now and then despond, yet that you have too much
personal affection for me and sense of honour to allow such
104
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
a thought to take any hold of yr mind. (Great praise fol-
lowes.) You must remember that before the recess I
strongly advised you not to bind yourself to bring forward.
any Plan for restoring tranquillity to N. Amer., not from
any absurd ideas of unconditional submission, which my
mind never harboured, but from foreseing that whatever
can be proposed will be liable not to bring Amer. back to
her attachment, but to dissatisfy this Country, wh so cheer-
fully and handsomely carries on the Contest, and has a
right to have the struggle continued until convinced that
it is vain. Perhaps this is the minute that you ought to
be least in hurry to produce a plan, for every letter from
France adds to the probability of a speedy declaration of
War. Sha that happen, it might be wise to withdraw the
troops from the Revolted Provinces, and, having strength-
ened Canada, &c., to make war on the French and Spanish
Islands. Success in that object will repay our exertions;
and this Country, having had its attention diverted to a
fresh object, wª be in a better temper to subscribe to such
terms as Administration might offer to Amer. I dont
mean to reject all ideas, if a Foreign War shª not arise this
Session, of laying a Proposition before Parlt, &c."
66
d
2nd Feby 1778.
Though Lª Chatm's name, which was always his greatest
merit, is undoubtedly not so great as formerly, yet it will
greatly hurt La Rock.'s Party w many factious Persons to
see that he disavows as unjustifiable the lengths they wa go
in favour of America, and will therefore prove a fortunate
Event to the Introducing into Parlt the Proposal you in-
tend to make. I look on the recall of Sir W. H. as a
measure settled. Lª H. will resign. Yet he must be
named in the new Comm"; but if he comes home I think
neither Gen¹ nor Adm¹ ought, but Peers and Commoners
from hence."
"2 Feby 45 min. past 10, P.M.
"When next the Committee on the State of the na-
* In the Committee on the State of the Nation, Charles Fox moved a
Resolution against any more Troops of the old Corps being sent out of the
Kingdom. Nobody said a word, and Fox's motion was negatived by 259 to
165,
LORD NORTH.
105
I
tion is resumed, I trust Gentlemen will be more ready to
speak, as you of course must wait for the conclusion.
shª think Lª G. Ger. might with great propriety have sª a
few words to put the defence in motion.
d
"3rd Feby 1778.
"If the intelligence sent by Benson is founded, France
has taken her Part and War is inevitable."
d
"5 Feby 1778.
"In talking of your plan for opening a neg" wh Amer.
La G. G. sa to me he was convinced the repeal of the Bos-
ton Charter act wª not alone bring the Colonies into any
Propositions; that the Declaratory act, though but Waste
Paper, was what galled them; that he shª not like nomi-
nally to be drove to repealing it. If, therefore, any step
was to be taken at this hour, he wd wish it might be one
which wª not require any further concessions, and he there-
fore wished all the acts might be repealed subseqt to 1763.
That he wd fairly own the taking any step at this Juncture
might either be conducive to hurrying France into a treaty
wh the Rebels, or it might make the Colonies less inclined
to treat wh that insiduous * nation, THAT HE C³ NOT DECIDE
WHICH SEEMED MOST PROBABLE.'
(t
"7 Feby 1778.
Long Debates Wed, Thursday, and last night."
9th Feby 1778.
"The Intelle from Wentwth, if certain, shews that the
veil will soon be drawn off by the Ct of France, wh. makes
me wish you wª not delay bringing in y' proposition. Shª
a French war be our fate, I trust you will concur w¹ me in
the only means of making it successful, the withdrawing
the greatest part of the troops from America, and employing
them agt the French and Spanish settlements; but if we
* Sic.
† Upon clothing the new Levies which had been raised without the consent
of Parliament, and upon the employment of Indians in the war in America.
This was on Mr. Burke's motion, in which his speech was considered by him
the best he ever made. It was ill reported, strangers having been excluded.
The motion was negatived by 253 to 137.
106
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
are to be carrying on a land war agt the Rebels and agt
these two Powers, it must be feeble in all its Parts, and
consequently unsuccessful.”
"17 Feby 1778.
“*Lª Chancellor this day wrote to La Suffolk to notify
his having declined any further attending confidential
meetings, and returned the key of the correspondence
Boxes. Ld Suff. went by my directions and explained the
mistake wh. had occasioned his warmth. The Chan' has
consented to take back the key, and has expressed great
esteem for all the members of the Cabinet except Lª G. G.
d
"18 Feby 1778.
"Chance's displeasure and suspicion connected in some
manner wh Lª G. G's cold letters to ST W. H. From Forth's
letter the object of the young officers is War, wh the French
ministers wish to avoid, but run so near the wind that the
two nations will probably be involved. Almodavar an-
nounced to succeed Masserano from Spain, looks pacific."
"24 Feby 1778.
"French have stopped the Newfoundland and Iceland
fisheries."
Same day, 9 P.M.
"Wishes a list of speakers.+ 'The more I think of the
conduct of the Advocate of Scotland ‡ the more I am in-
censed agt him. More favours have been heaped on the
Shoulders of that man than ever were bestowed on any
Scotch lawyer, and he seems studiously to embrace an op-
portunity to create difficulty. But Men of Tallents, when
not accompanied with Integrity, are Pests instead of Bless-
ings to Society; and true wisdom ought to crush them
rather than nourish them.""
* Lord Bathurst.
† Debate on Mr. Powys's motion of an instruction to the Committee on
Lord North's conciliatory Bills, to receive a Clause repealing the Massa-
chusetts Bay Bill. Negatived by 181 to 108.
† Dundas. He did not speak either in this or in the former debate on
Lord North's Bills.
LORD NORTH.
107
66
"3 March, 1778.
Agrees to give Mr. Eden £1,000 as outfit in the
Comm³, * but objects to make the Comm's Privy Coun-
sellors."
Same day, afternoon.
"I think Lª G. Ger's defection a most favourable Event.
He has so many Enemies that he wª have been a heavy
load when the failure of Burgoyne came to be canvassed in
Parlt. Yet I never wd have recommended his removal.
Now he will save us all trouble. The laying it on my
bequeathing the Govt of Charlemont on Carleton is quite
absurd, and shews the malevolence of his mind. Carleton
was wrong in permitting his Pen to convey such asperity
to a Secy of State, and therefore has been removed from the
Govt of Canada. But his meritorious defence of Quebec
made him a proper object of military reward, and as such
I cª not provide for any oer Gen' till I had paid the Debt
his services had a right to claim."
d
"3 March, 7 P.M.
"Decisive news of War from Thornton and from Ed-
wards and Forth. Among other expedients suggests, if
the answer of Spain be not explicit, to station a Fleet to
seize the Flotilla from the Havanna."
(C
"6 March, 1778.
Intelligence from Mr. Thornton of discontents among
the Leaders in America.-Hopes."
7 March, 1778.
"Admiral Mann refuses to serve. Sir C. Hardy offered
his services. 'He was second in command to Lª Hawke in
the engagement wh Conflans, therefore ostensible—and,
Keppel and Howe out of the case, as fit as any one high
enough in the List.' Great Heats in the Navy."
*The three Commissioners under Lord North's bill were Mr. Eden, Gover-
nor Johnston, and Lord Carlisle.
† So in the original.
108
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"12 March, 1778.
"In the list of speakers in favour of Mr. Fox's motion*
I see Vice-Admiral Keppel took a part wh. will disappoint
La Sandwich; he having uniformly pretended that the
Adm', tho' very adverse on all political points, is much of
his opinion in Marine affairs.”
Not dated, but written on 15th March, 1778.
"On a subject which has for many months engrossed my
thoughts, I cannot have the smallest difficulty instantly to
answer the letter I have just received from you. My sole
wish is to keep you at the head of the Treasury, and as my
Confidential Minister. That end obtained, I am willing
through your Channel to accept any description of Person
that will come avowedly to the Subject of your administra-
tion, and as such do not object to La Shelburne and Mr.
Barré, who personally perhaps I dislike as much as Alder-
man Wilkes; and I cannot give you a stronger proof of
my desire to forward your wishes than taking this unplea-
sant step. But I declare in the strongest and most solemn
manner, that I do not object to your addressing yourself
to La Chatham; yet that you must acquaint him that I
shall never address myself to him but through you, and on
a clear explanation that he is to step forth to support an
administration wherein you are first Lord of the Treasury,
and that I cannot consent to have any conversation with
him till the Ministry is formed; that if he comes into this
I will, as he supports you, receive him with open arms. I
leave the whole arrangement to you, provided Lord Suffolk,
Lord Weymouth, and my two able Lawyers are satisfied as
to their Situations; but chuse Ellis for Secy at War in pre-
ference to Barré, who in that event will get a more lucra-
tive Employment, BUT WILL NOT BE SO NEAR MY PERSON.
Having said this, I will only add, to put before your
eyes my most inmost thoughts, that no advantage to my
Country nor personal danger to myself can make me address
myself to Lord Chatham or to any other branch of opposi-
tion. Honestly, I would rather lose the Crown I now
* On the state of the navy. Keppel said he preferred having a small
Fleet well fitted, to a large one badly equipped.
LORD NORTH.
109
wear than bear the ignominy of possessing it under their
shackles. I might write volumes if I would state the feel-
ings of my mind; but I have honestly, fairly, and affec-
tionately told you the whole of my mind and what I will
never depart from. Should Lord Chatham wish to see me
before he gives an answer, I shall most certainly refuse it.
I have had enough of personal negotiations, and neither
my dignity nor my feelings will ever let me again submit
to it.
"Men of less Principle and honesty than I pretend to
may look on public measures and opinions as a game. I
always act from conviction; but I am shocked at the base
arts all those men have used, therefore cannot go towards
them. If they come to your assistance, I will accept
them."
Also without date, but written on 15th March, 1778.
"You have now full Power to act, but I dont Expect
Lord Chatham and his Crew will come to your assistance;
but if they do not, I trust the rest of the arrangt will
greatly strengthen and will give efficacy to Administ.
h
"Thurlow as Chanc", Yorke as Secretary of State, will
be efficient men. Numbers we have already. La Dartm
as Steward and Lª Weym" as Privy Seal will please them
both. I am certain Ld Wh's conduct on ye last Vacancy
gave him a right to this change, if agreeable to him."
"16 March, 1778.
"You can want no further explanation of the language
held to Mr. Eden the last evs. It is so totally contrary
to the only ground on wh. I cd have accepted the services
of that perfidious Man that I need not enter on it. Lord
Chatham as Dictator, as planning a new Administration, I
appeal to my letters of yesterday if I did not clearly speak
out upon. If Lª Chatham agrees to support y² adminis-
tration, or (if you like the expressions better) the funda-
mentals of the present administration, viz.,.Lª N. at the
head of the Treasury, Las Suffolk, Gower, and Weym¹ in
great offices to their own inclinations, Le Sand" in the
ds
* See the two last letters, without date.
110
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
Admiralty, Thurloe Chan', and WeddⓇ a Chief Justice. I
shall not object to see that great man, when Lª Shelburne
and Dunning with Barré are placed already in office, but I
solemnly declare that nothing shall bring me to treat per-
sonally wh Lª Chatham. If I saw Lª C. he wª insist on as
total a change as Lord Shelbe yesterday threw out."
"16 March, 1778.
"I am fully convinced that you are actuated alone from
a wish not to conceal the most private corners of your
breast in writing the letter you have just sent unto me;
but, my dear Lord, it is not private pique, but an opinion
formed on an experience of a Reign of now Seventeen years,
that makes me resolve to run any personal risk, rather
than submit to Opposition wh. every plan deviating from
strengthening the present administration is more or less.
tending to. I am certain, while I can have no one object in
view but to be of use to the Country, it is impossible I can
be deserted, and the road opened to a set of men who cer-
tainly wª make me a Slave for the remainder of my Days,
and, whatever they may pretend, wa go to the most unjus-
tifiable lengths of cruelty and destruction of those who
have stood forth in public offices, of wh. you wª be the first
Victim."
d
"17th March, 1778.
"La Amherst advises an immediate retreat from Phila-
delphia to New York, and, if the Amers be resolved, on the
arrival of the Commissioners, to join France, he advises the
evacuation of N. Y. and Rhode Island, and the troops to
be employd agt the W. I. Islands.”
(Lord)
"17 March, 1778.
"I am grieved at your continually recurring to a subject
on which we never can agree. Your letter is certainly
personally affectionate to me: it shews no sign of per-
sonal fear; but, my dear no consideration in life shall
make me stoop to opposition. I am still ready to accept
any part of them that will come to the assistance of my
present efficient Ministers; but whilst any Ten Men in the
Kingdom will stand by me, I will not give myself up
into
LORD NORTH.
111
(Lord)
A
bondage. My dear I will rather risk my Crown than
do what I think personally disgraceful. It is impossible
that the nation shª not stand by me. If they will not,
they shall have anoth King; for I never will put my hand
to what will make me miserable to the last hour of my life.
Therefore let Thurlow instantly know that I will appoint
him Chanc²; and the Sol Gen¹ that, if he does not chuse
to be Atty Gen', he will treat wh the C. J. of the C. P. to
resign."
"18th March, 1778.
"I am highly incensed at the language held by Lª Shel.
last night to Eden, and approve of that of the latter. I
am fairly worn down. But all proposals and answers made
in future go through you, for I will not change the Admin-
istration; but if I can with honour let you make acquisitions."
((
Same day.
Convey to Thurlow and Wed" my Intentions. Then
and not till then I am open to the plan of Ministry pro-
posed by you on Sunday. I never will accept the services
of any Part of Opposition but to strengthen you. To give
you Ease, I consent to what gives me infinite Pain, but
any farther even that consideration will not make me go.
Rather than be shackled by those desperate men (if the
nation will not stand by me) I will rather see any form of
Govt introduced into this Island, and lose my Crown, than
wear it as a disgrace."
"22ª March, 1778. past 8, A.M.
"I can scarcely express my disappointment at finding
that all the uneasiness and labour I have undergone for the
whole week has not convinced you that, tho' you are un-
happily too diffident of your own abilities, yet that you
ought also to consider that you have changed your ground
since Sunday. I will never consent to removing the mem-
bers of yº present Cabinet from my Service.
"I am extremely indifft wher La Granby goes or does not
go with the abject message of the Rockm Party to Hayes.*
*Lord Chatham's house in Kent.
112
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
Lord
I will certainly send none to that Place. 'My dear
your now always recurring to a total change of the Ad-
minis" obliges me to ask you one clear question: if I will
not by your advice take the step wh. I look on as Disgrace-
ful to myself, and destruction to my Country and Family,
are you resolved, agreeable to the Example of the D. of
Grafton, at the hour of danger to desert me ?'"
"23rd March, 1778.
“I cannot return the message without expressing my
satisfaction at your determination not to desert at this
hour, wh. indeed I always thought y' sense of honor must
prevent."
"26 March, 1778.
"The many instances of the inimical conduct of Frank-
lin makes * me aware that hatred to this Country is the
constant object of his mind, and I trust that fearing the
rebellious Colonies may accept the generous offers of ye
Com's, his chief aim in what he has thrown out is to pre-
vent their going, or to draw out of Adm" an inclination to
go farther than the Act of Parlt, that information from
him may prevent America from concluding wh the Com's.
Yet I think it so desirable to be enabled to close the War
wh that Country, to be enabled with redoubled vigour to
avenge the faithless and insolent conduct of France, that I
think it may be proper to keep open the channel of inter-
course with that insidious man. In no Treaty must there
be a word of Canada, or Nova Scotia, or the Floridas."
"27 March, 1778.
By Lord Buck's two letters I see that he has become
quite Irish in his opinions. Be on your guard not to
encourage him so as to draw this Country into granting
too many advantages in Trade to Ireland. If that King-
dom is to have any graces of that kind, I desire they may
be granted with a sparing hand, for every favour granted
there is only a reason for asking a greater.
"It is by keeping Canada on its present foot, that is
alone to secure the dependence of America, with troops in
the Floridas and Nova Scotia."
* Sic.
LORD NORTH.
113
"29 March, 1778.
"Your constant recurrence to a measure I think destruc-
tive. Your avowed despondency, which is highly detrimental
to my service, obliges me to the three folls Questions:-
1. Do you think it possible to strengthen the present adm"
by any accession of some Men of Talents from the opposi-
tion? 2. If that cannot be effected, will you consent to
continue and try to exert yourself and co-operate with me in
putting vigour and activity to every Department? 3. If
you decline continuing, you cannot, I suppose, refuse Pre-
siding at the Treasury, and finishing the Business of this
Session, and not be surprised at my taking such steps as
I think necessary for strengthening my Admin", the first
of wch will be my giving the great Seal to the Attorney
Gen¹."
30 March, 1778.
I am sorry to perceive that, by declining the first two
Questions, you have adopted the third. It wd be useless
to describe the pain I feel at the prospect of losing you.
Send to Mr. Thurloe and inform him that I intend the
Great Seal and a Peerage for him; and as I wish to do
every thing for your ease, not detrimental to my service, to
the end of your holding your employment, I authorize
to persuade Mr. Wed. not to quit the H. of C. till the end
of the Session. Tell him it will be a contract I shall never
forget, and one of your last acts shall be to complete the
arrangement with the C. J., that he may preside in the
Common Pleas."
you
"31st March, 1778.
"Pleased at Ld N's consent to remain after the Session,
as long as was necessary for arrangts."
"1 April, 1778.
“The letter I have just received from you is in the affec-
tionate Stile I used to find ever to be called forth in you
when my Service was concerned, and so very unlike the
coldness and despondency of y correspondence for some.
time, that I cannot refrain the pleasure of expressing my
* Sic.
I
114
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
satisfaction at it. I am clear that Mr. Jackson ought not
to be allowed to go, and that Johnstone, if made palateable
to Lª Carlisle, wh I shª think Eden might easily manage,
wª not be an improper person."
"2 April, 1778.
“Let Thurlow know his appt next Saturday. You renew
your request of being released. I cannot stir till the Great
Seal is in reputable hands. The station of Sol Gen¹ is quite
difft. A permanent arrangement must be made to satisfy
him. The Attorney is to be brought forward to give
energy to the first station in the Law, therefore I only
press for what is of use to my service, and leave the other
to y arrangements when it suits you best."
3d April, 1778.
"The demand of pay by Mr. Eden is rather exorbitant :
but I shall consent to what you think reasonable, always
trusting that the expense is not in the end to fall on my
Civil List. For this letter has an appearance of truth.
We shall soon hear from Lord Grantham if it is exact.”
.h
Same day.
"The new diffy started by the Chief Justice seems
unpleasant, but on consideration it alleviates many, for it
wd be impossible to give him a Peerage at this time, conss
he will not resign. The Sol Gen' must chuse between
being Atty Gen¹ and making an arrangement w¹ the Mas-
ter of the Rolls. By either, he will be kept in the House
of C³. As to the Chief Justice thinking himself ill used
by T.* having a Peerage, it has not the smallest founda-
tion. I offered him the Great Seal and a Peerage, which
he declined. I want an able Chan", and therefore have
pitched on Mr. Thurlow: it is no preference to give a Man
a Peerage because he holds an office in wh. he cannot be
of complete use without a Seat in the H of Ls."
"6 April, 1778.
"It is unpleasant to see gentlemen so little concerned for
* Thurlow.
LORD NORTH.
115
the Country as to let the House Tax only to be carried by
Five Votes."
"A messenger is arrived from Berlin. The K. of Prussia
seems desirous of forwarding our Treaty with Russia, pro-
vided he meets with assistance.* A Cabinet tomorrow.
I am sorry that the K. of Prussia stoops to tell untruths,
wh. certainly is the case in an insinuation that Austria en-
courages France to make the Treaty with the Rebels, and
has pressed her to attacking my German Dominions."
" 8th April, 1778.
"C. J. De Grey refuses. May not the political exit† of
Lª Chatham incline you to continue at the head of my af-
fairs? If it will not, you cannot be surprised that I again
mention it, and if I must here add that I cannot begin to
form any plan till Mr. Thurlow is in possession of ye great
Seal."
66
"8 April, 1778.
'Deeply affected at the death of Sir J. Clavering, avails
himself of usage and etiquette to avoid the evident pain of
a public and scene of leave to the American Comm".
desired Mr. Eden will prevent its being expected."
"14 April, 1778.
I
"In the Division last night the Country gent" have
taken the opportunity to shew their Love for Contrac-
tors.
"15 April, 1778.
"To avoid Three Peerages on the promotion of Mr.
Thurlow, I prevailed on C. J. de Grey to consent that his
shd be postponed till the next creation, and conferred upon
* In the war against Austria.
On the 7th of April, Lord Chatham was taken ill during the debate on
the Duke of Richmond's motion on the State of the Nation. He never again
appeared in the House of Lords, and died on the 11th of May at Hayes.
Debate on the Bill to exclude contractors. The motion (by Šir P. J.
Clarke) for leave to bring it in was carried by 71 to 50. It was carried
against the Government also on the second reading, on the first of May, by
72 to 61. On the motion for going into Committee on the 5th of May, it
was thrown out by 113 to 109.
116
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
his family if he shª not then be living. I am ready to
mention to the La Chanc myself the necessity of his re-
signing."
"16 April, 1778.
"I will try whether Keppel cannot be persuaded by the
promise of additional ships to detach a force to beat D'Es-
taing before he passes the Gut of Gibraltar.
""
“18 April, 1778.
"Not having received any answer to the letter of Wed
Evs by wh. I had removed the difficulty of three Law
Peers, I on Thursday Evening explained to the Lª Chan-
cellor the impossibility of continuing him in office, he
having declined to attend the Consultations of my Minis-
ters. He saw the necessity, and will deliver the Seal
whenever called upon by me. Thurlow may receive it on
Wedy and be presented with the C. J. on Wedy."
Same day, 8 P.M.
"As your letter plainly shews that you at all events
expect to be released from your situation at the end of the
Session, and that you cannot extricate yourself even for
that Small Period, if the Law arrangements you yourself
proposed to me take place, I think it best on ye whole to
make no arrangement this recess; and you are therefore
dispensed from taking any steps concerning the present
Attorney and Sol Generals, or any Successor to them."
"May 5 and 6th, 1778.
"Remember the last words you used that you did not
mean to resign."
"May 12th 1778.
"I am rather surprised at the Vote of a public Funeral
and Monument for La Chatham, but I trust it is worded
*
* An address was moved by Colonel Barré, "that the king would give direc-
tions that Lord Chatham be interred at the public charge.' To which Dun-
ning moved as an amendment "that a Monument be erected in Westminster
Abbey to the memory of that excellent Statesman, with an Inscription ex-
pressive of the public sense of so great and irreparable a loss." The motion
as amended was carried nem. con.
LORD NORTH.
117
as a Testimony of gratitude for his rouzing the Nation at
the beginning of the late War, and his conduct as Sec or
State; or this compliment if paid to his general conduct is
rather an offensive measure to me personally. As to add-
ing a Trifle to the Pension I have no objection. As the
fresh touching upon the wish to retire convinces me of
Lord North's intention at all events to resign, I can only
add that as soon as he has arranged the day of Mr. Thur-
low's receiving the Great Seal, I will when I have that
Office in such respectable hands, not lose an hour in con-
sulting with the new Chancellor, and with some of my
principal Ministers now in y° Cabinet, how least to the
detriment of the Public Service to supply what I must
ever look on as so great a loss. Lord North will by this
perceive the sooner he can notify that the road is clear for
my nominating a Chanc" the sooner he will be freed from
his present uneasy situation."
"14 May, 1778. past 10 P.M.
"When Major Ackland was presented yesterday, I
told him to come today at past eleven, to give me an
account of the different scenes he has been engaged in since
he left this Island. The zeal he has shewn made me think
him deserving of this distinction. I find he is very sen-
sible of it, by his having mentioned my intention with
pleasure."
"17 May, 1778.
I
"Just promised the letters of the late Sir J. Clavering
to Mr. Francis on Mr. Hastings' refusal to resign and dis-
missal of Sr J. C. from his civil and military stations.
cannot help renewing what I wrote a few days ago unto
you, that if the E. I. Comp' do not in the most decided
manner remove Mess's Hastings and Barwell, the dignity
of Parl', and, what is still more essential, the subversion of
the legal acts of the Legislature, is annihilated. The Judge
ought also to be removed. It is a daring event that re-
quires great energy."
"19 May, 1778.
"I never meant to grant you the Wardenship of the
118
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
d
Cinque Ports for life. The being once persuaded, when
quite ignorant of public business, to grant that office for
life to Lª Holdern for a particular object, is no reason for
doing so now. I daily find the evil of putting so many
employments out of the power of the Crown, and for the
rest of my Life, I will not confer any in that way, unless
where antient practice has made it matter of course.
I
will confer it on you during pleasure, with an additional
salary to make it equal to the sum received by Lª Hold :
It must be termed an additional salary that the income
may not be increased in or hands. Sir R. Walpole's Pen-
sions during life, was natural. He had firmly for twenty
years withstood a strong opposition. The Crown deserted
him, and his Enemies came into office. No other mode
therefore wd have done. Mr. Grenville got the rever-
sion of the Tellership before he came into the Treasury,
as a compensation for resigning his pretensions to the
Speaker's chair. La Northington's Pension for Life, was a
shameful bargain of the Idol of the H. of C. to get the
great seal for Lª Cambden. In addition to the C. Ports, I
shall not object to a reversion of a Tellership to y' Family;
but I shd much prefer your remaining at the head of
the Treasury, where many opportunities will of course
arise by weh I may benefit your Family, without fixing
a bad Precedent.
(6
Why is the appt of Mr. Thurloe not concluded? You
want to retire, yet will not take the first step to enable me to
acquiesce in your request."
"22ª May, 1778.
"The handsome conduct of the Solicitor General on this
occasion, has made a deep impression on my mind. I de-
sire that it may be exd wh' some mark of my approbation
cannot be conferred on him on this occasion, but I de-
cidedly decline the arrangement proposed of vacating the
Chief Justice of yº Common Pleas for the Speaker, whose
adverse conduct cannot make me deem it wise or expedient
to place him in that office, particularly wh a Peerage.
"Send for the Attorney Gen' and inform him there re-
mains no farther impediment to his instantly getting the
Great Seal. I shall certy offer him a security equal to
LORD NORTH.
119
Lord Cambden's Pension when he quits, wh. is more deli-
cate than any application for him. But I shall try to
avoid granting a reversion of a Tellership, as I am anxious
to give that to your Family, wr you remain or not in yr.
present situation."
'24 May, 1778.
Agreeably to yr. recommendation, I have told the Att
Gen¹ that I mean to accompany the Great Seal by the re-
version of a Tellership and a floating Pension. You this
day renewed yr. wish to be released from your present em-
ployment. I will examine w* it be possible, always relying
that, if I cannot fix on any mode that I think of advantage
to ye Public, you will consent to continue.”
"25 May, 1778.
"It used to be usual consequence of Foreign War to
make opposition avoid distressing Government. But this
as well as public Zeal seems equally destroyed in this un-
principled age. I am glad the majority have rejected so
improper a motion.*”
"26 May, 1778.
"The degree to which you have pressed me to resign
for the last three months, has given me much uneasiness;
but it never made me harbour any thought to the disad-
vantage of your worth. Now you are alarmed lest you
have offended me, when there is not the least reason, as
you have declared a resolution of continuing, if I cannot
make an arrangement to my satisfaction. This determi-
nation thoroughly satisfies me."
((
29 May, 1778.
"It appears rather particular that Mr. Burgoynet shª
* Sir William Meredith's motion for Papers, on the Sailing of the French Fleet
from Toulon, and the State of the British navy. It was lost by 117 to 91
on one Resolution, and the other was defeated by 125 to 89 on Lord North's
motion for an adjournment.
† Burgoyne spoke and entered fully into the subject in the debate on the
26th of May upon Mr. Viner's motion on the Convention of Saratoga. Mr. Fox
moved an Amendment to consider the Transactions of the Northern Army
under Burgoyne. This was lost by 144 to 95, and the original motion was
then negatived without a division.
}
120
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
wish to take a lead in opposition, when his own situation
seems to be far from pleasant or creditable."
"1st June, 1778.
"I am sorry to find the Attorney Gen' rather retracts :
I feel the propriety of keeping him in his present situation,
and if any kindness from me on Wednesday can effect it,
you may rest assured he shall be got into thorough good
temper.
"2d June, 1778.
"I have seriously attempted to release you, but am con-
vinced how detrimental it wd be to the Public. Your
language for the last ten days has been encouraging, and
has shewn a desire to continue. I therefore trust the same
attachment will prevent your being swayed by the unfor-
tunate events which at the beginning of a war may be ex-
pected in some of the wide possessions of this great Em-
pire, to take the same idea of retiring at an hour perhaps
still more inconvenient. I also trust the summer's repose
will enable you to rouse your mind with vigour to take
the lead again in the House of Commons, and not to let
every absurd idea be adopted as has too recently appeared.
I know you complain the House does not attend to your
wishes, but your own candour must also convince you that
it is impossible your ideas can be followed, whilst you have
not yourself decided the Path you mean to take. The
moment you will decide, the Love and Esteem most of the
House have for you, will appear conspicuously, and a little
attention on your Part to the most efficient men, will
restore due order. I cannot help touching on ano¹ delicate
point. The greatest part of your difficulties arises from
your entering too far with others in plans of business, but
particularly arrangements of employments without fairly
stating your sentiments unto me. Where can you repose
your undigested thoughts more safely, than in the breast
of a man who has always treated you more as his Friend
than as Minister?
“I will authorize Lt Gen¹ Fraser to arrange the Duchy
of Lancaster with Mr. Wedd. on his accepting the Atty
Gen'ship. I find the Attorney General takes the title of
Yarmouth, wch being a Norfolk man, I expected."
LORD NORTH.
121
"3d June, 1778.
(6
Acquaint Mr. Wall.* that he is to vacate as Sol Gen'
this day,† and Wedd. as Attorney. Lord Clarendon must
be provided for by Office."
"26 June, 1778.
"You inform me that the Speaker is come to Town to
have his Audience this day. I shall very patiently hear
him, and certainly say as little as possible.'
""
"3d July, 1778.
"I have just had a very long conversation with Sir W.
Howe, the substance of which was his very strongly de-
claring that nothing can make either his Brother or him
join the Opposition, but that Lª G. Germ. with his Secre-
taries Nox and Cumberland load him with obloquy, and
that he must therefore be allowed some means of justifying
himself. He strongly disapproves the intended expedition
agt St. Lucie, wch will he thinks succeed, but end in the
destruction of the Troops."
of
"12th July, 1778.
"I rather wish than expect that the French wd venture
a gen' action wh Keppel.
"I have read the narrative of what passed between Sir J.
Wright and Dr. Addington, and am fully convinced of w
I suspected before, that the old Earls like old Coachmen
still loved the smack of the whip, and Sir J. Wright, to
appear a man of consequence, has gone beyond his Instruc-
tions. Certainly it wd have been wiser if no message had
been sent."
* His seat in Parlt on being appointed Solicitor General.
† James Wallace was brought up in the office of Thomas Simpson, an
attorney of Penrith in Cumberland, whose daughter he married, and through
her obtained the estate of Carleton Hall in that county, which had been pur-
chased by his wife's maternal grandfather, John Pattinson, attorney of Pen-
rith, in the year 1707, from the last of the family of Carleton. Mr. Wal-
lace, after he married Miss Simpson, was called to the bar, and became first
Solicitor, and afterwards Attorney General. He left an only son, who was
created Lord Wallace, and died without issue.
Sic. Secretary Knox.
122
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"14 July, 1778.
"The intelligence from Bancroft may not be false, but it
is certainly exaggerated, for to intimidate has ever been one
of his chief aims.'
"18 July, 1778.
"The affair of the Belle Poule ought to be added to the
Manifesto, we can be no longer called the Agressors, but
have shewn perhaps too much Temper."
"25th July, 1778.
"As La Bathurst we have taken the Privy Seal he
ought to be content wh a Pension equal to the Sal' of that
Place. I trust Adm. Kep. will get between the French
Fleet and the Coast, but we cannot hear of an action before
Monday."
d
"12 August, 1778.
"The present accts from America put an end to all
negociation. We must steadily pursue the Plan adopted in
the Spring. The providing Canada, Nova Scotia, and ye
Floridas with troops, and shª that not leave enough for
New York, then abandon that place and content ourselves
wh distressing the rebels till the end of the French War,
wh. if successful may give us better hopes."
"14 Augt 1778.
"I shall not fix in my mind of a successor to the D. of
Auc., tho' so near my Person, till I have consulted you.
""
"23 Aug. 1778.
"The personal character of yº D. of Chan.* makes him
worthy of the Post."
"5 Oct. 1778.
"Attack on Goree, much approved, to be kept very
secret. Diffy to get soldiers out of our very small means.
"13 Oct. 1778.
"Spain will join France next Spring. But I trust the
* Chandos.
LORD NORTH.
123
British navy will then be in a state to cope w¹ both nations.
Armed as France and Spain now are, no Peace cª be durable
or much less expensive than War-it must now be decided
wr France or Britain must yield. You may depend on my
readiness to cheathe the sword, whenever a permanent
tranquillity can be obtained."
cr
"23 Oct.
"La Stormont cannot have a Competitor for the office
vacated by the death of D. of Queensbury.
Though the D. of Northumba's health and age give no
reason to expect much attendance as Master of the Horse,
yet I am so desirous to nominate a man personally agree-
able to you that I make no scruple in consenting to ap-
point him."
"25 Oct. 1778.
"The very Sluggish attendance after Easter last Session
has filled my mind wh the necessity of some Plan to ef-
fect an early and constant attendance next Session. You
will form some plan for this object, in wh. you may depend
on my warmest support, and that my disapprobation shall
be shewn in the fullest manner to those who swerve from
their duty, when a systematical plan is formed. I trust
in a week you may be able to lay such a plan before me.”
"2d Nov 1778.
"This week has elapsed without your pushing the Plan,
and your aversion to decide wª lead you to postpone it till
too late, unless forced by me to what I look upon as essen-
tial to your own ease as well as to the public affairs.
"I therefore insist on your laying your thoughts on that
subject before the Cabinet on Thursday."
"10 Nov
"On coming home I found La North's box containing
Sents of affection to my Person, tho' in other respects
not very agreeable to my wishes. You cannot be surprised
that surrounded w¹ difficulties and an oppos" to govt formed
of men that, if they cd succeed, wd restrain no one of the
* Sic.
124
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
absurdities they have sported. I think it is the duty, nay,
personal honour of those in public Stations, must prompt
them to make evy effort to assist me, who have unreserv-
edly supported them."
"12 Nov.
"The letter from Ireland requires the maturest consider-
ation. Experience has convinced me that this Country
gains nothing by granting indulgences to her Dependencies;
for opening the door encourages a desire for more, which,
if not complied with, causes discontent, and the former
benefit is obliterated."
"14 Nov 1778.
"The report that the gent" who attended the meeting
in Downing Street last night, will cordially support next
Session, is what I expected. If the ministers in their
speeches show that they never will consent to the Inde-
pendence of America, and that the Assistance of every man
will be accepted on that ground, I am certain the cry will
be strong in their favour. I shª have concluded here, had
not the letter contained the following expression that
Lord* is conscious and certain that he neither has the
authority nor the abilities requisite for the conduct of affairs
at this time.
d
"The word 'authority' puzzles me, for from the hour
of La North's so handsomely devoting himself on the re-
treat of the late D. of Grafton, I have never had a political
thought wh. I have not communicated unto him; have
accepted of Persons highly disagreeable to me; because he
thought they would be of advantage to his conducting
public affairs, and have yielded to measures my own opinion
did not quite approve, therefore I must desire to have an
explanation in writing on what is meant by that word, as
also that a change might be made to the benefit of my
Service, wt having recourse to the Opposition. It is quite
a new thought, and at present quite incomprehensible to
If Lord *
can see with the same degree of
enthusiasm I do, the beauty, excellence, and perfection of the
me.
* Sic. "North."
† Sic. "North."
LORD NORTH.
125
British Constitution as by Law established, and consider
that if any one branch of the Empire is allowed to cast off
its dependency, the others will infallibly follow the ex-
ample, he will not allow despondency to find a place in his
breast, but resolve not merely out of duty to fill his Post,
but wh vigour to meet evy obstacle that may arise, he
shall meet wh most cordial support from me. But the
times require vigour or the State will be ruined.”
"24 Nov. 1778.
"I authorize you to offer the place of Sec at War, in
the first place to Mr. Jenkinson, and, if he declines, to
La Beauchamp."
"26 Nov 1778.
"I trust Mr. Forthe* no more than the Newspapers ;
but I read them wh some curiosity, as I do those daily
productions of untruth.”
"Handsome Majority."+
(6
'Long Debate expected this day."‡
"27 Nov.
"4 Dec. 1778.
"12 Dec. 1778.
"I am sorry to find the strangely managed dispute be-
tween the two Admirals is to be discussed in the H. of C.
But it may forward what I think wa' be an advan-
tage, bringing Lª Howe to the head of the Board of Ad-
miralty, for Administration will somehow or other be too
much sneered in that affair, unless a change is made in
that department.”
*Sic. Probably Mr. Forthe's "letters."
† On the address. The majority was 226 to 107 on Mr. Townshend's
amendment "To enquire by what fatal counsels or unhappy systems of
policy the country had been reduced to so dangerous a state.'
""
‡ Upon Mr. Coke's motion on the Manifesto of the American Commis-
sioners. It was rejected by 209 to 123.
Sic.
126
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"15 Dec 1778.
"*It is irksome to find you were detained so late at the
H. of C. not on ye business of the day, but on supporting
or abandoning the American War."
'21 Dec 1778.
"Just heard of the pocket book bro' up by Lª†
I suppose it will turn out rather a scheme to alarm than a
real design of assassination."
"24 Dec. 1778.
"The Papers concerning the supposed assassination Plot
show that either or both the Persons who came on Friday
unto Lordt must have framed the scheme to get
money."
"28 Dec. 1778.
"La Suffolk is fixed to resign. Nothing cd more
effectually remove the hatred and faction occasioned by the
unhappy breach between the two Admirals as a new head
of that department, particularly if of that Profession.
"In time of Peace I am not convinced that a man of
general education may not fill that Station as well, but in
a naval War like the present it is highly advantageous to
have in the Cabinet a person able to plan the most effec-
tual manner of conducting it. If you be of that opinion,
and think Lord Howe the best qualified, it will prevent all
altercation, wch, if he is not during the recess satisfied, will
take up the time of Parl from business more useful.”
"1st Jany 1779.
"I have recd your letter, wch is wrote in so open and
friendly a Stile, that it has given me infinite pleasure, wch
arises from the real affect" I have for you. The D. of
Bolton deld to me a most extraordinary Paper, signed by
Lª Hawke and other Admirals. I said I cª not fail duly
to consider a Paper signed by them. It shews great wrath
at Sir H. Pall.‡ and the Admiralty.'
* Debate in the Commons on the 14th on the Army Estimates, in which
the whole question of the American war was discussed.
† Sic.
Sir Hugh Palliser.
LORD NORTH.
127
"29 Jany 1779.
"I perceive, as I expected, that opposition, when they
talk of Coalition, mean to dictate. I thank God, whatever
difficulties may surround me, I am not made of materials
to stoop to that. You cannot too soon see Lord Howe,
who I trust will be reasonable. Might it not be right to
hold out to him the propriety of appointing Palliser to the
command of the Fleet in N. America, and opening his seat
at the Admiralty? The idea of offering the Cinque Ports
to La G. Germ. grieves me, as I feel a pleasure in having
spontaneously conferred that office on La North."
"1st Feby 1779.
"I rejoice that you will do what I think best. I do not
wish any change at the Treasury. That I may not appear
too obstinate, I do not object, if La North thinks the lan-
guage held by the D. of Grafton to Mr. Chamier worthy
of consideration, to empower Lª Weym to see what can
be engrafted on it."
d
h
"4 Feby 1779.
"When Lª Weym¹ met the D. of G. last night, he
found no reason to ground any hopes that any coalition
cd be effected. My conduct will shew that I never am
deaf to any apparent proposal of General Union, though no
circumstances shall ever compel me to be dictated to by
Opposition. You may now sound La Howe, but before I
name him to preside at the Admiralty Board, I must ex-
pect an explicit declaration that he will Zealously concur in
prosecuting the War in all ye Quarters of yº Globe."
"9 Feb 1779.
"I expected that La Howe wd decline, as he did last
night. We must either find a successor to Lª Suff.*, or if
the faction in yº Fleet be too strong for Lª Sandw“, to pro-
mote him to the Northern Seals."
"11 Feby 1779.
"It does not require great penetration to discover that
Lª Carlisle is either pressed to the step by his relations, or
* Lord Suffolk.
128
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
by Mr. Eden in hopes it may drive you to give up Ld G.
Germ"."
"12 Feby 1779.
“Your eyes will now be opened to Mr. Eden's character.
We ought to send for some of his friends in the H. of C.,
that they may be apprised of this strange Phenomenon.
La Weym¹ must* La Carlisle."
d
"12 Feby 1779.
"I have just heard of the violent attack in the night on
your house, w providentially proved abortive by the acti-
vity of the military."
"12 Feby p. 9 P.M.
"I am sorry you take so much to heart the division of
this day. I am convinced that this country will never
regain a proper tone, unless Ministers, as in the time of
K. William, will not mind being now and then in a mino-
rity. If it comes to the worst, the Bill will be thrown
out in the Lords: the day of Trial is not the honourable
one to desert me. Keep the merit of having stepped forth
when I was in distress, by staying till the Scene becomes
serene."
"13 Feby 1779.
"A Gov or Lieutt Gov* you may arrange for Sir W.
Howe. After considering the intended memorial of the
naval officers agt Sir H. Pall. I see that he must be re-
moved. No one but Lª Sand" is of a difft opinion."
d
"14 Feby 1779.
"The Cabinet think it unjust to send Sir H. P. to his
Trial with the prejudice wch a removal from his military
employt wª create. I shall not insist. The Atty Gent's
letter seems to show a desire of objecting to whatever is
proposed. So very incorrect a dealer in news as La Den-
bigh."
* Sic.
d
† Debate on the Contractors' Bill. The majority was 158 to 143 against
the Government. The Bill was afterwards, on the 11th of March, thrown
out by 165 to 124.
LORD NORTII.
129
"17 Feby 1779.
"I cannot think my proposal to remove Sir H. P. was
so improper, when Lª Sand himself is now forced to come
to a mean subterfuge to attain the same end."
"19 Feb 1779.
Perhaps there never was a more general run than agt
poor Sir H. Pall. Not only factious, but moderate men are
shocked, and with reason, wh his bringing a capital charge,
and yet not having proved the smallest appearance of
ground for so grievous a charge."
"22ª Fely 1779.
"I do not see any reason to create a nominal office of
Deputy Ranger of Greenwich for a Pension to be given
with more éclat to Mr. Eden. The Pension in Trustees
for the life of Mrs. Eden is the properest mode.
"If Dr. Priestly applies to my Librarian, he will have
permission to see the Library, as other men of Science
have had. But I can't think his character as a Politician
or Divine, deserves my appearing at all in it. I am sorry
Mr. Eden has any intimacy with that Doctor, as I am not
overfond of those who frequent any Disciples or Com-
panions of the Jesuits of Berkeley Square."*
"28 Feb 1779.
"I am ready to take any ostensible step to show my dis-
pleasure at those who do not attend in the H. of C."
"1st March, 1779.
"More negotiations with Lª Howe. La H. demans
conditions that it wa be disgraceful to grant.
"The Person going between Mr. Eden and the Keppels
is so exactly described by his letter, that it can only be
that busy body Col. Smith. It is plain that the admiral
suspects my being a party to the treatment he complains
of. The pretending that the Paper is aimed only at the
Admiralty is false; for it mentions a change of Ministers
in express terms, and by name complains of Lª N."
*This refers to Lord Lansdowne's noble patronage of Dr. Priestly.
K
130
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"4 March, 1779.
"I am full of indignation at the number of Persons who
so shamefully avoided attending yesterday,* wch made the
majority so much less than it ought to have been. The
opposition seem to have had the numbers I have often
heard you say they w" muster, viz., 170."
5 March, 1779.
"I hope Sir Ralph Payne has been strongly spoke to,
and Messrs. Doyley and Strachey. The like may not be
thrown away on C. Herbert, who is well inclined, and if
pressed will go difft from his Family. Lª Amht+ has wrote
to M. G. Morris, Lt. Col. Laurie, and Capt" Egerton, and
will get the D. of Chand. to write for Sir H. Paulett. I
am strongly of opinion the that the Gen¹ Offrs who through
Part have got Govts should, on opposing, lose them. This
is very diff from removing them from their military com-
mission. In short, you will find me resolved to take ev
strong measure to keep out a dangerous faction."
"9 March, 1779.
"Handsome maj. ‡ I wish a List of the Defaulters.
L' Howe may now be ranked in opposition. Does not the
part taken by Sir James Lowther shew he is not so adverse
as formerly? He is himself scarce worth gaining, but his
followers wª swell our List. If Johnston§ is brot round,
wd he not be serviceable in this ?"
"13 March, 1779.
"I was much surprised at finding the Pension for Mrs.
Eden amount to so large a sum. I did not mean to make
Mr. E. independent by giving £1600 between him and
Mrs. E. for life."
* On Mr. Fox's motion of censure on the admiralty for sending Keppel
out with so small a force. It was lost by 204 to 170.
† Lord Amherst.
On Mr. Fox's motion on the state of the Navy. The majority was 246
to 174. Lord Howe spoke against the Government. Sir James Lowther
said a few words, and voted with Ministers for the previous question.
§ Mr. Johnston was one of Sir J. Lowther's members.
LORD NORTH.
131
"22d March, 1779.
"The Division of last night* was so considerable, that I
should hope if care is taken to keep People in town, that
Trials of Strength will cease. Though Debates will be
carried on after the recess though if the Minority find
they do not gain ground they will soon be tired of vain
talking.
66
By an intercepted letter from Bancroft to Mr. Wal-
pole, it appears†
is not going to E. Indies."
"30 March, 1779.
"Much pleasure at the rejection of Mr. Burke's
Amendt. Opposition can now gain no question but by
outslaying the Majority. I now begin to credit the sup-
position that the Court of Spain will take no part in the
War."
d
"6 April, 1779.
La Hillsb¹ § will be a very attentive Secretary of State,
and his American sentiments make him acceptable to me.
But we must not offend La Gower or La Carlisle.
must find some Office for the latter."
We
"21st April, 1779.
"Both much displeased at the ill humour of the Atty
Gen¹. You are much above any little intrigue, which
certainly is very prevalent in the composition of yº Attor-
ney General, and still more in that of his pupil, Mr. Eden.
I recommend to you place your chief political confidence in
the Chanc¹, who is a firm and fair man, always ready to
give his opinion when called upon, yet not ambitious of
going out of his own particular line, therefore will not at-
tempt the part of a Mentor, wh the two of Gent have too
much aimed at. Ev' quarrel with him must be healed by
a Job. Let the Lª Advocate be gained to attend the whole
Session and brave the Parlt, but not for filling Employ-
ments."
* Debate on Mr. Fox's motion of censure on the Government for not send-
ing out reinforcements to Lord Howe. It was lost by 209 to 135.
Illegible.
29th.
The Division was upon the Report on the Army Extraordinaries, on the
The numbers were 142 to 78.
§ Lord Hillsborough.
132
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"30 April.
"I supposed that, when once the American Enq' was
brot into the H. of C., Lª G. Ger. wd have thought it neces-
sary for his character to have it thor" canvassed."
"4th May, 1779.
"I can easily conceive that there are particular circum-
stances in a popular assembly which oblige a man of pene-
tration not to continue opposing what he might in the
beginning of a debate judge best rejected. So I applaud
the bold but well judged step of the brave Arbuthnot in
going with his convoy to the relief of Jersey. Had others
conducted themselves wh the same zeal, the American con-
test had long ended with credit to the Mother Country."
"10 May, 1779.
"I am sorry to find from you that ye Exam" on Sr W.
Howe takes a turn so contrary to your Wishes."
"12 May, 1779.
"I have carefully read the two letters from Mr. Francis.
The Company is ruined and Parliament ridiculed, unless
Hastings is instantly removed from his situation."
*
"11 June, 1779.
"The object of Sir W. Meredh's address is pretended to
be the desire of Peace wh America-that of Mr. Eden is to
be employed as a private negociator wh Franklin to effect a
Peace.-No man in my Dominions desires Solid Peace more
than I do. But no inclination to get out of the present
difficulties, which certainly keep my mind very far from a
state of ease, can incline me to enter into the destruction
Lª d
of y Empire. La North frequently says that the advan-
tages to be gained by this contest never could repay the
expense. I own that any War, be it ever so successful, if
a Person will sit down and weigh the expense, they will
find, as in the last, that it has impoverished the State en-
riched; but this is only weighing such Points in the Scale
* On Sir William Meredith's motion respecting peace with America. It
was negatived without a division.
NOTE -Sir James Mackintosh observes, that the letter of the 11th of
June is not the composition of George III.
LORD NORTH.
133
of a Tradesman behind his counter.
It is nec for those
whom Providence has placed in my Station to weigh wh
expenses, though very great, are not sometimes nec to pre-
vent wh wa be more ruinous than any loss of money. The
present Contests wh America I cannot help seeing as the
most serious in wh any country was ever engaged. It con-
tains such a Train of Consequences that they must be
examined to feel its real weight. Whether the laying a Tax
was deserving all the Evils that have arisen from it I shª
suppose no man could allege without being thot fitter for
Bedlam than a seat in the Senate, but step by step the
demands of America have risen. Independence is their
object, which ev³ man not willing to sacrifice ev³ object to
a momentary and inglorious Peace must concur wh me in
thinking this Country can never submit to. Shª America
succeed in that, the W. Indies must follow not in indepen-
dence, but for their own interest they must become depen-
dent on America. Ireld wd soon follow; and this Island,
reduced to itself, wª be a poor Island indeed."
"12 June, 1779.
"Sir W. M's Question rejected wt a division. America
from distress begins to feel, and Gentlemen who pretend to
be Englishmen are bringing forward Questions only to raise
the drooping Spirit of America."
d
"15 June, 1779.
"I accept Lª N's proposals, except La Onslow to succeed
La Pembroke, a Peerage for La G. Germ. My objection
to the first is my promise to La Boston. It wd be an end-
less repetition to state my objections to decorating Lª G.
Germ. wh a Peerage. HE HAS NOT BEEN OF USE IN HIS
DEPARTMENT, and nothing but the most meritorious ser-
vices could have wiped off his former misfortunes. As to
Lord North's wish of retiring, it wd be highly unbecoming
at this hour. On Thursdy La Hillsb" will receive the Seals.
"16 June, 1778.
"Lord North's application to resign within two days of
the Prorogation I can see in no other light than as a con-
tinuation of his resolution to retire whenever my affairs will
134
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
permit it. For I never can think that he who so hand-
somely stood forward on ye desertion of ye D. of Grafton
wd lose all that merit by folls so undignified an example."
"June 20th 1779.
"The very wicked Protest is proof sufft that, whilst
Parliament sits, new matter to cause general dissatisfaction
is the object of Opposition."
"22 June, 1779.
"The Papers from America shew that, had not Spain
thrown off the mask, we should soon have seen the Colonies
sue for Pardon from the Mother Country. I do not yet
despair that, with Clinton's activity and the Indians in
their rear, the Provinces will soon now submit.
"It is no compliment when I say that Lª Gower wª be
a poor substitute for Lª N. I cannot approve of such a
measure. What I sd yesterday was the dictate of frequent
and severe selfexamination. I never can depart from it.
Before I hear of any man's readiness to come into Office, I
will expect to see it signed under his hand, that He is
resolved to keep the Empire entire; and that no troops
shall consequently be withdrawn from thence, nor Inde-
pendence ever allowed."
+
“27 June, 1779.
Mr. Harris's letter shews that nothing can be gained
from Russia, and it confirms me in the impropriety of
having sent Mr. Eden to Copenhagen. Col. Luttrell's
opinion of the self established Corps in Ireland is not much
to their advantage."
* In the Debate on the King's message respecting the Spanish Manifesto,
when there was a division in the House of Lords of 57 to 32. A Protest
was signed by the Dukes of Richmond, Manchester, Devonshire, Portland,
Lords Rockingham, Fitzwilliam, &c., against the whole conduct of the
American War, and against Proroguing Parliament at the present moment.
† Lord North.
See Despatch from Sir James Harris to Lord Weymouth, dated 4th
June, 1779, and his private letter to Lord Weymouth of the same date.
'Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, first Earl of Malmesbury,'
vol. i., pp. 232 and 237.
LORD NORTH.
135
"27 June, 1779.
Rodney's idea that the Spanish Fleet cª not reach Cape
Finisterre under a voyage of 5 weeks is very comfortable,
and will enable Sr C. Hardy, having by that time 38 Ships.
of the Line, to give a good account of the Enemy, shª they
amount to fifty."
"2nd July, 1779.
"I am confident my language was the only one fit to be
held to the Attorney. The shewing him that if he con-
tinues to support in his present Office he will meet with
my Countenance in his Profession as Events naturally arise.
In short, I shewed him by inference, not words, it was
more his interest to be faithful than to take any oª line of
conduct wh wd destroy him with me and make him not rise
in the opinion of any party. His quickness seemed with-
out saying anything to feel the weight of all I meant to
convey."
"18 July, 1779.
“The conduct of the Lª Lieut of Ireland is incompre-
hensible. Lord North's answer is perfectly right."
"20th July, 1779.
"I cannot credit the opinion that the whole Spanish
Fleet will join M. D'Anvilliers. If it did, I should not be
apprehensive. I trust in Divine Providence, the Justice
of our Cause, and the Bravery and activity of my Navy. I
wish Lª North ca view it in ye same light for the ease of
his own mind."
"July 24, 1779.
tt I
may appear strange, but I undoubtedly wish for the
action, and feel a confidence in ye success that never at-
tended any other event."
"July 31st 1779.
The *BP of Derry's accounts are highly exaggerated,
and his means of preventing the mischief so very dan-
gerous, that no man in his senses could suggest it. I reca
yesterday an interception written by Creutz to the K. of
*Lord Bristol. He died at Rome in 1803.
136
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
Sweden, dated Paris, July 15:-'Il n'y a aucune nouvelle
'des deux Flottes. En attendant, tout est pret pour la
'Descente. Il n'y a plus d'Artillerie, de munitions, et de
'vivres qu'il n'en faut pour une plus grande expedition. Si
'la descente en Angleterre devient impracticable, on en fera
'surement en Irelande, et on s'emparera de Cork, d'on l'Ar-
'mée Anglaise en Amerique, tire tous ses vivres. L'Armée
Française pourra y hiverner en sureté, le peuple étant
'riche en vivres, et les habitants, dont la plus grande partie
'est Catholique, très affectionnés à la France.
C
C
"Le Manifesto de la France prouve combien elle met de
l'Equité dans sa pretensions. Si l'Espagne nessuye des
'echecs elle ne sera pas si facile à contenter. Elle veut au
' moins Gibralter, et si elle a des succès marquès elle voudra
'avoir aussi Mahon. Si l'Angleterre n'est pas écrasée, elle
ne peut souscrire à de telles conditions.""
“5 August, 1779.
"La G. Germ. has laid before the Cabinet the acct of the
D. of Richa's conduct, and Lª Amherst has produced the
letters on driving the Country in case of Invasion. In my
opinion it will be highly dangerous to continue the D. of
Richa La Lieut of Sussex. La Pelham's name cd not fail of
pleasing the old Friends of the late Duke of Newcastle,
and Mr. Pelham is a very promising young man.
may talk of prudential measures; but it is not safe to let
the D. of R. be in an executive Office, with his disposition
to clog the wheels of Govt, and, if he has an opportunity,
to encourage insurrection.'
""
Some
"25 August, 1779.
"Bancroft's news calculated to intimidate."
"1st Sept 1779.
“ By Lª Pelham's letter to Lª Amhst it appears that the
D. of R. at the County meeting declared his disapprobation
of the Proclamation for driving the Country in case of
Invasion, and his resolution not to act upon it."
"11 Sept. 1779.
"Sent Lª Sandwith to Portsm¹ with authority to inform
LORD NORTH.
137
Sir C. Hardy, who had put in there for refreshments, that
'I expected the Enemy is not to be permitted to quit the
Channel, without feeling that chastisement wh so infamous
a Conduct deserves.'
"27 Sept. 1779.
d
"I persist in refusing a Peerage to La G. Germaine, his
L'ship may be told that y° reestablish of a first Lª of
Trade* is no degradation of the Colonial Department. It
places Lª Carlisle in an executive department, not one of
direction of measures, which it might not have been right
to place the signer of the Proclamation of last year as far
as regards America.
"So send for La Stormt imm-to remove Lord Little-
ton, whose private character makes him no credit to my
service, and to place La C. Spencer in his Office, wh will
please the D. of M., whose uniform conduct to me ever
since I knew him deserves every consideration."
"11 Oct 1779.
Had I not better open the affair of La Gower to La
Weymouth, and offer the Presidency of the Council? Har-
ris's last letters† give a chance of some good from Russia,
but it must be follª up from hence. Such an Event wª give
great credit to Administration."
"16 Oct 1779.
"The late Mr. Grenville, whenever a contest was ex-
pected, used to follow the mode proposed by Lord North,
namely, to prepare the Warrant for my Signature instead
of that of the Treasury. If the Duke of Northumberland
* Immediately before the meeting of Parliament, in November, 1779,
Lord Gower resigned as Lord President, and was succeeded by Lord Bathurst.
Lord Weymouth resigned as Secretary of State, and was succeeded by Lord
Hillsborough. Lord Stormont came home from being Ambassador at Paris,
and succeeded Lord Weymouth, who had acted as Secretary of State since
Lord Suffolk's death. The old place of First Lord of Trade, which had been
included in the new office of Secretary for the Colonies, was now separated
from it, and given to Lord Carlisle.
† See two Despatches from Sir James Harris to Lord Weymouth, both
dated 20 September, 1779. 'Diaries and Correspondence of Lord Malmes-
bury,' vol. i, pp. 245 and 260.
138
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
requires some Gold Pills for the Election, it would be wrong
not to satisfy him."
"20 Nov 1779.
"I never doubted that an Enquiry into the State of
Plym", when the French appeared before that Place, wa be
brot before Parliament. It relates to La Amht and the
Ordnance. If they can defend themselves, I do not see
any Evil can arise. If they have not done their duty, it is
right it should be known.”
"24 Nov 1779.
"Lord North must remember that he has sa The Die is
cast; so no untoward conduct of ye Atty Gen' is to prevent
La N. going on. On a rumour in the City to-day that
Ministers wa be changed, the Merchants were strong on
the folly of Ministry in retiring; and though they blamed
the conduct of affairs in some things, yet thought so much
worse of opposition."
"30 Nov 1779.
"In answer to a Long letter from Lord North, 'I can
'state my Sentiments in three words :-I wish Lord N. to
'continue; but if he is resolved to retire, he must under-
'stand that step, though thought necessary by him, is very
unpleasant to me.””
"Dec" 1, 1779.
"The Irish letters shew there is an end of all Govt in
that Country. The Lª Lt seems to feel himself that a Suc-
cessor is the most natural consequence."
7th Dec 1779.
"I am pleased wh the Division,* though highly incensed
at the personal conduct of Mr. Macdonald, whose disap-
* Debate on the state of Ireland on the 6th of December, on Lord Ossory's
motion of Censure on the Government, for their conduct towards Ireland.
It was negatived by 192 to 100.
Mr. Macdonald declined voting for the motion because he thought there
was no evidence, but he highly disapproved of the conduct of Government,
and made a most severe personal attack on Lord North, accusing him of
being "indolent and incapable-evasive and shuffling-artful-mean-inso-
LORD NORTH.
139
pointment at the India House, added to the conduct of his
Far in Law,* is no excuse for his Behaviour."
66
THE KING TO LORD THURLOW.
"11 Dec 1779.
Disappointed at the conduct of those wh whom Lª T.
negociated, T. demands power to be more explicit.—' In
order to make the Person with whom you last conversed
(if possible) more open and explicit, I consent that you
'shª acquaint him that Lord North's situation will not
'stand in the way of any arrangement, and that he does
'not desire to be a part of any new administration. This
'ought to convince that Person that I really mean a Coali-
'tion of Parties, and not to draw him in to support the
present Ministry.'
PROPOSAL.
(On this note is an endorsement as follows, by Lord North, in Dec., 1782,
when thinking of the Coalition.)
'H. M., ever desirous of promoting the welfare and
happiness of his Dominions, thinks it behoves every one
actuated by any attachment to his Country to cast aside
all private pique and animosity, and cordially unite in the
service of the State. He is, therefore, willing to blot from
his remembrance any events that may have displeased him,
and to admit into his confidence and service any men of
public Spirit and Talents who will join with part of His
present Ministry in forming one on a more enlarged scale,
lent and cowardly-a poor, pitiful, sneaking, snivelling, abject creature-
fraught with deceit, and one whom no man of honour could trust as a Min-
ister or an Individual." Lord North defended himself with the greatest
success. As to the charge of snivelling, he said, "he hoped that his betray-
ing a weakness was no crime-that it had related to a family misfortune
--and that he never expected to hear his feelings objected to as a sign of
incapacity." This referred to what had passed at the end of the last Session,
when he had been much affected in the course of his speech upon the
Militia Bill, after an attack made upon him in reference to some of his
children, one of whom lay dead at the time. Two days after, viz., on the
8th December, Mr. Macdonald apologized to Lord North and to the House.
*Mr. Macdonald's father-in-law was Lord Gower.
140
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
provided it be understood that every means are to be em-
ployed to keep the Empire entire, to prosecute the present
just and unprovoked war in all its branches with the utmost
vigour, and that H. M.'s past measures be treated with
proper respect."
THE KING TO LORD THURLOW.
"18 Dec 1779.
"When I found you, La Gower, Lª Weymouth, and Lª
North thought it right to endeavour to form a Coalition
of Parties, I yielded to such respectable opinions, I put
into your hand the above paper abt a fortnight before the
Session of Parliament. You would not commence in such
a negociation till La North declared that he cª not go on.
He having on the 1st recommended a Coalition, and declared
that he did not desire to retain his office, or to make a part
of any new ministry, I on the 3rd authorized you to pro-
ceed. A few days after you informed me that, having con-
sulted Lord Cambden, He declined the task of sounding the
inclinations and opinions of his Friends either on the Prin-
ciples on which they were disposed to carry on public mea-
sures, or as to a Coalition with any part of the present
Ministry. You then addressed yourself to Lª Shelburne,
who wª not open himself farther than that he thought that
the more connexion could be preserved with America the
better, but he did not say what the nature of that con-
nexion should be. He added that he did not pretend to be
a Director of Opposition, and cª not tell whether a Coali-
tion of Parties wd answer the ideas of Opposition, and that
it wª be gracious in the King to declare what opening I
would make. Cold and distant as I had reason to think
this mode of proceeding, I authorized you on the 11th to
say that Lª North's situation wª not stand in y way, and
desired you to call on them for a declaration of their Prin-
ciples, and of the changes wh they desired. To this on
Thursday I was able to obtain no other answer, than that
a Coalition seemed not to answer their views. From the
cold disdain with wch I am treated, it is evident to me what
treatment I am to expect from Opposition, if I was to call
them now into my service. To obtain their support, I
d
d
LORD NORTH.
141
must deliver up my Person, my Principles, and my
ions into their hands."
FROM LORD THURLOW.
Domin-
"Decr 26th 1779.
d
d
"*The commands were sufficiently difficult and delicate.
I find that I have had the misfortune to mislead your M.
into a false impression of some considerable men. The
doubts whe" there existed in the Ministry strength enough
to carry on the public business I entertained in common
wh La Gower and Lª Weymouth, but Knowing nothing of
La North's opinions. La North had mistaken my ideas of
the strength of the Ministry, and, supposing that they
turned chiefly on the concurrence of numbers in Parlia-
ment, had undertaken to reconsider his prospect in that
particular. I explained to you that the strength of a
Ministry in my notion consisted, besides the credit and
esteem of Parliament, in their influence upon other parts
of the Empire and other great bodies within the Kingdom,
their authority over Fleets and Armies and other branches
of the Executive Power. On the 22nd of Nov" I was in-
formed by La N. of the intention to appoint Lª Bath. Prest
of yº Council and Lª Hillsborough a Sec of State.
"When I rec¹ the Paper, I mentioned that it was some-
what indefinite-that it only offered the Treasury-and
that it wª be better to suggest such a Proposal as from
myself than from higher authority. I conversed wh La
Cambden, Lª Shelb.,+ and others, but still as a private man,
disclaiming all authority to make proposals. They declined
to enter into that sort of conversation wh me on that foot-
ing, but they never imagined that they were returning an
answer to your M.
M.‡
"From what has passed, it must appear that no proposal
has yet been made to any part of Opposition, nor conse-
quently any answer returned by them."
"10 Feby 1780.
"Lord Pembroke came yesterday and resigned his Court
* This letter appears to be from Lord Thurlow to the King.
† Lord Shelburne.
‡ Majesty.
142
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
d
Employment, giving no other reason than that he could
not support measures while one man not in the H. of L.
was in the Cabinet, and explained this to relate to Lª G.
Germ. I cannot chuse the Lieut of Wiltshire shª be in
the hands of Opposition. Offer it to La Aylesby; the D. of
Lª
Marl shª be told that regard for him made me not remove
his Bro' in Law, but that havs chosen to resign I cª not
think it right to leave y Lieut in his hands. Lord
Stormt brot me a letter from the D. of Chandos, resigning
the Lieute of Hampshire, alleging that the favours of the
County were put into other hands, wh. I am told means
his not having got the govt of the I. of Wight. I have
since heard that he is ruined, and means to retire to Flo-
rence. If this be True he will not be prevailed on to keep
the Lieut. Lord Rivers has occurred to me."
*
"22nd February, 1780.
"La North cannot be surprised at my having read
Wh some astonishment that the maj³ was so small this morn-
ing, on a Question wh was to circumscribe the Power
of the Crown to bestow its benevolence to Persons in nar-
row circumstances. Had the Speaker been able to continue
last Tuesday, there was every reason to expect a very great
majority. I must remind La N. of a similar Event wh
occurred when Mr. Grenville was at the head of the
Treasury-the Question on General Warrants-when he
wrote me word of the Division, marks of being dispirited
were obvious, I instantly answered that if he wª but hide
his feelings and speak wh firmness, the first occasion that
offered he wd find his numbers return. He folld my ad-
vice, and the Event exceeded my most sanguine expecta-
tions."
"26 Feby 1780.
"Unfortunate state of Irel".-The misfortune is, that I
see no man but La Townshend willing to go at this time."
"29 Feby 1780.
"I learn wh great pleasure the rejection of so new an
* Adjourned Debate on Lord George Savile's motion on the 21st for an
account of Pensions. Lord North moved an amendment, which was carried
by 188 to 186. The debate had been adjourned in consequence of the illness
of the Speaker, Sir Fletcher Norton.
