accession of george iii.—his conduct—ascendency of bute—meeting of parliament—enthusiastic reception of the king's speech—bute's cabals—hostility to pitt—ministerial changes—marriage of the king—queen charlotte—misfortunes of frederick—ferdinand of brunswick's campaign—defeat of the french in the east and west indies—negotiations for peace—pitt's large demands—obstinacy of choiseul—the family compact suspected—resignation of pitt—bute's ministry—war with spain—abandonment of frederick—policy of the new czar—resignation of newcastle—bute at the head of the treasury—successes in the west indies—capture of manila—bute's eagerness for peace—the terms—bute's unpopularity—close of the seven years' war—successes of clive—defeat of the dutch in india—final overthrow of the french in india—fate of the count de lally—bute and the princess of wales—the cider tax—bute's vengeance—his resignation—george grenville in office—no. 45 of the north briton—arrest of wilkes—his acquittal—vengeance against him—the king negotiates with pitt—wilkes's affairs in parliament—the wilkes riots—the question of privilege—the illegality of general warrants declared—wilkes expelled the house—debates on general warrants—rejoicing in the city of london.
george iii., at the time of the sudden death of his grandfather, was in his twenty-second year. the day of the late king's death and the following night were spent in secret arrangements, and the next morning george presented himself before his mother, the princess-dowager, at carlton house, where he met his council, and was then formally proclaimed. this was on the 26th of october, 1760.
the conduct of the young king, considering his shyness and the defects of his education, was, during the first days of his sudden elevation, calm, courteous, affable, and unembarrassed. "he behaved throughout," says horace walpole, "with the greatest propriety, dignity, and decency." he dismissed his guards to attend on the body of his grandfather. but it was soon seen that there would be great changes in his government. pitt waited on him with the sketch of an address to his council; but the king informed him that this had been thought of, and an address already prepared. this was sufficient for pitt; he had long been satisfied that the favourite of mother and son, the groom of the stole, and the inseparable companion, bute, would, on the accession of george, mount into the premiership.
on the morning of monday, the 28th, the king's brother, edward, duke of york, and lord bute were sworn members of the privy council. it was obvious that bute was to be quite in the ascendant, and the observant courtiers paid instant homage to the man through whom all good things were to flow. the king declared himself, however, highly satisfied with his present cabinet, and announced that he wished no changes. a handbill soon appeared on the walls of the royal exchange expressing the public apprehension: "no petticoat government—no scotch favourite—no lord george sackville!" bute had always championed lord george, who was so bold in society and so backward in the field; and the public now imagined that they would have a governing clique of the king's mother, her favourite, bute, and his favourite, lord george.
parliament, which had been prorogued for a few days on account of the demise of the king, assembled on the 18th of november. the king delivered a speech, composed by lord hardwicke, and revised by pitt, and containing a passage, said to be inserted by himself, as follows:—"born and educated in this country, i glory in the name of briton!" in the addresses these words produced the most enthusiastic responses. "what a lustre," exclaimed the lords, "doth it cast upon the name of briton, when you, sir, are pleased to esteem it amongst your glories!" for the rest, the speech expressed the royal determination to prosecute the war with all vigour; praised the magnanimity and perseverance of his good brother, the king of prussia; and recommended unanimity of action and opinion in parliament. nothing could appear more unanimous or more liberal than parliament.
but the smoothness was only on the surface—beneath were working the strongest political animosities and the most selfish desires. the little knot of aristocratic families which had so long monopolised all the sweets of office, now saw with indignation tribes of aspirants crowding in for a share of the good things. the aspirants filled the ante-chamber of bute, the angry and disappointed resorted to newcastle, who was in a continual state of agitation by seeing appointments given to new men without his knowledge; members rushing in to offer their support to government at the next election, who had[169] hitherto stood aloof, and were now received and encouraged.
great seal of george iii.
meanwhile, bute was sedulously at work to clear the way for his own assumption, not merely of office, but of the whole power of the government. he acted as already the only medium of communication with the king, and the depositary of his secrets. he opened his views cautiously to bubb dodington, who was a confidant of the lichfield house party, and still hungering after a title. dodington advised him to induce lord holderness to resign and take his place, which, at first, bute affected to disapprove of, but eventually acted upon. the first object was to get rid of pitt, who, by his talents and haughty independence of manner, was not more acceptable to the king and his counsellor, bute, than by his policy, which they desired to abandon. pamphlets were therefore assiduously circulated, endeavouring to represent pitt as insatiable for war, and war as having been already too burdensome for the nation.
on the 21st of march parliament was dissolved by proclamation, and the same day the gazette announced several of the changes determined on in the ministry. the duke of bedford retired from the lord-lieutenancy of ireland, and his place was taken by the earl of halifax. legge, who was considered too much in the interest of pitt, was dismissed, and lord barrington now took his place of chancellor of the exchequer. charles townshend took barrington's former office, and sir francis dashwood became treasurer of the chambers in room of townshend. both townshend and dashwood had gone over to the party of bute. lord holderness was now made to do what dodington had before suggested; he resigned his office of secretary of state, and in due course bute was gazetted as appointed to that post. no notice of this change had been communicated to pitt, the other and chief secretary, till it took place.
on the 8th of july an extraordinary privy council was summoned. all the members, of whatever party, were desired to attend, and many were the speculations as to the object of their meeting. the general notion was that it involved the continuing or the ending of the war. it turned out to be for the announcement of the king's intended marriage. the lady selected was charlotte, the second sister of the duke of mecklenburg-strelitz. apart from the narrowness of her education, the young princess had a considerable amount of amiability, good sense, and domestic taste. these she shared with her intended husband, and whilst they made the royal couple always retiring, at the same time they caused them to give, during their lives, a moral air to their court. on the 8th of september charlotte arrived at st. james's, and that afternoon the marriage took place, the ceremony being performed by the archbishop of canterbury. on the 22nd the coronation took place with the greatest splendour.
