CHAP. CLXIX. Sept. 13. 1785. Bad prospect for Lough borough. Nothing but the shame of avowing their own folly prevents his late adherents from declaring openly against him. The amusement of our society has been a theatre in a barn, which we have most regularly attended." The Duke of Portland, under the same delusion, thus addressed Lord Loughborough:- "I have received accounts from Scotland within these few days of the best possible disposition of the manufacturers in and about Glasgow and Paisley, who have of their own accord, and independently of any suggestion from our political friends, drawn up a sketch of an address, in which they state, in firm but discreet and well-managed terms, the incapacity and weakness of the present Ministers, and with the same prudence desire a general remedy, the particular application of which cannot be misunderstood, and I am assured that if it is suffered to go forward it will be most respectably and generally signed. I know no person to whose judgment I can so well apply for the information necessary to enable our northern friends to determine their conduct. I shall certainly write to Lord Sheffield, and Eden, and some of our principal friends who reside in the manufacturing counties; but, without compliment (which would be very inconsistent with the sincerity of my regard for you), there is no one who is possessed of such general knowledge of the subject as yourself." Lord Loughborough, however, was sadly disappointed in the anticipations of popular favour entertained by him and his Whig associates, and he soon became much dejected. The well-founded rumours circulated of violent disputes between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor afforded no consolation, for they could do no good to him, and his only chance of the Great Seal was upon the total rout of an Administration that now seemed more firmly established than any during the present reign. However, he did not lose his courage. His great object was to cultivate the favour of the Heir Apparent, and the following note shows that he had made some progress in this line: • Rossl. MSS. "MY DEAR LORD LOUGHBOROUGH, "Since I had the pleasure of seeing Lady Erskine this evening I have been thinking that it might possibly be as convenient and agreeable to you, and perhaps more so to us both, were you to come and eat your mutton chop quietly, tête-à-tête with me about six o'clock to-morrow. I shall be happy to see you, and to have an hour's conversation with you over a bottle of port. "I remain, my dear friend, ever most truly yours, "Carlton House, Sunday night, 12 o'clock, April 29. 1787."* "GEORGE P. CHAP. CLXIX. A. D. 1787. He is in favour with the Prince of Wales. 1787. He opposes the com When M. de Vergenne's commercial treaty with France March 6. came on to be debated, — thinking this a favourable opportunity for exciting clamour about "native industry," he furiously opposed it, and divided the House against the address to the Crown approving of it, — although he was left in a France. minority of 24 against 74. † mercial treaty with 1787. representa tive peer a peer of the United He gained a victory on a question not considered a party Session, one, viz. “Whether Scotch representative peers being created Q. Effect British peers, they should continue to sit as part of the of making sixteen, or their place should be supplied by a new election." a Scotch Upon a very able argument of his against the Chancellor, the House determined, by a majority of 52 to 38, "That the Earl of Abercorn, who had been chosen to be of the sixteen peers by Kingdom. the treaty of Union, to represent the peerage of Scotland in Parliament, being created Viscount Hamilton, by letters patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, doth thereby cease to act as a representative of the peerage of Scotland."‡ Yet, when Government put forth its force, all argument was unavailing, and after an admirable speech against a bill for allowing the most mischievous species of gaming that ever was invented-the insurance of lottery tickets-he was defeated by a majority of 38 to 7. § respecting I am much amused, and so will my legal readers be, with a Notions view which Lord Loughborough gives of the office of Chan- entertained cellor in Ireland, and of the state of jurisprudence in that the office country. Mr. Eden, who had been called to the English Chancel * Rossl. MSS. † 26 Parl. Hist. 585. 595. Ib. 603. § Ib. 619. of Irish CLXIX. the Irish bar. A.D. 1787. CHAP. bar, but had soon left it for politics, having adhered to Mr. Pitt's Government, was now engaged in the diplomatic lor, and the line, in which he afterwards reaped such high reputation; learning of but his probable promotion here being very slow, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas thus advised him to turn to better account his favour with the Minister:-"My project for you may seem very chimerical, but it is not half so unlikely as it once was that you should be fixed in the corps diplomatique. Why should you not return to your old corps and to Ireland? I have never heard of a successor for old Lifford, who was in every respect fitted for the office, which requires much more than a technical knowledge of law. All that is wanting in that respect you would, with your application, acquire in a twelvemonth; and in half that time I am sure you would possess as much as any man at the Irish bar. Take over with you as Secretary some clever man bred in the Register's office here, and I would engage, your decrees should be more accurate and more expeditious than they have been for many years in Ireland. The country would have no objection to you, nor you to it, and I am certain you would find that court in a little time a more pleasant station than any court of Europe."