We have seen that Pitt was to proceed to Hagley after leaving Tunbridge
Wells in September 1753. From Hagley he sent a letter to Newcastle,
which it must have cost him something to write. 'Some circumstances of
my brother's transactions at Old Sarum render me uneasy at depending for
my seat in next Parliament on that place. So I take the liberty to recur
once more for your Grace's protection and friendship to provide for my
election elsewhere.'[226] Newcastle seems at once to have offered his
borough of Aldborough, and Pitt 'can never express himself sufficiently
grateful for all your favours.'[227] From Hagley (October 1753) he
proceeded to Bath for a fresh course, and seems to have remained there a
helpless cripple for no less than seven months, though he was in London
for a debate in November. Never was illness so untimely, as events of
vital importance to him were about to take place. For on March 6, 1754,
Pelham died, and all was confusion. 'Now I shall have no more peace,'
said the shrewd old King. 'I never saw the King under such deep concern
since the Queen's death,' wrote Hardwicke. And indeed the situation was
full of alarming possibilities. For Pelham had become the unobtrusive
but indispensable man, like the mediocre and forgotten Liverpool, who
kept the balance between fierce rivalries and discordant opinions for
fifteen years.
There seems no great complication in Pelham's character. He was a Whig
politician, trained under Walpole, but also under an intolerable brother
who exercised the utmost prerogative of his birthright. His portrait, by
Hoare, indicates something catlike, and he had much of feline caution
and timidity. But among the politicians of that day he seems to have
been comparatively simple and direct; and no man of his day was so fit
for the position of Prime Minister in view of his own qualifications,
and the conditions of the office at that time. He was indeed an inferior
Walpole. He seems moreover to have been almost devoid of personal
ambition; the highest places were thrust on him without his seeking
them. At the fall of Walpole, in spite of Walpole's urgent instances
that he should accept the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, which besides
the eminence of the office would have given him the succession to Lord
Wilmington, he insisted on remaining Paymaster, a post which, as we have
seen, even without the recognised perquisites, had great material
attractions, and which with them was capable of enchaining so powerful a
parliamentarian as Fox. On the death of Wilmington, by Walpole's
influence, he obtained the highest place; though Walpole had not merely
to inspire the King, but to overcome Pelham's reluctance. We may imagine
that Walpole would urge on his Sovereign that Pelham was the only House
of Commons man available, that he was eminently safe, that he
represented Newcastle's parliamentary influence, and that Newcastle
represented Hardwicke, who embodied the brains of the Cabinet; for
those of Carteret were too dangerous to trust.
As First Minister Pelham had many difficulties to contend with, but not
greater than those which always must encompass that position. There was
the King, with violent prejudices and a Hanoverian policy, neither of
which he shared. Then there was his brother, who regarded himself as at
least his junior's equal, and whose petulance, jealousy, and suspicion
had to be kept in a constant state of arduous appeasement. Thirdly,
there was Pitt, whom the King could not do with and Pelham could not do
without; an element of incalculable explosion which anything might
ignite.
He seems to have steered his course somewhat passively through these
complications; content so long as he could ward off domestic
catastrophe, and prevent war with its consequent expenditure; though the
fates in neither case were propitious. His only real conviction indeed
was for peace and economy; for the heritage of Walpole's policy had
devolved upon him, without Walpole's character and ability. Three years
before the end, as we have seen, he had sickened of his task and of his
helplessness amid the jarring elements of discord, but he had not been
permitted to retire. He was indeed the necessary man; a good debater, a
good administrator, a minister with a conscience for the public, a
leader or a figurehead with Newcastle's parliamentary power behind him,
a tactician who managed to keep Pitt at bay, dangerous but muzzled. Men
of this stamp are kept in harness to the end.
He died on March 6, and the news found Pitt, on March 7, crippled and
immovable at Bath. His feet were impotent with gout, but his brain and
hands were evidently unaffected. He at once despatched a brief note of
condolence to Newcastle, 'whose grief must be inconsolable as its cause
is irreparable. You have a great occasion for all your strength of mind
to exert itself. Exercise it for the sake of your master and your
country, and may all good men support you. I have the gout in both feet
and am totally unable to travel.'[228] To Lyttelton and the Grenvilles
he wrote on the same day at length 'the breaking of first thoughts to be
confined to you four,'[229] enclosed in a covering letter to Temple,
saying that he was worn down with pain, and incapable of motion. But he
was none the less vigilant with regard to the least ripple on the
surface of politics, 'I heard some time since that the Princess of Wales
inquired after my health: an honour which I received with much pleasure,
as not void, perhaps of some meaning.'[230] Newcastle at once answered
Pitt's note of condolence, for we find Pitt acknowledging the reply on
March 11, and mentioning a letter written to him by Hardwicke, under
Newcastle's authority, 'with regard to some things in deliberation for
the settling the Government in the House of Commons and the direction of
the affairs of the Treasury. My answer is in a letter to Sir George
Lyttelton.'[231] This was practically giving powers to Lyttelton to
negotiate with Newcastle as Pitt's representative; a strange choice,
when we read in the covering letter to Temple: 'let me recommend to my
dear Lord to preach prudence and reserve to our friend Sir George, and,
if he can, inspire him with his own.' Lyttelton indeed was not destined
ever to earn fame as a negotiator.