we must now step back a little to observe the war on the continent from the opening of the present campaign. frederick of prussia lay encamped during the winter in silesia, surrounded by difficulties and enemies. his resources both in[170] money and men appeared well nigh exhausted. the end of autumn, 1760, brought him the news of the death of george ii., and, from what he could learn of the disposition of his successor and his chief advisers, it was certain that peace would be attempted by england. this depressing intelligence was confirmed in december by the british parliament indeed voting again his usual subsidy, but reluctantly, and he found it paid with still more reluctance and delay. whilst thus menaced with the total loss of the funds by which he carried on the war, he saw, as the spring approached, the russians and austrians advancing against him with more than double his own forces. disasters soon overtook him. the capture of schweidnitz enabled the austrians to winter in silesia, which they had never yet done during the war; and the russians also found, to their great satisfaction, on arriving in pomerania, that they could winter in colberg. the russian division under romanzow had besieged colberg both by land and sea, and, despite the attempts of the prussians sent by frederick to relieve it, it had been compelled to surrender. in these discouraging circumstances frederick took up his winter quarters at breslau. his affairs never wore a darker aspect. he was out-generaled and more discomfited this campaign than by a great battle. his enemies lay near in augmented strength of position, and his resources had ominously decreased.
the campaign against the french was opened in february by prince ferdinand of brunswick attacking the duke de broglie, and driving him out of cassel. prince ferdinand followed up this advantage by attacking them in marburg and g?ttingen, and applied himself particularly to the siege of cassel. but broglie, now recovered from his surprise, first defeated the hereditary prince of brunswick, ferdinand's nephew, at stangerode, and then repulsed ferdinand himself from cassel.
the destruction of the french magazines delayed their operations till midsummer, when broglie advanced from cassel, and the prince soubise from the rhine, to give ferdinand battle. on the march they fell in with sporken, and this time defeated one of his posts, and took nineteen pieces of cannon and eight hundred prisoners. the allies awaited them in front of the river lippe, and between that river and the aest, near the village of kirch-denkern. the french were routed at all points, having lost, according to the allies, five thousand men, whilst they themselves had only lost one thousand five hundred. the effect of the victory, however, was small.
if the french had been by no means successful in germany, they had been much less so in other quarters of the globe. in the east indies we had taken pondicherry, their chief settlement, from them, and thus remained masters of the whole coast of coromandel, and of the entire trade with india. in the west indies, the french had been fortifying dominica, contrary to treaty, and lord rollo and sir james douglas were sent thither, and speedily reduced it. france, indeed, was now fast sinking in exhaustion. louis xv. was a man of no mark or ability, inclined to peace, and leaving all affairs to his ministers, and still more to his mistress, madame de pompadour. choiseul was a man of talent, but of immense vanity, and little persistent firmness. he was now anxious for peace, but, too proud to make the proposal directly, he induced the courts of russia and austria to do it. it was suggested that a congress should be held at augsburg for settling the peace of europe. england and prussia readily consented. but the duke of choiseul, anxious to have a clear understanding of the terms on which england and france were likely to treat, proposed a previous exchange of views, and dispatched m. bussy to london, whilst mr. pitt sent to paris mr. hans stanley.
choiseul made, undoubtedly, a large offer for peace. it was that each power should retain all such of its conquests as should be in its hands, subject to exchanges and equivalents, in europe, on the 1st of may next; in america, the west indies, and africa, on the 1st of july; and in the east indies on the 1st of september. but pitt had declared that he would never make another peace of utrecht. he considered that we had france down, and he determined to retain everything of value. he therefore replied that the proper period for the principle of the treaty to take place was that on which the treaty was really signed, that it might so happen that it would not be signed at the dates named, and he did this in order to complete a scheme, which he had already nearly accomplished, that of seizing on belleisle, an island on the coast of france. it surrendered in july, and the news of this loss was speedily followed in paris by that of the loss of dominica in the west, and of pondicherry in the east indies.
these reverses were calculated to make france more compliant; yet pitt was astonished to find,[171] instead of compliance, a great spirit of resistance. choiseul would by no means admit that belleisle was an equivalent for minorca. he demanded guadeloupe and belleisle too, simply in lieu of the french conquests in germany. he now demurred to the surrender of cape breton, or in any case to forego the right of fishing along its coasts. he was not content with amaboo or acra; he demanded senegal or goree. he declined also to destroy the fortifications of dunkirk, raised in contempt of the treaty of utrecht. all captures made at sea previous to the declaration of war must be restored; and in germany, though he was willing to withdraw the french troops, it was only on condition that the troops commanded by prince ferdinand should not reinforce the prussian army.
the secret of this wonderfully augmented boldness of tone on the part of france soon transpired. choiseul had been endeavouring to secure the alliance of spain, and saw himself about to succeed. spain was smarting under many losses and humiliations from the english during the late war. whilst general wall, the spanish minister at madrid, urged these complaints on the earl of bristol, our ambassador there, choiseul was dexterously inflaming the minds of the spanish court against britain on these grounds. he represented it as the universal tyrant of the seas, and the sworn enemy of every other maritime state. he offered to assist in the recovery of gibraltar, and to make over minorca to spain. by these means he induced spain to go into what became the celebrated family compact—that is, a compact by which france and spain bound themselves to mutually succour and support each other; and to admit the king of naples, the son of the spanish king, to this compact, but no prince or potentate whatever, except he were of the house of bourbon.
