CHAP. XXXIII. 1790. State of parties. CHAPTER XXXIII. GEORGE III. (CONTINUED.)-1790. State of parties at the breaking out of the French revolution, &c.— Meeting of parliament-Difference of opinion regarding events in France between Burke, Fox, &c., leading to a grand schism of the whigs-Quarrel between Burke and Sheridan-Motion to repeal the corporation and test acts rejected-Part acted by the dissenters in general polity-Mr. Flood's motion for a reform in parliament withdrawn-Scheme of finance-State of East Indian finances-Sums voted for services and losses-Evidence heard on the slave trade-Mr. Hastings's trial-Affair of Nootkasound with the Spaniards-Session closes-Parliament dissolved -Affair of Nootka-sound adjusted-Comments on it in both houses Proposed manner of meeting the expenses-Continental affairs-State of parties in England-Death of Howard the philanthropist. WE are now approaching the most awful period in the annals of the world. Storms had been long gathering in the political horizon, destined to try the strength of every institution raised by man; vast evils had been let loose on society; and the spirit of French anarchy went forth to revolutionise the world. The ensuing contest will be on a scale immeasurably greater than all which preceded it: we shall see, not armies against armies, but kingdoms against kingdoms; not merely empires, but continents convulsed; so that former strifes and struggles, victories and defeats, will appear, by the comparison, like the play of children. The proceedings in France, which we have already narrated, could not fail to attract the anxious notice of other European states; especially those, to which emigrant nobles, who deserted their monarch in XXXIII. distress, had carried all their ancient prejudices and CHAP exasperated feelings. In England most persons beheld the phenomena with pleasure; but some looked on them with suspicion and jealousy; others with anxiety and alarm: the greater part of those who rejoiced, concluded that a change from the old system of despotism must be an improvement; and trusted that the alterations would produce a government in France, similar to that which they themselves enjoyed: thus the generous feelings of Englishmen sympathised with the assertors of liberty, before they had time and opportunity to ascertain its effects on the character and situation of its new votaries: even statesmen of high rank and talent presumed that French liberty would render the people happy; and, imputing the frequent aggressions of France on this and other nations to the corrupt ambition of her court, they anticipated tranquillity from her renovated state, and rejoiced at a change which promised peace to Europe. But it is not to be disguised, that this country contained also a class of discontented speculative men, who had long considered England herself deficient in the liberty which their fancy represented as agreeable to men's natural rights, even in a state of civilised society: these persons admired the French legislators, who took the pole star of reason for their guide, in preference to the narrow and despised forms of precedent or authority; and who made that principle the basis of government, instead of modifying it according to the rules of expediency: nor were there wanting men of profligate lives and broken fortunes, who had long discarded all moral and religious principle from their souls; a desperate faction, anxious for the overthrow of government and the confiscation of property; in whose minds crime changed its nature; plunder becoming justice, treason patriotism, and the denial of a God the perfection of human reason. At this alarming period, Englishmen experienced the blessing of an upright king and a virtuous aristocracy when monarchy was denounced by their neigh 1790. XXXIII. 1790. CHAP; bors, they could turn to its representative among themselves, and see a standard of excellence, round which all ranks might rally: they could see him too in the midst of a court, as far removed from the gloomy fanaticism of the Escurial, as it was from the splendid debaucheries of Versailles. This moral influence of the court was nobly aided by the vigor and policy of him who directed the helm of government. The wisdom of Mr. Pitt had removed the principal materials by which faction is norished: for while he exhibited a readiness to reform abuses, and to uphold the principles of civil liberty; his financial skill, and the great reform which he had carried through every branch of revenue and expenditure, so increased the public resources, that commerce, trade, and agriculture were all florishing; the burthens of the country were fast decreasing; and that immense debt which the late war had left, was in a fair way of being discharged. Up to this period, nay, up to that, when, impelled by external circumstances, he entered into war with republican France, and boldly linked the destinies of England with those of the continent, the character of Mr. Pitt will bear the strictest scrutiny; and it is grievous to think that its bright surface should afterwards have been stained by any unseemly spots. Surely, there must be something in the possession of power, which alters the nature of its possessor: otherwise, it is difficult to conceive, how the man, who began his ministerial career with such unflinching integrity, such a spirit of economy and reform; should have indulged in that reckless profusion of public money, the effects of which have since been so severely felt; that he should have relaxed in the prosecution of great principles, which he had formerly advocated with all the force of eloquence; that he should have employed the petty arts of parliamentary corruption, prostituted church patronage,1 overloaded About a month before the death of the bishop of Carlisle,' says bishop Watson, in his Autobiography, a relation of sir James Lowther had preached the commencement sermon at Cambridge. Mr. Pitt happened to sit next me at church, and asked me the name of the preacher, not much approving his performance: I told him, report said he was to be the next bishop of Carlisle; and I XXXIII. 