like Burke to oppose these miserable delusions; delusions which have been fatal to many countries, and have more than once almost ruined our own.294 They will also understand that, in the opinion of the king, this great statesman was, at best, but an eloquent declaimer, to be classed in the same category with Fox and Chatham; all three ingenious men, but unsafe, unsteady, quite unfit for weighty concerns, and by no means calculated for so exalted an honour as admission into the royal councils. In point of fact, during the thirty years Burke was engaged in public life, he never once held an office in the cabinet;205 and the only occasions on which he occupied even a subordinate post, were in those very short intervals when the fluctuations of politics compelled the appointment of a liberal ministry.

Indeed, the part taken by Burke in public affairs must have been very galling to a king who thought every thing good that was old, and every thing right that was established.296 For, so far was this remarkable man in advance of his contemporaries, that there are few of the great measures of the present generation which he did not anticipate

He

294 Burke was never weary of attacking the common argument, that, because a country has long flourished under some particular custom, therefore the custom must be good. See an admirable instance of this in his speech, on the power of the attorney-general to file informations ex officio; where he likens such reasoners to the father of Scriblerus, who "venerated the rust and canker which exalted a brazen pot-lid into the shield of a hero." adds: "But, sir, we are told, that the time during which this power existed, is the time during which monarchy most flourished: and what, then, can no two things subsist together but as cause and effect? May not a man have enjoyed better health during the time that he walked with an oaken stick, than afterwards, when he changed it for a cane, without supposing, like the Druids, that there are occult virtues in oak, and that the stick and the health were cause and effect?" Parl. Hist. vol. xvi. pp. 1190, 1191.

295 This, as Mr. Cooke truly says, is an instance of aristocratic prejudice; but it is certain that a hint from George III. would have remedied the shameful neglect. Cooke's Hist. of Party, vol. iii. pp. 277, 278.

296 It is easy to imagine how George III. must have been offended by such sentiments as these: "I am not of the opinion of those gentlemen who are against disturbing the public repose; I like a clamour whenever there is an abuse. The fire-bell at midnight disturbs your sleep, but it keeps you from being burnt in your bed. The hue and cry alarms the county, but preserves all the property of the province." Burke's speech on Prosecutions for Libels, in 1771, in Parl. Hist. vol. xvii. p. 54.

and zealously defend. Not only did he attack the absurd laws against forestalling and regrating,297 but, by advocating the freedom of trade, he struck at the root of all similar prohibitions.298 He supported those just claims of the Catholics,299 which, during his lifetime, were obstinately refused; but which were conceded, many years after his death, as the only means of preserving the integrity of the empire. He supported the petition of the Dissenters, that they might be relieved from the restrictions to which, for the benefit of the Church of England, they were subjected.300 Into other departments of politics he carried the same spirit. He opposed the cruel laws against insolvents,301 by which, in the time of George III., our statute-book was still defaced; and he vainly attempted to soften the penal code,302 the increasing severity of which was one of the worst features of that bad reign.303 He wished to abolish the old plan of enlisting soldiers for

297 He moved their repeal. Parl. Hist. vol. xxvi. p. 1169. Even Lord Chatham issued, in 1766, a proclamation against forestallers and regraters, very much to the admiration of Lord Mahon, who says, "Lord Chatham acted with characteristic energy." Mahon's Hist. of England, vol. v. p. 166. More than thirty years later, and after Burke's death, Lord Kenyon, then chief-justice, eulogized these preposterous laws. Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party, vol. i. p. 167. Compare Adolphus's Hist. of George III. vol. vii. p. 406; and Cockburn's Memorials of his Time, Edinb. 1856, p. 73.

298 That liberality in the commercial system, which, I trust, will one day be adopted." Burke's Works, vol. i. p. 223. And, in his letter to Burgh (Ibid. vol. ii. p. 409), "But that to which I attached myself the most particularly, was to fix the principle of a free trade in all the ports of these islands, as founded in justice, and beneficial to the whole; but principally to this, the seat of the supreme power."

299 Prior's Life of Burke, p. 467; Burke's Works, vol. i. pp. 263-271, 537561, vol. ii. pp. 431-447. He refutes (vol. i. p. 548) the notion that the coronation-oath was intended to bind the crown in its legislative capacity. Compare Mem. of Mackintosh, vol. i. pp. 170, 171, with Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 134.

