Chapter XVII: {george III. 1789–1791} (1)

The Election of Speaker..... The Question of the Regency
resumed..... Recovery of his Majesty..... Adoption of a
Plan for fortifying the West India Islands..... Bill for the
Commemoration of the People’s Rights, etc...... Shop Tax
repealed, etc...... Motion respecting the Corporation and
Test Acts, etc..... Slave-trade Question..... Election of
Speaker..... Pitt’s financial Measures..... Impeachment of
Warren Hastings..... Parliament prorogued..... Continental
Affairs..... State of Parties in England..... Meeting
of Parliament..... Debates on the Test and Corporation
Acts..... Mr. Flood’s Motion for Reform in Parliament.....
East India Affairs..... Pitt’s financial Statement,
etc...... The Slave-Trade Question..... Disputes with
Spain..... Impeachment of Warren Hastings..... Parliament
prorogued and dissolved..... Settlement of Disputes with
Spain..... Continental Affairs..... Progress of
revolutionary Principles in England..... War in India.....
Meeting of Parliament.

{A.D. 1789}

ELECTION OF SPEAKER.

Mr. Cornwall, the speaker of the house, having expired on the 2nd of January, business received a temporary interruption. On the 5th of that month William Wyndham Grenville was proposed as his successor by the friends of administration, and Sir Gilbert Elliot, by the Whigs. The former was chosen by a majority of two hundred and fifteen against one hundred and forty-four.

THE QUESTION OF THE REGENCY RESUMED.

On the day that the election of speaker took place, Pitt gave notice that he should, on the morrow, lay before the house the restrictions which he considered necessary to be annexed to the regency. Hitherto Fox had complained of Pitt’s tardiness in proposing a regency, but he now seemed resolved to impede the progress of the minister. He was well aware that Pitt was averse to bring the royal physicians to the bar of the house to give evidence, yet notwithstanding he resolved that they should be again there examined. On the very day that Pitt was to introduce the subject of the restrictions, therefore, urged by Fox, the member for Abingdon, Mr. Loveden, made a motion to that effect. In support of his motion, Mr. Loveden said, that before the house proceeded any further, they ought to know how the case now stood; what was the present state of his majesty’s health, what the degrees of alteration it had undergone since the physicians were last examined, and whether the probability of recovery was increasing or diminishing. This was the more necessary he said, because contradictory reports were in circulation, which were said to be supported by the different royal physicians. The reports unfavourable to the king’s recovery had been put forth by, or at least was imputed to Dr. Warren, whom Pitt, in reply, treated as a violent Whig and party man, whose wishes suggested his predictions. Pitt also plainly intimated that he conceived gentlemen on the opposite side, who were to form the new administration under the regency, wished the doctor’s opinion to be true. This insinuation was repelled by the opposition as unjust and illiberal, but in the same breath they acted as unjustly and illiberally, by falling upon Willis, the Tory doctor, and accusing him with uttering false oracles and predictions of amendment, which were merely meant to serve the purposes of Pitt and his party. But though Pitt at first opposed this measure, he ultimately acquiesced in its course, and a new committee of the house was appointed to re-examine all the physicians. This examination, which ought to have been brief, was prolonged by the frivolous questions of opposition members, and by frequent altercations, so that the report was not brought up before the 13th of January. As the committee had not examined into the grounds of the different opinions held by the physicians, Burke moved that the report should be recommitted; but this was negatived without a division, and it was ordered that it should be printed, and be taken into consideration, in a committee of the whole house, on the 16th of the month. On that day Pitt introduced his plan of a restricted regency. On the 30th of December Pitt had, in a letter, submitted to the Prince of Wales the heads of a plan arranged by the cabinet, and though the prince, acting under the influence of his advisers, had expressed his entire disapprobation of the plan, he nevertheless consented to undertake the regency with the proposed restrictions. What these restrictions were, Pitt now explained to the house. After expressing his great satisfaction at having consented to the re-examination of the physicians, the event of which had justified his sanguine expectations of the king’s recovery, he observed, that under these circumstances, what parliament had to provide for was, a deficiency in the executive government for an interval which he trusted would be brief, and against any embarrassment in the resumption of the royal authority, when his majesty should be able to resume that authority. This was all that was required, he said, for the present; but if contrary to expectations his majesty’s illness should be protracted, then a more permanent plan of government might be arranged. He moved, therefore, that the Prince of Wales should be invested with the whole regal authority, subject to certain necessary limitations. These limitations were, that his authority should not extend to the creation of new peers; that he should not grant any pension or place for life, other than such place as, from its nature, must by law be held for life, or during good behaviour: that he should not have any power over the personal property of the king; and that he should have nothing to do with his majesty’s person or household, which were to be left entirely to the guardianship of the queen. Pitt proposed that the queen should be assisted in the discharge of her duties by a council, which council were to have no power of control, but only that of giving advice, and satisfying themselves daily of the state of the king’s health. Pitt also proposed that they, the said council, or some others, should be appointed to manage the real and personal estate of the king, being bound at the same time not to alienate or dispose or any part of it, except by lease. These propositions were warmly advocated by Pitt and others on the same side of the house, and as warmly opposed by members on the opposite benches. Mr. Powys, after condemning the whole of Pitt’s plan, as tending to mutilate the constitutional authority, and after asserting that the heir-apparent ought to be invested with the full powers and prerogatives of the crown, moved an amendment to the first resolution, by which his royal highness would be appointed regent, “subject to such limitations and exceptions as might be provided.” This motion was seconded by Lord North, who endeavoured to show that the bestowing of the whole power and patronage of the household upon the queen, would be setting up a party at court in opposition to the administration of the regent. Sheridan followed on the same side, and was both witty and severe upon the abstraction of the household patronage from the regency, and endeavoured to show that Pitt wanted it for himself, when he could no longer hold his present high office! Colonel Fullarton also argued against the mutilation of the executive government, and not only attacked Pitt, but the queen herself. Pitt’s resolutions, however, were ably defended by the new speaker, Grenville, and on a division the amendment moved by Powys was lost by a majority of two hundred and twenty-seven against one hundred and fifty-four. All the resolutions were now carried except the last, and this, which referred to the care of the king’s person and household, was debated on the 19th of January, with, if possible, increased animosity. Two amendments were moved—one by Lord North and the other by Mr. Bouverie—but both were negatived by considerable majorities, and on the 22nd the resolutions were taken into consideration by the lords. The contest in the lords was even more obstinate than it had been in the commons, but an amendment, moved by Lord Sandwich, for limiting the time during which the regent should be restrained from creating peers, and another moved by Viscount Stormont, on the restriction placed upon the regent in regard to the granting of places, were negatived, and then all opposition ceased. A protest was signed by fifty-seven peers, among whom the Dukes of York and Cumberland were again numbered. But the storm was not yet over. Both the prince and his friends were irritated in the highest degree by the restrictions which Pitt imposed upon the regency; and though the former had privately expressed his acceptation of, or submission to the limitations, yet the latter were still resolutely bent upon opposing the premier. On the 27th of January, after recapitulating all the steps which had been taken, Pitt suggested that it would be respectful to the Prince of Wales, and expedient in the order of their proceedings, to know parliamentarily, whether he was willing to accept the regency upon the terms imposed by that house. Pitt moved that a committee should be appointed to wait upon his royal highness for that purpose, with the resolutions to which both lords and commons had agreed. On this occasion, the minister was accused by Mr. Gray and Burke, with treating the prince with marked disrespect; and the latter likewise taxed him with the design of converting the monarchy into a republic, with a regent, annually elected, nominally at its head. Against the regency bill he burst into a paroxysm of rage. He exclaimed, “It is a mere mummery, a piece of masquerade buffoonery, formed to burlesque every species of government. A hideous spectre, to which, with Macbeth, we may exclaim,—

