ARLINGTON STREET, _Nov._ 4, 1756.
I desired your brother last week to tell you that it was in vain for me
to write while everything was in such confusion. The chaos is just as
far from being dispersed now; I only write to tell you what has been its
motions. One of the Popes, I think, said soon after his accession, he
did not think it had been so easy to govern. What would he have thought
of such a nation as this, engaged in a formidable war, without any
government at all, literally, for above a fortnight! The foreign
ministers have not attempted to transact any business since yesterday
fortnight. For God's sake, what do other countries say of us?--but hear
the progress of our interministerium.
When Mr. Fox had declared his determination of resigning, great offers
were sent to Mr. Pitt; his demands were much greater, accompanied with a
total exclusion of the Duke of Newcastle. Some of the latter's friends
would have persuaded him, as the House of Commons is at his devotion, to
have undertaken the government against both Pitt and Fox; but fears
preponderated. Yesterday se'nnight his grace declared his resolution of
retiring, with all that satisfaction of mind which must attend a man
whom not one man of sense will trust any longer. The King sent for Mr.
Fox, and bid him try if Mr. Pitt would join him. The latter, without any
hesitation, refused. In this perplexity the King ordered the Duke of
Devonshire to try to compose some Ministry for him, and sent him to
Pitt, to try to accommodate with Fox. Pitt, with a list of terms a
little modified, was ready to engage, but on condition that Fox should
have no employment in the cabinet. Upon this plan negotiations have been
carrying on for this week. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge, whose whole party
consists of from twelve to sixteen persons, exclusive of Leicester House
(of that presently), concluded they were entering on the government as
Secretary of State and Chancellor of the Exchequer: but there is so
great unwillingness to give it up totally into their hands, that all
manner of expedients have been projected to get rid of their proposals,
or to limit their power. Thus the case stands at this instant: the
Parliament has been put off for a fortnight, to gain time; the Lord
knows whether that will suffice to bring on any sort of temper! In the
meantime the government stands still; pray Heaven the war may too! You
will wonder how fifteen or sixteen persons can be of such importance. In
the first place, their importance has been conferred on them, and has
been notified to the nation by these concessions and messages; next,
Minorca[1] is gone; Oswego gone;[2] the nation is in a ferment; some
very great indiscretions in delivering a Hanoverian soldier from prison
by a warrant from the Secretary of State have raised great difficulties;
instructions from counties, boroughs, especially from the City of
London, in the style of 1641, and really in the spirit of 1715 and 1745,
have raised a great flame; and lastly, the countenance of Leicester
House, which Mr. Pitt is supposed to have, and which Mr. Legge thinks he
has, all these tell Pitt that he may command such numbers without doors
as may make the majorities within the House tremble.
[Footnote 1: Minorca had been taken by the Duc de Richelieu; Admiral
Byng, after an indecisive action with the French fleet, having adopted
the idea that he should not be able to save it, for which, as is too
well known, he was condemned to death by a court-martial.]
[Footnote 2: "_Oswego gone._" "A detachment of the enemy was defeated by
Colonel Broadstreet on the river Onondaga; on the other hand, the small
forts of Ontario and Oswego were reduced by the French" (Lord Stanhope,
"History of England," c. 33).]
Leicester House[1] is by some thought inclined to more pacific measures.
Lord Bute's being established Groom of the Stole has satisfied. They
seem more occupied in disobliging all their new court than in disturbing
the King's. Lord Huntingdon, the new Master of the Horse to the Prince,
and Lord Pembroke, one of his Lords, have not been spoken to. Alas! if
the present storms should blow over, what seeds for new! You must guess
at the sense of this paragraph, which it is difficult, at least
improper, to explain to you; though you could not go into a coffee-house
here where it would not be interpreted to you. One would think all those
little politicians had been reading the Memoirs of the minority of Louis
XIV.
[Footnote 1: Leicester House was the London residence of the young
Prince of Wales.]
There has been another great difficulty: the season obliging all camps
to break up, the poor Hanoverians have been forced to continue soaking
in theirs. The county magistrates have been advised that they are not
obliged by law to billet foreigners on public-houses, and have refused.
Transports were yesterday ordered to carry away the Hanoverians! There
are eight thousand men taken from America; for I am sure we can spare
none from hence. The negligence and dilatoriness of the ministers at
home, the wickedness of our West Indian governors, and the little-minded
quarrels of the regulars and irregular forces, have reduced our affairs
in that part of the world to a most deplorable state. Oswego, of ten
times more importance even than Minorca, is so annihilated that we
cannot learn the particulars.
My dear Sir, what a present and future picture have I given you! The
details are infinite, and what I have neither time, nor, for many
reasons, the imprudence to send by the post: your good sense will but
too well lead you to develop them. The crisis is most melancholy and
alarming. I remember two or three years ago I wished for more active
times, and for events to furnish our correspondence. I think I could
write you a letter almost as big as my Lord Clarendon's History. What a
bold man is he who shall undertake the administration! How much shall we
be obliged to him! How mad is he, whoever is ambitious of it! Adieu!
_THE KING OF PRUSSIA'S VICTORIES--VOLTAIRE'S "UNIVERSAL HISTORY."_