and the proposed order affected innumerable private contracts
between man and man. Nevertheless, the Chancellor being
appealed to, gave a clear opinion that for the safety of the
state the Executive Government should, upon the responsibility
of Ministers and in expectation of an indemnity, do any act
which the legislature, if it had the opportunity, would sanction;
and that as in this case the Executive Government not inter-
fering, the opinion of Parliament could not be taken till irre-
mediable evils would be brought upon the nation, the Execu-
tive Government was bound to interfere,-so that the proposed
order, although contrary to law, would be in accordance with
the Constitution. The order was accordingly issued, and on
Monday morning no payments were made in Threadneedle
Street except in bank notes, the directors quieting the public
with a statement of their affluence and their readiness to con-
tinue all their dealings as usual,-substituting paper for gold.
The same day a message from the King was brought down to
both Houses, stating what had been done, and calling for the
advice of Parliament. Lord Loughborough's doctrine I hold
to be sound, and he could not be answerable for the necessity
which required the order, nor for its consequences.
He was
guilty of a little deception, however, when the matter came
to be discussed in the House of Lords, in saying that "it had
never entered the contemplation of Ministers to substitute
paper for gold by any forcible means, and that they had never
thought it would be just or prudent to make bank notes a
legal tender."*
Bank notes were not technically made a
legal tender, but if there had been a tender in bank notes, the
person of the debtor was protected from legal process,
till the resumption of cash payments in the year 1819, a paper
currency was practically established in the country-by
which joint operations hundreds of thousands of individuals
were ruined, and hundreds of millions were added to the
national debt.

Lord Loughborough deserves credit for the prudence displayed during the alarming mutiny in the fleet.

32 Parl. Hist. 1568.

and

he

CHAP. CLXXIII.

A. D. 1797.

Mutiny in

the fleet. He May 9.

1797.

CHAP. CLXXIII.

A. D. 1797.

Lord

Mr. Pitt as

ster.

found that the seamen had real grievances to complain of, and he strongly supported the policy of concession. When the bill for increasing their pay was pending in the House of Lords, and was likely to be obstructed by long speeches, he said boldly," Those who would enter into discussion at the present moment partake of the criminality of the mutineers. I entreat your Lordships to consider that the delay occasioned by agitating topics which may as well be postponed to a future day, may put in peril the lives of the best and bravest men in the country. This is like stopping when a conflagration is blazing, to inquire how it originated, instead of employing the engines to extinguish it. I ask a flag of truce for one night. Let the bill be passed forthwith, and sent to Portsmouth, and the country may be saved." The bill was passed forthwith, nemine dissentiente.*

The Chancellor still highly disapproved of the manner Lough- in which the war was conducted, and from time to time borough's complaints wrote long letters to Mr. Dundas, who was considered the against war minister, as to the inexpediency of surrendering Toulon, a war mini- and neglecting all concert in acting with the allies whom we subsidised. One of these he concludes by observing, "The desideratum is a person who, like the Duke of Marlborough in the time of the Grand Alliance, could settle at the Hague, Berlin, and Vienna, and all the lesser Courts (having an inspection also over the negotiations with St. Petersburgh), the plan of a campaign. What substitute can be found for an agency of equal force, I certainly cannot tell; but without it I fear much our efforts will be very defective." +

Lord Loughborough's

attack on the Duke of Bedford. May 30. 1797.

The Duke of Bedford having moved an address to his Majesty, to dismiss his Ministers for misconduct, Lord Loughborough spoke, but did not attempt any general defence of Mr. Pitt's war policy. He confined himself to reprobating the measure of parliamentary reform, and particularly the disfranchisement of the rotten boroughs, which had been recommended as the means of reconciling the

CLXXIII.

A. D. 1797.

people to the Constitution. "The noble Duke's plan," said CHAP. he, is wilder than universal suffrage; he would despoil corporations of their privileges, and assist the House of Commons in uncreating their creators; he would overwhelm freeholders by pot-boilers;' he would cut up by the roots whatever belongs to franchise, property, or privilege, and introduce in its stead the principle of an agrarian law. The noble Duke says, the existing voters will not be injured by an extension of the franchise, because they will still be allowed to vote;' but will he be contented to see hundreds of 'pot-boilers' called in to share his estate, if he is still allowed rations for the subsistence of himself and his family? I would advise the noble Duke to remember, that in France, those who were first in revolutionising the country were the earliest victims of the fatal doctrines which they propagated." On this occasion the Opposition mustered 12 to 91.†

at this time

So greatly was the Chancellor elated by the prostrate Lord Loughcondition of his opponents, that he now treated them at borough's times with contumely, — designating a motion of Lord Guil- demeanour ford as "the thing which he held in his hand, too con- to his optemptible to put ;" and lamenting a speech, in which the ponents. eccentric Earl Stanhope had called himself" Citizen Stanhope," as "an awful visitation of God."