300 Parl. Hist. vol. xvii. pp. 435, 436, vol. xx. p. 306. See also Burke's Correspondence, vol. ii. pp. 17, 18; and Prior's Life of Burke, p. 143.

301 Burke's Works, vol. i. pp. 261, 262, part of his speech at Bristol. 302 Prior's Life of Burke, p. 317. See also his admirable remarks, in Works, vol. ii. p. 417; and his speech, in Parl. Hist. vol. xxviii. p. 146.

303 On this increasing cruelty of the English laws, compare Parr's Works, vol. iv. pp. 150, 259, with Parl. Hist. vol. xxii. p. 271, vol. xxiv. p. 1222, vol. xxvi. p. 1057, vol. xxviii. p. 143; and, in regard to the execution of them, see Life of Romilly, by Himself, vol. i. p. 65; and Alison's Hist. of Europe, vol. ix. p. 620.

.306

life;304 a barbarous and impolitic practice, as the English legislature began to perceive several years later.305 He attacked the slave-trade 300 which, being an ancient usage, the king wished to preserve, as part of the British constitution. 307 He refuted,308 but, owing to the prejudices of the age, was unable to subvert, the dangerous power exercised by the judges, who, in criminal prosecutions for libel, confined the jury to the mere question of publication; thus taking the real issue into their own hands, and making themselves the arbiters of the fate of those who were so unfortunate as to be placed at their bar.309 And, what many will think not the least of his merits, he was the first in that long line of financial reformers, to whom we are deeply indebted.310 Notwithstanding the difficulties thrown in his way, he carried through parliament a series of bills, by which several useless places were entirely abo

304 In one short speech (Parl. Hist. vol. xx. pp. 150, 151), he has almost exhausted the arguments against enlistment for life.

305 In 1806, that is nine years after the death of Burke, parliament first authorized enlistment for a term of years. See an account of the debates in Alison's Hist. of Europe, vol. vii. pp. 380-391. Compare Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century, vol. v. p. 475; and Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party, vol. ii. p. 116.

306 Prior's Life of Burke, p. 316; Parl. Hist. vol. xxvii. p. 502, vol. xxviii. pp. 69, 96; and Life of Wilberforce, vol. i. pp. 152, 171, contain evidence of his animosity against the slave-trade, and a more than sufficient answer to the ill-natured, and, what is worse, the ignorant, remark about Burke, in the Duke of Buckingham's Mem. of George III. vol. i. p. 350.

307 On the respect which George III. felt for the slave-trade, see note 259 to this chapter. I might also have quoted the testimony of Lord Brougham: "The court was decidedly against abolition. George III. always regarded the question with abhorrence, as savouring of innovation." Brougham's Statesmen, vol. ii. p. 104. Compare Combe's North America, vol. i. p. 332.

309 Burke's Works, vol. ii. pp. 490-496; Parl. Hist. vol. xvii. pp. 44-55, a very able speech, delivered in 1771. Compare a letter to Dowdeswell, in Burke's Correspond. vol. i. pp. 251, 252.

209 The arguments of Burke anticipated, by more than twenty years, Fox's celebrated Libel Bill, which was not passed till 1792; although, in 1752, juries had begun, in spite of the judges, to return general verdicts on the merits. See Campbell's Chancellors, vol. v. pp. 238, 243, 341-345, vol. vi. p. 210; and Meyer, Institutions Judiciaires, vol. ii. pp. 204, 205, Paris, 1823.

310 Mr. Farr, in his valuable essay on the statistics of the civil service (in Journal of Statist. Soc. vol. xii. pp. 103-125), calls Burke "one of the first and ablest financial reformers in parliament." p. 104. The truth, however, is, that he was not only one of the first, but the first. He was the first man who laid before parliament a general and systematic scheme for diminishing the expenses of government; and his preliminary speech on that occasion is one of the finest of all his compositions.

lished, and, in the single office of paymaster-general, a saving effected to the country of 25,000l. a year.