And now it is necessary to give the principal passages of this letter to
Lyttelton and the Cousinhood, which would have been a fuller and clearer
manifesto had not all politicians at that time felt a well-grounded
apprehension that their letters would be opened and read before they
were delivered. Fulness and clearness were therefore the last qualities
aimed at in their epistolary style, and inquiring posterity rues the
result.
MR. PITT TO SIR GEORGE LYTTELTON AND THE GRENVILLE BROTHERS.
_March 7, 1754._
My dearest Friends,--[Then follows pompous regrets for Pelham's
'utterly irreparable' loss.] I will offer to the consideration of my
friends but two things: the object to be wished for, the public; and
the means; which the object itself seems to suggest; for the pursuit
of it, my own object for the public, is, to support the King in
quiet as long as he may have to live; and to strengthen the hands of
the Princess of Wales, as much as may be, in order to maintain her
power in the Government, in case of the misfortune of the King's
demise. The means, as I said, suggest themselves: an union of all
those in action who are really already united in their wishes as to
the object: this might easily be effected, but it is my opinion, it
will certainly not be done.
As to the nomination of a Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Fox in
point of party, seniority in the Corps, and I think ability for
Treasury and House of Commons business stands, upon the whole, first
of any.
Doctor Lee if his health permits is Papabilis, and in some views
very desirable. Te Quinte Catule, my dear George Grenville, would be
my nomination.
A fourth idea I will mention, which if practicable, and worth the
person's while, might have great strength and efficiency for
Government in it, and be perfectly adapted to the main future
contingent object, could it be tempered so as to reconcile the Whigs
to it: I mean to secularise, if I may use the expression, the
Solicitor-General,[232] and make him Chancellor of the Exchequer. I
call this an idea only; but I think it not visionary, were it
accompanied by proper temperaments. I write these thoughts for Lord
Temple, his brothers' and Sir George Lyttelton's consideration only,
or rather as a communication of my first thoughts, upon an emergency
that has too much importance and delicacy, as well as danger in it,
to whoever delivers their opinion freely, to be imparted any
farther.
I am utterly unable to travel, nor can guess when I shall be able:
this situation is most unfortunate. I am overpowered with gout,
rather than relieved, but expect to be better for it. My dear
friends over-rate infinitely the importance of my health, were it
established: something I might weigh in such a scale as the present,
but you, who have health to act, cannot fail to weigh much, if
united in views.
I will join you the first moment I am able, for letters cannot
exchange one's thoughts upon matters so complicated, extensive and
delicate.
I don't a little wonder I have had no express from another
quarter.[233]
I repeat again, that what I have said are the breakings of first
thoughts, to be confined to you four; and the looseness, and want of
form in them, to be, I trust, excused in consideration of the state
of mind and body of
Your ever most affectionate,
W. PITT.
As nothing is so delicate and dangerous, as every word uttered upon
the present _unexplained_ state of things, I mean _unexplained_, as
to the King's inclinations towards Mr. Fox, and his real desire to
have his own act of Regency, as it is called, maintained in the
hands of the Princess; too much caution, reserve, and silence
cannot be observed towards any who come to fish or sound your
dispositions, without authority to make direct propositions. If eyes
are really turned towards any connection of men, as a resource
against dangers apprehended, that set of men cannot, though willing,
answer the expectation without countenance, and additional
consideration and weight added to them, by marks of Royal favour,
one of the connection put into the Cabinet, and called to a real
participation of councils and business. How our little connection
has stood at all, under all depression and discountenance, or has an
existence in the eyes of the public, I don't understand: that it
should continue to do so, without an attribution of some new
strength and consideration, arising from a real share in Government,
I have difficulty to believe.
I am, however, resolved to listen to no suggestions of certain
feelings, however founded, but to go as straight as my poor judgment
will direct me, to the sole object of public good.
I don't think quitting of offices at all advisable, for public or
private accounts: but as to answering any further purposes in the
House of Commons, that must depend on the King's will and pleasure
to enable us so to do.[234]
It will be observed that Pitt does not mention the Treasury; and he
probably, though in his letter to Temple of the same date he speaks of
the Duke's 'ability as Secretary of State,' took it for granted that
Newcastle would succeed his brother; a proof of his perception. Yet
Walpole tells us that it was to the astonishment of all men that
Newcastle took the Treasury five days later.
Next we may notice that he does not mention the Secretaryship of State
to be vacated by Newcastle, which would seem to show that that office
had long been destined by the cousinhood for himself.
The postscript is extremely obscure, as it was probably intended to be.