besides the general compact, there was a particular one, which engaged that, should england and france remain at war on the 1st of may, 1762, spain should on that day declare war against england, and should at the same time receive possession of minorca. the existence of these compacts was kept with all possible secrecy; but mr. stanley penetrated to a knowledge of them in paris, and his information was fully confirmed from other sources. if these, however, had left any doubt, it would have been expelled by the receipt of a french memorial through m. bussy, to which a second memorial on spanish affairs was appended. pitt received the proposition with a tone of indignation that made it manifest that he would suffer no such interference of a third party—would not yield a step to any such alliance. he declared, in broad and plain terms, that his majesty would not permit the affairs of spain to be introduced by france; that he would never suffer france to presume to meddle in any affairs between himself and spain, and that he should consider any further mention of such matters as a direct affront. a similar message was dispatched to the earl of bristol in spain, declaring that england was open to any proposals of negotiation from spain, but not through the medium of france. this was, in fact, tantamount to a defiance to both france and spain, and would undoubtedly have put an end to all further negotiation had there not been a purpose to serve. the spanish treasure ships were yet out at sea on their way home. any symptoms of hostility would insure their capture by the british, and cut off the very means of maintaining a war. general wall, therefore, concealed all appearance of chagrin; admitted that the memorial had been presented by france with the full consent of his catholic majesty, but professed the most sincere desire for the continuance of peaceful relations.
pitt was not for a moment deceived, and in august the family compact was signed. he broke off the negotiation, recalled stanley from paris, dismissed bussy from london, and advised an immediate declaration of war against spain, whilst it was yet in our power to seize the treasure ships. but there was but one pitt—one great mind capable of grasping the affairs of a nation, and of seizing on the deciding circumstances with the promptness essential to effect. the usually timid newcastle became suddenly courageous with alarm. bute pronounced pitt's proposal as "rash and unadvisable;" the king, obstinate as was his tendency, declared that, if his ministers had yielded to such a policy, he would not; and pitt, having laboured in vain to move this stolid mass of ministerial imbecility through three cabinet councils, at last, in the beginning of october, declared that, as he was called to the ministry by the people, and held himself responsible to them, he would no longer occupy a position the duties of which he was not able to discharge. on the 5th he resigned, and his great ministry came to an end.
the bute ministry was now in power, and determined on reversing the policy of pitt—policy which had added so magnificently to the territory[172] and glory of the country. bute had now to seek powerful connections to enable him to carry on. the commonplace man seeks to make up for his feebleness by associating with him, not men of merit, but men of aristocratic connection. for this reason he conferred the privy seal on the duke of bedford, and the seal of secretary on the earl of egremont. to break the force of popular indignation for the loss of pitt from the helm—for the people knew who was the great man and successful minister well enough—the king was advised to confer some distinguished mark of favour on pitt. he was offered the government of canada as a sinecure, with five thousand pounds a year. pitt was not the man to undertake a highly responsible office without discharging the duties, and he was next offered the chancellorship of the duchy of lancaster; but he preferred a simple pension of three thousand pounds a-year, and that a title should be conferred on his wife. by this arrangement he was left in the house of commons, and in a position to continue his exertions for the country. both these suggestions were complied with.
ministers were soon compelled to pursue the policy which pitt had so successfully inaugurated. with all the determination of lord bute and his colleagues to make a speedy peace, they found it impossible. the family compact between france and spain was already signed; and in various quarters of the world pitt's plans were so far in progress that they must go on. in east and west, his plans for the conquest of havana, of the philippine isles, and for other objects, were not to be abruptly abandoned; and ministers were compelled to carry out his objects, in many particulars, in spite of themselves. and now the unpleasant truth was forced on the attention of ministers, that the war which pitt declared to be inevitable was so, and that he had recommended the only wise measure. the country was now destined to pay the penalty of their folly and stupidity in rejecting pitt's proposal to declare war against spain at once, and strip her of the means of offence, her treasure ships. lord bristol, our ambassador at madrid, announced to lord bute, in a despatch of the 2nd of november, that these ships had arrived, and that all the wealth which spain expected from her american colonies for the next year was safe at home. and he had to add that with this, wall, the minister, had thrown off the mask, and had assumed the most haughty and insolent language towards great britain. this was a confession on the part of lord bristol that he had suffered wall to throw dust in his eyes till his object was accomplished, and it made patent the fact that pitt had been too sagacious to be deceived; but that the new ministers, whilst insulting pitt and forcing him to resign, had been themselves completely duped. spain now, in the most peremptory terms, demanded redress for all her grievances; and, before the year had closed, the bute cabinet was compelled to recall lord bristol from madrid, and to order fuentes, the spanish ambassador in london, to quit the kingdom. on the 4th of january, 1762, declaration of war was issued against spain. neither king nor ministers, seeing the wisdom of pitt's policy and the folly of their own, were prevented from committing another such absurdity. they abandoned frederick of prussia at his greatest need. they refused to vote his usual subsidy. by this execrable proceeding—for we not only abandoned frederick, but made overtures to austria, with which he was engaged in a mortal struggle—we thus threw him into the arms and close alliance of russia, and were, by this, the indirect means of that guilty confederation by which poland was afterwards rent in pieces by these powers. on the 5th of january, 1762, died the czarina elizabeth. she was succeeded by her nephew, the duke of holstein, under the title of peter iii. peter was an enthusiastic admirer of the prussian king; he was extravagant and incessant in his praises of him. he accepted the commission of a colonel in the prussian service, wore its uniform, and was bent on clothing his own troops in it. it was clear that he was not quite sane, for he immediately recalled the russian army which was acting against frederick, hastened to make peace with him, and offered to restore all that had been won from him in the war, even to prussia proper, which the russians had possession of. his example was eagerly seized upon by sweden, which was tired of the war. both russia and sweden signed treaties of peace with frederick in may, and peter went farther: he dispatched an army into silesia, where it had so lately been fighting against him, to fight against austria. elated by this extraordinary turn of affairs, the prussian ambassador renewed his applications for money, urging that, now russia had joined frederick, it would be easy to subdue austria and terminate the war. this was an opportunity for bute to retrace with credit his steps; but he argued, on the contrary, that, having the aid of russia, frederick did not want that of england; and he[173] is even accused of endeavouring to persuade russia to continue its hostilities against prussia; and thus he totally alienated a power which might have hereafter rendered us essential service, without gaining a single point. the duke of newcastle, man of mediocre merit as he was, saw farther than bute into the disgraceful nature of thus abandoning a powerful ally at an extremity, as well as the impolicy of converting such a man into a mortal enemy; and, finding all remonstrances vain, resigned. bute was glad to be rid of him; and newcastle, finding both his remonstrance and resignation taken very coolly, had the meanness to seek to regain a situation in the cabinet, but without effect, and threw himself into the opposition.
george iii.
