Illness of the king-The Regency Bill-Overtures to Pitt-He declines office-Grenville and Bedford-The Rockingham Administration-Disturbances in America-ParliamentDebates on the Stamp Act-Pitt contends for its Repeal-Examination of Dr. FranklinDeclaratory Bill as to rights over the Colonies-Repeal of the Stamp Act-Weakness of the Rockingham Administration-They quit office-Pitt created earl of Chatham-His loss of popularity-His plans for great measures-Embargo on Corn-Chatham's illness -Disorganisation of his ministry-Parliament dissolved. DURING the progress of the Bill for the taxation of the American Colonies, the king was attacked by a serious indisposition. On the nature of that illness the greatest secresy was maintained. "The king's illness," says Walpole, "had occasioned a general alarm; but, though he escaped the danger, his health was so precarious, and he had such frequent disorders in his breast on taking the least cold, that all sober men wished to see a Regency settled by Parliament in case of his death."* The real nature of the king's malady was not suspected by the politicians of that day, or by the general public. "His majesty had a serious illness-its peculiar character was then unknown, but we have the best authority for believing that it was of the nature of those which thrice after afflicted his majesty, and finally incapacitated him for the duties of government." This is the statement of a gentleman whose means of information, and whose diligence in penetrating into the secret passages of the past, were of more permanent value than his adroitness in the use of the facts he ascertained for the advancement of his own * "George III." vol. ii. p. 95. 276 THE REGENCY BILL. [1765. party views. The family of George III. at that time consisted of George, prince of Wales, born on the 12th of August, 1762; and of Frederick, duke of York, born on the 16th of August, 1763. The differences of opinion between the king and his ministers upon the Regency Bill are of minor importance in a view of public affairs at this distance of time, and require no elaborate detail. The king wished that the power of nominating a Regent should be vested in himself. The Ministry thought it desirable that a Regency during the minority of the successor to the throne should be distinctly named. On the 24th of April, his majesty, in a speech from the throne, proposed, whether, under the present circumstances, it would not be expedient to vest in him the power of appointing, from time to time, by instrument in writing, under his sign-manual, either the queen, or any other person of his royal family, usually residing in Great Britain, as guardian of the person of his successor and as regent of these kingdoms. When a Bill to this effect had passed the Commons, a doubt arose in the Lords, whether the princess-dowager of Wales was included in the term "My Royal Family." Lord Halifax, one of the Secretaries of State, went to the king, and said that the matter ought to be cleared up; but that if the name of his majesty's mother appeared in the Bill, the House of Commons would probably strike it out. The king reluctantly acquiesced, and then the Royal Family was defined as "all the descendants of the late king." Grenville refused to introduce the name of the princessdowager, as he was urged to do by her friends; and upon this, a member, unconnected with the ministry, made a proposition to that effect. The name of the king's mother was decided to be introduced into the Bill, by the vote of a large majority. The king was now indignant at the conduct of his ministers; sent for his uncle the duke of Cumberland; and commissioned him to negotiate with Mr. Pitt for a return to power. It was an embarrassing time in which to contemplate a change of ministry. America was getting into a flame of anger at the Stamp Act. London was terrified by riots of Spitalfields weavers, upon the rejection of a Bill which would have prohibited the importation of foreign silks. What Burke calls "the vertigo of the Regency Bill" produced changes which an untoward aspect of national affairs might have failed to effect. The rumours that the king contemplated a change of ministers produced an opinion in one then unconnected with official life, but who looked upon political affairs, and public men, from a higher elevation than most observers of the shifting scenes of that time. Edmund Burke announced to a friend, with reference to Pitt, that "this crisis will show whether pride or patriotism be predominant in his character." To him, wrote Burke, is open "to come into the service of his country upon any plan of politics he chooses to dictate. . . . A few days will show whether he will take this part, or continue on his back at Hayes, talking fustian." The duke of Cumberland went to Hayes, and there learnt the "plan of politics" which Pitt chose" to dictate." There was no "fustian" in his sensible propositions,-that General Warrants should be repudiated; that dismissed officers should be restored; that Protestant alliances should be formed, to balance the Family Compact of the Bourbons. There was some difference of opinion about appointments, but * Mr. Croker, in "Quarterly Review," vol. lxvi. p. 240. 1765.] OVERTURES TO PITT-GRENVILLE AND BEDFORD. 277 these might have been removed. Earl Temple was sent for; and although he was intended for the office of First Lord of the Treasury, he persuaded his brother-in-law to give up the negotiation. He was seeking a ministerial alliance with his brother, George Grenville, to whom he had become recon ciled, and he conceived the plan of inducing Pitt to join them; in which union he fancied he saw a power that would enable them to stand alone without the support of ducal Whigs, or courtly Tories. The king was obliged to call back his ministers, Grenville and Bedford. They dictated terms to the king; and Bedford appears to have deported himself in a spirit which may have been grossly exaggerated by Junius, but which is not wholly removed from truth. "The duke of Bedford demanded an audience of the king; reproached him, in plain terms, with duplicity, baseness, falsehood, treachery, and hypocrisy; repeatedly gave him the lie; and left him in strong convulsions." A paper was read, according to Walpole, in which the king was told "that he must smile on his ministers, and frown on their adversaries, whom he was reproached, in no light terms, with having countenanced, contrary to his promise. Invectives against the Princess were not spared; nor threats of bringing lord Bute to the block." The king bowed to the ministers to retire, and said "if he had not broken out into the most profuse sweat he should have been suffocated with indignation." Pitt was again applied to; and he again declined to take office without lord Temple, who persevered in his * * "George III." vol. ii. p. 183. 