It seems to enjoin the greatest caution in dealing with any vague
overtures which may be made, until it is known whether the King means to
give his confidence to Fox, and whether he means to maintain the Regency
as then established. But this phrase about the Regency is almost
unintelligible.
The last sentence in the postscript is the clearest of the letter. Let
us remain in office, but whether we exert ourselves there or remain in
sullen silence must depend on the attitude of the King.
All this is enclosed in a covering letter to Temple--
MR. PITT TO EARL TEMPLE.
_March 7, 1754._
My dear Lord,--I return my answer to Jemmy's and Sir George's
dispatch directed to you, and accompany it with this line to give
you my apprehensions of Sir George's want of discretion and address,
in such soundings as will be, and have been, made upon him, with
regard to the disposition of his friends.
I beg your Lordship will be so good to convene your brothers and Sir
George, and communicate my letter to them which is addressed to you
jointly. It is a most untoward circumstance that I cannot set out
immediately to join you. I am extremely crippled and worn down with
pain, which still continues. I make what efforts I can, and am
carried out to breathe a little air. I write this hardly legible
scrawl in my chaise.
Let me recommend to my dear Lord to preach prudence and reserve to
our friend Sir George, and if he can, to inspire him with his own.
I heard some time since that the Princess inquired after my health;
an honour which I received with much pleasure, as not void, perhaps,
of some meaning.
I have writ more to-day than my weak state, under such a shock as
the news of to-day, will well permit.
Believe me, my dearest Lord,
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. PITT.
Fox will be Chancellor of the Exchequer, notwithstanding any
reluctancy to yield to it in the Ministers; George Grenville may be
offered Secretary at War; I am sure he ought to be so. I advise his
acceptance. The Chancellor is the only resource; his wisdom, temper,
and authority, joined to the Duke of Newcastle's ability as
Secretary of State, are the dependance for Government. The Duke of
Newcastle alone is feeble, this not to Sir George.[235]
Pitt's next step was to send two letters, in the same cover, to
Lyttelton; one a confidential letter, the other, an ostensible one, to
be sent to Hardwicke. The confidential letter, which follows, is
striking, and contains as much of Pitt's plan of operations at this
crisis as any that we possess.
_Bath, March 10th, 1754._
Dear Lyttelton,--I am much obliged to you for your dispatch, and am
highly satisfied with the necessary reserve you have kept with
respect to the dispositions of yourself and friends. Indeed, the
conjuncture itself, and more especially our peculiar situation,
require much caution and measure in all our answers, in order to act
like honest men, who determine to adhere to the public great object;
as well as men who would not be treated like children. I am far from
meaning to recommend a sullen, dark, much less a double conduct. All
I mean is to lay down a plan to ourselves; which is, to support the
King's Government in present, and maintain the Princess's authority
and power in a future, contingency. As a necessary consequence of
this system, I wish to see as little power in Fox's hands as
possible, because he is incompatible with the main part, and indeed
of the whole, of this plan; but I mean not to open myself to whoever
pleases to sound my dispositions, with regard to persons especially,
and by premature declarations deprive ourselves of the only chance
we have of deriving any consideration to ourselves from the mutual
fears and animosities of different factions in court: and expose
ourselves to the resentment and malice in the closet of the one
without stipulations or security for the good offices and weight of
the other there in our favour.
But do I mean, then, an absolute reserve, which has little less than
the air of hostility towards our friends (such as they are) at
Court, or at least, bear too plainly the indications of intending a
third party or flying squadron? By no means. Nothing would, in my
poor judgment, be so unfit and dangerous for us. I would be open and
explicit (but only on proper occasions) that, I was most willing to
support his Majesty's Government upon such a proper plan as I
doubted not his Majesty, by the advice of his Ministers, would
frame; in order to supply, the best that may be, the irreparable
loss the King has sustained in Mr. Pelham's death: in order to
secure the King ease for his life and future security to his family
and to the kingdom: that my regards to the ministers in being were
too well known to need any declarations;' this and the like, which
may be vary'd for ever, is answer enough to any _sounder_. As to any
things said by Principals in personal conference, as that of the
Chancellor with you, another manner of talking will be proper,
though still conformable to the same private plan which you shall
resolve to pursue. Professions of personal regard cannot be made too
strongly; but as to matter, generals are to be answered with
generals; particulars, if you are led into them, need not at all be
shunn'd; and if treated with common prudence and presence of mind,
can not be greatly used to a man's prejudice; if he says nothing
that implies specific engagements, without knowing specifically what
he is to trust to reciprocally. Within these limitations, it seems
to me, that a man whose intentions are clear and right, may talk
without putting himself at another's mercy or offending him by a
dark and mysterious reserve.
I think it best to throw my answer to the Chancellor into a separate
piece of paper, that you may send it to his lordship. I am sorry to
be forced to answer in writing, because, not seeing the party, it is
not possible to throw in necessary qualifications and additions or
retractions, according to the impression things make.
