Part 39

Colonel Barre was born in Ireland, about the year 1726. He served at Quebec, under Wolfe, in the picture of whose death, by Benjamin West, his figure is conspicuous. The Earl of Shelburne procured him a seat in parliament, where, acting in opposition to government, he was not only deprived of his offices of adjutant-general and governor of Stirling castle, which he had received as a reward for his services in America, but dismissed from the service. During the Rockingham administration, he was compensated for the loss which he had sustained, by being voted a pension of three thousand two hundred pounds per annum; which he subsequently relinquished, pursuant to an arrangement with Pitt, on obtaining a lucrative, but not distinguished office. He usually took office when his party predominated; and was, in the course of his career, a privy counsellor, vice treasurer of Ireland, paymaster of the forces, and treasurer of the navy. His best speeches were delivered during North's administration, on the American war, to which he appears to have been inflexibly opposed. His oratory was powerful, but coarse; his manner, rugged; his countenance, stern; and his stature, athletic. He was suspected, but apparently without reason, of having assisted in writing the letters of Junius. For the last twenty years of his life, he was afflicted with blindness, which, however, he is said to have borne with cheerful resignation. His death took place on the 20th of July, 1792.

CHARLES TOWNSHEND.

Charles Townshend, son of Viscount Townshend, was born 1725. From his youth, he was distinguished for great quickness of conception and extraordinary curiosity. In 1747, he went into parliament, and continued a member till he died. He held various offices in the government. In 1765, he was paymaster general, and chancellor of the exchequer; and a lord of the treasury in August, 1766, from which period he remained in office until his decease, which took place on the 4th of September, 1767.

In person, Charles Townshend was tall and beautifully proportioned; his countenance was manly, handsome, expressive, and prepossessing. He was much beloved in private life, and enjoyed an unusual share of domestic happiness.

Burke, in his speech on American taxation, thus admirably depicted the general character of Charles Townshend: "Before this splendid orb (alluding to the great Lord Chatham) had entirely set, and while the western horizon was in a blaze with his descending glory, on the opposite quarter of the heavens arose another luminary, and for his hour he became lord of the ascendant. This light, too, is passed, and set for ever! I speak of Charles Townshend, officially the rëproducer of this fatal scheme (American taxation); whom I cannot even now remember, without some degree of sensibility. In truth, he was the delight and ornament of this house, and the charm of every private society which he honored with his presence. Perhaps there never arose in this country, nor in any country, a man of more pointed and finished wit, and (where his passions were not concerned) of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment. If he had not so great a stock, as some have had who flourished formerly, of knowledge long treasured up, he knew better by far, than any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together, within a short time, all that was necessary to establish, to illustrate, and to decorate that side of the question he supported. He stated his matter skillfully and powerfully; he particularly excelled in a most luminous explanation and display of his subject."

CHARLES CORNWALLIS, MARQUIS.

Lord Cornwallis, eldest son of the fifth lord, and first Earl Cornwallis, was born 1738. At the age of twenty, he entered the army, and obtained a captaincy. In 1762, on the death of his brother, he took his seat in the house of lords. In 1770, he and three other young peers, having protested, with Lord Camden, against the taxation of America, Mansfield, the chief justice, is said to have sneeringly observed, "Poor Camden could only get four boys to join him!"

Although he had opposed the measures of the government with regard to the disaffected colonies, yet when hostilities commenced, he did not scruple to accept of active employment against the Americans. His history, during the war, will be found in the preceding pages. He was a proud man, and most humiliating was it when he was obliged to surrender to Washington at Yorktown.

But his failure in America did not impair his reputation. On his return to England, he was made governor of the Tower. In 1786, he was sent to Calcutta, as governor-general and commander-in-chief. Having terminated, successfully, a war in that country, he returned to England. In 1799, he became lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Soon after the expiration of his vice-regency, he was sent to France as plenipotentiary for Great Britain, in which capacity he signed the treaty of Amiens. In 1804, he succeeded the Marquis Wellesley, as governor-general of India. On his arrival at Calcutta, he proceeded, by water, to take the command in the upper provinces. The confinement of the boat, the want of exercise, and the heat of the weather, had a most serious effect on his health. Feeling, soon after he had landed, that his dissolution was at hand, he prepared some valuable instructions for his successor; and the last hours of his life were passed in taking measures to lessen the difficulties which his decease would produce. He expired at Ghazepoore, in Benares, on the 5th of October, 1805.

