detach them from worldly interest. But such forced and unnatural expedients are unnecessary in this country, where the due administration of justice is secured not only by the integrity of the judge, but by the presence and control of the jury, the superintendance of the bar, and the publicity of all judi cial procedings. was started also; so between the ob. jections, poor Sancho had no dinner at all. Just in a similar manner do the friends of the motion propose to deal with lord Ellenborough. -The noble lord is made a privy counsellor, but yet he is not to be consulted upon points of law, lest his mind as a judge should be prepossessed, nor is he to be consulted on points of state, lest he should be A privy counsellor was bound to made a politician. Thus it was to give his advice to the king, in all proposed to destroy his functions cases and at all times, when his adas a privy counsellor altogether." vice was demanded. But a cabinet But, the very circumstance, that counsellor was only one of those a chief justice is always a privy privy counsellors whom the king counsellor and usually a peer of par- consulted with upon state affairs. liament, is a sufficient proof, that No privy counsellor could be excludour ancestors had not such horror ed from the committee where these of a judge being consulted on mat- deliberations were carried on, when ters of state, nor such apprehension summoned to it by his majesty's of his mind being prepossessed by commands, except for such personal the opinions he might give as a privy objections as would be a ground for counsellor on points of law. addressing his majesty to remove consequences may possibly result such an individual from his councils. from ti.is mixture, and what to some The committee of the privy council, may appear confusion of characcalled originally the committee for ters but let us follow the example foreign affairs, and known at present of our forefathers, and without seek- by the name of cabinet council, was ing to anticipate imaginary evils, ap. unknown to our law, and had in no ply a remedy to them when they instance whatever been recognised occur. If to secure the due admi- by parliament. It had not even a nistration of justice it were neces- fixed or permanent existence, but sary that a judge should have no consisted of those privy counsellors, possible temptation to unlawful who, each time it was convened, recompliances with power, the object ceived a summons to attend its meetwould be unattainable, while "per- ings. It was a mistake to suppose, sons in the situation of judges had that the cabinet, as such, was rerelations with the rest of society, sponsible for the measures of govern. while they had friends and children, ment. "It would be difficult to point and were not divested of all the out in our statutes or in the recordfeelings common to human nature."+ ed proceedings of parliament, eviTo satisfy such theorists, the dence that the cabinet or any indivijudges of England must be placed on dual belonging to it had been, as a footing with the ecclesiastical order such, held to be legally responsible."I in catholic countries, and even that Nor for practical purposes was expedient would be ineffectual to it fit that it should be otherwise. If * Mr. Fox. Evil an attempt were made to attach responsibility to all the members of the cabinet, for every ministerial act, it would be apt to endanger, and in most instances to defeat, the object of responsibility, for this obvious reason, that the difficulty of producing conviction and punishment is greater in the one case than in the other. Every minister was separately responsible in his own. department of the government; but no man nor body of men could be made responsible for the whole acts of an administration. The advisers of pernicious measures might be punished for their bad advice, but the fact of their having given such advice, must in the first place be proved against them. "The immediate actor can always be got at in a way that is very plain, direct and easy, compared to that by which you may be able to reach his advisers. When parliament have tried to get at the advisers too, how have they proceeded? Look at the mode, and that mode alone will sustain the argument, that the cabinet counsellors are not legally known. For in the addresses presented on such occasions it will be found, that parliament apply to know by whom any measure to which the address alludes, may have been advised. Surely then, such an application serves to shew, that the cabinet has never been deemed a responsible body; for, if it were, such an application would be quite superfluous. But, do not confine your research to those addresses; look at the journals throughout. Examine the several articles of impeachment on record, and you can discover no instance of any man, or body of men, being impeached as cabinet counsel lors. Take the end of queen Anne's reign. See the articles of impeachment exhibited against the earl of Oxford for the conclusion of the peace of Utrecht. Lord Bolingbroke, who was the person principally concerned in that transaction, being then out of the country and beyond the reach of parliament, it was eagerly endeavoured to impli cate lord Oxford. In prosecution of this object a variety of shifts and expedients were resorted to, which would have been totally unnecessary had the cabinet council been considered as a responsible body. No, in that case it would have been all smooth and easy. But, it