William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose (book club reads txt) 📕

reached; while in his Spartan arithmetic great wealth appeared so dire a

misfortune that he rid the possessors of the whole of incomes of £23,000

and upwards. As for Pitt's financial reforms, he laughed them to scorn.

He also accused him of throwing over the fair promises that marked his

early career, of advertising for enemies abroad, while at home he

toadied to the Court. "The defect lies in the system.... Prop it as you

please, it continually sinks into Court government, and ever will."

Finally he urged a limitation of armaments, and prophesied that wars

would cease when nations had their freely elected Conventions. The cynic

will remember with satisfaction that, two months later, began the war

between France and Austria, which developed into the most tremendous

series of wars recorded in history.

The republican and levelling doctrines frankly advocated in Paine's

second pamphlet made a greater sensation than the first part had done;

and Fox, who approved the former production, sternly reprobated the

latter. It is possible that Government sought to stop its publication;

for Chapman, the publisher, to whom Paine first applied, offered him

£1,000 for the manuscript, and yet very soon afterwards declared it to

be too dangerous for him to print.[36] Certainly the work soon quickened

the tone of political thought. Already the London Society for promoting

Constitutional Information, which had died of inanition in 1784, had

come to life again before the close of the year 1791. And at the end of

that year a determined man, Thomas Hardy, a poor shoemaker of

Westminster, set to work to interest his comrades in politics. He

assembled four men at an ale-house, and they agreed to take action. At

their second meeting, on 25th January 1792, they mustered eight strong,

and resolved to start "The London Corresponding Society for the Reform

of Parliamentary Representation." Its finances were scarcely on a par

with its title: they consisted of eightpence, the first weekly

subscription. But the idea proved infectious; and amidst the heat

engendered by Paine's second pamphlet, the number of members rose to

forty-one.[37] The first manifesto of the Society, dated 2nd April,

claimed political liberty as the birthright of man, declared the British

nation to be misrepresented by its Parliament, and, while repudiating

all disorderly methods, demanded a thorough reform of that body.

So far as I have been able to discover, this was the first political

club started by English working-men at that time. But now the men of

Sheffield also organized themselves. Their "Association" began in an

assembly of five or six mechanics, who discussed "the enormous high

price of provisions" and "the waste and lavish [_sic_] of the public

property by placemen, pensioners, luxury and debauchery,--sources of the

grievous burthens under which the nation groans." The practical

character of their lamentations attracted many working men, with the

result that they resolved to reprint and circulate 1,600 copies of

Paine's "Rights of Man" (Part I), at sixpence a copy. On 15th January

1792 they wrote up to the "London Society for Constitutional

Information" to plan co-operation with them.

At first the ideas of the Sheffield Association were somewhat parochial.

But the need of common action all over the Kingdom was taking shape in

several minds, and when Scotland awoke to political activity (as will

appear in Chapter VII) the idea of a General Convention took firm root

and led to remarkable developments. For the present, the chief work of

these clubs was the circulation of Paine's volumes (even in Welsh,

Gaelic, and Erse) at the price of sixpence or even less. They also

distributed "The Catechism of the French Constitution" (of 1791), drawn

up by Christie, a Scot domiciled at Paris, which set forth the beauties

of that child of many hopes. Less objectionable was a pamphlet--"The

Rights of Men and the Duties of Men." For the most part, however, their

literature was acridly republican in tone and of a levelling tendency.

Thus, for the first time since the brief attempt of the Cromwellian

Levellers, the rich and the poor began to group themselves in hostile

camps, at the strident tones of Paine's cry for a graduated Income Tax.

Is it surprising that the sight of the free institutions of France and

of the forced economy of the Court of the Tuileries should lead our

workers to question the utility of the State-paid debaucheries of

Carlton House, and of the whole system of patronage and pensions? Burke

and Pitt had pruned away a few of the worst excrescences; but now they

saw with dismay the whole of the body politic subjected to remorseless

criticism by those whose duty was to toil and not to think or question.

This was a new departure in eighteenth-century England. Hitherto working

men had taken only a fleeting and fitful interest in politics. How

should they do so in days when newspapers were very dear, and their

contents had only the remotest bearing on the life of the masses? The

London mob had bawled and rioted for "Wilkes and Liberty," but mainly

from personal motives and love of horse-play. Now, however, all was

changed; and artisans were willing to sacrifice their time and their

pence to learn and teach a political catechism, and spread the writings

of Paine. Consequently the new Radical Clubs differed widely from the

short-lived County Associations of 1780 which charged a substantial fee

for membership. Moreover, these Associations expired in the years

1783-4, owing to the disgust at Fox's Coalition with Lord North. We are

therefore justified in declaring that English democracy entered on a new

lease of life, and did not, as has been asserted,[38] merely continue

the movement of 1780. The earlier efforts had been wholly insular in

character; they aimed at staying the tide of corruption; their methods

were in the main academic, and certainly never affected the great mass

of the people. Now reformers were moved by a wider enthusiasm for the

rights of humanity, and sought not merely to abolish pocket boroughs and

sinecures, but to level up the poor and level down the wealthy. It was

this aspect of Paine's teaching that excited men to a frenzy of

reprobation or of hope.

A certain continuity of tradition and method is observable in a club,

called The Friends of the People, which was founded at Freemasons'

Tavern in April 1792, with a subscription of five guineas a year. The

members included Cartwright, Erskine, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Philip

Francis, Charles Grey, Lambton, the Earl of Lauderdale, Mackintosh,

Sheridan, Whitbread, and some sixty others; but Fox refused to join.

