1783. BOOK prevent the consummation of public ruin, it could XXI. only be new counsels and new counsellors-a real change, from a sincere conviction of past errors, and not a mere palliation, which must prove fruitless." There are no doubt situations of extraordinary difficulty and danger which call for the united exertions of those who have been most opposite in sentiments and conduct: but the nation was not at this time disposed to believe that any peculiar danger to the country existed under the administration of the earl of Shelburne, who, whether in or out of office, had uniformly shewn himself a friend to liberty. The terms of the peace were generally deemed as good as there was any previous reason, from the relative situation of the belligerent powers, to expect; and the COALITION of persons and principles radically hostile, and which no effort of art, or length of time could assimilate, was universally branded as a gross and palpable sacrifice of every sentiment of honor, consistency, and rectitude, on the altar of ambition, interest, and revenge". On the first intelligence of this astonishing coalition, lord Camden remarked to a nobleman of the highest rank, with whom he had been many years on terms of intimate friendship, and who, after a long course of political conflict, had sought and found wisdom, virtue, and happiness, in the shades. of retirement,-"There is now an end of all public confidence in public men. Ministers for the next half century are freed XXI. 1783. Act of re of the au in thority of Great Britain over One of the first measures of the new ministry BOOK was to expedite the passing of a bill, before pending, for the purpose of preventing any writs of error or appeal from the kingdom of Ireland from nunciation being received by any of his majesty's courts Great Britain; and of renouncing, in express terms, ireland. the legislative authority of the British parliament in relation to Ireland. This was a necessary consequence of the general plan of Irish emancipation; for the mere repeal of the Declaratory Act did not, in the view of the common law, make any difference whatever in the relative situation of the two countries. ments of Soon after this, a bill was introduced by sir EmbarrassHenry Fletcher, chairman of the East India Com-the East pany, "for suspending the payments of the Com-pany. pany now due to the Royal Exchequer, and for from all restraint, and may bid defiance to all opposition." To the same purpose the celebrated d'Avenant, speaking of the supposed defection of those from the cause of liberty who had been looked up to and relied upon as its most zealous defenders, says: "Men, finding themselves thus forsaken, would believe they were bought and sold; they would imagine there was no such thing as virtue and honesty remaining; they would think all pretensions to the public good to be nothing but designs of ambitious persons to lift themselves up to high honors upon the shoulders of the people: and when nations have before their eyes an armed power, and none in whom they can put any trust, they seldom fail of submitting to the yoke." India Com BOOK enabling them to borrow the sum of three hundred thousand pounds for their further relief." XXI. 1783. Lord John Cavendish declared this bill to be only a branch of a larger plan; and that it was brought forward separately, in order to answer an exigency which did not admit of delay. His lordship viewed the territorial acquisitions of the Company as a fruitful source of grievance. "It would (he said) have been more for their advantage had they confined themselves to the character of merchants. As these acquisitions, however, had been made, they must be preserved, and it was his opinion that the relief necessary to the Company should be granted." Lord Fitzwilliam, in the upper house, dwelt on the almost desperate situation of the East India Company, and affirmed, "that, unless it passed, their bankruptcy would be inevitable. The expenditure of their settlements had far exceeded their revenue: bills had been drawn upon them. which they 'were unable to answer without a temporary supply, so that the existence of the Company depended upon the success of the bill;" which accordingly passed both houses with little difficulty or opposition. In the month of April, 1783, the chancellor of the Exchequer brought forward his plan for raising twelve millions by loan. The most re XXI. 1783. markable circumstance attending it was, that the BOOK money borrowed was funded at three per cent. at the extravagant rate of one hundred and fifty pounds stock for every hundred pounds sterling; so that an artificial capital of six millions was created beyond and above the sum actually paid into the Exchequer. This absurd and pernicious mode of funding was exposed and reprobated with much ability by Mr. Pitt in the lower house, and the earl of Shelburne in the upper, but with no effect. plan The former motion of Mr. Pitt for an inquiry Mr. Pitt's into the state of the representation being negatived, of par he now brought forward, May 7, a specific plan reform for adding one hundred members to the counties, and abolishing a proportionable number of the burgage-tenure and other small and obnoxious boroughs. This plan, though ably and honorably supported by Mr. Fox, was negatived by a great majority; the numbers on the division being 293 to 149. Mr. Fox declared, "that in his opinion the constitution required renovation; and he regarded it as one of its chief excellencies that it was capable of continual improvements, by involv ing in itself a renovating principle. It might thus be gradually carried to the highest attainable perfection." As there must of course ever be a stronger opposition against any specific plan of reform in the first instance, than to a comprehensive and general motion of inquiry only, the latter is evi XXI. 1783. BOOK dently the most politic as well as reasonable mode of introducing the question to the notice and discussion of the house; and had it been adopted by Mr. Pitt on this occasion, it could not have so egregiously failed of success. The motion was opposed in a very able speech by lord North, who with an happy allusive pleasantry declared, "that, while some with LEAR demanded an hundred knights, and others with Goneril were satisfied with fifty, he with Regan exclaimed, No, not ONE!" His lordship, in a graver and more argumentative strain, said, "It was not true that the house of commons had not its full and proper weight in the scale of government ;-his political life was a proof that it had. It was parliament that had made him a minister. He came amongst them without connexion. It was to them he was indebted for his rise, and they had pulled him down ;-he had been the creature of their opinion and the victim of their power;--his political career was consequently a proof of their independence ;-the voice of the commons was sufficient to remove whatever was displeasing to the sentiments and wishes of the country; and in such a situation to parade about a reformation was idle, unnecessary, inexpedient, and-dangerous." This reasoning might perhaps have had some degree of weight, could it be lost to the public recollection, that the noble lord was originally advanced to the premiership by the fiat |
