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IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 BY 
 
 MONTAGU BURROWS, R.N., M.A., 
 
 CHIOHELE PEOPESSOB OP MODEKN HISTOKY lU THE 
 TJNITEESITY OF OXPOED. 
 
 Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.: 
 
 LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK. 
 
 [all BIG-HT3 EESEEVED.] 
 
/l,JLi^3 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 A CONVICTION tliat the strange and novel sort of 
 utterances which are heard on every side about 
 the "British Empire" are in some degree attribut- 
 able to the absence of any available summary ac- 
 count of its growth and defence, has produced the 
 following brief attempt to deal with the subject. 
 
 It surely ought not to be relegated to the 
 sphere of what is commonly called " politics." It 
 is a matter for the whole, not for a part of the 
 nation. To no class of politicians can the history 
 of the present phenomena be a matter of indif- 
 ference. Amongst the inhabitants of Great Britain 
 to identify "Imperialism" with a party is an abuse 
 of language. Parties may differ as to the weight 
 which ought to be attached to particular considera- 
 tions at a particular moment ; as to questions of 
 peace or war when they arise ; or as to the com- 
 parative importance of domestic or foreign affairs. 
 But they cannot differ as to the fact that the 
 
iv PnHFACE. 
 
 existing state of afPairs has grown out of a long, 
 complicated, most interesting past ; and they are 
 supremely concerned in having a true view of that 
 past put before, them. 
 
 What are politics but an adaptation of the 
 existing circumstances of a State to existing re- 
 quirements? And how can we gain a right under- 
 standing of those circumstances' or requirements 
 without a precise, or at least compendious, know- 
 ledge of their origin, of their relation to the 
 history of other States, and of their place in the 
 progress of the human species ? 
 
 So much being premised, the only necessary, 
 condition ^for useful reflection on the past is that 
 the historical sketch should be fair and true ; 
 that is, that it should not neglect to notice the 
 changes of opinion which have taken place on the 
 subject-matter, that it should rise above mere party 
 watchwords, and, however briefly they may be 
 treated, should give their due proportion to events. 
 In even such a summary as the present it is hoped 
 that the above characteristics may be discovered. 
 
 It might, perhaps, be objected to this claim for 
 impartiality that the two Papers which are ap- 
 pended to the main treatise are extracts from 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Articles which have already appeared in the 
 Quarterly Review. The 'writer may at least be 
 allowed to express a hope that nothing will be 
 found in either of them which a Wliig might not 
 receive as well a;s a Tory. One of them was 
 written fully nine years ago, and only slightly 
 altered for publication in 1877. 
 
 The writer would take this opportunity to thank 
 the proprietor of the Quarterly for his kindness in 
 allowing the Articles to be reprinted. 
 
 M. B. 
 
 OXFOED, 
 
 January 22nd, 1880. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028483943 
 
IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It may not be obvious to every one that half the 
 difficulties felt by the inhabitants of the British 
 Isles in measuring their responsibilities as members 
 of an Empire, arise from want of reflection upon 
 the manner in which it came into their hands. 
 They are born and bred islanders ; the Empire seems 
 an anomaly. They may be proud of it, ashamed of 
 it. They may even resent the use of the very word, 
 forgetting that it was common enough even in the last 
 century,* and in this century has become an abso- 
 lutely necessary expression for the widely separated 
 masses of population, in every stage of social and 
 political development, which own the gentle sway of 
 the British Sovereign. When Governments extend 
 from the centre in this or even a far less marked 
 manner, it has always seemed necessary to look for a 
 designation which expressed something more than the 
 title of the original king or ruler. Amongst the fami- 
 
 * The proof of its common acceptance is to be found in its casual 
 appearance in standard books, in public despatches, and in private journals ; 
 such as in " Junius' Letters," Burke's Works, Lord Sandwich's letters in 
 " Rodney's Life," " Lord Malmejbary's Diaries," &c., &c., 
 
 B 
 
2 IMPEEIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 lies of the European stock, the name derived from the 
 Roman '■'■ Imperium" suggests itself as a matter of course. 
 
 But, if the existence of their Empire seems a rather 
 strange and unaccountable thing, even to many 
 Englishmen, Scotchmen, or Irishmen, what must it 
 appear to one who has not been bom to the in- 
 heritance? Perhaps, the best way of realising that 
 there is a difficulty, a difficulty of which we may be 
 unconscious, though all the while displaying the effect 
 of its existence, is to try to imagine ourselves in the 
 place of some person intelligent enough to observe facts, 
 but happening for some reason to be xmacquainted 
 with the history of Great Britain. How hard would a 
 mere looker-on at the present state of things find it to 
 account for the existence of an Empire of such an 
 unrivalled variety, extent, and influence, giving to the 
 British a leading place in the select circle of world- 
 governing Powers, and yet all radiating from a narrow 
 insular space at a remote comer of Europe! Then 
 we may imagine such a person still further perplexed 
 by the comparison of that position with the present 
 condition of other communities which have had, to all 
 appearance, equal or nearly equal natural advantages, 
 such as the Scandinavian kingdoms or the Low Coun- 
 tries. It would be by no means sufficient either for us 
 or for him, if we were to point out that the facts which 
 met his eye were simply due to the superior courage 
 and enterprise of the British people, or to their pecu- 
 liar insular position, and absurd to ascribe it to accident. 
 
 Nor would it be of much use to state generally 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 that the phenomena were the product of differences 
 between the past relationship of England to the Con- 
 tinent and that of other States ; for every country has 
 had a history of its own. But in this direction would 
 in fact lie the answer to the question. We should 
 have to ask the enquirer to go with us into a careful 
 survey of English history. It would not be enough 
 to begin with the Modern Empire, or with its defence 
 and growth during the interval which has elapsed 
 since it was founded. We should at least be obliged 
 to preface the account of these later portions of history 
 with a sketch of the earlier times, and our sketch 
 would necessarily comprise the following heads. 
 
 In the first place, we should have to point out the 
 singularly mixed character of the people of England, 
 the welding together of Romano-British, Anglo- 
 Saxon, and Danish elements which they so happily 
 represented, each bringing its own social and poli- 
 tical contribution to the common dower. We should 
 have to observe the significance of the very early 
 conversion of the people to Christianity; to distin- 
 guish the peculiar interweaving of ecclesiastical and 
 political training in the formation of the early English 
 Constitution, and how it brought about, working on 
 a kindly soil, the conspicuous superiority of the 
 people of England to all others in domestic civiliza- 
 tion, in the character of' the English home, the true 
 basis of every great development. We should thus 
 suggest some explanation of the extraordinary felicity 
 of this people, considering the times, in working out 
 
4 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 the problem of problems, how to unite individual free- 
 dom with general order ; and show how, long before 
 the Norman Conquest, there was a promise of this 
 jDeople becoming great. Yet something was wanting. 
 In sketching the histor j of the Norman Conquest 
 we should see how that something wanted was sup- 
 jDlied. We should have to dwell upon the circumstance 
 that England was conquered by no common men, but 
 by a princely race who had proved themselves 
 the leaders of the Continental families, and seemed 
 fashioned for the express purpose of impregnating 
 more phlegmatic communities with their oa^ti ambi- 
 tious, enterprising character, already sparkling with 
 not a few of the gems which glistened on the coat of a 
 later chivalry. We should above all mark how they 
 brought with them those claims to Continental territory 
 which have ever since coloured the whole of English 
 history. We should show how, from the moment that 
 Harold was struck down at Senlac, Teutonic England 
 became a great Continental Power, great not from any 
 doubtful claim to Continental territory, but as a matter 
 of fact; great in comparison with the infant States 
 shaping themselves all around ; great in consequence 
 of those marriages and alliances which, growing out 
 of the Norman Conquest, made the Plantagenet Kings 
 of England more than a match for the slowly-consoli- 
 dating French nation ; great from the two, at least 
 partial, conquests of France which those kings effected 
 in pursuit of their claims, during the Hundred Years 
 War. We should have to show how all this led to the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 rank taken by the insular State in the Fifteenth Century 
 as one of the five governing Powers of Europe, and 
 to a very large proportion of those traditions, and of 
 that training, which nursed within these islands the 
 sense of its people having been marked out for an 
 imperial race. 
 
 From this great mediaeval position we should have 
 to explain that internal disputes dethroned England 
 for a time ; while at the very same period, happily for 
 France, her own growing nationality received such an 
 impulse by the absorption of semi-independent pro- 
 vinces that the question of English rule over its old 
 Continental possessions was settled for ever. But we 
 should also have to point out that, even when the 
 English wounds were scarcely yet healed, the one 
 master principle of French policy was contained in 
 the maxim that any sacrifice was to be made, any 
 sum of money paid down on the spot, to buy off an 
 Edward the Fourth or a Henry the Seventh, rather 
 than allow the old enemy once more to obtain a 
 footing in France. With the advent of the Tudors 
 we should have to show how the system of balancing 
 the European States, all of them by this time con- 
 solidated, commenced and flourished, — pretentiously 
 under Henry the Eighth, really and beneficially under 
 Elizabeth ; and how, under the direction of the great 
 Queen, the might of Philip of Spain was overthrown, 
 and the Reformed Churches of Europe were saved from 
 extinction. Under her long and happy reign we should 
 observe the fame of England raised to the highest 
 
6 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 pitch it had yet attained, and based on a foundation 
 of domestic policy so securely laid as to have remained 
 substantially unchanged since her day. 
 
 Diiring- the century of the four unfortunate Stuarts 
 
 we should trace a second retreat of Great Britain 
 
 * 
 
 from Continental afEairs, but yet also, mainly through 
 their very errors, a great expansion of Colonial enter- 
 prise, bringing with it a considerable development 
 of Biitish commerce; and even, during the brief 
 interval of the Commonwealth, an assertion of the 
 old Elizabethan position with the old English 
 spirit. But we could hardly fail to point out how 
 the refusal or inabiHty of the Stuarts to take up their 
 proper place in Europe brought about its punishment ; 
 and we should turn with a feeling of relief to the 
 reaction which set in with the Revolution of 1688. 
 Under William and Anne, under Marlborough, Godol- 
 phin, and Somers, we should once more find these 
 little islands laying down the law for Europe, and 
 banding its component parts together for the over- 
 throw of the French tyrant who, like another Pliilip 
 of Spain, was bestriding the world, but, like Philip, 
 had to bend at last to the indignant combination of 
 the oppressed. 
 
 We should then have to describe another, and the 
 last, period, which might be compared with those of 
 the Wars of the Roses and of the four Stuarts, when 
 a disputed Succession once more withdrew the English 
 from effective interference in the affairs of the Con- 
 tinent, and encouraged their enemies to believe that 
 
INTltODUGTION. 7 
 
 they had this time retreated from their ancient posi- 
 tion once for all. Happily, as it was the last, so it 
 was the shortest of the three periods ; as it was dis- 
 tinguished by better government at home than those 
 other periods, so it formed the basis of a better state 
 of things abroad. We pass a few years of painful 
 depression under the aggressive policy of France and 
 Spain, of insults and failures, which, however, did 
 their appointed work ; and we wake up to a glorious 
 spectacle — the emergence of Great Britain out of a 
 sea of difficulties, and the aggressive policy of her 
 neighbours ending, not in the collapse of the Power 
 which had so long confronted them, but in the 
 establishment of the Modern British Empire. 
 
 Some part of what would be necessary in such a 
 sketch will be found in the two Papers which follow 
 the present one. 
 
 It would thus be made evident that the eminence 
 attained by Grreat Britain in modem times, though 
 the form of its development is but of yesterday, is of 
 no mushroom growth. Its place had been preparing 
 for ages. Its claim to respect is rather that of the 
 ancient family whose credit may have occasionally 
 and for a time, during a long descent, become 
 obscured, but could never be seriously questioned — 
 some great and well-known family, whose reputation 
 has brightened and broadened at each successive 
 interval. It has occupied a position requiring, not a 
 policy of restless ambition and vaunting self-assertion, 
 but rather heroic defence, patient persistency, judi- 
 
8 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 cious action in emergencies, skill in perceiving the 
 changes of affairs and seizing their full significance, 
 fearlessness in assuming the lead devolving on the 
 heir of such responsibihties, and, lastly, a certain 
 moderation which might disarm the resentment in- 
 variably attending on success. 
 
 That the Empire won by George the Second and 
 Chatham has, on the whole, been preserved and ex- 
 tended on the above principles may not be susceptible 
 of absolute proof. It will always remain a matter 
 of opinion. But our ideas on the subject may 
 certainly be cleared by a consideration of the 
 Foreign Policy of Great Britain during the reign 
 of George the Third. Has not the time arrived 
 when historical criticism may be expected to come 
 forth out of the hazy atmosphere of faction, and 
 to confront without alarm opinions which may even 
 in recent days have been called " received opinions," 
 but which only claimed assent because all sides of 
 the truth had not yet become visible? Has not 
 the time arrived when, instead of measuring the 
 distribution of praise and blame by the application 
 of social and pohtical tests which our own time has 
 made famOiar, we may attempt to transport ourselves 
 back to the actual lives of our predecessors, to make 
 allowance for circumstances which were so different 
 from our own, and, keeping fast hold indeed of the 
 eternal principles of truth and morality, observe how 
 far those predecessors honestly used the light which 
 each of them possessed ? 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 BRITISH FOEEIGN POLICY AT THE CLOSE OF THE 
 SEVEN YEARS WAR. 
 
 The reign of Greorge the Third has not only afforded 
 a more fiercely-contested battle-ground of historical 
 opinion than any other in onr annals : it is also the 
 longest, the most confused, the most yast in its 
 issues, the most important of all British reigns. It 
 was a period of great wars, great Treaties, great 
 men ; it had also one glorious interval of peace. In 
 such a sketch as the present it will tend to clear- 
 ness if we divide this long reign into a few dis- 
 tinct parts. When the survey is completed it will 
 be time to gather up results. The conclusion of 
 the Seven Years War may be taken for the first 
 division (1760 — 1763) ; the twenty-one years which 
 succeeded it, including the American War, for the 
 second (1763 — 1784) ; Pitt's Peace Administration for 
 the third (1784—1793) ; the French Revolution War 
 for the fourth (1793—1802); and the Napoleonic 
 War for the fifth (1802—1815). It will also be con- 
 venient to single out and call to the front the seven 
 chief characteristic figures of the reign, the men to 
 whom the shaping out of events for England was, 
 humanly speaking, due ; and to group the outlines 
 
10 IMPJjlBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 of the survey round each of them. They are the 
 King himself, Lord Chatham, Burke, the younger 
 Pitt, Lord Comwallis, Canning, and the Duke of 
 Wellington. ' If in this select catalogue the names of 
 second-rate Minivers, or even of great party-leaders 
 or heroes, are not mentioned, it is because, on a 
 wide retrospect, they seem to be sufficiently repre- 
 sented by the King, or because, however dis- 
 tinguished, they failed to change the course adopted 
 by the British nation, or, finally, because they were 
 in reality only secondary agents in comparison with 
 those above named. 
 
 And, first, concerning His Majesty King George the 
 Third. The space which he occupies on the canvas is 
 so far beyond that of any other person during a large 
 part of the reign that it will be necessary to dis- 
 cuss his political position at some length in this place, 
 reserving for a final chapter some notices of other 
 disputed points regarding his life and character. 
 And here let us observe the change which is 
 already, taking place in the popular estimate of this 
 prince, or rather the gradual recurrence of opinion to 
 the contemporary estimate. We seem to have passed 
 through, and almost come to an end, of what may 
 be called the Reform-Bill period of literature. The 
 fresh burst of exuberant political sentiment which 
 attended the hard-fought Constitutional contests of 
 that time, coloured every species of British writing, 
 and none more than the historical and biograpical 
 portion. Many generations of schoolboys have 
 
GEORGE THE THIBD. 11 
 
 grown to manhood under the fascinating teaching 
 of Brougham, Macaulay, and the old Edinburgh 
 Reviewers; of Thackeray, Dickens, and their host 
 of followers. Few have even been aware how much 
 the confident bitterness, conspicuous in the invec- 
 tives of their teachers, was due to the sense those 
 teachers could not but entertain of the divergence 
 of their views from the opinions of the preceding 
 age. The new light throws the old into obscurity. 
 The often-repeated story grows to be uncontradicted 
 commonplace. Scarcely any one supposed that the 
 older views of the King and of his reign would ever 
 again receive attention. 
 
 But signs of reaction are not wanting in various 
 quarters; and amongst other changes the present 
 generation is learning to read with other eyes the 
 career of one of the best and ablest sovereigns — 
 certainly, for a large portion of his life, the most 
 popular — that this country has ever possessed. 
 
 It must be confessed that to be able to regard King 
 George the Third from this point of view requires 
 that we should still close our eyes and ears to small, 
 and fix them on large things. We must cease to 
 gloat over the passing caricatures and satires and 
 nicloiames of the time, the blemishes and infirmities 
 which a nation of inveterate jokers dwelt upon some- 
 what more freely than perhaps it would have done, 
 could it have foreseen how these gibes would be 
 used by posterity. The rancour of party spirit, 
 which never ran higher than in this reign, seized 
 
12 IMPEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 "with admirable cunning on all openings for ridicule, 
 knowing full well its power in a free country. It is 
 the highest compliment that could be paid the King 
 that so much of it fell upon his shoulders. It may 
 be proved to demonstration that a very large part 
 of it was due to his persistent discountenance of vice. 
 "Peter Pindar" and Gilray are now forgotten, but 
 they. left their sting; and its effects have by no means 
 even yet passed away. We may be subject to the 
 effects without in the least knowing the cause. 
 
 Perhaps, one chief reason for the better opinion 
 beginning to be entertained of the old King is to 
 be found in the fact that he has at last been allowed 
 to speak for himself. The extracts taken from his 
 letters to Lord North by Sir James Mackintosh were 
 of some use, but they were far from satisfactory. 
 It was all that we had till of late years. The 
 recent pubHcation of the whole series by Mr. Donne 
 has been a great step in advance, and numerous 
 other letters have been pubHshed in the Lives of 
 William Pitt, Lord Eldon, Lord Sidmouth, the 
 "Buckingham Papers," in Jesse's "Life and Reign 
 of Greorge the Third," and other works. We have 
 thus materials for forming a judgment which earlier 
 generations had not, and we are better able to under- 
 stand what the contemporary generation knew per- 
 fectly well. We are at least bound, now that we 
 have fuller information, to ascertain what were the 
 grounds of the King's conduct, and what excuse 
 there was for his mistakes. When we have thus 
 
CHABAGTEB OF GEOBGE THE THIBD. 13 
 
 adjusted the balance, we cannot escape from the duty 
 of weighing against what remains, the solid merits 
 of his private and public character, the degree in 
 which he really represented the nation, and the 
 success which crowned the life-long efforts of as true 
 a patriot as Alfred the Grreat, Edward the First, 
 or Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 In the above Correspondence, and, it may be 
 added, in the numerous private journals and memoirs 
 of persons who had close access to the King, only 
 published of late years, we trace a character rare 
 indeed, and such as we might expect to produce 
 great actions. These actions will speak for them- 
 selves ; but it may be remarked that it would indeed 
 be strange, and contrary to all experience, if a life of 
 such moral and religious excellence, if a mind of a 
 type by no means inferior, as some would have us 
 believe, if a youth and manhood passed in contact 
 with consummate intellects, if the habits formed by 
 a rigidly conscientious discharge of duty, if the ex- 
 perience of the greatest events which ever befel a 
 kingdom, were to lead a sovereign into political 
 courses which the verdict of posterity would con- 
 demn. This of itself ought to make us willing to 
 reconsider unfavourable judgments. To do so is 
 not a matter of sentiment. It is a duty. 
 
 But is the very influence exercised by the King 
 on the course of affairs — -a vast influence, as all 
 acknowledge — ^is this influence itself an indictment 
 against him? His so-called "Personal Government" 
 
 o"- 
 
14 niPEBIAL ENGLA2fB. 
 
 is one of the stock charges still to be found in the 
 works of a certain class of writers. It is a vague 
 term. What does it mean ? If the King only occu- 
 pied the place assigned him by the Constitution, we 
 cannot blame him. Was this so ? A very few words 
 on this point must suffice. 
 
 It will of coiu-se be admitted that the Bang did 
 govern in a sense very different from that in which his 
 two predecessors, or any of his successors governed. 
 The former had been quite unable to take up the posi- 
 tion of William the Third or of Anne ; for the disputed 
 Succession paralysed them, and the Whig oligarchical 
 government was absolutely necessary- for the guidance 
 of the helm. The successors of George the Third 
 came upon a new period, when the House of Commons 
 had grown into a dominant power, and the House of 
 Lords was no longer the narrow aristocracy which it 
 had been in the previous century. 
 
 The charge made against George the Third by 
 the last generation, and sometimes still heard, in the 
 matter of " Personal Government," related to his 
 conduct towards his various Cabinets in the period 
 now under review. But it is precisely here that we 
 trace a change. If there is one point on which his- 
 torical opinion has settled down more than another, 
 it is on the character of the Whig factions, the 
 tattered fringes of the old Whig oligarchy, wliich. 
 in their frantic struggles for power, tortured the 
 Sovereign during the first decade of his reign. It 
 was the inherent feebleness of these successive Ad- 
 
"PERSONAL OOVEBmiENT." 15 
 
 ministrations which dragged the nation into the 
 difficulties from which it only emerged at last 
 by a convulsive effort. It was the King's duty to 
 provide better government than they supplied: our 
 sympathies cannot but be with him during his arduous 
 efforts to provide it. If the course of the struggle 
 handed the country over to the delightful and amiable, 
 but scarcely less incompetent Lord North, it is not 
 the King who was to blame. 
 
 Fairly regarded, the national misfortunes in 
 this respect are the price paid by Englishmen for 
 the Protestant Succession. A long period of dic- 
 tatorship by the great Whig families, if the 
 term may be used for a body of men, was in- 
 stinctively felt by the nation to be necessary in 
 order to secure this Succession. But no party can 
 last for ever; and, great as the obligations of the 
 country had once been to Walpole and the whole 
 party, they were now entirely worn out. What was 
 the use of the boasted English Constitution, if it did 
 not provide a counterpoise for the emergency ? 
 Where was it to be found? Not in the House of 
 Lords; for there on emergencies the "factions" com- 
 bined sufficiently to triumph. Not in the House of 
 Commons ; for it was as yet unable to take an 
 independent part. The Crown remained. It had 
 to work its way by such methods as were open to it ; 
 and these were by no means the best in themselves, 
 but the best available. The people were with the 
 King ; he thoroughly represented the nation ; he could 
 
16 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 no longer bear bad government, nor could tbey ; the 
 
 event justified his action. 
 
 Perhaps, in support of this view, the words of one 
 
 who certainly did not err on the side of monarchical 
 
 procHvities, nor rise above many vulgar errors in 
 
 relation to this King, may here be quoted. After 
 
 protesting against an overstrained prerogative on the 
 
 one hand, and a mere, ornamental monarchy on the 
 
 other. Lord Brougham thus treats the "Personal 
 
 Government" of Greorge the Third: — 
 
 "He only discharged the duty of his station by thinking for 
 himself, acting according to his conscientious opinion, and using his 
 influence for giving these opinions eflect. . . . He set one 
 example which is worthy of imitation in all times. He refused to 
 be made a State puppet in his Minister's hands, and to let his name 
 be used either by men whom he despised, or for purposes which he 
 disapproved. Nor could any one ever accuse him of ruling by 
 favourites ; still less could any one, by pretending to be the people's 
 choice, impose himseU' on his vigorous understanding." * 
 
 In the other and later conflict with Ministers, in 
 which the King still more fully represented his 
 people — that which immediately preceded the advent 
 to power of William Pitt — the verdict of the best 
 modem writers has gone with the King. If they do 
 not defend his course, or if they only defend it on 
 the plea of necessity, they still more blame the 
 conduct of Fox and his friends. If the one made an 
 unconstitutional use of his- position, the others far 
 more blameably strained every Constitutional usage 
 which had hitherto been sanctioned. Pie acted with 
 
 * " Statesmen of the Time of Gteorge III.," First series, 2nd ed., p. 14. 
 
GEORGE TEE THIRD'S "PERSONAL GOVERNMENT." 17 
 
 and for the people ; they against the people and for 
 their party. 
 
 And this is the point. Personal government in a 
 sense we may indeed attribute to George the Third ; 
 for no one ever, in any nation, or at any period, 
 jjaid more minute and unwearied attention to every 
 detail of administration ; but it was the nation govern- 
 ing itself in the person of the Sovereign. In all the 
 leading events of the reign — in the American War, the 
 ^French Wars, the conclusion of Treaties, the support 
 of William Pitt, and even, for some time, of Lord 
 North, the treatment of Ireland, the narrow but con- 
 scientious Protestantism which refused to concede the 
 political claims of the Roman Catholics — in all these 
 the great, and generally the overwhelming majority 
 of the people went with their representative man, the 
 King. We scarcely need except the mistaken policy 
 in which he embarked with reference to Wilkes, or 
 the repressive measures which he and his Ministers 
 held to be necessary at the time of the French 
 Revolution ; for in the former case the violence 
 of mob-law soon produced a reaction, and in 
 the latter the malcontents were far more than 
 balanced by the mass of the people. And then 
 how transient and merely tumultuous were the 
 popular ebullitions with which he was assailed, 
 often the mere product of ignorance and hard 
 times ! How deep, how lasting, how dignified 
 was the settled feeling of the nation ! Witness 
 the scenes at his Accession and Coronation, his tem- 
 c 
 
18 IMPmilAL ENGLAND. 
 
 porary illnesses and his recoveries, his progresses 
 through the country, his visits to the fleet and dock- 
 yards, his birthdays, his Jubilee ; witness the sustained 
 feeling of the people during the long final period of 
 his blind and insane solitude, and their emotion at 
 his death ! The nation admired, respected, learnt 
 to trust him implicitly, as if he were its father. 
 This is no figure of speech. It passionately loved and 
 pitied him ; unfeignedly, with every mark of dejec- 
 tion, mourned his loss. 
 
 Having premised so much on the position of the 
 Sovereign, we must now trace his course in the first 
 of the Periods before us. In watching the action of 
 the young King, " born and educated in this country," 
 and glorying "in the name of Briton," at the critical 
 and much canvassed period of the conclusion of the 
 Seven Years' War, we may learn something as to the 
 outlines of British Foreign Policy at an instructive 
 moment. It was just when the modern Empire had 
 been securely founded, under the auspices of the late 
 King, by the genius of Chatham ; and when the new 
 Government, under the direction of a youth, lately 
 come of age, resolved to bring about a peace which 
 should leave the country free to pursue its advantages. 
 
 We need only here recapitulate the general facts 
 out of which the War, destined to have such great 
 issues, grew.* It was, in fact, nothing more or less 
 than a war of resistance to insult and aggression. 
 
 * See the Chapter on the " Rise of the Modem British Empire under 
 George the Second." 
 
TI-TE POLICY OF GRITHAM. 19 
 
 During the long and pacific reign of Walpole the 
 Bourbon family in Spain, France, and Ital)^ had 
 quietly achieved the position which Louis the Four- 
 teenth, bridled by William the Third and Marl- 
 borough, had vainly attempted to obtain. It was 
 the direct consequence of the temporary withdrawal 
 of Great Britain from Continental interference which 
 has been already noticed. The natural accompani- 
 ment of that withdrawal, a secret Family Compact 
 already formed, was now only too visible in the grow- 
 ing arrogance of the tone adopted by France and Spain 
 towards England, and in their nearly successful at- 
 tempt to exclude British commerce from the Mediter- 
 ranean, from the West Indies, from South America and 
 the Pacific ; while France in the East was embarked on 
 a grand career of Indian conquest, and in the West 
 had almost succeeded in strangling the British 
 Colonies in America by surrounding them with a line 
 of fortified possessions. In every part of the globe the 
 British were not only rivalled, but in danger of being 
 crushed. It is difiicult at the present day to imagine 
 the Imperial race brought so low, or to ratQ too highly 
 the forces which enabled it to emerge. This is why 
 Lord Chatham, the great agent in the recovery, must, 
 even in Greorge the Third's reign, be placed in the front 
 as the exponent of British Foreign Policy. Though 
 he had been dethroned from the extraordinary height 
 to which he had been borne on the shoulders of the 
 people, it was his policy which formed the standard 
 from which the country never afterwards receded, his 
 
20 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 name wlaicli, long after it had ceased to represent 
 any personal power, stood equivalent with Europe 
 for army, navy, and diplomacy. 
 
 The Peace of Paris, or Fontainebleau, is the best 
 commentary on the policy of the war. Condemned 
 at the time, and not seldom afterwards, by potent 
 voices; gained by the Bute influence, the most un- 
 popular in our modem history; hateful in the eyes 
 of the great man who had taught Britannia "to rule the 
 waves ; " yet it was substantially a good Treaty. Its 
 merits were these. It secured all that was really 
 required for the new Empire ; it treated her allies 
 honourably; it displayed an example of moderation 
 and good sense which bore fruit in later times. 
 
 And here it occurs naturally to observe that this 
 is only one of many instances of so-called diplomatic 
 folly which have been quoted against the English 
 from the days of Philippe de Comines downward. 
 " Never," says that earliest and acutest of political 
 writers, " was there any treaty between the French 
 and the English but the French always over- 
 reached tl^em by their sense and ability." They 
 fight, say others, like lions, and then they throw 
 away the blood and money they have lavished, from 
 a simple inability to understand the value of what thev 
 have gained. But, to take this particular case, what 
 said Lord Granville, a former Prime Minister, a man 
 of consummate ability and experience, and who had 
 no motive for disguising the truth, for he was at this 
 time very near the point of death ? He called it 
 
THE ENGLISH GAINS. 21 
 
 " the most glorious war and the most honourable 
 peace the nation ever saw."* Later generations 
 have confirmed his verdict. 
 
 The fact is, as we can dare to say now, with all 
 Lord Chatham's claim to our admiration, the time had 
 come when the ardent spirit to which the nation owed 
 so much required to be checked. It is quite true that 
 Grreat Britain might have retained more than she did. 
 She might have kept Havana, the fruit of a glorious 
 feat of arms ; but it would have been a premature 
 destruction of the Spanish Colonial Empire. She 
 might have kept some more of the West Indian 
 islands ; but was it worth the price of continuing the 
 war ? Was it wise to reduce rival Powers too much ? 
 Would not the permanence of a peace have been 
 rendered impossible if she had insisted on standing 
 out for all she had gained by a series of brilliant 
 victories ? Could, for instance, the French have ever 
 desisted from the attempt to recover Belleisle, the 
 retention of which would have been felt by them 
 much as the possession of the Isle of Wight by the 
 French would be felt by the English? The Govern- 
 ment wisely reckoned up their gains, and they were 
 sufficient without these later acquisitions. 
 
 Let us see what those gains were. The war had 
 saved Gibraltar and recovered Minorca, at that time 
 considered as important for the defence of British 
 interests as Malta is now. The entrance to the 
 Mediterranean was secure. The armaments of France 
 
 * Lord Stanhope's " History of England," IT., 272. 
 
22 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 and Spain in that sea might be now at any time 
 divided from those on their Western Coasts. By 
 driving the French from North America, the belt of 
 young Colonies, of which at that time England never 
 dreamt except, as part of itself, had been saved; the 
 prospects of their unlimited development, of that ex- 
 traordinary extension which has since taken place 
 over the whole Continent, had been happily acquired. 
 Excluded from the rest of India, the French might 
 well be su.ffered to retain Pondicherry. Surrounded 
 by British possessions, the few West Indian islands 
 which, they were to retain were not grudged. Great 
 Britain had enough ; more than she could then manage, 
 as events soon proved. She had paid back with in- 
 terest the insults of half a century ; and no country 
 can afford to neglect that species of attack. No 
 Spanish inhibition could henceforth avail to stop the 
 progress of British commerce, on coasts where British 
 merchants had been treated as pirates. 
 
 Perhaps, also — for this is a typical Treaty, and 
 requires more space than others — it may be worth 
 while to remark that it was scarcely less really satis- 
 factory in its relation to the brave ally whom the 
 British have been so vehemently accused of deserting. 
 If we take a comprehensive view of the support which 
 had been given to Frederick the Great in the Seven 
 Years War, we shall find that it was tlu-ough England 
 alone — ^lier gold, her troops, her diplomacy, her 
 efforts for the sake of Hanover — that he had emerged 
 from the tremendous conflict in which he had deli- 
 
THU FEAGJS OF PARIS. 23 
 
 berately chosen to involve himself. Without that 
 help he must, in spite of his marvellous genius, have 
 succumbed to the overwhelming forces marshalled 
 against him. Was there to be no limit to it ? Was 
 he really left in the lurch, so as to lose the benefit of 
 the sacrifices which the two countries had made? 
 There is one simple answer. The Peace of Paris was 
 no sooner concluded than, Austria and Prussia being 
 left alone in conflict, means were instantly found to 
 bring the war to an end. The statics quo was found to 
 be a very good termination. The Prussian King had 
 gained quite all that he deserved to gain. And as for 
 Great Britain, she had fought for the maintenance of 
 the Protestant interest in Europe ; for the freedom of 
 the minor States, one of which, Hanover, was her own, 
 from the domination of the more powerfid, some of 
 which were also her most dangerous rivals and ene- 
 mies. Not only was Canada, as Pitt said, conquered in 
 Germany, but some of these enemies must have been 
 fought on British shores if they had not been fought 
 on the Continent. The menaces of Marshal Saxe 
 were no idle boast. The policy of William and Anne 
 and Marlborough, even of Chatham himself, had, in 
 short, been triumphantly vindicated. The nation 
 showed that it knew when to stop. 
 
 How difficult has it always been to discover the 
 exact moment when a war ought to stop ! What 
 pohtical convulsions has it always produced in Eng- 
 land! From the Opposition has always proceeded a 
 cry of indignation when these Treaties are made ; it 
 
24 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 becomes a popular cry, and it is not difficult to find 
 a victim. On this occasion it was Lord Bute who 
 was loudly accused, but without the slightest cause, 
 of having received an immense bribe. The truth, is 
 that the crooked paths in which the Ministers who 
 make these Treaties find themselves obliged, as by 
 some fate, to walk, beget the natural opinion that 
 their work is tainted by corruption, or by mere 
 selfish party-motive. It was so with the Peace of 
 Utrecht, when England was supposed to have flung 
 away the conquests of Marlborough in shameful sub- 
 servience to a bedchamber intrigue, though the sound- 
 ness of that Treaty is now very generally admitted. 
 It was so Avith the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, when, 
 with more reason, the Ministry were blamed for relin- 
 qiiishing Cape Breton to the French, and (the single 
 instance in British history) stooping to the dis- 
 grace of giving hostages, for the fulfilment of their 
 obligations. Yet in all these Treaties alike the main 
 object had been attained. The British Colonies and 
 Dependencies had been protected, guaranteed, set free, 
 their communications strengthened, their danger from 
 hostile combinations provided against in the future. 
 Their freedom carried with it that of British com- 
 merce. 
 
 If this is the key to the Treaties which culminated 
 in that of Paris in 1763 — and we can here only give 
 results — ^if this was the principle laid down by in- 
 variable practice at the very foundation of the Modern 
 Empire, it may be well to pause here for a moment, and. 
 
THS PBINOIPLE OF OUB FOREIGN POLICY. •25 
 
 before proceeding to enquire how far subsequent wars 
 and treaties were conducted on the same general 
 principle, to meet the question whether this prin- 
 ciple was a mere outcome of arrogance, greediness, 
 and selfishness, a Foreign Policy unworthy of a high- 
 minded Christian nation ; or whether, on the contrary, 
 it is one of which we have no reason to be ashamed. 
 These are questions which lie at the root of much 
 truly British self-depreciation. What are the facts ? 
 
 Great Britain in the Seventeenth Century found 
 herself starting on her career of migration, settle- 
 ment, and trade somewhat later than nations which, 
 obeying the first impulses of maritime discovery, had 
 abeady appropriated, as they considered, vast Con- 
 tinents and groups of islands which they could not in 
 any way pretend to have really occupied. NoYerthe- 
 less, they did but follow a natural instinct in attempt- 
 ing to exclude intruders ; the British did but follow a 
 natural instinct in resolving that they would not be 
 excluded. Should either of them be altogether con- 
 demned ? In some Utopian, best-possible world all 
 nations may act on cosmopolitan principles ; but it 
 is absurd to ignore in human nature, as we have it, 
 the operation of simple, straightforward, patriotic 
 principles which seem to be planted there for the ex- 
 press purpose of extending human progress. These 
 principles lead nations to think it a virtue to develope 
 their own trade, and the influence necessary to promote 
 that trade, in all directions which are fairly open to 
 them without infringing upon the just claims of their 
 
26 niPEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 neighbours ; and also to think it a virtue to retain 
 what they or their ancestors have spent life and 
 goods in acquiring. These come to them as first prin- 
 ciples ; no one questions them. 
 
 Yet wars must arise out of these principles 
 when they talSe shape. It is by this very clash of 
 different national interests, necessarily conflicting in- 
 terests, this din of arms, these very faults and infirmi- 
 ties of our nature — all the while, however, affording the 
 very sphere of exercise required for the formation of 
 the higher moral qualities — ^that the course of the world 
 is guided onward and onward in the paths of perpetual 
 improvement and eventual civilisation. Each nation 
 supplies its own quota in its own turn, prolonged for 
 a longer or shorter time according to its capacity. 
 Experience teaches a further lesson. Capacity for the 
 development of successful colonies and commerce 
 seems to be pretty much in proportion to the good- 
 ness and freedom of the Home Grovernment. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of being ashamed of the prin- 
 ciples on which the British Empire was founded 
 (though there are some exceptional cases of un- 
 worthy proceeding in India before the attention of 
 the nation was called to them), there is rather 
 cause for admiration. Given the lawfulness of 
 trade, we grant the necessity of trading settle- 
 ments, and postulate the duty of defending them. 
 British wars and treaties may all be traced to 
 this principle. But there is something besides. In 
 the course of her progress Grreat Britain has prac- 
 
THE BALANCE OF POWEB. 27 
 
 tically found her duties to her own subjects 
 correspond with her duties to her neighbours. 
 Her mixed Continental and Colonial position — we 
 may add, her religious position as the head of the 
 Reformed Communions — developed on her part a 
 persistent hostility to tyrants which also provided for 
 her own defence. The doctrine of the Balance of 
 Power was only another phrase for that elementary 
 duty.* The support of the weak made her strong. 
 The respect for International Law which she enforced 
 at every sacrifice, coincided with her own interest, 
 her own honour. With the internal concerns of other 
 States she never interfered, except when and so far 
 as those concerns affected her own rights, her own 
 safety, her own existence as a nation. But it is still 
 more to her honour that her successes in war were 
 invariably followed by a modest retreat from the 
 invidious position which she might have been justified 
 in assuming. 
 
 Not that it is necessary to attribute, with com- 
 placent oj)timism, this latter virtue to the deliberate 
 forethought and judgment either of the Grovernment 
 or people. It is rather the compensation, the self- 
 acting balance, only traceable by close observers, 
 provided, like that of the Crown above mentioned, 
 by a free Constitution. Self-government involves an 
 ultimate appeal to the nation. Nations rush with 
 ardour into war when its necessity, sometimes only 
 its supposed necessity, is fairly understood. They 
 
 • See the Chapter ou " The True Meaning of the Balance of Power." 
 
28 IMPERIAL ENGLAXD. 
 
 soon grow weary of it when the needful sacrifices are 
 brought home to them. Their weariness, even when 
 successful, leads them to desire terms which are often 
 inconsistent with the position they have attained. 
 The members of the Government which has carried 
 through the war — ^the men who alone knew its secret 
 springs, and have staked their all upon the issue — 
 are the last to see this change of opinion or to recog- 
 nise its justice ; but they have to give way ; and 
 when they have done so, the popular voice generally 
 turns against them. So much the worse for them. 
 It is, so far, a melancholy retrospect ; yet, on the 
 whole, the right course has been pursued. Contem- 
 poraries complain; immediately subsequent histories 
 echo their complaints. But posterity ratifies. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY IN THE SECOND PERIOD 
 
 (1763—1784). 
 When we turn from the considerations which display 
 and justify the Foreign Policy of Great Britain at the 
 conclusion of the first period of our history, and 
 regard the position of the young Monarch amongst 
 his Ministers, in what a labyrinth do we find him 
 involved ! What a task awaited him ! Pierced by 
 the reed on which he leaned, the incompetent Lord 
 Bute, his mother's friend (surely never anything but 
 
POSITION OF THE KING. 29 
 
 an honourable friendship) ; fretted by the busy feeble- 
 ness of the Dulce of Newcastle ; obliged by the neces- 
 sity of the case to use such an unworthy tool as the 
 elder Fox ; harassed and insulted by the pedantic 
 Greorge Grrenville, and then, subsequently, baulked 
 by the obstinate selfishness of Lord Temple in his 
 earnest effort to place once more at the head of the 
 Government the only fit man, Lord Chatham ; with 
 a Whig party split up, chiefly on personal grounds, 
 into four distinct factions, and a Tory party which 
 for half a century had been under the cloud of 
 imputed Jacobitism, and was scarcely a party at all ; 
 with London all the while pretty much governed by 
 the fiercest mobs ; the only marvel is that the King 
 retained his throne. It was only astonishing that the 
 country fell into no greater disorder than was incident 
 to the purification of its Constitution by means of a 
 drastic purge. That purge was administered at the 
 hands of the most consummate of all demagogues, 
 ancient or modern, John Wilkes. It was compounded 
 with the aid of the most scurrilous, and yet most able, 
 political physician a State ever possessed, the mys- 
 terious Junius. It was during this eclipse of every 
 nobler element, in the Government or out of it, that 
 the conspicuous public and private virtues of the 
 Sovereign came to be recognised as the rallying-flag 
 of the country. For better or worse, as we may 
 think, it was the character which he now displayed 
 that rendered him, almost unconsciously to himself, 
 the powerful monarch he became as the representative 
 
30 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 of his people. It was during the London riots in 
 1768 that Benjamin Franklin, no mean judge, wrote 
 thus of him : — 
 
 "What the end will be, God only knows. But some punishment 
 seems preparing for a people who are vmgratefully abusing the best 
 Constitution and tlie best King any nation was ever blessed with." 
 
 And again, in 1769 : — 
 
 " I can scarcely conceive a King of better dispositions, of more 
 exemplary virtues, or more truly desiroiis of promoting the welfai-e 
 of his subjects." 
 
 And again, writing in 1784 : — 
 
 " If George the Third had had a bad private character, and John 
 Wilkes a good one, the latter would have turned the former out of 
 the Kingdom." * 
 
 When we remember the position Franklin held in 
 England, and how intimately he was bound up with the 
 whole American struggle, such a testimony, perfectly 
 uniform, and extending over sixteen years, must 
 carry great . weight. It might be matched from 
 numerous other sources ; but it is enough. 
 
 Dmring the early part of the period under review. 
 Ministry succeeded Ministry, each worse or feebler 
 than the last. When Chatham was at length pre- 
 vailed upon to take office, his services were no longer 
 of value. Bodily illness, mental debility, inextricable 
 relations with factious statesmen, cloud upon cloud, 
 obscured the great luminary ; and it was only after 
 
 * Franklin's Private Diary, quoted by Lord Stanhope, " History of 
 England," V., 234; and Graham's "History of the United States," quoted 
 by Mr. Jeese, " Life and Reign of George III.," II., 79. 
 
BETIBEMENT OF CHATHAM. 31 
 
 he ceased to be responsible for the government of the 
 country that his counsels were once more heard to any 
 effect. Too late, indeed, to be available. While the 
 Government was in a state of chaos the irreparable 
 measures had been taken. A master-mind alone could 
 have struck out a wise and yet dignified policy, which 
 might have prevented the quarrel with the American 
 Colonies; but where was such a mind to be found? 
 It was under Chatham's own Administration — he 
 hnnself incapacitated, yet holding the reins of power 
 — ^that one of the chief steps in their alienation had 
 been made. As Grrenville's Stamp Act had been the 
 first of these steps, so Charles Townshend's measure 
 for taxing American imports was the second. It 
 only remained for the Tory Lord North to add the 
 coping-stone to the doomed fabric of the Whigs, by 
 retaining the duty on tea when all other taxation 
 had been at length repealed. Then came the unap- 
 peasable resistance, the burst of pent-up, furious 
 passion on both sides, the blunders and confusion, the 
 horrors of Civil War, the failure of the mother country, 
 the eager alliance of France, Spain, and Holland with 
 the revolted Colonies, the storm raging on every 
 side, Scotland and Ireland in a dangerous state, the 
 Northern Powers of Europe forming an " Armed 
 Neutrality " against the obnoxious naval Power which 
 seemed to be at its last gasp ; and then, at the end 
 of another Seven Years War, the Independence of 
 the United States. But along with it, through the 
 victories of Rodney and the defence of Gibraltar — 
 
32 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 yes, and the gallant bearing of the monarch — came 
 also the glorious extrication of Grreat Britain from 
 her perilous position. 
 
