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Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2

T >> Thomas Moore >> Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2




"_Five o'clock, P.M._

"So far I had proceeded when I was, on some business of importance,
obliged to break off till now; and, on my return, found your letter;--I
need not, I hope, say your confidence is as safe as if it was returned to
your own mind, and your advice will always be thankfully adopted. The
event we looked for last night is postponed, perhaps for a short time, so
that, at least, we shall have time to consider more maturely. The Doctors
told Pitt they would beg not to be obliged to make their declaration for
a fortnight as to the incurability of the King's mind, and not to be
surprised if, at the expiration of that time, they should ask more time;
but that they were perfectly ready to declare now for the furtherance of
public business, that he is now insane; that it appears to be unconnected
with any other disease of his body, and that they have tried all their
skill without effect, and that to the _disease they at present see no
end in their contemplation:_--these are their own words, which is all
that can be implied in an absolute declaration,--for infallibility cannot
be ascribed to them.

"Should not something be done about the public amusements? If it was
represented to Pitt, it might embarrass them either way; particularly as
it might call for a public account every day. I think the Chancellor
might take a good opportunity to break with his colleagues, if they
propose restriction, the Law authority would have great weight with us,
as well as preventing even a design of moving the City;--at all events, I
think Parliament would not confirm their opinion. If Pitt stirs much, I
think any attempt to _grasp at power_ might be fatal to his
interest, at least, well turned against it.

"The Prince has sent for me directly, so I'll send this now, and write
again."

In the words, "I think the Chancellor might take a good opportunity to
break with his colleagues," the writer alludes to a negotiation which
Sheridan had entered into with Lord Thurlow, and by which it was expected
that the co-operation of that Learned Lord might be secured, in
consideration of his being allowed to retain the office of Chancellor
under the Regency.

Lord Thurlow was one of those persons who, being taken by the world at
their own estimate of themselves, contrive to pass upon the times in
which they live for much more than they are worth. His bluntness gained
him credit for superior honesty, and the same peculiarity of exterior
gave a weight, not their own, to his talents; the roughness of the
diamond being, by a very common mistake, made the measure of its value.
The negotiation for his alliance on this occasion was managed, if not
first suggested, by Sheridan; and Mr. Fox, on his arrival from the
Continent, (having been sent for express upon the first announcement of
the King's illness,) found considerable progress already made in the
preliminaries of this heterogeneous compact.

The following letter from Admiral Payne, written immediately after the
return of Mr. Fox, contains some further allusions to the negotiations
with the Chancellor:--

"MY DEAR SHERIDAN,

"I am this moment returned with the Prince from riding, and heard, with
great pleasure, of Charles Fox's arrival; on which account, he says, I
must go to town to-morrow, when I hope to meet you at his house some time
before dinner. The Prince is to see the Chancellor to-morrow, and
therefore he wishes I should be able to carry to town the result of this
interview, or I would set off immediately. Due deference is had to our
_former opinion_ upon this subject, and no courtship will be
practised; for the chief object in the visit is to show him the King, who
has been worse the two last days than ever: this morning he made an
effort to jump out of the window, and is now very turbulent and
incoherent. Sir G. Baker went yesterday to give Pitt a little specimen of
his loquacity, in his discovery of some material state-secrets, at which
he looked astonished. The Physicians wish him to be removed to Kew; on
which we shall proceed as we settled. Have you heard any thing of the
Foreign Ministers respecting what the P. said at Bagshot? The Frenchman
has been here two days running, but has not seen the Prince. He sat with
me half an hour this morning, and seemed much disposed to confer a little
closely. He was all admiration and friendship for the Prince, and said he
was sure _every body_ would unite to give vigor to his government.

"To-morrow you shall hear particulars; in the mean time I can only add I
have none of the apprehensions contained in Lord L.'s letter. I have had
correspondence enough myself on this subject to convince me of the
impossibility of the Ministry managing the present Parliament by any
contrivance hostile to the Prince. Dinner is on table; so adieu; and be
assured of the truth and sincerity of

"Yours affectionately,

"_Windsor, Monday, 5 o'clock, P. M._

"J. W. P.

"I have just got Rodney's proxy sent."