Lord Cornwallis was not endowed with any brilliancy of talent. He had to contend with no difficulties, on his entrance into life: high birth procured him a military station, which his connexions enabled him to retain, after he had committed an error, or, at least, met with a mischance, that would have utterly ruined a less influential commander. Although ambitious, he appears to have possessed but little ardor. He manifested no extraordinary spirit of enterprise; he hazarded no untried manœuvres; and yet, few of his contemporaries passed through life with more personal credit or public advantage. He had the wisdom never to depute to others what he could perform himself. His perseverance, alacrity, and caution, procured him success as a general, while his strong common sense rendered him eminent as a governor. He always evinced a most anxious desire to promote the welfare of those who were placed under his administration; Ireland and Hindostan still venerate his memory. His honor was unimpeachable; his manners, devoid of ostentation; and his private character, altogether amiable.

Napoleon Buonaparte, in his conversations with Barry O'Meara, declared that Lord Cornwallis, by his integrity, fidelity, frankness, and the nobility of his sentiments, was the first who had impressed upon him a favorable opinion of Englishmen. "I do not believe," said the ex-emperor, "that he was a man of first-rate abilities; but he had talent, great probity, sincerity, and never broke his word. Something having prevented him from attending at the Hôtel de Dieu, to sign the treaty of Amiens, pursuant to appointment, he sent word to the French ministers that they might consider it completed, and that he would certainly execute it the next morning. During the night, he received instructions to object to some of the articles; disregarding which, he signed the treaty as it stood, observing that his government, if dissatisfied, might refuse to ratify it, but that, having once pledged his word, he felt bound to abide by it. There was a man of honor!" added Napoleon; "a true Englishman."

LORD CHATHAM.

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was born November 15, 1708. His father was Robert Pitt, of Boconnock, in the county of Cornwall. He received his education at Trinity college, Cambridge. He took a seat in parliament as early as 1735, as a member for Old Sarum. His exalted talents, his lofty spirit, and commanding eloquence, soon rendered him singularly conspicuous. Under George II., in 1757, he became premier of that celebrated war administration, which raised England to a proud prëeminence over the other nations of Europe. His energy was unbounded. "It must be done," was the reply he often made, when told that his orders could not be executed. After which, no excuse was admitted. Under his auspices, England triumphed in every quarter of the globe. In America, the French lost Quebec; in Africa, their chief settlements fell; in the East Indies, their power was abridged; in Europe, their armies suffered defeat; while their navy was nearly annihilated, and their commerce almost reduced to ruin.

On the accession of George the Third, Pitt, who felt strongly impressed with the policy of declaring war against Spain, was thwarted in his wishes by the influence of Lord Bute; and, disdaining to be nominally at the head of a cabinet which he could not direct, he resigned his office in October, 1761.

In 1764, he greatly distinguished himself by his opposition to general warrants, which, with all his accustomed energy and eloquence, he stigmatized as being atrociously illegal. A search for papers, or a seizure of the person, without some specific charge, was, he contended, repugnant to every principle of true liberty. "By the British constitution," said he, "every man's house is his castle! not that it is surrounded by walls and battlements; it may be a straw-built shed; every wind of heaven may whistle round it; all the elements of nature may enter it; but _the king cannot; the king dare not_."

He invariably opposed, with the whole force of his eloquence, the measures which led to the American war: and long after his retirement from office, he exerted himself most zealously to bring about a reconciliation between the mother-country and her colonies; But when the Duke of Portland, in 1778, moved an address to the crown, on the necessity of acknowledging the independence of America, Lord Chatham, although he had but just left a sick bed, opposed the motion with all the ardent eloquence of his younger days. "My lords," said he, "I lament that my infirmities have so long prevented my attendance here, at so awful a crisis. I have made an effort almost beyond my strength to come down to the house on this day, (_and perhaps it will be the last time I shall be able to enter its walls_,) to express my indignation at an idea which has gone forth of yielding up America. My lords: I rejoice that the grave has not yet closed upon me; that I am still alive to lift up my voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy. Pressed down, as I am, by the hand of infirmity, I am little able to assist my country in this most perilous conjuncture; but, my lords, while I have sense and memory, I will never consent to deprive the royal offspring of the house of Brunswick of their fairest inheritance."

The Duke of Richmond having replied to this speech, Lord Chatham attempted to rise again, but fainted, and fell into the arms of those who were near him. The house instantly adjourned, and the earl was conveyed home in a state of exhaustion, from which he never recovered. His death took place at Hayes, early in the following month, namely, on the 11th of May, 1778. The House of Commons voted the departed patriot, who had thus died gloriously at his post, a public funeral, and a monument in Westminster abbey at the national expense. An income of four thousand pounds per annum was annexed to the earldom of Chatham, and the sum of twenty thousand pounds cheerfully granted to liquidate his debts: for, instead of profiting by his public employments, he had wasted his property in sustaining their dignity, and died in embarrassed circumstances.