 The quarrel which led to this issue, then thought 
 so disastrous, is a trite subject, yet in any survey of 
 British Foreign Policy it must find a prominent 
 place, and all the more since the exceeding difficulties 
 which then beset the question seem to be already 
 passing out of sight. It has become the fashion, now 
 that we are more than a century in advance of our 
 forefathers and entirely at one with our American 
 kindred, to speak of the course which should have 
 been pursued as the most obvious thing possible. 
 The mass of complicated influences which produced 
 the war and the separation are now treated in the 
 lump, and are stigmatised as the mere outburst of 
 passion and pride. It is a common topic in news- 
 papers and on platforms to denounce the stupid in- 
 toxication of the King and people as the natural 
 consequence of a too-aristocratic Constitution, impos- 
 sible to imagine under the illumination of the Nine- 
 teenth Century. And yet let us cluster together a 
 little group of facts and opinions. 
 
 In the first place, it should remove some modem 
 political bitterness if it were remembered that both 
 parties in the State were, as we have seen, equally 
 responsible for bringing on the catastrophe. 
 
 In the next place, we are apt to confound distinct 
 things. There was the right of taxation ; there was 
 the policy of taxation; there was the separate ques- 
 
TAXATION OF THE COLONIES. 33 
 
 tion of independence ; there was tlie question of duty 
 when the revolt had once developed into war. On 
 only one of these is there, or can there be, any- 
 thing like a general agreement. On that point — the 
 pohcy of taxation — every one can now see that it 
 was a mistake to stand to it in any form. And yet 
 not only is it easy to be wise after the event, but 
 even the policy of concession may take a different 
 aspect according to the time at which it is made. 
 What would have been of extreme value at one 
 time may only aggravate differences when made at 
 another. The great Chatham, whose eloquence de- 
 nounced, when too late, the proceedings which led 
 to the conflict, died in the very act of exhorting his 
 countrymen never to give way to American Inde- 
 pendence. Even the seditious " Junius " main- 
 tained the right of taxing the colonies ; even Burke 
 declined to deny the right — " it was too deep a 
 question."* He, the one statesman who could boast 
 of something like a consistent identification with tlie 
 course which we may fairly consider ought to have 
 been pursued throughout, declared "the constitutional 
 superiority of Grreat Britain to be as necessary for 
 America as for ourselves, and consistent with all the 
 liberties a sober and spirited American ought to 
 desire." t The gentle poet Cowper defended the 
 obstinate resistance of the King when the struggle 
 had commenced, because he was a " trustee witli 
 respect to every inch of his territories, and might 
 
 * Speech on Conciliation, 1775. t Bristol Speech, 1774. 
 
34 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 not resign them to an enemy, or transfer his right 
 to govern them to any, not even to themselves, so 
 long as it is possible for him to keep it."* 
 
 Above all, the attitude of the people and the 
 Parliament ought to be closely observed. It was no 
 transient freal of passion. Passion is short-lived. 
 When the country was appealed to, it gave such 
 majorities in support of the British policy that the 
 Opposition took the rare step of altogether seceding 
 from Parliament. There was surely something more 
 than pride and passion at the bottom of a movement 
 so widespread, so prolonged, so defended. Pride and 
 passion there were ; but on what were they founded, 
 and with what more respectable qualities were they 
 associated ? A very slight glance at the political 
 history of those times may be enough to refresh our 
 memory. 
 
 Let us observe, then, that the question of rebellion 
 and separation on the part of their colonies presented 
 itself to the moral sense of the British people as a 
 grievous crime. When the mother of these States 
 had settled, chartered, governed, and defended them, 
 it never occurred to those at home that they had 
 not as direct an interest in them as they had in any 
 county of old England. The idea of their inde- 
 pendence was perfectly new. No modern people had 
 as yet dreamt of it. 
 
 In addition to this sense of injustice, the feeling 
 of indignation at colonial ingxatitude had taken an 
 
 * Donne's " Correspondence of George III. with Lord North," II., 401. 
 
INGHATITUBE OF THE COLONIES. 35 
 
 exceedingly strong hold on the British mind. The 
 Seven Years War had been waged by this country 
 for British and Colonial self-defence and for com- 
 mercial freedom. It had been waged beyond the 
 seas in three distinct regions, India, the Mediter- 
 ranean, and America, and of these the last had 
 occupied by far the greatest part of the national 
 interest. The two millions of British subjects settled 
 in North America had been defended from France 
 and Spain at a cost of life and treasure which, in 
 those days of small things, seemed, and was, im- 
 mense. It was a service which they could not be 
 expected to perform for themselves. They had been 
 set free — free to march forward on their prosperous 
 career. There were not wanting some who foresaw 
 that, the foreign pressure once removed, a change of 
 relations would some day take place between mother 
 and daughter ; but perhaps no one foresaw that it would 
 commence all at once. If passion was superinduced 
 upon this moral sense of wrong, it hardly deserves, 
 however wise it would have been to have choked it 
 down, the contempt and reprobation so easily visited 
 upon the actors on the stage of that distant period. 
 The ancients have well taught us that indignation 
 was given to man for the purpose of helping him 
 to overcome wrong, and support the right. 
 
 And pride is also in the abstract a bad quality; 
 yet national pride is, in some sense, a virtue. It 
 need not be the pride of arrogance ; but the pos- 
 sessors of a great inheritance are not likely to 
 
36 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 take much trouble about it, still less defend it at 
 great cost and risk, if they are not in some 
 sense proud of it. And the Empire had been but 
 just acquired. It was but yesterday that the glorious 
 death of Wolfe, on the heights of Abraham, had 
 seemed to be a, sacrifice offered up to the union of 
 the whole British race on either side of the Atlantic. 
 Still further. To the sense of moral indignation, 
 and of the outrage done to a just pride, was added 
 a not unreasonable fear lest the example of revolt 
 should spread to the other members of the British 
 Empire, and even to the very heart, to one of the 
 three kingdoms, to Ireland. Was the whole fabric 
 to collapse like a child's castle of cards ? This was 
 the aspect in which the matter was viewed by all 
 thoughtful people. It was that in which the King 
 chiefly regarded it. In his Letters to Lord North he 
 frequently expressed the feeling in every variety of 
 form. And yet it is not perhaps sufficiently remem- 
 bered that during the progress of the struggle this 
 very King, now so often charged with the whole 
 responsibility of the war, had been by no means 
 one of those most bent upon harsh measures. He 
 had steadily opposed George Grenville's policy of 
 violence, and has left it on record that in 1766 he 
 was for a Repeal of the Stamp Act rather than for 
 enforcing it with the sword. Though he would have 
 preferred some modification of the Repeal, he sup- 
 ported his Ministers in the total abolition of the tax.* 
 
 • Eockingham Papeis, I., SOI ; Grenville Papers, III., 353. 
 
INDEPENDENCE TO BE PREVENTED. 37 
 
 But, when the sword was once drawn, it was a 
 different thing. Independence presented itself as 
 something which it was a duty at all costs to prevent. 
 No inherent right was ever claimed for it ; all policy 
 seemed to be against it. "A small State," said the 
 King to Lord North, " may certainly subsist, but a 
 great one mouldering cannot get into an inferior 
 situation, but must be annihilated. By perseverance 
 we may bring things to a peace ; by giving up the 
 game we are destroying ourselves to prevent our 
 being destroyed."* "The country has a right to 
 have the struggle continued till convinced it is in 
 vain."f Lord Chatham had frequently said as much. 
 The able Lord Shelburne, afterwards for a short time 
 Prime Minister, following Chatham's lead, had gone 
 so far as to pronounce that when America became in- 
 dependent the sun of England would set. Or take a 
 modern Whig .writer, who for the most part blames 
 the war, and all concerned in it, in unmeasured terms. 
 Mr. Massey admits that " England had no alter- 
 native, when her dependencies broke into rebellion, 
 but an appeal to the sword." He shows that the people 
 would not have allowed the King to avoid the issue. 
 " The war had been popular with all classes." When 
 the country at last perceived that it could not con- 
 quer, and was only wasting its .revenues, then the 
 King, " discerning the temper of his people, reluc- 
 
 * Sjpt. 26, 1780. Donne's " Correspondence of George III. with Lord 
 North." 
 
 t Jan. 31, 1778, ib. 
 
38 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 tantly gave up the contest"* — not, however, till 
 France and Spain had been humbled — the merit 
 of which " obstinacy " Mr. Massey does not 
 admit. 
 
 Nor ought we to forget how strong must have 
 appeared the duty of supporting those loyal members 
 of the Colonies — in many districts a powerful minority, 
 in some for a time a majority — who relied with entire 
 confidence on engagements which had always been 
 reckoned of the most sacred obligation. At the very 
 least, while perceiving that a different conduct would 
 have been wise and politic, and that forbearance and 
 magnanimity would, from the first, have been the 
 proper attitude of the nation, we are certainly bound 
 to remember how very gradually the light dawned 
 even upon great minds, how little reason there was 
 at first to expect what actually occurred, and how 
 difiicult it is to draw back when a line of action has 
 already been taken up. The King was certainly far 
 less to blame than Greorge Grrenville and Charles 
 Townshend, the two leading Ministers of their day ; 
 and yet there were few abler men than these. We 
 bring, then, the failure home to the state of political 
 parties at this period, to the occurrence of the crisis 
 at a moment when the Constitution was in a transi- 
 tional and unsettled state, and when the relations of 
 the Colonies to the mother country, habitually re- 
 garded too much from only one point of view, had 
 
 * "History of England during the Reign of George 111.,'= toI. III., 
 pp. 166, 170. 
 
CANADA A PARALLEL CASE. 39 
 
 been hitherto neglected on their domestic and poli- 
 tical side. 
 
 Perhaps, however, it may teach us to be less 
 severe even in this mitigated judgment on the con- 
 duct of affairs, if we look at what took place only 
 forty years ago. Just as we have hitherto relied 
 mainly on the testimony of Whig statesmen and 
 authors, so let us remember what a Whig Govern- 
 ment thought it right to do in our own day. Did it 
 view Rebellion, when it flamed in Canada, with eyes 
 very different from those of their predecessors ? Did 
 Great Britain decline to interfere with the will of the 
 rebels? Or did she, without hesitation, send out an 
 army and navy to support the loyal Colonists, and 
 to re-assert British superiority? Was the danger 
 arising from the alliance of Canada with the full- 
 grown United States so muph greater than that of 
 the same States, in their infancy, with France, Spain, 
 and Holland ? Rather was it not considerably less ? 
 And yet has the action taken in 1838 been reckoned 
 amongst British crimes ? 
 
 It will hardly be considered a digression if 
 this illustration be allowed to serve another pur- 
 pose. We may paint the incompetence of our early 
 Georgian Administrations in colours too little relieved 
 by touches of light. Let us put in one of them. 
 The happy relations which have, with so little inter- 
 ruption, existed between Great Britaui and Canada 
 were first established, as if by way of compensation, at 
 this very time. If we regard the state of religious and 
 
40 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 political opinion at this date, it is no slight credit to 
 the King and to Lord North that the Roman Catholics 
 in Canada, but just subdued, were granted perfect free- 
 dom of worship, that representative institutions were 
 commenced, and that trial by jury was made the law 
 of the land. How much credit is due to the King for 
 this enlightened feeling may easily be gathered from 
 Horace Walpole's bitter attack on him and the bishops 
 for their so-called treachery to " Protestantism,"* and 
 he is a fair representative of a large class of opinion. 
 It was on this foundation that William Pitt and the 
 King built the further fabric of Constitutional Gro- 
 vernment in the Colonies, which will be mentioned 
 in its place. Let it only be here observed that the 
 vital lessons necessary for binding colonies to a mother 
 country had been already learnt under the severe and 
 sobering teaching of experience. From that moment 
 it may truly be affirmed that, if the British were about 
 to lose a part of their Empire by lack of political 
 sagacity, they had secured the adherence of the rest 
 for at least many generations. 
 
 But we may not yet dismiss the momentous issues 
 of this American policy. We may well linger over 
 them. It would be an exaggeration to say that no 
 event of greater magnitude ever happened in modern 
 history than the severance of the British race into two 
 lialves, but it would not be far from the truth. Let 
 us, then, measure the responsibilities of those who 
 brought on the American War by the prospects they 
 
 * " Last Journals," I., 353. 
 
CHANGES OF SUGGE8S. 41 
 
 might fairly have entertained of success. Let us next 
 regard the consequences of their failure, and so 
 conclude.- 
 
 If the mother country was to be dxaiaed of her 
 blood and treasure, if posterity was to be called on 
 to pay the debt, then to a sense of the error of the 
 policy might well be added the reproach of reckless 
 expenditure in a hopeless cause. Burke, indeed, with 
 his magnificent prophetic rhetoric, laboured in most 
 copious speeches to prove that the task was utterly be- 
 yond the means of his country. He turned out to be 
 right ; but it was a far more balanced struggle than 
 he had anticipated. There were times when all 
 but the most courageous of the colonists had lost 
 all heart, moments when the immortal Washington 
 himself declared that nothing could have saved the 
 cause but the infatuation of the British commanders. 
 Nor was the desperate nature of the contest less felt 
 in England. Three days before the news arrived of 
 Comwallis's surrender, even Franklin had " des- 
 paired of seeing the war finished in his time." The 
 conduct of the war was a tissue of errors. One great 
 man in command of the English forces might have 
 turned the scale. A Rodney on the American coast, or 
 even a Cornwallis in full command on shore, might well 
 have over-matched Washington, great as he was, and 
 Rochambeau. It was no doubt well in the end that 
 it was so ; but, from a military point of view, there 
 was no intrinsic absurdity in the attempt to preserve 
 the integrity of the Empire. 
 
42 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 What is to be admired on the British side is 
 exactly what is often most ignorantly condemned, the 
 splendid spirit which, when all the world was in arms 
 against the British isles, refused to succumb till an 
 honourable peace could be obtained. How grand is 
 the position of the unshaken sovereign — -Justus et tenax 
 propositi — ^who, after it was demonstrated that nothing 
 more could be done with the revolted colonies, yet 
 held out to the last, till the pretensions of the old 
 hereditary enemies of England could be reduced, 
 and a position worthy of the ancient British renown 
 be attained once more. As Nelson said, in the pause 
 of battle at Copenhagen, when he insisted on sealing 
 the famous letter offering terms, " This is no time to 
 appear hurried or informal," so said the King in 
 other words, when he refused to be driven by popu- 
 lar clamour into a premature peace: "We are con- 
 tending for our whole consequence, whether we are to 
 rank among the great powers of Europe, or to be 
 reduced to one of the least considerable. He that is 
 not stimulated by this consideration does not deserve 
 to be a member of this community. We have it 
 not at this hour in our power to make peace : it is 
 by steadiness and by exertions that we are to get into 
 a position to effect it ; and, with the assistance of 
 Divine Providence, I am confident we shall find our 
 enemies forced to look for that blessing." 
 
 The words of brave men are often prophetic. 
 This letter was written in June, 1781, to encourage 
 the fainting heart of the Prime Minister. Only a few 
 
FEAGE WITH TEE COLONIES. 43 
 
 months afterwards the gallant Rodney had destroyed 
 the chief fleet of the French ; and not long after that, 
 the Spaniards had shattered themselves to pieces 
 against the Rock of Gibraltar. The Dutch had 
 already learnt to bewail their miscalculations. The 
 confederated hosts once more collapsed as in the days 
 of Chatham. Hawke and Wolfe had found worthy 
 successors in Rodney and Elliot. The time had come 
 when the war might be concluded with honour. The 
 Treaty of Versailles might have been managed better, 
 but it was no disgrace to the nation. The King, to 
 whom the loss of the colonies had been agony, in 
 whose constitution the war had set deep that tendency 
 to mental disease from which he so often suffered, 
 could now look John Adams in the face, and greet the 
 first ambassador from independent America with the 
 famous words : " I was the last to consent to the 
 separation ; I will be the first to meet the friendship 
 of the United States as an independent power." 
 
 The magnanimity of the King ought to colour 
 the reflections of all who approach the siibject. The 
 old bitterness has long passed away. In placing our- 
 selves where Englishmen stood a hundred years ago, 
 there is no need to depreciate the courage and conduct 
 of the Americans. They acted as Englishmen might 
 be expected to act. If they had carried with them 
 across the Atlantic the old English spirit, the old 
 English education in freedom, if they learnt with 
 marvellous rapidity the elementary art of war from 
 the troops sent to reduce them, they also learnt from 
 
44 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 the English Parliament the arguments by which they 
 defended their conduct and justified the advance of 
 their aims. They rose at first in order to resist what 
 they held to be tyranny; they never thought of inde- 
 peiidence. That their aims rose higher and higher 
 was the fruit of the unrestrained rhetoric of English 
 orators. 
 
 Whether it was patriotic on the part of Chatham, 
 Burke, and Fox, to counteract the arms of their 
 country by the free and fierce use of language which 
 was in itself more than armies to the colonists, was 
 then, and has often ' since been, matter of bitter 
 dispute. Such is the fate, such the defect, of party 
 government. But what of that? If party govern- 
 ment is only another name for freedom, for the 
 Constitution, for whatever is most valuable on earth, 
 then this terrible weight which a free country wears 
 around its neck whenever it engages in conflict with 
 others is, after all, to be lightly borne. But at least 
 we should remember to measure the difficulties of the 
 Grovernment by the magnitude of the opposition at 
 home as well as by the force of hostile combinations 
 abroad. 
 
 And now for the results. As the combatants could 
 hardly foresee them, it is incorrect to allow them to 
 affect our judgment upon their motives. But they 
 form an important item in our present survey, and 
 they are easily summed up in the main. The Ameri- 
 can War (or rather the war with all the world) cost 
 the nation more than a hundred millions of money, and 
 
RESULTS OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 45 
 
 many thousand valuable lives ; it embittered its rela- 
 tions with its own flesh and blood ; and some of its ill 
 efEects were traceable, as in all civil wars, for many 
 years afterwards. But on the mere credit and debtor 
 account the British were not losers. They gained an 
 income if they acquired a debt. As Mr. Massey 
 observes, we obtained " a commerce of a hundred mil- 
 lions with free America in lieu of a barren sovereignty 
 which we could not have retained."* Many writers, like 
 Lord John Russell,} believe that nothing could have 
 prevented a speedy separation if it had not come as 
 it did; and even Mr. Grreen admits that "England 
 arose from the war stronger and greater than ever."]; 
 The conflict with France and Spain must certainly 
 have come but little later. We can now see that it 
 was well it came when it did. It was thus that Great 
 Britain was to secure ten years of rapid recuperation, 
 and gain an enormous and unprecedented development 
 before the still greater trial of the French Revolution 
 still more terribly taxed her resources. 
 
 And, again, it was well, if separation was, as it 
 would seem, inevitable, that the States should have 
 gained their independence before the cry of Repub- 
 lican France should summon them to her aid. The 
 combined action of two such fierce democracies, 
 in the first ardour of their struggle for existence, 
 might have been ruinous to the cause of free Con- 
 
 * " History of England/' &c., III., 79. ' 
 
 t "Life and Letters of Charles James Fox," L, 151. 
 
 + " History of the English People," p. 762, 1st. ed. 
 
46 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 stitutions, and perhaps an overmatch for the resources 
 of Grreat Britain. At least, it must be admitted that 
 the two severed portions of the race learnt in the 
 very act of separation to respect one another, and 
 this is the foundation of all good relationship. It 
 is also easy to see how the scars which have attended 
 the struggle might have been very much deeper and 
 more troublesome to heal. 
 
 In dealing with the principles of the American 
 War we have covered the foreign policy of the 
 period. View the war as we may, it was a Civil 
 War, during the height of which France and Spain, 
 whose aggressions had been repelled with interest 
 in the Seven Years' War, once more strove — ^not 
 unnaturally — -to recover their losses. They believed 
 they had found their opportunity. They made an 
 unprovoked and unjustifiable attack. They failed. 
 Of her former acquisitions Minorca was the only one 
 of any importance which Grreat Britain had to relin- 
 quish at the Peace of Versailles ; and this might 
 probably have been saved by the cession of Gibraltar. 
 That cession was prevented by the combination of 
 Fox and Pitt, representing, in opposition to Lord 
 Shelburne, the deliberate conviction of the nation. 
 How could it be otherwise after Lord Heathfield's 
 grand exploit ? 
 
 Thus the modern British empire, founded in self- 
 defence, was all the more firmly planted by the 
 agency of the first great storm which had assailed it. 
 The British oak struck its roots the deeper for the 
 
PITT'S PEACE ADMINISTRATION. 47 
 
 loss of branches which, by their too great weight, 
 were impeding its growth. It was still young and 
 vigorous enough to put forth fresh branches in their 
 place, and the healthy verdure of the newer shoots 
 soon filled up the void, and concealed the ravages of 
 the furious elements. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY DURING PITT's PEACE- 
 ADMINISTRATION (1784 1793). 
 
 The period on which we now enter, perhaps the 
 most glorious in our annals for the spectacle it pre- 
 sents of national progress, affords also the best in- 
 dication of the deliberate foreign policy of Great 
 Britain. Happily for her, the Continent was for the 
 moment as yet untroubled by the volcanic eruption 
 so soon to break forth. Though men fondly supposed 
 that all need for British interference in its affairs had 
 passed away with the late conflict, there was a general 
 feeling that not a moment was to be lost in consoli- 
 dating the Empire abroad, and in organising the 
 many interests at home which had fallen into con- 
 fusion. The stern lessons of the war had been 
 learnt by the whole nation. 
 
 It is a relief, after the troubles of the past years 
 of the reign, to contemplate the satisfaction of the 
 harassed monarch who had at last found in the 
 youthful Pitt a Minister to his mind. His simple 
 
48 IMPERIAL ENGLAND'. 
 
 home-life, beautiful in that virtuous simplicity which 
 commends itself to good taste, was as yet com- 
 paratively free from the misery subsequently brought 
 on him by the conduct of his sons. The five years 
 before his illness in 1788 were the happiest he was 
 ever allowed to spend. " For twenty-two years," 
 said he, complaining to Lord Temple of the " un- 
 principled Coalition " which had been forced on him 
 in 1783,1 "I have been trying to keep the Grovern- 
 ment out of the narrow bounds of any faction." * 
 Nothing could be more true. Now again, just as before, 
 he and the nation required above all things a good 
 and strong Administration. Lord North had been 
 an improvement on his predecessors, but he had 
 not only shown himself unequal to his task, but 
 he had seriously lowered himself by joining the 
 Coalition. , And what a failure had that Coalition 
 been ! If the separate " factions " had been intoler- 
 able, the mere jumble of the discordant elements 
 composing them, with the addition of Lord North, was 
 self-condemned. It could only last a few months. 
 But the Coalition answered one very useful purpose. 
 It exposed the unfitness of Fox for a leading position, 
 and it served to rally the whole country for the next 
 twenty-three years round the great Chatham's greater 
 son. 
 
 Was it mere fickleness that produced this sudden 
 withdrawal of the popular favour from those who 
 
 * " Courts and Cabinet^ of George III.," by the Duke of Buckingham, 
 1, 218. 
 
CAUSES OF PITT'S POPULARITY. 49 
 
 liad made the Peace which all desired ? Was it 
 mere disgust at the Coalition? Was it Fox's mon- 
 strous India Bill ? Was it the opposition of the 
 Whigs to the Reform of Parliament ? All these causes 
 have been assigned. But they are all inadequate, singly 
 or together. They are important circumstances, and 
 that is all. Far deeper lay the feeling of disgust 
 at the tyrannical attempt to thrust the King down to 
 the level of a Doge of Venice, and the admiration 
 excited by the spirit-stirring spectacle of the cham- 
 pionship of the Constitution by the youth whom 
 Sheridan designated as " the angry boy." The 
 one had gained their profound respect in spite of 
 temporary unpopularity, and they felt they had been 
 unjust to him. The position all at once taken up by 
 the other caught their fancy, and enlisted all their 
 sympathies. It was a strange thing — it had an 
 element of " sport " in it — to watch the combat, to 
 see this youth fighting almost single-handed against 
 the whole serried mass of statesmen to whom the 
 country had for so many years been accustomed to 
 listen. 
 
 Conspicuous above all of these was one who seemed 
 destined to the special greatness of a successful Prime 
 Minister, and yet he sank in this conflict once and for 
 ever before an inexperienced novice who had come up 
 straight from college. Neither this country nor any 
 other has seen an orator more exactly fitted by his 
 natm-al gifts to command a senate than Charles 
 James Fox. Nor was his mental cultivation inferior 
 
50 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 to his abilities. Every social grace was at his service. 
 Generous, wittj, affectionate, the best of companions, 
 the truest of friends, cradled in high politics, the 
 readiest, brightest, most earnest, most conviucing 
 debater vs^ho Jias perhaps ever appeared, he seemed 
 to exist for the express purpose of proving that 
 vicious indulgence will never fail to bring its own 
 punishment. In vain were uttered his magnificent 
 appeals to all that was grand and noble. People 
 observed the contrast to his theories presented by 
 his low pursuits and his profligate character. They 
 admired his speeches ; they voted against him. 
 They did not trust him. Violence, extreme lines of 
 opinion, unbalanced and unpractical counsels, came 
 naturally from such a man. They were unsuited to 
 the steady genius of the British people, irreconcilable 
 with their traditions, nauseous to their taste. 
 
 That British people turned almost as one man to 
 William Pitt. They forgave his youth ; for when had 
 ever such a youth appeared? The sober, thoughtful 
 men of all parties united. They had at last found 
 what they wanted in the "personal government" of 
 the sovereign, administered by one who, like Pericles 
 at Athens, was the " first man " of his day. The 
 commerce, the wealth of the country, the professional 
 classes, the great middle class generally, headed by 
 tlie mass of the nobility and gentry, carried with 
 them the great mass of the peojDle. It was a united 
 cou.ntry ; and a free country, satisfied with its Govern- 
 ment and fairly united within itself, can do great thino-s. 
 
"THE VILOT WHO WEATHERED THE STOBM." 51 
 
 William Pitt only comes before us in this sketch 
 as the restorer and repairer of the imperial edifice 
 which his father had been so largely concerned in 
 building up. The acts by which he proved his title 
 to be considered the best man his country could 
 produce are familiar to all. It was on the basis of 
 domestic legislation that he laid the foreign polic}' 
 of Great Britain. Strong at home, she was resjDected 
 and feared abroad. Abuses removed, while the 
 Constitution was rigorously conserved, gave a sense of 
 soundness and future permanence which spoke with a 
 louder voice than mere oratory. The rej)0se which 
 attends the conviction that nothing is neglected, but 
 everything duly weighed, that principles are regarded 
 while for the moment particular acts might be 
 misunderstood, all this — and it might be expanded 
 to any extent — formed the public opinion which 
 enabled " the pilot to weather the storm," when 
 the storm pressed, as it did press, with " the broad 
 shoulders of the hurricane." 
 
 From the very first he exhibited the hand of 
 the master. The finances of the country, at his 
 magic touch, shook themselves, as it were, into 
 beautiful order, like chaotic fragments at the tm-n of 
 a kaleidoscope. The Resolutions necessary to simplify" 
 and consolidate the duties in Customs, Excise, and 
 Stamps, amounted to no less than 2,537. The 
 commercial relations with France, which after the 
 war were happily renewed, were established in all their 
 breadth and liberality by Pitt — a work for all time. 
 
52 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 The affairs of India, long and loudly crying to heaven 
 for settlement, were placed on the basis which con- 
 tinued firm, through changes of every kind, down to our 
 own day. The foundations of the Union with Ireland, 
 which he was gnabled at a later date to carry through, 
 were broadly laid. The Reform of the House of 
 Commons, repeatedly attempted by him, and only 
 suspended under the pressure of events, took such a 
 shape as could never afterwards be set aside, bearing 
 fruit when ripe, more than ripe. Under the proud, 
 disdainful hands of the austere young Commoner, 
 who, with prescient deliberation, scattered about more 
 peerages than all his predecessors, the House of Lords 
 emerged out of its old condition of a close, aristocratic 
 Chamber, into a virtually representative institution. 
 Working along with his friend, the gifted Wilberforce, 
 he all but lived to abolish the slave trade ; for 
 responsible statesmen could not do even such works 
 as that in a day. In short, it is not too much to say 
 that every portion of the national inheritance received 
 new life, or was only prevented from receiving it by 
 the unforeseen conflagration of Europe. 
 
 It has become a sort of historical trick — for it is 
 nothing else — since the merits of the domestic 
 legislation of Pitt have been forced upon the public 
 notice, to draw a hard line between it and his 
 foreign policy. He is to be reckoned a mere peace 
 administrator, failing utterly and absurdly the 
 moment he sallied forth out of his proper path. 
 It must at once strike any candid person that this 
 
PITTS FOnmON POLICY. 53 
 
 is, to say the least, a very unnatural view, very 
 improbable, very unlike what we should expect. It 
 will, then, be necessary to look into the matter. WTiat 
 was his foreign policy? How far was it framed on 
 the old lines ? How far developed ? How far was 
 its course in the wars which succeeded the Peace of 
 Versailles, identical with what was laid down during 
 the earlier time? We shall see that there is good 
 reason for considering this intervening peace period 
 to possess a fair claim to enrolment as a truly 
 typical period — typical and authoritative in many 
 different directions, and in none more than in the 
 sphere of foreign policy. And if the course pur- 
 sued during the war is only a continuation and appli- 
 cation of that which was laid down during the Peace, 
 if it was a necessary course, one to be pursued at all 
 hazards, and only failing where it could hardly but 
 fail, what becomes of the historical trick ? The mere 
 want of success in particular operations afEords no 
 argument when all the circumstances are taken into 
 account. We must aim at a larger view of tlte 
 subject. 
 
 The position of Great Britain under Pitt's 
 guidance may be briefly stated. Under that most 
 rapid development both of agriculture and manu- 
 factures which was now taking place, in conse- 
 quence of the great increase of population, and the 
 intense activity of the commercial world, pushing its 
 peaceful conquests into the new territories, while it 
 immensely added to what it previously possessed in 
 
54 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 the United States, tlie nation once more assumed, 
 and at a bound, its leading place in Europe ; it 
 became more than ever the object of admiration and 
 imitation. Men were amazed at the spectacle of the 
 iwland-empire thus riding over the waves in triumph 
 like some gallant vessel after a gale, and spreading 
 once more her full cloud of canvas to the gentler 
 breeze. Was it likely that the spectators should be 
 quite lost in admiration? Could it be so without 
 some tinge of jealousy and ill-will ? Men must have 
 been more than human to forget the past. What she 
 had gained or kept, others had tried to gain or 
 keep ; or lost, and tried to take back from her. How 
 would she deal with her immense responsibilities ? 
 
 One thing even Pitt's Great Britain could not do. 
 It could not recall the past. It was itself, by action 
 or neglect to act, a part of it. In the temporary 
 abeyance of the European concert, the very period at 
 which incompetent British statesmanship was drifting 
 into the loss of the American colonies, the partition 
 of Poland had disgraced the age. The fatal step 
 could never be retraced. With eager eyes strained 
 to watch the motions of France and Spain, even 
 Chatham had failed to understand the danger to the 
 world arising from the tmscrupulous ambition of the 
 Empress Catherine. And now, after a career equally 
 unscrupulous, the great man was to pass away 
 around whom the European, system had so long 
 arranged itself that the world, from this cause alone, 
 independent of others, stood perplexed and anxious 
 
TEE BALANCE OF POWEE. £5 
 
 as to what would follow. There was good reason. 
 The death of Frederick the Great was the signal 
 for the unlocking of those violent and subtle forces 
 which could no longer be restrained. The prepara- 
 tion of the mind of Western Europe by the un- 
 settlement of opinion at home, and the example 
 of the American Colonies beyond seas, was rapidly 
 approaching completion. The English philosophy, 
 transmitted across the Channel, had not improved 
 by becoming a French philosophy, and the circum- 
 stances under which it was propagated were very 
 much for the worse. The time had come when 
 the old feudal society could no longer exist under 
 the searching light which, impure, deceptive, partial 
 as it was, was yet light. How was the British vessel 
 to be piloted over the swelling waters ? There were 
 clouds enough in the horizon. 
 
 In presenting the situation as it then took shape 
 we cannot by any means dispense with the familiar 
 term, " Balance of Power." Its general principles 
 and application will be found treated elsewhere. In 
 this place it is only needful to notice how it affected 
 British foreign policy. Hitherto applied chiefly to 
 combine the nations against the tyranny of Spain 
 or France, and but slightly in the adjustment of the 
 relations of the new great powers, Russia and Prussia, 
 to the rest it was now to receive a wider applica- 
 tion. The death of Frederick did, as people fore- 
 saw, at once lead to the unsettling of the balance. 
 In the very next year the smaller States of Europe 
 
56 IMPEBIAL ENOLANI). 
 
 were in the uneasy condition of watch-dogs at night 
 when a dangerous intruder, man or beast, is prowling 
 about. There were more than one. There was a most 
 unholy alliance between the capable and unscrupulous 
 Catherine of JRussia and the incapable Emperor 
 Joseph of Austria. The busy meddling of the well- 
 meaning man with a hundred questions which he did 
 not understand made him a mere tool in the hands of 
 the cleverer woman who understood what she was 
 about very well. He was all the more dangerous. 
 Was it safe for the rest of Europe to look on while 
 the vast despotic empire of the East, swollen by the 
 acquisition of the greater part of Poland, and con- 
 solidated from the Baltic to the Black Sea, swallowed 
 up Turkey and Sweden ? Could they refuse to attend 
 while the Empress made her triumphal progress to the 
 Crimea in company with the credulous Joseph, opened 
 out to him hopes of a share in the spoils, and, by 
 way of keeping him amused, suggested to him the 
 dream of a revived Carlovingian Empire of the West, 
 with himself at the head, and Italy once more a 
 German appanage ? * It was thus that what we now 
 know as "the Eastern Question" first forced itself 
 upon the attention of Europe just a hundred years 
 ago. It was an essential ingredient in the Balance 
 of Power, as indeed the French had seen long 
 before. 
 
 * Tet Joseph, even while in the very process of being cajoled on the 
 subject of " les p^uvres diables de Turcs," had penetration enough to 
 remark, " Que diable faire de Constantinople ? " (" Prince de Ligne 
 Letters," &e., p. 55, ed. 1310, quoted in Creasy's " Oltoman aiirks," p. 426). 
 
"THE EASTERN QUESTION." 57 
 
 Great Britain was affected by what was taking 
 place in two very distinct directions, and in a tliii-d 
 way less direct, but still more important. And, first, 
 as regards the Mediterranean. 
 
 Independently of any effect on the general 
 balance of Europe, or, through other powers, upon 
 the safety of these islands, the immense preponder- 
 ance which Russia had now acquired, and was moving 
 rapidly forward to extend, was fatal to the freedom 
 and to the development of British commerce both in 
 the Baltic and Mediterranean. It was of little use 
 to our people to have planted their trade firmly in 
 the remote East and the remote West, if the Levant 
 and the Black Sea were to be in the power of Russia 
 to close against them, or if the independent Baltic 
 States were to become the vassals of that Power. 
 It was not a thing which could be left to chance. 
 Russia had already taken advantage of British neglect, 
 and then of British distress. Some means must be 
 found of retaining independent action in spite of her. 
 Happily, interest corresponded with duty. Not only 
 had she come across the direct path of British com- 
 merce, but British honour was concerned in the 
 support of a friendly State. 
 
 The Porte had been for centuries the firm ally of 
 the English, and a word or two upon that connection 
 must be said here. Like many other good beginnings, 
 the alliance had commenced with Queen Elizabeth ; 
 and, in the first treaty of her reign, no other nations 
 are mentioned as preceding England in the capitu- 
 
58 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 lations and wide commercial privileges then granted, 
 except France, Venice, and Poland. Since that time, 
 by treaties constantly renewed, these liberal conces- 
 sions had been confirmed. No small share of the 
 Asiatic traific;^ which, as its route through Europe 
 changed from age to age, had left so many marks on 
 the fortunes of the West, had thus fallen into English 
 hands. For some generations the "Turkey merchant" 
 had been the typical representative of English com- 
 mercial wealth, and . had scarcely yet been eclipsed 
 by the rising fortunes amassed in the East and West 
 Indies. 
 
 The alliance of the Porte with France was older, 
 and their commercial relations with one another had 
 also been of great importance to both countries ; but 
 hitherto the military and diplomatic advantages of 
 the alliance had been at least equally cultivated. 
 As Turkey was situated on the flank of the Austrian 
 Empire, a diversion from that side had always been 
 a part of the French war-policy ; and this is why 
 France was aware earlier than England of the danger 
 arising from the side of the new Power which 
 was thus about to destroy her ancient political com- 
 binations. England on the other hand, except when 
 she interposed in favour of the Porte at the Peace of 
 Carlowitz, had not till now begun to reckon on the 
 Turkish alliance in a military sense. Chatham's 
 policy had always favoured Russia as against France ; 
 and Fox (in 1783) had been deaf to the proposal of 
 France that she and Great Britain should combine 
 
POSITION OF TURKEY. 59 
 
 to check the aggressions of Eussia on Poland and 
 Turkey. It had been a purely commercial connec- 
 tion, all the closer from the absence of those openings 
 for disagreement -which miHtary alliances necessarily 
 involve. Nor was the importance of the relations 
 between India on the one hand, and the Tm'kish 
 provinces in Asia and East Africa on the other, much 
 less clearly understood by statesmen in Pitt's time 
 than it has been since. 
 
 It was this old and valued ally which now lay 
 crushed beneath the heel of the Muscovite. The late 
 Treaty of Kainardji had detached the Tartars from 
 the Turks, planted Russia on the shores of the 
 Euxine, and established a Russian protectorate of the 
 Christian vassal states of the Porte. The Turkish 
 fleet had been destroyed. The Empress had now 
 carried her conquests still further. The capture, in 
 concert with Austria, of OczakofE, distinctly announced 
 the coming partition of the Ottoman Empire. It was 
 now about to follow the fate of the still undigested 
 Poland and Finland. 
 
 Still more pressing were aSairs in the Baltic, for 
 they were nearer home. It was here that a death- 
 blow had been so recently aimed by the "Armed 
 Neutrality " at the maritime supremacy of Great 
 Bidtain. It has been noticed how, just when she was 
 reeling in the struggle with her revolted colonies, 
 with France and Spain and Holland on her back, the 
 Empress had hurled this thunderbolt at her devoted 
 head. Before long Russia was joined by Prussia. 
 
60 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Naples, and 
 the Empire. France, Spain, and the American 
 Colonies accepted the principle, if they did not 
 actually join the League. We must pause for a 
 moment to coq.sider whether Great Britain deserved 
 this treatment. It is too often taken for granted that 
 because she stood alone she was therefore in the 
 wrong. 
 
 To make but the briefest statement consistent with 
 our limits, this high-handed proceeding was nothing 
 more or less than an attempt to force, upon the 
 island-empire in its distress principles contrary to 
 those ' ' which had generally been acknowledged as 
 the law of nations," and to those engagements with 
 other powers under which they had ' ' altered the 
 primitive law, by mutual stipulations." * That 
 "free ships should make free goods" had been 
 allowed under certain special treaties for mutual 
 benefit, but this provision was accompanied by the 
 rule that "enemy ships should make enemy goods." 
 The last was not a rule necessarily connected with 
 the first, but supremely important in its operation ; 
 for it formed an effective security against the collu- 
 sion which must otherwise take place. But what 
 now occurred? By the Armed Neutrality the latter 
 rule was simply abolished, while the former was 
 peremptorily laid down ; and thus the right of 
 search could only be exercised with extreme diifi- 
 culty. If Great Britain had consented, she would 
 
 * " British Declaration," Annual Register, XXIII., p. 349. 
 
••THE ARMED NEUTBALITT." 61 
 
 in fact have relinquished the power of preventing 
 supplies of every kind from being poured into 
 France, Spain, and the Colonies, with which she 
 was in deadly conflict. The universal law was to 
 be broken at a moment when its continuance, how- 
 ever unpleasing to other nations, .could alone enable 
 her to bring the war to an end. She could at 
 least rejoin that she would not yield her rights to 
 force. Nor did she yield them. Unmoved, she 
 defied the Confederacy. Her fortitude was re- 
 warded. Her naval victories secured her position. 
 In the next great war she found herself in accord on 
 this question — one which we are now told was always 
 so clear against her — ^with the very power which had 
 previously led the way in denying her rights, and 
 with the very powers against which she used them. 
 We shall come across this question again. For 
 the present, it is enough to say that the League 
 of the Armed Neutrality had dissolved with the 
 Peace of Versailles. But it is obvious that the atti- 
 tude of Russia had acquired a new importance in 
 the Baltic in consequence of what had taken place ; 
 and that, come what might, the Empress could not 
 be allowed to become supreme in seas which might 
 be said to wash the eastern shores of the Britisli 
 isles. She would have attained that object but for 
 Pitt. 
 
 The third direction in which the Balance of Power 
 called for British intervention lay still nearer home. 
 The summons was in fact the first in point of time ; but 
 
62 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 France and Russia, moved by wholly difEerent im- 
 pulses, acted so nearly together, and yet not without 
 an eye to the facilities they afforded to each other by 
 so acting, that events may be best grouped as we 
 have presented them. That direction may be roughly 
 designated as the British Channel. 
 
 A separate treatise might well be written on the 
 traditional policy of England in reference to the 
 defence of its southern shore?, and the protection, 
 of the vessels which have for ages whitened vdtli 
 their sails the waters that carry its traffic to and 
 from London. The difficulty would be to prevent 
 its becoming a history of England. The chivalrous 
 history of the Cinque Ports, the glorious history of 
 the British navy, and the romantic history of the 
 British fisheries and British commerce, would re- 
 quire to find their due projDortion with the history of 
 the growth of the other nations which border those 
 waters, and of the policy which has throughout those 
 ages been adopted towards them by England. Such a 
 work, concisely written and properly illustrated, would 
 be of the deepest value. It must be sufficient here to 
 observe that the hostile relations between France and 
 England, which have filled so large a portion of 
 history, produced their natural correlative in the close 
 alliance which has, with few and transient interrup- 
 tions, existed for so many centuries between England 
 and the Low Countries. 
 
 This was an alliance pointed out by Nature for 
 the sake of mutual protection — an obvious alliance for 
 
ALLIANCE WITH THE LOW COUNTRIES. 63 
 
 all purposes of offence and defence during the pro- 
 longed struggles of the Middle Ages.* So far, indeed, 
 it might be a matter for statesmen, diplomatists, and 
 warriors. It was much more than this. It was an 
 alliance of two peoples, bound together by the necessi- 
 ties of supply and demand, by the possession of raw 
 material on the one hand, of manufactures on the 
 other, by inter-marriage and exchange of domicile, by 
 the growth and the common leadership of commercial 
 development. There was between the two even a tie 
 of language — for there is no other so nearly English — 
 and, after the Reformation, a very close connection 
 through the forms of literary and religious progress 
 which were common to both. How nearly they be- 
 came one country in fact may be studied in the reign 
 of, Elizabeth ; how much England owed to the trans- 
 plantation of the royal stock to Holland, and the recep- 
 tion of it again in William III., will only be disputed 
 by Jacobites, if there are any left ; while the political 
 importance of the alliance in the earlier Hanoverian 
 reigns has been of late years brought before us by 
 Ranke the historian. The interruptions of this 
 continuous friendliness had been only such as were 
 
 * The following extract from a State paper drawn up by Sir James 
 Harris, afterwards Lord Malmesbiiry, about this time, may be worth 
 quoting. It was underliued in the original manuscript: — "The expe- 
 rience of more than three centuries, and the united opinion of the wisest 
 Ministers, concur in proving the real importance of the Low Countries 
 as a barrier. Its existence has ever been deemed essential to the interests 
 of Europe in general, and to those of England in particular, but it is 
 destroyed the moment tlie Low Countries belong to Prance directly, or 
 are governed by a sovereign devoted to her influence." (" Malraesbury 
 Diaries," IL, 104.) 
 
