A.D. 1779.] PROPOSAL TO INQUIRE INTO THE NATIONAL EXPENDITURE. which have long been obsolete—upon old baronial customs and arrangements. There is the lord chamberlain, lord steward, groom of the stole, master of the horse, &c., each, in his department, covering an expenditure royal of itself. The lord chamberlain has oversight of all officers and servants of the royal chambers, except those of the royal bedchamber, which are under the groom of the stole. He is master of the officers of the wardrobe, of tents, revels, music, comediaus, handicrafts, and artisans; though a layman, he has the oversight of all the royal chaplains, heralds, physicians, and apothecaries; and examines or should examine-all charges of coronations, marriages, public entries, cavalcades, and funerals, and of all furniture in the parliament house, and the rooms of address to the sovereign. The lord steward has the like control of the servants of the household, clerks of the green cloth, &c. The master of the horse, of the royal stables and horses, and all the necessary, or unnecessary, equerries, pages, footmen, grooms, farriers, smiths, saddlers, &c. &c. The master of the hawks has, it is to be presumed, the care of the hawks that once were; yet this officer has a salary of one thousand three hundred and seventy-two pounds a-year; and the master of the dogs two thousand pounds a-year. The money expended by the lord chamberlain in George III.'s reign often amounted to one hundred and ten thousand pounds a-year; by the lord steward, from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand pounds; by the master of the horse, from thirty thousand to fifty thousand pounds. No wonder that he was poor. How unnecessary was this cumbrous establishment was, in after years, strikingly shown, when the prince regent discharged all the duties of royalty on his establishment as prince of Wales. But, besides the immediate household, every government establishment was surcharged with sinecures, and offices all but sinecures, such as the chief-justiceships in Eyre, with salaries amounting to four thousand five hundred and sixtysix pounds; the vice-admiralty of Scotland, the privy seal of Scotland, offices of keeper of the signet and register of sasines, chancellor, justice-general, &c. of Scotland, all of which ought to have been abolished at the union, but which are kept up as sops for aristocratic families. The auditorship of the exchequer, the registrarship of the admiralty, were immensely overpaid for the amount of duty, the latter office amounting eventually to sixteen thousand pounds a-year. Then there were the four tellerships of the exchequer, the four clerkships of the Pells, clerks of the Hanaper, both here, in Scotland, and in Ireland, the custos brevium in the court of king's bench, the six clerks in chancery, &c., all notorious jobs, and, where there were any duties capable of being discharged, these were done by persons at very light salaries. But many of these things were become hereditary, and highborn ladies were even invested with collectorships of the customs; one was sweeper of the mall; another chief usher of the court of exchequer; a third custos brevium. Noble lords were wine-tasters, storekeepers, craners and packers to the court in Ireland. There were hereditary tide-waiters, clerks, harbour-masters, searchers, gaugers, wharfingers, prothonotaries, nay, royal and vice-royal ratcatchers, honourable and right honourable gentlemen, ladies, and even children; and finally, many of these hereditary offices, when at a later 237 day the besom of reform came amongst them, had to be purchased off by large compensation sums. The sinecures towards the end of this reign amounted to three hundred and fifty six thousand five hundred and fifty-five pounds a-year; the pension list had grown, before, it received a searching revision, to eight hundred and five thousand and twenty-two pounds per annum, loaded with almost every imaginable hanger-on of the aristocracy, mennumbers of whom more richly deserved a halter—and women and children whom the country at large had never heard of. The exceptions for real merit were few and far between, and very slightly benefited the possessors of it. It was into this condition of the Augean stable of corruption and national robbery that the duke of Richmond and lord Shelburne in the lords, and Edmund Burke in the commons, now instituted an inquiry. It was not likely that so widelyspread and deeply-rooted a disorder, which involved the interests of so many powerful families, would be at once remedied; we have seen that, after eighty years of perpetual pressure on this subject, we are yet far from the bottom of this Sorbonian bog of governmental abuse, but these statesmen had the honour of being the first to put in their draining spades. The duke of Richmond introduced the subject into the upper house by moving, on the 7th of December, that