B OO KS.
LORD SHELBURNE.*
[FIRST NOTICE.]
IN our notice of the first volume of this work eighteen months' ago (May 15th, 1875) we had to guard ourselves against prema- ture conclusions. While admitting that the evidence furnished was sufficient to clear Lord Shelburne's memory from the "stigma of deception which had been affixed by Holland House to his character," for the period covered by that volume, we pointed Out that it was by his relations with the younger Pitt and Fox • The Life of William, Earl ay Shelburne, By Lord E. Fitimatuies. Vols. mud IlL Lomlcm: Macmillan and Co. that he must be finally judged, and his position awarded in the roll of English statesmen ; and we looked forward with interest to the light which the later volumes would probably throw upoir these, if they should fulfil the promise of this first instalment_ We are glad to acknowledge that that promise has been amply- fulfilled. In the two volumes now before us Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice has succeeded in placing before us a wealth of new- matter which, while casting valuable and much-needed light on
several obscure passages in the political history of a hundred years ago, has enabled us for the first time to form a dear and consistent idea of his ancestor, who played so distinguished a part in the great drama, but of whom hitherto it might, though in another sense, be as truly said as of his contemporary, Junius, " Stat nominis umbra !"
Our space will only allow us to glance at Shelburne's political
career during the period of his connection with the younger Pitt and C. Fox ; but before doing so, we are in justice bound to retract our former criticism on Lord E. Fitzmaurice's method. We had complained that the picture, as given in his first volume, "wanted background," and thought it would have been better had he supplied this by a continuous narrative, letting us see what he himself thought of his ancestor. But after reading the whole work, we must say that his method is vindicated. It will' be the fault of readers if they do not carry away a very distinct notion of the Radical before his time, into whose confidence we- feel ourselves to have now been thoroughly and skilfully admitted. The entire suppression of himself on the part of the biographer continues through the second and third volumes, but the work has not been injured by this somewhat rare instance of literary- modesty.
The peace with the American Colonies was the great achieve-
ment of Shelburne's short administration. He had been one of the earliest and most powerful opponents of the Stamp Act, and the domineering policy which roused the jealousy of the Colonies. Afterwards, as Colonial Secretary, and representing Chatham in the ministry of 1767, he endeavoured by temperate and friendly, but firm administration, to allay the distrust and irritation which- had borne fruit in the riots at New York and elsewhere. The with which he pursued his policy of conciliation drew- upon him the enmity of the Bedford party in the Cabinet, who were bent on overawing the Colonies by an exhibition of strength ; while Shelburne maintained that it would be absurd to send a single additional soldier or ship to America, to reduce colonies which would return to the mother country of themselves from affec- tion and interest, when once a reasonable method of fixing their- contributions to imperial expenditure could be agreed to. Driven- from office by this section of his party in 1768, he retired to- Bowood for a time, but never wavered in his protest against the. policy which was hurrying on the crisis. When it came, in 1775, he returned to his place in Parliament, and denounced as idle and wicked the attempt to brand the Americans as rebels, maintaining that the war was a constitutional war- _ against "the lurking spirit of despotism, which had produced the Stamp Act of 1765, had fettered the repeal of that Act in- 1766, had revived the principle of it in 1767, and had since, accumulated oppression upon oppression." (Vol. IL, p. 314.) Odious as this policy was, the means by which Lord North's, Cabinet was carrying it out—the begging for troops from every petty German prince, and arming Indians and Canadian Catholics, against the Protestants of New England—were even more odious. It was idle to talk of this policy as that of the nation. It was the policy of a Parliament full of placemen, contractors, and pensioners, dictated to by Ministers who were themselves the creatures of the King. While the House was so constituted it would never represent the nation.
