308

DISRESPECTFUL PETITIONS.

[BOOK II. of the city, and no opposition was made; but the military had to sustain severe ill-usage on their return. A great multitude rushed to Tower Hill; and when a cannon was fired, according to custom on the reception of a state-prisoner, the rumor was spread that the Tower guns were firing upon the people. The rage among the populace was as fierce as might be expected; and the soldiers had to fight their way from the entrance of East Cheap to London Bridge. It was some time before they fired; but when they did, two or three people were killed, and many wounded.

1

Sir Samuel Romilly had given notice of a motion for that evening, for the release of Jones; but the irritation of the time was so great that he consented to put it off. The Speaker had no such choice. He was obliged to read to the House 1 the letter he had received from Burdett. It was a piece of vulgar insolence, clearly intended to provoke his expulsion from the House. As it was certain, however, that Westminster would reëlect him by acclamation, he was not gratified by any proceedings being taken on his letter. As he was already in prison for breach of privilege, this new breach was passed over.

Day by day tempers grew worse, on each side. Burdett brought actions at law against the Speaker, the Sergeant-at-Arms, and Lord Moira, in whose custody he now was. When Romilly moved, on the 16th, for the release of Jones, on the ground that the man had suffered enough, the House seemed disposed to agree; but the Ministers would not permit the release, without new humiliations on the part of the culprit. The next day, the inhabitants of Westminster sent in a petition and remonstrance so affronting in its language,2 that it was a mortification to the House to have it entered on their Journals I which was a con

sequence of its being ordered to lie on the table. A petition from the Livery of London,3 received on the 8th of May, was hardly, if at all, more disrespectful than the Westminster one; but it was rejected by the House. A petition from the freeholders of Middlesex was treated in like manner. Burdett was very

far from rejecting the addresses sent to him. The newspapers were full of accounts of them, and of reports of the prisoner's replies. His vanity was now in all its glory. The state of men's passions at that time is shown by the mistakes made about Sir Samuel Romilly's part in the affair. Because he thought the libels in question a business for the ordinary courts to settle, rather than parliament, both parties jumped to the conclusion that he was a partisan of Burdett's. It was so reported, in and out of the newspapers, that Burdett's resistance was under his advice, and that he had visited the baronet frequently during the days of 1 Hansard, xvi. p. 550. 2 Ibid. p. 727. 8 Ibid. p. 885.

1

CHAP. III.]

PERPLEXITIES. RELEASE.

309

siege,1 that he was compelled to explain in the House that he had had no communication whatever, direct or indirect, with Burdett, and that he had never been in his house in his life. And now, on the 10th of May,2 Burdett's solicitor offered him retainers in the three actions he had brought against his captors. It could hardly have been seriously supposed that any member of parliament would appear in this cause.

And now the grand difficulty of all had to be dealt with: the question whether parliament should make any appear- Question of ance at all in the Law Courts. It was decided that pleading. the Speaker and the Sergeant-at-Arms should be allowed to plead. The Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the privileges of the House was so incorrect that it had to be recommitted. The members had gone out of their beat, so far even as to quote the opinion of the peers, as ascertained in a conference. The House refused to receive this opinion; and yet, as it curiously happened, the Lords had, after all, to decide a question of the privileges of the Commons, Burdett's actions being carried before them by a writ of error. There seemed to be no end of the perplexities and contradictions, and unmanageable difficulties of the case; as always happens when there is a strain upon the compromises of the Constitution. What the House had desired in appointing the Committee was that, by means of materials furnished by the Journals, the privilege of parliament. should be accurately defined the questions of its application and applicability remaining, of course, for consideration in each case as it arose: but, instead of this, the Committee quoted the opinions of the peers, and gave their own notions of the powers of the Law Courts; and thus their labors did not help on this vexed question. Meanwhile, the public bodies which had complimented Burdett and scolded the House of Commons, began to send addresses of thanks to Romilly, Lord Erskine, and Mr. Whitbread; and there was hardly any gathering of men, however small, in which the privilege question was not argued. Lord Erskine had the honor of meeting the Prince of Wales at dinner one day,3 when the argument on the subject grew hot between them. Lord Erskine said that the principles he advocated were those which had seated the family of his Royal Highness în the throne; and the Prince retorted, that they were principles which would unseat any family from any throne.

