MEMOIRS OF KING GEORGE III.

CHAPTER I.

Debates on the Repeal of the Stamp Act - First Speech of Edmund Burke- The King's Private Opinion on the Question of Repeal - His Bearing toward His Ministers - Alleged Continued Influence of Bute - Ministers and Opposition Alike Improperly Use the King's Name to Influence Votes The King's Displeasure with Ministers on This GroundUnsuccessful Intrigue of the Bedford and Grenville Whigs to Gain the Ear of the King.

INDIGNANT at the successful attempt to bastardise the favourite offspring of his financial policy, Grenville continued to oppose the repeal of the Stamp Act, in its different stages through the House of Commons, with a courage, a pertinacity, and an ability deserving a better cause. "It was too much," writes the sarcastic Walpole, "to give up his favourite bill and his favourite occupation, talking, both at once." On the occasion of the third reading, he had another unpleasant altercation with his brother-in-law, Pitt. Happily it was their last. Pitt, in expressing the satisfaction

which he felt in voting for the repeal of so hateful a tax, had added, in his usual impressive language: "I have my doubts if any member could have been found, who would have dared to dip the royal ermine in the blood of the American people." Grenville, enraged beyond measure, rose to reply. "I am one," he said, "to declare, that if the tax were to be laid on again, I would do it." He then proceeded to charge Pitt with the enormous expense of the German war, which he insisted had rendered the tax necessary. "But," he added, "I do not envy him his popularity; let him enjoy the bonfire: I rejoice in the hiss. it to do again, I would do it." Pitt's rejoinder seems to have inflicted a deep wound upon his irritable brother-in-law. "I am charged," he said, "with the expense of the German war. If the honourable gentleman had such strong objections to that war, let me ask why he did not resign his post of treasurer of the navy?" Grenville sat abashed and silent.

Was

It was during the debates on the repeal of the Stamp Act, that Edmund Burke made his first appearance, and delivered his first speech, in the House of Commons. In the preceding December he had been returned by Lord Verney for his borough of Wendover, in Buckinghamshire, at the instance of Lord Rockingham, who, foreseeing the valuable acquisition which his abilities were likely to prove to the Whig party, had also selected him

In vain the timid and

to be his private secretary. suspicious Duke of Newcastle endeavoured to dissuade Lord Rockingham from associating himself with this illustrious man. The author of the noble essay on the "Sublime and Beautiful" was actually denounced by his Grace as a wild Irishman, a low adventurer, whose real name was O'Bourke. He knew him, said his Grace, to be a Jacobite, a Papist a jesuit in disguise. Lord Rockingham, however, instead of allowing himself to be influenced by these ridiculous calumnies, contented himself with putting a few questions to Burke, with whose explanation he expressed himself perfectly satisfied, and thenceforth, to his dying day, extended to him his full confidence and friendship. Burke's success as a speaker fully answered the expectation of his friends. Pitt publicly complimented him in the House on the success of his first speech. Doctor Johnson informs us that it "filled the town with wonder." His associates in the famous literary club gloried in the triumph of their friend. "Sir," replied Johnson, to one who expressed surprise at Burke's becoming so suddenly famous, “ Sir, there is no wonder at all. We, who know Mr. Burke, know that he will be one of the first men in the country."

It has been asserted, as a proof of the arbitrary and unbending character of George the Third, that his views on the Stamp Act coincided with those of Grenville, and that he would willingly

have enforced those views at the point of the bayonet. But the Grenville and Rockingham papers recently published seem entirely to refute this assertion. That the king regarded the repeal of the Stamp Act as an unwise and unnecessary measure, was undoubtedly the case. It was his private opinion, as we have already mentioned, that the act ought to be retained on the statute book, but so far modified as to render it as little as possible obnoxious to the colonists. To this view, however, of the question, he added a very important proviso which must not be disregarded. Should there be no middle course, he said, between repealing the act and enforcing it by the sword, he should in that case be in favour of repeal. Such was the principle which we find him maintaining, at different times, in conversation with Lord Harcourt, Lord Strange, and the Duke of York, and which, in fact, is recorded in the following note addressed by him to his first minister :

"LORD ROCKINGHAM:- I desire you would tell Lord Strange, that I am now, and have been heretofore, for modification; but that when many were for enforcing, I was then for a repeal of the Stamp Act."

The policy which the king proposed to adopt may, or it may not, have been either feasible or wise. But, at all events, it has met with able ad

vocates in our own time; and, moreover, was the line of policy, which, even at the eleventh hour, ministers themselves seem to have been inclined to adopt.

But a still graver charge has been brought against George the Third, in reference to his conduct during the progress of the Repeal Bill through Parliament. It has been confidently asserted, on high authority, that ministers had not only to contend against open and powerful enemies, but also against the "insidious hostility" and "notorious treachery" of their royal master, that, in fact, at the very time when the king was professing to give them his full support, he was secretly employed in conspiring against his constitutional advisers, and in instigating his servants to vote against them in Parliament. An obstinate attachment to the Stamp Act, and a desire to get rid of an administration which had become obnoxious to him, were of course the motives assigned by the king's accusers for the asserted duplicity of their sovereign.

That, on the one hand, the king was not altogether satisfied with his present ministers, it would be fruitless to dispute. Even at their first entering upon office, by their conduct in refusing to do justice to Mr. Mackenzie, and by treating their sovereign as a mere puppet in the hands of Bute, they had wounded him in the tenderest points. Moreover, there were questions on which