The Project Gutenberg eBook ofAmerican Independence and the French Revolution (1760-1801)This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: American Independence and the French Revolution (1760-1801)Compiler: S. E. WinboltEditor: Kenneth BellS. E. WinboltRelease date: July 6, 2016 [eBook #52500]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Wayne Hammond and The Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1760-1801) ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: American Independence and the French Revolution (1760-1801)Compiler: S. E. WinboltEditor: Kenneth BellS. E. WinboltRelease date: July 6, 2016 [eBook #52500]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Wayne Hammond and The Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
Title: American Independence and the French Revolution (1760-1801)
Compiler: S. E. WinboltEditor: Kenneth BellS. E. Winbolt
Compiler: S. E. Winbolt
Editor: Kenneth Bell
S. E. Winbolt
Release date: July 6, 2016 [eBook #52500]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Wayne Hammond and The Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1760-1801) ***
BELL’S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKSGeneral Editors:S. E. Winbolt, M.A., andKenneth Bell, M.A.
BELL’S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKSScope of the Series and Arrangement of Volumes1.Roman Britain to 449.2.449-1066.3.1066-1154.4.1154-1216.5.1216-1307.6.1307-1399.7.1399-1485.8.1485-1547.9.1547-1603.In ActivePreparation.10.1603-1660.””11.1660-1714.””12.1714-1760.””13.1760-1801.Now Ready.14.1801-1815.15.1815-1837.16.1837-1856.17.1856-1876.18.1876-1887.19.1887-1901.20.1901-1912.The volumes are issued in Crown 8vo.Price 1s. net each.
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCEAND THEFRENCH REVOLUTION(1760-1801)COMPILED BYS. E. WINBOLT, M.A.(CHRIST’S HOSPITAL)LONDONG. BELL AND SONS, LTD.1912
This series of English History Source Books is intended for use with any ordinary textbook of English History. Experience has conclusively shown that such apparatus is a valuable—nay, an indispensable—adjunct to the history lesson. It is capable of two main uses: either by way of lively illustration at the close of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing, before the textbook is read, at the beginning of the lesson. The kind of problems and exercises that may be based on the documents are legion, and are admirably illustrated in aHistory of England for Schools, Part I., by Keatinge and Frazer, pp. 377-381. However, we have no wish to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shall exercise his craft, but simply to provide him and his pupils with materials hitherto not readily accessible for school purposes. The very moderate price of the books in this series should bring them within the reach of every secondary school. Source books enable the pupil to take a more active part than hitherto in the history lesson. Here is the apparatus, the raw material: its use we leave to teacher and taught.
Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by all grades of historical students between the standards of fourth-form boys in secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities. What differentiates students at one extreme from those at the other is not so much the kind of subject-matter dealt with, as the amount they can read into or extract from it.
In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying tosatisfy the natural demand for certain “stock” documents of vital importance, we hope to introduce much fresh and novel matter. It is our intention that the majority of the extracts should be lively in style—that is, personal, or descriptive, or rhetorical, or even strongly partisan—and should not so much profess to give the truth as supply data for inference. We aim at the greatest possible variety, and lay under contribution letters, biographies, ballads and poems, diaries, debates, and newspaper accounts. Economics, London, municipal, and social life generally, and local history, are represented in these pages.
The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, each being numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given. The text is modernised, where necessary, to the extent of leaving no difficulties in reading.
We shall be most grateful to teachers and students who may send us suggestions for improvement.
S. E. WINBOLT.KENNETH BELL.
The difficulty which an editor of period 1760-1801 has to face is the wealth of contemporary sources available. I have drawn largely, as will be seen, on the series of Home Office Papers in the Calendar of State Papers, the series of the Acts of the Privy Council, theGentleman’s Magazine, andAnnual Register. I trust that the foreign relations of England are proportionately represented, though want of space has been against the inclusion of much that naturally suggests itself. In spite of defects, my hope is that teachers and pupils in public schools and universities will find these pages useful.
S. E. W.
Christ’s Hospital,April, 1912.
