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CHAP.
CLIX.

Prorogation and dissolution of parlia

ment.

Lines in the

Rolliad on Thurlow with reference to the stealing of the Great Seal.

March 25.

1784.

Mr. Pitt

on the ap

From the Council at St. James's His Majesty immediately proceeded to the House of Lords, and the Commons being summoned (the Lord Chancellor standing on his right hand, holding the new Great Seal in the old purse), thus pronounced the doom of the Coalitionists:

"My Lords and Gentlemen, on a full consideration of the present situation of affairs and of the extraordinary circumstances which have produced it, I am induced to put an end to this session of parliament; and I feel it a duty which I owe to the constitution and to the country in such a situation, to recur as speedily as possible to the sense of my people by calling a new parliament."

In allusion to this theft of the Great Seal, the Rolliad, after describing the different classes of nobility in the House of Lords,—in the following lines" proceeds to take notice of the admirable person who so worthily presided in that august assembly:"

"The rugged Thurlow, who, with sullen scowl,
In surly mood, at friend and foe will growl;

Of proud prerogative the stern support,
Defends the entrance of great George's Court
'Gainst factious Whigs, lest they who stole the Seal
The sacred diadem itself should steal :

So have I seen near village butcher's stall
(If things so great may be compar'd with small)
A mastiff guarding on a market-day

"

With snarling vigilance his master's tray."

When the appeal to the people was made, the Coalitionists

Triumph of were swept away like chaff before the wind, and a House of Commons was returned, ready to do whatever Mr. Pitt peal to the should desire them, except to reform the abuses in the reprepeople. sentation of the people, a measure which he still urged earnestly and I believe sincerely.

May 18. 1784.

From the meeting of the new parliament till the question of the Regency arose, Thurlow enjoyed perfect ease, tranquillity, and security. No administration in England ever was in such a triumphant position as that of Mr. Pitt, when

• Many other jeux d'esprit were made upon the occasion, some of which I have heard from men who are now grave Judges and dignitaries in the church, but may not set down. The most popular was a supposed dialogue between the Chancellor and a lady of his family.

CLIX.

after the opposition it had encountered, the nation applauding CHAP. the choice of the Crown, declared in its favour, and e Coalition leaders, with their immense talents, family interest, and former popularity, found difficulty to obtain seats in the House of Commons.

House of Lords.

While Mr. Fox, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Sheridan kept up Calm in the some smart debates in the House of Commons upon the Westminster scrutiny and other subjects, the House of Lords usually only met to adjourn. * However there was a little show of resistance there to Mr. Pitt's India bill, Lord Stormont objecting to its proceeding in the absence of the law Lords; but the Lord Chancellor caused much merriment by showing "that of the six there was only one absent from being entangled in the discharge of professional duty;" and the general opinion was, that the opportunity should not be lost of getting quietly on with the second reading. There was only one division on the bill-when (to prove the little interest which the subject now excited) the numbers were 11 to 4.† The Chancellor likewise condescended to defend Feeble opagainst a sharp attack of Lord Loughborough Mr. Pitt's famous bill for commuting the tax on tea ‡, for one on windows,—ably demonstrating the advantages of low duties and free trade. § However, before the conclusion of this session, he showed symptoms of that waywardness of temper or rather dislike of Mr. Pitt, which broke out from time to time, and at last caused his removal from office.

position to

Mr. Pitt's

India Bill,

1784.

Thurlow

Government bill

Mr. Dundas, as the organ of the Government, had brought Aug. 16. in a bill, which Mr. Pitt supported in an able speech, and which passed the Commons without the slightest opposition, opposes a for restoring the estates in Scotland, which had been forfeited in the rebellion of 1745, to the heirs of the former owners respecting who had been attainted. But when it stood in the orders of feited the day for a second reading in the House of Lords, the estates in

* Now was uttered the sarcasm on their Lordships, which may still be repeated. Scene below the Bar. 1st Mob. " How sleepy the Lords are!" — 2d Mob. "No wonder; they rise so early."

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the for

Scotland.

CHAP
CLIX.

66

Lord Chancellor left the woolsack, and, instead of opening it, as was expected, and moving that it be read a second time, to the great amazement of all his hearers, spoke as follows: My Lords, I desire to know what there is to render it neces sary that a bill of such magnitude should pass so suddenly at the very close of the session? I speak of this bill as a private man, for I know nothing of it as a minister. I do lament that I never heard of it till it had been read a first time in the other House. Since then, considering my various avocations, noble Lords will easily believe that I have not had time to consider it with sufficient attention. I must confess, my Lords, I think it would have been more regular if the bill had originated in this House, or with the King himself. In that case I might have been favoured with some prior intimation of the grounds on which, it seems, his Majesty has been advised to relax the severity of the laws against treason, framed for the public tranquillity. Bills of remission and lenity have almost invariably been introduced by a message from the Crown to this House. I will not attempt to argue at length against the bill, for all arguments would be vain if the Government be resolved to carry it." He contended, however, that "by a settled maxim of the British constitution, nothing was an adequate punishment for treason, a crime leading to the subversion of government, but the total eradication of the traitor, his name, and family, from the society he had injured. Fecit hæc sapientia quondam. This was the wisdom of former times. This was the rule of conduct laid down and invariably acted upon. But if a more enlightened age thinks otherwise, I hope equal liberality is to be shown to the heirs of those attainted in former rebellions." He likewise objected strongly to a clause in the bill, for applying part of the accumulated fund arising from the rents of these estates to the completion of the Forth and Clyde Canal, which he denounced as a job, and thus concluded: "I am far from imputing any improper motive to those from whom the measure comes. I know them well, and know their honour to be equal to their great abilities; but it is incumbent on me, sitting on the woolsack, to look with an unbiassed mind to every measure that comes before the House, from whatever quarter, and scrupu

