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94

Private life of
George the
Third.

MARRIAGE OF THE KING.

CH. III.

ley* and Watt, far more than that of the elder or younger Pitt, that has carried England safely through the struggles in which she has been engaged. The young King had set himself an arduous task; he was to purify both the moral and political atmosphere of the Court. Corruption and faction were to be abolished by withholding bribes, and by elevating new men, unconnected with party, who should derive their consequence and authority from the pleasure of the Crown. But though this experiment did not answer, the still more laudable design of promoting decency of manners by the highest example was attended with better success. George the Third, unlike his two immediate predecessors, brought no disreputable connections with him to the throne; though in the bloom and vigour of youth, he resisted the temptations to which he was exposed by reason of his exalted rank. The people were pleased to see their prince of native birth forsaking the gross habits of his predecessors, and, instead of shutting himself up with foreign paramours, appearing in public, and showing a desire to cultivate the acquaintance of his subjects and countrymen. A happy marriage soon after confirmed him in these habits of continence. A bride was chosen for him, almost as of course, from one of the royal houses of Germany with which he was connected by political

*The Bridgewater canal was opened July 17, 1761. It is instructive, as well as amusing, to note some of the contemporary objections to this great project which has contributed so largely to the wealth and industry of the nation. 1. The breed of those noble animals, the draughthorses, would be diminished. 2. The coasting trade would be affected; and, consequently, the supply of seamen to the British

was

navy (the same reason
urged, in the year 1852, against
the conveyance of coal, from the
north, by rail). 3. Vast sums
of money would be sunk. 4.
The natural navigation of rivers
would be neglected for these
new-fangled canals. And, lastly,
quantities of land would be with-
drawn from the more profitable
cultivation of agricultural pro-
duce.-MACPHERSON'S History of

Commerce.

1761.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE WHIG PARTY.

95

as well as family ties. Homely in person, of narrow and uncultivated understanding, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz seemed little qualified to engage or retain the affections of a youthful husband. Nevertheless, the union was productive of domestic happiness, and the homely manners of the Court went far to mitigate the unpopularity which the King in his public character too frequently provoked.

The attempt to set up a courtier for Minister of State excited a storm of public indigna- Domestic tion; and had not its fury been broken policy. by the Chatham peerage and pension, the fair prospects of the new reign might have been blighted. at the outset. It was not, however, against government by prerogative that the rage of the people was directed; this was an idea too abstract and refined for vulgar excitement. It was the Scotch minion of the Princess Dowager who was so odious. From the commencement of the reign, petticoat government and Scotch favourites had been the subject of incessant scurrility. The progress and success of the war allayed for the time, but did not extinguish, discontent. Peace being established, the full tide of obloquy returned upon the Government. At the same time it began to encounter opposition of a still more formidable character. It had now become manifest that it was the fixed resolve of the Court to exclude from employment the whole Whig connection, and to bring in those men only who would be subservient to the high pretensions of the Crown.

Under these circumstances, the great Whig party which had been split into factions ever Negotiations since the schism of 1716 began to reunite. with Pitt. The Duke of Cumberland, whose name had great political weight, entered into close correspondence with Devonshire and Rockingham. The Duke of Grafton joined them. Newcastle, whose parliamentary influence, though impaired, still rendered him of

96

GRENVILLE DISPLACED.

CH. III.

importance, was busily employed in rallying his followers. It only remained to manage Pitt; and Mr. Thomas Walpole, a gentleman of some political consideration, was deputed to sound him. The great orator, as usual on such occasions, entered into a long discourse, vindicating his conduct from the death of the late king until his resignation, at which period he said that, out-Toried by Lord Bute, and outWhigged by the Duke of Newcastle, he had nobody to converse with but the clerk of the House of Commons.'* He professed his unalterable attachment to Whig principles; but added, that the conduct of the leader of the party had so committed them to the peace, that it was difficult to take any consistent line of opposition. Always haughty, sarcastic, and wilful, Pitt offered little encouragement to any overture. All he would say positively was, that he would be no party to any arrangement which substituted the Duke of Newcastle for Lord Bute.

