CHAP. 1784 Public opinion. object at a hopeless distance. In fact, when party disputes attain a high degree of violence, some benevolent and respectable persons are always found to promote what they consider an amicable adjustment: experienced statesmen do not expect useful consequences from such interventions; but they cannot be rejected by either side, for fear of consigning numbers and influence to the other. In the present instance, the matter terminated fortunately, and without mortification to any. The King, having relunctantly consented that his name should be introduced, had no reason to regret the result. The Duke of Portland, knowing the impossibility of an effectual arrangement, acted with wisdom and dignity, in keeping aloof from discussions which must be useless; and Mr. Pitt must indeed have been unworthy of any public trust if he had resigned office as a preliminary to the inquiry whether he was fit to hold it or not. It was said that the matter terminated in a mere verbal or grammatical distinction; but it was more desirable to all parties that it should so end, than that the broad and general principles of government should have become the topics of abstract discussion, and formed the line of distinction among practical statesmen. When the leading powers of the state were thus divided, the final decision of the dispute necessarily devolved upon the people, and they testified their opinion with unwonted readiness and concord. Very soon after the rejection of the India bill, and the change of ministers, the corporation and the merchants and traders of London presented addresses of thanks, with assurances of support, to the King. Of Middlesex and Westminster, mention already has been made, and, during the first three months of the year, almost every gazette contained several of these public documents, replete with professions of loyalty and declarations of satisfaction*. Before the experiment had been fully tried, the opposition tauntingly defied * In the Chronicle of the New Annual Register for 1784, between the 24th of January and the 1st of April, addresses are enumerated from fifty-six counties, cities, and towns. CHAP. LVII. 1784. the ministers to demonstrate their popularity by appealing to the people. When it had been made, they attempted to diminish its value and deny its importance. It was said the addresses were obtained by mere imposture, and it was doubted whether or not the people understood the matter they addressed upon. Such observations drew forth from Mr. Pitt a happy 20th February. specimen of sarcastic humour. He saw, with astonishment, the man of the people undervaluing the sentiments of the people; ridiculed the defeat the party had experienced at Reading, although supported by Colonel Hartley, member for the town; while from Hackney, a field of Mars, that valiant chieftain, the county member, had returned to the House, his brow not adorned with the wreath of victory, but issuing from his mouth a most lamentable history of flight and defeat. He also adverted to the fate of Mr. Fox at Westminster, where he once could charm the multitude into dumb admiration of his eloquence, and into silent gratitude for his exertions in the cause of freedom and of his country. Was he, the champion of the people, once emphatically named the man of the people, now content with the execrations of those multitudes who once, perhaps too much, adored him? Speaking of the spirit which animated the promoters of the addresses, Sir Horace Mann said, that on his appealing to one body of his friends, they answered they had been his friends once, but he was joined with those who wished to set up a Lord-Protector. 1st March. Freedom of To Mr. Pitt, on the other hand, numerous addresses Address to of applause and congratulation were sent from all Mr. Pitt. parts of the kingdom*. The Corporation of London stood foremost. The freedom of the City was presented London. in a gold box; and, when he went to take the oaths, a splendid entertainment was given at Grocer's Hall. A committee of the Corporation waited on him at his residence, conducted him into the City with all the display of a triumph, and the procession of the magistracy, Of these addresses, the Bishop of Winchester says thirty-six came into his hands after Mr. Pitt's death, and many were not preserved. Life of Mr. Pitt, vol. i. p 326 n. CHAP. 1784. 22nd Feb. the display of the civic banners, and the unbounded acclamations of an immense multitude, proved how truly the Chamberlain, Mr. Wilkes, uttered the sentiments of all the citizens in a speech highly complimentary to him, and very severe on his opponents*. If the youth of Mr. Pitt furnished topics of sarcasm and invective to his adversaries; if it afforded Mr. Fox the means of suggesting that the House would teach such very young men not to yield so readily to the calls of ambition; and to predict that his administration could not possibly be permanent; the extraordinary prudence and judgment displayed by this very young man must have occasioned sensations of dismay, and anticipations of defeat. In the midst of irritating invectives, uttered by men whose talent gave them all their force, and whose character and experience augmented their effect, he maintained a cautious reserve, from which he never deviated, and a dignified self-possession, which made the blows aimed at him fall innoxious, or recoil on those who inflicted them. His eloquence, already so well known and so highly appreciated, was kept in strict obedience to