Americans in the eighteenth century however, like Englishmen in the seventeenth, thought that the first point to be considered was the authority by which the tax was imposed. If Charles I. might levy ship-money without consent of Parliament, he might levy other taxes in the same way, and would thus become absolute master of England. If the British Parliament could levy a stamp duty in America, it could levy other duties, and the Americans Edmund Burke: from a painting by Reynolds in the would thus be entirely at its mercy. The Rockingham ministry drew back from the prospect of a struggle with the colonists, and, at its instance, the Stamp Act was repealed early in 1766, though its repeal was accompanied by a Declaratory Act asserting the right of the British Parliament to tax the colonies as well as to legislate for them. 12. Pitt and Burke. 1766.-In taking this course the Rockingham ministry was supported by Edmund Burke, who now entered Parliament for the first time, and who was the greatest political 1766-1767 AMERICAN TAXATION 773 thinker of the age. As Pitt, too, applauded the repeal of the Stamp Act, Rockingham made fresh but unsuccessful efforts to induce him to combine with the ministry. Yet, though Pitt and Burke agreed in disliking the Stamp Act, their reasons for so doing were not the same. Pitt held that the British Parliament had a right to impose duties on American trade, for the sake of regulating it--in other words, of securing a monopoly for British manufactures--but that it had no right to levy internal taxes in America. Burke, on the other hand, detested the very idea of claiming or disclaiming a right to tax, holding that in all political matters the only thing worth discussion was whether any particular action was expedient. America, according to him, was not to be taxed, simply because it was not worth while to irritate the Americans for the sake of any sum of money which could be obtained from them. This was not the only point on which Pitt and Burke differed. Burke wished to found government on a combination amongst men of property honestly and intelligently seeking their country's good, and using the influence which their wealth gave them to fill the benches of the House of Commons with men as right-minded as themselves. Pitt, on the other hand, distrusting all combinations between wealthy landowners, preferred appealing to popular support. 13. The Chatham Ministry. 1766-1767.-There was this much of agreement between George III. and Pitt, that they both disliked the Rockingham Whigs, and, in July, 1766, the king dismissed Rockingham, created Pitt Earl of Chatham, and made him Prime Minister with the office of Lord Privy Seal. Chatham formed his ministry by selecting men of all kinds of opinion who were willing to serve under him. Before the end of the year his health broke down, and his mind was so completely deranged as to render him incapable of attending to business. In 1767 the Duke of Grafton, being First Lord of the Treasury, became nominally Prime Minister, but he was quite incapable of controlling his subordinates, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, a brilliant, unwise speaker, had everything his own way. 14. American Import Duties. 1767. -Although the Stamp Act had been repealed, the irritation caused by its imposition had not died away in America, and the authority of British Acts of Parliament was set at naught by the colonists. In 1767 Townshend obtained from Parliament an Act imposing on America import duties on glass, red and white lead, painters' colours, paper, and tea. The produce was estimated at 40,000/., and was to be em ployed, not in maintaining an army to defend the colonies, but in paying their judges and governors, with the object of making them dependent on the Crown, and independent of the public opinion of the colonists. From the point of view of the British Parliament, the colonists were like unruly children, who required to be kept in order. In America, on the other hand, the new duties were denounced as an attempt to govern America from England. Not only did people agree together to avoid the consumption of articles subject to the new duties, but attacks were made on the revenue officers who had to collect the money, and whatever violence was committed against them, juries refused to convict the offenders. On September 4, 1767, before further steps could be taken in England, Townshend died. His successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer was Lord North, who was inclined to carry out Townshend's policy. In reality, however, the king was himself the head of the ministry. 15. The Middlesex Election. 1768-1769.-Though before the end of 1768 Chatham recovered his health, he felt himself helpless, and formally resigned office. In that year there was a general election, and Wilkes, reappearing from France, was elected in Middlesex. His election was a token of a wide-spread dissatisfaction, not so much with the taxation of America as with the corruption by which the king had won Parliament to his side. In February, 1769, the House of Commons expelled Wilkes. He was then re-elected, and the House replied not only by expelling him again, but by incapacitating him from sitting in the House during the existing Parliament. When an election was again held, Wilkes was again at the head of the poll, but the House declared his opponent, Colonel Luttrell, to be duly elected, though the votes for him had been very few. A grave constitutional question was thus raised. George Grenville and the Rockingham Whigs agreed in asserting that nothing short of an Act of Parliament passed by both Houses could deprive the electors of their right of choosing whom they would as their representative, though they admitted that the House might expel a member so chosen as often as it pleased. To this doctrine Chatham, who had now recovered his health, gave his warm support. It seemed as if it would be impossible for the ministry to hold out against such a weight of authority and argument. 16. "Wilkes and Liberty." 1769.-The opponents of the court on the question of the Middlesex election had on their side two dangerous allies a libeller and the mob. The libeller, who called 1769 WILKES AND LIBERTY 775 himself 'Junius,' was probably Sir Philip Francis. He attacked with malignant bitterness the king and all his instruments. The mob, actuated by a sense of the unfairness with which Wilkes was treated, George III. in 1767: from a painting by Allan Ramsay in the took his part warmly. "Wilkes and liberty" was their cry. At the time of the Middlesex election '45' was freely chalked up on the doors of the houses, in allusion to the condemned number of the North Briton. Noblemen most hostile to Wilkes were compelled to illuminate their houses in honour of his success at the poll, and the grave Austrian ambassador was pulled out of his carriage and '45' chalked on the soles of his boots. In June, Wilkes, having surrendered to take his trial for the publication of No. 45 and the Essay on Woman (see pp. 769, 770), was committed to prison, whence, on May 10, an enormous crowd strove to rescue him, and was only driven off after the soldiers had fired and killed five or six persons. Wilkes was, in June, sentenced to fine and imprisonment as a libeller, but the citizens of London, as enthusiastic in his favour as the crowd, chose him as Alderman whilst he was still in prison. The badness of his character was forgotten, and his pertinacious stand against the Court was alone remembered. 17. Lord North Prime Minister. 1770. When Parliament met, in January, 1770, Chatham, now again in full possession of his powers, took up the cause of Wilkes, maintaining that the House of Commons had no right to place Luttrell in his seat. The very sound of his voice dissolved the composite Ministry. Those who had entered it as his followers rallied to their leader. Pratt, who had become Lord Chancellor with the title of Lord Camden, was dismissed. The king, finding that no notable lawyer agreed with him as to the right of the House of Commons to disqualify Wilkes from being elected, persuaded Charles Yorke, an eminent lawyer and a hitherto devoted follower of Rockingham, to accept the Chancellorship, although in so doing he would have to argue against his own settled convictions. Yorke, tempted by the greatness of the prize, accepted the offer, but he was unable to bear the reproaches of his friends, and, for very shame, committed suicide. Grafton resigned office, and other ministers followed his example. The king then made Lord North First Lord of the Treasury, and gave him the position of a Prime Minister, though the title was still held to be invidious, and North himself objected to have it used in his own case. North was an able man, skilful in the management of public affairs, and honestly a supporter of strong measures against Wilkes and the Americans, and he fully adopted the principle that the king was to choose his ministers and to direct their policy. If North could maintain himself in Parliament, the new Toryism, of which the dependence of ministers on the Crown was the leading feature, would have won the day. |