Homeric war when demi-gods rail, and wound one another. Astrea was in the right to leave earth, when other divinities tread in mortal paths, and in such dirty ones. We, that have quitted the theatre, are a little scandalized at such doings, of whatever side one is. I wish well to my country, but I wish too that my countrymen deserved wishes a little better. The Court still holds out; but there is no recovering the ground that is lost. An Opposition so successful will not loiter at Capua. All the mercenaries with follow Sir Fletcher, and pretend it is the cry of the nation that they obey. The longer, too, the citadel is maintained, the more impatient the people will be to have it taken, and the more they will be excited to expect it. In short, a speedy change is the best event that can happen. Passions are so heated, that a little may set them in a blaze; and, though reformation may be the cause, it is not good that reformers should be in a rage before they begin their work. They undo more than they can repair, punish without trial, and disgrace the service before they have effected it. It is the nature, too, of human torrents to turn round like whirlpools; but, as I have not time to tell you more facts, I certainly have none to make reflections, which age, taking itself for wisdom, is mighty apt to dispense. My letter is short, but that is all that is necessary to preparatives. I declare, in spite of my wisdom, that I do not guess what will happen. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem; but what the Pharisees or Sadducees will do next, I do not know. LETTER CCCXXVI. Berkeley Square, March 21, 1780. THE Court-stock, that last week was eight under par, is got up again to fifty-three above par. Yesterday, on Burke's Bill, the debate was on the King's Household; the clause for cashiering which was rejected at one in the morning by a majority of fifty-three," though the moment before that question the Ministers had been forced to let the Contractor's Bill pass without a division. Still the career of the Opposition is certainly a little checked, and I think will not recover by the recess at Easter, when the Court can work more efficaciously than they for they will separate, and the Court can work on separate men; and will not only have recovered spirits from this last advantage, but from being thunderstruck by the rapid progress of the spirit in the country. Other causes have contributed to lower the Opposition; causes arising from themselves. The profligate and blundering impudence of the Speaker gave the hardly ever been exhibited in the House. The complaint and conduct of the Speaker was commented upon in a strain of bitter sarcasm and ironical satire by Mr. Wedderburn, the law-officer alluded to.-ED. * The clause was rejected by 211 against 158.-ED. first shock. This was immediately followed by as dishonourable an attack on the same person, Lord North, by Temple Lutterell, one of the brothers of the Duchess of Cumberland, who brought a direct charge against the Minister for buying a borough, which Lutterell thought he himself had bought. He made his own corrupt practice very clear, and could not prove a tittle against Lord North. The accusation was voted frivolous.* The Opposition, too, had thought to carry every thing sword in hand, and, owing their late progress to the country petitions, they affected to transfer Parliamentary power to the associations, who were very ready to affect Parliamentary airs, and accordingly assumed cognizance of matters actually pending in Parliament. This has offended moderate men; and many, who approved the petitions, were alarmed at the associations-with good reason for the deputation, composed of three members of each committee, which is assembled in London, are going to take large strides indeed, and intend to propose to their several counties to demand annual Parliaments, and to alter the mode of representation. The first would be an alteration of the Constitution, and the last a most dangerous violation of it; and very sorry should I be to see either attempted. Lord Rockingham, the Cavendishes, and that connexion, strenuously resist these innovations. Lord Shelburne and Charles Fox push them impetuously, though at first both opposed them but the first will stick at nothing to gratify his ambition; and the latter must stick at nothing, so desperate is his situation. Thus, instead of trying soberly to correct and restore the Constitution, we are leaping at once to improving upon it; and thus the national spirit that had arisen, and might have done some service, will be wasted in chimerical projects, and only sow altercation. However, negative good it must have done, for it has checked profusion and waste; and has shown the Court that the lion was dormant, but not toothless. You will perceive, perhaps, that my conjectures and prognostics vary; and it is natural you should conclude that I form my reasonings from the moment. So I do; that is I conjecture from present appearances, but I