anticipate the wishes of Ireland, previous to the discussion of Mr. Grattan's motion on the 16th. Mr. Fox was naturally indignant at such a motion having been made without any consultation with the king's present advisers, who had turned their attention, he said, to measures which would conciliate the affections of the Irish people. The ex-Secretary, having been severely reproved by many members for the indecency of his proceeding, withdrew the motion. On the next day Mr. Fox presented a Message from his majesty, expressing his concern that discontents and jealousies prevailed amongst his loyal subjects in Ireland, and earnestly recommending the House to take the same into their most serious consideration, in order to such a final adjustment as may give a mutual satisfaction to both kingdoms. A similar Message was delivered to the Lords by earl Shelburne. The dreaded 16th of April arrived. The administration had earnestly desired an adjournment of the great question then to be discussed; but Lord Charlemont wrote to Fox that he should greatly fear the consequences of any postponement. Grattan was ili; but he was inflexible in determining that there should be no adjournment "unless the duke of Portland would pledge himself that all the claims of Ireland should be agreed to."* Mr. Hutchinson, the new Secretary, when the House of Commons met on the 16th, delivered a Message similar to that delivered to the British Parliament. Mr. Grattan, upon the motion for an Address, as moved by Mr. Ponsonby, rose; and considering that the battle was won, thus commenced one of his splendid harangues : "I am now to address a free people: ages have passed away, and this is the first moment in which you could be distinguished by that appellation. "I have spoken on the subject of your liberty so often, that I have nothing to add, and have only to admire by what heavendirected steps you have proceeded until the whole faculty of the nation is braced up to the act of her own deliverance. "I found Ireland on her knees; I watched over her with an eternal solicitude; I have traced her progress from injuries to arms, and, from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift! spirit of Molyneux! your genius has prevailed! Ireland is now a nation! In that new character I hail her! and, bowing to her august presence, I say, Esto perpetua! "She is no longer a wretched colony, returning thanks to her governor for his rapine, and to her king for his oppression; nor is she now a squabbling, fretful sectary, perplexing her little wits, and Letter of Fitzpatrick, in "Memoriais of Fox," vol. i. p. 395 NATIONAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO GRATTAN, 277 firing her furious statutes with bigotry, sophistry, disabilities, and death, to transmit to posterity insignificance and war. "Look to the rest of Europe, and contemplate yourself, and be satisfied." Grattan's motion for an Amendment to the Address embraced all the points of the previous Declaration of Rights. "No one man," wrote Fitzpatrick to Fox, "presumed to call in question a single word advanced by Grattan, and spoke only to congratulate Ireland on her emancipation, as they called it." The triumph was soon completed by the pressure of that national will which no sane administration could resist. On the 17th of May, Mr. Fox presented to the House of Commons the Resolutions of the Lords and Commons of Ireland on the King's Message of the 16th of April, and he moved the repeal of that statute of George I. which asserted the dependence of Ireland. A Bill for this repeal passed both Houses without a division. Lord Holland ascribes the adjustment of 1782 to the confidence which Mr. Fox and Mr. Grattan placed in each other, as well as to "the force of circumstances, and the skill of negotiation." The mutual confidence of two great men, and the skill of negotiation, would have little availed, if the Parliament of England had not acquired sufficient wisdom not to risk another civil war, with another possible dismemberment of a portion of the empire, for the sake of another assertion of legislative supremacy. The Parliament of Ireland was overflowing with gratitude to Mr. Grattan. They desired to vote him a hundred thousand pounds for the purchase of an estate. He at first refused to receive any such public acknowledgment of his services, but eventually accepted half the amount. There was another orator in the Irish Parliament who regarded with embittered feelings the testimonies of national gratitude to one whose political experience had been far less than his own. Mr. Flood maintained that the mere repeal of the Act of George I., which was simply a declaratory law, left the question of the English supremacy undisturbed. At the time of the repeal of that statute a case of appeal from Ireland remained undecided in the Court of King's Bench, and lord Mansfield gave judgment, as he had before done, in the usual course of law. A violent contest sprang up in Ireland, which renewed the old distrust of England. Grattan lost some of his popularity. Flood laboured to stimulate the ancient jealousies. The government of lord Shelburne took the proper measure of endeavouring to quiet the alarm, by bringing in a bill, in January, 1783, "for removing and preventing all doubts which have arisen, or might arise, concerning the exclusive rights of the Parliament and Courts of Ireland in matters of legislature and judicature, and for preventing any writ of errors or appeal, from any of his majesty's Courts in that kingdom, from being received, heard, or adjudged, in any of his majesty's Courts in the kingdom of Great Britain." OVERTURES FOR PEACE. 