BOOK IV. so highly objectionable, as to the constitution of the tribunal before which questions of libels CHAP. XI were to be determined, that the liberty so much dwelt upon and extolled, was, in effect, rather 1810 nominal than real. One of the first acts of the cortes was to declare," that the rights of liberty and citizenship belong to the Spaniards in America." This declaration was followed by enactments, conferring upon the inhabitants of the colonies the same right of electing deputies which the people of Spain possessed, and providing that one deputy should be returned to the cortes for every fifty thousand inhabitants, including in this number, not only the casts, but all such as were not actually in a state of slavery. These privileges the colonies claimed as their birth-right, and it was hoped that, by a wise, just, and lenient policy, the new government might succeed in tranquillizing the agitations that had so long prevailed in their settlements, and that those possessions might still continue to form a part of the Spanish empire. In the interregnum, between the dissolution of the supreme central junta, and the convocation of the cortes, the council of regency had failed to afford satisfaction either to Spain or to her allies. This body had scarcely taken any measures to recruit the armies, or to repair the disasters to which they had been exposed. Their whole conduct was feeble, languid, and inefficient; while the circumstances of their country demanded men of talents, energy, and decision. A new regency was accordingly appointed on the 28th of October, consisting of General Blake, who commanded the army of the centre; Don Pedro Agar, a captain in the Spanish navy, and director-general of the academies of the royal marine guards; and Don Gabriel Ciscar, the governor of Carthagena. Cadiz at this time presented one of the most extraordinary spectacles in history. The enemy surrounded the bay, and possessed all the adjoining country, wherever they could cover it with troops, or scour it with their cavalry. From this neck of land the cortes legislated for Spain and her dependencies; and the first free parliament which had for centuries met in the peninsula, was regarded with the deepest anxiety in all the regions to which the Spanish name extended. In the bay, the English squadron, part of that fleet which had so long blockaded this very port, was riding at anchor, intermingled with those ships which, for so many years, had borne a hostile flag, but which were now engaged in a cause vitally dear to both countries. For three centuries Cadiz had been one of the most important ports in Europe; its harbour was now crowded with vessels more than at any other period; and its increased population had drawn thither traders from all parts of the commercial world. In the course of the year, the enemy had obtained many and great advantages. They had occupied the kingdom of Andalusia; they had reduced all the fortresses in Catalonia, Tarragona alone excepted; and they had gained possession of Ciudad Rodrigo, and Almeida. Still the aspect of affairs was less unfavourable than it had been at the close of the preceding year. At that time Andalusia was laid open to the French; the Spaniards were under an unpopular government; and they had no cortes to which they could look up. The submission of Austria left Bonaparte at liberty to direct his whole attention, and his undivided force, to the conquest of the peninsula. The difficulty of co-operation between Spain and her allies had been grievously felt; and the British army, after one of the most brilliant achievements of modern times, seemed to be mouldering away in sickness and inaction. That army, acting in conjunction with Romana, and with the Portuguese troops, was now baffling and defeating the utmost efforts of the French, led on by Napoleon's most distinguished generals. The Spaniards, after the defeat and dispersion of their armies, were again rallying in the field; and the government of Spain seemed determined to adopt those measures, which could alone secure the country from vassalage and degradation. CHAPTER XII. BRITISH HISTORY: Meeting of Parliament-Inquiry into the Policy and Conduct of the Walcheren Expedition-Standing Order of the House of Commons for the Exclusion of Strangers, enforced by Mr. Yorke-John Gate Jones committed to Newgate for a Breach of Privilege-Mr. Yorke appointed Teller of the Exchequer, and First Lord of the Admiralty— Deprived of his Seat for Cambridgeshire-Motion of Sir Francis Burdett for the Liberation of Mr. Gale Jones-Sir Francis Burdett pronounced guilty of a Breach of Privilege, and committed to the Tower-His Liberation-Public Finances-Appointment of the Bullion CommitteeMr. Brand's Plan of Parliamentary Reform-Motions for Catholic Emancipation—Earl Grey's Motion on the State of the Nation-Prorogation of Parliament-Death and Character of Mr. Windham-Capture of Guadaloupe-Gallant Naval Exploit-Capture of the Dutch and French Settlements in the East-Death of the Princess Amelia-Indisposition of the King-Abrupt Meeting of Parliament-Repeated Adjournments-Appointment of a Regency in the Person of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. THE political horizon, at