Mr. Pitt proposes to Conway to remain in the Ministry.--Quarrel with
Lord Temple.--Townshend Chancellor of the Exchequer.--Rockingham
displaced to make way for Grafton.--Resignation of Lord John
Cavendish.--Lord Rockingham affronts Pitt.--Unpopularity of the
new Lord Chatham.--Changes and Preferments.--Foreign Policy.--
Disturbed State of the Country.--Chatham’s Interview with Walpole.
On the 11th Mr. Pitt arrived; and on the 13th Mr. Conway came to me,
and told me Mr. Pitt had been with him, had shown much frankness, and
had offered him the Seals again, and the lead in the House of Commons,
for he himself could not attend there. The King, Mr. Pitt said, had
sent for Lord Temple; and he himself must offer him the Treasury, but
protested it was without knowing whether he would accept it. Of Mr.
Grenville it was delicate for him to speak; but if Mr. Conway would
not conduct the House of Commons, Mr. Grenville must, though that
would be subject to great difficulties. He intended something for Mr.
Mackenzie when occasion should offer; thought Lord Bute had been too
much proscribed, but would ever resist his having power. Changes he
wished could be made without changes. The foundation of the present
Ministry he hoped would remain; but he must take care of Lord Camden,
Lord Shelburne, Lord Bristol, and Colonel Barré. Of Lord Rockingham
he thought meanly, but was sorry to displace him. Sorry, too, for the
Duke of Richmond; would he take an embassy? Mr. Conway said, No. Pitt
replied, he did not desire an immediate answer; he knew Mr. Conway
would have difficulties. Conway avowed he had the greatest, though two
months before he should have laughed at any man that had supposed he
could have any. He should now prefer returning to the military; but
would consult his friends.
The same moment that told me Mr. Conway’s acceptance would be an
exclusion of George Grenville, decided my opinion; and the Duke of
Richmond coming in at that instant, we related what had passed, and
I frankly told the Duke, that I could not hesitate on pressing Mr.
Conway to accept, when I knew it would be shutting the door against
George Grenville. The Duke heard my opinion with concern; and with
great decency to Conway, rather started objections than urged him to
decline. It would break the party; Mr. Pitt, as well as Lord Bute,
had always aimed at dividing all parties. Could Mr. Conway quit the
Cavendishes? I told his Grace, that if Mr. Pitt did not remain in the
House of Commons, which he seemed disposed to quit, Mr. Conway would
be the Minister. The latter I was sure would not go into opposition.
His excluding Grenville would exclude Lord Temple. Lord Hertford
arrived: and desiring for his own sake, that Mr. Conway should go on
as much as I desired it, from enmity to Grenville, and Conway himself
inclining to go on, he easily acceded to our opinion. But in honour
of the Duke of Richmond, I must add, that he was so satisfied with my
plain dealing, however vexed at the event, that he neither then, _nor
ever after_,[264] changed his countenance towards me or confidence;
and was the only man I ever knew, whose friendship difference in party
had no power to shake. As he was the sole person of that party for
whom I had any friendship myself, I pressed Mr. Conway to ask for the
Duke a promise of the Garter and of the Blue Guards; but that measure
was defeated by the warmth of the heads of the party, provoked by the
neglect Pitt showed them; though in truth, they were forward enough in
inviting his resentment, by pressing all their friends to resign, even
if Lord Temple should come in without Grenville.
On the 14th arrived Lord Temple, who, at Mr. Pitt’s earnest desire, had
been sent for by the King. Mr. Pitt, who always acted like a Minister
retired or retiring from power, rather than as an all-puissant, or new
Minister, had begun to refine on his former conduct: and had already
commenced that extraordinary scene of seclusion of himself, which
he afterwards carried to an excess that passed, and no wonder, for a
long access of phrenzy. It was given out that he had a fever, and he
retired to Hampstead, whither Lord Temple went and saw him the day of
his arrival. The next day Lord Temple had an audience of the King. On
the 16th he was with Mr. Pitt till seven in the evening, dined, and
took the air with him, when such high words passed, that the coachman
overheard their warmth, and Mr. Pitt was so much agitated that his
fever increased, and he would see nobody, not even the Duke of Grafton,
whom he had sent for to town, but whom he had informed by message that
he would take no step without acquainting his Grace.[265]
On the 17th Lord Temple again saw the King, made extravagant demands,
which were peremptorily refused, and immediately went out of town.
