1754 A COMING WAR 747 and, besides that, he was not in the House of Commons. He must choose some one to lead the House of Commons, and there were three persons on whom his choice might fall: Murray, Pitt, and Henry Fox. Murray, who was the greatest lawyer of the day, had no ambition except that of becoming Chief Justice, and was disqualified by his professional turn of mind from occupying a political post. Newcastle objected to Pitt as too opinionated, whilst Fox seemed just the man to suit him. Newcastle and Fox both loved corruption, but whilst Newcastle loved it for the sake of the pleasure of exercising patronage, Fox loved it for the sake of its profits. Fox was the ablest debater of his day, and might have risen high if he had not preferred to hold unimportant but well-paid posts rather than important posts of which the pay was less. He now refused Newcastle's proposal that he should lead the House of Commons, because Newcastle insisted on keeping the secret-service money-in other words, the money spent in bribing men to vote for the government--in his own hands. Fox truly said that it was impossible for him to ask members for their votes unless he knew whether they had been bribed or not. Accordingly Newcastle appointed Sir Thomas Robinson to lead the House. Robinson was a diplomatist, who having been long absent from England, knew nothing about the ways of members. Pitt and Fox, agreeing in nothing else, joined in baiting Robinson. Whenever he made a mistake they ironically took his part on the ground that he had been so long abroad that he could not be expected to know better. Robinson threw up his post in disgust, and, in 1755, Fox abandoning the conditions on which he had formerly insisted became Secretary of State with the leadership of the House of Commons. 4. The French in America. 1754.—In 1754, when Newcastle succeeded his brother as Prime Minister, there was already danger of a war with France. In North America France possessed Louisiana, at the mouth of the Mississippi, and Canada, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Between the two was a vast region, at that time only inhabited by Indians, who used it for purposes of hunting, and sold furs to the French Canadians. France, which already possessed a line of scattered forts between Canada and Louisiana, claimed the whole of the region to the west of the Alleghany Mountains as her own. On the other hand, there were now thirteen English colonies, and the colonists were beginning to find their way westward over the mountains, especially at the head of the Ohio river, refusing to be penned in by the French forts beyond the Alleghanies. Between the English and the French colonists fighting began in 1754. The contest then begun was one for the possession of the basin of the Ohio, though the possession of that would ultimately bring with it the power to colonise the far vaster basin of the Mississippi and its affluents. Therein lay the answer to a further question, as yet unsuspected, whether the English or the French was to be the predominating race in America and in the world of the future. Great Britain was once more drifting into a war which, like the war with Spain in 1739, would be one for mercantile and colonial expansion. The difference was that, whereas in 1739 she was matched with the decaying monarchy of Spain, she was now matched against the vigorous monarchy of France. The Family Compact uniting Spain and France had as yet caused little real danger to England. As France had shown no signs of supporting Spain in America in 1739, Spain showed no signs of supporting France in 1754. 5. Newcastle's Blundering. 1754-1756.-Newcastle was not the man to conduct a great war successfully. In 1754, hearing that the French had established a fort called Fort Duquesne, at the head of the Ohio valley, he sent General Braddock from England to capture it. In 1755 Braddock, one of those brave, but unintelligent officers of whom there were many in the British service, falling into an ambuscade of French and Indians, was himself killed and his troops routed. Newcastle could not make up his mind whether to fight or not. It was finally resolved that, though war was not to be declared, Hawke was, by way of reprisal for the capture of British shipping, to seize any French ships he met with. Naturally, when Hawke carried out these instructions, the French regarded the seizure of their ships as an act of piracy. Meanwhile George II. was frightened lest Hanover should be lost if a war broke out, and, by his direction, Newcastle agreed to treaties giving subsidies to various German states and even to Russia, in return for promises to find troops for the defence of Hanover. Against this system Pitt openly declared himself. "I think," he said, "regard ought to be had to Hanover, if it should be attacked on our account; but we could not find money to defend it by subsidies, and if we could that is not the way to defend it." Behind Pitt was the rising spirit of the nation, eager to enter on a struggle for colonial empire, but not wishing to incur loss for the sake of the king's German electorate. Legge, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a close ally of Pitt, refused to give the money needed to pay a subsidy to Hesse, and both he and Pitt were dismissed from their offices. Newcastle had an overwhelming majority in both Houses, but so helpless was he that in 1756 he 1756 NEWCASTLE'S RESIGNATION 749 actually asked the king to bring Hanoverian and Hessian soldiers to England to save it from a French invasion. 6. The Loss of Minorca. 1756.-The weakness of the Government weakened the hands of its officers. In 1756 a French fleet and army assailed Port Mahon, in the island of Minorca, which was still a British possession. Admiral Byng set out to relieve it, but, though he was brave, he was deficient in energy, and, finding the French ships more numerous than his own, thought it prudent to withdraw without serious fighting. Before long the whole of Minorca fell into the hands of the French. Port Mahon and Gibraltar were the two ports on which English maritime operations in the Mediterranean could be based, and it is therefore no wonder that there was a howl of indignation in England at the loss of one of them. The popular theory was that Byng had been bribed to avoid fighting. The charge was utterly false, but so many bribes were taken in those days that it cannot be said to have been unreasonable. Byng was brought home to await his trial. 7. Beginning of the Seven Years' War. 1756.