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on newcastle's resignation bute placed himself at the head of the treasury, and named grenville secretary of state—a fatal nomination, for grenville lost america. lord barrington, though an adherent of newcastle, became treasurer of the navy, and sir francis dashwood chancellor of the exchequer. bute, who, like all weak favourites, had not the sense to perceive that it was necessary to be moderate to acquire permanent power, immediately obtained a vacant garter, and thus parading the royal favours, augmented the rapidly growing unpopularity which his want of sagacity and honourable principle was fast creating. he was beset by legions of libels, which fully exposed his incapacity, and as freely dealt with the connection between himself and the mother of the king.
but in spite of bute's incapacity the expeditions planned by pitt were uniformly successful. the british fleets were everywhere busy attacking[174] the spanish colonies, and cutting off the spanish ships at sea. a fleet had been dispatched, under admiral rodney, at the latter end of the last year, against martinique, carrying nearly twelve thousand men, commanded by general monckton. they landed on the 7th of january at cas de navires, besieged and took port royal, the capital, st. pierre, and, finally, the whole island. this was followed by the surrender of st. vincent, grenada, and st. lucia, so that the english were now masters of the whole of the caribbees. a portion of this squadron, under sir james douglas, then proceeded to join an expedition, which sailed from portsmouth on the 5th of march; the fleet commanded by admiral sir george pococke, and the army by the earl of albemarle. the squadron arrived before havana on the 4th of june—king george's birthday—and effected a landing without much difficulty.
it was not, however, till the 12th of august that they were ready with their batteries. the effect of the bombardment was almost instantaneous. within six hours nearly all the enemy's guns were silenced, and the next day the spaniards capitulated, agreeing to yield not only the place, and the vessels in the harbour, but the country for a hundred and eighty miles to the westward; in fact, all the best part of cuba. the booty taken was valued at nearly three million pounds.
in the east indies, immediately afterwards, another severe blow was inflicted on spain. an expedition sailed from madras, and admiral cornish conveyed in a small fleet a body of men amounting to two thousand three hundred, and consisting of one regiment of the line, in addition to marines and sepoys. colonel william draper, afterwards so well known for his spirited contest with the still undiscovered author of "junius's letters," was the commander. they landed near manila, the capital of the philippine islands, on the 24th of september, the spanish garrison there being taken completely by surprise. the whole of the philippines submitted without further resistance; and draper, besides being made a knight of the bath, was, with the naval commanders, thanked by parliament, as well they might be.
the brilliant successes of this campaign had clearly been the result of pitt's plans before quitting office. bute and his colleagues had no capacity for such masterly policy, and as little perception of the immense advantages which these conquests gave them in making peace. peace they were impatient for—less on the great grounds that peace was the noblest of national blessings, than because the people grumbled at the amount of taxation—and because, by peace, they diminished, or hoped to diminish, the prestige of the great minister, who had won such vast accessions to the national territory. bute was eager to come to terms with france and spain, regardless of the advantages he gave to prostrate enemies by showing that impatience. had he made a peace as honourable as the war had been, he would have deserved well of the country; but to accomplish such a peace required another stamp of mind.
bute made overtures to france through the neutral court of sardinia. louis xv. and his ministers caught at the very first whisper of such a thing with the eagerness of drowning men; a sufficient intimation to an able and cautious minister, that he might safely name his own terms. the ambassadors, however, soon found that the real business of the treaty was transacted between bute, on the part of britain, and the duke de choiseul, on that of france; and that not through ambassadors, but through sardinian envoys.
the conditions first agreed upon were, that both england and france were to withdraw their support, either by men or money, to the war in germany. france was to evacuate the few towns that she held there, as well as cleve and guelders. minorca was to be restored in exchange for belleisle, which thus fully justified pitt's capture of that little and otherwise useless island. the fortifications of dunkirk were to be reduced to the state required by the treaty of aix-la-chapelle.
france ceded canada, nova scotia, and cape breton, stipulating for the free exercise of their religion by the inhabitants of canada, and for their leaving the country if they preferred it, carrying away their effects, if done within eighteen months. nova scotia and cape breton were given up unconditionally. the boundaries of louisiana were more clearly defined. the french retained the right to fish on part of the coast of newfoundland and in the gulf of st. lawrence and to retain the two little islets of st. pierre and miquelon, as places of shelter for their fishermen, on condition that no batteries should be raised on them, nor more than fifty soldiers keep guard there. their fishermen were not to approach within fifteen miles of cape breton.
in the west indies it was decided that great britain should, of the french islands that she had taken, retain tobago, dominica, st. vincent, and[175] grenada, but restore to france guadeloupe, martinique, and st. lucia.
in the east indies france agreed to keep no troops, and raise no fortifications in bengal, and on these conditions their settlements were restored, but merely as places of trade. goree, on the coast of africa, was restored, but senegal was surrendered.
as for spain, she abandoned all designs on portugal, and restored the colony of sacramento; and she surrendered every point on which her declaration of war against england was based—namely, the right to fish on the coast of newfoundland; the refusal to allow us to cut logwood in honduras; and to admit the settlement of questions of capture by our courts of law.