278 THE ROCKINGHAM ADMINISTRATION. [1765 resolution, at an audience which both had of the king. The Whig families were again resorted to. The duke of Newcastle again obtained a post of honour in receiving the Privy Seal; the duke of Grafton became one of the Secretaries of State, with general Conway as the other Secretary; and the marquis of Rockingham was named First Lord of the Treasury. Untried colts and worn-out hacks were harnessed together, to drag the state-coach through the sloughs in which it was travelling. They pulled honestly side by side for a brief journey; and then came to a dead stop. This ministry had the lasting credit of bringing one man of extraordinary genius into public life, though in a subordinate situation. The eloquent gratitude of Edmund Burke to the marquis of Rockingham has made us think favourably of the head of this ministry, for "sound principles, enlargement of mind, clear and sagacious sense, and unshaken fortitude."* Such qualities were needed at such a crisis. The Rockingham Administration came into office on the 10th of July. Parliament had been prorogued previous to their appointment; and a few months passed on without any disturbing events. At last came intelligence which demanded grave and anxious consideration. In the autumn of 1765, various letters were received by Mr. Secretary Conway, from official persons in America, relating the particulars of riots at Boston and in the Colony of Rhode Island. At Boston, the effigy of the gentleman who had accepted the office of stamp-distributor was hung upon a tree, which was subsequently called "Liberty Tree;" his house was sacked, and he was compelled to promise to resign his office. These riots went on for a fortnight, with much wanton destruction of property. A letter from New York of the 25th of September, to Conway, says "the general scheme concerted throughout seems to have been, first, by menace or force, to oblige the stamp-officers to resign their employments, in which they have generally succeeded; and next, to destroy the stamped papers upon their arrival,-that, having no stamps, necessity might be an excuse for the dispatch of business without them." + But more important than the outrages of mobs were the solemn proceedings of a Congress at New York, comprising delegates from nine Assemblies. They continued their sittings for three weeks; and then passed fourteen Resolutions, in which they maintained the right of every British subject to be taxed only by his own consent, or that of his legal representatives; and that their only legal representatives were those annually chosen to serve as members of the Assembly of each province. The Administration was in a position of extreme difficulty. The strong opposition of the Colonial Assemblies was a reason for ministers re-considering the measures of their predecessors; but a submission to the violent resistance to the authority of the imperial legislature would be to manifest an unworthy fear, which might have the effect of encouraging other resistance to the law. But there were consequences arising out of the discontent and resentment of the colonists which were productive of immediate evils at home, and threatened greater dangers for the future. A petition of the merchants of London trading to North America set forth, that this commerce, so necessary for the support of multitudes, was under such difficulties that its utter ruin * Speech on American Taxation. + Papers laid before Parliament, in "Parliamentary History," vol. xvi. 1766.] 'PARLIAMENT-DEBATES ON THE STAMP ACT. 279 was apprehended; and that several millions sterling, due to the merchants of Great Britain, were withheld by the colonists, on the plea that the taxes and restrictions laid upon them had rendered them unable to meet their engagements. Scarcely seeing a way out of the difficulties that surrounded them, the ministers, on the meeting of Parliament on the 14th of January, after the Christmas recess, laid the papers before the two Houses which "give any light into the origin, the progress, or the tendency, of the disturbances which have of late prevailed in some of the northern colonies." Such were the terms of the king's speech. His majesty said, that he had issued orders for the exertion of all the powers of government for the suppression of riots and tumults; and added, "Whatever remains to be done on this occasion I commit to your wisdom." A debate ensued in the Commons, which was reported by two members, and printed in Paris,-the Houses still strictly forbidding the publication of their proceedings. On that night Burke made his first speech in parliament; and Pitt, whose voice had not been heard for a year, delivered one of those orations which, however imperfectly recorded, give us a notion of that supremacy that, broken as he was in health, wrapped in flannels, and giving effect to his action with a crutch, he still, above all men, exercised over his contemporaries. In a letter which he wrote from Bath on the 9th, he said, "If I can crawl, or be carried, I will deliver my mind and heart upon the state of America.” What he then spoke was remembered and repeated as the great contest went on; and by none more diligently than by the colonists. He went with them to the full extent of denying the right of the British Legislature to impose taxes without representation. He touched upon great principles that extended beyond this question of taxing the American Colonies: "There is an idea in some that the Colonies are virtually represented in this House. I would fain know by whom an American is represented here? Is he represented by any knight of the shire, in any county in this kingdom? Would to God that respectable representation was augmented to a greater number! Or will you tell him that he is represented by any representative of a borough-a borough, which, perhaps, its own representative never saw. This is what is called 'the rotten part of the constitution.' It cannot continue the century; if it does not drop, it must be amputated. The idea of a virtual representation of America in this House is the most contemptible idea that ever entered into the head of a man; it does not deserve a serious refutation. The Commons of America, represented in their several Assemblies, have ever been in possession of the exercise of this, their constitutional right, of giving and granting their own money. They would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed it." Grenville replied to Pitt, and defended his Stamp Act: "When I proposed to tax America, I asked the House, if any gentleman would object to the right. I repeatedly asked it, and no man would attempt to deny it. Protection and obedience are reciprocal. Great Britain protects America; America is bound to yield obedience. If not, tell me when the Americans were emancipated? When they want the protection of this kingdom, they are always very ready to ask it. That protection has always been afforded them in the most full and ample manner. The nation has run itself into an immense debt to give them their protection: and now they are called upon to contribute a small share towards the public expense, an |