reason from the causes that make appearances vary. Bodies of men, multitudes, do not act upon one regular system; in the present case, the committees started out of the earth, were not set on foot by the leaders of the Opposition, and will not be led by them, at least till they have been humoured by them for some time. Besides, their own leaders may not have just the same views as the Parliamentary leaders; and, the more articles either or both frame for the political creed in which they are to agree, into the more sects they will spilt. So much the better, if any part would violate the Constitution. It is good that the Court should know it will be resisted if it attempts against the Constitution: but as no country ever yet had so good a one, though not perfect, I do The words of the amendment, which was moved by Mr. Holroyd, afterwards Lord Sheffield, were, "that the charge brought against Lord North was ill-founded and injurious." It was agreed to without a division.-ED. VOL. II.-13 not desire any body should mend it; because I do not know that they will not make more errors than they found, and I have not so high an opinion of the virtue or wisdom of the present age as to discern the sublime legislators who can improve the system laid down at the Revolution. To that point let us always return when necessary. It will be time enough to make improvements afterwards. Observe, this letter is but a week younger than my last. Your nephew says you complained of my silence, but owned it was occasioned by the delay of two or three posts. I never was so diligent. Now I shall relax a little. The Parliament will go into Easter quarters the day after to-morrow for ten days, and I shall go out of town on Friday. It will be a grim repose* for them; but at least you will not expect events in the holidays. It will be better that we should run into speculative controversies than into a civil war; we are every day on the point of single combats. Yesterday one was very near between Lord Shelburne and Mr. Fullarton, Lord Stormont's late secretary at Paris ;† for I assure you, terms are no more managed than in the Senate of Rome, where duels were not the fashion. Well! good night; or I should be too late for the post. LETTER CCCXXVII. Strawberry Hill, April 8, 1780. THE return of the Parliament will naturally make you impatient for a letter, though you will not have expected so much as this will announce. As I am not going to write a romance or an epic poem, I will not keep your attention in suspense, but tell you at once that the Court has received a signal defeat already; in which, as well as in the preparations for the engagement, their generals have manifested strange negligence and want of conduct. On Wednesday, on the question of the new-raised regiments, in "Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes; Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm ; Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his ev'ning prey." GRAY'S bard. † After being Lord Stormont's private secretary at Paris, Mr. Fullarton was elevated to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the army, and appointed to the command of a newly-raised regiment. The Earl of Shelburne animadverted severely on the circumstance in the House of Lords, and, in the course of his speech, desig nated Mr. Fullarton as a mere clerk, a commis. The latter complained of the insult in his place in the House of Commons; but, the House declining to proceed upon it, the "single combat" anticipated by Walpole took place in Hyde Park, on the 22nd of March.-ED. which Mr. Fullarton's was comprised, the Ministers carried them in the House of Commons by a majority of nearly forty.* The next day was appointed for consideration of the Petitions from the counties and towns; about forty of which, on vast parchments subscribed by thousands of names, were heaped on the table. The Opposition had kept secret their intended motions. The very first, made by Mr. Dunning, was a thundering one: The words were, "That the influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished." The walls could not believe their own ears; they had not heard such language since they had a wainscot. The Ministers, as if this winter were at all like the five last, poorly tried that the chairman should leave the chair; but that would not take now. Thomas Pitt, who never spoke so well before, drew a terrible picture of the difference he had felt between his former journey abroad and his last; from what he knew of the dissimilar situations of his country, then so flourishing now so fallen! and from what he heard foreigners say of it. This apostrophe, addressed very bitterly to Lord North, threw him into a rage against the Opposition, that produced mighty tumult. The details of all this, and more, you will see in the papers. I have not room for particulars. In short, late at night Mr. Dunning's motion was carried by 233 to 215, and, as uncommonly, was instantly reported to the House.