these certainly were large concessions, but it was to be remembered that we had not received them for nothing; they had cost vast sums, and the national debt had been doubled by this war, and now amounted to one hundred and twenty-two million six hundred thousand pounds. these territories had, in fact, cost us upwards of sixty million pounds; and it is certain that pitt would have exacted a more complete renunciation from france of the conquered countries. there was a clause inserted which pitt would never have permitted—namely, that any conquests that should be made after the signing of these articles, should be restored by all parties. now, bute and the ministry knew that we had expeditions out against cuba and the philippines, and that the only conquests likely to be made were in those quarters. to throw away without equivalent the blood and money expended in these important enterprises was a most unpatriotic act. still, there was opportunity for more rational terms, for grimaldi, the spanish ambassador at paris, held back from signing, in hope that we should be defeated at havana, and that then he could raise his terms. when the news of the loss of both havana and manila arrived, grimaldi was in great haste to sign, and mr. grenville and lord egremont very properly insisted that we should demand an equivalent for the conquest in cuba. pitt would have stood firm for the retention of that conquest as by far the most important, and as justly secured to us by the refusal of the spanish ambassador to sign at the proper time. but bute would have signed without any equivalent at all. fortunately, there was too strong an opposition to this in the cabinet, and the duke of bedford was instructed to demand florida or porto rico in lieu of havana. florida was yielded—a fatal, though at the moment it appeared a valuable concession, for it only added to the compactness of the american colonies, hastening the day of independence, whilst cuba would have remained under the protection of the fleet, one of the most valuable possessions of the british empire.
this point settled, the preliminaries of peace were signed at fontainebleau on the 3rd of november. to console spain for her losses by her unlucky alliance with france, louis xv. ceded louisiana to that country by a private convention.
the violent discontent with the conduct of bute and his ministry gave considerable strength to the opposition, at the head of which now stood pitt, supported by lord temple and the duke of newcastle. george grenville, not satisfied with the terms of the peace, resigned the post of secretary to halifax, and took his new one at the head of the admiralty; and henry fox, paymaster of the forces, became the leader of the commons. the duke of devonshire and the marquis of rockingham also resigned their places in the royal household; and the king, in his vexation, striking devonshire's name out of the list of privy councillors, the duke's kinsmen, lords george cavendish and bessborough, also resigned.
such was the formidable opposition with which parliament came to the consideration of this peace. it met on the 25th of november, and the tone of the public out of doors was then seen. the king, as he went to the house of lords, was very coolly received by the crowds in the streets, and bute was saluted with hisses, groans, and the flinging of mud and stones. on the 19th of december he moved in the lords an address in approbation of the terms of the peace. lord hardwicke opposed the motion with great warmth and ability, but there was no division. very different was the reception of a similar address in the commons the same day, moved by fox. there pitt, who was suffering with the gout, denounced the whole treaty, as shamefully sacrificing the honour and interests of the country. when he rose he was obliged to be supported by two of his friends, and was at length compelled to beg to be allowed to address the house sitting. he yet made a vehement speech of three hours and a half against the conditions accepted. the ministry, however, had a large majority, three hundred and nineteen voting for them against sixty-five. with this brief triumph of bute's unpopular party closed the year 1762.
the year 1763 opened with the signing of the[176] definitive treaty at paris on the 19th of february, whence it was called the peace of paris. five days later, a peace was signed between prussia and austria at hubertsberg, in saxony, to which saxony, as the ally of austria, was a party. indeed, when england and france, russia and sweden, had withdrawn from the contest, there was little prospect of the continuance of the war. both parties were exhausted, and yet, of the two, frederick, in his dogged firmness, and in the almost unparalleled endurance of his people, was more than a match for austria. if maria theresa could not cope with him when she had france, russia, saxony, and poland, all united with her to put him down, the case was now hopeless. the english had stipulated that france should evacuate all the places in germany and flanders that belonged to those countries, and frederick had easily induced the german states, in these circumstances, to a maintenance of neutrality. austria, therefore, consented to this peace. she stood out the longest for the retention of glatz, the only place won from frederick still in her hands, but she was compelled to yield that, too. both parties returned to the same situations as before the commencement of this fatal seven years' war.
temple bar in 1800.
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whilst this war was raging in europe, and carrying its ramifications to the most distant regions of the world, clive and eyre coote were extending the british empire in india, and, in the case of clive, with as much ability as frederick of prussia showed in enlarging his kingdom in europe. clive, in 1757, put down surajah dowlah, the nabob of bengal, and in june of that year defeated him at plassey with a mere handful of men against his enormous host. he set up surajah dowlah's general-in-chief, meer jaffier, and hailed him nabob of bengal, orissa, and bahar. we claimed from meer jaffier two million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds as the share of the company, the fleet, and the army. clive's own share was two hundred and fifty-four thousand pounds, and the shares of the members of the committee ran from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand pounds each. besides this, it was stipulated that the french factories and effects should be given up to the english, and the french[177] never again allowed to enter bengal. the territory surrounding calcutta, within a given distance of the town, was to be granted them on zemindary tenure, the company paying the rent, like the other zemindars or landholders. thus the british, who were before merely the tenants of a factory, became in reality the rulers of bengal.
lord bute and the londoners. (see p. 175.)