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCEAND THEFRENCH REVOLUTION(1760-1801)
For my part, I believe Mademoiselle Scuderi drew the plan of this year. It is all royal marriages, coronations and victories; they come tumbling so over one another from distant parts of the globe, that it looks just like the handy-work of a lady romance writer, whom it costs nothing but a little false geography to make the great Mogul in love with a princess of ——, and defeat two marshals of France as he rides post on an elephant to his nuptials. I don’t know where I am. I had scarce found Mecklenburgh Strelitz with a magnifying glass, before I am whisked to Pondicherri—well, I take it, and raze it. I begin to grow acquainted with Colonel Coote, and to figure him packing up chests of diamonds, and sending them to his wife against the King’s wedding—thunder go the Tower guns, and behold Broglio and Soubise are totally defeated; if the mob have not much stronger heads and quicker conceptions than I have, they will conclude my lord Granby is become nabob. How the deuce in two days can one digest all this? Why is not Pondicherri in Westphalia? I don’t know how the Romans did, but I cannotsupport two victories every week. Well, but you will want to know the particulars. Broglio and Soubise, united, attacked our army on the fifteenth, but were repulsed; the next day, the prince Mahomet Alli Cawn—no, no, I mean prince Ferdinand, returned the attack, and the French threw down their arms, and fled, run over my lord Harcourt, who was going to fetch the new queen; in short, I don’t know how it was, but Mr. Conway is safe, and I am as happy as Mr. Pitt himself. We have only lost a lieutenant-colonel Keith; colonel Marlay and Harry Townshend are wounded.... I dined with your secretary yesterday; there were Garrick and a young Mr. Burke, who wrote a book in the style of lord Bolingbroke, that was much admired. He is a sensible man, but has not worn off his authorism yet, and thinks there is nothing so charming as writers, and to be one. He will know better one of these days. I like Hamilton’s little Marly; we walked in the great allée, and drank tea in the arbour of treillage; they talked of Shakspeare and Booth, of Swift and my lord Bath, and I was thinking of Madame Sévigné. Good night! I have a dozen other letters to write; I must tell my friends how happy I am—not as an Englishman, but as a cousin.
Yours ever.
Sir,
I take up the pen with more than ordinary desire to succeed in the business I am, by the King’s command, to write to you upon. I earnestly wished to have carried to his Majesty some little opening of your mind; something that might have pointed towards that mark of his royal favour he seems impatient to bestow upon you.1
As that was not in my power, the King has desired me to mention two ideas; wishing to have the one most agreeable to you carried into immediate execution: but, if neither should be suitable to your inclinations, it is hoped that you will not be averse to give his Majesty a little insight into your own thoughts upon this subject. The government of the province of Canada, with a salary of five thousand pounds, seemed to strike the King most; and that for two reasons: the first, as you would preside over a province acquired by your own ability and firmness; secondly, as it would convey to all the world his Majesty’s intentions of never parting with that great and important conquest. The objection of its not being tenable with a seat in parliament is foreseen; but a short bill might remedy that in this new case; in the preamble of which the King’s reasons for this appointment would be set forth. If, however, this should not strike you in the same light it does his Majesty, the next thing I am ordered to mention is the chancellor of the duchy, with the salary annexed to it as before mentioned.
You will please, Sir, to consider these as proofs of the King’s earnest desire to show this country the high opinion he has of your merit. If they do not entirely please, imputeit to the want of information I before hinted at; and do me the justice to believe, that I never shall execute any commission with more pleasure than I have done this.
I am, Sir, with the highest regard,Your most obedient humble servant,Bute.2
My Lord,
Overwhelmed with the extent of his Majesty’s gracious goodness towards me, I desire the favour of your Lordship to lay me at the royal feet, with the humble tribute of the most unfeigned and respectful gratitude. Penetrated with the bounteous favour of a most benign sovereign and master, I am confounded with his condescension in deigning to bestow one thought about any inclination of his servant, with regard to the modes of extending to me marks of his royal beneficence.
Any public mark of his Majesty’s approbation, flowing from such a spontaneous source of clemency, will be my comfortand my glory; and I cannot but be highly sensible of all those circumstances, so peculiarly honourable, which, attending the first of the two ideas suggested to me by his Majesty’s direction, have been mentioned. Commanded, however, as I am by the King, in a manner so infinitely gracious, not to suppress my thoughts on a subject of this extreme delicacy, I trust it will be judged obedience, not presumption, if I express the doubts I have as to the propriety of my going into either of the offices mentioned, or indeed, considering that which I have resigned, going again into any whatever.
Thus much in general I have presumed, not without pain and fear, to submit to his Majesty’s consideration; too proud to receive any mark of the King’s countenance and favour, but above all doubly happy could I see those dearer to me than myself comprehended in that monument of royal approbation and goodness, with which his Majesty shall condescend to distinguish me.
I cannot conclude this letter, already much too long, without expressing my warm thanks to your Lordship for the most obliging manner in which you have conveyed to me his Majesty’s gracious intentions, and assuring your Lordship, that I shall always set a high value on the favourable sentiments which you are pleased to express on my subject. I have the honour to be, with great truth and respect,
Yours, &c.W. Pitt.
Sir,
I laid the contents of your letter before his Majesty; who was graciously pleased to admit of the reasons you gave for not accepting office, and to approve of the respectful openings some part of the letter afforded.