‘Avaunt and quit my sight!
Let the earth hide thee.
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold:
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
That thou dost glare withal.’

“So it is with this ministerial, political spectre. ‘Its bones are marrowless, its blood is cold, and it has no speculation in its eyes.’ I reprobate it as a chimera, a monster summoned up from the depth of hell!” But all the arguments, and accusations, and rage of the opposition proved fruitless: Pitt’s motion was carried without a division, and ordered to be sent up to the lords for their concurrence. Pitt also moved for a similar committee to wait upon the queen, in order to ascertain whether her majesty would undertake the care of his majesty’s person, and the management and control of the household; and this likewise was carried _nem. con._, and ordered to be carried to the lords. The motion for the concurrence of their lordships to these resolutions was made by Lord Camden; and this being voted, committees were forthwith appointed for the purposes therein specified. One of the joint committees of lords and commons waited upon the Prince of Wales, at Carlton-house, on the 30th of January, the anniversary of the execution of Charles I., a day on which parliament never met for the despatch of business, but which was not considered too sacred for the execution of such an important commission. The reply of the prince was brief, and to the point. He thanked the lords and gentlemen for the communication of the resolutions agreed upon, and requested them to assure their respective houses, that his duty to the king, his father, and his concern for the safety and interests of the people, together with his respect for the united desires of the two houses, outweighed in his mind every other consideration, and determined him upon undertaking the weighty and important trust proposed to him. At the same time, while he accepted this trust, his royal highness took care to record what his opinions were respecting the restrictions imposed upon his regency. He remarked:—“I am sensible of the difficulties that must attend the execution of this trust, in the peculiar circumstances in which it is committed to my charge, of which, as I am acquainted with no former example, my hopes of a successful administration cannot be founded on any past experience. But confiding that the limitations on the exercise of the royal authority, deemed necessary for the present, have been approved by the two houses only as a temporary measure, founded on the loyal hope, in which I ardently anticipate, that his majesty’s disorder may not be of long duration; and trusting, in the meanwhile, that I shall receive a zealous and united support in the two houses and in the nation, proportioned to the difficulty attending the discharge of my trust; in the interval, I will entertain the pleasing hope that my faithful endeavours to preserve the interests of the king, his crown, and people, may be successful.” On the same day, a joint committee of lords and commons waited upon the queen at Kew Palace, and were assured by her majesty, that out of her duty and gratitude to the king, and from a sense of the great obligations she owed to this country, she would accept of the trust proposed to her by parliament, together with the council to aid her in the discharge of an office with which was connected, not only her own happiness, but also the happiness of a great, loyal, and affectionate people. The answers received from the Prince of Wales and the queen were read in the house of lords on the 31st; and after they were ordered to be printed, Lord Camden moved, in a committee of the house on the state of the nation, that letters patent should be issued, under the great seal, empowering certain commissioners to open and hold the king’s parliament at Westminister. Among the commissioners proposed by ministers were the names of the Prince of Wales, his brother, the Duke of York, and his uncles, the Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester. The duke of York, however, whose views entirely coincided with those of opposition, rose and said, that from want of knowledge, he had been unable to take any steps to prevent his nomination; and that, as he could not sanction such unconstitutional and illegal proceedings with his name, he desired that it might be omitted: he added, “and I am requested to make the same request on the part of my brother, the Prince of Wales.” The Duke of Cumberland, also, on the same grounds, desired that his own name, and the name of his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, should be struck out of the commission. A debate took place on the proper mode of withdrawing the names of these four personages, so as to convey no disrespect either to the house or to their royal highnesses; but it was finally settled that the names should still stand on the transcript, and that when the resolution was reported to the house, an amendment should be moved, to make it appear on the journals, that it was at the express desire of the several princes that their names were omitted. Camden’s motion was now passed without a division; and the resolution being communicated to the commons, at a conference on the 2nd of February, Pitt moved the concurrence of the house therein. Another stormy debate took place, in which Lord North and Burke strongly insisted on the right of the Prince of Wales to the regency, and in which Pitt as strongly denied that right; but no division took place, and the resolution of the lords was therefore carried. The session was now opened on the 3rd of February, and the bill founded on the propositions already agreed upon was brought in, and by the 13th of February passed the house. Every article of it was warmly contested on the same grounds as when the resolutions were discussed, and some amendments and variations were introduced; the peerage clause, in particular, being limited to three years. Thus altered, the bill was sent up to the lords; and on the 17th, their lordships, in committee, made two important additions to it: one placing all the palaces, parks, houses, gardens, &c., under the control and management of the queen; and the other committing to her the care of all the royal offspring under the age of twenty-one.

