A.D. 1769.] INCREASING EXCITEMENT AMONG THE COLONISTS. ever wishes to cheat a neighbour of his estate, or rob a country of its right, need make no scruple of consulting the doctor himself." 71 liberty the colonists did not hesitate to practise the most unmitigated compulsion. In Massachusetts the colonists were more exasperated against governor Barnard, on account of his letters reflecting on the Bostonians in the matter of the late riots, these letters having been laid before parliament, and copies of them by some means procured and sent on by their agents. They declared that it was beneath their dignity to deliberate in the midst of an armed force, and requested Barnard to withdraw the troops, but he refused; and they, on their The government might justify this decision on the ground of Wilkes's incapacity to serve during that parliament, but the country saw with alarm that it was establishing a precedent for annulling the most precious defences of the constitution by a mere resolution of the commons. For this reason the words of Mr. Henry Cavendish, the ancestor of the present lord Waterpark, which he used in the debate, were received with enthusiasm out of doors as " Mr. Caven-part, declined to vote supplies, on which he adjourned them dish's Creed: "-"I do, from my soul, detest and abjure, as unconstitutional and illegal, that damnable doctrine and 'position, that a resolution of the house of commons can make, alter, suspend, abrogate, or annihilate the law of the land." To such a pitch of folly and despotism had the Grafton ministry been driven by the events of the session of 1769, by their conduct towards the Americans and Wilkes. The Rockinghams and Grenvilles were combined against the Grafton cabinet, and thus acquiring popularity at its expense. Lord Camden, though still retaining his place, utterly disapproved of their proceedings. The people everywhere held meetings to express their total loss of confidence in both the ministers and parliament, and to pray the king to dissolve the latter. In the autumn, the action of Wilkes against lord Halifax, for the seizure of his papers, was tried, and the jury gave him four thousand pounds dainages. But, gloomy as were the aspect of affairs at home, they were far more so in America. There, the insane conduct of the government had gone on exasperating and alienating the colonists. True, the cabinet, on the close of parliament, held a meeting to consider what should be done regarding America. Grafton proposed to repeal the obnoxious duties at the commencement of the next session, but he was overruled on the motion of lord North, and it was agreed to repeal all but the tea-duties. Within a few days after the close of the session, therefore, lord Hillsborough wrote this news in a circular to the governors of the American colonies. As was certain, the partial concession produced no effect, the principle being still retained in the continued teaduty. Moreover, Hillsborough's circular was composed in such harsh and uncourteous terms, that it rather augmented than assuaged the excitement. In the month of May the new Virginian assembly passed strong resolutions against the right of taxation without representation, and sent copies of them to the other colonial assemblies. It also petitioned the king against the employment of the act of Henry VIII. against the colonists. Amongst the leaders on this occasion, we find first the name of Thomas Jefferson, combined with those of Peyton Randolph, Patrick Henry, George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, and others, who became the great actors in the revolution. Maryland and South Carolina followed the example. Georgia and Rhode Island were censured for not standing firm for the general rights, trade was prohibited with them, and they and North Carolina soon joined the association. Such merchants as continued to sell British goods were assailed by the mob, and their property and lives threatened. In the cause of to Cambridge. There, however, as Cambridge was only separated from Boston by an arm of the sea, they continued to protest against an armed force, as an invasion of the national rights of the colonists, and highly dangerous. Barnard soon announced to them his intention to sail for England, to lay the state of the colony before the king, and the house immediately voted a petition to his majesty, praying him to keep him from coming back again. Barnard then called upon them to refund the money expended for the quartering of the troops; but that they pronounced quite as unreasonable as the stamp act, and finding them utterly intractable, Barnard prorogued the assembly, and quitted the colony, leaving the administration in the hands of lieutenant-governor Hutchinson. Scarcely had he departed, when the grand jury of Suffolk county found indictments against him for libel, in slandering the representatives to the king's ministers. Before he was actually gone, a violent scuffle betwixt Robinson, one of the commissioners, and James Otis, the patriot, took place in a coffee-house; numbers of others rushed to take part in it, and nothing but the absence of soldiers from the scene could have prevented bloodshed. The Bostonians had commenced the practice of tarring and feathering informers, of any who attempted to assist government, and the condition of the colony was everything but actual warfare. Yet, in that blind and