Having received the King’s commands to consider of the most becoming method of carrying his intentions into execution, I have lost no time in my researches. The English civillist would by no means answer; the Irish had objections: one only thing remained, that could possibly serve the King’s generous purpose. This his Majesty approves of, and has directed me accordingly to acquaint you, that as you declined accepting any office, his Majesty will confer the dignity of peerage on Lady Hester Pitt, to descend through her ladyship to your sons, with a grant of three thousand pounds per annum, on the plantation duties, to yourself and any two other lives you shall name. These unusual marks of the royal approbation cannot fail to be agreeable to a mind like yours. Permit me to assure you, that the communicating of them gives me the greatest pleasure.
I am, Sir, with unfeigned regard,Your most obedient humble servant,Bute.
I have not words to express the sentiments of veneration and gratitude with which I receive the unbounded effects of beneficence and grace, which the most benign of sovereigns has condescended to bestow on me, and on those most dear to me.
Your Lordship will not wonder if the sensations which possess my whole breast refuse me the power of describing their extent, and leave me only to beg your Lordship will be so good as to lay me and Lady Hester at the King’s feet, and to offer for us to his Majesty the genuine tribute of the truly feeling heart; which I will dare to hope, the same royal benevolence which showers on the unmeritorious such unlimited benefits may deign to accept with equal condescension and goodness.
I am, &c.W. Pitt.
The next morning I communicated to my wife and children the scheme I had planned of reforming the prisoners, which they received with universal disapprobation, alleging the impossibility and impropriety of it; adding that my endeavours would no way contribute to their amendment, but might probably disgrace my calling.
“Excuse me,” returned I, “these people, however fallen, are still men; and that is a very good title to my affections. Good counsel rejected returns to enrich the giver’s bosom; and though the instruction I communicate may not mend them, yet it will assuredly mend myself. If these wretches, my children, were princes, there would be thousands ready to offer their ministry; but in my opinion the heart that is buried in a dungeon is as precious as that seated upon a throne. Yes, my treasures, if I can mend them I will; perhaps they will not all despise me; perhaps I may catch up even one from the gulf, and there will be great gain; for is there upon earth a gem so precious as the human soul?”
Thus saying, I left them and descended to the common prison, where I found the prisoners very merry, expecting my arrival; and each prepared with some gaol-trick to play upon the doctor. Thus, as I was going to begin, one turned my wig awry; as if by accident, and then asked my pardon. A second, who stood at some distance, had a knack of spitting through his teeth, which fell in showers upon my book. A third would cry, “Amen!” in such an affected tone as gave the rest great delight. A fourth had slily picked my pocket of my spectacles. But there was one whose trick gave more universal pleasure than all the rest; for observing the manner in which I had disposed my books on the table before me, he very dexterously displaced one of them, and put an obscene jest-book of his own in the place. However, I took no notice of all that this mischievous group of little beings could do, butwent on, perfectly sensible that what was ridiculous in my attempt would excite mirth only the first or second time, while what was serious would be permanent. My design succeeded, and in less than six days some were penitent, and all attentive.
It was now that I applauded my perseverance and address, at thus giving sensibility to wretches divested of every moral feeling, and now began to think of doing them temporal service also, by rendering their situation somewhat more comfortable. Their time had hitherto been divided between famine and excess, tumultuous riot and bitter repining. Their only employment was quarrelling among each other, playing at cribbage, and cutting tobacco-stoppers. From this last mode of idle industry I took the hint of setting such as chose to work at cutting pegs for tobacconists and shoemakers, the proper wood being bought by a general subscription, and, when manufactured, sold by my appointment; so that each earned something every day—a trifle, indeed, but sufficient to maintain him.
I did not stop here, but instituted fines for the punishment of immorality, and rewards for peculiar industry. Thus in less than a fortnight I had formed them into something social and humane, and had the pleasure of regarding myself as a legislator, who had brought men from their native ferocity into friendship and obedience.
And it were highly to be wished that legislative power would thus direct the law rather to reformation than to severity; that it would seem convinced that the work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishments familiar, but formidable. Then, instead of our present prisons, which find or make men guilty, which enclose wretches for the commission of one crime, and return them, if returned alive, fitted for the perpetration of thousands, we should see, as in other parts of Europe, places of penitence and solitude, where the accused might be attended by such as could give them repentance if guilty, or new motives to virtue if innocent. And this, but not the increasing punishments, is the way to menda State: nor can I avoid even questioning the validity of that right which social combinations have assumed of capitally punishing offences of a slight nature. In cases of murder, their right is obvious, as it is the duty of us all, from the law of self-defence, to cut off that man who has shown a disregard for the life of another. Against such all nature rises in arms, but it is not so against him who steals my property. Natural law gives me no right to take away his life, as by that the horse he steals is as much his property as mine. If, then, I have any right, it must be from a compact made between us, that he who deprives the other of his horse shall die. But this is a false compact; because no man has a right to barter his life, any more than to take it away, as it is not his own. And, besides, the compact is inadequate, and would be set aside even in a court of modern equity, as there is a great penalty for a very trifling inconvenience, since it is far better that two men should live than that one man should ride. But a compact that is false between two men is equally so between a hundred and a hundred thousand; for as ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest foundation to falsehood. It is thus that reason speaks, and untutored nature says the same thing. Savages that are directed by natural law alone are very tender of the lives of each other; they seldom shed blood but to retaliate former cruelty.