LORD NORTH.
143
Idea as the self-vacating of seats in Parlt, which shews that
noveltys are not agreeable to the House."
"3 March, 1780.
“*I am greatly pleased, after so many Arts employed to
intimidate Members of Parlt, that the postponing the Com-
mee on Mr. Burke's Bill was carried by a Majority of 35.
I do not doubt that the number will greatly increase.”
"7th March, 1780.
d
"Violence and illiberality of Opposition. La Sandwh's
true reason for wishing not to give the Lt G. of Marines
to Rodney, is that by Sir C. Hardy taking it he might va-
cate Greenwich for Palliser, wh wd I think make a great
noise and be very wrong."
"7th March, 1780.
"Approves Budget. In answer pretty evidently to a
hint about American independence. I can never suppose
this Country so far lost to all ideas of self-importance as to
be willing to grant Amer. independence. If that cd be
ever universally adopted, I shall dispair of this Coun-
try being preserved from a state of Inferiority. I hope
never to live to see that day, for however I am treated I
must love this Country.'
"9th March, 1780.
"It was easy to see that if the Question were put alone
on y abolishing of the third Secretary of State, the dis-
inclination that has in general existed agt that arranget and
no small prejudice against the present possessor, wª make
it very difficult to reject it. Conseq the Division does
not surprize me.Ӡ
* Debate on Mr. Burke's Establishment Bill. The division was on the
question whether the Bill should be committed the day after, or some days
after, and was carried in favour of Government by 230 to 195.
†The division in Committee on the first part of Mr. Burke's Bill, for
abolishing the Secretary of State for the Colonies, was carried by 208 to 201.
There had been a majority before, of 205 to 199, upon the Order of the day
for going into Committee on the Bill. The Government members, all but
Mr. Rigby, voted for going into Committee.
144
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
"14 March, 1780.
"I am sorry men shª so far lose their reason and let the
violence of the Times or their Fears actuate them so much
as to forget the real utility of the Board of Trade, but I
trust, on y subseqt Questions on Mr. Burke's Bill, the
numbers will again preponderate on ye side of Govt. Yr
opinion on Sunday made me expect that Opposition wd
carry this Question."*
"21 March, 1780.
Glad to find that the Commee on Mr. Burke's Extra-
ordinary Bill has rejected some of the Clauses wh so good a
majority."
"7th April, 1780.
"Lord N.'s whole conduct, from the Hour he accepted
the Post he now fills, is a surety to me that he will not ex-
pect an immediate answer on so very material an event as
the one he alludes to. The Resolutions can by no means
be looked on as personal to Him. I WISH I DID NOT FEEL
AT WHOM THEY WERE PERSONALLY LEVELLED.”
"11th April, 1780.
"It is clear that had the Five Members arrived in time
last night,§ the strange Resolution of the Commee wª have
been rejected, and cons Lª North must see things begin to
wear a better aspect. A little time will open the eyes of
several who have been led farther than they intended.
cannot be the wish of the Majority to overturn the Constitu-
tion.
It
*On the 13th of March the abolition of the Secretary of the Board of
Trade was carried by 207 to 199.
†The clause for abolishing the office of Treasurer of the Chamber was
lost by 211 to 158. On the 28th, the clauses proposing to abolish the offices
of Great Wardrobe and Board of Works were also lost. The former by 210
to 162. The latter by 203 to 118.
+ Dunning's famous Resolution on the 6th of April, that the influence of
the Crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished. It
was carried by 233 to 215.
§ On the 10th of April, when Dunning's motion for securing the inde-
pendence of Parliament was carried by 215 to 213. The Resolution was, "That
it is incompatible with the independence of Parliament that persons holding
certain offices (Treasurer of the Chamber, Treasurer of the Household, and
other offices at Court) should sit in Parliament."
LORD NORTH.
145
d
"Faxtious Leaders and ruined Men wish it, but not the
bulk of the People; I shall therefore undoubtedly be as-
sisted in preserving this excellent constitution. La N. shall
see that there is at least one Person willing to preserve un-
spoiled the most beautiful Constitution that ever was
framed."
"14th April, 1780.
“*The division last night for rejecting Mr. Crewe's Bill
shows an inclination in the House of again viewing matters
with some discression."
Same day.
'I have not the smallest doubt that the Speaker has
pleaded illness to enable the Opp" to pursue their amuse-
ment at Newmarket the next week.”
46
"23 April, 1780.
'§ Nothing can bring the present crisis to a more im-
mediate issue than the Question to be proposed tomorrow
by Mr. Dunning; but I trust the members will see that
the carrying of it will dissolve the Govt.
66
Rejoices at the growing divisions agt what cannot now
be denied to be a Plan of Opposition for changing the Con-
stitution."
66
"6 May, 1780.
The fate of no Question more interested me than that
of yesterday. I am much pleased wh ye Majority."
"9 May, 1780.
"Receives a Copy of a letter to be written by the D.
of Cumberland. The whole political sentiments of D. of C.
was so adverse to what I think right that any Intercourse
* Mr. Crewe's Bill, for disabling revenue officers from voting at elections.
The Committee was negatived by 224 to 195.
† Sic.
On the 14th the Commons adjourned to the 24th April, in consequence
of the Speaker's illness.
Ş On the 24th Mr. Dunning moved an address against the dissolution and
prorogation. This was rejected by 254 to 203.
General Conway's Bill for quieting the troubles in America. The mo-
tion for leave to bring in the Bill was rejected by 123 to 81.
L
146
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
between us could only be of a cold and distant kind, and
conseq' very unpleasant. I shall therefore, if such a letter,
return no kind of answer.
"19 May, 1770.
“* You cannot doubt that I recd wh pleasure the account
of Mr. Burke's bill having been defeated. But
you cannot
be surprized at my real sorrow in seeing you persist in the
idea that your health will not permit you to remain in
y' present situation. Had I the power of Oratory or the
Pen of an Addison, I cd say no more than what I can con-
vey in the few folls Lines, viz. : that I am conscious, if you
will resolve w¹ spirit to continue in your prest employt, that,
with the assistance of a new Parliament, I shall be able to
keep the present Constitution of the Country in its pristine
Lustre; that there is no means of letting you retire from
taking the lead that will not probably end in evil, and,
therefore, that till I see things change to a more favourable
situation, I shall not think myself at liberty to grant your
request. You must be the Judge w you can honourably
desert me when infallible Evil must ensue."
"27 May, 1780.
"I expected little trouble for the remainder of yº Ses-
sion."
"Kew, 3 June, 1780.
"Parliament must enquire into this Riot."+
"5 June, 1780.
"I have taken ev step that cd occur to me to prevent
*On the 18th of May the clauses proposing to abolish a number of offices
were lost in Committee, when Mr. Burke announced that he considered the
Bill gone. It was formally thrown out on the 23d of June.
On the 1st of June Lord George Gordon presented the Petition of the
Protestant Association, and moved for leave to bring in a Bill to repeal an
Act lately passed in favour of the Papists; and also moved that the House
should immediately resolve itself into a Committee to consider the Petition.
The ayes were 6, the noes 192. Those who voted for the motion were
Sir P. M. Clarke, Sir Michael Fleming, Sir James Lowther, Mr. Polhill,
Mr. Tollemach, and Lord Verney. The tellers were Lord George Gordon
and Alderman Bull. The lobby was so crowded with the mob of the Peti-
tioners that there was a great delay before the members could divide.
LORD NORTH.
147
Tumult tomorrow, and have seen that proper executive
orders have been sent by the two Secretaries of State.
Trust Parlt will take such measures as the necessities of
the times require. This Tumult must be got the better of,
or it will encourage designing men to use it as a *President
for assembling the people on other occasions. If possible,
we must get to the bottom of it, and examples must be
made.'
"6 June, 1780.
"You cannot be much surprized at my not thinking the
H. of C. have advanced so far on the present business as
the exigency of the Times requires. The allowing Lª G.
Gordon, the avowed head of the Tumult, to be at large,
certainly encourages the continuation of it, to wh must be
added the great supineness of the Civil Magistrate. I fear
wt more rigour this will not subside: indeed, unless exem-
plary punishment is procured, it will remain a lasting dis-
grace, and will be a precedent for future commotions."
"8 June, 1780.
“In consequence of the resignation of Lª C. J. de Grey,
you will acquaint Mr. Wedd.† that he is tomorrow to kiss
hands."
"9th June, 1780.
"I hope ev³ means are taking to find out the movers
and abettors of the horrid tumult we are now beginning to
quell."
"I have this day signed the reversion in
Erskine, of wh you may acquaint the Att
"17 June, 1780.
favour of Sir J.
Gen!."
21 June, 1780.
"§ I am greatly pleased at the manner in which the
* Sic.
Wedderburn, then Attorney-General.
Afterwards Lord Rosslyn. His office was Director of Chancery in
Scotland.
§ On the 20th, Resolutions, moved by Lord Beauchamp, respecting the
Act in favour of Catholics, were carried. On the 19th, Lord North acquainted
the House that His Majesty had ordered Lord George Gordon, a member of
the House, to be arrested for high treason.
148
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
Business seems to have been decided in the H. of C., par-
ticularly at having withdrawn the fourth Resolution, and
admitted in lieu of it, a Bill for preventing the educating
of Protestants at Popish Schools, as this is the only griev-
ance that seems to have the smallest foundation.'
"28 June.
"Was not the line taken by Gen' Conway rather unex-
pected? It seemed so to Opposition."
"3d July, 1780.
"* The propositions of Opposition are understood to be
as follows:-
“I. The American War requires no discussion, as they did
not see how the Troops could now be recalled from thence,
and the dependence of America need not at present be taken
into consideration.
"II. That some public measures must be admitted to
enable them to coalesce with reputation, such as Mr. Crewe's
Bill, the contractor's Bill, and a part, if not the whole, of
Mr. Burke's Bill.
“III. Lª Rocking did not want office: to offer the D. of
Rich and Mr. Fox: to be considered on this occasion.
"IV. The Ds of Port and Manches", Messrs. Townshend
and Burke.
"V. No objection to any one remaining in Office but
Lord Sandwich.
"The evasive answer abt America will by no means answer.
Indeed, on all constitutional Points the Opposition have run
so wild, that it is absolutely necessary for those who come
into Office to give assurances that they do not mean to be
hampered by the Tenets they have held during their Oppo-
sition. The second Proposition is, therefore, quite inad-
missible. The D. of Rich and Mr. Fox have more avowedly
than any others of the Rock. party dipped themselves; for
they have added shortening the duration of Parliament, and
the former by a strange conceit of changing the whole mode
and right of Election, wa materially alter the Constitution.
This, added to his unremitted personal ill conduct to me,
d
d
* This letter refers to the Coalition proposed through Mr. Frederick
Montague.
LORD NORTH.
149
d
it cannot be expected that I shª express any wish of seeing
him in my service. Persons must atone for their faults before
I can attempt to forgive them. The D. of R. has not put his
Foot into my apartments for seven years; but, not content
with this, sent me a message by Lª Weymouth, that though
he never came near me, He, as a Lieut Gen., asked my leave
to go to France. As to Mr. Fox, if any lucrative, not Min-
isterial, Office can be pointed out for him, provided he will
support the measures of Govt, I shall have no objection to the
Proposition. He never had any Principle, and can therefore
act as his Interest may guide him.
"The D. of Portlª I shª with pleasure see in my service.
Irelª or any great Court office wa, I hope, suit him. The
D. of Man. in a Lucrative Office I shª not object to: Messrs.
Townshend and Burke wª be real acquisitions.
"Adheres to La Sand", whatever his private feelings
may be.'"
MINUTES OF CONVERSATION WITH MR. MONTAGUE.
"No Difficulty abt the Ds of Portlª and Manch¹, Mr.
Townd, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Fox. Lª N. advises that Mr.
Fox shª at first be proposed for an Office that wª not lead
immediately to the closet.
"Some parts of the D. of Rich's conduct, which H. M.
thinks meant as personal affronts, wd occasion some small
diff's wh respect to his Grace. The Prejudice must be re-
moved by the D.'s conduct before he can be proposed for
any considerable Office."
"Windsor Castle, 31st July, 1780.
"The letter from M. de Maurepas is certainly very ex-
traordinary, and were I not too well acquainted wh the
duplicity of his conduct, I shª suppose his Life almost de-
pended on the success of his Proposal; but when he wrote
the letter, he must have had some very weighty reason for
desiring Peace, wh makes me a little more hopeful that Spain
is resolved to end the War. See La Stormont before any
answer is given to Mr. Forth, (whom you know is always
a very dubious kind of negociator); and shª that able
d
150
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
negociator not think that we may be drawn into any difficul-
ties by Forth's Journey, I shall not object to it; but should,
to Forth's having any Instructions but to hear what Mau-
repas has to say. If Ld G. Germ. presses the Chancellor
civilly for Ambler to be C. J. of Chester, I shª think he wa
acquiesce, though he thinks Kenyon wª clearly be the most
respectable appointment. The Chanc¹ is always so cautious,
that it certainly rather retards business."
"18 Sept* 1780.
"The letters from Mr. Walpole and Mr. Wentworth are
curious, but cannot require any of remark from me, than
that whilst America is only to be treated wh through
France, or the strange unauthorized Propositions of the Com-
missioners are to be the Basis of any arrangement wh the
rebellious Colonies, I cannot give any sanction to any ne-
goceation. Besides, Mr. Walpole's political conduct cannot
make me think him a safe conveyancer or an impartial one.
As to the propositions transmitted by Lª Carlisle, but wh
have the strongest marks of Eden's Pen, I do not object to
the first or second; but no consideration shall ever make
me call him to ye English Privy Council, till he has an
Office to which that honour is usually attendant.”
d
"22 Sept 1780.
"La Stormont presses for Lª Cathcart (probably in yº 16.)
I objected to his youth and small Property. What are the
claims of La Glencairn? La Stt says they are only his having
been useful to the La Advocate in Elections.
"As Mr. Adam's wishes of being appointed to the Board
of Trade have not taken place, I agree to his being Treasurer
of the ordnance. But if you had spoken as strongly to Mr.
Eden as I expected, there would yet be time to satisfy the
reasonable desire of Mr. Adam."
d
"26 Sept 1780.
"Sir H. Clinton's dispatch is certainly of a very gloomy
cast. But the giving up the game wa be total ruin. A
small state may certainly subsist, but a great one moulder-
ing cannot get into an inferior situation, but must be anni-
LORD NORTH.
151
hilated. We must strengthen the W. Indian squadron,
recruit Clinton's army, not for conquest, but to keep what
he has. The French never cd stand the*
of Germany;
that of America must be more fatal to them. America is
distressed in the greatest degree. The Finances of France
as well as Spain are in no good situation. This War, like
the last, will prove one of Credit. By giving up the game,
we destroy ourselves to avoid destruction. We must put
everything on the Continent of America into the best state
of defence. Contract the war to that sole end, and afloat
do as much mischief to our enemies as we can.
""
+"Oct. 1780.
"Lord Gower came to La North to inform him that he
had long felt the utmost uneasiness at the situation of H.
M.'s affairs, that nothing can be so weak as the Govt,
that nothing is done, that there was no discipline in the
state, the army or the navy, and that impending Ruin must
be the consequence of the present system of Govt,—that
he thot himself obliged, as well in conscience as in wisdom,
to desire an immediate dismissal from his employment,
that he had no connexion with any of the members of the
Opposition, which he thought as wicked as the Administra-
tion is weak,—that noths can afford the least hope but a
Coalition, and he is afraid even that remedy may be too late,
—that he feels the greatest gratitude for the many marks of
royal goodness which he has received, but that he does not
think it the duty of a faithful servt to endeavour to preserve
a system which must end in the Ruin of H. M. and of the
country. He is determined never again to take Office, but
to support Govt in his private capacity. La N. thinks that
Lª Gower's resignation at the present moment must be the
ruin of Administration. In La N.'s Argts wh Lª G., Lª N.
owns that he had certainly one disadvantage, which is, that
he holds in his heart, and has held for these three years,
just the same opinion with Lord Gower."
"25 Oct 1780.
"The letter from Mr. Montague shews the same temper
* Illegible.
No day written, and query, whether the year ought not to be 1779?
or M
152
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
of mind that always made me respect his character. Mr.
Cornwall is a very respectable Person for the Office of
speaker,* and ought to be assured of the support of Govt.
That you shª feel a little languid on the approach of Parlt
is not surprising. It is far from being a pleasant sensation,
even to me: but y' resolution rises as the occasion calls for
it; and I have not the smallest doubt that you will shew
the same zeal for wh you have been conspicuous since the
Duke of Grafton's desertion."
"30 Oct 1780.
“The letters certainly seem to show a strong desire of
Peace in the Court of France, wh can have no other foun-
dation than difficulty of Finance not fully known here."
"31st Oct. 1780.
"There was some difficulty in getting rid of Mr. Wrl.'st
offer without an absolute refusal of all propositions of a
pacific nature, but you have so cautiously drawn the answer
to that Gent" as to overcome it. I own, if Mr. W. were
not an avowed Enemy to the present Administration, I sha
not think him the possessor of those qualities which are
essential to a prudent and able negociator."
"5 Nov. 1780.
d
"Lord Percy's letters are very suitable to that peevish
temper for wh he has ever been accused."
((
“28 No² 1780.
Nothing could more strongly shew the venom of Oppo-
sition than the making a long altercation on yº thanks to
Sir H. Clinton and Lª Cornwallis."‡
(C
"28 Nov 1780.
Dividing the report of the Army is of a Piece wh the
rest of y° illiberal conduct of the present opposition."
* Mr. Cornwall was chosen Speaker by a majority of 203 to 134, who
voted for Sir Fletcher Norton.
† Sic. Query, Wraxall?
The vote of thanks was carried without a division.
LORD NORTH.
153
"10 Decr 1780.
"*My late Fa" when he came to Engd was near twenty-
four years of age. His attendants were not numerous; and
this is no rule for me, my Son be only 18. I have given
my Son for Robes and Privy Purse the exact sum I had.
His Stables will be more expensive in Saddle Horses, as he
will have 16. But by appointing a Groom of yº Stole, in-
stead of a Master of the Horse, a set of Horses and two
footmen are diminished. As he will live in my house, he
will not need House Servts. As I thank Heaven my morals
and course of Life but little resemble those too prevalent in
the present age, so of all objects in this life the one I have
most at heart is to form my children so as that they may
be useful examples and worthy of imitation. You thought
that, if the whole add' expense of my Children does not
exceed £30,000, the money may be found. I have endea-
voured to keep it to £20,000.
d
"Lª Southampton, Col. Hotham, Mr. Lyle, and Col.
Lake-average of the expense of Prince of Wales and
Prince Fred for 3 yrs:
New Establts
£12,541 16 3
30,108 6 2
17,566 9 11
Certain increased
Exp. or £20,000 for all the Seven Princes."
"Windsor, 18 Dec 1780.
"Secret dispatch† from M. Necker to Lord North. It
* This letter relates to the establishment of the Prince of Wales, after-
wards George IV.
The secret dispatch referred to in this letter was as follows:-
"Pour vous Seul, My Lord,
"Paris, ce 1er Dec 1780.
"Une Personne actuellement absente en Paris, et que M. Walpole vous a
peutêtre nommée, My Lord, l'ayant engagé dans une demande qu'on n'a
point avouée M. W. s'est trouvé dans le cas de s'onoris à moi et ayant en
connaissance à cette occasion de quelques fragments d'une lettre qu'il a recu
de vous j'ai êté si frappé de la manière noble et franche avec laquelle vous
manifestez d'une manière generale votre amour pour la Paix que cette lectude
a animé en moi une idée qui vous montresa tout au moins. My Lord,
l'estime parfaite que j'ai de votre caracterè, et ne pourra pas j'espère, vous
donner une mauvaise opinion du mien. Vous desirez la Paix, je la désire
aussi, rapprochés ainsi pas un Sentiment si juste, et par la droitude de nos
intentions, pourquoi ne teuterions nous pas ce qu'essayerant un jour les Min-
154
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
shews France is under greater difficulties than we imagined,
or she wd not by such various channels scorn to court
Peace. Wh France it is easily settled, if she wª desist from
encouraging rebellion, and not add to her other insults by
attempting to effect independence, which, whether under
its apparent name or a truce, is the same in reality."
ce
"28 Dec 1780.
Objects to Mr. De Grey as Vice Chamberlain, as his
manners are not quite genteel."
istres de la Politique. Nous ne leur ravissous pas les honneurs d'un Traité
mais nous pourrions pressader les premieres voges ou connoitre du moins si
le temo col venu. J'ai toujours cru que la moderation, le vous seus et la
loyanté etoient le fondement des négotiations et les abregeoient infiniment.
Vous avez je le sais, My Lord, la confiance du Roy d'Angleterre-et com-
ment ne l'auriez vous pas après les services longo et soutenus que vous lui
avez rendus pendant tout le cours de votre honnorable et brilliante adminis-
tration. Je ne puis pas me glorifier d'avoir les mêmes droits à celle du Roy
mais je crois pouvoir vous assender que des overtuder raisonnables reussiroient
tout aussi bien dans mes moins, que dans celles de tout autre. Mais S. M.
doit tenir ainsi que le Roy d'Angl. à une paix honorable, et c'est là ou com-
menceat je le sais bien, les difficultés. Vous avez, sârement, plus de
lumièdes et de facilités que moi, pour indigner les moyens qui peuvent con-
cilier les pretensions des Parties belligerentes. Serai tout que c'est M.
Neckar qui parle à Lord North mes paroles ne seront pas comptés et que je
les confie d'ailleurs à un homme fidèle, je dirai franchement du premier
abord, qu'en réflechissant à part moi, sur cette matière, Je croirai qu'une
Trève, plus on moins longue, pendant laquelle les Parties belligérantes en
Amerique y conserveroient d'une manière indépendente ce qu'ils possedent,
seroit un premier apperça raisonnable. Les échanges à faire entre la France
et l'Angleterre me paroissent faciles, ainsi que l'oubli de ce commissaire
inutile et irritent de Dunkerque. Quantè l'espagne à qui le Roi doit fidelité
et attachement, je n'oserais m'aventures a parler de ses convenances et de ses
pretensions mais il est possible et presque probable qu'elles vous sont connues.
"Si mon idée contrarie en l'essentiel, l'opinion que vous* des sentiments
du Roy d'Angl. votre reponse finira notre correspondence.
"Je dois vous observer, My Lord, que dans aucun cas,
dans aucun cas, il ne pourra convenir
aux Interets du Roy d'ouvrin une négotiation publique avant que les bases
fussent assurées secretement. La raison en est simple, une négociation
publique serviroit puissamment votre crédit, et feroit peu pour nous, vû que
le crédit n'est qu'une portion de nos ressources et qu'il est plus fondé sur une
bonne administration intérieure que sur les circonstances politiques, &c."
This secret despatch, from M. Necker, was sent under cover to Lady
North, by the hand of a French trader, who was ignorant from whom it
came. Without the knowledge of Mr. Walpole a pamphlet was thrown in
with it, to give it the appearance of a packet. The receipt was to be
acknowledged by a note, by the post, in an unknown hand, with Lord
North's seal, and with a common piece of news.
* Sic.
LORD NORTH.
155
per
"4 Jan. 1781.
"I trust you will be very careful what answer you give
to Lord G. Gordon. Indeed silence seems to me the pro-
rule of conduct on the occasion. I shall at least follow
that mode on the application for publishing his four Con-
versations. Certy La G. Gord", in his conversations wh me,
said nothing that cª exculpate him. He said, if the restric-
tions on the R. C., taken off by Parlt, were not repealed,
that the Petitioners wa by force right themselves. He
after that calls the meeting in St. George's fields and heads
them. This does not clear him, but in reality adds to his
Guilt."
"14 Jan. 1781.
"I am sorry to find the extraordinaries of Army in W.
Ind. and N. America amount to so immense a sum.
“*The division last night handsome."
"25 Jan. 1781.
"2nd Feby 1781.
"The Question proposed by Mr. Fox abt the appt of
Sir H. Pall. to the Govt of Greenwh Hospital was unjust
and indecent, as ev thing that comes from that Quarter
must necessarily be."
"9 Feby 1781.
"You may settle wh Mr. Wraxall, Member for Hendon,
* Debate on the Coventry election, in which the Government supported
Lord Sheffield and Mr. Yeo. The division was 109 to 85. Mr. Holroyd had
recently been created Lord Sheffield, in consequence of the part he took in
Lord George Gordon's Riots. Many years afterwards, he married, for his
third wife, Lady Anne North, second daughter of Lord North.
† On the 1st of February Mr. Fox moved "That the appointment of Sir
H. Palliser as Governor of Greenwich Hospital is subversive of the discipline
and derogatory to the dignity of the navy, he having, by the sentence of a
court-martial, been declared to have preferred a malicious and ill-founded
accusation against his commander-in-chief, Admiral Keppel." Lord North
moved an amendment, to leave out the words relating to the sentence of the
court-martial; and this was carried by 214 to 149. After this, the motion
to proceed to the Order of the day, was carried without a division.
156
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
on any just demand he can have. Undoubtedly he was
sent over by the discontented nobility of Denmark, pre-
vious to the death of the late Queen my sister, with a plan
for getting her back to Copenhagen, wh was introduced to
me wh a letter from her. Her death and my delicate situa-
tion, having consented to her retiring into my German
Dominions, prevented me from entering eagerly into this
proposal."
*WRAXALL TO
"I have already presumed twice to address your M. by
Letter; and as I am persuaded that the multiplicity of
affairs which engage your M.'s attention has alone pre-
vented your My's reply, I venture humbly to renew my
requests and Petitions. I am the more emboldened to
reiterate my intreaties from the assurances which I have
received only a few days since from H. R. H. the Heredi-
tary Princess of Brunswick † to intercede wh you in my
behalf. I am sure it is unnecessary to remind your M. that
I was entrusted wh one of the most important secrets in
Europe-a Conspiracy to replace the Queen Matilda of
Denmark on her Throne ;-that I had the honour to be
intimately confided in by H. M., and to be sent by her
from Zell to Engd repeatedly ;-that I carried back your
M.'s Articles and Conditions for the accomplishment of this
Event;-that the lives and fortunes of the first Danish
Nobility were and still are in my possession;—and that I
have never divulged or betrayed in the smallest degree the
Trust reposed in me. I only humbly request from your
M.'s bounty the sum, amounting nearly to five hundred
Pounds, which I actually laid out from my private Purse
for Her Danish Majesty. This is the ultimate limit of my
hopes and entreaties.
"77, New Bond Street,
1st April, 1780."
* Letter from Mr. Wraxall to George III.
"N. W. WRAXALL.
†The sister of George III., who married the Duke of Brunswick, and was
mother of the late Queen Caroline.
LORD NORTH.
157
"15 Feb 1781.
"From my Son's (Pr. of W.) love of expense, I have
already grounds to judge that the extraordinaries will be
great.
""
"27 Feby 1781.
“* Great Pleasure at the Maj' agt the second reading of
Mr. Burke's Bill."
"1st March, 1781.
"Mr. Robinson sent me the list of the Speakers last
night, and of the very good Majority. I have this morning
sent him £6000 to be placed to the same Purpose as the
Sum transmitted on the 21st of August."
"8th March, 1781.
"Mr. Deane shd so far be trusted as to have £3000 in
goods for America. His bringing any of the Provinces to
offer to return to their allegiance wa be much better than a
joint application through the Congress. Wonders at Oppo-
sition to the Lottery. Unless mankind ca be prevented
'from Gambling, it must be right for y° Public to avail
'itself of that vice rather than lose the necessaries of
"Life.""
6
"26 March, 1781.
"The Athol family seem never contented. I leave the
affair to you."
"27 March, 1781.
"The conduct of Sr G. Saville, in making so strange a
* Burke's Civil Establishment Bill, introduced on the 15th of February.
The second reading, moved on the 26th, and lost by 233 to 190.
It was
in this debate that Mr. Pitt, then member for Appleby, and not yet
twenty-one years of age, made his first speech. Lord Lauderdale, then
Lord Maitland, also made his first speech the same night; both spoke
strongly in favour of the Bill.
† Debate on the 7th of March on the Budget. Mr. Fox moved, in the
resolution containing the Terms of the Loan, to omit the clause concerning
the Lottery. This was lost by 169 to 111.
On the 26th of March Sir George Savile moved for a Committee to
inquire into the circumstances of the Loan and its distribution. This was
negatived by 209 to 163.
158
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
motion yesterday, was very consistent with his looking on
himself as the Representative for Mr. Wyvill's Congress.'
“9 May, 1781.
""
"*I am much pleased w finding the Friends of yº pre-
sent Constitution so numerous in the Division last night."
"17 May.
"Enclose the letter from La Gower. I referred the D.
of Athol for his claim on yº Fisheries of y° Isle of Man, as
be manorial, not Sovereign Rights, to you and the Crown
Lawyers."
"2d June, 1781.
"Count Belgioso's strange Paper shews that Austria has
not quitted her late partiality to the H. of Bourbon, or
that to gain the Court of Russia the sentiments of Panin
are to guide the mediators. With either of these opinions
I expect no good from either of these Courts."
“6 June, 1781.
"The intelligence from France is curious, and proves
that the influence of the Queen will soon be much increased
or entirely annihilated."
"13 June.
"It is diff. to say which is more remarkable, the
manly fortitude of the great Maj" or the impudence of y
Minority."
“7 July, 1781.
"On the death of yº BP of Ely my regard for the Family
of Yorke makes me willingly appoint the BP of Gloucester."
*Sir George Savile moved, on the 8th of March, to refer the Petition
from the Delegated Counties, for redress of grievances, to a Committee of
the whole House. This was negatived by 212 to 135.
† On the 12th of June Mr. Fox moved, to take into consideration the
state of the American war. The motion was negatived by 172 to 99.
LORD NORTH.
159
"14 July, 1781.
"The more I reflect on the hint Lord North gave me of
Dr Balguy as a proper Person for the See of Glouc' the
more I am convinced that he is the first man in point of
reputation in the Republic of Letters of either University.
Besides it was he who put an end to the meeting at the
Feathers by the charge he published as Archd of Win-
chester. You may therefore offer him Gloucester."
“3 August, 1781.
"Dr Balguy's conduct does him great credit."
"20 August, 1781.
My eldest son got last year into an improper connexion
wh an actress and woman of indifft character, through the
friendly assistance of Lª Malden.* He sent her letters and
very foolish promises, which undoubtedly by her conduct
she has cancelled. Col. Hotham has settled to pay the
enormous sum of £5000 for the letters, &c., being returned.
You will therefore settle wh him."
"23rd Oct 1781.
"La Rochft's situation is truly pitiable. He cert ought
to have a Pension. As far as my memory serves me, Earls
have gen' had from £600 to £800.
"Your ideas of Mr. Francis seem very candid, and are so
consonant to my opinion that I shall exactly measure my
reception of him tomorrow by that scale."
"29 Oct. 1781.
"Lieute of Bucks to La Chest. I shall never again
appoint to a Lieute any one whose sentiments are not cor-
dial to Govt."
"3 Nov. 1781.
"Lt Col. Conway from America tells me that Sr H.
Clint asking for leave shews that the Camp.† in Virginia
* Afterwards the Earl of Essex. The actress was Mrs. Robinson.
† Campaign.
160
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
is at an end. La Cornwallis will certainly leave the Chesa-
peake and return to Charlestown, after having beat La
Fayette."
10th Nov 1781.
d
The
"I have no objection to the proposal of ye Lª Lt that Lª
Shannon shª succeed Mr. Hood as Vice-Treasurer.
private character of the latter must make me very ready to
supersede him.”
"11 Nov 1781.
"La Temple's letter is not couched in that temper wh
cd incline to a reconsideration of his request, viz., for the
Lieuty of Bucks."
"28 Nov 1781.
"*I am delighted at the Maj³, and not surprized that
some Principal Members have wavered in their Sentiments."
"13 Dec 1781.
"I was rather disappointed at the Majy not being
greater agt the Question moved by S J. Lowther."
"26 Dec 1781.
"La G. Germ. applied to me yesterday for a new Comm*
in America in the name of yº Cabinet.
"I asked time. My opinion is as follows:-Undoubt-
edly S Guy Carleton is the best. He and Lª G. Germ.
are incompatible. La G. is not unwilling to retire, if he
gets his object, wh is a Peerage. No one can then say he
is disgraced; and when the appointment of S G. C. accom-
panies his retreat, it will be ascribed to its true cause, and
not to any change in my Sentiments on yº essential Point,
namely, the getting a Peace at the expense of a separation
from America, wh no difficulties shall ever get me to con-
*The majority on the Address on the 27th November was 218 to 129.
+ Sir James Lowther's motion for putting an end to the American war
was negatived by 220 to 179.
LORD NORTH.
161
sent to do. If you think it best to gratify Lª G., I will
sound Mr. Jenkinson as to succeeding him."
"14 January, 1782.
"Lª G. G. willing to remain, if the War be carried on
wh vigour, if a blow be struck in the West Indies, and if it
be resolved not to submit to a separation."
"21 Jany 1782.
"Your strange indecision abt Lª G. G. is most *uncre-
ditable."
"4th Feby 1782.
"If Mr. Ellis accepts the American Sec'ship, it wª sur-
prize me.
"6 Feby 1782.
"Such very proper conduct as that of Mr. Ellis is, I
fear, only to be found in men of the last age. If the Lord
Advoc. accepts the office of Treasurer of ye Navy, I shall
not consent to his having his great Scotch office for Life.
The trouble he has given this winter is not a reason for
making him independent; and great as his desires seem to
be, that of the best English House of Commons Office and
one of £2000 per annum in Scotd during pleasure are no
small recompenses."
11
"11 Feby 1782.
"Applies for Mr. Barnard, the K's Librarian, to be ap-
pointed to the sinecure Office of Comptroller or Coll of
Customs at Bristol, just vacant."
"17 Feby 1782.
"If Deanery of St Paul's not menta to BP of Oxfª, begs
it for Dr Thurlow."
"24 Feby 1782.
"You cannot be surprized at my being much hurt at the
* Sic.
M
162
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
succession of M. Conway's motion, though in some degree
prepared for it by wt you sd yest"."
66
"9 March, 1782.
You may easily conceive that I am much hurt at the
appearance of yesterday in the H. of Commons, and at La
North's opinion that it is totally impossible for the present
Ministry to continue to conduct public business any longer.
This leads so much, after the Trials I have made of late,
to my taking so decisive a step, that I must certainly deli-
berate before I can return an answer."
"17 March, 1782.
"Sorry to find that the majority this morning did not
exceed nine. It looks as if the H. of C. are going lengths
that could not have been expected. I am resolved not to
throw myself into the hands of Opposition at all Events,
and shall certainly, if things go as they seem to tend, know
what my conscience as well as honour dictates as the only
way left for me.”
"19 March, 1782.
"After having yesterday in the most solemn manner
assured you that my Sentiments of honour wª not permit
me to send for any of the Leaders of Opposition and person-
ally treat wh them, I cª not but be hurt at yº letter of last
night. Ev man must be the sole Judge of his Feelings,
therefore whatever you or any man can say has no avail
with me.
* Sic. On the 22d of February General Conway made a motion against
continuing the American war. This was negatived by 194 to 193. On the
27th, he renewed the motion in the form of a Resolution. The House
divided, for the motion 234, against it 215. It was then moved that the
address be presented by the whole House, and on the 4th of March the
Speaker reported the King's answer.
† On the 8th of March, Lord John Cavendish moved a detailed censure
upon the conduct of the war, and on the Ministers, to whose want of fore-
sight and ability he ascribed what had happened. This was rejected by
226 to 216. Pitt was one of the Tellers for the minority.
On the 15th of March, Sir John Rous moved to withdraw the confidence
of Parliament from Ministers. This motion was negatived by 236 to 227.
LORD NORTH.
163
"Till I have heard what the Chan' has done, from his
own mouth, I shall take no step; and if you resign before
I have decided what to do, YOU WILL CERTAINLY FOR EVER
FORFEIT MY REGARD." *
"22nd March, 1782.
"Recommends to Lª N. an application of Mr. Jenkinson
for a new Patent of the Office of Coll' Inwards, of London.
I have an inclination to grant to yout the same pecuniary
reward that S R.‡ W. accepted.
""
"25 March, 1782.
"The Chanc suggests, instead of a Pension, the § C. Ps.
for Life, wh a Saly equal to Sir Rob Walpole's Pension.
Are you of that opinion ?"
"26 March, 1782.
"I have declared to those who are to form an Administra-
tion, that no Provision will be made except for you and Mr.
Robinson. All farther application for offices, reversions,
&c., must now cease."
"27 March, 1782.
“At length the fatal day is come, which the misfortunes
of the Times, and y° sudden change of Sentiments of the H.
of C. have driven me to, of changing my Ministers, and a
more general removal of other Persons than I believe ever
was known before. I have to the last fought for Individuals;
but the number I have saved, except my Bed Chamber, is
incredibly few. You wd hardly believe that even the D. of
Montague was strongly run at; but I declared that I wªsooner
let confusion follow, than part wh the late gov² of my Sons,
and so unexceptionable a man; so that he and Lª Ashburn.||
remain. The effusion of my sorrows has made me say more
d
* Lord North announced in the House of Commons, on the 20th of
March, that his Government was at an end. On the 27th, Lord Rocking-
ham's Government was formed. On the 13th July, the Government of Lord
Shelburne and Pitt, and on the 5th of April, 1783, the Coalition Government
came in, and lasted till the 27th December, 1783.
† Lord North.
§ Cinque Ports.
Sir Robert Walpole.
Lord Ashburnham.
164
LETTERS OF GEORGE III. TO
than I intended; but I ever did, and ever shall, look on you
as a Friend as well as a faithful servt.":
"4 Nov 1782.
"* Informs the King that his friends in the H. of C. are,
in general, well inclined to support H. M.'s Govt."
ANSWER.
"4 Nov 1782.
"The Times certainly require the concurrence of all who
wish to prevent anarchy. I have no wish but the prosperity
of my dominions; therefore, must look on all who will not
heartily assist me as bad men, as well as ungrateful subjects."
"8 April, 1783.
"In December, the Queen received the Diamond Ring
Sir J. Rumbold had been entrusted with, and had secreted
till Co¹ Crosbie, who came in the autumn from Madras, ob-
liged him to deliver it.
"The application from the Surrey and Middlesex Magis-
trates may be a reason to spare the life of Broadshed; but
his accomplice must suffer death when the Respite expires."
"Abp. of Can" may do homage this day."
"30 April, 1783.
"14 May, 1783.
"You cannot pretend that your letter, renewing the ap-
plication of the two Ladies that were robbed by Edward
Wootten, contains any new matter. Robberies are so much
encreased that the Law must take its course."
"6 June, 1783.
"I am sorry the Earl of Hardwick has so solid a reason
for the indulgence of driving through the Park, which I
certainly will grant as desired by him, except driving through
* Communication from Lord North to the King.
LORD NORTH.
165
the Horse Guards. I am sorry so respectable a nobleman
is not likely to last long."
<<
"Windsor, 12 July, 1783.
Undoubtedly the Americans cannot expect, and never
will receive, any favour from me; but the permitting them
to obtain men unworthy to remain in this Island, I shall
certainly consent to.”
"18 July, 1783.
"As Moore's offer for conveying the convicts to Nova
Scotia, if they are not admitted into the rebel Provinces, is
so much more moderate than Hamilton's, it ought to be
accepted."
66
"24 Oct. 1783.
By every enquiry I have made of Lª Amherst, he de-
nies Govt being in the least concerned in the transaction of
ye E. I. Comp with Co¹ Erskine. I therefore look upon
granting half pay as a wanton expenditure of the public
money.
"29th Nov 1783.
"By the sad measures we have adopted, Ireland is now,
in fact, disunited from this Kingdom."
""
NOTE.
Without date.*
"The intimate union of the Courts of Vienna, Petersbº,
and Berlin, is so contrary to all Political ideas, that nothing
can be imagined more extraordinary but the object of it,
namely, the Partition of Poland. As if this age had been
destined for extraordinary Events, the King of Sweden, by
one daring step, has overthrown the Swedish constitution;
and the States, having blunted ev noble Sentiment by their
*This note evidently was written in the autumn of 1772, the date of the
Swedish Revolution, and of the first partition of Poland, which was planned
by Frederick the Second of Prussia in 1772.
166
LETTERS OF GEORGE III.
corruption, infamously submitted without making the small-
est Struggle to preserve their Liberties. Denmark, actuated
by disappointment, timidity, and a blind submission to Russia,
has taken a most incomprehensible part; for while shewing
intentions of attacking Sweden, she is making such excessive
preparation for defence, that must exhaust her before the
hour of defence can arrive. Russia, instead of remembering
wh gratitude the assistance her Fleet met with in the Ports
of Britain, has been induced by the false insinuations of
Prussia to consider Engª as at best a cold Friend.
"In the expected broils in the North, our Policy consists
in neutrality, wh a determination to let France see, that if
she sends a Fleet we must follow her example, which will
enduce her to limit her aid to the K. of Swed. to money."
•
167
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
MR. WEDDERBURN, afterwards Lord Loughborough
and Earl of Rosslyn, was one of the few eminent law-
yers who have shone at the least as much in political
affairs as in Westminster Hall. Of those English
barristers to whom this remark is applicable Mr. Per-
ceval was perhaps the most considerable; of men bred
at the Scotch bar, and who were promoted in England,
Lord Melville: Mr. Wedderburn, in some sort, par-
took of both kinds, having been originally an advocate
in Edinburgh, where he distinguished himself by his
eloquence and by the fierceness of his invective, which,
being directed against a leading member of the bar,
ended in a quarrel with the court, led to his removing
from the provincial theatre, and ultimately raised him
to the English bench. He was a person of great
powers, cultivated with much care, and chiefly directed
towards public speaking. Far from being a profound
lawyer, he was versed in as much professional learning
on ordinary subjects as sufficed for the common occa-
sions of Nisi Prius. On peerage law, he is believed
to have had more knowledge, and the whole subject
lies within a very narrow compass. He affected great
acquaintance with constitutional learning; but on this
doubts were entertained, augmented, certainly, by the
unscrupulous manner in which he placed his opinions
at the service of the political parties he successively
belonged to. But his strength lay in dealing with
facts; and here all his contemporaries represent his
powers to have been unrivalled. It was probably this
genius for narrative, for arguing upon probabilities,
168
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
for marshalling and for sifting evidence, that shone so
brilliantly in his great speech at the bar of the House
of Lords, upon the celebrated Douglas cause, and which
no less a judge than Mr. Fox pronounced to be the
very finest he ever heard on any subject. It must,
however, be remarked, in abatement of this high pane-
gyric, that the faculty of statement and of reasoning
without the excitement of a contentious debate, being
very little possessed by that great man himself, a happy
display of it, not so unusual in professional men, might
produce a greater impression upon him than was pro-
portioned to its true value and real weight. That it
was a prodigious exhibition may nevertheless be ad-
mitted to the united testimony of all who recollect it,
and who have lived in our own times. That Lord
Loughborough never forgot the Douglas cause itself,
as he was said to have forgotten so many merely legal
arguments in which he, from time to time, had been
engaged, appears from one of his judgments in Chan-
cery, where he imported into a case before him facts
not belonging to it, but recollected by him as having
been proved in the case of Douglas.
His manner in earlier life was remarked as excellent;
and though it probably partook even then of that over-
precision which, in his later years, sometimes bordered
upon the ridiculous, it must certainly have been above
the common order of forensic delivery to earn the
reputation which has remained of it. That he made it
an object of his especial care is certain. He is supposed
to have studied under a player; and he certainly spared
no pains to eradicate his northern accent, beside being
exceedingly careful to avoid provincial solecisms.
His efforts were eminently successful in both these
particulars; but the force of second nature, habit, will
yield to that of Nature herself, who is apt to overcome
in the end all violence that cultivation may do her.
His Scotticisms and his vernacular tones returned as
his vigour was impaired in the decline of life; showing
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
169
that it was all the while an effort which could not
continue when the attention was relaxed and its powers
enfeebled.
*
Upon the removal of Sir Fletcher Norton he joined
the Northern Circuit, having then the rank of King's
Counsel. As this was contrary to all the rules of the
profession, and was, indeed, deemed to be a discredit-
able proceeding, as well as a breach of discipline, even
independent of other peculiarities attending the opera-
tion, an immediate resolution was adopted by the
Bar to refuse holding briefs with the new-comer; a
resolution quite fatal to him, had not Mr. Wallace, a
man of undoubted learning and ability, been tempted
to break it, and thereby at once to benefit himself and
nearly destroy the combination. He thus secured,
beside the immediate advantage of professional ad-
vancement, the patronage of his leader, who, in a few
years, became Solicitor-General, and afterwards Attor-
ney, under Lord North's administration, drawing Mr.
Wallace upwards in his train. He practised in the
Court of Chancery; but in those days the line had not
been drawn which now, so hurtfully for the Equity
practitioner, separates the two sides of Westminster
Hall; and Chancery leaders frequented the different
circuits almost equally with practitioners in the Courts.
of Common Law.
When he entered the House of Commons, he
became, in a very short time, one of the two main
supports of its ministerial leader; the other was Lord
Thurlow and while they remained there to defend
him, Lord North might well, as Gibbon has described
the "Palinurus of the state," indulge in slumbers, with
his Attorney and Solicitor-General on either hand.
remaining at their posts to watch out the long debate.
No minister before or since the time of Mr. Addington
ever depended so much upon the services of his pro-
*He came there with the same clerk whom Sir F. Norton had before in
his service.
170
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
fessional supporters.. Indeed, they and Mr. Dundas,
alone, appear to have shared with him the whole
weight of an attack conducted by the powers of an
opposition which Burke and Fox led, and aggravated
by the uninterrupted series of disasters which, during
the whole American contest, attended the councils of
the King and his servants.
Of the debates in those days such scanty remains
are preserved, that no one could discover from them
the qualities, or even the classes, of the orators who
bore a part in them. The critic cannot from such
fragments divine the species and supply the lost
parts, as the comparative anatomist can by the
inspection of a few bones in the fossil strata of the
globe. Until, therefore, Lord Loughborough came
to the House of Lords, indeed until the Regency
question occupied that assembly in 1788 and 1789,
we were left without the means of assigning his
place as a debater. Of his forensic powers we have
better opportunities to judge. Several of his argu-
ments are preserved, particularly in the Duchess
of Kingston's case and in one or two causes of
celebrity heard before him in the Common Pleas,
from which we can form an idea, and it is a very
exalted one, of his clearness and neatness of statement,
the point and precision of his language, and the force
and even fire with which he pressed his argument,
or bore down upon an adverse combatant. The effect
of his eloquence, upon a very favourable audience
certainly, and in a season of great public violence
and delusion, for it was against the Americans, and
before the Privy Council at the commencement of
the revolt, is well known. Mr. Fox alluded to it
in warning the Commons against being led away
by such eloquence as Mr. Pitt had just astonished
them with, at the renewal of the war in 1803; re-
minding them how all men "tossed up their hats
and clapped their hands in boundless delight" at
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
171
Mr. Wedderburn's Privy-Council speech, without
reckoning the cost it was to entail upon them Of
this famous display nothing remains but a small
portion of his invective against Franklin, which,
being couched in epigram, and conveyed by classical
allusion, has been preserved, as almost always happens
to whatever is thus sheathed. It refers to some letters
of a colonial governor, which, it was alleged, had
come unfairly into Franklin's hands, and been im-
properly used by him; and the Solicitor-General's
classical wit was displayed in jesting upon that
illustrious person's literary character, and calling him
a man of three letters, the old Roman joke for a
thief! Pity that so sorry a sample of so celebrated
an orator should be all that has reached the present
time to justify the account given by Mr. Fox of the
effects which its delivery produced! We are thus
reminded of Swift's allusion to some statue of Cato,
of which nothing remained save the middle region.
That the speech and the whole scene was not with-
out its effect upon him who was the principal object
of attack, appears sufficiently certain; for though, at
the moment, a magnanimous, and, indeed, somewhat
overdone, expression of contempt for the speaker is
reported to have escaped him in answer to one who
hoped, rather clumsily, that he did not feel hurt,
“I should think myself meaner than I have been
described, if anything coming from such a quarter
could vex me;" yet it is well known that, when the
ambassadors were met to sign the peace of Versailles,
by which the independence of America was acknow-
ledged, Franklin retired, in order to change his dress.
and affix his name to the treaty in those very_gar-
ments which he wore when attending the Privy
Council, and which he had kept by him for the pur-
pose during many years, a little inconsistently, it must
be confessed, with the language of contemptuous
indifference used by him at the moment.
172
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
When he was raised to the bench in 1780, and
the Special Commission was issued for trying the
rioters, he presided, and delivered a charge to the
Grand Jury, the subject at the time of much animad-
version for its matter, and of boundless panegyric
for its execution. It was published and widely cir-
culated under the authority of the learned Judge
himself; and we have thus in the first place the means
of determining how far the contemporary opinions
upon that production itself were well founded, and
next how far the admiration excited by the other
efforts of the same artist was justly bestowed. Who-
ever now reads this celebrated charge will confess
that the blame and the praise allotted to it were alike
exaggerated. Far from laying down bad law and
propagating from the Bench dangerous doctrines re-
specting treason, the whole legal portion of it consists
in a quotation from Judge Foster's book, and a state-
ment in which every lawyer must concur, that the
Riot Act was never intended to prevent the magistrate
from quelling a riot during the hour after proclama-
tion. Then the whole merit of the address in point
of execution consists in the luminous, concise, and
occasionally impressive sketch of the late riotous
proceedings which had given rise to the trials. That
this narrative, delivered in a clear and melodious
voice, loud without being harsh, recently after the
event, and while men's minds were filled with the
alarm of their late escape, and with indignation at
the cause of their fears, should make a deep im-
pression, and pass current at a standard of eloquence
far above the true one, may well be imagined.
But so much the more reprehensible (and here lies
the true ground of blame) was the conduct of the
Judge who could at such a moment take the pains
manifested throughout this charge to excite, or rather
to keep alive and glowing, those feelings which the
due administration of justice required him rather
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
173
sedulously to allay. Within a short month after the
riots themselves, six-and-forty persons were put upon
their trial for that offence; and nearly the whole of
the Chief Justice's address consisted of a solemn and
stately lecture upon the enormity of the offence, and
a denial of whatever could be alleged in extenuation
of the offenders' conduct. It resembled far more the
speech of an advocate for the prosecution than the
charge of a Judge to the Grand Jury. Again, when
we find a composition which all men had united to
praise as a finished specimen of oratory, falling to a
rather ordinary level, there is some difficulty in avoid-
ing the inference that an abatement should also be
made from the great eulogies bestowed upon its
author's other speeches, which have not reached us;
and we can hardly be without suspicion that much of
their success may have been owing to the power of
a fine delivery, and a clear voice in setting off inferior
matter; to which may be added the never-failing
effect of correct composition, if employed either at
the Bar or in Parliament, where a more slovenly
diction is so much more frequent even with the best
speakers.
That he was a thoroughly-devoted party-man all his
life, can indeed no more be questioned than that he
owed to the manoeuvres of faction much of his
success. He did not cease to feel the force of party
attachment when he ascended the Bench; and there
can be no doubt that his object at all times, even
while he sat in the Common Pleas, was to gain that
great prize of the profession which he at length
reduced into possession. We shall in vain look for
any steady adherence to one code of political prin-
ciples, any consistent pursuit of one undeviating line
of conduct, in his brilliant and uniformly successful
career. He entered parliament in uncompromising
opposition to Lord North's cabinet, and for some years
distinguished himself among their most fierce assail-
174
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
ants, at a time when no great errors had been com-
mitted, or any crimes against public liberty or the
peace of the world could be laid to their charge.
On the eve of the American war he joined them,
when their measures were becoming daily more in-
defensible; and it is known that, like many others.
in similar circumstances, he appeared at first to have
lost the power of utterance, so astonished and over-
come was he with the plunge which he had made
after preferment.* But he soon recovered his faculties,
and continued in office the constant and unflinching
supporter of all the measures by which his former
adversaries converted discontent into disaffection, and
out of disaffection raised up revolt; nor did he quit
them when they had severed the empire in twain.
Removed from the strife of the senate and the forum,
on the bench he continued their partizan, when they
joined in a coalition with their ambitious and un-
scrupulous enemies. For many years of Mr. Pitt's
administration he was the real if not the avowed
leader of the Foxite opposition in the House of Lords,
as well as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in
Westminster Hall. He had under the Coalition en-
joyed a foretaste of that great banquet of dignity
and patronage, emolument and power, on which he
had so immoveably fixed his long-sighted and pene-
trating eye; having been Chief Commissioner of the
Great Seal during the short life of that justly un-
popular administration. This scanty repast but whetted
his appetite the more; and among the more bold and
unhesitating of the Prince's advisers upon the question
of the Regency, the Chief Justice was to be found
the boldest and most unflinching.
No one can, upon a calm review of that famous
controversy, entertain any doubt that the strict letter
* Alluding to this passage of his life, Junius, in his XLIVth Letter,
says, "We have seen him in the House of Commons overwhelmed with
confusion, and almost bereft of his faculties."
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
175
of the constitution prescribed one course, while the
manifest considerations of expediency prescribed
another. Nothing can be more contrary to the whole
frame of a monarchy than allowing the very funda-
mental principle, that of hereditary descent, for which
and its benefits so many strange and even pernicious
anomalies are overlooked, such constant risks encoun-
tered, and such serious practical inconveniences borne
with, to be broken in upon when the sovereign is
disabled, whether by infancy or by old age, or by
disease, and, instead of following the plain course of
the succession, to call in the elective voice of the
country by an act that resolves the government into
its first principles. To make this appeal, and not
merely to elect a regent, but to limit his powers, is, in
other words, to frame a new constitution for the state
which shall last during the monarch's incapacity, and
which, if it be fit for the purposes of government,
ought assuredly not to be replaced by the old one,
when he recovers or attains his perfect powers of
action. The phantom of a commission issued by an
incapable king to confer upon what the two other
branches of the legislature had proposed, the outward
semblance of a statute passed by all the three, was an
outrage upon all constitutional principle, and, indeed,
upon the common sense of mankind, yet more extra-
vagant than the elective nature of the whole process.
Nevertheless, there were reasons of a practical descrip-
tion which overbore these obvious considerations, and
reconciled men's minds to such an anomalous pro-
ceeding. It seemed necessary to provide for the safe
custody of the king's person; and for such a sure
restoration of his powers as should instantly replace
the sceptre in his hand the very moment that his
capacity to hold it should return. His Vicegerent
must plainly have no control over this operation,
neither over the Royal patient's custody, nor over the
resumption of his office, and the termination of his
176
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
own.
But it would not have been very easy to cut
off all interference on the Regent's part in this most
delicate matter, had he been invested with the full
powers of the Crown. So, in like manner, the object
being to preserve things as nearly as possible in their
present state, if those full powers had been exercised
uncontrolled, changes of a nature quite irreversible
might have been effected while the Monarch's faculties
were asleep; and not only he would have awakened
to a new order of things, but the affairs of the country
would have been administered under that novel dis-
pensation by one irreconcilably hostile to it, while its
author, appointed in the course of nature once more
to rule as his successor, would have been living and
enjoying all the influence acquired by his accidental,
anticipated, and temporary reign. These considera-
tions, and the great unpopularity of the Heir-apparent,
and his political associates, the coalition party, enabled
Mr. Pitt to carry his proposition of a regency with
restricted powers, established by a bill to which the
two remaining branches alone of the crippled Parlia-
ment had assented, instead of their addressing the
Heir-apparent, declaring the temporary vacancy of
the throne, and desiring him temporarily to fill it.
The sudden recovery of the King prevented the
experiment from being then fully tried; but it was
repeated after great opposition and much discussion
in 1810. The two precedents thus made have now
settled the constitutional law and practice in this
important particular.
The Parliament of Ireland, it is to be remarked, did
not, in the earlier case, pursue the same course with
that of Great Britain. Our fellow-citizens, although
dwelling farther from the rising sun, are more de-
votedly given to its worship than ourselves. They
could see nothing of expediency or discretion suffi-
cient to restrain their zeal; and they at once addressed
the Prince of Wales to take upon him the government
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
177
without any restriction whatever, leaving it to His
Royal Highness to make what provision he might
deem most convenient for his own dethronement and
his father's restoration, should he recover. It is the
same country which, having some thirty years later
been ill-used by the same individual, testified their
sense of this treatment by overt acts of idolatry, when
he went among them at the most justly unpopular
period of his life, and even began a subscription for
building him a palace, of which, however, not a
farthing was ever paid.
*
In the consultations, and in the intrigues, to which
this crisis gave rise, Lord Loughborough bore a
forward part. That he should have agreed with the
rest of the party in the constitutional view which they
took of the question, could excite no surprise, nor
give rise to any comment. But it is well known that
his views were of a more practical nature than any
which appeared in the debate. Bold, determined,
unscrupulous, he recommended in council a course
which nothing but the courage derived from despera-
tion could have made any English Statesmen in the
eighteenth century take into their serious considera-
tion, and which, if it had been pursued, would have
left the odium attached to the Coalition in the shade,
and made the people of this country repent them of
not having detested the parties to it yet more bitterly
* General censures of a whole nation are generally foolish, and really of
no avail. But, if the Irish people would avoid the ill opinion under which
they labour among all men of reflection, and raise themselves to the rank
of a nation fit for self-government, they must begin to show that they can
think for themselves, and not follow blindfolded every delusion, or suffer
to be practised upon them every gross and shameless fraud, and give the
countenance of their acquiescence to every avowal of profligate principles
which can be made before them. At present, they are only known to the
rest of their fellow-citizens for a mass of people never consulted, though
absolutely ruled, by the priests and the patriots, who use them as blind,
unreflecting tools. Yet the genius and the worth of the nation are denied
by none. May they soon be really emancipated, and learn to think and
act for themselves!
N
178
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
and more universally. It was the opinion of the Lord
Chief Justice, that the Prince of Wales should not
have waited for even an address of the two houses;
but, considering them as nonentities while the throne
was empty, should at once have proceeded to restore,
as it was delicately and daintily termed, the executive
branch of the constitution; in other words, proclaim
himself regent, and issue his orders to the troops and
the magistrates, as if his father were naturally dead,
and he had succeeded, in the course of nature, to the
vacant crown. There is no reason to believe that this
scheme of Lord Loughborough was adopted by the
chiefs of the party, nor, indeed, is there any evidence
that it was communicated to them. That it was an
advice hinted to the Heir-apparent, or at least a
subject discussed with him, and of which memoranda
remain in the Chief Justice's hand-writing, is very
confidently affirmed from ocular inspection. Whether
or not a very popular prince might with safety have
ventured upon such an experiment, is a question so
wide of the actual case, that no time needs be wasted
upon its solution. That the individual to whom this
perilous advice was tendered could not have done so
without a civil war, appears sufficiently evident.
Indeed, the marriage de facto, legal or illegal, which
he had contracted with a Catholic lady, and of which
the circumstances were generally known, would alone
have furnished Mr. Pitt with a sufficient objection to his
title; and the country would have owed to one of her
reverend judges the blessings of a disputed succession
and intestine tumults, such as she had not experienced
since the days of the Two Roses. There can be little
doubt, whether we consider the character of the man,
or his subsequent conduct towards George III. on the
Catholic question, and his advice respecting the
Coronation oath, that part of Lord Loughborough's
design was to obtain an undivided control over the
Prince, who should then have flung himself into his
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
179
hands by adopting his extreme opinions, and acting
upon such hazardous counsels.
The discomfiture of the opposition party by the
King's recovery, and by the great accession to his
personal popularity which his illness had occasioned,
left Lord Loughborough no prospect of power for
some years. The French Revolution was then ap-
proaching, and the Whigs suffered the almost irre-
parable blow of the Portland party separating them-
selves upon the great questions connected with that
event. He was one of the seceders; nor in taking
this step did he quit his allies of the North school.
The Great Seal, now within his reach by Lord Thur-
low's quarrel with Mr. Pitt, may have operated as an
additional temptation to close his ears against the
evils of the war into which this junction plunged the
country; but one, who had defended the government
steadily through all the calamities of the American
contest, had not much to learn of fortitude in seasons
of difficulty, or of patience under public misfortune.
He held the Great Seal for seven or eight years, and
was at the head of the law during the period of
attempted proscription and actual persecution of the
Reformers, the professors of those opinions carried to
the extreme, which the Whigs, his late allies, pro-
fessed in more moderation and with a larger admix-
ture of aristocratic prejudices. But of him it cannot
be said, as of Mr. Pitt, that he had ever professed
reform principles. On the contrary, the North party
at all times differed upon that question with their
Foxite coadjutors, who, indeed, differed sufficiently
upon it among themselves.
The character of Lord Loughborough stood far less
high as a judge than as either a debater in parliament
or an advocate at the bar. His decisions evince little
of the learning of his profession, and do not even
show a very legal structure of the understanding.
They are frequently remarkable enough for clear and
180
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
even felicitous statement; but in close argument, as
in profound knowledge, they are evidently deficient.
Some of his judgments in the Common Pleas were
more distinguished by ability, and more admired at
the time, than any which he pronounced in the court
where the greater part of his life had been passed.
But he was not unpopular at the head of the profes-
sion. His manners were courteous and even noble;
his liberality was great. Wholly above any sordid
feelings of avarice or parsimony, and only valuing his
high station for the powers which it conferred, and
the dignity with which it was compassed round about,
he maintained its state with a munificent expenditure,
and amassed no money for his heirs. He was more-
over endued with personal qualities which a generous
profession is apt to esteem highly. Reasonably ac-
complished as a scholar, cultivating all his life the
society of literary men, determined and unhesitating
in his conduct, polite in his demeanour, elegant, dig-
nified in his habits, equal in his favour to all practi-
tioners, unawed by their talents as uninfluenced by
any partialities, and resolute in maintaining his own
and his profession's independence of any ministerial
authority-those who have succeeded him never
advanced greater claims to the personal confidence or
respect of the Bar; and his known deficiencies in
much higher qualifications were overlooked by men
who felt somewhat vain of being ruled or being repre-
sented by such a chief, In this exalted station he
remained during the whole eventful years that fol-
lowed the breaking out of the French war, and until
the retirement of those who had made it, a retirement
probably occasioned by the necessity of restoring
peace, but usually ascribed to the controversy on the
Catholic question, its pretext and occasion rather than
its cause.
The fancy respecting the coronation oath which so
entirely obtained possession of George III.'s mind
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
181
and actuated his conduct during the whole discussion
of Irish affairs, is now generally believed to have been
impressed upon it by Lord Loughborough, and pro-
bably was devised by his subtle mind, as it was used
by his intriguing spirit, for the purpose of influencing
the king. But, if this was the object of the notable
device, never did intriguer more signally fail in his
scheme. The cabinet to which he belonged was
broken up; a still more crafty successor obtained
both the place he had just quitted in the king's ser-
vice, and the place he had hoped to fill in the king's
favour; he was made an earl, with the title of Ross-
lyn; he was laid on the shelf; and as his last move,
he retired to a villa remarkable for its want of all
beauty and all comforts, but recommended by its near
neighbourhood to Windsor Castle, where the former
Chancellor was seen dancing a ridiculous attendance
upon royalty, unnoticed by the object of his suit, and
marked only by the jeering and motley crowd that
frequented the terrace. For three years he lived in
this state of public neglect, without the virtue to em-
ploy his remaining faculties in his country's service by
parliamentary attendance, or the manliness to use
them for his own protection and aggrandizement.
When he died, after a few hours' illness, the intelli-
gence was brought to the king, who, with a circum-
spection abundantly characteristic, asked the bearer
of it if he was quite sure of the fact, as Lord Rosslyn
had not been ailing before, and, upon being assured
that a sudden attack of gout in the stomach had
really ended the days of his late servant and once
assiduous courtier, his majesty was graciously pleased
to exclaim-"Then he has not left a worse man
behind him.”*
It is the imperative duty of the historian to dwell
* The liberty has been taken to translate the expressive though homely
English of royalty into a phrase more decorous and less unfeeling upon
such an occasion.
182
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
upon the fate, while he discloses with impartial ful-
ness, and marks with just reprobation, the acts of such
men; to the end that their great success, as it is
called, may not mislead others, and conceal behind
the glitter of worldly prosperity the baser material
with which the structure of their fortune is built up.
This wholesome lesson, and indeed needful warning,
is above all required when we are called upon to con-
template a professional and political life so eminently
prosperous as the one we have been contemplating,
which rolled on in an uninterrupted tide of worldly
gain and worldly honours, but was advanced only by
shining and superficial talents, supported by no fixed
principles, illustrated by no sacrifices to public virtue,
embellished by no feats of patriotism, nor made
memorable by any monuments of national utility; and
which, being at length closed in the disappointment
of mean, unworthy desires, ended amidst universal
neglect, and left behind it no claim to the respect or
the gratitude of mankind, though it may have excited
the admiration or envy of the contemporary vulgar.

183
LORD THURLOW.
THE other helpmate upon whom Gibbon paints the
pilot of the state as reposing, was as different a person,
from Lord Loughborough in all respects as can well
be imagined. We refer of course to Mr. Thurlow,
who filled the office of Attorney-General until the year
1778, when he took the Great Seal. The remains that
have reached us of his exhibitions as a speaker, whether
at the bar, in parliament, or on the bench, are more
scanty still than those of his colleagues; for, while he
sat on the bench, the reports in Chancery were on the
meagre and jejune footing of the older books; and it
is only over a year or two of his presiding in the Court
that Mr. Vesey, junior's, full and authentic reports
extend. There seems, however, from all accounts, to
have been much less lost of Lord Thurlow than there
would have been of subsequent judges, had the old-
fashioned summaries only of equity proceedings been
preserved; for his way was to decide, not to reason;
and, in court as well as in parliament, no man ever
performed the office, whether of judging or debating,
with a smaller expenditure of argument.
This practice, if it saves the time of the public, gives
but little satisfaction to the suitor. The judges who
pursue it forget that, to satisfy the parties, or at least
to give them such grounds as ought to satisfy reason-
able men, is in importance only next to giving them a
right judgment. Almost as important is it to satisfy
the profession and the country, which awaits to gather
the law, the rule of their conduct in advising or in
acting, from the lips of the judge. Nor is it immaterial
184
LORD THURLOW.
to the interest even of the party who gains, that the
grounds should be made known of his success, espe-
cially in courts from which there lies an appeal to a
higher tribunal. The consequence of Sir John Leach
deciding generally with few or no reasons assigned
was, that appeals were multiplied; the successful
party had only obtained half a victory; and it became
a remark, frequent in the mouths of successive chan-
cellors, that causes were decided below, but heard
before them. It is an unaccountable mistake into
which some fall, when they fancy that the more
weight is attached to such mere sentences, because
prefaced by no reasons; as if the judge were to
declare the law, infallible like an oracle, or omnipo-
tent like a lawgiver, and keep to himself all knowledge
of the route by which he had arrived at his conclusion.
