.1782.

GRATTAN'S CLOSING YEARS.

167

successors in Ireland have not only called, but found himwas to decline the money altogether. He was with difficulty prevailed upon by his friends to accept one half of it At the same time he framed the resolution, perhaps more lofty than wise, never, under any circumstances, to take any place or office from the Crown.

The political horizon of Ireland, seldom long free from clouds, was within a few weeks again, though less darkly, overcast. Flood was the rival of Grattan in Parliamentary eloquence, and greatly his superior in years and political standing. He viewed with bitter jealousy the popular gratitude which Grattan had earned, and he strove, not without some success, to turn the tide. He rose in the Irish House of Commons to suggest certain doubts how far the surrender of the English supremacy had been thorough and complete. The mere repeal of a declaratory law, said he, did not affect the principle, but left the law exactly where is stood before. As it happened, there were some events that seemed to give weight to his expressions. There was a silly motion by Lord Abingdon in the English House of Peers. There was a case of appeal from Ireland remaining over in the Court of King's Bench in England. This it was thought could not legally be sent back to Ireland, since it had been brought into the English Court before the Act of Repeal had passed, and it was accordingly decided by Lord Mansfield in the usual course of law. But at Dublin the cry forthwith arose, that England was resuming her pretensions; and thus, through either idle or interested doubts, in part by untoward circumstances, and in part by envious surmises, the old flame burst forth anew. In vain did Mr. Fox declare in the House of Commons (this was in December 1782), that his intention when he proposed the repeal of the 6th of George the First had been to make "a full, "complete, absolute, and perpetual surrender of the British "legislative and judicial supremacy over Ireland." In the ensuing Session, it was found requisite to quiet the alarms of the sister island by another Act, renouncing all authority

over Ireland, whether legislative or judicial, in the most positive terms that language could devise.

Amidst this renewal of the agitation, the popularity of Grattan in some degree, though most unjustly, declined. Several times did it wax and wane again during the remainder of his long career. Yet throughout the whole of it, his stainless character, his eminent abilities, and the remembrance of the great part which he had played in 1782, gained him high and spontaneous tokens of respect. One of these, which I have heard from Sir Robert Peel, will scarcely, perhaps, bear its full significance in the eyes of any not themselves engaged in public life. Sir Robert stated that he had observed during the first years he sat in Parliament, as a proof of the veneration in which Grattan had been held in the Irish House of Commons, that those gentlemen who had been Members of that House with him at Dublin, and who were now again his colleagues in London, always addressed him with a "Sir," as they would the Speaker, or a Royal Duke. That practice, said Sir Robert, was observed even by Lord Castlereagh, though at that time the leader of the House.

1782.

BILLS FOR ECONOMICAL REFORM.

169

CHAPTER LXVI.

MEASURES of reform in accordance with previous pledges, claimed the early care of the new administration. They adopted and pressed forward two Bills which had been Mr. Crewe's and Sir Philip Clerke's; the one to prevent revenue officers from voting at elections; the other to prevent contractors from sitting in the House of Commons. Both Bills passed the Lower House with no very considerable opposition; but in the Upper, the Ministers had to combat the sharp, though fruitless resistance of their own colleague, the Lord Chancellor, who not only spoke, but divided the Peers against them.*

Another step in the popular direction, was to expunge from the Journals of the House of Commons the Resolution of 1769, annulling the election of Wilkes. An annual motion to this effect having been renewed by Wilkes himself, and seconded by Mr. Byng, the other Member for Middlesex, the Ministers in general concurred; and although Mr. Fox both retained and expressed his strong objection, a large majority decided against retaining the obnoxious words.

Of much more importance was the measure which Burke had promised on Economical Reform. In the first place, a Message was brought down to both Houses from the King recommending an effectual plan of retrenchment and economy, to be carried through all branches of the Public Expenditure, and to include His Majesty's own Civil List. Lord Shelburne, who moved the Address of Thanks in the Peers, would undertake, he said, to pledge himself, that the present was not as usual a mere Ministerial Address; "it was the genuine language of the Sovereign himself, pro"ceeding from the heart.”