The detail was, that Mr. Pitt had pressed the King to send for him; but
said that was all he asked. When he and Lord Temple met, the latter
insisted on bringing in his brother George; Mr. Pitt would not hear of
it. Lord Temple then demanded that Lord Lyttelton should be President
of the Council: nor that would Mr. Pitt grant: nor, in truth, did Lord
Temple propose any conditions in earnest after the negative put upon
his brother. Then, indeed, as provision for loading Mr. Pitt, Lord
Temple asked him what he intended to do about Mr. Mackenzie and Lord
Northumberland. He replied, Considerably. This was of a piece with
what Lord Temple had lately done. In a pamphlet published by Almon,
to abuse the Ministry, and called “The History of the late Minority,”
it was declared that Lord Temple’s refusal of coming in with Mr. Pitt
in the preceding year, had been grounded on the terms Mr. Pitt had
been willing to grant to Lord Northumberland. As that refusal fully
justified Mr. Pitt from not calling Lord Temple again, it was strange
refinement or delicacy to invite a new quarrel by a new summons,
especially as it was evident that he did not mean to grant any one
facility that could tempt Lord Temple to accept.[266]
Fortunate it was, that Lord Temple did not overreach him by accepting.
It was not less fortunate that he remained out of place, a check on
Lord Bute, and a sure source of clamour against arbitrary measures,
while discontented himself.[267] Yet Lord Temple did not act without
art. Though the King saw, from the first five minutes of their
conversation, that he did not mean to accept the Treasury, yet he and
his brother had persuaded the Bedfords that he intended it, and that
he would bring them in; and extremely were they disappointed when they
heard the negotiation was at an end; but it had answered the purpose of
his laying them under obligation to his intentions, especially as he
endeavoured to make them believe that he had broken with Mr. Pitt for
refusing to make him[268] Secretary of State; but the Bedfords, who
could get over real obligations, were not men to be much enchained by
fictitious intentions.[269]
Mr. Conway laboured to make some accommodation between Mr. Pitt and
the fallen Ministers; and to engage the former to try at softening
the ill-humour of the latter, who were great and respectable men, and
whose assistance he would want. Pitt was cold and mysterious; said it
would be impertinent in him to inform any of them that they were to be
dismissed; it must come from his Majesty in the ordinary way of office.
He should go to the King on the morrow; nothing was yet settled; he
should begin with the great outlines. The Army and Law, he thought,
should be left to the King. Lord Granby was very high; but if his
Majesty preferred Lord Albemarle, he should not oppose it. Charles
Yorke he should leave Attorney-General, unless the King disliked him.
The same day Mr. Pitt wrote to Charles Townshend in this haughty and
laconic style:--“Sir, you are of too great a magnitude not to be in
a responsible place: I intend to propose you to the King to-morrow
for Chancellor of the Exchequer, and must desire to have your answer
to-night by nine o’clock.” Unprecedented as this method was of imposing
an office of such confidence in so ungracious a manner (for it was
ordering Townshend to accept 2700_l._ a year in lieu of 7000_l._,
and intimated that, accepting or refusing, he must quit the post of
Paymaster), yet it was singularly well adapted to the man. It was
telling him that no other man in England was so fit for that difficult
employment; and it was telling him at the same time that though his
great abilities rendered him an useful servant, the lightness of his
character made those talents not formidable in an enemy.
