RE-APPEARANCE OF LORD CHATHAM. 301 Ch. 21. 1776 Opposition of The only effects of such conduct were to enable the ministers to pass their measures with more facility, and to bring some degree of ridicule and contempt upon the seceders. Fox, who had not Fox. yet joined the Rockingham connection, resumed his attendance in Parliament soon after the Christmas recess, and vigorously opposed Lord North's bill for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, so far as regarded persons charged with high treason in North America. Chatham, also, after a long absence, caused by a return of the mysterious malady which had afflicted him ten years before, reappeared in the House of Lords, and made an American motion. He now proposed to concede all the demands of the colonists except independence. But the time was passed when a resolution so qualified, even if it had been adopted by the unanimous sense of Parliament, could have produced any effect. The Americans were determined on adhering to their assertion of independence; and the language with which Chatham recommended his last proposal was such as to justify their determination, and encourage their resistance. He repeated what he had always maintained, that the subjugation of America by arms was impracticable. You have been three years,' said he, 'teaching your opponents the art of war; they are apt scholars, and I will venture to affirm that the American gentry will furnish officers fit to command the troops of all the European powers. You have employed 302 EXTRAORDINARY CIVIL LIST, Ch. 21. 1776 Increase of the civil list. war.' forces too numerous for peace, too limited for Chatham, indeed, hardly disguised his opinion, that the question was already beyond the reach of compromise; and he supported his motion chiefly on the ground that it would produce unanimity at home and might cause division among those who must at length be considered as our enemies. Lord Gower, representing the Bedford party, which had always advocated arbitrary measures towards the colonists, declared that it was only a question whether France or England should possess America. The idea of America becoming free and independent was altogether visionary. Chatham's motion was ably supported by Lord Shelburne, but was rejected by a still greater majority than that which had defeated similar attempts in former sessions. It became necessary for the minister, during this session, to come down to Parliament, and for the second time since the commencement of the reign, to ask for an extraordinary vote in aid of that branch of the public expenditure which was more immediately under his Majesty's control. It will be recollected, that George the Third at his accession had surrendered the hereditary revenues of the Crown, and in lieu thereof had received £800,000 a year for life. Out of this ample revenue some of the great public services were to be provided for; but after all these charges were defrayed, there was sufficient for the maintenance of the Crown in becoming INSUFFICIENCY OF THE ROYAL INCOME. dignity and splendour. It now appeared, however, that there was a surplus expenditure, at the rate of nearly £100,000 a year. Lord North had to ask Parliament for £600,000 for the liquidation of pressing demands, and for an addition to the Civil List of £100,000 a year, to redress the difference between income and outlay. In other words, the minister proposed that the King's private revenue should be increased by about onethird. The immediate exigencies of his Majesty were, many of them, of a most humiliating character. Some of the tradesmen who supplied the palaces with common necessaries, were reduced to great straits for want of their money. Many had not been paid for years: the coal-merchant dunned in vain for his bill, amounting to six thousand pounds. The wages of the menial servants were six quarters in arrear. This discreditable state of things was the almost necessary result of the vicious principle on which the civil list was based. Parliament could not demand an account of the dispensation of a fund which they had placed at the personal disposal of the sovereign; but the greater part of this fund was appropriated to public purposes, and was, therefore, to that extent, a public account. But no vouchers were produced, no audit-books were examined; and beyond certain fixed salaries of public functionaries, Parliament had no know d Lord Talbot's Speech in the House of Lords. 303 Ch. 21. 1777 304 1777 DISTRESS OF THE KING'S TRADESPEOPLE. Ch. 21. ledge either of the purposes to which the vast surplus of the fund had been applied, or of the purposes for which the new grants were required. That much of the money had been spent in parliamentary corruption is more than probable; that much had been wasted or misapplied is certain. The royal establishment was a refuge for petty placemen. The household swarmed with officers for whom it was difficult to find even names. There were treasurers, comptrollers, cofferers, masters, stewards of the household; there was the whole Board of Green Cloth; there was the department of the chamber, of the great wardrobe, of the removing wardrobe, of the robes: there was the turnspit of his Majesty's kitchen, who was a member of Parliament. For the accommodation of this legion of officers, twenty-three tables were kept, or rather charged. All these functionaries drew their salaries regularly, while the King's grocers and footmen were unpaid. A sum equivalent to nearly the whole amount of debt for which Parliament was required to provide, had been expended in secret service since 1769. Of this immense sum, two hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds had been dispensed by the secretary to the Treasury. There was no room for conjecture as to the particular kind of secret service for which these payments had been made. The pension list had likewise increased to an enormous amount. PERSONAL FRUGALITY OF THE KING. 305 Ch. 21. 1777 Frugality of household. No part of this deficit was chargeable to any excess in the domestic expenditure of the Royal Family. The King's habits and those of his consort were simple and frugal in the extreme. the royal One hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year, less than half the sum which is now considered, and properly considered, necessary to maintain the becoming splendour and hospitality of the Crown, sufficed to defray the real household expenditure of George the Third; and if none but the legitimate claims on the Civil List had been admitted, a large surplus, instead of a large deficiency, would have existed. After a moderate computation, therefore, it is manifest that upwards of a million must have been lavished for purposes which could not be avowed; and the result was, that the people of England were called upon to pay upwards of six hundred thousand pounds, and to add a hundred thousand pounds to the permanent revenue of the sovereign, in order that the Government might be removed still farther from their control, and that those institutions which had been devised for the protection of liberty in all future times should be rendered the vile instruments of irresponsible power. civil list. The debates on this scandalous subject were of Debate on the an unusually animated character. The Opposition, including the Rockingham party which took this opportunity of terminating their ill-advised secession, denounced the measure in the strain of |