64 IMPEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 inseparable from rival enterprise. No foes had ever 
 proved themselves more worthy of British steel, as no 
 seamen had ever exhibited more nearly the characteris- 
 tics of our own. It can never be forgotten that it had 
 at one time trembled in the balance which should rule 
 the British seas. 
 
 If the different fortunes of the Spanish and Aus- 
 trian Netherlands, now Belgium, have produced diffe- 
 rent relations in modern times, less intimate but more 
 equably amicable, they have been scarcely less con- 
 nected with British foreign policy, scarcely less 
 jealously guarded as to their bearing on the safety of 
 the British seas and the progress of British com- 
 merce. The Austrian alliance, one of the most inti- 
 mate England has cherished throughout her history, 
 was in later times as much associated with the ties 
 existing between England and the Belgic Province, 
 as with the services of the Empire in the larger 
 interests of the Balance of Power. 
 
 Again, to modern politicians the immense im- 
 jDortance formerly attached by the English to the 
 possession of Calais and Dunkirk seems almost unac- 
 countable. But the tenacity with which the first was 
 retained long after the period had passed away when 
 it was valued as the gate by which the English 
 "Kings of France" might enter the territory which 
 they claimed ; and the place occupied in treaty after 
 treaty, war after war, by the second, were both of 
 them a part of the same consistent policy. It is often 
 treated 9,s a mere instance of English pride and 
 
TEE LOW COUNTRIES LAID OPEN TO FRANCE. 65 
 
 obstinacy. It was really a most politic State prin- 
 ciple. It was aU-important during the shifting 
 alliances of Continental States that the English should 
 have some point d^appui on the opposite side of 
 the Channel from which to watch and control the 
 designs of their enemies. In the absence of modern 
 facilities of communication, the modern police of 
 the seas, and the substitute which later times have 
 provided in diplomacy — above all, before Hanover 
 supplied the place of a British watchtowei* — no 
 statesman could afford to overlook Dunkirk. We 
 know what a mistake on that point cost the great 
 Lord Clarendon. 
 
 But the special point which attracts our attention 
 at this period of our survey is the withdrawal of the 
 protection from France which, ever since the War of 
 Succession, had been enjoyed by the Low Countries 
 in the great barrier of fortified cities skirting their 
 frontier. The wild scheme of the Emjjeror Joseph 
 for exchanging Bavaria for the Netherlands, was 
 already opening up a new and pressing danger. 
 The work of centuries had been suddenly undone ; 
 and Holland, by the destruction of this barrier, 
 was laid as completely open to an inundation of 
 French invaders as she would have been to the 
 ocean without her dykes. Could Great Britain allow 
 the protection she had hitherto shared with her 
 allies to vanish into the past? Were the whole of 
 the coasts which fringe her seas to become the pro- 
 perty of the Power with which she had waged 
 
66 IMPERIAL UNGLAND. 
 
 three deadly wars within the last three generations ? 
 This was the " British Channel question " which 
 Pitt had to decide. Nor was it a merely theoretical 
 question. It was actually being solved before his 
 eyes in a yery practical manner, and he could not 
 evade it. It was still more pressing than the 
 Eastern question, still more delicate than that of the 
 Baltic. 
 
 Matters had come t5 a point in this way. While 
 Russia was obeying the instinct of conquest and 
 aggrandisement natxiral to the early stages of despotic 
 barbarism, France, precisely at the same moment, 
 was exhibiting the equally natural instinct of a yery 
 ancient community whose institutions had by no 
 means kept pace with its growth. The seething 
 caldron of the Revolution had not yet quite boiled 
 over, but irregular movements were already painfully 
 perceptible. The first of such movements by which 
 the new democracy made its presence known to 
 Eiirope was the open support it afforded to the sister 
 democracy in Holland. Twice over in modern history 
 had that glmious people made for their indepen- 
 dence the greatest sacrifices ever recorded in history. 
 Like the struggles of England, those efforts had 
 played no small part in procuring the freedom of 
 the world. They had proved beyond her strength. 
 In spite of her material prosperity she had gradually 
 sunk. As a great Power her glory had departed. 
 Her internal struggles gave the finishing blow. She 
 could no longer hold up her old invincible front 
 
AFFAIRS IN HOLLAND. 67 
 
 against the encroachments of her neighbour, now 
 blandly approaching her under the guise of friend 
 and liberator. 
 
 But whatever liberation was required in France, 
 Holland had achieved her liberties two centuries 
 before; and there existed an opposite faction in the 
 State which preferred the freedom of the English 
 connection to the wild democracy of the French in- 
 vaders. It is necessary to premise as much as this ; 
 for, in the difficulty which exists in finding matter 
 of accusation against the English for intervening in 
 the internal affairs of their neighbours, this has often 
 been seized upon as an instance. The truth is that 
 intervention has never been a part of the traditional 
 British policy, though some exceptions may have been 
 noted in quite recent years. The party of the Stadt- 
 holder, the Orange Party, summoned Prussia and 
 Great Britain to its aid, much as the Continental 
 Protestants of the Sixteenth Century summoned Queen 
 Elizabeth. Both the Powers which intervened hap- 
 pened to have dynastic as well as national interests, 
 which afforded a sufficient impulse towards decisive 
 action. Just at that time no resistance could well 
 be offered. The French Revolution had not yet set 
 free an armed nation. Though Holland lay like a 
 vessel in the midst of gigantic icebergs, in danger of 
 being crushed to pieces, she escaped for a few years 
 more. 
 
 The obvious policy for Great Britain under all 
 these dangers from East and West, from North and 
 
68 IMPESIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 South, was to revert once more to tlie traditional 
 alliances with such of the Northern Powers of the 
 Continent as were available for the purpose. The 
 famous Triple Alliance of Sir William Temple — the 
 one bright obj|!ct on which the eye can rest in the 
 reign of Charles the Second — was itself but a sub- 
 stitute for, or continuation of, former schemes of 
 alliance ; and, ever since the accession of the House 
 of Brunswick, the necessities of Prussia, and its con- 
 nection with Hanover, England, and Holland, had 
 formed a bond of union of more or less strength 
 between these States. There was little to do 
 now, the Dutch Stadtholder having been restored to 
 power, but to cement the union once more by a new 
 Triple Alliance. Pi'ussia was in as much danger by 
 land, from the encroachments of France and Russia, 
 as Great Britain was by sea. And soon Sweden was 
 rash enough to attack Russia in the Baltic, with hos- 
 tile Denmark; all the while, itself a match for her, 
 in the rear. In this she failed ; the new alliance was 
 her only safety. She also found admission. 
 
 The effect of this well-managed Alliance, old and 
 yet new, was almost instantaneous, almost as decisive 
 as in the days of Louis the Fourteenth. It was the 
 nearest approach that could then be made to European 
 concert. Considering that the most powerful nations 
 of all were excluded from it, and indeed were the 
 objects against which it was directed, it is one of the 
 most striking events in political history that it should 
 have fulfilled its purpose, through mere diplomatic 
 
EFFECT OF THE NEW TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 69 
 
 pl-essure, without war. It was indeed backed, as far as 
 the countries in immediate contact were concerned, 
 by the perfect readiness of the British to go to 
 war about them — the only strength of diplomacy. 
 The event showed that it was not so backed up as 
 to the Mediterranean ; and the interests of the 
 world sufEered accordingly. 
 
 The fact is that Pitt's diplomacy up to this point 
 had been only too successful. Denmark and Austria 
 had been detached from their alliance with Russia. 
 It was felt to be an immense result. The wings of the 
 Russian eagle had been so far clipped. But Holland 
 being now safe, Pitt found that he had miscalculated 
 the practical interest of the British in the further 
 question of the East. If he and the King had been 
 properly supported, the Empress would have found 
 herself confronted, in the full flush of their diplo- 
 matic triumphs, by British fleets and by Polish and 
 German armies, subsidized by British gold. Well 
 matched in the field, and crippled at sea both in 
 North and South, she could hardly have stood out. 
 But the danger was as yet too remote, and too little 
 understood in England. The " stitch in time " was 
 not inserted. It cost France and England the Cri- 
 mean War of our own day, at a far greater sacrifice, 
 to undo the work of the Empress then left alone. 
 
 Pitt's alliances, however, had by no means alto- 
 gether failed in their final issue. They did their 
 work even here. Though Grreat Britain had drawn 
 back, Russia, unsupported by Austria, and alarmed 
 
70 IMPERIAL EKGLAKD. 
 
 at the outbreak of the French Revolution, "with 
 great sagacity, took little advantage of its miliiary 
 successes. This at least had been efBected. The 
 further partition of Turkey had been in reality 
 warded off. The Peace of Jassy did little more 
 than confirm that of Kainardji. But it was not till 
 1856 that the integrity of the Ottoman Empire was 
 asserted, that the Special Protectorate of Russia, 
 enforced at Kainardji, came to an end, and that the 
 collective guarantee of the European Powers was 
 established as its substitute.* It would, however, be' 
 waste of space to speculate whether things might 
 have been better. We are at present concerned 
 with the Foreign Policy of Pitt. 
 
 That policy may now be summed up in compre- 
 hensive terms. It was to unite the principle of the 
 defence and preservation of Great Britain, her 
 Colonies^ and her already world-wide commerce, 
 "vvith the old-established principles of International 
 Law and the Balance of Power, which last name was, 
 indeed, only another name for the fijst, viewed under 
 another aspect. Such European concert as was pos- 
 sible had been skilfully obtained. The aggressions 
 of three States of the first class, France, Russia, 
 and Austria, had been checked without war. The 
 invaluable security of the smaller States, which in 
 previous European Settlements had been constituted 
 
 * See '• A Lecture on the Treaty Relations of Russia and Turkey from 
 1774 to 1853," by T. E. Holland, Esq.. Chichele Professor of International 
 Law. 1877. 
 
BRITISH POLICY IN THE MEDITEBBANEAN. 71 
 
 the barriers and bulwarks between their more power- 
 ful neighbours, had been restored as far as was still 
 possible, or at least preserved from threatened injury. 
 In the earlier years of Greorge the Third those who 
 were responsible for the use of European concert in 
 maintaining public rights had not perceived, or had 
 neglected, their duty. In the nine years of Pitt's 
 brilliant administration the wholesome action of Inter- 
 national principles had been once more triumphantly 
 established. 
 
 One glance at the South-West of Europe will 
 complete our rapid sm-vey of this period. We have 
 noticed the steady persistency of British policy which 
 refused, all tlirough the Eighteenth Century, to allow 
 the two Mediterranean Peninsulas to be in the hands of 
 the same Power. In connection with that policy we 
 have noticed the inflexible resolution of the British 
 (not always of their leading statesmen) first, to retain 
 their hold upon Gribraltar, and, secondly, to establish a 
 naval station at Minorca. The Family Compact of the 
 House of Bourbon in France, Spain, and Italy, formed 
 and renewed in spite of every precautionary effort — 
 and when were more precautions taken? — ^had en- 
 graved this policy on the British mind at least as 
 deeply as the loss of Calais impressed itself on that of 
 the hapless Tudor Queen. For Grreat Britain it was 
 vital to separate the vast maritime resources of France 
 and Spain in the Mediterranean from those of France 
 and Spaia on the coasts of the Atlantic. The loss of 
 Minorca at the Peace of Versailles had been deepl}^ 
 
72 niPEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 felt. Twenty years were to elapse before tlie posses- 
 sion of Malta could supply that influence in Italy and 
 Sicily whicli might afford a compensation. 
 
 Meanwhile it was necessary that the resources of 
 Grreat Britain should always be available at a moment's 
 notice to prevent the combination of the two great 
 naval Powers. Even in the decay of Spain they 
 might yet be a match for the young Empire of the 
 Seas. There had lately been a most painful and 
 distressing instance of this combination. Before 
 Rodney's victories French and Spanish fleets had 
 together sailed triumphant in the British Channel ; 
 and to so low a point was England reduced that it was 
 thought a great thing to have prevented them from in- 
 vading its shores. The fleet did not dare to engage 
 them. No sufficient force could be mustered. After 
 those victories a corresponding difference of tone is 
 apparent enough. The days of Chatham had re- 
 turned. 
 
 It fell to Pitt to uphold the honour of his country 
 against Spain in the affair of Nootka Sound. It was 
 almost an exact parallel with that of the Falkland 
 Islands twenty years previously. In both cases alike, 
 it was an a,ttempt on the part of Spain to see how far 
 she could go in the old direction of exclusion and 
 intimidation. The distance from England, the trifling 
 character of the subject of contention, the manifest 
 wrong done by Spain, the presumption that she would 
 be supported by France, were all very similar. So, 
 also was the treatment of the cases by this country.. 
 
OLD ALLIANCE WITE PORTUGAL. 73 
 
 War on such a question seemed absurd ; yet the same 
 unhesitating spirit was shown in the prompt exaction 
 of reparation. Instant preparation for war, and a 
 firm diplomacy, secured the neutrality of France, and 
 brought Spain to reason. The world received a 
 distinct intimation that there was to be no tampering 
 with the respect due to the flag, which in the previous 
 century had required, when a British man-of-war was 
 met in British waters, that every other flag should be 
 struck, and every topsail lowered.* 
 
 Besides the traditional poHcy in the Western Medi- 
 terranean, which so many ages of conflict with France 
 and Sjpain had engendered, there was yet one more 
 independent State with which British relations had 
 become equally marked, and though not prominently 
 affected by Pitt's Administration, it must be noticed. 
 Portugal, with its chronic hostility to Spain, was, Hke 
 Holland with its chronic hostility to France, the 
 natural ally of the British. Its most conveniently 
 situated sea-board, and its fine port of Lisbon, offered 
 many advantages. Each nation had what the other 
 wanted, and this fact, together with their common 
 commercial interests at different periods, often leading 
 them to unite against common enemies in distant seas, 
 had created as strong a bond of union as was to be 
 found between any two States of Europe. From the 
 
 * Amongst numerous instances one of the most remarkable is Sully's 
 account of what happened to the ship in which he was taking a passage 
 for England, on a mission to James the First, not the most warlike of 
 monarchs. It was, however, shortly after the death of Elizabeth. 
 
74 IMPJSBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 time when English knights helped the Portuguese to 
 expel the Moors, this friendship had been almost 
 uninterrupted. "Wanting in the characteristics of 
 intimacy which had signalised the relations of 
 England to tlie Dutch, it had suffered less from 
 hard blows. The Treaties with Portugal which 
 were made by the Long Parliament, by Cromwell, 
 and by Charles the Second, at his marriage with 
 Catharine of Braganza, were only less advan- 
 tageous to both countries than Queen Anne's 
 Methuen Treaty, which was strictly an offensive 
 and defensive compact. By that Treaty the 
 Portuguese wines, imported in return for English 
 wool, became the substitute to Englishmen for those 
 of France. The generous assistance sent from Eng- 
 land on the occasion of the great Earthquake of 
 Lisbon, had kept alive the sense of obligation ; and 
 this, a little later, was still further strengthened by 
 the aid of British troops, when Spain made one of her 
 frequent attempts at subjugation. No one understood 
 the value of the alliance better than the Marquis de 
 Pombal, the one great Minister that country has pro- 
 duced ; and it was no slight title to British confidence 
 that, under his auspices, Portugal was the first country 
 to expel the Jesuits. 
 
 These relations were too firmly established to be 
 shaken by the momentary adhesion of Portugal to. 
 the Armed Neutrality, or by the abandonment of 
 the commercial part of the Methuen Treaty which 
 Pitt, in his pursuit of commercial equality with France 
 
GREAT BRITAIN FULLY PREPARED. 75 
 
 and other nations, found to be necessary. The value 
 of friendly relations with Portugal was to be tested 
 sooner than men supposed. 
 
 It was well for Great Britain that in this, as in 
 other lines of policy, she had no new tactics to adopt. 
 Her position was well understood. Nations knew 
 very well where to find her as an ally or an enemy. 
 She had merely strengthened and adapted to circum- 
 stances what experience had dictated. Grenius and com- 
 mon sense, represented by Pitt and the King, having 
 for once combined, she had advanced far beyond her 
 neighbours in the development of all the resources 
 necessary for interposition, if that should ever be 
 needed. She could afford to wait, as she did wait, 
 till every expedient had been tried before she plunged 
 into the gigantic conflict which was to settle the ques- 
 tion of her independence, to decide upon her future 
 existence as an Empire. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BRITISH FOEEIGN POLICY DUEING THE WAE OF THE 
 FEENCH EEVOLUTION. 
 
 The Foreign Policy of Great Britain during the new 
 period before us, a period of incessant war, is in 
 reality more easy to describe than it has hitherto 
 been ; for the outlines of that policy remain precisely 
 as they have been formulated in the last chapter, and 
 the facts of the military history and diplomacy of the 
 
76 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 time are still fresh. They are reducible to a very simple 
 course of proceeding. From 1793 to 1815 there was 
 but one master-object in view in the eyes of King 
 or Prince, Ministers, or people — taking them in the 
 mass ; and thi^ was to restrain the aggressive action 
 of France, first in her frenzy, and then in her military 
 ambition. The object was to be attained in concert 
 with the other States of Europe ; and yet the problem 
 was to be solved of so co-operating as to prevent any 
 of them from seizing that overwhelming supremacy 
 which could not be permitted to France. In other 
 words, it fell once more to the lot of Great Britain to 
 be summoned to the front for the purpose of adminis- 
 tering the International Law of Europe. 
 
 The call was explicit. It none the less represented 
 the vital interests of Grreat Britain. On the one hand, 
 the most genuine abhorrence was felt of the principles 
 which issued in the horrors of the French Revolution ; 
 the deepest sympathy warmed the hearts of the British 
 people for the cause of the oppressed nations which, 
 one after the other, fell under the French yoke. On 
 the other hand, the conviction that in fighting for 
 others the British were also fighting for themselves, 
 nerved every arm and lightened every sacrifice. 
 The movement, which never really lost its first 
 impulse, was neither selfish nor Quixotic. It was the 
 dictate of judgment as well as feeling, of common 
 sense as well as philanthropy. 
 
 As we cannot ignore this mixture of motives, so, 
 we cannot, even in sketching a policy, refuse to 
 
GREAT BBITAIN AND BEPUBLIGAN FRANCE. 77 
 
 notice the questions, which are still rife, as to the 
 essential justice of the part taken by this country in 
 joining the Continental movement against Republican 
 France. Ttat course once commenced, many who 
 blame the first step admit, nevertheless, that a proper 
 moment to stop was never afforded. Others, believing 
 the war to have been originally necessary, condemn 
 the obstinacy which refused to make peace when it 
 was possible so to do. How immense, either wa}', 
 was the responsibility of those who guided the 
 destinies of Great Britain at this supremely critical 
 moment ! And how important that we should 
 attempt to arrive at a just conclusion as to their con- 
 duct, viewing it neither through the coloured glasses 
 of partisan histories, nor yet from the exclusively 
 English stand-point, regardless of the more general 
 aspects of the case ! Still less ought we to rely upon 
 the merely superficial considerations which are some- 
 times supposed to exhaust the whole subject in 
 branding, as self-condemned, the very idea of opposi- 
 tion to the struggle of the oppressed French people 
 against feudal tyranny. If, as some afiirm, the great 
 preponderance of British opinion is still to be found 
 in accordance with this rough-and-ready verdict, it is 
 high time that some of the numerous writers who 
 of late years have been candid enough, though 
 avowedly of the " Liberal " school, to justify the 
 action of Great Britain, should have a proper hearing. 
 Naturally enough, the leaders of public opinion 
 at the Reform Bill period (to whom some reference 
 
78 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 has already been made) eagerly accepted the doc- 
 trines of Fox and his small band of followers, and 
 especially their admiration of the French Revolution. 
 The time had come round for one of those great 
 changes of thought which periodically recur. The 
 intense and prolonged war-struggle had not long 
 been concluded ; and while the war lasted this phase of 
 opinion had enjoyed very little credit. But now, what 
 had been in truth the voice of the nation, had become 
 identified with the subsequent unpopularity of the 
 Tories, the later part of whose political history 
 had not added to their renown. Constant repetition, 
 most copious reproduction in all sorts of popular 
 forms, by a school of brilliant writers, produced their 
 invariable effect upon the broader subject, just as we 
 have seen that they influenced the narrower one — the 
 estimate of the character of the King. For many 
 years the wind now blew all one way. If the merits 
 of those concerned in bringing about and lauding 
 to the skies the French Revolution had been so long 
 obscured, if so many neglected truths had now come 
 to be understood at last, was it not plain that the 
 resistance which the people of England had been so 
 long engaged in making was a mistake from begin- 
 ning to end? What millions had been ^uandered for 
 nothing ! What a cause, for the sake of which such 
 an enormous debt had been incurred — never to be 
 shaken off ! To support any other view was for a 
 long term of years heresy. 
 
 The publication of Lord Stanhope's " Life of 
 
LATER OPimONS ON THE WAB. 79 
 
 William Pitt" (in 1861) may, roughly speaking, be 
 assumed as the landmark of a gradual return from this 
 prevailing state of the national mind. Certainly, 
 a more impartial estimate of the period in question 
 has been gaining ground ever since. Not that we 
 are likely to find ourselves swept back again to the 
 warm latitudes of those former years of conflict. 
 Removed by some generations from the heat of the 
 strife, and having learnt much from past controversy, 
 we can view events through a less distorted medium, 
 and make allowances which would have shocked the 
 glowing, irreconcilable imagination of Edmund Burke. 
 To fortify the above statement as to the present 
 condition of historical opinion, it will only be neces- 
 sary to refer to three recent authors — to Mr. Massey, 
 whose "History" has found great acceptance ; to Mr. 
 J. F. Bright, who addresses himself to Public Schools; 
 and to Mr. Grreen, the title of whose book and its 
 success suggest an appeal to the "people." Their 
 works sell well. Their political opinions are to Be 
 traced with sufficient clearness. And yet they have 
 all given in their unqualified adhesion to the opinion 
 that the "War of the French Revolution was forced 
 upon Great Britain, not only by the French having 
 taken the initiative in declaring war, but by the 
 very natm-e of the French Revolution, as it presented 
 itself in 1792 and 1793. A few passages from the first 
 of these authors may be taken as sufficient: — 
 
 " The war in -whicli England became thus involved was 
 unlike any former war in which any civilized Power had been 
 
80 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 hitherto engaged. It was not a war of ambition, of defence, or 
 of national rivalry ; . . . . there was no question of Balance 
 of Power ; . . . . our ancient rival was no more ; . . . • 
 the House of Bourbon was levelled with the dust ; . . . . 
 but in its place had arisen a Power more terrible than the 
 French Monarchy at the height of its insolence and vigour ; a 
 country without a Government, denouncing all regular Govern- 
 ments, dispersing the missionaries of anarchy throughout Europe, 
 and inviting all nations to cashier rulers, to level society, to con- 
 fiscate property — in a word, to dissolve all bonds by which civilized 
 communities had hitherto been held together. Such was France, 
 and France had declared war against England. The immediate 
 cause of war was complete in itself, and must have led to a 
 rupture had it been the act of Louis the Sixteenth and a regular 
 Government. England was bound by a Treaty with Holland so 
 
 late as the year 1788 It had indeed already become 
 
 manifest that the time had arrived when England, unless pre- 
 pared to submit to the last indignity, must accept the quarrel 
 which the rulers of France had determined to fasten upon he». 
 The outrageous decree of November 19 [1792], which was aU but 
 avowedly directed against this country; the act of December 15, 
 annexing the Austrian Netherlands to France, a measure which 
 however justifiable by the laws of war, was most dangerous to 
 the peace and safety of these islands ; and lastly, the open breach 
 of a Treaty to which the honour of England was pledged, formed 
 a combination of insults which no independent nation could endure. 
 There was indeed no substantial difference of opinion on the sub- 
 ject among Englishmen who did not hate the institutions under 
 which they lived, or were not desirous that their countiy should 
 become a province of France."* 
 
 Let US contrast the unhesitating character of these 
 remarks mth Lord Brougham's attempt, in a very 
 popular work, a quarter of a century earlier, to saddle 
 Pitt with the whole responsibility of the war, which 
 he adopted, forsooth, in order to increase and re- 
 
 * " History of England," &c. (1863), Vol. IV., 1-5. 
 
BltOUanAM' AND VON 8YBEL ON FITT. 81 
 
 tain his superiority over his political opponents ! 
 This he connects with the " commonplace" character 
 of his war policy, and with a refusal to allow him 
 the least part of the credit due for the successes of 
 the British Nayy. Characteristically, even the merits 
 of the great statesman's preceding Peace- Adminis- 
 tration are equally denied. With the exception of 
 " the Union with Ireland, which was forced on him 
 by a rebellion, he has not left a single measure 
 behind him for which the community whose des- 
 tinies he so long swayed has any reason to respect 
 his memory." We have already met these latter 
 statements by facts. Let us now quote a more 
 modern authority thaai Lord Brougham on the charge 
 against Pitt for his share in bringing on the «war. 
 Of his unwavering firmness at the very outset in 
 the policy of neutrality and peace. Von Sybel truly 
 tells us that — 
 
 " it is hardly necessary at the present day to bring proofs. All 
 the official documents, correspondence, and despatches of the Powers 
 and statesmen concerned, go to prove the correctness of this view of 
 Pitt's conduct, while his opponents have not the least shadow of 
 testimony to bring forward." 
 
 And, again, as to the progress of the war : — 
 
 " The man whom a narrow party spirit has been accustomed 
 to regard as the originator of all the Coalitions against France, 
 was incessantly using his influence with the Powers to bring the 
 contest to an end."* 
 
 There is no occasion to multiply quotations. If it 
 be true that opinion is still against England on this 
 
 * " French Revolution," II., 252. 
 G 
 
82 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 subject, the belief at all general that she could have 
 kept out of this war, it can scarcely be the opinion of 
 well-informed people. 
 
 Perhaps, the case may appear still more clear if 
 we bear in mi^d what has been said as to the tradi- 
 tional British interest in Holland and the Austrian 
 Netherlands. If the occupation of those territories by 
 the French, with such a war-port as Antwerp and 
 such a commercial centre as Amsterdam at their 
 disposal, had been a matter of indifference to Grreat 
 Britain, it is conceivable, though scarcely possible, 
 that the allowance due to a people frenzied with their 
 sanguinary success in overturning an efEete, corrupt, 
 and oppressive system of government, might have 
 counselled even still greater patience than was ex- 
 hibited. But, calm as Pitt held his lofty head above 
 the storm, he knew toO well the vital nature of the 
 issue on this one point alone. 
 
 To Pitt, indeed, everything in the world cried 
 out against the war. For more than three years 
 he had guided the country through the extreme 
 excitement produced by the dreadful scenes pass- 
 ing in France. At every pause of the terrible 
 drama his voice was to be heard loudly proclaim- 
 ing non-interference. He positively refused to 
 join the Allied Powers at Pilnitz. In a hundred 
 ways he proved his sincerity. There was every 
 reason for it in the eye of a statesman. Was not 
 Russia taking advantage of the paralysis of Western 
 Europe to complete the absorption of Poland ? Was 
 
WAR WITH FRANCE NECESSARY. 83 
 
 this a time to assist in destroying the weight which 
 France should afBord to the balance? There was 
 every reason for it in the eye of the philantliropist. 
 What torture to the successful financier and adminis- 
 trator to find all his plans for the peaceful develop- 
 ment of British resources brought forcibly to an 
 untimely end! We now know the struggle it cost 
 him to renounce the whole object of his life. But he 
 would have had to rehnquish every shred of the 
 political inheritance entrusted to him, every particle 
 of the foreign policy he had himself emblazoned to 
 the world, had he shut his eyes to the seizure of 
 Holland. 
 
 The case, then, is even stronger than it is put by 
 Mr. Massey. It is not only a question of which 
 country fii'st declared war. Of this there is no doubt, 
 and in practice the French Declaration of War 
 was enough. It is not only a question of inter- 
 ference in the affairs of a neighbour ; and yet 
 the French interference in British affairs left no 
 alternative. It was not only a war of " armed 
 opinion," Pitt's own expression at a later date,* 
 though this was of itself sufficient justification. The 
 action of Grreat Britain must be judged from the 
 side of strategy and self-defence, of International 
 Law and national independence. If we may recur to 
 
 * " We are not in arms against the opinions of the closet nor the spe- 
 culations of the schools. We are at war with ai-med opinions. Their 
 appearance in arms changed their character, and we will not leave the 
 monster to prowl the world unopposed." (Speech in reply to Tierney, 
 1799.) 
 
84 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 what has been already laid down — ^to permit the 
 French occupation of Holland as well as Belgium 
 was absolutely impossible. To the last as a separate 
 proposal Pitt had, indeed, in the presence of the 
 dangerous advance of Russia, already listened — he 
 could not have carried the country with him. But 
 to allow the occupation of both by a State which, 
 whether professedly hostile or not, held the whole of 
 the Southern Coasts of the British Channel, the Bay 
 of Biscay, and the Grulf of Lyons, was nothing more 
 or less than to place a rope round the British neck, 
 and to hand the end of it oyer to those who were 
 only too ready to do the rest. It was to give up a 
 thousand years of history; to make a present to 
 France of the thousands of lives, the millions of 
 money, and the innumerable obligations incurred in 
 building up the Empire. It was to open up a 
 frightful future of war, with every disadvantage of 
 place and time, with diminished resources, and a 
 sense of paying dear for a momentary infatuation. 
 Better to take the dreadful plunge at once into the 
 old state of war, subsidies, and alliances, with all its 
 unknown future of debt, distress, and sedition, than 
 attempt to assume the attitude of affected insular 
 indifference, false to every tie of honour and policy, 
 and laden with the heavy certainty of future retri- 
 bution. 
 
 Such were the convictions of the statesmen who, 
 with the King, and the vast mass of the nation at 
 their back, made at last, not one day before it was 
 
INFLUENCE OF BUBKE. 85 
 
 necessary, the momentous decision to stand by the 
 old English policy, and thus to bring on the Decla- 
 ration of War which France was only too ready to 
 make. 
 
 But it may well be doubted whether, even sup- 
 posing such solid considerations had been wanting, 
 any effort of Pitt could have restrained the British 
 people from the war. And here we are drawn at once 
 within the sphere of attraction of the great ruler of 
 English political thought, whose care-worn life seemed 
 to have been prolonged for the express purpose of its 
 influence at this crisis. When their patience was 
 exhausted, the Grovernment might, on the grounds 
 of honour, safety, and policy, have led with them 
 into the war a majority of the nation. It was due to 
 Burke that they took up nearly the whole respectable 
 portion of it. It was Burke who gave at the outset 
 that impulse which was forcible enough to survive 
 all failures and disasters, all attempts to patch up 
 a hollow peace. It was the impression he had 
 made which supported the self-sacrificing resistance 
 of Grreat Britain when she stood alone, as she had 
 stood before, against a world in arms. It lasted till 
 the day came when she, with all Europe, at last 
 reaped her reward. 
 
 Bm'ke stands on a different pedestal from that 
 of any other statesman of this long reign. Others 
 affected portions of it, he the whole. The Pitts, 
 father and son, each had his part ; Burke spanned 
 the interval as well. He had his faults and in- 
 
86 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 firmities ; but he had the merit of holding his political 
 faith consistently through the whole of his career. 
 During the long process of the American struggle, in 
 the Constitutional conflict with "Wilkes, on most ques- 
 tions of domestic reform, and at the crisis of the 
 French Revolution, he proudly vindicated his posi- 
 tion as the representative of the " Old Whigs," the 
 party of the Revolution of 1688. As such he broke 
 up the incoherent Whig party of 1791, carrying off 
 the bulk of them, and leaving Fox and Sheridan 
 almost alone to represent the admirers of the French 
 Revolution and the opponents of the war. To his 
 immortal Works on this subject we turn for the 
 principles around which the nation rallied. 
 
 In this place, of course, a passing reference to 
 these Works is alone possible. They are amongst the 
 best inheritances of Englishmen, and are, happily, 
 familiar to all. Making allowance for the vein of 
 exaggeration which pervades them, and the poetical 
 haze through which the fervid orator views the merits 
 of the British, and the demerits of the French system 
 of government, even those who refuse to succumb to 
 the wand of the enchanter must acknowledge the 
 many splendid political lessons conveyed in these 
 writings. Even if they scruple to allow them the 
 elevated place claimed by Burke's admirers, they will 
 at least perceive their marvellous fitness as an antidote 
 to the virtual Communism which was propagated, like 
 so much poison, from Paris. It was no time for tame 
 disquisition. No one would have listened to it. It 
 
BUBEE ON THE FEENOB REVOLUTION. 87 
 
 "was the matchless beauty of the style, the splendid 
 illustration, the fervid declamation, which carried all 
 before it, and yet attracted men in such a way that 
 they were forced to read it again and again. The 
 enthusiasm of the "missionaries of sedition," loudly 
 summoning all nations to insurrection, and most of 
 all the British, required to be met by the enthusiasm, 
 equal to their own, of the High Priest of the British 
 Constitution. The movement which "proclaimed its 
 unfitness for its mission by declaring war against all 
 moral laws, which substituted the word 'plunder' 
 for freedom of trade, and persecution of the upper 
 classes for universal equality," * required to be met 
 by the re-assertion, in tones which men must hear, 
 of the eternal principles of morality and religion, of 
 order and true freedom. 
 
 Thirty editions of Bm-ke's "Reflections on the 
 French Revolution," printed ofE as fast as one 
 edition could follow another, attested the public 
 demand, and enrolled British society of all classes 
 against the aggressor, as around some visible banner. 
 It required but the last scene of the first Act, the 
 supremacy of the "Mountain," exhibited in the 
 murder of the King, to silence, and for the moment 
 bear down, all opposition to the war which now 
 burst forth. 
 
 To conclude this part of our subject, we may well, 
 at this distance of time, indulge the wish that it had 
 been possible to let the French people work out their 
 
 * Von Sybel, II., 196, 167. 
 
88 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 own Revolution as England had previously worked 
 out hers. There was, indeed, no similarity between 
 the two Revolutions, except that in both cases a king 
 was beheaded, and that a despot mounted to his place on 
 the shoulders of the army which he had formed. The 
 circumstances, as they afEected other States than that 
 in which the Revolution occurred, were perfectly 
 different. But even if this were not so, is it candid 
 to allow such a sentiment to influence our judgment 
 on the conduct of the British nation in the crisis of 
 1793 ? Must we not honestly attempt to measure 
 the real forces which ruled the decision? It is, at 
 any rate, something to get sight of the facts from the 
 point of view in which Pitt was himself obliged to 
 regard them at last, that of the ancient, traditional, 
 well-tested policy of Grreat Britain. 
 
 We may now proceed another step. If the war 
 was a righteous war, was every opportunity seized, 
 after its commencement, of bringing it to a conclu- 
 sion ? This is by no means so generally admitted, 
 even by recent writers. Nor can it be dealt with here 
 without a mass of detail which would be quite out of 
 place. It may be just of some use to say that the 
 English writers who hold that Pitt was not sufficiently 
 in earnest at Paris and at Lille, must settle their 
 differences with the Continental writers of the time, 
 who professed to account for the too great readiness 
 of England to make peace by the success which she 
 had attained in depriving the Dutch of their 
 commerce. 
 
POSSIBILITIES OF PEACE. 89 
 
 The case, however, admits of a broader treatment, 
 and in a very few words. The fact is that, just as in 
 all similar conflicts, it is the first step which is really- 
 significant. When once the complicated interests 
 of the various allies on either side are thoroughly 
 involved, peace becomes impossible till one side is 
 thoroughly beaten. Pitt's finance, resting on the 
 rapid manufacturing and commercial development of 
 his country, supplied almost inexhaustible funds for 
 the war ; and, when the Coalitions which he summoned 
 to his help shrank back after disaster, the equally in- 
 exhaustible military spirit of the French, drawing 
 resources from their successful campaigns, renewed 
 the conflict with the beaten States by supplying them 
 in their turn with the courage of despair. At one 
 time the restoration of the Austrian Netherlands was 
 the difficulty in the Way of peace ; at another, Grreat 
 Britain, in order to secure a peace, offered to resign 
 many of her conquests ; but then the French were in 
 too prosperous a condition to make any negotiation 
 successful. When Napoleon came to the head of 
 affairs, he at once proposed terms; but then the 
 EngHsh were in no humour to grant what seemed, even 
 to the warmest English advocates of peace, a mere 
 device to gain time. When both sides were sufficiently 
 exhausted, the Peace of Amiens was quite understood 
 by all reflecting persons to be only a necessary truce 
 till each side had regained its breath. 
 
 Meanwhile, taking a general view of the war, it 
 is easy to trace in its progress the outlines of 
 
90 IMFEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 British policy already marked out in previous 
 years. 
 
 And first, as to the instruments at Pitt's command, 
 a subject on which a good deal of misapprehension has 
 arisen from the want of observing a few simple facts 
 which all must admit as soon as stated. It has been 
 already said that, because Pitt's military combinations 
 were often unsuccessful, he is pronounced an incom- 
 petent war-minister ; and this in spite of the success of 
 the Navy for which he is denied the credit. The truer 
 view is that he deserves to be ranked but little below 
 his father in the skilful employment of such means as 
 were at his disposal. In other words, the error of the 
 estimate too often formed may be traced to the 
 confusion of thought which leads people to compare 
 two different things as if they were the same, or 
 rather, to refuse to balance against one another, 
 because they have not the same name, the two things 
 which ought to be balanced. 
 
 The generals and armies of Great Britain could not 
 possibly, in those days, be a match for Continental 
 generals and armies till they had acquired an amount 
 of experience in war under approved masters which 
 an insular State, with a very small standing army, 
 did not easily afford. But the circumstances of the 
 French Revolution, on the contrary, produced almost 
 at once a nation of soldiers, of whom the very best 
 came to the surface. Even they failed just at first ; 
 but necessity was the stem teacher which elevated them, 
 almost at a bound, to the first rank of military nations. 
 
STATE OF THE BRITISH ARMY. 91 
 
 The British army and the British generals had 
 to be absolutely made afresh, to learn in small 
 sections, to learn slowly. They were hampered 
 by a multitude of traditional impediments, by what 
 soldiers call "pipeclay," and civilians "red tape;" 
 above all, by the imperative rule which then 
 obtained of emplo5dng members of the Royal 
 Family in the field before they had been trained 
 to their duty and had evinced their knowledge of 
 it by exactly the same apprenticeship as other 
 officers. It was then supposed there was a royal road 
 to generalship. The standard being thus stunted, 
 it was all the more credit to Sir Ralph Abercromby, 
 Sir John Moore, and Sir Arthur Wellesley, that they 
 — ^for it was chiefly their work, assisted at head- 
 quarters by the Duke of York — gradually succeeded 
 in raising it to a higher level ; and that at last, after 
 years of failure, having the same excellent British 
 material as ever to work upon, they produced both a 
 school of officers who proved themselves in the end the 
 equals of their brethren at sea and not inferior to the 
 French marshals, and a body of troops who " could 
 go anywhere and do anything." Then also, towering 
 far above them all, came to the front the man who 
 had been the chief agent in the process, and who, alone 
 in Europe, could be matched with the great Napoleon. 
 
 In Pitt's time the true objects of comparison are 
 the soldiers of France and the sailors of Britain. The 
 splendid generals who led the Republican hosts to 
 victory were the direct product of a sifting out of the 
 
92 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 ablest and bravest men from millions. The great 
 admirals of England were the result of pretty nearly 
 the same process. Out of a nation of seamen trained 
 by constant practice, and at the highest standard of 
 spirit and efficiency, the very best men achieved the 
 reputation which brought them to the head of the 
 service. The School of Hawke had produced a 
 Rodney and a Howe ; and under them and their 
 gallant companions a generation of excellent officers 
 had sprung forth, consummately prepared for the 
 work which lay before them. After the decisive 
 victory in the West Indies, when Rodney received 
 on board his flagship as his prisoner that fine 
 French admiral, the Count de Grasse, the latter 
 remarked, with equal truth and courtesy, that "the 
 English were a hundred years in advance of the French 
 in naval matters." * It may well be doubted whether 
 Hoche, Pichegru, Moreau, Jourdan, Massena, Augereau, 
 Kleber, Dessaix, were greater on land than Howe, 
 Bridport, Hood, Jervis, Duncan, Collingwood, at sea. 
 The generals at once found their greatness cul- 
 minate in Napoleon, the admirals in Nelson. The 
 French could not create a navy or admirals like 
 these ; for seamen and admirals cannot be made 
 in a few years ; and the same Revolution which 
 made their armies for a time supreme, destroyed 
 the most respectable element of their navy ; while 
 British victories soon annihilated what was left. 
 Just in the same way a British army could not be 
 * Mundy's " Life of Rodney," II., 290. 
 
PITTS TACTICS AGAINST FRANCE. 93 
 
 formed at once. Happily, the blows it received during 
 the process were not strong enough to annihilate it. 
 Happily, it found at last a man who could weld it 
 together, and a sphere in which it could operate. Who 
 but must admit these obvious facts ? 
 
 Pitt's tactics against France and her Allies, like 
 those of Chatham, consisted in Continental Coalitions 
 (on a larger scale), and in military descents on the 
 French Coast ; while the Baltic and the Mediterranean 
 were to be kept open at all hazards for Britisli 
 commerce, and the more distant resources of the 
 enemy to be crippled by every possible means. Of all 
 these operations, it was the descents on the French 
 Coast which chiefly damaged the reputation of his 
 strategy. They were failures ; but they were scarcely 
 more unsuccessful than the huge armies of the Allies, 
 and they were fatally hampered by the difficulties 
 which, in their very nature, beset all co-operation 
 with the French Royalists. And yet these expedi- 
 tions were the natural policy of the insular State, 
 the bulk of whose maritime forces had to be re- 
 tained for the defence of its shores, and were there- 
 fore at hand for these services ; and how could 
 a Minister refuse the assistance of the French 
 Royalists till they had proved their incompe- 
 tence ? 
 
 Nor were these descents by any means useless 
 as a means of drawing o£E French armies from 
 combination with their other forces already more 
 than a match for the Coalitions. Still further, it 
 
94 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 should be remembered that both Pitts, father and 
 son, reaped important results from their failures, 
 though the younger died before he saw the fruit. 
 The elder Pitt found out at last the vulnerable 
 point of his fo,e. At the Peace of Paris it was 
 the capture of Belleisle which enabled the British 
 to obtain advantages sufficiently great to afford 
 them the opportunity for a display of genuine 
 moderation. The son's persistent efforts to find a 
 rallying-point for the enemies of the aggressive 
 Republic led at last to the selection of Portugal, 
 the spot at which the lever was applied by which 
 the new Archimedes moved the world. 
 
 Not one of these considerations finds a place 
 in Lord Macaulay's well-known sketch of William 
 Pitt, published in his " Miscellaneous Works." No 
 allowance is made for the peculiar nature of the 
 French military enthusiasm, itself a force equal to 
 many armies ; nor, when Napoleon came on the 
 stage, for the immeasurable superiority of his genius 
 over that of all ordinary warriors. Pitt was often 
 unsuccessful; therefore "in his military administra- 
 tion he was a driveller." Richelieu, Louvois, Chatham, 
 or Wellesley, would "in a few months have discovered 
 and brought forward generals worthy to command " 
 such armies as Pitt might have raised. What 
 wilder imagination could any writer indulge in? 
 Chatham was never matched against such odds; 
 and he only learnt by failures. The other cases 
 are quite irrelevant. Who can say what any of 
 
MAOAULAY ON PITT. 95 
 
 these men would have done against such a nation 
 and such a general ? 
 
 We may still further notice the obstinate diffi- 
 culties in which the holder of such views finds 
 himself involved. They are well illustrated in this 
 brilliant essay — a specimen in itself of nervous 
 English, which is thought good enough to be cut 
 up into pieces for schoolboy translation into classical 
 languages. How could a "driveller" contrive to 
 carry a whole people with him, not once or twice, 
 but year after year? How was he to attract such 
 implicit confidence that failures seemed rather to 
 increase than diminish his power and influence ? 
 Macaulay is driven, in order to account for such a 
 result, to ascribe the most marvellous effects to the 
 oratory of the Minister, and to depreciate in pro- 
 portion the good sense of Parliament and people. 
 We are introduced to miracle in order to support 
 paradox. 
 
