Friday, March 14th, 1783.
My dear Brother,
We are now not a step forwarder than we were at this time two
days ago. The King commissioned Lord North to submit a plan of
Government, with the Duke of Portland at the Treasury. This has
not been done; nor has the King sent for the Duke of Portland,
who expected that step to have been taken.
What transpires about arrangements is as follows; Pitt not to
join them (_upon which you may depend_); Lord North to name a
colleague to Fox, who is to be Lord Stormont, _if he will
accept_; Lord Dartmouth to be of the Cabinet; Twitcher, Privy
Seal; G. North, Treasurer of the Navy; Grey Cooper, Jemmy's
successor (at which his noble spirit is offended); Lord J.
Cavendish, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Fitzpatrick, talked of
for Secretary-at-War; Lord Keppel to return. Query, whether he
is by this means to be in the Cabinet with Twitcher? I think he
should appoint St. Hugh a Junior Lord.
So good night to you.
_Amiciteæ sempitereæ inimicetræ placabiles._
These arrangements were dependant on the issue of negotiations that
underwent fresh modifications from day to day. In the meantime Lord
Temple had sent in his resignation. His Lordship's conduct on this
occasion was as creditable to his integrity as it was illustrative of
his temperament. He appears to have accompanied the official despatch
tendering his resignation with a private letter to the King, which Mr.
Grenville, acting on his own discretion, withheld. Lord Temple, devoted
to the principles and the party of the late Marquis of Rockingham, and
regarding the alliance of the Duke of Portland, Mr. Fox, and others of
that party, with Lord North, as a gross dereliction of principle, did
not hesitate to allude personally to them in the communication to His
Majesty, under the impression that the coalition was then actually
formed, and that in his public and onerous position he was bound to
state the grounds upon which he felt himself imperatively called upon to
resign. The coalition, however, was not yet concluded; although, on the
13th of March, General Cuninghame confidently announced to Lord Temple
that a new Administration was to be declared the next day, and that that
was the last letter he should have to write to him on such idle
subjects; entering circumstantially, at the same time, into the disposal
of the various offices, and assigning an equal division of the Cabinet
to Fox and Lord North, with the moderate Duke of Portland at the head.
Mr. Grenville, whose caution in reference to such transactions had been
disciplined by experience, and who always brought the most temperate
judgment to bear upon situations of delicacy and embarrassment, saw the
imprudence of committing Lord Temple to expressions that supposed a
state of things which did not actually exist, or which, if it should be
brought about, would consign his letter to the "very worst hands into
which it could fall." Lord Temple, in Dublin, harassed by delays, and
surrounded by increasing difficulties in his Government, could not
decide this point so clearly as Mr. Grenville in London; and the sequel,
which furnished his Lordship with a legitimate opportunity of stating
his views and feelings to the King, amply justified the course adopted.
In the following letter, Mr. Grenville details the substance of his
interview with the King, arising out of Lord Temple's resignation. It
possesses the highest historical value, taken in connection with the
letters that follow, for the full and minute information it affords of
the course of those secret negotiations which finally terminated in the
establishment of the coalition.