The very reverse is true. With an enlightened bar
and an intelligent people, the mere authority of the
bench will cease to have any weight at all, if it be
unaccompanied with argument and explanation. But
were it otherwise the reason would fail, and signally
fail; for the only increase of weight derived from the
practice would be that to which the judgment had no
claim, namely, the outward semblance to the ignorant
multitude of a determination more clear and positive
than really existed. Add to all this, that no security
whatever can be afforded for the mind of the judge
having been directed to the different parts of each
case, and his attention having been held awake to the
whole of the discussions at the bar, still less in equity-
proceedings of his having read the affidavits and other
documentary evidence, unless he states explicitly the
view which he takes of the various matters, whether
of law or of fact, that have been brought before him.
With the exception of Sir John Leach, Lord Thurlow
is the last judge who adopted the very bad practice of
unreasoned decisions. But his habit of cavilling at
the reasons of the common-law courts, when a case
LORD THURLOW.
185
was sent to them for their opinion, a habit largely
followed by Lord Eldon, extended to those courts, in
a remarkable and very hurtful manner, Lord Thurlow's
own practice: for the temper of those learned in-
dividuals became ruffled; and, impatient of criticism
upon their reasonings, instead of rather courting a
discussion of them, they adopted the evil method of
returning their answers or certificates without any
reasons at all—a conduct which nothing but the respect
due to the bench could hinder men from terming
childish in the extreme. This custom having been
much censured by succeeding chancellors, and the
House of Lords itself having of late years departed
altogether from the old rule of only assigning reasons
where a judgment or decree is to be reversed or
varied upon Appeal, it is to be hoped that the
common-law judges will once more deign to let the
profession know the grounds of their judgments upon
the highly important cases sent from Chancery, as
they do without the least fear of cavil or criticism
upon any trifling matter that comes before them, and
do (be it most reverently observed in passing) with
very little desire to avoid either prolixity or repe-
tition.*
If Lord Thurlow, however, has left no monuments of
his judicial eloquence, and if, indeed, his place among
lawyers was not the highest, he is admitted to have
well understood the ordinary practice and leading
principles of those courts in which he had passed his
life; and his judgments for the most part gave satis-
faction to the profession. He had no mean powers of
despatching the business of the court, and of the House
of Lords when presiding upon appeals; nor could any
man in this article resemble him less than the most
eminent of his successors, who was understood to have
* This bad practice was afterwards abandoned; but in 1852, a provision
of more than doubtful expediency in the Chancery Practice Act, put an
end to the practice of sending cases to law.
+
186
LORD THURLOW.
made him the model in some things of his conversa-
tion, garnishing it, after his manner, with expletives,
rather sonorous than expressive, but more expressive
than becoming. Far from showing, like Lord Eldon,
a patience which no prolixity could exhaust, and a
temper which was neither to be vexed by desperate
argumentation nor by endless repetition-farther still
from courting protracted and renewed discussion of
each matter, already worn threadbare-Lord Thurlow
showed to the suitor a determined, and to the bar a
surly, aspect, which made it perilous to try experiments
on the limits of his patience, by making it somewhat
doubtful if he had any patience at all. Aware that the
judge he was addressing knew enough of their common
profession not to be imposed upon, and bore so little
deference to any other as to do exactly what suited.
himself-nay, apprehensive that the measure of his
courtesy was too scanty to obstruct the overflow in very
audible sounds of the sarcastic and peremptory matter
which eyes of the most fixed gloom, beneath eye-brows
formed by nature to convey the abstract idea of a per-
fect frown, showed to be gathering or already collected
-the advocate was compelled to be select in choosing
his topics and temperate in handling them; and often-
times felt reduced to a painful dilemma better fitted for
the despatch than the right decision of causes, the alter-
native being presented of leaving material points un-
stated, or calling down against his client the unfavour-
able determination of the Court. It would be incor-
rect to state that Lord Thurlow in this respect equalled
or even resembled Sir John Leach, with whom every
consideration made way for the vanity of clearing his
cause-paper in a time which rendered it physically im-
possible for the causes to be heard. But he certainly
more nearly approached that extreme than he did the
opposite, of endless delay and habitual vacillation of
expression rather than of purpose, upon which Lord
Eldon made shipwreck of his judicial reputation, though
!
LORD THURLOW
187
possessing all the greater qualities of a lawyer and a
judge. In one important particular he and Sir John
Leach closely resembled each other, and as widely dif
fered from the other eminent person who has just been
named. While on the bench the mind of both was
given wholly to the matter before them, and never
wandered from it at all. An ever-wakeful and ever-
fixed attention at once enabled them to apprehend the
merits of each case and catch each point at the first
statement; precluded the necessity of much after-con-
sideration and reading, and, indeed, rehearing; and
kept the advocate's mind also directed to his points,
confining his exertions within reasonable limits, while
it well rewarded him for his closeness and his con-
ciseness. The judge's reward, too, was proportion-
ably great. He felt none of that load which pressed
upon Lord Eldon when he reflected how much re-
mained for him to do after all the fatigue of his atten-
dance in Court had been undergone; that anxiety which
harassed him lest points should escape his reading that
might have been urged in the oral arguments he had
heard without listening to them; the irritation which
vexed him until he had from long use ceased to care
much for it, when he looked around him upon the in-
extricable confusion of his judicial affairs, and, like
the embarrassed trader, became afraid to look any more,
or examine any closer the details of his situation. If a
contrast were to be formed between the ease and the
discomfort of a seat upon the bench, as far as the per-
sonal feelings of the occupants are concerned, it would
hardly be possible to go beyond that which was afford-
ed by Thurlow to Eldon.
Of his powers as a debater there are now no means
to form an estimate, except what tradition, daily be-
coming more scanty and precarious, may supply. He
possessed great depth of voice, rolled out his sentences
with unbroken fluency, and displayed a confidence
both of tone and of assertion which, accompanied by
188
LORD THURLOW.
somewhat of Dr. Johnson's balanced sententiousness,
often silenced when it did not convince. For of rea-
soning he was proverbially sparing: there are those
indeed who will have it that he never was known to do
anything which, when attended to, even looked like
using an argument; although to view the speaker and
carelessly to hear him you would say he was laying
waste the whole field of argumentation and dispersing
and destroying all his antagonists. His aspect was
more solemn and imposing than almost any other per-
son's in public life; so much so that Mr. Fox used to
say it proved him dishonest, since no man could be
so wise as he looked. Nor did he neglect any of the
external circumstances, how trifling soever, by which
attention and deference could be secured on the part of
his audience. Not only were his periods well rounded,
and the connecting matter or continuing phrases well
flung in; but the tongue was so hung as to make
the sonorous voice peal through the hall, and appear
to convey things which it would be awful to examine too
near and perilous to question. Nay, to the more trivial
circumstance of his place, when addressing the House
of Lords, he scrupulously attended. He rose slowly
from his seat; he left the woolsack with deliberation;
but he went not to the nearest place, like ordinary
Chancellors, the sons of mortal men; he drew back by
a pace or two, and standing as it were askance, and
partly behind the huge bale he had quitted for a season,
he began to pour out, first in a growl, and then in
a clear and louder roll, the matter which he had to
deliver, and which for the most part consisted in some
positive assertions, some personal vituperation, some
sarcasms at classes, some sentences pronounced upon
individuals as if they were standing before him for judg-
ment, some vague mysterious threats of things pur-
posely not expressed, and abundant protestations of
conscience and duty, in which they who keep the con-
sciences of Kings are somewhat apt to indulge.
LORD THURLOW.
189
It is obvious that to give any examples that could
at all convey an idea of this kind of vamped up, out-
side, delusive, nay, almost fraudulent oratory, would
be impossible. But one or two passages may be re-
hearsed. When he had, in 1788, first intrigued actively
with the Whigs and the Prince upon the Regency
question, being apparently inclined to prevent his
former colleague, and now competitor, from clutching
that prize-suddenly discovering from one of the phy-
sicians the approaching convalescence of the royal
patient, he at one moment's warning quitted the Carl-
ton-house party, and came down, with an assurance
unknown to all besides, perhaps even to himself not
known before, and in his place undertook the defence
of the King's rights against his son and his partizans.
The concluding sentence of this unheard-of performance
was calculated to set all belief at defiance, coming from
the man and in the circumstances. It assumed, for
the sake of greater impressiveness, the form of a prayer;
though certainly it was not poured out in the notes of
supplication, but rather rung forth in the sounds that
weekly call men to the service: "And when I forget
my Sovereign, may my God forget me!" Whereupon
Wilkes, seated upon the foot of the throne, and who
had known him long and well, is reported to have
said, somewhat coarsely but not unhappily, it must be
allowed, "Forget you? He'll see you d-d first."
-Another speech in a different vein is preserved, and
certainly shows some powers of drollery. In the same
debates, a noble character, who was remarkable for his
delicacy and formal adherence to etiquette, having
indeed filled diplomatic stations during great part of
his life, had cited certain resolutions passed at the
Thatched-house Tavern by some great party meeting.
In adverting to these, Lord Thurlow said, "As to
what the noble Lord told you that he had heard at the
ale-house." The effect of this humour, nearly ap-
proaching, it must be allowed, to a practical joke, may
190
LORD THURLOW.
easily be conceived by those who are aware how much
more certain in both Houses of Parliament the success
of such things always is than of the most refined and
exalted wit.-Upon another occasion, his misanthropy,
or rather his great contempt of all mankind, broke out
characteristically enough. This prevailing feeling of
his mind made all respect testified towards any person,
all praise bestowed upon men, nay all defence of them
under attack, extremely distasteful to him; indeed
almost matter of personal offence. So, once having
occasion to mention some public functionary, whose
conduct he intimated that he disapproved, he thought
fit to add, "But far be it from me to express any
blame of any official person, whatever may be my
opinion: for that, I well know, would lay me open to
hear his panegyric." At the bar he appears to have
dealt in much the same wares; and they certainly
formed the staple of his operations in the commerce
of society. His jest at the expense of two eminent
civilians, in the Duchess of Kingston's case, is well
known, and was no doubt of considerable merit. After
those
very learned
personages had come forth from
the recesses where doctors "most do congregate," but
in which they divide with their ponderous tomes the
silence that is not broken by any stranger footstep,
and the gloom that is pierced by no light from with-
out, and appearing in a scene to which they were as
strange as its gaiety was to their eyes, had performed
alternately the various evolutions of their recondite
lore, Mr. Thurlow was pleased to say that the congress
of two doctors always reminded him of the noted say-
ing of Crassus—“Mirari se quod haruspex haruspicem
sine risu adspicere posset."
""
In conversation he was, as in debate, sententious
and caustic. Discoursing of the difficulty he had in
appointing to the Chief-Justiceship, he described him-
self as long hesitating between the intemperance of
Kenyon, and the corruption of Buller; but finally
LORD THURLOW.
191
99
preferring the former. Then, as if afraid, lest he had
for the moment been betrayed into anything like un-
qualified commendation of any person, he added,
correcting himself "Not that there was not a
deal of corruption in Kenyon's intemperance. He
had, however, other stores from which to furnish forth
his talk; for he was a man of no mean classical attain-
ments; read much Greek, as well as Latin, after his
retirement from office; and having become associated
with the Whigs, at least in the intercourse of society,
passed a good deal of time in the company of Mr. Fox,
for whom it is believed that he felt a great admiration,
at least, he praised him in a way exceedingly unusual
with him, and was therefore supposed to have admired
him as much as he could any person, independent of
the kind of thankfulness which he must have felt to
any formidable opposer of Mr. Pitt, whom he hated
with a hatred as hearty as even Lord Thurlow could
feel, commingling his dislike with a scorn wholly un-
becoming and misapplied.
When he quitted the Great Seal, or rather when Mr.
Pitt and he quarrelling, one or other must go, and the
former was well resolved to remain, the retired chan-
cellor appeared to retain a great interest in all the
proceedings of the court which he had left, and was
fond of having Sir John Leach, then a young barrister,
to spend the evenings with him, and relate whatever
had passed in the course of the day. It seemed some-
what contrary to his selfish nature and contracted
habits of thinking, that he should feel any great con-
cern about the course which the administration of
justice should take, now that he slumbered upon the
shelf. But the mystery was easily explained, by ob-
serving that he really felt, in at least its ordinary force,
* This was an instance of his readiness to sacrifice truth to splenetic
satire. Whatever might be said of Buller (whose conduct in a political
cause tried before him while Mr. Pitt went the circuit really prevented his
promotion) Lord K. was altogether pure.
192
LORD THURLOW.
the affection which men long used to office bear
towards those who are so presumptuous as to succeed
them; and he was gratified by thus sitting as a secret
court of revision, hearing of any mistakes committed
by Lord Loughborough, and pronouncing in no very
measured terms his judgment of reversal upon many
things in which the latter no doubt was right.
That his determination and clearness were more in
manner than in the real vigour of his mind, there can
be no doubt; for though, in disposing of causes, he
may have shown little oscitancy, as indeed there
seldom arises any occasion for it where a judge is
reasonably acquainted with his business, and gives his
attention without reserve to the despatch of it, yet, in
all questions of political conduct, and all deliberations
upon measures, he is known to have been exceedingly
irresolute. Mr. Pitt found him a colleague wholly
unfruitful in council, though always apt to raise diffi-
culties, and very slow and hesitating of purpose. The
Whigs, when he joined them, soon discovered how
infirm a frame of mind there lay concealed behind the
outward form of vigour and decision. He saw nothing
clear but the obstacles to any course; was fertile only
of doubts and expedients to escape deciding; and
appeared never prompt to act, but ever ready to op-
pose whoever had anything to recommend. So little,
as might be expected, did this suit the restless and
impatient vehemence of Mr. Francis, that he described
him as
"that enemy of all human action."
Of a character so wanting in the sterling qualities
which entitle the statesman to confidence and respect,
or the orator to admiration, it cannot be affirmed
that what he wanted in claims to public favour he
made up in titles to esteem or affection as a private
individual. His life was passed in so great and ha-
bitual a disregard of the decorum that usually fences
high station, especially in the legal profession, ast
makes it extremely doubtful if the grave and solemn
LORD THURLOW.
193
exterior in which he was wont to shroud himself were
anything more than a manner he had acquired; for,
assuredly, to assert that he wore it as a cloak whereby
men might be deceived, would hardly be consistent
with his ordinary habits, as remote as well could be
from all semblance of hypocrisy; and so far from an
affectation of appearing better than he was, that he
might almost be said to affect, like the Regent Or-
leans, the "bad eminence" of being worse. *
* St. Simon relates a saying of Louis XIV., respecting his celebrated
nephew, which, he says, paints him to the life, and, therefore, that skilful
writer of memoirs is unbounded in his praise of this "trait de plume."
"Encore est-il fanfaron des vices qu'il n'a pas."
194
LORD MANSFIELD.
CONTEMPORARY with these two distinguished law-
yers, during the latter period of his life, was a legal
personage in every respect far more eminent than
either, the first Lord Mansfield, than whom few men,
not at the head of state affairs, have in any period of
our history filled an exalted station for a longer period
with more glory to themselves, or with a larger share
of influence over the fortunes of their country. He
was singularly endowed with the qualities most fitted
both to smooth for him the path to professional ad-
vancement, to win the admiration of the world at
large, and to maintain or even expand the authority
of whatever official situation he might be called to
occupy. Enjoying all the advantages of a finished
classical education: adding to this the enlargement of
mind derived from foreign travel, undertaken at an
age when attentive observation can be accompanied
with mature reflection; he entered upon the profes-
sion of the law some years after he had reached man's
estate; and showed as much patient industry in
awaiting, by attendance in the courts, the emoluments,
and the honours of the gown, as he had evinced dili-
gence in qualifying himself for its labours and its
duties. His connexion with Scotland easily intro-
duced him into the practice afforded by the appellate
jurisdiction of the House of Lords; and the acci-
* He soon rose to such eminence in this, that his biographer, Halliday,
has mentioned him as engaged in thirty appeals during one session. A
worse piece of biography than Halliday's, it may be observed in passing,
hardly exists, notwithstanding its having so admirable a subject.
LORD MANSFIELD.
195
dental indisposition of his leader, a few years after-
wards, having given him an opportunity of distin-
guishing himself before a jury, he speedily rose into
extensive practice, not, however, so much in Common-
Law courts as in Chancery.
Ten years after he entered the profession he was
made Solicitor-General and came into parliament,
which he had hitherto shunned, observing, with the
caution so characteristic of the man and of the nation,
"That he had many respected friends on both sides of
the House, and did not care to lose the patronage of
both parties for the favour of one. If this principle
be as great an honour to his public virtue as to his
personal discretion, his biographer has done well to
record it in proof of the praises which he lavishes
upon him; and certainly nothing in the subsequent
course of his life can be found which betokens a fall-
ing off from the wary circumspection of its outset.
His powers as an advocate were great, though not
first-rate. In manner, which he had studied so much
that Pope was found one day superintending him
while he practised before a looking-glass-in a sweet-
ness of voice which by nature was almost unequalled
-in clearness and skill of statement, which he so
greatly laboured, that it was said his story was worth
other men's argument,-in the wariness and discre-
tion so necessary to one that represents another's
interest, as an advocate does his client's,-in know-
ledge accurate, as far as it went, if not very profound,
of the principles of the law; and in an enlarged view
of general subjects, whether of jurisprudence or of a
more liberal kind-he stood high, either above all his
contemporaries, or in their foremost rank. A certain
want of vigour, arising from the inroads which his
constitutional caution made into the neighbouring
dominions of its ally, fear, prevented him from ever
filling the first place among advocates; and to any-
thing that deserved the name of genius or of origi-
196
LORD MANSFIELD.
nality he preferred at no time and in no station any
claims. Atkins, his staunch admirer, has preserved,
with extreme eulogy, one of his arguments in a case
of great importance; it is learned and able, but far
from justifying the preference given to it over those
of the other counsel, whose arguments in the same.
cause are also reported.
In the House of Commons it was his fortune to
defend the measures of government, when no men
of eminence filled the front ranks of the opposition
party, excepting Mr. Pitt (Lord Chatham); and the
perilous task of encountering him always was reserved
for the ministerial chief himself. That he was very
successful as an elegant and persuasive speaker, is
certain; that he was unequal to fill a first place, at a
time when the secret had not been discovered of post-
ing second-rate men in such positions, is as undeni-
able; and it is known that he felt this inadequacy: for
an arrangement was at one period proposed, by which
he was to have taken the lead, on the part of the
government, and he peremptorily declined it. Indeed,
he was both conscious of his power lying in a different
direction, and resolved to follow the bent at once of
his capacity and his inclination. Accordingly, on the
death of Chief Justice Ryder, though much pressed
to remain in parliament at a time when the ministry
could ill spare him from the Treasury Bench, he dis-
tinctly intimated that, if he were not promoted to the
place which he considered the Attorney-General's
right, he should cease to hold any place; and a hint
which was easily understood was wisely taken.
Over that great court he presided above thirty
years; and his administration of its functions during
this long period shed a lustre alike upon the tribunal
and the judge. Although he had chiefly practised in
Chancery and the House of Lords, yet his correct
legal understanding, his excellent sense, his familiar
acquaintance with the general principles of jurispru-
LORD MANSFIELD.
197
dence, easily and speedily supplied any deficiency
which he might have in the practice of the Common-
Law Courts, and the proceedings at Nisi Prius; while
his whole faculties, his temper, and his manners,
down to the very defects which he had betrayed as
an advocate, were admirably calculated for his more
exalted station. His mind and his habits were, in-
deed, eminently judicial; and it may be doubted if,
taking both the externals and the more essential
qualities into the account, that go to form a great
judge, any one has ever administered the laws in this
country whom we can fairly name as his equal. The
greatest clearness of apprehension; quickness suffi-
cient, and not extreme, which, in a judge, is perilous,
often allied with impatience, and apt to degenerate
into hastiness; admirable perspicuity of statement,
whether delivering his opinion to the court and the
bar, or giving his directions to a jury; conciseness
with clearness; these were the contributions which
his understanding made towards the formation of his
judicial character. Then he had a constant command
of himself, never betrayed into anger, or impatience,
nor ever showing spleen or any other breach of strict
equality and perfect equanimity, either towards parties
or their advocates. To those higher qualities, intel-
lectual and moral, he added the graces of a diction
classical and elegant; the ornament and, indeed, the
illustration of frequent reference to larger views than
the more technical discussion of legal questions
requires; and the fascination of a voice singularly
flexible and sweet; and he flung over the whole of
this fine judicial figure the garb of a manner at once
dignified and attractive. They who never had seen
Lord Thurlow, might well imagine they had heard
him, if they enjoyed access to such excellent imitators
as George IV. and Lord Holland. As perfect a sub-
stitute for Lord Mansfield's manner was to be found
in Lord Erskine, between whom and that celebrated
198
LORD MANSFIELD.
person there long prevailed a great intimacy founded
upon very sincere mutual admiration.
The benefits conferred by this accomplished judge
upon the Court where he so long presided, and upon
its suitors, were manifold and substantial. He began
by at once so regulating the distribution of the
business, as to remove all uncertainty of the matters
which should be taken up each day, and to diminish
both the expense and the delay and the confusion of
former times. He restored to the whole bar the
privilege of moving in turn, instead of confining this
to the last day of the term. He almost abolished the
tedious and costly practice of having the same case
argued several times over, restricting such rehearings
to questions of real difficulty and adequate importance.
He gave as many hours to the business both of Banc
and of sittings as was required for despatching it
without unnecessary delay. The ascendant which
he gained both over the Bar and the Bench precluded
all needless prolixity of argument, all unseemly
wrangling between the Court and the counsel, all
inconvenient differences of opinion among the Judges.
The result was, that while no time was wasted, great
satisfaction was given by the clear and rational
grounds upon which the decisions were rested; while
the cases were so speedily and so well despatched,
that the other Courts of Common Law were drained
of their business without the channels of the Court of
King's Bench being choked up or overflowing. For
nearly thirty years there were not more than half a
dozen cases in which the Judges differed, and not so
many in which the judgments pronounced were
reversed.
But during a considerable period Lord Mansfield
also presided in the House of Lords, or, as a legal
member of that body, directed its decisions upon
appeals. Nothing could be more satisfactory than his
conduct of this very important department; nor any-
LORD MANSFIELD.
199
thing less resembling one at least of his most eminent
successors, Lord Eldon, in discharging this duty. He
was master of each case when it was called on for
hearing, and put the counsel to argue the points
which had been made on either side in those expen-
sively prepared printed statements, which Lord Eldon
used to treat with the attention due to equal masses
of waste paper. But he did not prevent any new
points from being raised at the bar, any more than he
could wish to prevent any new arguments from being
urged in support of the points which the printed cases
disclosed. He showed, too, as great firmness and
vigour in forming his judgment, although upon ques-
tions of foreign law, as he did in expediting the con-
duct of the arguments, although in the hands of the
advocates accustomed to somewhat prolix statements.
Where he was clearly convinced that the Scotch Judges
had mistaken their own law, he did not scruple to re-
verse their decisions, and restore the violated purity of
the system, although in doing so he assumed to correct
those who had made it the study of their lives; even
upon heads peculiar to Scottish jurisprudence, to which
the English law affords no parallel, and on which he
could derive no light at all from his own professional
habits. It was he who reversed the decision of the
Court of Session upon the celebrated Duntreath case;
which, as ruled by him, forms now as much the corner-
stone of the Scotch law of entail, as Shelly's case does
that of England; and, while all lawyers are now agreed
that he was right, it may fairly be doubted whether
some of his successors, and especially Lord Eldon,
would have ventured to overrule some other judg-
ments in which the Scottish Courts had equally gone
astray in applying their own law, had not Lord Mans-
field shown the salutary courage which he displayed
in that first and most remarkable reversal. It is not
easy to overrate the importance of such an able and
judicious administration of the powers vested in the
200
LORD MANSFIELD.
High Court of Appeal. Encumbered as that tribunal
is with so many difficulties from the foreign law which
it must needs administer, and without those aids from
the Judges, which it has at hand upon the far better
known and more settled matters of English jurispru-
dence, nothing can preserve the purity of our judicial
system, or retain towards it the respect and affection
of the Scottish nation, except a succession of such
able, enlightened, and determined Judges as Lord
Mansfield in that high Court ever proved himself
to be.
Upon all common cases where a Judge can have
no possible reason for leaning towards one side rather
than another in a country where judicial bribery or
solicitation is unknown, no breach of strict justice can
ever be committed except through the temper of
the individual, or his want of firmness towards par-
ticular practitioners. But occasionally there arise
questions in our Courts, and especially in the King's
Bench, the first criminal tribunal of the realm, where
political considerations mix themselves with the trial,
and where the result affects party interests or party
prejudices-questions, the occurrence of which would
have made the placing a Lord Chief Justice in the
cabinet a grievous breach of the constitution in 1806,
although there had been no other reasons against that
most reprehensible proceeding. That Lord Mansfield
was no longer the same pattern of living justice, the
same lex loquens on those occasions, has been very
generally affirmed; and although the errors of his
enemies, especially of Junius, have been long since
exploded, there is little room to doubt that in trials
for libel he leant against the freedom of discussion,
and favoured those doctrines long current, but now
cried down by statute, which withdrew the cognizance
of the question from the Jury to vest it in the Court.
That he felt the same disgust at newspaper attacks
upon individuals, the same dislike of vehement and
LORD MANSFIELD.
201
unmeasured invectives against the abuses of our
institutions, the same alarm at assaults upon the
existing institutions themselves, which in all ages
have distinguished all our judges, may readily be
admitted. Who will pretend, even in our days, far
more before Mr. Fox's Libel Act, that Lord Mansfield
alone of all judges defined the liberty of the press
only as a power of publishing without a previous
license? In this, as in all his opinions and prejudices
upon the subject, he resembled all other judges of all
former times, and with very few exceptions, those also
of our own day. But that he should ever betray his
prejudices or his feelings in any breach of justice while
trying particular cases, would have been eminently
inconsistent with the whole tenor of his cautious and
circumspect demeanour upon the bench, and have
betokened a want of that self-command which in him
was so habitual as to have become truly a second
nature. His leaning towards the side of authority
was once or twice remarked in cases of importance,
but cases where both the legal principle and the
practice were far from being clearly settled.
upon application for a mandamus to the justices to
make an order of filiation upon a foreign ambassador's
secretary, he somewhat hastily refused it, supposing
the motion to be a device for obtaining the court's
opinion, and an attempt to draw it into collision with
foreign states. This view was manfully resisted by
the counsel who moved; and Mr. Justice Yates took
part with them. In the end Lord Mansfield gave
way, and the remedy was granted as sought. But it
must be observed, that the third judge present, Mr.
Justice Aston, at first entirely concurred with the
Chief Justice, and only changed his opinion upon
further consideration, being moved by the reasoning
of the dissenting judge. Great objection was likewise
taken to his directing a jury, in the case of Lord
Grosvenor's action for seduction against the Duke of
Thus
202
LORD MANSFIELD.
Cumberland, that the rank and station of the plaintiff
made no difference in his claim to damages; an
opinion which, after the greater experience of later
times in such proceedings, appears as soon as it is
stated to be altogether erroneous, but which, if it
favoured the Prince who was defendant on the one
hand, certainly indicated, on the other, a sufficient.
respect for the equal rights of all classes of plaintiffs,
and might be as unpalatable to the Aristocracy as it
was pleasing to the Crown.
There needs little to be said of what at the time
created great discussion in the profession, the judg
ment which he delivered in the celebrated case of
Perrin v. Blake. That it was erroneous, no lawyer
can doubt; but that it required all the adherence to
strict principle of which the most technical mind is
susceptible, to apply in such a question the famous
Rule in Shelly's case, is equally certain: for in order
to make that application, and to consummate the
triumph of the Rule, it was necessary for the court to
construe a man's will giving an estate "for the life of
the devisee, and no longer," as a gift of that estate to
him in tail, consequently with the power of at once
converting his interest into a fee simple. Although
it is impossible to deny that this is the true legal con-
struction of such a devise, if, as in the case of J.
Williams's will, the remainder is afterwards given to
the heirs of the devisee's body; for to hold otherwise
would be to abrogate the rule in Shelly's case, which
is both founded on strict legal principles, and has for
centuries been the corner-stone of English convey-
ancing: yet it is fit that we keep in mind the
apparent paradox to which it led, in order to account
for so great a judge as Lord Mansfield having leant
against this application, which he regarded as an
extension of the Rule; and from which his wise and
wholesome habit of always as much as possible pre-
ferring substance to technicality made him deviate.
LORD MANSFIELD.
203
It must also be observed, that here, as in the former
instance, he had the concurrence of his learned
brethren, excepting only Mr. Justice Yates; whose
difference of opinion led to his leaving the Court of
King's Bench, and removing to the Common Pleas
for the very short residue of his truly respectable and
useful life.* But an accident of a most unimportant
kind made more talk in Westminster Hall than all the
real merits of either the judges or the cause.
It
appeared that while at the bar Lord Mansfield's
opinion had been taken upon the point raised by this
very will, and that he had said, as he ought to have
said, "The devisee takes an estate tail and not for
life." Surely no one can ever read the remarks of
Mr. Booth, Mr. Fearne, and other conveyancers upon
this trifling circumstance, and not marvel at their
pedantry and captiousness, so little worthy of such
learned and able men. What if Mr. Murray's opinion
differed from Lord Mansfield's judgment? It would
not have proved the judgment wrong; and if the
counsellor had given what on more mature delibera-
tion, and after hearing the case argued by all the
learning of the bar, the Judge deemed an erroneous
opinion, was he to sacrifice his duty of deciding by
his conscience at the time, to an unworthy fear of
appearing inconsistent? If his opinion had under-
gone a change, was he not to avow it? Nay, was it
any shame to change his opinion upon hearing the
subject for the first time fully discussed?
The ridiculous charge brought by Junius and
others against his direction to the jury on the Home
Circuit, in a case of trespass between two unknown
* This able, learned, and upright judge showed a courage greatly
extolled in those times, but which, it is to be hoped, every member of the
bench would now display as a matter of course. The Minister having
tampered with him in vain previous to some trial involving rights of the
Crown, the King was foolish or wicked enough to write him a letter, and
he returned it unopened. Alderman Townsend stated this in Parliament,
and it was not contradicted.
204
LORD MANSFIELD.
individuals, and where no possible motive for par-
tiality could be imagined or was ever pretended, we
hardly perhaps should mention, were it not an illus-
tration of the outcry which absolute ignorance may
sometimes succeed in raising. It was the case of
Mears v. Ansell, which was tried before him on the
circuit, in 1772; and a new trial was granted by the
Common Pleas on the ground that the Chief Justice
had improperly directed the Jury to credit the
testimony of two subscribing witnesses, contrary to
their signed attestation. Junius called it "a new
disgrace of Mansfield;" and the note to his published
letter, with profound ignorance of the whole practice
of the courts, mentioned it as a proof of extraordinary
dissatisfaction with the summing up, that the new
trial was granted without the payment of costs;
adding, “that the usual terms were thus dispensed
with." The same learned note adds, that the plaintiff's
attorney moved the next term to have his name struck
off the Roll of the King's Bench attorneys, and that
"he was immediately admitted into the Common
Pleas;" a mere matter of course, as every one but
Junius must have known.
As to Junius's charge of illegal conduct in bailing a
felon taken with the mainour, his celebrated letter be-
trays as great ignorance of the most commonly known
matters of law (e. g. that Justices of Peace are at sessions
Judges of Record, and are King's justices) as it does
confusion in argument, and vacillation through legal
ignorance, and uncertainty about the grounds on which
he rests his charge. Indeed, he himself shifted them in
defending his first argument; and it was at the time uni-
versally allowed that he was altogether in the wrong.
Lord Camden was said at first to have agreed with him,
but that he abandoned so untenable a ground is plain
from his never once, though called upon, venturing to
touch the subject. But when he had valiantly denounced
impeachment against the Chief Justice for this bail
}
LORD MANSFIELD.
205
case, much after the manner of Cobbett and others in
after times, this writer charged him with gross partiality
in reversing the decree against Lord Chatham upon the
suit arising out of the Burton Pynsent devise; and after
this reversal had been so audaciously ascribed to cor-
rupt favour, towards his political antagonist too, when
the matter was examined, it was found that the Commis-
sioners of the Great Seal had only considered one point,
and on that had made their decree, whereas there re-
mained another point decisive of the matter which way
soever the former might be determined. Upon this
new point the Judges were consulted, and upon this
they were unanimous for the appeal, although upon the
others they differed; so that a reversal of the decree
was almost a matter of course, and it was much rather
the act of the Judges than of Lord Mansfield. Junius
being overthrown by this plain and incontrovertible
statement, had the courage to treat it as a quibble only
worthy of a barrister (Letter LXIII.), although he had
himself before explicitly said, that he was at issue
with Lord Mansfield's defenders on the question whe-
ther or not he (Lord Mansfield) had given any opinion
on the case in the House of Lords, and "that this was
a question of fact to be determined by the evidence
only." (Letter LXI. )
These things are far indeed from being unimportant.
They effect essentially the question of judicial reputa-
tion. They show upon what kind of grounds the fabric
of a great man's professional fame as well as the purity
of his moral character, were assailed by the unprin-
cipled violence of party at the instigation of their
ignorance, skulking behind a signature made famous
by epigrammatic language and the boldness of being
venturesome in the person of a printer, who gained
by allowing dastardly slander to act through him with
a vicarious courage. They tend to reduce the estimate
of such an author's value as much as they raise the
reputation of those whom, from his lurking place, he
206
LORD MANSFIELD.
had assailed; and they read a memorable lesson to
the people, if upon such subjects the people ever can
be taught, not to repose confidence in those who are un-
known against men whose whole lives are passed in the
face of open day, and under the constant security of
personal responsibility. Nor let it be forgotten upon
what flimsy pretences the country was required to
embark in a persecution of Lord Mansfield. Nor let it
cease to be remembered that upon such grounds as
we have been surveying the most popular writers of
the day were suffered to call him "cowardly'
ning"" dishonest"-" a juggler"-"a bad man and
a worse judge a creature at one time hateful, at
another contemptible"-" one meriting every term of
reproach and every idea of detraction the mind can
form ((
a cunning Scotchman who never speaks
truth without a fraudulent design"
a man of whom
it is affirmed, with the most solemn appeal to God,
that he is the very worst and most dangerous man in
the kingdom.
""
""
*(6
((
66
""
66
cun-
But it turned out afterwards that the same anony-
mous writer who while he wore the mask of Junius,
almost ever praised Lord Chatham, had under other
disguises assailed him as bitterly as he had his antago-
nists; and his rancorous abuse of the great patriot does
all but outstrip his slanderous assaults upon the vene-
rable judge. He (Lord Chatham) is described as "not
a man of mixed character, whose vice might be re-
deemed by some appearance of virtue and generosity,
but a man purely and perfectly bad." It is said we
may easily foretell "the progress of such a traitor, and
the probable event of his crimes," since he led “
life of artifice, intrigue, hypocrisy, and impudence;" a
career "which equally violates every principle of
honour and morality ""an abandoned profligate
"so black a villain, that though we have no Tarpeian
rock, yet a gibbet is not too honourable a situation for
* Junius's Letters, xli. lix. lxiii. lxix,
""
a
LORD MANSFIELD.
207
the carcase of a traitor
a base apostate
"______" the
stalking horse of a stallion" (Lord Bute)" below con-
tempt a venomous reptile "—"a lunatic”—and
"a raving madman." The great gravamen too of
these charges against him is his leaning towards the
Americans, of whom the furious shallow and conceited.
writer was a bitter and intemperate opponent, as he was
a bigoted advocate of the mother-country's tyranny.
It may surely be said with justice, that such disclo-
sures as these, while they reduce to their true level the
claims of Junius to fame, easily account for the author
having died and kept his own secret. He appears to
have been a person in whose bosom every fierce and
malignant passion raged without the control of a sound
judgment and without any kindly feeling to attemper
his nature. Writing at a time when good or even
correct composition was little studied, and in the news-
papers hardly ever met with, his polished style, though
very far from being a correct one, and farther still
from good pure English, being made the vehicle of
abuse, sarcasm, and pointed invective, naturally ex-
cited a degree of attention which was further main-
tained by the boldness of his proceedings. No man
can read a page of any letter without perceiving that
the writer has but one way of handling every subject,
and that he constructs his sentences with the sole de-
sign of saying the most bitter things he can in the
most striking way, without ever regarding in the least
degree their being applicable or inapplicable to the
object of the attack. The consequence is, that the
greater part of his invective will just suit one bad man
or wicked minister as well as another. It is highly
probable that whoever he might be, he had often at-
tacked those with whom he lived on intimate terms,
or to whom he was under obligations. This affords
an additional reason for his dying unrevealed. That
* Miscellaneous Letters, published by Woodfall (1814), vol. ii.
208
LORD MANSFIELD.
he was neither Lord Ashburton, nor any other lawyer,
is proved by what we have said of his gross ignorance.
of law. To hold that he was Mr. Francis is libelling
that gentleman's memory; and although much exter-
nal evidence concurs in pointing towards him, he cer-
tainly never wrote anything of the same kind in his
own character.
But those charges made against Lord Mansfield's
judicial conduct were definite and precise. Others
were urged of a kind so vague, that it was impossible
distinctly to apprehend or pointedly to meet them.
He was accused of encroaching upon the certainty of
the common law, by making his views bend to gen-
eral notions of substantial justice. That he was
always anxious to get at the body of the case, and deal
with it so as to give merited success to undoubted right
is admitted; and in sometimes neglecting the dictates
of technical rules, when they obstructed his path to-
wards substantial justice, he might possibly overlook
the great advantages of having a fixed rule applicable
to all cases, advantages well worth the unavoidable
price which must be paid for them in the occasional
hardship, or even apparent absurdity, that may attend
their inflexible application. But when the same objec-
tion is advanced to his introducing rules universally
applicable, and choosing those which are more consis-
tent with common sense and liberal feeling than with
merely technical analogy, we are bound to turn from
the criticism with indignation. By this course he was
improving our jurisprudence, and not encroaching
upon its principles; nor was the certainty of the law
in any way impaired by establishing its rules upon an
enlarged basis.
That he was fond of drawing over equitable notions
from the Courts in which he had been chiefly trained,
and applying them to the consideration of legal
matters, is the same objection in another form. Some
of the most valuable portions of our common-law
LORD MANSFIELD.
209
remedies are derived from Equity; witness the action
for money had and received, and indeed the action of
Indebitatus assumpsit generally: and special pleaders
who never saw a bill or an answer, but when they
were used in evidence at nisi prius, such men as Mr.
Justice Chambre, (among the first ornaments of his
profession, as among the most honest and amiable
of men,) have shown their sense of the advantage
thus gained to the common law by reminding other
but less learned men, like Lord Chief Justice Gibbs,
of this circumstance, when they grounded their argu-
ment upon the position that the point they were
attacking was one of an equitable, and not of a legal
consideration. As for the clamour (and it was nothing
more than clamour, and ignorant clamour, too) that
Lord Mansfield was making the old Saxon principles
of our jurisprudence bend to those of the Civil Law,
it is wholly marvellous that men of any understanding
or education should have ever been found so much
the slaves of faction as to patronize it. Lord Mansfield
at no period of his life ever had, or could have had,
the least predilection for the civil law, arising from
any familiarity with its institutions. He never was
a Scotch advocate at all; or if he was, it must have
been in the cradle, for he left Scotland at three years
of age. With the Consistorial Courts, if by their
practice the Civil Law is meant, he had necessarily
little intercourse.
* Chancery has nothing to do
with that system unless in so far as it prefers the bad
practice of written depositions to viva voce examina-
tions; and also in so far as every rational system of
jurisprudence must necessarily have much in common
with the most perfect structure that ever was formed
of rules for classifying rights and marshalling the
very
*It would, in our times, have been impossible for him to have any
practice at all in these courts unless in cases of appeal, formerly before
the Delegates, now in the Privy Council. But when Lord Mansfield was
at the bar, it was the custom for common lawyers to attend important
cases in Doctors' Commons. This, however, was of rare occurrence.
P
210
LORD MANSFIELD.
remedies for wrongs. Nor can anything be found
in all the train of his decisions which betokens more
leaning towards the Roman code than a regard for the
enlarged and universal principles of abstract justice
sanctioned, if it did not prescribe. Yet could the
most popular writers of the day, those, too, whose
pretensions even to legal learning were the most ob-
trusive, denounce the Chief Justice as engaged in
a deliberate plot to reduce slavery to system, "by
making the Roman code the law of nations, and the
opinion of foreign civilians his perpetual theme,"
after the example of "the Norman lawyers, who made
the Norman Conquest complete;" and as thus "cor-
rupting by such treacherous arts the noble simplicity
and free spirit of our Saxon laws.” * Ignorance can-
not surely go beyond this point. The civil law only
became hostile to liberty through the imperial portion
of it introduced by the Emperors, and which made
the will of the Prince the law of the land. In no
other particular is it at variance with freedom; and
who ever dreamt that Lord Mansfield had the power
of introducing that portion, let his inclination have
been ever so much bent in such a direction?
But this topic leads us to the political charges
which were brought against this great magistrate.
Unfortunately for his fame as well as for his tran-
quillity, he continued to mix in politics after he ceased
to be in the service of the crown as an advocate. He
not only acted as Speaker of the House of Lords for
above a year, but for a much longer time he had a
seat in the cabinet, and took a part in the business of
government, all the more objectionable in his position,
that it was much more active than it was open and
avowed.
While the Great Seal was in commission previous
to Lord Bathurst's obtaining it as Chancellor, Lord
Mansfield was, to all political intents and purposes,
* Junius's Letters, No. xli.
A
LORD MANSFIELD.
211
the Chancellor, without having the responsibility of
that high office: nor did he less act as the legal
adviser of the government, when that worthy, but
somewhat feeble individual, more ostensibly filled the
place. The vice of the Chief Justice's character was
a want of boldness, that made him shrink from per-
sonal responsibility. Hence he never would accept
the first station in the law; and hence, too, he was
believed to have urged or advised many things, which
he either had opposed or had only passively suffered;
for, when once a statesman acquires the evil reputation
of shunning responsibility while he seeks power, there
is no preventing the world from tracing every mischief
to a source which appears to hide itself only because
there is something to conceal.
The same want of nerve more than once appeared
in his judicial proceedings. When Lord Camden,
a man inferior to him in everything but courage,
openly attacked his libel law in Woodfall's case, and
dared him to defend it, he contented himself with
saying, "He would not answer interrogatories." He
afterwards challenged Lord Camden to meet him and
argue the question; and when Lord Camden named
his day, he refused to debate it. He then had the
Lords summoned to hear the matter discussed; and
he came down and had the house precipitately ad-
journed, after giving in a paper to the clerk, containing
a note of the Opinions of the Judges. When asked
if he meant to have it taken into consideration by the
house, and would move accordingly, he said, "Oh no;
he only meant to give the peers an opportunity of
seeing, and, if they chose, taking copies of the note."
When desired to say if he would have it entered on
the journals, his answer again was, "No, only to
leave it with the clerk." We may venture to affirm
that no such course of proceeding could safely be
pursued by the boldest judge of our own day, or
would be resorted to by the most timid. We may
212
LORD MANSFIELD.
also form an opinion from such conduct in that great
judge, how very different a line he would have taken
in such a struggle with the Commons, as his honest
and patriotic successor has lately been engaged in,
had he lived in these times of high parliamentary
pretension.
If we possess hardly any remains of Lord Mans-
field's speeches at the bar or in parliament, we have
considerable materials from which to form an estimate
of his judicial eloquence. The Reports of Sir James
Burrows are carefully corrected, to all appearance;
probably by the learned Judges themselves. Many
of the judgments of the Chief Justice are truly ad-
mirable in substance, as well as composition; and
upon some of the greater questions, his oratory rises
to the full height of the occasion. It would be diffi-
cult to overrate the merit of the celebrated address
to the public, then in a state of excitement almost
unparalleled, with which he closed his judgment upon
the application to reverse Wilkes's outlawry. Great
elegance of composition, force of diction, just and
strong but natural expression of personal feelings,
a commanding attitude of defiance to lawless threats,
but so assumed and so tempered with the dignity
which was natural to the man, and which here, as on
all other occasions, he sustained throughout, all render
this one of the most striking productions on record.
The courage, however, rested mainly, if not entirely,
in the tone and the words; for after disposing of the
argument, and on all the grounds taken at the bar
refusing the reversal, he arrives, by a short and
unexpected byeway, at the means of granting Mr.
Wilkes's application; and he was therefore well aware
all the while that he was reversing the accustomed
relation of the suaviter and the fortiter; nor could be
said to do otherwise than couch in the language of
rebuke and refusal a full compliance with the popular
demands.
LORD MANSFIELD.
213
His character in private life was unimpeachable.
He never had any children, but his domestic virtues
were without a stain. His choicest relaxation was
in the polished society of literary men and lovers.
of the arts; and his powers of conversation are ex-
tolled in all the traditions that have reached the pre-
sent age, as of a very high order. That his manners
were polished and winning can easily be believed
from the impression his public appearances uniformly
made. But when to these were added his great and
various knowledge, chiefly of a kind available to the
uses of society, his cheerful spirits and mild temper,
his love of harmless pleasantry, and his power of
contributing towards it by a refined and classical wit,
it is not difficult to understand what the reports mean
which unite in describing him as fascinating beyond
almost all other men of his time. Through a vigorous
constitution, upon which no excess of any kind, in
mind or in body, had ever made inroads, he lived to
an extreme old age, dying from exhausted nature
when near ninety. He presided in court regularly
till he reached his eighty-second year, and resigned
formally in his eighty-fourth, having continued to hold
his high office for two or three years longer than he
ought to have done or could discharge its duties, in
the hope of prevailing with the ministry to appoint
his favourite Judge Buller his successor. But Mr.
Pitt, while at the bar, had seen things in that able and
unscrupulous magistrate which made him resolve that
no such infliction should fall on the English bench;
and it is to his virtuous resolution that the preference
of Lord Kenyon was due, which Lord Thurlow always
arrogated to himself.
It has become the more necessary to dwell at some
length upon the history of this great man, because a
practice has prevailed of late years in the profession
which he adorned, and even upon the bench which
he so much more than any of his predecessors illus-
214
LORD MANSFIELD.
trated, of treating him with much less respect than
is his due. The narrow minds of little men cannot
expand even to the full apprehension of that ex-
cellence with which superior natures are gifted, or
which they have by culture attained. They are
sufficiently susceptible, however, of envious feelings
to begrudge virtue the admiration which it has justly
earned; and jealous that any portion of applause
should be drawn away from the puny technicalities of
their own obscure walk, they carp at some trifling
slips which may have been made in the less weighty
matters of the law, the only portions their under-
standings can grasp. It has thus grown into a kind
of habit with some men, very respectable in their
own department, to decry Lord Mansfield as no
lawyer, to speak lightly of his decisions, and to
gratulate themselves that he did not intrude yet
greater changes into our legal system by further
departure from strict rules. But a more enlarged
view even of the rigorous doctrines of our juris-
prudence, will at once brush these cavils away, and
show the truth of a position ever denied by the
vulgar, both gowned and ungowned, that great minds
may be as correct in details, as powerful to deal with
the most general principles.
215
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
Of the class of the inferior though able men to whom
we have just referred, the late Sir Vicary Gibbs was
certainly among the most eminent; and he had all the
perfections of the order, and more than the ordinary
share of its faults. It is a great error, committed only
by those who view them from afar off, to imagine that
their learning is of a confined nature, either in their
own profession or in other branches of education.
They are in no respect mere special pleaders, or men
familiar only with the practice of the courts. They
are even in some respects not to be termed mere
lawyers. They are acquainted with the whole of the
law, which they have studied accurately, and might
also be admitted to have studied profoundly, if depth
can be predicated of those researches, which, instinc-
tively dreading to penetrate the more stubborn and
more deep-lying vein of first principle, always carry
the labourer towards the shallower and softer bed that
contains the relics of former workmen, and make him
rest satisfied with these patterns as the guide and the
rule. All that has been said or written, however, by
text men or by judges, they know; and of it all, much
practice has given them great expertness in the appli-
cation. Then their education has not been confined
to mere matter of law. It has indeed been far from a
very enlarged one; nor has it brought them into a
familiar acquaintance with the scenes which expand
the mind, make it conscious of new powers, and lead
it to compare, and expatiate, and explore. Yet has
this course of instruction not been without its value;
216
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
for they are generally well versed in classical literature,
and often acquainted with mathematical science. From
the one, however, they derive little beside the polish
which it communicates and the taste which it refines;
from the other, they only gain a love of strict and in-
flexible rules, with a disinclination towards the relax-
ation and allowances prescribed by the diversities of
moral evidence. From both they gather a profound
deference for all that has been said or done before
them, an exclusive veneration for antiquity, and a
pretty unsparing contempt for the unlettered and un-
polished class which form and ever must form the
great bulk of mankind in all communities. A disre-
spect for all foreign nations and their institutions has
long been another appointed fruit of the same tree;
and it has been in proportion to the overweening
fondness for everything in our own system, whether
of polity or of mere law. The long interruption of all
intercourse with the continent during the late war had
greatly increased these narrow and absurd prejudices,
which are now somewhat more nearly brought back
to their ancient level. But still the precise dictates of
English statutes, and the dicta of English judges and
English text-writers, are with them the standard of
justice; and in their vocabulary, English law is as
much a synonyme for the perfection of wisdom as, in
that of Dean Swift's imaginary kingdom, Houynhm
was for the "perfection of nature."
Of lawyers who belong to this class, by far the most
numerous in the profession, it is also a great mistake
to suppose that the talents are confined to mere legal
matters, the discussion of dry points, and the conduct
of suits according to technical rules. Many of them
are subtle and most able arguers; some even powerful
reasoners. As admirable a display of logical acumen,
in long and sustained chains of pure ratiocination, is
frequently exhibited among their ranks as can be seen
in the cultivators of any department of rhetoric, or the
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
217
students of any branch of science. They often make
high pretensions to eloquence, and, without attaining
its first rank, are frequently distinguished for great
powers of speech, as well as extraordinary skill in the
management of business.
Their legal reputation,
however, is the chief object of their care; and in
their pursuit of oratory, they aim far more at being
eloquent lawyers than orators learned in the law.
Hence their estimate of professional merit is all
formed on the same principle, and graduated by one
scale. They undervalue the accomplishments of the
rhetorician, without despising them; and they are
extremely suspicious of any enlarged or general views
upon so serious a subject as the law. Change, they
with difficulty can bring their minds to believe pos-
sible; at least any change for the better: and specu-
lation or theory on such matters is so much an object
of distrust, or rather of mingled contempt and aversion,
that when they would describe anything ridiculous, or
even anomalous in the profession, they cannot go
beyond what they call "a speculative lawyer." To
expect success in such a one's career was formerly
thought absurd. But the great triumph of Sir Samuel
Romilly was a sore stumbling-block to technical
minds. A free-thinker upon legal matters, if ever
any existed; accomplished, learned, eloquent, philo-
sophical; he yet rose to the very head of his profes-
sion, and compelled them to believe what Erskine had
failed to make them admit that a man may be
minutely learned in all the mere niceties of the law,
down to the very meanest details of court practice,
and yet be able to soar above the higher levels of
general speculation, and to charm by his eloquence,
and enlighten by his enlarged wisdom, as much as to
rule the Bench and head the Bar by his merely tech-
nical superiority.
The professional character of the men whom we are
discussing is generally pure and lofty; the order to
218
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
which they belong is sacred in their eyes; its fame,
its dignity, even to its etiquette, must all be kept un-
sullied; and whatever may be their prejudices and
their habits, political or professional, how great soever
their deference to power, how profound their vene-
ration for the bench, how deep-rooted their attachment
to existing institutions, how fierce their hostility to
all innovations, how grave or how scornful their frown
upon the multitude at large, yet is their courage un-
daunted in defending whatever client may entrust his
suit to their patronage, be he a rabble-leader or a
treason-monger, a libeller or a blasphemer; and in
discharging towards him the high duties of their re-
presentative character, they so little regard either the
resentment of the government or the anger of the
court, that they hardly are conscious of any effort in
sacrificing every personal consideration to the per-
formance of their representative, and because it is
representative, their eminently important office.
Of the men whom we have now endeavoured to
pourtray as a class, Sir Vicary Gibbs was a perfect
sample. Endowed by nature with great acuteness
and an unlimited power of application, he became, to
use his own somewhat unseemly expression, towards
as considerable a man as himself, and a far more
amiable one, * 6 as good a lawyer as that kind of man
can be." Disciplined by an excellent classical educa-
tion, the fruits of which stuck by him to the last, and
somewhat acquainted with the favourite pursuits of
Cambridge men, his taste was always correct, and his
reasoning powers were as considerable as they ever
can be in a mind of his narrow range. To eloquence
he made only moderate pretensions; yet was his
language, which gurgled out rather than flowed, often
happy, always clear and transparent, owning a source
sufficiently pure, if somewhat shallow, and conveying
*Mr. Justice Bayley.
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
219
ideas not numerous, not original, not fetched from
afar, not brought up from the lower beds of the well,
yet suited to each occasion, well under control, and
made easily accessible to others in the same proportion
in which they were correctly apprehended by himself.
His legal arguments were often much to be admired.
He did not go by steps, and move on from point to
point, garnishing each head with two observations, as
many citations, and twice as many cases; so that the
whole argument should be without breadth or relief,
and each single portion seem as much as any other
the pivot upon which the conclusion turned-but he
brought out his governing principle roundly and
broadly; he put forward his leading idea by which
the rest were to be marshalled and ruled; he used his
master-key at once, and used it throughout, till he
had unlocked all the apartments by which he mounted
to the Great Chamber, and he left the closets un-
touched, that they who followed him might, if they
chose, waste their time in picking the locks, or lose
their way in the dark bye-passages. It might be said
of him, as he said himself of Sir James Mansfield, that
"he declared the law," while he argued his cases;
and while others left only the impression on the
hearer that many authorities had been cited, and
much reading displayed, his argument penetrated into
the mind, and made it assent to his positions, without
much regarding the support they found from other
quarters. But he was also a very considerable person
at Nisi Prius. His correct and easy knowledge of
all legal matters was here by no means his only
superiority. He was ready in dealing with evidence;
he could present to the Jury the facts of his case
boldly and in high relief. Though he was wholly
unable to declaim, and never dreamt of addressing the
feelings or the passions, any more than if he were
speaking to mummies without any sensation, much
less any feelings or passions to address; yet he could,
220
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
especially when clothed with the dignity of high
official station, deliver himself with considerable
emphasis, though without any fluency, and could
effect the purpose of impressing the facts upon the
jury's mind, by the same strong and even choice
phrases, sparingly used, though coming out with little
flow of words, and no roundness of period, which we
have remarked among the characteristics of his argu-
ments to the court upon the law. Those who heard
his cross-examination of Colonel Wardle, in the pro-
secution of Mrs. Clarke, and who understood the real
circumstances in which the concerted cross-examina-
tion of Major Glenie and Captain Dodd was conducted
by Mr. Garrow, could be at no loss in greatly pre-
ferring the former display of professional skill and
energy. Nor was his address to the jury less remark-
able for energy and for skill. It was a case indeed in
which his whole feelings were strongly embarked; he
had defended the Duke of York with much ability of
a professional kind in the House of Commons, where
other influences than that of pure reason were very
prevalent; and he rejoiced to meet upon his own
ground the adversaries whom he had failed to defeat
upon theirs.
The Treason Trials of 1794 were the occasion of
this able barrister first being introduced to public
notice, and they accelerated his professional rise,
although he had already been made secure of great
success. He was second counsel to Mr. Erskine,* as
Mr. Erskine had been in Lord George Gordon's case
to Mr. Kenyon, afterwards Lord Chief Justice. But
* There was a third, on account of the extreme labour cast upon the
counsel; and, by a kind of connivance, the Court permitted this, although
the statute of William III. only allows two, while the Crown had above
half a dozen. This third was Mr., afterwards Baron, Gurney, a warm
friend of civil and religious liberty, and of that highly respectable and
useful family to whom the art of stenography and the history of public
proceedings owes much: and whose steady and honest adherence to their
principles covers them with honour.
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
221
although Mr. Gibbs's summing up the evidence was
allowed, on all hands, to be a masterly performance,
and of very signal service to the case, the overwhelm-
ing genius of his great leader so far eclipsed him, that
while, in 1780, no one spoke of the chief, but all
admiration was reserved for the second in command,
in 1794 the leader alone was mentioned, and the
important contribution made by the junior to the
mighty_victory escaped all but professional observa-
tion. In Westminster Hall, however, it was estimated
at its real worth; and, notwithstanding his narrow-
minded notions on political matters, his slavish ad-
herence to the Tory party, his bigoted veneration for
existing things, and hatred of all disaffection, or even
discontent, the courage and perseverance which he
displayed throughout that trying scene, both towards
the government whom he was defeating in their
frantic scheme, and towards the court whom he was
constantly joining his leader to beard, was not sur-
passed by the technical ability which he showed,
nay, was not exceeded even by the manly boldness
which won for that leader the most imperishable of
all his titles to the admiration and gratitude of man-
kind.
The general narrowness of Sir Vicary Gibbs's mind
has been marked; but on the side of vanity and self-
conceit it was out of proportion to its dimensions in
other parts. It always seemed as if no one could do
anything to please him, save one individual; and his
performances were rated at the most exorbitant value.
Nay, the opinion of that favoured personage he esti-
mated so highly, that there always lay an appeal to
him from the bench, as well as from every other autho-
rity; and it was sometimes truly laughable to observe
the weight which he attached to a single sentence or
a word from one with whom he was ever so entirely
satisfied. On a certain trial he had occasion to men-
tion some recent victories of Lord Wellington's army
222
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
in the Peninsula, and had named three battles with
praise not very lavish, because every word was deemed
of inestimable value, but had omitted Busaco; he cor-
rected himself very ostentatiously, and went back to
include that fight, with the feeling manifest to all who
heard him, that real and irreparable, possibly fatal in-
jury would be done to the troops, had the momentary
omission unhappily not been supplied. When he
came among the heads of the law, whether in his own
court or at occasional meetings of the twelve, even
while junior puisne judge, he arrogated the place and
deference due to the chief of the whole; and when he
was made first Chief Baron, and afterwards Chief Jus-
tice, there were no bounds to his contempt for all the
opinions of all his brethren, although it is an unde-
niable fact that he was not nearly so much distin-
guished for the soundness of his opinions upon the
bench as he had been for the excellence of his
argu-
ments at the bar. In trials at Nisi Prius he was dis-
tinguished for the little and peevish temper which
predominated in him, often to the seeming injury of
his judgment, almost always to the detriment of his
judicial powers; and so absolutely was he persuaded
of his own universal capacity, and the universal unfit-
ness of others, that it was no uncommon thing for him
to ask, somewhat roughly, for a counsel's brief, that
he might see what was intended to be stated; then
lecture the attorney who had prepared it; soon after
the witnesses; and down to the officers of the court,
whose functions of keeping silence and order he would
occasionally himself undertake to perform. So that
it was not an uncommon remark that the learned Chief
Justice was performing at once, in his own person,
the offices of judge and jury, counsel for both parties,
attorneys for both, witnesses on both sides, and crier
of the court. To the same conceited spirit was owing
his much graver offence of parading rash opinions
upon branches of the law with which the previous
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
223
habits of his life had never brought him very fami-
liarly acquainted, and even of forming hasty judgments
upon matters to which he was more accustomed. Cer-
tain it is, that there were decisions, both of his own at
Nisi Prius and afterwards of the Court in Banc,
which he persisted in forcing upon his brethren, and
which do little credit to any of the parties concerned
in them.
The survey which has just been taken of this emi-
nent counsellor does not show him as filling the high-
est places in his profession; and yet if we follow him
into the House of Commons, the falling off is very
great indeed. There he really had no place at all;
and feeling his nullity, there was no place to which he
was with more visible reluctance dragged by the
power that office gives the government over its law-
yers. He could only obtain a hearing upon legal
questions, and those he handled not with such felicity
or force as repaid the attention of the listener. He sel-
dom attempted more than to go through the references
from one act of parliament to another; and though
he was doing only a mechanical work, he gave out
each sentence as if he had been gifted and consulted
like an oracle, and looked and spoke as if when citing
a section he was making a discovery. When Mr.
Perceval was shot, his nerves, formerly excellent, sud-
denly and entirely failed him; and he descended from
the station of Attorney-General to that of a Puisne
Judge in the Common Pleas.
Of his political prejudices, which were quite intole-
rant and quite sincere, mention has already been
made. To the cause of reform, in all shapes and un-
der what name soever, he was the bitter enemy. To-
wards all who indulged in free discussion, whether of
measures or of men, he was an implacable adversary.
The Press, therefore, engaged a large share of his dis-
like; and under the combined influence of exaspera-
tion and alarm he filed so many ex officio informations
224
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
in a few months, that no two attorney-generals ever
in a long course of years loaded the files of the court
with as many. It was his truly painful fortune that,
as most of these regarded the attacks on the Duke of
York, he was compelled soon to withdraw them all;
while in several of the others he was defeated; and
partly by his excessive use of the power, partly by his
failure in the exercise of it, he had the agony, to him
most excruciating, of being signally defeated in his
attempts to crush the press, and of causing all the dis-
cussions of the ex officio power which first brought it
into hatred and then into disuse.
This is that successful barrister, that skilful special
pleader, that acute lawyer on common points, that
dexterous and expert practitioner, (for all this he was,
as certainly as he was a little-minded man)-this is he
whom the men that contemn Lord Erskine, and look
down upon Lord Mansfield, and would fain, if they
durst, raise their small voices against Sir Samuel
Romilly, hold up as the pattern of an English lawyer.

225
SIR WILLIAM GRANT.
IF from contemplating the figure of the eminent
though narrow-minded lawyer whom we have been.
surveying, we turn to that of his far more celebrated
contemporary, Sir William Grant, we shall find, with
some marked resemblances, chiefly in political opin-
ions and exaggerated dread of change, a very marked
diversity in all the more important features of char-
acter, whether intellectual or moral. We have now
named in some respects the most extraordinary
individual of his time-one certainly than whom none
ever better sustained the judicial office, though its
functions were administered by him upon a somewhat
contracted scale-one than whom none ever descended
from the forum into the senate with more extraor-
dinary powers of argumentation, or flourished there
with greater renown. It happened to this great judge
to have been for many years at the bar with a very
moderate share of practice; and although his parlia-
mentary exertions never tore him away from his
profession, yet his public character rested entirely
upon their success until he was raised to the bench.
The genius of the man then shone forth with extra-
ordinary lustre. His knowledge of law, which had
hitherto been scanty and never enlarged by practice,
was now expanded to whatever dimensions might
seem required for performing his high office: nor was
he ever remarked as at all deficient even in the branch
most difficult to master without forensic habits, the
accomplishments of a case-lawyer; while his familiarity
with the principles of jurisprudence and his knowledge
226
SIR WILLIAM GRANT.
of their foundations were ample as his application of
them was easy and masterly. The Rolls Court,
however, in those days, was one of comparatively
contracted business; and, although he gave the most
entire satisfaction there, and in presiding at the Privy
Council in Prize and Plantation Appeals, a doubt was
always raised by the admirers of Lord Eldon, whether
Sir William Grant could have as well answered the
larger demands upon his judicial resources, had he
presided in the Court of Chancery. That doubt
appears altogether unfounded. He possessed the first
great quality for despatching business (the "real" and
not "affected despatch" of Lord Bacon), a power of
steadily fixing his attention upon the matter before
him, and keeping it invariably directed towards the
successive arguments addressed to him. The certainty
that not a word was lost deprived the advocate of all
excuse for repetition: while the respect which his
judge inspired checked needless prolixity, and deterred
him from raising desperate points merely to have them
frowned down by a tribunal as severe as it was patient.
He had not indeed to apprehend any interruption-
that was a course never practised in those days at the
Rolls or the Cockpit; but while the judge sat passive
and unmoved, it was plain that though his powers of
endurance had no limits, his powers of discriminating
were ever active as his attention was ever awake: and
as it required an eminent hardihood to place base coin
before so scrutinizing an eye, or tender light money
to be weighed in such accurate scales as Sir William
Grant's; so few men ventured to exercise a patience
which yet all knew to be unbounded.
It may,
indeed, be fairly doubted whether the main force of
muscular exertion, so much more clumsily applied by
Sir John Leach in the same court to effect the great
object of his efforts the close compression of the
debate-ever succeeded so well, or reduced the mass
to as small a bulk as the delicate hydraulic press of
SIR WILLIAM GRANT.
227
his illustrious predecessor did, without giving the
least pain to the advocate, or in any one instance
obstructing the course of calm, deliberate, and un-
wearied justice.
The
The court in those days presented a spectacle
which afforded true delight to every person of sound
judgment and pure taste. After a long and silent
hearing-a hearing of all that could be urged by the
counsel of every party-unbroken by a single word,
and when the spectator of Sir William Grant (for he
was not heard) might suppose that his mind had been
absent from a scene in which he took no apparent
share, the debate was closed-the advocate's hour was
passed-the parties were in silent expectation of the
event—the hall no longer resounded with any voice—
it seemed as if the affair of the day, for the present,
was over, and the Court was to adjourn or to call for
another cause. No! The judge's time had now
arrived, and another artist was to fill the scene.
great Magistrate began to pronounce his judgment,
and
every eye and every ear was at length fixed upon
the bench. Forth came a strain of clear unbroken
fluency, disposing alike, in most luminous order, of all
the facts and of all the arguments in the cause
reducing into clear and simple arrangement the most
entangled masses of broken and conflicting statement;
weighing each matter, and disposing of each in
succession; settling one doubt by a parenthetical
remark; passing over another difficulty by a reason
only more decisive that it was condensed; and giving
out the whole impression of the case, in every material
view, upon the judge's mind, with argument enough
to show why he so thought, and to prove him right,
and without so much reasoning as to make you forget
that it was a judgment you were hearing, by over-
stepping the bounds which distinguished a Judgment
from a Speech. This is the perfection of Judicial
Eloquence; not avoiding argument, but confining it
228
SIR WILLIAM GRANT.
to such reasoning as beseems him who has rather to
explain the grounds of his own conviction, than to
labour at convincing others; not rejecting reference
to authority, but never betokening a disposition to
seek shelter behind other men's names, for what he
might fear to pronounce in his own person; not
disdaining even ornaments, but those of the more
chastened graces that accord with the severe standard
of a judge's oratory. This perfection of judicial
eloquence Sir William Grant attained, and its effect
upon all listeners was as certain and as powerful as its
merits were incontestable and exalted.