the commencement of the year 1810, presented a dark and lowering aspect. The war on the continent, which had excited such high and animated hopes, had terminated in the triumph of France, and the defeat and humiliation of the Emperor of Austria. It was not, indeed, known, that the illustrious house of Hapsburg contemplated a family union with the founder of the Napoleon dynasty, but it was apparent that Francis had sheathed the sword in dismay, and that Austria continued to exist only by the suffrance of France. In the peninsula, the campaign of 1809, which had opened under the fairest auspices, had terminated disastrously; and in all parts of the Spanish dominions, even in those which distance and occans had conspired to secure, the standard of civil war was unfurled, and the conflicts of contending parties threatened to separate the colonies from the parent state. In this state of affairs, parliament assembled on the 23d of January, 1810, and the opening speech, which, owing to his majesty's continued and increasing infirmities, was read by commission, turned principally upon topics calculated rather to increase than to dispel the general gloom. Among the most prominent of these was the peace recently concluded between Austria and France; the disastrous expedition to Walcheren; the precarious state of our relations with Sweden; and the necessity of affording further assistance to Spain and Portugal. The first subject proposed to parliament was the usual address on his majesty's speech. This address was moved in the house of lords by stone; and in the house of commons by Lord BOOK IV. Bernard, seconded by Mr. Peel. In both houses amendments were moved, and the formidable CuAP. XII. numbers in the ranks of opposition served to shew that the late changes in the cabinet had tended to weaken a government already feeble in the senate, and by no means strong in public estimation. The debates on the address, which turned principally upon the conduct of the war in Spain, were followed by votes of thanks to Lord Wellington and his army, for the skill and gallantry displayed in the battle of Talavera; and these discussions were succeeded by a motion made by Lord Porchester, for an inquiry into the policy and conduct of the late expedition to Walcheren, under the Earl of Chatham. To give efficacy to this inquiry, his lordship moved for the appointment of a committee-not a select and secret committee, he said, before whom garbled extracts might be laid by ministers themselves, in order to produce a partial decision, but a committee of the whole house, by which oral evidence might be examined at the bar. motion was opposed by ministers, but without success, for, on a division of the house, there appeared, for the motion, one hundred and ninetyeight; against it, one hundred and eighty-six voices. This On the 1st of February, the day before the investigation commenced, Mr. Yorke, the member for Cambridgeshire, gave notice that he should, during the inquiry, enforce the standing order of the house for the exclusion of strangers. Mr. Sheridan deprecated the idea of proceeding 1810 1810 BOOK IV. deeply interested, with closed doors, and asked whether it could be endured that the people CHAP. XII. should be kept in complete ignorance of what parliament was doing at one of the most awful moments of its existence? Mr. Windham inquired what was the value of their constituents knowing what was passing in that house? Suppose they should never know it, the difference would only be that which existed between a representative form of government and a democracy. It was not till between the last twenty and thirty years that the debates had been published at all, and he was one of those that liked the constitution as it was, not as it is. Persons made a trade of what they obtained from the gallery, among which persons were to be found bankrupts, lottery-office-keepers, footmen, and decayed tradesmen. He did not know any of the conductors of the press, but he understood them to be a set of men who would give into corrupt misrepresentations, and he was determined not to favour such characters by lending his hand to abrogate an order which was made to correct an abuse. Sir Francis Burdett said, if he could see in that house a body of gentlemeu, fairly and freely elected by the people as the chosen guardians of their rights-if he could see no placemen or pensioners within those walls, and if no corrupt or undue influence could be supposed to operate on the minds of any of the members of that assembly; then, indeed, he should feel no particular objection to the inquiry being conducted in secret; unfortunately, however, the case was different, and the house stood in the eyes of the public in a very opposite situation. It had been considered by some, that, in point of character, they were on their last legs; but, for his part, he feared that they had not a leg to stand upon. Mr. Sheridan said, that to some of the doctrines broached by Mr. Windham he had listened with regret, and to others with horror; and his friendship for that gentleman made him almost wish, for the first time in his life, that the public had been excluded from the debate. Then passing, by a rapid transition, to