Nov. 8.

1797.

of the

House of

Lords to
Duncan for

Viscount

However, he appeared to great advantage in returning thanks to the winner of the battle of Camperdown, whom he He delivers thus addressed: "Lord Viscount Duncan,—I am com- the thanks manded by the Lords to give your Lordship the thanks of this House for your able and gallant conduct in the brilliant and decisive victory obtained over the Dutch fleet on the 11th day of October last; as well as for the zeal, courage, and perseverance which you have uniformly manifested during the arduous period in which you have commanded his Majesty's fleet in the North Sea.

* 33 Parl. Hist. 764.

If one hackney coach would not have contained all the Whig Peers at this time, an omnibus would have been quite sufficient. See Mr. Byng's Account of the House of Commons, antè, Vol. V. p. 614.

the battle of Camper

down.

CHAP CLXXIII.

A. D. 1797.

1797.

Illness of
Lord
Lough-
borough.

"At the same time that this vote passed unanimously, their Lordships were pleased to order, that all the Peers should be summoned to attend the House on the occasion: a distinction unprecedented, but called for by the general admiration your conduct has inspired, and strongly expressive of that peculiar satisfaction which the Peers must feel upon your Lordship's promotion to a distinguished seat in this House.

66

Splendid in all its circumstances as the victory obtained by his Majesty's fleet under your command has been, important as it must prove in its consequences to the security of all his Majesty's dominions, and, under the Divine blessing, to the favourable issue of the arduous contest in which they are engaged; the magnitude and lustre of these considerations have not so occupied the observation of the Lords as to make them unmindful of the constant vigilance with which your Lordship had, in the whole course of your command for three successive seasons, watched and frustrated every design of the enemy; nor the manly fortitude with which you had sustained the temporary defection of the greater part of your force; nor, above all, that undaunted resolution with which, at so momentous a crisis, you proceeded to check and to control the presumptuous hopes of the enemy.

"These are merits in which fortune can claim no share ; they spring from that energy of mind and that ardent love of your country which has directed your own conduct, and animated the officers and men under your command, to those exertions which are entitled to every testimony of public gratitude and applause."

In the spring of this year the Chancellor had a very serious illness, which caused much anxiety to his friends. Soon after his recovery he received the following letter from Mr. Burke, which has a melancholy interest, as the last which was written to him by this great man, who had been so long, by turns, his foe and his friend.

33 Parl. Hist. 978.

"MY DEAR LORD,

"Bath, 1st May, 1797.

CHAP. CLXXIII.

Last lettter

from Mr.

Lord

"Though not much concerned, nor likely to be long concerned, about any thing on this side the grave, I felt a sincere pleasure on your Lordship's recovery; and do trust and hope, from the energy Burke to of your Lordship's character, that you will act your part in a Loughtotal change of the plan of passive defence, so ruinous in point of borough. charge, and not only so inefficient, but in every point of view so highly dangerous to all things except our enemies abroad and at home. I know it will require the greatest resolution and perseverance to make the necessary change in this unfortunate plan; but if it be not done you are all ruined, and all of us along with you. Pardon this friendly liberty at the time when others take so many liberties that are far from friendly. This, though infinitely of greater importance, is not the subject on which I wish just now to trouble your Lordship. It is relative to a little affair that I mentioned to you about five months ago, and which it is no wonder your serious illness and important occupations have put out of your head. I mean that of two worthy persons that are as nearly as possible at the point of dying from actual famine the first is that character, not so respectable for his rank and family, which are amongst the highest, as for perfect piety and unbounded charity, the Archbishop of Paris: the other is not inferior to him, in my humble opinion, in virtue and religion, nor in charity neither, according to his more limited means, which, to my knowledge, he particularly extended to distressed English residents at Amiens. The revenue of his bishopric was 24007. sterling a year, of which he received but 400l. to support himself and his dignity in the Church, and he contributed every penny of the rest in charity. He is now in Germany, in a state of the greatest indigence. His name is Machault, son of Machault formerly Minister of the Marine, and who, I believe, is now living in an extreme old age, and thoroughly pillaged by this glorious revolution. Now I ask nothing but that these two should be each put on such allowance as French bishops here receive, and that it should be a quarter antedated for their present necessities. If your Lordship will permit my friend Dr. King, whose hand supplies the infirmity of mine, to manage this affair, he will do it to your Lordship's and Mr. Pitt's satisfaction, and with all possible attention to the fallen dignity of the eminent persons to be relieved; and it is for this reason that I wish the affair to be managed by him only.