CHAPTER THE FIFTY-FIFTH. 1783. State of the Ministry.-Retrospect.-Public opinion.-Rodney.-Messrs. Powell and Bembridge.--Opposition. Mr. Pitt. Notice in Parliament of transactions in India.-On Lord Pigot.-Petition on the India Judicature.-Secret Committee-and Select Committee.-Their reports. Mr. Francis much consulted.-Proceedings against Sir Thomas Rumbold, Mr. Perring, and Sir Elijah Impey.-Mr. Dundas obtains leave to bring in an India Bill.-Debate. — Observations on it.—Meeting of Parliament.-The Prince of Wales takes his seat.-The King's speech.-Address in the Lords-in the Commons.-Observations of Sir Joseph Mawbey-Mr. Pitt-Mr. Fox.-Address carried unanimously. Mr. Fox moves to bring in Bills for the government of India.-Mr. Pitt.--Motion for the second reading. Substance of the first Bill.-Petitions.-Second Bill.-Petition from the City-Counsel heard.-Debate on the motion to commit the Bill.-Debate on the Speaker leaving the chair. Celebrated Speech of Mr. Burke-Division-Committee.Third Reading-Bill passes the lower House-Read in the Lords.-Earl Temple-Earl of Abingdon.-Petition-Counsel heard-Motion to commit the Bill-Bill rejected.-Observations.--Interference of the King-mentioned in the House of Lords-Motion in the House of Commons-Mr. Erskine's motion-the Ministers do not resign-they are dismissed.-New Ministry, headed by Earl Temple-his resignation. Final formation of Ministry.-Conduct of opposition.—Motion to sit on Saturday-opposed by Mr. Fox.-Apprehension of a dissolution.-Committee on the state of the nation. Mr. Erskine's motion-Mr. BankesLord North-Address voted.-The King's answer.-Mr. Fox's observations. Lord Beauchamp's motion. - Lord Surrey's motion. -Adjournment. CHAP. 1783. State of the ministry. Ar this period, the state of the ministry was unusual, and beset with more than ordinary embarrassments. However combined in party views, they could not, to judge by their past political conduct, be supposed united in any common general principle of public action. The Rockingham administration had been Retrospect. formed on a cautious and jealous plan of mutual counterpoise: an equal number of the adherents of the Marquis and of Lord Shelburne was admitted into the cabinet, with Lord Thurlow as a neutral or middle party, agreeing rather in the views of Lord Shelburne than those of the apparent head of the administration, but not likely to be the close adherent of either. Lord Shelburne's assumption of pre-eminence was deeply and bitterly resented by all, but particularly by Mr. Burke, who had hoped to retain over the Duke of Portland the influence, amounting, it is said, to an absolute and unlimited ascendancy, which had been allowed by the Marquis. His vehemence on the occasion is said to have rendered the breach between Lord Shelburne and Mr. Fox irreparable; and although Mr. Fox's uncle, the Duke of Richmond, was proposed to the Rockingham party, as a substitute for their departed leader, even that was rejected, through the repugnance of Mr. Burke*. To the public, the latent causes of the coalition Public were unknown; they saw men, who, in unmeasured opinion. terms, had been reprobated and held up to public detestation, united with those who had most vehemently reviled them; they saw their accession to office, influence, and power, the immediate result of this combination; and it was not easy to make them believe that the hope of these advantages was not the sole cause of it. These sentiments, which were very widely diffused and assiduously propagated, were not confined the uninformed and distant observers of public events; they were shared by men of superior information, whose attachment to the parties was not to be impaired, although their judgment was seriously * Recollections, &c. by John Nicholls, vol. i. p. 296. CHAP. LV. 1783. shocked, by the event*. It was impossible that the violent denunciations of Mr. Fox, aimed at Lord North alike as a minister and a man, styling him the great criminal of the state, demanding his blood as an expiation of his misdeeds, pronouncing it unsafe to be with him alone, and infamous to act with him, could ever be forgotten. Nor was their effect mitigated by declarations that, with the American war, the cause of their disagreement had been removed†. A Latin adage could not, by those who reflected, be made applicable to any thing beyond individual dislikes and personal disputes: these, neither the benevolence of Lord North nor the warm generosity of Mr. Fox would permit to remain rankling in their bosoms, to the disquiet of their private lives, or the interruption of their public utility; but such fierce and solemn public denunciations could not be so easily atoned or cancelled. If Mr. Fox, resenting his dismissal from the treasury, or any other personal slight or injury, expressed himself with his characteristic heat and force against the mi 86 A fair specimen of this mode of thinking, in men so informed and so principled, is afforded by Dr. Watson, Bishop of Landaff. "From the moment," he says, "this coalition was formed between Lord North and the men who had for many years reprobated, in the strongest terms, his political principles, I lost "all confidence in public men. I had, through life, been a strenuous supporter "of the principles of the Revolution, and had attached myself, in some degree, "to the party which professed to act upon them; but, in their coalescing with "the Tories to turn out Lord Shelburne, they destroyed my opinion of their "disinterestedness and integrity. I clearly saw that they sacrificed their public principles to private pique, and their honour to their ambition. The badness "of the peace, and the supposed danger of trusting power in the hands of Lord "Shelburne, were the reasons