СНАР. ІІІ.

of

you

should put a negative on any measure which must The Reign annihilate your power, deprive you of your emoluments, George III. and at once reduce you to that state of insignificance for which God and nature designed you?" The bill witnessed an increased minority, but it was rejected by 61 to 32 votes. In the Commons, on March 22nd, Mr. Burke moved a series of conciliatory resolutions, omitting all mention of the congress, but declaring in general terms the propriety of repealing several of the recent acts, of appointing the judges during good behaviour, of improving the Admiralty courts, and of leaving to the provincial assemblies the right of taxation. In one beautiful passage of a very remarkable speech the orator foretold the future greatness of America. But his eloquence was in vain, for the resolutions were rejected by the large majority of 270 votes to 78.

War with

War was inevitable, and it began in April, 1775, with America. the indecisive battle of Lexington. The ultimate issues of the War of Independence are matters of general history. Suffice it to state here that July 4th, 1776, witnessed the Declaration of Independence by the United States. Congress met and declared the thirteen colonies free and independent States. After a struggle extending over six years, immortalised by the indomitable skill and energy of George Washington, England acknowledged the independence of the United States, and peace was signed between the two countries and between France and England at Versailles in January, 1783.

Ministerial changes.

In October, 1775, the Duke of Grafton, who had in vain. urged upon Lord North the necessity of a reconciliation with America, resigned his post as Privy Seal. Lord Dartmouth surrendered the Colonial Secretaryship, and became Privy Seal; and Lord George Germaine (hitherto known as Sackville) became Secretary for the Colonies. In the ensuing December Lord North carried his American American Prohibitory Act. By this measure the Boston Port Act policy. and the two restraining acts of the last session were repealed, as being no longer applicable; but all trade and commerce with the thirteen insurgent colonies was

North's

of

absolutely interdicted so long as their rebellion should CHAP. III. continue. Other harsh provisions authorised the capture The Reign of American vessels or goods, making them the property George III. of the captors; while the prisoners taken on such occasions might be pressed for sailors and sent to serve against their countrymen.

dis

The Whigs in the House of Commons so strongly dis- The approved of the Government's American policy-which Whigs they saw no prospect of modifying-that, without formally heartened. seceding, they ceased in 1776 to attend Parliament for a time.

and

A comprehensive motion for Parliamentary reform Wilkes was brought forward by Mr. Wilkes on March 21st, Reform. 1776. He moved for leave to bring in a bill to give additional members to the metropolis, and to Middlesex, Yorkshire, and other large counties; to disfranchise the rotten boroughs and add the electors to the county constituency; and, lastly, to enfranchise Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, and other rich and populous trading towns. The scheme embraced all the leading principles of Parliamentary reform advocated during the ensuing fifty years, and which have since been adopted. Unfortunately the reformer was before his time, and his motion was negatived without a division.

Later in the session Lord North was called upon to The Civil deal with the new debts which had accrued upon the List. Civil List-debts amounting to more than £600,000. Profusion and extortion were rife in many departments; yet the House of Commons not only agreed to discharge the arrears, but, to guard against such arrears for the future, granted the Crown a further yearly sum of £100,000. In the Lords, Chatham made another strenuous effort to close the war by moving an Address to the Crown, but his motion was lost by 76 to 26 votes, and the session closed without any hope of reconciliation between Great Britain and America.

At the opening of the session of 1777 Chatham again Chatham returned to the charge, in a speech, said the Duke of on the Grafton, which appeared to him "to surpass all that we

War.

CHAP. III. have ever heard of the celebrated oratory of Greece or The Reign Rome." In answer to Lord Suffolk, who had defended George III. the employment of Indian mercenaries, he said, "I call

of

Concilia

tory

measures.

upon the spirit and humanity of my country to vindicate
the national character; I invoke the genius of the Con-
stitution. From the tapestry that adorns these walls,
the immortal ancestor of this noble lord" (the Earl of
Effingham) "frowns with indignation at the disgrace of
his country. In vain he led your victorious fleet against
the boasted Armada of Spain; in vain he defended and
established the honour, the liberties, the religion, the
Protestant religion, of this country against the arbitrary
cruelties of Popery and the Inquisition-if these more
than Popish cruelties and inquisitorial practices are let
loose among us, to turn forth into our settlements,
among our ancient connections, friends, and relations, the
merciless cannibal thirsting for the blood of man, woman,
and child-to send forth the infidel savage-against
whom? Your Protestant brethren, to lay waste their
country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their
race and name!" In another passage he denounced the
employment of foreign troops from Europe, and ex-
claimed, "My lords, you cannot conquer America. You
may swell every expense and every effort still more
extravagantly. . . . If I were an American, as I am an
Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my
country I would never lay down my arms-never, never,
never!" But these impassioned expostulations fell upon
deaf ears.
Chatham's amendment to the Address was
rejected by 97 to 28; and a similar amendment in the
Commons, though supported by the fervent eloquence of
Burke and Fox, was lost by 243 to 86.