defiant policy, which he continued to show till he had lost the colonies, George created Barnard a baronet on his reaching home, for having, in effect, brought Massachusetts to the verge of rebellion; and, to show his emphatic sense of these services, he paid himself all the expenses of the patent. Before closing the session, a new bargain was made with the East India Company, on still more advantageous terms to the company. They were still to pay four hundred thousand pounds a-year to government, if their dividends continued more than six per cent.; but if they fell to that sum, the payment was to cease altogether a premium, in fact, on bad management. The company was allowed to raise its dividends, if it saw fit, to twelve and a half per cent., but only at the rate of one per cent. per annum; and they were bound to take out a certain quantity of manufacturing goods. Scarcely was this bargain concluded, when news from India arrived which made the extinction of the annual payment very probable. The successes of Hyder Ali threatened the very existence of our power in India; but as the narrative of our great American conflict will be for some time the all-engrossing topic, we shall defer the events of India till the termination of that period. CHAPTER IV. REIGN OF GEORGE III. (continued.) Reconciliation of Chatham and the Grenvilles-Meeting of Parliament, 1770— Chatham reappears-Camden dismissed from Office-Sir Charles Yorke made Chancellor of the Exchequer-Commits Suicide-Duke of Grafton resigns-Lord North Prime Minister-Affairs of America-Affray at from Prison-Death of Beckford-Death of Grenville-Affairs of Ireland -The Falkland Islands invaded by Spain-The French Court-Fall of Choiseul-Peace confirmed-Duel of Lord George Germaine-Disputes with the City of London-Crosby and Oliver committed to the TowerPopular Tumults-Mr. Fox's Entry on Public Life-Decline of Wilkes's InAuence-John Horne Tooke-Meeting of Parliament, 1772—Subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles—Marriage of Duke of Cumberland and Duke of Gloucester-Sorrowful History of George III.'s Sister, Caroline Matilda Queen of Denmark-The Conspiracy against Struensee-The Confinement and Death of Caroline Matilda-Death of the Princess Dowager-Royal Boston-Trial of Captain Preston-"The Massacro"-Wilkes released Marriage Bill-Fox resigns Office-Accepts it again-Revolution in Sweden-Russian War in the Mediterranean-Troubles of Poland-First Treaty of Partition-Foreign Policy of England. On the 9th of May, 1769, parliament was prorogued, and did not meet again till January, 1770. During the interval the chief subjects that engrossed the public attention were the agitations in the city, the discontents of the nation, and the unsettled state of Ireland. In the city, subscriptions were set on foot to pay the debts and furnish an income for Wilkes. It was found that his debts amounted to seventeen thousand pounds, of which seven thousand had been already compromised. There remained, therefore, against him ten thousand pounds. A subscription was entered into at a meeting at the London Tavern, and three thousand three hundred and forty pounds raised on the spot. A committee was formed to extend the subscription throughout England. "The Supporters of the Bill of Rights" sent him into the King's Bench prison three hundred pounds. In all, from first to last, Wilkes is said to have received for his patriotism upwards of thirty thousand pounds, besides considerable sums as private gifts. The agitation was kept up in the city by dinners at the Thatched House Tavern, attended by most of the members of the opposition, and petitions were sent up by the city and the freeholders of Middlesex to the king, praying him to dismiss his ministers, as enemies to freedom, and traitors to their country. Westminster demanded the dissolution of parliament, and these examples were followed by the chief towns all over England, demonstrating the excessive unpopularity of the government. Chatham, who was recovering from his depression, and the Grenvilles were plotting against the administration, and Junius was launching his heaviest thunders at their heads. The state of Ireland was, as usual, worse than that of England. For years that country had been overrun by White-boys, Cork-boys, Levellers, and Hearts of Steel. These associations appeared to have as their chief object the resistance to the levying of tithes, but they kept the whole country in terror and uneasiness. Lord Townshend, who was now viceroy, had obtained the king's promise that twelve thousand troops should be maintained in Ireland; that number was voted by the Irish parliament, after a strong opposition, in October, and, in November, a money bill was sent over from the English cabinet, as the custom was, under the provision of Poyning's Act, that it might receive the sanction of the Irish parliament. But, in The November, the Irish parliament rejected this money bill, claiming the right to pass their own money-bills, and thereupon they passed a bill of their own, more liberal than the English one. But the lord-lieutenant refused to receive it, and referred the matter to the English cabinet. English cabinet had no resource but to order Townshend to prorogue the parliament, which delayed, but did not settle the question. Thus, both at home and abroad, in the metropolis, in the country, in Ireland, and in America, the