Four Early Pamphlets - William Godwin
FOUR EARLY PAMPHLETS
BY WILLIAM GODWIN
1783
[A Defense of the Rockingham Party, in Their Late Coalition with
the Right Honorable Frederic Lord North]
[Instructions to a Statesman]
[An Account of the Seminary]
[The Herald of Literature]
A
DEFENCE
OF THE
ROCKINGHAM PARTY,
IN THEIR LATE
COALITION
WITH
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FREDERIC LORD NORTH.
LONDON: Printed for J. STOCKDALE, opposite Burlington House, Piccadilly.
1783. [Price One Shilling and Sixpence.] _Entered at Stationers Hall._
A
DEFENCE
OF THE
ROCKINGHAM PARTY,
&C. &C. &C.
* * * * *
The present reign will certainly appear to our posterity full of the
noblest materials for history. Many circumstances seem to have pointed
it out as a very critical period. The general diffusion of science has,
in some degree, enlightened the minds of all men; and has cleared such,
as have any influence upon the progress of manners and society, from a
thousand unworthy pre-possessions. The dissipation and luxury that reign
uncontrouled have spread effiminacy and irresolution every where.--The
grand defection of the United States of America from the mother country,
is one of the most interesting events, that has engaged the attention of
Europe for centuries. And the number of extraordinary geniuses that have
distinguished themselves in the political world, gives a dignity to the
scene. They pour a lustre over the darkest parts of the story, and
bestow a beauty upon the tragedy, that it could not otherwise have
possessed.
At a time like this, when the attention of mankind has been kept alive
by a series of the most important events, we cease to admire at things
which would otherwise appear uncommon, and wonders almost lose their
name. Even now, however, when men were almost grown callous to novelty,
and the youngest of us had, like Cato in the play, lived long enough to
be "surprised at nothing," a matter has occurred which few expected, and
to which, for that reason, men of no great strength of mind, of no nerve
of political feeling, scarcely know how to reconcile themselves. I refer
to the coalition between the friends of the late marquis of Rockingham
and the noble commoner in the blue ribbon.
The manner of blaming this action is palpable and easy. The censure is
chiefly directed against that wonderful man, whom, at least in their
hearts, his countrymen, I believe, have agreed to regard as the person
of brightest genius, and most extensive capacity, that now adorns the
British senate. Has not this person, we are asked, for years attacked
the noble lord in the most unqualified manner? Is there any aspersion,
any insinuation, that he has not thrown out upon his character? Has he
not represented him as the weakest man, and the worst minister, to whom
the direction of affairs was ever committed? Has he not imputed to his
prerogative principles, and his palpable misconduct, the whole catalogue
of our misfortunes? If such men as these are to unite for the detested
purposes of ambition, what security can we have for any thing valuable,
that yet remains to us? Is not this the very utmost reach of frontless
profligacy? What dependence after this is to be placed in the man, who
has thus given the lie to all his professions, and impudently flown in
the face of that honest and unsuspecting virtue, which had hitherto
given him credit for the rectitude of his intentions?
I do not mean for the present to enter into a direct answer to these
several observations. I leave it to others, to rest the weight of their
cause upon sounding exclamations and pompous interogatories. For myself,
I am firmly persuaded, that the oftner the late conduct of the
Rockingham connexion is summoned to the bar of fair reason, the more
cooly it is considered, and the less the examiner is led away by the
particular prejudices of this side or of that, the more commendable it
will appear. We do not fear the light. We do not shun the scrutiny. We
are under no apprehensions for the consequences.
I will rest my argument upon the regular proof of these three
propositions.
First--That the Rockingham connexion, was the only connexion by which
the country could be well served.
Secondly--That they were not by themselves of sufficient strength to
support the weight of administration.
Thirdly--That they were not the men whose services were the most likely
to be called for by the sovereign, in the present crisis.
First--I am to prove, that the country could not be well served but by
the Rockingham connexion.