As far as, my dear Lyttelton, you are so good to relate your several
conversations upon the present situation, I highly applaud your
prudence. I hope you neither have nor will drop a word of menace,
and that you will always bear in mind that my personal connection
with the Duke of Newcastle, has a peculiar circumstance,[236] which
yours and that of your friends has not. One cannot be too explicit
in conversing at this unhappy distance on matters of this delicate
and critical nature. I will, therefore, commit tautology, and repeat
what I said in my former dispatch, viz., that it enters not the
least into my plans to intimate quitting the King's service; giving
trouble, if not satisfied, to Government. The essence of it exists
in this: attachment to the King's service, and zeal for the ease and
quiet of his life, and stability and strength to future government
under the Princess; this declared openly and explicitly _to the
ministers_. The reserve I would use should be with regard to listing
in particular subdivisions, and thereby not freeing persons from
those fears which will alone quicken them to give us some
consideration for their own sakes: but this is to be done
_negatively_ only, by eluding explicit declarations with regard to
persons especially; but by _intimations of a possibility of our
following our resentments_; for, indeed, dear Sir George, I am
determined not to go into faction. Upon the whole, the mutual fears
in Court open to our connexion some room for importance and weight,
in the course of affairs: in order to profit by this situation, we
must not be out of office: and the strongest argument of all to
enforce that, is, that Fox is too odious to last for ever, and G.
Grenville must be next nominated under any Government.
I am too lame to move.
Your ever affectionate,
W. PITT.[237]
Then follows the apparent and ostensible letter to be shown to the
Chancellor. It is from the nature of it artificial and need not be
quoted in full. But it contains one remarkable passage in which Pitt
claims credit for having renounced opposition and the accompanying
popularity when he was convinced that there might be danger to the
reigning family from his carrying it further. The assertion is striking
and daring, and no doubt Pitt did join the Government while Charles
Edward was still in arms.
_Bath, March 11th, 1754._
My dear Sir George.--I beg you will be so good to assure my Lord
Chancellor, in my name, of my most humble services and many very
grateful acknowledgments for his Lordship's obliging wishes for my
health.... I can never sufficiently express the high sense I have of
the great honours of my Lord Chancellor's much too favourable
opinion of his humble servant; but I am so truly and deeply
conscious of so many of my wants in Parliament and out of it, to
supply in the smallest degree this irreparable loss, that I can say
with much truth were my health restored and his Majesty brought from
the dearth of subjects to hear of my name for so great a charge, I
should wish to decline the honour, even though accompany'd with the
attribution of all the weight and strength which the good opinion
and confidence of the master cannot fail to add to a servant; but
under impressions in the Royal mind towards me, the reverse of
these, what must be the vanity which would attempt it? These
prejudices, however so successfully suggested and hitherto so
unsuccessfully attempted to be removed, shall not abate my zeal for
his Majesty's service, though they have so effectually disarmed me
of all means of being useful to it. I need not suggest to his
Lordship that consideration and weight in the House of Commons
arises generally but from one of two causes--the protection and
countenance of the Crown, visibly manifested by marks of Royal
favour at Court, or from weight in the country, sometimes arising
from opposition to the public measures. This latter sort of
consideration it is a great satisfaction to me to reflect I parted
with, as soon as I became convinced there might be danger to the
family from pursuing opposition any further; and I need not say I
have not had the honour to receive any of the former since I became
the King's servant.... Perhaps some of my friends may not labour
under all the prejudices that I do. I have reason to believe they do
not: in that case should Mr. Fox be Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
Secretary at War is to be filled up....[238]
He does not follow up this innuendo, nor was it necessary. The next day
he writes frankly to Temple, who seems to have been much in Pitt's
confidence at this time. Taken in conjunction with the secret letter to
Lyttelton of March 10, the plan of operations is easily understood. We
will leave ministers 'under the impression of their own fears and
resentments, the only friends we shall ever have at Court, but to say
not a syllable which can scatter terrors or imply menaces.' Pitt's plan,
in a sentence, was to hang over the Government like a thundercloud,
dark, silent, menacing, possibly to be dispelled, but ready and in an
instant to pour destruction down.
MR. PITT TO EARL TEMPLE.
_Bath, March 11, 1754._
My dearest Lord,--I hope you will not disapprove my answer to Lord
Chancellor. I include in you your brothers, for your Lordship's name
is Legion. You will see the answer contains my whole poor plan; the
essence of which is to talk modestly, to declare attachment to the
_King's_ government, and the future plan _under the Princess_,
neither to intend nor intimate the quitting the service, to give no
terrors by talking big, to make no declarations of thinking
ourselves free by Mr. Pelham's death, to look out and fish in
troubled waters, and perhaps help trouble them in order to fish the
better: but to profess and to resolve _bona fide_ to act like public
men in a dangerous conjuncture for our country, and support
Government when they will please to settle it; to let them see we
shall do this from _principles of public good_, not as the _bubbles_
of a few fair words, without effects (all this civilly), and to be
collected by them, not expressed by us; to leave them under the
impressions of their own fears and resentments, the only friends we
shall ever have at Court, but to say not a syllable which can
scatter terrors or imply menaces. Their fears will increase by what
we _avoid saying concerning persons_ (though what I think of Fox,
etc., is much fixed), and by _saying very explicitly_, as I have
(but civilly), that we have our eyes open to our situation at Court,
and the foul play we have had offered us in the Closet: to wait the
working of all these things in offices, the best we can have, but in
offices.
