Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/378

Rh 3.YS E POLAND [ EISTOEY. Wilkes and 7*41; North Briton. Middle sex elec tion. Lord North and the new Tories. Divisions in the Opposi tion. Coercion in America, The Ameri can war. out benefit to the natives of the mother-country. Already there were signs of a readiness in parliament to treat even the constituencies with contempt. In 1763, in the days of the Grenville ministry, John Wilkes, a profligate and scurrilous writer, had been arrested on a general warrant, that is to say, a warrant in which the name of no indi vidual was mentioned, as the author of an alleged libel on the king, contained in No. 45 of The North Briton. He was a member of parliament, and as such was declared by Chief Justice Pratt to be privileged against arrest. In 1768 he was elected member for Middlesex. The House of Commons expelled him. He was again elected, and again expelled. The third time the Commons gave the seat to which Wilkes was a third time chosen to Colonel Lutrell, who was far down in the poll. Wilkes thus became the representative of a great constitutional prin ciple, the principle that the electors have a right to choose their representatives without restriction saving by the regulations of the law. For the present the contention of the American colonists and of the defenders of Wilkes at home was confined within the compass of the law. Yet in both cases it might easily pass beyond that compass, and might rest itself upon an appeal to the duty of Governments to modify the law and to enlarge the basis of their authority, when law and authority have become too narrow. As regards America, though Townshend died, the Government persisted in his policy. As resistance grew stronger in America, the king urged the use of compulsion. If he had not the wisdom of the country on his side, he had its prejudices. The arrogant spirit of Englishmen made them contemptuous towards the colonists, and the desire to thrust taxation upon others than themselves made the new colonial legislation popular. In 1770 the king made Lord North prime minister. He had won the object on which he had set his heart. A new Tory party had sprung up, not distinguished, like the Tories of Queen Anne s reign, by a special ecclesiastical policy, but by their acceptance of the king s claim to nominate ministers, and so to predominate in the ministry himself. Unhappily the Opposition, united in the desire to con ciliate America, was divided on questions of home policy. Chatham would have met the new danger by parliamentary reform, giving increased voting power to the freeholders of the counties. Burke from principle, and his noble patrons mainly from lower motives, were opposed to any such change As Burke had wished the British parliament to be supreme over the colonies, in confidence that this supremacy would not be abused, so he wished the great land-owning connec tion resting on the rotten boroughs to rule over the unre presented people, in confidence that this power would not be abused. Amidst these distractions the king had an easy game to play. He had all the patronage of the Government in his hands, and beyond the circle which was influenced by gifts of patronage he could appeal to the ignorance and self-seeking of the nation, with which, though he knew it not, he was himself in the closest sympathy. No wonder resistance grew more vigorous in America. In 1773 the inhabitants of Boston threw ship-loads of tea into the harbour rather than pay the obnoxious duty. In 1774 the Boston Port Bill deprived Boston of its com mercial rights, whilst the Massachusetts Government Bill took away from that colony the ordinary political liberties of Englishmen. The first skirmish of the inevitable war was fought at Lexington in 1775. In 1776 the thirteen colonies united in the Congress issued their Declaration of Independence. England put forth all its strength to beat down resistance. She increased her armies by hirelings bought from the German princes. But not only did no military genius appear on the English side, but the distance across the Atlantic was so great, and the immense spaces of even the settled part of the American continent were so large, that it was impossible to effect that conquest which seemed so easy at a distance. The difficulties of the Americans, too, were enormous, but they had the advan tage of being at home ; and in Washington they found a leader worthy of the great cause for which he fought. In 177.7 a British army under Burgoyne capitulated at Saratoga ; and in the same year France, eager to revenge France the disasters of the Seven Years War,, formed an alliance su PP r with the revolted colonies as free and independent states, and was soon joined by Spain. Chatham, who was ready to make any concession to America short of independence, and especially of independ ence at the dictation of France, died in 1778. The war End of was continued for some years with varying results ; but in the yr 1781 the capitulation of a second British army under Cornwallis at York Town was a decisive blow, which brought home to the minds of the dullest the assurance that the conquest of America was an impossibility. Before this event happened there hud been a great change in public feeling in England. The increasing weight of taxation gave rise in 1780 to a great meeting of the freeholders of Yorkshire, which in turn gave the signal for a general agitation for the reduction of unnecessary ex pense in the government. To this desire Burke gave expression in his bill for economical reform, though he was unable to carry it in the teeth of interested opposition. The movement in favour of economy was necessarily also a movement in favour of peace ; and when the surrender of York Town was known (1782), Lord North at once resigned office. The new ministry formed under Lord Buckingham The comprised not only his own immediate followers, of yliom secoll c the most prominent was Charles Fox, but the followers of, ^ Chatham, of whom Lord Shelburne was the acknowledged j, liu i s ( leader. A treaty of peace acknowledging the independence of the United States of America was at once set on foot ; and the negotiation with France was rendered easy by the defeat of a French fleet by Rodney, and by the failure of the combined forces of France and Spain to take Gibraltar. Already the ministry on which such great hopes had Strug; been placed had broken up. Rockingham died in July ]) ^ e 1782. The two sections of which the Government was composed had different aims. The Rockingliam section, am i which now looked up to Fox, rested on aristocratic con nection and influence ; the Shelburne section was anxious to gain popular support by active reforms, and to gain over the king to their side. Judging by past experience, the combination might well seem hopeless, and honourable men like Fox might easily regard it with suspicion. But Fox s allies took good care that their name should not be associated with the idea of improvement. They pruned Burke s Economical Reform Bill till it left as many abuses as it suppressed ; and though the bill prohibited the grant of pensions above 300, they hastily gave away pensions of much larger value to their own friends before the bill had received the royal assent. They also opposed a bill for parliamentary reform brought in by young William Pitt. When the king chose Shelburne as prime minister, they refused to follow him, and put forward the incompetent duke of Portland as their candidate for the office. The struggle was thus renewed on the old ground of the king s right to select his ministers. But while the king now put forward a minister notoriously able and competent to the task, his opponents put forward a man whose only claim to office was the possession of large estates. They forced their way back to power by means as unscrupulous as their claim to it was unjustifiable. They formed a coalition with Lord North whose pea tics