234 CHATHAM'S WEAKNESS. CH. VIII. nothing in stability or influence to compensate for the public odium which attended such patronage.* The party of Lord Bute, if, indeed, any such party can be said to have existed, was founded on a principle hostile to the influence of every minister, because it placed the minister in subordination to the executive instead of the legislative power. It was in vain, therefore, that Bute's brother, Mackenzie, was restored to his place; that his kinsman, Northumberland, obtained the dukedom which he solicited; that his private secretary and confidential agent,† Jenkinson, was preferred to the Board of Admiralty; that many other of his friends and connections were provided for. The Court were rewarded for their perseverance. After undermining and subverting one administration after another, they had at length succeeded in ruining the only man in England who could have destroyed their system. Chatham had been led to believe that, in affronting the Whigs, he freed himself from the control of faction; and that, in sacrificing his popularity to a connection with the courtiers, he asserted his independence. The result was that, within six months after his return to power, his administration was falling to pieces, and he himself was the weakest minister that had held office since Wilmington. But while Chatham erred so fatally as a tactician, his measures of public policy were marked Indian policy. by the same commanding genius which had planned the pacification of the Highlands, and the conquest of Canada. His Northern Alliance, though disappointed by the malice of Frederick, was * Newcastle writes at this time-'He (Chatham) tried the Bedfords. He bid, I dare say, high for them; and, when he found he could not buy them, he determined to defy the world, and openly take my Lord Bute by the hand at once.' † Jenkinson accepted office by desire of Bute and the Princess Dowager. This Lord Harcourt told Grenville.-Diary, vol. iii. p. 395. 1766. * still a noble scheme. He contemplated that great Asiatic empire, formed within these few years by adventurous valour and commercial policy, and which had as yet hardly obtained the attention of any British statesman, in a spirit worthy of its paramount importance. Before he could carry his plan into detail, he was afflicted by the malady which for a time obscured his faculties and terminated his connection with the Government; but the leading idea was the assumption of sovereign power over these new conquests by the Imperial Government, and the restriction of the Company to their proper province of mercantile monopoly. State of Ireland. He had also turned his attention to the state of Ireland, that country so rich in natural resources, and so closely connected by geographical position with this island, though as much neglected as if it bad been a distant and worthless province. Misrule and corruption in the capital; agrarian outrage amounting to servile war, complicated with a savage animosity of religion and racesuch, for more than a century, had been the condition of this, the fairest part of the Empire. A nobler field for the genius of a master-statesman could hardly be provided; and Chatham, in the vigour of his intellect and will, might have accomplished what has baffled the ingenuity of all his successors. He had already intended, by way of beginning, to assimilate the Irish, in duration at least, to the British Parliament; and to bring the local administration into closer correspondence with the Home Government. Thus we see that, even out of office, the authority of Pitt had saved the colonial empire; that in office, * In arranging the business for the ensuing session, he speaks of East India affairs 6 greatest of all subjects, accord the ing to my sense of great.'Chatham to Grafton, August 23, 1766. 236 EXPORTATION OF CORN. CH. VIII. he had proposed a scheme to secure the safety of Exportation of Great Britain, and the peace of Europe; corn restricted. that he had intended to provide for the Government of India; and that he would have attempted at least to remove that grievous blot upon English policy, the misrule of Ireland. But all these great designs were to be disappointed; and the principal, if not the only, measure adopted by the administration which bore the name of Chatham, was one of an occasional character. The failure of the harvest, in consequence of the extreme wetness of the season, having caused a great rise in the price of corn, the sufferings of the people, as usual under such circumstances, were made known by riots and disturbances. Until a very recent period the country had exported grain to a considerable extent; but the great discoveries in manufactures within the past few years had given such an impulse to the population that England had latterly rather inclined to import than to export corn;* and, as the same causes which had caused a scarcity in these islands, also prevailed on the continent of Europe, apprehensions of famine were entertained, if the foreign trade in corn were allowed to proceed. But the price of wheat in the home market not having reached the limit (538. 