the subject of the press, he exclaimed-" Give me but the liberty of the press, and I will give to the minister a venal house of peers-I will give him a corrupt and servile house of commons-I will give him the full swing of the patronage of office-I will give him the whole host of ministerial influence I will give him all the power that place can confer upon him, to purchase up submission, and overawe resistance; and yet, armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet him undismayed; I will attack with that mightier engine the mighty fabric he has raised; I will shake down from its height corruption, and bury it beneath the ruin of the abuses it was meant to shelter." But however eloquently Mr. Sheridan enforced his arguments, the sense of parliament was against him; and a majority of one hundred and sixty-six to eighty members, decided, that the standing order of the house for the exclusion of strangers should remain unaltered. A parliamentary proceeding in which the public was so deeply interested, naturally became a subject of general discussion, and on the 19th of February, while the investigation into the Scheldt expedition was proceeding in the house with closed doors, Mr. Yorke complained of a breach of privilege. His conduct in that assembly, he said, had been made the subject of discussion in a speaking club, called the BRITISH FORUM, and their hand bills, which were stuck upon all the walls of the city, stated, that, " after an interesting discussion, it was unanimously decided, that the enforcement of the standing orders, by shutting out strangers from the gallery of the house of commons, ought to be considered as an insidious and ill-timed attack upon the liberty of the press, as tending to aggravate the discontents of the people, and to render their representatives objects of jealous suspicion." The same hand-bill proposed a question for the next night's meeting, couched in these terms-"Which was the greatest outrage upon public feeling, Mr. Yorke's enforcement of the standing orders, or Mr. Windham's recent attack upon the liberty of the press?" This Mr. Yorke complained of as a gross violation of the privileges of that house, and John Dean, the printer of the hand-bill, was ordered to attend at the bar. On the following evening the printer appeared, and after humbly begging pardon of the honourable house for his offence, stated that John Gale Jones was the author of the obnoxious hand-bill. Mr. Jones, when summoned to the bar, acknowledged that he was the author of the paper in question, adding, that he had always considered it the privilege of every Englishman to animadvert on public measures, and the conduct of public men; but, on looking over the paper again, he found he had erred, and begged to express his contrition, and cast himself upon the mercy of the house. The speaker now put the question, that John Gale Jones has been guilty of a gross breach of the privileges of this house, which was carried unanimously; and on the motion of Mr. Yorke, he was committed to Newgate. The printer, having given up his author, was reprimanded and discharged. The question of privilege served as a kind of episode, and withdrew public attention in some degree from the inquiry which was now resumed. Among the papers laid before parliament, was a copy of the Earl of Chatham's statement of his proceedings;" dated the 15th of October, 1809, presented to the king on the 14th of February, 1810. The tenor of the narrative was to impute blame to the naval part of the expedition, and his lordship represented its failure to have arisen, " either from insufficient arrangements on the part of the admiral, Sir Richard Strachan, or from unavoidable difficulties, inherent in the nature of the expedition itself, which, being entirely of a naval nature, did not come within his province." The presenting of such a document to the sovereign by a military commander, without the intervention of any responsible minister, and without the knowledge of the accused party, was deprecated as a clandestine and unconstitutional attempt to poison the royal ear; and a motion made by Mr. Whitbread for an address to his majesty, praying that copies of all papers submitted to him by the Earl of Chatham, at any time, concerning the expedition to the Scheldt, might be laid before that house, was carried in opposition to ministers by a majority of seven voices. This proceeding was followed by a vote of censure, proposed by Mr. Whitbread, and amended by Mr. Canning, in which Lord Chatham was pronounced highly reprehensible for the communication made to his majesty; and his lordship, in order to avoid an address to the king, praying for his removal from his majesty's councils, resigned his office of master-general of the ordnance. Mr. Whitbread, while animadverting upon the surreptitious manner in which the narrative of the Earl of Chatham had been presented to the king, touched upon a topic which particularly associated itself with the name of Chatham : "It was," said Mr. Whitbread, "the first commoner in England, I mean the man who was afterwards created William, Earl of Chatham, which first discovered, that, from the beginning of the present reign, there had existed a secret and