In parliament he is unquestionably to be classed
with speakers of the first order. His style was pecu-
liar; it was that of the closest and severest reasoning
ever heard in any popular assembly: reasoning which
would have been reckoned close in the argumentation
of the bar or the dialectics of the schools. It was,
from the first to the last, throughout, pure reason and
the triumph of pure reason. All was sterling, all per-
fectly plain; there was no point in the diction, no
illustration in the topics, no ornament of fancy in the
accompaniments. The language was choice-per-
fectly clear, abundantly correct, quite concise, admir-
ably suited to the matter which the words clothed
and conveyed. In so far it was felicitous, no farther;
nor did it ever leave behind it any impression of the
diction, but only of the things said; the words were
forgotten, for they had never drawn off the attention
for a moment from the things; those things were
alone remembered. No speaker was more easily
listened to; none so difficult to answer. Once Mr.
Fox, when he was hearing him with a view to making
that attempt, was irritated in a way very unwonted to
his sweet temper by the conversation of some near
him, even to the show of some crossness, and (after an
exclamation) sharply said, "Do you think it so very
pleasant a thing to have to answer a speech like
SIR WILLIAM GRANT.
229
THAT?"
The two memorable occasions on which
this great reasoner was observed to be most injured
by a reply, were in that of Mr. Wilberforce quoting
Clarendon's remarks on the conduct of the judges in
the Ship Money Case, when Sir William Grant had
undertaken to defend his friend Lord Melville; and
in that of Lord Lansdowne (then Lord Henry Petty),
three years later, when the legality of the famous
Orders in Council was debated. Here, however, the
speech was made on one day, and the answer, able
and triumphant as it was, followed on the next.
It may safely be said that a long time will elapse
before there shall arise such a light to illuminate either
the Senate or the Bench, as the eminent person whose
rare excellence we have just been pausing to contem-
plate. That excellence was no doubt limited in its
sphere; there was no imagination, no vehemence, no
declamation, no wit; but the sphere was the highest,
and in that highest sphere its place was lofty. The
understanding alone was addressed by the under-
standing; the faculties that distinguish our nature
were those over which the oratory of Sir William
Grant asserted its control. His sway over the rational
and intellectual portion of mankind was that of a more
powerful reason, a more vigorous intellect than theirs;
a sway which no man had cause for being ashamed
of admitting, because the victory was won by superior
force of argument; a sway which the most dignified
and exalted genius might hold without stooping from
its highest pinnacle, and which some who might not
deign to use inferior arts of persuasion could find no
objection whatever to exercise.
Yet in this purely intellectual picture there remains
to be noted a discrepancy, a want of keeping, some-
thing more than a shade. The commanding intellect,
the close reasoner, who could overpower other men's
understanding by the superior force of his own, was
the slave of his own prejudices to such an extent, that

230
SIR WILLIAM GRANT.
he could see only the perils of revolution in any re-
formation of our institutions, and never conceived it
possible that the monarchy could be safe, or that
anarchy could be warded off, unless all things were
maintained upon the same footing on which they stood
in early, unenlightened, and inexperienced ages of the
world. The signal blunder, which Bacon long ago
exposed, of confounding the youth with the age of the
species, was never committed by any one more glar-
ingly than by this great reasoner. He it was who
first, with Mr. Canning, employed the well-known
phrase of "the wisdom of our ancestors;" and the
menaced innovation, to stop which he applied it, was
the proposal of Sir Samuel Romilly to take the step of
reform,`almost imperceptibly small, of subjecting
men's real property to the payment of all their debts.
Strange force of early prejudice; of prejudice suffered
to warp the intellect while yet feeble and uninformed,
and which owed its origin to the very error that it
embodied in its conclusions, the making the errors of
mankind in their ignorant and inexperienced state
the guide of their conduct at their mature age, and
appealing to those errors as the wisdom of past times,
when they were the unripe fruit of imperfect intel-
lectual culture!
231
MR. BURKE.
THE contrast which Lord Mansfield presented to
another school of lawyers, led us to present, somewhat
out of its order, the character of Sir Vicary Gibbs as
representing the latter class, and from thence we were
conducted, by way of contrast (by the association, as
it were, of contrariety), to view the model of a perfect
judge in Sir William Grant. It is time that we now
return to the group of Statesmen collected round Lord
North. His supporters being chiefly lawyers, we
were obliged to make our incursion into Westminster
Hall. When we turn to his opponents, we emerge
from the learned obscurity of the black letter pre-
cincts to the more cheerful, though not less conten-
tious, regions of political men; and the first figure
which attracts the eye is the grand form of Edmund
Burke.
How much soever men may differ as to the sound-
ness of Mr. Burke's doctrines or the purity of his
public conduct, there can be no hesitation in accord-
ing to him a station among the most extraordinary
persons that have ever appeared; nor is there now
any diversity of opinion as to the place which it is fit
to assign him. He was a writer of the first class, and
excelled in almost every kind of prose composition.
Possessed of most extensive knowledge, and of the
most various description; acquainted alike with what
different classes of men knew, each in his own pro-
vince, and with much that hardly any one ever
thought of learning; he could either bring his masses
of information to bear directly upon the subjects to
232
MR. BURKE,
which they severally belonged-or he could avail
himself of them generally to strengthen his faculties
and enlarge his views or he could turn any portion
of them to account for the purpose of illustrating his
theme or enriching his diction. Hence, when he is
handling any one matter, we perceive that we are
conversing with a reasoner or a teacher, to whom
almost every other branch of knowledge is familiar.
His views range over all the cognate subjects; his
reasonings are derived from principles applicable to
other matters as well as the one in hand; arguments
pour in from all sides, as well as those which start up
under our feet, the natural growth of the path he is
leading us over; while to throw light round our steps,
and either explore its darker places or serve for our
recreation, illustrations are fetched from a thousand
quarters; and an imagination marvellously quick to
descry unthought-of resemblances pours forth the stores
which a lore yet more marvellous has gathered from
all ages and nations and arts and tongues. We are, in
respect of the argument, reminded of Bacon's multi-
farious knowledge and the exuberance of his learned
fancy; while the many-lettered diction recalls to
mind the first of English poets, and his immortal
verse, rich with the spoils of all sciences and all times.
The kinds of composition are various, and he excels
in them all, with the exception of two, the very
highest, given but to few, and when given, almost
always possessed alone, fierce, nervous, overwhelm-
ing declamation, and close, rapid argument. Every
other he uses easily, abundantly, and successfully.
He produced but one philosophical treatise; but no
man lays down abstract principles more soundly, or
better traces their application. All his works, indeed,
even his controversial, are so informed with general
reflection, so variegated with speculative discussion,
that they wear the air of the Lyceum as well as the
Academy. His narrative is excellent; and it is

Style
MR. BURKE.
233
impossible more luminously to expose the details of
a complicated subject, to give them more animation
and interest, if dry in themselves, or to make them
bear, by the mere power of statement, more power-
fully upon the argument. In description he can.
hardly be surpassed, at least for effect; he has all the
qualities that conduce to it-ardour of purpose, some-
times rising into violence-vivid, but too luxuriant
fancy-bold, frequently extravagant conception-the
faculty of shedding over mere inanimate scenery the
light imparted by moral associations. He indulges in
bitter invective, mingled with poignant wit, but
descending often to abuse and even scurrility; he is
apt moreover to carry an attack too far, as well as to
strain the application of a principle; to slay the slain,
or, dangerously for his purpose, to mingle and dilute
the reader's contempt with pity.
As in the various kinds of writing, so in the dif-
ferent styles, he had an almost universal excellence,
one only being deficient the plain and unadorned.
Not but that he could, in unfolding a doctrine or
pursuing a narrative, write for a little with admirable
simplicity and propriety; only he could not sustain
this self-denial; his brilliant imagination and well-
stored memory soon broke through the restraint.
But in all other styles, passages without end occur of
the highest order-epigram-pathos-metaphor in
profusion, chequered with more didactic and sober
diction. Nor are his purely figurative passages the
finest even as figured writing; he is best when the
metaphor is subdued, mixed as it were with plainer
matter to flavour it, and used not by itself, and for its
own sake, but giving point to a more useful instru-
ment, made of more ordinary material; or at the most,
flung off by the heat of composition, like sparks from
a working engine, not fire-works for mere display.
Speaking of the authors of the 'Declaration of Right,'
he calls them "those whose penetrating style has

234
MR. BURKE,
engraved in our ordinances and in our hearts the
words and spirit of that immortal law."* So, dis-
coursing of the imitations of natural magnitude by
artifice and skill-" A true artist should put a gener-
ous deceit on the spectators, and effect the noblest
designs by easy methods."t "When pleasure is over
we relapse into indifference, or rather we fall into a
soft tranquillity, which is tinged with the agreeable
colour of the former sensation."-"Every age has its
own manners, and its politics dependent on them;
and the same attempts will not be made against a
constitution fully formed and matured, that were used
to destroy it in the cradle, or resist its growth during
its infancy."§-"Faction will make its cries resound
through the nation, as if the whole were in an uproar."||
In works of a serious nature, upon the affairs of real
life, as political discourses and orations, figurative style
should hardly ever go beyond this. But strict and
close metaphor or simile may be allowed, provided
it be most sparingly used, and never deviate from the
subject matter, so as to make that disappear in the
ornament. "The judgment is for the greater part
employed in throwing stumbling-blocks in the way of
the imagination (says Mr. Burke), in dissipating the
scenes of its enchantment, and in tying us down to the
disagreeable yoke of our reason." He has here at
once expressed figuratively the principle we are laying
down, and illustrated our remark by the temperance
of his metaphors, which, though mixed, do not offend,
because they come so near mere figurative language
that they may be regarded, like the last set of
examples, rather as forms of expression than tropes.
"A great deal of the furniture of ancient tyranny is
worn to rags; the rest is entirely out of fashion,"**
* Reflections on the French Revolution.
† Sublime and Beautiful, II. § 10.
+ Ibid. I. § 3.
§ Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Discontents.
¶ Discourses on Taste.
** Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Discontents,
|| Ibid.
-a
MR. BURKE.
235
•
11*
most apt illustration of his important position, that we
ought to be as jealous of little encroachments, now
the chief sources of danger, as our ancestors were of
'Ship Money' and the 'Forest Laws.' "A species of
men (speaking of one constant and baneful effect of
grievances), to whom a state of order would become
a sentence of obscurity, are nourished into a dangerous
magnitude by the heat of intestine disturbances; and
it is no wonder that, by a sort of sinister piety, they
cherish, in return, those disorders which are the
parents of all their consequence. "We have not
(he says of the English Church Establishment)
relegated religion to obscure municipalities or rustic
villages-No! we will have her to exalt her mitred
front in courts and parliaments."† But if these should
seem so temperate as hardly to be separate figures,
the celebrated comparison of the Queen of France,
though going to the verge of chaste style, hardly
passes it. "And surely, never lighted on this orb,
which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful
vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating
and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to
move in-glittering like the morning star full of life
and splendour and joy."‡
All his writings, but especially his later ones,
abound in examples of the abuse of this style, in
which, unlike those we have been dwelling upon
with unmixed admiration, the subject is lost sight
of, and the figure usurps its place, almost as much
as in Homer's longer similes, and is oftentimes pur-
sued not merely with extravagance and violence, but
into details that offend by their coarseness, as well as
their forced connexion with the matter in question.
The comparison of a noble adversary to the whale,
in which the grantee of the crown is altogether for-
gotten, and the fish alone remains; of one Republican
* Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Discontents.
† Reflections on the French Revolution.
+ Ibid.
236
MR. BURKE.
ruler to a cannibal in his den, where he paints him as
having actually devoured a king and suffering from
indigestion; of another, to a retailer of dresses, in
which character the nature of constitutions is forgotten
in that of millinery,-are instances too well known to
be further dwelt upon; and they were the produce
not of the "audacity of youth," but of the last years
of his life. It must, however, be confessed, that he
was at all times somewhat apt to betray what Johnson
imputes to Swift, a proneness to "revolve ideas from
which other minds shrink with disgust." At least he
must be allowed to have often mistaken violence and
grossness for vigour. "The anodyne draught of
oblivion, thus drugged, is well calculated to preserve
a galling wakefulness, and to feed the living ulcer
of a corroding memory. Thus to administer the
opiate potion of animosity, powdered with all the
ingredients of scorn and contempt," &c.*"They are
not repelled, through a fastidious delicacy at the stench
of their arrogance and presumption, from a medicinal
attention to their mental blotches and running sores.Ӡ
"Those bodies, which, when full of life and beauty,
lay in their arms, and were their joy and comfort,
when dead and putrid became but the more loathsome
from remembrance of former endearments."-The
vital powers, wasted in an unequal struggle, are pushed
back upon themselves, and fester to gangrene, to
death; and instead of what was but just now the
delight of the creation, there will be cast out in the
face of the sun a bloated, putrid, noisome carcase,
full of stench and poison, an offence, a horror, a
lesson to the world."§ Some passages are not fit
to be cited, and could not now be tolerated in either
house of parliament, for the indecency of their allu-
sions-as in the Regency debates, and the attack upon
*Reflections on the French Revolution.
† Ibid.
Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Discontents.
§ Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's Debts.
MR. BURKE.
237
lawyers on the Impeachment Continuation. But the
finest of his speeches, which we have just quoted
from, though it does not go so far from propriety,
falls not much within its bounds. Of Mr. Dundas he
says, "With six great chopping bastards (Reports of
Secret Committee), each as lusty as an infant Hercules,
this delicate creature blushes at the sight of his new
bridegroom, assumes a virgin delicacy; or, to use
a more fit, as well as a more poetical comparison, the
person so squeamish, so timid, so trembling lest the
winds of heaven should visit too roughly, is expanded
to broad sunshine, exposed like the sow of imperial
augury, lying in the mud with all the prodigies of her
fertility about her, as evidence of her delicate amour.
It is another characteristic of this great writer,
that the unlimited abundance of his stores makes him
profuse in their expenditure. Never content with one
view of a subject, or one manner of handling it,
he for the most part lavishes his whole resources upon
the discussion of each point. In controversy this
is emphatically the case. Indeed, nothing is more.
remarkable than the variety of ways in which he
makes his approaches to any position he would
master. After reconnoitring it with skill and boldness,
if not with perfect accuracy, he manoeuvres with
infinite address, and arrays a most imposing force
of general principles mustered from all parts, and
pointed, sometimes violently enough, in one direction.
He now moves on with the composed air, the even,
dignified pace of the historian; and unfolds his facts
in a narrative so easy, and yet so correct, that you
plainly perceive he wanted only the dismissal of other
pursuits to have rivalled Livy or Hume. But soon
this advance is interrupted, and he stops to display
his powers of description, when the boldness of his
design is only matched by the brilliancy of his
colouring. He then skirmishes for a space, and puts
in motion all the lighter arms of wit; sometimes not
238
MR. BURKE.
unmingled with drollery, sometimes bordering upon
farce. His main battery is now opened, and a tempest
bursts forth, of every weapon of attack-invective,
abuse, irony, sarcasm, simile drawn out to allegory,
allusion, quotation, fable, parable, anathema. The
heavy artillery of powerful declamation and the con-
flict of close argument alone are wanting; but of this
the garrison is not always aware; his noise is often-
times mistaken for the thunder of true eloquence;
the number of his movements distracts, and the
variety of his missiles annoys the adversary; a panic
spreads, and he carries his point, as if he had actually
made a practicable breach; nor is it discovered till
after the smoke and confusion is over, that the citadel
remains untouched.
Every one of Mr. Burke's works that is of any
importance presents, though in different degrees, these
features to the view; from the most chaste and tem-
perate, his 'Thoughts on the Discontents,' to the least
faultless and severe; his richer and more ornate as
well as vehement tracts upon revolutionary politics;
his letters on the 'Regicide Peace,' and 'Defence of
his Pension.' His speeches differed not at all from his
pamphlets; these are written speeches, or those are
spoken dissertations, according as any one is over-
studious of method and closeness in a book, or of ease
and nature in an oration.
The principal defects here hinted at are a serious
derogation from merit of the highest order in both
kinds of composition. But in his spoken eloquence,
the failure which it is known attended him for a great
part of his Parliamentary life is not to be explained
by the mere absence of what alone he wanted to equal
the greatest orators. In fact, he was deficient in
judgment; he regarded not the degree of interest felt
by his audience in the topics which deeply occupied
himself; and seldom knew when he had said enough
on those which affected them as well as him. He was

MR. BURKE.
239
!
admirable in exposition; in truth, he delighted to give
instruction both when speaking and conversing, and
in this he was unrivalled. Quis in sententiis argutior?
in docendo edisserendoque subtilior? Mr. Fox might
well avow, without a compliment, that he had learnt
more from him alone than from all other men and
authors. But if any one thing is proved by unvarying
experience of popular assemblies, it is, that an excellent
dissertation makes a poor speech. The speaker is not
the only person actively engaged while a great oration
is pronouncing; the audience have their share; they
must be excited, and for this purpose constantly
appealed to as recognized persons of the drama. The
didactic orator (if, as has been said of the didactic
poet, this be not a contradiction in terms) has it all to
himself; the hearer is merely passive; and the con-
sequence is, he soon ceases to be a listener, and, if he
can, even to be a spectator. Mr. Burke was essentially
didactic, except when the violence of his invective
carried him away, and then he offended the correct
taste of the House of Commons, by going beyond the
occasion, and by descending to coarseness.* When
he argued, it was by unfolding large views, and seizing
upon analogies too remote, and drawing distinctions
"too fine for his hearers," or, at the best, by a body
of statements, lucid, certainly, and diversified with
flower and fruit, and lighted up with pleasantry, but
almost always in excess, and overdone in these

* The charge of coarseness, or rather of vulgarity of language, has, to
the astonishment of all who knew him, and understood pure idiomatic
English, been made against Mr. Windham, but only by persons un-
acquainted with both. To him might nearly be applied the beautiful
sketch of Crassus by M. Tullius-Quo, says he, nihil statuo fieri potuisse
perfectius. Erat summa gravitas, erat cum gravitate junctus, facetiarum
et urbanitatis oratorius, non scurrilis lepos. Latine loquendi accurata, et
sine molestiâ diligens elegantia-in disserendo mira explicatio; cum de
jure civili, cum de æquo et bono disputaretur argumentorum et similitudinum
copia. Let not the reader reject even the latter features, those certainly of
an advocate; at least let him first read Mr. Windham's Speech on the
Law of Evidence, in the Duke of York's case.
240
MR. BURKE.
qualities as well as in its own substance. He had
little power of hard stringent reasoning, as has been
already remarked; and his declamation was addressed
to the head, as from the head it proceeded, learned,
fanciful, ingenious, but not impassioned. Of him, as
a combatant, we may say what Aristotle did of the
old philosophers, when he compared them to unskilful
boxers, who hit round about, and not straight forward,
and fight with little effect, though they may by chance
sometimes deal a hard blow—Οἷον εν ταις μαχαις οἱ
αγύμναστοι ποιουσι. και γαρ εκεινοι περιφερουμενοι
τυπτουσι πολλακις καλας αλλ' ουτ' εκεινοι απ'
ETTIOTηuns.-(Metaphys.)*
S.
Cicero has somewhere called Eloquence copiose
loquens sapientia. This may be true of written, but of
spoken eloquence it is a defective definition, and will,
at the best, only comprehend the Demonstrative (or
Epideictic) kind, which is banished, for want of an
audience, from all modern assemblies of a secular
description. Thus, though it well characterizes Mr.
Burke, yet the defects which we have pointed out
were fatal to his success. Accordingly the test of
eloquence, which the same master has in so picturesque
a manner given, from his own constant experience,
here entirely failed. "Volo hoc oratori contingat, ut
cum auditum sit eum esse dicturum, locus in subselliis
occupetur, compleatur tribunal, gratiosi scribæ sint in
dando et cedendo locum, corona multiplex, judex
erectus; cum surgit is qui dicturus sit, significetur a
corona silentium, deinde crebræ assensiones, multæ
* The Attic reader will be here reminded of the First Philippic, in which
a very remarkable passage, and in part, too, applicable to our subject,
seems to have been suggested by the passage in the text; and its great
felicity both of apt comparison and of wit, should, with many other
passages, have made critics pause before they denied those qualities to the
chief of orators. Ωσπερ δε οἱ βαρβαροι πυκτεύουσιν, ουτω πολεμείτε
φιλιππῳ: και γαρ εκείνων ὁ πληγεις και της πληγης εχεται. καν ἑτέρωσε
παταξη τις, εκείσε εισιν αἱ χειρες. προβαλλεσθαι δ', η βλεπεῖν εναντιον,
ουτ' οιδεν, ουτ' εθέλει—which he proceeds to illustrate by the conduct held
respecting the Chersonese and Thermopylæ.
MR. BURKE.
241
admirationes: risus, cum velit; cum velit, fletus; ut,
qui hæc procul videat, etiamsi quid agatur nesciat, at
placere tamen, et in scena Roscium intelligat." For
many years, that is, between the latter part of the
American war, and the speeches which he made,
neither many nor long, nor in a very usual or regular
style, on the French Revolution, the very reverse of
all this was to be seen and lamented, as often as Mr.
Burke spoke. The spectator saw no signs of Roscius
being in action, but rather of the eminent Civilian so
closely allied to Mr. Burke, and of whom we are here-
after to speak.* “Videt” (as the same critic has, in
another passage, almost to the letter described it)
"oscitantem judicem, loquentem cum altero, non-
nunquam etiam circulantem, mittentem ad horas;
quæsitorem, ut dimittat, rogantem;† intelligit, oratorem
in ea causa non adesse, qui possit animis judicum
admovere orationem, tanquam fidibus manum.
""
But it may justly be said, with the second of Attic
orators, that sense is always more important than
eloquence; and no one can doubt that enlightened
men in all ages will hang over the works of Mr.
Burke, and dwell with delight even upon the speeches
that failed to command the attention of those to whom
they were addressed. Nor is it by their rhetorical
beauties that they interest us. The extraordinary
depth of his detached views, the penetrating sagacity
which he occasionally applies to the affairs of men and
their motives, and the curious felicity of expression
with which he unfolds principles and traces resem-
blances and relations, are separately the gift of few,
and in their union probably without any example.
This must be admitted on all hands; it is possibly the
last of these observations which will obtain universal
* Dr. Lawrence.
† This desire in the English senate is irregularly signified, by the cries
of "Question," there not being a proper quarter to appeal to, as in the
Roman courts.
R
242
MR. BURKE.
L
assent, as it is the last we have to offer before coming
upon disputed ground, where the fierce contentions of
politicians cross the more quiet path of the critic.
Not content with the praise of his philosophic
acuteness, which all are ready to allow, the less
temperate admirers of this great writer have ascribed
to him a gift of genius approaching to the power of
divination, and have recognized him as in possession
of a judgment so acute and so calm withal, that its
decision might claim the authority of infallible decrees.
His opinions upon French affairs have been viewed as
always resulting from general principles deliberately
applied to each emergency; and they have been
looked upon as forming a connected system of
doctrines, by which his own sentiments and conduct
were regulated, and from which after times may
derive the lessons of practical wisdom.
A consideration which at once occurs, as casting
suspicion upon the soundness, if not also upon the
sincerity, of these encomiums, is, that they never were
dreamt of until the questions arose concerning the
French Revolution; and yet, if well founded, they
were due to the former principles and conduct of their
object; for it is wholly inconsistent with their tenor
to admit that the doctrines so extolled were the rank
and sudden growth of the heats which the changes of
1789 had generated. Their title to so much admira-
tion and to our implicit confidence must depend upon
their being the slowly matured fruit of a profound
philosophy, which had investigated and compared ;
pursuing the analogies of things, and tracing events to
their remote origin in the principles of human nature.
Yet it is certain that these reasoners (if reasoning can
indeed be deemed their vocation) never discovered a
single merit in Mr. Burke's opinions, or anything to
praise, or even to endure, in his conduct, from his
entrance into public life in 1765 to the period of that
stormy confusion of all parties and all political attach-
MR. BURKE.
243
ments, which took place in 1791, a short time before
he quitted it. They are therefore placed in a dilemma,
from which it would puzzle more subtle dialecticians
to escape. Either they or their idol have changed;
either they have received a new light, or he is a
changeling god. They are either converts to a faith
which, for so many years and during so many vicis-
situdes, they had, in their preaching and in their lives,
held to be damnable; or they are believers in a
heresy, lightly taken up by its author, and promul-
gated to suit the wholly secular purposes of some
particular season.
We believe a very little examination of the facts
will suffice to show that the believers have been more
consistent than their oracle; and that they escape
from the charge of fickleness at the expense of the
authority due to the faith last proclaimed from his
altar. It would, indeed, be difficult to select one
leading principle or prevailing sentiment in Mr.
Burke's latest writings, to which something extremely
adverse may not be found in his former, we can
hardly say his early works; excepting only on the
subject of Parliamentary Reform, to which, with all
the friends of Lord Rockingham, he was from the
beginning adverse; and in favour of which he found
so very hesitating and lukewarm a feeling among Mr.
Fox's supporters, as hardly amounted to a difference,
certainly offered no inducements to compromise the
opinions of his own party. Searching after the monu-
ments of altered principles, we will not resort to his
first works, in one of which he terms Damien "
a late
unfortunate regicide," looking only at his punishment,
and disregarding his offence; neither shall we refer to
his speeches, exceeding, as they did, the bounds which
all other men, even in the heat of debate, prescribed
to themselves, in speaking now of the first magistrate
of the country, while labouring under a calamitous
visitation of Providence-now of kings generally.
244
MR. BURKE.
*
But we may fairly take as the standard of his opinions,
best weighed and most deliberately pronounced, the
calmest of all his productions, and the most fully con-
sidered,—given to the world when he had long passed
the middle age of life, had filled a high station, and
been for years eminent in parliamentary history.
Although, in compositions of this kind, more depends
upon the general tone of a work than on particular
passages, because the temper of mind on certain points
may be better gathered from that, than from any ex-
pressly stated propositions, yet we need but open
the book to see that his Thoughts in 1770 were very
different from those which breathe through every page
of his Anti-Jacobin writings.
And first of the "Corinthian Capital" of 1790-"I
am no friend" (says he in 1770) "to aristocracy, in
the sense at least in which that word is usually under-
stood. If it were not a bad habit to moot cases on
the supposed ruin of the constitution, I should be free
to declare, that if it must perish, I would rather by far
see it resolved into any other form, than lost in that
austere and insolent domination." (Works, II. 246.)
His comfort is derived from the consideration, "that
the generality of peers are but too apt to fall into an
oblivion of their proper dignity, and run headlong into
an abject servitude." Next of "the Swinish Multitude"
The
"When popular discontents have been very preva-
lent, it may well be affirmed and supported that there
has been generally something found amiss in the con-
stitution or in the conduct of government.
people have no interest in disorder. When they do
wrong, it is their error, not their crime. But with the
governing part of the state it is far otherwise;" and
he quotes the saying of Sully: "Pour la populace,
ce n'est jamais par envie d'attaquer qu'elle se soulève,
mais par impatience de souffrir." (Ib. 224.) Again, of
* The Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Discontents was pub-
lished in 1770-when Mr. Burke was above forty years old.
MR. BURKE.
245
the people as "having nothing to do with the laws
but to obey them”- "I I see no other way for the pre-
servation of a decent attention to public interest in
the representatives, but the interposition of the body of
the people itself,* whenever it shall appear by some
flagrant and notorious act,-by some capital innova-
tion—that these representatives are going to overleap
the fences of the law, and to introduce an arbitrary
power. This interposition is a most unpleasant re-
medy. But if it be a legal remedy, it is intended on
some occasion to be used; to be used then only when
it is evident that nothing else can hold the constitution
to its true principles. It is not in Parliament alone
that the remedy for parliamentary disorders can be
completed; hardly indeed can it begin there. Until
a confidence in government is re-established, the
people ought to be excited to a more strict and detailed
attention to the conduct of their representatives.
Standards for judging more systematically upon their
conduct ought to be settled in the meetings of coun-
ties and corporations. Frequent and correct lists of
the voters in all important questions ought to be pro-
cured." (Ib. 324.) The reasons which called for
popular interposition, and made him preach it at a
season of unprecedented popular excitement, are stated
to be "the immense revenue, enormous debt, and
mighty establishments;" and he requires the House
of Commons "to bear some stamp of the actual dis-
position of the people at large;" adding, that "it
would be a more natural and tolerable evil, that the
House should be infected with every epidemical frenzy
of the people, as this would indicate some consan-
guinity, some sympathy of nature with their consti-
tuents, than that they should in all cases be wholly
untouched by the opinions and feelings of the people
out of doors." Now let us step aside for a moment
to remark, that the "immense revenue" was under
Ital. in orig.
246
MR. BURKE.
The
10 millions; the "enormous debt," 130; and the "mighty
establishments” cost about 6 millions a-year.
statesman who, on this account, recommended popular
interference in 1770, lived to see the revenue 24 mil-
lions; the debt, 350; the establishment, 30; and the
ruling principle of his latter days was the all-sufficiency
of Parliament and the Crown, and the fatal conse-
quence of according to the people the least share of
direct power in the state.
His theoretical view of the constitution in those
days was as different from the high monarchical tone
of his latter writings. The King was then "the
representative of the people,"—"so" (he adds) "are
the Lords; so are the Judges; they are all trustees
for the people, as well as the Commons, because no
power is given for the sole sake of the holder; and
although government certainly is an institution of
divine authority, yet its forms, and the persons who
administer it, all originate from the people." And
then comes that immortal passage so often cited, and
which ought to be blazoned in letters of fire over the
porch of the Commons' House; illustrating the doc-
trine it sets out with, that "their representatives are
a control for the people, and not upon the people;
and that the virtue, spirit, and essence of a House of
Commons consist in its being the express image of
the feelings of the nation." (Ibid. 288.)* It may be
* “A vigilant and jealous eye over executory and judicial magistracy;
an anxious care of public money; an openness, approaching towards
facility, to public complaint; these seem to be the true characteristics of
a House of Commons. But an addressing House of Commons and a
petitioning nation; a House of Commons full of confidence, when the
nation is plunged in despair; in the utmost harmony with ministers whom
the people regard with the utmost abhorrence; who vote thanks, when the
public opinion calls upon them for impeachments; who are eager to grant,
when the general voice demands account; who in all disputes between
the people and the administration pronounce against the people; who
punish their disorders, but refuse even to inquire into the provocations to
them; this is an unnatural, a monstrous state of things in the constitution.
Such an assembly may be a great, wise, awful senate; but it is not to any
popular purpose a House of Commons."-(Ib. 289.)
MR. BURKE.
247
superfluous to add, that one so deeply imbued with
the soundest principles of a free constitution must
always have regarded the Bourbon rulers with
singular dislike, while he saw in the English govern-
ment the natural ally of Liberty, wheresoever she
was struggling with her chains. Accordingly, in the
same famous work, he exclaims, "Such was the
conquest of Corsica, by the professed enemies of the
freedom of mankind, in defiance of those who were
formerly its professed defenders." (Ibid. 272.)
Although it cannot be denied that a considerable
portion of the deference which Mr. Burke's later and
more celebrated opinions are entitled to command is
thus taken away, and, as it were, shared by the con-
flicting authority of his earlier sentiments, his disciples
may, nevertheless, be willing to rest his claims to a
reverent, if not an implicit observance upon the last,
as the maturest efforts of his genius. Now, it appears
evident that, in this extraordinary person, the usual
progress of men's faculties in growth and decline was
in some measure reversed; his fancy became more
vivid,-it burnt, as it were, brighter before its extinc-
tion; while age, which had only increased that light,
lessened the power of profiting from it, by weakening
the judgment as the imagination gained luxuriance
and strength. Thus, his old age resembled that of
other men in one particular only; he was more
haunted by fears, and more easily became the dupe of
imposture as well as alarm.
It is quite vain now to deny that the unfavourable
decision which those feelings led him to form of the
French Revolution was, in the main, incorrect and
exaggerated. That he was right in expecting much
confusion and mischief from the passions of a whole
nation let loose, and influenced only by the various
mobs of its capital, literary and political, in the assem-
blies, the club-rooms, the theatres, and the streets, no
one can doubt; and his apprehensions were certainly
248
MR. BURKE.
not shared by the body of his party. But beyond this
very scanty and not very difficult portion of his pre-
dictions, it would be hard to show any signal instance
of their fulfilment. Except in lamenting the excesses
of the times of terror, and in admitting them to form
a large deduction from the estimate of the benefits of
the Řevolution, it would be no easy matter to point
out a single opinion of his which any rational and
moderate man of the present day will avow.
Those
who claim for Mr. Burke's doctrines in 1790 the
praise of a sagacity and foresight hardly human would
do well to recollect his speech on the Army Estimates
of that year. It is published by himself, corrected,*
and its drift is to show the uselessness of a large force,
because “France must now be considered as expunged
out of the system of Europe;" it expresses much
doubt if she can ever resume her station "as a leading
power;" anticipates the language of the rising genera-
tion—Gallos quoque in bellis floruisse audivimus; and
decides, that, at all events, her restoration to anything
like a substantive existence must, under a republic, be
the work of much time. Scarce two years elapsed
before this same France, without any change whatever
in her situation, except the increase of the anarchy
that had expunged her from the map, declared war on
Austria, and in a few months more carried her con-
quests so much farther than Louis XIV. had done,
when the firmness and judgment of King William
opposed him, that Mr. Burke now said a universal
league was necessary to avert her universal dominion,
and that it was a question whether she would suffer any
one throne to stand in Europe. The same eulogists
of Mr. Burke's sagacity would also do well to recollect
those yearly predictions of the complete internal ruin
which for so long a period alternated with alarms at
the foreign aggrandizement of the Republic; they all
* Works, vol. v. p. 1.
MR. BURKE.
249
originated in his famous work-though it contains
some prophecies too extravagant to be borrowed by
his most servile imitators. Thus he contends that the
population of France is irreparably diminished by the
Revolution, and actually adopts a calculation which
makes the distress of Paris require above two millions
sterling for its yearly relief; a sum sufficient to pay
each family above seventeen pounds, or to defray its
whole expenditure in that country.
But on these grounds a further allowance is made,
and a new deduction introduced, from the sum total
of the deference paid to his authority. It is said that
the sagacity and penetration which we are bid to
reverence were never at fault, unless on points where
strong feelings interfered. The proposition must be
admitted, and without any qualification. But it leads
not to an abatement merely-it operates a release of
the whole debt of deference and respect. For one
clever man's opinion is just as good as another's, if
both are equally uninfluenced by passions and feelings
of every kind. Nor must it be forgotten that on
another subject as well as the French Revolution Mr.
Burke's prejudices warped his judgment. When
strongly interested he was apt to regard things in
false colours and distorted shape. The fate of society
for many years hung upon Hastings's Impeachment;
during that period he exhausted as much vituperation
upon the East Indians in this country as he afterwards
did on the Jacobins; and he was not more ready to
quarrel with Mr. Fox on a difference of opinion about
France, than he had been a year before to attack Mr.
Erskine with every weapon of personal and profes-
sional abuse, upon a slighter difference about the
Abating of the Impeachment. Nay, after the Hastings
question might have been supposed forgotten, or
merged in the more recent controversy on French
affairs, he deliberately enumerates among the causes
of alarm at French principles, the prevalence of the
250
MR. BURKE.
East India interest in England; ranks "Nabobs" with
the Diplomatic Body all over Europe, as naturally
and incurably Jacobin; and warns this country loudly
and solemnly against suffering itself to be overthrown
by a "Bengal junto.'
The like infirmity of a judgment, weakened, no
doubt, by his temper, pursued him in his later years
through the whole details of the question that excited
him most, when France was the master topic. He is
blinded to the impressions on his very senses, not by
the light shining inward,' but by the heat of his
passions. He sees not what all other men behold, but
what he wishes to see, or what his prejudices and
fantasies suggest; and having once pronounced a
dogma, the most astounding contradictions that events
can give him, assail his mind and even his senses in
vain. Early in 1790 he pronounced France extin-
guished, as regarded her external force; but at the
end of 1793, when the second attempt to invade her
had ended in the utter discomfiture of the assailants,
when she was rioting in the successes of an offensive
war, and had armed her whole people to threaten the
liberties of Europe, he still sees in her situation
nothing but "complete ruin, without the chance of
resurrection," and still reckons that, when she recovers
her nominal existence by a restoration of the monarchy,
"it will be as much as all her neighbours can do, by
a steady guarantee, to keep her upon her basis."
(Works, VII. 185.) That he should confound all
persons, as well as things, in his extravagant specula-
tions, surprises less than such delusions as this. We
are little astonished at finding him repeatedly class the
humane and chivalrous La Fayette with the monster
Robespierre; but when we find him pursuing his
theory, that all Atheists are Jacobins, so far as to
charge Hume with being a leveller, and pressing the
* She had at that time 750,000 men under arms, without calling out
the second conscription.
MR. BURKE.
251
converse of the proposition so far as to insinuate that
Priestley was an Atheist, we pause incredulous over
the sad devastation which a disordered fancy can
make in the finest understanding. (VII. 58.)
That the warlike policy which he recommended
against France was more consistent than the course
pursued by the ministry, may be admitted. The
weak and ruinous plan of leaving the enemy to con-
quer all Europe while we wasted our blood and our
treasure in taking Sugar Islands, to increase the Afri-
can slave-trade, and mow down whole armies by pes-
tilence, has been oftentimes painted in strong colours,
never stronger than the truth; and our arms only
were successful when this wretched system was aban-
doned. But if Mr. Burke faintly and darkly arraigned
this plan of operations, it was on grounds so purely
fanciful, and he dashed the truth with such a mixture
of manifest error that he unavoidably both prevented
his counsels from being respected, and subjected his
own policy to imputations full as serious as those he
brought against the government. He highly approved
of the Emigration, because France was no longer in,
but out of, France; he insisted on an invasion for the
avowed purpose of restoring monarchy and punishing
its enemies, he required the advanced guard of the
attacking army to be composed of the bands of French
gentlemen, emigrants, and to be accompanied by the
exiled priests; and, in order to make the movement
more popular, they were to be preceded by the pro-
clamation of solemn leagues among the allies, never
to treat with a republic that had slain its king, and
formal announcements that they entered the coun-
try to punish as well as to restore.
Mr. Burke lived not to see the power of the revolu-
tionary government extend itself resistless in the direc-
tion he had pronounced impossible, or prove harm-
less in the only way he deemed it formidable. The
downfall of that government he lived not to see thrice
252
MR. BURKE,
accomplished, without one of his plans being followed.
Yet let us not doubt his opinions upon the restora-
tion of his favourite dynasty, had he survived its
exile. With all his bright genius and solid learning,
his venerable name would have been found at the
head, or rather say in advance, of the most univer-
sally and most justly contemned faction in the world.
The "Ultras" would have owned him for their leader,
and would have admitted that he went beyond them.
in the uncompromising consistency of his extravagant
dogmas. He who had deemed the kind of punishments
that should be meted out, the most important point to
settle previously, and had thought it necessary, in
many a long and laboured page, to discuss this when the
prospects of the Bourbons were desperate (VII. 187),
and to guard them by all arguments against listening to
plans of amnesty, would have objected vehemently to
every one act of the restored government; regarded
the charter as an act of abdication; the security of
property as robbery and sacrilege; the impunity of the
Jacobins, as making the monarch an accessory after
the fact to his brother's murder; and what all men
of sound minds regarded as a state of great improve-
ment, blessing the country with much happiness, free-
ing it from many abuses, and giving it precious hopes.
of liberty, he would have pronounced the height
of misery and degradation. If such had not proved
to be his views, living in our times, he must have
changed all the opinions which he professed up to
the hour of his death.
Upon one subject alone could he have been found
ranged with the Liberal party of the present day; he
always, from a very early period, and before sound
principles were disseminated on questions of political
economy, held the most enlightened opinions on all
subjects of mercantile policy; and these sound opin-
ions he retained to the last; here his mind seemed
warped by no bias, and his profound understanding
1
MR. BURKE.
253
and habits of observation kept him right. His works
abound with just and original reflections upon these
matters, and they form a striking contrast to the nar-
row views which, in his later years, he was prone to
take of all that touched the interests and the improve-
ment of mankind. For his whole habits of thinking
seemed perverted by the dread of change; and he
never reflected, except in the single case of the Irish
Catholics, that the surest way of bringing about a
violent revolution is to resist a peaceful reform.
As he dreaded all plans of amendment which sought
to work by perceivable agency and within a moderate
compass of time, so he distrusted all who patronized
them-asserting their conduct to be wild and visionary
enthusiasm at the best, but generally imputing their
zeal to some sinister motives of personal interest:
most unjustly-most unphilosophically - most un-
thinkingly. It is the natural tendency of men con-
nected with the upper ranks of society, and separated
from the mass of the community, to undervalue things
which only affect the rights or the interests of the
people. Against this leaning to which he had yielded,
it becomes them to struggle, and their honest devotion.
to the cause of peaceable improvement, their virtuous
labours bestowed in advancing the dignity and happi-
ness of their fellow-creatures, their perils and their
losses encountered in defence of the rights of oppressed
men, are the most glorious titles to the veneration of
the good and the wise; but they are titles which he
would have scornfully rejected, or covered with the
tide of his indignant sarcasm, whom Providence had
endowed with such rare parts, and originally imbued
with such love of liberty, that he seemed especially
raised up as an instrument for instructing and mending
his kind.
Of Mr. Burke's genius as a writer and an orator,
we have now spoken at great, though not needless
length; and it would not have been necessary to
i
254
MR. BURKE.
dwell longer on the subject, but for a sketch of a very
different kind, drawn by another hand, from which a
more accurate resemblance might have been expected.
That Mr. Burke, with extraordinary powers of mind,
cultivated to a wonderful degree, was a person of
eccentric nature; that he was one mixture of incon-
gruous extremes; that his opinions were always found
to be on the outermost verge of those which could be
held upon any question; that he was wholly wild and
impracticable in his views; that he knew not what
moderation or modification was in any doctrine which
he advanced; but was utterly extravagant in whatever
judgment he formed, and whatever sentiment he
expressed;—such was the representation to which we
have alluded, and which, considering the distinguished
quarter it proceeded from, seems to justify some
further remark; the rather, because we have already
admitted the faults to exist in one portion of his
opinions, which are now attempted to be affirmed
respecting the whole. Without being followers of
Mr. Burke's political principles, or indiscriminate
admirers of his course as a statesman-the capacity in
which he the least shone, especially during the few
latter and broken years of his illustrious, chequered,
and care-worn life—we may yet affirm that, with the
exception of his writings upon the French Revolution
-an exception itself to be qualified and restricted-it
would be difficult to find any statesman of any age
whose opinions were more habitually marked by
moderation; by a constant regard to the results of
actual experience, as well as the dictates of an enlarged
reason; by a fixed determination always to be practical,
at the time he was giving scope to the most extensive
general views; by a cautious and prudent abstinence
from all extremes, and especially from those towards
which the general complexion of his political principles
* Lord Melbourne in the House of Lords, July, 1838.
MR. BURKE.
255
tending, he felt the more necessity for being on his
guard against the seduction.
This was the distinguishing feature of his policy
through life.
A brilliant fancy and rich learning
did not more characterize his discourse, than this
moderation did his counsels. Imagination did not
more inspire or deep reflection inform his eloquence,
than a wise spirit of compromise between theory and
practice-between all opposing extremes-governed
his choice of measures. This was by the extremes of
both parties, but more especially of his own, greatly
complained of: they could not always comprehend it,
and they could never relish it, because their own
understanding and information reached it not; and
the selfish views of their meaner nature were thwarted
by it. In his speeches, by the length at which he
dwelt on topics, and the vehemence of his expressions,
he was often deficient in judgment. But in the for-
mation of his opinions no such defect could be per-
ceived; he well and warily propounded all practical
considerations; and although he viewed many subjects
in different lights at the earlier and the later periods
of his time, and is thus often quoted for opposite
purposes by reasoners on different sides of the great
political controversy, he himself never indulged in
wild or thoughtless extremes. He brought this spirit
of moderation into public affairs with him; and, if we
except the very end of his life when he had ceased to
live much in public, it stuck by him to the last. "I
pitched my Whiggism low," said he, "that I might
keep by it." With his own followers his influence
was supreme; and over such men as Dr. Lawrence,
Mr. W. Elliott, and the late Lord Minto, to say nothing
of the Ellises, the Freres, and the Cannings, no man
of immoderate and extreme opinions ever could have
retained this sway. Mr. Wilberforce compares their
deference for him with the treatment of Ahithophel:
"It was as if one meant to inquire of the oracle of the
256
MR. BURKE.
Lord."
99* Hear again the words of one who knew him
well, for he had studied him much, and had been
engaged in strenuous controversy against him. Speak-
ing of the effects produced by his strong opinions
respecting French affairs, Sir James Mackintosh as
justly as profoundly observed to Mr. Horner-" So
great is the effect of a single inconsistency with the
whole course of a long and wise political life, that the
greatest philosopher in practice whom the world ever
saw, passes with the superficial vulgar for a hot-
brained enthusiast." Sir James Mackintosh never
dreamt that all the temperate wisdom of the orations
upon American affairs-all the profound and practical
discretion which breathes over each page of the dis-
cussion upon the "Present Discontents"all the truly
enlarged principles of retrenchment, but tempered
with the soundest and most rational views of each
proposition's bearing upon the whole frame of our
complicated government, which have made the
celebrated speech upon "Economical Reform" the
manual of every moderate and constitutional reformer
-all the careful regard for facts, as well as abstract
principles, the nice weighing of opposite arguments,
the acute perception of practical consequences, which
presided over his whole opinions upon commercial
policy, especially on the questions connected with
Scarcity and the Corn Laws-all the mingled firmness,
humanity, soundness of practical judgment, and en-
largement of speculative views, which governed his
opinions upon the execution of the Criminal Law-
all the spirit of reform and toleration, tempered with
cautious circumspection of surrounding connexions
and provident foresight of possible consequences,
which marked and moved his wise and liberal advice
upon the affairs of the Irish hierarchy-that all would
have been forgotten in the perusal of a few violent
* Life of Wilberforce, vol. ii. p. 211.
MR. BURKE.
257
invectives or exaggerated sentiments called forth by
the horrors of the French Revolution; which, as his
unrivalled sagacity had foreseen them, when the rest
of his party, intoxicated with the victory over des-
potism, could not even look towards any consequences
at all; so he not very unnaturally regarded as the end
and consummation of that mighty event, mistaking
the turbulence by which the tempest and the flood
were to clear the stream, for the perennial defilement
of its waters.
Nor, though we have shown the repugnance of his
earlier to his later opinions, must it after all be set
down to the account of a heated imagination and
an unsound judgment, that even upon the French
Revolution he betrayed so much violence in his
language, and carried his opinions to a length which
all men now deem extravagant; or that he at one
time was so misled by the appearances of the hour
as to dread the effacing of France from the map of
Europe. We are now filling the safe and easy chair
of him who judges after the event, and appeals to
things as certainly known, which the veil of futurity
concealed from them that went before. Every one
must allow that the change which shook France
to her centre and fixed the gaze of mankind, was
an event of prodigious magnitude; and that he who
was called to form an opinion upon its import, and
to foretell its consequences, and to shape his counsels
upon the conduct to be pursued regarding it, was
placed in circumstances wholly new, and had to grope
his way without any light whatever from the ex-
perience of past times. Mr. Burke could only see
mischief in it, view it on whatever side or from what-
ever point he would; and he regarded the con-
sequences as pregnant with danger to all other
countries, as well as to the one which he saw laid
waste or about to be devastated by its progress.
That for a time he saw right, no one now can affect to
S
258
MR. BURKE.
deny. When all else in this country could foresee
nothing but good to France, from the great improve-
ment so suddenly wrought in her institutions, he
plainly told them that what they were pleased with
viewing as the lambent flame of a fire-work was the
glare of a volcanic explosion which would cover
France and Europe with the ruins of all their insti-
tutions, and fill the air with Cimmerian darkness,
through the confusion of which neither the useful
light of day nor the cheering prospect of heaven
could be descried. The suddenness of the improve-
ment which delighted all else, to his sagacious and
far-sighted eye, aided doubtless by the reflecting glass
of past experience and strengthened by the wisdom
of other days in which it had been steeped, presented
the very cause of distrust, and foreboding, and alarm.
It was because his habit of mind was cautious and
calculating, not easily led away by a fair outside,
not apt to run into extremes, given to sober reflection,
and fond of correcting, by practical views and by the
lessons of actual observation, the plausible suggestions
of theory,—that he beheld, with doubt and appre-
hension, Governments pulled down and set up in
a day-Constitutions, the slow work of centuries,
taken to pieces and re-constructed like an eight-day
clock. He is not without materials, were he to retort
the charge of easily running into extremes and know-
ing not where to stop, upon those who were instantly
fascinated with the work of 1789, and could not look
forward to the consequences of letting loose four-and-
twenty millions of people from the control under
which ages of submission to arbitrary rule and total
disuse of civil rights had kept them. They are as-
suredly without the means of demonstrating his want
of reflection and foresight. For nearly the whole
period during which he survived the commencement
of the Revolution-for five of those seven years—all
his predictions, save one momentary expression, had
}
MR. BURKE.
259
been more than fulfilled; anarchy and bloodshed had
borne sway in France; conquest and convulsion had
desolated Europe; and even when he closed his eyes
upon earthly prospects, he left this portentous meteor
"with fear of change perplexing monarchs." The
providence of mortals is not often able to penetrate
so far as this into futurity. Nor can he whose mind
was filled with such well-grounded alarms be justly
impeached of violence, and held up as unsoundly
given to extremes of opinion, if he betrayed an in-
vincible repugnance to sudden revolutions in the
system of policy by which nations are governed, and
an earnest desire to see the restoration of the old state
of things in France, as the harbinger of repose for the
rest of the world.
That Mr. Burke did, however, err, and err widely,
in the estimate which he formed of the merits of a
Restored Government, no one now can doubt. His
mistake was in comparing the old régime with the
anarchy of the Revolution; to which not only the
monarchy of France, but the despotism of Turkey
was preferable. He.never could get rid of the belief
that because the change had been effected with a
violence which produced, and inevitably produced,
the consequences foreseen by himself, and by him
alone, therefore the tree so planted must for ever
prove incapable of bearing good fruit. He forgot
that after the violence, in its nature temporary, should
subside, it might be both quite impossible to restore
the old monarchy, and very possible to form a new
and orderly and profitable government upon the ruins
of the Republic. Above all, he had seen so much
present mischief wrought to France during the con-
vulsive struggle which was not over before his death,
that he could not persuade himself of any possible
good arising to her from the mighty change she had
undergone. All this we now see clearly enough;
having survived Mr. Burke nearly fifty years, and
*
260
MR. BURKE.
witnessed events which the hardiest dealers in pro-
phecy assuredly could never have ventured to foretell.
But we who were so blind to the early consequences
of the Revolution, and who really did suffer ourselves.
to be carried away by extreme opinions, deaf to all
Mr. Burke's warnings; we surely have little right
to charge him with blind violence, unreflecting de-
votion to his fancy, and a disposition to run into ex-
tremes. At one time they who opposed his views
were by many, perhaps by the majority of men,
accused of this propensity. After the events in France
had begun to affright the people of this country, when
Mr. Burke's opinions were found to have been well
grounded, the friends of liberty would not give up
their fond belief that all must soon come right. At
that time we find Dean Milner writing to Mr. Wilber-
force from Cambridge, that "Mr. Fox's old friends
there all gave him up, and most of them said he
was mad."
In the imperfect estimate of this great man's
character and genius which we have now concluded,
let it not be thought that we have made any very
large exceptions to the praise unquestionably his due.
We have only abated claims preferred by his un-
heeding worshippers to more than mortal endowments
-worshippers who with the true fanatical spirit adore
their idol the more, as he proves the more unsafe
guide; and who chiefly valued his peculiarities when
he happened to err on the great question that filled
the latter years of his life. Enough will remain to
* Life of Wilberforce, ii. p. 3.—This was written early in the year
1793, when most men thought Mr. Burke both moderate and right.
"There is scarce one of his (Mr. Fox's) old friends here at Cambridge
who is not disposed to give him up, and most say he is mad. I think of
him much as I always did; I still doubt whether he has bad principles,
but I think it pretty plain he has none; and I suppose he is ready for
whatever turns up." See, too, Lord Wellesley's justly celebrated speech,
two years later, on French affairs. It is re-published in Mr. Martin's
edition of that great statesman's Despatches.
MR. BURKE.
261
command our admiration, after it shall be admitted
that he who possessed the finest fancy and the rarest
knowledge did not equally excel other men in re-
taining his sound and calm judgment at a season
of peculiar emergency; enough to excite our wonder
at the degree in which he was gifted with most parts
of genius, though our credulity be not staggered by
the assertion of a miraculous union of them all. We
have been contemplating a great marvel certainly, not
gazing on a supernatural sight; and we retire from it
with the belief, that if acuteness, learning, imagination,
so unmeasured, were never before combined, yet have
there been occasionally witnessed in eminent men
greater powers of close reasoning and fervid declama-
tion, oftentimes a more correct taste, and, on the
question to which his mind was last and most earnestly
applied, a safer judgment.

į
262
MR. FOX.
THE glory of Mr. Burke's career certainly was the
American war, during which he led the Opposition in
the House of Commons; until, having formed a suc-
cessor more renowned than himself, he was succeeded
rather than superseded in the command of that victo-
rious band of the champions of freedom. This disciple,
as he was proud to acknowledge himself, was Charles
James Fox, one of the greatest statesmen, had not his
religion been party, and if not the greatest orator,
certainly the most accomplished debater, that ever
appeared upon the theatre of public affairs in any age
of the world. To the profuse, the various learning of
his master; to his exuberant fancy, to his profound.
and mature philosophy, he had no pretensions. His
knowledge was confined to the ordinary accomplish-
ments of an English education-intimate acquaintance
with the classics; the exquisite taste which that fami-.
liarity bestows; and a sufficient knowledge of history.
These stores he afterwards increased rather than dimi-
nished; for he continued to delight in classical read-
ing; and added a minute and profound knowledge of
modern languages, with a deep and accurate study of
our own history and the history of other modern states;
insomuch that it may be questioned if any politician
in any age ever knew so thoroughly the various inter-
ests and the exact position of all the countries with
which his own had dealings to conduct or relations to
maintain. Beyond these solid foundations of oratory
and ample stores of political information his range did
not extend. Of natural science, of metaphysical philo-
2
MR. FOX.
263
sophy, of political economy, he had not even the
rudiments; and he was apt to treat those matters with
the neglect, if not the contempt, which ignorance can
rather account for than excuse. He had come far too
early into public life to be well grounded in a states-
man's philosophy; like his great rival, and indeed like
most aristocratic politicians, who were described as
“rocked and dandled into legislators" by one,* him-
self exempt from this defect of education; and his'
becoming a warm partizan at the same early age, also
laid the foundation of another defect, the making party
principle the only rule of conduct, viewing every truth
of political science through this distorting and disco-
louring medium-nay, confounding the means with
the end, apparently to regard the interests of the Whig
connexion as paramount to all other objects.†
But if such were the defects of his education, the
mighty powers of his nature often overcame them,
always threw them into the shade. A preternatural
quickness of apprehension, which enabled him to see
at a glance what cost other minds the labour of an
investigation, made all attainments of an ordinary kind
so easy, that it perhaps disinclined him to those which
not even his acuteness and strength of mind could
master without the pain of study. But he was sure as
well as quick; and where the heat of passion, or the
prejudice of party, or certain little peculiarities of a
personal kind-certain mental idiosyncrasies in which
he indulged, and which produced capricious fancies or
crotchets left his faculties unclouded and unstunted,
no man's judgment was more sound or could more
safely be trusted. Then his feelings were warm and
kindly; his temper was sweet though vehement; like
that of all the Fox family, his nature was generous,
* Mr. Burke.
† The late publication of his Letters, while it shows both his abilities,
his accomplishments, and his amiable nature in a strong light, fully bears
out the remark upon his Political Religion.
264
MR. FOX.
open, manly; above everything like dissimulation or
duplicity; governed by the impulses of a great and
benevolent soul. This virtue, so much beyond all
intellectual graces, yet bestowed its accustomed influ-
ence upon the faculties of his understanding, and
gave
them a reach of enlargement to which meaner natures
are ever strangers. It was not more certain that such
a mind as his should be friendly to religious toleration,
eager for the assertion of civil liberty, the uncompro-
mising enemy of craft and cruelty in all their forms,
from the corruption of the Treasury and the severity
of the penal code, up to the oppression of our Ameri-
can colonies and the African slave-traffic,-than that
it should be enlarged and strengthened, made powerful
in its grasp and consistent in its purpose, by the same
admirable and amiable qualities which bent it towards
the right pursuit.
The great intellectual gifts of Mr. Fox, the robust
structure of his faculties, naturally governed his ora-
tory, made him singularly affect argument, and led
him to a close grappling with every subject; despising
all flights of imagination, and shunning everything
collateral or discursive. This turn of mind, too, made
him always careless of ornament, often negligent of
accurate diction. There never was a greater mistake,
as has already been remarked,* than the fancying a
close resemblance between his eloquence and that of
Demosthenes; although an excellent judge (Sir James
Mackintosh) fell into it, when he pronounced him "the
most Demosthenean speaker since Demosthenes."
That he resembled his immortal predecessor in de-
spising all useless beauties, and all declamation for
declamation's sake, is true enough; but it applies to
every good speaker as well as to those two signal
ornaments of ancient and modern rhetoric. That he
resembled him in keeping more close to the subject
in hand, than many good and even great speakers.
*Lord Chatham.
MR. FOX.
265
have often done, may also be affirmed; yet this is far
too vague and remote a likeness to justify the propo-
sition in question; and it is only a difference in degree,
and not a specific distinction between him and others.
That his eloquence was fervid, rapid, copious, carrying
along with it the minds of the audience, not suffering
them to dwell upon the speaker or the speech, but
engrossing their whole attention, and keeping it fixed
on the question, is equally certain; and is the only
real resemblance which the comparison affords. But
then the points of difference are as numerous as they
are important, and they strike indeed upon the most
cursory glance. The one was full of repetitions, re-
curring again and again to the same topic, nay, to the
same view of it, till he had made his impression
complete; the other never came back upon a ground
which he had utterly wasted and withered up by the
tide of fire he had rolled over it.The one dwelt at
length, and with many words, on his topics; the other
performed the whole at a blow, sometimes with a word,
always with the smallest number of words possible.
The one frequently was digressive, even narrative and
copious in illustration; in the other no deviation from
his course was ever to be perceived; no disporting on
the borders of his way, more than any lingering upon
it; but carried rapidly forward, and without swerving
to the right or to the left, like the engines flying along
a railway, and like them driving everything out of
sight that obstructed his resistless course. In diction
as well as in thought the contrast was alike remark-
able. It is singular that any one should have thought
of likening Mr. Fox to the orator of whom the great
Roman critic, comparing him with Cicero, has said so
well and so judiciously-In illo plus curæ, in hoc plus
naturæ. The Greek was, of all speakers, the one who
´most carefully prepared each sentence; showing him-
self as sedulous in the collocation of his words as in
the selection. His composition, accordingly, is a
1
266
MR. FOX.
model of the most artificial workmanship; yet of an
art so happy in its results that itself is wholly con-
cealed. The Englishman was negligent, careless, slo-
venly beyond most speakers; even his most brilliant
passages were the inspirations of the moment; and he
frequently spoke for half an hour at a time, sometimes
delivered whole speeches, without being fluent for five
minutes, or, excepting in a few sound and sensible re-
marks which were interspersed, rewarding the hearer
with a single redeeming passage. Indeed, to the last,
he never possessed, unless when much animated, any
great fluency; and probably despised it, as he well
might, if he only regarded its effects in making men
neglect more essential qualities,-when the curse of
being fluent speakers, and nothing else, has fallen on
them and on their audience. Nevertheless, that
fluency-the being able easily to express his thoughts
in correct words-is as essential to a speaker as draw-
ing to a painter. This we cannot doubt, any more
than we can refuse our assent to the proposition, that
though merely giving pleasure is no part of an orator's
duty, yet he has no vocation to give his audience
pain-which any one must feel who listens to a
speaker delivering himself with difficulty and hesitation.
The practice of composition seems never to have
been familiar to Mr. Fox. His speeches show this; per-
haps his writings still more; because there, the anima-
tion of the momentary excitement which often carried
him on in speaking had little or no play. One of his
worst speeches, if not his worst, is that upon Francis,
Duke of Bedford; and it is known to be almost the
only one he had ever much prepared, and the only
one he ever corrected for the press. His 'History,' too,
shows the same want of expertness in composition.
The style is pure and correct, but cold and lifeless: it
is even somewhat abrupt and discontinuous; so little
does it flow naturally or with ease. Yet, when writing
letters without any effort, no one expressed himself
MR. FOX.
267
more happily, or with more graceful facility: and in
conversation, of which he only partook when the so-
ciety was small and intimate, he was a model of every
excellence, whether solid or gay, plain or refined—full
of information, witty and playful betimes, never ill-
natured for a moment;-above all, never afraid of an
argument, as so many eminent men are wont to be;
but, on the contrary, courting discussion on all sub-
jects, perhaps without much regard to their relative
importance; as if reasoning were his natural element,
in which his great faculties moved the most freely.
An admirable judge, but himself addicted to reasoning
upon general principles, the late Mr. Dumont, used to
express his surprise at the love of minute discussion,
of argumentation upon trifling subjects, which this
great man often showed. But the cause was clear;
argument he must have; and as his studies, except
upon historical and classical points, had been extremely
confined, when matters of a political or critical cast
were not on the carpet, he took whatever ordinary
matter came uppermost, and made it the subject of
discussion. To this circumstance may be added his
playful good-nature, which partook, as Mr. Gibbon
observed, of the simplicity of a child; making him
little fastidious and easily interested and amused.
Having premised all these qualifications, it must
now be added, that Mr. Fox's eloquence was of a kind
which, to comprehend, you must have heard himself.
When he got fairly into his subject, was heartily
warmed with it, he poured forth words and periods of
fire that smote you, and deprived you of all power to
reflect and rescue yourself, while he went on to seize
the faculties of the listener, and carry them captive
along with him whithersoever he might please to rush.
It is ridiculous to doubt that he was a far closer
reasoner, a much more argumentative speaker, than
Demosthenes; as much more so as Demosthenes
would perhaps have been than Fox had he lived in
268
MR. FOX.
our times, and had to address an English House of
Commons. For it is the kindred mistake of those
who fancy that the two were like each other, to
imagine that the Grecian's orations are long chains of
ratiocination, like Sir William Grant's arguments, or
Euclid's demonstrations. They are close to the point;
they are full of impressive allusions; they abound in
expositions of the adversary's inconsistency; they are
loaded with bitter invective; they never lose sight of
the subject; and they never quit hold of the hearer,
by the striking appeals they make to his strongest
feelings and his favourite recollections: to the heart,
or to the quick and immediate sense of inconsistency,
they are always addressed, and find their way thither
by the shortest and surest road; but to the head, to
the calm and sober judgment, as pieces of argumenta-
tion, they assuredly are not addressed. *But Mr. Fox,
as he went along, and exposed absurdity, and made
inconsistent arguments clash, and laid bare shuffling
or hypocrisy, and showered down upon meanness, or
upon cruelty, or upon oppression, a pitiless storm of
the most fierce invective, was ever forging also the
long, and compacted, and massive chain of pure
demonstration?
Εν δ' εθετ᾽ ἄκμοθετῳ μεγαν ἄκμονα, κόπτε δε δεσμους
᾿Αῤῥηκτους, άλυτους, ὄφρ εμπεδον ἄνθι μενοιεν.
(Od. .)
There was no weapon of argument which this great
orator more happily or more frequently wielded than
wit,—the wit which exposes to ridicule the absurdity
or inconsistency of an adverse argument. It has been
said of him, we believe by Sir Robert Grant,* that he
was the wittiest speaker of his times; and they were
the times of Sheridan and of Windham.
This was
Mr. Canning's opinion, and it was also Mr. Pitt's.
There was nothing more awful in Mr. Pitt's sarcasm,
"
* See Quarterly Review' for October, 1810.
MR. FOX.
269
nothing so vexatious in Mr. Canning's light and galling
raillery, as the battering and piercing wit with which
Mr. Fox so often interrupted, but always supported,
the heavy artillery of his argumentative declamation.
"Nonne fuit satius, tristes Amaryllidis iras,
Atque superba pati fastidia? Nonne, Menalcan ?"
In debate he had that ready discernment of an
adversary's weakness, and the advantage to be taken
of it, which is, in the war of words, what the coup
d'œil of a practised general is in the field. He was
ever best in reply: his opening speeches were almost
always unsuccessful: the one in 1805, upon the
Catholic Question, was a great exception; and the
previous meditation upon it, after having heard Lord
Grenville's able opening of the same question in the
House of Lords, gave him much anxiety: he felt
exceedingly nervous, to use the common expression.
It was a noble performance, instinct with sound
principle; full of broad and striking views of policy;
abounding in magnanimous appeals to justice; and
bold assertions of right, in one passage touching and
pathetic, the description of a Catholic soldier's
feelings on reviewing some field where he had shared
the dangers of the fight, yet repined to think that he
could never taste the glories of command. His
greatest speeches were those in 1791, on the Russian
armament, on Parliamentary Reform in 1797, and on
the renewal of the war in 1803. The last he himself
preferred to all the others; and it had the disadvantage,
if it be not, however, in another sense, the advantage,
of coming after the finest speech, excepting that on
the slave-trade, ever delivered by his great antagonist.
But there are passages in the earlier speeches,
particularly the fierce attack upon Lord Auckland in
*
* To a great speaker, it is always an advantage to follow a powerful
adversary. The audience is prepared for close attention, nay, even feels a
craving for some answer.
270
MR. FOX.
*
the Russian speech, and the impressive and vehement
summary of our failings and our misgovernment in
the Reform speech, which it would be hard to match
even in the speech of 1803. But for the inferiority of
the subject, the speech upon the Westminster Scrutiny
in 1784 might perhaps be justly placed at the head of
them all. The surpassing interest of the question to
the speaker himself; the thorough knowledge of all
its details possessed by his audience, which made it
sufficient to allude to matters and not to state them;*
the undeniably strong grounds of attack which he had
against his adversary; all conspire to make this great
oration as animated and energetic throughout, as it is
perfectly felicitous both in the choice of topics and
the handling of them. A fortunate cry of "Order,”
which he early raised in the very exordium, by
affirming that "far from expecting any indulgence, he
could scarcely hope for bare justice from the House,"
gave him occasion for dwelling on this topic, and
pressing it home with additional illustration; till
the redoubled blows and repeated bursts of extempor-
aneous declamation almost overpowered the audience,
while they wholly bore down all further interruption.
A similar effect is said to have been produced by Mr.
(now Lord) Plunket, in the Irish House of Commons,
upon some one calling out to take down his words.
Stop," said this consummate orator, “and you shall
have something more to take down;" and then
followed, in a torrent, the most vehement and indig-
nant description of the wrongs which his country had
sustained, and had still to endure.
