CHAPTER XIX

"FROM THE ASSASSIN'S BLOW"

IN 1789 the long-pent tempest burst with fury upon France. On the British side of the Channel its true purport was at the outset ludicrously misunderstood. The violence of the mob, the débâcle of the entire social structure, was not at first apprehended. The attack on the Bastille which marked the beginning elicited much applause. Fox could write, "How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world, and how much the best!" 1

How did George view these Revolutionary portents?

"He conversed," writes Miss Burney in April 1790, "almost wholly with General Grenville upon the affairs of France, and in a manner so unaffected, open, and manly—so highly superior to all despotic principles even while most condemning the unlicensed fury of the Parisian mob-that I wished all the nations of the world to have heard him, that they might have known the real existence of a patriot King."

Even Pitt, cool, collected, shrewd as he was,

1 Russell's Memorials of Fox, ii. 361.

2 Madame d'Arblay's Memoirs, vol. v. p. 100.

could find terms of praise for the new-fledged Gallic monster. The King of England appears to be one of the few who sighted at least as much danger to the people as to monarchs. He himself held the most secure throne in Europe. In his diagnosis George's natural acumen was of course supplemented by a long-acquired distrust of demagogues and doctrinaires. He had had during the thirty years he had sat on the throne ample opportunity for studying revolutionary symptoms. The only

way the disease could be averted was by firmness and good government, and good citizenship on the part of the people. Well did he surmise that the whirlwind would not wholly spend itself in France, and that even if no immediate damage were done in Britain, the seeds of discontent and disorder would be borne irresistibly into his kingdom and take root in the minds of the weak and discontented. For the present, in spite of many inflammatory speeches and pamphlets, Britain remained throughout the first year of the French Revolution a passive spectator of events. She herself enjoyed peace and happiness, while anarchy and bloodshed were already marking the course of affairs in the neighbouring kingdom.

In 1790, on the 21st January, a date full of omen to kings, Parliament was opened. As George, going in State to Westminster, was passing the corner of Carlton House, a madman threw a large stone into the coach. He was immediately apprehended and taken to Grenville's office, where he underwent a four hours' examination by the Attorney-General. The assailant proved to be one John Frith, an army

HIS OWN SECURITY

lieutenant, who had already written a libel against the King and posted it in the courtyard of St. James's. Frith was committed to Newgate, but the proofs of his lunacy were so clear that he was afterwards sent to Bedlam.

When George was informed of the assassination of the King of Sweden, he made particular inquiries of a foreign ambassador conversant with the facts. His interlocutor thought it necessary to caution the King on the danger of a sovereign exposing his person too incautiously in such times. George cut the speaker short. "Sir, I must differ from you there. If there be any man so desperate to devote his own life to the chance of taking away the life of another, no precaution is sufficient to prevent him altogether from making the attempt. A system of constant precaution against such dangers, they being in a thousand instances to one wholly imaginary, converts the life of a person so guarded into a scene of perpetual restraint, anxiety, and apprehension. No, sir, the best security that a man can have against such dangers is to act openly and boldly as a man. If an attack be made upon him, his best chance of escaping is to meet it like a man; but if he should fall under it, why, sir, he will fall like a man

In the session of 1790 the usual motion for the repeal of the Test Act made by a Dissenting member was renewed and gave rise to a very simoom of debate, both inside and outside Parliament. The Dissenters certainly went about the business in an 1 Huish, p. 554.

injudicious way. The fears of the orthodox were so violent as to be ridiculous. George's principles of toleration were well known, but he declared it his opinion that the attempt of the Dissenters was illtimed. At such a crisis every innovation or change in the religious establishments were to be regarded with a jealous eye. Atheism and infidelity were too rampant abroad not to have their germs eventually dispersed throughout his own kingdom.

Blacker and fiercer grew the storm in France. Louis XVI. and his beautiful queen became doomed prisoners in the Tuileries, and the bosoms of democrats and malcontents everywhere were filled with joy. "I have lived," cried Fox, "to see thirty millions of people indignantly and resolutely spurning at slavery, and demanding liberty with an irresistible voice; their king led in triumph, and an arbitrary monarch surrendering himself to his subjects. After sharing in the benefits of one Revolution I have been spared to be a witness to two other Revolutions, both glorious; and now methinks I see the ardour for liberty catching and spreading, and a general amendment beginning in human affairs; the dominion of kings changed for the dominion of laws, and the dominion of priests giving way to the dominion of reason and conscience." Various British associations were formed, and the French people enthusiastically congratulated on their triumph over "despotism and bigotry." Lord Stanhope, an avowed Republican, distinguished himself by composing an intemperate address to the French National Assembly. Suddenly an unexpected champion arose, and monarchy found

CHECKING SEDITION

a zealous and eloquent defender in the person of Edmund Burke. Burke's elaborate attack upon the French Revolution gave rise to several powerful as well as indecent rejoinders. But none of the replies to Burke's pamphlet - certainly not Sir James Mackintosh's Vindiciae Gallicae-enjoyed such popularity as Tom Paine's reckless production, The Rights of Man.

66

It was against the King in his character of sovereign that the efforts of revolutionary partisans became directed. His divine authority' became the subject of ridicule," we are told, "and the pillars on which his throne was fixed were shaken to the foundation. The most treasonable papers were circulated in the very precincts of his palace, and he had once the unpleasant sight before him of himself burning in effigy. A host of scribblers inundated the country with their seditious pamphlets, in all of which his Majesty, in his abstract relation as sovereign, was the chosen object of their attack.”

Revolutionary principles were fast spreading over all Europe and undermining the strongest thrones. Every seditious scribbler who could find a printer for his wares began busying himself with sowing the seeds of treason and rebellion. Under these circumstances the King resolved to take some measure of precaution against the revolutionary mania, and supported by Pitt and his colleagues issued in May a strong proclamation against them:

"Whereas divers wicked and seditious writings have been printed, published, and industriously dispersed, tending to excite tumult and disorder,