LETTER

TO THE

HONOURABLE CHARLES JAMES FOX.

1040

MY DEAR CHARLES,

I AM, on many accounts, exceedingly pleased with your journey to Ireland. I do not think it was possible to dispose better of the interval between this and the meeting of parliament. Itold you as much, in the same general terms, by the post. My opinion of the infidelity of that conveyance hindered me from being particular. I now sit down with malice prepense, to kill you with a very long letter, and must take my chance for some safe method of conveying the dose. Before I say any thing to you of the place you are in, or the business of it, on which, by the way, a great deal might be said, I will turn myself to the concluding part of your letter from Chatsworth.

You are sensible that I do not differ from you in many things; and most certainly I do not dissent from the main of your doctrine concerning the heresy of depending upon contingencies. You must recollect how uniform my sentiments, have been on that subject. I have ever wished a settled plan of our own, founded in the very essence of the American business, wholly unconnected with the events of the war, and framed in such a manner as to keep up our credit, and maintain our system at home, in spite of any thing which may happen abroad. I am now convinced, by a long, and somewhat vexatious experience, that such a plan is absolutely impracticable. I think with you, that some faults in the constitution of those whom we must love and trust, are among the causes of this impracticability; they are faults too that one can hardly wish them perfectly cured of, as I am afraid they are intimately connected with honest disinterested intentions, plentiful fortunes, assured rank, and quiet homes. A great deal of activity and enterprise can scarcely ever be expected from such men, unless some horrible calamity is just over their heads; or unless they suffer some gross personal insults from power, the resentment of which may be as unquiet and stimulating a principle in their minds, as ambition is in those of a different com

and considered a little more maturely the constant temper and standing maxims of the party, I laid aside the design; not being desirous of risking the displeasure of those for whose sake alone I wished to take that fatiguing journey at this severe season of the year.

The duke of Portland has taken with him some heads of deliberation which were the result of a discourse with his grace and Mr. Montagu at Burlington house. It seems essential to the cause, that your lordship should meet your friends with some settled plan, either of action or inaction. Your friends will certainly require such a plan, and I am sure the state of affairs requires it, whether they call for it or not. As to the measure of a secession with reasons, after rolling the matter in my head a good deal, and turning it an hundred ways, I confess I still think it the most advisable, notwithstanding the serious objections that lie against it, and, indeed, the extreme uncertainty of all political measures, especially at this time. It provides for your honour. I know of nothing else that can so well do this: It is something, perhaps all that can be done in our present situation. Some precaution, in this respect, is not without its motives. That very estimation, for which you have sacrificed every thing else, is in some danger of suffering in the general wreck; and perhaps it is likely to suffer the more, because you have hitherto confided more than was quite prudent, in the clearness of your intentions, and in the solidity of the popular judgment upon them. The former, indeed, is out of the power of events; the latter is full of levity, and the very creature of fortune. However, such as it is (and for one I do not think I am inclined to overvalue it) both our interest and our duty make it necessary for us to attend to it very carefully, so long as we act a part in public. The measure you take for this purpose may produce no immediate effect; but with regard to the party and the principles, for whose sake the party exists, all hope of their preservation or recovery depends upon your preserving your reputation.

By the conversation of some friends, it seemed as if they were willing to fall in with this design, because it promised to emancipate them from the servitude of irksome business, and to afford them an opportunity of retiring to ease and tranquillity. If that be their object in the secession and addresses proposed, there surely never were means worse chosen to gain their end; and if this be any part of the project, it were a thousand times better it were never undertaken. The measure is not only unusual and, as such, critical, but it is in its own nature strong and vehement in a high degree. The propriety, [ 13 ]

VOL. V.

therefore, of adopting it depends entirely upon the spirit with which it is supported and followed. To pursue violent measures with languor or irresolution is not very consistent in speculation, and not more reputable or safe in practice. If your lordship's friends do not go to this business with their whole hearts, if they do not feel themselves uneasy without it, if they do not undertake it with a certain degree of zeal, and even with warmth and indignation, it had better be removed wholly out of our thoughts. A measure of less strength, and more in the beaten circle of affairs, if supported with spirit and industry, would be, on all accounts, infinitely more eligible. We have to consider what it is that, in this undertaking, we have against us we have the weight of king, lords, and commons, in the other scale we have against us, within a trifle, the whole body of the law we oppose the more considerable part of the landed and mercantile interests: we contend, in a manner, against the whole church; we set our faces against great armies, flushed with victory, and navies, who have tasted of civil spoil, and have a strong appetite for more: our strength, whatever it is, must depend for a good part of its effect upon events not very probable. In such a situation, such a step requires not only great magnanimity, but unwearied activity and perseverance, with a good deal too of dexterity and management, to improve every accident in our favour.

