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CHAP.
LXX.

1791.

stitution. Those who pursued that course, he compared to Goneril and Regan, who answered the question put by their father in terms of flaming and extravagant panegyric, while the younger daughter answered, just as he would, if questioned concerning the English constitution,—that he loved it just as much as a subject of Great Britain ought to love a government under which he enjoyed such blessings. If Mr. Burke was separated from the party, it must be his own choice; and, if he should repent that separation, he might be assured his friends would ever be ready to receive, to respect, and to love him as heretofore. Then, after making some observations on the clause, and the arguments adduced in support of it, he said his principles were so far republican as that he wished rather to give the Crown less power and the people more, where it could be done with safety, in every government, old or new; on that principle he had always acted, and Mr. Burke had done the same. The constitution was more liable to be ruined by an increase of the power of the Crown, than of the people. As to inflammatory publications, if such existed, it behoved government to look to them; and if the law officers of the Crown neglected their duty, the House might remind ministers of their omission. It was misusing their functions and privileges, for any member to come down, and, by holding long discourses, personal to himself and relative to imaginary plots, prevent a committee from doing its duty.

Mr. Burke replied that eulogies on the British constitution were at least as useful as Mr. Fox's almost daily professions of admiration of the revolution in France. As to books, although there might be serious cause for alarm, when associations publicly avowed doctrines tending to alienate the minds of all who read them from the constitution; yet he had never desired the prosecution of any, although the right honourable gentleman had done so more than once. It had been said that, if he would repent, he would be received. He had gone through his youth without encountering any party disgrace, and, although he had

then, in his age, been so unfortunate as to meet it, he did not solicit the right honourable gentleman's friendship, nor that of any man, on one side of the House or the other.

CHAP.

LXX.

1791.

the flouse of

Commons.

After a few more observations from other members, Bill passes the clause passed as originally framed; and, at their next meeting, the committee agreed to all the other clauses.

12th.

30th.

Passes the

In the House of Lords, the bill occasioned one debate, in which some alterations were agreed to, House of and it finally passed.

Lords.

cations.

With the last-mentioned debate in the House of Result of the Commons, all appearances of personal friendship be- late altertween Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke ceased; and it became evident to the public that a decided schism had taken place in the opposition party, although its extent or exact sequel could not be ascertained. In reviewing this remarkable conflict, the particulars of which are so minutely recorded, it appears that Mr. Burke, unaided and unsupported, was exposed to a series of virulent attacks, while the clamour of faction drowned his voice, repeated interruption ruffled his temper, and the personal insolence and contumelious disrespect of some, who, in former days, had kindled their feeble luminaries at the broad and radiant blaze of his mighty intellect, inflamed his anger and added to his indignation. Mr. Fox, on the contrary, had the advantages derived from his ascendancy over his party, the influence of his ability in debate, and still more of those amiable manners which predisposed those who knew him to continue their attachment, and inspired confidence in all he said, as the production of unpremeditated sincerity, and an almost puerile candour. Yet, amid the pressures which were enforced against him, Mr. Burke rose with the strength of a giant and with the energy of inspired genius and unconquerable patriotism. His connexion with the world and its promiscuous scenes had not been such as to render the dissolution of a long-formed and intimate friendship matter of indifference; and, if he disdained to court opinion by any affected display of regret, he concealed the

CHAP.
LXX.

1791.

feelings of a wounded heart, while his lofty spirit of patriotism urged him to make every sacrifice, to strip himself of every accustomed protection and solace, when required by the powerful voice of truth and of his country.

It is very difficult to believe that the attack of Mr. Fox, and all the circumstances which preceded and accompanied it, were not carefully premeditated, and the conduct of his friends precisely and methodically arranged. From the time when Mr. Sheridan had made his attack on Mr. Burke*, it became obvious that Mr. Fox could not continue the friend of both; and, all circumstances considered, it was not difficult to foresee to which side he would incline. The publication of Mr. Burke's Reflections rendered indifference or neutrality nearly impossible; and, as a public rupture must take place, plans were most artfully arranged for giving pre-eminence and popularity to Mr. Fox, and casting his intended opponent as much as possible into the shade. Before the meeting of Parliament, Mr. Burke had been the subject of daily scurrility, particularly in those papers which were supported by and devoted to the opposition party. Every charge that malice could suggest, or falsehood fashion, was daily advanced: pecuniary corruption, political apostacy, and even an adherence to Popery, were among the serious imputations; while many, who had never before been suspected of wit, made themselves exceedingly pleasant by smart paragraphs on the swinish multitude, the beatific vision of Marie Antoinette, and the age of chivalry.