CLIX.

lously to form my judgment upon it according to the principles CHAP. of justice and equity. Possibly I may stand single in my sentiments respecting this bill; but I think it my duty to deliver them." He did not venture to divide ; or very likely the Lord Chancellor would have been in the novel situation of having no one to appoint teller on his own side. The bill passed without further opposition.* The probability is, that the supposed affront arose from the measure being thought so unobjectionable, that the Chancellor, to save the trouble, was not consulted about it, or it might have been discussed at a cabinet when he was asleep. His belief that the King was so devotedly attached to him, made him careless about pleasing or displeasing the minister, and encouraged him to take liberties with the House, and with all public men. †

Thurlow supports

free trade

In the session of 1785, notwithstanding his former oppo- the resolu sition to the same policy, Thurlow now strenuously sup- tions for ported the propositions for a commercial union with Ireland, whe which do so much honour to the memory of Mr. Pitt, and land. not only show that he was disposed to govern that country with justice and liberality, but that, being the first disciple of Adam Smith who had been in power, he thoroughly understood, and was resolved to carry into effect, the principles of free trade. The Chancellor treated with infinite contempt the witnesses who appeared at the bar to prove the ruin which would overtake the manufactures of England if the manufactures of Ireland, where labour was so cheap, might come into competition with them. He spared Peel, the head of the cotton-spinners, but he said, that "while the great Wedgwood was a distinguished potter, he was a very bad politician.” ‡

* 24 Parl. Hist. 1363-1373.

We may know what his opponents at this time thought might be plausibly imputed to him from the jeu d'esprit in the " Rolliad," entitled "The POLITICAL RECEIPT BOOK for the year 1784."

"How to make a Chancellor."

He should

"Take a man of great abilities, with a heart as black as his countenance. Let him possess a rough inflexibility, without the least tincture of generosity or affection, and be as manly as oaths and ill manners can make him. be a man who will act politically with all parties,-hating and deriding every one of the individuals who compose them."- Rolliad, 22d ed. p. 430.

25 Parl. Hist. 820-885.

Recipe for making a Chancellor.

CHAP.
CLIX.

Jan. 24. 1786.

March 6. 1787.

genne's treaty defended by Thurlow.

When Parliament met, in the beginning of 1786, notwithstanding the general tranquillity and the returning prosperity of the nation, an attack was made, by Lord Loughborough, upon Ministers, respecting their Irish and their Indian policy, but Lord Thurlow defended both very vigorously, and the address was carried without a division.* The opposition Lords do not seem to have offered any resistance to the measures of Government during the remainder of the session. The impeachment of Mr. Hastings was the only subject which now interested the public mind, and this calling forth unexampled displays of eloquence from Burke and Sheridan, had not yet reached the Upper House.

The session of 1787, though still without any ministerial M. de Ver- crisis, was not quite so sluggish. The French commercial treaty concluded with M. de Vergennes, founded on the best principles of international policy, and calculated to draw together, by mutual benefits, two nations between whom, from prohibitory duties and rankling jealousies, there had for centuries only been a succession of wars and truces, being factiously attacked by Lord Loughborough and other opposition Peers, was violently defended by the Lord Chancellor. He, as usual, abstained from any expenditure of argument, of which, whether in judging or debating, he was ever penurious; but he asserted, and adjudged, that the treaty was an excellent treaty, and he pronounced all the objections to it to His quarrel be frivolous and vexatious. He gained a considerable, but Shelburne. undeserved, triumph over Lord Shelburne (now become Marquis of Lansdowne), who had the temerity to interrupt him. Commenting on certain observations respecting the "Family Compact" between France and Spain, and the erection of new fortifications at Cherbourg, Thurlow said, "I maintain, my Lords, that the Family Compact is a treaty which no nation on earth has a right to tell France or Spain they may not make. If Spaniards in France are to be treated as Frenchmen, and Frenchmen in Spain are to be treated as Spaniards, and there is an alliance offensive and

with Lord

*25 Parl. Hist. 995. This debate is memorable for being the first in which a legislative Union with Ireland was ever publicly proposed.

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