LORD CHATHAM AND THE WHIG OPPOSITION.*
THE section of eighteenth-century political history which Mr. Winstanley has chosen for his monograph is one of the romances of our constitutional chronicle, and as important as it is interesting. It stretches, roughly speaking, from July 1766 to the summer of 1771, from the formation of Grafton's Ministry, with Chatham in command, to Lord North's most conclusive Parliamentary victory. It saw the triumph of "personal" government and the rout of the Whig devotees of the party system. Mr. Winstanley has used his MSS. authorities judiciously and skilfully, and he steers his way with ease among the tortuous intrigues of the perie. " is a spirited and graceful writer, and we shall welcome from him further studies in eighteenth-century politica. Our only criticism is that he seems to overstate occasionally the import- ance of the issues at stake. They meant a great deal more for the Whig Party than for the nation, for both the rival factions were thoroughly undemocratic. The Revolution Settlement for its success depended upon a reformed House of Commons. So long as the House was full of placemen and based upon rotten boroughs, " personal " government was inevitable. If power depended upon corrupt bargaining, the King could play the game as well as the Whigs, and corruption was no worse in him than in them. In neither case had the nation any real say in its government, and to fight for the party system in such circumstances meant only to fight for the oligarchy of a Whig junta instead of the autocracy of one man. Chatham was the only man of his day who saw this, and it is significant • Lord Chatham and the Whig Opposition. By D. A. Winstanley. Cambridge At the University Press. [7s. 6d. net.]
that in 1770 he urged a measure of Parliamentary reform, to the disgust of both Whigs and Tories. Parliament, which controlled the Ministry, was independent of the country; to-day it is the Ministry which is rapidly becoming independent of Parliament. Now and again popular opinion managed to break through its shackles. The fall of Walpole and the rise of Chatham is a case in point. But, generally speaking, the struggle for the party system evoked little interest in the people, and when they gave their affection, it was to men so different as Chatham and Wilkes, who stood consistently outside it. No doubt the Whigs in striving for the party system strove for what was to prove a useful constitutional form, but as yet it was a form without value, for, as philosophers say, it was without "content."
First among the protagonists comes the young King, George III. His remarkable ability and superhuman per- sistence have scarcely secured adequate recognition from historians, though to-day, at the hands of Mr. John Fortescue and others, it looks as if the balance might be redressed. When he overthrew the Coalition Ministry of Pitt and Newcastle, when little more than a boy, he defeated the idol of the nation and the adroitest party manager of the century. He had, of course, in the secret service funds and the immense Court patronage, excellent cards; but it is a high proof of his acumen that he recognized this and knew how to play them. It was a knowledge denied to his predecessors. Newcastle was a great party manager, but of political principles in the ordinary sense he seems to have had none except a belief in the party system. We cannot agree with Mr. Winstanley that it was " a new phase of the old struggle between the monarchy and the nation." Newcastle's attitude towards the ordinary citizen may be seen from his instructions to his steward after the poll at Lewes—" to give notice to such of my tenants at Lewes who did not vote for the election of Mr. Hampden and Mr. Miller . . . to quit their several houses at Michaelmas next. Also that my said steward do call in the bills of such tradesmen at Lewes, who have been usually employed by me, and did not vote as above, and not employ them again on my account." On his death Lord Chesterfield spoke his obituary : "I knew him to be very good-natured, and his hands to be extremely clean." His great wealth, perhaps, raised him above any temptation to financial corruption, bat it is probable that his reputation among historians is scarcely adequate to his merits. " He laboured throughout a. long life," says Mr. Winstanley, " in what he conscientiously believed to be the interests of the nation." Rockingham, on the other hand, has had more credit than he deserved. He meant well, he was liked by his friends, and he had the honour to be the patron of Burke; but he was a man of slender talents, and his political consistency no more bears examination than that of his contemporaries.