(6
In most of the external qualities of oratory, Mr. Fox
was certainly deficient, being of an unwieldy person,
without any grace of action, with a voice of little
compass, and which, when pressed in the vehemence
* This is one main cause of the conciseness and rapidity of the Greek
orations; they were all on a few simple topics thoroughly known to the
whole audience. Much of their difficulty comes also from this source.
MR. FOX.
271
of his speech, became shrill almost to a cry or squeak;
yet all this was absolutely forgotten in the moment
when the torrent began to pour. Some of the under-
tones of his voice were peculiarly sweet; and there
was even in the shrill and piercing sounds which he
uttered when at the more exalted pitch, a power that
thrilled the heart of the hearer. His pronunciation of
our language was singularly beautiful, and his use of
it pure and chaste to severity. As he rejected, from
the correctness of his taste, all vicious ornaments, and
was more sparing, indeed, in the use of figures at all;
so, in his choice of words, he justly shunned foreign
idiom, or words borrowed, whether from the ancient
or modern languages; and affected the pure Saxon
tongue, the resources of which are unknown to so
many who use it, both in writing and in speaking.
If from the orator we turn to the man, we shall find
much more to blame and to lament, whether his pri-
vate character be regarded or his public; but for the
defects of the former, there are excuses to be offered,
almost sufficient to remove the censure, and leave the
feeling of regret entire and alone. The foolish indul-
gence of a father, from whom he inherited his talents
certainly, but little principle, put him, while yet a
boy, in the possession of pecuniary resources which
cannot safely be trusted to more advanced stages of
youth; and the dissipated habits of the times drew
him, before the age of manhood, into the whirlpool of
fashionable excess. In the comparatively correct age
in which our lot is cast, it would be almost as unjust
to apply our more severe standard to him and his as-
sociates, as it would have been for the Ludlows and
Hutchinsons of the seventeenth century, in writing a
history of the Roman empire, to denounce the immor-
alities of Julius Cæsar. Nor let it be forgotten, that
the noble heart and sweet disposition of this great man
passed unscathed through an ordeal which, in almost
every other instance, is found to deaden all the kindly
272
MR. FOX.
and generous affections. A life of gambling, and in-
trigue, and faction, left the nature of Charles Fox as
little tainted with selfishness or falsehood, and his
heart as little hardened, as if he had lived and died in
a farm-house; or rather as if he had not outlived his
childish years.
The historian of a character so attractive, the softer
features of which present a rare contrast to the ac-
customed harshness of political men, is tempted to
extend the same indulgence, and ascribe the errors
of the statesman to the accidents of his position, or
the less lofty tone of principle which distinguished
the earlier period of his public life, while his principles
of conduct were forming and ripening. The great
party, too, which he so long led with matchless per-
sonal influence, would gladly catch at such a means of
defence; but as the very same measure of justice or
of mercy must be meted out to the public conduct of
Mr. Pitt, his great rival, there would be little gain
to party pride, by that sacrifice of principle which
could alone lead to such unworthy concessions. It is
of most dangerous example, of most corrupting ten-
dency, ever to let the faults of statesmen pass un-
censured; or to treat the errors or the crimes which
involve the interests of millions with the same in-
dulgence towards human frailty which we may, in the
exercise of charity, show towards the more venial
transgressions that only hurt an individual; most
commonly only the wrong-doer himself. Of Mr. Fox
it must be said, that whilst his political principles were
formed upon the true model of the Whig School, and
led him, when combined with his position as opposing
the government's warlike and oppressive policy, to
defend the liberty of America, and support the cause
of peace both in that and the French war, yet he
constantly modified these principles, according to his
own situation and circumstances as a party chief;
making the ambition of the man and the interest
MR. FOX.
273
The
of his followers too uniformly the governing rule
of his conduct. The charge is a grave one; but
unhappily the facts fully bear it out. Because Lord
Shelburne had gained the King's ear, by an intrigue
possibly, but then Lord Shelburne never had pretended
to be a follower of Mr. Fox, the latter formed a
coalition with Lord North, whose person and whose
policy he had spent his whole life in decrying; whose
misgovernment of America had been the cause of
nearly destroying the empire; and whose whole
principles were the very reverse of his own.
ground taken by this coalition on which to subvert
the government of Lord Shelburne and Mr. Pitt, was,
their having made a peace favourable to England
beyond what could have been expected, after the
state to which Lord North's maladministration had
reduced her; their having, among other things, given
the new American States too large concessions; and
their having made inadequate provision for the
security and indemnity of the American loyalists.
On such grounds they, Mr. Fox and Lord North,
succeeded in overturning the ministry, and took their
places; which they held for a few months, when the
King dismissed them, amidst the all but universal joy
of the country; men of all ranks, and parties, and
sects, joining in one feeling of disgust at the factious
propensities in which the unnatural alliance was be-
gotten; and apprehending from it, as Mr. Wilberforce
remarked, "a progeny stamped with the features of
both parents, the violence of the one party, and the
corruption of the other." This grand error raised the
Tories and Mr. Pitt to the power which, during their
long and undisturbed reign, they enjoyed, notwith-
standing all the unparalleled difficulties of the times,
and in spite of so many failures in all the military
enterprises of themselves and of their foreign allies.
The original quarrel with Mr. Pitt was an error
proceeding from the same evil source. His early but
T
274
MR. FOX.
mature talents had been amply displayed; he had
already gained an influence in Parliament and the
country, partly from hereditary renown, partly from
personal qualities, second only to that of Mr. Fox;
his private character was wholly untarnished; his
principles were the same with those of the Whigs;
he had nobly fought with them the battle which
destroyed the North administration. Yet no first-rate
place could be found to offer him; although Mr. Fox
had once and again declared a boundless admiration
of his genius, and an unlimited confidence in his
character. Lord John Cavendish, of an illustrious
Whig house by birth, but himself one of the most
obscure of mankind, must needs be made Chancellor
of the Exchequer; Mr. Pitt was only the son of Lord
Chatham, and a man of vast talents, as well as spotless
reputation, and he was thus not permitted, without
a sacrifice of personal honour, to be the ally of Mr.
Fox, in serving their common country. How much
misery and mischief might the world have been spared
had the Rockingham Ministry preferred Mr. Pitt to
Lord John Cavendish, and made the union between
him and the Whigs perpetual! We shall presently
see that an error almost as great in itself, though in its
consequences far from being so disastrous, was after-
wards committed by Mr. Pitt himself.
The interval between the American and the French
wars was passed by Mr. Fox in opposing whatever
was proposed by his antagonist; with the single
exception of the measures for restoring the Stadt-
holder's authority, in 1787. His hearty admiration of
the French Revolution is well known; and it was
unqualified by any of the profound and sagacious
forebodings of Mr. Burke, excited by the distrust
of vast and sudden changes among a people wholly
unprepared; nor was it ever afterwards materially
diminished by the undoubted fact of a minority
having obtained the sway, and being compelled to
MR. FOX.
275
make up,
with the resources of terror, for the essential
want of support among the people at large. The
separation of his aristocratic supporters, and the
unfortunate war to which it led, left him to struggle
for peace and the Constitution, with a small but steady
band of noble-minded associates; and their warfare
for the rights of the people during the dismal period
of alarm which elapsed from 1793 to 1801, when the
healing influence of the Addington Government was
applied to our national wounds, cannot be too highly
extolled. The Whigs thus regained the confidence of
the nation, which their Coalition ten years before
seemed to have forfeited for ever. The new junction
with the Grenville party in 1804 was liable to none of
the same objections; it was founded on common
principles; and it both honoured its authors and
served the State. But when, upon Mr. Pitt's death,
Mr. Fox again became possessed of power, we find
him widely different from the leader of a hopeless
though high-principled Opposition to the Court of
George III.
He consented to take office without
making any stipulation with the King on behalf of
the Catholics; a grave neglect, which afterwards sub-
verted the Whig Government; and if it be said that
this sacrifice was made to obtain the greater object of
peace with France, then it must be added that he was
slack indeed in his pursuit of that greater object.
He allowed the odious income-tax to be nearly
doubled, after being driven, one by one, from the
taxes proposed; and proposed on the very worst
principles ever dreamt of by financiers. He defended
the unprincipled arrangement for making the Lord
Chief Justice of England a politician, by placing him
in the Cabinet. He joined as heartily as any one
in the fervour of loyal enthusiasm for the Hanoverian
possessions of the Crown. On one great subject his
sense of right, no less than his warm and humane
feelings, kept him invariably true to the great prin-
276
MR. FOX.
ciples of justice as well as policy. His attachment
was unceasing, and his services invaluable, to the
Abolition of the Slave Trade, which his last accession
to office certainly accelerated by several years. For
this, and for his support of Lord Erskine in his amend-
ment of the Law of Libel, the lasting gratitude of his
country and of mankind is due; and to the memory
of so great and so amiable a man it is a tribute which
will ever be cheerfully paid. But to appreciate the
gratitude which England owes him, we must look, not
to his ministerial life; we must recur to his truly
glorious career as leader of the patriot band, which,
during the almost hopeless struggle from 1793 to
1801, upheld the cause of afflicted freedom. If to the
genius and the courage of Erskine we may justly be
said to owe the escape from proscription and from
arbitrary power, Fox stands next to him as the pre-
server of that sacred fire of liberty which they saved
to blaze forth in happier times. Nor could even
Erskine have triumphed as he did, had not the party
which Fox so nobly led persevered in maintaining the
holy warfare, and in rallying round them whatever
was left of the old English spirit to resist oppression.
277
MR. PITT.
THE circumstances of his celebrated antagonist's situa-
tion were as different from his own as could well be
imagined. It was not merely disparity of years by
which they were distinguished; all the hereditary
prejudices under which the one appeared before the
country were as unfavourable, as the prepossessions
derived from his father's character and renown were
auspicious to the entrance of the other upon the
theatre of public affairs. The grief, indeed, was yet
recent which the people had felt for the loss of Lord
Chatham's genius, so proudly towering above all
party views and personal ties, so entirely devoted to
the cause of his principles and his patriotism-when
his son appeared to take his station, and contest the
first place in the popular affections with the son of
him whose policy and parts had been sunk into
obscurity by the superior lustre of his rival's capacity
and virtues. But the young statesman's own talents
and conduct made good the claim which his birth
preferred. At an age when others are but entering
upon the study of state affairs, and the practice of
debating, he came forth a mature politican, a finished
orator, even, as if by inspiration, an accomplished
debater. His knowledge, too, was not confined to
the study of the classics, though with these he was
familiarly conversant; the more severe pursuits of
Cambridge had imparted to him some acquaintance
with the stricter sciences which have had their home
upon the banks of the Granta since Newton made
them his abode; and with political philosophy he was
278
MR. PITT.
more familiar than most Englishmen of his own age.
Having prepared himself, too, for being called to the
bar, and both attended on courts of justice and fre-
quented the Western Circuit, he had more knowledge
and habits of business than can fall to the share of our
young patricians;-the material out of which British
statesmen are for the most part fashioned by an atten-
dance upon debates in Parliament, and a study of
newspapers in the clubs. Happy had he not too soon
removed into office from the prosecution of studies
which his rapid political success broke off never to be
resumed! For the leading defect of his life, which is
seen through all his measures, and which not even his
great capacity and habitual industry could supply, was
an ignorance of the principles upon which large plans
are to be framed, and nations to be at once guided
and improved. As soon as he entered upon official
duties, his time was at the mercy of every one who
had a claim to prefer, a grievance to complain of, or
a nostrum to propound; nor could the hours of which
the day consists suffice at once to give all these their
audience; to transact the routine business of his
station; to direct or to counteract the intrigues of
party; and, at the same time, to learn all that his
sudden transplanting from the study to the Cabinet,
and from the Bar to the Senate, had of necessity left
unlearnt.*
From hence, and from the temptation always
afforded in times of difficulty to avoid as much as
possible all unnecessary embarrassments and all risks
not forced upon him, arose the peculiarity which
marks his story, and marks it in a way not less hurtful
to his own renown, through after ages, than unfor-
tunate for his country. With more power than any
minister ever possessed-with an Opposition which
* When the conversation once rolled upon the quality most required in
a prime minister, and one said eloquence, another knowledge, a third toil,
Mr. Pitt said, "No-patience."
•
MR. PITT.
279
rather was a help than a hindrance to him during the
greater part of his rule-with a friendly Court, an
obsequious Parliament, a confiding people-he held
the supreme place in the public councils for many
years, and, excepting the Union with Ireland, which
was forced upon him by a rebellion, and which was
both corruptly and imperfectly carried, so as to pro-
duce the smallest possible benefit to either coun-
try, he has not left a single measure behind him for
which the community, whose destinies he so long
swayed, has any reason to respect his memory; while,
by want of firmness, he was the cause of an impolicy
and extravagance, the effects of which are yet felt,
and will oppress us beyond the life of the youngest
now alive.
It is assuredly not to Mr. Pitt's sinking-fund that
we allude, as showing his defective political resources;
that scheme, now exploded, after being gradually
given up by all adepts in the science of finance, was
for many years their favourite; nor can he in this
particular be so justly charged, as he well may in all the
rest of his measures, with never having gone before
his age, and not always being upon a level with the
wisdom of his own times. Yet may it be confessed
that, his financial administration being the main feature
in his official history, all his other plans are allowed to
have been failures at the time; and this, the only
exception, began to be questioned before his decease,
and has long been abandoned.* Neither should we
visit harshly the entire change of his opinions upon
the great question of Reform; albeit the question with
which his claims to public favour commenced, and on
his support of which his early popularity and power
were almost wholly grounded. But the force must be
admitted, of the defence urged for his conversion, that
the alarms raised in the most reflecting minds by the
*It was Dr. Price's Plan; and he complained that of the three schemes
proposed by him, Mr. Pitt had selected the worst.

280
MR. PITT.
French Revolution, and its cognate excitement among
ourselves, justified a reconsideration of the opinions.
originally entertained upon our Parliamentary system,
and might induce an honest alteration of them. But
that any such considerations could ever justify him in
lending himself to the persecution of his former asso-
ciates in that cause, may be peremptorily denied; and
in aid of this denial, it may be asked, what would
have been said of Mr. Wilberforce, and the other
abolitionists, had they, on account of some dreadful
desolation of our colonies by negro insurrection, sud-
denly joined in proscribing and persecuting all who,
after they themselves had left the cause, should have
continued to devote their efforts to its promotion?
But the main charge against Mr. Pitt is his having
suffered himself to be led away by the alarms of the
Court, and the zeal of his new allies, the Burke and
Windham party, from the ardent love of peace which
he professed and undoubtedly felt, to the eager support
of the war against France, which might well have
been avoided had he but stood firm. The deplorable
consequences of this change in his conduct are too
well known: they are still too sensibly felt. But are
the motives of it wholly free from suspicion? Cur
bono? was the question put by the Roman lawyer
when the person really guilty of any act was sought
for. "Whom does it profit?"-A similar question
may often be put, without any want of charity, when
we are in quest of the motives which prompted a
doubtful or suspicious course of action, proved by
experience to have been disastrous to the world.
That, as the chief, of a party, Mr. Pitt was incal-
culably a gainer by the event which, for a while,
well-nigh annihilated the Opposition to his Minis-
try, and left that Opposition crippled as long as the
war lasted, no man can doubt. That, independent
of its breaking up the Whig party, the war gave
their antagonists a constant lever wherewithal to
MR. PITT.
281
move at will both parliament and people, as long
as the sinews of war could be obtained from the
resources of the country, is at least as unquestion-
able a fact.
But that he very soon opened his eyes to the disas-
trous effects of the war is certain. The violence and
misrepresentations of party long concealed the truth,
and left men to doubt whether or not the minister was
desirous of a peace which should restore prosperity to
his own country and impose bounds to the wide-
spreading conquests of the enemy. It was even very
confidently affirmed that he was unforgiving towards
Mr. Wilberforce, who brought forward a motion which
it was alleged-falsely though confidently alleged-
forced him reluctantly into a negotiation with France.
The most ample contradiction of these factious slan-
ders has now been given to the world by Lord
Malmesbury's publication of his grandfather's papers
-a publication which I am very far from approving
in all its parts, but which bears the most honourable
testimony to Mr. Pitt's conduct in many essential
particulars. No one can rise from a perusal of the
ambassador's Diary and Correspondence' without
feeling at once how amiable and honourable Mr. Pitt
was in all the relations of private life; and also how
sincerely desirous he was of making peace with the
Executive Directory, almost at any price. The false-
hoods caused by factious virulence, and believed by
the blindness of dupes, never received a more com-
plete exposure.
6
He may indeed well have felt conscious that to
preside over the war was not his natural vocation.
His conduct in it betrayed no extent of views, no
commanding notions of policy. Anything more com-
monplace can hardly be imagined. To form one coali-
tion after another in Germany, and subsidize the allies
with millions of free gift, or aid them with profuse
loans, until all the powers in our pay were defeated
282
MR. PITT.
in succession, and most of them either destroyed or
converted into tools of the enemy-such were all the
resources of his diplomatic skill. To shun any effec-
tual conflict with the enemy, while he wasted our mili-
tary force in petty expeditions, to occupy forts, and
capture colonies, which, if France prevailed in Europe,
were useless acquisitions, only increasing the amount
of the slave-trade, and carrying abroad our own capi-
tal, and which, if France were beaten in Europe,
would all of themselves fall into our hands-such was
the whole scheme of his warlike policy. The opera-
tions of our navy, which were undertaken as a matter
of course, and would have been performed, and must
have led to our brilliant maritime successes, whoever
was the minister, nay, whether or not there was any
minister at all, may be added to the account; but can
have little or no influence upon the estimate to be
formed of his belligerent administration. When, after a
most culpable refusal to treat with Napoleon in 1800-
the work of his associates, and chiefly of the Canning
School—a refusal grounded on the puerile hope of the
newly gotten Consular power being soon overthrown
-he found it impossible any longer to continue the
ruinous expenditure of the war, he retired, placing in
his office a friend, with whom he quarrelled for refusing
to retire when he was bidden. But the ostensible
ground of his resignation was the King's bigoted re-
fusal to emancipate the Irish catholics. Nothing could
have more redounded to his glory than this. But he
resumed office in 1804, refused to make any stipula-
tion for those same catholics, and always opposed
those who urged their claims on the utterly uncon-
stitutional ground of the king's personal prejudices; a
ground quite as solid for yielding to that monarch in
1801, as for not urging him in 1804. It was quite as
*
* Lord Malmesbury's Papers show, in a very remarkable manner, how
extremely reluctant Mr. Pitt was to break with Mr. Addington (see infra,
Canning).
MR. PITT.
283
discreditable to him that, on the same occasion, after
pressing Mr. Fox upon George III. as an accession of
strength necessary for well carrying on the war, he
agreed to take office without any such accession,
rather than thwart the personal antipathy, the cap-
riciousness, the despicable antipathy of that narrow-
minded and vindictive prince against the most illus-
trious of his subjects.*
These are heavy charges; but I fear the worst re-
mains to be urged against the conduct of this eminent
person. No man felt more strongly on the subject of
the African Slave Trade than he; and all who heard
him are agreed that his speeches against it were the
finest of his noble orations. Yet did he continue
for eighteen years of his life, suffering every one
of his colleagues, nay, of his mere underlings in
office, to vote against the question of Abolition, if
they thought fit; men, the least inconsiderable of
whom durst no more have thwarted him upon any
of the more trifling measures of his government, than
they durst have thrust their heads into the fire.
Even the foreign slave-trade, and the traffic which
his war policy had trebled by the capture of the
enemy's colonies, he suffered to grow and prosper
under the fostering influence of British capital; and
after letting years and years glide away, and hun-
dreds of thousands be torn from their own country,
and carried to perpetual misery in ours, while one
* It is a singular instance of the great effects of trivial circumstances
that the following anecdote has been preserved:-During the co-operation
of all parties against Mr. Addington's Government in the spring of 1804,
Mr. Pitt and Mr. C. Long were one night passing the door of Brooks's
Club-house on their way from the House of Commons, when Mr. Pitt,
who had not been there since the Coalition of 1784, said he had a great
mind to go in and sup. His wary friend said, "I think you had better
not," and turned aside the well conceived intention. When we reflect on
the high favour Mr. Pitt then was in with the Whigs, and consider the
nature of Mr. Fox as well as his own, we can have little doubt of the
cordial friendship which such a night would have cemented, and that the
union of the two parties would have been complete.
284
MR. PITT.
stroke of his pen could, at any moment, have stopped
it for ever, he only could be brought to issue, a few
months before his death, the Order in Council,
which at length destroyed the pestilence. This is by
far the gravest charge to which Mr. Pitt's memory
is exposed.
If from the statesman we turn to the orator, the
contrast is indeed marvellous. He is to be placed,
without any doubt, in the highest class. With a spar-
ing use of ornament, hardly indulging more in figures,
or even in figurative expression, than the most severe
examples of ancient chasteness allowed-with little
variety of style, hardly any of the graces of manner-
he no sooner rose than he carried away every hearer,
and kept the attention fixed and unflagging till it
pleased him to let it go; and then
"So charming left his voice, that we, awhile,
Still thought him speaking, still stood fix'd to hear."
This magical effect was produced by his unbroken
flow, which never for a moment left the hearer in pain
or doubt, and yet was not the mean fluency of mere
relaxation, requiring no effort of the speaker, but im-
posing on the listener a heavy task; by his lucid
arrangement, which made all parts of the most com-
plicated subject quit their entanglement, and fall each
into its place; by the clearness of his statements,
which presented at once a picture to the mind; by
the forcible appeals to strict reason and strong feeling,
which formed the great staple of the discourse; by
the majesty of the diction; by the depth and fulness
of the most sonorous voice, and the unbending dignity
of the manner, which ever reminded us that we were
in the presence of more than an advocate or debater—
that there stood before us a ruler of the people. Such
were invariably the effects of this singular eloquence;
and they were as certainly produced on ordinary oc-
casions, as in those grander displays when he rose to
MR. PITT.
285
the height of some great argument; or indulged in
vehement invective against some individual, and varie-
gated his speech with that sarcasm of which he was
so great a master, and indeed so little sparing an
employer; although even here all was uniform and
consistent; nor did anything, in any mood of mind,
ever drop from him that was unsuited to the ma-
jestic frame of the whole, or could disturb the
serenity of the full and copious flood which rolled
along.
But if such was the unfailing impression at first pro-
duced, and which, for a season absorbing the faculties,
precluded all criticism; upon reflection, faults and
imperfections certainly were disclosed. There pre-
vailed a monotony in the matter, as well as in the
manner; and even the delightful voice which so long
prevented this from being felt, was itself almost with-
out any variety of tone. All things were said nearly
in the same way; as if by some curious machine,
periods were rounded and flung off; as if, in like
moulds, though of different sizes, ideas were shaped
and brought out. His composition was correct enough,
but not peculiarly felicitous; his English was suffi-
ciently pure without being at all racy, or various, or
brilliant; his style was, by Mr. Windham, called "a
state paper style," in allusion to its combined dignity
and poverty; and the same nice observer, referring
to the eminently skilful way in which he balanced
his phrases, sailed near the wind, and seemed to
disclose much whilst he kept the greater part of
his meaning to himself, declared that "he verily
believed Mr. Pitt could speak a King's speech off-
hand." His declamation was admirable, mingling
with and clothing the argument, as to be good
for any thing declamation always must; and no
more separable from the reasoning than the heat is
from the metal in a stream of lava. Yet, with all this
excellence, the last effect of the highest eloquence
286
MR. PITT.
was for the most part wanting; we seldom forgot the
speaker, or lost the artist in the work.
He was
earnest enough; he seemed quite sincere; he was
moved himself as he would move us; we even went
along with him, and forgot ourselves; but we hardly
forgot him; and while thrilled with the glow which
his burning words diffused, or transfixed with wonder
at so marvellous a display of skill, we yet felt that
it was admiration of a consummate artist which filled
us, and that after all we were present at an exhibition;
gazing upon a wonderful performer indeed, but still a
performer.
We have ventured to name the greatest displays of
Mr. Fox's oratory; and it is fit we should attempt as
much by his illustrious rival's. The speech on the
war, in 1803, which, by an accident that befell the
gallery, was never reported, is generally supposed to
have excelled all his other performances in vehement
and spirit-stirring declamation; and this may be the
more easily believed when we know that Mr. Fox, in
his reply, said, "The orators of antiquity would have
admired, probably would have envied it." The last
half hour is described as having been one unbroken
torrent of the most majestic declamation. Of those
speeches which are in any degree preserved (though
it must be remarked that the characteristics now given
of his eloquence show how much of it was sure to
escape even the fullest transcript that could be given
of the words), the finest in all probability is that upon
the peace of 1783 and the Coalition, when he so hap-
pily closed his magnificent peroration by that noble
yet simple figure, "And if this inauspicious union be
not already consummated, in the name of my country
I forbid the banns." But all authorities agree in plac-
ing his speech on the Slave Trade, in 1791, before any
other effort of his genius; because it combined, with
the most impassioned declamation, the deepest pathos,
the most lively imagination, and the closest reasoning.
MR. PITT.
287
I have it from Lord Wellesley, who sat beside him on
this memorable occasion, that its effects on Mr. Fox
were manifest during the whole period of the delivery,
while Mr. Sheridan expressed his feelings in the most
hearty and even passionate terms; and I have it from
Mr. Windham that he walked home lost in amazement
at the compass, till then unknown to him, of human
eloquence. It is from the former source of informa-
tion that I derive the singular fact of the orator's
health at the time being such as to require his retire-
ment immediately before he rose, in order to take a
medicine required for allaying the violent irritation of
his stomach.
Let it, however, be added, that he was from the
first a finished debater, although certainly practice and
the habit of command had given him more perfect
quickness in perceiving an advantage and availing
himself of an opening, as it were, in the adverse battle,
with the skill and the rapidity wherewith our Wel-
lington, in an instant, perceiving the columns of Mar-
mont somewhat too widely separated, executed the
movement that gave him his greatest victory at Sala-
manca. So did Mr. Pitt overthrow his antagonist on
the Regency, and in some other conflicts. It may be
further observed, that never was any kind of eloquence,
or any cast of talents more perfectly suited to the
sition of leading the Government forces, keeping up
the spirits of his followers under disaster, encouraging
them to stand a galling adverse fire, above all, pre-
senting them and the friendly though neutral portion
of the audience, with reasons or with plausible pretexts
for giving the Government that support which the one
class desired to give, and the other had no disposition
to withhold. The effects which his calm and dignified,
yet earnest, manner produced on these classes, and
the impression which it left on their minds, have
been admirably portrayed by one of the most able
among them, and with his well-chosen words this
po-
T
288
MR. PITT.
imperfect sketch of so great a subject may be closed:
"Every part of his speaking, in sentiment, in
language, and in delivery, evidently bore the stamp
of his character. All communicated a definite and
varied apprehension of the qualities of strenuousness
without bustle, unlaboured intrepidity, and severe
greatness.
11
Nothing that we have yet said of this extraordinary
person has touched upon his private character, unless
so far as the graver faults of the politician must ever
border upon the vices or the frailties of the man. But
it must be admitted, what even his enemies were
willing to confess, that in his failings, or in his
delinquencies, there was nothing mean, paltry, or low.
His failings were ascribed to love of power and of
glory; and pride was the harshest feature that dis-
figured him to the public eye. We doubt if this can.
all be said with perfect justice; still more that, if it
could, any satisfactory defence would thus be made.
The ambition cannot be pronounced very lofty which
showed that place, mere high station, was so dear to it
as to be sought without regard to its just concomitant,
power, and clung by, after being stript of this, the
only attribute that can recommend it to noble minds.
Yet he well described his office as "the pride of his
heart and the pleasure of his life," when boasting that
he had sacrificed it to his engagements with Ireland
at the Union; and then, within a very short period,
he proved that the pleasure and the pride were far too
dearly loved to let him think of that tie when he again
grasped them, wholly crippled, and deprived of all
power to carry a single measure of importance. Nor
can any thirst for power itself, any ambition, be it of
the most exalted kind, ever justify the measures
* Quarterly Review, August, 1819.-Supposed by some to be by
Mr. J. H. Frere, but avowedly by an intimate personal friend. I have
ascertained it to be the work of my late lamented friend Sir Robert
Grant.
MR. PITT.
289
which he contrived for putting to death those former
coadjutors of his own, whose leading object was
reform; even if they had overstepped the bounds of
law, in the pursuit of their common purpose.
His
conduct on the slave-trade falls within the same
view; and leaves a dark shade resting upon his
reputation as a man, a shade which, God be praised,
few would take, to be the first of orators and greatest
of ministers.
In private life he was singularly amiable; his
spirits were naturally buoyant and even playful; his
affections warm; his veracity scrupulously exact; his
integrity wholly without a stain; and, although he
was, from his situation, cut off from most of the
relations of domestic life, as a son and a brother he
was perfect, and no man was more fondly beloved or
more sincerely mourned by his friends.*
It was a circumstance broadly distinguishing the
parliamentary position of the two great leaders whom
we have been surveying, that while the one had to
fight the whole battle of his government for many
years, the first and most arduous of his life, if not
single handed, yet with but a single coadjutor of any
power, the other was surrounded by "troops of
friends," any one of whom might well have borne the
foremost part. Against such men as Burke, Windham,
Sheridan, North, Erskine, Lee, Barré,-Mr. Pitt could
only set Mr. Dundas; and it is certainly the most
astonishing part of his history, that against such a
* The story told of his refusing to marry Mademoiselle Necker (after-
wards Madame de Staël), when the match was proposed by the father,
rests upon a true foundation; but the form of the answer,
"That he was
already married to his country," has, unless it was a jest, which is very
possible, no more foundation than the dramatic exit described by Mr.
Rose in the House of Commons, when he stated "Oh my country" to
have been his last words-though it is certain that, for many hours, he
only uttered incoherent sentences. Such things were too theatrical for so
great a man, and of too vulgar a caste for so consummate a performer,
had he stooped to play a part in such circumstances.
U
290
MR. PITT.
phalanx, backed by the majority of the Commons, he
could struggle all through the first session of his
administration. Indeed, had it not been for the
support which he received both from the Court and
the Lords, and from the People, who were justly
offended with the unnatural coalition of his adver-
saries, that session would not only have been mar-
vellous but impossible.
291
MR. SHERIDAN.
OF Mr. Fox's adherents who have just been named,
the most remarkable certainly was Mr. Sheridan, and
with all his faults, and all his failings, and all his defects,,
the first in genius and greatest in power. When the
illustrious name of Erskine appears in the bright
catalogue, it is unnecessary to add that we here speak
of parliamentary genius and political power.
These sketches as naturally begin with a notice of
the means by which the great rhetorical combatants
were brought up, and trained and armed for the con-
flict, as Homer's battles do with the buckling on of
armour and other note of preparation, when he brings
his warriors forward upon the scene. Of Mr. Sheridan,
any more than of Mr. Burke, it cannot be lamented,
as of almost all other English statesmen, that he came
prematurely into public life, without time given for
preparation by study. Yet this time in his case had
been far otherwise spent than in Mr. Burke's. Though
his education had not been neglected, for he was bred
at Harrow, and with Dr. Parr, yet he was an idle and
a listless boy, learning as little as possible, and suffer-
ing as much wretchedness; an avowal which to the
end of his life he never ceased to make, and to make
in a very affecting manner. Accordingly, he brought
away from school a very slender provision of classical
learning; and his taste, never correct or chaste, was
wholly formed by acquaintance with the English poets
and dramatists, and perhaps a few of our more ordinary
prose-writers; for in no other language could he read
with anything approaching to ease.
Of those poets,
292
MR. SHERIDAN.
he most professed to admire and to have studied
Dryden; he plainly had most studied Pope, whom he
always vilified and always imitated. But of dramatists.
his passion evidently was Congreve, and after him,
Vanbrugh, Farquhar, even Wycherley: all of whom
served for the model, partly even for the magazine of
his own dramatic writings, as Pope did of his verses.
'The Duenna,' however, is formed after the fashion of
Gay; of whom it falls farther short than the 'School
for Scandal' does of Congreve. That his plays were
great productions for any age, astonishing for a youth
of twenty-three and twenty-five, is unquestionable.
Johnson has accounted for the phenomenon of
Congreve, at a still earlier period of life, showing
much knowledge of the world, by observing that, on
a close examination, his dialogues and characters.
might have been gathered from books "without much
actual commerce with mankind." The same can
hardly be said of the 'School for Scandal;' but the
author wrote it when he was five years older than
Congreve had been at the date of the Old Bachelor.'
6
Thus with an ample share of literary and dramatic
reputation, but not certainly of the kind most auspi-
cious for a statesman; with a most slender provision
of knowledge at all likely to be useful in political
affairs; with a position by birth and profession little
suited to command the respect of the most aristocratic
country in Europe-the son of an actor, the manager
himself of a theatre-he came into that parliament
which was enlightened by the vast and various know-
ledge, as well as fortified and adorned by the more
choice literary fame of a Burke, and which owned the
sway of consummate orators like Fox and Pitt.
first effort was unambitious, and it was unsuccessful.
Aiming at but a low flight, he failed in that humble
attempt. An experienced judge, Woodfall, told him
"It would never do;" and counselled him to seek
again the more congenial atmosphere of Drury-lane.
His
MR. SHERIDAN.
293
But he was resolved that it should do; he had taken
his part; and, as he felt the matter was in him, he
vowed not to desist till "he had brought it out."
What he wanted in acquired learning, and in natural
quickness, he made up by indefatigable industry:
within given limits, towards a present object, no labour
could daunt him; no man could work for a season with
more steady and unwearied application. By constant
practice in small matters, or before private committees,
by diligent attendance upon all debates, by habitual
intercourse with all dealers in political wares, from the
chiefs of parties and their more refined coteries to the
providers of daily discussion for the public and the
chroniclers of parliamentary speeches, he trained him-
self to a facility of speaking, absolutely essential to all
but first-rate genius, and all but necessary even to
that; and he acquired what acquaintance with the
science of politics he ever possessed, or his speeches
ever betrayed. By these steps he rose to the rank
of a first-rate speaker, and as great a debater as a want
of readiness and need for preparation would permit.
He had some qualities which led him to this rank,
and which only required the habit of speech to bring
them out into successful exhibition; a warm imagina-
tion, though more prone to repeat with variations the
combinations of others, or to combine anew their
creations, than to bring forth original productions; a
fierce, dauntless spirit of attack; a familiarity, acquired
from his dramatic studies, with the feelings of the
heart and the ways to touch its chords; a facility of
epigram and point, the yet more direct gift of the
same theatrical apprenticeship; an excellent manner,
not unconnected with that experience; and a depth
of voice which perfectly suited the tone of his decla-
mation, be it invective, or be it descriptive, or be it
impassioned. His wit, derived from the same source,
or sharpened by the same previous habits, was emi-
nently brilliant, and almost always successful; it was
294
MR. SHERIDAN.
like all his speaking, exceedingly prepared, but it
was skilfully introduced and happily applied; and
it was well mingled also with humour, occasionally
descending to farce. How little it was the inspiration
of the moment all men were aware who knew his
habits; but a singular proof of this was presented by
Mr. Moore when he came to write his life; for we there
find given to the world, with a frankness which must
almost have made their author shake in his grave, the
secret note-books of this famous wit; and are thus
enabled to trace the jokes, in embryo, with which he
had so often made the walls of St. Stephen's shake, in
a merriment excited by the happy appearance of
sudden unpremeditated effusion.*
The adroitness with which he turned to account
sudden occasions of popular excitement, and often at
the expense of the Whig party, generally too indif-
ferent to such advantages, and too insensible to the
damage they thus sustained in public estimation, is well
known. On the mutiny in the fleet, he was beyond
all question right; on the French invasion, and on the
attacks upon Napoleon, he was almost as certainly
wrong; but these appeals to the people and to the
national feelings of the House, tended to make the
orator well received, if they added little to the states-
man's reputation; and of the latter character he was
not ambitious. His most celebrated speech was
* Take an instance from this author, giving extracts from the common-
place book of the wit:-"He employs his fancy in his narrative, and
keeps his recollections for his wit." Again the same idea is expanded
into-"When he makes his jokes you applaud the accuracy of his memory,
and 'tis only when he states his facts that you admire the flights of his
imagination." But the thought was too good to be thus wasted on the
desert air of a common-place book. So forth it came at the expense of
Kelly, who, having been a composer of music, became a wine merchant.
"You will," said the ready wit, "import your music and compose your
wine." Nor was this service exacted from the old idea thought sufficient
so in the House of Commons an easy and apparently off-hand paren-
thesis was thus filled with it at Mr. Dundas's cost and charge “(who
generally resorts to his memory for his jokes, and to his imagination for
his facts)."
MR. SHERIDAN.
295
certainly the one upon the "Begum Charge" in the
proceedings against Hastings; and nothing can exceed
the accounts left us of its unprecedented success.
Not only the practice then first began, which has
gradually increased till it greets every good speech,
of cheering, on the speaker resuming his seat, but the
minister besought the House to adjourn the decision
of the question, as being incapacitated from forming a
just judgment under the influence of such powerful
eloquence; while all men on all sides vied with each
other in extolling so wonderful a performance. Never-
theless, the opinion has now become greatly prevalent,
that a portion of this success was owing to the speech
having so greatly surpassed all the speaker's former
efforts; to the extreme interest of the topics which
the subject naturally presented; and to the artist like
elaboration and beautiful delivery of certain fine pas-
sages, rather than to the merits of the whole. Certain
it is, that the repetition of great part of it, presented
in the short-hand notes of the speech on the same
charge in Westminster Hall, disappoints every reader
who has heard of the success which attended the
earlier effort. In truth, Mr. Sheridan's taste was very
far from being chaste, or even moderately correct; he
delighted in gaudy figures; he was attracted by glare;
and cared not whether the brilliancy came from tinsel
or gold, from broken glass or pure diamond; he
overlaid his thoughts with epigrammatic diction;
he "played to the galleries," and indulged them, of
course, with an endless succession of clap-traps. His
worst passages by far were those which he evidently
preferred himself;-full of imagery often far fetched,
oftener gorgeous, and loaded with point that drew the
attention of the hearer away from the thoughts to the
words; and his best by far were those where he
declaimed, with his deep clear voice, though somewhat
thick utterance, with a fierce defiance of some adversary,
or an unappeasable vengeance against some oppressive
296
MR. SHERIDAN.
act; or reasoned rapidly, in the like tone, upon some
plain matter of fact, or exposed as plainly to homely
ridicule some puerile sophism; and in all this, his
admirable manner was aided by an eye singularly
piercing,* and a countenance which, though coarse,
and even in some features gross, was yet animated and
expressive, and could easily assume the figure of both
rage, and menace, and scorn. The few sentences
with which he thrilled the House on the liberty of the
press in 1810 were worth, perhaps, more than all his
elaborated epigrams and forced flowers on the Begum
Charge, or all his denunciations of Napoleon; "whose
morning orisons and evening prayers are for the con-
quest of England, whether he bends to the God of Battles
or worships the Goddess of Reason;"† certainly far
better than such pictures of his power, as his having
"thrones for his watch-towers, kings for his sentinels,
and for the palisades of his castle sceptres stuck with
crowns." "Give them," said he in 1810, and in a far
higher strain of eloquence, "a corrupt House of Lords;
give them a venal House of Commons; give them a
tyrannical Prince; give them a truckling Court,-and
let me but have an unfettered press; I will defy them
to encroach a hair's-breadth upon the liberties of Eng-
land."§ Of all his speeches there can be little doubt
that the most powerful, as the most chaste, was his
reply, in 1805, upon the motion which he had made
for repealing the Defence Act. Mr. Pitt had unwarily
thrown out a sneer at his support of Mr. Addington,
as though it was insidious. Such a stone, cast by a
person whose house on that aspect was then deemed
to be one pane of glass,|| could not fail to call down a
*It had the singularity of never winking.
† 1802.
1807.
§ 1810.
The Malmesbury correspondence has relieved Mr. Pitt's memory from
many of the charges respecting his behaviour towards Mr. Addington.
Some portion of these no doubt remain, as the biographical work by the
family of the latter plainly enough shows; and Mr. Twiss's Life of Lord
MR. SHERIDAN.
297
shower of missiles; and they who witnessed the looks
and gestures of the aggressor under the pitiless pelting
of the tempest which he had provoked, represent it as
certain that there were moments when he intended to
fasten a personal quarrel upon the vehement and
implacable declaimer.*
When the just tribute of extraordinary admiration
has been bestowed upon this great orator, the whole
of his praise has been exhausted. As a statesman, he
is without a place in any class, or of any rank; it
would be incorrect and flattering to call him a bad, or
a hurtful, or a short-sighted, or a middling statesman;
he was no statesman at all. As a party man, his
character stood lower than it deserved, chiefly from
certain personal dislikes towards him; for, with the
perhaps doubtful exception of his courting popularity
at his party's expense on the two occasions already
mentioned, and of the much more serious charge
against him of betraying his party in the Carlton
House negotiation of 1812, followed by his extraor-
dinary denial of the facts when he last appeared in
Parliament, there can nothing be laid to his charge as
inconsistent with the rules of the strictest party duty
and honour; although he made as large sacrifices as
any unprofessional man ever did to the cause of a
long and hopeless Opposition, and was often treated
with unmerited coldness and disrespect by his coad-
jutors. But as a man, his character stood confessedly
low: his intemperate habits,† and his pecuniary em-
barrassments, did not merely tend to imprudent con-
Eldon affords conclusive evidence of an understood intrigue to turn out
Mr. Addington by communication with the King through the Chancellor.
* Mr. Sheridan wrote his speech during the debate at a coffee-house
near the Hall; and it is reported most accurately in the Parliamentary
debates, apparently from his own notes.
† Mr. Sheridan's intemperance was well known. But that Mr. Pitt's
life was also shortened by his indulgence in wine is certain. This bad
habit was not altogether owing to the general practice of society in those
times; it was in part caused by injudicious medical advice in his youth,
connected with a bad constitution.
298
MR. SHERIDAN.
duct, by which himself alone might be the sufferer;
they involved his family in the same fate; and they
also undermined those principles of honesty which are
so seldom found to survive fallen fortunes, and hardly
ever can continue the ornament and the stay of ruined
circumstances, when the tastes and the propensities
engendered in prosperous times survive through the
ungenial season of adversity. Over the frailties and
even the faults of genius, it is permitted to draw a veil,
after marking them as much as the interests of virtue
require, in order to warn against the evil example, and
preserve the sacred flame bright and pure from such
unworthy and unseemly contamination
299
MR. WINDHAM.
AMONG the members of his party alluded to as agree-
ing ill with Mr. Sheridan, and treating him with
little deference, Mr. Windham was the most distin-
guished. The advantages of a refined classical educa-
tion, a lively wit of the most pungent and yet abstruse
description, a turn for subtle reasoning, drawing nice
distinctions, and pursuing remote analogies, great and
early knowledge of the world, familiarity with men of
letters and artists, as well as politicians, with Burke,
Johnson, and Reynolds, as well as with Fox and
North, much acquaintance with constitutional history
and principle, a chivalrous spirit, a noble figure, a
singularly expressive countenance-all fitted this re-
markable person to shine in debate; but were all,
when put together, unequal to the task of raising him
to the first rank; and were besides, mingled with de-
fects which exceedingly impaired the impression of
his oratory, while they diminished his usefulness
and injured his reputation as a statesman. For he
was too often the dupe of his own ingenuity; which
made him doubt and balance, and gave an oscit-
ancy fatal to vigour in council, as well as most pre-
judicial to the effects of eloquence, by breaking the
force of his blows as they fell. His nature, too,
perhaps owing to this hesitating disposition, was to be
a follower, if not a worshipper, rather than an original
thinker or actor; as if he felt some relief under the
doubts which harassed him from so many quarters, in
thus taking shelter under a master's wing, and devolv-
ing upon a less scrupulous balancer of conflicting rea-
300
MR. WINDHAM.
sons, the task of trimming the scales, and forming his
opinions for him. Accordingly, first Johnson in pri-
vate, and afterwards Burke on political matters, were
the deities whom he adored; and he adhered manfully
to the strong opinions of the latter, though oftentimes
painfully compelled to suppress his sentiments, all the
time that he took counsel with Mr. Pitt and Lord
Grenville, who would only consent to conduct the
French war upon principles far lower and more com-
promising than those of the great anti-Jacobin and
anti-Gallican leader. But when untrammelled by
official connexion, and having his lips no longer sealed
by decorum or prudence or other observance pre-
scribed by station, it was a brave sight to see this gal-
lant personage descend into the field of debate, pant-
ing for the fray, eager to confront any man or any
number of men that might prove his match, scorn-
ing all the little suggestions of a paltry discretion,
heedless of every risk of retort to which he might ex-
pose himself, as regardless of popular applause as of
Court favour, nay, from his natural love of danger and
disdain of everything like fear, rushing into the most
offensive expression of the most unpopular opinions,
with as much alacrity as he evinced in braving the
power and daring the enmity of the Crown.
was the style of his speaking at all like other men's.
It was in the easy tone of familiar conversation; but
it was full of nice observation and profound remark;
it was instinct with classical allusion; it was even
over-informed with philosophic and with learned re-
flection; it sparkled with the finest wit-a wit which
was as far superior to Sheridan's, as his to the gam-
bols of the Clown, or the movements of Pantaloon ;
and his wit, how exuberant soever, still seemed to
help on the argument, as well as to illustrate the
meaning of the speaker. He was, however, in the
main, a serious, a persuasive speaker, whose words
plainly flowed from deep and vehement, and long con-
Nor
MR. WINDHAM.
301
sidered, and well weighed, feelings of the heart.
Erat summa gravitas; erat cum gravitate junctus
facetiarum et urbanitatis oratorius non scurrilis lepos.
Latine loquendi accurata et sine molestiâ diligens ele-
gantia. (Cic. Brut.)
The rock on which he so often made shipwreck in
debate, and still oftener in council or action, was that
love of paradox, on which the tide of his exuberant
ingenuity naturally carried him, as it does many others
who, finding so much more may be said in behalf of
an untenable position than at first sight appeared pos-
sible to themselves, or than ordinary minds can at any
time apprehend, begin to bear with the erroneous
dogma, and end by adopting it. *
((
They first endure, then pity, then embrace."
So he was, from the indomitable bravery of his dis-
position, and his loathing of everything mean, or that
savoured of truckling to mere power, not unfrequently
led to prefer a course of conduct, or a line of argu-
ment, because of their running counter to public
opinion or the general feeling; instead of confining
his disregard to popularity within just bounds, and
holding on his course in pursuit of truth and right,
in spite of its temporary disfavour with the people.
With these errors there was generally much truth
mingled, or at least much that was manifestly wrong
tinged the tenets or the conduct he was opposing;
yet he was not the less an unsafe councillor, and in
debate a dangerous ally. His conduct on the Vol-
unteer question, the interference of the City with
Military Rewards, the Amusements of the People,
and Cruelty to Animals, afforded instances of this
mixed description, where he was led into error by
* They who have been engaged in professional business with the late
Mr. John Clerk (afterwards Lord Eldin), may recollect how often that
great lawyer was carried away to entertain paradoxical opinions exactly
by the process here described.
302
MR. WINDHAM.
resisting almost equal error on the opposite hand;
yet do these questions also afford proof of the latter
part of the foregoing proposition; for what sound or
rational view could justify his hostility to all voluntary
defence, his reprobation of all expression of public
gratitude for the services of our soldiers and sailors,
his unqualified defence of bull-baiting, his resistance
of all checks upon cruelty towards the brute creation?
Upon other subjects of still graver import his para-
doxes stood prominent and mischievous; unredeemed
by ingenuity, unpalliated by opposite exaggeration,
and even unmitigated by any admixture of truth. He
defended the Slave Trade, which he had at first op-
posed, only because the French Royalists were injured
by the revolt which their own follies had occasioned
in St. Domingo; he resisted all mitigation of our
Criminal Law, only because it formed a part of our
antiquated jurisprudence, like trial by battle, nay by
ordeal of fire and water; and he opposed every pro-
ject for Educating the People. It required all men's
tenderness towards undoubted sincerity and clear dis-
interestedness to think charitably of such pernicious
heresies in such a man. It demanded all this charity
and all this faith in the spotless honour of his charac-
ter, to believe that such opinions could really be the
convictions of a mind like his. It was the greatest
tribute which could be paid to his sterling merit, his
fine parts, his rare accomplishments, that, in spite
of such wild aberrations, he was still admired and
beloved.
To convey any notion of his oratory by giving
passages of his speeches is manifestly impossible. Of
the mixed tenderness and figure in which he some-
times indulged, his defence of the military policy
pursued by him while in office against the attempts
made to change it the year after, might be men-
tioned; the fine speech, especially, in which, on
taking leave of the subject, after comparing the two
MR. WINDHAM.
303
plans of recruiting our army to a dead stick thrust
into the ground and a living sapling planted to take
root in the soil, he spoke of carving his name upon
the tree as lovers do when they would perpetuate the
remembrance of their passions or their misfortunes.
Of his happy allusions to the writings of kindred
spirits an example, but not at all above their average
merit, is afforded in his speech upon the peace of
Amiens, when he answered the remarks upon the
uselessness of the Royal title, then given up, of King
of France, by citing the bill of costs brought in by
Dean Swift against Marlborough, and the comparative
account of the charges of a Roman triumph, where
the crown of laurel is set down at twopence.-But
sometimes he would convulse the House by a happy,
startling, and most unexpected allusion; as when on
the Walcheren question, speaking of a coup-de-main
on Antwerp, which had been its professed object, he
suddenly said, “A coup-de-main in the Scheldt! You
might as well talk of a coup-de-main in the Court of
Chancery." Sir William Grant having just entered
and taken his seat, probably suggested this excellent
jest; and assuredly no man enjoyed it more.
habitual gravity was overpowered in an instant, and
he was seen absolutely to roll about on the bench
which he had just occupied.-So a word or two artis-
tically introduced would often serve him to cover the
adverse argument with ridicule. When arguing that
they who would protect animals from cruelty have
more on their hands than they are aware of, and that
they cannot stop at preventing cruelty, but must also
prohibit killing, he was met by the old answer, that
we kill them to prevent them overrunning the earth,
and then he said in passing, and, as it were, paren-
thetically—“An indifferent reason, by the way, for
destroying fish."-His two most happy and picturesque,
though somewhat caricatured, descriptions of Mr.
Pitt's diction, have been already mentioned: that it
His
304
MR. WINDHAM.
was a state-paper style, and that he believed he could
speak a King's speech off-hand. His gallantry in
facing all attacks was shown daily; and how little he
cared for allusions to the offensive expressions trea-
sured up against him, and all the more easily remem-
bered because of the epigrams in which he had
embalmed them, might be seen from the way he
himself would refer to them, as if not wishing they
should be forgotten. When some phrase of his, long
after it was first used, seemed to invite attack, and a
great cheer followed, as if he had unwittingly fallen
into the scrape, he stopped and added, “Why, I said
it on purpose!" or, as he pronounced it, "a purpose;"
for no man more delighted in the old pronunciation,
as well as the pure Saxon idiom of our language,
which yet he could enrich and dignify with the
importations of classical phraseology.
From what has been said of Mr. Windham's manner
of speaking, as well as of his variously embellished
mind, it will readily be supposed that in society he
was destined to shine almost without a rival. His
manners were the most polished, and noble, and
courteous, without the least approach to pride, or
affectation, or condescension; his spirits were, in
advanced life, so gay, that he was always younger
than the youngest of his company; his relish of con-
versation was such, that, after lingering to the latest
moment, he joined whatever party a sultry evening
(or morning, as it might chance to prove) tempted to
haunt the streets before retiring to rest. How often
have we accompanied him to the door of his own
mansion, and then been attended by him to our own,
while the streets rang with the peals of his hearty mer-
riment, or echoed the accents of his refined and univer-
sal wit! But his conversation, or grave, or gay, or
argumentative, or discursive, whether sifting a difficult
subject, or painting an interesting character, or pur-
suing a merely playful fancy, or lively to very drollery,
MR. WINDHAM.
305
or pensive and pathetic, or losing itself in the clouds
of metaphysics, or vexed with paradox, or plain and
homely, and all but commonplace, was that which, to
be understood, must have been listened to; and,
while over the whole was flung a veil of unrent
classical elegance, through no crevice, had there been
any, would ever an unkind or ill-conditioned senti-
ment have found entrance!
"Scilicet omne sacrum mors importuna profanat,
Omnibus obscuras injicit ille manus-
Ossa quieta precor, tutâ requiescite in urnâ;
Et sit humus cineri non onerosa tuo !"*
* Relentless death each purer form profanes,
Round all that's fair his dismal arms he throws-
Light lie the earth that shrouds thy loved remains,
And softly slumbering may thy taste repose!
X
306
MR. DUNDAS.
If we turn from those whose common principles and
party connexion ranged them against Mr. Pitt, to the
only effectual supporter whom he could rely upon as
a colleague on the Treasury Bench, we shall certainly
find ourselves contemplating a personage of very in-
ferior pretensions, although one whose powers were
of the most useful description. Mr. Dundas, after-
wards Lord Melville, had no claim whatever to those
higher places among the orators of his age, which
were naturally filled by the great men whom we have
been describing; nor indeed could he be deemed
inter oratorum numerum at all. He was a plain, busi-
ness-like speaker; a man of every-day talents in the
House; a clear, easy, fluent, and, from much practice,
as well as strong and natural sense, a skilful debater;
successful in profiting by an adversary's mistakes;
distinct in opening a plan and defending a Ministerial
proposition; capable of producing even a great effect
upon his not unwilling audience by his broad and
coarse appeals to popular prejudices, and his confident
statements of facts-those statements which, Sir Fran-
cis Burdett once happily observed, men fall into
through an inveterate habit of official assertion." In
his various offices no one was more useful. He was
an admirable man of business; and those professional
habits which he had brought from the bar (where he
practised long enough for a youth of his fortunate
family to reach the highest official place) were not
more serviceable to him in making his speeches per-
spicuous, and his reasoning logical, than they were in
66
MR. DUNDAS.
307
disciplining his mind to the drudgery of the desk, and
helping him to systematize, as well as to direct, the ma-
chinery of his department. After quitting the profes-
sion of the law, to which, indeed, he had for some of the
later years of Lord North's Administration only nomi-
nally belonged, and leaving also the office of Lord Advo-
cate, which he retained for several years after, he suc-
cessively filled the place of Minister for India, for the
Home and War Departments, and for Naval Affairs.
but it was in the first of these capacities, while at the
head of the India Board, and while Chairman of the
Committee of the Commons upon India, that his great
capacity for affairs shone chiefly forth; and that he
gave solid and long-continued proof of an indefatigable
industry, which neither the distractions of debate in
Parliament, nor the convivial habits of the man and
of the times, ever could interrupt or relax. His cele-
brated Reports upon all the complicated questions of
our Asiatic policy, although they may not stand a
comparison with some of Mr. Burke's in the profundity
and enlargement of general views, any more than their
style can be compared with his, are nevertheless per-
formances of the greatest merit, and repositories of
information upon that vast subject, unrivalled for clear-
ness and extent. They, together with Lord Wellesley's
Despatches, form the sources from which the bulk of
all the knowledge possessed upon Indian matters is to
be derived by the statesmen of the present day.
If in his official departments, and in the contests of
Parliament, Mr. Dundas rendered valuable service,
and possessed great weight, it was in Scotland, his
native country, whose language he spoke, and whose
whole affairs he directed, that his power and his au-
thority chiefly prevailed. Before the reform in our
representation and our municipal institutions, the un-
disturbed possession of patronage by a leading member
of the Government was very sure to carry along with
it a paramount influence, both over the representatives
308
MR. DUNDAS.
of that ancient kingdom and over their constituents.
Why the submission to men in high place, and en-
dowed with the power of conferring many favours,
should have been so much more absolute in the nor-
thern than in the southern parts of our island, it would
be needless to inquire. Whether it arose from the
old feudal habits of the nation, or from its poverty,
joined with a laudable ambition to rise in the world
above the pristine station, or from the wary and pro-
vident character of the people; certain it is that they
displayed a devotion for their political superiors, and
a belief in their infallibility, which would have done
no discredit to the clansmen of those chieftains who
whilom both granted out the lands of the sept, retained
the stipulated services of the vassal, and enjoyed the
rights of jurisdiction and of punishment, whereby obe-
dience was secured, and zealous attachment stimulated
in its alliance with wholesome terror.
That Mr. Dundas enjoyed this kind of ministerial
sovereignty, and received this homage in a more
ample measure than any of his predecessors, was, no
doubt, owing partly to the unhesitating and unqualified
determination which regulated his conduct, of devot-
ing his whole patronage to the support of his party,
and to the extent of that patronage, from his being so
long minister for India, as well as having the whole
Scottish preferment at his absolute disposal; but it
was also in part owing to the engaging qualities of
the man. A steady and determined friend, who only
stood the faster by those that wanted him the more;
nay, who even in their errors or their faults would not
give up his adherents: an agreeable companion, from
the joyous hilarity of his manners; void of all affec-
tation, all pride, all pretension; a kind and affectionate
man in the relations of private life; and, although not
always sufficiently regardful of strict decorum in cer-
tain particulars, yet never putting on the Pharisee's
garb, or affecting a more "gracious state" than he had
MR. DUNDAS.
309
attained; friendly, self-denying to those inferiors in
his department whose comforts so much depended
upon him; in his demeanour hearty and good-hu-
moured to all—it is difficult to figure any one more
calculated to win over those whom his mere power
and station had failed to attach; or better fitted to
retain the friends whom accident or influence might
originally have attached to his person.
That he should for so many years have disposed of
the votes in Parliament of nearly the whole Scottish
commoners, and of the whole Peers, was, therefore,
little to be wondered at; that his popularity and in-
fluence in the country at large should have been
boundless during all this period, is as easily to be
understood. There was then no doubt ever raised of
the ministry's stability, or of Mr. Dundas's ample share
in the dispensation of its favours. The political sky
was clear and settled to the very verge of the horizon.
There was nothing to disturb the hearts of anxious
mortals. The wary and pensive Scot felt sure of his
election, if he but kept by the true faith; and his path
lay straight before him-the path of righteous devo-
tion leading unto a blessed preferment.
But our
Northern countrymen were fated to be visited by some
troubles. The heavens became overcast; their lumi-
nary was for a while concealed from devout eyes; in
vain they sought him, but he was not. Uncouth
names began to be named. More than two parties
were talked of. Instead of the old, convenient, and
intelligible alternative of "Pitt or Fox"-"place or
poverty,”—which left no doubt in any rational mind
which of the two to choose, there was seen—strange
sight-hateful and perplexing omen!-a Ministry
without Pitt, nay, without Dundas, and an Opposition
leaning towards its support. Those who are old
enough to remember that dark interval may recollect
how the public mind in Scotland was subdued with
awe, and how men awaited in trembling silence the
310
MR. DUNDAS.
uncertain event, as all living things quail during the
solemn pause that precedes an earthquake.
It was in truth a crisis to try men's souls. For a
while all was uncertainty and consternation; all were
seen fluttering about like birds in an eclipse or a
thunder-storm; no man could tell whom he might
trust; nay, worse still, no man could tell of whom he
might ask anything. It was hard to say, not who
were in office, but who were likely to remain in office.
All true Scots were in dismay and distraction. It
might truly be said they knew not which way to look,
or whither to turn. Perhaps it might be yet more
truly said that they knew not when to turn. But such
a crisis was too sharp to last; it passed away; and
then was to be seen a proof of Mr. Dundas's power
amongst his countrymen, which transcended all ex-
pectation, and almost surpassed belief, if indeed it is
not rather to be viewed as an evidence of the acute
foresight the political second-sight of the Scottish
nation. The trusty band in both Houses actually
were found adhering to him against the existing Go-
vernment; nay, though in open opposition, he held
the proxies of many Scottish Peers! Well might his
colleague exclaim to the hapless Addington in such
unheard-of troubles, "Doctor, the Thanes fly from
us!"
When the very Scotch Peers wavered, and
when the Grampian hills might next be expected to
move about, it was time to think that the end of all
things was at hand: and the return of Pitt and secu-
rity, and patronage and Dundas, speedily ensued to
bless old Scotland, and reward her providence or her
fidelity-her attachment at once to her patron and to
herself.
The subject of Lord Melville cannot be left com-
plete without some mention of the event which finally
deprived him of place and of power, though it hardly
ever lowered him in the respect and affections of his
countrymen. We allude, of course, to the Resolutions
MR. DUNDAS.
311
carried by Mr. Whitbread on the 8th of April, 1805,
with the Speaker's casting voice, which led to the
immediate resignation, and subsequent impeachment,
of this distinguished person. Mr. Pitt defended him
strenuously, and only was compelled to abandon his
friend and colleague by the vote of the Commons,
which gave him a "bitter pang," that as he pro-
nounced the word made the hall resound, and seems
yet to fill the ear. But after his death, while the
Government was in his rival's hands, and all the offices
of the State were filled with the enemies of the
accused, Lord Melville was brought to trial before his
Peers, and by a large majority acquitted, to the
almost universal satisfaction of the country. Have we
any right to regard him as guilty after this proceeding?
It is true that the spirit of party is charged with the
event of this memorable trial; but did nothing of
that spirit preside over the proceedings in the Com-
mons, the grand inquest of the nation, which made
the presentment, and put the accused upon his trial?
That Lord Melville was a careless man, and wholly
indifferent about money, his whole life had shown.
That he had replaced the entire sum temporarily used,
was part even of the statement which charged him
with misemploying it. That Mr. Pitt, whom no one
ever accused of corruption, had been a party to two
of his supporters using four times as much of the
public money for a time, and without paying interest,
was soon after proved; though, for the purpose of
pressing more severely upon Lord Melville, a great
alacrity was shown to acquit the Prime Minister,
by way of forming a contrast to the Treasurer of the
Navy. In a word, the case proved against him was
not by any means so clear as to give us the right
to charge the great majority of his Peers with corrupt
and dishonourable conduct in acquitting him; while
it is a known fact that the Judges who attended the
trial were, with the exception of the Lord Chief
312
MR. DUNDAS.
Justice, all clearly convinced of his innocence. Nor,
let it be added, would the charge against him have
been deemed, in the times of the Harleys and the
Walpoles, of a nature to stain his character. Witness
Walpole rising to supreme power after being expelled
the House of Commons for corruption; and after
having only urged, in his own defence, that the
thousand pounds paid to him by a contractor had
been for the use of a friend, whom he desired to
favour, and to whom he had paid it all over; not to
mention his having received above seventeen thousand
pounds, under circumstances of the gravest suspicion,
the day before he quitted office, and which he never
seems to have accounted for, except by saying he had
the King's authority to take it.* It is very certain
that these remarks will give little satisfaction to those
whose political principles have always kept them apart
from, and inimical to, Lord Melville. But to what
* Mr. Coxe, in his life of Walpole, cannot of course, put the defence
on higher ground than Walpole himself took as to the 10007. received on
the contract, in 1711, when he was Secretary at War.-As to the sum
reported by the House of Commons' Committee (17,4617.) to have been
obtained by him in 1712, on the authority of two Treasury orders, the
biographer's main argument is, that the money must have been im-
mediately wanted for public purposes, though these never were particular-
ized, and that the king must have approved of the draft, because he
signed the warrants. A weaker defence cannot well be conceived; nor is
it much aided by the assertion which follows, that Sir Robert began
writing a vindication of himself, which he broke off "on a conviction that
his answer must either have been materially defective, or he must have
related many things highly improper to be exposed to the public." The
fact of a man, with an estate of about 2000l. a-year at first, and which
never rose to much above 40007., having lived extravagantly, and amassed
above 200,000l., is not at all explained by Mr. Coxe; and it is mainly
on this expensive living and accumulation of fortune that the suspicions
which hang over his memory rest. But it is needless to say more upon
a topic which could form no justification of Lord Melville if he were
guilty. The subject is only alluded to in this place for the purpose of
showing how much more pure our public men now are, and how much
higher is our standard of official virtue. The acquittal of Lord Melville
was deemed insufficient to sanction his restoration to office; although Sir
Robert Walpole, without any attempt to rescind the vote of 1712, was
afterwards advanced to the place of Prime Minister, and held it for
twenty years.
MR. DUNDAS.
313
purpose have men lived for above thirty years after
the trial, and survived the object of the charge more
than a quarter of a century, if they cannot now, and
upon a mere judicial question, permit their judgments
to have a free scope,-deciding calmly upon events
that belong to the history of the past, and involve the
reputation of the dead?
314
MR. ERSKINE.
THE Ministry of Mr. Pitt did not derive more solid
service from the Bar in the person of Mr. Dundas,
than the Opposition party did ornament and popularity
in that of Mr. Erskine. His parliamentary talents,
although they certainly have been underrated, were
as clearly not the prominent portion of his character.
Nevertheless, it must be admitted that, had he appeared
in any other period than the age of the Foxes, the
Pitts, and the Burkes, there is little chance that he
would have been eclipsed even as a debater; and the
singular eloquence and powerful effect of his famous
speech against the Jesuit's Bark Bill, in the House of
Lords,* abundantly proves this position. He never
appears to have given his whole mind to the practice
of debating; he had a very scanty provision of political
information; his time was always occupied with the
laborious pursuits of his profession; he came into the
House of Commons, where he stood among several
equals, and behind some superiors, from a stage where
he shone alone, and without a rival. Above all, he
was accustomed to address a select and friendly audi-
ence, bound to lend him their patient attention, and to
address them by the compulsion of his retainer, not as
a volunteer coming forward in his own person; a
position from which the transition is violent and
extreme, to that of having to gain and to keep a
promiscuous and, in great part, hostile audience, not
under any obligation to listen one instant beyond the
* 1808.
MR. ERSKINE.
315
time during which the speaker can flatter, or interest,
or amuse them. Earlier practice and more devotion
to the pursuit would doubtless have vanquished all
these disadvantages; but they sufficed to keep Mr.
Erskine always in a station far beneath his talents as
long as he remained in the House of Commons.
