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III. Economical Reform and ‘The Influence of the Crown’, 1780

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

Ian R. Christie
Ian R. Christie
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Modern History, University College, London
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Extract

In 1780 the protagonists of Economical Reform openly admitted that their principal aim was not economy but the reduction of the influence of the executive in the House of Commons. In pursuit of this object the Rockingham party rallied other opposition groups in Parliament in support of its elaborate programme of constitutional purification—a programme embracing Crewe's Bill for the disfranchisement of revenue officers, Clerke's Bill for the exclusion of contractors from the House of Commons, and Burke's Establishment Bill, which provided for the abolition of numerous offices and sinecures, and for a strict limitation of the grant of royal pensions at pleasure. ‘The saving of money’, declared Dunning, on 21 February, ‘is but a secondary object. The reduction of the influence of the Crown is the first.’ And on 8 March, Thomas Townshend similarly asserted, that ‘the first great consideration was the lessening of the influence of the Crown, which in the opinion of the people, and he believed, a majority of that House, had enormously increased of late years, and particularly so since the accession of his present Majesty.’

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , 1956 , pp. 144 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1956

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References

1 Almon, John, The Parliamentary Register, XVII (London, 1780), pp. 133, 257.Google Scholar

2 The phrase was used by Burke on 2 March (Almon, op. cit. p. 199). See also the general tenor of his speech on the clause for abolishing the third secretaryship-of-state, on 8 March (ibid. pp. 265–8).

3 Kemp, Betty, ‘Crewe's Act, 1782’, E[nglish] H[istorical] R[eview], LXVIII (1953), pp. 258–63.Google Scholar

4 Almon, op. cit. p. 133.

5 Both Secretaries to the Treasury kept secret service accounts. John Robinson's copy of his accounts for the years 1779–82 is in B[ritish] M[useum] Add. MSS. 37,836, fos. 58–140. A fair copy of these accounts for most of the same period, combined in one statement of account with the accounts of Sir Grey Cooper, exists among the papers of George III in the Royal Archives at Windsor. I have to acknowledge the gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen to make use of this material and also of the ‘State [of the Parliament] 1780’, drawn up by Robinson for George III in preparation for the general election of 1780.

6 Almon, op. cit. p. 272.

7 Ibid. p. 488.

8 E.g., the broadsheet issued after the dissolution of 1780, showing how members had voted in recent divisions, with notes of the offices or relationship to office-holders of those who had voted with the Government (B.M. Add. MSS. 27,837, between fos. 7–8).

9 B.M. Add. MSS. 38,210, fo. 325.

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15 This number was abnormally low. There were about fifteen contractors in the House in 1778 and again in 1781. But these slightly higher figures do not invalidate the argument.

16 This number remained practically unchanged after the general election of 1780.

17 Almon, op. cit. p. 314.

18 Namier, Sir Lewis, [The] Structure of Politics [at the accession of George III] (2 vols., London, 1929), I, pp. 171–4.Google Scholar Thirty-two seats are referred to in this passage, but Sir Lewis Namier has told me that he now considers Hedon to have been under Anson's personal influence and not a government borough.

19 Ibid, II, pp. 471–85, where this episode is narrated in detail.

20 Oldfield, T. H. B., [The] Representative History [of Great Britain and Ireland] (6 vols., London, 1816), III, pp. 341–2Google Scholar; Russell, P., Dartmouth, a History of the Port and Town (London, 1950), p. 145.Google Scholar

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23 Laprade, op. cit. p. 89.

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25 Miss Jucker, N., The Jenkinson Papers (Manchester, 1950), 126–8Google Scholar; Lord North to Robinson, 7 Sept 1780, Abergavenny MS. 301, cf. Laprade, op. cit. p. 89; Edward Morant's diary, entries of 8 Sept., 3 Nov. 1780, Morant MSS. I wish to acknowledge the kind permission of the late Marquess of Abergavenny, and of Mr J. Morant of Brokenhurst Park, Hants, to use information from the manuscripts in their possession.