Our Saxon ancestors, fierce as they were in war, had but few executions in times of peace; and in all commencing governments, that have the print of nature still strong upon them, scarcely any crime is held capital.
It is among the citizens of a refined community that penal laws, which are in the hands of the rich, are laid upon the poor. Government, while it grows older, seems to acquire the moroseness of age; and as if our property were become dearer in proportion as it increased—as if the more enormous our wealth, the more extensive our fears—all our possessions are paled up with new edicts every day, and hung round with gibbets to scare every invader.
I cannot tell whether it is from the number of our penal laws, or the licentiousness of our people, that this country should show more convicts in a year than half the dominions of Europe united. Perhaps it is owing to both; for they mutually produce each other. When by indiscriminate penal laws a nation beholds the same punishment affixed to dissimilar degrees of guilt, from perceiving no distinction in the penalty, the people are led to lose all sense of distinction in the crime; and this distinction is the bulwark of all morality: thus the multitude of laws produce new vices, and new vices call for fresh restraints.
It were to be wished, then, that power, instead of contriving new laws to punish vice, instead of drawing hard the cords of society till a convulsion come to burst them, instead of cutting away wretches as useless before we have tried their utility, instead of converting correction into vengeance; it were to be wished that we tried the restrictive arts of government, and made law the protector, but not the tyrant, of the people. We should then find that creatures, whose souls are held as dross, only wanted the hand of a refiner; we should then find that wretches, now stuck up for long tortures, lest luxury should feel a momentary pang, might, if properly treated, serve to sinew the State in times of danger; that as their faces are like ours, their hearts are so too; that few minds are so base as that perseverance cannot amend; that a man may see his last crime without dying for it; and that very little blood will serve to cement our security.
Mr. Townshend then mentioned the extraordinaries of America, and the necessity of voting a particular sum; which he said he neither could nor would move, unless the cabinet previously took the whole state of America into consideration, and enabled him to declare to the House the opinion ofadministration as to the forts, the Indian trade, the disposition of the troops, in short the whole arrangements, considered with a view to a general reduction of expense, and a duty which he undertook should be laid to defray what remained: that he had promised this to the House, and upon the authority of what passed in the cabinet; and if he could not make it good, he should be obliged to consider the best means, by what he should say or by his conduct, to make it appear that it was not his fault, and against his opinion.3
I acquainted your Lordship of this the last time I had the honour of waiting on you from Lord Barrington; the difficulty greatly arising from several conjectural estimates being laidby him before the House. I was surprised at Mr. Townshend’s conduct, which really continues excessive on every occasion, till I afterwards understood in conversation, that he declared he knew of Lord North’s refusal, and from himself. The Duke of Grafton told me, and I suppose may tell your Lordship, that he sent to Lord North to ask him. It appears to me quite impossible that Mr. Townshend can mean to go on in the King’s service; but of this your Lordship will judge much better than I can, after the Duke of Grafton has given you a farther account.
I have the honour to be, with great respect,Your Lordship’s most obliged humble servant,Shelburne.
5 and 6 April.—Lord Weymouth has been informed that Mr. Stuart, the wine merchant, upon application to you for assistance against the mob on the night of the illumination, had not met with that support which he had reason to expect from the civil magistrate. Though this account does not agree with what his Lordship had conceived of your vigilance and activity, yet he has ordered me to acquaint you with it, and to add that though, on the one hand, he relies much on your zeal, and is ready to do justice to your diligence at the time of the late riotous proceedings, yet, on the other, he thinks it his indispensable duty to take notice of any remissness in a magistrate upon whom so much of the public order and tranquillity depends; and if Mr. Stuart’s account of this matter be founded, his Lordship desires that I will let you know it will very much change that favourable opinion which he wishes to preserve of you. His Lordship thinks it would be unfair towards you as well as to the public to keep this matter from you, though Mr. Stuart has not given it in as matter of formal complaint, but merely for the Secretary of State’s information. Lord Weymouth is willing to suppose there must be some mistake in what he has heard.