66
It is to the Forum, and not the Senate, that we
must hasten, if we would witness the coronam
multiplicem, judicium erectum, crebras assensiones,
multas admirationes, risum cum velit, cum velit fletum
-in Scenâ Roscium;" in fine, if we would see this
great man in his element and in his glory. Nor let it
be deemed trivial, or beneath the historian's province,
to mark that noble figure, every look of whose coun-
tenance is expressive, every motion of whose form
graceful; an eye that sparkles and pierces, and almost
assures victory, while it "speaks audience ere the
tongue." Juries have declared that they felt it
impossible to remove their looks from him when he
had riveted and, as it were, fascinated them by his
first glance; and it used to be a common remark of
men who observed his motions, that they resembled
those of a blood-horse; as light, as limber, as much
betokening strength and speed, as free from all gross
superfluity or incumbrance. Then hear his voice of
surpassing sweetness, clear, flexible, strong, exquisitely
fitted to strains of serious earnestness, deficient in
compass, indeed, and much less fitted to express
indignation, or even scorn, than pathos, but wholly
free from either harshness or monotony. All these,
however, and even his chaste, dignified, and appro-
priate action, were very small parts of this wonderful
advocate's excellence. He had a thorough knowledge
of men-of their passions and their feelings he knew
every avenue to the heart, and could at will make all
its chords vibrate to his touch. His fancy, though
never playful in public, where he had his whole
faculties under the most severe control, was lively and
316
MR. ERSKINE.
brilliant; when he gave it vent and scope, it was
eminently sportive; but while representing his client, it
was wholly subservient to that in which his whole soul
was wrapped up, and to which each faculty of body and
of mind was subdued-the success of the cause. His
argumentative powers were of the highest order;
clear in his statements, close in his applications,
unwearied and never to be diverted in his deductions;
with a quick and sure perception of his point, and
undeviating in the pursuit of whatever established
it; endued with a nice discernment of the relative
importance and weight of different arguments, and
the faculty of assigning to each its proper place, so as
to bring forward the main body of the reasoning in
bold relief, and with its full breadth, and not weaken.
its effect by distracting and disturbing the attention of
the audience among lesser particulars. His under-
standing was eminently legal. Though he had never
made himself a great lawyer, yet could he conduct a
purely legal argument with the most perfect success;
and his familiarity with all the ordinary matters of his
profession was abundantly sufficient for the purposes
of the forum. His memory was accurate and retentive
in an extraordinary degree; nor did he ever, during
the trial of a cause, forget any matter, how trifling
soever, that belonged to it. His presence of mind
was perfect in action, that is, before the jury, when
a line is to be taken upon the instant, and a question
risked to a witness, or a topic chosen with the tribunal,
on which the whole fate of the cause may turn.
man made fewer mistakes; none left so few advan-
tages unimproved; before none was it so dangerous
for an adversary to slumber and be off his guard; for
he was ever broad awake himself, and was as adven-
turous as he was skilful; and as apt to take advantage
of any
the least opening as he was cautious to leave
none in his own battle.
No
But to all these qualities he joined that fire, that
MR. ERSKINE.
317
spirit, that courage, which gave vigour and direction
to the whole, and bore down all resistance. No man,
with all his address and prudence, ever adventured
upon more bold figures, and they were uniformly suc-
cessful; for his imagination was vigorous enough to
sustain any flight; his taste was correct, and even
severe, and his execution felicitous in the highest de-
gree. Without much familiar knowledge of even the
Latin classics; with hardly any access to the beauties
of the Attic eloquence, whether in prose or verse;
with no skill in modern languages; his acquaintance
with the English tongue was yet so perfect, and his
taste so exquisite, that nothing could exceed the
beauty of his diction, whatever subject he attempted;
whether discoursing on the most humble topics, of the
most ordinary case in court or in society, or defending
men for their lives, under the persecution of tyrannical
power, wrestling against the usurpations of Parliament
in favour of the liberty of the press, and upholding
against the assaults of the infidel the fabric of revealed
religion. Indeed the beauty, as well as chaste sim-
plicity, of the language in which he would clothe the
most lowly subjects reminded the classical scholar of
some narratives in the Odyssey, where there is not
one idea that rises above the meanest level, and yet
all is made graceful and elegant by the magic of the
diction. Aware that his classical acquirements were
so slender, men oftentimes marvelled at the pheno-
menon of his eloquence, above all, of his composition.
The solution of the difficulty lay in the constant read-
ing of the old English authors to which he devoted
himself: Shakspeare he was more familiar with than
almost any man of his age; and Milton he nearly had
by heart. Nor can it be denied that the study of the
speeches in Paradise Lost' is as good a substitute as
can be found for the immortal originals in the Greek
models, upon which those great productions have ma-
nifestly been formed.
318
MR. ERSKINE.
Such was his oratory; but oratory is only the half,
and the lesser half, of the Nisi Prius advocate; and
Mr. Erskine was never known to fail in the more im-
portant moiety of the part he had to sustain. The
entire devotion to his cause which made him reject
everything that did not help it forward, and indig-
nantly scorn all temptation to sacrifice its smallest
point for any rhetorical triumph, was not the only
virtue of his advocacy. His judgment was quick,
} sound, and sure, upon each successive step to be
taken; his decision bold, but cautious and enlightened,
at each turn. His speaking was hardly more perfect
than his examination of witnesses, the art in which so
much of an English advocate's skill is shown; and his
examination-in-chief was as excellent as his cross-ex-
amination; a department so apt to deceive the vulgar,
and which yet is, generally speaking, far less available,
as it hardly ever is more difficult, than the ex-
amination-in-chief, or in reply. In all these various
functions, whether of addressing the jury, or urging
objections to the court, or examining his own wit-
nesses, or cross-examining his adversary's, this con-
summate advocate appeared to fill at one and the same
time different characters; to act as the counsel and
representative of the party, and yet to be the very
party himself; while he addressed the tribunal, to be
also acquainted with every feeling and thought of the
judge or the jury; and while he interrogated the wit-
ness, whether to draw from him all he knew, and
in the most favourable shape, or to shake and dis-
place all he had said that was adverse, he appeared to
have entered into the mind of the person he was
dealing with, and to be familiar with all that was
passing within it. It is by such means that the
hearer is to be moved, and the truth ascertained; and
he will ever be the most successful advocate who
can approach the nearest to this lofty and difficult
position.
MR. ERSKINE.
319
The speeches of this great man are preserved to us
with a care and correctness which those only of Mr.
Burke, Mr. Windham, Mr. Canning, and Lord Dudley,
among
all the orators of whom this work treats, can
boast. He had a great facility of composition; he
wrote both much and correctly. The five volumes
which remain were all revised by himself; most of
them at the several times of their first publication.
Mr. Windham, too, is known to have left most of his
speeches written out correctly in his own hand. The
same care was bestowed upon their speeches by the
others just named. Neither those of Mr. Fox, or Mr.
Pitt, nor, with one or two exceptions, of Mr. Sheridan,
ever enjoyed the same advantages; and a most unfair
estimate would therefore be formed of their eloquence,
as compared with that of others, were men only to
build their judgment upon the records which the Par-
liamentary Debates present.
Of Mr. Erskine's, the first, beyond all doubt, was
his speech for Stockdale, foolishly and oppressively
prosecuted by the House of Commons, for publishing
the Rev. Mr. Logan's eloquent tract upon Hastings's
impeachment. There are no finer things in modern,
and few finer iù ancient eloquence than the celebrated
passage of the Indian Chief; nor has beautiful lan-
guage ever been used with more curious felicity to
raise a striking and an appropriate image before the
mind, than in the simile of the winds "lashing before
them the lazy elements, which without the tempest
would stagnate into pestilence." The speeches on
Constructive Treason are also noble performances; in
which the reader never can forget the sublimity of the
denunciation against those who took from the "file the
sentence against Sidney, which should have been left
on record to all ages, that it might arise and blacken
in the sight, like the handwriting on the wall before
the Eastern tyrant, to deter from outrages upon jus-
tice." One or two of the speeches upon Seduction,
320
MR. ERSKINE.
especially that for the defendant in Howard v. Bingham,
are of exquisite beauty.
It remains that we commemorate the deeds which
he did, and which cast the fame of his oratory into
the shade. He was an undaunted man; he was an
undaunted advocate. To no Court did he ever truckle,
neither to the Court of the King, neither to the Court
of the King's Judges. Their smiles and their frowns
he disregarded alike in the fearless discharge of his
duty. He upheld the liberty of the press against the
one; he defended the rights of the people against
both combined to destroy them. If there be yet
amongst us the power of freely discussing the acts of
our rulers; if there be yet the privilege of meeting
for the promotion of needful reforms; if he who
desires wholesome changes in our Constitution be still
recognized as a patriot, and not doomed to die the
death of a traitor; let us acknowledge with gratitude,
that to this great man, under Heaven, we owe this
felicity of the times. In 1794, his dauntless energy,
his indomitable courage, kindling his eloquence, in-
spiring his conduct, giving direction and lending firm-
ness to his matchless skill, resisted the combination of
statesmen, and princes, and lawyers-the league of
cruelty and craft, formed to destroy our liberties-and
triumphantly scattered to the winds the half-accom-
plished scheme of an unsparing proscription. Before
such a precious service as this, well may the lustre of
statesmen and of orators grow pale; and yet this was
the achievement of one only, not the first orator of
his age, and not among its foremost statesmen, because
he was beyond all comparison the most accomplished
advocate, and the most eloquent, that modern times
have produced.
were
The disposition and manners of the man
hardly less attractive than his genius and his pro-
fessional skill were admirable. He was, like almost
all great men, simple, natural, and amiable; full of
MR. ERSKINE.
321
humane feelings and kindly affections. Of wit he had +
little or none in conversation; and he was too gay to
take any delight in discussion; but his humour was
playful to buoyancy, and wild even to extravagance;
and he indulged his roaming and devious and abrupt
imagination as much in society, as in public he kept
it under rigorous control. That his private character
was exempt from failings can in no wise be affirmed.
The egotism which was charged upon his conversation,
and in which he only seemed to adopt the habit of the
forensic leaders of his times, was wholly unmixed
with anything offensive to others; though it might
excite a smile at his own expense. Far from seeking
to raise himself by their depression, his vanity was of
the best-natured and least selfish kind; it was wholly
social and tolerant, and, as it were, gregarious; nay,
he always seemed to extol the deeds of others with
fully more enthusiasm than he ever displayed in re-
counting his own. But there were darker places to
be marked, in the extreme imprudence with which
some indulgences were sought, and unfortunate con-
nexions, even late in life, formed. Lord Kenyon, who
admired and loved him fervently, and used always
to appear as vain of him as a schoolmaster of his
favourite pupil, though himself rigorous to the point
of asceticism, was wont to call these imperfections,
viewing them tolerantly, "spots in the sun;" and
it must with sorrow be added, that as the lustre of the
luminary became more dim, the spots did not contract
in their dimensions. The usual course on such occa-
sions is to say, Taceamus de his, but History neither
asserts her greatest privilege, nor discharges her higher
duties, when, dazzled by brilliant genius, or astonished
by splendid triumphs, or even softened by amiable
qualities, she abstains from marking those defects
which so often degrade the most sterling worth, and
which the talents and the affections that they ac-
company may sometimes seduce men to imitate.

Y
322
MR. ERSKINE.
The striking and imposing appearance of this great
man's person has been mentioned. His Herculean
strength of constitution may also be noted. During
the eight-and-twenty years that he practised at the
bar, he never was prevented for one hour from attend-
ing to his professional duties. At the famous State
Trials in 1794, he lost his voice on the evening before
he was to address the Jury. It returned to him just
in time, and this, like other felicities of his career, he
always ascribed to a special providence, with the
habitually religious disposition of mind which was
hereditary in the godly families that he sprung from.
323
MR. PERCEVAL.
A PERSON of great eminence, who, like Mr. Erskine,
arose from the Bar, where, however, he never distin-
guished himself much, was Mr. Perceval, a man of
very quick parts, much energy of character, dauntless
courage joined to patient industry, practised fluency
as a speaker, great skill and readiness as a debater;
but of no information beyond what a classical educa-
tion gives the common run of English youths. Of
views upon all things the most narrow, upon religious
and even political questions the most bigoted and
intolerant, his range of mental vision was confined in
proportion to his ignorance on all general subjects.
Within that sphere he saw with extreme acuteness,-
as the mole is supposed to be more sharp-sighted
than the eagle for half a quarter of an inch before it;
but as beyond the limits of his little horizon he saw
no better than the mole, so like her, he firmly believed,
and always acted on the belief, that beyond what he
could descry nothing whatever existed; and he mis-
trusted, dreaded, and even hated all who had an
ampler visual range than himself. But here all like-
ness ceases between the puny animal and the powerful
statesman. Beside the manifest sincerity of his con-
victions, attested, perhaps, by his violence and rancour,
he possessed many qualities, both of the head and the
heart, which strongly recommended him to the con-
fidence of the English people. He never scared them
by refinements, nor alarmed their fears by any sympathy
with improvements out of the old and beaten track;
and he shared largely in all their favourite national pre-
324
MR. PERCEVAL.
judices. A devoted adherent of the Crown, and a pious
son of the Church, he was dear to all who celebrate
their revels by libations to Church and King-most
of whom regard the clergy as of far more importance
than the gospel—all of whom are well enough disposed
to set the monarch above the law. Add to this, the
accidental qualification of high birth, in a family
excessively attached to the Court and the Establish-
ment, and still more the real virtues which adorned
his character; a domestic life without stain, an ex-
emplary discharge of the duties that devolve on the
father of a numerous family, a punctual performance
of all his obligations, a temper which, though quick
and even irritable, was generally good, a disposition
charitable and kind where the rancour of party or
sect left his nature free scope. From all sordid feel-
ings he was entirely exempt-regardless of pecuniary
interest-careless of mere fortune-aiming at power
alone-and only suffering his ambition to be restrained
by its intermixture with his fiery zeal for the success
of his cherished principles, religious and civil. The
whole character thus formed, whether intellectual or
moral, was eminently fitted to command the respect
and win the favour of a nation whose prejudices are
numerous and deep-rooted, and whose regard for the
decencies of private life readily accepts a strict observ-
ance of them as a substitute for almost any political
defect, and a compensation for many political crimes.
The eloquence of Mr. Perceval, any more than his
capacity, was not of the highest order; although, like
his capacity, it was always strenuously exerted, and
sometimes extremely powerful. He was a person of
acute and quick rather than of great faculties. At the
bar his success was assured, if he had not deviated
into politics; giving a rival to that mistress which is
jealous to excess of the least infidelity in her suitor.
The nimbleness of mind and industry of application
which there distinguished him he brought into the
MR. PERCEVAL.
325
House of Commons; and, unlike other lawyers, he
was always so lively as to be heard without any effort
in a place far enough from being enamoured with the
gown. As Attorney-General to Mr. Addington,
and bearing almost the whole burthen of the unequal
debate, while the forces of Fox, Pitt, and Windham
combined to assail the meagre Treasury Bench, his
talents sparkled with peculiar brightness. His dex-
terity in any great or any personal conflict; his
excellent language, always purely but unaffectedly
English, nor ever chargeable with incorrect taste;
his attention constantly awake, and his spirit ever
dauntless, nay, rather rising with the emergency-
gained him very great reputation as a ready and a
powerful debater. When quitting the profession in
1807, and taking the lead of the House of Commons,
he appeared as the first minister in all but name, and
afterwards, on the Duke of Portland's death, had the
title with the functions of Premier, his success was
inferior; and he did not for some time act up to the
reputation which he had gained in the subordinate
and half-professional station.
But then came the debates upon the Regency in
1811, when he fought, almost single-handed, a battle
for royal prerogative against constitutional principle;
with the prospect of the regent being his principal
opponent, as his original connexion with Queen
Caroline had made him his implacable enemy. These
contests drew forth all his abilities, and placed him at
once in the highest rank of debaters. His party too
were popular in the country, fond of Kings, particu-
larly attached to George III., distrustful and averse
towards his successor, above all, deeply revering the
Established Church, whose selected and zealous cham-
pion the minister had long been. His manner of
speaking, familiar though quick, lively, smart, yet
plain upon the whole, and offending no one by figures
or by tropes, was exceedingly popular in the House
326
MR. PERCEVAL.
of Commons, where the dullest have no dislike to an
acute and clear leader, so he be not over brilliant and
witty. He was a man of business too in all his habits,
both of living and of speaking; opening a dry ques-
tion of finance or regulation, with as great spirit as he
would reply to a personal attack: above all, his gallan-
try in debate well fitted him for a leader. Whoever
might quail before a powerful adversary, or faint under
the pressure of a bad cause, or take fright in a storm
of popular contention and even indignation, he was
not the man; rather the louder raged the tempest, so
much the shriller rose the voice that called his forces
together, and united them for the work of the day,
whether to face the enemy or to weather the gale.
Even in 1809, when the firmness of the Royal family
and the Ministry was sorely tried, but above all, of
him, a pattern of morality, a strict observer of ordin-
ances, a somewhat intolerant exactor of piety in others
of him who, beyond all men, must have found it
hard to face the moral or religious indignation of the
whole country, roused by the veil being for a moment
torn rudely aside which had hitherto covered over
the tender immoralities of Royal life-even then the
person most likely to be struck down by the blast
was the first to face it, and to struggle on manfully
through the whole of that difficult crisis, as if he had
never spoken of the Church, and the moral law, and
wives and children, and domestic ties, and the pro-
fligacy of courts; as if the people, of all sects and all
classes, were looking on, the calm spectators of an
ordinary debate. The public voice rendered him on
this occasion the justice ever done to men who show
in performing their duty that they have the courage
to disregard clamour, and to rely upon their reputation
as a shield against misconstruction. No stain rested
upon his character from his gallant defence of the
Duke of York; and they who were successful in
attacking the fair fame of the Prince, failed in all their
MR. PERCEVAL.
327
attempts to blacken his official defender. In the next
Session he met Parliament with a Ministry crippled
by the loss of both Mr. Canning's eloquence, and Lord
Castlereagh's manly courage, and long experience of
affairs; met it too, after such a signal calamity as
never before had attended any failure of the Govern-
ment in its military operations. But he again pre-
sented the same undaunted front to all perils; and
having happily obtained the co-operation of Lord
Wellesley, and continuing to enjoy the benefit of his
illustrious brother's victories, he again triumphed over
all opposition, until the Prince Regent's desertion of
his friends seemed to give the Tory party a lease of
their places during his life.
This eminent person's career was cut short while in
the midst of the most difficult struggle of all in which
he was fated to engage. The influence of his friend
Mr. Stephen over his mind was unbounded. Agree-
ing on all political questions, and alike in the strength
of their religious feelings, although the one leant
towards the High Church party, and the other was a
Low Churchman-upon all questions connected with
neutral rights, he in an especial manner deferred to
the opinion of him whose professional life had been
chiefly passed in the discussion of them. Accordingly
the measure of the Orders in Council devised by him
was readily adopted by the minister, who, never giving
either his support or his opposition by halves, always
flung himself into any cause which he espoused with
as much zeal as if it were his own. Add to this, his
hearty and deep-rooted hatred of Napoleon, whom he
regarded with the true feelings of the people, as he
accurately represented their national prejudices; the
scorn of the Americans, whom he disliked with the
animosity peculiar to all the courtiers of George III.;
his truly English feeling in favour of obtaining through
the war a monopoly of all trade, and bringing into
London and Bristol the commerce of the world-
328
MR. PERCEVAL.
all these desires were gratified, and these feelings
indulged, by a system which, under the mask of
retaliation upon France, professed to extinguish, or to
absorb into our own commerce, the trade of all the
neutrals whom France had oppressed in order to
injure us; and Mr. Perceval thus became as strenuous
a champion of this unjust and preposterous plan as its
author himself. In 1808 he had prevailed with Par-
liament to give it a full trial; and in four years,
instead of collecting all the trade of the world into
England, it had effectually ruined whatever Napoleon's
measures had left of our own.
Accordingly, a motion was carried at the end of
April, 1812, for examining the question in a commit-
tee of the whole house, and in taking the evidence
which was adduced to show the ruinous effects of the
system, he with Mr. Stephen bore night after night
the principal part. As they both hoped that the
clamour out of doors would subside if time were given,
the struggle always was to put off the inquiry, and
thus to protract the decision; and Messrs. Brougham
and Baring, who conducted it, with some difficulty
prevailed so far as to begin the examination of the
witnesses exactly at half-past four o'clock. On the
11th of May, Mr. Perceval had been later than the
appointed time, and after complaining of this delay,
Mr. Brougham, at a quarter before five, had called his
first witness, and was examining him, when a messen-
ger deputed to bring the minister met him walking
towards the house with Mr. Stephen arm-in-arm. He
instantly, with his accustomed activity, darted forward
to obey the summons, but for which Mr. Stephen, who
happened to be on his left side, would have been the
victim of the assassin's blow, which prostrated Mr.
Perceval as he entered the lobby. The wretched man,
by name Bellingham, had no kind of quarrel with him;
but complained of a suit at St. Petersburgh having
been neglected by our ambassador there, Lord Gran-
MR. PERCEVAL.
329
ville, whom he intended to have destroyed had not
Mr. Perceval fallen first in his way. He never at-
tempted to escape; but was taken, committed, tried,
condemned, executed, dissected, all within one week
from the time that he fired the shot. So great an
outrage upon justice never was witnessed in modern
times; for the application to delay the trial, until evi-
dence of his insanity could be brought from Liverpool,
was refused; and the trial proceeded, while both the
court, the witnesses, the jury, and the people, were
under the influence of the feelings naturally excited
by the deplorable slaughter of one of the most eminent
and virtuous men in any rank of the community.
It has been said already that Mr. Perceval was both
imperfectly educated and very narrow minded. He
was the slave of violent prejudices, and had never
made any effort to shake them off, or to mitigate them
by instructing himself in any of the branches of learn-
ing out of his own profession, save only that he had
the ordinary portion of classical learning which all
English gentlemen acquire in their early youth. How
amiable soever in private life, he was intolerant of
others who differed with him in the proportion of his
ignorance; and committed the error of all such con-
scientious but bigoted men, the forgetting that those
of opposite sentiments have exactly the same excuse
for unyielding obstinacy that they have for rooted dis-
like towards adverse doctrines. They feel all the heat
of intolerance, but make no kind of allowance for
others feeling somewhat of the fire which burns so
fiercely within themselves.
330
LORD GRENVILLE.
THE two eminent personages of whom we have been
speaking, were Mr. Pitt's contemporaries and political
adherents, though of a less advanced age. But Lord
Grenville was of his own standing, followed his fortune
during the eventful period of the coalesced opposition
and the first French war, left office with him in 1801,
nor quitted him until he consented to resume it in
1804, preferring place to character, and leaving the
Whigs, by whose help he had overthrown the
Addington Administration. From that moment Lord
Grenville joined the Whig party, with whom to the
end of his public life he continued to act.
A greater accession to the popular cause and the
Whig party it was impossible to imagine, unless Mr.
Pitt himself had persevered in his desire of rejoining
the standard under which his first and noblest battles
were fought. All the qualities in which their long
opposition and personal habits made them deficient,
Lord Grenville possessed in an eminent degree. Long
habits of business had matured his experience and
disciplined his naturally vigorous understanding. A
life studiously regular had surrounded him with the
respect of his countrymen, and of those whom the
dazzling talents of others could not blind to their loose
propensities or idle habits. A firm attachment to the
Church as by law established attracted towards him
the confidence of those who subscribe to its doctrines
and approve its discipline; while his tried prudence
and discretion were a balance much wanted against
the opposite defects of the Whig party, and especially
of their most celebrated leader.
LORD GRENVILLE.
331
After Mr. Grattan, it would be difficult to point out
any person to whom the great and fundamental
question of Irish Policy, and the cause of religious
liberty in general, was so much indebted as Lord
Grenville;* while, in the sacrifices which he made to
it, he certainly much exceeded Mr. Grattan himself.
He was enabled to render this valuable service to his
country, not more by his natural abilities, which were
of a very high order-sound judgment, extraordinary
memory, an almost preternatural power of application
-and by the rich stores of knowledge which those
eminent qualities had put him in possession of, than
by the accidental circumstances in his previous history
and present position-his long experience in office,
which had tried and matured his talents in times of
unexampled difficulty-his connexion with Mr. Pitt,
both in the kindred of blood and of place, so well
fitted to conciliate the Tory party, or at all events to
disarm their hostility, and lull their suspicions-above
all, the well-known and steady attachment of himself
and his family to the principles and the establishment
of the Church of England.
When, therefore, he quitted power with Mr. Pitt in
1801, rather than abandon the Catholic Emancipation,
the carrying of which had only a year before been
held out as one of the principal objects of the Union;
and when, in 1804, he peremptorily refused to join
Mr. Pitt in resuming office, unless a ministry should
*The plan of this work of course precludes all reference, at least all
detailed reference, to the conduct and the merits of living statesmen. But
for this an ample field would be opened, in which to expatiate upon the
transcendent services of Lord Grey, and the ample sacrifices which he
made, during the greater part of his political life, to the rights and the
interests of the Irish people.-Lord Wellesley's services in the same cause,
it is also, for the same reason, impossible to enter upon, further than to
remind the reader that, after having almost begun life as the advocate of
the Catholic claims, he, and after him Lord Anglesey, first set the example
to succeeding Viceroys of ruling Ireland with the most perfect justice to
all parties, and holding the balance of favour even, with a steady hand,
between Catholic and Protestant, Churchman and Dissenter.
332
LORD GRENVILLE.
be formed upon a basis wide enough to comprehend
the Whig party; the cause of liberal, tolerant
principles, but, above all, the Irish question, gained
an able supporter, whose alliance, whether his intrinsic
or accidental qualities were considered, might justly
be esteemed beyond all price. The friends of civil
and religious liberty duly valued this most important
accession; and the distinguished statesman whom
they now accounted as one of their most powerful
champions, and trusted as one of their most worthy
leaders, amply repaid the confidence reposed in him,
by the steady and disinterested devotion which, with
his characteristic integrity and firmness, he gave to
the cause. Taking office with Mr. Fox, and placed
at the head of the government, upon the death of that
great man he peremptorily, and with bare courtesy,
rejected all the overtures of the King to separate from
the Whigs, and rejoin his ancient allies of the Pitt
school. Soon afterwards, in firm union with the
remains of the Fox party, he carried the Abolition of
the Slave Trade, and retired from power, rather than
bind himself not to press the Catholic Emancipation
upon the narrow-minded though conscientious Prince
whom he served. Continuing in close alliance with
the Whigs, he shared with them the frowns of the
Court and the habitual exclusion from office which
has, for the most part, been their portion in public
life. Nor can it be doubted that the perseverance
with which he abided by his declared opinions in
favour of the Catholic Question alone prevented him
from presiding over the councils of his country,
during, at the least, twenty years of his life. They
who have come to the aid of the liberal cause only
when its success made an adhesion to it the road to
Court favour, with all its accompaniments of profit and
of
power, have a very different account of mutual
obligation to settle with their country, from that which
Lord Grenville could at any time since his retirement
LORD GRENVILLE.
333
have presented, but disdained ever even to hint at.
But they who, after his powerful advocacy, his
inflexible integrity, his heavy sacrifices, had all but
carried the Irish question, have come forward to finish
the good work, and have reaped every kind of
gratification from doing their duty, instead of making
a sacrifice of their interests like him, would do well,
while they usurp all the glory of these successes, to
recollect the men whose labours, requited with pro-
scription, led the way to comparatively insignificant
exertions, still more beneficial to the individuals that
made them, than advantageous to the cause they served.
The endowments of this eminent statesman's mind
were all of a useful and commanding_sort-sound
sense, steady memory, vast industry. His acquire-
ments were in the same proportion valuable and
lasting—a thorough acquaintance with business in its
principles and in its details; a complete mastery of
the science of politics as well theoretical as practical;
of late years a perfect familiarity with political
economy, and a just appreciation of its importance;
an early and most extensive knowledge of classical
literature, which he improved instead of abandoning,
down to the close of his life; a taste formed upon
those chaste models, and of which his lighter com-
positions, his Greek and Latin verses, bore testimony
to the very last. His eloquence was of a plain,
masculine, authoritative cast, which neglected if it did
not despise ornament, and partook in the least possible
degree of fancy, while its declamation was often
equally powerful with its reasoning and its statement.
The faults of his character were akin to some of the
excellences which so greatly distinguished it. His
firmness was apt to degenerate into obstinacy; his
confidence in the principles he held was not unmixed
with contempt for those who differed from him. His
unbending honesty and straightforward course of
dealing with all men and all subjects not unfrequently
334
LORD GRENVILLE.
led him to neglect those courtesies which facilitate
political and personal intercourse, and that spirit of
conciliation which, especially in a mixed government
chiefly conducted by party, sometimes enables men to
win a way which they cannot force towards the
attainment of important objects. Perhaps his most
unfortunate prejudices were those which he had early
imbibed upon certain matters of Ecclesiastical Polity,
and which the accidental circumstance of his con-
nexion with Oxford as Chancellor strengthened, to the
exclusion of the reforming spirit carried by him into
all institutions of a merely secular kind. Upon the
Parliamentary constitution of the country he had no
such alarms or scruples; and, although it is certain
that he would have reformed it much more gradually
than the long delay of the great measure rendered
ultimately necessary, it is equally clear that he would
have stopped short of no improvement which could be
reasonably required, merely because it was a change.
For he was in this greatest quality of a statesman pre-
eminently distinguished, that, as he neither would
yield up his judgment to the clamour of the people,
nor suffer himself to be seduced by the influence of
the Court, so would he never submit his reason to the
empire of prejudice, or own the supremacy of
authority and tradition.-"Reliqui sunt, qui mortui
sunt-L. Torquatus, quem tu non tam cito rhetorem
dixisses, etsi non deerat oratio, quam, ut Græci dicunt,
πολιτικόν. Erant in eo plurimæ litteræ, nec eæ
vulgares, sed interiores quædam et reconditæ, divina
memoria, summa verborum et gravitas et elegantia :
atque hæc omnia vitæ decorabat dignitas et integritas.
Plena litteratæ senectutis oratio. Quanta severitas in
vultû! Quantum pondus in verbis! Quam nihil non
consideratum exibat ex ore! Sileamus de isto, ne
augeamus dolorem. Nam et præteritorum recordatio
est acerba, et acerbior expectatio reliquorum."
* Cicero, Brutus, 266.
11*
335
MR. GRATTAN.
THE name which we mentioned as superior to even
Lord Grenville in services to the Irish question, recalls
to mind one of the most eminent men of his age-
Henry Grattan.
It would not be easy to point out any statesman or
patriot, in any age of the world, whose fame stands
higher for his public services; nor is it possible to
name any one, the purity of whose reputation has
been stained by so few faults, and the lustre of whose
renown is dimmed by so few imperfections. From the
earliest year at which he could appear upon the poli-
tical stage, he devoted himself to state affairs. While
yet in the prime of youth, he had achieved a victory
which stands at the head of all the triumphs ever won
by a patriot for his country in modern times; he had
effected an important revolution in the Government,
without violence of any kind, and had broken chains
of the most degrading kind, by which the injustice
and usurpation of three centuries had bound her
down. Her immediate gratitude placed him in a
situation of independence, which enabled him to con-
secrate the remainder of his days to her service, with-
out the interruption arising from professional pursuits;
and he continued to persevere in the same course
of patriotism marked by a rare union of the moderation
which springs from combined wisdom and virtue,
with the firmness and the zeal which are peculiar
to genius. No factious partizan, making devotion to
the public cause a convenient and a safe mask for the
attainment of his selfish interests, whether of sordid
336
MR. GRATTAN.
avarice or of crawling ambition, ever found in Grattan
either an instrument or an accomplice. No true friend
of the people, inspired with a generous desire of ex-
tirpating abuses, and of extending the reign of free-
dom, ever complained of Grattan's slowness to join
the untarnished banner of patriotism. No advocate of
human improvement, filled with the sacred zeal of
enlarging the enjoyments or elevating the condition
of mankind, was ever damped in his aspirations by
Grattan's coldness, or had reason to wish him less the
advocate of Ireland and more the friend of his species.
The principal battle which he fought for his native
country required him to embrace every great and
difficult question of domestic policy; for the misrule
and oppression exercised by England over the Irish
people extended to all their commercial dealings, as
well as to their political rights, and sought to fetter
their trade by a complicated system of vexatious
regulations, as well as to awe their legislators by an
assumption of sovereignty, and to impose the fetters
of a foreign jurisdiction upon the administration of
justice itself. In no part of this vast and various field
were Mr. Grattan's powers found to fail, or his acquire-
ments to prove deficient; and he handled the details
of fiscal and of mercantile policy with as much ac-
curacy and as great address as he brought to the
discussion of the broader and easier though more
momentous subject-the great question of National
Independence. He was left, on the achievement of
his great triumph, in possession of as brilliant a re-
putation as man could desire; and it was unsullied by
any one act either of factious violence, or of personal
meanness, or of the inconsistency into which over-
much vehemence in the pursuit of praiseworthy
objects is wont to betray even the most virtuous men.
The popular favour which he enjoyed to so unex-
ampled a degree, was destined in a short time to suffer
an interruption, not unusual in the history of popular
MR. GRATTAN.
337
leaders; and for refusing to join in the designs, of a
more than doubtful origin, of men inferior in reputa-
tion of every kind, and of a more than doubtful
honesty-men who proscribed as unworthy of the
people's esteem all that acknowledged any restraints
of moderation-he lived to see himself denounced
by the factious, reviled by the unprincipled, and
abandoned by their dupes, the bulk of the very nation
whose idol he had so lately been.
The war with France, and the fear of revolutionary
movements at home, rendered him for some years an
alarmist; and he joined with those who supported
the hostilities into which Mr. Pitt and the Portland .
seceders from the Whig party unhappily plunged the
empire. But he carried his support of arbitrary
measures at home a very short way, compared with
the new allies of the Government in England; and
the proceedings of the Irish Ministry, during and
after the Rebellion, found in him an adversary as un-
compromising as in the days of his most strenuous
patriotism, and most dazzling popularity. Despairing
of success by any efforts of the party in Parliament,
he joined in the measure of secession adopted by the
English Whigs, but after a manner far more recon-
cilable to a sense of public duty, as well as far more
effective in itself, than the absurd and inconsistent
course which they pursued, of retaining the office of
representatives, while they refused to perform any
of its duties, except the enjoyment of its personal
privileges. Mr. Grattan and the leaders of the Irish
opposition vacated their seats at once, and left their
constituents to choose other delegates. When the
Union was propounded, they again returned to their
posts, and offered a resistance to it, which at first
proved successful, and deferred for a year the accom-
plishment of a measure planned in true wisdom, though
executed by most corrupt and corrupting means-
measure as necessary for the well-being of Ireland as
Ꮓ
-a
338
MR. GRATTAN.
for the security of the empire at large. He entered
the Imperial parliament in 1805, and continued, with
the exception of the question upon the renewal of the
war in 1815, a constant and most powerful coadjutor
of the Whig party. Though he refused office when they
came into power upon Mr. Pitt's death, he lent them
a strenuous support upon all great questions, whether
of English policy or of Irish, showing himself most
conspicuously above the mean and narrow spirit that
would confine a statesman's exertions to the questions
which interest one portion of the empire, or with
which his own fame in former times may have been
more peculiarly entwined.
Among the orators, as among the statesmen of his
age, Mr. Grattan occupies a place in the foremost
rank; and it was the age of the Pitts, the Foxes, and
the Sheridans. His eloquence was of a very high order,
all but of the very highest, and it was eminently
original. In the constant stream of a diction replete
with epigram and point-a stream on which floated
gracefully, because naturally, flowers of various hues,
-was poured forth the closest reasoning, the most
luminous statement, the most persuasive display of all
the motives that could influence, and of all the details
that could enlighten, his audience. Often a different
strain was heard, and it was declamatory and vehe-
ment-or pity was to be moved, and its pathos was
touching as it was simple-or, above all, an adversary
sunk in baseness, or covered with crimes, was to be
punished or to be destroyed, and a storm of the most
terrible invective raged, with all the blights of sarcasm,
and the thunders of abuse. The critic, led away for
the moment, and unable to do more than feel with the
audience, could in those cases, even when he came to
reflect and to judge, find often nothing to reprehend;
seldom in any case more than the excess of epigram,
which had yet become so natural to the orator, that
his argument and his narrative, and even his sagacious
MR. GRATTAN.
339
unfolding of principles, seemed spontaneously to clothe
themselves in the most pointed terseness, and most
apt and felicitous antitheses. From the faults of his
country's eloquence he was, generally speaking, free.
Occasionally an over-fondness for vehement expression,
an exaggeration of passion, or an offensive appeal to
Heaven, might be noted; very rarely a loaded use of
figures, and, more rarely still, of figures broken and
mixed. But the perpetual striving after far-fetched
quaintness; the disdaining to say any one thing in an
easy and natural style; the contempt of that rule, as
true in rhetoric as in conduct, that it is wise to do
common things in the common way; the affectation
of excessive feeling upon all things, without regard to
their relative importance; the making any occasion,
even the most fitted to rouse genuine and natural
feeling, a mere opportunity of theatrical display-all
these failings, by which so many oratorical reputations
have been blighted among a people famous for their
almost universal oratorical genius, were looked for in
vain when Mr. Grattan rose, whether in the senate of
his native country, or in that to which he was trans-
ferred by the Union. And if he had some peculiarity
of outward appearance, as a low and awkward person,
in which he resembled the first of orators, and even of
manner, in which he had not, like him, made the de-
fects of nature yield to severe culture; so had he one
excellence of the very highest order, in which he may
be truly said to have left all the orators of modern
times behind-the severe abstinence which rests satis-
fied with striking the decisive blow in a word or two,
not weakening its effect by repetition and expansion,
-and another excellence higher still, in which no
orator of any age is his equal, the easy and copious
flow of most profound, sagacious, and original prin-
ciples, enunciated in terse and striking, but appropriate
language. To give a sample of this latter peculiarity
would be less easy, and would occupy more space;
340
MR. GRATTAN.
but of the former it may be truly said that Dante him-
self never conjured up a striking, a pathetic, and an
appropriate image in fewer words than Mr. Grattan
employed to describe his relation towards Irish inde-
pendence, when, alluding to its rise in 1782, and its
fall twenty years later, he said, "I sat by its cradle-I
followed its hearse."
In private life he was without a stain, whether of
temper or of principle; singularly amiable, as well as
of unblemished purity, in all the relations of family
and of society; of manners as full of generosity as
they were free from affectation; of conversation as
much seasoned with spirit and impregnated with
knowledge as it was void of all asperity and gall.
Whoever heard him in private society, and marked
the calm tone of his judicious counsel, the profound
wisdom of his sagacious observations, the unceasing
felicity of his expressions, the constant variety and
brilliancy of his illustrations, could well suppose that
he had conversed with the orator whose wit and whose
wisdom enlightened and guided the senate of his coun-
try; but in the playful hilarity of the companion, his
unbroken serenity, his unruffled good nature, it would
indeed have been a difficult thing to recognize the
giant of debate, whose awful energies had been hurled,
nor yet exhausted, upon the Corrys, the Duigenans,
and the Floods.*
The signal failure of the latter, when transplanted
to the English Parliament, suggests a reference to the
same passage in the life of Mr. Grattan. Men were
* It is always a matter of difficulty to draw the character of a person
who belongs to another, and, in some particulars, a very different country.
This has been felt in making the attempt to give a sketch of Mr. Grattan ;
and whoever has read the most lively and picturesque piece of biography
that was ever given to the world, Mr. C. Phillips's Recollections of
Curran, will join in the regret here expressed, that the present work did
not fall into hands so able to perform it in a masterly manner.
The con-
stant occupation consequent upon great professional eminence, has un-
fortunately withdrawn him from the walks of literature, in which he was
so remarkably fitted to shine.
MR. GRATTAN.
341
variously inclined to conjecture upon his probable
success; and the singularity of his external appear-
ance, and his manner of speaking, as well as his action,
so unusual in the English Parliament, made the event
doubtful, for some time, during his speech of 1805.
Nor were there wanting those surrounding Mr. Pitt
who foretold "that it would not do." That great de-
bater and experienced judge is said to have for some
moments partaken of these doubts, when the happy
execution of some passage, not perhaps marked by the
audience at large, at once dispelled them; and he pro-
nounced to his neighbours an authoritative and deci-
sive sentence, which the unanimous voice of the House
and of the country forthwith affirmed.
This illustrious patriot died a few days after his
arrival in London, at the beginning of June, 1820,
having come with the greatest difficulty, and in a
dying state, to attend his Parliamentary duties. A
request was made to his family, that his remains might
be buried in Westminster Abbey, instead of being
conveyed for interment to Ireland; and this having
been complied with, the obsequies were attended by
all the more distinguished members of both Houses of
Parliament. The following Letter containing the re-
quest was signed by the leaders of the liberal party.
The beauty of its chaste composition was much and
justly admired at the time; but little wonder was ex-
cited by it, when the author came to be known. It
proceeded from the pen of one of our greatest poets
and finest prose writers; who to this unstable fame
adds the more imperishable renown of being also one.
of the most honourable men, and most uncompromising
friends of civil and religious liberty, who have ap-
peared in any age. The rare felicity of our times, in
possessing two individuals to whom this description.
might be applied, -Rogers and Campbell-alone
makes it necessary to add that the former is here
meant.
342
MR. GRATTAN.
(( TO THE SONS OF MR. GRATTAN.
"Filled with veneration for the character of your
father, we venture to express a wish, common to us
with many of those who most admired and loved him,
that what remains of him should be allowed to con-
tinue among us.
Mr.
"It has pleased Divine Providence to deprive the
empire of his services, while he was here in the neigh-
bourhood of that sacred edifice where great men from
all parts of the British dominions have been for ages
interred. We are desirous of an opportunity of join-
ing in the honour due to tried virtue and genius.
Grattan belongs to us also, and great would be our
consolation were we permitted to follow him to the
grave, and to place him where he would not have
been unwilling to lie-by the side of his illustrious
fellow-labourers in the cause of freedom.”
343
MR. WILBERFORCE.
CONTEMPORARY with Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt,
whose intimate friend he was, and whose partizan for
a time, appeared a man, in some respects more illus-
trious than either—-one who, among the greatest bene-
factors of the human race, holds an exalted station-
one whose genius was elevated by his virtues, and
exalted by his piety. It is, unfortunately, hardly ne-
cessary to name one whom the vices and the follies of
the age have already particularized, by making it im-
possible that what has been said could apply to any
but Wilberforce.
Few persons have ever either reached a higher and
more enviable place in the esteem of their fellow-crea
tures, or have better deserved the place they had
gained, than William Wilberforce. He was naturally
a person of great quickness and even subtilty of mind,
with a lively imagination, approaching to playfulness
of fancy; and hence he had wit in an unmeasured
abundance, and in all its varieties; for he was endowed.
with an exquisite sense of the ludicrous in character,
the foundation of humour, as well as with the percep-
tion of remote resemblances, the essence of wit. These
qualities, however, he had so far disciplined his facul-
ties as to keep in habitual restraint, lest he should ever
offend against strict decorum, by introducing light
matter into serious discussion, or be betrayed into
personal remarks too poignant for the feelings of indi-
viduals. For his nature was mild and amiable beyond
that of most men; fearful of giving the least pain in
any quarter, even while heated with the zeal of con-
344
MR. WILBERFORCE.
troversy on questions that roused all his passions; and
more anxious, if it were possible, to gain over rather
than to overpower an adversary-to disarm him by
kindness, or the force of reason, or awakening appeals
to his feelings, rather than defeat him by hostile attack.
His natural talents were cultivated, and his taste re-
fined by all the resources of a complete Cambridge
education, in which, while the classics were sedulously
studied, the mathematics were not neglected; and he
enjoyed in the society of his intimate friends, Mr. Pitt
and Dean Milner, the additional benefit of foreign
travel, having passed nearly a year in France, after the
dissolution of Lord Shelburne's administration had re-
moved Mr. Pitt from office. Having entered Parlia-
ment as member for Hull, where his family were the
principal commercial men of the place, he soon after-
wards, upon the ill-fated coalition destroying all confi-
dence in the Whig party, succeeded Mr. Foljambe as
member for Yorkshire, which he continued to repre-
sent as long as his health permitted him, having only
retired to a less laborious seat in the year 1812. Al-
though generally attached to the Pitt ministry, he
pursued his course wholly unfettered by party con-
nexion, steadily refused all office through his whole life,
nor would lay himself under any obligations by accept-
ing a share of patronage; and he differed with his illus-
trious friend upon the two most critical emergencies of
his life, the question of peace with France in 1795, and
the impeachment of Lord Melville ten years later.
His eloquence was of a very high order. It was
persuasive and pathetic in an eminent degree; but it
was occasionally bold and impassioned, animated with
the inspiration which deep feeling alone can breathe
into spoken thought, chastened by a pure taste, varied
by extensive information, enriched by classical allusion,
sometimes elevated by the more sublime topics of Holy
Writ-the thoughts and the spirit
"That touch'd Isaiah's hallow'd lips with fire."
MR. WILBERFORCE.
345
Few passages can be cited in the oratory of modern
times of a more electrical effect than the singularly
felicitous and striking allusion to Mr. Pitt's resisting
the torrent of Jacobin principles :-"He stood between
the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed."
The singular kindness, the extreme gentleness of his
disposition, wholly free from gall, from vanity, or any
selfish feeling, kept him from indulging in any of the
vituperative branches of rhetoric; but a memorable
instance showed that it was anything rather than the
want of power which held him off from the use of the
weapons so often in almost all other men's hands.
When a well-known popular member thought fit to
designate him repeatedly, and very irregularly, as the
"Honourable and religious gentleman," not because he
was ashamed of the Cross he gloried in, but because
he felt indignant at any one in the British senate
deeming piety a matter of a reproach, he poured out a
strain of sarcasm which none who heard it can ever
forget. A common friend of the parties having re-
marked to Sir Samuel Romilly, beside whom he sat,
that this greatly outmatched Pitt himself, the great
master of sarcasm, the reply of that great man and
just observer was worthy to be remarked, "Yes,"
said he, "it is the most striking thing I almost ever
heard; but I look upon it as a more singular proof of
Wilberforce's virtue than of his genius, for who but he
ever was possessed of such a formidable weapon, and
never used it ?”
Against all these accomplishments of a finished
orator there was little to set on the other side. A
feeble constitution, which made him say, all his life,
that he never was either well or ill; a voice sweetly
musical beyond that of most men, and of great com-
pass also, but sometimes degenerating into a whine;
a figure exceedingly undignified and ungraceful, though
the features of the face were singularly expressive;
and a want of condensation, in the latter years of his
346
MR. WILBERFORCE.
life, especially, lapsing into digression and ill calculated
for a very business-like audience like the House of
Commons-these may be noted as the only drawbacks
which kept him out of the very first place among the
first speakers of his age, whom, in pathos, and also in
graceful and easy and perfectly elegant diction, as well
as harmonious periods, he unquestionably excelled.
The influence which the Member for Yorkshire always
commanded in the old Parliament-the great weight
which the head, indeed the founder, of a powerful re-
ligious sect, possessed in the country-would have
given extraordinary authority in the senate to one of
far inferior personal endowments. But when these
partly accidental circumstances were added to his
powers, and when the whole were used and applied
with the habits of industry which naturally belonged
to one of his extreme temperance in every respect, it
is difficult to imagine any one bringing a greater force
to the aid of any cause which he might espouse.
Wherefore, when he stood forward as the leader of
the Abolition, vowed implacable war against Slavery
and the Slave Trade, and consecrated his life to the ac-
complishment of its destruction, there was every ad-
vantage conferred upon this great cause, and the rather
that he held himself aloof from party connexion. A
few personal friends, united with him by similarity of
religious opinions, might be said to form a small party;
and they generally acted in concert, especially in all
matters relating to the Slave question. Of these,
Henry Thornton was the most eminent in every
respect. He was a man of strong understanding, great
powers of reasoning and of investigation, an accurate
and a curious observer, but who neither had cultivated
oratory at all, nor had received a refined education,
nor had extended his reading beyond the subjects con-
nected with moral, political, and theological learning.
The trade of a banker, which he followed, engrossed
much of his time; and his exertions both in Parlia-
MR. WILBERFORCE.
347
ment and through the press, were chiefly confined to
the celebrated controversy upon the currency, in which
his well-known work led the way, and to a bill for re-
stricting the Slave Trade to part of the African coast,
which he introduced when the Abolitionists were
wearied out with their repeated failures, and had well-
nigh abandoned all hopes of carrying the great measure
itself. That measure was fated to undergo much vexa-
tious delay, nor is there any great question of justice
and policy, the history of which is less creditable to
the British Parliament, or, indeed, to some of the
statesmen of this country, although upon it the fame
of others mainly rests.
When Mr. Wilberforce, following in Mr. Clarkson's
track, had, with matchless powers of eloquence, sus-
tained by a body of the clearest evidence, unveiled all
the horrors of a traffic which, had it been attended
with neither fraud nor cruelty of any kind, was, con-
fessedly, from beginning to end, not a commerce but
a crime, he was defeated by large majorities, year after
year. When, at length, for the first time, in 1804, he
carried the Abolition Bill through the Commons, the
Lords immediately threw it out; and the next year it
was again lost in the Commons. All this happened
while the opinion of the country was, with the single
exception of persons having West India connexions,
unanimous in favour of the measure. At different
times there was the strongest and most general expres-
sion of public feeling upon the subject, and it was a
question upon which no two men, endowed with rea-
son, could possibly differ, because, admitting whatever
could be alleged about the profits of the traffic, it was
not denied that the gain proceeded from pillage and
murder. Add to all this, that the enormous evil con-
tinued to disgrace the country and its legislature for
twenty years, although the voice of every statesman of
any eminence, Mr. Windham alone excepted, was
strenuously lifted against it,—although, upon this only
348
MR. WILBERFORCE.
question, Pitt, Fox, and Burke heartily agreed,-al-
though the finest of all Mr. Pitt's speeches were those
which he pronounced against it, and although every
press and every pulpit in the island habitually cried it
down. How are we, then, to account for the extreme
tenacity of life which the hateful reptile showed?
how to explain the fact that all those powerful hands
fell paralyzed and could not bring it to death? If
little honour redounds to the Parliament from this
passage in our history, and if it is thus plainly shown.
that the unreformed House of Commons but ill repre-
sented the country, it must also be confessed that Mr.
Pitt's conduct gains as little glory from the retrospect.
How could he, who never suffered any of his coadju-
tors, much less his underlings in office, to thwart his
will even in trivial matters he who would have cleared
any of the departments of half their occupants, had
they presumed to have an opinion of their own upon
a single item of any budget, or an article in the year's
estimates how could he, after shaking the walls of
the Senate with the thunders of his majestic eloquence,
exerted with a zeal which set at defiance all suspicions
of his entire sincerity, quietly suffer, that the object,
just before declared the dearest to his heart, should
be ravished from him when within his sight, nay,
within his reach, by the votes of the secretaries and
under-secretaries, the puisne lords and the other fry
of mere placemen, the pawns of his board? It is a
question often anxiously put by the friends of the
Abolition, never satisfactorily answered by those of
the Minister; and if any additional comment were
wanting on the darkest passage of his life, it is sup-
plied by the ease with which he cut off the Slave
traffic of the conquered colonies, an importation of
thirty thousand yearly, which he had so long suffered
to exist, though an order in Council could any day
have extinguished it. This he never thought of till
1805, and then, of course, the instant he chose, he
MR. WILBERFORCE.
349
destroyed it for ever with a stroke of his pen. Again,
when the Whigs were in power, they found the total
abolition of the traffic so easy, that the measure, in
pursuing which Mr. Pitt had for so many long years
allowed himself to be baffled, was carried by them
with only sixteen dissentient voices in a house of 250
members. There can then, unhappily, be but one
answer to the question regarding Mr. Pitt's conduct
on this great measure. He was, no doubt, quite sin-
cere, but he was not so zealous as to risk anything, to
sacrifice anything, or even to give himself any extra-
ordinary trouble for the accomplishment of his purpose.
The Court was decidedly against abolition; Geo. III.
always regarded the question with abhorrence, as
savouring of innovation, and innovation in a part of
his empire connected with his earliest and most rooted
prejudices, the Colonies. The courtiers took, as is
their wont, the colour of their sentiments from him.
The Peers were of the same opinion. Mr. Pitt had
not the enthusiasm for right and justice, to risk in
their behalf losing the friendship of the mammon of
unrighteousness; and he left to his rivals, when they
became his successors, the glory of that triumph in
the sacred cause of humanity, which should have illus-
trated his name, who in its defence had raised all the
strains of his eloquence to their very highest pitch.
350
MR. CANNING.
WHEN Mr. Pitt, in 1784, stood against the united
powers of the Coalition by the support of the court
and the people, in debate he had only Mr. Dundas,
and occasionally Mr. Wilberforce, to whom he could
look for assistance while attacked by Fox, Burke,
North, Sheridan, Erskine, Windham. But a younger
race afterwards grew up and came to his assistance;
and of these Mr. Canning was undoubtedly the first.
He was in all respects one of the more remarkable
persons who have lived in our times. Born with
talents of a high order, these had been cultivated with
an assiduity and success which placed him among the
accomplished scholars of his day; and he was only
inferior to others in the walks of science, from the
accident of the studies which Oxford cherished in his
time being pointed almost exclusively to classical
pursuits. But he was anything rather than a mere
scholar. In him were combined lively original fancy
-a happily retentive and ready memory-singular
powers of lucid statement-and occasionally wit in all
its varieties, now biting and sarcastic to annoy, if not
to overwhelm an antagonist-now pungent or giving
point to an argument-now playful for mere amuse-
ment, and bringing relief to a tedious statement, or
lending a charm to dry chains of close reasoning-
Erant ea in Philippo quæ, qui sine comparatione illo-
rum spectaret, satis magna dixerit; summa libertas in
oratione, multæ facetiæ; satis creber in reprehen-
dendis, solutus in explicandis sententiis; erat etiam
imprimis, ut temporibus illis, Græcis doctrinis insti-
MR. CANNING.
351
tutus, in altercando cum aliquo aculeo et maledicto
facetus.—(CIC., Brutus.) Superficial observers, daz-
zled by this brilliancy, and by its sometimes being
over-indulged, committed their accustomed mistake,
and supposed that he who could thus adorn his sub-
ject was an amusing speaker only, while he was help-
ing on the argument at every step, often making
skilful statements perform the office of reasoning, and
oftener still seeming to be witty when he was merely
exposing the weakness of hostile positions, and thus
taking them by the artillery of his wit. But in truth
his powers of ordinary reasoning were of a very high
order, and could not be excelled by the practised
master of dialectics. It was rather in the deep and
full measure of impassioned declamation in its legi-
timate combination with rapid argument, the highest
reach of oratory, that he failed; and this he rarely
attempted. Of his powers of argumentation, his ca-
pacity for the discussions of abstract science, his
genius for adorning the least attractive subjects,
there remains an imperishable record in his cele-
brated speeches upon the "Currency," of all his
efforts the most brilliant and the most happy.
This eminent person was for the most part not the
slave of mean or paltry passions, except what flowed
from his irritable and impatient temper; but a lofty
ambition inspired him; and had he not too early be-
come trained to official habits, he would have avoided
the distinguishing and fatal error of his life, an impres-
sion which clung to him from the desk, that no one
can usefully serve his country, or effectually further
his principles, unless he possesses the power which
place alone bestows. The traces of this belief are to
be seen in many of the most remarkable passages of
his life; and it even appears in the song with which
he celebrated the praise of his illustrious leader and
friend; for he treats as a fall Mr. Pitt's sacrificing
power to principle, at a time when, by retiring from
352
MR. CANNING.
office, he had earned the applause of millions. Mr.
Canning himself gave an example equally signal of
abandoning office rather than tarnish his fame; and
no act of his life can be cited which sheds a greater
lustre on his memory, than his retiring from the Go-
vernment rather than bear a part in the proceedings
against the Queen.
In private society he was amiable and attractive,
though, except for a very few years of his early youth,
he rarely frequented the circles of fashion, confining his
intercourse to an extremely small number of warmly
attached friends.* In all the relations of domestic life
he was blameless, and was the delight of his family,
as in them he placed his own.† His temper, though
naturally irritable and uneasy, had nothing petty or
spiteful in it; and as no one better knew how and
when to resent, so none could more readily or more
gracefully forgive.
It is supposed that, from his early acquaintance
with Mr. Sheridan and one or two other Whigs, he
originally had a leaning towards that side of the
question. But he entered into public life at a very
early age, under the auspices of Mr. Pitt, to whom he
continued steadily attached till his death; accompany-
ing him when he retired from power, and again quitting
office upon his decease. His principles were through-
out those of a liberal Tory, above the prejudices of the
* It is necessary to state this undoubted fact, that the folly of those
may be rebuked who have chosen to represent him as "a great diner-out."
It may be safely affirmed that none of those historians of the day ever
once saw him at table.
It is well known how much more attachment was conceived for his
memory by his family and his devoted personal friends than by his most
staunch political adherents. The friendships of statesmen are proverbially
of rotten texture; but it is doubtful if ever this rottenness was displayed
in a more disgusting manner than when the puny men of whose nostrils
he had been the breath, joined his worst enemies as soon as they had laid
him in the grave. It was said by one hardly ever related to him but in
open hostility, that "the gallantry of his kindred had rescued his memory
from the offices of his friends,”—in allusion to Lord Clanricarde's powerful
and touching appeal on that disgraceful occasion.
MR. CANNING.
353
bigots who have rendered Toryism ridiculous, and free
from the corruption that has sometimes made it hate-
ful. Imbued with a warm attachment to the ancient
institutions of the country, somewhat apt to overrate
the merits of mere antiquity, from his classical habits,
and from early association, he nevertheless partook
largely in the improved spirit of the age, and adopted
all reforms, except such as he conscientiously believed
were only dictated by a restless love of change, and
could do no good, or such as went too far, and threat-
ened revolution. But this was the posture into which
his opinions and principles may be said ultimately to
have subsided—these the bearings of his mind towards
the great objects of political controversy in the station.
which it finally took when the tempest of French con-
vulsion had ceased, and the barks of statesmen were
moored in still water. He began his career in the
most troublous period of the storm; and it happened
to him as to all men, that the tone of his sentiments
upon state affairs was very much influenced through
after times by the events which first awakened his
ambition, or directed his earliest pursuit of fame. The
atrocities of the French Jacobins-the thoughtless
violence of the extreme democratic party in this
country, reduced by the horror of those atrocities to
a small body—the spirit of aggression which the con-
duct of her neighbours had first roused in France, and
which unexampled victories soon raised to a pitch
that endangered all national independence-led Mr.
Canning, with many others who naturally were friendly
to liberty, into a course of hostility towards all change,
because they became accustomed to confound reforms
with revolution, and to dread nothing so much as the
mischiefs which popular violence had produced in
France, and with which the march of French conquest
threatened to desolate Europe. Thus it came to pass
that the most vigorous and the most active portion of
his life was passed in opposing all reforms; in patron-
2 A
354
MR. CANNING.
izing the measures of coercion into which Mr. Pitt
had, so unhappily for his fame and for his country,
been seduced by the alarms of weak, and by the
selfish schemes of unprincipled men; and in resisting
the attempts which the friends of peace persevered to
make for terminating hostilities, so long the curse, and
still by their fruits the bane of this empire,-attempts
that Mr. Pitt himself appears to have resisted much
less strenuously than his followers, and even on two
occasions to have zealously seconded.
It was not till the end of the war that his natural
good sense had its free scope, and he became aware
of the difference between Reforms, of which he ad-
mitted the necessity, and Revolution, against all risk
of which he anxiously guarded. He had early joined
Mr. Pitt on the Catholic question, and, while yet the
war raged, he had rendered incalculable service to the
cause of Emancipation, by devoting to it some of his
most brilliant efforts in the House of Commons. This,
and the accident of a contested election in a great
town bringing him more in contact with popular
feelings and opinions, contributed to the liberal course
of policy which he afterwards pursued on almost all
subjects. Upon one only question he continued firm
and unbending; he was the most uncompromising
adversary of all Parliamentary Reform,-resisting
even the least change in the representative system,
and holding that alteration once begun was fatal to its
integrity. This opposition to reform became the
main characteristic of the Canning party, and it re-
gulated their conduct on almost all questions. Before
1831, no exception can be perceived in their hostility
to reform, unless their differing with the Duke of
*
* During the short period of his brilliant administration, the question
of disfranchising a burgh, convicted of gross corruption, gave rise to the
only difference between him and Mr. Brougham, who was understood to
have mainly contributed towards that junction of the Whigs and liberal
Tories which dissolved and scattered the old and high Tory party; and a
division took place in which Mr. Canning was defeated.
MR. CANNING.
355
Wellington on East Retford can be regarded as such;
but, in truth, their avowed reason for supporting that
most insignificant measure was, that the danger of a
real and effectual reform might thereby be warded off.
The friends of Mr. Canning, who, in 1818, had been
joined by Lord Melbourne,* continued steady to the
same principles, until happily, on the formation of
Lord Grey's government, they entirely changed their
course, and became the advocates, with their reforming
colleagues, of a change, compared to which the great-
est reforms ever contemplated by Mr. Pitt and Mr.
Fox, or denounced by Mr. Burke and Mr. Canning,
hardly deserve to be classed among measures of in-
novation. No one can pronounce with perfect con-
fidence on the conduct which any statesman would
have pursued, had he survived the times in which he
flourished. But if such an opinion may ever with
safety be formed, it seems to be in the present case;
and it would require far more boldness to surmise that
Mr. Canning, or even Mr. Huskisson, would have
continued in the government after the 1st of March,
1831, than to affirm that nothing could ever have
induced such an alteration in their most fixed opinions
upon so momentous a question.
But while such was the strength of his opinions,—
prejudices as they seem,-on one great subject, on
almost all other matters, whether of foreign or do-
mestic policy, his views were liberal, and suited to the
spirit of the age, while he was a firm supporter of the
established constitution of the country. If ever man
was made for the service and the salvation of a party,
Mr. Canning seemed to have been raised up for that
of the Tories: if ever party committed a fatal error,
it was their suffering groundless distrust and unintelli-
* Lord Melbourne differed with the rest of the Canning party on this
point. He always opposed Reform, but held that if any was to be granted,
it must be in an ample measure; and he did not vote with them, but with
the government, on the Retiord question, although he resigned with them
upon that occasion.
356
MR. CANNING.
gible dislikes to estrange him from their side. At a
time when nothing but his powerful arm could recall
unity to their camp, and save them from impending
destruction, they not merely wilfully kindled the wrath
of Achilles, but resolved that he should no longer
fight on their side, and determined to throw away
their last chance of winning the battle. To him they
by general assent preferred Lord Castlereagh as their
leader, without a single shining quality except the
carriage and the manners of high birth: while Mr.
Canning, but for his accidental death, would have
ended his life as governor of a country where men
neither debate, nor write; where eloquence evaporates
in scores of paragraphs, and the sparkling of wit and
the cadence of rhyme are alike unknown.
The defects of Mr. Canning's character or of his
genius, though not trifling, were not many, nor those
difficult to discover. His irritable temper has been
noted: he had a love of trifling and a fondness for
indulging in pleasantry, more injurious to his estima-
tion with ordinary men than even his infirm temper.
Nothing could be more natural than that one who so
much excelled others in these lighter, more brilliant,
but hardly attainable qualities, should be prone to
exercise them overmuch; but they greatly marred the
effect of his more solid and important talents. Above
all, they enlarged the circle of his enemies, and
occasionally transferred to it the friends whom they
lost him. With the common run of ordinary mortals,
who compose the mass of every country-with the
plainer sort of men who form the bulk of every
audience, and who especially bear sway in their own
appointed place, the assembly that represents the
English people, it would have been contrary to
nature if one so lively, so fond of his joke, so careless
whom his merriment might offend, so ready to turn
the general laugh against any victim, had been
popular, nay, had failed to prove the object of
MR. CANNING.
357
suspicion, and even dislike. The duller portion over
whose heads his lighter missiles flew, were offended
with one who spoke so lightly; it was almost personal
to them if he jested, and a classical allusion was next
thing to an affront. "He will be laughing at the quorum
or talking metaphysics next," said the squire, represent-
ing a county. But even they who emulated him and
favoured his claims, did not much like the man who
had made them so merry, for they felt what it was
that they laughed at, and it might be their own turn
to-morrow.
That his oratory suffered very materially from this
self-indulgent habit, so hard to resist by him who
possesses the faculty of amusing his audience, and
can scarcely pause at the moment that he is exerting
it successfully, it would be incorrect to affirm. The
graver parts of his discourse were perfectly sustained;
they were unmixed with ribaldry; they were quite as
powerful in themselves as if they had not stood out
from the inferior matter and had not soared above it.
There is no doubt, however, that with an unreflecting
audience, their effect was somewhat confused by the
cross lights which the wit, occasionally bordering upon
drollery, shot over the canvas. But his declamation,
though often powerful, always beautifully ornate,
never deficient in admirable diction, was certainly not
of the highest class. It wanted depth: it came from
the mouth, not from the heart; and it tickled or even
filled the ear rather than penetrated the bosom of the
listener. The orator never seemed to forget himself
and be absorbed in his theme; he was not carried
away by his passions, and he carried not his audience
along with him. An actor stood before us, a first-rate
one no doubt, but still an actor; and we never forgot
that it was a representation we were witnessing, not a
real scene. The Grecian artist was of the second class
only, at whose fruit the birds pecked: while, on seeing
Parrhasius' picture, men cried out to have the curtain
358
MR. CANNING.
drawn aside. Mr. Canning's declamation entertained
his hearers, so artistly was it executed; but only an
inexperienced critic could mistake it for the highest
reach of the rhetorical art. The truly great orator is
he who carries away his hearer, or fixes his whole
attention on the subject-with the subject fills his
whole soul-than the subject, will suffer him to think
of no other thing-of the subject's existence alone will
let him be conscious, while the vehement inspiration
lasts on his own mind which he communicates to his
hearer and will only suffer him to reflect on the
admirable execution of what he has heard after the
burst is over, the whirlwind has passed away, and the
excited feelings have in the succeeding lull sunk into
repose.
The vice of this statesman's public principles was
much more pernicious in its influence upon his public
conduct than the defects which we have just remarked
were upon his oratory. Bred up in office from his
early years, he had become so much accustomed to its
pleasures that he felt uneasy when they were taken
from him. It was in him not a sordid propensity that
produced this frame of mind. For emolument, he felt
the most entire indifference; upon the management of
petty intrigue which is called jobbing, he looked down
with sovereign contempt. But his extraordinarily
active mind, impatient of rest, was only to be allayed
by occupation, and office afforded this at all hours,
and in boundless measure. His kind and friendly
nature, attaching him strongly to his associates, as it
strongly fixed their affections upon him, made him
feel uneasy at their exclusion from power, and desirous
to possess the means of gratifying them. Above all,
though a great debater, and breathing the air of
Parliament as the natural element of his being, he yet
was a man of action too, and would sway the counsels
as well as shake the senates of his country. He loved
debate for its exercise of his brilliant faculties; he
MR. CANNING.
359
loved
power for its own sake, caring less for display
than for gratification. Hence, when he retired from
office upon the dispute with Lord Castlereagh, (a
passage of his life much and unjustly blamed at the
time, but which, had it been ever so exactly as most.
men then viewed it, has in later times been cast into
the thickest shades of oblivion by acts far more
abominable and disgraceful,) and when he found
that, instead of a speedy return to power, he was
condemned to years of exclusion, his impatience led
him to the imprudent step of serving under his
successful rival on a foreign mission of an unimportant
cast. The uneasiness which he manifestly suffered in
retirement, even made him consent to the scheme of
more permanent expatriation,* which only the un-
happy death of Lord Castlereagh prevented from
taking effect. But these were rather matters affecting
the person than perverting the principles, or misguid
ing the conduct of the party. The unfortunate love
of power, carried too far, and felt so as to make the
gratification of it essential to existence, is ruinous to
the character of a statesman. It leads often to
abandonment of principle, constantly to unworthy
compromise; it subjects him to frequent dependence;
it lowers the tone of his mind, and teaches his spirit
to feed on the bitter bread of others' bounty; above
all, it occasionally severs him from his natural friends,
and brings him acquainted with strange and low
associates, whose natures, as their habits, are fit
objects of his scorn, and who have with him but one
thing in common, that they seek the same object with
himself—they for love of gain, he for lust of dominion.