In the debates, Mr. Fox did not appear like a man who spoke on the sudden inspiration of the occasion, but as one who had treasured up and arranged every phrase which could most annoy and injure the man whose alienation from him he appeared to deplore. In Mr. Burke's absence, he introduced a contemptuous remark on the age of chivalry; in the course of the debates, he referred back to a phrase used by his

* See Chapter 64. Ante, p. 473.

friend in the early part of the American war-that he could not draw a bill of indictment against a whole people*; and when he spoke of their weeping together over the fate of Montgomery, he disclosed that which must, if true, have been most private and confidential; for, whatever praise the bravery and military conduct of Montgomery might claim, whatever feeling might arise from the contemplation of his youth and his generous daring, men in general were not then so prepared for resistance in arms to the authority of their sovereign as to forget that "the spotted rebel taints "the soldier." Nor can any thing be imagined more galling, more at variance with the feelings of affection. and expressions of regard put forth by Mr. Fox, than his contemptuous allusions to Mr. Burke's age and vanity, and the supercilious intimation that he might yet find grace and reconcilement with his party on the easy terms of renouncing his errors and reforming his ways.

It has been asserted that Mr. Fox took no share in the unmannerly and insulting interruptions which beset Mr. Burke, when he attempted to address the chair; but whoever knows the accuracy and care with which party movements were, at that time, arranged and conducted, will not believe that such a proceeding, so formally announced, and so methodically prosecuted, originated in the moment, or was kept a secret from the great leader. Another circumstance to shew the combination, is, that Mr. Sheridan took no ostensible share in the proceedings: his antecedent quarrel with Mr. Burke made it equally improper that he should appear as an assistant to Mr. Fox, or that the present should be identified, or even connected, with the antecedent dispute. Every circumstance shews that these parties knew and concurred in the intended course, and joined in a common effort to depress the character of Mr. Burke.

CHAP.

LXX.

1791.

Since the disgraceful period when the rage of fana- State of the ticism had carried the flames of desolation through the

* March 22, 1775. Speech on resolutions for conciliation with the colonies. See Burke's Works, vol. iii. p. 69. See also Chap. 25.

Roman Catho

lics.

CHAP.
LXX.

1791.

1791.

Feb. 21.

Motion for a bill for their relief by Mr. Mitford.

cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London*, the state of British subjects professing the Roman Catholic relegion had not met the attention of the British legislature. No petition from them had been presented, nor had the press issued forth their remonstrances or complaints. Yet the hardships of their condition, and the severe, but no longer necessary, penalties and restraints to which they continued subject, did not escape attention; and measures, devised by some of the most respectable of their community and sanctioned by government, were prepared and submitted to Parliament.

Mr. Mitford moved for leave to bring in a bill for the relief of persons calling themselves Protesting Dissenting Catholics, under certain conditions and restrictions. Few persons, he observed, were apprized of the extent or severity of the enactments which still continued in force. In a popular abridgment, called Burns' Ecclesiastical Law, the recapitulation of them extended over seventy pages. He shewed that, by these statutes, Papist priests were guilty of high treason, and would suffer death for offences in their nature trivial, such as persuading others to be of their religion. Having enumerated other laws of rigour against the clergy, with proper animadversions, he turned to the hardships which bore upon the laity; reciting the penalties to which they were liable for hearing mass, for not going to church, and for various other offences; and, after a circumstantial detail on this part of his | subject, reminded the House that, at the time when these very severe laws commenced, Queen Elizabeth had been excommunicated by the Pope, and her subjects absolved from their allegiance: consequently such laws were dictated by a spirit of resentment, creating severity and tending to cruelty. He next adverted to the extensive power formerly arrogated by the Pope, but wrested from him by Henry the Eighth, and the security afforded by the various oaths of supremacy. In Catholic countries, particularly in France, even before the revolution, the severe laws against

* See Chapter 38.

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