convinced by the powerful arguments of Walpole, and he accordingly rose to speak in favour of the scheme.* But whichever might be thought the most eloquent or the most reasonable, there could be no doubt which was the most popular side. During the debate, the doors were beset by immense multitudes, all clamorous against the new measure, and convened partly, perhaps, by the efforts of the Opposition †, but still more by their own belief that some dreadful evil was designed them. To this concourse Sir Robert referred in his reply:-"Gen"tlemen may give them what name they think fit; it may be said that they came hither as humble supplicants, but I know whom the law calls STURDY BEGGARS,” a most unguarded expression! For though the Minister meant it only to denote their fierce and formidable clamours, yet it was ever afterwards flung in his teeth as though he had wished to insult the poverty of the people and debar their right of petition; and the phrase immediately became the war-whoop of the opponents to the Bill. 66 At two o'clock in the morning, and after thirteen hours' debate, the House divided, and the numbers were found to be, for the measure 266, against it 205;— a victory, indeed, for the Minister, but a large and most alarming increase of the usual minority against him. As Sir Robert went out to his carriage some of the "sturdy beggars," highly exasperated, seized him by the cloak, and might have done him some injury, had not Mr. Pelham interposed.‡ Two days afterwards, on reporting the Resolutions carried in Committee, the debate was resumed with fresh vigour on the part of the Opposition. Sir John Barnard made a most able practical speech; and Pulteney's was * Lord Harrington to Lord Essex, March 15. 1733. See Appendix. 66 66 66 66 "To my certain knowledge some very odd methods were used to bring such multitudes hither: circular letters were wrote and sent by the beadles in the most unprecedented manner. This I am certain of, because I have now one of those letters in my pocket." Walpole's Speech in reply. An erroneous version of this anecdote in Coxe's Walpole is corrected by himself in his Memoirs of Pelham (vol. i. p. 10.); yet several subsequent writers have continued to follow the former. distinguished at least by the former quality. "It is "well known," said he, "that every one of the public "offices have already so many boroughs or corporations "which they look on as their properties. There are 66 66 some boroughs which may be called Treasury boroughs; "there are others which may be called Admiralty bo"roughs; in short, it may be said that nearly all the "towns upon the sea-coast are already seized on, and, “in a manner, taken prisoners by the officers of the "Crown; in most of them they have so great an influ66 ence, that none can be chosen members of Parliament "but such as they are pleased to recommend. But as the "Customs are confined to our sea-ports, as they cannot "travel far from the coast, therefore this scheme seems to "be contrived in order to extend the laws of excise, and thereby to extend the influence of the Crown over all "the inland towns and corporations in England. This "seems plainly to be the chief design of the scheme now "under our consideration, and if it succeeds, — which "God forbid it should, I do not know but some of us "may live to see some vain over-grown Minister of State driving along the streets with six members of Parlia"ment behind his coach!" However, in spite of such judicious predictions, the Resolutions were carried by the same majority as before. Several other debates and divisions ensued before the Bill came to a second reading, but the majority in these gradually dwindled from sixty to sixteen. 66 During this time, also, the popular ferment grew higher and higher. Petitions poured in from several large towns. The Common Council of London indited the most violent of all, under the guidance of Alderman Barber, a noted Jacobite, who had been Swift's and Bolingbroke's printer, and was now Lord Mayor. The instructions sent by different places to their representatives to oppose the Bill were collected and published together, so as to stir and diffuse the flame; and the Minister was pelted by innumerable other pamphlets; various in talent but all equal in virulence. "The public," says a contemporary, was so heated with papers and pamphlets, that matters rose next to a 66 66 99 rebellion." One or two extracts will show the prevailing spirit: "I remember to have read of some "state, wherein it was the custom that if any one "should propose a new law, he must do it with a rope "about his neck, that in case it were judged prejudicial, “he might very fairly be hanged up for his pains with"out further ceremony. I heartily wish that law had "been in force amongst us."-"Philip the Second having a mind to settle the Inquisition in the Seven"teen Frovinces, as he already had in Spain, gave Car"dinal Granvelle orders to establish that bloody tribunal "there; and the people making some resistance against "it, the Cardinal was guilty of such inhuman oppression, "that the people rose as one man under the command of "the Prince of Orange and the Counts Egmont and "Horn (to whom the Cardinal gave the name of GUEUX "or Sturdy Beggars), and they, with seas of blood, infi"nite expense, and consummate bravery, drove out their "oppressors." The storm thus thickening around the Court, Queen Caroline applied in great anxiety to Lord Scarborough, as to the King's personal friend, for his advice. His answer was, that the Bill must be relinquished. "I will answer for my regiment," he added, "against the Pre"tender, but not against the opposers of the Excise." Tears came into the Queen's eyes. Then," said she, 66 66 we must drop it!"