1790. the country with placemen and sinecurists, and opened CHAP wide every channel of expenditure, for the purpose of securing that influence, which, being already based on a just and prudent policy, would certainly have been retained by the same independent line of conduct. Still, notwithstanding all this, when we reflect on the dangers from which the bold, energetic conduct of this minister rescued us at the out-breaking of the French revolution, and the policy by which he prepared the country to sustain a just and necessary war, the greatest ever waged by any nation, we must acknowlege that an immense debt of gratitude is due to the memory of Pitt. Parliament met on the twenty-first of January, Meeting of 1790: in the royal speech, his majesty only glanced parliament. at the affairs of the continent, by observing that they had engaged his serious attention: but lord Valletort, in moving the address, took occasion to contrast the tranquil and prosperous state of this country with the anarchy and licentiousness prevailing in France; and to stigmatise the revolution as the most disastrous and fatal event to French interests, that had ever taken place since the foundation of its monarchy: the applause with which these sentiments were received by the greater part of the house, sufficiently indicated the opinion entertained of the late transactions by a majority of British senators: the subject was resumed in the debates which took place on the fifth and ninth of February, relative to the army estimates; when a begged him to have some respect to the dignity of the bench, whenever a vacancy happened: he assured me that he knew nothing of such an arrangement. Within two months after this, sir James Lowther applied to Mr. Pitt for the bishopric of Carlisle, for the gentleman whom he had heard preach; and Mr. Pitt without the least hesitation promised it. This was one of the many transactions that gave me an unfavorable opinion of Mr. Pitt.-I saw that he was ready to sacrifice things the most sacred to the furtherance of his ambition.'-p. 189. One of Mr. Pitt's great errors was a neglect of the church, which was not brought properly into contact with the population that so rapidly increased under his administration. Not a single new church was erected during the time that the population was doubling itself: thus a vast body of dissenters grew up; and their rights, though resisted, could not be defeated. The great extent of dissent arose, in a great measure, from want of a better distribution of church property and preferment. It is rare,' says an eminent divine, to find a minister, who can have the magnanimity to divest himself of political considerations in the discharge of a sacred trust placed in his hands for the good of the church-the distribution of the ecclesiastical patronage of the crown.'-Dr. Valpy's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 373, note. XXXIII. 1790. CHAP new champion of established rights arose, to denounce the French revolution in its origin, its conduct, and its ultimate aim; to renounce even his political connexions and his dearest friends in support of his opinions; to carry on, while life lasted, an interminable war against jacobinical principles; and, by laying before his countrymen the horrors of democracy, with unwearied energy, and a matchless extent of knowlege, to bear an illustrious part in the work of national preservation. It is scarcely possible to set a greater value than they deserve on the services rendered by this highly-gifted man to his country; when factious demagogues hailed the progress of revolutionary fury as the march of reason; professing to see nothing but illumination in the firebrand which France was waying over all the thrones of Europe; and nothing but an enthusiastic devotion to liberty in clamors for the confiscation of property, and the blood of its possessors. While the external acts of this dangerous faction were coerced by Pitt's energetic policy, the contagion of its principles was forcibly arrested by those splendid productions that issued from the pen of Burke; in which his fancy laid all nature under tribute, collecting treasures from every scene of creation, and from every walk of art, to adorn his pages. But though candor impels us to acknowlege the superlative merit of these compositions, as adapted to the purpose for which they were written; truth obliges us to confess that they contain sentiments and principles opposed to general happiness and to constitutional liberty. When Mr. Burke, in his exclusive sympathy for the fallen throne and ruined aristocracy of France, had no commiseration left for the people who had suffered so many accumulated evils under the subverted government, he laid himself open to the just rebuke of Paine, who exclaimed in metaphorical language, the beauty of which has rarely been surpassed,He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird.' Again, when he asserted, that man completely abdicates and surrenders all his natural rights by entering into society; and that the only rights which he retains are created |