manship, and whose science of government was ever to carry out, by force or management, his own strong will. The main body of the party whom he had raised to power and taken into his confidence, consisted of country gentlemen, types of immobility, of the clergy, trained by their trust. and calling to reverence the past; and of lawyers, guided by prescription and precedent, venerating laws which they had studied and expounded, but not aspiring to the higher philosophy of legislation. Such men, contented "stare super antiquas vias," dreaded every change as an innovation. In this spirit the king warned the people, in 1780, against "the hazard of innovation." 1 In the same spirit the king's friend, Mr. Rigby, in opposing Mr. Pitt's first motion for reform, "treated all innovations as dangerous theoretical experiments." This doctrine was first preached during the ministry of Lord North. It was never accepted by Mr. Pitt and his more enlightened disciples, but it became an article of faith with the majority of the Tory party. 2 tested by The American War involved principles which rallied the two parties, and displayed their natural antago- Principles nism. It was the duty of the government to the American repress revolt, and to maintain the national War. honor. Had the Whigs been in power, they would have acknowledged this obligation. But the Tories led by the king himself - were animated by a spirit of resentment against the colonists, which marked the characteristic principles of that party. In their eyes resistance was a crime. no violation of rights could justify or palliate rebellion. Tories of all classes were united in a cause so congenial to their common sentiments. The court, the landed gentry, and the clergy insisted, with one voice, that rebellion must be crushed, at whatever cost of blood and treasure. They were supported by a great majority of the House of Commons, and by the most influential classes in the country. The Whigs, on the other hand, asserted the first principles 1 Supra, Vol. I. 314. 2 Wraxall's Hist. Mem., iii. 85. often lost sight of the popular cause in their contentions for mastery. But, in the main, the least favorable critic of the Whigs will scarcely venture to deny their services in the cause of liberty, from the commencement of this reign until the death of Lord Rockingham. Such was the vigor of their opposition, and such the genius and eloquence of their leaders, Lord Chatham, Mr. Fox, Lord Camden, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Sheridan, that they exercised a strong influence upon public opinion, and checked and moderated the arbitrary spirit of the court party. The haughty pretensions to irresponsibility, which marked the first ministers of this reign, became much lowered in the latter years of Lord North's administration. Free discussion prevailed over doctrines opposed to liberty. Nor was the publication of debates already without its good results upon the conduct of both parties. Tories opposed to change. - But while the Tories were renouncing doctrines repugnant to public liberty, they were initiating a new principle not hitherto characteristic of their party. Respect for authority, nay, even absolute power, is compatible with enlightened progress in legislation. Great emperors, from Justinian to Napoleon, have gloried in the fame of lawgivers. But the Tory party were learning to view the amendment of our laws with distrust and aversion. In their eyes change was a political evil. Many causes concurred to favor a doctrine wholly unworthy of any school of statesmen. Tory sympathies were with the past. Men, who in the last generation would have restored the Stuarts and annulled the Revolution, had little in their creed congenial to enlightened progress. The power which they had recovered was associated with the influence of the crown and the existing polity of the state. Changes in the laws urged by opponents, and designed to restrain their own authority, were naturally resisted. Nor must the character of the men who constituted this party be forgotten. Foremost among them was the king himself, a man of narrow intellect and intractable prejudices, without philosophy or states manship, and whose science of government was ever to carry out, by force or management, his own strong will. The main body of the party whom he had raised to power and taken into his confidence, consisted of country gentlemen, types of immobility, of the clergy, trained by their trust and calling to reverence the past; and of lawyers, guided by prescription and precedent, venerating laws which they had studied and expounded, but not aspiring to the higher philosophy of legislation. Such men, contented "stare super antiquas vias," dreaded every change as an innovation. In this spirit the king warned the people, in 1780, against "the hazard of innovation." 