Volume I Part 2 (2/2)
The death of the Earl of Halifax, soon after the close of the session in this year, caused a vacancy; and the Duke of Grafton returned to office, as keeper of the privy seal. His grace was a particular favourite with the queen, but much disliked by the intelligent and reflecting part of the community.
The political atmosphere bore a gloomy aspect at the commencement of
1772,
and pet.i.tions from the people were sent to the king and the two houses of parliament, for the repeal of what they believed to be unjust and pernicious laws upon the subject of religious liberty. Several clergymen of the established church prayed to be liberated from their obligation to subscribe to the ”Thirty-nine Articles.” But it was urged, in opposition to the pet.i.tions, that government had an undoubted right to establish and maintain such a system of instruction as the ministers thereof deemed most suitable for the public benefit. But expedience and right are as far asunder, in truth, as is the distance from pole to pole. The policy of the state required some _new source_ from whence to draw means for the _secret_ measures needful for prolonging the existence of its privacy; and it was therefore deemed expedient to keep politics and religion as close together as possible, by enforcing the strictest obedience of all demands made upon the clergy, in such forms and at such times as should best accord with the political system of the queen. In consequence of which, the pet.i.tions were rejected by a majority of 217 boroughmongers against 71 real representatives of the people!
An act, pa.s.sed this session, for ”Making more effectual provisions to guard the descendants of the late king, George the Second, from marrying without the approbation of his majesty, his heirs, and successors, first had and obtained,” was strenuously opposed by the liberal party in every stage of its progress through both houses. It was generally _supposed_ to have had its origin in the marriage contracted but a few months before by the Duke of c.u.mberland with Mrs. Horton, relict of Colonel Horton, and daughter of Lord Irnham; and also in a private, though long-suspected, marriage of the Duke of Gloucester to the Countess-dowager of Waldegrave, which the duke at this time openly avowed. But were there not _other_ reasons which operated on the mind of the _queen_ (for the poor king was only a pa.s.sive instrument in her power) to force this bill into a law? Had she not an eye to her husband's former alliance with the quakeress, and the Duke of York's marriage in Italy? The latter was even more dangerous to her peace than the former; for the duke had married a descendant of the STUARTS!
Lord Chatham made many representations to the king and queen of the improper and injudicious state of the penal laws. He cited an instance of unanswerable disproportion; namely, that, on the 14th of July, two persons were publicly whipped round Covent Garden market, in accordance with the sentence pa.s.sed upon them; but mark the difference of the crimes for which they were so punished: one was for stealing a bunch of radishes; the other, for debauching his own niece! In vain, however, did this friend of humanity represent the unwise, unjust, and inconsistent tenour of such laws. The king was anxious to alter them immediately; but the queen was decided in her opinion, that they ought to be left entirely to the pleasure and opinion of the _judges_, well knowing _they_ would not disobey her will upon any point of law, or equity, _so called_. Thus did the nation languish under the tyrannical usurpation of a _German_ princess, whose disposition and talents were much better calculated to give laws to the brute creation than to interfere with _English_ jurisprudence!
In November of this year, it was announced that the _king_ earnestly desired parliament should take into consideration the state of the East India Company. But the king was ignorant of the subject; though it was true, the _queen_ desired it; because she received vast emoluments from the various situations _purchased_ by individuals under the denomination of cadets, &c. Of course, her majesty's will was tantamount to law.
The Earl of Chatham resolved once more to speak to the queen upon the state of things, and had an audience for that purpose. As an honest man, he very warmly advocated the cause of the nation, and represented the people to be in a high state of excitement, adding, that ”if they be repelled, they must be repelled by force!” And to whom ought an unhappy suffering people to have had recourse but to the throne, whose power sanctioned the means used to drain their purses? The queen, however, was still unbending; she not only inveighed against the candour and sentiments of the earl, but requested she might not again be _troubled_ by him upon _such subjects_! Before retiring, Lord Chatham said, ”Your majesty must excuse me if I say, the liberty of the subject is the surest protection to the monarch, and if the prince _protects the guilty, instead of punis.h.i.+ng them, time will convince him, that he has judged erroneously, and acted imprudently_.”