"Tu lascerai ogni cosa diletta
Piu caramente, e questo e quello strale
Che l'arco d' esilio pria saetta;
Tu proverai come si sa di sale
Lo pane d'altrui, e come e duro calle
* As Governor-General of India.
360
MR. CANNING.
Lo scendere e il salir altrui scale,
E che il più ti gravera le spalle
Sara la compagnia malvagia e scempia
Che tu vedrai in questa valle!"†
To quit the objects loved most tenderly;
This is the shaft that Exile first lets fly.
Then shalt thou prove how bitter tastes the bread
Of others' bounty; and how hard to tread
Another's stair; and, from thy kindred torn,
Herd with the vilely bred, and basely born.
Men are apt to devise ingenious excuses for those
failings which they cherish most fondly, and if they
cannot close their eyes to them, had rather defend
than correct. Mr. Canning reasoned himself into a
belief which he was wont to profess, that no man can
serve his country with effect out of office: as if there
were no public in this country; as if there were no
Parliament; no forum; no press; as if the Govern-
ment were in the hands of a Vizier to whom the Turk
had given his signet-ring, or a favourite to whom the
Czarina had tossed her handkerchief; as if the
patriot's vocation had ceased and the voice of public
virtue were heard no more; as if the people were
without power over their rulers, and only existed to
be taxed and to obey! A more pernicious notion
never entered the mind of a public man, nor one more
fitted to undermine his public virtue. It may be made
the cloak for every species of flagitious and sordid
calculation; and what in him was only a sophistical
self-deception, or a mere illusion of dangerous self-
love, might have been, by the common herd of trading
politicians, used as the cover for every low, and
despicable, and unprincipled artifice. No errors are
so dangerous as those false theories of morals which
conceal the bounds between right and wrong; enable
Vice to trick herself out in the attire of Virtue; and
hide our frailties from ourselves by throwing around
them the garb of profound wisdom.
† Dante, Par. xvii,
MR. CANNING.
361
The havoc which this unceasing desire of place
made in Mr. Canning had always been observed by
those who saw his public conduct. But when his
adversaries railed against him as a perpetual and
restless intriguer, the charge coming in the company
of others known to be false against Mr. Pitt, was very
naturally set down among the list of mere party
inventions. The late publication of Lord Malmes-
bury's papers, however, must be admitted to give no
small support to this view of Mr. Canning's character.
Certainly, the account of his intrigues against Mr.
Addington must lower him in the estimation of all
men; and it rests upon evidence wholly above
suspicion, Lord Malmesbury seeing in him nothing
but what is good, and being his warm supporter; but
indeed the proof is found under Mr. Canning's own
hand. It would not be easy to find anything of a
more paltry kind in all the history of political intrigue,
than the attempt to drive Mr. Addington from office
by a manifesto against him, only unsigned because
Mr. Canning could get no one but a friend of his own
to sign it; and designed, he says himself, to be pre-
sented with a "prescript" (as he terms it), stating that
“the names were ready to be affixed," there being
only two such names thus ready. Nothing can be
more striking than the contrast which Mr. Pitt's
conduct at this period offered to Mr. Canning's: it is
dignified, frank, forbearing; kindly towards all, even
those he had some right to complain of; not unkindly
to Mr. Canning himself, though manifestly he dis-
approved of his proceedings, and was exceedingly
impatient under his ceaseless importunity. Indeed he
was compelled to give him more than one repulse;
and he even appears to have declined seeing him at
Walmer, that he might be spared his vexatious
activity. Of course, no one concerned in the pitiful
affair of the unsigned manifesto could venture upon
disclosing it to such a man as Mr. Pitt.
362
MR. CANNING.
It is truly to be lamented that Mr. Pitt should not
have kept himself as much aloof from the warlike and
anti-Gallican zeal of Mr. Canning, as he thus did
from his thirst for office. The refusal to treat with
Napoleon in 1800 must have proceeded from that
influence against which he was not yet on his guard;
for it was wholly at variance with all his former
conduct.*
Of Mr. Canning it may be justly observed, as of
Mr. Fox, that whatever errors he committed on other
questions, on the Abolition of the Slave Trade he was
undeviatingly true to sound principles and enlightened
policy. Respecting the questions connected with
Emancipation his course was by no means so com-
mendable; and in resisting the motion on the Mis-
sionary's case, 1824, he acted culpably as well as
feebly indeed; but of the Abolitionists he was at once
a strenuous and effective ally. It is understood that
he deeply lamented the contrast which Mr. Pitt's
proceedings on this great question presented to his
speeches; and he insisted on bringing forward a
motion against the policy of capturing colonies to
extend the Slave-traffic, when Mr. Pitt was in retire-
ment.
* The portion of the Malmesbury Correspondence chiefly referred to is
vol. iv. p. 103, 104; p. 119, 120, and p. 152. Lord Malmesbury carried
the low intrigue about the paper a step farther; at least he described it
more fully as intended, by concealing the poverty of the names subscribed,
to operate as a threat and a deceptious threat. Mr. Fitt's uneasiness
under Mr. Canning's restless impatience for office appears in a striking
manner. He plainly alludes to him and his operations when he complains
of the "zeal and the schemes of selfish people," and describes how he is
"disgusted and soured" as well as "beset by them."
363
SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.
How different from Mr. Pitt's conduct was that of
Lord Grenville, who no sooner acceded to office in
1806, than he encouraged all the measures which first
restrained, and then entirely abolished that infernal
traffic! The crown lawyers of his administration were
directed to bring in a bill for abolishing the foreign
slave-trade of our colonies, as well as all importation
into the conquered settlements-and when it is recol-
lected that Sir Samuel Romilly at that time added
lustre and gave elevation to the office of solicitor-
general, it may well be supposed that those duties
were duly and cheerfully followed both by him and by
his honest, learned, and experienced colleague, Sir
Arthur Pigott. It is fit that no occasion on which
Sir Samuel Romilly is named should ever be passed
over without an attempt to record the virtues and
endowments of so great and so good a man, for the
instruction of after ages.
Few persons have ever attained celebrity of name
and exalted station, in any country, or in any age,
with such unsullied purity of character, as this equally
eminent and excellent person. His virtue was stern
and inflexible, adjusted, indeed, rather to the rigorous
standard of ancient morality than to the less ambitious
and less elevated maxims of the modern code. But
in this he very widely differed from the antique model
upon which his character generally appeared to be
framed, and also very far surpassed it, that there was
nothing either affected or repulsive about him; and if
ever a man existed who would more than any other
364
SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.
have scorned the pitiful fopperies which disfigured the
worth of Cato, or have shrunk from the harsher virtue
of Brutus, Romilly was that man. He was, in truth,
a person of the most natural and simple manners, and
one in whom the kindliest charities and warmest feel-
ings of human nature were blended in the largest
measure with that firmness of purpose and unrelaxed
sincerity of principle, in almost all other men found to
be little compatible with the attributes of a gentle
nature and the feelings of a tender heart.
The observer who gazes upon his character is naturally
struck first of all with its most prominent feature, and
that is the rare excellence which we have now marked,
so far above every gift of the understanding, and which
throws the lustre of mere genius into the shade. But
his capacity was of the highest order. An extraor-
dinary reach of thought; great powers of attention
and of close reasoning; a memory quick and retentive;
a fancy eminently brilliant, but kept in perfect dis-
cipline by his judgment and his taste, which was nice,
cultivated, and severe, without any of the squeamish-
ness so fatal to vigour; these were the qualities which,
under the guidance of the most persevering industry,
and with the stimulus of a lofty ambition, rendered him
unquestionably the first advocate, and the most profound
lawyer, of the age he flourished in; placed him high
among the ornaments of the Senate; and would, in all
likelihood, have given him the foremost place among
them all, had not the occupations of his laborious pro-
fession necessarily engrossed a disproportionate share
of his attention, and made political pursuits fill a
subordinate place in the scheme of his life. Jurisperi-
torum disertissimus, disertorum vero jurisperitissimus.
As his practice, so his authority at the bar and with
the bench was unexampled; and his success in Parlia-
ment was great and progressive. Some of his speeches,
both forensic and Parliamentary, are nearly unrivalled
in excellence. The reply, even as reported in 11 Vesey,
SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.
365
junior, in the cause of Hugonin v. Beasley,* where
legal matters chiefly were in question, may give no
mean idea of his extraordinary powers. The last
speech that he pronounced in the House of Commons,
upon a bill respecting the law of naturalization, which
gave him occasion to paint the misconduct of the
expiring Parliament in severe and even dark colours,
was generally regarded as unexampled among the
efforts of his eloquence; nor can they who recollect
its effects ever cease to lament with tenfold bitterness
of sorrow, the catastrophe which terminated his life
and extinguished his glory, when they reflect that the
vast accession to his influence from being chosen for
Westminster, came at a time when his genius had
reached its amplest display, and his authority in Par-
liament, unaided by station, had attained the highest
eminence. The friend of public virtue, and the advo-
cate of human improvement, will mourn still more
sorrowfully over his urn than the admirers of genius,
or those who are dazzled by political triumphs. For
no one could know Romilly, and doubt that, as he
only valued his own success and his own powers, in
the belief that they might conduce to the good of
mankind, so each augmentation of his authority, each
step of his progress, must have been attended with
some triumph in the cause of humanity and justice.
True, he would at length, in the course of nature, have
ceased to live; but then the bigot would have ceased
to persecute the despot to vex-the desolate poor
to suffer the slave to groan and tremble-the ignorant
to commit crimes-and the ill-contrived law to en-
gender criminality.
On these things all men are agreed; but if a more
distinct account be desired of his eloquence, it must
be said that it united all the more severe graces of
* A case very near resembling this, Macabe v. Hussey, was argued in
the House of Lords in October, 1831, by Mr. O'Connell, and his argument
was a masterpiece, according to the judgment of those who heard it.
366
SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.
oratory, both as regards the manner and the substance.
No man argued more closely when the understanding
was to be addressed; no man declaimed more power-
fully when indignation was to be aroused or the feel-
ings moved. His language was choice and
pure; his
powers of invective resembled rather the grave autho-
rity with which the judge puts down a contempt, or
punishes an offender, than the attack of an advocate
against his adversary and his equal. His imagination
was the minister whose services were rarely required,
and whose mastery was never for an instant admitted.
His sarcasm was tremendous, nor always very sparingly
employed. His manner
His manner was perfect, in voice, in
figure, in a countenance of singular beauty and dignity;
nor was anything in his oratory more striking or more
effective than the heartfelt sincerity which it through-
out displayed, in topic, in diction, in tone, in look, in
gesture. "In Scauri oratione sapientis hominis et
recti, gravitas summa, et naturalis quædam inerat
auctoritas, non ut causam, sed ut testimonium dicere
putares. Significabat enim non prudentiam solum, sed,
quod maxime rem continebat, fidem."*
Considering his exalted station at the bar, his pure
and unsullied character, and the large space which he
filled in the eye of the country, men naturally looked
for his ascent to the highest station in the profession
of which he was, during so many years, the ornament
and the pride. Nor could any one question that he
would have presented to the world the figure of a
consummate judge. He alone felt any doubt upon the
extent of his own judicial qualities; and he has re-
corded in his journal (that invaluable document in
which he was wont to set down freely his sentiments
on men and things) a modest opinion, expressing his
apprehension, should he ever be so tried, that men
would say of him “
of him “Capax imperii nisi imperasset.”
* Cic., Brutus.
SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.
367
With this single exception, offering so rare an instance
of impartial self-judgment, and tending of itself to its
own refutation, all who had no interest in the elevation
of others, have held his exclusion from the supreme.
place in the law, as one of the heaviest items in the price
paid for the factious structure of our practical govern-
ment.
In his private life and personal habits he exhibited
a model for imitation, and an object of unqualified
esteem. All his severity was reserved for the forum
and the senate, when vice was to be lashed, or justice
vindicated, the public delinquent exposed, or the na-
tional oppressor overawed. In his family and in
society, where it was his delight, and the only reward
of his unremitting labours, to unbend, he was amiable,
simple, natural, cheerful. The vast resources of his
memory, the astonishing economy of time, by which
he was enabled to read almost every work of interest
that came from the press of either his hereditary or
his native country, either France or England, the
perfect correctness of his taste, refined to such a pitch
that his pencil was one of no ordinary power, and his
verses, when once or twice only he wrote poetry, were
of great merit,his freedom from affectation,—the
wisdom of not being above doing ordinary things in
the ordinary way,-all conspired to render his society
peculiarly attractive, and would have made it courted
even had his eminence in higher matters been far less
conspicuous. While it was the saying of one political
adversary, the most experienced and correct observer*
among all the parliamentary men of his time, that he
never was out of his place while Romilly spoke, with-
out finding that he had cause to lament his absence,
it was the confession of all who were admitted to his
private society, that they forgot the lawyer, the orator,
and the patriot, and had never been aware, while
* Mr. Charles Long, afterwards Lord Farnborough.
368
SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.
gazing on him with admiration, how much more he
really deserved that tribute than he appeared to do
when seen from afar.
If defects are required to be thrown into such a
sketch, and are deemed as necessary as the shades in
a picture, or, at least, as the more subdued tones of
some parts for giving relief to others, this portraiture
of Romilly must be content to remain imperfect. For
what is there on which to dwell for blame, if it be not
a proneness to prejudice in favour of opinions resem-
bling his own, a blindness to the defects of those who
held them, and a prepossession against those who held
them not? While there is so very little to censure,
there is unhappily much to deplore. A morbid sensi-
bility embittered many hours of his earlier life, and
when deprived of the wife whom he most tenderly and
justly loved, contributed to bring on an inflammatory
fever, in the paroxysm of which he untimely met his
end.
The Letter of Mr. Brougham, on Abuse of Charities,
was communicated in manuscript to him while attend-
ing the sick bed of that excellent person, whose loss
brought on his own. It tended to beguile some of
those sorrowful hours, the subject having long deeply
engaged his attention; and it was the last thing that
he read. His estimate of its merits was exceedingly
low; at least he said he was sure no tract had ever
been published on a more dry subject, or was likely to
excite less attention. The interest of the subject, how-
ever, was much undervalued by him; for the letter
ran through eight editions in the month of October.*
That he highly approved of the labours of the Edu-
cation Committee, however, and that the conduct of
its Chairman shared fully in his approval, there can be
* The last book of any importance read by him was Mr. Hallam's first
great work, of which he justly formed the highest opinion, and recom-
mended the immediate perusal of it to the author of the letter, as a contrast
to that performance, in respect of the universal interest of the subject.
SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY.
369
།
The
no doubt. In the last will which he made, there is a
warm expression of personal regard and a strong
testimony to public merits, accompanying a desire that
his friend would join with another whom he had long
known intimately, and whom he consequently most
highly and most justly esteemed, Mr. Whishaw, in
performing the office of literary executor.
manuscripts which he left were numerous and impor-
tant. The most interesting are the beautiful Sketches
of his early life, and the Journal to which reference
has already been made. But his commentaries upon
subjects connected with jurisprudence are those of the
greatest value; for they show that most of the reforms
of which he maintains the expediency, have since his
decease been adopted by the Legislature; and they
thus form a powerful reason for adopting those others
which he recommends, and which are not now less
favoured by the general opinion of mankind than were
the former class at the early period when he wrote.
The injunction to his friends contained in his will, was
truly characteristic of the man. He particularly desired
them, in determining whether or not the manuscripts
should be published, only to regard the prospect there
was of their being in any degree serviceable to man-
kind, and by no means to throw away a thought upon
any injury which the appearance of such unfinished
works might do to his literary character. Whoever
knew him, indeed, was well persuaded that in all his
exertions his personal gratification never was for a
moment consulted, unless as far as whatever he did, or
whatever he witnessed in others, had a relish for him
exactly proportioned to its tendency towards the
establishment of the principles which formed as it were
a part of his nature, and towards the promotion of
human happiness, the grand aim of all his views.
This is that colleague and comrade whose irreparable
loss his surviving friends have had to deplore, through
all their struggles for the good cause in which they
2 B
370
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
66
had stood by his side; a loss which each succeeding
day renders heavier and harder to bear, when the
misconduct of some, and the incapacity of others, so
painfully recall the contrast of one whose premature
end gave the first and the only pang that had ever
come from him; and all his associates may justly
exclaim in the words of Tully regarding Hortensius,
'Augebat etiam molestiam, quod magnâ sapientium
civium bonorumque penuriâ, vir egregius, conjunc-
tissimusque mecum consiliorum omnium societate,
alienissimo reipublicæ tempore extinctus, et auctori-
tatis, et prudentiæ suæ triste nobis desiderium reli-
querat: dolebamque, quod non, ut plerique putabant,
adversarium, aut obtrectatorem laudum mearum, sed
socium potius et consortem gloriosi laboris amiseram."
And here for a moment let us pause. We have
been gazing on the faint likenesses of many great men.
We have been traversing a Gallery, on either side of
which they stand ranged. We have made bold in
that edifice to "expatiate and confer the State affairs”
of their age. Cognizant of its history, aware of the
principles by which the English chiefs are marshalled,
sagacious of the springs that move the politic wheel
whose revolutions we contemplate, it is an easy thing
for us to comprehend the phenomenon most remark-
ably presented by those figures and their arrangement;
nor are we led to stare aghast at that which would
astound any mind not previously furnished with the
ready solution to make all plain and intelligible. But
suppose some one from another hemisphere, or another
world, admitted to the spectacle which we find so
familiar, and consider what would be its first effect
upon his mind. "Here," he would say, "stand the
choicest spirits of their age; the greatest wits, the
noblest orators, the wisest politicians, the most illus-
trious patriots. Here they stand, whose magical
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
371
eloquence has shook the spheres, whose genius has
poured out strains worthy the inspiration of the gods,
whose lives were devoted to the purity of their
principles, whose memories were bequeathed to a
race grateful for benefits received from their sufferings
and their sacrifices. Here stand all these "lights of
the world and demigods of fame;" but here they
stand not ranged on one side of this Gallery. Having
served a common country, with the same bright object
in their view, their efforts were divided, not united;
they fiercely combated each other, and not together
assailed some common foe;
common foe; their great exertions
were bestowed, their more than mortal forces were
expended, not in furthering the general good, not in
resisting their country's enemies, but in conflicts
among themselves; and all their triumphs were won
over each other, and all their sufferings were endured
at each other's hands!"—"Is it," the unenlightened
stranger would add, "a reality that I survey, or a
troubled vision that mocks my sight? Am I indeed
contemplating the prime of men amongst a rational
people, or the Coryphei of a band of mimes? Or,
haply, am I admitted to survey the cells of some
hospital appointed for the insane; or is it, per-
adventure, the vaults of some pandemonium through
which my eyes have been suffered to wander till my
vision aches, and my brain is disturbed?"
Thus far the untutored native of some far-distant
wild on earth, or the yet more ignorant inhabitant of
some world, remote "beyond the solar walk or Milky
Way." We know more; we apprehend things better.
But let us, even in our pride of enlightened wisdom,
pause for a moment to reflect on this most anomalous
state of things, this arrangement of political affairs
which systematically excludes at least one-half of the
great men of each age from their country's service,
and devotes both classes infinitely more to maintaining
a conflict with one another than to furthering the
372
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
general good. And here it may be admitted at once
that nothing can be less correct than their view, who
regard the administration of affairs as practically in
the hands of only one-half the nation, whilst the
excluded portion is solely occupied in thwarting their
proceedings. The influence of both Parties is exerted,
and the movement of the state machine partakes of
both the forces impressed upon it; neither taking the
direction of the one nor of the other, but a third line
between both. This concession, no doubt, greatly
lessens the evil; but it is very far indeed from
removing it. Why must there always be this exclu-
sion, and this conflict? Does not every one immedi-
ately perceive how it must prove detrimental to the
public service in the great majority of instances; and
how miserable a make-shift for something better and
more rational it is, even where it does more good
than harm? Besides, if it requires a constant and
systematic opposition to prevent mischief, and keep
the machine of state in the right path, of what use
is our boasted representative government, which is
designed to give the people a control over their rulers,
and serves no other purpose at all? Let us for a
moment consider the origin of this system of Party,
that we may the better be able to appreciate its value
and to comprehend its manner of working.
The Origin of Party may be traced by fond theorists
and sanguine votaries of the system, to a radical dif-
ference of opinions and principle; to the "idem sentire
de republica” which has at all times marshalled men in
combinations or split them in oppositions; but it is
pretty plain to any person of ordinary understanding,
that a far less romantic ground of union and of
separation has for the most part existed-the in-
dividual interests of the parties; the idem velle atque
idem nolle; the desire of power and of plunder, which,
as all cannot share, each is desirous of snatching and
holding. The history of English party is as certainly
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
373
that of a few great men and powerful families on the
one hand, contending for place and power, with a few
others on the opposite quarter, as it is the history of
the Plantagenets, the Tudors, and the Stuarts. There
is nothing more untrue than to represent principle as
at the bottom of it; interest is at the bottom, and the
opposition of principle is subservient to the opposition
of interest. Accordingly, the result has been, that
unless perhaps where a dynasty was changed, as in
1688, and for some time afterwards, and excepting on
questions connected with this change, the very same
conduct was held and the same principles professed
by both Parties when in office and by both when in
opposition. Of this we have seen sufficiently remark-
able instances in the course of the foregoing pages.
The Whig in opposition was for retrenchment and for
peace; transplant him into office, he cared little for
either. Bills of coercion, suspensions of the constitu-
tion, were his abhorrence when propounded by Tories;
in place, he propounded them himself. Acts of in-
demnity and of attainder were the favourites of the
Tory in power; the Tory in opposition was the enemy
of both. The gravest charge ever brought by the
Whig against his adversary was the personal pro-
scription of an exalted individual to please a King;
the worst charge that the Tory can level against the
Whig is the support of a proscription still less
justifiable to please a Viceroy.
It cannot surely in these circumstances be deemed
extraordinary that plain men, uninitiated in the Aris-
tocratic Mysteries whereof a rigid devotion to Party
forms one of the most sacred, should be apt to see a
very different connexion between principle and faction
from the one usually put forward; and that without
at all denying a relation between the two things, they
should reverse the account generally given by Party
men, and suspect them of taking up principles in order
to marshal themselves in alliances and hostilities for
374
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
their own interests, instead of engaging in those
contests because of their conflicting principles. In a
word, there seems some reason to suppose that interest
having really divided them into bands, principles are
professed for the purpose of better compassing their
objects by maintaining a character and gaining the
support of the people.
That to a certain degree this is true, we think
can hardly be doubted, although it is also impossible
to deny that there is a plain line of distinction.
between the two great Parties which formerly pre-
vailed in this country upon one important point, the
foundations and extent of the Royal Prerogative. But
that this line can now be traced it would be absurd to
pretend. Mr. Pitt, and even Lord North, had no
other opinions respecting kingly power than Mr. Fox
or Mr. Burke; and the rival theories of Sir Robert
Filmer and Mr. Locke were as obsolete during the
American war as they are at this day. Then have
not men, since Jacobitism and Divine Right were
exploded, generally adopted opinions upon the
practical questions of the day in such a manner as to
let them conveniently co-operate with certain acts of
statesmen and oppose others; join some family
interests together in order to counterbalance some
other family interests; league themselves in bodies to
keep or to get power in opposition to other bands
formed with a similar view? This surely will not,
upon a calm review of the facts, be denied by any one
whose judgment is worth having.
Observe how plainly the course pursued by one
class dictates that to be taken by the other. There
must be combinations, and there must be oppositions;
and therefore things to differ upon, as well as things
to agree upon, must needs be found. Thus, the King
is as hostile as bigotry and prerogative can make him
to American liberty, and his ministers support him in
the war to crush it. This throws the opposition upon
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
375
the liberal side of the question, without which they
can neither keep together nor continue to resist the
ministry. Is any man so blind as seriously to believe
that, had Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox been the Ministers
of George III. they would have resigned rather than
try to put down the Americans? If so, let him open
his eyes, and ask himself another simple question,
What Minister would ever volunteer his advice to
dismember the empire? But if that fails to convince
him, let him recollect that the American war had
raged for years before the word "Separation" crossed
the lips of any man in either House of Parliament—all
the attacks were made upon the ill-treatment of our
fellow-subjects, and the mismanagement of the war;
the Whigs would have been more kind rulers and
better generals, but only in order to prevent the last
of calamities-Separation and Independence. Nay,
the same Party being now in power, have avowed
towards Canada the very principles upon which Lord
North carried on the former contest. The Tories may
perhaps allege that they have of late been more con-
sistent.
+
Take another instance. While the Whigs were out
of office, the same King's bigotry refused to emancipate
the Roman Catholics. It would be a strong thing to
hold, that the Party which was always distinguished
for its hatred of Romanism, and which had founded its
power of old on the penal laws, must of necessity
have taken an opposite view of this question because
circumstances had changed and those laws had become
unnecessary, and because the King, supposing them
to have been his servants, would have adhered to the
ancient Whig tenets. But when, in opposition them-
selves, they found some millions ready to rally against
the Court, and saw their adversaries, the Ministers of
the day, siding with the King, they never hesitated a
moment in taking their line, and fought gallantly till
the battle was won. Without affirming that the
376
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
altered view of the question was wholly caused by the
position of Parties, and dictated by the Ministers
taking the other line, we may at least assert, without
any fear of contradiction, that the promptitude with
which the change was made by the leaders is traceable
to this source; and that their having the power to
make their less liberal and enlightened followers in the
country join them, doing violence to their most rooted
prejudices, can in no other way be accounted for than
by referring to the operation of Party tactics. Indeed,
this operation alone can explain the phenomenon of the
two great factions having changed sides on the whole
question; the Tories taking the very part now which
the Whigs did in the days of the Somers, the Marl-
boroughs, the Godolphins, and somewhat earlier, in
the times of the Russells and the Sidneys. The
solution of the enigma is to be found chiefly in the
accidental circumstance of the Parties having at the
two different periods been in opposite positions—the
Whigs in power at one time, the Tories at the other,
and the Crown holding the same course in each case.
The only other circumstance that exists to modify this
conclusion, is, that the principles of the Whig families
at the Revolution led to their being in power;
although it would be a bold thing to assert that, if the
Tory families had been preferred, through some
accident of personal favour, by William and Anne, the
Whig families then in opposition would have sup-
ported the penal code; or even that, if George I. had
turned his back upon them, and courted their adver-
saries, they would have kept quite clear of Jacobite
connexions, which some of the most distinguished, as
it was, are well known to have formed.
Nor is there much reason to suppose that had the
Parties changed positions in 1792, the Whigs would,
as a matter of course, have been against the war.
Half the Party were found to be the most strenuous
advocates of a rupture with France, and their accession
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
377
to office as a body followed this avowal. The whole
could not pursue the same course; and Mr. Pitt
having unhappily declared for war, the opposition was
for peace. If any one feels very confident that the
great men whom we have been contemplating in their
glorious resistance to that ruinous contest, would have
maintained peace at all hazards, including a quarrel
with the Aristocracy and the Court, had they been
George III.'s Ministers, we beseech him to consider
how little disposed they showed themselves, after
Mr. Pitt's death, to make sacrifices for the great object.
of pacification, and how forward they were in gratify-
ing the King's prejudices on Hanover, which their
new leader declared was as much a British interest as
Hampshire. One thing is certain enough,-had the
Whigs joined the King and the aristocracy in making
war, Mr. Pitt would have been as strenuous an apostle
of peace as ever preached that holy word.
If the new line of distinction which now severs the
two sets of men be observed, little doubt will be cast
upon our former conclusions. The one is for reform,
the other against it. But the old Whig Party were
always very lukewarm reformers: one section of them.
were its most bitter enemies-the rest, with few ex-
ceptions, its very temperate supporters. Even Mr.
Fox's reform of Parliament would have gone into a
mighty narrow compass. But there rests no kind of
doubt on this as well as other principles having been
rather the consequence than the cause of Party dis-
tinctions; for when Mr. Pitt in opposition, and after-
wards in office, brought forward the question, he re-
ceived a very moderate and divided support from the
Whigs; and no small part of the Government which
carried the question in 1831, and of the present Re-
form Government, are Tories who had before been
strenuously opposed to all changes whatever in our
parliamentary system. That the same Ministry of
1831 was substantially Whig, and carried the question
378
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
by a far greater effort than ever Mr. Pitt made for its
advancement, is not to be doubted. But their influ-
ence, nay their existence depended upon it: they
gained more by it, as a Party, than by any other
course they could have gained. This then can form
no exception whatever to the position that, when par-
ties are formed mainly for the purpose of obtaining
and retaining power, they adopt principles, and act
upon them, with a view to serve this main object of
the Party union. The people in a country like this
have their weight as well as the Court and aristocracy,
and their opinions and feelings must be consulted by
Party leaders in order to gain their support. What-
ever insincerity there may be in the latter, however
they may be suspected of professing opinions for the
purpose of their policy, the people can have no such
sinister motives. Hence a Party may take popular
ground when in opposition with the view of defeating
the Court, and it may also take the same ground in
office to fortify itself against a hostile Court or a
generally unfriendly aristocracy.
This induction of facts is incomplete, if the instantia
negativa, the converse proof, be wanting, of cases
where great principles not espoused by Parties, nor
made matter of Party manoeuvring, have had a differ-
ent fate. Unhappily there are comparatively very
few questions of importance which have enjoyed this
exemption. One of the greatest of all, however, the
Slave Trade, is of the number; the Abolition having
been first taken up by Thomas Clarkson, a Foxite in
opinion, and in Parliament by Mr. Wilberforce, a friend.
of Mr. Pitt (but neither of them Party men), was
never made the subject of Party distinction. Hence,
the men of both sides were divided on it, according
to the colours of their real opinions, and not of their
Party differences: nor was it ever either supported or
opposed by the marshalled strength of faction. The
doctrines of Free Trade and the amendment of the
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
379
Criminal Law furnish other instances of the same rare
description. No one can be at any loss to perceive
how very differently these questions have been handled
from the Party ones to which we before adverted.
No one can be at a loss to perceive how much truth
has gained by the remarkable diversity.
pre-
We have hitherto been referring to the fate of great
principles, of general questions; but the same will
be found to have been the treatment of subjects more
personal and accidental. Mr. Pitt, after a short co-
operation with the Whigs, sacrificed them to the
judices of the King and returned to power, while they
retired to their opposition places and habits. If, in-
stead of this result, the negociations of 1804 had led
to a junction of the two great Parties, he is a bold
man who will take upon himself to affirm that the
Whigs would on the Treasury Bench have read Lord
St. Vincent's famous 10th Report with the same eyes.
which glared upon Lord Melville from the opposite
side of the House, and conducted them to the impeach-
ment of that Minister a few months afterwards. Again,
the greatest personal question that ever distracted ra-
ther than divided the country, was the treatment of
the Queen in 1820. Had the Whigs then been in
office under George IV., as they were in habits of
Party connexion with him in 1806, would they have.
been so strenuous in opposing his favourite Bill of
Pains and Penalties? It would be a very adven-
turous thing to assert anything of the kind, when we
recollect how unreservedly they lent themselves in
1806 to the first persecution of the ill-fated Queen by
the "Delicate Investigation," as it was most inappro-
priately called, which they conducted in secret and
behind the back of the accused. The Tories were
then in opposition to the Prince and to the Whig min-
istry; and they bitterly denounced that secret pro-
ceeding. Who can doubt that had the Whigs in 1820
been the ministers and proposed the Bill, it would
380
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
have found as strenuous opposition from the Tories as
this Bill found from the Whigs? But are we left to
our conjectures upon this point? No such matter.
The Tories are now in opposition; the Whigs in office;
and a bill of attainder has been defended by the Whigs
and opposed by the Tories, having for its avowed ob-
ject to banish men from their country without a trial,
or a hearing, or even a notice; and accomplishing this
object by declaring their entrance within their land a
capital offence. Had the Whigs in power brought
forward a bill to exile the Queen without hearing her,
and to declare her landing in England high treason,
we have a right to affirm that the Tories being in
opposition would have strenuously resisted such a
measure. Two cases more parallel can hardly be
imagined; for there was a charge of treason in both;
there was the temporary absence of the party accused;
there was a riot or tumult expected upon that party's
return; there was the wish to prevent such a return;
and there was no desire in either the one case or the
other to shed a drop of blood, but only a wish to gain
the object by a threat. On the other hand, have the
Tories any right to affirm that if they had chanced to
be in power when the Canada affairs were to be settled,
no bills of attainder would have been passed? The
forms of law might have been more artificially and
skilfully preserved; but that the principles of substan-
tial justice would have been better maintained towards
Papineau and his adherents in 1838 than they were
towards Queen Caroline in 1820, we have no right
whatever to believe. The Bill of 1820 is the great
blot upon their public character, the worst passage by
far in the history of their Party; and they must have
felt while they assented to its iniquities and plunged
the country into the most imminent dangers, that they
were yielding to the vilest caprices of an unprincipled
and tyrannical master.
It must not be supposed that those who concur in
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
381
these general remarks upon Party are pronouncing a
very severe censure upon all public men in this coun-
try, or placing themselves vainly on an eminence
removed from strife, and high above all vulgar con-
tentions-
Despicere unde queas alios, passimque videre,
Errare, atque viam palanteis quærere vitæ
LUCRET. II.
The blame now cast upon politicians affects them all
equally; and is only like that which ethical reasoners
on the selfish theory of morals may be supposed to
throw upon all human conduct. In fact that blame
applies not to individuals, but to the system; and that
system is proved to be bad;-hurtful to the interests
of the country, corrupting to the people, injuricus to
honest principle, and at the very best a clumsy con-
trivance for carrying on the affairs of the State.
It is partly the result of our monarchical constitution,
in which the prince must rule by influence rather than
prerogative; but it is much more to be derived from
the aristocratical portion of the constitution—a portion
necessarily belonging to our limited monarchy, and
productive of evils which materially lessen the benefits
derived from them. The great families in their strug-
gles with each other and against the Crown, have re-
course to Party leagues, and the people are from time
to time drawn into the conflict. The evils which flow
from this manner of conducting public affairs are mani-
fest. The two greatest unquestionably are, first, the loss
of so many able men to the service of the country, as
well as the devotion of almost the whole powers of all
leading men to party contests, and the devotion of a
portion of these men to obstructing the public service
instead of helping it; and next, the sport which, in
playing the party game, is made of the most sacred
principles, the duping of the people, and the assump-
tion of their aristocratic leaders to dictate their opin-
ions to them. It is a sorry account of any political
382
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
machine that it is so constructed, as only to be kept
in order by the loss of power and the conflict of forces
which the first of these faults implies. It is a clumsy
and unwieldy movement which can only be effected
by the combined operation of jarring principles, which
the panegyrists or rather apologists of these anomalies
have commended. But it is a radical vice in any sys-
tem to exclude the people from forming their own
opinions, which must, if proceeding from their own
impulses, be kept in strict accordance with their inter-
ests, that is, with the general good; and it is a flaw,
if possible, still more disastrous, to render the people
only tools and instruments of an oligarchy, instead of
making their power the main spring of the whole
engine, and their interest the grand object of all its
operations.
Of this we may be well assured, that as Party has
hitherto been known amongst us, it can only be borne
during the earlier stages of a nation's political growth.
While the people are ignorant of their interests, and
as little acquainted with their rights as with their du-
ties, they may be treated by the leading factions as
they have hitherto been treated by our own.
God be
praised, they are not now what they were in the palmy
days of factious aristocracy, of the Walpoles, and the
Foxes, and the Pelhams-never consulted, and never
thought of unless when it was desirable that one mob
should bawl out "Church and King," and another
should echo back "No Pope, and no Pretender."
They have even made great advances since the close
of the American war, and the earlier periods of the
French Revolution, when, through fear of the Catho-
lics, the library of Lord Mansfield, and through hatred
of the Dissenters, the apparatus of Dr. Priestley, were
committed to the flames. Their progress is now rapid,
and their success assured in the attainment of all that
can qualify them for self-government, emancipate them
from pupilage, and entitle them to undertake the man-
EFFECTS OF PARTY.
383
agement of their own affairs.
Nor will they any
more suffer leading men to make up their opinions.
for them, as doctors do the prescriptions which they
are to take, or consent to be the tools and the dupes
of party any more.
384
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
JUNIUS-ANONYMOUS SLANDER.
THE purpose of the following observations is to rescue
the memory of an able, an amiable, and an honourable
man, long engaged in the public service, both as a
minister, a negotiator, and a viceroy,* long filling,
like all his illustrious house, in every age of our history,
an exalted place among the champions of our free
constitution, from the obloquy with which a licentious
press loaded him when living, and from which it is in
every way discreditable to British justice, that few if
any attempts have, since his death, been made to
counteract the effects of calumny, audaciously in-
vented, and repeated till its work of defamation was
done, and the falsehood of the hour became con-
founded with historical fact.
Beside the satisfaction of contributing to frustrate
injustice, and deprive malice of its prey, there is this
benefit to be derived from the inquiry upon which I
am about to enter. We shall be enabled to test the
* He was in 1744, when thirty-four years of age, first Lord of the
Admiralty, in which capacity he brought forward Keppel, Howe, and
Rodney. In 1748 he became Secretary of State, and continued in that
office till 1751. In 1756 he went to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, and
remained there with extraordinary popularity till 1761, when he was
made Lord Privy Seal. Next year he went as Ambassador to Paris, and
after his return was made President of the Council. He retained this
office till 1766. He was in 1768 chosen Chancellor of the University of
Dublin; and died in 1771. All who have ever spoken of this excellent
person, with the exception of Junius, have praised his frank and honest
nature, wholly void of all dissimulation and all guile; and have borne a
willing testimony to the soundness of his judgment, as well as his
unshaken firmness of purpose.
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
385
claims of a noted slanderer to public confidence, and
to ascertain how little he is worthy of credit in his
assaults upon other reputations. But we shall also be
enabled to estimate the value of the class to which he
belongs, the body of unknown defamers who, lurking
in concealment, bound by no tie of honour, influenced
by no regard for public opinion, feeling no sense of
shame, their motives wholly inscrutable, gratifying, it
may be, some paltry personal spite, or actuated by
some motive too sordid to be avowed by the most
callous of human beings, vent their calumnies against
men whose whole lives are before the world, who
in vain would grapple with the nameless mob of their
slanderers, but who, did they only know the hand from
whence the blows are levelled, would very possibly
require no other defence than at once to name their
accuser. That the efforts of this despicable race have
sometimes prevailed against truth and justice; that
the public, in order to indulge their appetite for abuse.
of eminent men, have suffered the oft-repeated lie to
pass current without sifting its value, and have be-
lieved what was boldly asserted, with the hardly-
credible folly of mistaking for the courage of truth,
the cheap daring of concealed calumniators, cannot
be doubted. The effects produced by the vituperation
of Junius upon the reputation of the Duke of Bedford
would at once refute any one who should assert the
contrary. It becomes of importance then to prove
how entirely groundless all his charges were; to show
how discreditable it was to the people of this country
that they should be led astray by such a guide; and
to draw from this instance of delusion a lesson and a
warning against lending an ear to plausible, and
active, and unscrupulous calumniators.
Before proceeding with our subject, however, we
may stop to consider an example of the effect pro-
duced upon public opinion, even permanently, by the
invention of some phrase easily remembered, and
2 C
386
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
tending to preserve the malignity of the fiction by the
epigram that seems in some sort to embalm an other-
wise perishable slander. At a moment of great popu-
lar excitement (July, 1769), the Livery of the city of
London presented an address to the Sovereign, in
which they closed a long list of grievances with the
statement that "instead of punishment, honours had
been bestowed upon a paymaster, the public defaulter
of unaccounted millions." The recent elevation to the
peerage of Henry Fox, the first Lord Holland, lately
Paymaster of the Forces, was plainly here signified;
and it is a humiliating reflection to those who justly
prize public opinion, that it should be the sport and
the dupe of such audacious impostures. For it is vain
to deny that the epithet here bestowed upon that
statesman has, in a certain degree, clung to his
memory, and given an impression injurious to the
purity of his character. The calumny being pro-
mulgated by an irresponsible body, and in an address
to the throne, no proceedings at law were possible, at
least none that would not have been attended with
extreme difficulty in a technical view. Lord Holland,
however, lost no time in giving the tale his most per-
emptory contradiction, and by an appeal to facts as
notorious to all the world as the sun at noon-day-tide.
The falsehood, like most others, rested upon a truth,
but a truth grossly perverted. The moneys which
had passed through the Paymaster's hands were, in
one sense, wholly unaccounted; that is, the accounts.
of his office had not yet been wound up; but they
had been delivered in, were under the examination of
the auditors, and awaited the final report of these
functionaries. It was shown that those accounts,
which extended over the years 1757, 1758, and 1759,
had reference to military expeditions in many distant
parts of the globe, and that they related to a larger
expenditure than in any former war had ever been in-
curred. Yet they were declared nine years after they
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
387
closed. But Mr. Winnington's for 1744, 1745, and
1746, were only declared in 1760, or fourteen years
after their close; and Lord Chatham's, which closed in
1755, were not declared in 1769. It is also to be
observed, that Lord Chatham had ceased to hold the
office in 1755, and had not declared his accounts
fourteen years after; whereas Lord Holland had only
resigned the paymastership three years and a-half
before the charge was made. He had also paid over in
eight years balances to the amount of above £900, 000,
arising from savings which he had effected in the sums
voted for different services. It would certainly not be
easy to furnish a more complete answer than the
calumnious assertion of the Livery thus received.
But it is also certain that the calumny long survived
its triumphant refutation. Even in the later periods
of party warfare it was revived against the illustrious
son of its object; men of our day can well remember
Mr. Fox having it often flung in his teeth, that he was
sprung from the "defaulter of unaccounted millions."
The foul slanders of Junius upon the Duke of Bed-
ford differ from the calumny of the Livery in this; that
they plainly furnish to any one who attentively con-
siders them, complete proof of their own falsehood, in
by far the most material particular, and consequently
should at once fall to the ground as generally dis-
credited. And they would so fall did not men make
it a rule to encourage slander and defeat the ends of
truth and justice, by lending a willing ear to all that is
alleged against their fellow-creatures, and overlooking,
or straightway forgetting, all that is urged in their de-
fence.
The hatred which this writer evinced towards the
Duke rests, as far as it has any public ground to sup-
port it, upon the junction of the Bedford party with
Lord Bute against Lord Chatham; but in all proba-
bility there was some sordid or spiteful feeling of a
personal kind at the root of it. Lord Chatham had
388
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
66
been, like all the great men of the day, the object of
the slanderer's fiercest vituperation. He had repeatedly
treated him as
as a "lunatic," and frequently as a
"tyrant." Lurking under the name of Publicola, he
had lavished upon him every term of gross abuse
which his vocabulary supplied; a "man purely and
perfectly bad;" a "traitor," an "intriguer;" a "hypo-
crite;"
so black a villain, that a gibbet is too honour-
able a situation for his carcase" (Woodfall's Junius, ii.
458). But in the course of a few months from his last
attack, which was in 1770, he became appeased; and,
whether from beginning to favour Lord Chatham the
year before, or from mere hatred towards Lord Bute,
his fury broke forth against the Bedford party, in the
letter to its chief, which has been the subject of so
much observation, and is certainly the most scurrilous
of any that were printed under the name of Junius.
This letter, beside a number of vague charges,
amounting only to intemperate abuse, accuses the
Duke in his public capacity of having betrayed his
trust as ambassador in negotiating the peace of Paris,
and betrayed it for money: in his private capacity it
charges him with avarice, and hardness of heart to-
wards his only son, for whose sudden death, by a fall
from his horse, no due feeling was evinced; and in a
capacity partly public, partly private, it charges him
with grossly insulting the sovereign at an audience of
his Majesty. There is, further, an allusion to a scene
at Lichfield races, represented as derogatory to his
honour as a gentleman.
1. He is accused of giving up Belleisle, Goree,
Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, Martinique, the Fishery, the
Havanna. The proof of this, the main charge being
corrupt conduct, rests upon the Duke's "pecuniary
character," which made it "impossible that so many
public sacrifices should be made without some private
compensation." This "internal evidence," we are
told, is, "beyond all the legal proofs of a court of
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
389
justice" (i. 510). When pressed by Sir W. Draper
for proofs, the slanderer impudently reiterated his
assertion, that the Duke's conduct "carried with it an
internal and convincing evidence against him," adding,
that "if nothing could be true but what might be
proved in a court of justice, then the religion itself,
which rests upon internal evidence, never could have
been received and established" (ii. 25). Finally, he
refers to De Torcy's Memoirs for a statement that " a
bribe may be offered to a duke and only not be ac-
cepted," meaning the Duke of Marlborough; from
which the inference is that, because some one has said
one man was offered a bribe which he refused, there-
fore, another must be believed to have been offered
one and accepted it.
That any degree of public malice should have
blinded men to the utter flimsiness of this charge,
or that any power of epigrammatic writing should
have prevented all readers from flinging it away in
scorn, seems really incredible. Yet this is not all, nor
even the greater part of the revolting absurdity.
The charge is, upon the fact of it, false, for it is
absolutely impossible. To suppose that an ambassador
sent to negotiate a peace has the power to accept any
terms whatever which his employers do not authorize
him to accept; but above all, an ambassador sent
to Paris and corresponding daily with the cabinet in
London, argues a degree of thoughtless folly wholly
incredible. As well might the courier who carries the
instructions be supposed to have the power of giving
up islands and fisheries, as the negotiator. Besides,
the whole course of the negotiation in 1762 was con-
formable to that which, in 1761, had been begun while
Lord Chatham was in office. The islands of Guada-
loupe and St. Lucia had been offered by him, and
Canada had been offered by France. These were the
main body of the cessions on either side. The refusal,
in 1761, to make any peace without the King of
390 JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
.
Prussia, and the treating without him, in 1762, was
the main difference in the two cases, and was amply
accounted for by the abject state of that prince's
fortunes in the former year, and his triumphant position
in the latter.
The opinions of all men on the merits of this peace
have long since been settled, and even at the time it
escaped the fate which faction reserved for the next
treaty that was made to terminate a war; it was
approved by immense majorities of both Houses of
Parliament-without a division in the Lords, by 319
to 65 in the Commons. The most eminent authorities
both at home and abroad pronounced unbounded praise
upon the ability displayed by the Duke in the nego-
tiation. The king himself was beyond measure pleased
with it, and showed his sense of the services rendered
in a marked manner. The ministers declared that no
man but the Duke could have so conducted the nego-
tiation, and that no man had ever rendered so great a
service to the state. The veteran diplomatists, Sir
Joseph Yorke and Sir Andrew Mitchell, affixed to the
treaty the stamp of their hearty admiration; and Lord
Granville, having only lived to witness the event,
declared that "the most glorious war had been ter-
minated by the most honourable peace this country
ever saw.
>>
Finally, the story of French gold having been used,
not, indeed, to perform the impossible feat of bribing
our ambassador's surrender of colonies, but to gain
over his employers, had been imputed by an idle
busybody, called Dr. Musgrave, sometime before
Junius took up the slander, and a committee of the
House of Commons, having soon after investigated
the matter, reported that it was utterly frivolous and
destitute of all foundation. Now this is fatal to the
credit of Junius for veracity, and at once and clearly
convicts him of fabrication. For the parties named by
Musgrave were the Dowager Princess of Wales, Lord
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD:
391
*
Bute, and Lord Holland; the Duke of Bedford not
being named or alluded to at all in the story. Yet
Junius revives the refuted tale after it had been
notoriously repudiated by the political enemies of the
parties accused; and he transfers the story to a party
on whom, frivolous as it was, the slander never had
been made to attach by its author.
The
In one accidental particular, the ambassador had an
opportunity of acting upon his own responsibility, and
did act, in the only way in which an honourable man
could; and his interposition was effectual to the only
extent to which a negotiator ever can effectually
operate in his individual capacity, the extent of pre-
venting a premature signature of the treaty.
East India Company had, by a strange oversight, con-
fined their demand of a stipulation in their own favour
to a period before the acquisition of their chief con-
quests; and the article in the preliminaries was drawn
and signed accordingly. The error being pointed out
to the Duke by a private individual, he immediately
repaired to the French minister, and insisted upon an
alteration of the provisions. The minister, the Duc
de Choiseul, relied on the signed preliminaries; but
the Duke of Bedford firmly declared that he should at
once return to London, and "submit his head to the
discretion of Parliament," taking upon himself the
error of his instructions. The threat was effectual,
and the change was made, which restored a territory
having the revenue of half a million sterling, to the
Company and the Crown.
2. The charge of parsimony against the Duke rests
upon the same foundation, on which a like charge
might have been brought against my most dear and
respected friend, the late duke, his grandson, one of
the most generous of men. His domestic economy
* Woodfall (i. 571), with a most inexcusable inaccuracy, gives the
story as if it had comprehended the Duke. He never was in any way
referred to.
392
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
was regulated with care, and showed that superinten-
dence of the head of the family over its concerns, and
that spirit of order, which, with qualities of a much
higher nature, has ever distinguished the House of
Russell. That there was any want of liberality in the
treatment of the lamented person whose sudden death
proved the severest blow to the hopes of his kindred,
may be at once denied, on the fact made public at the
time, that Lord Tavistock's allowance was £8,000 a
year; that his widow's jointure was increased greatly
beyond her marriage settlement on his decease; and
that £50,000 were immediately provided for the pos-
thumous child of whom she was enceinte at the time
of the accident. The story of the father's affliction
having been less poignant than might have been
expected, rests on his having, as speedily as he could,
sought the distraction which is to be found in the dis-
charge of public duties. But, I can add that woeful
experience speaks to the possibility of performing
these during a course of years, when domestic affliction
has wholly prevented its victim from indulging in the
most ordinary relaxations of social life. The brutal
slanderer who could interfere at such a moment to
outrage the grief of a parent, cared as little for the
truth of his charge as he could know of the feelings
which he invaded.
Other testimony, and of a very different value, exists
to the complete refutation of his cold-blood calumnies.
The journal of the Duke has been published, and
though up to the hour of his affliction there is a regular
entry of each day's occurrences, a whole month appears
in blank from the Marquess's accident, which only
proved fatal at the end of above a fortnight. Horace
Walpole, who writes at the time, and was no careless
collector of scandal, describes him as a man of in-
flexible honesty and love for his country;" vindicates.
him from all suspicion of parsimony; declares that if
he loved money it was only "in order to use it sensibly
66
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
393
*
and with kindness to others," and says not a word to
countenance the imputation of his showing an unfeel-
ing nature." Another witness of greater fame, no less
than David Hume, then Under Secretary of State,
bears a more direct testimony to the passage in ques-
tion of the Duke's life. Writing to Madame de Bar-
bantane, he says that "no one at first believed he
would have survived the loss;" and in a letter written
between three and four months later to Madame de
Boufflers, he says, it was fortunate for the Duke that
the calamity came upon him "when public business
gave his friends an opportunity of making him take a
part to distract his attention, but that he has not yet
recovered the shock." He adds that the duchess, "to
whom the world had not ascribed so great a degree of
sensibility, is still inconsolable." Such testimony may
well be deemed to countervail the fabrications of
Junius. But Junius is read because of his style,
which a corrupt taste prizes very far above its value,
and the character of a just, a generous, and an amiable
man is sacrificed to the morbid taste for slander steeped
in epigram.†
3. The story respecting an insult offered to the king
is at once refuted by naming that sovereign: it was
George III. Who can for a moment believe that any
man durst treat him as Junius impudently describes,
partly in the foul text, partly in the fouler note?
"He demanded an audience of the king, reproached
him, in plain terms with his duplicity, baseness, false-
hood, treachery, hypocrisy, repeatedly gave him the
lie, and left him in convulsions.' This was in the year

""
* In a new publication since this was printed, one letter of Walpole
represents the Duke as almost killed by the shock, and only saved by his
body breaking out in boils: a subsequent letter treats his attendance in
Parliament as unfeeling. But the former passage is fact; the latter is
surmise.
†The cause of truth is much indebted to the industry of Mr. Wright,
the able and well informed editor of Sir H. Cavendish's admirable debates,
in bringing together these extracts from contemporary writers of reputa-
tion to refute the calumnies of Junius.
394
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
1769, when George III. had nearly attained his thir-
tieth year.
year. Is it necessary to say more than to express
our special wonder at any credit having ever been
given to a writer so shamelessly careless of the accu-
racy or even probability of his statements-a writer
who gravely tells things which no mortal can for a
moment believe ?* This may at least be said for the
periodical press of the present day, that those who
conduct it, and who are, many of them, careless enough
of the truth, indifferent enough to the falsehoods which
they propagate, and ready enough to circulate the
tales they hear against those whom they are pleased
to assail, nevertheless feel the necessity of preserv-
ing some colour of probability, of keeping some
measures in their relations; and would dread the
loss of their credit for common sense, as well as
veracity, were they to print such tales as Junius
possibly believed and certainly without scruple cir-
culated.
4. That some man, said to have been intoxicated
at a race-course, insulted the Duke of Bedford, Lord
Trentham (afterwards Lord Stafford), and Mr. Rigby,
is very possible. It was the outrage of a Jacobite
mob in 1746, enraged at their recent failure, and
the parties were tried for the riot. That the chief
assailant was of a description which made any per-
sonal revenge wholly out of the question has never
been doubted. The same accident might have
happened to the Duke of Marlborough or Marshal
Turenne. Who but a slanderer of the basest order
* He used strong and honest language in remonstrating with the King,
but never anything approaching to the violence and insult described by
Junius.
†The Duke was staying on a visit at Lord Trentham's, and the Gower
family had just left the Pretender's party, to so great indignation of the
Jacobites, that Dr. Johnson names them to exemplify the word renegade
in the first edition of his Dictionary. The scuffle was plainly directed, by
the Jacobite mob, against the party coming to the race-course from Tren-
tham, and the Duke chanced to be one.
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
395
would ever have even made an allusion to such a
matter?
It is hardly necessary to add anything in illustration
of the utter indifference to all consideration of truth or
falsehood which formed part of this writer's nature.
But a singular instance of this remains, as it were, on
record, and it shows so mean a disposition that we
may, with some benefit, contemplate it. That anony-
mous writers will make assertions which they never
would venture upon were their persons known, is a
position so highly probable that we require little evi-
dence to make us believe it. But their whole conduct,
while skulking behind a veil, proves it. We have not
often, however, such a demonstration of this truth as
Junius has furnished. He had written a letter in an-
swer to one pretending to be from a female signing
her name Junia, but since avowed to be the produc-
tion of Caleb Whitefoord. This answer is in a tone
of somewhat more than gallantry: it savours of inde-
cency; it has more than mere levity. Whether for
this reason, or because the discovery of his having
been taken in to write such an amorous epistle to a
man seemed likely to cover the party with inextin-
guishable ridicule, and, from the caprice of the public,
to ruin a popularity which the more grave crimes of
malice and falsehood had failed to injure; certain it is
that he repented having written his answer, and he
then scrupled not to dictate a lie which his poor pub-
lisher printed as his own assertion knowing it to be
false. "We have some reason to suspect (says Mr.
Woodfall, four days after the unfortunate letter ap-
peared) that the letter signed 'Junius,' inserted in this
paper of Thursday last, was not written by the real
Junius; though we imagine it to have been sent by
some one of his waggish friends, who has taken great
pains to write in a manner similar to that of Junius,
which observation escaped us at that time. The prin-
ter takes the liberty to hint that it will not do a second
396 JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
time."-Edit. (iii. 218). The substance of this false-
hood, nay, almost all the words of the first and chief
sentence of it, was written by Junius himself, and sent
to the printer in a letter containing what in all like-
lihood is another falsehood, namely, that "there are
people about him whom he does not wish to contra-
dict, and who had rather see Junius in the papers ever
so improperly than not at all" (i. 199). He desires.
Mr. Woodfall to "hit off something more plausible if
he can, but without a positive assertion;" intending, of
course, should he ever be discovered and should not
be able to fix the contradiction upon his printer, to
deny that he had told the lie directly. In the history
of anonymous writings there have been few passages
more mean, few reflecting more light on the conse-
quences of a habit of anonymous slander.
This com-
plicated scene of falsehood was enacting at the very
time that the letter to the Duke of Bedford was in pre-
paration; that letter is announced in the 'Advertiser'
in consequence of a note dated Sept. 15, at which time
it was "copying out." The note desiring the untruth
to be inserted is dated Sept. 10th. Surely some dis-
credit naturally rests on the unvouched assertions of a
person who, while engaged in committing them to
paper, is also occupied with framing elaborate false-
hoods for the purpose of extricating himself from a
difficulty of his own creating. Such, at least, would
be the result in a case of another description, touching
any witness who came forward in his own proper per-
son to accuse his neighbour. But there prevails a
most inexplicable disposition in the public to judge
nameless calumniators by different rules from those
which all mankind apply to known accusers; and to
make the very fact of their skulking in the dark, the
very circumstance of their being unknown to all the
world, a ground of giving credence to them, and a
protection to them from the ordinary objections to
discreditable testimony. Because they do not appear
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
397
they are supposed unassailable; whereas the inference
should rather be that they have good reason for not
showing themselves.
There is no characteristic more universal of such
writers than their indiscriminate railing. They are,
in very deed, no respecters of persons. Their hand is
against every one. Obscure themselves, they habit-
ually envy all fame. Low far beneath any honest
man's level, as, they feel conscious, they must sink
were the veil removed which conceals them, they
delight in pulling all others down to nearly the same
degradation with themselves. Nor is it envy alone
it_envy
that stimulates their malignant appetite. Instinctively
aware of the scorn in which they are held, and sure
that, were the darkness dispelled in which they lurk,
all hands would be raised against them, they obey the
animal impulse of fear when they indulge in a pro-
pensity to work mischief.
To these remarks Junius affords no exception. It
is untrue to assert, as some have done, that he had his
idols. Lord Chatham has been named, and we have
seen how, more than any other statesman of his age,
that venerable patriot was assailed by his foulest
abuse; assaulted not indeed under the same, but
another disguise. For, as unmingled vituperation
would pall upon the appetite, as bitters like sweets
may require to be dashed and varied, even Junius
found it necessary to give some relief to his pictures,
and to paint some figures in a brighter hue; not to
mention that contrast becomes necessary in order to
blame the more effectually, or as Sir Philip Francis in
his own person used to say, "Praise is bearable when
used in odium tertii." Eulogy, however, thus bestowed
by compulsion, was soon repented and begrudged;
nor could so ungenial a soil long support so exotic a
plant. If Junius could not with safety for his con-
sistency extirpate it, he ceased to foster it, and pruned
it, or let it die away; and he had always the resource
398
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
of changing his mask; and the Publicola could make
up by increased virulence and scurrility for the tem-
porary laudation into which Junius had been driven
or beguiled.
It is almost equally incorrect to say that Lord
Camden was not attacked by Junius. He is in one
place represented as "an object neither of respect nor
esteem, and as having at different times held every
kind of opinion and conduct (iii. 174); in another, as
the "invader of the constitution, after trampling the
laws under his feet" (ii. 472); and, in a third, as “an
apostate lawyer, weak enough to sacrifice his own
character, and base enough to betray the laws of his
country" (ii. 457).
The
The attacks of Junius upon Lord Mansfield have
been treated of under a former head, and it has been
shown how utterly void of foundation all those charges
were. In fact, the whole originated in the most pro-
found ignorance of the subject which the nameless
slanderer had undertaken to discuss. That his venom,
however, produced some effect is undeniable.
spirit of party, the general desire to see a great man
humbled; above all, the feeling which, it must be
confessed, prevails in the people of this country,
unfriendly to the judicial dignity, though sufficiently
respectful towards the administration of justice in the
abstract-all worked with the authors and dissemi-
nators of the groundless invectives, and made men not
indeed suppose that Lord Mansfield was
"the very
worst and most dangerous man in the whole kingdom,
but that he was open to attack beyond other judges,
and was no longer so invulnerable as the voice of the
profession had hitherto pronounced him to be. As a
proof how much progress unprosecuted slander had
made in undermining this great magistrate's reputa-
tion, at least for a moment, take the following passage
in Horace Walpole's Letters: it was written in the
beginning of the session, 1770-1. "If we have
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
399
nothing else to do after the holidays, we are to amuse
ourselves with worrying Lord Mansfield, who, between
irregularities in his court, timidity, and want of judg-
ment, has lowered himself to be the object of hatred
to many, and of contempt to every body. I do not
think that he could re-establish himself if he were to
fight Governor Johnstone" (Letters to Sir H. Mann,
ii. 120).
The effects of continually assailing a judge are
somewhat singular. Because it is an unquestionable
position that judicial reputation ought never to be
rashly attacked, and that all society have an interest
in upholding it, there arises a most preposterous notion
that when this rule is violated there must be some
ground for the imputations cast; and thus the principle
which should be the safeguard of the Bench is con-
verted into a means of sapping its authority. Add to
this, that no great judge can have long filled his place
without giving offence to numerous individuals and to
many members of his own profession, even although
he may not have had the disposal of patronage, the
most fruitful of all the sources of official unpopularity.
A judge, too, when assailed is extremely helpless.
He is essentially a passive character. He has no
means of exhibiting whatever pugnacity he may be
endowed with, even in self-defence. This, which with
all generous natures, would operate as his safeguard,
only furnishes an additional temptation to meaner
beings, and encourages them in their assaults. The
result certainly is that temporary clouds generally
overcast the brightest judicial reputation at some
period of its course. But it is equally certain that
such clouds speedily pass away; no man now thinks
the worse of Lord Mansfield because of Junius.
It is not even true that the family of Lord Holland
were always treated with respect, although from the cer-
tain fact of the Francises, whom that family patronized,
being at least connected with Junius, if not the real
400
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
authors of the Letters, it could hardly be supposed
that it would ever be the object of his assiduous abuse.
But nothing can be more contemptuous than his treat-
ment of Mr. Fox, whom he suspected, evidently against
all probability, of having written an answer to one of
his Letters; and while he plainly states that Lord
Holland is "not invulnerable," he throws out a dark
threat to the son, and, indeed, to the whole family, to
beware how they provoke him (iii. 410); signing the
letter "Anti-Fox.'
""
The only public man of any mark whom he spares
appears to be Mr. George Grenville. This exemption
he certainly owed much less to his truly respectable,
and indeed invulnerable character, than to the circum-
stance of his being anything rather than a brilliant
person, and to the accident of his being wholly removed
from power and office, and almost from all political
influence, during the last years of his honourable and
useful life. But it must be further remarked, that he
died long before the close of Junius's writings. These
extended to May, 1772, under various names, and
under the most famous of his signatures, to the month
of January in that year; and Mr. Grenville died in
November, 1770, before more than half the career of
Junius had been accomplished.
So universal was his attack-But although the
remark be trite, that he who accuses all men only
convicts one, it is, after all, on the audacity of his
falsehoods that the bad character of this writer, like
that of all his tribe, rests, although to this his tem-
porary influence was in great part owing. His scur-
rilous abuse of the Duke of Grafton and Lord North
can hardly be termed mere licentious ribaldry, for
truth is plainly violated when the former is called
"the infamous Duke of Grafton," one "branded with the
infamy of a notorious breach of trust," one "degraded
below the condition of a man"-when the latter is
described "as totally regardless of his own honour,"
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
401
noted for "the blackness of his heart," and a "steady
perseverance in infamy;" "long since discarding every.
principle of conscience;" a man "every one action of
whose life for two years has separately deserved im-
peachment.” But many specific accusations were
scattered abroad. We have seen the pure invention
of the writer's malice in the falsehoods deliberately
told against the Duke of Bedford, especially in the
fabrication respecting the Peace of Paris; and we
have seen how he grafted that untruth upon the story
imported by Dr. Musgrave, and relating to other
parties. That his motive was to hit in the point which
he believed was the most sensitive, is beyond all
doubt. The Duke's public character mainly rested on
the success of his negotiation; and as he was naturally
tenacious of that reputation, so were the people of this
country equally alive to any suspicion of pecuniary
corruption in public men. Therefore it was that the
species of falsehood must be coined which should meet
those several demands for it. But we are not left to
conjecture upon this point. Under the writer's own
hand we have a history of the designs over which his
heart brooded. The printer had been deterred from
publishing a letter, under the signature of Vindex, by
the fear of prosecution. Junius tells him that the
charge contained in it is the only one to which its
object has not long been callous. The intended victim
was the King; the charge was of cowardice! "I must
tell you," says Junius, "and with positive certainty,
that our gracious
is as callous as stockfish to
every thing but the reproach of cowardice. That alone
is able to set the humours afloat. After a paper of
that kind he won't eat meat for a week." (i. 221.) I
need hardly add that the utter falsehood of such a
charge was at all times of George III.'s life admitted
by all parties, even in the utmost heat of factious con-
flict. But this writer, with the malignity of a fiend,
frames his slander in order to assail with certainty the
2 D
402 JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
tender point of his victim. And such, we may be
assured, are the motives which actuate the greater
number of those who drive the base trade of the con-
cealed slanderer.
The
It is truly painful to reflect upon the success which
attended the disreputable labours of this author, at a
time when good writing was very rare in ephemeral
publications, and long before the periodical press
had lost its influence and respectability by the excesses
into which it has run in later times. The boldness of
the assaults made upon individuals, full as much as the
power with which they were conducted, had the effect
of overawing the public, and in many cases of silenc-
ing those against whom they were directed.
very circumstance which should have impaired their
force, gave them, as it always does, additional impres-
sion. The "unknown" and the "great" were, as usual,
confounded. The same things which, said by any one
individual, though respectable in himself, would have
had but little weight, seemed to proceed from an awful
and undefined power, which might be one or many,
and possess an importance that the imagination was
left to expand at will. But it is still more painful to
observe such men as Lord North and Mr. Burke lend-
ing themselves to support the popular delusion, the one
from his wonted candour and good humour, the other
from factious motives; both, in some degree, from the
kind of fear which makes superstitious men sacrifice
to evil spirits. Lord North calls him "the great Bear
of the Forest," and the "mighty Junius;" Mr. Burke
wishes that Parliament had the benefit of "his know-
ledge, his firmness, his integrity." It would have been
a worthier task for Lord North to bring his unblushing,
falsehoods to trial before a jury of his country, as the
Duke of Bedford should certainly have done; and it
would have conferred more honour on Mr. Burke to
have joined with all good men in reprobating the
practices by which one of the foulest of libellers
JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD.
403
degraded the liberty of the press, and prepared the way
for the excesses which Mr. Burke himself was fated
afterwards to deplore, and the contempt in which his
perspicacity did not then perceive this great safeguard
of our liberties was at a still later period in peril of
falling.