The affair came to an end by the natural opportunity of the prorogation of parliament on the 21st of June. For Burdett's some days before preparations were made by Bur- release. dett's friends for such a triumphal procession as had been seldom 2 Memoirs, ii. p. 320.

1 Hansard, xvi. p. 549.

8 Memoirs of Horner, ii. p. 47.

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seen.

A DISAPPOINTED PROCESSION.

[BOOK II.

Placards on the walls announced the order of the pageantry; and caricatures at the print-shops represented the emerging of the sun of patriotism from the east. John Bull, in an ecstasy of enjoyment, was basking on a bed of roses, while Burdett shone on him from the morning sky. In the summer dawn of the great day, the tread of many feet was heard in the streets. By the afternoon, the whole road from the Tower to Burdett's house in Piccadilly was a close-packed crowd; and the windows and roofs of all the houses were peopled with watchers. Scaffoldings in Piccadilly, wagons and carts wherever they could be put, were all covered with people; and the greater number wore blue cockades. Blue silk pennons waved from the windows; and blue flags were carried about the streets, and made to float before the faces of the immovable cavalry who were posted here and there. Three hundred horsemen were waiting outside the Tower from two o'clock; and very tired they were of waiting when the mortifying catastrophe was made known. About four o'clock, a soldier on the ramparts put a speaking-trumpet to his mouth; and the faces on Tower Hill turned towards him. He repeated a few words several times; but those who heard did not believe him. What he said was, "He is gone by water.” "He is gone by water." This was not a thing to be believed; and no attention was paid to it. Presently one of the constables told the people near him that Burdett had been gone some time; but he was rebuked for saying such a thing, just to get the people to go away. At half-past four, three placards were hung out over the gates of the Tower, inscribed, "Sir Francis Burdett left the Tower by water, at half-past three o'clock." The committee, at first confounded, rallied their spirits, and resolved to have the procession, though they must dispense with the hero. Many went home, many at distant points could not be made to understand; but others joined, and the procession was an imposing one. Burdett's phaeton was empty;1 but Jones was on the roof of a hackney coach, haranguing the crowd very actively, but amidst too much noise to be heard. He had been ejected from prison by stratagem, after declaring that he would never go out spontaneously; and he was now vehemently complaining of being made a free man against his will. The crowd was nearly dispersed by ten o'clock; but those in Piccadilly would not go till the neighbors had illuminated; and soon, nearly all London was shining out at the windows.

Sir Francis Burdett never fully recovered his position after this day. His more violent partisans despised what they called his cowardice; and more reasonable men complained of his inconsistency. He could not be expected to join the procession after frequent warnings that lives might again be lost in the 1 Annual Register, 1810, p. 112.

CHAP. III.] WEAKNESS OF THE GOVERNMENT.

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streets; but he should have known his own mind sooner, and have forbidden the procession. Those who most readily gave him credit for a sincere abhorrence of injustice, and a genuine instinct for popular rights, and who were willing to excuse the vanity which lowered the patriotism, saw from this day that he was not to be relied on for consistency and resolution. A man who had provoked the contest with parliament, and ventured the overthrow of public order, and who ended by slinking home in a boat, leaving his army of admirers waiting for him in the streets, was no hero; and no future efforts to reestablish him as a hero were of any avail. Though many persevered for some time in denying it, his day was over. The sun was not punctual. While people were gazing eastwards for it in vain, it was already fast sinking into the west. John Bull looked grave, gathered himself up from his bed of roses, and went home grumbling.

ernment.