My judgment tells me, my dear Lord, that this simple plan steadily
pursued will once again, before it be long, give some weight to a
connection, long depressed, and yet still not annihilated. Mr. Fox's
having called at my door early the morning Mr. Pelham died is, I
suppose, no secret, and a lucky incident, in my opinion. I have a
post letter from the Duke of Newcastle, a very obliging one. I
heartily pity him, he suffers a great deal for his loss.
Give me leave to recommend to your Lordship a little gathering of
friends about you at dinners, without ostentation. Stanley, who will
be in Parliament: some attention to Sir Richard Lyttelton I should
think proper; a dinner to the Yorkes very seasonable; and, before
things are settled, any of the Princess of Wales's Court. John Pitt
not to be forgot: I know the Duke of B---- nibbles at him: in short
liez commerce with as many members of Parliament, who may be open to
our purposes, as your Lordship can. Pardon, my dear Lord, all this
freedom, but the conjuncture is made to awaken men, and there is
room for action. I have no doubt George Grenville's turn must come.
Fox is odious, and will have difficulty to stand in a future time. I
mend a little. I cannot express my impatience to be with you.
W. PITT.[239]
On March 18, Lyttelton writes to Grenville to ask if he shall send an
express down to Pitt as 'he will be impatient to hear particulars,' with
the news that Grenville and the writer had accepted office, and 'things
are not as much settled as they are likely to be till the dissolution of
parliament. I have had no answer from him to my last letter; have you?'
But this unanswered letter may not have reached its destination, or was
destitute of certain intelligence, for we find Pitt writing to Lyttelton
on March 20: 'I conclude that things still remain unsettled, because I
hear nothing from you or my other friends relating to them.' So he is
solacing himself by reading Bolingbroke's works. Their arrogance, he
says, is so excessive, that, great as is the performance, it often
becomes ridiculous. There was, he remembers, not many years ago, a man
in Bedlam, a scholar of fine parts, who used to entertain all the
spectators of that asylum with very rational discourses, and talked
with wit and eloquence; but always concluded by assuring his hearers
that he alone of all his hearers was in his right senses, and they and
all mankind were mad, and had conspired to put him in that place;
Bolingbroke reminds Pitt of this lunatic. There was indeed no love lost
between the two men. Pitt had not treated the elder statesman with the
deference paid to him by the adoring circle in which he lived, and
Bolingbroke had then charged Pitt with the same fault which Pitt now
found in Bolingbroke. On March 24, in a letter to Grenville, he pursues
the same theme, and dubs Bolingbroke the 'intellectual Sampson of
Battersea.' But six weeks afterwards, we find him warmly recommending
Bolingbroke's 'Remarks on the History of England' to his nephew 'to be
studied and almost got by heart for the inimitable beauty of the style
as well as the matter.'
And now comes a letter of which not a word must be omitted, the
memorable letter to Newcastle of March 24, long supposed to be lost, but
now discovered among the Newcastle Papers. It was penned under the just
resentment caused by the knowledge of the arrangements for office from
which he had been insultingly ignored. It is, so far as we know, the
greatest that Pitt ever wrote, full of scornful humility, suppressed
passion, and pointed insinuation. Unlike most of his letters it needs no
interpretation, it speaks for itself. That bitterness of indignation,
which is said to produce poetry, has in this instance evolved clearness
and force. Towards the end, after speaking of resignation, and of his
wish for retirement, he utters this prophecy, baleful to Newcastle, who
should have remembered that the prophet had it in his power to fulfil
his own prediction. 'Indeed, my lord, the inside of the House must be
consider'd in other respects besides merely numbers, or the reins of
government will soon slip or be wrested out of any minister's hands.' A
few months were to bring home to the duke the truth of this prediction.
PITT TO NEWCASTLE.