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at this moment meer jaffier found it impossible to retain his seat without the support of the english. shah allum, the eldest son of the great mogul, was coming against him with a large army. clive met and defeated him, and for this service he received from his puppet a jaghire, or domain worth twenty-seven thousand pounds a year.
scarcely had colonel forde returned from this expedition, towards the end of the year 1759, when the dutch, envious of the english success, sent an armament of seven men-of-war and one thousand four hundred soldiers from java. they landed on the hooghly, and began committing ravages; but forde surprised and defeated them, taking every one of their ships. they were glad to apologise, and pay the expenses of the war. in february, 1760, a few weeks after these events, clive, whose health was failing, set sail for england, where he was received with the highest éclat, and made an irish peer, as lord clive, baron of plassey. he soon after entered parliament.
our next great move was against the french in the carnatic. after various actions between the french and english in india during the seven years' war, general count de lally, an officer of irish extraction, arrived at pondicherry in april, 1758, with a force of one thousand two hundred men. lally attacked and took fort st. david, considered the strongest fort belonging to the east india company, and then, mustering all his forces, made his appearance, in december of that year, before madras. he had with him two thousand seven hundred french and four thousand natives, whilst the english had in the town four thousand troops only, of which more than half were sepoys. but captain caillaud had marched with a small force from trichinopoly, which harassed the rear of the french. after making himself master of the black town, and threatening to burn it down, he found it impossible to compel fort st. george to surrender, and, after a[178] severe siege of two months, on the appearance of admiral pococke's squadron, which had sailed to bombay for more troops, he decamped in the night of the 16th of february, 1759, for arcot, leaving behind him all his ammunition and artillery, fifty-two pieces. fresh combats took place between pococke and d'aché at sea, and the forces on land. colonel brereton attempted to take wandewash, but failed; and it remained for colonel eyre coote to defeat lally. coote arrived at madras on the 27th of october, and, under his direction, brereton succeeded in taking wandewash on the last of november. to recover this place, lally marched with all his force, supported by bussy, but sustained a signal defeat on the 22nd of january, 1760. arcot, trincomalee, and other places fell rapidly into the hands of colonel coote. the french called in to their aid the nabob of mysore, hyder ali, but to little purpose. pondicherry was invested on the 8th of december, and, on the 16th of january, 1761, it surrendered, lally and his troops, amounting to two thousand, remaining prisoners. this was the termination of the real power of france in india; for though pondicherry was restored by the treaty of 1763, the french never again recovered their ground there, and their east india company soon after was broken up. the unfortunate lally on his return to france was thrown into the bastille, condemned for high treason, and beheaded in the place de grève on the 9th of may, 1766.
the earl of bute became more and more unpopular. the conditions of the peace were greatly disapproved, and the assurance that not only bute, but the king's mother and the duke of bedford, had received french money for carrying the peace, was generally believed. the conduct of bute in surrounding the king with his creatures, in which he was joined by the princess of wales, added much to the public odium. george was always of a domestic and retiring character, and he was now rarely seen, except when he went once or twice a-year to parliament, or at levees, which were cold, formal, and unfrequent. though, probably, the main cause of this was the natural disposition of himself and queen, yet bute and the princess got the credit of it. then the manner in which bute paid his visits to the princess tended to confirm the rumours of their guilty intimacy. he used always to go in an evening in a sedan chair belonging to one of the ladies of the princess's household, with the curtains drawn, and taking every other precaution of not being seen. there were numbers of lampoons launched at the favourite and the princess. they were compared to queen isabella and mortimer, and wilkes actually wrote an ironical dedication of ben jonson's play of "the fall of mortimer," to bute.
all these causes of unpopularity were rendered more effective by the powerful political party which now assailed him. pitt led the way, and the dukes of devonshire, bolton, and portland, the marquis of rockingham, the earls of temple, cornwallis, albemarle, ashburton, hardwicke, and bessborough, lords spencer, sondes, grantham, and villiers, james grenville, sir george savile, and other whigs, presented a formidable phalanx of opponents in both houses. the measures, too, which he was obliged to bring forward, were certain to augment his discredit. the funded debt had grown to upwards of a hundred millions, and there were three millions and a half besides unfunded. it was necessary to raise a new loan, and, moreover, to raise a new tax, for the income was unequal to the expenditure, even in time of peace. the chancellor of the exchequer, dashwood, was not a man likely to make these new burdens go down easily. he issued the new loan to the public with so little advertisement, that the friends of the ministers secured the greater part of the shares, and they soon rose to eleven per cent. premium, by which they were enabled, at the public cost, to make heavy sums. the tax which sir francis proposed was one on cider and perry, besides some additional duties on wines. there was at once an outcry in the city against this tax, led on by the lord mayor, alderman beckford, a great friend of pitt. the cry was only too sure to find a loud echo from the cider-growing districts. bute and his chancellor were quickly compelled to reduce the proposed impost from ten shillings a hogshead, to be paid by the buyer, that is, by the merchant, to four shillings, to be paid by the grower. the tax thus cut down was calculated to produce only seventy-five thousand pounds—a sum for which it was scarcely worth while to incur so much odium.
the cider tax passed, opposed by thirty-nine peers and a hundred and twenty commoners; but it left a very sore feeling in the western counties, that cider, worth only five shillings a hogshead, the poor man's meagre beverage, should have a tax levied on it nearly doubling the price; whilst that at fifty shillings a hogshead, the rich man's luxury, only paid the same. the growers even threatened to let the apples fall and rot under the trees, rather than make them into cider, subject[179] to so partial a tax. no imposition had excited so much indignation since sir robert walpole's excise bill, in 1733. in the cider counties bonfires were made in many places, and bute was burnt emblematically as a jack-boot—jack bute—and his supposed royal mistress under that of a petticoat, which two articles, after being carried about on poles, were hurled into the flames.
instead of taking means to conciliate the public, bute, stung by these testimonies of dislike, and by the pamphlets and lampoons which issued like swarms of wasps, revenged himself by others, which only intensified the hatred against him. still worse for him, he had caused the dukes of newcastle and grafton, and the marquis of rockingham, to be dismissed from the lord-lieutenancies of their respective counties, because they voted against the peace on bute's terms. with a still more petty rancour he had visited the sins of these noblemen on the persons in small clerkships and other posts who had been recommended by them, turning them all out. sir henry fox joined him relentlessly in these pitiful revenges, and would have carried them farther had he not been checked by others.