Pitt had judged rightly. Townshend did not dare to fling both offices
in his face: but, without being incensed or flattered, fell into the
most ridiculous distress imaginable. All he felt was the menace, and
the loss of the Paymaster’s place; and instead of concealing the
affront or his own anxiety, he sat at home in his night-gown, received
all that came, showed Pitt’s mandate to them, and commented on it,
despatched messengers for his brother and the Duke of Grafton, who
were out of town; and as the time lapsed, ran to the window on every
coach that passed, to see if they were arrived. At last he determined
on suing for leave to remain Paymaster, to which Pitt listened. Then
with his usual fluctuation, Townshend repented of not accepting the
Chancellorship of the Exchequer, so leading a situation in the House
of Commons, and begged he might have it. Pitt replied, The place was
full, being then inclined to retain Mr. Dowdeswell. Townshend renewed
his supplication with tears; but for some time Pitt was firm. At length
he yielded to the Duke of Grafton’s intercession; and that very day
Townshend told the King that Mr. Pitt had again pressed and persuaded
him to be Chancellor of the Exchequer--with such silly duplicity did
he attain a rank which he might have carried from all competitors, had
his mind borne any proportion to the vastness of his capacity. Pitt
diverted himself with these inconsistencies, and suffered him to be his
Chancellor.[270]
But now Pitt’s own mind, as unballasted by judgment as Townshend’s,
though expressing itself in loftier irregularities, disclosed to
Grafton and Conway his plan of Administration. He told them he meant
to make the present Administration the groundwork of his own, and
meditated few changes; that Lord Camden[271] was to be Chancellor,
and Lord Northington President: that he had asked the King what his
Majesty desired for Mackenzie. The King had answered, Restoration,
but without power in Scotland; to which he had consented. Something
for Lord Northumberland--but he might wait. Lord Bristol was to be
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, when Lord Hertford should be weary of it.
The Duke of Grafton was to be placed at the head of the Treasury, with
Dowdeswell (on Townshend’s refusal) for Chancellor of the Exchequer:
Lord Shelburne and Mr. Conway, Secretaries of State; Colonel Barré and
James Grenville, Vice-Treasurers of Ireland; Lord George Sackville to
be turned out. At last he acquainted them that himself was to be Privy
Seal and a peer.
Two words are sufficient comments on so ill-conceived and ill-digested
a plan. It was founded on a set of men whose chiefs he disgusted and
displaced, without having obtained, without having even asked the
consent or sounded the acquiescence of those who were to remain, and
whose passions he had left to be worked upon by their several leaders:
and, as if forgetting that the sole foundation of his own authority
lay in his ascendant in the House of Commons, and in his popularity,
he abandoned the one and risked the other; vainly presuming that he
could dictate from the House of Peers, where he had no interest, and
which required far different oratory from that in which his strength
lay. Some argument, much decency, and great art are requisite to lull
and lead Lords. The House of Commons, too, was so accustomed to see the
Minister himself at their head, as not to be easily conducted by his
substitutes. It was quitting the field to Grenville and every rising
genius. Even his own Chancellor of the Exchequer, when not under his
own lash, was almost sure to run riot. Two such capital errors in the
outset, could not but embarrass his measures: they did; and yet smaller
errors had greater consequences.
The outlines of the plan were no sooner public than they gave the
highest offence to those whom it most imported Mr. Pitt to keep in
humour. The King owned to Mr. Conway that he much disliked Lord
Shelburne. The Ministerial Whigs, or party of the late Ministers, were
enraged. Rockingham was indignant at being displaced for Grafton, and
Richmond for Shelburne; and was the more hurt that Mr. Conway suffered
this preference. He complained to me of Conway with much anger. I said,
“I could not allow Mr. Conway to be blamed, in order to disculpate
myself. I did profess I had advised him, as his Grace knew, to accept
Mr. Pitt’s offers. He had accepted them before any mention had been
made of Shelburne; and grievous as it was to him, could he break on
it with Mr. Pitt, after being the cause that the latter had broken
with both his brothers, Temple and Grenville? Mr. Conway had wished to
resign with his friend the Duke of Grafton; yet had stayed in at the
request of the whole party, as they could not go on without him. Could
they blame him for staying in now, when the Duke of Grafton returned to
Administration?” The Duke replied, “The Duke of Grafton had treated Mr.
Conway ill; and that his obligations were to the House of Cavendish.” I
said, “My Lord, was the 5000_l._ bequeathed to him by the late Duke of
Devonshire to be a retaining fee to make him a servant to that family?”