* Lives of the Chancellors, by Lord Campbell, vol. v. p. 548-551.

In the House of Commons, Burke was lavish of his praises. "This," he cried, "is the best of Messages to the "best of people from the best of Kings!" But though Burke might be blamed for the exuberance of his panegyric, he incurred far heavier censure shortly afterwards by the curtailment of his Bill. When his measure was brought in, it was found to spare several of those institutions against which he had inveighed with the greatest energy two years before. Thus, besides a host of smaller offices, once denounced and now retained, both the Duchies of Cornwall and of Lancaster were left wholly unreformed. Some of these modifications in his original design might no doubt be prompted by Burke's own maturer thoughts; in others it is probable that he was merely called on to fulfil the decisions of the Cabinet in which he had no share. Here was one of the many evils of excluding that great genius from the Councils of the State.

Among the offices to be abolished by this Bill, was that of the third Secretary of State, or of Secretary of State for the Colonies, which it was thought useless to keep when the Colonies themselves were gone. The Lords of Trade and Plantations, the Lords of Police in Scotland, the principal officers of the Great Wardrobe, and of the Jewel Office, the Treasurer of the Chamber, and the Cofferer of the Household, and the six Clerks of the Board of Green Cloth, were, with other rubbish, swept away. It was provided that no pension exceeding 3007. a year, should be granted to any one person, that the whole amount of the pensions granted in any one year should not exceed 6007., and that the names of the persons on whom they were bestowed, should be laid before Parliament in twenty days after the beginning of each Session, until the whole Pension List should be reduced to 90,000l. There were also most praiseworthy regulations to secure the Secret Service Money from abuses by limiting its amount, and imposing a strict oath on the Secretaries of State who dispensed it. *

* See the Act 22 Geo. iii. c. 82. In his "Letter to a Noble Lord,"

1782.

ENORMOUS PENSION TO BARRÉ.

171

To Burke's high honour, we must add, that he was far from sparing his own office. On the contrary, he brought in a separate Bill to regulate the Paymaster's department, and prevent enormous balances from accumulating in his hands, as had often happened heretofore, to the great profit of the holder of that place. It must likewise be acknowledged that the retrenchments which the main Bill effected, though curtailed, were still considerable; they amounted to upwards of 72,000l. a year. These savings were to be partly mortgaged to pay the new arrears upon the Civil List, which fell but little short of 300,000l., and which were at once discharged. On the whole, it was an excellent, as well as comprehensive, measure, and only seemed the contrary from the too loud flourish of trumpets by which it had been heralded, and from the exaggerated expectations which that flourish had raised. This measure dignifying and dignified by the great name of Burke, as it seems to a later age, passed the House of Commons at the time certainly with little or no resistance from his enemies, but with quite as little celebration from his friends. In July it reached the Peers, where Lord Thurlow found great fault with it, and again did his utmost to defeat his colleagues; happily, however, in vain.

It may be observed, that the popular effect and impression of this Bill were still further lessened through the weakness of Lord Rockingham, who, while the measure was still pending, and before therefore its enactments could legally restrain him, consented to grant enormous pensions both to Lord Ashburton and Barré. This last in its gross receipts was of no less than 3,2007. a year, - above ten times the amount which, in Lord Rockingham's own judgment as expressed in the new Bill, ought henceforth to be granted to any one person whatsoever! Still worse did this transaction seem when, before the final passing of the Bill, a letter was produced by Lord Shelburne in the House of Peers, written 1796, Burke forcibly describes the difficulties with which in this Bill he had to struggle. He adds, "I was loaded with hatred for every "thing that was withheld, and with obloquy for every thing that was "given." (Works, vol. viii. p. 30.)