_Bath, 24 March, 1754._
My Lord Duke,--I have heard with the highest satisfaction by a
message from Sr George Lyttelton the effectual proofs of his
Majesty's great kindness and firm confidence in your Grace for the
conduct of his Government. You have certainly taken most wisely the
Province of the Treasury to yourself, where the powers of Government
reside, and which at this particular crisis of a General Election
may lay the foundations of the future political system so fast as
not to be shaken hereafter. But this will depend upon many
concomitant circumstances. For the present the nation may say with
consolation, _uno avulso non deficit alter aureus_. The power of the
Purse in the hands of the same family may, I trust, be so used as to
fix all other power there along with it. Amidst all the real
satisfaction I feel on this great measure so happily taken, it is
with infinite reluctance that I am forced to return to the
mortifying situation of your Grace's humblest servant and to add
some few considerations to those, which, I have the satisfaction to
learn from Sr George Lyttelton, had the honour to be receiv'd by
your Grace and my Lord Chancellor without disapprobation. The
difficulties grow so fast upon me by the repetition and
multiplication of most painfull and too visible humiliations that my
small store of prudence suggests no longer to me any means of
colouring them to the world; nor of repairing them to my own mind
consistently with my unshaken purpose to do nothing on any
provocation to disturb the quiet of the King and the ease and
stability of present and future Government.
Permit, my Lord, a man, whose affectionate attachment to your Grace,
I believe, you don't doubt, to expose simply to your view his
situation, and then let me entreat your Grace (if you can divest
your mind of the great disparity between us) to transport yourself
for a moment into my place. From the time I had the honour to come
into the King's service, I have never been wanting in my most
zealous endeavours in Parliament on the points that laboured the
most, those of military discipline and foreign affairs; nor have I
differ'd on any whatever, but the too small number of seamen one
year, which was admitted to be so the next; and on a crying
complaint against General Anstruther: for these crimes how am I
punish'd? Be the want of subjects ever so great and the force of the
conjuncture ever so cogent, be my best friends and protectors ever
so much at the head of Government, an indelible negative is fixed
against my name. Since I had the honour to return that answer to the
Chancellor which Your Grace and his Lordship were pleas'd not to
disapprove, how have mortifications been multiply'd upon me. One
Chancellor of the Exchequer over me was at that time destin'd, Mr.
Fox: since that time a second, Mr. Legge, is fixt: a Secretary of
State is next to be look'd for in the House of Commons; Mr. Fox is
again put over me and destin'd to that office: he refuses the seals:
Sir Thomas Robinson is immediately put over me and is now in
possession of that great office. I sincerely think both these high
employments much better fill'd than I cou'd supply either of them in
many respects. Mr. Legge I truely and cordially esteem and love. Sir
Thos. Robinson, with whom I have not the honour to live in the same
intimacy, I sincerely believe to be a gentleman of much worth and
ability. Nevertheless I will venture to appeal to your Grace's
candour and justice whether upon such feeble pretensions as twenty
years' use of Parliament may have given me, I have not some cause to
feel (as I do most deeply) so many repeated and visible
humiliations. I have troubled your Grace so long on this painfull
subject that I may have nothing disagreeable to say, when I have
the honour to wait on you; as well as that I think it fit your
Grace shou'd know the whole heart of a faithfull servant, who is
conscious of nothing towards your Grace which he wishes to conceal
from you. In my degraded situation in parliament, an active part
there I am sure your Grace is too equitable to desire me to take;
for otherwise than as an associate and in equal rank with those
charg'd with Government there, I never can take such a part.
I will confess I had flatter'd myself that the interests of your
Grace's own power were so concern'd to bring forward an instrument
of your own raising in the House of Commons that you cou'd not let
pass this decisive occasion without surmounting in the royal mind
the unfavourable impressions I have the unhappiness to be under; and
that the seals (at least when refus'd by Mr. Fox) might have been
destin'd as soon as an opening cou'd be made in the King's mind in
my favour instead of being immediately put into other hands. Things
standing as they do, whether I can continue in office without losing
myself in the opinion of the world is become a matter of very
painfull doubt to me. If any thing can colour with any air of
decency such an acquiescence, it can only be the consideration given
to my friends and some degree of softening obtain'd in his Majesty's
mind towards me. Mr Pelham destin'd Sir George Lyttelton to be
cofferer, whenever that office shou'd open, and there can be no
shadow of difficulty in Mr Grenville being made Treasurer of the
Navy. Weighed in the fair scale of usefulness to the King's business
in Parliament, they can have no competitors that deserve to stand in
their way. I have submitted these things to your Grace with a
frankness you had hitherto been so good to tolerate in me, however
inferior. I wou'd not have done it so fully for my own regard alone,
were I not certain that your Grace's interests are more concern'd in
it than mine: because I am most sure that my mind carries me more
strongly towards retreat than towards courts and business. Indeed,
My Lord, the inside of the House must be consider'd in other
respects besides merely numbers, or the reins of Government will
soon slip or be wrested out of any minister's hands. If I have
spoken too freely, I humbly beg your Grace's pardon: and entreat you
to impute my freedom to the most sincere and unalterable attachment
of a man who never will conceal his heart, and who can complain
without alienation of mind and remonstrate without resentment.
I have the honour to be, etc. etc.