26 Sir Lewis Namier, Structure of Politics, I, p. 170.

27 Oldfield, Boroughs, III, p 63; ‘State, 1780’, p. 20, Windsor MSS. Cf Laprade, op. cit. pp. 81, 108, III.

28 Oldfield, Boroughs, III (Cmque Ports), p. 89; Laprade, op. cit. p. 81.

29 The Canterbury Journal, 9, 30 Jan. 1770, 23, 30 Mar., 6 Apr. 1773, 4 Oct. 1774; Sir Joseph Yorke to Hardwicke, 18 Oct. 1774, B M. Add. MSS. 35,370, fo. 286.

30 Laprade, op. cit. p. 106.

31 Ibid.

32 Oldfield, Boroughs, II, pp. 61–4; Murrell, R. J. and East, R., Extracts from Records…of the…Borough of Portsmouth… (Portsmouth, 1884), pp. 297–321.Google Scholar

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34 William Gordon to Lord Sandwich, 16 Oct. 1771, Abergavenny MS. 19A; Calcraft's obituary, The Canterbury Journal, 8 Sept. 1772.

35 North to George III, George III to North, 24 Aug. 1772, The Correspondence of King George III, ed. Sir Fortescue, John (6 vols., London, 1927–1928), II, nos. 1118, 1119Google Scholar; The Canterbury Journal, 22 Sept. 1772.

36 ‘State, 1780’, p. 32, Windsor MSS.

37 Oldfield, Boroughs, II, pp. 61–2.

38 ‘State, 1780’, p. 31, Windsor MSS.

39 Sandwich to Robinson, 7 Sept., 21, 25 Nov. 1781, Abergavenny MSS. 385, 396, 397.

40 Edward Linzee died in May 1782, at the age of eighty-four, Gentleman's Magazine (1782), p. 263.

41 Oldfield, Boroughs, II, pp. 63–4; R. J. Murrell and R. East, op. cit. pp. 321–2.

42 Laprade, op. cit. p. 88.

43 Frederick, bishop of Lichfield, to William Cornwallis, 29 April 1790, H[istorical] M[anuscripts] C[ommission], Various Collections, VI, Cornwallis-Wykeham-Martin MSS. p. 353.

44 Laprade, op. cit. p. 106.

45 Luders, Alexander, Reports of the Proceedings in Committees of the House of Commons upon Controverted Elections (3 vols. London, 1785–1790), II, pp. 108, 114Google Scholar; Sir Grey Cooper to Charles Jenkinson, 20 May 1783, B.M. Add. MSS. 38,218, fo. 186.

46 List of the Corporation of Saltash, Bolton MSS., Hants Record Office; Oldfield, Boroughs, I, pp. 86–9, 96.

47 Commons Journals, 42, 727 a-b; Luders, op. cit. II, pp. 107–225; The Journal of William Beckford in Portugal and Spain, 1787–1788, ed. Alexander, Boyd (London, 1954), pp. 58–9Google Scholar; my note in E.H.R. LXXII (1956), pp. 249–55, on Buller's activities at Saltash 1780–90.

48 Oldfield, Representative History, III, 143–5; H.M.C., Dropmore MSS. VIII, pp. 384–6, 455; IX, p. 56; John Pedley to Beckford, 8 Jan. 1808, Melville, Lewis, Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill (London, 1910), pp. 269–70.Google Scholar

49 On this see Sir Hugh Palliser to Sandwich, 7 Mar. 1784, Sandwich MSS.

50 Laprade, op. cit. p. 122.

51 H.M.C. Rutland MSS. in, pp. 298, 302, 428.

52 Laprade, op. cit. p. 108. Cf. Oldfield, Boroughs, II, pp. 83, 90–1.

53 Ibid, III, pp. 115–25, 145. See also Luders, op. cit. III, pp. 1–138.

54 Oldfield, Boroughs, III, pp. 88–90.