In figure, Lord Chatham was eminently dignified and commanding. "There was a grandeur in his personal appearance," says a writer, who speaks of him when in his decline, "which produced awe and mute attention; and, though bowed by infirmity and age, his mind shone through the ruins of his body, armed his eye with lightning, and clothed his lips with thunder." Bodily pain never subdued the lofty daring, or the extraordinary activity of his mind. He even used his crutch as a figure of rhetoric. "You talk, my lords," said he, on one occasion, "of conquering America--of your numerous friends there--and your powerful forces to disperse her army. I might as well talk of driving them before me with this crutch."

CHARLES JAMES FOX.

Charles James Fox was the third son of Henry Fox, Lord Holland, and was born January 24th, 1749. His mother was a daughter of the Duke of Richmond, and his sister the wife of Lord Cornwallis. Lord Holland made it a rule, in the tuition of his children, to follow and regulate, but not to restrain nature. This indulgence was a sad error, as it always is on the part of parents. On arriving to maturity, Charles used to boast that he was, when young, never thwarted in any thing. Two instances are related of this indulgence of the father, before the son was six years old. One day, standing by his father, while he was winding up a watch--"I have a great mind to break that watch, papa," said the boy. "No, Charles; that would be foolish." "Indeed, papa," said he, "I _must_ do it." "Nay," answered the father, "if you have such a violent inclination, I won't baulk it." Upon which, he delivered the watch into the hands of the youngster, who instantly dashed it on the floor.

At another time, while Lord Holland was secretary of state, having just finished a long dispatch which he was going to send, Mr. Charles, who stood near him, with his hand on the inkstand, said, "Papa, I have a good mind to throw this ink over the paper." "Do, my dear," said the secretary, "if it will give you any pleasure." The young gentleman immediately threw on the ink, and his father sat down very composedly to write the dispatch over again.

Such a course of education, we should anticipate, would work the moral ruin of a child. Its baleful influence was seen in after years, in gambling, horse-racing, drinking, and kindred vices, carried to a fearful extent on the part of this son, whose training was so inauspiciously begun and persevered in.

But, despite of these most degrading and ruinous practices, Fox proved to be one of the most accomplished and effective orators, and perhaps we may add, statesman of his times. He was the rival of Pitt; and, though not so finished in his elocution, he not unfrequently equalled him in the effect produced.

By what means he attained to such eminence, it scarcely appears; for the younger part of his life seems to have been so exclusively devoted to his pleasures, as scarcely to have time left for the cultivation of his intellect. His genius, however, was brilliant; and from his earliest years he was in the society of men distinguished for their cultivated intellect, and the eminent part they took in the government of the country. It is related of Fox, that he would not unfrequently spend the entire night at his favorite amusement, gambling, and thence proceed to the House of Commons, when he would electrify the whole assembly with some cogent and brilliant speech.

Fox was a firm, steadfast friend to the Americans and their independence. At the time the measures which led to the American war had come to a crisis, a formidable party existed in England, opposed to the unjust and illiberal policy of the government. To this party, Fox united himself; and, from his conspicuous talents, soon acquired the authority of a leader. In 1773, he opposed the Boston port bill, and apologized for the conduct of the colonies. In his speech on that occasion, he arraigned the measures of the ministers in bold and energetic language, and explained the principles of the constitution with masculine eloquence. The session of 1775, opened with a speech from the king, declaring the necessity of _coercion_. On this occasion, Fox poured forth a torrent of his powerful eloquence. In that plain, forcible language, which formed one of the many excellencies of his speeches, he showed what ought to have been done, what ministers had promised to do, and what they had not done. He affirmed that Lord Chatham, the king of Prussia--nay, even Alexander the Great--never gained more in one campaign than Lord North had lost.

When the news of the disastrous defeat of Burgoyne reached England, Fox loudly insisted upon an inquiry into the causes of his failure. And in like manner, when the fate of Cornwallis' army at Yorktown was made known, the oppositionists were loud in their denunciations of the proceedings of ministers in regard to the war. Mr. Fox designed to make a motion for an investigation into the conduct of Lord Sandwich, who was at the head of the admiralty. But he was, for a time, too much indisposed to make the attempt. It was on this occasion, that Burke is reported to have said, "that if Fox died, it would be no bad use of his skin, if, like John Ziska's, it should be converted into a drum, and used for the purpose of sounding an alarm to the people of England."

The death of Mr. Fox occurred 13th of August, 1806.