English government found itself in embarrassing circumstances with the people-embarrassments which their headstrong incapacity had created, and which they did not appear capable of dealing with. Parliament assembled on the 9th of January, 1770. People had been surprised at the unusual delay in calling it together, considering the critical state of America, but they were much more surprised when the subject put foremost in the king's speech was a lamentation over the murrain which had appeared amongst horned cattle during the recess, and which ministers had taken some measures to stop without calling together parliament. It was true that he afterwards alluded to the state of affairs in America, and trusted some means would be devised by parliament to appease the irritation. But, whilst war itself appeared imminent there, whilst the whole country at home was in a state of high discontent, and the Spitalfields weavers were at this moment in a state of open riot, the idea of giving the chief place in the royal speech to horned cattle caused a burst of universal ridicule. It was thenceforth called "The Horned Cattle Session." Junius launched one of his fierce missives at the duke of Grafton, observing, "Whilst the whole kingdom was agitated with anxious expectation on one great point, you meanly evaded the question, and, instead of the explicit firmness and decision of a king, gave us nothing but the misery of a ruined grazier." The public prints abounded with jests on this absurd topic of a king's speech, which, they remarked, belonged rather to George's farmerly tastes, than to his more important cares as a monarch. There was one present that day, in the house of peers, who was not likely to let such feebleness escape without castigation. Chatham, during the last summer, had been visited with his old enemy, but now especial friend, a good fit of the gout. With it was thrown from his nervous system its oppression; he revived to all his apparent vigour of mind, and amongst his first movements was to become reconciled to his brother-in-law, lord Temple, and George Grenville, so as to form a powerful political battery against the ministers and their mischievous policy. Chatham had begun to ponder the proceedings of ministers towards America and towards Wilkes, or rather his constituents, as soon as the returning activity of his mind permitted him. The conduct of the duke of Grafton, who had taken the lead during his retirement, did not escape his censure. He had too easily fallen into the demand of the cabinet for severe measures in both those cases. No sooner, therefore, did Chatham appear than he launched the whole thunder of his indignation, and such was still his power that he shattered the cabinet to atoms, No sooner was the address to the king moved and seconded, than he rose and passed, with some expressions of contempt, from the mention of the horned cattle to the more important topics. He drew a dismal picture both of the domestic condition and the foreign relations of the country. He glanced at the manner in which the treaty of Paris had been made, the abandonment of the king of Prussia, and the consequent isolated condition of the kingdom, without a friend or an ally. But bad as the external affairs of the nation were, he described the internal as far worse. There everything was at discount. The people were partly starving and wholly murmuring; the constituencies were alarmed at the invasion of their rights in the case of John Wilkes; and the colonies were on the very edge of rebellion. Such was the condition to which the government in a short time had reduced the commonweal. More than all did he condemn the policy pursued towards America. He protested against the term "unwarrantable," 23 applied to the conduct of the colonists; proposed to substitute the word "dangerous." He owned that he was partial towards the Americans, and strongly advocated a system of mildness and indulgence in their case. strong and honest intellect, but not the moral courage of Chatham, had retained the great seal, though disapproving of the measures of his colleagues. Emboldened by the words of his great friend, he now rose and expressed his regret for so long suppressing his feelings. But, he added, "I will do so no longer; I will openly and boldly speak my sentiments. I now proclaim to the world that I entirely coincide in the opinions expressed by my noble friend, whose presence again reanimates us, touching this unconstitutional and illegal vote of the house of commons. . . By this violent and tyrannical conduct ministers have alienated the minds of the people from his majesty's government—I had almost said from his majesty's person!" After these words, Camden could no longer remain lord chancellor. The rent in the ministry was every moment growing wider. Lord Mansfield endeavoured to defend the ministers, but it was a very lame defence. He disclaimed all obedience on the bench to mere declarations of law by either house of parliament; he condemned general warrants as illegal, and only endeavoured to get rid of the question by declaring, that all matters concerning house of commons elections belonged only to the house of commons-that they had no right whatever to discuss them there; and that lord Chatham's amendment was a breach of the privileges of the commons, which might lead to a serious quarrel between the two houses, or between