for a time, bute and his colleagues appeared to brave the load of hatred and ignominy which was now piled everywhere upon them, but it was telling; and suddenly, on the 7th of april, it was announced that the obnoxious minister had resigned. many were the speculations on this abrupt act, some attributing it to the influence of wilkes, and his remorseless attacks in the north briton; others to the king and queen having at length become sensitive on the assumed relations of bute and the king's mother; but bute himself clearly stated the real and obvious cause—want of support, either in or out of parliament. "the ground," he wrote to a friend, "on which i tread is so hollow, that i am afraid not only of falling myself, but of involving my royal master in my ruin. it is time for me to retire."
george grenville succeeded to both bute and dashwood, becoming first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer, and the king announced that he had intrusted the direction of affairs to him, and the lords egremont and halifax, the secretaries of state, whence they soon acquired the name of "the triumvirate." the duke of bedford quitted his post as ambassador at paris, and was succeeded by the earl of hertford. the earl of sandwich became head of the admiralty, and the earl of shelburne head of the board of trade. old marshal ligonier was removed from the post of master of the ordnance to make way for the marquis of granby, but received a peerage. these changes being completed, the king closed the session of parliament on the 19th of april, with a speech, in which he declared the peace honourable to his crown, and beneficial to his people.
this avowal in the royal speech called forth john wilkes in no. 45 of the north briton, destined to become a famous number indeed. wilkes had ceased in the north briton to employ mere initials when commenting on leading men in parliament or government; and he now boldly declared that the speech put into the king's mouth by the ministers was false in its assertion, that the peace was neither honourable to the crown nor beneficial to the country. this was regarded as a gross insult to his majesty, though it was avowedly declared to attack only the ministry; and on the 30th of april wilkes was arrested upon a general warrant, that is, a warrant not mentioning him or any one by name, but applying to the authors, printers, and publishers of the paper in question. george grenville, the new minister, had, of course, the credit of this proceeding; though it was thought that bute still secretly directed the movements of government, and that he or the king might be the real author of the order.
wilkes entered the tower in all the elation of spirits which the occasion of acting the political hero inspired. he was soon visited by the dukes of bolton and grafton, and lord temple, who, as well as his own friends, his solicitor, and counsel, were refused admittance. his house was entered, and his papers were seized and examined by wood, the under-secretary of state, and carteret webb, the solicitor to the treasury. on the 3rd of may wilkes was conveyed to the court of common pleas, before sir charles pratt, where his case was stated by mr. serjeant glynn, and then wilkes himself made a speech of an hour long. on the 6th of may he was brought up to hear the joint opinion of the judges, which was that, though general warrants might not be strictly illegal, the arrest of wilkes could not be maintained, on account of his privilege as a member of parliament; that nothing short of treason felony, and an actual breach of the peace, could interfere with that privilege, and that a libel could not be termed a breach of the peace. the judgment of the bench, therefore, was that mr. wilkes be discharged from his imprisonment.
the release of wilkes by the court of common[180] pleas was a triumph over ministers, which, had they been wise, would have induced them to take no further notice of him. they had only made a popular demigod of him. the people, not only in london, but all over the country, celebrated his exit from the tower with the liveliest demonstrations, especially in the cider districts, still smarting under the new tax, and where they accordingly once more paraded the jack-boot and petticoat, adding two effigies—one of bute, dressed in a scottish plaid and with a blue ribbon, the other no less a person than the king, led by the nose by bute.
the english government, instead of treating wilkes with a dignified indifference, was weak enough to show how deeply it was touched by him, dismissed him from his commission of colonel of the buckinghamshire militia, and treated lord temple as an abettor of his, by depriving him of the lord-lieutenancy of the same county, and striking his name from the list of privy councillors, giving the lord-lieutenancy to dashwood, now lord le despencer.
meanwhile by the advice of bute the king sent for pitt. on the 27th of august he had an audience of the king at buckingham house. pitt, however, insisted on having in with him all, or nearly all, his old colleagues, and this was too much for the king; whilst not to have had them would have been too little for pitt, who was too wise to take office without efficient and congenial colleagues. the king, nevertheless, did not openly object, but allowed pitt to go away with the impression that he would assent to his demands. this was saturday, and pitt announced this belief to the dukes of devonshire and newcastle, and the marquis of rockingham. but on sunday grenville had had an interview with the king, and finding that he considered pitt's terms too hard, had laboured successfully to confirm him in that opinion. accordingly, on monday, at a second meeting, the king named the earl of northumberland, lord halifax, and george grenville, for leading posts in the cabinet, saying, "poor george grenville, he is your near relation, and you once loved him." pitt said that it would not do, bowed and retired; the king saying, "my honour is concerned, and i must support it."
grenville, chagrined as he was, still clung to the government, and called in the duke of bedford as president of the council, lord sandwich as secretary of state. lord hillsborough succeeded lord shelburne at the board of trade. such was the government which was to supersede the necessity of pitt; lord chesterfield declaring that they could not meet the parliament, for that they had not a man in the commons who had either abilities or words enough to call a coach.
parliament met on the 15th of november, and the very first object which engaged the attention of both houses was wilkes. in such fiery haste were ministers, that lord sandwich, in the peers, started up, before the king's speech could be considered, and declared that he held in his hand a most filthy and atrocious libel, written by wilkes, called "an essay on woman." wilkes never had published the filth. he had written, as it appeared, by the assistance of a profligate and now deceased son of archbishop potter, this "essay on woman;" but he had never published it. it had lain in his desk, and had only been read to two persons—one of whom was sandwich himself. when wilkes, however, was driven to set up a printing press in his own house, he had printed a dozen copies of the "essay on woman," to give to his dissolute friends, whom he used to meet at the dilettanti club, in palace yard. sandwich, aware of the existence of the essay, had bribed one of wilkes's printers, named curry, to lend him a copy of it, and had paid him five guineas as a guarantee for its safe return. the whole thing was a stupid parody of pope's "essay on man;" in which, instead of the inscription to bolingbroke, commencing "awake, my st. john!" there appeared an invocation beginning, "awake, my sandwich!" and there were also ridiculous notes attributed to warburton.
