Pall Mall, Saturday, March 22nd, 1783.
My dear Brother,
Next Monday will make exactly five weeks from the first
division, during which we have been without any Government in
the country; yet I think it very probable that nothing will be
settled by that day. The Duke of Portland saw the King
yesterday, to carry him the profligate list which I sent you
last night. Very contrary to his expectations, though I own not
to mine, he did not find that ready acquiescence which he
expected, but met with a very cool reception, and was told that
the King would consider it. I do not understand that anything
has passed to-day, and I cannot help thinking that the King
means that nothing should be fixed by Monday, in order that
Coke's motion may come on, and the coalition be abandoned to all
that resentment which has been raised by an arrangement directly
in the teeth of professions and promises not a week old. Yet
these are the men who accuse Lord Shelburne of duplicity,
without having produced one instance during a six months'
Ministry. Think what a situation you would have been in, if you
had been induced by the assurances in a certain letter, to have
given a favourable answer to the Volunteers, pledging yourself
to stay, and had then received a notification of such an
arrangement. I still believe that the King will press it upon
Pitt. On the turn which things have taken, I own I wish that he
would make up his mind for a short time--and the time need be
very short indeed--to the arrangement which is proposed to him;
but as it is, he certainly has gained a great point in receiving
from the Duke of Portland's hands a proposal to make Lord North
Secretary of State. I suppose he is to be Foreign Secretary, to
conclude the definitive treaty. Do you remember Fox's proposal,
when in opposition, to negotiate the peace for Lord North,
because he knew that no foreign State would trust those who had,
&c., &c. Adieu.
My dear brother,
Ever yours,
W. W. G.