There are three points principally concerned in the constituting a good
administration; liberal principles, respectable abilities, and
incorruptible integrity.--Let us examine with a view to these, the other
four parties in the British government. The connexion of the earl of
Shelburne, that of lord North, the Bedford party, and the Scottish. In
reviewing these, it is necessary that I should employ a manly freedom,
though, at the same time, I should be much unwilling to do a partial
injustice to any of them.
It is true, there is some difference between the language of the same
men in office, and out of office. The Bedford connexion, however, have
never been conceived to bear an over favourable aspect to the cause of
liberty. They are the avowed enemies of innovation and reform.
The Scottish party are pretty much confounded with the set of men that
are called, by way of distinction, the king's friends. The design of
these men has been to exalt regal power and prerogative upon the ruins
of aristocracy, and the neck of the people. Arguments, and those by no
means of a frivolous description, have been brought to prove, that a
most subtle and deep-laid scheme was formed by them, in the beginning of
the reign, to subserve this odious purpose. It has been supposed to have
been pursued with the most inflexible constancy, and, like a skiff, when
it sails along the meandering course of a river, finally to have turned
to account the most untoward gales.
Lord North, whatever we may suppose to have been his intrinsic
abilities, stands forward, as, perhaps, the most unfortunate minister,
that this country ever produced. Misfortune overtook him in the
assertion of the highest monarchical principles. In spite of misfortune,
he adherred inflexibly to that assertion. In the most critical
situations he remained in a state of hesitation and uncertainty, till
the tide, that "taken at the flood, led up to fortune," was lost. His
versatility, and the undisguised attachment, that he manifested to
emolument and power, were surely unworthy of the stake that was
entrusted to him.
In what I have now said, I do not much fear to be contradicted. It was
not with a view to such as are attached to any of these parties, that I
have taken up the pen. Those who come under this description, are almost
universally the advocates of monarchy, and think that they have nothing
to regret, but that power and police are not established upon a more
uncontrolable footing among us. To such persons I do not address myself.
I know of nothing that the friends of lord Rockingham have to offer that
can be of any weight with them; and, for my own part, I should blush to
say a word, that should tend to conciliate their approbation to a
system, in which my heart was interested. The men I wish chiefly to have
in view, are those that are personally attached to the earl of
Shelburne; such as stand aloof from all parties, and are inclined to
have but an indifferent opinion of any; and such as have adhered to the
connexion I have undertaken to defend, but whose approbation has been
somewhat cooled by their late conduct. The two last in particular, I
consider as least under the power of prejudice, and most free to the
influence of rational conviction.
The friends of freedom have, I believe, in no instance hesitated, but
between the Rockingham connexion, and the earl of Shelburne. It is these
two then that it remains for me to examine. Lord Shelburne had the
misfortune of coming very early upon the public stage. At that time he
connected himself with the earl of Bute, and entered with warmth into
the opposition to Mr. secretary Pitt. In this system of conduct,
however, he did not long persist; he speedily broke with the favourite,
and soon after joined the celebrated hero, that had lately been the
object of his attack. By this person he was introduced to a considerable
post in administration. In office, he is chiefly remembered by the very
decisive stile of authority and censure he employed, in a public letter,
relative to the resistance that was made to the act of 1767, for
imposing certain duties in America. From his resignation with lord
Chatham, he uniformly and strenuously opposed the measures that were
adopted for crushing that resistance. He persevered, with much apparent
constancy, in one line of conduct for near ten years, and this is
certainly the most plausible period of his story. He first called forth
the suspicions of generous and liberal men in every rank of society, by
his resolute opposition to the American independency in 1778. But it was
in the administration, that seemed to have been formed under so
favourable auspices in the spring of 1782, that he came most forward to
general examination.
The Rockingham connexion, in conformity to what were then supposed to be
the wishes of the people, united, though not without some hesitation,
with the noble earl and his adherents, in the conduct of public affairs.