4d.) at which exportation would cease by law, it was for the Executive Government to consider, in the recess of Parliament, whether an emergency existed sufficient to warrant the interposition of that power beyond the law, which, as an immediate resource, must exist in every polity. The Ministry, with the approval, if not at the suggestion, of their chief, determined to exercise the power; and, after issuing a proclamation to enforce the old obsolete laws against forestalling and regrating, or the prohibition of the internal trade in * M'Culloch's Comm. Dict., Art. Corn Laws. 1766. ORDER IN COUNCIL. 237 corn by means of dealers and factors, they took the more effectual measure of an Order in Council laying an embargo on exportation. This was done on the 24th of September, and in strict propriety Parliament should have been assembled as soon afterwards as the law would permit; but, as Parliament stood prorogued until the 11th of November, it was not thought worth while to alter the arrangement by anticipating the session a few days, for the sake of a constitutional punctilio. the Lords. This proceeding, of itself, would hardly have afforded any ground for opposition. A le- The question in gislature cannot provide against every accident; and the safety of the people, which is the supreme law, may occasionally render it the duty of the executive to dispense, for the moment, with the municipal law. No candid disputant would think of comparing such an act as this with the assertion of a dispensing power; nor could Parliament, if promptly appealed to, hesitate to grant indemnity, even though they might be of opinion that the Government had been precipitate, or had failed to exercise a wise discretion in the particular instance. Chatham brought the matter forward in the House of Lords with the moderation and diffidence which became a first appearance in that august assembly, and the nature of the topic which it was his fortune to introduce. He made no pretence of defending the embargo on any other ground than that of necessity; and endeavoured only to show that an adequate case of necessity existed. But his supporters, both in this and in the other House of Parliament, were not so discreet. The two law lords, Northington and Camden, went out of their way to exhibit ignorance of constitutional principle. The former, with a coarse sneer at popular doctrines, maintained that the Order in Council was not only justifiable, but legal; and Camden, with that violence of assertion which he had displayed 238 THE EXPORTATION OF CORN. CH. VIII. the year before, so little to the advancement of his reputation for good sense, on the question of colonial taxation, now hurried into the opposite extreme, and asserted that the necessity of a measure was sufficient to render it legal; and he made use of a pointed expression, which was remembered to his disadvantage long after the occasion which gave rise to it was forgotten. He said that the Crown was entitled to do whatever the safety of the nation may require during the recess of Parliament, which is at most but a forty days' tyranny!' So guarded should statesmen be in the use of epigrams! Lord Mansfield rebuked these extravagant doctrines, so entirely contrary to the principles of the Revolution, with his usual felicity; and, as he had formerly upheld the authority of Parliament against the too forward advocate of liberty, so he now denied a claim no less dangerous to constitutional government, preferred by the same inconsiderate zeal on behalf of prerogative. In the Commons, the same doctrines were urged The question in to absurdity by Alderman Beckford, whose the Commons. opinions derived importance from his connection with Chatham. The idle language of this headstrong citizen was taken down on the motion of Grenville,* who compelled him ultimately to retract * Grenville, conceiving that he could make use of the embargo as a formidable weapon of attack against the Ministry, had consulted Mansfield on the subject before the meeting of Parliament; but the great lawyer gave him no encouragement.— Mansfield to Grenville, November 10, 1766. GRENVILLE Corr. vol. ii. p. 337. In this letter he says that the term is well known, and the practice well established, among maritime nations; that it is adapted to sud den emergencies such as war, or the apprehension of war, or of famine; and that to the executive the exercise of this extraordinary power properly belonged. But Lord Mansfield never thought of saying that the power was legal. Lord Campbell endeavours to excuse his favourite Chancellor by suggesting that Northington's doctrine took him by surprise, and that he felt bound to support his colleague. But Northington spoke on the Address, |