—After this, war was at last declared. What might have been the result if England and France had been obliged to fight it out alone, it is impossible to say. France, however, had other enemies than England. Whilst England had only a sea frontier, France had a land frontier as well, and, therefore, whilst England was able to throw her main strength into a struggle for mastery on the sea and for the acquisition of colonies, France threw her main strength into her efforts to become predominant by land, and consequently neglected her navy and her colonies. She now, at the very time when England was ready to challenge her power in America, embarked on a war in Europe which was alone sufficient to occupy her energy. This time she forsook her old policy of hostility to Austria, and joined with Austria, Russia, and the German states to attack and dismember Prussia. The war which was thus begun in 1756 is known as the Seven Years' War. 8. Ministry of Devonshire and Pitt. 1756-1757.-So strong was the feeling aroused by Newcastle's incompetence that his own subordinates were frightened. In October, 1756, Fox resigned, and no one could be found to fill his place. Murray would give no help to the ministry, and was allowed to become Chief Justice, with the title of Lord Mansfield, under which he is known as one of the greatest of English judges. Newcastle, helpless and frightened lest the mob which was raving for the hanging of Byng should want to hang him too, also resigned. The Duke of Devonshire became First Lord of the Treasury, with Pitt as Secretary of State and practically Prime Minister. At once Pitt took vigorous measures for the prosecution of the war. Money was raised, and men levied. It was not, however, merely by his energy that Pitt differed from the former ministers. Newcastle relied on a Parliamentary majority acquired by influence and corruption; Pitt had confidence in the nation and in himself as well. “My Lord," he said to Devonshire, "I know that I can save this nation and that nobody else can." He understood how to inspire the confidence which he needed. He sent out of England the Hanoverian and Hessian troops which had been brought over to protect the country, and passed a Bill for re-organising the national militia. He even raised regiments in the very Highlands, out of the men who had been the most vigorous enemies of the House of Hanover, knowing that the Highlanders had fought under Charles Edward far more because they were poor than because they reverenced the House of Stuart. On the other hand, he moved for a grant of 200,000l. for the protection of Hanover. It seemed as if Pitt was about to fall back on the policy of Carteret. There was, however, this difference, that whereas with Carteret the war on the Continent was alone thought of, with Pitt intervention on the Continent was regarded as subsidiary to the great colonial struggle on which England was now embarked. 9. Pitt's Dismissal. 1757.-Pitt was the most popular man in England, but he had only a scanty following in the House of Commons, and he was disliked by the king on account of his former declamations against payments for the sake of Hanover. Whilst he was in office Byng was brought to trial and condemned to be shot as a coward, which he certainly was not. Pitt pleaded for Byng's life with the king, telling him that the House of Commons was favourably disposed. “You have taught me," was George's reply, "to look for the sense of my people in other places than the House of Commons.” Byng received no pardon, and died bravely, having been guilty of no more than an error of judgment. Soon afterwards the king dismissed Pitt. At once there was an outburst of feeling in his favour. “For some weeks,” wrote a brilliant letter-writer of the day, “it rained gold boxes." The reference was to the boxes in which numerous corporations sent the freedom of their respective cities or boroughs to Pitt. 10. Nature of Pitt's Popularity. 1757.-Pitt's popularity, though wide-spread, was not like that by which a popular statesman is supported at the present day. It was not a popularity amongst 1757 A CALL FOR PITT 751 the nation at large, of which the majority could not at that time either read or write, or appreciate a political discussion. Pitt's enthusiastic admirers were to be found amongst the merchants and tradesmen of the towns. These were the men who had built up England's commercial prosperity by their thrift and honesty. Amongst them the profligacy, the drunkenness, and the gambling which disgraced polite society found little place. They had borne long with Newcastle and his like because times had been quiet, and the Government, scandalous as it was, never harassed Englishmen in their business or their pleasure. Now that times were dangerous they called for Pitt-the Great Commoner, as they styled him--to assume power, not because they were conscious of his latent capacity for statesmanship, but because they knew him to be even ostentatiously uncorrupt. To the end of his life Pitt called himself a Whig, but his hostility to a system of government in which patronage was distributed to those who could bring most votes to the Government, without regard to merit, led him to place himself in opposition to Newcastle, and ultimately led to his estrangement from the great Whig families. By opposing power derived from popular support to power based on parliamentary connection, he introduced into constitutional struggles an element which had long been left out of account, and thus became (though unintentionally) a precursor of the new Toryism which, in the hands of his son, broke the power of the Whigs. II. Coalition between Pitt and Newcastle. 1757. The middle class in the towns formed, at this time, the most vigorous element in English society; but it disposed of few votes in Parliament. The great majority in the House of Commons sought for loaves and fishes, and as they knew that incompetency might hope for reward from Newcastle but not from Pitt, they steadily voted as Newcastle bade them, even after he had ceased to hold office. Newcastle, however, could not make up his mind whether he wished to resume office or not. He was too fond of the lower sort of power to share it willingly with any colleague whose intelligence was greater than his own, and too timid to grasp authority at a time when it was dangerous to its possessor. Accordingly, he long vacillated between acceptance and refusal, and for eleven weeks there was no ministry at all. At last an admirable arrangement was made. A coalition was effected between Newcastle and Pitt. Newcastle was to be First Lord of the Treasury to manage the business of patronage, and Pitt was to be Secretary of State to manage the business of politics and war. Both were |