311

These things alone are sufficient to explain the animosity of a prince, whose boast it was, that he would bequeath the government to his successor in the same state as that in which he had received it. There was, however, another circumstance by which the royal feelings were still further wounded. The determination of the king to oppress the Americans was so notorious, that, when the war actually broke out, it was called "the king's war;" and those who opposed it were regarded as the personal enemies of their sovereign.312 In this, however, as in all other questions, the conduct of Burke was governed, not by traditions and principles, such as George III. cherished, but by large views of general expediency. Burke, in forming his opinions respecting this disgraceful contest, refused to be guided by arguments respecting the right of either party.313 He would not enter into any discussion, as to whether a mother-country has the right to tax her colonies, or whether the colonies have a right to tax them

311 Prior's Life of Burke, pp. 206, 234. See also, on the retrenchments he effected, Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue, vol. ii. pp. 84, 85; Burke's Correspond. vol. iii. p. 14; and Bisset's Life of Burke, vol. ii. pp. 57-60.

312 In 1778, Lord Rockingham said, in the House of Lords, "Instead of calling the war, the war of parliament, or of the people, it was called the king's war, his majesty's favourite war." Parl. Hist. vol. xix. p. 857. Compare Cooke's Hist. of Party, vol. iii. p. 235, with the pungent remarks in Walpole's George III. vol. iv. p. 114. Nicholls (Recollections, vol. i. p. 35) says: "The war was considered as the war of the king personally. Those who supported it were called the king's friends; while those who wished the country to pause, and reconsider the propriety of persevering in the contest, were branded as disloyal."

313 "I am not here going into the distinction of rights, nor attempting to mark their boundaries. I do not enter into these metaphysical distinctions; I hate the very sound of them." Speech on American taxation in 1774, in Burke's Works, vol. i. p. 173. In 1775 (vol. i. p. 192): "But my consideration is narrow, confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the question." At p. 183 we should act in regard to America, not "according to abstract ideas of right, by no means according to mere general theories of government; the resort to which appears to me, in our present situation, no better than arrant trifling." In one of his earliest political pamphlets, written in 1769, he says, that the arguments of the opponents of America " are conclusive; conclusive as to right; but the very reverse as to policy and practice." vol. i. p. 112. Compare a letter, written in 1775, in Burke's Correspond. vol. ii. p. 12.

selves. Such points he left to be mooted by those politicians who, pretending to be guided by principles, are, in reality, subjugated by prejudice.314 For his own part, he was content to compare the cost with the gain. It was enough for Burke, that, considering the power of our American colonies, considering their distance from us, and considering the probability of their being aided by France, it was not advisable to exercise the power; and it was, therefore, idle to talk of the right. Hence he opposed the taxation of America, not because it was unprecedented, but because it was inexpedient. As a natural consequence, he likewise opposed the Boston-Port Bill, and that shameful bill, to forbid all intercourse with America, which was not inaptly called the starvation plan; violent measures, by which the king hoped to curb the colonies, and break the spirit of those noble men, whom he hated even more than he feared.315

It is certainly no faint characteristic of those times, that a man like Burke, who dedicated to politics abilities equal to far nobler things, should, during thirty years, have received from his prince neither favour nor reward. But George III. was a king, whose delight it was to raise the humble and exalt the meek. His reign, indeed, was the golden age of successful mediocrity; an age in which little men were favoured, and great men depressed; when Addington was cherished as a statesman, and Beattie pen

314 In 1766, George III. writes to Lord Rockingham (Albemarle's Rockingham, vol. i. pp. 271, 272): "Talbot is as right as I can desire, in the stamp act; strong for our declaring our right, but willing to repeal!" In other words, willing to offend the Americans, by a speculative assertion of an abstract right, but careful to forego the advantage which that right might produce.

315 The intense hatred with which George III. regarded the Americans, was so natural to such a mind as his, that one can hardly blame his constant exhibition of it during the time that the struggle was actually impending. But what is truly disgraceful is, that, after the war was over, he displayed this rancour on an occasion when, of all others, he was bound to suppress it. In 1786, Jefferson and Adams were in England officially, and, as a matter of courtesy to the king, made their appearance at court. So regardless, however, was George III. of the common decencies of his station, that he treated these eminent men with marked incivility, although they were then paying their respects to him in his own palace. See Tucker's Life of Jefferson, vol. i. p. 220; and Mem. and Corresp. of Jefferson, vol. i. p. 54.