And how did he reward their confidence? He was careful to retain the
question respecting his real sentiments upon the business of America, in
as much obscurity as ever. He wrote officially a letter to sir Guy
Carleton, which has never seen the light, by which that officer was
induced to declare the American independency already irreversibly
recognised by the court of London; by which he appears to have deceived
all his brother ministers without exception; and by which Mr. Fox in
particular, was induced to make the same declaration with general
Carleton to foreign courts, and to come forward in the commons
peremptorily to affirm, that there was not a second opinion in the
cabinet, upon this interesting subject. How must a man of his
undisguised and manly character have felt, when, within a week from this
time, he found the noble earl declaring that nothing had ever been
further from his thoughts, than an unconditional recognition; and
successfully exerting himself to bring over a majority in the cabinet to
the opposite sentiment? Lord Shelburne's obtaining, or accepting, call
it which you will, of the office of first lord of the treasury, upon the
demise of lord Rockingham, without the privity of his fellow Ministers,
was contrary to every maxim of ingenuous conduct, and every principle
upon which an association of parties can be supported. The declaration
he made, and which was contradicted both by his own friends in the
cabinet, and those of Mr. Fox, that he knew of no reason _in God's
earth_ for that gentleman's resignation, but that of his having
succeeded to the office of premier, was surely sufficiently singular.
But he is celebrated for being a man of large professions, and by these
professions he has induced some persons in different classes in society,
to esteem him the friend of liberty and renovation. What he has held
out, however, upon these heads, has not been entirely confident. He has
appeared the enthusiastical partizan of the aristocracy, a kind of
government, which, carried to its height, is perhaps, of all the
different species of despotism, the most intolerable. He has talked in a
very particular stile of his fears of reducing the regal power to a
shadow, of his desire that the extension of prerogative should keep pace
with the confirmation of popular rights, and his resolution, that, if it
were in his power to prevent it, a king of England should never be
brought to a level with a king of Mahrattas. The true sons of freedom
will not certainly be very apprehensive upon this score, and will leave
it to the numbers that will ever remain the adherents of monarchical
power, to guard the barriers of the throne. In opposition, his
declarations in favour of parliamentary reform seemed indeed very
decisive. In administration, he was particularly careful to explain away
these declarations, and to assure the people that he would never employ
any influence in support of the measure, but would only countenance it
so far as it appeared to be the sense of parliament. In other words,
that he would remain neutral, or at most only honour the subject with an
eloquent harangue, and interest himself no further respecting it.
But let us proceed from his language to his conduct in office. Almost
every salutary measure of administration, from the resignation of lord
North downward, was brought about during the union of the noble earl
with the Rockingham connexion. What inference are we to draw from
this?--That administration, as auspicious as it was transitory, has
never been charged with more than one error. They were thought too
liberal in the distribution of two or three sinecures and pensions. To
whom were they distributed? Uniformly, exclusively, to the friends of
lord Shelburne. Lord Shelburne proposed them to his august colleague,
and the marquis, whose faults, if he had any, were an excess of
mildness, and an unsuspecting simplicity, perhaps too readily complied.
But let it be remembered, that not one of his friends accepted, or to
not one of his friends were these emoluments extended. But, if the noble
marquis were sparing in the distribution of pensions, the deficiency was
abundantly supplied by his successor. While the interests of the people
were neglected and forgotten, the attention of the premier was in a
considerable degree engrossed by the petty arrangements of office. For
one man a certain department of business was marked out; the place had
been previously filled by another. Here the first person was at all
events to be promoted; and the second gratified with a pension. Thus, in
the minute detail of employment, in adjusting the indeclinables of a
court calendar, to detach a _commis_ from this department, and to fix a
clerk in that, burthen after burthen has been heaped upon the shoulders
of a callous and lethargic people.--But no man can say, that the earl of
Shelburne has been idle. Beside all this, he has restored peace to his
country. His merits in this business, have already been sufficiently
agitated. To examine them afresh would lead me too far from the scope of
my subject. I will not therefore now detain myself either to exculpate
or criminate the minister, to whom, whatever they are, they are
principally to be ascribed.
From the considerations already suggested, I am afraid thus much may be
fairly inferred, that the earl of Shelburne is a man, dark, insidious
and inexplicit in his designs; no decided friend of the privileges of
the people; and in both respects a person very improper to conduct the
affairs of this country. I would hope however, that the celebrated
character given of him by the late lord Holland was somewhat too severe.