At all events, we who now have had leisure to
contemplate the period in which those great statesmen
lived, and to weigh the justice of their tributes to this
too celebrated writer, have the duty cast upon us
of exposing his falsehoods, and of rendering a neces-
sary though a tardy reparation, to those characters
which he unscrupulously assailed. Nor is there any
duty the discharge of which brings along with it more
true satisfaction. It may be humble in its execution,
but its aim is lofty; it may be feebly performed, but
it is exceedingly grateful. Nor can any one rise from
his labours with a more heartfelt satisfaction than he
who thinks that he has contributed to rescue merit
from obloquy, and to further the most sacred of all
human interests, the defeat of injustice-injustice in
which they share who fear to resist it. "Sed injustitiæ
genera duo sunt; unum eorum qui inferunt; alterum
eorum qui ab iis, quibus infertur, si possunt, non pro-
pulsant injuriam." (CIC. De Off, 1.)
:
404
EARL CAMDEN.
JOHN WILKES-DEMAGOGUE ARTS.
AMONG the names that adorn the legal profession
there are few which stand so high as that of Camden.
His reputation as a lawyer could not have gained this
place for him; even as a judge he would not have
commanded such distinction, though on the Bench he
greatly increased the fame which he brought from the
bar; but in the senate he had no professional superior,
and his integrity for the most part spotless in all the
relations of public life, with the manly firmness which
he uniformly displayed in maintaining the free prin-
ciples of the constitution, wholly unmixed with any
leaning towards extravagant popular opinions, or any
disposition to court vulgar favour, justly entitle him
to the very highest place among the judges of England.
It was a remarkable circumstance that, although he
entered the profession with all the advantages of
elevated station, he was less successful in its pursuit,
and came more slowly into its emoluments than almost
all others that can be mentioned, who have raised
themselves to its more imminent heights from humble
or even obscure beginnings. One can hardly name
any other chief judge, except Bacon himself, who was
the son of a chief justice. Lord Camden's father
presided in the Court of King's Bench. He himself
was called to the bar in his twenty-fourth year, and
he continued to await the arrival of clients,-their
“knocks at his door while the cock crew,'
"*_for nine
long years; but to wait in vain. In his thirty-eighth
year he was, like Lord Eldon, on the point of retiring
* Sub galli cantum, consultor ubi ostia pulsat. Hor.
EARL CAMDEN.
405
from Westminster Hall, and had resolved to shelter
himself from the frowns of fortune within the walls of
his College, there to live upon his fellowship till a
vacant living in the country should fall to his share.
This resolution he communicated to his friend Henley,
afterwards so well known first as Lord Keeper, and
then as Lord Chancellor Northington, who vainly
endeavoured to rally him out of a despondency, for
which it must be confessed there seemed good ground.
He consented, however, at his friend's solicitation,
to go once more the western circuit, and through his
kind offices received a brief as his junior in an im-
portant cause-offices not perhaps in those days so
severely reprobated as they now are by the more
stern etiquette of the profession.
The leader's accidental illness threw upon Mr. Pratt
the conduct of the cause; and his great eloquence,
and his far more important qualifications of legal
knowledge and practical expertness in the management
of business, at once opened for him the way to brilliant
fortune. His success was now secure. After eight
years of very considerable practice, though unequal
to that which most other great leaders have attained,
he was made at once Attorney-General; and three
years after, in 1762, raised to the Bench as Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas, "the pillow," according
to Lord Coke, “whereon the attorney doth rest his
head." In 1749, when in his forty-sixth year, he had
been chosen to represent the borough of Downton,
but during his short experience of the House of Com-
mons he appears not to have gained any distinction.
The rewards of parliamentary ambition were reserved
to a later period of his life.
Of his forensic talents no records remain, beyond a
general impression of the accuracy which he showed
as a lawyer, though not of the most profound descrip-
tion; par negotiis neque supra. The fame of his legal
arguments in Westminster Hall is not of that species
406
EARL CAMDEN.
which at once rises to the mind on the mention of
Dunning's name, or Wallace's, the admirable variety
and fertility of whose juridical resources were such
that "their points" are spoken of to this day, and
spoken of with admiration. But he greatly excelled
them both in powers as a leader at Nisi Prius; and
his eloquence was apparently of that chaste and gentle
but persuasive kind which distinguished his great rival
Murray, and made all the readers of Milton involun-
tarily apply to him the famous portraiture of Belial—
Belial, in act more graceful and humane-
A fairer person lost not heaven; he seemed
For dignity composed and high exploit.
His tongue
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason.
But his eminently judicial qualifications shone forth
conspicuously when he rose into their proper sphere.
His unwearied patience, his unbroken suavity of man-
ner, his unruffled calmness of temper, the more to be
admired because it was the victory of determined re-
solution over a natural infirmity, his lucid clearness of
comprehension and of statement, his memory, singu-
larly powerful and retentive, his great anxiety to sift
each case to the very bottom, and his scrupulous,
perhaps extreme care, to assign the reasons for every
portion of his opinions, went far to constitute a perfect
judge, inferior in value though these qualities might
be to the profound learning that has marked some
great magistrates, like Lord Eldon and the older law-
yers; and, perhaps, to the union of marvellous quick-
ness, with sure sagacity, for which others, like the
Kenyons, and the Holroyds, and the Littledales, have
been famous. There was, however, in Lord Camden
no deficiency of legal accomplishments, nor any want
either of quickness or of perspicacity in the conduct of
judicial business. And it must ever be remembered,
that as a judge has always, or almost always, the state-
ments and the suggestions of all parties before him,
EARL CAMDEN.
407
and is thus rather placed in a passive situation, those
faculties of rapid perception and of deep penetration,
that circumspection which no risk can escape, and
that decision, at once prompt and firm, which instantly
meets the exigencies of each sudden emergency, are
far less essential virtues, far less useful attributes, of
the ermine than of the gown. It is but rarely that a
judge can be taken off his guard; never in any impor-
tant civil suit, unless by some accident there is an
extreme overmatch of the advocate upon one side
compared with his antagonist; and chiefly possible in
criminal cases, disposed of by a law which lies within
a narrow compass, and connected with facts generally
of ordinary occurrence and easy to deal with. It
would thus be extremely erroneous to underrate
Lord Camden's judicial qualities, merely because
there have been many more consummate masters of
English jurisprudence upon the bench, and some even of
more extraordinary sagacity, quickness, and penetration.
In the great qualities of sustained dignity, chaste,
and therefore, not exaggerated propriety of demeanour,
absolute impartiality, and fearless declaration of his
conscientious opinion, how surely soever it might
expose him to the frowns of power, or the yet more
galling censure of his profession, this eminent magis-
trate never had a superior, very seldom an equal.
That profession is ever singularly jealous on such
points, and particularly prone to suspect such con-
duct as proceeding from a love of popularity, which
these learned men, having but rarely been able to
taste, are extremely apt to pronounce unsavoury,
citing the illustrious chancellor and philosopher, of
whom they peradventure have only read the one say-
ing, that "a popular judge is a deformed thing, and
plaudites are fitter for players than for magistrates.
This propensity of the bar Lord Camden well knew ;
but he felt, above all dread of its effects, conscious
that he was instigated by no childish love of plebeian
99
408
EARL CAMDEN.
applause, and only acted the part of an honest man,
in showing by his judgments those sentiments which
ever filled his breast-a sincere love of public liberty,
and an entire devotion to the principles of the British
constitution.
The decision of this great judge upon the question
of general warrants, raised by the attempt of Lord
Halifax, the Secretary of State, to search the house
of Wilkes, and commit him to prison without a speci-
fication of his person or of his offence, further than
stating it to be the publication of a seditious and trea-
sonable paper, is well known to every reader; and no
less known is the marked contrast of the dignified and
severe justice of the bench, and the trumpery vapour-
ing talk of the profligate trader in mob favour, whose
oppression, by illegal exercise of power, had arrayed
in his defence even those who most scorned his cha-
racter and distrusted his professions. It was on the
ground of his arrest being a breach of his parlia-
mentary privilege that he obtained his discharge.
This cause came before Lord Camden, as did the
actions brought in consequence against the Secre-
tary of State's messengers, who had executed the
general warrant, the year after the Chief Justice came
upon the bench. On the habeas corpus he had ex-
pressed an opinion, in which his brethren concurred,
that such warrants were justified by numerous prece-
dents. But when he tried at Nisi Prius the actions
for false imprisonment, in which the legality of general
warrants came in question, he declared his opinion to
be that they were illegal, adding these memorable
words "If the other judges, and the highest autho-
rity in this kingdom, the House of Peers, should pro-
nounce my opinion erroneous, I submit, as will become
me, and kiss the rod; but I must say, that I shall
always consider it as a rod of iron for the chastisement
of the people of Great Britain."
The tenour of the warrant was, "to make strict and
EARL CAMDEN.
409
diligent search for the authors and printers of a certain
seditious and treasonable paper, entitled No. 45 of the
North Briton, and them, or any of them being so
found, to apprehend and secure, together with their
papers, and to bring them in safe custody to be ex-
amined, and further dealt with according to law."
The special jury who tried the cause, returned, after
a trial of fifteen hours, a verdict for the plaintiff, with
£1000 damages, in entire accordance with the Chief
Justice's direction.
When a new trial was moved for misdirection, his
Lordship made this solemn declaration of the law:-
"To enter a man's house, by virtue of a nameless
warrant, in order to procure evidence, is worse than
the Spanish inquisition-a law under which no English-
man would wish to live an hour. It is a daring public
attack upon the liberty of the subject, and in violation
of the 29th chapter of Magna Charta (Nullus liber
homo, etc)., which is directly pointed against that
arbitrary power.
"" *
The applause of his countrymen, that applause,
which Lord Mansfield so eloquently described as
following great actions and not run after, was dealt out
to the Chief Justice in a liberal measure.
The cor-
porations of Dublin, Bath, Exeter, Norwich, besought
him to accept their freedom. London herself enrolled
him among her citizens, and placed upon the walls of
Guildhall his portrait, magnificently painted by Sir
Joshua Reynolds, with an inscription at once simple,
chaste, and true: "In honorem tanti viri Anglica liber-
tatis lege assertoris."
Two years only elapsed before he was raised to the
peerage; and in 1766, he succeeded his early and
steady friend, Lord Northington, as chancellor. He
held the Great Seal about four years.
* Buckle v. Money, 2 Wils. 205. The imprisonment had only been
for six hours, and the treatment unexceptionable; but the Chief Justice
had charged the jury on its being a violation of public liberty.
410
EARL CAMDEN.
If his decisions in the Court of Chancery, during
that period, have never been the subject of great
panegyric, they certainly have escaped all censure;
and he was of too firm a mind, and, at the same time,
too discreet and modest, to fall into the great error
which shipwrecked the judicial fame of future equity
judges, well versed in the practice of their courts.
He neither, like some of his successors, so vacillated,
so disliked to pronounce the opinion he had formed,
as to put off the evil day of decision, and overwhelm
his court with causes heard and undetermined; nor
did he place, like others, his chief praise in unhesitating
and promiscuous dispatch of business, directing all his
efforts to suppressing the arguments which it was his
duty to hear, and estimating his merits by the number,
rather than the excellence, of his judgments, so as to
draw from Sir Samuel Romilly the comparison, that he
preferred the slow justice of the chancellor to his
deputy's speedy injustice. From these opposite rocks
the calm and even course of Lord Camden's adminis-
tration of justice preserved him safe. And, beside
obtaining the praise of having dispatched all the
court's business, in a manner to give the suitors and
the bar satisfaction, he has left judgments of great
merit on important questions. It may be enough to
mention the well known case upon Bills of Review,
Smith v. Clay, which fixes the law of the court upon
that very important question; and which he decided
in an argument, tolerably well preserved in some
reports, an argument combining the highest qualities
of judicial eloquence. His judgment, in the great
case of Duke of Northumberland v. Earl of Egremont,
after an argument of several days, also possesses rare
excellence.*
cases.
* Ambler, 647 and 657, contains a very abridged account of the e
I was favoured with Sir S. Romilly's full notes of my illustrious
predecessor's judgment in Smith v. Clay, and communicated it to the
Court during the first year that I held the Great Seal.
EARL CAMDEN.
411
In parliament, his judicial as well as political con-
duct may be deservedly regarded as a model. In the
celebrated Douglas cause, his argument on moving the
reversal of the Court of Session's judgment, and
establishing the legitimacy of the party claiming the
Duke of Douglas's large estates, possesses the greatest
merit. Lord Mansfield's engaged more of the public
attention at the time, chiefly because of the famous
letters of Andrew Stuart, to which it gave rise, and in
which he was most severely and ably attacked. But
whoever reads both speeches will find it difficult to
refuse the preference to the Chancellor's; although
there is every reason to believe that the Chief Justice's
has been very imperfectly preserved. Both are to
be found in the second volume of the Collectanea
Juridica. But Andrew Stuart treats Lord Mansfield's
as never having been published fairly, and from
authority; and he dares him to the publication, in
terms which seem to imply an intimation that there
was something not convenient to give through the
press, and a suspicion that the cautious Chief Justice
would not venture upon the course pointed out.* It
is moreover quite certain that the printed account
to which I have referred contains no mention of
Andrew Stuart, hardly any reference to him, while
Lord Camden's speech is filled with direct charges
distinctly brought against him; and yet the defence is
entirely made as against Lord Mansfield, and no
assault whatever is made upon Lord Camden. Lord
Mansfield's judgment, as reported, is a most wretched
performance, and chiefly rests on this position, that a
woman of Lady Jane Douglas's illustrious descent
could not be guilty of a fraud.
* "If the multiplicity of your other affairs be assigned as an excuse
for avoiding to give any answer, there is yet another method which may
serve to afford me satisfaction, and, may possibly do justice to yourself
without consuming much of your time. It is to publish to the world your
speech against me in the Douglas cause."-Letter iv. page 38. (The
Italics as in the original.)
412
EARL CAMDEN.
I have spoken of Lord Camden's judicial conduct in
the Courts of Westminster Hall, and in the House of
Lords. He was, however, fully more eminent in the
senate than in the forum. He brought into parliament
a high professional reputation; and beside the reputa-
tion which this and his great office gave him, his
talents were peculiarly suited to shine in debate. An
admirable memory, ample quickness of apprehension,
sufficient learning for all ordinary occasions, a clear
and pleasing elocution, great command of himself, a
natural vivacity which gave his manner animation
without effort, rendered him one of the most impressive
and pleasing speakers of his time. His conduct, too,
had been uniform and consistent; he was always,
whether on the Bench, or in the Council, or in Parlia-
ment, the friend of constitutional liberty, of which he
steadily proved the honest but the temperate defender.
He had taken a part which indicated some considerable
difference with his colleagues, on the important ques-
tion of American taxation; but after he had been
Chancellor between three and four years, this differ-
ence occasioned his removal from office; and then
disclosures were made which, it cannot be denied,
served to cast some shade over a portion at least of
his official conduct. The circumstances attending this
passage in Lord Camden's life are extremely instruc-
tive, as throwing light upon the principles of the times,
and in this view they deserve to be more closely con-
sidered.
When upon the assembling of parliament in January,
1770, Lord Chatham moved an amendment pledging
the Lords with all convenient speed, to take into con-
sideration the causes of the prevailing discontents, and
particularly the proceedings of the Commons touching
Wilkes's election, and closed his remarkable reply by
affirming that, "where the law ends, there tyranny
begins," Lord Camden rose and declared with a
warmth unusual to him, that he had accepted the
EARL CAMDEN.
413
Great Seal without condition, and meant not to be
trammelled by the king (then correcting his expres-
sion)-by his ministers; but he added, "I have suf-
fered myself to be so too long. I have beheld, with
silent indignation, the arbitrary measures of the
minister. I have long drooped and held down my
head in council, and disapproved with my looks those
steps which I knew my avowed opposition could not
prevent. I will do so no longer, but openly and
boldly speak my sentiments." He then supported
Lord Chatham's amendment; declared that, if as a
judge he should pay any respect to the vote of the
Commons, he should look upon himself as a traitor to
his trust and an enemy to his country; accused the
ministers of causing the existing discontents; and all
but in terms, certainly by implication, charged them
with having formed a conspiracy against the liberties
of the people. The ministers whom he thus accused
had, through all the time of their measures causing
the discontents, and their conspiracy against public
liberty, been his colleagues, and still were his col-
leagues; for, strange to tell, he made this speech
without having taken any step to resign the Great
Seal. It is not to be wondered at that those colleagues
should complain of such unexampled conduct, though
they might have had themselves to thank for it; but
it is singular that a month elapsed before the complaint
could find a vent. On Lord Rockingham's motion for
a Committee on the State of the Nation, at the begin-
ning of February, Lord Sandwich charged the late
Chancellor with duplicity in permitting the proceed-
ings against Wilkes to proceed without remonstrance,
and refusing to give any opinion respecting them.
Lord Camden positively asserted, upon his honour,
that he had informed the Duke of Grafton of his
opinion, that those proceedings were both illegal and
imprudent. The Duke admitted that he had once
intimated, but not in express terms, that he thought
414
EARL CAMDEN.
the measure impolitic or ill-timed; but that he had
never given his opinion on the vote of incapacity ;-
on the contrary, that whenever the subject was
agitated in the cabinet he had remained silent, or
retired; and Lord Weymouth confirmed the Duke's
statement, adverting to one particular occasion upon.
which, on the bare mention of expulsion or inca-
pacity, Lord Camden had withdrawn from the dis-
cussion. Lord Camden repeated his assertion, that
he had always entertained a strong opinion against
the proceedings, and had frequently expressed it;
but he admitted that, finding his opinions rejected
or despised, he had absented himself from a cabinet
where his presence could only distract his col-
leagues from a course already resolved on, and
which his single voice could not prevent.
Lord
Chatham asserted, that Lord Camden had frequently
made the same statement to him, supporting it by
cogent reasons.
Upon this very extraordinary passage various
remarks arise. But first of all it is natural to observe
upon the singular state of a government thus con-
ducted. The administration of public affairs in a very
critical emergency, or what in those comparatively
quiet times was so regarded, appears to have been
committed to men who had little or no confidence in
each other; and the first minister, in point of rank,
the chief law adviser of the crown, the very head of
the law, differed openly from all his colleagues upon
the two great questions of the day, yet withheld his
opposition to their measures, and even absented him-
self from their consultations as often as those matters
were discussed. If anything could make this state of
affairs more intolerable, and more inconsistent with
the public good, it was the undoubted fact that the
more pressing of the two questions, the proceeding
respecting Wilkes, was entirely of a legal and con-
stitutional nature, on which the Chancellor's opinion
EARL CAMDEN.
415
was the most indispensably required, and was a
question intimately connected with, if not mainly
arising out of, judicial proceedings over which the
Chancellor had, while Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas, presided.
The next remark which suggests itself is, that the
cabinet had no great right to complain of the line
taken by Lord Camden; for he plainly had given his
colleagues to understand that he differed with them,
and that on this account he withheld his opinion from
them. They had a right to object; they were entitled
to require his aid, and on his refusing it, to demand
his resignation. They chose to retain him amongst
them, and therefore they took him on his own terms.
But the party which had a right to complain of Lord
Camden had an equal right to complain of all his
colleagues, and that party was the country. A
cabinet so constructed and so acting was wholly
incapable of well administering the affairs of the
nation, and it was the duty of his colleagues to require
either his full co-operation or his retirement; and
above all it was the duty of Lord Camden to relinquish
his exalted station whenever he did not choose to
perform its highest duties. To remain in office while.
he disapproved of the government's proceedings; to be
responsible for measures on which he pronounced no
opinion, but held an adverse one; to continue a
nominal minister of the crown while the most im-
portant acts were doing in his name, which he believed
must involve the country in a war with her colonies,
and endanger also the peace of the empire at home-
acts which he regarded as hostile to the principles of
the constitution and subversive of the people's most
sacred rights—was surely an offence of as high a
nature as ever statesman committed. If it be said
that he continued responsible for those measures, the
answer is, that this rather aggravates than extenuates
the charge; for he was responsible only because he in
416
EARL CAMDEN.
truth joined to execute them. Instead of opposing
them as was his bounden duty, he aided in giving
them effect.
It is impossible to contemplate this subject without
once more being struck with the very low point at
which political virtue in those times was pitched.
The most constitutional judge who had up to that time
ever sat upon the bench, one of the purest politicians
that had ever appeared, is found to have persevered
in a course of official conduct which all men in our
day would regard as an enormous delinquency.
Instead of his becoming the object of universal repro-
bation, the only censure called down him by the
disclosure was a single attack in one debate, in which
the great leader of the high constitutional party
warmly defended him, and his supporters joined with
their applause. The spirit of party no doubt greatly
contributed to this result; the joy of the opposition
was buoyant over so great a shock as Lord Camden's
opposition to his colleagues gave the ministry; and
accordingly we find Lord Shelburne expressing a
hope, that "the Great Seal would go a begging, and
that no one would be found base and mean-spirited
enough to accept it upon such conditions as might
gratify the ministers, as soon as the present worthy
Chancellor should be dismissed:" For it is none of
the least strange parts of the transaction, though
apparently a thing not unusual in those times, that the
Chancellor's opposition to the government was offered
while he remained in office; he was not dismissed till
a week after he had avowed his difference with his
colleagues, and charged them by implication with a
conspiracy against public liberty.
Nevertheless, it must be observed, that the lower
tone of political morality and the prevalence of faction,
will not wholly account for the singular circumstances
which we have been considering. The exclusion of
the public from a view of all that passed in parliament
EARL CAMDEN.
417
must be taken into the account.* If instead of an
occasional and surreptitious glance at the debates of
their representatives and of the peers, the people had
daily read a full account of these proceedings, and if
the conduct of public men had been constantly
subjected to the scrutiny of the nation through the
press, it can nowise be doubted that the extraordinary
disclosures made upon Lord Camden's quitting office
would have excited universal indignation. It can as
little be questioned that, had he and his colleagues
been always acting under the vigilant eye of the
nation at large, and accountable to it as well as to
their party-adherents and party-adversaries, the men
equally engaged in playing against each other the
game of faction, regardless of the country-no such
state of things could have existed in the cabinet as we
have been contemplating, and no man could have
ventured to hold such a course as we have seen Lord
Camden, safe and uncensured, pursued.
Finally, we may draw from these particulars in his
history, an inference suggested also by the Diaries re-
cently published of his two predecessors, Lord King
and Lord Cowper, that the importance of the Chan-
cellor in former times was far inferior to that which
this high functionary now enjoys. A mere lawyer
may now, as formerly, hold the great seal, and may
now, as then, have little of the weight which he ought,
for the safety of the cabinet and the good of the coun-
try, to possess. But if any one, of statesmanlike ac-
complishments, is now raised to that high office, or
even any one who, like Lord Eldon, had previously
never given his mind to state affairs, yet possessed
a capacity for bearing a part in their direction, the in-
* It is hardly to be believed that as late as 1770 the Annual Register
should not venture to do more than indistinctly and without names hint at
any part of the proceedings which we have been describing. Lord
Camden's statement, and Lord Sandwich's accusation of him, are not even
alluded to. The Sovereign is only mentioned by the letter K., Parlia-
ment by P., and the House of Commons by H. of C.
2 E
418
EARL CAMDEN.
1
fluence which he must enjoy knows hardly any bounds
but those which his own inclination or the jealousy of
his colleagues may prescribe. It was not so a century
ago,—perhaps, with the exception of Lord Hardwicke,
-it was not so before the time of Lord Loughborough.
We find Lord King speaking of Sir Robert Walpole's
consulting him, and so far confiding in him as to in-
form him of important matters in agitation, with a
complacency which plainly shows that he was very far
from considering such treatment a matter of course,
as with any Chancellor whatever it would assuredly
be in our times. In like manner we can have no
doubt, that had the office been regarded in the same
light at George the Third's accession as it was in the
latter part of his reign, so eminent a person as Lord
Camden when holding it, a person as well known in
the political as in the legal world, and, from his former
conduct, next to Lord Chatham, the peculiar favourite
of the English people, could never have acted the part
he did on the greatest questions of the day, or been
the silent, unsupported, and impotent disapprover of the
course held by his colleagues on those great questions.*
When he had once openly taken his part, there was
no faltering or hesitation in his future course. Dur-
ing the whole of the proceedings, both before and
after the American war broke out, he appeared the
steady and powerful champion of the free and sound
opinions which were natural to his feelings and his
* It is fit to add, however, that on his retirement some important re-
signations took place. The Dukes of Beaufort and Manchester, Lords
Granby, Huntingdon, and Coventry resigned their household places.
James Grenville gave up the office of Vice Treasurer of Ireland, and Dun-
ning that of Solicitor-General in this country. The Great Seal, taken
from Lord Camden (for, possibly with a view to embarrass the govern-
ment, he did not resign), was pressed by the King on Charles Yorke, and
reluctantly accepted 17th January; he died suddenly, as was generally
supposed by his own hand, (though this is somewhat doubtful) on the
20th; and Lord Mansfield, and Sir Eardley Wilmot (Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas) having both refused the Great Seal, it was put in com-
mission for a year, when Mr. Justice Bathurst at length accepted it.
EARL CAMDEN.
419
habits of thinking. Nor did any childish fear of
lowering the dignity of an Ex-chancellor, much less
any mean hankering after royal favour, prevent him
from bearing his part in the parliamentary struggle
which for twelve years was maintained against the
court. He was upon every occasion the right arm, as
it were, of Lord Chatham; and many of his speeches,
even in the meagre reports of the times, impress us
with a high idea of his eloquence and of his powers as
a debater. His constitutional opinions had, while in
the House of Commons, sometimes been pushed to
the very verge of moderation even while Attorney-
General Take an example:-In the debate on
American taxation, in 1766, there was a threat of
proceeding against the printer of a report containing
his speech, which George Grenville complained of as
a breach of privilege. "I will maintain it (he said)
to my latest hour; taxation and representation are in-
separable. This position is founded on the laws of
nature; it is more, it is itself an eternal law of nature;
for whatever is a man's own is absolutely his own;
no man has a right to take it from him without his
consent, either expressed by himself or his representa-
tive. Whoever attempts to do it attempts an injury;
whoever does it commits a robbery; he throws down
and destroys the distinction between liberty and sla-
very."-Observe again his doctrine, not little extra-
vagant, of parliamentary representation:-"To fix the
era when the Commons began is perilous and destruc-
tive; to fix it in Edward's or Henry's reign is owing
to the idle dreams of some whimsical, ill-judging anti-
quaries; but this is a point too important to be left to
such wrong-headed people. When did the House of
Commons begin? When, my Lords? It began with
the constitution. There is not a blade of grass grow-
ing in the most obscure corner of this kingdom which
is not, which was not ever, represented since the
constitution began. There is not a blade of grass
420
EARL CAMDEN.
which when taxed was not taxed by consent of the
proprietor."
It may easily be imagined that he was no sooner
freed from the trammels of office, than a spirit so con-
genial to that which animated Lord Chatham would
burst forth. He accordingly joined him in denounc-
ing as a violent outrage on the constitution, the vote
of the Commons incapacitating Wilkes from sitting in
parliament, because he had been expelled after his
election. This celebrated vote, the soundness of
which Charles Fox, such is the force of early preju-
dices, maintained to his dying day, appears to have
staggered even Lord Mansfield, who, when Lord
Chatham moved an address in the Lords, declaring it
unconstitutional, seemed through almost his whole
speech to be arguing against it and in favour of the
motion. He said, that he should regard himself as the
greatest of tyrants and of traitors were he to be moved
by it in his judicial capacity, though he added, mys-
teriously, "that he had never given his opinion upon
it, and should probably carry it with him to the
grave. But he considered that if the Commons had
passed an unjustifiable resolution, it was a matter
between God and their own consciences; and that
the Lords could not carry up in an address a railing
accusation to the throne, thereby exciting a flame
between the two Houses not easily allayed." Lord
Chatham and Lord Camden held that all the argu-
ments of Lord Mansfield being in favour of their
amendment, his vote should have accompanied his
speech; and Lord Camden was so much impreg-
nated with his illustrious friend's sentiments, that
though he would not quite go so far as to exclaim,
"Let discord reign for ever," he yet declared "that to
the voice of the people he would join his feeble.
efforts, and the louder he heard them cry, the better
should he be pleased."
After Lord Chatham's death, in 1778, rather from
EARL CAMDEN.
421
loss of his great leader than from any infirmity of
increasing age, he rarely took a part in debate. That
the latter was not the cause of his inaction, we may
well suppose from the great excellence of the speeches
which he occasionally delivered. One of these must
have possessed extraordinary merit, that on Lord
Shelburne's amendment to the address, 27th of No-
vember, 1781; for it extorted from the most niggardly
dispenser of praise perhaps the only panegyric of
which he was ever guilty. Lord Thurlow said, "he
never had heard a more able discourse within these
walls; that the premises were distinct and clear,
while the deductions followed without constraint or
false colouring.' "In thus speaking of the noble
Lord's very great abilities," said the eminently dys-
logistic Chancellor, "I trust he will receive it as my
real sentiments, not being at any time much disposed to
travel out of the business before the House for the pur-
pose of keeping up the trivial forms of debate, much less
to pay particular personal compliments to any man.'
""
When the disasters of the American war, more than
the attacks of the opposition, had driven Lord North
from the helm, Lord Camden became President of the
Council in the Rockingham Administration, and
quitted that office when the Coalition ministry was
formed next year, having consistently remained in
the cabinet of Lord Shelburne and Mr. Pitt, when the
personal and factious violence of the Whigs led them to
oppose the peace, and finally to overthrow the ministry
that made it, by a Coalition which ruined the Whig
character and influence for nearly a quarter of a cen-
tury. Upon Mr. Pitt triumphantly defeating the Coali-
tion, Lord Camden resumed his office, and kept it
to his death.
Between the close of the American war and the
regency in 1788, with the exception of delivering
an admirable speech against Mr. Fox's India Bill,
and one or two others during the same struggles, he
422
EARL CAMDEN.
seldom bore any part in debate. But on the King's
illness being declared to Parliament, he took the lead
in all the proceedings connected with that event,
Lord Thurlow being evidently little trusted by Mr.
Pitt, who had discovered his intrigues with the oppo-
sition and Carlton House. Lord Camden in par-
ticular argued, and with great learning and ability,
the constitutional questions which arose from time to
time during the fierce controversy of that day, and he
was perhaps never heard to greater advantage than
in the debate on the Heir Apparent's right, and
Mr. Fox's incautious assertion of it, a doctrine which
met with its most formidable adversary in the
veteran champion of our popular constitution. Nor
must it be forgotten, that he had now reached his
75th year.
It does not appear that the lapse of four years
more had either impaired his faculties or extinguished
his love of liberty: for he it was who, a leading mem-
ber of the Government, in the face of the unanimous
opinion of all the Judges, supported as they were in
the House itself by Lord Thurlow, Lord Kenyon, and
Lord Bathurst, maintained the rights of juries in libel
cases by the law of England, and carried through, in
spite of a most formidable opposition from those law
Lords, the celebrated measure of Lord Erskine, which
is commonly, though erroneously, called Mr. Fox's
Libel Act.
Nothing can be more refreshing to the lovers of
liberty, or more gratifying to those who venerate the
judicial character, than to contemplate the glorious
struggle for his long-cherished principles with which
Lord Camden's illustrious life closed. The fire of his
youth seemed to kindle in the bosom of one touching
on fourscore, as he was impelled to destroy the servile
and inconsistent doctrines of others, slaves to mere
technical lore, but void of the sound and discriminating
judgment which mainly constitutes a legal, and above
EARL CAMDEN.
423
all a judicial, mind. On such passages as follow,
the mind fondly and reverently dwells, thankful that
the pedantry of the profession had not been able
to ruin so fine an understanding, or freeze so genial
a current of feeling,-and hopeful that future law-
yers and future judges may emulate his glory and
his virtue.
"It should be imprinted," he said, "on every
juror's mind that, if a jury find a verdict of publishing
and leave the criminality to the judge, they would
have to answer to God and their consciences for the
punishment which by such judge may be inflicted,-
be it fine, imprisonment, loss of ears, whipping, or
any other disgrace."-"I will affirm," added Lord
Camden, "that they have the right of deciding, and
that there is no power by the law of this country to
prevent them from the exercise of the right if they
think fit to maintain it. When they are pleased to
acquit any defendant, their acquittal will stand good
until the law of England shall be changed."-
“Give,
my Lords,” he exclaimed, “give to the jury or to the
judge the right of trial. You must give it to one or
to the other, and I think you can have no difficulty
which to prefer. Place the press under the power of
the jury, where it ought to be."
On a future stage of the bill, 16th May, 1792, he
began a most able and energetic address to the House
in terms which deeply moved all his hearers because,
he said, how unlikely it was that he should ever
address them any more. After laying down the law
as he conceived it certainly to be, he added, “So
clear am I of this, that if it were not the law, it should
be made so; for in all the catalogue of crimes there
is not one so fit to be determined by a jury as libel."
"With them leave it, and I have not a doubt that
they will always be ready to protect the character of
individuals against the pen of slander, and the govern-
ment against the licentiousness of sedition."
424
EARL CAMDEN.
The opinions of the judges were overruled, and the
act was of purpose made declaratory and not enactive,
after the opposition of the law lords had thus been
defeated. The Chancellor, as the last effort to retain
the law in judicial hands, asked if Lord Camden
would object to a clause being inserted granting a
new trial in case the court were dissatisfied with a
verdict for the defendant?_"What," (exclaimed the
veteran friend of freedom) "after a verdict of acquit-
tal?" "Yes," said Lord Thurlow. "No, I thank
you," was the memorable reply,—and the last words
spoken in public by this great man. The bill imme-
diately was passed.
Two years after, he descended to the grave full
of years and honours, the most precious honours
which a patriot can enjoy, the unabated gratitude
of his countrymen, and the unbroken conscious-
ness of having, through good report and evil, firmly
maintained his principles and faithfully discharged
his duty.
In the whole of Lord Camden's life there is no
passage more remarkable or more edifying than his
manly adherence to his own clear and well considered
opinion, in spite of the high professional authority by
which it was impugned. There are many professional
men who, after having long quitted the contentions of
Westminster Hall, and been for a great portion of
their lives removed from a close contact with their
legal brethren, feel nervous at the idea of exposing
themselves to be decried for ignorance or despised for
heterodoxy, by the frowns of the legal community,
adjusted to the solemn authority and example of those
set in place over them. It was the only mark of
declining vigour which Lord Erskine betrayed, that
in the course of the Queen's case he dreaded to come
in conflict with the judges, even on some points which
there is now no reason to doubt were wrong decided,
and which he accurately perceived at the time were
JOHN WILKES.
425
erroneously determined.* At a more advanced age,
Lord Camden retained the full vigour of his faculties,
so as boldly to announce his deliberate opinion; and
that it was in no degree biassed by any party leaning,
or any hunting after popular applause, will appear
manifest from the circumstance of the Libel Bill being
passed by him, in the manner we have just been con-
templating, during the most vehement period of the
controversy upon sedition that began the French Re-
volution, and in the same year in which the proclama-
tion against seditious writings was issued, and the first
prosecutions for libel instituted by the government of
which Lord Camden was so conspicuous a member.†
In close connexion with the most remarkable pas-
sage of Lord Camden's life, was the conduct and
in general the history of Wilkes. We are thus led to
speak somewhat of that unprincipled adventurer, not
certainly as having any place among the statesmen of
the age, but as accidentally connected with their history.
* For example of misdecision, take the rule laid down, that no question
on cross-examination can be put to a witness, the answer to which may
refer to a written document, without producing the document and placing
it in the witness's hands, whereby the test applied whether to his veracity
or to his memory is defeated.-This is no longer law. A provision repeal-
ing it has been taken from my Evidence and Procedure Bill of 1853,
and forms part of the late Act.
It is very gratifying to me that I can mention so valuable a step
towards improvement in the law of slander and libel as my learned and
esteemed friend Lord Campbell has recently succeeded in carrying through
Parliament, with the entire concurrence of the other law lords. The bill
which I brought into the Commons twice, first in 1816 and again in
1830, on the eve of my quitting that house, embraced this and also other
changes in the law, which I doubt not will now soon follow, and I most
cheerfully resigned the subject into my colleague's hands. The measure
was matured ably and judiciously under his auspices in a committee over
which he presided; and in which, beside their report recommending the
bill, a valuable body of evidence and opinions was collected. It must,
however, be added, that a great loss to the reform of the law is incurred
by leaving out the most valuable portion of my former Bills, that which
protected political or public libel to the extent of allowing evidence of the
truth. The Report of the Criminal Law Commissioners on this question,
and on the whole subject, is elaborate and full of interest.
426
JOHN WILKES.
The history of Wilkes is well known, and his general
character is no longer any matter of controversy.
Indeed, it is only justice towards him to remark, that
there was
so little about him of hypocrisy-the
"homage due from vice to virtue" being by him paid
as reluctantly and as sparingly as any of his other
debts—that, even while in the height of his popularity,
hardly any doubt hung over his real habits and dis-
positions. About liberty, for which he cared little,
and would willingly have sacrificed less, he made
a loud and blustering outcry, which was only his way
of driving a trade; but to purity of private life, even
to its decencies, he certainly made no pretence; and,
during the time of the mob's idolatry of his name,
there never existed any belief in his good character
as a man, however much his partizans might be de-
ceived in their notion that he was unlikely to sell
them. He had received a good education-was a fair
classical scholar-possessed the agreeable manners of
polished society-married an heiress half as old again
as himself—obliged her, by his licentious habits and
profligate society, to live apart from him-made an
attempt, when in want of money, to extort from her
the annuity he had allowed for her support-is re-
corded in the Term Reports of the Court of King's
Bench,* to have been signally defeated in this nefarious
scheme-continued to associate with gentlemen of
fortune far above his own-passed part of his life as a
militia colonel-and fell into the embarrassed cir-
cumstances which, naturally resulting from such habits,
led in their turn to the violent political courses pur-
sued by him in order to relieve his wants. Contem-
poraneous, however, with the commencement of his
loud toned patriotism, and his virulent abuse of the
Court, were his attempts to obtain promotion. One
of these was his application to Lord Chatham for
* 1 Burr. 452. Easter, 31 Geo. II., Rex, v. Mary Mead.
DEMAGOGUE ARTS.
427
Soon after that failed,
a seat at the Board of Trade.
he was defeated in his designs upon the Embassy
at Constantinople, which his zeal for the liberties
of the English people, and his wish to promote them
in the most effectual manner, induced him to desire;
and a third time he was frustrated in an attempt to
make head against the corruptions of the British
Court, by repairing as governor to the remote pro-
vince of Canada. Lord Bute and his party had some
hand in these disappointments; and to running them
down his zealous efforts were now directed.
With such a history, both in public and private,
there was a slender chance of figuring to any good
purpose as a patriot; but he took the chance of some
of those lucky hits, those windfalls, which occasionally
betide that trade, in the lucrative shape of ill-judged
prosecution. He fared forth upon his voyage in the
well-established line of Libel, and he made a more
than usually successful venture; for he was not only
prosecuted and convicted in the ordinary way, but a
blundering Secretary of State issued, as we have seen,
a general warrant to seize his papers-was of course
resisted,—allowed the matter to come into court-
sustained an immediate defeat—and was successfully
sued for damages by the victorious party. Add to this,
his imprisonment for a libel, with his repeated expul-
sions from the House of Commons, and his finally defeat-
ing that body, and compelling them to erase the resolu-
tion from their journals—and his merits were so great,
that not even the ugly concomitant of another convic-
tion for a grossly obscene book, printed clandestinely
at a private press, could countervail his political virtues.
He became the prime favourite of the mob, and was
even admitted by more rational patriots to have de-
served well of the constitution, from the courage and
skill which he had shown in fighting two severe
battles, and gaining for it two important victories. The
promotion which he had in vain sought in the purlieus
428
JOHN WILKES.
of Whitehall, awaited him in the city; he became
Alderman; he became Lord Mayor; and, having ob-
tained the lucrative civic office of Chamberlain, which
placed him for life in affluent circumstances, he re-
tired, while in the prime of life, from a political war-
fare, of which he had accomplished all the purposes,
by reaping its most precious fruits; passed the rest of
his days in the support of the government; never
raised his voice for reform, or for peace, or to mitigate
the hostility of our court towards the country that
had afforded him shelter in his banishment; nor ever
quitted the standard of Mr. Pitt when it marshalled its
followers to assaults on the constitution, compared
with which all that he had ever even invented against
Lord Bute, sank into mere insignificance.
That the folly of the government, concurring with
the excited and sulky temper of the times, enabled
Wilkes to drive so gainful a trade in patriotism, with
so small a provision of the capital generally deemed
necessary for embarking in it, there can be little doubt.
In any ordinary circumstances, his speculation never
could have succeeded. In most of the qualities re-
quired for it, he was exceedingly deficient. Though
of good manners, and even of a winning address, his
personal appearance was so revolting as to be hardly
human. High birth he could not boast; for his father
was a respectable distiller in Clerkenwell. Of fortune
he had but a moderate share, and it was all spent
before he became a candidate for popular favour; and
his circumstances were so notoriously desperate, that
he lived for years like a mendicant on patriotic sub-
scriptions. Those more sterling qualities of strict
moral conduct, regular religious habits, temperate and
prudent behaviour, sober industricus life-qualities
which are generally required of public men, even if
more superficial accomplishments should be dispensed
with-he had absolutely nothing of; and the most
flagrant violations of decency on moral as well as re-
DEMAGOGUE ARTS
429
ligious matters were committed, were known, were
believed, and were overlooked by the multitude, in
the person of their favourite champion, who yet had
the address to turn against one of his antagonists, a
clerical gentleman, some of those feelings of the Eng-
lish people in behalf of decorum, all of which his life
was passed in openly outraging. Of the lighter but
very important accomplishments which fill so promi-
nent a place in the patriotic character, great eloquence,
and a strong and masculine style in writing, he had
but little. His compositions are more pointed than
powerful; his wit shines far more than his passions
glow; and as a speaker, when he did speak, which was
but rarely, he showed indeed some address and much
presence of mind, but no force, and produced hardly
any effect. Horace Walpole constantly describes him
as devoid of all power of speaking. Of his readiness,
an anecdote is preserved which may be worth relating.
Mr. Luttrel and he were standing on the Brentford
hustings, when he asked his adversary privately, whe-
ther he thought there were more fools or rogues among
the multitude of Wilkites spread out before them.
I'll tell them what you say, and put an end to you,'
said the Colonel; but perceiving the threat gave
Wilkes no alarm, he added, "Surely you don't mean
to say you could stand here one hour after I did so ?"
Why," the answer was, "you would not be alive
one instant after."-"How so?"-"I should merely
say it was a fabrication, and they would destroy you
in the twinkling of an eye!"
66
""
If we are to judge of his speaking by the very few
samples preserved of it, we should indeed form a very
humble estimate of its merits. Constant declamation
about rights, and liberties, and tyrants, and corrup-
tion, with hardly the merit of the most ordinary com-
monplaces on these hackneyed topics, seem to fill up
its measure-with neither fact, nor argument, nor
point, nor any thing at all happy or new in the
430
JOHN WILKES.
handling of the threadbare material. But what it
wanted in force it probably made up in fury; and, as
calling names is an easy work to do, the enraged
multitude as easily are pleased with what suits their
excited feelings, gratifying that craving for more
stimulus which excitement produces. That he failed,
and signally failed, whenever he was called upon to
address an audience which rejects such matter, is
very certain.*
In Parliament he was seldom or never
heard after his own case had ceased to occupy the
public attention; and nothing can be worse than his
address to the Court of Common Pleas when he was
discharged. The occasion, too, on which he failed
was a great one, when a victory for constitutional
principle had been gained perhaps by him-certainly
in his person. All the people of London were hang-
ing on the lips of their leader; yet nothing could be
worse or feebler than his speech, of which the burden
was a topic as much out of place as possible in a
court of justice, where the strict letter of the law had
alone prevailed, and that topic was verily handled
with miserable inefficiency. Liberty, my lords,
liberty has been the object of my life! Liberty".
and so forth. He might about as well have sung a
song, or lifted his hat and given three cheers.
"
66
In his writings, especially his dedication to Lord
Bute of 'Roger Mortimer, a tragedy, his notes on
Warburton, and his ironical criticism on the Speaker's
reprimand to the Printers, we trace much of that
power of wit and of humour which he possessed to an
extraordinary degree in private society. The last of
these three pieces is by far the best, though he him-
self greatly preferred the first. It must be allowed,
however, that neither is very original; and that both
might easily enough have occurred to a diligent reader
of Swift, Addison, Arbuthnot, and of Bolingbroke's
* "He has so little quickness, or talent for public speaking, that he
would not be heard with patience."--(Letters to Sir H. Mann, ii. 22.)
DEMAGOGUE ARTS.
431
dedication to Walpole under the name of D'Anvers
a very superior production in all respects to the dedi-
cation of Roger Mortimer.'
6
Of his convivial wit no doubt can remain. Gibbon,
who passed an evening with him in 1762, when both
were militia officers, says, "I scarcely ever met with
a better companion; he has inexhaustible spirits, in-
finite wit and humour, and a great deal of know-
ledge;” he adds, “a thorough profligate in principle
as in practice; his life stained with every vice, and
his conversation full of blasphemy and indecency;
these morals he glories in; for shame is a weakness he
has long since surmounted." This, no doubt, is greatly
exaggerated, and the historian, believing him really
to confess his political profligacy, is perhaps in error
also,—“ He told us that in this time of public dissen-
sion he was resolved to make his fortune." Possibly
this was little more than a variety of his well-known
saying to some one who was fawning on him with
extreme doctrines-"I hope you don't take me for a
Wilkite.'
""
Of his wit and drollery some passages are preserved
in society; but of these not many can with propriety
be cited. We doubt if his retort to Lord Sandwich
be of this description, when being asked, coarsely
enough, "Whether he thought he should die by a
halter or by a certain disease?" he quickly said
"That depends on whether I embrace your Lordship's
principles or your mistress." We give this, in order
to contradict the French anecdote, which ascribes the
mot to Mirabeau as a retort to Cardinal Maury, while
sitting by him in the National Assembly. I heard it
myself from the Duke of Norfolk, who was present
when the dialogue took place, many years before the
French Revolution. His exclamation, powerfully hu-
morous certainly, on Lord Thurlow's solemn hypocrisy
in the House of Lords, is well known. When that
consummate piece of cant was performed with all the
432
JOHN WILKES.
solemnity which the actor's incredible air, eyebrows,
voice, could lend the imprecation, "If I forget my
sovereign, may my God forget me!"-Wilkes, seated
on the steps of the throne, eyeing him askance with
his inhuman squint and demoniac grin, muttered,
"Forget you! He'll see you d-d first.
One quality remains to be added, but that a high
one, and for a demagogue essential. He was a cour-
ageous man. Neither politically nor personally did he
know what fear was. Into no risks for his party did
he ever hesitate to rush. From no danger, individu-
ally, was he ever known to shrink. The meeting
which he gave Secretary Martin, and which nearly
cost him his life, was altogether unnecessary; he
might easily have avoided it; and when a wild
young Scotch officer asked satisfaction for something
said against his country, he met no refusal of his
absurd demand; but was ordered on a distant service
before he could repair to Flanders, whither Wilkes
went to fight him, after the Mareschal's Court of
France had interdicted a meeting in that country.
Some of the other honourable feelings which are
usually found in company with bravery, seem gen-
erally to have belonged to him. He was a man,
apparently, of his word. In his necessities, though
he submitted to eleemosynary aid for pecuniary sup-
plies, and maltreated his wife to relieve his embarrass-
ments, he yet had virtue enough to avoid the many
disreputable expedients which have made the condi-
tion of the needy be compared to the impossibility of
keeping an empty sack upright. His worst offence,
and that which brings his honesty into greatest dis-
credit, is certainly the playing a game in political
virtue, or driving a commerce of patriotism, which the
reader of his story is constantly struck with; and in
no instance does this appear more plainly than in such
attempts at pandering to the passions of the people,
as his addressing a canting letter to the Lord Mayor,
DEMAGOGUE ARTS.
433
when refusing, as Sheriff of London, to attend the
procession to St. Paul's on the occasion of the King's
accession. He grounds his refusal on the preference
he gives to "the real administration of justice, and
his unwillingness to celebrate the accession of a
prince, under whose inauspicious reign the Con-
stitution has been grossly and deliberately violated."
That this was a measure to catch mob applause, is
proved by his sending a draft of his epistle to
Junius for his opinion, and in his note, inclosing the
paper, he calls it a "manœuvre.” * —(WOODFALL'S
Junius, i. 324.)
I have dwelt longer upon this celebrated, rather let
me say noted person, than may seem to be in propor-
tion or keeping with a representation of the group in
which he figures; because it is wholesome to con-
template the nature, and reflect upon the fate, of one
* In admitting the polished manners of Wilkes, and that he had lived
much in good society, somewhat in the best, we need not admit that his
turn of mind was not in some sort vulgar-witness his letters to Junius
throughout-particularly the papers wherein he describes Junius's private
communications to him as "stirring up his spirits like a kiss from Chloe,"
and asks the "great unknown" to accept of what?
to accept of what? Books? Valuable
MSS.? Interesting information? No-but tickets to the Lord Mayor's
dinner--crowded dinner-and the Lady Mayoress's far less tolerable
ball, with a hint "to bring his Junia, if there be one."-WOODFALL,
i. 325.
When, in 1817, I stated my strong opinion in the House of Commons
on Wilkes's character, and the shame that his popularity brought on the
people of England for a time, Mr. Wilberforce expressed his thanks to me
and confirmed my statements. Mr. Canning, however, observed that
Wilkes was by no means a singular instance of demagogues not being
respectable, and added,
He's Knight o' th' shire, and represents them all,
which is an exaggerated view certainly. Sir Philip Francis, the morning
after, remonstrated strongly with me, in the company of other friends, for
saying anything in disparagement of a man run down by the Court. He
regarded the offence as greatly aggravated by the praise which had been
given to Lord Mansfield, against whom he inveighed bitterly, charging
him, among other things, with corruption in the Douglas cause, but
charging Lord Camden also. This tone, so precisely that of Junius upon
both subjects of Wilkes and Mansfield, was much remarked at the time..
2 F
434
JOHN WILKES.
beyond all others of his day, the idol of the mob, the
popular favourite; one who, by the force of their
applause, kept so far a footing with the better part of
society as to be very little blamed, very cautiously
abjured, by those most filled with disgust and with
detestation of his practices. It is an addition to the
chapter on this subject, already suggested by the
French revolution. The men in Parliament, the
members of the popular party, with perhaps the single
exception of Lord Chatham, while they would have
viewed with utter scorn any approaches he might
make to their intimacy, nevertheless were too much
afraid of losing the countenance of the multitude he
ruled over, to express their strongly entertained senti-
ments of his great demerits. They might not so far
disgrace themselves as to truckle in their measures;
they never certainly courted him with extending their
patronage to himself or his accomplices; but they
were under the powerful influence of intimidation,
and were content to pass for his fellow-labourers in
the Whig vineyard, and to suppress the feelings
with which his conduct in public and private life
filled them, rather than encounter his vengeance
and risk the loss, the temporary loss, of mob ap-
plause. How base does such conduct now appear,
and how noble is the contrast of Lord Chatham's
manly deportment in the eyes of impartial pos-
terity!
But the fall, the rapid and total declension, of Wilkes's
fame, the utter oblivion into which his very name
has passed for all purposes save the remembrance of
his vices-the very ruins of his reputation no longer
existing in our political history-this affords also a
salutary lesson to the followers of the multitude,-
those who may court the applause of the hour, and
regulate their conduct towards the people, not by
their own sound and conscientious opinions of what is
right, but by the desire to gain fame in doing what is
DEMAGOGUE ARTS.
435
pleasing, and to avoid giving the displeasure that
arises from telling wholesome though unpalatable
truths. Never man more pandered to the appetites
of the mob than Wilkes; never political pimp gave
more uniform contentment to his employers. Having
the moral and sturdy English, and not the volatile and
versatile Irish, to deal with, he durst not do or say as
he chose himself; but was compelled to follow that
he might seem to lead, or at least to go two steps with
his followers that he might get them to go three with
him. He dared not deceive them grossly, clumsily,
openly, impudently-dared not tell them opposite
stories in the same breath-give them one advice to-
day and the contrary to-morrow-pledge himself to a
dozen things at one and the same time; then come
before them with every one pledge unredeemed, and
ask their voices, and ask their money too on the credit
of as many more pledges for the succeeding half-year
-all this with the obstinate and jealous people of
England was out of the question; it could not have
passed for six weeks. But he committed as great, if
not as gross, frauds upon them; abused their con-
fidence as entirely if not so shamefully; catered for
their depraved appetites in all the base dainties of
sedition, and slander, and thoughtless violence, and
unreasonable demands; instead of using his influence
to guide their judgment, improve their taste, reclaim
them from bad courses, and better their condition by
providing for their instruction. The means by which
he retained their attachment were disgraceful and vile.
Like the hypocrite, his whole public life was a lie.
The tribute which his unruly appetites kept him
from paying to private morals, his dread of the mob,
or his desire to use them for his selfish purposes,
made him yield to public virtue; and he never
appeared before the world without the mask of
patriotic enthusiasm or democratic fury;-he who in
the recesses of Medenham Abbey, and before many

436
JOHN WILKES.
witnesses, gave the Eucharist to an ape, or pros
tituted the printing-press to multiply copies of a
production that would dye with blushes the cheek
of an impure.
It is the abuse, no doubt, of such popular courses,
that we should reprobate. Popularity is far from
being contemptible; it is often an honourable acqui-
sition; when duly earned, always a test of good done
or evil resisted. But to be of a pure and genuine
kind, it must have one stamp-the security of one
safe and certain die; it must be the popularity that
follows good actions, not that which is run after. Nor
can we do a greater service to the people themselves,
or read a more wholesome lesson to the race, above
all, of rising statesmen, than to mark how much the
mock-patriot, the mob-seeker, the parasite of the giddy
multitude, falls into the very worst faults for which
popular men are wont the most loudly to condemn, and
most heartily to despise, the courtly fawners upon princes.
Flattery indeed! obsequiousness! time-serving! What
courtier of them all ever took more pains to soothe an
irritable or to please a capricious prince than Wilkes
to assuage the anger or gain the favour, by humouring
the prejudices, of the mob! Falsehood, truly! in-
trigue! manoeuvre! Where did ever titled suitor for
promotion lay his plots more cunningly, or spread
more wide his net, or plant more pensively in the fire
those irons by which the waiters upon royal bounty
forge chains to themselves and to their country, that
they may also fashion the ladder they are to mount
by, than the patriot of the city did to delude the mul-
titude, whose slave he made himself, in order to be
rewarded with their sweet voices, and so rise to wealth.
and to power? When he penned the letter of cant
about administering justice, rather than join in a pro-
cession to honour the accession of a prince whom in a
private petition he covered over thick and threefold
with the slime of his flattery, he called it himself a
DEMAGOGUE ARTS.
437
manœuvre." When he delivered a rant about liberty
before the reverend judges of the land-the speaking
law of the land-he knew full well that he was not
delighting those he addressed, but the mob out of
doors, on whose ears the trash was to fall echoed back.
When he spoke a speech in Parliament of which no
one heard a word, and said aside to a friend who urged
the fruitlessness of the attempt at making the House
listen-"Speak it I must, for it has been printed in
the newspapers this half-hour"-he confessed that he
was acting a false part in one place to compass a real
object in another; as thoroughly as ever minister did
when he affected by smiles to be well in his prince's
good graces before the multitude, all the while know-
ing that he was receiving a royal rebuke. When he
and one confederate in the private room of a tavern
issued a declaration, beginning, "We, the people of
England," and signed "by order of the meeting,"—he
practised as gross a fraud upon that people as ever
peer or parasite did, when affecting to pine for the
prince's smiles, and to be devoted to his pleasure, in
all the life they led consecrated to the furtherance of
their own. It is no object of mine to exalt courtly
arts, or undervalue popular courses; no wish have I
to over-estimate the claims of the aristocracy at the
cost of lowering the people. Both departments of our
mixed social structure demand equally our regard;
but let the claims of both be put on their proper
footing. We may say, and very sincerely say, with
Cicero" Omnes boni semper nobilitati favemus, et
quia utile est reipublicæ nobiles homines esse dignos
majoribus suis; et quia valet, apud nos, clarorum ho-
minum et bene de republica meritorum memoria, etiam
mortuorum." (Pro Sext.) These are the uses, and
these the merits of the aristocratic branch of our sys-
tem; while the mean arts of the courtier only degrade
the patrician character. But mean as they are, their
vileness does not exceed that of the like arts practised
438
JOHN WILKES.
towards the multitude; nor is the Sovereign Prince
whose ear the flatterers essay to tickle that they may
deceive him for their own purposes, more entirely in-
jured by the deception which withholds the truth, than
the Sovereign People is betrayed and undone by those
who, for their own vile ends, pass their lives in sup-
pressing wholesome truth, and propagating popular
delusion.
INDEX.
American War, 10, 14, 39, 40, 42, Camden, Earl, reply to Lord Thurlow
57, 60.
Arago, cited, 6.
Barons, ancient and modern, com-
pared, 37.
Bedford, John, fourth Duke of, object
in writing his biography, 884.
reputation attacked by Junius,
385, 387.
accused of corruption, 388, 389.
of parsimony, 391 to 393.
of insulting the king, 393.
domestic affliction, 392.
Biography, objects of, 5.
Burke, Edmund, general attainments,
231.
style, great varieties of, 233.
select examples, 233 to 237.
works reviewed, 233 to 238.
speeches, 238 to 242.
Thoughts on the causes of present
discontents," reviewed, 244 to
247.
opinion on French affairs, 242, 247
to 252.
general opinions, 252, 253.
estimate of his character and ge-
nius, 253 to 261.
Camden, Earl, unsuccessful in early
life, 404.
judicial qualifications, 406 to 409.
political acquirements, 411.
reply to Lord Chatham on Wilkes's
election, 412.
mode of proceeding in parliament,
414.
powers of eloquence, 419.
becomes president of the council
in the Rockingham administra-
tion, 421.
on Fox's libel act, 424.
Canning, George, talents and attain-
ments, 350.
general character, 351, 356.
political principles, 352.
sketch of his career, 353 to 356.
oratorical powers, 357.
remarks on his love of office, 358 to
362.
Charles II.'s wit, Clarendon cited
on, 56.
Chatham, Lord, George III.'s senti-
ments on reversal of his pen-
sion, 18.
aptitude for government, 20, 24,
25, 26.
oratorical powers, 22, 33, 35.
disastrous aspect of affairs at the
commencement of his adminis-
tration, 24.
threatened resignation, 25.
success of the war during his ad-
ministration, 26, 27.
distinguishing qualities, 28.
mode of government, 28.
opinions and speech upon the Ame-
39 to 43.
rican war,
private character, 44 to 47.
Coxe's defence of Walpole, 312.
Demagogue Arts, 426 to 438.
Dowager Princess of Wales, deficiency
of education, 11.
death of, 79.
Dundas, Robert, general abilities and
character, 306.
remarks on his impeachment, 310.
Duntreath case cited, 199.
Eloquence, described by Cicero, 240.
English lawyers, remarks, 215 to 218.
440
INDEX.
Erskine, Thomas, judicial eloquence, Grenville, Lord, sketch of his career,
315.
legal talents, 318.
speeches, 319.
public and private character, 320.
Fox, Charles James, general attain-
ments, 262.
deficient education, 263.
great intellectual powers, 264.
eloquence compared to that of De-
mosthenes, 43, 264.
remarks on, 264 tɔ 270.
private character, 271.
quarrel with Pitt, 273.
sketch of his career, 274 to 276.
General Warrants, Earl Camden's
decision upon, 408, 409.
Genius, irregularity and eccentricity
coincident with, 27.
George III., mode of government a
matter of importance, 9.
character and disposition, 10.
education, 11.
animosity towards the Whig party,
11.
business habits, 12.
minute interference with public
and domestic affairs, 13, 15.
threat of abdication, 14.
private character, 17 to 19.
meeting with Lord Bute after his
administration, 49.
letters of, to Lord North (see Let-
ters).
remark on death of Lord Lough-
borough, 181.
Gibbs, Lord Chief Justice, general
and legal attainments, 218 to 222.
narrow-minded notions, 221.
conceit and peevishness, 222.
political prejudices, 223.
Gordon, Dr., newspaper reports fur-
nished by, 22.
Grafton, Duke of, cited, 52, 53.
Grant, Sir William, judicial and po-
litical eloquence, 228, 229.
legal attainments, 226 to 228.
remarks on Pitt's eloquence, 287.
Grattan, Henry, patriotic charac-
ter, 335.
oratorical powers, 338.
private character, 310.
letter to his sons, 312.
330 to 333.
character as a statesman, 333.
Gunnersbury, Geo. III.'s visit to the
Princess Amelia at, 49.
Halliday's biography of Mansfield,
condemned, 194.
History of nations, perfect knowledge
of, how obtained, 1.
Holland, Henry Fox, first Lord, cited
by the Livery of London as a de-
faulter, 386.
refutation of the charge, 387.
Hume, David, cited, 393.
Impeachment of Lord Melville, 312.
India Bill, Camden, cited on, 421.
Irish nation, inconsistency of, 176,
177.
Johnson, Dr., parliamentary debates
written by, 21.
Junius's charges against Lord Mans-
field, 204.
ignorance of common law, 204, 205.
praise and abuse of Chatham, 206.
claims to fame, 207.
slanders against the Duke of Bed-
ford, 385, 387.
printer's apology for his letter to
Junia, 395.
attack on Lord Mansfield, cited,
398, 399.
attack on the Duke of Grafton and
Lord North, 400, 401.
Letters of George III. to Lord North,
American disturbances, 67, 83, 85,
86, 87, 89, 91, 97, 98, 100, 101,
103.
American war, 104, 105, 106, 110,
112, 122, 132, 143, 165.
appointment of a receiver-general
for Jamaica, 95.
appointment of a chancellor, 73.
Chatham's pension, 90.
coalition, 139, 140.
colonial policy, 124, 150, 161.
Dr. Priestley, 129.
Duke of Cumberland's debts, 72.
East India Company's affairs, 81.
ecclesiastical appointments, 97.
foreign policy, 115, 158, 165.
French despatches, 81.
grand juries, 68.
!
?
INDEX.
Letters of George III. to Lord North, |
legal appointments, 72, 114, 116,
119.
his threatened resignation, 134.
household expenses, 153.
military affairs, 117, 130, 152, 155.
appointments, 107, 125.
naval affairs, 116, 117, 125, 127,
129, 135, 161.
appointments, 107, 127, 143.
payment of Lord North's debts, 99.
pensions, 131.
printing the debates, 75, 77.
prosecution of the war, 127.
royal marriage act, 79.
subsidizing Sweden, 76, 82.
threatened abdication, 111.
treasury appointments, 108, 109.
union of the courts of Vienna and
St. Petersburgh, 165.
wardenship of the cinque ports,118.
war with France, 101, 102, 105,
138.
Wilkes's expulsion from parliament,
67, 68, 69, 70.
Loughborough, Lord, legal attain-
ments, 167.
sketch of his career, 169 to 174.
forensic powers, 170.
charge to the grand jury, 172.
controversy on the Regency ques-
tion, 174.
character, 180.
George III.'s remark on his death,
181.
Louis XIV., saying of, 193.
Love of power, ruinous to the cha-
racter of statesmen, 359.
Libel Act, Camden cited on, 422,
423.
Mansfield, Lord, education and at-
tainments, 194.
as an advocate, 195.
character as Chief Justice, 196 to
198.
special cases, 199 to 203.
charges of Junius discussed, 203 to
208.
judicial eloquence, 212.
private character, 213.
Mears v. Ansell, cited, 204.
Monarchy and republicanism com-
pared, 6.
Musgrave, Dr., cited, 390, 401.
441
North, Lord, origin of George III.'s
partiality to, 50, 51.
difficulties at the commencement
of his administration, 54, 55.
equanimity of disposition, 56.
qualities as a statesman, 58, 60.
retention of office vindicated, 63.
Open questions, doctrine of, 64.
| Parliamentary reporting, imperfect
state of, 21.
debates, publication of, prohibited,
416.
representation, Camden cited on,
419.
Party, detrimental to public service,
371.
effects of, 370, 379, 381.
origin of, 372.
tactics of, 375.
Perceval, Spencer, general character,
323.
oratorical powers, 324.
defends the royal prerogative, 325.
particulars of his assassination,
328.
private character, 329.
Perrin v. Blake, cited, 202.
Pitt, William, character reviewed,
29, 30.
letter to Countess of Chatham, 32.
antagonism to Lord North, 60, 61.
political delinquency of, 61, 62.
private character, 289.
compared with Fox, 277.
early studies and attainments, 278.
animadversions on his career, 279,
283.
conduct during the war, 281.
favours African Slave Trade, 283.
oratorical powers, 284, 288.
examples of, 286.
political character, 288.
Regency Question, discussed, 175.
Romilly, Sir Samuel, mental capa-
city, 364.
forensic eloquence, 366.
private character, 367.
Royal prerogative, defined, 15 to 17.
Rulers of nations, study of biography
necessary to, 2.
Self-government, expediency of, 7.
442
INDEX.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, imperfect | Treason, trials, 220.
education, 291.
dramatic works, 292.
oratorical powers, 293.
wit and humour, 294.
speech on the "Begum Charge,"
295.
extracts from various speeches,
296.
character as a statesman, 297.
private character, 297.
Sinking Fund, the, 279.
Slave trade, abolition of, cited, 378.
Pitt's protection of, 293.
Wilberforce's opposition to, 346.
Staël, Madame de, anecdote of Pitt's
proposed marriage with, 289.
State of the nation, motion for in-
quiring into the, 55.
Taxation and representation, insepar-
able, 419.
Thornton, Henry, character of, 346.
Thurlow, Lord, legal abilities, 186.
powers as a debater, 187.
anecdotes, 189, 190.
conversational powers, 191.
character, 193.
Verdicts by Juries, Camden cited
on, 423.
Whitefoord, Caleb, cited, 395.
Wilberforce, William, general charac
ter and attainments, 343.
oratorical powers, 344.
advocates the abolition of the Slave
Trade, 346 to 349.
Wilkes, John, private character, 426.
imprisonment for libel, 427.
lord mayor of London, 428.
boasted duplicity, 429 to 430.
anecdotes of, cited, 429 to 432.
wit and drollery, 431.
แ
""
manœuvre on the king's acces-
sion, 433.
letters to Junius, cited, 433.
decline of his popularity, 434.
Windham, William, natural abilities,
299.
general attainments, 300.
oratorical powers, 302.
general character, 305.
"Wisdom of our ancestors," phrase
first used, 230
GLASGOW:
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STATESMEN
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The TIME of GEORGE IN
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506
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B89
1856
Lord Brondtam,
Vol