The delivery of this paper may have very important consequences. It is true, that the court may pass it over in silence with a real or affected contempt. But this I do not think so likely. If they do take notice of it, the mildest course will be such an address from parliament as the house of commons made to the king on the London remonstrance in the year 1769. This address will be followed by addresses of a similar tendency, from all parts of the kingdom, in order to overpower you with what they will endeavour to pass as the united voice and sense of the nation. But if they intend to proceed further, and to take steps of a more decisive nature, you are then to consider, not what they may legally and justly do, but what a parliament, omnipotent in power, influenced with party rage and personal resentment, operating under the implicit military obedience of court discipline, is capable of. Though they have made some successful experiments on juries, they will hardly trust enough to them to order a prosecution for a supposed libel. They may proceed in two ways, either by an impeachment, in which the tories may retort on the whigs (but with better success, though in a worse cause) the proceedings in the case of Sacheverel, or they may, without this form,

proceed, as against the bishop of Rochester, by a bill of pains and penalties more or less grievous. The similarity of the cases, or the justice, is (as I said) out of the question. The mode of proceeding has several very ancient and very recent precedents. None of these methods is impossible. The court may select three or four of the most distinguished among you for the victims; and therefore nothing is more remote from the tendency of the proposed act, than any idea of retirement or repose. On the contrary, you have all of you, as principals or auxiliaries, a much better and more desperate conflict, in all probability, to undergo, than any you have been yet engaged in. The only question is, whether the risk ought to be run for the chance (and it is no more) of recalling the people of England to their ancient principles, and to that personal interest which formerly they took in all public affairs? At any rate, I am sure it is right, if we take this step, to take it with a full view of the consequences; and with minds and measures in a state of preparation to meet them. It is not becoming, that your boldness should arise from a want of foresight. It is more reputable, and certainly it is more safe too, that it should be grounded on the evident necessity of encountering the dangers which you foresee.

Your lordship will have the goodness to excuse me, if I state, in strong terms, the difficulties attending a measure, which, on the whole, I heartily concur in. But as, from my want of importance, I can be personally little subject to the most trying part of the consequences, it is as little my desire to urge others to dangers, in which I am myself to have so inconsiderable a share.

If this measure should be thought too great for our strength, or the dispositions of the times, then the point will be to consider what is to be done in parliament. A weak, irregular, desultory, peevish opposition there will be as much too little as the other may be too big. Our scheme ought to be such as to have in it a succession of measures; else it is impossible to secure any thing like a regular attendance; opposition will otherwise always carry a disreputable air; neither will it be possible, without that attendance, to persuade the people that we are in earnest. Above all, a motion should be well digested for the first day. There is one thing, in particular, I wish to recommend to your lordship's consideration; that is, the opening of the doors of the house of commons. Without this, I am clearly convinced, it will be in the power of ministry to make our opposition appear without doors just in what light they please. To obtain a gallery is the easiest thing in the world,

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if we are satisfied to cultivate the esteem of our adversaries, by the resolution and energy with which we act against them: but if their satisfaction and good humour be any part of our object, the attempt, I admit, is idle.

I had some conversation, before I left town, with the D. of M. He is of opinion, that if you adhere to your resolution of seceding, you ought not to appear on the first day of the meeting. He thinks it can have no effect, except to break the continuity of your conduct, and thereby to weaken and fritter away the impression of it. It certainly will seem odd to give solemn reasons for a discontinuance of your attendance in parliament, after having two or three times returned to it, and immediately after a vigorous act of opposition. As to trials of the temper of the house, there have been of that sort so many already, that I see no reason for making another that would not hold equally good for another after that; particularly, as nothing has happened in the least calculated to alter the disposition of the house. If the secession were to be general, such an attendance, followed by such an act, would have force; but being, in its nature, incomplete and broken, to break it further by retreats and returns to the chase, must entirely destroy its effect. I confess, I am quite of the D. of M's opinion in this point.

I send your lordship a corrected copy of the paper; your lordship will be so good to communicate it, if you should approve of the alterations, to lord J. C. and Sir. G. S. I showed it to the D. of P. before his grace left town, and at his, the D. of P's desire, I have sent it to the D. of R. The principal alteration is in the pages last but one. It is made to remove a difficulty, which had been suggested to Sir G. S. and which he thought had a good deal in it. I think it much the better for that alteration. Indeed, it may want still more corrections, in order to adapt it to the present or probable future state of things.

What shall I say in excuse for this long letter, which frightens me when I look back upon it? Your lordship will take it, and all in it, with your usual incomparable temper, which carries you through so much both from enemies and friends. My most humble respects to lady R. and believe me, with the highest regard, ever, &c.

E. B.

I hear, that Dr. Franklin has had a most extraordinary reception at Paris from all ranks of people. Beaconsfield, Monday night.

Jan. 6. 1777.