Their profession of faith was more moderate than that of Hardy's Club;

it emphasized the need of avoiding innovation and of restoring the

constitution to its original purity.[39] This was in the spirit of the

Associations of 1780; but the new club was far less characteristic of

the times than the clubs of working men described above.

The appearance of Paine's "Rights of Man" (Part II), the founding of

these societies, and the outbreak of war between France and Austria in

April 1792 made a deep impression on Pitt. He opposed a notice of a

motion of Reform for the following session, brought forward by Grey on

30th April. While affirming his continued interest in that subject, Pitt

deprecated its introduction at that time as involving the risk of

anarchy.

    My object [he continued] always has been, and is now more

    particularly so, to give permanence to that which we actually

    enjoy rather than remove subsisting grievances.... I once

    thought, and still think, upon the point of the representation

    of the Commons, that, if some mode could be adopted by which the

    people could have any additional security for a continuance of

    the blessings which they now enjoy, it would be an improvement

    in the constitution of this country. That was the extent of my

    object. Further I never wished to go; and if this can be

    obtained without the risk of losing what we have, I should think

    it wise to make the experiment. When I say this, it is not

    because I believe there is any existing grievance in this

    country that is felt at this hour.

At the end of the American War (he continued) when bankruptcy seemed

imminent, he believed Reform to be necessary in order to restore public

confidence and remedy certain notorious grievances. Even then very many

moderate men opposed his efforts as involving danger to the State. How

much more would they deprecate sweeping proposals which rightly aroused

general apprehension? He then censured the action of certain members of

the House in joining an Association (the "Friends of the People") which

was supported by those who aimed at the overthrowing of hereditary

monarchy, titles of nobility, and all ideas of subordination. He would

oppose all proposals for Reform rather than run the risk of changes so

sweeping.--"All, all may be lost by an indiscreet attempt upon the

subject." Clearly, Pitt was about to join the ranks of the alarmists.

But members generally were of his opinion. In vain did Fox, Erskine,

Grey, and Sheridan deprecate the attempt to confuse moderate Reform with

reckless innovation. Burke illogically but effectively dragged in the

French spectre, and Windham declared that the public mind here, as in

other lands, was in such a state that the slightest scratch might

produce a mortal wound.

The gulf between Pitt and the reformers now became impassable. His

speech of 10th May against any relaxation of the penal laws against

Unitarians is a curious blend of bigotry and panic. Eleven days later a

stringent proclamation was issued against all who wrote, printed, and

dispersed "divers wicked and seditious writings." It ordered all

magistrates to search out the authors and abettors of them, and to take

steps for preventing disorder. It also inculcated "a due submission to

the laws, and a just confidence in the integrity and wisdom of

Parliament." Anything less calculated to beget such a confidence than

this proclamation, threatening alike to reformers and levellers, can

scarcely be conceived. On 25th May Grey opposed it in an acrid speech;

he inveighed against Pitt as an apostate, who never kept his word, and

always intended to delude Parliament and people. The sting of the speech

lay, not in these reckless charges, but in the citing of Pitt's opinions

as expressed in a resolution passed at the Thatched House Tavern in May

1782, which declared that without Parliamentary Reform neither the

liberty of the nation nor the permanence of a virtuous administration

was secure. Pitt's reply, however, convinced all those whose minds were

open to conviction. He proved to demonstration that he had never

approved of universal suffrage; yet that was now the goal aimed at by

Paine and the Societies founded on the basis of the Rights of Man. The

speech of Dundas also showed that the writings of Paine, and the

founding of clubs with those ends in view, had led to the present action

of the Cabinet.

Undoubtedly those clubs had behaved in a provocative manner. Apart from

their correspondence with the Jacobins Club (which will be described

later), they advocated aims which then seemed utterly subversive of

order. Thus, early in May 1792, the Sheffield Society declared their

object to be "a radical Reform of the country, as soon as prudence and

discretion would permit, and established on that system which is

consistent with the Rights of Man." Further, the hope is expressed that

not only the neighbouring towns and villages, most of which were forming

similar societies, but also the whole country would be "united in the

same cause, which cannot fail of being the case wherever the most

excellent works of Thomas Paine find reception."[40]

Now, this banding together of societies and clubs pointed the way to the

forming of a National Convention which would truly represent the whole

nation. In judging the action of Pitt and his colleagues at this crisis,

we must remember that they had before them the alarming example of the

Jacobins Club of Paris, which had gained enormous power by its network

of affiliated clubs. This body again was modelled on the various

societies of the Illuminati in Germany, whose organizer, Weishaupt,

summed up his contention in the words: "All their union shall be carried

on by the correspondence and visits of the brethren. If we can gain but

that point, we shall have succeeded in all we want."[41] This is why the

name Corresponding Society stank in the nostrils of all rulers. It

implied a parasitic organization which, if allowed to grow, would

strangle the established Government. Signs were not wanting that this

was the aim of the new Radical Clubs. Thus the delegates of the United

Constitutional Societies who met at Norwich drew up on 24th March 1792

resolutions expressing satisfaction at the rapid growth of those bodies,

already numbering some hundreds, "which by delegates preserve a mutual

intercourse." ... "To Mr. Thomas Paine our thanks are specially due for

his first and second parts of the 'Rights of Man'; and