publicly given for the necessity of forming the "coalition: personal dislike of him, and a desire to be in power themselves, were, in my judgment, the real ones. The Whig part of the coalition ministry," he proceeds, "forced themselves into the King's service. His majesty had shewn the greatest reluctance to treating with them. Their enemies "said, and their adherents suspected, that if poverty had not pressed hard upon some of them, they would not, for the good of their country, have overlooked "the indignities which had been shewn them by the Court; they would have "declined accepting places, when they perfectly knew that their services were "unacceptable to the King. They did, however, accept; and, on the day they "kissed hands, I told Lord John Cavendish (who had reluctantly joined the "coalition) that they had two things against them, the closet and the country; "that the King hated them, and would take the first opportunity of turning them "out; and that the coalition would make the country hate them."-Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watson, Bishop of Landaff, vol. i. p. 170-173. In these latter opinions, although perhaps rather too strongly expressed, the reverend Prelate was correct. The King declared, long afterward, that this was the only administration, during his whole reign, from which he had withheld his confidence. From private information. + Prior's Life of Burke, vol. i. p. 415. nister, a day might come in which placability and returning friendship might be becoming and amiable; but when the dark brand of political wickedness was so strongly and so frequently impressed, no credit would easily be given to those excuses, which could apply only to personal forgiveness and reconcilement. In fact, Mr. Fox, who took to himself the benefit of this humane adage, had nothing to forgive: the enmity, which for so many years had characterized the debates, was of his own creating: Lord North had never denounced or vituperated him; he had much to forgive, much to cast into oblivion, before he could become the friend of Mr. Fox; he had nothing in the way of amnesty to ask; from him and from the public Mr. Fox had to require every thing. Such was the view taken of this important transaction by parties who examined it from remote and from proximate positions. Nor had the efforts of ministers hitherto tended to conciliate opinions more favorable, or to create in the public a strong predilection in their favour. Lord North could claim no popularity from the origin and conduct of the late war; and Mr. Fox and the Rockingham party had no reason to expect the permanent attachment of the nation, from the tone and manner in which their opposition to it had been conducted. CHAP. LV. 1783. In other respects their proceedings had not been Rodney. satisfactory to the country. Their attacks on Rodney, from the moment his success appeared to revive the naval fame of Great Britain, drooping through previous negligence and misconduct, the time and manner in which they had superseded him, operated greatly to the disadvantage of ministers; nor was their position much ameliorated by Mr. Burke's niggardly and frigid declaration, that, if there was a bald spot on the head of Rodney, he was willing to cover it with laurels. Powell and In another transaction, connected with their own Messrs. professions of economy, they were not less conspicu- Bembridge. ously unfortunate. Two gentlemen, named Powell and Bembridge, had been employed in the Pay-office during the administration of Lord Holland, up to 1765, CHAP. 1783. Jan. 14. March 10. April 24. May 2. 19th. and, on his lordship's decease, one of them, Mr. Powell, officiated as his executor. The noble lord had long been styled, in addresses to the throne, in public speeches, in pamphlets, and other forms of libel, the defaulter of unaccounted millions; and this calumnious phrase, unfounded, or grossly exaggerated, became popular and almost proverbial. On the formation of the Shelburne administration, the accounts rendered by his lordship, from December 1764 to June 1765, were investigated by a Committee of the Privy Council; Mr. Powell and Mr. Bembridge were examined before them, and, in consequence of the disclosures they were obliged to make, a case was submitted to the Attorney and Solicitor-general*, and, in pursuance of their opinion, criminal informations were filedt. Without loss of time, Colonel Barré dismissed them from the office; but Mr. Burke reinstated them. This proceeding, as might be expected, occasioned much animadversion in the House of Commons, where Lord Newenham moved for the production of the treasury minutes on the late investigation; but afterward, understanding that criminal proceedings had been instituted, he proposed to discharge his own order. Several debates took place, in the course of which the reappointment of those gentlemen was, with his characteristic warmth, vindicated by Mr. Burke, and by Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, and some other members, who deprecated as cruel, a demand of papers which would send the accused parties to their trials with a strong prejudice against them, while, as the office was at present regulated, their remaining in it could produce no evil, as balances were no longer permitted to remain in the hands of the paymaster, but were paid into the Bank. On the other hand, Mr. Pitt, Sir Cecil Wray, Mr. Dundas, and Mr. Kenyon, treated as futile the notion that the production of papers could produce any prejudice; and it was urged that, in restoring these two persons to offices from which they had been removed in consequence of such palpable misconduct, * Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Pepper Arden. In Trinity Term, 1783. |