Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/149

Rh PITT 139 an election committee should report that the majority of voters appeared to be corrupt should lose the franchise. The motion was rejected by 293 votes to 149. After the prorogation, Pitt visited the Continent for the first and last time. His travelling companion was one of his most intimate friends, a young man of his own age who had already distinguished himself in parliament by an engaging natural eloquence, set off by the sweetest and most exquisitely modulated of human voices, and whose affectionate heart, caressing manners, and brilliant wit made him the most delightful of companions, William Wilberforce. That was the time of Anglomania in France ; and at Paris the son of the great Chatham was absolutely hunted by men of letters and women of fashion, and forced, much against his will, into political disputa tion. One remarkable saying which dropped from him during this tour has been preserved. A French gentleman expressed some surprise at the immense influence which Fox, a man of pleasure, ruined by the dice-box and the turf, exercised over the English nation. &quot; You have not,&quot; said Pitt, &quot; been under the wand of the magician.&quot; In November 1783 the parliament met again. The Government had irresistible strength in the House of Commons, and seemed to be scarcely less strong in the House of Lords, but was, in truth, surrounded on every side by dangers. The king was impatiently waiting for the moment at which he could emancipate himself from a yoke which galled him so severely that he had more than once seriously thought of retiring to Hanover ; and the king was scarcely more eager for a change than the nation. Fox and North had committed a fatal error. They ought to have known that coalitions between parties which have long been hostile can succeed only when the wish for coalition pervades the lower ranks of both. If the leaders unite before there is any disposition to union among the followers, the probability is that there will be a mutiny in both camps, and that the two revolted armies will make a truce with each other in order to be revenged on those by whom they think that they have been betrayed. Thus it was in 1783. At the beginning of that eventful year North had been the recognized head of the old Tory party, which, though for a moment prostrated by the disastrous issue of the American war, was still a great power in the state. To him the clergy, the universities, and that large body of country gentlemen whose rallying cry was &quot; Church and King &quot; had long looked up with respect and confid ence. Fox had, on the other hand, been the idol of the Whigs, and of the whole body of Protestant dissenters. The coalition at once alienated the most zealous Tories from North and the most zealous Whigs from Fox. The university of Oxford, which had marked its approbation, of North s orthodoxy by electing him chancellor, the city of London, which had been during two and twenty years at war with the court, were equally disgusted. Squires and rectors who had inherited the principles of the cava liers of the preceding century could not forgive their old leader for combining with disloyal subjects in order to put a force on the sovereign. The members of the Bill of Rights Society and of the reform associations were enraged by learning that their favourite orator no~w called the great champion of tyranny and corruption his noble friend. Two great multitudes were at once left without any head, and both at once turned their eyes on Pitt. One party saw in him the only man who could rescue the king ; the other saw in him the only man who could purify the parliament. He was supported on one side by Archbishop Markham, the preacher of divine right, and by Jenkinson, the captain of the pnetorian band of the king s friends ; on the other side by Jebb and Priestley, Sawbridge and Cartwright, Jack Wilkes and Home Tooke. On the benches of the House of Commons, however, the ranks of the ministerial majority were unbroken ; and that any statesman would venture to brave such a majority was thought impossible. No prince of the Hanoverian line had ever, under any provocation, ventured to appeal from the representative body to the constituent body. The ministers, therefore, notwithstanding the sullen looks and muttered words of displeasure with which their sugges tions were received in the closet, notwithstanding the roar of obloquy which was rising louder and louder every day from every corner of the island, thought themselves secure. Such was their confidence in their strength that, as Fox s soon as the parliament had met, they brought forward a India singularly bold and original plan for the government of B the British territories in India. What was proposed was that the whole authority which till that time had been exercised over those territories by the East India Com pany should be transferred to seven commissioners, who were to be named by parliament, and were not to be removable at the pleasure of the crown. Earl Fitzwilliam, the most intimate personal friend of Fox, was to be chair man of this board, and the eldest son of North was to be one of the members. As soon as the outlines of the scheme were known all the hatred which the coalition had excited burst forth with an astounding explosion. The question which ought undoubtedly to have been considered as paramount to every other was whether the proposed change was likely to be beneficial or injurious to the thirty millions of people who were subject to the company. But that question cannot be said to have been even seriously discussed. Burke, who, whether right or wrong in the conclusions to which he came, had at least the merit of looking at the subject in the right point of view, vainly reminded his hearers of that mighty population whose daily rice might depend on a vote of the British parliament. He spoke with even more than his wonted power of thought and language, about the desolation of Rohilcund, about the spoliation of Benares, about the evil policy which had suffered the tanks of the Carnatic to go to ruin ; but he could scarcely obtain a hearing. The contending parties, to their shame it must be said, would listen to none but English topics. Out of doors the cry against the ministry was almost universal. Town and country were united. Corporations exclaimed against the violation of the charter of the greatest corporation in the realm. Tories and democrats joined in pronouncing the proposed board an unconstitutional body. It was to consist of Fox s nomi nees. The effect of his bill was to give, not to the crown, but to him personally, whether in office or in opposition, an enormous power, a patronage sufficient to counter balance the patronage of the treasury and of the admiralty, and to decide the elections for fifty boroughs. He knew, it was said, that he was hateful alike to king and people ; and he had devised a plan which would make him inde pendent of both. Some nicknamed him Cromwell, and some Carlo Khan. Wilberforce, with his usual felicity of expression, and with very unusual bitterness of feeling, described the scheme as the genuine offspring of the coali tion, as marked with the features of both its parents, the corruption of one and the violence of the other. In spite of all opposition, however, the bill was supported in every stage by great majorities, was rapidly passed, and was sent up to the Lords. To the general astonishment, when the second reading was moved in the Upper House, the Opposition proposed an adjournment, and carried it by eighty-seven votes to seventy-nine. The cause of this strange turn of fortune was soon known. Pitt s cousin, Earl Temple, had been in the royal closet, and had there