† Lord Loughborough himself, in the absence of all party excitement, seems now to have taken to study more than at any period since he left Scotland. He gives this account of himself in the beginning of 1788:-"I have passed a month in the country entirely alone, but very much employed. You cannot imagine how valuable a present you made me in the Assizes of Jerusalem,' which I have studied as diligently as ever I did Littleton. The result of it will make its appearance in print in the course of this year-not by my means however, but through a much better channel. Gibbon had long been in pursuit of the book for a part of his History, and as the language of it was less obscure to me than to him, I have employed myself in furnishing him with an abstract of * For an account of this Chancellor, see antè, Vol. V. Ch. CXLIV. it. CLXIX. My own researches are now swelled to a very consi- CHAP. derable bulk, but they have very little chance of ever making their appearance abroad, as I never can satisfy myself with any form in which they arrange themselves upon paper."† Party politics were now in a most languid state, and it seemed as if the rest of the King's reign were to slip away in drowsy repose: yet the following year was one of the most stirring in our annals. A.D. 1788. ment of It was ushered in by the impeachment of Mr. Hastings. ImpeachThroughout the whole course of this protracted trial Lough- Mr. Hasborough and Thurlow were pitted against each other, the tings. former zealously taking part with the prosecutors, and the latter with the accused. The Lords first had to determine a question upon which the result mainly depended," Whether each charge was to be conducted and determined separately, or the managers were to finish their case on all the articles of impeachment before Mr. Hastings was to be called upon to enter upon his defence?" Lord Loughborough contended that the charges should be taken seriatim, urging, that from their multifariousness and entirely distinct and separate character, justice could not otherwise be done between the parties. Thurlow, of course, took the other side, and succeeded by a majority of 88 to 33, which was considered tantamount to a verdict of acquittal,— although this was not formally pronounced till many years after, when Loughborough had become Chancellor, and Thurlow was reduced to the rank of the junior peer. During this session, in opposing the East India Declaratory Bill introduced by Mr. Pitt, the new Foxite took occasion to deliver a laboured panegyric upon his present Chief. Among other things, he said, "The bill of my right honourable friend, like his own mind, was manly and open. He was above the meanness of concealment, and scorned the scandalous baseness of a lie. My right honourable friend asserted, and asserted openly, that patronage and power were law. The book is written in Norman French, the original dialect of English Auckland MSS. CLXIX. A. D. 1788. CHAP. inseparable; and as the best possible guard against abuse, he placed the patronage of India in the hands of honourable men, with complete responsibility. What did the other bill do? Expression fails me. I can find no adequate term to describe its operation - short of the Old Bailey. It stole the patronage, and put it in the pocket of the Minister. Delusion is now over, and misrepresentation and falsehood stand refuted and detected. My right honourable friend has reason to be proud of his present position. Out of place, he possesses patronage, and patronage of the noblest kind-the protection of defenceless millions, -a species of patronage more congenial to his mind than the giving away of satrapies. The unremitting exercise of this patronage is the best answer to the calumny and slander which, in the hour of popular A. D. 1788. phrenzy, industrious clamour had cast upon his name. The King's illness. My right honourable friend will go to the next general election confident of success, appealing to the two India bills,—his of 1783, as commented upon by its enemies, and his rival's of 1784, as now explained by its friends."- However, he could only muster 28 peers to divide against the Government. In reality, the nation had as yet in no degree forgiven the "Coalition," and placed increasing confidence in Mr. Pitt, which would have been proved if a dissolution of Parliament had then taken place. But when there was no murmur of party strife, and Mr. Nov. 1788. Fox himself, abandoning objects of ambition, solaced himself in the soft climate and classic scenes of Italy, the monarchical power in the Constitution was suddenly in abeyance, and the two Houses of Parliament were called upon to supply the deficiency. |