The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860

during Pitt's too short lifetime, the Indian government was engaged, came under his description of wars which were justifiable on the ground of self-defence-wars undertaken for the preservation of what had been previously won or purchased, rather than for the acquisition of new territories at the expense of chiefs who had given us no provocation. But for others, though professedly undertaken with a view only of anticipating hostile intentions, the development of which might possibly be reserved for a distant future, it is not easy to find a similar justification; and it may be feared that in more than one case governors-general, conscious of great abilities, have been too much inclined to adopt the pernicious maxim of Louis XIV., that the aggrandizement and extension of his dominions is the noblest object which a ruler of nations can have in view. Yet, though unable on strictly moral grounds to justify all the warlike enterprises which make up so large a part of our subsequent Indian history, it is impossible, probably, for even the most rigid moralist to avoid some feelings of national pride in the genius of our countrymen, who in the short space of a single century have built up an empire of a magnitude unequalled even by the Caesars, and have governed and still are governing it in so wise and beneficent a spirit, and with such a display of administrative capacity, that our rule is recognized as a blessing by the great majority of the nations themselves, as a protection from ceaseless intestine war, from rapine, and that worst of tyrannies, anarchy, which was their normal condition before Clive established our supremacy at Plassy, and into which they would surely and speedily fall back, if our controlling authority were to be withdrawn.

India was not the only British settlement for which the growth of our empire compelled Pitt to devise a constitution. The year which saw his birth had also seen the conquest of Canada from the French; and in 1774 a system of government for the new province had been established which it is sufficient here to describe as one, which differed but little from a pure despotism, the administration being vested in a governor and Legislative Council, every member of which was to be nominated by the crown. But the working of this act had from the first proved very unsatisfactory, and had become more so as the population increased by the influx of fresh settlers from Great Britain, and also from the United States, here many of those who in the recent civil war had adhered the connection with the mother country had been exposed to constant malice and ill-treatment, and had preferred crossing the border and obtaining lands in Canada to returning to England. Pitt recognized the evil, and undertook to remedy it and in 1791 he introduced a bill to establish a constitution for Canada, which a recent historian describes as 'remarkable, as recognizing for the first time the wise and generous principle of independent colonial institutions, which has since been fully developed in every dependency of the British crown capable of local self- government.'[112] One peculiar difficulty in framing such a constitution arose from the circumstance of the old French colonists, who greatly outnumbered the settlers of British blood, being attached to the Roman Catholic religion; while the British settlers were nearly, or perhaps all, Protestant, though of different denominations. The difficulty was, indeed, lessened by the circumstance that the French dwelt in Quebec and the district between that city and the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and that the English had for the most part betaken themselves to the more inland region. And this local separation of the two races the minister now took for his guide in the arrangement which he devised. The most important feature in it was the division of the province into two parts, as Upper and Lower Canada, and the establishment of a distinct local Legislature for each division, a House of Assembly being created in each, and a Council, so as, in Pitt's words, 'to give both divisions the full advantages of the British constitution.' The Assemblies were to have the power of taxation (so that there was no room left for such perverse legislation by a British Parliament as had lately cost its sovereign the United States). The act of habeas corpus was extended to the province (a privilege which no one of French blood had ever enjoyed before); the tenure of land was to be the socage[113] tenure so long and happily established in England. Complete religious toleration was established, and a certain proportion of land was allotted in Upper Canada, as a provision for a Protestant clergy, and the foundation of an ecclesiastical establishment. So great was Pitt's desire to complete the resemblance between the colony and Great Britain, that he even contemplated the creation of an aristocracy, by the introduction of a provision enabling the King to grant hereditary colonial titles, the possession of which should include hereditary seats in the provincial Council. The two latter clauses were opposed by Fox, and the latter of them, though sanctioned by Parliament, was never carried out in practice. But Fox, bitter as he was at this time in his general opposition to the government, agreed cordially in the general principles of the bill, avowing his conviction that 'the only method of retaining distant colonies with advantage is to enable them to govern themselves,' so that each party in the British Parliament is entitled to a share of the credit for this pattern of all subsequent colonial constitutions-Pitt for the original genius for organization which his contrivance of all the complicated details of the measure displayed, and Fox for his frank adoption of the general principle inculcated by his rival, even while differing as to some of the minor details of the measure. During these years the country was increasing in prosperity, and the minister was daily rising in credit; more powerful and more popular than the most successful or the most brilliant of his predecessors. But during these same years two great constitutional difficulties had arisen, one of which, indeed, the deep sense which both parties felt of the danger of investigating it shelved almost as soon as it was seen; but the other of which, besides the importance which it derived from the degree in which it involved the principle of the supreme authority of Parliament, and brought under discussion even that which regulates the succession to the crown, imperilled the existence of the ministry, and threatened a total change in both the domestic and foreign policy of the nation.