RECOVERY OF HIS MAJESTY.

The hopes of power and place which opposition had formed, and for the realization of which they had so stoutly contended, were suddenly dashed to the ground. While thus contending, it had been rumoured abroad that his majesty was fast recovering. This was essentially true; and Pitt had for some days been halting between two opinions, namely: whether he should proceed with, the regency-bill, or whether he should stop the proceedings. His opponents also had been perplexed as to the proper mode of procedure; whether to let the bill pass at once without opposition, and accept office, or to wait a little longer, and see whether there was any chance of retaining it. At length, however, all the perplexities by which both parties were surrounded were clean swept away. On the very day that the lords committed the bill, as sent up to them by the commons, it was publicly declared that the king was convalescent. This, no doubt, was a grievous disappointment to the Whig leaders, for it brought all their hopes and designs to a sudden termination. They had, however, only themselves to blame for this disappointment, inasmuch as they might, but for their opposition, have taken the reins of government into their hands two months ago. But hope now fled, and desire failed. On the 19th of February, Lord Chancellor Thurlow announced from the woolsack, in his peculiar sonorous tone of voice, that from the reports of the physicians, his majesty had been for some time in a state of convalescence; that the accounts just received conveyed the happy news that the improvement in his health was still progressive; and that, therefore, it would be indecorous to proceed in the present measures, he had no doubt, he said, that the house, participating in the general happiness of every man in the kingdom, would consider it necessary to wait a few days before they went further with the bill; and he therefore moved that their lordships should immediately adjourn to Tuesday next. In reply to Thurlow, the Duke of York remarked,—“I trust your lordships will do me the justice to believe that no person in the house could feel equal pleasure with myself from the favourable account which the noble lord on the woolsack has given, and the motion he has made to the house, in which I heartily concur. I should have had great satisfaction in making the same communication to the house, if I had been able to do it from certain information. I thought it my duty yesterday, upon the favourable reports given to the public, to request to be admitted to his majesty’s presence. From reasons very justifiable, no doubt, it was not thought proper that I should have that satisfaction. From the knowledge I have of my brother’s sentiments, though I have had no immediate communication with him upon the subject of this motion, I am convinced he will feel equal, if not greater, pleasure than myself at the hopes of his majesty’s recovery, as it must relieve him from the embarrassment of the situation in which this bill would have placed him, which nothing but a strong sense of his duty to the public would have induced him to undertake.” Thurlow’s proposed adjournment was agreed to, and the regency bill there stopped.