the mere necessities of the debate; he chiefly endeavoured to afford his antagonists no new topics arising from any of his speeches. Thus their declamations became wearisome, through frequent repetition, and often seemed vague and general, because no new fact or argument was furnished by the minister. Yet, although he often complained of the assertions and inferences of the opposition, Mr. Pitt's tone was never humble or querulous; he never courted forbearance or deprecated censure: so that his speeches were equally secure against the charges of haughtiness and meanness, and he well merited the compliment paid by his sovereign, when he praised him for using a razor See Wilkes's Speeches, 8vo. 1786.. In his return from the City at night, Mr. Pitt was subjected to a brutal and ferocious insult. After the greater portion of his attendants had quitted him, as the carriage, drawn by men, was proceeding along St. James's Street, a number of persons, armed with bludgeons and broken chair poles, made a furious and unexpected attack on the carriage, forced open the doors, beat and maltreated the attendants, and aimed several blows at the minister himself, who was bravely defended by his brother, the Earl of Chatham, and at length escaped unhurt into a neighbouring house. against his antagonists, and never condescending to run into rudeness*. CHAP. LVII. 1784. On the disso From the bitter manner in which Mr. Fox complained of being deserted by some of his late adherents, lution. and the abstinence of his party from opposing the progress of public business during the latter days of the session, it appeared to some that the minister might have proceeded without dissolving the Parliament; but a slight review of the history of that House of Commons will shew the impossibility of such a proceeding. Called during Lord North's administration, it had, for one whole session, and a great portion of another, sanctioned the American war, and favoured all his measures for its vigorous prosecution. They had afterward withdrawn their support, declared disapprobation of the war, and obliged him to resign. The Rockingham administration had their countenance during a part of a session; but when that ministry was dissolved, by the death of the Marquis, the House was supposed to be divided under three chiefs, in such a manner as to render it impossible for any one party to conduct the business of the nation, if opposed by the other two. Under these circumstances, that unpopular union, called the coalition, was formed; it drove Lord Shelburne and Mr. Pitt from the helm; supported its own leaders as ministers with a triumphant majority, until the King thought fit to dismiss them, and then opposed the new administration with majorities fluctuating between fifty-four and onet. Had this House been brought to sustain the existing administration, the respect and confidence of the people could not have attended them. Mr. Pitt could not, consistently with his professions and feelings, have submitted to their support, unless they had rescinded all the obnoxious votes and resolutions they had made; and had they done so, their position would have been disgraceful, and even contemptible. Another question arises, why the dissolution was so long delayed? When the supplies immediately re CHAP. 1781. Failure of the opposition party at the elections. quired had been granted, there was ample time, before the expiration of the mutiny act, to have convened a new Parliament; the King was known to be not averse to the measure, and it was earnestly pressed for by many of Mr. Pitt's adherents. Had impatience under provocations, and even insults, or had any hope of immediate security and advantage, influenced the minister to adopt such a course, he might have been justified at the moment; but the applause of magnanimity and true wisdom must have been withheld from him. He never considered the time fully come for such an act, until the opposition had displayed at large all their principles and powers, until the progress of national affairs had been so obstructed, as to demonstrate that private views and not the general good actuated their proceedings, until a political reconcilement between the parties, and the formation of an union, had proved impossible; and, above all, until the unequivocal and ample disclosure of the public mind had shewn, that by the removal of the present House of Commons, the nation would consider itself not deprived of a support, but eased of a burthen. Even to the last moment, the opposition members deprecated a dissolution*; they foresaw, in that event, the annihilation of all their power, and the extinction of all their hopes. It cannot be believed that the party bestowed so little consideration on passing events, as to have neglected any means which they could use to secure the return of their friends and adherents. Fear is a powerful monitor, and, during more than two months, their constant fear had been expressed; yet their efforts had been so unpromising, that, in many places, they chose rather to desist from using them than to witness their failure; and, in others, they encountered only mortification and defeat. Upwards of one hundred and sixty members lost their seats, and of these almost all were friends of the late administration. So complete a rout of what was looked upon as one of the strongest and most powerful parties that ever See the speeches of Mr. Eden, Lord North, and General Conway, on the 23rd of March. Parliamentary History, vol. xxiv. p. 769. |