in the commons, on the same day, grenville delivered a message from the crown, announcing to the house the imprisonment of one of their members during the recess. wilkes immediately rose in his place, and complained of the breach of that house's privilege in his person; of the entry of his house, the breaking open of his desk, and the imprisonment of his person—imprisonment pronounced by the highest legal authority to be illegal, and therefore tyrannical. he moved that the house should take the question of privilege into immediate consideration. on the other hand, lord north, who was a member of the treasury board, and sir fletcher norton, attorney-general, put in the depositions of the printer and publisher, proving the authorship of no. 45 of the north briton on wilkes, and pressing for rigorous measures against him. a warm debate ensued, in which pitt opposed the proceedings to a certain extent, declaring that he could never understand exactly what a libel was.[181] notwithstanding, the commons voted, by a large majority, that no. 45 of the north briton was "a false, scandalous, and malicious libel," tending to traitorous insurrection, and that it should be burnt by the common hangman.
john wilkes.
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the consequences were an intense excitement in favour of wilkes, and execration against the commons. wilkes was reported to be delirious, and crowds collected in the streets before his house, calling for vengeance on his murderers. sandwich was especially denounced; in return for his dragging forth the obscenity of wilkes, his own private life was ransacked for scandalous anecdotes, and they were only too plentiful. horace walpole says that sandwich's conduct to wilkes had brought forth such a catalogue of his[182] own impurities as was incredible. the "beggar's opera" being just then acted at covent garden, when macheath uttered the words, "that jemmy twitcher should peach, i own surprises me!" the whole audience burst into most tumultuous applause at the obvious application; and thenceforth jemmy twitcher was the name by which sandwich was more commonly known.
still the affairs of wilkes continued to occupy almost the sole thought and interest of the session. on the 23rd of november the question of privilege came up; and though he was absent, having been wounded in a duel, it was actively pushed by the ministers. mr. wilbraham protested against the discussion without the presence of wilkes, and his being heard at the bar in his defence. pitt attended, though suffering awfully from the gout, propped on crutches, and his very hands wrapped in flannel. he maintained the question of privilege, but took care to separate himself from wilkes in it. the rest of the debate was violent and personal, and ended in voting, by two hundred and fifty-eight against one hundred and thirty-three, that the privilege of parliament did not extend to the publication of seditious libels; the resolution ordering the north briton to be burnt by the hangman was confirmed. these votes being sent up to the lords, on the 25th they also debated the question, and the duke of cumberland, lord shelburne, and the duke of newcastle, defended the privilege of parliament as violated in the person of wilkes. in the end, however, the ministers obtained a majority of a hundred and fourteen against thirty-eight. seventeen peers entered a strong protest against the decision. on the 1st of december there was a conference of the two houses, when they agreed to a loyal address to the king, expressing their detestation of the libels against him.
simultaneously with these proceedings, the actions commenced by wilkes, and the printer, publishers, and others arrested under the general warrant, were being tried in the common pleas. all the parties obtained verdicts for damages, and that of wilkes was for a thousand pounds. chief-justice pratt, strengthened by the verdicts, made a most decided declaration of the illegality and unconstitutional nature of general warrants.
as this excitement closed the old year, so it opened the new one. no sooner did parliament meet, after the christmas recess, than, on the 17th of january, 1764, the order for wilkes's attendance at the bar was read. it was then found that he had thought it best to retire into france. still he did not hesitate to send over a medical certificate, signed by one of the king's physicians and an army surgeon, affirming that his wound was in such a condition that it was not safe for him to leave paris. the house of commons paid no attention to the certificate, but proceeded to examine evidence, and the famous no. 45 of the north briton; and after a violent debate, continuing till three o'clock in the morning, passed a resolution that the paper in question contained the grossest insults to his majesty, to both houses of parliament, and tended to traitorous insurrection against the government. accordingly, the next day, he was formally expelled the house, and a new writ was issued for aylesbury.
on the 13th of february the opposition in the commons brought on the question of the validity of general warrants. the debate continued all that day and the next night till seven o'clock in the morning. the motion was thrown out; but sir william meredith immediately made another, that a general warrant for apprehending the authors, printers, and publishers of a seditious libel is not warranted by law. the combat was renewed, and pitt made a tremendous speech, declaring that if the house resisted sir william meredith's motion, they would be the disgrace of the present age, and the reproach of posterity. he upbraided ministers with taking mean and petty vengeance on those who did not agree with them, by dismissing them from office. this charge grenville had the effrontery to deny, though it was a notorious fact. as the debate approached its close, the ministers called in every possible vote; "the sick, the lame were hurried into the house, so that," says horace walpole, "you would have thought they had sent a search warrant into every hospital for members of parliament." when the division came, which was only for the adjournment of meredith's motion for a month, they only carried it by fourteen votes. in the city there was a confident anticipation of the defeat of ministers, and materials had been got together for bonfires all over london, and for illuminating the monument. temple was said to have faggots ready for bonfires of his own.
government, not content with expelling wilkes from the house of commons, had commenced an action against him in the court of king's bench, where they succeeded in obtaining a verdict against him for a libel in the north briton. temple paid the costs, and the city of london[183] turned this defeat into a triumph, by presenting its freedom to the lord chief justice pratt, for his bold and independent conduct in declaring against the general warrants. they ordered his portrait to be placed in guildhall; and the example of london was followed by dublin and many other towns, who presented their freedom and gold snuff-boxes to pratt. the city of london also gave its thanks to its members for their patriotic conduct.