On these lines the Opposition rallied under the Duke of Grafton
in the winter of 1775, Shelburne's return to the Whig phalanx being negotiated by Lord Camden, who reported that this reputed dissembler was one who would say frankly how far he would go' and where he would Stop, adding that "be and his friends Barre and Dunning have a manly and explicit way of proceeding which pleases me." (Vol. IL, p. 318.) Still, in spite of the Opposition, the "war of England against herself in America," as Chatham well called it (Vol. II., p. 324), dragged on for six disastrous years, France, Spain, and Holland joining the Thirteen Colonies. At length the end came. Abroad, the English army, under Corn- wallis, had surrendered, and island after island in the West Indies was falling before the French and Spanish forces ; Minorca was lost, Gibraltar besieged. At home, bankruptcy was threatening /80,000,000 had been added to the National Debt, while the kat loan of £12,000,000 had only been borrowed by giving stook
for £21,000,000. The nation was staggering under the load of corruption and misery. At last, on February 27, 1782, a resolu- tion was carried declaring the advisers of the American war enemies of the country, and Lord North was driven from power. Rockingham, who was for granting absolute independence at ence to the colonies, and Shelburne, who still hoped that a Federal Union might be possible, now stood at the head of the Opposition. After some hesitation, the King sent for the latter, who, however, while undertaking to form a Ministry, gave place to Rockingham as Premier. Shelburne, as Colonial Secretary, at once opened negotiations for peace with the American Commis- sioners, and Fox, as Foreign Secretary, with the allied Powers at Paris. These dragged slowly on until Rockingham's death in July, by which time Shelburne had frankly, though unwillingly, agreed to the unconditional independence of the United States, but had succeeded in shaking the alliance between them and their European allies.
At this critical moment occurred the rupture between Fox and Shelburne. Fox, as Foreign Minister, had been jealous from the first of Shelburne, whose weight in the Cabinet proved greater than his own, and whom he accused of encroaching on his pro- vince in the negotiations with the American Commissioners. When the King insisted on Shelburne's succeeding to the Premier- ship,• Fox protested. He spoke as one of the Old Whig phalanx, who were bent on humbling the King, and asserting their own title to name the First Minister of the Crown. The quarrel ran high, the King and Shelburne were firm, and Fox and Lord John Cavendish resigned, followed by Burke, Sheridan, and others. Shelburne now put William Pitt in Cavendish's place at the Exchequer, filled the other posts, and the Session ended ; but not before his late colleagues bad joined the opposition in a furious attack on the new Premier for the pension to Barre, which had been, in fact, sanctioned, if not suggested by Rockingham, and was a wholly inadequate recompense for the professional in- come of which he had been deprived. Unsuccessful in this, they turned on his policy in the American negotiations, which Shel- burne, however, triumphantly defended, declaring that "the sun of England might be setting with the loss of America, but it was his resolve to improve the twilight, and prepare for the rising of that sun again." He now took Mrs. Trail's house at Streatham, to be near his work during the Recess, and was able to meet Parliament in December with provisional treaties of peace, arranged with America and France, the terms of which Lord Camden acknowledged " to exceed the expecta- tions of all moderate and fair-judging men" (VoLILI., p.359), while in the meantime Gibraltar had been relieved and the siege raised, the Baltic merchant fleet safely brought home, and the British fleet in the West Indies so strengthened as to be master in the Spanish Main. The diplomatic quicksands through which the treaty negotiations had been steered are given in detail for the first time in the third volume. In order to carry them through, Shelburne had with rare sagacity placed a trust in the American Commissioners, for which, in his own words, "if not suc- cessful, we shall pay with our heads,—and deservedly." But foreign affairs had not alone occupied Shelburne in these busy six months. He had already commenced his reform of the public offices by reorganising the Treasury, saving the country £100,000 a year, and had prepared plans for the abolition of sinecures, the reform of the other spending departments, and the audit and publication of accounts. His theory that publicity was of the essence of sound finance alarmed Tory and Whig alike, and more even than his treaties prepared the way for the coming catastrophe. On the 17th of February, 1783, the address on the Peace was moved in both Houses. The Government were suc- cessful in the Peers by 13 votes, but were beaten in the Commons by 16.
