"That His Majesty will be graciously pleased to take into his
serious consideration the distracted state of his kingdom after
a long and exhausting war, and will condescend to comply with
the wishes of this House, by forming a Government which may be
entitled to the confidence of the House, and may have a tendency
to put an end to the unhappy divisions of the country."
Two days after the date of this letter, Lord Shelburne, who still
nominally held the Seals, formally resigned. The scene at the levée on
this occasion, which may be described as _le commencement de la fin_,
was not only curious in itself, but helped greatly to increase the
perplexity in which these strange transactions plunged even those
persons who had the best opportunity of observing them. "I am just come
from the levée," says General Cuninghame, writing on the 26th of March:
"the Duke of Portland was there, and scarcely spoke to. Lord Shelburne,
Mr. Pitt, Lord Howe, and the rest of the Ministers present, were loaded
with attention. After the levée, Lord Shelburne resigned in ample form.
It is universally understood Mr. Pitt will not undertake. These
circumstances put together, puzzle the world more than ever." It was a
spectacle in perfect harmony with the unparalleled oscillations of the
preceding six weeks to see the retiring Ministers overwhelmed by royal
condescension, and the heads of the incoming Administration (for in the
extremity to which His Majesty was now reduced there was literally no
choice) treated with undisguised aversion.
On the 26th, Mr. Grenville saw the King, and placed in His Majesty's
hands the letter Lord Temple had written on his suggestion. There is not
a cranny of the negotiations--which still hung, and which now appeared
even farther from a conclusion than at the beginning--left unexplored in
this luminous Correspondence. It is quite evident that the King resisted
the coalition to the utmost extremity, that he tried every available
individual, and some even who were not in a position to bring any
strength to the Government, before he submitted, and that in the end he
submitted only under the compulsion of an overruling necessity.