and was the declared advocate of Mr. Wilkes. It afterwards pleased his Grace to enter into administration with his friend Lord Rockingham, and, in a very little time, it pleased his Grace to abandon him. He then accepted of the treasury upon terms which Lord Temple had disdained. For a short time his submission to Lord Chatham was unlimited. He could not answer a private letter without Lord Chatham's permission. I presume he was then learning his trade, for he soon set up for himself. Until he declared himself the minister, his character had been but little understood. From that moment a system of conduct, directed by passion and caprice, not only reminds us that he is a young man, but a young man without solidity or judgment. One day he desponds and threatens to resign. The next, he finds his blood heated, and swears to his friends he is determined to go on. In his public measures we have seen no proof either of ability or consistency. The stamp act had been repealed (no matter how unwisely) under the preceding administration. The colonies had reason to triumph, and were returning to their good humour. The point was decided, when this young man thought proper to revive it. Without either plan or necessity, he adopts the spirit of Mr. Grenville's measures, and renews the question of taxation in a form more odious and less effectual than that of the law which had been repealed. With respect to the invasion of Corsica*, it will be matter of parliamentary inquiry, whether he has carried on a secret negotiation with the French court, in terms contradictory to the resolution of council, and to the instructions drawn up thereupon by his Majesty's secretary of statet. If it shall appear that he has quitted the line of his department to betray the honour and security of his country, and if there be a power sufficient to protect him, in such a case, against public justice, the constitution of Great Britain is at an end. His standing foremost in the persecution of Mr. Wilkes, * See notes in vol. i. p. 117. When, upon the invitation of the Genoese, the French invaded Corsica, a remonstrance was presented by the English minister at Paris; but here the resistance dropped. A motion which tended to an inquiry of this kind was made in the House of Commons by Hans Sloane, Esq.; but the uninfluenced, unplaced, unpensioned majority, thought proper to put a negative upon it. if former declarations and connections be considered, is base and contemptible *. The man whom he now brands with treason and blasphemy but a very few years ago was the Duke of Grafton's friend, nor is his identity altered, except by his misfortunes. In the last instance of his Grace's judgment and consistency, we see him, after trying and deserting every party, throw himself into the arms of a set of men whose political principles he had always pretended to abhor. These men I doubt not will teach him the folly of his conduct better than I can. They grasp at everything, and will soon push him from his seat. His private history would but little deserve our attention, if he had not voluntarily brought it into public notice. I will not call the amusements of a young man criminal, though I think they become his age better than his station. There is a period at which the most unruly passions are gratified or exhausted, and which leaves the mind clear and undisturbed in its attention to business. His Grace's gallantry would be offended if we were to suppose him within many years of being thus qualified for public affairs. As for the rest, making every allowance for the frailty of human nature, I can make none for a continued breach of public decorum ; nor can I believe that man very zealous for the interest of his country who sets her opinion at defiance. This nobleman, however, has one claim to respect, since it has pleased our gracious sovereign to make him prime minister of Great Britain. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is a moderate man, and pretends to no higher merit than that of a humble assistant in office. If he escapes censure, he is too prudent to aim at applause. The necessity of his affairs had separated him from earlier friendships and connections, and if he were of any consequence, we might lament that an honest man should find it necessary to disgrace himself in a post he is utterly unfit for. But we have other objects to attend to. depends greatly upon the present management of the finances whether this country shall stand or fall. A common clerk in office may conduct the ordinary supplies of the year, but to give a sensible relief to public credit, or to provide funds * See Junius, vol. i. p. 151. + See Junius, vol. i. p. 166, and Miscellaneous Letter 20. It against a rupture abroad, are objects above him. To remove those oppressions which lie heaviest upon trade, and, by the same operation, to improve the revenue, demands a superior capacity, supported by the most extensive knowledge. To vulgar minds it may appear unattainable, because vulgar minds make no distinction between the highly difficult and the impossible *. The Earl of Hillsborough + set out with a determined attachment to the court party, let who would be minister. He had one vice less than other courtiers, for he never even pretended to be a patriot. The Oxford election gave him an opportunity of showing some skill in parliamentary management, while an uniform obsequious submission to his superiors introduced him into lucrative places, and crowned his ambition with a peerage. He is now what they call a king's man; ready, as the closet directs, to be anything or nothing, but always glad to be employed. A new department, created on purpose for him, attracted a greater expectation than he has yet been able to support. In his first act of power he has betrayed a most miserable want of judgment. A