malignant influence behind the throne, greater than the throne itself. Strange fatality! that in the son of that very man, who first made the bold and awful annunciation, should be found one of the agents of that occult influence, which the father so long deprecated, and so magnanimously resisted." In the mean time the examination of evidence upon the Walcheren expedition, which had occupied the house from the 2d of February to the 26th of March, was concluded; and Lord Porchester moved two series of resolutions, to the effect, that the expedition was undertaken under circumstances which afforded no rational hope of adequate success, and at the precise season of the year when the disease, which had proved so fatal, was known to be most prevalent; that the advisers of that illjudged enterprise were therefore highly reprehensible for the calamities with which its failure 1810 had been attended; and that their conduct, in BOOK IV. delaying the evacuation of Walcheren, called for the severest censure. After four nights debate CHAP. XII. the question was put to the vote, when there appeared, for Lord Porchester's resolutions, two hundred and twenty-seven, and against them, two hundred and seventy-five voices. The house next decided upon an amendment of General Crawford's, purporting, that though the house considered with regret the lives which had been lost, it was of opinion that his majesty's ministers had proceeded upon good grounds in undertaking the expedition; which amendment was carried by a majority of forty voices. second set of resolutions, censuring ministers for delaying the evacuation of Walcheren, was negatived by a majority of two hundred and seventyfive to two hundred and twenty-four; and a resolution, approving their conduct for retaining the island till the time it was abandoned, was carried by a majority of two hundred and fiftyfive to two hundred and thirty-two voices. The This decision was considered as an escape, but by no means as a triumph, on the part of ministers. It was, however, obvious, that the question of the policy of the expedition to the Scheldt was one with regard to which impartial men might differ; and though the opinion of the country was by no means in unison with the decision of parliament, the result of the inquiry produced none of those feelings of disappointment, with which the issue of the investigation into the conduct of the Duke of York had, during the preceding session, agitated the community, The conduct of Mr. Yorke, in enforcing the standing order of the house of commons, was duly appreciated both by ministers and by the public. The former were so sensible of the benefits they had derived from his seasonable services, that he soon obtained the sinecure office of teller of the exchequer, and the highly responsible situation of first lord of the admiralty. In consequence of these appointments, he was under the necessity of vacating his seat for the county of Cambridgeshire, which he had represented for twenty years; and in the popular indignation that he had to encounter, as well as in the defeat of his attempts to obtain his reelection, the sense of the nation was unequivocally pronounced on the merits and motives of his public conduct. Mr. Yorke was opposed in his election by Lord Francis Godolphin Osborne; and so decided and general was the sense of the freeholders of the county on the day of nomination against their late member, that Mr. Yorke thought it proper to decline the poll in favour of the new candidate, and to take refuge in the Cornish borough of St. Germains. Although several of the members of the BOOK IV. house of commons had expressed their doubts of the policy of committing Mr. Gale Jones to CHAP. XII. Newgate, yet none of them had denied, or doubted, the power of the house to punish a 1810 breach of privilege by imprisonment. This was reserved for Sir Francis Burdett a man, who, as his friends insist, never suffers to pass unnoticed or unemployed an opportunity of defending the liberties, and securing the properties of the subject; or, as his enemies assert, of shaking the foundations of government, and inspiring dissatisfaction and discontent among the people. On the day when the committal took place, Sir Francis was confined to his house by indisposition; but as soon as possible after his return to his parliamentary duty, he moved for the liberation of the prisoner of privilege, grounding his motion on an assumption that the house of commons had exerted a power which the constitution did not confer upon them, and of which no precedent could be found, except in the worst periods of our history. The motion was made by Sir Francis Burdett on the 12th of March, and in the speech delivered on that occasion, great research and knowledge of the law and practise of parliament, were displayed. The honourable baronet, at the conclusion of his speech, moved, that John Gale Jones should be discharged; which motion was resisted by both sides of the house, and negatived by a majority of one hundred and fifty-three to fourteen voices. The speech delivered on this occasion Sir Francis Burdett published in a periodical paper, of the 24th of the same month,* with a letter prefixed, addressed to his