Part 71 (1/2)
[1] The influence of the Whigs had secured the pa.s.sage of the Act of Settlement which brought in the Georges; for this reason the Whigs had gained the chief political power.
Under the first two Georges, both of whom were foreigners, the ministers--especially Sir Robert Walpole, who was the first real Prime Minister of England, and who held his place for twenty years (1721- 1742)--naturally stood in the foreground.[2] They understood the ins and outs of English politics, while the two German sovereigns, the first of whom never learned to speak English, neither knew nor cared anything about them. When men wanted favors or offices, they went to the ministers for them (S538). This made men like Walpole so powerful that George II said bitterly, ”In England the ministers are king”
(S534).
[2] See S21 of this Summary.
28. George III's Revival of ”Personal Monarchy”; the ”King's Friends.”
George III was born in England, and prided himself on being an Englishman. He came to the throne fully resolved, as Walpole said, ”to make his power s.h.i.+ne out,” and to carry out his mother's constant injunction of, ”George, be King!” (S548). To do this, he set himself to work to trample on the power of the ministers, to take the distribution of offices and honors out of their hands, and furthermore to break down the influence of the great Whig families in Parliament.
He had no intention of reforming the House of Commons, or of securing the representation of the people in it; his purpose was to gain the control of the House, and use it for his own ends. In this he was thoroughly conscientious, according to his idea of right,--for he believed with all his heart in promoting the welfare of England,--but he thought that welfare depended on the will of the King much more than on that of the nation. His maxim was ”everything for, but nothing by, the people.” By liberal gifts of money,--he spent 25,000 pounds in a single day (1762) in bribes,[3]--by gifts of offices and of honors to those who favored him, and by taking away offices, honors, and pensions from those who opposed him, George III succeeded in his purpose. He raised up a body of men in Parliament, known by the significant name of the ”King's Friends,” who stood ready at all times to vote for his measures. In this way he actually revived ”personal monarchy”[4] for a time, and by using his ”Friends” in the House of Commons and in the Lords as his tools, he made himself quite independent of the checks imposed by the Const.i.tution.
[3] Pitt (Lord Chatham) was one of the few public men of that day who would neither give nor take a bribe; Walpole declared with entire truth that the great majority of politicians could be bought,--it was only a question of price. The King appears to have economized in his living, in order to get more money to use as a corruption fund. See May's ”Const.i.tutional History.”
[4] ”Personal monarchy”: see S15 of this Summary.
29. The American Revolution.
The King's power reached its greatest height between 1770 and 1782.
He made most disastrous use of it, not only at home but abroad. He insisted that the English colonists in America should pay taxes, without representation in Parliament, even of that imperfect kind which then existed in Great Britain. This determination brought on the American Revolution--called in England the ”King's War” (SS549- 552). The war, in spite of its ardent support by the ”King's Friends,” roused a powerful opposition in Parliament. Chatham, Burke, Fox, and other able men protested against the King's arbitrary course. inally, Dunning moved and carried this resolution (1780) in the Commons: ”Resolved, that the power of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished” (S548). This vigorous proposition came too late to affect the conduct of the war, and England lost the most valuable of her colonial possessions. The struggle, which ended successfully for the patriots in America, was in reality part of the same battle fought in England by other patriots in the halls of Parliament. On the western side of the Atlantic it resulted in the establishment of national independence; on the eastern side, in the final overthrow of royal tyranny and the triumph of the const.i.tution. It furthermore laid the foundation of that just and generous policy on the part of England toward Canada and her other colonies which has made her mistress of the largest and most prosperous empire on the globe.[1]
[1] The area of the British Empire in 1911 was nearly 12,000,000 square miles.