§ 66 Sir Robert, on his part, summoned a meeting of his friends in the House of Commons, and requested their opinion. The general sentiment amongst them was still to persevere. It was urged that all taxes were obnoxious, and that there would be an end of supplies if mobs were to control the legislature in the manner of raising them. Sir Robert, having heard every one first, declared how conscious he felt of having meant well; but that, in the present inflamed temper of the people, the Act could *Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 172. The Vintner and Tobacconist's Advocate, p. 1. A Word to the Freeholders and Burgesses of Great Britain, p. 49. On the Belgian confederates nick-named Les Gueux, see De Thou's History, lib. xl. vol. v. p. 216. ed. 1734. § Maty's Life of Chesterfield, p. 124. not be carried into execution without an armed force; and that he would never be the Minister to enforce taxes at the expense of blood. * The voice of moderation having thus prevailed, when on the 11th of April, there came on the Order of the Day for the second reading, Walpole rose, and moved that it should be postponed for two months; and thus the whole measure was dropped. The Opposition were scarcely satisfied with this hard-won victory, and wished to reject the Bill with the brand of their aversion upon it; but the general sense of the House was so evidently against the suggestion, that it was not pressed, nor even openly proposed. Throughout England, however, the news was hailed with unmixed pleasure, and celebrated with national rejoicings. The Monument was illuminated in London; bonfires without number blazed through the country; the Minister was, in many places, burnt in effigy amidst loud acclamations of the mob; any of his friends that came in their way were roughly handled; and cockades were eagerly assumed with the inscription LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO EXCISE! But amidst the general joy their ill-humour against the Minister gradually evaporated, or rather spent itself by its own force; and their loyalty was immediately afterwards confirmed and quickened by the welcome intelligence that the Princess Anne, the King's eldest daughter, was espoused to the young Prince of Orange. Walpole congratulated himself on this new turn given to the public feeling, and determined to run no risk of stirring it once more against him. It was indeed his favourite maxim at all times, as his son assures us, QUIETA NE MOVEAS a maxim bad under a bad constitution, but surely good under a good a maxim to be shunned at Milan, to be followed in London. When, in the next Session, Pulteney insinuated that the Excise scheme was to be revived, "As "to the wicked scheme," said Walpole, 66 as the honour"able gentleman was pleased to call it, which he would persuade us is not yet laid aside, I, for my own part, can assure this House I am not so mad as ever again to one 66 66 This meeting is recorded by the respectable authority of Mr. White, M.P. for Retford, a supporter of Sir Robert. (Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. 404.) 66 engage in any thing that looks like an Excise, though, in my own private opinion, I still think it was a "scheme that would have tended very much to the "interests of the nation."* It is very remarkable, however, that, after his time, some of the least popular clauses of the Excise scheme were enacted, and that there was no renewal of clamour, because there was a change of title. So little do things weigh with the multitude, and names so much! The conduct of Walpole in relinquishing, and declaring that he would never renew, his scheme, though it has not escaped censure in present times †, seems, on the contrary, highly deserving of praise. It is true that he might still possess the power to carry the Bill by a small majority. It is true that the Bill would have been beneficial to the people. But to strive for the people's good in the very face of all their wishes and opinions, is a policy doubtful even in despotic governments, but subversive of a free one. -The next step of Walpole, however, is by no means to be approved. It was to seek out, and to punish, the murmurers in his own Cabinet. Surely, having yielded to the repugnance of the nation, Walpole might have forgiven the repugnance of his colleagues. Was it just that vengeance should survive when the scheme itself had fallen; or was it wise to thrust out statesmen into opposition, with the popular words NO EXCISE inscribed upon their banners? Walpole found that a knot of powerful Peers, holding offices under the Crown, had, some whispered, others openly avowed, their dislike to the Excise Bill. At their head was Chesterfield, who had greatly risen in public favour, from the skill and the success of his Dutch negotiations. "I shall come over," he writes from the Hague, "well prepared to suffer with patience, for I am now in the school of patience, here; and I find treating "with about two hundred sovereigns of different tempers "and professions, is as laborious as treating with one 66 * Parl. Hist. vol. ix. p. 254. An attempt was made that year to celebrate the anniversary of the 11th of April, with fresh bonfires and rejoicings, but it seems to have only succeeded in London. See Boyer's Polit. State, vol. xlvii. p. 437. † Edinburgh Review, No. cxvii. p. 245. |