 The course of affairs is simple enough if we only 
 accept the natural solution. The consummate Minister 
 in peace, the inheritor of more than Chatham's talents, 
 was no " driveller " in war. The nation perfectly 
 well understood that he made the best use of the 
 imperfect instruments, the wretched information, and 
 the few opportunities, at his disposal ; and it saw no 
 reason to suppose that any one else within the bounds 
 of the four seas could have made any better use of 
 them. Still more, it was scarcely thought of in 
 those days, and has been a mere modern after- 
 
96 IMFBMAL ENGLAND. 
 
 thought, that the glories of the British Navy reflected 
 no credit on the responsible Minister. His influence 
 on the achievements of the great admirals was only- 
 less direct than that of Chatham, because the organiza- 
 tion of the Admiralty was already infinitely superior. 
 Pitt was thoroughly well seconded at Whitehall ; but 
 it was his own dauntless spirit which infused itself 
 into all subordinates, and naturally bore fruit earliest 
 where the soil was best prepared. If he was over- 
 matched on land, there was nothing for it but (to use 
 the phrase which General Grant has made classical) — 
 to go on " pegging away." 
 
 From our present point of view, it is the most 
 noticeable feature of this war that the Mediterranean 
 acquired an importance for Great Britain before 
 unknown. Though but the natural development of 
 preceding relations with England, it now became a 
 sphere of military and naval operations only second 
 to the British Channel. As such it has remained to 
 this day. We must linger for a moment over the 
 process by which it became so. 
 
 The French fleets having been partly destroyed 
 at Toulon by Lord Hood, the rest defeated by Lord 
 Howe, the Spanish fleet defeated by Jervis, and 
 another French fleet by Nelson, the Mediterranean 
 was left for the first time under the exclusive domina- 
 tion of the British. The national troops could now 
 be transported from one place to another in almost as 
 great security as in the Channel. Sicily took for 
 the time the position which Minorca had been in- 
 
IMFOETANGE OF TEE MEBITEBRANEAN. 97 
 
 tended to fill, and whicli was gained at last in 
 Malta — that of a central rendezvous; while Turkey, 
 with its Egyptian province, already saved by Pitt, 
 and now doubly important in its relation to India, 
 was more than ever thrown into the arms of Eng- 
 land by the infatuated policy of Napoleon. That 
 the significance of the Levant as the high road to 
 British possessions in the East was thoroughly under- 
 stood on all sides, is proved quite as much by the 
 young conqueror's expedition to Egyjjt and Syria, as 
 by the subsequent co-operation of Sir David Baird 
 and his Sepoys with the British forces. Napoleon's 
 expedition had broken up the oldest alliance then 
 existing in Europe, that between France . and the 
 Porte. Great Britain stepped into the vacant place, 
 Avhich indeed she had already almost filled. In 
 more modern times both countries, repentmg of old 
 eiTors, have with equal clearness perceived, in the 
 weakness of their old ally and the danger to them- 
 selves from her destruction, the necessity for armed 
 interference in her support. 
 
 It was thus that the difiiculty which Pitt had ex- 
 perienced in bringing the Eastern Question home to 
 his countrymen in 1790 received a practical solution. 
 By the supremacy now obtained in the Mediterranean 
 the British dominions had, in a sense, become con- 
 terminous with those of Russia. The championshijj 
 of Turkey, along with the supervision of Turkisli 
 relations to Greece, Syria, and Egypt, became, by 
 the mere force of events, the special charge of the 
 
 H 
 
98 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 dominant naval Power, Henceforth, also, the rela- 
 tions of the Porte with other independent States 
 became virtually British relations, and were always 
 most jealously watched. The afiair of 1807, and 
 the "untoward event" of 1829, were only pre- 
 cursors of more sagacious and more successful inter- 
 ferences at later dates. The matter could not be let 
 alone. It became, like the connection with the Low 
 Countries, a traditional obligation acknowledged in 
 all changes of administration. It was the product 
 of a long past, and has perhaps a long future before 
 it. How absurd to speak of the British connection 
 with the Eastern Question of to-day as a thing which 
 it is possible to take up or drop ! It has been taken 
 uj) : Europe is a part of it. 
 
 To turn once more to the North, and to the 
 ' ' Armed NeutraHty." The relations of Great Britain 
 to the Baltic Powers, in the war of the French 
 Revolution, were necessarily guided by the part they 
 took in reference to the maritime principles laid down 
 by Russia in 1780. Again those principles assumed a 
 menacing prominence, but with this important dif- 
 ference : France and Great Britain now vied with each 
 other in claiming to act, each for its own benefit, on 
 the old rigid system against which Russia had formerly 
 combined the neutral States, while Russia itself, for 
 good reasons, had withdrawn its opposition. Under 
 such circumstances the other Powers were not strong 
 enough to resist; and the British, having destroyed 
 the Du.tch naval power when it enlisted itself on the 
 
GREAT jDBITAIN AND THE BALTIC. 99 
 
 side of their enemies — and how could they do other- 
 wise ? — used their supremacy at will. There was 
 some rough justice as well as strict right on their 
 side. The Power that paid all on land and fought 
 all at sea might well claim to reap the benefit of the 
 aggrandised commerce by which alone she was 
 enabled to perform her part. So only could she 
 direct the conflict. So only could she expect to 
 starve her implacable foe into submission. 
 
 Wlien, however, the Russian policy was for a 
 moment, under the great Empress's mad successor, 
 reversed; when the Armed Neutrality once more 
 gathered formidable head, and the Baltic was closed. 
 Great Britain interfered promptly, and with all her 
 force. The destruction of the Danish fleet was just 
 about to be followed up by Nelson by an attack on 
 Russia, when Paul was assassinated, and the cloud 
 dispersed . With as much sagacity as promptitude, Pitt 
 now perceived that the time had come when he could 
 afford to make the concessions required by the grow- 
 ing commerce of the world. Those concessions have 
 formed the basis of the arrangements which have been 
 carried further in our own day. Thus the old policy 
 of England towards the Northern System of States 
 was renewed. It was more spirited, but it was the 
 same. The Northern Seas were kept free ; the 
 British shores were effectually secured from any com- 
 bination which might be formed on their eastern flank. 
 
 The portion of the British foreign policy which 
 Pitt could not succeed in establishing during war as 
 
100 IMPEBIAL EKGLAND. 
 
 he had done in peace, was the inviolability of the 
 Low Countries. It was not for want of persever- 
 ance and determined effort. Hanover also fell in the 
 general crash. How serious a danger was thus opened 
 up, appeared when the war broke out afresh at the 
 rupture of the Peace of Amiens. It was necessary 
 to bend to the storm. When it passed away, that in- 
 violability was the one point of defence, never lost 
 sight of, which of all others was placed in the most 
 carefully guarded security by Pitt's successors. 
 
 If the collateral events of this momentous period, 
 each of which has its bearing on the general subject, 
 are passed over, it is for fear of obscuring the main 
 issue. Of Ireland scarce anything need be said. The 
 absolutely vital necessity of the Union had been long 
 foreseen by Pitt. It was now forced upon him 
 partly by the use which France was making of Irish 
 difficulties, partly by the existence of an Irish Par- 
 liament at issue with the English, partly by the 
 aspirations of too many of the Irish themselves for an 
 independence which has always been held by the larger 
 island to be entirely inconsistent with its own safety. 
 The first eoedition for a foreign policy which could 
 maintain Great Britain in security was the indivisi- 
 bility of the British Islands ; and, at all hazards, that 
 question had to be settled once and for ever. That 
 methods equally wise with the Union were not always 
 adopted for this purpose may well be lamented. 
 
 Nor may India detain us long ; though the prin- 
 ciples on which this newly- acquired portion of the 
 
IBI8H AND INDIAN AFFAIRS. 101 
 
 Empire were to be govei'ned formed the great 
 problem of the day. It was akeady exercising an 
 influence upon English affairs which betokened for 
 a time the shifting of the centre of gravity of 
 Imperial interests towards the East. The rapid 
 consolidation of these Indian possessions since the 
 exclusion of European rivalry : the vast annexations, 
 some unworthily acquired, but for the most part 
 forced on successive Grovernments (the inevitable 
 consequence of forming trade-settlements in the 
 midst of worn-out, incoherent populations) ; the 
 strangeness, the mystery of these unknown regions, 
 with their ancient civilisation and teeming popula- 
 tions ; the fabulous fortunes brought home by in- 
 dividuals, the careers opened for adventure, the 
 relations which were developed from India as a 
 centre with China and other regions — all these took 
 captive the English mind, and made themselves 
 felt amidst the crash of falling thrones and the 
 shock of nations in arms. It was the wrongs of 
 India which inspired the eloquence of Burke and 
 Sheridan. Warren Hastings' grand but unscrupu- 
 lous career was for some time the leading subject 
 of British interest. It was on an Indian Bill that 
 Fox was wrecked. It was by his Indian Bill, 
 which supplanted it, that Pitt justified men's hopes 
 of his statesmanship. The young military genius 
 of Wellington was nursed in India. There also came 
 to light the great powers for administration pos- 
 sessed by his only less famous brother. 
 
102 IMPERIAL ENGLAXD. 
 
 But the mention of Ireland and of India sng'- 
 gests tlie name of one who has left his mark on 
 the history of both, more distinctly than any other 
 statesman, and yet is already almost forgotten. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis, though he might possibly be 
 omitted in this sketch, as one of those who, after all, 
 only took a part in executing what was designed 
 by others, is nevertheless the single exception that 
 must be made. Nor will it be thought an arbitrary 
 exception if we remember that he was a truly 
 representative Englishman, not of the highest or 
 most showy kind of intellect, but of that thoroughly 
 capable, trustworthy, self - sacrificing, and devoted 
 character which marks men out for the management 
 of the most arduous undertakings. As a soldier, 
 he is chiefly remembered for the famous surrender 
 to Washington which virtually brought the 
 American War to an end; but, as it was certainly 
 not his fault, the high reputation he had already 
 obtained did not suffer. It was he who imme- 
 diately afterwards had been destined to fill the 
 jjlace of Warren Hastings when it was first seen that 
 the latter must be recalled from India ; and, when 
 Pitt's India Bill passed, it was he to whom the 
 working of the new system was entrusted amidst 
 the extraordinary difficulties which called for adjust- 
 ment. His judicial, territorial, social, and adminis- 
 trative settlements have been the basis of all sub- 
 sequent government. It was owing to his wise and 
 upright conduct of affairs, prolonged for nine years, 
 
LORD COHNWALLIS. 103 
 
 that the natives — princes and people alike — learnt to 
 trust the British, to feel themselves a part of the Em- 
 pire. Under him the European officials were taught 
 by slow degrees the lesson that justice and probity 
 were to be required of them as well in India as at 
 home, and European soldiers that discipline was to 
 be no less rigidly exacted. It was his example of 
 temperance, industry, and straightforward honesty, 
 which elevated the whole standard of Indian society. 
 It was his courage and generalship that first subdued 
 the threatening power of Tippoo Saib at a critical 
 moment for British supremacy. Later on, after his 
 return, when it was feared that Wellesley's fine policy 
 of a subsidiary system of States, however wise, was yet 
 too rapid for public opinion, and perhaps dangerous 
 while so much power was left in the hands of 
 the Company, it was Cornwallis who was twice over* 
 appointed Grovernor-Greneral, to satisfy the country. 
 It was there, in the execution of his duty, that he 
 paid the forfeit of his life. 
 
 * Lord Cornwallis did not go out upon his second appointment. 
 Perhaps, the sentence which best expresses the merits of his first Indiau 
 Administration may be found in the Works of a kindred mind, that of Sir 
 John Malcolm. It is as follows : — " To a dignified simplicity of character 
 Lord Cornwallis added a soundness of understanding and a strength of 
 judgment which admirably fitted him for the exercise of both civil and 
 military power ; and his first Administration of the British Empire in 
 India must ever be a theme of just and unqualified admiration." (" Political 
 History of India," I., 355.) But his published " Correspondence " 
 is a sufficient monument. Even his second Administration might have 
 worn a very different aspect had he only lived to carry through that 
 policy of conciliation which nothing but his own extraordinary reputa- 
 tion in India could have made successful. 
 
104 IMFEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 Between these periods Cornwallis had been 
 selected for the responsible service of quelling the 
 rebellion of the Irish and defeating- their French 
 allies. This task skilfully performed, he was then 
 invested with supreme authority to carry out the 
 Union. The ability, the humanity, the enlarged 
 liberality of his conduct on this occasion are to be 
 traced in every account of those transactions, and 
 almost from all quarters of opinion. Finally, it was 
 to Cornwallis, whom Pitt had originally intended for 
 his general in the Low Countries (when the King un- 
 fortunately insisted on appointing the Duke of York), 
 that the interests of his country were entrusted as 
 Plenipotentiary at the Peace of Amiens. Such a 
 list of high offices admirably performed is rare indeed. 
 Among the class of "^eat subjects" of the Crown, 
 of whom Marlborough and Wellington are the highest 
 representatives in British history, unapproachabte 
 in their effect on the history of the world, there 
 will not be found many, if any, who so nearly reach 
 their level as this wise and good man. Wilber- 
 force expressed the general sense of the country 
 when he classed ComwalHs with Nelson and Pitt, all 
 dying close together, as "three of the most high- 
 minded servants a State ever had." * 
 
 It is unnecessary to illustrate this sketch by the 
 discussion of the Peace, or rather Truce of Amiens. 
 
 * " Life of Wilbei'foi'ce," 1st Edition, in five volumes. This re- 
 mark does not appear in the abridged Life published by Bishop 
 Wilberforce. 
 
SUPREME IMPORTANGE OF MALTA. 105 
 
 It is more to our purpose to remark that the 
 Peace broke up after little more than a year, 
 on the question of Malta, which had now taken 
 its place as the central point of British foreign 
 policy. Napoleon perceived the fact as clearly as 
 the British people. To the latter, led by a natural 
 instinct, it had already begun to share with Gibraltar 
 the place which Calais and Dunkirk had held 
 in -earlier days. To the former it seemed so precious 
 that he publicly declared he should prefer to see the 
 English in possession of the Faubourg St. Antoine. 
 It may further be observed that the time has gone 
 by when candid English writers found it necessary 
 to condemn their country for the part it took in this 
 matter. The resistance to Napoleon as a whole is 
 now no more clearly seen to have been the righteous 
 duty of Great Britain, than the resistance displayed 
 on this particular point. None of the stipulated 
 guarantees for the independence of • thfe island had 
 been obtained ; yet these guarantees had alone been 
 lield to justify its cession. Why should Great Britain 
 step out of its stronghold simply to let France step 
 in ? It had never dreamt of such a thing. What 
 need of further argument ? 
 
 Having reached this point, let us pause for a 
 moment to observe how unique in the history of the 
 world had now become the relations of the mother 
 country to her extended empire. Other countries 
 had planted themselves in East or West, but none 
 lay so evenly balanced between both. Venice and 
 
106 IMPERIAL England: 
 
 Holland had at different times, in their distress, all 
 but moved their seat of Government to their Eastern 
 dominions. Portugal founded an Empire of Brazil, 
 which is, perhaps, yet destined to have a future. 
 Spain, by the loss of her chief colonies, as well as 
 of her naval p(?wer, offers no parallel. 
 
 It was the peculiar nature of the British Colonies in 
 the West which really distinguished them from all 
 others. While other nations, and the British else- 
 where, had only formed fixed centres of settle- 
 ment for mining and trading purposes, these alone, 
 almost frora the very first, have been the re- 
 ceivers of a continuous, steady, progressive migra- 
 tion. This incessant influx enabled them not only 
 to dominate the Western coast of the Atlantic, but 
 to settle and people the Continent. Thus, though 
 taking up accretions from other peoples also, the 
 United States and British America gradually became 
 nothing mort3 or less than another branch of the 
 British people, separated by the ocean. Hence, 
 while at the same time the West India Islands were 
 becoming annually more valuable as the rivalry of 
 other European nations was overcome, the Western 
 interests restored the balance which appeared to 
 incline towards the East, and became, in spite of 
 the growing importance of the latter, at least equally 
 strong. 
 
 And just in the same way, later still, as 
 the Cape Colonies, Australia, and New Zealand 
 gradually afforded new homes for the British race 
 
WRAT TRE BRITISH EyiPIBE WAS. 107 
 
 in the South and East, so the growth of the Domi- 
 nion of Canada has of late years marched along 
 with them in the North and West. These main 
 features of peculiarity, now, it is true, so much more 
 largely developed, were sufficiently remarkable under 
 Pitt. 
 
 Surely this was an Empire worth calling upon pos- 
 terity to aid in preserving ! Its variety, extent, and 
 the mutual compensations and uses of its various parts, 
 were an inheritance which no one could doubt that 
 future generations would be grateful to their ancestors 
 for building up and passing down to them. It already 
 embraced and occupied all classes of society ; it 
 represented their fortunes ; it carried with it their 
 destiny ; it provided for the fundamental changes 
 which had taken place in the species of labour and 
 means of subsistence of a rapidly growing population ; 
 it appealed to the history of the past, the enterprise 
 of the present, the imagination of the future. Not 
 that the nation was conscious of acting on these 
 ideas, nor were very many even of its great men. 
 It was enough for them that they had a plain and 
 simple course to follow. And, indeed, as we have 
 seen, they had no choice but to follow it. 
 
 And what was the system of Government which, 
 as soon as they were fitted to receive it, was to bind 
 the various parts of the Empire together, and to 
 the mother country? This also is due to Pitt's 
 administration, and a few words on it may close 
 the period. On the foundations laid for the Grovern- 
 
108 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 ment of Canada in 1774, already noticed, he built, 
 in 1791, the Constitutional fabric which, it is not too 
 much to say, appears to gather strength as the ages 
 roll on. From the British model, transplanted, with 
 the necessary modifications, to Canada, have been pro- 
 pagated the fruitful seeds which are now the flourish- 
 ing Constitutions of many noble settlements. It is 
 impossible to overrate the importance of this step. 
 The mixture of government by Nomination in one 
 House and by Representation in another, with a 
 Governor over all, appointed by and responsible to 
 the Government at home, was the happy compound 
 of sovereignty, aristocracy, and democracy, of which 
 the ancients were always in vain search, and which 
 moderns have found nowhere but in Great Britain. 
 
 It is also important to notice that the commence- 
 ment of this Constitutional system, like that of the 
 Settlement of India by Pitt and Cornwallis, was no 
 chance, obscure policy of which the people knew 
 nothing till it had taken efEect. It was vehemently 
 opposed by Fox as too aristocratic a measure, one too 
 little in accordance with the glorious principles of the 
 French Revolution. The debate to which it gave rise 
 was the celebrated occasion when, after an alliance 
 and friendship of twenty-five years, Burke pronounced 
 his final severance from Fox, and the generous nature 
 of the younger statesman was touched even to tears. 
 Each was honestly convinced that the course on which 
 he now went forth alone was right. How great were 
 the issues of the conflict of opinion which found its 
 
THE NAPOLEONIC WAR. 109 
 
 last expression on this occasion ! How profound the 
 agony it cost them both ! Yet what great poHtical 
 birth can take place without pangs ? 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY DURING THE NAPOLEONIC WAR. 
 
 It is generally found convenient to divide. o£E this 
 later Napoleonic war from the preceding, simply 
 because they were separated from each other by the 
 Peace of Amiens. But there is no such division in 
 the matter of principle or policy. Napoleon had been 
 the life and centre of the war long before the Peace. 
 Long before he became First Consul he had made his 
 great stroke at England through 'Egypt. Beaten, for 
 the first time in his brilliant career, by Englishmen, 
 by Sir Sidney Smith and Nelson, he never for an 
 instant faltered in his undying resolution of ven- 
 geance. Was the child of the Revolution, who had 
 risen to rank through the Robespierres, likely, now 
 that he had become a military despot, to relinquish his 
 hostility to the country which had banded Europe 
 against France, the country which now stood proudly 
 out alone and unfriended for her independent rights ? 
 Tlie Peace had been hailed by the people with the 
 greatest joy. What sanguine hopes were expressed 
 that it might be an honourable peace ! How fatally 
 was the delusion dispelled during the fourteen months 
 of its duration ! The French Expedition to the West 
 
no IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 Indies, the treatment of Piedmont, Switzerland, and 
 Elba, Spain compelled to give up to France Louisiana 
 and the Floridas, are only paralleled by Louis the 
 Fourteenth's iniquitous use of the Peace which suc- 
 ceeded the Treaty of Nimeguen. What was the 
 publication of Sebastiani's Report from the East but 
 the manifest herald of the seizure of Egypt and the 
 Ionian Islands ? 
 
 Perhaps it is enough to remark on this point that 
 even Macaulay, the fervent admirer of Fox's opposi- 
 tion to the earlier war, admits that " the restless 
 ambition and insolence " of the great ruler of France 
 were "insupportable," and that a war for the " dignity, 
 the independence, the very existence of our nation 
 was at hand."* Why should Great Britain fear to 
 re-commence the struggle if it was necessary? It 
 was painful enough ; but her revenues and commerce 
 were respectively equal to those of all Europe com- 
 bined, her navy superior to all European navies 
 combined. The last fact, indeed, might be stated 
 as to her debt.f 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte took his first step in connec- 
 tion with the new war as if he meant it to be 
 internecine. Certainly, the effect of his unheard-of 
 detention of some ten thousand British subjects who 
 had taken advantage of the Peace to visit France, and 
 his constant refusal to liberate them, was to stir up a 
 feeling in England not less fierce than Burke had 
 
 * " Miscellaneous Works," II., 361, ed. 1860. 
 
 t Pitt to Lord Malmesbury, in " Malmesbury Diaries," IV., 147. 
 
LANFBET8 NAPOLEON. lU 
 
 inflamed against the Revolution. If lie had wislied to 
 make it still more vehement, what better com'se could 
 he have taken than to jjlant his boasting legions and 
 his fleets of transports along his coasts for the purpose 
 of invasion ? In no, better way could he have enlisted 
 everj sentiment of patriotism in support of sacrifices 
 which too surely made themselves felt as the British 
 lost their money and one after another, their allies, 
 and stood at last isolated, but upright, while all 
 Em'ope bowed down at the feet of the conqueror. 
 
 How many contradictory opinions have been 
 entertained of the character of this extraordinary 
 man ! Has M. Lanfrey set them at rest ? He has at 
 any rate left his mark ; and the certain result is to con- 
 firm the estimate formed at the time of these wars by 
 the British people. Since that time such feelings have 
 often been attributed to mere obsolete national preju- 
 dice. Napoleon has often had his most devoted admirers 
 amongst Englishmen ; but this admiration will now 
 be generally confined to his magnificent intellect and 
 superb generalship, neither of which can ever be 
 questioned ; for they distinguish him from every 
 competitor on the rolls of fame. It was his moral 
 qualities which were in default ; and this it is which 
 M. Lanfrey has tracked, through every tortuous path 
 and pitiful subterfuge, \\dth the "keen scent of a 
 Laconian hound." And yet it was not so long ago 
 that the author of perhaps the greatest military 
 history ever written was so dazzled by hereditary 
 politics and soldierly enthusiasm that his immortal 
 
112 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 ''Peninsular War" contained passage after passage 
 in laudation of Napoleon and in defence of liis 
 policy ; while it is not easy to find any reference to 
 his selfishness, ambition, cruel recklessness of human 
 life, base moral delinquencies. And Napier was the 
 soul of chivalry, almost a Quixote on the point of 
 honour, the most painstaking of historians ! To him, 
 in fact — as to how many more ! — Napoleon appeared 
 as the incarnation of order emerging out of anarchy, 
 the apparition of genius in the midst of stupidity, the 
 large-minded, almost omniscient, director of affairs, 
 hampered by the jealousies of inferior spirits, and 
 hunted to ruin by a world in arms which failed to 
 understand him. 
 
 Such violent oscillations of historical judgment 
 are not only the temporary phases of one-sided 
 opinion, advancing against one another like waves in 
 a cross-sea till a level surface is produced, but they 
 seem, in the case of a few extraordinary men, like 
 Julius Ceesar and Napoleon, to be inherent in the very 
 nature of the questions which bring them into pro- 
 minence. If a great society, like that of Rome or 
 France, has fallen into chronic decay, it can only be 
 saved by some supremely able Dictator; and such, 
 being human, exhibit their defects as soon as ever 
 the power they have obtained displays their true 
 character. Ofiice, as the ancients said, proves what the 
 man really is. As time proceeds, we learn to obsen^e 
 more soberly, to regard a multitude of events as a 
 whole ; but there will always be minds which fasten 
 
MISSION OF NAPOLEON. 113 
 
 with exclusive favour and interest on the tumultuous 
 struggles of liberty, or, on the other hand, the stern 
 processes by which order is elicited out of anarchy. 
 
 Napoleon was the clear-headed, capable man of 
 force and intellect, producing order from the mass of 
 ruin, confusion, and corruption which the break-up of 
 a thousand years of social life could not but bring 
 with it, a state of society nursed in the old feudal 
 ages, and prolonged far beyond its natural limits. 
 Further, he seems to have been raised up as much to 
 administer the discipline required by France as to 
 chastise the selfish corruption of the Continental 
 Allies, whose institutions were also decayed. We can 
 now trace the good work which was intended to be 
 done by and through the Armageddon of Europe ; and 
 who can assert that it could have been done in any 
 other way ? We may point out and condemn the 
 " brutal unscrupulousness " of the conqueror of Italy 
 in dethroning the ruling princes, and especially in 
 handing over Venice to Austria ; we may reduce 
 his notions of reconstruction to " a sort of amalgam 
 of crude recollections of classical antiquity, and 
 experience gained in revolutionary transactions or 
 in the habits of military command," and scorn 
 them as the mere introduction of " geometrical 
 ])recision into an order of ideas which could not 
 bear it ; " we may prove to demonstration his 
 ignorance of "modern political science," and the 
 gross Machiavellianism of his real governing motives ; 
 but we cannot shut our eyes to the results. The 
 I 
 
114 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 regeneration of Italy sprang from, first, its conquest, 
 and then its rude reorganisation at his hands. 
 Germany has made a vast progress, for which it 
 might have waited long enough under the tutelage of 
 " paternal government." Spain's intense suffering 
 taught her some valuable lessons which she mach 
 needed. Light broke in even upon Russia, which had 
 brought on herself a Nemesis for the career of 
 Catharine. The cause of the people everywhere 
 received a recognition which it was hard for the old 
 feudal societies to perceive for themselves. The 
 world has been better for the horrible process. It 
 has made progress. 
 
 And these obstructive feudal societies — ^not with- 
 out their merits — can they be visited with mere con- 
 tempt and obloquy for failing to perceive the new 
 Gospel in the horrible brutalities of the French 
 Revolution, or the hollow professions of the world- 
 conqueror ? Faults, no doubt, in plenty dimmed 
 the splendour of their resistance ; yet they did their 
 duty in standing firm, after many vacillations, to the 
 cause of independence and European concert. To 
 the thoughtfiil in these States — and they at last 
 govern the world — how confused and conflicting 
 must the outlook have appeared ! History told them 
 that there had been an old national freedom in all 
 these kingdoms. It had disappeared and sunk. The 
 National Assemblies had become the merest forms. 
 "Nowhere," says Heeren, " had they been modelled 
 into a true national representation. But the idea of 
 
EBEBEN ON GREAT BRITAIN. 115 
 
 it not only lived in theory, disseminated and fostered 
 by the first writers of the day, but was seen perma- 
 nently realised in a neighbom-ing happy island-State. 
 It could not, therefore, pass away from practical 
 politics, and was necessarily, during the storms of the 
 following period, the polar star which was for ever 
 kept in view in all the aberrations of the times." 
 
 Writing in the early years of the present 
 century, Heeren, Professor of History at Grottingen, 
 thus described the position of Great Britain. They 
 are words which the inhabitants of these islands might 
 have hesitated to use ; but no doubt they describe 
 the truth. The minds which revolted from the ex- 
 tremes of despotism and democracy fondly turned 
 towards the British Constitution. So also, by slower 
 degrees, did France herself ; for before their troubles 
 none had admired it in theory more than the French. 
 When this philosophical observer wrote his book the 
 clouds had not yet cleared away. He was in doubt 
 how the movement would end. Yet he thought the 
 period through which Europe had just passed should 
 rather be called the Constitutional than the Revo- 
 lutionary Period ; " for the struggle after regular but 
 free Constitutions is the thread that guides us through 
 the whole confusion ; " and he had sagacity enough 
 to see that "the most desirable thing at all times 
 will be a diversity of Constitutions adapted to the 
 character and wants of the people."* From ou.r 
 
 * " History of the Political System of Europe and its Colonies," trans- 
 lated from the 5th German edition in 1833, pp. 322, 323. 
 
116 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 present vantage ground, more than half a century 
 later, we can observe the truth of these remarks. 
 What a different Europe meets our gaze from that 
 of which H_eeren wrote ! And what more distinctive 
 difference is there than that it is now in north and 
 south, in west, in centre, the Europe of Constitu- 
 tions ? Surely the east must follow. 
 
 The personal representative of this national " Polar 
 Star" on which the troubled nations gazed was, for 
 the time, William Pitt. Like Napoleon, he seemed 
 raised up to do what no other man could have done. 
 How excellently — though he builds too much on his 
 premisses — has Macaulay described Pitt's attitude 
 in the House of Commons before the Peace of 
 Amiens : — 
 
 " There was his Empire. There were his victories — his Lodi and 
 his Areola, his Rivoli and his Marengo. If some great misfortune — 
 a pitched battle lost by the Allies, the annexation of a new Depart- 
 ment to the French Republic, a sanguinary insurrection in Ireland, 
 a mutiny in the Fleet, a panic in the City, a run on the Bank — had 
 spread dismay through the ranks of his majority, that dismay lasted 
 only till he rose from the Treasury bench, drew up his haughty head, 
 stretched his arm with commanding gesture, and poured forth in 
 deep and sonorous tones the lofty language of inextinguishable hope 
 and inflexible resolution. Thus, through a long and calamitous 
 period, every disaster that happened without the walls of Parliament 
 was regularly followed by a triumph within them. At length he 
 had no longer an Opposition to encounter. Of the great party which 
 had contended against him during the first eight years of his Admi- 
 nistration, more than half now marched under his standard, with his 
 old competitor, the Duke of Portland, at their head ; and the rest 
 had, aft* many vain struggles, quitted the field in despair. . . . 
 Session followed Session with scarcely a single division. In the 
 
BEATB OF PITT. 117 
 
 eventful year 1799 the largest minority that could be mustered 
 against the Government was twenty-five." * 
 
 Pitt was thus, when everything depended on the 
 steadfastness of his country, able to hold forth an 
 exhibition of strength and united action to the world, 
 because he represented the Constitution of that country 
 in the full harmony of all its parts in Church and 
 State — King, Lords, and Commons ; because, also, 
 in spite of the most alarming seditions, directly pro- 
 pagated by French agency and French gold, and 
 laying hold, whatever some may say to the contrary, 
 of large masses of inflammatory matter in our great 
 cities — a "faction" by no means "contemptible" — 
 he had the courage to interpret the will of the majo- 
 rity of the nation, and apply the laws, or make fresh 
 ones, when required. That many persons who were 
 tried for high treason and sedition were acquitted, 
 did in reality, as Lord Stanhope has pointed out, 
 prove the wisdom of his policy ; for the people thus 
 learnt to trust their own institutions, and enthusiasts 
 to keep within decent bounds. Thus, having planted 
 himself deeper and deeper in the respect and admira- 
 tion of his country, he was unanimously called, when 
 the war was renewed, once more to the front, after 
 his temporary retirement. Thus, hurling back de- 
 fiance at the foe, still striking deadly blows, as at 
 Trafalgar, still losing the fruits of British millions, 
 as at Austerlitz, he died at his post, " killed by 
 
 * " Miscellaneous Works," IL, 354 
 
118 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 the enemy," said Wilberforce, * "as much as 
 Nelson." Thus he left the legacy of a Britisli 
 foreign policy, saved through the storm, to be no 
 less inflexibly preserved by his successors. 
 
 The best p^pof that Pitt had been hitherto right 
 in supporting the war was afEorded by the fate of 
 the Fox and Grenville Ministry. That Ministry 
 found itself reluctantly obliged, by the conduct of 
 Napoleon, to pursue the very measures which Fox 
 had spent his life in denouncing. Their expeditions 
 to South America, Turkey, and Egypt failed more 
 signally than any which Pitt had ever undertaken. 
 Fox just lived long enough to discover that he had 
 been in error; and the country turned at once to 
 those who had the best title to represent his de- 
 parted rival. It was now that the Grovernment in- 
 cluded the two men in whose hands lay, so to 
 speak, the destinies of Europe — 'Canning, the Foreign 
 Secretary ; Sir Arthur Wellesley, the Secretary for 
 Ireland. 
 
 The name of Canning, though it was many 
 years before he became Prime Minister, seems 
 to be the most fit to connect with the course of 
 Grreat Britain after the death of Pitt. He was 
 his pupil and friend ; his enthusiastic supporter 
 in speech, inverse, in prose. His " Anti- Jacobin " 
 had already in some degree taken the place 
 of Burke's graver appeals to • the nation. It was 
 his especial merit that he knew how to enlist 
 
 * " Life of Wilberforce," new ed., p. 267. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 119 
 
 the sympathies of the British people, his especial 
 work the banding together of the people of the 
 Spanish Peninsula. When the successful Emperor 
 of Western Europe, having laid all the Teutonic 
 Kingdoms, as well as Italy, at his feet, resolved to 
 imitate in one more respect his favourite medissval 
 type, and, like another Charlemagne, abolish the 
 Pyrenees, thus realising the dreams of Louis Quatorze, 
 it was with Canning that he had to reckon. It was 
 now that Napoleon found himself, for the first time, 
 having just arrived at the smnmit of his career, 
 face to face with his destiny. Kings and armies 
 and alliances had been shattered to pieces. He was 
 now to learn what strength there lay in the weak- 
 ness of a people, feeble, disunited, contemptible in a 
 military point of view, ruined as a nation by years 
 of misgovernment, but, nevertheless, that " Spanish 
 ulcer," as he termed it, which, from the moment of 
 his nefarious attempt to enslave the country, began 
 to eat away his overweighted system. It was 
 tlurough Canning that Spain found her deliver- 
 ance. 
 
 George Canning was peculiarly fitted to extend 
 Pitt's Foreign Policy in the method which had un- 
 expectedly offered itself for acceptance. Like him 
 and like Burke, he had rather been anti-Foxite than 
 one of the so-called Orthodox Tories — who, however, 
 it must be remembered, followed each of these men 
 in turn as their natural leader, and deserve to share 
 their glories. It is remarkable that it should have 
 
120 niPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 fallen to three men who were above party (in the 
 strict sense of the word) to lead the nation through 
 its perils ; it is a proof of the sterling patriotism 
 which rises to the surface in all British emergencies, 
 leading the large majority to forget on such occa- 
 sions party ties, dnd consigning the dregs to factious 
 insignificance. 
 
 It required a man of genius to deal with the new 
 state of affairs. The old policy of subsidies to the 
 great allied powers, the only policy open to Pitt, 
 had collapsed at Austerlitz, and seemed buried in his 
 grave. Napoleon's genius had proved too strong for 
 it. The nation cried out for a fair field for British 
 military enterprise. They were sick of seeing their 
 millions wasted in subsidies and loans, on those 
 who proved unable to make any successful use 
 of the aid. The short-lived Ministry of " All the 
 Talents " had failed in finding a substitute. Canning 
 saw that not only in providing a sphere of action 
 of a different kind must a limit be put, for the time 
 at least, to a system of borrowing which had become 
 useless, but that British gold and British troops must 
 be used in support of some country where the army 
 might hold its own. Holland was no longer available. 
 Was it possible that the Peninsula had offered at last 
 true the base of operations ? It seems easy to us now, 
 after the event, to answer in the affirmative ; yet the 
 difficulties were immense. Large bodies of the Tories 
 distrusted a popular insm-rection, and they had only 
 too just cause for hesitation. On the other hand, in 
 
8EIZUEE OF TEE DANISH FLEET. 121 
 
 spite of the popular enthusiasm, the organs of Whigs 
 discouraged any further opposition to the invincible 
 Xapoleon. 
 
 It was no doubt a dangerous experiment, as the 
 event proved. How often was the cause all but ship- 
 wrecked ! Yet Canning's popular sympathies supplied 
 the enthusiasm which made him dash into the fray while 
 he had the power to lead the country, and it was soon 
 too far committed to draw back. His confidence in the 
 desperate resolution of the Spanish people, after many 
 a bitter trial, turned out to be well founded at last. 
 The truth is, if we examine Canning's career, we 
 shall find that, with all his contempt of the arts of 
 the demagogue, and all his -horror of the French 
 ^-evolution and its English supporters, there was a 
 side of his character which led him to believe in- 
 tensely that the people would be with him if they 
 were only rightly led. Instead of leaving them out 
 of his calculation, he would write for them, legislate 
 for them, use them for the public service, attract and 
 guide them into patriotism. 
 
 But, before Canning was engaged in this con- 
 genial field for his talents, he became responsible 
 for one of the boldest strokes of British war-policy 
 which had yet been made. The seizure of the 
 Danish fleet at Copenhagen was the reply wliich he 
 sent to the Peace of Tilsit. On the raft moored in the 
 Niemen, Napoleon and Alexander, combining against 
 Great Britain, Bad audaciously divided the world 
 between them. The Secret Articles, by which the 
 
122 IMFEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 Danish fleet was to be used as the chief means of 
 attack upon the one country as yet unsubdued, 
 became known to Canning, we know not how. 
 What was he to do? It was only a question of 
 days and hours whether the two allies should use 
 this fleet against'Great Britain, or be prevented from 
 doing so by the menaced State. There was no hesi- 
 tation : not an hour was lost. To the amazement 
 of the Emperors, almost while they were talking, 
 the thing was done. Lords Gambler and Cathcart 
 carried ofB the fleet to England with the greatest 
 facility. 
 
 It was a most dexterous stroke ; but few things 
 gave a greater shock to the opinion stiU entertaiued 
 of British political Aortue. " No expedition," says 
 Lord Malmesbury, "was ever better planned or better 
 executed, and none ever occasioned more clamour."* 
 It was too successful, too barefaced a robbery. Here 
 was the nation which professed such philanthropical 
 sentiments, iu which Wilberforce, after a struggle of 
 twenty years, had just carried the Abolition of the 
 Slave Trade, and which, from a pinnacle of moral 
 elevation, was never weary of denouncing the crimes 
 of its enemies, condescending to an act which was 
 fit to be classed "oith the violent defiances of law 
 so often committed by the French. And yet, if we 
 examine the detractors of the British act, we find 
 they either betray a strong Continental accent — and 
 the Continent was too much moved to be impartial 
 
 * " Malmesbury Diaries," lY., 391. 
 
WILBEBFORCE'S OPINION. 123 
 
 — or else a very distinct evidence of the spirit which 
 dictated in England the opposition to the whole 
 war. And certainly, since those times, historical 
 opinion has decidedly settled down in favour 
 of the course pursued by Canning. Even at the 
 time, Wilberforce, a purist in all such matters, if 
 we may so designate the conscientiousness of a man 
 who measured every thought and action by the 
 highest standard, considered " the policy doubtful, 
 but our right clear if self-defence is clear." * And 
 again: "After much reflection, I am convinced that, 
 under all the circumstances of the case, the Danish 
 Expedition was just." 
 
 The fact is that the issue has been confused 
 by party - spirit. The arguments against the 
 British tacitly assumed the independence, of the 
 gallant Danes ; whereas, their independence like 
 that of Holland, could only be a reality when 
 collective Eui'ope guaranteed it. When the Con- 
 tinent was parcelled out between France and 
 Russia, the Danish fleet was French or Russian. 
 Denmark was grievously to be pitied for finding 
 herself in such a dilemma ; but what country did 
 not suffer in that dreadful time? It would have 
 been well if the fleet or its money-value could have 
 been restored to her; but she, not manaturally, pre- 
 ferred to throw herself into the arms of the enemies 
 of England, and took the consequences. It was 
 exactly akin to a thousand other acts which occur 
 
 * " Life of Wilberforce," old edition. 
 
124 IMTISBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 in war, and pass unheeded from the simple neces- 
 sity of the case. 
 
 It must also be remembered — and it is part of our 
 general subject — that Denmark had its own policy in 
 reference to Sweden and Norway, which cannot be 
 dissociated from these transactions. It is, indeed, the 
 key to them. Sweden was at this moment the one ally 
 in the North which elected to stand by hard-pressed 
 England ; and yet it was an impotent ally ; for 
 its king was to all practical purposes insane. When 
 Canning sent Sir John Moore with a small but 
 efficient army to support Christian the Fourth, he was 
 obliged to return as he went, for no common action 
 was possible. Grreat Britain then could not let the 
 Baltic take care of itself. Necessity was laid upon 
 her. The policy of Denmark was naturally opposed 
 to the ally of Sweden, its deadly enemy. Under such 
 circumstances there could be no refuge in the friendli- 
 ness of the nation, still less of its Grovernment, even 
 if it had not the excuse of acting under pressure, 
 and it could not but act under pressure. It had no 
 choice. 
 
 This high-handed act — for such, however justifi- 
 able, it certainly was — had removed one danger ; but 
 what a spectacle presented itself to the new Foreign 
 Minister ! The arbiter of Europe, extending the 
 jjlatform of the old Russian " Armed Neutrality " 
 till it now covered what he called the " Continental 
 system," seemed at last to have found the means 
 of destroying his inveterate foe. Baffled in Egypt 
 
NAPOLEON'S "CONTINENTAL SYSTEM." 125 
 
 and Syria, baffled on the. coast of Botdogne, liis fleets 
 finally destroyed, lie had taken his revenge. He had at 
 last sealed up the Baltic and Mediterranean, as he sup- 
 posed, from the commerce of England. He had only 
 to deprive her of the one friendly strip of territory 
 left, through which the " nation of shopkeepers " 
 could pour their goods into Europe. She must then 
 die of inanition, and the world would be at rest. 
 This last ally, Portugal, was forced to declare war 
 Avith her in August 1807. 
 
 Well might any but the bravest and the most far- 
 seeing shrink aghast from the prospect which now 
 unfolded itself. The few great men England had 
 yet produced had passed away ; and those who were 
 to fill their places were not yet recognised. It was 
 a gloomy, a terrible oiitlook. And yet it was this 
 very sealing up of Europe by the " Continental 
 System," rendering it one vast prison, which, as soon 
 as ever it was accomplished, began also to bring 
 deliverance. It gradually drove the despairing popu- 
 lations to rebellion, and launched the conqueror on 
 the sea of misfortune into which he was to sink head- 
 long. Surrounded by an army of spies, what could 
 the people of Europe do but darkly conspire and 
 grimly watch for the signal of insurrection ? Smug- 
 gling, of com-se, was not long in becoming universal. 
 Najioleon himself had to permit licences for the pur- 
 chase of British goods to be granted to those who 
 could pay for them, but those only. No small 
 part of his own army was clothed in British broad- 
 
126 IMFEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 cloth. Tliiis the professed liberator stood before the 
 world a confessed tyrant, forcing the sense of the 
 odiousness of his rule on nations and families, not 
 only by sub j ligation and terror, but by interference 
 with the first law of civilisation, the free interchange 
 of goods. Thus 'also he overreached himself ; for he 
 presented Grreat Britain to the Continent as the true 
 liberator and benefactor instead of France. The envy 
 which had pursued her, the nautical arrogance, the 
 selfishness, with which she was charged, the seizure of 
 the Danish fleet, were all forgotten in the longing for 
 what Napoleon would not let men have, the benefit of 
 her trade. 
 
 At length, although affairs were ripening faster 
 than he knew, when it seemed that no weapon forged 
 by man could reach the height of the great Emperor, 
 it was by himself that the deadly weapon was directed. 
 Having handed over Turkey and Finland to the tender 
 mercies of Russia, he would deal as he would with his 
 own. The Spanish Peninsula should become a French 
 province, and it should be done in such a way that no 
 Spaniard should think of resistance. What were these 
 demoralised people? They should be crushed before 
 they knew that any mischief was intended. 
 
 The story of that seizure of the Royal Family, that 
 apparently mad insurrection, the unexpected glories 
 of Saragossa, the still more extraordinary captm-e of 
 Dupont's army, and then the failures of Spain, the 
 crushing defeats, the treacheries, the contrasts of the 
 most surprising kind that marked the progress of the 
 
CANNING'S FENINSULAH POLIGY. ' 127 
 
 struggle, are familiar enough. And yet it may be 
 remarked that, perilous as the decision was, Great 
 Britain would have betrayed her trust if she had 
 not, under Canning's guidance, seized the oppor- 
 tunity. From a military point of view, there 
 were advantages which the war had never yet 
 afforded. The Peninsula could be reached from 
 the Atlantic and from the Mediterranean. Its 
 distance was not too great ; it cut asunder the 
 home resom-ces of France; it afforded scope for 
 English fleets as well as armies. The moral advantage 
 was great; for this support of an oppressed people, 
 rising against the common enemy, regardless of odds, 
 called forth the more generous and noble elements in 
 the British character. In that corner of Europe 
 French armies might be detained, and fresh heart be 
 given to those other down-trodden nations which might 
 learn in time to follow the example of Spain. 
 