P.S.—As Lord Weymouth had taken every precaution that could be imagined in order to support magistracy and give weight to your proceedings, he is disappointed to find that there should be any complaint; and though he despises clamour, he must pay attention to facts urged by a citizen of character; and I heartily wish you may put it in his power to set you clear of imputation, which is his wish also.
The reply to this letter is dated the 5th.
Sir John Fielding gives a history of the transactions of the night, and says that, to the best of his knowledge, and to the best of his abilities, with unwearied attention, diligence, and application, he has done everything in his power to preserve peace and good order, and to detect offenders and bring them to justice, from the beginning to the conclusion of the late unhappy disturbances. Is sincerely concerned if in any respect Mr. Steward mistook his meaning, and more so that Lord Weymouth should be dissatisfied with his conduct as a magistrate. Unfortunate he has always been; at present particularly so, when his warmest endeavours to discharge a public trust with loyalty to his Sovereign, fidelity to his country, and obedience to his superiors, have been so far ineffectual as not to secure him the confidence of those by whom he would wish to be approved.—Bow Street.
12 and 14 April.—Has received within these few days several letters from Newcastle, giving an account of a very riotous spirit having broken out among the sailors and other persons in that place and its neighbourhood, who have committed many outrages, a continuance of which is still greatly to be apprehended. His Grace enters into full particulars. The Mayor and other magistrates of Newcastle, and the justices of Northumberland and Durham, have been very vigilant and active on this occasion, but it is their united request, in which his Grace joins, that a regiment might be quartered and continued in Newcastle and the neighbourhood.—Northumberland House, 12 April.
Reply from Lord Weymouth, dated the 14th, enclosing a copy of the letter written in consequence to the Secretary-at-War, directing him to give orders for detaining the troops atNewcastle and the neighbourhood which are now there, and to report whether the present disposition of the troops in that part of the world may not admit of an alteration which may answer the purposes of support to the civil magistrate.
13 and 14 April.—Submitting whether it may not be expedient that certain arms belonging to the Middlesex militia, deposited in the vestry rooms and other places of little security in Westminster and the neighbourhood of London, should be removed to the Tower, in case there should be reason to fear a renewal of the mobs and riotous assemblies.
It is highly improper that arms should at any time be deposited in places of little security, and particularly at present when so riotous a disposition appears among the populace. But as there are objections to depositing those arms now in the Tower, his Grace is to take all possible precautions for the present by giving the necessary orders for particular attention and vigilance upon this occasion; and in case of an attempt by the populace to possess themselves of the arms, is to call out the military, orders having been issued to the Secretary-at-War to support the civil magistrate upon every necessary occasion.
Most Gracious Sovereign,
We, your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the Freeholders of the County of Middlesex, beg leave, with all affectionate submission and humility, to throw ourselves atyour royal feet, and humbly to implore your paternal attention to those grievances of which this county and the whole nation complain, and those fearful apprehensions with which the whole British Empire is most justly alarmed.
With great grief and sorrow we have long beheld the endeavours of certain evil-minded persons, who attempt to infuse into your royal mind notions and opinions of the most dangerous and pernicious tendency, and who promote and counsel such measures as cannot fail to destroy that harmony and confidence which should ever subsist between a just and virtuous prince and a free and loyal people.
For this disaffected purpose they have introduced into every part of the administration of our happy legal constitution a certain unlimited and indefinite discretionary power, to prevent which is the sole aim of all our laws, and was the sole cause of all those disturbances and revolutions which formerly distracted this unhappy country; for our ancestors, by their own fatal experience, well knew that in a state where discretion begins, law, liberty, and safety end. Under the pretence of this discretion, or, as it was formerly, and has been lately, called, Law of state, we have seen
English subjects, and even a member of the British Legislature, arrested by virtue of a general warrant issued by a secretary of state, contrary to the law of the land.
Their houses rifled and plundered, their papers seized, and used as evidence upon trial.
Their bodies committed to close imprisonment.
The Habeas Corpus eluded.
Trial by jury discountenanced, and the first law officer of the crown publicly insinuating that juries are not to be trusted.
Printers punished by the ministry in the supreme court without a trial by their equals, without any trial at all.
The remedy of the law for false imprisonment debarred and defeated.
The plaintiff and his attorney, for their appeal to the law of the land, punished by expenses and imprisonment, andmade, by forced engagements, to desist from their legal claim.
A writing determined to be a libel by a court where it was not cognizable in the first instance; contrary to law, because all appeal is thereby cut off, and inferior courts and juries influenced by such predetermination.
A person condemned in the said courts as the author of the supposed libel, unheard, without defence or trial.
Unjust treatment of petitions, by selecting only such parts as might be wrested to criminate the petitioner, and refusing to hear those which might procure him redress.
