MAJORITY AGAINST THE WHIGS. America, Chatham meant, that if America chose to cast off our yoke, we could not, by force of arms, compel her to resume it. The language which he repeatedly and advisedly used can bear no other and no more limited interpretation, without converting it into a mere rhetorical flourish. 371 Ch. 22. 1778 The division on the Duke of Richmond's The division. motion showed the growing disposition towards peace on the terms demanded by the Americans. The motion, though ostensibly opposed by the Government as well as the bulk of the Whig Opposition, was defeated by a majority of seventeen only in a house of eighty-three members. Every other motion relating to the American war, when supported by the whole Opposition, had been outvoted by a majority of more than two to one in the upper House. Catholic Free trade. This session was remarkable for the partial Reform. agitation of the three great questions, the discus- emancipation. sion and settlement of which have, in recent times, not only divided the legislature, and dissolved the old combinations of party, but convulsed society itself. Parliamentary Reform, Catholic Emancipation, and Free Trade were severally involved in certain proceedings of both Houses. The time, indeed, was still far distant when the first and last were to take their places as questions of paramount importance; but the just claims of the Catholics to be relieved from civil disabilities imposed as a precaution against temporary dangers, 372 Ch. 22. 1778 CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. which had long since passed away, were now pre- 1 11 & 12 Will. III., c. 4. INTOLERANT SPIRIT OF THE KING. himself, and the perpetuation of that policy which was the main object of his reign, nothing could be more opportune than the rise of the Catholic Question at this particular period. The influence which he had acquired by the concurrence of the people with his arbitrary views on the Colonial Question had begun to subside with the failure of those boastful anticipations which he had encouraged with reference to the war; just at this time, another subject, which had nearly been disposed of, almost without discussion, in accordance with the plain dictates of justice and common sense, was suddenly and unexpectedly exalted to a domestic question of the greatest magnitude and interest. Upon this question, the bigotry and intolerance of George the Third exactly coincided with the bigotry and intolerance of the bulk of the people. The principles of 1688, by an absurd perversion of their meaning, were appealed to in support of religious proscription; and a temporary and exceptional case was cited as a leading precedent for the eternal exclusion of loyal and honorable men from the benefit of the constitution. The Catholic Question served the purposes of George the Third for the remainder of his reign. It enabled him to form and break up administrations, to gratify personal malice, and to exclude from the public service some of the foremost statesmen in the country. His mind, like that of James the Second, was so constituted as to be incapable of deriving a practical lesson from expe 373 Ch. 22. 1778 374 Ch. 22. 1778 State of the navy. NAVAL AFFAIRS. rience; and had he lived and governed in 1829, he would, probably, have risked a far more dangerous dismemberment of the empire than that of 1783, before he would have permitted the Duke of Norfolk or Mr. O'Connell to take their seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Early in the session, the attention of both Houses had been directed to the state of the navy, more especially with reference to the contract departments. It appeared, on enquiry, not only that gross extortion, but positive fraud, had been practised by many of the contractors for the public service; and these abuses were attributed, no doubt to some extent, justly, to the connection between the contractors and the House of Commons. A bill was accordingly introduced by Sir Philip Clerke, a member of the Opposition, designed to remedy an evil and a scandal, the existence of which was so immediately detrimental to the public interests. The proposal was not to disqualify all contractors from sitting in parliament, but those only who had obtained their contracts otherwise than by competitive tender. So great was the public indignation and disgust at a system which exhibited parliamentary corruption in its most mischievous form, that even the House of Commons, ordinarily so dead to every patriotic emotion, shewed a desire to adopt the moderate and discriminating bill of Sir Philip Clerke. All the exertions of the Government could not prevent the bill from being read a second time; but on the IMPOLICY OF TAXING PENSIONS. 1778 375 tax pensions. question of the commitment, they so far prevailed Ch. 22. as to throw it out by a majority of four.m Encouraged by this success, a motion in the Proposal to same direction, but of a very different character, was made by Mr. Gilbert. He proposed, in the Committee of Supply, that during the continuance of the war, a tax of twenty-five per cent. should be imposed on all pensions, and on all salaries and fees of office exceeding two hundred pounds a-year. The iniquity and absurdity of such a proposal are manifest. To involve in the same confiscation salaries and pensions which were earned by actual services, or were the rewards of past services, with salaries and pensions which were merely colorable bribes or the wages of corruption, was an attempt to remedy a gross abuse by a gross injustice. Yet such was the growing impatience of parliamentary placemen, that this motion was carried in the Committee by a considerable majority; and the Government barely succeeded, by summoning their followers, in rejecting it on the Report. But it is to these discussions, that the rise of the great and vital question of Parliamentary Reform may be clearly traced. Ireland. The other remarkable debate, to which I have Trade of referred, arose upon a motion by Lord Nugent for a revision of the laws by which the trade and commerce of Ireland were regulated. The narrow The numbers were 113 to 109. |