The Duke asked, why Mr. Pitt did not turn out any of Lord Bute’s
friends? Why only friends of the late Ministers? I said, “Not one had
been or would be turned out for Lord Bute’s friends: that no man of
half the importance of Mr. Pitt had ever brought so few dependents;
he had proposed but four of any consequence, the Duke of Grafton,
Lord Camden, Lord Shelburne, and Lord Bristol; and even the last he
waived for a time. That himself declared he acceded to the present
Administration, not they to him; and that he brought not a single man
along with him, that had not voted with them all the last winter. That
Mr. Conway was influenced by measures, not by men; yet these were both
Whig men and Whig measures. Oppose the first arbitrary measure, my
Lord, you and your friends, and you will be in the right; but hitherto
of what can you complain? Three weeks ago you declared you could not
meet the opening of the next Session. The Administration has now got
the most creditable accession and strength, and will not accept it:”
at last I said, “Desire Mr. Conway, my Lord, not to accept, and I will
answer he will not.” “No,” said the Duke, with his usual goodness of
heart, “I will not do that.” “Then,” said I, “my Lord, your Grace and
your friends will reduce Mr. Conway to this; he will be disgusted with
your ill-treatment, he will ask for his regiment again, and retire,
and never enter the House of Commons more; and then what becomes of
your party?” The Duke was infinitely struck with this; and though
for a few days he could not conceal his dissatisfaction from Conway
on the latter’s yielding to let him be removed for Shelburne, his
friendly heart surmounted his chagrin, and he wrote a letter to Conway
acknowledging that he had been in the wrong, and renewing their amity.
In truth, I suffered as much as the Duke in being forced to argue
against him, when my heart was on his side. But nothing could
have justified Conway in flying off after Pitt had sacrificed
Grenville to him, and all other views of support. Every public
consideration concurred to excite my endeavours, that Pitt and the
late Administration should not separate. _They_ were honest, and
_he_ inflamed with the love of national glory. All _they_ wanted
was activity and authority; _he_ was proper to confer both. If he
lost _them_, he must hang on Bute, or revert to his brothers and the
Bedfords. He and the late Ministers were popular; all other sets were
odious from past experience of their actions.
In vain did I labour to preserve so salutary an union. My evil genius,
Lord John Cavendish, came across me; and though I had the private
satisfaction of letting him see whose influence with Mr. Conway was the
greater; it did not compensate for the mischief he did by inflaming the
party against Pitt. To engage by his example to set Pitt at defiance,
Lord John resigned his seat at the Treasury; and lest he should be
too much in the right by resenting the ill-treatment of his friends,
he sent his resignation to the Duke of Grafton in a letter, in which
he told the Duke that he supposed his Grace did not desire to see a
Cavendish at that board. Nothing could be more unfounded or unjust
than this insinuation. Grafton had ever lived in the utmost harmony
with that family, and Lord John was his particular friend. There was
no intention of removing one of their relations; and the Duke had,
above all, reckoned on Lord John for his associate in the Treasury.
Yet the latter affected to beg nobody to resign--after firing the
signal. He carried this dissimulation so far as to beg me, who felt the
blow he had let fall on Conway, to do my utmost that Lord Dartmouth
and Mr. Dowdeswell might be pacified, or they would both resign: and
he concluded his exhortation with great professions to the Duke of
Grafton, who, he said, had always distinguished him from the time he
was at school. I said, “I was sorry, but did not see what I could
do: that they would drive Mr. Pitt to Lord Bute, or to his brothers
and the Bedfords.” “No,” he replied, “it might drive Mr. Pitt himself
away, which would make confusion, and confusion did no harm in times
of peace.” “That confusion,” said I, “would unite Lord Bute and the
Bedfords.” “Oh!” said he, “then we should have impeachments.”
Slight as our hopes were now of working any good on the party,
Mr. Conway was urgent with Pitt to show them some civilities, and
represented how much they were exasperated by his obstinate silence and
coldness. Pitt said, he heard so, but could not believe it: all would
come right again. Conway implored him to speak to them, or to empower
him to soothe them. He was inflexible: said, the King did all. When
done, he would go to Lord Rockingham; but would promise no further.
Conway spoke of the Duke of Portland,[272] who, as nearly related to
the Cavendishes, must be disposed to quit, and therefore required
the more attention; and, as the last argument, stated the cruelty
of his own situation. Nothing could move him. He replied coldly, If
Portland should resign, he would be replaced by a man taken from no
exceptionable quarter. This looked like no unwillingness to disgust;
and though this absurdity of trampling on the greatest subjects, and
even on those men on whose support he must lean, or leave himself
at the mercy of the Court, was not abhorrent from Pitt’s character
notwithstanding the inconveniencies it had often drawn on him; yet I
have suspected that at the time in question, he might have studied
or received intimations of the King’s inclination to get rid of some
particular men. The Cavendishes had long been particularly obnoxious,
had personally affronted the Princess on the Bill of Regency, and had
been the chief obstructors of any approach to Lord Bute. The Duke of
Portland, though his mother[273] was the intimate friend of Lady Bute,
had wantonly piqued himself on enmity to the Favourite; and by local
and county[274] circumstances was the declared rival in the North of
Sir James Lowther,[275] the Favourite’s son-in-law. To these motives
was added in Pitt a desire of making room for Lord Bristol; and an
incidental offer to himself of support from another quarter contributed
to augment his indifference to the consequences of the party’s anger.