By the autumn of 1764 Pitt had finally decided that the party system was wrong, and that Ministers should be selected according to their ability to rule rather than because they happened to belong to this or that faction. With his curious affection for royalty he saw no danger in the personal power of the Crown. He declined to countenance the Rockingham Ministry unless they adopted his view, and as that view was the direct opposite of their cherished convictions they naturally refused. When the crash came Pitt was given a chance of forming a Ministry after his own heart. Temple declined the Treasury, and the young Duke of Grafton was forced by his loyalty to Pitt to undertake a task which he did not desire and to which he was certainly unequal. The Cabinet was formed on the mosaic principle, and included even a quasi- Rockinghamite in Conway. Pitt began by doing his best to destroy his power and wreck his Ministry by accepting a peerage. The history of the next few years is the tale of the tribulations of Grafton. The venom of Junius and the fact that his name is associated with several grave blenders in British policy have blackened the reputation of an amiable and unselfish man. Grafton's loyal admiration for Chatham, who ill requited it, and his courage in continuing in office in the face of difficulties from which most men would have shrunk, deserve more recognition than is generally given them. The Ministry had to face two groups of opponents—the Rocking- betakes and the Bedford faction, with which Temple and George Grenville formed an unnatural alliance. The first chance given to the Opposition was the inquiry into the affairs of the East India Company, and Rockingham became at once the champion,
of the rights of corporations. Grafton's own Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, announced his disagree- ment with Chatham, and Conway, another Minister, followed suit. To add to his difficulties Chatham fell grievously ill, and Grafton was left to ride the storm as best he could, with Bedford, Rockingham, and Grenville as a harmonious Opposi- tion. Townsheud's ill-omened taxation of the American Colonies was apparently approved by the Whigs, and they attacked the Ministry on far less vicious measures. The King, casting about for allies, made overtures to the Bedford group, and, in order to have a second string, Grafton, through Conway, sounded Rockingham. If the Opposition had been agreed they might have dictated their own terms, but they could not agree. Rockingham would not have George Grenville, and the Bedfords would not have Conway. The death of Charles Townshend eased matters for a moment, and Lord North, who succeeded him, was both safer and more conciliatory. Presently the Bedfords threw over Grenville, and several members of the group were admitted into the Ministry. But this was to recognize the party system, and Grafton would have to answer for it to Chatham, who was now on the way to recovery. Then came the Wilkes case, which brought no credit to any side, and the projected dismissal of Shelburne was followed by the resignation of Chatham. Grafton was now alone, with Chatham, the object of his devotion, arrayed against him, with a Lord Chancellor who consistently betrayed him, and with several Bedford representatives as colleagues on whom he could in no way count.
The situation in America grew worse, and, since the whole Parliament, except Chatham, was opposed to the only true solution—the repeal of the Declaratory Act—there was no chance of its getting better. Grafton was the most enlightened member of the Cabinet, but he was over-ruled. The Wilkes case became a crying scandal, and only the Tory Grenville spoke common sense. The Rockinghamites endeavoured to use the popular feeling against the Government, and they were overjoyed by the accession of Chatham to the Opposition ranks. In the beginning of 1770 it looked as if Chatham, Rockingham, and Grenville were about to form an alliance against which no Ministry could stand. Camden, too, was betraying his colleagues, and was finally dismissed. The story of his successor, Charles Yorke, who held the Great Seal for four days, is familiar to all, and is admirably re-told by Mr. Winstanley. Yorke's death was the last straw, and Grafton resigned his uneasy office. It looked as if "personal" government was to fall with him.
In his extremity the King turned to Lord North, and that good-humoured and most courageous man did not fail him. At last George had found a first Minister after his own heart. Hideous in appearance and undignified in manner, with a harsh voice, and no single grace of oratory, his good temper, patience, and imperturbability were to carry him through every storm. He maintained his majority in both Houses against the attacks of the ablest debaters of his day. The truth is that the country was getting sick of Wilkes, and Wilkes was the only subject on which the different sections of the Opposition were agreed. It was a proof that measures as well as men are required in an Opposition as well as in a Ministry. The old quarrel began again on the remonstrance from the City of London, and only the influence of Chatham kept the forces of the Opposition together. Chatham's Bill to reverse the decision of the Commons on the Middlesex election was heavily defeated, and his threats of Parliamentary reform sowed dissension among his colleagues. The publication of Burke's Thoughts on the Present Discontents did not mend matters, and its insistence upon the sanctity of party broke Chatham's temper. "Moderation, moderation," he wrote, "is the burden of the song among that body. For myself, I am resolved to be in earnest for the public, and shall be a scarecrow of violence to the gentle warblers of the grove." George Grenville's death was a final blow to Opposition unity. Rockingham and Chatham were driven into a factious attitude
on the threatened war with Spain, and the certainty of peace destroyed what little prestige remained to them. Wedderburn joined the Ministry, Temple withdrew from politics, Camden quarrelled with Chatham. Then came the Letters of Junius and the famous dispute as to the competency of a jury to decide on the meaning of a libel. Rockingham wanted an enacting Bill to remedy matters, Chatham a declaratory measure. The latter detested Mansfield and was determined never to acknowledge that his judgment had been right. The dispute was the end of the allied Opposition. It split into its parent elements, and North was left triumphant for many disastrous years. It is a fascinating and most instruc- tive piece of political history, and Mr. Winstanley's book is well worth the study of everyone who cares to watch the slow and difficult growth of our constitutional forms.
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