238 Ch. 6. 1765 CHARACTER OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. profession of arms he shared the personal courage which was common to his race; and though sorely tried in the prime of life by grievous and incurable maladies, his patience and fortitude never forsook him. His military talents were not above mediocrity. On the only occasion when he held a difficult command, his plans were so unskilfully contrived that they ended in the surrender of his army. His failure, on that occasion, having been harshly censured by his father, he bore the rebuke with the silent submission of a soldier and a son, but resigned all his military employments, and, at the age of thirty-seven, retired from the active pursuit of a profession to which he was warmly attached. In the early part of his military career, he had incurred popular odium by the stern severity with which he had put down the Scotch rebellion of 1745. But in his latter years, though without the least effort on his part, he had acquired the esteem and almost the affections of the people. His personal honour was of the purest kind; and he had that high and overruling sense of duty which is one of the most admirable qualities of a public man. A keen and yet disinterested politician; a judicious and consistent supporter of the principles which had placed his family upon the throne; a loyal subject and a faithful friend;— such was the Duke of Cumberland,-who, without disparagement to the living or the dead, may fairly be pronounced one of the most estimable Princes of the House of Hanover. ADDENDA TO CHAP. VI. opinion as (A. p. 197.) 'I will leave the taxing of the British Colonies,' Walpole s said he, towards the close of his ministry, for some of my to taxing the successors, who may have more courage than I have, and be colonies. less a friend to commerce than I am. It has been a maxim with me, during my administration, to encourage the trade of the American colonies to the utmost latitude: nay, it has been necessary to pass over some irregularities in their trade with Europe; for, by encouraging them to an extensive, growing, foreign commerce, if they gain five hundred thousand pounds, I am convinced that, in two years afterwards, full two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of this gain will be in His Majesty's Exchequer, by the labour and produce of this kingdom, as immense quantities of every kind of our manufactures go thither; and, as they increase in the foreign American trade, more of our produce will be wanted. This is taxing them more agreeably to their own constitution and laws.'-BANCROFT'S History of the United States. There cannot be a more striking illustration of the difference between the statesman and the mere minister of routine than the views of Walpole and of Grenville upon this question. American (B. p. 199.) Burke, 'Speech on American Taxation.' It Burke on seems, however, to have been enlivened by a striking burst taxation. of oratory from Colonel Barré, who so inauspiciously signalised his first appearance in Parliament by an absurd and insolent attack on Pitt.-ADOLPHUS' History, vol. i. p.171. 2nd edit. (C. p. 200.) The Duke of Devonshire Hardwicke died in the autumn of 1764. and the Earl of Deaths of Since the retire- and Hard Devonshire ment of the Duke of Newcastle from the ministry, the Duke wicke. of Devonshire became the acknowledged leader of the Whigs. 240 Grenville's character. American opinions. Holland to 'Born in England.' Grenville's arrogance. ADDENDA TO CHAP. VI. (D. p. 200.) 'The opposition is dwindled down to nothing, and Mr. Grenville, for he is the man of consequence, and that does the business. Let them say what they will, Mr. Grenville, I say, will have champ libre, and nobody to oppose him.'-Duke of Newcastle to Marquis of Rockingham, March 26th, 1765.-ROCKINGHAM Papers, vol. i. 181. (E. p. 201.) Such were the counsels of Otis, the eloquent representative of Boston; of Fetch, the Governor of Connecticut, by popular election; of Hutchinson, and of Franklin himself.—BANCROFT's History of the American Revolution. (F. p. 204.) Lord Holland told Horace Walpole that the King was in a consumption, and could not live a year.— WALPOLE'S Memoirs of Geo. III. (G. p. 207.) 'Lord Halifax repeatedly assured Mr. Grenville that the words 'born in England' had been first proposed by the King to him and Lord Sandwich, and that he had rather held back in it, telling his Majesty that it might possibly not be necessary.'-GRENVILLE's Diary. Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 157. (H. p. 209.) Relative to a proposed alteration in the Council of Regency; the conduct of Grenville, on this occasion, was unreasonable and arrogant. He had been duly summoned to the council at which this matter was discussed, but chose to absent himself on other business. If any apology were called for upon such an occasion, it was due from the minister to his sovereign for what might appear personal disrespect, and was, at least, contrary to etiquette. But the King had condescended to charge Halifax with a message to his brother minister, informing him of what had taken place. When Grenville related to Bedford and his colleagues the reproaches which he had ventilated in the closet, they all, with the exception of the Chancellor, expressed approbation. But Lord Northington seemed disgusted by such unprovoked insolence. - GRENVILLE's Diary. Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 146. ADDENDA TO CHAP. VI. dislike of 241 (I. p. 213.) One of the minor causes of disgust was the The King's morose refusal of Grenville to propose a small grant for the Grenville. purchase of some ground overlooking the Palace Gardens, and upon which Grosvenor-place was afterwards built. solence to the (K. p. 213.) Grenville, in his own narrative, sufficiently Bedford's indescribes the treatment to which he habitually subjected his King. sovereign. Bedford appears to have been more measured in his language, and less frequent in upbraiding; but some insight is afforded into the dictatorial arrogance of his temper by an anecdote unconsciously related to the biographer and eulogist (if these are not convertible terms) of the house of Russell. The Duke had stipulated, as a condition of his taking office, that Bute should not in any way be consulted upon public affairs. He could do no less. But, according to Mr. Wiffen, his Grace considered it an infraction of this compact that Bute should have come to town, in the spring of 1765, and taken his place in the House of Lords. A political rival, with whom, it is to be remembered, Bedford had himself, almost up to that period, sat in cabinet council, was not only to be removed from power, but altogether secluded from public life, and confined to his country-seat, like the disgraced courtier of a mediæval despot! the Regency Bill. (L. p. 216.) The numbers were, 167 to 37. The difficulty Majority on mainly arose from naming the Royal Family in the bill. If the Regent had been named, according to Grenville's original advice and according to precedent, this unseemly discussion would hardly have arisen. But the King's jealousy of power, and the minister's jealousy of Bute, involved the question in artificial difficulties. If the Queen only had been named, the bill would probably have passed without much discussion; but the nomination of the Royal Family seemed to contemplate the ascendancy of the Princess Dowager and Bute. Hence the awkward and absurd expedient of defining the term 'Royal Family' so as to exclude the Princess. Blackstone, the famous commentator, then a member of the House of Commons, put the point in a manner which it was difficult to answer, The Act of the 242 Northumberland with the King. The 'King's The King's prerogative. ADDENDA TO CHAP. VI. 24th George the Second, by which the Princess of Wales is named for Regent, is not yet expired; there is a possibility still of its taking effect, and therefore it seems to me highly improper to exclude her from this. If the Crown should devolve on a minor son of the late Prince of Wales, she would be Regent.'-Speech on Mr. Norton's motion, reported in GRENVILLE Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 30, n. (M. p. 219.) 'Lord Northumberland is known to have been, on Saturday night [May 18th], at Richmond with the King, who waited for him in the garden, and let him in himself.'-GRENVILLE Papers. George the Second acted a more straightforward and manly part, at least, when he sent for Lord Waldegrave to deliver him from those scoundrels.' (N. p.224.) Burke's pamphlet bears on the face of it the marks of oratorical exaggeration. The cooler judgment of Lord John Russell is entitled to greater weight. There appears no reason to doubt that, from the commencement of the reign there was a party called The King's Friends,' who, attempted to exercise all real power, while the show of it only was left to the responsible minister; that on them all favour was bestowed, and by them the measures of the Court were directed: that while such was their influence, they kept in the back ground, occupying permanently lucrative subordinate places, and leaving the labour and the risk of political affairs in the ostensible rulers of the country: that at a signal from the court, any minister was at once removed, and a subservient House of Commons were directed to transfer their votes to some other puppet, destined to hold a rank equally powerless, by a tenure equally precarious.’— LORD J. RUSSELL'S Introduction to Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 45. That the King wished to restore prerogative to some degree, at least, of efficiency, and to break up those party connections by which prerogative had been supplanted, is undeniable. It was quite consistent with this design, that he should not give his confidence to any of the public men |