CHAPTER XXXIX.

CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD MANSFIELD TILL HE RESIGNEd the offiCE OF CHIEF JUSTICE.

L

ORD MANSFIELD continued to perform his judicial duties with unabated energy, and with still increased respect; but henceforth he acted a much less conspicuous part on the political stage. Lord Thurlow was jealous of his influence with the King; there had for some time been a coldness between him and the Ministry, and this was considerably aggravated by his civil sneers at their inaction during the late riots. To opposition he had an innate dislike, which stuck by him all his life; and he differed altogether from the Rockingham and Shelburne Whigs, who were now pressing on Parliament pacification with America and economical reform. Therefore, till Lord North's resig nation, he seldom attended in the House of Lords; and he only spoke on such dry subjects as the government of the Isle of Man,' the expediency of a bill for the discharge of insolvent debtors,' whether government contractors should be allowed to sit in the House of Commons,' and whether the corrupt electors of the borough. of Cricklade ought to be disfranchised In the debates arising out of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to Gencral Washington, the commencement of hostilities with France and Spain, and the armed neutrality of the Northern Powers, he remained silent. When present in the House, and sitting solitary on a back bench, he showed great dejection of countenance, which was supposed to arise not alone from public disasters, but partly from the consciousness of his own loss of consequence, and the recollection of the brilliant though anxious 8 Ib. 1364. Ib. 1381-198.

122 Parl. Hist. 561. 2 Ib. 628.

nights when, matched against the elder Pitt, he had commanded the applause of the listening senates.

On the first of January, 1782, he received the following melancholy salutation from the Bishop of Bristol :

"Give me leave at the coming in of the new year, to address your Lordship with the old wish of multos et felices. I am happy to hear from all friends so good an account of your health; and I rejoice in it for the sake of the public as well as your own, yours being a life of the greatest consequence, an ornament and blessing to your country. Mine is but labor and sorrow, and I have often occasion devoutly to wish Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. Never having been strong and healthy, it is no wonder, that, entering into the seventy-ninth year of my age, I bow under a load of growing evils.'

Lord Mansfield returned by the messenger a melancholy answer:—

"A thousand thanks to you for your friendly letter. We two are almost left alone. Thank God I go down the hill without pain except for the public; and, if the Brest fleet and convoy are dispersed and driven back, this year opens propitiously. Lady Mansfield, blessed be God, has had a miraculous recovery from a very sudden and violent illness. Prudence on her account has kept me hitherto in town these holidays. I hope to be able soon to have the pleasure of seeing you, and thanking you personally for your kind remembrance of

"Your most affectionate, &c.

"MANSFIELD.”

During the successive administrations of Lord Rockingham and Lord Shelburne he still maintained his neutrality, refusing even to offer any opinion upon the preliminaries of peace by which American Independence was acknowledged and important concessions were made to the House of Bourbon. Thurlow remained Chancellor, though often capriciously opposing his colleagues, and his course was so erratic that there was great difficulty either in going along with him or abandoning him.

On the formation of the Coalition Ministry, Lord Mansfield was induced by his old friend Lord North to

lend it his countenance, notwithstanding his "friendship" for George III. He declined to re-enter the Cabinet, but, the great seal being put into commission, he agreed again to act as Speaker of the House of Lords. During the stormy period which followed, he occasionally left the woolsack and said a few words when he thought he could do a good turn to the Govern ment, while Lord Loughborough stood forth as its regular champion. There being a furious opposition stirred up against the Receipt Tax, now devised for the first time by Mr. Fox and Lord John Cavendish,' various peers came down to the House loaded with petitions against it; but Lord Mansfield not only asserted the rule that no petition against the imposition of a tax can be received, but took occasion to point out the necessity for contributing to the necessities of the public service, and the greater danger to be apprehended from the prevalence of delusion and faction on such a subject.'

