The Eve of the Revolution | Page 9

of his customary sources
of income, and Mr. Grenville, at least, never attempted anything so
hazardous. Scurrilous pamphleteers, in fact, had made it a charge
against the minister that he had increased rather than diminished the
evil of sinecures--"It had been written in pamphlets that 400,000
pounds a year was dealt out in pensions"; from which charge the able
Chancellor, on the occasion of opening his first budget in the House of
Commons, the 9th of March, 1764, defended himself by denying that
the sums were "so great as alleged." It was scarcely an adequate
defense; but the truth is that Grenville was sure to be less distressed by
a bad custom, no law forbidding, than by a law, good or bad, not
strictly enforced, particularly if the law was intended to bring in a
revenue.

Instinctively, therefore, the minister turned to America, where it was a
notorious fact that there were revenue laws that had not been enforced
these many years. Mr. Grenville, we may suppose, since it was charged
against him in a famous epigram, read the American dispatches with
considerable care, so that it is quite possible he may have chanced to
see and to shake his head over the sworn statement of Mr. Sampson
Toovey, a statement which throws much light upon colonial liberties
and the practices of English officials in those days:
"I, Sampson Toovey [so the statement runs], Clerk to James Cockle,
Esq., Collector of His Majesty's Customs for the Port of Salem, do
declare on oath, that ever since I have been in the office, it hath been
customary for said Cockle to receive of the masters of vessels entering
from Lisbon, casks of wine, boxes of fruit, etc., which was a gratuity
for suffering their vessels to be entered with salt or ballast only, and
passing over unnoticed such cargoes of wine, fruit, etc., which are
prohibited to be imported into His Majesty's Plantations. Part of which
wine, fruit, etc., the said James Cockle used to share with Governor
Bernard. And I further declare that I used to be the negotiator of this
business, and receive the wine, fruit, etc., and dispose of them
agreeable to Mr. Cockle's orders. Witness my hand. Sampson Toovey."
The curious historian would like much to know, in case Mr. Grenville
did see the declaration of Sampson Toovey, whether he saw also a
letter in which Governor Bernard gave it as his opinion that if the
colonial governments were to be refashioned it should be on a new plan,
since "there is no system in North America fit to be made a module of."
Secretary Grenville, whether or not he ever saw this letter from
Governor Bernard, was familiar with the ideas which inspired it. Most
crown officials in America, and the governors above all, finding
themselves little more than executive agents of the colonial assemblies,
had long clamored for the remodeling of colonial governments: the
charters, they said, should be recalled; the functions of the assemblies
should be limited and more precisely defined; judges should be
appointed at the pleasure of the King; and judges and governors alike
should be paid out of a permanent civil list in England drawn from

revenue raised in America. In urging these changes, crown officials in
America were powerfully supported by men of influence in England;
by Halifax since the day, some fifteen years before, when he was
appointed to the office of Colonial Secretary; by the brilliant Charles
Townshend who, in the year 1763, as first Lord of the Treasury in
Bute's ministry, had formulated a bill which would have been highly
pleasing to Governor Bernard had it been passed into law. And now
similar schemes were being urged upon Grenville by his own
colleagues, notably by the Earl of Halifax, who is said to have become,
in a formal interview with the first minister, extremely heated and eager
in the matter.
But all to no purpose. Mr. Grenville was well content with the form of
the colonial governments, being probably of Pope's opinion that "the
system that is best administered is best." In Grenville's opinion, the
Massachusetts government was good enough, and all the trouble arose
from the inattention of royal officials to their manifest duties and from
the pleasant custom of depositing at Governor Bernard's back door
sundry pipes of wine with the compliments of Mr. Cockle. Most men in
England agreed that such pleasant customs had been tolerated long
enough. To their suppression the first minister accordingly gave his
best attention; and while Mr. Rigby continued to enjoy great perquisites
in England, many obscure customs officials, such as Grosvenor
Bedford, were ordered to their, posts to prevent small peculations in
America. To assist them, or their successors, in this business, ships of
war were stationed conveniently for the