The situation in which Mr. Fox was placed by the treaty thus commenced,
before his arrival, with the Chancellor, was not a little embarrassing.
In addition to the distaste which he must have felt for such a union, he
had been already, it appears, in some degree pledged to bestow the Great
Seal, in the event of a change, upon Lord Loughborough. Finding, however,
the Prince and his party so far committed in the negotiation with Lord
Thurlow, he thought it expedient, however contrary to his own wishes, to
accede to their views; and a letter, addressed by him to Mr. Sheridan on
the occasion, shows the struggle with his own feelings and opinions,
which this concession cost him:--

"DEAR SHERIDAN,

"I have swallowed the pill,--a most bitter one it was,--and have written
to Lord Loughborough, whose answer of course must be consent. What is to
be done next? Should the Prince himself, you, or I, or Warren, be the
person to speak to the Chancellor? The objection to the last is, that he
must probably wait for an opportunity, and that no time is to be lost.
Pray tell me what is to be done: I am convinced, after all, the
negotiation will not succeed, and am not sure that I am sorry for it. I
do not remember ever feeling so uneasy about any political thing I ever
did in my life. Call if you can.

"Yours ever,

"C. J. F."

_Sat. past 12._

Lord Loughborough, in the mean time, with a vigilance quickened by his
own personal views, kept watch on the mysterious movements of the
Chancellor; and, as appears by the following letter, not only saw reason
to suspect duplicity himself, but took care that Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan
should share in his distrust:--

"MY DEAR S.

"I was afraid to pursue the conversation on the circumstance of the
Inspection committed to the Chancellor, lest the reflections that arise
upon it might have made too strong an impression on some of our neighbors
last night. It does indeed appear to me full of mischief, and of that
sort most likely to affect the apprehensions of our best friends, (of
Lord John for instance,) and to increase their reluctance to take any
active part.

"The Chancellor's object evidently is to make his way by himself, and he
has managed hitherto as one very well practised in that game. His
conversations, both with you and Mr. Fox, were encouraging, but at the
same time checked all explanations on his part under a pretence of
delicacy towards his colleagues. When he let them go to Salthill and
contrived to dine at Windsor, he certainly took a step that most men
would have felt not very delicate in its appearance, and unless there was
some private understanding between him and them, not altogether fair;
especially if you add to it the sort of conversation he held with regard
to them. I cannot help thinking that the difficulties of managing the
patient have been excited or improved to lead to the proposal of his
inspection, (without the Prince being conscious of it,) for by that
situation he gains an easy and frequent access to him, and an opportunity
of possessing the confidence of the Queen. I believe this the more from
the account of the tenderness he showed at his first interview, for I am
sure, it is not in his character to feel any. With a little instruction
from Lord Hawksbury, the sort of management that was carried on by means
of the Princess-Dowager, in the early part of the reign, may easily be
practised. In short, I think he will try to find the key of the back
stairs, and, with that in his pocket, take any situation that preserves
his access, and enables him to hold a line between different parties. In
the present moment, however, he has taken a position that puts the
command of the House of Lords in his hands, for * * * * * * *. [Footnote:
The remainder of this sentence is effaced by damp]

"I wish Mr. Fox and you would give these considerations what weight you
think they deserve, and try if any means can be taken to remedy this
mischief, if it appears in the same light to you.

"Ever yours, &c."

What were the motives that induced Lord Thurlow to break off so suddenly
his negotiation with the Prince's party, and declare himself with such
vehemence on the side of the King and Mr. Pitt, it does not appear very
easy to ascertain. Possibly, from his opportunities of visiting the Royal
Patient, he had been led to conceive sufficient hopes of recovery, to
incline the balance of his speculation that way; or, perhaps, in the
influence of Lord Loughborough [Footnote: Lord Loughborough is supposed
to have been the person who instilled into the mind of Mr. Fox the idea
of advancing that claim of right for the Prince, which gave Mr. Pitt, in
principle as well as in fact, such an advantage over him.] over Mr. Fox,
he saw a risk of being supplanted in his views on the Great Seal.
Whatever may have been the motive, it is certain that his negotiation
with the Whigs had been amicably carried on, till within a few hours of
his delivery of that speech, from whose enthusiasm the public could
little suspect how fresh from the incomplete bargain of defection was the
speaker, and in the course of which he gave vent to the well-known
declaration, that "his debt of gratitude to His Majesty was ample, for
the many favors he had graciously conferred upon him, which, when he
forgot, might God forget him!" [Footnote: "Forget you!" said Wildes,
"he'll see you d---d first."]