It happened that the Bedford squadron did not give credit to the fair
report Lord Temple had made of his zeal for their service. Their hopes
had been raised, and seeing a door open, they were not willing to be
excluded by an equivocal obligation. Lord Tavistock[276] acquainted
the Duke of Grafton, that his father disclaimed the Grenvilles, and
would be ready to assist his Grace on no other conditions than places
for Lord Gower, Rigby, and Vernon,[277] the Duchess’s brother-in-law.
This was making so capital a breach in that connection on such moderate
terms, that averse as I was to the Bedfords, I wished to see it closed
with before they should be apprized of the ill-blood between Pitt and
the late Ministers. But if the offer swelled Pitt’s haughtiness, it did
not operate much on the prudence of his measures. He at once slighted
the overture, and continued his obstinacy of making no overtures to
the discontented. It seemed a contest between them which should be
most in the wrong. Lord Rockingham and his friends professed that they
would yet be contented with civilities. Lord Frederick and Lord John
Cavendish both sounded this high; and the latter, at my house, pressed
Mr. Conway so much to obtain some notice of them from Mr. Pitt, that
he went that very evening to the latter, and did at last prevail with
him to visit Lord Rockingham. Mr. Pitt went the next morning, and was
admitted into the house, but was met by a servant, who said, his Lord
desired to be excused from seeing him. Thus had they forced Mr. Conway
to draw in Mr. Pitt to receive an affront; and from that day the wound
was incurable.
On the 30th of the month Mr. Pitt kissed hands for the Privy Seal,
and the Earldom of Chatham; Grafton, Camden, Northington, and Charles
Townshend for the places I have mentioned. Lord Howe was restored to
his post of Treasurer of the Navy; Barré and James Grenville were made
Vice-Treasurers of Ireland; and Lord George Sackville was dismissed.
The same day Lord Dartmouth resigned the Board of Trade, and Charles
Yorke his post of Attorney-General. Dowdeswell was asked what he should
like: he replied, the King had placed him above what he had pretensions
to, but having been there he could take nothing lower. Though in
straitened circumstances and burthened with a numerous offspring,
he adhered to his party, and refused to be First Lord of Trade, or
Half-Paymaster. His character was exceedingly fair; but among many
examples of that time, he had been raised above his abilities, and was
more respected for his fall than for his exaltation.[278]
A pension of 4000_l._ a year was offered to, and rejected by, the Duke
of Newcastle, who with all his faults and weaknesses was never stained
with avarice and rapaciousness. The deepest tinge of that dirty vice
blotted the late Chancellor Northington, who sold the Seals for the
President’s place, augmented by 5000_l._ a year, with the contingency
of 2000_l._ a year if he should quit the place of President, and for
the reversion of the Hanaper for two lives.[279] Grants so exorbitant,
and so void of any colour of merit in the fool on whom they were
showered, that if they cast a shade on the dawn of Mr. Pitt’s new
Administration, or recalled the memory of his former waste, they
reflected lustre on the fallen Ministry, who had been beyond example
sparing of such shameless profusion. It was not lessened by another
contingent pension to Lord Camden in case he should lose the Seals: yet
as he quitted the place of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for life,
the boon was far more justifiable; especially in an age when men were
paid alike for merit and demerit, for accepting or losing employments.
The services of the discarded Ministers were set forth in a small,
well written tract, called “A Short History of a late Short
Administration.” It did justice to their integrity, and it could not do
too much.[280] The nation felt and allowed their merit. Some counties
and corporations complimented them in addresses. The Parliament
followed the Court, and supported whoever was the actual Minister;
uniform in its way of voting, though its votes of every year were
inconsistent with those of the preceding.