 The merits of Canning's Peninsular policy have 
 been obscured by the errors into which he was led 
 through the inexperience of his agents, especially 
 through the influence of the poetical but unpractical 
 Frere. How bitter, and yet how well deserved, is 
 Napier's scathing exposure of the waste of British 
 subsidies, the corruption and incapacity of the Sjjanish 
 upper and middle classes, the mountain on mountain 
 of obstacles which they piled up against the British 
 enterprise ! And yet, on a large survey, how could it 
 have been otherwise ? It is a terrible thing for a 
 nation which has once been great to learn by hard 
 
128 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 experience that it is perfectly incapable of obtaining 
 its own freedom, and must depend for it on another 
 nation whom it has little reason to love, and could 
 hardly avoid suspecting. It is easy to turn into ridi- 
 cule the bombastic pretensions, the absurd ebullitions 
 of national vanity, the feeble combinations, the childish 
 strategy, of a people who had been subject to every 
 political and social disadvantage for centuries. All 
 that might well be forgotten if it did not live in an 
 immortal Work. What we may well desire to remem- 
 ber is that, after all, it was the " Spanish ulcer" which, 
 by Napoleon's own confession, destroyed him. It will 
 be to all time the glory of Spain and Portugal that the 
 terrific sufferings they endured placed them in the 
 front rank with Great Britain in the liberation of the 
 world. 
 
 It might be thought that Lord Castlereagh's nanie 
 ought to find its place here along with Canning's, 
 as a main representative of British foreign policy, 
 especially as he had already made his fame by 
 his services in the cause of the Irish Union. 
 This must depend upon the extent of such a 
 survey as we are now making. If it had been 
 of a more minute kind, a leading place must of course 
 have been assigned to the man who was chiefly 
 responsible for the disaster of Walcheren, who esta- 
 blished by his courageous bearing at an eventful time, 
 in spite of every defect of oratory, a firm hold on 
 the Qountry as leader of the House of Commons, and 
 ffho represented the nation at the final settlement of 
 
CANNING AND TRE DUKE. 129 
 
 affairs, at one time alone, at another with the Duke 
 of Wellington. But he was scarcely more than a 
 subordinate ; in Ireland under Comwallis, in the 
 Cabinet under the Portlands, Percevals, and Liver- 
 pools. At Vienna stood behind him, whether in 
 person or not, the figure of the great Duke, and 
 indeed long before the close of the war. The two 
 men who left a mark on British policy, without whom, 
 as far as we can see, it would not have been what it 
 was, were Canning and the Duke. 
 
 Lastly, not only are we to ascribe the' irrevocable 
 seizure of the Peninsula as the British battle-ground, 
 to Canning ; we must remember that it was also due 
 to him that his own country was inspirited to resist 
 Napoleon's overtures at Erfurt, when to have listened 
 would certainly have been to betray the cause. He, 
 in fact, represented the indomitable spirit of Pitt, his 
 mighty gift for ruling senates, his power of infusing 
 his own enthusiasm into others. These are the quali- 
 ties, tried in a time of sore need, which oblige us to 
 forget how much longer he persisted in relying upon 
 the independent efEorts of the Spaniards than ex- 
 perience justified, and how inferior he showed himself 
 to the Marquis Wellesley in the political ability 
 necessary for dealing with the complicated questions 
 which were always arising between the British and 
 their allies. He had to leave office before he had the 
 opportunity of retrieving those errors. His subse- 
 quent acts as Foreign Minister and Premier do not 
 come within our limits, but it may add to a true 
 J 
 
130 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 appreciation of his earlier career to reflect upon the 
 glories of the later. If Canning were never re- 
 membered for anything else, his effective cham- 
 pionship of .the Spanish Colonies and of Grreece 
 must ever place 'him in the first rank of British 
 statesmen ; but in reality he proved his claim long 
 before.* 
 
 Let us now turn to one who made, we might 
 almost say, no mistakes — ^to him whose gigantic 
 shadow had already been projected before his country 
 from the plains of India, the shores of Ireland, the 
 ramparts of Copenhagen. Trained in the best school 
 for British generals, the best for British statesmen, in 
 close contact from the first with the leading minds of 
 the day, most of all with the great Marquis, his 
 brother, he had nothing small about him. His 
 standard was lofty, his acquired qualities were so 
 exactly complementary to those which he possessed 
 by nature, that nothing was wanting for such a man 
 but a fair field ; but the British public, looking about 
 everywhere for a leader, little suspected that the 
 instrument had been already formed, till all Europe 
 rang with the effect it had produced. 
 
 It would be unpardonable to linger here over 
 anything so well known as the career of the Duke of 
 Wellington in -the Peninsula. Not even a sketch of 
 it is permissible. It need only be remarked that, if 
 
 * The above was written before the appearance of Lord Stratford de 
 Redcliffe's interesthig notice of Canning in the Nineteenth Century. ■ It 
 confirms the view taken in the text. 
 
WELLINGTON'S DIFFICULTIES AND TRIUMPHS. 131 
 
 the various lines of British Foreign Policy have been 
 hitherto grouped around some conspicuous figures in 
 British history, we may almost say of the Duke that 
 he was himself the very embodiment of that Foreign 
 Policy. The Groveruments under which he com- 
 manded in the Peninsula were those of second-rate 
 men ; the difficulties under which they laboured 
 stupendous. Over and over again it was his right 
 arm, humanly speaking, which alone suipported them. 
 Over and over again, when, fainting under the pres- 
 sure, those at the helm refused their general his 
 supplies, or almost fatally crippled his strategy, or 
 desperately threw the whole responsibility of tlie 
 continuance of the war upon his shoulders, it was his 
 magnificent courage, patience, sagacity, all-compre- 
 hending foresight, which carried the vessel of the 
 State over the tumultuous waves. Nothing but the 
 conviction which he, and he alone, infused by degrees 
 into the nation, that it was at last reaping tlie fruits 
 of so many years of bitter trial and heroic sacrifice, 
 could have tm-ned the tide against the rising discon- 
 tents, the threatening despair, which famine, misery, 
 and disappointment had bred throughout the land. 
 We forget the terrible process in the glorious event. 
 There are those still living who do not. 
 
 At last, as victory after victory told its tale, 
 as calumny was beaten down, stroke after stroke, 
 by facts, as the echo of the furious straggle began 
 to reverberate through Europe, as it began to rouse 
 to emulation the fallen spirit of the subject nations, 
 
132 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 as the mighty ruler himself began to show signs of 
 confusion, and, losing the thread of his consummate 
 calculations, embarked on enterprises beyond even 
 his strength, and as the rising of Europe more and 
 more clearly revealed itself as resting on the pivot 
 of Wellington's strategy in the Peninsula, so, step 
 by step, hardly believing their eyes and ears, the 
 British people learnt to fling away their fears. 
 Once more the light of Blenheim and Quebec, of 
 Quiberon, Dominica, St. Vincent, the Nile, and 
 Trafalgar flashed in every eye. 
 
 And now the roar of the "storm of nations" 
 was heard to sweep over Europe to the East. 
 Soon the indomitable Russians, aided by their 
 snows, swept it back again in headlong rout. 
 And then the great German Powers, their stern 
 resolution nursed into fury under slavery, obeyed 
 the summons ; and the British people once more 
 drew forth to better purpose than of old their gold. 
 Soon all Europe stood arrayed for battle as it had 
 never been arrayed before. Then the great con- 
 queror experienced what it was to have won battles 
 without having subdued the hearts of men. Grandly 
 standing at bay, he found the task beyond his failing 
 strength. Defeat after defeat culminated in the 
 three days' fight of Leipsic, and the terrible rotit 
 from which he never recovered. And now the 
 smaller German States threw ofE their bonds. The 
 days of their humiliation were over, and retribution 
 was at hand. The conquest of France, the abdica- 
 
THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 133 
 
 tion of Napoleon, the Congress of Chatillon, the 
 Quadruple Alliance at Chaumont, followed in quick 
 succession ; but not more rapidly than Wellington 
 had fought his way over the Pyrenees, and beaten 
 down the gallant Soult in the South of France. 
 
 The war had brought to light the noblest 
 heroism ; all classes had shared its glories ; but it 
 only brought to the front one first-rate general 
 to match Napoleon. It was not long before the 
 final crisis arrived which was to place on his brow 
 the crown woven, not by his own country alone, 
 but 'by united Europe. The escape of the Emperor 
 from Elba, the Hundred Days, the Battle of Water- 
 loo, the final collapse of the common enemy, 
 prepared the way for the last great settlement of 
 the world, which must now, in concluding our 
 survey, briefly engage our attention. 
 
 It was at Vienna that the man who had thus been 
 prepared by all his previous career to be the true 
 moderator of Europe and arbiter of the Balance 
 of Power, exhibited himself as the representative of 
 the Foreign Policy of Great Britain. Let us mark 
 the lesson. Did the lam-el-crowned Duke bring to 
 the Congress the message of vce victis ? Was the old 
 enemy of his country to be shorn of her natural 
 dimensions, and to be rendered for ever powerless 
 to cross the steps of the island-Empire ? Was that 
 Empire which had spent 600 millions in the Twenty- 
 two Years War, and entailed the cost on her posterity, 
 perhaps for ever, as well as on herself, Avhich had in 
 
]:!4 IMPEEIAL EXGLAND. 
 
 fair figlit swept every nation from the seas, and might 
 claim to keep all she had conquered, was she to find 
 within the Settlement an acknowledgment of her 
 rigid rights ? No. As Grreat Britain once more gave 
 the lesson of self-renmiciation, we may at least demand 
 that her merits »sliall be recognised. She had nothing 
 to do but to draw back and selfishly defy Em'ope to 
 touch her. She did nothing of the kind. Napoleon 
 in his distress addressed the Prince Regent as " the 
 most powerful, the most constant, and the most gene- 
 rous of my enemies."' If the relegation of the fallen 
 chief to St. Helena has been thought to weigh against 
 the last of these epithets, candour must admit that 
 after the flight from Elba no choice remained. But 
 this country may well point to her conduct at the Con- 
 gresses. She might have kept all ; she gave up all, 
 or nearly all. Of all that she had taken from France 
 and her allies she retained but the necessary posts for 
 her commerce in India, the Mediterranean, the West 
 Indies, and the Grerman Ocean. The Isle of France, 
 Malta, the Cape of Good Hope (then the mere neigh- 
 bourhood of the Cape itself), Heligoland, a mere 
 s])eck in the sea, Tobago, and St. Lucia, represented 
 all her gains. The country which had lavished and 
 mortgaged its resources, afterwards bought with still 
 more money some South American possessions which 
 she had taken from her enemies in the war. 
 
 But her conduct in this respect passed almost 
 unnoticed. It was expected as a matter of coui-se. 
 What did, and for ever must attract attention, was 
 
UNSELFISHNESS OF GBFAT BRITAIN. 135 
 
 the stand made by the Duke against the selfish policy 
 of the British Allies, who in the flush of vengeance 
 would have dismembered France and absorbed 
 Poland and Saxony. Well knowing that the quarrel 
 had long ceased to be with the French people, and 
 was only with her ambitious ruler, from whose tyranny 
 the war had liberated them; well knowing that the 
 independent voice of that great nation can never be 
 safely missed in the Councils of Europe, all schemes 
 for the humiliation of the prostrate enemy were 
 resisted at any cost. Even the spoils which she had 
 captured from the capitals of the world were left (at 
 the Treaty of Paris) in her possession. Even two- 
 thirds of the ships of war at Antwerp were returned 
 to her, the remainder to the King of Holland, the 
 country which had not long before lost its name, in 
 its incorporation with France, as " The alluvia of 
 French Rivers." In accordance with the previous 
 settlements of Europe, the Low Countries were now 
 once more rendered independent in the form which 
 then seemed best for permanence, a form since 
 modified for the better. The relations of Poland, 
 Saxony, and Italy to the Great Powers were settled 
 on an independent basis as far as circumstances 
 permitted; not, indeed, as satisfactorily as might 
 have been wished, but very differently from what 
 such settlement would have been except for the 
 determined attitude assumed by the Duke of Wel- 
 lington as the British Plenipotentiary. 
 
 To load the Treaties of Paris and Vienna — 
 
136 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 and they have here been taken together — with 
 obloquy because they disregarded the wishes of more 
 populations than one is well enough in theory, and 
 just so far is a lesson for the future ; but it is to 
 mistake wishes and theory for facts and reality. It 
 is an anachronism not unlike the complaints made 
 on previous occasions when prolonged wars were 
 brought to an end by unpopular Treaties. It was not 
 likely that the great military Powers which had felt 
 the heel of the conqueror, and were hardly restrained 
 by Great Britain from tearing France to pieces, 
 would cordially accept those modern ideas which 
 would have had the effect of materially reducing the 
 compensations to which they naturally looked. How 
 nearly Grreat Britain and Austria (along with France, 
 which owed her position at the Congresses to the 
 British) were engaged in deadly conflict on this very 
 point with their own allies, Russia and Prussia, cannot 
 surely even yet be forgotten. It was necessary to 
 make the best of the situation, and to leave, as after 
 the Peace of Utrecht, the minor settlements to the 
 action of time. Europe could by no means afEord at 
 that time to have any more wars ; the very memory 
 of them would suffice to influence the nations to 
 future pacific compromises. So, indeed, it turned 
 out. If some of the mistakes then necessarily made, 
 especially as regards Italy, have not been set right 
 without wars, it is but fair to remember that the 
 general settlement has not been seriously disturbed 
 till quite of late years, and that even now the chief 
 
BBITISR POLICY C0N8IBTBNT. 137 
 
 changes which have occurred can only, in a partial 
 sense, be attributed to those mistakes. 
 
 This sketch of the great Settlement, and the part 
 taken in it by Great Britain, needs no comment as to 
 its relation with the previous portions of these out- 
 lines. Whether right or wrong, the world might see 
 that the British policy had at least been consistent. 
 What she now contended for and carried, was identical 
 with that which had all along formed the keystones 
 of the arches of her Empire — the safety of her com- 
 merce, the safety of her dependencies, the safety 
 of her own shores, the balance of European States, 
 the concert of the European Powers. She had 
 proved her perfect comprehension of the fundamental 
 political truth, that the nation which is not ready at 
 a great crisis to make every sacrifice is doomed 
 to the loss of its influence, and then of its indepen- 
 dence ; she had also proved her comprehension of the 
 equally great political truth, that it is not the nation 
 which grasps all that keeps all. 
 
 Two or three more sentences may sum up the 
 whole history of the British Empire during this 
 reign. We have seen that it had, as a matter of 
 fact, been forced upon the people of these islands 
 by circumstances similar to those which accompany 
 the action of human beings in every stage of society. 
 As each generation received its inheritance from its 
 predecessors it followed the law of nature in attend- 
 ing to its preservation. To preserve it, demanded 
 alliances, for which the possession of Hanover gavo 
 
138 IMPERIAL UNGLANB. 
 
 great advantages. These soon complicated the old 
 British relations with the Continent. Each succeeding 
 generation added a sanction to these relations, old 
 and new. Each alliance was worked in, by the valour 
 of the people and the wisdom of their rulers, towards 
 the support of a definite Foreign Policy required by 
 the very nature of the Empire. When Europe was 
 invaded by the aggressive enthusiasm of the French, 
 and conquered by the genius of Napoleon, the time 
 had come either to relinquish what previous gene- 
 rations had established, with the certainty of having 
 to fight the battle on British shores, or else to do 
 precisely what was done — engage in the struggle, and 
 fight to the last. There was no middle course. It 
 had not escaped the observation of statesmen that 
 Great Britain depended, no longer on the cultivation 
 of her soil, or on communication with a few Colonies, 
 but on her foreign commerce extending over every 
 part of the world. The issue could not be evaded. 
 The whole past history of the nation, as well as its 
 prospects for the future, demanded the course it took. 
 It is difficult to see what considerable step was really 
 wrong in the whole series of transactions. Thus 
 was the Empire gained ; thus was it defended. 
 
 If this is the true- history of the case, the further 
 question, whether it was worth while to make these 
 enormous sacrifices, and incur the risks which such 
 an Empire could not but involve in the future, is no't 
 only outside of our present limits, but wholly out of 
 place. And yet it is quite natural to ask. Has this 
 
EVILS IN THE EMPIRE'S GROWTH. 139 
 
 Empire done an j good ? Is the world better for it ? 
 Are we ourselves the better? It might be enough 
 to point to the late Mr. Roebuck's eloquent verdict* 
 given not long before he died; but it may not be 
 amiss to close this chapter by drawing attention to a 
 still larger view of the case. 
 
 Perhaps we shall see our way best by inverting 
 the natm-al order, and observing what were the evils 
 which accompanied the growth of the Empire. 
 These were mainly two, and they were geographically 
 distributed — African slavery and the slave-trade ; and, 
 secondly, the corrupt dealing with and shameful treat- 
 ment of Asiatic princes and officials. 
 
 With respect to both of these evils the same thing 
 may be said. Nothing can be more unfair than to 
 judge the actors in these matters, or the nation that 
 supported them, by the standards with which we are 
 now familiar. The best of men did not at first per- 
 ceive the inherent vice of slavery. We have but 
 recently witnessed the long and painful processes of 
 public opinion in the United States, and are even now 
 watching it among the Boers of South Africa. The 
 slave-trade with Africa having been first established 
 with the benevolent idea of saving the feebler native 
 races of Mexico and the West Indies from extinc- 
 
 * " England has led the world onwavd in the course of improvement. 
 Whatever good has been done for mankind you will find the finger of 
 England in the doing of it. She has taught mankind their rights. She 
 has taught men to feel towards each other as men should feel. She has 
 turned Europe from a den of slaves into a great band of freemen. That 
 is the present state of Europe. That is owing to Tijuglaud." (Speech at 
 Sheffield, Juno 17, 1878. 
 
140 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 tion, the moral sense of Europe was for a long time 
 wholly unshocked by its continuance. The right of 
 slave-traffic formed an important compensation to 
 England for her sacrifices at the Peace of Utrecht ; 
 while, about the same time, the venerable Society for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel, receiving from Chris- 
 topher Codrington a portion of his West India estates, 
 never seems to have been struck with any notion of 
 emancipating its slaves, but simply resolved to educate 
 and convert them. The question rather is, whether in 
 any nation but one under whose free institutions a 
 Clarkson and a Wilberf orce were able, however gradu- 
 ally, to make their voices prevail against prejudice and 
 interest, such men could have succeeded in changing 
 the whole current of national opinion, and this at a 
 time when the gospel of the French Revolution, 
 which soon began to run parallel with the efforts of 
 British Christianity, was exercising a distinctly coun- 
 teracting influence. The question rather is, whether 
 any nation but one whose whole foreign poKcy, 
 guided by the commercial instinct, tended to make 
 her more and more the mistress of the seas, could 
 have not only prevented the revival of tlie practice 
 by her own people, but, by the force of a severe 
 and constant pressure upon other nations, have 
 abolished the trade all over the civilised world. 
 Perhaps, when all other proofs of the usefulness to 
 mankind of the British Empire have been rejected, 
 this one alone will be admitted. What enormous 
 consequences have ensued ! When did a nation make 
 
ABOLITION OF TEE SLAVE TRADE. 141 
 
 a greater sacrifice than to provide twenty millions of 
 pounds as compensation to her own planters for the 
 emancipation of all slaves within her dominions ? 
 
 And even to the calm view of an impartial ob- 
 server of events this African slave-trade, for which 
 England was largely responsible, this foul blot on 
 humanity, presents itself as only part of a great 
 scheme out of which a great good has emerged, and 
 which is gradually overpowering all recollection of 
 tlie past evil. What people has not passed through 
 a discipline of suffering ? What invasions, conquests, 
 enslavements, insurrections, civil wars, deadly struggles 
 with neighbours, have not formed the history of every 
 race and people of mankind ! This has always been 
 the predestined road to progress among the old races. 
 With their full share of these evils, yet left far behind 
 the rest of the world in the career of civilisation, 
 the African family had, on the contrary, made no 
 progress whatever corresponding to that of the more 
 favom-ed races of Europe and Asia. Nor were the 
 people of these ancient continents to be their sole or 
 even chief educators. The task was mainly reserved for 
 the populations which emigrated from Europe to the 
 New World. Combining all the elements of strength, 
 and all the living elements of Christianity wliich 
 were no longer possessed by the Asiatic races, in- 
 invigorated by all the manly influences of colonial 
 life derived from the British race, they have been 
 the chief trainers of the people of Africa for the work 
 which yet lies before them. The millions who have 
 
142 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 been stolen from their country, and have propagated 
 in America, have now, after many generations, formed 
 free and civilised communities in their own country, 
 as well as in the West Indies ; now at last, also, in 
 the United States. Can it be doubted that the rela- 
 tions between the Negro races on opposite sides of 
 the Atlantic are clearly destined to become more and 
 more intimate as time goes on ? 
 
 Nor are the great traditional influences of that 
 slave-trade-abolition struggle yet exhausted. They 
 are propagated in the multitude of trading and of 
 missionary enterprises at the present day ; among 
 their instigators are still found the bearers of the 
 honoured names distinguished during the last three 
 generations in the great cause. And is there nothing 
 in the consideration that the future which is now 
 dawning on Africa is placed under the tutelage of 
 British freedom, the British system of government, 
 British literature, British Christianity, through the 
 very fact of the existence and omnipresence of the 
 British Empire ? Englishmen transplanted the back- 
 ward African growth to another hemisphere ; their 
 descendants brought it back with added vigour, and 
 replanted it on its native soil ; the Imperial race 
 undertakes to cultivate and nurture the still tender 
 civilisation which has been the product of such a 
 marvellous history. How many are at this moment 
 on the tiptoe of expectation while centre upon centre 
 of new life is being formed, road upon road opened up 
 by the pioneers of discovery, capital such as no other 
 
TEE INDIAN EMPIRE. 143 
 
 nation could pour in, collecting for the ventures of 
 commerce ! What are the faults of colonists, the errors 
 of the mother country, the wars of frontier, the tran- 
 sient storms which from time to time darken the 
 skies, when we contemplate the grand result, the 
 opening future ? 
 
 And what of India, where British responsibilities 
 seem to be only just beginning, and- whose dark 
 mysterious presence, dogging the footsteps of its lord, 
 seems, like that of another Frankenstein, to appal 
 the imaginations of so many thoughtful men? Evil 
 as were too often the beginnings of their rule, has 
 the British supremacy existed for nothing ? 
 
 And, first, it must be remembered that the ques- 
 tion has been, not whether India should be subject 
 to European rule or not, but whether that rule should 
 be exercised by France or England, whether the 
 founders of Empire should be Lally and Dupleix, or 
 Clive and Warren Hastings. The time had long 
 passed when any combination of Indian potentates 
 could have secured Indian independence. Granted 
 that the mixed commercial and conquering instincts 
 of a successful trading Company, too long uncon- 
 trolled by the Home Grovernment, developed a series 
 of corrupt and high-handed acts of which we are now 
 ashamed, we have only to stud}' the records of the 
 famous trial which brought them all to light, to per- 
 ceive the totally different aspect in which those deeds 
 presented themselves to tiie responsible actors on 
 the scene. But, if we may say so without boastino-. 
 
144 IMPEBIAL TSNGLANB. 
 
 was there any other country in the last century, in 
 which the grand though furious eloquence of a Burke 
 could have, during a course of years, gradually per- 
 vaded the whole mind of a people, and steadily 
 raised, in spite of the most powerful opposition, the 
 standard of public opinion to an elevation from which 
 it has never since declined ? Could that have been 
 expected from monarchical, revolutionary, or Napo- 
 leonic France? Our neighbours would scarcely say 
 so themselves. 
 
 And when, under a Pitt at home and a Comwallis 
 in India, the word had gone forth that the same 
 moral principles which were recognised in Europe 
 should be supreme in Asia ; when the benevolent 
 sway of a Teignmouth and a Bentinck alternated 
 with the equally benevolent, because necessary and 
 peace-giving, policy of the Wellesleys and Lord 
 Hastings ; when the dread of losing what had been 
 so hardly gained, gradually disappeared, and con- 
 nivance with degrading superstitions gave way first 
 to mere toleration, and then to tentative suppression 
 of moral outrage; when careless indifference was 
 superseded by the permission of individual efforts 
 to civilise, educate, and Christianise these millions ; 
 when the long ages of restless war and successive 
 conquests were found to be terminated by successive 
 generations of peace and progress, extending at last 
 over the vast Peninsula, who but the most absolute 
 pessimist can fail, in the contemplation of the past, 
 to see that there has been a cause for the existence 
 
INDIA'S MISSION. 145 
 
 of the British Empire? The recent statistical 
 Reports of Dr. Hunter — statements of bare fact 
 which cannot be refuted — ought to be written in 
 characters of gold for the benefit of those whose 
 fears, or whose party spirit, still blind them to the 
 true grandeur of their wonderful inheritance. 
 
 Is it nothing that this gigantic wedge, thrust in^o 
 the centre of Asia, surrounded by the sea and by 
 the mountains which enable it to be held by such 
 a Power as great Britain, should thus be in a position 
 to extend its own influence for good to China, to 
 Burmah, and to the Islands of the East ; may we 
 not hope, also — -for it is even now opening upon us — 
 to the fierce nations on the West? Is there any 
 higher civilisation, any better system of government, 
 any more ennobling literature, any purer form of 
 Claristianity in the world to which such propagating 
 influences could have been entrusted ? If the process 
 is too often that of " sowing in tears," too often 
 impeded by human error, too surely accompanied by 
 retributive suffering on the part of the rulers them- 
 selves, is it a dream, is it a wild vision, or is it not 
 already beginning to be an accomplished fact, that 
 the Imperial race shall " reap in joy ? " 
 
 K 
 
146 niFEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GEORGE THE THIRd's INFLUENCE ON BRITISH FOREIGN 
 
 POLICY. 
 
 We have lost sight of the old King while we have 
 been watching the guidance of events by Pitt, Corn- 
 wallis, Canning, and the Duke of Wellington. He 
 no longer, indeed, after 1784, holds the first and 
 most prominent place in a review of British Foreign 
 Policy, but he nevertheless had a most important share 
 in shaping it. When he had at last found a Minister 
 after his own heart in the youthful Premier, the 
 letters contained in Lord Stanhope's "Life of Pitt" 
 sufficiently show how well he trusted and how wisely 
 he advised him. It is also easy to see how much he 
 leamt from him. It is a part of the vulgar system 
 of depreciating the King to exhibit him as a repre- 
 sentative of the obstructive side of Toryism, of the 
 narrowness of monarchical and oligarchical govern- 
 ment, of irrational hostility to France, of a hard love of 
 war for its own sake, and of power for its own sake, of 
 the extreme bigotry of "Protestantism;" and these 
 things form the staple of modern unfavourable 
 criticism. 
 
 Nothing can be further from the truth. Pitt was the 
 most liberal and enlightened statesman of his day, and 
 the King marched by his side. With Pitt he adopted, 
 cheerfully and deliberately, that series of noble 
 domestic reforms at which we have already glanced 
 
GEORGE in. ANB PITT. 147 
 
 and which could not possibly have been carried with- 
 out his cordial assent. Of the Union with Ireland he 
 himself sjDoke as "the happiest event of his reign." 
 The war with France he dreaded as much as his 
 young Minister ; for he had never forgotten the lesson 
 of the American War. The relief given to the Roman 
 Catholics in the matter of the Penal Laws received 
 his warmest support. The Constitution granted to 
 Canada was only erected upon the basis he had laid 
 down with Lord North in reference to the same colony 
 seventeen years before. 
 
 The one principle (of any importance), on which 
 they utterly differed was the question of Roman 
 Catholic Emancipation. On that he was firm from 
 first to last. We may all nowadays wish that the 
 measure which was conceded in 1829 could have been 
 carried in 1800 ; but we are apt to lose sight of the 
 fact that the King was supported by the chief Judges, 
 the Bishops, the majority of the Peers, and apparently 
 a large majority of the people of England. The 
 great men who saw the necessity of the case were 
 but few, and could not have passed the measure even 
 had the King felt, and been advised to feel, less 
 scruple on the score of his Coronation Oath. We are 
 ajDt to lose sight of the consideration that the King's 
 reign had exactly covered the great Continental 
 movement against the Jesuits, and the full vigour of 
 the British religious movement both on the part of 
 the Wesleyans and the Chm-ch of England, an advance 
 which was as distinctly coloured with anti-Roman 
 
148 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 principles as it was based on the appeal to Scripture 
 and the conscience. 
 
 Nor was it as easy then as it has seemed 
 since, to disconnect the idea of granting political 
 power to Irish Roman Catholics, ; from that of pro- 
 A'iding a common and dangerous interest between 
 them and their co-religionists in the country with 
 which we were in deadly conflict. During the horrors 
 of the Revolution the religioiis instinct formed a com- 
 mon bond between all who were attacked ; but when 
 Napoleon had become supreme the former phase had 
 disappeared. 
 
 We are also apt to forget that, desirable as 
 Roman Catholic Emancipation has become in modern 
 times, the statesmen of the periods when poli- 
 tical disabilities were framed had much to say for 
 themselves. To understand this, it is only needful to 
 take an impartial view of the difficulties under which 
 Elizabeth, James the First, and William the Third 
 laboured. It is not of much use to blacken the cha- 
 racter of this or that person when a policy has been 
 part and parcel of a vast network of events. Finally, 
 when the policy of "Concurrent Endowment" has 
 in our own day ranged on either side the greatest 
 and best men, it is hard upon the old King to 
 blame him for the following remarks: — 
 
 " I am certain any encouragement to such an idea must give 
 real offence to the Established Church in Ireland, as well as to 
 the true friends of our own Constitution ; for it is certainly 
 creating a second Church Establishment, which could not but be 
 
FinMNESS OF THE KING. 149 
 
 highly injurious. The tolerating Dissenters is fair ; but the trying 
 to perpetuate a separation in religious opinions by providing for 
 the support of their clergy as an Establishment is certainly going 
 far beyond the bounds of justice or policy." * 
 
 And yet this was the substantial policy of the 
 statesmen who at that time urged Roman Catholic 
 Emancipation. 
 
 But it is as the gallant chief, the personal head 
 round whom the whole land rallied when the war 
 with revolutionary France at last broke out, 
 that we are now to view the King. Vain would 
 have been the mighty influence of Burke's works, 
 vain the oratory of Pitt, under the awful trials of that 
 war, had not the example of Greorge the Third, now 
 an experienced statesman and personally cognisant of 
 every step taken, down to the very minutest, afforded 
 a rock on which the agitated waves spent themselves 
 in empty menace — a rock unshaken, immoveable. As 
 we read his letters to Pitt, or the Bishop of Wor- 
 cester; as we watch him reviewing the Volunteers 
 at Windsor ; as we study his plan of defence,' his 
 arrangements for the safety of the Eoyal Family, 
 his resolution to reserve the foremost place in battle 
 for himself ; as we visit with him the fleets and dock- 
 yards, and hear his encouraging words to officers and 
 men, we seem to catch some faint echo of the spirit- 
 stirring shouts which greeted him as the father of his 
 country. As we watch his undaunted personal courage 
 in the midst of furious mobs, his imperturbable 
 
 * stanhope's Pitt, Vol. III. (Appendix). 
 
150 IMPEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 coolness in the very conflict with assassins, his pity 
 and mercy for them, his splendid conduct during 
 the Gordon Eiots, when every Minister deserted 
 liim, his moral courage in defying the shafts of 
 a ridicule to which he was by no means insen- 
 sible, we learn 'to understand the feeling with which 
 he was regarded during his life-time. When the 
 feeble Portland Ministry, unable to bear up against 
 the pressure of the French power in Spain, was 
 breaking up under accumulated disasters, and when 
 Lord Wellesley had resolved to retreat upon the 
 lines of Torres Vedras, and there, relying on the 
 resources of his own consummate genius, to hold out 
 to the last ; when it rested with him alone to under- 
 take, or be crushed by, the tremendous responsibility, 
 it was the aged King, now more than seventy, and 
 nearly blind, who stood firmly by him, and dictated 
 the following letter of noble encouragement : — 
 
 " His Majesty trusted that his Ministers ■would feel with him 
 the advantge of suffering him [Lord Wellington] to proceed accord- 
 ing to his judgment and discretion in the adherence to the principles 
 which he has laid down, unfettered by any particular instructions 
 which might embarrass him in the execution of his general plan of 
 operations." * 
 
 This was nearly the old King's last political act. 
 After his Jubilee, a rejoicing such as no other English 
 .sovereign has ever witnessed, he gradually sank 
 under the exceeding weight of public and private 
 trial which he had been called upon to bear, nor 
 
 * "Wellington (Supplementary) Despatches," VI., 615. 
 
MISTAKEN VIEW OF OEOBGE III. 151 
 
 retained his faculties quite long enough to know 
 that the labours of fifty years had achieved such a 
 crowning success as far eclipsed even that witli 
 which he began his reign. 
 
 Though in this sketch the character of the King 
 has only come before us upon those sides of it which 
 bear directly upon the subject of Foreign Policy, it 
 may be well to say a few more words upon its indirect 
 influence. The modern argmnent takes a very simple 
 form. George the Third was a stupid, illiterate, 
 despotic sovereign. It was no wonder that the country 
 which was benighted enough to respect and obey 
 him should engage in unrighteous and disastrous 
 wars, the most successful of which only succeeded by 
 means of saddling the nation with an almost fabulous 
 amount of debt under which we still groan. Or, the 
 disastrous nature of that policy being accepted by a 
 large class of -wTiters and readers as indisputable, the 
 condemnation of the sovereign is taken as a matter 
 of course. 
 
 It will have been seen that it is not by deny- 
 ing the King's intimate connection with the 
 fortunes of his country that we can meet the 
 argument. He was no 7'oi faineant. On the con- 
 trary, the maintenance of the exact converse of the 
 two premises is the position assumed in these 
 pages. The wars in which Great Britain was en- 
 gaged in the King's reign are here maintained to be 
 excusable or inevitable ; they were, on the whole, 
 beneficial; the Foreign Policy was consistent and 
 
152 IMPEBIAL BNGLANB. 
 
 successful ; the treaties wise and moderate, or at 
 least the best possible under the circumstances; the 
 ver J debt turned out, to the astonishment of the world, 
 one great means of public advancement and security. 
 So with the monarch. If the present generation has 
 been brought up to misunderstand his character and 
 underrate his abilities, that misunderstanding contri- 
 butes one ingredient to the estimate which has too 
 often been formed of the public events of his reign, 
 and which has been combated in these pages. 
 
 Let us devote, then, the short space which remains 
 to an examination of that part of the King's character 
 which has been least appreciated in modei'n times. 
 The mere glance already given at his courage, resolu- 
 tion, consistency, and industry may be sufficient ; for 
 no one disputes his possession of these virtues. The 
 error appears to arise chiefly from a constant repetition 
 of the charge that he was an ill-educated, illiterate, and 
 therefore narrow and prejudiced man, whose opinion 
 being of little real consequence, it was monstrous 
 that the destinies of Grreat Britain, at such a critical 
 period of its history, should have been to so large an 
 extent in his hands. This view readily falls in vdth 
 the impatience, natural in a free and self-governing 
 society, of any check which such self-government 
 receives by the over - weighting of a particular 
 branch of the Constitution, and notably the 
 Monarchy. And how easy is it to forget the gulf 
 which separates the modem development of the 
 Constitution from its actual condition a centurv 
 
TEE KING'S EDUCATION. 153 
 
 ago ! Retaining the same general configuration, how 
 vast are in reality the changes, many of them, like 
 the operations of nature, silent changes, which come 
 over political institutions in such an interval of 
 time ! 
 
 Was, then, Greorge the Third ill-educated and 
 illiterate ? 
 
 The charge has been supported on the errors 
 in spelling observable in his letters, on his own 
 complaint to Sir Herbert Taylor, on the gossip 
 of the period of his youth, and on the negative 
 evidence of his asserted want of special interest in 
 statistical and economical questions. 
 
 There must be something at the bottom of this. 
 We have to inquire how much it amounts to, the in- 
 fluences of a counteracting tendency in later life, and 
 the evidence existing of a very different intellectual 
 level from that which the Bang might have been 
 expected to reach, under the presumed deficiencies 
 of his preparation for public life. 
 
 First, as to his spelling. It can only be imder- 
 stood by those who have read much of the MSS. of 
 the middle of the last century, and still more 
 before that, how rare it is to find good spelling. 
 "Johnson's Dictionary" had not yet appeared, and 
 only a few even amongst superior people possessed 
 the secret of correct orthography. Further, the 
 badness of the spelHng in the King's letters is ex- 
 aggerated. It is often a hasty slip, as the correctness 
 of the spelling in some other letters proves ; it is 
 
154 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 worse at periods just preceding his serious illnesses ; 
 and, as he grows older, the spelling improves. This 
 defect may be made too much of. It must not be 
 measured by our present standard. It is this, per- 
 haps, of which the King chiefly complained in 
 after-life. He had experienced the difficulty of over- 
 coming the defect. 
 
 But the whole charge has grown out of its 
 proper proportion in consequence of the political 
 excitement which attended on the young Prince's 
 early education, and which finds vent in numerous 
 works of that day. The nervous dread, not un- 
 naturally felt by the country, of a return to the 
 principles, if not the persons, of the Jacobite 
 House brought to light every little fact upon which 
 an attack on the Prince's tutors, and on the parents 
 who had appointed them, could be based. Thus the 
 famous Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, one of 
 the " preceptors," was only too open to attack 
 through the connection of his family with the 
 Pretender ; but he himself was in reality beyond 
 suspicion. So also Mr. Stone had been accused of 
 Jacobitism ; and Mr. Scott was a follower of the 
 crafty Bolingbroke. The Court of Frederick, Prince 
 of Wales, had been the rallying point of the Oppo- 
 sition to Grovernment, and everything connected with 
 it was dragged before the public after his death. Yet 
 it is difficult to understand how such able men as these 
 all were, could really have neglected the substantial 
 parts of the future King's education, though they 
 
TEE KING MALIGNED. 155 
 
 miglit have found him by constitution as little dis- 
 posed to the details of school-work as many boys 
 of good ability often are at a particular age. 
 
 There is no doubt that the young Prince was 
 often idle and always sensitive ; but that he picked 
 up during his boyhood, perhaps in an irregular way, 
 a large amount of what goes to constitute a well- 
 educated man, can scarcely be disputed. He certainly 
 learnt to express himself with great vigour and clear- 
 ness ; he certainly formed a high standard of literary 
 excellence, to which he afterwards industriously strove 
 to attain by his own exertions ; he assuredly learnt to 
 value books and literary men ; beyond doubt he obtained 
 an elevation of sentiment which was only too often 
 wanting in persons who could spell, even in that day, 
 with correctness. His ideas of the Constitution were 
 in all probability gained at the highest possible 
 source, the "Commentaries" of Blackstone, which were 
 sent to him from time to time, after being delivered 
 as Lectures in the Hall of All Souls College, the 
 author thus making amends for his refusal to become 
 the Prince's tutor. No one in his dominions under- 
 stood or loved that Constitution better. We may 
 refuse to admire Bolingbroke ; but no one can deny 
 that an intimate acquaintance with his political 
 works must have had an elevating efEect on the 
 mind of even a dull youth, and it is only ignorance 
 wliich ascribes dulness to the young Prince. 
 
 For the effect which the King's writings and con- 
 versation produced, let us not turn to courtiers. Let 
 
156 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 US put aside such excellent evidence as we can ex- 
 tract from Madame D'Arblay's " Memoirs," or Mrs. 
 Delaney's " Life," or even from Dr. Johnson, who 
 might be considered prejudiced. Let any one read 
 the poet Seattle's artless account of an hour's inter- 
 view which Me had with the King and Queen, and 
 which he recorded in his private diary in 1773. He 
 will there see more than sufficient warrant for the 
 remark of that able man that ''both the King and 
 Her Majesty showed a great deal of good sense, 
 acuteness, and knowledge, as well as of good 
 nature and affability." * Or take the opinion of 
 Mrs. Montagu, the queen of literature in her day, so 
 justly celebrated for the elegance of her own com- 
 positions: — "As I have a most loyal respect for 
 the King, I have always taken great delight in the 
 peculiar elegance of his language. It is a very 
 essential thing in great persons whose words are 
 always remembered and often repeated."! 
 
 Let us next ask ourselves how a dull, illiterate 
 prince could have proved himself such a zealous and 
 consistent patron of literature as he did in ways too 
 numerous to mention ; such an indefatigable col- 
 lector of books, as evidenced by his magnificent 
 library and Johnson's dictum upon it ; such an intelli- 
 gent patron of astronomical research, as in the case of 
 Herschel and others ; such a connoisseur and patron of 
 music, as shown in the case of Handel and others ; of 
 
 * " Beattie's Life and Writings," by Sir W. Forbes, 2nd edition, 1807, 
 I., 353. t Ibid., I., 287. 
 
OPimom OF THE KINO'S ABILITIES. 157 
 
 painting, as to be the founder of the Royal Academy ; 
 of architecture, botany, and the drama ? Is it so 
 easy to find crowned heads who have vindicated 
 their title to rule by an equal claim to respect from 
 cultivated men ? Are there so very many more accom- 
 plished men in private life ? We may not care much 
 for Lord Eldon's politics, but we must recognise him 
 as one of the very greatest of our legal chiefs ; and of 
 a State Paper written by the King in 1809, when he 
 was seventy-one. Lord Eldon said that it was " one of 
 the finest compositions I ever saw or heard of in 
 my life."* We may not admire Bishop Watson in 
 all respects, but we must admit his ability. He also 
 did homage to the King's "understanding, which it 
 was the fashion to decry."t Wilkes, it is well known, 
 thought highly of his talents. We have seen Ben- 
 jamin Franklin extolling him in words which might 
 be engraved on the royal monument. These people 
 were not fools. 
 
 Perhaps in few more beneficent ways did Greorge 
 the Third leave his mark on the world than by his 
 
 * " I found that Perceval had received the King's Paper [on the 
 change of Ministry], which is one of the finest compositions, and the 
 most affecting, I ever saw or heard of in my life. . . The King has 
 also written a most dignified Paper upon two persons, yet having the seals 
 of Secretaries of State in their hands [Canning and Oastlereagh], fighting 
 a duel." (Twiss's "Life of Lord Eldon," II., 98. Sept. 23, 1809.) Mr. 
 Rose, another excellent judge, speaks of this lettei; in precisely the same 
 terms : — " It was dictated to Colonel Taylor by the King, and was written 
 with grekt energy and spirit, as the King's own used to be on great and 
 interesting occasions ; with much fairness as well as firmness." (Rose's 
 " Diaries," II., 395.) 
 
 t Anecdotes of His Own Life, I., 242. 
 
158 IMPERIAL ENGLAND, 
 
 intelligent zeal in the cause of maritime discovery; 
 and this, at any rate, has a direct bearing on the 
 Foreign Policy of Great Britain. "Ever since his 
 accession to the crown," says Lord Stanhope, "these 
 scientific voyages had been a favourite object with 
 his Majesty.'** Why should Lord Sandwich and 
 Captain Cook have the sole credit for the discovery 
 of Polynesia, which is in no slight degree due to the 
 zealous energy of the King ? Like Charles the 
 Second, he took the deepest interest in naval archi- 
 tectm^e, and delighted in models of the latest nautical 
 inventions, which he kept in his palace. Like Charles, 
 he encouraged his brothers and son to become naval 
 officers, and proved his own partiality for the sea 
 by his devotion to yachting, as well as his familiarity 
 with ships of war and dockyards. Perhaps it is not 
 to be regretted that his love of the sea first set the 
 fashion of that resort to sea-side watering-places 
 which has now become a universal fashion. It is 
 easy to see how powerful an impulse was thus 
 given to those tastes and habits which- have made 
 modern England what it is. 
 
 The mention of Charles the Second, not a King 
 of whom the country has reason to be proud, except 
 in the respect just mentioned, may remind us that, of 
 all our kings, George the Third was the only one 
 who could approach him in the charm of manner and 
 the desire to please. The difference between the 
 two examples was that the ease and grace of Charles 
 
 * "History of England," VI., 279. 
 