an address be conveyed to his majesty representing the distress of the country, the heavy demands upon it for the complicated war, and recommending a reduction of all useless expenses; that profusion, so far from being strength, was weakness; that it behoved all classes of officials to consent to a curtailment of the lavish salaries in existence; and that it would be a noble and effective example in the crown to take the lead, and could not fail of enhancing the love of his people, and diffusing an excellent influence throughout every department of the state. His grace represented that the present vast military establishment by sea and land could not include less than three hundred thousand men; that, since the commencement of the American war, as we have already stated, the expenditure had added sixty-three millions of pounds to the debt, and its interest, eight millions, to our annual payments. The interest of the debt had, in fact, now become of itself equal to the whole of our expenditure in years of peace before. This gave a fearful idea of the wastefulness and worse than wastefulness of our system, considering how little of effective service we had derived from this enormous outlay. He laid much stress on the belief that the example of the king would induce all orders of men to make equal sacrifices to the needs of their country. But no such desire animated the bosom of George III., who continued through the whole of his reign, at least during the period in which he retained his sanity, to suffer his expenditure to exceed his magnificent income. Richmond declared that he had no wish to curtail the pensions of those who had wasted their fortunes in the service of their country, as the Pelhams, for the duke of Newcastle was said to have sunk five hundred thousand pounds during the years that he so fondly adhered to office. The Pelhams, the Walpoles, and the Pitts, he deemed well entitled to what the country had conferred on them. Horace Walpole, the son of the minister, was now and had been long enjoying six thousand pounds a-year. The duke of Richmond gave the ministers and the aristocracy credit for a disinterestedness which they did not possess. They admitted the vastness of the expenditure, and that there was wastefulness, and that they were desirous of economy; but they could not believe that any reduction of the civil list would be sensibly felt, whilst it would reflect dishonour on the country, as if it were incapable of maintaining the crown in due credit. Lord ch incellor Thurlow affected not to believe in the distress, or that any case of public extravagance had been made out. The duke of Richmond's motion was negatived by seventyseven votes against thirty-six. But on the 15th of December, only eight days later, lord Shelburne followed up the question with moving that the alarming additions annually made to the debt, under the name of extraordinaries incurred in different services, demanded an immediate check; that the distresses of landed and mercantile interests made the strictest economy requisite, and that the expenditure of such large sums without grants from parliament was an alarming violation of the constitution. He showed that these expenses bore no proportion to those of any former wars as to the services performed for them, and stated plainly that the cause was notorious—that the greater part of the money went into the pockets for the ministers' contracting friends. The ministerial party endeavoured to answer these too-well pointed charges by lauding the integrity and disinterestedness of lord North, as though such disinterestedness would have been any excuse for mismanagement; but the truth was, and it was no secret, that lord North, though not avaricious himself, was much too freehanded in gratifying the cupidity of others at the expense of the country; and, indeed, it is impossible to see how a minister of such ordinary powers and narrow views could have secured so long a tenure of office under such a career of disgrace and disaster, except by the indulgence of a boundless corruption to sustain his majority. Lord Shelburne's motion was also rejected. He then gave notice for a further motion of a like nature on the 8th of February. The matter was not to be lightly or easily dismissed. On the very same day that lord Shelburne made his motion in the lords, Edmund Burke gave notice of a series of resolutions which he should introduce after the Christmas recess. IIe stated the outline of his intended measures for economical reform. Whilst he was delivering a very fine speech on this occasion, Fox came in from the house of lords, where he had been listening to the debate on lord Shelburne's motion, and warmly supported him, lamenting that there was not virtue enough in the house to carry through so necessaryso patriotic a measure. "I am just come," he said, "from another place where the first men in this