The thanks of one branch of the Legislature proposed by a minister to be given to an acknowledged offender for his offence, with the declared intention of screening him from the law.
Attachments wrested from their original intent of removing obstructions to the proceedings of law, to punish by sentence of arbitrary fine and imprisonment, without trial or appeal, supposed offences committed out of court.
Perpetual imprisonment of an Englishman without trial, conviction, or sentence, by the same mode of attachment, wherein the same person is at once party, accuser, judge, and jury.
Instead of the ancient and legal civil police, the military introduced at every opportunity, unnecessarily and unlawfully patrolling the streets, to the alarm and terror of the inhabitants.
The lives of many of your Majesty’s innocent subjects destroyed by military execution.
Such military execution solemnly adjudged to be legal.
Murder abetted, encouraged, and rewarded.
The civil magistracy rendered contemptible by the appointment of improper and incapable persons.
The civil magistrates tampered with by administration, and neglecting and refusing to discharge their duty.
Mobs and riots hired and raised by the ministry, in order to justify and recommend their own illegal proceedings, and toprejudice your Majesty’s mind by false insinuations against the loyalty of your Majesty’s subjects.
The freedom of election violated by corrupt and undue influence, by unpunished violence and murder.
The just verdicts of juries and the opinion of the judges overruled by false representations to your Majesty; and the determinations of the law set aside, by new, unprecedented, and dangerous means; thereby leaving the guilty without restraint, and the injured without redress, and the lives of your Majesty’s subjects at the mercy of every ruffian protected by administration.
Obsolete and vexatious claims of the crown set on foot for partial and election purposes.
Partial attacks on the liberty of the press, the most daring and pernicious libels against the constitution and against the liberty of the subject being allowed to pass unnoticed, whilst the slightest libel against a minister is punished with the utmost rigour.
Wicked attempts to increase and establish a standing army, by endeavouring to vest in the crown an unlimited power over the militia, which, should they succeed, must, sooner or later, subvert the constitution, by augmenting the power of administration in proportion to their delinquency.
Repeated endeavours to diminish the importance of members of parliament individually, in order to render them more dependent on administration collectively. Even threats having been employed by ministers to suppress the freedom of debate; and the wrath of parliament denounced against measures authorized by the law of the land.
Resolutions of one branch of the legislature set up as the law of the land, being a direct usurpation of the rights of the two other branches, and therefore a manifest infringement of the constitution.
Public money shamefully squandered and unaccounted for, and all inquiry into the cause of arrears in the civil list prevented by the ministry.
Inquiry into a paymaster’s public accounts stopped in theexchequer, though the sums accounted for by that paymaster amount to above forty millions sterling.
Public loans perverted to private ministerial purposes.
Prostitution of public honours and rewards to men who can neither plead public virtue nor services.
Irreligion and immorality, so eminently discountenanced by your Majesty’s royal example, encouraged by administration, both by example and precept.
The same discretion has been extended by the same evil counsellors to your Majesty’s dominions in America, and has produced to our suffering fellow-subjects in that part of the world grievances and apprehensions similar to those which we complain of at home.
Most Gracious Sovereign,
Such are the grievances and apprehensions which have long discontented and disturbed the greatest and best part of your Majesty’s loyal subjects. Unwilling, however, to interrupt your royal repose, though ready to lay down our lives and fortunes for your Majesty’s service, and for the constitution as by law established, we have waited patiently, expecting a constitutional remedy by the means of our own representatives, but our legal and free choice having been repeatedly rejected, and the right of election now finally taken from us by the unprecedented seating of a candidate who was never chosen by the county, and who, even to become a candidate, was obliged fraudulently to vacate his seat in parliament, under the pretence of an insignificant place, invited thereto by the prior declaration of a minister, that whoever opposed our choice, though but with four votes, should be declared member for the county. We see ourselves, by this last act, deprived even of the franchises of Englishmen, reduced to the most abject state of slavery, and left without hopes or means of redress but from your Majesty or God.
Deign then, most gracious Sovereign, to listen to the prayer of the most faithful of your Majesty’s subjects; and to banish from your royal favour, trust, and confidence, for ever, thoseevil and pernicious counsellors who have endeavoured to alienate the affection of your Majesty’s most sincere and dutiful subjects, and whose suggestions tend to deprive your people of their dearest and most essential rights, and who have traitorously dared to depart from the spirit and letter of those laws which have secured the crown of these realms to the House of Brunswick, in which we make our most earnest prayers to God that it may continue untarnished to the latest posterity.
Signed by 1565 Freeholders.