RIGH MOBALITY OF THE KINO. 159 
 
 were the " French polish " of a libertine ; the simple 
 affability" of Greorge was the natural outcome of a 
 virtuous and religious life. It had its reward in 
 a popularity which was stable and sustained because 
 founded ou respect. In appearance he had the advan- 
 tage of Charles. Mr. Donne's summary (in the Intro- 
 duction to his book already quoted) is borne out by 
 all contemporaries : — 
 
 "If not handsome, he was comely, healthy, and active; his 
 figure manly, his habits temperate ; he rose and dined early ; was 
 fond of farming and manly sports ; he went regularly to chnrch, was 
 even patient of long sermons ; his greetings were hearty, his laugh 
 loud ; he gossiped freely among his tenants at Windsor and Kew ; 
 enjoyed a play, was well skilled in music, and was a good-humoured 
 King." 
 
 The transparent sincerity of this thoroughly 
 English style was what Englishmen liked ; and to one 
 who possesses it they forgive many faults. But they 
 had no moral faults to forgive. During a long reign, 
 never even did the voice of scandal attack his fair fame. 
 Once indeed, when he was a youth, there had been 
 some gossip, and it has been repeated of late years ; 
 but it is the merest gossip, resting on nothing but 
 hearsay, and improbable to the last degree. The 
 most extraordinary thing is that he alone, or almost 
 alone of the men of his family, should have thus 
 preserved a virtue so rare in that age. It must be 
 attributed to a woman who has been the butt of 
 calumny, his mother. His moral rectitude and firm 
 religious principles are due to her care as much as 
 to that of the people she placed about him. Not 
 
160 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 that we may forget the excellent Bishop Thomas, to 
 whom the King himself never forgot his debt of grati- 
 tude. How, then, did so many of his brothers and 
 sons exhibit a totally different example ? It may 
 simply be attributed to the evil influences of the 
 old Court, which, in spite of all care, could not 
 be kept from reaching such high-placed persons. 
 An individual or two might be sufficient. The 
 readers of Walpole's "Last Journals" can under- 
 stand how dangerous even one person, retained un- 
 accountably at Court, might be ; and it is only matter 
 of history how some at least of the King's sons 
 were corrupted by some of their uncles. 
 
 It might seem as if the vices of the Eighteenth 
 Century could not be purged out of the Royal 
 Family except through the transmission of an ex- 
 ceptional virtue in the head of it, one on whose 
 shoulders was thought worthy to rest a sort of 
 vicarious punishment in the domestic disappoint- 
 ments and distresses of a long life. Alleviated, 
 indeed, they were by brilliant compensation. What 
 King ever had a more excellent helpmeet than the 
 good Queen Charlotte, a more perfect daughter than 
 the Princess Amelia ? But thus, and thus only, as it 
 would seem, was the monarchical element in the 
 Constitution to be preserved in an age when thrones 
 were crumbling to the dust, and amongst a people 
 whose long education in self-government made them 
 increasingly intolerant of unworthy conduct in high 
 places. Thus, and thus only, was the way to be 
 
TEE KING'S TRIALS. 161 
 
 prepared for the virtuous Court and gracious govern- 
 ment which it has been the privilege of the present 
 generation to enjoy, and for the solid formation of a 
 public opinion which forbids a return to the antiquated 
 vices of the old regime. 
 
 While the habits and the character which he had 
 so industriotisly formed helped him to hold a straight 
 and manly course through all his public and private 
 trials, a load as great as ever fell to the lot of any 
 monarch, no heart can fail to. be touched by the 
 evidences of the struggle which they cost to 
 a nature nervous, excitable, highly strung, s'en- 
 sitively alive to every touch of praise or blame, 
 fully aware of the greatness of present issues, 
 familiar with anxious thought as to the verdict of 
 posterity. It would have been more wonderful if, 
 under such pressure, he had always retained the 
 use of his faculties, than that the shocks of fortune 
 should from time to time have proved too much 
 for them. How long and manfully he struggled 
 against the disease AA^hen brought on by the fac- 
 tiousness of Whig Cabinets, the responsibility of the 
 American War, the resignation of Pitt, the fluctua- 
 tions of the French wars, is familiar to all who are 
 conversant with the times. How remarkable are the 
 extant letters in which he shows his sense of the im- 
 minence of an attack, and the expressions which, 
 when it had overcome him, betrayed only too well 
 the cause ! Not less so are^ the records of his simple 
 thankfulness on recovery, his entire abnegation of 
 
 L 
 
162 IMPEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 self, absorbed in thoughtful care for the feelings of 
 others. 
 
 That, in the midst of the loneliness which so 
 oppressed the wearer of this heavy crown, the King 
 should have persistently refused to lean on the usual 
 prop of har3.-pressed monarchs, the recourse to 
 favourites, must also be remembered in his favour. 
 The clamour as to Lord Bute has long been silent : 
 the popular suspicions broke down at last under the 
 statement of hard facts. Neither Lord North, Lord 
 Eldon, or Pitt, were ever anything but trusted 
 Ministers and honourable friends. 
 
 The King's perfect simplicity of life and personal 
 economy were the butt of his caricaturists ; but 
 caricaturists do not find it within their province 
 to chronicle the splendid gifts which the King 
 bestowed on modest merit, nor the devotion of twenty- 
 thousand a year out of his privy purse towards the 
 expenses of the war. The most is made of some 
 literary defects ; but it is convenient to forget that 
 the King was familiar with Latin, Grerman, French, 
 and Italian ; that he was one of the first to patronise, by 
 the encouragement of Joseph Lancaster, that popular 
 education which is the glory of our age; and that 
 his once famous saying, that " he hoped the day would 
 come when every poor child would be able to read his 
 Bible," was anything but a figure of speech. 
 
 Say what we please, make what deductions we 
 choose for errors of judgment, or defect of political 
 sagacity, it cannot be seriously disputed that George 
 
RESPONSIBILITIES OF EMPIBE. 163 
 
 the Third, though no one would credit him with the 
 highest intellectual powers, stands out before us on 
 almost ever J point, far above the average of sovereigns 
 either of our ovm or of other countries ; and, if this be 
 so, the policy with which he was so intimately con- 
 cerned can scarcely bear the pitiful character some- 
 times assigned to it. 
 
 Eather let us admit that the defence and preserva- 
 tion of the Empire which cost such sacrifices on the 
 altar of duty, from the King on his throne down to 
 the peasant at the plough, cannot but be matter for 
 thankful reflection, and for steady resolution that 
 the cause in which they sufiered shall never be 
 betrayed by those to whom the inheritance has 
 descended. Such resolutions will be fruitful in 
 exact proportion as the nation realises its responsi- 
 bilities towards the races it has been called upon to 
 govern, and fearlessly does its duty, proceeding in its 
 future course on the same lines as those which have 
 been here traced out in the past. This is the true, 
 the only answer to the question whether the Empire 
 acquired and wielded by Grreat Britain is to be re- 
 garded, in relation to the ruling race itself, as a 
 blessing or a curse. 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 THE TRUE MEANING OF THE BALANCE 
 OF POWER. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 It is high time that an effort should be made to 
 recover for the old and famous expression, " Balance 
 of Power," something of its proper force and signi- 
 ficance. There appears, during the last twenty years, 
 to have been a sort of conspiracy in this country 
 to assign an erroneous meaning to the phrase, and 
 then to set it up as a sort of scarecrow, a target for 
 abuse and obloquy. If it were a mere plorase, this 
 would be a matter of no consequence ; but it is per- 
 fectly well understood that the words have a very 
 substantial meaning ; that they mean nothing more 
 or less than the principle that Grreat Britain has 
 rights and duties in reference to her Continental 
 neighbours, which may at any moment demand her 
 interposition with all the force she can command. 
 To evade this contingent duty ; to assert the isolation 
 of this country from the affairs of the Continent ; to 
 surround the exclusive pursuit of commerce and 
 civilisation with a brilliant atmosphere of philan- 
 thropy, unmindful of the stern responsibilities which 
 the nation has incurred in the course of the ages 
 during which it has built up its grand position; to 
 
DISLIKE TO THE PERA8E. 165 
 
 spread the selfish doctrine, dear to Ethelred the 
 Unready just nine hundred years ago ; this is in 
 many cases the avowed, in many more the un- 
 avowed but jarevaiHng', principle of a large section 
 of the intelligent and influential classes. 
 
 As these ideas are not likely to find general accept- 
 ance when plainly stated, the usual course is to take 
 advantage of a certain unpojDularity which the term 
 Balance of Power has acquired, mainly in conse- 
 quence of the abuse of the principle in the last 
 century, and by treating it as an obsolete idea, ' a 
 relic of barbarous times, the old bugbear from which 
 this enlightened age has fortunately been dehvered, 
 to cover it with contempt; and, under the shelter 
 of this repudiation, to proclaim the advent of a new 
 Foreign Policy worthy of the Nineteenth Century. 
 
 It would not be difficult to quote scores of 
 passages from popular writers in illustration of this 
 method of proceeding; but the following may be 
 taken as a fair representation of it. In denouncing 
 the past policy of Great Britain in the East, a 
 leading statesman recently explained the national 
 conduct which he was denouncing, by deducing it 
 from 
 
 " that tradition which has been the pest of Europe. It was 
 called the Balance of Power. According to that tradition, when 
 one nation was more powerful than the others, it was the duty 
 of the others to combine together and pull that nation down, till 
 they reduced it to an equality with them ; so that Europe was 
 always terrified by some bugbear or other. And in order to 
 prevent these imaginary dangers, torrents of blood, infinitely more 
 
166 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 than would have been necessary to meet tliem if they had occurred, 
 have been uselessly and -wantonly spilled. First, the bugbear was 
 the House of Austria ; then, when that was pulled down, it 
 was France ; and when France was reduced to a low condition, 
 all the terrors of Europe centred upon Russia, and everything 
 had to be done to prevent her progress and development. In 
 pursxiit of this nal^ow and foolish policy, for such I have always 
 thought it, we took up the Turk." 
 
 Now it is perfectly true that if the Balance of 
 Power really meant this, if it really meant a policy 
 of interference with the progress and development of 
 other States — ^we must suppose a legitimate progress 
 and development, — " sic utere tuo ut alienum non 
 Icedas " — if it meant that, whatever changes may 
 take place from generation to generation, it is the 
 duty of each State to take care that none becomes 
 more powerful than others, all to remain in statu 
 quo, such a doctrine might well deserve to be repro- 
 bated. But this is not the Balance of Power; this 
 is not what was ever meant by it. Under its name 
 some shameful transactions have, indeed, taken place ; 
 and a sort of cant use of the phrase may have pre- 
 vailed at one time or another, not far removed from 
 that given above. It will here be shown that the 
 principle, known by this name, on which Great 
 Britain has acted for three centuries, has been a just 
 and noble recognition of her duty in preventing 
 Spain, Austria, France, and Russia, from becoming 
 the robbers and tyrants of Europe ; and in so doing 
 that she has fought on the Continent the battles 
 which would otherwise have certainly deluged her 
 
REAL MEANING OF THE FEBA8E. 167 
 
 own shores with blood, and perhaps destroyed her 
 independence ; that her principle of Balance has been 
 only another name for self-defence, or rather for self- 
 preservation ; and, further, that no system of inde- 
 pendent States ever has existed, or ever can exist, 
 without adopting some such principle. If people 
 assume, without proof, that they may claim the 
 sanction of history for their doctrine, such an excuse 
 must be pleaded for passing in review some well- 
 known passages of the past, which it might be 
 thought, hardly required to be brought once more to 
 the front. And it will be shown that, however it 
 may suit this school to proclaim the death and 
 burial of the doctrine of the Balance of Power, 
 their dogmatism is repudiated by authorities to which 
 even they cannot refuse to pay respect, if not 
 deference. 
 
 Not that such a controversy can be decided by 
 an appeal to International Law. Without disparag- 
 ing for a moment the services rendered to modern 
 times by the beneficent advance of this science, if, 
 indeed, that term may be permitted, we cannot forget 
 that it builds up its fabric on authority, and measures 
 the cogency of its statements by their general accept- 
 ance ; so that it is always open to fresh generations 
 of men to pronounce that times have changed, and 
 authorities become antiquated. It looks to founda- 
 tions laid in law, to treaties, precedents, and formal 
 expressions. The appeal really lies to something 
 deeper and more permanent, — one hardly likes to call 
 
168 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 it the philosophy of the subject, — but to the reason 
 of mankind, the causes and consequences of war 
 and peace, the efEect on nations of this conduct or 
 of that, the history of the civilised world. Such a 
 conspectus, which must in this place be exceedingly 
 brief, will raise the principle of the Balance of 
 Power to a position far beyond that of a mere 
 invention or artificial system of a particular period, 
 and will enable us to judge how far a trans- 
 ient abuse ought to weigh against permanent and 
 legitimate usefulness. It need hardly be premised 
 that such a method takes for granted the identity 
 of human nature in all time. There is no reason 
 to believe that, however the softening influences of 
 civilisation and religion may afiect mankind for the 
 better, the causes of war and disturbance will ever 
 cease to operate. Recent experiences certainly do 
 not tend to lead us in that direction. 
 
 Let us begin with ancient history, and simply 
 mentioning a fact or two, leave the rest to the 
 judgment of the reader. 
 
 A Balance of Power can only exist in the midst 
 of a system or cluster of free and independent 
 communities; and of such systems we have but one 
 ancient instance of which we know enough to make it 
 of any use in this inquiry. They must necessarily be 
 exceptional in ancient times. Their existence is ana- 
 logous to that of Constitutional Grovernments. Such 
 Governments only exist in any healthy condition 
 where a people have worked them out through a 
 
THE EELLBNIG STATES. 169 
 
 process of resistance to domestic or foreign tyrants 
 — ^mouarcliical, oligarchical, or democratic, lay or 
 ecclesiastical. A system of free and independent 
 States can only exist after having gone through a 
 similar process ; and the Hellenic communities afford 
 the one typical instance of such a system. Their 
 history is never out of date ; it may well be used 
 for the lessons of to-day. Their close neighbour- 
 hood and confined extent made it impossible for 
 them to avoid, if they would, the recognition of 
 the principle of .balance; and we need not stop to 
 point out and enforce what may be learnt from 
 their ultimate neglect of it. Hume, in his once 
 well-known Essay on this subject, has drawn atten- 
 tion to the speeches of Demosthenes, as conveying 
 in words the very doctrine which Europe has in 
 modern times formulated. He might have quoted 
 every page of Hellenic history as evidence of its 
 inherent necessity. And surely we may admit that 
 the periodical struggles of Athens and Sparta, of 
 Thebes and Argos and Corinth, were better a thou- 
 sand times than the dreary weight of Persian or 
 Macedonian tyranny, or the political extinction 
 which ensued upon the Roman absorption of a con- 
 quered world. 
 
 " Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." 
 
 We have to pass over centuries before we can 
 find another Greece. The voice of freedom is 
 dumb. There is no Balance of Power to be found 
 
no IMTHUIAL EKGLANB. 
 
 under Rome, tlLOugh the Teutonic tribes and the 
 Parthians exercised a wholesome check on its too 
 rapid development. Rome did its appointed work ; it 
 spread the fertilising influences of Greek and Italian 
 civilisation, and then of Christianity, over vast 
 families of men ; and, finally, fell to pieces by its 
 own weight. It had prepared society for the 
 growth of Nationalities ; but for some ages yet, these 
 were too feeble, too barbarous, to dream of any 
 common principle of action. It is not till after the 
 Empire had received a quasi-revival under Charle- 
 magne, and once more fallen to pieces, that • we begin 
 to trace some signs of such a principle. As France, 
 Italy, Germany, and the Burgundies struggle with 
 one another for boundary-lines and independent Kfe; 
 as the Feudal System gradually infuses the political 
 principles of inherent rights, and the duty of lawful 
 resistance to invasion of rights ; as the Crusades 
 deliver their legacy of mutual obligations and united 
 action ; as the Papal support of Imperialism — useful 
 in its day — decays amidst the contempt of men, the 
 principle gathers force. In two distinct and yet con- 
 nected quarters it even acquires in the later Middle 
 Ages some sort of forra and recognition. In Ger- 
 many and in Italy, the numerous principalities into 
 which those countries were broken up and the various 
 divisions of race and family of which they were 
 composed necessitated the adoption of a system of 
 balance not altogether wanting in scientific complete- 
 ness. The Popes themselves, in playing ofB Germany 
 
MODEEN NATIONALITIES. 171 
 
 against Italy, in pitting France, or the Sicilian 
 Normans, against Germany, had been, in fact, all 
 through the Middle Ages, teaching the lesson. Eng- 
 land and Spain, as the Middle Ages draw to a close, 
 begin to assert their share in the affairs of the 
 European family ; and the Councils of the Fifteenth 
 Century bring the nations of Western Europe, by 
 representation, to a single spot for a common object. 
 At length the time arrives when Central and 
 Western Europe present, on a larger scale, the very 
 same pictm'e which the States of Greece had pre- 
 sented so many ages before. We have now at 
 last a community, and yet a mass of independent 
 communities, connected by many ties, and yet 
 separate and distinct in a thousand ways. Nationali- 
 ties are now formed, rounded, and complete, each 
 with a history of its own, in England, France, Spain, 
 and Germany; each and all swelling vdth the im- 
 ^oulses of the Renaissance and the Reformation ; 
 each producing its statesmen, and men of letters, 
 and works of art ; each organising more or less 
 completely its international along with its national 
 life. In the pages of Philip de Comines we learn 
 how these international ties were interweaving 
 themselves, even in the Fifteenth Century, with 
 every political act in Western Europe. In Italy 
 we find the Popes, no longer now the rivals of 
 Emperors, but reduced to the level of petty Italian 
 princes, applying themselves consciously and sys- 
 tematically to the task of exercising their old 
 
172 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 functions witHn their narrower limits. Their policy 
 was expressed by Paul the Fourth under the 
 figui-e of a musical instrument with five strings, 
 which required to be kept in perfect harmony, if 
 the peace of Italy and the world were to be pre- 
 served. The 'five strings were the Papacy, Venice, 
 Naples, Milan, and Florence. But Venice may be 
 held to have preceded the Popes in international 
 science, as we may gather from the luminous reports 
 of their agents in our own and other Courts; and 
 it was to Venice that the astute Louis the Eleventh 
 turned for instructors in politics. Nor were the fellow- 
 citizens of Machiavelli, with their wide-reaching com- 
 raercial transactions in every State, behind their 
 neighbours. 
 
 Hence when, with the opening of the Sixteenth 
 Century, the old story is repeated, when a new Power, 
 Persia, Macedonia, Rome in one, attempts to enslave 
 a new Greece, Europe is in a state of preparation to 
 resist. Universal monarchy rears its head once more 
 in the person of Charles the Fifth. ■ In the shifting 
 phases of the resistance which he encountered, we 
 discover a method and a system which accustom men 
 to the scientific treatment of international politics as 
 we now know the science, and establish the doctrine 
 of the Balance of Power as the fundamental principle 
 of free national existence. The successors to the 
 place and plans of the mighty Charles, viz., his son 
 Philip, Louis the Fourteenth, and the first Napoleon, 
 exemplify the lesson that the doctrine having once 
 
RELIGI0V8 INFLUENCES. 173 
 
 been formulated and accepted, can never again be 
 expunged from the book of political life. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Up to this time, however, if we may pursue the 
 metaphor of Paul the Fourth, the notes of inter- 
 national harmony had been but the prelude, the "brisk 
 awakening notes " to some elaborate air which was to 
 be repeated with a thousand variations, and soon 
 to vibrate throughout the world. Religion had not 
 yet intervened, as the predestined element about 
 to infuse an earnestness, a depth, and a variety, 
 into the international system, which mere politics 
 failed to afford. The Popes were, indeed, the 
 accredited religious chiefs; but they had used their 
 influence either for their own purposes to balance 
 States against one another, or, in later times, for 
 the nobler object of the liberation of Italy ; and 
 this influence had been used over peoples professing 
 the same religion. The European Balance of Power, 
 as we have known it since those times, hinged, at 
 least for two centuries, as much on religious as on 
 political considerations, if not more ; and even in 
 quite modem times the religious question has car- 
 ried great weight in European combinations. In 
 man's imperfect state of existence religion was to 
 bring only partial and relative peace ; to the world 
 in general it was to be "not peace, but a sword." 
 "Wars and rumours of wars" must arise not only 
 
174 IMPBMAL ENGLAND. 
 
 from the clash of legitimate interests, but from the 
 strife of ambition. "When that ambition is winged 
 with the supposed sanctions of religion, and every 
 passion is intensified in the furnace of theological 
 bitterness, we may well hail the development of a 
 principle whidh appeals to the profound instincts of 
 freedom and self-preservation as a beneficent counter- 
 poise. We may well ask the question, — ^What would 
 Europe have been had not its education and its 
 progress been controlled by these instincts? 
 
 The revolt from the Papacy, which we call the 
 Reformation, struck the key-note. Men's minds 
 became accustomed to the idea of religious as well as 
 political independence. Europe would be dominated 
 neither by the Papacy, nor by a secular prince, 
 especially when he represented the predominance of 
 the religious system which had received such a tre- 
 mendous shock. The danger was imminent. Charles 
 the Fifth had come into such a vast inheritance, 
 and exhibited such a marvellous capacity for domina- 
 tion, that the infant nations found themselves in the 
 presence of a monster which they must strangle at 
 once, or perish. They accepted the issue and pre- 
 vailed. Charles' seat is in the old Imperial centres ; 
 he makes and conquers Popes, he reduces to obedience 
 refractory German princes, destroys the liberties of 
 Spain, crushes the privileges of the Netherlands, 
 combines the wealth of inherited grandeur with the 
 products of the industrial centres of the age, the Old 
 World with the New. Nor can he be said to have 
 
OEABLES THE FIFTH. 175 
 
 neglected the duties of such a position. He held 
 himself responsible for the preservation of Europe 
 from the Mahometans. He led his own fleets against 
 the growing navies of the common enemy. He 
 attempted the settlement of the Reformation, insisted 
 on the convocation of Church Councils, made what he 
 considered just concessions to the Protestants; and, 
 having so done, claimed a right to force his com- 
 promise on all alike. It was a grand concejjtion, a 
 profound failure. 
 
 It was not only that Charles had to deal with a new 
 order of ideas, the force of which it was difficult for a 
 contemporary to measure ; two Powers, whose signi- 
 ficance the great ruler had wholly failed to take into 
 account, had now appeared on the stage — the Turks, 
 and the Protestant princes of Grermany. With all his 
 sagacious statecraft he never, duidng his whole reign, 
 understood how powerful was the advantage thus 
 given to his natural antagonists — the King of France, 
 the Pope (as a secular Prince), and the Italian States. 
 It had never been dreamt of that a Christian Govern- 
 ment should use the Mahometan intruder as an agent 
 in effecting the Balance of Power ; and yet the esta- 
 blishment of the Ottonjan Empire was a solemn fact 
 which could no longer be ignored. Christian Europe 
 had stood tamely by, and seen it rear itself, slowly but 
 irremovably, on the ruins of the Byzantine Empire. 
 It had stolen into Europe at the weak moment when 
 Imperialism was in decay and Nationalities not yet 
 organised ; but the followers of the false Prophet had 
 
176 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 now as good a right as another — ^the right of conquest. 
 How could thej be left out of political combinations, 
 either as friends or foes ? 
 
 And that the Protestant States of Gremiany had, 
 by the mere fact of their Protestantism, made the 
 Empire an anachronism, an impossibility, this was a 
 discovery which, in fact, produced the abdication 
 of the mighty monarch. The Peace of Augsburg^ 
 coming immediately after his discomfiture at Inn- 
 spruck, convinced him that his life-long, laborious 
 work had failed. German Protestantism was beyond 
 the reach of interference; the Turks were in pos- 
 session of the greater part of Hungary ; even France 
 had wrested from Charles Metz, Toul, and Verdun. 
 There was nothing left but to save the wreck — a 
 splendid wreck, but not the world ; not unity of 
 faith, however hollow; and this task must be left to 
 another. His own work was over. 
 
 It was France that had been the main agent in 
 dispelling the dreams of Charles. By force and fraud, 
 by a dexterous use of the new Powers — allying herself 
 now with the Turks, now with the Protestant princes 
 — she at last saw the work accomplished to which, for 
 more than a generation, she had devoted herself ; and 
 though we may account for particular campaigns 
 by special considerations, her persistent hostility was 
 really due to the unerring instinct of self-preservation. 
 Her north-eastern frontier was intolerably menaced 
 by the aggrandisement of the lord of half the world, 
 with his centre fixed in Germany and the Netherlands. 
 
J3ALANGE OF FORCES. 177 
 
 Such a Power, uncliecked and unbalanced, was too 
 near the vitals of France for safe neighbourhood. 
 Necessity was the only justification for the ever- 
 shifting alliances which did her fame no credit. 
 
 Thus religious energy — political necessity — ^pre- 
 sided over the struggle with which modem European 
 history begins. Grenerations grew up accustomed 
 to the operation of these forces in balancing the 
 States of Europe. But. the reduction of the prin- 
 ciple to a scientific system is the debt Europe owes, 
 not to France, but to England ; not to Francis the 
 First, or even Henry the Eighth, whose vain and 
 capricious interferences between France and the 
 Empire have been sometimes treated as if they had 
 been the first conscious and effective efforts to balance 
 the Powers of Europe, but to the great Queen Eliza- 
 beth, and to her able band of ministers. This may 
 be gathered, not only from a review of her policy, 
 but from indications in Sully's " Memoirs." In the 
 prolonged duel between Elizabeth and Philip the 
 Second, the victory was given to the champion of 
 freedom and of Protestantism, armed with the weapons 
 afforded by the general sense entertained of the need 
 of a Balance of Power. 
 
 This crisis was even more terrible than the last. 
 Without the vast and extended dominions of Charles 
 the Fifth, Philip presented himself to the world of the 
 Sixteenth Century as a far more deadly and ferocious 
 enemy to the sacred cause of liberty. Unwearied, 
 unchanging, unscrupulous, he was the incarnation 
 
 M 
 
178 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 of the worst form of tyranny which had yet ap- 
 peared through all the ages. He exhibited the 
 corruptio optimi in its extreme development, the spec- 
 tacle of sincere religious zeal, armed with ability 
 and vast military resources, displaying itself in the 
 forms of wholesale ' murder, torture, rapine, slavery, 
 organised assassination. Against this terrible foe 
 the Dutch, to their everlasting honour, being the 
 people more immediately concerned, threw them- 
 selves into the breach; but it was England which 
 guided the mighty conflict for the space of half a 
 century, and brought it to a successful issue. By 
 systematically playing off, one against the other, 
 the two great Powers whose combination the world 
 had then to fear, Elizabeth and her ministers saved 
 not only England but the world. 
 
 The home policy of the great Queen was the 
 basis of her foreign policy. To sum it up in 
 a sentence, it was this — to isolate Scotland from 
 Continental alliances, and pave the way for its 
 union with England ; to introduce English law and 
 order into the Irish chaos ; to foster the social and 
 commercial prosperity of England. In short, Eliza- 
 beth may be said substantially to have made Great 
 Britain what it is. Abroad, her policy was to pre- 
 vent Protestantism, albeit not the form of it which 
 she approved, from being crushed on the Continent, 
 to prevent a coalition of the Papal Powers on the 
 religious basis which Philip, the Popes, and the 
 French League, were for ever attempting to lav 
 
DEATH OF PHILIP II. 179 
 
 down ; to destroy the overwhelming influence of the 
 prime mover of Em-opean politics, the Spanish 
 despot — weaving from his office his spider-web ;^ to 
 do just as much as was necessary for these pur- 
 poses and no more. This also succeeded. She left 
 Europe balanced. The spell which had so long- 
 hung around the House of Austria had been — at any 
 rate for the time — dissolved. Philip, like his father, 
 died broken-hearted at the failure of all his schemes ; 
 the Grerman branch of his House had found its 
 interest in withdrawing itself from the affairs of 
 Western Europe, and in strengthening itself against 
 the Turks. The unity of France, on the basis of 
 religious toleration, had been accomplished under 
 English auspices. The Dutch had virtually esta- 
 blished their independence, aided in no small degree 
 by the naval warfare which England had waged 
 against the forces of their oppressor. Spain had at 
 length discovered its inherent weakness, and took 
 up henceforth a secondary place in the affairs of 
 the world. 
 
 Here, then, was the first indisputable result of 
 a direct and conscious application of the new and 
 yet ancient principle of political action. The 
 t}a-anny of the great Romanist Powers, which had 
 been continuously striving, ever since the Reforma- 
 tion, to win back by force of arms the position 
 they had lost having been effectually checked for 
 several years, the community of nations gained 
 lireathing-time. A general public opinion was 
 
180 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 formed. The way was prepared for an organised 
 resistance to the next attempt which was made to 
 interfere with national and religious independence, 
 that great high-water-mark of Jesuit aggressiveness, 
 that concluding Act of the drama of the Reforma- 
 tion — the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 We need not dwell upon the marvellous develop- 
 ment of abounding, vigorous life, which sprang forth 
 during the war with Spain, as the natural fruit of 
 liberty, in every nation Tvhich had acted a noble part 
 in the struggle. Who shall say that there was one 
 war too much, one life wasted, to secure such liberty, 
 such progress ? It was no wonder that the doctrine of 
 the Balance of Power became rooted in the European 
 mind. It was not for the mere pleasm-e of pulling 
 down to a common level this high-placed potentate 
 or that. What view of European combinations can 
 be more absurd! The leagues of the oppressed 
 could alone arrest the violence of the oppressor. 
 Experience taught men that they should combine 
 to prevent, if possible, rather than go through the 
 agony of curing, the evil. Political foresight, far- 
 seeing earnestness, and self-sacrifice, took the place 
 of stupid indifPerence, and ignoble cowardice. The 
 more sagacious political minds of Europe made note 
 of the gains of the Sixteenth Century, and began 
 to formulate the lessons which it had taught. The 
 reign of Public Law had commenced. 
 
ISOLATION OF GBEAT- BRITAIN. 181 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 The Seventeentli Century witnessed the withdrawal 
 of Great Britain from its place as the teacher of inter- 
 national politics to Europe. If some modern writers 
 insist on the reversal of the course pursued under Eliza- 
 beth, Cromwell, William and Marj, Anne, and hei* 
 successors, they are bound to state whether they ap- 
 prove of the peace-policy of those disastrous Stuart 
 reigns which has been hitherto condemned by accla- 
 mation. In the appeal to history we cannot — to use 
 the homely proverb — eat our cake and have our cake. 
 If Great Britain and the world derived any advantage 
 from the feeble policy which drew this country out of 
 the balance of forces employed in the Thirty Years' 
 War, or from the isolation produced by the shameful 
 concurrence of Charles the Second and James the 
 Second in Louis the Fourteenth's career of ag- 
 grandisement and spoliation, let it be proved. That 
 policy was in very deed peace-at-any-price. Half 
 the disasters which the world suffered then, and has 
 suffered ever since, may be considered as the price. 
 But into this we need scarcely enter here. If any- 
 thing may be taken as ruled, this must certainly be 
 so taken. 
 
 The great political minds of Europe during the first 
 half of the seventeenth century were those of Sully, 
 Henry the Fourth, Richelieu, and Mazarin. These 
 were, indeed, all French, but they were in reality the 
 pupils of Elizabeth, and took up the place vacated by 
 
1«2 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 Iier feeble successors. Under them France directed 
 the struggle of the nations, concluded at last by the 
 great Peace of Westphalia. We should, of course, be 
 entirely wrong if we were to credit these men, any 
 more than Francis or Elizabeth, with a pure, un- 
 selfish regard for the welfare of Europe. All human 
 motives are mixed. It was the interest and advantage 
 of France — ^torn to pieces as she had been by religious 
 wai's, and for two generations unable to take a leading 
 part against the House of Austria — which chiefly 
 actuated these men ; but they worked on a system 
 which justified their acts; they planned for the 
 whole community of Europe. It is remarkable and 
 suggestive that just as Great Britain forfeited her 
 place in this century as teacher and leader in 
 Europe, so France, after having sustained and con- 
 firmed the Public Law for so many years, was des- 
 tined to exhibit, in the later part of the century, 
 the picture of the very evil which she had, in the 
 earlier part, devoted herself to cure. After speaking 
 by the politic lips of Sully, Henri Quatre, and Riche- 
 lieu, she becomes the pest and scarecrow of Europe 
 under Louis Quatorze. After that, from the more 
 worthy successors of Elizabeth, is once more to come 
 the teaching so urgently required. 
 
 The celebrated scheme connected with the name 
 of Hemi Quatre has only accidentally become the 
 property of France. Sully's "Memoirs" plainly 
 show that Elizabeth, and probably, her ministers, 
 had formed precisely the same ideas, which were 
 
OPINION OF SULLY. 183 
 
 the result of the struggles of the Sixteenth Century, 
 and the common property of the leading minds of 
 the age, though the execution of them was reserved 
 for the subtle and unscrupulous Eichelieu. " It was a 
 saying of Elizabeth," says SuUy, "that nothing could 
 resist the union of France, England, Sweden, • and 
 Denmark, when in strict alliance with each other." * 
 Venice, however, saw the need of a strong Franco 
 quite as soon as Elizabeth. That she, the first 
 instructress of France in scientific politics, should 
 be the first to welcome the recovery of that great 
 nation after so long a prostration, the first to re- 
 cognise Henri Quatre, is what we might expect. 
 
 Perhaps, as the whole principle of the Balance 
 of Power is now attacked, not only in its modem 
 application, but as to its essential wisdom, it may 
 not be inopportune to quote once more the famous 
 passage in which Sully expounds his marvellousl}" 
 advanced ideas of what ought to be the standing 
 policy of France and Europe. It has long been 
 the text of wise statesmen, and preceded the more 
 scientific and pedantic forms of International Law. 
 It has lost none of its significance : — 
 
 " France can no more depend on the English than on any of her 
 other neighbours ; her true interest and best policy is to render her 
 own interior state and condition such as may make her not only 
 entirely independent, but* also able to compel all Europe to feel its 
 want of her ; and thiSj after all, would only be dLfiB.cu:lt to Ministers 
 who can conceive no other methods to effect it than war and violence 
 — methods that never ought to be pursued without an absolute neces- 
 
 * " Memoirs," vol. ii. p. 408. Bohn's Series. 
 
184 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 sity. But let the Sovereign show himself a lover of peace, dis- 
 interested in what regards himself, and strictly impartial with 
 respect to others, he will then be certain of preserving all his neigh- 
 bours in that dependence which alone is durable, because it con- 
 ciliates the affections instead of subjecting the person. I dare 
 farther maintain, that peace is the great and common interest of 
 Europe, the peti^ princes of which ought to be continually em- 
 ployed in preserving it between the greater Powers by all the most 
 gentle and persuasive means : and the greater Powers should force 
 the lesser into it, if necessary, by assisting the weak and oppressed ; 
 this is the only use they ought to make of their superiority. 
 When I consider Europe as composed of such civilised people, I 
 cannot but be astonished that she still continues to be governed 
 by principles so narrow and customs so barbai'ous. What is the 
 consequence of that profound policy of which she is so vain, other 
 than her own continual laceration and ruin 1 War is the resource in 
 all places and on all occasions ; she knows no other way, or con- 
 ceives no other expedients ; it is the sole resource of the most 
 inconsiderable sovereign as well as of the greatest potentate ; the 
 only difference between them is that the former makes it with 
 less noise and in conjunction with others, while the latter does it 
 with great preparation, and frequently alone, that he may show 
 his grandeur, though in reality he only shows himself more signally 
 despicable. Why must we always impose on ourselves the neces- 
 sity of passing through war to arrive at peace, the attainment of 
 which is the end of all wars, and is a plain proof that recourse 
 is had to war only for want of a better expedient? Never- 
 theless, we have so effectually confounded this truth, that we 
 seem to make peace only that we may be able again to make 
 war."* 
 
 This passage lays down the law which Europe has 
 ever since been attempting to carry into effect, the 
 law that the great Powers shoilld form a sort of 
 Amphictyonic Council for the general welfare. Each 
 must be powerful enough to be respected by its neigh- 
 
 * " Memoirs," vol. ii. p. 352-3. 
 
SULLY'S SCHEME. 185 
 
 bours, and each intimately concerned with the external 
 policy of every other. For this purpose each must 
 be internally strong and well-ordered; or indepen- 
 dence would be impossible. Thus each was to have an 
 interest in the prosperity of the rest. Together they 
 were to impose peace and harmony on the smaller 
 States, to impose it by force. The corollary from this 
 proposition was that war must necessarily take place 
 if any one of the greater Powers became too powerful 
 to be bound by the public opinion of the rest, and 
 proceeded to absorb neighbouring States in contempt 
 of the Public Law. 
 
 That this was the true rendering of the passage 
 just quoted is evident from the fact that it is almost 
 immediately followed by the elaborate scheme which 
 the author had come to England, on two different 
 occasions, to press, first upon Elizabeth, and then on 
 James. There was much to be done before Europe 
 could be brought into a state of equilibrium which 
 would admit of an international Council ; and the 
 problem was depending on France and England for 
 its solution. Though the strength of the Austrian 
 House lay now in Germany rather than Spain, it 
 still bore a fatal resemblance to the tyraimies 
 which had been so successfully resisted in the pre- 
 vious century. Spain had not yet been taught to 
 stoop to the recognition of the revolted Hollanders ; 
 the Jesuits had fastened with the grip of a vice on 
 the broad territories and great populations of the 
 dominant "faction;" the Emperors showed unmis- 
 
186 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 takable signs of relinquishing their quiescent policy ; 
 for the decay of the Ottoman Empire had already 
 commenced. The world, according to Sully, was 
 divided into " two factions." He and his comrade- 
 Idng, indeed, clearly divined that the smaller 
 would in the' end prove far the strongest; yet a 
 thousand signs betrayed that the death-struggle 
 was only about to begin. The forces of the Papal 
 Powers were gathering for one last decisive effort. 
 
 On the one side were ranged, according to Sully, 
 the Pope, the Emperor, Spain, Spanish Flanders, 
 parts of Grermany and Switzerland, Savoy, and al- 
 most all Italy. On the other were France, the British 
 Isles, Denmark, Sweden, Venice, the United Pro- 
 vinces, and the other parts of Grermany and Swit- 
 zerland. '' Poland, Prussia, Livonia, Muscovy, and 
 Transylvania, I do not," says he, " take in." * They 
 were too continuously engaged with the Turks and 
 Tartars to be included in the system of the Western 
 Powers. The balance was as yet of the West and 
 Centre. The Ottoman Empire was at this time 
 withdrawn from the European balance, which it had 
 at first seriously affected, by the growing strength 
 of Persia, and by the gradual emergence of the 
 North-Eastem Powers, which began to form, along 
 with Turkey, a rude balance of their own. It 
 took another century to bring these Powers up into 
 line with their Western neighbours. 
 
 The minute and artificial arrangement, by which 
 
 * " Meinoirsj" vol. ii. pp. 405-6. 
 
DEATH OF HENBY IV. ISV 
 
 the smaller faction was to be balanced against the 
 larger, carried with it its own condemnation ; and 
 as if to demonstrate the pettiness of individual man, 
 in contrast with the mighty conceptions of his genius, 
 the hero, whose whole career seemed to be an educa- 
 tion for the post of leader in the approaching conflict, 
 was struck down by an assassin at the very moment 
 when he was commencing his forward movement. 
 But the central policy of Henry the Fourth, that of 
 humbling the House of Austria for the protection of 
 France, of European freedom, and of Protestantism, 
 was completed by other hands. 
 
 Under Richelieu, the hero-King's maxims found 
 practical expression. Having at length accom- 
 plished the unification of France, the Cardinal bent 
 his marvellous powers to the task of matching the 
 Jesuits. The sword of Gustavus, the talents of the 
 Swedish generals who succeeded that hero, were but 
 instruments in his skilful hands. The disasters of 
 England, which had refused to take up her natural 
 position on the side of freedom, owed their impulse, if 
 not their origin, to his policy. If she would not assist 
 in the work, she should have employment enough to 
 keep her from interference. The Protestant priaces 
 of Germany, who must certainly have succumbed had 
 it not been for the French intervention, were thus 
 saved. The Peace of Westphalia, by which Mazarin 
 brought the mighty struggle to a close, marked the 
 progress made during the century and a half which 
 had elapsed since the Reformation. Religious free- 
 
188 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 dom was henceforth recognised and guaranteed, 
 Holland and Switzerland were at last definitively 
 placed in an independent position amongst the 
 nations. A new era in the policy and public law 
 of Europe was ushered in. The Balance of Power 
 for which the Thirty Years' War was waged, was now ' 
 established on a footing which became a fresh start- 
 ing-point for Europe, and which indeed, in its main 
 outlines, has never been overthrown. 
 
 The central and pregnant defect in this mo- 
 mentous settlement was the too great aggrandise- 
 ment of France, caused by the absence of Grreat 
 Britain from her place in Continental politics. Of 
 the nations which had as yet taken part in those 
 politics, she alone was unrepresented. France thus 
 obtained the gratification of that fatal ambition which 
 Henry the Fourth had left as his legacy, the inclu- 
 sion of many of the smaller Grerman States on the 
 banks of the Rhine. The existence of small Sove- 
 reign States on both sides of those banks was a 
 dangerous one for themselves, but a safeguard for 
 Europe. The Emperor Frederick the Third would 
 have done well had he allowed Charles the Bold 
 in the Fifteenth Century to erect them, along with 
 Flanders, into a kingdom large enough to take 
 care of itself. There was a feeble attempt, after 
 Marlborough's victories in 1706, to renew that policy ; 
 but the opportunity had been lost, and Europe has 
 suffered from the loss ever since. 
 
 It was on this basis of French preponderance 
 
FBEPONDEBANCE OF LOUIS XIV. 189 
 
 that Louis the Fourteenth built up his colossal power. 
 It only required time and ability, during the abey- 
 ance of British influence, to make this power as 
 formidable as that from which Europe had been 
 delivered. As long as Great Britain counted for 
 nothing — and it is to be observed that even the 
 exceptional vigour of Cromwell's Protectorate was 
 exercised in favour of France — when Sweden had 
 collapsed in consequence of efforts out of proportion 
 to her natural strength, and while the Austrian 
 House was paralysed after the great war, the 
 Balance of Power was left to take care of itself. 
 The Triple Alliance of Charles II. for a moment 
 checked the progress of the tyranny, but means 
 were soon found to suppress Louis' ignoble pensioner. 
 " The great monarch " grew year by year : one 
 supcess after another placed him, as he thought, 
 beyond the reach of adversity. Pretexts were 
 found for reducing each neighbour in turn. Europe 
 looked on aghast and helpless. It has seldom pre- 
 sented a more pitiable spectacle. But, happily for 
 the world, the principles which had effected the Peace 
 of Westphalia were only dormant. Once more the 
 magnificent resistance of Holland saves Europe ; once 
 more Grreat Britain is brought on the stage to direct 
 the general movement of the nations, at last aroused 
 to a sense of their danger. Under William, the 
 champion and foremost representative of the Balance 
 of Power, under Marlborough — (for we need not in 
 this sketch separate the two wars) — the scattered 
 
190 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 forces of the European Coalition are combined, and 
 the tyrant, who has broken the Public Law of 
 Europe, is at last reduced to his proper dimen- 
 sions. 
 
 We need not linger over the very alphabet of 
 history to prove that France, absorbing, by "reunions" 
 and similar processes, all the States on her Eastern 
 frontier,' supreme in Spain and Italy, perhaps in Eng- 
 land, and ruled in the spirit which dictated the Revoca- 
 tion of the Edict of Nantes and the Dragonnades, 
 would have been a monster against which the world 
 must have combined sooner or later. We need not 
 speculate how the deliverance might have been 
 effected; whether the shattering force would have 
 sprung from some earlier "French Revolution" in 
 exhausted France, or some earlier advent of Teutonic 
 and Slavonic kingdoms to political power. We need 
 not stop to criticise the Peace of Utrecht, by which 
 this " greatest and most general conflict since the 
 Crusades" was at last terminated. It is enough to 
 observe that the members of the system of States at 
 that time existing, not retiring selfishly within their 
 own limits, did at last the duty which lay before 
 them ; though of course there was, as ever, an abund- 
 ance of selfishness displayed, and the usual infusion of 
 mixed motives. On the whole, and on the whole 
 persistently, these Powers recognised their public 
 duty to Europe as a Confederation of Nations which 
 could alone exist in harmony under the condition of a 
 Balance of Power. 
 
