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CHAPTER XXXVI.

Speeches of the Marquis of Rockingham, the Duke of Grafton, and Lord Chatham, on the State of the Nation-Union of Lord Chatham with Lord Rockingham-Duke of Grafton resigns.

On the twenty-second of January, the Marquis of Rockingham moved for fixing a day to take into consideration the state of the nation.

*

The object of his Lordship's speech was to shew, that the present unhappy condition of affairs, and the universal discontent of the people, did not arise from any immediate temporary cause, but had grown upon us by degrees, from the moment of his Majesty's accession to the throne. That the persons in whom his Majesty then confided had introduced a total change in the old system of English Government-that they had adopted a maxim which must prove fatal to the liberties of

*This speech, the answer of the Duke of Grafton, and Lord Chatham's reply, are printed from the notes of the same Gentleman who communicated the three preceding speeches, made on the first day of the session. They have none of them been printed before. It was necessary to insert Lord Rockingham's and the Duke of Grafton's speeches, because they are introductory to Lord Chatham's.

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this country, viz. "That the Royal Prerogative alone was sufficient to support Government, to whatever hands the administration should be committed;" and he could trace the operation of this principle through every act of Government since the accession; in which those persons could be supposed to have any influence. Their first exertion of the prerogative was to make a peace contrary to the wishes of the nation, and on terms totally disproportioned to the successes of the war; but as they felt themselves unequal to the conduct of a war, they thought a peace, on any conditions, necessary for their own security and permanence in Administration. He then took notice of those odious tyrannical acts of power, by which an approbation of the peace had been obtained. And he mentioned the general sweep through every branch and department of Administration: the removes not merely confined to the higher employments, but carried down, with the minutest cruelty, to the lowest offices of the state; and numberless innocent families, which had subsisted on salaries from fifty to two hundred pounds a year, turned out to misery and ruin, with as little regard to the rules of justice, as to the common feelings of compassion. That their ideas of taxation were marked by the same principle. The argument urged for taxing the cyder counties, viz. "The equity of placing them on the same footing with others,

where malt liquors were chiefly used," was too obvious to escape the attention of former ministers; but former ministers paid more regard to the liberties of the people, than to the improvement of the revenue. That the object of the cyder act, or the effect of it, at least was not so much to increase the revenue, as to extend the laws of excise, and open the doors of private men to the offices of the Crown.

• Without entering into the right of taxing America, it was evident, that since the revenue expected to arise from that measure was allowed to be very inconsiderable, the real purpose of government must have been to increase the number of their officers in that country, and consequently the strength of the prerogative.

'He then took notice of the indecent manner with which the debt upon the King's Civil List had been laid before, and provided for, by Parlia ment. No account offered-No enquiry permitted to be made-Not even the decent satisfaction given to Parliament of an assurance that in future such extraordinary expences should be avoided. On the contrary, the King's speech on that occasion had been so cautiously worded, that, far from engaging to avoid such exceedings for the future, it intimated plainly that the expences of the King's

civil government could not be confined within the revenue granted by Parliament-That as the nation was heavily burthened by the expence, they were no less grossly insulted by the manner in which that burthen was laid upon them. That, in certain grants lately made by the crown, the ministry had adhered to their principle of carrying the prerogative to its utmost extent. No right of property-no continuance of possession had been considered. But, if these had been weaker than they were, he thought some respect was due to the memory of the great Prince by whom these grants had been made; and, in common justice to the noble Duke*; whose property had been invaded, the ministry should, at least, have avoided that hurry and precipitation, which had hardly left his Grace time to defend his rights; and by which the ministry themselves seemed to confess their measures would not bear a more deliberate mode of proceeding. But the purposes of an election were to be served; and the person, benefited by this measure, was supposed to be a better friend to administration than the noble Duke, whose property had been arbitrarily transferred to another. And when, upon occasion of this extraordinary measure, and to quiet the minds of the people, a bill had been brought into parliament for securing the property

* Duke of Portland.

of the subject, it had been rejected the first year, and violently resisted the second; but the justice and necessity of it had prevailed over the influence, and favourite maxims of the administration. That the affairs of the external part of the empire had been managed with the same want of wisdom, and had been brought into nearly the same condition with those at home. In Ireland, he saw the parliament prorogued, (which probably led to a dissolution) and the affairs of that kingdom left unprovided for, and in the greatest confusion. That in America measures of violence had been adopted, and it had been the uniform language and doctrine of the ministry to force that country to submit. That, in his own opinion, violence would not do there, and he hoped it would not do here. But even if a plan of force were adviseable, why had it not been adhered to? Why did they not adopt and abide by some one system of conduct? That the King's speeches and the language of the ministry at home had denounced nothing but war and vengeance against a rebellious people, whilst his Majesty's governors abroad were instructed to convey to them the gentlest promises of relief and satisfaction. His Lordship here referred to Lord Bottetort's speech to the assembly of Virginia, in May 1769, out of which he recited a passage in point. The passage was this" I think myself peculiarly fortunate to be able to inform you, that by

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