1 In the same spirit the king's friend, Mr. Rigby, in opposing Mr. Pitt's first motion for reform, "treated all innovations as dangerous theoretical experiments." This doctrine was first preached during the ministry of Lord North. It was never accepted by Mr. Pitt and his more enlightened disciples, but it became an article of faith with the majority of the Tory party. tested by The American War involved principles which rallied the two parties, and displayed their natural antago- Principles nism. It was the duty of the government to repress revolt, and to maintain the national War. honor. Had the Whigs been in power, they would have acknowledged this obligation. But the Tories - led by the king himself — were animated by a spirit of resentment against the colonists, which marked the characteristic principles of that party. In their eyes resistance was a crime. no violation of rights could justify or palliate rebellion. Tories of all classes were united in a cause so congenial to their common sentiments. The court, the landed gentry, and the clergy insisted, with one voice, that rebellion must be crushed, at whatever cost of blood and treasure. They were supported by a great majority of the House of Commons, and by the most influential classes in the country. The Whigs, on the other hand, asserted the first principles 1 Supra, Vol. I. 314. 2 Wraxall's Hist. Mem., iii. 85. of their party in maintaining the rights of all British subjects to tax themselves by their representatives, and to resist oppression and injustice. But in their vain efforts to effect a reconciliation with America, they had a slender following in Parliament; and in the country had little support but that of the working classes, then wholly without influence, and of the traders, who generally supported that party, and whose interests were naturally concerned in the restoration of peace.1 Such were the sentiments and such the temper of the ruling party, that the leading Whigs were not without apprehension, that if America should be subdued, English liberty would be endangered.2 Secession of 1776. Having vainly opposed and protested against the measures of the government, in November, 1776, they sethe Whigs in ceded from Parliament on American questions desiring to leave the entire responsibility of coercion with ministers and their majority. It can scarcely be denied that their secession like earlier examples of the same policy 3 was a political error, if not a dereliction of duty. It is true that an important minority, constantly overborne by power and numbers, may encourage and fortify, instead of restraining, their victorious opponents. Their continued resistance may be denounced as factious, and the 8 1 Lord Camden, writing to Lord Chatham, February, 1775, said: "I am grieved to observe that the landed interest is almost altogether anti-American, though the common people hold the war in abhorrence, and the merchants and tradesmen, for obvious reasons, are altogether against it.". Chatham Corr., iv. 401. -"Parties were divided nearly as they had been at the end of the reign of Queen Anne: the Court and the landed gentry with a majority in the House of Commons, were with the Tories: the trad ing interest and popular feeling, with the Whigs."— Lord J. Russell's Life of Fox, i. 83. 2 Debates on Amendments to Address, 31st Oct. 1776, &c.; Fox Mem., i. 143; Lord J. Russell's Life of Fox, i. 136; Lord Rockingham Corr., ii. 276; Walpole's Mem., iv. 125; Grenville Papers, iv. 573; Burke's Works, ii. 399. 8 The Tory opposition had seceded in 1722, and again in 1738; Parl. Hist., x. 1323; Tindal's Hist., iv. 668; Smollett's Hist., ii. 219, 364; Coxe's Walpole, iii. 519; Marchmont Papers, ii. 190. smallness of their numbers pointed at as evidence of the weakness of their cause. But secession is flight. The enemy is left in possession of the field. The minority confess themselves vanquished. They even abandon the hope of retrieving their fallen cause by rallying the people to their side. Nor do they escape imputations more injurious than any which persistence, under every discouragement, could bring upon them. They may be accused of sullen ill-temper, of bearing defeat with a bad grace, and of the sacrifice of public duty to private pique. The latter charge, indeed, they could proudly disregard, if convinced that a course, conscientiously adopted, was favorable to their principles. Yet it is difficult to justify the renunciation of a public duty in times of peril, and the absolute surrender of a cause believed to be just. The Whigs escaped none of these charges; and even the dignity of a proud retirement before irresistible force was sacrificed by want of concert and united action. Mr. Fox and others returned after Christmas to oppose the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, while many of his friends continued their secession. Hence his small party was further weakened and divided,2 and the sole object of secession lost.3 The fortunes of the Whig party were now at their lowest point; and, for the present, the Tories were com- The Whigs pletely in the ascendant. But the disastrous in- and the cidents of the American War, followed by hostil- War. American 1 This Act applied to persons suspected of high treason in America, or on he high seas. 2 He mustered no more than forty-three followers on the second reading, nd thirty-three on the third reading. 8 The Duke of Richmond, writing to Lord Rockingham, said: "The worst, I see, has happened,- that is, the plan that was adopted has not been steadily pursued.” — Rockingham Corr., ii. 308; Parl. Hist., xvi. 1229. 4 Burke, writing to Fox, 8th Oct. 1777, says: "The Tories universally think their power and consequence involved in the success of this American business. The clergy are astonishingly warm in it, and what the Tories are when embodied and united with their natural head the Crown, and animated by the clergy, no man knows better than yourself. As to the |