† The blow seems to me decisive; for this committee is to continue sitting on the petitions, will exclude any other business, will extract from the petitions whatever propositions it pleases, may ground on those what charges it has a mind, and will carry along all those who have already voted on that foundation; so that, if the Ministers attempt to make a farther stand, nothing seems so probable as their being personally accused. To combat on the same field of battle after being vanquished, will, in my opinion, be phrenzy. It is to prevent very great mischief that I heartily wish them to retreat before it is too late. The Constitution is vigorous enough, when a sudden turn of the tide can, in three months, sweep away a deep-rooted Administration. A torrent opposed may damage the foundation of the Constitution itself. These are my apprehensions; but whoever would preach to two * The numbers on the division were 102 against 66.—Ed. The motion made by Mr. Fox for immediately reporting the resolution, was opposed by Lord North, as being unusual, violent, and arbitrary; but the torrent was too strong to be resisted. The exultation and triumph on one side of the House was only equalled by the depression and dismay which prevailed on the side of Administration. "Indeed," says the able writer of the historical department of the Annual Register," when the nature and the tendency of the questions are considered, and the manner in which they were carried is attentively viewed, scarcely any thing more important seems to have been so proposed and carried since the Revolution. The system of the Court was shaken to its foundation. Without doors the joy and triumph in most parts of England were great and general; and, though not displayed in the same manner, would not perhaps have been exceeded en occasion of the most decisive victory over a foreign enemy."-ED. heated antagonists is sure of being listened to by neither, and so am come hither quietly to ponder my own reflections. Whoever has seen much, and has read a little, must know that human affairs are subject to these returns of troubles. Great or little, they strike the present spectator as infinitely more momentous than any greater crisis, of which he has only read coolly. I do not pretend that this is a common or small moment; nay, it may have very distant consequences. But one so calm as I am grown, and so retired as I live, knows that even the disorders of nations subside after a time, and therefore I have at least as much curiosity for the conclusion as observation on the events as they pass; though considering my age and caducity, my curiosity may happen not to be gratified. Well! all one's own time is but a portion of an unfinished history. One does not come on the stage precisely as a memorable period commences, nor quit it just when the curtain drops. Every one is to the history of his country like his own hairs to himself,-millions fall before the body is worn out. The orator Dr. Jebb* is not the physician, but his brother. I shall stop here, because this is not to set out till Tuesday; and as I shall return to town on Monday which probably will be no neutral day, I shall reserve the rest of my paper for its contingencies. Oh! I had forgotten that in my last I spoke of Lord Shelburne and Mr. Fullarton as having been likely to fight. My letter was scarcely on horseback before they did fight, as you have seen in the papers. The Earl was wounded in the groin, just where Charles Fox was; on which Sir George Savile said wittily, that Adam and Fullarton had tried not only to cut off them, but their posterity. It was odd that the same pistols gave both wounds, for Adam had borrowed Fullarton's. April 11th. Religious prophets were more prudent than I; they commonly formed their predictions after events, not before. Would not one have thought that I, who have often denied myself guesses, should have been on my guard against soothsaying?-yet here am I already caught, and the dupe of my own penetration: not but the Administration was beaten again yesterday; yet only by twot-just enough to contradict this letter, and bring poor me to shame: in short, nothing is consistent for two days. Fluctuation is the ruling dæmon of the times-and * Dr. John Jebb, eldest son of Dr. John Jebb, Dean of Cashel, and brother of Sir Richard, the physician, was a man much celebrated among the violent partisans for unbounded liberty, religious and political. He was a warm friend to the cause of the Americans, a strenuous advocate for annual parliaments and universal suffrage, a writer in newspapers, and a speaker at public meetings. He died in 1786, and, in the following year, his theological, medical, political, and miscellaneous works were published, in three volumes, by Dr. Disney.-ED. The division on this occasion was 215 to 213. It took place upon Mr. Dunning's motion, that it was incompatible with the independence of Parliament, that persons holding certain offices at Court should be entitled to hold seats in the House of Commons.-ED. |