The conduct of the Irish parliament in this matter formed a striking contrast to that of the English. On receiving the intelligence of his majesty’s illness, a motion was made in the commons for presenting to the Prince of Wales an address, requesting him to assume the government of Ireland during the king’s incapacity, with the full powers of the executive branch. This motion, which was moved by Mr. Conolly and supported by Grattan, passed without a division, and was confirmed by the lords. The lord-lieutenant, the Marquess of Buckingham, late Earl Temple, refused to transmit this address to England; and commissioners were therefore appointed by both houses to present it in person to the Prince of Wales. These delegates arrived in England on the 25th of February, and on the following day they presented their address to the prince at Carlton-house. The recovery of his majesty, however, rendered the object of their commission nugatory: the prince returned his warmest thanks to the delegates, but acquainted them with the change which had taken place in the king’s health, and which, he said, he hoped, within a few days, would enable his majesty to resume the government. All that the commissioners, therefore, obtained for their pains and their loyalty were thanks and a splendid entertainment, at which the leaders of the prince’s party were present. Entertainments had, indeed, from the commencement of his majesty’s illness, been the order of the day at Carlton-house; the Saturday and Sunday of every week being set aside for that purpose; a mode of proceeding which brought great scandal on the prince and his party. The Whigs, by their recent conduct, in fact, rendered themselves unpopular in the eyes of the soberer part of the nation; and it may be questioned whether, if they had gained office under the regency-bill, they could have retained it for any lengthened period, even if his majesty had still been confined to Kew Palace as a maniac. The very city of London, which had once been the centre of opposition, was now on the side of Pitt and the king, and the feeling was universal throughout all England.

As the regency-bill had not passed, it was not deemed necessary to adhere to the method prescribed by it for announcing the king’s recovery and restoration to his royal capacity; the declaration in parliament, the bulletins of the physicians, and the suspension of those bulletins by royal order, were considered sufficient ground to enable his majesty to resume the functions of his office. Several adjournments of both houses took place subsequent to Lord Chancellor Thurlow’s announcement of his majesty’s recovery; but at length, on the 10th of March, a commission, under the great seal, was read to lords and commons, authorising the commissioners, previously appointed by letters patent for opening the parliament, to declare certain additional causes for holding the same. After the commission had been read, the lord chancellor observed, that his majesty being, by the blessing of Providence, recovered from his malady, had commanded the commissioners to convey to them his warmest acknowledgments for the proofs they had given of affection to his person, of zeal for the honour of his crown, and concern for the security and good government of his dominions. The commissioners were also ordered, he said, to acquaint the two houses that, since the close of the last session, his majesty had concluded a treaty of defensive alliance with the King of Prussia, and that he had endeavoured, during the last summer, to prevent the extension of hostilities in Europe. The house of commons was further informed, that the estimates of the current year would be forthwith laid before them. Addresses of congratulation were then passed both to the king and queen without a dissentient voice. On that night all London seemed one blaze of light; an illumination took place, such as that great capital had never witnessed before. This scene was renewed on the 23rd of April, which was appointed to be held as a day of public thanksgiving throughout the kingdom; and when his majesty went in grand procession to St. Paul’s Church, to return thanks to almighty God for his recovery. His majesty was attended on this occasion by the queen and royal family, the two houses of parliament, and all the great officers of state, judges, and foreign ambassadors. The procession entered the cathedral amidst the peal of organs and the voices of five thousand children of the city charity schools, who were placed between the pillars on both sides, and singing that old melody, the hundredth psalm. The king was much affected; and turning to the dean, near whom he was walking, he said with great emotion, “I now feel that I have been ill.” His emotion almost overpowered him; but recovering himself be proceeded to the chair, where the humility with which he at first knelt down, and the fervour with which he appeared to pour forth the feelings of a grateful heart, made a deep impression on all within the cathedral. By this affliction the personal popularity of the king greatly increased. It became the fashion to call him “the good old king,” and men loved to dwell upon his morals and his virtues. It would be difficult, indeed, to point out any period in the annals of English history when any monarch was so universally revered by his subjects. Nor did the steady, consistent, and constitutional conduct of the prime-minister remain unacknowledged. While his opponents, by the sentiments which they had uttered in the heat of debate on the regency-bill, had given great offence to the people at large, Pitt had risen greatly in their estimation. He had, also, the warmest approbation of his majesty for the part he had taken; for on more than one occasion he expressed the highest satisfaction of his conduct, and that of the majority in parliament, in regard to the regency question. His majesty also remarked, that his illness had eventually become a source of happiness to him, inasmuch as it proved how nobly the people would support him when he was in trouble.

ADOPTION OF A PLAN OF FORTIFYING THE WEST INDIAN ISLANDS.

The first subject that engaged the attention of parliament after his majesty’s recovery, was a plan, formed by the master-general of the ordnance, for the fortification of the West Indian Islands. This scheme was condemned by General Burgoyne, Sheridan, and other members of opposition; but on the 18th of March £218,000 was granted for that purpose.

BILL FOR THE COMMEMORATION OF THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS, ETC.

On the 24th of March Mr. Beaufoy moved for leave to bring in a bill “to establish a perpetual anniversary thanksgiving to Almighty God, for having, by the glorious revolution, delivered this nation from arbitrary power, and to commemorate annually the confirmation of the people’s rights.” It was argued in opposition to this bill, that the event was sufficiently commemorated in the form of prayer appointed for the 5th of November; but the house seemed to think otherwise, for the bill was not only brought in, but carried through all its stages, and sent up to the lords. In the lords, however, it met with a more successful opposition; for, on the motion of Bishop Bangor, who pointed out the several parts of the service of the 5th of November, which had been added and altered, for the purpose of commemorating the revolution, the bill was thrown out without being once read; a ceremony to which a bill proposed by a peer is considered as a matter of right, and which is usually accorded to any measure sent up to the lords by the commons, as a matter of courtesy.