The earl retired; but ”his labouring breast knew not peace,” and he resolved, for the last time, to see the king in private. An interview was requested, and as readily granted. ”Well, well,” said the king, ”I hope no bad news?” ”No bad news, your majesty; but I wish to submit to your opinion a few questions.” ”Quite right, quite right,” said the king, ”tell me all.” The earl did so, and, after his faithful appeal to the king, concluded by saying, ”My sovereign will excuse me, but I can no longer be a party to the deceptions p.a.w.ned upon the people, as I am, and consider myself to be, amenable to G.o.d and my conscience!” Would that England had possessed a few more such patriots!
This year will ever be memorable in history as the commencement of that part.i.tion of Poland, between three contiguous powers,--Russia, Austria, and Prussia,--which has served as an example and apology for all those shameful violations of public right and justice that have stained the modern annals of Europe. The unfortunate Poles appealed in vain to Great Britain, France, and Spain, and the States-general of Holland, on the atrocious perfidy and injustice of these proceedings. After some unavailable remonstrances, the diet was compelled, at the point of the bayonet, to sign a treaty for the formal cession of the several districts which the three usurpers had fixed upon and guaranteed to each other. The part.i.tioning _legitimates_ also _generously_ made a present of an _aristocratic_ const.i.tution to the suffering Poles.
In the year
1773,
commercial credit was greatly injured by extensive failures in England and Holland. The distress and embarra.s.sment of the mercantile cla.s.ses were farther augmented by a great diminution in the gold coin, in consequence of wear and fraud,--such loss, by act of parliament, being thrown upon the holders!
At this time, the discontents which had long been manifest in the American colonies broke out into open revolt. The chief source of irritation against the mother country was the impolitic measure of retaining a trifling duty on tea, as an a.s.sertion of the right of the British parliament to tax the colonies.
The year
1774
bore a gloomy and arbitrary character, with wars abroad and uneasiness at home. The county of Nottingham omitted to raise their militia in the former year, and in this they were fined two thousand pounds.
Louis the Fifteenth of France died this year of the small-pox, caught from a country girl, introduced to him by Madame du Barre to gratify his sensual desires. He was in the _sixty-fourth_ year of his age, and in the fifty-ninth of his reign. The gross debaucheries into which he had sank, with the despotic measures he had adopted towards the Chamber of Deputies in his latter years, had entirely deprived him of his appellation of the ”Well-beloved.” Few French sovereigns have left a less-respected memory.
1775
was also a year of disquiet. The City of London addressed the throne, and pet.i.tioned against the existing grievances, expressing their strong abhorrence of the measures adopted towards the Americans, _justifying their resistance_, and beseeching his majesty to dismiss his ministers.
The _invisible power of the queen_, however, prevented their receiving redress, and the ministers were retained, contrary to all pet.i.tion and remonstrance. Upon these occasions, the king was obliged to submit to any form of expression, dictated by the minister, that minister being under the entire controul of the queen; and though the nation seemed to wear a florid countenance, it was sick at heart. Lord North was a very considerable favourite with her majesty; while his opponents, Messrs.
Fox and Burke, were proportionately disliked. The Duke of Grafton now felt tired of his situation, and told the queen that he could no longer continue in office; in consequence of which, the Earl of Dartmouth received the privy seal.
The Americans, in the mean time, were vigorously preparing for what they conceived to be inevitable--_a war_. Various attempts, notwithstanding, were made by the enlightened and liberal-minded part of the community to prevent ministers from continuing hostilities against them. That n.o.ble and persevering patriot, Lord Chatham, raised his warning voice against it. ”I wish,” said he, ”not to lose a day in this urgent, pressing crisis; an _hour now lost in allaying ferments in America, may produce_ YEARS OF CALAMITY! Never will I desert, in any stage of its progress, the conduct of this momentous business. Unless fettered to my bed by the extremity of sickness, I will give it unremitted attention; I will knock at the gates of this _sleeping and confounded ministry_, and will, if it be possible, rouse them to a sense of their danger. The recall of your army, I urge as necessarily preparatory to the restoration of your peace. By this it will appear that you are disposed to treat amicably and equitably, and to consider, revise, and repeal, if it should be found necessary, as I affirm it _will_, those violent acts and declarations which have disseminated confusion throughout the empire.
_Resistance to these acts was necessary_, and therefore just; and your vain declaration of the _omnipotence of Parliament_, and your _imperious_ doctrines of the _necessity of submission_, will be found equally _impotent to convince or enslave America_, who feels that tyranny is equally intolerable, whether it be exercised by an individual part of the legislature, or by the collective bodies which compose it!”
How prophetic did this language afterwards prove! Oh! England, how hast thou been cursed by debt and blood through the impotency and villany of thy rulers!
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