As it is not my desire to imitate those biographers, who swell their
pages with details that belong more properly to History, I shall forbear
to enter into a minute or consecutive narrative of the proceedings of
Parliament on the important subject of the Regency. A writer of political
biography has a right, no doubt, like an engineer who constructs a
navigable canal, to lay every brook and spring in the neighborhood under
contribution for the supply and enrichment of his work. But, to turn into
it the whole contents of the Annual Register and Parliamentary Debates is
a sort of literary engineering, not quite so laudable, which, after the
example set by a Right Reverend biographer of Mr. Pitt, will hardly again
be attempted by any one, whose ambition, at least, it is to be read as
well as bought.

Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt, it is well known, differed essentially, not only
with respect to the form of the proceedings, which the latter recommended
in that suspension of the Royal authority, but also with respect to the
abstract constitutional principles, upon which those proceedings of the
Minister were professedly founded. As soon as the nature of the malady,
with which the King was afflicted, had been ascertained by a regular
examination of the physicians in attendance on His Majesty, Mr. Pitt
moved (on the 10th of December), that a "Committee be appointed to
examine and report precedents of such proceedings as may have been had,
in case of the personal exercise of the Royal authority being prevented
or interrupted, by infancy, sickness, infirmity, or otherwise, with a
view to provide for the same." [Footnote: Mr. Burke and Mr. Sheridan were
both members of this committee, and the following letter from the former
to Sheridan refers to it:--

"MY DEAR SIR,

"My idea was, that on Fox's declaring that the precedents, neither
individually nor collectively, do at all apply, our attendance ought to
have been merely formal. But as you think otherwise, I shall certainly be
at the committee soon after one. I rather think, that they will not
attempt to garble: because, supposing the precedents to apply, the major
part are certainly in their favor. It is not likely that they mean to
suppress,--but it is good to be on our guard.

"Ever most truly yours, &c.

"EDMUND BURKE."

_Gerard Street, Thursday Morning_.]

It was immediately upon this motion that Mr. Fox advanced that
inconsiderate claim of Right for the Prince of Wales, of which his rival
availed himself so dexterously and triumphantly. Having asserted that
there existed no precedent whatever that could bear upon the present
case, Mr. Fox proceeded to say, that "the circumstance to be provided for
did not depend upon their deliberations as a House of Parliament,--it
rested elsewhere. There was then a person in the kingdom, different from
any other person that any existing precedents could refer to,--an Heir
Apparent, of full age and capacity to exercise the royal power. It
behoved them, therefore, to waste not a moment unnecessarily, but to
proceed with all becoming speed and diligence to restore the Sovereign
power and the exercise of the Royal Authority. From what he had read of
history, from the ideas he had formed of the law, and, what was still
more precious, of the spirit of the Constitution, from every reasoning
and analogy drawn from those sources, he declared that he had not in his
mind a doubt, and he should think himself culpable if he did not take the
first opportunity of declaring it, that, in the present condition of His
Majesty, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales had as clear, as express
a Right to exercise the power of Sovereignty, during the continuance of
the illness and incapacity, with which it had pleased God to afflict His
Majesty, as in the case of His Majesty's having undergone a natural
demise."

It is said that, during the delivery of this adventurous opinion, the
countenance of Mr. Pitt was seen to brighten with exultation at the
mistake into which he perceived his adversary was hurrying; and scarcely
had the sentence, just quoted, been concluded, when, slapping his thigh
triumphantly, he turned to the person who sat next to him, and said,
"I'll _un-Whig_ the gentleman for the rest of his life!"

Even without this anecdote, which may be depended upon as authentic, we
have sufficient evidence that such were his feelings in the burst of
animation and confidence with which he instantly replied to Mr.
Fox,--taking his ground, with an almost equal temerity, upon the directly
opposite doctrine, and asserting, not only that "in the case of the
interruption of the personal exercise of the Royal Authority, it devolved
upon the other branches of the Legislature to provide a substitute for
that authority," but that "the Prince of Wales had no more right to
exercise the powers of government than any other person in the realm."