the king and the commons. This called up Chatham again, who spurned the timid counsels of lord Mansfield; declared that such was not the practice of the members of that house in the days of the barons. He exclaimed, "that a breach had been made in the constitution; the battlements," he said," are dismantled; the citadel is open to the invaders; the walls totter; the constitution is not tenable-what remains, then, but for us to stand foremost in the breach to repair it, or to perish in it?" As for Wilkes, he counselled them earnestly to introduce a paragraph into their address to the king, stating their conviction that the chief discontents of the nation arose from the violation of the rights of representation in his expulsion from the commons; and he thus ably separated the merits or demerits of the man from the question of right: "My lords, I have been tender of misrepresenting the house of commons. I have consulted their journals, and have taken the very words of their resolution. Do they not tell us, in as many words, 'that Mr. Wilkes, having been expelled, was thereby rendered incapable of serving in parliament?' And is it not their resolution alone which refuses to the subject his common right? The amendment here says: that the electors of Middlesex are deprived of their free choice of a representative. Is this false, my lords, or have I given an unfair The amendment of Chatham was negatived; but this did representation of it? Will any man presume to affirm that not prevent the more real consequences of the explosion. colonel Luttrell is the free choice of the electors of Middlesex? The ministry went to pieces. Lord Pomfret moved for an We all know the contrary! We all know that Mr. Wilkes adjournment of some days; but lord Temple and lord -whom I mention without either praise or censure-was Shelburne contended that this adjournment was only asked the favourite of the county, and chosen by a very great and for to enable the ministers to collect their disordered wits, acknowledged majority. My lords, the character and cir- and to dismiss the virtuous and independent lord from the cumstances of Mr. Wilkes have been very improperly intro-woolsack; that it was evident that the cabinet was falling duced into this question, not only here, but in the court of judicature, where his cause was tried: I mean the house of commons. With one party he was a patriot of the first magnitude; with the other, the vilest incendiary. For my own part, I consider him merely and indifferently as an English subject; possessed of certain rights, which the law has given him, and which the law alone can take from him. I am neither moved by his private vices nor by his public merits. In his person, though he were the worst of men, I contend for the safety and security of the best; and God forbid that there should be a power in this country of measuring the civil rights of the subject by his moral character, or by any other rule than the fixed laws of the land!" This was going to the very heart of the question with that clear, searching sense for which Chatham was so distinguished. Lord Chancellor Camden, who had himself a to pieces, and that the seals would immediately go a-begging. Lord Shelburne added, that "he hoped there would not be found in the kingdom a wretch so base and meanspirited as to accept of them on the conditions on which they must be offered." In the other house there was a violent debate on the address. Chatham had sent lord Temple to George Grenville to muster all the strength of the opposition for the occasion. The chief discussion turned on the vote of the commons disqualifying Wilkes. Dowdeswell moved an amendment on the address on that point. The marquis of Granby declared that he should always lament his vote in favour of that disqualification as the greatest misfortune of his life; that he was ashamed of his error, and now would vote for the amendment. Amongst those defending ministers, singularly enough, was Charles James Fox, the second son of lord Holland, who thus began his political A.D. 1770.] CHATHAM ON THE STATE OF THE NATION. career with endeavouring to bolster up such arbitrary and unconstitutional acts as he spent his after life so eloquently and vigorously in opposing. But Fox was already involved in heavy pecuniary difficulties from those habits of gambling and reckless expenditure, which were ever the foil to his otherwise fair fame, and he was now endeavouring to procure a place in the government, which he soon after obtained. The marquis of Granby resigned his posts as paymastergeneral of the ordnance, and commander-in-chief of the army, much to the annoyance and against the entreaties of the king and the duke of Grafton. Camden would have done the same, but as the ministers were anxious to be rid of him, Chatham and his friends counselled him to remain, and put the ministry to the odium of dismissing him. This was done, and thus two of the men most popular with the public -Granby and Camden-were lost to the administration. The seals, as lord Shelburne had predicted, went a-begging. Charles Yorke, second son of the former lord chancellor, Hardwicke, had all his life been hankering after this prize, but as he was closely pledged to the party of lord Rockingham, he most reluctantly declined it. Three days subsequently, however, the king, after the levee, suddenly called him into his closet, and so