August 10th, 1786.
My dear Lord,
I trouble you with this letter to inform you that Pitt has
offered me the vacant seat at the Board of Treasury, and that I
have accepted it: nothing could be more flattering or kind than
the manner in which this offer was made; I will trouble you with
the circumstances which attended it when I have the pleasure of
seeing you. William Grenville's friendship has been exerted with
its usual warmth and sincerity on this occasion; and I feel so
strongly the effect of your former activity in my favour, that
although your absence from town has prevented my applying to you
on this occasion, yet I must attribute this, as I shall any
future success, to the ground which you laid for me, and to the
uniform assiduity with which you have supported my pretensions:
therefore, although you have had no immediate concern (that I
know) in this specific object, I must beg of you to accept a
very large share of the gratitude which I feel to those who have
promoted it for me. The Vice-Treasurerships, as I suppose you
know, do not go to Ireland.
I hope to have the pleasure of paying my duty to you at Stowe,
in the autumn; perhaps I may have the good fortune to see you
sooner in town, as I hear that you are coming up with a loyal
address. I beg my best compliments to Lady Buckingham.
Believe me, my dear Lord,
Ever most sincerely your obliged and affectionate
Mornington.
The "object," dimly and cautiously alluded to in the annexed letters,
was that of a peerage, to which the high pretensions of Mr. W. W.
Grenville justified him in looking forward; but which his prudence,
holding his honourable ambition in check, made him desirous of
postponing until he had won even greater distinction as a statesman than
he had already attained.