SHOP-TAX REPEALED, ETC.

On the 3rd of April Fox renewed the attempts he had made, in several successive years, for the repeal of the shop-tax; and as Pitt did not now oppose him he was this time successful. Mr. Dempster also proposed and carried the abolition of the additional tax and restrictions which had been laid upon the hawkers and pedlars.

{GEORGE III. 1789–1791}

MOTION RESPECTING THE CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS, ETC.

On the 8th of May Mr. Beaufoy again moved the repeal of the corporation and test acts; being prompted thereto, he said, by the confidence which the dissenters reposed in the disposition of the house to do justice to the injured, and to afford relief to the oppressed. This motion was warmly supported by Fox, who laid it down as an axiom of policy, that no human government had any jurisdiction over opinions as such, and more especially over religious opinions. Fox supported this view by weighty arguments; but the motion was opposed by Pitt on the same ground as before; and on a division it was lost by one hundred and twenty-two against one hundred and two. On a subsequent clay, Lord Stanhope introduced a bill into the house of peers for relieving all nonconformists from the operation of the penal laws, and allowing them free exercise of their faith in preaching and writing; papists only being excepted on account of their persecuting spirit. Lord Stanhope denounced these penal laws as a disgrace to our statute-books; but the motion was opposed by Dr. Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the whole bench of bishops, as tending to unloose the bonds of society, by substituting fanaticism for religious order and subordination, by opening a door to licentiousness and contempt of Christianity, under pretence of religious liberty; and as destructive to the Church of England and the constitution, of which that church was a firm support. The bill was rejected on the second reading; and another, which was shortly after brought in by the same noble lord, to prevent suits in the ecclesiastical courts for the recovery of tithes, shared the same fate.

SLAVE-TRADE QUESTION.

Since the last session the privy-council had been employed in investigating facts concerning the slave-trade; and on the 12th of May an elaborate report was laid upon the table of the house of commons, together with petitions for and against that traffic. Mr. Wilberforce had recovered from his illness; and on his motion it was voted that the report, with the petitions, should immediately be taken into consideration by a committee of the whole house. In committee, Wilberforce moved twelve resolutions, condemnatory of the traffic and the barbarous treatment of the African slaves, which he enforced by a long and excellent speech; in which he considered the subject, first, on the question of humanity, and next, on that of policy. From the evidence before the council, it appeared that the number of slaves carried away annually from Africa, on an average of four years, amounted 38,000. These were chiefly brought from the interior of the country; and they consisted of four classes: prisoners taken in war; persons seized for debt or imputed crimes; domestic slaves, sold for the emolument of their masters; and persons seized by violence or fraud. Mr. Wilberforce showed that the trade thus carried on had a natural tendency to cause frequent and cruel wars; to produce unjust convictions and aggravated punishments for pretended crimes; to encourage fraud and oppression; and to obstruct the natural course of civilization and improvement. He also showed that an extensive commerce in articles peculiar to Africa and important to our manufactures, might be substituted for this inhuman traffic; a commerce which would at once equal the profits of the slave-trade, and would probably increase with the civilization that would follow its abolition. The orator dwelt very forcibly on the grievous sufferings which the slaves endured on the passage from Africa to the West Indies, and the horrid treatment they received on their arrival. He also dwelt emphatically on the dissoluteness and other causes which prevailed among them in the West Indies, and which prevented the natural increase of population among them; arguing, that if the causes which had hitherto obstructed the natural increase of negroes in our plantations, and if good regulations were established among them, there would be no need of an annual importation from Africa. At all events, he said, a trade founded in iniquity, and carried on with so many circumstances of horror, must be abolished, let its policy be what it will. The wickedness of the trade was so enormous, so dreadful, and irremediable; that he could stop at no alternative short of its abolition. His mind had been harassed with the objections of the West India planters, who had asserted that the ruin of their property would be involved in such a step; but he could not help distrusting their arguments; he could not believe that the Almighty, who forbade the practice of rapine and blood, had made rapine and blood necessary to any part of his creation. He felt a confidence in that persuasion; he took the resolution to act on it, and light soon broke in upon his mind; his suspicion was daily confirmed by increasing information; and the evidence he had now to offer on this point was decisive and complete. He was prepared to prove that the number of negroes in our colonies might be kept up without the introduction of slaves from Africa. He added, in a fine spirit of Christian philanthropy:—“Let us then make such amends as we can for the mischief we have clone to that unhappy continent; let us put an end at once to this inhuman traffic, and stop this effusion of human blood. The true way to virtue is to avoid temptation; let us, therefore, withdraw from these wretched Africans those temptations to fraud, violence, cruelty, and injustice which the slave-trade furnishes. Wherever the sun shines let us go round the world with him, diffusing our beneficence; but let us not traffic only that we may set kings against their subjects, and subjects against their kings, sowing discord in every village, fear and terror in every family, urging millions of our fellow-creatures to hunt each other for slaves, creating fairs and markets for human flesh through one whole continent of the world, and, under the name of policy, concealing from ourselves all the base iniquity of such a traffic.” Mr. Pitt expressed his warm approbation of the manner in which the subject had been brought before the house, and confessed that the slave-trade must be abolished: and he consented that the resolutions should be entered on the journals; conceiving that such a step might produce the effect of causing foreign nations to concur with England in the proposed abolition. Fox and Burke also applauded the orator; the latter declaring that not only England, but all Europe was indebted to him for exposing the iniquity of a trade “which began with savage war, was prosecuted with unheard-of cruelty, continued, during the middle passage, with the most loathsome imprisonment, and ended in perpetual exile and unremitting slavery.” The feeling of the house and the nation at large was so manifestly, at this period, in favour of the abolition of the slave-trade, that Lord Penryn, one of its advocates, asserted that, to his knowledge, the planters were now willing to assent to any regulation of the trade short of its abolition; to which remark Fox replied, with much animation, that he knew nothing of such a thing as a regulation of robbery and restriction of murder; there was no medium; the legislature must either abolish the trade, or plead guilty to all the iniquity with which it was attended. Finally, Pitt conceded, with the consent of Mr. Wilberforce, to the examination of witnesses on the part of the slave-merchants and planters, trusting that unnecessary delays would not be introduced, as he could not submit to the ultimate procrastination of so important a measure. Evidence was heard at the bar for several successive weeks; and the session being far advanced, the friends of abolition consented, on the 23rd of June, to an adjournment of the question to the succeeding session of parliament. Before this session was closed, however, the temporary regulation act of Sir William Dolben was renewed till August, 1790.