pressingly entreated him to accept the seals and rescue his sovereign from an embarrassment, that he gave way. This was on the 18th of January. He was to be raised to the peerage by the title of lord Morden, but, on encountering the keen reproaches of his party at lord Rockingham's, he went home and committed suicide. The seals were then successively offered to Mr. de Grey, the attorney-general, to sir Eardley Wilmot, and lord Mansfield, who refused them, and they were obliged to be put in commission, lord Mansfield consenting to occupy the woolsack, as speaker to the house of lords, till that was done. After some time, sir Sidney Stafford Smythe, one of the barons of the exchequer, the Honourable Henry Bathurst, one of the justices of the common pleas, and sir Richard Aston, one of the justices of the King's Bench, were named the commissioners. In the house of commons, too, the speaker, Sir John Cust, was removed by death at the same moment, and Sir Fletcher Norton was elected in his place. So rapid were these events, that Yorke died on the 20th of January, and Sir Fletcher Norton was elected speaker of the commons on the 22nd. Norton was a man of high ability, but scarcely qualified for this post by his temper, which was rough and violent. Other changes came as quickly on their heels. "The ministry," wrote lord Temple to Chatham, "live upon moments; heaven and earth are in motion." On the 16th of January the earl of Coventry had quitted his post of lord of the bed-chamber; directly after, the duke of Beaufort quitted that of master of the horse to the queen. On Granby's resignation the ordnance was offered to Conway, who refused it, saying he would have none of lord Granby's spoils. The earl of Huntingdon then gave up the office of groom of the stole; the duke of Manchester, that of a lord of the bedchamber; sir Francis Brett and sir George Younge, junior lords of the admiralty, retired, declaring that it was for lord Chatham's honour and the quiet of the country. 75 Norton was made speaker of the house of commons, the marquis of Rockingham moved in the lords for an inquiry into the state of the nation. The duke of Grafton declared himself ready to join in such an inquiry; and Chatham, rising, delivered one of his most remarkable speeches, which we have carefully reported by sir Philip Francis. He said: "The constitution has been most grossly violated! the constitution at this moment stands violated! Until that wound be healed-until the grievances be redressed, it is vain to recommend union to parliament; it is vain to promote concord amongst the people. If we mean seriously to unite the nation within itself, we must convince them that their complaints are regarded—that their injuries shall be redressed. On that foundation I would take the lead in recommending peace and harmony to the people; on any other, I would never wish to see them united again. If the breach in the constitution be effectually repaired, the people will of themselves return to a state of tranquillity; if not, may discord prevail for ever! I know to what point this doctrine and language will appear directed; but I feel the principles of an Englishman, and I utter them without apprehension or reserve. The crisis is indeed alarming-so much the more does it require a prudent relaxation on the part of government. If the king's servants will not permit a constitutional question to be decided on according to the forms and on the principles of the constitution, it must then be decided in some other manner; and, rather than it should be given up, rather than the nation should surrender their birthright to a despotic minister, I hope, my lords, old as I am, I shall see the question brought to issue, and fairly tried between the people and the government." He complained of the corruption of the people through the candidates for parliament-a corruption which has grown to so monstrous a height in the present day. He declared that for some years the riches of Asia had been poured into this country, and had brought with them Asiatic principles of government. That men without connections, without any natural interest in the soil, had forced their way into parliament by such a torrent of private corruption, that no hereditary fortune could resist. That these adventurers had corrupted the people, and that parliamentary reform was absolutely necessary. But, when he came to describe the reform he proposed, what a fall from the exalted ideas of his earlier days! The removal to the peerage, and into the very hot-bed of cori upt interest in boroughs, had, it was clear, corrupted even his powerful mind in that direction. He now no longer represented the rotten boroughs as gangrened members of the political system which must be amputated; but he asserted that these decayed boroughs, corrupt as they were, must be considered only as the natural infirmity of the constitution; and that, like the natural infirmities of the body, we must "The limb is be content to carry them about with us. mortified, but the amputation might be death!" Nay, he went further-he would add another member to every county. The landed aristocracy, who had hitherto been the most determined supporters of arbitrary measures, were thus to flood the house of commons, and thus game-laws, On the 22nd of January, the same day that sir Fletcher corn-laws, and all the interests of the aristocracy, as opposed |