TROaPEBITY IN PBOFOETION TO MERIT. 191 
 
 And it may also be worth observing that the 
 nations which most honourably fulfilled their part 
 appear to have prospered in something very like a 
 due proportion to their merits. It would of course 
 be presumptuous to dwell too much upon this point, 
 for human eyes are scarcely able to measure causes 
 and consequences with stifficient accuracy; but the 
 start in advance made by Great Britain, which had 
 proved herself more than a match for France and 
 Spain united, and now began to spread her language 
 and institutions throughout the world ; the prosperity 
 of Holland, no longer indeed a great Power, but 
 henceforth the adopted child of Europe; the ever- 
 onward history of Prussia, which earned its place 
 amidst the nations by its adhesion to the public 
 cause ; the fortunes of Austria, which were pros- 
 jjerous just as far as she showed public spirit, and 
 l(wt ground just as far as she pursued the selfish 
 policy of aiming at the place from which she had 
 lielped to depose Louis ; the fate of Bavaiia, which 
 1 landed on the tradition of the part she then played 
 to later generations; the downward course of France, 
 checked for a time by her successes under the first 
 Napoleon ; these retrospects are at least suggestive. 
 
 Nor shall we be the less iriclined to appreciate 
 the merits of this second great settlement of Europe, 
 the first to embody its object in set words — " ad con- 
 servandum in Eiu-opa sequilibrium," if we reflect 
 not only how it has left the system of smaller States 
 as barriei's and cushions between the larger, with the 
 
192 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 independence of each guarded by common agreement, 
 down to our own times, but that it was followed by a 
 general peace throughout Europe and the world for 
 twenty-five years, and was then only unequal to the 
 task of preserving the Balance of Power, because two 
 new Powers, .not yet taken into account, had risen to 
 the first rank. So much must certainly be placed to 
 the credit of the political doctrine which it represented. 
 And it may be noticed in addition that, after all, 
 the years of peace in Europe from the Treaty of 
 Utrecht to the French Revolution were nearly thrice 
 as numerous as those of war. 
 
 Thus at the end of two centuries, during which 
 England and France had worked out in turns the 
 principles of Public Law, those principles appear in 
 formal and express terms. Two subsequent facts 
 may be traced to this circumstance. An erroneous 
 opinion has prevailed that the Balance of Power is 
 no older than the Eighteenth Century, an artificial 
 product of a corrupt age ; whereas we have seen 
 that it had a very different origin. This is chiefly 
 important as to the evils which may arise from con- 
 tempt of the doctrine, ensuing upon a low conception 
 of its history. And again, it cannot be denied that 
 the very formulation of the doctrine and its familiar 
 recognition have suggested formal and dishonest 
 methods of evading it, while the abuses which have 
 occurred in consequence have tended to its discredit. - 
 It is in the history of the Eighteenth Centmy that 
 we discern the growth of these abuses ; but we shall 
 
BU88IA AND FBUS8IA. 193 
 
 still find them exceptional, and only requiring a little 
 discrimination to assign them their true place. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 The Eighteenth Century ushered in two fresh 
 members of the great family of ruling nations ; Prus- 
 sia, whose "Elector of Brandenburg" was now a 
 King, and which alone of the German Powers (be- 
 sides the Emperor) had attached her signature to 
 the Peace of Utrecht j and Russia, whose rise had 
 been less marked, and which was somewhat later 
 in affecting the West. Both had risen on the ruin 
 of Poland and the decay of Sweden. Both burst 
 on the West as Powers that must be reckoned with, 
 through the fact of their each producing a man 
 who towered above all his fellows, much in the 
 same way as Charlemagne and Napoleon towered 
 above theirs. Perhaps since the death of the first 
 of those extraordinary men the course of events 
 had not been so much guided by the personal will 
 of an individual as it was by Peter the Grreat, and 
 in the next generation by Frederick the Great. The 
 sanguinary wars, which must be regarded as the 
 necessary consequence of having to find a place for 
 the new Powers in the European system, afford sad 
 reflections for the philanthropist ; but some compensa- 
 tion at least may be found in the assistance given 
 by both nations to the assertion of the Balance of 
 Power in the great wars arising out of the French 
 
194 IMPEBIAL BNGLANB. 
 
 Eevolution. Up to that date, indeed, the general 
 principles of Public Law, though exceptionally over- 
 borne, were generally admitted, and often success- 
 fully appealed to ; and the landmarks of the Peace 
 of Utrecht remained almost as they had been fixed 
 in 1713. 
 
 The general peace of Europe was first disturbed by 
 Frederick the Great's high-handed seizure of Silesia; 
 it was the signal for the two fierce wars out of which 
 Prussia emerged as one of the five leading Powers. 
 Except for this attack on Maria Theresa, it seems 
 probable that the Pragmatic Sanction, that careful 
 attempt to anticipate a general unsettlement of the 
 balance, would have been observed. But the tempta- 
 tion to France, Bavaria, and other Powers, when the 
 strife had once begun, to possess themselves of the 
 territories of the Austrian House was too great, and 
 all pretence of war for the Balance of Power was 
 for a time abandoned. The Pragmatic Sanction, 
 indeed, like William's Partition Treaties, laboured 
 under the serious defect that it was not, any more 
 than they were (nor in their nature could they 
 be), the joint product of all the Powers concerned. 
 For these big new boys, if such a metaphor may 
 be allowed, entering a school in which the old rules 
 take scant account of new-comers, a general fight 
 all round seemed the only way of securing proper 
 respect. 
 
 If any nation could make a claim to honour for 
 having acted at this time up to the principles of 
 
ADVANGE OF BRITAIN. 195 
 
 Public Law, Great Britain, though much influenced 
 by special interests in Hanover, may receive praise 
 for her conduct. Hers was at least an efEort to do 
 what was right in support of the injured Queen, 
 whose destruction would certainly have deranged the 
 balance. And it was equally right and politic, in 
 spite of all that had happened, to throw the weight 
 of England, in the Seven Years' War, into the 
 scale of Prussia. In both cases France, which was 
 quietly but rapidly creeping back into the position 
 she had occupied before the Peace of Utrecht, was 
 paralysed by the action of Grreat Britain; and the 
 two central Teutonic peoples of Europe were, in 
 the end, 2)reserved and strengthened in their rank 
 of first-rate Powers. France reaped the fruit of her 
 crooked policy in the loss of her colonies and the 
 increase of her debt, which had an important effect 
 in producing the Revolution ; while Great Britain 
 rose to the headship of Europe, and steadily advanced 
 her colonies and commerce to such a degree as to 
 make the increase of her debt a matter of small 
 consequence. The only nation, in short, which could 
 make the slightest pretence to having acted for the 
 general good made the greatest gain. 
 
 The Partition of Poland by Russia, Austria, and 
 Prussia, which comes next in order, has been univer- 
 sally condemned as the greatest abuse of the doctrine 
 of the Balance of Power which had ever taken 
 place up to that time. It has rightly earned this 
 ill fame inasmuch as it has been, immediately or 
 
196 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 remotely, the pretext for wars -whicli have occurred 
 since. These three Powers, while they had learnt 
 to respect one another's strength in the Seven Years' 
 War, had also learnt to watch one another with 
 intense jealousy; nor were any of them governed 
 at this momfet on any but the most selfish and un- 
 principled policy. Nothing can be more revolting 
 than the parade of justice, and the cant about the 
 Balance of Power, under cover of which this spoliation 
 was effected. The partition of Poland was, indeed, 
 no new idea. The Poles had been long a decaying 
 nationality in the midst' of powerful and more bar- 
 barous neighbours. More than a century before, 
 the Emperor Leopold and the Elector of Brandenburg 
 had been grievously suspected by the Poles of a 
 similar conspiracy. France, whose connection with 
 Poland had been so intimate, was too distant to 
 afford by herself effectual aid, nor was either she 
 or Grreat Britain able at this time to unite in re- 
 sisting a league of the three conquering Powers. 
 They abdicated their functions; and thus, with 
 all the lessons of the previous period for warning, 
 a process the exact reverse of that which had 
 given security to Western Europe took place in the 
 East. Instead of the great Powers uniting to protect 
 the small, and leaving barriers and cushions to take 
 off the friction with each other, they either united 
 to erase the smaller Powers, or looked on with com- 
 placency while it was being done. The sense of 
 shame with which the Partition has been since regarded 
 
NAPOLEON REVERSING THE BALANCE. 197 
 
 is, in itself, a tribute to the progress of Public 
 Law, to tbe growth of an international conscience. 
 
 It was this fatal Partition of Poland which 
 supplied Napoleon Bonaparte with a pretext, and 
 in too many eyes a justification, for his similar 
 iniquitous incorporation of independent States. 
 His avowed policy may be expressed thus: — "You 
 have weighed down the balance by your proceed- 
 ings in the East of Europe; I must redress it in 
 the West," — a claim as specious and unprincipled 
 as that which he denounced ; but bad precedents 
 make bad consequences. And we have heard the 
 same accents from more than one quarter in our 
 own time, self-asserted claims by an interested party 
 on pretence of preserving the Balance of Power ; 
 whereas the very essence of a true use of the 
 doctrine is that the nations shall together judge 
 of the infraction of the public law by any one of 
 them, and act in concert to prevent it. But what 
 is to be done when the conspirators are too strong 
 for the police ? This is a question which it is not 
 easy to answer : it is certainly not answered by 
 shutting the eyes to facts. One thing is certain. 
 Retribution is sure to follow, heavy retribution, on 
 the ofEenders ; but the lookers-on will not escape. 
 " No one" says Ranke, speaking of an earlier 
 period, " goes unpunished who stands aside in 
 moments when the duty of action is laid impera- 
 tively on all."* 
 
 * " History of England," vol. v. p. 14. Oxford Translation. 
 
193 IMPEEIAL UNGLANB. 
 
 From these instances of abuse, which we may 
 justly claim should be considered exceptional by the 
 side of the vast preponderance of useful applica- 
 tion of the principle, it is a relief to turn to the 
 Coalition of Europe against France in the wars of 
 the Revolution. In the military propagandism of 
 that movement, and in the subsequent unblushing 
 ambition of Napoleon, are to be found — if ever there 
 were found — the just grounds for a combination of 
 Powers against a disturber of the peace. We must 
 give up altogether the formation of historical judg- 
 ments, if we are to allow the presence of mixed mo- 
 tives and the perpetration of mistakes to interfere 
 with ovoc approval of a course which is, on the whole, 
 just and right. The question was one of self-defence, 
 self-preservation, public duty, in the cause of those 
 who would otherwise have been overwhelmed; and 
 if we require any confirmation of the ideas of right 
 and wrong which we may have formed as to the 
 actors in that tremendous conflict, if consequences 
 afFord any ground of judgment as to events, it can 
 hardly be denied that public respect and influence, 
 internal progress and tranquillity, have rewarded the 
 nations concerned, in a wonderfully exact propor- 
 tion to the public virtue they exhibited. Great 
 Britain at any rate,' in spite of her debt, has reason 
 to comprehend the verdict of events. 
 
 The Treaty of Vienna, which, like those of 
 Westphalia and Utrecht (the results of former coali- 
 tions to preserve public law), gave peace to the 
 
THE TREATY OF VIENNA. 199 
 
 world for so many years, may have been by this 
 time torn to pieces ; but it has carried down to 
 our own day the authoritative teaching of the pre- 
 vious centuries. That teaching may be summed up 
 in a single sentence. It is the duty of the mem- 
 bers of the European Commonwealth to act together, 
 and not independently, in their mutual relations ; 
 and that all should take concerted action against 
 any aggressive member of the Commonwealth ; not 
 shrinking from self-sacrifice, still less proclaiming 
 .the craven doctrine that the afEairs of its neigh- 
 bours are no concern of any particular State. That 
 any such theory could have found acceptance, is 
 probably due to the confusion of thought which 
 has mixed up the just condemnation of a meddling- 
 intervention in the internal afEairs of States, with 
 a most unjust condemnation of the international 
 right to guard against external danger arising from 
 the menacing aggrandisement of a State or States. 
 To prevent aggression and the conquest of the 
 weaker Powers by means of alliances, remonstrances, 
 conferences, arbitration if possible, but, in the last 
 resort, war, is the duty incumbent on the European 
 family of nations ; to interfere with each other's 
 internal afiairs is to strike at the root of theii* 
 common brotherhood. It is not surprising that the 
 interventions of the "Holy Alliance" in the affairs 
 of States should have been succeeded by the agencies 
 of an opposite kind which Great Britain for many 
 years encouraged. It was all wrong; it has been 
 
200 IMPERIAL BNQLAND. 
 
 condemned by piiblic opinion, and has passed away : 
 not so the fundamental obligations of Public Law. 
 
 A few words must suffice to gather up the in- 
 stances of use or abuse of the Balance of Power 
 as a doctrine applied in our own generation. Greece 
 and Belgium 'have been treated by Europe on the. 
 old-established principle of common action. The 
 annexation of Savoy and Nice, and the case of Den- 
 mark, have afBorded instances of neglect or abuse 
 of the principle. The "Eastern Question," in rela- 
 tion to the decline and anarchy of the Ottoman- 
 Empire, has been a yet more important instance, 
 and is still awaiting the action of to-day, the 
 judgment of the to-morrow of history. The 
 policy of Europe in 1840 may fairly be reckoned 
 among the legitimate triumphs of concerted action. 
 The Crimean War, if it did not indeed combine 
 the whole confederacy in a manner creditable to 
 all, yet at least asserted with success the principle, 
 that the party interested in obtaining the spoils 
 should not be entrusted with the execution of the 
 common policy. The adoption of this principle also 
 secured the success of the later policy of 1866, in 
 Syria. These last are the questions with which 
 Great Britain has been obliged to deal, in conse- 
 quence of her commercial and colonial position, 
 and the existence of her Indian Empire. Whether 
 she has been right in retiring altogether from her 
 old place in relation to the Continental struggles 
 of France, Italy, Germany, and Austria, remains 
 
THE PLACE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 201 
 
 to be seen. In the American struggle it could 
 not, of course, be maintained that Europe should 
 have interfered. It was not a case for the ap- 
 plication of the Balance of Power. 
 
 One thing is clear. There can be no greater 
 mistake than to suppose that Grreat Britain, having 
 attained her present grand position, can fall back 
 on her insular situation as an excuse for political 
 retirement. She has gained that position as an in- 
 tegral part of the European community by centuries 
 of action ; and it is acknowledged on all hands 
 that there are Continental contingencies which 
 might even now compel her to draw the sword. 
 That admission opens up the larger questions sug- 
 gested by political foresight and political retrospect, 
 the whole question of the Balance of Power, and 
 concerted action backed if necessary by. war. It 
 is quite a work of supererogation to prove that 
 the liabilities, duties, and dangers of the position 
 have not diminished by the lapse of time or 
 the improvements of mechanical art, by the pro- 
 gress of steam and the telegraph on sea and land, 
 the elaboration of artillery, or the invention of tor- 
 pedoes. The so-called "insular policy" may seek 
 for a spurious justification in the aspirations after 
 peace and progress which flourish with increasing 
 civilisation ; but those who have followed the course 
 of this argument will probably be unanimous in 
 agreeing that it is as great a crime, as great an 
 abuse or neglect of the Balance of Power, for any 
 
202 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 nation forming part of the great European system 
 to separate itself from the general community, on a 
 private interpretation of its own interest in non- 
 intervention, as it is for a nation to act on a 
 private interpretation of the Public Law for aggres- 
 sive purposes, apart from the rest of Europe. 
 
 It is impossible to dwell at length in this place 
 upon the confirmation of the above views afforded 
 by the authorities on International Law. It will be 
 enough to make a few references, and leave the 
 rest to the student. They shall be taken from 
 recent authors, one from each of the nations which 
 at present contribute most effectually to the progress 
 of the science, German, French, American, and 
 English : — 
 
 " True equilibrium," says the distinguished German, M. Bluntschli, 
 " consists in the pacific coexistence of different States. It is 
 threatened when one State acquires such a supremacy that the 
 safety, independence, and liberty of the other States are en- 
 dangered. In such a case, all the States directly or indirectly 
 threatened are authorised to re-establish the equilibrium, and to 
 take measures to insure its maintenance."* 
 
 " If it should happen," said M. Pradier FoderS, "that a nationality 
 be threatened, since Europe echoes the cry of every people, and since 
 no movement is indifferent to each and all, intervention would be 
 not a right, but a duty in the name of humanity." + 
 
 "The Balance of Power," says Mr. Woolsey, President of Yale 
 
 * "Le Droit International Oodifie." Par M. Bluntschli. P. 95. 
 Paris, 1870. 
 
 f "Principes Generaux de Droit," &c. Par M. P. Pradier Podere. 
 Paris, 1869. 
 
OPINIONS OF AUTHOBITIES. 203 
 
 College, in the United States, " may be said to be an established part 
 of the international law of Europe."* 
 
 "The principle of the Balance of Power," says Sir Robert Philli- 
 more, "has been, upon several occasions of great importance, most 
 formally and distinctly recognised as an essential part of the system 
 of international law.'' It does not require that nations retain exactly 
 their present territorial possessions, " but that no single Power should 
 be allowed to increase them in a manner which threatens the liberties 
 of other States." And he denounces the 'folly and shortsightedness 
 of " vulgar politicians who hold the doctrine that a State has no 
 concern with the acts of her neighbour, and that if wrong be done to 
 others and not to herself, she cannot afford to interfere. . . . It is 
 the right of third Powers to watch over the preservation of the Balance 
 of Power among existing States, whether by preventing the aggres- 
 sions and conquests of any one Power, or by taking care that out of 
 the new order of things produced by internal revolutions no existing 
 Power acquires an aggrandisement that may menace the liberties of 
 the rest of the world, "f 
 
 " Since," says (at an earlier date) Nassau Senior, " the principal 
 ^tates of Continental Europe, — France, Russia, Austria and Prussia, 
 — have grown from small beginnings to powerful and flourishing 
 monarchies by centuries of ambition, injustice, violence, and fraud, it 
 is obvious that the attempt to bind nations by mere moral sanctions 
 is to fetter giants with cobwebs. But when a nation perceives a 
 probability that it will be resisted [in its attacks on the rights of 
 weaker nations], and a possibility that it may fail, the check is 
 powerful."! 
 
 To those who have accepted the dogmatic state- 
 ments, passed on from one to another in news- 
 papers, reviews, and periodicals of late years, to 
 the efEect that the whole doctrine of the Balance 
 
 * Woolsey's " Introduction to the Study of International Law," p. 61. 
 Second Edition. New York, 1869. 
 
 t PhiUimore's " International Law," vol. i. pp. 473 — 510. Second 
 Edition, 1871. 
 
 X "Edinburgh Review," April, 1843. 
 
204 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 of Power is obsolete and absurd, it may be a sur- 
 prise to find, not only that such passages as the 
 above abound in the best modern treatises on In- 
 ternational Law and poKtics, but that a popular 
 writer, of strong Liberal principles, like M. Laveleye,, 
 finds himself obliged to admit that the doctrine has 
 been necessary for progress and liberty, and only 
 asserts or predicts its decline on grounds of a 
 somewhat fanciful character.* It is at least sus- 
 picious when the writers of the nation which supposes 
 it to be its interest to vote the doctrine obsolete 
 are so little supported from outside. It cannot 
 but suggest the idea of a disgraceful and self-con- 
 demning heresy. The Americans, indeed, have 
 given some countenance to this superficial view, 
 but the passage cited above from Mr. Woolsey's 
 popular work may almost be matched by passages 
 from Wheaton, who stands at the head of American 
 authors on International Law. He at least justi- 
 fies upon this principle all the chief wars which 
 have been waged in Europe, f He could hardly do 
 otherwise in the face of passages such as the follow- 
 ing, which we quote from Burke : — 
 
 " The Balance of Power lias been ever assumed as the known 
 common law of Eui-ope at all times and by all Powers ; the question 
 has only been (as it must happen) on the more or less inclination of 
 the balance. ... In all those systems of balance, England was 
 
 * " Des Causes actuelles de guerre en ['Europe ot de I'arbitrage." 
 Par Emilo de Laveloye, Chap, v. Brussels and Paris, 1873. 
 f Wheaton's " International Law." Eighth Edition, p. 92 et seq. 
 
OPINION OF VON BANKE. 205 
 
 the Power to whose custody it was thought it might be most safely 
 committed." * 
 
 If we cite one more authority it sliall be that of 
 by far the greatest historian of this age, Von Rankc. 
 What that profound and truly erudite mind pro- 
 nounces to be " necessary to the existence of the 
 States of Europe "t can hardly deserve contempt. 
 He who has written the history of the chief nations 
 of Europe as no one else has written them, makes 
 no limitation of time in this matter. The principle 
 has existed, does exist, and must exist. " One of 
 the causes," says he, " which enable the European 
 commonwealth to maintain itself as a living whole 
 is that there are active forces latent within it 
 which have always hitherto restored the Balance 
 of Power when disturbed." I It is his survey of 
 the past which gives him hope for the future. It 
 would, indeed, be strange if the people of the 
 country which has taken the lead in this matter, 
 paid the greatest price, achieved the greatest 
 results, and has the largest stake in the preserva- 
 tion of the principle, should be precisely the people 
 whose aid was found wanting in the production of 
 those " latent active forces " on which the veteran 
 historian and philosopher relies. 
 
 * " Third Letter on a Regicide Peace," p. 196. 
 t " History of England," vbl. iv. p. 385. 
 J Ibid. p. 384. 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 RISE OF THE MODERN BRITISH EMPIRE 
 UNDER GEORGE THE SECOND. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The German philosopher, A. H. Miiller, has remarked 
 "that the vast combination of interests which con- 
 stitutes the British Empire demands a whole life- 
 time to be adequately understood ; " and he recom- 
 mends the learner "to study the writings of Burke, 
 in which this combination would be found concen- 
 trated and reflected as in a mirror." Perhaps the 
 following passage from Burke himself may serve 
 still better as a text for the following sketch: — 
 
 " For my part I look upon the Imperial rights of Great Britain, 
 and the privileges which the Colonists ought to enjoy under those 
 rights to be just the most reconcilable things in the -world. The 
 Parliament of Great Britain is at the head of her extensive Empire in 
 two capacities, one as the local legislature of this island, providing 
 for all things at home immediately, and by no other instrument than 
 the executive power ; the other, and I think her nobler capacity, is 
 what I may call her Imperial character, in which, as from the throne 
 of heaven, she superintends all the several inferior legislatures, and 
 guides and controls them all, without annihilating any." * 
 
 It must be admitted that there is a genuine ring 
 about these characteristic lines. Let us note the 
 
 * " Burke ; Select Works." Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by 
 E. J. Payne, M.A., Pellow of University College, Oxford. New Edition. 
 Oxford, 1878. " Speech on American Taxation," Vol. i. p. 156. 
 
THE UNITY OF THE EMPIRE. 207 
 
 echo which, at the interval of more than a century, 
 the British Colonies gave back only yesterday, at 
 a moment when it seemed as if the mother country 
 would be obliged, in the defence of public law, to 
 evoke the patriotic spirit of the whole Empire. 
 Addressing, in his happiest vein, a vast multitude 
 of Canadians, who testified their exuberant loyalty 
 by continuous cheering. Lord DufEerin, the Governor- 
 General, found himself under no necessity for apology 
 or explanation when he hailed them as "members of 
 the Empire, men of British descent, subjects of Queen 
 Victoria," and announced that it might soon "be 
 necessary for them to face the resi^onsibility which 
 their nationality entailed." He was using no empty 
 language, for, said he, "almost every mail had 
 brought the most enthusiastic offers to serve in 
 the Queen's armies in the event of foreign war, 
 and these offers had represented not merely the 
 enthusiasm of individuals, but of whole regiments 
 and brigades of meii." Nor was this an exceptional 
 and peculiar case. From all parts of the. world arose 
 the same multitudinous shout. Even the Indian 
 .Sepoys, so far from remembering with ill-will the 
 decisive issue of their terrible mutiny some twenty 
 years ago, demanded with vehement cries to be led 
 against the common foe, and desired to know no more 
 than that they were going to " fight by the side of 
 the English somewhere in the West." 
 
 And yet, with all this experience, this encourage- 
 ment from the past and present' alike, this hope for 
 
208 IMPERIAL ENGLANB. 
 
 the future, little progress seems to be made in allaying 
 the fears and discontents of a very, large section of 
 the British people. Still are heard from the lips 
 of pubhc men the most unworthy expositions of 
 British foreign poKcy; still, with an air of philo- 
 sophical authcg-ity, men warn us against concerning 
 ourselves with the afEairs of the Continent ; we are 
 still recommended to relinquish this Colony, or that 
 military post, for fear of offending sensitive neigh- 
 bours, or being called" upon to engage in the defence 
 of our dependencies; we are still told to measure 
 our obligations by the mere calculations of profit and 
 loss^ — calculations not only illusory and temporary 
 in themselves, but utterly inadequate to bear the 
 weight of the vast issues requiring to be balanced. 
 Too many seem to realise Burke's glowing denuncia- 
 tion of those whom he calls " vulgar politicians " : — 
 
 " A large, liberal, and prospective view of the interests of States 
 passes with them for romance, and the principles that recommend it 
 for the wanderings of a disordered imagination. Littleness in object 
 and in means, to them appears soundness and sobriety. They think 
 there is nothing worth pursuit but that which they can handle, which 
 they can measure with a two-foot rule, which they can tell upon ten 
 fingers." * 
 
 Such ideas would seldom obtain currency if it 
 were not for the misrepresentation of which the 
 public are the victims in the ordinary methods of 
 accounting for the Rise of the Modern British Empire. 
 In historical references to the last century writers 
 are in the habit of indulging a mock-humility : . 
 
 * " First Letter on a Regicide Peace," p. 105. 
 
FALSE ,7IE\V OF THE PAST. 203 
 
 they carry their candour to an absurd extent, and 
 for fear of indulging in national self-laudation and 
 incurring a charge of so-caUed " Chauvinism," 
 put on sackcloth and ashes, when they should 
 array themselves in purple and gold. Such treat- 
 ment of the past is not only false, as well as 
 unjust to the great men Avho founded the Empire, it 
 is most pernicious in its effects on the national 
 conduct. Let us, then, take a brief survey of the 
 events which led to the attainment of the British 
 position, and analyse some of the influences which 
 had a share in producing those events. Grreatness 
 may become more tolerable if the steps which led 
 to it are measured with a little more than ordinary 
 care. We cannot always, indeed, accept Burke's 
 guidance to the letter, but no one can be far wrong 
 in adopting the spirit of his teaching. To use his 
 words once more, let us attempt to "point out by 
 what means the British nation came to be exalted 
 above the vulgar level, and to take that lead which 
 they assumed among mankind."* What would he 
 have said to the absurd nicknames which are now 
 supposed to cover such views as his with contempt 
 and ridicule? 
 
 And, first, a few general remarks on the much- 
 abused Eighteenth Century, the condemnation of 
 which, without much discrimination, is so glibly pro- 
 nounced in the present day. Perhaps it is not too much 
 to say that the tendency of modern literature is to 
 
 * " First Letter on a Regicide Peace," p. 64. 
 O 
 
210 IMPERIAL ENOLAND. 
 
 impress us with the belief that the less said about that 
 century the better. We are to regard it as an era of 
 clumsy, vulgar, uncultured life, stagnant life, most 
 uninteresting by the side of the Stuart, Tudor, and 
 Plantagenet periods of English history, scarcely 
 indeed deserviag the attention of. historians. The 
 reigns of "the four Georges" have been most bitterly 
 satirised by Mr. Thackeray, writing much in accord- 
 ance with prevailing sentiment, in the persons of those 
 Sovereigns. We have come to feel ashamed of 
 sympathy, not only with the rulers, but with the 
 people over whom they ruled. 
 
 This estimate of the last century is surely as un- 
 founded as it is unfair. We may trace the growth 
 of the false sentiment partly to the extraordinary de- 
 velopment of our modem material prosperity, to the 
 rapid course of improvement in all departments of 
 social and political life which has been going on 
 under the eyes of the last two generations, and 
 which has obscured the true perception of the 
 preceding men and times. Perhaps also something 
 hiay be attributed to the solidity of the barrier 
 between our own age and the earlier years of 
 Greorge the Third, formed by the tremendous period 
 of the Revolution Wars which lie midway. The 
 energies of the race were then so severely taxed, the 
 whole body politic was so deeply scored and coloured, 
 that those engrossing years throw back into dim 
 distance what is indeed only the time of our grand- 
 fathers and great-grandfathers. Yet it cannot be 
 
THE LAST CENTURY DECBIED. 211 
 
 denied that the British people are in every point and 
 circumstance just what they shaped out. If Englishmen 
 are to comprehend the relations in which they stand to 
 the world around them, however useful their earlier 
 history may be, it is to the time which stretches 
 behind the barrier of the Revolution Wars that they 
 must go for the assistance with which they can on no 
 account dispense. 
 
 And, lastly, our writers for special classes must 
 bear some part of the blame. In order to magnify 
 the theological reforms and revivals of the present 
 day, it has become a sort of cant to cry down the 
 Eighteenth Century, as if we were so very much 
 superior to our immediate ancestors ; and this pre- 
 judice propagates itself, and is often unconsciously 
 propagated, through a great variety of channels. 
 Philosophers like Mr. Leslie Stephen are just as bad in 
 their way.* The people of that age were too stupid, 
 we are told, to follow, as they should have done, their 
 intellectual leaders in the paths of Free Thought! 
 There could not be a better sign of their intelli- 
 gence. 
 
 It will not indeed be denied that the early Hano- 
 verian period has largely deserved its evil fame. 
 The political circumstances attending the change of 
 dynasty could not but operate disastrously. The 
 measures absolutely necessary for the establishment of 
 the new Royal Family and for the repression of 
 Jacobitism in Church and State, the corruption of 
 
 * " History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century," passim. 
 
212 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 Parliament, the absence of efBective party-conflict, 
 the furious quarrels at Court, and the degraded 
 domestic life of the first two Sovereigns of the House, 
 the sense of a lowered position amidst the rising 
 Powers of the Continent, and especially of the revival 
 of enemies over whom the British had so recently 
 triumphed, — no doubt all this, with much more which 
 might be reckoned up, if not too tedious for the present 
 sketch, deeply felt at the time, and reflected on our 
 own minds, has contributed to form that disagreeable 
 impression which is generally entertained of the 
 earlier period. But even this period had its all- 
 important place in eliciting the true position of Great 
 Britain ; and we must take the utmost care not to 
 confuse it with the period embracing the later years 
 of George the Second and the reign of George the 
 Third, during which the foundations of the Modern 
 British Empire were securely laid. 
 
 No Englishman can forget, the earlier glories of 
 his country's eventful history; but it is not too 
 much to say that she did not permanently emerge out 
 of the position of a second-rate Power, into the first 
 rank among the nations, till the Eighteenth Century, 
 At previous times ^he had for awhile grandly 
 supported this pretension ; but for the last hundred 
 and twenty years, for some four generations, her place 
 has been steadily fixed and universally acknowledged. 
 How was it attained ? We can scarcely remain 
 satisfied with the common answer to this question. 
 It is not sufficient merely to recal the greatness of 
 
EVILS OF A DISPUTED SUOCESSION. 213 
 
 Chatham and of the galaxy of fine officers whose 
 prowess he called forth. In a very rough way, for 
 mere summaries written for schools, this will be suffi- 
 cient. Grreat men arose at a critical moment, and 
 their deeds will go down to posterity along with those 
 of Grreek and Roman heroes. But great, original, 
 world-influencing as they were, these men must also 
 be regarded as subordinate agents in that general 
 course of affairs which, commencing with a very few 
 obvious considerations, necessary by way of introduc- 
 tion, we will now trace. 
 
 No monarchy has ever made any considerable 
 advance during a period of disputed Succession. It 
 can undertake no great operations at home or abroad ; 
 it is happy, truly happy, if it can move in the beaten 
 track with tolerable tranquillity, if the people can be 
 induced to follow their national bent without creating- 
 disturbances, if peace with its neighbours can be pre- 
 served almost at any price. This was the state of 
 Grreat Britain for more than a generation after the 
 advent of the House of Hanover ; and considering 
 that this was the normal condition of things at the 
 period, the country, it must be admitted, was admirably 
 served both by her Sovereigns and statesmen. What- 
 ever might be the deficiencies of the first two Greorges, 
 they had that primary requisite of common sense 
 which teaches people to conform to their situation; and, 
 without mentioning other ministers, must allow that 
 Walpole was of all men the most exactly suited to the 
 
214 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 times. To speak of these men as virtuous kings or 
 lofty statesmen would be absurd : the point is that 
 they at that time filled the exact place which the 
 country required. She deserved, and she could obtain 
 nothing better. The large majority of the people were 
 Tories at heart lind Jacobites in sentiment ; they were 
 restrained from active efforts in behalf of the exiled 
 family solely by their inbred Protestantism, the 
 strongest ingredient of all in the national character. 
 It was therefore absolutely necessary, and the people 
 themselves knew it, that they should be governed on 
 Whig principles, ruled by the great families which 
 had happily brought about the Revolution and the 
 new Succession, swayed by the Dutch, the Hano- 
 verian, the " moneyed " interests, intolerable as they 
 were from the romantic, sentimental point of view, 
 but tolerable as the necessary bulwark of Pro- 
 testantism, and round which in the last resort the 
 people were prepared to rally. 
 
 Moreover, the Grovemment, with its policy of 
 peace and commerce, conciliated the people by 
 what they best understood and required after the 
 wars of the preceding reigns. Trade and commerce 
 had indeed flourished in spite of those wars ; but 
 time and rest were needed to develop the re- 
 sources which the nation was only gradually dis- 
 covering that it possessed. It entered upon its 
 new course with characteristic ardour. The inflated 
 speculations which issued in the " South Sea Bubble" 
 were but indications of the general prosperity; the 
 
THE NATION OF 8H0FKEEPMBS. 215 
 
 subsequent rearrangement of tlie public finances, 
 conducted with such splendid skill by Walpole, was 
 the commencement, in its more exact form, of that 
 settled system of funded debt under which we now 
 live, and by means of which the country has so often 
 met its national requirements. By the year 1729, so 
 entirely had public confidence rallied round the King 
 and his dexterous Minister, that the real contest 
 among the public creditors was as to who should be 
 last paid. In short, the country settled down to its 
 work ; the British nation became, as Napoleon called 
 it at a later date, a nation of shopkeepers. That 
 long lull in home and foreign politics left an in-> 
 delible mark, worn in the deeper with ever-growing 
 years. 
 
 But the Continental Powers soon found themselves 
 in error when they presumed upon the change which 
 appeared to have come over the islanders, whose fierce 
 and turbulent nature had been their chief charac- 
 teristic in the pages of history. When Spain, slowly 
 recovering from the wounds of the War of Succes- 
 sion, and encouraged by her secret " Family Com- 
 pact " with France ; when the latter country 
 profiting by her long peace with England, had at 
 last, under the consummate management of Cardinal 
 Fleury, gained the long-coveted prize of Lorraine ; 
 when these hereditary enemies of England, whose 
 separation from one another it had been her policy 
 for centuries to secure, combined to dispute with her 
 once for all the empire of the seas and the commerce 
 
216 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 of Asia, Africa, and America^then it was that, slowly 
 and sullenly" rousing herself, shaking o£E one by one 
 the chains which had so long fettered her, this country 
 made that bound to Imperial greatness which we may 
 indeed, in one sense, connect with its ancient glories, 
 but which, taken by itself, is the product of Kttle more 
 than one century's magnificent enterprise. 
 
 The first thing that strikes us in connection with 
 this fact is that the impulse proceeded from the people 
 themselves, the very same people who had appeared 
 to coincide with the Grovemment in the peace-policy 
 of so many years. The " fable of Captain Jenkins' 
 ear " has become a sort of synonym for the credulity 
 and political folly of the multitude. Burke himself 
 has endorsed this view ; but it is one of the points 
 on which we are not bound to follow him. He tells us 
 that ''the people were inflamed to this measure by 
 the most leading politicians, by the first orators, 
 and the greatest poets of the time" — Bolingbroke, 
 Pope, Johnson, Grlover. " It was a war of plunder."* 
 . Had Burke Hved a little further away from the 
 time of which he wrote, and thus been enabled to 
 take a larger sweep of history, he might have given a 
 difEerent verdict. There might have been much to 
 blame in detail; "Jenkins' ear" may have been a 
 fable ; but as calling forth and representing the reso- 
 lute will of the British people that they woidd no 
 longer put up with the claim of Spain to exclude 
 their commerce from South and Central America, from 
 
 * "First Letter on a Begicide Peace,'" p. 53, 
 
THE POPULAR INSTINCT. 217 
 
 the Pacific Ocean, from the islands of the East and 
 West Indies, the cry had a most profound significance, 
 as well as a serious justification. Like the Sacheverel 
 Riots, which, however disgraceful, proclaimed the 
 settled will of the English people to support Church 
 and Queen ; like the Grordon Riots, which, still more 
 disgraceful as they were, yet represented the resolu- 
 tion of the English and Scotch to protect the 
 existing Protestant safeguards, — so the cry for war 
 with Spain, which Walpole obstructed, decried, and 
 then meanly adopted, with ruinous consequences to 
 himself, was no idle ofEspring of misplaced sentiment 
 or criminal covetousness. It was the result of a pro- 
 found instinct and steady conviction, which made 
 way against all obstacles, and deserved to open up 
 the path, as it did, to immense issues. 
 
 It was not known till some time afterwards 
 how entirely this warlike impulse was justified 
 by the secret existence of the above-mentioned 
 Treaty, * the precursor of the more famous 
 Family Compact, by which the Bourbons aimed 
 at nothing less than the destruction of their 
 ancient foe. The popular instinct anticipated 
 and divined the great political secret, refused to 
 be hoodwinked by diplomatic subtleties, formed 
 its judgment as to the real meaning of high- 
 handed proceedings by the tone of studied insult 
 and neglect which it observed in foreign Courts, 
 
 * See Ranke's " Histoiy of England," Oxford Edition, t., pp. 397, 398. 
 This Family Compact of 1733 was tlie first of a series. 
 
218 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 took the matter into its own hands, and never 
 rested till it found at last a Grovernment which 
 understood what was due to the dignity of a 
 great country, and showed itself capable of effec- 
 tually supporting that position. 
 
 On this point, where so many have erred by 
 blindly following authority instead of exercising a 
 little independent criticism, we find, as we might 
 expect, a solid judgment in the pages of the great 
 Grerman historian of England. " The fall of 
 Walpole," says Ranke, "was not the fall of an 
 ordinary Minister, but the fall of the political 
 system based on the first union of the House of 
 Hanover with the Regent of France. It was a 
 return to the policy which had at that time been 
 abandoned — the policy of war against France and 
 the Bourbon interest in Europe ; and that at a 
 moment when these had the upper hand both by 
 land and sea." * 
 
 It is essential to this survey to observe that 
 the Bourbons, under the crafty guidance of one 
 of the ablest Ministers ever known in Europe, 
 had added to Spain and the Indies, not only 
 Lorraine, but South Italy. The two peninsulas 
 of Italy and Spain, commanding the whole Medi- 
 terranean, which it had been the determined 
 policy of Great Britain for so many years to 
 keep in separate hands, were now practically in the 
 same. The Partition Treaties of William, the 
 
 * " History of England," Oxford Edition, Vol. t. p. 405. 
 
THE WESTERN QUESTION. 219 
 
 sanguinary wars of William and Anne, the famous 
 Treaties which ensued upon those wars, had failed 
 at last on this cardinal point. If in the Mediter- 
 ranean the Eastern Question of to-day is vital for 
 England, how much more was the Western Ques- 
 tion of the last century! France, great enough 
 before, was now at last enabled to present a secure 
 front on the German side; the Bourbons, on her 
 throne and on those of satellite kingdoms, were in 
 possession of realms as boundless as those of Charles 
 the Fifth. The Mediterranean was becoming a 
 French lake. Louis Quatorze had never attained 
 such a position. This mighty force was about to 
 be put forth against what the British people 
 fondly believed, — and events have proved that they 
 were not wrong, — to be the last home of freedom, 
 against the country which, as Burke says, William 
 had once taught to regard herself as " the arbitress 
 of Europe, as the tutelary angel of the human 
 race." * 
 
 Nothing more need be said on this part of the 
 subject, suggestive as it is in many directions. 
 The conviction that England was called upon to 
 act with the utmost vigour and resolution, if she 
 would not only develop her industry but save the 
 priceless jewel of her independence, was righteous 
 and wise ; but what a melancholy picture does the 
 history of the next few years present ! Now was 
 discovered the inherent weakness for foreign policy 
 
 * " First Letter on a Regicide Peace,'' p. 62. 
 
220 IMPERIAL ENQLANB. 
 
 of the system under which the country had been 
 governed — necessarily, as we have seen, but un- 
 fortunately governed — for so many years. The 
 supreme place which had been occupied by Wal- 
 pole, almost as if by birthright, could be filled by 
 no one else,* for he had kept the reins in his own 
 hands for a whole generation. Pulteney and Car- 
 teret, the ablest of men, the Pelhams, by no me'ans 
 the least dexterous, only made themselves con- 
 spicuous by their ignominious failure. The open 
 corruption of members of Parliament disclosed its 
 features in a far more hideous form when the pro- 
 cess was carried forward by men trained in Walpole's 
 school without having caught the consummate state- 
 craft of their master. But thus only could it have 
 been brought to the bar of public opinion, and finally 
 suppressed. 
 
 Further, the extreme jealousy of a standing army 
 entertained by the people, under the memory of the 
 times of James II. and William, had kept the numbers 
 of our troops beneath even the low standard neces- 
 sary for domestic order, and far below what was 
 required for dealing with a Jacobite rebellion. The 
 Navy, then as ever in English history, the theoretical 
 bulwark of the land, had been so starved and 
 pinched that officers dared not run the necessary 
 risks of battle for fear of losing the ships which thef e 
 were no funds to replace. The obligation under 
 which the country thus found itself involved to employ 
 foreign troops to do the work which should have been 
 
LOSS OF WARLIKE SPIRIT. 221 
 
 done by itself, produced still further demoralization. 
 To read at this interval of time the fierce denuncia- 
 tions which rang throughout the land, of the Hano- 
 verian and Hessian levies which fought the English 
 battles and protected English shores, one would have 
 supposed that the people were only too willing to enlist 
 in the service which excited such clamour. We find 
 nothing of the kind. Turbulent and riotous indeed 
 they were, and that to an extent scarcely ever 
 before known ; but the soldier-spirit seemed to be 
 lost and gone. Something, no doubt, is to be at- 
 tributed, in the Eebellion of 1745, to the absence 
 of public interest in the Succession ; but it is 
 utterly impossible to ascribe the disgraceful attitude 
 of the country during that period solely to the in- 
 difference of the people. It must indeed be ad- 
 mitted that there was nothing in the treatment of 
 the soldiers and sailors which was likely to give 
 much encouragement to men who might have been 
 tempted to fill the ranks. 
 
 The officers were little better. Their efEeminacy 
 was proverbial : it was a joke. Mrs. Montagu, then 
 Miss Eobinson, a most intelligent critic, writing in 
 1741, playfully says: — 
 
 " How do our scarlet beaux like tliis scheme of going abroad 1 
 Do the pretty creatures who mind no other thing but the ladies 
 and the king, like to leave the drawing-room and the ridotto, for 
 camp and trenches ? Should the chance of war bring a slovenly, 
 unhandsome corpse betwixt the wind and their nobility, can they 
 abide it ] Dare they behold friends dead and enemies living 1 
 I think they will die of a panic and save their enemies; powder. 
 