The King now, at Shelburne's suggestion, sent for Pitt, and afterwards for Lord Ashburton, but no Cabinet could be formed, and at length at the beginning of April he was obliged to "swallow the bitter potion " (Vol. II., 383), and the Coalition Ministers kissed hands. It was soon found that their criticisms on the peace were only intended for use in opposition, while the abandonment of Shelburne's sinking fund, and the creation of a public lottery in connection with the new loan, still more shook public confidence in them. Shelburne kept away from London, but heard from his friends that addresses thanking the King for the peace were pouring in, and that the Coalition were losing ground rapidly. On December 17, Fox's India Bill, proposing to appoint Commissioners who were to hold office independent of Parliament, was rejected, and on the 18th the King ordered Lord North and Fox to deliver up their seals. The new Ministry was formed by Mr. Pitt without consultation with Shelburne, or any explanation, except a verbal communication from Dundas and Orde. Pitt, it seems, had actually written a letter to his former chief, but afterwards burned it," finding it extremely awkward to express himself as he could wish to you, being afraid to call upon you to assist in forming a plan of administration at the head of which he was himself to be placed, when he considered the situation your Lordship had held, and under which he had had the honour to be employed." (Vol. In, p. 402.) Most readers will, we think, concur in Orde's opinion that this "seemed to him very false delicacy," and that "it would have been at all events more handsome, manly, and wise to have paid you the compliment of a letter on such an occasion." (p. 404.) It is perhaps the most honourable fact in his career that Shel- burne stepped quietly aside ; and, in a time when faction ran to such lengths, saw the measures he had matured carried triumph- antly, one after another, by his own lieutenant. So thought one at least of his old colleagues, the Duke of Richmond, who wrote to Pitt from Ireland (III., p. 418), suggesting that as the Government had practically been formed under Shelburne's auspices, a step in the Peerage should at least be offered him, as some acknowledgment of "the quiet manner in which he had quitted his pretensions to any share in it." This was done by Pitt in October, 1784, and accepted by Shelburne, who wrote to Barre that it was no time to be touchy, nor would it be becom- ing in him to fence with Mr. Pitt ; and he was created Marquis of Lansdowne. These chapters, viii. and ix. of Vol. RI., which deal with the relations between Shelburne and Pitt, are almost entirely new, and a very valuable contribution to the history of the time.
From this time until the breaking-out of the French Revolution, Lansdowne steadily refused to join the factious Whigs, who, he said, "made it a principle to oppose everything, right or wrong, and so to stifle and mislead public opinion" (p. 435), and gave Pitt valuable support on several occasions. Their first difference arose in 1789, when Lansdowne withstood the cry against Warren Hast- ings, declaring that he was the person least to blame for the ini- quities in India, and that" Pittites and Foxites joined in covering every villain and prosecuting the only man of worth." But the gulf rapidly widened when Pitt, yielding to panic and prejudice, threw England into the league against Republican France. Lansdowne urged in vain the madness of a war against a proud, high-spirited nation of 25,000,000, enthusiastic to desperation, and declared that "the nonsense of feudality could never be revived." (p.497.) He denounced the Proclamation against seditious writings, as calculated "not to quiet, but to alarm ; to irritate, if there was a viper in the country ; if a toad, to call it forth ;" ridiculed the prosecution of Perry, of the Morning Chronicle, for "a paragraph of mere levity and some wit," and declared that he always read that paper with satisfaction. By his manly and resolute attitude he drew down on himself the fury of the Tory Press, and was denounced as "a Jacobin in disguise, the friend of sedition and anarchy ;" and on the other hand, found himself fighting side by side once more with Fox and his friends, for peace, Catholic emancipation, and reform. Accordingly, when, after Pitt's resignation in 1800, a Whig Ministry was proposed, he was named Foreign Secretary in a Cabinet which would have contained Fox, 8heridan, and the Dukes of Bedford and Grafton. It was the Whigs who had come round to Lansdowne, not be to them. The King's recovery broke up these arrangements, and Lans- downe fell back into the ranks of the opposition, making his last speech in Parliament in 1803, against the renewal of war with France. He died in May, 1805, and within a year the Coalition Ministry was formed, in which his son, Lord H. Petty (afterwards the second Lord Lansdowne), was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the age of 26, a tribute probably to the rare courage and consistency of the public life of his father, for whom Lord E. Fitzmaurice is well justified in claiming the proud distinction awarded him, first, we believe, by Bentham, that "alone of his own time he was a Minister who did not fear the people."
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