W. PITT.
I cannot hope to leave Bath in less than a week. My health seems
much mended by my gout.[240]
This letter was enclosed to Lyttelton under flying seal to be
communicated to the Grenvilles. Pitt, writing the same day to Temple,
says: 'I hope my letter to the Duke of Newcastle will meet with the
fraternal approbation. It is strong, but not hostile, and will, I
believe, operate some effect. I am still more strongly fixed in my
judgement that the place of importance is employment, in the present
unsettled conjuncture. It may not to us be the place of dignity, but
sure I am it is that of the former. I see, as your Lordship does, the
treatment we have had: I feel it as deeply, but I believe, not so
warmly. I don't suffer my feelings to warp the only plan I can form that
has any tendency or meaning. For making ourselves felt, by disturbing
Government, I think would prove hurtful to the public, not reputable to
ourselves, and beneficial in the end, only to others. All Achilles as
you are, Impiger, Iracundus, etc., what would avail us to sail back a
few myrmidons to Thessaly! Go over to the Trojans, to be revenged, we
none of us can bear the thought of. What then remains? The conduct of
the much-enduring man, who by temper, patience, and persevering
prudence, became _adversis rerum immersabilis undis_.'
He adds another postscript of caution: 'Be so good as not to leave my
letters in your pockets, but lock them up or burn them, and caution Sir
George to do the same.'[241] Secrecy was of the essence of his scheme.
Should Newcastle or the Chancellor understand the part that he designed
to play, they would have an advantage in the game.
On April 2 Pitt writes to jog Newcastle's memory in a note about the
Aldborough election: 'I had expected to hear from you, but I know the
multiplicity of your business.'[242] He need not have feared that his
letter had been overlooked. So little was this the case that, no doubt
after anxious and protracted conferences, Newcastle and Hardwicke were
both writing to him on this very day long and elaborate apologies.
Hardwicke's is a document, as might be expected, of great but inadequate
skill.[243] It gives him much concern to find that Pitt is 'under
apprehensions of _some_ neglect on this decisive occasion.' He is not
altogether surprised. Could Pitt only have heard how warmly Hardwicke
pressed his claims! But there are certain things which ministers cannot
do directly. These must be left to 'time and incidents and perhaps
ill-judging opponents.' Fox's pressing for larger powers than the King
would give had no doubt helped the cause of Pitt, and Newcastle's being
at the head of the Government whose devotion to Pitt was so notorious
would further it still more. He concludes by hoping with sincerity that
Pitt would take an active part, though no doubt had he seen the
direction in which his wish was fulfilled, he would have withdrawn it
with greater emphasis. This stripped of verbiage seems the bone of this
long letter.
Behind Hardwicke shuffles Newcastle. 'Feel for me,' he plaintively
exclaims, 'for my melancholy and distressed situation: compelled to
leave the department of which I was a master to one with which I was
entirely ignorant, exposed to envy and reproach, and sure of nothing but
the comfort of an honest heart.' It had first been suggested that Fox
should be Secretary of State to make Newcastle's elevation more
palatable to his opponents. But 'that for certain reasons did not take
place; upon which the King himself, of his own motion declared Sir
Thomas Robinson Secretary of State.' And this Pitt's friends thought the
best practicable arrangement. For though an excellent man for the
office, Robinson had not Parliamentary talents which could excite
jealousy, and as, from circumstances deeply lamented by Newcastle, 'it
was impossible to put one into that office who had all the necessary
qualifications both within and out of the House,' there seemed nothing
better to do than to appoint the inoffensive Sir Thomas. All
interspersed with copious assurances of love and affection. 'I honour,
esteem, and ... most sincerely love you.'[244]
Pitt replies to Newcastle in a letter which it is necessary to print in
full from the original in the Newcastle Papers, for this is very
different from the draft printed in the Chatham Correspondence.
PITT TO NEWCASTLE.