provision for Lord Boutetort was not an object of importance sufficient to justify a risk of the first impression which a new minister must give of himself to the public. For my own part I hold him in some measure excused, because I am persuaded the defence he has delivered privately to his friends is true, “That the measure came from another and a higher quarter." But still he is the tool, and ceasing to be criminal sinks into contempt. In his new department I am sorry to say he has shown neither abilities nor good sense. His letters to the colonies contain nothing but expressions equally loose and violent. The minds of the Americans are not to be conciliated by a language which only contradicts without attempting to persuade. His correspondence, upon the whole, is so defective both in design and composition, that it would deserve our pity, if the consequences to be dreaded from it did not excite our indignation. This treatment of the colonies, added to his refusal to present a petition from one of them to * See Lord North's talents further discussed in the Letters of Junius, No. 34, where the writer does not appear to entertain a much higher opinion of them than in his present address. + Minister for the Colonial Department. the king (a direct breach of the declaration of rights), will naturally throw them all into a flame. I protest, Sir, I am astonished at the infatuation which seems to have directed his whole conduct. The other ministers were proceeding in their usual course, without foreseeing or regarding consequences; but this nobleman seems to have marked out, by a determined choice, the means to precipitate our destruction. The Earl of Shelburne had initiated himself in business, by carrying messages between the Earl of Bute and Mr. Fox, and was for some time a favourite with both. Before he was an ensign he thought himself fit to be a general, and to be a leading minister before he ever saw a public office. The life of this young man is a satire on mankind. The treachery which deserts a friend, might be a virtue compared to the fawning baseness which attaches itself to a declared enemy. Lord Chatham became his idol, introduced him into the most difficult department of the state, and left him there to shift for himself. It was a masterpiece of revenge. Unconnected, unsupported, he remains in office without interest or dignity, as if the income were an equivalent for all loss of reputation. Without spirit or judgment to take an advantageous moment of retiring, he submits to be insulted, as long as he is paid for it. But even this abject conduct will avail him nothing. Like his great archetype, the vapour on which he rose deserts him, and now, "Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops." I cannot observe without reluctance, that the only man of real abilities in the present administration is not an object of either respect or esteem. The character of the Lord Chancellor is a strong proof that an able, consistent, judicious conduct depends upon other qualities than those of the head. Passions and party, in his Lordship's understanding, had united all the extremes. They gave him to the world in one moment the patron of natural liberty, independent of civil constitutions, in the next the assertor of prerogative independent of law. How he will advise the crown in the present crisis, is of more importance to the public than to himself. His patronage of Mr. Wilkes and of America have suc * Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. Junius, Letter 59. Lord Camden. ceeded to his wish. They have given him a peerage, a pension, and the seals; and as for his future opinions, he can adopt none for which he may not find a precedent and justification in his former conduct. The Earl of Chatham-I had much to say, but it were inhuman to persecute, when Providence has marked out the example to mankind *! My Lord Granby is certainly a brave man, and a generous man, and both without design or reflection. How far the army is improved under his direction is another question. His German friends will all have regiments; and it is enough to say of his Lordship, that he has too much good humour to contradict the reigning minister. The length of this letter will not permit me to do particular justice to the Duke of Bedford's friends; neither is it necessary. With one united view they have but one character. My Lord Gower and Lord Weymouth were distressed, and Rigby was insatiable. The school they were bred in taught them how to abandon their friends without deserting their principles. There is a littleness even in their ambition, for money is their first object. Their professed opinions upon some great points are so different from those of the party with which they are now united, that the council-chamber is become a scene of open hostilities. While the fate of Great Britain is at stake, these worthy counsellors dispute without decency, advise without sincerity, resolve without decision, and leave the measure to be executed by the man who voted against it. This, I conceive, is the last disorder of the state. The consultation meets but to disagree. Opposite medicines are prescribed, and the last fixed on is changed by the hand that gives it. Such is the council by which the best of sovereigns is advised, and the greatest nation upon earth governed. Separately the figures are only offensive; in a group they are formidable. Commerce languishes, manufactures are oppressed, and public credit already feels her approaching dissolution; yet under the direction of this council we are to prepare for a dreadful contest with the colonies, and a war with the * His Lordship had resigned his post of lord privy seal three days previous to the date of this letter, and was succeeded in that office, on the 2nd of November following, by the Earl of Bristol. |