The Prince of Wales, who had come of age in the summer of 1783, had at once begun to make himself notorious for the violence of his opposition to his father's ministers, carrying the openness of his hostility so far as, during the Westminster election to drive about the streets with a carriage and all his servants profusely decorated with Fox's colors; and, still more discreditably, by most unmeasured profligacy of all kinds. The consequence was that he soon became deeply involved in debt, so deeply that, in 1787, a member of Fox's party gave notice of his intention to move that the Parliament should pay his debts and increase his income. Pitt, without specifying his reasons, avowed that he should feel it his duty to oppose any grant of such a character; but another member of Parliament, Mr. Rolle, one of the members for Devonshire, being trammelled by no such feeling of responsibility, expressed a similar resolution in language which contained an allusion perfectly understood on both sides of the House. He said that 'the question thus proposed to be brought forward went immediately to affect our constitution in Church and State.' And every one knew that he was referring to a report which had recently become general, that the Prince was married to a Roman Catholic lady of the name of Fitzherbert. No direct notice was taken of this allusion at the moment, Fox himself, who had the chief share of the Prince's confidence, being accidentally absent; but a day or two afterward he referred to Rolle's speech with great indignation, declaring that it referred to a 'low, malicious calumny' which had no foundation whatever, and 'was only fit to impose on the lowest order of persons.' Being pressed as to the precise force of his assertion, and being asked whether it meant more than that under the existing laws, such as the Royal Marriage Act, there had been no marriage, because there could have been no legal marriage, he declared that he meant no such evasion, but that no marriage ceremony, legal or illegal, had ever taken place; and farther, that in saying this he was speaking on the direct authority of the Prince himself. No more degrading act stains the annals of British royalty. For the fact was true-the very next evening Fox learned the deceit which the Prince had practised on him from a gentleman who had been one of the witnesses to the marriage, which had been solemnized by a Protestant clergyman fifteen months before.[114] And his indignation was such that for some time afterward he abstained from all interference in the Prince's affairs; while the language held by the Prince's other confidant, Mr. Sheridan, was so evasive as to betray a consciousness that whatever had occurred would not bear the light of day; so that there were very few to whom the truth or falsehood of the report was a subject of interest who felt any uncertainty on the subject.

It may, probably, be regarded as fortunate for the peace of the kingdom that the Prince, who eventually became King George IV., left behind him no issue from his marriage with the Princess, the failure of heirs of his body thus removing any temptation to raise the question whether he had not himself forfeited all right to succeed to the throne by his previous marriage to a Roman Catholic. A clause of the Bill of Rights provides that any member of the royal family who should marry a Roman Catholic (with the exception of the issue of princesses who may be the wives of foreign princes) shall by that marriage be rendered incapable of inheriting the crown of England. And though the Royal Marriage Act (which, as we have seen, had been recently passed) had enacted that no marriage of any member of the royal family contracted without the consent of the reigning sovereign should be valid, it by no means follows that an invalidity so created would exempt the contractor of a marriage with a Roman Catholic, which as an honorable man he must be supposed to have intended to make valid, from the penalties enacted by the Bill of Rights. It is a point on which the most eminent lawyers of the present day are by no means agreed. The spirit of the clause in that bill undoubtedly was, that no apparent or presumptive heirs to the crown should form a matrimonial connection with any one who should own allegiance to a foreign power, and that spirit was manifestly