6 his personal influence against them, when he was pleased to use it. The first measure on which Mr. Pitt was likely to encounter objections from the king, was that for parliamentary reform. Having pledged himself to the principles of such a measure, while in opposition, he was determined not to be unfaithful to them in office. But before he ventured to bring forward his plan, he prudently submitted it to the king, and deprecated the opposition of the court. Writing, on the 20th March, 1785, the king said, Mr. Pitt's letter expressed that there is but one issue of the business he could look upon as fatal, that is, the possibility of the measure being rejected by the weight of those who are supposed to be connected with the government. Mr. Pitt must recollect that, though I have ever thought it unfortunate that he had early engaged himself in this measure, he ought to lay his thoughts before the House; that out of personal regard to him I would avoid giving any opinion to any one on the opening of the door to parliamentary reform, except to him; therefore I am certain Mr. Pitt cannot suspect my having influenced any one on the occasion. If others choose, for base ends, to impute such a conduct to me, I must bear it as former false suggestions.' 1 He proceeded to say that every man ought to vote according to his own opinion; and warned. Mr. Pitt that there are questions men will not, by friendship, be biassed to adopt.' This incident is significant. Mr. Pitt apprehended the exertion of the Tomline's Life of Pitt, ii. 40. influence of the crown to defeat his measure. The king was aware of the suspicions attaching to himself: but while promising not to interfere, he could not refrain from intimating that the measure would be defeated, as indeed it was,-without his interference. On both sides the personal influence of the king over the deliberations of Parliament, was fully acknowledged. ing influence The extent to which the preponderating influence Preponderat of the crown was recognised during this of the crown. period, is exemplified by the political relations of parties to his Majesty and to the Prince of Wales, on the occasion of the king's illness in 1788.1 At that time, ministers enjoyed the entire confidence of the king, and commanded an irresistible majority in Parliament; yet was it well understood by both parties, that the first act of the Regent would be to dismiss his father's ministers, and take into his councils the leaders of the opposition. Thus even the party which protested against the influence of the crown was quite prepared to use it, and by its aid to brave a hostile majority in Parliament, as Mr. Pitt had successfully done a few years before. At length Mr. Pitt's fall, like his rise, was due to the king's personal will; and was brought about in the same way as many previous political events, by irresponsible councils. There is reason to believe that Mr. Pitt's unbending temper,-increased in stubbornness by his longcontinued supremacy in Parliament, and in the Mr. Pitt's fall. 1 See Chap. III. 1omline's Life of Pitt, ii. 480 cabinet,-had become distasteful to the king.' His Majesty loved power at least, as much as his minister; and was tenacious of his authority, even over those in whom he had confidence. Mr. Pitt's power had nearly overshadowed his own; and there were not wanting opinions among friends of the king, and rivals of the statesman, that the latter had an overweening ambition, great and opiniative presumption, and perhaps not quite constitutional ideas with regard to the respect and attention due to the crown.'2 Question. While this feeling existed in regard to Mr. Pitt, his Majesty was greatly agitated by events Catholic which at once aroused his sensitive jealousy 1801. of councils to which he had not been admitted, and his conscientious scruples. Mr. Pitt and his colleagues thought it necessary to inaugurate the Union of Ireland, by concessions to the Roman Catholics; 3 and had been, for some time, deliberating upon at measure to effect that object. Upon this question, the king had long entertained a very The king's decided opinion. So far back as 1795, he determined had consulted Lord Kenyon as to the ob- to it. ligations of his coronation oath; and though his lordship's opinions were not quite decisive upon this point, his Majesty was persuaded that he was opposition 127th Feb., 1801. I was told this evening, by Pelham, that his Majesty had for a long time since been dissatisfied with Pitt's, and particularly with Lord Grenville's "authoritative manners towards him, and that an alteration in his ministry had long been in his mind.'—Malmesbury Corr., iv. 24. See also Wraxall's Mem., iv. 483. * Malmesbury Corr., iv. 35. See Chap. XII., XVI. • They were published by Dr. Phillpotts (afterwards Bishop of Exeter) in 1827. morally restrained, by that oath, from assenting to any further measures for the relief of the Roman Catholics. Long before the ministers had so far matured their proposal as to be prepared to submit it for his Majesty's approval, he had been made acquainted with their intentions. In September, 1800, Lord Loughborough had shown him a letter from Mr. Pitt upon the subject; and the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the suggestion of Lord Auckland, had also informed the king that a scheme was in contemplation, which was represented as dangerous to the church.' In December, the lord chancellor communicated to his Majesty an elaborate paper against the Roman Catholic claims; and Dr. Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh,—a son of the king's old favourite, Lord Bute,-increased his Majesty's repugnance to the measure which the ministers were preparing. The king immediately took counsel with some of the opponents of the Catholic claims; and without waiting for any communication from Mr. Pitt, lost no time in declaring his own opinion upon the measure. At the levée on the 28th January, 1801, he told Mr. Windham, the Secretary-at-War, that he should consider any person who voted for it, as personally indisposed towards him.'4 On the same occasion he said to 3 2 Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth, i. 315; Malmesbury Corr., iv. 16, 17, 22; Lord Holland's Mem., i. 171; Lord Colchester's Diary, iii. 326. But see an elaborate vindication of Lord Auckland, Corr., iii. 113-126. 2 Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vi. 306, 322, et seq. Rose's Corr., i. 229; Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth, i. 500. 'Castlereagh Corr., iv. 83. Malmesbury Corr., iv. 2. His Lordship. in relating this cir. cumstance, states that Pitt had communicated the measure on the The Mr. Dundas, I shall reckon any man my personal enemy, who proposes any such measure. most Jacobinical thing I ever heard of!' On the 29th, he wrote to Mr. Addington, the Speaker, desiring him to 'open Mr. Pitt's eyes on the danger arising from the agitating this improper question.'' Mr. Addington undertook this commission, and thought he had dissuaded Mr. Pitt from proceeding with a measure, to which the king entertained insuperable objections. But if at first inclined to yield, Mr. Pitt, after consulting the cabinet and other political friends, determined to take his stand, as a responsible minister, upon the advice he was about to tender to the king. Mr. Canning is said to have advised Mr. Pitt not to give way on this occasion. It was his opinion, that for several years so many concessions had been made, and so many important measures overruled, from the king's opposition to them, that government had been weakened exceedingly; and if on this particular occasion a stand was not made, Pitt would retain only a nominal power, while the real one would pass into the hands of those who influenced the king's mind and opinion, out of sight.' 6 previous day; but it appears from Lord Sidmouth's Life, that this communication was not received by the king until Sunday the 1st Feb., though Lord Grenville and Mr. Dundas had already spoken to his Majesty upon the subject.-Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth, i. 285, 287. Wilberforce's Diary; Life, iii. 7; Court and Cabinets of Geo. III., iii. 126; Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth, i. 280; Rose's Corr., i. 303. 2 The king to Mr. Addington; Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth, i. 286, 287. Ibid., i. 287; Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, iii. 274. |