ELECTION OF SPEAKER.

Early in June Lord Sidney resigned the office of secretary of state for the home department; and Mr. Grenville, who had so recently been nominated speaker of the house of commons, obtained the appointment. Sir Gilbert Elliot again became a candidate for the vacant chair; but the ministerial nominee, Mr. Henry Addington, was elected by a majority of two hundred and fifteen against one hundred and forty-two.

PITTS FINANCIAL MEASURES.

On the 10th of June, Pitt opened his financial scheme for the year. In doing so, he congratulated the house and the country on the fact, that his hopes of the efficacy of the sinking-fund, etc. had been well founded. The permanent income declared necessary by the committee of 1786 to defray the annual demands, was £15,500,000; and for the last two years it had exceeded that sum by £78,000. As, however, there had been several extraordinary expenses, such as paying the debts of the Prince of Wales, fitting out the armament of the summer of 1787, &c., he stated that it was necessary to raise one million by loan, and to increase some taxes or duties to pay the interest of this loan. The new duties which he proposed were laid upon newspapers, advertisements, cards, dice, probates of wills, and horses and carriages, none of which, he conceived, would press at all on the poor, or heavily upon the rich. To increase the revenue by further prevention of fraud, Pitt introduced and carried a bill for transferring the duties on tobacco from the customs to the excise; it having appeared, on inquiry, that one half of this article, which would have produced a revenue of nearly £300,000, was obtained by smuggling. Sheridan again controverted the statements of Pitt; and on the 10th of July he moved, “that a committee be appointed to inquire into the state of the public income and expenditure; into the progress actually made in the reduction of the national debt since the year 1786; and into the grounds on which a reduction of the same may be expected in future, and to report the same, with their observations thereon, to the house.” Sheridan pledged himself to prove that the report of the committee of 1786 was not founded in fact; and that for the last three years the expenditure had increased to the amount of £200,000. A long debate took place on this motion; but it was negatived without a division, as was also a motion to the same effect, moved in the upper house by Lord Rawdon.

IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.

