The India ters dismissed. also attempt to overthrow the obnoxious majority by a sudden dissolution, the House, on the motion of Mr. Erskine, agreed to a resolution affirming the necessity of considering a suitable remedy for abuses in the government of the British dominions in the East Indies; and declaring "that this House will consider as an enemy to his country, any person who shall presume to advise his Majesty to prevent, or in any manner interrupt, the discharge of this important duty." The Commons had a right to protest against the irregular acts of the king's secret advisers; but the position assumed by ministers was indeed anomalous. It was not for them to level censures against the king himself. They should either have impeached or censured Lord Temple, or, protesting against the abuse of his Majesty's name, should have tendered their own resignation." But the strange spectacle was here exhibited, of a and minis-king plotting against his own ministers, of the ministers inveighing against the conduct of their royal master, -of the House of Commons supporting them, and condemning the king,-and of the king defying at once his ministers and the House of Commons, and trusting to his influence with the Peers. The king's tactics prevailed. On the very day on which the Commons agreed to these strong remonstrances against his interference, it was crowned with complete success. The bill was rejected by the House of Lords 3, and the next day the king followed up his advantage, by at once dismissing his ministers. To make this dismissal as 1 Parl. Hist., xxiv. 226. 2 Fox Mem., ii. 229; Lord John Russell's Life of Fox, ii. 45-48. 3 17th Dec., 1783. By a majority of 19.-Parl. Hist., xxiv. 196. 4 Mr. Fox, writing immediately afterwards, said: "We are beat in the House of Lords by such treachery on the part of the king, and such meanness on the part of his premier, contemptuous as possible, he sent a message to Lord North, and Mr. Fox, commanding them to return their seals by their under-secretaries, as an audience would be disagreeable to his Majesty. Earl Temple, who had done the king this service, was entrusted with the seals for the purpose of formally dismissing the other ministers: the man who had been the king's chief agent in defeating them, was chosen to offer them this last affront. But the battle was not yet won. The king had Mr. Pitt as struck down his ministers, though supported by a 1783. vast majority of the House of Commons: he had now to support a minister of his own choice against that majority, and to overcome it. Mr. Pitt no longer hesitated to take the post of trust and danger, which the king at once conferred upon him. His time had now come; and he resolved to give battle to an angry majority, under leaders of great talents and experience, -smarting under defeat,—and full of resentment at the unconstitutional means by which they had been overthrown. He accepted the offices of first lord of the Treasury and chancellor of the Exchequer; and the king's sturdy friend, Lord Thurlow, was reinstated as lord chancellor. Mr. Pitt had also relied upon the assistance of Earl Temple, whose zeal in the king's service was much needed in such a crisis; but that nobleman resigned the seals a few days after he had received them, assigning as his reason a desire to be free to answer any charges against him, arising out of his recent conduct.3 friends in the House of Lords, as one could not expect either from him or them."- Fox Mem., ii. 221, 253. 1 Annual Reg., xxvii. [71]; Tomline's Life of Pitt, i. 230. 2 He was intended to lead the House of Lords.-Tomline's Life of 3 Parl. Hist., xxiv. 237. As to Opposition in the Commons. Attempts a dissolu tion. The contest which the youthful premier had now to conduct, was the most arduous that had ever devolved upon any minister, since the accession of the House of Hanover. So overpowering was the majority against him, that there seemed scarcely a hope of offering it an effectual resistance. His opponents were so confident of success, that when a new writ was moved for Appleby, on his acceptance of office, the motion was received with shouts of derisive laughter. And while the presumption of the boy minister was ridiculed2, the strongest measures were immediately taken to deprive him of his authority, and to intimidate the court, whose policy he supported. Many of Mr. Pitt's advisers, despairing of his prospects with the present Parliament, counselled an immediate dissolution but the same consummate judgment and foresight which, a few months earlier, had induced him to decline office, because the time was not yet ripe for action, now led him to the conviction that he must convert public opinion to his side, before he appealed to the people. Though standing alone,-without the aid of a single cabinet minister, in the House of Commons 4, -he resolved, under every disadvantage, to meet the assaults of his opponents on their own ground; and his talents, his courage, and resources ultimately won a signal victory. : Secure of their present majority, the first object of to prevent the opposition was to prevent a dissolution which they believed to be impending. They could withhold the supplies, and press the king with representations against his ministers. His Majesty had the unquestioned pre 19th Dec., 1783. 1 Tomline's Life of Pitt, i. 237. 277. In the Rolliad, his youth was thus ridiculed : "A sight to make surrounding nations stare,A kingdom trusted to a schoolboy's care." 3 Tomline's Life of Pitt, i. 241, 4 Ibid., i. 236. 242. rogatives of appointing his own constitutional advisers and dissolving Parliament. The last appeal of both was to the people: but this appeal the Commons sought to deny the king. The day after the dismissal of the late ministers the opposition insisted on the postponement of the third reading of the Land-tax bill for two days, in order, as Mr. Fox avowed, that it might not "go out of their hands until they should have taken such measures as would guard against the evils which might be expected from a dissolution."1 On the 22nd December, the house went into committee on the state of the nation, when Mr. Erskine moved an address to the crown representing "that alarming rumours of an intended dissolution of Parliament have gone forth: that "inconveniences and dangers" were "likely to follow from a prorogation or dissolution of the Parliament in the present arduous and critical conjunction of affairs;" and beseeching his Majesty "to suffer his faithful Commons to proceed on the business of the session, the furtherance of which is so essentially necessary to the prosperity of the public: and that his Majesty will be graciously pleased to hearken to the advice of his faithful Commons, and not to the secret advices of particular persons, who may have private interests of their own, separate from the true interests of his Majesty and his people."" Notwithstanding assurances that Mr. Pitt had no intention of advising a dissolution, and would not consent to it if advised by others, the address was agreed to, and presented to the king by the whole House. In his answer the king assured them that he would "not interrupt their meeting by any exercise of his prerogative, either of proroga 1 Parl. Hist., xxiv. 230. 2 Ibid., 246. The last paragraph of the address was taken from an address to William III. in 1693. 12th Jan, 1784. Resolution against 1 tion or dissolution." This assurance, it was observed, merely referred to the meeting of Parliament after the Christmas recess, and did not remove the apprehensions of the opposition. On the 24th December, a resolution was agreed to, that the Treasury ought not to consent to the acceptance of any more bills from India, until it should appear to the House that there were sufficient means to meet them.2 These strong measures had been taken in Mr. Pitt's absence; and on his return to the House, after Christmas, the opposition resumed their offensive attitude. Mr. Fox went so far as to refuse to allow Mr. Pitt to deliver a message from the king; and being in possession of the House, at once moved the order of the day for the committee on the state of the nation. In the debate which ensued, the opposition attempted to extort a promise that Parliament should not be dissolved: but Mr. Pitt said he would not "presume to compromise the royal prerogative, or bargain it away in the House of Commons." 3 This debate was signalised by the declaration of General Ross that he had been sent for by a lord of the Bedchamber, and told that if he voted against the new administration on the 12th January, he would be considered as an enemy to the king. Unable to obtain any pledge from the minister, the opposition at once addressed themselves to devise effectual obstacles to an early dissolution. The House having resolved itself into the committee on the state of the nation, at half-past two in the morning, Mr. Fox immediately moved a resolution, which was agreed to without a division, declaring it to be a high crime and mis 2 Parl. Hist., xxiv. 264. 3 Ibid., 294.; Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, i. 180. 4 Parl. Hist., xxiv. 205, 299. |