The glory with which the late Ministers retired was half of it plucked
from the laurels of the new Earl of Chatham. That fatal title blasted
all the affection which his country had borne to him, and which he
had deserved so well. Had he been as sordid as Lord Northington, he
could not have sunk lower in the public esteem. The people, though he
had done no act to occasion reproach, thought he had sold them for a
title, and, as words fascinate or enrage them, their idol Mr. Pitt was
forgotten in their detestation of the Lord Chatham. He was paralleled
with Lord Bath, and became the object at which were shot all the arrows
of calumny. He had borne his head above the obloquy that attended his
former pension--not a mouth was opened now in defence of his title;
as innocent as his pension, since neither betrayed him into any deed
of servility to prerogative and despotism. Both were injudicious;
the last irrecoverably so. The blow was more ruinous to his country
than to himself. While he held the love of the people, nothing was so
formidable in Europe as his name. The talons of the lion were drawn,
when he was no longer awful in his own forests.
The City of London had intended to celebrate Mr. Pitt’s return to
employment, and lamps for an illumination had been placed round the
Monument. But no sooner did they hear of his new dignity, than the
festival was counter-ordered. The great engine of this dissatisfaction
was Lord Temple, who was so shameless as to publish the history of
their breach, in which he betrayed every private passage that Mr. Pitt
had dropped in their negotiation and quarrel, which could tend to
inflame the public or private persons against him.[281] This malignant
man worked in the mines of successive factions for near thirty years
together. To relate them is writing his life.
The next month was spent in changes and preferments, which I shall
recapitulate as briefly as I can. Sir Charles Saunders, instigated
by Lord Albemarle, resigned his seat at the Admiralty, on pretence
of disliking Lord Egmont, the first Commissioner. Lord Albemarle had
been refused the Rangership of the Parks at Windsor. John Yorke[282]
retired from the same board. Within a few days Lord Egmont himself
resigned, telling the King he disapproved of Lord Chatham’s foreign
system, and should be afraid of embarrassing his Majesty’s affairs. If
they were to be debated in Council, he could submit to the majority;
but as he found one man was to have more weight than six,[283] he
begged to be unemployed.
Lord Chatham was hurt at losing Saunders, one of his favourite and most
successful admirals in the last war. Keppel,[284] too, intimated a like
design of retiring. To prevent the one and recover the other, Lord
Chatham, though sorely unwilling to raise Sir Charles Saunders above
Sir Edward Hawke and Sir George Pocock, at last put the Admiralty into
the hands of Saunders. Lord Granby was appointed Commander-in-chief,
and Lord Ligonier quieted with an earldom--at near ninety, and with
a reversion to his nephew of fifteen hundred pounds a year of his
pension. Even the promotion of Lord Granby was a portion of another
bargain, the price of his father, the Duke of Rutland’s, quitting
Master of the Horse, which was given to Lord Hertford, that he might
cede the government of Ireland to Lord Bristol. Nor was the post of
Master of the Horse sufficient: the King promised Lord Hertford should
have the Chamberlain’s staff on the next vacancy, which his Majesty
added, he wished was then--a confirmation of his dislike of the Duke
of Portland. Lord Hertford was too good a courtier not to acquiesce,
or to be satisfied. He prevailed to have the borough of Orford, then
dependant on the Crown, where Lord Hertford had an estate, ceded to
him,--a boon unprecedented, and that made much noise. The ill-conduct
of the Court had reduced the Crown to little more than to be able to
make changes; for it could scarce make an Administration, though both
Houses were ready to support any that was made.
I ought to have mentioned, that, in consequence of the Duke of
Bedford’s offers, the Admiralty, on Lord Egmont’s demission, was
offered to Lord Gower; Lord Chatham still deluding himself with the
thought that he could detach any separate man from any connection.
But if men were grown more venal, they were grown, too, to understand
their own interests better than to loosen their strength by separating
themselves from powerful bodies; a single and temporary emolument could
not compensate for the support of their friends. Lord Gower answered
that he could not stand _alone_ in so responsible a place, and was
connected with none of the present Ministry.
Lord Frederick Campbell was removed, and Mr. Mackenzie restored to his
ancient place.
