1771. DISPUTE WITH LORD CHATHAM. 101 of minor importance. It was more decent, perhaps, that Parliament should define the law by its own authority, than that it should declare the law to be contrary to what it had been stated by a long current of decisions in Westminster Hall. But, after all, the dispute, as Burke himself admitted, while he supported the views of his political friends, was merely verbal. And it was quite unworthy of Chatham to give way to his spleen and resentment in this matter, because the Rockingham party had taken possession of a question which he thought belonged to himself. The ministers and the Court party sat silent and amused spectators of this pitiful quarrel among their opponents. Well might one of the most distinguished members of the Opposition describe this unseemly debate as presenting a scene which nothing but the humour of Swift or Rabelais could describe.* The bill, of course, was lost; nor was it revived until twenty years later, when a new aggression on the liberty of the press afforded the Opposition of that day another opportunity of protecting it by this constitutional safeguard. Fox's Bill of 1792 was in the same form as that of Dowdeswell in 1771, and became an Act of Parliament, after some ineffectual resistance on the part of the law lords. Lord Chatham's Lords. This session was not allowed to close without exhibiting, in the House of Lords, the same want of union among the Whig party failure in the which had been so absurdly displayed in the Commons. Chatham, notwithstanding the dissent of the Rockingham party, and the remonstrances of his friend Lord Camden, persisted in moving an address to the Crown for a dissolution of Parliament. This measure, which had originated with the Middlesex and City parties, and was the burden of the petition or remonstrance which, year after year, they had * Barré to Chatham, March 8, 1771.-Correspondence. 102 DISSOLUTION OF THE WHIG PARTY. CH. XV. carried up to the throne, would not, on that account, be recommended to the Whig aristocracy. Deserted, therefore, by that proud exclusive connection, and opposed by the Court, Chatham found himself almost as forlorn in the debate as in the division. broken up. These were the last faint efforts of an Opposition The Whig party which, devoid alike of union, energy, and public spirit, could neither agree upon any plan of administration themselves, nor offer any effectual resistance to a system of government which was making open no less than disguised inroads upon the liberties of the people, and the constitution of Parliament. The corruption of the House of Commons was at length organised, and brought to a degree of perfection which had never been known to the rude art of the Walpoles and the Pelhams. The great Revolution-families were broken and scattered. New men had sprung up, the spurious offspring of a representative system which was a mockery and a fraud. The ancient laws of the land, indeed, were not openly violated; but under the form of a free constitution, and the hollow semblance of responsible government, the will of the Sovereign, both in the legislature and in administration, was practically absolute and supreme. The immediate effect of this system was, as we shall see, the dismemberment of the Empire; in its more remote consequences it brought the institutions of the country into disrepute, and had well-nigh involved them in that terrible convulsion which crushed a neighbouring monarchy, and shook the most ancient thrones in Europe to their foundation. 1772. DEATH OF THE PRINCESS DOWAGER. 103 CHAPTER XVI. OF DEATH OF THE PRINCESS DOWAGER-HER UNPOPULARITY-POLITICAL WHILE the King appeared to be entirely successful as a politician, he was not altogether free Queen from domestic disquietude. His marriage, Charlotte. indeed, which had taken place under circumstances not very promising, had proved, upon the whole, suitable and fortunate. The Queen, though singularly deficient in the superficial charms and graces of her sex, was not without qualities which harmonised with the character of her consort. No prince that had ever occupied the throne of these realms carried his notions of pre- Political maxims rogative higher than George the Third; of the King. but his interference in the details of Government proceeded less from an avarice of power than a jealousy of English statesmen. This feeling, more than ambition, led him to resist the aristocratic tendencies of Whig principles; and, if he could have reposed confidence in the loyalty of his ministers, it is probable that he would have been well content to leave the control of public business in their hands, while he indulged his natural taste for domestic happiness, and the pursuits of a private station. The Princess Dowager just lived to see the full accomplishment of her cherished hopes in Princess of the emancipation of the Crown from the Wales. dominion of party. George the Third was never 104 COURT OF GEORGE THE SECOND. CH. XVI. more completely king, according to his mother's notion of sovereignty, than in the spring of 1772, when Her Royal Highness deceased. Before, and ever since her son's accession, the Princess had been the constant mark of public obloquy; and the people were willing to attribute the arbitrary and odious. measures of the Court to the evil influence of the Princess and her creature Bute, long after both had ceased to interfere in public affairs. The year before her death, and while she was suffering under mortal disease, Alderman Townshend denounced her in the House of Commons; and, at the same time, the blank walls of the metropolis were chalked with the words, 'Impeach the King's mother.' It is well ascertained, however, that neither the Princess nor Bute were ever consulted on public affairs after the administration of Grenville. The people were, therefore, as mistaken in the fact, as in their, estimate of the character of their Sovereign, when they attributed his misrule to petticoat government.' George the Third was a dutiful son and an affectionate husband; but the direction of his mother was wholly discontinued after he had himself learned to hold the reins of power. His consort appears never to have interfered until he was no longer able to hold them. While the political maxims of the King, and the Court of George means which he employed for carrying the Second. them into effect, were, to the last degree, pernicious, the manners of his Court and the tenor of his private life were decent and respectable. In both particulars he departed from the examples of his royal ancestors. The first and second sovereigns of the house of Hanover, had each conformed to the principles of the Revolution, but could not retrench the gross license of their personal tastes and habits. A recent publication has laid open the interior of the Court of George the Second.* During many successive * Memoirs of Lord Hervey. 1772. AMIABILITY OF QUEEN CAROLINE. 105 years, Lord Hervey filled a high office in the household of that sovereign, and was admitted to the confidential intimacy and friendship of the royal family. A man of birth, of fashion, and of letters, Hervey had no inducement to vilify the illustrious family for which he entertained sentiments of friendship and gratitude; while, at the same time, the liberality of his mind and the independence of his circumstances preserved him from that undiscriminating admiration of royalty to which ordinary courtiership is prone. The royal pair are represented by this accurate observer as living on terms of domestic concord. They pass several hours of the day together. The influence of the wife is unlimited; nor is the history of his irregular amours reserved from that entire confidence which the fond husband reposes in the partner of his cares. Her Majesty shows her appreciation of such affectionate candour by placing the favourite mistress immediately about her person. The lady is her good Howard.' During absence, the King's letters to the Queen abound in the language of conjugal endearment, and in tender expressions of gratitude for her consideration of his happiness. The latter term is, on one occasion, explained by reference to certain domestic arrangements which Her Majesty had made for the accommodation of a German lady, Madame de Walmoden, whom the King had purchased of her husband (a man of rank) a great bargain, and was about to bring over from Hanover. The charms and merits of the Countess de Walmoden indeed form the staple of one series of His Majesty's domestic correspondence, which is very regular, and very voluminous. It is possible that this topic might not have been particularly interesting, or even agreeable to the Queen; but that a wife who undoubtedly possessed both the love and respect of her husband, should be offered, and should accept, such a strange tribute of marital confidence and affection; that |