_Bath, 4 Apr. 1754._
My Lord Duke,--I was honour'd with your Grace's letter of ye 2nd
inst. yesterday evening. How shall I find words to express my sense
of the great condescension and kindness of expression with which it
is writ? It would be making but an ill return to so much goodness,
were I to go back far into the disagreeable subject that has
occasion'd your Grace so much trouble, and wou'd be tearing and
wounding your good nature to little purpose. Whatever my sensations
are, it is sufficient that I have once freely laid them before you,
and that your Grace has had the indulgence to pardon that freedom,
which I thought I used both to your Grace and myself. As for the
rest, my attachment shall be ever found as unalterable to Government
as my inability to be of any material use to it is become manifest
to all the world. I will enter again, but for a word or two, into a
subject your Grace shall be troubled no more with. It is most
obliging to suggest as consolations to me that I might have been
much more mortify'd under another management than under the present:
but I will freely own I shou'd have felt myself far less personally
humiliated, had Mr. Fox been placed by the King's favour at the head
of the House of Commons, than I am at present: in that case the
necessity wou'd have been apparent: the ability of the subject wou'd
in some degree have warranted the thing. I shou'd indeed have been
much mortify'd for your Grace and for my Lord Chancellor: very
little for my own particular. Cou'd Mr. Murray's situation have
allow'd him to be placed at the head of the House of Commons, I
shou'd have served under him with the greatest pleasure: I
acknowledge as much as the rest of the world do his superiority in
every respect. My mortification arises not from silly pride, but
from being evidently excluded by a negative personal to me (now and
for ever) flowing from a displeasure utterly irremovable. As to the
office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, I hope your Grace cannot
think me fill'd with so impertinent a vanity as to imagine it a
disparagement to me to serve under the Duke of Newcastle at the head
of the Treasury: but, my Lord, had I been proposed for that honour
and the King been once reconciled to the thought of me, my honour
wou'd have been saved and I shou'd with pleasure have declin'd the
charge in favour of Mr. Legge from a just regard to his Majesty's
service. I know my health, at best, is too precarious a thing to
expose his Majesty's affairs in Parliament to suffer delay, perhaps
in the middle of a session by being in such improper hands. As to
the other great office, many circumstances of it render an
uninterrupted health not so absolutely necessary to the discharge of
it. Were I to fail in it from want of health, or, what is still more
likely, from want of ability and a sufficient knowledge of foreign
affairs, a fitter person might at any time be substituted without
material inconvenience to publick business. To conclude, my Lord,
and to release your Grace from a troublesome correspondent, give me
leave to recur to your Grace's equity and candour: when the suffrage
of the party in one instance, and a higher nomination, the Royal
designation in another, operate to the eternal precluding of a man's
name being so much as brought in question, what reasonable wish can
remain for a man so circumstanced (under a first resolution, on no
account to disturb Government) but that of a decent retreat, a
retreat of respect, not resentment: of despair of being ever
accepted to equal terms with others, be his poor endeavours ever so
zealous. Very few have been the advantages and honours of my life:
but among the first of them I shall ever esteem the honour of your
Grace's good opinion: to that good opinion and protection I
recommend myself: and hope from it that some retreat, neither
disagreeable nor dishonourable, may (when practicable) be open'd to
me. I see with great joy Sr George Lyttelton and Mr. Grenville in
this arrangement, where they ought to be. I am persuaded they will
be of the greatest advantage to your Grace's system. They are both
connected in friendship with Mr. Legge and with Mr. Murray, who in
effect is the greatest strength of it in parliament. May every kind
of satisfaction and honour attend your Grace's labours for his
Majesty's service. I have the honour, etc. etc.
W. PITT.
I wrote your Grace by the Post ye 2nd inst. which I hope came to
your hands.'[245]
Two days afterwards he answered Hardwicke. In this letter the notable
passage is that in which he points to retreat, having in his mind, it
would seem, some specific office:--'The weight of irremovable royal
displeasure is a load too great to move under; it must crush any man; it
has sunk and broken me. I succumb, and wish for nothing but a decent and
innocent retreat.... To speak without a figure I will presume ... to
tell my utmost wish; it is that a retreat, not void of advantage or
derogatory to the rank of the office I hold, might, as soon as
practicable, be opened to me.... Out of his Grace's (Newcastle's)
immediate province accommodations of this kind arise.'[246]
By the same messenger Pitt wrote to Lyttelton one of the terse notes
which throw a hundredfold more light on his real temper than his more
pompous lucubrations, and which are infinitely more readable than the
long rigmaroles which he wrote to official persons. He professes in this
to be more than satisfied with Newcastle's answer, and also with the
Chancellor's.
... The Duke of Newcastle's letter to me is not only in a temper
very different from what you saw his Grace in, but is writ with a
condescension, and in terms so flattering, that it pains me. I am
almost tempted to think there is kindness at the bottom of it,
_which, if left to itself, would before now have shewed itself_ in
effects. If I have not the fruit, I have the leaves of it in
abundance; a beautiful foliage of fine words.... The Chancellor's
letter is the most condescending, friendly, obliging thing that can
be imagined. I have the deepest sense of his goodness for me; but I
am really compelled, by every reason fit for a man to listen to, to
resist (as to the point of activity in Parliament) farther than I
like to do. I have intimated retreat and pointed out such a one in
general as I shall really like. Resolved not to disturb Government;
I desire to be released from the oar of Parliamentary drudgery. I am
(un)willing[247] to sit there and be ready to be called out into
action when the Duke of Newcastle's personal interests might
require, or Government should deign to employ me as an instrument. I
am not fond of making speeches (though some may think I am). I never
cultivated the talent, but as an instrument of action in a country
like ours....[248]
The places were now all filled: the Government was made up: Pitt was
excluded and proscribed. Fox or Murray, he admitted, might reasonably be
put over his head. But the promotion of Robinson was a personal outrage.
So he would no longer sit in Parliament as a subordinate and almost a
creature of Newcastle's, member for one of his boroughs, Paymaster in
his administration. Pitt was now determined to be free. He would remain
out of London, and they might see how they got on without him. When he
did return to London they should realise what they had lost. Meanwhile
he would occupy himself with a little architecture and a little
gardening; all that he was fit for, as he would assure inquirers with
obsequious sarcasm.