At a Common Council holden on the 14th of May, 1770, it was resolved: “That the grateful thanks of this court be presented to the Right Hon. William Earl of Chatham, for the zeal he has shown in support of those most valuable and sacred privileges, the right of election, and the right of petition; and for his wishes and declaration, that his endeavours shall hereafter be used that parliaments may be restored to their original purity, by shortening their duration, and introducing a more full and equal representation, an act which will render his name more honoured by posterity than the memorable successes of the glorious war he conducted.”
To this vote of thanks the Earl of Chatham made the following reply to the committee deputed to present it to his Lordship:
Gentlemen,
It is not easy for me to give expression to all I feel on the extraordinary honour done to my public conduct by the city of London; a body so highly respectable on every account, but above all, for their constant assertion of the birthrights of Englishmen in every great crisis of the constitution.
In our present unhappy situation my duty shall be, on all proper occasions, to add the zealous endeavours of an individual to those legal exertions of constitutional rights, which, to their everlasting honour, the city of London has made in defence of freedom of election and freedom of petition, and for obtaining effectual reparation to the electors of Great Britain.
As to the point among the declarations which I am understood to have made, of my wishes for the public, permit me to say there has been some misapprehension, for with all my deference to the sentiments of the city, I am bound to declare, that I cannot recommend triennial parliaments4as a remedy against that canker of the constitution, venality in elections; but I am ready to submit my opinion to better judgment if the wish for that measure shall become prevalent in the kingdom. Purity of parliament is the corner-stone in the commonwealth; and as one obvious means towards this necessary end is to strengthen and extend the natural relation between the constituents and the elected, I have, in this view, publicly expressed my earnest wishes for a more full and equal representation by the addition of one knight of the shire in a county, as a further balance to the mercenary boroughs.
I have thrown out this idea with the just diffidence of a private man when he presumes to suggest anything new on a high matter. Animated by your approbation, I shall with better hope continue humbly to submit it to the public wisdom, as an object most deliberately to be weighed, accurately examined, and maturely digested.
Having many times, when in the service of the crown, and when retired from it, experienced, with gratitude, the favour of my fellow-citizens, I am now particularly fortunate, that, with their good liking, I can offer anything towards upholding this wisely-combined frame of mixed government against the decays of time, and the deviations incident to all human institutions; and I shall esteem my life honoured indeed, ifthe city of London can vouchsafe to think that my endeavours have not been wanting to maintain the national honour, to defend the colonies, and extend the commercial greatness of my country, as well as to preserve from violation the law of the land, and the essential rights of the constitution.
1. The Earl of Chatham having asserted, on Tuesday last, in the House of Lords, that Gibraltar was open to an attack from the sea, and that, if the enemy were masters of the bay, the place could not make any long resistance, he was answered in the following words by that great statesman the Earl of Sandwich:—“Supposing the noble Lord’s argument to be well founded, andsupposing Gibraltar to be now unluckily taken, still, according to the noble Lord’s own doctrine, it would be no great matter. For although we are not masters of the sea at present, we probably shall be so some time or other, and then, my Lords, there will be no difficulty in retaking Gibraltar.” N.B. This Earl is a privy counsellor, and appeared to have concerted this satisfactory answer with Peg Trentham at the fire-side.
2. Sir Edward Hawke, on Wednesday last, gave the House of Commons a very pompous account of the fleet. Being asked why, if our navy was so numerous and ready for service, a squadron was not sent to Gibraltar and the West Indies? his answer was candid:—“That for his part he did not understand sending ships abroad when, for aught he knew, they might be wanted to defend our own coast.” Such is the care taken of our possessions abroad! One great minister tells us they may be easily retaken; another assures us thatthey cannot be defended. Will that man who sleepeth never awake until destruction comes upon him? Has he no friend, no servant, to draw his curtain, until Troy is actually in flames?
3. Lord North informed the House of Commons on Wednesday that, although he wished for an honourable accommodation, he thought it his duty to tell the House, that he fearedwar was too probable; that he intended to move for a further augmentation of ten thousand seamen, and that, at any rate, he should advise the keeping up the naval and military force upon the augmented establishment, for that, notwithstanding the language held by the French and Spanish ministers, there was, all over France and Spain, the greatest appearance of hostile preparations.
4. The riot in the House of Lords has shocked the delicacy of Sir Fletcher Norton. Upon occasion of some clamour yesterday, he called to them, with all the softness of a bassoon,Pray, gentlemen, be orderly; you are almost as bad as the other House.
5. On Tuesday last, Lord Camden delivered into the House of Lords a paper containing three questions, relative to the doctrine laid down in Lord Mansfield’s paper, which he desired that Lord would answer, if he could. Lord Mansfield was very angry at being taken by surprise upon a subject he had never had an opportunity of considering, and said that he valued the constitutional liberty of the subject too much toanswer interrogatories.
