preceding autumn; that this would produce measures of lenity and conciliation at this side of the water; that Government meant to relax on certain material points; and that every dispute subsisting between Great Britain and her Colonies would terminate in the most amicable manner, equally for the advantage and honour of both countries. But (continued the Colonel) when this point was gained, administration feeling themselves stronger than they expected, they proceeded to hostilities against the constitutional rights of the Colonies, by following the Boston Port Bill with The Massachusset’s Bay Charter Bill, and that for the removal of offenders in America for trial to another Colony or home to Great Britain.’”
In 1778 he began his projects for the publication and auditing of the public accounts of receipt and expenditure. In this year Lord Chatham died, and on May 11th Barré moved an address to the king for a funeral at the public charge, which was agreed to, with an addition, proposed by Mr. Dunning, for a monument in Westminster Abbey. On February 22nd, 1779, he supported a motion for the enlistment of soldiers for a limited term of service, and though the proposal was thrown out by a majority of 122 to 68, yet the wisdom of the principle was ably set forth in his speech. “That soldiers should be enlisted for life (he said) was, in his opinion, a most preposterous idea, and had ever been repugnant to his feelings. Judge Blackstone had laid it down that it would be agreeable to the constitution of this free country and conducive to the military service that soldiers should be enlisted to serve for a limited time. That soldiers should be kept in slavery for life — this was the hardship that caused so much desertion.” In 1780 he proposed that there should be a small committee to act as Commissioners of Accounts, to reform the system of collection and disbursement of public money, and to ascertain the balances in the hands of the various departments. Lord North, on the part of the Government, adopted the basis of the suggestion, but proposed a different construction of the Commission, which was agreed to next session. In 1782 Lord Shelburne having become Foreign Secretary, Barré became Treasurer of the Navy; and soon after he was made Paymaster of the Forces, his noble patron having become Premier.
Mr. Britton says:—
“The chief feature of Lord Shelburne’s short administration of 1782 was the conclusion of peace with America, and the recognition of the independence of that country — a measure which his Lordship strongly urged upon the king, whose feelings were pertinaciously opposed to it. The Earl powerfully exerted himself in favour of his zealous friends and supporters, Dunning and Barré.[1] Besides securing the honour of the Garter for himself, he obtained a peerage for Dunning as Baron Ashburton, with a place as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a seat in the cabinet. Barré was rewarded by a pension of £3200 a year, to commence on his retirement from the ministry.”
If the Right Hon. Isaac Barré had not been arbitrarily stripped of his military status and its emoluments by political oppression, he would in 1782 have been an old Lieutenant-General; he would have had the Colonelcy of a regiment as the Adjutant-General customarily had, and the military employments, which he had forfeited by no military offence. The government accordingly compensated him by a parliamentary vote, that on his removal from, or relinquishment of, his office under government, he should receive a pension of £3200. To prevent criticisms, to which pensions are liable, Mr. Pitt in 1784 conferred on him the sinecure post of Clerk of the Pells, with an income of £3000 a year.
Once in a parliamentary speech he alluded to his wound. “Though I lost one eye in America,” he said, “I have a military eye left which does not deceive me.” Towards the close of his parliamentary life the sight of his remaining serviceable eye failed him, and he became totally blind. In 1785 he was in this condition, and spoke powerfully on the National Defences. Observing some favour in head-quarters to a “paltry, narrow, circumscribed plan” of fortifying Portsmouth and Plymouth, he obtained the appointment of a board of naval and land officers to report on the whole question. On 27th February 1786 the board having been so constructed as to ensure the recommendation of the Duke of Richmond’s proposal, the fortification of the two dockyards was pressed. Barré spoke powerfully against it, but could not wait for the division; Burke was absent from illness; however, the Speaker’s casting-vote negatived the plan.
Owing to Barré’s powerful diction, fierce argumentation, and popular sympathies,
- ↑ It was in company with Barré that Dunning was thrown from his horse at a military review at Berlin, Frederic the Great having given him not only an invitation but also the use of a spirited charger, in the belief that his title of Solicitor-General was a military one.