Walpole thus compares the two great orators of England: "Mr. Fox, as a speaker, might be compared to the rough, but masterly specimen of the sculptor's art; Mr. Pitt, to the exquisitely finished statue. The former would need a polish to render him perfect; the latter possessed, in a transcendent degree, every requisite of an accomplished orator. The force of Mr. Fox's reasoning flashed like lightning upon the mind of the hearer: the thunder of Mr. Pitt's eloquence gave irresistible effect to his powerful and convincing arguments."

The sympathy and support of such men as Fox, during our Revolutionary struggle, served to sustain and animate our patriotic fathers. They felt that while they were in the field, engaged in defeating the armies of England, they had friends in the House of Commons, who were making every possible effort to defeat the impolitic and oppressive measures of the king and his ministers.

JOHN STUART.

John Stuart, Marquis of Bute, was born in 1715. In the ninth year of his age, he succeeded his father as Marquis of Bute. On the accession of George the Third, the highest dignities in the state were supposed to be within the grasp of Lord Bute; but, however he might have swayed the king's mind in private, he took no public part in the direction of public affairs until 1761, when he accepted the secretaryship resigned in that year by Lord Holderness. At length, he became prime minister; and, immediately on coming into power, determined, if possible, to effect a peace, which had for some time been negotiating. He accomplished his object, but his success rendered him exceedingly unpopular. He was accused, by some weak-minded persons, of having been bribed by the enemies of his country; and it was added, that the princess dowager had shared with him in the price at which peace had been purchased by the French government.

He quitted office in April, 1763, but continued to exert a powerful influence over the mind of the king, especially in relation to America. Several measures, the object of which was to humble the colonies, and continue them in subjection to the crown, are said to have been suggested by this nobleman. He died in 1792.

GEORGE GRENVILLE.

George Grenville was born 1712. In 1741, he was returned to parliament for the town of Buckingham, for which place he served during the remainder of his life. He held several important offices. In April, 1763, he became first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. He resigned his office in July, 1765, and died in November, 1770. During his premiership, the project of imposing internal taxes in America was carried into effect. The project was first named to him by the king, and urged upon him. At first, the minister was opposed to the idea, but after having adopted it as a measure of his administration, which he was compelled to do by royal authority, he urged and supported it by all the means in his power.

DUKE OF GRAFTON.

Henry Augustus Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, was born 1735. He was educated at Cambridge, where he was notoriously profligate. In July, 1766, the Rockingham administration was dissolved, and the Duke of Grafton was made first lord commissioner of the treasury, which office he held until January, 1770. He has received an unenviable notoriety from the strictures of Junius. His administration was composed of men of different political principles and parties. Junius, in a letter addressed to the duke, thus narrates, and severely animadverts upon, the circumstances of his grace's appointment to the premiership: "The spirit of the favorite (Lord Bute) had some apparent influence upon every administration; and every set of ministers preserved an appearance of duration as long as they submitted to that influence; but there were certain services to be performed for the favorite's security, or to gratify his resentments, which your predecessors in office had the wisdom, or the virtue, not to undertake. A submissive administration was, at last, gradually collected from the deserters of all parties, interests, and connexions; and nothing remained but to find a leader for these gallant, well-disciplined troops. Stand forth, my lord, for thou art the man! Lord Bute found no resource of dependence or security in the proud, imposing superiority of Lord Chatham's abilities; the shrewd, inflexible judgment of Mr. Grenville; nor in the mild, but determined integrity of Lord Rockingham. His views and situation required a creature void of all these properties; and he was forced to go through all his division, resolution, composition, and refinement of political chemistry, before he happily arrived at the _caput mortuum_ of vitriol in your grace. Flat and insipid in your retired state, but brought into action, you become vitriol again. Such are the extremes of alternate indolence or fury, which have governed your whole administration!"

FREDERICK NORTH, EARL OF GUILFORD.

This nobleman, better known as Lord North, was the minister of George III., under whose administration England lost her American colonies. He succeeded Charles Townshend, as chancellor of the exchequer; and, in 1770, the Duke of Grafton, as first lord of the treasury, and continued in that high, but laborious office, till the conclusion of the war. As a public character, Lord North was a flowing and persuasive orator, well skilled in argumentation, and master of great presence and coolness of mind; and, in private life, he was very amiable, cheerful, and jocose in conversation, the friend of learned men, and correct in conduct. In his policy towards America, he was stern and uncompromising. On first coming into power, he was inclined to be conciliatory; but soon he adopted restrictive and oppressive measures, more so than his predecessors, and, at length, declared that he would omit no means but that he would bring America in humility at his feet. The faithful warnings of Pitt, Burke, Fox, and others, had no restraining influence, and the consequence was, that America was lost to the British crown. Lord North, in the latter years of his life, was afflicted with blindness. He died July, 1792, aged sixty.

BARRASTRE TARLETON.