constituents. "The house of commons,' says Sir Francis, "having passed a vote, which amounts to a declaration, that an order of theirs is of more weight than Magna Charta and the laws of the land, I think it my duty to lay my sentiments thereon before my constituents, whose character, as freemen, and whose personal safety, depend, in so great a degree, upon the decision of this question-a question of no less importance than this: Whether our liberty be still to be secured by the laws of our forefathers, or to be laid at the absolute mercy of a part of our fellowsubjects, collected together by means which it is not necessary for me to describe? Should the principle, upon which the gentlemen of the house of commons have thought proper to act in this instance, be once admitted, it is impossible for any one to conjecture how soon he himself may be summoned from his dwelling, and be hurried, without trial, and without oath made against him, from the bosom of his family into the clutches of a gaoler. It is therefore now the time to resist the doctrine upon which Mr. Jones has been sent to Newgate; or, it is high time to cease all pretensions to those liberties which were acquired by our forefathers after so many struggles and so many sacrifices. We seek for, and we need to seek for, nothing new; we ask for only the birth-right of the people of England, namely, the laws of England. To these laws we have a right to look, with confidence, for security; to these laws the individual now imprisoned, has, through me, applied for redress in vain. Your voice may come with more force; may command greater respect; and I am not without hopes that it may prove irresistible. If any of you be liable, at any time, to be sent to gaol without a trial, and as long as it pleases the parties sending you there (perhaps to the end of your life) without any court to appeal to, without any means of redress; if this be the case, shall we still boast of the laws and liberties of England? But I would fain believe that such is not to be our fate. Our fathers made stern grim-visaged prerogative hide his head; they broke in pieces his sharp and massy sword; and shall we, their sons, be afraid to enter the lists with undefined privilege, assuming the powers of prerogative." The speech, or argument, as it was now entitled, contained, amidst many legal and constitutional references, several passages in the same bold and animated strain. "As "I have little doubt," says Sir Francis in this argument, of being able to convince every impartial mind, that the house of commons, by proceeding to judg ment-passing sentence of imprisonment-and issuing a warrant of commitment, has gone beyond its prescribed limits, acted in a manner inconsistent with the ends of its institution, and 'violated the fundamental principles of the law and constitution of the land.". By proceeding thus, they have exercised a jurisdiction not vested in them; a jurisdiction beyond the limits of king, lords, and commons, while Magna Charta remains unrepealed-and repealed it never can be till England shall have found her grave in the corruption of the house of commons.”. to the speaker's warrant, let this instrument, this thing, sui generis, be contrasted with the description of the properties of a legal warrant. Does it not evidently appear, that this piece of unsealed paper, signed by the speaker, by which an untried subject has been outlawed, bears no feature of legality, and that, from the commencement of this proceeding, in its progress, to its conclusion, there is not one step that has not been marked in a peculiar manner with disrespect to the laws-a disrespect, in which all parts have been wonderfully consistent throughout, in constituting the most unlawful act the mind of man can possibly conceive?"......" Upon what ground or pretence has the house assumed such a power to punish? Since they have taken upon themselves such a power, it is fair to call upon them to shew how they came by it, and when they first claimed it. The commencement of this usurpation was when they got rid of the upper house of parliament, and cut off the head of the king. (Charles I.) They still, it seems, are emboldened to maintain an illegal power, not pretended to even by the king, but which these local sovereigns over the king claim as of right. But no wonder, when they have so entirely departed from the ends of their institution as was offered to be proved by Mr. Madocks, and acknowledged by themselves, in the never-to-be-forgotten morning of the 11th of May, 1809, when, from being the lower, or inferior, (for it is the same sense, one being an English, and another a Latin, word) branch of the legislature, they became the proprietors by burgage tenure of the whole representation; and in that capacity, inflated with their high flown, fanciful ideas of majesty, and tricked out in the trappings of royalty, think privilege and protection beneath their dignity, assume the sword of prerogative, and lord it equally over the king and the people. In consequence of this publication, it was moved, by Mr. Lethbridge, and decided by a majority of the house of commons, that Sir Francis Burdett had been guilty of publishing * Cobbett's Weekly Political Register. |