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Home Domestic Affairs, 1760-1815 1760-1815; Part 3 |
1760-1815; Part 3Lord Bute, formerly the king's tutor, and therefore largely responsible for his views, then obtained the chief power; but he retired after effecting the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years War, as he preferred to influence affairs from the background, and was by intellect and experience quite unfitted to govern the country. Moreover, he was extremely unpopular in England, partly because he was a Scot and partly because he was considered a favourite of the queen mother, and he had actually been obliged to enrol a bodyguard composed of butchers and boxers for his personal protection in London (Bute's ministry was notorious for its bribery; on one morning, it is said, no less than £25,000 was expanded in. purchasing votes).George Grenville, a Whig lawyer, very hard-working but somewhat pedantic, succeeded as prime minister in 1763. With his ministry is connected the unfortunate Stamp Act (p. 501). This aroused, however, far less attention at the time than the arrest by a "general warrant" (i.e. one in which no names are mentioned) of "the authors, printers, and publishers" of No. 45 of a certain paper called the North Briton. That paper had published criticism of a somewhat stringent character on the King's Speech at the opening of the session, a speech which as usual was only read and not composed by the king. The writer of the criticism happened to be a certain Wilkes, well known as a member of Parliament; public opinion was on his side and considered general warrants illegal, and the Government became unpopular. Grenville also, by his pertinacious and tiresome loquacity ("When he has wearied me for two hours,'' the king complained, "he looks at his watch to see if he may not tire me for one hour more"), had made himself disliked by the king; and consequently he had to resign in 1765. "I would sooner meet Mr. Grenville", the king is reported to have said a little later, "at the point of my sword than let him into my cabinet," And Grenville was never to hold office again. To Grenville succeeded another Whig in Lord Rockingham. He and his followers were high-principled politicians, and it was a great disaster to the nation that Pitt, whose gout led him to take a less and less continuous part in public affairs, and made him more difficult to deal with, would not consent to serve under him. This ministry repealed the Stamp Act and declared "general warrants" illegal; but as a consequence it incurred the hostility of the king, and was dismissed after lasting just over a year (1766). |
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