However alert and peremptory Lord Chatham was in offending or
promoting, domestic power by no means occupied his thoughts. The stocks
had fallen on his accession, from the apprehension entertained that he
would hurry into war. Had his views succeeded, one cannot tell how soon
it might have been his measure. I know certainly that he despatched
emissaries to visit the frontier towns in France. His immediate and
avowed purpose was to cement an union between England, Russia, and
Prussia.
Baron de la Perriere,[285] the Sardinian Envoy, had given notice
that the new Emperor[286] was much disinclined to the French system,
and even disposed to break with that Court, beholding with an eye
of discontent their possession of his hereditary dominion, Lorrain.
It was expected that Count Kaunitz, his mother’s Prime Minister,
devoted to France, would retire.[287] I had sent notice of this
favourable opening, and had repeated it at my return from Paris. A
short time before the change in the Ministry, an event corroborated
this intelligence. Count Seilern, the Austrian Ambassador, had opened
himself freely to Mr. Conway, and said, if the latter would assure
him that we neither had leagued, nor would league with Prussia, his
court would enter into a defensive league with us against France. Mr.
Conway replied we could not advance so far at once, but assured him we
were not, nor were likely to be, in league with Prussia. Seilern was
to report this answer, and no reply was arrived when Mr. Pitt became
Minister. The King had been so indiscreet as to tell Count Seilern in
the drawing-room that Count Malzahn, the new envoy from Berlin, had had
his audience, and was the first foreign Minister that ever came to him
without saying anything personally civil.
Mr. Pitt, full of a grand northern alliance, without attending to the
conjuncture, or above informing himself of the situation, immediately
names Mr. Stanley[288] Ambassador to Russia instead of Sir George
Maccartney,[289] a personal favourite of the Czarina, and who had just
concluded a treaty of commerce with her; and orders Stanley, in his
way to St. Petersburg, to learn if the King of Prussia was disposed
to enter into strict alliance with us. The King had acquiesced in
this new arrangement, for he submitted even to treat with the King of
Prussia, whom he hated, rather than not accommodate Lord Bute with
a more favourable Administration. Conway was thunderstruck. He saw
we should miss the opportunity of recovering the Court of Vienna,
and expected nothing from Prussia. To add to the mortification, the
nomination was made in his own office, and he not acquainted with it
till it was done; nor had he been summoned to the Council in which
it was declared. So little confidence to the confidential Minister
looked ill, and prognosticated how entirely the new Earl intended to
engross the sole direction. Conway wrote to Lord Chatham to beg Mr.
Stanley’s journey might not be precipitated, but debated in Council:
if the King’s servants should approve it, he should acquiesce. The
Earl returned a very civil answer, and promised they should consult on
it. The event was, the King of Prussia refused to receive Stanley’s
visit, and the Czarina did not like to admit an Ambassador. After a
long delay, Stanley’s embassy was laid aside[290]--the union with
Austria was lost. These foreign disappointments, I believe, were the
chief ingredients in the strange conduct of Lord Chatham that ensued.
Peace was not his element; nor did his talent lie in those details that
restore a nation by slow and wholesome progress. Of the finances he
was utterly ignorant. If struck with some great idea, he neither knew
how nor had patience to conduct it. He expected implicit assent--and
he expected more, that other men should methodise and superintend, and
bear the fatigue of carrying his measures into execution; and, what was
worse, encounter the odium and danger of them, while he reposed and was
to enjoy the honour, if successful. The history of the ensuing winter
will justify every word here asserted. His conduct in the late war had
been the same. He drew the plans, but left it to the Treasury to find
the means; nor would listen to their difficulties, nor hold any rein
over their ill-management.
While the attention of the great world was fixed on the political
revolution, the people laboured under the dearness of corn and the
apprehension of famine. The two last seasons had been particularly
unfavourable; and though there was not absolute want, the farmers kept
back their corn, and would not bring it to market, in order to enhance
the price. Great disturbances ensued in several counties: the mob rose,
seized provisions by force, or obliged the venders to distribute them
at the price fixed by the people. In some places they burnt the barns
of those who concealed their corn, and committed other violences. The
worst tumults were at Norwich and in the western counties, where the
peace could only be preserved by quartering regiments in the most
riotous districts. In this emergency, the Council advised the King, as
Parliament was not sitting, to lay an embargo, by his own authority,
on the exportation of corn; an extension of prerogative not used for a
large number of years but in a war, or on the imminent approach of one.