appears, that not a word was men. tioned, which could countenance the idea of any recognition of a re. sponsible cabinet council. From this, and from every other circum. stance that applies, I infer that such a council was never legally con. ceived to exist." Such were the solid and irresistible arguments, by which Mr. Fox confuted and brought to disgrace the flimsy and superficial hypothesis of the cabinet council being, as such, responsible for the measures of administration. On the whole it was satisfactorily made out on the side of ministry, that the cabinet, as such, is not responsible for the measures of go, vernment; that no individual minister is responsible for more than his own acts, and such advice as he is proved to have actually given ; that a cabinet counsellor performs no duties and incurs no responsibi lity, to which as a privy counsellor he is not liable; that the judges of England are not intended by the constitution of their country to be such insulated beings as speculative * Mr. Fox. writers writers represent them; that the to office and during the early part nomination of lord Ellenborough to of their administration. a place in the cabinet, was not only strictly legal, but justifiable on the ground of precedent and constitutional analogy; and that the tendency and effect of his appointment had been misunderstood or misre presented, in many particulars, by the supporters of the motions before parliament. But, the public could not but perceive the difference between the actual duties of a privy counsellor's, and those of a cabinet counsellor's place; between the occasional and the habitual exercise of the same functions; between the right of taking a part in the political discussions of the day, and the necessity of giving an opinion on all state affairs as they arise: and they who reflected on the slow and beneficial progress, by which judges had been detached from state intrigues, and removed out of the pernicious atmosphere of the court, could not but regret, that the stream had now taken a retrograde direction, and threatened to fail back into that gulph, where so many judges had perished in former times. In this view of the subject the appointment of a lord chief justice to a cabinet place was to be considered rather as a precedent that might lead to evil consequences, than as a measure from which any mischief was at present to be apprehended; and such, after the conclusion of this debate, we believe to have been the impression that remained with many excellent and enlightened persons throughout the kingdom. Before we bring this chapter to a close we shall take a short and general view of the disposition of the public mind towards the new ministers, at their first entrance inVOL. XLVIII. Much, then, was expected from their exertions; but, though some good will existed towards them, there was no enthusiasm in their favour. Little popular feeling, in deed, of any sort was left in the country. The violence engendered by the French revolution had long since spent its fury, and had given place to universal apathy and indif ference on all political subjects, that did not affect directly the public purse, or concern the safety or naval glory of the kingdom. Hatred of peculation, and aversion to France, were the only springs that moved or even touched the public mind. But, while the new ministers could reckon little on the zealous or ardent support of the country, they had to contend at once with the secret disinclination of the court, and with the active and indefatiga. ble opposition of the persons whom they had recently displaced from office. The friends and adherents of the late ministers, though disunited in every other respect, were agreed in the most cordial hatred of their successors; and though the ex-ministers themselves had little name or popularity to boast of, their followers were numerous and active, and from their past habits and occupations they were particularly fitted to give annoyance to any administration against which they had an interest to combine. Many of the public journals were under their influence, and from long practice and experience in the art of leading and governing public opinion through the press, the per-. fectly understood how to avail themselves of that powerful engine to the best advantage. They had D intimate intimate connections in the city, in the bank, in the India house, and in most of the great trading corporations, and were able to communicate a party impulse to these bodies whenever it suited their purposes. In all the public offices, in all the boards of revenue, customs, excise and taxes throughout the kingdom, in all the civil and military departments of the state, the superintendants, subalterns, and clerks were in general persons who had been indebted to the ex-ministers for their places, who had looked up to them for further preferment, and who now trembled lest they should suffer from their disgrace. Among the discarded adherents of the late ministers, it happened, that all those were included, who had ever served as secretaries of the treasury under Mr. Pitt, and they who know the interior of our government, will be at no difficulty to understand, of what importance to the new oppo sition was the acquisition of so many persons of that description. In short, the whole of that noisy, bustling, forward, self sufficient part of the community, which is usually most loud and zealous on the side of government, was at