Lord North, however, was soon to feel the necessity for some conciliatory measures, and on February 17th, 1778, he introduced two bills of this character. The first repealed expressly by name the tea duty in America, and renounced for the future the claim of Parliamentary taxation upon the colonies. The second bill enabled his Majesty to appoint commissioners with sufficient powers

of

The Reign
George III.

to treat with the insurgent colonies. These measures CHAP. III. passed, together with a third expressly repealing the Massachusetts Charter Act. But the olive branch was held out too late; the colonists were now bent on achieving absolute independence.

Chatham.

In the midst of much confusion of parties, and of Death of intense public feeling, a dramatic scene was witnessed on April 7th, 1778, in the House of Lords, when the Duke of Richmond brought forward a motion to recognise the independence of the United States. Chatham had always refused to allow America her independence, although he was in favour of conciliation, being convinced we could never conquer her. He now rose to speak, but it was in shreds only of unconnected eloquence, and with but fitful flashes of the old fire. After calling in God's name for either an honourable peace or active war against France or any assailant of the birthright of the British princes, he said, "My lords, any state is better than despair. Let us at least make one effort, and if we must fall, let us fall like men!" Then he sat down, but after the Duke of Richmond's reply rose again. He endeavoured to speak, but fell back in a swoon. He was removed to a neighbouring house, and the debate was adjourned. The illustrious sufferer was subsequently conveyed to Hayes, and expired there on May 11th, in his seventieth year. The epitaph on his monument in Westminster Abbey scarcely exaggerates when it it affirms that during his administration Great Britain "was exalted to a height of prosperity and glory unknown to any former age."

In the session of 1778 Sir George Savile, seconded by The Dunning, brought in a bill to relieve the Roman Catholics Roman from some of the penalties which had long pressed

1 A Chatham Annuity Bill, providing for a perpetual pension of £4,000 per annum, was carried in the House of Commons without a dissentient voice, but opposed in the Lords by eleven peers, and formally protested against by four of these-viz., Lord Chancellor Bathurst, Archbishop Markham of York, the Duke of Chandos, and Lord Paget.

Catholics.

of

CHAP. III. heavily upon them. This bill, which passed both Houses The Reign unanimously, removed the following disabilities: the George III. perpetual imprisonment of priests for saying mass, the forfeiture of the estates of Roman Catholic heirs educated abroad to the next Protestant heir, and the prohibition to acquire land by purchase.

The Gordon riots.

Dis

senters' Relief Bill.

The
Militia.

Most persons thought these concessions would be welcomed by the people generally as an evidence of a more liberal religious spirit; but a hostile agitation was set on foot by a foolish young nobleman, Lord George Gordon (son of the Duke of Gordon). He and his fanatical ultra-Protestant associates prepared petitions against the Roman Catholics, to one of which a hundred and twenty thousand signatures were attached. The agitation, which began in Scotland, extended to London, and resulted in the most formidable rising of the eighteenth century. Gordon sought to intimidate Parliament by the personal attendance of the petitioners; the houses of those favourable to the Catholic concessions were attacked, and London was for a time under mob law. Riots and conflagrations resulted in the calling out of the military, and two hundred persons were shot dead, and many more severely wounded. The eccentric leader of the rising managed to escape; but in 1787 he was prosecuted for libel, and died in Newgate in 1793.

A serious grievance from which Protestant Dissenters had suffered since the passing of the Toleration Act was removed in the session of 1779. By a bill now carried through both Houses, schoolmasters and Dissenting ministers were relieved from subscription to any of the Thirty-nine Articles.

Spain having declared war against England, and the French and Spanish forces having besieged Gibraltar, Lord North's Government, in addition to an act for augmenting the Militia, proposed a still more stringent measure to suspend for six months all exemptions from Impress- impressment into the royal navy. The bill, in other words, gave the Government power to man the fleet from classes heretofore held free, as apprentices and fishermen.

ment in

the navy.