The Duke of Newcastle attended the Council, and, to his honour, spoke
heartily for a measure which checked the evil. Who would believe that
so essential a remedy was converted into matter of blame? That it was,
reflected honour on the Administration. Such crimes can only be found
in a dearth of accusation.
The Earl of Northumberland, offended at the promotions of Lord Bristol
and Lord Hertford, and that even the Chamberlain’s staff was engaged
to the latter, broke out in complaints to Lord Chatham, who, with a
facility that seemed to imply a secret understanding, consented that he
should be created a Duke. The King did not hesitate a moment; the same
day heard the grievance and the indemnification. Lord Cardigan,[291]
on an old promise, obtained by Lord Bute, that he should be a Duke
whenever one was made, was raised to the same rank; but Lord Chatham
coupling it with a condition to both, that the one should take no
employment, and the other resign the government of Windsor Castle,
Lord Cardigan refused the increase of title, and would not part with
his office, saying, he thought titles were honours and rewards,
not punishments. Lord Northumberland acquiesced, and obtained the
precedence. The other being firm, carried his point, kept his place,
and got the dukedom. Had Lord Chatham intended to bar solicitation
for titles by so unpleasant a restriction, he had acted wisely; but,
relinquishing it in Lord Cardigan’s case, it is probable that his
sole view was to disculpate himself from the imputation of too open
propensity to the Favourite’s family. He offered an earldom to Lord
Monson in lieu of his place, which the Earl designed for Mr. Popham;
but Lord Monson would neither accept the title nor resign the office.
Lord Grantham[292] was removed from the Post-office in favour of Mr.
Prowse, who would not accept it, but the former was partly indemnified
by his son Robinson being made a Lord of Trade.
In October Lord Chatham went to Bath, where I happened to be. He came
to me, and we had a conversation of two hours. Nothing could be more
frank and unreserved than his behaviour. He asked me earnestly if I
did not think that France intended to keep peace with us? I replied,
I was sure in the present distress of their circumstances they must
keep it: and that I was as sure from the terror I had seen they felt
at _his_ name, that they would be still more disposed to keep it now
he was Minister. He lamented that we could get no allies; that he saw
no day-light. The session he thought he should carry through easily.
To flatter me he commended Mr. Conway highly, particularly for his
Whiggism--“and am not I,” said he, “Lord Camden, and Lord Shelburne,
Whigs?” Yet he wished to take some of all parties. The Duke of Bedford,
indeed, had made himself nobody. Lord Gower was considerable, and ought
to be high. If the Duke and Duchess desired it, Rigby might be taken
care of; but when Cabinet places were so scarce, they wanted one for
Lord Weymouth--a very pretty man, Lord Weymouth!--but that could not
be. He had been offered the embassy to Spain, but would not accept it;
nor Postmaster, though it had been held by Lord Grantham, who had been
Secretary of State. The King, he said, was very gracious to him, and
he believed in earnest--and then dropped these remarkable words: “If
I was in possession of the citadel of Lisle, and was told there was a
mine under my feet, I would say, I do not believe it.” His opinion of
his Majesty’s sincerity was therefore exactly the same as mine. I took
great pains to cultivate harmony between him and Mr. Conway, because I
feared it was little likely to last.
The negotiation with the Duke of Bedford had been renewed at Bath
by Lord Northington and Mr. Nugent. The Duke himself came thither
and they had an interview, in which Lord Chatham desired artfully to
open himself to his Grace, and declared against Continental measures,
subsidies, &c. (the very objects in which he had been disappointed, but
against which the Duke’s humour then lay.) They could not agree on Lord
Weymouth, which made the Duke profess his unwillingness to abandon his
friends, though ready to abandon them if that point had been accorded.
However Lord Chatham had made so much impression that, on the Duke’s
return to London, and being instantly beset by Grenville, the Duke
said he was unpopular enough already, and would not be torn to pieces
for condemning the embargo on corn. He would vote for the Address, and
insisted that Rigby should. The latter begged to go out of town, and
said to his friends that Lord Chatham had duped the Duke of Bedford,
and the King Lord Gower, who had been particularly distinguished at
Court; that they were undone if they voted with Administration before
their bargain was made.
Lord Temple and Lord Lyttelton went to the Lord Mayor’s feast, but were
totally neglected by the citizens.