The truth is, the assertion of a _Right_ was equally erroneous, on
both sides of the question. The Constitution having provided no legal
remedy for such an exigence as had now occurred, the two Houses of
Parliament had as little right (in the strict sense of the word) to
supply the deficiency of the Royal power, as the Prince had to be the
person elected or adjudged for that purpose. Constitutional analogy and
expediency were the only authorities by which the measures necessary in
such a conjuncture could be either guided or sanctioned; and if the
disputants on each side had softened down their tone to this true and
practical view of the case, there would have been no material difference,
in the first stage of the proceedings between them,--Mr. Pitt being
ready to allow that the Heir Apparent was the obvious person to whom
expediency pointed as the depository of the Royal power, and Mr. Fox
having granted, in a subsequent explanation of his doctrine, that, strong
as was the right upon which the claim of the Prince was founded, His
Royal Highness could not assume that right till it had been formally
adjudicated to him by Parliament. The principle, however, having been
imprudently broached, Mr. Pitt was too expert a tactician not to avail
himself of the advantage it gave him. He was thus, indeed, furnished with
an opportunity, not only of gaining time by an artful protraction of the
discussions, but of occupying victoriously the ground of Whiggism, which
Mr. Fox had, in his impatience or precipitancy, deserted, and of thus
adding to the character, which he had recently acquired, of a defender of
the prerogatives of the Crown, the more brilliant reputation of an
assertor of the rights of the people.

In the popular view which Mr. Pitt found it convenient to take of this
question, he was led, or fell voluntarily into some glaring errors, which
pervaded the whole of his reasonings on the subject. In his anxiety to
prove the omnipotence of Parliament, he evidently confounded the Estates
of the realm with the Legislature, [Footnote: Mr. Grattan and the Irish
Parliament carried this error still farther, and founded all their
proceedings on the necessity of "providing for the deficiency of the
Third _Estate_."] and attributed to two branches of the latter such
powers as are only legally possessed by the whole three in Parliament
assembled. For the purpose, too, of flattering the people with the notion
that to them had now reverted the right of choosing their temporary
Sovereign, he applied a principle, which ought to be reserved for extreme
cases, to an exigence by no means requiring this ultimate appeal,--the
defect in the government being such as the still existing Estates of the
realm, appointed to speak the will of the people, but superseding any
direct exercise of their power, were fully competent, as in the instance
of the Revolution, to remedy. [Footnote: The most luminous view that has
been taken of this Question is to be found in an Article of the Edinburgh
Review, on the Regency of 1811,--written by one of the most learned and
able men of our day, Mr. John Allen.]

Indeed, the solemn use of such language as Mr. Pitt, in his over-acted
Whiggism, employed upon this occasion,--namely, that the "right" of
appointing a substitute for the Royal power was "to be found in the voice
and the sense of the people,"--is applicable only to those conjunctures,
brought on by misrule and oppression, when all forms are lost in the
necessity of relief, and when the right of the people to change and
choose their rulers is among the most sacred and inalienable that either
nature or social polity has ordained. But, to apply the language of that
last resource to the present emergency was to brandish the sword of
Goliath [Footnote: A simile applied by Lord Somers to the power of
Impeachment, which, he said, "should be like Goliath's sword, kept in the
temple, and not used but upon great occasions."] on an occasion that by
no means called for it.

The question of the Prince's claim,--in spite of the efforts of the
Prince himself and of his Royal relatives to avert the agitation of
it,--was, for evident reasons, forced into discussion by the Minister,
and decided by a majority, not only of the two Houses but of the nation,
in his favor. During one of the long debates to which the question gave
rise, Mr. Sheridan allowed himself to be betrayed into some expressions,
which, considering the delicate predicament in which the Prince was
placed by the controversy, were not marked with his usual tact and
sagacity. In alluding to the claim of Right advanced for His Royal
Highness, and deprecating any further agitation of it, he "reminded the
Right Honorable Gentleman (Mr. Pitt) of the danger of provoking that
claim to be asserted [a loud cry of hear! hear!], which, he observed, had
not yet been preferred. [Another cry of hear! hear!]" This was the very
language that Mr. Pitt most wished his adversaries to assume, and,
accordingly, he turned it to account with all his usual mastery and
haughtiness. "He had now," he said, "an additional reason for asserting
the authority of the House, and defining the boundaries of Right, when
the deliberative faculties of Parliament were invaded, and an indecent
menace thrown out to awe and influence their proceedings. In the
discussion of the question, the House, he trusted, would do their duty,
in spite of any threat that might be thrown out. Men, who felt their
native freedom, would not submit to a threat, however high the authority
from which it might come." [Footnote: _Impartial Report of all the
Proceedings on the Subject of the Regency_]

