Stanley said a few words on his own part in the negotiation; and then Mr. Fox rising to speak, Pitt, in contempt or exhausted, retired out of the house, attended by redoubled huzzas! the mob re-echoing the duration of his speech, “Three hours and a half! three hours and a half!”
The secession of Pitt struck such a damp on Opposition, that Fox had but little to do but to chant Te Deum for victory. He said little, very little, in behalf of the treaty, to which success was now ensured. He rather painted his own situation, and that of parties, ranking himself with the Whigs, but affecting to believe a general union of all factions under the King. He had been called out, he said, when men would have revived those distinctions, and torn the Tories from the support of the Crown. No desire did he know of extending prerogative; if it had been exerted unduly in signing the preliminaries, Ministers were answerable; but he vowed to God he did not know that it was in the mind of any man to enlarge the prerogative. Mr. Pitt had thought we could have gone on much longer, and that France could not; he himself thought we could not have gone on much longer: but what had Mr. Pitt given, except assertions in support of his persuasion? He himself had been told that our commerce was declined. If England would apply itself to improve this peace, it would turn out the greatest that ever had been made.
Charles Townshend, discontent, expecting much severe animadversion on the treaty, and dreading to differ with Mr. Pitt when the latter was likely to exert all his powers, had come to the House prepared to arraign the preliminaries. Finding his mistake, and secure by the retreat of Pitt, he changed his battery, defended the peace as well as it could be defended, burned incense on the altar of prerogative, and sang almost hosannahs to the praise of the King. It happened the next day that Dempster, commending Mr. Pitt, and calling him the arch-patriot, Rigby said, Mr. Pitt, it was true, had spoken three hours and a half, but an archer-patriot had said more to the purpose in twenty-five minutes.
The Duke of Newcastle had sent to his friends not to divide; on which they retired. This not being known to the Duke of Cumberland, his adherents stayed, and two of his own servants, Lord Ancram278 and General Fitzwilliam,279 were in the minority—which were but sixty-five against three hundred and nineteen. The Duke was angry that his people had been left alone: on which it was resolved to rally on the Report, but with no better success; the Court were still two hundred and twenty-seven to sixty-three, Lord Royston, Lord Hardwicke’s son, being of the majority.
Nothing can paint the importance of this victory to the Court so strongly as what the Princess of Wales said, on the news of the preliminaries being carried: “Now,” said she, “my son is King of England.” The ministers ordered that the numbers on the question should be printed—had they printed the names too, the world would have known the names of the sixty-five that were not bribed.
Fox having thus successfully employed rewards, thought the time was come for making use of the other weapon of government—punishment. A more severe political persecution never raged. Whoever, holding a place, had voted against the preliminaries, was instantly dismissed. The friends280 and dependents of the Duke of Newcastle were particularly cashiered; and this cruelty was extended so far, that old servants, who had retired and been preferred to very small places, were rigorously hunted out and deprived of their livelihood. An inquisition was held at Fox’s house; and a despotic spirit prevailed so rudely, that Lady Elizabeth Waldegrave,281 sister of the Duchess of Bedford, and a notable politician, desired to be admitted to the junto of proscription.
In particular, Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Earle282 were dismissed from the Board of Ordnance for their votes; as was the younger Thomas Townshend283 from the green cloth, without the smallest notification. Some were even sacrificed who had given no offence, as the worthy Admiral Forbes,284 who was removed from the Admiralty to make room for Cotes, of the same profession and a friend of Fox. Schutz, who had been seven years of the King’s bedchamber, was turned out, for no reason but that he had not a seat in Parliament, and could be of no use there.285
But to wind up the year with more dignified rigour, the Dukes of Newcastle and Grafton and the Marquis of Rockingham were dismissed from the Lieutenancies of their several counties.286 The same affront being designed for the Duke of Devonshire, Fox affected to make a point of saving him; but the Duke, with proper spirit, scorned to be obliged to him, and resigned to accompany his friends.
CHAPTER XVI.
Death of John Earl Granville.—His character.—Political persecution originating in Fox.—Want of cordiality in the Ministerial League between him and Bute.—Attack on Patent Places.—Lord Northington and Sir Fletcher Norton.—The Duke of Cumberland’s remark on the harsh proceedings of Fox.—Triumph of the Court.—Wilkes and Churchill.—Favour shown to the friends of the Stuarts.—Observance of the Jacobite fast.—Calvert’s extraordinary Speech.—Sir John Philipps’s Motion for the Accounts of the Nation.—Folly of the Tories.—Committee to inspect Madhouses.—Accounts of the Navy.—Calamities of War.—No famous native Generals except Wolfe and Lord Clive.—Charles Townshend’s fickle Politics.—The Standing Army.
John Earl Granville, the antagonist of one Prime Minister, Prime Minister himself, and then assistant to every succeeding Prime Minister, died on the second day of the new year. The rhodomontade, to which he was addicted, was set off by parts and wit, or forgiven to his good-humour. It was very unlike the presumptuous ascendant of Pitt, or the lofty ignorance of Lord Bute. Pitt, unsociable and muffled in clouds, was adored from the terror imprinted by his lightnings. Bute thought distance and obscurity sufficient characteristics of divinity; but Granville, like Bacchus, rattled his car among men, and was but the more admired the more he familiarized himself with mortals. He had fallen unpitied, but unhated; and sank in rank without sinking in esteem, his fall having lessened him less than his exaltation. He seemed so proper for every part, that in him it did not seem mean to be second, after commanding.287
The persecution, set on foot at the end of the last year, was kept up with unrelaxed severity.288 A place of 200l. a year was taken from Mr. Legge’s nephew,289 a boy at school: and another of the same value from a man in Sussex, who had been rewarded with it for service done against an inhuman set of smugglers, by the interest of the late Duke of Grafton, whom Fox had hated. In truth, these hardships were not only suggested by Fox, but now and then executed without the knowledge of the Favourite, who often disclaimed290 them, and sometimes, to load his associate, made recompense to the parties aggrieved; for though they became heartier friends afterwards, and though the Favourite bore testimony, in a subsequent period, that Fox was the only man who had not deceived him, it is pretty sure that their ministerial league was far from cordial; not quite sure that Bute did not deceive Fox; and certain, that the King betrayed symptoms of satisfaction on hearing that the blame of all this violence fell on Fox.
He had meditated going still greater lengths. Lord Lincoln, whom he particularly hated, was Auditor of the Exchequer for life, the amplest sinecure in England, except the Archbishoprick of Canterbury. Some other great patent-places were held by men then in Opposition.