The trial of Warren Hastings was revived early in this session; but from the occupation produced by the regency-bill and by the recovery of the king, it proceeded but slowly. It was, in fact, the 20th of April before their lordships resumed their sitting in the hall; and from the nature of the business which subsequently occupied their attention, they could then only sit seventeen days. The third article was opened on the 21st by Burke, which article related to the corrupt receipt of money. In his speech Burke alluded to Nuncomar, and indiscreetly said, that Hastings had murdered him by the hands of Sir Elijah Impey. As Impey had been acquitted by the house of commons, and as the transaction respecting Nuncomar made no part of the charges contained in the articles, Hastings thought proper to present a petition to the commons, in which he entreated them either to cause this, and similar allegations made by his accuser, to be prosecuted in distinct articles, or to afford him such redress as they should think proper. This petition was strongly supported by Major Scott, who presented it, and who accused Burke of being guilty of cool, deliberate, systematic, and intentional misrepresentation, and of imputing to Hastings crimes of which he knew him to be innocent. In reply, Burke called Major Scott the systematic libeller of the house of commons; and he, with his friends, endeavoured to prevent the petition from being received; contending that it was irregular and unprecedented, and that if every expression, not agreeable to the feelings of the party accused, were not fit to be used in a criminal prosecution, there must be an end to such prosecution. Pitt, on the other hand, gave his cordial support to the petition, as far as regarded the business of Nuncomar; and after a long debate, the house resolved “that no authority had been given by the house for the purpose of making any criminal charge respecting Nuncomar; and that the words complained of ought not to have been spoken.” Subsequently, a resolution of censure on the conduct of Burke was moved by the Marquess Of Graham; and, though strenuously opposed by Fox and the other managers, it was carried by a majority of one hundred and thirty-live against sixty-six. In the meantime the trial went on languidly. Legal doubts and difficulties were constantly suggested by the counsel for the prisoner, and time was frittered away in their consideration by the peers; and before this single charge could be settled, their lordships decided to postpone the trial to the first Tuesday in the next session of parliament. These delays caused great vexation both to the accused and the accusers. Hastings, indeed, declared that if he had foreseen such an interminable process, he would rather have pleaded guilty at the commencement of the process; and that, if he had done so, he should have been a gainer as regards money. Early in the session, in fact, Hastings had presented a petition to the lords, complaining of the great hardship to which the duration of the trial subjected him; mentioning the death of several of his judges, the long detention of witnesses necessary for his defence, the probability of his being deprived of many of them by various accidents; and reminding their lordships of the shattered state of his own health, and that his cost had been so great, that, even if his life should be spared to the end of the trial, he might become destitute of the means of defence, and thereby run the fearful chance of having his character blasted by unrefuted criminations; there being no hope of defending himself effectually without money. On the other hand, Burke and the managers complained of the delays as tending to favour the accused. On one occasion, when their lordships, after long consideration in their own chamber—whither they almost invariably retired to solve all doubt and difficulties—decided that certain evidence taken out of the minutes at Calcutta should not be admitted, he exclaimed, with impassioned vehemence:—“Plunder on; the laws intended to restrain you are mere scarecrows. Accumulate wealth by any means, however illegal, profligate, infamous. You are sure of impunity; for the natives of India are, by their religion, debarred from appearing against you out of their own country; and circumstantial evidence will not be received.” But neither the complaints of the accused nor the accusers quickened the proceedings of the peers. They still walked leisurely from the hall to their chamber, and from their chamber to the hall, whence it was jocosely said by Lord Stanhope, that “the judges walked, but the trial stood still.”

PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.

Parliament was prorogued by commission—the king-having gone to Weymouth for his health—on the 11th of August. The speech was delivered by the lord chancellor, in his majesty’s name; and in it his lordship observed, that, although the good offices of the king and his allies had not been effectual for the restoration of general tranquillity, yet the situation of affairs abroad continued to promise to this country the uninterrupted enjoyment of the blessing of peace. But this view of the state of Europe was superficial: in reality it promised nothing but strife and bloodshed. This will be manifested in the next section.

CONTINENTAL AFFAIRS.

At this period war and anarchy were disturbing a large portion of the continent. In the preceding year, Gustavus, King of Sweden, offended at the intrigues of Russian emissaries; jealous of the extended power of the Czarina Catherine; and anxious to recover the territories which had been wrested from his predecessors, had commenced a war with Russia. Gustavus was aided by a subsidy from the Turkish Sultan, who was at war with Russia, and he entertained hopes of assistance from Great Britain and Prussia. The Danes were engaged by treaty to assist the Russians, and fearing the result of this alliance, the courts of Great Britain and Prussia, without engaging directly in the contest, encouraged diversions both in Poland and Sweden. But Gustavus had enemies in his own dominions. His nobles had never forgiven him for overthrowing their unbounded power, in 1772, and the war against Russia, which he began without the assent of the states, was the signal for revolt. Many of these nobles were superior officers in the Swedish army, and they conspired against the king; and, declaring that the war undertaken was contrary to the constitution, they sent deputies to St. Petersburgh, in order to negociate an armistice, which was effected. At the same time a Danish army invaded Sweden and menaced Gothenburg. The situation of Gustavus was a critical one, but he was delivered from all danger by his high courage, and the good offices of the courts of England and Prussia. These courts, having in vain offered their mediation between those of Petersburg and Stockholm, so effectually intimidated the Prince of Denmark, who governed the state for his incapable father, that he promised to abstain from all hostilities. Gustavus now convoked a diet at Stockholm, in which an act of union and security was proposed and adopted by the three lower orders of the assembly; which act gave him unlimited power, and invested him with the right of waging war without the consent of the states; made all classes of society equal in rights of property and security, and all places and offices accessible to the citizens; and established colleges of government, responsible to the king, instead of the senate of the kingdom, whose authority had been independent. The aristocratic senate of Stockholm, which had been abridged of its powers in the revolution of 1772, was now entirely suppressed, and while many of the members were arrested and thrown into prison, others fled to St. Petersburgh, where they lived under the protection of the czarina. Gustavus now hastened back to his banners on the Russian boundary, and in the course of this year, 1789, several severe and bloody actions took place, in most of which he was victorious. Towards the close of the campaign, however, while in Russian Finland, his galley-fleet, which moved along shore and co-operated with his army, was defeated by a more numerous galley-fleet belonging to the czarina, and having lost many of his best troops, he was compelled to evacuate the Russian territories and retreat across his own frontier. After this both armies went into winter-quarters.