The restrictions of the Prerogative with which Mr. Pitt thought proper to
encumber the transfer of the Royal power to the Prince, formed the second
great point of discussion between the parties, and brought equally
adverse principles into play. Mr. Fox, still maintaining his position on
the side of Royalty, defended it with much more tenable weapons than the
question of Right had enabled him to wield. So founded, indeed, in the
purest principles of Whiggism did he consider his opposition, on this
memorable occasion, to any limitation of the Prerogative in the hands of
a Regent, that he has, in his History of James II., put those principles
deliberately upon record, as a fundamental article in the creed of his
party. The passage to which I allude occurs in his remarks upon the
Exclusion Bill; and as it contains, in a condensed form, the spirit of
what he urged on the same point in 1789, I cannot do better than lay his
own words before the reader. After expressing his opinion that, at the
period of which he writes, the measure of exclusion from the monarchy
altogether would have been preferable to any limitation of its powers, he
proceeds to say:--"The Whigs, who consider the powers of the Crown as a
trust for the people, a doctrine which the Tories themselves, when pushed
in argument, will sometimes admit, naturally think it their duty rather
to change the manager of the trust than impair the subject of it; while
others, who consider them as the right or property of the King, will as
naturally act as they would do in the case of any other property, and
consent to the loss or annihilation of any part of it, for the purpose of
preserving the remainder to him, whom they style the rightful owner."
Further on he adds:--"The Royal Prerogative ought, according to the
Whigs, to be reduced to such powers as are in their exercise beneficial
to the people; and of the benefit of these they will not rashly suffer
the people to be deprived, whether the executive power be in the hands of
an hereditary or of an elective King, of a Regent, or of any other
denomination of magistrate; while, on the other hand, they who consider
Prerogative with reference only to Royalty will, with equal readiness,
consent either to the extension or the suspension of its exercise, as the
occasional interests of the Prince may seem to require."

Taking this as a correct exposition of the doctrines of the two parties,
of which Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt may be considered to have been the
representatives in the Regency question of 1789, it will strike some
minds that, however the Whig may flatter himself that the principle by
which he is guided in such exigencies is favorable to liberty, and
however the Tory may, with equal sincerity, believe his suspension of the
Prerogative on these occasions to be advantageous to the Crown, yet that
in both of the principles, so defined, there is an evident tendency to
produce effects, wholly different from those which the parties professing
them contemplate.

On the one side, to sanction from authority the notion, that there are
some powers of the Crown which may be safely dispensed with,--to accustom
the people to an abridged exercise of the Prerogative, with the risk of
suggesting to their minds that its full efficacy needs not be
resumed,--to set an example, in short, of reducing the Kingly Power,
which, by its success, may invite and authorize still further
encroachments,--all these are dangers to which the alleged doctrine of
Toryism, whenever brought into practice, exposes its idol; and more
particularly in enlightened and speculative times, when the minds of men
are in quest of the right and the useful, and when a superfluity of power
is one of those abuses, which they are least likely to overlook or
tolerate. In such seasons, the experiment of the Tory might lead to all
that he most deprecates, and the branches of the Prerogative, once cut
away, might, like the lopped boughs of the fir-tree, never grow again.

On the other hand, the Whig, who asserts that the Royal Prerogative ought
to be reduced to such powers as are beneficial to the people, and yet
stipulates, as an invariable principle, for the transfer of that
Prerogative full and unimpaired, whenever it passes into other hands,
appears, even more perhaps than the Tory, to throw an obstacle in the way
of his own object. Circumstances, it is not denied, may arise when the
increase of the powers of the Crown, in other ways, may render it
advisable to control some of its established prerogatives. But, where are
we to find a fit moment for such a reform,--or what opening will be left
for it by this fastidious Whig principle, which, in 1680, could see no
middle step between a change of the Succession and an undiminished
maintenance of the Prerogative, and which, in 1789, almost upon the heels
of a Declaration that "the power of the Crown had increased and ought to
be diminished," protested against even an experimental reduction of it!

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