present, when best affected towards the ministers, silent and indifferent, but more frequently openly hostile to them, or secretly employed in thwarting their measures and reviling their charac-sures of the new government requir. ters. This sort of opposition, despicable as it may appear, is doubly injurious to the ministers against whom it is directed, because every individual of this description, who adds one to the number of their opponents, takes one at the same time from the natural strength of their government. The new opposition, thus constituted, directed their at tacks, at first, exclusively against the Foxite part of the administration ; but, when they found, that their flattery and cajolery were thrown away upon lord Grenville; that their praises of his talents were unheeded; their expressions of confidence in the integrity and soundness of his principles received with. out gratitude or reward; and that even their admonitions on the unworthiness of his colleagues, though. intended solely for his benefit, were slighted by him and disregarded; their resentment quickly overleaped the boundaries to which they had originally confined their hostilities, and all parts of the administration began to share alike in their eensures and invectives. But the great strength of the new opposition,lay in the opinion which they were careful to circulate, that they had the secret wishes of the court in their favour; and many circumstances, it must be confessed, tended to impress the public with a suspicion, that at least the new ministers had little of hearty support in that quarter. It was notorious, that the necessity of the times had alone brought about the change of administration. It was observed during the first months after the new ministers came into office, that the persons connected with the household seldom at. tended in their place, when the mea ed support, and that when any decent excuse could be given for their conduct, they were always ready to vote against it. The language of that description of persons, best known by the name of courtiers, was from the beginning unfavourable to the new ministers. As the administration declined in popularity, because the greatness and suc cess ! were cess of its measures did not correspond with the over sanguine expectations of the public, the people industriously reminded, that the king, in trusting the government of the country to the hands where it was now lodged, had consulted less his own opinions and inclinations, than what he understood to be the wishes and expectations of his people. The new opposition professed those principles and followed that line of conduct, which they understood to be the most acceptable at court. They disclaimed with horror the intention of a systematic opposition to his majesty's government, and showed indeed by their conduct that nothing could possibly unite them in any system, except the being together in office; and yet in the midst of these professions, they contrived to ha. rass the ministers as effectually as the most factious opposition could have done. It is immaterial, whether these symptoms of how the court stood affected towards the administration were rightly interpreted or not. The belief that ministers were unacceptable in that quarter was equally prejudical to their interest in the country, as if the fact had been so; and the effect of it, on the whole, was to weaken the pub. lic confidence in the stability of their administration, which every one concluded, whether rightly or not is out of the question, would last no longer than the necessity that had imposed it. In addition to all these circumstances, the component parts of the new administration had been too recently brought together, when they first came into office, to be thoroughly united. Lord Sidmouth had been unconnected with the other leaders of the party at so late a period as the death of Mr. Pitt. Had an amendment to the address been moved on the first day of the sessións, it was understood that lord Sidmouth and his friends would have supported the original address. The two other branches of the government, which had been known by the names of the new and old opposition, had begun to cooperate in parliament, and to concert together their proceedings in that assembly, in the spring of 1804, but without making any formal compact or agreement for a union of parties. In so much, that when Mr. Addington resigned in the beginning of the summer of that year, there existed no positive or formal en. gagements between Mr. Fox and lord Grenville, of a nature to have prevented the latter from accepting the offers of Mr. Pitt, and going into office without the other. The refusal of the noble lord to act in that manner arose from the operation of public principle alone, unfettered by any private compact or engagement. Since that period the greatest union and confidence had subsisted between the leaders of the two parties; but the same good understanding was uot yet thoroughly established between their respective adherents. Many of the old oppo. sition trembled, lest the popular principles of their party should be diluted or neutralized by the influence of their new connections. The friends of Lord Grenville had not yet quite banished from their minds their former alarms of what they apprehended to be the revolutionary principles of some of their new associates; and from private intimacy and long habits of acting with the ex-ministers, they D 2 could |