128

Ch. 3.

1762

PITT'S GREAT SPEECH.

tion, was not so happy. Neither did his argument on behalf of the German war go the length of demonstrating that England should enter into a family compact with Prussia. The German war, according to his own shewing, had fulfilled its object; and to continue it after the conquest of North America, was to place it on an entirely new footing. As to a family alliance with the King of Prussia, a more extravagant idea could hardly be broached. There was no analogy between a coalition of the two great branches of the House of Bourbon, and a union of England with the House of Brandenburgh. The former was but an attempt towards the fulfilment of a traditional policy, that of a grand, though visionary, scheme of consolidated empire. It might be very convenient to an ambitious prince like Frederick to have his dominions guaranteed by England, and thus be enabled with impunity to prosecute any wild and unprincipled plans of aggression upon his neighbours. But it is difficult to understand what reciprocity could exist in a compact of this kind. It would be idle to dwell farther on the absurdity of a suggestion which after all might have been no more than a rhetorical flourish..

Soon after he had finished his speech, Mr. Pitt left the House, whether from physical inability to remain, or from a desire to mortify Fox, who had immediately risen to reply. The division shewed a majority of nearly five to one in favour of the peace.

Fox's plan of parliamentary management was

VINDICTIVE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COURT.

Ch. 3.

1763

129

ment of Par

founded on rewards and punishments. The former had been lavishly bestowed; the latter were inflicted upon an equal scale of magnitude. Every Fox's manageplaceman who had voted against the peace was liament. dismissed; a rigorous proceeding in an age when official discipline was not so strict as it is at present. Still, if punishment had been confined to delinquency of this description, the minister might have justified his conduct by the authority of Sir Robert Walpole. Even the dismissal of Newcastle, Rockingham, and others from the lieutenancies of their respective counties, might have found some semblance of a precedent in the intemperate conduct of the great Whig statesman when enraged at the factious opposition which his Excise scheme had encountered. But it was enough to involve a man in this proscription that his relation or his patron had given cause of offence. The vengeance of the Court could condescend upon the humblest victims, and individuals in the lowest departments of the public service, excisemen and tide-waiters, were deprived of their bread because they had procured their appointments through the interest of some Lord or Member of Parliament who did not approve of the preliminary treaty. To these proceedings, Fox had the baseness and cruelty to lend himself; nor was his mercenary zeal for zeal for persecution restrained except by the limits of the law itself. He would have gone on to annul the patents of the last reign had he not been stopped by the warning of the law officers.

130

Ch. 3. 1763

the court.

WHIG PREDOMINANCE ASSAILED.

The court, now triumphant, believed that their object was finally attained. Now, indeed, my Triumph of son is King!' exclaimed the Princess Dowager, when she heard of the suborned vote of the House of Commons. Never more,' said the son, 'shall those Whig grandees be admitted to power.' But though Parliament had been tampered with, the great nobility insulted, and small men ruined, prerogative, so far from having its ascendancy secured, was in fact not advanced a step. These measures had, indeed, an effect just the contrary to that for which they were intended; instead of erasing party distinctions, and teaching public men to look for preferment to the crown alone, they revived that old party-spirit which had languished for nearly half a century. The entire predominance of the Whig interest at the accession of the House of Hanover left room for jealousies to spring up in the bosom of the party itself; and the schism which took place in the following year, under the guidance of the Earl of Sunderland, had never yet been healed. The opposite party, divided again into Tories and Jacobites, were unable to profit by these dissensions, and whatever changes took place in administration, whether Walpole or Newcastle were driven from power, their places were generally supPolicy of plied from the great Whig connection. George the Third, coming to the throne with advantages which neither of his predecessors possessed, might, indeed, have abolished those old party distinctions which there was no longer any plausible pretence for main

George III

POLICY OF GEORGE III.

Even

taining. But instead of inviting to his service able
and eminent men, without reference to the obsolete
banners under which they had been ranged, the
course which his Majesty pursued made it suffi-
ciently plain, that his idea of suppressing party
distinctions meant no more than the suppression of
that great constitutional party whose leading prin-
ciple it was to restrain monarchical power.
this design was not hopeless, had it been attempted
with caution and tact. The nation was disgusted
with party, which for the last twenty years had
meant an unprincipled struggle for place and
power. The Whigs had no hold on public favour;
they were considered, not without justice, as a
proud and selfish aristocracy; and George the
Third might have calculated on popular sympathy
in shaking off the irksome domination of a few
great families which had oppressed his predecessors,
if he had not outraged popular prejudices by the
means which he employed. A combination of two
characters most odious to the English taste- a
minion and a Scot-was set up as the favoured
minister whom the King delighted to honour.

That Great Commoner, as the people loved to call him, who owed his elevation to the favour of his countrymen, and who had justified their confidence by elevating the English name to the height of power and grandeur, was set aside, to make way for this worthless upstart. A man whose public life had been an unbroken tenor of rapacity, and who had neither done, nor affected

Ch. 3.

1763

131

132

Ch. 3.

―

1763

Corruption extended.

Financial measures.

BUTE'S ATTEMPT TO BRIBE THE CITY.

to do, ought for the benefit of his country, was put forward as the unscrupulous agent of a system founded on the ruin of all that was great and noble. Such was the repulsive form which government by prerogative had been made to assume.

The Earl of Bute, sensible at last of the formidable hostilities which he had provoked, courted popular approbation in support of his policy. The same means by which a parliamentary sanction had been obtained, were now put in force to procure addresses from municipal corporations in favour of the peace. Five hundred pounds were stated to

be the lowest price of an address. The city were offered a bribe in the shape of fourteen thousand pounds towards the expenses of their new bridge; but that great corporation, which had taken a leading part in supporting the war policy of Pitt, and had made large profits by the war, was uncompromising in its opposition to the court.

It devolved, also, upon the new administration to provide means for defraying the expenses of that war, in the glory of which they had no participapation. A government should be strong as well as skilful which undertakes to impose additional taxation upon the people, always impatient of such burdens. The government of Lord Bute had neither of these qualifications. To public confidence they had no pretension; and their financial craft was of the meanest order. Their finance

h Anecdotes of the Earl of Chatham, vol. i.