Condition of the

The Court were aware of the formidable resistance which was making head against them; Court party. but though determined not to shrink from the conflict, they were ill prepared for it. They had no champion to defend their policy. Grenville wanted neither courage nor firmness; in a subsequent part of his public life, he gave signal, though disastrous, proofs of these qualities. But he was hardly equal to the task of facing Pitt, elated by the fulfilment of all his predictions, supported by a powerful party in Parliament, and by unbounded popularity out of doors. Bute, therefore, had recourse to more vigorous and experienced agency. It was to Fox applied to. Fox that the chief minister now addressed himself. Nothing, indeed, short of dire necessity Icould have induced him to seek for aid in such a

* Lord Albemarle's Memoirs and Correspondence of the Marquis of Rockingham,

1761.

FOX EMPLOYED BY THE COURT.

97

quarter. No public man was so obnoxious at Court as the Paymaster. He was suspected of having presumed to think it possible that his lovely kinswoman, Lady Sarah Lennox, might ascend the throne of England.* A still greater offence, he had been a Whig, closely connected with the Duke of Cumberland, and prominent in opposition to Leicester House. Only the year before, Grenville had been asked to forego his claim to the chair of the House of Commons, and to take the lead in that assembly expressly to protect the King from the necessity of employing Fox. But the necessity was now inevitable; and the veteran statesman, ever bold and ready, and his terms agreed to, did not hesitate a moment to accept the post of danger. He reckoned too hastily, however, on the support of those powerful friends with whom he had been hitherto connected. The Duke of Cumberland, his constant patron, highly resented his alliance with the Court, and all intercourse between them ceased. The Duke of Devonshire, and other members of the Whig party to whom he applied, including even Newcastle, would have nothing to do with him.

And now the struggle between prerogative and parliamentary government began in earnest. It was understood that the first conflict would take place on the preliminaries of the treaty of Paris-a ground certainly not very favourable for the Whigs, since all of them, who were members of the Cabinet Council at the time, had voted against Pitt on the momentous question of the war. But the battle-ground of party is not often happily selected.

Finding that the Government could not calculate on support from any branch of the Whig Corruption of connection, except perhaps the followers Parliament.

* A few months before his marriage, the King was remark-. able for his attentions to this young lady; and it is said he

VOL. I.

H

would have married her but for the influence of his mother.-HORACE WALPOLE's Memoirs of George III. vol. i. p. 64.

98

SYSTEM OF CORRUPTION.

CH. III.

of the Duke of Bedford, the new leader of the House of Commons set to work to fabricate a majority in the coarsest, though the most effectual mode. Retaining his lucrative place of Paymaster, and declining the more dignified post of Secretary of State, which Grenville, in rage and mortification, had been unceremoniously forced to give up, he commenced a system of wholesale bribery. Members of Parliament were invited to his office. There, under the dispensation of one of the joint secretaries to the Treasury, the officer who, at this day, manages the patronage department of the administration (though in a very different manner), votes were purchased for cash, the lowest price being, we are told, two hundred pounds. To such an extent was this traffic carried, that the payments of the King's bedchamber were stopped for want of funds.*

Insults offered to the Duke of Devonshire.

Bribery and intimidation commonly go together. The vote of the House of Commons having been secured by money, those whom money could not reach were to be deterred by fear; while men of greater mark, who were accessible neither to money nor fear, were subjected to the ven

I humbly informed His Majesty that it was with great concern that I saw the tendency of the counsels which now had weight with him; that this event [the insult to the Duke of Devonshire] fully showed the determination that those persons who had hitherto been always the most steadily attached to his royal predecessors, and who had hitherto deservedly had the greatest weight in this country, were now driven out of any share in the Government in this country, and marked out rather as objects of His Majesty's displeasure than of his favour; that

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