CHAP. VIII.

On the State of Parties in England.

THE present political parties in England affect to rally under two names; viz. Pittites and Foxites. Has either party any great Political object which it professes to wish to carry? The Pittites profess no other object than that of preventing changes; the Foxites profess no definite object. The people, therefore, view the two parties under the more intelligible names of the Ins and the Outs. Admit, for the moment, that both Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox had great talents, and that both conferred much benefit on their country. It does not follow, that those who call themselves Pittites have the same talents, or have a right to claim, as heirs, the reward of his merits. The same answer may be given to the Foxites. The names are brought forward as noms de guerre, and

It may not be undeserving our attention, to consider how these parties have arisen. Sir Robert Walpole governed England by uniting the influence of the Crown to the Whig Party. I use the expression, Whig Party, because, during that period, the Whigs were not a faction but a party; for they had a great political object, viz. to prevent the return of the Stuarts, and the dreaded establishment of Popery and despotism.

Sir Robert Walpole fell; he was succeeded by the Pelhams. Mr. Pelham was the man of the best understanding in that administration; but he certainly was not a man of a superior mind. George II. wished to employ Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl of Granville, as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He was, beyond all doubt, the ablest man of the day for that situation. But the Pelhams feared his abilities, and compelled the King to remove him: the Pelhams carried on the War of 1741 feebly, and they ended it without wisdom; for they left in existence the seeds of future disputes. The Peace

of Aix-la-Chapelle must be considered as little more than a cessation of Arms

it

was a Truce rather than a Peace. Mr. Pelham died. His party continued in power under the auspices of his brother, the Duke of Newcastle.

History hardly points out to us, in any country or in any age, a Minister more incapable or more contemptible. The War of 1756 burst forth; the Duke of Newcastle was under the necessity of assigning to Mr. Pitt, the employment of Secretary of State, with the management of the War. The great abilities of this gentleman enabled him to carry on the War with much success; and the three last years of the reign of George II. are perhaps the most glorious period of our History since the accession of the Brunswick dynasty.

In October, 1760, George III. succeeded to the Crown; he had been educated in aversion to those trammels in which his grandfather had been held; and tutored from

Within a year after his accession, he removed Mr. Pitt; and in the following halfyear swept away the whole Pelham confederacy. He appointed the Earl of Bute his Prime Minister, who in the year following terminated the War. But the people were dissatisfied with the conditions of the Peace: pusillanimity induced the Earl of Bute to resign his situation. The King appointed Mr. George Grenville his successor; but his Majesty soon found that this gentleman wished to exercise the same controul over him, as the Pelhams had exercised over George II.

He removed Mr. Grenville, and placed in the administration those gentlemen who had been Members of the Pelham confederacy. The Marquis of Rockingham was appointed Prime Minister. The new Ministers, on their accession to power, repealed the Stamp Act, and re-established tranquillity between Great Britain and her Colonies. Did the attempt to impose taxes on the Colonies by the vote of the British Parliament originate with Mr. Grenville, or with the King, and his own

interior Cabinet? I cannot pretend to answer this question. I believe that there are papers in existence which may hereafter elucidate the subject. From the unremitted obstinacy with which the King persevered in this attempt to tax the Colonies; from the various artifices which he employed to induce his Ministers to assist him in the attempt; from his boundless gratitude to those who supported him in this measure, and from his aversion to those who opposed it; we are naturally led to believe that it was the measure of the King himself. He removed the Rockingham administration and by dexterously playing one faction against another, he succeeded in his wish to revive the dispute with America. War was the consequence; till Peace was re-established by the acknowledgement of the Independence of the American Colonies. From 1766, when the Rockinghams were removed from office, to the death of Lord Rockingham, in 1782, the Partizans of that noble Lord are entitled to be considered, not as a