During the whole of this session, it was suspected that the ministry was in a very unsettled state; and we now know that they felt themselves so weak that they struggled on with a difficulty which perhaps some clear-sighted men might have inferred from the positiveness, hardness, and insolence of the Premier's tone. Mr. Perceval's tone was so excessively peremptory at times, that wise observers might reasonably suppose that there was misgiving and fear within. Lord Mulgrave suc- Weakness ceeded Lord Chatham in May, as has been said; and of the govthere were shiftings of office among those already in the government. In April, the Premier had endeavored to fortify himself by bringing in Lords Sidmouth1 and Castlereagh, both valuable for their command of votes, and Mr. Canning, inestimable for his ability. None of them thought that Canning would come in; but they might as well try. The answer was an instant refusal; and so was Lord Sidmouth's, in case of Canning's acceptance. He was open to solicitation, however, if Canning declined; and he was kept waiting till the 12th of June, when Lord Wellesley called on him with renewed proposals. The difficulty was that Lord Wellesley would not agree to any irrevocable exclusion of his friend Canning. In July, the Premier went himself to Lord Sidmouth, with no better success. The two gentlemen could only sigh over the fidelity of Lord Wellesley to his friend. In September, there was some idea of letting Lord Wellesley go; but this could not be ventured; and then, of inducing Canning and Castlereagh to come in together. Castlereagh was applied to first; 2 and his refusal was so positive, that nothing more could be done; and the Cabinet must hold on “So as it could till some change should take place of itself. ends our negotiation," wrote Mr. Perceval to Lord Eldon; 2 Life of Lord Eldon, ii. p. 126.

iLife, iii. p. 26.

“and

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WELLESLEY.— DEATH OF WINDHAM. [Book II:

the consequence, I trust, will be, that we shall all be determined to do the best we can to stand firmly and unitedly by ourselves, when we find we cannot mend matters." Helpless as the Cabinet would have been without Lord Wellesley, there were several there who would have been delighted to be rid of him; for they found him very troublesome. He was forever, by his knowledge, checking their ignorant expectations about Spain; and he never ceased to claim for his "brother Arthur" justice in the conditions under which he was to carry on the war in Spain. It was troublesome to be rebuked for expecting victories when the general was left unsupplied with men, money, stores, authority abroad, and influence at home with everything essential to the successful prosecution of the war. Lord Wellesley would not relax in his assertion of his brother's needs and claims; and so, the underlings of the government agreed that he was a very disappointing person for so great a man; and that his discontents must be owing to literary jealousy. When he spoke in the Lords, he must have everything ad unguem;1 and would not rise and speak unless he was thus carefully prepared. As might be expected, his written communications were industriously finished. It so happened that the other leading members of the Cabinet were remarkably bad writers. Among gentlemen, it would hardly be possible to find worse; yet they altered and amended Lord Wellesley's productions to such a degree that, as he told a friend, "he had thought he was among a cabinet of statesmen; but he found them a set of critics." The underlings got hold of this; and they settled,2 to their own satisfaction, that literary jealousy was the reason why Lord Wellesley did not work smoothly with the Eldons and the Percevals of the government. To take in Castlereagh without Canning was not thought of for a moment. It was not only that the Premier knew he must lose Lord Wellesley in such a case; 3 but, as he told an adherent, Lord Castlereagh's unpopularity was so great, notwithstanding some considerable talent, and very conciliatory manners, that his junction, unaccompanied by his rival, would be purely detrimental to the government. For long afterwards, Lord Castlereagh's aid was thought and called a mere acquisition of weakness." No present opening appeared for either of the late Cabinet duellists, as they would not come in together.

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3

Meantime, a leading man was gone from the ranks of their Death of opponents; a chief member of the Grenville OpposiWindham. tion party. In helping to save the books of a friend whose house was burning, Mr. Windham had, a year before, received a blow on the hip which he thought of little importance ; but it cost him his life. In May he was condemned to an oper1 Ward's Memoirs, i. p. 317. 2 Ibid. p. 429. 3 Ibid. pp. 290, 421.