279 CHAPTER XVI. Overtures for Peace between Franklin and Shelburne.- Rival negotiators from England. -Death of Lord Rockingham.-Resignation of the Secretaryship by Mr. Fox.-The Siege of Gibraltar.-Naval affairs.-Lord Howe.-Loss of the Royal George.Howe's relief of Gibratar after the first bombardment.-Negotiations for Peace concluded. The Preliminaries laid before Parliament.-Parliamentary censures of the terms of Peace.-Lord Shelburne being defeated, resigns.-The king and the American minister.-Washington's farewell to his army, and his retirement. IN securing the tranquillity of Ireland, by yielding in time to a force which could not be resisted, the administration were free to negotiate for peace, with a prospect of more favourable terms than the general issue of the war might authorise them to demand if the sister-kingdom were hostile. Ireland responded to an act of justice by an instant exhibition of cordiality. Her Parliament voted a hundred thousand pounds for the levy of twenty thousand seamen. The overtures for peace were first opened by Dr. Franklin, in a letter which he wrote to lord Shelburne. They had been known to each other during Franklin's diplomatic sojourn in London; and Franklin wrote to Shelburne on the 22nd of March, before the ministry was settled, to congratulate him on the returning good disposition of England in favour of America. When Shelburne replied, he was Secretary of State; and he adopted the course of sending a confidential friend, Mr. Oswald, to Paris, who was fully apprised of his mind, and to whom Franklin might give entire credit.* This gentleman assured Franklin that the new ministry sincerely wished for peace, and if the Independence of the United States were agreed to, there was nothing to hinder a pacification. Franklin declared that America could only treat in concert with France; and Mr. Oswald had, consequently, an interview with the count de Vergennes. This unofficial negotiator returned to England; and was authorized by a minute of the Cabinet to proceed again to Paris, to acquaint Dr. Franklin that it was agreed to treat for a general peace. A more regular envoy was sent very quickly after Oswald. Mr. Thomas Grenville, the second son of George Grenville, was the bearer of a letter to Franklin from Mr. Fox. Oswald again went back to London, and again returned, to discuss the most important Franklin's Works, vol. ix. p. 241. matters with Franklin, whilst Grenville was also in constant communication with him. The shrewd old American soon found him. self "in some perplexity with regard to these two negotiators." He began to suspect that the understanding between the two Secretaries of State was not perfect. "Lord Shelburne seems to wish to have the management of the treaty; Mr. Fox seems to think it is in his department." * Grenville was annoyed by the interference of Oswald, and wrote bitter complaints to Fox. In the midst of these differences, the head of the ministry, the marquis of Rockingham, died on the 1st of July. The day previous Fox was in a minority in the Cabinet upon the question of acknowledging the Independence of America, before a treaty of peace was arranged. He accordingly declared his intention to resign. It is not within the province of our history to enter into an examination of those disagreements between lord Shelburne and Mr. Fox which led to another important though partial change of administration. “Differences of opinion, suspicions of under-hand dealing, and hostile cabals and intrigues, and great resentment thereupon subsisted in the minds of Mr. Fox and Mr. Grenville."† There were the usual cabals about having another man of high title, great connections, and small abilities, to succeed lord Rockingham as prime minister. It was not a mere contest for superior power between the two able secretaries. The duke of Portland was recommended to the king to be the First Lord of the Treasury. The king appointed lord Shelburne to the high office. Fox and Cavendish resigned; Burke and Sheridan followed their example. William Pitt became Chancellor of the Exchequer; Thomas Townshend and lord Grantham, Secretaries of State. Grenville returned indignantly from his position at Paris, much to the annoyance of his brother, earl Temple, who obtained the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland. Walpole observes that when the First Lord of the Treasury adorned his new Board with the most useful acquisition of his whole administration, his Chancellor of the Exchequer, "young William Pitt,” in accepting the seals, accepted "the more difficult task of enlisting himself as the rival of Charles Fox, who had fondly espoused, and kindly, not jealously nor fearfully, wished to have him as his friend." Their fathers were rivals. But of how much greater import was the rivalry of the sons of Holland and Chatham-how 'much longer was its duration; what mightier events called forth its unceasing exercise! Franklin's " Journal of Negotiations," June 17. ↑ Lord Holland, in "Memorials of Fox," vol. i, p. 387. |