"I have met with many, who by perseverance and labour have made
themselves Jesuits; it is peculiar to this man to have been born one."
Such then is the estimate we are compelled to form of a man who in his
professions has sometimes gone as far, as the most zealous votaries of
liberty. And what is the inference we shall draw from this? Shall we,
for the sake of one man so specious and plausible, learn to think the
language of all men equally empty and deceitful? Having once been
betrayed, shall we avoid all future risk, by treating every pretender to
patriotism and public spirit, as a knave and an impostor? This indeed is
a conclusion to which the unprincipled and the vicious are ever
propense. They judge of their fellows by themselves, and from the
depravity of their own hearts are willing to infer, that every honesty
has its price. But the very motive that inclines the depraved to such a
mode of reasoning, must, upon the very same account, deter the man of
virtue from adopting it. Virtue is originally ever simple and
unsuspecting. Conscious to its own rectitude, and the integrity of its
professions, it naturally expects the same species of conduct from
others. By every disappointment of this kind, it is mortified and
humbled. Long, very long must it have been baffled, and countless must
have been its mortifications, ere it can be induced to adopt a principle
of general mistrust. And that such a principle should have so large a
spread among persons, whose honesty, candour forbids us to suspect, is
surely, of all the paradoxe upon the face of the earth, incomparably the
greatest.--The man of virtue then will be willing, before he gives up
all our political connexions without distinction, to go along with me to
the review of the only one that yet remains to be examined, that of the
late marquis of Rockingham.
Too much perhaps cannot be said in their praise. They have nearly
engrossed the confidence of every friend of liberty. They are the only
men, whose principles were never darkened with the cloud of suspicion.
What, let me ask, has been their uniform conduct during the whole course
of the reign? They have been ever steady in their opposition, to
whatever bore an ill aspect to the cause of freedom, and to the whole
train of those political measures, that have terminated in calamity and
ruin. They have been twice in administration. Prosperity and power are
usually circumstances that prove the severest virtue. While in power how
then did this party conduct themselves?
Of their first administration the principal measure was the stamp act. A
law that restored tranquility to a distracted empire. A law, to which,
if succeeding administrations had universally adhered, we had been at
this moment, the exclusive allies and patrons of the whole continent of
North America. A law, that they carried in opposition to the all-dreaded
Mr. Pitt, on the one hand, and on the other, against the inclination of
those secret directors, from whose hands they receive their delegated
power. They repealed the excise upon cyder. They abolished general
warrants. And after having been the authors of these and a thousand
other benefits in the midst of storms and danger; they quitted their
places with a disinterestedness, that no other set of men have imitated.
They secured neither place, pension, nor reversion to themselves, or any
of their adherents.
Their second administration was indeed very short. But it was crowded
with the most salutary measures. The granting a full relief to Ireland.
The passing several most important bills of oeconomy and reformation.
The passing the contractors bill. The carrying into effect that most
valuable measure, the abolishing the vote of custom-house officers in
the election of members of parliament. And lastly, the attempt to
atchieve, that most important of all objects, the establishment of an
equal representation. What might not have been expected from their
longer continuance in office?
But I will not confine myself to the consideration of their conduct as a
body. The characters of the individuals of which they are composed, will
still further illustrate their true principles, and furnish a strong
additional recommendation of them, to every friend of virtue and of
liberty. That I may not overcharge this part of my subject, I will only
mention two or three of their most distinguished leaders.
The character of the present chancellor of the exchequer is entirely an
_unique_. Though mixing in all the busy scenes of life, though occupying
for many years a principal place in the political affairs of this
country, he has _kept himself unspotted from the world_.--The word of
the elder Cato was esteemed so sacred with the Romans, that it became a
proverb among them respecting things, so improbable, that their truth
could not be established even by the highest authority, "I would not
believe it, though it were told me by Cato." And in an age much more
dissipated than that of Cato, the integrity and honour of the noble lord
I have mentioned, has become equally proverbial. Not bonds, nor deeds,
nor all the shackles of law, are half so much to be depended upon as is
his lightest word. He is deaf to all the prejudices of blood or private
friendship, and has no feelings but for his country.
