The Reign of George III. - (Continued.) page 2

The rancour which these revelations of the hordes of high-bred parasites who were battening on the strength of the country excited, became so intense that duels grew into fashion. Mr. Fox had had to fight his man, and now lord Shelburne was called out. He had proposed an address to his majesty to inquire whether he had been pleased to dismiss two lord-lieutenants of counties on account of their conduct in parliament, and in his speech had commented strongly on a regiment having been given to a Mr. Fullarton, the member for Plympton, who was a civilian, and had been secretary to the late lord Stormont, at Paris. Lord Shelburne had therefore styled him a commis, or mere clerk. For this, and for saying that men thus appointed - not for their fitness, but their subservience - would be as ready to lead their regiments against the people as against their enemies, Fullarton challenged Shelburne, and severely wounded him. The affair, coupled with that of Mr. Fox, excited a great sensation, both in and out of parliament. Sir James Lowther said, in the commons, that such practices would soon reduce the English parliament to the level of a Polish diet; but it was replied that a few such correctives would teach gentlemen to speak with better manners. Not a word was uttered as to the folly and wickedness of duelling in general; the day when that light should dawn upon the Christian mind was yet far off.

The affair of Mr., or colonel, Fullarton excited a strong spirit of jealousy against this and the other new regiments which had been raised chiefly by private gentlemen, who thus, however, obtained great influence with government, and were enabled to put in their friends as officers, and were, in return, ready to support ministers in their despotic conduct. Mr. John Chewe reproduced the bill of Mr. Dowdeswell, to disable revenue officers from voting at elections, which was at once rejected. Sir Philip Jennings Clerke then reproduced his bill, to exclude contractors from the house of commons, unless their contracts were obtained at a public bidding; this was suffered for appearance' sake to pass the house with very little opposition, but it was arrested in the peers by the law lords, at the head of whom were Maosfield and Thurlow, and thrown out.

In a debate on the army estimates and the new levies, which immediately followed, on the 5th of April, Sir Philip Jennings Clerke made some strong remarks on the new regiment of the Cinque Ports, which lord North had raised, and to which he had appointed his son as colonel. This called up lord North's son, who was in the house, and the discussion grew warm, drawing into it the regiments of Fullarton and colonel Holroyd, the friend of Gibbon. The colonels defended themselves with much fire, but the agitation of the question tended to throw still more light on the manner in which even ostensibly patriotic movements were made the engines of ministerial domination.

The next day, April 6th, a great meeting was held in Westminster, avowedly to add weight to the county petitions for economical reform, which were now pouring into the house of commons. Fox presided, and was supported by the dukes of Devonshire and Portland. Government, to throw discredit on the meeting, affected alarm, and, at the request of the Middlesex magistrates, who were believed to have been moved by ministers to make it, a body of troops were drawn up in the neighbourhood of Westminster Hall. The indignation of the opposition was so much excited that Burke, in the house of commons, commenting on this attempt to insinuate evil designs against the friends of reform, denounced the Middlesex magistrates as creeping vermin - the very " scum of the earth; " and Fox declared, that if soldiers were to be let loose on the constitutional meetings of the people, then all who went to such meetings must go armed!

Whilst these indignant sentiments were uttering, the petitions for economical reform were pouring in from all parts of the country in such numbers that the table of the house appeared buried under them. The house went into committee upon the subject, and then Dunning rose and introduced his famous motion for a resolution in these words: - u That it is the opinion of this committee that the influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished."

Dunning declaimed in language bold and unsparing, and expatiated at great length on the alarming influence of the crown, purchased by the lavish expenditure of the people's money, the people thus being made the instruments of their own slavery. He censured in stinging terms the treatment of the economical plans of Burke, the treacherous terms of approbation with which ministers had received them, and then had trodden on them piecemeal till they had left of them the merest shred. He trusted the nation would still resent this audacious mockery of reform - this insult to the most distinguished patriots. This was the way, he contended, that this administration had again and again acted; adding ridicule to oppression. He was followed by others, who also averred that it was by this corrupt influence, this lavish distribution of the money of the deluded people, that lord North had alone been able to maintain himself in power; a great truth when combined with the obtuse obstinacy of the king.