30. John Wilkes and the Middles.e.x Elections; Publication of Parliamentary Debates.
Meanwhile John Wilkes (S556), a member of the House of Commons, had gained the recognition of a most important principle. He was a coa.r.s.e and violent opponent of the royal policy, and had been expelled from the House on account of his bitter personal attack on the King.[2]
Several years later (1768) he was reelected to Parliament, but was again expelled for seditious libel;[3] he was three times reelected by the people of London and Middles.e.x, who looked upon him as the champion of their cause; each time the House refused to permit him to take his seat, but at the fourth election he was successful. A few years later (1782) he induced the House to strike out from its journal the resolution there recorded against him.[4] Thus Wilkes, by his indomitable persistency, succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng the right of the people to elect the candidate of their choice to Parliament. During the same period the people gained another great victory over Parliament. That body had utterly refused to permit the debates to be reported in the newspaperes. But the redoubtable Wilkes was determined to obtain and publish such reports; rather than have another prolonged battle with him, Parliament conceded the privilege (1771) (S556). The result was that the public then, for the first time, began to know what business Parliament actually transactaed, and how it was done. This fact, of course, rendered the members of both Houses far more directly responsible to the will of the people than they had ever been before.[1]
[2] In No. 45 of the _North Briton_ (1763) Wilkes rudely accused the King of having deliberately uttered a falsehood in his speech to Parliament.
[3] The libel was contained in a letter written to the newspapers by Wilkes.
[4] The resolution was finally stricken out, on the ground that it was ”subversive of the rights of the whole body of electors.”
[1] The publication of Division Lists (equivalent to Yeas and Nays) by the House of Commons in 1836 and by the Lords in 1857 completed this work. Since then the public have known how each member of Parliament votes on every important question.
31. The Reform Bills of 1832, 1867, 1884; Demand for ”Manhood Suffrage.”
But notwithstanding this decided political progress, still the greatest reform of all--that of the system of electing members of Parliament--still remained to be accomplished. Cromwell had attempted it (1654), but the Restoration put an end to the work which the Protector had so wisely begun. Lord Chatham felt the necessity so strongly that he had not hesitated to declare (1766) that the system of representation--or rather misrepresentation--which then existed was the ”rotten part of the const.i.tution.” ”If it does not drop,” said he, ”it must be amputated.” Later (1770), he became so alarmed at the prospect that he declared that ”before the end of the century either the Parliament will reform itself from within, or be reformed from without with a vengeance” (S578).
But the excitement caused by the French Revolution and the wars with Napoleon not only prevented any general movement of reform, but made it possible to enact the Six Acts and other stringent laws against agitation in that direction (S571). Finally, however, the unrepresented cla.s.ses rose in their might (SS580-582), and by terrible riots made it evident that it would be dangerous for Parliament to postpone action on their demands. The Reform Bill--the ”Great Charter of 1832”--swept away the ”rotten boroughs,” which had disgraced the country. It granted the right of election to many large towns which had hitherto been unable to send members to Parliament, and it placed representation on a broader, healthier, and more equuitable basis than had ever existed before (S582). It was a significant fact that when the first reformed Parliament met, composed largely of Liberals, it showed its true spirit by abolis.h.i.+ng slavery in the West Indies. It was followed by the Munic.i.p.al Reform Act of 1835 (S599). Later (1848), the Chartists advocated further reforms (S591), most of which have since been adopted.
In 1867 an act (S599), scarcely less important than that of 1832, broadened representation still further; and in 1884 the franchise was again extended (S599). A little later (1888) the County Council Act reconstructed the local self-government of the country in great measure.[2] It was supplemented in 1894 by the Parish Council Act (S600). The cry is now for unrestricted ”manhood suffrage,” on the principle of ”one man one vote”;[1] woman suffrage in a limited degree has existed since 1869 (S599).
[2] The ”Local Government” Act: this gives to counties the management of their local affairs and secures uniformity of method and of administration.
[1] That is, the abolition of certain franchise privileges springing from the possession of landed property in different counties or parliamentary districts by which the owner of such property is ent.i.tled to cast more than one vote for a candidate for Parliament.
32. Extension of Religious Liberty; Admission of Catholics and Jews to Parliament, Free Trade.
Meanwhile immense progress was made in extending the principles of religious liberty to all bodies of believers. After nearly three hundred years (or since the Second Act of Supremacy, 1559), Catholics were admitted in 1829 to the House of Commons (S573);and in the next generation, 1858, Jews were likewise admitted (S599). The Oaths Act of 1888 makes it impossible to exclude any one on account of his religious belief or unbelief (S599).
Commercially the nation has made equal progress. The barbarous Corn Laws (SS592, 594) were repealed in 1848, the narrow protective policy of centuries abandoned; and since that period England has practically taken its stand on unlimited free trade with all countries.