Of the duke of Portland, I can say the less, as not having had an
opportunity of knowing much respecting him. His candour and his honour
have never been questioned. And I remember, in the debate upon the
celebrated secession of the Rockingham party, upon the death of their
leader, to have heard his abilities particularly vouched in very strong
terms, by Mr. chancellor Pitt, and the present lord Sidney. The latter
in particular, though one of my lord Shelburne's secretaries of state,
fairly avowed in so many words, that he should have been better
satisfied with the appointment of his grace, to the office he now holds,
than he was, with the noble lord, under whom he acted.
The character of lord Keppel, with persons not attached to any party,
has usually been that of a man of much honesty and simplicity, without
any remarkable abilities. It is a little extraordinary however, that,
though forced by a combination of unfavourable circumstances into a
public speaker, he is yet, even in that line, very far from contempt.
His speeches are manly, regular, and to the purpose. His defence upon
his trial at Portsmouth, in which he must naturally be supposed to have
had at least a principal share, has, in my opinion, much beauty of
composition. The adversaries of this party, though unwilling to admit
that the navy was so much improved under his auspices as was asserted,
have yet, I believe, universally acknowledged his particular activity
and diligence.
But I come to the great beast of his own party, and the principal object
of attack to their enemies, the celebrated Mr. Fox. Men of formality and
sanctity have complained of him as dissipated. They do not pretend
however to aggravate their accusation, by laying to his charge any of
the greater vices. His contempt of money, and his unbounded generosity,
are universally confessed. Let such then know, that dissipation, so
qualified, is a very slight accusation against a public man, if indeed
it deserves a serious consideration. In all expansive minds, in minds
formed for an extensive stage, to embrace the welfare and the interest
of nations, there is a certain incessant activity, a principle that must
be employed. Debar them from their proper field, and it will most
inevitably run out into excesses, which perhaps had better have been
avoided. But do these excrescences, which only proceed from the richness
and fertility of the soil, disqualify a man for public business? Far,
very far from it. Where ever was there a man, who pushed dissipation and
debauchery to a greater length, than my lord Bolingbroke? And yet it is
perhaps difficult to say, whether there ever existed a more industrious,
or an abler minister. The peace of Utrecht, concluded amidst a thousand
difficulties, from our allies abroad, and our parties, that were never
so much exasperated against each other at home; must ever remain the
monument of his glory. His opposition to sir Robert Walpole seems
evidently to have been founded upon the most generous principles. And
though the warmth and ebullition of his passions evermore broke in upon
his happiest attempts, yet were his exertions in both instances attended
with the most salutary consequences. But Mr. Fox appears to me to
possess all the excellencies, without any of the defects of lord
Bolingbroke. His passions have, I believe, never been suspected of
having embroiled the affairs of his party, and he has uniformly retained
the confidence of them all. His friendships have been solid and
unshaken. His conduct cool and intrepid. The littleness of jealousy
never discoloured a conception of his heart. In office he was more
constant and indefatigable, than lord Bolingbroke himself. All his
lesser pursuits seemed annihilated, and he was swallowed up in the
direction of public affairs.
He has been accused of ambition. Ambition is a very ambiguous term. In
its lowest sense, it sinks the meanest, and degrades the dirtiest of our
race. In its highest, I cannot agree with those who stile it the defect
of noble minds. I esteem it worthy of the loudest commendation, and the
most assiduous culture. Mr. Fox's is certainly not an ambition of
emolument. Nobody dreams it. It is not an ambition, that can be
gratified by the distribution of places and pensions. This is a passion,
that can only dwell in the weakest and most imbecil minds. Its necessary
concomitants, are official inattention and oscitancy. No. The ambition
of this hero is a generous thirst of fame, and a desire of possessing
the opportunity of conferring the most lasting benefits upon his
country. It is an instinct, that carries a man forward into the field of
fitness, and of God.