Sir Fletcher Norton, the speaker, seized the opportunity of the house being in committee, when he was at liberty to take part in debate, to wreak his own sense of injury on the ministers. The post of chief-justice had been held out to him as an inducement to accept the speaker's chair, but now the chief-justice De Grey was asked to retire in order that the attorney - general, Wedderburn, might succeed him. This was too much for Norton. When Burke's resolutions were before the house in committee, he had upbraided North with this transaction, and North had coolly replied that he was not bound by the promises of his predecessor. Wedderburn, too, incensed at the mention of his name, poured the vials of his wrath on Norton, and told him that he had already, in acknowledgment of his services, received one of the richest sinecures in possession of the crown - one of the chief-justiceships in Eyre. Norton now repaid this severity by cordially supporting the motion of Dunning, declaring from his heart the conviction that the power of the crown was enormous, and also increasing. He reminded the house that the parliamentary term was drawing to an end, and he wished those members joy of going down to their constituents who should now vote the petitions of the people unfounded.

Lord North defended his conduct by declaring that he never had asserted that his abilities were equal to his arduous post; but that it was clear that he had retained it simply because the people had a still less opinion of the fitness of his opponents. There was, however, so ominous a feeling in the house - such a persuasion that Dunning's motion could not well be negatived - that Dundas, the lord advocate, endeavoured to get rid of the debate by moving that the chairman should leave the chair; but this was so ill received that it was withdrawn. Still, Dundas made another effort, which was this time in the contrary direction - that is, to tire out the house by proposing, as an amendment, that the words, " It is now necessary to declare," should be prefixed to Dunning's motion. Fox at once seconded the motion, by which the intended delay of a debate was prevented. It was put to the house and carried; and Dunning's motion was also carried, at a late hour of che night, by two hundred and thirty-three votes against two hundred and fifteen.

Encouraged by this unwonted success, for the words of the speaker, reminding them of the coming elections, had sunk deep into many hearts, Dunning immediately moved a second proposition, namely, that it was competent to that house to examine into and correct any abuses of the civil list, as well as of any other branch of the public revenue. Lord North begged the committee not to proceed any further that night; but the opposition had no idea of being stopped in their new career of success. The resolution was carried without a division. Immediately on the heels of this, Thomas Pitt moved that it was the duty of the house to redress without delay the grievances enumerated in the petitions of the people. Lord North again implored that they would not proceed any further that night; but this resolution was also put and carried, likewise without division. Immediately, though it was past one o'clock in the morning, Fox moved that all these motions should be reported. Lord North, in the utmost consternation, declared this procedure was " violent, arbitrary, and unusual;" but Fox pressed his motion, and it was carried, like the rest, without a division, and the report was brought up.

When the committee on the petitions next met, on the 10th of April, Dunning, elated with his success, was ready with fresh resolutions. His first was that it was necessary for the purity and independence of parliament that the proper officer should, within ten days of the meeting of parliament in each session, lay before the house an account of monies paid out of the civil list, or out of any part of the public revenue, to any member of parliament. This, too, was triumphantly carried, only to be followed by another from Dunning, that the persons holding the offices of treasurer of the chamber, treasurer of the household, or clerkships of the green cloth, with all their deputies, should be incapable of sitting in the house of commons. Here the confounded ministerial members began to recover their spirit under the sweeping sentences passed against them, and Dunning only carried this resolution by a majority of two.

On the 14th of April the house was adjourned for ten days, on account of the illness of the speaker, Sir Fletcher Norton; and, on assembling again, it was found that the ministerial majority had recovered its old hardihood. Either they thought they had done enough by their late votes to satisfy their constituents, or ministers had found means to render them obedient by menacing losses from their side, for, when Dunning proposed a resolution that his majesty should be requested not to dissolve or prorogue parliament until proper measures had been taken to secure to the people the benefits prayed for in their petitions, the motion was rejected by a majority of fifty-one in a very full house.