While the tempest raged in the Lower House, the Upper was comparatively tranquil, and Lord Mansfield had little else to do beyond putting the question nightly upon the adjournment. But at last the famous India Bill was delivered at the bar by Mr. Fox, attended by a numerous band of coalitionists. From the growing unpopularity of the cabal against the just rights of the Crown, between those who had recently threatened to bring each other to the block for their political misdeeds, a resolution had been taken, with the concurrence of the King, to reject the measure and to get rid of its framers at the same time; and all men saw that a death struggle was at hand. The opposition to the bill was manifested with violence before it had been read a first time, bu the policy of its opponents was-not to come to a de cision upon it till it had been further damaged in public

The following epigram was told me many years ago by an old lawyer, who pretended he had made it on this occasion, to celebrate Fox's extrava. gance and poverty. I know not whether it has before been in print :Said Charles, 'Let us a tax devise

opinion and the cry of "No Coalition" should have gathered still more strength. Therefore, after much abuse, it was allowed to be read a first and second time, and the petitioners against it were then to be heard with their evidence at the bar. This policy proving successful, many useless witnesses were examined, and their examinations were most tediously protracted. Lord Mansfield presided on the woolsack, and often tried, by interposing, to check irrelevancy and repetition; and he soon found that there was a decided majority of the Peers ready to vote for whatever Lord Thurlow, now the avowed leader of the Opposition, might propose.

At last Lord Loughborough, after a bitter invective against the counsel of the East India Company for the manner in which," in obedience to their instructions," they had been wasting the time of the House, rather imprudently moved, "that they be restrained from going into proofs of the Carnatic having been evacuated, and peace being established there, as it was a fact universally admitted."

Thurlow saw the advantage his party would have in taking a division on this question, and made a violent speech against those who wished to stifle inquiry and were resolved at once to invade the rights of private property and the prerogatives of the Crown.

Lord Mansfield left the woolsack, and in a calm, judicial, mediating tone, expressed a hope that the House would come to some understanding as to the manner in which the inquiry should be conducted, without putting the question which had been moved :—

"He was inclined," he said, "to think that a great deal of the evidence which had already been produced might have been spared; but where a bill was depending which materially affected the property of individuals, it was usual for the House to allow them every indulgence possible, and to use as much delicacy in passing such a bill as the nature of the case would admit. The measure, though perhaps necessary and expedient for the public good, certainly was severe upon the petitioners, by depriving them of the management of their own concerns; and for this reason it was that their Lordships hitherto had shown such exemplary patience while they might

have complained that their time was wasted. It was impossible to say that the present state of the Carnatic might not be material for their consideration, and various opinions might be entertained as to the mode in which that province had been and ought to be governed. He owned that the bill was of the highest importance, and that their Lordships should come to a decision upon it with all convenient despatch; but still he trusted that his noble and learned friend would waive his motion, and that the House would permit the counsel to proceed." Lord Loughborough: "My Lords, I have no difficulty in complying with a request coming from a quarter which I so much respect. Therefore, with the permission of your Lordships, I withdraw my motion." Lord Mansfield: "Call in the counsel for the petitioners. Gentlemen, you will proceed with your evidence, the House confiding in your professional honor that you will only offer that which you believe to be material for our information."

1

When it was judged that the public mind was in a fit state for receiving the dismissal of the Ministers, who were still supported by a large majority of the House of Commons, the evidence was closed, the bill was rejected, and Mr. Pitt was declared Prime Minister.

The great seal being taken out of commission and restored to Lord Thurlow, Lord Mansfield surrendered. the woolsack to him, having occupied it on this occasion nearly a twelvemonth.

He had but an indifferent opinion of the young gentleman who, at the age of twenty-four, was now trested with supreme power, notwithstanding the accounts he received of his extraordinary eloquence. The prejudice he entertained against the name of Pitt was greatly strengthened by the part which the youthful orator had taken in denouncing ministerial corruption and in advocating parliamentary reform. On the other side, there were rankling recollections of the long hostility which had prevailed during the life of the sire, and the indifference manifested at his death, which the son himself had witnessed.

Lord Mansfield, like all the world, believed at first that

124 Parl Hist. 146-150,