Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/379

Rh PITT AJTD THE COALITION.] ENGLAND 350 ,le cea- an d character they had denounced for years. The coali tion tion, as soon as the peace with America and France had been signed (1783), drove Shelburne from office. The duke of Portland became the nominal head of the Govern ment, Fox and North its real leaders. Such a ministry could not afford to make a single blun der. The king detested it, and the assumption by the Whig houses of a right to nominate the head of the Government without reference to the national interests could never be popular. The blunder was soon committed. Burke, hating wrong and injustice with a bitter hatred, had descried in ie India the government of British India by the East India Company a disgrace to the English name. For many of the actions of that government no honourable man can think of uttering n word of defence. The helpless natives were oppressed and robbed by the Company and its servants in every possible way. Burke drew up a bill, which was adopted by the coalition Government, for taking all authority in India out of the hands of the Company, and even placing the Company s management of its own commercial affairs under control. The governing and controlling body was naturally to be a council appointed at home. Thj question of the nomination of this council at once drew the whole question within the domain of party politics. Tlie whole patronage of India would be in its hands, and, as parlia ment was then constituted, the balance of parties might be more seriously affected by the distribution of that pa tronage than it would be now. When, therefore, it was understood that the Government bill meant the council to be named in the bill for four years, or, in other wards, to be named by the coalition ministry, it was generally regarded as an unblushing attempt to turn a measure for the good government of India into a measure for securing the ministry in office. The bill of course passed the Commons. When it came before the Lords, it was thrown out in consequence of a message from the king that he would regard any one who voted for it as his enemy. tt s The contest had thus become one between the influence saistry. of the crown and the influence of the great houses. Con stitutional historians, who treat the question as one of merely theoretical politics, leave out of consideration this essential element of the situation, and forget that, if it was wrong for the king to influence the Lords by his mes sage, it was equally wrong for the ministry to acquire for themselves fresh patronage with which to influence the Com mons. But there was now, what there had not been in the time of Walpole and the Pelhams, a public opinion ready to throw its weight on one side or the other. The county members still formed the most independent portion of the representation, and there were many possessors of rotten boroughs who were ready to agree with the county mem bers rather than with the great landowners. In choosing Pitt, the young son of Chatham, for his prime minister, as soon as he had dismissed the coalition, George III. gave assurance that he wished his counsels to be directed by integrity and ability. After a struggle of many weeks, parliament was dissolved (1784), and the new House of Commons was prepared to support the king s minister by a large majority. As far as names go, the change effected placed in office the new Tory party for an almost uninterrupted period of forty-six years. It so happened, however, that after the first eight years of that period had passed by, circum stances occurred which effected so great a change in the composition and character of that party as to render any etatement to this effect entirely illusive. During eight years, however, Pitt s ministry was not merely a Tory ministry resting on the choice of the king, but a Liberal ministry resting on national support and upon advanced political knowledge. The nation whiijli Pitt had behind him was very different Material from the populace which had assailed Walpole s Excise progress, Bill, or had shouted for Wilkes and liberty. At the beginning of the century the intellect of thoughtful Englishmen had applied itself to speculative problems of religion and philosophy. In the middle of the century it applied itself to practical problems affecting the employ ment of industry. In 177C Adam Smith published the Wealth of Nations. Already in 17G2 the work of Brindley, the Bridgewater canal, the first joint of a net work of inland water communication, was opened. In 1 767 Hargreaves produced the spinning-jenny ; Arkwright s spinning machine was exhibited in 1768 ; Crompton s mule was finished in 1779 ; Cartwright hit upon the idea of the power-loom in 1784, though it was not brought into profitable use till 1801. The Staffordshire potteries had been flourishing under Wedgwood since 1763, and the improved steam-engine was brought into shape by Watt iu 1768. During these years the duke of Bedford, Coke of Holkham, and Piobert Bakewell were busy in the improve ment of stock and agriculture. The increase of wealth and prosperity caused by these changes went far to produce a large class of the population entirely outside the associations of the landowning class, but with sufficient intelligence to appreciate the advantages of a government carried on without regard to the personal interests and rivalries of the aristocracy. The mode in which that increase of wealth was effected was even more decisive on the ultimate destinies of the country. The substitution of the organization of hereditary monarchy for the organization of wealth and station would ultimately have led to evils as great as those which it superseded. It was only tolerable as a stepping-stone to the organization of intelligence. The larger the numbers admitted to in tiuence the affairs of state, the more necessary is it that they respect the powers of intellect. It would be foolish to institute a comparison between an Arkwright or a Crompton and a Locke or a Newton. But it is certain that for one man who could appreciate the importance of the treatise On the Human Understanding or the theory of gravitation, there were thousands who could understand the value of the water-frame or the power-loom. The habit of looking with reverence upon mental power was fostered in no slight measure by the industrial development of the second half of the 18th century. The supremacy of intelligence in the political world was, Pitt s for the titae, represented in Pitt. In 1784 he passed an IndiaBUL India Bill, which left the commerce and all except the highest patronage of India in the hands of the East India Company, but which erected a department of the home Government named the Board of Control to compel the Com pany to carry out such political measures as the Government saw fit. A bill for parliamentary reform was, however, ills thrown out by the opposition of his own supporters in parlia- scheme of ment, whilst outside parliament there was no general desire 1&amp;gt;ar V 4 &quot; for a change in a system which for the present produced re f orm. such excellent fruits. Still more excellent was his plan of His deal- legislation for Ireland. Irishmen had taken advantage of in s s with the weakness of England during the American war to enforce upon the ministry of the day, in 1780 and 1782, an abandonment of all claim on the part of the English Government and the English judges to interfere in any way with Irish affairs. From 1782, therefore, there were two independent legislatures within the British Isles, the one sitting at Westminster and the other sitting in Dublin. With these political changes Fox professed himself to be content. Pitt, whose mind was open to wider considera tions, proposed to throw open commerce to both nations by removing all the restrictions placed on the trade of Ireland with England and with the rest of the world. The opposi-