kingdom-the first in abilities, the first in estimation-are now libelling this house." The announcement excited, as Fox intended, much surprise; and he continued-"Yes, I repeat it. Every instance they give-and they give many and strong instances ―of uncorrected abuses, with regard to the public money, is a libel on this house. Everything they state on the growth of corrupt influence-and it never was half so flourishingis a libel on this house." The or remonstrance; the base contractors sitting there, and Before separating, this most important meeting appointed a committee of correspondence, consisting of sixty-one The corruptionists in parliament were deaf to eloquence gentlemen, to carry out the objects of the petition, and stil A.D. 1780.] BURKE'S SCHEMES FOR RETRENCHMENT AND REFORM. 239 will, in the course of a hundred and fifty years, be able to spend three thousand millions sterling, nominally in wars, but of which a large part was really expended in feeding a more ravenous brood of placemen, contractors, aristocrats, and all their progeny and kin, than the world ever saw. further to prepare the plan of a national association for the are really the controllers of their representatives; but that promotion of the great business of reform. This was follow-day is hastening on, and no future government of England ing so directly in the steps of the Americans as to strike a new and yet unknown terror into all the hearts of the corruptionists, and of ministers their fosterers. Even some of the friends of reform, the marquis of Carmarthen amongst them, were startled at these committees of correspondence, recollecting what an engine of agitation they had proved in the United States. But, spite of all timid tremors, and of all interested opposition, the petition of Yorkshire received eight thousand signatures. The contagion spread rapidly; in numbers of other counties, and in many of the leading cities, similar petitions were got up, and committees of Burke's Motion for Economical Reform―The Pension List-Defended by Lord correspondence formed. In various counties violent opposition was made by leading noblemen and gentlemen. Lord Sandwich tried this at Huntingdon, but only to rouse a more determined spirit. The great landowners, in many places, when they saw their efforts to quash such petitions fail, entered public protests against them, insisting that the whole matter should be left to the wisdom of parliament. In vain; the great reformers were at their posts encouraging the public. Conspicuous amongst these were lord Rock*ingham, in Yorkshire, lord Shelburne, in Buckinghamshire, and lord Mahon, the son-in-law of Chatham, in Kent. The result was that very soon, in the counties of Middlesex, Chester, Hants, Hertford, Sussex, Huntingdon, Surrey, Cumberland, Bedford, Essex, Gloucester, Somerset, Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Norfolk, Berks, Bucks, Nottingham, Kent, Northumberland, Suffolk, Hereford, Cambridge, Derby, Northampton, and the towns of York and Bristol, Cambridge, Nottingham, Newcastle, Reading, and Bridgewater, petitions were prepared, and in most of them corresponding committees organised. This terminated the year 1779. It closed amid very gloomy circumstances and auguries. The nation was involved in a dreadful and wide-spread war; was on the eve of losing its most valuable colonies; was ruled by a king, who, whatever domestic virtues he might possess, had neither the capacity to manage his own affairs nor those of the kingdom, and by a ministry which had all the qualities necessary for the ruin of a great people. No imbecility, no amount of mismanagement, no career of loss, and blunders, and damaging incapacity ever induced that king to dismiss such ministers, and there was no power in the nation to unseat them, because, with the money which the people furnished to maintain the domestic government, and prosecute those luckless wars, they hired standing majorities to sanction all their proceedings. But, at this moment, as good comes out of evil, as day springs out of night, the necessity of an extirpation of this odious system was forcing itself on the more reflective and honest minds. We owe it to the duke of Richmond, to the earl of Shelburne, and pre-eminently to Edmund Burke, that the nation was now taught that the funds of a nation are not raised to maintain a greedy and lazy brood of aristocrats, and contractors, and parliamentary adventurers, but are raised for the discharge of the necessary business of the community. It has taken a long time to inculcate effectively this lesson. We are fast hastening to the completion of a century, and it is not yet accomplished, and never will be accomplished till the people CHAPTER VIII. THE REIGN OF GEORGE III-(Continued.) Nugent-Duels of Fox and Lord Shelburne-Bills to disqualify Revenue Officers and Contractors-Meeting in Westminster-Dunning's Motion to reduce