22 Jan.—The disorders in the colonies do not seem to have been caused by the defects in the forms or constitutions of government. They have not prevailed in proportion as onehas been under a more popular form of government than another. They must be attributed to a cause, common to all the colonies,—a loose, false, and absurd notion of the nature of government, spread by designing, artful men, setting bounds to the supreme authority, and admitting parts of the community, and even individuals, to judge when those bounds are exceeded, and to obey or disobey accordingly. These principles prevailing, there can be no interior force exerted, and disorder and confusion must be the effect; and when there is no apprehension of force from the supreme authority, the effect is the same in the distinct parts as in the whole. Under these circumstances measures for reforming the constitution of any people will probably be ineffectual, and tend to increase their disorders. The colonies were under these circumstances when he wrote his first private letter. There was a general opinion prevailing that they could distress the kingdom by withdrawing their commerce from it, and that there was not the least danger of any compulsory measures. In this colony there was room to hope for a change of circumstances, but it was uncertain, and probably at a distance. They had just felt the shock of that most fortunate stroke which freed the Castle from any dependence upon the people, and kept the harbour and town of Boston under the command of the King’s ships; but the effects did not appear. He was striving for a just decision in the case of the soldiers, and not without hope, but far from being certain of success. There was a prospect of the dissolution of the confederacies against importation, though several of the colonies appeared to be more resolute. There was also an expectation of a rupture between Great Britain and France or Spain, or both, which would tend to show the people their dependence on the kingdom, and the reasonableness of their submission to the supreme authority. He was not insensible of the peculiar defects in the constitution of this province, and he has complained of the Council as being under undue influence, and casting their weight into that scale which had much too great proportion before; but was doubtful himself, and there were othersdoubtful also, whether, while the body of the people continued in the state they were then in, councillors appointed by the Crown would dare to undertake the trust; or, if they should do it, whether the people in general would not refuse to submit to their authority; and he feared the consequences of either would more than countervail the advantages to arise merely from an alteration in the constitution. To this must be attributed the want of determination which appeared in his private letters, and not to any unwillingness to trust his Lordship with his real sentiments.
The change in the temper of the people has been brought about sooner, and to a greater degree, than anybody could expect; and they seem now to be as well prepared to receive such a change in the constitution as at any future time; or, if it should be deferred, they will probably remain in tolerably good order until such time as may be judged convenient, provided something is done in the meantime to discover the resentment of the kingdom against their avowed principles and practices, which shall give them cause to imagine that further measures are to be taken with them. Such resentment has been everywhere expected. If omitted, they will go back to their former disorders. That wise step of changing the garrison at the Castle began their cure. In the height of this confusion a citadel upon Fort Hill seemed also to be necessary. Now thinks the same end is answered without it. It may, however, be proper for the King to have the actual possession of the spot, either by erecting a warehouse or magazine, or by making some kind of enclosure to restrain encroachments, and yet not prevent the inhabitants from using the place to walk and air themselves in; as they now frequently do. There is a vote of the town for selling it. Will watch their motions, and, if anything further is attempted, will take public notice of it. If no further advances are made for securing good behaviour, there certainly will be no receding. To depart suddenly from what has been done at the Castle, &c., would be very dangerous. Every Act of Parliament carried into execution in the colonies tends tostrengthen Government there. A firm persuasion that Parliament is determined at all events to maintain the supreme authority is all they want; few or none are so weak as to question the power to do it. If Acts were passed more or less to control them every Session, they would soon be familiarized to them; their erroneous opinions would die away, and peace and order would revive. An Act to enable the King to alter the bounds of the province by his commission, the charter notwithstanding, by making the province of Main, and country east of it, a distinct and separate province, and to annex or not, as His Majesty should think fit, New Hampshire to the Massachusetts, or to separate the country east of Penobscot and annex it to Nova Scotia, might either be kept as a rod over them, or, if executed immediately, would show a just resentment against the province for countenancing the intrusions in the eastern country, whereby the King’s timber is exposed to waste and havoc, and would be a striking instance of the power and authority of Parliament. Gives his reasons for thinking that the Act would be executed. Suggests that whenever the charter and case of the province comes under consideration, instead of expressly declaring that the power of electing councillors by the Assembly shall determine, the King should be enabled by his Royal order of declaration to determine it, and to appoint a Council instead, as he shall think proper. The late Act permitting the issue of bills of credit at New York was extremely well adapted to maintain the authority of Parliament.
Makes application in behalf of Capt. Phillips, the late commanding officer, who is by far the greatest sufferer of any belonging to the late garrison.
Is taking every measure, consistent with the honour of Government, to reconcile civil and military, whigs and tories. They begin to be sensible that it must be a very bad constitution indeed which is not preferable to the savage state they have been in for some years past.—Boston. Private. R. 30th March.