222 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 Well, they are proper gentlemen. Heaven defend the nunneries ! 
 As for the garrisons, they will be safe enough ! " * 
 
 Another letter of hers, from London, in 1745, 
 affords a painful indication of the rotten state of 
 society : — 
 
 " People of the greatest rank here have been endeavouring 
 to take the utmost advantage of the unhappy state of their country, 
 and have sold the assistance it was their duty to give. Self- 
 interest has taken such firm possession of every breast that not 
 any threatening calamity can banish it in the smallest instance. 
 It is terrible to see people afraid to trust each other on this 
 occasion : everything is turned to a job, and money given for the 
 general good is converted too much to private use."t 
 
 Yet there were numerous indications that the 
 old spirit was not extinct. Only two years after 
 the "scarlet beaux" were aroused by the notes of 
 war, they showed much more of the ancient English 
 valour at the Battle of Dettingen than their enemies 
 liked ; and in the very year when the people at 
 home flinched from a handful of savage Highlanders, 
 their little army abroad astonished the whole world 
 at Fontenoy. When the naval glory of England had 
 sunk so low that even a vapouring admiral like 
 Vernon was a hero, so proud were the people of 
 him, that Mrs. Montagu reports how " all the ladies 
 in Suffolk give place to Mrs. Vernon, even those of 
 the highest rank."-;]: 
 
 It could only be by slow degrees that this good 
 material could be applied to its proper use. Many 
 
 * Mrs. Montagu's "Letters," &c., 1809, vol. i. p. 183. 
 t Ibid., vol. iii. p. 40. J Ibid., vol. ii. p. 55. 
 
DEPRESSION OF THE NATION. 223 
 
 "were the miserable failures, the doubtful successes, 
 the painful complications, through which Great Bri- 
 tain was forced to pass before her Imperial star 
 emerged from the floods. Even Pitt failed at first 
 like the rest ; for in the Seven Years' War the con- 
 flict had extended to America and India, to Africa 
 and the islands of the Pacific ; it had become a 
 struggle for life or death, and the comitry was far 
 from being properly prepared for it. Indeed, it 
 seemed at the end of eighteen years, as if the 
 English were about to sink under the weight of a 
 Coalition which they had rashly undertaken to con- 
 front. The memories of former greatness drove the 
 iron into their souls. " To a people who have once 
 been proud and great, and great because they were 
 proud, a change in the national spirit is the most 
 terrible of all revolutions." * The depression, almost 
 despair, of the nation in 1757, may be judged by the 
 following extract from a Sermon which is only 
 valuable from its entirely unconscious testimony. It 
 was preached early in 1760, when the clouds had 
 at last disappeared, and the blaze of victory, right 
 overhead, was lightening every countenance : — ■ 
 
 " The time is not long since the wisest among you thought 
 that our ruin was near at hand : the anxious inquiries after public 
 news, the despair seen in every countenance on the least mis- 
 carriage of our fleets and armies, our distrust of each other and 
 slavish dread of' the enemy, were melancholy symptoms of a 
 nation's fears ; and indeed that fear was far from being ground- 
 less. We were deeply engaged in a burdensome and expensive 
 
 * Burke's " First Letter on a Regicide Peace," p. 4. 
 
224 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 war ; a strange concurrence of accidents had left us the choice 
 of only one ally [Frederick the Great], whom all the world, unac- 
 quainted with the resources of his genius, imagined must soon 
 fall an easy prey to his numerous enemies ; every attempt we 
 made for the recovery of our possessions in America, so unjustly 
 torn from us, was shamefully defeated ; our army in Europe 
 returned home from an ill-planned and ill-executed expedition 
 with signal disgrace, and our fleet was inactive from a supposed 
 neglect. Then at home affairs were, if possible, in a still worse 
 condition ; a general dissatisfaction at the Ministry, unhappy 
 quarrels and contentions for power among the great, supplies 
 raised with murmurs, and paid slowly with sullenness ; and, to 
 complete all our unhappiness, the poorer sort of people through- 
 out the whole kingdom were feeling the quick approaches of what 
 may not improperly be called a general famine, raised and con- 
 tinued, as there is but too much reason to believe, by the arts of 
 avaricious wretches, who wanted to make a price of the miseries 
 of their fellow-creatures. . . . The merciful goodness of God 
 has now given us blessings directly opposite to every one of 
 these calamities. ... I offer to your compassion two public- 
 spirited charities lately set on foot, which seem more particularly 
 adapted to the solemnity of this fast ; I mean the clothing of the 
 unhappy French prisoners, victims to their prince's merciless 
 ambition, and contributing all in our power to the necessities and 
 distresses of our brave countrymen abroad." * 
 
 The contrast presented in this sermon must have 
 been indeed striking. Since the annus mirabilis, the 
 year 1706, when Marlborough and Eugene, Peter- 
 borough and Galway, brought the Bourbons on their 
 knees, no such triumphs had roused the spirits of 
 the British people as distinguished the year 1759. 
 It was, perhaps, the most glorious the country ever 
 
 * Sermon by the Kev. John Burrows, B.D., Oxon., afterwards 
 Rector of St. Clement Danes, Ohristchurch, Southwark, and Hadley, Mid- 
 dlesex. It was probably preached at St. Aim's, Soho, at which church 
 he held about this time the Morning Preachership. 
 
FORMATION OF TEE EMPIRE. 225 
 
 witnessed. Under Pitt's leadership the British flag 
 flew triumphant in every quarter of the globe. Hawke, 
 Wolfe, Boscawen, Amherst, added victory to victory. 
 British and Hanoverian troops at the Battle of 
 Minden saved the failing cause of Frederick the 
 Great. Canada, completely delivered from the 
 French, became a British possession ; and with it, 
 as none could doubt, came all North America. A 
 Continent was won for the British race when Wolfe 
 fell in the arras of victory. The conquests of Clive 
 in Bengal had been extended to the Carnatic, and 
 all India lay at his feet. In East and West the 
 rivalry of any and all European nations with the 
 British people was apparently for ever at an end. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 From the position thus attained at the close of 
 the reign of George the Second, Great Britain has 
 never receded ; but in spite of occasional, most useful, 
 checks, made further and further advance. In at- 
 tempting to account for the marvellous change 
 which came over the British Islands, it has been 
 said already that we ought not to be satisfied 
 with referring it to the genius of any one, two, or 
 three men. PerhajDS we shall proceed best if, in 
 the search for deeper causes, we begin with re- 
 counting the obstacles which had been surmounted. 
 
 The first of these obstacles was removed by the 
 Battle of CuUoden. It was not till the Jacobite 
 
226 IMPERIAL ENGLAKD. 
 
 spirit of tlie nation, whicli had paralysed ita foreign 
 policy, and necessitated an unpopular, and in itself 
 unworthy, treatment of affairs both in Church and 
 State, had been absolutely crushed, that any better 
 government than Walpole's became at all possible ; 
 and even then only by slow degrees. It was easy 
 to treat the "Patriots" with scorn as long as the 
 hard, practical necessity of staving off, or keeping 
 down, a rising in favour of the Pretender, was the 
 one obvious condition of government. And for some 
 years after the Rebellion, — ^who could say that it was 
 safe to disregard those glowing embers, while occa- 
 sional elections, even as late as the celebrated 
 Oxfordshire contest in 1754, turned upon a desperate 
 struggle between Whigs and Jacobites, the " New 
 Interest" and the "Old Interest;" and while the 
 Pretender was able to visit London incognito, as he 
 did in 1750, without betrayal ? Can we unsparingly 
 condemn the King and Ministers, who were still 
 forced to find safety in bribing Members of Parlia- 
 ment, when even Pitt found himself obliged to wink 
 at the practice, and to leave the dirty work to be 
 done by the well-accustomed hands of Newcastle? 
 At last, however, Jacobitism had disappeared, leaving 
 nothing but a certain vain sentiment behind; and a 
 united English people rallied round their leaders. 
 
 Along with a united English people were now 
 marshalled, shoulder to shoulder, their' ancient rivals 
 and enemies, the Scotch. No more important effect 
 ensued upon the ruin of the Pretender's cause. The 
 
800TLANB ANB IRELAND. 227 
 
 Union between the two countries, which was the 
 glory of Queen Anne's reign, had done much ; but 
 they were never really united till the Battle of Cul- 
 loden extinguished the practical independence of 
 the Highlands. Now at last, in mountain and plain 
 alike, the law reigned supreme, and the power of 
 the feudal chiefs was abolished. Now at last these 
 gallant savages were disarmed, and what they felt 
 at first far more, disrobed of their picturesque attire. 
 From this time forth they fairly set out with charac- 
 teristic energy upon that race of education and civili- 
 sation on which their Lowland brethren had already 
 •started, and in which the Scotch people have out- 
 stripped all competitors. They were soon to find 
 themselves among the foremost ranks of the British 
 forces, when the genius of Chatham called forth their 
 warlike spirit into a legitimate channel, by enlisting 
 them as Highland regiments under Highland officers. 
 And Ireland was at this same period in a happier 
 condition through the splendid administration of 
 Lord Chesterfield. At a critical moment of British 
 history another obstacle to its progress was at 
 least partially removed by his means. Nor did the 
 effects of his admirable measures, which kept Ireland 
 so quiet during the Eebellion of 1745 that troops 
 quartered there were spared for the English emer- 
 gency, pass away with his period of office. "We 
 cannot but connect it with the subsequent rapid 
 increase in the value of Irish land, and the eagerness 
 with which tenants now sought to obtain leases at 
 
228 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 largely increased rates. Thus agriculture began to 
 supply in some degree the void which English jealousy 
 had created in the trade and commerce of the sister 
 island; and when, after some years, this immediate 
 source of jjrosperity received a check, a compensation 
 was found in the general reclamation of bog and 
 waste lands, and in a course of general improvement 
 to which the troubles of the latter part of the century 
 alone brought a cruel and too-prolonged suspension. 
 
 If it is suggested that Chesterfield's administration 
 was too short to produce such results, arguments in 
 favour of the view expressed above will not be want- 
 ing to those who consider that he was the first Lord-- 
 Lieutenant, since the subjugation of the island by 
 William, to treat the Roman Catholics with thorough 
 confidence, to introduce order and economy into Irish 
 finance, to encourage Irish science, and to seek out 
 and employ merit without reference to interest. 
 Thus, to quote the words of an Address presented 
 to him during the height of the Rebellion in England 
 and Scotland; — "Ireland enjoyed a serenity un- 
 known to the greatest part of Europe ; " and we are 
 told that when he left the country " he was attended 
 to the shore by persons of all ranks, denominations, 
 and religions, by the universal acclamations of the 
 people, who praised him, blessed him, and entreated 
 him to return." The success of this unwonted 
 policy was purchased, not by the depression of the 
 Protestants, whose associations for the defence of the 
 island received his earnest encouragement ; still less 
 
TEE COURT. 229 
 
 by the neglect of efficient preparations for soldierly 
 defence, if the wave of Jacobitism should break upon 
 his shore. This mixture of firmness and conciliation 
 produced one happy moment for Ireland; — " Religion 
 became what it ought to be — a bond of union, instead 
 of an instrument of discord ; superstition was en- 
 lightened, fanaticism disarmed." * 
 
 To the general basis of strength afforded by the 
 united action of the tlu-ee Kingdoms, accomplished for 
 the first time in the course of so many ages, may be 
 added another element — the cessation of the bitter, 
 continuous strife of which the Court of Frederick 
 Prince of Wales had been the centre. That most 
 unamiable member of the whole Royal Family 
 died in 1751, and with him the chief disturbing 
 factor in English politics. The terrible quarrels 
 between him and his parents (not by any means 
 his fault alone) were demoralising and disastrous ; 
 their efBects spread throughout society. It was 
 indeed by no means wholly undesii-able that the 
 political discontents raised by Walpole and his suc- 
 cessors, under their narrow, exclusive system, should 
 find, during the abeyance of Party-government, a 
 focus at the Prince's Court. It was only by some such 
 rude substitute that the Constitution could be gradu- 
 ally brought back into working order. It was under 
 this very shelter that Bolingbroke propagated those 
 political ideas which were soon to bear such whole- 
 some fruit. But the indirect usefulness had come to 
 
 * Maty's " Chesterfield," Vol. I., pp. 150-168. 
 
230 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 an end, and the direct miscHef largely predominated. 
 Never has a kind Providence more happily interposed 
 for England than when this prince was removed, 
 and the young boy of twelve left in his place, to 
 imbibe religious and political influences which were 
 to prove in affer time of inestimable value to his 
 country. 
 
 The obstacles to national development being thus 
 cleared away, what were the positive causes to which 
 we may trace the onward movement ? We shall not 
 be far wrong if we assign a high place to the growing 
 confidence of the nation in King George the Second. 
 And here we are on tender ground. So violent has been 
 the feeling propagated by the popular writers of the 
 last fifty years against the earlier Hanoverian Sove- 
 reigns that it requires no little courage to say a word 
 in their favour. Even the most moderate recognition 
 of their merits runs a risk of being misunderstood. 
 But there are two Courts of Appeal in this case, 
 which, if not Final Courts, at least deserve respect. 
 We may find a very different estimate from that 
 which now prevails if we turn to the contemporary 
 writers ; and we shall be confirmed in our appeal to 
 them by the judgment of the great German historian 
 to whom reference has been already made. 
 
 In the present sketch George the First scarcely 
 comes under review, and need only be noticed because 
 he has suffered exactly the same hard fate as his son. 
 It must have appeared strange to many readers that 
 Eanke should dwell with great emphasis on the merits 
 
MERITS OF GBOBGE TEE FIB8T. 231 
 
 of this King ; but if we can rid ourselves for a moment 
 of the vision of an ogre conjured up for us by 
 his ungainly figure, his ugly mistresses — (it would 
 seem this royal vice might have been pardoned had 
 the ladies only been handsome) — his rapacious 
 German Court, his ignorance of English, and his 
 unfeigned delight when he could turn his steps once 
 more to his beloved Hanover ; if we could pass judg- 
 ment on his immorality with the common fairness 
 required by the consideration that amongst kings, 
 princes, and nobles of that date, including our own, it 
 was all but universal, we should not find it difficult to 
 understand the historical position of George the First. 
 In Ranke's pages we shall perceive that he receives his 
 due meed of praise for having — in spite of that strong 
 inclination to absolute rule which caused his sagacious 
 mother, the Electress Sophia, to doubt his capacity for 
 governing England — taken up at once, and unwaver^ 
 ingly maintained, his proper place as a Constitutional 
 Sovereign. We shall find that, in spite of his affec- 
 tion for Hanover, the profound, enthusiastic devotion 
 of whose people to him must ever be an honourable 
 testimony to his merits, he "never subordinated 
 British politics to his own." We shall see that he 
 rendered the most essential service to his adopted 
 country by his personal influence over Holland, at 
 that time all-important, and estabHshed a more 
 beneficial connection with the Continent than even 
 William the Third. We shall duly note that he, 
 German as he was, entirely represented what even 
 
232 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 the more sensible of the Jacobites admitted to 
 be the true English interest, viz., "to keep the 
 Pretender at a distance, and to combat the Powers 
 which supported him." We are little able at this 
 interval of time to measure the value to the British 
 Constitution and the national independence which was 
 represented by the sovereignty of a prince who, as 
 our own excellent historian, Coxe, says, combined a 
 genuine love of peace with well-proved skill and 
 courage in war, and who brought to his elevated post 
 plain manners, simplicity of character, benignity of 
 temper, habits of economy, punctuaHty, and applica- 
 tion to business.* And many a later historian, not so 
 favourably inclined, has admitted that his conduct 
 was upright and honourable, and has remarked on the 
 steadiness of his friendships, and on his habit of forgiv- 
 ing injuries. His merits certainly justified William in 
 selecting him as his eventual successor, though far 
 down on the roll of descent, f and no less did they 
 reward the sagacity of the people who honourably 
 accepted him, foreigner, and therefore distasteful, as 
 he was. A hundred years of foreign masters, observes 
 Lord Stanhope,! was the inevitable result of the Civil 
 Wars of the Seventeenth Century — themselves, we 
 may add, the resiilt of the errors of the Stuart Sove- 
 reigns. 
 
 A very similar mixture of good and bad will be 
 
 * Ooxe's " Walpole," Vol. I., p. 67. 
 
 t At about the period of the Peace of Utrecht he was fifty-eighth on 
 the roll. 
 
 + " History of England," Vol. I., p. 100. 
 
ESTIMATE OF GEORGE THE SECOND. 233 
 
 found in any true view of the character of Greorge the 
 Second. Brought up in the same loose school of 
 morality as his father, with an appearance and 
 manner still more open to ridicule, and with habits 
 of economy which passed for avarice, the best his- 
 torians yet assign him the praise of courage, honoiu-, 
 and veracity, justice, temperance, and habits of 
 business — a catalogue which at least embraces the 
 cardinal virtues of the heathen : and it has been 
 justly said of him, that he never throughout his 
 reign " once invaded the rights of the nation, or 
 harshly enforced the Prerogative of the Crown."* 
 It is true, as his Chamberlain, Lord Hervey, states, 
 that " he was often told in Parliament and in 
 print that his crown was the gift of the people, and 
 on conditions, and that if he broke any of them 
 the gift would be resumed."! But this does not 
 diminish his merit in restraining within due bounds 
 a spirit as vigorous, and a courage as clear as those 
 of any of his most illustrious predecessors. 
 
 And while on this point we may observe that it is 
 capable of proof that the present low estimate of 
 Greorge the Second's character is very much due to 
 the circulation of two contemporary private Memoirs, 
 kept secret for generations, and only brought to light 
 in our own day, when it was not easy, even if the in- 
 clination had existed, to balance the impression they 
 produced. Horace Walpole and Lord Hervey were 
 
 * Lord Stanhope's " History of England," Vol. II., p. 113. 
 t " Memoirs of the Reign of George II.," Vol. I., p. 320. 
 
234 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 clever and accomplislied men, who had access to 
 excellent sources of information, and were indeed, 
 especially" the latter, verj much behind the scenes. 
 This generation has learnt much from them, but 
 scarcely digested its learning. Sufficient allowance 
 has not been made for the spirit which actuated both 
 of these men in different degrees — the cold, carping, 
 C}Tiical, effeminate, gossiping, character of both 
 writers, themselves no better than those against whom 
 they let fly the shafts of ridicule ; people forget, in 
 their delight at finding out that the vices and weak- 
 nesses of poor human nature are shared to the full by 
 the greatest people, that no one is a hero in the eyes 
 of his valet de chamhre. Whose character would stand 
 the test of hostile criticism from those admitted to 
 perfect intimacy, noting down hour by hour all 
 defects, and transmitting them, safely bottled up, to a 
 posterity which had lost all knowledge of the other 
 side of the picture ? The old-fashioned reverence for 
 the Crown had its peculiar dangers; but they are 
 scarcely so great as those which arise from the 
 temptation to turn everything into ridicule belonging 
 to those who hold positions of rank and influence. 
 
 It has been remarked that little countenance will 
 be found for this low view of the early Sovereigns 
 of the House of Hanover in the Memoirs and writings 
 of contemporaries published at or near those times. 
 It may be sufficient here to quote two of them. Here 
 is Burke's estimate, published only ten years after the 
 death of the old King : 
 
BURKE ON THE GEOnGES.' 235 
 
 " In times of doubt and danger to Ms person and family, George the 
 Second maintained the dignity of the crown, connected with the liberty 
 of Ms people, not only unimpaired, but improved, for the space of 
 thirty-three years. He overcame a dangerous rebellion, abetted by 
 foreign force, and raging in the heart of his kingdoms; and thereby de- 
 stroyed the seeds of all future rebellions that could arise upon the same 
 principle. He carried the glory, the power, the commerce of England 
 to a height unknown even to this renowned nation in the times of its 
 greatest prosperity ; and he left his Succession resting on the true 
 and only foundations of all national and all regal greatness — -affection 
 at home, reputation abroad, trust in allies, terror in rival nations. 
 The most ardent lover of his country cannot wish for Great Britain 
 a happier fate than to continue as she was then left." * 
 
 If Burke is suspected of giving the rein to his 
 rhetoric, let us hear Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, " the 
 English Dacier," whom even Dr. Johnson admitted 
 to be learned and wise beyond the reach of his 
 criticism, and who uses the following language: — 
 
 "The three kings of the Hanoverian line, George the Fii-st, 
 Second, and Third, are the three best monarchs that ever sat in 
 succession upon the throne of England." + 
 
 It was not, however, during the Administration of 
 Walpole that the people learnt to place confidence 
 in their King, or to feel affection for his person. 
 During the lifetime of their favourite. Queen Caro- 
 line, she was regarded as the virtual ruler ; and 
 Walpole was himself almost a king. The unpopu- 
 larity of the policy towards Hanover clouded the rela- 
 tions between the crown and the nation ; the military 
 tastes of "the Captain" were looked upon as ludicrous 
 
 * " Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents/' Yol. I., p. 20. 
 t " Memoirs," Yol. I., p. 431. 
 
236 IMPEBIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 rhodomontade. It was not till George at last found 
 the opportunity, for which he had long panted, 
 to show his brilliant courage at Dettingen — not till 
 he had at last inspired the people with something of 
 his own spirit in suppressing the Rebellion of 1745, 
 that they begafl to understand that they had a leader 
 who, on one side at least of the British character, 
 worthily represented them. Whatever mistakes he 
 made after this, whatever the complications of 
 government which ensued in the interval between 
 Walpole and Pitt, whatever the disappointments of 
 j)olicy and disasters in arms, one thing remained — 
 the dauntless front shown by the King in the en- 
 couraging support he invariably gave to those who 
 exhibited military skill and courage, in the unwaver- 
 ing identification of himself with the nation in the 
 Imperial movement now commenced. 
 
 The King's subjects even learnt to be ashamed 
 of the charge of parsimony so long preferred 
 against their sovereign, when, at the close of his 
 reign, they found that he had poured the whole 
 savings of his life, saved for an evil day, two mil- 
 lions and a half of money, into the cofEers of his 
 beloved Hanover. Thus only could it be redeemed 
 from what seemed its final absorption within the 
 domains of its many enemies. If he was long in 
 overcoming the hostility which had sprung up be- 
 tween himself and Pitt, the necessary consequence 
 of the complicated, factious struggles of the period, 
 he proved himself nobly capable of trusting and 
 
THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 237 
 
 supporting him when the time of his triumph had 
 at last arrived, and the nation with one yoice sum- 
 moned " the Grreat Commoner" to the head of affairs. 
 And the English people themselves, these busy, 
 calculating shopkeepers, these turbulent mobs, these 
 "bleating" gentry, as Greorge Herbert called them 
 at a still earlier date — by what sort of training had 
 they once more convinced the world that they were 
 come of an Imperial stock ? Already Goldsmith had 
 sketched them with the pen of genius in the somewhat 
 boastful lines, once well known, now too much for- 
 gotten : — 
 
 " Stern o'er each bosom Reason holds her state, 
 With daring aims irregularly great, 
 Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, 
 I see the lords of human kind pass by ; 
 Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band. 
 By forms unfashioned, fresh from Nature's hand, 
 Fierce in their native hardihood of soul. 
 True to imagined right, above control. 
 While even the peasant boasts these rights to scan. 
 And learns to venerate himself as man." * 
 
 It would be easy to show at length that the j)eople 
 were undergoing an education at home and abroad 
 peculiarly suited to produce this result. The merest 
 summary must here suffice. And first on the political 
 side. 
 
 By the middle of the centmy a marked im- 
 provement in the political condition of the country 
 may be observed, owing chiefly to the decline 
 of Jacobitism, but very largely also to Boling- 
 
 * "The Traveller; "written circa 1755; published 1765. 
 
238 IMPERIAL UNGLANB. 
 
 broke's literary activity. Excluded from Parlia- 
 ment, and fortunately thus reduced to serve his 
 country only with his pen, his influence in extend- 
 ing a more wholesome idea of the Constitution 
 than had hitherto been entertained there can 
 be no doubt was very great. Though impeded 
 by extravagances and personalities, the extraordiaary 
 gifts, the penetrating style of that brilliant politician 
 made their way through every obstacle, and lent 
 their colour to the age. Pitt was more the child 
 of BoHngbroke than he himself knew; the revival 
 of government by Party as we now know it, was 
 chiefly the handiwork of the man whose " Patriot 
 King " was to govern irrespective of Party. Con- 
 tests at elections began to excite a deeper interest 
 as men awoke to a higher sense of duty, and they 
 were based on higher grounds than before. Pitt's 
 magnificent speeches were, year after year, step by 
 step, elevating the moral tone of Parliament and 
 the people. How great an effect he produced when, 
 in 1754, he descended in all his dignity from the 
 gallery of the House, sternly rebuked young Delaval 
 for ridiculing the idea of squeamishness on the sub- 
 ject of bribery, and, amidst the dead silence of the 
 terrified members, thundered forth to the Speaker 
 that the time had come when he must intervene 
 to save the ruined character of Parliament, or "we 
 shall only sit," said he, "to register the arbitrary 
 edicts of one too powerful subject " ! * 
 
 * Walpole's " Memoirs of the Reign of George II.," Vol. I., p. 354 
 
POLITICAL EDUCATION OF ENGLAND. 239 
 
 What is still more to the present purpose, re- 
 ports of debates now found their way, irregularly, 
 to the public ; and thus the HouSe of Commons 
 began at last to take in some degree its modern 
 place as the representative of the popular will. The 
 Press was making a rapid advance, and the growth 
 of political earnestness taught the people to under- 
 stand their strength, and to resolve that misgovern- 
 ment should come to an end. The pertinacity 
 with which they clung to the great man who was 
 educating them to a higher moral tone is almost 
 affecting to contemplate ; for the natural balance 
 of the Constitution had long been out of order, 
 and personal trust was the only way of escape. 
 Party-government had been in suspension for half 
 a century; it was yet to require the stern dis- 
 cipline of many years before it could recover a 
 healthy condition. But the men of the , future were 
 forming under a freer atmosphere ; and it is impor- 
 tant to observe that the revival of a regular p^rty 
 of Grovernment and a regular party of Opposition 
 took place under those new Imperial conditions 
 which distinguished the middle and later part of 
 the century from its earlier portion. The treatment 
 of the Colonies began to exercise the political mind 
 of England, and to range on either side opinions 
 which had hitherto found little expression except in 
 relation to domestic matters. Above all, the rapid 
 progress of Indian conquest excited the imagination 
 much as, in the days of Elizabeth, the romantic and 
 
240 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 cHvalroTis aspect of affairs by sea and land en- 
 larged the ideas, and promoted the enterprise, of so 
 many gallant Englishmen. If we cherish the memory 
 of the great Minister, who must indeed ever be the 
 central figure of the century, we must remember 
 also the growing grandeur of the people on whose 
 shoulders he rose to power. 
 
 Nor must we omit to notice that other element 
 which was by this time beginning to elevate the 
 popular character, the growing sense of religion. In 
 this respect also a whole generation had disastrously 
 suffered by the disputed Succession to the throne. 
 The Church of England, torn to pieces by political 
 struggles, had been punished, silenced, bribed, con- 
 trolled with a high hand ; the very life was in danger 
 of being crushed out of it; the people, at least in 
 the larger towns, were relapsing into contemptuous 
 indifference, the educated classes into infidelity. Blow 
 upon blow had been struck against the Christian Faith 
 itself. Even as late as 1751, Bishop Butler, in his 
 Primary Charge, laments the " general decay of re- 
 ligion in the nation," and that " the number of those 
 who profess themselves unbelievers increases." Four 
 years earlier, believing it too late to save the Church 
 of England, he had refused the Primacy. But the 
 good Bishop was not himself aware of the enormous 
 effect which, even while he wrote, was being pro- 
 duced by his own immortal work. He in 1736, and 
 Lardner from 1727 to 1743, had been the real instru- 
 ments in stemming the tide of cultivated scepticism ; 
 
RELIGIOUS BFA'IVAL. 241 
 
 they had challenged all comers in a manner previously 
 unknown to English literature; a host of followers 
 were ranging themselves by their side ; and the noise 
 of controversy, which the Bishop supposed to be 
 an " increase " of opponents, was but the simidated 
 confidence of a beaten party. When Bolingbroke's 
 philosophical attack on Christianity came out after 
 his death, in 1753, it fell perfectly flat. Hume 
 failed to revive the strength of the party. The 
 battle had been won. 
 
 Almost at the very same moment when Butler 
 and Lardner were raising their effective defence, the 
 Methodist movement commenced its extraordinary 
 career. By the middle of the century it had done 
 much to restore religion among the masses ; it had 
 exercised a considerable influence on the classes above 
 the lowest ; it was beginning to rouse the clergy 
 of the Chm-ch to wholesome rivalry. In conjunction 
 with the intellectual movement in defence of the 
 Christian Evidences, which had once more restored 
 them to their proper place in the educated mind 
 of the country, this movement had made it im- 
 possible to say of England, as Montesquieu reported 
 after his visit in 1730, that there was no religion 
 in the land. 
 
 As a matter of com^se the morals of the popula- 
 tion began to improve vnth the sense of the Unseen 
 which had been once more recovered. The nation 
 began to regain self-respect. One proof of this 
 improved moral sense may be traced in Lord 
 Q 
 
242 IMPERIAL BNGLANB. 
 
 Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753, which put an 
 end to several shocking abuses, amidst the sneers 
 and the hostility of such men as Horace Walpole, 
 who had not marched with the age. Philanthropists, 
 like Oglethorpe, had already attacked the foul 
 treatment of prisoners, and ameliorated the laws 
 with respect to debtors. The worst haunts of vice 
 began to receive attention from the Government. 
 The vile neglect of English soldiers and sailors re- 
 ceived some slight mitigation — slight indeed, as yet. 
 More and more we find good men and women start- 
 ing up in this place and that, with a mission to 
 relieve the dark aspect of English humanity. A 
 growing jaublic opinion opened men's eyes to see 
 that evils which custom had made familiar were 
 no longer tolerable. 
 
 And in the literature of the period we may 
 see the reflection of these influences. Poets like 
 Young, philosophers like Dr. Johnson, leaders of 
 literary society like Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Montagu, 
 slowly but surely brought religion into fashion. 
 If the great historical writings of that age betrayed 
 the lingering spirit of an earlier time, they at 
 least, with astonishing effect, set people on reflecting 
 upon the inheritance to which they had succeeded, 
 and played no small part in the education of the 
 higher intellects. The revived taste for Shakespeare 
 and Milton, a marked feature of the time, told the 
 same tale. In a word, civilisation, the fi'uit of many 
 a good seed^ was steadily making its way through all 
 
MOBAL IMPBOYEMENT. 243 
 
 obstacles ; the rich soil of the British nation was at 
 last beginning to bring forth the crop for which the 
 cultivation of so many ages had prepared it. In 
 a righteous cause it was capable of any sacrifice. 
 It was a match for the world in arms. 
 
 Perhaps there is no more pleasing evidence of the 
 genuinely high tone of the people than the universal 
 burst of delight which broke forth at the Accession 
 of Greorge the Third, shared by all classes, knowing- 
 no bounds ; nor was it transitory. The satisfaction 
 of the people at finding themselves at last enabled 
 to indulge their loyalty to the full, without 
 trespassing on their sense of right and wrong, 
 carried them over every error of judgment, every 
 failure in the family of the monarch whom they 
 now considered as their very own, supported him 
 through his bitterest trials, and remains to this 
 day at the bottom of the affection for the Royal 
 Family which - the present reign has once more 
 elicited. It was thus that Grreat Britain has, alone 
 among the nations, retained that intimate union 
 of monarchical and republican institutions which 
 constitutes its peculiar strength; and if the incor- 
 porate growth of what only exists in separation 
 elsewhere is an anomaly, and from time to time 
 brings anomalies to light, it is certainly but a small 
 penalty to pay for such an inheritance. 
 
244 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 And now, if we turn from the King, the closely- 
 united Kingdom, and the training of the people, to 
 the more distllictly operative elements in the Rise 
 of the Empire, we shall find one of the principal, 
 where perhaps we should least expect it, in the 
 little Hanoverian principality, which it has been 
 so much the fashion to despise, and which has only 
 just now finally dropped out of all connection with 
 British fortunes. There was no more persistent 
 outcry for nearly two generations than this against 
 Hanover ; and it is no wonder that its echoes have 
 been repeated down to our own times — repeated,^ 
 perhaps, without much thought. For one obstinate, 
 undeniable, fact confronts even the most casual stu- 
 dent of history, characterising this whole period of 
 popular outcry, and forcing us to look at the 
 question from a larger point of view. How was 
 it that Minister after Minister, Government after 
 Government, found themselves obliged to adopt, 
 when in office, the very Hanoverian policy which, 
 when out of office, they had so vehemently 
 denounced? Out of office each one of them, 
 including Pitt himself, and he the most bitterly of 
 all, condemned this connection with Hanover as 
 the curse of the country. The wealth of England 
 was being drained out of it for the benefit of 
 foreigners ; she was being constantly dragged into 
 
HANOVERIAN INTERESTS. 245 
 
 wav.s and alliances with which she had no concern ; 
 her true interest was to guard the seas, and extend 
 her commerce, not to mix herself up with petty 
 Continental squabbles. And yet, each one in 
 turn, and Pitt with the most vigour of all, when 
 in office, found himself adopting this very policy, 
 subsidising, fighting, making treaties, mixing uj) 
 Hanoverian and English politics, just as if he had 
 never said anything to the contrary before ! 
 How was this ? 
 
 The usual reply has been that the Hanoverian 
 Sovereigns were incorrigible ; that they exercised 
 with vigour the ancient prerogative of the Crown 
 in the selection of Ministers ; that Parhament 
 was bought, the popular voice feeble ; and that 
 the country felt so strongly the need of those 
 Sovereigns in the face of Jacobite intrigues, that 
 on this one point, the only point on which they never 
 wavered, it was necessary to humour them. Is 
 this sufficient ? Certainly not. It is far from a 
 complete answer. 
 
 Without giving the Hanoverian kings credit for 
 much more than a most honourable affection for 
 their own hereditary domain, we cannot but see 
 that the possession of Hanover played so impor- 
 tant a part in that foreign policy of Great 
 Britain which led to her Imperial position, that 
 there must have been something cogently pressing 
 on the minds of its statesmen, and also something 
 deep down in the instincts of the people, which 
 
246 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 justified the curious inconsistency here noticed. So 
 large a subject cannot, of course, be fully discussed 
 in this sketch ; but the following hints may be 
 suggestive. 
 
 When the statesmen who, after the Peace of 
 Utrecht, successively came to be responsible for 
 British foreign policy, surveyed the situation from 
 the heights of office, they found that the swellings of 
 the political ocean, after the late tremendous storms, 
 were far from leaying an easy navigation. If the 
 Continent had to be carefully watched for no other 
 reason, the' network of Jacobite intrigue spread 
 amongst all the Courts of Europe demanded inces- 
 sant vigilance, and the co-operation of friendly 
 Powers. But, independently of this, there was no 
 single State which did not believe itself to have 
 been ill-treated at the Peace. This is only what 
 happens after all general pacifications. But the pecu- 
 liar circumstances attending the Peace of Utrecht, 
 made by the Tories for one set of reasons, and main- 
 tained by the Whigs for another, rendered the task 
 of keeping order unusually difficult. The Courts of 
 France and the Empire, Spain and Savoy, Russia and 
 Prussia were each of them striving to recover by art 
 what they had lost by arms, each attempting to over- 
 reach the other, whenever any fresh event gave them 
 the opportunity; each occasionally appealed to the 
 sword. This was just what England could not do, 
 at least openly and avowedly. The nation was 
 wearied with its past struggles, and yet the glories 
 
ADVANTAGES OF HANOVER. 247 
 
 of the old triumphs under Marlborough were fast 
 fading away. 
 
 These were the circumstances which made Hanover 
 an excellent centre of diplomatic operations. Like 
 the Hague in WilHam's time, and almost equally im- 
 portant with it, Hanover became the rallying-point for 
 the alliances which checked the further development of 
 Bourbon ambition, and carried with it Holland, which, 
 as an independent State, had collapsed after the wars, 
 as well as some of the petty Grerman States. These 
 central Protestant Powers, with British gold at their 
 back, and such remainder of wholesome dread as Eng- 
 land still inspired, held the balance of .Europe. That, 
 in spite of this well-chosen stronghold of diplomacy, 
 France and its outposts gained so much under Fleury's 
 auspices, is not so remarkable as that they did not 
 gain more. It was owing to the bull-dog tenacity 
 of the Anglo-Hanoverian kings, to the good sense 
 of English Ministers when they had mounted to 
 responsible posts, and to the forbearance of the 
 people to use any stronger weapons than strong 
 language in the matter, that they were able to 
 profit by an advantage which it cannot be said 
 that they understood they possessed. 
 
 It was thus that, as time rolled on, and the atti- 
 tude of watchful peace was exchanged for European 
 war. Great Britain was able to assume once more her 
 old place as the exponent or representative of Public 
 Law, at the critical moment when Maria Theresa 
 seemed to be crushed under the Coalition of her 
 
248 IMPEBIAIj ENGLAND. 
 
 greedy neighbours, and the Bourbons judged the time 
 to have arrived when they might once more dispute 
 the position of their ancient rival by land and sea. 
 It was thus, and to far greater effect, when the Seven 
 Years War broke out, that she was enabled not only 
 to pay back in kind the threats of invasion, but to 
 establish her Empire. For it must be remembered 
 that the interval between these two wars was by 
 no means one of peace. It was but an armed truce. 
 The duel was by no means fought out. The struggle 
 in India and the Colonies never ceased. The time 
 had not yet arrived when France and England could 
 hope to pursue their respective paths in honourable 
 rivalry. The alliances of the different branches of 
 the Bourbon family were no idle compliments. Their 
 conduct, both in the wars of the Austrian Succession 
 and in the Seven Years War, was precisely the same 
 as in the time of Louis Quatorze, and, as before. 
 Great Britain was the Power which stood most 
 directly in the way. It was her gold, her diplomacy, 
 her handful of intrepid soldiers, her rising public 
 spirit, which employed the energies of France on 
 her Grerman frontier, while that country was thus 
 crippled for the maritime and colonial struggle in 
 which her interest and honour were so deeply en- 
 gaged. Thus, almost without knowing it, England 
 was once more developing that consummate strategy 
 which the capacious brain of Queen Elizabeth had 
 devised, once more paralysing her uncompromis- 
 ing foes across the British Channel, while she un- 
 
JEALOUSY OF HIRED 80LDIEBS. 21>J 
 
 folded her ever-spreading wings over the habitable 
 globe. 
 
 And another operative element in the rise of 
 British greatness was connected with these German 
 politics. As long as the country was content with 
 the humiliating position of having to send for foreign 
 troops whenever it was in danger of an invasion 
 from France, or a rising at home, it remained practi- 
 cally without a militia. As the national self-respect 
 developed, such a state of things became intolerable. 
 A wholesome jealousy of the too-useful foreigners was 
 excited by their arrival, and kept alive by their 
 un-English aspect. At last it overcame the strong 
 national prejudice against the creation of a fresh 
 military force of Englishmen. Among Pitt's innu- 
 merable services few are greater than his successful 
 efforts, after many discouragements, to establish the 
 militia on what is substantially its present footing.* 
 It became not only a source of strength to the 
 Grovernment at home and its policy abroad, but 
 also a nursery for the regular soldiers. Hence- 
 forward a disposable force could be applied for the 
 defence of Continental allies or of the Colonies, with- 
 out exposure to disaster at home. It is almost in- 
 conceivable how the measure could have been so long 
 delayed. So far the country was now unimpeded 
 in its onward march. 
 
 * See Walpole's " Memoirs," Vol. I., p. 450, for the very interesting 
 _ sketch of Pitt's first Militia Bill, December, 1755. It was under Pitt's 
 auspices that George Townshend's Bill passed in 1757. 
 
250 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 Nor, even in this slight sketch, must the causes be 
 omitted which led to the modern development of the 
 British Navy. Here also, as in considering the Rise of 
 the Empire, we are in the habit of forgetting how 
 very recent a thing is this British naval supremacy. 
 The new position of the one led, no doubt, to the new 
 position of the other ; but the steps are not 'generally 
 observed. The memories of Nelson and his peers 
 eclipse everything else ; we may extend our retrospect 
 •as far back as Howe and Rodney, and by a con- 
 venient process connect these heroes of the last 
 hundred years with Drake and Blake, with Monk 
 and Sandwich, but few remember the dreary space 
 which rolls between. Few are aware how much was 
 owing to one great man, whose life has never yet 
 been written. Lord Hawke, for the emergence of the 
 navy out of the low position to which it had sunk. 
 It is not too much to say that it was that consummate 
 Admiral who gave an entirely new impulse to the 
 Service, and delivered the country from the reign 
 of too prudent or too rash officers, from the disgrace 
 of indecisive battles and disastrous failures. 
 
 In using this language it is not to be forgotten that 
 Lord Anson's name stands deservedly high for the 
 reorganisation of the Navy, which his great experience 
 and undaunted courage enabled him to effect. Still 
 less may we underrate the importance of Byng's 
 execution. Iniquitous in itself and damaging to the 
 reputation of every person concerned, not even ex- 
 cepting Pitt, who might have secured attention to his 
 
BEVELOPilENT OF THE NAVY. 2ul 
 
 wishes if he had thi-eatened to resign, — yet, in accord- 
 ance with Voltaire's jest, it must have had a certain 
 effect in teaching a lesson to naval officers. British 
 admirals must in future destroy the enemy's fleet; and 
 no reasons to the contrary were to be assigned. The 
 subsequent history of the Navy supphes the best com- 
 ment; the acquittal of Keppel in 1779 (a purely 
 political affair, and in that respect like Byng's con- 
 demnation) being the single exceptional evidence of a 
 less lofty spirit in the profession. Yet it was Hawke 
 who gave the great example, the importance of whicli 
 we cannot overrate. In every action in which he was 
 engaged, and alone responsible, he exhibited the same 
 union of brilliant courage and skilful conduct, till, in 
 1759, he performed at Quiberon the greatest feat of 
 arms in the annals of the naval service. Nelson, it is 
 true, fought a greater number of battles, and destroyed 
 a much greater number of the enemy's ships, but no 
 action of his was fought on a dangerous lee-shore in a 
 heavy gale of wind ; no navy in the world before or 
 since ever won a battle with so high a display of sea- 
 manship. It was with reason that Greorge the Second, 
 with his keen eye for military merit, dubbed him "his 
 own Captain," and that in the new reign the adminis- 
 tration of the Navy was so largely given over into 
 his hands. He formed a school ; he iinbued his pro- 
 fession with his own spirit ; and to the effects of his 
 breediiig, through but a few transmissions, we may 
 safely trace the extraordinary grandem' of the modem 
 naval history of Grreat Britain. Down to very near 
 
252 IMPERIAL ENGLAND. 
 
 our own times, the toast still lingered on in that 
 gallant Service — " May our officers have the eye of a 
 Hawke, and the heart of a Wolfe." 
 
 Our attention has been directed to those circum- 
 stances connected with the rise of the Empire which 
 generally receive the least notice in popular histories ; 
 but no sketch of it, even so slight as the present, should 
 exclude the fullest recognition which can be given of 
 the position occupied by the elder Pitt. It is a mere 
 commonplace to speak of him as the central figure 
 amongst the founders of modem British greatness, but 
 his distinction is of a still higher kind. It cannot be 
 too much insisted upon that among the many brave 
 and able men Great Britain has produced, no one else 
 so early grasped, no one else so fully understood, the 
 facts of his day which indicated the Imperial position 
 assigned to this country. His genius foresaw, his 
 genius executed the mission of England ; his genius 
 made the instruments, his genius applied them. If we 
 still glow with pride at the record of the times when 
 every month of the year was signalised by some great 
 victory, still reckoned great ; if we ask vsdth surprise 
 why the previous times had failed to elicit a Olive, a 
 Wolfe, or a Hawke, a Boscawen, an Amherst, or an 
 Albemarle, we cluster those rich memories, that fruit- 
 ful history, we cannot but cluster them, around the 
 name of Ohatham. It was that noble spirit which 
 infused itself into all the rest, and taught his country- 
 men that it was Britannia's destiny " to rule the 
 waves." Nor, though we remember also his frailties. 
 
CONCLUSION. 253 
 
 liis caprice, his arrogance, tis theatrical style, need 
 we allow these clouds to rise between us and our 
 admiration of the man whose brightness pierced 
 tlorough them all. They are made too miich of by 
 those who cannot appreciate a great man when they 
 have got him. 
 
 It has thus been attempted to trace — it must be 
 confessed, in a form too circumscribed for so great 
 a subject — the Rise of the Modern British Empire. 
 But even to have the main facts marshalled before 
 us may be of some use in the formation of correct 
 ideas. The modern phenomena will at least lose 
 none of their significance by our observing the justice 
 of the British cause. The opportune removal of 
 obstacles to national development at a supremely 
 critical period of the national history; the direct 
 action of political, social, and religious forces on the 
 people of Grreat Britain just when they were most 
 required; and the appearance on the stage at the 
 right moment of the great men who were partly 
 the product of these forces, partly the causes of the 
 remarkable results which have been passed in review, 
 will suggest matter for reflection on the past which 
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