the Influence of the Crown-These neutralised-Protestant Associations-The Gordon Riots-Burning of Catholic Chapels-Newgate burnt-Other Prisons broken open-Lord Mansfield's House ransackedAttempts on the Bank of England-Thirty-six Conflagrations at NightLord George Gordon arrested-Burke and North in concert-Special Commission-Rodney defeats Don Juan de Langara-Relieves Gibraltar - Resentment of the Empress Catherine-Campaign in North AmericaCapture of Charlestown-Action at Wax-haws-Cornwallis and Lord Rawdon Battle of Camden-Surprise at King's Mountain-La Fayette's Return-Count Rochambeau-French Fleet blockaded-American Headquarters-Career of General Arnold-Major André meets him-André arrested-Escape of Arnold-André hanged as a Spy-Offers to the Opposition in England-Dissolution of Parliament-Pitt and GrenvilleSecret Overtures for Peace by Necker-War with Holland-Erskine's Defence of Captain Baillie, Admiral Keppel, and Lord George GordonFirst Speech of Sheridan-Pitt's rising fame-French Descent of Jersey -French and Spaniards in Minorca-Descent upon Virginia-Mutiny amongst the American Troops-Campaign in the Carolinas-Action at Cow-pens-Battle of Guildford-Campaign in Virginia-Retreat of La Fayette-Action at Hobkirk's Hill-Case of Colonel Hayne-Battle at Eutaw Springs-Expedition to Connecticut-Quarrel of Clinton and Cornwallis-French Fleet in the Chesapeake-Washington's Conference with De Grasse-Cornwallis besieged in York Town-His Surrender. WHEN parliament re-assembled, after the Christmas recess, the great question of economical reform took the first place in its deliberations. The great Yorkshire petition was introduced on the 8th of February by Sir George Saville, who, as the forms of the house then allowed, made a speech on its presentation. He was a small, weakly man, but of the most upright character, and was listened to with the highest respect. On the 11th Burke rose to bring forward his extensive schemes of retrenchment and reform. Those who have witnessed the long series of arduous campaigns on these subjects, and the vast amount of the labour which, nearly a century later, still remains to be done, must smile at the very Quixotish air of Burke's attempt. It was no less than a scheme of reforms so vast and multiform as to require five bills to include them. It went to the sale of the crown lands; the abolition of the separate jurisdictions of the principality of Wales, the duchies of Cornwall, Chester, and Lancaster; of the court offices of treasurer, comptroller, cofferer, keeper of the stag, buck, and fox hounds, of the wardrobe, robes, jewels, &c.; of the recently-instituted office of third secretary of state; the reduction and simplification of offices in the ordnance and mint departments; of the patent office of the exchequer; the regulation of the pay offices of the army, navy, and of pensioners; and, finally, of the civil list. Such a host of corrupt interests was assailed by this wholesale scheme, that it was certain to receive a most not so. determined opposition; and it might have been supposed that it would be encountered by the most rabid rage. But The great tribe whose interests were affected were too adroit strategists for that; they were too well assured that, being legion, and all knit up together from the crown downwards, embracing every branch of the aristocracy, they were safe, and might, therefore, listen to the fervid eloquence of the poetic Irishman, as they would to a tragedy that did not affect them, further than their amusement was concerned. All parties, therefore, professed a singular delight | in listening to the exposure of their selfish gnawings of the very vitals of the country. Not only did the reformer, Dunning, declare that Burke's opening speech "must remain as a monument to be handed down to posterity of his uncommon, unrivalled industry, astonishing abilities, and invincible perseverance;" but lord North, on hearing Burke assert that, "as things now stand, every man, in proportion to his consequence at court, tried to add to the expense of the civil list, by all manner of jobs, if not for himself, yet for his dependents," eulogised the speech as one of the ablest he had ever heard; a speech such as no other member could have made." He was in raptures with it, and so were crowds of the grossest corruptionists, just as a lazy man, on a hot day, is pleased with the tickling of a straw. Even Gibbon, who lost his salary of eight hundred a-year, as a commissioner of the board of trade, by the sole piece of retrenchment that Burke accomplished, suffered the amputation under the spell of Burke's oratory, just as a man now loses a leg under the influence of chloroform, and imagines all the time that he is making a delightful walking tour through enchanting scenery. "I can never forget," he says, "the delight with which that diffusive and ingenious orator was heard on all sides of the house, even