Fox and Dunning vented their indignation at this result on the ministerial phalanx, whom they declared to be the worst of slaves - slaves sold by themselves into the most contemptible thraldom. But their castigation was in vain; the troop was brought back to its primitive compliance, and defeated every future motion from the opposition. On the 19th, Mr. Serjeant Adair moved that the supplies should be withheld till the public grievances were redressed. This was negatived by eighty-nine votes against fifty-four; and, finally, on the 26th of May, when Dunning moved for the bringing up the report of the committee on the 10th of April, an amendment was moved and carried that the chairman should quit the chair.

Thus, all the result of these triumphant motions of the opposition was the simple fact of the resolutions of the 10th of April remaining on the journals; everything which could, give effect to them was swept away again, and they were left little better than a dead letter. Fox denounced the whole proceeding as most treacherous and unmanly; and the opposition declared that it was an insolent announcement that the prayers of the people should receive no attention from that house.

Amidst this domestic debate, the affairs of America excited very little discussion. General Conway, indeed, on the 5th of May, brought in a bill for restoring peace to the colonies; but it was so little acceptable to either party, that it was got rid of by passing to the order of the day.

Whilst the opposition was in the dejection of disappointed hopes, suddenly there arose an explosion of popular opinion against the catholics, stimulated and led on by an insane fanatic, which threatened the most direful consequences, and produced sufficiently frightful ones - the so-called Gordon Riots.

We have already noted the excitement in Scotland at the act which was passed in 1778, for the repeal of some of the severest disabilities of the catholics; and this had been greatly increased by the proposal to extend its operation by a second act to Scotland. The fanatics of Scotland called upon the general assembly to petition government against any such act for Scotland; but the assembly most meritoriously refused. This, however, only increased the fury of the fanatical portion of the public. The clergy, many of them, showed a very different disposition to the general assembly, and from their pulpits excited the people against any relaxation of the laws against catholics, which were much more harshly administered in Scotland than in England. They declared that the church was in danger; that popery was going to be restored again, in all its horrors. Pamphlets of the most rancorous kind were printed and circulated all over the country, in which the pope, the devil, and Sir George Saville, who had introduced the catholic relief bill, were put pretty much on a par.

The synod of Glasgow passed resolutions for opposing any bill which should be brought into parliament for relaxing the penal laws against catholics in Scotland; and its example was widely followed by other synods and presbyteries, denouncing vengeance against all who should favour any measures for the relief of the catholics. Not so the synod of Edinburgh, which was distinguished by many members of literary eminence, and who had read to a more Christian purpose the sublime tolerance of the Saviour; they refused to take any part in the illiberal agitation, but this only incited the intolerant masses the more. They formed themselves into a "Committee of the Protestant Interest," and, headed by shopkeepers and their apprentices, they held meetings and passed resolutions of the bitterest and most vindictive kind. The odious sentiments which they, and which a society calling itself a Christian Knowledge Society, promulgated, were speedily answered by acts of fierce assault on the catholic population, and by riots. The catholics, alarmed for their lives and property, implored lord North to lay aside any intention of passing an act in their favour, as its certain consequence would be an intolerable aggravation of their sufferings. They also published in the newspapers a statement that they sought no exemption from the existing laws; but this had no effect on the insensate zealots. In January, 1779, the mobs assembled in Leith Wynd, and about what they called the Pillar of Popery, a catholic chapel and priests' house, which had been lately erected. These they demolished and set on fire; thence they adjourned to Blackfriars Wynd, where they destroyed another chapel, after plundering it and carrying off or burning a fine collection of books. The magistrates scarcely attempted to check their destructive fury. They continued to parade the streets, breaking the windows of all who were catholics, or the friends of catholics. They particularly vowed vengeance against Robertson, the historian, who was averse to all religious persecutions, and assembled in a tumultuous mob to pull down his house. By this time, however, a party of dragoons had arrived, who preserved for the learned historian his house and library.