In the meantime, notwithstanding the exertions made both by England and Prussia to restore peace, war continued between the imperial courts of Austria, Russia, and the Porte. Early in this year’s campaign, the Austrians overran the greater part of Wallachia, and Moldavia, and the Prince of Saxe Cobourg, who commanded them, being joined by the Russians under Suvaroff, gained a great victory over the grand army of the Turks at Martinitzi. Subsequently, Belgrade was captured by the Austrians, and on the northern frontier the Russian General Potemkin defeated another Turkish army, at a place called Tabac, not far from the town of Bender. Flushed with victory Potemkin sat down before Bender, but though the garrison was a small one, and the fortifications contemptible, it was not captured till its walls were utterly demolished. Before winter set in the Russians captured several places on the shores of the Black Sea, and others on the Dniester and the Danube. They had, indeed, reduced almost every important place between the Danube and the Bog and Dnieper. On the other hand, the Turkish fleet defeated the czarina’s flotilla or flotillas, on the Black Sea, and successfully checked the Austrians, who after the reduction of Belgrade, undertook the siege of Orsova.

Commotions every where prevailed. While the Austrian emperor was prosecuting victories and conquests from which he could not hope to derive any permanent advantages, he contrived to alienate from himself the affections of the people of the Netherlands. This people consisted of independent states, resembling each other in manner, character, and constitution of government; their polity being composed of three orders, clergy, nobles, and people, under the limited principality of one personage, denominated Count. The Netherlander had shown an heroic devotion to his mother, Maria Theresa, and were warmly attached to his own person. Animated, however, by a restless spirit of innovation, he dared to interfere with their ancient privileges and religion—two objects of which they were particularly tenacious—and thus created a spirit of disaffection throughout all the Low Countries. Under the plea of reform he made innovations in their ecclesiastical establishments; suppressed the most venerated judicial institutions; appointed new and despotic tribunals; subverted the legislature, by abrogating the power of the assembly of states, and instituted a general government, with a court minister at its head; and finally attacked the clerical order, by overthrowing those institutions which were the very nursery of its priesthood. These sacrilegious acts roused the choler of the people; open rebellion was the natural result; and the people were victorious. The imperial troops committed many excesses throughout the Low Countries, and dyed their swords in blood; but the Netherlander, strong in the justice of their cause, finally triumphed. By the close of this year the Flemings, the States of Brabant, and all the other provinces, with the exception of Luxembourg, completely established their independence.

It seems clear that the revolt of the Netherlander did not arise from that democratic spirit which everywhere prevailed at this period, but from the rapacity and usurpations of the Austrian emperor. It is dangerous to touch ancient constitutions, and still more dangerous to lay violent hands upon venerated religious establishments. But while the Netherlander may be acquitted of being inflamed with the fierce passions of democracy in their struggle with the Emperor of Austria, as much cannot be said of other people and nations. At this time, indeed, a party existed in most countries, whose aim was to overturn the existing order of things, of which the efforts at revolution in several small states, such as Aix-la-Chapelle and Geneva may be cited as examples. These were so many instances of the democratic spirit which now prevailed; but they sink into insignificance when compared with the commotion which had commenced in France.

Incidental mention has been made of the financial embarrassments of the court of France; embarrassments which were in a great measure induced by the impolitic interference of that court in the dispute between England and her American colonies. Such was the deplorable condition of the French treasury in 1780, that a national bankruptcy was only avoided by the issue of paper money, which by a royal edict was enforced on the people, who were enjoined to receive it as gold or silver. Added to this a scarcity was threatened, and many of the people were actually perishing for want of bread. The prime minister, Necker, who was at the head of the French government during the American war, had incurred the hatred of the court party, and had been compelled, in 1781, to leave the kingdom. His successors were first Calonne, and then Brienne, both of whom failed to deliver the nation from its distresses. In 1788, therefore, Necker was recalled, and placed anew at the head of the finances, and also admitted to the council of state. Necker was at this time the hope of the nation, but there was no man in existence who could effect its salvation. Urged by the people, one of the first measures of Necker was to procure an order of council for the assembling of the States-general, which it was thought, could alone rescue the nation from impending ruin. The meeting of the States-general would probably have been attended with no ill effects, had it been constituted as in ancient times. Instead, however, of there being an equal number of nobles, clergy, and commons convoked, Necker unfortunately prevailed upon the king to summon six hundred of the commons, making that body numerically equal to the other two estates, and therefore capable of successfully opposing their measures. This was fatal to the peace of the nation, for the mass of the people of France, from among whom the commons were convoked, were rampant for a change in the existing order of things—were revolutionists at heart. The factious spirit which prevailed among them was discovered at the very opening of the States-general, which took place on the 5th of May, 1789, at Versailles. After the king had delivered a speech, in which he expressed a hope that it would communicate new vigour to the nation, re-establish public credit, and open additional sources of happiness, a question arose, “Should votes be taken by order, as heretofore, or by head?” This provoked the parties to combat, and the commons prevailed: the votes were to be taken by head. This clearly gave the preponderance to the commons, or third estate, since their number was equal to that of the nobles and clergy and they might expect some adherents from both those parties. Within six weeks, indeed, the third estate being strengthened by a part of the lower clergy, upon the motion of the Abbé Sieyes, declared themselves the national assembly. This was a great step, and the first imposing phenomenon of the new order of things. It caused great joy among the people, great movements among the nobility and the clergy, and great consternation at court.