by those whose existence he proscribed." แ Burke's style of eloquence was, in fact, as different as possible to parliamentary oratory of the present time. It was as diffuse and full of descriptive and imaginative flights as a romance. With its ornaments and its whole landscapes of flowers, no wonder that the listeners forget the real business of the speaker, who would be heard with amazement by our mere matter-of-fact senators now. Even at that day his speeches of three or four hours in length thinned the house on many occasions. As a specimen of his style on this occasion, we may quote a passage in which he could not allude to the retention of worn-out customs without advancing into a rhetorical description of our palaces, the desolate haunts of jobbery :-"When the reason of old establishments is gone, it is absurd to preserve nothing but the burthens of them. This is superstitiously to embalm the carcass, not worth an ounce of the gums that are used to preserve it. It is to burn precious oils in the tomb; it is to offer meat and drink to the dead, not so much an honour to the deceased as a disgrace to the survivors. Our palaces are vast inhospitable halls; there the bleak winds-there "Boreas and Eurus and Caurus and Argestes loud," howling through the vacant lobbies, and clattering the doors of deserted guard-rooms, appal the imagination, and conjure up the grim spectres of departed tyrants-the Saxon, the Norman, and the Dane-the stern Edwards and fierce Henries-who stalk from desolation to desolation through the dreary vacuity and melancholy succession of chill and comfortless chambers. When this tumult subsides, a dead and still more frightful silence would reign in the desert if every now and then the tacking of hammers did not announce that those constant attendants on all courts, in all ages, JOBS, were still alive; for whose sake alone it is hat any trace of ancient grandeur is suffered to remain. There palaces are a true emblem of some governments: the inhabitants are decayed, but the governors and magistrates still flourish. They put me in mind of Old Sarum, where the representatives, more in number than the constituents, only serve to inform us that this was once a place of trade, and sounding with the busy hum of man, though now you can only trace the streets by the colour of the corn, and its sole manufacture is in members of parliament." In the same luxuriantly - imaginative style, he is not content to tell you that the duchies of Lancaster, &c., are cumbrous antiquities, better swept away, but he thus picturesquely embellishes the very fact :-" Ours is not a monarchy in strictness, but, as in the Saxon times, this coun try was a heptarchy, so now it is a strange sort of pentarchy. Cross a brook, and you lose the king of England; but you have some comfort in coming again under his majesty, though shorn of his beams, and no more than prince of Wales. Go to the north, and you find him dwindled to a duke of Lancaster; turn to the west of that north, and he pops upon you in the humble character of the earl of Chester. Travel a few miles on, the earl of Chester disappears, and the king surprises you again as count palatine of Lancaster. If you travel beyond Mount Edgecombe, you will find him once more in his incognito, and he is duke of Cornwall. So that, quite fatigued and satiated with this dull variety, you are infinitely refreshed when you return to the sphere of his proper splendour, and behold your amiable sovereign in his true, simple, undisguised character of majesty." Lord North, with all his admiration of Burke's speech, very soon managed to put the principality and the duchies out of the range of his inquiries. He declared that nobody was more zealous for a permanent system of economy than he was; but then, unfortunately, the king's patrimonial revenue was concerned in these duchies, and therefore he must be first consulted; and, what was still more embarrassing was, that these proposals affected the rights of the prince of Wales, and therefore could not be mooted till he was of age; so that branch of the inquiry was lopped off, under the gentle phrase of postponement. When the discussion reached the reform of the king's household, Burke was compelled to admit that a former attempt to reform this lavish yet penurious household by lord Talbot, had been suddenly stopped, because, forsooth, it would endanger the situation of an honourable member who was turnspit in the kitchen! That his lordship, observing the lavish expense of the king's kitchen, had reduced several tables, and put the persons entitled to them on board wages; but, as the duties of these persons had to be performed, they continued still to live where they were employed, and the only result was that the expense was doubled! The end of it was, that though all expressed themselves as delighted and as acquiescent, almost every detail was thrown out in |